Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	adam_n	die_v	life_n	4,790	5	5.0368	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86420	Fourteen queries and ten absurdities about the extent of Christ's death, the power of the creatures, the justice of God in condemning some, and saving others, presented by a free-willer to the Church of Christ at Newcastle, and answered by Paul Hobson a member of the said Church. In which answer is discovered, the extent of Christs death, the nature and truth of election, the condition of the creature both before and after conversion, &c. Published in tenderness of love for the good of all, especially for the Churches of Christ.	Hobson, Paul.	1655 (1655)	Wing H2273; Thomason E1492_4; ESTC R208520	40,720	127

or virtue of the promise the fruit of the promise and the form of the performance which is but the mouth and language to speak out the life by which was made good when Isaac and his seed successively took place so in CHRIST he was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world the life or virtue of the act which was the efficacy of Christs Death which did arise from the Author and life of the act that took place so soon as ever God did promise CHRIST the form of the act which is the language as I told you before to speak out the life that takes place in time and is not formally presented till lively performed but the life or virtue of the form that takes place for us when first promised and so the Death of Christ was effectual so soon as ever the promise was propounded or else Adam must have died and none could have been saved till CHRIST had come and suffered in the flesh the very same we are to minde in election the life of the act which is the essence took place from the beginning as to the form we shall minde it in the second Particular Now as to the discovery and the fruits of the act that takes place in forms as forms are presented but the act is as truly alive before the form appears as it is afterwards and the truth is every act takes its denomination from the life and the antiquity is derived from thence and so Abrahrm was a father of Nations when the promise was first propounded and so CHRIST was really slain as to the life and virtue when he was first promised and election was then done when it took place in its rise which was Gods singular love and good will to chuse some to be vessels of glory now when the Apostle saith that God calls things that are not as if they were he doth not intend the life or virtue of the act but the form of the act and he that denies it endeavours to overthrow the whole tenure of Scripture for in this sense we are to understand our fall in Adam and our rise in Christ according to the tenure of the Gospel and so also the promise to Abraham and so we are to understand the intent of the Law Matth. 5.28 which declares lusting after a woman to be Adultery 1 John 3.18 that hatred is murder which declares the act to live in the life and virtue though it wants its outward form and is so really before the form is brought forth and in this sense we are to understand Christs love and rejoycing in the sons of men before the world was Prov. 8.31 Secondly consider as the life and virtue of some acts take place before the form and is really in being before the form appear either of our acts or Gods So further minde that whatsoever is done not onely of God but also in God for us the life and form of that act as to God takes place together and both is in being before it doth appear though the discovery of that is not till the Object to which the Action relates be brought forth and this is true election for that is an act done as well in God as by God and so life and form take place together as to God though as to the form of the discovery to us it is not till formably we are brought forth so this act is not to be paralleld with such acts that God doth for us though by himself yet our of himself as Redemption or the promise to Abraham is and therefore what is said from the words of the Apostle Rom. 4.17 is not sufficient to overthrow this truth to wit that election is before the beginning of the world according to these Scriptures Ephes 1.4 1 Pet. 1.2 2 Thess 2.13 1 Tim. 1.9 A second Objection that is made against this Truth by the fore-mentioned party and some others is from these words in 1 Peter 1.2 Elected according to the foreknowledg of God through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience And in 2 Thess 2.13 We are bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth whereunto ye were called by the Gospel From whence they reason thus If we are chosen through sanctification of the Spirit then none are chosen before they have the Spirit and are sanctified by the Spirit and if Saints are chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth and were called to believe that through hearing of the Gospel Then say they men are not chosen before they did believe the truth and before they did hear the Gospel by which they were calld to believe Answer That kinde of reasoning is very sad and unsuitable to the intent of the Apostle in those expressions and that their Arguments have no foundation from thence seriously view the words the Apostle saith in both the places that we are