Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A47328
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A demonstration of the Messias. Part I in which the truth of the Christian religion is proved, especially against the Jews / by Richard Kidder.
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Kidder, Richard, 1633-1703.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing K402; ESTC R19346
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212,427
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527
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of Jesus was contemned and reproached for the meanness of his birth the poverty of his condition or freedom of his conversation and afterwards for the ignominy of his death But this sin did not exclude the possibility of repentance and the hope of pardon Here 's pardon for every sin the Gospell invites and receives the vilest sinners but shelters them not if they continue to wallow in their mire We may learn what sins have been forgiven from the words of the Apostle Such were some of you but ye are washed 1 Cor. 6.9 11. c. They had been Fornicatours Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners Such the Christian Doctrine found them but it did not leave them such They were cleansed of these impurities They were washed sanctified and justifyed in the name of the Lord Jesus Tit. 3.3 5. and by the Spirit of our God It was a wretched plight in which the Gospel found men when it first advanced in the world They were foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another Good God what a wretched condition was this How was thy Creature made in thine own Image deformed What a darkness and disorder hath spread it self upon the intellectual world Men retained the same shape and figure that they had from the beginning They were of an erect or upright stature They were not overgrown indeed with horns and hoofs and claws but otherwise they were at best but brutes in humane shape Their manners were crooked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. their minds were bowed down to the ground they were salvage and ravenous as wolves and bears But were these Creatures out of the reach of this mercy tendered in the Covenant of Grace By no means These men were saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Our Lord came to call sinners to repentance And the greatest sinners were pardoned Those who had worshipped Idols who had been possessed by Devils and who had persecuted the Church of Christ In a word by our Jesus Act. 13.39 all that believe are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses It is true indeed that our Saviour hath said Matt. 12.32 that whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him And it is the onely sin which is excepted Those words of our Saviour if rightly understood are no objection of weight against what hath been said before viz. that the Gospel affords a pardon for all manner of sin For this supposes that men assent to the truth of the Christian Doctrine and embrace it Now that sin against the Holy Ghost of which our Saviour speaks is of such a nature as supposeth the person guilty of it to be one who not onely does not assent to the truth of the Christian Doctrine but resists the Evidence and Confirmation of it which was effected by the Holy Ghost and does calumniate and blaspheme the Divine Authour of that Evidence Those Pharisees who imputed what our Saviour did to the Prince of the Devils did not believe the Doctrine of Christ Nor can any man who assents to the truth of the Christian Doctrine be guilty of that sin against the Holy Ghost of which our Saviour speaks The Holy Ghost in that place is not considered as the Third person of the Trinity and the authour of holiness in us in which respect every act of profaneness might in some sense be called a sin against the Holy Ghost but is considered there as a Witness to the truth of the Christian Doctrine And upon that account that blasphemy is said to be unpardonable He that was guilty of that sin was one who rejected the Christian Doctrine It is no disparagement to the most effectual Medicine in the World that it does not cure that diseased person who refuseth to apply it The Gospel affords a pardon for every sin but there is no hope for him who rejects it It was a charge of old against Christian Religion that it invited and gave hope of pardon to the most profligate sinners Origen contra Celsum l. 3. Celsus long agoe objected it against our most Holy Religion He says that in other mysteries the profane were dismissed and none was called in but he who had pure hands who was wise in speech free from vice c. But says he among the Christians are called in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whoever is a sinner a fool or childish or miserable such says he does the Kingdom of God receive But as Origen answers well these vile men are not presently admitted to the participation of the mysteries of this Religion but to the Cure which it works upon them It gives them pardon upon their amendment The Jews from their Sacrifices had hopes of pardon but they were but faint hopes if compared with what we have under the Gospel of Christ God hath given us the utmost assurance For 1. He hath given up his beloved Son to death 2 Cor. 5.7 Joh. 1.29 1 Pet. 1.19 Eph. 5.2 Rev. 1.5 Heb. 12.24 Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us He was that Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World Here 's a Sacrifice without spot of an infinite price and value a Sacrifice of a sweet-smelling Savour A Sacrifice which God provided and accepts Our Saviour hath washed us from our sins in his own bloud We are by the Gospel brought to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel The bloud which Jesus shed does not onely speak better things than the bloud of the Legal Sacrifices ordained by the hands of Moses but also better than the Sacrifice which Abel offered up Heb. 11.4 with Gen. 4.4 For though Abel were a righteous person though he offered a more excellent Sacrifice than his brother and God did declare his acceptance of his sacrifice by a visible token from Heaven Though Abel offered his Sacrifice by faith and be justly celebrated among the worthies and the faithfull Though God bore witness to his righteousness and though he being so long since dead yet he speaketh yet for all this the bloud which he offered is not to be compared with the bloud of Jesus And could any thing have been said more to the advancing the value of the bloud of Christ And its efficacy to procure our pardon than that it speaks better things than that of Abel Heb. 9.12.25 Heb. 10.2 ch 9.13 14. 2 Cor. 5.15 Heb. 2.9 Joh. 3.17 This Sacrifice need not be repeated as the Legal Sacrifices were This Sacrifice ' purges the Conscience the legal ones did but sanctify to the purifying of the flesh This Sacrifice is of value sufficient to procure pardon for the whole race of mankind and is not confined in its virtue
