Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	apostle_n	eternal_a	sin_n	4,819	5	4.9760	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33955	A cordiall for a fainting soule, or, Some essayes for the satisfaction of wounded spirits labouring under severall burthens in which severall cases of conscience most ordinary to Christians, especially in the beginning of their conversion, are resolved : being the summe of fourteen sermons, delivered in so many lectures in a private chappell belonging to Chappell-Field-House in Norwich : with a table annexed, conteining the severall cases of conscience which in the following treatise are spoken to directly or collaterally / preached and now published ... by John Collings.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1649 (1649)	Wing C5305; ESTC R24775	174,484	300

comes from heaven to call thee he dies for thee he sends messengers to invite thee he hath washed as filthy wretches as thou art If he hath not yet he can he never shewed the utmost of his free-grace he hath as much reason to save thee as ever he had to save any of his Saints for themselves He never took penny-worth of merit with any He shall have the more glory by how much thou art more unworthy Free-grace shall more shew it self Thou if once forgiven wilt love him the more Other great sinners will be ready to trust in him from thy example Come now turn beleeve eschew evill do good Though your sins were as scarlet they shall be as snow Though as crimson they shall be white as wooll SERM. V. LUKE 17. 5. Lord increase our Faith I Am come now to Sathans last block that he ordinarily layes for the beleever to stumble upon in the way of beleeving when he cannot perswade them to despair of their interest in Gods hidden decree nor yet in regard of the hardnesse of their own heart nor yet in respect of their unworthinesse But the poor soul looks above all these to the Lord Jesus Christ then he shoots his last arrow by suggesting to the foul such thoughts as these But what if I have sinned against the Holy-ghost That generall rule Mat. 12. 31. All sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven hath a particular exception But whosoever blaspemes the Holy-ghost shall never be forgiven And if I be within that I have nothing to do with the generall promise Now Sathan having here to do with a poor credulous soul that is far easier to beleeve evill then any good of it self hath the fuller blow at it and followes on while the iron is hot he knows if he can but juggle the soul into this perswasion beleeving is at an end And as there are very many whom he either first or last batters with this engine of death so in regard of the weaknesse and ignorance of the most of Christians especially in the beginning of their conversion there are not a few that are wounded with this dart and will hardly be beaten out of that groundlesse conceit that they have really and indeed sinned that unpardonable sin against the Holy-ghost which occasions possibly many a dayes sadnesse and dejection groundlessely Now in regard that this temptation is entertained ordinarily through a defect of knowledge and understanding of what ingredients that compounded wickednesse is made off I shall in speaking to the satisfaction of a poor soul under this complaint Speak something concerning the nature of that sin which if once truely understood will be enough of it self to let such poor souls see how groundlessely they have yielded to that temptation of Sathan Cap. 5. How to satisfie a poor soul that conceives that it hath sinned the sin against the Holy-ghost and therefore ought not may not beleeve ALas saith a poor Christian Why do you tell me of beleeving The Complainant I know sir there is a fulnesse and freenesse of mercy in Iesus Christ for poor sinners yea though their sins have been many and great But I am sure the sin against the Holy-ghost shall never be forgiven and I and confident that very sin have I committed I have sinned against light and knowledge I have had blasphemous thoughts and have in heart denied Christ and been tempted to deny the truth of Iesus Christ c. Now to the satisfaction of a poor soul under this perplexity of spirit let me speak something First By way of premise Secondly By way of consideration First By way of Premise It is a truth that there is such a sin may be committed as is the sin against the Holy-ghost and being committed it is unpardonable That such a sin there is is plain from severall places of Scripture Mat. 12. 31. Mat. 12. 31. But the blasphemy against the Holy-ghost shall never be forgiven men Mark and Luke both make mention of the same passage of truth from our Saviours mouth Mar. 3. 28. Mar. 3. 28. Lu. 12. 10. The Apostle Iohn makes also mention of it Lu. 12. 10. 1 Ioh. 5. 16. There is a sin to the death 1 Ioh. 5. 16. And the Apostle to the Hebrews in two Chapters makes a more full and specifical discovery Heb. 6. 4 5 6. and 10. 26 27. Heb. 6. 4 5 6 7. and 10. 