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	instrument_n	justification_n	2,903	5	9.7467	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23636	The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pensilvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Allen, James, 1632-1710.	1690 (1690)	Wing A1029; ESTC W19401	72,664	176

ipse dixit which is of no value among sober men and hence to conclude That the inward Dispensation that is among the Gentiles that have not Christ outwardly preached hath its glory and great service to those that are faithful in it is to talk at liberty himself and deny to all others a liberty to judge Reflections on Chapt. 7. of Justification The Doctrine of Justification is one principal pillar of our Faith we cannot forego one clause of it without greatest hazzard let him not then think to wheadle us out of it his attempts so to do must be detected defeated Sect. 1. When he saith God doth not justifie men in their Vngodliness but from it would be true if he had not perverted it afterwards To justifie a man is to uphold and defend him in such a way and to say to the wicked thou art righteous this is far from God But to justifie a man from his ungodliness may admit of a double Interpretation if it intend that He absolves a man from his ungodliness by a gracious act of pardon acquittance it is true but if it intend a taking away of his sin from him by cleansing him from his filthiness and purging the corruption of it out of him as he after interprets himself this is no Justification at all but belongs to Sanctification Sect. 2. He saith They are only the sanctified that are justified if he intends that whom God doth justifie He doth also sanctifie it is a great truth but if he puts Sanctification which is a Concomitant to be a cause of Justification yea the material cause as his following Discourse evidently insinuates it is a deceit and here he mistaketh when he saith That we are the seed of Christ by Sanctification which is only a benefit which Christ bestowes on His seed and not a cause of their being so And when he tells us That Christ bestowes Adoption only on His brethren it is as much as if he had said that Christ only Adopts the Adopted Sect. 3. Here he falls into down-right Popery confounding those two great benefits of Justification and Sanctification which tho' inseparable are to be distinguished All Protestant Writers of Controversies against papists have abundantly Confuted this mistake only he will force us in the Sequel to make some brief Remarks on this matter Sect. 4. One Errour begets another a false principle will afford mistakes for Deductions and here we see it he took Justification and Sanctification for one thing and so he tells us that God justifies not only by faith in Christ but by a real inward righteousness too though Paul thought that these two ways of having a justifying Righteousness were inconsistent Rom. 11.6 but herein he follows his Fathers the Papists and whereas he saies That The graces of Sanctification are the instruments of obtaining Justification from Christ he mistakes the order of Christ's Benefits for its certain that there is none of these graces in the man habitually much less the Exercise of them before Justification for in with the souls applying it self to Christ by Faith it is justified and it is to be remembred that Paul tells us it is the justification of the ungodly Rom. 4.5 Such God finds them in themselves when He comes to ●ustifie them And when he saith Jesus Christ cannot be applied to men for justification unless the man be made righteous it s either a Contradiction or a Sophism If they be made righteous for their justification the Application of Christ for their Righteousness ●s superfluous If he intends that the Application of Justification makes them righte●us it is fallacious it makes them so in 〈◊〉 Law sense but not in a moral sense not ●ustification but Sanctification doeth that ●is Similitude is from that which hath no ●ikeness his Scripture Citations are not to ●he purpose that in 1. Joh. 3.7 speakes of ●anfictication that in Rev. 22.15 speaks ●f the visible Right to Church-Communion which men are to prove by their Obedience or if he will not admit of that let him Remember that Faith which layes hold on the Righteousness of Christ is the great Gospel Command 1. Joh. 3.23 Sect. 5. 'T is a great mistake in him to say that Faith is one hand to receive Christ Love is another the Office of Love is another and quite different thing by faith we receive Christ by Love we serve him or testifie our Thankfulness in our Obedience to Him Joh. 14.15 and it is by Faith tha● we derive from Christ all that virtue which nourisheth the graces of Love whereby we may serve Him Gal. 5.6 And whereas he here applies the putting on of Christ to Justification we that esteem Justification and Sanctification two things reckon it to Sanctification and that according to Scripture fo● what else is the Righteousness and true Holiness by which it is interpreted Eph. 4.22 23 24. Sect. 6. In this Paragraph he gives up th● whole Cause if he speakes sincerely if not let him answer it to his Judge Sect. 7. That because Pardon of Sin is 〈◊〉 part of Justification therefore Repentance 〈◊〉 a necessary instrument to obtain it has no Consequence in it Repentance being an inseparable Concomitant of Faith and influenced by it Act. 5.31.11.18 elsewhere Only let it be observed that we separate not Repentance from Justification but deny it to have any causal Influence into it His proof from Tit. 3.5 is impertinent we never denied Sanctification to be necessary to Salvation But we suppose there is more requisite to Salvation than there is to Justification not only must we be adjudged to the Inheritance but we must be made meet or suitable for that happy state Col. 1.12 and that is by Sanctification Hebr. 12.14 this therefore is one of the Gospel Conditions of Salvation but not of Justification When he saith that Paul in saying that men are not justified by the works of the Law only excludes the legal performances in which the Jews rested who had not faith in Christ he labours of a double mistake for both all the Jews did not rest in them but some had faith in Christ and yet they did these works and were not justified by them and Paul renounceth his own works both before after believing distinctly Phil. 3.7.8 Sect. 8. Whereas he saith that when Paul speakes of Justification by faith he useth the word faith by a Synechdoche it is gratis dictum we have only his word for it and how much the word of one guilty of so much Heresy and Blasphemy is worth on this account let any judge We grant that the word Faith is sometimes used for the Gospel-Doctrine but when the Scripture mentions it as the instrument of justification it is never so intended and it belongs to him to prove it if he can Sect. 9. We understand not the meaning of his Rant in this Section about a Christ divided a Christ without and a Christ within a Christ in heaven and

