Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	author_n	sin_n	will_n	1,685	5	6.8791	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61301	The love of God to all mankind in the glorious work of their redemption by Jesus Christ, asserted and vindicated. With a plain and sober discussion of those controversies which are the constant concomitants of it, viz. election and reprobation, God's foreknowledg, his nature, attributes, and decrees; the sufficiency of means vouchsafed to all men to believe; the use of the law to believers under the gospel. Also concerning original sin, freewill, and falling from grace. All fitted to the meanest capacity, in a way of dialogue, by Zachary Stanton.	Stanton, Zachary.	1700 (1700)	Wing S5251A; ESTC R219675	159,700	342

if Men by means of the Gospel and the Grace offered to them therein be not brought to repentance and forsaking of Sin those Sins which they commit under the Gospel will turn to a more dreadful account to them so that it is clear that in case Men be not through Grace inabled to repent and believe the Gospel they are in a worse condition under the Covenant of Grace than they could have been were there no such Covenant made or tendered to them nay and by this Persons sin by necessity this is to make God the Author of all the Unbelief and Sin in the World Mar. All we say is that he never purposed to bestow that Grace upon them who perish which of his good pleasure he purposed to bestow upon others but to leave them to their Sins and to Condemnation for them Philet God is not the Author of Sin in any for tho Sin will infallibly follow this Preterition or non-Election with a sufpension of assisting Grace it follows not as an Effect from its true Cause but as a Consequence upon its Antecedent Hence he is no more the Author of Sin than the Sun is of the Darkness which follows after its departure for this Preterition respects Man lying in the corrupt Mass and God ows nothing to him but Justice Grace comes down from Heaven but Sin and Iniquity grows at home in the Sinner's own Heart neither was God any ways obliged to give restituent Grace to fallen Man God may do what he will with his own may not the Supreme Lord deny a free Benefit without being the Author of Sin God indeed permitteth it but he doth not work it Philad I shall not trouble my self about the distinction of God's Will into Antecedent and Consequent being made use of more to shew Scholarship than to Edification yet it is likely it may be found in sundry places of Holy writ for Grace and the means of Salvation are always in the first place vouchsafed unto Men before Salvation or Condemnation is actually conferred or inflicted upon any God's Antecedent Will is that every Man should repent that they may not perish it is his consequent Will that every one shall perish that will not repent yet is the Antecedent and consequent Will or Intention of the Lord both equally Eternal equally Honourable and worthy of him But now what you hold in this case is not so it being contrary to right Reason and the tenour of God's Word and notwithstanding your distinction God must become the proper and direct cause of Sin for Sin and Disobedience must unavoidably follow God's detaining Grace necessary for the avoiding of Sin as the Effect doth its Cause Now if God withhold Grace needful for the avoiding of Sin and knowing infallibly what will follow upon it must needs be the true moral Cause of Sin for the withdrawing of Divine Grace you hold is the Antecedent then Sin and Impiety must needs be the Consequent as the Sun by withdrawing its Light Darkness consequently follows so if God be the chief Cause of that which is the Cause of the Reprobates Sin which you do not deny he thereby becomes the true and proper cause of their Sin as you have it in God's Love to Mankind p. 115 116. That which withholdeth a thing which being present would hinder an Event is the Cause of that Event As for Example He that cutteth a string in which a Stone hangs is the cause of the falling of that Stone and he that withdraweth a Pillar which being put to would uphold a House is the true cause in Mens account of the falling of that House and so if God withholdeth from Reprobates that Power which being granted them might keep them from falling into Sin he doth thereby become a true moral cause of their Sins in whose Power it is that a thing be not done to him it is imputed when it is done saith Tertullian Yea and by this Sin if it was Sin could not become worthy of Eternal Punishment for certainly God will not inflict Punishment upon Man for that which he himself was Author of and which Man could not possibly avoid being necessitated thereunto by a fatal Decree I do grant you God owes nothing to any Man I also grant you that Grace comes down from Heaven Jam. 1. 