Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	repentance_n	sin_n	true_a	4,896	5	5.0189	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26853	An accompt of all the proceedings of the commissioners of both persvvasions appointed by His Sacred Majesty, according to letters patent, for the review of the Book of common prayer, &c.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1661 (1661)	Wing B1177; ESTC R34403	133,102	166

all but if there be a particular enumeration of Sins it cannot be so general a Confession because it may happen that some or other may by Gods Grace have been preserved from some of those sins enumerated and therefore should by confessing themselves guilty tell God a lye which needs a new Confession Repl. If General words be its Perfection it 's very culpable in tediousness and vain repetitions For what need you more than Lord be merciful to us sinners There 's together a general Confession of Sin and a general Prayer for Mercy which comprehend all the particulars of the Peoples Sins and wants We gave you our Reason which you answer not Confession is the exercise of Repentance and also the helper of it and it is no true Repentance which is not particular but only general If you say you repent that you have sinned and know not wherein or do not repent of any particular sin you do not indeed repent for sin is not existent but in the individuals And if you ask for Grace and know no what Grace or desire no particular Grace indeed you desire no Grace at all We know there is time and use for general Confessions and Requests but still as implying particulars as having gone before or following or at least it must be supposed that the People understand the particulars included and have inward Confessions and desires of them which cannot here be supposed when they are not at all mentioned nor can the People generally be supposed to have such quick and comprehensive minds nor is there leisure to exercise such particular Repentance or desire while a general is named And we beseech you let the Scripture be judge whether the Confessions and Prayers of the Servants of God have not been particular As to your Objection or Reason we answer 1. There are general Prayers with the particular or without them 2. There are particular Confessions and Prayers proper to some few Christians and there are others common to all It is these that we expect and not the former 3. The Churches Prayers must be suited to the Body of the Assembly though perhaps some one or few may be in a state not fit for such expressions What a lamentable Lyturgy will you have if you have nothing in it but what every one in the Congregation may say as true of and suitable to themselves Then you must leave out all thanksgiving for our Justification and forgiveness of Sins and Adoption and title to Glory c. because many in the Assembly are Hypocrites and have no such mercies and many more that are sincere are mistaken in their own Condition and know not that they have the mercies which they have and therefore dare not give thanks for them lest they speak an untruth Then the Lyturgy that now speaks as in the persons of the sanctified must be changed that the two fore-mentioned sorts or the later at least may consent and when you have done it will be unsuitable to those that are in a better state and have the knowledge of their Justification This is the Argument which the Sectaries used against singing of David's Psalms in the Congregations because there is much in them that many cannot truly say of themselves But the Church must not go out of that way of Worship prescribed by God and suited to the state of the ordinary sort of spiritual worshippers because of the distempers or super-eminent excellencies of some few It were easie to go over David's Psalms and your own Lyturgy and shew you very much that by this Argument must be cast out He that finds any passage unsuitable to himself is not to speak it of himself Sect. 3. As for Original Sin though we think it an evil Custom springing from false Doctrine to use any such expressions as may lead people to think that to the persons baptized in whose persons only our Prayers are offered up Original Sin is not forgiven in their holy Baptism yet for that there remains in the Regenerate some reliques of that which are to be bewailed the Church in her Confession acknowledgeth such desires of our own hearts as render us miserable by following them That there is no health in us That without Gods help our frailty cannot but fall That our mortal nature can do no good thing without him which is a clear acknowledgement of original sin Repl. 1. He that hath his Original Sin forgiven him may well confess that he was born in Iniquity and conceived in Sin and was by nature a Child of Wrath and that by one man sin entered into the World and that Judgement came on all men to condemnation c. The pardoned may confess what once they were and from what Rock they were hewn even actual sins must be confessed after they are forgiven unless the Antinomians hold the truth against us in such points 2. All is not false Doctrine that crosseth mens private opinions which you seem here to obtrude upon us We know that the Papists and perhaps some others hold that all the baptized are delivered from the guilt of Original Sin But as they are in the dark and disagreed in the application of it so we have more reason to incline to either of the ordinary opinions of the Protestants than to this of theirs 1. Some learned Protestants hold that visibly all the baptized are Church-Members pardoned and justified which is but that they are probably justified indeed and are to be used by the Church upon a judgement of Charity as those that are really justified but that we have indeed no certainty that they are so God keeping that as a secret to himself concerning individuals till by actual Faith and Repentance it be manifest to themselves Another opinion of many Protestants is that all persons that are Children of the Promise or that have the conditions of pardon and justification in the Covenant mentioned are to receive that pardon by Baptism And all such are pardoned and certainly in a state of justification and salvation thereupon And that the Promise of pardon is made to the faithful and their Seed and therefore that all the faithful and their Seed in infancy have this pardon given them by the promise and solemnly delivered them and sealed to them by Baptism which investeth them in the benefits of the Covenant but withal that 1. The professed Infidel and his Seed as such are not the Children of the Promise and therefore if the Parent ludicrously or forcedly or the Child by error be baptized they have not thereby the pardon of their sins before God 2. That the Hypocrite that is not a true Believer at the heart though he profess it hath no pardon by Baptism before God as being not an Heir of the Promise nor yet any Infant of his as such But though such are not pardoned the Church that judgeth by profession taking Professors for Believers must accordingly use them and their Seed 3. But though