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A67237 The pretensions of the triple crown examined in thrice three familiar letters ... / written some years ago by Sir Christopher Wyvill ... Wyvill, Christopher, Sir, 1614-1672? 1672 (1672) Wing W3787; ESTC R34104 91,353 203

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Law and Prophets 14. Augustine again in his 200. Epist. The Law says Thou shalt not covet and it says so not for that here we are absolutely able to perform that Command but to shew towards what our Endeavours are to bend themselves 15. Theophylact on Gal. 3. No man can do what is prescribed in the Law and by its Sentence he that does it not is accurst So it comes to be the Office of Faith to give the Blessing 16. To all such as esteem the Law so easie or possible to be fulfilled let me recommend Bishop Davenant's Treatise de Justitia Habituali Actuali and particularly the 49th Cap. 17. Hierom on 2 Cor. 5. 21. Christ being offered for our Sins received the name of Sin that we might be made the Justice of God in him not our own nor in our selves 18. Origen on Rom. 6. 23. Well does the Apostle here continue the Metaphor he had before taken up that he might affirm Death the due pay of such as fight under the Standard of the King of Sin to be their Wages But it would have been as much unfit to say God gives Stipends to his Souldiers but a free Gift and Grace 19. Theodoret in Sophoniam cap. 3. The salvation of men dependeth upon God's mercy alone for we do not attain unto it as Wages And on this very place viz. Rom. 6. 23. his words are Hic non dicit Mercedem sed Gratiam 20. Lastly our venerable Country-man Bede on Psal. 23. And thus that the godly man shall be well rewarded non ex meritis sed ex sola gratia Anselm once our Archbishop has left behind him this great Truth inconsistent sure with those Rhemish Annotations I formerly touched or the bold dictates of Vasquez That if a man should serve God and that most fervently a thousand years he should not condignly merit to be half a day in the Kingdom of Heaven And more fully to our purpose in his Book de modo visitandi infirmos If Satan say thou hast deserved damnation answer thou I set Christ's death betwixt me and my evil merits and I offer his merits for that merit which I should have had but do want now Lest we should apprehend as the confident and diligent Factors for the Roman Cause could be content to have us that their Opinion in this Point had been derived to them through the long Current of 1600 years let us ponder the words of Thomas Waldensis who lived a man of great learning even when the thickness of this darkness began to overspread the face of the earth Tom. 3. de Sacram. He professeth his utter dislike of that saying A man may by merits be worthy of Heaven of this Grace or that Glory However says he lo here their rise certain Schoolmen have invented the Terms of Congruity and Condignity I do repute him adds he again the more faithful Catholick more sound Christian and more consonant to holy Scripture who does simply deny such merit And confesseth That no man merits Heaven but by the Grace of God or will of the Giver as all the former Saints and whole Church have written The same may be collected from Erasmus who may certainly pass for a sufficient witness in Matter of fact Epist. ad Stephanum Rhodricum From these premises we I hope may with safety and confidence after it is past for Law upon the venerable Bench of Primitive Antiquity and veritas truth is non quod antiquum not what had got a prevalence in our Grandfathers or Great-grand-fathers days but quod antiquissimum what from the beginning was so affirm That even now under the Gospel Justification cannot be absolved towards a Sinner but in the contemplation of Christ's Righteousness whereby he and none but he fully answered all the demands of the Law Nor is it any prejudice to our Cause at all that in the writings of the Latin Fathers the Terms Merita mereri and Justificationes do frequently occur since their importance with them for the most part is singly works not the desert of working but particular Acts of Justice and mereri to attain unto or procure as the way whereby not the cause wherefore the Reward of Heaven which is largely as well as clearly manifested by our Bishops Usher Davenant and Downham their true sence and meaning being not contrary but subordinate to our Doctrine We shall not fear therefore to say with St. Paul compare Rom. 4. 3. Ja. 2. 21. That the best man living must expect Blessedness without Works by Faith alone and yet that Faith must not nor indeed can be alone in any good man For it is as infallibly true which St. James tells us cap. 2. That Works do in the sight of men and to our own Consciences justifie us supposed or mistaken Faith alone being dead and ineffectual can do nothing at all thereto How this goodly Building of condign merit or Justification by the desert of inherent Righteousness hath a very congruous foundation on the doctrine of Free-Will Alphonsus à Castro gives us to understand Lib. 7. de haeres when he says For this even because we consent to God's Monition when we might have dissented Wages are ow'n to us and from thence is our merit If by this Monition they intend but a bare ineffectual swasion and then leave Nature to determine in that work which is not brought to pass but by the mighty power of God Eph. 1. 19. the difference betwixt them and the Pelagians of old is sure but very minute and scarce perceptible The one though they would not hear of the energy of Grace yet acknowledge that Nature which they so much exalted was the gift and work of God The other though they seem to assign a kind of Grace to the Conversion of a sinner coarct its operation under such Terms as render the whole business in a manner the Fruit of a man 's own acquisition Three Questions there are very pertinent to this 〈◊〉 which being resolved are so determinative of the Point as leaves the Judgement no more room further to hesitate 1. What state the Father of the Faithful was in whenas St. Paul Rom. 4. assures us he was Justified without Works The Romanists allege that this is to be understood of Natural Works done before or without Faith Well but Abrahani was called of God and answered his call had received and imbraced the Promise Gen. 12. built an Altar and twice thereat invoked the Name of the Lord Gen. 13. had solemnly been blessed by Melchizedek Gen. 14. had a Testimony given by God that he was his particular care Gen. 15. had performed several Acts of Righteousness in Faith as is apparent from Heb. 11. 8 9. and was now about an hundred years old Rom. 4. 19. yet after all this of him it is spoken and by St. Paul drawn to general application That by Faith without Works this is without any consideration had on God's part to their merit he was Justified