Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	church_n	member_n	visible_a	2,107	5	9.5140	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66758	Meditations upon the Lords prayer with a preparatory preamble to the right understanding, and true use of this pattern : contemplated by the author during the time wherein his house was visited by the pestilence 1665 and is dedicated to them, by whose charity God preserved him and his family, from perishing in their late troubles / ... by ... Geo. Withers.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1655 (1655)	Wing W3169; ESTC R11913	123,479	218

those little innocent Children to whom Christ said the Kingdom of Heaven appertains 11. And whereas we hear many such sayings as these or to the like effect The way is broad that leadeth to destruction and the Gate so streight which gives admittance to Salvation that few enter in thereat That many are called but few chosen That though the People were as the sands of the Sea a small number should be saved That the Righteous in respect of the Wicked were but as here and there an Olive-berry upon the boughs after gathering-time or as a few Grapes after the Vintage with such-like asseverations These I acknowledge to be true yet my belief is notwithstanding all this that a far greater number shall be saved then condemned at the last Judgement For I cannot believe these expressions have respect to all Mankinde dispersed throughout the world from the beginning to the end thereof but as relating comparatively to those onely who are and were Members of those visible Churches and Provinces of Christs visible Kingdom upon earth to whom the ordinary means of Salvation were and are dispensed whether Jews or Christians the greatest number of whom for their wilful neglect of that means for their turning the Grace of God into wantonness for their seeking gain by pretended Godliness and for their meer formality and hypocrisie shall be shut out of that Kingdom whereof they judged themselves to be sole Inheritors and all the rest of the world to be cast-aways So did many Jews believe of themselves heretofore and so do many Christians now who will at last finde it to be a spirit of self-love which possessed them producing no better fruit then the Apples of Sodom are said to be These as I conceive are those of whom the sayings in holy Scripture aforementioned shall be verified and of whom onely they were intended These reputing themselves the onely Children of the Kingdom boast of their Priviledges such as the having Abraham to their Father The Temple of the Lord or the Word and Sacraments of the Gospel among them how much soever abused or neglected and these alone are concerned in those places of holy Scripture which declare the paucity of that number who shall be chosen in comparison of them who are called and the paucity of those among them who shall be saved in respect of their numerousness who shall perish by their neglecting or abusing those advantages which were put into their hands I conceive to be thereby meant For I cannot think that such sayings had a purposed relation to them unto whose knowledge that means neither came nor was likely to come whilst they lived after they were born into the World Such in particular as are many millions of Heathens in the remotest parts of the world As also little Children dying before they are capable of understanding what they hear and who must inavoydably and everlastingly perish if God hath provided no other means of their Salvation by Christ then such a way of preaching it as is vouchsafed to us 12. Therefore in my judgement they should have little hope of pardon for their many actual transgressions who knowing God hath provided means of life and nourishment for Children in the Mothers Womb when they can neither breath nor eat as when they are born if they shall not believe that God who is infinite in Mercy hath not provided as sufficient a means to nourish their Souls and Bodies to eternal Life who by Death in their infancy or otherways are without their personal default incapable of the ordinary means It is in my understanding so great an injury to the Goodness and Mercy of God to affirm he hath exposed to everlasting destruction all those Innocents by leaving them totally without remedy that they seem to me incapable of Forgiveness through Gods Mercy to them until they repent of their blasphemous mis-belief of his Fatherly compassion who hath given them no just cause to imagine he neglects to make provision for the wellfare of all his impotent Children Therefore that we may not obstruct the Forgiveness of our Debts and Trespasses which we pray for or charge God with so much cruelty as to expose his own Children by Creation at least to be a prey to the Devil and which is more abominable to teach other men to believe be hath eternally decreed the Reprobation of all Mankinde except a very few in comparison of the rest I will endeavour to make it more evident though I have alledged much to this purpose already that a very few shall be everlastingly damned in respect of them who shall be saved by the Mercy of God in Jesus Christ and that this is sufficiently provided for by GODS eternal Decree of Election and Reprobation which hath by many been misunderstood to the dishonour of his Divine Justice contrary to the light of Reason renewed and santified by Grace and to that illumination which is added thereunto by Gods Word and Spirit And though to make odious that Doctrine which I assert it is called Heresie Arminianism Popery and what else they please who oppose it I hope it shall be so generally received that all good Christians will ere long be ashamed of it and make it appear so wicked that it will hardly be believed by many in future times if there were not so many great Volumes written to uphold their error For who in Reason can believe that he who created all things in Love by Love and to be beloved of his Creatures for whose good he created them did fore-intend to make the greatest number of them everlastingly miserable and design them to that unhappiness before they had being or possibility to do good or evil yea that he necessitated them to do that evil for which they should be condemned what love was there in this or what love could be expect from those who should be taught thus to believe or what Truth is in such Teachers who incourage their Disciples to think so of him who hath said and sworn he desired not the Death of sinners but that they should repent and live Verily if there be any madness in Bedlam more extravagant then this I am greatly deceived 13. It is true that God hath absolutely predestinated some to Salvation and ordained some to condemnation of old with respect to their Qualifications in time and to a Covenant between him and them but none absolutely to condemnation nor either with respect or disrespect to their persons before time or before they had a temporary being though he fore-knew what the one and the other would be David tell us in his fourth Psalm who they are whom God Elected even the GODLY that is such as he fore-saw would hear heed and be conformable to the dictates of his Word and Spirit and who when he had inlightned their understanding and renewed their wills would endeavour perseverance to the end according to the power he gave them not trusting to that obedience or to any