Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	grace_n	jesus_n	lord_n	11,571	5	3.7769	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15508	Charity mistaken, with the want whereof, Catholickes are vniustly charged for affirming, as they do with grief, that Protestancy vnrepented destroies salvation.	Knott, Edward, 1582-1656.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655, attributed author.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646. Want of charitie justly charged.	1630 (1630)	STC 25774; ESTC S102197	54,556	140

Iesus Christ and we pray and hope that before they part out of this life the merits of the said death passion of our Blessed Lord may be applyed to theyr soules by fayth and charity and penance by those Sacramēts and other conduits meanes of conueying and applying his grace and spiritual life to their soules which are onely to be found in the bosome of the holy Catholicke Church Without which Sacraments and other meanes the merits and blood of Christ our Lord though most apt and able in themselues to saue a thousand millions of worlds will neuer saue any one soule For in fine the merits of our Lord and the sinfull soules of men be two extreames of great distance from one another can neuer be brought to meet but by such wayes and meanes as the vnspeakeable power and wisedome goodnes of Almighty God hath found out for that purpose and those meanes are they which I haue already touched For if the merit of our Blessed Sauiours death were of it selfe to saue any one soule without the application thereof by the aforesaid meanes no reason at all could be assigned why any one soule should be lost as yet the farre greatet part of soules is sure to be So that we speake not so much of Protestants in thy kind as of the profession of heresy which they follow and we iudge no more of them vpon this reason but that whilest they liue in that Religion they estrange themselues from the right meanes of applying the merits of Christ our Lord to theyr soules whereby they might be saued But yet we hope neuertheles that God will haue so much mercy on many of them before they dy as to incorporate them into his mysticall body which is his true Church whereby they may partake the influence of that mercy and grace which is deriued from the head thereof Iesus Christ our Lord. And therefore it is plaine that we make not Protestācy to be at a sinne against the Holy Ghost which cannot be forgiuen because it will not be repented whereas Protestancy both may and often is repented of and consequently forgiuen to the end that it may be so we declare the grieuousnes of the sinne and we procure by all the meanes we can to remoue the same Nay we are so farre from accounting it a sinne against the Holy Ghost as that by our saying that Protestancy vnrepented excludes saluatiō we imploy no more then meerly that it is a mortall sinne For whosoeuer dyes impenitent of any one mortall sinne can neuer be saued S. Paul ad Galat and whosoeuer shall with true penance be sory and depart from his Protestancy though it be but in the last minute of his life will be capable of saluation So that we iudge not men in particular concerning their saluation of damnation but yet on the other side we must not be afrayd to affirme though we are cordially sory for hauing cause to doe it that they who dye impenitent either of Protestancy or any other sinne which depriues the soule of the grace of God cannot be saued For such men as these are iudged already in generall by the mouth of God but which of them in his particular shall be taken before he dy out of that vnhappy hearde of goates and placed in that blessed flocke of sheepe by the hād of the good shepheard we leaue to his owne vnsearcheable determinatiō And therfore as we take not the office of Iudge out of his hand because we cannot come to know whether this or that particular sinner may not repent before he dye so yet we may safely say that a man who liues in Protestancy or any other mortall sinne and who is so farre from repenting it though he be sufficiētly informed thereof as that he will not so much as acknowledge it to be a sinne and who for ought we know or canne learne did no way retract or reuerse it so much as at the hower of his death departs this life in a state which is greatly to be lamented and withall that if he repented himselfe as little of it indeede in the sight of God as in our sight he seemed to doe there canne be no doubt with vs so longe as we beleeue our Religion to be true but that such a person dyed without saluation as departing in the obstinate profession of a different Religion which we esteeme to be false And the same must they also beleeue of vs mutatis mutandis if indeede they beleeue their owne Religion to be true Christian religion of which Christ himselfe pronounced Qui non crediderit condemnabitur That our saying that Protestancy vnrepented destroyes saluatiō proceedes from want of Charitie in vs is no lesse vntrue because there is but one true Church then already I haue shewed it to be improbable and first this is proued by holy scripture CHAPTER III. HItherto I haue been shewing how vtterly improbable it is euen prima facie that we should censure Protestancy or Protestants through want of Charitie and withall what that motiue is which induces vs to let them know the extreamity of danger wherein they are or that when we hold any such discourse it is so farre from being an effect of want of Charitie in vs towards them as that it only proceedes from our deepe compassion of their case which is the most sweete pretious fruite of that soueraigne vertue My endeauour now shal be to shew that this charge of vncharitablenes against vs is not only improbable but vniust also vntrue And that in carrying our selues herein as we doe we not only not swarue from our duty to them but if we should doe otherwise we should fayle of that obedience which we owne to Almighty God himselfe who exacts the performance of this office at the handes of his holy Catholicke Church And now for the clearing of this point in such sort as that it may satisfie doubtfull mindes it will first be fit to premise some few groundes vpon which I may the better build vp that truth which I am about to declare I will not offer here to prooue that there is a God because now I haue not to doe which professed Atheistes nor yet that Christ our Lord is the true sonne of God who suffered death for the redemptiō of the world because we liue not amongst Iewes But for as much as there are such differences of opinion concerning that Religion and Church which was founded and framed by Christ our Lord I will briefely shew in the first place that Almighty God did found one Church and but one and that he ordained one Religion wherein he would be serued and but one and that out of that Communion there is no saluation In the second place I will make it appeare that the vnity which is to be maintained amongst the members of this one true Church and the professors of this one Religion is directly broken betweene Catholickes and

