Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	abraham_n	faith_n	justify_v	1,422	5	9.0902	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88089	Vindiciæ Christi, et obex errori Arminiano: = a plea for Christ, and obstrvction to the first passage, whereat the errors of Arminus steal into the hearts of men: shewing Christs satisfaction in his humiliation, to be the sole price of our redemption; and evidencing faith in that satisfaction, no instrumental cause of our justification in the fight of God, nor condition given us for life. Delivered in three sermons: by Richard Lewthwat Master of Arts, in Caius Colledge in Cambridge, at his Parish of Wigston in Norfolk.	Lewthwat, Richard.	1655 (1655)	Wing L1855; Thomason E480_6; ESTC R205317	30,584	39

he that joyns together both Jews and Gentiles in one way infallible hope or foundation of eternal life or again he is become the head of the corner That is he is become the proper support and onely true foundation of the hope of all mens salvation as in the first of the Cor. chap. 3. ver 11. For other Foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Iesus Christ he is become the head of the corner And now see in the next verse further for my purpose the Apostle saies that this Christ is the sole and whole vertue means and matter of mans salvation or Redemption neither saies he is there salvation in any other that is means and help to life eternal lyes no where but in this Christ this crucified Saviour this corner stone set at nought of you Jews or Jewish builders neither is there salvation in any other Look yet a little further and we have yet more for our purpose in the reason the Apostle there brings for confirmation for sayes he there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Let me give ye the meaning of the word name here and then the place is an invincible fortification for my inference and need not capitulate with the Adversary about surrender The word Name as it refers to God or Christ in the Scriptures is oft taken for the powerful aid help and vertue that is in God or Christ to us and for us Thus t is used as attributed to God Psa the 44. ver 5. Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us That is through thy power aid assistance or vertue we shall tread them under Thus under favour it is taken in the words I have quoted for my purpose there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved That is there is no other thing nature essence vertue power matter means or help whereby wherefore or for which we must be saved See brethren every thing in the world but Christ shut out from being the matter means purchase or condition of or for our Redemption or salvation yea the perfectest obedience the deepest repentance the truest charity the devoutest prayers yea the strongest faith all these and any of these are shut out from being matter or means whereby we may be saved the reason is plain because they are none of them this Jesus Christ of Nazareth This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders which is become the head of the corner neither is there salvation in any other for there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved I confess there are many arguments and allegations brought against this doctrine and my last inference by the Anti-christian party within the sound of the word yea and profession of the Gospel some plead for good works obedience alms-deeds charity and such like graces in man to share as causes or means in the work of our salvation as the Church of Rome others that faith and repentance become mainly if not solely the matter means or cause of our Redemption or salvation in that they are a condition exacted by God to be performed by us for life ●s Mr. Plater and the Arminian faction and the most of our present Divines watching over the flock of God if they be such in all England as here about us Tenents if duly poysed as now held that be fully opposite to the free grace of God in Christ contended for by the Apostle in Rom. the 11. ver 6. and in many places elsewhere yea and further they are Tenents if duely poysed baneful and destructive to that comfortable hope held forth to us in the Gospel of Christ Perhaps the Adversary to my position rather then to skirmage in the several particulars will desire to try the victory with me as the Philistines did with Israel in the first of Sam. chap. the 17. namely with their Goliah by the valued and reputed help and aid that is in the grace of faith as to life and Redemption My brethren for brevities sake I am content to do it as also because I know that the ruin of this will be the dispersing of all the other adverse arguments if this falls there is not one can stand And now I le meet this their Goliah faith as David did that of the Philistines even clad with its whole or best armour with its helmet graves of brass Objection I will produce the places attributing the most to faith as in respect to the present purpose in all the Scriptures and fullest against my doctrine and inference The places I bring for the Adversary are out of the Epistle to the Romans and the first is in the fourth Chapter ver 3. For what saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness from hence ye will plead that the act of faith Abrahams believing the promises his resting upon Christ for