Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	deny_v	teach_v	ungodliness_n	4,302	5	11.7286	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47642	A practical commentary, upon the two first chapters of the first epistle general of St. Peter. By the most reverend Dr. Robert Leighton, some-time arch-bishop of Glasgow. Published after his death, at the request of his friends	Leighton, Robert, 1611-1684.	1693 (1693)	Wing L1028A; ESTC R216658	288,504	508

ungodly wayes or if your outward carriage be somewhat more smooth tho you regard iniquity in your hearts have your hearts ardent in the love and pursuit of the World but frozen to God if you have some bosome Idol that you hide and entertain cannot find in your heart to part with some one beloved sin whatsoever it is for all the love that God hath manifested to Man in the Son of his love Iesus Christ In a word if you can please and delight your self in any way displeasing unto God though His People while they are here have spots yet these are not the spots of His people that I am now speaking o● I can give you no assurance that as yet you have obtain'd mercy but on the contrary 't is certain that the wrath of God is yet abiding on you if you continue and you are in apparent danger to perish under it you are yet Children of Spiritual darkness and in the way to utter and everlasting darkness Know we what it is to be destitute of this mercy 't is a wofull estate though you had all worldly enjoyments and were in the top of outward prosperity but shut out from the mercy and love of God There is nothing doth so kindly work repentance as the right apprehension of the mercy and love of God the beams of that love are more powerfull to melt the heart than all the flames of Mount Sinai All the threatnings and terrours of the Law Sin is the root of our misery and therefore 't is the proper work of this mercy to rescue the soul from it both from the guilt and the power of it at once Can you think there is any suitableness in it that the peculiar People of God should despise his Laws and practise nothing but rebellions that those in whom He hath magnified his mercy should take pleasure in abusing it and that He hath wash'd any with the blood of His Son to that end that they may still tumble themselves again in the mire as if we were redeemed not from sin but to sin As if we should say We are delivered to do all these abominations as the Prophet speaks Oh Let us not dare thus to abuse and indignify the free grace of God if we mean to be sav'd by it as many as would be fou●d amongst those that obtain mercy walk as his people whose peculiar inheritance is His mercy And seeing this grace of God hath appeared unto us Let us embrace it and let it effectually teach us to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts And if you be perswaded to be earnest suiters for this mercy and to fly in to Iesus who is the true mercy Seat then be assured it is yours Let not the greatest guiltiness scar you and drive you from it But rather drive you the more to it the greater the weight of that misery is under which you ly the more is your necessity of this mercy and the more will be the glory of it in you 'T is a strange kind of argument and yet a sure one concludes well and strongly Psa. 25. Lord pardon my iniquity for it is great The Soul press'd with the greatness of its sin lying heavy upon it may by that very greatness of it pressing it presse the forgiveness of it at the hands of free mercy 't is for thy name sake that makes it strong the force of the inference lyes in that Thou art nothing and worse than nothing true but all that ever obtain'd this mercy were once so they were nothing of all that which it hath made them to be they were not a People had no interest in God were strangers to mercy yea Heirs of wrath yea they had not so much as a desire after God untill this mercy prevented them and show'd it self to them and them to themselves and so moved them to desire it and caus'd them to find it caught hold on them and pluckt them out of the dungeon And it is unquestionably still the same and fails not ever expending and yet never all spent yea not so much as at all diminish'd flowing as the rivers from one age to another serving each age in the present and yet no whit the less to those that come after The Lord forgiving iniquity transgression and sin to all that come unto him and yet still keeping mercy for thousands that come after You that have obtain'd this mercy and have the Seal of it within you it will certainly conform your hearts to its own nature it will work you to a mercifull compassionate temper of mind to the souls of others that have not yet obtain'd it you will indeed as the Lord doth hate sin but as he doth likewise you will pity the sinner You will be so far from misconstruing and grumbling at the long suffering of God as if you would have the bridge cut because you are over as St. Augustin speaks that on the contrary your great desire will be to draw others to partake of the same mercy with you knowing it to be rich enough And you will in your station use your best diligence to bring in many to it both in love to the souls of Men and to the glory of God And withall you will be still admiring and extolling this mercy as it is manifested unto you considering what it is and what you were before it visited you They confess'd at the offering of the first fruits to set off the bounty of God A Syrian ready to perish was my father and their Captivity in Egypt far poorer and baser is our naturall cond●tion and more precious is that land of which this free mercy doth possess us Do but call back your thoughts you that have indeed escap'd it and look but into that pit of misery whence the hand of the Lord hath drawn you out and you cannot miss to love him highly and still kiss that gracious hand even while 't is scourging you with any affliction whatsoever because it hath once done this for you namely pluckt you out of everlasting destruction As the thoughts of this change will teach us to praise Psa. 40.23 He hath brought me up out of an horrible pit then followes He hath put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our God not only redeem'd me from destruction but withall crown'd me with glory and honour Psa. 103.4 He not only doth forgive all our debts and lets us out of prison but enriches us with an estate that cannot be spent and dignifies us with a crown that cannot wither made up of nothing of ours These two will stretch and Tune the heart very high to consider from what a low estate grace brings a Man and how high it doth exalt him in what a beggerly vile condition the Lord finds us and yet doth not only free us thence but puts such dignities on us raises the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy from the dunghill that he may set him with Princes

