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
A78160	Prædestination, as before privately, so now at last openly defended against post-destination. In a correptorie correction, given in by way of answer to, a (so called) correct copy of some notes concerning Gods decrees, especially of reprobation; published the last summer, by Mr. T.P. in which correct copy of his, he left so much of pelagianisme, massilianisme, arminianisme uncorrected, as Scripture, antiquity, the Church of England, schoolmen, and all orthodox neotericks will exclaime against to his shame, as is manifestly evinced, / by William Barlee, rector of Brock-hole in Northamptonshire. To which are prefixed the epistles of Dr. Edward Reynolds, and Mr. Daniel Cawdrey.	Barlee, William.; Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.; Cawdrey, Daniel, 1588-1664.	1657 (1657)	Wing B819; Thomason E904_1; ESTC R19533	287,178	284

own will therefore he did ab aeterno decree to permit it for otherwise he could by confirming grace have hindered and prevented the committing of it as well in all Angels as in some as well in Adam as in Angels and that without any violence offered to their nature at all Gen. 20. 5. Gen. 31. 7. 1 Cor. 10. 13. neither can there be given any cause out of God himselfe and the counsell of his owne will leading and inducing him rather to permit then hinder it He did decree to permit it in order to his own glory which is the supreme end and therefore by him absolutely willed because the being thereof by his unsearchable wisdome and power was ordinable thereunto He may out of that common and equall masse wherein he did decree to permit it decree in some in whom he did permit it to pardon it and on them to shew free mercy in others to punish it and in them to shew due and deserved justice the one having nothing to boast of because the grace which saves them was Gods the other nothing to complaine of because the sinne which ruines them is their owne He may by this huge discrimination of persons who were in their lump and mass equall and in themselves indiscriminated shew the absolute soveraignty which he hath over them as the Potter over his clay He may by his most sweet and yet most powerfull efficacie work the graces of faith repentance new obedience and perseverance in the wils and hearts of those on whom he will shew mercy giving them efficaciously both to will and to doe of his own good pleasure and leave others to their own pride and stubburnness his grace being his own to do what he will withall And I say once againe in all this there is neither modest nor immodest blasphemy 1. Gods glory is dearer to him then all the things in the world besides are or can be 2. Every attribute of God is infinitely and absolutely glorious and the glory of every one of them infinitely deare unto him 3. Whatever is infinitely and absolutely glorious in God he may by an absolute will and purpose decree to shew forth the glory thereof in his works without fetching an antecedent Reason ab extra from without himselfe leading and inducing him to make such a decree 4. The subject on which God is absolutely pleased to manifest the glory of his mercy and justice as to mankinde is massa perdita 5. Out of this mass of lost or lapsed mankinde he hath ex mero beneplacito chosen some unto glory and salvation for the manifestation of his free and undeserved mercy and passed by others leaving them under deserved wrath for the manifestation of his justice 6. That such and such particular persons out of the same equally corrupted mass are chosen and others are rejected belongeth unto the deep and hidden counsell of God whose judgements are unsearchable and his waies past finding out to whose soveraignty it appertaineth to forme out of the same lump one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour to shew mercy on whom hee will shew mercy and to pass by whom he will pass by 7. God doth so absolutely will and decree ab aeterno the manifestation of the glory of his attributes in his works as that withall he purposeth that the temporary execution of those eternall and absolute decrees shall finally be in materia apta disposita for such a manifestation 8. All those intermediate dispositions between the decree and the execution thereof whereby the subject is fitted for such manifestation of Gods glory if they be gracious they are by Gods eternall will decreed to be wrought and accordingly are in time effectually wrought by himselfe and his grace in and with the will of the creature If they be evill and sinfull they are in his eternall purpose permitted to bee wrought and are in time actually wrought by the deficient and corrupt will of the creature and being so wrought are powerfully ordered by the wise and holy will of the Creator to his glory 1. So then God did ab aeterno most absolutely wil and decree his owne glory as the supreme end of all consulting therein the counsell of his owne will and not the wils of any of his creatures 2. In order unto that supreme end he did freely elect some Angels