salvation by or through whom the promise of eternal life was made I say ye will say that this Abrahams believing of God resting upon him for life eternal through Christ was partly if not wholly the means or cause of his now enjoying life eternal was the means or things for which or whereby at least in part he stood approved just and perfect in the sight of God as to Eternal life t is evident ye will say it was counted Abrahams righteousness and again in the 28. ver of the foregoing Chapter the Apostle saith we are justified by faith that is by the means of faith because of faith or for faith Look upon both Doctrine Inference and then consequently ye will say my doctrine and inference is false I have made the objection so strong as I can and that from the most opposite places in all the Scriptures I shall endeavour to give as full an answer I pray mark it well It is to be known that God may be said to account or reckon a thing to us for righteousness two several ways Answer properly or improperly in a proper sense or in an improper sense A thing may be said to be counted to us of God for righteousness properly if it be looked upon by God as that or part of that whereby of or for which we be free from the punishment due to us because of sin if it be that by which we stand just in the sight of God so right in the Court of heaven as that Divine Iustice hath not wherefore to condemn us In a word that is counted to us for righteousness in a proper sense which becomes the cover of our sins as in the Psalmists phrase or that takes and bears away our sins and blots them out as that God sees them not in us as to punish us for them remembers them not against us That may be said to be our righteousness properly that doth either partly or wholly so quallifie us as

that pronounceth not onely guiltless but also perfectly just through Christ It follows That justifieth the ungodly The ungodly the word ungodly here must be restrained to the number of the elect or ransomed through Christ whose falvation was covenanted for from all eternity with the father by the Son upon the price of his blood and abasement to be undergone in the fulness of time at the time appointed by the father and promised by the Son to be performed at the time appointed Now these elected or ordained of the father to eternal life through the Son are in the Scriptures one whle and in one respect termed ungodly another while and in another respect stiled Saints and termed godly these elect are stiled ungodly children of wrath and enemies to God whilest in their natural condition of blindness ignorance and disobedience before illumination new-birth or regeneration by the Spirit of God before they be wrought to the faith of Christ or the faith of Christ be brought to them But now these elected ones after regeneration after faith be conveyed into their hearts they have their name changed by God they are termed Saints they are called godly and righteous So that now see the elect of God the redeemed through Christ do stand just before God through Christ are pronounced perfectly just through Christ by the word of the fathers will or decree even whilest in their naturall condition before they be indued with faith though the elect hear it not till then t is so The father Justifies the ungodly therefore we are not Justified by faith t is not counted our righteousness as being the instrumental efficient cause of a real application of Christ as the cover of our sins from the sight of God because Justified before even whilest ungodly before indued with faith Secondly faith is not cannot be in this wise as last mentioned instrumental because that granted many places of the Scripture are destroyed for brevities sake I le alleadge but one t is that of Isaiah chap. the 40. ver 1 2. if ye weigh the place well ye shall see that the Ministers command or commission is to proclaim the pardon of the elects sins upon the bare consideration of Christs pangs and sufferings in their stead Cry unto her that her iniquity is pardoned for she hath received at the Lords hand double for all her sins See now brethren Isaiah and my self are in the same error in the Judgement of the Adversary Isaiah tells ye and bids all the Ministers of Christ tell their people as I have told you that the bare pangs and sufferings of Chist are the adequate and full means and cause of the absolution and pardon of our sins by the father the Prophet bids us proclaim peace and pardon to Jerusalem to the elect to this person and to the other to whomsoever we preach barely upon the Sons eternal covenant to dye in the fulness of time for us and the fathers acceptance thereof in our stead So that see Christ is an elected soul is every believer in the eye and purpose of the father by imputation before the holy Ghosts comfortable application of that Christ by faith Cry unto her that her iniquity is pardoned for that she hath received at the Lords hand double for all her sins See now a plain destruction of the direction to the Ministers by Isaiah upon the adversaries opinion Had the spirits of these times been living in the Prophets dayes to hear his last recited doctrine they would have stiled him an Antifidian and termed his words a doctrine of Devils They would have told him no man is acquitted or pardoned of his sins because of Christs satisfaction