Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	let_v	world_n	7,505	5	4.6050	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96265	A discovery, and confutation of the opinions, and practises of some false brethren, betwixt Bridge, and Lincolne: shewing how they agree in their opinions, with Pelagians; Papists; Arminians; in their practises, with Anabaptists. Wherein univerall redemption is confuted; and Gods absolute decree confirmed. / By John Wetherall, minister of Spridlington, near Lincolne. March 22. 1651. Imprimatur. John Downame.	Wetherall, John, minister of Spridlington.	1652 (1652)	Wing W1523; Thomason E661_1; ESTC R206761	53,660	88

Inhabitants is such a course as was used at Mulhus in Turingia and at Munster in Westphalia among the Anabaptists it never was among good Christians Indeed Robert le Bruce K. of Scotland admitted of women and boyes to supply the rooms of trained Souldiers in his necessities and though hee thereby got the day yet I hope that wee who fight the battels of the Lord of Hosts shall never be defeated by such a simple policy a rowt of silly Women ignorant Men and a rabble of Girles and Boyes For my own and my good Neighbours sake I must signifie that there are in our Town but 2. constant Hearers of Mr. T. that go to him when he comes to them then he may have 4. or 5. more but not many not one Husband-man that I know of will goe out of doores to heare him I thinke desires not hee should come into their doores except one who is almost deafe and blinde and came scarce this halfe yeer to hear me but the woman was first in the transgression how can it be but there must needs follow a fearefull falling away when men or women love the company the discourse the writings of the grossest Sectaries of all sorts and loath the truth And for these 2. that are his constant Hearers there is no mischiefe would bee thought on with us were it not for them their excuse when they say or doe what they may suffer for is that they were drunke One of them would have hired a Neighbour to fall out with me hee offered him money at severall times but the honest man hated such an horrible wickednesse and told mee how hee tempted him They have sworne both of them even to the taking away of life I say not forsworn Like Salamanders they delight to live in the fire if any Brangle bee with us or about us O brave They are like those fishes that love troubled waters like Flies they sit either on sore places or are padling in dung and Baalzebub is the God of these Flies They say Hyppocrates left a Rule to all his Fellow Physitians which he commanded them to observe on paine of his Curse it was this That they should Cure others with Medicines Simple and Compound themselves with Sack and Claret But these Men if I may call them Men use the same Physicke themselves that they prescribe to others yet if they do goe to Hel as Roboald K. of West-Frysons said they may find some of their friends if the Divell dare let them come thither there 's the doubt left they trouble him as much as they doe us I and mine are bound to blesse God that the elder Brother could not tell how to be so wicked as the yonger would have had him for hee is plenus rimarum full of holes as a Riddle and can hold nothing any body or a cup of Ale may set open the Stable doore and let out the Asse within And which is strange yet true Lions and Beares are won with kindnesses but these men are worse then Beasts Doe them a courtesie and you dare not but doe it then who dare meddle with them as if they could set the Divell as they doe their Dogs on any thing They say Amphions Musick made the stones to dance and drew them after him savadge men they meant sure that were before sencelesse as stones they tell us that the Dolphins saved Arions life because he playd and sung so sweetly the Pythagoreans undertooke to cure the Melancholy nay the Mad mans fury by Musicke When the evill Spirit from God was upon Saul David took a Harp and playd with his hands so Saul was refreshed and was well and the evill Spirit departed from him 1. Sam. 16. 23. I have often heard out of many a Ministers mouth such sweet Melody as past Arions and Amphions skill beyond compare put down the Pythagoreans Pipes it must bee short of that sweet Singers tongue t is true not of his Harp and Hand though they warbled never so well and yet the Divell doth not depart from Saul he is as ill as ever Wee pipe but they will not dance I had rather undertake to charme a hungry Lions mouth to winne a Tyger or to meet a wild shee Beare and make her tame then to mollifie or make a change in these mens manners never men tooke more paines to be vertuous then they doe to bee vitious no Aesculapius can cure their ill Conditions But suppose they doe that which I trust in God the Devill by their meanes shall never bee able to doe yet as Epaminondas said of his two Daughters the Battails of Mantinea and Leuctra so may I say too this Daughter of mine is like to out-live their cruelties and vindicate her Fathers credit against the Opinions and the Practises of such shamelesse Sectaries Having obtained helpe of God I continue to this day as Paul said in such a Case Acts 26. 