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
A80867	The foundation of God, with the immutability thereof laid for the salvation of his elect; with infallible marks and signs of election. Which may serve as a storehouse of comfort to religious minds, in this season of danger felt and feared.	Crompton, William, 1633-1696.	1659 (1659)	Wing C7031A; ESTC R175852	40,951	136

manner of knowing by way of composition or Division which pre-supposes distinct acts for several Objects but by one single individual act if we may lawfully speak of so high a mystery fore-seeing and knowing every thing in himself by way of Eminency in their second causes before they were and in themselves as if they had been Universals and particulars which were to be made or done beeing laid before him from all Eternity as if they had been already made or done The Lord knows who are his and who are not but his own he knows with an especial knowledg of Love and approbation as he doth not others Matth. 25.12 Verily I say unto you I know you not Therefore there is a book of Life none of Death mentioned in Scripture this book of Life is this Knowledg here mentioned wherein Gods own do stand firmly recorded We know this Knowledg of God is as himself and can be no more divided than himself yet for our better conceiving of things so known by him we distinguish of it There is in God First A necessary natural knowledg which respects the Power and Providence of God concerning all things done or possible to be done This is not here meant Secondly A free knowledg which goes hand in hand with the foundation of God respecting only things that should actually come to pass with his approbation and hath reference to his mercy and this is the knowledg here spoken of The Lord knows with a free and everlasting Knowledg with the knowledg of Election and Reprobation who were then decreed and should ever remain to be his so that such men once so known can never cease to be his or known to belong to any other His may fall from themselves and pluck off the Seal in themselves not from him nor the Seal in him None can pluck them out of my Fathers hands Majesty it self may as soon be dethron'd the Crown pluck'd from his Head who is the supreme King and the golden Scepter wrested out of his hand as soon may the Apple be pull'd out of his Eye and the Deity annihilated as the Elect be pulled out of Hands as he be robbed of one of his Jewels This Knowledg goes along with the Decree it ties together the Cause the mean and the end Election Vocation and Justification both by imputed Righteousness and imparted with final salvation which no force nor fraud persuasion or temptation can dissolve or separate The will of his people being determined by infallible grace which way they shall necessarily yet freely dispose of themselves even in Conditional things Which clearly overthrows that Scientia media invented by Jesuits foster'd by Arminians whereby God should fore-know but leave the Will simply to it self undetermined so man in the choice of good should be independent give the praise and glory to himself not to the free grace of God disposing the Will to make a good choice For those things which were to us contingents or are offer'd to us conditionally were certainly determined by this free knowledg of God how they should fall out what we should chuse necessarily yet freely gently subduing by his Spirit Resistibility in the Will placing instead thereof a sense of the want and a secret longing after Grace To manifest this Seal somewhat farther this knowledg of God the foundation not only inchoative and terminatively but dispositive also of our salvation is as we find in Scripture First The eternal disposing cause of all Events The Will of God is the cause of all things it self without cause as St. Augustin speaks Nothing now comes to pass but as he knew then it should Acts 4.28 Herod Pontius Gentiles and Jews were gathered together to do whatsoever the hand and counsel of God had determined before to be done All things have their futurition from his eternal Purpose Whence also is in the eternal Mind the Idea of all things with their circumstances that shall be that is the first Mover continuing it self immoveable giving to every thing a regular motion according to the impression which it doth receive for known are all his works from the beginning of the world Acts 15.18 Secondly It is certain and immutable the foundation stands sure Whom the Lord once Loves with this knowledg of approbation to be his he loves and knows them ever All his Saints are letters of Gold engraven on Christs heart which cannot be razed out His Love is a Divine Flame that no Water can quench Nulloe sunt lituroe in libro vitoe His Book admits not of any Deleatur or expurgatory Index God is so full of Light as there is no shadow of change in him Job 17.23 In that admirable Prayer made for the Church Christ thus speaks unto his Father Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me i. e. with a certain and immutable Love If Christ can perish and fall from the love of his Father then may the Elect be seduced totally to fall away and perish finally Thirdly It is of a certain number The Lord knoweth who are his Which cannot admit of any universal Election in Gods intention See Job 10.3 He knows his own sheep so as he calls them all by name Job 13.18 I speak not of you all I know whom I have chosen Revel 7.4 I heard the number of them which were sealed c. Cap. 6.10 11. They cried with a loud voice saying c. and it was said unto them that they should rest for a little season until their fellow-servants and their Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled From the Collation of which Texts it may most easily be inferred that their number is set and shall in due time be compleated for that 's the thing related unto in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be fulfilled So certain is the number of the Elect that one cannot be added nor taken away which could not be without this pre-determining and present-disposing knowledg of God The best man in his pure naturals would wholly cast himself away were he left to his own dispose Therefore sufficiently-effectual saving grace is not universally offer'd to all men Grace is not extended beyond the Decree Gods foreknowledg limits both the end and the means were the building larger than the foundation it must needs prove ruinous Fourthly It is a free knowledg and foundation not laid on any thing in us either done or fore-seen to be done but only the free-will and power of God You have not chosen me but I have chosen you Called therefore it is a fore-knowledg past before we had done good or evil Rom. 9.11 To clear this by a familiar instance or example suppose a child may die before it had done either good or evil this child was either elected or reprobated without foresight of either of good or evil actual nothing he did nothing therefore was fore-seen he should do If any reply true nothing was fore-seen he did but something he might

