Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	truth_n	4,834	5	5.5664	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45396	Hagieā theoū krisis Iudgment worthy of God, or, An assertion of the existence and duration of hell torments, in two occasional letters, written several years since / by ... Henry Hammond ; to which is added an accordance of St. Paul with St. James, in the great point of faith and works by the same author.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1665 (1665)	Wing H515; ESTC R15162	47,364	178

for interminable paines are but two or three and those opposed to as many hundreds which are to be alleaged against this sence I answer that as few or as many as they are it matters not for number one affirmation of God's will establish a truth First they accord with many others in writings not obscure or prophetick Secondly there is no one much less many hundreds producible to the contrary sence as hath hitherto appeared by examining all such as were pretended to be opposite but were found very reconcileable with the sence Thirdly when the obscurity of the writer is again mentioned that hath been already spoken to on the first place Concerning the reasons which are used to secure the places for eternal life for to signify that though eternal torments be not allowed to be properly eternal I have little to say because I fully acknowledg that importance of the word eternal whether to blisse or wo. And I think it hath already appeared that there are not these reasons of difference between them as now are mentioned For first as there are no texts in the Gospel which seem to oppose the absolute sence of eternity in the promises so those that were thought to seem to oppose the absolute eternity of the threats having been brought to tryal have been found very light and secondly the doctrine of eternal torments truly stated and vindicated from the mistakes by men introduced into the doctrine hath appeared most credible also to those that believe the Gospel and as necessary to God's justice as he is Rector of the Universe and as agreeable to his goodness who earnestly averts their dying that will needs dy as the eternal promises are reconcileable to all the attributes of God Thirdly that as there are negatives that irrefragably confirme the truth of the article concerning eternal life so there are affirmatives and negatives both each is therefore is not quenched that as irrefragably establish the truth of the doctrine of eternal torments As for the Philosophical doctrine of the immortality of the soul I yield it can import no more then either it s not being corruptible from any outward principles nor destructible from any created power I yield it for all that destructible by God but have formerly answered how that place Mat. 10.28 hath nothing to do with his will or purpose to annihilate it Lastly as for tradition as that signifies the suffrages of all the men in the world Heathens of all sorts Jews of all sects Mahometans Christians heretical as well as orthodox it matters not though this doctrine be not deduced by such absolutely universal tradition I yield that many Heathens there were that believed it not that the Sadduces denyed it that the Jews now adaies care for none but themselves and so make no provision for other men that there have been Origenist Hereticks and some such as Augustine mentions Enchir c. 12● de civit Dei l. 21. cap. 17.18 't is no newes that there should have been false teachers and believers in the world But that Augustine who is confest frequently to assert the doctrine and frequently to defend it against adversaries should yet be believed to doubt lib. de serm Dom. in mont tom 4 super Mat. 5.25.26 I am not apt to give heed to it Because first if the same Augustine should be so uncertain and unconstant he were little worth heeding on either side Secondly there would be reason to resolve that the place where the doubting is found was either not written by him who wrot elsewhere so contrarily or were written by him before he had competently considered the grounds whereon afterwards he establisheth his acknowledgments of the truth But the truth is I discern not how those words neque ita hoc dixerim ut diligentiorem tractationem videar ademisse de poenis peccatorum quomodo in Sacris dicantur aeternae should be interpreted so as to express him a doubter in this matter In other circumstances he might well give men liberty of expression yet himself never have the least suspicion or doubt of the truth of the main Article It remains therefore that the Scripture as that hath been found consonant and agreeable to all other places of its self and as it hath been interpreted by all learned Orthodox men of all ages and as from the Apostles time to this day their doctrine hath been delivered down in the Creed of the Apostles and other occasional explications thereof doth as evidently affirm the eternity of the torments of the wicked on the one side as the eternity of the joyes and bliss of the Godly on the other side and that as far as the Catholick Church in all ages hath extended in opposition to the heterodox and haeretical so far the tradition of this Article for eternal pains is universal and therefore in no reason to be doubted of by a meek Son of this persecuted Church which professeth readily and uniformly to receive all Catholick Tradition truly so call'd as that includes the writings and preachings of the Apostles Having gone thus far and at last arrived to the conclusion in the same posture with some intermissions of the Chair wherein the Gout had fastned me I now find the use of my foot return'd again and so take my leave of this paper and my chair together and by the length of it suppose I have your full leave so to do When you have survey'd it as deliberately as you desire I desire that you will return mine own to me not weighing too severely what was written thus hastily But remember if any one text of Scripture or testification of the Churches sence of all times including the Apostles be producible it is sufficient for the establishing this truth though many passages produced or defences made for the farther confirming of it should not be found rigorously Concludent or Demonstrative The God of Heaven Author of all Grace and Truth be now and ever with you SIR IN your account of the eternity of infernal punishments you make them consist in the persevering appetition and aversation of those things then impossible to be obteined or avoided which formerly in via men have desired and averted To this stating of this matter much what the like with Sr Ken Digbies and Mr Whites I have more to object then is fit for a Letter Some few heads of Exceptions I shall briefly note to you First I see not how this agrees with the nature of the judgment to come the giving and executing a sentence upon wicked men This we are every where taught in Scripture and our Creed But your stating which only leaves men with those desires and aversions wherein they lived here and so die without sentencing them to any other punishment but what they thus bring with them and so is already inflicted on them and needs no Devils to execute it seems not reconcileable herewith Secondly the Matter of this sentence is express'd in Scripture to be a lake of