Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	heart_n	incline_v	mercy_n	16,797	5	10.2482	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26853	An accompt of all the proceedings of the commissioners of both persvvasions appointed by His Sacred Majesty, according to letters patent, for the review of the Book of common prayer, &c.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1661 (1661)	Wing B1177; ESTC R34403	133,102	166

but hypocritically and verbally as Simon Magus did are visibly such as the others ate really But really are still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity and have no part or lot in this business their hearts being not right in the sight of God This is that truth which we are ready to make good We conceive the present Translation to be agreeable to many ancient Copies therefore the change to be needless Rep. What ancient copy hath the seventh day in the end of the 4th Commandment instead of the Sabbath-day Did King James cause the Bible to be new translated to so little purpose We must bear you witness that in some cases you are not given to change My duty towards God c. It is not true that there is nothing in that Answer which refers to the 4th Commandment for the last words of the answer do orderly relate to the last Commandment of the first Table which is the fourth Rep. And think you indeed that the fourth commandment obligeth you no more to one day in seven than equally to all the dayes of your life this Exposition may make us think that some are more serious then else we could have imagined in praying after that commandment Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law Two onely as generally necessary to salvation c. These words are a Reason of the Answer that there are two only therefore not to be left out Rep. The words seem to imply by distinction that there may be others not so necessary and the Lords Supper was not by the Ancients taken to be necessary to the salvation of all We desire that the entring of Infants c. The effect of childrens Baptism depends neither upon their own present actual Faith and Repentance which the Catechism saith expresly they cannot perform nor upon the Faith and Repentance of their natural Parents or Pro-parents or of their Godfathers or Godmothers but upon the Ordinance Institution of Christ but it is requisite that when they come to age they should perform these conditions of faith and repentance for which also their Godfathers Godmothers charitably undertook on their behalf And what they do for the Infant in this case the Infant himself is truly said to do as in the Courts of this Kingdom daily the Infant does answer by his Guardian and it is usual to do homage by proxy and for Princes to marry by proxy for the further justification of this answer see St. Aug. Ep. ●1 ad Bonif. Nihil aliud credere quam fidem habere ac per hoc cum respondetur parvulum credere qui fidei nondum habet effectum respondetur fidem habere propter fidei Sacramentum convertere se ad Deum propter Conversionis Sacramentum quia ipsa responsio ad celebrationem pertinet Sacramenti itaque parvulum si nondum fides illa que in credentium voluntate consister tamen ipsius fidei Sacramentum Repl. 1. You remove not at all the inconvenience of the words that seemeth to import what you your selves disclaim 2. We know that the effects of Baptism do depend on all the necess●ry con-causes on Gods mercy or Christ's merits on the Institution and on Baptism it self according to its use as a delivering investing Sign and Seal and they depend upon the promise sealed by Baptism and the promise supposeth the qualified sub●ect or requisite Condition in him that shall have the benefit of it to tell us therefore of a common Cause on which the ef●ect depends v●z the Institution or Baptism it self when we are inquiring after the special condition that proveth the person to be the due subject to whom both promise and Baptism doth belong This is but to seem to make an Answer Either all baptized absolutely are ●ustified and saved or not If yea then Christianity is another kind of thing than Peter or Paul understood that thought it was not the washing of water but the answer of a good Conscience to God Then let us catch Heathens and dip them and save them in dispite of them But if any condition be requisite as we are sure there is our question is what it is and you tell us of Baptism it self did ever Augu●t jure vel 〈◊〉 was to be esteemed a believer we grant with Austin that Infants of believers propter Sacramentum fid●i are visibly and professedly to be numbred with believers but neither Austin nor we wil ever grant you that this is true of all that you can catch and use this form of Bapt●sm ever the seal wil no● save them that have no part in the promise The Catechism is not intended as a whole body of Divinity but as a Comprehension of the Articles of Faith and other Doctrines most necessary to salvation and being short is fittest for Children and common people and as it was thought sufficient upon mature deliberation and so is by us Rep. The Creed the Decalogue and the Lords Prayer contain all that is absolutely necessary to salvation at least If you intended no more what need you make a Catechism If you intend more why have you no more But except in the very words of the Creed the essentials of Christianity are left out if no explication be necessary trouble them with no more then the Text of the Creed c. If explication be necessary let them have it at least in a larger Catechism fitter for the riper CONFIRMATION It is evident that the meaning of these words is that Children baptized dying before they commit actual sin are undoubtedly saved though they be not confirmed wherein we see not what danger there can be of misleading the vulgar by teaching them truth but there may be danger in this desire of having these words wronged as if they were false for St. Austin says he is an Infidel that defies them to be true Ep. 23. ad Bonif. Rep. What all Children saved whether they be Children of the Promise or no Or can you shew us a Text that saith Whoever is baptized shall be saved the Common-Prayer-Book plainly speaks of the non-necessity of Unction Confirmation and other Popish Ceremonies and Sacraments and meaneth that ex parte Ecclesiae they have all things necessary to salvation and are undoubtedly saved supposing them the due subjects and that nothing be wanting ex parte sui which certainly is not the case of such as are not Children of the Promise and Covenant the Child of an Heathen doth not ponere obicem actually quo minus baptizetur and yet being baptized is not saved on your own reckoning as we understand you therefore the Parent can penere obicem and either hinder the Baptism or effect to his Infant Austin speaks not there of all Children whatever but those that are offered per aliorum spiritualem voluntatem by the Parents usually or by those that own them after the Parents be dead or they exposed

