Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	word_n	work_v	worthy_a	79	3	7.3745	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90682	The Christians rescue from the grand error of the heathen, (touching the fatal necessity of all events) and the dismal consequences thereof, which have slily crept into the church. In several defences of some notes, writ to vindicate the primitive and scriptural doctrine of Gods decrees. By Thomas Pierce rector of Brington in Northamptonshire.	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1658 (1658)	Wing P2166; Thomason E949_1; ESTC R18613	77,863	94

the Apostle had foreseen an objection that the word all might be restrained unto the houshold of Faith he prevents it by a distinction of general and special For if he is a special Saviour of believers he is a general Saviour of those that are unbelievers not that unbelievers can be saved whilest they are obstinate unbelievers but upon condition they will repent and believe else why should the Apostle affirm the Saviour to be of all and then come off with an especially to them that believe Certainly if it is every mans duty to believe in Christ Christ dyed for every man And this very argument is not easily answered in the very confession of Dr. Twisse who yet by and by saies 't is easily answered and yet he leaves it without an answer he only scornes it and lets it passe Twiss. in Respon. ad Armin. Praefat. p. 16. col 2. This is secondly confirm'd from the Apostle's way of arguing 2 Cor. 5. 14. If one died for all then were all dead This is the major Proposition of an hypothetical syllogisme in which the thing to be proved is that all were dead and the Medium to prove it is that one dyed for all Now every man knows that understands how to reason that the argument of proof must be rather more than lesse known than the thing in question to be proved so that if it be clear that all men were dead by the fall of the first Adam it must be clearer as St. Paul argues that life was offered unto all by the death of the second Adam and if none were dyed for but the Elect then the Elect only were dead for the word all must signifie as amply in the Assumption as it does in the Sequel or else the Reasoning will be fallacious and imperfect The Apostle thus argues If one dyed for all then were all dead But one dyed for all that must be the Assumption Therefore all were dead Whosoever here denies the Minor does before he is aware condemn the Sequel of the Major and so gives the Lie to the very words of the Text which I can look for from none but some impure Helvidius who would conclude the greatest falsehoods from the word of Truth This is thirdly confirmed from the saying of the Apostle Rom. 11. 32. that God concluded all in unbelief the Gentiles first verse 30. and afterwards the Iewes verse 31. that he might have mercy upon all From whence I inferre that if this last all belong to none but the Elect then none but the Elect were concluded in unbelief But it is plain that all without exception were first or last concluded in unbelief therefore the mercy was meant to all without exception Lastly it is confirm'd from those false Prophets and false Teachers 2 Pet. 2. 1. who though privily bringing in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bringing upon themselves swift destruction yet it seems they were such whom the Lord had bought So far is God from being the Cause of mans destruction by an absolute irrespective unconditional Decree that he gave himself a ransome even for them that perish They were not left out of the bargain which was made with his Iustice but the Apostle tels us they were actually bought He whose blood was sufficient for a thousand worlds would not grudge its extent to the major part of but one He was merciful to all men but the greatest part of men are unmerciful to themselves He is the Saviour of all but yet all are not saved because he only offers does not obtrude himself upon us He * offers himself to all but most refuse to receive him He will have no man to perish but repent by his Antecedent will but by his Consequent will he will have every man perish that is impenitent Which is sufficient to have been said for the negative part of my undertaking That the cause of Damnation is not on God's part in which if any one Text be found of power to convince let no man cavil at those others which seem lesse convincing If any one hath an objection let him stay for an answer till his objection is urged It might seem too easie to solve objections of my own choice or confute an argument of my own making and therefore I passe without notice of common shifts and subterfuges till I am call'd to that Drudgery to the second part of my enterprise which is the affirmative 16. That man himself is the cause of his eternal punishment Which though supposed in the negative must yet be proved to some persons who are prevailed upon by fashions and modes of speech and will deny that very thing when they see it in one colour which they will presently assent to when they behold it in another He who is very loth to say that God is the Author of sin and damnation will many times say it in other termes and therefore in other terms it must be proved that he is not O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thine help Hosea 13. 6. They that privily bring in Damnable Heresies shall bring upon themselves swift destruction The foolishness of man perverteth his way And as when lust conceiveth it bringeth forth sin so when sin is finished it bringeth forth death Iam. 1. 15. If death is that monster of which sin is the Dam that brings it forth how foul a thing must be the Sire and can there be any greater blasphemy than to bring God's Providence into the pedigree of Death Death saith the Apostle is the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. and wages is not an absolute but a relative word It is but reason he should be paid it who hath dearly earn'd it by his work It is the will of man that is the servant of sin Disobedience is the work Death eternal is the wages and the Devil is the pay-master who as he sets men to work to the dishonour of their Creator so he paies them their wages to the advancement of his glory From whence I conclude with the Book of Wisdome God made not death neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living for he created all things that they might have their being and the generations of the world were healthful and there is no poyson of Destruction in them nor the kingdome of death upon the earth But ungodly men with their words and works call'd it to them and made a covenant with it because they are worthy to take {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} part with it 17. I will confirm this truth by no more than one Reason which if it is not the best doth seem to me to be the fittest as being aptest to evince both the connexion and necessity of my first inference from my first Principle It is taken from the nature and use of punishment which as soon as it is named doth presuppose a Guilt for as every sin is the *

