Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	reason_n	reveal_v	2,166	5	8.9320	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77243	A practicall discourse concerning Gods decrees. In two parts. The first concerning mans unfitnesse to dispute against the decrees of God: out of Rom. 9.20. The second tending to assert and cleare Gods absolute election of a limited and certaine number unto eternall life: out of Acts 13:48. By Edvvard Bagshavve st. of Ch. Ch.	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1659 (1659)	Wing B420; Thomason E965_3; ESTC R18103	27,770	46

A Practicall Discourse CONCERNING GODS DECREES In Two parts The First concerning mans unfitnesse to dispute against the Decrees of God out of Rom. 9.20 The Second tending to Assert and Cleare Gods Absolute Election of a Limited and certaine Number unto Eternall Life out of Acts 13.48 By EDVVARD BAGSHAVVE St. of Ch. Ch. OXFORD Printed by Hen. Hall Printer to the UNIVERSITY for Tho. Robinson 1659. TO THE HONORABLE MY Lord BRADSHAWE Lord Chiefe Justice of Chester My Noble Lord A Late Author in his severall Treatises wherein he endeavours to defend I will not say the Arminian Tenets Mr Pierce because he is unwilling to have them so stiled but which is all one Free-will and Conditionall election whether because he was touched with compunction for his former errors as he thinks them or else to make his present opinions more taking and plausible as if he had not fell into them by chance but got them after much and serious study I find that he frequently doth usher them in by professing that he was once a Calvinist for that it seemes must be the Name of Obloquie to those who according to Scripture of which Calvin was the best Interpreter that God hath yet vouchsafed his Church do maintaine Absolute Predestination but he was frighted into his wits for so he is pleased to play upon himsefe by considering the Horrible consequences of Absolute Reprobation Were I willing to make my selfe worke in this time of my retirement here by engaging with a Person who is as some thinke very able I am sure very confident and very Angry I would not desire greater advantage then these few words of his might give me for to be an Arminian I meane an Asserter of Universall Redemption and of those other Tenets which lead to it or flow from it a very little paines will serve the turne and every man is so Naturally apt to make himselfe a sharer with God and to cozen himselfe with hopes of mercy that it is a much harder matter to escape those opinions then to attaine them Besides for any to be deferred from the maintenance of any truth in Thesi because it seemes attended with unanswerable difficulties and many ill consequences is to my thinking very unreasonable since if that may be admitted all the mysterious part of our Religion which containes the Credenda must never expect either to be entertained or defended I might adde farther that for any to be frighted into his wits is a thing altogether unusuall and if it hath indeed in this matter so fared with that Gentleman he is the first who can boast of the Experiment But my Lord I am not desirous to dispute at all in these matters much lesse with one who is so taken up with abusing persons of greater worth that he cannot find leasure to take notice of one so Inconsiderable as my selfe onely entending to handle some part of that question which is now in contest I must crave leave to professe that I never yet was satisfied but that those fatall consequences whatever they are which are thought to attend Absolute Reprobation they do as farre as I can see equally Accompany Gods Prescience of which yet this Gentleman is a zealous assertour For if God foresees who will refuse the meanes of Grace he foresees likewise that he will assist one and not another and that without such particular Divine assistance it is impossible any should believe and be saved Now what is this else but for men at long runne after much time mispent in wrangling to have recourse unto Gods Absolute but yet discriminating Will and Power which at their first setting out they were desirous to decline As for those Tragicall stories and dreadfull Nothings wherewith that Gentlemans writings and before him Acta Synodalia are stuffed concerning God's cruelty Tyranny and I know not what else As also the vaine and impertinent declaiming from the common places of Gods Justice and mercy thereby to enervate or at least to Enveigh against Gods Absolute Irresistable and Unaccountable Soveraignty All this terrible talke is nothing but Noise and Flourish fit indeed to amuse a country Auditory or to impose upon a lazy and superficiall reader but certainly of very little weight with them who dare not be frighted from nor talked out of their faith and who thinke Scripture truths are to be embraced and followed in spite of all mens corrupt and empty reasonings against them Out of the Scriptures