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
A89732	A discussion of that great point in divinity, the sufferings of Christ; and the question about his righteousnesse active, passive : and the imputation thereof. Being an answer to a dialogue intituled The meritorious price of redemption, justification, &c. / By John Norton teacher of the church at Ipswich in New-England. Who was appointed to draw up this answer by the generall court.	Norton, John, 1606-1663.	1653 (1653)	Wing N1312; Thomason E1441_1; ESTC R210326	182,582	293

was no more repugnant to that estate then to the state of the Angels he had been also through proportionable concourse of the first cause able to have yeelded like obedience thereunto the concreated image of God in Adam and in the Angels being the same in kinde Why then was not that principle in Adam able to have carried him out to have beleeved in Christ as a Head and Redeemer could that command have consisted with the state of innocency The cause of Adams not beleeving in Christ in the state of innocency was not through the defect of a principle enabling him thereunto But by reason First of the inconsistency of justifying faith with that estate Secondly By reason of the not revealing of the object of faith Adam in innocency had a principle enabling him to parental duties yet never was he called thereunto as also to duties of mercy and charity which yet were inconsistent with that estate the Saints in glory have a principle whereby they are able to perform the duties of repentance patience mortification the like may be said of Christ though neither Christ nor the Saints are called thereunto those services inconsisting with their estate More might be added to evince this truth if that were the Question but it may suffice that by what is spoken your Argument taken from the engraving of faith in Adams heart to prove that the term Morall is unfitly applied to the ten Commandments is of no force The Law of works was the same to Adam before and after the fall because the Covenant of works is allwaies the same the Law being the same the obligation is the same Such duties after the fall as are inconsisting with the Covenant of works are temporary neither infer any alteration in the Law nor do they exceed the compasse of its former obligation The Law of God saith Zanchy speaking of the Law of Moses Zanch. de rel gione Christiana sidei To. 8 cap. 10. aphor 3. given in the interim between the promise of Redemption made first to Adam afterwards to Abraham and the fullfilling thereof is nothing else but a true and lively expressed picture of the image of God according to which man was created Here again the Reader is to keep in minde that the Dialogue is all this while besides the Question for our Quere is not Whether the ten Commandments in the full latitude of them were given to Adam in innocency but whether the obedience of Christ to the Law that is to the Law as given to Adam in innocency were for our Justification whose affirmative by the way appeareth thus That obedience unto the Law whereby Adam in case of his personall performance thereof had been justified legally is that by Christs performance whereof received by faith we are justified Evangelically but the performance of obedience unto the Law as given to Adam in innocency is that performance of obedience unto the Law by which Adam in case of performance personally had been justified legally therefore Christs performance of the Law that was given to Adam in innocency whatsoever its extent be more or lesse as given to him after the fall received by faith is that whereby we are justified evangelically Dialogu If the whole Law and the Prophets do hang upon the ten Commandments as the generall heads of all that is contained within the Law and the Prophets then the ten Commandments must needs contain in them rules of faith in Christ as well as morall duties Answ If you intend no more then what you said before namely that the ten Commandments require faith in Christ Jesus we do not only acknowledge it but also thence infer what you deny namely that Adam was obliged to beleeve in Christ in case God should call for it because the Law now called the Decalogue was given to Adam as a Rule of Universall and absolute obedience he stood obliged thereby not only unto what God did at present but unto whatsoever God should afterwards require If you intend that whatsoever is contained in the Law and the Prophets is reducible to some one or more of the ten Commandements we also consent But if you mean that the ten Commandments strictly taken viz. for the Law of works as distinguished from the Law of faith contain rules that is the doctrine of faith in Christ then your inference is denied for this is to confound Law and Gospel Dialogu And this is further evident by the Preface of the ten Commandments which runs thus I am Jehovah thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Christ was that Jehovah which brought them out of the Land of Egypt So it was Christ that gave the first Commandment Thou shalt have no other Gods but me that is to say Thou shalt have no other Gods but the Trinity and no other mediatour but me alone to be thy Redeemer and Saviour In like sort Christ in the second Commandment doth require obedience to all his outward worship and in speciall to all his Leviticall worship and the observation of that worship is especially called the Law of works though the ten Commandments also must be included But the right application of the typicall signification of the Leviticall worship to the soul is called the Law of faith the third Commandment doth teach holy reverence to the person of the Mediator Faith in Christ is also typically comprehended under the fourth Commandment Answ The Law given at Mount Sinai admits of a threefold consideration either as a Law of works obliging man unto a pure legall obedience and accordingly to expect life or death or as a rule of universal and absolute obedience obliging man not only to what was commanded at present but also unto whatsoever should afterwards be required Or as the Covenant of grace it self though dispensed after a Legall manner comprehending the Law as a perpetual rule of righteousnesse freed from its pure legal nature of coaction malediction and justification by works Now that by the Law as given at Mount Sinai we are not to understand the Law of works only but also the Covenant of grace dispensed after a Legal manner appeareth thus Vide Will. in Exo. 19. quest 20. 21. item c. 20. qu. 7. Because it is called a Covenant Exod. 24.6 8. the speaker whereof was Jesus Christ God-man Ast. 7.38 for he was the speaker that brought them out of the Land of Egypt Exod. 20.2 but Jesus Christ brought them out of the Land of Egypt which act was a type of their redemption the delivery of it written in Tables of Stone by Moses therein a typicall Mediatour figuring Christ the Antitype Gal. 3.29 It was confirmed by the bloud of beasts a type also of the bloud of Christ Exod. 24.5 8. compared with Heb. 9.19 Paul calleth it a Testament a phrase proper to the Covenant of Grace presupposing the death of the Testator and never attributed to the Covenant of works See Heb. 9.18 19 20. though the Covenant

