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
A26860	An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlocke, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical and monarchical, as church-tyranny and popery : and defending Dr. Isaac Barrow's treatise against it by Richard Baxter ; preparatory to a fuller treatise against such an universal soveraignty as contrary to reason, Christianity, the Protestant profession, and the Church of England, though the corrupters usurp that title.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1682 (1682)	Wing B1184; ESTC R16768	131,071	189

Christians Or whether the higher Sacrament do not eminently contain the lower as making a man a Bishop containeth making him a Presbyter and that containeth eminently his Deaconship as some say If they must be baptized yet it implieth the Nullity of their Sacramental Communion before And if so Mr. Dodwell must confess that Priestly exhibition or investiture is null to an uncapable Subject But I think most will say that he should not be baptized it being done interpretatively And if so is his Prelatical mode of Ordination more necessary than actual Baptism Besides that as is said they make Lay-mens or womens baptizing sufficient ad esse And yet the Church of England professeth that only the Two Sacramens Baptism and the Lords Supper are generally necessary to salvation § 38. Pag. 67 68. He would persuade us that the Imposition of hands in Ordination signifieth what he asserteth But he giveth us not one word of proof of it Was it the Holy Ghost which was in the imposing Apostle or Prelate that was given by him and out of him into the Ordained No he was never in Scripture said to be the Ownor Donor or efficient conveyer of the Holy Ghost But Gods will made the Imposition of the Apostles hand a conditional act to qualifie the recipient to receive the Holy Ghost immediately from God as the Texts before cited and many more prove What if it be once said that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when many other Texts expound it It 's well known that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth many other causes mediums conditions as well as efficient conveying causes Is it like to signifie more here than in the Doctrine of Justification when it is so oft said that we are justified by faith And yet faith there is no efficient instrument conveying or giving us pardon and relative Justification but only a necessary qualification of the Recipient called by Dr. Twisse Causa dispositiva which is part of the Materialis upon which Gods Covenant immediately pardoneth and justifieth the believer so both there and here it is by or through the Act of man as a moral qualification of the Recipient made a condition by God § 39. After all this the man cometh himself pag. 72. to distinguish of Qualifications necessary to the being of the office and to the well-being yea and hath the face to say that I should have distinguished them as if I had not ever done it Is it not an unprofitable toil to dispute with such men that will pretend that a case by me constantly stated was not stated and then will long dispute himself for the unqualified without distinction and after all distinguish in the fag end This beseemeth not any man that will pretend to plead for truth But yet he will not be over-liberal to us he saith p. 13. All the skill that is requisite essentially is only in general to know the benefits to be pe●formed on Gods part and the duties to be promised on mans and the nature and obligation of Covenants in general and the particular solemnities of Ecclesiastical Covenanting And of this how can any one be uncapable that is but capable of understanding the common dealings of the world Ans. 1. And yet must we have Universities and must the Holy Ghost be given by the Bishops for this And is there any need to open the Bible to know it and must so much riches and honour maintain this much and all be damned Schismaticks that turn to better 2. Set this qualified Ministry and his great zeal to perswade the Nonconformists to cease Preaching and his Unchurching the Reformed Churches altogether and it 's easie to see what this humble diligent man is labouring for 3. Do not many millions understand the common dealings of the world that understand not the Gospel The natural man receiveth not the things that be of God for they are spiritually discerned 4 Is not this a plain design to set up a carnal Kingdom of ignorant vicious Clergy-men such as St. Paul saith Rom. 8 neither are nor can be subject to Gods Law instead of a holy Catholick Church and Communion of Saints and to make Mahometans think that they are Saints in comparison of us and that Christians are an unholy sort of men 5. Either he includeth all that is necessary to the things named by him or not If not then his Priest must know the benefits of Gods Covenant without knowing what God is or that Christ is the Purchaser Covenanter c. If yea which I doubt not he will say then O what an excellent body of Theology is included in these few general words Then he must know all those Attributes of God and his Relations to man by which he is said to be our God He must know all the necessary articles of faith about the Person of Christ as God and man in two Natures and one Person his Incarnation Birth Life Sufferings Death Burial his Doctrine his Merits his Resurrection Ascension Glory Intercession Kingly and Prophetical office and last Judgment and Glorious Kingdom He must know what Covenant God formerly made and man broke and what sin original and actual and what curse and condemnation followed on mankind And Oh how many great and mysterious things are contained in Gods Covenant-benefits On Union with Christ Reconciliation Justification Adoption Sanctification The Doctrine of the Holy Ghost as the Third person in the Trinity and as the Inspirer of Prophets and Apostles and Inditer and confirmer of the Scriptures and the Witness of Christ and the Sanctifier and Comforter of the Elect besides Resurrection Glorification c. And what a deal is contained in mans necessary qualification Faith Repentance and promised duty And the true nature and use of the Sacraments themselves And is all this such a small or easie matter as he seems to intimate 6. But hath he yet proved that a true Minister of Christ hath no necessary work but thus to administer Sacraments I will yet believe 2 Tim. 4.1 2. that he must preach the Word in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort partly to convert the unconverted partly to confirm and guide believers and that the people should ask the Law at his mouth as being the messenger of the Lord of Hosts And that the very essence of his office is to be a Minister under the Teaching Priestly and Ruling office of Christ. 7. And if he had proved that a sorry Priest hath all that is essential to his office that proveth not that I must take him for my Pastor no not though the Diocesan command me Souls are more worth than to be wilfully made the Priests and Prelates merchandize If a man have all essential to a Physician and no more I will not trust my life to his skill which is less than my soul though the Bishop bid me If a woman have all that 's essential to a woman he is a fool that will take her for his wife because the Bishop bids him

