Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	darkness_n	light_n	shine_v	1,758	5	9.8256	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20668	The collegiat suffrage of the divines of Great Britaine, concerning the five articles controverted in the Low Countries VVhich suffrage was by them delivered in the synod of Dort, March 6. anno 1619. Being their vote or voice foregoing the joint and publique judgment of that Synod.; Suffragium collegiale theologorum Magnae Britanniae de quinque controversis remonstrantium articulis. English.	Carleton, George, 1559-1628.; Synod of Dort (1618-1619)	1629 (1629)	STC 7070; ESTC S110099	65,063	183

does not fetch the reason out of any disparity among them but onely out of Gods free pleasure to show forth here his rich glory there his just wrath when he makes these such as they were not vessels of mercy those such as they very neere were vessels of wrath A type hereof is represented unto us Ezek. 1.16 where the naturall impurity of all men is set downe v 4. and the goodnesse of God choosing v 6. When thou wast in thy blood I said unto thee live yea I said unto thee others being left in their impurity He which is freed let him love Gods grace hee which is not freed let him acknowledge his owne debt although all men out of the same masse of perdition and damnation according to the hardnesse of their heart doe treasure up for themselves wrath as much as in them lyes God notwithstanding through his mercifull goodnesse does bring from that state some to repentance others according to his just judgment be does not bring Grace doth find some whom it may adopt among the most wicked at their last end when many which seeme lesse guilty have no part in this gift THE THIRD POSITION WHen God affordeth his saving Gospel to save Nations hee doth not this out of consideration of speciall worth in them And when hee denies this benefit to others there is alwaies a concomitant unworthinesse in them to whom it is denied But the meere will of God is the onely cause why to these he will not show that mercy which out of his good pleasure he vouchsafed to others no lesse unworthy thereof DEut. 9.4 Say not in thine heart for my righteousnesse the Lord hath brought mee in to possesse this land when for the wickedness of those Nations he hath driven them out from before thee and v. 5. That he might performe the word that he sware unto thy Fathers Vpon the like motives God alwayes finds in all places why he should not giue his Gospel to be preached or why hee should take it away being once given But where hee affordeth it to a people it is not for their righteousnesse or lesse wickednesse then is otherwhere found as if it were out of a kinde of congruity or desert but for his good pleasure and freedome of his spirit which blowes where it listeth and as long as it will If we will ascribe this to the merits of mens wills that grace should bee said to passe by the bad and choose the good the state of many innumerable Nations will confute us to whom for so many ages the light of heavenly doctrine hath not shined Neither can we say that their posterity were better men of whom it was written The Gentiles which sate in darkenesse have seene a great light THE FOVRTH POSITION TO some of those to whom the Gospel hath shined although they bee indued with many gifts of grace yet of their owne accord and withall infallibly they by Gods permission fall into those sinnes in which being forsaken and so remaining till death they make themselves liable to just damnation WE doe not deny but these though being not elected yet receive many effects of grace such as reckoned up Heb. 6.4 Illumination tast of the heavenly gift of the good word and of the powers of the world to come All which they turne to their owne greater destruction being left to their owne wills and not being founded upon Christ according to the decree of Election Rom. 11.7 The election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded He that falls away from Christ and ends his life being an alien from grace shall bee damned for his last sinnes And because his Apostacy could not be hidden from Gods foreknowledge nor frustrate the same without doubt God never chose such a man be never predestinated him yea hee never set apart from eternall death him who was to perish Some receive the grace of God but for a time they persevere not they forsake God and are forsaken of him for they are left to their owne freewill THE FIFT POSITION GOd damnes none or destinates to damnation except in consideration of sinne 1 GOd dispenseth the gifts of grace to his free will Matt. 20. 15. It is not lawfull for me to doe what I will with mine owne Yet hee never appoints the evill of punishment but upon the fore-seene guilt of men Rom. 3. 9. The Iewes and Greekes are all under sinne v. 19. That every mouth may be stopped and all the world guiltie before God Rom. 2. 9. Tribulation and anguish be unto the soule of every man that worketh evill 2 Moreover damnation is an act of vindicative justice and therefore it must necessarily presuppose a precedent fault A man that is not predestinated perisheth by voluntary not by constrained infidelity The predestination of God hath neither excited perswaded nor forced the falls of those which perish nor the untowardnesse of wicked men nor the wicked desires of sinners but God hath fore-ordained his owne judgement by which hee will render to every one according to that he hath done Erroneous Opinions THE FIRST THat the decree by which God from all eternitie and that irrevocably hath purposed out of lapsed mankinde to leave none but the impenitent and incredulous in sinne and under the wrath of God as being aliens from Christ is the whole andentire decree of Reprobation 1 THis we deny for the reasons alledged by us against the first erroneous position of Election 2 Besides in this decree there is not contained the speciall will of God not to take pitie of whom he will in which the decree of reprobation as it is opposed to Election is formally contained 3 Adde to this that if this decree were granted it might come to pass that God might passed by none but that all might hee chosen and brought to eternall life THE SECOND THat Reprobation from salvation is not of one kinde onely but is either indefinite and generall or else definite and particular and that this is also diverse either incomplete revocable mutable or else complete irrevocable immutable REprobation which is the negation of Election doth set downe to us the immutable will of God by which he hath decreed not to take pitie of that person whom he passeth by so farre forth as to bestow upon him eternall life Now this will of God doth not admit any change at all Esa. 46.10 My counsell shall stand Malach. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not Hereto may be added what wee have formerly set downe at the fourth orthodoxall position and at the fourth erroneous position concerning Election All the children of adoption before the foundation of the world were chosen In which election what man soever was not foreknowne in Christ shall not by any meanes be joyned unto him THE THIRD THat no man after Adams fall was overpassed by the meere will of God but all reprobation of particular persons was made upon consideration of their

