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
A30332	A continuation of the second part of the enquiry into the reasons offered by Sa. Oxon for the abrogating of the test: relating to the idolatry of the Church of Rome.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688. Reasons for abrogating the test, imposed upon all members of Parliament anno 1678. Octob. 30.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5771A; ESTC R213038	6,504	8

A Continuation of the Second part of the ENQUIRY Into the REASONS Offered by Sa. Oxon for the Abrogating of the TEST relating to the Idolatry of the Church of Rome THe words of the Test that belong to this point are these The Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous Upon which our Author fastens this Censure that since by this the Church of Rome is charged with Idolatry which both forfeits mens Lives here and their Salvation hereafter according to the express words of Scripture it is a damnable piece of Cruelty and Uncharitableness to load them with this charge if they are not guilty of it and upon this he goes to clear them of it not only in the two Articles mentioned in the Test the Worship of Saints and the Sacrifice of the Mass but that his Apology might be compleat he takes in and indeed Insists chiefly on the Worship of Images tho that is not at all mentioned in the Test He brings a great many quotations out of the Old Testament to shew the Idolatry prohibited in it was the Worshipping the Sun Moon and Stars or the making an Image to resemble the Divine Essence upon which he produces also some other Authorities And in this consists the substance of his Plea for the Church of Rome But upon all this he ought to have retracted both the License that himself gave some years ago to Dr. Stillingfleets Book Of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome and his own hasty assertion in condemning both Turk and Papist as guilty of Idolatry the one for worshipping a leud Impostor and the other for Worshipping a senseless piece of matter Def. of his Eccl. Pol. p. 285 286. It seems he is now convinced that the latter part of this charge that falls on the Papists was as false as the former that falls on the Turks certainly is for they never Worshipped Mahomet but hold him only in high Reverence as an Extraordinary Prophet as the Jews do Moses It is very like that if the Turks had taken Vienna he would have retracted that as he has now in effect done the other for I believe he is in the same disposition to reconcile himself to the Mufti and the Pope but the Ottoman Empire is now as low as Popery is high so he will brave the Turk still to his teeth tho he did him wrong and will humble himself to the Papist tho he did him nothing but right but now I take leave of the man and will confine my self severely to the matter that is before me And. I. How guilty soever the Church of Rome is of Idolatry yet the Test does not plainly assert that for there is as great a difference between Idolatrous and Idolatry as there is in Law between what is Treasonable and what is Treason The one Imports only a Worship that is conformable to Idolatry and that has a tendency to it wheras the other is the plain sin it self there is also a great difference between what is now used in that Church and the Explanations that some of their Doctors give of that usage We are to take the usage of the Church of Rome from her Publick Offices and her authorised practices so that if these have a Conformity to Idolatry and a tendency to it then the words of the Test are justified what sense soever some learned men among them may put on these Offices and Practices therfore the Test may be well maintained even tho we should acknowledg that the Church of Rome was not guilty of Idolatry II. If Idolatry was a Crime punishable by Death under the Old Testament that does not at all concern us nor does the Charge of Idolatry authorise the people to kill all Idolaters unless our Author can prove that we believe our selves to be under all the Political and Judiciary Precepts of the Law of Moses and even among the Jews the execution of that severe Law belonged either to the Magistrate or to some authorised and Inspired person who as a Zealot might execute the Law when the Magistrate was wanting to his duty So that this was writ Invidiously only as it seems to Inflame the Papists the more against us But the same Calvinist Prince that has expressed so just an aversion to the repealing the Test has at the same time shewed so mercifull an Inclination towards the Ro. Catholicks that of all the Reproaches in the World one that intended to plead for that Religion ought to have avoided the mentioning of Blood or Cruelty with the greatest care III. It is true we cannot help believing that Idolatry is a damnable sin that shuts men out of the Kingdom of Heaven and if every sin in which a man dies without repentance does it much more this which is one of the greatest of all sins But yet after all there is Mercy for Sins of Ignorance upon mens general repentance and therefore since God alone knows the degrees of mens knowledge and of their Ignorance and how far it is either Affected on the one hand or Invincible on the other we do not take upon us to enter into Gods Secrets or to Judg of the Salvation or Damnation of particular persons nor must we be byassed in our Enquiry into the nature of any sin either by a fond regard to the state of our Ancestors or by the due respect that we owe to those who are over us in Civil matters In this case things are what God has declared them to be We can neither make them better nor worse than he has made them and we are only to Judge of things leaving persons to the merciful as well as the just and dreadful judgment of God. IV. All the stir that our Author keeps with the examining of the Idolatry committed by the Jews under the Old Testament supposing it were all true will serve no more for acquitting the Church of Rome than a Plea would avail a Criminal who were arraigned of high Treason for Coyning Money or for Counterfeiting the Kings Seal in which one should set forth that High Treason was the Murdering the King or the levying war against him and that therefore the Criminal who was guilty of neither of these two ought to be acquitted Idolatry as well as Treason is a Comprehensive Notion and has many different branches so that tho the Worshipping the Host of heaven or the Worshipping an Image as a resemblance of the Divinity may be acknowledged to be the highest degrees of Idolatry yet many other corruptions in the Worship of God are justly reducible ro it and may be termed not only Idolatrous but Idolatry it self V. Our Saviour in his sermon on the Mount has shewed us how many sins are reducible to the second Table of the Law besides those of Murder Adultery c. that are expresly named in it and tho the Jews