Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	affliction_n	lord_n	sin_n	1,503	5	4.9511	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88701	The attributes of God unfolded, and applied. Wherein are handled the 1 Life 2 Perfection 3 Holiness 4 Benignitie 5 Mercy 6 Truth 7 Wisdome 8 Power 9 Justice of God. 10 Love 11 Hatred 12 Anger 13 Independencie 14 Simplicitie 15 Eternitie 16 Infiniteness 17 Immutability 18 Immensity of God. / Delivered in sundry sermons, at Tavistocke in Devon: By Thomas Larkham, preacher of the word of God, and pastour of the congregation there. Divided into three parts.	Larkham, Thomas, 1602-1669.	1656 (1656)	Wing L441; Thomason E867_1; Thomason E867_2; Thomason E867_3; ESTC R207649	158,169	180

to provocations ye cannot provoke God as ye do men Marke friends Though the Scripture say 1 Cor. 10.22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie and the word be used in many places of provoking God yet the Lord is never provoked properly as provocation can hang upon him For provocation argues mutation but God is alwaies the same Gods spirit cannot be brought to a distemper by all the wickednesses in the world All the blasphemy posible of men and Devils cannot raise a storme in the breast of God Fury is not in him And when God is said to be provoked to be angry to be furious and the like these things are spoken of God by way of allusion to men as it is in assertions of Gods eies hands and eares and the like not that God hath either passion or affection soule or limbe or member or body In allusion I say to men For as provoked men to revenge affronts wrongs and injuries So when God findes men in sinne though he be of a calme spirit and a good God Yet he causeth sorrows to fall on the wicked and unto all eternitie shall workers of iniquitie be tormented Yet this will be true for ever that God is good to all though men be damned What is this kindnes to send people to hell We may say to God is this thy kindnesse to thy creature Quest I answer It doth not belong to the goodnes of God which I am now speaking of to send people to hell Ans but it is an act of justice proceeding from his holines and puritie But it hath no smell in God of passion or anger or revenge or ill-will to the creature All which things are farre from Gods essence who is immutable perfection and with whom is no variableness neither shadow of during James 1.17 Reas 3 Thirdly God must needs be infinitely good because he neither carketh or careth for himselfe as vain men do who thereby are hindered from doing good to others O say they we may give so long that we may lake our selves I say God is under no such feare sith he is an ocean of goodnes and perfection and omnipotent and wanteth no sufficency Gen. 17.1 I am God alsufficient Saith he to Abraham And Fourthly it cannot stand with the alsufficiency of Gods essence to have it and not to dispence it He is alsufficient Reas 4 every way as well in goodnes as in power aswell in readines to do good as in abilitie I say Gods alsufficiency sets him a work to put himselfe out for the good of the creature above all that we can aske or think He is kind unto the unthankefull and to the evill Luke 6.35 He endureth with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Rom. 9.22 Surely then for the first Use no man alive hath cause to complaine of God as if he wanted a good disposition Vse T is true there is much murmuring against God in the world under the title of fortune when affliction sicknesse poverty is upon people But for remedy we should know that sinne is the cause of all evill Do away thy sinne and God will quickly do away the evill thou liest under Blessings must needs come upon us and overtake us if we shall harken unto the voice of the Lord our God Deut. 28. verses 1.2 c. And curses for the contrary ver 15. c. It is impossible God should take displeasure against any without a cause The Lord is righteous in all his waies Ps 145.17 And we should for further remedy in the second place rather admire goodnes in our worst condition sith the attribute of justice and power must take place too Lamen 3.22 It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions faile not Soules conflict p. 425. In the worst time saith Dr. Sibs there is a presence of God with his children When we are at the lowest yet it is a mercy that we are not consumed we are never so ill but it might be worse with us whatsoever is lesse then hell is undeserved Thirdly We are to know that if we be Saints those evills that befall us which seem to crosse this Doctrine of the infinitenesse of Gods goodnes do very much establish it For affliction befal the Saints from the depth of goodnes in God Not only upon such an ordinary account as we reade Psalmes 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word Wherin two notable uses are expressed of afflictons to wit to reduce the Saints from their straying and to make them more exact in their conversation But I say further ver 75. I know Lord that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfullnes hast aflicted me From faithfulnes that no good thing shall be withheld that may make us eminently hapy here hereafter In great goodnes was Joseph so afflicted and Job and Daniel cast into the Lyans den that they might be prepared