Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A43749
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A testimony to the true Jesus and the faith of him wherein the way of the people called Quakers is in meekness and righteousness summed and weighed, first in a general examen of their spirit and chief principles, after in a particular review of the same as it is distinctly set forth in a book of theirs, called, Love to the Lost : wherein are many things useful for the discerning of spirits in this hour of darkness and temptation / by T. Higgenson.
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Higgenson, Thomas.
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1656
(1656)
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Wing H1950; ESTC R31109
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71,988
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85
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God for to that there is a more excellent price required which is neither the righteousness of man nor yet of the Law here we must have Christ how not by works but by faith therefore as there is a great difference between Christ blessing or redeeming and Christ working or giving example wherefore we must seperate the believing and the working Abraham as far asunder as there is distance betwixt heaven and earth Abraham believing in Christ is altogether a divine person the child of God inheritour of the world conqueror of sin death the world and the Divel therefore he cannot be praised and magnified enough let us not suffer this faithful Abraham to lye hid in his grave as he is hid from the Jews but let us highly extol and magnify him and let us fill both heaven and earth with his name so that in respect of the faithful Abraham we see nothing at all in the working Abraham for when we speak of this faithful Abraham we are in heaven but afterwards doing those things which the working Abraham did which were carnal and earthly and not divine and heavenly but as they were given unto him of God we are among men in earth the believing Abraham filleth both heaven and earth so every Christian through his faith filleth both heaven and earth so that besides it he ought to behold nothing Thus far his words Good works or the works of God in us are in comparison of the righteousness in Christ but carnal like as Abraham's good works a thing worthy of note are but accounted flesh in comparison of the righteousness of Christ Rom. 4.1 2. Concerning Election and Reprobation He saith that the light in every man which reproves of sin is Christ and is the election elect seed the mercy of God placed in all men that this light being believed and followed till by it a man be changed and purged from the oldness and lusts of flesh to the newness of the spirit then he comes to the election or to be selected Truth saith that in every man which reproves of sin is not Christ but the Law by the Law is the knowledge of sin that Christ the Elect and beloved of God is he in whom the purposes promises counsels and all the works of God were laid up and known unto God from before the world began Christ was from the beginning the common seed or Father in whose loines God in his foreknowledge beheld and in his love choose a seed or ofspring whom he would beget of his own will by his spirit God that separated the Jews from all other Nations only because he loved them that said of the children of Isaac being not yet born Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated that called them his beloved which were not beloved that separated Paul a persecuter from his mothers womb that hath mercy on whom he will have mercy the same God hath foreknown and chosen and loved a people in Christ the beloved who though for the present as concerning the Gospel they be enemies through wicked works yet as touching the election they are beloved for Christ's sake you have not chosen me but I have chosen you If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me Christ drawed up all his own in his body into himself in love this love shed forth into our hearts draws us up in love into him again thus we love him because he loved us first the father gave a people to the Son from everlasting and saw and loved them in him before the world was the Son came forth to manifest and make way for this love through his righteousness down unto men the spirit reveals that love and by Christ leads us unto the father thus redemption and sanctification are both fruits of that love and election that was given us in Christ before the world began by receiving Christ the Image of the father I come indeed to know his love and election but he both loved elected and redeemed me in Christ the head before I was Wherefore they that deny election and redemption until the creatures obedience to the light within do measure the thoughts and waies of the unsearchable goodness of God with the low and narrow thoughts and waies of man being zealous indeed for the righteousness of God according to the Law but darkning and denying the glorious righteousnes of God as in Christ Jesus Concerning the New birth He saith that by abiding in the seed or light within every man thereby the old man is put off with his deeds that they who are guided by this light called by him the eternal spirit do follow God as he goes out of one form into another all others stay therein after God is gone as seeing but the outside or form only that they who joyned to the light within that reproves of sin to be led by it are and ever were hated and persecuted of all others His silence throughout of that more excellent and truly misterious way of crucifying the body of sin in the person of Christ whose body and blood is by him made as no more but figuers of the body and blood within that is the light within all men this doth sufficiently manifest his mind and principle and the end whether it leads unto mount Sinai to press through unto God by an attonement and mediation to be made in our bodies that is obedience to the light within The new creature is not a Jew one seeking righteousness by the Law either in the letter or conscience nor a Gentile one thinking to know comprehend and worship God by the light or wiâ—edom of the natural man but a man in Christ dead buried and risen with him into heavenly places above the world sin and death by faith alone without work that is before these things be manifest or wrought in his members also he is one in whom Christ dwels by faith so made partaker of the divine Nature that spirit which the world sees not hath not nor by any light they have can find it out the world's light is a candle from the Lord saying do this and live the spirit of the new creature is the Lord himself saying I have done it only believe and live According to the mysterie of faith the new man is in heart and spirit gone out of all the world and is in heaven perfectly justified redeemed and saved but in a way above sense and feelings yet seen by faith according to present manifestation he hath the spirit of Christ whereby he sees knows and enjoys in part those perfect things in Christ till they be fully revealed if any man boasts of the first that he is redeemed by Christ and hath not the other that he lives in some measure after the spirit that man's boasting is in vain likewise if any man glories of the spirit that he walks in the spirit in mortifyings of the flesh neglect of the body reproaches necessities
