Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	justification_n	justify_v	meritorious_a	2,124	5	11.4575	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30238	An expository comment, doctrinal, controversal, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the second epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians by Anthony Burgesse ...	Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.	1661 (1661)	Wing B5647; ESTC R19585	945,529	736

You may read how happily the Apostle conjoyneth them together Phil. 2. 12 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do It is true the enemies of Gods grace who detract from it in whole or in part do gladly imbrace this truth and compel it to go two miles further than it would They force it so much that blood cometh out in stead of milk As Austin while he writeth against Manichees Pelagians did take some expressions of his commending them exceedingly as that all sinne must be voluntary else it could not be a sinne c. as if he had been on their party Then on the other side when he did valiantly write against the Pelagians they branded him for a Manichee So hard a matter is it to defend truth which lieth between two extreams but while we set against one we are thought to draw nigh to another And thus it is in the Doctrine now observed while we maintain the necessity of our duty as well as Gods grace we are thought to go into the Papists quarters Again while against them we set up the grace and power of God excluding though not the duties and means God hath appointed yet the merit and causality of them we are thought to joyn with the Antinomians whereas indeed we have no affinity with either Let us therefore labour after that spiritual skill and discerning whereby we may be able to know what God doth and what we are to do yet so as not to take off in the least manner from the glory of God First Therefore consider That all the great spiritual mercies which God doth vouchsafe in time to his people have many things concurrent before they be accomplished It is not the presence of one thing alone can effect that mercy unless all be present I say it is thus with these spiritual priviledges God vouchsafeth in time For as for predestination which is an immanent act and the purpose of God from eternity to prepare for glory There is nothing at all concurrent to that but the meer good pleasure of his will The Scripture alwayes resolveth it into that alone but it is otherwayes with justification and glorification For to justification many things are required there is the grace of God as the efficient cause the blood of Christ as the meritorious cause and faith as the instrument the hysop to sprinkle this blood upon the soul Now till all these meet together a man is not justified God indeed hath decreed to justifie thee from all eternity but the actual justification of thy person is in this order and method So for glorification the kingdom of glory is said to be prepared for the godly viz. from eternity they were before the foundations of the world were laid elected to this everlasting happiness but an holy life and a godly conversation is the way thereunto No unclean thing can enter there This being so Hence in the second place It hath alwayes bred much confusion and errour in Doctrine to oppose these requisites one against another To argue from the inclusion of some to the exclusion of others if duty then no Christ if Christ then no duty The Antinomian he argueth If Christ by his blood made atonement for our sinnes if our iniquities were laid upon him then we are justified from that time in the sight of God before we do believe or repent Now whence ariseth this errour Because they consider not that as Christ is required in a meritorious way so also faith in an instrumental way And though Christ do more principally concurre to our justification yet faith is required by necessity of precept and means also Christ without faith doth not justifie no more than faith without Christ Hence they are put together Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath sit out to be a propitiation through faith in his blood The Papist on the other side though the Scripture mentioneth not the word merit and satisfaction yet by their forced consequences they would establish such a Doctrine Now in the sense they and others plead for works notwithstanding all their subtil distinctions The Apostle argueth infallibly Rom. 11. If of grace then not of works and if of works then grace is no longer grace Though therefore some do more grosly then others set up works against Christ yet they become guilty of dishonouring him who give him not the sole glory of our redemption But you will say If Gods grace and our duty must go together if we must look to Christ for salvation and yet to holiness to prayer and repentance as the means conducing thereunto How may we be directed so to live as that we shall give all to the glory of Gods grace and his power and yet to act in the duties God hath commanded without any negligence therein For seeing that Satan is very busie in his temptations on both sides either to be careless of prayer and other ordinances because we are to give all to Christ or because they are necessarily required to put our trust and confidence in the performance of them it is good to be informed wherein the way is clear for a believers avoiding all dangers To answer this which will indeed explicate the whole nature of the Doctrine consider these particulars First Then thou mayest relie on Christ and yet be diligent in the use of all Ordinances when thou doest acknowledge all the power thou hast both in whole or in part to the very beginning of godliness to come alone from him When whatsoever thou art able to do thou doest confess it is his gift thou hast received it from him so that it is not thou that doest it not thy power thy strength but the gift of God alone Thus Phil. 4. 12 13. when he had mentioned that excellent frame of heart That he knew how to abound and how to want yea that he could do all things he mollifieth this presently by adding Christ He could do all things through Christ that strengthned him Here Paul doth put forth the life of grace but the fountain of it is Christ So again 1 Cor. 15. 10. I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me or in me exciting of me and giving me strength to do it The trumpet of grace is often in these acknowledgements 2 Cor. 3. 5. We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves He doth not say to do but not so much as to think And he doth not say great things or high things but any thing Not the least good thing in his ministerial way but our sufficiency is of God Therefore to curb the insolency of such proud thoughts as if we cou'd do any thing of our selves see with what authority he speaketh 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou diast not receive