false hood and by exhorting men to imbrace the one and to auoid the other so farre off is she from demeriting by letting Protestants knowe that if they dye impenitent in that Religion they loose their soules THE CONCLVSION IN the meane time it is a most wofull case chat whilest they will be blaming vs for the want of Charity in condemning them there should be so few of them who haue so much compassion and Charity towards themselues as to flye from their extreame danger of eternall death And that such a world of worthy people being drawē vp by pride in the vnderstanding part of the minde and dragged downe by the disorderly affections of the will should be soe very glad to cast themselues away and that for euer Our Lord giue all men grace to feele in their very hearts what a huge misery it is to be in state of any mortall sinne but especially of this present Heresy which both is grieuous in it selfe and is besides a cōtinual noursery of other sins by meanes of those corrupt principles euen concerning life which vnder the false colours of purity piety Christian liberty the light of the ghospell it is wōt to infuse into the heart of man For when they teach men that there is no merit belonging to good worke though they be confest by vs to flowe but from the grace goodnes of Christ our Lord what courage do they giue men to be frequent and cheerefull in doing of good workes And what cause can they assigne why men should abstayne from sinne when they teach them that the best workes which are performed by the greatest Saints in the world are no better then sinnes and they in their owne nature mortall Nay when they teach men that the commaundements of God are not possibly to be kept by any man euen with the helpe of that diuine grace which hath been purchased and merited for vs by Christ our Lord and is communicated to the soules of his seruants by faith and loue what reason can they haue either to exhort men to keepe Gods Commandements or to reprooue them for infringing the same Yea yet further when they professe that men haue not so much as Free will to do any one good worke at all euen when they are first moued and assisted towards it by the good grace of God for without that grace all Catholicks professe that no man is able so much as to thinke one good thought in order to saluation with what sence can they encourage men to doe any thing which is good or with what iustice can they punish them for omitting the same since it hath no dependāce at all in the least degree vpō their own Free wil If therefore now at last they would giue me leaue I would beseech them to looke with steadfast eyes vpon the dangerous state wherein they are and besides to cōsider that our Lord is so highly good in himselfe and hath bene soe gracious to vs that he deserue to be adored and serued though all the world say nay And they are happy miseries which are indured in honour of such a Maiesty as his whose infinite power wisedome are as if they were but meere instruments of his infinite goodnes for the conueighing of graces downe to vs and the drawing of vs thereby vp to him The sinnes of this world and especially of Heresie and Schisme which are the very rootes and sources of millions of sinnes giue matter of sad meditation to the minde of those men who behold these things with a cleare sight yea and euen although by way of supposition there were no voluntary and malitious sinnes committed in the world yet were it misery inough for a man to liue out of the communion of the holy Catholicke Church with losse of time in doing good wherein such inestimable Treasures might be acquired For supposing that a man be a true member of that Church for as much as concernes his beliefe and that for as much concernes his life he be in state of grace there is no momēt of time wherein by the mercy of God which is euer both preuenting and cooperating with the will of man the same man may not procure increase of grace either by the doing of some one good deede or by the saying of some one good word or by the producing of some one good thought to the honour and glory of our Lord God Nor is there any weaknesse of body or want of learning or of other habilityes of the minde or any distresse in fortune which can clipp the wings that is to say the holy affections of the soule from soaring and struggling thus towards heauen Now for euery degree of new grace there is in correspondence a distinct degree of glory layd vp to be possessed in heauē This glory is a thing of such incomparable and soueraigne quality and excellency as that the Blessed Apostle sayth thereof That neither the eye hath seene 1. Cor. 2 nor the eare hath heard nor the heart hath comprehended any such thing as that A poore mans eye in this world might at ease discouer a million of times more greatnes and glory then euer the greatest and most glorious Monarch did enioy And yet a mans eye may be sayd scarce able to see any thing if it be compared with the infinitenes of those other things whereof we may haue newes by our eares For who can see so many things as the tongue of others can tell him of But yet neither can al that which we may euen heare hold any manner of proportion with those worlds of other things which by the faculties of our minde we may conceaue For when all is seene which can be shewed when all is heard which can be tould it remaines for vs to imagine other manner of things then all those and to multiply and frame by fancy vpon a minutes warning both innumerable more species and incomparably more excellent then those former were So that it is no meane expression for the Blessed Apostle to vse when he saith that the glory and ioy of heauen doth excell all that which can be seene or heard by the sense or which can euen be conceaued by the hart of man And yet meanes of high euen by this expression the Apostle himselfe dares not venture or presume to tell vs how great those ioyes are but only that other things are not so great as they And therby he may rather be accounted to deliuer what they are not then what they are This ioy and glory is so high and great and deepe as that one instant therof would incomparably exceede and out strip in true account all the sensuall ioy and glory which hath beene found and felt by all the mortall creatures of flesh and bloud put togeather from the begining of the world till the end thereof though all that glory and ioy could be cast and summed vp into one single act of glorying and enioying For