Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	apostle_n	church_n	primitive_a	4,139	5	9.1134	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85412	The remedie of unreasonableness. Or The substance of a speech intended at a conference or dispute, in Al-hallows the Great, London. Feb. 11. 1649. Exhibiting the brief heads of Mr John Goodwin's judgement, concerning the freeness fulness effectualness of the grace of God. As also concerning the bondage or servility of the will of man. Occasioned by an undue aspersion cast upon him; as (viz.) that he held free-will in opposition to free-grace.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1650 (1650)	Wing G1197; Thomason E594_1; ESTC R202311	11,715	15

is capable the nature and essential liberty of it only preserv'd to be in a capacity of sinning and doing that which is evil which is the greatest abasement of the will that can well be imagined whereas the other opinion maketh the wills of men under the effectual motions of the Grace of God unto that which is good like unto the will of God himself I mean necessarily and unchangeably good and free from all possibility of s●●●ing which is the highest exaltation of the will that can well be conceived And besides that opinion making men unable to do righteously for want of the Grace of God when they sin and do wickedly takes off the shame and demerit of sinning from the wills of men and either casts them upon God for denying his Grace unto them or else resolves them into nothing Whereas the opinion asserted by me affirming That men when they sin and do wickedly have sufficient means from God to refrain sin and to do righteously resolves the shame and whole demerit of sinning into men themselves and their wills and so renders them inexcuseable Thus you see how unjustly and with manifest untruth I have been charged to hold Free-Will against Free-Grace and how that my Accusers are the guilty persons themselves Concerning my opinion about the death of Christ which is That he dyed for the Salvation of all men without exception of any and consequently for the Heathen as well those who do enjoy the oral Ministry of the Gospel as those that want it I herein hold nothing but what was generally taught and received in the primitive Churches of Christ for three hundred years together and more next after the times of the Apostles which are by all our modern Protestant Divines and by Calvin in special manner acknowledged for times wherein Christian Religion raigned in her greatest purity and soundness of Doctrine as I am able to make substantial proof by express testamonies and these not a few from the best Records and Writers of these times as from Ignatius Hegesipp●● Ireneus Tertullian Cyprian Origen Athanasius Hilarius Eusebius Epiphanius Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus Nazianzen Gregorius Nyffenus Arnobius Lactantius Ambrosius Didymus Chrysostome Jerome Angustine Cyrillus Alexandrinus Theodoret with many others as from several Councels also And that Gods predestination of men or purpose of Election depends upon his prescience or fore-sight of their Faith an opinion clearly confederate with that of Universal Redemption by Christ is both by Culvin and Beza themselves acknowledged to have been the judgment of many of the ancient Fathers a and is proved by many particular instances and express testimonies by Gerard Vossius in his Historia Pelagiana lib. 6. Thes. 8. Concerning some few sayings found in some of these Authors which seem to be of a contrary import and are cited by some upon that account the truth is that they are but seemingly so and they speak not of the purchase or procurement but of the application and enjoyment of the Redemption by Christ Therefore by the way they that inform or tell you That Christ's dying for all men a sufficiency of power given to all men to believe an election of species or kinds of men not of persons personally considered c. were held by Pelagius and condemned for Errors by the Orthodox Fathers of those times sin both against their own and your Souls and shall render an account unto him who judgeth righteously for dealing so unfaithfully and unchristianly by his people and Truth They cannot prove that Pelagius ever held any one of the opinions mentioned unless haply after that Recantation of his Errors whereunto the Arguments and Authority of the Orthodox men in his times brought him but that he held Mr Simsons opinion which denyeth that Christ dyed for all men before if not after the said Retractation may be evidently proved from Augustines Epist. 106. and from other testimonies that the same opinion was held by his followers But of all these particulars we intend a further account when God shall give opportunity Besides they that are competently acquainted with books cannot lightly but know that the Reformed Churches of the Lutherans with their Ministers and Teachers who have as great a zeal of God and for parts of knowledg and learning yea and for numbers also are not much inferior to those who follow Calvin if not superior to them in all do in a manner generally hold universal Attonement by Christ together with the other Opinions consequentially accompanying it and Doctor Prideaux a man sufficiently engaged and declared against those ancient Tenents of the Christian Church which now unjustly suffer under the name of Arminian in his printed Lectures about these points still brings upon the stage the Lutherans and Arminians or Remonstrants hand in hand as his joynt adversaries b Yea these Theological truths That Christ dyed for all men That God vouchsafeth sufficient means of Salvation unto a men c. are so extreamly necessary in the managing of the affairs of Christ and of the Gospel that as the Roman Orator said of Justice That it was so necessary for the preservation of Civil Communities that Theeves themselves who are enemies to it and live by injustice towards others yet cannot want it amongst themselves So neither can those men who profess enmity and opposition to the said Opinions hardly preach hardly write any thing to purpose concerning the Gospel but they are necessitated to make use of them and to assert them either in expressness of terms and words or in their clear and manifest principles The writings of Calvin himself and so of Bucer Musculus Vrsine Bullinger with several other Reformed Divines who are generally taken for men of a contrary Judgment yet do their writings I say frequently teach and avouch them and that in as plain and ample terms as any Remonstrant can lightly express his sence about them Yea these truths were too hard for the Synod of Dort it self and now and then gain'd testimony from them notwithstanding their solemn and sacred engagement to devote themselves and the best of their Synodical Endevors to oppose and suppress them What I have now onely affirmed and this in the general I shall God willing and sparing me in life and health for the service in due time make to appear in particulars In the mean time if you that are present shall please narrowly to observe and consider the Sermons which you ordinarily hear from your Ministers or minde their printed books upon some subjects you shall ever and anon very apparently find such things asserted delivered by them which cannot stand nor make any tolerable sence much less Divinity but by the credit and countenance of the Opinions I speak of and which they notwithstanding so zealously pretend to abominate I could weary you with instances in this kinde but if you will afford me your Christian patience in harkening at present unto two onely I shall excuse you for