Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	choose_v	life_n	zion_n	18	3	8.6256	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57283	A vindication of the reformed religion, from the reflections of a romanist written for information of all, who will receive the truth in love / by William Rait ...	Rait, William, 1617-1670.	1671 (1671)	Wing R146; ESTC R20760	160,075	338

à DEO arbitrio simul both from free will and GOD. So Molina Here they confound justification and sanctification And by this way we are not compleetly justified till we die ere the work of sanctification be perfected fully we must be Saints in light Secondly That free gift of grace is parted betwixt GOD and free-will if this Doctrine hold For Bellarmin saith we co-operat with GOD in justification it self and the beginning of faith So by it that emphatick place Rom. 8. 34. cannot be interpreted aright it is GOD who justifieth If man had no part nor hand in the Creation how can he have it in the first Conversion seeing that is a new Creation Thirdly They make the formal cause of justification inherent righteousness which is ragged by their own confession as appeareth from this reflecter Then it is no fit covering for our nakedness for it self needeth a covering Can it satisfie divine justice being so imperfect Augustin telleth the contrar on Psalm 42. Whosoever liveth here albeit he live righteously if that righteousness be strictly judged wo to h●m Fourthly It is not safe nor comfortable for ourselves That same Father telleth us again de bono perseverantiae cap. 6. ●e live more safely when we attribute all to God wholly then when we commit our selves partly to GOD partly to our selves Now this inherent righteousness as put on in the second justification is the bir●h of merits and free-will say all Papists then positively and mostly thy own The merits of Christ are a far off cause causa formalis immediata is thy own righteousness the consideration of this made Bellarmin confess de justif lib. 5. cap. 7. tutissimum est in sola DEI misericordia conquiescere It is safest to repose on the mercy of GOD not on thy own righteousness A dying Christian seriou● about salvation will indeed find it safest and surest We again mantain that a converted man is under previous law work of conviction contrition humiliation and the fallow ground of the heart is thus prepared and broken up by the plowing of the Word but a man may come this length and go no further the dispositions have not alwayes a necessar connexion with that new birth Nor is the seed of faith still sown in such as are under the spirit of bondage He who ●asteth of these powers may fall away There be a relative difference between these acts in the Elect and others Secondly When faith the free gift of GOD Phil. 1. 29. is sown into the hea●t and planted there as it is native to the child to seek the breasts so it leaueth and leadeth the man in its first motion to the righteousness of Jesus a Mediator who is The Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. and he maketh mention of his righteousness even of his only The Lord hath so appointed it he is made of GOD to us righteousness 1. Cor. 130. faith apprehendeth that as the ship-broken man doth a plank whereby he commeth to land by that we are justified before GOD. Inherent graces cannot satisfie the justice of GOD nor make perfect obedience to the law nor pay the penalty which it requireth But Mediatory righteousness can do all this So the causes of justification are these the final cause is the glory of GOD and mans salvation The efficient the favour mercy and good will of GOD. The meritorious the obedience of Jesus Christ The formal the imputed righteousness of that blessed Mediator The instrumental cause or condition as some word it is faith Rom. 3. 24. 25. so we are justified by faith alone as Abraham was before GOD and this giveth glory to GOD Rom. 4. dethroneth the boasting of men and is the sure safe scripture way Now when we say that faith alone justifieth by laying hold on his righteousnes and applying it we still hold that faith which justifieth to be pregnant with good workes such as love heart-cleansing new obedience patience zeal and other fruits of the spirit This adversaries deny not to us Bellarmin doth us this much right for he acknowledgeth that we hold good workes to be necessar to the justified Non necessitate efficientiae sed prasentiae So they justifie our faith to ourselves and others but faith justifieth the man and workes have no place in that act We do not deny that good workes have room and are necessarie for working out of our salvation they are via reg●● but in the point of Justification they are excluded Our justification is the Lords act of gracious absolution tendred to us through Christ When we receive the sentence faith the hand of the soul layeth only hold of it And it is not said in Scripture love in his blood or patience or real in it but faith in his blood by which we are justified cloathed and covered Remission and righteousness commeth in this way This animateth all our graces and we hold justification and salvation of free grace Ephes 2. 8. 9. Fourteenthly You set up free will in faln man almost as it was under the Covenant of § 14. Iust workes in the state of innocencie and do attribute Election partly to that Idol More that without Christ we may merit congruously and naturally dispose our souls for grace But the Scripture saith Rom. 11. 6. Election is meerly of grace and if by grace then it is no more of workes otherwise grace were no more grace but if it be of workes then it is no more grace otherwise workes were no more workes Nay We cannot of our selves as of our selves think a good thought 2. Cor. 3. 5. and without Christ we can do nothing Iohn 15. 5. being by nature children of wrath dead in sins and trespasses Ye say we set up free will in faln man as it was in the state of Innocencie whe●eas we Papist Reply put great distinction betwixt free will in these two states as you may see in our School Divines yet Christ by his grace hath so set it up that with the same grace a man may choose to do good and refuse to do evil Both Scripture and Fathers are clear for this Scripture Deut. 30. 19. I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live And 1. Cor. 7. 37. He who hath determined in his heart not having necessitie but having power of his own will to keep his Virgin Is not here free will asserted necessitie clearly excluded How then can you call it an Idol or if a man have not free will wherefore sorveth preaching and exhortation to perswade a man to that which is not in his power Protestants say there is no good action in the power of a man Why then do they perswade Roman-Cath●licks to turn Protestant seeing Conversion being a most holy and good work is nor in our power or free-will Or how could it stand with GODS wisdom to command men what they could not do Or with his justice to condemn

