Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	jesus_n	sin_n	sinner_n	3,659	5	7.4408	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93868	Vindiciæ fundamenti: or A threefold defence of the doctrine of original sin: together with some other fundamentals of salvation the first against the exceptions of Mr. Robert Everard in his book entituled, The creation and the fall of man. The second against the examiners of the late assemblies confession of faith. The third against the allegations of Dr. Jeremy Taylor, in his Unum necessarium, and two letter treatises of his. By Nathaniel Stephens minister of Fenny-Drayton in Leicestershire.	Stephens, Nathaniel, 1606?-1678.	1658 (1658)	Wing S5452; Thomason E940_1; ESTC R207546	207,183	256

as men or Devils could devise Now let us make enquiry into the true original of your mistake you think the words by the disobedience of one many were made sinners Rom. 5. Do allude to that other passage He made him sinne for us who knew no sinne 2 Cor. 5. And from the collation of both you conclude as Christ was made sin for us who knew no deceiving heart in himself so we were made sinners by Adam who knew no such sinne But here you are grossely mistaken when you take these two for parallel Scriptures which are not parallel The text in the Corinthians is meantionely of the punishment of sinne that Christ did bear the burden of our iniquities But the text in the Romans is not onely meant of the punishment and the guilt of sinne but also of the depravation of the nature of man The scope of the place is plainly to shew that by the disobedience of one many were constituted sinners or sinful men And the word in the original is ordinarily taken for men who have the habit and the nature of sinne in them Peter said depart from me I am a sinful man Luke 5.8 And our Saviour in another place whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation Mark 8.38 And the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans that sinne by the Commandment might appear exceeding sinful Chap 6. verse 13. In these and such like places the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken for such a one as is a sinner by intrinsecal denomination And therefore in the present case when the Apostle saith by the disobedience of one many were made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sinners as our translation hath it his meaning is they were made sinful men that is they had the nature and the habit of sinne derived to them from the disobedience of the first man And thus you may plainly see that the two texts which you put for like are very unlike and this is one chief ground of your error Again your deductions are every was as unsound for say you at Christ was made sinne for us when he knew no sinne so we are made sinners for Adam when we knew no such sinne And to confirme this you further tell us it is one thing to be made sinne so as to bear the burden of Adams sinne and another thing to act sinne But whereas you speak of two things onely you should have mentioned three It is one thing to be made sinne and another thing to be made sinful and a third to act sinne If you speak of being made sinne so Christ onely was made a sacrifice for sinne to satisfie the justice of God But if you speak of being made sinful so is the whole race of mankind by the disobedience of the first man And in the third place if you speak of committing the act of sinne this onely men can do when they have the use of reason and understanding From all which we conclude though Infants cannot be said to act sinne yet neverthelesse through the disobedience of the first man they may have the pollution of nature Further you say as we are made sinners by Adam so we are made righteous by Christ and yet had no hand in those astions that made us righteous In the like case we were made sinners by Adams disobedience and yet had no hand in his so acting To say the truth if you go to the personal act particularly and individually we had no hand either in the obedience of the one or the disobedience of the other yet in a general sense the acts of the two Adams are the act of the whole posterity that come of them As for example the first man by his disobedience did defile the whole nature without the knowledg wil motion or act of any of the persons that were to come of him yet so really and effectually that none can come by propagation from him but they partake of the guilt of his sinne and the pollution of his nature ver 12.14 17. So in the like case the second man did satisfie the justice of God and sanctifie our nature without any personal knowledge will motion or act of ours yet so really and effectually that none of us can truly beleeve but we must some way come to partake of that nature To as many as received him hath he given this power to be called the sons of God to them that do beleeve on his name being born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. Further you say we had as little capacity to act in Adam as we had to act in Christ For this must be granted that when God makes the creature capable to act he makes him as capable to act for himself as for the Devil Else he had better provided for his enemies than for himself page 137. These also are the whimsies of the Examiners of the late Confession For they speaking of the indifferency of the will tell us in plain termes that as Adams will before his fall did hang in an aequilibrium to good or bad and enclined more to that which was good than that which was evil so they hold the same of the will of all men else before their personal fall To all which I answer that these are dangerous speeches which derogate much from the grace of God in Christ For whosoever they be that do either lessen the misery of nature and cry up the natural ability of the will they do in sense take that away from Christ which they give to men As for that objection of yours that God should better provide for his enemies than for himself hold your self contented God is able to secure his own glory though all men are born in original sinne and the Apostle doth plainly give the reason the Lord doth quicken us when we are dead in trespasses and sinnes when we walk according to the course of this world when we serve divers lusts and pleasures when we are by nature the children of wrath as well as others He doth quicken us when we are in this estate that in the ages to come he may shew the exceeding riches of his grace towards us in Jesus Christ Ephes 2. ver 1.2 3 c. Therefore the declaration of the glory of Christ in giving spiritual life to them that are dead must necessarily suppose men to be by nature dead in the passes and sinnes that they may be the greater objects of mercy If you go in this method though all Infants are involved in original sinne though all are miserable by nature yet God hath better provided for himself than for his enemies when his grand designe is through the miserie of man to shew the riches of his grace We will now proceed to Psal 51. ver 5. And here let us see how many shifts you have to elude the force and manifest sense of this

