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	sin_n	sin_v	6,726	5	9.1768	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87658	The pretended antidoe [sic] proved poyson: or, The true principles of the Christian & Protestant religion defended, and the four counterfit defenders thereof detected and discovered the names of which are James Allen, Joshua Moodey, Samuell Willard and Cotton Mather, who call themselves ministers of the Gospel in Boston, in their pretended answer to my book, called, The Presbyterian & independent visible churches in New-England, and else-where, brought to the test, &c. And G.K. cleared not to be guilty of any calumnies against these called teachers of New-England, &c. By George Keith. With an appendix by John Delavall, by way of animadversion on some passages in a discourse of Cotton Mathers before the General Court of Massachusetts, the 28th of the third moneth, 1690.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.; Delavall, John, d. 1693.	1690 (1690)	Wing K192A; ESTC W42984	110,748	234

J●stification ye say puts no inward purity or holiness in men But is not Filthiness and Holiness or Purity contrary's and therefore Sanctification or making pure taketh away filthiness of sin Pag. 121. Ye blame me again for alledging They say they are only free from sinning after death But to this I have above answered Let the places I cited be read and it will be found Beside it seemeth too great a School Nicity to distinguish at Death and immediately after Death for ye will not grant that any man is free of all sin one instant or any sensible part of an instant before death and therefore what fo●loweth may be as well said after death as at death for the Distinction as used by you is a Quibble the instant of death is but like a Thought it is easier to understand the time be●● ●o after Death than the precise instant of Death which no wit of man can measure Pag. 124. Ye very injuriously charge me with Blasphemy against God calling him Cruel and Tyranical and worse than Pharoah This is a most false and injurious cha●ge God forbid that I should have any such thoughts I only told what your false and unchristian Doctrine represents the most merciful God to be Your Answer mends not the matter for what men lost in Adam Christ the second Adam giveth Grace to restore and ye confess That true Believers are under the New Covenant and not under Adams Covenant and all to whom the Gospel is preached are called to come under the New-Covenant Ye grosly and most absurdly falsly alledge That Gospel Obedience is shorter and lesser than the Obedience that the Law requireth Whereas Christ under the Gospel not only fulfilleth the Righteousness of the Law in the Saints according to Rom. 8. in conformity to the first Adam but carrieth true Believers further as they follow him to a higher and more perfect Righteousness like unto that of the second Adam but this is done gradually until the Gospel Perfection be attained And that the Gospel Dispensation hath more lenity and gentleness in it than the Law in respect of the plenty of forgiveness that it provides for the true Penitent is granted but still it leadeth on bringeth to a greater Perfection than that of the Law Pag. 125. Ye call me a vile Worm and yet say ye Rail not And ye say An Holy God is not thus to be treated by a vile Worm But I can and do in holy fear and reverence appeal to the holy God before whom I and Ye are Dust and Ashes Whether ye and not I in this matter speak not aright of God Be not too proud and confident but fear to speak or think any thing of God that is so contrary to his Nature or to the Nature of his Gospel as if the Gospel of God gave men more toleration to sin than the Law and to continue therein for term of Life or that God punisheth men with Me● Fire for that he never actually gave them power to forsake Pag. 125. Ye say Believers sin more or less till they dye and yet dye not in their sins This is a too nice Distinction can ye measure the time betwixt until Death and the instant of Death it is too Metaphesical or rather Sophistical but in the Scripture Language they are one for said God Your Iniquity shall not be purged away till ye dye What was that but that they should dye in it Pag. 126. Ye say They that cover and not they that confess their sins are pleaders for it and then ye falsly charge the Quakers That Sin had never such Attornies as they Answ They that cover their Sins do plead for it and so they do who confess it hypocritically stil confessing but not forsaking nor believing that God will enable them by his Grace perfectly to keep his Commands ever in this mortal Life how can ye pray in faith Thy Will be done in Earth as it is done in Heaven That the Quakers are in any sort Attornies for Sin is but your bare Accusation without proof and is but a part of your Railing Langu ge that filleth most of your Book Pag. 126. Ye falsly say I challenge as much Perfection as Christ or Adam ever had I never did say nor think that Believers could be equal to Christ in Perfection it is enough they are like to him Likeness is one thing Equality is another The Saints in Heaven are neither equal to Christ nor to one another and yet all Perfe●t Ye falsly alledge on me That I yeild all ye pretend unto Let the Impartial Reader compare