Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	evil_a	good_a	indifferent_a	2,973	5	9.5052	5	false

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

his Tendernesses and Mercies in relieving or removing them He could not shew his readiness to Help if there were no need of help and therefore he hath sometimes hid himself behind the Curtain even from his dearest Children that on his return on their cryes they may be more affected with his kindness and become more sensible of it else there had been no crying to God nor help from him nor thanks for it See the 107 Psalm For where there are no Evils it might be said of God as is said of a virtuous Man by Seneca Magnus es vir sed unde scio si tibi fortuna non dat facultatem exhibendae virtutis c. But if we consider them as paenal Evils so they have a mediate goodness and an usefulness for Man that much obliges him for so as we have said they are as many Means to discipline and govern him who if he were not as he is and were not govern'd and Disciplin'd as he is but had been fixed by an Act of Power without them half the Shew had then been lost So much of the Divine wisdome and goodness as is visible in this conduct which is very much had then been never shewn and so God had been deprived of a good part of his Glory His is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a manifold wisdome and manifold Goodness And manifold wisdome must be shewn in many wayes and not be limited to one Well saith the Atheist this is indeed a pretty colour but 't is no more for the Government if any is not administred as you assert it the Good and Evil in the world are not for the ends you mention to discipline and order it these are too promiscuously dispens'd and too blindly to be so for Ends 't is rather to the contrary the Good if any difference are most unhappy and unfortunate and the wicked most successeful and prosperous A Phaenomenon so Plain and obvious that not only Telamon in Cicero Nam si current bene bonis sit male malis quod nune abest But also Solomon himself hath noted it no man saith he knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him all things come alike to all there is one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked c. So undistinguishing and common are the external accidents And 't is strange if there be indeed a Providence that the Godly only should have the Promise of the present life but no more the performance of it than the Wicked SECT 4. The Objection remov'd 1. By denying its Ground for all is Good to the Good and Evil to the Evil. 2. By settling this Rule That Providence is not to be understood but in the End This illustrated by several Resemblances and by an Instance The promiscuousness of Providence in events explained External things indifferent in their own Nature and nor Good nor Evil. Seemingly promiscuous Providence further vindicated by several considerations The false measure of Good and Evil detected A right one settled This Appearance I acknowledge hath offended very many and till he went into the Sanctuary and there observ'd the End it scandalized David But Seneca hath fully solved it and so hath Plutarch also and Arrian's Epictetus a Triumvirate of worthy Authors and let the Atheist read them He is mistaken there is nothing Good in this Life to the Evil and to the good and vertuous nothing is amisse and bad Trahit quisque in suum colorem To the Pure all things are Pure The famous but c. Story of the Angel and unbelieving Hermite that which Bradwardine relates if yet it be a History abundantly illustrates it All things work together in the End for Good to one and all for Evil to the other You must take a Providence entire and altogether and not in pieces and abroad to make a Judgment on it All is as the End is That is well which ends well and that is otherwise which ends so You must stay the End to judge it the End of the Providence and the End of the Man Now marke the Perfect man and be hold the Upright for the End of that Man is peace but the Transgressors shall be destroy'd together the End of the Wicked shall be cut off Two sorts of Men and answerably two Ends Heaven and Hell So Porphyrie out of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Providence of God is what Augustus thought it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a well composed Drama wherein a man is so surpriz'd and intricated with Variety that all along he cannot once imagine its design until he come to the End of it and then he sees it clearly how every Passage and adventure in the whole most excellently contribute to it and most orderly And surely he that believeth and Religion obligeth men to be believers maketh no haste One must await the End to see the whole laid open It is the excellency of a Work to have its main design so skilfully conceal'd as to suspend Spectators and to lead them all about in a maze until it all be finish't The Atheist lookes but to a part when he should stay to see the whole at least the whole piece He seeth but the wrong side of the Arras the thrums and ends of the threads when it is rowled up the Beauty is in the right side and he must stay the opening to see it 'T is unreasonable to complain of that in Providence which he calls an Ornament and which doth make his greatest pleasure and delight in Playes and Romances viz. The interruption of the Story and that suspence which is in it We must stay the end of all to see the Harmony of all and the last day will declare it and we must stay the end of every piece of Providence to make a judgement on that But to give a Scriptural instance in the History of Joseph not to mention that of Job or David what a marvellous surprize is in it Take every passage of it solely by it self and separate it from the rest and how hard a one it is all is then against him To be hated by his brethren that is bad to be sold by them for a Slave to the Ishmaelites and by these to Potiphar is worse to be injuriously accused of his Mistress and so condemn'd to perpetual Prisonment worst of all All these are hard and separately all against him but in concatenation and together as one disposeth and prepareth for another so they all co-operate in the End to his preferment and are all for him For it was by the Buttler whose Dream he had interpreted that such a mention was made in favour of him unto Pharaoh as occasion'd his Preferment It was in Prison he became acquainted with the Buttler and interpreted his Dream it was his Mistress's Accusation which compos'd his Mittimus and hurried him to Prison it was the avarice and griping of the Ishmaelites that brought him to

