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	good_a	work_n	3,639	5	6.0437	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44070	The creatures goodness, as they came out of God's hands, and the good mans mercy to the brute creatures, which God hath put under his feet in two sermons : the first preached before the University of Oxford : the second at the lecture at Brackley / by Thomas Hodges ...	Hodges, Thomas, d. 1688.	1675 (1675)	Wing H2319; ESTC R17986	37,570	50

Life bears fruit every month which some think is a restoring of it to its primitive fruitfulness and for want of which some think the Fig-tree was cursed in the Gospel so Mr. Brightman And there are who think that one day Sodom and Gomorrah now a dead Sea shall again become a fruitful and pleasant Land And for this see Ezek. 16.53.55 There are too who think that the Creatures waiting groaning and longing to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8. doth hint some Restitution of the Creatures to their first good and sound state Which whether it do or no I leave it to you to judge Only this I say that if the visible World shall pass through a purgatory-fire at the day of Judgment and if it shall be continued for the blessed Saints to contemplate God's goodness therein at first and the glory of Christ the second Adam who came to repair the ruins which the first made that then it is not improbable that the Creatures may then attain to their primitive goodness However sure I am that the Humane Nature is already in the Person of Christ advanced far above what it was in Adam at first The first Adam was of the Earth earthly the second Adam was the Lord from Heaven heavenly And again That all those that are Christs are already in part and shall hereafter in Heaven perfectly be restored to the Image of God wherein they were made at first and to a better and more happy estate then ever Adam had in Paradise V. There 's one Query more to be briefly spoken unto and then we shall have done with the Fifth thing propounded in the beginning of our Discourse and that is what is required of us towards the repair of the ruins of the Creation to restore the Creatures to their primitive goodness and beauty To this I answer 1. That God doth not require that we should repair the Angelical Nature that we should pour Wine and Oyl into their wounds or bind up their bruises their stroke is incurable there is no Balm in Gilead no Physician for their disease Only we must by endeavouring to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit our selves to fill up those vacant places in the Heavens from whence they fell God can make of us if we duly apply our selves to him although we be but earthen Pitchers Vessels of Grace and Vessels of Glory Vessels every way fit for our Masters use both in Earth and in Heaven Col. 3.9 10 2. God doth expect that we should put off the old Man with his deeds and put on the new Man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him That being in Christ id est being indeed Christians we should become new Creatures be renewed in the spirit of our minds and walk in newness of life that as in Adam we all dyed and became dead in Sins and trespasses so in Christ the second Adam and by a lively Faith in him we should all be made aliue And because Adam was the Son of God by Creation at first that we should all be Partakers of the Divine Nature be his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Live and walk as the Sons of God all as the Children of the most High that the Lord may take pleasure in us again as he did in Adam in Paradise before he sinned 3. We must make a good use of all God's good Creatures getting a new right to use them although the old one be not utterly lost and using them alway aright according to the Creators will and for his glory Many are the good uses we may make of the Creatures this Doctrine of the Creatures usefulness and goodness U I Hence we may be informed that God made not sin For all that he made was good and Sin that is evil and as Sin only evil and that continually There was no Anomy or Ataxy in all God's works but Sin it self is an Anomy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then God is not the Author of this evil and confusion This is the Truth we teach in all the Churches of the Saints and not as we are slanderously reported by the Romanists that we say that God is the Author of Sin God is Summum Bonum yea Goodness it self but Sin is Summum Malum the chiefest Evil and so bad that Hell and the Devil cannot make it worse Ye cannot call it worse than to call it by an Epithite drawn from its own name viz. sinful Sin This calls the Devil Father and Author God the good Husbandman sow'd nothing but good Seed in his Field 't is the Devil that Enemy that sow'd these tares Again hence we infer that Sin is very evil because it hath poyson'd so many good things yea hath been the cause of all evils in the World For at the first God made every thing very good That must needs be bitter indeed which hath imbittered so many and so great sweets Sin is the great Troubler of the World this is it which makes God's good things turn to be evil to us that curses our Blessings that makes a Garden of Eden a desolate Wilderness that turns the World upside down and makes that when Jeremy looked upon the Land of Canaan that Garden of God Chap. 4.22 23. He beheld the Earth and lo it was a Tohu Vabohu without sorm and void and the Heavens and they had no light Further hence we may learn that the Lord Jesus Christ is very good a Fountain of goodness For God made all good Col. 1.16 and he created all things by Christ By him not as a mere Instrument but a Co-worker with him He is the beginning of the Creation of God in this sense also Is there any good in the World and the Lord Christ hath not done it and he hath done all things Well Heaven and Earth are full of the goodness of our Lord Jesus and there 's No Man good but one and that is one who is God and Man the Man Christ Jesus Lastly as to information hence we are taught that the work of Redemption is very good exceeding good For this is a better and greater work than that of Creation If that deserve thousands of praises this doth ten thousands The song of the Lamb is to be a higher Note than the song of Moses Creation was a work of God's fingers but in our Redemption there was put forth the strength of his holy arm by which he got himself us the victory Behold now a new Heaven a new Earth the light of the Moon is as the light of the Sun the light of the Sun is seven-fold Old things are passeth away all things are become new And therefore if when God laid the foundation the Corner-stone of the World the Morning-stars sang together all the Sons of God shouted for joy No marvel now that Christ by whom all things were made