doubt with God's assistance not onely to shew that these things were fulfilled in Jesus but that they were also fulfilled by a most stupendious providence of God that we must be forced to say This was the Lord's doing and it may well be wonderfull in our eyes CHAP. III. The CONTENTS Of the birth of Jesus Of his lineage and kindred Of the place of his birth The seeming difference in the account of Bethlehem by the Prophet Micah and St. Matthew reconciled Of his being born of a Virgin A particular explication of 1 Tim. 2.15 She shall be saved in Child-bearing The time of his birth agreed with the predictions and general expectation of some great Person Several testimonies to this purpose The miserable shifts and evasions of the Jews I Shall first of all consider the birth of Jesus and see whether in that particular the predictions of old concerning the Messias were fulfilled in him or not And under this head I shall consider the following particulars First The Targum on Isa 11.10 Jer. 23 â— his lineage and kindred or the family of which he was born The Messias was to be of the house and family of David Mic. 5.2 understands those places of the Messias and of him doth Kimchi expound Ezek. 34.23 Thus he is called a root of Jesse Isa 11.10 A righteous branch raised up to David Jer. 23.5 And David also Ezek. 34.23 And no wonder then that he should be said to be of the tribe of Judah Mic. 5.2 God had made a solemn and unalterable promise of the Messias unto David and that he should be of his seed I have made a covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David my servant Thy seed will I establish for ever and build up thy throne to all generations Psal 89.3 4. These words are too great to have their completion in Solomon and the succeeding Kings of Judah who were of David's family and lineage And it is not hard to discern what a learned man hath observed that the Psalmist does distinguish between David's seed and David's sons By his seed the Messias is to be meant and what is said of his seed is to be understood of Christ having a precise reference to him but what is said of his sons and children hath a reference to his descendants and his successours and the promises made to them are conditional that of the Messias who was to be of his family was absolute Thus 't is said His seed also will I make to endure for ever and his throne as the days of heaven v. 29. The kingdom of the Messias shall never fail and nothing shall hinder his being exhibited to the world But then for David's sons viz. Solomon and his other off-spring it follows If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments then will I visit their transgression with a rod and their iniquity with stripes v. 30 31 32. This will God doe with the Sons of David to whom his promises which referred to them were but conditional but then it follows Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips Once have sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the Sun before me It shall be established for ever as the Moon and as a faithfull witness in heaven v. 33. 37. Now for our Jesus it is evident and not denied by the Jews that he was of the seed of David When Gabriel went to the blessed Virgin it is said that he went to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David Luk. 1.27 And Zacharias does bless God for raising up an horn of salvation in the house of his servant David v. 69. The Gospel begins The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the Son of David Matt. 1.1 By this name Jesus was called frequently Thou son of David have mercy upon us say the blind men Matt. 9.27 And the people said of him Is not this the son of David Matt. 12.23 The multitude cried out Hosanna to the son of David Mat. 21.9 See also c. 15. v. 20. c. 20. v. 30 31. The Jews knew very well that the Messias was to be the Son of David and the Priests and Scribes were displeased when they heard Jesus called the son of David Matt. 21.15 When Jesus asked the Pharisees whose Son Christ is they say unto him the son of David Matt. 22.42 And when there arose a question about Jesus the Jews said Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David Joh. 7.42 And our Saviour therefore might well be called the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David Rev. 5.5 and the off-spring of David c. 22. v. 16. And the authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews even in that Epistle which he writes to the Jews says it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah Heb. 7.14 I grant that there is some difficulty in the account we have of the genealogy of Jesus as it is delivered to us by St. Matthew and St. Luke But those are very unreasonable men that will upon that score now reject Christianity For we do not find that the Jews of old denied our Jesus to be of the family of David or that they accused the Christians for affirming him to be of the tribe of Judah And yet it is not to be imagined that they would have omitted to have charged the first Christians of forgery had there been any ground for such a charge And sure I am if the Jews could not charge the Christians upon this score and that they did not is an argument that they could not doe it they are very unreasonable that now make the objection Secondly I consider the place of his birth Of the Messias it is foretold that he should be born not onely of the family but in the city or town of David also Thus the Prophet tells us that out of Bethlehem he should come forth that was to be ruler in Israel Mic. 5.2 Now certain it is that the ancient Jews understood that Prophecy of the Messias whatever artifices the later Jews have used to evade the force of that divine testimony of which we have very good evidence to this day And the Chaldee Paraphrast on the place speaks plain enough in this argument when he paraphraseth upon those words Out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel thus Out of thee before me shall come Messias or Christ that he may rule c. and to the same purpose doth Jonathan the Targumist speak on Gen. 35.21 where 't is said that Israel journied and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar To which he adds these