Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	strong_a	unrighteousness_n	1,917	5	11.2143	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13267	Iacob and Esau. Election. Reprobation Opened and discussed by way of sermon at Pauls Crosse, March 4. 1622. By Humphry Sydenham Mr. of Arts, and fellow of Wadham Colledge in Oxford.	Sydenham, Humphrey, 1591-1650?	1626 (1626)	STC 23567; ESTC S101842	26,538	44

blinded if not with profanation heresie Diuine secrets should rather transport vs with wonder than prompt vs to enquiry and bring vs on our knees to acknowledge the infinitenesse both of Gods power and will than ransacke the bosome of the Almighty for the reuealing of his intents Is it not blessednesse enough that God hath made thee his Steward though not his Secretarie Will no Mansion in heauen content thee but that which is the throne and chaire for omnipotency to sit on No treasury but that which is the Cabinet and store-house of his own secrets Worme and no man take heed ●ow thou struglest with thy Maker expostulation with God imports no lesse peremptorinesse than danger and if Angels fell for pride of emulation where wilt thou tumble for this pride of inquiry As in matters therefore of vnusuall doubt where truth hath no verdict probability finds audience So in those obstruct and narrow passages of his will where reason cannot informe thee beleefe is thy best intelligencer and if that want a tongue make this thy interpreter so thou maist euade with lesse distrust I am sure with more safe And at last when thou hast sca●…'d all what either scruple or inquisition can prompe thee to in a dei●cted humiliation thou must cry out with that Iewish penitent Lord I beleeue helpe thou my vnbeleefe Yea but how shall we here cleare God from this aspersion when the Apostle is the Herauld to his guilt whom he will he hardens Induras is an actiue and doth alwayes presuppose a passiue And if there be a subiect that must suffer there must be a hand too that must inflict How then can we quit the Almighty of the supicion either of tyranny or iniustice since he is said to send on some the spirit of errour 2 Thess 2. and that great Trumpet of Gods displeasure Esay in his 63. brings in the Iewes no lesse muttering than expostulating with God Quare errar● nos fecist● Domine Lord why hest thou made vs to erre from thy wayes and hardened our hearts from thy feare These instances at the first furu●y beare terrour in their looks and like sophisticated lights in a darke roome make things seeme more vgly than they are and are but false bils preferred against a spotlesse innocent which without search may conuince of publique erime but narrowly scan'd absolue him no lesse from the act than the thought of guilt How God therefore in this is liable to censure and misprision and how both a beholder an intermedier of depraued actions vouchsafe me a little your attentiue parience and I doubt not but I shall informe the vnderstanding of the shallow and to the portion of my weake Talent will striue to satisfie the waueringly iudicious Whom he will he hardens Some too nicely tender of the honour of their maker haue giuen way to an interpretation more modest than authenticke and interpret indur●●… for ●uritia●● manifestare so that God is not properly said to harden the heart but rather to manifest how hard it is And to this opinion Saint Augustine is a ●lo●e adherent in his 18 Question vpon Exodus But this holds not with the purpose of God nor with the scope and meaning of the Text which if we compare with others of that nature wee shall finde that Gods will hath rather a singer in this than his promulgation for so in the 10 of Iosua we reade that'twas the will and the sentence of the Almighty that the Canaanites should be hardened that they might deserue no mercie but perish Others there are whose opinions border neerer vpon truth which would haue God to be said to harden non effectiue sed permissiuè Not by way of Action but permission and so Damascen in his third booke de fide Orthodoxa cap. 20. Where his words run thus Operaepretium est agnoscere 'T is a matter no lesse worthy of knowledge than obseruance that 't is the custome of the Scripture to call Gods permission his action So we reade that God sent his enemies the Ipirit of slumber which is not to be ascribed to God as an agent but as a permitter This glosse sutes well with the approbation of Saint Chrysostome who speaking occasionally of that of the first of the Romanes Deus tradidit ●llos God gaue them vp vnto vile affections hee there expounds tradidit by permisit which he thus illustraces by a similitude As the Generall of an Armie in the sweat and brunt of a bloudy day if he withdraw his personall directions from his souldiers what doth he but expose them to the mercie of their enemies not that he led them into the iawes of danger but because they were not back't by his encouragement So God in this spirituall conflict he deliuers vs not into the hands of our arch-enemie he leaues vs to our owne strength and our corrupt affections drag vs thither with a witnesse And hence that dicotomy of Caietan claimes his prerogatiue that God doth harden Negatiuely but not Positiuely w th distinction though it be sound Orthodox yet it doth not exempt vs from scruple for God hath more in the stiffeneckt and peruerse than a maked and bare permission otherwise we should too weakly distance obduration from a lesser sinne for euery sinne God permits and as Saint Augustine in his Enchir. 96. cap. Nihil sit nisi omnipotens fieri velit vel finend● vt fiat v●l ipse fa●iend● There 's nothing done without the consent and approbation of the Almightie and that either by his person or substitute If God therfore be only said to harden man because he permits him to be hardened why should he not be likewise said to steale because he permits man to steale No doubt therefore but God hath a greater ore in this sinne of hardneing than in offences of a lesser bulke And therefore Saint Augustine in his 3. lib. con● Iulianum 3. cap. with many a sinewed allegation proues that God doth concurre to the excaeca●ion and hardening both of the minde and heart Non solum secundum paetientiam permissionem sed potentiam actionem Not according to his patience and permission onely but his power and action Which position hee thus after qualifies with a distinction Obduration is not onely a sinne but a punishment of a sinne Now that which is in obduration meerely of sinne hath it's pedegree and originall from man onely but that which is of punishment for that sinne from God And therefore I cannot but approue of that of Isiodore Qui iusti sunt à Deo non impelluntur vt malifiant sed dùm mali iam sunt indurantur vt deteriores existant According to that of Paul 2 Thes 2. For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they might beleeue a lie that all might be damned that beleeue not the truth but haue pleasure in vnrighteousnesse I haue as yet but toucht the barke and skinne of the controuersie the pith and the kernell is yet