therefore I have undertaken briefly to demonstrate these two things First That whatever opinion is manifestly revealed in Scripture such as I take Absolute Reprobation to be to argue against it and by Artifices of Humane Wit and Eloquence to seek to overthrow and disgrace it this is nothing else but to dispute against God and impiously to be wise above what is written Secondly That God hath from all Eternity designed a particular Number unto Eternall life and that this Election is Absolute From whence it followes that all those who are not by God in that Act of Absolute Election appointed to life they are reprobated i. Designed for destruction which Decree is Absolute made by Soveraigne Will but Executed in justice And this my Lord is the summe of the Ensuing Treatises for the publishing of which next to the care every Christian should have to see the Truths of God so farre as they are revealed to him asserted and freed from cavill especially in a contradicting and every way too quarrel some Age I have no one outward motive more prevailing with me then my perhaps too great Ambition of presenting something to your Lordship whereby I might testify to the World not onely that reall esteeme I have of your Lordship's singular worth and eminence in generall but likewise to manifest in particular how mindfull I am of those many signall and Unparallelled markes of Favour which You have been pleased to conferre upon my selfe for which though the service of my whole life will be too poore and meane a sacrifice and no endeavour can amount to deserve the name of requitall yet I could not but thinke it my duty to study an acknowledgment which Zeale of mine if your Lordship pleases either to accept or pardon I have atteined my end For I aime at nothing more then the Honour of being owned for My Noble Lord Your Lordship's most Obliged most thankfull and most Humble devoted Servant EDVV. BAGSHAVVE Ch. Ch. Decemb. 20. Romans 9.20 Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God THe Apostle in this Chapter handling that great question why the Jewes who were by the Apostles own confession heires and Children of the Promises should now be omitted and cast off and the Gentiles that before were Aliens should now be admitted and taken into the Covenant of Grace in Christ he fixeth it upon God's Election who being a most free Agent chooseth one and refuseth another according to His good pleasure and not out of any foresight of their

of service unto that God to whom thou art obliged for so infinite and undeserved mercy But if any who hath a mind to live wickedly shall Argue If If I am not designed to life I shall be damned let me do what I can I answer First that there is no possibylity for any truth to be so cleare but that evill men may abuse it to their own destruction and I believe every one sees how the making Gods decrees conditionall will lead a corrupt mind to the same Inference For he may as well say If God foresee that I shall believe I shall believe and so in the meane while take his liberty But Secondly Consider that as Gods decree of Election hath no influence to Necessitate the will of any but he that believes though ordained to it yet believes freely and willingly so the Decree of Reprobation hath no influence at all to the Damning of any because though those who are Reprobated shall certainely be damned yet sentence shall not passe upon them according to the act of Gods Reprobation but according to the merit of their works Gods decree is made by power but it 's executed by Law and therefore while thy damnation is yet uncertaine doe not dispute thy selfe into such a state as to endeavour to make it just Lastly The Rule of our Obedince is not Gods decree but Gods command Moses when he had given the Law exhorts them to walke according to it and to check their Inquisitivenesse tells them that they were not to Ascend into Heaven there to pry and search into Gods Decree concerning themselves but the word was nigh them in their hearts that they might do it Deut. 11.12 And the reason is bottomed upon that eternall and unanswerable truth Secret things belong to God but things revealed to us that they may be our rule to walke by So that in short we are so to ascribe all Power Praise to God as to looke upon and acknowledge him the great and supreme disposer of all things but yet we are so to live in our obedience and submission to his command as if nothing was at all decreed concerning us but that we were wholly left to the counsell and power of our own will For if we conclude against our selves and live like reprobates we are sure to perish But if with hearty and zealous endeavour we strive to doe the will of God and leave the event unto his mercifull providence against such I dare boldly affirme it there is no condemnation and the world shall sooner perish then such a soule miscarry Therefore the Vse I shall make of this discourse so necessary for