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	word_n	3,386	5	4.6780	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28589	Observations on the animadversions (lately printed at Oxford) on a late book, entituled, The reasonableness of Christianity, as delivered in the Scriptures by S. Bold ...	Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737.	1698 (1698)	Wing B3483; ESTC R20782	75,321	132

this Author hath said that it cannot be better discerned by consulting the Gospels and Acts what are the Articles Christ and his Apostles propounded as absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians than the Epistles And if that do not follow from his Discourse nothing follows from it that is to the purpose against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. Nor will it follow The Apostles were unfaithful to their Trust or that they clog Mens Faith with unnecessary Points of Belief because they have taught several Doctrines which are not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians but which Christians must labour to understand and which will then be necessary to be explicitely believed by them The Apostles Fidelity to their Trust is not to be judged of by Mens prejudicated Fancies and therefore Persons had need take heed of determining that The Apostles ought certainly to be blamed for Writing such Doctrines in their Epistles as are not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians It is no Argument of an unwary Christian but the Duty of a good Christian to embrace the Doctrines delivered in the Epistles when he knows them and that they are delivered there as firmly as any other Doctrines whatsoever But saith this Author if it can be proved that the great and principal End of the Writing of their Epistles was to deliver several Doctrines that should be necessarily believed to Salvation by all who were converted to the Faith we are oblieged to believe them as such p. 35. Answ. Very true But then 1. If what you suggest here was the great and principal End of writing their Epistles the Cause is clearly given up to the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. For then the great and principal End of the writing of their Epistles was not to deliver several Doctrines absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or Converts to the Faith 2. It will not be easy to prove that all that are Christians must necessarily explicitely believe every Doctrine delivered in the Epistles though the Doctrines are necessarily to be believed by all Christians who do understand them This Author then proceeds to prove what he hath declared to be the great and principal End of writing the Epistles was really so by producing many Places out of them All which I may pass over without any Observation because it is not pretended that they prove any thing more than that that those who are Christians must necessarily believe them But because this Author sometimes infers That the explicite Belief of them is absolutely necessary to Salvation I will briefly intimate what I conceive to be the proper import of those Places of Scripture he quotes 1 Cor. 14. 37. speaks not barely of Christians but Persons who pretended at least to be inspired But take it of Christians all who did know what he had writ or that he had writ things were to believe explicitely or implicitely that the things he writ were the Commandments of God because they knew he had given full Proof of his Apostleship and in the same manner are Christians now to acknowledge the same 1 Cor. 15. 1. c. Is a very plain Account how he had preached to them that Jesus was the Messiah and what sorts of Proofs he had propounded for their Conviction and that they had believed this Gospel ●s also that this was the Faith by which they were saved and made Christians without the believing of which whatever else they believed would not avail them to Salvation Vid. Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 269. The Apostle in his Third Chapter of this Epistle had declared that Jesus Christ is the Foundation without borrowing other Articles to underprop it some proof of which he here minds them of and that all the other Articles of the Christian Religion are Superstructures erected on that Foundation Rom. 10. 9. hath been formerly considered Vid. Second Vindic. of the Reasonab c. p. 303 c. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Is a Motive to Timothy to take care to behave himself in the Church of God as he ought 1 Th. 4. 1. Is a Direction to Christians to take heed of entertaining the Doctrines which false Teachers would obtrude on them certifying they might justly conclude those to be false Teachers who did deny Jesus Christ to be real Man The 14th and 15th Verses are express that believing Jesus to be the Son of God or the Messiah doth make a Man a Christian. Whether believing him to be the Son of God be a distinct Act here from the believing him to be the Messiah may be considered when we come to the place where it is to be shewed 2 Cor. 1. 13. Doth not considered strictly declare any thing more than that they did know and own the Truth of what he had writ in the former Verse concerning his Conversation 2 Thes. 2. 15. shews that Believers or Christians must take care to hold fast whatever Doctrines they have been instructed in and fully assured are Christ's Doctrines Not one of these Places of Scripture considered by it self nor all of them considered together do prove that the Apostles enjoyned the explicite Belief of all that they writ in their Epistles as absolutely necessary to Salvation These and innumerable other Places of Scripture are of great use to those who are of the same Judgment with the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. to shew them that are Christians that they ought to set a very great value on the Writings of the Apostles that they ought to be very diligent in endeavouring to acquire as distinct a Knowledge as they can of the Doctrines they have delivered in their Epistles that they ought to take great care to retain and hold fast what Doctrines they have learned from their Writings and that they must not entertain any Doctrines for Articles of their Faith but what Christ and his Apostles have taught And saith this Author it would be absurd to imagin that the Apostles should fill their Writings with any of the Doctrines of Christianity if they did not impose a necessity upon Men of believing them p. 37. Answ. True if Christians when they know they have writ them should be at liberty not to believe them But would it be absurd to imagine they should fill their Epistles to Believers or Christians with Doctrines of Christianity if they did not impose an absolute necessity on Unbelievers to believe them all explicitely to make them Christians Is every particular Doctrine that is to be be believed to be explicitely known and believed by Unbelievers to make them Christians so that when once they are Christians there is nothing more for them to endeavour to know and believe And here adds this Author it is not material whether the Epistles were written to those who were already Christians and whether designed to teach them any Doctrines