22. though they are and have beene very Jewes unto mee and come what can come it shall be welcome if I cannot be secured from the troubles of men on Earth yet I know nothing can hurt mee that comes from God in Heaven Now let Mr. T. tell mee truly if such Phaetons as set the world on fire be fit Companions for Ministers if yet he be a Minister which who beleeves Birds of one feather will flie together but I cannot hear that ever he used the Company of any Minister nay hath he not doth he not abdicare se ab Officio put off the Office as they doe that renounce their Baptisme by joyning in the right hand of fellowship and admitting equally men of any Trade or Occupation to Preach or Teach with him in publick though they be no Ministers Besides Bishops and Presbyters are an abomination to him and as for the People they cannot make a Minister ●il dat quod non habet no Cause can give to the Effect that which it hath not first in it selfe and hee ought not to take that Office to himselfe it is against Heb. 5. 4. Therefore I doe not deny but I doubt hee is no Minister Let him remember that may be lawfull in Ecclesia constituenda which is not lawfull in Ecclesia constituta that may bee lawfull in the planting or gathering of a Church which is unlawfull afterward However it be his practise is against the 23. Article the words of that Article are these It is not lawfull for any man to take upon him the Office of publicke Preaching or Ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And these we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by men who have publick Authority given un-unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lords Vineyard I doe not instance in this Article otherwise then as it agrees with the practise of all Protestant Churches in Europe and it may be proved out of the

his Manuell to Laur cap 103. saith thus God would have all to bee saved not because there was no man which he would have damned who therefore would not do miracles among them which would so he saith have repented if he had done miracles but by all men we must understand all sorts of men howsoever distinguished whether Kings private persons c. These two to be willing to save a man and that he should come to the saving knowledge of the Truth are inseperably united together 1. Tim. 2. 4. but the second we see doth not agree to all and every singular person therefore the first cannot But here a question may bee asked did God then appoint all to bee saved upon this Condition if they believe I answer that it is absurd to affirme this for first by that meanes the Decree of God should depend upon the Will of man whereas on the contrary Gods Decree doth limit and order all inferior Causes secondly it quite taketh away the certainty of Gods Decree because a Conditionall Proposition doth set down nothing as being or it doth not certainly affirme any thing and wee are elected to Faith not for Faith I told you before They object againe it is their usuall Argument If Adams sinne destroyed all and Christs merit doth not save all then is Adams sinne more forcible to condemne then Christs mercy is to save To this I answer we must value the mercy of Christ by the efficacy and dignity of it for it was a more easie thing to destroy all by sin then by Grace to save but one man being but meere man could destroy all but to save even one none could do it but such an one as was both God and Man one man damned all or brought them into the state of damnation but all men cannot save one But they object that God is cruel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Mr. T. I wonder how he did to write the word hee goes further God is an Abaddon for he useth as ill language against God Almighty as against me if he ordain any or the most of men to damnation To this I answer that he chargeth me and the Reformed Churches falsly We say sinne damnes God damnes not but for sinne and yet I know our Thomsonists are not able to answer that of Paul Rom. 9. 21. where he sayth the Potter makes of the same clay some vessels to dishonour nor to that Prov. 16. 4. The Lord made even the wicked for the day of evill nor to that of Jude 4. Tbere are certaine men crept in unawares who were before of old Ordained unto this Condemnation Let them looke into Exo. 33. 19. Jer. 18. 6. Isa 45. 9. 10. if God may not take leave to do what he list This indeed we do say that God in his ●ternall Decree did passe by some with a purpose not to shew mercy on such which purpose causeth no necessi●y of damnation but by the sinne of man comming betweene Secondly We say God could have Decreed that even All men should have been utterly rejected and yet he should have been neither cruell nor unjust he adjudged all and every one of those foule and wicked spirits which fell from him to eternall torments was he cruell in that he Decreed that men should live by the slaughter of Beasts is he cruell in that God is no more bounden unto man then unto bruit Beasts But they object that Christ tooke upon him the nature of man therefore he redeemed the nature of man and so by consequence every man that pertakes of humane nature To this I answer that it followeth not except we say that Christ Redeemed himselfe he also did partake of humane nature but they dare not say that Christ redeemed himselfe every woman doth partake the nature of every man yet is not every man each womans husband but hers alone to whom he is joyned in Matrimony and Christ also tooke upon him mans nature common to all Adams Posterity yet is he the husband of his Church alone be gave himselfe for it Ephes 5. 