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	merit_n	work_n	2,584	5	6.2801	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54202	Reason against railing, and truth against fiction being an answer to those two late pamphlets intituled A dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker, and the Continuation of the dialogue &c. by one Thomas Hicks, an Anabaptist teacher : by W. Penn.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1673 (1673)	Wing P1351; ESTC R25209	131,073	243

the value of a Thousand Pounds whilst he is not really or personally worth a Groat from the Imputation of another who has it all in his Poss●ssion Dangerous because it begets a confident Pe●swasion in many People of their being Justified ● whilst in Captivity to those Lusts whose Reward is Condemnation whence came that usual Saying amongst many Professors of Religion That God looks not on them as they are in Themselves but as they are in Christ not considering that none can be in Christ who are not New Creatures which those cannot be reputed who have not disrobed themselves of their old Garments but are still immantled with the Corruptions of the Old Man In all which I see nothing Unsober or Unsound But he thinks he has caught me fast in my Caveat against Popery where in distinguishing betwixt Grace and Merit I say Grace is a Free Gift requiring nothing and now ask sayes he was not Abraham Justified by Works and that Good Works may be said to procure deserve or obtain Apol. 198. Is this writ like an Infallible Dictator Thus far T.H. There is an old Proverb That some love the Treason but hate the Traitor No Man that writes rants it more imperiously then Tho. Hicks It is hard to say whether his Dishonesty or his Impudence be the greater I think I never used Tho. Hicks so ill or any of his Way as to deserve so many Scoffing Taunts Base Detractions and Down-right Scurrilities from his hand But let that pass To the Point Hear what I have said in the Caveat p. 12. Grace and Merit as stated by Calvinists and Papists are taken for Faith without Works and Works without Faith like the two Poles Doctrines the most opposite Now Rewardableness is neither but something in the middle and indeed the most true for Grace is a Free Gift requiring nothing Merit is a Work proportionable to the Wages Rewardableness is a Work without which God will not bestow his Favour and yet not the Meritorious Cause for that there is no Proportion betwixt the Work that is finite and temporary and the Reward which is infinite and eternal in which sense both the Creature obeyes the Commands of God and does not Merit but Obtain only and God rewards the Creature and yet so as that he freely gives too Now what Contradiction is there in all this I plainly distinguish the Word Merit in the strictest Acceptation of it from that which is truly Scriptural respecting us at least That I did not mention Merit in my Sandy Foundation Shaken the Book proves Is there no Difference between obtaining the Justifying Presence of God by the Fruits of the Spirit in our Heart and Lives and strictly meriting his Acceptance of us by Works and those of our own making too as what T.H. doth wickedl● suggest I say Abraham was justified in offering up his Son because he had been condemned if he had disobeyed But sayes T. Hicks He was Justified before And why was not his whole Life mention'd to his Justification But I must tell T.H. that as among Men the Will is taken for the Deed so the Lord finding Abraham right in his Heart that he believed and would obey he was as much justified therein as if he had actually done it We have cause to believe T. Hicks never knew what the Consequence of that working Faith and offering up an Isaac to God is Nor was it needful to recite the whole of his Life Measures are frequently taken by some eminent Tryal If he was accepted in that Obedience being the Condition where that was before he was before accepted no doubt But sayes he see the Caveat p. 12. and Apol. p. 198. How do they agree Truly very well For Grace is Free requiring nothing How Nothing at all By no means How then is it free Grace is free because it was the good Pleasure of God both to give Remission of Sins and Eternal Life to as many as should Repent Believe and Obey to the End and thereby come to be conformed to the Image of his Son But may T. Hicks say Is Repenting nothing Believing nothing Obeying nothing No T.H. not one jot of Merit in all that It is the great Grace of God to give