Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	goodness_n	great_a	sin_n	6,173	5	4.6117	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94173	Ten lectures on the obligation of humane conscience Read in the divinity school at Oxford, in the year, 1647. By that most learned and reverend father in God, Doctor Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln. &c. Translated by Robert Codrington, Master of Arts.	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.	1660 (1660)	Wing S631; ESTC R227569	227,297	402

long use and Custome which is as it were another nature Fourthly by reason of the depraved affections which do ecclipse our judgments and do hinder the right use of them From these and many other causes it is so obvious unto men to erre to fall and to be deceived that it hath been long agoe a proverb Humanum est errare It is the property of a man to erre XXVI Adde to this in the second place that not we our selves do not alwayes sincerely judge of their piety and wisdome whose Judgments we do desire to follow it being very customary with those men who permit themselves to be governed by the arbitration of other men to make choice of such Conductors whom they before are confident will lead them in that way in which before hand they had determined to go themselves Thus doth Satan hold fast unwary men being as it were inclosed in his circle If you demand of them why they suppose such a thing to be true and right they answer Because this or that wise and godly man hath so taught us If you again shall demand of them how they do know their Teacher to be a pious and a prudent man they answer or at least would so answer if they would speak according to their hearts because he thinketh as we do think Et sapit mecum facit Jove judicat aequo The man is wise and doth as I intend And judgeth rightly having Jove his friend Many there are indeed who do measure the piety of other men not according to the practice of the duties of a Christians life and by the works of righteousnesse Mercy Charity and Devotion but by an affection to that faction to which they have bequeathed themselves and by the hatred to another party to which they professe themselves to be Enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 4. 3. They shall heap up unto themselves Teachers according to their own desires The Metaphor following is most proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when their ears do itch they seek those that will tickle them and thus the same doth befall them which in the old proverb is expressed Muli se mutuo scabunt One Mule doth scratch another XXVII Thirdly the word of God doth expressely forbid us to subject our Consciences to the judgment of any other or to usurp a Dominion over the Consciences of any one Ne vocemini Rabbi unus est enim vester 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magister Praeceptor Doctor Unctor Christus Be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master who is Christ the word in the original signifies as well School-master Tutor Leader as Master And my brethren be you not many masters saith St. James Chap. 3. verse 5. To this purpose is that of St Peter in his first Book Chap 5. verse 2. Feed you the Flock of God which is committed to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as holding forth a light before them that is the Doctrine of the true faith and the example of a godly life but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as excercising a domination and an uncontrouled empire over the Clergy or the people of God And again 1 Cor. 7. 23. Emp●i estis pretio nolite fieri servi hominum You are bought with a price be you not made the servants of men that is do not submit your Consciences to be governed by the Authority of any man according to his pleasure and command XXVIII From these things which are thus stated and proved to give you now some few Corallaryes and those in a few words it followeth in the first place that the insupportable pride and tyranny of the Pope of Rome ought most deservedly to be hated by every true Christian who by arrogating an infallible judgment to himself and to his chair doth by that name exercise an usurping power and domination over the Consciences of men and pretendeth so much right thereunto that if he should say virtues were vices and vices virtues all Christians are bound under the penalty of mortal sin to submit to his judgment without the least doubt or scruple We are therefore with all thankfulnes to acknowledg the great and Singular goodnes and mercy of Almighty God who for these many years hath freed us and our fore-fathers and the Church of England from so unconscionable a Tyranny and hath again restored us to our just liberties XXIX But we must all of us and every one of us take heed that being freed now from that Tyranny we do not stoop our necks to a new bondage least we be found not so much to have shaken off our yoak as to have changed it Quae bellua ruptis Quùm semèl effugit reddit se prava catenis Horat. Like to the Beast who having broke his chain Fondly returns to have it on again 2 Satyr 9. It doth indeed concern us highly if seriously we would provide for the peace of our own Consciences or of the Church and Common-wealth to take care least what heretofore was spoken of the Church of Corinth I am of Paul I of Apollos and I of Cephas be not heard of us I am of Luther I of Calvin I of Arminius and I of Socinius No let God be true and every man a Lyar He is not worthy to be Christs Disciple who is not the Disciple of Christ alone The simplicity and sincerity of the Christian Faith hath suffered a great prejudice since we have been divided into parties neither is there any hope that Religion should be restored to her former vigour and purity until the wounds made wider by our daily quarrels and dissentions being anointed with the Oyl of Brotherly Love as with a Balsome shall begin to close again and to grow intire into the same unity of Faith and Charity XXX In the third place we are to take heed lest being too indulgent to our depraved affections we do suffer our selves to be so drawn aside into the admiration of some men that we wholly depend upon their Authority Jude 1● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which words the Apostle with a finger pointeth at the very Fountain of all this evill For this perverse admiration of Names hath no other Spring from whence it floweth but from this desperate self-admiration viz. whiles every man studyeth his own profit is ambitious of Honour and pursueth vain-glory and esteemeth no otherwise of all other men than according to the advantage he may receive from them And his Judgement being corrupted with these sordid affections he is most ready to admire those persons whom he thinks will be most ready to advance his Profit Honour Glory and his other inordinate desires And the very same thing another of the Apostles whom already I have cited doth expressely intimate they did choose unto them Master 2. Tim. 4. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their own desires XXXI Neverthelesse that due Authority may be given to the Catholick Church

