Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	sin_n	soul_n	4,646	5	5.4196	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37649	A vindication, or, Further confirmation of some other Scriptures, produced to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ, distorted and miserably wrested and abused by Mr. John Knowles together with a probation or demonstration of the destructiveness and damnableness of the contrary doctrine maintained by the aforesaid Mr. Knowles : also the doctrine of Christs satisfaction and of reconciliation on Gods part to the creature, cleared up form Scripture, which of late hath been much impugned : and a discourse concerning the springing and spreading of error, and of the means of cure, and of the preservatives and against it / by Samuel Eaton, teacher of the church of Jesus Christ, commonly stiled the church at Duckenfield.	Eaton, Samuel, 1596?-1665.	1651 (1651)	Wing E126; ESTC R30965	214,536	435

is said but very improperly to be eternal 2. The soul of Christ may be said to be a part of the sacrifice that Christ offered up to God by or through the eternal Spirit for though he suffered in the flesh and shed his bloud according to the flesh yet he suffered in the soul bore the wrath of God in the soul and the curse of sin lay upon the soul as well as upon the body therefore the soul as well as the body was in a sense offered up to God and therefore both of them are distinct from the eternal spirit that is here spoken of by which it is said he offered up himself that which was offered and that by which it was offered are different things from one another 3. When Christ speaks of his soul he calls it Spirit without adding the Epithite of Eternal to it Luke 2● 46. 4. The souls of men may be as properly and truly called eternal Spirits as the soul of Christ be called an eternal Spirit being of the same nature both the one and the other But where is such an Adjective added to them in Scripture as Eternal Nor can the Spirit of God be meant by this eternal spirit for Christ in reference to the eternal spirit is made the Priest and the Efficient that offered up to God that which was offered up viz. the whole Humane Nature of Christ consisting of soul and body though Scripture speak most of the body in which he dyed and shed his bloud For this Pronoun who points at somthing in Christ besides soul and body which was offered to God which did slay the sacrifice and offer it up and this can be nothing but the eternal spirit in Christ the Deity of Christ by which spirit he went and preached to the spirits in prison in the days of Noah before he had either soul or body and by which spirit he searcheth the heart which the soul of Christ cannot do and the spirit of God it was not because Christ is spoken of in those places and not the holy Ghost Nor can it be said that he offered up himself by another spirit that was not his but by his own spirit as it is said that he entred into heaven not by other bloud which was not his but by his own bloud Heb. 9. 12. Besides this offering up of himself through the eternal spirit is that that is mentioned to put the value upon the offering up of himself to God above all the legal Sacrifices for otherwise the bloud of a man is no more to God than the bloud of a beast but the person in reference to this eternal spirit is more excellent and glorious than all other creatures either men or beasts in which regard his flesh is called a greater and more perfect Tabernacle because this eternal spirit dwelt in it and filled it with glory By the bloud of this person he entred in the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us And this is the formal reason and cause whence it came to pass that the sufferings of Christ which both in soul and body were finite and received an end for he suffered once and doth not alwaies suffer yet are able to expiate sins which carry infinite guilt in them being against an infinite God and are able to free millions of persons from sufferings which are as it were eternal and infinite because they would not have any end if Christ by suffering had not discharged from them for otherwise it would be utterly impossible that by one sacrifice or offering he should for ever perfect them that are sanctified but it would have been as when the high Priest offered up daily the same sacrifices because sin could not be taken away by one sacrifice but it is this eternal spirit that doth put the worth and value and merit into this one sacrifice therefore it is said that every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering up the same sacrifices which can never take away sin But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God expecting from henceforth till his enemies be made his foot-stool Heb. 10. 11 12 13. As one that hath done a work that hath great merit desert and worth in it expects a reward looks that things should be so and so done to him so Christ after he had offered one sacrifice sate down expecting the enemies to be subdued at his feet which had the offering been of himself a meer man he could not have done for what is man that he should deserve any thing of God Now because the word merit doth relish ill in reference to Christ himself with many and because all such who are against satisfaction by Christ or at least against full satisfaction are much more against merit because there is no such word found in Scripture therefore I shall clear up the Doctrine of Christs merit from the Scripture 1. Scripture testifies that Christ hath made a purchase Acts 20. 