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	justify_v	sanctification_n	1,487	5	11.2350	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96976	Meditations upon the marks of the true Church of Christ: or, Motives of credibility in behalf of the true religion: and, the easiest way to finde it out. / By H.W.	H. W.; Wilkinson, Henry, 1610-1675,	1655 (1655)	Wing W36A; Thomason E1666_1; ESTC R208388	95,687	283

say it is so but other Sectaries deprive it not of comely ornaments onely but even requisites and have lest in it nothing but one Sacrament to wit baptisme for their other things is but bare Bread and Wine and that now omitted and abused by many no form of Worship but some one of their ill translated Psalms and that not used by all and Preaching common to all sorts and even Sexes of People Secondly they teach things which are plainly paradoxical and asystata things not onely repugnant to most clear texts of Scripture but quite destructive of good Works and by consequence of the means for salvation for by their private spirit and each mans own interpretation of scripture they measure and square out the whole busines of Faith and Religion in this if they erre and how can they be free from errours they not onely run hazard of but plainly incur damnation for he that will not believe shall be condemned Amay with this pernicious and presumptuous tenent let the Church be your guide hear Her Shee 's exposed to no illusions of self-conceipt or of the wicked spirits whose transfiguring themselves into angels of light she can discover you cannot They deny also that man can merit by his good Works a tenent evidently contrary to all places of scripture in which the word reward is extant for merit and reward are correlatives they inferre one another to say that Christ amongst the other things he merited merited also this that mans good works done in relation to hi● passion and in vertue of it should be meritorious does not this more extoll Christs merits and magnifie them more than the negative opinion does many stupendious benefits favors and means for mans salvation Christ our Savior merited amongst the rest this They deny Free will at least to do good in man O imposture What 's this but a cloak for malice an occasion if not invitation allurement to sin and a stumbling block laid in the way for all to break their necks over this was a trick of Luthers and Calvins devising who after they had shamefully fallen into some enormous sins of the fltsh as they did began to broach this doctrine conformable to the lives they had begun and intended to lead thereby to save themselves from the indeleable stain of sacriledge Apostacy and infamy and because companions contribute to lessen the miseries of disgrace and dishonour by how many the more there be that participate of them therefore they indeavoured by this hellish herefie to inveagle others to adhere to them Many of them hold that the Commandements of God cannot possibly be kept O blasphemy What 's this but to impeach the divine Majesty of tyranny Can that goodnesse that infinite wise legislator impose laws under pain of damnations which are impossible to be kept stand astonisbed you heavens at this And to omlt other their assertions dishonourable to Christian Religion they hold that an act of Faith alone works that great work of mans justification that great change which the Prophet David cals the work of the right hand of him that is on high of a soul transferred from the state of being found guilty of mortal fin and by it of eternal punishment to the state of grace divine adoption and right to the eternal inheritance of the kingdom of heaven to attribute this stupendious effect to one act of faith alone as the cause either efficient or formall of it is an incredible paradox yea an impossibility besides the bad sequels which thence result that by which a man is formally justified is justice intrinsecally inherent in the soul to wit sanctifying grace and this is bestowed upon him for Christs justice to wit his merits nor can Faith alone be the efficient cause of mans justification or sanctification it is indeed a disposition but so is fear penance hopes and an act of the love of God by which act the soul is much more unired to God than by an act of Faith of mans justification therefore the efficient cause is God the formall cause divine grace and the meritory cause is Christ to wit by his merits and passion The bad sequels are many which that opinion of faith alone justifying brings first it hinders the exercise of many other vertues much recommended unto us in the holy Scripture as filiall fear offending God sorrow for having offended him and good purposes of amendment secondly it is a great let and impediment to good Works and the study of vertue for if I can be satisfied and consequently saved by producing one act of Faith only what need is there of spending my time and taking pains to pray fast watch do penance give alms What need you take pains about self-denyal carrying my Crosse and following my Saviour by imitating his vertues the three things he recommends unto us the