your Assertions and mine and he will find great difference Ye not only affirm That there may be Motions and Tentations to sin in Believers but that they are consented unto and that they sin daily in thought word and deed This I did not yield unto but plead against as Unsound and Unchristian Doctrine And as ye make your Appeal in the Conclusion I do likewise make mine to every Impartial Reader whose Understanding is but commonly enlightned and hath any true m●●sure of a spiritual U●derstanding Discerni●g and Experience in the things of God Whether I have not made good my Charges against you even all of them and Whether ye have not altogether failed in clearing your selves of them and Whether your Answers are not rather manifest Falshoods Slanders Perversions and false Accusations and meer Magisterial Asseverations than having any thing of sollid Truth in them And that our Doctrine concerning the Possibili●y of living without sin by the Grace of God is no Heresie nor was ever accounted Heresie by antient Christian Writers I can easily prove for Augustine who writ zealously against those who were accounted He●eticks in his time and hath set down● Catalogue of all the Heresies he knew being in Number as he reckoneth them Eighty Eight doth not mention the Doctrine of a possibility of living without sin by the Grace of God any of these Heresies nor yet any other of these twelve Articles as held by us in Contradiction to you are judged by him or any other antient Writers Heretical unless ye will say That was condemned by Augustine for Heresie That Children dying without Water-Baptism could be saved And if this be a Heresie in us it is a Heresie in you for ye say the same And Augustine was so far from condemning it as Heresie that men may live without sin by the Grace of God that he saith plainly lib. de Spiritu et Litera cap. 2. If any defend it that some have lived without sin they do not much err nor dangerously seeing be is deceived who thinks so of others by some Benovelence if so a man think not himself so perfect except he do really and evidently find himself to be such But he saith They are earnestly and vehemently to be resisted who think that they can perfect Righteousness by the meer Power of Mans Will without the Grace of God Which was the

unto Death that even in these visible Testimonies it might be learned that the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life And immediately in the following Chapter he saith Therefore what was done in Israel by the appointment of the Law and the Sayings or Oracles of the Prophets the Testimonies of the whole Creation and the Miracles of the divine Goodness did perform in all Nations And that the Rain-bow was a sign of Salvation the same Author expresseth in the following words lib. 2. cap. 4. And the Security of Salvation ●aith he is consecrated in the Testimony of the Rain-bow consisting of divers Colours that is in the sign of the manifold Grace the which Mysteries and Sacraments did not instruct these very few men of one Family only but in them all their Posterity that what was given for the Instruction of the Parents might be profitable to the knowledge of their Sons Thus he And in the same Book cap. 9. he saith And it is manifest that by divers and innumerable manners God will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth but who come they are directed by the help of God who come not they resist by their own pertinacy And in the beginning of that Chapter he saith The Grace of God indeed doth principally appear in all Justifications counselling with Exhortations admonishing with Examples terrifying with Dangers inciting with Miracles inspiring Counsel Note the word Inspiring and enlightning the Heart it self and induing it with the Affections of Faith And a little after Which help viz. of divine Grace ●● offered or applyed unto all by innumerable ways either hid or open and that it is rejected by many it is their own Wickedness but that it is received by many it is both of the divine Grace and of the Will of Man viz. co-operating And cap. 10. he saith We have laboured to prove so far as God hath helped us that not only in the last dayes but in all the fore-going Ages the Grace of God was present with all men with a like Providence and general Goodness but in a manifold manner of working and divers measure for either hidd●nly or openly he is as said the Apostle the Saviour of all men but especially of them that believe The which Sentence of most subtil shortness and great strength if it be considered with a quiet sight doth end this whole Controversie for by saying He is the Saviour of all Men he hath confirmed the general goodness of God over all men but by adding especially of them that believe he showeth that there is a part of Mankind which by the merit of Faith divinely inspired Note the words Faith divinely inspired ye who deny divine Inspiration to be remaining ' is carried on to the highest and eternal Salvation by special benefits And a little after he saith ' And although that general Vocation doth not cease yet that special Vocation i● now made common to all And immediately before he saith No place of the World is destitute of the Gospel of Christ Where it is worth the observing how he holdeth forth a twofold Vocation and Calling both