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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	let_v	lord_n	name_n	9,327	5	5.7485	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68236	The third booke of commentaries vpon the Apostles Creede contayning the blasphemous positions of Iesuites and other later Romanists, concerning the authoritie of their Church: manifestly prouing that whosoeuer yeelds such absolute beleefe vnto it as these men exact, doth beleeue it better then Gods word, his Sonne, his prophets, Euangelists, or Apostles, or rather truly beeleeues no part of their writings or any article in this Creede. Continued by Thomas Iackson B. of Diuinitie and fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford.; Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed. Book 3	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.	1614 (1614)	STC 14315; ESTC S107489	337,354	346

mans mind is sometimes more accustomed to shew more then seauen Watchmen that sit aboue in an high Tower And aboue all this pray to the most High that he will direct thy way in truth Had they thus done without partiality to their corrupt affections or without all respect of persons in which Christian faith cannot bee had Moses law had beene a lanterne vnto their feet for the discerning of true Prophets and those discerned had beene a light vnto latter ages for discerning the true Messias 6 The euidence of this truth not without cause so often inculcated will better appeare if wee consider ●ow most propheticall predictions of particular alterations were but determinations of Mosaicall generalities out of which they grow as branches out of the stocke As for example The Lord told Moses before his death and he gaue it to Israel for a song to be copied out by all That when they went a whoring after the Gods of a strange land forsaking him he would forsake them and hide his face from them After Ie●oiadahs death Zechariah his sonne seeing the Princes of Iudah leauing the house of the Lord to serue Groues and Idols albeit hee were moued as the Text saith by the spirit of God yet onely applies Moses generall prediction to the present times Thus saith God Why transgresse yee the commandement of the Lord Surely yee shall not prosper because yee haue forsakeu the Lord he also will forsake you Saint Paul himselfe vseth his own aduise not the Lords authority in such points as were not euidently contained in Moses law Vnto the married command not I but the Lord Let not the wife depart from her husband for so Moses had expresly commanded But to the Remnant I speake not the Lord If any brother haue a wife that belieueth not if shee be content to dwell with him let him not forsake her And againe concerning Virgins I haue no commandement of the Lord but I giue mine aduise as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithfull This was his iudgement and as he thought warranted by the spirit of God yet hee prescribes it not as a generall rule of faith to all but rather leaues euery man to bee ruled by his conscience and the analogie of Moses law So likewise though God vse an extraordinary reuelation to instruct Saint Peter in the free vse of meates forbidden by Moses yet hee perswades him it by manifesting the true meaning of another clause of the same law for what hee vttered vpon this instruction and the experiment answerable thereto was but a further specification of what Moses had said I perceiue of a truth saith S. Peter that God is no accepter of persons Moses had said The Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords a great God mighty and terrible which accepteth no persons nor taketh reward who doth right vnto the fatherlesse and widdow and loueth the stranger giuing him sood and rayment 7 These passages sufficiently enforme vs that the extraordinary spirit wherewith the Apostles themselues were aboue the measure of Gods former messengers inspired oftimes onely made the stems whether of the tree of life or of knowledge planted by Moses to blow and flourish in them by little and little after the manner of naturall growth it did not alwayes bring forth new ones in an instant as the earth did at the first creation Much more vsually did prophesies during the standing of the first temple spring out of Mosaicall predictions If wee compare his writings with latter prophesies not long before the Babylonish captiuity though hee had departed this life before their fathers entred into the land of promise yet hee speakes vnto this last generation as an intelligencer from a farre Country that great preparation was made against them but who should bee the executioners or managers of mischiefe intended hee leaues that to such Prophets as the Lord should raise them vp for the present Ieremy and Ezechiel vpon his admonition following his direction are sent by God as it were to scowre the coast to discrie when the Nauy comes for what Coast it is bound and how neare at hand Here had the people faithfully examined their hearts by Moses law whether not guilty of such sinnes as deserued the plagues threatned by him they had quickly assented vnto Moses writings and the Prophets words For as consciousnesse of their sinnes in generall might cause them feare some plague or other indefinitely threatned by their Lawgiuer whose writings they best belieued so might the diligent obseruation of their particular transgressions and their progresse in them haue taught them to presage the determinate manner of their plagues and punishments foretold by the present Prophet For God in his vsuall course of iustice so suites his punishments to the most accustomary habits or predominant sinnes as vnto men religiously obseruant of times and seasons the growth and processe of the one will giue a certaine crisis of the other Besides euery age hath peculiar signes subordinate to the generall predictions of good or euill foretold by Gods messengers whereby the faithfull learne to know the day of their visitation and as Salomon saith to hide themselues in latibulo altissimi from the plague if not by their hearty repentance godly prayers and religious endeauors to preuent it And because wee in this age are not so well acquainted with the particular signes of former times wherein true Prophets liued it is hard for any liuing now though easie to all the faithfull then to giue any certaine or particular rule how the truth of their prophesies might haue beene at least probably knowne before the euent did finally and absolutely approue them Would to God wee could discerne the signes of times present and the Lord of his infinit mercy giue vs grace to know the day of our visitation But of this argument elsewhere by Gods assistance It shall suffice in the next place to shew that our Sauiours doctrine was by the same meanes to be discerued CHAP. X. That the Soueraignety giuen by Iesuites to the Pope is greater then our Sauiours was 1 IT is a Rule in Diuinity whatsoeuer can rightly be conceiued as an absolute perfection hath reall existence in the Almighty From this notion of the Deity swimming in the braines of such as in heart deed make the Pope their Lord God doe the parties thus affected vsually take whatsoeuer power might possibly be deligated by God to any as actually granted vnto his holinesse And thus I imagine some Iesuite or other when hee shall bethinke himselfe will except against our disputes in this present cause Deny you cannot that God can and what if hee should expresly grant such authority as the Pope now challengeth would your arguments conclude him to bee Antichrist or the doctrine we teach to be blasphemous On the contrary seeing our Sauiour Christ did neuer either practise or challenge seeing neither Moses

