Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	eternal_a	life_n	work_n	4,896	5	5.7141	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75849	Satans stratagems, or The Devils cabinet-councel discovered whereby he endevors [sic] to hinder the knowledg of the truth ... wherein is laid open an easie way to end controversies in matters of conscience ... together with arguments to each book ... / by Jacobus Acontius ... ; as also the testimonies of some ancient divines, together with an epistle written by Mr John Goodwin ; and Mr. Duries letter touching the same.	Aconcio, Iacopo, d. 1566.; Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.; Dury, John, 1596-1680.	1648 (1648)	Wing A443A; ESTC R42404	127,449	159

affirm things contrary to prop●sitions so evident and certain as it is impossible any man sh●uld not understand them to be true to wit those maximes out of which the said things are demonstrated But therefore it is that those maximes to some men are evident and firm who wil not believe such things as follow from them by necessary cons●quence because they are not aware of that streight tie and fi●m connexion which is between the said maximes and such things as follow therefrom otherwise since no man is ignorant of the truth of those principles from whence the Demonstrations are raised every body would know the truth of such things as might be demonstrated and so we should have all men Geometricians Arithmeticians all men Musitians and Astrologers And because it may fall out that what follows from some other thing may not be discerned by some man to follow the same and he may therefore believe the former and not the latter doubtless it is no proof that because a man denyes a necessary Consequence he must therefore deny the Antecedent being a point which ought of necessity to be known especially if he shal be so strongly perswaded of the truth of the Antecedent that rather then he wil deny the same he wil allow of the Cons●quent for Truth But in case he would rather deny the Antecedent then allow of the Consequent the case is d●fferent So to do were at least not fi●mly to believe the Antecedent It is manif●st therefore that such Testimonies of Scripture as prove a point ought necessarily to be known do not prove that such things as necessarily follow are of like necessi●y to be known This part of our discourse is subtile and acute requiring that the reader give great heed to the end he may understand the same howbeit it is very necessary to be known for the taking away of rash judgments by means whereof the Church is torn in pieces into Sects These things being thus cleared we are in the next place to enquire what those points be which are propounded unto us in the Scripture as so necessary to be known and believed that he which shal not know and throughly understand them ought not to be accounted one of Gods servants or a member of his Church and whosoever shal believe them all may be judged capable of Salvation though he very much err in all other points Concerning which question I would much rather hear the judgments of other men then propound mine own to the rash and haply irreligious censures of many howbeit the hope of procuring the Tranquillity and peace of the Churches of Christ hath more prevailed with me then any private respect of mine own We do not prescribe any thing to any man as a decree from which he may not dissent but look what the Lord hath vouchsafed to discover unto us we thought good in such wise to propound as to be ready with a very good wil to give credit and place to him that shal propound matters of greater certainty Our endeavour truly is not by all means possible to obtrude our own judgment upon men and to make that it may be of authority but rather that Truth it self may be brought to Light For look as it often comes to pass that a musician that could not be intreated by any means to play a lesson if some unskilful person shal be his untoward fingering of some in-it-self excellent instrument grate and vex his ears with his rude scraping wil take the instruments in hand and begin to play even so our hope is that in case we shal seem to have said little to the purpose in a matter which without all Controversie is of the greatest moment that can be we shal at the least provoke some man of greater spirit and wisdom to accomplish with good success what we had unhappily undertaken In the mean time we do again again beseech all pious and good men that what ever they shal think of our judgment here delivered they wil notwithstanding take in good part our care to preserve peace and concord and that not of any kind but such as may become Christians and that they wil joyn with me by fervent prayers to beg of him who is the only Author as of all other good things so likewise of peace that he would at the length bestow the same upon his Churches to the praise and glory of his own name Let us weigh then and examine such places of Scripture wherein Salvation is either promised or denyed because of believing or not believing Our Lord says Be ye sure of this he that hears my words John 5. and believes in him that sent me he shal enjoy eternal life and shal not come into Judgment but is passed from death to life Again John 6. This is the wil of him that sent me that whosoever hath seen the son and hath believed on him shal obtain eternal life And again Go ye through the whole world preaching the Gospel unto all be that shal believe and be baptized shal he saved he that believes not shal be condemned Which places and their like it may be questioned how they ought to be understood For some man wil a k what it is to believe in the Son of God or his Apostles for even he doubtless believes who is perswaded that the person speaking ought to be credited as one that speaks only the Truth although he unde●stand not what it is he says In which sense there is no Christian not one but so far believes the word of God as not to doub● but whatsoever is conteined therein is true there is not in the mean time one perhaps there never was who understands the true sence of every place Much more may that man be said to believe who being pe●swaded of the Truth of the speaker doth likewise understand that which he speaks Now I conceive it is out of Controversie that every man ought to hold for Truth whatsoever the Son of God hath taugh● either by himself or by his Apostles For these things cannot stand together that any man should believe that Jesus is the Sonn of God and nor p●rswade himself that what ever he says is true and that he is adorned with all kinds of vertue But whether or no it be likewise necessary to Salvation to know what ever our Lord commanded as wel in person as by his Apostles and rightly to understand the same so as to imbrace the same not only with a confused that is to say a general but with a distinct and particular faith this is that which may be questioned Now it is altogether necessary that either whatsoever things are set down in Scripture are all necessary to be known so that a man may not be ignorant of or mis-understand any of them under pain of damnation or that such things are of a different nature so that some of them are altogether necessary to be known and highly to be accounted

