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
B22921	Justification onely upon a satisfaction, or, The necessity and verity of the satisfaction of Christ as the alone ground of remission of sin asserted & opened against the Socinians together with an appendix in vindication of a sermon preached on Heb. 2, 10, from the exceptions of H.W., in a pamphlet called The freeness of Gods grace in the forgiveness of sins by Jesus Christ / by Robert Ferguson.	Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.	1668 (1668)	Wing F743; ESTC R37344	97,537	320

give it to so many as he had bought it for to which purpose I had cited 2 Pet. 1. 1. Now what he brings by way of exception will be rendred of easie dispatch by tendring an exposition of that place 1. We have there an account of something obtained and that is faith 2. We have the means and ground of obtaining it and that is through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some interpret righteousness in reference to Gods faithfullness in his promises now all Gods promises of grace are founded in Christ 2 Pet. 1. 4. and through him it is that they are stable and firm 2 Cor. 1. 20. and as in consideration of his merit it is matter of justice in God to justifie believers Rom. 3. 25 26. So it is matter of justice to give to so many as Christ hath satisfied for that they may believe Phil. 1. 29. Others by righteousness understand the righteousness of Jesus Christ who is here called our God where by the way this is an excellent testimony for the Deity of Christ for it is not said of God and of our Saviour but of God and our Saviour there is but one single article assigned to all the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is parallel to Tit. 2. 13. Now faith is said to be given through his righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used often for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 6. 7. Mat. 11. 6. Act. 7. 29. 1 Cor. 12. 9. alibi which may be taken either for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per propter For and then the import is that in consideration of the satisfaction merit and righteousness of Christ God bestows faith and consequently cannot without injustice but bestow it upon such in reference to whom Christ hath bought merited and purchased it or it may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. ● 26. Petrus hoc capite v. 5 6 7. voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 septies utitur be taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum with and then the import is that they had received faith and with it the righteousness of Christ made over and imputed to them Now in my Sermon I took it as put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and accordingly argued and I find no cause to recede from my perswasion But the Gentleman excepts P. 17. that this is to make that of Debt which is meerly of Grace To this I briefly Answ That it is both of Debt and of Grace of Debt in respect of Christ of Grace in respect of us and he must invent a new Philosophy as well as a new Divinity before he can be able to prove these two to be contradictories His other exceptions are obviated in the Exposition and indeed he wholly mistakes the sense in which I cited the words and shews himself altogether ignorant of the scope of them We are now come to the Adversaries last exceptions The first whereof is that to say P. 18. God would have a satisfaction and yet that himself procured it is to render the whole transaction a matter of Pageantry Answ This is spoken to before p. 152. 197. and therefore I shall only say that whatever it would be in pecuniary debts it is not so in poenal He adds secondly That though P. 19. according to this procedure there would be mercy shewn to the sinner yet there would be none shewn to sin Answ There neither ought nor can any mercy be shewn to sin but is not this fine Divinity that God must not only be a friend to the Rebell but to the Rebellion not only justifie the offender but the offence what is this but in plain English sin must cease to be sin or God must cease to be just and holy otherwise he cannot be merciful Are these the Masters of reason or is this it they intend by the freenes● of Gods Grace in forgiveness doth the Gentleman reproach P. 19. us for mysteries sure this is mysterie and mysterie of iniquity too He hath one touch more upon P. 19. the old string at parting namely That it is unrighteous to punish an innocent in the room of the nocent Answ Though this be fully Replyed to before I shall yet further subjoyn this namely That by the common consent of ●ll Nations in some cases the ●nnocent may be made suffer ● the room of the nocent ●r example suppose a person ●oth render himself a ho●age for the security of the ●ith of that state where●f he is a member which he ●ay do in that a part oweth ● self unto the preservation ● the whole and that State ●hose fidelity he was bound to secure break their faith the Hostage though personally innocent being bound to Answer for the guilt of the State may without any Unrighteousness be put to death