Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	faith_n	jesus_n	9,847	5	6.2568	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52856	The absolute and peremptory decree of election to eternal glory reprobated in a sermon preached before the university in Great St. Maries Church in Cambridge / by Robert Neville ...	Neville, Robert, 1640 or 1-1694.	1682 (1682)	Wing N518; ESTC R7829	14,617	38

Election to Evangelical Grace or Gods free and undeserved Mercy in Decreeing to bestow Christ upon all as the most Effectual meanes to engage men to Holiness of Life that is by what Christ hath done and suffered for Gentiles as well as Jews to call and bring home sinners of all sorts to Repentance and this farther appears from the ninth and tenth verses of the chapter of my Text where the Mystery of his will according to his own good pleasure which is all one with his choosing us here in the Text is specified to be the gathering of all things both Jews and Gentiles together in Christ and this is the Subject of the second chapter and of a great part of this Epistle Now that these words He hath chosen imply onely an Election to Evangelical Grace and not any Absolute Decree of Election to Eternal Glory I shall further evince and manifest to you by these following reasons and arguments First Because God hath declared in Scripture that those who believe in Christ and persevere in that Faith shall be saved and that such as will not believe in Christ nor persevere in that Faith shall be Damned Which declaration of his is inconsistent with any such Absolute Decree Now the Adequate Objects of the Divine and Peremptory Election to Eternal Glory are All and onely Such who believe in Christ and persevere and dye in that Faith and the Objects of Reprobation are such and onely such who either believe not or persevere not in their Faith John 3.36 He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him and John 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that every one which believeth on the son may have everlasting life And as the objects of the Divine Election are such as believe so are they also such as persevere in that Faith Matth. 24.13 He that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved and the first Epistle of John 2.24 If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue in the son and in the father i. e. you shall continue in the favour of God From which places of Scripture it is clear and eminent that when any mention is made of Gods Will and Decree either of saving or damning any no other Will or Decree of his is meant but onely that whereby he will save Believers and damn all Unbelievers Secondly No Absolute Decree can be inferr'd either from this or any other Text of Scripture because thereby we should destroy the nature of Grace and Virtue which are nothing else but an Habitual Power and ability in the rational Soul of man to bear all sensible pain and loss and forbear all sensible pleasure and profit out of love to Reason and the Divine Law this excellent power and ability of the Soul as far as 't is natural or acquir'd by our own acts and endeavours is of moral Consideration but as it is supernaturally wrought in the Soul or infused into it by the Spirit of God so far it concerns Theology and is above the sphere of morality but because Grace is confest by all to be the perfection of Nature and acquir'd and infus'd virtue are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or inconsistent I have thrust them into one definition in which Divines and Philosophers both agree Now if we were determin'd irresistibly either to Vice or Virtue by any peremptory Decree of the Almightie's this definition of Grace or Virtue would be a vain and useless notion and all the Divines and Philosophers that have been since the Creation would have been great Cheats and Impostors and all the excellent Discourses to incite men to Virtue or deter them from Vice which they have penn'd with such admirable Reason and Rhetoric would be but idle and unprofitable Harangues and as insignificant to the impotent race and nature of men as the practical Rules of Dancing to a Cripple or a Metaphysical Lecture to a natural Fool to which I may also superadd that Virtue and Vice would be dasht together and confounded were our Actions the result of necessity occasioned by any such Decree for as Justin Martyr saith very well (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If it be fatally Decreed that one should be good another bad the one cannot be approved or accepted nor the other blam'd or censur'd Now if any such Absolute Decrce should be supposed to be passed in favour of any we must either Assert that God Decrees to Save them be they never so leud and dissolute which is contrary to the whole Tenour of the Gospel or else that God does irresistibly determine them to the use of such means as must necessarily bring them to heaven which would make men utterly uncapable either of Reward or Punishment for as Clemens Alexandrinus hath truely told us (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither Rewards nor Punishments are just if the Soul hath not a free Power both to embrace and refuse evil Neither is it possible any man should repent of doing what he could not but do or of omitting to do what was never in his power to effect no more than that he cannot fly like a Bird or move like an Angel I must indeed confess that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 but this is so far from taking away our power that 't is brought as a reason by St. Paul why we should work out our Salvation spoken of in the twelfth verse God does indeed work it in us but how By giving us the knowledge of his promises by exciting and strengthening us by his Spirit He works it who supplies us with all sufficient means to work it he does it but not without us not whilst we lye like men asleep or like dead men in their graves God works the Ability to Act but not the Act it self for if he did it would be his Act not Ours much less does he work it forcibly and irresistibly And though by his primitive and natural will he would have all men happy happiness having been the very end of their Creation and though he forbids sin and detests it as contrary to his Essential Goodness yet he may justly permit it and the will of man may have in it self a power for natural and sinful actions it may resist Gods grace it may obstruct its workings and operations it may receive the grace of God in vain and Heb. 10.29 Do despite to the Spirit of Grace and Jude 4. abuse and turn the grace of God into wantonness I shall conclude this particular with those words of St. Cyril of Jerusalem (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Gods part to bestow Grace but it is your parts as ye are men to receive and keep it Thirdly No Absolute Decree of Election can be supposed to be

