Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	sin_n	world_n	5,072	5	5.7392	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36110	A discourse, proving from Scripture and reason that the life of man is not limited by any absolute decree of God by the author of The duty of man, &c.	Author of The duty of man.	1680 (1680)	Wing D1617; ESTC R14478	40,954	140

thou shalt dye And the Apostle hath as plainly exprest it as it can be Wherefore as by one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Rom. 4.12 where it is plain that Death is a punishment inflicted for Sin so that if man had never sinned we have no reason to think he should have died I confess without Revelation we could never have guessed this to be the cause of Death The Heathen Philosophers were exceedingly confused in their notions concerning the origine of Sin and the cause of Death many of them thought that Death was a natural accident originally appurtenant to Humane Nature And indeed if Revelation had not declared the contrary I had been fully satisfied that Death had been no other thing but such a natural accident but it is strange that any man that has conversed with sacred writ should be of this opinion And yet we find the Pelagians of old were great sticklers for it hence is it that the ancient Fathers and Councils have condemned it with a Curse In the Milevitan Council Can. 2. we read thus placuit ut quicunque dicit Adam primum hominem mortalem factum ita ut sive peccaret sive non peccaret moreretur in corpore hoc est de corpore exiret non peccati merito sed necessitate naturae anathema sit In after-ages the Scotists the most subtil of all Scholastick writers inclined much to this opinion against whom the Thomists their irreconcilable Enemies took up the cudgels amongst modern writers the seemingly rational Socinians have owned this groundless conceit But I cannot stay to debate this at length only in brief if Death had been natural to man in the state of Innocency it behoved to have been because of these following reasons 1. Because Adams natural constitution implied mortality the Materials of his constitution were not so amicable as to entertain a lasting amity and friendship 2. It was the primitive precept be fruitful and multiply now it is plain that procreation includes mortality in its notion and farther it seems to be unconceivable how this little Map of Earth should have contained a numerous multiplying and never dying off-spring 3. Humane Nature in the state of Innocency did stand in need of Meat and Drink as is plain from Gen. 1.19 now the end of eating and drinking is not only to hold up but to repair the decays of our Bodies which would sudenly return to dust if they were not thus renewed and strengthened 4. If Death were only the effect of Sin and the Devil were called a Murderer from the beginning because of his tempting our first parents to eat of the forbidden Fruit it will follow that since Christ came to take away the sins of the World and to destroy the works of the Devil that he also took away the wages of sin which is Death than which nothing is more contrary to daily experience 5. Immortality seems to be entailed only to the state of future Glory where Corruption shall put on Incorruption and Mortality shall be swallowed up in life and then there shall be no more death Rev. 21.4 These are the most material reasons I can find for the proof of this opinion in answer to which I shall desire the Five following considerations may be weighed Consid 1. It is not to be doudted that the eternal wisdom furnished our first parents with all these accomplishments their specifick nature could suffer the signatures of Wisdom and Goodness were legible in the lowest and least regarded piece of the creation but in Man in a more eminent manner conspicuous It is almost impossible for us in this fallen state to conceive what those endowments were with which his innocent condition was blessed We have no reason to think that there was any jar or disagreement amongst his faculties or opposition and sight of one quality with another It was mans disobedience that disturbed the whole universe and disordered every part of it while he was at peace with his Maker he enjoyed a serene condition and needed not fear any hurt either External or Internal then all the parts of his Body entertained a sweet harmony and there could be nothing except Sin that should have made any failure in his constitution or made a separation between his Soul and Body But Sin having entred the World every part of the universe changed its face and Man who was Heavens favorite in his first mould is now condemned to eat his bread in the sweat of his face till he return unto the dust This is all that we can learn from Revelation concerning the introduction of Death to suppose any other account of it were to give up our selves to the dictates of our extravagant fancies and farther it is very unreasonable to infer mans mortality from his constitution and because he is earthly unless we think it also rational that perfected Bodies in the state of Glory are not Bodies or that they are even there mortal Both which seem to be plainly opposite to Scripture Consid 2. The Phrase Immortal may fall under a double notion for First sometimes it is taken absolutely implying a being most perfect which had no begining and can have no end and in this sense Immortality is solely the prerogative of our Maker and can never be attributed to any creature Secondly Sometimes it is taken Conditionally and so under various considerations it may be attributed either First To perfected Saints who are stated in Glory where the primitive Image lost by mans fall is renewed and perfected and of those our Saviour in the Gospel of Luke tells us that they can dye no more Luke 20.36 or Secondly to our first parents in the State of Innocency For so long as they remained obedient to the Laws of Heaven Immortality was entailed upon their nature for the tenor of the primitive threatning is in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye where temporal Death seems to be threatned which had been idle and vain if men had died although they had never eaten the forbidden Fruit. I know some men think that Sin only laid a necessary obligation upon men to obey and provoked God to remove that Supernatural and Superadded quality and gift which preserved them from Death With such sort of men I have no great quarrel although I think that God could as easily have made mans constitution so lasting and the constituent parts of his fabrick so harmonious that he should have never dyed if he had not sinned as to creat a superadded being to preserve him safe For reason would plead that that superadded gift required another and so in infinitum But farther 't is very unreasonable to infer mans corruption from that precept be fruitful and multiply for although in some sense generatio unius est alterius corruptio yet the state of being even since the fall to which that axiom has only respect is not so brittle