I have gone now through the Pamphlet and have not omitted the least thing that is material but whether the Answers I have returned be satisfactory I do not mean to the Adversary for I know that sort of men too well to have cause to ●ope any such thing of them must be left to the judgement of the Reader to decide I had thought to have presented the World with some few of the many unsavoury and blasphemous expressions which the book is stuft with but this discourse being already swelled beyond what I imagined I shall only mention two or three P. 12. He tells us it is horrible cruelty ●hat the punishment due to us ●hould be inflicted upon Christ And in the same page That the ●hole transaction of a satisfacti●n is Childish and Ludicrous And p. 14. That the Phoenicians ●nd Carthaginians in Sacrificing ● few men he should have added ●o the Devil in behalf of the ●holw people came short of the ●ruelty of God in punishing Christ in ●ur room And p. 15. That it ●ould grieve a man of ingenuity ●o be saved at that rate i. e. ●o be beholding to Christ for ●alvation Ex ung●e Leone● ●ou may know what the whole ●s by a taste That the great ●eacher of the truth as it is in ●esus would lead us into and ●stablish us in it is and shall ●e the Prayer of the Author FINIS Reader Besides several mistakes in the misplacing of Letters and Points there are these which corrupt the sense which that neither thy self nor the Author may be wronged thou art desired to Correct PAg. 3. lin 24. read by it p. 5. l. 2. m. judicare p. 8. l. 18. blot out our p. 11. l. 17. r. hence p. 14. l. 7. m. justificatione p. 27. l. 21. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is equivalent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 37 l. 14. m. r. aut p. 140. l. 8. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 169 l. 3. add the. p. 224. l. 12. r. disserve p. 224 l. ult pag. 225. l. 1. r. unl●ss instead of fo●asmuch p. 225. l. blot out as ibid. after had ad● either had sin of his own or had p 226. l. 6. pu● for p. 235. l. 13. r. man p. 265. l. 16. add the p. 267. l. 21. r. instituted ibid. add a●ter Worship p. 271. l. 12. add it

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justified freely by his grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justification is free in respect of the love that gave Christ to merit it Heb. 2. 9. Given by the grace of God to taste death for every man The alone moving and impulsive cause of God's bestowing Christ was his eternal good pleasure and love It is free also in respect of any works performed by us to deserve justification Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of the law which we have done but according to his mercy he hath saved us Nothing required or done on our part to merit it and this and no more is intimated by grace and freely for that the excluding the merit and satisfaction of Christ is not here intended the opening of the next words will confirm and demonstrate 2ly There then is the material and meritorious means procuring justification Causa impulsiva 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this is the blood of Christ through the redemption that is in Jesus and in his blood Though justification be free in respect of us yet it is merited in respect of him The import of redemption we have formerly opened and proved it to be a deliverance by solution and payment of a ransome See from pag. 146. to 161. though there be nothing done by us to merit justification yet we have it only by the intervention of Christ as the deserving cause this the Apostle amplifies from God's exhibiting of him to this purpose whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation What the intendment of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is is before opened God set him forth to be a means of atton●ing him and appeasing his anger that by him as a meritorious cause we might be set free from the wrath to which we stood obnoxious To this end God constituted and appointed him Mediator proposed him in the types and shadows of the law actually exhibited him in the flesh and offereth him to the world as he through whom as a placamen God's wrath is appeased and his favour recovered 3ly We have the final cause First the finis cujus the end on the part of God to declare his rightousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to show his righteousness ut justus agnoscatur By righteousness here we can by no means understand God's benignity kindness and mercy not that we deny but that it may admit that signification in some other places where the subject matter necessitates to it but here it clearly signifies that property in God by which he is enclined to punish sin and this is the proper and usual import of it in the Scripture Rom. 2. 5. 2 Thes 1. 6. Rev. 16. 5 6. And it is from this principle of his nature carrying him against sin that he is compared to fire Deut. 4. 24. Isa 33. 14. Heb. 12. 29. and in respect of this wrath and anger are often ascribed to him Rom. 9. 32. Exod. 32 10. Psal 6. 1 Rom. 1. 