28. Feed the flock of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud this is spoken of Christ who is called God and he is said to purchase the Church with his bloud The Church is called a purchased possession Ephes 1. 14. The Jews were called a people peculiar by purchase so in the Original 1 Pet. 2. 9. Salvation is said to be obtained by purchase through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 5. 9. so it is in the Greek Now this purchase is not an acquisition of grace as some may conceive who may give this sense of it Christ hath gained the Church and gained or obtained salvation but through grace he obtained and gained which in an analogical sense may be called a purchase but this purchase is an acquisition of work as the Greek word signifies that is used by the holy Ghost which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to acquire and get by work which is used in 1 Tim. 3. 13. They that have used the Office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree Now he that purchaseth any thing deserves the thing that he purchaseth but Christ hath purchased the Church hath purchased salvation hath performed a work that deserves the having of the Church and the having of salvation for the Church so that if words might not be formally stood upon too much it is manifest that we have the thing in equivalent expressions 2. Merit and Desert properly have respect to some work which is not due neither could be required from such a person in which sense Christ may be said to merit when yet the persons on whose behalf Christ hath done such a work could not have been said to have merited if they in their own persons had done it the reason is because if men having sinned against God had been able to satisfie the Law to the utmost in reference to their sin they had committed against it and had

divine faith and so Moses and the Prophets may be the object of faith which is gross 2. Though God viz. the Father and Jesus Christ be two objects of divine Faith yet it is not true in the sence that he represents it in viz. that they are two objects really distinct from one another for the Father that sent the Son Jesus Christ and the Son Jesus Christ that was sent are not two distinct Gods but one God they are not two distinct Essences though they be two distinct subststences or persons so the object essentially and really is but one To this agrees the place which he quotes Joh. 12. 44. He that beleeveth on me beleeveth not on me but on him that sent me An Expositor of note puts this sence upon it Not on me that is such whom you take me to be a man and no more but on me the Eternal God and then same in Essence with him that sent me He puts another sence upon it saying He that beleeves one beleeves both because God appears merciful in the face of Christ and Christ appears instrumental in the hand of God Rom. 4. 24. and 10. 9. And so he makes Christ an instrument who could not as he saith raise himself from the dead the object of faith concerning our Resurrection and Salvation which is gross for Christ is the object of our faith as he is able to save not himself onely but us to the utmost And though Christ be the Son considered as sent and as having taken flesh and as Mediator and so is the object of faith yet he is the same person as before he took Flesh and was Mediator though under another consideration yet the taking of Flesh hath not made him another person much less another being and still he remains the same God with his Father And though as he is considered in Flesh and as Mediator he be an intermediate object of faith yet he is also the principal and ultimate object of faith as he is the Eternal Son and second person in the Trinity for the same person may be both the intermediate and the ultimate object of Faith under a divers consideration this was one part of his emptying of himself the Son became Mediator in Flesh and so the intermediate object of faith who yet was with the Father the ultimate Object of it And Christ though he had been Mediator yet if he had not been God he could not have been the intermediate Object of Faith no more then Moses was who was Mediator he was not the Object of Faith nor could be because he was but a creature Moses was one by whom they beleeved on God and so were the Prophets and also the Apostles Paul saith of himself and of Apollo that they were Ministers by whom the Corinthians beleeved 1 Cor. 3. 5. Mediums or means by whom they were brought to faith in Christ and God but Objects they were not no not intermediate objects of their Faith so Christ could have been but a means of faith in God if he had been no more but a man and had not been God The brazen Serpent which was a Type of Christ to which the promise was made That whoever looked up to it should be healed and it was really so they were healed as God in the promise said Numb 21. 