for so I call that of Mankind in distinction to the Natural his Providence and Goodness are as visible as great in that all things in it are designed for the best and ultimately issue in it Her ruleth in his House in all things as a wise and prudent Master by assigning to his Children and his Servants their respective duties in it which are for the Good of all in general and each of them in particular as well as for his own Glory and by obliging them unto them with Rewards and Punishments Thus he Disciplines and Governes them Government is for the Good of Man and all Government is from God He holds the reins of all himself and he prescribes the Rules and Lawes of it I ask the Atheist if it would not be a Golden and most happy Age wherein all men loved others as intirely and sincerly as they do themselvs wherein together with their own concernments and interests all equally reminded those of others wherein they universally abstaining from all injustice and wrong each assisted other to the utmost and wherein they lived and conversed each with other devoid of Envy Malice Covetousness Pride Contention c. And if he answer me it would I tell him this is the Order of the House that Law of Nature which is nothing else but what the Practical and common Reason of man doth dictate to be done that God hath sanction'd in the world to which he hath obliged all his Servants to conform thus he will have them do and thus be and that they may he hath adapted means the best imaginable to ingage and move them to it He disciplines and acts them with Rewards and Punishments He promiseth them Good if they obey and threatens them with Evil if they do not So the Apostle Do by Nature the things contained in the Law Having not the Law are a Law unto themselves Work of the Law written in their hearts c. Their thoughts accusing or excusing one another And so Cicero Nec si regnante Tarquinio nulla erat Romae scripta Lex de stupris iccirco non contra illam legem sempiternam Sex Tarquinius vim Lucretiae Tricipitini filiae attulit Erat enim ratio profecta à rerum natura ad recte faciendum impellens a delicto avocans quae non tum denique incipit lex esse cum scripta est sed tum cum orta est orta autem simulest cum menté divina quam ob rem lex vera atque princeps apta ad jubendum ad vetandum ratio est recta summi Jovis c. Ergo est lex justorum injustorumque distinctio ad illam antiquissimam rerum omnium principem expressa naturam ad quam leges hominum diriguntur quae supplicio improbos afficiunt defendunt tuentur bonos c. Sit igitur hoc jam a principio persuasum civibus dominos esse omnium rerum ac moderatores does eaque quae gerantur eorum geri judicio ac numine eosdemque optime de genere hominum merert quali● quisque sit quid agat quid in s● admittat qua mente qua pietat● religiones colat intueri piorumque impiorum habere rationem hi● enim rebus imbutae mentes haud sane abhorrebunt ab utili a vera sententia c. There must be Paenal and Afflictive Evils that there may be Punishments as well as there are Goods agreeable obliging things for Compensations and Rewards it being very often very good for the Child though he think not so that his Father take the Rod in hand Crosses Losses Pains and sinister incounters are but Rods in God's Now the means are good if the end be so Finis dat mediis amabilitatem bonit atem c. It is good for Man there are afflictive paenal Evils His Vices are Distempers and these are Medicines to cure them and Wars themselves are Punishments to Nations as Diseases are to single persons No Government without Rewards and Punishments no Rewards and Punishments without Good and Evil. And if it be best for Man it is so for the Beasts and other Animals and other inferiour Beings Man is the End and Lord of these and therefore these not having any interest of their own distinct from his because they are but his and not their own That is best for them which is so for him The Accessory followes the Principal Now Man he hath an interest in these and so is punishable in them and is afflictable by these and so is punishable by them Wherefore the Good and Evil that is in them the poyson and malignity in Minerals and Plants the venom enmity and violence the fury and rapacity in many Animals as well as the commodity and usefulness of others Tempests in the Air Convulsions in the Earth the Fiery Eruptions of Aetna and Vesuvius and other such enormous and irregular emotions of the Elements as well as regular and orderly are not in them for themselves but all for Man Man is their end as God is Mans. Let not the Atheist complain God is very Good and Liberal to Man who has so bountifully given all these things to him Yea and he is good to the Beasts also in that he hath oblidged man to be so to them But to be more distinct If we reflect on all the things are called Evils and consider them as things and absolutely in themselves so they have a good of Entity or Being and are necessary to the Universe that it may be Uniform full and perfect In the day of Prosperity be joyful but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that Man should find nothing after him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine Interpreter Et quidem istud congruum huic Sym. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath set good over against Evil and Evil over against Good so to answer one another that Man coming after him in review and observation of his workes might not find any thing wanting or to be added All is full and uniform and answering So Seneca Semper esse felicem sine morsu animi velle transire vitam ignorare est rerum naturae alteram paitem c. So Apuleius Gramaticorum artes vide quaeso quam ex diversis collectae sint literis ex quibus aliae sunt insonae semisonantes aliae pars sonantes hae tamen mutuis se auxiliis adjuvantes syllabas pariunt de syllabis voces Hoc Her aclitus c. So Porphyrie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And if we consider them as dolorous and afflictive so also they are necessary in respect of God that he may have a rise of shewing his Beneficence and Goodness in its full extent For if there were no evils in the world no infelicities necessities nor miseries there could be no compassions nor no evincements of