Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	faith_n	sense_n	2,308	5	6.2377	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96265	A discovery, and confutation of the opinions, and practises of some false brethren, betwixt Bridge, and Lincolne: shewing how they agree in their opinions, with Pelagians; Papists; Arminians; in their practises, with Anabaptists. Wherein univerall redemption is confuted; and Gods absolute decree confirmed. / By John Wetherall, minister of Spridlington, near Lincolne. March 22. 1651. Imprimatur. John Downame.	Wetherall, John, minister of Spridlington.	1652 (1652)	Wing W1523; Thomason E661_1; ESTC R206761	53,660	88

death a weake and wofull foundation to build the salvation of man be it but in part or in poynt of Perseverance upon himselfe To reconcile Gods secret and revealed Will because we shall be judged by the evidence of his revealed Will yet according to his secret Will and though formal is ratio peccati without all question is not from God yet how far he suffers or sets on Sinners seeing he must not be outed in any humane Actions and Events which are all sinfull or accompanied with such Circumstances I say these two stumble mee most and though I thanke God he hath given me some satisfaction yet I believe he is out that expects a plaine Reason or to prove all things in Scriptures by evident Demonstrations Faith must believe what Sence cannot conceive it is a Christian mans honour that he over-reacheth Reason Now for a Colophon or Period to this point of Predestination I will set down three or foure Examples which if they do not probare yet they may serve a little illustrare therefore I say thus Suppose a Lord set 20. men on worke upon condition that if they do his will they shall be all Lords even Co-heires with his owne Son if they do it not they shall suffer untill they give satisfaction On ten of these twenty he set his affections so far that if they did miscarry he would take a course to deliver them from the danger they all do quite contrary to their Lords Command therefore hee sent his onely Son who both did his Fathers Will which they should have done suffered for that they did not or did amisse and gave sufficient satisfaction which the Father accepts as it was intended by the Son for them ten on whom he set his first Love but as for the other hee suffers them to perish in Prison or to lye there untill they pay that which can never be paid Can these last accuse their Lord of Injustice Or can the first ten conclude because their Lord hath set his love upon them therefore they may be carelesse Nay rather they will be carefull and fearefull to offend so kinde and loving a Lord. I know similitudo non currit quatuor pedibus yet this I take to be not far from the Case 'twixt God and Man but this Example is to be understood of Man in that condition God Created him for if considered in that condition into which he cast himselfe then hee is justly condemned for not doing that which now hee cannot doe For suppose the Parliament command me to come to London and I can ride further but because I will not doe the Parliaments Commands I cut one of my legs off or lame my selfe and then plead I cannot come may not the Parliament yet justly command me to come though then I cannot come because when they commanded mee I might have com'd Mr. T. dare not speake against the Parliament in such a case but I can shew how desperately Hee did speake against God if he dare offer to condemne any man for not doing that which in this condition hee cannot doe as if God were bounden to cure us when we have wounded or killed our selves Indeed the Father ran to meet his son afar off but he was not bound to go one foot from home Suppose two Travellers come to my house I may receive one or both or neither of both that comparison of two poore people is not so proper for we were Created in a Rich Condition Suppose Two Houses built upon the same Ground Foundations Timber Stone Workemanship and all alike able to stand twenty yeares if no Stormes or Tempests touch them But the Raine fell the Flouds came the Windes blew and beat upon the Houses yet the Builder having resolved to repair and prop one of them it fell not the other he left to it selfe and it soon tumbled downe was the Master bound to uphold them both because he built them both Suppose Two Candles burning by the same light a blast of winde blowes out both of them I come instantly and light the one and it burnes againe the other I will not light so it never burnes again was I bound to light both of them Let us give God that same liberty which we take Audax Japheti genus see the boldnesse of the sonnes of Adam that would faine enter an Action against God Almighty if they could tell in what Court for that this Potter useth his Clay as he pleaseth and hath not made all Vessels of Honour as they would have him yea and which is worst of all they are so addicted or rather wedded to their own conceites that they can hardly with patience indure to heare the reasonable Opinion of others contrary to their owne Every Sentence in the Scriptures makes for them like the Foole in Athens that thought every ship in the Haven was his owne they will hold the Conclusion what Arguments soever are alledged to prove the contrary Thus zeale misled is like mettall in a blinde horse which is his owne or his Riders ruine They love the Children of their Braines better then the Children of their Bodies so that when they have conceived mischiefe and brought forth an Idol or an idle conceit of their owne fancying it groweth up with them it delighteth them and they rejoyce in their own inventions perswading themselves that now the Lord will bee good unto them seeing they have found out a Truth as Micha supposed when hee had got a graven Image an Ephod a Teraphim and a Wandring Levite Judg. 17. 