dangerous a tortēt how are they o'rewhelmed at last and whilst they so ventrously climbe this steeper turrer throwned desperately into heresie For mine owne part I haue euer thought curiosity in diuine affaires but a quaint distraction rather applauding an humble yet faithful ignorance than a proud and temerarious knowledge And had some of the Fathers beene shot-free of this curious insolence they needed not haue retreated from former Tenents so much in deared posterity no lesse in the reuiew than retractation of laborious errors Amongst whom S. Augustine though since entituled Malleus Haereticorum shared not a little in the 83. of his Questions and 68. Where expounding our place of the Apostle would thus vindicate the Almighty from iniustice that God foresaw that in some Quo digni sunt iustificatione that in others Quo digni sunt obtusione so making God will to depend on a foreseene merit A position that doth not onely repugne the discipline of holy storie but thwarts the maine tide current of orthodox antiquity as in a fuller discourse we shall display anon and therefore in his 7. Booke de Praedestinatione Sanctorū cap. 4. he doth chastise his former tenents with 2 Deus non elegit opera sed sidem in praescientiâ That God did not elect lacob for foreseene workes but faith But because in saith there is as well a merit as in workes he once more rectifies his opinion in the first of his Retractations and 23 where he doth peach his sometimes ignorance and ingeniously declares himselfe that Nondum diligentius quaesiuit nec inuenit mysteria he had not yet throughly sifted that of the Apostle Rom. 11.5 That there was a remnant according to the election of grace which if it did flow from a foreseene merit was rather restored than giuen and therefore at last he informes his owne judgement and his Readers thus Datur quidem fideli sed data est etiam prius ut esset fidelis Grace is given to the faithfull but it is first given that he should be faithfull Hence Lumbard in his 1 booke 41 distinction pathetically Elegit quos voluit Deus gratuitâ misericordiâ non quia fideles futuri erant sed ut essent nec quià crediderant sed ut fierent credentes God out of the prerogatiue of his will and bounty of his goodnesse hath chosen whom he pleased not because they were faithfull but because they should be and not of themselues beleeuing but made so And therefore that Vt sim sidelis 1 Cor. 7.25 beares a remarkable emphasis I haue obtained mercie that I might be faithfull not that I was Here the Pelagian startles lately backt with a troope of Arminians takes head against this truth fancying and dreaming of certain causes without God which are not subsisting in God himselfe but externally mouing the will of God to dispose and determine of seuerall euents laying this as an unshaken principle Fidem esse conditionem in obiecto eligibili ante electionem That faith and obedience foreseene of God in the Elect was the necessary condition and cause of their election I intend not here a pitcht field against the vpstart Sectarie for I shall meet him anon in a single combat my purpose now is to be but as a scour or spie which discouers the weaknesse of his aduersary not stands to encounter And indeed both the time and place suggest me rather to resolue than debate and convince than dispute an errour That faith then or any praeexisting merit in the person to be elected was the cause of his election is neither warrantable by reason nor primitiue Authoritie For God could not foresee in the elect any faith at all but that which in after times he was to crowne them with and therefore not considerable as any precedent cause of election but as the effect and fruit and consequent thereof The primary and chiefe motive then is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 1.5 the good pleasure of Gods will which prompted of it selfe without any reference to praeexisting faith obedience merit as the qualities cause or condition of it hath powred grace on this man more than that Non solum in Christo Synod Dort sed per Christum And therefore as that late venerable Synode hath awarded it Non ex illis conditionibus facta est sed ad illas That election was not fram'd of these conditions but to them as to their effect and issue And if we commerce a little with passages of holy story we shall find that our election points rather to the free will of God in his eternall councell than to any goodnesse in vs which God foresaw so Acts 13.48 where we read of the Gentiles that many beleeued because they were ordained to eternal life and not therefore ordained because they formerly beleeued And if we will not suffer our minds to bee transported either with scruple or noueltie the text is open Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen vs before the foundations of the world were laid that we might be holy not that we were And in this very Chapter verse 23. The vessels of mercy are first said to be prepared to mercy then cald and therefore Saint Austin in his 86. Tract upon Iohn out of a holy indignation doth check the insolence of those Qui praescientiam Dei defendunt contra gratiam Dei Which in matters of saluation obscure and extenuate the grace of God with the foreknowledge of God for if God did therefore chuse vs because he did know and foresee that wee would be good he did not chuse vs to make vs good but wee rather chose him in purposing to be good which if it did carry any shew either of probabilitie or truth we might question our Apostle who in his 8 here and 29. no lesse perswades than proues that those which God foreknew he did predestinate to be conform'd to the image of his sonne and therefore God did not chuse vs because before election there was a conformitie in vs but because from all eternitie he did elect vs in time he made us conform'd to the image of his Sonne Whereupon St. Augustine in his fift booke contra Iulianum 3. chapt thus Nullum elegit dignum sea eligendo effecit dignum God in the choise of his Elect found none worthy but in the chusing made them worthy Moreover our election which is of grace as I yonder proued could not stand if workes and merits went before it Haec quippè non inuenit merita sed facit Grace doth not find works in vs but fashions them according to that of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.13 God hath from the beginning chosen you through sanctification of the spirit and not of works Nay some here so much abolish and wipe off all claime of merit that they admit not Christ as the meritorious cause of our election Indeed say they the Scripture is thus farre our Schoolemaster That we are iustified by the blood of Christ Synod Dort and