Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	condition_n	faith_n	justification_n	3,635	5	9.8445	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88089	Vindiciæ Christi, et obex errori Arminiano: = a plea for Christ, and obstrvction to the first passage, whereat the errors of Arminus steal into the hearts of men: shewing Christs satisfaction in his humiliation, to be the sole price of our redemption; and evidencing faith in that satisfaction, no instrumental cause of our justification in the fight of God, nor condition given us for life. Delivered in three sermons: by Richard Lewthwat Master of Arts, in Caius Colledge in Cambridge, at his Parish of Wigston in Norfolk.	Lewthwat, Richard.	1655 (1655)	Wing L1855; Thomason E480_6; ESTC R205317	30,584	39

hath decreed to give more and better good things so that see love in God is to give or to will and decree to give good things so then his premised I declare first from the Scriptures that t is evident That faith is no instrumental efficient cause of a real application of Christ as the cover of our sins from the sight of God as that whereby the holy spirit brings a sinner into the love and favour of God who was out of it till faith came into his heart and this I prove first from that of Ieremiah chap. the 31. ver 3. I have loved thee with an everlasting love love in God as before declared is nothing else but will purpose or decree in God of doing good or giving good things so that then the sense of the words is this first God did will purpose or decree good to them he there spake the good things there promised were it temporal deliverance as some or eternal Redemption as others what ever good thing it was yet God did will and decree it them with an everlasting will and decree The word Everlasting must be a little cleared and then the place is most full for our purpose A thing is said to be everlasting especially three severall wayes First when a thing is to continue a long time though not for ever as Leviticus the 16. ver the 34. this shall be an everlasting statute Secondly when it shall never have end though it had beginning as the future glory of the elect and the misery of the reprobate as Mat. 25. ver 46. Thirdly a thing is said to be everlasting when without beginning or ending as God To be King everlasting In this last acception and respect Wilson saith that the purpose and pleasure of God to save the elect them that shall possess eternal glory through Christ is said to be eternal or everlasting which will be evident if ye consult with Eph. the 3. ver 11. or with my last text in the second Epistle to Tim. chap. the 1. ver 9. and indeed we may justly say that both love and hatred in God that is his purpose will or intendment of mans evil as also of his good and that of both sorts either temporal or eternal are everlasting or eternal especially as being without beginning in God For t is impossible yea inconsistent with the nature of God as described in the Scriptures that any purpose will or intendment in God of either evil or good to us should take beginning in God in time and not be coeternal with his being So that the meaning there is this God declared love there to Israel being nothing else but his will or purpose that they should be redeemed through Christ from death to glory I say the meaning is this that God willed or decreed to them he there spake the good and happiness of their Redemption with an everlasting will or decree that is with a will or purpose coeternal with the being of God not adventitious or coming to him in time which thing being granted t is not possible for faith to have any hand as an instrumentall cause of Gods spirit so to apply Christ to us as that then our pollution should become hid from God which were before open to him should then bring us into the love of God who before were in his hatred the reason is because to make faith an instrumental cause of Gods favour or will to save is to make the cause infinitely coming after its effect in time what greater absurdity ever heard of Again that faith is no instrumental efficient cause of applying Christ as the cover of our sins from the sight of God c. as before t is evident from that of Ezekiel chap. the 16. ver 6. 8. if ye look upon the contents of the five first verses of this chapter ye shall see that in the opinion of the Translators of the bible appointed to the work as I presume by King Iames under the similitude of a wretched Infant was shewed the natural state of Jerusalem that is as I presume under favour how spiritually polluted they the elect were in themselves and in respect to their own personal and natural condition now at the 6. and 8. verses the Prophet shews what they were then in respect to Gods will and fight through the satisfaction of Christ even whilest in that natural condition before spiritualized or indued with faith and that was pronounced just through Christ the sentence of eternal life was then gone forth for them from the mouth of Gods decree verse 6. when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live c. Again God looked