Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A30167
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Light for them that sit in darkness, or, A discourse of Jesus Christ, and that he undertook to accomplish by himself the eternal redemption of sinners also, that the Lord Jesus addressed himself to this work, with undeniable demonstrations that he performed the same : objections to the contrary answered / by John Bunyan.
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Bunyan, John, 1628-1688.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing B5554; ESTC R19879
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89,163
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194
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to offer Heb. 8. 3. which Offering and Sacrifice of his being able to perfect for ever them that are sanctified and set apart for Eternal Life Therefore the name of the Person that offered even Jesus made of God an High-Priest is acceptable with God yea therefore is he made for ever by his doing for us the Appeaser of the Justice of God and the Reconciler of Sinners to him Hence it is that HIS Name is that which it behoveth us to mention when we come before God for what God hath determined in his Counsels of Grace to bestow upon Sinners because for his Name sake he forgiveth them I write to you little Children because your Sins are forgiven you for his Name sake To him give all the Prephets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins 1. Joh. 2. 14. Act. 10. 43. They therefore that would obtain the forgiveness of Sins must ask it of God through the Name of Jesus and he that shall sensibly and unteignedly do it he shall receive the forgiveness of them Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Hence it is evident that he hath not only paid full price to God for them but also obtained Eternal Redemption for them And it is observable the Lord Jesus would have his Disciples make a Proof of this and promiseth that if they do they shall experimentally find it so Hitherto saith he ye have asked nothing in my NAME ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full Joh. 16. 24. As who should say O my Disciples you have heard what I have promised to you even that my Father shall do for you whatsoever ye shall ask him in my Name Ask now therefore and prove me if I shall not make my Words good Ask I say what you need and see if you do not receive it to the Joying of your Hearts At that day ye shall ask in my Name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you I do not bid you ask in my Name as if the Father was yet hard to be reconciled or unwilling to accept you to mercy my Coming into the World was the Design of my Father and the Effect of his Love to Sinners but there is sin in you and justice in God therefore that you to him might be reconciled I am made of my Father Mediator wherefore ask in my Name for there is none other name given under the Heavens among Men whereby they must be saved Act. 4. 12. Ask in my Name love is let out to you through me it is let out to you by me in a way of Justice which is the only secure way for you Ask in my Name and my Father will love you The Father himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God Joh. 16. 27. My Fathers Love is set first upon me for my Name is chief in his Heart and all that love me are beloved of my Father and shall have what they need if ye ask in my Name But I say what cause would there be to ask in his Name more than in the Name of some other since justice was provoked by our Sin if he had not undertook to make up the difference that by Sin was made betwixt justice and us For though there be in this Jesus infinite worth infinite righteousness infinite merit yet if he make not with these interest for us we get no more benefit thereby than if there were no Mediator But this Worth and Merit is in him for us for he undertook to reconcile us to God it is therefore that his Name is with God so prevailing for us poor Sinners and therefore that we ought to go to God in his Name Hence therefore it is evident that Jesus Christ hath paid full price to God for Sinners and obtained Eternal Redemption for them The Seventh Demonstration THat Jesus Christ by what he hath done hath paid full price to God for Sinners c. is evident because we are commanded also to give God thanks in his Name By him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of Praise continually that is the Fruit of our Lips giving thanks in his Name Heb. 13. 15. By him therefore wherefore because he also that he might sanctifie us with his own Blood suffered without the Gate ver 12. He sanctified us with his Blood but why should the Father have thanks for this even because the Father gave him for us that he might die to sanctifie us with his Blood Giving thanks to the Father which hath made us meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light who hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom we have redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of Sins Col. 1. 12 13 14. The Father is to be thanked for the contrivance was also his but the Blood the Righteousness or that worthiness for the Sake of which we are accepted of God is the Worthiness of his own dear Son as it is meet therefore that God should have thanks so it is necessary that he have it in his Name for whose sake we indeed are accepted of him Let us therefore by him offer Praise First For the Gift of his Son and for that we stand quit through him in his Sight and that in despite of all inward weakness and that in despite of all outward enemies When the Apostle had taken such a view of himself as to put himself into a maze with an out-cry also who shall deliver me he quiets himself with this sweet conclusion I thank God through Jesus Christ Rom. 7. 24. He found more in the Blood of Christ to save him than he found in his own Corruptions to damn him but that could not be had he not paid full price for him had he not obtained Eternal Redemption for him And can an Holy and Just God require that we give thanks to him in his Name if it was not effectually done for us by him Further when the Apostle looks upon Death and the Grave and strengtheneth them by adding to them Sin and the Law saying The Sting of Death is sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law he presently addeth but thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. The Victory over Sin Death and the Law the Victory over these through our Lord Jesus Christ but God hath given us the Victory but it is through our Lord Jesus Christ through his fulfilling the Law through his destroying Death and through his bringing in Everlasting Righteousness Elisha said to the King of Israel that had it not been that he regarded the Person of Jehoshaphat he would not look to him nor regard him 2 Kin. 3. 14. nor would God at all have looked to or regarded thee but that he respected
