Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	father_n	sin_n	sinner_n	3,110	5	7.5131	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04168	The humiliation of the Sonne of God by his becomming the Son of man, by taking the forme of a servant, and by his sufferings under Pontius Pilat, &c. Or The eighth book of commentaries vpon the Apostles Creed: continued by Thomas Jackson Dr. in Divinitie, chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinarie, and president of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford. Divided into foure sections.; Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed. Book 8	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.	1635 (1635)	STC 14309; ESTC S107480	214,666	423

subject unto The slave acknowledged no more Masters than this one whom if it would please but to say the word his freedome might without difficulty be obtained if the Praetor of the City would but vouchsafe by his Masters leave to lay his white rod upon him and cause him to be turned once or twice about with some few other Ceremonies he could be turned out of a slave into a free Citizen in the space of an houre whereas if his Master had been turned round till his senses had failed him in case the Praetor would have laid his rod an hundred times upon his head hee could not have wound himselfe out of those bonds of servitude wherein his lusts had insnared him This slave had observed that his Master would often commend the frugality and temperance of the ancient Romans and often desire that hee and other moderne Romans might live as they did yet if any great man or good neighbour would invite him to a luxurious feast or if any foolish pleasures with whose excesse he had been formerly stung should proffer themselves he had not so much power to resist or restraine them as this slave had to neglect his designes or commands when they did displease him And for his Master to be drawne thus every day to doe that which in his retired and sober thoughts he did most dislike and condemne was in his judgement a greater slavery than any bodily servitude If the reasons which these and other Heathens often used to prove vitious men to bee the onely true slaves had not been the dictates of the law of nature written in our hearts or reasons unanswerable the Apostles of Christ yea Christ himselfe would not have used the like Know yee not saith S. Paul Rom. 6.16 as if it were a shame in this point to be ignorant that to whom yee yeeld your selves servants to obey his servants yee are to whom yee obey whether of sinne unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse And S. Peter tells us of some who whilest they promise liberty unto others they themselves were servants unto corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is hee brought into bondage 2. Pet. 2.19 So our Saviour saith Ioh. 8.34 Whosoever committeth sinne is the servant of sinne And of him no doubt our Apostle S. Iohn learned that doctrine Hee that committeth sinne is of the Devill a servant of his 3. But albeit the wiser sort of Heathens did by light of nature know that every vicious man was a slave or servant to his owne lusts or desires yet the greatest danger which they apprehended from the servitude was but feare of satyricall censure for preposterous basenesse in subjecting reason to sensuality That their owne desires lusts or affections were maintained and cherished by a forreigne enemie as so many rebells to wage warre against their immortall soules or that their consciences being subdued by lust should bee everlastingly subject to so cruell a Tyran as the Devill is were points wherein the Prince of darknesse had blinded the eyes of the wisest Heathen And would to God wee Christians to whom the Lord hath revealed thus much could see or heare so much concerning this doctrine as would make us perfectly understand or lay to heart the inestimable danger wherein wee stand whether in respect of the fast hold which this Tyran by our corrupted nature and custome hath got of us or of the miserable usage which will follow if he and sinne finally prevaile against us But this is a common place for which every man may finde a fitter Text in his owne heart then any other man can chuse for him and matter of more ample and pertinent discourse upon it than reading of many books can suggest unto him All that I have here to say concerning this point is to request the Reader to examine his owne heart and calculate his non-performances of what I presume hee often seriously intended and perhaps hath vowed His duty it is to open the wounds of his conscience either to God alone in secret or to such as God hath appointed for the Physicians of his soule and conscience My purpose is to prepare the plaister or medicine and to informe him how to apply it CHAP. VIII The Sonne of God was properly a servant to his Father yet not by birth as hee was the sonne of his handmaid but by voluntary undergoing this hard condition for the redemption of man 1 TO free us from this miserable servitude unto sinne which alone doth wound our conscience the Sonne of God did freely and voluntarily take upon him the forme of a servant The parts of his peculiar service were in generall two The one to conquer Satan who was by right of conquest our Lord The other to reconcile us to grace and favour with God to make us first servants then sonnes and lastly kings and priests to his and our heavenly Father These two parts of his peculiar service unto his Father for unto him alone hee was a servant exhibit the most admirable paterne of justice mercie and loving kindnesse as well in God the Father as God the Sonne that the wit of man or Angels can contemplate First it was a paterne of justice never after to bee parallel'd for God the Father to exact satisfaction for our sinnes at the hands of his deare and onely Sonne Unto this unmeasurable act or exercise of justice upon the Sonne of righteousnesse his mercy towards us miserable sinners was fully commensurable For whatsoever hee suffered for our sakes was from his Fathers and his owne mercy and loving kindnesse towards us Againe so infinite was the justice of our gracious God that even whilest hee shewed his mercy and loving kindnesse towards us he did vouchsafe to give as we say the Devill himselfe his due and to observe the law of Armes or Duell with this Prince of Rebels his subject by right of Creation but professed enemie by resolution Albeit this grand Rebell after his revolt from God had conquered man and made him by treachery of Gods servant and sonne a meere slave unto himselfe the righteous Lord would not deprive this mighty Lion and greedy Wolfe of his prey by any other meanes than by right of conquest gotten over him by man Hee did not arme a legion of Angels nor summon the whole host of visible creatures against him nor use his omnipotent and absolute power to destroy or annihilate him or as then to shut him up in the everlasting prison The exercises of such power whether immediatly by the omnipotent Creator himselfe or by his creatures had been more than Satans matches upon equall termes or weapons Exercise of strength was not the first way in the wisedome of God to conquer pride ambition or vaine glory though these must bee quelled with the power and strength of the Sonne of God whom it pleased the Father at the first onset to weaken by laying our first Parents infirmities and their posterities upon