Barnabas and others also who followed him and did consent to the same dissimulation were to be noted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men that did not tread with an upright foot nor walked according to the simplicity of the truth of Christ By which it is most evident that St. Paul being Judge it would render no great advantage unto uncertain Barnabas and halting as it were betwixt Judaism and Christianism to call into the patronage of his dissimulation the example of St. Peter although of the highest estimation amongst the Apostles but grant that Peter was worthy of a sharper reprehension because that by his example he became a stumbling block to another nevertheless Barnabas is not the more to be excused that he transgressed by following the example of another And this may suffice concerning our first argument taken from the Text of St. Paul VI. The second argument is derived from the difficulty of judging for seeing that all the deeds of the righteous are not to be imitated it is no obvious thing to understand what deeds of theirs are to be examplar and what not and that by reason of a twofold uncertainty that is in them For it may so come to passe both ways that what a righteous man hath done may not be well done and hath been well done by him is nevertheless not to be imitated by us In the first place most certain it is that those deeds of theirs which are ill done are not to be imitated and that the most holy of men have had their blemishes and infirmities it having pleased the most wise God to permit them to fall sometimes into the most grievous sins of murder adultery idolatry and the renouncing of their faiths that they might consider that they are but men and by their own experience that they as well do pertake with as they do pardon the mistreadings of another that so they might not trust in their own strengths against temptations but depend altogether on the assistance of God and if unconquered unshaken or unhurt they have sustayned the most violent assaults of temptations that they may acknowledge it to proceed wholy from the providence and the grace of God and it hath pleased him who worketh all in all according to the counsels of his own will that some of their foulest defects should punctually be expressed in the book of holy Writ that so illustrious and never dying examples should remain unto all ages on the one side of humane frailty and inconstancy and on the other of the Divine goodness and mercy VII Peradventure it will be here objected It is true indeed that those Examples of the Saints are not to be imitated which in the word of God are expressely noted to be ill done for what sober man will propound unto himself either the abnegation of St. Peter or the adultery of David as examples for him to imitate Neverthelesse it doth seem that we may safely take examples from those acts of theirs which are so recorded in the Scriptures that they are there as free from dispraise as from any tincture of guilt I make answer that this is not to be done for in the Scriptures as every where in other Histories the deeds of many men are only historically and nakedly related just as they were done are neither expressely commended or discommended by the Writers notwithstanding it is not to be doubted that some of them were unjust some of them dishonest and far from the duty of a godly man And many other things there are recorded of which we may not undeservedly doubt whether they were well done or ill done concerning which the Interpreters are accustomed to express themselves probably and liberally on both sides Of such a nature is that act of Lot offering the violation of his Daughters Virginities to the impure Citizens of Sodom and that act of Joseph swearing as it is thought by the life of Pharaoh Gen. 19. ● 42. 15. 16. and that act of Jacob craftily stealing from Esau his brother the benediction of his father and many other examples of the same nature which if any man shall adventure to follow on this presumption only that he hath read the same things to be acted by godly men and not to be condemned he shall object himself to a most certain danger of errour and of sin by subjecting his Conscience to a most uncertain Law VIII But you will say we may safely howsoever follow those examples which expressely are commended in the world of God I make answer that even this also is not simply to be granted for in the first place I say that whatsoever deeds of men are openly condemned in the word of God to be vitious they are simply to be eschewed for the strength and use of bad examples are more powerfull to argue negatively upon them than of good examples to argue affirmatively which manner of arguing out Apostle useth 1 Cor. 10 6. c. where having propounded out of the Hostory of the old Testament the examples of several sorts of sins as also of the judgments of God upon the prevaricators of his Law he doth admonish that all of us would look upon them as types and examples not to imitate but to eschew them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ut fugerem exemplis viti●rum quaeque nota●do 1 Satyr 4. That we may not lust after evil things as some of them lusted nor worship Idols nor commit fornication nor tempt Christ nor murmur in afflictions as they have done Hoc quidem non bellè nunquid ego illi Imprudens olìm faciam simile Horat. ibid. This is not well but filly Elf Shall not I do the like my self IX In the second place I do affirm that what Deeds in the Scriptures are expressely praysed and are so praysed that they may seem to be propounded to us for Examples are notwithstanding not suddainly and headily to be followed by us neither must we imagine that the whole aggregate Action as it was at first performed is commended unto us to imitate But we must use choyce and caution to imitate those things which are commendable on that part only of them and intirely on that account for which they are commended The reason of this Caution is because that God oftentimes in a mixt Action according to his infinite goodnesse doth approve and look upon that only in it which is Good and doth passe by and as it were takes no notice of that in it which is Evil As in the 16 Luke 8. The Lord praysed the unjust Steward because he had done wisely although in the same Act he had hazarded the Reputation of his Trust The Wisdome therefore and not the Injustice of that Steward is to be imitated Again in that commended Example of the Egyptian Midvives preserving the new-born of the I●raelites and by a Lye excusing their contempt of the Kings Commandement their Lye is not to be numbred with their humanity and their piety but careful●y