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	know_v	life_n	2,879	5	4.5653	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43581	A review of Mr. Horn's catechisme, and some few of his questions and answers noted by J.H. of Massingham p. Norf.	Hacon, Joseph, 1603-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing H177; ESTC R16207	79,887	160

because it may be abused to evil The Doctrine of Merit is a great encouragement to good works yet as he will not be held a skilfull Architect that shall dig up the foundation of a Town that he may have wherewithall to finish or repair the top of it So let our builder take good heed how he doth weaken and how he doth tamper with the ground-work of free Grace pretending great need and much benefit that may come thereon If men will not otherwise bless God and have good thoughts of him unless they be taught that he loveth one man as much as another we must not any whit the more be found false witnesses of God 1 Cor. 15. 15. false witnesses I mean as the Apostle meaneth not against him but for him alledging more in his behalf than will hold true because we think it makes for him and his glory Will ye accept his Person saith Job chap. 13. that is do you think that he will take it well or be beholden to you if you go about to shew him more favour than his cause will well bear in the truth of it Plainly this will fall out to be an accusation not defence Thirdly his Adversaries who hold universal Redemption though not every way as he doth do repent and bless God and think well of him and hope in him not running into despair and do love others and pray for them and help them all this they do and are called upon to do by vertue of that Doctrine which they have learned touching Gods love and Christs Death And lastly it would be weighed whether the people being taught to reason after this manner be not endangered so far to forget the charge of Moses Deut. 29. abovementioned as quite contrary to it to be careless in doing duties commanded and conforming to Gods revealed will because they are made no further acquainted with his secret intention and purpose and whether they be not hereby instructed to stand and capitulate and be upon points of certainty with God the Judge in whose debt and danger nevertheless so much they are And for his reasons this may suffice Next after these reasons shewing the necessitie of beleeving the extent of Christs righteousness to all he proceedeth thus Qu. 202. May not a man as well and surely know the remedy to be for him by his beleeving wel-walking or the like A. No surely For 1. The acts of a mans own deceitfull heart are nothing so evident and sure a foundation of beleeving a thing no nor any other pretended Revelation as the word of God is By his beleeving in the Question Beleeving is opposed to and set against the word not so well by beleeving as by the word of God whereas we cannot know any thing by the word otherwise than by beleeving the word By beleeving therefore as I suppose he meaneth the inherent grace or gift of Faith and by beleeving and wel-walking I take him to understand Faith and Obedience and when he saith in the Question or the like I think he meaneth good affections and desires and dispositions The greatest ambiguity and confusion lieth in those words the remedy to be FOR HIM for they may bear a double sense 1. He knoweth the remedy to be for him that is undoubtedly informed that God hath done graciously for all and so for him as our Authour speaketh in his Answer to Quest 200. or that knoweth that Christ died for all the world that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish Thus the remedie is for him provided that he seeketh to enjoy it and attain it 2. He knoweth the remedy to be for him to whom it is so applyed that he is assured it hath taken place on him that he hath found relief and is cured and hath obtained Peace and Pardon and Justification He that knoweth the remedie to be for him in the first sense may possibly not know it to be for him in the second So plainly they be two several matters and yet here they are made all one The Orthodox do say That a Christian by faith obedience and the testimonie of the Spirit may assuredly know that the remedie of Christs Death and the benefits of his Passion are his own and efficaciously applyed for the raising him to spiritual life and hope of inheritance incorruptible But can any man know the remedie to be for him thus by the word of God alone setting aside the consideration of faith and obedience he cannot Well may he question the truth of his faith that hath no better ground to beleeve that Christ hath done away his sins than this That he hath done away the sins of all the persons in the world How he demeaned himself in delivering the Doctrine of the Moral law we saw before here we have another smack of his Antinomian leaven whiles he denieth works or graces or faith either unless it be of his own mark and allowance to confer any thing to the consolation of a Christian He telleth his opinion with some passion in the Preface to his other work Onely whereas Their daubings that tell souls they may know that Christ loves them by their good desires and endeavours strifes and labours my soul abhorreth We have little reason to think that he remembreth the profession that he made at the beginning To follow the rule of Gods word howsoever he might leave the common-road for most certainly he hath here left both the one and the other Holy Scripture teacheth us to argue from our Sanctification to our Justification as being two things never severed in the person or their subject though they be distinguished in their nature If any man be in Christ he is a new creature and he that is renewed may be assured that he is in Christ and that Christ loves him They are the Characters which he gave Blessed are the mercifull the meek the pure in heart and they who have good desires hungring and thirsting after righteousness and he hath told us that they who do the will of God shall enter into the kingdome of heaven and that they are in the mean time to him as his brother and sister and mother I trust his sheep will never hearken to the voice of any stranger to the contrary nor much regard great words They hear the Apostle Paul say 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world And they hear the Apostle Peter say 2 Epist. 1. chap. if vertue and temperance and patience and godliness be in you you make your calling and election sure and you shall never fall and they hear the Apostle John say 1. Epist. 3. chap. in this the children of God are manifest even in doing righteousness vers. 10. and vers. 14. We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren There is great cause that that kinde of faith should be suspected

