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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	day_n	heaven_n	lord_n	22,364	5	4.1952	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45355	Deus justificatus, or, The divine goodness vindicated and cleared against the assertors of absolute and inconditionate reprobation together with some reflections on a late discourse of Mr. Parkers, concerning the divine dominion and goodness.	Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?; Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1668 (1668)	Wing H460; ESTC R25403	132,698	316

had an eye to when in Artic. xvi they express themselves thus After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from the grace given to us and fall into sin and this is the dictate of Reason for Habits as they are acquired by assiduous and repeated acts so they may likewise be lost by inobservance and negligence according to that of the Poet Neglectis urenda filex innascitur agris For the soul of man being a perpetual motion and activity will be alwayes catching at something and if once it cool and flag in the wayes of Righteousness will undoubtedly be wrought off and spend it's strength and powers in the service of that other principle which being not wholly mortified will certainly revive and confirm it's hold when the Counsels and Inspirations of the Divine life are in any measure rejected and it left free to regain the Dominion from whence it was most justly by the powerful and efficacious influence of Gods grace detruded And he that shall further consider that long and confirmed degeneracy the soul lay under before a new and Divine principle began to act in it and how agreeable the objects and impressions of sense are to be our present state and how eligible by us will perceive that the Nature of Man may oft be overcome and the Divine life driven from it's rightful throne till by a sharp and persevering contention it be throughly settled and radicated in a quiet peace and tranquillity by putting all it's enemies under it's feet But for a more clear inspection into this Doctrine of Perseverance we must recurr to what was said above Chap. V. concerning the Liberty of Mans Will and consider all true and sincere Believers under a threefold state for the Divine life arises gradually and increases in due measures and proportions till it arrive to a full and compleat perfection and invest the soul of man with immortality and glory 1. The Scripture speaks of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infants and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 New-born babes who are fed with the Milk of the Word with the plain Doctrines and Principles of Christianity their Criterion being not yet purged enough to have a true sense and rellish of stronger meat and the more sublime and Mysterious part of Christianity And these are those Lambs which the Lord Christ the great Shepherd when he was leaving the World so affectionately bequeathed to the care and conduct of St. Peter redoubling his request in those passionate terms Feed my Lambs And this is the sense of that Mystical Prophecy denoting the compassionate care of Christ Gathering the Lambs with his arme and carrying them in his bosom and gently leading those that are with young who are pregnant with the Divine form and Image of the Holy Jesus From this infant-state of Grace the descent is easie by reason of the strength and powerfulness of the adverse principle which hath taken so firm and deep a radication and watches all opportunities to propagate and dispread it's infectious Nature that the man is perpetually within the confines of danger till by strong and continued habits of Virtue he have totally mortified and extirpated every lust passion and inordinate desire which hinders and obstructs his passage to that quiet and serene state where all things are plain easie and delightsome Hence is that admonition of St. Paul to Timothy 1 Epist c. iii. v. 6. that he suffer not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Novice one newly converted and brought into the faith of Christ to take upon him the office of a Bishop because that state of Grace is subject to infinite hazards and dangers by reason of the potenr opposition of the contrary life and the prevalency of the Corporeal Nature which till it be perfectly subdued will alwayes breath a fuliginous steam and more or less obnubilate Reason the eye and guide of the soul 2. There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young men which have overcome the wicked one and which have in a great measure brought low and weakned the power of the unrighteous Nature such who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect men and through a faithful and constant exercise and uninterrupted habit of Holiness have a true discriminating sense of good and evil and have purified and sublimated their intellectual powers by an assiduous mortification and eradication of every perverse desire and motion of the inferior life To these well-grown Christians true Religion displayes it self and appears in it's native beauty and excellency and they embrace it with delight and