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A72883 Of the love of our only Lord and Saviour, Iesus Christ Both that which he beareth to vs; and that also which we are obliged to beare to him. Declared by the principall mysteries of the life, and death of our Lord; as they are deluiered [sic] to vs in Holy Scripture. With a preface, or introduction to the discourse. Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655. 1622 (1622) STC 17658; ESTC S112463 355,922 614

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all the rest which hath bene said as himselfe doth incomparably surpasse whatsoeuer other thing which it is euen in his power to giue I will also in this place sorbeare to hearken to that other diuine consort of Musicke which he made in that least Sermon of his next before his sacred Passion which S. Iohn relates in his holy Ghospell For that of the B. Sacrament is considered in a discourse therof a part and that of the infinite loue of our Lord in his last Sermon is toucht in the beginning of that of the Passion And we haue heere I hope bene shewed inough to make the loue of our B. Lord appeare Not only in regard of what he conceaued in his owne pretious hart towards man but moreouer for the abundant blessings which he hath imparted to the world exteriourly For we see to what greatnes and happines the meanest of vs is sublymed through the high account into which we are taken by Almighty God Only we must be sure that his infinite goodnes do not giue vs occasion and colour for contynuance in our wickednes For as much as in God all is infinite a like (i) All is a like Infinite in God and therfore euen the very infinitenesse of his Mercy doth shew vs how Infinite his Iustice also is and euen by the excesse of his mercy when men are sory for their sinnes we may inferre the intollerable rigour of his Iustice against such as are impenitēt The holy Scripture is also ful of most particular proofe how deepely our Lord doth detest al sinne and willfull sinners This hath bene pointed at before vpon another occasion in the discourse of the infinite power of God and in the end of the Passion it will also be resumed agayne For the present therfore I conclude concerning the most excellent Doctrine of Christ our Lord deliuered especially in holy Scripture and I passe on to the consideration of his Miracles Of the excessine Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to man by the Mirac'es which he wrought on earth CHAP. 41. THE excessiue loue of our Lord Iesus was farre from being content to expresse it selfe towards man by any one single way alone but it was solliciting him in euery minute of his most holy life to try as many as might be found for our good He therfore considering with diuine wisedome that men were composed of flesh and spirit and consequētly (a) Men being cōposed of flesh and spirit are to be wrought vpō both by spirituall and sensible meanes that they must be wrought vpō aswell by sensible as by spirituall meanes knowing also that through the miserable disorder of their mindes they were then more capable would be more obliged by ease health of body then by graces powred into the soule he was therfore pleased to accompany the purity and perfection of his Doctrine with the power and Maiesty of his miracles And as by creation of the world he led men vp by meanes of visible things towards a knowledge and beliefe of the inuisible so in the case of our reparation and redemptiō he would also vse the corporall cure of men from sicknes as a disposition wherby theyr soules might be recouered from sinne Heerby our Lord doth euidently discouer to be a true perfect louer of mankind For as the property of loue is not (b) The measure of our loue of God is to exceed all measure to be tyed vp within the compasse of any ordinary law and the measure which that power vseth is to exceed all measure so did our Lord out of the nobility of his loue to man refuse to walke within so small a circle as the lawes of nature did lead him to These lawes of nature were made by almighty God at the creation of the world it is not al the power of heauen or earth vnder him which can inuert that order Psal 148. Praeceptum posuit non praeteribit He gaue the precept and it shall not passe away And it was good cheape for him who made al things of nothing to commaund that nothing should faile of that inuiolable course wherin all things were appointed to proceed According to the law of nature no returne is made from priuation to the habit as from a fixed blindnes to sight and much lesse from death to life But the law of the loue of our Lord IESVS did ouertop that other law made those things grow true and samiliar which otherwise were not only hard but impossible Moyst bodies were appointed by the law of nature to giue place and such as are heauy and solid to sinke downe below thē But yet when there was question of giuing comfort to his poore Apostles Matt. 14. the loue of Christ our Lord made him lay those lawes aside and