Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	justification_n	justify_v	3,020	5	8.4033	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33720	A discourse of Christian religion, in sundry points preached at the merchants lecture in Broadstreet / by Thomas Cole ...	Cole, Thomas, 1627?-1697.	1692 (1692)	Wing C5029; ESTC R964	181,099	443

not but there may be matter of doubt among the Saints in heaven it self whether they be real Saints or no. 'T is the weakness and imperfection of things that casts them under a suspicion but when they shine out in their full beauty and glory there is no room for any objection Does any man question whether the Sun be risen at Noon-day If perfect Day will not pass for Day then there is no difference between Day and Night Light and Darkness must be all one 'T is not a right way to a setled peace of Conscience that some take who instead of an humble application to free Grace for the Pardon of sin do apply themselves to their own goods works considering how holy they have been how holy they are how holy they intend to be and all this in order to their Justification at last 't is a hard matter to keep men humble under such thoughts they will be glorying in the flesh and think themselves something when they are nothing To look for Justification by our own Holiness will prove an ineffectual motive unto Holiness either they are discouraged from the visible imperfection of their Holiness or else they grow remiss in it thinking that any thing will serve to justifie them since perfect Righteousness is not required such as they have must serve the turn rather then fail of eternal life any thing will do under the umbrage of it may be but a pretended sincerity a good meaning must answer for a bad life and on they go in their wonted evil course all is but imperfection and weakness and the Covenant of Grace not requiring perfection will bear with that and pass it by I confess there is Grace enough in the Gospel to Pardon all your sins but whether the best of you have good works enough to justifie your Persons you had best see to that I dare appeal to all your Consciences in point of experience whether you do not find your selves growing more holy and conscientiously strict in your walking with God under an humble dependance upon the Free Grace of God in Christ Jesus for the Pardon of all your sins than ever you did under your greatest endeavours to save your selves by your own works The Grace of God teaches to deny all ungodliness and nothing will effectually do it but that The great question among us this day about Justification is Whether our Good Works and Evangelical Righteousness have not some place in our Justification as con-causes or social causes having some partial influence at least that way I would propound two Expedients for Peace 1. Since the main point of difference is about the use of our Good Works at the day of Judgment when we shall be sententially justified or pronounced just by God I would have the decision of this left to that day for I fear we are not likely to agree sooner Then 't will appear that evidences of Faith are no cause of the Justification of our persons in the sight of God That will be resolved into pure Faith resting upon Christ for Righteousness and life 2. Since we cannot agree in the nature use and proper ends of Evangelical Righteousness let us more strictly intend the thing it self and labour every one of us to be more Evangelically holy and righteous in our lives and conversations Did we live more by Faith in Christ Jesus we should quickly see how all good works rise out of that Faith by which all true Believers are already justified All that An inomianism that the Orthodox Preachers of Free Grace are falsly charged with lies here Because they maintain and I hope ever will maintain that the first thing a convinced sinner is to eye in his turning to God is the Free Grace and Mercy of God in Christ for the Pardon of Sin Evangelical Conviction leads him to a reliance upon Christ in some degree of Saving Faith for the pardon of all his Sins and this Faith begets in him a secret hope of Pardon and is the spring of all after Sanctification viz. of Mortification of Sin of Repentance of all new Obedience Let this be remembred as the main thing we contend about that we begin our Religion at the Grace of God and not think to ground our Faith in Christ upon any legal preparations or works of our own We ought not to hold a convinced sinner one moment under Legal Terrors without making an offer of Grace in Christ to him I see not what should hinder a sinner under the height of Legal Conviction from hanging himself as Judas did I am sure a thorough Legal Conviction of Sin will sink any man into utter despair if Faith in Christ come not in immediately to his relief Indeed those who are but half convinced by the Law and know not the strict Spiritual sense of it may betake themselves to their works and duties and think to save themselves that way but this is so vain a thought I will not spend time to confute it you who have lived so long under the Light of the Gospel can answer that your selves Besides Pure Legal Convictions have a greater tendency to Despair than to Faith they naturally work despair but 't is the work of God a supernatural work of his Spirit that any under such Convictions are made to believe in Christ. The Conviction becomes Evangelical in all who believe and it is Faith makes it so Evangelical Conviction includes Legal Faith indeed pointing to Christ abates something of the Terror of the Law and by a clearer Gospel-light expounds the law into its true sense and meaning which no natural man can gather from the bare Letter of the Law and thus Faith by the Law lets us further into the knowledge of sin than the Law alone without the Gospel could ever do And this is that Faith we preach as the beginning of all true Conversion and the only spring of all true Holiness We cannot begin to lead a holy life till we first look unto Christ by Faith for the pardon of sin CHRIST THE Great Redeemer of Body and Soul 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's CHAP. I. FOR ye are bought with a price c. i. e. with the Price of the Blood of Christ who has redeemed us to himself and purchased an everlasting Right in and Dominion over our bodies and souls therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's Or thus Obs. The absolute Dominion that God has over us and the special right that he hath in us and to us not only as our Creator but as our Redeemer lays a strong Obligation upon us to glorifie God in our body and in our Spirit which are his 'T is fit that man should have the use of his own things what he has bought and paid for we stand much upon our Property would not have that invaded meum tuum

