Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A89617
|
Mary Magdalen's tears wip't off. Or The voice of peace to an unquiet conscience. Written by way of letter to a person of quality. And published for the comfort of all those, who mourn in Zion.
|
Martin, T., 17th cent.
|
1659
(1659)
|
Wing M850; Thomason E1913_2; ESTC R202880
|
54,570
|
127
|
as they who sin after Baptism do is intollerable and a sign of one that hath forfeited the Grace that is given him and is judicially hardned by God SOLUTION 10. TO sin and to relapse into sin after a Vow against it is that thing indeed which every baptised Christian doth and in those who are Adult or at years of discretion not invincibly ignorant of their Obligation is infallibly not only a very great Aggravation of sin but a sin it self and such an Offendour is in very truth not only a great Dishonor to the Gospell of Christ but a great scandol to the Communion of Saints dis-inherited and that actually of his interest in the Kingdom of Christ whilest he continues in that state of Impenitency but when the course is broken the case is quite the contrary and the Prodigal returning capable of as benign and as hospital a Reception in his Fathers house as was that other Son able to boast of his good demeanour from his Childhood This is the case of Repentant Sinners and for such it is that when they nay though but a single one return There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God Luke 15.12 But for the Vow in the Baptisme I am not for the present of opinion that it is any aggravation of sin till the baptised Person comes to years of Discretion and hath either actually taken upon him the performance of his Baptismal vow or else hath attain'd so much knowledge of his Profession as that he hath or may have information that he was initiated thereinto and admitted under such a solemn Stipulation But when I speak of Actual taking upon him the performance of this Vow I do not mean that solemn direct oral and publick transferring the Obligation on himself in Episcopal Confirmation but also the doing any Christian duty of Communion whereby he doth though but implicitely own his Faith and consequently his Obligation thereto made on his behalf by Suretyes in his Baptisme And again you must conceive that every willfull sin against Knowledge and Conscience even in those who are adult and have Actually put themselves under the performance of the Vow is no abdication of our Vow in Baptisme neither do I apprehend that Person which so offends to be guilty of Perjury upon every Act of such sin of Wilfullness no more than I believe that every single disobedience of her Husband may be interpreted to be a perjury in the Wife because she hath promised and solemnly vowed to obey him in the Mariage Contract I confess that an habitual course of wilfull sin in such as do own their profession nay that any sin presumptuously committed against the Divine Majesty doth imply a breach of this vow as well as final Apostacy yea that the abnegation of any evident Fundamental of Religion as the Resurrection of the Dead the Doctrine of the ever blessed and holy Trinity after first and second Admonition Tit. 3.10 c. is a breach of the Vow in Baptisme but that every Act of willfull sin is such is to my Apprehension no more a truth than for a Christian of the Protestant perswasion to deny Christs local descention into Hell which hath no undenyable ground in Scripture and for that error for to that Perswasion the Church is not infallible to be held guilty of perjury in breaking the second clause or branch of this Vow in Baptisme requiring him to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith as well as doth the first and third exact from him a forsaking of the Devil the World the Flesh and the keeping of Gods holy Will and commandements all the days of my life But let the most that you fear be granted you be held guilty of as many perjuries as you committed other sins and this not only in your own esteem but in the opinions of learned Divines yet still this may render that condition to be more lamented but it cannot make it irrecoverable for is there any thing in Scripture more frequent than Gods Messages by his Prophets to the People of the Jews calling them to repentance that after Covenant-breach and promising them pardon if they would repent and convert unto him The Prophet Jeremy may supersede your searching any other Scriptures to this purpose who indeed is abundant in those promises of Mercy and therefore a Book very fit to comfort every penitent Soul and likewise as fit by reason of the Threatnings therein to convert the Impenitent As for that you speak concerning judicial induration or Gods hardening mens hearts in Judg ement Mat. 25.28 Luke 8.18 I confess that there is a taking away the Talent from the sloathfull Servant a withdrawing of Grace from him that doth not use it to that end for which it was given him by God but that such a judgement is not ordinarily revealed save by the treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath the final impenitence of him who is thus judicially hardened by God will be difficult to prove there being no very sure example of this Induration in Scripture save that of Pharoah in whom those consequents were most visible and of those obstinate and incredulous Jews to whom our Saviour preach'd or in whose presence or Country he wrought so many Miracles mentioned in Mat. 13.14 15. but that you are in danger of such judicial Induration as this is a very remote fear and to my judgment wholly inconsistent with your present Christian Deportment OBJECTION But you say my Sins are confessedly very great being accompanyed with such circumstances as they are even withall the Allowances your Charity or Judgement can afford them they cannot then but require a proportionable Grief for them which as yet I find not in my self Moses Rod that drew water from Rocks of the Wilderness being not able to break and wound my stony Heart into Rivers of Tears such as are fit to cleanse and wrince away these stains of Sin SOLUTION VI. 11. THis complaint is but a retrive of one of those Aggravations of your sins mentioned by you at the first and by me deferred to be satisfied at that time I say therefore that it cannot be denyed but that Grief for sin committed ought to bear some proportion with the heinousness of our Crimes for which we desire to grieve and lament but you may be very unfit to judge of this proportion especially seeing your Grief and Revenge with an intermixture of other Irascible passions hath made you already too obnoxious to the devices of Satan 2 Cor. 2.11 and Peter three times denyed that he knew his Master Mark 14.66 and that with Cursings and Swearings Imprecations perhaps upon himself if he knew any such man Luk. 22.55 Here was a Complication of very gross sins as Swearing Cursing Denyal of his Master whom lately he professed to be the Son of God and all this a flat Perjury yet you never read of Tears shed for these Sins more then once Mat. 26.75