he went walking towards them vpon the sea which was glad to performe the Office of a pauement to his pretious feete Penerration of bodies is a thing wherof nature cannot endure to heare but yet for the vnspeakeable loue which he bare to (c) The honour which was done by Christ our Lord to the purity of his B. Virgin mother the honour and excellency of his all-immaculate mother that ornament and glorious gemme of heauen earth he was not affrayd to giue that principle of Philosophy the lye And he passed out of those bowells of supreme Purity into those armes of matchlesse Piety without the least offence to her most entire Virginity But yet in this there is the lesse wonder because he wrought the like in fauour of his Apostles whom he loued by innumerable degrees lesse then his most excellent mother Isa 7. For in their case also his loue was transcendent in the selfe same kind vnto his lawes For hauing first passed through the sepulcher he went afterward through Ioan. 20. Ibid. through those doores which were shut betwene them him that so he might as it were perfume them all at once with his sweet breath of Peace But why doe I name those persons who were so highly priuiledged as if our Lord had only bene in loue with them and not indeed as yet indeed he was enamoured of all mankind so farre as to make his miracles distill down vpon them like so many drops of dew for their reliefe or comfort in all occasions And although these miracles of Christ our Lord could not haue bene wrought but by the omnipotent power of almighty God yet may that power be accounted to haue been but as a kind of instrumēt wherby he wrought them and that indeed they flowed from his loue as from their prime cause and roote He wrought no miracles for the ostentation of his power and therfore we see how often he precisely comaunded both men and deuills Marc. 3. 5. 7. Luc. 5. Luc. 4. Matth. 20. Matt. 21. Marc. 11. that they should not publish what he had done He wrought none for any commodity of
goodnes immediatly vpon his hauing washed the Apostles feete And our Lord was pleased by that vnspeakeable humility of his to prepare and exalt them to a participation of so high mysteries as were to follow Ioan. 7. The holy Ghost was not then descended because the sonne of man was not ascēded vp to heauen And therfore it is no meruaile if S. Peter were at that tyme to seeke concerning the reasō why our Lord would vse such an excesse as that But he was told that he should vnderstand the mystery afterward Ioan. 13. and then he would easily know withal that (f) The great purity which is requisite to a Catholique Priest no purity in this world could be too great for the disposing of themselues to that which they went about which was to be ordeyned Priests and not only to partake but also to dispense the pretious body and bloud of our blessed Lord. Our Lord IESVS did therfore take bread into his hands he blessed it and gaue therof to his Disciples when first he had pronounced the words of Consecration ouer it Declaring and consequently making it to be that very body of his which was to be offred vpon the Crosse That being done he also tooke the Chalice and he consecrated that in like manner affirming and therby also making it to be that very bloud which was to be powred out afterward for the saluation of the world He authorized and commaunded them withall to doe the like in commemoration of what he should haue done and suffered for them Now incomparable was the loue which our Lord shewed heerin both in substance circumstance In (g) Most strong in substance most sweet in circumstance substance because he gaue himselfe for the food of his seruants and in the manner of it because he did it in such a sweet and tender fashion towards them at such a tyme when yet his owne hart was oppressed with sorrow through the foreknowledge and expectation of his bitter Passiō which was thē at hand Nay he was pleased as appeareth by the words of the sacred Text to be (h) In the very consecration he speake and thought of his Passion feeding his thoughts actually vpon how he was to giue his body vp by his bitter Passion and to shed his bloud by a violent and most dishonorable effusion euen whilst he was graunting that legacy and consecrating the same body and bloud of his for the comfort and ioy of mankind vnder the familiar and delightful formes of bread wine He was taking his leaue of them though yet he knew not how to leaue them But as he went from them in that visible manner according to which he had conuersed vvith thē til that tyme so yet he vvould bind himself to come in person to them for their comfort though in another forme vvhensoeuer they should haue a mind to call him How our Lord would not harken to those reasons which might haue disswaded him from shewing this great mercy to man Of the necessity of a visible Sacrifice and how our Lord himselfe doth still offer it CHAP. 46. IF reason might haue preuailed it seemes that he should haue taken heed vvhat he vvas about doe