17. and that Sin and Iniquity grows at home in the Sinners own Heart yea the best of Men are exceeding prone to Sin by the pravity of their Natures yet none are compelled to Sin from any withdrawings of Divine Grace unless first abused neither doth the Lord deny his Grace to any but to those who too often and presumptuously abuse it neither can you prove in God's Revealed Will that he hath either antecedently or consequently passed any Decree upon any Man personally considered there by excluding him from Salvation before he voluntarily excludes himself by such sinful miscarriages which render him utterly uncapable thereof But to return to what we were upon And 5. If Persons be not by Grace put in a capacity to believe and obey the Lord they thereby become excusable if they do not obey because the Plea of insufficiency or want of Power to believe is an excuse possible but surely the Means and Power which through Grace the Lord hath vouchsafed to Men will leave them without excuse if they prove wicked and unbelievers they will have nothing to plead for themselves when they come to stand before the Tribunal Seat of Christ but will be as speechless as the Guest was without a Wedding Garment for if the Heathens be without excuse in that they did not glorify the Lord by the means vouchsafed to them how inexcusable shall all those be that under greater Mens and Light shall prove wicked and ungodly which could not be if the Lord had not granted a power to do better And I desire you to consider whether you believe any Man shall be condemned for not doing of that which was unpossible for him to do 6. If such as die in their Sins through unbelief have not through Grace a sufficient power to repent and believe in order to their Salvation then doth God in his most earnest inviting them to believe rather insult over them in their weakness and misery than intend any real benefit to them which to conceive is most unworthy of him and not far from blasphemy for doth not this your Opinion represent God full of guile 1. In his passionate Wishes Deut. 5. 29. Psal 81. 11. Isa 48. 18. Jer. 44. 4. 2. In his mournful Expostulations Isa 5. 3. Jer. 2. Ezek. 33. 11. 3. In his commiseration of poor Sinners Hos 11. 18. and O Jerusalem c. Mat. 23. Now thus to profess Love to Man and be earnest with him to do that for his safety which he knows to be impossible for him to do looks too much like Guile disguised under a Mask of Candor and Goodness which is far from him to be guilty of

very injurious to his Goodness yet directly and immediately opposite to his very Nature which is meer Goodness and Happiness and hath no Affinity with Rigour Cruelty or Misery Read Psal 34. 6. Psal 86. 5. Joel 2. 13. Jonah 4. 2. Micah 7. 18. If God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men without just cause Lam. 3. 33. how can we in reason think that God in his eternal Purpose and absolute Pleasure should affect the extream Misery of any of his Creatures for the shewing of the absolute Soveraignty he hath over them If so he may as well damn them as create them How can we think that he should send them one after another into this World to enjoy some of the good things of this Life and after this short Life is over to torment them with Devils and damn'd Spirits for ever to shew his Power over them without just cause in the Creature What saith Abraham Gen. 18. 25. when he was interceding with God for Sodom with respect to a temporal Judgment Wilt thou destroy the Righteous with the Wicked that be far from thee Shall not the Judg of all the World do right If to destroy the Righteous with the Wicked was far from God in Temporals shall we think that God resolved to punish the Innocent in Hell with wicked Spirits For pray you observe if God hath from Eternity reprobated the greatest part of Mankind it must be understood that he look'd on them as Persons that would in time prove sinful or else he reprobated them simply as Men. If the first then was their Sinfulness wherein he beheld them the cause of their Rejection if the second then the pure and perfect Workmanship of his Hands yea that which was very good Gen. 1. 31. must be the Object of his Reprobation which cannot be it was a saying of one of the Ancients Aug. Lib. 3. Cont. Julian Cap. 31. Pag. 164. God is Good and God is Just he may without any desert free Men from Punishment because he is Good but he cannot without Evil desert and condemn any Man because he 's just And again Aug. Epist 106. ad Bonifac. If God be believed to damn any man that by Sin deserveth it not he is not to be believed to be free from Injustice And therefore for any to say that God hath irrevocably reprobated the greatest part of the World to eternal Misery before they had a being in this World or any possibility of doing Good or Evil he speaks more like a Mahumetan than a Christian however more harsh of the God of Love than he ought to speak and reflects dishonour upon him making him to be the Prime Principal and Irresistable Cause of the Damnation of Millions of Souls appointing them to Destruction of his own voluntary Will antecedent to any desert in them No Martha there is nothing can proceed from the God of Love that is unjust nothing unequal nothing hard nothing that any ways inclineth to the hurt of any of his Creatures considered as innocent and therefore no irreversible decreeing or ordaining of Men to everlasting Destruction as you pretend Mar. But doth not the Apostle Rom. 9. 