Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	abound_v	sin_n	zion_n	21	3	9.8992	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40889	Fifty sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London, and elsewhere whereof twenty on the Lords Prayer / by ... Anthony Farindon ... ; the third and last volume, not till now printed ; to which is adjoyned two sermons preached by a friend of the authors, upon his being silenced.; Sermons. Selections	Farindon, Anthony, 1598-1658.	1674 (1674)	Wing F432; ESTC R306	820,003	604

for those actions which may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato speaks make us in some degree like unto God Therefore even Heathens themselves have acknowledged that Life and Reason are given to Men to this end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we may follow God Now so far as we follow him so near are we to him And though he be angry with that person who hath not sued out his pardon yet he loveth his virtues Though he will not know him not acknowledge him to be his yet he doth not frown upon those actions in which he resembles him He is not angry with his Patience his Fidelity his Truth but with those his sins which make him guilty of eternal death For suppose a Christian that believes be of a wicked and an Infidel of an honest conversation certainly of the two the Infidel is nearest to the kingdom of heaven No These actions of piety are not sins but they are not conducible to eternal life They have their reward but not that reward which is laid up for the righteous The Law is broken and all the works I do not say of all the virtuous Heathens but of all the Saints of all the Martyrs that have ever been cannot satisfie for the least breach of the Law no more than a Traytor can redeem his treason against the King by giving of alms or which is more by dying for his country For whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin to bear not only its heavy burden but the whip not only to be at its beck and when it says Do this to do it but to be punisht for sin to be lyable to those lashes of conscience and to be reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day He is captive sold under sin driven out from the face of God under the power of that Law which is a killing letter obnoxious to all the Woes which are denounced against sinners And thus he stands till he doth postliminio recipere recover and receive his liberty till he be redeemed and brought back again And by justification and free pardon quasi jure postliminii as by a law of recovery he is reinstaled into that liberty which he lost and doth omnia sua recipere receive all that might be his his Filiation his Adoption his Title to a Kingdome putatur semper fuisse in civitate he is graciously accepted as if he had never been lost as if he had alwayes been a free denizon of the City of God and never fled from thence as if he had never forfeited his right His sins are wiped out as if they had never been This we beg in the first place That we may be reconciled unto God That being justified we may have peace But then in the next place our Petition is NE INDUCAT That he will not lead us into temptation That we may sin no more Not that we approve of that error of Jovinian That after we are baptized after we are reconciled unto God we cannot be tempted by Satan and That those who sin were never truly baptized were baptizati aquâ non spiritu baptized with water only and not with the holy Ghost or That this Petition did belong only to the Catechument those novices in Christianity which were not yet admitted into the Church and not to believing Christians This error is at large confuted by St. Hierom. For why else those warnings those preparations those warlike oppositions against Satan Why should we say this Prayer at all if after reconcilement there were an impossibility of sinning But it is impossible only impossibilitate juris as the Civilians speak not that it cannot be done but that it should not be done For thus the Law supposeth obligations to be performances and that necessarily done which we are bound to do What should be done is done and it is impossible to be otherwise When we are iustified there is mors criminum and vita virtutum as St. Cyprian speaks or as the Apostle we are dead to sin and alive to righteousness Indeed Justification is nothing else but an action of God or a certain respect and relation by which we are acquitted of our sins And although it be done without any respect had to good works yet it is not done without them Although it be not a change from one term to another from Sin to Holiness yet is no man justified without this change Therefore not only Faith but Charity also is required as a condition at their hands who will be saved But it hath pleased God to justifie us freely by his grace and to impute Rom. 3. 24. not our Goodness but Faith to us for righteousness Christus justificat Rom. 4. 22. sed justificabiles Christ indeed justifies but not those who make themselves uncapable of his Grace As Fire burns but such matter as is combustible and the Soul animates a sick or crasie body perhaps but not a carkass So That Faith justifies a sinner and That Charity doth not justifie are both true but it is as true Faith cannot justifie him who loveth not the Eph. 6. 24. Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Christus justificat impium sed poenitentem Christ justifies a sinner but a sinner that repents It is true that the Schools tell us Justificatio non fit sine interna renovatione We cannot be justified without renewing and inward change But this change doth not justifie us Therefore where they enhaunce Good works and give them a share in our Justification they do veritatem tenere non per vera as Hilary speaks speak some truth but not truly apply it or rather as Tertullian speaks veritatem veritate concutere shake and overthrow one truth with another Good works are necessary they must abound in us God delights in them and rewards them But what concurrence have these with Remission of sins which is the free gift of God and proceeds from no other fountain but his own Will and infinite Mercy To bring this home to our present purpose Our victory over tentations is neither the cause of Remission of sins nor yet the necessary effect Not the cause For what power have the acts of Holiness to abolish the act of one sin which is past and for which we are condemned already Nor the necessary effect For then when Sin is once forgiven we could sin no more nor be lead into tentation Therefore when we read that the justified person is freed from sin we must understand that he is free from the guilt of former sins not from the danger of future and in the Fathers fides est genitrix bonae voluntatis that Faith is the mother of a good will we find not what Faith alwayes doth but what it should do and what it is ordeined for what it would produce if no cross action of ours did intervene to hinder it In a word let us not only in our Pater Noster but in the whole course