probably said Conferebant gratiam ex opere operato The ceremoniall sinne was taken away by a ceremoniall offering From this knowen maxime concerning the law of Ceremonies or Legall sacrifices S. Paul takes his rise unto the high mysterie of the Gospel to wit that the offering which the Sonne of God did make upon the Crosse was more sufficient as well for making full satisfaction unto God for all sinnes committed against his Law as for purifying the conscience of offenders from dead works more effectuall to make men partakers of the true celestiall Sanctuary than the blood of beasts was for making them legally cleane Purification from sinne or sanctification alwayes presupposed full satisfaction for the sinnes committed To cleanse men from sins meerely ceremoniall or to sanctifie them according to the flesh the bloody sacrifice of bruit beasts was sufficient although they suffered no other paines than naturall albeit they felt no force or assault of any agents but meerely naturall much more is the blood of Christ of force sufficient not onely to make a full atonement for us but to cleanse us from all sinnes although he suffered no paines supernaturall although he had suffered no force or impression of any agents more than naturall All this is but a branch of our Apostles inference For albeit sinnes committed against the Morall Law of God doe in a maner infinitely exceed sinnes committed against the Law of Ceremonies onely yet are not the sinnes of the one kinde so much more hainous than the sinnes of the other as the blood of Christ doth for vertue exceed the blood of bulls and goats Nor is there that odds of difference betwixt sinnes Moral and sinnes Ceremonial which is between the Priests of the Law and the high Priest of our soules the Sonne of God And yet the maine ground of our Apostles inference doth not simply consist in the superexcellency of the high Priest of our soules or of the sacrifice which hee offered in comparison with legall Priests and their sacrifices but withall in the admirable union of our high Priest and his sacrifice For admit it as possible first that there might haue been some matter of sacrifice as pure and spotlesse as the body of our Saviour more pure and glorious than the Angelicall substances Secondly that this pure and spotlesse sacrifice had been offered by a Priest for dignity equall to the Sonne of God as by the Holy Ghost the third Person in Trinity yet his offering or service could not have been so acceptable unto God as our Saviours offering or service was because the infinite worth of the Priest or Person sacrificing could not in this case have conferred any worth or vertue truely infinite upon the sacrifice or offering made by him though as holy and glorious as any created substance can bee unlesse it had been so personally united to him that in offering it hee had offered himselfe as our Saviour did This is the maine stemme or rather the root of our Apostles emphaticall inference or surplus in the forecited place How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God 7. Answerable to this hypostaticall or personall union betweene our high Priest and his sacrifice was that union between his obedience to his Father and his mercy and compassion towards men Obedience mercy and sacrifice were so united in his offering as they never had been before his owne death was the internall effect of his mercy towards us and obedience to his Father the period of his humiliation of himselfe Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even unto the death of the Crosse That we know was a cruell and servile death but no part of the second death not charged with the paines of Hell otherwise our Apostle would have mentioned them as the accomplishment of his obedience or of his service which without them did exceed the very abstract or paterne either of service or obedience Quid est servitus nisi obedientia animi fracti arbitrio carentis suo Servitude saith Tully is nothing else but the obedience of a broken or dejected minde utterly deprived of all power or right to dispose of it selfe or of its actions It is indeed dejection of minde a broken estate or basenesse of condition which make men willing to become servants unto others or inforceth them to resigne all their right and power unto their Masters will But it was no dejection of minde no want of any thing in heaven or earth but onely the abundance of mercy and compassion towards us miserable men which moved the Sonne of God to renounce this world before he came into it and to deprive himselfe of all that right and interest which every other man hath over his owne body and soule by voluntary resignation of his entire humane nature unto the sole disposing of his Father Other servants were obedient unto their Lords upon necessity or dejection of minde hee voluntarily became a servant to his Father that he might accomplish the office of a servant in the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit This was the internall effect of his service and obedience and this sacrifice thus offered was all-sufficient to make satisfaction for all the disobedience of men for the sinnes of ten thousand worlds of men CHAP. XIV That our Saviour in his Agony at least did suffer paines more than naturall though not the paines of Hell or Hellish paines That the suffering of such paines was not required for making satisfaction for our sinnes but for his Conquest over Satan 1 BUt albeit the bloody sacrifice of the Sonne of God were as God himselfe is all-sufficient to these purposes may wee hence collect that hee suffered no paines more than naturall or of no other kinde than his Martyrs Apostles or Prophets have done God forbid Betweene paines naturall and the paines of Hell there is a meane to wit paines altogether supernaturall in respect of the Agent and somewayes more than naturall in respect of the Patient and such paines out of all question the Son of God did suffer in the garden though not upon the Crosse Nor were these his sufferings superfluous though no way necessary for paying the full ransome or price of mans redemption or reconciliation unto God Most expedient they were if not necessary to other purposes As first for his absolute conquest over Satan Secondly for his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Of his conflict with Satan in the garden a place sutable to that wherein hee had conquered our first Parents Iobs second temptation was the type or shadow His Father exposed him to the second temptation as he had unto the first temptation in the wildernesse and permitted Satan to exercise the utmost of his power against him onely over his soule or life hee had no power These were takē from him by the malice