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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	great_a	king_n	3,018	5	3.5536	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49230	Vindiciæ Evangelii, or, A vindication of the Gospel, with the establishment of the law being a reply to Mr. Steven Geree's treatise entituled, The doctrine of the Antinomians confuted : wherein he pretends to charge divers dangerous doctrines on Dr. Crisp's sermons, as anti-evangelical and antinomical / by Robert Lancaster ...	Lancaster, Robert, b. 1603 or 4.	1694 (1694)	Wing L313; ESTC R5714	69,011	72

as a Christian wherefore he exhorts them not to be ashamed of it but to glorify God in this respect and then subjoyns the words which Mr. G. hath alledged And thus if the Christian Reader will wisely observe the drift of the Holy Ghost he will not easily be carried away with such impertinent and perfunctory allegations of Scripture Also he may easily see that this is an effectual and truly Christian humbling Doctrine not a snarling against Humiliation as Mr. G. would perswade To see the overflowing bowels of the Lords tenderness towards us that he will not any more call our sins to remembrance or suffer the least evil for them to come nigh our dwellings The discovery of this unmeasurable and undeserved love opens the heart effectually to a true serious and humble acknowledgment with Jacob that we are less than the least of all his mercies and loving kindnesses that have been ever of Old Gen. 30.10 Sect. 7 8 9. Here the Dr. affirmeth that altho' a faithful man should be overtaken with some gross fault yet ought he not to add thereunto unbelief by serving a writ of Damnation upon himself neither ought any other to do it For saith he thou that art ready to charge damnation upon thy self thou doest the greatest injury to the Lord Jesus Christ that can be For in it thou directly overthrowest the fulness of the grace of Christ Here Mr. G. although he grant the matter that none ought to charge Damnation upon another Yet lest he should altogether want matter of a Quarrel he lays to him 1. The unnecessary use of Logick because he proves what he saith though for any Terms of Logick he here useth none 2. Of Law-Terms because he useth the Phrase of serving a Writ of Damnation 3. Of Exceeding Heat because he saith it is a desperate thing in any man to serve such a Writ I entreat the Christian Reader to pardon me if I pass by such trivial Cavils which to recite is to refute which serve to nothing but to blot Paper to engender strife to hinder men from more weighty and serious Matter Sect. 8. But is the charging Damnation upon a mans self the greatest injury that can be done to Christ I Answer that to stretch such expressions as these upon the tentors is a very uncourteous thing When a man dehorts another from any vice what is more usual then to tell him that such a vice such a course is the most dangerous way he can go in that such company is the most dangerous company he can consort with Were it not a frivolous thing to draw such manner of speeches to the exact laws of comparison What sin saith Luther can be more execrable or horrible than to reject the grace and refuse that righteousness that commeth by Christ Which every one doth for the time he doth not believe it And a little after This Blasphemy is more horrible than can be expressed There is no sin which Paul and the other Apostles did so much detest as the contempt of grace and the denial of Christ and yet there is no sin more common And a little after he tells us further that all the world do so And upon the next ver 21. He adds that as the whole world do this so especially such as will be counted more Holy and Religious than others Were it not a frivolous thing to alledg that the false Teachers amongst the Galathians might have been more execrable in their Blasphemy if they had utterly excluded Christ For now they went about to joyn the Law together with him for justification But this saith Mr. G. is the next way to make men believe they have sinned against the Holy Ghost Is it so to tell them that they ought not to charge Damnation upon themselves To charge the sin against the Holy Ghost upon themselves is inevitably to charge Damnation upon them which he so earnestly dehorts Yea but the greatest injury to the Lord Jesus is to sin against the Holy Ghost So that if they that have charged Damnation upon themselves have done the greatest injury to Christ then have they sinned against the Holy Ghost I Answer that where Christ hath distinguished we ought not to confound Christ hath said there is Sin and Blasphemy against him and there is Sin and Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost He saith that all Sin and Blasphemy against him shall be forgiven unto men but the Sin against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven Now here Mr. G. goes about to overthrow this distinction of Christ telling us that the greatest injury to Christ is the sin against the Holy Ghost but he must pardon us if we take Christs word before his at least till he have proved it better for here he offereth no proof at all but his own word directly against Christs Matt. 12.31 But surely saith he those that curse and swear by the name of the Lord Jesus by his blood and wounds c. And such as deny Christ at Peter did and persecute him as the Scribes and Pharisees did do greater injury to Christ than they that charge Damnation upon themselves for their past sins Oh Mr. G. You look with the Pharisees to much upon the outside These sins are more outward and obvious and are more sensible than the secret unbelief of the heart Is unbelief therefore less wicked Is it not the fountain from whence all these wickednesses flow Was it not want or weakness of faith that brought out all these you mention You should rather have gathered from such horrible effects the greater horribleness of the cause You know the ordinary Axiome Quod facit tale est magis tale 1. As unbelief bringeth forth all wickedness so it is the greatest of all wickedness 2. Which is more pertinent to the present purpose Unbelief as I have often heard Mr. Reinolds whom you cite in your Preface say is that which binds all the load of a mans other sins upon his back and thereby it is the main condemning sin If a man have received many deadly wounds yet if there be one medicine that would certainly heal them all and but one the rejection of this one medicine must needs be worse and more dangerous and destructive than all the wounds And the Dr. saith that such unbelief directly overthrows the fulness of the grace and satisfaction of Christ See here the Courtesy of Mr. G's Language He will not say this is a direct lye But it is utterly false Why For saith he when they thus charge damnation upon themselves they do not question Christs Satisfaction or Fulness of grace but their own Faith and Condition fearing they are none of Christs Here is a good boulster and Apology for unbelief It doth not question Gods Grace but the Apostle John is of another mind He that believeth not hath made him a Lyar because he hath not believed the Testimony that God gave of his Son This is the Testimony that God hath given

