Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	deny_v	teach_v	ungodliness_n	4,302	5	11.7286	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75616	Armilla catechetica. A chain of principles; or, An orderly concatenation of theological aphorismes and exercitations; wherein, the chief heads of Christian religion are asserted and improved: by John Arrowsmith, D.D. late master both of St Johns and Trinity-Colledge successively, and Regius professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Published since his death according to his own manuscript allowed by himself in his life time under his own hand.	Arrowsmith, John, 1602-1659.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3772; Thomason E1007_1; ESTC R207935	193,137	525

thou finde in thy self any beginnings of salvation any hopes that it shall be perfected Remember what that great asserter of free grace hath left upon record to all posterity By grace Eph. 2. 8. ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Remember it so as § 3. First to beware of receiving the grace of God in vain it being ordained for better ends to wit purging and cheering of such as receive it The grace of Titus 2. 11 12. God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world All partakers of grace should not onely denie that gross ungodliness of conversation which the very sons of moralitie decrie and abhor but also worldly lusts which others are secretly indulgent to Neither should they content themselves with a negative purity such as that of the Pharisee was I am not as Luke 18. 11. other men not as this publicane not an extortioner not an adulterer Logicians say of this particle Not that it is of a malignant nature Divines know that the malignant Church is much built up by such negatives but also practise positive holiness by living soberly righteously and godly and that too in this present world not putting on a vizard of these as the manner of some is on a sick bed or death bed when they can no longer look at themselves as men of this world but of another As for cheering remarkable is that prayer made in behalf of the Thessalonians Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God 2 Thess 2. 16 17. even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort your hearts It implieth that whereas we cannot possibly raise from our selves any ground of hope or have any lasting much less everlasting consolation from the creatures Grace is a firm foundation for both And this is it which hath put the prince of darkness whose desire it hath always been to keep men in as hopeless and comfortless condition as he can upon using his utmost endeavours in all ages of the Church either to obstruct the doctrine of free grace as by Pelagian and Arminian tenents or to poison this fountain with corrupt deductions and inferences as by Antinomians and Familists Wherefore remember it so as § 4. Secondly In all thy tenents and discourses to magnifie and exalt that to which thou owest so very much indeed thine All that good is Think it not enough with some of a Non est devotionis dedisse prope totum sed fraudis retinuisse vel minimum thousand parts to ascribe nine hundred ninety and nine to free grace reserving but one for free-will for as Prosper resolves the case well It is not devotion to give almost the whole to God but deceit to retain the least part And again Grace is Gratia Dei tota repellitur nisi tota suscipiatur wholly repelled where it is not wholly entertained I list not now to dispute the point Onely let me have leave to commend to thy reading and observation a paper of verses inserted by certain Divines that were present at the Synod of Dort into their suffrage and comprehending a brief decision of the five Articles there debated with a pious inference from thence because with me they have ever been of great esteem since I first met with them in the Acts of that Synod Gratia sola Dei certos elegit ab aevo Acta Synod Dordrect in 4o. pag. 293. Dat Christum certis gratia sola Dei Gratia sola Dei fidei dat munera certis Stare facit certos gratia sola Dei Gratia sola Dei cùm nobis omnia donet Omnia nostra regat gloria sola Dei In English thus Free grace alone elected some to bliss Free grace alone gave Christ to death for some In some free grace works faith that saving is Some by free grace to perseverance come Since Gods sole grace doth all our good provide Let Gods sole glory all our motions guide § 5. A third branch of divine goodness is Long-suffering whereby God hath been pleased to put a notable difference between Angels that fell and the lapsed sons of Adam Of them Peter saith God spared not the Angels that 2 Pet. 2. 4. sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement This was quick and speedy work But the Lord saith 2 Pet. 3. 9. the same Apostle is Long-suffering to us-ward He exerciseth much patience very much even towards all though vessels of wrath For so Paul What if Rom. 9. 