Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	death_n	mercy_n	sin_n	3,579	5	4.7173	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75003	The beauty of holiness Written by the author of The whole duty of man, &c. To which is added holy devotions upon several occasions, fitted to the main uses of a Christian life.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Hove, Frederick Hendrick van, 1628?-1698, engraver.	1684 (1684)	Wing A1096A; ESTC R223525	94,600	252

our mouths who shall deliver us from the misery due unto us for our transgression nothing can be expected in this life but misery and confusion and in the world to come eternal condemnation But yet O Lord in obedience to thy command and in confident assurance of thy endless and unspeakable mercy promised in Jesus Christ to all sinners which come unto thee with sorrow in our hearts shame in our faces and in all humility of spirit And we would appeal from thee a just Judge to thee a merciful Father from the Throne of thy Justice to the Seat of thy Mercy beseeching thee O Lord to have mercy upon us and to turn away thy face from all our sins and to blot out all our transgressions for the onely meritorious Death and Passion of Jesus Christ who so abundantly shed his Blood on the Cross to take away the sin of the world and be pleased now to reform our affections transform us out of sin into the glorious liberty of thy own Children to live in newness of Life in a holy conversation and continual obedience to thy divine Majesty And now we further intreat thee O Lord for a blessing upon the Church universal more especially we beseech thee to continue the peace and prosperity of these Churches wherein we live and every member thereof and in a more especial manner bless with the chiefest of thy blessings our King Queen Duke and the rest of the Royal Family bless our Counsellours Ministers and Magistrates bless our Friends Kindred and Acquaintance bless the whole Church every afflicted member of it accept of our morning-sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for all themercis and favours comforts and deliverances which from time to time thou hast afforded and continued to us We thank thee for thy last mercy in preserving us from the dangers of this night past for refreshing our bodies with seasonable rest and bringing us safe to the beginning of this day Lord what is man that thou art so mindful of him and the Son of man that thou shouldst thus visit and remember him Give us grace O Lord to remember thee and to be mindful of thy mercies that we may praise thee for all the truth and faithfulness which thou shewest to us in the land of the living that as thou hast brought us to the comforts of this day so thou mayst go along with us in the same to enable us for the Duties of those callings wherein we are placed and to deliver us from those dangers to which we are exposed even for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most blessed name and words we conclude these our weak and imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught us in his holy Gospel Our Father c. A Prayer for a Family at Night MOst glorious and everlasting Lord God which inhabitest eternitie and dwellest in that light which no mortal Eye can attain unto the God in whom we live and move and have our being we thine unworthy Servants do here in all lowliness and humility present our Persons and Prayers before thy Divine Majesty confessing and acknowledging that we were conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquitie and as if that had been but a small matter we have heaped up our Actual transgressions as the sand upon the Sea-shore and as the Stars in the Firmament for number we have broken thy Commandments we have prophaned thy Sabbaths we have dishonour'd thy Name we have abused thy Creatures we have neglected the day of our Visitation and turned thy Grace into wantonness whereby we have most justly provoked thy wrath and everlasting displeasure we have wounded our own consciences weakned our assurance of Salvation and grieved thy good Spirit which sealeth us up unto the day of our Redemption And now O Lord if thou shouldst deal with us after our deservings thou mighest pour upon us the deluge of thy wrath and fury to sweep us out of the Land of the living into that place of torment prepared for the Devil and his Angels But thou hast revealed thy self to the Sons of men to be the Lord the Lord merciful and gracious long-suffering and of great goodness who pardons sins and passest by the transgressions of thy People this is thy Name for ever and thy Memorial throughout all Generations We beseech therefore for Jesus Christ his sake to be merciful unto us in the free pardon and forgiveness of all our sins that we have ever committed against thee Accept of his obedience for our disobedience of his righteousness for our unrighteousness of his sufferings for all our sins wash them away in his blood nail them to his Cross hide them in his Wounds and bury them in his Grave that they may never rise up for our confusion here or for our condemnation hereafter O Lord be unto us a Father of mercy and a God of consolation speak peace unto our Souls and consciences and say unto us that thou art the God of our Salvation And give us Grace for the time to come to dye daily unto sin by vertue of thy Sons death and to rise up to newness of life by the power of his resurrection Wean our Hearts and take off our Affections from the things of this world which endure but for a season and raise them up unto those things which are at thy right hand for evermore Enlighten the darkness of our understanding subdue the stubbornness of our wills rectify the disorder of our affections and bring into obedience whatsoever exalteth it self against thy will that at last we may become such as thou would'st have us to be Continue and enlarge thy blessings upon the Church and Land wherein we live upon the Person and Government of our King bless all the Royal family together with his Majesties Councels the Nobilitie Magistracy Clergy and Gentry of the Land Be merciful to all those who are afflicted with any cross or calamitie all our relations and aquaintance and all others whom we are bound to pray for O Lord accept our thanksgivings this Evening for all the mercies and favors which thou hast afforded for our Souls or Bodies for this Life or a better more especially that thou hast preserved us and our Family this day in health and happiness Now holy Father seeing the Night is upon us and we are ready to take our rest in thy hands we commit our Souls and Bodies and all that we have beseeching thee who art the keeper of Israel that neither sleepest nor slumberest to take care of us for if thou protect us not Satan will devour us yea we shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never arise up to praise thee we pray thee therefore to be good to us this night defend us from danger refresh us with comfortable rest and raise us up to glorifie thee in the duties of the day following that thou mayst still be our God and we may be thy People Hear us and gratiously answer us in these our

