Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A93754
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Sermon I. on Phil. IV. 11.
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Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing S5131C; ESTC R233366
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22,642
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26
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looketh from Heaven he beholdeth all the Sons of Men from the place of his Habitation He looketh upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth he fashioneth their hearts alike he considereth all their Works Psal 33. 14 15. And so he doth Order and Over-rule and dispose of all their ways and Works For thus much may be understood that he our God or an Evil Spirit from the Lord acts in every Man and Woman by Thoughts or Imaginations By Thoughts I mean such as are true and good By Imaginations I intend such as are false or evil And these Thoughts or Imaginations are the immediate Fore-runners Principles or Causes of Action But here take heed how thou affirmest too far for let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any Man James 1. 13. So do not thou say that God acts in Man or Woman by false or evil Imaginations for God cannot be the Author of Falshood or Evil neither doth he tempt or act any Man to it All this is true but yet this difficulty may be well understood and reconciled from the aforecited 1 Kings 22 for there it is said All the Host of Heaven stood before him on his right Hand and on his left So that there were good and true Spirits which probably stood on his right Hand and evil and false Spirits which stood on his left Hand But as an Earthly King doth this or that thing by his Ministers or Officers so the Everlasting God the Creator of the Ends of the Earth whom the Scripture stiles a great King as so indeed he is doth act and work through and by his created Beings that is by his Angels or Spirits He sends forth and commands his good Angels or Spirits He permits or suffers the evil Angels or Spirits And one of these two sorts doth actuate or Act in all the Children of Men according as we read of the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience True it is Thou art of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and canst not look on Iniquity Hab. 1. 13. Nor yet is he the Efficient Cause or Author of sin or Evil. But yet as He giveth to all Life and Breath and all things Acts 17. 25. And he hath Created all things and for thy Pleasure they are and were Created Rev. 4. 11. And so he doth uphold and govern all things that they cannot move or act without him Therefore of necessity he must be so far concerned in sin or evil for he suffers that as he did the manners of the Israelites Fourty Years in the Wilderness as is before explained For though it hath been a puzzling thing unto Divines to assign how that nothing hath been nor yet can be done in the World but what is the Will of God that the same should have been done for otherwise it was impossible and had never been done and yet in all this to keep his Holiness unstained from the Sin or Evil That he is not in the least a Partaker with and sharer thereof and that the Will of God is Holy and Just and Good but too many things have been done on this Earth which are Unholy Unjust and Evil. But yet by Ascribing Greatness unto our God how he at first made and containeth all things By lifting up our Eyes on high and beholding who hath created all these things that bringeth out their Host by Number he calleth them all by their Names by the Greatness of his might for that he is strong in Power not one faileth By knowing how that he is Sovereign and Infinitely above all other things By knowing how that the same God Who made Man at first upright but he sought out many Inventions So in the very beginning he made the Devil and all his Legions of Spirits Good Creatures at first for that is the return made upon the several parts of the Creation And God saw that it was Good But the Devil and his Angels became Evil of themselves and sinned 2 Pet. 2. 4. and kept not their first Estate Jude 6. And now they are the Black Fountain beneath from whence do spring up all Sin or Evil But God who now suffers it all and over-rules it for the Great Ends of his Glory is high and as much exalted above it all as the Sun in the Firmament shining in its brightness is above a Quagmire Dunghill or dark hole of the Earth For all the Sin or Evil which hath been now is or shall ever be doth no more Impair Lessen or Darken his Holiness then the other now doth as to the bright Beams of the Sun Take and consider all this together into our understandings with the other Divine Truths which relate to this matter and they do all most clearly open and unfold this mystery How God doth suffer sin and yet is not the Author thereof and how all things both Animate and Inanimate do his will and yet Nevertheless His Will like his Commandment Is Holy Just and Good So that though the Committing of Sin is not according to the will of God in which he is well pleased yet it is the will of God barely to suffer and then afterwards to Punish it For Notwithstanding all that is here said still there is a fault Evil deserving and willfulness in the reasonable Creature in Committing Sin or Evil or in speaking Falshood upon that fault evil deserving of theirs the future Punishment of God is righteously founded Here we should remember our Creature State How that Angels and Devils Men and Beasts Birds and Fishes Things with life or without life visible or invisible they are all but Creatures or Instruments in the Hands of God for to do whatever his hand or his Counsel hath determined or suffered to be done For of a Truth against thy Holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the People of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy Hand and thy Counsel determined before to be done Act. 4. 27 28. In like manner it may be reasoned and applied of the whose Creation of God Fire and Hail Snow and Vapour stormy Wind fulfilling his Word Psal 148. 8. So all the living Creatures in all their Actings and Movings do agree and meet herein for to do Whatsoever thy Hand and thy Counsel determined before to be done So the Devil and his Legions and all those People in the flesh our Fellow-creatures they are all but Instruments in the Hands of God for the Devil Acted through Herod and Pontius Pilate in putting Christ to Death for to do Whatsoever thy Hand and thy Counsel determined before to be done And so all those Afflictions Trials and Temptations are to be looked upon which do befall any of the Children of Men. David could say concerning Shimei Let him alone let him Curse for the Lord hath bidden