Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	evil_n	sin_n	4,011	5	5.5536	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35416	An elegant and learned discourse of the light of nature, with several other treatises Nathanael Culverwel ...	Culverwel, Nathanael, d. 1651?; Dillingham, William, 1617?-1689.	1652 (1652)	Wing C7569; ESTC R13398	340,382	446

Divine or Humane Acts are to be esteem'd evill upon this account because they are forbidden but in the Law of Nature such an evill was intimately and inevitably an evil though it should not be forbidden Now that there are such Bona per se and Mala per se as the Schools speak I shall thus demonstrate Quod non est Malum per se potuit non prohiberi for there is no reason imaginable why there should not be a possibility of not prohibiting that which is not absolutely evil which is in its own nature indifferent But now there are some evils so excessively evil so intollerably bad as that they cannot but be forbidden I shall only name this one Odium Dei for a Being to hate the Creatour and cause of its being if it were possible for this not to be forbidden it were possible for it to be lawful for Vbi nulla Lex ibi nulla praevaricatio Where there 's no Law there 's no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where there 's no Rule there 's no Anomaly if there were no prohibition of this 't would not be sin to do it But that to hate God should not be sin does involve a whole heap of contradictions so that this evill is so full of evill as that it cannot but be forbidden and therefore is an evil in order of Nature before the Prohibition of it Besides as the Philosophers love to speak Essentiae rerum sunt immutabiles Essences neither ebbe nor flow but have in themselves a perpetual Unity and Identity and all such properties as flow and bubble up from Beings are constant and unvariable but if they could be stopt in their motion yet that state would be violent and not at all connatural to such a subject So that grant only the being of man and you cannot but grant this also that there is such a constant conveniency and Analogy which some objects have with its Essence as that it cannot but encline to them and that there is such an irreconcileable Disconvenience such an Eternal Antipathy between it and other objects as that it must cease to be what it is before it can come neer them This Suarez termes a Natural Obligation and a just foundation for a Law but now before all this can rise up to the height and perfection of a Law there must come a Command from some Superiour Powers from whence will spring a Moral obligation also and make up the formality of a Law Therefore God himself for the brightning of his own Glory for the better regulating and tuning of the world for the maintaining of such a choyce peece of his workmanship as man is has publisht this his Royal command and proclaim'd it by that Principle of Reason which he has planted in the being of man which does fully convince him of the righteousnesse and goodnesse and necessity of this Law for the materials of it and of the validity and authority of this Law as it comes from the minde and will of his Creatour Neither is it any eclipse or diminution of the Liberty of that first being to say that there is some evill so foul and ill-favour'd as that it cannot but be forbidden by him and that there is some good so fair and eminent as that he cannot but command it For as the Schoolmen observe Divina voluntas licèt simpliciter libera sit ad extra ex suppositione tamen unius Actûs liberi potest necessitari ad alium Though the will of God be compleatly free in respect of all his looks and glances towards the Creature yet notwithstanding upon the voluntary and free precedency of one Act we may justly conceive him necessitated to another by vertue of that indissoluble connexion and concatenation between these two Acts which does in a manner knit and unite them into one Thus God has an absolute liberty and choyce whether he will make a promise or no but if he has made it he cannot but fulfil it Thus he is perfectly free whether he will reveal his minde or no but if he will reveal it he cannot but speak truth and manifest it as it is God had the very same liberty whether he would create a world or no but if he will create it and keep it in its comelinesse and proportion he must then have a vigilant and providential eye over it and if he will provide for it he cannot but have a perfect and indefective Providence agreeable to his own wisdome and goodnesse and being so that if he will create such a being as Man such a Rational Creature furnisht with sufficient knowledge to discern between some good and evill and if he will supply it with a proportionable concourse in its operations he cannot then but prohibit such acts as are intrinsecally prejudicial and detrimental to the being of it neither can he but command such acts as are necessary to its preservation and welfare God therefore when from all eternity in his own glorious Thoughts he contriv'd the being of man he did also with his piercing eye see into all conveniences and disconveniences which would be in reference to such a being and by his eternal Law did restrain and determine it to such acts as should be advantageous to it which in his wise Oeconomy and dispensation he publisht to man by the voyce of Reason by the Mediation of this Natural Law Whence it is that every violation of this Law is not only an injury to mans being but ultra nativam rei malitiam as the Schools speak 't is also a vertual and interpretative contempt of that supreme Law-giver who out of so much wisdome love and goodnesse did thus binde man to his own happinesse So much then as man does start aside and Apostatize from this Law to so much misery and punishment does he expose himself Though it be not necessary that the Candle of nature should discover the full extent and measure of that punishment which is due to the breakers of this Law for to the Nature of punishment non requiritur ut praecognita sit poena sed ut fiat actus Dignus tali poenâ The Lawyers and the Schoolmen both will acknowledge this Principle For as Suarez has it Sequitur reatus ex intrinseca conditione culpae Ità ut licèt poena per Legem non sit determinata Arbitrio tamen competentis judicis puniri possit Yet the Light of Nature will reveal and disclose thus much That a being totally dependent upon another essentially subordinate and subject to it must also be accountable to it for every provocation and rebellion And for the violation of so good a Law which he has set it and for the sinning against such admirable Providence and justice as shines out upon it must be liable to such a punishment as that glorious Law-giver shall judge fit for such an offence who is so full of justice as that he cannot and so great in goodnesse as that he will not punish a

