Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	death_n	lord_n	sinner_n	2,648	5	7.4070	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61645	A stock of divine knowledge, being a lively description of the divine nature, or, The divine essence, attributes, and Trinity particularly explaned [sic] and profitably applied the first, shewing us what God is : the second, what we ought to be / by the late learned and laborious preacher, and worthy instrument of Gods glory, Richard Stock ...	Stock, Richard, 1569?-1626.	1641 (1641)	Wing S5693; ESTC R34616	191,839	352

grounds given for every part there also were answered divers objections which we conceived were of two kindes some as if God had changed his will c. but these were spoken of the last day but now of one or two more that may be made Object And the next is that God in declaring his will Ezek 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner yet there are many thousand sinners that die for all this therefore his will must be mutable Answ The answer to this is taken from the consideration of what kindes of sinners the Lord speaks of sinners some be penitent that see and acknowledge themselves sinners and sorrow for and turne from their sinnes and cry and fly unto Christ for salvation God doth not will the death of such sinners neither shall they die But he that confesseth and for saketh his sinnes shall finde mercy but others be obstinate and hardened in sinne that adde drunkennesse to thirst and rebellion to sinne without repentance God will laugh at these when their destruction commeth so then as long as God is pleased with repentance and pardoneth the penitent there is no alteration in God though the impenitent perish nay there would be alteration in him if they did not perish or it may be said and truly that God is better pleased with the repentance then with the perdition of a sinner there is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repents Object Againe it is objected the Apostle Paul saith in Tim. 2.4 That God would have all men saved How should it be then that any should perish unlesse his will be changeable Answ Ambrose upon this place of the Apostle expounds it thus God will have all men to be saved but so as they come to him he will have them saved if they will salvation to themselves and if this sense be admitted there is no shaddow of change in God though many be not saved because those many that are not saved doe not seeke salvation Saint Austin understands All not collectively for every singular man but distributively for some of all sorts of men in which sense it is used in other places of Scripture and so the meaning may be God will have all men saved that is all sorts of men Jewes Greekes bond free Kings and Subjects saved and therefore praiers must be made for all sorts of men and in this sense there is no change in Gods will though some of all sorts perish because some of all sorts be saved as in the Arke God saved from the deluge all living creatures not in the particular but in the kinde because he saved some of every sort againe Saint Austin in another place explanes it thus God wills all should be saved because all that are saved are saved by Gods will as a Physitian is said to cure all who cures all that are cured and for this cause the Apostle enjoines that praiers should be made to God for all because without God none can be saved and if we so expound it though many be not saved yet there is no change in Gods will who wills the salvation of all that are saved As in Christ all are said to be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 because all that are made alive are made alive by Christ so in this place in the same respect may God be said to will the salvation of all men adde to these our faith thus God will have all men saved he wills the salvation even of the reprobate as a thing in it selfe good and sutable to the disposition of a gracious God but yet he doth not determine or appoint it and therefore though many perish there is no change in Gods will this place shewing what God might approve of being done not what he determined to doe he wills it by an antecedent will as in it selfe considered but not with a consequent will and here is no change in Gods will finally we answer that by all may be understood the all of the elect not of the reprobate as it is Rom. 5.18 The free gift came upon all men to the justification of life that is in the verse following By the righteousnesse of one many are made righteous this all is many so that when he saith that God would have all to be saved the meaning is all that he purposeth to save I determine nothing which of these interpretations should be followed but leave that to every learned and judicious readers choice secure of this that which soever is preferred Gods will doth still remaine Immutable and without shaddow of change Vse 1. The use is that if the will of God be free and no cause without God can move him to will then it followes that they er re that thinke and teach that God is moved to bestow some good thing on man because he foresees some good thing in him I say this confuteth their error for if this were so then Gods will were not free but it is free therefore this is erroneous Earthly Princes cast their benefits upon those that have no desert how much more doth God who is not as earthly Princes but much more great and more free in conferring of his benefits more blessed and glorious then that he can be either engaged or recompenced and indeed what could any man doe before he was to make God his Debtor what workes could he doe that was not Ob. But God might foresee he would worke Ans If God did foresee this the Apostle Rom. 9.32 would not have cried out Oh the depth both of the wisedome and counsell of God here is no place for Pelagians and Papists they cannot see the depth of his counsell though they be so quick and acute that they can see that which the Apostle could not Saint Ambrose pressing this against the Pelagians The Apostle saith he speakes after this manner Oh the riches of his mercy then not of workes then not for foreseen workes and indeed saith Ambrose could he not well have said but of future workes or workes to come but he knew that the will of God was free Then to shut up this Saint Augustine in a case of Infants the one is baptized the other not the one is saved the other not I demand saith he why God did save the one and destroy the other will you say it was because he did foresee the one would be good and the other evill this would be injustice in God to damne him for that he never did seeing he takes them away before they knew good or evill Vse 2. This teaches men that if they have any sense of Gods calling and that they are elected of God and made partakers of the grace and mercy of God not to be puffed up because it is the free will of God that hath chosen them the more any man hath received of God the more indebted he is and should learn to be the more humble let no man advance himselfe against another what