Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	faith_n	grace_n	repentance_n	2,335	5	7.5639	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59652	Moral vertues baptized Christian, or, The necessity of morality among Christians by William Shelton, M.A., late fellow of Jesus Colledge in Cambridge, and now vicar of Bursted Magna in Essex.	Shelton, William, d. 1699.	1667 (1667)	Wing S3099; ESTC R37384	107,365	208

his Counsellour hath taught him Out of the ●outh of the most High and from infinite wisedom have proceeded the directio●● we have for our Conversations And it is Arrogance beyond an Epithete to offer our selves as Counsel to the Almighty or to pre●●●e or advise a change of that which hath gone o●● of the Mouth of God Unless it please God himself first to repeal his Laws it is not possible that a Creature should have Authority to usurp upon his Creator All the question then is whether God himself have not annexed some conditions to his commands whether there be not some reserves and exceptions which in case they happen then upon performance of the condition the obligation becomes void and of none effect Indeed Christian priviledges by which we ought to encourage our selves to Christian duties have been abused by those that turn the grace J●de 4. of God into lasciviousness to patronize all manner of impiety and three things especially have been made use of to this purpose Faith and Repentance and Christian liberty none of all which do give any indulgence to Immorality or vitiousness of life or do weaken those commands which require Moral Vertues Sect. 2 Not Faith It hath already been acknowledged that the necessity of Moral Vertues ought not to be understood as a prejudice to Book 1. Object 2 Faith It must now be considered on the other side that as Morality doth not make Faith useless so neither doth Faith bring any excuse for Immorality If it be said I believe in Jesus Christ for the pardon of my sins and for the Salvation of my Soul upon his alone merits I rely who hath promised Everlasting life to me if I believe therefore what need I do any more To this I oppose the words of St. Paul This is a Faithful saying and these Ti●us 3. ● things I will that thou affirm constantly that they who have believed in God be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men They who have believed in God may not sit down and bless themselves with the priviledges of the Faithful without any more ado they must maintain i. e. they must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excel must be eminent in good works they must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word which no body that understands but will allow it thus much they Antistites esse Beza in loc must be Presidents of good works And this they must take care of and be sollicitous about and lest there should be any that may doubt of it he will have Titus affirm it constantly he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be very firm and resolute in the case without peradventure it is the duty of Believers thus to do to all which it is some Emphasis that he begins the Verse thus A Faithful saying a word which he doth elsewhere use in weighty matters It is a Faithful saying and 1 Tim. 1. 15. worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the World to save sinners To all which nothing can be objected by any man that doth not magnify his own private Spirit before St. Paul who did more than think he had the Spirit of God unless possibly this should be imagined that Moral Vertues are not here comprehended under good works wherefore let one Apostle interpret another let us borrow of St. Peter to explain St. Paul And besides 2 Pet. 1. 5. this giving all diligence add to your Faith Vertue c. Temperance Patience Charity A place beyond all exception to prove that though we have Faith yet we may not be without Vertue for if there be any place in Scripture where we are to understand Faith in the most excellent kind it is here for it is that like precious Faith which the Apostles obtained V. 1. it was a Faith joyned with such a knowledge of Christ as that by great and precious promises they became partakers of the divine V. 4. Nature yet this Faith that makes men like God is not too good to accompany with Vertue nor can it safely be alone for he that lacketh V. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these things i. e. these Vertues is blind and cannot see a far off Now if we must give diligence to add Vertue by way of supply to Faith as the word imports then Faith is no excuse for a failure in Vertue To these we may add St. James who speaks as confidently What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath Faith and have no works can Faith James 2. 14. save him will such a Faith which is dead without works be a saving Faith no surely not till these contradictions can be reconciled that a man may at the same time be an unholy or an unsanctified Saint a wicked Believer an honest Knave When Judas his kiss can be interpreted friendship then when he comes to betray his Master when the way to Heaven lyes through the midst of Hell when these things come to pass then may a man hope to be saved by his Faith though he be and continue to be the person whom God threatens to damn for the wickedness of his Conversation Faith is a saving grace if it be true Faith but Noscitur ex socio if it be not accompanyed with good works it is but dead and will never entitle us to life Therefore though it be our priviledge that we may believe yet this is no excuse from Moral Vertues CHAP. V. Sect. 1 NEither doth Repentance disoblige us any more than Faith It is Mercy that Sinners can never enough admire that upon Repentance they may be accepted into favour so as that their iniquity shall not be their Ruine But it is a wicked perverting of this Mercy if Ezek. 18. instead of leading us to Repentance it encourages Rom. 2. 6. us to sin the more because this grace doth thus abound yet how many are there in the World who upon presumptions of Repentance some time before they dye do think it less needful for them to be holy and Vertuous while they live Whereas in truth this very thing is a sufficient Argument for the necessity of those Vertues for a failure in which men hope to repent and so to be excused A Drunkard or Swearer or any other vitious person intending hereafter to repent and amend now continues in those evil courses but what do men mean when they say they will repent Do they not believe it is sin that must be repented of He that hath not committed a fault must lye if he cry peccavi why should he be sorry and wish he had not done it If this sorrow be for that which is amiss then Drunkenness c. are hereby acknowledged to be Sins by those who say they will repent of them If Drunkenness be a Sin then it must needs be a duty to be temperate and sober and so for the rest and if these Moral Vertues be our

