Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	punish_v	punishment_n	sin_n	4,188	5	5.7311	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79420	A discourse of divine providence I. In general: that there is a providence exercised by God in the world. II. In particular: how all Gods providences in the world, are in order to the good of his people. By the late learned divine Stephen Charnock, B.D. sometime fellow of New-Colledg in Oxon.; Treatise of divine providence	Charnock, Stephen, 1628-1680.; Adams, Richard, 1626?-1698.; Veel, Edward, 1632?-1708.	1684 (1684)	Wing C3708; ESTC R232630	167,002	420

his hand upon the wheels moves them he is the cause of the motion but it is the flaw in it or deficiency of something is the cause of its erroneous motion that error was not from the Person that made it or the person that winds it up and sets it on going but from some other cause yet till it be mended it will not go otherwise so long as it is set upon motion Our motion is from God Acts 17.28 In him we move but not the disorder of that motion 'T is the foulness of a mans stomach at Sea is the cause of his sickness and not the Pilots government of the ship 2. God doth not infuse the lust or excite it though he doth present the object about which the lust is exercised God delivered up Christ to the Jews he presented him to them but never commanded them to crucifie him nor infused that malice into them nor quickned it but he seeing such a frame withdrew his restraining grace and left them to the conduct of their own witiated wills All the corruption in the World ariseth from lust in us not from the object which God in his providence presents to us 2 Pet. 1.4 the corruption that is in the World through lust The Creature is from God but the abuse of it from corruption God created the grape and filled the Wine with a sprightliness but he doth never infuse a drunken frame into a man or excite it Providence presents us with the Wine but the precept is to use it soberly Can God be blamed if that which is good in it self be turned into Poyson by others No more than the flower can be called a criminal because the Spiders nature turns that into venome which is sweet in it self Man hath such a nature not from Creation wherein God is positive but from corruption wherein God is permissive Providence brings a man into such a condition of poverty but it doth not encourage his stubbornness and impatience There is no necessity upon thee from God to exercise thy sin under affliction when others under the same exercise their graces The Rod makes the Child smart but it is its own stubbornness makes it curse In short though it be by Gods permission that we can do evil yet it is not by his inspiration that we will to do evil that is wholly from our selves 3. God supports the faculties wherewith a man sinneth and supports a man in that act wherein he sinneth but concurrs not to the sinfulness of that act No sin doth properly consist in the act it self as an act but in the deficiency of that act from the rule No action wherein there is sin but may be done as an action though not as an irregular action Killing a man is not in it self unlawful for then no Magistrate should Execute a Malefactor for murdering another and justice would cease in the World man also must divest himself of all thoughts of preserving his Life against an invader but to kill a Man without just cause without authority without rule contrary to rule out of revenge is unlawful So that it is not the act as an act is the sin but the swerving of that act from the rule makes it a sinful act So speaking as speaking is not a sin for it is a power and act God hath endued us with but speaking irreverently and dishonourably of God or falsly and slanderously of man or any otherwise irregularly therin the sin lyes So that it is easie to conceive that an act and the viciousness of it are separable That act which is the same in kind with another may be laudable and the other base and vile in respect of its circumstances The mind wherewith a man doth this or that act and the irregularity of it makes a man a criminal There is a concurrence of God to the act wherein we sin but the sinfulness of that act is purely from the inherent corruption of the creature As the power and act of seeing is communicated to the eye by the Soul but the seeing doubly or dimly is from the vitiousness of the Organ the eye God hath no manner of immediate efficiency in producing sin as the Sun is not the efficient cause of darkness tho the darkness immediately succeeds the setting of the Sun but it is the deficient cause So God withdraws his grace and leaves us to that lust which is in our wills Act 14.16 Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own wayes He bestowed no grace upon them but left them to themselves As a man who lets a glass fall out of his hand is not the efficient cause that the glass breaks but it s own brittle nature yet he is the deficient cause because he withdraws his support from it God is not obliged to give us grace because we have made a total forfeiture of it He is not a debtor to any man by way of merit of any thing but punishment He is indeed in some sence a debtor to those that are in Christ upon the account