Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	death_n	eternal_a	wage_n	6,951	5	11.2154	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74986	An antidote against heresy: or a preservative for Protestants against the poyson of Papists, Anabaptists, Arrians, Arminians, &c. and their pestilent errours. Shewing the authors of those errours, their grounds and reasons, the time when and occasion how they did arise; with general answers to their arguments taken out of holy scripture and the ancient fathers. Written to stay the wandering and stablish the weak in these dangerous times of Apostasy. / By Richard Allen, M.A. sometime Fellow of Penbrooke [sic] Colledge in Oxford.	Allen, Richard, b. 1604 or 5.	1648 (1648)	Wing A1045A; Thomason E1168_2; ESTC R208803	57,457	159

we have in Christ carnally thinking that now we are freed from all care of good works and may follow what course we please Antidote That we ought to follow good works for the Reasons before named is evident by those places of Scripture Ephes 2.10 We are created unto good works that God hath prepared for us that we should walk in them Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might purifie unto himself a people zealous of good works 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 We shall be judged at the last day according to our works therefore look to your works So 1 Pet. 2.12 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 Heb. 10.24 2 Cor. 9.2.3 And our best works have not that worthiness in them to deserve at Gods hand 1. Because they are imperfect Isai 64.6 They are a debt that we owe unto God Luke 17.10 When you have done all you can or are commanded to do say you are unprofitable servants for we do but our duty we must do them to serve not deserve 3. If they were perfect yet they are Gods not ours Phil. 2.13 He worketh in us both the will and the deed Joh. 15. Without me ye can do nothing 4. If we ascribe merit to our works we make the death and merits of Christ either unnecessary or insufficient Object But eternal life is called a reward Rom. 2.6 Rev. 20.12 et 22.12 Sol. There is a reward of debt and a reward of grace it is the Apostles own distinction Rom. 4.4 Heaven and eternal life is a reward of grace not of debt God hath made himself a debter to us not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us August in Psalm 132.2 It is said we shall be rewarded not for but according to our works the merit of works is plainly set aside and when God doth crown our works he doth but crown his own gifts August Enarr in Psalm 102.3 The Apostle calls the reward of sin wages because it is of due debt but eternal life he calls a gift because it is not of debt but grace Rom. 6.23 4. The Kingdom of Heaven is called not the wages of servants but the inheritance of Saints or those whom God hath chosen for his children 5. The good man of the house i. Christ Mat. 20. payed at night all his labourers equal wages to shew that they received a gift of grace not a reward of works CHAP. XVII Of Death and Burial Truth THere is no man living that shal not see death for our life is but a race that will come to an end and when we have finisht our course here our body shall turn to dust in the earth and our soul return to God that gave it Errours Enemies to this truth were 1. The old Hereticks called Nazarens affirming That the soul of man and the soul of a beast were both of a like nature and substance from whence sprang up those Hereticks in Arabia the stony called therefore Arabici who affirmed That the soul of man dyes with the body even as the soul of a bruit beast doth 2. Others affirmed That the soul did not dye but sleep in the grave untill the day of Judgment Both these Errours are revived at this day by those that affirm The whole man is mortal And books are written of the mortality of the soul Pope John the 23. was of this opinion That the soul should not see God till the day of Judgment 3. Familists say They ought not to bury the dead because it is said let the dead bury the dead 4. And those are greatly to be blamed that despise Christian buriall and though not guilty of Heresie yet of inhumanity that expose their dead friends undecently or irreverently 5. The Papists account burial of the dead a meritorious work borrowing their authority from the book of Tobit The Reason why the Arabians were so easily taken with this Errour of the souls mortality was because they were Antidote and are at this day a very lewd dissolute and theevish people and this doctrine doth fit such peoples turn very well and the same may be the Reason it is received by many at this day happy were it for them if the soul dye or if it but sleep till the day of Judgment it cannot but be a little refreshing to the thoughts of wicked men that seeing their life so uncertain yet they shall not go presently into torment But Eccles 3.19 20. is to be understood of the state of the body after death for of the soul it is said v. 21. That the soul of man goes upward and the soul of a beast goes downward towards the earth Eccl. 12.7 The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Luk. 