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
A72993	A Romane centurion becomming a good souldier of Iesus Christ In foure sermons, preached in the cathedrall church, and in Saint Thomas Church at Sarum. By Bartholomevv Parsons, B.D. and rector of Ludgershall, in the county of Wiltes.	Parsons, Bartholomew, 1574-1642.	1635 (1635)	STC 19350.5; ESTC S124821	64,942	95

woman nor the woman of Canaan when shee requested thee nor the woman taken in adulterie nor the Publican praying unto thee nor the Disciple that denyed thee nor yet him that persecuted thy Disciples in the odor of these we runne after thee Now the instruction is both generall and particular Generall to all of us that wee despaire of no man though he seeme to us to be never so deepe in the snare of Satan much lesse censure him to bee a reprobate and cast out of the sight of God though in our seeming he be in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquitie yea a tree without fruit twice dead and plucked up by the rootes for as the Apostle said of the naturall branches broken off that God was able to graffe them in againe Rom. 11.23 so he is able to seeke and saue that which was lost to make the savagest wolfe dwell with the lambe yea to turne him into a lambe and to bring into his familie the prodigallest child that is gone farthest from home Vpon this ground the Apostle would haue us that are of the houshold of faith to shew meekenesse to all men because we our selues sometimes before wee tasted of grace were foolish disebedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envie hatefull and hating others Tit. 3.2.3 Even Iudas himselfe was more the childe of hell by despairing of the mercy of God then by delivering the sonne of God into the hands of sinfull men by his impenitencie then by his trecherie by refusing the grace of Christ then by betraying the person of Christ The Apostles indeede had in greater measure the gift of discerning of spirits 1 Cor. 12.10 then now men have and could censure men to be the children of the Devill as Paul did Elimas Act. 13.10 but for our part howsoever we may judge the wayes and actions of wicked men to bee sinfull and damnable yet wee may not pronounce sentence of their persons that they are reprobates Who art thou that judgest another mans servant to his Master be standeth or falleth Rom. 14.4 The particular instruction is to Martiall men to learne to joyne pietie to their profession the using of the sword of the Spirit with the materiall sword to become good Souldiers of Iesus Christ aswell as of their earthly Masters and to fight his battels aswell as their earthly Masters quarrels Wee see here that a Martiall profession and a godly disposition may meete together as Hieroms said of Cornelius His Souldiers coat and belt and company of attendants hurt not this Souldier Nil nocuit militanti paludamentum balteus apparitorum cetervae quia sub habi●● alterius alteri militabas Epist ad Salvinam de viduitate servanda because under the habit of one hee was a Souldier to another The military men of our age are glad to heare their calling justified by Cornelius his office but care not to have their lives reformed after his example wee may see and rejoyce that a Roman Souldier here was so religious but wee may see and sorrow that our Christian Souldiers every where are so vicious Hee was devout and feared God with all his family they thinke pietie no part of their profession yea that is is want of spirit and courage in them not to bee at defiance with God and all godlinesse and not onely with Esau to haue their hands against all men but even with Rabshekah to fight against God and to raile upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 King 18. and to thunder out their oathes and execrable blasphemies He opened his hands in the workes of mercie to the needie with him their feete are as swift to shedde bloud as ever Herods Souldiers who killed the infants of Bethlehem at his sending Math. 2. He relieved the poore with his plentifull almes they pill them with their rapines and neither abstaine from things hallowed nor prophane He was diligent and daily prayer their mouthes are full of cursing and bitternesse Christ is not in their hearts nor mouthes but to sweare by his crosse passion heart bloud wounds and what not Hee fell downe at Peters feete to giue him honour their irreverent profanenesse is such that they are as readie to offer as great indignitie to Christs Ministers and Messengers as Herod and his men of warre as Pontius Pilate and his Souldiers did to Christ in his person Math. 27.27 28 29 30 31. In a word he dedicated himselfe to the workes of charitie and pietie they like the Souldiers of the Amalekites giue themselues to nothing but to eating drinking dancing and revelling 2 Sam. 30.16 He then of this calling that having so little light walked so worthily as a childe of light shall one day rise in judgemen against them of his profession that having so great light shining to them doe so wickedly as children of darkenesse Now this band over which he was set is particularly described by the countrey whence it came the name which it bare the Italian band For the Romanes sometimes mustered Souldiers out of the Provinces subject unto them sometimes out of Italie it selfe and the territories thereof But what maketh the Italian hand at Cesarea here what doe the Heathen amongst Gods Inheritance the Italian troupe amongst the Iewish people Assuredly Beloved the people of the Iewes were a precious people unto God aboue all the people of the earth Deut. 7.6 his chosen portion and his peculiar treasure Psal 135.4 unto whom he would suffer none to doe wrong but reproved even Kings for their sakes saying touch not mine annointed and doe my Prophets no harme Psal 105.14.15 Yea the Lord hath chosen Sion and loved to dwell in it saying This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Psal 132.13.14 He shewed his word unto Iacob his statutes and his judgements unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation Psal 147.19.20 To them pertained the adoption and the glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises Rom. 9.4 In Iudah is God knowne his name is great in Israel in Salem also is his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Sion Psal 76.1.2 But when this faithfull City became an harlot when her silver was turned into drosse Esa 1.21 22. when they did evill in the sight of the Lord forsooke the Covenant of the Lord their God and followed after strange Gods and served them his anger was hot against them and he delivered them into the hands of spoylere that spoyled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies Iudg. 2.12 13 14. when they were disobedient and rebelled against him and cast his Law behinde their backes and slew his Prophets which testified against them to turne them to him and wrought great provocations he delivered them into the hands of their enemies who vexed them in

