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	lord_n	see_v	4,192	5	3.2926	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45149	Peace at Pinners-Hall wish'd, and attempted in a pacifick paper touching the universality of redemption, the conditionality of the covenant of grace, and our freedom from the law of works upon occasion of a sermon ... / by a lover of truth and accommodation.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1692 (1692)	Wing H3700; ESTC R5169	19,418	34

that can be produced for an Evidence of thy sincerity it will be accepted he will plead it for us and be sure not to forget it We know Sir that Sathan will plead against us but Christ for us He will bring the Law Christ the Gospel He will say we have sinned against Law and Gospel But He that pleads for us will distinguish of sinning against the Gospel sub ratione Officii Conditionis between the Duty of the Gospel and the Condition of the Gospel He will make it appear that though we have failed in our Duty we have not failed in the Condition Though we have sinned against the Gosspel in regard to this and that particular precept we shall be cleared from the accusation of Non-performance of the Condition In order to this and above all I am perswaded of so fair a Tryal before God in that day of the declaration of his righteous judgment the like whereof was never in this Earth that God who is so infinitely good and wise as he is will consider every one of us with grains of allowance proportionable to our several tempers conditions temptations so that that shall be found sincerity in some persons which they could not find in their hearts to think till they come to know it with Everlasting joy And seeing it is according to Grace a Law of Grace that we are to be judged who can tell the extent of this Grace Who shall set bounds to Gods infinite and free Grace Of all Points in Casuistical Divinity there is not one of more near importance to a Christian than to be solidly informed what to do or how to live and support the soul under the case when it hath examin'd it self and is in conflict and doubt whether it be in a State of Grace which is all one as whether we be sincere or not They that are light Christians do often talk of their assurance when the more weighty Christians are ready to droop and hang the head as the ears of corn do that are fullest A very Hypocrite John Bradford There are two Conclusions therefore I will come to One is that it is God and God alone knows the heart and can judge of mans integrity It is God alone both in opposition to any other and to a mans own self I know nothing by my self yet am I not thereby justified Again we do know some things by our selves but God alone can lay all things together The other is that in the grand case the great tender case wherein or under which so many the most serious among Christians do pant to wit this case of fear or doubt whether we be sincere or not the way for a gracious Soul to take as the safest unless it hath reached to an higher attainment I mean that it may neither presume dangerously nor despond but maintain it self in some equal state or quiet of mind which is warrantably good is with David to make its appeal unto God Try me O Lord search me if there be any wicked way in me any such as is incontent with sincerity and commit his cause unto Him The Lord is my portion saith my Soul and therefore will I hope in him It is good for a man that he should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord. We must leave it to him or there is no end We go to a good God On one hand if with the Pharisee we justify our selves God may condemn us If we condemn our selves with the Publican he may acquit us If we would judge our selves we should not be judged And what then remaines Behold we are at Gods bar and we commit our cause unto our Judge God's bar is a bar or throne of Grace I will cast my self on his Grace And God send us a good deliverance at the Great day SIR BEfore I go off I must needs return a little again to the occasion of this Letter One thing I must hint more as to the General Pardon I speak of above There is a certain term used still by our Divines which does cloud the light I have offer'd and that is the term Actual We usually distinguish thus between Conditional and Actual pardon A Conditional pardon we say is obtained indeed for all but an Actual pardon for none but the present truly penitent believer We should here use another term and instead of Actual say Absolute The truth is let me say as the thing is there is a Pardon and Actual pardon being a Pardon passed long since an Act of Grace a standing Pardon an actually standing Pardon and that Vniversal But this Actual standing Pardon being a Pardon upon Condition it is I must say a Pardon Absolutely made good to no Particular person but upon the condition performed When the condition is performed it is then made to the performer a Compleat Absolute Pardon This is the Fundamental understanding of the point discoursed I will fill what I have said with one Notion of Dr. Davenants which I take to be rare and fit to be noted being also clear and of use Res sub conditione promissa aliquot modo ad eos spectat qui conditionem nunquam implent nimirum quoad jus vendicandi promissum beneficium si implevissent De Morte Christi There are two or three things yet lyes upon my hands by way of surplusage not only as pertinent but even necessary to be added to what is spoken One of them is this From the Vniversality of Redemption there does arise a Government of Grace which God has over the World that is a Government by the Law of Grace which Christ hath purchased as the Instrument of that Government whereby Salvation is made possible to all Mankind or whereby Pardon and Life are made attainable by all men on a Possible Condition If you ask me what that is wherein this Possibility is placed this I perceive is a hard question made but I shall answer easily It is to be placed in the Lowering the Condition to the capacity of all persons having the power and use of their natural faculties so that whosoever he be that lives up sincerely to the light that he has shall be saved * If any be offended at my asserting the possibility of a Heathens Salvation I pray him to look into a book called Peaceable Disquisitions where there is one sheet de industria from p. 55. to 67 upon that Argument and if he be not convinced by it let him but fairly present the whole and answer it and he shall start a generous subject and innocent to exercise the wits of the age Such is the Law of Grace I say purchased by Christ by which we are Governed and shall be Judged that whosoever lives up to the light or means which he has in sincerity shall be saved by it I will add whosoever does but what he can in order to his Salvation is Sincere and Consequently the Condition must be Possible But seeing no

