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	salvation_n	work_n	5,482	5	6.3075	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63878	Ebdomas embolimaios a supplement to the eniautos, or course of sermons for the whole year : being seven sermons explaining the nature of faith and obedience in relation to God and the ecclesiastical and secular powers respectively / all that have been preached and published (since the restauration) by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor ; to which is adjoyned, his Advice to the clergy of his diocese.; Eniautos. Supplement	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1663 (1663)	Wing T328; ESTC R14098	185,928	452

it is no wonder that it is said we are to be justified by works alwayes meaning not the works of the law that is works that are meritorious works that can challenge the reward works that need no mercy no repentance no humiliation and no appeal to grace and favour but alwayes meaning works that are an obedience to God by the measures of good will and a sincere endeavour and the faith of the Lord Jesus 3. But thus also it is in the word Justification For God is justified and wisdom is justified and man is justified and a sinner is not justified as long as he continues in sin and a sinner is justified when he repents and when he is pardoned and an innocent person is justified when he is declared to be no criminal and a righteous man is justified when he is saved and a weak Christian is justified when his imperfect services are accepted for the present and himself thrust forward to more grace and he that is justified may be justified more and every man that is justified to one purpose is not so to all and faith in divers senses gives justification in as many and therefore though to every sense of Faith there is not alwayes a degree of justification in any yet when the faith is such that justification is the product and correspondent as that Faith may be imperfect so the justification is but begun and either must proceed further or else as the faith will dy so the justification will come to nothing The like observation might be made concerning imputation and all the words used in this question but these may suffice till I pass to other particulars 4. Not only the word Faith but also charity and godliness and religion signifie sometimes particular graces and sometimes they suppose Universally and mean conjugations and Unions of graces as is evident to them that read the Scriptures with observation Now when justification is attributed to Faith or Salvation to godliness they are to be understood in the aggregate sense for that I may give but one instance of this when S. Paul speaks of faith as it is a particular grace and separate from the rest he also does separate it from all possibility of bringing us to Heaven Though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no charity I am nothing When Faith includes charity it will bring us to Heaven when it is alone when it is without charity it will do nothing at all 5. Neither can this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be salved by saying that though Faith alone does justifie yet when she does justifie she is not alone but good works must follow for this is said to no purpose 1. Because if we be justified by faith alone the work is done whether charity does follow or no and therefore that want of charity cannot hurt us 2. There can be no imaginable cause why charity and obedience should be at all necessary if the whole work can be done without it 3. If obedience and charity be not a condition of our Salvation than it is not necessary to follow faith but if it be it does as much as faith for that is but a part of the condition 4. If we can be sav'd without charity and keeping the Commandments what need we trouble our selves for them if we cannot be saved without them then either faith without them does not justifie or if it does we are never the better for we may be damned for all that justification The Consequent of the these observations is briefly this 1. That no man should fool himself by disputing about the Philosophy of Justification and what causality faith hath in it and whether it be the act of faith that justifies or the habit Whether faith as a good work or faith as an instrument Whether Faith as it is Obedience or faith as it is an access to Christ Whether as a hand or as a heart Whether by its own innate vertue or by efficacy of the object Whether as a sign or as a thing signified Whether by introduction or by perfection Whether in the first beginnings or in its last and best productions Whether by inherent worthiness or adventitious imputation Vberiùs ista quaeso c. that I may use the words of Cicero haec enim spinosiora priùs ut confiteor me cogunt quam ut assentiar These things are knotty and too intricate to do any good they may amuse us but never instruct us and they have already made men careless and confident disputative and troublesom proud and uncharitable but neither wiser nor better Let us therefore leave these weak wayes of troubling our selves or others and directly look to the Theology of it the direct duty the end of Faith and the work of Faith the conditions and the instruments of our Salvation the just foundation of our hopes how our faith can destroy our sin and how it can unite us unto God how by it we can be made Partakers of Christs death and imitators of his life For since it is evident by the premises that this article is not to be determined or relyed upon by arguing from words of many significations we must walk by a clearer light by such plain sayings and Dogmatical Propositions of Scripture which evidently teach us our duty and place our hopes upon that which cannot deceive us that is which require Obedience which call upon us to glorifie God and to do good to men and to keep all Gods Commandments with diligence and sincerity For since the end of our faith is that we may be Disciples and Servants of the Lord Jesus advancing his Kingdom here and partaking of it hereafter since we are commanded to believe what Christ taught that it may appear as reasonable as it is necessary to do what he hath commanded since Faith and works are in order one to the other it is impossible that Evangelical Faith and Evangelical works should be opposed one to the other in the effecting of our Salvation So that as it is to no purpose for Christians to dispute whether we are justified by Faith or the works of the law that is the Covenant of works without the help of Faith and the auxiliaries and allowances of mercy on Gods part and repentance on ours because no Christian can pretend to this so it is perfectly foolish to dispute whether Christians are to be justified by Faith or the works of the Gospel for I shall make it appear that they are both the same thing No man disparages faith but he that sayes Faith does not work righteousness for he that sayes so sayes indeed it cannot justifie for he sayes that faith is alone it is faith only and the words of my Text are plain you see saith S. James that is it is evident to your sense it is as clear as an ocular demonstration that a man is justified by works and not by Faith only My Text hath it in these two