come and let him that is athirst come Revel 22 17. c. All these desires are the fruit of the Spirit He that comes to the first doth not come to the second at least not to the third or fourth degree However the whole course of Christianity is unum continuum sitis one continual succession of spiritual desires And in immediate opposition there is unum continuum auxilii an interchangable supply of auxiliary grace this latter answering the former as the one part of the deed doth answer the other So then though the Saints have no ability in themselves to supernatural duties yet they may have it from Christ and the freenesse of the promise These things I have drawn out more at large because I see as formerly it hath done to others So our doctrine doth seem to give great offence to our Authour It seemeth strange to him that we should exhort men to spiritual duties and yet teach that all mankind through the condition of the natural birth lye under a necessity of sinning Whereas if he did well understand the grand designe of the Gospel he should finde that all ability to do these things is to be had from Christ alone and that upon termes of beleeving desiring longing and waiting for them The Prophets Apostles Martyrs and other holy men have in their several times done their duties and served their generation But how not by any ability of their own but by the continual supply of the Spirit of Christ as the Scriptures and all experience do abundantly testifie Now we come to the next Section SECT 2. Consideration of the objections against the former Doctrine THE first Scripture which he insists upon is Gen 6. Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart are onely evil continually Here he doth end avour to frame sundry answers First it is true saith he they were so but it was their own fault not Adams for so it is said expressely All flesh had corrupted their way upon earth and the earth was filled with violence Repl. It was their own fault and Adams too It was their own as they corrupted their own wayes it was Adams as they were flesh for he brought them into that sinful condition by his fall So then the force of our argument stands thus First the thoughts of man were evil Secondly they were all evil Thirdly they were onely evil Fourthly they were continually evil Fifthly they were evil from his childhood Now such an universal effect cannot be without some universal cause from whence all this evil must necessarily spring And where shall we look for the cause but in the text it self My Spirit shall not alway strive with man because he is but flesh Because he is but flesh and borne in the sinne of the nature therefore the thoughts of his heart are evil from his childhood Secondly saith he if this corruption had been natural and unavoidable why did God punish all the world for it except eight persons Why did he punish those that could not help it and why did others escape that were equally guilty Repl. That which God did punish in the old world in ordinary men was the violence of their hands and in his own people was the breach of covenant Though these two did naturally flow from original corruption as all other evils do yet we cannot say that they are absolutely unavoidable for the act of violence and of marriage with the daughter of a strange god men have a liberty to forbeare the outward execution of these evils And for the lust of the heart though it is unavoidable by nature yet it is not simply unavoidable for God is so full of mercy that he is ready to help all those that flee to him in the sense of their own misery He hath declared himself to be a Physician ready to cure all broken-hearted sinners The men of Nineveh did turne from the violence of their hands and how ready was he to forgive them The people in the dayes of Ezra and Nehemiah did repent of their Idolatrous marriages and how did he passe by their iniquity Of all the Authors that ever I met with Luther in his Tract deservo arbitrio is most severe against the liberty of the will yet in the end of the treatise he bringeth in Erasmus thus speaking Why doth he command us any duty seeing all things are done by necessity His answer is he doth command that he may admonish and instruct us what we ought to do that being humbled in the sense and feeling of our own evil we may repair to his grace for help as we have abundantly spoken And as for the Lords punishing of those that could not help it We say in publick solemn and exemplary judgments he hath alway reserved a liberty for the exemple of others and the declaration of his justice and mercy It is true also that they that were equally guilty did not perish in the waters of the flood What of all this though they did escape that judgment they were lyable to the judgment of God Thirdly saith he God might have as well punished all the world for sleeping once in a day or for being hungry as for sinning if so to do be natural and unavoidable Repl. The cases are not equal mankind cannot live without meat and drink sleep and such other refections of nature when they were made in the beginning they were made in such an estate that they had need of these things I trow they had no need of sinne Againe for sinful acts though they come from the corruption of the flesh as the sparkes do out of the Chimney yet in externals man hath a liberty to commit or not commit such an evil Also for the lust of the heart that which is unavoidable by nature is avoidable by grace The guilt of sinne may be taken away by the blood of Christ the power of it by the Spirit of Christ and the very being of it when the Saints shall be made partakers of the adoption or the redemption of their bodies Fourthly if God in these words complained of their natural and original corruption why did he but then as if it were a new thing complain of it and repent that he made man since he proved so bad Repl. God did then complain of original corruption because in a most eminent degree it did put forth it self in oppression breach of covenant and other evils He did complain in those times because iniquity was then come to a ripenesse and the years of his patience was almost runne out Fifthly saith he this malice and corruption was such that God did send Noah a Preacher of righteousnesse to draw the world from it But no man supposes that it was fit to send a Preacher to dehort them from being guilty of original sinne Repl. So farre as we may gather Noahs message to the old world was the same in effect as that of Jonah's to Nineveh he was to exhort them to turn from