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	soul_n	temporal_a	4,259	5	8.5467	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90682	The Christians rescue from the grand error of the heathen, (touching the fatal necessity of all events) and the dismal consequences thereof, which have slily crept into the church. In several defences of some notes, writ to vindicate the primitive and scriptural doctrine of Gods decrees. By Thomas Pierce rector of Brington in Northamptonshire.	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1658 (1658)	Wing P2166; Thomason E949_1; ESTC R18613	77,863	94

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 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 penitent and will he damn them in the next because they were Heathens by his peremptory Decree Is he milde in small things severe in the greatest Is there no other way to understand those Texts in the 9. to the Romans than by making those Texts which sound severely to clash against those that sound compassionately Is it not a more sober a more reasonable Course to interpret hard and doubtfull Texts by a far greater number more clear and easie than perversly to interpret a clear Text by a doubtfull 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 universall 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 temporall 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 calls 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 evill which he thought to do unto his people is a demonstrative argument of his Conditionall decrees in things Temporall by a greater force of Reason in things Eternall 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 blood had been sufficiently precious to have purchased the Redemption of ten thousand Adams and ten thousand worlds of his posterity he would not yield 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 yield 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 Mystery of Redemption Much greater instances and arguments than 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 massa corrupta 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 contumacia perseverantes De Praedest Digres 4. Sect. 4. c. 2. 31. My tenth Reason is taken from the absurdities which have and still must follow if Gods eternal decree of mans misery is not conditional but absolute And those absurdities are discernable 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 follows 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 shews 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 Galileans if his will had been no more free than 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 chuse them And it is a contradiction to say a man chuses 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 endeavour his salvation would be a sin because it were striving against the stream of Gods absolute Will If all men are to

had absolutely decreed a greater punishment to the one but because the one had means of sinning lesse than the other For our Saviour saies expresly that if the mighty works which were done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been also done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes Which was as much as to tell them that it was not at all for want of means and mercy on Gods part but for want of will on theirs that they did not do what was commanded to be done And therefore our Saviour did upbraid them because they repented not Matth. 11. 20. which he could not have done had it been impossible for them to have repented Our blessed Saviour was too pittiful and of too sweet a disposition to jeer a poor Creature for being such as God made him or for being such as he could not but be whether by fatal or by natural infirmity We esteem it an ill nature to upbraid a stammerer for not speaking plain nor is any man reproached for being naturally but wilfully blind nor for being born deaf but for being like the Adder that stoppeth her ears He that bindes my feet and then invites me to come to him intends me nothing for entertainment but a salted Sarcasme or bitter Iest for if he were serious he would set my feet at liberty that I might come in good earnest and not say to me as we say to a child that is fallen down Come hither to me and I will lift thee up And yet this Mr. Calvin is fain to say having been first of all engaged in that opinion That so many nations of men together with their infants were involv'd without remedy in eternal punishment by the fall of Adam for no imaginable reason but that so it seemed good in the sight of God and being pincht with that Text Ezek. 18. 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not that he should return from his wayes and live he is fain to say That God wils not the Death of a sinner so far forth as he wils his Repentance which experience teacheth us he doth so will as not to touch his heart that he may repent Which is all one as to say He wils it so as to command it but he does not will it so as to leave it possible that is he wils it in shew but not in reality Nor do I know any way possible for Mr. Calvin to escape those ugly sequels but by saying that the sinner may repent by the strength and force of Nature without the touch of his heart by the grace of God which is to shelter himself under the Heresie of Pelagius Solomon gives us a more rational account why wisdome one day will laugh at mens calamities and mock when their fear cometh even because they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord 27. My fifth Reason is taken from the nature of Death as that does signifie Privation and as Privation supposes a former Habit. A stone is said to be not alive because it suffers the Negation of life but a stone cannot properly be said to be dead because it doth not suffer the Privation of life So that when a man is said in Scripture to be spiritually dead in trespasses and sins he is imply'd by that expression to have been spiritually alive And no man is damn'd for the Negation but the Privation of Grace because the Negation of Grace would be Gods work whereas the Privation of it is his own It having formerly been shew'd That God doth not punish his own work in man but man is punisht for his own work not for Gods illiberality but for his own being a prodigal not because no Talent was given him but because he * squandred it away Sin is properly the death of Grace Death is a privation a privation is of a habit So that every sinner had grace for this very Reason that he hath lost it he was alive for this very Reason that he is dead He came alive out of Gods hands but he fals desperately by his own A man may be dead born but he cannot possibly be dead be gotten deprived of life he cannot be in the very Act of his conception A man can no more be created a sinner than he can be generated a dead man which insers the Condition of Gods Decree 28. My sixth Reason is taken from Christs having bought those very men 2 Pet. 2. 1. whose damnation did not slumber v. 3. I have proved already Christ died for all that were dead in Adam from 2 Cor. 5. 14. and from several other Texts Which he could not be truly affirm'd to doe if any one had been past by by an absolute Praeterition For that any man doth perish for whom Christ dyed is from his own sin and not from Adams if to free us from Adams it was that Christ dyed Which as it hath been already proved so it may be confirmed from other Scriptures as from 1 John 2. 2. where he is called the propitiation not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world The Apostle foresees and confutes the Heresie of Christs dying onely for the Elect with a not onely but also He dyed for Infidels impenitents as the whole stream of the Fathers conclude from those words Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed And shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ dyed That this was the Judgement of the primitive Church I can prove by an Induction and though I now spare my Reader yet I shall trouble him hereafter if I am challeng'd to it I shall at present refer him to the 31. Article of our Church of England The oblation of Christ once made is a perfect Redemption propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world as well Original as Actual I had almost forgot a special Testimony of S. Iohn who cals the Messias the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world So that if any man is in the dark it is not for want of Light but because he will not see as S. Chrysostome infers which is the very interpretation that S. Iohn himself gives it chap. 3. ver. 19. This sayes he is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darknesse rather than light because their deeds were evil Sure that which is the Reason of their Condemnation was the Condition upon which they were determin'd to be damn'd than which I know not what can be said either more plainly or more convincingly of any subject whatsoever 29. My seventh Reason is taken from the conditional Decrees of temporal Death and other temporal punishments which are so evidently conditional as I cannot believe any Creature will deny it For the Denuntiations of destruction to Nineveh and of certain death to Hezekiah do put this quite out of all scruple