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B04263 A second part of Observations, censures, and confutations of divers errours in Mr. Hobbs his Leviathan beginning at the seventeenth chapter of that book. / By William Lucy, Bishop of S. David's.; Observations, censures, and confutations of notorious errours in Mr. Hobbes his Leviathan. Part 2 Lucy, William, 1594-1677. 1673 (1673) Wing L3454A; ESTC R220049 191,568 301

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do think that no man living can shew me faith where that faith was not wrought by God in his ordinary way of working and therefore one part of his distinction which he used before either by Gods operation ordinary or extraordinary might have been spared if applyed to the immediate operation I know the conversion of St. Paul may be objected and the like where God wrought his faith by a miraculous manifestation of himself to him yet consider that the conversion of St. Paul was produced immediatly by that miracle which was in a most setled course of Gods working b● hearing and seeing for hearing the word or reading it seeing some vision or miracle are most ordinate means by which God bestoweth that blessing upon his servants by preaching by visions by miracles And I do not believe that any man in the world can perswade me that he hath a right and religious faith who never heard or saw any thing which did perswade him to it Again consider that there are three things which make a gift profitable besides the giving the receiving and the right use of it the first only concerns God the two latter men Now suppose that the Sun which alone can do it should shine if men will remain in their prison keeping the doors and windows shut they shall not be able to see by that gift of light yea if he open the windows of his house and shut those of his body he shall not see Out of these ariseth the faultiness of infidelity that men shut out that means which God gives them to believe they will not hear or read the word of God they scorn his miracles and all those glorious revelations which have been made to his servants When the hands of God are open to give and the hands of men not so to receive and when he sows his seed of righteousness and the pleasures and the cares of the World choak it then the duty of faith is subject to a command although given by God CHAP. XXII SECT XVI Vnbelief the greatest breach of Gods Law St. John 3.18 and 19. explained The justice of God in the condemnation of men for want of faith The case of Abraham Genesis 17.10 elucidated The power of Parents asserted HE proceeds As also unbelief is not a breach of any of his Laws but a rejection of them all This was witty and a good way of arguing contrariorum eadem est ratio contraries do illustrate one the other But consider Reader is not the rejection of a Law a breach of a Law Suppose a man should think as some have that no supreme hath power to make Laws for life and death he steals and by the Law concerning Thievery is to be executed doth his rejection of that Law make his felony no breach of that law which is against it Certainly it is the greatest breach it tears the Law in pieces and is the greatest violation of it that may be To this purpose our Saviour most clearly John 3.18 He who believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God So that according to Mr. Hobbs his Tenent here is a condemnation but no just one because not for the breach of some Law There must be therefore some divine Law exacting faith which this infidelity doth break But then Mr. Hobbs would reply to our Saviour that faith is a gift and why dost thou punish me for the want of that which is only a gift Read the 19 verse and our Saviour doth answer him And this is the condemnation that light is come into the World and men love darkness rather than light the light is the light of faith and Gods graces which he gives to men by which they may apprehend divine truths which yet they do not because they love darkness rather than light love not this light of faith which discovers to them the obliquity of their sinful worldly desires So that it is apparent that although God gives this light his grace yet men preferring the world before it it is unprofitable This was the case of these Jews which our Saviour spoke to Iohn 5.44 How can ye believe which recieve honour from one another and seek not the honour which cometh from God So that mens preferring worldly things before the things of God causeth them not to receive or make use of Gods revelations But Mr. Hobbs hath Scripture for what he writes Gen. 17.10 This is the Covenant which thou shalt observe between me and thee and thy seed after thee Now saith he Abrahams seed had not this revelation nor were yet in being yet they are a party to the covenant and bound to obey what Abraham should declare to them for Gods Law It is true what he saith that Abrahams seed had not the revelation nor were yet in being yet they are a party in this Covenant But what can be deduced further from this than that which is the ordinary condition of contracts A man gives his estate to another and to his posterity for ever upon a condition that they shall pay such and such acknowledgments which if they perform that estate shall be theirs but if not the contract shall be void Yes saith Mr. Hobbs there is more they are bound to obey whatsoever Abraham should declare for Gods Law I see nothing in these words which enforce any such thing but only the observation of circumcision thi● God calls his Covenant being a sign thereof and this Covenant consisteth in this that God would be Abrahams God and his seeds after him and that he would give them the Land of Canaan for an everlasting possession The meaning of all which was that he would in near and dear respects favour and protect them as you may read in the 7 and 8 verses of that Chapter So that here in this is no more implyed but that if they observe circumcision God would bless them there is no mention of accepting for Gods Laws whatsoever Abraham should deliver and therefore he might have spared his following discourse which saith he they could not be but in virtue of the obedience they owed to their Parents who if they be subject to no other earthly power as here in the case of Abraham have soveraign power over their Children and servants This I say might have been spared for if the Covenant went no further than I have expressed as without doubt it did not there needs no soveraign power to be forced to it But I am of his mind that they who are Parents where is no other established soveraignty have that supreme power over their children and servants which one conclusion will confute the whole body of his Politiques as I intend to shew hereafter CHAP. XXII SECT XVII The obedience of Abrahams Family to Gods Laws depended upon that to him as Father of the Family Mr. Hobbs his consequences drawn from this proposition not rightly deduced His constant varying from the English