upon them as in Christ and redeemed by Christ whilest in their natural condition before the faith of Christ was in their hearts for ver 8. it was the time of love of Gods loving them in his Son and therefore also impossible if this place be rightly expounded that faith should be any instrumentall cause of applying Christ to a soul as the cover of its sins from the sight of God as being that whereby the spirit brings a sinner into the favour of God who was in his hatred till then the reason is the former because to make faith an instrumental cause of Gods favour or will to save is to make the cause infinitely coming after its effect in time and so fully opposite to Ezekiel I le alleadge but one place more for this purpose and I have done and it is that of Saint Paul Rom. the 4. chap. ver 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted to him for righteousness Hence I may infer two things the latter comes home to the present purpose the first is Gods acceptance and approbation of our faith his delight or pleasure that we should rest alone upon him and his Christ for our salvation so accounting our eternal redemption to be of grace or favour not of due or debt because of any thing done or performed or to be done or to be performed by us his faith sales the Apostle is counted for righteousness cast your eyes once again upon the words but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly Me thinks from these words the spirit of God doth whisper as it were the time of Christs real satisfaction to the father for the elect and of the fathers acceptance of Christ in their stead that is the time when Christ is imputed and counted our righteousness and we beheld and looked upon by the father as interested in Christ to be benefited by Christ absolved from our sins because of Christ and that time of all this is a time before the income of grace yea of the grace of faith into our souls The Apostle saith plainly enough that he justifieth the ungodly that believeth on him that is on the father that justifieth that is

that pronounceth not onely guiltless but also perfectly just through Christ It follows That justifieth the ungodly The ungodly the word ungodly here must be restrained to the number of the elect or ransomed through Christ whose falvation was covenanted for from all eternity with the father by the Son upon the price of his blood and abasement to be undergone in the fulness of time at the time appointed by the father and promised by the Son to be performed at the time appointed Now these elected or ordained of the father to eternal life through the Son are in the Scriptures one whle and in one respect termed ungodly another while and in another respect stiled Saints and termed godly these elect are stiled ungodly children of wrath and enemies to God whilest in their natural condition of blindness ignorance and disobedience before illumination new-birth or regeneration by the Spirit of God before they be wrought to the faith of Christ or the faith of Christ be brought to them But now these elected ones after regeneration after faith be conveyed into their hearts they have their name changed by God they are termed Saints they are called godly and righteous So that now see the elect of God the redeemed through Christ do stand just before God through Christ are pronounced perfectly just through Christ by the word of the fathers will or decree even whilest in their naturall condition before they be indued with faith though the elect hear it not till then t is so The father Justifies the ungodly therefore we are not Justified by faith t is not counted our righteousness as being the instrumental efficient cause of a real application of Christ as the cover of our sins from the sight of God because Justified before even whilest ungodly before indued with faith Secondly faith is not cannot be in this wise as last mentioned instrumental because that granted many places of the Scripture are destroyed for brevities sake I le alleadge but one t is that of Isaiah chap. the 40. ver 1 2. if ye weigh the place well ye shall see that the Ministers command or commission is to proclaim the pardon of the elects sins upon the bare consideration of Christs pangs and sufferings in their stead Cry unto her that her iniquity is pardoned for she hath received at the Lords hand double for all her sins See now brethren Isaiah and my self are in the same error in the Judgement of the Adversary Isaiah tells ye and bids all the Ministers of Christ tell their people as I have told you that the bare pangs and sufferings of Chist are the adequate and full means and cause of the absolution and pardon of our sins by the father the Prophet bids us proclaim peace and pardon to Jerusalem to the elect to this person and to the other to whomsoever we preach barely upon the Sons eternal covenant to dye in the fulness of time for us and the fathers acceptance thereof in our stead So that see Christ is an elected soul is every believer in the eye and purpose of the father by imputation before the holy Ghosts comfortable application