Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	father_n	ghost_n	holy_a	5,369	5	5.6194	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92854	The humbled sinner resolved what he should do to be saved. Or Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the only way of salvation for sensible sinners. Discovering the quality, object, acts, seat, subject, inseparable concomitants and degrees of justifying faith. The agreement and difference of a strong and weak faith; the difficulty of beleeving, the facility of mistake about it, and the misery of unbelief. The nature of living by faith, and the improvement of it to a full assurance. Wherein several cases are resolved, and objections answered. / By Obadiah Sedgwick, Batchelour in Divinity and late minister of the Gospel in Covent Garden.	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.	1657 (1657)	Wing S2375; Thomason E900_1; ESTC R203520	234,690	315

from gilt and condemnation And thus is it for ought I can learn altogether used and sensed in the Scriptures which speak of our justification before God viz. for such an action of God whereby after the manner of a Judge he absolveth and acquitteth an accused person Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth verse 34. Who is he that condemneth where you have a manifest Antithesis or opposition 'twixt justification and condemnation now as condemnation is an action of the Judge a sentence of his pronouncing the person gilty and obnoxious so justification being contrary to it must import an action or sentence acquitting and absolving Yea and again as condemnation most improperly and abusively must be interpreted if we expound it to be a making of a man so and so sinful by infusion so is justification unrightly conceited when men make it to be a making of a person just by infusion of holinesse It is observed that in this kinde of justification viz. which is judicial There are foure persons as it were First the Agent One who begins the suit accuseth layeth such and such things to the charge of another the Apostle said it Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge c. Secondly the Patient the person accused and charged with default and offence and gilt Thirdly the Advocate who endeavours to vindicate the party so charged from the accusation either by declaring the innocency of the person or impleading satisfaction Fourthly the Judge who in justification of that person gives sentence for the person accused according to the valid plea of the Advocate and so absolveth him It is thus in the point of our justification there is Satan accusing and something else There is man accused of sinne and gilt there is Christ interposing and pleading as an advocate by his blood and righteousnesse and there is God as a Judge for Christs sake acquitting and absolving and pronouncing righteous and accepting to everlasting life So then the proper and punctual acception of the word justification is not according to infusion but according to absolution and pronunciation It is not Physical as when a man is made whole but it is judicial as when a man is cleared at the bar He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just they are both an abomination to the Lord Proverbs 17. 15. There is the word againe Not I trust to be expounded by way of infusion that is he who makes a wicked man a good man by impression of righteousnesse is an abomination to God but it is to be expounded by way of judiciary sentence that is he who pronounceth of a wicked man in the Court of Justice as if he were just and reputes him as so and accepts him as so This man is an abomination to the Lord. Now take one distinction and then I will to the nature of Justification There is a twofold Justification A twofold Justification One of the cause and this is a particular kinde of acquittance touching such and such things which are laid to a person perhaps sometimes very unjustly Secondly another of the person when he is throughly purged and absolved now in this respect we speak of justification which I think for the nature of it may be thus defined SECT II. JVstification of a sinner it is a gracious and just action of God whereby he imputing the righteousnesse of Christ to a believing sinner absolveth or acquitteth him from his sins and accepteth of him as righteous in Christ and as an heire of eternal life There are diverse things considerable in this description 3. Things in this description First Justification immediately belongs to God it is his action It is God that justifieth saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 33. And who can forgive sins but God only Luk. 5. 21. We well distinguish 'twixt officia and beneficia 'twixt duties and 'twixt blessings duties belong to us but blessings belong to God It is God who is offended and therefore condemnation and absolution belong to him to the Judge not to any other hence saith the Apostle God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe 2 Cor. 5. 