bear him out in this act then certainly we may safely rely upon this precious Blood for our Justification That which Justifies God in his act of Justifying a Believing sinner must needs be a sufficient cause of our Justification else it could not justifie God in his Justifying act there would be no equitable reason for it besides to say that the Blood of Christ is the only procuring Meritorious cause of our Justification i. e. of the acceptance of out Persons and Performances This is truth but not all the truth belonging to Justification For my next Query is What is it that gives us an interest in the Blood of Christ in the satisfaction he hath made for sin Here nothing must come in as instrumentally necessary to our receiving and applying Christ but Faith only Repentance and new Obedience are the effects of the Faith either they are the effects of Faith or of Unbelief None will say the latter then they must necessarily flow from the real interest that Faith gives us in Christ if not I don't see how we can attain to them At this rate they must be done in our own strength not in Christ's for being conditions as some say of our interest in Christ they must be performed before we can have an interest in him It is an excellent Note of Calvin in his Commentaries upon Rom. 8. 30. Whom he did predestinate them he called and whom he called them he justified c. Scimus enim ubi de salute agitur libenter homines à seipsis incipere fingeréque sibi praeparationes quibus Dei gratiam antevertant i. e. 'T is natural for men in the business of Salvation to begin at themselves fancying some preparatory Works by which they may prevent the Grace of God and do something for themselves in their own strength that may fit and qualifie them for an interest in Christ. In this rotten Principle do many begin their Religion which corrupts their minds ever after from the simplicity that is in Christ and puts them upon seeking Justification Not by Faith but as it were by the works of the law Rom. 9. 32. Supposing something in themselves to be the first cause of their acceptance with God I wish all who call themselves Calvinists would read that place and seriously consider the sense of that Holy man in this main point of our Religion Some through mistake have counted Luther an Antinomian but none call Calvin so 'T is good to be zealous in promoting practical Holiness and Gospel-Obedience but let us be sure it be Gospel-Obedience flowing from a principle of Faith in Christ Jesus For to Preach up Holiness from any other Principle then that of Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is not to Preach like Ministers of the New Testament Faith only is required in Justification rather than to it I so phrase it because they are simultaneus Repentance and New Obedience do follow Faith let them be kept in their due place and be allowed no causal concurrence unto our Justification and we shall avoid all confusion else there will be a fundamental difference between us while some hold that Faith only gives us an interest in Christ others that Repentance and New Obedience do equally with Faith give us an interest in Christ. Some carry it as if the end of Christ's coming into the world was only to set up a New Covenant of Works upon milder and easier terms of sincere imperfect Obedience which all men are to be exhorted to and urged to the performance of upon a supposed general sufficient Grace purchased by Christ enabling all men who do not wilfully refuse to come up to the terms of this New Covenant This Opinion hath many ill consequences in it viz. Of a General Redemption taking away Original sin restoring man to a freedom of will in doing good setting him upon his own legs again to stand or fall as he comes up to or falls short of the terms of this New conditional Covenant So that all is resolved into mans own power and will all being now put into an equal capacity of Salvation by Christ and having said this they have done with Christ have all in their own hands may set up for themselves and love to be put upon duty as persons sufficiently furnished for it already But notwithstanding this specious new scheme of rational Divinity as some call it I must in faithfulness to God to my own Conscience and the Souls of them that hear me tell you plainly That they who trust in a general Redemption will fall short of their particular Salvation upon the Principles that those Universalists go upon We are all by nature dead in trespasses and sins reprobate to every good Word and Work and shall so remain till we do by a particular personal act of our own Faith come to Christ for life that we may be quickned by his Spirit and made alive unto Righteousness We must have life before we can live or put forth any vital operations we must be first quickned by Christ the great quickning Spirit before we can live to God or do any thing that is Spiritually good 'T is Faith that unites us to Christ which is the gift of God to some for all men have not Faith and till this Faith comes by hearing the Gospel we are dead in sin Christ came not only as a Lawgiver to prescribe rules of living to dead sinners but to create in us a principle of life to give us strength to perform what he requires of us as new Creatures created in Christ Jesus unto good Works All our own endeavours after Holiness while we are out of Christ will prove ineffectual we must be first engrafted into the true Olive-Tree deriving all our fruitfulness from the root that bears us else we shall quickly wither away and come to nothing No acceptable service ever was or can be done by man till Faith brings us to Christ without whom we can do nothing when Faith comes life comes strength comes a Spiritual ability to do the will of God in some measure And as this Faith increases by the daily exercise of it so we increase in Spiritual strength perfecting Holiness more and more in the fear of God Let no man think to be made perfect in the flesh Christ came not to reform corrupt Nature but to destroy it and utterly to extirpate it the old man will never learn to lead a new life die he must and be Crucified he must be put off that we may put on the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4. 24. This is the only way to true Holiness here and to Eternal Happiness hereafter To as many as the Lord our God shall effectually call to this Faith to them and to them only doth the promise of Salvation by Christ belong 'T is the command of Christ that all should Believe on him they that do and they only shall be saved by him