and some lapsed men unto blessednesse for he might do with his own gifts what hee would himselfe 3. In order to the same supreme end he did leave some Angels and some lapsed men to themselves to their own mutability and corruption not being a debtor unto any of them 4. But he did not ordaine any creature to absolute damnation but to damniaton for sin into which they fal as they themselves know by their own wils whereof they are themselves the alone causes and authors Gods work about sinne being only a willing permission and a wise powerfull and holy Gubernation but no actuall efficiency unto the formall being and obliquity thereof I am sorry I am led on by mine own thoughts thus farre into your proper work But here I stop I was glad to see two Orthodox and sound Axioms stand before the book of your Author as the basis of his superstructure Two men of quite different judgements in these very arguments I finde to have done so Prosper cont Collat. c. 14. before The one Cassianus the Collator of whom Prosper hath these words Catholicarum tibi aurium judicia conciliare voluisti quibus de praemissae professionis fronte securis facile sequentia irreperent si prima Liv. decad 3. lib. 8. placuissent Which words of his bring into my mind a saying of the Historian fraus fidem in parvis sibi praestruit Ang de grat Chr●sti cap. 39. ut cum operae pretium sit cum magna mercede fallat and the censure of Austin upon Pelagius Gratiae Vid. Savilii praefat ad lectorem Andr. Rivet Grotian discuss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 8. Sect. 11. Voss Hist Pelag lib. 1. cap. 26. vocabulo frangit invidiam offensionem declinat The other the famous Arch-Bishop Bradwardine whom learned and good men will honour notwithstanding the hard censure passed by Hugo Grotius upon him who premiseth two Hypotheses as the ground of that profound work of his de causa Dei I will have so faire and just an opinion of your Author as to beleeve that he did this in candor and integrity following therein rather the learned example of Bradwardin then if Prospers censure may be taken the artifice and cunning of Cassianus yet because this is a course which may by the credit of true principles draw the lesse cautelous and circumspect Readers to consent to deductions not naturally consequent upon them It is requisite as for writers as Pliny adviseth saepius respicere titulum so for Readers to follow the Apostles counsell to prove all things and hold fast that which is

that any should mans nature being so opposite to Christian faith and universall grace alone having never brought any to heaven 2. God is as truly and really glorified in the way of his justice vindicative in those that perish Rom. 9. 22. Prov 16. 4. as he is in the way of his mercy mixt with justice in those who are saved nor tends it all to the honour of the Rivall Rebell or black Prince as you call him that he hath so many under him (l) By this passage it appeares that though you object Manichaisme p. 51. to others here is none so Manichaicall as your self who doe maintaine the Prince of darkness to have obteined his principalities such as it is God not so much as decreeing to suffer it i. c. invito Deo which what is it but to set up oh most hor●ible the power of the Devill above Gods this is something worse then Manichaisme it selfe not as under a Prince but as under a base generall executioner Heb. 4. 14. or tormentor who also for the honour of God and not his is kept under chaines of darknesse untill the judgement of the great day and in the meane while he is tormented as well as a tormentour for the Devils believe and tremble Jam. 2. 19. 2. As for that which you put into a Parenthesis * about the sufficiency of every drop of Christs blood for ten thousand worlds I thinke will not easilie be proved nor do such assertions so much tend to the magnifying of the precious nature of Christs sufferings of which there can never be too much said as they might tend to the disparagement of the wisdome and love of God lover of his blessed only innocent Son in being so prodigall of so much blood as his Sonne shed for the bringing Heb. 2. 10. of many sonnes onely unto glory who were taken out but of one world (m) Joh. Sleid. Ep. 21. lib. ult post edit I find none of note to speake so unlesse P. Clement when he makes it a foundation for indulgences unto that which Mr T. P. hath p. 41. about the sufficiency of one drop of blood for purchasing redemption of ten thousand Adams and ten thousand worlds of his posterity and I find no orthodox Divine of note to speak after this lavish and adventurous rate onely I find in Joh. Sleydan Commentar lib. 1. de statu Relig. fol. 12. that when Cardinall Cajetan thought to choak Luther with a Popes Bull he quotes against him for a foundation of indulgencies these words out of one of P. Clements extravagants Belike even in the Church of Rome these expressions are placed inter Extravagantes Ibi Clemens Pontifex tempus illud uti vocant Jubilaeae centesimo quó que anno praefinitum à Bonifacio octavo redigit