Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	father_n	lord_n	redeemer_n	2,002	5	9.8210	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54857	The signal diagnostick whereby we are to judge of our own affections : and as well of our present, as future state, or, The love of Christ planted upon the very same turf, on which it once had been supplanted by the extreme love of sin : being the substance of several sermons, deliver'd at several times and places, and now at last met together to make up the treatise which ensues / by Tho. Pierce.	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1670 (1670)	Wing P2199; ESTC R12333	120,589	186

higher than by reflecting much and often on him who lov'd us in such a measure I might have said so out of measure as to have hated even Himself in a comparative signification For neither was his life so dear nor was his Bloud so pretious to him but that he was prodigal of them both when both might fall to our Advancement Methinks there is nothing more expressive of God's obliging us to love him than that word of S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He SPARED not his own Son but delivered him up for us all We know his Son was Himself as to the unity of the Godhead yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He did not spare him Should we not think that Father cruel and void of natural Affection who would not spare his own Son no not his Beloved and only Son no not when 't was in his choice and his power to spare him yet when Abraham being commanded was ready to Sacrifice his Isaac 't was not his Cruelty but his obedience and that was the fruit of such a Faith as did work by love I mean a love of his God and not at all of his Isaac whom in that case he was to prosecute with a comparative Detestation And in like manner when the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ could not so wisely shew his Mercy for all aeternity upon us as for a time by shewing none upon the Lord Iesus Christ it was the highest and best expression not of his Cruelty but of his Love For he could never have spared us his adopted Sons if he had spared that Son who was his only-Begotten Nor could it be Cruelty even to Him not to be spared by his Father because volenti non fit injuria he was willing yea and desirous not to be spared for a Time rather than millions of men and women should certainly fail of being spared to all aeternity What then shall we return him for so astonishing a Love as is now describ'd Shall we spare any thing that is ours when 't is well-pleasing unto Him that we should not spare it Suppose he would not be pleas'd unless we gave our first-born for our Transgressions the fruit of our Body for the sin of our Soul Should we spare our own child in so great a Case How then comes it to pass we are so sparing to our lusts and do so grumble to be parted from our Destroyers Are those enemies of our Souls so extreamly dear to us as that we cannot find in our hearts either to send them out of our Bosomes or to deliver them up to a Crucifixion no not in love to that God who sent his Son out of his Bosom and delivered him to be crucified in love to us Sure if our Souls were all Flint yet being smitten with such a love they should yield some Fire Or if our Hearts were all Iron yet one would think that such a load-stone should draw them up Or however if it will not yet let us try a Fourth Engine for the winding up of our Affections Let us shame our selves out of our Coldness and Indifferency to Christ by duly reflecting upon our warmth to Inferiour things Not inferiour only to Him but to the Dignity of our Nature A Nature common to us with Him being consider'd in his Humanity and by so much the worthier both of our Care and our Respect too What Love do we bestow upon the vanity of the Creature to please a Palate an Eye an Ear a Fancy And shall we have so much love to fasten upon the Surface and outside of Dust and Ashes whilst so little for a Saviour as to permit it to be a Doubt if we have any for him or not All the noble men of Greece would ly like dogs at the door of the Corinthian Harlot and pay obedience to Her Commands notwithstanding they did lead in the paths of Death And shall a Question be made of our love to Christ whose very deformities make him fairer than the children of men I mean his wounds and his Bruises which should to us be more lovely than all the Roses of Sharon and the Lillies of the Valley as having been wholly suffer'd by him on our Account Or shall a Question be ever made of our obedience to his Commands which if a man do he shall live in them yet how many Trifles do we love and with what vehemence of Affection of which the best consequent is this that we shall heartily repent our having lov'd them and what a madness what a shame what a disparagement and a discredit must it needs be unto our Reason to lay out the Treasures of our Love upon those Allectives which we cannot but hope we shall be heartily sorry for because we cannot but fear that if we are not both truly and timely sorry we shall be hopelesly sorry when 't is too late but how much a greater madness is it to be so negligent and illiberal in our Affection towards Him whom the longer we shall love we shall love so much the more and shall have nothing to repent of but that we ever lov'd him less and that withal it was so late before we lov'd him shall we be able to say less of our Love to Christ than the Apostle S. Paul could say of his to his Corinthians observe him speaking to that unkind and ingratefull People Most