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
A56384	A defence and continuation of the ecclesiastical politie by way of letter to a friend in London : together with a letter from the author of The friendly debate.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.; Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707. Friendly debate.	1671 (1671)	Wing P457; ESTC R22456	313,100	770

Vanity of his Attempt who would demonstrate out of the Canticles that the Saints enjoy distinct Communion with the three Persons of the Trinity it exasperates some bold and confident Men that are fond of their own thin and crazy Conceits as much as if we should pervert the first Chapter of St. Iohn's Gospel And we scoff at Justification by Faith if we despise a Thousand vain and empty Speculations wherewith they have involved that Article As whether Faith justifies from any peculiar Excellency of its own nature or barely from the Divine Appointment whether it be an instrumental Cause of Justification or onely a Procatarctick Cause if instrumental whether an active or a passive Instrument if Procatarctick whether Procatarctick formal or Procatarctick objective with a multitude more of the like wise and important Enquiries that could never have enter'd into the most curious and whimsical Understanding had not some idle people loved to amuse themselves with inventing profound and curious Nothings and had not one Keckerman and some other dull Fellows been at leisure to write foolish Books of Logick and Metaphysicks whose Theorems must be blended with the Doctrines and Propositions of St. Paul and then Mens little Quarrels about this Motley-Divinity must make new Sects and Opinions in Religion and they must measure the Orthodoxy of their Faith by their subtilty in wrangling and their power in disputing by their skill and dexterity in Terms of Art and by their being able to understand the precise and Orthodox Notion of a Procatarctick Cause These are the useful and wonderful Profundities to which the disputing Men of this Age are such zealous Votaries they value their Learning by their skill in these dry and sapless Enquiries and their Agility in the Combats of Disputation and a Disputant with them signifies the same thing as a great Scholar To this purpose they furnish their Memories with abundance of notional Querks and Subtilties to keep up their pert and talkative Humour and spend all their time in learning Distinctions that may maintain and reconcile palpable Contradictions With what fetches of Wit will they distinguish themselves round about till they come at last to affirm what at first they denied And with what severity of Judgment will they spin out a long train of wary Aphorisms and subtile Propositions to prove that 't is Faith alone that justifies and yet so explain the Notion of justifying Faith as to make it imply and include in it all other parts of the Condition of the New Covenant i. e. Good Works and those that are able Divines can write whole Volumes of Problems and Disputations to make out this important Mystery That Faith alone justifies i. e. as 't is not alone And now if you compare the vanity of the Opinions with the talkative Humour of the Opiniators you will cease to wonder at their rude Carriage toward persons that profess to pursue more useful and less difficult Studies they are brim-full of talk and no Man that pretends to Learning can come in their way but they immediately engage him in Disputation and if he with some Railery expose their learned and studied Ignorance and confute the silliness of their Systematick Notions 't is a bold affront to the Orthodox Faith and he drolls upon the most Fundamental Articles of Divinity for they lay no less weight upon their own Subtilties and singular Conceits then on the plain and practical Precepts of the Gospel so that you cannot sweep away their Cobwebs but down drops the whole Fabrick of Religion Neither does this pragmatical Humour run onely among the Pretenders to Learning but the Infection spreads among the People every sage Trades-man sets up for a deep and an able Divine and talks as confidently of Predestination as if he had served his Apprenticeship to a Dutch Professour Every zealous Shop-keeper understands the management of Ecclesiastical Discipline as well as the Nicene Fathers and a Jury of Button-sellers shall determine a Controversie of Faith with more assurance then a General Council These of all others are the fiercest and most implacable Assertors because their Zeal is proportion'd to their Ignorance and therefore you cannot make your self pleasant with their pert and conceited Pedantry and 't is a piece of Railery that is hardly to be forborn but you draw upon your self whole Volleys of Anathema's and hard Names they can endure any Indignity rather then an affront to their Clerkship and you may with more safety play with a Spaniard's Beard then sport with their grave Ignorance That is an Insolence that can never pass unrevenged but your Reputation is immediately stabbed with some ugly word or poisoned with some malicious Report and it becomes the great business of their Zeal to brand you with foul imputations and in all places and upon all occasions to blazon abroad your gross Errours and your horrid Blasphemies This short Character of their Humour may serve for a satisfactory account of their dirty and disingenuous Demeanour towards such persons as pretend to so much knowledge as to despise the Ignorance of their Learning I design it not for an Apology either for my self or any of my Friends I know none so poor-spirited as to stand in awe of such petty Arts the most pertinent Reply to such a poor and beggarly Malice is Neglect and Disdain though in truth such Wretches as stick not upon every slight occasion to sacrifice not onely our Good-Names but our Livelyhoods for that is our Case to their own Childish Picks deserve to be answered by the Pillory and the Whipping-Post § 8. Many other ugly Insinuations he has as if I were prompted to this Undertaking by lewd and naughty Intentions or as if he knew some Stories that he can but out of Tenderness and Civility to my Reputation will not vent I will not so much assist his Malice as to transcribe all his white-liver'd Suggestions to this purpose but whether in this way of proceeding he has discover'd more Boldness or more Imprudence is hard to determine when he knows himself to lie under such vast disadvantages at this Weapon by lying open to so many stabbing and inevitable Hits But this is one of their Topicks and comes in by the Rules of their Method and Ingenuity and all the Defenders and Champions of the Church of England have ever been thus accosted by their civil and unpassionate Adversaries And never did any Man give them a smart and severe Blow but immediately they threatned to tell Tales And where Men have not the advantage of Truth Calumny is their best and surest Weapon For though its Wounds do not always fester yet they usually leave a scar behind them at least he gains the Advantage of his Enemy that gives him the diversion to wipe off Reproaches and all Apologies in defence of a Man 's own Innocence leave behind them through the common Ill-nature of Mankind some ill-contrived suspicion of Guilt in the Minds of Men. And therefore I