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That answer of our Saviour to the Sadducees Mat 22.32 puts the Adversary to silence for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Lastly The exceeding joys and hopes of good men and the fears and terrours of wicked men at their departures are sufficient Arguments that the soul sleeps not but goes presently to a place of joy or sorrow whereof the soul hath some secret inklings instinct or divine assurance and whereunto those hopes and fears seem to invite or usher it Secondly After the departure of the soul the body ought to be carryed to the grave and layed up in decent burial if not out of any regard to the party deceased yet out of reverence to the common nature of mankind or of pure shame of that frailty weakness and deformity that our selves are subject to The holy Patriarks and all Gods people of old were very careful of their Sepulchers or burying places as you may read and the Jews used many Ceremonies of comliness at their burials not out of any superstition but in a godly consideration of the Resurrection in the hope whereof those Ceremonies did seem to confirm them and as that doctrine grew clearer so these Ceremonies grew fewer as Tabitha her body was only washed Acts 9.37 And therefore we condemn those numerous superstitious and impious Ceremonies used by the Papists at their burials but yet still we should consider that the dead bodies of our godly and Christian friends are precious things and were the Members of Christ Temples of the Holy Ghost and shall at the last day be raised again and made like unto Christs glorious body in hope whereof in mean space we should lay them up with decency and reverence It is no matter to the dead but 1. It is an honor done to the common nature of mankind 2. A comfort to surviving friends 3. Many ways useful to all that are present CHAP. XVIII Of the Resurrection Truth ALthough our bodies when we are dead shall be turned to dust and ashes yet at the last day they shall be raised again

Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel doth not acknowledg us Eccles 9.5 The dead know not any thing Job 5.1 Call now if there be any that will answer and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn If Paul were a Mediatour then the rest of his fellow Apostles were so too and if there be many Mediatours then S. Paul's saying 1 Tim. 2.5 doth not hold good that there is but one Mediatour c. August lib. 2. Cont. Epist Parmen cap. 8. Christ is Mediatour according to both natures according to his humane he suffered and dyed by the power of his divine he overcame death and rose again without his humane nature he could not suffer without his Divine to give price and value to his sufferings he had not satisfied therefore it is said God purchased his Church with his own blood Acts 20.28 Both natures did work in this Office of Mediatourship each of them doing his own proper work and yet both together producing but one common effect CHAP. IX The Death of Christ. Truth THe Office of Christ as Mediatour consists of three parts whereof his Priesthood is principal and of his Priesthood that oblation he made of himself upon the Cross whereby as the only Sacrifice for sin he pacified the wrath of God and redeeming our souls from eternal death purchased for us the favou● of God and life everlasting Errours Adversaries to this truth are 1. Arrians and Socinians who affirm Th● Christ by his death did not satisfie for our sins 2. Papists who say That Christ by his death indeed satisfied for our sins and for the eternal punishment due unto us for them but for the temporal punishment we must satisfie out selves either in this life or else hereafter in purgatory 3. Arminians affirm That Christ dyed for all men as well those that perish as those that are saved for Cain and Judas as well as Abell and Peter From whence 4. Another riseth That a man whom Christ dyed for may perish The death of Christ being the consummation and total sum as it were Antidote of all his sufferings from his cradle to his grave is therefore commonly taken for the whole satisfaction that he made unto God for our sins To the Adversaries we say First That Christ by his death did satisfie for our sins Isai 53.5 8 10. His soul was made an offering for sin c. Mat. 20.28 A ransom for many 1 Cor. 5.7 A Sacrifice for us Rom. 4.25 He was delivered to death for our sins And 5.10 We were reconciled by his death 1 Pet. 2.24 He bare our sins in his own body on the tree Object But Micah 7.18 God forgives iniquity because he delights in mercy If Christ satisfie for sin how is it mercy Sol. Christs merits and Gods mercy stand and agree together very wel Christ hath satisfied and yet we are freely forgiven because God exacts nothing of us but of Christ It is free to us we payed nothing and though Christ made satisfaction yet still our sins are freely forgiven us because Christ himself for whose sake our sins are forgiven us was freely given