Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	see_v	work_n	3,903	5	5.7692	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62636	Several discourses upon the attributes of God viz. Concerning the perfection of God. Concerning our imitation of the divine perfections. The happiness of God. The unchangeableness of God. The knowledge of God. The wisdom, glory, and soveraignty of God. The wisdom of God, in the creation of the world. The wisdom of God, in his providence. The wisdom of God, in the redemption of mankind. The justice of God, in the distribution of rewards and punishments. The truth of God. The holiness of God. To which is annexed a spital sermon, of doing good. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. Being the sixth volume; published from the originals, by Raph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.	1699 (1699)	Wing T1264; ESTC R219315	169,861	473

suck wicked Thoughts and Actions to them for it is usual in Scripture-phrase as to ascribe all good Motions to God's Spirit so all evil Thoughts and Actions to the Devil not that he is the immediate Cause of them but because he is always ready to tempt Men to them and one way or other to promote them 3. I see no Reason to grant as many have done an immediate Power to the Devil over the fancies and imaginations of Men and that he may know the workings of them tho' not the secret thoughts of Mens Minds for this seems to me to be in effect to grant him the Knowledge of Mens Hearts and to give him a Key to that Closet which God hath reserved to himself for it is a very nice Distinction which is here made between the Thoughts of Mens Minds and the Images of their Fancies and if these should happen to be but words that signifie the same thing we shall unawares intrench upon the Prerogative of God Therefore because the Scripture is a stranger to these nice and subtile distinctions between the Imaginations of the Fancy and the Thoughts of the Heart I think it is much safer to assert the Prerogative of God in that latitude that the Scripture useth the word heart for all the inward motions of the Mind for the Thoughts and Intentions of the Heart and roundly to affirm that all the inward motions of our Souls are totally exempt from the immediate cognizance of any other Spirit but God's alone and that neither Angel nor Devil hath any further Knowledge of them than may be collected and inferr'd in a way of probable Conjecture from the particular Knowledge of Mens Tempers and Habits and Designs and the Course of their Actions I proceed to the III. Particular God's Knowledge of future Events This God proposes as the way to discern the true God from Idols Isaiah 41.21 c. Produce your Cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong Reasons saith the King of Jacob that is let them bring some Argument that may convince us that they are Gods and he instanceth in foretelling future Evants v. 22. Let them shew the former things what they be that we may consider them and know the latter end of them or declare us things for to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods God puts it upon this issue if they can foretel future things then they are Gods if not they are vanity and a work of naught and he is an abomination that chuseth them v. 24. By things to come I understand such Effects as do not depend upon any necessary Cause but upon the Will of Free Agents and so may be or may not be from whence it is plain that it is the Prerogative of God proper and peculiar to Him to know future Events And here I shall consider these two things 1. That God knows future Events 2. That he only knows them 1. God knows future Events which will appear from the dictates of Natural Light and from Scripture 1. From the dictates of Natural Light as it is a Perfection and that which among Men is accounted the best part of Wisdom and unless this did belong to God how could he govern the World The Heathens except only the Epicureans generally granted this as appears in those wise Counsels which we frequently meet with in them to this purpose that we should not be anxious for the future but having done our endeavour leave the Events of things to God who only knows them and disposeth them Permittes ipsis expendere Numinibus quid Conveniat nobis rebusque sit utile nostris Juv. And afterward saith he We are importunate with God for Wife and Children At illis notum qui pueri qualisque futura sit uxor and that this was their Opinion appears yet more clearly from those apprehensions which they had of Divination Tully lays down this for a Principle Deos posse nobis signa futurarum reum ostendere de Legibus and in his Book de Divin he tells us that there was such a thing as Divination for it was an old Opinion jam usque ab Heroicis ducta temporibus eaque Pop. Rom. omnium gentium firmata consensu and afterward that this Divination was not sine instinctu afflatúque divino I know they did variously explain this according to their several Opinions about Fate and Contingency and their Apprehensions about the Providence of God One Sect of them the Stoicks held that there was a fatal Chain of Causes from first to last and things did necessarily follow one another and by this Means they made Fore-knowledge easie and explicable and tho' in their Disputes they seem to grant no such thing as Events and Contingencies yet they are agreed in the thing that those things which we call Events tho' they would not call them so were Fore-known to God And for this I shall only cite one Testimony of Seneca speaking of God's Fore-knowledge of the most contingent things the Dispositions of Men long before they are Born he adds nota est enim illis operis sui series omniúmque illis rerum per manus suas iturarum scientia in aperto semper est nobis ex abdito subit quae repentina putamus illis provisa veniunt familiaria and how peremptory soever this Sect is in their disputes about Fate yet when they speak of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and generally in their Moral Discourses they seem plainly to me to exempt the will of Man from this fatal necessity And those other Sects of the Philosophers that denyed Fate did generally grant God's Fore-knowledge of contingent things I grant indeed that they did rather make God's Fore-knowledge an Arbitrary and Voluntary than a necessary Perfection that is that God when he pleased to apply himself to it could Fore-know all future Events but their general Opinion was that as his Providence did not extend to small and inconsiderable things so neither his Fore-knowledge But Tully seems to attribute a very perfect Providence to him and a Fore-knowledge of the least things Quis non timeat omnia providentem cogitantem animadvertentem omnia ad se pertinere putantem curiosum negotij plenum deum But I cannot say he is constant to himself but they all agree in granting to him this Perfection of knowing all future things if he pleased to trouble himself with it and had they not in this mistaken the Nature of God they might easily have apprehended that 't is no trouble nor weariness to an Infinite Understanding that is always in Act to know the least things how many soever they be 2. From Scripture which gives us Testimonies and Arguments of it 1. Testimonies Isa 48.3 c. Acts 15.18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from everlasting which by the way I cannot but compare with the forecited

