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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	see_v	2,875	5	3.5208	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41776	A dialogue between the Baptist and the Presbyterian Wherein the Presbyterians are punished by their own pens, for their cruel and soul-devouring doctrines, making God the ordainer of all the sins of men and devils: and reprobating the greatest part of mankind, without any help of salvation. Whereunto is annexed, a treatise of election, intituled, The order of causes: formerly published by an eminent servant of Christ, and now republished with some explication concerning free-will. By Thomas Grantham, messenger of the baptized churches in Lincolnshire.	Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692.	1691 (1691)	Wing G1530; ESTC R216815	20,667	29

and Compeller it is not a Crime but in as much as it is of Man it is Wickedness Bapt. Certainly these things hitherto asserted by you are dreadfully Blasphemous and more like the Doctrine of the Turks than of true Christians and ought to be exploded with the same detestation which was wont to be made as my Author sheweth in these words I do Anathematize the Blasphemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Mahomed saying That God deceiveth whom he will and whom he will he leadeth to what is good for if God would Men would not war one with another but he doth what he will and is himself the cause of all Good and of all Evil all things are governed by Fate and Destiny Nicetus Saracenita Pr. Our Doctrine is more ancient than Mahomet St. Augustin did maintain it It is certain that Judas could not but betray Christ seeing God's Decrees are immutable And whether a Man bless or curse he always doth it necessarily in respect of God's Providence and in so doing he doth always according to the Will of God Piscat de Praedest Thes 12. 1. Bapt. Antiquity for the first four Centuries is against your Doctrine Augustin tho sometime tinctured with it yet upon better Advice exclaims against it And as to the Instance of Judas Antiquity is against you For thus saith Chrysostome Judas my Beloved was at first a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Child of the Kingdom when he heard it said to him with the Disciples Ye shall sit on twelve Thrones but at last he became a Child of Hell Chrysost Orat. 52. as quoted by Mr. J. Goodwin Pr. I perceive you hold that a Child of God may possibly fall away and perish This is a dangerous Error Bapt. That some may depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits is clear in the Word of God and of this fall I doubt the Presbyterians many of them are a terrible Instance as well as others Nor need any Man say more concerning falling away than they do in their Confess of Faith made by the Assembly of Divines for as they deny not but that there are temporary Believers and truly such are all that fall away So they plainly tell us That the purest Churches under Heaven are subject to Mixtur● and Error and some have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ but Synagogues of Satan Chap. 25. Sec. 5. Surely the purest Churches under Heaven are true Believers and if these purest Churches may become the Synagogues of Satan it is too much to prove the Point For my part though I doubt not but there is a state attainable even in this Life from which by the Grace of God Christians shall not fall yet I hold it a vanity for any Man to affirm of himself or of any other Person in particular that it is impossible for him to fall I hold it better by far for the best as well as others to take heed lest they fall And here the Decree concerning Reprobation may be useful for God never made it to cause Men to be Reprobates but to hinder them from being such like as all good Laws made against Treason and Felony were not made to make Men Traitors or Felons but to prevent them that they might not be Traitors nor Felons Let us not then turn the Goodness of our God into Perverseness nor his Grace into Wantonness by thinking he will damn any Man without first shewing Mercy or save us of necessity for is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance how then shall he judg the World Pr. But why do you suggest your fears that the Presbyterians are a terrible instance of falling away as well as others Bapt. Because they have received a Doctrine the Tenour of which is such that no Man which receiveth it can have any true or well-grounded Faith for if God did extend the Death of Christ to scarce one Man of an hundred how is it possible for any Man to know assuredly that Christ died for him in particular He may have an opinion Christ died for him but he cannot be sure of it seeing the certain knowledg who Christ died for must not be built upon any good which we conceive to be wrought in us but upon the clear testimony of the Word of God Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Rom 10. Hence all are bound to believe under pain of Damnation Mark 16. 16. Pr. We deny by the Pen of Mr. Whitfield p. 75. that all Men are commanded to believe but only the least part of the World and Mr. Brinsley tells us There should no Gospel be preached but for the Elects sake And Mr. Calvin saith That so many Nations of Men together with their Infants were involved WITHOUT REMEDY in eternal Punishment by the fall of Adam and he fell because God thought it expedient for no imaginable Reason but that so it seemed good in the sight of God Calv. Inst l. 3. c. 23. And hence we conclude that those Nations which have not the light of the Gospel Christ died not for them for if God gave his Son to die for them which is the greater he would not deny them the Gospel which is the lesser B. K. Serm. and Letter Bapt. That God is known throughout the whole World to be Propitious Gracious and Merciful cannot be denied and where God is known to be gracious pardoning Sin upon Repentance he is known in Christ though the Name of Christ be not known and indeed few knew him by that Name of Jesus Christ till he was born of the Virgin And that God has taken care that his Name Gracious and Merciful should be known throughout the World is evident not only by the Holy Scriptures but by the Writings of the Heathen yea the Turks themselves though they are for Destiny yet begin almost every Chapter of their Alcoran with these words In the Name of God Gracious and Merciful And Prosper Augustin's Disciple De vocatione Gentium shews Tha● God did never leave himself without Witness in any part of the World Act. 4. 17. which he compares with Psal 76. 8 9. and 138. 4 5 6. Isa 60. to make it good And Mr. Pierce shews excellently how the Gospel is spread throughout the World As 1. All Protestant Countries 2. All the Countries of Papists 3. All the Greek Churches 4. All the Muscovites 5. All the Asiaticks under the Patriarch of Jerusalem 6. The Christians called Melchites under the Patriarch of Antioch 7. The Armenians under an hundred Bishops 8. The Christians called Jacobites mingled with the Mahometans through a great part of Asia under the Patriarch of Carmite 9. The Christians under the Patriarch of Mezul about Assyria Mesopotamia Parthia and Media accounted more than all the Papists 10. The Christians called Georgians in Iberia 11. The Christians called Circassians 12. The Christians called Mengrellians 13. The Christians of Natolia under the Patriarch of Constantinople 14. The Kingdoms of Cazan African

