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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	faith_n	impute_v	justification_n	4,722	5	9.4017	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75582	The just mans defence, or, The royal conquest being the declaration of the judgement of James Arminius, Doctor of Divinity in the University of Leyden, concerning the principall points of religion, before the States of Holland and VVestfriezland / translated for the vindication of truth, by Tobias Conyers, sometimes of Peter-house in Cambridge.; Declaratio sententiae de predestinatione. English	Arminius, Jacobus, 1560-1609.; Conyers, Tobias, 1628-1687.	1657 (1657)	Wing A3700A; ESTC R208013	52,267	187

follow if such Explications as these were once permitted in the Church of God It admits of no excuse that the Son of God should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither is it proper to say that the Essence of God is common to the three persons when it 's said to be communicated one from another From what I say it 's openly manifest how much we can tolerate in him whom we suspect not of Heresie and on the contrary how greedily we snatch up any thing to burden him whom we have in suspition the first is conspicuous for the later this example is the least Concerning man's justification before God I am not conscious to my self of teaching or thinking any thing which is not the unanimous sense of the reform'd and Protestant Churches and at very good accord with their judgements herein Some controversie of this nature indeed there was afoot betwixt Piscator the Nassovian Professor of Divinity and the French Churches stated thus Whether the obedience and righteousness of Christ imputed to Believers and in which they are righteous before God were only the passive obedience of Christ according to the judgement of Piscator or both active and passive which in his whole life he yeelded to the Law of God and that holiness wherein hee was conceived as the Gallick Churches believed For my part I never durst sink into this question or assume the examination thereof being satisfied the Professors of the same Religion may dissent from one another herein salving the unity of Faith and Christian Peace the Adversaries one to another seeming to be of the same minde in mutual toleration and brotherly forbearance although in our Countrey some be of another judgement A Question is mov'd from the words of the Apostle Rom. 4. Faith was accounted for righteousnesse whether it be understood properly so that faith as an act done according to the Evangelical Precept be imputed before God to or for righteousness and that by grace in as much as it is not the righteousness of the Law or whether it be to be understood figuratively and improperly that the righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith be imputed to us for righteousness or thus whether Righteousness into or for which faith is imputed bee the instrumental work thereof as some assert I have followed the first opinion in the Theses of Justification disputed under 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me Non praecisè not rigidly yet simpli itèr plainly as elsewhere in a certain Epistle For this I am judged unsound in the doctrine of mans Justification but this wil be more clearly manifest in a mutual conference in its due season For the present briefly thus I believe the justification of sinners by the sole obedience of Christ and that his Righteousness is the onely meritorious cause for which the condonation of sin is granted to believers and reputed as just as if they had fulfilled the Law perfectly but inasmuch as God imputes this Righteousness of Christ to believers only I judg in this sense it may be well and properly said that faith is imputed for Righteousness by grace to him that believeth God having set forth his Son Tribunal Gratiae a Mercy-seat or propitiation by faith in his blood But however my judgement is the same with Calvins whom none of us reprehends as unsold in this point and am ready to subscribe to what he layes down in the third booke of his Institutions concerning it And these are the chief Articles most noble and potent States at the command of these Sessions I judged necessary to declare my sense of I have made some annotations upon the Confession of the Belgick Churches and Heydelberge Catechism but of these a debate will be most seasonable in our Synod which with your consent and evocation we hope for by the first opportunity only give me leave to add a word or two concerning a certaine Claufe under which the Noble and Potent States Generall consented to a Nationall Synod in this Province which was this that in it the Confession and Catechism of the Belgick Churches should be subjected to Examination This hath displeased many who judged it not onely unnecessary but very unmeet to be done and who should procure this from the Lords the States Generall but a person of quality and my selfe But neither of these upon any ground for the later we were so far from being the authors of it that eleven or twelve years ago at the great importunity of the Churches for a Nationall Synod the States of South-Holland and Westfriesland could not judg it otherwise requisite to yeeld thereunto by