assert with the Scripture that Marriage is honourable amongst all therefore they should not forbid it Their answer is that all should not be taken here absolutely for then a brother might marry his sister but only of persons not prohibited and their votaries are such Is not this a fig-leaf covering Incest is forbidden by the law of GOD. But where are Church men forbidden by GOD to marry it is honourable among them saith the written word who can bind men to the contrar of that which the Lord hath permitted and commanded The evasion about the Sacrament of the Supper is of the same kind when it is objected that Christ said expresly of the Cup drink ye all of it By all say they is meaned all Priests but not all Christians Is this to be endured with patience to see men tear so the sense of Scripture with sophisms If all relate to them as Ministers of the Gospel then they should have the bread only and all privat Christians should be barred for he who said drink ye all of it said likewise to the same all take eat Fourthly When they are challenged of Superstition and Idolarrie by breach of the second Command here there is a distinction not lacking betwixt the worship called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reserved for GOD and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they avowedly say should be given to images Saints c. And this they father on Augustin But these two words are promiscuously taken in Scripture and both of them given to GOD as shal be proved in its proper place Papists give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Images Reliques and Cross of Christ Thus they confound themselves When Iohn the divine would have worshipped the Angel doth he not forbid him Rev 22. 9. and say worship GOD Belike he knew not this distinction Is it not called will worship Col 2. 23. Then it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither doth Augustin make use of that distinction in the Popish sense he was farre from thinking that Religious worship should be tendered to Saint or Angel for he saith lib. de vera Relig. cap. ult Honorandi sunt propter imitationem non adorandi propter Religionem And epist 44. se●as inquit a Christianis ●ullum coli mortuorum He biddeth us praise the Martyres honour their memories follow their foot-steps sed DEVM Martyrum colite worship the GOD of Martyrs onlie This distinction then is groundless Is it not lamentable that men professing Christianitie should so hazard upon Idolatrie Superstition and will worship with a deceitful distinction which can neither satisfie reason nor conscience And dare any tender Christian think that such jugling work will be his peace in the day of distress and death What is this but a lie in the right hand Therefore let all who love and fear the Lord bewarre of that worship which standeth on such cogling distinctions Fifthly Their great refuge when they cannot mantain these absurdities is that we calumniat them mistate questions And if neither of these can serve then they alleadge that these are the opinions of some privat Doctors and not the judgement of their Church But in this vindication let all be assured that to my best uptaking nothing is fathered on this Adversary but what he saith directly or cōsequentially nothing brought against him but that which is either literally or interpretatively in the written word of GOD or human Authours Albeit it he notoriously known that Papists uphold their tottering Babel by lies murthers treasons deluding wonders by corrupting mutilating foisting embezeling diverse testimonies divine and huma●● as shal be made out hereafter yet we have not so learned Christ The truths of Christs Gospel need not such proppes and we are not allowed to lie for GOD. It is a meer evasion to cast over what they cannot make good on their privat Doctours For the decrees of the council of Trent to which now they profess adherence are purposly contrived in many particulars like the Delphian oracles and when they lurke under ambiguities what way shall they be found out but by their Doctours who are the expositors of their tenets Beside there be few or none of them cited whose books are not approven by Censurers appointed for that effect the tenour of whose testimonie is that such books contain nothing contrar to the Catholick faith of the Church of Rome Is not this equivalent to a Council statute Do they not impu●●●●ur Doctours Calvine Luther c notwithstanding of 〈…〉 Confessions of faith whereof they cannot be ignorant They deal not only so with their own writters but also with the Fathers as some hard Masters use their servants if they ●lease their humours they will keep them if not they will dismisse them it may be with a stain betwixt termes Yea they deal worse with such testimonies as rellish nor their taste for they dispatch and gelde them also Their Monastries have not occasioned the murther of more infants nor their Golders by the index expurgatorius have the death of true testimonies which now being overlaid cannot see the light Shal not the GOD of truth make inquisition for these crimes in due time Surely he will arise and have mercy on Zion for some are yet living who take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof Thirdly The third Engyne which th●se Engyneers use is the colour of antiquitie and pretence to closs walking and austerities The Church of Rome to which the Apostle Paul did write is indeed ancient whose faith was spoken of through all the world But Poperie as it is now dogmatised is a late invention plastered with antiquitie like the Gibeonites bread And so far from rendring men closs walkers that it is highlie prejudicial to Gospel interests For ex natura operis it turneth men loose and unfaithful to souls yea its pompous secular way is verie unsuitable to the simplicitie and self-denyal required in the Gospel this is soon proved The great pillar of the Romish Religion is the Popes pompous supremacie and infallibilitie In this saith Bell. prefat de Pontifice the summe of their Religion consisteth Consider Reader which of the Apostles did so empyre it Not Peter that he forbiddeth and calleth himself a fellow Elder 1. Peter 5. 1. Not any Church man for manie Centuries thereafter For Gregory who was Bishop of Rome anno 600. curseth the name of universal Bishop which Iohn Bishop of Constantinople usurped and saith epist lib. 4 Rex superbiae prope est he meaneth Anti. Christ Et sacerdotum ei praeparatur exercitus in this he prophecied truelie Estius in lib. 4. sent dist 47. being puzled with this testimonie saith that by universal Bishop Gregory meaned onlie sole Bishop who excluded others This is a meer forgerie for there were manie Bishops at that time in the Greek Church beside Iohn of Constantinople so he was not solus Episcopus But giving not granting this to be the sense of the