Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	command_v	contrary_a	forbid_v	1,706	5	9.4049	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14095	A discovery of D. Iacksons vanitie. Or A perspective glasse, wherby the admirers of D. Iacksons profound discourses, may see the vanitie and weaknesse of them, in sundry passages, and especially so farre as they tende to the undermining of the doctrine hitherto received. Written by William Twisse, Doctor of Divinitie, as they say, from whom the copie came to the presse	Twisse, William, 1578?-1646.	1631 (1631)	STC 24402; ESTC S118777	563,516	728

will to save and decree to save is all one and election we say is the decree of salvation And as God hath not elected all unto salvation nor ordained all unto eternall life so neither hath he willed to save all For hence two absurdities doe manifestly follow first that the reason why many are not saved must bee because God cannot save them which is the argument of S. Austin Another is that Gods will shall bee changed for undoubtedly when God damnes any man then he will not save him and therefore if before he did will to save them his will is afterwards changed both by changing his old will which was everlasting and by entertaining a new will which was not everlasting Hemnigius a great patron of universall grace interpreteth the place of S. Paul 2 Tim. 2. 4. Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri modo fide oblatam salutem recipere non recusaverint Neither doe I like Cajetans interpretation after this manner when he saith Est sermo devoluntate signi qua Deus proponit omnibus hominibus praecepta salutis doctrinamque Euangelij and that for two reasons First because God doth not propose his Gospel to all Secondly if God should propose the Gospell to all and bid all men to beleeve this is no certaine signe that God will have them to beleeve like as it is no certaine signe that God will give them grace to beleeve without which they cannot beleeve for it is manifest that God doth not give the grace of faith and repentance to all that heare the Gospell nor to a major part of them but it is a signe I confesse that God will have it our duty to beleeve by commanding us to beleeve Gods commandement is usually called his will and the commandement of God Schoolmen make to be one of the signes of Gods will So he commanded Abraham to sacrifice his sonne Isaak This they call voluntas signi but yet hee was determined that Isaak should not bee sacrificed as appeared by the event this they call voluntas beneplaciti So he commanded Pharaoh to let Israel goe this was his voluntas signi but yet he told Moses he would harden Pharoahs heart that hee should not let Israel goe this they call his voluntas beneplaciti the end whereof was that God might have occasion to shew his power and magnifie himselfe in his plagues brought upon the Aegyptians to breake those hearts that would not bend unto him So that you are out in the interpretation of voluntas signi and beneplaciti as well as in the accommodation of it as out of our opinion God proposeth no signification of his good will to any man as touching the saving of him otherwise then by faith and repentance and plainly protests that without faith and repentance they shall not be saved You would faine have your adversaries grant that God doth will the salvation of all men by his revealed will or voluntate signi Indeed if you may have the fashioning of our opinion you may soone be victorious in conquering men of straw in stead of reall opposites This distinction of yours is absurdly applied to our opinion in this case who deny that God doth at all or any manner of way will the salvation of reprobates For revealed will and voluntas signi is the will of Gods commandement and the objects of commandements are onely morall duties and not the rewards of them such as is salvation Yet it is truth that what God is said to will by his will of commandement so usually called though improperly the will of God the same at once he doth not will but rather the contrary sometimes by his voluntas propositi will of purpose and decree which alone is properly to bee accounted the will of God and which none can resist Rom. 9. 19. And this we can prove and have alreaby proved by two instances the one as touching the sacrificing of Isaak commanded to Abraham but not determined by God that it should be brought to pass as also in the letting of Israel goe commanded unto Pharaoh yet God resolving for a long time to harden Pharaohs heart that he should not let them goe Neither will it herehence follow that there are two wills in God as you most unlearnedly urge but that God may command one thing which yet he is resolved shall not come to passe so that the thing commanded may be contrary to the thing determined by God as when he commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaak but withall determined that Isaak should not be sacrificed But Gods commandement though it be usually called his will yet it is improperly so called onely the will of purpose and decree is properly Gods will according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 19. Who hath resisted his will For the commandement signifieth onely what is our duty to doe it doth not signifie what God hath determined shall be done For as for the crucifying of the Sonne of God Gods hand and his counsell had determined before that it should bee done but he commanded none to crucifie him but rather commanded all the contrary namely in forbidding the shedding of innocent bloud Neither shall there be a contradiction betweene the objects of Gods will which is one but onely betwixt the objects of his commandement and the object of his will and determination as in the instances proposed I have manifested As for your applications of the distinction of voluntas signi and voluntas beneplaciti to the salvation of mankinde I know none of our Divines that embrace it Wee plainly deny that God willeth the salvation of any but of his elect For Gods will we conceive to be all one with his decree and election we define to be the decree of salvation or the ordaining of men to everlasting life So that we may well give you leave to runne riot in your fruitlesse argumentation You on the contrary doe apparantly maintaine a manifest contradiction betweene the object of Gods will For seeing God doth damne many it followeth that he did will to damne many and that from everlasting though onely for their sinne yet these whom from everlasting he did will to damne you maintaine that out of infinite love he did will to save till the measure of their sinne was full So that at once he did will to save and will to damne the same persons by your opinion thus the contradiction fairely and fully lights upon your selfe which upon a meere fiction of yours and that contrary to our professed opinion you charged upon us Wee grant the will of God is but one but we say his will properly so called and his commandement usually called also his will though improperly are two distinct things For by the one he sheweth what is our duty to doe or to leave undone by the other he determineth what shall be done or not done what shall come to passe or not come to passe in the world Of what force and credit your

