Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	good_a	sin_n	sinner_n	3,410	5	7.5691	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65817	The Leviathan found out, or, The answer to Mr. Hobbes's Leviathan in that which my Lord of Clarendon hath past over by John Whitehall ...	Whitehall, John, fl. 1679-1685.	1679 (1679)	Wing W1866; ESTC R5365	68,998	178

upon the Earth where 't is already And to shew that there is now and was then such a place as Hell look Prov. 15. 11. where 't is said that Hell and destruction are before the eyes of the Lord that is he knows what the wicked there suffer To end this see Mark 9. 44● 46 48. where 't is said the worm dieth not that is the lash of Conscience and the fire is not quenched speaking of a Man's being cast into Hell So then if the worm dies not the subject of that worm must live that is the wicked person and the fire of Hell is said to be as everlasting For 't is not quenched which must be intended never shall be quenched And to stop Mr. Hobbes his Mouth as to the eternity of punishment and reward look Matth. 25. 46. These shall go into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal And that the Soul lives after the death of the Body until the resurrection see Eccl. 12. 7. where Solomon speaking of Man's dissolution saith The dust that is the Body shall return to the Earth and the Spirit to God that gave it And Acts 7. 59. Stephen when stoned said Lord Iesus receive my Spirit These two Texts must be intended of living Spirits for what should God do with dead Spirits which are nothing who is God of the living and not of the dead None of which Texts Mr. Hobbes takes any notice of save that in Mark of the worm not dying To which he saith 't is metaphorically to be understood and this answer would serve for any thing else as well as this I shall pass the rest of Mr. Hobbes his absurdities in this Chapter about these matters save one at the latter end where he jumps again into setting the place of Men's eternal happiness upon Earth and p. 246. cites Isaiah 33. v. 20 21● 22 23 24. to be full in the matter which is so far from the matter that it is only Scripture to signifie God's destruction of the Assyrians and the Iews deliverance from them But whether the punishment be by fire or without I shall not argue though the Texts say it is which are better authority than ever I heard to the contrary only I hope no Man will venture upon the punishment which is everlasting Matth. 25. 46. presuming upon Mr. Hobbes his assertions to be true Neither do I think any good Man will think the merits of our blessed Lord and Saviour the less for what Mr. Hobbes in this Chapter saith who after he hath been endeavouring to make all Religion a foppery to set up Idolatrous worship to debase our Saviour in respect of his miracles to make the credibility of the Scriptures questionable to deprive God of his Attributes now comes p. 248. to undervalue the sufferings of our Saviour and saith That the sufferings of our Saviour were no satisfaction or price for sin whereby Christ could claim right to a pardon for us from his offended Father but that price that God in mercy was pleased to demand And this he further explains himself in p. 261. I acknowledge that the sufferings of our Saviour were all that God demanded as a satisfaction for sin but when our Saviour had performed what God did require it was an absolute satisfaction And this is clear reason in the transactions of Men when the debt is paid by ones self or an other or that is paid that is required there is a full satisfaction and the prisoner or he that paid the debt may of right claim his discharge So may Christ of right claim a pardon for us from his Father when the satisfaction for sin is paid For although there was no reason that our Saviour should suffer for us but meer mercy as 't was God's mercy to accept of Christ in our stead yet 't is great Reason that when he hath suffered for our sins he should of right claim to have us delivered from the punishment of them And he was the true Scape-goat that carried all our sins into the Land of forgetfulness And Matth. 1. 21. He shall save his people from their sins that is by his merits defend them from his Father's wrath With which Text agrees 18. Matth. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 15. He came to save sinners and multitudes of Texts to this purpose And besides God when he first promised Christ to mankind said That he should break the Serpent's head that is by his own efficacy for he was God as well as Man and that gave power to effect and value to satisfie But Mr. Hobbes his conceit had been good in case that after a sinner had lain in Hell seven years God had said this is enough and had freed him Here 't is true the sinner could not have claimed a right to a pardon for what he had suffered but that suffering was all that God was pleased in mercy to demand for that a sinner can never make a full satisfaction for his sin But here we cannot but suppose God the Father and his Innocent Son as it were making I speak it with reverence a contract The Father as it were saying If you 'l suffer I will take it as a satisfaction for Man's sin And his Son saying I will for he voluntarily laid down his life it was not taken from him and those sufferings God would not dispense with suffer for sinners or in their stead Certainly now he hath suffered he may of right claim a pardon for sinners But as to this matter I wave further Discourse there being so many Treatises upon it Mr. Hobbes p. 250 251. saith That the Israelites obligation to obey Moses was only from their desire and promise at mount Sinai Exod. 20. 18. where they said Speak thou to us and we will hear but let not God speak to us lest we die Certainly any rational Man would wonder at such a fancy when 't is apparent that Moses was God's messenger by the many miracles wrought by his Hands both in Egypt from whence he led them and at the red Sea where they were miraculously saved and the Egyptians drowned and by many other miracles before they came to mount Sinai And upon that account as so apparently sent by God they were bound to obey Moses or disobey God himself and this promise at mount Sinai was only to free them from the terror they had undergone before But that which Mr. Hobbes drives at in this conceit may be to persuade Men that they need not obey any of the Prophets Apostles or Ministers of the Gospel since without their express promise so to do And so further labours to enervate the authority of the Scriptures and Gospel Ministry But as Mr. Hobbes gave Moses a smaller authority in this than one would have expect●d so in p. 252. he gives him and all succeeding Monarchs a greater trouble than 't is reasonable to impose upon them For he saith That all Soveraigns are the sole interpreters of God's commands and that