these cavilling times is to exhort us all that we would leave off disputing and fall to practise Since it is certaine that the foundation of God standeth sure which is this that God knoweth who are his i. knoweth them definitely we may vexe and distemper our selves by wrangling but we shall not be able to shake or alter that All the while we are disputing we are like Abrahams Ram caught by the hornes in the Thicket when we should be offered up in sacrifice we are vainly strugling to entangle and snare our selves with our own Dilemmas It would be counted madnesse in a Traveller who has a great way to goe and but a little time to performe his Journies in if he should leave his road and needlessely run into a wood where besides the troublesomenesse of the passage he is sure to loose his time if not himselfe and in the end sit down to lament his folly No lesse unwise are we if we leave the safe and known path of Gods Commandments to wander in the endlesse maze and Labyrinth of Gods decrees If in worship when a man strives to serve God more strictly or in a more specious manner then the rule warrants him his whole devotion is slighted with a Quis Requisivit haec who bad you trouble your selfe with these things how much more severely shall he be reproved who ventures upon a forbidden as well as undoing curiosity In short all the while we are arguing we are out of Gods way and in the way onely of our own inventions and till we get out of it we may justly feare that the issue will be confusion amazement doubting and at last despaire If men would but once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be sober in their reasonings it would appeare but a modest request that God and his word alone should have the honour above and beyond our private conceptions For he will be found just when he comes to Judgment but woe be to that man who daires arraign him Whatever vaine men may anogate to themselves and upon the confidence of superficiall and empty Rhetorick venture to entern edle with and to passe their censure upon matters so infinitely above their reach yet they will find at last that obedience is better then knowledge that selfe denyall is the onely Gospell-sacrifice and of all Christians the humblest Christian is the best Therefore Secondly Since there are certaine Number appointed unto Eternall Life let us give our selves no rest till we can comfortably pronounce to our selves that we are of that Number Many are the signes by which a man may judge of his eternall condition and one of them is expressed here in the Text That who were Ordained unto Eternall life believed i. Believed the word of the Lord concerning salvation by Christ So that goe presently and aske your selves this question do I believe i. Am I willing to receive Christ and Salvation Yes perhaps you will say I am willing Then go on farther and aske but am I willing to receive Christ upon his owne Termes to acknowledge my owne wretchednesse without him to fly to him as I would to Shore out of a Tempest Do I see my selfe in so Undone and lost a Condition that nothing but his satisfaction can relieve me then goe to Christ he calls thee he calls thee as effectually as if thou heardst a voyce from Heaven saying Come Come unto me thou weary and laden Soule and I will give thee rest Mat 2.28 Come with all thy Sins nay with all thy Feares upon thee and I will take thy Burden I will settle thy Distractions and speake to thy soule in the midst of its Disquiets Soule be at peace I can make up all thy Wants and am able to save to the uttermost If after this thou canst be content with nothing but Christ if thou art willing to quit all for him and to count the world only as a stage where either thy Faith or Patience must be daily exercised if thou dost find that sweetnesse in the Face of a Reconciled God as no earthly enjoyment could bribe thee to a willing commission of any knowne sin against him then goe and enter into thy Rest and take an earnest of thy future joy For if the case be thus with thee and thou perseverest in it Heaven and Happinesse are as surely thine as if thou wert allready there and even while thou livest thou art placed in so high a sphere of Felicity and content as all the laboured and perishing comforts of this world cannot amount to fill up one minute of thy entire satisfaction This deserves to be more particularly insisted upon and some motives likewise might be used to presse all unto this duty of examining their future state But certainly they who know what Eternity is and how neare they are to it how every minute for ought they know may wast them thither they will not long put off or deferre the enquiry for all the while they doe so they evince to themselves that they have no lot nor portion in the Heavenly Inheritance For though both Grace and Glory are bestowed Freely yet wee may sadly conclude that they are not designed for those who looke not after them FINIS