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
A96265	A discovery, and confutation of the opinions, and practises of some false brethren, betwixt Bridge, and Lincolne: shewing how they agree in their opinions, with Pelagians; Papists; Arminians; in their practises, with Anabaptists. Wherein univerall redemption is confuted; and Gods absolute decree confirmed. / By John Wetherall, minister of Spridlington, near Lincolne. March 22. 1651. Imprimatur. John Downame.	Wetherall, John, minister of Spridlington.	1652 (1652)	Wing W1523; Thomason E661_1; ESTC R206761	53,660	88

house may hee not take them in and refuse to afford me that favour and for no other Reason but because he will not If I should say Sir shew mee a Reason wherefore you reject mee may he not answer it is because he will not accept me must there needs be a quarrell or hee may not So heere must there needs be infidelity evill Workes Originall sinne or some other ill condition in me or else God may not do with his owne as he lift sure none will say so against themselves then how can they suppose it so of God The Master whose Scholers we may nay wee must be Mat. 20. 15. said it was lawfull for him to doe with his owne as hee lifted and may not God have the same leave as that Parable seems to prove Stat pro ratione voluntas is most proper to Almighty God Reprobation by it selfe considered is no punishment therefore it supposeth no fault the name signifieth no more but not to allow of sola voluntas decretum beneplacitum propositum Dei all or any of these cannot stand with the fore-sight of Faith or Infidelity good or evill Workes Indeed God foresees all sinnes Originall and Actuall it were Atheisme to deny it but that any sin Originall or Actuall ought to goe before the first Act of God called Reprobation I utterly deny let them call Faith Infidelity good and evill Workes but Objects Motives Reasons Circumstances considerable in Gods Decree yet if they looke into their Logicke it will let them see that the least of Causes Causa sine quâ non is yet a Cause and God if hee regard any thing but his owne Will in Election or Reprobation must goe extrase to say as they say to salve the Justice of God that he could not Elect without looking on man in massa Corrupta and yet that he did not consider it as any Reason of his Decree is without Reason I know my wise Adversaries the Black-smith or whosoever sent abroad that bable Object against these things and so do the Papists because they will not seeme to play the Fooles without Reason that by this it followes the Freedome of mans Will must perish Gods Glory is obscured saith Mr. T. if he punish necessitated wickednesses The Papists and Pelagians are of this Opinion then a Murtherer saith Pighius when he killeth a man may be excused because he hath executed the Decree of God then all care diligence and endeavour is taken away if our Thoughts Words Deeds be determined of God to such I may answer or aske this Question Can they doe any thing that God hath not decreed They are almost Atheists that say they can then it followes they can doe nothing but it is decreed Let Pet. Mart. answer for me part 3. pa. 6. I wonder saith he speaking of these and other Objections of Pighius that any Divine could let such an old Wifes Talecome out of his mouth Can Judas be excused of his wicked treason against our Saviour because he heard the Lord fore-tell his mischievous designe John 13. 21. So then it is a simple nay it is a sinfull thing to excuse any sinne by the eternall or absolute Decree of God it is his owne Will not the Will of God that the mischiefe-munger or the murtherer regards he cannot doe otherwise nay but aske himselfe and hee 'l say he will not Such as maintaine Gods absolute Decree hold necessity infallibilitatis not coactionis they say that God determines mans Will and yet it is Free as I shewed before and followes the dictate of its owne Intellect to reason thus God hath eternally fore-seene Judas his impenitency therefore decreed him to eternall damnation therefore Judas shal infallibly continue impenitent and at length be damned is a true inference but this God hath eternally fore-seene Judas his impenitency therefore Judas shall by coaction or compulsion of his Will be made unalterably impenitent and so be damned is a false Conclusion The Agent is yet as free as if God had not foreseene the absolute will of God to worke faith repentance c. in Peter maketh not these actions compulsory but maketh the agent most free for it giveth him that spirit of which the Apostle sayth ubi spiritus ibi libertas true and perfect liberty and Gods Spirit goe both together and e contra non-Election denieth men that Grace which would effectually and infallibly make them produce good Actions but it depriveth them not of their owne naturall freedome neither doth it compell them to evill actions Divina Voluntas non tollit potentiam ad oppositum God hath determined to permit men to faile in attaining eternall life but he is not Authour of their sinnes whereby they incur eternall death In good Actions the Freedome of men Elected is not vaine though the End be determined because God hath determined together with the End that by their free Actions they shall attaine it and in bad their Freedome is not vaine because thereby their Consciences are convinced of their guilt and Gods