he doth in all Commonwealths for by him King's reign For there was a certain time when there was no King in Israel and God appointed sometimes Iudges Chiefs that is Kings to govern them between which Iudges there was intervals and I would know what temporal Iurisdiction God exercised over them in those intervals or at that time when there was no King Certainly none that we ever read of in holy Writ and 't is reasonable to suppose God exercised none for that the people of Israel were then grievously oppressed and so continued sometimes for●y Years before a deliverer rose up which they needed not to have done if God had undertaken the temporal government for that God by his Power was able to have deliver'd them which we see he never did but by a temporal Governor in the time of which Governor the high Priest was not God's Viceroy but rather the Governor 's and the 17. Deut. 9. 12. v. clearly makes the Priest and the Iudge which should then afterwards be different persons and different Emploiments So 't is most apparent that God was no otherwise the temporal King of the Israelites than he was King of all the Earth nor the high Priest as high Priest his Viceroy though the Israelites were his chosen people as to Religious worship And as to the 1 Sam. 8. 7. which Mr. Hobbes cites where God said to Samuel when the people asked a King They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not rule over them it is no more but that God was angry with them for not taking such a Governor as he was pleased to set over them as Samuel then was and Baruck Ieptha and Samson had been but that they would have one not only of their own choosing but also a●ter the similitude of other Nations which God had rejected and had chosen them for his peculiar people and so in that sence they may be said to reject God in that they rejected those he did set over them As to Mr. Hobbes his other places of Scripture I think them nothing to the matter and so I shall pass them over as he saith he doth many more places for this purpose not cited but instead of citing them slily as I think claps his hands at the Clergy p. 219. and saith 'T is a wonder no more notice is taken of this but that it gives too much light to Christian Kings to see their right of Ecclesiastical government To this I will answer for the Clergy of England that those that are not infected with a spice of Popery as I am afraid some such there are God make them fewer or some for want of due consideration always acknowledge the King for supream Head of the Church and by that Title pray for him and not by that sleighty Title of Supream Moderator of the Church and the English Clergy if some few do otherwise are no more to be blamed for this than the English Souldiers were in the blessed Reign of Queen Elizabeth to be blamed in Holland because Stanly and York delivered Towns up to the Spaniard or English Writers because one English Man hath written such a Book as the Leviathan who after his Learned Discourse of the Kingdom of God comes to tell us p. 219. what the Kingdom of Grace is and saith Those are in it that promise obedience to God's government I suppose he means temporal of which he hath been treating before to whom saith he God hath gratis given to be his Subjects hereafter which is called the Kingdom of Glory Now certainly the Kingdom of Grace by all Men before Mr. Hobbes was taken to be God's Spiritual government which he exerciseth in the Hearts of good Men by his commands threats and promises to which if they yield obedience in and through the mercies of our blessed Saviour they are made inheritors of the Kingdom of Glory And what a quibble this is of Mr. Hobbes from the word gratis to change the sence of the Kingdom of Grace I shall refer to any intelligent person Mr. Hobbes coming in his 36. Chapter to treat of ●he Word of God and the Prophets comes to shew what Word signifies in Scripture of which I do think he hath given a true account in several Texts but is not able in any kind of Truth to hold out long For p. 224. he saith That the Word of God in several Texts of Scripture signifies which I never observed in any such words as are consonant to the dictates of right Reason and the first Text he cites is 2 Chron. 35. 22. where 't is said That Iosiah harkned not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God which saith Mr. Hobbes were but the dictates of Reason This is most palpably unreasonable for there was no reason for Iosiah to forbear fighting with Necho the Kings of Iudah having beaten as great Kings as the Kings of Egypt and the Iews being then in a powerful condition when he came into his Country with a great Army So this Text must either be intended that the words of Necho were but what God had told him or that they were revealed to Iosiah to be God's mind by some Prophet which most Interpreters take to be Ieremiah nay Mr. Hobbes himself cites Esdras for this last Interpretation but saith That in this he approves not an Apocryphal writer though before when he had a mind to invalidate the Scriptures by making the Penmen of them uncertain seemed strongly to incline that Esdras was the Penman of them after the Captivity when it might be supposed the certain Truth was lost and that only from the Authority of the Book of Esdras whose Authority or rather Interpretation he here rejects And then Mr. Hobbes goes on to cite several other Texts of Scripture to prove that in Scripture by the Word of God is meant the dictates of Reason or Equity as Ierem. 31. 33. and other places where God saith He will write his Laws in their Hearts Which places by all other Men I think have been interpreted the operation of God's Spirit upon the minds of Men by inclining them to obey his Laws after God had taught them by his Prophets or Ministers And there is no cause to call that reason or the proceed of reason which the Scripture terms the operation of God A Man bringing reason or an aptitude to it into the World and so he doth not that which God effects in him after he is in the World Mr. Hobbes p. 238. saith That a private Man hath Power to believe or not believe Miracles Thought b●ing free but saith he when it comes to publick confession the private reason must submit to the publick Now by his Rule though a Man do not believe lying wonders yet he may say he doth if any one will believe Mr. Hobbes In short this is much like his precedent Doctrine of practice and serves to authorise the grossest hypocrisie in the World in case the