us in the ways of righteousness and in that course which leads to bliss much less to drive us out of the way What though there be signs in the Sun and Moon and Stars must my light therefore be turned into darkness must my Sun set at noon and my Stars those virtues which should shine in my soul fall out of their sphere and firmament What though the Seas roar and make a noise shall my impatience be as loud And if they break their bounds must I forget mine What though there be a Famine in the land must I make my Soul like unto the season lean and miserable What though there be wars and rumors of wars must I be at variance with my self and bid defiance to the Lord of hosts What though my friends betray me must I deceive my self And if the World be ready to sink must I fall into Hell Nay rather when we see these things come to pass when these signs come to pass let it be that we do as occasion serves us for God is with us in these signs Let 1 Sam. 10. 7. them be as Signs to us perswading signs Let them have the commanding eloquence of Signs Let them not be as Shadows which pass by us and we regard them not but let them be signa significantia signs that signifie something signs to represent something to our Understanding and so make an impression on our Wills Let them be as the Voice of God calling us out of Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey Let them be as the Finger of God and let us follow in that way the line is drawn Let them be as a Hand of God and let us humble our selves under his mighty hand Let them be the great Power of God and let us fall down and worship that so we may in his signis signari with these signs be signed and sealed up to the day of our redemption When the Sun is darkned think it is to upbraid thy ignorance and learn to learn to abound more in knowledge and all Phil. 1. 9. judgment When the Moon shall be turned into bloud think it is to chide thy Cruelty and put on the bowels of mercy and loving kindness When the Col. 3. 12. Stars fall from heaven the professors of truth speak lyes do thou stand fast in the faith When the powers of heaven are shaken when there be many sects and divisions do thou keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Ephes 4. 3. every mans brother if he will and if he will not every mans brother If the Plague break in do thou purge the plague of thine own heart and keep thy self unspotted of the world If there be a Famine in the land do thou fill thy self with the bread of life as with marrow and fatness If Banners be displaid as signs as the Psalmist speaks let them be as signs to thee to fight against thy lusts When Parents and Brethren and Kinsfolk are false do thou look up to thy Father in heaven who is truth it self When the World is ready to sink do thou raise thy self with expectation of eternal glory This constancy this resolution this behaviour Christ requires at our hands and it will be in vain to plead impossibilities For could these men under Nature go so far and cannot we who are under Grace do so much Could they think that nothing without them could hurt them and shall fear nothing more then that which is without Good God! how comes it to pass that Nature should bear more sway in a Pagan then the Grace of the Gospel in a Christian Or have we disputed and trifled Grace out of its power or hath our abuse of Grace swallowed even Nature and Reason it self up in victory Tanti vitrum quanti margaritum Were these men so rich that they could bestow so much upon a trifle upon a toy of glass and cannot we who are under Grace give the same price for a rich Jewel When Themistocles was leading forth his army by chance he past by where Cocks were fighting and shewing them to his Souldiers Lo saith he these have neither altars nor temples nor children to fight for and you see how stoutly they fight for no other end but who shall be the conqueror And to this end have I shewn unto you the examples of these Heathen men as Themistocles did the Cocks to his Army For these men nec aras habebant neque focos They were without Christ in the world received not the promises neither saw they them so much as afar off saw not so much as a glimering of that Light which lightneth every man that commeth into the world Of immortality and eternal life they knew little What was their hopes what was their end As for Heaven and Hell their knowledge of them was small Yet their stomach and courage was such that we who are Christians hear it only as a tale and can scarcely believe it Beloved I speak this to our shame For a great shame it is that Nature defamed Nature should more prevail with them then God and Grace with us that they by the power of their Reason should stand the strongest assault and shock of misery and we run away affrighted from the very phansie and shadow of it For to whom more is given of them more shall be required And if we Christians cannot look undauntedly when we see these things come to pass how shall we behold the Heavens gathered together as a Scrowl the Elements melted and the Earth burnt up how shall we be able to hear the trump and the voice of the Arch-angel If we cannot look up and lift up our heads when we see these things with what face shall we meet our Saviour in the clouds Therefore as our Saviour in this Chapter exhorts v. 19. let us possess our souls with patience Let us withdraw our souls from our bodies our minds from our sensual parts that what is terrible to the eye may have no such aspect on the mind and what is dreadful to the ear may be as musick to the spirit and what wounds and torments the body may not touch the soul that so we may be what we should be our selves our own Lords in our own possession that Christ at his coming may find us not let out to Pleasure not sold to this Vanity nor in fetters under that fear nor swallowed up in that Calamity nor buried in the apprehension of those evils which shall come upon this generation but free in Christ alive in Christ active making these our adversaries friends these terrors blessings these signs miracles by Christs power working light out of darkness plenty out of famine peace out of these wars that at his second coming he may find us looking up upon him and lifting up our heads waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body that so we may be caught up together in the clouds and be for