chosen to salvation through sanctification unto obedience and belief of the truth whereunto we are called by the Gospel All that can from thence be gathered is thus much that sanctification and belief of the truth or obedience is the way to accomplish that end unto which election doth intend for there are three things to be considered 1. The act of Election and that hath been punctually proved both to matter manner and time 2. The end of Election which is the advancement of Gods grace in bringing vessels of mercy to glory 3. The way or means to accomplish the end which is by or through sanctification or believing the truth But it is no other way discovered but as the way and means no where as the cause or foundation therefore there is no ground from thence to prove that sanctification and election must be both at one time no more than the people of Israel going through the Wilderness to Canaan to be a discovery that God did not ordain them for Canaan or give them promise of Canaan before they came into Wilderness which was the way to it The Scripture declares that without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12.13 But I know no Scripture that declares that man shall not nor is not elected till he be holy though they that are elected must and shall be holy and they that are holy shall see the Lord and live with him in glory not as the efficient and meritorious cause but as the way and means to such an end If men will draw Syllogisms from such corrupt apprehensions of such divine expressions as the Apostle useth in those Scriptures they may as well prove from thence and with as small a Paradox that sanctification is before men are born as to prove from them Scriptures election which is before the world to be not till men are sanctified but to exercise wit to prove either of these two things is

appear when we shall speak to them now to speak to your Queries one by one as they are there laid down will neither be proper nor profitable because the foundation of the most of them is from a groundless supposition to wit That I and the rest do not hold that CHRIST died for all which is contrary to our judgments for we do hold that CHRIST did die for all but not for all alike therefore the very foundation of your Querie which relates to the Death of CHRIST will appear groundless and seeing that your Queries want foundation and besides I judg some of them contain contradiction I shall not speak to them one by one now that we may not uphold contention but in the fear of the Lord speak for information knowing where the difference between us and you lieth which gives you advantage to put so many forms upon Queries and faces upon Absurdities to present your opinion though groundless yet pleasing I shall according to the small ability the Lord gives me in answer to my relation to truth lay down and speak to these things following and so in the close answer your Queries and Absurdities First wherein you and we do seem to be one in judgment as to the Death of CHRIST Secondly where we differ Thirdly the ground of your mistakes as to the Death of CHRIST the ability of the Creature and the clearing up of the Justice of God Fourthly the sad Absurdities which of necessity must follow your opinion not that which is to be discovered but which is already discovered in your profest position in your Query and then you will see the necessity of the retorting of the most of the Absurdities upon your self and the residue of them must needs fall as to us they having no foundation from us First to the first First I do judg that CHRIST died for all though not for all alike Secondy that his Death without any exemption is to be presented to all First that he died for all I shall prove it by Scripture and then shew you how to prove this truth that CHRIST died for every man I shall not prove it from these Scriptures John 3.16 chap. 6.33 2 Cor. 5. 19. 1 John 2.2 1 John 4.14 and my reason for it in those Scriptures though they speak out the word all and the word world yet there is no safety to make positive conclusions upon doubtfull expressions I mean as to the nature and measure of the word all or world for sometimes the word world includes the whole as Job 34.18 Psalm 24.1 Psalm 50.12 98.7 Jer. 10.12 Acts 17.24 Secondly the word world is taken for a part as well as the whole as in these Scriptures John 13.1 chap. 14.17 chap. 15.18 19. chap. 17.6 9. Acts 17.6 Acts 19.27 Rev. 13.3 Thirdly as the word world doth include sometimes a part so sometimes of that part it doth intend properly the wicked of the world as Acts 17.31 Rom. 12.2 1 Cor. 3.19 chap. 4. 