Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	church_n	faith_n	reform_a	2,175	5	9.7280	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60360	The predestinated thief A dialogue betwixt a rigid Calvinian preacher and a condemned malefactor. In which is not onely represented how the Calvinistical opinion occasions the perpetration of wickedness and impieties; but moreover how it doth impede and hinder, nay almost impossibilitate the reducing of a sinner to emendation and repentance.	Slatius, Henry, 1585-1623.	1658 (1658)	Wing S3982A; ESTC R220063	24,121	82

punishment more to be feared to your Soul Therefore tell me now you are a going out of this world whether do you think you shall go Th. To heaven as well as you who art not much better than I. Pr. Do you think then you are as good and as honest as I am Th. Yes that I do and that I will prove out of your own proper Confession a Calv. Com. on Isa ch 64. v. 7. of his Institut l. 3. c. 12. dist 9 13 14. Ibid. c. 14. dist 9. one for all Your best works in themselves are filthy deformed detestable nay meer abominations and sins and like an unclean woman alwayes infected with filth and spots so that you are not accepted or esteemed of God for any of your works because that they b Belg. Confes art 24. deserve nothing but eternal punishment and that c Catech. Heidel quest 60. you altogether grievously sinn'd against all the Commandments of God neither have observed any one of them nay that you are altogether prone to all manner of malice and hatred both against God and your Neighbour In those printed Prayers at the end of your Psalter you confess worthy Sir your worchiness not onely to be blinde in your understanding but unapt to all good that it strayes from God follows its own vain imaginations that it daily sins and that most hainously and that it is by our Original Sin sometimes so corrupted and instigated that by reason of it there rise many and sinful thoughts which fight against God and your Neighbour so that many times you transgress the commands of God without intermission In brief you are a miserable sinner conceived and born in all sin and corruption prone to all evil unapt and averse to all good so that you have uncessantly by your sins throughout your whole life excited the anger of the Lord against you and according to his righteous judgement has deserved on thy self his eternal the more the pity Condemnation Your Conscience accuses you of this d Confes Belg. Art 7. nay your very sins witnesse against you so that being convinced you often groan under the sense of your corruption and desire to be freed from the body I will speak in short Since your being of little or no profit for e Teelings Dial. of Christian mans state p. 8 9. from your nativity you have been a childe of wrath and heir of Divine vengeance hadst communion with damned Devils when thou wast in thy Mothers womb full of all natural poison whence all evil actions proceed that you can do nothing more than sin yea when thou wast an Infant hadst thou but been tempted by the least occasion for you are naturally as propense to sin as the Serpent is to bite or sting and as is the Serpent odious to men not for the mischief it has done but the poison it carries about with it so even you are counted odious by God by reason of that poison of Original Sin in which you were born and conceived All this and much more of the same kind you say of your selves and have subscribed it with your own hand Nay you brand all those which deny to affirm these things with you by the name of Hereticks as Arminians Pelagians and such like Names and how would you take it if some one Shimei like should make it his business to reproach and assault you with dishonesty and maledictions and vomit out if there be any things worse than these upon you Pr. For the honour of God and the exalting of the superabundant riches of his grace I willingly confess my self guilty of all this nay God will that his chosen and faithful should be such sinners that they should not boast of themselves but f Calv. Instit l. 3. c. 14. dist 9. be humble which humility confists in this that we empty our selves of all goodnesse whatsoever Th. And of late I have believed this to be true too Sir and I did further judge if I may speak my minde in this case that I was forthwith to do no good my self for the further I was off from doing any good the truer I could confess my self to be void of all righteousness and goodness Pr. I would not have you so understand me as if God would have us to be sinners and not endevour to do good works but that 't is onely by his grace lest we should seek to be justified by our works Th. I believe the same yet and because I well know how deadly a sin it is to lean to good works for justification and see with what subtilties the devil does hunt men how with heresies he entraps men I have even lain aside doing good if I could onely leaning to the free grace of God Pr. Must you have your will and your judgement afore all others and interpret our doctrine no otherwise then if it were the cause of your perverse life Fy Fy. God intends this that men should not seek to be justified by works but faith Th. By faith what faith Pr. As our Catechism has it in the 60 question I believe onely in Jesus Christ through whom by faith I shall be justified before God My conscience accuses me of all these things that I have sinned most hainously against all the commandments of God that I have