5. 11. for this their Device especially if it be painted with some colour of holy Scripture they esteem as an Image come downe from Jupiter Acts 19. 35. as a Doctrine from Heaven it selfe and hence forward all the blessings that they injoy flow from this Opinion that they hold thus they burne incense to the Queene of Heaven Jer. 44. 17. the Idol that they have made after their owne hearts therefore they will lose their life rather then their Religion which they will defend with tooth and naile They will Preach for it as Hannaniah did for his false-hoods Jer. 28. 11. They will dispute for their Opinions as the Epicureans and Stoicks did Acts 17. 18. and write Books in defence of them as Shemaiah did Jer. 29. 25. and persecute if it be in their power all that contradict them as Jeroboam did in defence of his Idolatry 1. Kings 13. 4. whatsoever is spoken out of the Word of God against them they will not heare no more then the Jewes would the Word of the Lord by the Prophet Jeremy Jer. 44. 16. being as hardly induced to thinke it no truth that their owne wit hath discovered as the Ephesians to thinke them no Gods that were made with hands Acts 19. 26. Aseduced spirit hath deceived them as that did Ahab when he fell at Ramoth in Gilead 1 Kings 22. 21. so that they cannot deliver their owne soules nor say is there not a

wee are Predestinated according to the Good Pleasure of his Will Eph. 1. 5. But the Condition in their Predestination is fore-seen Faith and Works Tenendum ex Scripturis veram Conversionem praestationemque bonorum operum esse conditiones praerequisitas ante Justificationem That is we hold true Conversion and Good Works to be Conditions required before Justification so saith Arminius in that Epistle before his Discourse on Rom. 7. And Nic. Grevincho is of the same minde he seekes to prove it out of the words of S. Paul I have fought a good fight c. But if Good works be Conditions required before Justification then it follows they are required before Election there is one and the same Cause of both Thus they even out God Almighty from having any hand in his own Decree and put all into the power of foreseen Faith and Workes whereas the Scriptures say that we are not Predestinated for Faith but to Faith and Good Workes as I shall prove afterward The fifth thing in this Decree of theirs is the Foundation that they say is Christ and so do we but in this we differ they call Christ the externall Cause moving God to make this Decree of Election whereas we say the Will of God onely was the Cause why Christ became our Mediator and Redeemer the Mediation or Redemption of Christ was not the Cause of the Will of God Thus the Controtroversie betwixt the Remonstrants or Universallists and the Reformed Protestant Churches about Election was stated at the Synod of Dort The second Thesis of the Remonstrants or such as hold Universall Redemption at the same time which they would have defended against the Reformed was this Proinde Jesus Christus pro omnibus singulis mort●us est atque id ita quidem ut omnibus per mortem crucis reconciliationem peccatorum remissionem impetravit ea tamen conditione ut nemo illa peccatorum remissione fruatur praeter hominem fidelem Ames de Redemp pag. 116. That is the Remonstrants or Universalists furthermore affirme that Jesus Christ died for all and every one and that so as he obtayned Reconciliation and Remission of Sins for all but on this Condition that none obtain this Remission or Reconciliation but the Faithfull I might open this Thesis of Redemption as I did that other of Election but it is so plaine I need not the Sum of the Controversie betwixt the Protestant Churches and Remonstrants or as wee call them Universalists came to this or to these three Heads 1. whether by the Death of Christ there was an Impetration which had no Application 2. whether this Impetration did equally belong to All 3. that none had this Impetration of Christ certainly applied or to be applied to them in the Eternall Counsell of God but God had Destinated his Son to death before hee had Destinated any to be saved by his Death and this Grace of Christs Redemption was as it were spread abroad in the ayre indetermined to any every man might catch it that could by Faith These men seem to feign to themselves a Grace as it were some garment hanging in the ayre which every man may put on that will but these be the devices of mans wisedome the holy Scriptures speake otherwise Pet. Mart. part 3. pag. 51. as translated by Ant. Marten These things the Remonstrants or Universalists affirmed and all these the Reformed Protestant party denied Now from these Opinions that Predestination was not the Decree of God to Elect some and passe by others that God had certainly Elected none but upon Condition That Christ died for all and every one c. I say from these Absurdities it followes Absurd 1. First that God would have All men that is every particular man to be saved contrary to the Scriptures for if God will have all to be saved wherefore are they not saved Will God have all to be saved and can he not have his Will This Opinion is against the Omnipotency of God by it Gods absolute Will the Will of his good Pleasure may be defeated and not accomplished which is a desperate shift contrary to the truth flat opposite to the word of God which saith our God hath done whatsoever pleased him in Heaven and Earth Psal 135. 