Justice cleared in their damnation Reprobation and the permission thereto annexed importeth not a witholding of Grace necessary for the avoyding of sinne so permitted much lesse a necessitation of Sinners to their severall sinnes but a witholding of all Grace which would de facto be effectuall to the avoyding of sinne so that sinne flowes not from this 〈◊〉 and Permission as an Effect from the Cause but 〈◊〉 Consequence from the Antecedent necessitate infallibilitatis as the Sunne witholding his Beames causeth not darknesse yet darknesse is a Consequent Neither doth this Preterition or Reprobation imply a substraction of any Graces or helpes obtained but a non-Donation of such Graces without which God foresaw that Reprobates out of their own Free-Will would infallibly perish in their sins Deo Reprobante non irrogatur aliquid quo homo fit deterior sed tantùm non irrogatur quo fiat melior man is not made worser but he is not made better by this Act of Preterition or Reprobation Nay there is not only a bare permissive but there is also an energeticall and operative Will in God conjoyned with the permissive Will and this operative or energeticall Will of God is apparent in these six Circumstances 1. God eternally decreeth and accordingly when sinfull Actions are committed giveth the sinner power and use of Understanding and Free Will without which he could not sinne 2. God thereby eternally decreed to concurre and doth concurre ad materialem actum peccati to the sinne as it is an Action 3. God decreed the Circumstances or Occasions good as from God whereupon he saw the sinner would make evill use and sinne 4. God decreed to deny the Meanes that he knew would have prevented such sinnes and offered onely such as he knew the sinner would abuse to the committing of sinne 5. God limiteth and ordereth their sinnes so that they breake forth in no other measure at no other time upon no other persons then

moved to their Effects by the First and in their operations reduced to the motion of one universall prime Cause that is God Therefore it is the Scriptures say that the way of man is not in himselfe neither is it in man to direct his owne steps Jer. 10. 28. It is God that gives a new heart and puts a new spirit in man Jer. 31. 33. God placed the members in mans body and orders them as it pleaseth him 1. Cor. 12. 18. It is God that worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord and he turneth it as it pleaseth him Prov. 21. 1. He hardened Pharaohs heart Exod. 7. 3. as hard as a stone and he takes away our stony hearts and gives us hearts of flesh he hath done he doth and he will doe what he will The will of God was but fulfilled when Judas did betray Jesus Act. 1. 16. Herod Pontius Pilate and the whole Synagogue of the Jewes did no more then what God had determined to be done Act. 2. 23. and Act. 4. 28. The whole World united can doe nothing but what God will and God is not moved consequently by any thing which he as a superiour Cause moves and determines to the Effect but God himselfe antecedently as a superiour Cause moves and determines the Will of man to the Effect or that which it wils be it good or ill Therefore it follows God is not consequently moved by the good or ill use of the Free Will of man therefore the good use of mans Will foreseen moved not God to Elect him and the evill use of mans Will foreseen was not the Cause that God Reprobated him Therefore God had no Antecedent Will to save the Reprobate if they would by their Free Will receive and use his Grace aright therefore Gods Decree touching the Salvation and Reprobation of men is lastly and finally resolved into his owne pure Will Universalist thou tellest me of the love of God to Man and in that thou tellest me true for if all the World were full of Bookes if all the men in the world were Writers and if all the water in the Sea were Inke yet the Bookes would bee written the Writers weary the Inke spent and yet the Love of God to us poorely expressed but then let me tell thee that this Love of God to man should make a reflection towards this Sun and move man to love God againe and nothing but God and himselfe for this God that loved him when he was nothing submitting himselfe wholy and soly to the Will of God There are foure degrees of Love First a man loves himselfe for his owne sake for he is flesh and so naturally can love nothing but himselfe but when he sees that he cannot subsist without God then necessity compels him but for his owne sake still to flie to God and when he has begun to love God though but for his owne sake and begins withall to taste and see how sweet God is then he loves God no more for his owne sake but for Gods sake and when he has attained to this third step to love God for Gods sake he staies there and strives if it be possible for any man to obtaine this heavenly happynesse heere on Earth to love himselfe onely for Gods sake Thus the true love of God should both begin and end onely in God like a Circle which begins and ends in it selfe Now let Mr. T. take heed how hee preach against this absolute Will and Power in God and plead his owne Faith and Workes lest God at length be avenged on him God hath leaden heeles but iron hands he seemes to winke with his eyes but it is as Gunners use that they may hit surer when they shoot Origen in his second Booke against