Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	jesus_n	sin_n	sinner_n	3,659	5	7.4408	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87158	The weary traveller his eternal rest being a discourse of that blessed rest here, which leads to endless rest hereafter. By H. H. D. D. Rector of Snaylwell, and Canon of Ely.	Harrison, Henry, 1610 or 11-1690.	1681 (1681)	Wing H893A; ESTC R215784	80,142	276

spend much time and care to get them and when we have gotten them as we think they die in the mid'st of our embraces and leave little or nothing behind them but shame and loathing Taedet adeptos quod adepturos torsit we pine for them as Ammon for Thamar and then repine at our selves and them that we were such fools as to seek our Rest where 't was not Therefore all carnal worldly Persons whether the sensual or voluptuous the covetous or ambitious are fain to wander from one purstui and design to another till having run the whole circle they are weary and giddy perplext and tired and cry out Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation no Rest to be had below and how shall we hope for that above who never sought till 't was too late Ahabs Kingdom seem'd as nothing unless he might have Naboths Vineyard and having obtained it by Perjury and Murther it pressed him to death and Hell Alexander had no Rest till he Conquered he thought one World and then had as little or rather less suspecting and killing his nearest Friends untill he drank himself to Death and found that Poison in Intemperance which he feared to find from his Cup-bearer Let 's consult our own experience and hearts hath any of us who have run through several states of life with Hopes of Rest when this or that were attained found the Rest which we hoped for and not either quite miss'd what we sought or miss'd of that Rest and satisfaction which we sought and hoped to have found Or if any of us have been so happy and yet so miserable so happy as to obtain our desires and yet so miserable as to desire no more no Rest in Heaven no Peace and Joy of life eternal with God can any of us without stupifying our very Reason common sense as well as faith take Rest in that which we know we must leave e're many years and which for ought we know may leave us e're many days Thus we see what an hainous sin indeed the Spring of all sins is to seek or desire to Rest in ought but God and withall what a folly and madness it is against our selves as well as a sin against God And yet how guilty of this ingratitude and this folly are most Christians if we reckon them so who carry the name and profession of Christianity If God send Men health and wealth peace and plenty possessions and honours how ready are they to set up their Rest on this side Jordan whereas all this was given them to raise their gratitude towards its Donor and make them thereby long after him that they might at length Rest in him But if God send them afflictions and troubles to wean them and drive them from this their folly they are troubled and grieved as if they had lost their God and Saviour in losing that which they had not lost if they would but have used it moderately and thankfully as coming from God and leading to him But woe and restless trouble and anguish for ever more must and will be their portion whom neither prosperity can invite nor adversity drive to Rest in God Secondly They who believe with such a Faith in Christ Jesus as works by Love the Love of God above all as their perfect eternal Rest and happiness their All-sufficient shield here and exceeding great reward hereafter they alone do enter God's Rest Here by Faith Hope and Love hereafter by full immediate inseparable sight and fruition Here they enter God's Rest inchoitivè by having a Title to it as adopted Sons and Heirs of God through Christ Jesus by having a true though imperfect prospect or foresight of it through Faith in Gods word and the merits of Christ Now this is a blessed Rest to the Soul compared with that miserable toile and drudgery fears and troubles which all unbelieving and disobedient wicked Persons lie under how prosperous soever their outward condition in this World seems The Rest of a Traveller is far short of one that is come to his Country and Home and yet it is a true Rest compared with one that wanders through desarts boggs and precipices into ruine He that now knows he is in the right way to his final Rest his Fathers House where he shall be sure of a glorious inheritance and satisfactory eternal peace and joy that through the way he goes also he shall be directed in all turnings protected from all dangers refreshed and relieved at every Stage with competent food and comfortable Rest this Mans heart is calm and quiet from those anxieties which the other suffers and though he must look to his way as he goes be thrifty and temperate in his Inn and Travel forward with watchful diligence and painful industry yet his labours and cares have the Rest of Hope and chearful expectance and as he draws nearer his Country and home so his Rest and joy increaseth This is the Rest of holy Travellers towards Heaven their Country their God and Father To which Christ Matt. 11.28 Invites the weary and heavy laden and into which when they come unto him they enter by Faith if such a Faith as takes up his Yoke and wears his burthen with meekness and lowliness as easy and gracious Faith laies hold on the merits of Christ and rests on him that takes away the sins of the World by the propitiation of his obedience for Pardon and Peace as knowing nothing else can procure it but that That most certainly and fully shall procure it for all that come unto God by him for mercy and grace God was in Christ saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 5.19 21. Reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses to them 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 He might have declared his mercy to us some other way but this was the only best way to declare his Righteousness as well as Mercy that he might be just as well as gracious in justifying the sinner and punishing the sin Therefore being justifyed by Faith we enter into Gods Rest having Peace with God through Christ Jesus saith St. Paul He that relies his weary Soul on this Rock and sure foundation shall never be ashamed of his Hope if he rely with such a Faith and Hope on it as accepts of the Yoke as well as the Rest but shall by degrees as he grows in Holiness and Righteousness find the Rest of his Soul increased and assured unto him more and more till he attain that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that fulness of Peace and Joy in believing which St. Paul expresseth Rom. 8.38 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect 't is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth 'T is Christ that died or rather is risen again to God's right hand and there makes intercession for us As for afflictions that often may and do follow

