Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	bless_v	lord_n	praise_v	4,649	5	10.4003	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39377	An Abstract of some letters to an eminent learned person concerning the excellency of the Book of common-prayer, &c.		1679 (1679)	Wing E7; ESTC R23206	15,276	30

Aversion of the Heart fro Our HOLY ONE My using these words Secundum Naturam Bonitatis Infinitae was not as you say to hide the Sense but to prevent your Opinion that I should hold such an Absurdity as this that God Acts any thing ad ultimum Posse which words can in no wise be spoken of God but it seems I had not my Aim For in the Close of your Letter you tell me that you think my work is to Prove that God communicateth Good Naturally to the utmost of his absolute Power as the Sun doth its influence of Light Heat and Motion God Forbid that I should undertake to Prove that God acts like a Finite Agent as Finite as having any Vtmost or Limited Power Whether I misunderstand Goodness which is another Passage in your Letter I shall entreat you to Consider by what I shall say of it in my present Reflexions upon these words of yours His Goodness even his infinite Perfection and Love to Himself This is GOD Himself He is His own infinite Joy and Life and Glory He is All in all Things and events Sin only excepted Enjoying Himself in these small Creatures which are so contemptible in the Sight of Men no less than in the most Glorious of the Heavenly Hosts And the more we Partake of the Divine Nature the more we Delight Ourselves in all the Works both of Creation and Providence Here I cannot but tell you that I Hate as the Gates of Hell the Folly and Madness of some of the Adversaries of Our Liturgie which prompted them to speak contemptuously under Pretence forsooth of Zeal for the Pure Service of God of that Excellent Hymn O all ye Works of the Lord Bless ye the Lord Praise him and Magnifie Him for Ever O all ye Angels of the Lord Bless ye the Lord c. There is say you a Negative Limitation which is not in Gods Power and you seem to grant it to be in his Wisdom which you truly call the Councell of his Will But what Wisdom doth it doth as the Guide of the Will and therefore as Wisdom is the reason of it I suppose you mean of a man 's not being Actually better than he is for you say in the next Page that our want of Goodness is the consequence of a meer Non Velle negatione Directionis so the Will must needs be the cause of it negatione Volitionis To this I Answer that the cause that any man is not better than he is is not that God cannot make him Better i. e. that there is any Defect of Power in God neither can it be rightly said that God can make him Better than he is For I understand those words as you rightly conjecture in sensu composito But perhaps you will say God could have made him Better than he is To this I Answer that the making him better than he is was never the Object of the Divine Power of which there can be no other Object ad Extra but what is judg'd fit to be brought to pass by that Wisdom which is Essentially the Same with Infinite Goodness This deep thing let me presume to tell you in all Humility requires your Utmost Attention Neither are these Negations if we may put a Periphrasis of Nothing in the Plural number of Wisdom to Direct of Will to Execute the Cause c. For of meer Negation there is No Issue or Consequence All that you say Reflecting upon my words concerning the Object of Gods Volition or Nolition c. I do most Affectionately Approve as importing very much of the same Truth for want of which Dr. Twisse whom you mention seems to me in many Passages of his Controversial Writings to Rave and Talk indeed like a Scholar but like one out of his Right Wits rather than to Dispute But you seem to Faulter very much when you come to say that our want of Goodness is the Consequence of meer Non Velle For as I said but now of a meer Negation or Nullity i. e. of Nothing there is no Issue or Consequence at all I think say you that it is not true that Volitio quà Talis efficit ad Extra sed tantùm quatenus per Potentiam Operatur To this I Answer Volitio Divina ad Extra quà Talis Divina inquam Efficit ad Extra nam Essentialitr includit Sapientiam Potentiam Infinitam To these words Omnis Volitio non est Efficiens for God willeth himself much less omnis Nolitio I Answer thus Gods Willing of Himself may not properly be term'd Efficient but it is Effectual or to the Purpose that is which He Willeth to Be And every Object of His Volition ad Extra Is or Shall be Through the Efficacy of His Power set on work by the Infinite Goodness of the Councel of his Will As for the Divine Nolition this I say By it we mean not the Negative of Volition but an Adverse Act of the Will which Essentially implying Infinite Wisdom and Power can never be Frustrated but alwayes Effects the Opposite to that to which it is Adverse So that if any man's being Actually Better than he is were the Object of Divine Nolition it must needs follow that God would be the Direct Cause of the Opposite thereof viz. that the man is Actually so Bad as he is What then is the Cause c I say again Onely the Preverseness of his own Will Sin only can be the Cause of Sin What Cause than had the first Sin why as in effect I have say'd already none at all Man 's own Perverseness of Will say you was not the Cause of his First Perverting or Sin When we speak of Perversness of Will with Reference to the First Sin we mean nothing but the First Sin under that Notion not that this Perverseness of Will is Really Distinct from the First Act of the Will Perverted I cannot translate OPTIMA into any English so suitable to my Conceptions as these words FVLL of Goodness I did not retire into Silence as you speak at the Instance of the Heathens but Told you this Certain Truth That we Ought not to Deny our Assent to such Evident Propositions as this that 'T is Essential to Infinite Goodness to Fill the Capacities of all Creatures so that properly and in the strictest sense there is no Evil but the Aversion of the Will of the Creature from the Will of the Infinitely Good and Wise and Powerful Creator To this I say we ought not to Deny our Assent because we cannot give an account of some Particular Wayes of Providence i. e. of the Modes or several Kinds of the Influence of Infinite Goodness upon some Parts of the Creation Modes c. we Attribute only ab Extrinseco to the Divine Providence they being only in the Creatures The Reason or Proof of this Consequence if God cannot be the Direct cause of Stainting c. is this because if He cannot be the Direct Cause of Stinting his