ad quinquage simum de Christi servatoris beneficio locutus una guttula sanguinis ipsius liberari potuisse genus humanum demonstrat quum vero tantum sanguinis copiam profuderit ut toto corpore nihil esset in eo sani nihil aspectu miserabilius omne illud quod super fluum fuit maxime thesauri loco reliquisse dicit in usum Ecclesiae ac Divo Petro qui fit caeli claviger ut eum thesaurum in homines vere paenitentes atqūe peccata sua confessos diffundant tanquam Oeconomi distribuant c. In your ninth reason set downe p. 41. though you love not to be counted a Dictator you doe nothing but dictate when as you say 1. That the reprobation of Angels was not irrespective contrary to the credit of the most part of the School-men (n) Jansen lib. 8. de Haeresi Pelag. cap. 10. V●d River ex Aquin. disp 3. sect 3. And how this doubtfull point was even to eagle-eyed Austin may be seen by his doubtfull discourses about it in severall parts of his workes Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 12 cap 9 lib. 11. cap. 13. lib de correp grat cap. 1● where all along he disputes that some Angels ●ad more grace fre●ly given them then others who afterwards fell because some knew that they should never fall from their happine●se others did not If by reprobation you understand Gods decree of permitting them to fall or of not bestowing the grace of confirmation upon them by which the good Angels were preserved from falling 2. When you say that the sublapsarians who place the object of praedestination in massa corruptâ must needs grant c. the Scriptures being more vocall about mans reprobation and lesse about Angels And so they be much more busie in directing how men may get out of the misery into which wicked Angels have helpt to bring them then sub quo signo formali Angels were considered in their reprobation 3. Like a stout Champion for the sublapsarians and your selfe who are gone beyond Massa corrupta as touching originall sinne onely the way of the otherwise orthodox sublapsarians to the presupposing of perseverance in all sorts of actuall sins to the last gasp before all peremptorie reprobation you should have tried your strength in answering the two arguments with which Dr Twisse shuts up the Chapter which you quote and by which he proves that it is both impossible and absurd that the praevision of Apostacie in the Angels should be the cause of their reprobation the very pillar of your argument which you prove not but beg But had you attempted this you would have found how much easier it is for you to laugh at or nibble at Dr Twisse then in plaine field to have put him to the foile Your tenth reason from absurdity p. 41 42. Sect. 31. hath nothing in it from the instance of Dives which I have not else where answered fully in my first papers yea in these and without prejudice to any thing I doe or have mainteined your whole Argument about Dives might be granted and yet you be never the nearer to the proofe of conditionall reprobation for what you say about Gods end in damnation you have been told that Gods end is not the creatures damnation but his own glory in his just condemnation As for your diabolicall and unhallowed inference with which you are so perverse the best answer would be silence (o) August d● bono perseveranti● lib. 2. cap. 14. Tu quis es homo qui responde●● Deo Nunquid ideo negand●m est quod ape●tum est quia comprchendi non potest quod o●culium est nunquid inquam dicturi su●us quod ita esse perspiciamus non ita esse quoniam cur ita sit non possumus invenire cui sub●ectere placet instar commentarii in locum illum Augustin D. D. Rivet disp 5 de reprobat Thes 29. Cum in scripturis certum habeamus discrimen electorum reprobatorum ab ipso Deo ab aeterno d●spositum si nihil aliud adversus blasphemas hasce ●ōs●quentias nobis suppeteret quod repom remus nec solvi illa

praedestinavit conformes fieri imaginis filii sui omnes in infidelitate conclusit c. omnium miseretur vasorum misericordiae Quid est on nium eorum scil quos ex gentibus corum quos ex Judaeis praedestinavit vocavit glorificavit non omnium hominum sed istorum omnium c. on the place as well as upon such others may but passe with you for a fit Commentator of this text if this I say can be but gained from you a man may peremptorilie conclude against you that it is no absurdity to say that none but the elect and beleevers were so that is with that intention concluded under unbeliefe as to obtaine mercy as the beleeving Jewes and Gentiles had These latter as well as the former in Gods owne time should find that the gifts and calling of God of which the Apostle there speakes were without repentance ver 29. Neither 4. will 2 Pet. 2. 1. produced by you p. 18. afford you one crumbe of comfort unlesse you can prove that according to an usuall way of speaking those may not be said to be bought by the Lord who were so sacramento tenus as Austin (f) In Psal 47. p●pulus Dei censentur qui sacramenta ejus portant c. Joh. 6. 