20. 21. shew 't is no unrighteous thing no unequal or hard thing in God to reprobate or predestinate to Destruction which or how many of his Creatures he pleaseth 'T is his lawful and just Prerogative as he is absolute Lord of all Who art thou that repliest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over his Clay to make one Vessel to honour and another to dishonour Phil. I know this 9th Chapter to the Romans is the great Magazine and Fortress wherein all your imaginary Strength lieth and those Verses are the Weapons which you draw to silence those that question your horrid Notions about Personal Election and Reprobation Pray do you think that Paul was about to prove personal Election and Reprobation in these Verses Mar. Yes what else but to prove that God hath Power to create and appoint Vessels of Honour and Dishonour and consequently of Wrath as the Potter hath to make Vessels at his Pleasure without contradiction of the same Lump of Clay Phil. You are under a great mistake the great Controversy lay about the Terms of Justification whether by the Law or Faith and not about personal Election and Reprobation so that the Prerogative which the Lord claims to himself as a Royalty annexed to the Crown of Heaven and Earth in this 9th of the Romans or elsewhere in respect to the Condemnation and Eternal Destruction of his Creatures stands not in leaving what Persons he pleaseth to eternal ruin but in making the condition of Life and Death Salvation and Damnation as he pleaseth according to the Counsel of his own Will Eph. 1. 1. Now the Apostle was shewing the Way and Method that God will take in saving Sinners and that it is not the purpose of God that men should be justified by the Law but by Grace and through Faith and tho the Jews much boasted of their being Abraham's Seed and Moses's Disciples and their observing of the Law and judged it an equal thing that God should make that Law to be the Law of Life and Salvation to Men and the neglect of it the Law of Death and Damnation yet it being the good Pleasure of God to do otherwise and to ordain Faith in his Son Christ Jesus to be the way of Justification and Life and Unbelief the way to Condemnation and Death this Choice or Election shall stand whatever Men may think meet and fitting for him to do Therefore saith he Verse 15. I will have Mercy upon whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion upon whom I will have Compassion Men shall not prescribe unto me Laws or Terms of shewing Mercy my Will shall not be bounded by Man's Will neither will I be obliged by them what manner of Persons or how qualified I shall justify and save I mean to keep close to the Counsel of my own Will in that which concerns the Life and Death the Salvation or Destruction of my Creatures and so in this 21st Verse Hath not the Potter power over his Clay c. meaning that God Almighty hath the like Power over the whole Lump of Mankind in Adam to make what Laws of Life and Death he pleased and to appoint what manner of Persons should be saved or condemned which the Potter hath over the Lump of Clay to make what Vessel he pleaseth for Honour or Dishonour Now at best this Scripture is but an Allusion and should we suppose that the Apostle doth compare the Lord to a Potter as we often in Scripture find him compared to Persons and Things and human Actions Affections and Members of a Man attributed to God and divine Things because God in his Word descends as it were to our Capacities expressing heavenly Matters after

believe is an Error presently they are ready to say I cannot see it because God hath purposely blinded my Eyes and am such a one as is cast out of the Love and Favour of God and when this is once settled in their Hearts how can I expect Love from them unless I can believe they can be better to me than they represent God to be to the greatest part of Mankind Mar. I see that which is uppermost will out you still are of the same mind you was you hold fast your Error and will not let it go Philad Truly I am much of Rawlin the Martyr's Mind when the Bishop after he had read Mass ask'd him if he would revoke his Opinion answered my Lord Rawlin you left me and Rawlin you find me and by God's Grace Rawlin I will continue and tho I may seem to you to err yet I have considered every Particular and it seemeth so pleasing an Error if it be one and so comfortable a Doctrine to poor Mankind and doth so much exalt the Justice and Mercy of God that I think I shall never be of a contrary Mind Yea and if for any thing in the World I could suffer the Loss of all that 's dear to me methinks it should be to witness to this great Truth Mar. I know that natural Reason seems to stand on your side but you must know and allow Faith to be above Reason and God may have and questionless hath Ways and Actions which are known only to himself past finding out by Man neither doth he give an Account or Reason of any of his Matters Job 33. 