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	grace_n	justification_n	1,624	5	9.7216	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67469	The life of Mr. Rich. Hooker, the author of those learned books of the laws of ecclesiastical polity	Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.; King, Henry, 1592-1669.	1665 (1665)	Wing W670; ESTC R10749	56,844	234

by which and no other everlasting life and blessedness is attainable and these two ways he demonstrates thus they be his own words that follow That the way of Nature This the way of Grace the end of that way Salvation merited presupposing the righteousness of mens works their righteousness a Natural ability to do them that ability the goodness of God which Created them in such perfection But the end of this way Salvation bestowed upon men as a gift presupposing not their righteousness but the forgiveness of their Unrighteousness Iustification their Iustification not their Natural ability to do good but their hearty Sorrow for not doing and unfeigned belief in him for whose sake not doers are accepted which is their Vocation their Vocation the Election of God taking them out of the number of lost Children their Election a Mediator in whom to be elect this mediation inexplicable mercy this mercy supposing their misery for whom he vouchsafed to dye and make himself a Mediator And he also declareth there is no meritorious cause for our Iustification but Christ no effectual but his Mercy and says also we deny the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ we abuse disanul and anihilate the benefit of his Passion if by a proud imagination we believe we can merit everlasting life or can be worthy of it This belief he declareth is to destroy the very essence of our Justification and he makes all opinions that border upon this to be very dangerous Yet nevertheless and for this he was accused Considering how many vertuous and just men how many Saints and Martyrs have had their dangerous opinions amongst which this was one that they hoped to make God some part of amends by voluntary punishments which they laid upon themselves because by this or the like erroneous opinions which do by consequent overthrow the merits of Christ shall man be so bold as to write on their Graves such men are damned there is for them no Salvation St. Austin says errare possum Haereticus esse nolo And except we put a difference betwixt them that err Ignorantly and them that Obstinately persist in it how is it possible that any man should hope to be saved give me a Pope or a Cardinal whom great afflictions have made to know himself whose heart God hath touched with true sorrow for all his Sins and filled with a Love of Christ and His Gospel whose eyes are willingly open to see the truth and his mouth ready to renounce all error this one opinion of merit excepted which he thinketh God will require at his hands and because he wanteth trembleth and is discouraged and yet can say Lord cleanse me from all my secret sins shall I think because of this or a like error such men touch not so much as the Hem of Christs Garment if they do wherefore should I doubt but that vertue may proceed from Christ to save them no I will not be afraid to say to such a one you err in your opinion but be of good comfort you have to do with a merciful God who will make the best of that little which you hold well and not with a captious Sophister who gathereth the worst out of every thing in which you are mistaken But it will be said The admittance of Merit in any degree overthroweth the foundation excludeth from the hope of mercy from all possibility of salvation And now M. Hookers own words follow What though they hold the truth sincerely in all other parts of Christian Faith although they have in some measure all the Vertues and Graces of the Spirit although they have all other tokens of Gods Children in them although they be far from having any proud opinion that they shall be saved by the worthinesse of their deeds although the onely thing that troubleth and molesteth them be a little too much dejection somewhat too great a fire arising from an erronious conceit that God will require a worthinesse in them which they are grieved to find wanting in themselves although they be not obstinate in this opinion although they be willing and would be glad to forsake it if any one reason were brought sufficient to disprove it although the onely cause why they do not forsake it ere they dye be their Ignorance of that means by which it might be disproved although the cause why the Ignorance in this point is not removed be the want of knowledge in such as should be able and are not to remove it Let me die sayes Mr. Hooker if it be ever proved that simply an Error doth exclude a Pope or Cardinal in such a case utterly from hope of life Surely I must confesse that if it be an Error to think that God may be mercifull to save men even when they err my greatest comfort is my error were it not for the love I bear to this error I would never wish to speak or to live I was willing to take notice of these two points as supposing them to be very material and that as they are thus contracted they may prove useful to my Reader as also for that the answers be arguments of Mr. Hookers great and clear reason and equal Charity Other exceptions were also made against him as that he prayed before and not after his Sermons that in his Prayers be named Bishops that he kneeled both when he prayed and when he received the Sacrament and says Mr. Hooker in his defence other exceptions so like these as but to name I should have thought a greater than fault to commit them And 't is not unworthy the noting that in the manage of great controversie a sharper reproof than this and one like it did never fail from the happy pen of this Humble man That like it was upon a like occasion of exceptions to which his answer was Your next argument consists of railing and of reasons to your Railing I say nothing to your Reasons I say what follows And I am glad of this fair occassion to testifie the Dove-like temper of this meek this matchlesse man and doubtlesse if Almighty God had blest the Dissenters from the Ceremonies and Discipline of this Church with a like measure of Wisdome and Humility instead of their pertinacious zele then Obedience Truth had kissed each other then Peace and Piety and flourished in our Nation and this Church and State had been blest like Ierusalem that is at unity with it self which can never be expected till God shall blesse the common people with a belief That there may be offences taken which are not given and That Lawes are not made for private men to Dispute but to Obey And this also may be worthy of noting That these Exceptions of Mr. Trevers against Mr. Hooker were the cause of his transcribing severall of his Sermons which we now see printed with this Books of his Answer to Mr. Trevers his Supplication and of his most learned and useful discourse of Iustification of Faith and

