Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	divine_a	faith_n	formal_a	1,432	5	11.4042	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60505	The true notion of imputed righteousness, and our justification thereby; being a supply of what is lacking in the late book of that most learned person bishop Stillingfleet, which is a discourse for reconciling the dissenting parties in London; but dying before he had finished the two last and most desired chapters thereof, he hath left this main point therein intended, without determination. By the Reverend M.S. a country minister.	Smith, Matthew, 1650-1736.	1700 (1700)	Wing S4134; ESTC R214778	162,043	254

a perfect conformity to the Law of Innocency is as dung and so abominable to God and sure I am this looks odd on 't for is not this Grace and Holiness a work of God and is not every work of God perfect in its kind hath not a perfection of parts been all along granted and is there not an Evangelical perfection consisting in sincerity which hath been and is acknowledged by Divines was it a strict legal perfection or a perfection consisting in sincerity that David intended when he gave Solomon his Son the charge to serve God with a perfect heart and so when it is said of the People they offered with a perfect heart 1 Chron. 29. 9. Was that a strict legal perfection in Heart and Life that was so sweet to Hezekiah in the reflection after he had received the sentence of Death in himself Isa 38. 3. And said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and Hezekiah wept sore Mr. Caryl from that part of Job's description This Man was perfect saith not that he had a legal perfection such a perfection as the Papists now contend for and assert to be possibly attainable yea actually attained by many in this Life But saith he the perfection here spoken of is the perfection of sincerity and he observes from the words after his explication First It is sincerity that especially commends us to God Secondly Saith he sincere and sound hearted Persons are in God's esteem perfect Persons It is not all that you can do or all that you can say or all that you can suffer or all that you can lose that can make you perfect in the esteem of God without sincerity add sincerity but to the least and it gives you the denomination of perfect Thus far this Reverend Author which Doctrine some Men call Popish so well are they acquainted what Popish Doctrine is Some Men seperate Faith and good Works and speak of them so as though there might be good Works without Faith Now for my part I know no good Works formally in a Theological sense but such as are done in Faith and I know nothing done in Faith that leads not to Christ and God in him and therefore for Persons to speak of good Works as such seperate from Faith and to speak of Faith leading the Soul off from Christ is manifestly vain Some Men will not grant that Faith is a qualification of right to Christ and his benefits and ●et they say to justifie is to make one legally just or just in Law so say I and can a Man be legally just without a legal righteousness and is not that which is a Righteousness a quality how then can a Man be just legally and not qualitatively Find me a Man that ever was legally just and yet not personally just in the sense of that Law which accounted him just and if personally just then primarily inherently just and if personally just just in his nature As I have said above so I must here say again let it be proved that Thomas is a Person without the nature of a Man or that the nature doth not go to constitute the Person when I speak of Faith as the qualifying matter in a Gospel sense some Persons have inferred from hence that this is all I intend in Justification whereas there is the form as I have said i. e. God's imputation by his Law of Grace his accounting such a Faith as accepts of Christ as our great Propitiation Head and Teacher by this his Law for the sake of Christ's satisfaction and Merit for Righteousness and forma dat esse Hence their inference is a meer fallacy à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter Will the Gospel assert a Person 's right to Christ and his benefits before conformity thereunto and when through grace any Person yields Conformity is it not a Gospel Righteousness and is not a Gospel Righteousness jus quoad eam legem a right in that Law to Christ Pardon and Life promised and is jus ad rem a right to a thing no qualification in a legal sense if not then the consequence must be that a penitent Believer as such subjectively hath no more actual right to Christ and Life according to the Gospel promise then an impenitent Infidel I speak not of a right by merit but both by qualification unto him that hath merited and unto Pardon and Life merited by him for us Faith it self as it is the Soul's first consent to accept of Christ to be its Propitiation Head and Teacher is really Gospel Obedience Rom. 16. 26. But now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith and that because it is the Soul's conformity to the Gospel command 1 John 3. 23. And this is his commandment That we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ love one another as he gave us commandment And Faith thus considered is that which unites to Christ and the qualifying matter which first gives the right John 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name And as Faith is the Soul's consent to accept of Christ c. this consent includes the Soul 's free ingagement sincerely to be subject to what Christ commands so long as he continues it in the World in a dependance upon his power and faithfulness And this sincere obedience performed according to the Soul's first Covenant consent during its abode in this World is that whereby its right to Christ and saving blessings is continued Revel 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City And this is agreeable to the mind of a Reverend and Judicious Divine as he Illustrates it by a Marriage Covenant including constant fidelity And this Faith with him is a condition as it relates to the Covenant and a Righteousness in the sense of the Gospel as it is the performance of the condition And when he speaks of Christ's Righteousness being the cause and matter of Justification his declared sense is the meriting matter not that we might merit but have that by virtue of his merit which the Gospel requires to give us right to Pardon and Life and what is this but our sincere consent which is Faith Our Divines excluding good Works from the matter of Justification spoke of good Works with relation to the Law of Innocency and indeed Evangelical Obedience will be no qualifying matter of right in the sense of that Law and that they did so is plain forasmuch as their argument is because they are imperfect perfect therefore say they it must be a perfect

