Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A26832
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Vulgar errors in divinity removed
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Battell, Ralph, 1649-1713.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing B1150; ESTC R10796
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49,392
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154
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save men but they will not be saved So the year of Jubilee was a true Type of our deliverance by Christ whosoever was in bondage might then go out free wherefore I conclude as sure as we are lost by the first Adam so sure we are redeemed by the second Adam So sure as we are created by God the Father so sure we are redeemed by God the Son and Whoever will believe in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life Vulgar Errors CONCERNING Praying by the SPIRIT Removed THere hath nothing of late years been more mistaken than those Scriptures which speak of praying by the Spirit or the Spirit helping our Infirmities and God's pouring out the Spirit of Prayer and Supplications upon his People Which places have been wrested against a set Form of Prayer as if it were nothing but cold breathings and Lip labour to use their own words and a man in praying such a Prayer could not be assisted by the Spirit of God Their first mistake lieth in this that they do not distinguish between the gift of Prayer and the Spirit of Prayer Many men have a very good gift of Prayer and a very fluent Tongue who yet may be very formal as to their hearts not every one that hath the best gift of Eloquence prays most by the Spirit nor he that hath the meanest gift of Elocution prays least with the Spirit We may instance in Moses and Aaron the one of a stammering tongue the other God gives him this testimony that he could speak well Yet in the famous fight between Israel and Ameleck God makes not choice of Eloquent Aaron but of slowspoken Moses to get the victory by Prayer Though Aaron speak better than Moses yet certainly he could not pray better than he Prayer is a great part of Gods Service and Worship and our blessed Saviour tells us God is a Spirit and must be worshipp'd in Spirit Yet when the Apostles desired him to teach them to pray he did not teach them to pray by the Spirit in their sense who think speaking extempore without premeditation whatever comes into their mind on a sudden is the only praying by the Spirit but he prescribes them a set Form saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. So that a set Form certainly may be prayed by the Spirit else it had never been commanded to be used by our Saviour Christ If it be said the Lords Prayer is a pattern to frame our Prayers by rather than a Prayer it self My answer is As some Weights and Measures which are so exact in their kind being kept as Standards to make other Weights and Measures by do not lose the nature of Weights and Measures upon that account but rather are warranted in their kind So the Lords Prayer by being made a pattern for our Prayers doth not lose the nature of a Prayer but rather is thereby commended to us to be the most absolute Form of Prayer in the world In Numb 6.23 God bids Moses speak unto Aaron and his Sons saying on this wise ye shall bless the people the Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine favourably upon thee c. If any able of themselves to conceive a Prayer we may well suppose it should be the Priest whose Lips should preserve knowledge yet they are prescribed a set Form of blessing the People If it had been prescribed for the simple and ignorant sort it might have been objected They that have not gifts of their own are permitted to make use of other mens gifts but seeing it is prescribed the Priest himself nay even for Aaron the Eloquent High-Priest it strongly concludes for a set Form of Prayer and Benediction to be used in publick by the most able and eloquent Divine Moses a great Prophet who prayed so earnestly that God said Let me alone as if he tied Gods hands yet did he use one set Form of Prayer when the Ark set forward and when it rested Numb 10.35 When it set forward he said Arise O God let thine enemies be scattered let them also that hate thee flee before thee and when it rested he said constantly Return O Lord to the many thousands of Israel Let us not seek to seem better than he in new Forms every day whose gifts without question were unspeakably greater than ours The 92. Psalm was usually sung in the Church of the Jews every Sabbath day it was penned for that purpose as appeareth by the Title of it Seeing therefore a set Form of Prayer and Praise have been the practice of the ancient Church of God among the Jews and of Christian Churches to this very day let us give them the right hand of fellowship to have a Unity and Uniformity in Publick Worship Our blessed Saviour of whom it was said truly never man spake as he spake yet he useth three times together the same words in his Agony Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me He wanted no variety of words yet he confines himself to the same words the Prophet Joel prescribes the Prayer for the Priest and bids them say Spare thy people good Lord c. St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles used the same Salutation in the beginning of most of his Epistles Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and the same Prayer at the end of them The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen These examples plainly refute the error of those that are against the Liturgy or set Form of Prayer in the Church it is a ridiculous thing to think that as a nice and squeamish stomach is delighted with change of Dishes so God is delighted with variety of words and novelty of matter and method and that unless we have a new stile or a new trope or a new figure or a new flourish every time more than other we have not the Spirit of Prayer nor shall be excepted Every good Christian is not able to conceive a Prayer many have weak Capacities to conceive them want Order and Method to compose them yet even these if they meet with a Prayer framed to their hand can pray fervently and heartily A set Form must needs be a great help to those that are weak and yet willing to pray nay even they that are strong ought not to despise them for Prayers in publick are bounded by authority To pass over those bounds then must needs be offensive to that Authority that prescribed those bounds If any do they foment as it were a Worship distinct and apart from what is authorized by the Church but more reason that the spirit of a Minister should be regulated by the spirit of the Church representative than the spirits of the whole Congregation by the spirit of the Minister If he that was sick of the Palsie that was born of four
