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	power_n	will_n	1,439	5	6.6180	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33361	A discourse of the saving grace of God by ... David Clarkson ...	Clarkson, David, 1622-1686.	1688 (1688)	Wing C4573; ESTC R12535	66,518	170

already if he would use them He that only shews another what he has to doe and offers reason to perswade him to do it not taking any other course to strengthen him for it takes it for granted that he is afore-hand able for it Now this is all that their Moral Grace pretends to it shews the Sinner that it is his Duty to turn to God c. and uses Arguments to move him to it but gives no other strength for it than what this Advice includes which as Perswasion or Advice does indeed give none at all but plainly supposes it in being They say a Sinner under the Influence of this Moral Grace is able to Convert and Regenerate himself to beget himself to a New Life But if he be able his Ability is from Nature and the Power of his natural Faculties was not from Grace seeing this their Grace is not for the giving of Ability where it is not but only for exciting it where it is before 2. As the Power for these great Concerns of Salvation is not from God or his Grace so neither is the Act from him For 1. That which gives or works the Act determins the Will or causes it to determin it self but the Lord by this Grace which is all they own brings it only to the Wills choice and leaves it to do as it list and so plainly leaves the Act to it self so that if the Soul do actually Believe or Repent or turn to God this is of it self their Grace leaves the Will indifferent to act or not to act and so no more works the one than the other and is no more the Cause that it acts than that it acts not It leaves it to the Will either to yield or refuse if it yield it is not from Grace but the Will. Grace leaves it in the Power of the Will to resist if it resist not it is from the Will not from Grace The Lord by his Power works not the Will to turn to God to love to embrace Christ to yield to the Spirit but leaves it indifferent to turn to God or against him to love God or to hate him to embrace Christ or reject him to yield to the Spirit or resist him It must be left indifferent as to either Grace turns not the Scales but leaves the Will at an equal poise that the Will of Man not the Grace of God may have the casting weight if Grace should weigh it down the Liberty of the Will they say would be violated and its Nature des●oyed 3. Nay their Grace is so far from working the Will to actual Faith or Holiness that by their account it seems to lead a man into Sin and leave him in it for it is a Sin for a man to be Indifferent whether he Believe or Believe not whether he accept Christ or reject him whether he love or hate him But all that this Grace does to the Will is to bring it to such an Indifferency and so the Grace of God with them does no other no better Office for a Sinner than to bring his Soul into a wicked Posture and in that Posture it does and must leave the Will to it self and there left if the Will be no better to it self than Grace is or can be it shall never come into a better Posture Nay further the Lord is so far from Determining the Will and so from causing the Act by making it willing that it is impossible for him to do it They say as was shewed before that the Will cannot be determined by God himself without destroying it they will have it an Inconsistency and to imply a Contradiction And thus the Lord is so far from being the Worker or real Cause of actual Faith Conversion Sanctification that it is impossible he should be the Cause thereof he is so far from actually working these that he cannot do it Let me but add one Argument more This Grace is given equally to all and effects no more in one than another and therefore can be no more the Cause of actual Conversion in those that turn to God than in those that are never converted works Regeneration no more in those that are sanctified than in the unregenerate i. e. works it not at all is no Cause of it The Lord by vertue of this Grace gives actual Faith and Repentance no more to those that Believe and Repent than to such as persevere in Impenitency and Unbelief gave Faith no more to Paul than to Judas Repentance no more to Peter than to Simon Magus i. e. he gives it not at all This is the clear consequence of their Doctrine The Lord is not the Author and Finisher of our Faith or of our Repentance nor the real Cause of Conversion or Sanctification and other saving Blessings and so not the Author of Salvation It is not by his Grace but of our selves both as to the Power and the Act in direct opposition to the Text and the whole strain of the Gospel And it is as reconcileable with Scripture and the Perfections of God to say he is not the Creator of the World or the Author of any thing as to say he is not the Author or real Cause of those great Concerns of Salvation 4. This leads them to deny Original Sin. They must of necessity make little or nothing of the Corruption of our Nature since they will have their Swasive Grace to be a sufficient Relief against it as if all the Sin in mans Nature could be argued out of him without more adoe and all the Power of Corruption natural and contracted too might be effectually subdued and crucified by rational Advice whereas this Moral Swasion is of it self of no Efficacy at all for this purpose and appears to be so in that it effects no such thing in far the greatest part of those who partake of it as much as any but leaves them altogether as corrupt as it found them I cannot discern that they will acknowledge any corruption at all to be in the Will tho Scripture and Experience shew that it is most of all there The Will seems to be now as sound by their Doctrine as it was in Innocency nor stands it in need of more help by Grace than Adam before the Fall for then he had and needed Swasive Grace In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Here is the Duty propounded and the Proposal inforced with a powerful Motive by God himself that is the sum of Swasive Grace which the Lord seeing needfull for our first Parents did thus administer it as far from Corruption as it was then And if the Will need no more now it is as free from Corruption as it was then Thus for the Affections there must be no more Corruption in them than in the Will these being but the Acts and Motions of it Or if they will consider them as in the Sensitive Appetite yet common Illumination is enough to heal it there for

