Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	know_v	sin_n	transgression_n	1,337	5	11.0260	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63912	The middle way betwixt. The second part being an apologetical vindication of the former / by John Turner.	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1684 (1684)	Wing T3312A; ESTC R203722	206,707	592

is more plain than the reason and the usefulness of his Intercession for Salvation being annext to Faith and Repentance and a good Life and the satisfaction of Christ being apply'd to the person of a Believer upon these conditions which conditions are not so fully performed by any as they might be nor equally by all it is manifest there must needs be very many whose performance is so weak and imperfect that without any breach of that Covenant which God has entered into with Mankind he might very justly abandon them to eternal Flames to be tormented for ever with and by the Devil and his Angels but that the intercession of Christ extends and enlarges the benefit of his satisfaction and makes it more operative and available than otherwise it would have been But besides the Prophetick Office of Christ under which I include his example and his preaching and the Priestly to which his Sacrifice and his Intercession in virtue of that Sacrifice belong there is also his Kingship to be considered one great part of the exercise of which consists in his sitting in Judgment at the last day to pronounce the irreversible sentence of Death or Life upon all Men but there can be no Judgment where there is no difference made betwixt the Moral good or evil of things for to judge is to act with reason and Fate and Morality are inconsistent together which Fate if it were the only principle and spring of Action the Reprobate at the last day need not stand in justification of themselves from other Topicks as they are made to do in Scripture but they need only say that what they had done they could not avoid which being a very reasonable excuse and yet not urged where the Pleas of the Wicked are set down by our Saviour himself it is a very powerful and convincing Argument that he will at that day proceed by other measures and that he will not much less did he design it from all Eternity condemn the meanest Wretch that ever wore the shape and title of a Man for any but voluntary and wilfully committed Sins Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right said Abraham to his God Gen. 18. 25. That be far from thee to do after this manner Which Expostulation and Appeal of his to the Divine Justice must either be acknowledged to be very frivolous and nothing at all to the purpose or else we must be forced to confess that Christ when he sustains the person and character of a Judge and a Judge of all the Earth as he will do at the last day he will not proceed by Arbitrary measures which know no distinction of Persons or of Causes but condemn or save by unaccountable methods without any regard to reason or to justice the exercise of which is founded upon the differences of Moral good and evil all which differences must come to nothing where the liberty of humane Actions is destroyed but he will act with us upon a supposition of Freedom for the improvement or abuse of which we shall reap a proportionable punishment or reward And as nothing is or can be more contrary to the whole current of the Scripture than the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation so neither is there any thing more destructive of that meek charitable and humble frame of Mind which it was the design of the Gospel to establish in the World the natural and immediate tendency of such Doctrines in the minds of inconsiderate Men though if they consider all they have no reason to be proud being to create a Spiritual Pride and overweaning Conceit of themselves together with a contempt and hatred of all others whom they call the Reprobate and are pleased to look upon as the Dross and Off-scouring of the World There neither is nor can be any other opinion which is so naturally fitted to make distinctions and parties amongst Men or to preserve those distinctions when they are made for what greater or what wider difference can there possibly be thought of than between the Reprobate and the Elect Those who are irrecoverably given over to everlasting Torments and those who are out of all danger of miscarrying and past the possibility of not being as happy as God and happiness themselves can make them Or what greater indignity or reproach can be cast upon one Man by another than for some to separate from the rest under pretence that they are rejected and forsaken by God This being if those that separate would speak their minds one of the true reasons of their separation as it is likewise the strongest Prop and Pillar by which that uncharitable Schism is supported for I reckon that there are six accounts especially to be given of the first rise of this absurd and impious Doctrine of absolute Reprobation and of its continuance in the World to this day The first of which is that inconsiderate Interpreters not minding the whole scope and drift of the Writings of St. Paul but looking only to the immediate seeming sense of one single Proposition and not considering that neither so well as they should have done have stretched the interpretation of those places beyond their natural extent wherein St. Paul sets himself in opposition to the Jews who expected Justification from the Law of Moses or to the Judaizing Christians who would have retained that Law either in whole or in part as thinking that Justification could not be had without it or lastly to any other who expected Salvation from an exact observance of the Duties of natural Religion or of the Law of Nature For by the Law in the Writings of St. Paul both these are promiscuously understood as might be shewn from several places but that of Gal. 5. 22 23. is sufficient The Fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace long Suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law that is whether of Moses or of Nature And the same may very well be the sense of all those places where he says That the knowledge of Sin is by the Law and that if it had not been for the Law he had not known Sin and that by the works of the Law no Flesh can be justified and that where there is no Law neither is there any Transgression All which may very well be understood of the Law of Nature as well as of that of Moses it being equally true of both Now the reasons why Justification could not be obtained by the works of the Law of Moses were these two First That that Law containing the Types and Shadows of things to come when once their Antitypes appeared in the World they could be of no longer value or signification And Secondly That besides that those legal Rites and Ceremonies had a respect to future events which events were now exactly fulfilled they did also under them contain a shadow of that inward sincerity and purity of Mind without which notwithstanding all the accuracy of external Observations