of Grace and belonging to the Gospel and Salvation the one general the other special and peculiar to such who have the Gospel preached to them by the Ministry of Men and have the benefit of the holy Scriptures And Luther in the Book called his Mensalia cap. 6. p. 101. saith In all Creatures we see a Declaration and Signification of the holy Trinity the Substance signifieth the Almighty Power of God the Father the Form and Shape declareth the Wisdom of God the Son the Power and Strength is a sign of the holy Ghost in so much that God is present in all his Creatures Thus far Luther expresly And since ye say Your Knowledge Faith of Christ in this Life as well as your Holiness Obedience is not perfect do ye not think if ye come to Heaven as I wish ye may by unfeigned Rep●ntance for your gain-saying the Truth that ye shall receive the more perfect knowledge of Christ at or after Death and then why not faithful Gentiles as well as ye Pag. 96. Ye ask Where do I find three Baptisms in Scripture c I Answ I find in Scripture the Baptism of Moses for the Fathers were baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea 2dly The Baptism of John 3dly the Baptism of Christ with Fire and the holy Ghost and some were under a divine Dispensation who knew God only as a general Father to Mankind but knew not that God had an only begotten Son and others knew that God was and Christ was the Son of God and believed knowing only the Doctrine of John and said They knew not that there was an holy Ghost viz. to inspire men and in this same Ignorance ye are at this day And without doubt every divine Dispensation hath it● inward peculiar Baptis● and Washing and that a mans Salvation may be begun under th● first but not perfected I still affirm and have proved and ye have not disproved it Pag. 99. Ye speak very igno●antly and scoffingly against Christ the Light in all men saying Is it the Light in men that was born of a Virgin hanged on a Tree I Answer Here ye more act the part of Socinians like your Brethren in Opposition Pardon Tillinghast and B. Keech who use the same Language and whom I have answered than like Orthodox and Sound Christians doth not the Scripture say They killed the Prince of Life and he who was killed and hanged on a Tree was not a meer Body but a Man consisting of Spirit Soul and Body and was not a meer Man but both God and Man and He who was hanged on a Tree said He was the Light of the World and in him it pleased the Father all fullness should dwell of Light Life and Grace and a measure of his Light and Spirit that neither is nor can be seperated from the fullness is in all men in a day of Visitation and dwelleth in the Saints and is revealed in great Glory in them but in Unbelievers it is very greatly vailed and hid and is the Light shining in Darkness c. and the Man Christ who did hang on the Tree is that second Man who is the quickening Spirit and ye may as well say Did the quickening Spirit hang on the Tree surely he who suffered Death on the Tree was both God and Man and not a meer Man and yet he suffered not as God nor in his Godhead but in his Manhood Your Ignorance is greatly to be lamented who are thus ignorant of the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ although ye profess your selves Ministers of the Gospel Take heed of willful Ignorance that unless men be in the Faith Christ is not in them in that peculiar sence of the word Inbeing as it signifieth union and in-dwelling and enjoyment is granted as we say in one

were once in a ready way to have broken up all the Good Order whether Civil or Sacred in the Infancy of this Plantation which occasioned the Authority whom they would have undermined then to turn a Sharp upon them by Laws not so severe as those in the Realm of England against their Fathers the Jesuites on the same Account yet those Troublesom Hereticks who had no Business here at all but the overthrowing of our whole Government would push themselves on the Swords point and tho' repeated Banishments with merciful Entreaties to be gone were first used unto them nevertheless two or three of them would rather Dye than leave the Plantation undisturbed Reply How or after what manner the Plantation in its infancy was in such danger our Author is silent in True it is that upwards of thirty Years past some of our Friends as faithful Servants in obedience to their Lord and Masters command the great God of heaven by the spirit of his Son in their hearts did visit N. England in true and tender Love to the Inhabitants thereof for whose Immortal Wellfare they earnestly travailed and were bowed down before the Lord being amongst them in much brokenness of Heart and contrition of Spirit they were grieved and weighted in their Souls with the Hypocrisie in New-England against which they witnessed sealing it with their Blood their hearts being filled with that Message the holy Apostle Paul in his day was imployed in Acts 26.17 18. To open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God directing them to the manifestation of the Spirit of God in them A Teacher not to be removed into a corner nor that would any ways deceive them or suffer them to be at ease in sin This High way of the Lord cast up in his Son Christ Jesus the Light of the World the Sound thereof offended the Ears of