duties then are we under an obligation to them and they are necessary for us It is therefore evident that Repentance is so far from excusing us in our Immorality that it doth suppose the contrary Vertues necessary for us if they were not we were fools to repent that we have not practised them but in regard they are theirs is the greater folly that make Repentance a Plea to excuse themselves and this were enough to be said in the case but it is not all Sect. 2 For 2. if the Nature of Repentance be understood the necessity of that proves the necessity of good works Repentance in the comprehension of it is an exercise of the life as well as of the heart he that repents must not onely be sorry for his sins but he must turn from them and forsake them Let the wicked forsake Isa 55. his way c. and let him return to the Lord c. and therefore Repentance and amendment of life are put for one and the same thing The old English Translation did so express it Amend your lives for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand And certainly if a man be sincerely sorrowful for his former sins he will take care for the time to come to do so no more there will be a change in his life as well as in his heart So there was in his who would not at first obey his father but afterwards he repented Math. 21. 29. and went He that repents in earnest will say If I have done iniquity I will do no more When sorrow is after a Godly sort it Job 34. 32. makes a man careful studious and industrious What carefulness it wrought in you Now if ● Cor. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this be necessary thus to amend and change then so far as Repentance is necessary instead of being an Argument the other way it doth clearly prove the necessity of a holy life He that repents of Drunkenness and dishonesty must leave it else he is an Hypocrite he that must leave it must practise the contrary It is not possible a man can leave Drunkenness if he be not sober And he that must practise is therefore under an Obligation so that because it is necessary to repent of Immorality and this wicked men acknowledge If they understood the consequence of the Argument they must needs acknowledge also the necessity of Moral Vertues Sect. 3 Much more might be said to convince of the danger of deferring Repentance though it be not for us to determine the grace ●f God if it please God to accept of a man that is just dying before be repent and return to him according as it hath been sometimes said Betwixt the stirrup and the ground Mercy is sought Mercy is found Yet certainly the hazard is great that ●●ey ●● who defer Repentance It is very hazardous whether ever they may live to execute their Intentions They give great provocations to God to cut the● off in their sins and in Impenitency among the rest They lay many hindrances and obstructions in their own way because the longer they live in sin it is the harder for them to leave it at last if they do not make themselves incapable But these things are somewhat more out of my present purpose and they are Arguments that may be more safely omitted because they are more copiously handled in their proper places by those that write particularly about Repentance So much for answer to the second presumption the possibility of Repentance is no Argument against the necessity of Moral Vertues but the necessity of Repentance is a great Argument that they are necessary Sect. 4 But is not Christian Liberty a salve for all Excesses may we not understand that voice to Peter what God hath cleansed that call not thou Acts 10. common of things as well as men and of the Moral as well as the Ceremonial Law are not all things now lawful to us is there any difference between one action and another now under the Gospel are we not free so as not to entangle our selves with any yoke of Bondage so sure they would gladly hope that say God sees no sin in his people But it is a pitiful pretence to think that Christian Liberty should deliver us from a necessity of Obedience If men will make a Gospel of their own and a Religion of their own they must expect to be saved by a Saviour of their own But then wo be to those men that neglect that great salvation H●b 3. which Christ hath purchased and procured and will effect in his own way If we make the Gospel of Christ our rule then nothing is more plain then this that the freedome which Christ hath purchased for us though it be from the Curse of the Law yet it G●l 3. is not from our Obligation to the Law Being Rom. 6. then made free from sin ye became the servants of Righteousness There is more in the same Chapter to the same purpose Indeed the whole Gospel is a proof to the contrary there is no Liberty may be called Christian but what is allowed in the Gospel It is not imaginable that the Gospel should allow us Liberty to transgress those commands which it doth so frequently urge unless we think Christ would be divided against himself which is the way Luk● 11. by his own confession not to have his Kingdome stand Wherefore it is enough to say that the Gospel being the Rule both of our Liberty and Duty though it be true that we have allowances which the Jews had not and that is our Liberty yet we have commands which both Jews and Gentiles had and that is our duty And then it must needs follow that the Liberty which would take us off from good works and Moral Vertues is Anti-Christian and Devilish It is not the Seed of God remaining in men but the Seed of the Serpent that teaches them to wind and turn and roll themselves about any way so as they may but shift out of the paths of Gods Commandments The commands of the Gospel for Moral Vertues are strict and severe neither the pretence of Faith nor of Repentance nor of Christian Liberty is any sanctuary for men of unhallowed lives And this is the proof from Scripture It is Necess●●●● 〈◊〉 necessary for a Christian to live Righteously and Soberly because there are many plain particular peremptory commands whereby God requires these things of us which was the first necessity assigned because God in Scripture hath commanded them CHAP. VI. Sect. 1 TO which Argument in regard it doth depend upon the pleasure and authority of the Law-maker it will be sitting to adde another Consideration which will be a great strength to it and in likelihood may have greater force upon those that are most likely to transgress And this it is As it hath pleased God to command Moral Vertues so he hath added in the same Word many