Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	covenant_n	law_n	sin_n	4,869	5	5.4906	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91322	Dissertatio de pace, &c. Or, A discourse touching the peace & concord of the Church. Wherein is elegantly and acutely argued, that not so much a bad opinion, as a bad life, excludes a Christian out of the kingdom of heaven; and that the things necessary to be known for the attainment of salvation, are very few and easie: and finally, that those, who pass amongst us under the name of hereticks, are notwithstanding to be tolerated.; Dissertatio de pace. English	Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670.; Biddle, John, 1615-1662,	1653 (1653)	Wing P4133; Thomason E1495_1; ESTC R203302	40,192	82

filthiness of sin for which in the whole Universe there had been no place unless God had left to intelligent creatures a free and entire will Unless I say God had discharged the will from all condition of servitude all proof of vertue had perished together with the license of sinning Although very many had rather acknowledge God the author of sin then the bounteous giver of this liberty Of which liberty notwithstanding it is an evident signe that we abuse it alone to the license of sinning so that the failing of our understanding deservedly seemeth worthy of commiseration and pardon whereas the pravity of our will deserveth hatred and punishment It is therefore no wonder if God punisheth this rather then the other with eternal destruction because in this there is place for guilt in the other onely for imbecillity But he never punished imbecillity and ignorance for contumacie especially with extreme and everlasting punishment Likewise in the Law of Moses whereof he was so severe an exactor as that he ratified the reverence of one ceremony with the blood of a man that went to gather sticks Num. 15. yet did he leave pardon for error and a refuge for ignorance and that in the most grievous crimes which concern the life and safety of a man The rigor of the Mosaick Law pardoneth his offence who killed a man unawares and granteth him a repeal after the death of the High-Priest And why should not also the lenity of the Christian Covenant absolve the fault of such as erre after the death of Christ our High-Priest whose yoke is sweet and burthen light and who refuseth not to disburthen and case us of the fardle of our sins who hath left on record in the latter end of his Testament how worthy he accounted errors of pardon whilst in the most cruel nick of his death he prayed for those that erred Luke 23. Indeed to pray for them who sin unto death it is not lawful nor would the Lord ever have done that amidst the sacrilegious boldness of so great a crime had he not taken pity on their unhappie ignorance Forgive them saith he For what reason Because they know not what they do Now if in the ignorance of so great a murder there remained even in our Saviours judgement some place for pardon shall we with our censures damn to eternal punishment the meer clouds of the minde and harmless ignorance But you will say Shall we hold that ignorance and errors are never punished with everlasting destruction What shall become of the souls of so many thousand Infidels what of those barbarous Brasilians and others of that sort the greatest part whereof have not had so much as a suspicion touching God and Christ Shall we say that these shall be punished for contumacie who know not any law from whose obedience they may revolt Shall not the ignorance of God and Christ in them undergo everlasting punishment In the first place I deny that they are in any sort punished to whose ears the sound of the saving doctrine never came and say that they are onely left in that wretched condition to which they were liable by their very birth For inasmuch as the punishment of our first parent derived the most wretched state of eternal death to his posterity God might according to his wisdom and good-pleasure exempt whom he would from this misery leaving the rest in the same For who shall prescribe a law to his absolute power or set bounds to his clemency Those therefore to whom he hath revealed his law he punisheth as rebels unless they obey not with any new kinde of punishment especially after death but onely by leaving them in their miserable state together with the rest Others to whom he hath not vouchsafed so great a benefit he leaveth indeed in the same state but doth not therefore punish For the reason of eternal death as it is to be called a punishment consisteth not in the appointment of a new punishment but in a certain ademption of the Divine Grace which might free them out of the servitude of the old punishment which certainly is not taken away from them to whom it was never offered But some one will reply Why should those wretched Ignorants be in the same condition with the impious and disobedient As if God were unjust towards those because he useth clemency towards these Doth the Lord of the vine yard do wrong to the labourers when he recompenseth the unequal merits of sundry persons with one reward not by taking somewhat away from them that were more deserving but onely by adding somewhat to them that were less deserving Mat. 20. But if something may be added to their reward who are less deserving without wrong to those who are more deserving something also may be taken away from their punishment who are more deserving without wrong to them who are less deserving Suppose that one hath promised liberty to Titius his captive upon a certain condition without promising any thing to Sejus Titius for his contumacie loseth the reward receiving nothing from his master but remaining captive and miserable together with Sejus Can Sejus now complain that he being innocent endureth the same things with Titius who was disobedient Titius may rather acknowledge the clemencie of his master who would content himself with the meer ademption of the reward As therefore innocent Sejus is not punished by his master although he be left in the same misery with guilty Titius so neither shall the ignorant Brasilians be hereafter punished by not receiving that which was never promised to them These may rather ponder on the grievous punishment of their contumacie who see their Salvation and pine away for having forsaken it We have I suppose shewn sufficiently that such Ignorants whereof we speak are not punished But if we grant that they also are punished shall they be presently punished for their ignorance As if that ignorance were that which ought to be punished and is not it self rather a certain punishment Who knoweth not that God oftentimes avengeth wickedness and crimes with errors Who would not reckon such ignorance amongst the horrid punishments of God This therefore will remain to be enquired further for what causes he hath punished them with so great blindness But who hath known the thoughts of the Lord or who hath been his counsellour There is no cause why any one should fish this secret out of me but that I certainly know that God proceedeth slowly and unwillingly to punishment and that every one is undoubtedly the author of his own destruction Of all them that were wicked and included under sin the most high God might take pity on some and punish others So that the cause of this punishment should as it seemeth be sought-for not in the ignorance but the wickedness of men and in the special good-pleasure of the wise God Let us proceed further Suppose those barbarous Brasilians to be punished for ignorance What is this