observed none of them and am now liable to all evil yet the good God without any merit of mine out of his own meer grace both gives and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction justice and sanctification of Christ as fully as if I had committed no sin yea as if I had performed all that righteousnesse and obedience which Christ either did or suffered in my own person as I apply this by belief to my heart Th. You say well Sir this pure and sound faith has been alwayes my faith and so that I am more perswaded I have alwayes stuck close to that Doctrine of the reformed Churches so that I have almost wearied God if it were possible with my prayers in which faith without any good works I persist Furthermore this was alwayes in my mind often in my mouth g Luthers preface to Galat. That it was the chiefest art of a Christian to know no law no good works no not a tittle as to justification h Luth. lib. of Christian liberty for a Christian neither wants works or the law after by faith he is freed from all laws i Luth. on 2. chap. to Gal. Id. de lib. Christian Faith is onely necessary to salvation other things we are freed from whether commanded or forbid Goodworks make not men good nor bad ones bad and as to unbelievers no good work profiteth to their salvation so on the contrary no bad action makes a man bad or condemns him but onely unbelief For where faith is no sin can hurt Pr. What then have you such an esteem of good works indeed we teach indeed that faith in Christ does alone

would that Christ by the blood of his Cross by which he ratified the new Covenant should effectually redeem out of every Tribe People Language and Nation those and those onely which were elected to Salvation from eternity and were given to him of his Father giving them likewise faith and spiritual gifts which he acquired by his sufferings Th. Are all men elected Pr. No p Pisc contra Schafm Thes 115. p. 119. Buc. L. C. de Praedest q. 46. for God meerly out of his own will without any respect to future impieties ordained the greatest part of mankinde to utter destruction Th. Now at length tell me seriously from your heart what you think of me am I of the Elect or no Why do not you answer Speak out and speak plain hide not truth under the ambiguity of words neither let your tongue dissent from your heart for they ought not to be divorced but speak candidly for 't is necessary that I know this If I am a Reprobate I should believe a lie for Christ has purchased nothing for Reprobates if I am Elect I follow the truth and not a lie Now to follow the truth is a work of the Gospel therefore before I do any thing else I will know whether I am elected or not Pr. q Perk. de Praedest p. 89. Gomar de Praedest Thes 4. Dungan Pacif. p. 68. Whosoever is within the pale of the Church is bound to believe that he is redeemed by Christ the Reprobate as well as the Elect yet each after a peculiar manner the Elect is bound that believing he may possess the benefit of his Election the Reprobate is bound to believe from the intention of God he may have the less to plead for himself and therefore r Gomar de Predest Thes 21. Christ is offered to Reprobates not that they should be saved but that being convicted from the incredulity and refractoriness of their hearts they may want all manner of excuse Th. Will you say God would have Reprobates to believe that which is a lie and damn them eternally too if they will not believe it and what hinders but it is so for s Nic. de Schure in Instit after he has once resolved to damn them he may do it which way he pleases Pr. Pray Sir leave off these niceties we have more need to pray to God that he would save your Soul Th. If you will be praying pray for your self for my part I will not spend time and labour so idlely If I am reprobated 't is impossible to acquire Salvation though I should spend a thousand years in praying for the Decree stands so sure t Polan in Doct. de Praedest pag. 139. that as the Elect cannot be reprobated so the Reprobated cannot become Elect for Reprobation is as immutable in respect of God reprobating as man reprobated What good can prayers do then On the contrary if I am elect God has destinated me to salvation from Eternity u Donteclock Instruct de Predest p. 93. and all whom God has ordained to salvation from the foundation of the world are brought to it by the Almighty Power of God that the purpose of Election might stand sure that it is impossible for them any way to perish This has been alwayes my belief according to which I have lived and the Synod of Dort have so confirmed me in it that I would sooner be burnt than depart an hair from it And as God x Cap. 1. Art 11. himself is most wise immutable omniscient omnipotent so that Election by him made can neither be changed revoked or broken nor the Elect perish or their number admit of addition or subtraction 'T is granted y It. cap. 5. Art 4. moreover that the Elect sometimes by the permission of God fall into grievous sins as David Peter and other Saints and they do offend z Art 5. God by such sins and incur the guilt of death grieve the holy Spirit destroy the exercise of their faith wound their consciences and many times lose the sense of grace for a while God nevertheless for the immutable Decree of his Election does not in sad failings quite take his Spirit from them neither does he suffer them to fall a Art 6. so low as to fall from the state of Adoption or Justification or to sin