quam absconditam ac ●enitus ●ncompraehensibilem inquiramus in Dei praedestinatione Neque immensae Dei Sapientiae submittere hucusque ingenium pigeat ut in multis ejus arcanis succumbat Eorum exim quaescire nec datur nec fas est docta est ignorantia scientiae appetentia insani● species That is Here there are some that are used to betake themselves to a dictinction betwixt the positive and the negative will of God or betwixt his decree and his permission by vertue of which distinction they think to gain this point that wicked Men perish not because God ordaineth or appointeth that they should but only because he doth not hinder it or because he stands by and permits it to be done but how can we say that he permits it unless it be because he wills it also or that he is not willing it should come to pass for nothing can resist his will But neither is it so probable in it self that men perish by the Divine permission and not by his appointment as if God had not beforehand determined with himself what should be the fate of the noblest of his Creatures Wherefore I will not doubt to affirm plainly with St. Austine that the will of God is that necessity by which all things come to pass and that whatsoever he wills must of necessity be as that will truly and certainly fall out whatsoever it is that he foresees But now if either the Pelagians the Manichees the Anabaptists or the Epicureans for we have to do in this argument with these four sorts of men if all or any of these shall in defence and justification of themselves plead that necessity in which they are bound up and fettered by the eternal decrees so that they cannot act or move otherwise then they do though they would never so fain this will by no means serve their turn For if nothing else be meant by Predestination but only that it is the dispensation or distribution of the Divine justice which proceeds upon hidden but yet without question upon very good and worthy grounds from hence it follows because the reprobate were not worthy to perish that it is just they should Add to this that their Destruction depends in such manner upon Predestination as that all this while the cause and matter of their ruine is in themselves For the first Man fell because God saw it good that he should fall but why he thought it good we cannot tell only thus much we Certum tamen est non know that he would not aliter censuisse nisi c. have decreed the fall of our first Parent but only that he saw his Glory would be deservedly illustrated by it And when you hear mention of the Glory of God then think of his justice For that must at least be just which deserves praise and commendation Wherefore though the fall of Man was ordained by the providence of God yet he fell by occasion of his own corruption God when he made all things gave them this character that they were exceeding good that it might not be thought the corruption of any nature was a thing of Gods making Therefore it is plain that Man by his own pravity corrupted that nature which he had received pure and untainted from the hands of God and drew posterity after him into the common ruine Wherefore let us rather betake our selves to that clear and apparent cause of Damnation which is to be found in the corruption of humane nature a cause that is more near and present to us then to seek for it in the hidden and incomprehensible predestination of God and let it not be thought a thing unreasonable for an humane understanding which is finite to acknowledge that there are some effects of the Divine Wisedome which it cannot fathom and into which it ought not with a too nice and sollicitous curiosity to pry for it is a piece of Learning or at least of ingenuity to confess our selves ignorant of those things which cannot be known or into which is not lawful for us to inquire and a too great desire of knowledge in cases of this Nature is in effect nothing better than a sort of madness In which Citation of Mr. Calvin it is admirable to observe what artificial shuffling and cutting he hath used and how he hath endeavoured to oppress the truth under a load of words that either have no sence or a sence repugnant to and inconsistent with their Neighbours for first he seems to make the Divine permission and appointment to be exactly the same then he takes them in sunder and will not allow the former to be sufficient he grants the predestination to be of it self sufficient to produce the predetermined effect and yet to avoid the inconvenience of the objection made by the Pelagians and others he hath recourse to the corruption of our natures which he imputes to our selves But now either Adam corrupted his nature voluntarily or he did not if he did then he was a free and voluntary agent which Mr. Calvin denies as may be seen in what hath been already cited out of him if he did not then he acted necessarily and it is all one whether the necessity were a necessity of Nature or a superinduced necessity from without it is equally a necessity in both cases but let it fare how it will with Adam all the Calvinistical tribe is agreed in this that we that are his posterity are always concluded under an irresistible fate and so the Pelagian and Epicurean objection returnes with a force as irresistible as that fate by which humane Nature is pretended to be acted Again I do not understand how God is Glorified in the Damnation of necessary agents but I understand very well that it is the greatest reflection that either wit or folly in combination with malice and prophaness can throw upon his justice And I grant as well as he that the Divine Nature is infinite and incomprehensible but what is this to affirming those things which we know to be false concerning it and which being once received into our Creed will in their just and unavoidable consequence destroy all morality and all Religion To conclude is it not a fine argument it is unreasonable to think that God had not determined with himself what he would do with the noblest of his Creatures that therefore he would condemn so vast a proportion of them to eternal torments a Man would think he might have found a better fate for the noblest of his Creatures There is but one thing more and I have done with Mr. Calvin till I come to sum up the Evidence which I shall do immediately in the conclusion of this work and that is that where I speak of the spiritual and Heavenly Principle I make the one to be as much and as really a part of our selves as the other from P. 368 to 370. But Mr. Calvin saith l. 2. c. 2. s 27. Spiritus non à