and the inferences must be shewn or else when Persons call them absurd they understand not what they say Dans formam dat consequentia formam And hath it not been generally affirmed That the Righteousness of Christ considered as Mediatour is made the Believers by Imputation as really as if it had been wrought and performed by them and it being the sole matter of their Justification they are made formally righteous hereupon by God's Imputation who knows not that hath read any thing almost that the active and passive obedience of Christ by the most that have been accounted Orthodox hath been made the material and God's Imputation the formal cause of our Justification And yet some have made a challenge saying Where did any of our Orthodox Writers ever assert or intend that we were justified by the very formal personal numerical intrinsick Righteousness of Christ Whoever imagined that the Righteousness of Christ by Imputation is made ours according to its universal value but according to our particular necessity I Answer Certainly tell I cannot who these Persons mean by Orthodox Writers but this I know that many of those Holy Men of God whose works are extant and who were very Orthodox in their Lives and in the most of things in their judgment also yet held as much in this point of Justification as what is in the challenge comes to Mary saith Mr. Norton in his Orthodox Evangelist under the Cross was more just imputatively than Christ which was also true of every believer then living If Adam's peace had been perfect in case of his fulfilling all Righteousness then the Believer's Peace is perfect who hath fulfilled all Righteousness in his surety Page 324. In Justification saith Mr. Tho. Vincent we are not only acquitted from guilt but accepted as perfectly righteous in God's sight through the Imputation of Christ's perfect righteousness Supplement to the Morning Exercise Page 716. Having spoken of Pardon the other part of our Justification saith Downham is that whereby God imputeth unto every believer the righteousness of the Mediatour Jesus Christ as if it were properly their own and performed by them that being clothed therewith they may be perfectly righteous in God's sight and so obtain right unto everlasting life and happiness Christian Warfare Lib. 2. Cap. 50. Pag. 271. But it is needless to take up time or fill up Paper in quoting Authors Dr. Manton might have served for all whom I account as moderate a Man as any that dissent yet hear what he saith upon Hebr. 11. 4. Being united to Christ we are interested in all his actions as if they were ours for when we are one with him in the Spirit we are considered by God to be one with him in Law therefore by union we are said to put on Christ with all his personal merits and righteousness upon this God looks upon us as righteous and this by the donation and application of Christ's Righteousness and this righteousness must be in justification and is such a righteousness as satisfies God's justice and the Law Now upon the matter I ask can God look upon us as righteous and this by the donation and application of Christ's Righteousness which is such a Righteousness as satisfies God's justice and the Law and put us on upon union with Christ with all his personal Merits and Righteousness and yet we not have the very formal personal numerical intrinsick Righteousness of Christ What is not a satisfactory and meritorious Righteonsness the very essential formal and numerical Righteousness of Christ's Person as Mediator And is not this affirmed to be imputed in it self in our Justification and to be in it self our personal justifying Righteousness If not why am I and some others so much opposed for the denying of it and holding that it is only imputed unto us in its fruit and effects If they affirm it is imputed or accounted by God to be in it self our personal justifying Righteousness then I ask how can it be accounted ours in it self for our Justification and not be one and the same essential formal and personal Righteousness of Christ as Mediator can that be the Righteousness of Christ in it self that is not one and the same essential formal Righteousness which is Christ If so then we may say idem non idem the self same and not the self same which is manifestly absured and contradictory And whereas it is said further whoever imagined that the Righteousness of Christ by Imputation is made ours according to its universal value I Answer he that says the Righteousness of Christ is imputed in it self and not only in its blessed effects how can it be it self and want its full value let any Man find me that can a Righteousness of Christ as Mediatour that is not satisfactory to infinite justice and meritorious of all good and is not here its full value take away as I have said above it 's satisfactory and meritorious property from Christ's Righteousness as Mediatour which is its value and see then if that which remains can be the Righteousness of Christ I am afraid if some men were left to act according to their own notions it would be an odd sort of a Righteousness they would make at last to be their justifying Righteousness for according to what they say it cannot be Christ's and Faith it must not be and what then must it be it is well if they know themselves for sure I am I do not And what can a Man think of that which remains which is that the Righteousness of Christ is made ours by Imputation according to our particular necessities But that in the opinion of these Persons God doth divide and parcel out Christ's Righteousness one part to this and another part to that Believer and that some have need of more and some of less of it and is this God's manner of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness According to these Men it is but I say it is not and for any to assert such a thing is grosly absurd Indeed I had like to have said this is a notion but of yesterdays coining but I find the substance both of this latter and the former part of that I have now spoken to by Mr. Burgess in his Book called Vindiciae Legis Pag. 135. As for me I say I must either have interest in and a right unto the whole of Christ's Righteousness or I am undone for no less than the whole will satisfie God's justice for any Soul or merit Pardon and Life for it And when I plead with God for Pardon Life and Acceptation I plead the whole and not a part only of Christ's meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness but then observe I plead it as it is properly Christ's as Mediatour and so in it self incommunicable though some Persons speak of its communication to us which in its blessed fruits I grant but in it self I deny For the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self and against the