joy and looking beyond the Horizon of time and change behold nothing but a bright and never-ceasing day and this fills them with a peaceful consolation that the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will not fail to crown his own life witn that glory and felicity which he himself partakes of in the highest heavens But though this state be so glorious and lovely yet it is not wholly out of the reach of danger but needs often admonitions and great diligence accompanied with frequent acts of Devotion which may fan and kindle the heavenly fire lest the dying and perishing principle of the contrary life revive and get the upper hand This degree of grace although it be able to overcome many and great difficulties and defeat the latent stratagems of powerful enemies yet it is sometimes though not so easily or frequently as the former captivated by the undiscerned force of Pride or Hypocrisie or some other refined sin For it may so happen that a good man who cannot be drawn to the commission or acting of a gross impiety by any temptations in the world yet may fall through the prevalency of an intellectual Vice and court the shadow and fantastick image of sin and yet never descend into the brutish and ferine life of action 3. There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fathers who are arrived to the highest perfection the nature of Man is capable of in this life and these a Plantonist would call Heroically Good although this Divine frame and God-like temper be infinitely more precious and transcendent then the highest reach and comprehension of pure Platonisme and not attainable by the exercise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Paradigmatical Virtues which wholly extirpated the first motions of sin and did in their sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deifie a man and transform them into Intellect and place him out of the noise and perturbations of the inferior life in a quiet and serene contemplation of the first and ever-blessed Author of all things Here the whole will and desires are so farr conformable and resigned to the Will of God as the ordinary course of things and the earthly state will permit and the Man is perfectly dead to himself and to every rellish of bodily motions and the life of God triumphantly seated in the mind from whence it rules and governs every thought word and action with unspeakable ease and pleasure and replenishes the soul with a

of his Blessed Son as the fairest copy of Holiness Justice Compassion and Self-resignation that ever was yet discovered to the World For should we compare him with the greatest lights that ever shone upon the Gentile parts of the Earth they would appear as foils and shadows to set off his glorious lustre and Divine splendor as hath already been made good by a Reverend and profoundly Learned Person There is none can hold any equality with the Lord Christ not Moses himself the Divine Lawgiver of the Jews who indeed was faithful in all his house Heb. ch iii. as a Servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after But Christ is a Son over his own house being the Heir of all things and therefore is counted worthy of more glory than Moses And though we read that Moses was meek above all that dwelt upon the Earth yet when he was to fetch water out of the Rock for the murmuring Israelites his spirit was so farr provoked that he spake unadvisely with his lips and after forty years troubles and vexations in the Wilderness he brought not his people into the land of Canaan but dyed after he had taken a prospect of the Promised Inheritance which he must not go to possess But on the contrary the Lord Christ whose lips were full of Grace and Truth and in whose mouth never was any guile found not only promised a spiritual Canaan a Land of immortal peace and rest but went also himself and took possession of it and signified the same to the world by sending down his holy Spirit upon his Church All the time that he dwelt upon Earth and conversed with Men he was full of the Spirit of Love Tenderheartedness and Compassion perpetually going about doing good binding up the broken-hearted gathering the Lambs in his arm and carrying them in his bosom and gently leading those that are with young healing all their infirmities curing their diseases and easing them of their painful sorrows He that was purer then the Sun and whiter then the Robes of Angels yet was content to veil his Glory and put on the dark and course mantle of our flesh and blood that he might teach us humility and submission to the will of God He whose the Earth was and the fulness thereof would not be born in a Princes Court among the Sons of Nobles but in a Stable at a small Town and among the meanest of his Creatures that he might abate our Pride and Grandeur in ostentation of our selves to the World His life though a perpetual Tragedy encompassed with hardships and afflictions and drawn out into many Scenes of trouble and sorrow yet was alwayes holy and harmless and never stained with the least sin or unwarrantable action His Soul was a pure and spotless Temple eternally consecrated to the Divinity residing in him His Heart