Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	natural_a	soul_n	9,727	5	5.7294	4	true

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

of certain death to Hezekiah do put this quite out of all scruple for the first was not destroyed and the second did not die at that determinate time when God had threatned they should Of which no reason can be given but that Gods Purposes and Decrees and Threats were conditional on supposition of their Impenitence he threatned to destroy and therefore on sight of their Repentance he promis'd to preserve And from hence it is natural to argue thus Is God so merciful to bodies and is he lesse merciful to souls Does he decree temporal Iudgements conditionally because he is pitiful and will he decree Eternal ones absolutely meerly because he will Is he so unwilling to inflict the first death and will he shew his power his absolute power in the second Did he spare the Ninevites in this life because they were penitents and will he damn them in the next because they were Heathens by his peremptory Decree Is he milde in small things and severe in the greatest Is there no other way to understand those Texts in the 9. to the Romans then by making those Texts which sound severely to clash against those that sound compassionately Is it not a more sober and a more reasonable Course to interpret hard and doubtful Texts by a far greater number more clear and easie then perversly to interpret a clear Text by a doubtful one or an easie text by one that 's difficult which is to shew the light by the darknesse Or if some Texts have two senses if some Texts are liable to many more must we needs take them in the worst and that in meer contradiction to the universal Church If I had no other Argument against an absolute Reprobation this one were sufficient to prevail with me That that Father of mercies and God of all consolation who spareth when we deserve punishment did not determine us to punishment without any respect to our indeservings He that had mercy upon wicked Ahab meerly because of his Attrition did not absolutely damn him before he had done either good or evill before the foundations of the world were laid He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3. 33. much lesse doth he damn them for his meer will and pleasure When God doth execute a temporal punishment upon such as already have deserv'd it he comes to it with reluctation {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and therefore cals it his * strange work a work he loves not to be acquainted with a work which he doth sometimes execute because he is Iust but still * unwillingly because he is compassionate And he therefore so expresses it as we are wont to do a thing we are not us'd to and know not how to set about How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine heart is turn'd within me my Repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger for I am God and not man Now that God doth professe to afflict unwillingly and many times to repent him of the evil which he thought to do unto his people is a demonstrative argument of his Conditional decrees in things Temporal and by a greater force of Reason in things Eternal 30. My eighth Reason is taken from the little flock which belongs to God and the numerous herd which belongs to Belial Which would not have been if they had both been measur'd out by a most absolute Decree For when it pleas'd the Divine goodnesse to suffer death upon the Crosse for all the sins of the world the every drop of whose bloud had been sufficiently precious to have purchased the Redemption of ten thousand Adams and ten thousand worlds of his posterity he would not yeeld the major part unto his Rival Rebel the black prince of Darknesse reserving to himself the far lesser portion and all this irrespectively meerly because he would He would not absolutely determine such a general Harvest of Wheat and Tares as freely to yeeld the Devil the greater crop He would not suffer his Iustice so to triumph over his Mercy who loves that his Mercy should rejoyce against Iudgement It was not for want of a new Instance to shew his Power or his Iustice for they were both most eminent in the great Mysterie of Redemption Much greater Instances and Arguments then an Absolute Decree as I could evidently shew if I were but sure of my Readers patience My ninth Reason is taken from the Reprobation of Angels which was not irrespective but in regard to their Apostasie as is and must be confessed by all who place the object of Reprobation in massâ corruptâ For the overthrowing of which tenent in all the Sublapsarians Dr. Twisse himself does thus argue Si Deus non potuit Angelos reprobare nisi ut contumaces ergo nec homines nisi ut in contumaciâ perseverantes De Praedest Digres 4. 4. c. 2. 31. My tenth Reason is taken from the Absurdities which have and still must follow if Gods eternall decree of mans misery is not conditional but absolute And those absurdities are discernible by this following Dilemma Let Dives be suppos'd to be the man that is Damn'd It is either because he sins or meerly because God will have it so If for the first Reason because he sins then sin is the Cause of his Damnation and consequently before it From whence it followes that Dives is not Damn'd meerly because God will have it so but that God will have it so because he sins Which plainly shewes the Conditional Decree But if it be said that it is for the second Reason meerly because God will have it so then that absolute Decree to have it so doth either necessitate him to sin damnably or it does not First if it does then how can Dives be guilty of that thing of which Gods absolute Decree is the peremptory Cause Or how can that be guilt which is necessity Dives could as little have cherisht Lazarus as the Tower of Siloe could have spared the Galilaeans if his will had been no more free then that Tower had a will And secondly if it does not necessitate him to sin damnably then Dives who is Damn'd might possibly have not been damn'd From whence it follows That Dives is not Damn'd absolutely but in regard to his sins Which had they not been his choice they had not been his but his that did choose them And it is a Contradiction to say a man chooses any thing without a free will or by an absolute necessity which is whether he will or no Besides if God did absolutely decree the end which is Damnation and consequently the means which is final impenitence these Absurdities would follow First it would be a Reprobates duty to be damn'd And to endevour his salvation would be a sin Because 't were striving