13. You must have a care of searching into God's Decrees they are not to be fathomed by Man's weak and shallow Capacities what Eye looks upon the Sun doth not by that dazle So while Men would by the Eye of Reason see a Cause in God's secret Will they stumble and fall Pray ye what Reason can be given concerning the Mystery of the Trinity or that the second Person should take our Flesh upon him and be conceived of a Virgin or that the same Bodies after dissolved to Dust should be restored to a Spiritual Immortal and Incorruptible State These things are the object of Faith and are above our Reason to comprehend or define yet are we to believe these things to be Truth because revealed to us by God in his Word So tho it be beyond the Reason of Man to define how God whose Ways are all equal and just should from Eternity predestinate the greatest part of Adam's Offspring to Everlasting Misery or freely and unchangeably ordain the coming to pass of every thing in the World and yet he himself neither guilty of Cruelty or the Author of Sin yet we ought to believe it is so when declared to us by the Word of the Lord. Mod. These are great Mysteries which we ought not to pry into Secret things belong unto God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our Children Deut. 29. 29. Philad This is true but surely Moderatus This wretched Opinion of God's positive Reprobation doth not carry the Nature of Divine Mysteries along with it It is not accompanied with so great Awe and Majesty as that it should be only obeyed and no way disputed For God himself denies it to be any Decree of his Ezek. 3. 11. And as Calvin saith We should not be ashamed to be ignorant of some of the Nature of Divine Predestination Yet as Eusebius saith 'T is an Argument of great Sloth and Idleness not to seek unto that whereof we may justly make inquiry Hockins on God's Decrees Page 126 190. Now I do not pretend to draw the Curtain to look into the wonderful and astonishing Mystery of the Holy and Blessed Trinity or of the Incarnation of the Son of God God manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. which is so great a Mystery that infirm Man with all the strongest Faculties of his Soul cannot reach unto I also freely grant that whatsoever God hath revealed in his Word must needs be a Truth and meet and worthy to be believed of us all But where do you find that God hath revealed in his Word that he hath appointed the greatest part of the World to Everlasting Misery and tho there may be many things above Reason quite out of the Apprehension of it yet not altogether against Reason How is it contrary to Reason that God the first Being of all things being Infinite should have a manner of subsisting far different from all created and finite Beings Neither is it contrary to Reason that God should be able to make a Virgin to conceive in a way beyond the Course of Nature or ordinary Providence for the accomplishing of so great and glorious a Work as the saving poor lost and undone Mankind Neither ought it to be look'd upon no not in the Eye of Reason as a thing incredible that God should raise the Dead Act. 16. 8. Is it not every way as easy for God to restore a Body dissolved to Dust and give a Perfection and Glory to it as to restore a dry Hand to Life and Activity in the Body or cause Aaron's dry Staff to blossom and bare Almonds Can Man burn a Tree into Ashes and change it into shining Glass And cannot God cause that Dust that was once Flesh to become Flesh again and to restore it to a Spiritual Immortal and Incorruptible State But to let this pass are these Friends of yours to whom you say you have imparted the Substance of our Discourse c. of your Mind Mod. There is some Difference for what I hold you have heard But Philetus looks upon Mankind as lying in the Fall under the Guilt of Adam's Sin so that God looking upon Man as fallen did decree the greatest Number of Men to Eternal Misery for the Declaration of his Justice without affording them a Saviour which is the only Way and Means of their Recovery or without sufficient Grace for the avoiding of Sin Philad Truly I see little difference between you you both place the Sin and Damnation of the greatest part of Mankind upon the alone absolute Will and Pleasure of God you looking upon it from Eternity he as lying in the Fall But surely God never left any Man in that State whereunto Adam brought him but as I have said hath graciously provided means whereby both Sin and Misery might be prevented or removed if timely embraced seeing Christ hath abolished that Wrath and Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel and God hath so far reconciled all Sinners to himself that thro the Sacrifice and for the sake of that Lamb of God that takes away the Sins of the World he is graciously pleased to be reconciled to them and to open a Door of Hope for all the Sons of Adam And tho it is a great Truth that Adam in breaking the Law of his God brought not