Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	grace_n	life_n	sin_n	2,939	5	4.9686	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34850	Vindiciæ veritatis, or, A confutation [...] the heresies and gross errours asserted by Thomas Collier in his additinal word to his body of divinity written by Nehemiah Coxe ...	Coxe, Nehemiah.	1677 (1677)	Wing C6719; ESTC R37684	130,052	153

not contend add thereunto the close of the verse now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it From hence we may safely infer That if any man differ from another or from what he was in himself before that is to say be raised from a state of death in sins and trespasses unto newness of life delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of Gods love it is God hath made this difference to the praise of the riches of his Grace And thus much Mr. C. in answer to the objection grants It is God by Gospel Grace makes us to diffe● But if Mr. Colliers notion elsewhere be true that amongst men that receive every way as much Grace from God the one as the other some believe unto life others remain in their sins it will necessarily follow that those of them which choose the better part do make themselves to differ and have cause of boasting if not before God yet in comparison with other men And this is in terms denied by the Apostle And Mr. C. makes no reply thereto but what hath now been oft mentioned and answered and therefore I will not trouble the Reader with a repetition of it The Text that remains to be insisted on is Phil. 2. 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his g●od pleasure That this Scripture is directly opposite to Mr. Collier● Doctrine is evident In the foregoing Verse he exhorts the Philippians to work out their own Salvation with fear and trembling By working out their Salvation he intends labouring for or bestowing their utmost industry to obtain Salvation and according to this sense is the same word rendred Joh. 6. 27. Labour not for the meat that perisheth c. Now hereunto two things are required 1. A principle enabling and disposing them to walk humbly with God in Faith and Obedience 2. The exercise thereof Dr. O' s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 496. which is referred unto the internal acts of the will and external operations in duties suitable thereunto And as we have before proved that Grace is wrought in us by the spirit of God so the Apostle here expresly affirms that both to will and to do which expressions take in the whole of its exercise is also effectually wrought in us by him of his own good pleasure which is the most prevailing argument and motive to an humble walking with God and encouragement thereto He that reads Mr. Colliers Gloss upon this Text p. 43. will find him constrained almost to embrace that notion of it that doth evert his opinion and all that he offers towards the salving of it is in these words To understand it to intend Gods working an impulsive will and that they could not or should not work without it destroys the exhortation and makes null the duty What Mr. C. intends by an impulsive will or whe●her there be any good sense in those terms we need 〈◊〉 inquire That God worketh in us to will or the very act of willing the Text is express And it hath been already manifested to be his great errour to conceive That nothing is required of us in a way of duty but what in our lapsed state we are able to perform without the help of Gods spirit And therefore it is fallaciously done of him to join those terms together as if they were of equal extent that they could not or should not work without it It was their indispensible duty to obey the exhortation foregoing but this they could not do without the effectual working of God in them And there is not more frequent mention of any one thing in the Gospel it being that wherein Gospel Grace doth eminently shine forth then of our receiving Grace from God to enable us to yield to him that Obedience which he requires of us Pious therefore and well grounded was the petition of that worthy opposer of the Pelagians of Old Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis Give me O Lord what thou requirest of me and command what thou pleasest Indeed to deny that we receive any thing from god in a way of special and distinguishing Grace that is required of us in a way of duty is flatly to reject the Gospel and to deny the Grace of the New Covenant We do not then destroy the exhortation and make null the duty but instruct men which way they may expect and receive Grace to obey it in the performance of their duty which is certainly a great quickening and incouragement thereto unto all that have an humble sense of their concernment in these things I shall now return to Mr. C. p. 34. where he propounds another Question Does the spirit in the Gospel where it comes work in all alike or may we suppose that he effects a more special work in some then in others In answer hereunto he first tells us That this is a mystery known only to God and then immediately proceeds to give an account of very different operations of the holy Ghost upon the Children of men as 1. Some are convinced but not converted 2. Others are wrought so far by the same word and spirit as to believe and obey the Gospel so as if they continue therein they shall be saved Col. ● 21 22 23. 1 Tim. 2. 15. Mat. 10. 22. 3. Though the work be sufficient by which all might obtain the end yet he worketh differingly and giveth differing measures for differing ends c. 4. His work on the special Elect is certain and shall not leave them untill it bring them to Glory Here we have another instance of the mans contradiction to himself as well as unto truth But to these things I say It is indeed certain from the Scriptures that many are convinced who never are converted by the spirit of God and also that the convictions of some proceed so far as that they escape the pollutions that are in the world through Lust 2 Pet. 2. 20. pass under that work described Heb. 6. 4 5 6. and yet fail of those things that accompany salvation which are things better then all that was before mentioned Such with respect to their profession and general assent to the truth of the Gospel c. are said to believe for a time And perseverance being the great touch-stone of sincerity the interest of persons in Christ is oft referred thereto with respect to the manifestation and proof thereof So in Heb. 3. 6. and those Texts cited by Mr. C. If persons hold fast their rejoycing of hope and confidence stedfast unto the end it is evident they were sincere and that their Faith was of the right kind in that it proves victorious against all opposition made thereto But if they draw back and fall away their Hypocrisie is detected and it is made man●fest that they were not of us For if they had been of us no doubt