this Walter Trevers was Lecturer there for the Evening Sermons which he preacht with great approbation especially of the younger Gentlemen of that Society and for the most part approved by Mr. Hooker himself in the midst of their oppositions For he continued Lecturer a part of his time Mr. Trevers being indeed a man of competent Learning of a winning Behaviour and of a blamelesse Life But he had taken Orders by the Presbyterie in Antwerp and if in any thing he was transported it was in an extreme desire to set up that Government in this Nation For the promoting of which he had a correspondence with Theodore Beza at Geneva and others in Scotland and was one of the chiefest assistants to Mr. Cartwright in that Design Mr. Trevers had also a particular hope to set up this Government in the Temple and to that end used his endeavours to be Master of it and his being disappointed by Mr. Hookers admittance proved some occasion of opposition betwixt them in their Sermons Many of which were concerning the Doctrine Discipline and Ceremonies of this Church Insomuch that as one hath pleasantly exprest it The Forenoon Sermon spake Canterbury and the Afternoons Geneva In these Sermons there was little of bitternesse but each party brought all the Reasons he was able to prove his Adversaries Opinion Erroneous And thus it continued a long time till the Oppositions became so visible and the Consequences so dangerous especially in that place that the prudent Archbishop put a stop to Mr. Trevers his Preaching by a positive Prohibition And Mr. Trevers Appeal'd and Petition'd Her Majesty and Her Privy Council to have it recalled where he met with many assisting Friends but they were not able to prevail with or against the Archbishop whom the Queen had intrusted with all Church-power and he had received so fair a Testimony of Mr. Hookers Principles and of his Learning and Moderation that he withstood all Sollicitations But the denying this Petition of Mr. Trevers was unpleasant to divers of his Party and the Reasonableness of it became at last to be so magnified by them and many others as never to be answered so that intending the Bishops and Mr. Hookers disgrace they procured it to be privately printed and scattered abroad and then Mr. Hooker was forced to appear publickly and print an Answer to it which he did and Dedicated it to the Archbishop and it proved so full an Answer to have in it so much of clear Reason and writ with so much Meekness and Majesty of Style that the Bishop began to wonder at the Man to rejoyce that he had appeared in his Cause and disdained not earnestly to beg his Friendship even a familiar Friendship with a man of so much quiet Learning and Humility To enumerate the many particular points in which Mr. Hooker and Mr. Trevers dissented would prove at least tedious and therefore I shall impose upon my Reader no more than two which shall immediately follow Mr. Trevers excepted against Mr. Hooker for that in one of his Sermons he declared That the assurance of what we believe by the Word of God is not to us so certain as that which we perceive by sense And Mr. Hooker confesseth he said so and endeavours to justifie it by the Reasons following First I taught That the things which God promises in his Word are surer to us than what we touch handle or see but are we so sure and certain of them if we be why doth God so often prove his Promises to us as he doth by Arguments drawn from our sensible Experience For we must be surer of the Proof than of the things Proved otherwise it is no Proof For Example How is it that many men looking on the Moon at the same time every one knoweth it to be the Moon as certainly as the other doth but many believing one and the same Promise have not all one and the same Fulness of Persuasion For how falleth it out that men being assured of any thing by Sense can be no surer of it than they are when as the strongest in Faith that liveth upon the Earth hath always need to labour strive and pray that his Assurance concerning Heavenly and Spiritual things may grow increase and be augmented The Sermon that gave him the cause of this his Justification makes the Case more plain by declaring that there is besides this Certainty of Evidence a Certainty of Adherence in which having most excellently demostrated what the Certainty of Adherence is he makes this comfortable use of it Comfortable he says as to weak Believers who suppose themselves to be faithless not to believe when notwithstanding they have their Adherence the Holy Spirit hath his private operations and worketh secretly in them and effectually too though they want the inward Testimony of it Tell this to a man that hath a mind too much dejected by a sad sense of his sin to one that by a too severe judging of himself concludes that he wants Faith because he wants the comfortable Assurance of it and his Answer will be Do not persuade me against my knowledge against what I find and feel in my self I do not I know I do not believe Mr. Hookers own words follow Well then to favour such men a little in their weakness let that be granted which they do imagine be it that they adhere not to Gods Promises but are faithless and without belief but are they not grieved for their unbelief they confess they are doe they not wish it might and also strive that it may be otherways we know they do whence cometh this but from a secret Love and Liking that they have of those things believed For no man can Love those things which in his own opinion are not and if they think those things to be which they shew they Love when they desire to believe them then must it be that by desiring to believe they prove themselves true believers for without faith no man thinketh that things believed are which argument all the Subtilties of infernal powers will never be able to dissolve This is an abridgement of part of the reasons he gives for his Justification of this his Opinion for which he was excepted against by Mr. Trevers Mr. Hooker was also accused by Mr. Trevers for that he in one of his Sermons had declared that he doubted not but that God was merciful to many of our fore-fathers living in Popish Superstition for as much as they Sinned ignorantly and Mr. Hooker in his answer professeth it to be his Judgement and declares his Reasons for this Charitable opinion to be as followeth But first he states the question about Iustification and works and how the Foundation of Faith is overthrown and then he proceeds to discover that way which Natural men and some others have mistaken to be the way by which they hope to attain true happiness and having discovered the Mistaken he proceeds to direct to that True way