man would perform his resolutions in case God did permit him so much time yet should no man upon this Consideration deferre his Repentance but rather most studiously imbrace the present time offered not only for that this is to be interpreted an affront of the Divine Majesty by turning the Grace of God into wantonness but for that no man is assured that ever he shall have any such late and pretious minute vouchsafed unto h m or if it be can possibly have any assurance that he will be true to his word with God in his Vows and Resolutions God alone with whom all future things are present being able to foreknow the soundness and steadiness of such shipwrackt ingagers And as these dependencies are seldom so successful at least not so often as many men imagine and in Charity we may very farre hope so would I have them to be esteemed as such which can have no right Aspect upon nor incouragement from the usual regular Proceedings of the Divine Majesty but are rather to be layd on the unpromised excesses and superabundancies of an infinite goodness extending it self to a sinner Repenting him of his sins beyond the full and free limits of the first gracious Concession of Pardon from a Relyance on which as I would not deterre any the most grievous offender whose neglects and former Supinity had cast him on this little Plank in a Sea of Perplexities so do I almost assure my self that such a Christian who dares continue in sin upon the confidence of this superabundance of grace shall never be partaker thereof this being a Pearl of too incomparable a value to be cast before that Swine who hath so contemptuously trampled it under his feet Yet if you mark it your Case is far different from the state of such a man who hath neglected say despised the offers of mercy till the last minute of his life wherein he rather snatches after then imbraces pardon being more sensible of his own danger then the love of God for blessed be God you have not received any Summons to a speedy account of your stewardship by a decrepid old age or a violent disease or other contingency but have made it your blessed choice to double your Pace in the wayes of Holiness having yet as far as we are able to guess the Postmeridian part of your Day before you time enough by the good blessing of God to finish your Task which is set you ere the night come wherein no man can work Jo. 9.4 As for your Despightfully using the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 as you phrase it after St. Paul an expression more suitable to a state of Apostacy than Vnregeneracy as you would have me suppose yours to be as in your former course of life you set if I may believe your self too little an esteem upon the wayes of God the manner of unregentrate men so have you now too bitter a censure upon your own the sins of our unregenerate life being after conversion by all Divines I presume accounted araungable under the style of Infirmities and therefore of what sort soever yet pardonable upon Repentance OBJECTION I grant say you that it may be with some Christians as with St. Paul he was a most violent Persecutor of the Church but then it was in a state of Ignorance and Unbelief and therefore he sayes God had mercy upon him because he did it through Ignorance and in Infidelity From whence 't is easy to in infer that had St. Paul maliciously and knowingly acted those outrages against the Church of Christ he had undoubtedly been excluded from all hopes of Pardon What think you then will become of me Who knew the will of my Master and did it not SOLUTION 8. THat Saint Paul did Ignorantly persecute the Church of Christ is unquestionable and that if Saint Paul had done the same Knowingly and Maliciously he had not had any grounds to expect Pardon may probably enough be true but I do not take it to be out of all Question but the Inference from hence against your self is Illogical and will by no means follow upon those Premises For thus your Argument stands Saint Paul had mercy from God for persecuting the Church of Christ Ignorantly therefore whoever committeth any sin against Conscience and Knowledge shall not have mercy and such sins I am guilty of I shall not stand to shew you the falsity of this way of reasoning but only discover unto you how erroneous your Principles are and that so evidently as I need not torture you into a confession thereof Do you profess to believe that there is an equality in all kinds of Sin that Adultery is not a greater sin than Swearing Murder or Idolatry than Sabboth breach Rebellion than Theft I am assured you are not involved in this gross error But then do you believe that that circumstance of doing it Knowingly can render the same sin unpardonable which if done Ignorantly will upon Repentance undoubtedly be forgiven Who then can be saved What were the sins of David and of Saint Peter were they not sins against Knowledge yet Repentance restor'd both of them to their former station in Gods favour you cannot suppose that those persons with whom our Saviour converst were all of them Sinners only out of Ignorance Mary Magdalen was never held to be Ignorant much less to be Inculpably so that her course of Life was not agreeable to the Law of God yet so dear was she to our Saviour upon her hearty Repentance That after his Resurrection he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom be had cast seven Devils Mar. 16.9 OBJECTION IV. But under the Law the Soul that did ought presumptuously was to be cut off from Israel SOLUTION 9. WE are not under the Law but under Grace and Saint Paul tells us plainly that a main branch of that Priviledge is That by Him i. e. Christ all that believe are justified from all things from which Ye i. e. the Jews could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.39 from whence 't is clear that Remission of sins is given to all Sinners who repent and believe the Gospel Besides every sin that a man commits against Knowledge is not a sin of Presumption or a sin committed with an high Hand Presumption is not an error of or in the Understanding but in the Will at least is much more fixt in the Will than in the intellectual faculty and therefore to sin against Knowledge and to sin Presumptuously are not convertible and the same thing Presumption being not only the highest degree of Wilfullness and very properly plac'd under the v ce of Audacity but it reflects more upon the person of the Law-maker than on the Law it self and the contempt of persons in Authority is ever more grievously punished than the breach of such Laws and constitutions as are made by them OBJECTION V. 〈◊〉 to relapse into sin after not only Resoluttions but Vows against it