8 9. was onely a means by which they beleeved in God being but a creature and not an intermediate Object of Faith they did not beleeve on it at all but through it on God and so it must have been said of Christ had he been but a meer creature had he been but onely the man Jesus Christ And though it cannot be denyed but that whole Christ as consisting of two natures being God and man is Mediator and materially considered is the intermediate Object of Faith yet not the whole of Christ is the formal cause of faith in Christ but the Divinity or Godhead of Christ alone is the formal cause and reason and ground of the faith of Christians in Christ for that is the Rock upon which the souls of Saints are built and a firm unshaken unmoveable Rock it is and the gates of hell shall never prevail against Beleevers whose faith doth bottom them upon this Rock But he saith It is from Gods commandment that faith in Christ is needful Joh. 3. 23. And it is from Gods appointment that faith in Christ is saving Joh. 6. 40. Rep. All faith that justifies and saves as well that which hath God viz. the Father for its Object as that which hath Christ for its Object is by Gods commandment and appointment justifying and saving for the first Covenant was of Works which men brake and were under death by breaking it and then came both the commandment of faith and the promise of life that was made to faith Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the heathen through faith c. God freely made choyce of faith to save men by it as well of that which respects himself as that which respects Christ I hope he will confess that it was by institution that faith in him that sent Christ viz. the Father is needful and is saving But if his meaning be that no faith was due to Christ naturally save what is due by vertue of appointment and commandment It is utterly untrue if extendeded to whole Christ for Christ is the natural Essential Son of God and look what faith was due to the Father the same faith is due to Christ as the Eternall Co-effential Son of God Or if this sense be given to the words that there was nothing but a Commandment that could move or draw to faith in Christ that is false also for Nathanael was drawn to beleeve without any commandment that came to him to that purpose from those beams of his Deity which sparkled upon him in those words of his Before Philip called thee when thou wast under the Fig-tree I saw thee And many others believed on him when they saw his Miracles So that not the commandment onely but his own Almightiness and Infinite Excellency brought credit and gained faith to him The conclusion is this Though it should be granted that Faith in the Father and faith in Christ do act in a divers manner as indeed it must Christ being considered as Mediator yet it will not follow that either in one manner or another Faith doth act upon a creature but that still the person is God that it acteth upon And it is to be observed that he hath not invalidated that Scripture in Joh. 14. 1. but it stands in full force still for though he would have i● to be man Christ that is there spoken of yet it cannot be for Christs Argument would not be good in that sence Ye beleeve in God therefore beleeve in me a man there is no good consequence in it But the Argument is good Ye beleeve in God the Father beleeve in me the Son also for the

to concurre with it that he may gain credit to such a reading Alas he knows very well the following words will not quadrare they will not correspond nor suit with such a reading By the word mystery there are who follow this reading that understand the Gospell which is called a mystery but was the Gospell manifested in the flesh c. and received up into glory certainly it must be meant of some person that was in flesh and was received up to glory therefore if it be the mystery that was manifested in the flesh and received up into glory it was not the Gospell for the Gospell is the glad tydings of good things in Christ and was the glad tydings of good things in Christ manifest in the flesh and were glad tydings received up into glory it is absurd to be asserted If he understand any thing else by Mystery which was manifested in the flesh then the Gospell it must be the soul of Christ which he saith was created before the rest of the creatures and which in time took flesh and was manifested in the flesh but was it so great a Mystery for the soul to come into the body after the body is formed in the womb is it not that which is done every hour in the formation of man doth not the soul unite with the body in the generation of all that are born in the world And indeed though he grant our reading yet he brings all to this for his words are It is not denied but that Christ was a God and the Text saith but this a God was manifested in the flesh that is saith he appeared visible amongst men when he took unto him a body Rep. If Christ was a God before he took flesh then he was ever a God from the first that he was and that was by his own concession before there was any creature created and consequently before any actuall Soveraignty was bestowed upon him for that could not be before the world had an actuall existence over which he was to have his actuall Soveraignty and then it will follow that he was God by nature from all eternity with the Father and the Holy Ghost but this I have discussed before that which I shall add is this look what a God Christ was such a God he was in flesh but Jehovah he was the mighty God he was the great God he was the true God he was the everlasting God he was God over all blessed for ever he was subsisting in the form or nature of God he was and equall with God such a God he was as is abundantly testified in Scripture therefore such a God he was manifested in flesh As for Hincmarus his conceipt that this word God was put into the Text by the Nestorians I have him not by me and I much heed it not because the very Text it self gives witnesse to it self that the word is not added by mans device or fraud for if it be left out the rest of the words are made nonsense thereby The third and last Scripture that I made use of to prove Christ as Mediator not to be a meer creature and nothing else was this It is said in Joh. 1. 