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
A54833	A correct copy of some notes concerning Gods decrees especially of reprobation / written for the private use of a friend in Northamptonshire ; and now published to prevent calumny.	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1655 (1655)	Wing P2170; ESTC R26882	69,017	81

blessed Saviour is call'd by the Apostle the Saviour of all men especially of them that beleeve 1 Tim. 4. 10. as if the Apostle had foreseen an objection that the word all might be restrained unto the houshold of Faith he prevents it by a distinction of general and special for if he is a special Saviour of beleevers he is a general Saviour of those that are unbeleevers not that unbeleevers can be saved whilest they are obstinate unbeleevers but upon Condition they will repent and beleeve else why should the Apostle affirm the Saviour to be of all and then come off with an especially to them that beleeve Certainly if it is every man's duty to beleeve in Christ Christ dyed for every man And this very argument is not easily answered in the very confession of Dr. Twisse who yet by and by saies 't is easily answered and yet he leaves it without an answer he only scornes it and lets it passe Twiss. in Respon. ad Armin. Praefat. p. 16. col 2. This is secondly confirm'd from the Apostle's way of arguing 2 Cor. 5. 14. If one died for all then were all dead This is the major Preposition of a hypothetical syllogisme in which the thing to be proved is that all were dead and the Medium to prove it is that one died for all Now every man knows that understands how to reason that the argument of proof must be rather more then lesse known then the thing in question to be proved so that if it be clear that all men were dead by the fall of the first Adam it must be clearer as S. Paul argues that life was offered unto all by the death of the second Adam and if none were died for but the Elect then the Elect only were dead for the word all must signifie as amply in the Assumption as it does in the Sequel or else the Reasoning will be fallacious and imperfect The Apostle thus argues If one died for all then were all dead But one died for all that must be the Assumption Therefore all were dead Whosoever here denies the Minor does before he is aware condemn the Sequel of the Major and so gives the Lie to the very words of the Text which I can look from none but some impure Helvidius who would conclude the greatest falshoods from the word of Truth This is thirdly confirmed from the saying of the Apostle Rom. 11. 32. that God concluded all in unbelief the Gentiles first vers. 30. and afterwards the Iewes vers. 31. that he might have mercy upon all from whence I inferre that if this last all belong to none but the Elect then none but the Elect were concluded in unbelief But 't is plain that all without exception were first or last concluded in unbelief therefore the mercy was meant to all without exception Lastly it is confirm'd from those false Prophets and false Teachers 2 Pet. 2. 1. who though privily bringing in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bringing upon themselves swift destruction yet it seems they were such whom the Lord had bought So far is God from being the Cause of mans destruction by an absolute irrespective unconditional Decree that he gave himself a ransome even for them that perish They were not left out of the bargain which was made with his Iustice but the Apostle tels us they were actually bought He whose bloud was sufficient for a thousand worlds would not grudge its extent to the major part of but one he was merciful to all men but the greatest part of men are unmerciful to themselves He is the Saviour of all but yet all are not saved because he only offers does not obtrude himself upon us He * offers himself to all but most refuse to receive him He will have no man to perish but repent by his Antecedent will but by his Consequent will he will have every man perish that is impenitent Which is sufficient to have been said for the negative part of my undertaking That the cause of Damnation is not on God's part in which if any one Text be found of power to Convince let no man cavil at those others which seem lesse Convincing If any one hath an objection let him stay for an answer till his objection is urged It might seem too easie to solve objections of my own choice or confute an argument of my own making and therefore I passe without notice of common shifts and subterfuges till I am call'd to that Drudgery to the second part of my enterprise which is the affirmative 16. That man himself is the cause of his eternal punishment Which though supposed in the negative must yet be proved to some persons who are prevailed upon by fashions and modes of speech and will deny that very thing when they see it in one colour which they will presently assent to when they behold it in another He who is very loth to say that God is the Author of sin and damnation will many times say it in other terms and therefore in other terms it must be proved that he is not O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thine help Hosea 13. 6. They that privily bring in Damnable Heresies shall bring upon themselves swift destruction The foolishnesse of man perverteth his way and as when lust conceiveth it bringeth forth sin so when sin is finished it bringeth forth death Iam. 1. 15. If death is that monster of which sin is the Dam that brings it forth how foul a thing must be the Sire and can there be any greater blasphemy then to bring God's Providence into the pedegree of Death Death saith the Apostle is the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. And wages is not an absolute but a relative word It is but reason he should be paid it who hath dearly earn'd it by his work It is the will of man that is the servant of sin Disobedience is the work Death eternal is the wages and the Devil is the pay-master who as he sets men to work to the dishonour of their Creator so he paies them their wages to the advancement of his glory From whence I Conclude with the Book of Wisdome God made not death neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living for he created all things that they might have their being and the generations of the world were healthful and there is no poyson of Destruction in them nor the kingdome of death upon the earth But ungodly men with their words and works call'd it to them and made a Covenant with it because they are unworthy to take {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} part with it 17. I will confirm this truth by no more then one Reason which if it is not the best doth seem to me to be the fittest as being aptest to evince both the connexion and necessity of my first inference from my first

