Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
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A49323
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Du Moulin's Reflections reverberated being a full answer to a pernicious pamphlet entituled Moral reflections on the number of the elect : together with several arguments against transubstantiation of the outward elements in the sacrament of the Lords Supper, transubstantiated into falshood and absurdity : to which is added a postscript in answer to some passages in Mr. Edmund Hickeringil's scurrilous piece stiled The second part of naked truth / by Edward Lone ...
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Lane, Edward, 1605-1685.
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1681
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Wing L331; ESTC R10768
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106,099
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120
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which he and his followers would prove by certain Parabolical Allusions and Semblances that are not Argumentative I shall let it pass as unworthy of any Regard Those Arguments of the first sort viz. Caelius c. that are most pertinent to the matter in hand though this Reflector takes no notice of them or but very little I shall briefly recollect and render an Account of them First The Law in its greatest Rigor says that God punisheth but to the third and fourth Generation but he sheweth Mercy to a thousand Generations Thus they And will not you Mr. Reflector say so too If you will not you must fall under the Curse threatned by the Holy Ghost Rev. 22. viz. God will take your Part out of the Book of Life i.e. Cast you out of his Church so that you shall be uncapable of any of the Blessings belonging to it If you will say thus the Thousands to whom God will shew Mercy would have sounded better under your Pen than that which you have writ of the number of those that shall be Damned And here I cannot but insert what a learned and good Divine hath writ to me when he saw my Antidote against your Book we saith he seldom or never in sacred Pages meet with the terrifying number of the Damned particularly summed up but of the Happy we find Rev. 7. such precise numbers mentioned And some thousands of years before that it is written God had Mercy in store for thousands of them that loved him and kept his Commandments This in truth is the Spirit that hath prevailed among us here in this our Church it being well known that the Genius if I may so call it of our Nation hath always more inclined to Mercy than to Rigor and hath been apt to interpret the Law of God as well as the Law of our Land rather for the Comfort and Benefit of Mankind where such a Construction may upon good terms be allowed then for their Ruine and Destruction I know not Mounsieur what hath been predominant with you in other parts of the World But it is you and such as you are that have joyned with the Roman Faction against us to create Disturbances among us and to lead captive silly People into many absurd Errors which have brought a Cloud over all our Excellency and have eclipsed that glory of Truth and Peace which but for you would long ere this time have dwelt in our Land You go on to tell us what they say viz. Caelius c. That the Mercies of God are of a large Extent that God is slow to Anger ready to Pardon and shew Mercy that he forgives sins of the deepest Dye and that Calvin remarking upon the words which God speaks Ex. 34. of his forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin that God thereby wonderfully advances the greatness of his own Mercies and that he would have us to know he Pardon 's not only little Sins but also the most Enormous and that God would not command us to say Forgive us our sins if he had not an intention to forgive them for he did not make that Command to send us away from him as you impiously say like Fools as we came Yet is your Sarcasme an Argument against you All which that they say of this matter and much more that you add is true and which all good People who believe there is a God will say How dare you then to contradict it by saying not above one in a Million shall ever by these Infinite Mercies come to Heaven Would any man but you having all these Comfortable Promises of Mercy and Overtures of Grace under your Eye conclude expresly for the Execution of Gods Wrath to the uttermost upon his poor Creatures that have sinned against him But that you after say the Arguments for your Opinion are incomparably more strong and nervous how strong they are we shall see hereafter In the mean time I must tell you these Premises though you slight them as being not Syncategorical with your Position yet are they certainly against you and make for the Truth You say further that they mightily Press As all good Christians will the Infinite Price and Value of the Merit Death and Satisfaction and Redemption of Jesus Christ which is not only efficacious to Pardon you should rather have said to obtain Pardon for an Infinity that 's your word of sins both for their number and their Enormity but also for an Infinity of men That it is extreamly to lessen the ends for which Jesus Christ came into the World to admit that he came only to Redeem one man of a Million That it is not to be believed that Jesus Christ at the right hand of his Father does intercede but for one of a hundred thousand of all mankind What you say to all this we shall see hereafter They do likewise say you mightily urge this Consideration that since none are in a State of Damnation but who are under a perpetual weeping wailing and gnashing of Teeth and an eternal Horror of Conscience for their past Offences it cannot rationally be affirmed of so many millions of Heathen Children that dyed before they came to the use and exercise of Reason And if God be merciful to these as who can determine the contrary it would be ridiculous such is your word as if you had a mind to laugh at God that God has reserved their Parents alive who have the use of Reason to damn them to all eternity what you will say to all this also would be considered for none of all these things move you Moreover who will believe say they that God so loved the World or that he sent his Son into the World not to condemn it but that it might be saved by him That Christ is the Lamb of God that takes away the Sin of the World and that he being the Bread of Life gave himself to the World to give Life to it c. who will believe that by the World we must understand but one or two Persons among I know not how many thousands or millions in the World And where is that love towards the World to let it walk that is to say perish in its own ways All this and much more is alledged by that Orthodox Evangelical Party against your destructive Opinion as for that other which makes the number equal between the Elect and Reprobate as I have said I meddle not with it And you Mr. Reflector had done better if you had made no mention of it at all For to what purpose do you recite it and their Arguments for it when you may know it is not at this time of any Account scarce a word spoken of it among any unless it be with Contempt But you were willing to muster up your Enemies and drive them before you altogether promiscuously like a brave man at Arms or rather like that Pugnacissimum Animal as it is said of the Gander Armata
