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	light_n	world_n	7,168	5	5.8727	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54193	Plain-dealing with a traducing Anabaptist, or, Three letters writ upon occasion of some slanderous reflections given and promoted against William Penn by one John Morse published for common benefit that all impartial people may be better acquainted with the invective spirit of some so called, and their ungodly sly way of defaming such as dissents from them, especially in their restless indeavours against the poor Quakers / by W.P.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.; Morse, John, 17th cent.	1672 (1672)	Wing P1339; ESTC R25028	10,409	19

he invite saying He delights not in the Damnation of Sinners but rather that they should Repent and yet never gives them any ability whereby to do it Nay if thy Principle may be credited has taken Order by an Eternal provision of Decree that they should not What an Affront nay down-right Lye doth this Doctrine opposit to what I asserted give to the Scriptures which testifie God so loved the World as to give and send his Son that such as believed might have Life and yet from Eternity to provide by Decree that perhaps Nine parts of Ten in the World should have no Light or Spirit to assist them but whether they did well of ill should inevitably be damned though God declares himself to be a Rewarder of Men according to their Faith and Works not according to such De 〈…〉 rees O Barbarous Cruelty and most aggravated Injustice What! tell Men that if they believe they shall be saved and yet hinder them from believing for if the Reprobate should believe God's Decree as they call it would be broak which is impossible Again Warn Men of Damnation professing no delight in their Destruction and for fear they should repent and be saved determine by an irrevocable Decree that they should be damn'd O vile hiddious and Blasphemous Doctrine It renders the most merciful and Just God most cruel and unjust and also turns the Reins upon the Necks of people to commit what they will for indeed who would be bounded that stands upon so good or bad terms as an immutable Decree This Doctrine may perhaps a little influence such affectionate Minds as conceive themselves interested in that Electionated Love of God But do not the most of those who believe it Buoy up themselves above the daily Cross and so live above the holy Chastisements of God for Sin because of this sure Bottom as they vainly imagine it whilst the generality are so far from being reclaim'd who know themselves to be Prodigals that being discourag'd through such a kind of Predestination they quit all hope of returning for Mercy whose ends must needs be Destruction O merciless Faith O injurious Assertion both to God and Men Let my Soul forever beware of such Impiety But because thou seemst to charge the Scripture with having lead thee into this Foolish Charging of God I shall observe thy Quotation of 17 18 19 20 21 22. of the 9th Chapter to the Romans The Apostle begins this Chapter or else they that divided his Epistle into Chapters made it to begin with his great sorrow for his Country-men the Jews He enumerates their Priviledges and could wish himself accurst for their sake yet whilst he lamented that they to whom were the Couenants Glory Adoption and whose were the Fathers and of whom Christ himself came after the Flesh being of the Seed of Abraham should thus barr themselves out of Christ's Kingdom and not be of the true Israel and Circumcision in Spirit read vers 6. So that the being of the Seed of Abraham after the Flesh or Isaac or any other man never so righteous rendered them not Children of Promise albeit it be said in Isaac shall thy Seed be called for then would all Isaac's Seed have belonged to the Promise which in Esau was not verifi'd as testifies this very Scripture Neither because they are the Seed of Abraham are they all Children but in Isaac shall they Seed be called What is this Isaac and what is this Calling that is saith the Apostle They which are Children of the Flesh these are not the Children of God that is They that are carnally descended are not the Seed Isaac is understood mystically as shewing forth One conceived by the extraordinary Power of God in whom all Nations should be blessed with Freedom and Adoption as they come to believe and obey wherefore adds the Apostle The Children of the Promise are counted for the Seed who are they the Jews Inward and the Circumcision in Heart So that here is only the Election of the true Seed mystical Isaac or Isaac in Spirit such as through Repentance Faith and good Works come to be translated into the pure Nature thereof who have been refined in the Refiners Fire purged and clensed and so made chosen Vessels of Honour which Word Chosen or Choice signifies a thing more precious then ordinary and therefore Elected So on the contrary hand when men have sinned away their first Stock God is not bound to recruit them again He may proceed to determinative Judgement if he please Here it is that he will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth And though Pharoah that wicked King was at last hardened by the Lord yet if the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9 th Chapters of Exodus be but read it will appear first that God did not harden Pharaoh before Pharaoh had grievously imbondaged Israel rejected his Counsel despised his Visitations and so hardened his own Heart and who with an audacious Contempt asked Moses Who is the Lord that I should obey his Voice c Secondly That God's raising him up was not from an innocent Child to be a wicked King as if God had infused a Cruel and Wicked Quality into his Heart O God forbid But he suffered him not to be quite wasted with the many Judgments that God brought upon him for his Rebellion who after every Judgment still encreased in his Wickedness but raised yet him up again that he might renown his Name and proclaim his Great Power as well to punish obdurate Sinners as ransom his own People Thus God indured this Vessel of Wrath to make his Wonders known So what if God did give over Jerusalem and her Children to Destruction who resisted the Heavenly Invitations of his Son and rather chose the Gentiles Who could impeach him had he not waited long Which of the Prophets had they not slain and did they not cry of Jesus himself Let his Blood be upon our Heads c Wherefore if God would harden them he might since here he might have Mercy on whom he pleas'd to have Mercy and whom he would of such Impenitents he might harden In short Alan was made a chosen Vessel a right Plant but through Degeneration he became a Vessel of Dishonour and a Plant of a strange Vine Those therefore who are Regenerated by the One holy Seed which Seed is Christ Elect and Precious God makes his Vessels of Honour forever and they who have spent their Heavenly Portion defil'd themselves resisted the Heavenly Invitations and are become one Spirit with the God of the World who rules in the Hearts of the Children of Disobedience such Adulterated ones God separates from him as Vessels of Dishonour and Wrath fitted for Destruction but by themselves not from the Lord. Thus much briefly at this time as to the Doctrine of Predestination as it is destructively and extravagantly believed by too many Professors of Religion

