Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	create_v	divine_a	great_a	80	3	2.1187	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52138	Plain-dealing, or, A full and particular examination of a late treatise, entituled, Humane reason by A.M., a countrey gentleman.	Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678.	1675 (1675)	Wing M876; ESTC R23029	77,401	164

never any man that called himself by that name did ever go about to defend it before this Author especially as to the latter of them the Atheist However I will give his cause a fair hearing according to the Christian Law and leave it to the Readers to give in the Verdict As for the Jews and Heathens though I dare not say they are damned because I do not know what allowance God of his mercy through Christs satisfaction for the sins of the whole World may make for those insuperable prejudices that they labour under yet certainly they can never be in an equal capacity of salvation with the unerring Christian. First Because the Heathens have no certain Guide onely a probable Rule to walk by that must lead them to Happiness Secondly Both Jews and Heathens want those Divine and excellent Examples and those infinite obligations which Christianity affords us to bind us to our Duty Thirdly They want the certainty and clear revelation of eternal rewards and punishments to affright and perswade them to their duty and to baffle all temptations that they might meet with to draw them from it For there is no Religion in the whole world that doth so clearly and certainly discover a future Immortality as this which our Saviour Jesus Christ hath given us For he hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel He then that considers the meer reason of the thing can never conclude that they are in an equal possibility of salvation with the Christian much less with the unerring Christian as our Author hath said because they want those helps which Christians have I shall rot further examine this by my own reason but had rather as becomes a Christian that useth sometimes to consult the Scripture as well as Humane Reason to leave them to the judgment of God and to acquiesce in the determination of St. Paul Rom. 2. v. 13. to the 17. where he saith I think as plainly as words can express that they shall be wholly condemned or acquitted by their own conscience For they that have no Law are a Law unto themselves c. their consciences bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. But whatever may become of them sure I am that we that have had all the advantages that can possibly be given to men to make us good Christians being brought up from our cradles in the best constituted Christian Church in the World if we should Aposta●ize can have no hope of salvation remaining for us For if we will believe S Peter Acts 4. v. 11 12. There is no other Name given amongst men by which we can be saved For if it hold against any it must against us who have been baptized into that Name For St. Paul tells us Heb. 10. from vers 26. to the 30. That if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the adversary And that the Apostle there means that particular sin of Apostacy is evident from the following words He that despised Moses his Law died without mercy of how much sorer punishment think you shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace Now let every one that calls himself Christian choose whether he will believe the Apostles or this Gentleman As for the latter that Atheists too are equally capacitated to salvation as the unerring Christian which he affirms Pag. 30. For having proposed the Question in these words What then shall we believe Turks Jews Heathens and Atheists in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian He no where denies it but endeavours all that ever he can to defend it as in his following discourse Because there are a thousand accidents that hinder the greatest part of the World from a fair proposal of the Principles of Christianity therefore so small a part of mankind hath submitted to the Christian Faith What then therefore they may be saved No for this doth not directly follow for God hath no where promised that he will accept of Christs Merits for them nor apply them to them and we cannot but know that since they are left to the sentence of their own conscience there are few men whose consciences will not condemn them of gross and wilful sins and therefore shall rather accuse them then excuse them in the day of the Lord Jesus So that here is but a small probability left of the salvation of most of them even by this Authors own Reason which he gives us Pag. 33. because they have deserted themselves that is their own Reason as well as God But however the disadvantages they labour under may in a great part excuse them that are without there can be no excuse to those that are within i e. to us here in England who labour under none of their disadvantages And if the Apostate amongst us can have no excuse then surely the Atheist much less For he cannot plead that he did not know God For he can turn his eyes no where but he beholds something or other whose frame is so admirable that it proclaims its Author to be infinitely wise and powerful For the Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament shews his handy-work And that Argument of Lactantius is impossible to be answered viz. de Fals Rel lib. 1. c. 2. No man can be so rude and brutish but when he looks up into Heaven must necessarily know that there is a Divine Providence which governs it and did at first create it from the immense Greatness the constant Motion the All-wise Order the never-failing Constancy the never enough admired Benefits and the amazing beauty of the things he beholds For it cannot possibly be but that which shews an admirable wisdom in its contrivance should demonstrate a greater wisdom in him who made it So that no man that hath any eyes in his head or any sense of the frame of his own body or any consideration of that Principle by which it acts can have any possible excuse for his ignorance of the being of a God For what he saith further in excuse for the Atheist p. 36. It may alleviate the crime of an Infidel but it can abate nothing of the guilt of an Atheist For he cannot pretend that he never heard of God For the Heavens and the Earth do daily proclaim him Neither can he pretend that he cannot bring his conscience to assent to it since it is the natural dictate of all mankind But let our Author pretend what he can to the contrary he that will believe the Apostle St. Paul Rom. 1. v. 19. 2●