of that Christ by faith Cry unto her that her iniquity is pardoned for that she hath received at the Lords hand double for all her sins See now a plain destruction of the direction to the Ministers by Isaiah upon the adversaries opinion Had the spirits of these times been living in the Prophets dayes to hear his last recited doctrine they would have stiled him an Antifidian and termed his words a doctrine of Devils They would have told him no man is acquitted or pardoned of his sins because of Christs satisfaction in the eye or by the will of God till the soul hath actually owned Christ as his Saviour by faith that no man is just or Justified through Christ in the sight of the father till he be actually believing on the Son I do most willingly receive faith to be a most blessed signal means but dare not receive it as an instrumental cause whereby the spirit of God doth bring a soul into the favour of God who was out of it till then and secondly for this reason because it alters and destroys the meaning of many comfortable places of Scripture this plainly of Isaiah containing the Ministers commission Thirdly and Lastly faith cannot be instrumentall to the application of Christ as the cover of our sins from the sight of God as that whereby the spirit brings a sinner into the favour and love of God who was out of it till that grace came into his soul applying Christ comfortably to the heart because that this being granted the very nature and being of God as described in the Scriptures is consequently destroyed and denyed There be many places in the Scripture tending to the description of our God I shall insist upon the places describing him especially as to the present purpose and that in Exodus 3. ver 14 is very considerable as to the present when Moses would be instructed by God with his name to answer the Israelites enquiring it God sets forth his name by his nature thou shalt say I am hath sent me unto you God in his first answer to Moses in the beginning of the verse where he saies I am that I am God holds forth his absolute independing and eternal subsistency and being I am that I am that is of my self not taking my being from the power pleasure or help of any pre-existing cause or thing this speaks the eternity of his being Now in these words of God I am hath sent me unto you God sets forth the manner or nature of the being of things in him of their being in his love will or purpose and consequently as to our capacity in his sight and knowledge as I may say they do set forth the nature of love will decree knowledge sight and other attributes of God This name shews that his love of any man his will and purpose to have any thing come about or to pass his sight and knowledge of all future events and things to happen in time as to us were all eternally present with God not taking beginning or being in him in his sight or knowledge in time God loves not the man to day that is doth not will purpose or decree to him to day that good thing be it either some temporal happiness yea or future life eternal that he did not purpose will or decree to him from all eternity he doth not see or behold a man to day Justified through Christ that he did not behold so before the foundation of the world was laid I am saith God that is as if God should have said I am now at this time what I was from all eternity in respect to will decree sight knowledge power c. Again I am now at this present what I shall be to all succeding times to eternity in respect to will decree sight knowledge power for all

VINDICIAE CHRISTI ET Obex Errori Arminiano A Plea for Christ AND OBSTRVCTION To the first PASSAGE Whereat the Errors of ARMINIVS Steal into the hearts of MEN Shewing Christs satisfaction in his Humiliation to be the sole price of our Redemption and evidencing faith in that satisfaction no instrumental cause of our Justification in the sight of God nor condition given us for life Delivered in three Sermons By Richard Lewthwat Master of Arts of Caius Colledge in Cambridge at his Parish of Wigston in Norfolk London Printed by R. W. for Nath. Webb and VVilliam Grantham and are to be sold at the sign of the black Bear in Saint Pauls Church-yard neer the little North-door 1655. To the Honourable Religious and Learned Col. ROBERT WILTON My dear Friend HOnourable Sir should I be silent of the causes moving the publication of these less then weekly meditations saving to your self and some few I should be rendred indiscreet if not presumptuous and more I shall therefore hint the motives which duly considered to a little charity will justifie the action I have in this Treatise couched together the ground yea and the most of my positions desired by many to be publique which have drawn much ill Will and dissatisfaction towards me and made me condemned not onely in private but in publique also as the most erroneous and destructive to truth that speaks O my God for give them for I hope they know not what they say Sir t is well known to you that I having delivered most of this Treatise in the Pulpit the Minister desired the Congregation