hath made his sons by adoption Gabriel Biel saith It is plaine that those whom God foresaw are not his adopted sonnes because they are not preordained by the will of God unto everlasting inheritance Apostacy is onely of those who never reached home to true justification and to the state of adoption But as for those who are the chosen sonnes of God and endued with true sanctitie their perseverance is certaine and undoubted as we shall shew afterwards Either therefore the Apostasie of the true sons of God ought to have beene proved by evident places of Scripture or else that offensive name and title of the Apostasie of the Saints should have beene forborne Of Perseverance As it concernes the Elect and of the certainty therof in it selfe THE FIRST POSITION BEsides that dogmaticall faith and some kinde of amendment in affections and manners there is in due time given to the Elect justifying faith regenerating grace and all other gifts by which they are translated from the state of wrath unto the state of adoption and salvation WHen God dealeth with his Elect hee stayeth not in certaine preparatives and initiall operations but alway finisheth his worke by induing them with a lively faith by justifying and adopting them and by changing them from the state of death to the state of life This the Apostle sheweth Rom. 8.30 Whom he hath predestinated those he also called and whom he called he hath also justified and whom he hath justified he hath also glorified And Colos. 1.12 I give thankes to the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light and hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the kingdome of his deare Sonne Out of which places it is plaine that God giveth to all the Elect a certaine continued connexion of spirituall benefits which never leaves them but plyeth them onward even unto the state of glory THE SECOND POSITION ALthough the Elect being set in this estate omit some thing in every good worke by reason of the remainder of concupiscence and commit daily smaller sinnes od surreption negligence and inconsideratenesse yet neither from thence is the state of justification shaken nor the benefit of their claime to the inheritance of the Kingdome of heaven thereby interrupted ACcording to the rigor of the Law every sinne yea the verie least is mortall and excludes the offender from the favour of God and kingdome of heaven But God never deales in that strict manner with his sonnes adopted and justified in Christ. There are indeed some sinnes for which God denounceth his anger and indignation upon these his sonnes yea and threatneth banishment from heaven and also eternall death of which we may reade 1 Cor. 6.10 Gal. 5.25 Coloss. 3.6 which wee will handle in the positions following There are againe some other sins for which our mercifull God is not wont no not for a time to deprive his children of the light of his countenance or to terrifie them with the feare of death or damnation of which kind are the rebelling motions of our concupiscence whereof the Apostle complaines Rom. 7. also the defects and staines which do cleave to the best workes of the regenerate Lastly those daily trippings and scapes of humane infirmity which are committed without any determinate purpose of committing them and which are forgiven by our daily craving of pardon of these St. Iames cap. 3. v. 2. In many things we offend all and St. Iohn 1.8 If we say that wee have no sinne we deceive our selves Notwithstanding these sinnes every faithfull man may rightly say There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus yea even in the midst of these infirmities God saith to every justified man as hee said to the Apostle My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakenesse And sure they cannot be said to fall by their infirmities from the state of justification through whose weaknes the power of God is made perfect and who all this while may boast that the power of Christ dwelleth in them as it is in the same place THE THIRD POSITION THese very same thus regenerated and justified doe sometimes through their owne default fall into hainous sinnes and thereby they doe incurre the fatherly anger of God they draw upon themselves a damnable guiltinesse and lose their present fitnesse to the kingdome of heaven IT is manifest by the examples of David and Peter that the regenerate can throw himselfe headlong into most grievous sinnes God sometimes permitting it that they may learne with all humility to acknowledge that not by their owne strength or deserts but by Gods mercy alone they were freed from eternall death and had life eternall bestowed upon them Whilest they cleave to such sinnes and sleepe securely therein Gods fatherly anger ariseth against them Psal. 89.31 If that they prophane my statutes and keep not my commandements then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soule of man that doth evill Besides they draw upon themselves damnable guilt so that as long as they continue without repentance in that state they neither ought nor can perswade themselves otherwise then that they are subject to eternall death If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye Rom. 8.13 For they are bound in the chaine of a capitall crime by the desert whereof according to Gods ordinance they are subject to death although they are not as yet given over to death nor about to be given if we cōsider the fatherly love of God but are first to bee taken out of this sinne that they may also bee rescued from the guilt of death Lastly in respect of their present condition they lose the fitnes which they had of entring into the Kingdome of Heaven because into that Kingdome there shall in no wise enter any thing that is defiled neither whatsoever worketh abomination For the Crowne of life is not set upon the head of any but those who have fought a good fight and have finished their course in faith and holinesse He is therefore unfit to obtaine this Crowne whosoever as yet cleaves to the workes of wickednesse THE FOVRTH POSITION THe unalterable ordinance of God doth require that the faithfull so straying out of the right way must first returne againe into the way by a renewed performance of faith and repentance before hee can bee brought to the end of the way that is to the Kingdome of Heaven BY the decree of Election the faithfull are so predestinated to the end that they are as along the Kings high way to be led to this appointed end through the meanes set down by God otherwaies not to attaine the same Nor are Gods decrees concerning the means manner and order of such events lesse fixed and sure then the decrees of the end and of the events themselves