of fear zeal and activity for God in the Contemplations of him as a pure and holy God but 't is a far other principle that is Christ crucified for us and the faith of him that leads unto that spirit of peace power and joy in the beholding of God as our father in him so then that spirit that shews the commandment and leads to the services thereof to be redeemed thereby is a spirit which all men may attain unto but that spirit that reveals the things freely given of God without Law or service is that spirit that is not given unto all nor eye nor ear nor heart of man can see or find this out he only descends and blows where he lifts neither being received can he be retained any longer then he pleaseth no more then we can restrain the breath in our nostrils that spirit exerciseth the servants thereof with labour and hard bondage and then kills them as preferring the commandment of the Old before the blood of the New and everlasting Testament this makes his Children free and saves for ever as rejoycing in the Head and having no confidence in the flesh or the works done therein That the pattern of true worship is Jesus Christ as the Oracle speaking from Heaven and the Gospel as the Preacher on earth the one being the substance of Heavenly things themselves the other but the Copy that doctrine or spirit whatsoever it may seem that calls you to the light in every man and to that alone as the only pattern of faith and worship doth but build up a worship upon the same foundations with the worships of the world that is righteousness by the Law and serves to no other end then to blot out the true attonement the blood and water that fountain of healing in the Person of Christ with the very name and remembrance thereof to bring forth instead thereof another attonement to be made in our persons which in true sense is no other but the righteousness of the Law Concerning Error Heresie c. He saith that the light within every man is that Spirit of truth which judgeth all deceit but can be deceived by none that to divide or go out from this Spirit or light is errour and the mother of all false worship and Religions It has been before proved that the light within all men is the candle of the Lord in every naturall man revealing the law and the offences against that law but the Spirit that reveales the gift of grace by one man Jesus Christ the naturall man neither knows nor can receive There are three that bear record in heaven and they are one there are three that bear witness on earth and they agree in one God sending forth his Son in our flesh for a propitiation for sins this is the witness of the Father as the fountain of grace and truth Christ comming forth as the Image and brightnesse of the Father purging away our sins by himself and returning to God this is the witness of the Son as the fulness of grace and truth the spirit of Christ coming into our hearts revealing the righteousness of Christ and the life of Christ in us this is the witness of the Spirit Now among these witnesses there is such an Unity that he that denies one denies all the witnesses are one and their testimony one yet each in their order the Father spoke and appeared and bowed himself to sinners but so as in the Mediator the man Christ the Son redeemed sinners but so as he did in his own body not in ours the spirit comes unto such but so as he leads them into the Light and fulness of Christ not the light in every man to divide from any of these or to set one against another is Error Jews and Turks believe in God but not as in the Son they divide from the Son and so have not the Father the litteral and carnal Professors after a sort believe in God as in the Mediator but deny his spirit in their hearts these divide from the spirit and so have neither the Son nor the Father this people believe in God as by the Light within men redeeming from sin but not as in the Man Jesus having done it already and so deny the witness of the Son and have neither Son nor Father Christ is the band of unity between God and men in him Mercy and Truth righteousness and peace do kiss each other in him God and sinners are met together reconciled and at unity in him God comes down to sinners by him we come unto God in him the blessed Divinity and the seed of Abraham that is the humane nature are in covenant in union the Covenant the union was made by the Cross by blood by the body of Christ this was the Sons witnesse take heed he that divides you from the Son and this his witnesse sets you at such a difference with the Majesty of God as no light nor spirit within you can attone or make up thus Error is not to divide from the Light within all men but from Christ the Head the fulness of all Truth in whom we only see and have the Father and Spirit and without whom all Religions are fleshly or mystical Idolatries Concerning Faith He saies the measure or light of God in every man is Gods righteousness perfection that turning into this righteousness and adiding therein is the receiving of the righteousness of Christ by faith that by waiting in the light within through faith and obedience thereto righteousness is wrought in and unrighteousness wrought out and so the creature is made free from sin not a word of the Faith in the person of Christ or the operation of God in him for us The scope of their Doctrine herein and in all the height and depth of it seems plainly this that a measure of the eternal Divinity is in every man by turning whereinto out of all sayings writings persons operations Scriptures or Christ without the same doth through obedience thereto destroy and purge away sins out of us and so redeems and reconciles unto God The precious faith saies that the eternal word manifest in flesh being the substantial fulness of the Divine life and righteousness and having thereby vanquished in his flesh and buried in his grave our sins and death with all powers visible or invisible that were against us this is he who is the pure perfect and acceptable righteousness of God That to look away from all the voices and condemnations of the Law without or conscience within from all things in our flesh and heart whither good or evil unto the person of Jesus Christ himself and to believe him to be our righteousness salvation and liberty as in the hidden mysterie of faith which to our sense or earthly members we are in infirmities buffetings and bondage this is to receive the righteousness of Christ by faith the faith of things not seen to sense and reason yet hid in