Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	see_v	2,875	5	3.5208	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26862	Aphorismes of justification, with their explication annexed wherein also is opened the nature of the covenants, satisfaction, righteousnesse, faith, works, &c. : published especially for the use of the church of Kederminster in Worcestershire / by their unworthy teacher Ri. Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1655 (1655)	Wing B1186; ESTC R38720	166,773	360

in execution of any part of the curse of the Law 3. Whether the sufferings of Beleevers are from the curse of the Law or only afflictions of Love the curse being taken off by Christ 4. Whether it be not a wrong to the Redeemer that the people whom he hath ransomed are not immediately delivered 5. Whether it be any wrong to the redeemed themselves 6. How long will it be till all the curse be taken off the Beleevers and Redemption have attained its full effect To the first Question I answer In this case the undertaking of satisfaction had the same immediate effect upon Adam as the satisfaction it self upon us or for us To determine what these are were an excellent work it being one of the greatest and noblest questions in our controverted Divinity What are the immediate effects of Christs Death He that can rightly answer this is a Divine indeed and by the help of this may expedite most other controversies about Redemption and Justification In a word The effects of Redemption undertaken could not be upon a subject not yet existent and so no subject though it might be for them None but Adam and Eve were then existent Yet as soon as we do exist we receive benefit from it The suspending of the rigorous execution of the sentence of the Law is the most observable immediate effect of Christs death which suspension is some kinde of deliverance from it Of the other effects elsewhere To the second Question The Elect before conversion do stand in the same relation to the Law and Curse as other men though they be differenced in Gods Decree Eph. 2. 3●●2 To the third Question I confess we have here a knotty Question The common judgment is That Christ hath taken away the whole curse though not the suffering by bearing it himself and now they are only afflictions of Love and not Punishments I do not contradict this doctrine through affectation of singularity the Lord knoweth but through constraint of Judgement And that upon these grounds following 1. It is undenyable that Christs taking the curse upon himself did not wholly prevent the execution upon the offendor in Gen. 3. 7 8 10 15 16 17 18 19. 2. It is evident from the event seeing we feel part of the curse fulfilled on us We eat in labour and sweat the earth doth bring forth thorns and bryars women bring forth their children in sorrow our native pravity is the curse upon our souls we are sick and weary and full of fears and sorrows and shame and at last we dye and turn to dust 3. The Scripture tells us plainly that we all dye in Adam even that death from which we must at the Resurrection be raised by Christ 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. And that death is the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. And that the sickness and weakness and death of the godly is caused by their sins 1 Cor. 11. 30 31. And if so then doubtless they are in execution of the threatening of the Law though not in full rigor 4. It is manifest that our sufferings are in their own nature evils to us and the sanctifying of them to us taketh not away their natural evil but only produceth by it as by an occasion a greater good Doubtless so far as it is the effect of sin it is evil and the effect also of the law 5. They are ascribed to Gods anger as the moderating of them is ascribed to his love Psal. 30. 5. and a thousand places more 6. They are called punishments in Scripture and therefore we may call them so Lev. 26. 41 43. Lam 3. 39. 4. 6 22. Ezra 9. 13. Hosea 4. 9. 12. 2. Lev. 26. 18 24. 7. The very nature of affliction is to be a loving punishment a natural evil sanctified and so to be mixt of evil and good as it proceedeth from mixt causes Therefore to say that Christ hath taken away the curse and evil but not the suffering is a contradiction because so far as it is a suffering it is to us evil and the execution of the curse What reason can be given why God should not do us all that good without our sufferings which now he doth by them if there were not sin and wrath and Law in them Sure he could better us by easier means 8. All those Scriptures and Reasons that are brought so the contrary do prove no more but this That our afflictions are not the rigorous execution of the threatning of the Law that they are not wholly or chiefly in wrath but as the common Love of God to the wicked is mixt with hatred in their sufferings and the hatred prevaileth above the love so the sufferings of the godly proceed from a mixture of love and anger and so have in them a mixture of good and evil but the Love overcoming the Anger therefore the good is greater then the evil and so death hath lost its sting 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. There is no unpardoned sin in it which shall procure further judgment and so no hatred though there be anger 9. The Scripture saith plainly That death is one of the enemies that is not yet overcome but shall be last conquered 1 Cor. 15. 26 and of our corruption the case is plain 10. The whole stream of Scripture maketh Christ to have now the sole disposing of us and our sufferings to have prevented the full execution of the curse and to manage that which lyeth on us for our advantage and good but no where doth it affirm that he suddenly delivereth us To the fourth Question It can be no wrong to Christ that we are not perfectly freed from all the curse and evil as soon as he had satisfied 1. Because it was not the Couenant betwixt him and the Father 2. It is not his own will volenti non fit injuria 3. It is his own doing now to keep us under it till he see the fittest time to release us 4. Our sufferings are his means and advantages to bring us to his Will Mankind having forfeited his life is cast into prison till the time of full execution Christ steppeth in and buyeth the prisoners with a full purpose that none of them yet shall scape but those that take him for their Lord. To this purpose he must treat with them to know whether they will be his subjects and yield themselves to him and his terms Is it not then a likelier way to procure their consent to treat with them in prison then to let them out and then treat and to leave some of the curse upon them to force them to yield that they may know what they must expect else when the whole shall be executed To the fift Question It is no wrong to the sinner to be thus dealt with 1. Because he is but in the misery which he brought upon himself 2. No man can lay claim to the Satisfaction and Redemption upon the meer payment till they have a word of

