Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	adam_n	law_n	moral_a	4,944	5	10.5377	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30636	Tagathon, or, Divine goodness explicated and vindicated from the exceptions of the atheist wherein also the consent of the gravest philosophers with the holy and inspired penmen in many of the most important points of Christian doctrine is fully evinced / by Richard Burthogge.	Burthogge, Richard, 1638?-ca. 1700.	1672 (1672)	Wing B6157; Wing B6156_CANCELLED	50,348	170

against a knot of Learned men that understand it in the Letter as for the present purpose I shall here alledge Hierocles in his own terms and at large 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Pregnant Testimony Here 's a Fall and of Man and for Sin Ate is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peccare God made Man Upright but he found out many inventions This is Plato's Descent of Souls But if God be infinitely Good and Pure and Righteous replies the Atheist how is it that he did not settle Adam in his Innocence and Happiness What salvo hath he for his own Righteousness who so unmercifully suffered man to slide from His Is he not an Accessory to the Crime who when he could prevent permits it He that doth not hinder Murther or other wickedness when 't is in his Power so to do is to be interpreted in all reason to will it God could have hinder'd Adam's What say you therefore since he did not How can you call him good and charitable that would not prevent such misery and how Righteous and Holy that did permit such sin But seeing nothing gives but what it has it self must not he be Holy Pure and Righteous that Formed man so and he Good that so abundantly accommodated man and freely furnish't him with all conveniencies and Comforts Now God not onely most Benignly created Man in Innocence and Happiness but obligingly conferr'd also to Establish him and fix him in it He ordained him a Tree of Life and Adam might have eaten of it if he would himself as well as of the other of knowledge Nor was it proper that he should do more toward it It was not congruous and fit he should determine arbitrary and spontaneous Agents and let the Atheist Judge as he had done the Natural nor agreeable that Man an Agent ad utrum-libet one that could deliberate and act on choice that could freely and electively incline to both extreams should be determin'd as a Stone to one of them It was fit elective Creatures should be left to their choice and so was Man A Tree of Life and a Tree of knowledge Life and Death were both before him and he might take his choice Verily God is irrationally charged and let Arrianus in his Epictetus judge for not designing a perpetual happiness unto a Rational and knowing Creature in a way that was not agreeable to Reason as sure he must if he had settled and established a willing a free an arbitrary and elective Creature in a State against his will or without it Nothing wanted but mans will to make his happiness eternal The Tree of Life was before him and he might have eaten and so have lived for ever if he would the very Angels themselves in Heaven were left to their choice and reason good sayes Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For if the great God should have restrained Adam phisically and forcibly and not morally onely as he did and by a Law from eating of the one Tree or else should violently have compel'd him as now the Atheist doth require to pluck and eat of the other as he had not congruously treated Adam in the Notion of a Free and Arbitrary Agent so neither had he tryed what he would do of himself Besides there had not then been any need of Law for as much as it had been impertinent to interdict eating to one that could not possibly eat and then if no Law there had been no obedience neither and consequently no Reward nor Punishment and if no Law no Obedience no Reward nor Punishment then no Government neither and then in vain had Adam in the very constitution of his Nature been a governable Creature seeing if this had been he were never to be actually governed Natural Agents are not properly governed but Morall Ones and Moral Agents must be governed Morally Hear Arrianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor is God obliged in the Notion of Good or Righteous Governor violently to restrain the Governed from all unrighteousness or to promote their weal and Good violently that is not for a Governor as such to do and therefore that God did not is not in derogation of his Purity or Goodness A Governor restraineth Evil and advanceth Good not by tying mens hands but by enacting good Laws by enforcing them with Menaces and Threats and with Rewards and Compensations by executing penalties on those that break them and by renumerating those that do not And though a Subject be an Accessory to the Crime and Evil which he doth not hinder if he can and be interpreted to will it if he do not do his natural utmost to prevent it because he is obliged by a Law to do so yet the Governour that maketh Law he being under none but that of Equity and Fitness which is to rule by Law and as a Governour is not accusable of Crimes which he forbids and Punishes He is a good Governour that makes good Laws and rules by them and not by force But grant it says the Atheist that it was Divine Bounty to create Adam in a state of Happiness and no omission not to establish him and fix him in it but what equality in this not to say what injurie that when but One was in the Sin and guilt he yet concludeth all men in the Punishment as if because the Parents eat the sowr grapes the Childrens teeth must be on edge Euripides complaint is just here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I answer There is no iniquity at all in imputing unto all the sin of One when you consider that that One was All and those All are One. Adam was the whole kind and All descendants from him are but One Adam Many members make but One whole Mankind is a Tree whose Root is Adam all whose Children are but Branches which deriving from him and proceeding out of him were at first in him and so they all were and when he sinned not one of them but was All were yet unborn which must be minded And what maketh this consideration of the greater moment is another that Eve herself came out of Adam so that Adam was intirely All All are come from Adam and Eve and Eve herself from Adam Had there been Non Adamites or Non intire Descendants from Adam such as Jesus Christ who was begotten of the Holy Spirit it had not seemed reasonable that the Sin of Adam should be imputed to them But seeing Mankind is an Extended Adam and as it were but one suppositum and Actions are of supposites though it were but He the Root that sinned actually the Guilt is yet imputed to the Branches which were in him it not being thought unreasonable that he which stealeth or else Assassinates but with his hand should yet be hanged for it by the Neck All are concluded with him being All included in him And therefore Adams fall is call'd the