is some distinction must be made here so that mediately indirectly or some way by way of Redundacy such blessings even as these are the benefits of Christs Redemption to such and such particular persons let that distinction be formed right and in such a sense will the condition we speak of be a fruit hereof to the Elect even by its redundant merit and value The purchase Christ made was a purchase for us and for himself His purchase for us was that we should be pardoned upon Condition He purchased for himself a power to give us that condition that our pardon may be compleat All power is committed to me in Heaven and Earth faith Christ after he was risen There is accordingly a Redemption by price our Divines say and by power Pardon upon condition is the fruit of his Redemption by price But the Condition is the Effect of his Redemption by power When by his Death I say he had paid the price of a pardon for All upon Condition by his Resurrection he receives power to conferr the condition to whom he pleases that is the Elect which when they perform they are justified or have absolute right in it And that may be a good resolution as to the sense of that Text He was delivered for our sins and raised again for our justification To make the matter though more plain we have that Text in the Acts. Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Repentance we see and so faith comes from this power the power of Christ as a King rather than as a Priest and if as a Priest both 't is by vertue of his Intercession as he is at Gods right hand rather than of his Oblation Now Christ intercedes for nothing but according to Gods Will His will is his Decree and it is from the decree his decree of Election that our faith and repentance does come It is not from Christs purchase by price it is not from the power of our free will but it is from Election which belongs to God not as Rector but as Lord of his own gifts working the same effectually in us It is out of this Treasury Christ gives it And not by virtue of a right to any from his death but by the power of an endless life Not as Testator but as the Executor or Dispenser of his Fathers Election In fine Christ by his death did merit or procure this power that he hath at God rights hand By this power he gives us Repentance and Faith Faith and Repentance then is not the fruit of Christs death any otherwise than mediately or indirectly as being derived from this power which he obtained by it God I again say for the merit of Christs life and death exalts him to the power mentioned Wherefore God hath highly exalted him By this power or as exalted Christ gives his Spirit to work Faith and Repentance in whom he chooses or hath chosen By this work they are regenerated and that Article in the Agreement or Covenant as some call it between Father and Son When thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed is made good to him In this way about then and no other does Faith and Repentance come to the Elect by his death when the direct and immediate fruit of it is Vniversal That is Faith and Repentance the Condition is the fruit of Christs death as all other Blessings are which are asked of God for Christ's merits sake or which he as Prince and Saviour bestows on his people Whereas now it pleased the Gentleman to tell me That he never heard any Divine say in the Pulpit that which I said If he will understand me right I will take it for a Commendation rather than disparagement seeing it does import that what these Moderate Divines do generally say in the Substance was so deliver'd by me by way of Cultivation as did make some impression upon him as if it had been new rare or singular altogether That which I delivered in effect was indeed only this That Christ hath procured for the World a General Pardon But there is none have Benefit by it but he that believes and repents If I had called this a Vniversal conditional Remission and said no more which is the same whole thing he had not perhaps been surprized and I could as easily have said so but to speak as I did was better as fitted to my pacificatory end This is what I said I gave it light from the consideration of a Pardon by Act of Parliament A Pardon is agreed on by the King and the two Houses the People know nothing of it and do nothing to the obtaining it and the Pardon is General Nevertheless if any come to have the benefit by this Pardon he must look into the Act and see how it runs he must see what Qualifications it requires and if he does or will not qualify himself according to to the Act he loses the benefit It is so in this Act of Grace or Pardon for the world It is an Act of Grace I say perfectly free to man No man does or can do any thing to pacify God or merit the same It is all from the Agreement between Father and Son that Christ should fulfill the Law and by suffering also satisfy for our sins and the Pardon thereby be granted in our behalf while man does nothing himself by way of Cause I must say Condition or Active Occasion thereunto and here do I bring off those that say this Act Law or Covenant of Grace is without condition which in this sense we all see is really so And yet when any man comes in particular for benefit by this Pardon Act of Grace Grant Law Covenant Testament for this Grant of Pardon obtained by Christ the Covenant or Testament of Christ which is his Will bequeathing what he hath purchased upon his own terms are all we must know but the same thing he must read the Act and see how it is passed or read over the Will and see how it is made he must go to the Rowl which is the Word of God It was decreed from Eternity it passed at Christs death it was inrolled in Gods Words and promulgated by the Ministers of it and there he will find that God requires of every man to Believe Repent and walk sincerely before him in order to have the Benefit and that unless he Believes and Repents he is to have none by it And by this do I justifie those also of our Divines which are the Generality who say this Act Law or Covenant of Grace hath Conditions And when thus much will be acknowledged on both sides to wit That it is the sound Believer only or sincere Convert that is pardoned Absolutely so as to be Saved you have a way chalked out for Reconciliation of our Brethren at least so far as I drive to wit That Conscientious