faith and the merits and intercession of Christ Jesus receives and imbraces with peace and joy by that Rest from the power disorder and tyranny of Sin which faith procuring Gods Spirit and looking upon the certainty and weight of his promises and threats the beauty and excellency of his precepts together with the great obligation of God's mercy in sending his Son to die for our sins and rise again for our justification effects and enjoys Thus believers if such believers as rely on the promises of God's Rest with faithful resolutions and endeavours to perform its conditions do enter into it initially and shall enter into it eternally But how proves the Apostle this the proof of it is in these words He said I have sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter my Rest who shew themselves obstinately unbelieving and disobedient The Argument is taken à contrario from the nature of contrary things If infidelity and disobedience be that alone which excludes from the promise of God's Rest then faith and obedience or such a faith as produceth obedience is that which entitles us to enter into it for God's promise cannot be satisfied nor wholly norutterly disappointed or made to become of none effect And therefore though they who would not believe it nor keep its conditions fell short of it yet they who believe and perform its conconditions must enter into it Yea his very wrath and oath against the one for their unbelief and disobedience implies and inferrs his complacency and love towards the other his undefeasible decree and oath that they persevering in faith and obedience shall enter and fully enjoy his Rest And this Rest was not the Rest of Canaan For if Joshua or Jesus the Son of Nun had given them Rest then would not David afterwards have spoken of another Rest from whence the Apostle inferrs what he began with there Remains therefore a Rest to the People of God another manner of Rest than that of Canaan eternal and perfect with God in Heaven to which the true Joshua or Jesus the Son of God must give us entrance by faith in him of whom Joshua the Son of Nun was but an imperfect transitory Type as that Rest of Canaan and of the Sabboth was of the perfect eternal Rest which still remains for Gods People the whole Church of true persevering obedient believers From what the Apostle hath said we may make this observation That Man hath no true and perfect Rest in ought but God His Rest is Mans Rest because he is the Rest and happiness of Man the ultimate compleate satisfactory object of reasonable creatures To Rest in any thing but in him as our happiness without dependance on him as the Author and reference to him as the end thereof is sinful vanity and vexation sure to end in eternal trouble without repentance Canaan it self was not to be the final Rest and happiness of the Israelites nor must any thing in this World any thing less than God be ours What God hath said to the Jews of old he much more clearly hath said and proved to us Christians Arise and depart for this is not your Resting place The Heavenly Rest and eternal life of seeing God as he is was but obscurely and imperfectly revealed to them who lived before or under the law till Christ came in whom the promise of it was made when man had lost all hope of it It was till then wrapt up as it were in the seed and bloome of Types and Prophesies implied and intimated in the Sabboth and Canaan and Temporal blessings attending Piety in this life rather than manifested and brought to light in its clearest evidences and strongest assurances as now our Lord Jesus hath done who hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel and therefore if they were obliged only in God through Christ Jesus to place their happiness in nothing below but to look on him through the vaile of Types and Temporal blessings how much more are we obliged as well as enabled to do so to whom Christ hath been exhibited with all the fulness of Truth and grace revealing the whole counsel of God our Rest in him and the way to attain it without obscurity and beyond dispute If David foresaw and foretold this Rest to be remaining when he not only enjoy'd Canaan and its blessings as the other Israelites did but the very height thereof as a prosperous King If he could say Deliver me O Lord from the Men of this World whose portion is in this life I am a stranger and sojourner here as all my Fathers were How much more are we obliged to think and say so who have not such Types and Temporal blessings to vaile the Object of our Rest and interrupt our sight of it to whom the Son and Lord of David hath been exhibited exemplifying and teaching us our only Rest to be in God the Father through him the Son by his holy Spirit dying to purchase an entrance to it rising and ascending and sitting down in a Glorious Rest at Gods Right Hand to assure us of it It is no less than the sin of Idolatry to place our Rest confidence or happiness in pleasures or honours possessions or riches or any thing else that this World can gratifie us with it is the bitter spring or Root of all sins It contradicts the design of God in giving us any Temporal blessings he gave them to help us unto him that reflecting upon him as their Author and end we might be perswaded to love him incomparably above all if we fall in love with them instead of raising our love to him we quite pervert the intent of his favours and turn them into hinderances to his dishonour and our own ruine He gave them to comfort us in our journy and shall we so mistake his meaning as to set up our dwelling in the Inn and Travaile no farther towards our Country but forget the giver because of that gift which was sent us on purpose to mind us of him This were to bring that curse on our selves which the Prophet foretold rather than prayed might fall on Gods enemies Let their Table be made a snare and that which should have been for their wealth be an occasion of falling to them This were indeed to provoke God either to withdraw those favours which thus he sees rested in instead of him or else to embitter and curse them from yeilding any content and if he should suffer us still to rest in them to his dishonour 't would prove the greatest surest curse of all others to live and die in this false deceitful transitory Rest which leads to and ends in eternal trouble and sorrow of body and soul That which is Mans true Rest must be able to give him full and perpetual satisfaction But all things below do neither satisfie us while we have them nor can continue with us longer to yield us that Rest or Pleasure which we fancy We