his Death so we shall be partakers of his Resurrection saith S. Paul that is then we are truly effectually and indeed justified Till than we are not He that loveth Gold shall not be justified saith the wise Bensirach he that is covetous let his faith be what it will shall not be accounted righteous before God because he is not so in himself and he is not so in Christ for he is not in Christ at all he hath no righteousness in himself and he ha●h none in Christ for if we be in Christ or if Christ be in us the body is dead by reason of sin and the Spirit is life because of righteousness For this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that faithful thing that is the faithfulness is manifested the Emun f●om whence comes Emunah which is the Hebrew word for Faith from whence Amen is deriv'd Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde hoc fidum est when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings Fac fidelis sis fideli cave fidem fluxam geras said he in the Comedy God is faithful be thou so too for if thou failest him thy faith hath failed thee Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrunque placitum sayes one and then it is true which the Prophet and the Apostle said the Just shall live by faith in both senses ex fide mea vivet ex fide sua we live by Gods Faith and by our own by his Fidelity and by ours When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees when the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit then we are justified by Gods truth and by ours by his Grace and our Obedience So that now we see that Justification and Sanctification cannot be distinguished but as words of Art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course they may be distinguished in notion and speculation but never when they are to pass on to material events for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified They are the express words of S. Paul Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son to be like to Christ and then it follows Whom he hath predestinated so predestinated them he hath also called and whom he hath called them he hath also justified and then it follows Whom he hath justified them he hath also glorified So that no man is justified that is so as to signifie Salvation but Sanctification must be precedent to it and that was my second consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which I was to prove 3. I pray consider that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel cannot pretend to Faith in Christ but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of Obedience And he that does not believe them as Christ made them believes them not at all In well doing commit your selves to God as unto a faithful Creator there is no committing our selves to God without well-doing For God will render to every man according to his deeds to them that obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality to them eternal life So that if faith apprehends any other promises it is illusion and not faith God gave us none such Christ purchased none such for us search the Bible over and you shall find none such But if faith layes hold on these promises that are and as they are then it becomes an Article of our faith that without obedience and a sincere endeavour to keep Gods Commandments no man living can be justified And therefore let us take heed when we magnifie the free Grace of God we do not exclude the conditions which this free Grace hath set upon us Christ freely died for us God pardons us freely in our first access to him we could never deserve pardon because when we need pardon we are enemies and have no good thing in us and he freely gives us of his Spirit and freely he enables us to obey him and for our little imperfect services he freely and bountifully will give us eternal life here is free Grace all the way and he overvalues his pitiful services who thinks that he deserves Heaven by them and that if he does his duty tolerably eternal life is not a free gift to him but a deserved reward Conscius est animus meus experientia testis Mystica quae retuli dogmata vera scio Non tamen idcirco scio me fore glorificandum Spes mea crux Christi gratia non opera It was the meditation of the wise Chancellor of Paris I know that without a good life and the fruits of repentance a sinner cannot be justified and therefore I must live well or I must dy for ever But if I do live holily I do not think that I deserve Heaven it is the cross of Christ that procures me grace it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto Glory But yet he that shall exclude the works of faith from the Justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ may as well exclude faith it self for faith it self is one of the works of God it is a good work so said Christ to them that asked him What shall we do to work the works of God Jesus said This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Faith is not only the Foundation of good works but it self is a good work it is not only the cause of obedience but a part of it it is not only as the Son of Sirach calls it initium adhaerendi Deo a beginning of cleaving unto God but it carries us on to the perfection of it Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and when Faith is finished a good life is made perfect in our kind Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise nor call for Gods fidelity without his own faithfulness nor snatch at a promi●e without performing the condition nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ and to do nothing else for that will but deceive us and turn Religion into words and holiness into hypocrisy and the promises of God into a snare and the truth of God into a ly For when God made a Covenant of faith he made also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law of Faith and when he admitted us to a Covenant of more mercy than was in the Covenant of works or of the law he did not admit us to a Covenant of idleness and incurious walking in a State of disobedience but the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance and when he gives us better promises he intends we should