19. not imputing their sin You do well to distinguish of the causes of our Justification There is first the prime cause the Author and this is God the Father who gave his only begotten Son for us and set him forth to be a propitiation for sinne through faith in his blood that all who do believe in him should be justified Rom. 3. 25. And who is the Judge absolving all that believe and pronouncing them just in Christ Secondly The meritorious cause so the Son of God our Mediator is said to justifie us both as our surety in paying our debt and laying down the full price of our redemption Isai 53. 11. thereby affording unto us the matter and merit of our Justification and as our Intercessor and Advocate pleading effectually for us that his merits may be imputed to us Hence is it Isai 53. 11. My righteous servant shall justifie many God the Father justifies as a Judge by way of prime authority and God the Son justifies as a Mediator The Son justifies as a surety paying our debt and giving satisfaction to the Father for us to the utmost and the Father justifieth us as a Creditor fully accepting of that price and satisfaction Thirdly The applying cause and thus the Holy Ghost may be said to justifie in asmuch as he conjoynes Christ and the soul by faith together whence ariseth a participation of the righteousnesse of Christ and the pardon of sin by him Once more distinguish of justification it may be taken two wayes either actively as a judiciary sentence absolving acquitting c. and so we say God justifieth Or Passively as a thing apprehended and rested on and so we say that Faith justifieth not as if faith did acquit but as it takes and receiveth the acquittance not as if faith did impute a righteousnesse but because it receiveth and resteth on the righteousnesse of Christ by God imputed to us now when we say that justification is an Action of God it is meet for you to understand somewhat of the kinde of this action For the actions of God are of different sorts Some which are produced within us and make a reall alteration 2. Sorts of actions and change in the soul of man thus sanctification is an action of God that is such an action of God as is altering the inward frame and qualities of the soul of unholy making them holy of unbelieving making them believing of hard making them soft of earthly making them heavenly c. Others are wrought for us but not in us and though they import a change of the condition and state of the person yet properly and formally they imprint no change in the inward disposition And thus Justification is an action of God not an action changing

acts of self-denial as in Abraham and his unstaggering embracing of a promise against which both reason and sense and nature might have disputed and urged O say they we have no faith Abrahams faith wrought full assurance removed all staggerings our hearts are still doubting we can hardly be perswaded we reel and stagger like the waves now on the shore and then instantly off now we beleeve anon we let go our hold and doubt And hence they uncomfortably conclude against their own souls the utter absence of faith from the defect of some particular and eminent expressions of faith not absolutely as faith but of faith as strong and exceedingly ripened we must not conclude negatively from the degrees to the habit As if one should conclude that he hath no silver in his purse because another hath a bank of many thousands or that he hath no legges to go because he is not so swift as Asahel or that the Sparrow flies not because he cannot mount up to the Sunne with the Eagle or that a child is no man because he cannot expresse the acts of a strong man 4. There are and will be many inward contrarieties to the intrinsecal acts and fruits of faith notwithstanding faith be truly in the soul and works there Faith though it hath the preheminence of other graces in respect of its office being the only Embassador as it were of the soul to Christ yet it hath no priviledge above them in respect of the subject that is in respect of the act and workings of it there but look as every other Grace hath some or other particular corruption opposite to its particular nature and its particular actings So even faith it self hath infidelity and unbelief opposing it both in the quality and in the several exercisings or actings of it There may be flame of the smoak and a hand with shaking and a tree trembling and a faith of doubting Yea if any grace hath the hardnesse of a more general and 〈◊〉 opposition then faith is it it being a grace of general 〈◊〉 and use to fetch in more grace and more strength against a●l sinne Now in our trials for faith it will be with us as with the Artificer in his search for the little raies of gold It 's true he sha●l finde much drosse here and there and yet if he can finde a very little peece of gold though amidst an heap of drosse he will say this is gold and will preciously esteeme of it and lay it up So when we are searching our hearts by the light of Gods Word for true faith without all doubt we shall meet with many doubtings much unbelief yet if we can finde any one degree of true faith which is more precious then gold we may not cast it away because it is found amongst its contraries but we must cherish and embrace