A25291:250
The Marrow of Sacred Divinity
The marrow of sacred divinity drawn out of the Holy Scriptures, and the interpreters thereof, and brought into method / by William Ames ... ; translated out of the Latin ... ; whereunto are annexed certain tables representing the substance and heads of all in a short view ... as also a table opening the hard words therein contained.The marrow of sacred divinity drawne out of the Holy Scriptures, and the interpreters thereof, and brought into method / by William Ames ... ; translated out of the Latine ... ; whereunto are annexed certaine tables representing the substance and heads of all in a short view ... as also a table opening the hard words therein contained.
London: printed by Edward Griffin for Henry Overton, 1642
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
39. Therefore there is no cause properly so called, to be given of Gods Will.
40. Hence it is rightly said, that God doth will one thing to exist for another: but not that that one thing is a proper cause whereby the Will of God is inwardly moved to appoint that other thing. So God would that the Sun and stars should exist, for the generation, conservation, and corruption of things below: yet the Sun and Stars, are not a cause why God would that those things should be generated, conserved, and corrupted. And so it is in all things out of God, which indeed among themselves are causes and effects, even as they depend upon the Divine will, but there is no cause of Gods Will out of it self.
40. Hence it is rightly said, that God doth will one thing to exist for another: but not that that one thing is a proper cause whereby the Will of God is inwardly moved to appoint that other thing. So God would that the Sunne and stars should exist, for the generation, conservation, and corruption of things below: yet the Sunne and Stars, are not a cause why God would that those things should be generated, conserved, and corrupted. And so it is in all things out of God, which indeed among themselves are causes and effects, even as they depend upon the Divine will, but there is no cause of Gods Will out of it selfe.
41. Also the willing of one thing in God, is not properly a cause effecting that he will another thing in himself, because the Efficiency of a cause upon an effect, and dependence of the effect upon a cause, cannot be in the Will of God, which is God himself, truly and simply willing all things together and at once, with one only act; yet it is true that the Schoolmen say, that a passive attingency of the Divine will in respect of one thing, is a cause of a passive attingency in respect of another: and so in this sense it is truly and piously said, that God willeth some one thing, because he willeth another.