our selves to be of all men the most ungrate and justly liable to the severest punishment ever inflicted upon the greatest criminal It would be too prolix to enumerate the several instances wherein Christ is set forth as our Pattern sure I am he hath by his example taught us the exercise of all vertues and I may say as himself said in another case If we know these things happy are we if we do them To sum up this Section it will not be amiss to obviate an Objection which is indeed but very trivial although it be too commonly urged the Objection is How is it possible for men to conform to Christ and be holy as he is holy Ans I have already told that it is not expected that we should imitate our blessed Redeemer in all and every of those actions he performed but in all those moral duties which he hath enjoyned by his righteous precepts and encouraged us by his example to perform these we must by no means neglect and to manifest the possibility of doing these we may satisfie our selves by viewing the pious and devout lives of primitive Christians It is a great mistake to think we are commanded to a rigorous and strict conversation which cannot be attained the faithful in former ages have run the same race that is set before us they have fully enough cleared the possibility of our duty Wherefore seeing we also as the Apostle argues are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 For shame let us rather imitate the excellent holiness of primitive Christians than the impure practices of those who are strangers from the sacred Covenant O the perfect love and imitable kindness of the first professors of the Gospel what purity what integrity and innocence appeared in their lives how ravishing and splendent were their vertues and graces their Patience in suffering their Courage and Magnanimity in death their Temperance and Moderation their Charity and Compassion their Equality and Justice and their Contempt of this World and all earthly concerns for the sake and honour of their Master These were the vertues they were adorned with which made the Heathen world who hated the Doctrine they professed yet esteem and reverence them Bonus vir Cajus Sejus nisi Christianus SECT 2. Holiness the condition of future Happiness The desire of Happiness is so natural to all that partake of humane nature that it can no more be separate from it than heat can be from fire 'T is true the mistakes concerning happiness are as numerous as dangerous every one in this corrupt state is apt to frame a happiness which best suits his inclinations but yet there is no man so devoid of reason who doth not desire to be happy although indeed there be but a few who make use of the right means to attain to true felicity Daily experience puts it beyond doubt that a carnal and fictitious felicity is by the unwise sons of men pursued with the most indefatigable pains and industry possible Now how strange to amazement is it to think that men should be so sedulous in hunting after a fancied felicity and yet so negligent so careless and unconcerned about a real happiness which is both satisfying and lasting But not to digress that which I am now to urge is since happiness is that which excites men to perform any thing chearfully in order to the attaining of it how mightily should the expectation of a future felicity induce them to the practice of Holiness for betwixt the two our blessed Saviour has made an inseparable connexion Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in spirit for they shall see God and indeed it is the height of folly and madness for impure wretches to expect they shall be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints of light for as the Apostle tells us There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Rev. 21.27 Holiness is the established condition of happiness Heb. 12.14 Without holiness no man shall see God Hence is it that all the promises concerning our future felicity are onely made to those men who purifie themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and the great design of them is to encourage us to Holiness upon which account St. Paul draws a very pressing inference 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises of which he spake in the foregoing Chapter let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God There is nothing more certain than that onely holy souls are in a capacity of participating of that future felicity and these may without the least charge of presumption claim an interest in it But for those vitious wretches who are wholly polluted who have devoted themselves to commit sin with greediness and take pleasure in doing evil how utterly incapable are they if they continue such to dwell in his presence who is not a God that taketh pleasure in wickedness And now seeing there is such an inseparable connexion between Happiness and Holiness it cannot be amiss if we take a short view of the excellency of this coelestial felicity that it may more plainly appear what a notable encouragement and motive it is to holiness There be two things that forcibly recommend the excellency of that future state of bliss First A perfect freedom and immunity from all evils And Secondly a perpetual enjoyment of the chief good First it is a blessedness wholly exempt from evils whether of sense or loss 't is a happiness attended with no inconveniencies nor dismal circumstances as the happiest state here is we now walk in the midst of perplexing doubts and fears temptations increase our inquietudes and dangers our continual fears our complaints are by far more numerous than our joys nay what is our whole life but a scene where sorrow and fears act their parts Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of evil But our future blessedness quite excludes all those evils there is nothing admitted to imbitter that pleasant state Rev. 21.4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away The holy soul shall then no more complain of any dolorous hours the heavenly Jerusalem is a place unacquainted with every thing that is uneasie and troublesome And yet this is but the least part of the Saints felicity for as they shall enjoy a perfect freedom from evil so shall they also be advanced to the fullest fruition of that God where all the streams of goodness do finally empty themselves Blessed are the pure in spirit for they shall see God Matth. 5.8 They shall see him not as now through a Glass