of Christs purchase and his own promise but not by any merits of theirs 4. Gods providence is conversant about sin as a punishment yet in a very righteous manner God did not will the first sin of Adam as a punishment because there was no punishment due to him before he sinned but he willed the continuance of it as a punishment to the nature sub ratione boni This being a judicial act of God is therefore righteously willed by him Punishment is a moral good 'T is also a righteous thing to suit the punishment to the nature of the offence and what can be more righteous than to punish a man by that wherein he offends Hence God is said to give up men to sin Rom. 2.26 27. for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections And to send strong delusions that they may believe a lye And the reason is rendred 2 Thes 2.12 that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness What more righteous than to make those vile affections and that unrighteousness their punishment which they made their pleasure and to leave them to pursue their own sinful inclinations make them as the Psalmist speaks Psal 5.10 fall by their own counsels A Drunkards Beastliness is his punishment as well as his Sin Thus God delivers up some to their own lusts as a punishment both to themselves and others As he hardened Pharaohs heart for the destruction both of himself and his People 5. God by his providence draws glory to himself and good out of sin 'T is the highest excellency to draw good out of evil and it is Gods right to manifest his excellency when he pleases and to direct that to his honour which is acted against his Law The Holiness of God could never intend Sin as Sin But the Wisdom of God foreseeing it and decreeing to permit it intended the making it

Hundred and Thirty times* Arrow smith Chain of Principles Exercit 1. Sect. 1. 3. To preternatural actions God doth command creatures to do those things which are no way suitable to their inclinations and gives them sometimes for his own service a writ of ease from the performance of the natural Law he hath impressed upon them A devouring Raven is made by the Providence of God the Prophets caterer in a time of Famine * 1 King 17.4 God instructs a ravenous Bird in a lesson of abstinence for Elijah's safety and makes it both a Cook and a Serving-man to the Prophet The Whale that delights to play about the deepest part of the Ocean approaches to the shore and attends upon Jonah to transport him to the dry land ‡ Jonah 2.10 The fire ‡ Dan. 3. was slaked by God that it should not singe the least hair of the three childrens heads but was let loose to consume the Officers of the Court The mouths of the ravenous Lions which had been kept with an empty stomach were muzled by God that they should not prey upon Daniel in a whole nights space God taught them an Heroical temeperance with so dainty a dish at their mouths and yet they tore the accusers in a trice 4. To all supernatural and miraculous actions of the creatures which are as so many new creations as when the Sun went backward in Hezekaih's time when it stood still in the valley of Ajalon that Joshuah might compleat his Victory on the Canaanites The boysterous waves stood on a heap like Walls to secure the Israelites passage but returning to their natural motion were the Aegyptians Sepulchre When creatures have stept out of their natural course it could not be the act of the creatures it being so much against and above their natures but it must be by the order of some Superior Power 5. To all fortuitous actions What is easual to us is ordained by God as effects stand related to the second cause they are many times contingent but as they stand related to the first cause they are acts of his Counsel and directed by his Wisdom God never left second causes to straggle and operate in a Vagabond way tho the effect seem to us to be a loose act of the creature yet it is directed by a Superior cause to a higher end than we can presently imagine The whole disposing of the lot which is cast into the lap is from the Lord* Pro. 16.33 A Souldier shoots an arrow at random and God guides it to be the Executioner of Ahab for his Sin * 1 King 22.34 which death was foretold by Micajah v. 17.28 God gives us a certain Rule to judge of such contingencies Exod. 21.13 And if a man lie not in wait but God deliver him into his hand A man accidentally kills another but it is done by a secret commission from God God delivered him into his hands Providence is the great Clock keeping time and order not only hourly but instantly to its own honour * Fuller Eccles Hist Cent. 6. book 2. P. 51. 