very love of the Father forgive them this error For he gave a notable proof of his meekness when he prayed for his ignorant murtherers as we also did before hint What think we will not he do for the love of the Father who for the love of Men forgave so great an injury to his enemies Now if he out of love to mankinde doubted not to assume the form of a servant and really to endure extreme disgraces certainly he will bear with the errors of men who do not conceive worthily enough of his Majestie and Dignity especially that which is past Will he who for the sakes of men did of his own accord debase himself to the lowest condition punish them for this very thing namely because they out of ignorance think more meanly of his condition then is fit Especially when he himself by his debasement did in a maner give an accasion of such ignorance Certainly it is incredible that he who of his own accord underwent for the sins of men a reproachful kinde of death will not pardon to humane weakness a simple opinion that derogates something from his ancient Excellencie if so be the error be harmless and removed from all sin of malice More might be said on this occasion but neither is it my intention to say all things and what hath been spoken will suffice courteous judgements As for moody dispositions we may sooner wish then hope to bring them from their inbred prejudices Now let us descend to such things as are more special CHAP. VIII A General Apologie for the Socinians that they are not of such a Perswasion out of Ambition Avarice Pleasure or Superstition nor offend out of any Malice but onely out of the Care of their Salvation AY me what contumacie is this and scorning to obey that we men depart from our heavenly allegiance in nothing sooner then that which hath most accurately been enjoyned and prescribed Doth that unhappie exile of heaven solliciting the earth to a society of rebellion tempt us in that part chiefly where he may make us most guilty of Treason Or rather did the Divine Providence more strictly command that wherein he most suspected our obedience Whatsoever it be certainly the more frequently mutual love and good-will is enjoyned us in the sacred Oracles the more obstinately do we refuse it And which is the more to be lamented we follow them as guides herein who ought at no hand to go before us I mean the Ministers and Teachers of Religion who being cozened with the zeal of inhumane piety make it a part of our duty to hate dissenters A great part of them beginneth to hate the persons before the vices and which is a thing very unjust under a pretence of the publike cause they exercise private hatred Yea further to an inexpiable and most hateful War the bare name of parties is sufficient and in a preposterous order the judgement here followeth hatred and enmity as elsewhere it doth love Besides it is prejudicial to the truth to have been uttered or defended by such as erre nor is vertue valued at her worth in them who have been once blasted with the suspicion and prejudice of errors No honesty guilty of the least heresie is safe in the Church of Rome nor is the honesty of a Catholike more gently dealt withal amongst Protestants who being themselves also divided into sundry factions with proud determinations denounce heaven or hell to one another There is no remembrance of mortality no pardon to mistaking anywhere Although you offend not in your maners yet is it a capital offence to trip in the understanding of Divine matters Yet hath the publike hatred of the world more easily conspired against no sort of men then against those who commonly pass under the name of Socinians or Photinians Certainly an unhappie race of men and amidst so many injuries and reproaches honest in a maner gratis For neither do I excuse the errors which they hold The thing I wonder at is this How men so distant from all ambition and avarice and innocent in all the parts of their life should be so grievously mistaken To aim at high matters is the undoing of very many wits born and framed to the best things But this vice arising from the desire of glory hath there no place if other lusts be absent where ambition findeth not room enough for her swelling to expatiate in For what man being well in his wits would promise to himself a name of renown amongst the most contemned and universally-hated part of the ignoble vulgar Who would seek after the rays of an illustrious fame amidst the darkness of obscurity who might finde it in the light and sun-shine As we see very many of them might do whom neither the splendor of their birth nor their wit and learning exempteth from a voluntary debasement Nor can you justly charge them with avarice a great part of whom doth generously despise all means of growing rich and you shall hardly finde anywhere either poorer men or such as by the rule of their sect are necessitated to give more then they There remaineth superstition whose timorous nature always condemneth anothers liberty in that which she her self doth with a scrupulous religion refuse Certainly Superstition is either banished from amongst them or hath there put-off that which was in her nature most odious since they in all their doctrines so dissent from others as that they exclude none either from eternal Salvation or from brotherly communion but such a one as is a patron of manifest vice Which very carriage wipeth away even the least suspicion of pride which never debaseth her self unto so great modesty as not to prescribe that truth which she arrogateth to her self to be held and observed by all others almost under a form so that I am utterly unable to finde out the cause why they should expose themselves to the cruel hatred of all and to dangers unless it be an ardent desire to please God and study of true piety In which regard they are worthy of more pardon if any disaster befall them in the search of sublime things For indeed I cannot apprehend what it is that inflameth us with so implacable prejudice against them when neither the sweetness of fame nor the spur of riches nor the allurements of a dissolute life but onely the sollicitous care of their salvation hath cast them into these straits We ought rather to favour the wretches and reach forth a saving right hand to them even against their will Whereas now on the contrary we reject them suing for our favour and had rather hate abominate then instruct them in a friendly maner But by what right or for what demerit of theirs Is it because they defend things which they conceive to be true with so great prejudice to their honour and security What would we have them sacrifice their faith and conscience on the pleasure of others Or is it because they think