Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	mercy_n	redeemer_n	sinner_n	2,238	5	9.8767	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67237	The pretensions of the triple crown examined in thrice three familiar letters ... / written some years ago by Sir Christopher Wyvill ...	Wyvill, Christopher, Sir, 1614-1672?	1672 (1672)	Wing W3787; ESTC R34104	91,353	203

look upon Christ our Mediatour who is the End or chief aim of the Law Rom. 10. 4. for it was given with a Design to drive us to him Gal. 3. 24. and is a Yoak which we nor our Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 10. and in Contemplation of that Righteousness he performed in our Nature for us by vertue of the Covenant of Grace deal with us and our Works so as the Imperfections which we acknowledge and bewail in them shall never come in sight Well-fare those men if they can for the Condignity of their Services It is enough for us under the sense of the Skars and Blemishes in our too often lame Obedience to look up to the Hills from whence cometh our Help and to shelter our selves under his Feathers who hath Healing in his Wings We will now hear what the old Fathers of the New I mean the Primitive Church will say to this business But let us take along with us the Advice of Vincentius Lirinensis who highly commends this way of confuting Errors yet with this Caveat Neither all ways nor all kinds are to be impugned after this manner but such only as are new and lately sprung whilst by the straitness of time they be hindred from falsifying the Rules of the ancient Faith and before their poyson spreading farther they attempt to corrupt the Writings of the Elders c. Which I mention not because I am diffident of their Testimony but to give you an hint that the Policy of Rome has been notorious in Curtaling Expunging Depraving the Fathers yea and foysting in new Matter to many of their Works Note again in what sence the word Merit often indeed occurring in their Writings before ever that Acception the Jesuits now have it in was dream'd of was used by them It Ordinarily imports no more when they say Merita than if they had said Opera and to merit no more than simply to attain unto or procure without any Relation at all to the Dignity either of the Person or the Work Thus St. Augustin saith Paul for his Persecutions and Blasphemies Merited to be made a vessel of Election and Cyprian Misericordiam merui I obtained Mercy So Gregory Paul when he went about to extinguish the name of our Redeemer upon Earth Merited to hear his Words from Heaven and lest you have a Conceit that he means of Paul's Works fore-seen See the same manner of Rhetorick concerning Adam's Sin O happy Sin that Merited to have such and so great a Redeemer meaning that gave the occasion of his Coming And now I am to acquaint you with a Secret has been hid from your Eyes by the Cunningness of those you build your Belief upon St. Chrysostome Cyprian Augustin and the rest will I think in my Conscience prove as arrant Hereticks as we For the first peremptorily affirms against Vasquez That no man can shew such a Conversation of life as may be worthy of the Kingdom but this Kingdom is wholly the Gift of God and in another place Although we did die a Thousand Deaths and perform all Vertuous Actions yet we should come far short of rendring any thing worthy of those honours which are conferr'd on us by God Take one more of his That one destitute of Works should be justified by Faith might perhaps seem well to be but that one adorned with Vertues and good Works should yet not be Justified by them but only by Faith is admirable Who would have thought good old Chrysostom had so much dissented from the reverend Society at Rhemes who teach us another Lesson That good Works are Meritorious and the very cause of Salvation so far as God should be unjust if he rendred not Heaven for them Take the next Testimony out of Gregory in the Original because there 's one word whose just force and Emphasis as it stands here our English can I think but hardly reach Justus noster Advocatus nos defendet in Judicio quia nosmetipsos cognoscimus accusamus Injustos Non ergo in fletibus non in actionibus nostris sed in Advocati nostri Allegatione confidamus When the day of Judgment or our Death shall come saith Hierom all hands shall fail because no work shall be found worthy of the Justice of God That is a known place of Augustin He viz. Christ is Sin as we are Justice not our own but God's not in our selves but in him as he is Sin not in himself but in us And remarkable that of Athanasius Impossibile est puritatem innocentiam in humana Natura exhiberi nisi Deus credatur in Carne fuisse qui Justitiam omni ex parte liberam in mundum introduxit Cujus quia participes sumus vivemus salvabimur Illud enim Non est justus in terra c. in Commune ad omnes pertinet Unde ex Coelo descendit qui immaculatam Justitiam ex se daturus erat No less this of Gregory Nyssenus in his Oration upon Beati qui esuriunt Justitiam It seems to me saith that Father That our Lord by mentioning Justice doth propose to the appetite of his hearers his own self who is made unto us Wisdom from God Justice Sanctification c. That Proverb Bernardus non videt omnia may perhaps be true yet in this Omne tulit punctum he has hit the right Nail on the Head and rivetted it in so strongly as not even the Teeth of Time shall be able to pull it out We find in him these words fit to be writ in Letters of Gold I will make mention of thy Righteousness only for even that is mine too to wit thou art made unto me Justice I need not fear but it will serve us both It is not a short Cloak that will not cover two c. We will here take lieve of these Stars of the first Magnitude and come to those of later Note in the Church's Constellation that lived after the light of this Doctrine had been clouded and set themselves to enquire how it came so and to deliver their opinions more distinctly and apposite to the present Question than the ancient Doctors could do who had finished their Course before the Corruption was discoverable or the Controversie started But take in as we pass another Instance or two out of the last named Doctor It 's necessary first of all to Believe That we cannot have remission of sins but by the Mercy or Condonation of God 2. Then That we cannot at all have any whit of good works unless he give it Lastly That by no good works we can merit Life Eternal Nisi gratis de●ur illa In another place thu● If we must speak properly of that which we call Merits they are certain Seminaries of Hope Incitements of Love Signs of secret Predestination the way to the Kingdom not the Cause of Reigning Dangerous is the way and dwelling of those that trust in