for great honours and employments and also great discoveries of God It is much and sweete to an afflicted soule to see a token of the Lords love upon him and a signe of his being received into Sonship Heb. 12.6 For whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth But more to see faithfulnes power in great deliverances out of great straites out of the Lions den out of the Whales belly to carry through the red Sea rather then to leave to Pharaohs pride and crueltie But yet I have a great deale more to say of the wonderfull goodnes of God to some choise ones whom he fiteth in the furnace of great sorrows for great employments and enjoyments of himselfe in the creature here even in this life Vse 2 For the next use heere is a good ground of encouragement for all sinners and distressed souls to come to God For the Lord is good And if ye cannot tell what to say I will teach you a prayer which David taught me Psalme 17.7 Show thy marvellous loving kindnes O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them Ye may have much comfort in the consideration of Gods abundant goodnes whether it be that our sinns be very great or our sorrows even as it were hellish God gives much good with much goodnes to his people He gives all with all his heart he makes every step to them in blood and yet in delight parts withall to enrich them Lockier or our condition never so obscure great sinners hath God received great sorrows hath God removed and beggars from the dunghell hath God advanced And for such as have tasted the blood of Christ in their meat and drink and weare cloathes died therein and have all their salvations and comforts swiming to them on the streames of the blood of God Let them say that the Lord is good to the lowest Saint affliction is but the pulling

come out of Gods head so holy ones come out of his heart 53. That the reason we love God no more is because we know him no better ibid. God most conjoyned to himselfe must needs be holy ibid. God is holy in regard of his puritie yet without regard to an eternal Law to be measured by ibid. God said to be holy five manner of waies among school-men 54. What it is to be holy radically and objectively ibid. What it is to be holy exemplarily and formally 55. God is holy in his works two manner of waies ibid. All the actions of God proceede from a spirit of holinesse 56. The formality of Saints holines is their love to God Christ ibid. God must needs hate sinne as contrary to his eternal Law ibid. And as repugnant to his goodnes and how it is so repugnant ibid. Foure evidences of Gods hating sinne 57. 58. 59 God is holy causalty as the fountaine c ibid. God is the efficient formall exemplary and finall cause of all holinesse in the creature 59. 60. Vse 1. Holines not to be contemned 61. Vse 2. God must needs delight in holy persons 62. Vse 3. Such as would become acceptable to God must labour to become holy persons ib. Motives to labour for holines 63. 2. Doct. That holines is communicable to mankind 64. Reasons or arguments to make it good ibid. Vse 1. The true cause that many want holinesse is in themselves and not in God 65 Vse 2. Such as desires holines may have it c. ibid. Vse 3. To provoke to holy desires and indeavours with diverse Motives besides this Doctrine 66. c. 1. God commands it 2. Directs what to do to obtaine it 3. Hath promised that they that aske shall have c. 4. Without it we cannot see God 5. We have excellent Coppies God and Christ 6. The Scriptures left to be a meanes of sanctification 7. We have many outward favours to allure us Two meanes to be used 1. Prayer 2. To study this Doctrine 68. That holines is the renovation of the whole man That secondly it is a giving up our selves to God That holines is the better seene by its contrary the old man and the former conversation thereof Where in the old man standeth many particulars Page 69. Another to wit an eighth Motive to labour for holines 70. That holy men are the lest fearing men ibid. Diverse instances of the truth of his Motive 71. That wicked men are called Magor Missabib ibid. 3. D. That God is infinitely and incomprehensibly holy 72. Three reasons hereof and Vse 1. That therefore men in seeking for holinesse cannot exceed measure ibid Vse 2. That God will beare up holines against all the world 73. Vse 3. They that will imitate God must never stand at a stay in holines Fifth Motive to labour for more holines 74.75 The more holines 1. The more perfection 2. The more comfort 3. The more boldnes 4. The more acquaintance with God 5. The more glory in heaven The fourth Attribute The Benignity or usefull goodnes of God THat Goodnes benignitie usefullnes is an attribute of God p. 77. That Gods goodnes is communicated in a double sence naturally to his onely begotten sonne freely unto creatures 78. That although it be naturall in God to be good yet the acts of his goodnes are free 80. It is declared what the benignitie of God is 81. That there was but one necessary and naturall act of greatnesse in God to wit the communicating of his whole essence to the sonne ibid. Gods goodnes is Generall to all creatures Speciall to man-kind Singular to his Church p. 81 82. That no evill is comparable to that of being without Christ nor no good to the being in the number of redeemed ones 