Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	effect_n	sin_n	1,588	5	5.2412	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45355	Deus justificatus, or, The divine goodness vindicated and cleared against the assertors of absolute and inconditionate reprobation together with some reflections on a late discourse of Mr. Parkers, concerning the divine dominion and goodness.	Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?; Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1668 (1668)	Wing H460; ESTC R25403	132,698	316

understandings but when our wills are conformable to reason and spontaneously elect that which the Intellect propounds to them as best and in it self most eligible Having thus declared the amplitude and extent of the liberty of mans Will in all it 's respective capacities I shall now manifest and shew how it 's taken away by asserting and maintaining of Inconditionate Decrees which will be no hard matter to evince if we consider that both the Predestination of the Good to life and of the Reprobates to destruction necessarily pervades and casts a fatal influence upon their whole lives I mean that that eternal decree invincibly orders and disposes the actions of men to their respective ends so that he who is preordained to happiness shall certainly and necessarily be good and the other who is destin'd to perdition shall inevitably be wicked and vitious A cast of which Doctrine we have delivered to us by Zanchy in these words De Nat. Dei cap. 2. in Resp ad Sophism Non dubitamus itaque confiteri ex immutabili Reprobatione necessitatem peccandi quidem sine resipiscentia ad mortem usque peccandi eóque aeternas poenas dandi reprobis incumbere that is We doubt not to profess that from the immutable Decree of Reprobation there lies upon Reprobates a necessity of sinning and that without Repentance even unto death and consequently of suffering eternal punishments Ad amicdupl Vorst p. 175. Piscator likewise will aver the same and more if you desire it In summa se tueri fatetur Deum absolutè decrevisse ab aeterno efficaciter ne quispiam hominum plus bont faciat quàm reipsâ facit aut plus mali omittat quàm reipsa omittit that is That he defends this conclusion that God hath efficaciously from all eternity so predetermin'd the will of man to every individual action that none can do any more good than really he doth or omit any more evil then ipso facto he omitteth To these I shall add Szydlovius as the worst of the three Apud Curcellaeum de jure Dei in creaturas innocentes p. 25 26. Fateor ipse ad communem sentiendi consuetadinem crudum nimis hoc videri Deum posse blasphemiam perjurium mendacium c. imperare quod tamen Verissimum est in se c. that is I confess that according to common sense it seems very crude to assert that God can command blasphemy perjury lying c. which yet is most true in it self Now following these Principles it is impossible there should be any such things as Vertue and Vice existing in the World for all our acions whether Good or Evil are the necessary effects of an external principle acting and overruling our wills and we are but the instruments which that invincible Power makes use of for the doing such and such actions and can no more withstand it then the Sun cease to make day and night 1 Cor. iv 5. The Apostle speaks of mens receiving praise of God for their good deeds which reason cannot fathome if their wills are necessarily determin'd ad unum as the Moralists speak and acted by a supernatural and irresistible power No man ever praised the Sun for circling the Earth or the Moon for keeping her course because it is impossible they should do otherwise being destitute of any spontaneous principle and carryed by the violent stream of matter No more can any one praise or dispraise the actions of Mankind when they have no power to do otherwise but are inevitably determin'd to such and no other and can no more resist than the Planets stop their constant gyres in the vast whirlpools of heaven He that merits praise for doing well it is upon this account that he might have done otherwise but when God by a Physical application of his Power determines the soul to act thus and leaves it not any power or ability of resisting all the praise of that action must be due to God himself not to Man who was but the instrument and could not avoid it Nemo peccat in eo quod vitare non potest sayes St. Austin Neither can any action whatever be called a sin in Man because he is not left a free agent but acts fatally and unavoidably and cannot be disobedient to that superior force that inacts his will so that Murder Adultery Oppression contempt of Government and whatever brutish action there is else cannot come under the denomination of crimes but he that commits them may justly plead that he could not avoid them his will being never undetermin'd and it was not possible that his weak soul should hinder the stronger and more powerful bent and resolution of heaven How then can God in justice punish any man for doing that which he could not help and How can that be called a sin which is the effect of a necessary cause The distinction between the act and the pravity of the act the former of which God wills say they and works in us but not the latter will stand them in no stead for in many actions the formality of sin consists in the very act it self as in Murder Adultery and such like Thus the eating of the forbidden fruit was a sin in it self and we cannot distinguish between the act and the vitiosity for the very act was forbidden and the formality of the crime consisted not in Adam or Eve's eating after any undue manner but simply and barely in the very act of eating And so in sins of Omission this distinction likewise fails nor will it free Almighty God from the imputation of being the Author of Iniquity and Vice And it is no wonder to see this unworthy Doctrine take such deep footing in some mens minds when they are so obstinately set and fixed upon it that they will entertain any absurdity rather then free and unprejudice their understandings Yea so hot was this Dispute grown at Geneva that Melanchton in an Epistle to Caspar Peucerus amongst other things relates this Scribit ad me Lelius de Stoico fato usque adeo litem Genevae moveri ut quidam in carcerem conjectus sit propterea quod à Zenone differret O misera tempora Doctrina salutis peregrinis quibusdam disputationibus obscuratur And truly if Men would leave off these dry reasonings and altercations about words and entertain Truth in the love and simplicity of it and as it is in Jesus in that Divine and Meek Spirit it is to be hoped that God would soon put an end to the dayes of unrighteousness of formal and outside profession and the glory of the Lord would cover the Earth as the waters cover the Sea Chap. VI. An Explication of several Citations of Scripture suborned to attest the Doctrine of Inconditionate Decrees together with a brief examination of some Positions of the Contra-Remonstrants I Have now finished the principal and most material Arguments I shall at this time make use of which I have

