Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	abound_v	affirm_v	apostle_n	17	3	5.4794	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45355	Deus justificatus, or, The divine goodness vindicated and cleared against the assertors of absolute and inconditionate reprobation together with some reflections on a late discourse of Mr. Parkers, concerning the divine dominion and goodness.	Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?; Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1668 (1668)	Wing H460; ESTC R25403	132,698	316

himself or how the Grace of God which came by Christ did abound and was made more efficacious then sin For if the sin of Adam destroyed and slew more than the Death and Passion of the Lord Christ made alive then were Sin of a larger extent and more potent than Grace 〈◊〉 v. and the Apostle could not truly affirm That where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound CHAP. IV. A fourth Argument against the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation taken from the Evangelical Dispensation wherein is shown the purport and design of the Gospel which is to reinstate all men into the Participation of the Divine Nature and that that Rigid Doctrine is destructive of so high and glorious an end THere is no Man that knows himself and discerns the true frame of his own Being what sublime and noble perfections the soul is capable of and withal reflects upon the weak and imperfect state of the Sons of men how uncertain and fluctuating their judgments are at the best and how frequently obscured with prejudice how impotently stubborn their wills to the election of substantial good and how broken and disordered the faculties of their whole man but will assuredly conclude that all Mankind however it comes to pass are extremely alienated and apostatiz'd from that innate purity and excellent state in which they were created for no Man that believes himself made by an Alwise and infinitely perfect Author can imagine that he came thus lame and maimed out of his hands and sunk as low as the capacities of their Nature will permit being only vivacious and active to trifling low and bodily interests and concernments carrying on such poor and momentary designs as are unworthy the native generosity of their minds in a word so devoid of that life in the possession of which consists their true felicity that they are past hopes of recovering by their own solitary endeavours their pristine and ancient glory But although Man by that venturous and bold revolt from the blessed Kingdom of Light dispossessed himself of Gods favour and forfeited all right and title to his ordinary care and Providence yet that ever-to-be-magnified Goodness which made him at first Lapsable beheld him as a calamitous object of compassion and designed the erecting and reedifying that glorious Temple which sin and unrighteousness had miserably defaced and ruined and the repossessing his own life of it's rightful Government and Dominion in the Souls of Men which however they come into the World the subjects of bruitish lusts and passions are yet capable of Angelical accomplishments and a Vital Union with the Creator of all things God therefore being the highest and most perfect life and feeling and knowing his Nature to be the most pretious thing in all the World and the utmost perfection of every Rational Being could not but intend graciously to his lapsed Creatures and seek the extension and dispreading of his goodly Attributes over all capable subjects of the World of life For he that shall look upon the diligence and activity of the dark Powers in enlarging the bounds of their usurped Kingdom and consider the contagious and disseminating Nature of every pitiful and degenerate lust how every crazie and sickly vice attempts and offers at a further explication of it self and every small Exarchat of that Hellish Principality endeavours dayly to make new additions and take in fresh supplies to maintain the general cause of unrighteousness and augment their petty Royalties can never think that God will sit as a disinteressed spectator but promote and advance his own good life to the command of the whole Creation and brake down the power of that great Arimanus who captivates the sons of Men in the fetters and shackles of Mortality and Death The life of God is a strong and powerful principle and hath alwayes the arme of Heaven to aid and assist it but all sin and unrighteousness is a meer poverty and deficiency not able to exist in the World did not the self-wills of men uphold it and can never stand against the potent assaults of the Heavenly Nature Which holy life that God might reestablish in the World he hath delivered the Gospel the last and most perfect dispensation that ever was or shall be communicated to Men which consists not in an external and dead form of words nor is it a meer systeme and compendium of such precepts that like the Mosaical Law sanctifie only to the purifying of the flesh but cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect him that doth the service as pertaining to the Conscience that is Purge and cleanse his mind from dead Works and make way for the consummation of the life of God within him whereby he shall no longer be in bondage and servility to every caitive lust but act spontaneously under a free and generous principle and become a law to himself but such a Method of perfect Righteousness and Virtue as shall purifie refine and exalt the spirits of Men from all feculent concretions and subdue every irregular motion and unruly desire that would tempt and sollicit their choice of corporeal joyes and beget in them so true a relish of unblameable Goodness and Holiness as should at the end of their mortal life instal them in the full possession of everlasting Tranquility and Peace Of which glorious contrivance though we have a Scheme and Model drawn out in the Holy Gospels yet there is a life and spirit in Christianity that cannot be blotted on paper but lives and acts in such hearts as are framed and squared according to those Rules contained in the Sacred Writings And this he who is the Author of our Faith and Blessedness testified when he said that his Words were Spirit and Life such as were able and designed to revive the dead and sensless minds of Men and propagate a vital heat and motion through the torpid and benummed World and accordingly the Apostle St. Paul tels us that Christianity is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law of the Spirit of life Rom. viii 2. 2 Cor. 3. and in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ministration of the Spirit and the ministration of Righteousness in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The dispensation of Death and Condemnation intimating that under the Gospel men shall not have a Mechanical and Artificial Religion but such as frames the life and spirit of God in their hearts and becomes a Vital forme tuning their souls into an Universal consent with Gods own Will whereby they send forth most harmonious and Divine accents not only when they are stricken and beaten upon by an external hand like Memnon's statue whose Musical notes ceased so soon as the Sun-beams were withdrawn from it but from an internal Power incorporated and made one with their own spirits It is true when God at first made Man and sent him into this lower World he left him to be governed by those innate prescriptions and rules of Righteousness