the latter days persuading them then and all other true Churches of Christ That notwithstanding Phygellus and Hermogenes Hymenoeus and Phyletus Pelagius Bertius Arminius Thomson Jackson Mountague with others since Pope and Popelings with all their followers and abetters have or should err and seduce many after them Yet we should not be offended nor discouraged for the Elect of Christ cannot finally be seduced nor their faith destroyed totally because their salvation is grounded upon the Eternal and constant purpose of God which foundation stands firmer than to be shaken with such blasts The salvation of Christs Elect hath a firm foundation not in man but in God not wavering or undetermined but standing surely sealed in the knowledg of God and that not only in the knowledg of simple intelligence as possible conditionally if they will or if such and such things fall out but in the knowledg of pure Vision infallibly and eternally decreed to be certain whereby the Lord particularly did and doth discern his own from others calling them by their Names and by his Embassadours showing them the marks whereby they may know their own Election The parts of this Scripture are two viz. First The cause and certainty of the salvation of Gods Elect. The foundation of God standeth sure Secondly The marks and notes of Election whereby men may be particularly assured they are of the number Here we have what God did freely for his Elect before they were What the Elect by Gods help must and will do for themselves after they are Of both these in their order and first of the former viz. The foundation of God There is a two-fold foundation laid One that is God so the whole Trinity is a foundation to the being and existence of all things Christ Jesus the second Person in the Trinity is the foundation of Election and Salvation Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 Another that is of God and so the foundation is two-fold viz. First Of Creation Gods intent and purpose to give a Being unto things which as then had none and this foundation remains sure One generation passeth away and another cometh but the earth i. e. the foundation of the Creation abideth for ever Eccles 1.4 And whereupon are the foundations thereof founded Job 38.6 And who laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed for ever Psalm 104.5 Secondly Of disposition his immutable Decree and Purpose disposing all things created to their several ends To which ends they must arrive by means The means is Service to be performed here in this World All serve him not alike all were not ordained by him for one end As the Love of God was not alike to all his Creatures in the foundation so the service of his Creatures is not all alike Some serve him necessarily by natural inclination as the Heavens and Elements with all those bright and purer Bodies contained in them which run their course by the mighty Word of God's Power they live by the Spirit 's Omnipotency and immediate Acts wherewith the Divine Nature glorifies it self their end is to move and work for the good of man after his departure hence they shall be dissolved either by being renewed to some other end or annihilated Some serve him constrainedly by unwitting subjection to his all-ruling Power as all Reprobates both Angels and Men effecting the Lords purposes by his co-active direction not out of any good intention to obey him with whom he glorifies himself in his Justice whose end is damnation The Lord foreseeing them in their bloud past by them before time they actually dispose themselves to destruction in time Others there are who serve him voluntarily with purpose of heart as sinful men made good by Election and effectual Vocation whose end is salvation without possibility of failing in respect of Gods foundation whose Eternal purpose was by such means to bring them to such an end and with these God glorifies himself in respect of his mercy God can lose no part of his glory neither in regard of Power Justice or Mercy these glorious Attributes will shine without an uninterrupted or bespotted splendour therefore none of these can miss their proper ends To give an Example of this last Hymenoeus and Paul Pelagius and Augustin were of the same matter had the same power of Will but Gods disposition of them in the foundation put a difference in their actual service two of them err and destroy the faith the other both preach the truth and build up the faith of many Even so all things created were eternally in the secret Counsel of God disposed and pre-ordained to their several ends by means according to the good pleasure of his Will Whether to return to no being to a worse or a better-being and this I conceive is the foundation of God here meant Standeth sure Immutable and inevitable And that 1. Ex parte Dei in regard of the Decree it self which knits together the end and means unseparably So that the Creature cannot but persevere in using the means to attain their pre-ordained ends not so much by any Vertue connate or inherent in themselves or by any outward Agent violently impelling but by the power of God gently disposing of what he finds in them or bestows upon them according to his own purpose 2. Ex parte rei in respect of the Subject of this foundation elected ones after their effectual Calling are assured not by a direct act of the Understanding and Will assenting to the Work and Promise of God but by reflection upon themselves in special do believe believing apprehend apprehending apply and by applying are particularly assured not only for the time present which Jesuits and Arminians may admit but for the time to come that they shall persevere and be saved by vertue of Gods free love and grace as the foundation and by the meritorious sufferings of Christ as the means of salvation And this is the certainty here meant Having this Seal When Darius with his Lords had cast Daniel into the Lions Den Dan. 3.17 the entrance was sealed with the Kings own Signet and that of his Lords that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel so when the King of Heaven decreed to take up all his Daniels his beloved ones out of the Den of the roaring Lion he put his Seal unto the Decree that the purpose might not be chang'd or alter'd This Seal is twofold First there is the Seal of God in Man of which we shall be led to discourse in managing the latter part of the Text. Secondly There is the Seal of God unto this foundation in God the Lord knoweth who are his The Lords knowledg is infinite eternal as himself and infallible from all Eternity fore-knowing all things that ever should come to pass not by discourse or succession as to know this by that or that after this nor by that metaphysical