it because the touchstone of the Word hath approved it to be a precious faith For and mark this we are not able to give you any evidences of faith or any other grace by way of abstraction but by way of existence that is not what may discover faith in a notional and the most singularly conceivable profession of it but such testimonies you have to discover faith as faith is now abiding in sinful persons who though they may have true faith yet as long as they live in earth will have many things in them contrary to faith There is a double contrariety to faith A double contrariety One is natural and this more or lesse will be in the soul of any beleeving person tell you can utterly raise the heart and eject sinne by the alteration of glory So long as we have flesh and spirit there will be a confl●cting 'twixt faith and unbelief As there was a mixtu●e of joy and sorrow at the erecting of the Temple Another is approved when a man neither doth nor will beleeve he neither doth accept of Christ nor will he have Christ to reigne over him and he likes his unbeleeving condition this is a fearful estate But though the contraries to faith do arise yet if they be not approved yet if they be resisted we must not conclude that we have no faith because of the opposition but rather assure our selves that we have it because of the resistance of that opposition We must not conclude against faith because of opposition inward or outward This inequality of acts conclude not an absence of the habit of faith Distinguish of 1. Radical habits 2. Actual exercisings which are sometimes more sometimes lesse sometimes clear sometimes interrupted sometimes the soul is free sometimes oppressed and violently carried by temptation to misjudge the condition The censure of our faith must not be allowed as is given in the time of our temptation and passion c. I said in my haste Psalme 116. Obj. But you will say we grant all this But how may a man know that his faith in Jesus Christ is a true and lively faith Sol. I answer SECT II. FIrst A true love of Christ is an infallible and essential evidence of a true faith in Christ There are foure things which will clear this as a lively testimony 4. Things of true faith If we can prove First that love is not separated from faith Secondly that there is no beleever in any degrees of faith but he hath a love of Christ Thirdly That there is no time or circumstance into which the beleeving soul is cast but still he loves Christ Fourthly that no unbeleeving heart can and doth love Christ I say if we can prove these foure conclusions then it will be most evident and certaine that the love of Christ is an infallible Argument or Testimony of a true faith in Christ Thus then 1. Love is not separated from faith If you peruse the Scripture you shall finde them go hand in hand Gal. 5. 6. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcission availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which works by love that is Christ is not mine because I am a Jew nor is he mine because I am a Gentile but he is mine because I am a Beleever and if my Faith in him be true it will expresse it self by love I Thes 1. 3. Your work of faith and labour of love in our Lord Jesus Christ Faith and love are like a warm hand faith is the hand and love is the warmth in it faith cannot be the hand to take Christ but love will be the warmth to heat our affections unto Christ 1 Tim. 1. 14. The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Ghrist Jesus Faith and love are like the husband and the wife and faith and love are like the mother and the daughter See 2 Tim. 1. 13. and Phil. 5. And indeed it stands with unanswerable reason that faith and love cannot be divided for as much as faith in Christ First represents the absolute and effectual cause of love to Christ

It doth see such a measure of goodnesse and mercy from God through Christ and such a height and depth and breadth of love to us in Christ and such an excellency of holy perfections and amiablenesse in Christ which drawes the soul with strong affections of love to Christ againe Secondly if faith might be without love then a person in Christ might be Anathema-maranatha forasmuch as he who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ is c. but it is a monstrous wickednesse to conceive that a beleever in Christ should be so Secondly there is no believer in any degree of faith but he hath a love of Christ The weak Christian as well as the strong the plant as well as the cedar The Father of a child who cryed out I believe help my unbelief as well as Abraham the father of the faithful Though one Christian may produce some testimonies which another cannot though every one cannot say with Paul I am fully perswaded yet every one can say with Peter when Christ demanded of him Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me Joh. 21. 