Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A39377
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An Abstract of some letters to an eminent learned person concerning the excellency of the Book of common-prayer, &c.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing E7; ESTC R23206
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15,276
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30
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Influence c. It is on His Part Vnstinted that is to say in an Vnlimited Abundance But say you God may Non Agere without any Stinting Cause what restrain'd him from making the World from Eternity To this I Answer though God may Non Agere without a Cause in such a Sense as you Instance in yet there is alwayes some Cause of his Not-Giving Grace to any man to Do what He Commands him not that there can be any Impediment put upon God but that He is ab Extrinseco Denominated Not-Giving Grace for that the Creature does not Receive it from him the Cause of which Non-Reception is only the Perversness of his own Will which indeed is nothing else but his Aversion from the Divine Goodness To your Objection against my Description of Gods Offering of Grace viz. Offering is less than making and making is more than offering c. I Answer thus Every Real Offer must needs imply the Presenting of the Object of Reception wherever there is an Object of Reception there is a Capacity or Power to Receive There can be no Power to Receive that which is Good but only from GOD Therefore I do again most Confidently averr that Gods Offering of Grace is the making of men Presently Capable of Doing His Will or as we may speak of receiving His Commands By the Assistance of His Holy Spirit From my Description of Gods Offering of Grace there may be an Objection rais'd against what has been so Earnestly insisted on viz. that the Divine Goodness fills all the Capacities of His Creatures c. But the Answer is Easie viz. that the Present Capacity of Doing the Will of God is Fill'd i. e. the Will of God is Done According to that Capacity where the Capacity is not Instantly Nullifyed by the Creatures Sinning or Averting itself from the Divine Goodness The Sense whereof that I may more vigorously Excite in the Mind of the Learned and Pious Reader I shall here give him my Latine Translation together with the Original of an Excellent Prayer compos'd in English Verse by the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. The Same Sense in two Languages seems to me to Condense the Thoughts of the Reader and to give the greater Strength to their Influence upon His Affections ETernal Reason Glorious Majesty * * In cujus Essentiae comparatione Esse nostrum non Esse est S. GREG. Mor. 16. c. 16. Compar'd to whom what can be say'd to be Whose Attributes are Thee who art alone Cause of all various things and yet but One Whose Essence can no more be searcht by man Then Heav'n thy Throne be grasped with a Span. Yet if this great Creation was design'd To sey'ral ends fitted for ev'ry kind Sure Man the Worlds Epitome must be Form'd to the best that is to Study Tree And as our Dignity 't is Duty too Which is summ'd up in this to Know and Do. These comly Rowes of Creatures spell thy Name Whereby we grope to find from whence they Came By thy own Chain of Causes brought to think There must be one then find the Highest Link Thus all Created Excellence we see Is a Resemblance faint and dark of Thee Such Shadowes are produc'd by the Moon-Beams Of Trees or Houses in the running Streams Yet by Impressions born with us we find How good great just Thou art how unconfin'd Here we are swallow'd up and gladly dwell Safely Adoring what we cannot Tell. All we know is Thou art Supreamly Good And dost Delight to be so understood A spicy Mountain on the Universe On which thy Richest Odours do disperse But as the Sea to fill a Vessel heaves More greedily than any Cask receives Besieging round to find some gap in it Which will a new Infusion admit So dost Thou covet how Thou mayst dispense Upon the empty World thy Influence Lov'st to disburst thyself in Kindness thus The King of Kings Waits to be Gracious On this account O Lord enlarge my Heart To entertain what Thou would'st fain impart Nor let that Soul by sev'ral Titles Thine And most Capacious form'd for things Divine So nobly meant that when it most doth miss 'T is in mistaken pantings after Bliss Degrade it self in sordid things delight Or by prophaner mixtures lose its right O that with fixt unbroken thoughts it may Admire the Light which does Obscure the Day And since 't is Angels Work it hath to do May its Composure be like Angels too When shall these clods of Sense and Phantsy break That I may hear the God within me speak When with a silent and retired Art Shall I with all this empty hurry part To the Still Voice Above my Soul advance My Light and Joy plac'd in his Countenance By whose dispense my Soul to such frame brought May tame each treach'rous fix each wandring Thought With such distinctions all things here behold And so to separate each dross from