25. that he might sanctifie and cleanse it v. 26. that he might present it a glorious Church v. 27. and so the Church became flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone v. 30. Therefore the Church alone can justly challenge a title in and to the death of Christ But they object againe that in many Places Christ is sayd to redeeme the World as 1. John 2. 2. Mr. T. chargeth with this Argument almost as violently as the Duke of Byron did his Enemies of whom they report that the bloud burst out of his lips at every Charge For Defence of our selves therefore wee say thus This word World signifies 1. The frame of Heaven and Earth 2. All both good and bad together 3. The company of Unbeleevers and haters of Christ 4. The congregation of the Elect dispersed over the face of the whole World and to be gathered out of the World In this fourth signification wee must understand that Place of John and the like places thus the Church is oft called by the name of the World as 2. Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World that World it followes to whom their sinnes are not imputed In John 6. 3. Christ is called the bread of life that came downe from heaven and gave life to the World there is both Impetration and Application he gave spirituall life which can be meant of none but the Elect alone who are there called the World the same St. John expounds himselfe what he meant by the World John 10. 27. 28. My Sheepe heare my voyce and I give them eternall life they onely therefore are that enlivened World I know they object against us that of Paul God is the Saviour of all men especially of them that believe 1. Tim. 4. 10. But the proper meaning of that place is God preserves provides for and is good to all especially to them that believe he makes his Sun to shine upon all and sends them Raine and Showres Therefore they compare God to a Master of a Family who is good to all his servants yea to his Cattle the very Hogs and Dogs he keepes but to his Wife and Children he is very good Beza translates the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place not Salvator but Conservator and Aretius in his Comment upon the same Verse saith Deus omnium maximè Fidelium Benefactor God is a Benefactor of to all but especially to the Elect The most and best Interpreters make this the meaning of the words Earthly blessings he poures out to every one but we no where read that God Voluntate beneplaciti by his absolute Will would have every particular man to be saved That place 2. Pet. 2 1. Where Reprobates are sayd to be redeemed by Christ is meant of such as live in the Visible Church who are sayd to be redeemed both in their owne Judgements and in the Churches Judgement of

Charity and thus the Ministers may and doe apply Christs death and Redemption to All. There are many Objections of lesser Consequence but why should I teach my Adversaries who are as wilfull as they would be wicked the greatest comfort I have is that if I cannot convert them which I hope yet a vessell can hold no more then it is able to contain I conclude this Poynt therefore with that of Aquinas Christs merit according to the sufficiency thereof carrieth it self indifferently to all but not according to the Efficacy which comes to passe partly by Gods Election through which the effect of Christs merits is mercifully bestowed on some and partly by the just Judgements of Gods withholding his Grace from other some Now to fortifie rivet all this Building by yet more impregnable Reasons I will prove it no cruelty in God to doe with his Creature what he pleaseth that God may elect or reject whom he list and that there is no other cause of Gods Decree of Election but his owne Will The fancies of our Universalists I will confute by these Theses following I assert therefore That Predestination is an eternall Decree of God in time causing effectuall Grace in all those whom he hath chosen and by this effectuall Grace bringing them infallibly to Glory Now this Election or Dilection of some supposeth a passing by of others and a leaving them to their owne selves the cause of both is nothing else but the Will of God The Parts of this Decree are two Election and Reprobation the first Gods absolute Decree of preparing that Grace for some which will preserve them the second Gods absolute Decree of not preparing for others that Grace which would preserve them Now these Decrees are not founded upon any different foreseene Acts of men but upon the alone Will of God which is the most absolute supreame and soveraigne Cause of all things that are having nothing either above it selfe or out of it selfe to be any impulsive Cause to move or incline it Indeed mens Wils are moved and disposed by externall Causes out of themselves because they are to be ruled by Equity and Reason and a mans bare Will without a Reason is nothing but Gods Will is not ruled by another Will or Rule of Reason or Justice but it selfe is an absolute Rule both of Justice and Reason A thing is not first of all reasonable and just and afterward willed by God but it is first of all willed by God and thereupon it becomes reasonable and just Volitiones purè conditionales sunt alienae a sapientia