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	good_a	know_v	2,974	5	4.2147	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34850	Vindiciæ veritatis, or, A confutation [...] the heresies and gross errours asserted by Thomas Collier in his additinal word to his body of divinity written by Nehemiah Coxe ...	Coxe, Nehemiah.	1677 (1677)	Wing C6719; ESTC R37684	130,052	153

which they were equally with others by their own nature into a condition of futurition and there can be no cause assigned of this migration or passage without God for there was nothing before time but himself It remains therefore that the cause thereof was in God and indeed it was the will purpose or decree of God that some things should be others should not that alone made this change So that the foreknowledge of things to be that is in God supposeth his Decree that they shall be and in truth the foreknowledge or Decree of God considered as in him is the same and the Scripture indifferently useth either term to denote the same thing though we because of the imbecility of our understanding form differing conceptions of them we conceive of the Decree as an act of God willing that such things should be and of Divine prescience as an act of God foreseeing or knowing the coming to pass of the things willed by him Amongst things future some are good some are evil viz. morally Those that are good God decreed to effect those that are evil to permit or suffer to be done knowing how and having purposed in himself to order them and over rule the doing of them for his own glory in the end Again some things we see are the effects of causes that work necessarily necessitate consequentis others of free agents which are to us wholly contingent yet do also necessarily come to pass necessitate consequentiae And things are therefore thus effected in time because God had decreed this order before time Hence is the certainty of Gods foreknowledge which dependeth not on any thing without himself and so a necessity as to the event that whatsoever hath been or shall be should so come to pass as it doth But this is a necessity of infallibility not of coaction and doth establish not infringe the liberty of free agents I shall briefly apply these things to the case in hand It will be granted I suppose that the utmost end intended by God in all that comes to pass is his own glory He hath made all things for himself and in the making of man God had an eye to the manifestation both of his mercy and justice Rom. 9. 22 23. In order hereunto he purposed to create man upright but mutable and to permit his temptation and falling by sin and to save a remnant of fallen man-kind by Jesus Christ through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth that his free grace might be everlastingly glorified in the Vessels of mercy which he before prepared untoglory so also he purposed to leave the rest in their fallen state to the wickedness of their own hearts and justly to punish them for it therein shewing his wrath and making his power known on the Vessels of wrath which he had endured with much long-suffering who were fitted for destruction Thus the end of all men is foreknown unto God and nothing falls out casually unto him yet is there no force put upon man nor injustice or hard dealing from God for him to complain of But Mr. Collier saith p. 36. It is dishonourable unto God and pernicious to men and layeth all the wickedness and plagues of the world at Gods door to affirm as some do That God decreed Adams fall before he made him or at least so far foreknew it as that it must be i. e. so as to necessitate it An heavy charge And we know right well who M. Collier intends it against But it will be far more easie for me to manifest That the men of his controversie have no concernment in it then for him to vindicate his own truth and honesty inasmuch as what they hold infers no such thing as you may see by what I have already written of this matter and whatsoever in his report of their opinion looketh this way is untruly imputed to them His best plea will be that he slandered them by hearsay and that himself knew not nor understood what they affirmed of this matter yet will not this excuse him But to the business Himself confesseth That God foreknew that Adam would fall I ask then Could the Almighty have prevented this or not If he could and yet did not we conclude that he willed or decreed not to prevent it though no ways approving thereof having determined to raise glory to his own name out of it And if the most high decreed to permit it and so from Eternity foreknew it as future this inf●rs a necessity of Infallibility that in time it would so come to pass but leaves man as a free agent to the liberty of his own will without any coaction thereto This notwithstanding therefore the sin and plagues of the world lye at the door of rebellious man And if Mr. Collier mean by foreknowing it so as to necessitate it such a foreknowledge or decree of God concerning it as in the execution thereof man should be compelled to sin and his fall effected by God I detes● such a notion and so do all those whom he reflects upon And it is expected that he either make good his charge out of their Writings or else right them by a publick acknowledgement of his fault in thus misrepresenting their Doctrine And if Mr. Collier cannot yet conceive of a necessity of infallibility respecting the event of things arising from the decree or foreknowledge of God without a necessity of coaction respecting those that are to act in the accomplishment of them I will endeavour to help him by one plain instance Act. 4. 27 28. For of a truth against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and People of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done It is evident their design was not to fulfill the counsel of God But thus it fell out for whatsoever they did to the Lord Jesus God had in his counsel determined before to be done yea had foretold by the mouth of all his holy Prophets that so it should be unto every circumstance of Christs passion viz. his Crucifying having Gall and Vinegar given him to drink the parting of his Raiment piercing of his side c. Now either these things must so come to pass or else the counsel of God must be disappointed and his word falsified will Mr. Collier then lay the Murther of Christ at Gods door were not all the agents by whose hands these things were immediately done free from coaction and therefore responsible for their wickedness all this notwithstanding And to make this yet more clear I will transcribe a few lines from Mr. Norton in his Orthod Ev. p. 75. These two proposioions 1. Adam might not have sinned 2. It could not be but that Adam would sin are both true and notwithstanding they may so seem yet they are not opposite one unto the other not being both of the same kind Adam might