Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A47174
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A serious appeal to all the more sober, impartial & judicious people in New-England to whose hands this may come ... together with a vindication of our Christian faith ... / by George Keith.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing K205; ESTC R33000
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63,270
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72
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hath not yet appeared unto many but it is as yet Night unto them and to others it is as a little dawning but to others clear Day which answers to that of Paul Now is the accepted Time now is the Day of Salvation to wit to such who had Christ crucified and raised again livingly and effectually preached to them by Christs faithful Messengers but yet even to such who are in the Night state and are in Darkness to whom the clear Day of God hath not appeared some divine Light shineth in their Darkness and that Light though ever so small is of a saving tendency and doth prepare the way of the Lord inwardly as John's outward Ministration prepared the Way of the Lord as he came outwardly and even inwardly the Law and the Prophets go before the clear Manifestation of Christ and his Gospel so that the Law even inwardly as well as outwardly is a Schoolmaster to bring them who are under it to Christ Nor do we say That the Light doth reveal in every man all that we must know in order to Salvation upon its first appearance or in its first Ministration for we distinguish betwixt the various inward Ministrations of the Light and Spirit and teach That the former makes way for the latter as it is well improved and as he that goeth up a Stair or Ladder must begin at the lowest Step or Round and so by degrees and in process of time getteth up higher untill he come to the place where he would be and as the sojourning of the People of Israel in the Wilderness had its several Removes which were Typical of the Souls inward progress from spiritual Aegypt to the spiritual Canaan so the Souls of men have their several inward and spiritual Sojournings from one degree to another until they receive the end of their Faith which is the Salvation of their Souls as it is written in the Psalms They go from strength to strength c. And it is a great Perversion in C. Mather that because I blame them for denying That there is any Light in men generally that is sufficient to enable them to do any Work acceptable to God as if therefore I did hold That every man hath so much Grace Illumination as doth enable him to do any i.e. whatsoever Work acceptable to God For All men Not to be able to do any work acceptable to God And All men To be able to do any or every VVork acceptable to God are not Contradictory as being both Universal and therefore they are both false and as two Universals are not Contradictory and are both false so two Particulars are not Contradictory when the one is Positive and the other Negative and therefore may be both True As it is true That some men are good and That some men are not good so it is true That some good Works may be done by some men and yet it is as true That they cannot at that time do some other good VVorks for it is a good Work to believe in Christ crucified and raised again and to love him as such and yet we do not say that the Light in every man doth either teach or enable every man at first so to do for that cannot be done without some special Revelation or Illumination but yet that more common and general Illumination where it is well and duely improved doth enable men to do some other good things that prepareth the Souls of men to receive that more special Illumination that cometh from the same Author and Fountain and so is Introductory to that more special for the Law is Introductory to the Gospel and yet hath the Gospel hid in it as in a Seed as one Natural Science is introductory to another as the Science of natural Physick is introductory to the Science of Medicine and common Arithmetick is introductory to the more abstruse and recondite parts of Mathematical Learning for the Operation of the Law inwardly doth so convince the Soul of sin and doth so discover to the Soul its weakness and shortness in Obedience notwithstanding of some things that it doth which are good after a sort that it maketh the Soul sick and so to need the Physition which is Christ even crucified and raised again as the Mystery of him is inwardly revealed and applyed to the Soul by the Spirit In his 5 th Assertion he doth also grosly prevaricate and pervert the state of the Question for we do not say That Christ is so in the Wicked or Unconverted as he is in the Saints but after a far other manner for he is in the Saints by Vnion and Communion with them and giveth great and glorious Manifestations of his Glory whereas in others he is not in them by any Union or Communion yet he is so in them as to operate in them and to reveal and discover some things in them that are suitable to their present state in order to their Conversion Nor do we say That Christ is personally in the Saints as some imagine And as to his Question How we shall know Light within from Thought within I Answer If he mean by Thought within a good Thought or Thoughts they are distinguished as the cause and effect for the divine Light within is the cause of every good Thought and Desire as of every good Word and Work but all evil Thoughts proceed not from the Light but from the Darkness and the Light within doth as plainly distinguish betwixt good and bad Thoughts and other Motions as the outward Light of the Sun helpeth us to distinguish betwixt things white and black or straight and crooked but as blind men cannot judge of Colours so who are greatly blinded with Prejudice and Unbelief against the Light within as C.M. is can but very little distinguish or know good from evil except in things notoriously gross nor was it the true Light in Saul that approved him in his Persecution but pricked him in his Conscience and witnessed against him if he had hearkned to it but as a man in his heat of Passion hearkeneth not to true Reason but is Deaf to it though it be in him so men being blinded and hardened with sin doth not give due regard either to true Reason or the true divine Light which are both in them notwithstanding and yet even those men when they become more cool and calm may and do hearken to the dictates of both And for his other Question Whether their Magistrates viz. the Quakers ever had a Light which directed them to punish a filthy VVoman for exposing her self stark Naked before their Eyes in a publick Assembly to prove her Attainment of that Innocency which is without shame I Answ I remember no such thing that ever I heard tollerated by the Quakers Magistrates for we all judge that any such Practice doth really deserve corporal Punishment and I suppose the Passage he mentioneth was that which happened some time ago where the Magistrates of that
