Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	faith_n	justification_n	2,857	5	9.3476	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35303	A just reply to Mr. John Flavell's arguments by way of answer to a discourse lately published, entitled, A solemn call, &c. wherein it is further plainly proved that the covenant made with Israel on Mount Sinai, as also the covenant of circumcision made with Abraham, whereon so much stress is laid for the support of infants baptism ... : together with a reply to Mr. Joseph Whiston's reflections on the forementioned discourse, in a late small tract of his entituled, The right method for the proving of infants baptism ... / by Philip Cary ...	Cary, Philip.	1690 (1690)	Wing C741; ESTC R31290	91,101	194

with the House of Israel and Judah after those Days Not saith he according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers at Sinai which was a Conditional Covenant For I will put my Laws into their Minds and Write them in their Hearts that is I will make such a Covenant with them as shall be wholly Free and Absolute Wherein as I do faithfully Engage that I will not Depart from them so neither shall they Depart from me For let Men talk what they will of an Universal Conditional Covenant of Grace If there be any such thing I am sure it is not that here intended For as there are no Conditions expressed whether in Jeremy or in Ezekiel or in the Apostle's Repetition thereof Hebrews the Eighth so they are all Actually Pardoned with whom this Covenant is made For this is all the Reason which God himself alledges why he would become their God and make them his People give them the knowledg of himself a New Heart and a New Spirit For saith he I will be Merciful to their Unrighteousness and their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more Thus the New Covenant is a Promise of Pardon and Grace and of all those things which are contended to be the Conditions of it Nor is there any Condition implied which may alter the the nature of an Absolute Promise For in Jer. 31. whence the Form of this Covenant is taken all Objections are prevented Verse 36. For whereas it might have been said They for their Sins should be destroyed and so this Promise should not profit them it is added That they should be Restored and so the Promise is made good as sure as the Ordinances of Heaven the Course of Day and Night or the Tides of the Sea which I am sure depend upon no Conditions to be Performed by Men. When God tells them in Leviticus therefore If they Accept the Punishment of their Iniquities and their Uncircumcised Hearts be humbled c. It must of necessity be thus understood For if God should require this to be performed by us as an Antecedent Condition on our Parts without which we may expect no Mercy or Favour at his Hands we are like Eternally to fall short thereof It being as impossible for us to Humble our selves or to change the Temper of our own Hearts as for the Ethiopian to change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots Yea as for a Dead Man to Raise himself to Life And if none of these things can be done of our selves but they must be wrought in us by the Grace of the Covenant then how doth it appear that the New Covenant is a Conditional Covenant or that Faith and Repentance are required of us in point of Duty Antecedently to the Benefit of the Promise I know O Lord saith Jeremy that the Way of Man is not in himself It is not in Man that walketh to direct his steps So Ephraim Turn thou me and I shall be turned And then saith God shalt thou remember and be Ashamed and Confounded and never open thy Mouth any more because of thy Shame when thou shalt know that I am Pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done Ezek. 16. 60 61. c. So that God always prevents the Sinner with the Blessings of his Goodness and instead of expecting any Antecedent Conditions or Qualifications that should render us meet for his Grace 't is the Sovereign Fruit and Effect of his Free Grace alone which he hath expressed in his Holy Covenant that can make us Meet for himself or any Mercy he hath to bestow upon us I must tell you therefore Sir that you do exceedingly injure and wrong the Free Grace of God to Sinners in Jesus Christ when you tell me as you do in your following Discourse That there is something as an Act required of us in point of Duty which is Antecedent to the Benefit of the Promise If you mean that those things whether it be Faith Repentance or Gospel Humiliation though Absolutely Promised in the Covenant and wrought in us by the Grace of God are yet Duties indispensibly required of us in order unto the Participation or Enjoyment of the full end of the Covenant in Glory it is unquestionably true But if you intend that they are such a Condition of the Covenant as to be by us Performed Antecedently unto the Participation of any Grace Mercy or Benefit of it as your Words imply it is most untrue and not only contrary to Express Testimony of Scripture but Destructive of the Nature of the Covenant it self For if so Men must do all these things before they receive the Remission of Sins Yes then must Men Repent and Believe and Turn to God and yield Obedience to the Gospel whilst they are as yet Dead in Trespasses and in Sins Yes then must they do them whilst they are under the Law and the Curse of it For so are All Men whose Sins are not Pardoned But this is to make Obedience unto the Law and that to be performed by Men whilst under the Curse of it to be a Condition of Gospel Mercy which is to overthrow both the Law and the Gospel You will tell me it may be that on the other hand it will follow that Men are Pardoned before they do Believe But then you ought to consider First That the Communication and Donation of Faith unto us is an Effect of the same Grace whereby our Sins are Pardoned and they are both bestowed on us by vertue of the same Covenant Secondly That though the Application of Pardoning Mercy unto our Souls is in order of Nature consequent unto Believing yet in time they go together Thirdly That Faith is not required as a Condition in order to the Procuring of the Pardon of our Sins but only as a Necessary Means in order to the Receiving of it A Condition as a procuring cause plainly implies something of Merit by way of Condignity or Congruity whether it be more or less perfect or imperfect call it what you will But Faith comes under neither of these Notions being only a Necessary Means or as an Instrument which also must be wrought in us by the Grace of the Covenant whereby we Receive and Apply but cannot Procure the Mercy Promised In the next place then avoiding any further Discourses concerning the Pretended Absurdities and Self-contradictions which upon a diligent search Mr. Flavell supposes he hath found out in my forementioned Discourse which upon a due trial may be easily perceived to have been the bare Fiction of his own Imagination only I shall immediately Apply my self to what is more Substantial and will certainly tend far more to the Edification of the Intelligent Reader if any Light may be hereby struck out for his illumination and Instruction concerning the Three Grand Points we are now contending about And that is First Whether the Sinai Covenant was a Covenant of Works or a Covenant of Faith Secondly Whether the Covenant

