Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	wise_a	work_v	world_n	23	3	4.0715	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07825	A treatise of the nature of God	Morton, Thomas, of Berwick.	1599 (1599)	STC 18198; ESTC S101314	111,319	258

nimblenesse quicknesse of wit and in all other respects But what need we suppose this Angelicall man whom we haue truly existing for we know that in heauen the bodies of the Saints shall bee pure and spirituall free from all heauie lumpishnesse yet the faithfull being glorified shall not become Angels but still be men for neither in subtilitie of body nor yet in excellencie of inward gifts shall they bee made equall to the Angels Thus we haue with much ado make the humane and the Angelical nature meet togither and vsed the one as a Glasse to represent and make knowne the other vnto vs. Now then to apply all this to our purpose for the finding out of Gods nature wee must doo these three things first we must get an idea or conceit of it into our mindes by searching what manner of thing God is and so to what kinde his nature doth belong and is to bee referred in the second place we must get a patterne example or resemblance of it in some thing really existing and lastly we must by adding and detracting make them euen or equall For the first seeing that the nature of God cannot bee knowne eyther by any essentiall causes or by sensible qualities we must imagin it by the effects actions and workes whether they be ordinarie or extraordinarie Rom. 1. 20. The inuisible things of God that is his eternall power and Godhead are seene by the creation of the world beeing considered in his works For so it hath pleased God to the end he might make himselfe knowne to man and man happie by knowing him after a sort to take vnto this his inuisible and insensible nature this visible and sensible shape and to couer himselfe with the creatures as with a garment that so he might discouer and reueale his hidden nature to man as we know that both he himselfe as also his Angels haue shewed themselues to men by putting on the nature and shape of man Not that we imagine as some haue done that God is the soule or life of the world and the world the body of God for God is not in the creatures eyther as their matter or as their forme but onely is to them the efficient but because the creatures make Gods inuisible nature to be knowne therfore we call them the shape or forme of God For by this meanes it is broght to passe that althogh God Iehoua as he existeth in himselfe and as he did exist before the creation be inuisible yet God the Creator of heauen and earth is as visible as are the Starres by night or the Sunne at mid-day in the heauen and as palpable as is the grosse earth whereon we tread as it is Act. 17. 27. God hath made the world that in it men might seeke him yea grope after him and feele him Thus both the creatures and also the extraordinary workes of God done both within and also without the Church and recorded both in holy Scripture as also in other true Records and. Histories teach vs what God is yea thus they preach to the whole world as touching God their maker Author that he is a liuing and working yea a mightie and wise nature excellent yea infinit in all goodnesse to wit in knowledge and wisdome in truth and iustice in loue and mercie in power and strength in glorie and maiestie Thus hauing conceiued in our mindes an idea or imagination of Gods nature we are in the next place to bring it forth into the world by getting an example or resemblance of it in some thing not vnlike vnto it But against this patterne or resemblance it will bee obiected the which you touched before that both it is impossible to finde any thing in the world that is like to God or fit to be a resemblance and also that if there could any such thing be found yet it were Idolatrie to resemble God to any creature Whereunto we answere first to the former part of the obiection that although the vnlikenesse to God be farre greater in the creatures then the likenesse yet that there is no creature which is not more or lesse in one respect or other like vnto him for whatsoeuer is good commendable or excellent in any creature as all the creatures are good yea euery one of them endued with a proper and peculiar goodnesse that commeth from God who is the fountaine of all goodnesse and maketh the creature to bee like to God So then if the meanest and basest creatures haue some likenesse to God without doubt the excellent creatures cannot but haue a great likenesse and resemblance vnto him the which wee knowe that GOD himselfe in the Scripture doth graunt vnto them calling man his owne similitude God made man in the likenesse of GOD. Genes 5. 1. Yea although there were no manner of likenesse or resemblance betwixt GOD and the creatures but rather all contrarietie and flat repugnancie yet they might profitably bee vsed for the illustration of his nature as wee knowe that all contraries doo argue and illustrate each other The which way of teaching although it bee not the readiest to attaine the truth for that doctrine and knowledge are positiue not priuatiue consisting not in the negation of that which is not or is not true but in the affirmation of that which doth truly and really exist yet it is alwaies an helpe and sometimes the onely meanes To the other parte of the obiection wee aunswere confessing that it were flat Idolatry and vtterly vnlawfull to make or suppose God to be simply like or equall to any creature for that were to pul him downe from his Throne of maiestie and to place him among the creatures yet affirming it to be very lawfull to resemble him to any creature the difference which is betwixt them being obserued and mentioned Thus Act. 17. 29. the Apostle Paul resembleth the diuine nature to the humane proouing against the Idolatrons Athenians that God is not like to those stocks and stones wherin the heathen did worship him because hee is like vnto man who is of a cōtrary nature to sencelesse things We men saith he being the kind of God it cannot be that God being like vnto vs that he shuld be like to siluer gold or to any sencelesse thing where tho he make these two natures of God man like to each other yet he maketh them not equall but putteth the difference in that hee maketh man to come and flowe from God as a little arme or creeke of the sea from the great Ocean Yea thus God hath throughout the whole Scripture reuealed himselfe vnto vs in the forme and shape of a man ascribing to himselfe the parts of his body as his eyes and eares his hands and feete yea all the faculties affections and passions of his minde and will and that both seuerally sometimes one and sometimes an other and also al togither assuming to himselfe the whole shape and forme of a man as namely Ezech. 1. 26. vpon