14. The Word was made Flesh His Answer is The creature that was immediatly made by God took unto it a body I find no place saith he where the flesh of Christ signifies any thing more then his body according to which he died and is no where taken for the humane nature Rep. This conceipt of a creature immediatly made by God which took unto it a body hath been at large spoken to and confuted in my former Treatise It hath also been the word that the word Flesh is taken Synechdochically for humane nature a part being put for the whole I find no cause to add any thing either to the one or other but shall consider of the Reasons which he leaves me to pause upon by which he would prove Christ the Mediator to be a meer creature Let me oppose saith he your Proposition with two or three Reasons Rea. 1. Because whole Christ is a creature if so then either a meer creature is Mediator or Christ is not a Mediator Rep. The greater part of my former Treatise is spent in the confuting of this assertion I therefore think it needlesse to spend more time or strength about it especially seeing he refe●res to what he said before and brings no new strength to it Rea. 2. Because a Mediator is not of one Gal. 3. 20. Now if Christ be God then he is a Mediator of one for he cannot be a Mediator to himself and there is but one God Rep. It is true as the Apostle saith that a Mediator is not of one that is not of one Party for a Mediators work is to make peace now it is to be alwaies supposed that no one is at variance with himself therefore a Mediator is not of one but of two Parties that dissent the one from the other which Parties are God and Man But his deduction which he fetcheth from this saying is faulty which is this If Christ be God then is he a Mediator of one for he cannot be a Mediator to himself and God is but one if this were a sound consequence Christ would be Mediator to none at all and the reason is this There are but two Parties disagreeing God and man Now all the Elect in all the world they are reckoned in this account but as one man Now if Christ be man took their seed then he is of this Party then he is Mediator to himself and the words may be retorted A Mediator is not of one but if Christ be man then he is a Mediator of one for he cannot be Mediator to himself for all men are but as one come under one consideration and he is among them if he be a man being of their nature and true man of their seed Therefore there must be a distinction made concerning Christ Christ may be considered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either in his nature person as he is the second in the Trinity and the essentiall Son of God or in reference to his Office as he is God in flesh and King Priest and Prophet to the Church and appointed Daysman and if this latter acception he is not Mediator to himself though he be God for he is God-man and so differs from himself considered nudè as God or the second person in the Divine Trinity that which was asserted before concerning this man also considered Rea. 3. His third reason is the same for substance with the second Because saith he Christ is a Mediator betwixt God and man 1 Tim. 2. 5. Now if he were God he could not be a Mediator betwixt God and men for he could not be a Mediator to himself This hath been considered in the former reason only there is thus much new in it which deserves consideration Timothy saith he

scatter the clouds nor clear up their judgements Now Church admonition is the best expedient to bring them to repentance as the Apostle speaks of Hymeneus I have delivered him up to Satan saith he that he may learne not to blaspheme that is by denying a doctrine which he ought to have professed And so such scales of ignorance which were by sin contracted are by Church-censure removed many times Obj. But what if such persons be very holy in their lives and very profitable in their Communion must they notwithstanding undergo the censure of the Church Sol. 1. There is no holinesse but what flows from the doctrine of the Gospel rightly entertained and held by faith Therefore so long as they waver in the faith in points of great concernment and moment their holinesse must of necessity be waved also the Apostle saith Gal. 1. 