and so without more adoe is Converted and Regenerated There is the rise of Holiness afterwards by determining it self again and again it acquires a habit and that is a free and permanent Quality That the Will exercises Hoor●b tom 1. p. 316. increases strengthens and confirms Holiness as it began it by determining it self It has Power to do this in and of it self and nothing else does or can do it The Spirit neither by this Light nor by any other gracious Influence does or can determine it Nor does the Will need any thing for the exercise of its Power but only Light to make a sufficient discovery of the Duty or Object propounded Thus all the Motions Operations Assistances of the Spirit of Grace are confined to this Light All its healing strengthening quickening and establishing Vertue amounts to no more than this The Soul neither has nor needs any spiritual Life Health Strength or Motion either first or last but what this does effect and yet it effects no such thing in far the most that have it For those have it no less than others who are in the style of Scripture not only in the dark but Darkness And if it have any more effect upon others than it has upon the Children of darkness yet this efficacy it must have from Free-will not of it self nor of the Spirit whom they call its Author otherwise it would be equally effectual in all since all have it equally and the Spirit is supposed to give it equally to all And if the Spirit of Christ give it not its Efficacy and Vertue but it owes this only to Free-will it is of no worth as i● proceeds from the Spirit of no more value than a fruitless and ineffectual thing of no Vertue and so of no value but what it derives from Mans Will. Now what Honour is it to the Spiri● of Christ to ascribe to him a fruitless a worthless thing They seem to honour the Spirit as much who will borrow no light at all from him but count the light of Reason with the help of the written Word sufficient And what great difference is there betwixt them who ascribe nothing at all to the Spirit and those that ascribe to him that which is nothing worth That which is fruitless and ineffectual of no Vertue of no Value but but what it owes to Mans Will may as well be ascribed to humane Reason a● the divine Spirit 17. It tends to destroy the Mediation of Christ That liberty which they make essential to Mans Will makes Christ uncapable of being the Mediator between God and Man and so tends to ruine all the concerns of God and Man in Christs Mediation For either the Will of Christ was undeclinably fixed upon that which is Good and Holy so that it could not to Disobedience and Wickedness And if so it had not that indifferency to good and evil in which they place the liberty of Mans Will and count it essential thereto so that it cannot be a humane Will without it and then Christ wanting that which is essential to humane Nature was not indeed a Man nor did assume our Nature consequently could not be the Mediator between God and Man being not the Man Christ Jesus Or if his Will was not undeclinably fixed on that which was good but left in a state of indifferency to that or the contrary so that he might have observed his Fathers Will or not observed it might have loved him or not loved him might hav● fulfilled all righteousness or not fulfilled it And if he might have sinned or not sinned then he was not God for he that is God cannot sin So that as they state the freedom of Mans Will either he was not Man or he was not God and either way he could not be Mediator who must be both Thus all the advantages Sinners have by his Mediation perish and all the Glory the Lord designed to himself thereby is blasted by the extravagant Doctrine of Free-will 18. It defaces Redemption by Christ and leaves little or no place or no necessity either of Satisfaction or Merit in his Obedience and Sufferings 1. He did not merit Faith or Regeneration or Holiness or Perseverance for all or for any particular Persons They declare expresly that it is foolishly said that Christ procured Faith or Regeneration for any Their Principles ingage them to maintain this for if he merited these for any it would have been necessary that these should have been wrought in some of the Redeemed it would have been necessary that some or other of them should be Believers regenerate and sanctified and stedfast unto the end but all such necessity they deny as inconsistent with that freedom of Mans Will which they contend for It must not be under any necessity either from the Decree of God or the Purchase of Christ Faith Repentance Sanctification Perseverance must be meer Contingencies in respect of those former Causes or else they could not be free Acts in respect of the Will their next Cause Christ by his Death and Merit must not be the Author or Cause of these though there be no Pardon or Life without them so much must not be ascribed to his Merits lest too little be left to Free-will 2. Upon the same Account Christ did not Merit Pardon or Salvation for any one certainly and so his Death makes neither the Means nor the End certain After he had done and suffered so much been obedient unto Death made his Soul an Offering for Sin and obtained Eternal Redemption by his Blood yet there was no Necessity that any one Sinner should have Pardon and Life no Certainty that any one would be Pardoned and Saved Christ left this altogether uncertain and not to be determined but by Mans Free-will After Christ had finished the Work of Redemption as all might have been Saved so all might have been Damned There was no Value Efficacy Merit or Satisfaction in Christs Death or Obedience to make more sure Work It was left at uncertainty as it were at hap hazard whether Salvation or Damnation should carry it and Free-will alone must have the honour to determine it Christ they say procured Grevincov in Ames Coron p. 142. by his Death a Power to destroy Unbelievers So that he no more Purchased Salvation than Damnation he is by Vertue of his Death and Obedience no more a Redeemer than a Destroyer of Mankind Whether he should prove a Saviour of any or a Destroyer of all is left to the arbitrement of Free-will There was they say Idem no other Necessity nor Advantage nor Value in the Death of Christ but what might have been perfectly salved though all the Redeemed had Perished Eternally They declare for an Universal Redemption and that equally extended to all and every one and so would seem to magnifie it more than others Yet indeed it is no other Redemption of all but such as is very well consistent with the Damnation of