Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	grace_n	sin_n	2,826	5	5.1233	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85302	Animadversions upon Sir Henry Vanes book, entituled The retired mans meditations. Examining his doctrine concerning Adam's fall, Christs person, and sufferings, justification, common and special grace; and many other things in his book. / By Martin Finch, preacher of the Gospel.	Finch, Martin, 1628?-1698.	1656 (1656)	Wing F941; Thomason E1670_2; ESTC R208407	75,370	163

in notions and opinions as others do in other opinions but we use to count it great uncharitableness to charge all of a judgement with that which some being of that judgement do hold but if all of that judgement were of this mind the Author should be of it for he holdeth universal redemption yet I hope he doth not rest there nor own or reject others as they hold or hold not with him in that point but the Author misrepresents others judgements as well as the udgement of those that are for general redemption Page 199. He tells us those that differ from those that are for general redemption do evidently contradict and deny unto them most clear certain and undeniable truths and all that which they say concerning conditional reprobation freewil falling away and the like as relating to the children of the first Covenant will find that from the Scriptures which will justifie it The Author is very confident and profuse in his accusation of the Anti-Arminians and too highly exalts their opinions that are for universal redemption as if they were the very Gospel calling their opinions most clear certain and undeniable truths but what are their opinions that are most clear and undeniable truths why he saith their opinions of conditional reprobation freewil falling away and the like as relating to the children of the first covenant Let us hear their opinions and first of conditional reprobation The Arminiuns opinion is that there is no absolute and irrevocable but only conditional decree of predestination to damnation or salvation and that the number of the elect and reprobate is not so certain but that is may be diminished or augmented and that the primary cause of the decree of reprobation not of its execution is the praeconsideration and praevision of sin and not the meer will and pleasure of God And is their opinion such a plain and most undeniable truth their doctrine is such that notwithstanding Gods decrees either to life or death there might either none have been saved or none damned And according to their doctrine the grace of election is made voyd for if it were not Gods free will and pleasure that was the primary cause of the reprobates reprobation and non-election but works foreseen then consequently it was not Gods free will and pleasure that was the cause of the elects election but their works foreseen and then fare well that discriminating grace and love of God from all eternity neverthelesse we still make sin the cause of damnation but Gods free pleasure the cause of Gods non-electing and passing men by in his eternal counsels resolving to leave them in their sins and to condemnation for their sins Concerning free will the Arminians hold that there is a sufficient universal grace derived upon all men by which they may believe and be saved if they will And is this most clear and evident in the Scripture no the contrary is evident in the Scripture Isa 53.1 John 6.44 45. John 12.38 39 40. Page 205. He saith that the flesh of Christ may be received and eaten either worthily or unworthily men not distinguishing between Christs living body and his crucified body The Author if he had pleased might in this case have considered of the old distinction of the Martyrs of eating and receiving panem demini and panem dominum of that which is the sign and sacrament and the thing it self no man but the true believer eats of the bread of life the Lord Jesus for hic edere est credere by eating is meant believing but he saith they do not distinguish between Christs living body and crucified body Alas the same body of Jesus Christ that was crucified is a living body for it was impossible for that holy one to see corruption and it is not the meer body of Jesus Christ considered as living or crucified that saveth us as Christ telleth us in that case it is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing Page 225. He saith Abraham was justified before God by that faith wrought out in Christ his head The Scripture telleth us that by Christs obedience we are made righteous and that we are justified by his blood but no where that we are justified by the faith that is wrought out in Christ we are justified by his righteousness imputed to us not by the faith that Christ had the Author seemeth all along to have many wide mistakes about the righteousness by which we are justified when the Scripture telleth us we are justified by the faith of Christ the meaning is that we are justified by Christ believed in not that we are justified by the faith which he had And so he saith in the same 225. page that faith considered as abiding in Christ and not in us is that which properly just●fieth the believer But Christ though in some sense he had faith that is to say he trusted in the father that he would carry him through the work of bearing our sins and that he would so accept of his bearing the chastisement of our peace that he would deliver us from going down to the pit because of the ransome that he paid and believed that he should see his seed that the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hands yet he had not such faith as in Scripture is called saving and justifying faith for he was no sinner that he received another for his righteousnes The Author leaving the simplicity of the Gospel runs in vain and unscriptural notions in those things Page 291. He saith that Christs Disciples were called the children of the bride-chamber and yet then had no higher knowledg of him then in his fle shly glory and perfection The place he m●aneth is Matth. 9.15 which holdeth forth no such thing but what a forrowing there should be in the Disciples when they were deprived of Christs bodily presence but that was not a depriving of them of that which the Author calleth the first Image but ●●vay what fleshly glory and perfection was 〈◊〉 Christ that the Disciples should know Christ only in that Alas he had no fleshly glory and perfection his visage was marred more then any of the sons of men Isa 52. never was so glorious a person so obscured as he was insomuch that the people said is not this the Carpenters son his fleshly glory and perfection was so little that those which looked only at that could see no form nor comeliness in him wherefore they should desire him let the Author have better thoughts of the Disciples then that they followed Christ and left all for him only for his fleshly glory and perfection no they saw him with better eyes they saw him to be Jehovah their righteousness the only begotten son of God full of grace and truth Page 300. He maketh this the great sin of those in the first Image that they set up the sons Kingdom in their hearts in competition with and opposition to the fathers View the Scriptures