the holy Altar upon which no unchast flames ever burnt but the fire of Zeal and Love which was kindled from Heaven and dayly sent up clouds of Incense as a sweet smelling savour thither again His Meekness and Patience were no less conspicuous than those other radiant vertues which rendred him acceptable to God and Man for being reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously and thereby he became glorious in the eyes of God who recompenced his Indignities by giving him a Name above every Name If we look at his outward condition he became poor and needy for our sakes that we through his poverty might be made rich for though we read that Judas bare the bag yet his holy Lord and Master was forced by the expence of a Miracle to pay his Tribute peny to the Roman Governor The Foxes had holes and the Birds of the air nests but the Son of Man had oft no where to lay his Sacred Head but on a pillow of grass and his covering was the bright and spangled Canopy of Heaven and yet we never find him murmuring or disobliging Heavens Care and Providence by a repining spirit thereby teaching us that our happiness lies not in the abundance of earthly Goods but in the Godlike temper and frame of our minds and that having food and rayment we ought therewith to be content When he was entring into the shadow of Death and beginning his bitter Passion with what manly courage did he behave himself and How illustrious did he appear in a patient and magnanimous suffering all those Ignominies and Disgraces that were put upon him beholding through the cloud or shame and reproach the good effects of the travel of his soul and confidently believing that though he sate in Darkness for a while yet his Light should break forth from obscurity more glorious then the Sun when he rejoyces as a strong man to run his race And when his Humanity began to sink and that which was Natural in him cryed for ease and relief from the heavy pressures of that doleful Agony so that he desired if it were possible that that cup might pass from him yet through the life and vigour of the Divine Spirit by which he was acted he resigns over his whole will and desires to the wise disposal and pleasure of his Heavenly Father Not my will but thy will be done Hereby giving us a Sacred Method and Rule whereby to demean our selves when the Divine Providence brings us into Calamities and Afflictions namely to imitate the Holy Jesus and follow his steps Let us now accompany him to his painful bed of sorrows the Cross where his friends forsake him and stand aloof of and his enemies compass him round where his holy ears that used to hear the melodious accents of Angels are grated with the prophane obloquies of disobedient sinners and his eyes which beheld the glories of Heaven and the beauty and lustre of Divinity are now forced to see the instruments of his misery and sorrow yet when his Crucifiers meant him the most evil he breaths forth from a heart which never knew what it was to hate this passionate Prayer for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do This also was written for our instruction that we might love our enemies bless those that hate us and pray for them who despightfully use us and persecute us and by so doing become the children of our Father which is in heaven who maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust But all this would yet have proved weak and ineffectual for the promoting the Divine life in the World if Christ had not visibly ascended into heaven and given us a sensible assurance of a blessed state in the immortal Regions above that he will take up Humane Nature after due purifications and refinements into a participation of that transcendent felicity he is fully possessed of For if men had been left in suspence and uncertainties it

understandings but when our wills are conformable to reason and spontaneously elect that which the Intellect propounds to them as best and in it self most eligible Having thus declared the amplitude and extent of the liberty of mans Will in all it 's respective capacities I shall now manifest and shew how it 's taken away by asserting and maintaining of Inconditionate Decrees which will be no hard matter to evince if we consider that both the Predestination of the Good to life and of the Reprobates to destruction necessarily pervades and casts a fatal influence upon their whole lives I mean that that eternal decree invincibly orders and disposes the actions of men to their respective ends so that he who is preordained to happiness shall certainly and necessarily be good and the other who is destin'd to perdition shall inevitably be wicked and vitious A cast of which Doctrine we have delivered to us by Zanchy in these words De Nat. Dei cap. 2. in Resp ad Sophism Non dubitamus itaque confiteri ex immutabili Reprobatione necessitatem peccandi quidem sine resipiscentia ad mortem usque peccandi eóque aeternas poenas dandi reprobis incumbere that is We doubt not to profess that from the immutable Decree of Reprobation there lies upon Reprobates a necessity of sinning and that without Repentance even unto death and consequently of suffering eternal punishments Ad