divina Decrees meerly Conditionall agree not with the perfection of the Divine Nature such Volitions or Decrees are for us who have neither Knowledge whether the condition will be performed nor power to worke the condition upon which the future Act of our Will was suspended But in God who knoweth what every man will or will not do and hath power to make men do the good he will these Conditionall Decrees are not purely but mixtly Conditionall that is grounded on some absolute revealed Decree of God to the performance whereof he hath tied himselfe And we ought to observe that Reprobation and Damnation differ exceedingly much Reprobation is a bare passing by Damnation a punishment Ineptè faciunt qui Reprobationis decretum cum Damnatione confundunt cum hujus causa manifestà sit nempe peccatum illius vero sola Dei Voluntas Beza They are very simple that seen ot the difference twixt Reprobation and Damnation Gods Will is Cause of the first sinne of the last Peccatum non est Causa Rejectionis sed est Causa Damnationis Zanchy sinne is not the Cause of Reprobation but of Damnation Reprobation is not a deniall of sufficient Grace but a deniall of such speciall Grace as God knoweth would infallibly bring men to Glory and this Decree doth not shut up any man under a necessity of sinning or of being damned but it permitteth men volun●arily and freely to run into damnable sinnes and through their voluntary impenitency to incurre eternall damnation for the Sentence of Damnation lays not hold on men quà non electi sed quà impii not as non-elect but as wicked It is contrary to Gods nature causelesly and cruelly to destroy his creatures but it is not contrary to his nature to decree out of his mercy to bestow Grace and Mercy on some and to Decree out of the liberty of his Will to permit others through their owne voluntary default by abusing the meanes of Grace that is given them to fall into eternal misery he hath mercy on whom he will Exo. 33. 19. If man had been created Wicked or Evill then God had not had just occasion to punish the wickednesse whereof he himselfe was the Authour and Maker but being created good and having given him power to stand hee may justly punish him if he fall From this Decree of Preterition or Reprobation it well followeth Judas is reprobated therefore he will not use the meanes that God offereth for his salvation but it is not a good Consequence to say therefore God hath not given him sufficient meanes or remedies to escape damnation were not his owne wicked Will the onely hinderance These two Propositions may stand together I will that if Judas repent and believe he shall have remission and salvation I will not give unto Judas the gift of Repentance or Faith that he may attaine salvation As it is sencelesse to say Gods Decree of giving Faith to Peter was suspended till Peters Faith and Repentance so it is as sencelesse to say Gods permitting Judas to dye in Unbeliefe and Impenitency was grounded upon his Unbeliefe and Impenitency It 's true the Fathers were sparing in this Poynt till that Monster Pelagianisme was Midwifed into the World and yet Deus in negotio Predestinationis non egreditur extra se and the Cause of Predestination is sola Dei Voluntas so sayd all the Fathers and so say the best Reformed Churches for I say the Lutherans are yet defective in their Omnipresence and fore-seene Faith then how can there be any consideration of fore-seene Faith and Workes God goes out of himselfe if he have regard to Faith Perseverance or any thing that is not intrà se is it not non-sence to say the Decree of Predestination is intrà se if God have respect to any thing extra se And if any object that God doth nothing therefore not Reprobate without a Reason I say his Will is Reason sufficient doe we say and pray thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven and yet deny it in Predestination the Psalmist doth prove it true in despite of proud man Our God hath done whatsoever pleased him in Heaven and Earth Psal 135. 6. He did worke and he doth worke all things after the Councell of his owne Will Ephes 1. 5. Rom. 9. 19. Suppose that I with others come for entertainment to such a Gentlemans

lie in my right hand Isa 44. 20. They are blinde and which is worse they will not see foolish Prophets that follow their owne spirit Ezek. 13. 3. What pitty is it that this Viper should creep continually upon the body of our Church and yet the hand of Authority I hope for want of information hath not shaken it into the fire Usque quò Domine Usque quò how long Lord how long all those things are come upon us and yet there is none that knowes how long Psal 74. 9. 