Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	lie_n	truth_n	1,698	5	6.1293	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13267	Iacob and Esau. Election. Reprobation Opened and discussed by way of sermon at Pauls Crosse, March 4. 1622. By Humphry Sydenham Mr. of Arts, and fellow of Wadham Colledge in Oxford.	Sydenham, Humphrey, 1591-1650?	1626 (1626)	STC 23567; ESTC S101842	26,538	44

blinded if not with profanation heresie Diuine secrets should rather transport vs with wonder than prompt vs to enquiry and bring vs on our knees to acknowledge the infinitenesse both of Gods power and will than ransacke the bosome of the Almighty for the reuealing of his intents Is it not blessednesse enough that God hath made thee his Steward though not his Secretarie Will no Mansion in heauen content thee but that which is the throne and chaire for omnipotency to sit on No treasury but that which is the Cabinet and store-house of his own secrets Worme and no man take heed ●ow thou struglest with thy Maker expostulation with God imports no lesse peremptorinesse than danger and if Angels fell for pride of emulation where wilt thou tumble for this pride of inquiry As in matters therefore of vnusuall doubt where truth hath no verdict probability finds audience So in those obstruct and narrow passages of his will where reason cannot informe thee beleefe is thy best intelligencer and if that want a tongue make this thy interpreter so thou maist euade with lesse distrust I am sure with more safe And at last when thou hast sca●…'d all what either scruple or inquisition can prompe thee to in a dei●cted humiliation thou must cry out with that Iewish penitent Lord I beleeue helpe thou my vnbeleefe Yea but how shall we here cleare God from this aspersion when the Apostle is the Herauld to his guilt whom he will he hardens Induras is an actiue and doth alwayes presuppose a passiue And if there be a subiect that must suffer there must be a hand too that must inflict How then can we quit the Almighty of the supicion either of tyranny or iniustice since he is said to send on some the spirit of errour 2 Thess 2. and that great Trumpet of Gods displeasure Esay in his 63. brings in the Iewes no lesse muttering than expostulating with God Quare errar● nos fecist● Domine Lord why hest thou made vs to erre from thy wayes and hardened our hearts from thy feare These instances at the first furu●y beare terrour in their looks and like sophisticated lights in a darke roome make things seeme more vgly than they are and are but false bils preferred against a spotlesse innocent which without search may conuince of publique erime but narrowly scan'd absolue him no lesse from the act than the thought of guilt How God therefore in this is liable to censure and misprision and how both a beholder an intermedier of depraued actions vouchsafe me a little your attentiue parience and I doubt not but I shall informe the vnderstanding of the shallow and to the portion of my weake Talent will striue to satisfie the waueringly iudicious Whom he will he hardens Some too nicely tender of the honour of their maker haue giuen way to an interpretation more modest than authenticke and interpret indur●●… for ●uritia●● manifestare so that God is not properly said to harden the heart but rather to manifest how hard it is And to this opinion Saint Augustine is a ●lo●e adherent in his 18 Question vpon Exodus But this holds not with the purpose of God nor with the scope and meaning of the Text which if we compare with others of that nature wee shall finde that Gods will hath rather a singer in this than his promulgation for so in the 10 of Iosua we reade that'twas the will and the sentence of the Almighty that the Canaanites should be hardened that they might deserue no mercie but perish Others there are whose opinions border neerer vpon truth which would haue God to be said to harden non effectiue sed permissiuè Not by way of Action but permission and so Damascen in his third booke de fide Orthodoxa cap. 20. Where his words run thus Operaepretium est agnoscere 'T is a matter no lesse worthy of knowledge than obseruance that 't is the custome of the Scripture to call Gods permission his action So we reade that God sent his enemies the Ipirit of slumber which is not to be ascribed to God as an agent but as a permitter This glosse sutes well with the approbation of Saint Chrysostome who speaking occasionally of that of the first of the Romanes Deus tradidit ●llos God gaue them vp vnto vile affections hee there expounds tradidit