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	grace_n	sin_n	4,888	5	5.2180	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26832	Vulgar errors in divinity removed	Battell, Ralph, 1649-1713.	1683 (1683)	Wing B1150; ESTC R10796	49,392	154

it but also lay it to their charge that it was not efficacious as it might have been if they had actively concurred and cooperated with it he should not only be a mocker of men but also under colour of kindness make a way to his wrath and indignation which is far from the candor and nature of God who is always merciful and serious in his offers of Grace If it be said he doth not mock us but justly challenge from us that lost power which he once gave us as a Creditor may justly challenge from a Prodigal that money he hath spent and hath not now to pay Some are of opinion that it is not the Prodigals fault now that he doth not pay if he be willing to pay and hath it not but his fault was only this that he brought himself into that condition And so it is not a fault that he which cannot receive grace doth not receive it but a sad consequence only of his former sin which brought this impotency upon him for which he ought to be pitied not upbraided if he desire to receive it Others answer it befits the goodness of God in the New Covenant of Grace made with mankind to allow sufficient strength of grace to perform the conditions of that Covenant in such a measure as he for Christs sake would accept Or else 1. The Covenant of Works would be more gracious than the Covenant of Grace for under that mankind had strength allowed him Adam did not fall for want of power to stand Or else 2. The New Covenant should leave a man in a worse condition than it found him for the abounding of grace would make his sin abound being sure to be always refused But Christ is the Mediator of a better Covenant every way considered a more gracious than that of Works and Gods primary intent in giving it was not to make sin but to make grace abound I only ask a question if Zeleucus put out both the eyes of an Adulterer for Adultery and then offer him his Book to read and hang him because he cannot read was the offer of the Psalm of mercy a mercy to him or a mockery So if God first justly blind our understanding and harden our hearts as a punishment of our sin in Adam and then make us a tender of grace in Christ but never open our understandings to see it nor soften our hearts so far that if we will we may embrace it but all his offers are upon impossible terms to be accepted whether the case be not alike and Parallel 6. Lastly it is objected that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 Where you see say they St. Paul attributes both the will and the deed to the grace of God I answer the meaning of the Apostle is that God gives us a power to will and still assists us with his grace till we bring that power into Act and so a man works out his own Salvation and he ought to do it with fear and trembling that is he ought with reverence and godly fear stand in aw lest when God inables him to work he be wanting to himself and to the grace of God lest he grieve and quench the Spirit and cause him to depart But if a man concur only subjectively and passively to pious works as they would have it then it must be said or may truly be said at least that God in us believes repents of sin and doth all other gracious Acts which how absurd and blasphomous it would be I leave the world to judge It is said our Saviour marvelled at their unbelief but if it be as they say I marvel why he should marvel for he knew before-hand they could do nothing and he was resolved not to do all things alone to bring them to the Faith But certainly he had good cause to marvel that when he afforded them such a measure of Grace as would have converted Tyre and Sidon and would have made Niniveh repent in Sackcloath and ashes they should be so wilful and obdurate that it made no kindly impression upon them If any thing had been wanting on his part to have brought them to the Faith he would not have upbraided them with their unbelief or have shamed them by the very Heathen nor have denounced a more intolerable measure of damnation against them if there had not been offered them superabundant advantages of Grace I conclude therefore with the Father Sola voluntas ardet in gehennâ which I will English thus Wilful men will want no woe Vulgar Errors CONCERNING REDEMPTION Removed SAint Paul comparing the First and Second Adam together shews us the hurt we received by the disobedience of the First and the benefits we receive by the obedience of the Second For Adam and Christ are to be considered as two roots as we proceed from the one we are of the wild Olive but as we are engraffed into the other we contrary to our natures partake of the good Olive Now look what loss Mankind did receive by the one it was the good pleasure of our good God that the same benefit Mankind should recover by the other When the Apostle says many dead by Adam he says many made alive by Christ When men condemned by Adam he says all justified by Christ now what he thus makes equal for men to dis-equalize to such a degree as not one of many to be redeemed though all in Adam were lost is not to make a much more on Christs side but a much less Contrary to the Apostle who all along puts the redundancy on Christs part that where sin abounded grace superabounded that as sin reigned unto death so grace did reign unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now sin did reign over all men without exception unto death therefore grace must have a proportionable reign unto life Christ must fulfil on his part what appertained to the procuring the Salvation of all or else the Salve is not so broad as the Sore which yet the Apostle hath been proving at large in the fifth Chapter to the Romans Our Church rightly grounding her Faith upon the Scriptures teaches most truly that Christ died for all men in her Catechism she teaches the Child to answer I believe in God the Son who redeemed me and all mankind and in her Collect for Good Friday prays for all Jews Turks and Insidels that God would bring them home to his Flock that there may be one Fold under one Shepherd Suppose God to hear the Prayers of his Church and to bring these to the knowledge of Christ I demand Hath Christ any salvation in him for these men or no If he hath sure I am he purchased it with his bloud and so died for them If not our Church is mistaken in praying such may be brought to Christ for salvation who hath no salvation in him for such or ever laid down his life a