6. To all voluntary actions 1. To good actions Not by compelling but sweetly inclining determining the Will so that it doth that willingly which by an unknown and unseen necessity cannot be omitted It constrains not a man to good against his will but powerfully moves the will to do that by consent which God hath determined shall be done The way of man is not in himself the motion is mans the action is mans but the direction of his steps is from God Jer. 10.23 'T is not in man that walketh to direct his steps 2. To evil actions 1. In permitting them to be done Idolatries and follies of the Heathen were permitted by God He checked them not in their course but laid the reins upon their necks and suffered them to run what race they pleased Acts 14.16 Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own wayes Not the most execrable villany that ever was committed in the world could have been done without his permission Sin is not amabile propter se and therefore the permission of it is not desirable in it self but the permission of it is only desirable and honestaturex fine God is good and wise and righteous in all his acts so likewise in his act of permitting sin and therefore he wills it out of some good and righteous end which belongs to the manifestation of his glory which is that he intends in all the acts of his will of which this is one Wicked men are said to be a staff in Gods hand as a man manages a staff which is in his own power so doth God manage wicked men for his own holy purposes and they can go no further than God gives them license 2. In ordering them God governs them by his own unsearchable Wisdom and Goodness and directs them to the best and holiest ends Contrary to the natures of the sins and the intentions of the sinner Joseph's brothers sold him to gratifie their revenge and God ordered it for their preservation in a time of famine Pharaoh's hardness is ordered by God for his own glory and that Kings destruction God decrees the delivering up Christ to death and Herod Pilate the Pharisees and common rout of People in satisfying their own passion do but execute what God had before ordained Act. 4.28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done Judas his covetousness and the Devils malice are ordered by God to execute his decree for the redemption of the World Titus the Emperour his ambition led him to Jerusalem but Gods end is the fulfilling of his threatnings and the taking revenge upon the Jews for their murdering of Christ The aim of the Physician is the Patients health when the intent of the Leeches is holy to suck the blood God hath holy ends in permitting sin while man hath unworthy ends in committing it The rain which makes the Earth fruitful is exhaled out of the Salt-waters which would of themselves spoil the ground and make it unfruitful The deceiver and the deceived are his Job 12.16 Both the action of the Devil the Seducer and of wicked men the seduced are restrained by God within due bounds in subserviency to his righteous will for with him is strength and wisdom 2. As Providence is universal Second Proposition so it is mysterious Who can trace the motions of Gods eyes in their race He ‡ Psal 104.3 makes the Clouds his Chariot in his motions about the Earth and his throne is in the dark He walks upon the wings of the wind His providential speed makes it too quick for our understanding His wayes are mysterious and put the reason wisdom of men to a stand The clearest sighted Servants of God do not see the bottom of his works the motion of Gods eyes is too quick for ours John Baptist is so astonisht at

pretence in wishing to be the King of Israel in David's stead 2 Sam. 15.4 If patience be a giving God the honour of his righteousnesess in his Judgments Psal 191.75 I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me impatience must be a charge against God for unrighteousness in his judicial proceedings and a saying the way of the Lord is not equal Ezek. 18.25 'T is implied in that complaint Isa 58.2 3. They ask of me the ordinances of justice c. wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge We demand justice of thee since thou dost nor seem to do that which is fit and righteous in not regarding us in our suits and not bestowing that which we have fasted for God governs the World according to his will our murmuring implies that God's will is not the rule of righteousness We affront the care of God towards his Creatures as if the products of our shallow reasons were more beautiful and just than god's contrivances for us who hath higher and more glorious ends in every thing both for our selves and the world of which we are members and for his own glory to which we ought to subject our selves when perhaps our projects rend immediately to gratifie some sensual or spiritual lust in us 'T is the commendation the Holy Ghost gives of Job Job 1.22 in all this Job sinned not neither charged God foolishly as a Character peculiar to him implying that most men in the World do upon any emergency charge God with their crosses as dealing unjustly with them in inflicting punishment when they think they have deserved rewards Jeremiah is not innocent in this case Jerem. 20. 7 O Lord thou hast deceived me and I was deceived in the ill success of his prophecy as though an immense goodness would and a Soveraign power needed to deal in a fraudulent way with his Creatures to bring his ends about 3. 