us Secondly Christ satisfied not only for eternal but temporal punishment aso For otherwise 1. It could not stand with Christs all-sufficient Sacrifice who trod the wine-press of his Fathers wrath alone and none helped him Isai 63.3 if we must satisfie for some part our selves 2. It cannot stand with Gods mercy who forgives us freely for Christs sake 3. It cannot stand with his Justice when the fault is forgiven in exact any punishment but they confess Christ hath satisfied for the fault fully therefore in Justice there can be no punishment left for us to undergo Thirdly Christ dyed not for all but only for the elect Mat 1.21 He shall save his people John 10.15 I lay down my life for the sheep And 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world c. Fourthly A man that Christ hath dyed for can never perish John 10.15 And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish c. 1 Pet. 1.5 They are kept the Power of God unto salvation and what is able to controll that power Object But Christ is a ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 Dyed for every man Heb. 2.9 For the whole world 1 John 2.2 Sol. By world is meant the world of Gods Elect so it is taken John 6.33 and John 17.9 for the reprobate only By all understand all sorts and degrees of men all Countries and Nations not the whole multitude of mankind but the amplitude of grace only August Tract 45. in Joan. He spared not his own Son but delivered him for us all Rom. 8.32 For all whom for the elect as it follows v. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect ●ld Cont. Donat. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and the son of man came not to judg the world but to save it but the world is not reconciled unto God nor saved unless by world ye understand the Church which is both reconciled and saved Id. Epist. 48. Tom. 2. The whole world lyeth in wickedness i. the tares that grow all the world over And again Christ is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world i. for the wheat that likewise grows all world over CHAP. X. Resurrection of Christ Truth CHRIST did truly rise again from death and took his body flesh and bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of mans nature wherewith he ascended into Heaven and there fitteth at Gods right hand until he return again to judgment at the end of the world Errours David George the Father of the Family affirmed That Christs body was dissolved into ashes and so rose no more as of old Apelles said It was resolved into the four Elements whereof it was at first compounded 2. The Swenkfeldians affirm That it is quite layed aside 3. The Vbiquitaries That it is every where even as his Godhead is every where 4. There be at this day who affirm That it is in the Sun an old heresie of the Manichees and Seleucians who affirmed That Christ in his ascension left his body in the Sun taking their ground for it from Psal 19.5 He set his tabernacle in the Sun as they read It is no great matter to beleeve that Christ dyed this the Jews Heathen Antidote and all wicked men beleeve but the faith of Christians is the Resurrection of Christ August in Psal 120. This one point is the very lock and key of all Christian Religion For 1 Cor. 15.14 If Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain our faith is also vain we are still in our sins But Mark 16.6 He is not here he is risen 1 Cor. 15.4 He was seen of Cephas then of the twelve then of five hundred brethren at once Acts 2.31 Neither did his flesh see corruption Mark 16.19 He was received into Heaven and sate at

the right hand of God Acts 3.21 Whom the heavens must receive until the time of restoring all things 1 Cor. 11.25 The Communion is a remembrance of his death till his coming again Object Our Saviour himself says Behold I am with you always even to the end of the world Sol. That is according to his Godhead grace and Spirit for according to his manhood he is altogether absent from us and locally in heaven So our Saviour says again Me ye have not always Mat. 26.11 CHAP. XI Of Predestination Truth SEeing the benefits of Christs death reach not to all but to a certain chosen number now follows the Decree of Gods Predestination chusing some to life eternal and rejecting others leaving them in their sins to be damned for the same Adversaries to this truth are 1. Errours Pelagians both old and new that scoff at this doctrine denying the same as there are at this day that say it is not sutable to God nor agreeable to his nature to pick and choose thus among men to chuse some and refuse others is partial and unjust 2. Libertines abuse this doctrine as of old the Predestinates did to all looseness thinking that now they are predestinated it is no matter how they live because nothing can help or hinder their salvation 3. Socinians and Arminians say That Predestination signifieth nothing else in holy Scripture but Gods decree and purpose to save those that shall beleeve and obey and dam● those that shall not denying the Independency of it 4. Denying the eternity of