us Secondly We may rejoyce in them so farre as thereby to bear up our hearts against all accusations whether internally from Satan or externally from the malice of men Is there any greater temptation in the world then that when Satan accuseth the children of God that they are hypocrites that there is no truth of grace in them that what they do is not from a right principle but sel●seeking Even as he accused Job to God that he served God for carnal ends because God had hedged him about but if he were touched in these things and stript of them then he would betray his hypocrisie Now it is lawfull for the children of God to defie these accusations of Satan to rejoyce in the sense of their uprigtness though the Devil rage at it While he roareth do thou be glad and praise God Oh how often are believers shaken in this very particular They are afraid to own what God hath done for them they think it their humility and lowliness thus to be in doubts and to be perplexed with fears not remembring how necessary it is to acknowledge thankfully what God hath done for us and to walk with joy triumphing over all the fiery darts of Satan It is the great blame of Christs Disciples that they do not more glory and rejoyce in this respect And then 2. This rejoycing is lawfull when we have to do with malicious enemies that are ready to charge us with hypocrisie and self-seeking that for all our religious pretences we have rotten and earthly hearts then is a time for thee to make use of rejoycing in the sincerity of thy soul And this indeed is one great part of the Apostles meaning The false Apostles they calumniated him they made the cause of all his afflictions and troubles to be his evil life and Gods displeasure upon him Now the Apostle hath this brazen wall within as the Heathen called it He hath the witnesse of a good conscience As Austin to Secundinus Senti de Augustino quid velis c. Think of Austin what you will so that my own conscience doth not condemn me This rejoycing therefore is necessarily seen in this particular In the third place Let us see wherein this rejoycing in our graces may be unlawfull And 1. It is when we dare rejoyce and that in the sight of God as if there were no blemish or damnable matter in them To rejoyce as Perfectionists do in their holiness daring to hold it up to God himself in his strict justice this is highly provoking God Hence this Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. Though he regarded not mens judgement concerning him because he knew nothing by himself yet he saith He was not thereby justified because it was God that judgeth God that knew more evil and saw more sinne in him then he could do in himself Therefore though we may rejoyce in them yet take heed of opposing them to the strict and righteous judgement of God And it is in this sense that Paul Rom. 3. saith All boasting is excluded and that Abraham in the matter of justification had not wherewith to boast 2. It is not lawfull to rejoyce in them as if they had any inherent dignity or worth to rest upon When we approach to God we must rest alone upon Gods grace as the efficient cause and Christ as the meritorious cause These are the only foundation we can build upon When therefore we have given Gods grace and Christs merits their full due then may we rejoyce in our holiness It is true we read of Hezekiah David Nehemiah and Paul here as also in other places pleading even in prayer their righteousness and desiring God to remember them and not wipe out their good deeds But these instances are partly in some particular wherein they were innocent as in David Or else they onely plead these as the qualifications in them to which Gods promises are made they are such to whom God hath vouchsafed his promises and therefore they may plead them in their prayers in this sense otherwise to urge them as having dignity they could not For at that very time Nehemiah prayeth God would spare him and have mercy on him 3. We must not rejoyce in these graces as if we had them of our selves as if they were not the gift of God Therefore Chrysostom's note upon the place is dangerous saying The reason why this good conscience is called glorying is because we obtain it by our own strength otherwise it would not be our glorying But the Apostle directly opposeth this 1 Cor. 4. 7. Why doest thou glory as if thou hadst not received But you may then say The Papists are not to be found fault with in their rejoycing in their good works for they make them the gifts of Gods grace and presuppose Christs merits But this will not acquit them For the Apostle maketh that a contradiction If of grace then not of workes It cannot be of grace and works together Besides they make grace only an universal cause and our own will to be the particular determining cause and thereby give much more to that then the grace of God If then we take heed of these three rocks we are allowed to rejoyce in our graces Use 1. Of severe and sharp reproof to such who do indeed rejoyce but it is in their lusts in the pleasures of sinne which is to rejoyce in their shame and that which will be terrour and torment to them What can these wretches say But our rejoycing is an evil and a seared conscience that we have lived in all prophaneness and impiety Oh remember into what howling and gnashing of teeth these short pleasures will at last be changed Use 2. Of Admonition to the godly to take this rejoycing which God doth allow them Why do they stand aloof off and trembling Why do they nourish doubts and fears Why will ye not own what God hath done for you Take an holy boldness call that grace which is grace Let not the Devil and thy fears dispute thee out of what thou art Be not so easily baffled and driven out of thy integrity Because hypocrites do deceive themselves do the sincere also Because Copper may appear splendidly is there therefore no gold Because a dreamer deceiveth himself shall he that is awakened SERM. LXXXV What is required to a good and well ordered Conscience 2 COR. 1. 12. The testimony of our conscience THe second particular which is also the ground of that rejoycing which Paul had doth in the next place come to be treated of and that is said to be The testimony of his conscience The object matter whereof is afterwards declared Let us consider this as it is in the general set down Concerning the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also the nature of the conscience what it is I have elsewhere at large shewed It is enough to re-mind you of thus much That in the Old Testament it is generally called the heart