their decree then that in it the Confession of the Belgick Churches should be brought under Examination we not promoting any such thing at that time either by advice or endeavour yet really if we had we had done nothing but our duty and what was agreeable both to Equity and Reason and the necessity of our present Estate First that it might appeare to all the world we bear that honour to the word of God alone as becomes us that it onely is determined to be without nay above all dispute beyond al exception and worthy of all acceptation Secondly these book 's being the writings of men Errour may be contain'd in them whence it behoves us to be inquisitive yet lawfully in a Nationall Synod whether there be any thing that stands need of Correction and emendation in them 1 Whether they have an agreement of parts with the word of i. e. An exact agreement thoroughout God as well according to the words themselves and manner of speaking as the genuine sense thereof 2. Whether or no whatsoever is Comprehended in them be necessary to be believed unto salvation so consequently saving health ascribed to those things to which it is not Competible 3. Whether the Confession doth not containe and comprehend too many things as necessary to be believed unto salvation and that saving health according to that rule be refused to be given up to what it appertaines 4. Whether the words and form's of speaking made use of in them are not of ambiguous acception administring an occasion of contention for Example 14. Art●● Confes you have this passage Nothing is done without Gods ordination if by ordination be meant Gods appointing that something be done the Proposition is false in that it follows that God is the Author of sin but if the import of it be his Ordination to a good end it s rightly understood 5. Whether there may not be found things repugnant one to another Ex. Gr. A person much honoured in the Church writes to Piscator the Nassovian Professor wishes him to adhere to the Heydelberge Catechism in his Doctrine of Justification cites to this purpose three places which he thought at variance with the judgement of Piscator The Professor returns For his part he did stedfastly abide in the sense of the Catechism alledgeth for his proof eleven or twelve places thence Now

shutting of him up under sin and condemnation IIII. For unless God had created some he had not had upon whom he might bestow eternall life and bring upon everlasting death had not he created them in righteousness and sanctitie God himselfe had been the Author of sin and so had been deprived of the right of punishment to the praise of his Iustice and salvation for the honour of his mercy unless they themselves had sinned and by the merit thereof rendered themselves guilty of Death there could have been no place to demonstrate either Justice or Mercy 5. The meanes fore-ordained These are the special means for the putting into execution the decree of election are these three First The preordination or the giving of Jesus Christ a mediatour and Saviour who should purchase by his merit for all and onely the Elect life and lost righteousness and by his vertue communicate the same Second Their vocation to faith outwardly by the word inwardly by his spirit in the mind affections and will by an operation so efficacious that the elect person must needs assent and yeeld obedience thereunto in so much as he is not in any capacity able not to beleeve this his Calling or not to be obedient thereunto Hence comes to passe their justification and sanctification by the blood and spirit of Christ and in like manner all their good workes and this by the same forementioned force and necessity Third meanes to be is the Keeping the Elect in the faith sanctitie and zeale of good works or the donation of the perseverance to them whose vertue is to be this that the beleeving and elect persons do not onely not sin with that plenitude and wholeness of will or not fall Totally from faith or grace but they Cannot sin with that full bent of mind neither Can they totally or finally fall away from faith or grace received 6. The two * Vacotion perseverance last of these means belonging onely to the adult elect person of ripe years but for the children of beleevers who pass out of this life and never come to maturity of age God leads them a shorter way to salvation if they belong to the number of the elect which God onely knows by giving Christ a Saviour to them and them to Christ who saves them by his blood and holy spirit without actuall faith and perseverance and this according to the promise of the Covenant I will be your God and the God of your seed 7. The means appointed to These proper to the decree of Reprobation put into execution the decree of reprobation are partly proper to All the reject and reprobate whether they have lived to ripeness of years or died before their maturity partly peculiar to Some of them onely Means Common to them all is their dissertion in sin by the suspension of that saving grace which is sufficient and necessary to salvation and this hath two branches 1. God not being willing that Christ should die for them neither * i. e. He neither dignitate pretii died for them in regard of the value of the price Nor voluntate propositi God never intending