Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	faith_n	justification_n	3,419	5	9.8335	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20736	Lectures on the XV. Psalme read in the cathedrall church of S. Paule, in London. Wherein besides many other very profitable and necessarie matters, the question of vsurie is plainely and fully decided. By George Dovvname, Doctor of Diuinitie. Whereunto are annexed two other treatises of the same authour, the one of fasting, the other of prayer.	Downame, George, d. 1634.	1604 (1604)	STC 7118; ESTC S110203	278,690	369

as being both profitable and necessary forts profitable First because by them we may make sure our calling and our election as Peter teacheth they being so many testimonies vnto vs thereof True indeed it is that we were elected without respect of workes and we are called by grace not according to workes we are justified by faith without workes and by grace we are saued through faith and not by workes But if a man would know whether he be elected called justified and shall be saued as we are bound to giue diligence that we may haue a firme knowledge of these things we are not to pry into the secret counsell of God but we are to examine our selues by our fruits for both we and others are to be discerned by our fruits As our Sauiour saith by their fruits you shall know them do men gather grapes of thornes or ●igges of thistels a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit By the fruits therefore of righteousnes we may euidently discerne our selues to be sanctified And none are sanctified but such as first are justified and whosoeuer are justified are effectually called and none are effectually called but such as are elected and none are elected but such as shall be saued To this purpose Iames sheweth that the faith whereby we are justified must be demonstrated by good workes And Iohn affirmeth that by the the loue of our brethren which is all one in effect with righteousnesse we know that we are translated from death vnto life Againe good workes are profitable because they haue the promises both of this life and of that which is to come They are also necessary not as the causes of our justification and saluation as though we were either justified by them or saued for them but as necessary fruits of faith and testimonies of our justification according whereunto the sentence of saluation shall be pronounced for although vnto the act of justification good workes do not concurre as any causes thereof yet in the subject that is the partie justified they concurre as fruits of our faith and consequents of our justification For as breathing is such a fruit or consequent of life as where that is we judge the body to liue where that is not we judge it to be dead so is the exercise of righteousnesse and performance of good workes such a consequent of faith as that where good workes are the faith is liuely where they are not at all the faith is dead They are necessary also in respect of saluation not as the causes thereof but partly as the way for we are his vvorkmanship created vnto good workes which he hath prepared for vs to walke in them and therefore they are fitly sayd to be Vni regum non causa regnandi The way to the kingdome not the cause of reigning and partly as the euidence according vnto which the Lord proceedeth in judgement to the sentence of saluation Come you blessed of my father sayth Christ the judge inherit you the kingdome prepared for you from the foundations of the world For I was an hungrie and you gaue me meat I thirsted and you gaue me drinke c. It is most certaine that Christ our Sauiour by his obedience hath merited and purchased eternall life for all those that beleeue in him according to the maine promise of the Gospell that whosoeuer beleeueth in him shall be saued By that righteousnes and obedience of Christ apprehended by faith not by or for any righteousnes inherent in vs or obedience performed by vs are we made sonnes heires of God entituled vnto the kingdome of heauen acquitted from our sinnes and accepted vnto eternall life Notwithstanding seeing all that be in the Church professe themselues to beleeue whereof many deceiue either themselues with an opinion or others with a profession of faith therefore the Lord proceedeth vnto judgement according to the fruits either of faith or infidelity taking for granted that in those who are members of the true visible Church where good workes are there is faith and where are no good workes there is no faith And therefore it behoueth vs as we desire either to haue assurance of our saluation whiles we liue here or to heare the comfortable sentence of saluation pronounced to vs in the day of judgement so to be carefull to demonstrat our faith by good workes And hereby it appeareth against the malicious slaunder of the Papists that although we deny good workes to be meritorious of euerlasting life yet we do not teach men to cast off all care and well doing Now for the auoiding of errour Whereas the workes of righteousnesse are made a proper note of the sons and heires of God we are first to restraine this part of the Lords answer to that subject whereof Dauids question is propounded namely to those who liue in the true visible Church and professe the name and religion of God Of these because there be many hypocrites and vnsound professors among them Dauid desireth to be informed who are the true professors The Lord answereth He that worketh righteousnesse and so by his good workes doth demonstrat his faith There are many workes materially good to be found not onely among heretickes and idolatours as the Papists but also among Turkes and Pagans But we speake not of those that are without for they are not within the compasse either of Dauids question or Gods answer And secondly we are to know that all works in respect of the matter or the thing done seeme to be good workes are not straightwayes the workes of righteousnesse neither doth he which performeth them alwayes worke righteousnesse For it is not a good and a true worke of righteousnesse indeed vnlesse it proceed from the right fountaine vnlesse it be done in a right maner and to a right end As touching the fountaine it is a good rule of Gregory That the streames of righteousnes towards our brother must be deriued from the fountaine of pietie towards God For we loue not our brother aright vnlesse we loue him in and for the Lord and we cannot loue him in and for the Lord vnlesse we loue the Lord much more and we loue the Lord because we are by faith persuaded that he loueth vs first his loue being shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost and we cannot beleeue in God and Christ our Sauiour vnlesse we know God aright and vnderstand the mysterie of our saluation by Christ. If therefore we be ignorant persons we haue no faith if we be vnfaithfull persons we haue no true loue or feare of God nor any other sanctifying grace If we haue no true loue of God we haue no true loue of our brother For euen as the loue of God seuered from the loue of our neighbour is hypocrisie so is the loue of our neighbor seuered from the loue of God counterfeit The good workes therefore that are done either by an ignorant