Celsus saith thus A certaine man gave counsell to his friend that was sick not to send for the Physitian because sayd he it is already appoynted by Destiny either that thou shalt recover of this Disease or that thou shalt not if it be appoynted by God or by thy Destiny that thou shalt recover thou shalt then not need the Physitian if it be not appoynted by God if it be not thy Destiny to recover the Physitian though hee come cannot helpe thee wherefore whether God have decreed thou shalt recover or not the Physitian will be called in vaine Another by the like Argument disswaded his Friend from Marriage Thou wilt marry a Wife sayd he to beget Children but if it be thy Destiny to have Children thou shalt have them without a Wife if it be not thy Destiny it will nothing further thee to marry a Wife for whatsoever Destiny hath decreed in this kinde will come to passe it is in vaine therefore to marry a Wife Thus wicked men deride and would rather that blind-man-buffle in the World then that God determine every Action and Event or fix his Decree But the first did send for the Physitian and the second did marry a Wife Hee us'd a wiser Argument who told them that God having Predestinated Men to such Ends Predestinated also that they should use the Means The sick man might safely answer nay rather if God have Decreed I shall recover therefore I will send for the Physitian that by his means I may attaine to that which God hath Decreed Thus Hezekiah had fifteen years added to his life by using the meanes and yet he 's a Devill that denies God did from all eternity determine the certaine number of his dayes And that other might answer if God have appoynted I shall have children seeing it can or ought to come to passe by no other meanes I will marry a Wife In this absolute Predestination we are far enough from the Stoicks Fate they subjected God himselfe to Fate we subject Fate that is the necessity of things to Gods most Free-Will they under the name of Fate understood a necessary connexion of naturall Causes and Effects we teach that God can and often doth suspend these Effects and works besides nay against Nature The Stoicks tooke away all contingency Wee admit contingency in respect of second Causes but we say there is a certaine prescience in the first Cause all things are ordered by the providence of God Indeed the Turks out of their obstinate beliefe of Predestination brutishly contemne all kindes of dangers for they say that as soone as man comes out of his mothers Wombe to enjoy the light of the world God writes in his forehead all the good or evill that shall happen unto him and particularly of what death hee shall dye the necessity whereof they say no humane power can avoyd and hence it came to passe that Anno 1611. there died of the Plague in Constantinople 200000. in five months every day 12 or 15 hundred for they will not turn away from a body dead of this disease nor forbeare to visit

a Lanthorn and Candle lighted is better then a Man that hath a Torch if it be unlighted now in all these 4. or 5. years that they have roved in our corner of the Country I heard of none that made day resistance or did or durst say Sir Why doe you so The feare of Captaine T. and his Troops did shake some Ministers and many other men besides like a Fever or as the Trees of the Forest are shaken with the Wind Therefore rather then Gods Cause should sustaine such damage as I saw it did by a general silence I stept forth like the Lacedemonian Soldiour impotent of his legs and neither meet to fight nor to flie yet had he this hope that he might blunt the edge of his Enemies swords and set on or make others ashamed that were more able to fight Silver and Gold have I none but Goats hair or Rammes skins or such as I have I give to cover the Tabernacle of my God It pitied mee to see the Sheepe of Christ like Wolves swallow down whole whatsoever was put into their mouthes by such Carvers and if I gain or beget but one Soule it will be some comfort to me That one in time may beget another and that other another and so I may bee a means to beget many Soules to God I shall pray as it is my part that my poore paines may profit thee Reader and prevaile to the beating down of Sinnes and Schismes which God grant for Christ Jesus his sake our only Lord and Saviour It shall be in the dayly devotions of Thy Brother in Christ JOHN WETHERALL In pag. 4. line 17. for Earth read Church A Discovery and Confutation of the Opinions and Practises of some false Brethren c. SUch as are Adversaries to the Truth slaunder our Doctrine touching Predestination and Free Will as if thereby we led men to bee carelesse in their lives because as they urge it God having Predestinated all things mans Free Will is lost thereby so that he can not doe otherwise then he doth but God himselfe by our Doctrine must be the Authour of sinne Wherein they shew their unsatiable desire of contētion that besides the Grave the barren Womb the Earth the Fire which are never satisfied Pro. 30. 