to them before they return Object the Promise is onely to Beleevers therefore not to all Answ. Either you speak of the making or of the fulfilling of it It is fulfilled onely to Beleevers but it is made and offered to all that heare it on condition of Beleeving as is proved Object Beleeving is not the condition of the promise but onely the qualification of the persons to whom it is made Answ. This Objection hath more subtilty then sence Is not Beleeving in plaine English a Duty required in the Promise by the free Promiser and Law-giver of him to whom the Promise is made and sent and that upon these termes that if he performe it the thing promised shall be his otherwise it shall not And is not this properly a condition required of the party if he will enjoy the thing promised When you say It is a qualification of the person to whom the Promise is made you speak in the darknesse of ambiguity For 1. Doe you meane it is a qualification which he hath before the Promise is made to him If so I have proved the contrary already Or is it his qualification afterwards so it is indeed But not of all to whom it is made but of all to whom it shall be fulfilled Againe doe you meane an habituall qualification or an Actuall I doubt not but you know it is the act of Faith which we dispute of And what is the difference betwixt such an active qualification required on the termes before mentioned and a proper condition But I perceive that which you stick at is that the Promises are all Yea and Amen in Christ and therefore are made to none but those in Christ. Answ. It will be long before you will prove the Consequence They are made onely on the ground of Christs undertaking and he is the Mediatour of them and in him they are sure But doth it therefore follow that Christ dispenseth then to none but those that are in him Wicked men have benefits by Christ even those that are not in him so much as by a visible profession And why then may they not have some promises Yet I know that beleevers are oft called in Scripture the Children and Heires of the Promise But to understand this you must know 1. That the Holy Ghost hath chiefly the respect to the Thing promised and of that Beleevers are the onely Heires If you also consider that he speakes chiefly of the great Promises of Reconciliation Remission Sanctification Adoption glorification 2. I told you before that the promise before we performe the Condition doth give a remote imperfect loosable title to the good promised And so the wicked are children of promise But the Promise when we have performed the Condition as also the absolute promises doth give an immediate proper certain Title to the good promised so that a man may say it is mine And thus onely the faithfull are the heires of the Promise They onely have a propriety in the spirituall and speciall Mercies there promised But a wicked Israelite may have propriety in his Inheritance by vertue of Divine Promise and Donation For Christ hath led captivity captive and recived gifts for men even for the Rebellious that the Lord might dwell among them psal 68. 18. To the 9. Objection YOur 9. Objection is That if I make the Covenant to belong to wicked men I may as well give them the seales To which I answer you 1. You must meane onely the main Covenant of grace and not inferiour promises and Covenants For the Sacraments are onely to seale to the maine Covenant 2. As you must remember I distinguished betwixt the Covenant offered and the Covenant entred by mutuall consent so must you distinguish accordingly betwixt two sorts of wicked men 1. Open Infidels who never accepted and consented to the offered Covenant 2. Those who have consented and entred the Covenant and listed their names in the roll of Christ but yet not sincerely unreservedly entirely as is necessary to salvation To the former of these you may not give the seales For they are not willing of them as such And they are not to be forced upon any Neither are the seales usefull till the accepting and entring of the Covenant But to the latter the seales are most properly to be given by the Minister except they doe againe renounce Christ by word or deed or by some grosse sin doe constrain us to suspend their enjoyment of such priviledges while they are under tryall and till they discover their repentance Quest. What doe you take for such a renouncing of their Covenant Answ. 1. When they shall in plaine terms renounce it as Christians do that turn Turks 2. When they renounce or deny any fundamentall Article of the Faith 3. When they do not through weaknesse but wilfully and obstinately refuse to yeeld obedience to Christ for this is a renouncing of their subjection to him which is an essentiall part of their Covenant and Faith and it is a renouncing of his kingly Office and so a renouncing of Christ when they say Hee shall not reigne over us And though such may acknowledge him in words yet in works they doe deny him being disobedient and to every good worke reprobate Tit. 1. 16. If therefore you shall deny the seales to any man that is thus in Covenant with Christ before he doe thus disclaime his Covenant you must doe it at your perill Therefore you must not undertake to be the Judge of his sincerity in the Covenant except hee plainly discover that he is not serious Dare not you to assume Gods Prerogative of searching the heart nor to dispence Gods seales upon your conjectures of the probability or improbability of mens sincerity Neither must you deny the seales to them for any smaller sin then as aforesaid For as every sin is not a breach of Covenant so every sin must not deny them the seales Object Then we must not deny it to them for every grosse sin neither seeing you affirme that every grosse sinne breaketh not Covenant Answ. Yet because hee that liveth in known grosse sinne cannot consent to the Kingly Office or Government of Christ over him therefore we have just cause to suspend the giving of the seales and also of fellowship with him while we try whether he did it through weaknesse or wilfulnesse Ob. But how shall we know that Answ. Christ hath lined us out the way We must reprove him and see whether he will heare and reforme if he doe not we must tell the Church and so admonish and shame him publikely If hee heare not the Church we are to account him as a man without the Covenant and so unfit for seales or communion Quest. But when shall I take him for one that will not heare the Church Answ. When hee will not be perswaded to confesse and bewaile his sinne nor to give over the practice of it So that I doe considerately advise you after long study of this point