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	work_n	8,142	5	6.6831	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56659	Falsehood unmaskt in answer to a book called Truth unveil'd, which vainly pretends to justify the charge of Mr. Standish against some persons in the Church of England / by a dutiful son of that church.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1676 (1676)	Wing P796; ESTC R11930	17,061	28

we are one Body so were indeed all One the best Christians are nor which Principles are apt to make the best Let us all sincerely endeavour to excell in Vertue and be glad that any can outstrip us though they be not in all things of our mind which will be far better than contending about precedency or about any thing else whatsoever Here now we might fairly part but that I believe you will be apt to think either I have nothing to say or dare say nothing of that about which you make so many sad complaints if I should wholly pass by the points of justification by Faith and the imputed Righteousness of Christ With the same provision therefore that you will not accuse me for medling with that which did not concern me I will add a few words about those matters And I assure you I abhorr the man as much as you can do who shall teach me otherwise than our Church doth Artic. XI that we are accounted righteous before God only for the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or Deservings And therefore it is a most wholesome Doctrine and full af Comfort that we are justified by Faith only But I verily think there are none that teach otherwise but you have wholly mistaken those Persons whose Writings have given you the trouble of making this Book For though we are justified by Faith only yet you acknowledge p. 37. that all Christian Vertues are connate with that Faith Which grants all that Mr. Bull contends for whose position is that the Faith which justifies contains in it a sincere purpose of a new life O but none of those vertues you add pass into the cause of justification No nor is Faith it self any cause of it not so much as an instrumental cause and therefore you ought not to have quarrelled with Mr. Bull about this matter who detests any such thoughts as you impose on him that our good Works are required casually and antecedently to our justification p. 39. No such absurd Notion is to be found I will stand to it in his Book nor lyes I am sure in his Head He is not so weak so unstudied a Divine as to make any thing that we can do the cause of that which God alone can bestow upon us He doth not so much as require good Works antecedently to our entrance into the state or Justification but only the purpose of them which you your self acknowledge to be included together with all Christian Vertues in that Faith which justifies And indeed Bishop Davenant whom you deservedly applaud affirms as he shows that those internal good Works are necessary to our justification though not as efficient or meritorious causes yet as concurring or previous conditions There is but one clause which can bring you off and excuse you in this business which you wisely insert when you speak of Mr. Bulls Doctrine if at least say you I can understand him I know not what you can do but I am sure you do not understand him And therefore ought to have suspected also that you did not rightly understand Bishop Nicholson's Books rather than have said so confidently as you do doubtless Mr. Bull imposes very far upon the Bishop when he saith the Bishop read approved commended his Book and wish'd him to publish it This is very uncivil and hardly to be reconciled with Christian Charity which teaches us to think no evil to believe all things and to hope all things when the contrary doth not evidently appear It would have been but bare modesty in you to have thought you did not apprehend the meaning of a Writer in matters of controversie about Faith rather than have accused a Divine of no mean credit I assure you in his Countrey of falsifying so impudently in a matter of Fact which he avows to the world and to the Bishop himself to whom he dedicates his Work to be a most real Truth When you consider it you will acknowledge I hope between God and your own Soul this was too rash and peremptory to speak gently and not becoming one of the best sort of Christians Which if you and I too will both of us study to be I think verily it is best for us not to trouble our selves with nice disquisitions about these matters wherein we find Divines cannot well agree about the way I mean of Faith's justifying us It may suffice us I should think to know what our Liturgy teaches us plainly in both the Absolutions that God pardoneth and absolveth all them that truely repent and unfeignedly believe his Holy Gospel as it is in the Absolution pronounced every day having promised forgiveness of sins to all them that with hearty repentance and true Faith turn to him as it is in that at the Holy Communion Let us receive this glad tidings upon our bended knees and with most joyful hearts thankfully devoted to his service and leave those that list to dispute about the particular act of Faith that justifies and how it is instrumental as they speak in the business of Justification and whether there be such a thing as a passive Instrument and what Repentance hath to do in this matter No body shall ever perswade me but we shall have the benefit of the Absolution though we be not able to resolve these questions or though we never think of them If we truely repent and unfeignedly believe Christs Holy Gospel or which is the same With hearty Repentance and true Faith turn to him And in like manner to speak a word or two in the other point we are sufficiently instructed in our Litanie as I understand it to expect to be delivered from our sins I suppose and the punishment due to them by the whole Humiliation and exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ when it teaches us to pray By the mystery of thy Holy Incarnation by thy Holy Nativity and Circumcision by thy Baptisme Fasting and Temptation by thine Agony and Bloudy sweat by thy Cross and Passion by thy precious Death and Burial by thy Glorious Resurrection and Ascension and by the coming of the Holy Ghost Good Lord deliver us It is plain that whosoever minds what he prays trusts to be delivered by Christ alone who impetrated this Mercy for us and bestows it on us by his Incarnation Nativity Circumcision and all the rest now mentioned But what hand each of these hath distinct from the other in procuring our deliverance and how each of them merits for us and makes us to be accounted righteous before God and wherein the merit of his life differs from that of his Death and Passion and is applied to us by his Resurrection Ascension and coming of the Holy Ghost we need not I hope very solicitously enquire For Justification is not a Blessing that belongs only to Scholars and subtil Wits but to the plainest Countreyman of us all who pray and hope to be delivered by all that