which I fear without a serious Reflection upon himself and his Works such as may through Grace lead him to Repentance for it he will find to be his Portion in the end to his smart and sorrow Non obstante as I have said already I dislike not his Zeal in awakening the World out of that sluggish Lethargy to which all as he saith are more or less inclined Let the Thunder and Lightning of Sinai be ratled in the Ears and darted into the Eyes of secure impenitent sinners let the Terrors of the Law be as Magor-missabib formido circumquaque dreadful to them round about let the Judgment to come be displayed before them with all the terrifying Appearances of it This indeed being according to the form of found words which the Spirit of God in Scripture hath set us in our Preaching may do some good as it hath done to many desperate sinners in opening their Eyes and turning them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God But it is a false Allarm that this man soundeth to that purpose when he tells the World that not above one in a hundred thousand nay probably not above one in a Million shall be saved This is not to be as a Schoolmaster to drive us to Christ but rather as a Devil to scare us from him This is the Eccho rather of the Bottomless Pit the Reverberation that ariseth from the deep Caverns of Hell enough to make men run headlong into Desparation or into Athiesm or at least into Epicurism and greater Dissoluteness in their Lives Neither indeed can any other be expected when the mercies of God which have always been proclaimed to be infinite are so straitned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.19 and the precious honourable Blood of the Lamb sufficient to save all the World is made of so little reckoning A good Doctrine would this be where that Antichristian Tenet is received as an Evangelical Truth viz. that men shall be justified by their own Righteousness and saved by their own Works for then well may it be said not one in a Million nay not one in all the World from Adam down to the last man that shall spring from that sinful Root shall ever be saved well may the Church of Rome now sing their Jo Paean and well may the Quakers that frantick Sect joyn in it For this man hath done all their work for them But to go on with his Dedication He is it seems by his words at the end of his Stage even as I am I confess at the end of mine and it will concern us both therefore to be very wary how we get off from it No necessity though was there for him before his Exit to gaze about for a Plaudite by proclaiming publickly that it is the common Entertainment he allows himself to meditate upon his Leaving the Stage Let him on Gods name employ his Wisdom if he have any in considering his latter end and his Appearance before the great God and God Almighty grant that I also may do the like Nevertheless when I look upon his Boldness in reflecting upon Gods Arcana Imperii I am afraid he is not so wise as he should be in that matter of his Departure but that either the thought of his latter end was then the latter end of his thought or if his thoughts did run to the end of his Stage his precipitant Phansie did so out-run them that he could hardly reach with Comfort to the end of his Race And as for others better surely were it for us who are ready to be unclothed as the Apostle's word is to reflect upon our selves by a serious Examination of our Hearts Lives and Opinions then to be Astonished with the Stupidity and profound Security of others which I confess is much to be lamented too wheresoever it is But for him to boast thus of himself and at the same time to condemn the gross of Mankind as he impudently calls it for their Negligence in that matter wherein he would have us believe he himself excelleth what is this but Pharisaism in a high degree All their thoughts and bustle he saith amount only to this to pursue the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life and to advance their carnal Interests in the World as if there were nothing more to hope for or to fear c. which he applies not only to Heathens but to those that are born in a Christian World that are Educated and Bred up in the Truths of the Gospel in whom he saith this Insensibleness is inexcuseable See I beseech good Readers what a Censor morum this doughty Doctor is and how Arrogant in that he will dare to usurp a divine Power thus by entring into the Hearts of men and to know all their Thoughts What knoweth he but that a great multitude of those whom he accounts insensible may have as great a sense of sin at some time or other in their Souls and sorrow for it as he himself hath Yea and though they make not so great a bustle in the World about it as he doth yet may their sorrow be more after a godly sort For him when I hear what carefulness there is in him to amend his Errors what Apology he can make for himself about them what Indignation he hath against his own Heart for conceiving them when I hear of these and the other effects of godly sorrow to be in him I will rejoyce and praise God for the Grace that is given him but till then I must say he hath exceedingly sinned against God and let him be sure his sin will find him out In the mean while when he saith all their thoughts and bustle amount only to this to pursue the Lusts of the Flesh c. and to advance their carnal Interests in this World as if there were nothing more to hope for or to fear On the other side the Gulph which all must shoot I would know of him what he means thereby would he have men to neglect their Callings whereto God hath called them and wherein by the Apostles Rule they are to abide with God otherwise not to eat Men that are wise would say the more Noise and Bustle men make in the World by their Diligence and Industry in their Callings the more are they to be commended provided that they keep themselves within due Bounds especially that they neglect not the Vnum necessarium the one thing needful For whereas God commands us to serve him he alloweth us also to serve our selves nay more by serving our selves in a holy conscientious Use of Gods Blessings and by following our Callings in Obedience to his Commands God accounts himself to be served too Col. 3.24 Servants saith St. Pauly in serving their Masters diligently serve the Lord Christ they wrought for me saith the Lord Ezek. 29.20 when it was their own Interests and Advantages they aimed at in