unto us Eternal life and this Life is in his Son 1 Joh. 5.10,11 Here by unbelief it is apparent that not only the truth of God but also the sufficiency of that life laid up for us in his Son is questioned by him that chargeth Damnation upon himself Nay saith Mr. G. they do only question their own faith Surely he that questions his faith so as to charge Damnation upon himself questions the Author and Finisher of his Faith For how is he the Finisher of it if it fail even to Damnation He Questions the Virtue of the Death and Satisfaction of Christ whereby a faith that shall not fail is purchased Phil 1.29 He Questions the Power of God which is engaged to maintain our Faith even unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 But that is unsufferable which Mr. G. hath vented in the foregoing words That they do more wrong to those poor souls in saying so than these do unto Christ. Is there any comparison between man and God Is the greatest injury that can be done unto man precisely in that consideration which is the case in hand seeing it is opposed unto the injury done to Christ comparable in heinousness to the least injury against Christ Surely as the least work of Christ by the dignity of the person is of more Worth and Merit than any than all the Works of the rest of the sons of Adam yea of Adam himself in his Innocency yea of the Angels in Heaven So questionless the injury done against Christ is by the same dignity of his person of a deeper stain and demerit as the School speak than the greatest injury that can be done to the best of the sons of men which are but worms Job 25.6 Yea all Nations in comparison of him are but as the neglected drop of a bucket but as a small dust in a ballance that hath no weight to turn the scale hither or thither yea less than nothing Esay 40.15,17 The Lord preserve his People from such undervaluing words or thoughts of the Lord our Righteousness Sect. 9. The Doctor Objecteth from the mouths of some That if there be no fear of Damnation then men may do what they list No saith the Dr. Christ is the guide of his people he takes as strict order to restrain and keep in the Spirit of a man as to Save him Here observe that that Slander which is frequent in Mr. G. and others namely That a man Believing in Christ may continue still in his Wickedness was alwayes far from his mouth and thoughts But saith Mr. G. may not a man suspect himself to be no True Believer when he cannot see that Christ hath taken such strict order as to restrain and keep his spirit from such sins I Answer no he may not adde Unbelief unto his other sins He ought to walk by Faith though he cannot by Sight 2 Cor. 5.7 He ought to remember That this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation and therefore of his present acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 He ought to imitate David Wherefore should I fear in the day of evil when the iniquity of his heels compasseth him about Psal 49.5 He ought rather to give unto the Lord the glory of his Grace the glory of the Righteousness and Expiation of his SON Thou needest not fear saith Dr. Preston of Gods alsufficiency pag. 91. that thy disobedience if thou beest once within the covenant will cause the Lord to depart from thee that so thou shouldst charge Damnation upon thy self for he will not be unfaithful to thee though thou be weak in thy carriage to him For he keepeth covenant for ever He doth not suspend his promise of help upon our Disobedience That weighty saying of Luther is very considerable upon Gal. 5.2 When that great Dragon that old serpent the Devil who deceived the whole world and accuseth our brethren and in the presence of God day and night cometh and layeth to thy charge that thou hast not only done no good but hast also transgressed the Law of God say unto him Thou troublest me with the remembrance of my sins past thou puttest me also in mind that I have done no good But this is nothing to me For if either I trusted in mine own good deeds or distrusted because I have done none Christ should both wayes profit me nothing at all See also what the Holy Martyr Mr. Bradford answereth to this inference of Mr. G. in a Letter to Mrs. H. If we want this obedience and worthiness which he requireth should we doubt whether he be our Father Nay saith he that were to make our obedience and worthiness the cause and so to put Christ out of place for whose God is our Father But saith Mr. G. I do not say that any sin can cut off a true Believer from Christ or hinder his Salvation If this be true then may he not suspect the contrary which Mr. G. affirmed in the immediately foregoing words But saith he it must needs shake his hope and confidence and hinder his consolation What a thing doth de facto and what it ought to do de jure and of right are not all one And therefore this is not to the purpose We confess that all sins both original and actual great and small have this as their natural and continual effect that they wound the Conscience that they enfeeble the confidence that they damp the consolation of a Christian and so do as it were becloud the Heavens between us and the appeased face of God our Father which cloud is no otherwise dispelled but by the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness Faith ascending up even through the blackest cloud that is all darkness and no light and laying hold on the Propitiation But he tells us We are not of Davids spirit that are so little troubled for gross sins but can presently close with Christ upon such foul Falls Answer 1. Here Mr. G. goes beyond his knowledge No man knoweth the things of man but the spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 But the heart knoweth its own bitterness and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his jo●… Prov. 14.10 But 2. Suppose the Children of God having less light of the Redeemer were thereby more under the spirit of bondage unto fear than the Children of the New Testament are who have received the spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 we have the more cause to praise the Lord that hath reserved better things for us Heb. 11.40 than he did for many Prophets and Kings who have desired to see the things which we see and have not seen them and to hear the things which we hear and have not heard them Luke 10.24 to wit the full Revelation of the Mystery of the Gospel of Peace which in other Ages was not known as it is now in the time of the New Testament reavealed Eph. 3.5 I say if God hath