that God should by his secret or reserved will recall any part of his will declared by oath We are so farre from thinking that God recalls any part of his will declared by oath that wee doe not believe that hee doth or can recall any patt of his will that hee hath declared by his bare word And wee thinke it equally impossible for God to lye and to perjure himselfe for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither when hee kept Abraham from sacrificing his sonne Isaac doe wee say that he recalled any part of his will which he had formerly declared by his word although he commanded Abraham to sacrifice his sonne for Gods will of commandement signifieth onely what God will have to be our duety to doe not what hee hath determined to be done though you confound these usually and that as wilfully and unlearnedly as Arminius himselfe because it serves your turne and advantageth your cause to confound them But looke you to it how you free your selfe from maintaining that God doth recall something which hee hath properly willed and determined to be done For that God willeth the death of no man that dieth you make to bee the word of God confirmed by oath and you understand it of Gods will properly so called and yet you maintaine that God willeth the death of him that dieth though not as man and as the sonne of Adam yet in some other manner which either is flat contradiction or else God doth recall and change his will The last part of your devout asseveration is Farre be it from us to thinke that God should proclaime an universall pardon to all the sonnes of Adam under the seale of his oath and yet exempt many from all possibilitie of receiving any benefit by it Here you seeme to shew your teeth but I had rather understand your meaning for to proclaime pardon to all is ambiguous for it may bee done absolutely as kings on earth grant pardons and usually our kings grant pardons at the end and conclusion of parliaments I doe not thinke this is your meaning for then all should be pardoned for to proclaime pardon is to signifie his Majesties pleasure that hee doth pardon them But if conditionally it is true God proclaimes that whosoever believeth shall be saved this is a knowne truth no man takes exception against it And how doe we exempt any from all possibility of receiving it You will say that this we doe in exempting many from all possibility of performing the condition to wit of believing I answer that your owne opinion is to be charged with this ours is not for you maintain that Pharaoh after the seventh wonder was exempt from all possibility of repentance and the like you avouch of all reprobates and such as have filled up the measure of their sinne which according to your opinion may be many yeares before their death and in the seventh Section following you expresse it thus Having their soules betrothed unto wickednesse such undoubtedly was Ahab that sold himselfe to worke wickednesse and many such like And in this case you professe in your owne phrase that the doore of repentance is shut upon them But wee like not this opinion of yours wee know no measure of sinne nor continuance of sinne that doth prescribe unto the grace of God and forbids the banes of matrimony betwixt him and his Church but that in a due time the power of Gods grace shall breake through all obstacles even through the furious idolatry of Manasses in giving his children unto Devills and that sealed with bloud wherewith hee filled Ierusalem from corner to corner yea and through his sorcery and witchcraft also and through the rage of Saul persecuting Gods saints and making havocke of the Church of God And for as much as wee maintaine it to be possible for every one to believe and repent through Gods grace it is manifest that we exempt no man from all possibility of believing and repenting to wit in consideration of the power of God But in consideration of the power of man wee exempt not many onely but all and every one from possibility of beleeving and repenting by power of nature And dare you avouch the contrary It is apparant that whatsoever you thinke you dare not openly professe thus much And therefore are content to hide your head and lurke under generalities So that the case is cleare that you doe us wrong in saying wee exempt many from all possibility of repenting I say it is a notorious slander for we exempt men from possibility of repenting onely by power of nature and so we exempt not onely many but all and every one from possibility of repenting But perhaps you may say that withall wee maintaine that God doth not purpose to give the grace of faith and repentance unto all but to deny it unto many yea unto most and upon this supposition we exempt them from all possibility of repenting But I pray consider to exempt some from possibility of repenting upon supposition is this to exempt from all possibility without supposition For you have delivered this without all supposition And then the issue is to enquire whether God hath decreed to give the grace of faith and repentance unto all or rather to deny it to many yea to most And dare you affirme that God hath decreed to give the grace of faith and repentance unto all It is apparant you dare not openly professe this and therefore carie your selfe in the clouds without any cleare and distinct proposing of your meaning In S. Pauls daies there was a remnant amongst Israel which are called Gods election Rom. 11. and these had obtained this grace of faith and repentance as there the Apostle signifieth but the rost were hardned And if God hath purposed to give grace unto all you may as well say God hath elected all But the Holy Ghost witnesseth that many are called and but few are chosen Many I say are called not all neither nor the most part as all experience and the histories of the world doe manifest and therefore though God proclaimes in his word pardon of sinne to all that beleeve yet he doth not proclaimethis unto all By the way I observe that whereas you say that God doth proclaime an universall pardon to all the sonnes of Adam under the seale of his oath this of Gods oath which you adde doth draw us to conceive that the meaning of those words As I live I will not the death of him that dies containes this sense in your construction that God will pardon the sinnes of all and since these words as you understand them doe not runne conditionally but absolutely herehence it followeth that according to your opinion God hath sworne absolutely to pardon the sinnes of all men the absurdity whereof I leave to everie mans sober consideration 7. Hitherto you have told us in what matters the distinction of voluntas signi and voluntas beneplaciti cannot