in the Pages this Author hath chosen to Animadvert on in this part of his Book The true Reason of Christ's coming into the World I think was the Father's Appointment A very true and excellent Account is given in the Reasonableness c. of the great End for which Christ came into the World though not in the Pages to which this Author doth here confine himself In these Pages the Author of the Reasonableness c. takes notice of the Occasion of Christ's coming into the World and of what Men are restored to by Iesus Christ. These Benefits may perhaps be properly enough called collateral or concomitant Ends of his coming into the World because particularly intended but they comprehend not the whole End of his coming into the World It is agreed on both sides that Bliss and Immortality were lost by Adam 's Fall Immortality the Author of the Reasonableness c. saith is restored by Christ to all Men but Eternal Bliss is not restored by Christ absolutely to any Man I meddle not with the Case of those who dy in their Infancy and what is absolutely necessary in order to any Man 's obtaining by Christ a claim of Right to Eternal Bliss is the Subject of a great part of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. The Obedience and Sufferings of Christ cannot I conceive be properly called the Reason of his coming into the World nor the End thereof any otherwise than a Means is called a Subordinate End But though I said Christ's restoring Immortality to Man was agreed on both sides yet this Author seems to be dissatisfied with the Account the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath given of it and if I apprehend him aright because he doth not include Bliss in his Notion of Immortality Now this I think is the Truth of the Case Immortality as lost by Adam's Transgression is restored to all Men by Christ in that he will raise them all from Death And he hath purchased Eternal Bliss for them on the Terms the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath given a large and full Account of from the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles That is that all who heartily take Jesus for their Lord and Faithfully obey and follow him shall at the Resurrection be everlastingly blessed The great and famous Athanasius who was never reputed an Enemy that I know of to Christ's Satisfaction hath more than once declared it was his Judgment that Christ came into the World to purchase Immortality for Mankind I have not his Works by me and therefore can neither relate his Words nor refer particularly to the Places but I think I may depend upon it that my Memory doth not fail me as to his Notion But without laying any stress upon his Authority I ask what can be pretended for Mens being Immortal any other way than by Christ by those who acknowledge that Sin hath brought Death upon all Men If the Resurrection be the Fruit of Christ's Undertaking and Performance how could it have been possible for guilty Man to suffer after he was dead if Christ had not come The Discourse is concerning Men not concerning separate Spirits This Author p. 57. makes the Reasons of Christ's coming into the world and the End of his coming to be the same and saith It was to make Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World and to restore Mankind to the Favour of God by suffering in our stead and being made Sin for us Satisfaction it self was not the ultimate End of his coming into the World His Sufferings and Death were parts of the way and means by which he was to obtain what was the End of his coming into the World His Death and his Resurrection too had a Relation to a further End viz. his being Lord both of the Dead and Living Rom. 14. 9. In his Sufferings and dying he had an Eye and Regard to what was the great End of his Undertaking Heb. 12. 2. that his Death had a Relation to this is most evident from Phil. 2. 7 to the 12th He hath purchased Immortality for Mankind absolutely But he hath not purchased Pardon and Bliss for Men absolutely but upon certain Conditions viz. their believing in the True God and in him as sent by him so as to take him unfeignedly for their Lord and King So that the true End of Christ's coming into the World was to obtain to himself a Kingdom or to be a King and to have a Right to dispence and confer Pardon and Eternal Blessedness on those who should become his sincere Subjects which I think is as plain as can be if we will take his own Word for a Proof of it Pilate therefore said unto him art thou a King then Iesus answered thou sayest that I am a King to this End was I born and for this Cause came I into the World that I should bear Witness unto the Truth every one that is of the Truth heareth my Voice Th. 18. 37. In p. 60. This Author hath these Words concerning Christ's satisfying for our Sins We do not mean that Christ suffered the same Punishment which we should have done but only that the Dignity of his Person made his Sufferings equivalent to the Eternal Punishment of a whole World of Sinners Answ. Christ's Satisfaction is a very great and weighty Point But either I or many who have writ concerning it are under some Mistakes with Reference to it I conceive Christ did not satisfy the Law for Sinners which they had broken For had he suffered the same Punishment which they should have suffered that would not have satisfied it because it required Personal Punishment alone and did not run that the Offender or another should suffer it And Equivalent Sufferings could not satisfy it because there was no such Proviso in the Law Christ's Satisfaction I conceive did not consist in his Sufferings being equivalent to the Eternal Punishment of a whole World of Sinners by reason of the Dignity of his Person For if the Dignity of his Person made his Sufferings equivalent to the Eternal Punishment of a whole World of Sinners the Degrees of his Sufferings could not signify any thing to his making Satisfaction the Dignity of his Person was the same whether his Sufferings were greater or less and could confer the same Vertue to one as to many Degrees The laying the whole Stress of Christ's Satisfaction on the Dignity of his Person I suppose was that from whence some took occasion to vent that ungrounded dangerous Notion which still infects too many That one Drop of Christ's Blood was sufficient to save many Worlds of Sinners Which makes the greatest parts of Christ's Sufferings utterly useless as to Satisfaction and in the natural and just Consequences of it throws most horrid Aspersions both on God and Christ. I conceive the Satisfaction of Christ consisted in his perfect fulfilling the Law that pertained to him as Mediator here upon Earth antecedently to his