amicdupl Vorst p. 175. Piscator likewise will aver the same and more if you desire it In summa se tueri fatetur Deum absolutè decrevisse ab aeterno efficaciter ne quispiam hominum plus bont faciat quàm reipsâ facit aut plus mali omittat quàm reipsa omittit that is That he defends this conclusion that God hath efficaciously from all eternity so predetermin'd the will of man to every individual action that none can do any more good than really he doth or omit any more evil then ipso facto he omitteth To these I shall add Szydlovius as the worst of the three Apud Curcellaeum de jure Dei in creaturas innocentes p. 25 26. Fateor ipse ad communem sentiendi consuetadinem crudum nimis hoc videri Deum posse blasphemiam perjurium mendacium c. imperare quod tamen Verissimum est in se c. that is I confess that according to common sense it seems very crude to assert that God can command blasphemy perjury lying c. which yet is most true in it self Now following these Principles it is impossible there should be any such things as Vertue and Vice existing in the World for all our acions whether Good or Evil are the necessary effects of an external principle acting and overruling our wills and we are but the instruments which that invincible Power makes use of for the doing such and such actions and can no more withstand it then the Sun cease to make day and night 1 Cor. iv 5. The Apostle speaks of mens receiving praise of God for their good deeds which reason cannot fathome if their wills are necessarily determin'd ad unum as the Moralists speak and acted by a supernatural and irresistible power No man ever praised the Sun for circling the Earth or the Moon for keeping her course because it is impossible they should do otherwise being destitute of any spontaneous principle and carryed by the violent stream of matter No more can any one praise or dispraise the actions of Mankind when they have no power to do otherwise but are inevitably determin'd to such and no other and can no more resist than the Planets stop their constant gyres in the vast whirlpools of heaven He that merits praise for doing well it is upon this account that he might have done otherwise but when God by a Physical application of his Power determines the soul to act thus and leaves it not any power or ability of resisting all the praise of that action must be due to God himself not to Man who was but the instrument and could not avoid it Nemo peccat in eo quod vitare non potest sayes St. Austin Neither can any action whatever be called a sin in Man because he is not left a free agent but acts fatally and unavoidably and cannot be disobedient to that superior force that inacts his will so that Murder Adultery Oppression contempt of Government and whatever brutish action there is else cannot come under the denomination of crimes but he that commits them may justly plead that he could not avoid them his will being never undetermin'd and it was not possible that his weak soul should hinder the stronger and more powerful bent and resolution of heaven How then can God in justice punish any man for doing that which he could not help and How can that be called a sin which is the effect of a necessary cause The distinction between the act and the pravity of the act the former of which God wills say they and works in us but not the latter will stand them in no stead for in many actions the formality of sin consists in the very act it self as in Murder Adultery and such like Thus the eating of the forbidden fruit was a sin in it self and we cannot distinguish between the act and the vitiosity for the very act was forbidden and the formality of the crime consisted not in Adam or Eve's eating after any undue manner but simply and barely in the very act of eating And so in sins of Omission this distinction likewise fails nor will it free Almighty God from the imputation of being the Author of Iniquity and Vice And it is no wonder to see this unworthy Doctrine take such deep footing in some mens minds when they are so obstinately set and fixed upon it that they will entertain any absurdity rather then free and unprejudice their understandings Yea so hot was this Dispute grown at Geneva that Melanchton in an Epistle to Caspar Peucerus amongst other things relates this Scribit ad me Lelius de Stoico fato usque adeo litem Genevae moveri ut quidam in carcerem conjectus sit propterea quod à Zenone differret O misera tempora Doctrina salutis peregrinis quibusdam disputationibus obscuratur And truly if Men would leave off these dry reasonings and altercations about words and entertain Truth in the love and simplicity of it and as it is in Jesus in that Divine and Meek Spirit it is to be hoped that God would soon put an end to the dayes of unrighteousness of formal and outside profession and the glory of the Lord would cover the Earth as the waters cover the Sea Chap. VI. An Explication of several Citations of Scripture suborned to attest the Doctrine of Inconditionate Decrees together with a brief examination of some Positions of the Contra-Remonstrants I Have now finished the principal and most material Arguments I shall at this time make use of which I have