New-England's Teachers who not unlike Demetrius the Silver-smith Acts 19.24 proved notable Incendiaries against the Lords Servants left their craft should be in danger so far did they kindle the Rage and Fury of their bigotted Rulers that by cruel Usage and inhumane Laws they far exceeded any thing in the Realm of England against the Jesuites And whilst I am writing there livingly springs up in my heart to you the Inhabitants of Boston New-England a weighty Exhortation and that in tender Love That you would mind the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation and as the holy Scripture testifies hath appeared unto all men 2 Tit. 11. that in the same you may see your blind Guides for if the Blind lead the Blind both shall fall into the Ditch Beware that it be not your Condemnation that Light is come into the World and that you love Darkness rather than Light because your Deeds are Evil I have neither Envy nor Malice against the Priests or People of New-England but earnestly desire the Eternal Well-fare of both yet I cannot but lament the present state of New-England as well as its former whose Priests to the life are drawn out in the 3d of Micah v. 5. Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets that make my People Err that bite with their Teeth and cry Peace and he that putteth not into their Mouthes they even prepare War against him vers 11. The Heads thereof judge for Reward and the Priests thereof Teach for Hire and the Prophets thereof divine for Money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none Evil can come upon us O New-England New-England is not this your present state Are not your Priests crying Peace unto you as if no Evil could come upon you in the midst of these Cloudes of Dangers that are hanging over your heads some of them you have for more than a Twelve Moneth felt to wit A Bloody Cruel War with the Heathen the loss of so many Lives hath humbled me before the Lord and at this time the earnest Cry and Supplication of my Soul unto God is That you may by your speedy sincere Repentance unto him prevent his Judgments for the future That the Jesuits may be properly termed the Fathers of New-England Priests none can doubt if they differ not from their Brother John Cotton of Hampton who in a publick Dispute with G. K. owned To have received his Ministry by the Pope of Rome whose Emisaries they are Beside as they can never prove the Quakers guilty of any one Jesuitical Error yet we can prove these Priests of Boston guilty of many and more especially in their being Incendiaries against the Peace of the Government The further calumniating those who suffered Death to answer your Crucity is but a mean way to expiate the Crime of their innocent Blood which crys aloud for Vengeance and the Lord unto whom it belongs will repay it Thou Cotton Mather nor all thy Fraternity will never be able to prove these 4 Worthies troublesom Hereticks that patiently endured Martyrdom for the Testimony of Jesus by their crul Hands neither will thy poor Insinuation help That two or three of them would rather dye than leave the Plantation undisturbed They had no reason to hearken unto your Hypocritical entreaties to be gone it was their Birth-right as free-born Subjects of the Kingdom of England and so might claim it to inhabit N. England as well as any that there resided as not being forbid to them by either the Law of God or the Realm of England so that being innocent they feared not man that could only hurt the Body but feared him that could cast both Body and Soul into Hell Fire C. M. It is possible a Bedlam had been fitter for those Frantick People than what was inflicted on them and for my own part I must profess with regard unto such Hereticks Ad Judicium sanguinis Tardus sum nor have I the least inclinations to Hereticide as a fit way to suppress their Errors Reply Here our Author doth not a little impeach the Authority of N. England at that time who were accessary to the Death of those ● Worthies by him call'd Frantick People for if according to him a Bedlam had been fitter surely they greatly sinned in passing and executing Sentence of Death upon them the present Governour Simon Broadstead then a Magistrate is greatly concerned in this Charge which amounts to no less than the taking away four Lives by an unjust Judgment for how can that Sentence of Hanging be just against such for whom a Bedlam had been fitter Such as this Author renders our Friends to have been are by the Laws of England exempted from the punishment of Death as also it s reckoned amongst the Abuses of the common Law That such who kill People by false Judgment be not destroyed as other Murderers as may be seen in that noted Book called The Mirror of Justice C. 5. Sect. 108. in express words thus It is abuse that Justices and other Officers who kill People by false Judgment be not destroyed as other Murderers which K. Alfred cause to be done who caused forty four Judges in one Year to be hanged as Murderers for their false Judgments which in the said Book are particularly noted and in the 4th Case he instances how King Alfred hanged Cole because he judged Ive to death when he was a Mad-man Cotton Mather forgot his respect to the venerable Mordocai of his Country as he at other times terms him when he thus exposed him M. C.

