Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	answer_v	argument_n	prove_v	2,781	5	5.8805	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96272	Two sermons one against adultery, the other of the nature, art, and issue of the Christian warfare : with a discourse shewing the consistency of God's infinite goodness with His foreknowledge of the fall of man / by Nathanael Whaley ...	Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709.; Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709. A discourse shewing the consistency of God's infinite goodness with His foreknowledge of the fall of man.	1698 (1698)	Wing W1533A; ESTC R43579	50,933	141

from the least Defect or Error in the Creation of Man But still some Persons are troubled to think that God should intrust Man with a Liberty of Choice when he was infallibly certain beforehand that he would abuse it and this they apprehend to be inconsistent with perfect Goodness But what Reason have they to think so And what is their meaning by this Objection Is it to blemish the History of Man's Creation or to clear the Goodness of God by denying his Prescience Do they mean to prove that God did not create Men or Angels and then leave them to their own Choice to stand or fall to be happy or miserable This they may be sure he did not if it was inconsistent with his Goodness and if it was not why are they troubled to think that he did do it Or would they prove that God did not foresee the consequence of creating a free Agent Let them first answer all the Arguments Affirmations and Predictions in Scripture which plainly prove that the free Thoughts and Actions of Men lie open and naked to the Prescience of God and then let them consider what they gain by excluding his Prescience Does it at all mend the matter to say that God made innumerable Creatures that would sin and be miserable but knew it not till it was too late to prevent it or can they seriously allow themselves to think that he laid the Foundations of the Earth and created Man upon it before ever he was master of his Design or was sure whether it would turn to account or not How could he make a Covenant with Abraham and his Seed for ever Gen. 18.18 19 and distinguish them from all the Families of the Earth if he did not foresee that his Children would keep the way of the Lord or that there would always be a Generation of Men in the World of the same Stamp and Integrity that would prefer the Worship and Service of the true God before the Pleasures of Sense and signalize their Faith as Abraham did by the Freedom and Ingenuity of their Obedience to him Let them I say impartially weigh the Consequences on both sides and they will clearly see that they bear as hard upon the Wisdom of God by denying his Prescience as they fear they should do upon his Goodness by asserting it Now to ease them of this Fear that God's Foreknowledge of the Fall of Man was no blemish to his creating Goodness will I doubt not sufficiently appear if they candidly consider these three things 1. That his Prescience had not the least Influence upon their Fall or Disobedience to him Our first Parents might have lived and been eternally happy upon the Stock of their original Virtues and Endowments and the Divine Favour reflected upon them had they used them as they ought and if they had done so God had never foreseen their Sin or Misery Neither did they sin because he foresaw they would but merely because they would sin and therefore they would have sinned whether he had foreseen what they would do or not and so their Fall could not in any respect be imputed to his Knowledge of it no more than the Death of those eighteen Persons upon whom the Tower in Siloam fell Luk. 13.4 was imputable to the Eye that beheld the Falling of that fatal Tower Now if the Prescience of God had no Influence upon the Apostacy of his Creatures his Goodness in creating them in a happy State could be never the less for his Knowing that they would abuse it 2. That his Foreknowledge of their Fall did not hinder him from using the most proper and likely means to prevent it When God made Man upright he gave him power to stand and and persevere in his Innocence and to secure improve and immortalize his Glory and Happiness and when he had done this he gave him a loud and timely warning of the great danger of Failing in his Obedience to him telling him that in the day of his Transgression he should surely die Gen. 2.17 And is not this a fair Representation of the Goodness of God in the utmost degree that became a wise a holy and a faithfull Creator Does not this plainly demonstrate that the making Man a free Agent was no Contrivance of his Creators to draw him into Sin or Misery And that his Prescience was so far from serving any such end that it took the most natural and proper course to prevent it admonisht him of his imminent Danger and foretold his dying day to be the same with that of his eating the forbidden Fruit Which certainly God had never done after he had put him into a way to live for ever if either he had not foreseen his Danger or was willing to connive at his Death and Misery But more than this 3. God's Foreknowledge of Man's Abuse of his Goodness was no real Disparagement to it because it was in his power to turn that Abuse to an excellent end and to take occasion by our Fall to manifest the Glory of his Attributes in a far higher degree than was possible merely by his act of Creation 'T is the glorious Prerogative of God to bring good out of evil which must have been concealed for ever if he had never suffered evil to have entred into the World The Glories of the Divine Wisdom Love and Goodness in the Redemption of Mankind the Glories of God's Patience Mercy and Justice towards the different Ranks and Degrees of Sinners do all depend upon his Permission of the Sins and Follies of Men and applying suitable Remedies to them and had never appeared upon the Theatre of this World if it had not been for the tragical Miscarriages of our first Parents The fall of Man was indeed a vast Unhappiness in it self but then it opened wonderfull Scenes of happy and surprizing Providences 1 Pet. 1.12 which the Angels of Heaven desire to look into and will be the Delight and Admiration of all good Men to Eternity Above all the Incarnation of the Son of God for which there would have been no occasion in a State of Innocence was a prodigious Demonstration of his unparallelled Love and Favour to the lapsed Race of Mankind a strangely proper and most powerfull means to reconcile the World unto himself to promote Holiness in several Instances and Virtue in several Kinds which could never have grown in Paradice and to advance the humane Nature far above the State and Dignity from which the first Adam fell For the Union of the humane Nature with the Divine is not only an Argument of the sincerest Love and good Will to Men but a most efficacious and transcendent Principle of the highest Perfection and Happiness that the Nature of Man is capable of It is certain the Recovery of Mankind required another kind of Dispensation than what was suitable to a State of Innocence and surely God would never have manifested himself in the Flesh or discovered