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	impute_v	righteousness_n	2,775	5	8.3326	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87161	A glimpse of divine light, breaking through a cloud of errours. Being an explanation of certain passages exhibited by anonymus, to the commissioners of White-Hall, appointed for approbation of publick preachers, against Joseph Harrison Gospel-preacher at Lund-Chappel in Lancashire, for the supposed delivering of which, he was denied approbation. / Published by the said Joseph Harrison, and proposed to the consideration of all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.	Harrison, Joseph.	1655 (1655)	Wing H897; Thomason E841_7; ESTC R207225	67,448	83

the contrary hath been cleared in the explanation of the sixth Passage Secondly it is evident 2 Tim. 1.9 That God hath saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began Thirdly Christ himself professeth That he came not to call the righteous that is men that can act and do and think themselves able to perform such works or offer such sacrifices as can De congruo at least if not De condigno plead for the acceptance of their persons But sinners that are such as can neither act nor do but find themselves both unfit for and unworthy of any other recompence save the wages of sin which is death He called indeed all of all sorts outwardly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to repent but these alone effectually {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to the thing repentance Mat. 9.13 That is unto an immediate and actual renunciation of all the works that they ever could and now fain would plead for themselves that loosing all they have of their own they may win the Kingdom of heaven not as their right in law according as the Pharisees laid claim unto it but violently at least in the account of all such men videlicet as sinners c. souldiers through the meer gift and absolute conquest of their Captain Iesus Mat. 11.12 13. Rom. 6.23 Nor thirdly as procuring causes of justification For as our own works are not the matter of that legal righteousnesse required in the old covenant So are they not the means of procuring that Evangelical righteousnesse which is held forth in the new Because first there is no Scripture that requireth them for that end but calleth mens labouring with that intent a seeking for righteousnesse as it were by the works of the Law and not by faith Rom 9.32.2 To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt Rom. 4.4 So that if works were means to procure the new Covenant Justification we were not justified freely by grace but of due and debt It should not be said to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly His faith is counted for righteousnesse but to him that doth work and meriteth from him that justifieth the godly his work is imputed for it is righteousnesse 3. Those that assert works to be means or procuring causes say not that they are such Ratione valoris meriti propriè sic dicti By reason of any proportionable inherent worth But only Ratione pacti as they are conditions to some promise or other freely made by God and if that be true neither righteousness nor good works can be means or procuring causes of the the new Covenant Iustification because there is no promise thereof made to him that worketh or doth righteousness It is no where said in Scripture either ex pressely or implicitely that he that will work or perform such and such duties shall be justified by the blood of Jesus Nay though we read Acts 13.39 Whosoever believeth is justified yet it is no where said He that will believe shall be justified Fourthly and lastly Righteousnesse or good works are not profitable to me or other Christians either as the way through which we come as the means by which we shall get or as the condition upon which we may ground our hope of eternal Glory Not as the way For first not works but Christ alone is in Scriptures called the way Thomas saith unto him Lord we know not whether thou goest and how can we know the way Iesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me John 14.5 6. He hath consecrated for us a new and living way in opposition to the old dead legal way through the vaile that is to say his flesh Heb 10.20.2 Works cannot be the way because they are neither the truth that is the substance of the Law and ceremonies nor the life which was held forth in the promises for they being not the truth we who are unworthy must not pass that way and they not being the life we who are sold under sinne cannot passe So that though works were granted to be a way in themselves yet it is impossible that they should be a way unto us The Gulf is so great Luke 16.26 that there is no descending or ascending but by Iacobs Ladder which was put down by God and not put up by men and is of that length that the top reacheth as high as God in heaven and the foot as low as Iacob laid upon the stone Gen. 28.13 14.3 A way is a steady and immoveable thing mounted so high that the waters cannot overflow it and thence called a high-way but works are sandy and slippery soon overflowed and not able to bear us up in the time of Temptation Though we know nothing by our selves yet who dare stand upon this ground and plead not guilty before God 4. Faith might more probably be called the way to heaven than works Sith as the Apostle saith by faith we stand 2 Cor. 1.24 and have accesse by faith into the grace wherein we stand Rom. 5 2. And yet is faith only said to be a coming into the way as Ioh 6.35 and never called the way it self Let therefore works be called as they truly are viae Regni the wayes of the Kingdome or motions of those that are in the way not upwards to God for the good of themselves but downwards to men for the good of others or the going forth of Christians from God like the Angel Heb. 1.14 to do service for Christ in the world and not their coming to God by Christ as in faith and prayer to wait upon and converse with him in heaven Not as a meanes For first The Scriptures hold them forth as such 2. If the works of Christians be the means or instumental cause then are Christians themselves constituted the principal cause and consequently the Authours of their own salvation And then it shall not only be true that Christ is the Authour of eternal salvation to those that obey him Heb. 5.9 But that Christians are the Authors of their own salvation by their obedience unto Christ 3. Promises under the Gospel that seem most legal do not run like those of the Law of Moses He that doth these things shall live by them that is by them as means of life But simply thus He that doth such or such things shall live and be saved Scilicet by the mediation of Jesus Christ Nor as conditions upon which we may ground our hope of glory For first It is not works but Christ in us that is the hope of glory Col. 1.27 In all other grounds there is yea and nay a doubtfulnesse and uncertainty which occcasioned Bellarmines Tutissimum est c. and therefore no sure and stedfast

