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	work_n	2,826	5	6.4066	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91437	The late Assembly of Divines Confession of faith examined. As it was presented by them unto the Parliament. Wherein many of their excesses and defects, of their confusions and disorders, of their errors and contradictions are presented, both to themselves and others.	Parker, William, fl. 1651-1658.	1651 (1651)	Wing P486; Thomason E1229_1; ESTC R203140	216,319	371

the Apostles shew both of the one and of the other and first of the Angels 2 Pet. 2.4 God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down into Hell Jude 6. And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chaines under darkness to the judgement of the great day And secondly concerning men 2 Thes 2.12 That all might be damned who beleeve not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Now these and some other Scriptures by us alledged do not speak immediately of Gods eternal Decree yet we know that God works all things in time according to the counsel of his own will from eternity Ephes 1.11 In your fourth Section you declare your selves more fully in this point of Predestination saying These Angels and men thus Predestinated and fore ordained are particularly and unchangeably designed and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either encreased or diminished Which words of yours we will grant to be true First of the Angels after some had stood fast in obedience and others had fallen but this was a destination in time not a predestination from eternity Secondly Of Angels and men out of the special fore-knowledge of God whereby he certainly foresaw the perseverance of the good Angels in obedience when the wicked spirits fell as also the persistance of the Saints in faith and obedience towards grace which should be exhibited on the one hand with the Apostacy of the lapsed Angels and the obstinacy of the impenitent men and backsliding temporaries on the other hand and so accordingly determined that the one part should be saved and the other perish But that Gods decree in the general toward Angels and men was onely conditional and did no wayes necessitate either to sin and damnation or to obedience and salvation it is evident out of these ensuing texts and many more As for the Apostate Angels the fault of their Apastacy is wholly and clearly ascribed to themselves 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. as before And as for men it is said Luke 7.30 the Pharisees and Lawyers did frustrate the counsel of God against themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which things would not possibly be done unless God's counsel was conditional add 2 Pet. 3.9 But God is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance which is spoken aswel of singula generum as of genera singulorum and you had before God's oath Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked To confirm his affirmation Ezek 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die And as there is no enforcing necessity from Gods decree to dispose Angels and men to obedience or disobedience life or death so neither was there any necessity of nature that is want of liberty in their wills or inability to obey before their fall whatsoever there is left afterwards in mankinde But if you mean by this particular and unchangeable designing men and Angels an absolute irrespective and peremtorie or inevitable dispose of some Angels and men to life and of others to destruction and that from eternity you do not onely make God a respecter of persons in those that are appointed to life from which the Scripture vindicates the Lord frequently Acts 10.34 Rom 2.11 Deut. 10.17 1 Pet. 1.17 But this contradicts what you speak concerning God Chapter the second where you describe him to be most wise most holy most loving most gratious most merciful and most righteous c. When you ascribe to him such a peremtory and irrevocable Decree of condemning thousands of Angels and men everlastingly and that before they had done or purposed any evil against him or yet had any being Consider this we pray you could any of you which is a father and scarce hath one drop of love mercy and goodness compared with God's ocean appoint one or more of your little babes which yet never offended you to be burned to death How far then must it be from the gratious disposition of him that is love it self and whose bowels of Compassion are infinite inevitably to designe so many millions of Angels his children by creation to endless and insufferable flames of fire before they had any existence in nature or capacity of offending In your Fifth Section you say that those of mankinde that are predestinated unto life are chosen by God before the foundation of the world was laid according to his eternal and immutable purpose and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will in Christ unto everlasting glory out of his meer free grace and love All which is true both of Gods general and special election But whereas you add these words in conclusion without any foresight of Faith or good works or perseverance in either of them as conditions or causes moving him thereunto It is a most dangerous error and falsehood For was not that counsel of God which Paul declared to the Churches Acts 20.27 briefly comprehended in that Doctrine whereby as he himself saith he testified b●th to the Jewes and also to the Gentiles repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 20.20.21 Doth not the same Apostle tell us Rom. 8.29 That those whom God foreknew he did predestinate to be made conformable to the Image of his Son Doth not Saint Peter tell the believing Jews that they were elect according to the foreknowledge of God through sanctification of the Spirit to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pe● 1.2 Doth not Saint Paul declare the counsel or will of God to be conditional when he saith 1 Tim. 2.3 4. For this is good and acceptable before God who will have all men to be saved and to that end to come to the knowledge of the truth Are not the words of Saint Peter clear also to that effect 2. Pet. 3.9 Who willeth not that any man should perish but that all men should come to repentance Is not the saving grace of God which hath appeared to all men conditional by the Apostles own testimony Tit. 2.11 12. For the Grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men bath appeared teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Is not the Gospel it self which is a declaration of the whole counsel of God to be published conditionally Mat. 18.19 20. Mark 16.15.16 Go yee into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Doth not God best know what his own will and counsel is and was from eternity when he tels us Ez●k 18. and 33 and almost every where else in the old Testament that the obstinate sinner shall die but such as convert to him shall live Yea the finall and