1672. John Morse MY Religion teaches me no Respect to Persons nor Abilities and therefore I shall willingly Reply to thy Answer that yesterday came to my hand and if thou knew'st my other Occasions thou couldst not but esteem thy self indebted to my Charity for indeed I have no other inducement to send these Lines First then I take notice thou addressest thy self in the stile of a Quaker which for a man so averse from him as an Angry Anabaptist to do with me relishes either of Jeer or Hypocrisie unless thou hadst this Tenderness upon thee thou wouldst not offend me I hope the latter though a Mistake for I would have every thing appear in its proper Colours I love no Apes in Religion and desire that Foxes should appear in their own Skins and Lambs in theirs Next Thou givest me an account of a Passage that fell betwixt thee and one of Anne Stodard's Maids from whence thou collectest that great Error dwells in the Light I perceive how much more willing thou art the Light should be blamed then the Lass But what if so be that an Anabaptist should wickedly kill a man within an Hour after he had been Dipt would it be Reasonable Charitable or Christian to charge that upon his Renouncing the Church of England's Baptism as they call it and receiving of another Would it have been good Arguing That because some of the Children of Israel in the Wilderness Rebell'd against Moses injustly yet as a Tyrant pretending to a better way of Government more easie and just therefore the Spirit God had given them was Erroneous though it was truly grieved thereat If all the Quakers in England should utter the grossest Errors the Light wherewith Christ as the Word-God hath and doth enlightened ought not to be charged with such Defects but rather they for not bringing their Errors to the Light And I affirm There is no true knowing either of Evil or Good but in the Light wherewith Christ hath illuminated Mankind and if thou knowest any thing savingly it is thereby therefore kick not against it neither fling thy Cavils at it I Warn thee from the Lord for if thou seekest to pervert the Right Way of the Lord by thy Night-works against the Light it will certainly be one day thy very woful Condemnation That which concerns me is called First Error and Contradiction and Secondly Foolishly charging of God My Error and Contradiction is this That in one place I make all men to have a measure of the Spirit and in another I say That such as have it not are Hereticks concerning the Faith as also that I quote these Passages John 14.16 17 18 20. again 16.13 where Christ promiseth to send that Spirit which the World cannot receive also that of Jude Sensual not having the Spirit which thou judgest to be Error and Contradiction Did I not know thy Meaning I should take it for granted that what thou callest the Contradiction was also the Error namely That all had not the Spirit but understanding by thy second Carp the narrowness of thy Soul for it is Predestinarian I will take it for granted thou meanest quite contrary namely That God's Universal Love to Mankind is the horrible Blasphemy thou in Words I heard dost charge me with though thou art something more Modest in thy Letter by calling it a Foolish charging of God In short I Answer to this first Cavil In Page 21. It is a Consequent drawn from the place suited to my own Assertion In Pag. 22. it is a Consequent I make their Principle to speak that deny the Vniversality of the Light and Spirit In the one I say all are illuminated or have a measure of that Spirit because all are commanded to keep God's Statutes which it is impossible to do without such Divine Assistance In the other place I make the consequent to be that to be sure the Spirit is the Rule to Believers the thing chiefly aim'd at in the Question because without it there would be no Vision or Prophesie which some Professors confess are to endure till Christ's second Coming personally there by their own Principle they must be Hereticks concerning the true Faith But again it is not said that such Hereticks have not the Spirit at all because they have it not as their Rule For Having has a twofold use in Scripture the one as a Condemner in which sence none is at one time or an other without a Measure of the Divine Light and Spirit to reprove them and secondly the so having it as to enjoy and possess it as a Rule Guide and invisible Minister of Life Comfort and Refreshment in which sense the World has it not that is received it not as saith the Text yet the very next Chapter sayes That it should convince the World of sin A man may hear a Reproof and Instruction yet not follow it so that such as receive not the Spirit that strives with them may be truly said to be sensual not having the Spirit because they receive it not to the ends for which it was or is sent I hope then I shall not be longer charged with Error or Contradiction in this particular The second Part of the Charge is That I should foolishly Charge God which more hiddenly I hear has been styl'd Blasphemy Let us hear my Book speak God Requires all Men strictly to serve and obey him and to work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling or else their End shall be Destruction But this the Almighty with reverence I say it could not justly do unless the Light with which he enlightens Men were Sufficient and Saving I own the Words expresly and will abide their Defence before Men and Angels and before I have done I hope Blasphemy shall not lie at my Door in the sense of every Man that is not principled to make God an hard Master First I say That it is inconsistent with the Rectitude of God's Nature to esteem that naturally Just in himself to Man which by his Law written in the Hearts of all Men is adjudg'd most Unreasonable Cruel and Unjust among Men for since whatever is Holy Good and Upright is deriv'd to us from God and that we are to be Perfect as our Heavenly Father is Perfect it is utterly Impossible that He should be Just in that which is most Unjust in Man For instance That it cannot be consistent with the Nature of God that He should damn any Man for not improving a Talent He never gave him Because a Man commanding his Servant to go so many Miles within such a set time upon pain of Death on foot whilst he either fetters him in a dark Celler or cuts of his Legs is Cruel Injust and Impious Secondly This Doctrine makes God Partial which is Infirmity at best in a Man nay it makes him the worst of Dissemblers which my Soul loathes to think and my Hand almost trembles to write For to what purpose does