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
A56668	A further continuation and defence, or, A third part of the friendly debate by the same author.; Friendly debate between a conformist and a non-conformist Part 3.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1670 (1670)	Wing P805; ESTC R2050	207,217	458

worse opinion of my self than I had though I think he hath told you of my Pride an hundred times This is no more than his predecessors in this Art of reviling have charged their neighbours withal when they deserve● better usage There was one for instance that would needs prove from Mr. Baxters writings as this man labours to do from mine that he was hypocritically proud So he himself tells us k Appendix to the 5 Disp of right to the Sacraments p. 484. Preface before his Confession of Faith and you shall have my answer at present in his words I will by the help of God search my heart for this sin of pride and desire him to do the like and see that he be well acquit from usurping Gods prerogative and from slandering his Brother 2. How came I to be so unhappy that only those that know me not load me with this charge and never any of my Brethren told me of it to my face 3. It will be worth such mens labour to search how much pride may lie in their impatience of Contradiction and being such that a man knows not how to speak to them for fear of being contume●ious in withdrawing or not giving them the honour they expect I remember h●● St. Austin excused a friend of his to a man of such a Spirit and with a fear least after all his caution he should seem contumelious himself in that Apology I hear thou complainest of Memoratus a Brother that he answered something contumeliously to thee which I beseech thee not to account a reproach When as I am certain that it did not proceed from a proud M●nd For I know that Brother of mine if he speak any thing with greater fervency for his Faith and for the Charity of the Church than thy gravity would willingly hear that is not to be called contumely but confidence and assurance of the tru●● of what he said For he ●esired to reason and confer not to fawn and flatter In such a confidence which I feel still unshaken in my mind after all his batteries I will proceed take it ●ow he please to make good my charge by giving only some notorious instances of all those things and several others as they occur to my thoughts For we need not drink up all the Sea to know that it is salt as Irenaus speaks nor is it fit to trouble the world with too long a discourse about one mans follies And if you please we will begin with his Ignorance N. C. It will be a very ungrateful discourse C. Not more to you than to me who heartily wish there were a way of curing Ulcers without unripping them first and laying them open But I look upon this man as so empty and yet so confident and self-conceited that there is no way to do him good but by laying him naked before himself And I doubt not also but to make my discourse very profitable to others who will give it the hearing for he that corrects one may mend an hundred N. C. Proceed then C. You have had some tast already of his skill St. Taffee will be a witness of it as long as he lives But to take him down still lower and keep him from medling hereafter with things beyond his reach I shall give you a more full demonstration of his Ignorance and make it manifest that of a Scholar he is the worst Horseman that ever bestrid a Book you will give me leave to allude to his own Rhetorick having rid himself clean out of the saddle And since Divinity seems to be h●● prime Profession we will begin with●● principal point of it and that is justifying Faith and good works Abo●● which things he tells us how excellently Mr. d p. 18. Baxter hath wrote and because he hath done so well imagine they are all sound in those points Whe● as he himself good man either do● not know what Mr. Baxter saith 〈◊〉 else is not of his Mind From whence conclude that a man may as easily be 〈◊〉 Antinomian and not know it whatsoeve● he saith to the contrary as he ho●● dangerous opinions about Faith and not know it N. C. What are they I know none C. He tells you not only what his own but what the N. C. opinion is about Justification by Faith in these words We say only Faith justifies as an Instrument though not that Faith which is alone m Pag. 19. Now Mr. Baxter I assure you is none of those but must be exempted out of his We. For there being two things which this Boldface affirms First that only Faith justifies and secondly that it justifies as an Instrument he will say neither of them for any good but looks on them as dangerous Positions N. C. You just sure or else Phil. is in a bad case C. It is as I tell you For to say that Faith only justifies is to say that God doth not say true who tells us we are not justified by Faith only This Mr. Baxter repeats over and over again n In his Disput of Justification and in his Letter but I must cite the very words or else I fear he will wrangle The Question is saith he o Ib. pag. 192. in what sense we are justified by Works and not by Faith only You answer in a direct contradiction to St. James saying it is by Faith only So dare not I directly say it is not by works when God saith it is But think I am bound to distinguish and shew in what sense Works justifie and in what not and not to say flatly against God that we are not justified by works under any notion but only by the Faith that works p Which is Philag his Assertion A denial of Gods assertions is an ill expounding of him N. C. This I confess is plain C. He speaks as home to the other part and not only denies that Faith justifies as an Instrument q Confess of Faith p. 88 89. but saith it is besides nay against the Scripture to say that Faith justifies as an Instrument r Ib. pag. 295. N. C. I did not think Phil. had clasht with M. Baxter and held Errors of such a Nature C. Nor he neither for he doth not use to think but only imagine If he had read and considered his Books he would have found that those who say Faith justifies as a s Quà Instrumentum p 95. true Instrument do most certainly make it to justifie as an action of man and in saying that it justifies as an Instrument yet not as an Act or by Actions they speak most gross contradiction seeing an Instrument is an Efficient Cause and Action is the Causality of the Efficient N. C. I do not well understand the danger of this C. He tells you t Disput of Justification p. 224. p. 214 216. It makes man his own justifier or the next cause of his Justification and by his own act to help God to