place though no Quakers did punish her as I was informed with Imprisonment which the Quakers I believe in general that heard of it did judge was too little and that she deserved much more In his 6 th Assertion he doth not fairly state the Question and upon his unfair â—â—ating it doth seek to fix upon us Blasâ—hâ—mies and then cryeth out 〈…〉 such Blasphemies as 〈◊〉 that according to us The Counsel or Decree of God and consequently the very Essence of God being one therewith doth depend on the free will of man Which is a most gross and wretched Perversion for we say the Decree and Counsel of God doth extend to all evil Actions of men permissively but not effectively i. e. so as not to be the Cause and Determiner of them and Gods Decree and Counsel hath no Cause to depend upon without God himself as he doth falsly insinuate against us Nor is Gods Permission as concerning Evil Actions as Judas betraying Christ and the Jews crucifying him a bare Permission as if God only did look on as an idle Spectator which is most absurd to imagine but he most justly most wisely and most soveraignly bounds and limits all evil Actions of men that they neither do nor can do any thing but what is for the glory of God and the good of his chosen as it is written The Wrath of Man shall praise thee and the remainder of it thou wilt restrain But C.M. and his brethren are too guilty of Blasphemy that affirm That all evil Actions of Men and Devils come to pass by the Effective Decree of God that doth infallibly and inevitably determine and move them to the same and so say the Ranters fathering all their wicked Actions upon God And it is a gross Contradiction in C.M. to himself to say That God doth determine all evil Actions by his effective Decree and yet is not the Author of them for to effect a thing so that it mâ—st be done and to be the Author of it is all one to all of common sense In his 7 th Assertion he proceedeth in the like gross Perversion and mis-stating of things and as to the first part of it fighteth against his own shadow and not my Assertion for I granted That God hath chosen all the Heirs of Salvation unto Faith and Holiness as the means and unto Eternal Salvation and Glory as the end in Christ Jesus before the Foundation of the World and also I have granted That all are not elected nor are any elected who perish finally and yet this doth not infer eternal Reprobation because Elected and Reprobated are not Contradictory Terms as I have formerly declared and yet he hath not proved that they are but maketh a noise strongly asserting what he doth not prove Nor doth it follow that Reprobation is before the Foundation of the World because Gods Decree and Purpose to destroy all finally Impenitent Sinners is before the Foundation of the World for though Gods Decree be before all Time yet it doth respect all Reprobates as it doth consider them in Time having refused all the tender Offers of Gods Grace and Mercy unto the very last And as Gods Decree of creating men doth not infer that men were created from Eternity or that mens Creation is co-evous with Gods Decree so nor doth it follow that the Reprobation of men finally Impenitent is co-evous with Gods Decree for Reprobation is not the Decree of God as C.M. doth strongly assert but doth no wise prove And if some should say as I know some do say That Election though in being before the Foundation of the World in Christ is not simply or only the Decree of God as it is an Immanent Act of God but is some-what by way of an Effect resulting or flowing from Gods Decree existing in Christ the Head and Mediator of all Gods Elect before the Foundation of the World For as C.M. cannot disprove it as contrary to Scripture so it is not inconsistent with what divers soâ—er Protestants have favoured to wit That Christ was Mediator from the beginning and consequently had somthing to be as a cloathing to his Godhead altogether necessary to his being Mediator from the beginning although he was not incarnate or cloathed with flesh until the fullness of time that he took flesh in the Virgins Womb and if Christ was Mediator from the beginning partly invested with his Mediatory Nature though not with Flesh till the fullness of Time came it is both very easie and very comfortable to the Saints to understand how they were elected in Christ their Head before the Foundation of the World and that this Election had its being as the Effect of Gods eternal Love and Counsel in Christ the head of his Elect Members In his 8 th Assertion he is wholly idle and impertinent for we own as much as he That there is in God the Father the Son and the Spirit and that they are One in Being and Three in relative Attributes and Properties and we dislike nothing but the unscriptural invented Names of Three Persons for which Calvin hath sufficiently excused us as I have above showed In his 9 th Assertion he wholly fighteth with his own shadow and giveth up the Cause acknowledging That the Price paid by our Lord in his Death was indeed sufficient for all Mankind and that the benefit of it is tendered and proffered unto all Indefinitely if they will believe but he should have told us how the benefit of it is tendered unto all seeing many Millions of men never had it outwardly preached to them nor ever had any outward Testimony of it by men and if he would stand to this the Controversie in this Particular would be at an end But for his Inferences and Consequences which he would fix upon us most perversly we utterly deny them to flow justly from our innocent Faith according to Scripture which is That Christ dyed for all men c. As that First The Virtue and Success of our Lords Death depends upon the Free VVill of Man 2dly That man in the principal in his own Salvation 3dly That the Number of Persons interested in our Lords Death is not certain for we say none have a true and real Interest in Christ or in his Death but sincere Believers 4thly That Simon Peter was no more beholden to the Merit of our Lord than Simon Magus or any that perish Though it will be hard for C.M. to prove that Simon Magus was a Reprobate And 5thly That God in sending his blessed Son to dye had as full a purpose to save them that Perish as them that shall be saved These and the like absurd and Illogical or unreasonable Consequences we altogether deny they being only C. M's Perversion In his 10 th Assertion he doth as grosly pervert the state of the Question as in any of the former for we deny not but affirm That our Justification is by the Righteousness or Obedience of the Lord