Principle It is taken from the nature and use of Punishment which as soon as it is nam'd doth presuppose a Guilt for as every sin is the * transgression of some Law so every punishment is the revenge of some sin upon which it followes that if a mans sin is from himself 't is from himself that he is punisht And as the Law is not the Cause but the * Occasion only of sin so God is not the Cause but the inflicter only of punishment for so saies the Apostle Sin taking occasion by the Commandement wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law sin was dead That which is good not being made death but sin working death by that which is good God and his Law are each of them the Causa-sine-qua-non the Condition without which sin and punishment could not have been for without Law no sin and without God no Reprobation but not the Energetical efficient Cause of which sin and punishment were the necessary effects For if God had made a Hell by an absolute purpose meerly because he would that some should suffer it and not in a praevious intuition of their sins Damnation had been a Misery but not a Punishment as if a P●…tter makes a vessel on purpose that he may break it which yet none but a mad man can be thought to do or if a man meerly for recreation cuts up Animals alive which yet none ever did that I can hear of except a young Spanish Prince it is an Infelicity and a torment but no more a punishment then it is any thing else Indeed the Common people who do not understand the just propriety of words make no distinction many times betwixt Pain and Punishment not considering that Punishment is a Relative word of which the correlative is Breach of Law and therefore is fitly exprest in Scripture by the mutual relation betwixt a Parent and a Childe when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin sin being perfected bringeth forth death * Iam. 1. 15. which is as much as to say according to the propriety of the Apostles words sin is the parent and death is the childe Now there cannot be a Childe without a parent for they are relata secundum esse much lesse can the childe be before the parent for sunt simul naturâ dicuntur ad convertentiam Upon which it followes that punishment could not be ordained by God either without sin or before it or without respect and intuition of it which yet the great * Mr. Calvin does plainly say I say it could not because it implies a contradiction For though God could easily make Adam out of the earth and the earth out of nothing yet he could not make a sinful Cain to be the son of sinful Adam before there was an Adam much lesse before there was a sinful one because it were to be and not to be at the same time Adam would be a Cause before an entity which God Almighty cannot do because he is Almighty So that when the Romanists assert their Transubstantiation or the posterity of Marcion their Absolute decree of all the evil in the world both pretending a Reverence to God's omnipotence they do as good as say those things which are true may therefore be false because they are true or that God is so Almighty as to be able not to be God that being the Result of an Ability to make two parts of a contradiction true so said Austin against S. Faustus and Origen against Celsus Whensoever it is said God can do all things 't is meant of all things that become him So Isidore the Pelusiote But to return to argument in the pursuit of which I have stept somewhat too forward if Gods praeordination of mans eternal misery were in order of nature before his praescience of mans sin as Mr. Calvin evidently affirms in his Ideo * praesciverit quia decreto suo praeordinavit setting Praeordination as the Cause or Reason or praevious Requisite to his Praescience either mans Reprobation must come to passe without sin or else he must sin to bring it orderly to passe which is to make God the author either of misery by itself without relation to sin or else of sin in order to misery The first cannot be because God hath * sworn he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner Ezek. 33. 14. much lesse in his death that never sin'd And because if it were so the Scripture would not use the word Wages and the word Punishment and the word Retribution and the word Reward Hell indeed had been a Torment but not a Recompence a fatal Misery but not a Mulct an Act of power but not of vengeance which yet in many places is the style that God speaks in Vengeance is mine and I will repay Rom. 12. 19. Nor can the second be lesse impossible it having formerly been proved that God is not the Author of sin * he hath no need of the sinful man whereby to bring mans Ruine the more conveniently about and most of them that dare say it are fain to say it in a Disguise Some indeed are for ligonem ligonem but the more modest blasphemers are glad to dresse it in cleaner phrase A strange {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Divinity to put the 1 childe before the parent the 2 wages before the work the 3 end before the means the Reprobation before the sin yet so they do who make the Decree of Reprobation most irrespective and unconditional and after that say that whom God determines to the end he determines to the means To put the horse upon the Bridle is a more rational Hypallage for by this Divinity eternal punishment is imputed to Gods Antecedent will which is called the first and sin to his consequent will which is the second The first {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the other only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} punishment chiefly and sin by way of Consecution Men are bid not to sin ex voluntate signi or revelata but are determin'd to it ex voluntate occultâ or beneplaciti Distinctions very good when at first they were invented for better uses The former by S. Chrysostome from whom it was borrow'd by Damascene and from him by the Schoolmen But I say they all were us'd to very contrary purposes by them and by these who endevour'd to repel those Fathers with their own weapons as the elaborate Gerard Vossius does very largely make it appear I am sorry I must say what yet I must saith * Tertullian when it may tend to edification That the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering abundant in goodnesse and truth who is all Bowels and no gall who hateth nothing that he hath made who in the midst of Iudgement remembreth mercy ever forgiving iniquity transgression and sin is exhibited to the world