and all mankind in him so that when he chose them in Christ he look'd upon them as sinners for the whole need not a Physitian but those that are sick He that is not a Sinner needs not a Saviour and so when the non-Elect were rejected they were considered as Sinners and not as Creatures my meaning is not meerly under the Notion of Creatures So that the Article if rightly understood doth not impugn but rather confirm this great truth which I so much contend for namely That God doth not hate any man as his Creature before he consider him as a Sinner These things have I written to shew that Gods ways are equal and if we perish it is because our ways are unequal To vindicate the mercy of God which doth prolong our days and fill our years with goodness from the malignity of that Doctrine that doth insinuate that to get himself glory God from all Eternity had no good will to save the greatest part of mankind Lastly To raise up the weak hands and strengthen the feeble knees and settle the discomposed and fainting spirits of such as fear there is an eternal Decree of heaven gone out against them in assuring them that no irrespective Decree of God sends any man to hell and that only their own sins can cause their damnation Which damnation to prevent what could have been done more than God hath done For so God loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son into the world that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life Vulgar Errors CONCERNING Kingly GOVERNMENT Removed GOd is a God of Order he hath made Angels and Men in a wonderful Order Now Order is the disposing of unequal things to their proper places as some to sit on the Throne others to grind at the Mill Servants to be on foot and Princes on horseback It is a Vulgar Error which some have imbibed that fear first made men into Societies or else that strength only usurp'd a power over them This Principle is the fruitful mother of Rebellion for it doth insinuate that as soon as it will stand with their interests men may free themselves from their bonds But how false and unnatural this Principle is may appear by this that God made our condition such that no man is or ever was born into the world but was under Father or Mother which could not be usurpers of Government over their own Children but their Children by the Law of Nature were bound to obey them as one very well observes When Families grew great the elder of the house was their natural Lord and so 't is likely they continued till some mighty Nimrod invaded their rights and usurp'd Government over them which when others heard of 't is rational to conjecture that to prevent that spreading Gangrene amongst them likewise the wise and good men that were Fathers of several Tribes gave up their right to one whom they called a King So that he came not to this height by Usurpation or Ambition but by a free and chearful conjunction of several Tribes to that Tribe which had so good and potent a Father over them as was both able and willing to preserve their Liberties and Laws Justin one of the most antient of the Latine Historians says almost as much So that Kingly Government is not only the most natural but it is the antientest Government in the world It is likely some were of old likewise for a Commonwealth either out of ambition to have part in the Government or else moved to it by the ill administration of Justice by Kings or by their envy and discontent But Homer the antient Greek Poet cries out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Government by many is not good let there be but one King one Governour indeed herein he resembles God who being but one governs all the world As Monarchy resembles God in Majesty so likewise in Mercy All other forms of Government come short of Monarchy in Mercy His Prerogative can dispense with the rigour of the Law where he sees there is hopes of amendment for the future or where the evidence was not so clear as was to be wish'd against the condemned person or where it should be very tragical to take away the life of the offender Considering how apt we or our Children are to be tempted and overtaken in a fault of a high nature it is our great priviledge that we and they are born under Monarchy which if it please can shew mercy to the condemned and consider those favourable Circumstances which the Law could take no notice of nor Aristocracy or Democracy do consider The Beasts in the Fable were afraid if they admitted the Lion to be their King that then he might prey upon them at pleasure To whom the Fox replies If you do not the Bear and the Wolf and every beast of prey will tear us whilst we have none that can or will defend us The Moral of it is this As there is no Government upon earth but may be subject to inconvenience if the Ruler be wicked yet Monarchy is least subject to it for if one be thought troublesom what ease or security can there be when their name is Legion It was certainly a great villany though being successful it went for virtue in Brutus and his Confederates among the Romans to depose Tarquinius and afterwards upon that to call all Monarchy Tyranny but never did the world know greater slavery than under the Aristocracy of Athens where instead of avoiding one they set up thirty Tyrants and an Historian tells us the Roman State could not long have been preserved if it had not submitted to a Monarchy for the popular heats and factions were so great that the Annual Election of Magistrates was but another name for a tumult Nay it is observable in the beginning of the Roman Common-wealth when they rebelled against Tarquinius and set up Consuls this example was so prevalent with the Souldiers that they soon set up a Tribune of the People against the Consuls and this Tribune and the Consuls were often at daggers drawing who should be uppermost but at last Caesar threw them both out and took the Empire upon himself It is likewise a Vulgar Errour that hath obtained with many that God governed his own people in nature of a Commonwealth-Government until they sinfully desired a King From whence they conclude Aristocracy to be the best form of Government But when God delivered the Jews out of Egypt he governed them not only as their God but as their Sovereign also and he gave them Laws not only for Piety but for Polity also and he set up his Deputies Moses and Aaron and Samuel to govern them according to those Laws which himself had made to govern them by both in Church and State They could make no Laws to govern the State by as we do Acts of Parliament nor abrogate any for as yet God was their Sovereign When