8. That this is the intendment of righteousness here is evident from hence that Christ in the shedding of his blood is set out to be a propitiation which fully argues both that God was angry and that by Christ as a propitiator● sacrifice his vindictive and ang● is appe●sed Then we have th● finis cu● the end with respect t● us that he might be the justifier● The design God had in all this namely his giving Christ in ● way of death and blood to be ● propitiation was the taking ● company of poor creatures wh● lay obnovious to his indignation into his grace and favour again 4ly We have the instrumenta● cause or the means by which w● come to be interested in Christ and to have the redemption an● justification purchased by him applyed to us and that is through faith in his blood By this time I hope the Reader perceives not only how impertinent but how destructive this Text proves to the Pamphleters design and how he falls by his own weapon The second Text which the Gentleman hath been pleased to prefix ● Col. 1. 14. in whom we have re●emption through his blood even the ●orgiveness of sins And this is ●ltogether as unanswerable to the ●nd it was brought for as the for●er For do but observe here ●ur salvation is expresly asserted ●o be by way of redemption and ●he price of this redemption to ●e the blood of Christ which is ●n plain termes to affirm that we ●re saved by the intervention of a ●atisfaction for to be in a proper sense redeemed and redeemed through blood is to be set free through the sufferings of Christ as a valuable compensation for our release But here is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Socinian party and that which hath imposed upon the Pamphleter in his quotations that because there is mention of forgiveness therefore all satisfrction must be excluded but the falsity of this is already demonstrated and to suppose an opposition where there is so perfect a harmony is to profess 〈◊〉 unacquaintance with the Gosp●l It is forgiveness in that it is no● merited by us but doth this any way hinder but that it may b● purchased by Christ We know no inconsistence betwixt these two that it should be of pur● grace in reference to us and ye● of justice in reference to Christ The third and last Scripture mustured up by the Author in his Title Page is Prov. 12. 15. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both ar● an abomination to the Lord. Is it possible a Scripture should be produced more destructive to the design of the bringer is it an abomination that the wicked should be justified and shall we afix such a thing on the righteous God can no Judge acqui● the guilty without a satisfaction but he must act that which in its own nature is an abhorrency and shall we ascribe this to the holy and righteous Governour of the world See the foregoing Treatise from pag. 8. to 16. But I suppose the Gentleman thought of serving himself by one part of the Text not considering how ruinous to his whole enterprise the other part would prove and indeed there is nothing more usual with that sort of men than to urge their mistaken sense of one part of Scripture to the overthrow of the true meaning of another but to reply to the place 1. I deny that it is against justice to condemn one that is personally innocent when he hath put himself legally in the room of criminals It is no ways against equity to send a person to prison who possibly may live dy there and have his whole posterity begger'd who never contracted one penny deb● of his own only became bound for anothers So here though Christ was personally innocent yet he stood legally in the room of the guilty and it was that which he had chosen and in a matter wherein he had as much power as any of us have in our estates see before from pag.

93. to 107. 2. I affirm that these words which the Adversary seeks relief to his cause from do utterly disserve it For if he that condemneth the just be an abomination to the Lord how will they salve the righteousness of God in condemning Christ who was an innocent person to pain and death which is the punishment of the nocent who as he had no sin of his own so according to them he stood charged with no sin of ours Death being constituted the penalty of sin could no● without unrighteousness have been inflicted upon Christ forasmuch as he had become answerable for ours see this proved pag. 124. to 127. And therefore our adversaries by denying the last and not daring to ass●rt the first ●re the only men who fasten that ●pon God which the Text stiles ●bominable and now we hope ●hat we have not only wrested ●hese weapons out of the enemies ●and but also wounded himself ●y them SECT II. ●t guilty of any of the three faults ● inexcusable in a Preacher The doctrine momentous Heb. 2. 