Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	abraham_n	general_a	great_a	19	3	2.0984	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40710	The grand case of the present ministry whether they may lawfully declare and subscribe, as by the late Act of vniformity is required and the several cases, thence arising (more especially about the Covenant) are clearly stated and faithfully resolved / by the same indifferent hand ; with an addition to his former Cases of conscience, hereunto subjoyned.	Fullwood, Francis, d. 1693.	1662 (1662)	Wing F2505; ESTC R21218	59,550	206

appointed Hezeckiah's admitting to 2 Chron. 30. 17. to 21. Act. 27. 30. the Passeover the legally unclean and Paul his casting the good creatures of God into the Sea Yet we must still carefully distinguish betwixt things that are internally Materially and Naturally evil and such things as are onely extrinsically evil or unlawful onely by virtue of positive prohibitions in Scripture For what hath been said I intend onely to the latter branch viz. such things as are evil onely from without and by virtue of Gods positive precept for such things as are Intrinsically and Materially evil you have had my opinion about them already in the former Treatise If it be well heeded though a general rule may in case of necessity discharge us from present attendance upon the proper duties of the Lords Day the Ceremonial and external parts of worship yet no necessity that I can find will excuse wholly either Robbery Adultery Murther c. things Morally and Materially evil and therefore Immutabiliter mala immutably evil at least without some thing more then a general Rule viz. a special personal warrant as the Israelites had to take the goods of the Egyptians and Abraham to slay his Son Isaac Mark the opposition I will have mercy and not sacrifice the positive yields to the Natural and Moral duty the lesse necessary to the more necessasary the lesse to the greater Yet in such a case see here is a command too I will and this both affirmative I will have mercy And Negative Not sacrifice No doubt where God can have both he will but where he cannot he will have mercy though he lose sacrifice Yea rather then lose mercy he will have no sacrifice he prohibits sacrifice in such a case even prayer is turned into sin and sacrifice is an abomination But what is this mercy that the God of heaven so highly values and so strictly chargeth above his own service truly I can hardly think on 't without wonder or write it without Mat. 12. 4 5 10. astonishment it is instanced by our Ver. 11 12. Saviour in mercy not only to men but to beasts even sacrifice to the high God must give way to mercy to our beast Yet may we hence abate our wonder that the Scripture saw reason to prefix that Item go and learn what that meaneth as if little understood and lesse practised Go and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Is mercy to our beast so highly prized how much more is mercy to our selves to our Nation to the Church and to the souls of our people is mercy to a beast to take place of sacrifice to God how precious is mercy to all these when it meets with sacrifice and supports the Altar and when if we will not have both together we can have neither how much more desirable to God and man to have mercy and piety kiss each other then to throw away charity and duty together which God forbid But pardon my digression and I shall add but one instance more of this nature and hasten to conclude with Apology It is indeed a great one and much more insisted on then all the rest by reason that the practice was more general and the nature of it more applicable It is that famous Apostolical usage of the Jewish Ceremonies after Christs Resurrection and the first Christians following them at least in some of them viz. abstaining from bloud and things strangled till St. Augustines time for the space of neer four hundred year after Do not all consent that those Jewish Ceremonies even when the Apostles used them viz. Circumcision Shaving Vowing Purifying Abstaining from bloud and things strangled which two last they also imposed by a generall Decree I say do not even all consent that these were truly Mortua though not Mortifera dead with Christ and buried in his grave and rendred unlawfull to the Christian Churches by virtue of the consequence of his Resurrection yea in other Act. 15. 10. Col. 2. 20. Col. 2. 12. Gal. 4. 19 20. cases the use of them is directly reproved as needlesse shadows Ordinances of the World Commandments of men that turned from the truth and weak and beggarly rudiments Yet now in a second Consideration they are occasionally approved as good and necessary and accordingly as already we have said some of them imposed and many of them practised by those great examples The ends Acts 15. 