practice of which since that opinion hinders it who does not see how pernicious it is thirdly it lays open a wide gate for all licenciousnesse sin and wickednesse for if with an act of faith onely you can repair and redress all the misery which sin brings to my soul why should I not feed all my senses with their delightfull objects follow the instinct of my flesh give the bridle to my passions and sacrifice my time my body my thoughts and my endeavours wholly to sensuality Ah deer Redeemer Now I see the reason of that your pitifull complaint Supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores upon my back sinners have built I see who they are that insteed of carrying their crosses after you and in imitation of you build upon your back and lay not onely all their obligations to Christian duties upon your sacred shoulders by omitting them but heap sin upon sin by offending more freely and lay these upon you also For what do they else who under pretence of magnifying your merits deny all merits of mans best works by denying Freewill to do good do no good by extolling the ability of Faith alone give occasion of remisnesse in vertue of falling into vice and of making shipwrack of all true faith The fourth point Consider now in order to a rectifying of thy judgement in matter of belief and for the better managing of thy life what may be inferred out of the precedent points and amongst other things first some peculiar differences betwixt the Doctrine of Romane Catholicks and that of Sectaries the one is most conformable to the holy Scriptures and our Saviours doctrine and example the other is contrary to these the ones Doctrine favours and honours the church of Christ by teaching that which is most beseeming almighty God and it the other by attributing all to an act of faith makes the Church an imperfect yea a needlesse thing for all the other priviledges and proprieties of it as also the means it hath conducing to salvation are superfluous if an act onely of faith will do all The one teacheth to

reach the ability of nature or art for such persons question lesse have conference and hold correspondence with God and de facto Insidels were brought to embrace the Catholick Faith by these motives as the cheifest inducements The truth is That it is not only in all mens opinion morally but as many learned Divines teach metaphysically impossible that that Religion should be false which God hath confirmed with his own Hand and Seal I mean with these Arguments Motives and Marks which the absolute power of God onely could produce for otherwise it would follow that God should induce men into error and be the author of falshood a thing which implies a contradiction and is incompatible with the goodnes and veracity of God and would make the divine will repugnant to it self by commanding men to serve him in the true Religion and yet leading them to a false one by the whole complex of such and so extraordinary motives as these are Thus much for the instruction and conviction of non-christians and such as do not admit the holy scripture to be the word of God Concerning which people I adde that when any of them are come so far as to believe with humane faith which may be in every ones power to do that these motives convince that to be the true church which is confirmed by those divine signes and when they do accept of that Church for such God will undoubtedly raise their humane Faith up to be divine by infusing into them the auxiliary forces of his supernatural grace and light with the habit of divine faith Now for the better understanding how from humane faith a man may ascend to an act of divine faith Note the distinction betwixt these four principles into which an act of faith may be resolved First the extrinsical motives and these are not nor can they be the efficient cause of an act of divine faith but they are dispositions that is they are motives or cause why that Religion or such a point is accepted on for the truth Secondly The Authority of the Churchs and she doth onely propound what is to be believed and gives order and direction how to proceed in the carriage of belief Thirdly The Veracity of God revealing to the Church and by the Church to us divine truths and this is the formall object or cause why the understanding assents to such a thing as a divine truth for therefore we believe that such Books are Divine because God hath revealed to the Church that they are so Fourthly The habit of Divine Faith together with divine grace and these are the efficient cause of an act of Divine Faith All these four principles intervene in the analysis of theologicall Faith but with subordination to one another and not as so many independent first principles of Faith for the first immediate and indemonstrable cause of mans assent is God revealing though the cause of accepting such a faith must be the motives of credibility I conclude this Preface with giving the Reader notice that before I begin with the Meditations of the particular Marks of which I have chosen out onely 16. I thought fit to premise 4 Meditations which are both of most necessary