9. chap. 6.2 Hebr. 11.7 2 Peter 2.5 1 John 5.19 Again in other places it doth also properly intend onely the Professors or Believers in CHRIST as in these Scriptures John 12.19 Rom. 11.12 15. John 17.21 23. Now all that can be said or declared from these fore-mentioned Scriptures where the word world or all is expressed where the Death of CHRIST is declared or Reconciliation by him is to you very doubtfull whether it be to every one or onely Believers and therefore seeing that a doubtfull supposition is no foundation for infallible conclusions nor to end any controversie in discourse because supposition is as strong in the one as the other and convinces none but produceth disputes in all therefore I shall in my Answer not possitively conclude from but set them aside in this discourse and draw my proof as I told you before either from Scripture or Reason that doth arise no other way then from an absolute necessity So now to my Affirmation which is that CHRIST died for every man but not for alike First that he died for every man for the proof of that see 1 Tim. 4.10 he is the Saviour of every man but especially so there is a common salvation by CHRIST intended to all This truth is also made good in 2 Pet. 2.1 where he declares some men to be men of destruction and tells them that they had denied the Lord that bought them so that wicked men and men of destruction were comprehended in the purchase of CHRIST further see Heb. 2.9 Now I shall shew you what I do intend in it and my Grounds for it besides what already hath been said consider all men were comprehended in Adam according to Scripture Rom. 5.12 And what God speaks as to blessing and cursing when he speaks to Adam Gen. 2.17 saying In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death now Adam when he eat fell all men fell in him and came under this curse according to these Scriptures Rom. 5.12 15 17. 1 Cor. 15.21 22. Now what the Lord saith must be true and exactly performed which was in the very day when he eat he must die which word death doth comprehend death in every sense Now had not JESUS CHRIST been brought forth by the Lord to step between the pronunciation of the curse and the act meriting and the execution of the curse man must immediately have died or else God had not been exact in his Word but we know he is Now CHRIST was brought forth to bear the wrath of the Lord and the satisfaction of his Justice in that great breach and gap that man had made and so CHRIST was the Saviour of every man from the execution of that curse and they have some time to live here in the world or else their destruction had been in their conception either of all or so many as CHRIST did not undertake for for Gods Word is exactly true in all things So that in the first sense CHRIST is the Saviour of all men from the execution of that curse at which time and in which purchase the world is no longer Gods upon the old account but as it is the inheritance of JESUS CHRIST according to Psalm 1.8 Heb. 1.5 6. Matt. 22.3 8. applied to the 42. where God hath given the utmost part of the earth and Nations of the Heathen to CHRIST for his portion so it comes to pass that mercy is extended according to these Scriptures both to the just and unjust Matth. 5.45 Psalm 145.9 Eccles 9.2 Psalm 36.6 Secondly CHRIST by his Death doth not onely free the Creature from the immediate execution of that curse but he hath also taken them from under the dreadfull killing power of that state which man was in when he fell which was to lie under the fire and killing appearances of God in that killing Law nothing standing between God as fire and they as stubble but he hath brought them into a state and under the authority of himself

saith in his Book he declares a cause in all the seven things yet he shews you no cause why God should love us Now election or chusing is so considered in the singularity of his love and doth so live in the bowels of it that there is no more cause for the one than there is for the other and he requires nothing without himself to beget or maintain that in himself for us And now the thing I would have you consider followeth Thirdly consider what we minde by election it consisteth in Gods foreknowledg wherein he was pleased from all eternity in the riches of his grace and love to pitch upon and make choice of some in a peculiar sense to be vessels of glory whom he elected in the election of his Son who was the publick person comprehending the whole and this prerogative of God and privilege to us is not to be decyphered or discovered like as other privileges are for the death of Christ and our faith in Christ these have the time of their rise reign and perfection but for the other privilege it is done in God and with God without relation to any thing without himself it onely depends upon the prerogative of his will and his good pleasure according to these Scriptures Rom. 9.16 18 21 22. Matth. 11.16 Luke 10.21 Therefore when we speak of causes we must make a distinction between what is done by God out of God and what is done by God in God and whatsoever is done in the last sense hath no rise but himself and his own pleasure and if you give not God this you must deny his Prerogative and prove that he may not do with his own what seems good unto him which is contrary to these Scriptures Matth. 