the former Opinion For the Psalmist doth not desire the knowledge of the Period of his life he does not ask when he shall die only he begs the Divine aid and assistance that he may wisely improve the short time he hath to live I cannot stand to consider such Texts of Scripture as these which are no ways acquainted with the Doctrin they are brought to defend There is only one Text that seems to favor this Opinion viz. Job 14.5 Seeing his days are determined the number of his Months are with thee thou hast appointed his bonds that he cannot pass But I have considered this all along in this Discourse I confess some in return to this say that all Job's words are not approved of God therefore it is hard to conclude any thing from them but this is a very insufficient answer That which satisfieth me is this that Job here only says that our days are determined but he speaks nothing how they are determined now in what sense the Period of every Man's life may be said to be determined I have already considered Secondly There are many Examples in Scripture which shew that the Period of every Man's Life is bounded and limited by an absolute Decree The most remarkable is that Act. 4.28 Both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles the people of Israel were gather'd together for to do whatsoever thy hand thy counsel determined before to be done The Scribes Pharisees frequently stirr'd up the multitude to lay hands upon Christ but their endeavours were always to no purpose and the account the Scripture gives for this is because his hout was not come In return to this I shall desire it may be considered that when we say the Period of every Man's Life may be extended or shortned the meaning is not that it is impossible that it can be otherwise we never doubted but the great Governor of the World may make what reserved Cases he pleases from the ordinary course of things and no wonder though the present Case which is upon all accounts so extraordinary be exempt from the general Rule and for such exempt Cases to which there ought to be allowance made no reasonable man can think they do any prejudce to the thing I have been proving Thirdly It is a common opinion that the futurition of things depend only upon the Divine will antecedently to which things are only possible In answer to which I easily grant that there is nothing that comes to pass contrary to the Divine will the most criminal actions are ordered by his Infinite Wisdom and permitted to be But yet we have no ground to think that he decrees every future action Else it were hard to vindicate the holiness of God upon which consideration many Learned Men have been induced to deny Gods immediate concurring with the Creature in all its operations and yet we need not run our selves upon this Rock for we may safely enough maintain that the Divine will is immediately efficatious for God who created man with a freedom of will designed that he should act without constraint and the reason why man acts freely is because God wills men to act so which plainly discovers that the most contingent actions depend immediatly upon the Divine will Fourthly We can never give a rational nor satisfying account how the Divine knowledge concerning the Period of Humane Life is infallible certain if it be not founded upon the sure Basis of an absolute decree This object I have partly removed already while I shewed that God knows whatsoever is true because his cognisance is Infinite wherefore it is unreasonable to think that God could not have a perfect comprehension of things if he had not decreed them absolutely Now to make this yet more plain I shall prove by instances from Scripture that God hath a certain knowledg of those things which he never decreed as absolutely future And First It is a very remarkable instance which we have 1 Sam. 23.11 12. where David hearing that Saul was to come to Keilah he earnestly beseecheth God to tell him if the men of Keilah will deliver him and his men into the hand of Saul and if Saul will come down To both which he gets this answer That Saul will come down and that the Keilites will deliver him up And yet the Event shews that none of those came to pass because the fulfilling of both did depend upon Davids staying in Keilah And yet God certainly knew that if David had not depart'd from Keilah they should have delivered him into the hands of Saul And farther it is very evident that David was not inquiring what were the present propensions and inclinations of the Keilites but what should be the event of his staying and accordingly he receives an answer from God Another Instance we have 2 Kings 13.19 where Elisha the Prophet is very wroth with Joash King of Israel because he did not smite upon the ground five or six times and the reason the Prophet adds is for then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it Which makes it as evident as any thing can be that God foreknew that Joash should have smiten Syria till he had consummed it if he had smitten upon the ground five or six times It were no difficult task to prove this by a multtude of instances from Scripture but I think I need add no mere for the satisfaction of considering Man and for others a Million of demonstrations will be urged to no purpose And thus I have done with the Second thing I proposed that God hath not by any absolute or inconditionate Decree fatally determined the Period of every Mans Life I proceed to the Third thing proposed namely whether the Period of every Mans Life be mutable And before I prove it to be so I must premise two cautions First when we say the Period of every Mans Life is mutable we mean no more but that it may be shortned by our intemperance or neglect of the means and be extended by our good managery and religious manner of living Secondly When I say the Period of every Mans Life is moveable the meaning is not that it is necessarily so and that it cannot be otherwise for this would not be consistent with our dependent condition therefore there is allowance to be made to extraordinary cases The acts of Divine providence in the government of Humane affairs are sometimes extraordinary and therefore it must be left to his Infinite Wisdom and Goodness to make what reserved cases he thinks fit from the general rule Yet for ordinary the Period of Humane Life is mutable and God doth not exclude the power of second causes in governing the World These things being premised I doubt not but to offer such argue ments for the proof of the mutability of the Period of every Mans Life as shall be sufficient for the conviction of any man who is not blinded by prejudice or prepossess'd with