pleases and make himself either a Saint of Heaven or a Fiend of Hell either an Angel or a Devil God would not limit his happiness he left him power to encrease it to polish and beautifie himself or if he refuse it he gives him liberty to ruin himself according to that of the Prophet Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self Fourthly No Absolute Decree of Election can ever be supposed to have been made by God because Christ died for all which could not be said if there were any such Decree onely to choose some few persons to Eternal Life and exclude all others Now that Christ died for all is clear and evident from 1 Tim. 2.5 6. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for All and as it is in the 4th verse of that chapter will have all men to be saved the force of which words the Contra-Remonstrants endeavour to avoid by telling us that the word All is to be taken there not Pro singulis generum sed pro generibus singulorum not for all of every kind but for some few onely of every sort and nation which distinction of theirs cuts the sinews of the Apostles Exhortation and enervates the strength of his reasoning For these words of his who will have all men to be saved are used by St. Paul as an Argument why Prayers and Supplications are to be made not onely for Kings and all that are in Authority verse 2. but also for All Men verse 1 and that because God will have all men to be Saved Now if these words All Men were to be understood of some few onely of every sort and Nation the Scripture might have said with far more reason that God will have All Men to be damned since that of every Nation and Condition according to the Contra-Remonstrants the number of the damned does far exceed the number of the saved and reason requires that the Denomination should be taken from the Major part Our safest position then concerning Christs death and satisfaction is this that he died for All For those that Perish as well as for those that Perish not Luk. 19.10 For all that were lost That Christ died for the Elect the Contra-Remonstrants themselves will grant and that he died also for Castaways and those that Perish is clear and evident from 1 Cor. 8.11 where the Apostle tells us that unless we temper our Christian Liberty with prudent Charity 't is possible that through our knowledge a weak Brother may perish for whom Christ died One for whom Christ died if St. Paul speaks truth may perish and be a castaway and the words in the following twelfth verse do more strongly confirm this Truth where the Apostle saith when ye sin so against the Brethren and wound their weak Consciences ye sin against Christ to whom they were so dear that he was willing to dye for their Salvation and that therefore we sin against Christ himself whilst by our imprudent use of our Christian Liberty we rob him of any of those whom he Redeemed not with Corruptible things as Silver and Gold but his most pretious Blood 1 Peter 1.18 Christ tasted Death for every man for the ungodly Romans 5.6 In due time Christ died for the ungodly for the unjust 1 Pet. 3.18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God Christ died for Judas as well as Peter as Judas and Peter were both sinners quoad Impetrationem Reconciliationis as to the Impetration of Reconciliation which was obtained for All promiscuously and without distinction as Sinners But onely the Faithful Penitent and Obedient are concerned in the Fruits and good Effects of this Reconciliation of which Judas could not participate because through his own default he was an Infidel an Unbeliever The Death of Christ was not as Beneficial to Judas as to Peter because Judas superadded a new Infidelity to his former sins which Peter did not Christ hath purchased Salvation for as many as will believe it He shed as much Blood for Judas as for Peter Peter Believed and Repented and was therefore saved Judas would not believe and was therefore condemned And now let me remove one Objection of the Contra-Remonstrants against the universality of Christs satisfaction and I will conclude this particular They Object That the Death of Christ is in it self a sufficient ransom for the whole World if we look upon the intrinsic worth and value of it but that Gods Decree and Christ's intention was that a few persons onely should recieve the benefit of it What is this better than to cast a Reflection upon Gods Justice and blemish his Goodness For if God after he hath declared in Scripture that 1 John 2.2 Christ is the propitiation for the Sins of the whole World should secretly Resolve and Decree not to extend the benefits of his Death to one half of it but confine them onely to some few Select Persons we might justly impeach his Truth and Sincerity question his Justice and say Gen. 18.25 Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right If the Death of Christ were sufficient for All and yet All were not redeemed by it the impediment must be either in God who will not accept this ransom or in Christ that offers it there being no impediment in those for whom 't is offer'd which if any must be their sins but they can be no impediment because the Ransom was paid to take away sin according to that of John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World therefore the impediment must be in God who will not allow that Christ's death should be sufficient for all and so Gods Secret Will must be repugnant to his Revealed Will in Scripture which but to imagine is to abuse his Sincerity and Justice and make him like the Inhabitants of Biscay who when any of the Spanish Kings come into the Frontiers of their Countrey customarily proffer him some few small pieces of Brass called Maravides but tell him withal that he must not take them So these men make God offer the Blood of his Son to all mankind for their Redemption but then they say his secret Will and Decree is that they shall not All take or receive the benefit of it And what is this better than to make God injure his own Justice and trapan and mock his poor Creatures You see then there can be no impediment in God and as not in him so neither in Christ that offers this Ransom For if as the Calvinists affirm the sufficiency of the Ransom were in it self the Cause that that might be rightly said to be given for All which is onely given for some few because in it self it was sufficient for All though God would not allow that All should enjoy the benefit of that sufficiency then Christ might be said to have