20.15 Exod. 33.19 Rom. 9.15 16 18 20 23. Now besides what hath been already said to prove that faith is but an effect and not the cause of election minde these Reasons First if election be before men have faith then faith cannot be a cause but it must be an effect but election is before we have faith Ergo. The Major is not to be questioned The Minor which is that election is before faith is proved from these Scriptures Acts 13.48 1 Tim. 1.9 Ephes 1.4 5. Reason 2. God is the first cause of causes and whatsoever doth take its rise or is immediate from him hath no other cause the truth of that you will see from the Scriptures before mentioned therefore faith must needs be an effect But besides all the Scriptures and Reasons I have brought Do but consider that election is not capable of being caused by any causes out of God for we are elected in the election of Christ and Christ did not merit his own election for his Death is not the cause of election though it be the meritorious cause and Gods great way to accomplish life and salvation If so be that faith is a cause of our election then election is subject to a cause and if in the lesser then in the greater but we know that in the greater which is the election of CHRIST in which general all particulars are comprehended it is not caused nor depends upon no condition or causes out of God but immediately flows from him and all other works and acts of grace and mercy done by God in CHRIST for us or by God in us towards CHRIST are the fruits of this fountain I mean Gods love in which Gods owning or chusing is so involved in it as it is one with it and both arise from one and the same fountain which is his own will and pleasure Now there being some that make Objections against this truth which peradventure may be the cause of your stumbling I shall in faithfulness to CHRIST and love to your soul mention some of them and give my answer to them First some there are as Henry Hagar in particular that do acknowledg this truth from these places of Scripture Ephes 1.4 where it is said that God hath chosen us in Christ before the world was And also the same in 1 Pet. 1 2. 2 Thess 2.13 Now though they acknowledg these words yet they endeavour to evade or turn the meaning another way by giving this answer from Rom. 4.17 where it is said that God declared unto Abraham that he hath made him the father of many Nations And in Rev. 13.8 CHRIST is said to be a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world Now from thence they reason thus The Apostle in Rom. 4.17 declaring the promise of God to Abraham saith that God calls those things that are not as though they were for saith he Abraham at that time was not the father of Isa●● in whom the Nations should be blest and yet God saith I have made thee the father of many Nations but saith he It was not so for the Apostle doth declare it saying he calls things that are not as though they were and so CHRIST is said to be a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world though he was not slain many thousand years after So saith he are we to understand election for the Scripture saith that he did chuse and elect us before the world was yet it was not so onely God calls things that were not as if they were therefore men saith he are not elected till they are called Now dear friend in the fear of the Lord as you tender the information of your own soul seriously consider what an evasion here is without any way in truth discovering what the Apostle intends in these expressions for without controversie when God said I have made thee a father of many Nations he spake truth without any such evasion as our carnal wits will prompt us to believe But that I may give an Answer to this Objection judging that if that cover were removed the truth would lie naked I desire you to minde in Answer to it these Particulars First in every action there is these three things to be considered 1. The life or virtue of the Act. 2. The fruit of the Act. 3. The form of the Act. The life of the Act is that which produceth the form the fruit of the Act lives in the life and is spoke out or brought forth by the form had not this bin so the sin of Adam could never have brought a curse upon his posterity for the life of his act was in unity in all that were comprehended in his person and the evil fruit of his act took place upon all in that sense when it took place upon him but the manifestation or execution of this took place successively as Creatures were brought forth and so it appears the form of the act was to be made manifest according unto the succession or appearance of forms in Creatures but the life of the act from whence the denomination of the act comes was really acted and executed in Adam so in the promises of God to Abraham you are to look upon the life

you know that every effect is caused by a cause suitable to it self and every thing is producible in its proper element if so then a state of nature cannot produce a work that is spiritual 3. It is called a rising or quickning from the dead Ephes 2.1 5. Colos 3.1 Can the dead raise it self or can that which is dead quicken it self without a power beyond it self 4. It is to deny a mans self Matth. 16.24 Mank 8.34 Self cannot deny it self in no consideration but it must be by a power above and beyond it 5. It is a killing or mortifying Rom. 8.13 Col. 3.5 Now the power killing or mortifying 〈◊〉 above the thing killed or mortified Fourthly consider what man is before this work is wrought 1. He is not onely in sin but dead in sin Ephes 2.1 5. 