'T is a wrong to the wisdom of Providence We would degrade his O uniscience and Wisdom and sway him by our foolish and purblind dictates 't is as if we would instruct him better in the management of the world and direct him to a reformation of his methods Job 40.2 shall he that contends with the almighty instruct him he that reproves God let him answer it 'T is a reproving God and reproofs imply a greater authority or righteousness or wisdom in the person reproving we reprove God as if God should have consulted with us and asked our advice 't is to take upon us to be God's counselors and to conclsude the only wise God by our imperfect reason Rom. 11.34 Who hath been his counsellor 'T is a secret boasting of some excellency in our selves as if God did not govern well or we could govern better Shall a silly passenger that understands not the use of the Compass be angry that the skilful Pilot will not steer the Vessel according to his pleasure Must we give out our orders to God as though the Counsels of infinite wisdom must roul about according to the conceits of our fancy Is nto the language of our hearts in our fits of impatience as prodigiously proud against God's providence as the Speech of that Monster was against the creation who said if he had been by God at the Creation of the World he could have directed him to a better platform all this and much more is vertually in this sin of impatience 10. In charging our sins and miscarriages by them upon providence In this we contemn it Some think Cain doth so Gen. 4.9 am I my brother's keeper Thou art the keeper and governor of the World why didst thou not hinder me from killing my Brother 'T is certain the first man did so Gen. 3.12 the woman thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree thy gift is the cause of my sin and ruine 'T is as certain David laid the Sin of Vriah's murder at the door of providence 1 Sam 11.25 when he heard that Vriah was dead the Sword soith he devours one as well as another Man conjures up trouble to himself when by his folly he brings himself into sin and from thence to misery and then his heart frets against the Lord layes the blame both of his sin and following mischiefs upon him Pro. 19.3 the foolishness of man perverts his way and his heart frets against the Lord. There are many other wayes wherein we deny or slight providence 1. When we do things with a respect to the pleasure of men more than of God As though God were careless both of himself and his own honour and regarded not the principles and ends of our actions 2. In vain boasting and vaunting of our selves As Benhaded would have such a multitude of men in his army as that there should not be dust enough in Samaria to afford every man a handful * 2. King 20.10 wherein he swaggers with God and vaunts as if he were the Governour of the World yet this man with his numerous Host was routed by a troop of Lacquies v. 15 20. they are called the young men of the Princes Such is the folly of men against the orders of God when they boast in their hearts that their house shall continue for ever * Psal 49.11 3. Oppression They slay the fatherless and say the God of Jacob shall not regard it * Psal 94.6 7. Their denial of providence was the cause of their oppression of the poor and where this is found in any it is an argument it ariseth principally from a like cause this is also made the cause why they eat up God's people as they eat bread * Psal 14.1 4. 4. Misinterpretations of providence Such cursed jealousies had the Jews of God Numb 14.3 and wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword were it not better for us to return into Egypt As tho God in that mighty deliverance had cheated tem with a design to destroy them in the wilderness when one of those plagues poured out upon Pharaouh being turned upon their heads had destroyed them in Egypt So foolish are they to think that God would ruin them upon dry Land who might have drowned them as well as their enemies in the Red Sea so unreasonable is man in his dispates against god 5. In limiting providence In bounding it to time manner to other circumstances as they did Psal 78.41 they limited the holy one of Israel for they remembred not his hand As though God must manage every thing according to the will of a simple Creature It was a forgetfulness of providence at least that was the cause of it The Second Vse is of Comfort Vse 2. As the justice and righteousness of God is the highest comfort to a good man since the Evangelical dispensation In that he hath to deal with a righteous God who can

for the Generation to come and the People which shall be created shall Praise the Lord. Even for that work of his which is written to be done in former Ages God loves to have his former works read and pleaded 'T is a keeping a standing praise of him in the World We have had the benefit of them it is fit God should have the glory of them from us as well as from those who immediately injoyed them Our good was bo und up in every former preservation of the Church If the Candlestick had been broken where had the Candle been Had the Church been destroyed how could the Gospel have been transmitted to us Let the Duty we owe to Gods Glory engage us to a consideration of them and the benefit we have had by them also incite us We usually forget not things that are strange nor things that are profitable His works of old have been works of Wonder in themselves and profitable to us To what end are the Praises of God discovered to the Generations to come but that they should reflect those Praises to Heaven again and convey them down to the Generations following Psal 78.4 Shewing to the Generation to come the Praises of the Lord. 