15. There is yet a fifth thing as unsatiable as they that is the Contentious Spirit of an Adversary never satisfied with lying and contradiction For let them say directly what they mislike Is it our Doctrine of Predestination Yea besides that it is the Profession of all the Protestant Churches you shall see it presently proved by one who is able to say the least of ten thousand Is it because we deny Free Will Yea they bely their owne knowledge they know we deny it but in part In statu integro it was Free in statu laeso it is Free from constraint Is it because we teach God is the Authour of sinne Even the Jesuits excuse us the Protestants know well saith Suarez that God intendeth not that Opuse lib. 2. cap. 2. which is formall in sinne nor inclineth the Will of man that he should intend it Or is it finally because we hold some fatall necessity constraining the Will of man that he cannot doe otherwise then he doth That so all care and consultation should be to no purpose Indeed some of the old Philosophers and new Mahumetans tell such Tales but we teach the contrary These and the like being malicious and base imputations devised by men in their fury and desperate adventures against us to seduce the ignorant and make our Cause odious which even their owne people would embrace if they knew it And my selfe being threatned by many ignorant men of meane condition set on by others not onely with the losse of my Living but I may almost say of my life besides the slaunders cast upon me by such as can doe nothing else I am forced therefore to this Defence for my selfe the Church of England and other Reformed Protestant Churches against Pelagians Papists Arminians Universalists I have read of a studious Father who meditating very much upon the Mystery of the Trinity there appeared unto him a Childe that with a Shell was lading the Sea into a little hole he demanded of the Child what he was about to doe I intend sayd the Childe to empty all the Ocean into this Pit it is impossible for thee sayd the Father as possible the Childe replyed as for thee to comprehend this profound Mystery in thy shallow capacity De me nunc narratur fabula and this is the Case of the most able men in these deepe Divine Mysteries Simonides being asked by Hiero King of Sicily what God was he desired a day to deliberate then being asked again he desired two daies and being asked again he desired four daies and ever as he was asked he gave no other answer but desired to have the dayes doubled but double and triple daies and yeares yet that time is no time for such an undertaking For the men of this World to undertake to tell what God did even before there was one man or a world is but a desperate adventure even beyond the Gyants of old but it is able to make any mans heart ake and his haire stand upright to heare how our ignorant people prate as boldly as if they had beene by and say what they say concerning the secret unsearchable Decree of our Great God Almighty if any man list to heare he may for they will speake that which I may not write For my owne part in this mysterious point of Predestination I could have chosen rather to ascend by Repentance New Obedience Good Workes c. Then descend diving into or determining Gods Decree For I know that in the true Doctrine of Predestination we should reason rather ascendendo then descendendo thus I live in obedience to God in love with my Neighbour I follow my Vocation honestly and therefore I trust that God hath Elected and Predestinated mee to salvation not thus which is the usuall course of Argument God hath Predestinated and chosen me to life therefore though I sinne never so grievously yet I shall not be damned For whom he once loveeth hee loveth to the end I say that this is the right manner of reasoning in the point of Predestination But unlesse we will suffer our people to be led I verily believe they will be loth to let me tell the manner how they are led I must declare my conscience to cleare my self that it is none of my fault if any persevere and perish in this rent now new made in the Earth through which they may as easily fall into Hell as Korah and his Company did through that rent in the Earth therefore with as great a care as I can to avoyd Presumption I proceed First touching Predestination we hold according Rom. 9. Eph. 1. 4 5. 1. Thes 5. Acts 2. 23. 2. Tim. 2. 20. to the Scriptures

Charity and thus the Ministers may and doe apply Christs death and Redemption to All. There are many Objections of lesser Consequence but why should I teach my Adversaries who are as wilfull as they would be wicked the greatest comfort I have is that if I cannot convert them which I hope yet a vessell can hold no more then it is able to contain I conclude this Poynt therefore with that of Aquinas Christs merit according to the sufficiency thereof carrieth it self indifferently to all but not according to the Efficacy which comes to passe partly by Gods Election through which the effect of Christs merits is mercifully bestowed on some and partly by the just Judgements of Gods withholding his Grace from other some Now to fortifie rivet all this Building by yet more impregnable Reasons I will prove it no cruelty in God to doe with his Creature what he pleaseth that God may elect or reject whom he list and that there is no other cause of Gods Decree of Election but his owne Will The fancies of our Universalists I will confute by these Theses following I assert therefore That Predestination is an eternall Decree of God in time causing effectuall Grace in all those whom he hath chosen and by this effectuall Grace bringing them infallibly to Glory Now this Election or Dilection of some supposeth