of Promise but God gave it to Abraham by Promise Is the Law then against the Promise God forbid For saith he if there had been a Law which could have given Life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law So then the Law would but could not give Life and why could it not give Life but through our Weakness we were not able to perform it nor could the Law furnish us with power to Enable us thereunto But what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh that Christ hath performed and by his Death and Sufferings made up the Breach between God and us And so in this respect there is only a Difference of Deficiency between the Law and the Gospel the one being strong and powerful the other weak and unable to Relieve us But yet say I this Difference notwithstanding through the satisfaction of Christ there is no Repugnancy or Hostile Contrariety betwixt the Law and the Promises or between the Law and Faith which hath respect to the Promises c. This you account strange Doctrin The Reason you give say you is as strange that this comes to pass through the satisfaction of Christ. Good Sir say you Enlighten us in this Rare Notion Did Christ Die to purchase a Reconciliation betwixt the Covenant of Works as such and the Covenant of Grace And I pray Sir why not Did not Christ satisfie the Law on our behalf Was he not made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons Doth or can the Law it self Impeach those for whom Christ Died and whom God himself pronounceth Righteous Doth not the Law it self that was before our Enemy against us and contrary to us stand up as our Friend through the Mediation of Christ And hath not God for this very purpose set forth his Son Christ unto us a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare unto us his Righteousness that he might be Just and the Justifier of him that Believeth in Jesus And were not the Two Tables accordingly put into the Ark to shew their subserviency to Christ and in this sense its Consistency with him Typically demonstrating that though the Covenant of Works could not be kept or performed by us yet it should be perfectly fulfilled in Christ for us Is there not here a Perfect Reconciliation betwixt the Two Covenants Are not Mercy and Truth here met together And do not Righteousness and Peace sweetly Kiss and Embrace each other through the satisfaction of Christ And yet it follows not that to be Justified by Works and by Faith should after Christ's Death make no odds of Difference between them according to the Corrupt Inference which you unjustly draw from the Premises For though 't is true in a sense we may be said to be Justified by Works rightly and truly enough that is as Christ in his own Person hath fulfilled the Law for us yet your Inference is far enough from being truly deducible from the Premises according to the common and proper sense of Justification by Works Since as all our own Works are throughout the Scripture perfectly Excluded from any concern in that matter viz. as the meritorious or procuring cause of our Justification So they are according to the tenour of the foregoing Discourse also For if Christ hath satisfied the Law for us hence it follows that our Justification is only the fruit of Gods meer free Grace alone through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Thus much may suffice to have been spoken concerning the Absurdities or Self-contradictions which Mr. Flavell chargeth on on me Which so far as they have been already Examined the Reader may easily perceive that they do all of them return upon himself There is only one Passage more which doth more nearly touch the Heart of the Controversie betwixt us which is necessary also to be considered before we proceed unto what follows And that is this Whereas I have Affirmed and do still Affirm that there was no Promise of Pardon on Repentance in Moses's Covenant Mr. Flavell thinks he hath a mighty Advantage against me and supposes I do therein plainly contradict my self because I do yet grant that God promiseth Pardon on Repentance Lev. 26. which Mr. Flavell Affirms to belong to the Dispensation of the Law at Mount Sinai where the Jews are directed to the Covenant which God had made with Jacob Isaac and Abraham for their Relief in this respect For that is the Covenant saith God there that I will remember Well Be it so saith Mr. Flavell if you will needs have it so that the Promise mentioned Lev. 26. refers to Abraham's Covenant yet still it follows that the Covenant made with Abraham must be a Conditional Covenant of Grace For so it s made by this very Text If they accept the Punishment of their Iniquities and their Uncircumcised Hearts be humbled then will I remember my Covenant with Abraham c. You see then that no Unhumbled or Impenitent Person could have Relief from it till Confession and Contrition were wrought in him when you in the mean time stoutly deny that there are any Conditions required in a Gospel Covenant M. S. P. 5. Printed Reply P. 20. But then Mr. Flavell should have considered that this Contrition and Gospel Humiliation can by no means be Effected or Expressed till the Heart be first soundly wrought upon by the Grace of that Covenant which God hath made with Sinners in Jesus Christ. And accordingly this is one main Branch of that Covenant Deut. 30. 6. which I have already proved to be a Gospel Covenant and Essentially Different from that of the Law The Lord thy God will Circumcise thy Heart and the Heart of thy Seed to Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul that thou mayst Live Compare this with the forementioned Text in Leviticus If their Uncircumcised Hearts be humbled c. The Sinner might Reply But Lord this we cannot do of our selves we cannot break our hard and flinty Hearts nor will it ever be performed until thou takest the Work into thine own Hand This therefore the Lord himself undertakes The Lord thy God will Circumcise thy Heart c. And what Condition can there be of that but that of the good Pleasure of God's own Goodness and Grace For whatever is Antecedent thereunto being only a Work or Act of Corrupted Nature can be no Condition whereon the Dispensation of Spiritual Grace is superadded From whence as I have already told you it plainly follows that I the Covenant of Grace is wholly Free and Absolute Eor as much as there is nothing that can be supposed as the Condition thereof whether it be Faith Repentance or new Obedience which is not therein Absolutely Promised Thus God himself is pleased to Represent unto us the Nature of that New and Evangelical Covenant which he Promised to make