6. who hath resisted his Will Rom. 9. 19. God is in one minde who can turn him and what his soule desireth that he doth Job 23. 13. Indeed the Declarative or Revealed Will of God is not alwaies fulfilled but his Absolute Will and Good Pleasure is alwaies fullfilled a Christian Catechised in the Principles of Religion cannot make the Impotency of mans will to prevaile against the Omnipotency of God or conceive his purpose may be disappointed or his Absolute Will frustrated by any thing in us Absurd 2. Secondly it follows from these Opinions that there is an Universall Election of all and every man a witlesse conceit for if all men Universally be appointed to Grace then there is no Election or Choosing of some he cannot be said to Elect that Chooseth all and if onely some bee appointed to Grace as it must needs be in Election then is not Grace Universall it is flat against the word of God for Christ avoucheth plainly that fewer are chosen then called Mat. 22. 14. He saith moreover that all which are given him shall be one with him and have life everlasting John 17. 2. 11. But all men shall not be one with him and have life everlasting therefore all are not given to Christ of God the Father all mens names are not written in the Booke of life Apoc. 20. 15. the Kingdome of Heaven is not prepared for all Mat. 25. 35. Christ never knew some Mat. 7. 23. And whereas they build Universall Election upon the largenesse of the Promise if they believe upon the like ground they may as well make an Universall Decree of Reprobation whereby God Decrees all men to bee damned indefinitely if they doe not believe Absurd 3. Thirdly it followes that there is an Universall Vocation for Universall Grace hath these three parts Universall Election Universall Redemption and Universall Vocation which is quite opposite to the word of God for from the Creation till Christ one part of the world was a People and received into the Covenant the other and that the greatest part of the world was no People and out of the Covenant The Church at first was shut up in the Families of the Patriarchs and in the Family of Abraham it was entailde on Isaac the world afterward was divided into the Jew a Church and the Gentile no Church till the comming of Christ therefore it is that the Prophet Isaiah called the Gentiles Prisoners Isa 49. 9. Hosea calls the Gentiles a People that had obtained no mercy at all Hos 2. 23. Peter saith that in times past the Gentiles were not esteemed a People 1 Pet. 2. 10. Christ denied the woman of Canaan the Request for her Daughter upon this distinction

a Lanthorn and Candle lighted is better then a Man that hath a Torch if it be unlighted now in all these 4. or 5. years that they have roved in our corner of the Country I heard of none that made day resistance or did or durst say Sir Why doe you so The feare of Captaine T. and his Troops did shake some Ministers and many other men besides like a Fever or as the Trees of the Forest are shaken with the Wind Therefore rather then Gods Cause should sustaine such damage as I saw it did by a general silence I stept forth like the Lacedemonian Soldiour impotent of his legs and neither meet to fight nor to flie yet had he this hope that he might blunt the edge of his Enemies swords and set on or make others ashamed that were more able to fight Silver and Gold have I none but Goats hair or Rammes skins or such as I have I give to cover the Tabernacle of my God It pitied mee to see the Sheepe of Christ like Wolves swallow down whole whatsoever was put into their mouthes by such Carvers and if I gain or beget but one Soule it will be some comfort to me That one in time may beget another and that other another and so I may bee a means to beget many Soules to God I shall pray as it is my part that my poore paines may profit thee Reader and prevaile to the beating down of Sinnes and Schismes which God grant for Christ Jesus his sake our only Lord and Saviour It shall be in the dayly devotions of Thy Brother in Christ JOHN WETHERALL In pag. 4. line 17. for Earth read Church A Discovery and Confutation of the Opinions and Practises of some false Brethren c. SUch as are Adversaries to the Truth slaunder our Doctrine touching Predestination and Free Will as if thereby we led men to bee carelesse in their lives because as they urge it God having Predestinated all things mans Free Will is lost thereby so that he can not doe otherwise then he doth but God himselfe by our Doctrine must be the Authour of sinne Wherein they shew their unsatiable desire of contētion that besides the Grave the barren Womb the Earth the Fire which are never satisfied Pro. 30. 