Matt. 7. That if Pearles were not to be cast to swyne much lesse vvas this inualuable ievvell to be mis-spent vpon so many vvho vvould continually be vvallovving in the filth of sinne That there vvould be a vvorld of Pagans Iewes Heretiques and vvho vvould not beleeue and would blaspheme the truth therof That millions of Catholikes though they did beleeue it would not yet frequent it but would rather for beare this bread of life this fountaine of heauenly water then the muddy miserable gust of some carnal pleasure or some base interest of the world which yet doth but lead them from a Purgatory in this life to a Hell in the next That some would do worse then to abstayne for notwithstanding that they resolued still to sinne they would yet presume with Sacrilegious mouth to prophane this Lord of heauen and earth to bring God into that house wherof the deuill had possession and dominion And in fine that they would be too few who would often resort to it with due reuerence of that Maiesty with hungar after true sanctity with loue of that immense beauty and with that purity of hart which might forbid them to lauish and wast themselues away in pursuite of creatures This might haue seemed to be the voyce of reason which was to haue diuerted our blessed Lord from submitting himselfe to such indignity as he seemed by his mercy to grow subiect to But (a) How the infinite loue of our Lord made answere in our behalfe to this infinite wisedome he on the other side would needs vnderstand it to be otherwise And that he being an infinite God it vvould become him well to be infinitely good That it should not be long of him if all the world were not inchayned to him by loue That if any man would either vnder-value the benefit and much more if he would abuse it otherwise a most rigorous account should be asked therof And that in the meane tyme it would be comfort inough for him if such as were resolued to serue him might be incorporated to him not only by supernaturall grace but by this supersubstantiall bread which should cause an vnspeakeable vnion betwene him them This was a principall reason why our Lord was pleased to institute both this diuine Sacrifice and Sacrament in this last supper of his but he did it besides for the fulfilling of Prophesies and the perfecting of the figures of the old Testament He was not come as himselfe had formerly affirmed To breake the law but to fulfill it And therfore as he was pleased to eate the Paschall lambe with all those Ceremonies which the law required and which till then were to be of force so (b) The Paschall lambe was a figure both of the death of Christ our Lord and of the B. Sacrament the same being partly a figure of the Passion and Death of our Lord IESVS and much more properly of the Blessed Sacrament and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse it became his Truth and Goodnes to ordaine and institute them at that tyme. For his Church in euery one of the states therof aswell vnder the law of nature as the written law was the Spouse of Christ our Lord and in vertue of that only coniunction it vvas acceptable and pleasing to the eternall Father But particularly it was to be so vnder the Law of Grace vvhen once it should come to be fed by his sacred body and inebriated by his pretious bloud And therfore as in those former tymes the Church of Christ our Lord had neuer bene without her Sacrifices neither is there indeed or can there be any true Religion without a reall and proper Sacrifice so much lesse vvould he permit that Spouse vnder the lavv of
Testament an (b) Iudas Apostle one of the twelue whom God had elected out of the whole world to be his Embassadours one who had liued neere three yeares in the sight and tast of that fountaine of sanctity Christ our Lord and of that stream of purity charity his all-immaculate mother whom all generations shall call blessed One who had wrought miracles Luc. 2. and exercised dominion ouer the Princes of darknes by commaunding them to depart out of possessed persons One before whome the King of glory had kneeled downe to wash his seate one who had bene fed with the body of our blessed Lord which he gaue with his owne sacred hands This man this Monster to shew vvhat a monstrous thing euery liuing man is sure to be at the instant that he deserues to be forsaken by the omnipotēt mercy of our Lord God made such hast to hell as that he suffered not his eyes to sleepe nor his eye lids to slumher till hauing entred into a part with those perfidious Ievves for thirty peeces of siluer he put himselfe vpon betraying and by a kisse this Lord of life into the hands of death This Lord (c) The loue of our Lord to vs in the losse of Iudas gaue vvay to this inestimable offence against himself that it might be a great and lovvd vvarning Peece of meeknes for as much as he vouchsafed to suffer of humility feare for as much as Iudas presumed to do To the end that no priuiledge of fauour or possessiō of present vertue might make any man rely vpō his ovvne