that hee should shed his blood for them Quoad Voluntatem Antecedentem according to his Antecedent will as some call it or Quoad Sufficientem according to the sufficient or the valew of that reconciliatory Price which was never offerd for the Reprobate either in respect of the divine decree or the vertue and efficacy of it The 2. branch Gods unwillingness to communicate the spirit of Christ to them without which 't were impossible for them to be made partakers of him and his benefits 8. The means Peculiar to some of them onely is that obduration which befalls Adult persons for their often enormous violation of the Law of God repudiation of the Grace of the Gospel To the executing the first * For their violation of the law of God induration appertains the witness of their minds to the righteousness of the Law by knowledge illumination and conviction it not being possible for the Law not to detaine them in unrighteousness onely but necessary to the rendring them inexcusable To the execution of the second * For their refusing the grace of the Gospel obduration God makes use of their calling by the preaching of the word which is to be both insufficient and ineffectuall as well in regard of the decree of God as the event thereof This vocation is to be either externall onely which they neither will nor can obey or internall whereby some of them are raised in their understandings to embrace and beleeve the things they heare yet with such a faith as the devils endowed with beleeve and tremble some of them are carried on further even after a manner to desire to taste of the Heavenly Gift these being the most miserable of all who are therefore taken up on high that their fall may be the greater it being impossible that this event should not befall them necessitated to returne to their vomit and to fall away from the f 〈…〉 9. From this decree of election and reprobation divine and the administration of the means appertaining to the execution of both it followes that the elect should necessarily be saved so as they are not in any possibility of perishing and the reprobates unavoidably damned so as 't is utterly impossible for them to be saved and that out of the absolute purpose of Gods preceding all things and causes which are in things or could result from things This Opinion by some of those that adhere thereunto is judged the foundation of Christianity Sa●vation and the certainty thereof in which the sure and undoubted consolation of all beleevers giving them a peaceable conscience is founded and upon which the praise of the grace of God leaneth in so much as the contradicting this doctrine is surely to rob God of the glory of his grace to attribute the merit of salvation to the free-will and power of man which savours of Pelagianisme these being the causes pretended why they labour so anxiously to retaine the purity of this doctrine in their churches and oppose themselves to all alterations repugnant there unto For my part to speake what I thinke freely with the Salvage of a better judgement I am of that minde That this doctrine of predestination containeth in it many things false impertinent and discrepant with it selfe which Universally to run thorough time permits me not but I shal leave it to be examind in grosse in its latitude There 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are foure speciall heads in my view and those of the greatest weight in this doctrine I shall first declare them then give you my own judgement concerning them They are these First That God hath Absolutely and precisely decreed the salvation of some particular men by his mercy or grace and the condemnation of others by his justice without any sight or intuition in this

and others be explained by beleevers and unbelievers my judgement is dilucidly comprehended in it which moved me being to dispute publikely in the Colledge to order the questions In Collegio publicoprivato Academiae to be stated in the words of the Confession It agrees with the Catechism Quest 20. 54. 7. It very well sutes the Nature of God viz. his wisdome goodness and righteousness is the principal matter and clearest demonstration of them 8. It 's at very good agreement with the Nature of Man whether considered in the state of Innocency Apostacy or restauration 9. It holds good correspondency with the Act of Creati●n confirming it to be the communication of good according to the intent of God and the event of the thing that it had its rise from Divine goodness its continuation and preservation from Divine Love and that it is the perfect and proper work of God wherein he pleased himself and procured all things which were necessary ad non peccandum to a not sinning 10. It consents with the Nature of eternal life and those titles wherewith it is dignified in Scripture 11. With the Property of eternal death and those names put upon it by the Holy Ghost 12. It makes sinne to be truly disobedience and the meritorious cause of condemnation and so concords with Apostacy and Transgression 13. It harmonizeth with the Nature of Grace by ascribing all things competible thereunto reconciling it to his justice and the nature and liberty of Mans will 14. It 's a most advantagious declarative of the glory of Gods Justice and Mercy representing him