men seriously believe the threatnings of the Gospel I am sure they would not for the fullest enjoyment of carnal felicity run the hazard of dwelling with everlasting burnings That man that soberly considers that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men will I think easily be scared into reformation and be thereby excited to be diligent in the pursuit of substantial Holiness which is the safe course to escape that wrath Alas that men who are so wise and diligent in their secular concerns should prove so foolish so remiss and careless in matters of the greatest weight and which require the utmost diligence That rational creatures should so willingly purchase their own misery and be at so much pains to damn themselves 'T will surely be an aggravating circumstance of their misery to think that they might have been happy if they had but taken as much pains to live holily as they took in the pursuit of sinful pleasures How astonishing a consideration will it be to the damned to think of their treading under foot the Son of God and their counting the blood of the Covenant whereby they were sanctifi●d an unholy thing Heb. 10.29 to think that the time was when they enjoyed not onely a possibility but a fair probability also of escaping the fury and indignation of God! But men will not believe that a merciful God will thus torment his creatures that he who delights not in the death of sinners will execute his vengeance upon them Alas what delusory imaginations arethese for although fury is not in God yet his honour calls for the execution of Justice upon ungodly sinners who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus He has waited long upon sinners and has fully testified that he is a God long suffering and slow to wrath He has not instantly resented every injury offered to him but day from day has been intreating sinners to turn from the evil of their ways and now seeing they set at nought all his counsel and will not hearken to his reproof what wonder is it though he laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh Prov. 1.25.26 How heavy is that threatning Deut. 28.63 As the Lord rejoyced over you to do you Good so the Lord will rejoyce over you to destroy you To compleat the misery of the damned besides the intolerable and eternal pains they endure we may also adde that celestial felicity they are for ever excluded from How tormenting will it be to think of an everlasting separation from the divine Presence and instead of a holy Society to keep a continual correspondency with impure Spirits Would God that this brief discovery of the powers of the world to come might prevail with men to be holy in all manner of conversation But methinks I hear the over zealous Professor too ignorantly objecting that it is servile mercenary and legal to be holy for love of Heaven or fear of Hell Truly if it were so as these men teach I know not what can be the intent and designe of all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel And although I question not but it is a generous and Christian principle to serve God out of pure love yet I can never be induced to think that to be holy for love of Heaven and fear of Hell can be separate from that principle of love to God God knows how much in need men stand both of arguments to work upon their hope and fear to excite them to duty And since he who knows our natures has used promises to allure us and threatnings to awaken us we must not pretend to be wiser than God and reject those motives he has thought fit to prescribe and indeed if it were not for the fear of evil and the hope of good 't is to be feared the pressing of other motives should be but a mere beating of the Air. But that this is not servile and mercenary needs no other argument to prove it but our Saviour's enduring the Gross and despising the Shame for the joy that was set before him a Scripture sufficient enough to stop the mouths of all opponents SECT 4. Holiness the main design of the Gospel and the end of all Christs sufferings Subjects who know the intent and design of those Laws issued forth by their Prince will be loath to contemn his Authority especially when the whole intent of these is to make them by their obedience the more happy and sure 't is the most unaccountable thing that can be if they notwithstanding despise his Laws and quite counter-act his design Now the main designe of the Christian precepts is the promoting of Holiness and planting a good life in men This also was the onely intent of our Soveraign and Law-giver and it is certain the whole advantage redounds to us How impious then is it to despise the Authority of Heaven If God had made Holiness a matter of indifferency the want of such a qualification had not been criminal but since sacred Writ has declared That this is the will of God even our sanctification and that we must be holy as he is holy if we rebel the indignity and contempt we cast upon him is insufferable I have already shewed that it is the great design of the Gospel-Precepts Promises Threatings to exalt Holiness Hence the Apostle very aptly calls it A doctrine according to godliness and he tells us that the design of it is to teach men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world and the Character of its nature is to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgivness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ I wish the effect were answerable to the designe I doubt not but the Gospel has had a kindly influence upon some to form them to Holiness I would fain wish upon all But alas the perverse and corrupt conversations of men plainly tell us that there are but a few who have answered its design In the next place it were easie to demonstrate that to plant Holiness amongst men was the end of Christs descending from Heaven to Earth and of all that he suffered This the Apostle plainly enough holds forth Tit. 2.14 He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purisie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Now what argument should be so powerful and prevalent to engage Christians to be universally holy as the due consideration of Christ's redeeming them for that end Men who are endu'd with any sparks of ingenuity cannot but be inspirited to be separate from the pollutions of this world when they reflect what their Redeemer hath suffered in order to the purchasing of their pardon and reconciliation For when poor Man had cast himself headlong from Heaven to Earth had