Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	believe_v	divine_a	reason_n	2,482	5	5.7783	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45396	Hagieā theoū krisis Iudgment worthy of God, or, An assertion of the existence and duration of hell torments, in two occasional letters, written several years since / by ... Henry Hammond ; to which is added an accordance of St. Paul with St. James, in the great point of faith and works by the same author.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1665 (1665)	Wing H515; ESTC R15162	47,364	178

more then is necessary to be suppos'd to the defining several degrees of torments in Hell that the mighty sinners might be mightily punished it doth not at all concern the justice of that sentence that decrees every unreform'd impenitent to those flames For repentance as it signifies some degree of sincere renovation being the minimum quod sic without which all shall perish even under the Gospel that utmost dispensation of strict Law that God will permit any to hope for that doth not give the lie to his message in the mouth of his Son they that come short of this have no more to plead from any other circumstance imaginable because that God which gave space for repentance hath also provided such counterballances either of aids or pardon to such circumstances as shall utterly frustrate and prevent all plea that can from thence be drawn either against his justice or his mercy 2. It must be remembred that there be other states to which those titles of flagitious and contumacious lives are not competible which yet have no lesse of malignity in them by that consideration such are that of the intricate disguis'd painted hypocrite that hath God alwaies in his mouth and his glory the design of his foulest actions and yet his damnation as just as any man's that of the wicked Christian carnal Gospeller that under the vow of baptisme i. e. Christs banner equals the sinnes of Jew Turk or Heathen Worshipper that of recidivation into forsaken sins Apostacy Temporary adherence to Christ but in time of temptation presently they are offended the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or cowardly Gnosticks that Christ in the Revelation ranks with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbelievers each of these upon other as just accounts as those under which the flagitious and contumacious is acknowledged to fall and perish may as reasonably be resolv'd to have their portion the richest talents being rather more then less accountable for then the meanest and the utter darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth peculiarly assign'd to the unprofitable servant that being apt to object severity and austerity against God did not yet endeavour by improving his Talent to approve himself unto him By the way that parable forewarns us how possible it is for a man negligently to loose all his opportunities of graces and advantages toward heaven and engulfe himself in endless woe whilst his heart is secretly objecting against the reconcileableness of God's judgments with those Attributes which he thinks fit to be vindicated in all his inflictions In this Section after the middle of the 4th p. it is resolv'd that the opinion of eternal torments properly so call'd is not to be accepted upon less termes then of plain demonstration from Scripture But what that signifies I cannot guess God's affirmation when once reveal'd as there is no just cause to doubt the testimony to be divine will bear down all difficulties which any improbability of the matter will suggest to us Reason it self thus judgeth that God is to be believed rather then any humane reasoning If therefore Christ who sufficiently testify'd himself to come from God and to have the signature of his Authority on all his affirmations did teach eternity of torments properly so call'd and express that doctrine in such plain words as all that heard him and his Commissioners preach were firmly resolv'd to signifie the real everlastingness of those torments then I suppose here is as plain demonstration as the weightiness of the matter or the Objecter's exceptions can exact And that thus it is it may not be amiss briefly to shew in this place Besides those testimonies which are by the Objecter produc'd and as they are enervated by him have and shall be vindicated and clear'd to have force in them and so are not to be mention'd here I insist on these three 1. The parable of Dives and Lazarus which being yielded to be but a parable hath yet from Christs using it these grounds of assuring our faith that there is as certainly after this life a state of torments as of bliss and those torments executed by scorching but not devouring and consuming much less annihilating flames He that is in them hath nothing to beg but a present cooling of his tongue and that may not be had because Dives hath had all his portion of good things in this life and so must have no more such though it be but the least allay of his pains for one minute which sure excludes annihilation which is the perfect superseding of them Again there is a gulf fixed which interscinds all entercourse between Heaven and Hell whereby any aid or relief should come to them These circumstances put together must conclude that the fire being not such as of it self consum'd those that were tormented in it and Abraham that was now a Comprehensor knowing that there was now no place left for the least degree of release to the sufferer and no relief being to be hop'd for from Heaven from whence only it was possible to come the fire and so the continuance in the torments must be eternal I foresee but one objection to this viz that this was before the Day of Judgment and then this non obstante the fire after the day of Doom may annihilate To this I answer that the Parable is not bound to refer to the time wherein it was delivered Other parables of the King and the Bridegroom referr'd to after times and this here by the seeing Dives bodily in Hell and the scorching of the tongue and the mention of dipping the finger c must refer to the state of conjunction of souls and bodies in Heaven and Hell and that must be after the Resurrection and so that supersedes that one objection and I foresee no other Secondly I mention Christs words of Judas that it were better for him never to have been born and of him that should offend a tender disciple and avert him from Christ that it were better a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the midst of the Sea Here I shall suppose annihilation as fully express'd by these two phrases as by any it could be and yet that somewhat worse then that expects wicked men which must needs be founded in eternal miserable being for eternal Being if not miserable is much better and miserable Being if not eternal but immediately determin'd by a swift destruction as Christ supposeth is not certainly and unquestionably worse then never having had a Being Thirdly I resume again though I now perceive they are after mention'd the express words of Christ Revel 20.10 that the Beast and the false Prophets i. e. some wicked men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be tormented in a lake of fire and brimestone day and night for ever and ever Nothing could have been more expresse And to these I adde that there is no one seeming dissent of contrary testimony producible from the whole Scripture but innumerable that