Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	faith_n	grace_n	work_n	6,088	5	6.2038	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88799	Predestination handled and maintained, against Papists, Arminians, and certaine churches also of antipaedobaptists, who with much zeale, and industry impugne the same. By Henry Lavor. He calleth things that are not, as if they were. Published by authority.	Lavor, Henry.	1646 (1646)	Wing L627; Thomason E1187_2; ESTC R208237	8,117	37

minde projecting or imaginating somthing to be done and having made enquiry and estimation of all important and forcible impediments as to the execution thereof and then finding some possible but uncertaine intervention accident defect or state of things or thing that in the judgement of the Person purposing ought to or will hinder forbid execution drawes at length to this resolution that if this or that intervene or this or that intervene not the purpose shall proceed to execution To prove that one word uncertaine to be that onely which gives being to the purpose conditionall as it is such and that without this uncertainty the purpose if it proceed and abide must needs be absolute is an easie taske For why doth one yet purpose to do this or that when hee 's wel assur'd there hath been is or will be somthing that in this particular ought and will hinder its accomplishment which cannot be For examples sake A Father purposes to give his sonne by will 100. l. on condition he please him well in the meane time Here does the Father know or is he certaine that his sonne will soe please him or is he not certaine if he be certaine to what then serves the condition sith default or defect in the condition must destroy the purpose If he knowes he will not so please him and yet so purposes then this is no more a condition but the purpose may be notwithstanding this absolute and prefect Hence therefore may we with clearnesse deduce this conclusion That the reason why purposes are conditionall is a want in foreknowledge or an uncertainty in the person purposing of all such things as will and ought to destroy the purpose So that it also followes to be inconvenient with the properties of God to purpose or predestinate conditionally it being a thing cleare that we ought to allow God such a foreknowledge especially then too when he does intend to such one as happeneth in the case of purposes or Predestination Besides this also it may be minded that where a person purposeth or Predestinateeth to do any thing of free will there the purpose partaketh somthing of desire to execution God now is both an absolute purposer and a desirous one too then what is it can hinder him therein Argument But if the Predestination aforementioned was caused by the foresight of Faith to come as is by many fancied then did the Predestinator foresee some unavoidable and unfrustrable cause or series or order of causes necessarily productive of the faith foreseene else how could it bee that God should passe a certain act upon or in reference to an uncertain and unchangeable respect or motive which once granted it is granted also that God may bee deceived If any say this productive cause may be considered of God though yet to come such doe but trifle For there must then also bee granted some preceding cause equally certain and unfrustrable as to the producing of that we have therefore added as above Order of Causes Now where was this cause or order of causes before the creation It must needs bee granted it was in God alone So then the next and immediate cause of faith Causa causae est causa causati is but the remote effect of this its first cause Argument If the same that decreed glory to man decreed also to work in him faith and grace then glory depends not really upon the preceding habit of faith But the former is true Therfore the latter Antecedent proved Rom. 8 29.30 Eph. 1.4.5.11 c. Here me thinks it is by some objected Though Glory to man simply depend not upon having of faith Yet quoad hunc as concerning this or that particular man it may depend on his having of faith Answ God did then decree glory To whom Doubtlesse to those that are or shall bee saved But it is proved above God knew them severally and all before they were existent It will follow then that God afore decreed glory directly to the severall persons of men For the indeterminatenesse of all purposes is of defect of knowledge as above more at large Argument That which is not of Man but is freely the gift of God cannot as such be a motive or impulsive to God of conferring another gift especially that may as much exceed the former as infinite doth finite But faith is not of Man but is the gift of God Ergo Faith c. There is no ground here from which to fix on God an obligation If affectation you suggest that is impious nor can you with any colour of reason flie to the merit of the gift This for the Major The Minor is proved Eph. 2.8 compared with Rom. 3.24.36 EZek. 22.26.27 Phil. 2.13 Argument If we are saved freely then not upon condition But we are saved freely Ergo c. The Minor is proved by the two last cited places Ephes and Rom. Argument Those things that are equally related to God as being their Author and are the next and immediate effects of the selfe-same cause cannot properly be said to be the cause or effect one of the other But such are Faith and Glory Ergo. For proof of the Minor turn to Rom. 8.29 30. Eph. 1.4 5. 2.8 Rom. 6. ult Iam. 1.17 18. with many others Where you read both conformity to the Image of Christ vocation justification and glorification as proceeding of the same cause viz. foreknowing i. e. fore-loving There also have you faith called the gift of God so likewise eternall life Argument That according to which men are saved was before the world began But faith was not before the world began Ergo faith is not that according to which men are saved The Major proved 2 Tim. 1.9 the words these Who hath saved us and called us with an holy-calling not according to our workes but according to his owne purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Argument If Glory proceed from Divine love as the onely cause and that freely then is Faith neither the cause whether sociall or solitary nor condition of glory But the former is true therefore the latter That love is the onely cause may hence bee demonstrated Where good as good is destinated to a proper and ultimate object It is either so destinated from some engagement obligation or respect of merit or else out of pure love But on God lay no engagement or obligation of predestinating good to man Whence should it arise He was then alone If you alledge the very purpose itself what caused such a purpose Was it not love still Nor is there much merit to be found in the Object Man of whō the person that predestinated beareth witnesse that Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was onely evill continually Isaiah also acknowledgeth that All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags c. chap. 64. v. 6. Well then might Paul say Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely c. Yea and God pronounces I wil love them freely Hos 14.4 Argument For which Objects sake simply God had ordained and to which hee properly did referre the greatest accident possibly the highest demonstration and most excellent instance of his love could be given To that Object it is incongruous yea absurd to affirm He would think much and refuse to adde also a gift of much lesser value freely But for mans sake God hath done the precedents viz. in the Redemption Ergo c. And this is in substance the very Argument of the Apostle himselfe Rom. 8.32 where hee saith He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall hee not with him also freely give us all things Argument To whom God intended the bestowing of a gift for durance eternall for degree most excellent to them he did also intend to give a temporall and far lesse excellent gift being yet such as ought necessarily to antecede the other But to some men God intended the precedent glory wee mean Ergo the consequent also Inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Matth. 25.34 This Kingdome is afterwards called Life eternall vers ult Thus then you have it cleared to you from our fore-going dissertation First to wit That God before time knew the future persons severally of all those without exception that are or shall bee glorified Secondly that Gods conferring of glory to the same persons is and was free and absolute without having respect to any thing as thereunto requisite in of or for them By the first is refuted that opinion according to which even those all or some who are dead and * For they hold not of suffering hells torments till after the day of judgment reserved for everlasting woe might and had power to have beleeved and consequently been sav'd eternally For doubtlesse such as are reserv'd for hell were never known of God as being in the number of those hee ordained to glory or accounted for such By the 2d Conclusion appears the falsity of their other opiniō namely That God preordained no man to life eternal without respect to and forsake of his future beleeving So we end FINIS Page 14. line 22 for then here read no where