not doing so Wherefore our Sauiour Christ did better obserue the Sabaoth by working vpon it to saue mens liues or recouer their health then the Pharisees did by abstaining from such workes of mercy as might haue glorified Gods name more immediately then any speculalatiue or precise rules how it should bee kept Yea by not working these good workes when faire occasion was offered they did the workes of Satan euen murther it selfe as our Sauiour Christ implies in that question proposed vnto the Scribes and Pharisees which sought an accusation against him I will aske you a question whether it is lawfull on the Sabbaoth dayes to do good or to doe euill to saue life or to destroy it 9 The like limitations this precept had in case of necessity or for the auoidance of some great extraordinary calamity not otherwise auoidable then by doing such works as vpon ordinary and dayly occasions were vnlawfull to be done vpon the Sabaoth day It was an opinion receiued as it seemes amongsts the Iewes that they might not fight nor build the breaches or places wherby their enemies did hope for entrance vpon the Sabaoth In this perswasion about the number of a thousand Jewes did lay down their liues But when Matthias heard of this his people and Country mens massacre more generall then it needed to haue beene but for this their strict and precise interpretation of the former generall commandement he and his friends wisely resolued Whosoeuer should come to make battell with vs vpon the Sabaoth day we will fight against them that wee die not all as our brethren that were murdered in the secret places Which they might haue stopped but would not for feare of violating the Sabaoth The reason of this their resolution contained in the 40 verse was most strong drawne from the end of the Sabaoth For they said one to another If wee all doe as our brethren haue done and fight not against the heathen for our liues and for our Lawes then shall they incontinently destroy vs out of the earth And if the whole Iewish nation had beene at that time vtterly rooted out who should either haue sanctified Gods Sabaothes or preserued his lawes from the iniurie of times or fury of the heathen Nature had taught the heathen that it was foolish propter vitam viuendi perdere causas much more might religious discretion teach all men how preposterous a course it were for the pre●ise keeping of one to crosse or ouerthrow the end of all Sabaothes 10 Yet our Aduersaries I am sure cannot bring any precept so peremptory or generall for absolute obedience vnto the High Priests and gouernours as the former was for not working vpon the Sabaoth And yet this wee see hath its restraint from the end and holds onely absolutely true in certaine kind of workes not in all The like restraint either from the end or from the circumstance may all those places likewise suffer which seeme to bee most generall for absolute obedience vnto Gods messengers or spirituall gouernours 11 The end of obeying Gods messengers is that men thereby may obey God himselfe Suppose then God had said Thou shall obey the Priest in all things whatsoeuer he shall command thee a Wise man notwithstanding all this would thus resolue suppose the Priest command mee to doe that in doing which I shall disobey God or to omit that continually in performing of which I should obey God am I bound to obey him in all such commands so should I frustrate the end of the law and commit the same offence by this my blind obedience which others doe by presumptuous and willfull disobedience vnto spirituall gouernours But it will bee replyed who shall iudge whether the spirituall gouernour commaund thee such seruice as argues disobedience vnto God or no If the case bee doubtfull and I be commanded by my lawfull Pastor I haue answered already in what sense obedience must bee performed But if the case be euident men must openly disobey their Pastors before they certainly disobey God But who shall iudge of the euidence Euery mans conscience Shall that then bee euident which euery man shall say is euident vnto him No but what indeed and conscience is and so shall appeare in his iudgement that searcheth the heart and reines Such as do not feare his censure will make no conscience of disobeying men pretending authority from him Such as with feare and trembling expect the sonne of mans appearance will not much esteeme how they bee iudged by men further then in reason they may be perswaded their sentence shall bee ratified in the last day of iudgement And because God hath endued spirituall gouernours with power of retaining and remitting sinnes euery one that feares him which gaue will feare to disobey them to whom this power is giuen lest if they retaine hee will not remit and retaine they iustly may or rather must the sinnes of all sinnes as adde thirst to drunkennesse contempt of Gods messengers summons to repentance vnto actuall breaches of his law This is as open rebellion vpon a riot perhaps first attempted vpon ignorance of the Law inconsideratenes or foolish passion but continued after proclamation made in the Kings name by a publike magistrate authorized for such purposes The parties admonished vpon such high tearmes to desist from any suspitious enterprise though no more must bee certaine of the Princes or chiefe Lawgiuers future approbation of what they go about if they persist otherwise disobedience to a lawfull Magistrate or inferiour officer will be found rebellion against the state or soueraignety 12 Though it bee most true what hath been before deliuered that vnto Pastors conditionall obedience is onely due yet is not the condition precedent to all acts of obedience but subsequent at least to some and to bee inferted by way of limitation or caution for desisting vpon discouery of farther danger rather then interposed as a stoppe to breed delay or prohibition of all obedience vntill euident proofe be made that it is expresly due in the particulars enioyned The want of this distinction betweene a condition precedent and a condition subsequent or annexed vnto actuall obedience hath beene the originall I am perswaded atwel of the Papists error in demanding absolute obedience without all condition of limitation as of many Protestants granting lesse then is due to Pastors that is obedience onely vppon this condition If they shew expresse warrant of Scriptures for the particulars enioyned Nor is the condition betweene the Pastor and his flocke like vnto that betweene man and man in legall contracts or in controuersies of debt wherin all are equall nothing due vnto the plaintife before the performance of the condition bee proued but such as is betweene a priuate man and a Magistrate both subordinate in their seuerall places to one soueraigne vnto whom onely absolute and complete obedience is due though vnto his officers some obedience is absolutely due at the least to