they do but serve God in their Families and go to Church and behave themselves there with Devotion and Reverence and at certain seasons receive the Sacrament they are truly religious and very good Christians when all this while they take no care to improve themselves in real Goodness by an inward conformity of their Minds to God and the real reformation and amendment of their Lives by mortifying their Lusts and subduing their Appetites and Passions to the Laws of Reason and Religion by putting on as the elect of God bowels of kindness by being true and faithful righteous and just patient and merciful as their Father which is in heaven is so and by forbearing one another in case of provocation and forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us by purifying themselves as God is pure and endeavouring to be holy in all manner of conversation as he who hath called them is holy when all this while they are as covetous and earthly minded and to serve their covetousness will strain a point of Truth or Justice and hardly do an act of Charity in their whole lives but what is extorted from them by meer importunity or some such urgent necessity in point of decency and reputation that for shame of the World they know not how to avoid it when their Passions are as fierce and ungoverned their Hearts as full of Gall and Bitterness their Tongues of slander and evil speaking their Humours as proud and surly and censorious as theirs can be who are openly profane and seem to neglect and despise all Religion And yet because they serve God as they call it and make an external appearance of Piety and Devotion are good Church-men and attend upon the Ordinances of God they think they have discharged the whole business of Religion admirably well and are very good children of God and in a state of great grace and favour with him Whereas the performance of all these Duties and the use of all these Means separated from that which is the great End of Religion the Conformity of our selves to God in those Qualities and Dispositions which I have mention'd is so far from finding acceptance with God that it is an abomination to him So God every where declares in Scripture telling us that the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord and that he disdains to be praised by men of unhallowed lips and lives and that unless with the praises we offer to him we order our conversation aright we shall not see the salvation of God With what contempt does he speak of this formal and external Religion without the power of it upon our hearts and lives To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices to me Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams and ten thousands of rivers of Oil he hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Is not this the fast which I have chosen to break the bands of wickedness and to let the oppressed go free to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thine house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Nor is it hearing of the Word that will avail us unless we be doers of it Blessed are they says our Saviour that hear the word of God and keep it He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them shall be likened to a wise man who hath built his house upon a rock Nor will bare receiving of the Sacrament recommend us to God but performing the Obligation which thereby we take upon our selves to obstain from all sin and wickedness otherwise we tread under foot the Son of God and prophane the blood of the Covenant whereby we should be sanctified as if it were an unholy thing Can any man think that to be Religion which has no effect upon the lives of men which does not teach them to govern their words and actions who reads those plain words of St. James If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart that man's Religion is vain Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widdows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world When Religion produceth these real Effects then the Means of Religion do truly serve the End of it and we are not only hearers of the Word but doers of it and shall be blessed in our deed So that as there is an obligation upon us to use the Means of Religion which God hath instituted with great care and conscience so we should chiefly mind that which is the End of all Religion which is to make us partakers of a Divine Nature and make us like to God especially in those amiable and excellent Qualities which are the glory and beauty of the Divine Nature his Benignity and Goodness his Mercy and Patience These because they are the primary Perfections of God are the principal Duties both of Natural and Revealed Religion and of an eternal and indispensable Obligation because they have their foundation in the Nature of God which is fixt and unalterable And all positive Institutions when they come in competition with these are to stoop and vail to them Natural and Moral Duties especially those of Goodness and Mercy and Charity are so strongly bound upon us that nothing in any reveal'd Religion can cancel the Obligation of them or justifie the violation of these great and indispensable Laws Our Saviour in his Religion has declar'd nothing to the prejudice of them but on the contrary has straitned our Obligation to them as much as is possible The Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them so that they know not what manner of spirit they are of who think to please God by hating men who are made after the image of God by killing one another to do him good service who to advance his Cause and Religion in the World will break through all the Obligations of Nature and Civil Society undermine Government and disturb the Peace of Mankind Whereas our Saviour did not by any thing in his Religion design to alter the Civil Government of the World or to lessen and diminish the Rights of Princes or to set men loose from Allegiance to them or to make Treason and Rebellion bloody Wars and barbarous Massacres lawful for the propagating of his faith He had as any one would imagin as much Power as the Pope but yet he deposed no Princes nor excommunicated and discharged their Subjects from their Fidelity and Obedience to them for their opposition to his Religion he hath assumed no such Power to himself By what Authority then does his Vicar do these things and