of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God If any say that a man may antecedently will regeneration or conversion by antecedaneous works of grace though not of nature I answer first It is said that God worketh in us to will Phil. 2.13 And to will is present with us who are born of God Rom 7.18 but never that he worketh it in them that are unborn So that secondly To will conversion is not a work of grace antecedent but subsequent thereunto and argues the Infant born and alive though yet it cannot tell so much but only cries thirsts and hungers for in this very willing there is a turning towards God and then undoubtedly a believing on the Lord Iesus And he that believeth is born of God 1 Iohn 5.1 Thirdly Christ puts not the except of entring into the Kingdom upon mans doings but upon Gods he sayes not except a man beget bear or convert himself but except a man be begotten born again or as some read it from above and be converted He cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat 18.3 Vbi manebit liberum arbitrium ubi facere quod in se est cum hic fieri nos doceamur non facere non nos operemar sed Deus operetur facturae non factores sumus funditus scilicet ruit omnis Theologia superborum Thirdly Man neither is nor should be active in reference to the effecting either Faith or Repentance for if so either as an agent in the producing of them or as an agent in the using of means to procure the producing of them from and by God not in the former sense for first faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 It is given to you on the behalfe of Christ to believe Phil. 1.19 This is the work of God Iohn 6.29 Him hath God exalted to give Repentance unto Israel and Remission of sins Acts 5.30 Secondly Mr. Shepherd Mr. Baxter and before them Camero and Ferrius maintain that God doth not infuse a habit of Faith and Repentance whereby men are enabled antecedently by an inherent habitual grace to produce the acts of believing and repentance but doth himself say they first produce the first acts and then infuseth habits whereby men are enabled to act afterwards And if we should say with Mr. Kendal that faith is in us as the adjunct and hath to God only the relation of an effect that it denominates him alone the Authour of our believing though us the Believers because the subjects As the Boul only is said to runne and yet it is the man that is the cause of the motion I see little that Mr. Baxter is pleased or that others can say against it and not in the latter For first God hath appointed means to be used by the living through which he hath promised to beget faith in all the elect though for the present dead Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel Mar. 16.15 but of means appointed of God for the dead to use thereby to get faith or to procure the raising of themselves from and by God we read not If any say that prayer is a means then first If by prayer be meant the intercession of Christ it is granted for it is his intercession alone that procureth the actual collation of all those blessings purchased by himself in the flesh promised in the new Covenant by the Father and conveyed to us by the Spirit But if by prayer be meant any petitioning of ours then is prayer not a means to but a consequent of faith for first How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10.14 The interrogation is equivalent to a strong negation viz. they cannot Secondly Christ taught his Disciples to pray in faith not before nor for faith Mat. 21.22 unlesse by faith be meant the increase thereof and then we pray Lord increase our faith Luke 17.5 I believe Lord help my unbeliefe Mar. 9.24 Thirdly he called them to leave all and follow him before they asked him any such a thing You have not chosen me but I have chosen you John 15.16 and after he had called them he prescribeth them a form of prayer or teacheth them to pray after this manner saying Our Father which art in heaven c. Mat. 6.9 Luke 11.1 2. And is it now agreeable to that form or letter to teach men to preferre the petitions before they can say the Preface or to enjoyn them to pray thy Kingdome come before they can cry Abba or Our Father These men I fear would teach their Scholars all the Alphabet of Christianity before Christs Crosse all the petitions before the Preface and it is doubtful then that as some coppies do they will leave out the conclusion also and the observation of all the Commandments before that which stands in the front Scilicet I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt Secondly God hath made no promise to an impenitent unbelieving man while such that upon condition of using such and such means or performing such and such duties he will bestow upon him either of those where it is said either implicitly or expressely if thou wilt do thus and thus I will give thee faith or I will give thee repentance And how any doing or dutying of man should be called means of getting any thing from God unlesse in a moral consideration and way of causation as conditions to some promise I have not yet learned from those Masters that stile one another the Orthodox Divines Thirdly though many enquired of the Apostles What they should do to be saved yet did never any ask what they should do to get Faith Repentance Conversion Regeneration or to get Christ into Christ nor did the Apostles leave any Directions or Rules to be observed by such Querists in future times but brought the word nigh unto them into their mouthes and into their hearts even the word of faith which we preach and tells them that faith comes by hearing and that hearing is not an Antecedent act of their own but that that also cometh by the word of God Rom. 10.8.17 The legal resolving of these Queries and the teaching of Nicodemus Disciples how to beget themselves the second time by entring into their own fleshly wombes is left to the Grand Casuists of these our dayes who can direct their followers how to beget that which is spirit of that which is flesh and how to get the fruits of the Spirit by doing the works of the Law can either ascend to heaven or go beyond the Sea to fetch such commandments as were neither given by Moses nor Christ that their Disciples may hear and do them and have their reward Fourthly Luther and other sensible believing men assert that Non nobis cogitantibus sapientibus volentibus oritur in nobis fides Christi sed incomprehensibili occulto opere spiritus