to stay upon which request they did and he had Christian-like attention from all He endeavoured to possess the people that there was error in my Sermons but before the picture or sign of his confutation I can call it no more he granted the whole and more then I fully affirmed for Sir you may remember that at his beginning he said I had given the just and true sense of what was then my text in my Exposition of it which I said I had done in the opinion of some few and late Divines but not of the Iesuites and some others After this he said my doctrine gathered thence was sound and good Divinity after all he denyed faith to have any instrumental efficiency as to our Justification in the sight of God this being done and a quarter of an hours discourse he moved for a reply The sum of what I returned to him was a commendation of his zeal and care to keep his people from error promising him a Copy of my Sermons that he might be better able with the assistance of his side and the advantage of time to confute me if feasable Now then Sir is it not time to publish should I not how should my publick scandal be removed my friends satisfied or my promise to the Minister with convenience made good Such is my confidence of the truth of my Positions that should these Sermons come to a spiritualized soul privately they would bemone me laden with such reproaches as they have heard me as David did Abners death by Ioab dyed Abner as a fool dyeth for as David said of him I may say of my self my hands were not as yet bound nor my feet put into fetters I remember not as yet my self ever shackled either privately or publickly about these things save with reproachful terms which God hath ever made fall from me like the chains of Peter T is not unknown to your self and many more how vehemently and generally I have been opposed in these and such like Positions by inferiour Judgements and they being silenced upon their attempts though not converted I have desired I might argue them for their better satisfaction or my own conviction with men of war from their youth with the most eminent men both for learning and piety There have been returned to this my request that the times are not safe for opposition of them I have minded them that brought the answer with the security of Mr. Iohn Goodwin publickly opposing this way of salvation I have also assured them that I would not in the least divulge what they should deliver as to this purpose or questions under debate All this and much more have gained nothing of discourse from them but by a proxie by Mr. Platers appello Evangelium which was commended to me by some to set me right in my judgement which book indeed hath wrought nothing upon me to that intent it being a groundless condemnation of the opinions about predestination of Mr. Perkings Whitakers Beza Piscator the Synod at Dort and many more and a closing with Arminius and others of that strain as being in the way of truth See page the 60. Of his appello Evangelium The distinction of the knowledge of God dividing it into the knowledge of pure understanding and the knowledge of vision being as himself confesseth the ground and basis of his judgement which if duly considered is like many more of the School distinctions even more nice then wise Nay it hath rather been a means to confirm me in my former Positions because that in Doctor Potters letter to Mr. V bound up with Mr. Plater See Dr. Potters questions in that letters in page of the book 425. he hath in his questions there mentioned asserted Positions which can beget no less in my judgement then all or my present positions at least are I confess that sometimes there are strivings in my heart betwixt these and the opposite opinions sometimes when I consider the multitude of men that way the eminency of the persons in respect to learnings natural abilities strictness of life advancement to dignities in late past years and other becoming conditions as also having my thoughts sometimes taken wholly up about some places of Scripture setting forth God providing future glory upon even terms of obedience here not at that time minding the Free grace of God in Christ nor heeding the power dominion and soveraignty that God in equity hath over his creatures which speaks him right just and holy in all his wayes neither blameable by nor accountable to any however he shall please to deal with his creatures raised by him of nothing to what they are or at his pleasure shall be why I confess I say that whilest it hath been thus with me I have almost said as they Now to end Sir and Christian Readers having knowledge of my condemnation for these Positions and finding none of those Judges so just as to hear me plead for my self before my sentence nor finding any so religious as to pitty me or do good to themselves so far as to endeavour my conversion from those opinions by them called damnable and devillish I am I confess the more willing to expose my Judgement in these plain Sermons to publique view to this end that if my principles be truth and the way to truth there might more be brought in to