10. It is our parts to pray thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven but even the Lord for Christs sake when it is his blessed Will deliver this Church from the effects of blinde zeale and over-bold devotion And thus I have set downe some of the Opinions of the Brethren in the Gospel about us all their Opinions it is impossible to relate they cannot tell their own Tenets they hold any thing but the Truth A certain Mathematician in reading a Lecture to his Scholars was quite out so hee asked them if they understood him no replied they Indeed I wonder not said he nam Ego meipsum non intelligo for I understand not my selfe the Brethren are as much out as this Mathematitian and may say on the same maner A Neighbour not a fortnight since discoursing with Mr. T. told him he ought not to take the Scriptures alwaies in a literall sence for Christ said he was a Door a Vine vet he was neither of both in a literall sence he called the Bread his Body yet it was not literally his Body Mr. T. made answer that our Saviour Christ when he said so clapt his hand on his Body and said Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body but hee meant it not of the Bread They say Affrica semper aliquid apportat novi and Anglia abounds as much with Monstrous Opinions as Affrica with Monsters and the Fruits of these evill Trees are as bad as those that grow upon the banks of the Dead Sea A Stranger can scarce ride twixt Bridge and Lincolne but he may heare or see the Country all set on fire our parts of Lynsey vomit out flames as fast as Vesuvius the Father against the Son and the Son against the Father the Husband against his Wife and the Wife against her Husband the Brother would betray the Brother to death Friends and Neighbours are even ready to eat one another Warres and Warlike Opinions as if the Times that Christ foretold had overtaken us At first The Netherlands received the infection of this pestilent Doctrine from Britaine by Pelagius and now at last Britaine hath received the same infection from the Netherlands by Arminius The Peach-tree brought out of Asia and planted in Italy of ranke poyson became pleasant fruit but the Papists and Arminian Opinions brought out of Italy and Germany and planted upon our Heaths among us mad Hylanders have a quite contrary effect for the practises of the Brethren passe and repasse Papists and Arminians all but Anabaptists in a super-superlative degree Nero set Rome on fire that he might sing the Destruction of Troy in suo genere in kind or in its proper colours he that hath a minde to sing Lachrymae in a sympathizing tune may see a sad example with us Let a man but looke into the Townes all about Mr. T. and he may see or heare them brawle and brangle so soone as they arise and so they continue till they go to bed such Divisions and Sub-divisions as cannot but make our Enemies to laugh and ous Friends to weepe The Church of God is now in two Extreames a floud and a fire in a floud of teares and yet on fire in her different affections alas that neither this floud can quench that fire nor any fire can dry this floud The Divisions of Simeon the Divisions of Levi the Divisions of Simeon against Levi and the divisions of Levi among themselves who is able to behold with dry a man cannot thinke of as hee ought without without wet eyes The Divisions of Reuben doe pierce the very soule of the Mother that bore him and there is none of all the Children that shee hath brought forth able to comfort their Mother that is even sick at heart and sits by the high way side begging helpe of every one that passeth by Come hither Heraclytus stay Travailer and weep with us If any man would tell wonders in his own let him come first into our Country and there he may see that which no good Christian can desire or delight to see I have read of one who being borne blind he had his sight given him by his Prayers to God but then hee saw so many wickednesses that hee desired of God to be blind againe and if the story tell truth it was granted Was it then such an Age as God hath reserved us to live in Our Mother is sore sicke of a Convulsion pulld all to peeces on a pitifull maner like an Oake that is cleft in sunder with Wedges made out of its own body Plutarch reports of a beautifull Damosell whom a company of yong men contended for to be their Bride they would all of them have had her but they could not agree that any one of the should enjoy her therfore they cut her all to peeces and tooke each one a part so then they all of them had her and yet they none of them had her Religion is that beautifull Damosell whom Papists Antinomians Anabaptists Arminians Universalists and other Schismatiks say they strive for but the truth is they cut poore Religion all to pieces and each one of them have a part but none of them have pure Religion If any man had lost his Religion he might once have found it in Poland afterward in Amsterdam but now in England or else it is vanished out of the world Medaea cut her childe in pieces a cruell Mother but that Children should cut their Mother in pieces Ah cursed Children Woe is me that ever I bore you may may our Mother the Church say to such churlish Children as the Prophet Jer. of his Mother Jer. 15. 10. Surely bloudy Children have you been unto me may the Church say unto such as Zipporah to her Husband when she threw the Childes foreskin at his feet Exod. 4. 23. Call me not NAOMI that is a beautifull Church but call mee MARAH may our Mother say for the Lord hath dealt bitterly with me Ruth 1. 20. Richard the first K. of England being in his Fathers life time a disobedient Child comming to meet his Fathers dead body Royally adorned for the Buriall according to the Majesty of his State the very Corpse as it were abhorring and accusing him for his unnaturall cruelties gushed forth bloud whereat Richard pierced with remorse melted into a floud of tears on a most penitent manner But we may see the wounds of our Mother the Church as wide as in the Warres