Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	grace_n	life_n	reign_v	4,565	5	9.3210	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50252	A defence of the Protestant Christian religion against popery: in answer to A discourse of a Roman Catholick Wherein the manifold apostaties, heresies, and schisms of the chruch of Rome, as also, the weakness of her pretensions from the scriptures and the fathers, are briefly laid open: by an English Protestant.	Mather, Samuel, 1626-1671.	1672 (1672)	Wing M1278; ESTC R217670	45,074	64

but of his own will he begat us John 1.13 James 1.18 So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth it is neither Free will nor good Works but it is of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 When thou wast in thy blood yea when thou wast in thy blood I said unto thee Live Ezek. 16.6 Which is that that fills the hearts of his people with such admiring and adoring thoughts of the freedom and sovereignty and efficacy of his grace That gratia vorti-cordia as Austin speaks that wonderful heart-changing grace that slayes the enmity subdues the heart and turns the will who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy Now to the King eternal immortal invisible the onely wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen 1 Tim. 1.13 14 15 16 17. Vnto him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen Revel 1.5.6 But he that thinks he is converted and doth not sing his Hallelujahs and Songs of salvation for it to this King Eternal Immortal Invisible and to the Lamb that was slain and to the power of his Spirit but to his own corrupted will As he sets the Crown upon his own head and robs God of his glory as if he were not Master and sovereign disposer of his own gifts and graces so he doth thereby give in evidence against himself that he never knew the grace of God in truth The whole work of our salvation is both begun and carried on by free grace alone from first to last from the foundation thereof in election to the top-stone of glorification the Saints cry grace grace unto it Zach. 4.7 That as sin hath reigned unto death even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 5. ult 4. Your Justification by the merit of good Works to the infinite dishonour of the grace and blood of Christ and to the keeping of afflicted Consciences upon the rack of everlasting perplexity and trouble for Conscience once effectually awakened will never be pacified but by the blood of Christ for we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 When you have done all those things that are commanded you say we are but unprofitable servants and where then is merit Luke 17.7 8 9 10. There is iniquity even in our holy things Exod. 28.38 Our best Duties are in part defiled and mixed with sin The very tears of Repentance need washing with the blood of Christ Therefore well did Austin pray Lava Lachrymas meas Domine You can allow the righteousness of a meer man or of a woman of a Monk or a Nun to be imputed and reckoned to another as in your Supererogations and yet cavil at the imputation of Christs righteousness This is a Truth of so great weight that Luther called it Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiae the very Crisis and chief Indication of the Churches state she stands or falls with this Truth And as the Scripture describes the Protestant Reformation by their standing upon the Sea of glass as spiritual Priests washing themselves in the Righteousness of Christ and making their Robes white with the blood of the Lamb whereof the molten Sea and Lavers of the Temple were a Type Revel 4.6 and 7.14 and 15.2 So indeed it was upon this grand Truth and Principle of the Gospel Dr. Grew of Justification Preface as Dr. Grew hath well observed That Luther that Champion of the Lord did pitch the Field against you And well he might for the Apostle doubteth not to tell the Galathians when corrupted here That Christ was become of none effect to them and that they were fullen from grace and turned to another Gospel Galat. 5.4 and 1.6 Our Justification by the blood of Christ and our Regeneration by his Spirit being the two main parts of those glad tydings of the Gospel by which it refreshes and gives rest to weary Souls And therefore to deny these or to ascribe them to other causes as to our own Wills or Works as it is to send distressed Souls to the Brooks of Teman in a day of drought and unto Waters that fail so it is to reject at once both the Blood of the Covenant and also the Spirit of the Covenant of Grace and so to turn both Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost as it were out of Office For it is a Truth as firm as the foundations of the Earth and as immoveable as the Pillars of Heaven that it is the peculiar work and glory both of the blood of Christ to justifie and reconcile and of his Spirit to convert and apply that precious blood And seeing the riches of his Free-grace appears and shines forth exceeding gloriously in these influences of his blood and Spirit into our salvation therefore to detract from these by founding it in our own Wills or Works is to eclipse the glory of his Grace From all which you may see the danger of both these Errors of your Church there being nothing wherein the enmity of corrupt Nature against the Gospel doth more directly work out and vent it self like the venom of Asps and as the poyson of Dragons then in these delusions of Conversion by your own Wills and Justification by your own Works 5. A fifth pernicious Error of the Roman Church is Idolatry and Superstition of all sorts contrary to the very Letter of the Second Commandment As worshipping Images praying to Saints and Angels your Cake-Idol or Breaden-god Your Sacriledge of the Cup in the Lords Supper Your five supernumerary Sacraments Your Latin-Service Your Superstitious or Religious Orders as you call them Your prohibition of of Meats and Marriage Your Holy Water Reliques Pilgrimages c. As it were on every high Hill and under every green Tree hath that Idolatrous Church play'd the Harlot whereby she scandaliseth and hardeneth both Jews and Turks against the Gospel Yea she hath corrupted and intoxicated almost all the Churches in the world with this sin and made all Nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her Fornication for which the Holy Ghost brands her as THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS Revel 17.5 and 18.3 Yea though she hath seen the jealousie and the fury of her Husband against her treacherous sister Judah yet she feareth not I mean the desolations of the Eastern Churches by those Instruments of his fury those Angels of his wrath whom the Lord hath let loose upon them from about the River Euphrates the Turks who have destroyed and subjugated a third part of the Christian world for this sin yet she repenteth not being besotted and dead drunk with the poyson of her own Fornications and given up to a reprobate sense she hath a heart that cannot repent of such a