in the eye or by the will of God till the soul hath actually owned Christ as his Saviour by faith that no man is just or Justified through Christ in the sight of the father till he be actually believing on the Son I do most willingly receive faith to be a most blessed signal means but dare not receive it as an instrumental cause whereby the spirit of God doth bring a soul into the favour of God who was out of it till then and secondly for this reason because it alters and destroys the meaning of many comfortable places of Scripture this plainly of Isaiah containing the Ministers commission Thirdly and Lastly faith cannot be instrumentall to the application of Christ as the cover of our sins from the sight of God as that whereby the spirit brings a sinner into the favour and love of God who was out of it till that grace came into his soul applying Christ comfortably to the heart because that this being granted the very nature and being of God as described in the Scriptures is consequently destroyed and denyed There be many places in the Scripture tending to the description of our God I shall insist upon the places describing him especially as to the present purpose and that in Exodus 3. ver 14 is very considerable as to the present when Moses would be instructed by God with his name to answer the Israelites enquiring it God sets forth his name by his nature thou shalt say I am hath sent me unto you God in his first answer to Moses in the beginning of the verse where he saies I am that I am God holds forth his absolute independing and eternal subsistency and being I am that I am that is of my self not taking my being from the power pleasure or help of any pre-existing cause or thing this speaks the eternity of his being Now in these words of God I am hath sent me unto you God sets forth the manner or nature of the being of things in him of their being in his love will or purpose and consequently as to our capacity in his sight and knowledge as I may say they do set forth the nature of love will decree knowledge sight and other attributes of God This name shews that his love of any man his will and purpose to have any thing come about or to pass his sight and knowledge of all future events and things to happen in time as to us were all eternally present with God not taking beginning or being in him in his sight or knowledge in time God loves not the man to day that is doth not will purpose or decree to him to day that good thing be it either some temporal happiness yea or future life eternal that he did not purpose will or decree to him from all eternity he doth not see or behold a man to day Justified through Christ that he did not behold so before the foundation of the world was laid I am saith God that is as if God should have said I am now at this time what I was from all eternity in respect to will decree sight knowledge power c. Again I am now at this present what I shall be to all succeding times to eternity in respect to will decree sight knowledge power for all

VINDICIAE CHRISTI ET Obex Errori Arminiano A Plea for Christ AND OBSTRVCTION To the first PASSAGE Whereat the Errors of ARMINIVS Steal into the hearts of MEN Shewing Christs satisfaction in his Humiliation to be the sole price of our Redemption and evidencing faith in that satisfaction no instrumental cause of our Justification in the sight of God nor condition given us for life Delivered in three Sermons By Richard Lewthwat Master of Arts of Caius Colledge in Cambridge at his Parish of Wigston in Norfolk London Printed by R. W. for Nath. Webb and VVilliam Grantham and are to be sold at the sign of the black Bear in Saint Pauls Church-yard neer the little North-door 1655. To the Honourable Religious and Learned Col. ROBERT WILTON My dear Friend HOnourable Sir should I be silent of the causes moving the publication of these less then weekly meditations saving to your self and some few I should be rendred indiscreet if not presumptuous and more I shall therefore hint the motives which duly considered to a little charity will justifie the action I have in this Treatise couched together the ground yea and the most of my positions desired by many to be publique which have drawn much ill Will and dissatisfaction towards me and made me condemned not onely in private but in publique also as the most erroneous and destructive to truth that speaks O my God for give them for I hope they know not what they say Sir t is well known to you that I having delivered most of this Treatise in the Pulpit the Minister desired the Congregation to stay upon which request they did and he had Christian-like attention from all He endeavoured to possess the people that there was error in my Sermons but before the picture or sign of his confutation I can call it no more he granted the whole and more then I fully affirmed for Sir you may remember that at his beginning he said I had given the just and true sense of what was then my text in my Exposition of it which I said I had done in the opinion of some few and late Divines but not of the Iesuites and some others After this he said my doctrine gathered thence was sound and good Divinity after all he denyed faith to have any instrumental efficiency as to our Justification in the sight of God this being done and a quarter of an hours discourse he moved for