Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A47190
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Truth and innocency defended against calumny and defamation in a late report spread abroad concerning the revolution of humane souls : with a futher clearing of the truth by a plain explication of my sence, &c. / by George Keith.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing K224; ESTC R6443
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17,150
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20
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to query things that call not into Question any one Article of the Christian Faith But further to clear the matter I do affirm that I never said to any nor did I ever conclude in my thoughts that the Doctrine of the Revolutions as they are commonly understood or as delivered in that Book was the matter of my Faith or were things inwardly revealed or opened to me by the Spirit of Truth as I am free to say concerning all things of my Christian Faith which I both believe and profess nor have I ever had any Controversie Strife or Contention with any man about the Revolutions so called and I have been very shy and backward either to lend or recommend the said Book But it is one thing what a man may suppose to be a probable Opinion or rational Hypothesis either as touching the Doctrine of the Revolutions of which there are many sorts asserted by Authors or as touching any other Doctrine in Astronomy or Physick and it is far another thing what a man asserts to be his Christian Faith grounded upon the inward Evidence and Testimony of Gods Spirit in the Heart But as to my real sence of the Opinion of that called the Revolutions which do generally relate to Times past and not with the least certainty to any one particular Person to the time to come ever since the Death of Christ If any hold any such Opinion or Doctrine of them as I know none that do that doth teach That men may delay their Repentance or living a good Life in hope that they shall live again after Death I do sincerely declare I have alwayes abhorred any such Doctrine and judged it Wicked and Abominable and still I do so judge and hope so to do while I live and I have upon many occasions born my zealous Testimony both in publick and in private to the contrary viz. That to entertain any such hope to live again in order to Repent and live a good Life after a man has neglected the present Opportunity wherein to Repent c. in this present Life is as Wicked as it is vain for The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation teacheth us to deny Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Tit. 2.11 12. But it teacheth no man to delay his good living to any time after Death either in hope of a Purgatory while the Soul is out of the Body or in hope to live again in a mortal Body for NOW is the accepted Time NOW is the Day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 And it is the last Time as John hath declared 1 John 2.18 And also Paul saying Rom. 13.11 And that knowing the Time that NOW it is high Time to awake out of sleep c. let us therefore cast off the Works of Darkness and put on the Armour of Light for the Times of Ignorance God wincked at but NOW comenandeth all men every where to Repent Acts 17.30 And as John said Mat. 3. 10. And NOW also the Ax is laid to the Root of the Trees therefore eveâ—y Tree that bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire And therefore if any hold such Doctrine of Revolutions that putteth men upon delaying their Repentance or neglecting to live a good Life in hope to live again after Death to Repent and Amend as I have alwayes abhorred it so I hope I shall alwayes do and bear my faithful Testimony against it And whereas the said Person hath accused me before divers Witnesses That my manner of Preaching the Faith of Christ Crucified and Raised again its being necessary to make men Christians and Sons of God of the Free Woman and Children of the New-Covenant doth infer my holding of the Revolutions to wit that all pious Gentiles dying without all bearing Christ crucified and raised again preached to them must of necessity live again in a mortal Body in order to hear that Doctrine outwardly preached to them or then be damned The which Alternative I possitively deny And by this his Accusation he hath shown what a Changeling he is from better to worse in so finding fault with my Doctrine for Preaching or Printing the necessity of this Faith to Salvation which he hath so frequently held forth himself owned and approved in my Books And I propose it to the serious Consideration of all sincere Christians Whether this Difficulty show much so ever real or seeming doth more pinch or straiten me than all Christendom that universally assert the necessity of faith in Christ crucified and raised again to make men true and sincere Christians and that by this Faith men are justified sanctified and attain to eternal Life and that therefore no Jew or Turk can be a true Christian because they have not this Faith however otherwise just and conscientious they may be And whether seeing the whole strain and current of the Scripture both of the Old and New Testament is such as doth demonstrate the necessity of this Faith and Gospel to be preached to all Nations to wit That Christ Jesus the Son of God dyed for our sins and rose again for our Justification and that it is plain from express Scripture That this Justification is not obtained nor Salvation to wit finally fully and perfectly without this Faith I say Whether in opposition to and in prejudice of the Revolutions and for avoiding that Doctrine and laying it aside we must and ought to lay aside the Preaching and Faith of Christ as he outwardly dyed for our sins on the Tree of the Cross and rose again for our â—ustification as a thing unnecessary and indifferent as it must needs be if men may be compleat and perfect Christians without this Faith and perfectly overcome all sin and attain to a perfect state of Sanctification without it and may be Children of God and Sons of the free Woman and have the Spirit of Adoption without this Faith And if so then doth not this wholly render Pious Paganism or Gentilism to be perfect Christianity and perfect Christianity to be nothing else than pious Gentilism And doth not this make the Faith and Knowledge of Christ both without us and within us of none effect for it cannot be proved that ever any had the true Knowledge or Faith of Christ within them but who had the true Knowledge and Faith of Christ without them for though Christ was and is in Pious and Conscientious Gentiles in thâ—ir meer Gentile state yet they did not know him as such nor did they believe in him as Christ as all sincere Christians did and do And shall not this be of most evil tendency thus to make void the Faith of Christ crucified without us and raised again in prejudice of and in opposition to that call'd the Revolutions as my Accuser hath done though he himself hath declared his favouring of the Revolutions as a probable Hypothesis and hath frequently and but very lately declared the necessity