foot-steps of this in Nature some obscure representations of this truth there The Sun it do's not monopolize its beams and engrosse its light but scatters them abroad gilds the whole world with them it shines more for others then it self it is a publick light Look on a fountaine it do's not binde in its streams seale up it self and enclose its waters but spends it self with a continual bubbling forth it streams forth in a fluent liberal and communicative manner it is a publick spring Nay natural bodies will part with their own properties leave their motions nay crosse their own inclinations for a general good The Aire a light and nimble body that mounts upwards and do's naturally ascend yet for an universal good rather then there shall be a breach and rupture in nature a vacuum it will descend for the stopping of that hiatus In the body of man the inferiour members will venter themselves for the good of the whole The hand will be cut off and lose its own being rather then the head shall be endanger'd you see some shadowes of this truth in Nature 3. And the weak and glimmering light of Nature shews thus much that a man is not borne for himself alone he is a sociable ●reature and sent into the world for the good of others The ●oice of an Heathen A mans countrey and his friend and others challenge great part of him It is a miserable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make his own self the centre of all his actions 4. Consider that every mans private welfare is included in the publick The welfare of Meroz depended upon Israels safety what would have become of Meroz if the rest of their fellow-brethren had perisht So that it was a part of great folly in Meroz not to come out to the help of Israel When the disease seazes upon a vitall part as the head or the heart or the like so as to endanger the whole then every member is in danger though for the present they may be free from paine The well-being of every private man depends on the publick good A single drop is soon dry'd up and consum'd I but a drop in the Ocean when 't is united to a multitude of other drops 't is there more safe and a drop by it self is weak and can make no resistance I but a drop in the Ocean is terrible Men have a more safe and a more honourable being as joyn'd to the whole then taken single by themselves A single drop can do nothing but a multitude of drops joyn'd together will make a stream and carry all before them A single beame is obscure but in the Sun the centre of rayes meeting in the publick point they are glorious And these arguments may prevaile with you as men living in common society but then as Christians I. Consider that Gods children have been alwayes of this disposition of publick spirits seeking the glory of God and the good of Sion Exod. 32. 32. If not blot me I pray thee out of thy Book Moses out of a pang of vehement zeale would part with his own happinesse rather then Israel should perish If it would make more for the glory of God he would be content to be damn'd or at least to have the beams of Gods favourable presence withdrawn from him Rom. 9. 3. I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ or separated for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh for the Jews Israelites which is meant of the poena damni I could be content to have the face of Christ hid from me for my brethrens sake as Gods face was once hid from Christ upon the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me A most strong affection and zeale for the publick good Paul knew what the face of Christ was how glorious a sight it was to see God face to face And he knew what answer God had given to Moses too Him that sinnes him will I blot out of my Book And yet out of a most ardent desire of the salvation of the Jews he will part with the face of Christ so they may be saved here were publick spirits indeed What should I tell you of Vriah that famous Souldier his brave and heroical resolution how he would take no complacency in outward things and marke his reason 2 Sam 11. 11. The Arke and Israel and Judah abide in tents and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields as if he should say What shall the Arke be in danger and shall Vriah be secure Or shall my Lord Joab be more forward then I am in Israels cause As thou livest and as thy soul liveth I will not do this thing He raps out an Oath like a Souldier which he might have well spar'd but yet he shews a most generous and publick spirit And this was no small aggravation of Davids sin 137. Psalme See how the Psalmist and the rest of Gods people behave themselves By the rivers of Babylon we sate down and wept when we remembred thee O Sion We hanged our Harpes upon the Willows in the midst thereof If I forget thee Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning David had a most delicate touch upon the Harpe a soft and silken touch He could still Saul's evil spirit with his Musick but if I forget thee Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning And when did Jeremy make his Lamentation that whole book of mourning but when the glory of Sion was laid in the dust when Ierusalem the Lady of Nations was made desolate Gods people have been alwayes of publick spirits and have sympathiz'd with the Church II. That you may follow so good example think whose cause it is The cause of Israel is the cause of God To the help of the Lord c. Can you have a better cause The good of the Church and the glory of God are knit together by an act of Gods gracious will So that he that seeks the good of the Church do's in the same act seek the glory of God And he that helps not Israel comes not out to the help of the Lord. Now you are bound to maintaine the cause of God and to help the Lord. 1. By many and severall engagements As creatures at his beck he has a sovereignty and dominion over you Not to obey the great God is to deny his supremacy You are bound in a way of thankfulnesse to stand for him and his cause by those sweet mercies those precious pledges of his love which he every moment heaps upon you by those many blessings that come swimming to you in the blood of a Saviour 2. By many Promises Vowes Protestations Your first and Originall vow in Baptisme obliges you to maintaine the cause of God and of his Church against all the enemies thereof And you have often repeated this Vow and seal'd it again in the Lords Supper for you know that 's a sealing up of