15. There is yet a fifth thing as unsatiable as they that is the Contentious Spirit of an Adversary never satisfied with lying and contradiction For let them say directly what they mislike Is it our Doctrine of Predestination Yea besides that it is the Profession of all the Protestant Churches you shall see it presently proved by one who is able to say the least of ten thousand Is it because we deny Free Will Yea they bely their owne knowledge they know we deny it but in part In statu integro it was Free in statu laeso it is Free from constraint Is it because we teach God is the Authour of sinne Even the Jesuits excuse us the Protestants know well saith Suarez that God intendeth not that Opuse lib. 2. cap. 2. which is formall in sinne nor inclineth the Will of man that he should intend it Or is it finally because we hold some fatall necessity constraining the Will of man that he cannot doe otherwise then he doth That so all care and consultation should be to no purpose Indeed some of the old Philosophers and new Mahumetans tell such Tales but we teach the contrary These and the like being malicious and base imputations devised by men in their fury and desperate adventures against us to seduce the ignorant and make our Cause odious which even their owne people would embrace if they knew it And my selfe being threatned by many ignorant men of meane condition set on by others not onely with the losse of my Living but I may almost say of my life besides the slaunders cast upon me by such as can doe nothing else I am forced therefore to this Defence for my selfe the Church of England and other Reformed Protestant Churches against Pelagians Papists Arminians Universalists I have read of a studious Father who meditating very much upon the Mystery of the Trinity there appeared unto him a Childe that with a Shell was lading the Sea into a little hole he demanded of the Child what he was about to doe I intend sayd the Childe to empty all the Ocean into this Pit it is impossible for thee sayd the Father as possible the Childe replyed as for thee to comprehend this profound Mystery in thy shallow capacity De me nunc narratur fabula and this is the Case of the most able men in these deepe Divine Mysteries Simonides being asked by Hiero King of Sicily what God was he desired a day to deliberate then being asked again he desired two daies and being asked again he desired four daies and ever as he was asked he gave no other answer but desired to have the dayes doubled but double and triple daies and yeares yet that time is no time for such an undertaking For the men of this World to undertake to tell what God did even before there was one man or a world is but a desperate adventure even beyond the Gyants of old but it is able to make any mans heart ake and his haire stand upright to heare how our ignorant people prate as boldly as if they had beene by and say what they say concerning the secret unsearchable Decree of our Great God Almighty if any man list to heare he may for they will speake that which I may not write For my owne part in this mysterious point of Predestination I could have chosen rather to ascend by Repentance New Obedience Good Workes c. Then descend diving into or determining Gods Decree For I know that in the true Doctrine of Predestination we should reason rather ascendendo then descendendo thus I live in obedience to God in love with my Neighbour I follow my Vocation honestly and therefore I trust that God hath Elected and Predestinated mee to salvation not thus which is the usuall course of Argument God hath Predestinated and chosen me to life therefore though I sinne never so grievously yet I shall not be damned For whom he once loveeth hee loveth to the end I say that this is the right manner of reasoning in the point of Predestination But unlesse we will suffer our people to be led I verily believe they will be loth to let me tell the manner how they are led I must declare my conscience to cleare my self that it is none of my fault if any persevere and perish in this rent now new made in the Earth through which they may as easily fall into Hell as Korah and his Company did through that rent in the Earth therefore with as great a care as I can to avoyd Presumption I proceed First touching Predestination we hold according Rom. 9. Eph. 1. 4 5. 1. Thes 5. Acts 2. 23. 2. Tim. 2. 20. to the Scriptures

lie in my right hand Isa 44. 20. They are blinde and which is worse they will not see foolish Prophets that follow their owne spirit Ezek. 13. 3. What pitty is it that this Viper should creep continually upon the body of our Church and yet the hand of Authority I hope for want of information hath not shaken it into the fire Usque quò Domine Usque quò how long Lord how long all those things are come upon us and yet there is none that knowes how long Psal 74. 9. 