with them for not creating the World or raising the dead 3. The Gospel in propriety of speech cannot be said to be offered at all to Reprobates without the greatest Hypocrisie and Dissimulation imaginable much less that by it they should be fairly rendred without excuse For by the Gospel we understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the New Covenant which God hath made with the world in the Lord Christ to which both God and Man have set their Seals God hath promised for his part that he will give a free pardon and indulgence for all their sins upon their true Repentance and will assist them in the performance of his Commands with his Divine Spirit and Benediction and at last upon their perseverance in Holiness bestow upon them Immortality and Life And Man engages that he will faithfully perform the conditions according to the utmost of his power and ability which on his part he is obliged to which are expressed to be Faith and Repentance a putting off the Old man and putting on the New a being buryed with Christ in his Death and rising again with him to Newness of life And this Notion seems to be intimated by the Apostle 2 Tim. ii 19. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our translation renders foundation signifies here the Compact or Covenant of God the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stability or firmness whereof there enforced assures us that there is no salvation to be expected but according to the contents of that Great Indenture once for all sealed in the blood of Christ of which as that indeed is one part which is inscribed on one side of the Seal the Lord knoweth who are his that is he will never fail to own those who continue faithful to him so on the other side is most Emphatical let every man that nameth the name of Christ depart form iniquity which if he do not he hath forfeited all the priviledges of Christianity And it may further be observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sometimes rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isay 30.1 as a Learned Critick notes This being then the Nature of the Gospel it cannot without deceit and fraud be offered to Reprobates for God cannot in his Word command them to believe in Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer without injoyning them to believe a lie nor can he exhort them to Repentance without Hypocrisie having by a peremptory Decree secluded them from a participation of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free and gracious donations whereby they should be impowered to forsake their sins and which he hath obliged himself to extend to all the World on his part of the Covenant If God therefore intended not to own them for his nor give them his Grace and assistance to conquer and subdue their rebellious Natures they are not included within the terms of it And how can any man be convinced of Contumacy and so left inexcusable for rejecting a Doctrine not at all belonging to him for conviction supposes a man to have done otherwise then he might have done and to have left undone something which was in his power to perform which cannot be affirmed of Reprobates To conclude this Argument if this Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation may be admitted as true and genuine the whole Ministery of the word is but a more solemn kind of Pageantry and flattery and Gods Ambassadors by whom he beseeches mankind to be reconciled unto him treat with the greatest part of them upon false grounds and beside Gods will and intentions bearing them in hand that God desires their welfare and happiness tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant till they have brought them to the confines of Hell where they shall feel those acute pains to never-dying ages which were their destin'd portion from before the foundation of the World And now let any rational man judge whether this Doctrine as it is here represented all along and 't is no otherwise then may easily be proved out of the writings of the favourers of it do not infinitely obstruct the progress of real and unfeigned Righteousness in the World and scatter a malignant influence upon mens practice in order to Holiness and a good life while some as if they had been of Heavens counsel and seen their Names enrolled above cannot look upon themselves under any other position but that of Gods peculiar and selected ones and for that very reason believe themselves out of the reach of Apostacy and miscarriage than which there can be no greater allay to a diligent search after the true and living Nature of God for while their endeavors after it cool like the air by intervening showers and they swallow every bait and neglect to excite their powers and faculties by a timely care and industry upon the stock of a secure confidence of heaven the enemy forrages and spoils and makes dayly inrodes upon their hearts and they are upon the margins of destruction ere they are aware Others despairing of life and believing every thing adverse to their felicity have no heart to go forward and either wear out their lives in a sottish senselessness and stupidity or spend them in jollity and crown their heads with rosebuds and forget God resolving to make as good use of the present time as they can knowing that when this fleeting and perishing life is ended they shall be plunged into everlasting misery CHAP. V. A fift and last Argument wherein is shewn that the Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation takes away the liberty of Mans Will and consequently leaves no place for reward of Virtue or punishment of Vice THat there is a free principle in Man a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-moving power and life which is able to segregate Truth from Falshood Good from Evil Hence the Stoicks say the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Greek Fathers add to those Epithetes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and accordingly elect as the Arguments shall appear more or less convictive is not only the judgment of Reason but the sense of the most Orthodox Antiquity whether Theology or Philosophy although the Truth is in this diseased and distempered condition all men lie under the manner of the Wills election shews that it is in the greatest measure inclinable to evil as will appear further hereafter And that I may not seem barely to assert what others so strenuously oppugn I shall alledge some plain and perspicuous testimonies out of the ancient Fathers and Philosophers who have manumitted the will of man and left it free to chuse Good or Evill though when it is determined to one it may be drawn by weightier grounds and reasons to the election of