84. Vse 1. That hurtfull dispositions and michievous natures must needes be displeasing to God because contrary to Gods disposition ibid. Vse 2. It must needes be pleasing to God for men to be ready and willing to do good to every body 85. To do good to all is to walke in the feare of God 86. Vse 3. To stirre up all to become like unto God to be full of goodnes God is worth the imitating ibid. Such as will approve themselves good men must make it their study how to be most profitable this is a first advice 86.87 Under this first direction are 2. things 1. Not to take delight in sinfully practices and courses 2. Not to take delight in others troubles and sorrowes 88. A second direction to labour to be cured of froward dispositions ibid. Five Motives to stirre up to the doing of good 1. It is commanded 2. It is excellent 3. God will reward 4. The contrary threatned 5. It may be done and this proportion may be had p. 89. The second Doctrine that goodnes is a communicable attribute Reasons or demonstrations it was communicated at first it is restored in regeneration 90 it is commanded therefore 91. Vse 1. That men are unusefull and mischievous is not to be charged upon God 92 Vse 2. Such as desire to be good are in great possibility of it ib. Vse 3. Seek it at the hands of God by prayer 93 Motives upon this direction Other directions given touching this matter 94 Three other Motives for conclusion of this Point 95 The third Doctrine That God in goodnes is Infinite and incomprehensible ibid. Reasons 1. God is Summum bonum 2. not subject to provocation 3. He is not hindred from doing good to others by carking care c. 96. 4. he is alsufficient every way 97 Vse 1. No man alive hath cause to complaine of God ibid. Murmuring against God under afflictions condemned 3. Remedies given 1. to consider that sinne causeth evills 2. other attributes must take place 3. evills befalling Saints are from the depth of goodnes in God ibid. Vse 2. Sinners and distressed soules are encouraged to come to God 98. 5. Particulars named in the close of the point 1. come away and taste that the Lord is gratious 2. runne to this infinite goodnes in distresses 3. be like unto God in doing good 4. be like God in the extent of goodnes 5. especially to the Saints The Fifth Attribute The Mercy of God THat mercy is Attributed to God proved p. 100. What mercy is in man shewed at large ib. Whether mercy be a distinct vertue from goodnes and love 101. Distinct definitions given of goodnes love and mercy 102. That mercy in God signifieth 1. His inclination to shew mercy 2. The effects of this inclination 103 Gods mercy is general to all creatures special to mankinde more speciall to the elect 104 Three things in the general mercy of God to creatures ib. The mercies of God extended in this life reduced to 5. heads 105 Rewarding Pardoning preventing delivering sparing ib. Four degrees of sparing mercy in God Not punishing at all 106 Deferring 107 Moderation and rebates 107 Groaning in whipping 108 That God spared not Christ

they are exactly conformable to the rectitude of the eternall law Quia tam perfecte vult rectitudinem quam perfecte illam concipit He works as perfectly as he conceives perfectly As is Gods judgment so is his will And hence it is that the love of the Father is so passing great to Christ for the father loveth the son c. Joh. 5.20 Why should God love the son more then any other creature but because he saw more of himself wrought in the sonne then in any other creature Love is an inclination of the will to that thing which is good and thereupon the soul of God runs out to Christ who was altogether lovely this is formal holinesse in God this is the formality of this attribute in God he loveth himself in his love to the creatures All the actions of God proceede from an holy spirit from a spirit of holines As hath beene said already holiness is to love God to seek Gods glory to love ones selfe in God and in this sence God is certainly holy for he loves none as himselfe and seekes and aimes at his owne glory in every thing he doth And here by the way let me speake a word of the formality of the holines of Saints Is it not their love to God and Christ And the Saints that makes them to delight in beholding him whom their soule loveth Doubtles it is My beloved saith the spouse is whit and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand Canticles 5.10 As it was said by the Queen of Sheba of Solomon 1 Kings 10.8 Happy are thy men Happy are those thy servants which stand continually before thee and which hear thy wisdom So much more may we say as the spirit of holines maketh us to say Blessed are they that know Christ and have of the graces of his Spirit And here I must needs say once againe if God be holy because he loveth good men which are his choice workmanship then so are the Saints therein holy also for they love wonderfully that choise master piece Christ and all the Saints which are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 And so by the rule of contraryes as it is said Psalme 45.7 by way of prophesy and mystically of Christ Thou lovest righteousnes and hatest wickednes c. God must needs hate sin with an infinite hatred for he loveth the rectitude of the eternall law and therefore hateth what is contrary