and that with a Sentence of approbation and commendation upon every particular thing which he had made And behold saith the Text it was very good God's survey of all his Creatures and his judgment of them upon his survey and review of them these two divide the Text. From the words we shall deduce these two Observations 1. That God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth look upon again again and consider his works 2. That it is a true and righteous Sentence or Judgment namely this which he passed upon his Creatures at first as they then were as they came out of his hands Behold they were very good The former I shall very briefly dispatch the latter I shall insist upon 1. Of the first It cannot be that ever any thing should be hid from Gods all-seeing Eye which is a thousand times brighter than the Sun Which if it look on the Sun the eye of the World that shineth not yea God who is All-eye Totus oculus sees more than the eye of Faith doth and yet that sees things that are invisible and therefore nothing which was registred in Moses's Natural History of the Creation could possibly lye undiscovered unto him No not the Angels of Heaven above which because not to be seen with corporal eyes much less Minerals hid in the bowels of the Earth beneath which because not actually seen without much digging and delving or because not so soon perfected by the heat of the Sun are therefore omitted altogether in the preceding Narration I say there was never any thing either in Heaven above in the Earth beneath or in the Waters either above or under the Earth which was not alway visible and actually seen and beheld by him And yet if you look over this Chapter you will find that 't is said that God had seen his works four times before now He saw the work of every day in the end thereof and pronounced it good except the second day which some think was because the Angels were created that day and that day fell multitudes of them Others because that day was a work of division for then God made the Firmament and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament verse 7. Or lastly and most probably because the work which was begun that day was not so fully perfected until the third day when God gathered the Waters under the Heaven into one place and call'd it Seas when 't is said that God saw that it was good Vers 10. I say God had seen his works four times before this sixth day and never looked on any thing that he had made but he saw it was good and yet this satisfies not but he sees and surveys them again a fifth time namely now on the sixth day God saw every thing that he had made If any wonder at this and say in their heart what doth this mean if it was so why was it thus I answer that it was not done for that it was possible for God to have overseen himself in any of his works and to have omitted either any part or parcel of work which he had designed to do or any punctilio of workmanship requisite It was not because that any thing either actually did or possibly could miscarry in his hands or be marred by him in the making of it It was not because there was any want of harmony or due proportion of the parts one to another or because all together they could possibly render the Universe ugly or monstrous It was not for any one nor for all these causes put together that God is said thus often to see his works But it may be for some such ends as these 1. To teach us seriously to contemplate and wisely to consider the operation of his hands to study the Book of Nature well that large Volume of two Tomes Heaven and Earth and therein to see the invisible things of God even his eternal Power and Godhead which being of themselves not seen yet are manifest by the things that do appear In the Sun Moon and Stars you may see digitum Dei In the inferior or sublunary Creatures vestigia Dei Gods footsteps for quaelibet Herba quaelibet Bestiola Deum refert In Man you may see Dei Speculum Imaginem the Glass Image and Representation of God In the Universe as in a fair Book and very legible Characters you may read yea you may run and read the Name and Nature of God and by reading and studing this Book only you may prove good Scholars in Divinity God would have no Atheist in the University of the World But if any such there be who shut their eyes against the light of the knowledge of God in the face of the whole Creation let them know that God's eye is ever upon them and that for evil for this horrid ingratitude in that that they would ma●● him that made them not allow him a being who give them and all things or Creatures else theirs 2. To teach us to view and review our own works If God who could not err surveyed every days work one excepted in the end of the day and the whole weeks work in the end of the sixth day Let us go and do likewise Let 's consider our ways daily and again let 's consider our ways weekly Let there be no man amongst us but who reviews his works saying What have I done This was the way wherein David if we judge him the pen-man of the 119. Psalm was converted or restored after his fall he thought on his ways look'd them over and over again and turn'd his feet unto God's Testimonies 3. To secure to himself his own honour and glory and to render the Creatures inexcusable in case of any future miscarriage Now if any thing fall and be marr'd the fault cannot justly and reasonally be imputed unto God for he was exceeding careful to make and overlook and examine his works and to make and leave all well good and very good If therefore there happen hereafter to be any errour any crack flaw spot or blur any fault in any of the Creatures it must be acknowledged to be by some abuse neglect miscarriage or fall out of our hands for before they came out of God's hands he looked them over and over again and found and left them all right and good and very or vehemently good 4. To prevent our carping quarrelling and finding fault with God's works Ne aliter de suis operibus sentire vel loqui quisquam audeat Calvin That we say not no not in our hearts Cui bono Or Quorsum perditio haec Concerning any of the Creatures that none may say What is this Wherefore is that For all the works of the Lord are exceeding good And he hath made all things for their use saith the Author of Ecclesiast Cap. 39.16 17 21. That none might blaspheme Gods works as that profane Spaniard