and understanding in the matters of their salvation For 1. As it is well known that an ignorant man may read a Prayer and Homily as distinctly and laudably as a learned Divine and so may do the work of a Minister if this be it so it is known that mans nature is so addicted to ease and sensual diversions as that multitudes will make no better preparations when they find that no more is necessary when they are as capable of their places and maintenance if they can but read and are forced upon no exercise of their parts which may detect and shame their ignorance but the same words are to be read by the ablest and ignorantest man it is certain that this will make multitudes idle in their Academical Studies and multitudes to spend their time idly all the year in the course of their Ministry and when they have no necessity that they are sensible of of diligent studies it will let loose their f●eshly voluptuous inclinations and they will spend their time in sports and drinking and prating and idleness and this will be a Seminary of Lust or they will follow the world and drown themselves in Covetousness and Ambition and their hearts will be like their studies As it 's the way to have a holy able Ministry to engage them to holy studies to meditate on Gods Law day and night so it 's the way to have an ignorant prophane and scandalous Ministry and consequently Enemies to serious Godliness in others to impose upon them but such a work as in ignorance and idleness they may perform as well as the judicious and the diligent If it be said That their parts may be tryed and exercised some other way We answer Where should a Ministers parts be exercised if not in the Pulpit or the Church and in Catechising in private Baptism and Communion and in the visitation of the sick their work also is such as a School-boy may do as well as they their ignorance having the same Cloak as in publick If it be said That a Ministers work is not to shew his parts We answer But his Ministerial work is to shew men their sins and to preach the wonderful mysteries of the Gospel to help men to search and understand the Scriptures and to search and to know their hearts and to know God in Christ and to hope for the glory that is to be revealed and fervently to pray for the success of his endeavours and the blessings of the Gospel on the people and chearfully to praise God for his ●arious benefits which cannot be done without Abilities A ●hysitians work is not to shew his parts ultimately but it is to do that for the cure of diseases which without parts he cannot do and in the exercise of his parts on which the issue much depends to save mens lives The ostentation of his good works is not the work of a good Christian and yet he must so let his light shine before men that they may see his good works and glorifie God And undeniable experience tells us That God ordinarily proportioneth the success and blessing to the skill and holiness and diligence of the Instruments and blesseth not the labours of ignorant ungodly Drones as he doth the labours of able faithful Ministers And also that the readiest way to bring the Gospel into contempt with the world and c●use all Religion to dwindle away into Formality first and then to Barbarism and Brutishness is to let in an ignorant idle vicious Ministry that will become the peoples scorn Yea this is the way to extirpate Christianity out of any Country in the world which is decaying apace when men grow ignorant of the nature and reasons of it and unexperienced in its power and delightful fruits and when the Teachers themselves grow unable to defend it And we must adde That whatsoever can be expected duely to affect the heart must keep the intellect and all the faculties awake in diligent attention and exercise And in the use of a Form which we have frequently heard and read the faculties are not so necessitated and urged to attention and serious exercise as they be when from our own understanding we are set about the natural work of representing to others what we discern and feel Mans minde is naturally sloathful and will take its ease and remit its seriousness longer then it is urged by necessity or drawn out by delight When we know beforehand that we have no more to do but read a Prayer or Homily we shall ordinarily be in danger of letting our minds go another way and think of other matters and be senceless of the work in hand Though he is but an Hypocrite that is carried on by no greater motive then mans observation and approbation yet is it a help not to be despised when even a necessity of avoiding just shame with men shall necessarily awake our invention and all our faculties to the work and be a concurrent help with spiritual motives And common experience tells us That the best are apt to loose a great deal of their affection by the constant use of the same words or forms Let the same Sermon be preached an hundred times over and try whether an hundred for one will not be much less moved by it then they were at first It is not onely the common corruption of our nature but somewhat of innocent infirmity that is the cause of this And man must cease to be man or to be mortal before it will be otherwise So that the nature of the thing and the common experience of our own dispositions and of the effect on others assureth us that understanding serious Godliness is like to be extinguished if onely Forms be allowed in the Church on pretence of extinguishing errors and divisions And though we have concurred to offer you our more corrected Nepent●es yet must we before God and me● protest against the dose of Opium which you here prescribe or wish for as that which plainly tendeth to cure the di●ease by the extinguishing of life and to unite us all in a dead Religion And when the Prayers that avail must be effectual and ferve ●t Jam 5. 16. and God will be worshipped in spirit and truth and more regardeth the f●ame of the heart then the comeliness of expression we have no reason to be taken with any thing that pretends to help the tongue while we are sure it ordinarily hurts the heart And it is not the affirmations of any men in the world perswading us of the harmlessness of such a course that can so far un-man us as to make us dis-believe both our own experience and common observation of the effects on others Yet we confess that some Forms have their laudable use to cure that errour and vice that lyeth on the other extream And might we but sometimes have the liberty to interpose such words as are needful to call home and quicken attention and affection we should think