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
A97067	Truth tried: or, animadversions on a treatise published by the Right Honorable Robert Lord Brook, entituled, The Nature of Truth, its vnion and vnity with the soule. Which (saith he) is one in its essence, faculties, acts; one with truth. By I. W.	Wallis, John, 1616-1703.	1643 (1643)	Wing W615; Thomason E93_21; ESTC R11854	114,623	143

thankfull to him that would solidly demonstrate the Worlds Creation from principles in Nature and make it appear from Naturall Light that the World could not have been from Eternity For though I deny not but that there may be in Nature Demonstrative Arguments yet I confesse I have not as yet seen those and yet I have examined many that have given me so full satisfaction as I desire concernng an absolute Impossibility but that I have seen at least seemed to see some just exception But if his Lordships Opinion be True I shall have more cause to doubt then I have formerly had For if all things did exist in their Beings with God ab omni aeterno and their Temporall Existence be onely Imaginary to our apprehension as his Lordship affirms in his 11. Chapter pag. 99. I cannot imagine any hinderance at all Why that which did really exist from all Eternity might not be without a beginning Why that which Was ab aeterno might not though it did not ab aeterno Appear to be and be Apprehended I will not therefore blame Aristotle for maintaining the Worlds Eternity as a disputable Probleme till I see some Light which might have convinced him whilst he enjoyed not the benefit of Revealed Light at least till this opinion of his Lordship be rejected In the next place I grant to his Lordship that there are doubts also in Metaphysicks in Logick in Mathematicks But I perceive not how this opinion dissolves them There be doubts also in Divinity though I do not see how this doth clear them Whether Faith or Repentance be precedent Whether Faith be a particular application of Christ to my selfe or only a bare spirituall beliefe that Christ is the Sonne of God I as●ent not to place the Saving Act of Faith either with Mr. Cotton as his Lordship cites him in the laying hold of or assenting to that Promise That Hee that beleeveth that Christ is the Sonne of God shall be saved Nor yet in a Particular application of Christ to my selfe in Assurance or a beleeving that Christ is mine For though these also be acts of Saving Faith yet they are not the Saving Act of Faith But I choose rather to place it in an act of the Will rather then in either of these fore-named acts of the Vnderstanding It is an Accepting of Christ offered rather then an Assenting to a Proposition affirmed To as many as Received him c. that is to them that Beleeve in his name Joh. 1. God makes an offer of Christ to all else should not Reprobates be condemned for not accepting of him as neither the Devils are because he was not offered to them Whosoever Will let him come and Take of the water of Life freely Rev. 22. 17. Whereupon the Beleeving Soule replies I will and so Takes him When a Guift is Offered to mee That which makes it to be Mine is my Acceptation my Taking it Not the Knowing that it is Offered nor the Knowing that it is Mine For the one of these precedeth the other followeth the appropriating it to my selfe If you call this Taking of Christ or consenting that Christ shall be my Saviour a Depending a Resting or Relying upon Christ for Salvation if you speak of an Act of the Will It is all One. For Taking of Christ to be my Saviour and Committing my selfe to Christ to be Saved is the same Both of them being but a Consenting to this Covenant I will be your God and you shall be my people I will be thy Father and Thou shalt be my Sonne And if you make this the Saving act of Faith then will Repentance so farre as it is distinct from Faith be a Consequent of it Confidence also or Assurance that Christ is mine ariseth from it For Christ must first be Ours before we can Know him so to be Then also that Whether Faith be a beleeving that I am Saved he meanes in statu salutis or a depending upon God for Salvation to be put into such a Condition of Salvation will be easily resolved and Bellarmins Dilemma soon answered viz. If Beliefe be to Beleeve that I am saved that Christ is mine then was I saved without Faith If it be to beleeve that God will give me Grace to be saved then do I beleeve before I have Grace before I have Faith I say It is easily answered by making the Saving act of Faith an Acceptance or Taking of Christ For although the Guift be mine before I Know or am Assured that it is mine Yet is not the Guift mine before my Accepting of it but by my Acceptance it becomes Mine If with Mr. Cotton we should make Faith to save us only Declarativè which wee must by no means admit Then Why is it said that we are saved by Faith and not by Works Why do we allow that Faith doth concurrere effica●iter ad salutem but deny the same to Works Seeing that Good Works do save us Declarativè as well as Faith That we are saved not only in the eternall Decree without faith but even in the Execution is strange Divinity For if without Faith then without Christ for Christ is no further Ours then apprehended by Faith As for the Eternall Decree of Election he meanes it is true we are not through Faith Elected to Salvation but we are Elected to Salvation through Faith Faith is not the Cause of the Decree but Faith is decreed to be the Cause of Salvation To that Question whether there be a prescript Form of Church-Government I shall say nothing For it being a Question maintained both wayes I will not oppose either of them unlesse I had leisure to confirm what I say to prosecute what I affirm Only to his Argument I may lay an exception Church-government which he presumeth to be enjoined in the second Commandement is not of the nature of Morall Precepts because not of Perpetuall Continuance For such a prescript Form as by which the Church since Christ should be governed had not its beginning till since Christ And therfore not commanded in the second Commandement any otherwise then by Consequence as particular temporary duties are However it is like Church Government is not more expresly commanded in the second Commandement then Civill Government in the fift and yet none ever inferred from thence a prescript Form of Civill Government If he ask therfore Doe they leave us any latitude in any other Commandements I say Yes and I instance in That He must search for a Prescription in the Evangelists and Apostles writings if he would find it not in the second Commandement Only by the way I wish his Lordship would do us the favour from his doctrine of Vnity which he makes the Salve to cure all Controversies to demonstrate to us Whether there be a Prescript Form and What it is And I should then judge his Opinion well worth imbracing though for nothing else Wherein yet I shall wish him to beware that he say not of this as