subjects in themselves as also preparatives for the more fruitfull perusage of those which follow And for a clearer demonstration to Sectaries that such and such are put for marks of Christs Church by scripture it self I have of set purpose cited the proofs universally out of the Protestants own Bible A Table of the severall Meditations following MEd. 1. Of the end of Man Page 1 Med. 2. Of divine Faith Page 11 Med. 3. Of Christs true Church Page 22 Med. 4. Of the Marks in generall Page 33 Med. 5. Of Miracles Page 46 Med. 6. Of Sanctity of Life Page 57 Med. 7. Of Holinesse of Doctrine Page 73 Med. 8. Of the Conversion of nations Page 91 Med. 9. Of the Vninterupted and Apostolical Succession of the Pastors of the Church Page 106 10. Of the antiquity of the true church Page 123 Med. 11. Of Vnity in matters of Faith and Religion Page 143 Med. 12. Of the Amplitude and Extent of the Dominions of Christs Church Page 156 Med. 13. Of the Name of Catholick and whose it is by right Page 167 Med. 14. Of the gift of Prophesie Page 176 15. Of easy Decission of Controversies Page 186 16. Of Persecution and Martyrdome Page 198 Med. 17. Of the Prophecies and Promises and Figures of the old Law fulfilled in Christes Church Page 208 Med. 18. Of Temporal blessings Miraculously bestowed on the Defenders and Propagators of the Catholick Religion Page 219 Med. 19. Of the Disasters and Vnhappy ends of the Opposers and Enemies of the Roman Church Page 233 M. 20. Of the Confession of Adversaries Page 249 Of the end of Man The first Meditation and a ground to those which follow after Of the End of Man Of the means to attain it and of the Use which is to be made of that means The first Point COnsider first how the Almighty drawing man by the act of creation out of the darksome abysse of that non-entity or nothing in which hee had laine from all eternity past without any reall being and bringing him into the light of life now a rational and noble creature placed him in this inferiour world but for what end to spend precious time in searching after sensull pleasures in hunting after honours in scraping up riches No the end for which God created thee man was more sublime than so it was a supernatural end an end of the highest perfection and the most to be wished for that can possibly be to serve God in this life and to enjoy eternally the beatisicall Vision of him in the life to come this was that which God intended in creating thee do thou prefix to thy self the same end if thou will be happy Consider Secondly for the better understanding of this mainly fundamental point that this end hath two parts or is twofold So sayes St. Paul Ye have your fruit unto sanctification but your end eternall life And our Saviour intimateth the same in these Divine words Matt. 6. 33. Seek first the kingdome of God and his righteousnesse so that here 's sanctity and eternall beatitude the one is to be practised in this life the other shall be purchased in the next the one is finis maximus and the other is the remote end and as the self same thing may be both the end and the means also respectively so here holinesse of life though it be really mans end in this life for he is created to serve God in this life yet in respect of the finall end which is eternally to enjoy that insinite goodnesse the former is onely the means by which the latter is attainable Gather out of this Fundamentall point a strong resolution and effectuall desire from henceforth to make the consideration of this so noble end thy serious and frequent

Pau. What lopping produceth in the Vines that persecution effecteth in the Church saith Saint Persecution Justin The blood of Martyrs is the seed of the Church in Triphon saith Tertullian in his Apologetick cap. ult and Saint Cyprian both said it sealed the truth of it with his blood King James also is said to have often repeated these Saint Cyprians words sanguis martyrum semen ecclesia and upon reflection of the truth of them to have often expressed his mislike of shedding Priests blood The blood of Tiburtius and Valerianus of Faustinus and Jovita of Saint Clement Saint Thecla and Saint Katherine shed for the Faith of Christ drew a far greater number than they were to believe in him did not the death of Saint Lucia the Roman widdow double in Geminianus and others converted what the Church was robbed of by her death Was not the number of Faithfull B lievers as much augmented in the conversion of Adauctus as it was diminished by the death of happy Felix And did not the Curch gaine by loosing Saint Januarius almost five thousand For so many were converted at his martyrdome Read the Martyrs sufferings those who love to read rare things and they will be convinced of what even the Apostata Julian was convinced that the sequell of persecuting Christians is the multiplication of Christians Consider a second effect of suffering for such a cause and that is the great glory which doth acrew both to God and to the sufferers thereby God cannot regale man more in this mortal life than to make him a Martyr and man cannot perform a greater point of service for God than by