by permisit which he thus illustraces by a similitude As the Generall of an Armie in the sweat and brunt of a bloudy day if he withdraw his personall directions from his souldiers what doth he but expose them to the mercie of their enemies not that he led them into the iawes of danger but because they were not back't by his encouragement So God in this spirituall conflict he deliuers vs not into the hands of our arch-enemie he leaues vs to our owne strength and our corrupt affections drag vs thither with a witnesse And hence that dicotomy of Caietan claimes his prerogatiue that God doth harden Negatiuely but not Positiuely w th distinction though it be sound Orthodox yet it doth not exempt vs from scruple for God hath more in the stiffeneckt and peruerse than a maked and bare permission otherwise we should too weakly distance obduration from a lesser sinne for euery sinne God permits and as Saint Augustine in his Enchir. 96. cap. Nihil sit nisi omnipotens fieri velit vel finend● vt fiat v●l ipse fa●iend● There 's nothing done without the consent and approbation of the Almightie and that either by his person or substitute If God therfore be only said to harden man because he permits him to be hardened why should he not be likewise said to steale because he permits man to steale No doubt therefore but God hath a greater ore in this sinne of hardneing than in offences of a lesser bulke And therefore Saint Augustine in his 3. lib. con● Iulianum 3. cap. with many a sinewed allegation proues that God doth concurre to the excaeca●ion and hardening both of the minde and heart Non solum secundum paetientiam permissionem sed potentiam actionem Not according to his patience and permission onely but his power and action Which position hee thus after qualifies with a distinction Obduration is not onely a sinne but a punishment of a sinne Now that which is in obduration meerely of sinne hath it's pedegree and originall from man onely but that which is of punishment for that sinne from God And therefore I cannot but approue of that of Isiodore Qui iusti sunt à Deo non impelluntur vt malifiant sed dùm mali iam sunt indurantur vt deteriores existant According to that of Paul 2 Thes 2. For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they might beleeue a lie that all might be damned that beleeue not the truth but haue pleasure in vnrighteousnesse I haue as yet but toucht the barke and skinne of the controuersie the pith and the kernell is yet

vnchewed and that is Whether God here as hee is said to harden be the cause of our transgressions Which quaere admits a three-fore distraction and difference of opinion Two of them are extremes and by hot opposition each of other they haue both lost the truth the third runnes in a midway and euer directs to safety Florinus whose opinion posterity records as the monument of a seduced errour with no lesse peremptorinesse than blaspemy hath arraigned the Almighry and made him not onely the permitter but the Author of our sins The Seleuciani after him were poisoned with that heresie the Libertines laboured in the defence therof Manes and his disciples dreampt of a summum malum and vpon that phantasie grounded their assertion that God the summum bonum is to be seene onely in our good actions but euery depraued Act had its deriuation from their summum malum But those of a more solid and well tempered iudgement whom the influence of the Spirit had taught a moderation or the danger of Inquisition forbad curiosity dare not with Florinus impute here sinne vnto God yet maintaine against the Manichees that God is not a bare and idle spectator but powerfull ouer although no actor in the sinne Not in the sinne as it is meerely a sinne but in the sinne as 't is a punishment of sinne And therefore in euery transgression of ours there are foure thing remarkeable 1 Subiectum seu materiale he subiect in which sinne subsists and that is two-fold 1 Substantia the substance or rather the faculties of the reasonable soule in which originall sinne is so riueted that the naturall man can by no meanes purge himselfe of that hereditary contagion or Actio bona on which all our actuall sinnes are grounded 2 Formale the formalitie or obliquity of the action For euery sinne is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the transgression of the Law and in the sinner there 's nothing sinne but this 3 Reatus The guilt of this enormitie which makes vs liable to eternall death 4 Poena the punishment inflicted vpon the guilty whether temporall or eternall or both Now