Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	election_n	faith_n	foresee_v	1,644	5	11.3276	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61301	The love of God to all mankind in the glorious work of their redemption by Jesus Christ, asserted and vindicated. With a plain and sober discussion of those controversies which are the constant concomitants of it, viz. election and reprobation, God's foreknowledg, his nature, attributes, and decrees; the sufficiency of means vouchsafed to all men to believe; the use of the law to believers under the gospel. Also concerning original sin, freewill, and falling from grace. All fitted to the meanest capacity, in a way of dialogue, by Zachary Stanton.	Stanton, Zachary.	1700 (1700)	Wing S5251A; ESTC R219675	159,700	342

to come are taken away by Christ Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect c. and so Rom. 4. 23. Isa 35. 8. The Lord hath laid upon him the Iniquity of us all and 1 Pet. 2. 24. himself bore our Sins on his Body c. and what I said I will say that tho the Elect may sin as well as others yet their God in Christ will never un-son them nor yet touching their Justification and eternal Salvation will he love them ever a whit the less yea tho they commit never so many and great Sins For this is a certain Truth that as no Good in them or done by them did move him to elect and justify them and to give them eternal Life so no Evil in them or done by them can move him to take that away when once given Philad This is like that which is in the Mouth of some Be in Christ and sin if thou canst what pity is it that Men pretending to Wisdom and Sobriety and Professors of Godliness should fall into such Raptures as are next to Madness What a bundle of Errors are here wrapt up together and that under Scripture-guize but surely you do not read the Scripture in that Spirit in which it was wrote or else you might see notwithstanding the Apostle's triumphing that till Persons repent of their Sins and turn to God they stand charged with many things as I have told you from Eph. 2. and from Paul who was before his Conversion a Persecutor a Blasphemer and confess'd himself the chief of Sinners yea before the Apostle comes to this Triumphing he was long exercised with Frights Terrors within and Frightnings without and tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 2. 3. that his Preaching among them was in great fear and trembling so that we must Fight before we Triumph and Mourn before the Lord Comfort us And how clearly doth 1 Pet. 2. 24. shew that the proper intention of Redemption is Dominion eternal Redemption is an eternal Obligation to Service Ye are bought with a price ye are not your own your Bodies and Spirits are the Lord's 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Rom. 14. 9. You may see that one end of Christ's being a Redeemer was that he might be a Sovereign Lord over his Purchase yea this is one great end of the Lord 's entering into Covenant with his People promising to do great things for them Ezek. 11. 19 20. I say the end of all is that they might serve him Hockins on God's Decree p. 93. Can we entertain so ignoble a belief that the eternal Son of God should suffer for any less end than to advance our Human Nature to the greatest height of Piety and Purity of Life and to raise our Souls to the most refined and sublimate goodness What did Christ take our Nature upon him and become Surety for us and pay such an infinite price for us that we might spend more freely and daringly on the Stock of our Surety's Satiffaction Ah! Who can with-hold their Eyes from Tears to think that any should make use of Mercy to damn them For many had not been guilty of so many Sins nor persisted in them without Repentance had it not been for their false hope in Christ not considering Christ came to redeem from all Iniquity as well as from all Wrath. Philet But Christ dying for the Elect hath thereby fulfilled all Righteousness satisfied Divine Justice and purchased Heaven for them Philad And what then Philet Why then there 's no doubt but they shall be saved for in the very moment of Election they were pardoned of all Sins past present and to come Philad What as if now nothing could endanger their Souls they have enough for Heaven Pray what should hinder them from bidding all Sin welcom Why may they not kill whore c. and commit all Abomination and if impleaded for it bring in this as an Evidence that they were in the very moment of Election pardoned of all Sins past present and to come they have a Gracious God that will forgive them and a Surety who hath paid for all Philet I perceive what you are driving at You hold that Faith and Obedience in us to be the cause of God's Electing or Chusing us to Life and Salvation Doth not the Scripture prove that Election is not according to foreseen Faith not because Men do or will believe but because they should believe Rom. 9. 11. 1 Pet. 1. 2 3 4. 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 1. Now if Faith and Obedience be the cause of God's loving us then here is Merit this eclipses the Glory of God's free Love and renders Salvation of Debt and not of Grace Mar. This is down-right Popery nay I affirm that Faith and Repentance are no more a means to go to Heaven by than prophane Cursing and Swearing Philad That Faith in Christ and Obedience to the Lord is a cause without which God chuseth none to Life and Salvation is a Truth unless you can prove that God hath designed his Son to die to save such as will neither repent of their Sins believe nor obey him but live and die in open Rebellion against God and do despight to the Spirit of Grace and trample under foot the Blood of the Son of God c. but that it is the cause for which God chuseth any I disown as well as you For the Love of God the Father to the Sons of Men as they were Sinners and Enemies to him was the essential cause of our Salvation John 3. 16. Rom. 5. 6 8 10. 1 Pet. 3. 18. and Jesus Christ the meritorious and procuring cause of Man's Salvation and should we admit of any thing else but Christ to be the matter of our Justification or the meritorious Cause of Eternal Life this would be injurious to the Perfection of Christ's Righteousness and overthrow the freeness of Divine Grace and Love But you and all Men ought rightly to divide and distinguish between the Cause and Condition of our Salvation that Christ may be owned as the Cause and Author of it and Faith and Obedience as the way and means to attain to it for as God Almighty hath prepared a Heaven for Men so he hath appointed the way and means to fit and prepare them for it as Christ is the Way so if I should say that Faith and Obedience is a way to come to enjoy it I might say it was advancing Nature above Grace or setting up our own Righteousness in the room of Christ's Righteousness and so robbing him of his Honour or asserting Merits surely Eternal Happiness hereafter hath some dependance upon Holiness here Mod. I like this well and do believe that God that hath appointed the end hath also appointed the means as in the Case of Paul Acts 27. 22. though God had promised to save Paul and all that were in the Ship yet they were to use the means otherwise they could not be safe I would have

