Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	election_n	faith_n	foresee_v	1,644	5	11.3276	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34447	Misthoskopia, A prospect of heavenly glory for the comfort of Sion's mourners by Joseph Cooper ...	Cooper, Joseph, 1635-1699.	1700 (1700)	Wing C6058; ESTC R23381	387,192	690

dependance upon them but eternal and inconditionate Whether Man were considered of God electing as in the pure Mass is much controverted And many there are both Pious and learned do wholly oppose it making Man in the corrupt Mass to have been the object of Predestination But how to reconcile that opinion either with the unering rule of Scripture or the genuine dictates of right Reason I must ingenuously confess I see not Not with Scripture ¶ Rom. 9.20 23. which makes Predestination in both the branches of to be a pure Act of Gods sovereignity and universal Dominion over all Creatures wherby he may dispose of them to different ends according to what seems good in his own infinite Wisdom assigning no other Reason to mitigate the seeming Rigour of Predestination and to silence all the captious Cavils of carnal Minds against it who think to insnare God by their Subtilties than his Holy and righteous Will Nor can I reconcile it with the Dictates of right Reason which teacheth that every wise and understanding Agent will attempt nothing without the Predestinating of it to some certain end Whereas to make Man lapsed and miserable in Sin the Object of Predestination doth imply that God first decreed to Create Man before ever his Wisdom provided what to do with him and to permit his fall into Sin and Misery before ever he determined any thing certain about his everlasting and final Condition If Man's Wisdom which is but a drop to the vast Ocean compared with God's observe a better Decorum in all Undertakings first determining the end of his Work and then accordingly disposing of his Workmanship it is certainly hardly-conceivable how such Preposterousness should sort with the infinitely wise God whereby he is represented as decreeing the Creation and Fall of Man before ever he came to any Result in his own Thoughts nay before ever he entertain'd so much as one serious Thought about Man's great End and everlasting unchangeable Estate in the World to come However it be in this Controversy yet certain it is that there was nothing foreseen in God's Elect as a Motive or Reason influencing him to ordain them to obtain Salvation or inducing him to prepare for them rather than others the Reward of eternal Life For God's Will is of that supreme Sovereignty and absolute independency that he need not look out of himself at any Qualification in the Creature for the determining of it Nor can there be any thing more absurd than to make something in the Creature the cause of God's Will as if Faith foreseen good Works and final Perseverance in them should either be before it above it or have a casual Influence upon it to determine it when that indeed is the supreme Reason into which the Grace of Election must be wholly resolved Our Saviour therefore will give no other Reason why Gospel Mysteries were hidden from some and revealed to others But sends us wholly in this case to the sovereign Will and good Pleasure of God not at all subscribing the difference to the foresight of our Will receiving or rejecting the Tenders of his Grace Even (a) Mat. 11.26 so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Nor can we indeed assign any thing in Man as a Cause or Reason upon the Prevision whereof God should be moved to elect him Since there is nothing of Grace or Goodness in any Man but what God hath decreed from Eternity to communicate to him and doth graciously in time bestow upon him as the genuine and proper effect of his electing Love That Grace which makes a saving difference betwixt us and others in time is nothing but the Fruit of God's eternal Love wherewith he loved us before all time Hence we may find the holy Ghost asserting Faith to be the Effect not the cause of Election So that to hold Election upon foreseen Faith and good Works is no less absurd than to make the Sun receive its Light from the Day the Tree its Sap from the Fruit growing upon it and the Fountain its fulness from those Streams which by a natural emanation do flow continually from it For saith (b) Acts 13.48 the Apostle telling us what entertainment the Gospel Preached found amongst the Gentiles and as many as were ordained to eternal Life because they believed But therefore they believed because first they were ordained to eternal Life Where the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordained is added as a Reason why these believed whilst others rejecting the Gospel continued in their Impenitency and not as denoting any Preparations or Predispositions in them to eternal Life before Faith in Christ For that were much more absurd than if you should affirm a young Bird whilst yet without Wings to be prepared for and disposed to fly Faith being the first Qualification preparing for eternal Life and that spiritual Wing upon which the Soul takes her first flight towards Heaven More might be urged but what our Saviour saith (c) John 15.16 of his own Disciples they had not chosen him but he had chosen them and the Apostle of (d) 1 John 4.19 all Believers that they therefore love God because he loved them first may well satisfie any in this case who are willing to captivate their own Reason to the belief of the Truth as it is in Jesus For if Faith and good Works foreseen were the cause why God chose us then the clean contrary would be true that we chose and loved him before he either chose or loved us which yet we cannot say without Confronting the Spirit of Truth speaking in the Scripture Truth is we do not prevent God with our Love but he prevents us with his Love Our Love is but of yesterday and is the Spirit of his His Love bears date from Eternity and is the Root from whence ours springs We did not first prepare our selves for Glory by having an Eye of Faith to the Recompence of Reward But God first prepared Glory for us by casting a propitious Eye of Love upon us from Eternity that in time he may give us the Reward of Life everlasting Oh then what manner of Love is this that before we had any Being or so much as a thought of a Being in this World God should be plotting our Happiness and providing for our eternal well-being in the World to come Before Christian thou had it either Name or Life thy Name (e) Rev. 21.17 was then written in the Lamb's Book of Life and shall never be blotted out Before ever thou did'st or could'st do one stroak of Work in God's Vineyard he was thinking what glorious Reward to bestow upon thee preparing a Kingdom for thee before so much as the Foundation of the World was laid Before ever thou hast any spiritual Appetite to what is good any Hungerings or Thirstings after Righteousness even from Eternity was God preparing a Feast of fat things for thee a Feast of Love and Life of Glory