fall before his in-words acknowledged Test is yet to be Tried And be it known to all men That we are not yet sensible of the wounds that he hath given any further than as the Name of GOD is blasphemously abused by him and drawn in to patronize his filthy dreams When we read his Inscription Benhadad seems to be risen agen who sent that confident Threatning 1. King 20.10 and the Answer of the King of Israel is enough ver 11. He had so much Pride and Gall to crowd into the Title that he is fain to borrow a Room in the left-hand page to put in a few Scr●pture Citations maliciously abused and misapplied which whether they belong to our Churches and Ministry let the Day declare we are not to stand or fall at the menacing Praedictions of an Enthusiast He directs his Epistle to us giving his word for it so far as it will go that the book was written in good will to us and if to slander and calumniate with bitterest Invectives may pass for a Demonstration he hath proved his Love to be Extraordinary and truly it is as much as we expect from one of his humour There is little observable here but what will be met with in the Treatise and once to Answer such paltry stuffe is enough if not to much It may therefore be passed over with two or three Remarks He calls us to turn our minds to the Light of Christ within us for our better information we have done it as well as we can it tells us That his Assertions are bold presumptuous and Haeretical He tells us It is the same spirit that gives to all Readers a right under standing of Scripture but if so why then have not all the same understanding of it but Contradictory Can it be the Spirit of God who is alwaies the same He bids us to Believe in Christ and joyn our minds to His divine Illumination and He will anoint the eyes of our Vnderstandings we shall have our eyes open to see c. q. d. If we will see of ourselves then He will give us Ability to see this may be no Contradiction in a Quakers Logick We have him also in a fit of Charity and we are beholden to him for we shall not alwaies find him in so good a mood granting that some of us may be in some sense of the true Church which how it should be when we have neither Doctrine Ministry Worship c. of a true Church among us let him see to that But we have him afterwards putting on his Spectacles and then he retracts his Charity with a witness We have him also nibling at the Doctrine of Perseverance which we shall shortly find him beating down with Axes and Mauls and there shall take him to task Only It is worth the while to observe what a notable and no doubt inspired Doctrine he recommended to us viz. That the Quickning in a man as it abides it is impossible it should perish To pass the Nonsense of it which must be allowed a Quaker or you undoe him let us note its profoundnese If Grace continue it cannot be lost a thing cannot be and not be at the same time could Delphos have delivered a more mysterious Oracle Finally he tells us plainly that his Design is to turn away our Hearers from us under the Title of False-Teachers i. e. he aims at no less than the subverting of all the Churches of Christ in New-England yea in all the World A Gygantick Essay But let him do his utmost as long as Christ sits upon His Throne we are not dismayed As for the Imputation of being False Teachers we can thro' Grace appeal to many of our Hearers in Paul's words 2. Cor. 3. beginn Reflections on Chap. 1. of the Holy Scriptures We have here a Confession of his Faith such as it is concerning the Scriptures wherein if he gives us his mind candidly which we have cause to suspect and shall give our reason before we part we are sure he doth not express the sense of his Brethren and Predecessors except they say one thing and mean the contrary Section 1 2. As for the two first Paragraphs of this Chapter we will take them as farr as they will go though the word Outward hath a Reserve in it and intimates That God hath one Rule to direct His people by Outwardly and another Inwardly or as if God taught us one thing by His Word and another by His Spirit we shall have Occasion afterwards to discourse how perniciously this undermines the Christian Faith and why he hath not made Practices as well as Doctrines liable to this Test might well be enquired However there will be occasion to rubb up his memory with his own Concessions when we find that he has forgoten himself for a quaker's spirit is not of a perfect Reminiscence and mean while let him try how he can reconcile himself to his Friends who have directly as might be instanced abundantly rejected the Scriptures with Scorn Smith tells us It is the greatest Error in the world and the ground of all Errors to say the Scriptures are a Rule to Christians and many Expressions of the same import But he will salve all with the nice Distinction of an outward and an inward Rule Sect. 3. This Paragraph might have past had it not been for his perverse Interpretation of it in which he spends his Second Chapter where we shall have it out if our patience can but wait a little Sect. 4. We were afraid when we saw him so liberal of his Concessions that he would soon repent of it we have him therefore here trying to get something of it back again but stay Friend and be more frugal of your Largesses henceforward Well he hath given the Scripture leave in a good humour to be so far a Rule at least that No Doctrine that cannot be demonstrated by it layes us under any Obligation to believe it and so we are satisfied that it is no mortal sin to with-hold our Credit from any of their New-Revelations that are neither Scripture nor Scripture-Consequence which in Chapt. 2nd he pleads for G. K. had a mind to wheadle some into a Compliance with his Opinions who had been taught to entertain a good Respect for the Scriptures For which reason he would insinuate that the honest Quakers are not the men that they have been represented to be nor are they such Enemies to the written Word as they are reported but why then doth he not correct his friend Lucas who hath told us That any Quaker if he has a mind to it as they are arrogant enough may make as good himself and they challenge us to tell them what one Scripture hath Light in it and many like Blasphemies not to be named But what shall he do to satisfy his brethren whose Fabrick is built upon the sandy Foundation of a New Light and new Revelations if the Scripture hath all the