All men are born into the world with sinful nature● now this defilement of our natures though sinful no man can help therefore it is not their sin but their affliction Here is a sinful nature a sinful defilement of nature and yet no sin but an affliction only Let such confusion be the ●ot of all that oppose Gods sacred truth Can the nature of man be defiled and sinful and yet he not a sinner yea but no man can help it therefore it is not their sin I answer This defilement of humane nature came by that sin that man might not have committed he might have helped it if he would Yea moreover Original sin is habitually in the Will as the subject thereof as well as other faculties of the Soul and therefore is voluntary and every particular person is to be accounted and truly is the immediate principle as well as the subject the Author as well as the possessor of his own individual Original sin or corruption of nature even as a man is of his natural faculties or acquired habits or as Adam himself was of ●his Original Sickness or Disease in his own person as the Learned Voetius asserts in his first Book of Select Disputations p. 1105. And it is by reason of this defilement of nature that we are by nature the Children of wrath which could not be if it were not our sin Eph. 2. 3. And on this ground the Lord Christ asserts the necessity of regeneration and that without it none can see the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 5 6 7. Mr. C saith farther And cause we have to bewail it as our affliction but not as our sin so the Apostle doth Rom. 7. 24. It is consenting to it which is the sin v. 15 16 Jam. 1. 14 15. when persons consent to covetous and worldly lusts to proud envious and disobedient lusts this is the sin that will usher in the second death Original guilt and stain only brings under the first death but not not the second as distinct from consent Original sin may be considered either in the unregenerate in whom it reigns and is wholly unmortified or as remaining in the regenerate though mortified and spoiled of its reigning power The unregenerate are under the power thereof in all the faculties of their Souls It is blindness and vanity in their minds hatred of God and obstinacy in their wills c. and they are content to be commanded by this principle and the first moral acting of the Soul is influenced thereby Psal 58. 3. and in them the lustings of the flesh are never resisted from any true hatred of their sinfulness though on other accounts as they are apprehended destructive to themselves one way or other they may be so in some particular actings thereof But in the regenerate there is a contrary principle even the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus that sets them free from the Law of sin and death so that they obey not the flesh in the Lusts thereof and these as they are by the power of the spirit of Grace delivered from the service of sin so are they also by the efficacy of Christs bloud saved from the condemning power thereof There is no condemnation to them Rom. 8. 1. But it is not because in-dwelling sin deserves none But because Jesus sa●eth them from the wrath to come Now such an one is personated by Paul Rom. 7. unto whom all sin is an afflicting burthen and the lustings of in-dwelling sin which w●re opposed by the new Creature he complains of as his greatest affliction b●t not as his affliction only as outward trouble and persecution was but as his sin also Nay therefore it was his affliction because his sin and so he calls it about ten times in that Chapter and as such bitterly bewails it L●t the Text be consulted for proof hereof In me saith he that is in my flesh in me so far as not renewed by Grace dwells no good thing Now sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ● privation of that Good and Holiness that the Law requires and this saith the Apostle is in me and yet Mr. C. supposeth he acknowledgeth no sin but this may be in a rational Creature and he not a sinner Yea the Apostle confesseth that he was greatly hindered in his duty by the working of his corruption and at last flies to Christ for deliverance therefrom and yet shall we say he owneth no fault all this while As for Jam. 1. 14 15. The evident scope of the Apostle is not to teach men to justifie the wicked lustings of their hearts as Mr. C. doth but to prove that the spring of all the wickedness of man is in his own Breast and it will be in vain for him to think of shifting off the blame to any other It is granted indeed that the Apostle saith Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin and that this conceiving of sin is by the consent of the will agreeing to the Commission thereof but by sin here it is evident that actual transgression is intended and what saith the Apostle of this Lust verily That it tempteth draweth away the Soul from God and enticeth it to sin and that it worketh thus as a principle in the Soul it is a mans own lust Shall we then suppose actual transgression to be a sin and the working of that principle in a mar that disposeth to it not to be so Hath God no regard to the hearts and principles of men and the habits of their Souls do not they come under his Law or is not the habit of Grace Grace as well as the exercise thereof and a man denominated Gracious therefrom and here ●ppositorum par rati● In plain terms to suppose the lustings of a corrupt heart after all wickedness is no harm unless they be fully consented to is impious As to that which he adds concerning Infants and Idiots To suppose them no way concerned in sin as he doth and so well enough without Christ is like the rest of his Doctrine This I say because the Scripture saith it which declares all to be under sin even those that have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression viz. actually and all sin to deserve wrath That neither Infants nor Idiots can stand before God without a Mediator They have sin enough to damn them but there is Grace enough in God and Merit enough in the bloud of Christ to save them unto which and not their own innocency they must be beholding for salvation The 5th thing he insists on to prove his opinion is Gods expostulating with men to convince them of the equality of his ways That the ways of God towards the Sons of men are full of Equity and Grace is evident from what I have already proved in opposition to his errours and to his harangue about it I shall only say There is no need for him to speak wickedly for God His righteousness is