hath turned it into an act of inhumanitie and crueltie For as Basil well sayth In very deed it is an excesse of inhumanitie when the borrower wanting necessaries and seeking to borrow for the comfort of his life the lender should not content himselfe with the principall but should out of the want and necessitie of his needie brother seeke gaine and aduantage vnto himselfe And therefore as it is said of the good man that he is mercifull and lendeth so may it be said of the vsurer that he is cruell and lendeth For that which is said of wicked men in generall may principally be applied to the vsurer That his very mercies are cruell For when he would seeme to support a man he doth supplant him when he seemeth to cure he inflicteth a deeper wound and when he seemeth to haue relieued a man he casteth him into greater want And therefore Luther doubted not to call the vsurer a blood sucker of the people And in the judgement of the wise Cato it is no more lawfull to be an vsurer than to be a murtherer Thus you see how vsury hath peruerted lending conuerting it from a work of charitie liberalitie and mercie into an act of selfeloue couetousnesse and crueltie And for this cause the vsurer is not vnfitly compared by some to the Magicians of Egypt for whereas the Lord hath ordained the contract of lending to be as a staffe which the wealthier man is to put into the hands of his neighbour to stay and support him when his hands doe shake and himselfe doth shrinke vnder the burthen of his want the vsurer hath turned this staffe into a serpent But vsurie doth not only corrupt and depraue the dutie of lending but also extinguish all free loane where it taketh place drying vp the fountaine of loue whose streames were wont to run foorth to the refreshing of others And it doth not onely harden the heart and shut vp the hands and close the bowels of compassion in the vsurers themselues as wofull experience sheweth but in others also it hath made the dutie of free lending to seeme so great a benefit and of so high a price that as Bucer truly sayth A man may seeme now adayes to be very impudent that shall desire to borrow freely For he that lendeth freely doth for the most part make this estimation of his benefit that besides the forbearance of his money wherewith he doth pleasure the borrower he doth as much for him besides as if he gaue him the tenth part of the principall out of his purse And thus by meanes of vsurie charitie is frozen among men and the bowels of compassion shut vp needie men are driuen vnto extremities and the wealthier sort depriued of that great reward which is promised to those that lend freely But I will shew more particularly how vsurie offendeth both against priuat and publicke charitie as being euer hurtfull and pernicious either to the particular men that doe borrow or else to the body of the common-wealth whose common profit is in all contracts especially to be regarded The partie that taketh vp mony vpon vsurie doth either borrow for the supply of his necessitie and want or else to raise a gaine by the employment of the money to his best aduantage Hee that imposeth vsurie vpon him that borroweth for meere necessitie in stead of helping him increaseth his need vnder a shew of relieuing him he seeketh his vndoing for such a one commonly the more and the longer he borroweth the more vnable he is to pay and so at length is brought vnto extreame penurie vsurie hauing turned all his substance into debt and eaten him out of house and home And therefore though the vsurers sometimes doe vaunt how kindly they deale with their debtours in forbearing them from yeare to yeare yet the truth is the longer they forbeare the greater is their gaine and though they deferre the borrowers misery yet in deferring it they do increase it and therefore by some are not vnfitly compared to the greedy cat which though for a while she plaieth with the silly mouse yet in the end she will be sure to deuour it And here I cannot omit that notable speech of the authour of the worke vnfinished vpon Matthew though it be commonly cited by those which write of this argument Christ therefore sayth he commaundeth vs to lend but not vpon vsurie For he that lendeth vpon vsurie at the first sight seemeth to giue his owne but indeed he is so farre from giuing his owne that he taketh that which is another mans for he seemeth to relieue a mans necessitie but indeed casteth him into a greater necessitie He looseth him of one bond and binds him with more neither doth he lend for the righteousnesse of God but for his owne gaine For the vsurers money is like the biting of the Aspe for euen as he which is bitten of the Aspe goeth to sleepe as if he were delighted and through the pleasantnesse of his sleepe dieth so he which borroweth vpon vsurie is delighted for a time as one that had receiued a good turne and so through the pleasure of the imagined benefit be doth not perceiue how he is taken captiue For euen as the poyson of the Aspe secretly conveying it selfe into all the members corrupteth the whole bodie so vsurie dispersing it selfe through all the borrowers goods conuerteth them into debt And euen as leauen which is put into meale infecteth the whole lumpe drawing it to it selfe turneth it into the nature of leauen so when vsurie entreth into any mans house it draweth all his substance vnto it and turneth it into debt But the patrones of vsurie themselues confesse that vsurie imposed vpon a man that borroweth for need is euer a biting and damnifying of him and that men ought by the commaundement of God to lend to such freely and therefore I shall not need to prooue such vsurie to be vncharitable If therefore the borrower taketh vp mony to imploy it to his gaine it may be that hauing vsed all his skill and employed all his industrie in the occupying of it he shall not be able to gaine so much clearely as will pay the vsurer but allowing more than all his gaine to the vsurer and getting nothing but his labour for his pains and gaining nothing towards his liuing but losse at length becommeth a bankrupt And that this also is vncharitable I shall not need to prooue seeing the patrones of vsurie themselues allow no vsurie but that which is part of the borrowers gaine But suppose the borrower doe gaine yet notwithstanding the contract of vsurie is neuerthelesse vnequall and vncharitable because the vsurer couenanteth for certaine gaine out of the borrowers vncertaine traffique and whether he gaine or loose whether he sinke or swim or whatsoeuer become of the principall whether it be lost by fire or be taken away by theeues or miscarrie by any other