points at Christ as both God and Man that most excellent middle that unites God and Men together for in all the Creation we see how the wonderful Wisdom of God and his wonderful Power hath united extreams by certain means or middles and these do plainly point unto us how as the highest and lowest Creatures are united by a certain medium or mediating nature partaking of both extreams so God the Creator and most high over all is united with men the noblest of his visible Creatures by him that is both God and Man made like to us in all things but without si● and therefore behoved to dye and rise again to lay a Foundation for our Faith and Hope that though we dye we shall also rise again Nor is this my single Perswasion but that of very judicious and wise Men long before me and Paulus Ricius a Jew by Birth but who became a Christian in his Treatise de Coelesti Agricultura lib. 1. from pag. 40 to 52. showeth how there are many excellent Symboles in the Creation that as Types and Examples hold forth that great Mystery of Christ God Man that were to be united in one and that this man could be but one only single man in the intire nature of Man of Soul and Body in all essential parts who should be both God and Man and for this he citeth a saying in Aristotle which is this lib. 10. Metaph. In quolibet genere rerum daturmum maximum et omnium ahorum summum i. e. in every kind of things there is one the greatest and highest of all others And who is this but the Man Christ Jesus who only among all men is both God and Man and the Head of all m●n And by exce●lent Symboles and Examples he showeth how this one man was to dye for all othe● men rise again And therefore however strange it may seem unto you not only many things in the Creation but the whole Creation it self is a Book full of Symboles Vails and Figures pointing at Christ even the Man Christ who was to suffer Death and rise again for the Salvation of men and yet I do most freely acknowledge that the Books of Moses and the Prophets did mo●e fully and distinctly hold forth this great Mystery But seeing ye grant That the Vails and Types of the Ceremonial Law did suffice to the Jews and People of Israel so far as outward helps and means were requisit to shadow and hold ●orth Christ unto them the same may be said as concerning the Gentiles that in some sort sufficient as in respect of outward helps and means for that day and time until more knowledge should come into the World was the Book of the outward Creation together with that knowledge they had that they were to sacrifice unto God as is above said And as God gave to the Jews and People of Israel his good spirit to instruct them in the signification of the Mosaical and Ceremonial Law and the Types and Shadows thereof so no doubt he gave a measure of his good Spirit to instruct the Gentiles what these Types and Figures legible in the Book of the whole Creation did signifie for as the Book of Wisdom saith The incorruptible Spirit of God is in all that is confirmed by Scripture for God gave his Spirit unto and by his Spirit strove with the People of the old World and it is the Light of Christ the Word and of the Spirit that convinceth and reproveth of sin that lighteth every man that cometh into the World which however ye call it only natural and humane we have good cause to believe it is divine and supernatural yet lightning the dark nature of Man and as it is absurd for any to hold a Book to a mans face in the dark and bid him read therein when he hath no sufficient light to read with so it were absurd that God hath set so excellent a Book as the whole Creation before the Eyes of men universally I mean the Eyes of their understanding and not give them sufficient Light in some measure to enable them to understand what is writ therein and seeing that Book contains true and real Types and Symboles Figures and Shadows of Christ as he was to come in the flesh and suffer death and rise again it followeth God hath given all men so much inward Light as whereby they might read and understand what is written therein concerning the Man Christ altho the express Hebrew and Greek Names Messiah and Christ be not known to them in such an obscure way and manner as might serve to that time but the great Glory and Light of the Mystery of God manifest in flesh which is Jesus Christ come in the Flesh who is both God and Man and yet one Christ doth incomparably surpass not only what all Vails Types either of the Law or outward Creation can discover but all declaration of words and cannot be perfectly known but by a very high degree of divine Revelation and no doubt the full discovery of it is reserved to the Life to come where it shall be matter of eternal Admiration and Adoration to Saints and Angels And lest you should say This is some new Fancy of mine and some other late Writers or apostate Hereticks as ye use to say I shall recite a Testimony of a very antient Writer who is judged to be either Ambrose or Prosper above twelve hundred Years ago in that famous and noted Treatise De vocatione Gentium i. e. of the calling of the Gentiles much esteemed and cited by Protestants of great note and particularly by Vossius and Grotius learned and judicious Protestants In the said Treatise de vocatione Gentium lib. 2. cap. 1. ad fin he saith in express words citing Acts 14. And indeed he left not himself without a Witness giving Rains from Heaven and fruitfull Seasons filling Your hearts with Food and Gladness But what is this Testimony that was alwayes serviceable to the Lord and never was silent of his Goodness and Power but the very indeclarable Beauty of the whole World and the rich and orderly largition o● his indeclarable benefits by which cretain Tables o● his eternal Law were given to the hearts of men that the common and publick Doctrine of divine Institution might be read in the pages of the Elements and in the Volumns or Books of the Times therefore the Heavens and all heavenly things Sea and Land and all things in them by the ●armonious Consent of their kind and order did attest the Glory of God and by a perpetual preaching did speak the Majesty o● their Author But this is not all he further saith And yet the greatest number of men who were permitted to follow the ways of their own will did not understand and did not follow this Law and the Savour of Life which breathed or inspired unto Life Note is not this in some degree Evangelical was made unto them the savour of Death