Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	new_a	scripture_n	testament_n	8,305	5	8.0705	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63912	The middle way betwixt. The second part being an apologetical vindication of the former / by John Turner.	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1684 (1684)	Wing T3312A; ESTC R203722	206,707	592

unalterable decrees of Heaven Sometimes again you shall have several persons promise or intend to meet together at such a place upon such a day for such or such an end and this they do supposing themselves to be free and indu'd with an ability of being as good as their word and it is a shrewd sign that what they supposed was true when at a Club a Coffeehouse a publick Feast a Rendezvous or an Exchange you shall find them all accordingly met together which if the fatal Hypothesis were true it seems utterly impossible for them to be but most of them by that particular necessity by which they are governed would either be kept at home or carry'd violently some other way to which they were predetermin'd before this assignation was made To conclude we have had very warm and fierce Contentions about things necessary and things indifferent and about the Civil Magistrates power as to the latter in Religious affairs which if the Calvinistical Doctrine be true is a very needless Controversie for according to them if they will stand to their own Principles there is nothing indifferent either in Sacred matters or in Civil but all things are necessary because unavoidably determined And so the Controversie is happily at an end and we should be much to blame for censuring such innocent people for such unavoidable Scruples but that we cannot help it which if this Hypothesis be true is the Universal reason and excuse of all our actions And thus I think I have proved that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation it self how absurd or contradictious soever it may seem yet it is not more inconsistent with the common sentiments of Mankind and with the plain acknowledgments of its own Defenders with reason experience and with common sense than this of the Stoical or Calvinistical fate which most of the actions of our lives and most if not all the Passions which we find within our selves are combined in a strict confederacy to overthrow it being directly contrary to the nature of the one and to the suppositions upon which the other proceed Another very just exception which has been made and managed to very great advantage by a very Reverend and Learned person Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury against the absurd and blasphemous Doctrine of Transubstantiation is this That it overthrows the whole Fabrick of the Christian Religion by destroying that Foundation upon which it stands that is to say its Divine Authority attested by those Miracles by which it was confirmed because we have no way to judge of Miracles or to distinguish them from the ordinary and usual Phaenomena of nature but by the testimony of our senses which if they may deceive us in their proper objects when they are placed in the most advantageous circumstances to make an unerring Judgment then it is impossible for us in any case given to determine when a Miracle is wrought and when it is not and consequently that Religion whose Sanction and Authority is founded upon Miracles can never be thought to be sufficiently confirmed And what has been said of Transubstantiation the very same may be applied to the Predestinarian Doctrine against which as being founded in the fatal determination of all humane Actions there is a loud and a perpetual Clamour of common sense and experience But besides this it is farther evident from other considerations That if the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation be true the Scriptures of the New Testament are both a very false and a very impertinent Book it being not only plainly contradictory to so many plain Texts of whose true meaning and signification there can be no manner of doubt or question but to the whole Oeconomy of the Gospel to the design of Christ's coming into the world to the design of his Suffering to the reason of his Intercession and Lastly to the genius and temper of the Christian Dispensation S. John tells us 1 Joh. 4. 8. God is love He that loveth not saith he knoweth not God for God is love but you know it is a common rule denominatio sumitur à parte potiori if therefore of those who are born into this world there be not above one in a Thousand who are the Objects of this love and favour while all the rest are irreversibly doom'd to be the eternal examples of his utmost Vengeance and Displeasure and all this for no reason but what depends upon his Arbitrary power and will without any other Consideration then it is manifest if a man were to draw a Character of God Almighty and to exhort Mankind to imitate his example he must preach a Doctrine quite contrary to that which was taught by the Disciple whom Jesus loved and who was himself so full of love to his Brethren it being more suitable to the nature of God if the Calvinistical Painters have drawn him right to say he that hateth not knoweth not God for God is hatred the same may be said of all those other Pathetical exhortations to the mutual endearment and love of one another which are to be met with in the same Chapter of that good Disciple Beloved saith he v. 7. Let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God And again v. 9 10 11. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another Lastly v. 19 20 21. We love him because he first loved us If a man say I love God and hate his Brother he is a lar For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also It is St. Paul's own exhortation in the Epistle to the Ephesians c. 4. v. 31 32. Let all Bitterness and Wrath and Anger and Clamour and Evil speaking be put away from you with all Malice and be you kind one to another tender Hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you So the same St. John tells us in the third Chapter of his Gospel at the 16th and 17th verses God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life For God sent not his Son into the World to Condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved And our Saviour himself in his incomparable Sermon on the Mount exhorts his Disciples to mutual Kindness and Charity for one another and for their very Enemies from the example of God Matth. 5. v. 44 45. Love your Enemies bless them that Curse you do good to them that hate