Gold That nothing my free Soul may Satisfie But t' imitate enjoy and Study Thee ORatio Omnipotens Majestas Gloria Summa Cui si * * In cujus Essentiae comparatione Esse nostrum non Esse est S. GREG. Mor. 16. c. 16. Confertur Quicquam Non Esse probatur Cui Quod inest est Tu Qui cunctis Rebus habere Esse suum Varium das Vnus Semper Idem Cujus non magis Explorari Essentia possit Humano Ingenio quà m Summi Culmina Coeli Comprendi Palmo At fuerint si Cuncta per Orbem In certos generis diversi condita Fines Ipsum Hominem Quò Maxima Spiret Nasci constat id est Quò se Tibi MAXIME Reddat Hoc Nostrum Officium est haec Nostra est Gloria Scire Et Facere usque Jubet quicquid Divina Voluntas Condita quaeque Tuum quasi Sculpta Vocabula Nomen Designant Fontem hinc pervestigamus eorum Scilicet ostendit Causarum longa Catena Esse Vnam Summam à Quâ Pendent Singula Causam Naturae quicquid Praeclarae lumina spargit Hoc levis IMMENSI perhibetur LVMINIS Vmbra Quales in Fluviis Tectorum aut Arboris Vmbras Producit tenni splendescens Cynthia Cornu Idêis tamen Innatis BONITAS Manifesta est Illa Tua nullis Te clausum Finibus esse Hîc Alto Absorptos nos LVX IMMENSA recondit Tutò Admirantes Non Enarrabile Verum Novimus hoc solum de Te BONITATE SVPREMA Gaudentem Titulo Te Velle Agnoscier Isto Mons es Aromaticus Jucundos Suavis Odores Divite profluvio totum diffundis in Orbem Vt coit Vnda aliquod Vas impletura receptum In Mare scrutando Rimas quibus Influat usque Prosiliens plus quà m possit Vas accipere urgens Vt Pater Alme Tuâ possit Bonitate repleri Sic urges Vacuum Foecundo Numine Mundum Ipse Benignus Amas Te Dispensare Favorem Exhibet Indignis condonat Crimina gratis Rex Regum Amplifica DEVS O Ter Maxime nostrum Cor Avidè Arripiat quod Tu Largiris Amanter O Anima haec Titulis Tibi soli Debita multis Magna Tuique Capax tam purum nobile cui sit Ingenium ut Sitiat Verum quod Devia linquit Ne se Deliciis Pravis illapsa Minorem Quà m Quae Facta fuit Faciat revoluta deorsum Jus adeo Antiquum potiundi Numine perdens O utinam certis immotae viribus Ipsa Mentis in Augustum sit Sacro Rapta Stupore Lumen quo victi vel lucida Tela Diei In Tenebras abeunt Quam fungi Munere Oportet Angelico Angelicam tandem Pater OPTIME reddat Illi Temperiem Quando ista Repagula Sensus Claudentes Animum penitus Rumpentur ut Intus Alloquio DEVS ipse Suo me Personet Arte Quando Ego Tranquillâ Curâ semota Metuque Despiciam stolidi Bacchantia Gaudia Mundi Tu Rape sursum Animam Lenem super Aethera Vocem Audiat inque Tuo semper Mea Gaudia Vultu Ponantur Nostras Te Disponente Medullas Nè Superet Fallax Agitet nec Mobile Coenum Clariùs ut valeam rerum cognoscere causas Atque Auro cautè Scoriam distinguere vilem Vt ruptis tandem Mens evolet Ignea Vinclis Et Tibi se jungens Aeternâ Pace Quiescat FINIS Page 7. of the Letters line 12. for Punishes read Purifies Books Newly Printed this Year 1678. for William Crook 1. THe Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire commonly called the Devils Arse of Peak 2. Reflections upon Antient and Modern Philosophy Moral and Natural treating of the Philosophers of all Countreys and Ages 80. 3. Melpomene or the Muses Delight being New Poems and Songs written by several of the great Wits of the present Age. 4. Decameron Physologicum or ten Dialogues of Natural Philosophy By Tho. Hobbs of Malmsbury 80. 5. Tunbridge Wells or a Dayes Court-ship a Comedy Acted at the Dukes Theatre 6. The Man of New-Market a Comedy Acted at the Theatre Royal. 7. A Discourse Whether it be lawful to take Use for Money Written by Sir Rob. Filmer and published by Sir Roger Twisden 120. 8. The School of Righteousness A Sermon Preached before the King by Dr. Sandcroft Arch-bishop of Canterbury 40. 9. Praxis Curiae Admiralitatis Angliae
to all the World Good Sir Be not so hasty do not run on in a conceit that my words import that we make our selves to Differ from the Vnsanctified Doth God do no more say you for any but offer them Grace I answer that Gods Offering of Grace is the making of men presently Capable of Doing his Will by the Assistance of his Good Spirit So that All the Acts or Inclinations to Act of Gracious Souls as such are the Gift of God The Recipient's Expectancy is the Gift of God but the Non-Vltra or Desiciency of it is of himself Can God make no man better than he is To this I Answer Any mans being Better than he is is not the Object either of Gods Volition or Nolition Not of the former for then you know His Will would be Resisted Not of the latter for then he would be the Direct Cause of the Creatures not Doing what He hath Commanded him to Do the onely Cause then that any man is not what he Ought to be is the Perverseness of his own Will As to the words following Nor take c. If you think sit to continue this Dispute and express what you mean by them in a plain way of Opposition to any thing that I have said I shall give you an Answer Doth a Clod or Stone c. I Answer Any such Creature may be Annihilated and another Angel Created but that It should be made an Angel if we speak in sensu rigoroso implyes a Contradiction Every Creature is