a reply The sum of what I returned to him was a commendation of his zeal and care to keep his people from error promising him a Copy of my Sermons that he might be better able with the assistance of his side and the advantage of time to confute me if feasable Now then Sir is it not time to publish should I not how should my publick scandal be removed my friends satisfied or my promise to the Minister with convenience made good Such is my confidence of the truth of my Positions that should these Sermons come to a spiritualized soul privately they would bemone me laden with such reproaches as they have heard me as David did Abners death by Ioab dyed Abner as a fool dyeth for as David said of him I may say of my self my hands were not as yet bound nor my feet put into fetters I remember not as yet my self ever shackled either privately or publickly about these things save with reproachful terms which God hath ever made fall from me like the chains of Peter T is not unknown to your self and many more how vehemently and generally I have been opposed in these and such like Positions by inferiour Judgements and they being silenced upon their attempts though not converted I have desired I might argue them for their better satisfaction or my own conviction with men of war from their youth with the most eminent men both for learning and piety There have been returned to this my request that the times are not safe for opposition of them I have minded them that brought the answer with the security of Mr. Iohn Goodwin publickly opposing this way of salvation I have also assured them that I would not in the least divulge what they should deliver as to this purpose or questions under debate All this and much more have gained nothing of discourse from them but by a proxie by Mr. Platers appello Evangelium which was commended to me by some to set me right in my judgement which book indeed hath wrought nothing upon me to that intent it being a groundless condemnation of the opinions about predestination of Mr. Perkings Whitakers Beza Piscator the Synod at Dort and many more and a closing with Arminius and others of that strain as being in the way of truth See page the 60. Of his appello Evangelium The distinction of the knowledge of God dividing it into the knowledge of pure understanding and the knowledge of vision being as himself confesseth the ground and basis of his judgement which if duly considered is like many more of the School distinctions even more nice then wise Nay it hath rather been a means to confirm me in my former Positions because that in Doctor Potters letter to Mr. V bound up with Mr. Plater See Dr. Potters questions in that letters in page of the book 425. he hath in his questions there mentioned asserted Positions which can beget no less in my judgement then all or my present positions at least are I confess that sometimes there are strivings in my heart betwixt these and the opposite opinions sometimes when I consider the multitude of men that way the eminency of the persons in respect to learnings natural abilities strictness of life advancement to dignities in late past years and other becoming conditions as also having my thoughts sometimes taken wholly up about some places of Scripture setting forth God providing future glory upon even terms of obedience here not at that time minding the Free grace of God in Christ nor heeding the power dominion and soveraignty that God in equity hath over his creatures which speaks him right just and holy in all his wayes neither blameable by nor accountable to any however he shall please to deal with his creatures raised by him of nothing to what they are or at his pleasure shall be why I confess I say that whilest it hath been thus with me I have almost said as they Now to end Sir and Christian Readers having knowledge of my condemnation for these Positions and finding none of those Judges so just as to hear me plead for my self before my sentence nor finding any so religious as to pitty me or do good to themselves so far as to endeavour my conversion from those opinions by them called damnable and devillish I am I confess the more willing to expose my Judgement in these plain Sermons to publique view to this end that if my principles be truth and the way to truth there might more be brought in to

things to come are as present with me I am saith God hath sent me unto you That place of Peter in his second Epistle chap. the 3. ver 8. which backs my last gloss as a truth in it self may very well be used to expound the meaning of the former words in Exodus where he saith that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day A thousand years or eternity a part past that is yet to succeed cannot alter the knowledge decree will or purpose that is in or with God this day cannot bring to God a new purpose or decree a wil in him of doing any thing for any that was not in him from everlasting A thousand years cannot bring one soul to be clean through the blood of Christ in the eye or view of God that is not or was not so in his eye this present time or from everlasting That God sees all things together and at once with one act view and inspection was held sound Polemick and School Divinity till of late and certainly was their couclusion from such places as I have looked upon last to see the description