22. God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction How profane was the old world How wicked a place was Jericho yet was he one hundred and twenty years in warning those of that age before he brought the deluge upon them And he that made the world in six was seven days in destroying that one city The great Doctour of the Gentiles was not much more then thirty years old when God converted him yet we finde him looking at this as infinite patience as all long-suffering that he was born with so long I obtained mercy saith he that in me first 1 Tim. 1. ●6 Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering How sensible then ought they to be of this Attribute whom God hath born with fourty fifty sixty years and still continueth to cry unto as it is in Habakkuk Wo to him that increaseth that Habak 2. 6. which is not his How long as in Jeremy O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness Jerem. 4. 14. that thou maist be saved How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee And again Wo unto thee O Jerusalem wilt Jerem. 13. 27. thou not be made clean When shall it once be All which places declare sufficiently that the long-suffering God doth in a manner long to see our conversion to him § 6. And that indeed is the most proper use we can make hereof according to Pauls expostulation Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance Rom. 2. 4. and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance Verily we cannot meet on this side hell with a worse temper of spirit then that which inclines a sinner to despise the forbearance of God and to kick against the bowels of his goodness As that profane Arian did who was executed at Norwich concerning whom Mt Greenham acquainteth us with this strange and prodigious narration Mr Greenham in his treatise intituled A sweet comfort for an afflicted conscience on Prov. 18. 14. circa medium This hellish heretick saith he for so were the deniers of Christs Divinity accounted of in those days whatever thoughts be had of

Spiritus Dei stultificaverit Then and there onely will our doctrine of predestination have a sweet rellish when and where the Spirit of God shall have befooled the conceits of wicked reason That which Paul celebrateth as the true cause of our election is 1. The good pleasure of Gods will according 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which he disposeth both of persons and things arbitrarily as himself liketh best And in this our reason would better acquiesce were it throughly defecated by grace That of Christ which never had any corruption in it fully did as appeareth by that famous address of his to God the father I thank thee O father Matth. 11. 55. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight 2. The counsel of his will Although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God may be truly said to act arbitrarily yet he never doth any thing unadvisedly but according to the counsel of his will which is always rational though our shallow reason in this state of degeneracy and mortality be not able to fathome the depth of its contrivements and thereupon ready to cavil at and call in question the equity of them Such as do so if any such shall cast an eye upon these papers must give me leave to say unto them as one of our ancient writers did to their forefathers The Apostle saith he having discoursed of these mysteries acknowledgeth Hieron in epistola ad Ctesiphontem their depth and adoreeth the wisdome of God in them Dignare tu ista nescire Concede Deo potentiam sui Nequaquam te indiget defensore Be thou also willing to be ignorant of such things Leave God himself in the modelling of his decrees and dispensations He will be sure to do it so as not to stand in need of any apology or defence of thine To which let me add a saying of Luther and with it conclude Tu Ratio stulta es non sapis quae sunt Dei. Itaque nè obstrepas mihi sed ta●e non judica sed audi verbum Dei 〈◊〉 this Exercitation Reason saith he thou art a fool and dost not understand the matters of God Wherefore be not obstreperous but hold thy prating make not thy self a judge of these things but attend to the word of God and beleeve EXERCITATION 2. Preterition described The term defended Ephes 1. 4. compared with Revel 17. 8. Ephes 1. 9. and Rom. 9. 13. expounded God not bound to any creature except by promise The parable in Matth. 20. urged The three consequents of negative reprobation Dr Davenants Animadversions against Mr Hoards book recommended The goodness of God manifested in Election as in a most free peculiar ancient leading and standing favour § 1. HAving so fully discoursed of Election by which the Decree of preterition is to be measured there will be less need of enlarging much upon that Take onely this description of it after a brief explication whereof I intend if God will to proceed unto other concernments Preterition or negative Reprobation is an eternal decree of God purposing within himself to deny unto the Non-elect Exerc. 