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	sin_n	wage_n	4,685	5	10.8916	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19550	A sermon of predestination preached at Saint Maries in Oxford: by Ri: Crakanthorp.	Crakanthorpe, Richard, 1567-1624.	1620 (1620)	STC 5980; ESTC S109016	48,771	52

sake hee slacketh his comming yet as before we haue proued it is the absolute will and decree of God concerning the reprobate and refuse of the world that they shall perish in their sinnes and runne headlong of their owne accord into the pit of destruction prouided and ordained for them O but say they this can not stand with the Iustice of God that he should ordaine any or create them vnto everlasting death and that for no other cause but that it is his will and pleasure For death is the reward of sinne and not of Gods ordinance or decree Wretched men who being besotted with a spirit of blindnesse and daring to reprehend that which they do not comprehend doe most ignorantly confound those two acts of Gods decree which in this cause of the Reprobation of men are diligently and necessarily to be distinguished The former is Negatiue and that is the eternall purpose and decree of God not to shew mercy nor giue his grace vnto them nor to pull them out as we doth the elect but leaue them in that masse of sinne and most wofull state whereinto both they and the elect vvere now together falne The other is Positiue and that is the eternall purpose and decree of God to inflict that euerlasting punishment vpon them which is most instly deserued by that sinne into which they wilfully fall and in which they stil abide pursuing sinne with all greedinesse We neuer say nor so much as once think that God either condemneth any or appoints them vnto death without their owne most iust deserts God himselfe teacheth vs this lesson Hos. 13. 9. Thyperdition O Israel is of thy selfe and the Apostle saying Rom. 6. 23. that the wages of sinne is death cleerely witnesseth vnto all that eternall death is as duely earned by the wicked and paid vnto them for their iust recompence and hire as is the wages by any master to his labourer or seruant And herein is that true which S. Austen saith God is both good and iust Hee may without our good deserts free vs because he is good but hee cannot without our ill deserts condemne vs because he is iust Yea in that last and great Day when God shall sit in his Throne of iudgement the wicked and reprobate forced to confesse their faults written in their conscience as in a large booke shall then acknowledge both their owne deserts and the Iustice of God in rewarding them with the due wages of their sinnes It is not then the will and pleasure of God as they maliciously slander but their owne great and hainous transgressions for which they are punished and for which God from all eternitie decreed to punish them sinne onely is the cause of this later and positiue act in Gods decree But for the former Negatiue act in their reiection whereby God ordained that when all mankinde was alike guilty before him all included in that one and the selfesame masse of perdition into which by their owne voluntary transgression all mankinde had plunged it selfe for in ●Adam all men sinned and so death and Gods wrath went ouer all that hee would not then in mercy pull these out of that masse and make of them vessels of glory but in iustice leaue them in that their sinfull and wofull estate to be vessels of wrath leaue them to their owne lusts destitute of his grace that so they might runne out the race of their sinnes and be as it were fatted for the day of slaughter the cause of this act I say is the very will of God which though we may not doubt but that being his will who is most wise it is also most reasonable grounded both vpon most iust wise and diuine reasons such as perhaps in the life to come shall be made euiden● vnto vs yet hereof no other reason can possibly be giuen by vs nor ought to bee sought for in this mortall life but onely this I will haue mercy on whom I will and whom he will he hardneth that is he wil not shew mercy vnto them Now why should this seeme vniust vnto thee O thou disputer against God It is as the Apostle tels thee the will of God whose will seeing he is infinitely wise is euer most iust yea it is the very rule of all perfect iustice Again in that thou art a creature thou art none of thine owne but thou art wholly Gods Is it not lawfull for me to doe with my owne what I will saith the hous-holder in the Gospell and shall it not be lawfull for God to doe and to dispose of his owne as it best pleaseth him Shall the Potter without controulement frame of the same lumpe of clay one vessell to honour another to dishonour onely because it so pleaseth him and wilt thou which art but dust and ashes aske a reason of God why of that one lumpe of sinne fit for nothing at all but to make vessels of dishonour he made thee rather then another a vessell of dishonour which of a silly Potter thou wouldest blush and be ashamed to aske Nay the Apostle saith of the Potter that he hath not only power but euen authoritie a rightfull power for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth to frame the clay as he listeth and of what part thereof he wil to make a vessel either for honor or dishonour How much more is there authoritie and a rightfull power in God ouer all men For the Potter made not the clay but God made yea created vs of nothing and the Potter though by much and many degrees he excell the clay yet still the oddes and difference is finite But God infinitely excelleth all mankinde and therefore his authoritie is infinitely more ouer vs all then is the Potter ouer the least parcell of Clay Yea thou thy selfe wilt for thy own pleasure sport or glory kill and slay of thy Deere and fat of thy beasts which thou wilt for slaughter and yet because thou thinkest they are thy owne death it were for any of thy seruants to say to thee no lesse then to the man of sinne Domine cur ita facis yet thy beasts had no way offended thee but beene good and seruiceable vnto thee so that thou hadst onely the power of a Lord ouer them but thou hadst no cause of wrath and anger against them How much more may the Almighty for his glory designe or leaue which of all mankinde he pleaseth for the day of slaughter seeing both they all had by their rebellion against God incensed his wrath and prouoked his iust indignation against them and hee being the Lord of all Lords and Creator of heauen and earth hath infinitely more authority ouer them all then thou hast or canst haue ouer the least and meanest thing that thou doest possesse Lastly if God had beene indebted vnto thee or bound to shew thee mercy and fauour then mightst thou haue had some cause to