the close of the 20. Verse for the other word of glory in the beginning of it 't is a pleasing thing in Gods eyes and therefore he will thank a Man for it as the word is though we owe all our Patience under all kind of afflictions as a Duty to him and though that Grace is his own gift yet he hath oblig'd himself by his Royal Word not only to accept of it but to praise it and reward it in his Children though they lose their thanks at the World's hands and be rather scoff'd and taunted in all their doings and sufferings 't is no matter they can expect no other there but their reward is on high in the sure and faithful hand of their Lord. How often do Men work earnestly and do and suffer much for the uncertain wages of glory and thanks amongst Men and how many of them fall short of their reckoning either dying before they come through to that State where they think to find it or find it not where they look'd for 't and so do but live to feel the pain of their dissappointment Or if they do attain their end such glory and thanks as Men have to give them what amounts it to Is it any other but a handful of nothing the breath of their mouths and themselves much like it a vapour dying out in the air and the reallest thanks they give their solidest rewards are but such as a Man cannot take home with him if they go so far with him yet at furthest he must leave them at the door when he is to enter his Everlasting home All the Riches and Pallaces and Monuments of honour that he had and that are erected to him after death as if he had then some interest in them reach him not at all enjoy them who will he does not he hath no Portion of all that is done under the Sun his own end is to him the end of the World But he that would have abiding glory and thanks must turn his eye another way for them All Men desire Glory but they know neither what it is nor how 't is to be sought he is upon the only right bargain of this kind whose Praise according to St. Pauls word is not of Men but of God If Men commend him not he accounts it no loss nor no gain if they do for he minds for a Country where that coyn goes not and whither he cannot carry it and therefore he gathers it not That which he seeks in all is that he may be approv'd and accepted of God whose thanks is no less to the least of those he accepts than a crown of unfading Glory not a poor Servant that fears his Name and is Obedient and Patient for his sake but shall be so rewarded There be some kind of Graces and good actions that Men such as regard any grace take special notice of and commend highly such as are of a magnifick and remarkable nature such as Martyrdome or doing or suffering for Religion in some Publick way There be again other obscure Graces that if Men despise not yet they esteem not much as Meekness and Gentleness and Patience under private crosses known to few or none and yet these are of great account with God and therefore should be so with us they are of more universal use whereas the other are but for high times as we say for rare occasions these are every ones work but few are call'd to the acting of the other And the least of them shall not lose their reward in whose Person soever as St. Paul tells us speaking of this same subject Eph. 6.8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any Man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord whither he be bound or free This is the bounty of that great Master we serve For what are we and all we can do that there should be a Name of a reward to it yet he keeps all in reckoning not a poor lame Prayer not a Tear nor a sigh poured forth before him shall go to loss Not any cross from his own hand immediatly or comming through Mens hands that is taken what way soever it come as out of his hand and carried patiently yea and wellcom'd and embrac'd for his sake But he observes our so entertaining of it not an injury that the meanest Servant bears Christianly but goes all upon account with him and he sets them so as that they bear much value through his esteem and way of reckoning them though in themselves they are all less than nothing as a worthless Counter stands for hundreds or thousands according to the Place you set it in Happy they that have to deal with such a Lord and be they Servant or Master are vow'd Servants to him When he comes his reward shall be with him The 3 d. thing is the Principle of this Obedience and Patience for Conscience towards God It imports 1. The knowledge of God and of his will in some due measure 2. A conscientious respect unto him and his will so known taking it for their only rule in doing and suffering 1. This declares to us the freeness of the grace of God in regard of Mens outward quality that he doth often bestow the riches of his grace upon Persons of mean condition 'T is suppos'd here that this conscience of God the saving knowledge and fear of his name is to be found in Servants Therfore the Apostle takes them within the address of his Letter amongst those that are elect according to the foreknowledge of God Chap. 1. Ver. 2. And sharers of those dignities he mentions Ver. 9. of this Chap. A chosen generation The honour of a Spiritual Royalty under the meanness of a Servant and this grace possibly conferr'd upon the Servant and denied to the Master as here suppos'd It may fall out that a perverse crooked-minded Master may have a Servant uprightly minded being endowed with a tender respective conscience towards God and thus the Lord does to counteract the pride of Man and set off the lustre of his own free grace he hath all to chuse on and yet chuses there where Men would least imagine Mat. 11.25 1 Cor. 1.27 2. Grace finds a way to act it self in every estate where it is and regulates the Soul to the particular duties of that estate if it find a Man high or low a Master or a Servant it requires not a change of his station but works a change on his heart and teaches him how to live in it the same Spirit that makes a Christian Master pious and gentle and prudent in commanding makes a Christian Servant faithfull and obsequious and diligent in obeying A skillful engraver makes you a Statue indifferently of Wood or Stone or Marble as they are put into his hand and grace formes a Man to a Christian way of walking in any estate there is a way for him in the meanest condition to glorifie God and to adorn the profession of Religion