2. What Law is it whereby St. Paul affirms Rom. 3. 20. that no Flesh can be justified Even that Law which to other necessary uses he was careful to establish ver 31. by which cometh the knowledge of Sin Rom. 7. 7. which is holy just and good ver 12 Spiritual ver 14. Encomiums that cannot be given to the Ceremonial and therefore must be of force against that Doctrine whereby Justification is made to consist in either habitual or actual holiness all which is nothing but conformity to the Moral-Law too weak through the flesh for such an end 3. What sort of Grace is there designed where St. Paul having by all his preceding discourses thereto ascribed Justification subjoyns Rom. 6. this caution What then Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound It 's not at all possible or imaginable that any body how egregiously wicked or how stupidly gross and dull soever he were should be of opinion that by continuing in sin Grace inherent could abound By infallible deduction then it follows That the power of justifying is not by the Apostle left in the hands of such Grace but rests in that gratious imputation of Righteousness through Faith which makes our Salvation from one end to another the free gift of God as we find it contradistinguished to the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. Let not any Romanist here think to come off by alleging that they hold the eternal punishments of sin to be remitted by the Sacrifice of Christ which being done there then remains their good deeds to merit glory in Heaven For pardon relates only to the person of the repenting sinner not at all unto the devious works so as to render legitimate what was in the commission criminal But the Law which takes no notice of Pardon remains unfulfilled by the party absolved still And a righteousness adequate to that must be found before we can claim the rewards of life Nor let them imagine the business is salved because some of them build the reason or ground of merit on the promise and acceptation of God for neither can they shew that ever God made his promise of such a Tenure nor yet will Vasquez and therein he pretends fully to know the mind of the Trent Council suffer that to pass as Catholick Doctrine for he tells us If our works be not of themselves before the Promise worthy and after the Promise do become worthy it must follow that for their dignification or to make them acceptable the Merit of Christ must needs intervene and be imputed Disp. 214. Chap. 6. That what I have delivered in this Point is the very Mind Sence and Precept of the English Church whereto I desire to approve and submit my self is manifest by her eleventh Article thus made up That we are justified by Faith alone is a most wholesome Doctrine referring us for farther explication to her Homilie of Salvation and there we are directed to the right Object of Faith as it justifies viz. Christ suffered death for us Christ fulfilled the Law for us As Utensils or a kind of hang-by's on to their main Point of Justification by the merit of works follow an whole Legion of vendible Pardons Indulgences Dispensations Termes which in the Primitive Church signified no more than certain relaxations of Penances imposed upon Delinquents and upon evident signs of their amendment mitigated to the persons yet living Whereas in the after practice of the Romanists they degenerated into such notorious superstition as applyed to the dead and into so great impiety as extended to the living that they have left skars upon the face of their Church which cannot pass for beauty-Spots Of this we have all Germany for a witness for not onely Luther from the extream grossness thereof when he saw those goodly advantages made the wagers in a game at Dice took occasion to write against them But the whole Imperial Dyet at Norimberg Anno 1522. gives them a chief place among their 100 grievances represented to the Popes Nuntio then amongst them So that we doubt not but we do well in accompting them but as superstructures reared with untempered Mortar which we are sure will as Wood Hay Stubble perish and not abide the fire that spirit of burning mentioned Isai. 4. 4. Matth. 3. 11. Cor. 3. 13. It will be worthy the while to hearlien perhaps with more attention than the Legate Franciscus Theregatus did for I do not find there was any present redress to the complaints of those Germans You shall have them then out of a Copie printed 141 years since and published by Authory faithfully done into English They usher in all the rest by this comprehensive one which might have indeed a great many in the belly of it And as we pass the threshold we cannot but take up this Note They fix the blame not upon the irregular exorbitant actings of some particular ill-governing Minister But the Preamble runs thus An hundred grievances of the sacred Roman Empire Princes and Nobles which they put up to his Holiness his Legate against the Roman Chair and the whole Ecclesiastical Order Anno 1522. First This is not the least nor the last to be mentioned that many things are prohibited many things imposed by humane constitutions which are not commanded or forbid by any Divine Precept Of such sort are The innumerable obstacles invented for the prohibition of Marriage drawn through so many degrees of affinity and consanguinity The injunction to forbear meats which God notwithstanding has created indifferently for the use of Man and the Apostle so teacheth They may be taken with thanksgiving These and the like stand in force till money which thus makes the same thing lawful to rich and criminal to poor procure a Dispensation By the casting of such illegal nets not only a vast quantity of Treasure is caught in Germany and hoysted over the Alpes but a most unreasonable iniquity is exercised upon persons equal in Christianity Whence arises great scandal and heart-burning whilst the less able sort do find themselves intrapped and held fast only because they have not those Thornes of the Gospel riches as Christ more than once terms them 2. Of the same stamp are the proceedings as to set times for marriage done it must not be at such and such seasons that is to say if the parties think to do 't for nothing though in the mean time both Ecclesiasticks and Seculars live most luxuriously but if Coyn enough appear that makes all pass into just and right this likewise is a cunning pick-lock to the German Coffers 3. They tell him how long this unsupportable burthen has laid upon their backs that Whensoever some Church is pretended to be in building at Rome or an expedition to be made against the Turk then under the notion of a pious Contribution the very bottom of the German bags must be turned out and what is more considerable by these Impostures managed by a sort of Preachers for