is of Wonderful Price when the Son of God will not stick to spill his Blood for it O Sinners you that will venture your Souls for a little pleasure surely you know not the worth of your Souls Now if you would know what your Souls are worth and the Price which God sets them at read that Price by the Blood of Christ. The Blood of Christ was spilt to save Souls For ye are bought with a Price and that Price none other than the Blood of Christ wherefore glorify God in your Bodies and in your Spirits which are Gods 1 Cor. 6. 20. Sinners you have Souls can you behold a Crucified Christ and not Bleed and not Mourn and not fall in Love with him The third Use. By this Doctrine Sinners as Sinners are encouraged to come to God for mercy for the Curse due to Sin is taken out of the way I speak now to Sinners that are awake and see themselves Sinners There are two things in special when Men begin to be awakened that kill their thoughts of being saved 1. A Sense of sin 2. The Wages due thereto These kill the Heart for who can bear up under the guilt of Sin If our Sins be upon us and we pine away in them how can we THEN live Ezek. 33. 10. How indeed it is impossible So neither can Man grapple with the Justice of God Can thine Heart endure or can thine Hands be strong they cannot A wounded Spirit who can bear Men cannot Angels cannot wherefore if now Christ be hid and the blessing of Faith in his Blood denied wo be to them such go after Saul and Judas one to the Sword and the other to the Halter Ezek. 22. 14. Prov. 18. 14. and so miserably end their days for come to God they dare not the thoughts of that Eternal Majesty strikes them through But now present such Poor dejected Sinners with a Crucified Christ and perswade them that the Sins under which they shake and tremble was long ago laid upon the Back of Christ and the Noise and Sense and Fear of damning begins to cease depart and fly away Dolours and Terrours fade and vanish and that Soul conceiveth hopes of Life For thus the Soul argueth is this indeed the Truth of God that Christ was made to be Sin for me was made the Curse of God for me Hath he indeed born all my Sins and spilt his Blood for my Redemption O blessed Tidings O welcome Grace Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Now is peace come now the Face of Heaven is altered Behold all things are become new Now the Sinner can abide Gods Presence yea sees unutterable Glory and Beauty in him For here he sees Justice smite While Jacob was afraid of Esau how heavily did he drive even towards the Promised Land but when killing thoughts were turned into kissing and the fears of the Swords Point turned into Brotherly Embraces what says he I have seen thy Face as though it had been the Face of God and thou wast pleased with me Gen. 33. 10. So and far better is it with a poor distressed Sinner at the Revelation of the Grace of God through Jesus Christ. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses to them O! what work will such a word make upon a wounded Conscience especially when the next words follow For he hath made him to be Sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Now the Soul sees qualifications able to set him quit in the Sight of God Qualifications prepared already Prepared I say already and that by God through Christ even such as can perfectly answer the Law What doth the Law require If Obedience here it is if Bloody Sacrifice here it is if infinite Righteousness here it is Now then the Law condemns him that Believes before God no more for all its Demands are answered all its Curses are swallowed up in the Death and Curse Christ underwent Object But reason saith since Personal Sin brought the Death surely Personal Obedience must bring us Life and Glory Ans. True Reason saith so and so doth the Law it self Rom. 10. 5. but God we know is above them both and he in the Covenant of Grace saith otherwise to wit That if thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine Heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10. 6 7 8 9. Let Reason then hold his tongue yea let the Law with all his Wisdom subject it self to him that made it let it look for sin where God hath laid it let it approve the Righteousness which God approveth yea though it be not that of the Law but that by Faith of Jesus Christ. God hath made him our Righteousness God hath made him our Sin God hath made him our Curse God hath made him our Blessing Methinks this word God hath made it so should silence all the World The fourth use Fourthly By this Doctrine sufficiency of argument is ministred to the tempted to withstand thereby the assaults of the Devil When the Souls begin to seek after the Lord Jesus then Satan begins to afflict and distress as the Canaanites did the Gibeonites for making Peace with Jehoshuah Jos. 10. 1 6. There are three things that do usually afflict the Soul that is earnestly looking after Jesus Christ. 1. Dreadful accusations from Satan 2. Grievous defiling and infectious thoughts 3. A strange readiness in our Nature to fall in with both By the first of these the Heart is made continually to tremble Hence his Temptations are compared to the roaring of a Lyon 1 Pet. 5. 8. For as the Lyon by roaring killeth the Heart of his Prey so doth Satan kill the Spirit of these that hearken to him For when he tempteth especially by way of accusation he doth to us as Rabshakeh did to the Jews He speaks to us in our own Language He speaks our Sin at every word our guilty Conscience knows it he speaks our Death at every word our doubting Conscience feels it Secondly Besides this there doth now arise even in the Heart such defiling and soul infectious thoughts that putteth the Tempted to their wits end for now it seems to the Soul that the very flood-Gates of the Flesh are opened and that to sin there is no stop at all now the Air seems to be covered with darkness and the Man is as if he was changed into the nature of a Devil Now if ignorance and unbelief prevail he concludeth that he is reprobate made to be taken and destroyed Thirdly Now also he feeleth in him a readiness to fall in with every temptation a readiness I say continually present Rom. 7. 21. This throws all down now despair begins to swallow it up now it can neither pray nor read nor hear nor meditate on God but Fire and Smoke continually bursteth