26 27. It is called the sin against the Holy ghost not that it is onely against the third person in the Trinity Vsher who is the Holy-spirit Vrsia for the sin is against the whole Trinity Pareus the three persons making but one divine Essence but because it is a direct opposition and resistance of the light of knowledge with which the Holy-ghost hath enlightned the heart of him that hath committed it 〈◊〉 Trinitatis ad extra lunt indivisa for although the work of enlightning be a work of the God-head without it self and so a work of all the three persons jointly according to the known rule of Divinity yet it is a worke which in the order of working is ordinarily attributed to the third person in Trinity There is such a sin called by Christ Blasphemy against the Holy-ghost he being that Person whose office it is in the order of the God-heads working to enlighten the mindes with knowledge of the truth Eph. 1. 17 18. Eph. 1. 17 18. Heb. 6. 4. Secondly This sin once committed is unpardonable Heb. 6. 4. this is also directly proved from those forementioned places in the Gospel Mat. 12. 31. 1 Ioh. 5. 16. c. Heb. 6. 4. and therefore is called by the Apostle Iohn The sin unto death In respect of the end and punishment of it Secondly It is as true that the elect ones cannot commit this sin Ioh. 10. 28. or ever be guilty of it Christ hath said He hath given unto them eternall life and they shall not perish 2 Tim. 2. 19 The foundation of God standeth sure 2 Tim. 2. 19. They shall be kept through the power of God unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. 1 Pet. 1. 5. They that fall away were never in nor ever of the number of the elect for if they had been of them they would no doubt have continued with them But in that they go out and fall away it is that they might be made manifest they were not of them 1 Epist of Iohn 2. 19. Who so sin First Can never be saved Christ hath said These shall never perish Secondly They can never repent and beleeve Christ hath ordained that the elect shall repent and beleeve and although they may slip and fall yet he hath ordained they shall rise again and by repentance be recovered These things being premised Let me come in the next place to propound some considerations that being seriously meditated and made use of may serve to stay and comfort and settle the

the Spirit hath not the Spirit of prophesie For those Scriptures which it is necessary in point of salvation every beleever should know every beleever understands the nature of them God hath made the water shallow that the Lambs may wade but for those places through which the beleevers passages do not lie to Heaven in which the Elephants may swim God doth not require that every Lambe should sound those depths Fifthly A Christian may be so farre ignorant in the fundamentalls as that he cannot make them out and yet be a true beleever he may be ignorant in the particulars by which the generals are demonstrated as for example he may know that Christ dyed for him and rest upon the merits of his death for eternall life and so truly beleeve and yet not be able to make this out by reason of his ignorance how Christ being God should be capable of death how the humane and divine Nature were conjoyned hee may know that Christ satisfied by his active obedience for his actuall sinne and yet not perfectly understand how Christ being man should be free from sinne being conceived by the Holy Ghost The boyes Exercise may be true Latin though he cannot pierce every word The Disciples were beleevers yet were ignorant concerning the Resurrection yea concerning Christs union with the Father Luk. 24. 25. Ioh. 14. 4 5 6. The knowledge may bee cleare to them in the generall though through their infirmity and ignorance they be not able to cleare it up in the severall particulars Lastly They may bee so farre ignorant in the substantialls of Religion as that they cannot dispute them The faculty of beleeving and the art of disputing are two things I may know and beleeve that which I cannot maintaine upon dispute It is a knowne speech of that female Martyr I cannot dispute but I can dye for Christ if she had not beleeved she would not have dyed she could maintain her faith with her blood which shee could not maintaine with her tongue As every Scholler so every beleever is not a disputant It is good Logick in Divinity for the Christian to hold the conclusion though he knowes not what to say to the Sophisters premises But lest now some should thinke and say that I have laid Heaven a little too wide open I must limit what I have said with two Cautions To satisfie the poore doubting Christian in point of ignorance I have laid downe the truth in these Conclusions and shewed you how farre it is possible that a man may bee ignorant and yet a true Beleever But First It must bee provided hee bee not content with this ignorance but useth the meanes to increase knowledge searcheth the Scripture and heares the Word that this ignorance proceeds meerly out of infirmity not of wilfulnesse otherwise this knowledge will not bee sufficient It is given as the character of unbeleevers 2 Pet. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 3. That they were willingly ignorant Wee have an High-Priest who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for as much as hee also was compassed about with infirmity Heb. 5. 2. But for the wilfully ignorant the High-Priest was to offer no Sacrifice Know therefore Christian that thou canst have no comfort that thou beleevest though thou beest ignorant unlesse appealing to thine owne heart thou canst say I have done what I can to dispell these mists of ignorance and learne the whole truth of God Christ Jesus will take the blind man by the hand Mar. 8. 23 24 25. if he beseecheth him to touch him provided hee be willing to receive his sight And as hee did not cast off the blinde man that at first saw men walking like Trees So hee will not cast off the Christian that at his first illumination sees divine truths like Trees not clearely distinctly and fully but as he dealt with that blinde man hee left him not there but hee put his hands againe upon him and made him see every man clearly So if thou belongest to Christ hee will put his hands againe upon thee and make thee see every portion of his divine truth more clearely hee will make thy dawning twilight be growing up to a mid-day of knowledge ● Pet 3. 18. Therefore Saint Peter layes it as his necessary injunction upon Beleevers That they should grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ That 's the first Caution Secondly this gnorance may bee consistent with true Faith in thee provided thou dost not deny the truth that thou dost not know Thou mayest have faith though thou dost not know what the Trinity is or how it is but if thou denyest the Trinity I make a question of thy truth of faith or possibility of salvation Ignorance of some truths is not damnable but the denyall of every truth when revea●ed is damnable want of a cleare knowldge is not damnable but denyall of the truth because thou canst not clearely make it out is damnable Speak not evill of what thou knowest not but wait untill and pray that God would reveale it unto thee 1 Tim. 5. 8. 1 Tim. 5. 8. He hath denyed the Faith and is worse then an infidell There was a great difference betwixt the Disciples that had not yet learnt and the Sadduces that denyed the Resurrection I never yet learnt or read that any of the latter were beleevers the Disciple had not yet known the Father nor yet the son well Ioh. 14. 7 8 9. Io. 14 7 8 9. But the Apostle sayes He is Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Sonne Ignorance of truth will be borne with but denyall of truth shall not Take heed of denying the truths thou dost not know Thus I have shewed you how true Faith may consist with doubtings concerning the point of knowledge which though it be not properly called an act of faith yet it is supposed in the lowest act and to satisfie you I have shewed you what ignorance may be consistent with true Faith and what not and with what Cau●ions a Christian may bee comforted concerning his faith notwithstanding his ignorance in some truths and some things not unnecessary to be known The Eighth SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith CHAP. 9. Concerning those doubts and weaknesses which may consist with true Faith in respect to its act of Assent and how to comfort a soule under such troubles I Shall now go on to shew you what doubts a Christian that truely beleeves may have consistent with his Assent which I laid down as the first act of faith for knowledge is rather supposed to faith then an act of it You may remember I told you Assent is an act of faith whereby the Beleever doth firmly fully and clearly agree to the truth of God revealed in his Word Now sayes the doubting Christian Alas I have no faith I scarce assent to the Word of God at all or if I

sinned against knowledge Thirdly Therefore consider This sin which is the unpardonable sin must be a setled sin of thy own continued in without repentance and will be more then a sin of thy heart That it is first begot in the heart as all other sin is is a truth but it goeth out of it blasphemy is properly committed with the tongue without question the heart and tongue and hand have all a portion in this sin unpardonable but it is not in the thought onely Besides 2. It may be thy blasphemous thoughts which thou hast in thy heart are none of thine own for such thoughts there are oft times in a Christian that are meerly cast in by Sathan into the soul neither bred in nor nursed by the soul nor delighted in but are like the childe that was dead laid by the true mother by another womans side It is a little question whether these thoughts be sins or no if spurned out and rejected by thee whether they shall be put upon thine or upon Sathans score The contrary is determined by most of our divines to answer for It is by all granted that if they be sins they are the least of sins as suppose I should have a thought in my heart that there is no Christ but he whom the Gospel speaks of were an impostor I know not how this thought came there I have a suggestion to beleeve it but my heart rises against it cries avoid Sathan I pray against it humble my self that