ransom for them But certainly he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him For as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation So by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life If Christ did not redeem all it was either because he was not able or because he was not willing to do it If you say he was not able you blaspheme the power and vertue of his death for St. John tells us If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the Propitiation not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world If you say not willing you blaspheme his goodness who would have all men sav'd and is not willing that any should perish 2 Pet. 3.9 If any part of Mankind left unredeemed Christ must needs be willing that part of mankind should perish else he would have redeemed them without which he saw they must perish Nothing could hinder but his Will for he might have redeemed all at the same rate but he was not willing any should perish therefore it roundly follows he left none unredeemed When we urge those Scriptures which assert universal Redemption their answers are so weak that it would make a man pity the strength of a wrong byassed education that will not let them see that their answers are mere frivolous evasions When we urge that of the Apostle 2 Pet. 2.1 Some deny the Lord that bought them they answer he bought them for Slaves and not for Children Now I would fain know what slavish work Christ hath to do for his redeemed ones whose service is perfect freedom When we urge that place Heb. 2.9 That by the grace of God Christ should taste death for every man They answer Voluntate signi non beneplaciti that is he signifies so but he means not so If he means not so when he says so how shall we then know at any time by his words what he means When we urge God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son into the world that whosoever believes in him might not perish They answer by the world is meant only the Elect chosen out of the world That by the world in Scripture is often meant that Party of men in the world which is contrary to the Saints many places may be brought as the whole world stands in wickedness these are not of the world even as I am not of the world c. but that in this place God so loved the world by the world should be meant only the Elect I have not saith enough to believe and I am still to seek for that place of Scripture where the Holy Ghost by the world meaneth only the Elect. In a word what Scriptures soever we bring to prove that Christ paid a price for all mankind they reply to us that Christ paid a price for all sufficiently but not intentionally Now I appeal to the universal reason of all Mankind whether if Titius and Sempronius be in slavery he that paid nothing for Titius can be said to pay for him what was sufficient to bring him out of Captivity because he paid more for Sempronius ransom than would have bought it and which Sum if he had designed it so might have redeemed Titius also That such weak answers as they bring should satisfie any rational men must be imputed meerly to the strength of prejudice and prepossession If Christ died for all says St. Paul then were all dead 2 Cor. 5.14 By all say they were meant only all the Elect Then say I by vertue of the Antithesis only the Elect were dead but in Adam Elect and Reprobate are alike dead therefore the Apostles meaning cannot be that Christ died only for the Elect for all were dead both Elect and Non-elect and he died for all that were dead Christ in no wise took upon him the nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham to shew that he came not to redeem the lost Angels but Mankind that was lost Now if any of Mankind were left out of this Redemption Christ should tender their Salvation no more than the Salvation of the Devil and his Angels but he doth not leave the most of men in as hopeless and helpless a condition as he left the Devil and his Angels whose nature he never took upon him It shall never be laid to the charge of a wicked Angel that he did not believe in Christ but it shall be laid to the charge of a wicked man that he did not believe in Christ which plainly shews he did more to redeem a wicked man than a wicked Angel It should not be a sin in a wicked man to refuse Christ as his Saviour if he be not his Saviour unless he thought him so to be and yet refused him but it must necessarily be always a sin to refuse Christ whether a wicked refuser of him think him a Saviour or no because in deed and truth he is the Redeemer of all mankind He came to seek and to save that which was lost but all mankind was lost therefore he came to seek and to save all Mankind Mar. 16.15 Christ bids his Disciples preach the Gospel to every Creature that is offer life and salvation to all in case Christ should offer it to all when he hath purchased it but for a few there would be matter of disparagement in it For what makes us despise Mountebanks as one says well but that they promise more than they are able to perform Therefore seeing he bids us preach the Gospel to every Creature the glad tidings of the Gospel belongs to every Creature and we are to exhort every man to believe in Christ and promise him life and salvation if he do which thing we could not truly do if he laid down his life but for a few and paid no ransom for the most of mankind This Doctrine of our Church that Christ redeemed all mankind hath no malignant influence in it at all which makes me admire why men are so bitter against it If it were not true yet methinks even for humanity sake we should wish it were true and not to be so narrow hearted as to desire salvation only for our selves That must needs be the best good which is most diffusive and wherein most may partake If Moses was so affectionate to the Souls of a provoking poople as to pray after this manner for them O Lord forgive their sin and if not blot me out of the book which thou hast written as if his own happiness could not please him unless it might be accompanied with the happiness of his people how can we chuse but be enlarged with love and gratitude unto God that he hath reconciled the world unto himself and how chearfully should we publish that glad tidings If St. Paul was so diffusive of his charity as to wish himself accursed from