Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A48584
|
A treatise of election and reprobation in vindication of the universal grace and love of God to mankind by B.L.
|
Lindley, Benjamin, d. 1723.
|
1700
(1700)
|
Wing L2312; ESTC R28788
|
51,533
|
66
|
her Cruise of Oil fail till the Lord should send Rain upon the Earth Great was her Faith and the Mercy shewn her great for her Meal and her Oil failed not so that she with her Son were preserved through the Famine and her Son being Dead was restored to Life again by the Prophet 1 Kings 17. Christ recounteth this as a special Mercy even above what was shewn the Widows of Israel for he saith There were many Widows in Israel in the days of Elias when the Heavens was shut up three Years and six Months Luke 4.25 26. when great Famine was throughout all the Land but unto none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta a City of Sidon unto a Woman that was a Widow 3. That Woman of Canaan who when Jesus departed into the Coasts of Tyre and Sidon came out of the same Coasts and cried unto him saying Have Mercy on me O Lord thou Son of David my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil Mat. 15.21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28. But he answer'd her not a Word and his Disciples besought him saying Send her away for she crieth after us But he answered saying I am not sent but unto the lost Sheep of the House of Israel Then she came and worshipped him saying Lord help me But he answered It is not meet to take the Children's Bread and cast it to Dogs And she said Truth Lord yet the Dogs eat of the Crumbs which fall from their Master's Table Then Jesus answered O Woman great is thy Faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt And her Daughter was made whole from that very hour 4. The Ethiopian an Eunuch of great Authority under Candace Queen of the Ethiopians Acts 8.27 read at large his miraculous Conversion and Confession of Jesus Christ to be the Son of God As in our view of those honourable Tribes we find some wicked People of Levi and Judah so in the search among these infamous People we find some good of Ham and as the evil People of those chosen Families were cast off and rejected so were the good People of this cursed Family received of God and accepted From whence may appear that we are not saved in a Life of Sin by Vertue of any previous Election nor destroyed in a Life of Holiness by means of any previous Reprobation Whoever perished being Innocent or where were the Righteous cut off Job 4.7 Who ever found Life in Death or being guilty were saved or perished being Righteous That this People were of Ham's Race is apparent from that one of them is called a Woman of Canaan and the answer of Christ to her and from that Sarepta and Tyre belonging to Sidon which City hath it's Name from Sidon the first-born Son of Canaan the youngest Son of Ham who as History gives account invaded the Land of Promise called then Phenicia but from him it was called Canaan of his Brother Mizraim came Philistine and of himself came besides the Sidonians the Jebusite the Amorite the Girgashite the Hittite c. and these planted themselves there in part of Shem's Inheritance for their Father Noah as Antiquity mentions gave Asia to Shem Europe to Japheth and Africa to Ham whence David calls Egypt Ham's Land Israel came also into Egypt and Jacob sojourned in the Land of Ham. He sent Moses his Servant and Aaron whom he had chosen Psalm 105.23 26 27. they shewed his Signs among them and Wonders in the Land of Ham c. § 2. And tho' Noah their Father cursed this People and pronounc'd him three times a Servant and Servant of Servants c. yet we see there arose some good People among them and their general Restoration seems to be held forth in some Scripture-Prophecies as these following c. Princes shall come out of Egypt Psal 68.31 Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God In that day shall five Cities in the Land of Egypt speak the Language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of Hosts c. And there shall be an Altar to the Lord in the midst of the Land of Egypt Isai 19.18 19 20 c. and a Pillar at the border thereof to the Lord and it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the Land of Egypt for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the Oppressors and he shall send them a Saviour and a great One and he shall deliver them And the Lord shall be known to Egypt and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day and shall do Sacrifice and Oblation yea they shall vow a Vow unto the Lord and perform it The Lord shall smite Egypt yea he shall smite and heal it and they shall return even to the Lord and he shall be intreated of them and shall heal them In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria even a Blessing in the midst of the Land whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless saying Blessed be Egypt my People and Assyria the Work of mine Hands and Israel mine Inheritance And it shall come to pass in that day that the great Trumpet shall be blown Isai 27.13 and they shall come which were ready to perish in the Land of Assyria and the out-casts in the Land of Egypt and shall worship the Lord in the holy Mountain of Jerusalem So in the Lord's Way here 's Salvation for all People but out of it no Salvation If we walk in the Light even as he is Light we have fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Vnrighteousness 1 John 1.7 THE Corrector Corrected BEING An Answer to George Keith 's Arguments concerning the great Mystery of Election and Predestination after a peculiar way as he terms it in his Book he miscalls Truth Advanced in the Correction of many gross and hurtful Errors c. Printed in the Year 1695. Page 9 10. 1. GEORGE KEITH saith Altho' he is well perswaded there is no absolute Reprobation of any Souls of the Children of Adam or Decree of Eternal Destruction past upon them that is Absolute but only such as is Conditional and relative to their final State in Sin and Unbelief 2. Yet he is well and fully perswaded there is an Election of Souls and Seeds that is certain to wit 3. That God hath chosen all such Souls of Mankind who shall be saved from the beginning of the World unto the end of it both to Faith and Holiness as the Means and to Eternal Life and Happiness as the End to be obtained by the said Means 4. And that in all Souls that are to be saved although both Holiness and Eternal Life is to be their free Choice yet that Choice is not a bare indifferent or contingent and accidental Choice but God hath most certainly and absolutely purposed to work that free Choice in them both to Holiness as the Means