unto death or against the holy Ghost so that he should utterly desert them and leave them to perish infallibly for ever So that they obtain not any thing by their owne worth and strength but of the meer bounty of God b Art 8. that they neither fall totally from grace nor unavoidably into Hell But what is more than all this when as both internal and eternal Reprobation is the operation of God which does not really differ from the essence of God himself why may not we discourse and descant of Election c Polan in Doct. de Predest 'T is granted on all hands that Reprobation as well as Election does not really differ from the Essence of God and therefore it is God himself who in himself is altogether immutable and far be it from me to ask how God can be mutable Pr. Good God! what a sad hearing is this Can a man proceed so far as to be burthened with sin and misery as you are and yet will not call upon his God Th. I would sooner Sir sing that excellent Hymn made by Bernard Biscop heretofore Preacher at Oyen in Gelderland now Preacher at Vtricht till my Chamber rung again Pr. If that man has made a Hymn 't is necessary it be good for he is one teaches all Orthodox Doctrine Let me hear it Th. Hearken diligently the melody of it shall answer to the 103 Psalm You shall briefly perceive in it the universal Rule of my Belief according to which I intend to live and die I. PRaised be God who before I was born nay ere the World was predestinated me to Salvation not according to the Faith or Works which I should have or do in this life but according to his own infinite mercy II. Blessed be God who by the immutable counsel of his own Will has called me inwardly by his Spirit and outwardly by his Word who has inwardly inlightned my minde and corrupt senses by his Spirit and will more and more inlighten them III. Who has freed my base erring will the servant and store-house of sin so that I desire onely to walk in the wayes of the Lord onely to be able is wanting IV. Blessed be God who by his Omnipotent Spirit and Divine Word cooperating has implanted a firm faith in my heart such a strong faith which though by crosses and whatever is worse may be bended and yield yet cannot break V. Who shall seduce the Elect of God Who shall separate me from his love in Christ Who shall pull me out of his Omnipotent Hand Neither the Devil or Death or deadly sins shall be able by all their strength to force away my Crown VI. That good God who has begun a good work in me for his mercy sake will carry it on and perfect it even unto the end even to the end of this miserable life 'T is the Lord my God who will do this that I may persevere being alwayes guarded as it were a Prince by his Spirit Jaylor Pray make an end will you I have enough of these Disputes and Rhymings Is this one of your godly Hymns This is a Song indeed befits a Rogue and deserves singing by none but a Club of Whores and Rogues met at a Bawdy-house Your faith and your manners are even much alike Th. Even jeer on good-man Rogue as much as you will yet I esteem it for an excellent Hymn and were I to die I would sing it on the top of the highest Round of the Ladder before that of Ex profundis Domine c. Out of the deep O Lord c. The Composer of it was one of the Orthodox Contra-Remonstrants Not long ago he being called out of a little Village into the City of Vtricht he there so abundantly well argued for and defended this Hymn that there it was received into the Orthodox Church as really consentaneous to Scripture Jaylor Is this that same Orthodox Doctrine about which these Provinces are so devillishly troubled and pester'd Which that it may be had in holy reverence with the Church Synods and Souldiers use all their Authorities Truly it is a very pretty thing Pr. Sirrah you ought to hold your tongue of such things concerning which you know no more than a Dog Look to it what you say and leave to calumniate the Church and her Doctrine or it shall go worse with you for ere long you shall be so far from being head Jaylor that you shall scarce be admitted to run of a Rogues errand Jaylor If these be your best Arguments Mr. Parson yours is not so certain and good a Religion as you talk for For all your hot words I 'll tell you but thus much that you may very well know that I understand you have done little or nothing for all your many words to the turning this poor Soul from sin and translating him from death to life nay which is worse he is now much more hardned than before Indeed I have heard much of your opinions before but never believed it till now where I have been an eye and ear-witness of all is come out of your mouth Is this your Reformed Religion in good sooth If you had call'd it the Deformed Religion you had hit it as that which is not able to effect any thing of it self unless to stir up security in men and give them an occasion nay spur them to go on in sin Therefore Mr. Parson because you cannot profit this sick sinful Soul any thing by your Doctrine you may walk for I 'll light my Candle and go fetch another who shall contradict your Institutions and be of another-guess Opinion who I suppose will far sooner and surer bring a man to sorrow for his sin and a better life Pr. Do what you please so that you take it for granted you shall not thus scape unpunish'd Jaylor Do what you can I esteem this mans Soul more than your favour In the mean while though you shew your envy and bitterness too much But however God give you good night FINIS