the cause of all good and our salvation and Man the cause of fin and his own ruin 15. It contributes to the honor of Iesus Christ appointing him the foundation of Predestination the procuring and communicatory cause of salvation 16. It greatly promotes the salvation of men being the power and means unto everlasting life procreating in them sorrow for sin a sollicitous care of conversion faith in Christ study of good works zeal in prayer causing us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and as far as is necessary hinders desperation 17. It confirms and establisheth that Order and Method the Preaching of the Gospel requires First exacting Faith and Repentance then promising Remission of Sin the grace of the Spirit and eternal life 18. It strengthens the dispensation of the Gospel and renders it fruitful in the promulgation thereof administry of the Sacraments and Publike Prayers 19. It is the foundation of Christianity in that in it the double Love of God are haply joyned together and at good agreement one with another namely his Love of Righteousness with his love of men Lastly This doctrine hath always been allowed of by the major part of Christians and to this day stands approved by them neither can it administer an occasion of its abhorrency or ground of contention in the Christian Church It s much to be wished that men would proceed no further in this matter neither be inquisitive into the unsearchable judgements of God any more then as revealed in the Scriptures And this is that most Noble and Potent States I have to declare to your Highness's concerning this Doctrine so much ventilated in the Church of Christ And if I should not be burdensome I have other things to offer to your Highness's conducing to the declaration of my ●udgement and leading to the self-same end for which I am commanded hither by your Highness's The Providence of God the Free-will of Man Perseverance of Saints Assurance of Salvation are points of so great affinity with this Doctrine of Predestination and have so much dependance upon it that with your good leave I shall deliver my self upon them THe Providence of GOD I judge to be that careful continual and ever-present eye of God by which the care of the whole Universe and all particular Creatures not one exempted is upon him to the conservation and government of them in their essence qualities actions and passions as it best becomes him and sutes them to the glory of his Name and salvation of Believers Herein I substract nothing from Divine Providence competible to it but yeeld it the conservation regulation gubernation and direction of all things even to the abolition of Chance and Fortune yea I subject to the great Providence the Will of Man and the very acts of the rational creature so that nothing is done without its will though contrary thereunto This difference betwixt good and bad actions onely observed in that we affirm God both to will and do good acts but freely to permit the bad being willing to concede the attribution of all acts excogitable concerning evil to the providence of God so wee take heed lest thence God be determin'd The Author of Sin which I evidently enough testified in a Dispute once and again under me at Leyden concerning the righteousness and efficacious Providence of God in evill in which I endeavoured to ascribe unto Providence all those acts concerning sin attributed to God in Scripture making such progress herein that occasion was taken by some of impeaching me with making GOD the Author of Sin which was often produced against me at Amsterdam according to their suggestion from those Theses but how justly it is sufficiently manifest from my answer to the one and thirty Articles mentioned above falsly imposed upon me this being one of them Touching mans will I am of that opinion that he was in dowed with knowledg holiness and other ablities by his Creation whereby he was able to understand estimate consider will and performe true good even as far as the commandment obliged him yet not this without the auxiliaries of Divine grace In the state of Apostacy and sin he is disabled of himselfe and by himself to think will or do any thing truly good and stands in need of the renovating and regenerating power of God in Christ by his Spirit in his intellect affections will and all other faculties to impower him hereunto but participating hereof as freed from sin he is able to think will and do good yet still as under the Supplies of the grace of God Concerning the grace of God I believe it to be that gratuitous and undeserved assio● whereby God is well affected towards a miserable sinner by which first he gave his Son that whosoever believe's in him might have eternall life and then in and for Christ justifies him and adopts him into the right of his sons unto Salvation 2. It is the infusion of Spiritual gifts into the understanding will and affections of man appertaining to his regeneration and renovation viz. Faith hope Charity c. without which gratious donatives man is not meet to think will or do any thing that good is 3. Grace is that continued assistance that non-intermissive helpe of the Holy Ghost by which the Spirit doth instantly perswade excite man before Regenerate unto goodnesse infusing Salutiferous cogitations