7 8. Though I or an Angel from heaven bring any other Gospel and yet he means it of circumcision held by some as necessary to salvation let him be accursed 2. Such persons that are pertinacious in a corrupt opinion are evil leaven and their Communion cannot be so profitable as it is like to be hurtful to the fellowship to which they do belong 3. If they be Saints which do so greatly erre from the faith there ought to be so much the more compassion shewed to them and the greatest love and compassion that can be shewed lies in this to use the last remedy to them when other remedies fail and are ineffectual and it is the greatest cruelty to withhold any means which God hath sanctified for the healing of such as from Exod. 23. appears 5. What one Church of Jesus Christ doth this way in the execution of censure justly and according to rule all the Churches ought to ratifie for if such who are bound by any Church on earth be bound also in heaven then all the Churches in the world have not power to acquit or lose from it therefore in their walking towards such persons great or small they ought to confirme it by having no Communion nor fellowship with such that so such persons may come to see the miserable condition that they are in and may be ashamed and if any Churches or Christians should walk otherwise they sin against Christs ordinance and harden such persons in their sin and hinder their repentance and returning to the truth and will draw the blood of such souls upon their heads If this course were held with such who erre grossely and will not be healed it would awaken those who have left their first faith and are turned after fables and might recover them and would bring a trembling upon the rest that stand firme and unshaken and might preserve them from the like temptations and then there would be no cause for the interposing of the Magistrate which some do relish so evilly The fourth and last thing that I am to discusse is what the preservatives are by which persons may be kept in times in which errours are rife and the danger great in that respect 1. Let every person that pretends to saintship look to his implantation into Christ that it be right and true and that it be firme and sure and then it is to be hoped that he will abide in the Vine and the Vine in him and then he is more likely to stand fast in the faith for there is one that is able to keep him from falling and will keep him and if he fall he shall rise againe for there is one that is able to raise him and will raise him The greatest security of the Saints that they shall not depart from the faith is in their union and communion with Christ 2. Let persons commit themselves to God to be kept by him who can strengthen and settle and establish those that rest on him and wait for him while persons have leaned to their own understanding and have not looked up to the rock that is higher then they and come out of themselves and put their trust in him and begged his teaching and leading they have become vain in their thoughts and have erred from the truth 3. Let persons get a good root of knowledge within themselves and not attain onely to a generall knowledge of things but come up to a particular knowledge of them and know all things in the causes thereof so farre as Scripture gives light or as they have been taught for then though some other thing may be presented to them then what they have received yet the reasons of the things which they have beleeved will not be so soon answered in their souls If persons have but a forme of knowledge within them it is soon overturned 4. Let the love of the truth be laboured after as well as the knowledge of it for persons will be unwilling to relinquish that truth which they have found much sweetnesse in 5. Let the Scriptures be diligently searched into and perused and studied and let them be compared together and let Scripture intepret it selfe and let one Scripture give the sense of another Scripture when persons take up some one or two single scriptures and runne away with them without comparing them with other Scriptures they are led aside to error 6. Christians ought to take heed whom they hear what they hear and how they hear because of many Seducers and Deceivers that are gone abroad into the world and because there are many spirits of Antichrist who yet pretend to Christ 7. Christians ought to become wise unto sobriety and not to think of themselves above what is meet but to have humble and low thoughts of themselves for if once Christians be lifted up they readily fall in this snare of the Devill which is Error and Heresie 8. Christians ought to walk up to that light of truth that they have attained to because there is a promise belonging to such who will live in and practise the truths which they know John 7. 17. 9. Saints ought to consider that they have no more of the grace of faith then they hold of the doctrin of faith for they therfore beleeve because they have such a word of God to ground their belief upon if then they hold not that Word their belief will fall with it and then must needs be shaken as much in the grace of faith as they are in the ground of faith 10. Let them consider that there is no godlinesse but what grows out of the Gospel and springs from the truths of it if therefore the doctrine of grace in Christ be once overturned in the soule all godlinesse will be soon overturned with it 1 Tim. 6. 3. Tit. 1. 1. 11. Let them consider that if once they become unstable in the faith they become unstable in all their wayes for it is as when a tree is not firmly deeply and surely rooted in the earth but is loose in the ground it growes not flourisheth not nor is fruitful like to other