the life of our spirits and therefore blame me not if I sometime speak plain English it s not against his person but against his doctrine The Lord make known his truth more perfectly and establish us in it and grant that all our poor labours may tend to the advancement of it and that we may neither speak nor write nor do any thing against the truth but all for the truth Tetuey the 29th of he Month commonly called March 1656. So prayes the Lords most unprofitable servant MARTIN FINCH CHAP. I. Concerning the first Adam the cause of his Fall and of the Angells the cause of their Fall GOD made man righteous created him in his owne image in respect of certaine divine excellencies and qualities he bestowed upon him placed him in the garden of Eden was pleased to forbid him the eating of the tree of knowledge nor to touch it lest he dye this state of happiness that Adam was in was mutable and uncertain because upon his disobedience he forfeites all his priviledges annexed to his state and God never resolved by his mighty power and over-ruling Spirit to keepe him from disobedience so that he stood a very little while in innocency but by disobeying God in eating of the forbidden fruit fell from his first purity and holyness of minde and openeth a wide doore for sin to enter into the world and death by sin this sin of A-Adam had many aggravations as he said to Naaman the Assirian if the Prophet had bad thee do som great thing wouldest thou not have don it how much more now he bids thee but wash and be clean so Adam if thy Creator that made thee so noble and excellent had required harder service then ever he required of thee wouldest thou or shouldest thou have done it and if he had forbidden thee al the trees of the garden but one shouldest thou not have obeyed him in it how much more when he forbiddeth thee but one tree among so many wouldest thou not forbeare it I might shew if there were need how this sin of Adam was spiritual Idolatry Adultery and ingratitude towards that God that had done so much for him having said this by the way let us examine what this Author saith of Adams state before the fall and how he fell Page 67. He saith that God did not give Adam sufficient grace and strength to doe what he required and commanded but it was Adams weakness to thinke so But I answer then his fall wa● necessary whether he would or no even like our case that have cause to complaine with Paul Rom. 7. the evill which we would not do that we do for want of strength to resist the motions of sin and temptations to it though it be quite against our will and the desire of our hearts as to the inward man according to which we delight in the Law of God and would noe way offend him but this would lessen the sin of Adam in disobeying Gods commands if he had not power and ability given him by God to do what God required of him this impotency which we are sensible of came by the fall and was not before he and we in him lost that divine excellency and strength which God had bestowed upon him Page 70. He saith that the frame of Spirit and minde that God had in his eye to bring upon Angells and men stands in direct opposition and crosse constitution to what the Angells and Adam had at first Unlesse the Author meanes here that mens having life in the way of their own righteousness their having life by Christ and his righteousnesse stand thus in direct opposition I know not how what he saith is true and if he should mean so he should not have put Angels and men together for the Scripture tells us of no Angels that are justified by Christ blood and made the righteousness of God in him but I thinke this is not his meaning because he doth not say that the way of geting life in one state and another were so differing but he saith the frame of Spirit and minde in the one and the other stand in direct opposition I know the believer in Christs grace is in some things differing from Adams as in closing with Christ by acts of faith and seeing such sinfulness and unworthiness in himselfe which Adams state did not admit of yet neither is this the meaning of the Anthor neither is there such a direct opposition and crosse constitution here such a frame of Spirit is as suitable to the believers state as Adams was to his but surely he meanes that the higher Image which he supposes is the unvailed glory of the Father and this lower image in which Angells and man were made at first stands in direct opposition and crosse constitution now the Author makes the unvailed and original glory to be the witness of the first person in the Trinity and the state of the Angels and of the first Adam to be the witness of the second person in the Trinity and do these stand in such direct opposition and crosse constitution surely the operations of the blessed Trinity stands in the most compleat and perfect harmony that this direct opposition is not in the operations of the persons of the blessed Trinity but in our either mistaken or imperfect knowledge of them Concerning Adams state he saith further Page 54. That on the Seventh day there was to be ministred to him a far higher and more exalted capacity of minde for the enabling him unto an everlasting happy and compleat communion with God The Scripture saith nothing of this that we must reject it as being but mans conceit Adam was already in such a state as he might have enjoyed such happy communion with God as God thought fit to communicate to him while he obeyed him and did his will in what herequired of him such communion as was a high glorious priviledg the Scripture saith not a word of any higher state that God offered him● but there is one Scripture that the Author quotes for this 1 Cor. 15.44 45 46 47 48 49. he makes corruptible and mortall to be meant as the state wherein the first Adam was made incorruptible and immortality to be meant of the higher Image which Adam was offered and refused which he calls Christ in the Spirit and Christ in his Heavenly appearances Now that Scripture speakes of the resurrection that we shall be made alive and the corruptible shall put on incorruptability and the mortall immortality yea the the very wicked shall never goe out of being which would be a priviledge and mercy to them but body and soule kept up in being to beare the vengeance o● eternall fire and wrath for ever and so the Apostle goeth on to shew the difference betweene our bodies here and in Heaven how Spiritual they shall be there our vile bodies changed into the likeness of Christs glorious bodie as they are now in