us Eternal Life upon so small Conditions They obtain it but that is God's good Pleasure and no Purchase therefore Grace still All that is our Duty the Reward is Free God giveth it but chuses a Way by which to do it If T.H. will understand Grace as my Caveat condemns it I cannot help that sure I am I never writ such Doctrine as my Faith and therefore no Contradiction to my self whatever it may be to him But sayes he Your Apology speaks that good Works may be said to procure deserve or obtain c. My Apology as my self and other Books are not Apology enough for me and my Friends against such Envious Perverters as T.H. though I doubt not but they may be effectually such with more moderate Persons thus it speaks The Word Merit so much snarled at allows a two-fold Signification the First a Proportion or Equali●y betwixt the Work and Wages which is the strictest sense and that which he S. Fisher least of all intended The Second something that may be said to procure AND IN SOME SENSE to deserve or obtain and so good Works do since without them there is no Acceptance with God nor Title to Eternal Life Where it is observable how basely he has left out both my absolute Denyal of the strict Sense of the Word MERIT and those qualifying and distinguishing Words which come after Procure and before Deserve namely AND IN SOME SENSE to deserve or obtain with the last Clause Certain it is that whatever sense I had T. Hicks took me in the worst he could invent yea in that very sense which all along I have most particularly refused and condemned A Baseness and piece of Forgery unworthy of any Man pretending to Good Conscience But he proceeds still much after the same manner he would have People believe That we assert the Ground of our Rejoycing and Acceptance to be not in and from the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us by Faith where observe that WHOLELY WITHOUT US is omitted to render us Denyers of Christ's Righteousness in any sense but only in a Righteousness inherent in us and done by us Which great Untruth he gives the Lye to in his own Book But because he pretends to fetch this out of my S.F. Shaken p 27. let 's hear what I have said But let every Man prove his own Work and then shall he have Rejo●cing in himself alone and not in another Be not deceived for whatsoever a Man soweth that shall he reap If Rejoycing and Acceptance with God or the contrary are to be reaped from the Work that a Man soweth either to the Flesh or to the Spirit then is the Doctrine of Acceptance and Ground of Rejo●cing from the

though such Vngodly Persons partake not of his Holy Life and Power neither are subject unto his Government 6. From our affirming God's Promise made good that he would be the Teacher of his People and Directing People to God's Light in them as the Gospel-Instruction to the Way of Life He wickedly infers against us yet as our Meaning that we deny all Ministry all Visible Worship c. though they stand in God's Power and Spirit Dial. p. 41 43 A thing never believed nor intended 7. When we speak of Christ's Manhood or Christ's Visible Appearance and when we speak of his Eternal Godhead or as he is now to his Saints People saying he was never as such Visible to Wicked Men. He is not ashamed to tell the World in our Name that Christ was never Visible to Wicked Men as to that Bodily Appearance and therefore that we deny any such Appearance at all Cont. p. 37 40 41. 8. From our Believing Christ to be in his People according to express Scripture and our asserting that as such he is Crucified by Wicked Men. He infers that we deny Christ to be as well without as within not that he was ever Crucified in the Flesh Dial. p. 44. Oh Wicked Man 9. From our Denyal of their rigid Satisfaction that is that Christ was punished by his Father for our Sin and that Sins past present and to come are answer'd for and that Men may be Holy in Christ by Virtue thereof whilst not New but Old Creatures and so Unholy in themselves their Consciences not being Purged from dead Works He unworthily concludes that we disown Christ's Death and Sufferings as a Propitiation that his Body was an Offering for Sin that he bore the Weight of the Iniquity of the whole World that he carry'd away sins past sealed Remission in his Blood to as many as believe and that we expect to be both forgiven and accepted not for Christ's sake nor in his Sacrifice and Righteousness but our own Works Dial. p. 9 10. Cont. 48 49 50 51 52 53. All which is an horrid Abuse of us 10. From our asserting that the End of Christ's Coming to be not only the Forgivenes of Sin past upon Repentance but the finishing of Transgression in the Creature by the Operation of his Power in his Inward and Spiritual Appearance He Wickedly infers that we make his Visible Appearance of no Value and deny the End of Christ's Sufferings Dial. p. 10. Cont. p. 50 51 52 53 44 55. 