suffering as becomes a Martyr for no man bath greater charity than such an one In Martyrdome God compleateth man with the greatest of his favours and in the same man complieth with God in the superlative degree of his indeavours O strange and most perfect circle of perfect love Persecution betwixt God and man in martyrdom out of the Ocean of infinite love flows this felicity into man by a strange participation and from it runs back into the same abysse by a pure intention O strange reciprocation and unheard of communication betwixt God man in martyrdome O martyrdome a felicity which none conceives but he who receives it a secret which no man knows but from God who tels it a word which none understands but from him who gives it and a favour which none can deserve but let all desire it Pardon me said one I know what 's good for me fire crosse beasts breaking of my bones disjoynting of my limbs brusing of my body and all the torments that the Devill can inflict come upon me so be that I may enjoy Christ O myrrour of martyrdome blessed Bishop Ignatius if to us thy words seem so sweet how sweet were thy thoughts when thou uttered these words when thou suffered what thou longed for when thou enjoyed the reward of what thou suffered Answer thou O my soul at least guesse what a case that enamoured bea rt was in then think ruminate meditate with desire humility sorrow and purpose to be often that in affection which thou cannot till God please be in effect The third Point Ponder first that all who are out of the true Church are incapable whilest they remain so of this great purchase of martyrdome for without Catholick and true faith it is impossible to please God and without pleasing God as little possible to be a martyr Now those who are not members of Christs true Church cannot have true faith whilest they remain so Hence infer that though Sectaries suffer upon score of Religion as some of severall Sects have yet none of them are martvrs for as amongst severall Sects of believers there can be but one true Church so amongst several sorts of sufferers there 's one only of them can be true martyrs the reason of this is contained in these words of Saint Austin Non poena sed causa facit martyrem not the punishment which a man suffers but the cause for which be suffereth makes a Martyr Let him suffer torments and death never so willingly and that upon account of Religion yet he can be no martyr unlesse his Religion be the true one Occidi potest coronari non potest sayes that holy Father Infer secondly that he who will deny the Primitive Martyrs to have been of the same Religion with the Roman Catholicks which now are must positively prove in what and when the Roman Church which was once the true Church even by the Confession of all Sectaries did fall from being the true Church This fall this change this transition is inconceptible and yet Sectaries are obliged to prove it or else return to that Church again Ponder secondly that in case it were supposed that Sectaries might be capable of being truly Martyrs yet no one sect no nor all sects together out of all which Fox makes his Martyrs could make up a Martyrologe comparable to what is in the Church of Rome Gather out of the precedent points first that the mark of Martyrdome is only to be found in the Roman church and consequently that it is the true church Secondly that the martyrs of the Primitive Church and those Roman Catholicks that suffered under King Henry the eighth Queen Elizabeth and her successors were all of one Church all Roman Catholicks all true Martyrs for Sectaries could never yet prove any innovation in matters of faith or false doctrine introduced by the Church of Rome add to the former those martyrs all Catholick Priests and in number 21 who have suffered in England since the year 1640 till this present year 1654 inclusive Hail King of Martyrs Christ the meritory and exemplar cause of all true martyrdome we magnifie thee in these thy martyrs noble Champions and pious Prodigals of their blood for thee Please if it be thy blessed pleasure that in this thy cause my unworthy self with many more may have some share of these sweet sufferings and if not dye for thee at least dye for not dying for thee The seventeenth Meditation Of Prophesies and promises and the figures of the old law fulfilled in the true Church The first Point COnsider first that not only the the Prophets of the old law but Christ himself also foretold many things of great concernment which were to be verisied and fulfilled in his Church or by it in these prophesies also many large promises of ample privilegies and prerogatives made in reference to the same Church were included which were afterwards accomplished And Saint Paul often in his Epistles intimateth that the Jewish Synagogue with its sacrificies and ceremonies was a Symbol or Figure of Christs church and its proprieties So that no sect amongst Christians can or indeed doth deny these truths in affirming of which the scriptures are so clear and copious Consider secondly that the fulfilling of these prophesies is to be brought against Turks Jews Pagans