in its own Nature Res OPTIMA though some Creatures are Better to Us than others because they do more Exhibit to us the Notice of the Divine Goodness and some Creatures are better to themselves than others because they do more Enjoy It which is ALL in them All. God knows I do not Affect Obscurity of Expression but such Deep Things cannot be set forth in Vulgar Phrase To what you say of the Heathen World I shall make no other Reply but this that Gods Judgments are Vnsearchable and his Wayes past finding out But though we cannot shew How Many Truths concerning his Boundless Goodness c. do comport with what we apprehend of His Wayes in many Instances of His Dealings with the Sons of Men it does not follow that we should thereupon in the least Scruple at these Truths That Gods Offers of Grace are in an Vnlimited Abundance which you say you do not believe I prove thus If God cannot be the Direct Cause of Stinting the Influences of His Grace or Goodness into the Hearts of Men Then his Offers of Grace are in an Vnlimited abundance But God cannot be the Direct Cause c. The Minor is evident in this That the Essence of God is Infinite Goodness I shall in this Paper give you my Reflexions but on some part of your last Letter wherein there are many things so pertinently Express'd in Opposition to what I have written to you that my Reflexions or rather Animadversions thereon are exceeding Advantageous unto me for the Improvement of my most Satisfactory Speculations concerning the Divine Goodness whose Infinity we must be ever Careful that we do not derogate from upon any Pretences of Preserving the Liberty of the Divine Will Liberty of Will so far as it implyes Perfection must of necessity be implied in the Notion of the Infinity of Being I declare This to be the Root of all my Apprehensions in Theological Matters EST VNVM SIMPLICITER INFINITVM I shall now betake my self to the Consideration of what you say in your last Letter I think I need not give any other Reply to that you say No man doth use all possible Means for the Recovery c. but only to tell you that by all possible Means I understand All things which we Know to be such Means being also Assur'd that 't is possible for us to use them as such On my Explication of what I understand by an Act of Divine Love your Animadversion is this How easie had it been for you to have told me whether you mean a perfect Love or an Imperfect culpably and a perfect Aversion c. or a culpably Imperfect I must confess I have observ'd so many Learned men needlesly Entangling themselves in the hardest Knots of Controversie by reason of these words Perfection and Imperfection Attributed to the workings of mens Hearts that I have thought it my Duty to do what I can do to avoid the use of them but since you Urge me to it I shall Tell you that the Motion or Tendency of the Heart which I call an Act of Divine Love does not imply or include in its Nature any culpable Imperfection but is as contrary to all Love of Creatures or Finite Objects unless only such as arises from their Relation to the First Being as Light is to Darkness To my saying that he who is in the Act of Divine Love has All things that are of God Actually Good unto him you Answer thus While he is sinfully imperfect in this Act he hath not the perfection which he wants nor that complacential acceptance with God nor that perfect freedom from castigatory Penalities internal or external nor that Glory which would be good to him and all this is of God I Answer As to Castigatory Penalties so far as they import nothing but what may be imputed unto God as the Author thereof they are Actually good to Him viz. they All ork together for his Good whilst he is in the Act of Divine Love and all his Reflexions thereon are the Rejoycing of his Heart The Perfections he wants c. are not but only in GOD the Fullness of All that he Wants and certainly it is actually Good for him That there is in God whatsoever is Wanting unto him By being Actually in this Divine Temper I mean the exerting of an Act of Divine Love or Adhaerence of the Heart unto God in which Act there is nothing Culpable though there may remain Dispositions in the Heart very contrary thereunto from which it often comes to pass that many of us who are in some measure Sanctified Sink deep into such Impurities of Heart and Mind as we sometimes Fancy our selves Elevated so far Above that there 's no Danger of Falling into them But I can far more easily Describe what it is to be Holy i. e. to be in the Light than Discourse accurately and Clearly of the Works of Darkness He cannot Ask any thing not Agreeable to the Divine Will who Desires nothing but This or in Subordination thereunto that his Will may be Conformable to the Divine Will in All things Whether he Pray Directly and Expresly for Things Temporal or Spiritual he Actuates his Heart in a way of Conformity to the Will of God who Prays as he Ought viz. Asking in Faith which worketh by Love I suppose by what I have already say'd you will perceive that in Asking for Holiness we Virtually Ask for Justification or Pardon and the