11. Because we say that Men are not accepted of God but upon the Inward Work of the Holy Spirit in the Soul as to daily Comunion with God And that there is not another Way to be saved from Sin present and to come then by Christ's Inward Manifestation and Operation He Insinuateth as our Faith that we purchase our Forgiveness by our own Good Works and not that Christ was Gods Propitiation by whom Remission of Sins past came which is the meer Love and Mercy of God declared then by him in the World more eminently and now by the Light in the Conscience to all that Repent Ibid. p. 51 52 53. 12. Becauce we make Obedience a Condition to Salvation He would have People believe that we make it the Meritorious Cause and so Papists Dial. p. 2 63. 13. Because we say that Christ is but our Example in his abiding in the Father's Love by keeping his Commandments So Wicked is he as to conclude that we believe Christ to be in ALL THINGS BUT AN EXAMPLE Ibid. p. 54. Behold this Wickedness 14. From our pleading for a Perfection from Sin and a Growth to the Measure of the Fulness of the Stature of Christ in this Life He confidently infers our Denial of a Perfection in D●g●●es and our Belief of as high a State of Perfection of Glory in this World as hereafter Dial. p. 48 49 50 51. 15. From our asserting True Rejoycing to be the Result of God's Work in Man and Man's Conformity to him and what Man sows he reaps This Person basely infers our utter Denial of any Cause of Rejoycing from what Christ had done for us when bodily in the World or by his Righteousness now in us Ibid. p. 53. 16. Because we say that such Works as are wrought by the Holy Spirit in us are necessary to Eternal Life and may in a sense be said to obtain it since the Lord hath so freely offered it upon the condition of Believing Obeying the Fruits of the Spirit of God in Man He wickedly suggests in our Name that we expect to Merit Eternal Life by Good Works and those of our own working as the Spider Weaves his Webb out of his own Bowels Thus does he pervert and misconstrue our pure Faith Dial. p. 38. Cont. p. 51 52. 17. Because we say all True Spiritual Liberty stands in God's Power that loses from Satan's Snares He unrighteously infers That who are not of our Way should have no Liberty Cont. p. 87. O Impious Man God will reckon for these things with thee 18. From our asserting that the Breath of Life which came from God by which Adam became a Living Soul to God was something of God himself That he may keep his old Wont he falsly renders it as our Meaning that the Soul is a part of God and then fastens all his hideous Consequences Dishonestly upon us Dial. p. 45 46. 19. From our Preaching the Redemption of the Seed from under the Weight and grievous Pressures of Sin and calling it the Lost Groat and Pearl in the Field c. He dares to give it as our Faith that we believe that Holy Seed to be in a Lost Undone or Polluted State Dial. p. 47 Cont. p. 49. then which what can be more Wicked 20. Because we say the Scriptures are not the great Gospel-Rule but the Spirit because the Dispensation of the Spirit is that of the Gospel more peculiarly and that without it we cannot understand or savingly believe any thing declared of in the Scripture and therefore that it is our Rule for believing the Scriptures themselves He basely suggests that the Quakers cast off all Precepts in the Scriptures and will not bound either their Doctrines or Lives thereby so will not b●ing their Cheats Impostures to the Test thereof counting them of no more Authority THEN ESOPS FABLES Dial. p. 20 21 22 23 24 30 31 32 33 34 35 36. Cont. Epist to the Reader Behold your Anabaptist Preacher Indeed an Vngodly Wrester to his own Destruction 21. From our asserting that what was a Commandment to any Servant of God in old times is not so to us because so to them that is such as going to Pharaoh going Naked going to the Kings Chappel as Moses Isaiah and Amos did as also those Elementary Types Shadows and Figures appointed for a Season and to pass off That such are not Commandments to us unless required by the same Spirit anew It is not a