10. It is our parts to pray thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven but even the Lord for Christs sake when it is his blessed Will deliver this Church from the effects of blinde zeale and over-bold devotion And thus I have set downe some of the Opinions of the Brethren in the Gospel about us all their Opinions it is impossible to relate they cannot tell their own Tenets they hold any thing but the Truth A certain Mathematician in reading a Lecture to his Scholars was quite out so hee asked them if they understood him no replied they Indeed I wonder not said he nam Ego meipsum non intelligo for I understand not my selfe the Brethren are as much out as this Mathematitian and may say on the same maner A Neighbour not a fortnight since discoursing with Mr. T. told him he ought not to take the Scriptures alwaies in a literall sence for Christ said he was a Door a Vine vet he was neither of both in a literall sence he called the Bread his Body yet it was not literally his Body Mr. T. made answer that our Saviour Christ when he said so clapt his hand on his Body and said Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body but hee meant it not of the Bread They say Affrica semper aliquid apportat novi and Anglia abounds as much with Monstrous Opinions as Affrica with Monsters and the Fruits of these evill Trees are as bad as those that grow upon the banks of the Dead Sea A Stranger can scarce ride twixt Bridge and Lincolne but he may heare or see the Country all set on fire our parts of Lynsey vomit out flames as fast as Vesuvius the Father against the Son and the Son against the Father the Husband against his Wife and the Wife against her Husband the Brother would betray the Brother to death Friends and Neighbours are even ready to eat one another Warres and Warlike Opinions as if the Times that Christ foretold had overtaken us At first The Netherlands received the infection of this pestilent Doctrine from Britaine by Pelagius and now at last Britaine hath received the same infection from the Netherlands by Arminius The Peach-tree brought out of Asia and planted in Italy of ranke poyson became pleasant fruit but the Papists and Arminian Opinions brought out of Italy and Germany and planted upon our Heaths among us mad Hylanders have a quite contrary effect for the practises of the Brethren passe and repasse Papists and Arminians all but Anabaptists in a super-superlative degree Nero set Rome on fire that he might sing the Destruction of Troy in suo genere in kind or in its proper colours he that hath a minde to sing Lachrymae in a sympathizing tune may see a sad example with us Let a man but looke into the Townes all about Mr. T. and he may see or heare them brawle and brangle so soone as they arise and so they continue till they go to bed such Divisions and Sub-divisions as cannot but make our Enemies to laugh and ous Friends to weepe The Church of God is now in two Extreames a floud and a fire in a floud of teares and yet on fire in her different affections alas that neither this floud can quench that fire nor any fire can dry this floud The Divisions of Simeon the Divisions of Levi the Divisions of Simeon against Levi and the divisions of Levi among themselves who is able to behold with dry a man cannot thinke of as hee ought without without wet eyes The Divisions of Reuben doe pierce the very soule of the Mother that bore him and there is none of all the Children that shee hath brought forth able to comfort their Mother that is even sick at heart and sits by the high way side begging helpe of every one that passeth by Come hither Heraclytus stay Travailer and weep with us If any man would tell wonders in his own let him come first into our Country and there he may see that which no good Christian can desire or delight to see I have read of one who being borne blind he had his sight given him by his Prayers to God but then hee saw so many wickednesses that hee desired of God to be blind againe and if the story tell truth it was granted Was it then such an Age as God hath reserved us to live in Our Mother is sore sicke of a Convulsion pulld all to peeces on a pitifull maner like an Oake that is cleft in sunder with Wedges made out of its own body Plutarch reports of a beautifull Damosell whom a company of yong men contended for to be their Bride they would all of them have had her but they could not agree that any one of the should enjoy her therfore they cut her all to peeces and tooke each one a part so then they all of them had her and yet they none of them had her Religion is that beautifull Damosell whom Papists Antinomians Anabaptists Arminians Universalists and other Schismatiks say they strive for but the truth is they cut poore Religion all to pieces and each one of them have a part but none of them have pure Religion If any man had lost his Religion he might once have found it in Poland afterward in Amsterdam but now in England or else it is vanished out of the world Medaea cut her childe in pieces a cruell Mother but that Children should cut their Mother in pieces Ah cursed Children Woe is me that ever I bore you may may our Mother the Church say to such churlish Children as the Prophet Jer. of his Mother Jer. 15. 10. Surely bloudy Children have you been unto me may the Church say unto such as Zipporah to her Husband when she threw the Childes foreskin at his feet Exod. 4. 23. Call me not NAOMI that is a beautifull Church but call mee MARAH may our Mother say for the Lord hath dealt bitterly with me Ruth 1. 20. Richard the first K. of England being in his Fathers life time a disobedient Child comming to meet his Fathers dead body Royally adorned for the Buriall according to the Majesty of his State the very Corpse as it were abhorring and accusing him for his unnaturall cruelties gushed forth bloud whereat Richard pierced with remorse melted into a floud of tears on a most penitent manner But we may see the wounds of our Mother the Church as wide as in the Warres