Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
B09989
|
A seasonable discourse of the right use and abuse of reason in matters of religion. By Philologus.
|
Philologus.
|
1676
(1676)
|
Wing S2227BA; ESTC R183656
|
138,457
|
248
|
safe harbour it is to him a sweet sleep a bed of rest after all his toyl and labour in a vain and troublesome world Isai 57.2 1 Thes 4.14 Rev. 14.13 There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest and hear not the voice of the Oppressor Job 3.17 18. It is the day of a Christians reward and of receiving wages Then is the servant set free and the Heir at full age then shall the banished and strangers from a far Countrey shall enter into their Fathers house and shall be received into everlasting habitations Heb. 11.13 John 14.2 Luke 16.9 Death is the Birth-day of a Christian the funeral of all his vices and corruptions and the resurrection of his Graces Death was the daughter of Sin and in death shall that be fulfilled The Daughter shall destroy the Mother 'T is the dissolution of the Body but the absolution of the Soul Then is the immortal Soul delivered out of a dark prison and then doth she throw off her old ragged clothes and foul garments that she may be deck'd and adorn'd with the glorious Robes of Salvation Isa 52.1 2 Cor. 5.2 3. Then doth a Christian remove from an old rotten house ready to fall about his ears to a sumptuous Pallace Doth that Landlord think you wrong his Tennant or offer him hard measure that would have him remove out of a base Cottage into his own Mansion-house which he hath freely given him Shall the Believer be unwilling to come to the end of his race and receive the prize even an incorruptible Crown of glory 1 Cor. 9.24 This is the day of his Coronation for though now he be an Heir of the heavenly Kingdom yet he shall not be crowned till death with that Glory which is unutterable 2 Tim. 4.8 Seventhly The good man is taken away by death from much evil to come and hath he any cause to quarrel with such a freedom Truly the consideration hereof should make us love this life the less because the Clouds gather thick about us and we know not what fearful alterations may shortly befal us either in our outward estate or in matters of Religion either by domestick broyls or by forreign invasion Should not a Christian rejoyce exceedingly to be delivered from the continual malicious suggestions and stratagems of the evil Angels and from a vile wicked World that hates and persecutes the Image of Christ where-ever it is A World whose seeming felicities as Honours Riches Pleasures Trade Beauty Friends Children Relations and Acquaintance are but vanities full of labour and toyl accompanied with much vexation and affording no true rest or contentment to that man that enjoyes them neither can they help him in the least when death seizeth upon him All these things will be forgotten and there will be no remembrance of them with those that shall come after Eccles 1.11 What a priviledge is it therefore to be delivered from these vanities Yea which is more from that body of sin and corruption which a Christian groans under as his greatest burthen and is the more grievous and intollerable because it infects and spreads over the whole man soul and body and is an inseparable companion of this life causing a troublesome yea an irreconcilable war in the Soul and swarms of evil thoughts affections desires and actions besides innumerable diseases and distempers which attend the Body And should not death be welcome to us to set us free from all these evils and miseries Thus may a Christian reason and argue against the fear of death upon far higher and more spiritual Grounds and Considerations then a moral Heathen can and therefore he should not be afraid to dye Eighthly and Lastly That we may be the better fortified against the fear of death let us call to mind and improve the living speeches of dying Christians some of which shall be here mentioned The famous sayings of some dying Christians Good old Simeon Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Stephen the first Martyr Lord Jesus receive my Spirit and lay not this sin to their charge Polycarpus to the Proconsul urging him to deny Christ I have served him eighty-six years saith he and he hath not once hurt me and shall I now deny him Ignatius I am the Wheat or Grain to be ground with the teeth of Beasts that I may be pure bread for my Masters tooth let Fire Racks Pullies yea and all the torments of Hell come on me so I may win Christ Cyprian God Almighty be blessed for this Gaol-delivery Theodosius I thank God more for that I have been a Member of Christ then an Emperor of the World Hillarion Soul get thee out thou hast served Christ these seventy years and art thou now afraid of death and loth to dye Vincentius Rage and do the worst that the spirit of malignity can set thee on work to do Thou shalt see Gods Spirit strengthen the tormented more then the Devil can do the Tormentor Gorgius to the Tyrant offering him promotion Have you any thing equal saith he or more worthy then the Kingdom of Heaven King Edward the Sixth Lord bring me into thy Kingdom free this Kingdom from Antichrist and keep thine Elect in it Bishop Latimer to Bishop Ridley going before him to the Stake Have after as fast as I can follow we shall light such a Candle by Gods Grace in England this day as I trust shall never be put out again Bishop Hooper to one that prayed him to consider that life is sweet and death is bitter True saith he but the death to come is more bitter and the life to come is more sweet Oh Lord Christ I am Hell but thou art Heaven draw me to thy self with the cords of thy mercy Thomas Bilney I know by Sense and Philosophy that fire is hot and burning painful but by Faith I know it shall only waste the stubble of my Body and purge my Spirit of its corruption Glover to his Friend He is come oh he is come meaning the Comforter Gods Spirit John Bradford to his fellow Martyr Be of good comfort Brother for we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord this night If there be any way to Heaven on Horseback or in fiery Chariots this is it Lawrence Sanders I was in prison till I got into prison and now sayes he kissing the Stake welcome the Cross of Christ welcome everlasting life My Saviour began to me in a bitter Cup and shall I not pledge him John Lambert None but Christ none but Christ Baynam I feel no more pain in the fire then if I were on a Bed of Down it is as sweet to me as a Bed of Roses Priest's Wife to one that offered her money I am now going saith she to a Countrey where money bears no mastery And when the Sentence was read Now have I gotten that which many a day I have sought for Doctor Taylor when he came within two