his appointment and Decree proceedeth both good and euill And yet when will these disputers either perswade others or resolue themselues vpon this their reason to set Cock on hoope as themselues speake that is to sit carelesse and secure to sleepe and sl●mber nor once trouble their mindes or bodies in the eager pursuite of the wealth and pelfe of this world because it God hath decreed or doe foresee that they shall haue wealth let them doe what they will sit still or ryot waste and lauish all they haue yet shall they sure abound seeing what God foreknoweth or fore-ordaineth shall most infallibly come to passe and if God decreeth or foreseeth that they shall be poo●e and miserable though they compasse Sea and Land and load themselues with all both the East and West Indian treasures yet by that vnresistable Decree of GOD they shall bee put all into bottomlesse bagges and liue and dye in a poore estate Or would not these men thinke that hee did scoffe and deride them who would in serious manner perswade them neuer to eate or drinke but rather to starue or stab themselues because if God who hath numbred all our dayes hath decreed or doth but foreknow that they shall yet liue twenty thirty or forty yeeres more doe whatsoeuer they will or can yet shall they attaine to that period prefixed or foreknowne of God and if God haue ●rdained or foreknoweth that they shall dye within a moneth or a yeere though they should eate nothing but the fruit of the Tree of Life and fill themselues with Nectar and Ambrosia yet could not all this immortall foode prolong their liues one houre or minute seeing the foreknowledge of God is without all errour and his ordinance without all change When they can by this their reason wherein they infinitely please themselues perswade either themselues or others to this carelesse nay franticke courses then may they with some colour perswade that our doctrine of the Prescience and Predestination of God will make men careles●e of their eternall saluation But if laying aside the pride and wantonnesse of their owne wits they could bee content to submit their reason to the wisedome of God they should easily discerne how their whole dispute in this and all like cases relyeth on no other stay then a broken staffe of Reede For did God either foreknow or fore-ordaine any of these ends without respect vnto the meanes which doe infallibly leade therevnto then had they some shew for their pretended reason But seeing it is most certaine that God neither de●reeth nor foreknoweth of any that the shall bee saued but withall hee both foreknoweth and decreeth that himselfe will make him to embrace those meanes and walke in those wayes which will bring him vnto life and seeing hee neither decreeth nor foreknoweth the damnation of any but of the same hee decreeth and foreknoweth that he will leaue them destitute of his grace to be led by their owne lusts into sinne and impenitency which is the infallible meanes to bring them vnto death 〈◊〉 most cleerely hence followeth that as none doe neglect or omit the meanes but the same also doe misse of the end so neither doe any euer faile to attaine the end who doe embrace the meanes that lead therevnto Whence it comes to passe that though none of the Elect can either misse of the end or neglect the meanes of saluation God by his grace directing them in the one and thereby leading them vnto the other yet vpon that suposall which they make if they should not beleeue nor vse the meanes of life it may yea it must be said that they should neuer attaine to to the end but eternally perish Euen as Saint Paul though hee knew that God had decreed and foretold him also that all who were with him in that dangerous tempest should come safe to Land and not so much as an hayre fall from the head of any all which himselfe certainly beleeued yet when the Mariners who were to bee the meanes of their safety were ready to fly away and leaue the rest to the rage of the sea hee conditionally and truely said that if the Mariners abode not in the ship that is if they vsed not the meanes of their ●afety appointed by God there could none of them be safe notwithstanding both the Decree Praescience and Prediction of GOD for their safety Againe though in respect of Gods immutable Decree and Praescience it bee simply impossible that any of the Reprobate should either beleeue repent and leade a sanctified life or bee saued yet euen of such it may and must bee sayd that if they performe those duties which are the meanes of life they shall asluredly attaine vnto the end to which those meanes doe leade which is eternall saluation Euen as our Sauiour though hee knew that God had decreed concerning Tyrus and Sydon two heathenish proud and prophane Cities that neither himself would worke those singes among them whereby they would haue beene conuerted and repent nor that they should either repent or bee saued ● yet conditionally and truely● said of those Cities that if those workes had beene done amongst them which were done in Chorazin and Bethsaida they would haue repented and so should haue haue beene saued The reason of all which and of all the like is that which the Logicians rightly teach that a conditionall proposition puts nothing in being that is requires not the being or being true of either part thereof but it onely shewes what must follow and be granted if such a condition bee admitted whether it bee true or false But leauing their disputes let now euery mans conscience iudge how vniustly they slander vs and this holy Doctine as an inticement vnto sinne and perswasion of securitie For seeing the Scriptures and the Spirit of God teach both that Predestination which wee haue deliuered and the immutabilitie thereof let them take heede lest in reuiling the teachers of this doctrine they do not blaspheme the Spirit of God himselfe For our selues wee will not desist first in generall to exhort all men to cease from doing euill and learne to doe well telling them with the Apostle Rom. 8. 13. If they liue after the flesh they shall dye but if they mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit they shall liue and with the same Apostle Galathians 6. 7. Whatsoeuer they s●we that shall they reape If they sowe vnto the flesh they shall reape corruption and death but if they sowe to the Spirit they shall reape life euerlasting Then for the Elect in particular Wee exhort them with Saint Paul to fight the good fight hauing faith and a good conscience with Saint Peter to g●ue all diligence to make their election sure and with Iohn Baptist to bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life For if they doe not this if they keepe not faith and sanctitie which are the Mariners to guide them to the