of the division of Quantity pag. 42. that all must at last be reduced to an Vnity Nor as pag. 98. that it is divisibilis in infinitum Lest we establish Episcopacy which himselfe likes not or become Independent which others like as ill The distinction between Scientia simplicis Intelligentiae and Scientia Visionis if it be taken only for distinctio rationis and I suppose none ever tooke it otherwise may well enough be admitted By the One God knows the Nature of All things Possible By the Other he Sees that These things Are. The Object of the One is All things Possible all things Intelligible the Object of the Other is only Things Existent either past present or to come But saith his Lordship If Gods Power and Will be all one If God be p●r●● Actus and not Potentia Then all things that ever Shall be Were ab aeterno under ● Decree and so what God Could doe he Did doe and Can doe no more Hee had said before pag. 99. That all things did exist in their Beings ab omni aeterno And are they now but under ● Decree But for answer I grant that God cannot doe what he hath not decreed for then were his Decree either Void or Imperfect And supposing such a Decree the Power of God is limited by his Will But a Conditionall and Hypotheticall Impossibility doth not inferre an Absolute Impossibility And therefore we affirm that Deus Potest ea quae non Vult He Can doe More then he Will in sensu diviso not in sensu Composito God is able saith Christ of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham Yet he doth not Knowest thou not that I can pray to my Father and he will send ●e more then twelve Legions of Angels But neither did Christ pray nor the Father send them The God which wee serve is Able to deliver us said the three men in Daniell yet they were not certain that he Would doe it And if Media Scientia wherby God is supposed to know an Hypotheticall Proposition as That the men of Keilah would deliver up David if he stayed there had no other hinderance but this It might well enough be admitted CHAP. 17. Concerning Curiosity in the search of Causes With a Close of all ANd now he returns again to his former complaint of too much curiosity in the search of Causes There is he grants a secondary intermediate Being which we may call a Cause Which doth precede and produce another The Observation of which saith he is very ●itting so that wee search and puzle not our selves with the grounds and reasons of this precedency As to observe That Fire applied to combustible matter will burn it Without inquiring How the Fire doth work upon the Wood c. He would have us therefore observe What is the Cause of this Effect and What is the Effect of this Cause without any curious search How this Cause comes to produce such an Effect There is no Generall Rule can be prescribed in this case Sometimes it is needlesse to inquire so much as By what Cause this or that was produced Sometimes again it is usefull to Know not only What did produce it but also How it did produce it Thus farre I allow Curiosity in searching Trifles also How it did produce it Thus farre I allow Curiosity in searching Trifles hinders the finding of more solid and profitable Truths fo● as he speaks Intus existens prohibet alienum What his Lordship hath concerning the Holinesse of Time and Place I assent to That they are not capable of any other Sanctification then a holinesse of Separation a Relative Holynesse And the contrary Opinion is disclaimed by him on whom his Lordship fastens it That the Heart also should be always in such a holy frame as that it be fit for a Sabbaths imployment fit for a Sacrament I hold for an an undoubted Truth Yet are we not always to be imployed in such services of Gods Worship For even Adam in Paradise had a Particular calling besides his Generall calling and the exercise thereof being done in obedience to Gods command was no doubt pleasing and acceptable ●o God Nor can I assent that All things are Ordinances though in All things we should acknowledge God The rest of the Chapter is but a Recapitulation of his Position and its Consequents which needs no further consideration besides what I have already given you in the Examination of those severall Particulars I need not make answer to the Conclusion having already delivered my judgement concerning the Premises But leave it to another to passe Censure And thus Sir I have finished that Task which at your request I have undertaken Which beyond my expectation is grown into a farre larger body then I intended You expect not Accuratenesse in that which is drawn up in so short a time Nor the Judgement of Authors in these Points for that was not the task imposed to give you account of Others opinions but of mine own I have therefore spared the labour of turning over any other books save his Lordships own nor have made any farther use of any then as my present memory did supply I may seem too prolix perhaps in some Digressions prosecuting somewhat largely occasionall questions lighted on by the way But if I have discovered any Truth though with some breach of Method If with Samson I can impart to my friends some Honey though I step a little out of the way to fetch it If as he found that Honey in the conquered Lion which yet was not of it but only accidentally there so I in the examining the main question have withall cleared some doubts which though not directly contained in it were yet occasioned by it I hope a small errour in Methode will be passed over Sir I am sorry it so falls out that the first occasion wherein I should have to doe with so Noble a Lord should be by way of Encounter But being partly injoyned by your request which is to me a Command whom therefore it concerns to excuse my presumption to his Lordship and having also so fair an Invitation in Mr. Sadlers Epistle prefixed to his Lordships Treatise as being that then which nothing could be more gratefull to this Noble Lord I have adventured to commit this with my selfe to be at your service J. W. A Postscript SIR I Sent you a while since certain Animadversions upon my Lord Brook's Treatise concerning the Nature of Truth Which briefly tend to this purpose By Truth or Light his Lordship understands that Light whereby the Soule and Understanding is able to See or Understand Which can be no other then the Light of Reason Which he considereth first in It selfe then in its Operations that is Truth in the Fountain this in the Streams that the Spring this the Off-spring Propositio 1. Arg. 1. Chap. 1. Which Truth or Light of Reason he contends to be the same with the Understanding Because the Understanding