corrupted that without it we could not have been saved or brought to communiō w th God again by that his other conceptiō alone in the womb of the Virgin Mary as neither could infants be saved without his other presence spoken of before Thus is Christ both the resurrection and the life Joh. 11.25 viz. a life preservation to the innocent a resurrection to the dead who beleev on him obey him In your 3 Section you are first much mistaken and afterwards no less defective Mistaken in these things 1. That you say That the Lord Jesus in his human nature was sanctified above measure For though it is said of him Joh. 3.34 that he receiveth not the spirit by measure yet that is spoken of the God-head which alone is infinite As for his humanity it being a creature must needs be finite though spiritually enriched above any other creature 2. Whereas you say or imply That in his humanity likewise all treasures of wisdom are hidden it is a mistake likewise For that place Col. 2.3 to which you refer us speaks of the Diety likewise The same we say concerning Colos 1.19 where it is written that it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell by you appropriated but amiss to his human nature 2. Though it must be granted also to be true which the Aposte speakes Heb. 7 26. that he is holy hormless undefiled and separate from sinners and made higher then the Heavens yet the last words transfer this honor to the Deity especially and not to the humanity alone as you would restrain them And thus he is throughly furnished to do the great office of a Mediator which Office as you truely say Christ did not take upon himself of his own head but was there unto called of his Father who hath put all power judgement into his hand Thus of your mistakes deficient you are in setting forth what and wherein the Mediatorship of Christ doth mainly consist especially in his works of spiritual Mediation Intercession and Redemption In your 4. Section you have in part set forth Christs twofold state in the humanity the one of humiliation the other of exaltation but if you will confider what you have here omitted you will have more cause to be humbled then exalted For 1. You make no mention at all of that great work of his wherein Gods justice and severity against sin is so conspicuous and the love of Christ towards mankind is so illustrious to wit Christs descending into Hel his suffering there for us the torments due to the sins of the whole world Which grand article of the Faith though retain'd in the most ancient Creeds confessed in the most Orthodox Councels is by you suppressed to the eternal blemish of this your confession But Consider we pray you was not Jonah three daies afflicted or tormented by the sense of Gods wrath upon him in the belly of Leviathan as a type of our Saviours future sufferings See Jonah 2.2 Out of the belly of Hell have I cried unto thee compared with Mat. 12.40 For as Jonah was 3 daies and 3 nights in the Whales belly so shall the Son of man be 3 daies and 3 nights in the heart of the earth Doth not the Apostle also expresly say Ephes 4 9. Now that be ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth Where take notice of two things First Of the comparative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lower which is according to an usual Hellenism in the New Testament put for the superlative the lowest as utter darkness is put for the utmost darkness And Secondly That the heart of the earth afore-named Matth. 12. and the lower parts of the earth here mentioned cannot possibly be understood of Christs Sepulther which was upon the superficies of the earth Thirdly Doth not Christ comfort himself with this that though he knew he should go into hell yet he fore-saw that God would not leave his soul there alwayes Psal 16.10 for thou wit not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffe● thine holy one to see corruption Doth not St. Peter seconded with the other Apostles and all filled with the holy Ghost in the day of Pentecost expresly affirm Acts 2.24 the God raised up Christ from the dead loosing the paines of death c Now Christs body while it remained in the grave was not in any pain therefore it was his soul that at the hour of his resurrection was loosed from those paines and torments But here two things seem to puzle you First That saying of Christs upon the Cross not long before his expirement John 19.30 crying it is finished Secondly That he sayeth to the penitent theef this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Luke 23.43 To which we answer severally as followeth To the first We object a like place John 17.4 where our Saviour saith unto his Father some space before his death I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do that is I have almost finished it And how much more then might Christ so say when he had suffered so much more in the garden before his Judges and upon the cross If you reply That in the former place he speaks of his ministery we will rejoyn that he speaks here of the sacrifice and offering up of his corporal life both to fulfil the types of the Old Testament and to set us an example of dying with him To the second we answer with Gillebert in Bernard That as man consists of three distinct parts body soul spirit 1 Thes 5.23 seconded with Hebr. 4.12 So did Christs humanity also consist of the same parts Psal 16 9 10. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption Where the heart is the soul and the flesh the body so the glory was his spirit which Jacob also calls his honour Gen 49.6 O my soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united Which two are dissevered again by a gradation Isa 26.9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early The which distinction of parts being most clear we say then that the spirit of Christ at his death immediately ascended to God according to those words Luke 23.43 aforesaid This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise his body also was laid in the grave yet saw no corruption but his soul went to hell there to suffer for us the condign punishment of our sins in the proper place of punishment Oh justice upon the surety to be trembled at for ever O love in Christ never to be forgotten Secondly You are deficient in setting forth the inward and spiritual crucifying death and burial of Christ within us ever since our fall