in Flesh and offer up himself a Sacrifice in his Body of Flesh for the sins of the World and should dye and rise again and by his Death and Resurrection should bruise the Serpents Head that is conquer and break his Power in all the faithful so as perfectly to deliver them from Death both Spiritual and Natural the Spiritual here and the Natural hereafter at the Resurrection of the Dead And by the bruising of his Heel is understood his Sufferings and Death in the Flesh occasioned by the Devil's Instigation as all sound Christians of all Professions generally acknowledge and in Testimony of this Faith it was that the Faithful before the Law and under the Law by Gods direction offered up Sacrifices of clean Beasts that were Types and Memorials of Christ the Lamb of God that was to be slain and offered up for the sins of the World and the Faith of all the faithful for the Remission of sin and cleansing and sanctifying was not in the Sacrifices which they offered but in Christ whom they represented and of whom they were Types And before Christ came in the flesh not only the People of Israel offered Sacrifices and practised Circumcision all which were Typical of Christ in the Flesh but many other Nations as not only the Posterity of Ishmael and Esau but other Nations that learned it of them And that Circumcision was Typical of Christ and had a special Relation to Christ and Faith in him as he was to come in the Flesh and to his Death and sufferings is clear from Rom. 4.11 where it is called A Seal of the Righteousness of Faith And as the Church of God hath never failed in the Earth since the beginning of the World nor will to the end of it so nor hath the Doctrin of Gods Salvation concerning the Saviour of the World and the Mediator betwixt God and Men who should be both GOD and MAN failed or been wanting as in respect of the essential parts of it even from being outwardly preserved delivered and conveyed from from Age to Age in some measure and degree for the benefit of Mankind in general and therefore in all Ages even in the Darkest Christ as he was to come in the Flesh and be an Offering for the Sins of the World was sufficiently set forth for that time to be the Object of mens Faith in those Ages and Parts of the World where these Types and Figures of Sacrifices and Circumcision were extant and even these who did not practise them yet might hear of them by others and it may be very probably defâ—nded by a rational Hypothesis and so doth R. B. call his Doctrine in his 6 th Thesis viz on Hypothesis that no Nation under Heaven was so left destitute of all outward means but that partly by the Report of the Sacrifices of clean Beasts offered to the true God and by Circumcision and other Types Figures and Shadows that had been used from the beginning and partly from the Types and Figures given to Mankind in general in the whole visible Creation the Mediator betwixt God and Men the Saviour and Redeemer of the World who should be both God and Man or God manifest in Flesh and who as Man should dye for the sins of the World and rise again was proposed in some sort though obscurely answering to that Dispensation wherein Christ was the Mystery hid from Ages and Generations that was in after Ages clearly to be revealed according to Ephes cap. 3. 5 9. Col. cap. 1.26 Rom. cap. 16.26 and set forth to be the Object of mens Faith and Hope of Salvation and Remission of sin and Reconciliation with God the inward Light of the divine Word that is the Light of men that ever did in 〈◊〉 Ages and ever doth and ever will enlighten every man that cometh into the World acting or operating by its heavenly and divine Influence upon their reasonable Faculties of Understanding and all their national Powers to cause them both know and believe that God would be merciful to them and forgive their sins upon their Repentance and Amendment of Life for the sake of the Mediator Redeemer Saviour of the World who should be both God and Man or it by an unavoidable case as R. B. wordeth it in his 6 t Thes some or many are excluded from this benefit of having it outwardly revealed to them as others had yet that defeâ—t may be supplied by inward divine Râ—velation in all extraordinary Cases revealing at least the substance of that great Mystery of the Mediator the Saviour of the World by whose Death and Blood men through Repentance and Faith in him should be reconciled unto God and have their sins both forgiven and pâ—rged or washed away 3 dly But yet we ought not universally to confine this Faith of Christ as without us or within us to the narrow bounds of outward Preaching it either by the Prophets in their Day or to the Evangelists and Apostles in their Day or to the hearing or reading of the holy Scriptures or to the outward Ministry of Angels oâ— Men well knowing and believing That as God gave it to our first Parents without all Ministry of Men and as he gave it to Abraham to Job to the three Wise Men that came from the East to worship Jesus in Bethlehem so he hath given it to many others and can or may give it to as many as he pleaseth without all outward Ministry yet I say in Gods ordinary way he is pleased to give it by the Ministry of Preaching and for this cause he revealed it to the holy Prophets and Apostles that by their Ministry and Writings it might be made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 and the said Doctrine as outwardly delivered by their Ministry and as delivered by the Ministry of faithful men succeeding them in the same Faith God is pleased to bless with a New divine Visitation and Illumination of more Light and Grace than was or is given to such where this Doctrine is not outwardly preached to bring them to the Obedience of that Faith And to declare my Mind with all plainness As I can find no Faith in Christ in all the Scripture but what hath always a respect to Christ as that great Offering and Sacrifice for sin without us as well as to his inward and spiritual Presence and Appearance in us according to measure teaching us and enabling us to apply to us the benefit of his Death and Sufferings Resurrection and Ascention and Mâ—â—â—â—tion for the Remission of our sins and our Eternal Salvation as the â—â—â—ness of all Grace and Truth dwelt and still dwelleth in the Mâ—â— Christ Jesus without us and of whose Fullness we daily more and more partake who believe in him and in God the Father through him and who pray to God in his Name and Worship and Obey him so I can own no other Faith but this to be the true Christian Faith