wee may not charge God with the obliquitie of the action for that proceedes from a peruerse and a seduced will but the substance of the action as the Schoolemen speake that hath its originall from God And therefore we consider sinne either vt malum culpae as 't is a violation of Gods law or vt malum poenae as a punishment laid vpon vs for the violation of that Law So Rom. 1.25 The Gentiles turned the truth of God into a lye There 's malum culpae And it followes immediatly at the 26 verse For this cause God gaue them vp into vile affections There 's malum poenae Now God is author of the second not the first If mists still hang on the eyes of clouded errour I thus dispell them with that of Hugo de Sancto Victore Deus malis potestatem solam tribuit non voluntatem quià licet ex ipsius permissione sit quod malum possunt ex inspiratione tamen non est quod malum volunt God onely giues power to the wicked not will that although it be by his permission that we can doe euill yet it is not by his inspiration that we will doe euill And therefore as the Schooles doe commonly distinguish of the decree of God so must wee of the execution of that decree which is either per efficieutiam when the diuine power doth worke any thing with or without the creature or secundum permissionem when the creature hath leaue to worke without the guidance of that power Neither will it sauour of impertinence if we insert here that distinction of Gods prouidence in efficientem deserentem Into a releeuing and forsaking prouidence for whensoeuer God withdrawes his especiall aid and assistance from vs man is hurried where his owne corrupter appetite not Gods grace carrieth him Adam fell as soone as the influence of Gods grace ceased and without the supportance of the same grace we all fall with no lesse certainty of perill than danger of restitution When the Sunne sets we see darknesse followes immediatly vpon the face of the earth and yet the Sunne is not the efficient cause of darknesse but the deficient so when the Sunne of righteousnesse shall forsake vs the darknesse of errour must needs possesse the vnderstanding and the will must mistake in her choice and execution She must necessitate consequentiae non consequentis The necessitie is grounded on a consequent in Logicke not any influence in Nature And here we may borrow a true glosse for that in the 2 Acts where it is said that Christ was deliuered into the hands of the wicked by the determinate counsell fore-knowledge of God We must not thinken hat God was the setter in this villany that he conspired with Iudas in his treason or with Pilate in his bloudy sentence But that he only gaue way to their attempts and suffered them to crucifie the Lord of glory Yea but why did not God curbe them in their cruell proceedings Why should his conniuence betray the ●…ou●… of Innovence Saint Austine shall answer for me Quia melius iudicauit de● malis bene-facere quàm mala nullae esse permittere To extract good out of euill was peculiar onely to omnipotency and goodnesse and therefore no lesse solid than charitable is that caucat of Du-Plesses Malè quaeritur vnde malum essiciatur It is an ill curiosity to seeke an efficient cause of ill Let this then satisfie modesten quiry that it is with the sinner as with an vntuned Instrument and the Musitian the sound is from the finger of him that toucheth it but the iarring from the Instrument That our discourse then with the time may draw to wards a Period we inuolue and wrap vp in this one distinction the very iuice and substance of the controuersie Sinne is considerable two waies ante commissionem before the Commission Sic se Deus habet negatiuè tum respectu voluntatis tum productionis God doth neither worke with vs nor countenance vs in the act of sinning Post commissionem after the Commission sic Deus determinat ordinat peccatum God sets bounds to the malice of wicked men and so mannages the disorder in sin that contrary to the nature of sinne and the intent of the sinner it shall redound ●o his glory We inculcate then that God is not the author but the orderer of sinne Hee causeth the worke not the fault the effect not the delinquencie working by not in mischiefe Wherein according to the rules of Logicke the finall and impulsiue causes euer so distinguish the actions that two doing the same thing to a diuers intent are notwithstanding said not to doe the same So God gaue his Sonne and Christ himselfe and Iudas Christ saith Augustine why is God here holy and man guilty Nis● in re vnâ quam fecerunt non est causa vna ob quam