strength which is al but vveakenes 2. Cor. 7. But that adhering to God by faith hope loue we might worke our saluatiō with a filiall seare a trēbling ioy For the whole race of mankind was nothing at all in the way of nature and to nothing it would instantly all returne if it vvere not conserued by the omnipotency of God as by a kind of continuall nevv creation And in the way of grace vve are all lesse then nothing and the holyest soule vvhich euer vvas might instantly plunge it selfe in sinne if it vvere abandoned by Gods grace If then we haue our being both in the state of nature and of grace by the particular fauour of our Lord God it follovves that the more graces he giues and the more fauours he shevves to a soule so much the more must it be subiect to him And they are to serue but as so many bills of debts vvherby it is bound to find hovv base and beggarly a thing it is of it selfe and consequently hovv profoundly humble and gratefull it must be to our Lord vvho only knevv hovv to enrich it For our Lord is a great God and vve are vveake vnvvorthy thinges vvho can giue him nothing by vvay of retribution but only a continuall faithfull and humble acknovvledgment that vve are (d) How we are to entertaine the memory of Gods fauours of our owne sinnes nothing vvorth And as through his infinite goodnes vve may call to mind euen our greatest sinnes vvith much comfort vvhen once vve haue done true penance for them so through his infinite greatnes the soule which receiueth fauours and visitations of him in particular manner must thinke of them with great apprehension and feare vnlesse they be intertayned with much humility and improued by Prayer and other industry The griefe which our Lord IESVS had for euery single sinne of the whole world was excessiuely great as we haue shewed How excessiue therfore must it needs haue been to see this hideous sinne of this Apostle And by the measure of his griefe we may find the measure of his former loue for loue it was which made him grieue The thing which might comfort him in that affliction was to cōsider what an innumerable number of soules would take warning by this sinne of Iudas As soone therfore as that treacherous kisse was giuen and that our Lords sacred words and inspirations were contemned by that miserable creature our Lord IESVS went on towards the troope enquiring whome they sought And when they told him that it was IESVS of Nazareth Ioan. 18. he instantly answered that he was the man But as on the one side they saw him a man so on the other he then gaue himselfe Gods truest (e) The Maiesty of our Lord Iesus euen when he he was mortal seemed miserable Name of Ego sum I am though they vnderstood it not But he thought good to let them see that he had somewhat in himselfe of the God And so resoluing to try all imaginable wayes for the mollifying of their marble harts and perceauing that the mildnes which he had vsed with Iudas succeeded not he gaue such a Maiesty to those two words as serued to cast them to the ground We may imagine heerby with what terrour he wil appeare when he comes as Iudge who in his very Passion wherin he meant but only to suffer could so declare his power We may also well perceaue heerby that they were strangely confirmed in malice since a miracle of that nature being wrought vpon the persons of themselues had no meanes to make thē rise to pennance But they rose by the permission of God to continue in their sinne and to aske our Lord the same questiō a second time and a second tyme to receaue an Answere to the same effect Our Lord (f) Our Lord had no care of himselfe but much of his Apostles Ibid. adding further by way of commaundement that they should suffer his Apostles to retire themselues whatsoeuer they might haue a mind to doe with him And it seemes to haue bene impossible for that diuine Lord to haue cast his thought vpon any creature to whome he must not be shewing mercy For when S. Peter in detestation that they should presume to lay hands vpon his Maister had picked out one of the busiest of them Ioan. 18. and had cut of his right eare our Lord was so willing to suffer as to mislike the impedimēt which his disciple was about to giue And by a touch of Malchus eare with his omnipotent hand he cured that enemy who came to lead him to the Passion hauing repressed his friend who went about to hinder it And euen as they were binding him he made no resistance at all he reproached them not by declaring their sinnes he vpbraided not the miracles which so aboundantly he had wrought vpon them or theirs he framed no quarell against them but only this action of vnkindnes Luc. 22. That he bauing imployed himselfe so much vpon instructing and teaching them to their good liking in the Temple they should now come forth against him with swords and Clubbes as they would haue done against some insolēt bloudy thiese As if he had said If you come indeed to seeke the true Redeemer and Saniour of your soules you shall find to your comfort that I am he But if