Predestination affirm That God doth elect none until they do beleeve 5. And deny the certainty and stability of it affirming that it is changeable so that the elect may become reprobates and the reprobates elect 6. The Papists in this point are contrary to themselves affirming both that God hath chosen freely of his meer grace and yet hath not chosen us but upon foresight of our good works Bellarm. l. 2. de Gra. et lib. arb c. 16. But the general opinion among them is That the Kingdom of Heaven is prepared for them that are worthy of it and deserve it by their well doing and that a man doth make himself eligible to life eternal by his good works Antidote There is a Predestination i. an election of some to eternal life and a reprobation of others to eternal destruction Rom. 9.22 23. There are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction vessels of mercy prepared for glory Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained to eternal life beleeved Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself yea the wicked for the day of evil Jude 4. Before of old ordained to this condemnation August De civit dei l. 15. c. 1. There are two Cities or Societies of men one predestinated to raign for ever with God the other to suffer eternal punishment with the Divel Secondly Predestination both election and reprobation is eternal Rom. 9.11 Before we are born or have done good or evil Ephes 1.4 Before the foundation of the world 2 Tim. 1.4 Before the world began Thirdly It is free and independent there is no moving cause of election to life in the persons predestinate either foresight of faith or good works but only the will and good pleasure of God And although sin be the cause of damnation being an act of Gods Justice yet of reprobation being an act of his absolute power there is no cause but the good pleasure of God Rom. 9.18 He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth Ephes 1.5 We are chosen according to the good plesure of his will Verse 7. According to the riches of his grace Verse 11. After the Councel of his own will 2 Tim. 1.9 Not according to works but according to his own purpose There can be no other cause beside the Wil of God because there is nothing before the Will of God which is it self the cause of all things that are August Faith and obedience are the effect of election and cannot be the cause because they follow after and do not go before it Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained unto eternal life beleeved 1 John 4.19 We love God because he loved us first Rom. 8.29.30 From Gods Purpose proceeds Predestination from Predestination Calling from Calling Justification Faith Obedience c. To say then we are predestinate in respect of our faith or works is not only to invert the words of the Apostle and falsifie his doctrine but even to alter the very course of nature by setting the effect before the cause Rom. 9.12 Before they had done either good or evil it is said Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Was it the foresight of their good or evil works to come that moved God hereunto That the Apostle denies in these words That the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth August lib. de Predest c. 7. Fourthly It is immutable and unchangeable the elect can never perish nor the reprobates be saved 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God remaineth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth who are his Luke 10.20 Their names are written in the book of life John 10.3 He calleth his sheep by name 1 Pet. 1.5 They are kept by the power of God unto salvation They can never fall away and perish for whom he did predestinate them he also called c. Affording them in due time all those means that shall infallibly bring them unto glory If any man making a fair shew of holiness fall away it is no Argument that the elect may fall away but that those which fall away are not elect 1 John 2.19 They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us We see it plain now that God hath made a difference between men chusing some and refusing others Latet discretionis ratio non latet ipsa discretio Ambros de Vocat Gent. We see the effect we cannot perceive the cause the thing it self is manifest the reason of it is hidden and secret to us and yet though it be unknown we know it cannot be unjust because it is the good pleasure of his will who is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Doth any man yet complain Hear the Apostle Rom. 9.20 21. O man who art thou that repliest against God! Hath not the Potter power over the clay Do not dispute but fear and admire with the same Apostle Rom. 11. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God how unsearchable searchable are his Judgments But we are all by nature one mass of corruption one is chosen another is left God sheweth mercy upon one and not upon another how can any man complain now when all were alike corrupt and culpable and no desert in any Will every man dispose freely of his own and shall not God If any man