Ambrosii Riv. Crit. Sacr. lib. 3. cap. 17. lib. 4. cap. 18. Lat. lib. 2. de Semi Pelag cap. 3. Erasmo stilus videtur non abhorrere à phrasi Eucherii Lugdunensis Bellarminus alii fere omnes eos asserunt Prospero Obstare tamen scribit clarissimus Vessius quod illius Authoris sententia non videtur quadrare cum doctrina Prosperi A Prosperi etiam stilo abludere judicavit vir eruditus Joh. Latius Moreover seeing you mention Ambrose you may remember his judgment was That Rome is Babylon Apoc. 17. So much for this second Consideration That the Fathers did testifie in part against you and not so much for you as you pretend Considerat 3. I pray consider in the third place That there be many even of your own Writers that testifie against you in several things for which you have put their Names and their Books into your honest Indices Expurgatorii and into your Index librorum prohibitorum such as Stella Masius Espencaeus Ferus c. But there be others left who have escaped your Interpolations Expurgations and Prohibitions who testifie against you to your faces Let me add but two or three signal Instances to what you have had already First Greg. lib. 6. Epist 30. Lib. 4. Epist 38. Bellarm. de Pontif. lib. 2. cap. 2. lib. 2. cap. 13. Ribera in Apoc 14.8 Tertoll cont Judae cap. 9. Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 18. cap. 22. Hieron de Spiritu sanct Prolog Ep. 151 in Algas Qu. 11. Ambros in Apoc. 17. You know how sharply Pope Gregory the first inveighs against that proud swelling smoky title of Universal Pastor used and claimed by all his Successors to this day Ego autem fidenter dico quia quisquis se universalem vocat vel vocari desiderat in elatione sua Antichristum praecurrit quia superbiendo caeteris se praeponit I speak it confidently saith he and the Pope you say cannot erre that whosoever calls himself or desireth to be called by others universal Bishop or Pastor is the Fore-runner of Antichrist in his elation of mind because he lifts up himself in pride above others And he saith That it is a prophane Title and that the King of pride is at the door and an Army of Priests ready to fight his Battels with many other such like expressions Secondly I might here also tell you how that Bellarmine and Ribera both Jesuites and some others of the same Tribe do confess and maintain and that according to the judgement of sundry of the Fathers viz. Tertullian Austin Jerom Ambrose That mystical Babylon in the Revelations is Rome and that she is reserved and devoted to destruction even to be burnt with fire A concession of more dangerous consequence and importance to your cause and interest then to be evaded by Romances of an imaginary Antichrist of the Tribe of Dan. Thirdly If you ask for Humane Testimonies against that Scorpion Doctrine of Justification by the merit of your own Works and Penances and Satisfactions wherewith your Locusts use to sting and torment and torture the Consciences of men worse then Death and upon which as was said before that Champion of the Lord did pitch the Field against you it is worth your noting how Bellarmine having wrestled with his wit in five Books against the truth of God yet at last God confounding him in his opposition to it he confesseth Bell. de Justif lib 5. cap. 7. prop. 3. Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae periculum inanis gloriae Tutissimum est totam fiduciam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate reponere Because of the uncertainty of our own Righteousness and the danger of Vain-glory it is the safest way to put our whole trust in the meer mercy and goodness of God And it is so indeed But then Bellarmine why did you dispute against it against the inward workings and recoylings of your own Conscience which did whisper you in the ear and told you That this is the best and safest way Ex ore tuo serve nequam I cannot but often think of this passage of his as one of the greatest triumphs in this kind that ever truth had out of the mouth of such an impetuous Adversary for magna est veritas praevalebit Surely these words of his do as well deserve to be blotted out by an Index Expurgatorius as those of Chrysostom Index Expurg Litera C. Chrysostom Index Expurg Cardinal Quirega in litera B. Biblia Roberti Stephani Meritum nullum esse nisi quod à Christo confertur which you have ordered to be purged out of his works and as well as those passages out of Robert Stephens Table to his Bible Credendo in Christum remittuntur peccata and Credens Christo non morietur in aeternum fide purificantur corda justificamur fide in Christum Our sins are forgiven by believing in Christ he that believeth in Christ shall not dye eternally our hearts are purified by saith we are justified by saith in Christ of which your pious Index saith Deleantur subjectae propositiones tanquam suspectae Let these propositions be blotted out as being suspitious for it seems you suspect the very words of Scripture and the Gospel it self whether it be true or no but there is nothing renders your Religion more suspitious and more odious unto my heart then this your enmity unto the free grace of God and against the Scripture by which it is revealed which you are still venting upon all occasions Matth. 19.16 Coelum gratis non accipiam saith Vega I will not accept of heaven upon terms of free grace But when death appears and stares upon you some of you can speak at another rate so did Bellarmine when he prayed upon his Death-bed Precor ut me Deus Fuligatus in vita Bellar. referente Dr. Grew of Justif pag. 91.169 inter sanctos electos suos non estimator meriti sed veniae largitor admittat I pray that God would receive me among his Saints and chosen ones not upon the account of merit but for the sake of his own pardoning grace and mercy So Stephen Gardiner when Dr. Day Bishop of Chichester came to see him on his Death-bed and began to comfort him with the words of Gods promises and with the free justification in the blood of Christ our Saviour Fox 's Acts and Mon. Vol. 3. page 527. col 2. Gardiner hearing that What my Lord quoth he Will you open that Gap now then farewell altogether To me and such other in my case you may speak it but open this window to the people then farewell altogether Here were clear convictions but strange rebellion of spirit against them And to leave this head Voet. Vol. 2. Disput 47. pag. 726. Voetius hath a large and learned Dispute with this Title Vis veritatis in ipso papatu crumpentis de salute per solam Dei misericordiam in Christo Wherein he produceth a cloud of