66. multi discipulorum abierunt ret●ò c. Nunquid non isti discipuli appellati sunt loquente Evangelio tamen non ●rant veri discipuli secundum id quod ait si manseritis in verbo meo ve ri discipuli mei estis who had once professed and did themselves beleeve that of themselves that they were such and according to the judgement of the Churches charitie were taken for such whilst they did militate under Christs standard I will not at this time trouble my selfe at all with what you assert about the absolutenesse of Gods decrees the sufficiency of Christs merits c. because I shall have a more opportune place for the first when I come to your 3. Chapter and for the 2. when to p. 25. But because as the fashion of you and all your complices pray owne your owne phrase Epist ult is under very sawcie and course phrases of Christs begrudging the extent of his death to the major part but of one world p. 20. Thus odiously representing it as a doctrine illiberall to the merits of Christ when as we should wonder that Christ would die so much as for any rather then grumble that he did not die for all All those he died for were his enemies and uncomfortable to Christian soules it is not amisse against the second time of the drudgery you speake of p. 20. to request that you would resolve us how much more honourable to Christ or comfortable to true Christians these following known propositions of the Arminians are (g) These or the like sayings in words or sense are so frequent in the writings of all sorts of Arminians as that I will not abuse my owne or readers leasure by transcribing them 1. That Christ by his death hath not purchased actuall salvation for any but a possibilitie of salvation for all 2. That he did rather redeem the Father that it might be possible for him to shew mercie without violation to his justice then that actually he intended the redemption of all or any 3. That hee hath merited by his death as much for Cain Judas and all the damned in hell as for Paul Peter the Virgin Mary or any glorified Saints 4. That Christs death notwithstanding the conditions of the old covenant of workes might have been put upon us 5. That Christ never merited faith or repentance for us for the fulfilling of the conditions of the new covenant 6. That wee are not justified by faith alone in his death but by Gods accepting of I cannot tell what Evangelicall righteousnesse of faith wrought by our selves in stead of legall perfect righteousnesse (h) Yea Arminii his liberi orphani novem assert it to have been the opinion of their father Epist quadam dedicat that we are justified by workes as well as by faith 7. That it is disputable whether any of the Fathers were saved by the death of Christ 8. And that it is past all dispute that the Infants of Christians dying in infancie are not at all saved by the vertue of Christs merits for they have not any sin of their own to damn them originall sinne never damned any So your first papers c. I pray God send you and me other comforts against the time that we shall most stand in need of them As for what you quote p. 20. out of your Saint-like Dr Andrewes as you stile him p. 47. where you may look to heare more from me about him when you shall have proved him to have been as very a Saint as every body knowes hee was a learned Dr I shall then bee more troubled that I find him so much an Arminian I am not scared at what he dictates rather then proves in your margin for that hee saith nothing but what Faustus the Father of the Semipelagians did (i) Faust lib 3. de grat lib. arbit c. 7. Quis tam im memor salutis suae sit qui attrahentis misericordiam negare praesumat Sed ille verè impius est qui eam non omnibus ingeri non omnibus testatur impendi c. and what hath been answered a thousand times or been warilie expounded And if any such expression did unwarily fall from Bernard in a Sermon knowing what a declining age he lived in we may well say Bernardus non vidit omnia but wonder hee spake so well elsewhere (k) Bern. de lib. arbit gratia Quid agit liberum arbitrium Salvatur Opus hoc sine duobus effici non potest uno à quo sit altero in quo sit Deus author est salatis liberum arbitrium tantum est ejus capax p. 20. by which hee hath made amends for any thing he may have let fall amiss here In Poperie it used to be said Si sint sancti orent pro nobis si doctores respondeant ad argumenta As for the Apologie which you make for the less convincing nature of evidences brought by you for the present I much wonder that having perfected even this your perfect Copie at least a full halfe yeare before the printing of it which I know by one in whose hand it was so long before I much muse that so neat a disputant as you pretend to be in this your Meridian a phrase of your owne in an Epistle to me Correct polite Copie should not have amended all imperfections and in stead of Topicks have given us demonstrations As for your threatnings of making all sure against all common shifts and subterfuges I wonder not much at them when I consider the altitude of your spirit Aquila non captat muscas You put us in feare that you will kill all in your next For my part I am