the case Is it at all consentaneous to that communicative Goodness wherein God takes most delight to glorifie himself to make those souls the desolate Victims of enraged Vengeance who never had any more then a capability of Existence when their first Parent sinned against heaven and could no more prevent their defilement by that diffusive contagion then hinder themselves from being first made Arrian makes a very near cognation and affinity of the souls of Men with God Cap. 14. lib. 1. in Epictet as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 particles and avulsions from him and when Moses made intercession for the Israelites upon the Rebellion of Korah he uses this Title or Appellation Numb xvi 22. The God of the spirits of all flesh as the most prevalent Argument to induce him not to be wrath with the whole Congregation for one mans sin forasmuch as he was their Creator and therefore could not but pity the works of his own hands And the Author to the Hebrews styles this everblessed Being Chap. xii 9. The Father of Spirits who for that very reason can never cast of that Relation and become unpitiful to his own lovely Off-spring who in their lowest state and greatest degeneracy were vouchsafed to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sons of God Joh. xi 52. And now what other can these things signifie but that there is a very near alliance and consanguinity between God and the souls of Men and that it is only the corrupt imaginations of men which introduced those horrid Decrees and represented God as a hater of Mankind and desirous of the death of his Creation But to carry on this a little further That God should hang the everlasting interest of millions of souls upon the frail and mutable Will of a single Person whom he foresaw would lapse and by it ruin and undo the greater part of his yet uncreated Posterity is an Oeconomy too harsh and rigid ever to be put in execution by the God of Love and unworthy the Nature of him who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and in him the Father of Mercies and Compassions Let us be wise unto sobriety and act like men who care not for Words and Names but Things Suppose an hundred Persons condemned to die equally culpable equally criminal and it be in the Power of some Good Man to save ten twenty or all if he please will he not rather deliver all than only redeem twenty or a less number especially when he may do it with the same expence and cost and shall we imagine God to be less Good than a charitable and kind-hearted Man Do God and his holy Angels take an infinite complacency and delight and rejoyce at the Conversion of one sinner and can we think they take pleasure in the destruction of Myriads even before they ever actually offended This made Mr. Calvin betake himself to the defence of the Supralapsarian cause because he knew not how the Personal sin of Adam should be derived upon his Posterity and make them formally guilty so as God might Salvâ bonitate justitiâ Reprobate them as sinners and cast them into the lowest hell Wherefore he ascribes all to the Divine Preordination and doubts not to say In Resp ad Calumn Nebul. ad Art 1. Nihil ad nos unius hominis culpa nisi nos coelestis judex aeterno exitio addiceret But let us hear him speak out his mind more fully to this purpose Instit lib. 3. cap. 23. § 7. Disertis verbis hoc extare negant decretum fuisse à Deo ut sua defectione periret Adam Quasi verò idem ille Deus quem Scriptura praedicat facere quaecunque vult ambiguo fine condideret nobilissimum ex suis Creaturis Liberi arbitrii fuisse Dicunt ut fortunam ipse sibi fingeret Deum verò nihil destinasse nisi ut pro merito eum tractaret Tam frigidum commentum si recipitur ubi erit illa Dei Omnipotentia quâ secundum arcanum consilium quod aliunde non pendet omnia moderatur Atqui Praedestinatio velint nolint in posteris se profert Neque enim factum est naturaliter ut à salute exciderent omnes unius parentis culpâ Quid eos prohibet fateri de uno homine quod inviti de toto humano genere concedunt Quid enim tergiversando luderent operam Cunctos mortales in unius hominis personâ morti aeternae mancipatos fuisse Scriptura clamat Hoc cùm naturae ascribi nequeat ab admirabili Dei consilio profectum esse minime obscurum est Bonos istos justitiae Dei Patronos perplexos haerere in festu â altas verò trabes superare nimis absurdum est Iterum quaero Unde factum est ut tot gentes unà cum liberis eorum infantibus aeternae morti involveret lapsus Adae absque remedio nisi quia Deo ita visum est Hic obmutescere oportet alicqui tam dicaces linguas Decretum quidem horrible fateor inficiari tamen nemo poterit quin praesciverit Deus quem exitum esset habiturus homo antequam ipsum conderet ideo praesciverit quia decreto suo sic ordinarat It cannot be denyed then but that the Scripture abundantly testifies and our dayly experience asserts the Lapse and Apostacy of Men from God and that they are really guilty of an Original contagion but that it came by any Ordination and Decree of God neither Scripture not Reason will assent unto And for this Degeneracy God might justly have punished all the World since that every man had made himself obnoxious by departing from him and violating his Sacred Law But God whose Goodness never fails was so far from taking advantage of the deplorable state of Mankind that he had a design of Good towards them and sent the Lord Christ into the World who taking upon him to become a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of men took of all that displeasure which was conceived against them according as the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. v. 19. Col. i. 19 20. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And again It pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell and having made peace through the bloud of his Cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven By which Reconciliation is meant Gods taking into grace and favour lapsed Man and forgiving their foul degeneracy from him and assuring them that their past obliquities shall never ruine them if now they will endeavour to become New-creatures and that now he hath entred upon a Covenant of Peace wherein he promises to them all the assistance that possibly can be given Rational Beings so that now no man is damned for his Original but Actual Transgressions otherwise it cannot be understood how God through Christ should reconcile the World unto