2. He is without God without grace and without hope Ephes 2.12 3. They are in blindness Isai 29.18 chap. 35.5 chap. 42.7 And till this supernatural light by God be set up in the soul he cannot see nor know the things of God in a spiritual and saving sense 4. He is in a state of enmity and is an enemy to God and to the Gospel light and life Rom. 8.7 Col. 1.21 Rom. 5.10 5. They are children of wrath Ephes 2.3 Now summ up all together 1. That state which is a state of death 2. A state of being without God and grace 3. Of so much blindness 4. A state of enmity to God and to the light and life of the Gospel 5. A state wherein men are children of wrath I say consider this and minde what the work of Faith or the new Birth is lay both together and you will be forced to say that the highest improvement of nature while men are in nature is not capable of nor able to perform it I shall say no more to this fourth Particular which is for the making good of the seventh Position to wit that Faith that is produced in obedience to Truth by the discoveries of the Gospel of CHRIST is that which nature in the highest improvements before conversion is not capable of performing I would come to the next thing but there is one or two Objections by the way which I judg some may make against what I hav● spoke as to the insufficiency of creatures to such work and therefore in way of Query for your satisfaction that nothing may be left undone to the utmost of my power to satisfie and inform your judgment which in tenderness of love I desire to do I shall mention them and give you my Answer to them Query 1. This that you have spoke or declared seems to unpower the creature solely as if it had no power before the new birth which seems very contrary to Scripture which speaks of the creatures improving their Talent Answer As to any Gospel work or works relating to God in CHRIST that every creature is uncapable of and averse to nay an enemy to it before this appearing of God in the work of grace and yet this doth not at all deny but there is a power in the creature to do much more than at the present I can see the most natural men do therefore I beseech you that I may not destroy o●e Truth by maintaining another Consider what the Lord hath shewed me in the searching of the Scripture I shall lay down briefly in these Particulars 1. That every man naturally hath a Talent which he is bound by the Law of God to improve 2. That this Talent or Power in the highest improvement is but to answer the moral Law or so much of it as nature is capable of retaining 3. That they who do thus improve it do very much come up to the answering of the righteousness of the Law as Paul did before conversion Phil. 3.5 6. 4. When creatures do thus improve their Talent in the answer of the moral Law or so much as their nature is capable of Though there is an enmity between that in a Scripture sense and the righteousness of CHRIST yet CHRIST seems to have some kinde of love to that improvement and therefore you may see in Mark 10.21 when the young man came to him though he was unacquainted with saving grace yet in his improvements had very much answered the Law and therefore the Text saith CHRIST looked upon him and loved him so that such improvements of nature in answer to a Law is more pleasing to CHRIST than the embezling a mans Talent polluting of nature in the neglect of improvement 5. Consider If there be such a Power and such an improvement and so much owned certainly it is good for men to be exact in it And it is very much my judgment that God approves of and meets men there if so I think we are to wait upon God there And yet this will not prove that men have power by improvement of nature to work up their hearts in a Gospel sense for the entertaining of CHRIST though this improvement be a way to wait upon God in for even Gospel Ordinances or outward means of Grace is commonly that which God is met in and God meets souls there but yet that doth not prove that the Ordinances have power in themselves to bring up to grace nay if men so rest on them or look upon power in them not looking up to God above them then they are so far from coming to God that they and their performance is condemned and loathed by God according to these Scriptures Isai 1.11 12 13. 66.3 The same we are to consider in this and much more for I see clearly by Scripture there are more promises fixt to Gospel Ordinances than are to the improvements of natural abilities though both are good yet neither is able to bring up to Christ but in the highest abilities of either we are to consider the work of Grace or new Birth to be produced by the working of Gods mighty power above and beyond both and that appears clearly if you consider these Particulars 1. The case of the young man in the Gospel he had the highest improvements of nature of any I reade of but when CHRIST brings his improvements to the Touch stone of Gospel Principles he in his improvements left Christ Matth. 19.20 Mark 10.20 Luke 18.21 2. Consider that the work of Grace in a Gospel sense is of a nature far above and beyond the righteousness of the Law and that you will see in these Scriptures Rom. 9.31 32. Gal. 3.10 11 12. Phil. 3.8 9. Tit. 3.5 6 7. 3. When any soul that ever improved nature as Paul Phil. 3.5 6. or any other when once they are come to be brought home to Christ these moral improvements are so far from closing with this new work that it is soly to be laid aside and denied Phil. 3.8 9. Gal. 3. I mean in relation to a conjunction with CHRIST as having any ability or power performing the new Birth which is soly done of