Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	law_n	sin_n	sin_v	3,553	5	9.3146	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14096	The doctrine of the synod of Dort and Arles, reduced to the practise With a consideration thereof, and representation with what sobriety it proceeds.	Twisse, William, 1578?-1646.	1631 (1631)	STC 24403; ESTC S102470	142,191	200

this present be the time why should he deferre the hearing of Gods word wherby alone is our calling wrought though every one that heares it is not effectually called unto faith and repentance And a man may heare it with a purpose to oppose it eyther in generall or in some particular truth thereof Yet this humour of opposition cannot hinder Gods word and the operation of his Spirit where he will in spight of their cōceytes who thought the Apostles were filled with newe wine when three thousand were converted that day and Austin acknowledgeth that God converteth not only aversas à vera fide but adversas verae fidei voluntates We reade in the 7. of Iohn that some who were sent to take Christ were taken by him And Father Latimer observing that some came to Church only to take a nap yet saith he let them come for it may be they may be taken napping If it be impossible for man to disobey it is as impossible for man in like manner not to be industrious when God will have him to be industrious Yet I know no industry of man required to his effectuall vocation but the hearing of Gods word neyther is the execution of Gods goodnes towards him hastned by his hearkning to Gods word For though men doe heare it dayly yet are they not foorth with brought to faith As for effectuall vocation we take it to be all one with regeneration in effect and this Author will have God so to worke herein as to leave it to man whether he will be regenerated or no this is their sobrietie Austin I am sure professeth saying Deus omnipotente facilitate converti● ex nolentibus volentes facit This Author seemes by his discoursing here of prayers eyther to be poorely exercised in Antiquitie or richly exercised in the contemning of it For he would have men to be effectually called by vertue of their prayers The Apostle saith how can they call upon him in whom they have not believed but this Author is able by his prayers to obteyne faith nay he makes shewe as if he could obteyne faith allso before his callinge and feares not to maynteyne that grace is obteynable by mens workes yet the contrary was condemned in the Synod of Palestine and Pelagius himselfe driven to subscribe unto it We nothing regard the qualitie of the person who speakes therby to condemne his doctrine but we judge of his doctrine and therby of the qualitie of his person Here he hath runne himselfe out of breathe as touching the first part of his performance We come unto the second The SECOND PART The first Section LEt us now see whether the practise of this doctrine hath more power over a debauched Christian to bring him to repentance and amendment of life To him then he will shew the filthines of his sinne the scandall to his neighbour the ingratitude to his Creator and redeemer the menaces of the law and the vengeance of God prepared for all impenitents c. Whereupon this man having more knowledge of our Doctrine of the Synods then of a good conscience will send his Censurer to the Maximes and Principles thereof and will much muse how the other should be ignorant that every thing which is done by men on Earth be it good or evill commeth not to passe but by the most efficacious decree and ordinance of God which doth all in all That the first cause doth in such manner moove and direct the second among which is the will of man that they cannot otherwise stirre then they are stirred That he is very sure that he is given to such a vice but his comfort is that God would have it so by his secret will that God hath predestinated him thereunto having as much willed and procured the treason of Iudas as the conversion of Paul That he hath no power to reteyne grace when he that gave it will take it away That the Spirit bloweth where it listeth inspireth whom it will withdraweth when it pleaseth when it pleaseth returns again And if it be with an intention for his amendment it shall be as impossible for him to withstand or else delay it as it is now to worke or hasten it Consid. We have considered how well this Author ha●h instructed an infidell to play his part in opposing the doctrin of the Synod of Dort and Arles Now we are to consider how a debaucht Christian is fashioned by him to play his part in the same humour of opposition To such a one it is fitt we should apply the hamm●r of the law which hath power to breake the bones we will labour to bring him thereby to the knowledge of sinne not onely of the nature of it but of the power of it Even of the power of that sinne which as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 7.8 takes occasion by the law to worke in man all manner of concupiscence and withall we will endeavour to bring him acquainted with the wrath of God and how in the course therof a fire is kindled that burneth to the bottom of hell Against this how he strengtheneth his Disciple from our doctrine we are to consider in the next place Now here first he supposeth his Factor to have more knowledge of the doctrine of the Synods then of a good conscience So that all debaucht Christians throughout the world he packs them together and makes them very judiciously to be of our side This is to hold up the enterlude of his owne making He is no Darby-shire man belike for their tales commonly ende with woodcocke on the one side as well as with woodcocke on the other side And we willingly confesse that our doctrine teacheth men not to trust to their selves for the doing of ought that is good but merely to the grace of God to give it the glory of working us to every thing that is pleasing in the sight of our heavenly Father Now this our adversary conceaves is it which makes us dissolute because we have learnt of S. Paul that God is he who makes us perfect to every good work workes in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ. As for these olde Evangelists they have a better opinion of their sufficiency then so and Aristotle hath taught them another lesson and it stands them upon to maynteyne their credite and reputation in this point by the exercise of their moralitie in a very accurate manner least otherwise they shoulde seeme to vaunt much in wordes but to preforme litle or nothing when they come to deedes Therfore they provide accordingly to holde up the credite of their Tenets and very artificially and histrionically they turne over all the debaucht Christians in the world on our side we must father them or at least our parishe must keepe them and that for good reason because they can no where be maynteyned so conveniently as by our trenchers For we must not be ignorant that every thing which is done

