Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	curse_n	law_n	sin_n	11,182	5	5.3000	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26935	Gods goodness vindicated for the help of such (especially in melancholy) as are tempted to deny it, and think him cruel, because of the present and future misery of mankind, with respect to the doctrine of reprobation and damnation / by Richard Baxter ... ; published and prefaced by a friend at whose desire it was written, and to whom it was committed.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1671 (1671)	Wing B1278; ESTC R5256	19,834	110

believe that they are not commanded to do this in vain So that Gods own Providence by a course of such mercies which cannot stand with the execution of the unremedyed violated Law of Innocency together with his obliging all men to Repentance and to the use of a certain course of means in order to their salvation is a promulgation of a Law of Grace according to the first Edition and distinguisheth man from unredeemed Devils And they that say that all the Infidel World have all this Mercy Duty Means and hope without any Redemption or Satisfaction of Christ as the procureing cause are in the way to say next that the Churches Mercies too might have been given without Christ 9. Of a truth God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him Act. 10.34 35. For God will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and incorruptibility eternal life Rom. 2.6 7. Glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Greek v. 10. For there is no respect of persons with God v. 11. For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things conained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves Which shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another v. 14 15. And they shall be Judged according to that Law which they were under Natural or Mosaical even by Jesus Christ v. 12.16 And it is the work of the spirit promised to believers to write the Law of God in their hearts 10. Though a special promise was made to Abraham as an Eminent believer and the Jewish Nation were the peculiar people of God advanced to greater priviledges than any others in the World yet were they not the whole Kingdom of God the Redeemer nor the only people that were in a Covenant of Grace or in a state of Salvation For Sem was alive after Abrahams death who was not like to be less than a King and to have a Kingdom or people Governed according to his Fidelity And Melchizedock was a King of Righteousness and Peace not like to be Sem by the Scituation of his Countrey And a Righteous King would govern in Righteousness Job and his friends are evidences of the same truth And we have no proof or probability that all Abrahams seed by Ishmael and Esau and Keturah were Apostates for they continued Circumcision And what all the rest of the World was we know not save that in general most grew Idolatrous and the Canaanites in special But that they all apostatized from the Covenant of Grace made with Adam and Noah there is no proof We have not the History of any of their Countreys fully so as to determine of such cases In Nineve God ruled by that Law of Grace which called them to repent and spared them upon their Belief and Repentance Because he was a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth of the Evil Jonah 4.2 And that God dealeth not with mankind now as the meer Judge of the violated Law of Innocency he declareth not only by the full testimony of his Providence or Mercies given to the sinful World but also by the very name which he proclaimeth unto Moses which signifieth his nature and his mind towards others and not what he is to the Jewes alone Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord The Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for Thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin All which is inconsistent with the Relation of God as a Judge of a people only under the Curse of an unremedied violated Law and unredeemed though he add and that will by no means clear the guilty c. that is will neither Judge them innocent that are guilty of the Crime nor Judge them to Life that are guilty of Death according to the tenour of the Law which they are under Purificando non purificabit as the literal version that is will not Judge unjustly by acquitting him that is to be condemned or as the Chaldee Paraphrase hath it not Justifying those that are not converted It is enough for us therefore to know that the visible Chruch hath manifold priviledges above all others Rom. 3.1 2 3. c. And that salvation is more easie sure and plenteous where the Gospel cometh than with any others and that we have therefore great Cause to rejoice with thankfulness for our lot and that the poor World lyeth in wickedness and must be pittyed prayed for and helped to our power and that God is the Saviour of all men but especially of them that believe and that he is good to all and his mercies are over all his works and that he will never damn one soul that loveth him as God But what is in the Hearts of all men in the World and consequently how they shall be used at last he only that searcheth the heart can tell and it is neither our duty nor our interest nor possible to us to know it of all particulars much less to conclude that none among them have such Love who believe him to be infinitely good and to be to them a merciful pardoning God And we know withall that all they that know not Jesus Christ as this determinate person that was Born of the Virgin Mary Suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified Dead Bu●ied Rose again c. do yet receive all the foresaid mercies by him and not by any other Name or Mediation nor yet without his purchasing Mediation 13. And if besides all the mercy that God sheweth to others he do antecedently and positively Elect certain persons by an absolute Decree to overcome all their resistances of his spirit and to draw them to Christ and by Christ to himself by such a power and way as shall infallibly convert and save them and not leave the success of his Mercy and his Sons preparations to the bare uncertainty of the mutable Will of depraved man What is there in this that is injurious to any others or that representeth God unmerciful to any but such whose eye is evil because he is good and as a free Benefactour may give more mercy to some than others of equal Demerits If they that hold no Grace but what is universal and left as to the success to the will of man as the determining cause do think that this is well consistent with the mercifulness of God surely they that hold as much universal Grace as the former and that indeed all have so much as bringeth and leaveth the success to mans will and deny to no man any thing which the other give do make God no less merciful tha● they but more if they