of God as to the present purpose Now to bring all this to my present purpose Last faith cannot be looked upon as an instrumental cause of the application of Christ as the cover of our sins from the sight of God as that whereby the spirit of God brings a sinner into the favour and love of God through Christ who was out of it and in his hatred till that grace came into his soul applying Christ comfortably to the heart the reason is because that this being granted the very nature and being of God as described in the Scriptures is destroyed and denyed that being granted God can no longer say of himself as he did to Moses namely I am that is I am but now what I have been from eternity because that being granted time hath brought something to him which was not with him from everlasting then a day and a thousand years are not all one with God God is not the same in the day that he is in the end of a thousand years after the day When the grace of faith comes into a soul makes it an instrumental cause of our righteousness before God grant it that thereby we come to be justified in the sight of God not justified in his sight before not righteous in his sight through Christ before and then a thousand years future time add much to God that he had not before his knowledge and sight of justified persons is increased over it was his love that is his will or purpose to save such and such from eternal death is now come to God which was not in him or with him before his act of pronouncing this man just or quit from sin through Christ is now done and acted by the father in time which was not done nor acted by him from everlasting See brethren grant faith an instrumental cause of our righteousness of our being justified through Christ in the sight of God and then his nature and being as described in the Scriptures is destroyed and denyed God can no longer say of himself I am Peter erred when he said that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day How is God without variableness and shadow of change if the adversaries opinion be true I could say much more to refell the objection to evidence the impossibility of faith being instrumentall to our Justification through Christ in the sight of God but judging I have said enough to prevail with ingenuity with hearts not possessed with obstinacy I shall give yea breviate of my long answer and so go on Faith must not be received as an instrumental cause or means of our righteousness before God of our being justified in his fight through Christ First because the Scriptures affirm us plainly just in Gods sight before the income of grace into the soul See the places before quoted Ier. 31. ver 3. Ezek. 16. ver 6. 8. Rom. 4. ver 5. Secondly it must not it cannot be for if it be received it destroys many places of Scripture especially that of Isa 4. ver 1 2. Thirdly it must not it cannot be because so held as objected the nature and being of God as described in the Scriptures is destroyed and denyed especially as described in Exodus chap. 3. ver 14. and in 2 Pet. 3. ver 8. and elsewhere Well but perhaps the Adversaries will yet reply for grace especially for the grace of faith that t is the conditional means for life that the Gospel promiseth life indeed but t is upon condition of our faith and therefore the matter and means at least in part of our salvation Mr. Perkins shall make answer to this in his Commentary upon the Galatians pag. 157. as Mr. Saltmarsh quotes him where he thus saith That the Gospel hath in it no morall condition of any thing to be done of us Indeed faith is mentioned after the form and manner of a condition but in truth t is the free gift of God as well as life eternal and long after that he goes on and affirms that our salvation stands in this not that we know and apprehend Christ but in that he knows and apprehends us first of all So to this purpose 1 Ioh. chap. 4. ver 10. Herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us and therefore I may say can be no conditional means for life Mark the 12. ver 41. the treasury was open for the poor to cast in their small sums as well as for the rich to cast in much and in Exodus the 35. At the making of the Tabernacle the offerings of Goats hair and Badgers skins were accepted as well as gold and silver and the rich materials let me cast in my mite my courser matter to the destruction of the present objection The Ministers that hold forth faith as a condition to be performed by man for life as without which done by them they cannot inherit the future glory if they come to heal wounded spirits and to quiet disturbed souls with this salve or means and otherwise can give them no hope for life faith being not in their power to work into the heart of the diseased they may prove if Gods concurrence be not speedy like Iobs friends even miscrable comforters I think that that Minister that makes faith in Christ the condition for salvation and do deny man life unless upon that term this Gosspel Minister for so he will be termed considered duly with him that denies life unless upon performance of the whole Law by and in himself me thinks this man doth to the Church of God as Rehoboam said he would do to Israel complaining of his father Solomons Taxes who said his finger should be thicker then his fathers loyns if faith be given us as a condition for