which relate to the Divine Vnderstanding viz. Knowledge and Wisdom I come now to consider those which relate to the Divine Will viz. these four the Justice the Truth the Goodness and the Holiness of God I begin with the First namely the Justice of God At the 17 verse of this chapter God by a great and wonderful Condescention of his goodness reveals to Abraham his Intention concerning the Destruction of Sodom upon this Abraham v. 23. interceded with God for the saving of the Righteous Persons that were there and to this end he Pleads with God his Justice and Righteousness with which he apprehended it to be in consistent to destroy the Righteous with the wicked which without a Miracle could not be avoided in a general Destruction Wilt thou also destroy the Righteous with the Wicked Peradventure there be fifty Righteous within the City wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty Righteous that are therein that be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the Righteous with the Wicked and that the Righteous should be as the Wicked that be far from thee shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right This Negative Interrogation is equivalent to a vehement affirmation shall not the Judge all the Earth do right that is undoubtedly he will This we may take for a certain and undoubted Principle that in the distribution of rewards and punishments the Judge of the World will do Righteously So that the Argument that lies under our Consideration is the Justice of God in the distribution of Rewards and Punishments for the clearing of which we will consider it First In Hypothesi in regard to the particular Case which is here put by Abraham in the Text. Secondly In Thesi we will consider it in General in the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments First We will consider it in Hypothesi in regard to the particular Case which is here put by Abraham in the Text and the rather because if we look well into it there is something of real Difficulty in it not easie to be cleared for Abraham's reasoning if it be true does plainly Conclude that it would have been unrighteous with God in the destruction of Sodom not to make a difference between the Righteous and the Wicked but to involve them equally in the same common Destruction That be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the Righteous with the Wicked and that the Righteous should be as the Wicked that be far from thee shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right as if he had said surely the Judge of all the Earth will never do so unrighteous a Thing And yet notwithstanding this we see it is very usual for the Providence of God to involve good Men in general Calamities and to make no visible difference between the Righteous and the Wicked Now the difficulty is how to reconcile these appearances of Providence with this reasoning of Abraham in the Text. And for the doing of this I see but one possible way and that is this that Abraham does not here speak concerning the Judgments of God which befal Men in the ordinary Course of his Providence which many times happen promiscuously and involve good and bad Men in the same ruine and the reason hereof is Plain because God in his ordinary Providence does permit the Causes which produce these Judgments to Act according to their own Nature and they either cannot or will not make any distinction for the Calamities which ordinarily happen in the World are produced by two sorts of Causes either those which we call Natural or those which are Voluntary Natural Causes such as Wind and Thunder and Storms and the infection of the Air and the like these acting by a Necessity of Nature without any Knowledge or Choice can make no distinction between the Good and the Bad. And the Voluntary Causes of Calamities as Men are they many times will make no difference between the Righteous and the Wicked nay many times they are Maliciously bent against the Righteous and the effects of their Malice fall heaviest upon them Now we say that things happen in the way of ordinary Providence when Natural Causes are permitted to Act according to their Nature and Voluntary Causes are left to their Liberty and therefore in the course of ordinary Providence it is not to be expected that such a distinction should be made it is neither possible nor does Justice require it it is not possible supposing Natural Causes left to Act according to their Nature and Voluntary Causes to be left to their Liberty nor does Justice require it for every Man is so much a Sinner that no evil that befals him in this World can be said to be unjust in respect of God So that Abraham is not here to be understood as speaking of such Judgments as befal Men in the ordinary course of God's Providence in which if the Good and Bad be involv'd alike it cannot be expected to be otherwise nor is there any injustice in it but Abraham here speaks of Miraculous and Extraordinary Judgments which are immediately inflicted by God for the Punishment of some crying Sins and the example of the World to deter others from the like And such was this Judgment which God intended to bring upon Sodom and which Abraham hath Relation to in this Discourse of his In this Case it may be expected from the Justice of God that a Difference should be made between the Righteous and the Wicked and that for these Reasons 1. Because this is a Judgment which God himself executes It is not an Event of common Providence which always follows the Nature of its Cause but an Act of God as a Judge Now it is essential to a Judge to make a Discrimination between the Good and the Bad so as to punish the one and spare the other and this is as necessary to all proper Acts of Judgment in this World as the other there being no other difference between them but that one is a Particular Judgment and the other the General Judgment of the whole World 2. When God goes out of the way of his ordinary Providence in Punishing it may reasonably be expected that he should make a Difference between the Good and the Bad for the Reason why he does not in his common Providence is because he will not break and interrupt the establisht order of things upon every little occasion But when he does go besides the common course of Things in punishing the Reason ceaseth which hindred him before from making a Difference and 't is reasonable enough to expect that in the inflicting of a Miraculous Judgment a Miraculous Difference should be made Without making this difference the end of these Miraculous Judgments would not be attained which is remarkably to punish the crying Sins of Men and by that example to deter others from the like Sins But if these Judgments should fall