not believinge Therfore if a quaestion be made why the wicked doe not this or that which is good his answeare is quia nolunt but sayth he if you further demaund Quare nolunt Imus in l●gum sayth Austin yet without prejudice to a more diligent inquisition of the truth I answere sayth the same divine that the reason is eyther because it appeares not unto them what it is or appearing what it is yet it doth not delight them Sed ut innotescat quòd latebat suave fiat quod minime delectabat gratiae Dei est quae humanas adjuvat voluntates But to prosecute this argument farther then this Author dreames of we say there are but three sorts of supernaturall acts and they are eyther faith devine or hope devine or charitie divine all other acts are naturall and performable by a naturall man whether they be the acts of all morall vertues or an ●xterior conformitie to the meanes of grace wherby it comes to passe that some doe proficere ad exteriorem vitae emendationem but none of these acts are acceptable with God unles they proceede from and are rightly qualified by those three theologicall vertues faith hope and love all which are divine and supernaturall the love of God being such as is joyned with the contempt of our selfes as for faith and hope it appears how supernaturall they are by the supernaturall condition of theire objects Now suppose that a man were so exact both in naturall moralitie and in an outward conformitie to the meanes of grace as not to fayle in any particular as he hath power to performe any particular hereof naturally in this case I say if there were any such he shoulde be in the same case with those that are guilty of no sinne but sinne originall which yet the word of God teacheth us to be sufficient to make all men to be borne children of wrath though as Austin speaketh their poena be omnium mitissima and that such perhaps for so as remember he proposeth it ut mallent paenamillam subire quam non esse As for the necessitie of sinning which he saith God hath imposed upon them Corvinus confesseth that all men by the sinne of Adam are conjecti in necessitatem peccandi and that out of the opinion of Arminius his wordes are these Fatetur Arminius hominem sub statu peccati necessariò peccare nisi Deus istam necessitatem gratiose tollat And this he calls a litle after necessitatem peccandi But yet to cleare this necessitie which he doth not we doe not say that any man sinnes any particular sinne as the sinne of lying whoring swearing stealing necessarily for undoubtedly it is in the power of man to absteyne from any of these but this we say whatsoever they doe they sinne in some sort or other whether they committ fornication or whether they absteyne from fornication or from any other act forbidden in as much as they doe not absteyne from it in a gracious manner and acceptable unto God For they that are in the flesh cannot please God as in not absteyning from it for Gods sake in conscience of his word in reference to his glory out of the sence of his love towards them in Christ in acknowledgment that all power of doing things pleasing in his sight proceedes from him c. As for the imposing of this necessitie of sinning upon man When a man by defiling his body through incontinency bringes some filthy disease upon him which he propagates to his posteritie shall we say God imposeth this disease upon him and his though it cannot be denyed but even the course of nature is the worke of God in the like sort when Adam by sinning against God corrupted his owne nature and therewithall his whole posterity shall we lay the blame of this on God and call him the imposer of it and not on Adam yea on our selves who sinned in Adam as the Holy Ghost teacheth us to speake We speake plainly in saying that the love of God to the contempt of our selves is not naturall to any man unlesse he be indued with the Spirit of God but Adam was created and we in him in the state of grace and indued with the Spirit of God by vertue whereof the soule of man was fixed upon God as upon his end to enjoy him and to use all other things even our selves and all for him and in reference to his glory But whan man by the practise of Satan circumvented did voluntarily avert himself from God and converted himself first inordinately to the love of himself and then to the eating of the forbidden fruite for the acquiring of a state of better perfection It was just with God to withdraw his Spirit from him and leave him in that condition wherein he found him that is averted from God as his end and convert to the love of himself and to the creature ●o use not for Gods sake but for his owne sake and for the satisfying of his owne lusts 1. Thus were we all in Adam averted from the love of God to the contempt of our selves unto the love of our selves joyned with the contempt of God and consequently in an inordinate manner converted to the creature which is the originall corruption wherein we are all borne bereaved and that justly of the Spirit of God Wherefore let us not blaspheme God and blame him as the imposer of this necessity upon us but blame our selues as the corrupters of our selves Or at least if we cannot concoct this yet let us deale plainly and deny originall sinne and give Paul the lye to his face in saying we were all bo●ne children of wrath Yet know and consider that Gods power in thus abandoning all mankinde for their sinne 〈◊〉 Adam is farre inferior to that power he shewed in cruciating his owne Sonne his most innocent and holy Sonne in making his soule an offering for our sinne And that God hath power not only to annihilate the holiest which is without all question but to inflict upon him any payne Medina is bolde to professe Ex concordi omn●um Theologorum Sententia And Vasques the Iesuite acknowledgeth as much though herein they say he should not cary himself as Iudex but as Dominus vitae mortis What that Zanchy is who is here mentioned as one of the principall Doctors of that Synod of Arles for so I presume is his meaning and not of the Synod of Dort I know not but had he alleaged the booke and quoted the place I would have returned my answer thereunto and shall be ready to doe as much as soone as I shall be made acquainted with the particulars out of the Author Zanchy himself It is as cleare as the Sunne that God in his word makes himself the lover of Iacob and the hater of Esau before they were borne and that as the Potter at his pleasure makes of the same lumpe vessells some to honour some to dishonour so God