to it for the sinfullnes of sinne is its contrariety to Gods eternall law And then Secondly God necessarily loveth his own goodnes and perfection and therefore necessarily hateth sinne which is contrary and repugnant to that goodnes Repugnant I say not as one forme to another but as an inordinate thing to its rule and measure Keep sinne up and God must go downe keepe God up and sinne must go down You may as well expect to see the Ocean sea burn to ashes or stones to fly upward as look to see an union betweene God and sinne or that God should not looke upon it with highest indignation What sinne is you should finde in every catechisme almost it is the transgression of the holy law of God even the least sinne doth turne aside Gods love and because he is holy it maketh his very soule to hate the persons in whom it is Sinne is like Coloquintida in the Pot and this I must tell you that when God smels it he cannot but throw away pot and all it is so contrary to his holines Where ever God sees sinne he runs at it presently If his owne son do but stand in the sinners steede though he had no sinne of his owne yet you see how the wrath of God ran out against him And the reason is Gods love of his law which is his holines of which sin is the transgression and upon this account God must needs hate it And this David a man of much acquaintance with God tells us Psalm 5.4 5. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickednes neither shall evill dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all workers of iniquitie and so Isaiah 1.24 Ah saith the Lord I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies By which words the prophet meaneth that God will not be appeased he will ease himselfe here is an allusion to the disposition of men Calv. in loc for even as wrath is nothing else but a desire of revenge so revenge it selfe also is a kind of contentment for when any is revenged he is glad and satisfied Thus the Lord saith that he will satisfie himselfe in chastising his enemies as if it were a kind of recompence And because this holines of God doth so glorious shine-out in his hating of sin which is contrary both to his eternal law workings in both Church and world and also to the actings of Saints acted by the Spirit of holines I will a little fasten here and give you some evidence of the bitter hatred which is in God against sinne First Therefore when we shall see an all-mercifull God to deprive men and Angels of such an infinite good as himselfe Evidences of Gods hating sin certainly you must suppose there is some great cause reason for it why the fruition of God is the greatest good and Angells and men were his most excellent creatures yet such is Gods holines causing his hatred of sinne that he tumbles man out of Paradise and Angels out of heaven here is one evidence of Gods hatred of sinne and severitie against sinners But Secondly God doth not only deprive these prime creatures of such a goodnes to wit himself infinitly and eternally but also cast them into extreame sorrows pains and torments And the Angels which kept not their first estate or principalitie but lost their owne habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkenes unto the judgement of the great day Jud. ver 6. And for men who can be ignorant of these misteries sinne hath brought upon all sexes and ages even in this life besides those everlasting burnings to the which all wicked ones are reserved Thirdly God will blot out all the good that ever men did if that fall a sinning once If the righteous turneth away from his righteousnes and committeth iniquitie c. All his righteousnes that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespasse Ezek. 18.24 that he hath trespassed and in his sinne that he hath sinned in them he shall die If a man should live many a yeare in serving God and do great things for the people of God Yet if he give out and sin and persist and die in his sinne all his former good should be blotted out Q. A. But here comes a great question can a righteous man fall from his righteousnes To which I answer It is impossible Ratione Decreti promissionis in regard of Gods decree and promise Yet we

must know that as God only hath immortality essentially and immutably so likwise all kindes of goodness are only in God firme and sure Saints might fall Angels might fall the Saints in heaven might fall and dy also againe were it not that God holds them to their estates he hath brought them unto and will even as the Psalmist saith Psalme 91.4 He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler But for more cleare and full answer to the place in Ezekiel You must know that the Holy Ghost meanes not truly gratious neither is it the scope to prove falling from grace but to cleare the Lords justice and my scope is to shew the deadly hatred God beares to sinne And either by righteous in that place we are to understand a moral legal righteous man or else it is a caution to prevent a righteous mans falling if we will understand it of Gospel righteousnes Or lastly as I intimated in the beginning of my Answer to his Question it may be true of a righteous man considered in himselfe not in relation to God or Christ that he may turne from his righteousnes as Angels and Adam did We have a rule conditional