the Destruction of the Wicked to be of God and not of themselves and that Evil is no cause of it but God's Decree c. hides and conceals the Malignity and Poison of Sin which of its own Nature is pernicious and destructive to Man's Soul tainting and infecting it with Corruption and Rottenness by which it slides into the deep Abyss of Death and Misery as a due Reward This Doctrine searcheth not into the Wound of the Soul made by Sin which decays it and of its self brings Death and Ruine if not timely cured And this Doctrine makes the Physitian the Malady the Healer the Destroyer the most Soveraign Balm the Canker of the Wound So if we can admit of all these Absurdities and abundance more we may admit of Decretal Reprobation which cannot be § 6. For the Scripture declares 1 Thes 4. v. 3. That this is the Will of God even your Sanctification Vers 4. That every one should know how to possess his Vessel in Sanctification and Honour Vers 7. That God hath not call'd us unto Vncleanness but unto Holiness Ezek. 18. v. 32. That he hath no pleasure in the Death of him that dieth Chap. 33. v. 11. That he hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live Luke 15. v. 7. That there is Joy in Heaven for one Sinner that Repenteth c. Now as Holy Writ hath given us this true Account of God's Will for us to conclude him Acting quite contrary to it is to affront the Scripture and oppose God against himself making him Will one thing and Act another Who worketh all things according to the Counsel of his own Will But for us to conclude him Decreeing any Man's Eternal Destruction from all Eternity or from the Fall or from before his Birth without any respect to his Deeds c. is to conclude him Acting quite contrary to his declared Will in Scripture c. Then he that worketh all things according to the Counsel of his own Will and willeth not nor hath pleasure in the Destruction of the Wicked he hath not without any respect to their manner of Life decreed it But God works all things according to the Counsel of his own Will and willeth not nor hath pleasure in the Destruction of the Wicked therefore he hath not absolutely Decreed it c. Object But they say God hath his Declared Will and his Secret Will and that Men are Decreed to Election or Reprobation according to his Secret Will c. Answ As to this we read of Secret things that belong unto God Deut. 29.29 Psalm 25.14 and of his Seerets that are with the Righteous and with them that fear him This Secret Will of which they talk Job 15.8 must be the one of these two sorts if of the first how do they know it Do they understand the Secrets of God And do they restrain Wisdom to themselves If of the latter what Proof give they of it Or how do they reconcile it that there should be in God two opposite Wills the one Secret the other Reveal'd and these contradictory to each other the one preservative the other destructive of Men According to the one he hath Sworn He wills not the Death of a Sinner according to the other He both Wills and hath Decreed it because of his Will not because of their Sin And thence come so many Thousand innocent Infants to be in Hell according to them among the Damned A witless graceless merciless gospel-less Opinion a most staring Piece of Confusion and Blasphemy which either chargeth Schism upon God or reconciles Contradictions There have been none so bad but what have had Offers of Salvation Cain had it the Old World had it Sodom and Gomorah Gen. 4.7 and 6.3 and 18.30 c. Jonah 3. Jer. 51.8 9. Rev. 2.21 Nineveh c. Nay even Babylon God call'd to Mourning for 'em saying Howl for Babylon take Balm for her Wound if so be it may be healed he would have healed Babylon And of Jezebel he saith I gave her time and space of Repentance but she Repented not In the next Chapter I shall take account of some general Relations of God to us and shew from them That our Preservation not our Destruction is his Work Will and Delight c. CHAP. II. Being a further Refutation of the Doctrine of Reprobation by Arguments deduced from some General Relations of God to us viz. 1. From his Regal Office and Power 2. From his being the Everlasting Father 3. From the Office of Jesus Christ as our High Priest c. § 1. THe Lord most High is a great King over all the Earth Psalm 47.1 2. Mal. 1.14 Rev. 19.16 And Regis est Regnare it is the Property of a King to Reign According to which there are several Powers or Prerogatives belonging to him the Power of Soveraign Rule Power to execute Justice and Judgment Power of Life and Death of Punishing and Pardoning Offenders c. Where the Word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him What doest thou But all this Power is lodg'd in him not for the hurt but good of his Creatures for their Benefit not Detriment His Office is not to Destroy but to Preserve and Defend them against the Violence and Spoil of foreign Enemies and the Injuries of one another their Safety is his Law Salus populi suprema lex He is the Terror of the evil doer and Praise of them that do well Now should a King use his Power to an evil end to bereave the greatest part of his Subjects of their Properties and Lives not because of their Fault but of his own Arbitrary Will and Pleasure and had only this to be said for him That he was extraordinary kind to a few Or suppose he agreed with his Rebelling Subjects on these terms 1. To forgive all past and accept them still on Condition they behave themselves well and dutifully for the time to come 2. That their Treason should not attaint their Children or subject them unto any Forfeiture or Punishment and should pass these Covenants into Laws Yet should notwithstanding all this without Provocation by any new Offence break out into Fury against them and should utterly Kill the far greatest part of them and their Children meerly for his own Will or to shew his great Power over them or to set forth the Terribleness of his Wrath or to spread his Name abroad c. In an Earthly King this would be accounted and that truly the height of Persidiousness Cruelty and Tyranny and yet these Predestinarians consequentially lay all this at his door and aver it to be the way and manner of the great King § 2. God is called in Scripture the Everlasting Father and we are called his Off-spring The Off-spring of God c. For he is the Father of us all by Creation Now this is not a Destructive but a Preservative