my base heart should ever have such a guest for my part I make a great question whether these thoughts be a souls sins any more then if a strumpet should come and lay a childe in an open porch or entry of an honest woman it would prove that the honest woman were the mother because the bastard lay in her entry or house unlesse the law so adjudged it in regard the door or entry was open So unlesse you will say that the heart sins by being no better shut then to let such a thought be thrust in questionlesse the very thought as a formall sinfull thought or motion is not the souls but Sathans But however if it be thy sin for which thou hast cause to be humbled Yet it is far from this sin this must be a constant owner and possessor of thy heart and a sin of a far higher nature then ten thousand such thoughts are Fourthly Thou sayest O but I have sinned many times against knowledge against the light of my conscience Consider therefore That though this sin be a sin aginst knowledge yet every sin against knowledge is not this sin Without question Iacob ●inned against knowledge in saying he was his fathers son His very son Esau and David in committing murther and adultery and Peter in denying his Master All these were sins against knowledge and yet none of them sins against the Holy-ghost It must be a sin against the knowledge 1. Of a divine Truth 2. Of some fundamentall truth of the Gospel 3. Distinctly made known to thee This is plain from the sixth of the Heb. 4 5 6. and 10. 26. And from the Pharisees commission of this sin Mat. 12. 31. They were ●onvinced of it as a truth that Jesus Christ was the 〈◊〉 of God and did those miracles he did by the power of the Divine Nature yet sinned in their saying before the people This man casteth out Devils by Beelzeb●● the Prince of Devils Sins of knowledge against the law directly are far from this sin also the sin of our first parents it is a sin against the enlightening grace of the spirit of God yea though thou hast denied some truth not fundamentall c. Indeed for all such sins as these are thou hast very great cause to be humbled Christian and to ●it down and mourn bitterly that these wickednesses may be forgiven and doing so thou needst not despair of the pardon of them But alas saith a poor Christian I have in a passion or sicknesse when I knew it was the hand of God blasphemed God or I have at such a time for fear of threats of death denied the work of God and the truth of God c. Fifthly Therefore consider That though the deniall of thy knowledge and the truth of God be a great piece of this sin yet it is not enough to constitute it and besides it must be another manner of deniall then that which thou complainest of It must be a deliberate and advised deniall not rash and sudden It is not enough to constitute this sin for there must be a blasphemy Secondly An opposition to it Secondly It is true that deniall is an ingredient in this unpardonable ●in But it must be 1. A wilfull deniall free not arising from fear Peter so denied his Master and many of the Martyrs denied yea and abjured the Faith But either First Sathan by his temptations Secondly Or the weaknesse of their flesh occasioned it for they at the same time loved Christ and the truth of Christ 2. It must be a deniall on purpose to discredit the truth out of a venome and malice of heart to it I may deny a fundamentall truth in an argument and disputation to see how another can prove it yet I have not sinned the sin against the Holy-ghost I hope 3. It must be a constant deniall If they shall fall away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies falls all in shatters so as an old rotten house not well at first put together Comfort thy self therefore Christian thou hast not sinned the sin against the Holy-ghost though thou hast possibly inadvisedly spake with thy lips yea though through the violence of Sathans temptations and wickednesse or weaknesse of thy heart for fear thou hast denied thy Saviour and his truth onely go out and weep bitterly renew thy love regain thy favour confesse him before men Thus many of the Martyrs did rending their recantations or abjurations and suffring Martyrdom gloriously But yet will some poor Christian say Alas yet I fear I have sinned this sin I have hated such a godly man envied that goodnesse which I saw in him I could hardly endure such a man whom I am confident is the Saint of God c. Consider therefore in the sixth place Sixthly That the hatred and envy of every godly man nor every envy of his goodnesse or every opposition against him for it doth not make thee guilty of this unpardonable sin It is possible thou mayest hate a man that is a godly man for some civill injury he hath done thee or thy friend possibly thou maye●● do it ignorantly verily thinking he is nought possibly thy envy of him may be an emulation not being sorry that the truth lives in him but angry to see the graces of Gods spirit live in him and not thee these now are far from unpardonable sins nor is every opposition of the truth of Jesus Christ or the professors of the truth an opposition