have power to make God Ignorant and another thing to have power to do otherwise than that which he foreknoweth you will do No man hath power to make God ignorant But all sinners may have power to do otherwise than that which God foreknoweth we will do For God doth not foreknow that e. g. Gehezi shall not have Power to forbear a lye but only that he will not forbear it Yea more Gods foreknowledge doth prove that sinners have power to do otherwise For that which God foreknoweth will be But God foreknoweth that men will abuse their power to sin or will sin when they had Power to do otherwise Therefore it will be so in the Event Now if you will call their power to do otherwise a power to frustrate Gods foreknowledge you will but speak foolishly For the Power it self is foreknown And the object of knowledge in esse cognito is not after the act of knowledge And if the person will not actually sin God could not foreknow that he will sin So that foreknowledge is here when it is not causal but a medium in a Syllogisme and inferreth only the necessity of the consequence in arguing and doth not cause the thing foreknown Now when Dr. Twisse saith that all the Schoolmen agree that no necessity Consequentis or of Causation but only Consequentiae doth follow the decree of Reprobation see how far he and Arminius are in this agreed Though I know some give another fence of necessitas consequentiae But I come closer to the matter yet 4. God Decreeth no mans sin Neither Adams nor any others He may decree the effect which sinners accomplish as the death of Christ And he may over-rule men in their sin and bring good out of it c. But sin is not a thing that he can will or cause and so not Decree which signifieth a volition 5. God cannot be proved to Decree or Will the Permission of mans sin For to Permit is nothing It is but not to hinder which is no act And to Decree and Will is a Positive Act And if you fain God to have a Positive Volition or Nolition of every nothing or Negative then he must have positive decrees of every meer possible Atome Sand Worm Name Word Thought of Man c. That such and such a nothing shall never be whereas there needeth no more to keep any thing from being in this case than Gods not Causing it not Willing it not Decreeing it The Creatures Active Nature Disposition Objects and Circumstances are here presupposed And the Impedition necessary is by Act or substraction of these aforesaid And Gods non-agere needs no positive decree I must tell the Learned Reader that this room will not serve to Answer his foreseen objections but I hope I have done it sufficiently elsewhere 6. God hath not only Decreed to give but actually given a great deal of mercy to them that perish which had a natural tendency to their Salvation Christ hath so far dyed for all as that none shall perish for want of a sufficiency in the satisfaction made He hath purchased and given for all a grant or gift of himself with Pardon Justification Adoption and right to glory on condition of acceptance where the Gospel cometh In a word so that none of them shall perish that do not finally refuse the Grace and Salvation offered them 7. Men are not Impenitent and Vnbelievers for want of that called natural faculty or Power to choose and refuse aright but for want of a right disposition of their own wills And by such a moral Impotency which is indeed their viciousness and the wickedness of their wills and doth not excuse but aggravate the sin see Mr. Truman of Natural and Moral Impotency 8. To rectifie mens wicked wills and dispositions God giveth them a World of means The whole Creation and Documents of providence all the precepts promises threats of Scripture Preaching Example Mercies Judgements Patience and inward motions of the spirit All which might do much to mens Conversion and Salvation if they would but do what they could on their own part 9. Adam could have stood when he fell without any more Grace than that which he abused and neglected Gods grace which was not effectual to him was as much as was necessary to his standing if he would have done his best And it was left to his free-will to have made that help effectual by improvement He fell not because he could not stand but because he would not 10. For ought any can prove multitudes that believe not now but perish may have rejected a help as sufficient to their believing as Adams was to his standing 11. All men have power to do more good and avoid more Evil than they do And he that will not do what he can do Justly suffereth 12. Heathens and Infidels are not left unredeemed under the remediless Curse and Covenant of Innocency which we broke in Adam but are all brought by the Redemption wrought by Christ under a Law or termes of Grace 1. God made a Covenant of Grace with all mankind in Adam Gen. 3.15 who was by Tradition to acquaint his posterity with it as he did to Cain and Abel the Ordinances of Oblation and Sacrifice 2. This Covenant was renewed with all mankind in Noah 3. This Covenant is not repealed otherwise than by a perfecter Edition to them that have the plenary Gospel 4. The full Gospel Covenant is made for all as to the Tenor of it and the command of Preaching and Offering it to all 5. They that have not this Edition may yet be under the first Edition 6. The Jewes under the first Edition were saved without believing in this determinate person of Jesus or that he should die for sin and rise again and send down the spirit For the Apostles believed it not before hand Luk. 18.34 Joh. 12.16 Luke 9.45 Mark 9.34 Luk. 24.21 25 26. Act. 1.6 7 8. yet were they then in a state of saving grace as appeareth by Joh. 14. 15. 16. 17. throughout 7. The rest of the world that had not the same supernatural Revelation were not then bound to believe so much as the Jewes were about the Messiah 8. God himself told them all that they were not under the unremedyed curse of the Covenant of Innocency by giving them a life full of those mercies which they had forfeited which all did tend to lead them to repentance and to seek after God Rom. 2.4 Act. 17.27 and find him yea the left not himself without witness for that which may be known of him and his invisible things are manifested and clearly seen in his works so that the wicked are without excuse Rom. 1.19.20 Act. 14.17 So that all Heathens are bound to believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 and are all under the duty of using certain means in order to their own recovery and salvation and to