Fall of Man This is a Scriptural ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so agreeable to Reason that the Light of Nature shews it for beside the use of Men wherein the whole blood is looked on as tainted if but the Father be a Traytour and wherein nothing is more common than for Parents to covenant for Children c. Plutarch speaketh home 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again if Adam had not lapsed then all Descendants from him had been possessed of the Happiness which be enjoyed and so had stood with him and the Atheist holds not that unreasonable and if it be not so that he should stand it cannot be so he should fall for his Children since it is but reason that if Children may be benefited and advantag'd by their Parents they may be also disadvantag'd and disserv'd in them Qui sentit commodum sentiet incommodum Plutarch thought so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Finally though all have Sinn'd in Adam and so have Misery and Punishment entail'd upon them yet that misery and Punishment is not so great but that there is a greater mixture of Clemency and Mercy in it the Life is left them with entailment of calamity upon it is yet such as they are loath to part with and they are favoured in it with opportunities of making their condition better than at first it was by playing an after Game Thus the Fall is made to be good for them since they have a rise to get by it and hear Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SECT 8. Divine Benignity and Goodness illustrated in his relieving Acts of Grace Man gets by the Fall Why his First State though Good was not best Well then God is Good yes so infinitely Good and Bountiful that though man had miserably bankrupt and fool'd all he had away yet has he of his own alone immense Goodness and Charity so stupendiously repaired him again with such a new Stock in Jesus Christ that if he be not infinitely wanting to himself as well as to his Master he may be made for ever by his breaking God so so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life Everlasting Life Thus Humane condition it is capable of being better'd by the Fall it being in the kind of Man by Grace as 't is in other kinds by Nature he riseth by his Fall the Corn is not quickened nor multiplied except it die Man was not to be quickened by the Lord from Heaven nor advanced from a natural into a better State of Spiritual and Immortal Life but after he was Spiritually dead You who were dead in trespasses and sins hath he quickened The Natural condition of the Man was Good in Paradise and as good as that could be but his Spiritual is better and it was agreable unto the Law and Method of Nature that what was good should precede and what was better follow after it being Nature's order to proceed from things lesse Perfect unto things more so For in the Genesis of things if you consult it it was first Evening then Morning first Darkness then Light first the Naturals were made then the Vegetables first the Animals then the Rationals and 't is to this that our Apostle alludes The first man Adam was made a living Soul the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit Howbeit that was not first which is Spiritual but that which is natural and afterward that which is Spiritual The first man is of the earth Earthy The second Man is the Lord from Heaven Thus is Man's Condition better'd in that now Divine Grace is brought by Jesus Christ. SECT 9. The Atheists Objection of impossible conditions and of Reprobation destroyed Gods Universal love evinced Election and Reprobation explained Reprobation in a comparative sense vindicated The Terms of Grace Practicable Humane Impotency Moral not Physical Yes sayes the Atheist so it lookes for if he do extend his Grace as he is said to men it is on Terms so insupportable and hard that they cannot possibly perform them as if impossible conditions did not nullifie his grants and make his Promises Denials but that it were in his Law as Lawers tells us it is in ours wherein a Promise on Impossible Conditions does immediately invest in Right What Grace is this to look for tales of Bricks without affording Straw He bids us come inded but when be knows we cannot and then he tels us we shall have And is not this a great Evincement of Benignity and love to Mankind is it not that he hath made the greatest part thereof to damne it what means Reprobation else A most malicious imputation this For as Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God has not made a man to damn him he hath an universal though not an equal Love for all the Kind and has given ample demonstrations of it in his Son who assumed not the Person but the Nature He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved What Evidences are there of his Pleasure let me see but one of it that the wicked die when there are so many of his will that he should return from his wicked wayes and live Doth he not invite all Doth he not beseech and call all Ho every one that thirsteth c. Doth he not afford sufficient means and send his Ministers and Word to All Is there not an universal Act of Amnesty without a Man excepted so he will come in yes verily the Apostles were obliged to go to all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature And that very Reprobation which is so great a scandal and offence unto the Atheist onely because he has no right understanding and resentment of it what is it but a lesser love It may not be interpreted in a positive and simple sence but onely in a comparative as not impor●ing a simple Aversation or Hatred but a lesse intense love So that as they are called Chosen or Elect whom he especially favours so these are Reprobate or hated whom he doth only generally love but doth not specially favour It was thus he Reprobated Esau or hated him before his doing Good or Evil not in a positive and simple but in a comparative sense he loved him not in that degree he loved Jacob with that especial and distinguishing love And so comparatively he is said to hate him just as Jesus Christ affirmeth them to hate Father and Mother who love them eminently lesse then him So Scriptural a Notion this is of Hatred Now to apply it What if God who has a general and common love to all which he hath evinced in a thousand wayes by his creating his conserving his providing for them in the present life and by capacitating of them for a better end have yet so special and distinguishing an one