his Elect before the foundation of the world that is say they He did purpose to choose them when they come to beleeve But so were they justified and glorified before the world was so was the world at an end before the foundation was laid Thus no words of holy Writ how plain soever can secure the truth against the perverse wits of such as are corrupt and self-willed Secondly he teacheth here That in the Doctrine of Election we must begin with Christ and there are given abroad certain verses of his which tender this as a Main-principle to be born in minde That Christ fore-known is the foundation of all and the not knowing or learning of this breedeth many errours these texts subjoyned Isa. 28. 16. 1 Cor. 3. 11. Agreeably whereunto it hath been taught by others of his way and by such as led the way to Others That Gods first Decree is De mittendo Christo to send his son into the world Answ. There must be something of necessity precedent to the Mission or Manifestation of Christ or to Gods preordination to send and manifest him I know that in God who is eternity it self all things are together nothing properly going before or following And to us as we now are it is a hard matter to know how to speak or think of Gods manner of acting or proceeding in his Decrees Nevertheless as when he speaketh unto us in holy Scripture he is pleased to condescend to our capacities and to borrow his manner of speech from our custome and usage to the intent he may be understood of us So he giveth us leave when we speak of him to use our own expressions so they be agreeable to his holy Word and with due regard to him who is in all things infinite Accordingly whereunto we say That as some things in the order and manner of the Creatures are simul tempore together as to their beginning in time which are not simul naturâ together in their own nature one of them causing the other to be as the Sun and the light of it Fire and the heat of it In like sort Gods election of men and his purpose to send Jesus Christ these two though they be both alike ab aeterno yet naturâ the Election of his Church goeth before his purpose to send his Son And this I prove by those words So God loved the world that he gave his Son 1. John 4. He loved us and sent his Son Therefore whether it be Gods love and mercy to mankind in the general or in special to the Elect and whether election be of particular persons or beleevers in general Gods love doth go before his purpose or decree to send his Son because he sent his Son out of his love to Man When a Christian Prince hearing of such a number of his subjects held captives under the Great Turk doth send such a sum of money as is demanded in this case certainly his good will that he beareth to those his subjects doth precede his sending or his purpose to send the money for their Ransome The Love of God is Causa proegumena quae intus movet ad agendum which some call causa antecedens the cause moving from within The Death of Christ is Causa procatarctica quae extrinsecus movet ad agendum the cause moving from without and therefore subsequent to the other though both be considered together as he that resolves upon the end doth therewithall deliberate and resolve of the means tending thereto Gods Love or good will is an antecedent cause to Christs manifestation And as a foundation is for the good and benefit of what is laid upon it so was Christ given in caput Electorum to be a Head and a Mediatour that by him the Elect might be brought to Glory Although therefore the son of God be the Authour and finisher of our Salvation if we speak of the Execution of it in time yet if we speak of the Decree of it before all time So Christ is not the foundation of our Election but Gods love is And yet I hope he will not say we lay any other foundation then Christ according to the Apostles sense 1 Cor. 3. any more then the Apostle himself did when he said in one place The foundation of God standeth sure 2 Tim. 2. and in another We are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Eph. 2. Thirdly he teacheth that Christ is not onely Fundamentum electionis but subjectum also and primus Electorum as if God did choose Christ first and then others and two places are brought in the margin wherein he is said to be Gods Elect Isa. 42. 1. Behold my servant whom I uphold my Elect in whom my soul delighteth and 1 Pet. 2.4 To whom coming as to a living stone disallowed of men but chosen of God and precious These two places are alledged to make good his new Doctrine that the Great Mysterie of Election which in his Title he promised to open is in the prime notion to be understood of Gods choosing of Christ I answer It is needfull that be done that he hath omitted and that is to distinguish and remove the darkness that ariseth from ambiguity There is a fourfold Election 1. To an office So David was chosen King whiles he followed the sheep and our Saviour chose the twelve to be Apostles 2. To the Church visible So God chose the people of Israel Deut. 7.6 The Lord hath chosen you te be a special people 3. To the Church invisible or the mystical body of Jesus Chri●st Joh. 15. 19. I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you 4. To salvation or life eternal Eph. 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world 2 Thess. 2.13 God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation Now both the places abovesaid where Christ is said to be Elected are meant of an Election to an Office or Place Honour and Dignity as the context and plain reason evidently shew in Isai 42. he is To give judgement to make Laws to be a teacher to be a light of the Gentiles to open the blinde eyes and to bring forth the prisoners All these belong to his Royal and Prophetical Office And in that place of Peter his office is likewise spoken of To whom coming as to one in chief place that in him we may be established a chief corner stone this is for the good of others to hold the building firm and such as was the Reprobation or Rejection such was the Election surely But the Rejection was in this to be in no place at all therefore the Election must be in this to be in the chief place of all So we may say that our Saviour was predestinated and preordinated ad officium but if we say that he is the first of the predestinate or primus Electorum who then is secundus None for none is there of that order