2 4 6 7. indeed moving thereunto were most weighty viz. the Vnity of Brethren Winning Souls the Propagation of the Gospel the prevention of Scandal 1 Cor. 9. 19 20. 1 Cor. 9. 31. Act. 16. 3 Acts 21. 22 24 27 28. In Acts 2. 23. citing 1 Cor. 9. 20. and the danger of the Ministry through persecution Calvin is peremptory Non licuisset saith he it had not been lawful for believers to have retained those Ceremonies except they had made for Edification yet boldly addes licuit it was lawful for Paul to circumcise Timothy Zanchy and Peter Martyr to name no more come neer to us in their application Peter Martyr saith that without Controversie the abstaining from Loc. com fol. 1087. Hoopero bloud and things strangled were Aaronical yet defends that Apostolical injunction for peace and the better conviction of believers and thence the Surplice Zanchy saith the forbidding of things In Phil. 1. fol. 45. 6. strangled and bloud smelt of Jewish superstition and that Pauls vow and purifying were hay and stubble at that time Yet he approves them for love and peace sake and thence perswadeth Ministers threatned by Authority to use such Ceremonies as are hay and stubble rather then to leave their Ministry He concludes from this great President Ergo multa toleranda Ministris ne pax scindatur Ecclesiarum c. therefore many things are to be born by Ministers for the Churches peace and to avoid scandals if they be neither such things nor Doctrines as strike at the Foundation But I forbear to enlarge or apply this Argument lest peradventure I be mistaken to charge my Brethren with too hard thoughts of our Churches Impositions or be thought my self to be too Friendly to any thing that 's sinful which God forbid I confesse it is a very tender point and to be touched gently both in Doctrine and Vse but though I cannot be so uncharitable as to fear our Church will try us with it or that it is the case of many of my Brethren their own judgements and lastly in though I dare not say how far I should venture in my own practice upon this principle yet I freely consent to the truth of it neither can I question it till I shall see the foresaid Scriptures better answered then I have yet done Yea I do firmly perswade my self that where there is only a Doubt concerning such unlawfulnesse of any thing enjoyned much encouragement to a readier obedience may justly be drawn from a prudent pondering the

say in it do they not either approve our usages or dislike them onely as inconvenient and those they dislike as inconvenient do they not notwithstanding their inconvenience yet earnestly perswade to Conformity to them and what is it that moves them so severely to admonish them against Non-Conformity but a sad prospect of greater inconveniencies the disquiet of the Church the provoking of our Governours and the laying aside the work of the Gospel If Vnacquaintance with these worthy men cause any to doubt or suspect this truth I humbly beg them throughly to examine it especially in the discourse of the troubles at Franckford and those weighty papers of Bucer P. Martyr c. to Bishop Hooper Cranmer Greendall c. about this very Controversie If you read the other disputes and occasionall advices of Calvin Zanchy Polanus Alesius Beza Saravia Hemingius Bucanus Bullinger Zepperus Paraeus Arelius and the rest of that golden number they all consent except Illiricus in the sweetest harmony as one man that for some Inconveniencies imposed on us we ought not to quit the Office of the Ministry or hazard the Church Illiricus that onely eminent forraign Divine in his Age against Conformity had this Apology beyond us that the Interim full of popish errours was then by Charles the Fifth imposed upon Germany Yet notwithstanding all his other excellencies what a horrid Character Melancton yea and Beza himself gives of him and his cause but what was his crime he hotly perswaded all the Ministers to lay down their Ministry rather then conform Bez. in vit Calv. an 1540. which occasioned so many Tumults that Beza complaines he promoted Popery as if he had been hired by the Pope of Rome and indeed deserved that black name which a sober Historian gives him Matthias Flaccius homo vehemens quocunque loco pedem figeret accerri mus Turbarum incentor Notwithstanding therefore these heats of Illyricus and his furious followers it will be their Joy and Crown at last that can truly say with Lumbertus Nihil novi attuli sed antiquam receptam Doctrinam c. I have brought in nothing new but the old and