Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	according_a	church_n	doctrine_n	4,717	5	6.8021	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93868	Vindiciæ fundamenti: or A threefold defence of the doctrine of original sin: together with some other fundamentals of salvation the first against the exceptions of Mr. Robert Everard in his book entituled, The creation and the fall of man. The second against the examiners of the late assemblies confession of faith. The third against the allegations of Dr. Jeremy Taylor, in his Unum necessarium, and two letter treatises of his. By Nathaniel Stephens minister of Fenny-Drayton in Leicestershire.	Stephens, Nathaniel, 1606?-1678.	1658 (1658)	Wing S5452; Thomason E940_1; ESTC R207546	207,183	256

But still you take offence at the contrariety of the two wills You say There is an impossibility for Adam to serve two Masters especially when one commands him to stand by a revealed will and the other hath determined the fall by his secret will at the same time unlesse he could serve the one in the forenoon ☞ the other in the afternoon And yet further to amplifie the difficulty you say The secret will is the controuler for let the revealed will command any thing we are to center in the determination of the secret And then you pathetically call upon man to bewail the time that ever be had a being in this world because he is sure to come to ruine which will soever he obeys If Adam did obey the secret will of God then the penalties inflicted by the revealed will would fall upon him And then you conclude in these words Might we not say farewell all hopes of another life and so hang down our heads crying out alasse we are undone our Leaders are not agreed for what the one sayes do the other determines that he shall not do And much more you have to the same effect page 80. But all may be answered in a few words We plainly affirme in matters of obedience men have nothing to do with the secret will of God according to that determination Secret things belong to God but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever that we may do the words of this Law Deut. 29.29 This also is the doctrine of the Church of England That men should not meddle with predestination and election but those only who have the fruits of election who are called justified and sanctified For the ordinary sort of men they only are to look at the general threats that they may be humbled and to the general promises that you may beleeve Artic 17. And so in the particular case of Adam we say that he had nothing to do with the secret will of God concerning the permission of the fall his duty only was to look to the command That was the Cynosure or only rule which he was to be guided by And it is the duty of us all to do that which the Lord commandeth and to rest upon him to make our Leaders to agree It doth not appertain to you nor me nor any man living to make a reconciliation betwixt these two wills in their seeming differences let us keep the ordinary path But if you will say that the secret will is that which doth prevail though this doth prove true in the event yet neverthelesse the revealed will of God is the onely rule or cannon which we must walk by as for example the Lord in his revealed will required Abraham to offer up his son Isaac in sacrifice when in his secret will he had decreed that Isaac should not be sacrificed If we go to the event the secret will was the more preponderating and prevailing will of the twain Though it was yet the obedience of Abraham had its special testimony in this that he had regard to the revealed will of God Gen. 22.2 12. So in the case of Hezekiah the Prophet was sent with a message to him set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live Isa 38.2 and yet we finde that the Lord in his secret will had decreed that he should not dy at that time fifteen years more were added to the dayes of his life In the present case then though the secret will did carry the sway yet the commendation of the obedience of Hezekiah did ly in giving assent to the threatning of God denounced by the mouth of the Prophet Though the denunciation was meerely conditional spoken onely in relation to second causes thou shalt dye of the present disease unlesse thou humble thy self and by fervent prayer seek the face of God Though this declaration of the will of God did imply a condition yet because it was the will declared and outwardly revealed to Hezekiah he was to have respect to this onely He was not whatsoever you suggest to the contrary at a dilemma or strait which of these two wills ought to be obeyed he never lamented the day of his birth because his Leaders were not agreed He never faulted the contrariety of the two wills that the revealed will should say thou shalt dy and the secret will imply thou shalt live What God had revealed concerning his present death he did beleeve the sentence outwardly made known to him as for Gods secret Decree he had nothing to do with that which did meerely lie hid in God We read indeed after his humiliation when the Lord had made known so much of his secret purpose that he would adde fifteen yeares more to the dayes of his life then he was bound to believe and to live in faith of that particular promise which was made I might go further with the example of the Ninevites the Lords revealed will or his sentence outwardly denounced was Yet fourty dayes and Nineve shall be destroyed Jonah 3.4 Now in his secret will or absolute Decree the Lord had not purposed that Nineveh should be destroyed but that that people should escape by true repentance at that time Though the secret will did prevaile or to use your language was the will that did controll yet for the time being the Ninevites had nothing to do with the will of Decree no further then this Who can tell whether the Lord will return from his fierce anger verse 9. The will which they were immediately to believe was the sentence denounced by the mouth of the Prophet they were bound to believe that their sinnes were so great that they did deserve destruction and that the Lord would certainly destroy them within the space of fourty dayes unlesse they did repent in that limited time Their beleeving the revealed will of God and their trembling at his Word was one principal mean to bring about his secret will and what he had decreed in his secret will concerning their preservation And though the denunciation by the Ministery of Jonah came not to passe it was no false message because it was reversible upon a tacite condition which the Lord was pleased for a season to conceal from the Ninevites to drive them more effectually out of their carnal security I might adde more examples to prove the vanity of your exceptions but I will go neerer the matter and that in a harder case then any propounded by you We read touching the wast of the Church in the latter times The outward Court cast it out and measure it not for it shall be given to the Gentiles and the holy City shall they tread under foot fourty and two moneths Rev. 11.2 Here it is plain that the Lord speaketh concerning the desolation of the Church that shall be in all Anti-Christian times Now seeing the Lord hath revealed these things to his people to the end that