justifie him For so all Instruments do help the principal cause And yet by a self contradiction this opinion makes Faith to be of no moral worth and so no vertue or grace yea I think it lays the blame of mans infidelity on God For the assertors of it have a device to make it a passive Instrument from whence follow these absurdities N. C. I will not trouble my brains about it but I see I may omit a Question which he asks you viz. Do you not think that good works are the Instrumental cause of our Justification as well as Faith C. I must tell you in brief that all the Questions he propounds to me in that place are such as he would never have askt if he had but attain'd a smattering knowledg in Mr. Baxter's writings whom he commends just as he discommends me without understanding him For he would have taught him That neither Faith nor any work of ours are causes of our Justification either Principal or Instrumental u Confess of Faith pag. 31. and other places Disput of Justific pag. 75. N. C. But there is one Question he asks wherein he prays you to speak out for it is suspected there is a Snake in your Grass C. A Maggot in his Brain N. C. And that is are not Faith and Obedience both one and the same thing C. He hath a resolution in Mr. Baxter Our first Faith is not the same with Obedience to Christ how should it yet it essentially contains are solution and Covenant to obey him x Confess of Faith p. 38 39. But there is no end of these impertinent Questions You will ask me next how I prove my self not to be a Papist N. C. No I 'le let the rest alone because I see what you will say and this indeed was not the main thing that you and I first intended to debate Yet there are some Questions about this matter in another place to which I would gladly have though it be but a brief Answer C. Where shall we find them N. C. There where he comes to your description of Faith pag. 63. C. I remember the place Where I find him in the same posture that the Bishop of Galloway did his Reprover vexing himself with his own anger tumbling and weltring in the puddle of his tumultuous thoughts whereof he cannot rid himself bragging most vainly but producing nothing that may be accounted worthy of an answer y Defence pag. 169. For I having told you that the Faith our Saviour speaks of in those words Joh. 6.29 This is the work of God that you beleive on him whom he hath sent viz. justifying and saving Faith is an effectual perswasion that Jesus is sent of God He very gravely tells me that I deny Faith to consist in assent or perswasion which are the same thing and so contradict the men of my way Was there ever such a giddy-braind man as this set a cock-horse who posts away without his Errand and tells the world I deny Faith to be an assent or perswasion when I tell him it is Doth he no● deserve to have his fingers rapt or to be soundly scourged that takes Pen in hand to confute a Book and never minds or else understands not what he writes against N. C. But you say Faith consists not in a bare perswasion c. C. True That saving Faith which I speak of doth not consist in a bare assent to the Truth of the Gospel but yet it is an assent though it be something more Assent is the General nature of Faith but there is a difference between Faith that is saving and Faith that is not saving which I there expressed by the word effectual And here again he blunders and keeps a pudder to make a plain ching obscure N. C. You will not say it was plain sure C. Yes but I will though nothing can be so plain and clear which th● mans confused thoughts shall not trouble The difference I made between this Faith which our Saviour speaks of and a bare perswasion that he came from God was this that it is a perswasion of that Truth with its fruits and effects Which I expessed in these words becoming his Disciples sincere Profession of his Religion and living according to it For unless our minds being convinced of the Truth it have this effect upon our wills to make us consent to obey it and sincerely purpose to do according to our perswasion and unless also if we live we make good this purpose and both profess and perform obedience to the Gospel we do not the work of God which our Saviour speaks of nor have that faith which will bring us to everlasting life This he might have found affirm'd by Mr. Baxter in as round words as mine if he had spent that time in reading and meditating which he spends in scribling It 's all one saith he z Appendix to Disput of Right to the Sacraments p. 509. in my account to believe in Christ and to become a Christian c. To be a believer a Disput of Justif p. 77 78. and to be a Disciple of Christ in Scripture sense is all one and so to be a Disciple and to be a Christian and therefore Justifying faith comprehends all that is essential to our Discipleship or Christianity as its constitutive causes To which he adds this Proposition Those therefore who call any one act or two by the name of Justifying Faith and all the rest by the name of works and say that it is only the act of recumbency on Christ as Priest or on Christ as dying for us or only the act of apprehending or accepting his imputed righteousness by which we are justified c. do pervert the Doctrine of Faith and Justification ☞ and their Doctrine tendeth to corrupt the very nature of Christianity it self I could add a great deal more with as much ease as I can write but that I think this sufficient to be replyed to his long babble about the Nature o● Faith and we must not suppose the world at leisure to read the same thing over perpetually If it do not satisfie him let him enjoy the vain conceit of his own skill nay let him crow over me and bear himself with the same pertness to use an expression I have somewhere met with that a Daw sits cawing an● pecking upon a Sheeps back He will be but a Jack Daw for all that N. C. You grant then that there may be a perswalion where it is not effectual C. Who doubts of it But it is not saving Faith which was the thing 〈◊〉 were speaking of As he might have observed had he not kept such a cawing to himself that he could not hear us N. C. He makes account the Questions he asks you there are unanswerable C. He doth so And not to dissemble they seem to be no less subtil and profound than the admired Cryptick Question of Chrysippus if you ever heard