suppositions are of things impossible aswell as of possibles therefore make what ye will of the text yee can never necessarily conclude either with Bellarmine that a man may Exuare cor novum put away a new heart that faith may be lost Lib. 3. de Inst c. 14. Quid clareus quomodo quaeso avertitur justus à justicia si fide sola justificatur fides semel concepta extergui non potest or with Arminians that it is so evident that every one may see it that a just man may totally and finally fall away Hominem justum posse totaliter de ficere Ames in antisynod de presen Sanct. c. 2. Christ tells his disciples that he would send the comforter that he might abide with them forever that he might dwell with them and be in them John 14.16.17 But I must end this businesse which is but by the by God must needs hate sin seeing one sin in the evening of a mans age persisted in unto death will make God forget all former services done to him this is the third evidence Fourthly Gods willing the abased incarnation and dolorous death and passion of his sonne that sinne might be abolished is the highest discovery of his hatred towards it If nothing but the blood of his owne son be able to remove sin it shall be laid down rather then God will endure it so hateful is sin and so loathsome in the eyes of God And therefore Soules do but consider this ye that make light of sin see and consider a little what sinne is in the account of God in whose ballance all things must be wayed Yea look upon the readines of Christ to make his soule an offering for sin to lay down his pretious life that this ugly thing sin so hateful to Gods holines might be slain as well as satisfied for and that Gods soul might be eased and comforted justice being satisfied which the holy severitie of God did call for I have beene very long upon the formalitie of Gods holines which as you may remember is the fourth way or manner God is said to be holy in A Fifth and indeed the last way or manner is that God is said to be holy Eminently and causally as the fountain and begining of all sanctitie in creatures As he is the root of all holines the object the example viz. of and unto his own holines and formally holy also as hath largly been demonstrated So likewise to the creator of all creatures holines He is the Efficient Formall Exemplary and final cause He hath first infused all holines into Angels and men which they have he converteth men to himselfe he doth away the spots of their sinnes he plants in them the light of grace and good inclinations All holines comes from him and what have we that we have not received from him who only it is that makes men to differ So that God is causally holy the efficient cause of all holines in the sons of men He it is that rooteth out sin and cleanseth them from filthines and planteth in them holines by his holy spirit And thus our God is holy as he doth effect holines Secondly he gives the very species of holines Holines as I have told you is placed in loving God and his waies Christ and his people Now it is God that forms Christ in us and gives a spirit of conformitie to him in holines He is the formal cause of holines in creatures not informing but in a higher way without imperfection we are transformed by the renewing of our mind Rom. 12.2 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new creature the change of the soule as the worke is variously termed is wholy from God And so their people come to be willing in the day of Gods power in the beauties of holines Ps 110.3 Then when they have a holy frame of spirit they being to value ordinances and run too and fro for the increase of their knowledge Daniel 12.4 they cleave unto God and one to another praying in the Holy Ghost Jude ver 20. and submiting themselves one to another in the feare of God Ephes 5.21 Even as the father loveth the sonne and the sonne loveth the father and God loveth himselfe because of the holines in their divine essence so it is with the Saints that are made to be holy and are renewed Thirdly God is exemplarily the cause of holines in creatures he hath laid a coppy before us according to which we should square our lives He is principum exemplare Not only the mind and will of God revealed in the scripture but also the histories of Gods dealings in point of holines who would have us walk as he hath and be holy as he is holy And yet this is not all we have a plaine familiar coppy a demonstration before our eys I mean the behaviour and conversation of Christ in the daies of his flesh he hath left us an example that ye should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Such as walk according to these coppies and this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Holy Israel of God Gal. 6.16 Fourthly All the holines of the creature is directed unto God and his glory as unto its end Therefore the creature is sanctified and made holy that it may be for God the utmost end and honour him and praise and glorifie him And take this for a truth no action is any further holy then Gods glory is the end of it The Pharises almes fastnings and prayers were materially good but because their owne praise and not Gods glory was that which they aimed at this was that spoild all And therefore Christians well is that we have a Christ for seeing