was her shame more laid open to the world by many amongst us who for their great pains have no better reward then to be called his Shavelings This they saw and their heart waxt hot within them and at last this fire kindled which is now ready to consume us Before they whisper'd in secret now they speak it on the house-top before they husht up their malice in silence now they noise it out by the drum Enemies to the Ark enemies to the Church enemies to Government and Order enemies to Peace which particulars make up this entire sum INIMICI DEI enemies to God But now what if we see RELIGIONIS ERGO written upon their designs and that this Rebellion was raised and is upheld for the cause of God and Religion shall we then call them Gods enemies who fight his battels who venture their lives for the common cause for Christs Vicar for Religion for the Church for God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All they intend is good Nihil malè sed rem sacram facio So said Cillicon I do no evil I do but sacrifice when he betrayed a City Let us rise up in arms let us cut the heretiques throats let us destroy them that they be no more a Nation It is no harm at all but an acceptable sacrifice to God Sed quid verba audio cùm facta videam what are words when we feel the smart of their blows All this will not change their title nor blot their names out of the Devils Kalender out of the number of those that hate God For a man may be an enemy to God and yet do some things for Gods sake And it is too common a thing in the world sub religionis titulo evertere religionem to cry up Religion when we beat it down The Father well said Many good intentions are burning in Hell Multa non illicita vitiat animus It is true indeed The mind and intention may make a lawfull action evil but it cannot make an evil action good Propose what end you please set up Religion the Church and God himself yet Treason and Rebellion are sins which strike at his Majesty No enemies to those who stroke us with one hand and strike us with the other who dig down the foundation and then paint the walls We may observe when Reason and Scripture fail them they bring in the Church at a dead lift and when they are put to silence by the evidence of the Truth then they urge the Authority of the Church and make this word to be like Anaxagoras his M●ne in Aristotle to answer all Arguments The Church is their scarre-sun by which they fright poor silly souls from their faith The Church must make good Purgatory Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints c. And indeed this is the best and worst Argument they have And as they make it an Argument for their grossest errors so they have learnt to make it an excuse for Treason for Rebellion for Murder And to the Church they are enemies because they love the Church Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Such heart and life and bloud doth the fair pretence of the Church and Religion put into wicked men so desperately do they fight against God under his own colours No sin I will not say venial but meritorious drawn on for the advantage of the Catholick cause But for all these glorious pretences enemies they are and Haters of God and to bring in the third appellation wicked persons not sinners of an ordinary rank but gyant-like sinners who fight against God with a high hand Now there is a great difference saith Hilary inter impium peccatorem betwen a Sinner and a Wicked man For every wicked man is a sinner but every sinner is not a wicked man Et carent impietate qui non carent crimine and they may be guilty of sin who are not guilty of Impiety The justest man alive falls seven times a day but this fall is not a rising against God not contumelious to his Majesty But the wicked make sin their trade nay their Religion Deum non ex Dei ipsius professione sed ex arbitrij sui voluntate metiuntur saith the same Father They measure God not by those lines by which he is pleased to manifest himself but by their own perverse will They entitle his Wisdom to their fraud his Justice to their rebellion his Truth to their treason He could not have given us a better mark and character of these men What pretend they the Holy cause the Honour of God the Liberty of Conscience the promoting of Religion and these pretences make the fact fouler and their rebellion more abominable because they thwart the plain definitions and the evident commands of God and break his Law under colour of doing his will Nec minoris est impietatis Deum fingere quam negare It is as great impiety and wickedness to frame a God unto our selves as to deny him to feign a God who will applaud sin countenance murder reward rebellion and crown treason So that to conclude this these men may well bear all these titles of Enemies of Haters of God of wicked persons If there were ever any such in the world these are they But to drive it yet a little more home There is not the like danger of enemies when they are sever'd and asunder as when they are collected as it were into one mass and body not so much danger in a rout as in a well-drawn army Vis unita fortior Let them keep at distance one from another and their malice will not reach to the hurt of any but themselves but being gathered and knit together in one band their malice is strong to do mischief to others The rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against Psal ● his anointed Paquine renders it fundati sunt were founded Before they were but as pieces scatter'd here and there but being gather'd gather'd together they have a foundation to build on While the vapours are here and there dispersed upon the earth they present no appearance of evil but when they are drawn up into the ayr and are compact they become a Comet and are ominous and portend shipwracks and seditions and the ruine of Kings and Common-wealths And such a Comet hangs over us at this day in which we see many thousands are drawn together not by virtue of the stars or any kindly heat from heaven but by an irregular zeal and a false perswasion that they can do God no better service than to destroy us Before they were gathered together in mind and resolution but that was but as the gathering together of a heap of stones in a field now they are knit together as in a building And now we may cry out with the Prophet Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to have Psal 102. 13. mercy upon her yea the appointed time is come When God's enemies when they