the likeness of the first Adams now naturall then Spirituall now earthly then Heavenly so that this place is nothing to his purpose but speakes of the difference betweene the believer here and in glory Page 59. He saith that God gave Adam a sight of the higher state that he should have come up to and forbad him to fix his eye upon things seene there being a reserve of unseen things as an induring substance to be imparted and communicated to him on the seventh day but he saith page 60. and in many other places that through an inordinate cove●ing and desire in him to keep in the state wherein he was and rejecting of that higher state Adam provoked God and fell and so also he saith Page 75. That the Angells that fell it was because they refused to go into this higher state 1. The Scripture noe where saith that God offered Adam a higher state but only that the devill told him of a higher Gen. 3.5 that if they would eate of the forbidden fruit they should be as Gods 2. I do not a little marvel that the Author should write that God was pleased to forbid Adam to fix his eye where he was but before the seventh day to tell him there was a higher state on that day to be propounded to him doth the Scripture say any such thing how doth the Author come to know this that God should say thus and thus to Adam when the Scripture makes no mention of any such thing let us be wise to sobriety and not above what is written And thirdly where doth the Scripture say that Adam had such an inordinate desire to keepe in that state where he was but rather shewes us the contrary that he would lose and forfeit that blessed state and sell it at so cheap a rate as for to but eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evill Yea fourthly that the refusing of the higher Image and state was the cause of the fall of the Angells is without booke too as well as the rest and it s very probable that their pride in teaching after a higher life and state was the cause of their fall and so 1 Timothy 3.6 and other places seems to make pride the sin and condemnation of the Angells that kept not their first estate and are delivered into chaines of darkness but I shall rather confesse my owne ignorance in such things then be wise above divine revelation knowing that such secret things belong to God and revealed things such as God is pleased to make known to us in his word to us and to our children And though the Author hath told us already that Adam was offered this higher life union with Christ in his Heavenly appearances before his fall and would not except of it yet page 78. He tells us that in all likelihood Adam and Eve were saved and brought to that higher state after the fall and they refused it out of ignorance before It is likely that Adam and Eve were saved through faith in Christ the Scripture seemeth to hold forth so much in that the Lord did after the fall so declare Christ to them Gen. 3.15 and whether their cloathing v. 21. did not hold forth their cloathing with the righteousness of Christ I am not certaine in doubtfull things we must speake doubtfully but this I am sure of that the Scripture speakes not of his coming into that state which the Author cals the higher Image but Page 333. the Author makes the refusing Christ in his second appearance or the higher Image to be the sin against the holy Ghost and elsewhere sheweth that he meanes it of a wilfull and knowing refusall of that higher state now I say that if God did so forewarne Adam that he should not refuse the higher state that he would propound to him on the seventh day and gave him a sight what it was as we but now questioned the Author for affirming the Author by his principles would make it very probable if not plain that Adam commited the sin against the holy Ghost because then he had such a vast knowledge and insight into things and upon such a cleare knowledge of the excellency of such a state would yet refuse it seemeth to have been a very wilfull act but in that Page 333. he saith that Adam refused it ignorantly and the devill maliciously but if it be true what the Author saith Page 59. that God before the seventh day gave him a sight and prospect of that higher state it could not be done in such ignorance CHAP. II. Concerning the Person of Christ his Bloody Sacrifice and Sufferings to reconcile us to God THe knowledge of Christ and him crucified being so excellent and necessary that blessed Paul counted all things but loss and dung in comparison of it let us set our hearts to know him his person his offices his usefulnesse preciousnesse what he is what he hath done and suffered for us poore sinners Who all like sheep have gone astray and turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all and by his stripes we are healed He is both God and man in one person the brightnesse of the Fathers glory the expresse Image of his substance he is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sospitatoe that Saviour that doth deliver from all evill and is the Author of eternall salvation he is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that propitiation for our sins expiates our sinnes attones God and makes him propitious to sinners he is the blessed and eternall son of God that came into the world to save sinners and to reconcile them to God by the blood of his crosse that was made sin for us who himself knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Let us see then what this Author saith of his person and death but first let me tell the reader that I will not follow the Authors way in speaking over and over the same things in variety of words as concerning the person of Christ and his being first in one Image and then in another he goeth over with that distinction of the three Images or states where Christ comes forth twelve times in the first fourty pages and afterwards so often that I left counting but as neere as I can I shall at once examine his doctrine concerning the person of Christ save that I will forbeare a curious prying into that incomprehensible mystery of the blessed Trinity but rather leaving him to delight himselfe in his owne notions about it I shall cry out O the Depths of that Mystery and confesse that the knowledg of that great mystery is too wonderfull for me it is so deep that I cannot search it out and should as well as others but more darken that mystery by my words neither would I please the itching desire of any reader by shewing my selfe wise above what is written as Calvin treating upon such great