10. opened and the necessity of a satisfaction justified to be the truth of that Scripture ●HE three faults proposed as inexcusable in a Preacher ● too confessedly so to be apo●gized for but whatever other ●aknesses I may have been guil● of yet that I am innocent from the whole of that charg● comes now to be justified 1. That the Doctrine I discours● is of the highest import and tha● to mistake in it is to erre in a matte● of the greatest concernment readily acknowledge and do fu●ther add that it is of such weig● in the matter of a Christians b●lief that not to be sound there ● to erre in a main fundamental a● consequently to be unavoidab● obnoxious to damnation Whe● as their are some truths whi● we are only bound to believ● in case we know them to be ●vealed this is a truth we ● bound to know and believe ● be revealed in order to be● saved If there be any fun●mentals of faith at all these ●ctrines wherein we and the S●nians differ are maximes of t● nature As to that exceptio● have heard of a certain pers● whose name out of respect I ● ●ea● that they cannot be fundamentals because controverted by learned men if it concludes any ●hing it concludes that there is ●o fundamental at all there being ●o one truth so evident which ●ome have not denied yea it will not be a fundamental that ●here is God forasmuch as there ●ave been some and still are who ●are gainsay it The matter then ●herein my Adversary and I differ ●eing of this moment I would ●eset it to the Reader to arbitrate ●n whose side the truth lies whe●er with them who can demon●rate their Opinion to have been ●e belief of all the faithful down ●om the Apostles to the present ●ge not one dissenting who hath ●ot been by all the Churches of Christ branded for a Heretick or ●ith those who in some whole ●ges can instance none of the same ●ntiments with them and those ●hom in other times they produce are such as the Catholick Church hath from time to time voted unworthy the name o● Christians 2. Whether the Doctrine I the● insist●d on be the truth of any Scripture the former tract hath accounted for where I hope it is no● only made evident to be a truth but one of the most considerabl● truths of the Gospel the very b●si● of our Religion the foundatio● of our present comforts and futu● hop●● 3. The third and at present ma● particular and that which ●a● now under consideration is wheth● it be the truth of that Text fro● which in my Sermon I deduced i● And here I must complain of t● unworthiness and disingenuity ● my Adversaries that when I h● endeavoured at some length ● prove that the point then insist● on arose not only naturally fro● the place but was one of ● main doctrines intended in the words they have been so far from refuting what was alledged to that purpose that they have not mentioned one word of what was offered in that matter Was ever such tergiversation known as publickly to reproach a person for a conclusion without examining either the premises whence it is drawn or the method of inferring ●t The least I could have expect●d was either the overthrowing ●he principles upon which I raised ●t or else the evidencing some mis●ake in the way of deduction At ●his rate of procedure there is no ●ruth deducible from any Text of ●he Bible but by saying it is not ●ightly drawn they may with the ●ame facility refute The Reader ●ad been spared this labour if my ●dversaries had been but so just ●s in common honesty they ought ●amely if when they declaimed ●gainst my doctrine they had taken notice of the foundations upon which I raised it but seeing they have put me upon this task the speediest way to bring it to an● issue will be to open the Text I then discoursed on viz. Heb. 2. 10. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings The Apostle in the preceding Chapte● having largely treated of Christ as supream Prophet and having advanced him above all other ministerial revealers of God's will so far as a Son is preferable to a servant after some improvemen● made in the beginning of thi● Chapter of what he had delivere● to that purpose in the foregoing by an admirable thread and line o● wisdom he slides from the Prophe●tical office of Christ to his Sacer●dotal and having affirmed tha● Christ through the benignity an● grace of God was given to taste and suffer death for men he here assigns the impulsive reason or procuring cause of Christ's suffering It became God c. i. e. if God would save sinners his essential justice and righteousness could not allow that it should be otherways That this is the intendment of the words a little further opening of them will confirm We have first then a design of God towards fallen rebellious mankind and that is the bringing many of them as sons to glory The making a company of enemies who lay obnoxious to hell and wrath to be God's Sons and the bringing them to life 2ly We have the method and means pitched on for the compassing of that design and that is the dedicating and consecrating Christ by suffering to be a Captain of salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render it to make perfect and that sense sometimes it hath but it signifieth here to consecrate or dedicate unto an office and in this sense the Septuagint use it Exod. 29. 35. and Lev. 21. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the same Apostle several times in this Epistle see Chap. 5. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consecratus Bez. being consecrate or set apart he became the author of eternal salvation c. And chap. 7. 28. 〈◊〉