must needs be so too for ours is the same with theirs Evangelically considered their Types Sacrifices Prophecies and Ordinances referring to Christ who is the very substance of the Christian Religion The Mosaical Law of the Old Testament what is it else but Evangelium reconditum a veiled Gospel And the Gospel in the New Testament what is it but Lex Revelata the Law of the Old Testament revealed And thus it appears that the Christian Religion is the most Ancient Secondly If we look at the means and way of Atonement and Propitiation held forth in the Christian Religion it must needs appear to be the most Wise and Reasonable of any Religion The Eternal God or Supreme Being as He is full of Love and Mercy so He is Just and Righteous His Justice is infinite as Himself is He will so shew Mercy as that He will appear to be infinitely Just toward the the Offendor and therefore in Reason there must be some way or means of Satisfaction and Atonement found out or else God and Man being separarated by Sin could not be reunited The wiser sort among the Heathens were convinc'd by the Light of Reason That Man being alienated from God and not able of himself to come to God in regard of his darkness and ignorance there is a necessity of some way or means of cleansing and atonement Hence came the multitude of their Sacrifices and Oblations especially when any great Plague or Judgment was upon them But now that Christ the Son of God who is equal with God should be this way or means by giving up himself a Sacrifice for Sin of this they were wholly ignorant Is it so that the Justice of God offended by Sin is infinite Then it is but reasonable that this infinite Justice should have infinite reparation and satisfaction which neither Angels nor Men being but finite Creatures can give to the infinite God And therefore unless the Mediator or Days-man that takes up the difference between God and man be himself the infinite God as well as man such an infinite Satisfaction cannot be given This way or means being contrived and found out only by the wise infinite God and clearly held forth in the Christian Religion and in no other Religion besides it must needs be even by the Light of Reason the best and safest and truest Religion as that which vindicates the Honour of the great God and gives true peace and security to man Thirdly The Glorious Miracles wrought by Christ may convince any man's reason of the Truth of the Christian Religion Not only Josephus and other Jews besides him but also divers Heathen Authors and some of Christ's greatest Adversaries do acknowledge His Miracles Julian the Apostata as great an Enemy as he was confess'd that Jesus cured the Blind and the Lame and delivered some from Devils that were possessed in Bethsaida and Bethany Pilate himself in a Letter of his to the Emperor Tiberius witnesseth That Jesus gave sight to the Blind cleansed the Lepers healed them that were diseased delivered them that were possessed from Devils over-ruled the Waters raised the Dead and rose again Himself from the dead after three days Hereupon Tertullian bids the Senate and People of Rome read their own Commentaries and search their Records where they shall find the Miracles of Jesus which if they had not been sufficiently known to be true and real Tertullian himself in this Case might have been easily convicted of lying and forgery These Miracles of Christ were wrought not in one or two places but in many not in a corner but in the open view of the World and were attended with such Majesty and Power that there are thousands that will rather die on a Rack than deny or gainsay the same Jesus wrought great Miracles saith Josephus and although He was Crucified and put to death yet His Disciples forsook him not but did cleave unto him And as He Himself wrought many Miracles when he was upon Earth so His Disciples after He was gone from them by His power and virtue did likwise effect such Miracles as fill'd the World with the fame of them and were a special means to convert whole Kingdoms to Christ If any be so absurd and impudent as to deny the Miracles of Christ then I would ask of them whether it be not a great and strange Miracle That so many Nations and in them so many Wise and Learned men should follow and adore a poor contemptible man without Miracles and should be willing to die for Him even for Him that died a cursed ignominious Death upon the Cross If His Miracles were not great and far surmounting the Nature and capacity of a meer Man if they were not divine and supernatural can any sober man imagin that so many thousands would be so far convinc'd and perswaded by them as to die joyfully and triumphantly for the Name and Honour of this Jesus Is it a Miracle to work upon a man by touching him and much more without touching him and most of all without seeing him Then what a Miracle is it to work powerfully in the Hearts of whole Nations a far off without once seeing them and to touch them without coming at them and to convert and draw them to Himself without touching them with His Hand Yea but say some very absurdly and irrationally Christ and His Apostles wrought Miracles by the help of Magick Let such vain men resolve us if ever they knew or heard of a Magician that wrought such Miracles and came with such power and efficacy upon the Hearts of all sorts of men after his death as Jesus did And as for His Apostles what gain or advantage could they get by exercising this Magick No considerate man will attempt any great matter but for some end or other Now what Profit what Preferment what Honour in this World got they by it Nay did it not procure them much Hatred Danger Imprisonment Torments and at last Death it self Magicians usually hide themselves and conceal their Art when they are pursued for it But did the Apostles do so What a strange kind of Magick is this that will needs be known and exercised even in despite of the rage of Rulers and People yea of Death it self Doubtless 't is very remarkable that as in Moses time God so ordered in His wise Providence that there should be many great Magicians in Egypt that He might make His own Power the more evident So in the times of Christ and His Apostles there was great store of them in Judaea Rome and other places that a difference might be put between the Illusions of Satan and the miraculous Works of God Pliny reports that there were never more Magicians in the World than in the Reign of Nero which was the time of spreading the Gospel by Christ's Apostles neither was the vanity of that Art as he saith ever more apparently known than at that time If therefore this Art of Magick did never