Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	mortal_a	sin_n	venial_a	2,997	5	13.1458	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35166	The cynosura, or, A saving star that leads to eternity discovered amidst the celestial orbs of David's Psalms, by way of paraphrase upon the Miserere.	Cross, Nicholas, 1616-1698.	1670 (1670)	Wing C7252; ESTC R21599	203,002	466

in his Throne drawing from thence the eternal Son of God O who can be so wicked to behold the lines of this merciful proceeding drawn forth and not presently joyn issue with our holy preacher to abandon the pernicious wayes of sin and become a Disciple in the Rudiments of vertue To behold a Redeemer living in the Hearts of Men before he came to live upon Earth to see all the Sanctity of the World addressed to him to speak of nothing but him and all conspire to his glory If before he came he had so many tongues and voices to set him forth and that the Law and service of God had no other aim than to engrave the Messias in the Hearts of Men what expressions ought to enflame our zeal after his birth life cross and triumphant glory These are the wayes our Graduate will distill into the Minds of the wicked and certainly he did it with an excess of fervour and delight helped on by the consideration that out of his seed the Saviour of Israel was to be born And it is clear he kept close to this Theam even to the last making it his Testament and the subject of his expiring words to his Son Solomon That he should be sure to walk in the wayes of the Lord that in the exact observance of his judgments and Commandment written in the Law of Moses were fastned the succession of his Crown saying This done thou shalt not want one of thy posterity to sit upon the throne of Israel These are the wayes if happily taken will preserve the wicked from ruine give them eternal life secure them from Hell and open a passage to all the delights of Heaven as St. John sayes To the end that all who believe in the should possess eternal bliss Wherefore our Penitent egged on by so many powerful motives to the discharge of his task will never fail in what he hath promised to teach the wicked the wayes of God The Application Our Penitent instructs us here by his example that there is no employment so acceptable unto God as to disperse in our Neighbour the clouds of Ignorance and imbue him with principles of wisdome His Son Solomon was perhaps taught by this clause to address so happily his petition And Joel the prophet makes it the great subject of good tydings he foredeclared to the Church Be glad yea Sons of Sion and rejoyce in the Lord your God who hath given you a teacher of righteousness Aristotle being asked why Commonwealths did not assign pensions for Masters that taught and instructed others as they did to other offices of the State made this reply because there could be no reward answerable to their desert if he thought certain notions in natural knowledge to be so valuable what a price would he have set on such as convey the sublime mysteries of heaven unto us Let us then instruct our Neighbour by good example by doing charity to the distressed and by wholesome Documents every one according to his Talent and Ability And in doing this we follow the steps of a great Saint who believed he could in nothing better express his gratitude and zeal for God's honour than in the Reduction of Souls to the way of Salvation Amen CHAP. XXVIII Et impii ad te convertentur And the impious shall be converted to thee BY this clause our Penitent destroyes the Opinion of some in those modern times who assert that Christ died not for all Men but only for the elect for if the impious be not excluded from the participation of his precious Blood surely there is none that are impiety being a crime that directly strikes against the honour of God and is a complaet rebellion against his Divinity Now if our Divine by his preaching was confident to reduce such offendours whom can we imagine shall be excepted nor can they say we are put into a worse condition by the Evangelical Law in which a plenitude of benedictions are showred down upon us and which as far exceeds the Mosaick as a thing real the type and figure that represents it St. John Chap. 1.2 sayes Christ is a propitiation for our sins and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole World First Christ satisfied for Adam's disobedience and original sin witness St. Paul ad Rom. Chap. 2. As death entered by the default of one so life by the justice and obedience of one Again St. John sayes Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World that is original sin for the Greek version puts it in the Singular Number so Bede Theophilact and St. Thomas understand it The Angelical Doctor adds that the Son of God was incarnate rather for original sin which was an universal evil whose venome infected all Mankind than for the actual and personal sins of the World but as no sin is irremissible to an infinite mercy by consequence after original sin he made satisfaction for all actions and transgressions which were mortal The reason is that mortal sins not only deprive the Soul of the vision of God for all eternity but likewise exposes it to the everlasting torments of Hell the Son of God then whose nature is all goodness considered the misery of these sins and offered up his life and death for their expiation For without sanctifying grace our works are not meritorious nor can they satisfy for any venial sin Wherefore deprived of grace by original sin we could not by our selves no not by the assistance of the blessed Angels satisfy for the least venial sin Because though they be endued with grace yet no pure Creature can merit condign grace Wherefore it was necessary that Jesus Christ should make satisfaction for our least failing as St. Austin sayes excellently well that to save an infinity of VVorlds we ought not to cast one glance of the Eye contrary to the will of God Whence it is clear no Creature can satisfy for the least sin since to do it we must offer up something more valuable than the whole VVorld If then we could not free our selves from the least deviation without the interposition of his merits much less were we in a capacity to relieve our selves from the guilt of Enormous Crimes and if as to these the fruit of his passion was not applyed unto all it must be either from the inefficacy of satisfaction or a defect of commiseration and goodness towards his Creatures It cannot be the first for his merits are infinite by reason of the divine person from whence they proceed for actions belong to the person according to Philosophy It was likewise infinite in regard of his humanity because it was sanctifyed and deifyed by the divinity which was like a certain sanctifying and deifying form unto that sacred humanity now as the greatness of merit is not only measured by the quality of the work but also by many circumstances and especially in consideration of the dignity of the person that