a passing by of others and a leaving them to their owne selves the cause of both is nothing else but the Will of God The Parts of this Decree are two Election and Reprobation the first Gods absolute Decree of preparing that Grace for some which will preserve them the second Gods absolute Decree of not preparing for others that Grace which would preserve them Now these Decrees are not founded upon any different foreseene Acts of men but upon the alone Will of God which is the most absolute supreame and soveraigne Cause of all things that are having nothing either above it selfe or out of it selfe to be any impulsive Cause to move or incline it Indeed mens Wils are moved and disposed by externall Causes out of themselves because they are to be ruled by Equity and Reason and a mans bare Will without a Reason is nothing but Gods Will is not ruled by another Will or Rule of Reason or Justice but it selfe is an absolute Rule both of Justice and Reason A thing is not first of all reasonable and just and afterward willed by God but it is first of all willed by God and thereupon it becomes reasonable and just Volitiones purè conditionales sunt alienae a sapientia divina Decrees meerly Conditionall agree not with the perfection of the Divine Nature such Volitions or Decrees are for us who have neither Knowledge whether the condition will be performed nor power to worke the condition upon which the future Act of our Will was suspended But in God who knoweth what every man will or will not do and hath power to make men do the good he will these Conditionall Decrees are not purely but mixtly Conditionall that is grounded on some absolute revealed Decree of God to the performance whereof he hath tied himselfe And we ought to observe that Reprobation and Damnation differ exceedingly much Reprobation is a bare passing by Damnation a punishment Ineptè faciunt qui Reprobationis decretum cum Damnatione confundunt cum hujus causa manifestà sit nempe peccatum illius vero sola Dei Voluntas Beza They are very simple that seen ot the difference twixt Reprobation and Damnation Gods Will is Cause of the first sinne of the last Peccatum non est Causa Rejectionis sed est Causa Damnationis Zanchy sinne is not the Cause of Reprobation but of Damnation Reprobation is not a deniall of sufficient Grace but a deniall of such speciall Grace as God knoweth would infallibly bring men to Glory and this Decree doth not shut up any man under a necessity of sinning or of being damned but it permitteth men volun●arily and freely to run into damnable sinnes and through their voluntary impenitency to incurre eternall damnation for the Sentence of Damnation lays not hold on men quà non electi sed quà impii not as non-elect but as wicked It is contrary to Gods nature causelesly and cruelly to destroy his creatures but it is not contrary to his nature to decree out of his mercy to bestow Grace and Mercy on some and to Decree out of the liberty of his Will to permit others through their owne voluntary default by abusing the meanes of Grace that is given them to fall into eternal misery he hath mercy on whom he will Exo. 33. 19. If man had been created Wicked or Evill then God had not had just occasion to punish the wickednesse whereof he himselfe was the Authour and Maker but being created good and having given him power to stand hee may justly punish him if he fall From this Decree of Preterition or Reprobation it well followeth Judas is reprobated therefore he will not use the meanes that God offereth for his salvation but it is not a good Consequence to say therefore God hath not given him sufficient meanes or remedies to escape damnation were not his owne wicked Will the onely hinderance These two Propositions may stand together I will that if Judas repent and believe he shall have remission and salvation I will not give unto Judas the gift of Repentance or Faith that he may attaine salvation As it is sencelesse to say Gods Decree of giving Faith to Peter was suspended till Peters Faith and Repentance so it is as sencelesse to say Gods permitting Judas to dye in Unbeliefe and Impenitency was grounded upon his Unbeliefe and Impenitency It 's true the Fathers were sparing in this Poynt till that Monster Pelagianisme was Midwifed into the World and yet Deus in negotio Predestinationis non egreditur extra se and the Cause of Predestination is sola Dei Voluntas so sayd all the Fathers and so say the best Reformed Churches for I say the Lutherans are yet defective in their Omnipresence and fore-seene Faith then how can there be any consideration of fore-seene Faith and Workes God goes out of himselfe if he have regard to Faith Perseverance or any thing that is not intrà se is it not non-sence to say the Decree of Predestination is intrà se if God have respect to any thing extra se And if any object that God doth nothing therefore not Reprobate without a Reason I say his Will is Reason sufficient doe we say and pray thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven and yet deny it in Predestination the Psalmist doth prove it true in despite of proud man Our God hath done whatsoever pleased him in Heaven and Earth Psal 135. 6. He did worke and he doth worke all things after the Councell of his owne Will Ephes 1. 5. Rom. 9. 19. Suppose that I with others come for entertainment to such a Gentlemans