Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	bless_a	holy_a	trinity_n	2,673	5	10.3561	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04618	The mysterie of Christes natiuitie A sermon preached in the parish church of All-Saints in Dorchester, within the countie of Dorset, the 25. day of December 1613. being Christmas Daye. By William Iones, Master of Arts, and preacher of Gods Word.	Jones, William, b. 1581 or 2.	1614 (1614)	STC 14739.2; ESTC S107860	16,531	38

one of the Sybils whether there were any where a greater person then himselfe saw in the Sunne a Virgin giuing an Infant sucke to whom afterwards hee dedicated an Altar and called it Aram Coeli the Altar of Heauen And thus yee see it proued that it was the fulnesse of time when he that as S. Ioh. saith full of grace truth was borne amongst vs. The Iewes expect yet a Messtas to come denying Iesus whom wee beleeue on to bee the Worlds Sauiour And the Turkes dare to compare him with their Mahomet But this doctrine of the fulnesse of time wherein Christ was born doth most plainly and forcibly confute them For sith all the promises and mercies of God sith the prophesies figures and desires of our famous forefathers and manie admirable Miracles met in the time of Christs Natiuitie and that neuer Mahomet had the like nor any Creature can haue the like wee are fully to bee resolued by this fulnesse of time the true Messtas to bee borne I could spend more time in discoursing vpon this time but that greater matters viz. The causes of Christs birth doe now offer themselues vnto mee in these wordes God sent his sonne Where the Efficient cause is God the formall cause his sending and the materiall cause his Sonne Christ himselfe God sent Who the Father the Sonne or the Holy Ghost Surely all three of them For know that opera a Trinitatis sunt in-diuisa and vnlesse in personall respects euermore in Essentiall actions what one doth they all doe as now in this worke of Christs birth the whole Trinitie shewed their industrie The Father sent mee saith Christ Ioh. 13. 20. Here the Father labours I went out from the Father and came into the World Here is the labour of the Sonne The Holy Ghost shall come vpon thee quoth the Angell Gabriel to the blessed Virgin when she was to conceiue Christ this is the labour of the Holy Ghost Thus the three persons being one GOD had each of them their action in CHRISTS Incarnation and that most fitly sith it being a worke of great power Wisdome and goodnes it was requisite that the Father with his power the Sonne with his Wisedome and the Holie Ghost with his Goodnesse should accomplish it What more powerfull a thing then to joyne two such extreamely distant Natures as the Creatour and the Creature together It is GODS especiall power in compound bodies to joyne the foure Elements together it is greater power to joyne our bodie to our created spirits that is to say our soules But to joyne all these to the increated spirit God this is a might aboue all measure Againe what more wise thing then that to the perfection and complement of the whole the beginning and the end of a worke should hang together And now note this mysterie The Word was the beginning of the VVorld for by it GOD made the World and Adam was the last Creature of the VVorld The Word then becomming Man the first and the last that is to say GOD and man were vnited together Againe what greater goodnesse can bee then that the Creatour should communicate himselfe to the Creatures It is his great kindnesse that God giues himselfe to his Creatures by his essence presence and power it is his greater kindnes that he giues himselfe to good men by his grace but that hee should giue himselfe to our nature by Vnion with it that is to say by assuming our Humanitic into his Diuinitie this surmounts all fauour that may bee said or thought vpon Thus I say the Fathers power the Sonnes wisdome and the Holy Ghosts goodnesse were all Actors in clothing Christ with our flesh To the doing whereof what moued them our merits no Brethren but their mercies according to that of Ioh. 3. God soloued the World that he sent his sonne c. Loue is manifested three wayes Dono passione opere in giuing suffering and working The Father shewed his loue when he gaue vs his Sonne the Sonne shewed his loue when hee suffered Death for our sinnes and the Holy Ghost shewes his loue in setting vs forward in good workes Thus the manifestation of the blessed Trinities power wisdome goodnesse and mercie are as it were the foure wheeles vpon which the Charriot of Gods prouidence brought Christ into this world Who came as sent God sent sayth my text Heere is a doubt worthie to be discust Christ was neuer separated from God his Father For when Saint Iohn saw him vpon earth hee yet acknowledged him to bee in the bosome of his Father secundum id 1. cap. vnigenitus quie st in sinis patris c. as also that hee was in Heauen secundumid tertio capite nemo ascendit c. qui est in coelo yea that hee was in the world before his birth sith hee made the World as it is cap. 1. and how then may it be said that God sent him when hee neuer went from him An Interpretation shall make euident all this Missio saith Thomas Aquinas commenting vpon this place fuit assumptio Carnis non depositio maiestatis Christ left not to bee God when hee became man but tooke more vnto his Godhead when hee became man viz. our Humanitie into his Diuinitie that through our visible nature assumed he might acquaint vs with his inuisible excelencies which els could neuer haue beene known of vs. As the Sun shining in his perfit brightnes can not be looked vpon but in a Cloud or mist hauing his beames refracted may bee beheld so God in his infinite and incomprehensible essence being considered of vs cannot be knowne of vs for he is too powerful an object for our weake vnderstanding but in our Nature by his sonne assumed hauing his glorie and Majestie contracted wee may take a full view of him And thus Christ his incarnating is his proper sending But why sent God his sonne the second person in Trinitie Wherefore had not the Father and the Holy Ghost come to be man aswel as the Sonne Brethren this is a high point in Diuinitie requiring judiciall and attentiue eares which if yee lend mee thus then I resolue yee Truely there wanted no power in any of those persons to performe this for they are all Omnipotent and able to doe what soeuer pleaseth them But yet why the sonne did it rather then the rest great reasons are to bee alleaged First It was meete that by what instruments God made the World by the same he should repaire the World But God by his sonne made the World as it is Heb. 1. and therfore as it is 2. Cor. 5. well was God in Christ by whom hee reconciled the World Secondly It was fit that hee who was the sonne in the Diuinitie should also bee the sonne in Humanitie least if the Father or the Holy Ghost had bin the sonnes of men they had then beene temporall sonnes to the Eternall sonne Thirdly the Father is of himselfe