received Doctrine of the Scriptures the Fathers and the general part of Modern Divines which my Conscience yea these my Eyes bearing me witness I can safely do When I read that imprudent yea impudent saying of Miricus branded by Melancton viz. that rather then Conformity should be yielded Desolation should be made in the Church and that Princes are to be frighted with the terrour of Insurrection I find my self carried yet more to the contrary and the more enamoured with the sober safe and peaceable counsell of Melanction and his Brethren in the present Conclusion Yet I must needs confess that the Fruit profit which the Church hath reaped from this Rule that we ought rather to conform to some things inexpedient then to lay down our Ministry the Fruit I say hereof hath more deeply affected me then any hurt or danger of the Contrary which haply may not be impertinent briefly to touch The Ministers of Suevia as Melancton tells us would not conform to the use of the Surpliee but rather chose to lay down their Ministry But Melancton and Pomeranus even by the force of this very Principle that we ought to conform to some inconveniencies rather then to leave our Ministery Conc. Melanc p. 2. sol 91. ● recovered most of the Ministers of Marquesse Albertus Dominions to a peaceable mind and due Conformitie By the same Argument Calvin quieted the Church at Geneva when all in an uproar about the Wafer-cake he told them to this effect that the thing was in it self indifferent and for its inconvenience they ought not to break and hazard the Church Generally by this alone he argued both Ministers and People that scrupled at it to conformity again Neither have we been altogether without some fruit of this Doctrine in England indeed the most eminent Non-conformists here have known its power Bishop Hooper for not practising and for preaching against conformity was convented before the High Commission and imprisoned yet at length did conform himself But by what means why at length by the pains of Bucer Peter Martyr and Calvin he became convinced of this truth that we ought not to stick at an inconvenience to the prejudice of the Church and then the work was done By virtue of the same principle were a while after Doctor Humphrey-Dr Reynolds Dr. Sparkes Dr. Chaloner Dr. Ayray Mr. Chaderton and Mr. Kenwstubs all very eminent after a long reluctancy at last subdued and reduced to conformity In later time Mr. Sprint after he had shewn much opposition hath with more learning sobernesse and industry testified to the world that he was prevailed upon by the same Consideration the very Title of his Book is the necessity of Conformity in case of Deprivation he also assures us in the Epistle to his Book that by the same Argument many others had received satisfaction from him and doubts not but many more would Give me leave to assume that this Principle may have life and vigour still I mean not in it self for so it is Moral perpetual and eternal but in the mindes of sober men And that when the Tempest is over and the thoughts of people a little more Calmed my Brethren may discern this truth more clearly and reap the peaceable fruit of it which our good God the God of peace in mercy to this poor Church grant yea I hope I perceive some blossomes to appear already great is the truth and will prevail A Supplement to the Case touching the Imposition of things unlawfull IT is well kown that very Pious and Learned men have ventured much further in this Argument boldly asserting that things not onely inconvenient and unlawful in genere but more directly sinful even against particular Scripture may lawfully be done in some Emergencies and Cases of 〈◊〉 Neither can it be denied but that we often find in the Scripture it self particular commands over-ruled by a more general Law of necessity and then doubtlesse the general warrant grants a Supersedeas against particular obligation and in such a Case it is not sinful not to fulfill a particular command but rather a clear obedience to God who in the instance takes off the force of the particular in his more general Law Thus the breakers of the Sabbath broke a particular command yet breaking the particular in obedience to the general rule of necessity they do not do evill that good may come but are reckoned Matth. 12. 2. 3 4 5. blamelesse and called Innocent Thus also the particular Text tells us expresly that it is unlawful for any save the Priests onely to eat the Shew-bread yet in a strait the general rule of necessity warrants not onely David but those also that were with him to eat thereof Upon the same account we 2 Chron. 7. 72. must put Solomon's upon an Altar not