Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	good_a	know_v	life_n	7,850	5	4.5045	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55926	A third letter concerning toleration in defense of The argument of the letter concerning toleration, briefly consider'd and answer'd.	Proast, Jonas.	1691 (1691)	Wing P3539; ESTC R26905	76,552	84

matter in it St. Paul demands here How shall men hear without a Preacher But will any man say Because a Preacher or Preaching is always necessary therefore nothing else ●an ever be so If not then it will not follow from this Demand that the Apostle knew no other means to make men hear but the preaching of the Gospel As to those words vers 17. Suppose the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there to be rightly render'd hearing and that the word of God signifies the word preach'd Yet even so every one sees they will serve your turn but just as well as the other But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be there render'd report and I do not see why it may not as it is in the foregoing verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who has believed our report then the sense will be Faith cometh by report or preaching and preaching by the word of God i. e. by the word of God instructing and sending the Preacher according to vers 15. Which sets that Text at a greater distance yet from your purpose Where to shew the Necessity of Penalties to bring men to hearken to Instruction and to consider and examine matters of Religion as they ought to do I allege that such as are out of the right Way are usually so prejudiced against it that no intreaties or Perswasions will prevail with them so much as to give an ear to those who call them to it so that there seems to be no other means left besides the Grace of God but Penalties onely to bring them to hear and consider and so to embrace the Truth You demand What if God for Reasons best known to himself would not have men compell'd to hear i. e. as far as moderate Penalties will compell them otherwise I am not concern'd in this Demand but thought the good Tidings of Salvation and the Proposals of Life and Death Means and Induc●ments enough to make them hear and consider now as well as ●ere●o●●●e Where first you must give me leave to demand How it appears that God thought the good Tidings of Salvation c. enough heretofore when he endued the Preachers of the Gospel with the Gift of Tongues and with the Power of healing all manner of Diseases c. as well to bring men to hear and consider as to believe Secondly I say that if God for Reasons best known to himself would not have moderate Penalties used now that Miracles are ceased ●o induce men to ●ea● and consider he would have told us so and you ought to have shewn us where he has done it You go on demanding What if God would have men left to their freedom in this Point if they will hear or if they will forbear will you constrain them Thus we are siere he did with his own People c. But those words whether they will hear or whether they will forbear which we find th●ice used in the Prophet Ezekiel are nothing at all to your purpose Fo● by hearing there no man un●erstands the bare giving an ear to what was to be preach'd nor yet the considering it onely but the complying with it and obeying it according to the Paraphrase which Gro●ius gives of the words Ezek. 2.5 Si●se co●●●gu●● rectè si non quod hactenus magis de illis credibile est ob summam pertinaciam erunt mexcusati However the Penalties I defend are not such as can any way be pretended to take away men's freedom in this Point You add This also is the Method of the Gospel We are Ambassadours for Christ as if God did beseech you by us we pray in Christ's stead saith St. Paul 2. Cor 5.20 If God had thought it necessary to have men punish'd to make them give ear he could have call'd Magistrates to be Spreaders and Ministers of the Gospel as well as poor Fishermen or Paul a Persecutor who yet wanted not Power to punish where Punishment was necessary as is evident in Ananias and Sapphira and the Incestuous Corinthian But though it be the Method of the Gospel for the Ministers of it to pray and beseech men yet it appears from your own words here both that Punishment may be sometimes necessary and that punishing and that even by those who are to pray and beseech is consistent with that Method Why Penalties were not necessary at first to make men give ●ar to the Gospel has already been shewn And from the same ground it seems not hard to conjecture why God was pleas'd to call poor Fishermen rather than Magistrates to be Spreaders and Ministers of the Gospel For as the great and wonderful things which were to be done for the evidencing the truth of the Gospel were abundantly sufficient to procure Attention to it without any help from the Magistrate so they were much more admirable and convincing as done by the hands of such mean persons than they would have been if they had been done by Princes or Magistrates To which I may add that the Conversion of the World to Christianity without the help and notwithstanding the utmost resistance of the Civil Powers was to be the great Evidence to all succeeding Ages of a divine Power accompanying the Gospel and furthering the progress of it Which Evidence would have been wanting if God had from the beginning used the service of the Magistrate in propagating his Gospel You demand further What if God foreseeing this Force would be in the hands of men as passionate as humoursome as liable to Prejudice and Error as the rest of their Brethren did not think it a proper Means to bring men into the Right Way But if there be any thing of an Argument in this it proves that there ought to be no Civil Government in the World and so proving too much proves nothing at all The Scripture tells us that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God And yet God has put the Sword into the Magistrate's hand though he may be as passionate as humoursome c. as the rest of his Brethren So that unless you would have no Government or Discipline in the World you must acknowledge that how passionate or humoursome soever or how liable soever to Prejudice and Error God foresaw Magistrates would be there is not the least colour to inferr from thence that he did not think moderate Penalties used to bring men into the Right Way a proper Means to bring them into it Lastly you demand What if there be other Means And then you add Then yours ceases to be necessary upon the account that there is no means left For you your self allow that the Grace of God is another Means And I suppose you will not deny it to be both a proper and sufficient Means and which is more the onely Means such Means as can work by itself and without which all the Force in the World can do nothing To which I answer Though the Grace of God be another Means