Jona 3. 10. 2. Is it possible that you should call in question God's Seriousness with the Jews Psal 81 Are not these his words O that my People had hearkned unto me and Israel had walked in my Ways vers 13. See also vers 8. 9 10. and judg your self Surely if you or any Man else should speak thus to his Friends or Enemies either it would be great uncharitableness to think you were not serious and had an inward will for their happiness unless we knew you to be a Dissembler which temper cannot be found in God 3. That Christ was inwardly serious in his endeavours to gather Jerusalem appears by his Words and by his Tears which are such as may even break an Heart of Stone And sure I am God's Mind in sending Christ to them was to turn EVERY ONE OF THEM AWAY FROM THEIR INIQUITIES Act 3. ult 4. Now for the Pharisees they were part of the Jews to whom Christ was sent and in many things they were the best Sect of the Jewish People and God did by his Servant John seriously call them to Repentance yea his Counsel was of God Luk. 7. 29 30. Who never said to the House of Israel Seek ye me in vain And yet if he were not now serious but spake one thing and thought another yea determined and resolved another you will then make him say to them Seek ye me in vain But far be it from the Almighty that his Word should be Yea and Nay Sir It is because God is true that his Ministers may boldly assure poor Sinners that he wills not their Death but that they turn and live yea he hath sworn He hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked And hence I conclude against your dangerous Position that God is altogether serious even as Seriousness it self Tho. Grantham To this Letter the Doctor gave no Reply But a Friend of his sent me a small Paper of Verses as I suppose to pick some Quarrel with me about Free-Will And thus they speak IF Faith be not what can we then foresee Or how can we avoid it if it be If by Free-Will in our own Acts we move How are we bounded by Decrees above So whether we drive or whether we be driven If Ill it 's ours if Good the Act of Heaven To this captious piece of Poetry I made this short return OUR own Free-Will 'T is non-sense since 't is true Our own we are not Then our Will is due To him that made us and when we were lost Restor'd our Loss at his own proper Cost Free-Will's more talk'd of than well understood That Will 's not truly free that is not good God is no Author of the Will that 's Evil The Will that leads to Sin is of the Devil Decrees from Heaven restrain not farther Sin Much less does cause Sin For it did begin From Satan This God's Word does plainly shew Who charge't on Heaven's Decrees their Charge will rue Norwich whence came this Leaven into thee To fix thy Sin first upon God's Decree T. G. After this another nameless Poet assaults me but his Lines being so exceeding ridiculous it would but prophane the Muses to commit them to Posterity And because their chief Clamour was against my preaching that Christ died for all Men and for that cause calling me a false Teacher I resolved to try whether plain Scripture without my Commentary would pass for currant amongst our Reprobatarians wherefore I wrote as followeth To the Nameless and Nonsensical Poet. SIR YOur great Quarrel is because I teach this Doctrine That Christ died for all and not only for some Now thus saith the Lord We see Jesus made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of Death that he by the Grace of God should taste Death Heb. 2. 9. for every Man He is a Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but 1 Joh. 2. 2. also for the Sins of the whole World He gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 6. And if one died for all then were all dead And that he died 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. for all The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Joh. 6. 51. Life of the World God is the Saviour of all Men specially of them that believe 1 Tim. 4. 10. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have All Men to be saved and come to the knowledg of 1 Tim. 2. 3 4. the Truth Not willing that any should perish but that All should come to 2 Pet. 3. 9. Repentance And he commandeth All Men every where to repent Act. 17. 30. As by the Offence of One judgment came on all Men even so Rom. 5. 18. by the Righteousness of One the free Gift came upon All Men to justification of Life For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15. 22. They that have done Good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5. 29. Denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves 2 Pet. 2. 1. swift Destruction For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World John 3. 17 18. but that the World through him might be saved He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God God will judg the Secrets of Men according to the Gospel Rom. 2. 16 Which hath been preached to every Creature under Heaven Col. 1. 23. He hath shewed thee O Man what is good Mich. 6. 8. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion flow to anger Ps 103. 8. and of great Mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Ps 145. 9. Works By these Authorities I teach that Christ died for All. Now Sir shew me if you can where the Scripture tells us that Christ died BUT for some only and not for all For hitherto I have not met with any such Testimony in the Word of God And seeing you think Christ died but for some only shew me sufficient Testimony from the Scripture that he died for your self And name one if you can now living in this great City for whom Christ died not And when you have done these things well you may expect some further Account of your Paper Your abused Friend Tho. Grantham Finally To give you some Account of the Dialogue and Treatise ensuing For the first Being a great distance from my Study I could not have the help of my own Books The Collection therefore which I here give you I have taken from several Writers but chiefly from Mr. Tho. Pierce a Person of great Learning and Judgment 1. From his Correct Copy of Notes 2. His Divine Philanthropie