17. He said unto him Lord thou Knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Yea thirdly whatsoever straits the believing soul is cast into when it is in death in flames for Christ yet it can love Christ when it is under the crowd of temptations when it is in the bitter dayes of desertion When the Skirmish of reasonings do prevaile upon the soul so highly and strongly that the heart is ready to conclude against it self that God looks not on it Christ will not be mine yet even then however I love the Lord Jesus Christ I love him though I can see no sensible testimony of love from him my heart is still towards him he is my Center and Loadstone No meerly unbelieving person can love the Lord Jesus Christ For what is love Love you know it is the setling and transplanting of the heart It is such an affection as knits the soule to Christ but it is impossible that this should be whiles the heart hath no faith So then love of Christ is an infallible testimony of faith in Christ But you will say this is strange that love of Christ should be so Obj. lively and so distinguishing a testimony of true faith why doth not many a man yea every man professe that he loves Christ Beloved What men professe is one thing and what they Sol. affect and love may be another thing the semblance of love is a thing distinct from the sincere affection of love If your love be true and sincere never question the matter any further assuredly thy faith is right But this is the doubt this is it we question as much as the former Obj. whether we truly love Christ or no. A word to it and so an end of that triall If the love be true Sol. which is to Christ Then It will bestow our hearts on Christ only Nothing is too good for him whom we heartily love in true love the heart is in him who is loved and not in him who loves Anima est ubi amat non ubi animat and which way the heart goes all shall go that way It pitches on the person of Christ Love is base if it be 'twixt person and estate but pure love is 'twixt person and person I confesse that a wicked man an unbelieving person may have a tooth at the portion of Christ he may marvelously desire the merits of Christ pardon of sin exemption from hell but faith is it which drawes out such a love as makes the soul to admire it and to cleave unto the person of Christ It is sincere and conjugall It is not an adulterous love which is divided amongst several Paramours O no True love of Christ knowes no husband but Christ and no Lord but Christ he is the covering of our eyes SECT III. A Second trial of our true faith in Christ Jesus is this inward change and sanctity of the heart is an infallible testimony of a living faith Divines distinguish of a common faith and of a special faith and according to their nature so are their effects a common faith may elevate the minde to singular apprehensions notable expressions outward conformities in matters either not difficult or dangerous But special faith hath a distinguishing operation it works that which no false or pretensive faith can What 's that This is it it doth change the heart and is ever a companion with inward holinesse There be three things which I will shew you about 3. Things this First that true faith doth produce a change there is a twofold change 1. One of the condition which is when a man once in the state of death is now passed over to the state of life once in the termes of condemnation is now translated to the state of absolution and this change faith findes for us in Iesus Christ the imputation of whose righteousnesse in justification changeth the state so that our guilty debts are taken off and we are reconciled Secondly which is of the person and this change is the alteration of a mans nature for faith is not only a justifying grace but it is also a sanctifying grace Hence these phrases Acts. 15. 9. purifying their hearts by faith Acts 26. 18. that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ. As the blood of Christ is a pure blood as well as a precious blood and as it is a clensing blood as well as an expiating blood so faith is a grace not only to acquit but also to purge and renew It is not onely an entitleing grace that is that grace which doth interest us into Christ and his benefits but it is also a conforming grace that is such a grace as works into us the vertues and holy qualities of Christ And therefore you read that it doth engraffe us into the similitude of his death Ro. 8. and into the fellowship of his sufferings and resurrection Phil. 3. 10. Secondly observe that every believer hath a changed and a holy heart 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ and you know that it is faith which unites to Christ and plants us into him he is a new creature that is that a man is altered in his inward frame in his faculties in his inclinations all over There is a change either in the cessation of some particular actions which an unbeliever may attaine and there is a change in the newnesse of nature when the soul is turned and biassed and enclined quite another way I confesse the Apostle doth not say if any man be in Christ he is a strong creature yet he saith he is a new creature for though every believer hath not that maturity and ripenesse and strength yet he hath a newnesse in his nature an holy change wrought in him throughout Look as the first Adam derived guilt and corruption to his posterity