Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	condemnation_n	light_n	light_v	1,791	5	9.6672	5	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

had absolutely decreed a greater punishment to the one but because the one had means of sinning lesse than the other For our Saviour saies expresly that if the mighty works which were done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been also done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes Which was as much as to tell them that it was not at all for want of means and mercy on Gods part but for want of will on theirs that they did not do what was commanded to be done And therefore our Saviour did upbraid them because they repented not Matth. 11. 20. which he could not have done had it been impossible for them to have repented Our blessed Saviour was too pittiful and of too sweet a disposition to jeer a poor Creature for being such as God made him or for being such as he could not but be whether by fatal or by natural infirmity We esteem it an ill nature to upbraid a stammerer for not speaking plain nor is any man reproached for being naturally but wilfully blind nor for being born deaf but for being like the Adder that stoppeth her ears He that bindes my feet and then invites me to come to him intends me nothing for entertainment but a salted Sarcasme or bitter Iest for if he were serious he would set my feet at liberty that I might come in good earnest and not say to me as we say to a child that is fallen down Come hither to me and I will lift thee up And yet this Mr. Calvin is fain to say having been first of all engaged in that opinion That so many nations of men together with their infants were involv'd without remedy in eternal punishment by the fall of Adam for no imaginable reason but that so it seemed good in the sight of God and being pincht with that Text Ezek. 18. 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not that he should return from his wayes and live he is fain to say That God wils not the Death of a sinner so far forth as he wils his Repentance which experience teacheth us he doth so will as not to touch his heart that he may repent Which is all one as to say He wils it so as to command it but he does not will it so as to leave it possible that is he wils it in shew but not in reality Nor do I know any way possible for Mr. Calvin to escape those ugly sequels but by saying that the sinner may repent by the strength and force of Nature without the touch of his heart by the grace of God which is to shelter himself under the Heresie of Pelagius Solomon gives us a more rational account why wisdome one day will laugh at mens calamities and mock when their fear cometh even because they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord 27. My fifth Reason is taken from the nature of Death as that does signifie Privation and as Privation supposes a former Habit. A stone is said to be not alive because it suffers the Negation of life but a stone cannot properly be said to be dead because it doth not suffer the Privation of life So that when a man is said in Scripture to be spiritually dead in trespasses and sins he is imply'd by that expression to have been spiritually alive And no man is damn'd for the Negation but the Privation of Grace because the Negation of Grace would be Gods work whereas the Privation of it is his own It having formerly been shew'd That God doth not punish his own work in man but man is punisht for his own work not for Gods illiberality but for his own being a prodigal not because no Talent was given him but because he * squandred it away Sin is properly the death of Grace Death is a privation a privation is of a habit So that every sinner had grace for this very Reason that he hath lost it he was alive for this very Reason that he is dead He came alive out of Gods hands but he fals desperately by his own A man may be dead born but he cannot possibly be dead be gotten deprived of life he cannot be in the very Act of his conception A man can no more be created a sinner than he can be generated a dead man which insers the Condition of Gods Decree 28. My sixth Reason is taken from Christs having bought those very men 2 Pet. 2. 1. whose damnation did not slumber v. 3. I have proved already Christ died for all that were dead in Adam from 2 Cor. 5. 14. and from several other Texts Which he could not be truly affirm'd to doe if any one had been past by by an absolute Praeterition For that any man doth perish for whom Christ dyed is from his own sin and not from Adams if to free us from Adams it was that Christ dyed Which as it hath been already proved so it may be confirmed from other Scriptures as from 1 John 2. 2. where he is called the propitiation not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world The Apostle foresees and confutes the Heresie of Christs dying onely for the Elect with a not onely but also He dyed for Infidels impenitents as the whole stream of the Fathers conclude from those words Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed And shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ dyed That this was the Judgement of the primitive Church I can prove by an Induction and though I now spare my Reader yet I shall trouble him hereafter if I am challeng'd to it I shall at present refer him to the 31. Article of our Church of England The oblation of Christ once made is a perfect Redemption propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world as well Original as Actual I had almost forgot a special Testimony of S. Iohn who cals the Messias the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world So that if any man is in the dark it is not for want of Light but because he will not see as S. Chrysostome infers which is the very interpretation that S. Iohn himself gives it chap. 3. ver. 19. This sayes he is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darknesse rather than light because their deeds were evil Sure that which is the Reason of their Condemnation was the Condition upon which they were determin'd to be damn'd than which I know not what can be said either more plainly or more convincingly of any subject whatsoever 29. My seventh Reason is taken from the conditional Decrees of temporal Death and other temporal punishments which are so evidently conditional as I cannot believe any Creature will deny it For the Denuntiations of destruction to Nineveh and of certain death to Hezekiah do put this quite out of all scruple