as the eyes of servants are upon the hands of their Maisters so the eyes of his heart are upon the Lord his God And Aquinas the Schooleman being like that Scribe in the Gospell not farre from the Kingdome of God defineth religion to be one vertue a speciall one the noblest of all morall vertues which according to i●s proper acts onely respecteth God although according to the acts of other vertues commanded by it it also comprehendeth our neighbour And devotion to be a prompt and ready will to execute those things that belong to Gods service much better then Cardinall Bellarmine who would faine appropriate the name and nature to the orders of their speciall religions Religion saith he is a state of men that aime at Christian perfection by the vowes of poverty continency and obedience as though there were none religious but their Regulars whose religion is in vaine and who worship God in vaine teaching for doctrines the commandements of men Matth. 15.9 Now this name religious Religit nos religio vni omnipotenti deo de vera relig cap. 55. Ipsa religio areligando in fascem vinciendo nomen accepit Quia religiosus retractat tanquam relegitea quae ad divinum cultum pertinent a religendo Deum eligentes vel potius religentes amise●●mus enim negligentes hu●c ergo religentes vnde religio dicta prohibetur ad cum dilectione tendimus ut perveniendo quiescamus they deduce and draw either a religando from binding as Augustin saith Let Religion binde us to Almighty God onely and Hierom in Am. 9. saith Religion hath taken its name from binding and tying into a bundell or else a relegendo because a religious man handleth and recounteth those things which belong to Gods worship Or else as Augustine Lib. 10. de civit Dei cap. 4. a relegendo Choosing God or rather choosing him anew for wee had lost him negligently therefore choosing him anew from whence religion is said to be derived wee goe to him by love that when we come to him we may rest Now it is the manner of the Holy Ghost to insist upon the same thing to speake it againe in other termes no doubt both for the farther expression of it to us and also impression of it in us as Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven and whose sinne is covered Psal 32.1 so here Cornelius is not onely called a devout or religious man but the same thing is amplified and uttered in other words importing the same sense and one that feared God For by a fearer of God the part being figuratively put for the whole we must understand a religious worshipper of God as Ionas saith of himselfe to the mariners I feare the Lord God of heaven Ionah 1.9 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I worship and serue him as Lydia is called a woman which worshipped God Act. 16.14 so Hierom expoundeth it In hoc locotimor pro cultu potest intelligi i● 1. Io● In this place feare may be understood for service So that which God saith thou shalt feare the Lord thy God and serve him Deut. 6.13 Our Saviour citing it interpreteth it to be worship thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 As also alleaging that of Isaiah 29.13 their feare towards me is taught by the precepts of men hee saith in vaine doe they worship me teaching for doctrines the Commandements of men Matth. 15.9 putting feare and worship for all one in which sense the Psalmist speaketh Come yee children hearken to mee I will teach you the feare of the Lord Psal 34.11 that is the worshippe and service of the Lord. Connexa sunt timor atque religio nec manere potest alterum abque al●ero Beru serm de donis sp s cap. 4. Timordomini est prima gratiarum religionis exord●●m Feare and religion are knitte together neither can the one remaine without the other and the feare of the Lord is the first of all graces and the beginning of Religion Now before I come to the instructions hence to be learned I must cleare the doubts that heere are raised First how Cornelius is heere commended for his feare since else-where feare is condemned proceeding from the spirit of bondage and not standing with that perfect love which is in the Sonnes of God towards him Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby wee cry Abba father and againe 1 Ioh. 4.18 there is no feare in love but perfect love casteth out feare because feare hath torment hee that feareth is not made perfect in love The Master of the sentences Distinct 34. lib. 3. the Schoolemen his Disciples make some of them 4. some of them 5 sorts of feares a naturall an humane a servile a filiall and an initiall feare I feare to loose time in following of them and will content my selfe to goe the beaten way of that distinction of feare into a servile and a sonne-like The servile feareth Gods punishments the sonne-like his anger and displeasure that because it hath sinned against him and deserved the whippe this that it may not sinne against him and loose his love that dreadeth his tribunall as an angry judge Alind est timere quia peccaveris aliud nè pecces Ambr. lib. 10. epist 48. this reverenceth him as a loving father It is one thing to feare because thou hast sinned another thing to feare that thou maist not sinne The servile as it is in the reprobates and Divells breedeth and begetteth in them desperation of Grace and mercy expectation of hell and torture but as it may be in those that are ordained to salvation it worketh to their salvation by being an externall meanes of their repentance Vide Magistrum sententiarumlib 3. Distinct 34. f. Beru serm 4. de mode benè viuendj Et timebat cum dilectione diligebat cum timore Qui Deum benè timet amat qui amat timer res illae funt in caelel●i devotione sociatae Servilitimore timetur ne judicetur in tormentum supplicii altero ne amittatur gratia beneficii Timor non est in charitate quia perfecta charitas foris mittit timorem sed illum servilem quo cum se quisque ab opere malo abstinet poenâ terretut non iustitiâ delectatur hunc charitas foris mittit quam non delectat iniquitas etiamsi proponatur impunitas Non illum quo timet anima ne amitta● ipsam gratiam quâ in illâ factum est ut eam non peccare delectet quo timet ne deus cam deserat etiamsi nullis dolorum cruciatibus puniat Hic timor castus est non eum ch●ri●as ecijit sed ascis●it de illo quoque scriptum est timor domini castus est permanens in seculam seculi Aug. epist 20. Timet illa ne vir infestus adveniat