2. that peculiar love of his wherewith election is accōpanied as also that special grace which infallibly bringeth to glory Of which negations permission of sin obduration in sin and damnation for sin are direct consequents This description carries in the face of it a clear reason why the thing described goeth under the name of Negative reprobation because it standeth mainly in the denial of those free favours which it pleaseth God to bestow upon his elect As for the term of preterition we neither are nor ought to be ashamed thereof however some bold writers have jeered it because it is very significant and hath been made use of by their betters Prosper by name and that both in verse and in prose For in one of his Poems he recordeth this as a Pelagian tenent Quòd gratia Christi Nullum omnino hominem de cunctis qui generantur Praetereat That of all mankinde the Grace of Christ passeth by none And in his Treatise de Vocatione Gentium he beginneth the thirteenth chapter of his first book with this saying Quòd si aliquos Salvantis gratia praeterierit c. If saving grace have passed by any it is to be referred to the unsearchable judgements of God and those ways of his which are past finding out by us in this life This premised let us take a transient view of the chief particulars in the description § 2. It is First an eternal decree coeternal with that of election for the very choosing of some to salvation implieth a passing by of such as were not chosen Let the Reader compare that passage in Ephes 1. 4. He hath chosen Agnoscendum est secreti hujus profunditatem nobis in hac vita patere non posse us before the foundation of the world with that parenthesis Rev. 17. 8. whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world Secondly a decree which God purposed in himself We reade in one place of the purpose of God according to Election and in another of Gods good pleasure Rom. 9. 11. Ephes 1. 9. Deus in negatio praedest nationis non egreditur extra s●ipsum Institut l. 3. cap. 22. which he hath purposed in himself The like may be said of preterition His good pleasure is the sole fountain of both The root of both is within himself and not in any thing without him as hath been well observed by Calvin Thirdly the eternal purpose of God was to deny the Non-elect that peculiar love wherewith his election is accompanied in which respect he is said to hate them Jacob have I loved but Esau Rom. 9. 13. have I hated A term by which some Divines are willing to understand no more then his not being willing to bestow everlasting happiness upon them because Hatred in Scripture is often put to signifie a less degree of Love We may not beleeve that Leah was odious to her husband yet the text saith God saw that Leah was hated which is certainly to be expounded out of the verse foregoing where it is said of Jacob that he loved Rachel more Gen. 29. 30 31. then Leah He loved Leah perhaps less then he ought surely less then he did her sister and in that respect is said to have hated her That to the Romanes concerning Esau some interpret in proportion to what is there said concerning Leah and among the rest Aquinas God saith he loveth all men In quantum quibusdam non vult hoc bonum quod est vita aterna dicitur eos habere odio vel reprobare Tho. part 1. qu. 23. art 3. ad ● um in as much as he willeth some good to all but in as

much as he doth not will to all men the chief good viz. eternal life he is said to hate and to reprobate them § 3. Fourthly His purpose was to deny unto the non-elect that special grace which brings infallibly to glory those whom God bestows it upon No creature can challenge effectual grace at the hands of God as a due debt either to his nature or to his labour There be many that speak and write of God sawcily as if he were bound to give this and that and the other grace even where they can produce no promise by which he hath made himself a debtour I cannot but commend the zeal of Peter Lombard against such men To me saith he this word Vt mihi videtur hoc verbum Debet venenum habet nec Deo proprie competit qui non est debito● nobis nisi forte ex promisso Lib. 1. sententiarum Dist 43. He ought or he is bound seems to have much poyson in it and cannot be properly applied to God who is no debtour to us save onely in those cases wherein he hath passed some promise Sure I am our Saviour telleth his Disciples plainly It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven but to them it is not given Matth. 13. 11. And the housholder in the Parable stops the mouths of those murmurers that repined as expecting more from him then it was his pleasure to give with the sole consideration of its being his will to have it so Friend I do thee no wrong Take what is Matth. 20. v. 10 13 14 15. thine I will give to this last even as unto thee Is it not lawfull for me to do what I will with mine own Fifthly The consequents of the forementioned denials are 1. Permission of sin particularly of unbelief John 10. 46. Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep 2. Obduration in sin Romans 9. 18. He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth 3. Condemnation for sin Revel 20. 15. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire This last is that which by Divines is usually styled Positive Reprobation and is clearly distinguishable from the Negative in that the one is an act of punitive justice respecting sin committed and continued in But the other an absolute decree of Gods most free and Sovereign Will without respect to any disposition in the creature I call them consequents not effects because though Negative Reprobation be antecedent to them all it is not the proper cause of them This difference between the decrees Aquinas long since took notice of Election saith he Thom. part 1. quaest 23. Artic 3. ad ● um is a proper cause both of that glory which the Elect look for hereafter and of that grace which here they enjoy Whereas Reprobation is not the cause of the present sins of the non-elect though it be of Gods forsaking them but their sin proceeds from the parties themselves so passed by and forsaken But I am under a promise of brevity and therefore shall add no more but onely advise the English Reader who is desirous of further information in these deep points to procure and peruse that excellent piece of the profound Doctor Davenant printed at Cambridge Ann. 1641. under this Title Animadversions written by the right Reverend John Bishop of Salisbury upon a Treatise intituled Gods love to mankinde where he will not onely meet with the doctrine of Predestination modestly handled but also with ample satisfaction to most of those wicked cavils which flesh and bloud have been wont to suggest against it § 4. Having thus finished that preamble which the daring Heterodoxie of some modern writers put me upon a necessity of I proceed to the making good of two Assertions tending to cleare the former part of our present Aphorisme viz. That the Goodness of God is abundantly manifested in his Decree of our Election and his Greatness no less in that of Preterition In order to a demonstration of the former I desire to have it considered how free how peculiar how ancient how leading how lasting a favour Election is First A free favour It is therefore called Election of Grace and spoken of Roman 11. 5. as tending to the praise of the glorie of free grace The Lambs book of life Ephes 1. 6. so named because the Lamb Jesus stands there inrolled in the head of it as the head of all the Elect and the Captain of that salvation whereunto they are chosen is a book of love Behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved Ma● 12. 18. in whom my soul is well pleased It was so said of Christ and may be applied to all the Elect in their measure Hence Paul stileth his Thessalonians Brethren beloved of the Lord because God had chosen 2 Thess 2. 13. them to salvation and God expresseth the Election of Jacob by Jacob have I loved to shew that free love on Gods part is the fountain of this favour We love persons or things because they are lovely God loveth them first after makes them lovely then loves them more for being so The cause of our love is in the objects of Gods in himself we are predestinated aster the Ephes 1. 11. counsel of his own will not after the good inclinations of ours Secondly A peculiar favour Rarity much enhaunceth a benefit Immunities and priviledges are therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Privilegium gaudet paucitate much valued and stood upon because they are not common to many and are therefore more rejoyced in because but few partake of them There were but eight persons saved from the Deluge of waters in Noahs time who is accordingly said to have fround grace in Gen. 6. 8. the eyes of the Lord in that he and his were preserved when all the world beside perished And in regard the Deluge of fire that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah swept away all the other inhabitants but Lot onely and his nearest relations were exempted from it God is said to have magnified his mercy toward them as Lot acknowledged saying Behold thy servant hath found Gen. 19. 19. grace in thy sight and thou hast magnified thy mercie which thou hast shewed unto me We should all have perished in the Deluge of fiery indignation had not God elected some few whom he hath not appointed to wrath but to obtain salvation by 1 Thess 5. 9. our Lord Jesus Christ. They are but few as Scripture tels us again and again Many are called but few chosen Mat 20. 16. 22. 14. The goodness of God is therefore to be more acknowledged in so peculiar a favour § 5. 3ly An ancient favour Old things if evil are so much the worse for that Old leaven is to be purged out and the 1 Cor. 5. 7. Ephes 4. 21. old man to be put off But every