Orthodox writer say faith justifieth in stead of the Law their meaning is we are made partakers of the righteousnesse of the Law Evangelically that is to say by faith which we cannot be partakers of legally that is to say by works The righteousnesse of Christ in respect of which faith is said to justifie consisting both of originall righteousnesse and actuall obedience justifieth us as well from originall as from actuall unrighteousnesse We receive by faith the righteousnesse of the Law namely that righteousnesse which the Law requireth Rom. 8.3 4. And so Evangelicall righteousnesse or the righteousnesse which is by faith is given to us in stead of Legall righteousnesse We are through sin uncapable of the righteousnesse of the Law legally Haec propositio side justificamur legaliter intollecta cum papistis non est vera sed blasphema-correlative autem accepta est vera Ursin exp Cat. in the stead whereof we are made partakers of the righteousnesse of the Law Evangelically without which we cannot attain eternall life Faith justifieth not properly as a work or quality but relatively for the objects sake namely the righteousnesse of Christ apprehended thereby This Proposition We are justified by faith saith Vrsinus understood legally with the Papists is not true but blasphemous but taken correlatively that is evangelically it is true The true manner how the Law taught sinners to get righteousnesse by faith When a poor humbled sinner brought his sacrifice of atonement to the Priest to be offered for him upon the Altar he must lay both his hands with all his might upon the head of the sacrifice of atonement This kinde of imposition was ordained by God to teach and typifie unto sinners how they must by faith rest and depend upon the sacrifice of Christ as the onely meritorious procuring cause of the Fathers atonement for their full and perfect righteousnesse Answ That he laid on his hands with all his might cannot be proved nor doth the proving thereof prove any thing of the Question Of it hath been already spoken in its proper place The atonement of the Dialogue being disproved it is therewithall disproved That the laying on of hands typified their relying upon the sacrifice of Christ for such atonement Dialogu Vers 25. Whom God hath fore-ordained to be a propitiation or a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his bloud The Apostle explains the matter by another sentence Rom. 5.11 by whom we have received the atonement The Apostle doth imply three things in this sentence 1. That Christ is the Mediatour by whom sinners do receive 2. The main thing which they do receive by him is the Fathers atonement 3. That the means or manner by which they receive the Fathers atonement is the grace of faith Answ The Apostle Rom. 3 25. alludeth unto the Mercy-seat Exo. 25.22 as appeareth by Heb. 9 5. where speaking of the Mercy-seat in Exodus he calleth it by the same word in Greek which is used here teaching us thereby that the Mercy-seat was a Figure of Christ by whom our transgressions of the Law are forgiven and covered the Mercy-seat covered the Ark of the Testimony that is the Ark wherein was the Law which was the testimony of Gods will concerning the duty of man The Atonement of which Rom. 5.11 is to be understood of reconciliation applied according to the sense of the latter reconciliation mentioned vers 10. and notes a change in respect of dispensation on Gods part and a change in respect of state relation and disposition on our part See more Sect. 2. Chap. The Greek words are not the same and may in respect of their signification if we seclude the meritorious cause of atonement from atonement be distinguished as the whole and the part his bloud signifieth his passive obedience the meritorious cause of the forgivenesse of sin faith is the instrument by which we receive it Atonement or remission of sins is a principall good received by faith yet it is not righteousnesse But the Dialogues atonement is neither principall nor lesse principall but a meer fiction Dialogu Vers 25. To declare his righteousnesse by the passing over sins that are past through the forbearance of God 1. God declares his righteousnesse toward sinners by ordaining Jesus Christ to be a propitiation 2. By ordaining the grace of faith as the instrument of the spirit whereby poor sinners might be enabled to beleeve in the Mediators propitiatory sacrifice and receive through him the Fathers atonement for their righteousnesse Answ Then God declared justice as well as mercy in the forgivenesse of or passing over sin A truth much opposed throughout a great part of the Dialogue which contradiction had it been attended to doubtlesse the Authour would have provided against it by some Socinian evasion or mis-applied distinction The Fathers Atonement is received by faith but not for our righteousnesse This errour of the Authours especially in his sense is oft annexed unto some foregoing truth or words that are capable of a construction according to truth by a formall repetition of the question without so much as a threed of reason to hold them together But I hope saying the same thing frequently and boldly though sometimes with the word Therefore inserted without any tolerable inference of reason is not enough to deceive the Reader Dialogu And therefore justified persons have need of new justice to their consciences every day Answ Very true if understood of the sense of their justification but not true if understood in regard of a new Justification Justification is an individuall act which receiveth not more or lesse in respect of it self though in respect of the sense of it it receiveth more or lesse Paul was as much justified the first instant of his beleeving as he is now in glory Because the righteousnesse of Christ which is the matter of justification is the same CHAP. VII Of the Enumeration of the causes of Justification according to the Dialogue and according to the Orthodox Dialogu ANd now for a conclusion I will summe up the Doctrine of Justification into six heads 1. The subject matter of Justification is beleeving sinners of all sorts both Jews and Gentiles all the world over 2. The formall cause of Justification or of a sinners righteousnesse is the Fathers atonement pardon and forgivenesse 3. The meritorious procuring cause of the Fathers atonement for a sinners Justification is Christs Mediatoriall Sacrifice of atonement 4. The next instrumentall means by which a sinner doth receive and apprehend the Fathers atonement for his Iustification is faith in Christ 5. The only efficient cause of all the former causes and effects is Gods free grace and mercy in himself 6. The end of all is the glory of Gods free grace and mercy in the beleeving sinners justification and salvation Answ Divers Orthodox Divines handling the doctrine of justification distribute the matter of justification into the matter taken actively that is one of the essentiall causes by which we