at the Savoy were 1. About another ma●ter 2. Few of them received or ever published to the world And all that I have said to you is very little of our Cause which I will not touch unless I might prosecute it Your information about Bishop Sanderson and the word Vse of all things c. is as the rest to conquer our sense and experience 1. The words in the Act are most plain and Bishop Sanderson de Iuram concludeth That Oaths and Covenants must be taken in the plain and proper sense 2. It is notorious that after the Lords in a Proviso of another Act would have so expounded the Act of Uniformity that it is meant but of consent to use c and the Commons rejected it as intolerable and upon a meeting of both Houses satisfied the Lords by their Reasons who acquiesced in the rejection of that Exposition And shall we still stretch our sense against the plain words when the Parliament long after hath rejected such an Exposition Sir it is much more especially about Separation which your lines invite me to say and the cause requireth but I fear I have wronged you by prolixity already and much more by my freedom of speech which is from my inclination to speak of things as they are and is truly joined with a very great respect and honour of your self commanded by your excellent Book and judicious peaceable stile and temper I rest Jan. 5. 1672. Your unworthy Fellow-servant worthy to be Silenced RI. BAXTER The short Answer to Mr. Dodwell's long Letter fully answered in my Treatise of Episcopacy For the Worthy and much Honoured Mr. Henry Dodwell at Trinity Colledg near Dublin in Ireland Worthy Sir I Thankfully received yours of 28 Pages from the hand of Mr. Teate That I may not be again guilty of such hastiness in writing as you take notice of I premise this to acquaint you That your warning with my backwardness to such work and the multitude of Employments in which I am pre-engaged shall keep me a while from that error and you from the trouble And if I take not your concluding counsel to avoid both timerity and partiality in this Cause I shall notoriously contradict mine own interest I have studied the point as diligently as I could almost thirty years longer than you have lived in the world if the bearer of yours give me a true account of your age And yet I truly think it very possible that one of such admirable parts and diligence as your self evident in your great reading and accurate stile may know much more in half that time But if I can know my own thoughts I have studied with a desire whatever it cost me to know the truth I dare not say Impartially altogether For I have flesh and blood and who can choose but have a little partiality for that way which all his worldly interest pleadeth for Could I have proved Conformity lawful not to have contained a Covenant against the Church-form Church-offices and Church-discipline of Christs Institutions and for upholding that Church Usurpation and Tyranny which began and still continueth the Divisions of the Christian World nor the deliberate Ministerial owning of the Perjury of many thousands c. I need not have undergone the common scorn and hatred that I have born nor to have been deprived of all Ministerial maintenance and silenced for eleven years of that part of my life which should have been most serviceable to add no more my Reputation with those on the other extreme I did voluntarily cast away by opposing them when I could as easily have kept it as most I know lest it should be any snare or tempting interest to me I assure you That I have not wanted bread is a thing that I owe to thanks to any party for either Prelatists Presbyterians or Independents c. I confess I have read what the Antiprelatists say such as Beza Gerson Bucer Didoclav Parker Bains Iacob Blondel Salmasius c. But I have more diligently studied since I was twenty years of age the chiefest on the other side Saravia Bilson Downham Hooker Burges Covel Bridg Bancroft VVhitgift Spalatensis and since Petavius Hammond and multitudes more And I have now as you desired read over all yours that I might see the end before I past my judgment on the beginning But our apprehensions are various as our preconceptions are I find that we are all forestalled and readiest to learn of our selves who are not always the happiest Teachers of our selves What we have first laid in is usually made the standard of all that followeth and all must be reduced into a due Conformity and subserviency to our former sentiments You have shewed great learning ingenuity and piety and in a very fluent stile expressed what was in your mind and made me remember what one answereth him that said Hooker was yet unanswered viz. Reduce what you would have answered to Argument and it will soon be done I find that it had been much better to have said nothing than to have begun in such a manner of dispute in which the further we go the less we understand one another and make each other molestation instead of edification For plainly I find that though much may be learned out of so rare a discourse as you have vouchsafed me yet it doth very little at all to any dispatch of our pres●nt controversie but might easily deceive me by avocation if I would forget what it is that I dispute about For I perceive 1. That we agree not in our sense of the terms which we make use of And from thence you infer some great and dangerous errors in my judgment 2. We agree least of all in common and obvious matters of fact which are before our eyes and the things of which I have had almost an Ages experience 3. I find that a very great part if not the far greatest of all your discourse is written upon a mis-understanding of my Words and judgment And if one were to publish such kind of Writings how tiresome would it be to the Reader should I set down a particular account of all your passages that are besides the question and all that proceed from such misunderstanding I speak not by way of blaming you for we are not competent Judges of other mens actions till we know the Reasons of them that may be laudable which crosseth our desires Perhaps you had Reasons to pass by the chief part of my explications of my sense and of the matter of fact and say nothing to them And perhaps you had Reasons when I had told you our Country-distribution of Acts of Government into Legislative and Judicial and Executive to make use still of the Equivocal word Decretory and to understand by it as you saw cause only the Legislative power and to leave out the Iudicial which was all that I controverted It may be you had Reason when I talk of a single or Parochial Church