Adversary and what not thou must be very wel acquainted with what he says and thinks as also beside the Controversie in hand what other opinions he holds what those things be whereof he is most certainly perswaded and what his judgmnet is Now there is nothing so usual in disputes as for to cavil at one anothers words and to collect absurdities Whence for the most part it comes to pass that opposition is made no so much against what is affirmed but against what thou by a false interpretation hast feigned to thy self Which kind of practise whereunto can it tend but as we have said to provoke thine adversary to choler to confirm his confidence and peremptoryness and to open to thy self a window whereout to cast a thousand follies not a jot to the matter in hand Thus to do is to imitate unskilful physitians who little examine the nature of the disease appoint remydies nothing to the purpose and in stead of curing kil their Patients Yet some men are exceedingly conceited of themselves if mis-interpreting their adversaries words they can infer some great absurdity therefrom Howbeit this custom ought to be left to vain Sophisters In matters of this nature of such weight and concernment let it not be thy aime that thou mayst seem to have confuted the error by hook or by crook on any fashion but let thy endeavour be to confute it indeed and in truth so as thine adversary may not have a word to say for himself which thou shalt never accomplish unless thou give diligent heed rightly to understand thine opposites words And if so be he seem to utter somewhat that is very absurd thou oughtest to be the more fearful least thou mis-understand him and rather to desire him to explain his meaning then to fall upon the bones of the absurdity when thou art not yet certain that it is thine adversaries meaning And when the controversie is managed face to face herein commonly is the grand miscarriage that a man perswades himself he can at the first word divine what his adversary would say before he hear him out and would be presently at the Answer whence it comes to pass that clamours are raised choler is moved and all the labour is lost Away then with this rash forecasting and let us stay til our time come to Answer Others when they have produced an Argument wil needs triumph before the Victory not able to stay til the other reply Because they can see no way to avoid the dint of their Argument they think surely no body else can Out upon such lightness we cannot every man know all things For supposing thou knowest more then I in all other matters what wonder is it if I haply know more then thou in this one point What shalt thou get by this thine eagerness saving to lay naked like a fool thine own Arrogance Insolence and crabbed condition If in worldly matters Experience hath taught this proverbial Lesson Et quandoquè bonus dormitat Homerus Ev'n honest Homer's sometimes napping took And this Saepe etiam est stultus valdè oportuna locutus A fool oft times to purpose speaks what shal we think in matters divine of which the truth it self thus speaks That it hath pleased his heavenly father to hide his secrets from the wise and to reveal them to babes and sucking Children Now we find by experience that if thine adversary observe that thou understandest his meaning what he holds and by what reasons he is induced so to think and shal see thee notwithstanding ready to contradict and oppose him it wil be almost impossible but he wil abate much of his confidence He was formerly perswaded that in case his fancies were rightly understood every one would assent unto them but now when he sees him that understands them refusing to give his assent he cannot chuse but wonder Which what else is it but to make some kind of doubt least his Tenets be not so sound as they ought to be Hereupon likewise he is inflamed with a desire to know what it is thou hast to object which desire hath made him fit to understand thee and being come so far the business is wel-near accomplished My judgment therefore is in overthrowing an Error that the chief labour ought to be rightly to understand what is affirmed according to the meaning of him that spake the words not how thou by a crafty cavill mayst interpret the speech yea rather if any violence should be offered to the words I would much rather they should be drawn to serve the purpose of the speaker then to any other intent Among other faults committed by mis-understanding our adversaries words this is a frequent one when we thus reason with our selves if it were as that man affirms this and that would thereof follow and then look what inferences we make in our own understandings we attribute them unto our Adversaries and waste away the time in confuting such things as they peradventure never once so much as thought of whereby we do both provoke them and render our selves ridiculous which the better to understand this example may be of use Because the Papists say that sins committed after baptism must either be expiated with good works by us wrought or after death by the fire of Purgatory if we shal thus infer If it be necessary that any sins be expiated either by our doings or sufferings then Christ hath not taken them away and then he hath not performed what he came into the world for viz. to abolish the works of the Divel and therefore shal say that the Papists deny that Christ did that he came into the world to do we shal so far say true inasmuch as they do in some sort deny that Christ hath done what he came into the world for because it follows from what they hold yet shal not our saying be punctually true inasmuch as they do not expresly say so and it may be think not so neither So that if we shal proceed with many words to blame them for such collections as if they were their positions they wil say that we are mad What shal we do then in this Case Report what they say without addition diminution or alteration And if so be absurdities shal follow from their words they are to be collected only to this end that it may appear that what they hold is false Such ingenuity is amiable what ever thing be controverted as for the Disciples of Christ reasoning about matters Divine no ornament in the world can more become them Furthermore Desire of Conquest ought to be banished from all Christian disputes let all thy care be that truth may overcome neither let it concern thee whether she be discovered by thee or some other man perswade thy self that thy reputation shal be sufficiently provided for in case God may have that honour which is due to him which is much advanced when Truth is rescued and vindicated from Imposture Wherefore