afraid of any Sin that is attended with Pleasure or Profit if they must needs sin or what reason has a Person to repent to weep and mourn for doing that which he could not but do or omitting of that which was never in his power to effect If there be such a rigid Fate upon Persons all Sorrow Fear and mourning for Sin and all other Acts of Repentance whatsoever may as well be spared as spent to no purpose Mar. Well but whatsoever cometh to pass at any time or in any place with relation to any Persons they are foreseen and foreknown by the Lord and if so is there not then an absolute and unavoidable necessity of their coming to pass What God foresees must necessarily come to pass but it must come to pass in the same manner that he foresees it which is as it shall be in respect of time But his foresight doth not make it an absolutely necessary thing for as the knowledg of things prefent lays no necessity on that which is done so the fore-knowledg of things future lays no necessity on that which shall be because whosoever either knows or sees things he knows and sees them as they are and not as they are not God's foreknowledg of this or the other Man's Sins from Eternity doth infer that these his Sins would be committed for God cannot be deceived yet his fore-knowledg that Man would sin hath no influence upon his Sin which shews Man's Destruction to be of himself Phil. God foreknows all the Evil and Wickedness that was is or will be yet he doth not decree it It cannot be thought but God did foreknow that the Jews would mock his Messengers despise his Word misuse his Prophets till his Wrath arose against them till there was no Remedy yet did not he decree it but sent his Messengers c. in true love to them 2 Chron. 36. 15 16. God Almighty thro the Infinitness of his Wisdom and Knowledg is able infallibly to know and foresee all Mens Ways and Actions and what they will be from the beginning of the World to the end thereof as well nay far better than Man doth when his days are finished being without all possibility of Error or Mistake yet this fore-knowledg of this or the other coming to pass doth not cause a necessity that it shall so come to pass no more than my fore-knowledg that Men will die is a cause of their Death Without all question God foreknew that Herod would seek the young Child Jesus to destroy him and in all probability had Jesus been in the coast of Bethlehem at that time when Herod's bloody Inquisition was put in Execution Jesus had died that the Lord foresaw and therefore warned Joseph to take the young Child and flee into Egypt But very full to our purpose is that in 1 Sam. 23. 11 12. where David inquires of the Lord if Saul would come down to Keilah and the Lord said he would come down and that the Lords of Keilah would deliver David into Saul's Hands in case he should stay in their City But it did not follow from this fore-knowledg that therefore Saul must of necessity come down or David be delivered by the Lords of Keilah into Saul's Hands Predestination saith St. Austin as quoted by Du-Veil on Act. 2. 23. cannot be without Fore-knowledg but Fore-knowledg may be without Predestination for by Predestination God foreknew those things he was to act but he may foreknow those things which he himself doth not do as all manner of Sin Where we may see that tho the Sins and wicked Actions of Men may be the Object of God's Fore-knowledg yea and of his Providence too yet it is Wickedness to say that God is operative about the bringing of them to pass Mar. But if it was not for Sin God's Glory would not be exalted in the punishing of it by this is much of the Justice of God seen Phil. What is God so much wanting in himself that he could find out no means for the Exaltation of his own glorious Name nor find out means to advance his Justice but by the bringing in of Sin into the World which his Soul hates and to appoint Men to commit it that so he might exalt his Justice in punishing of it Surely if our Righteousness cannot profit God our Sins cannot Job 35. 6 7. But a Word with respect to the term Fore-knowledg which the Scripture in several places attributes unto God tho held by Learned and good Christians to be an unproper Term and attributed to God as the Parts and Passions of a Man are as Hands Eyes Ears Grief Joy Repentance Anger c. And the Holy Ghost is pleased to use such vulgar Terms applying himself to our Capacity that so we might receive some Light of God's Eternal Workings and might be inriched with such Conceptions and Knowledg of him as we are capable of Now with respect to us that are temporal we say that God Almighty doth foresee and foreknow us and predestinate us yet we must not think that God's Actions that are Eternal must be wrought like ours in time This was to raise such Fancies in us which are unworthy of him and not consistent with the truth of his Being for this is adjudg'd for a Truth by the Learned that God wills nothing in time Mr. Perkins in his Commentary upon Heb. 11. 40 speaking of God's Fore-knowledg saith That to soresee is ascribed to God not properly but in regard of our Capacity for if we speak of God properly God cannot be said to foresee any thing because all things be present to him whether past or to come Dr. Moulins upon Rom. 8. as quoted by De-Laun in his Sec. Philo page 70. God is said to foreknow such which he foresaw would believe in his Son not that there is any future time properly ascribable to God in whom no Acci-Condition or Circumstance of Time or Place can be admitted but these things are spoken of God after the manner of Men. Now if God wills nothing in time neither doth he foreknow or foresee any thing in time his Fore-knowledg being as Antient as himself even from Eternity so that with God there is no Word nor Thought nor Actions past or to come but are all at once with God even in one eternal present Being Psal 139. 2. yea our Birth our Lives our Death our Election and Predestination Acts 15. 18. are all at once with God with whom is no variableness or shadow of changing Heb. 13. 8. Rev. 1. 4. Jesus Christ the same Yesterday to Day and for ever always like himself invariable and immutable so that whatsoever God foreknows or intends 't is from Eternity May we not say with the Apostle Rom. 11. 33. that the Knowledg as well as the Wisdom of God is past finding out yea unsearchable to Men and Angels in respect of that absolute and perfect Knowledg which God hath of all things and of the Ways and Actions of