That I may not be suspected of any secret reservation within my self in the laying down of this Principle I will endeavour to speak out and make my Reader my Confessor by revealing the very utmost of what I think in this business I believe that no man can come to Heaven any otherwise than by Christ nor to Christ unlesse it be given that is unlesse the Father draw him First the Father loves the Son next he loves us in the Son then endowes us with his Spirit so endow'd he elects us so elected he predestines us so predestined he will glorifie us by crowning his Gifts and Graces in us I say his Graces because they are not required by us but infus'd by him nor so properly given as lent us lent us as Talents not to hide but multiply We owe it wholly to God not that he gives us his Grace onely but that he gives us the grace to desire his Grace as well as to use it to the advancement of his Glory and we are to thank him as for all other mercies so for this also even that we have the grace 〈◊〉 thank him So far I am from that Pelagianisme whereof I have wrongfully been accused I beseech God not to lay it to my accusers charge that I have never lain under any the least Temptation to any degree of that Heresie no no more than Fulgentius or Prosper or S. Austin himself It not onely is but ever hath been my assertion That as we cannot spiritually be nourished unlesse the Father of Mercies doth reach out unto us the bread of Heaven and as we cannot take it when it is offered unlesse he give us the hand of Faith so cannot we possibly desire to take it unlesse he gives us our very appetite and hunger we cannot pant after the waters of life unlesse he give us our very thirst He stirs us up when we are sleeping that we may seek him and shews himself when we are seeking that we may find him and gives us strength when we have found him that we may hold him fast unto the end There is no good thought arising in us unlesse suggested by his a preventing Grace no nor encreasing unlesse strengthened by b his subsequent Grace no nor consummate unlesse c perfected by his Grace of perseverance If I am better than any man it is God that d makes me differ Every good gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights And therefore he that will glory let him glory in the Lord saying with the Psalmist Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise 44. Having thus secur'd my self from giving the will of man a sacrilegious liberty I must withall provide that I be able to answer the Objection of the Marcionites which Tertullian could not do but by asserting the liberty of the will which Grace doth correct but not destroy Grace doth strengthen but not compel Grace doth guide but not necessitate Grace makes able to chuse good but not unable to refuse it a Marcion objected thus If God is good and praescient of all the Evill which is to come and withall able to prevent it why did he suffer mankind to fall why did he not hold him fast by irresistible Grace Tertullian answered Tha● God made man in his own Image and that in nothing more live●y than in the liberty of a Will And that it is to which his fall must be imputed But saith b Marcion Man ought to have been made of such a frame as not to be able to fall away Marry then saith Tertullian Man had not been a voluntary but a necessary Agent which is as much as to say a Man should not have been a Man nor could he have been a right object of Reward and Punishment 45. Before I venture on any rational or Scholastical way of arguing I must first enlighten my self out of some clear places of † Scripture amongst which there is none that seems more proper than that of S. Paul to the Philippians Work out your salvation with fear and trembling For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure He bids them work because God worketh which they needed not have been bid to do if God had work't after a physical irresistible manner That they might not be betray'd into a yawning reliance upon their being supteracted to the working out of their salvation he bids them work it out with fear and trembling as our Saviour bids us Strive to enter in at the strait gate because many shall strive and shall not enter which they needed not have done had their salvation been not only certain but withall a necessary unavoidable thing and so inconsistent with choice and option But the Apostle tels them in the next verse that it is God which worketh in them not only to do but to will and to do by his preventing Grace he worketh in them to will by assisting Grace he worketh in them to do by neither so irresistibly but that they must work it out themselves too and that not only with expectation and hope but with fear and trembling God worketh in us to will saith the Apostle not without or against but according to the nature of that very will with which he made us Grace doth not destroy but establish and strengthen and perfect Nature Shall we say that we do a thing without liberty and choice because God worketh in us to will and to do that is to do it by choise and option is the liberty lost because it is guided and enabled to do that which is good If I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me then can I through him both refuse the evil and chuse the good Which would not be choice if it were whether I would or no And so it would be were I unable to resist it as I shall shew by and by in the open confession of Dr. Twisse whose Favourers cannot be angry with one that speaks his language I can do all things through him that strengthens me saith the Apostle Now to strengthen is not to necessitate for then to strengthen would be to weaken because to necessitate or compel with an irresistibility is to vanquish and over-master not to give strength but rather to take it away Again our Saviour is said to tread down Satan under our feet To what end doth he tread the Serpent down but that we may have the freedome to trample on him and though he doth it with his own feet yet it is under ours This liberty and freedome of the regenerate will is at once expressed and expounded in those words of the Psalmist I will run the way of thy Commandements when thou shalt set my heart at liberty To which is agreeable that of our Saviour and the truth shall make you free It being a great absurdity in the opinion of