1. This will help us in our inquiries into present Providences There is a beautiful connexion between former and latter Providences they are but several links of one Chain The Principle and End is the same That God from whence they come that Christ to which they tend is the same yesterday to day and for ever What god doth now is but a Copy of what he pouttrayed in his word as done in former ages There are the same characters of Wildom upon both The same goodness the same design in both The Births of Providence are all of a like temper and disposition We cannot miss of the understanding of them if we compare them with the ancient Copies For God is in the Generation of the Righreous the same God still God is the same his ends are the same the events will be the same 2. It will support our Faith The reason of our diffidence of God in the cause of the Church is the forgetfulness of his forwer appearances for her O! if we did remember his former goodness we should not be soready to doubt of his future care This was the Psalmists care in his despondencies and in his overwhelming troubles of Spirit Psal 77.9 Harh Gob forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies but verse 19. He concludes it his infirmity and resolves upon a review of the Records or Gods ancient works for his People and the years of the right hand of the most High those times wherein he declared his Power and his glory and so proceeds to the top of all their deliverances viz. that out of Egypt Doth Gods Wisdom decay or his Power grow feeble Is not his Interest the same Is he not a God still like himself Is not his glory as dear to him as before Hath he cast off his affection to his own name Why should not he then do the same works since he hath the same concern God himself to encourage us calls them to our remembrance Isa 50.2 Is my hand shortned that I cannot redeem or have I no Power to Deliver Behold at my rebuke I do dry up the Sea I make the Rivers a Wilderness c. Am not I the same God that dried up the Sea that wrought those ancient wonders which amaz'd the World what doth your distrust signisie but the impair of my Power Rouse up your selves to a consideration of them And thence gather fresh supplies to strengthen you in your present dependence upon me He puts us in mind of them because we are apt to forget them Gen. 15.6 When it is said Abraham believed in the Lord and it was accounted to him for Righteousness God answered him v. 7. I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees keep up thy Faith and to that end remember what I did for thee before in calling thee cast thy eye upon that place whence I delivered thee either from the Idolatries of the place or the persecution he was in for the true Worship of God And as God puts him in mind of his Mercy he had shewn to him before for the encouragement of his Faith so the people of God have made use of them to this end Goliah's Sword was counted by David the fittest for his defence in his flight because it had been a Monument of Gods former deliverance of him 1 Sam. 21.9 When he asks for a sword or Spear Abimelech said the Sword of Golian whom thou stewest is here And David said there is none like that give it me How hastily he catches at it There is none like that Sword that hath so signal a mercy writ upon it That very Sword will not only desend me against my enemies but guard my Faith against those Temptations that would invade it This encouragement of Faith and Hope is the end of God in his transmission of the records of his former Providences to us Psal 78 6 7. That the Generation to come might know them and declare them to their Children From one posterity to another that thay might set their hope in God 3. It will enliven our Prayer 'T is a mighty Plea in Prayer How often doth David urge it Thou hast been my help thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling And in the Churches concerns too 1 Chron. 16. 11 12. Seek the Lord and hie Strength seek his face continually remember the marvellous works that he hath done A reflection upon what God hath done should be joyned with our desires of what we would have God to do for us When Moses was praying upon the top while Israel was fighting with Amalek at the foot of the hill he had the Rod of God in his hand Exod. 17.9 That miraculous Rod which had amazed Pharaoh whose motion Summoned all the Plagues upon him That Rod which had split the Sea for their passage broached the Rock for their thirst and had been instrumental in many Miracles certainly Moses shewed this Rod to God and pleaded all those wonderful deliverances God had wrought instrumentally by it No doubt but he caried it with him to shew to God for a Plea as well as to the Israelites to spirit their Resolutions against their Enemies 4. It will prevent much Sin A forget fulness of his former works is one cause of our present provocations It was so in the case of the Israelites sin Psal 106.7 They remembred not the multitude of his mercies but provoked thee at the Sea even at the Red Sea they had lost the memory of so many Miracles in Egypt and which aggravated their Sin they provoked him at the Sea at the red Sea they provoked him under a present indigency as as well as against former mercy they