he might alwayes dwell with him and that he may never more tast the bitter absence of his Holy Spirit Et spiritum sanctum tuum c. Spiritual Men who have employed their thoughts on the subject of the mission of the divine persons unto Creatures discover advantages by this Embassy unto humane nature which seem to surpass all the wonders of our faith at least they are conveyed unto us with more sensible delight First they say when a Soul is priviledged with a visit from that divine spirit she doth not only receive inherent and accidentall grace not only splendours which irradiate and ardour● which enflame but even the substantial Principium the Holy Ghost from whence they flow Witness St. Paul 2. ad Rom. The charity of God is diffused through our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us The Philosopher sayes that two Lovers if possibly would become but one because this identity would destroy all fear of separation and since they cannot arrive to this at least by conversation discourse and mutual presence they give themselves to one another Now the love of God is all-powerful no obstacle can hinder the perfect union to which it tends wherefore this love enclining the divine person to unite and surrender up himself unto a Soul she finds herself immediately fastned to him by other chains than those of his immensity it is by grace and charity she is enslaved and their efficacy is to prodigious that were not that divine spirit already at the door they would draw him thither and court him to a most intimate alliance Our Holy Penitent well knew the truth of this Divinity by the amorous operations he had once felt within him for this great gift of God was no stranger to him whence I wonder not if he court its preservation since in it is contained the whole treasure of his immense love If then he shall please to secure this present to him he will in return consecrate to his honour all the fruit of his understanding and will his thoughts shall ever dwell in him and from this meditation he hopes to enkindle such a flame within him as all the waves of adversity or allurements of the World shall never be able to quench his constant Prayer therefore shall be withdraw not from me thy holy spirit After he had thus considered the dignity of the person communicated to a devout Soul he then descends to the particulars of his negotiation The first point is that this divine spirit is the Prin●ipium or great wheel which gives motion to all her supernatural and meritorious actions by which the Soul exceeds her own strength and gets above all her natural faculties and without this spirit Man is feeble impotent and can act nothing generous in a spiritual life The second advantage of this Treaty is that this divine person becomes the object of our understanding and will so that he is a known object in a knowing will and a beloved object in a loving will then it is that the Soul hath God within her who alone entertains and employes her thoughts and affections it is towards him she raises acts of faith and love setting a value upon him beyond all the World as the most excellent Being to whom she can consecrate herself Another benefit of this mission is that this divine spirit communicates himself unto a Soul as her sole treasure and appropriated sovereign good and in such a manner as she will not only find God within her but likewise that he belongs to her as her proper right the serious thought of which happy possession must doubtless much asswage all the bitterness of this life In sequel of these irradiations our Holy Penitent is at a stand comparing the liberalities of his good God with his own ingratitude For God had given himself up to him to be the instrument of all his supernatural operations to be the object of his thoughts and repository of his affections in requital our unfortunate Penitent rejecting this divine legate hath taken up the arms of sensualities against him filled his memory with Earthly species and consulted with brutish passions O bad exchange When he had thus reproached himself of his disloyalty he then converts his Eye to the shipwrack he had made for by one mortal sin he hath lost God as he is God of grace and glory though not as he is God of nature for as such a one he still remains to cast thunderbolts of vengeance upon his guilty head but he is resolved if the divine goodness shall please to restore and continue to him himself in whom is found the source of so many precious treasures he will for the future manage them to his honour he will glorify him in all eternity and manifest to the world that through his grace he is made worthy not to have his holy spirit taken from him In temporal afflictions we lose it is true the gift but the giver is yet secured to us by sin we lose both So that there is no desolation can happen equal to what is thrown upon us by sin For whilest we lye under the guilt of mortal sin God is no more the Principium of our meritorious operations no more the object of our amorous powers nor to be claimed as our proper good and treasure and though his infinite beauties and perfections render him alwayes a source of all good imaginable yet to a Soul defiled with sin he is a spring that diverts his stream in another Channel he is a treasure locked up whose Key is taken away and all-right of entrance decreed against him These are the miserable circumstances which attend the loss of God's holy spirit of which our Holy Penitent being very conscious incessantly repeats Lord withdraw not from me thy holy spirit Theodoret sayes that St. Peter having heard from Christ's own Mouth Thou shalt thrice deny me would feign have fled many Leagues from that occasion but his love was so great as he held it less evil to follow and deny him than to fly away and confess him He took so much pleasure in his presence that he chose rather to hazzard his Soul than the loss of his blessed sight deeming it less unhappiness to renounce him than not to be in the Eye of him whom he loved so dearly If then his corporal presence so ravished this Apostle what a charm must it be to possess within us a divine spirit what solicitude to preserve this treasure in whose participation consists all the happiness we are any wayes capable of in the condition of this our mortality Ah blame not then our Petitioner if again and again he sues under this forme Lord take not thy holy spirit from me Many Nations have made their gods Prisoners chaining them fast in their Temples the Lacedemonians hampered their god Mars with Cords of Silk Hercules with Fetters of Gold fancying to themselves that if they could enjoy their Company though by violence they