I Answer Luther in Galat. 3. 6. saith Christian Righteousness is an affiance or faith in the Son of God which affiance is imputed unto Righteousness for Christ's sake And in the same place not long after God for Christ's sake in whom I have begun to believe accounts this my imperfect faith for perfect Righteousness And in the 2d Cap. 16. saith he For the Righteousness of the Law a Man is not pronounced righteous before God but the Righteousness of Faith God imputeth freely through Grace for Christ's sake And a little after saith he wherefore God doth accept or account us righteous only for our Faith in Christ Calvin on Rom. 4. 3. saith Wherefore Abraham by believing doth only embrace the grace tendered unto him that it might not be in vain If this be imputed unto him for Righteousness it follows that he is no otherwise righteous but as trusting or relying upon the goodness of God he hath boldness to hope for all things from him Bucer on Rom. 4. 3. saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness that is he accounted this faith or believing for Righteousness so that ●y believing he obtained this that God esteemed him a righteous Man Musculus on Galat. 3. 6. saith What did Abraham that should be imputed unto him for Righteousness but only this that he believed God But it may be said they make the Righteousness of Christ i. e. the Imputation of it the formal cause of our Justification As to this if some Men be guilty of self contradiction I am prone to think they did not intend it But now these worthy Men who say the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is the formal cause of our Justification if they mean only by God's Imputation that God doth account the Righteousness of Christ to be that and that only which hath the form of a Satisfactory and Meritorious Righteousness and so as such for which God justifies us upon believing then there is no contradiction And in the judgment of charity I think no more was intended notwithstanding their unwary expressions which many have made but a bad use of seeing that they have ever affirmed this Righteousness of Christ which they call by God's Imputation the formal cause of our Justification to answer for the violation of God's Holy Law satisfie God's Justice remove the curse of the Law due unto us Sinners purchase Pardon and Life and yet that none shall have in or an actual right unto Redemption from the curse special Reconciliation with God Pardon and Salvation but such as truly believe And therefore when they speak of being clothed with Christ's Righteousness as a robe and garment I would think they mean no more but that it is this which is the screen or sanctuary to secure all true penitent believers from the execution of the Laws curse or the wrath of God but then not this as it is the only Righteousness of their Persons but as it is the proper and only Righteousness of their Mediatour though the blessed benefits hereof as is plain redounds to their Persons And thus as it was for them to remove the great evil that was due and procure all saving good so it is as I have above expressed it the formal satisfactory Righteousness for their Persons by God's Imputation but then not the formal Righteousness of their Person 's by God's Imputation i. e. God doth for this Righteousness of Christ account them upon such a Faith as I have above described personally righteous in the sense of the Gospel and so to have interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life promised but then not personally righteous with it seeing as I have said it cannot in it self after any sort be communicated to Believers although it be in its fruits and benefits I think if this little which I have here inserted was but well considered and our old Divines thus understood the difference would not be great betwixt them and those that are called new upon the matter But the holding ungrounded notions from the manner of expression keeps us far from an accommodation And if some Men will stick by such notions the consequences we have collected from the very nature of the thing whether we will or no devolve upon them though as to such as are practical Christians their practice as I have said must contradict such notions and agree with those very same I have laid down wherein through Christ is their safety though yet holding such notions from whence such consequences flow I know from mine own experience they must be attended with confusion and act but in the dark while yet they may think they have the greatest light for whatsoever the notions of a true practical Holy Christian are yet I am certain he dares not conclude his interest in or right unto Christ Pardon and Life purchased by him any further than he hath ground of hope that he is a true penitent sincere obedient Believer And sure I am when he pleads with God for Pardon Grace and Acceptation he dares not plead as the Merit of this any Righteousness upon himself or wherewith he is formally personally righteous with Christ's Righteousness yet he dare not plead this no but only the Righteousness of the Mediatour Jesus Christ without him as the merit of Pardon Grace and acceptation and this includes the whole that can come within a Christians practice upon this matter I dare appeal to any practical Christian herein And though this be that I hold in this point yet saith this Man if this opinion prevail both Law and Gospel is overthrown truth and saving light extinguished and we lose our Crown and that which we have laboured for This as much as if he had said that which must and will be found in every true and real Christian's practice if this prevail both Law and Gospel is overthrown c. And not having done enough he adds and many Holy Men of God lose that they have laboured for and lost their lives What a Man is this did he ever know or hear or read of any of the Holy Men of God who lost their lives for the opposing such notions the practice of which as Holy Men must unavoidably be found in their own practice Let him give me an instance any where at any time of any one Holy Man of God indeed or Woman that lost their lives and so suffered Martyrdom for opposing this Doctrine i. e. That true Faith unites to Christ gives interest in him and so through and for him an actual right to Pardon and Life and that no true Christian dare conclude that he hath this union interest and right any further than he hath ground of hope that he is a true penitent sincere obedient Believer and that he dare not plead any Righteousness that is in him or upon him as the merit of Pardon Grace and Acceptation but only the Righteousness of Christ the Mediatour without him I say let