gladly will I spend and be spent for you though the more abundantly I love you the less I be lov'd 'T was strange on their parts that they should love so much the less the more abundantly they were lov'd But somewhat more strange on His that he should spend and be spent and both most gladly notwithstanding the discouragements of their Return which was of nothing but of Hatred for the excesses of his Goodwill Lord how happy were it for us had we but half so much love for the Lord Iesus Christ as that expression of S. Paul does amount unto it is impossible for our Saviour to love us the less the more we love him So very far he is from that that he did spend and was spent and both most gladly for the love he bare to us when we had none And therefore the least that we can do is both to spend and to be spent to part with all that we have and with all we are too for the love we bear him who so dearly loves us It is an hard heart indeed which is so far from bestowing that it will not repay or return Affection We will spend and be spent for our darling sins although they love us the less the more abundantly we love them for the more we still love them the more degrees of Damnation they threaten to us Let us therefore even for shame have as much kindness for our Preserver as we have had for these Authors of our Destruction If in a very free manner we have been

that such a thing should be suppos'd as that a Christian should not love the Lord Iesus Christ Let us examin if you please how very natural 't is to love him that so our wonder may be the less at the severity of the Curse which our Apostle thunders out against as many as love him not Sect. 6. First 't is natural for us as men to love the gifts of the Almighty because by them we have the pleasure of staying our hunger and our thirst the pleasure of giving Satisfaction to all our Appetites and Needs Next 't is every whit as natural to love that Love of the Almighty from whence those gifts are derived to us And then how natural is the Transition from our love of his Love unto a yet greater love of Him that loves us For such a free Lover of Souls must needs Himself be more lovely than all his Love as much as the Agent than the Act or the Cause than the Effect Sect. 7 Again be we never so debauch't we cannot possibly abstain from being kind unto ourselves And as little from being kind unto the benefits and Blessings which we injoy And being so kind unto the benefits we should as little methinks abstain from being kind to the Benevolence from which those Benefits must needs proceed How much less should we be able to abstain from being kind to the Benefactor who is the Sourse and the Fountain of that Benevolence Certainly nothing can be viler than to love the meer Gifts above the Giver nothing more contumelious to him that Gives them Sect. 8. And if 't is natural for us as men to love our God as God only or at least as the Giver of our Injoyments how much more as God in Christ Reconciling us all unto Himself He is the Maker and the Preserver and so at least the Benefactor of all things else but the Redeemer the Restorer the Reconciler only of us As God Incarnate he conversed with men on Earth and as such in special manner we still converse with him in Heaven I therefore say in special manner because to address our selves to God as he is Infinite and Invisisible a self-subsisting Existence from everlasting to everlasting is not only apt to dazzle but to distract our understandings Our Thoughts are lost in this Ocean as the drops of a Bucket And where our Thoughts are hardly fixt 't is hard to fasten our Affections But now to address ourselves to God in the man Christ Iesus as he is manifest in the Flesh and hypostatically united to human Nature to settle our Affections and Thoughts upon him both as our Sacrifice and our Priest our Elder Brother and our Advocate as one incessantly pleading for us and reconciling us to Himself This is to take him at the advantage of his descending to our Infirmities and as it were to lay hold both on his Majesty and his Mercy whilst he is thus stooping down to our low embraces And therefore if any man shall be found so void of Grace and good Nature as not to love the God of Heaven both as a Bridegroom and a Redeemer who never had bought but to espouse us and courts our kindness under the Title of The Lord Iesus Christ he cannot deserve a milder Curse than that of Anathema Maranatha Which though the frightful'st and the most dismal that any poor Caitiff can undergo is yet the mildest and the most gentle that our Apostle could in Conscience condemn Them to who should be found NOT TO LOVE the Lord Jesus Christ. Should the very Souls of men be wholly dissolv'd into Love ●…twould be no more than He deserves for the excess of whose Love to the Souls of men the Holy Ghost hath affirmed that He is Love And considering how much the Cause is more noble than the Effect as I said before 't is very evident that our Saviour should be much dearer to us than our Salvation The name of Iesus a Saviour how delicious to our mouths ought it to be when e're we speak it How melodious to our Ears when e're we hear it And what a Iubily to our Hearts whensoever we do ruminate or think upon it Having therefore such a name as is above every name the name of Iesus a Saviour nor that temporal but eternal he needs must challenge such a Love as is above every Love not only of our Sins but of our selves too And therefore well might S. Paul upon the foulest supposition that can be made of a Malefactor pronounce the formidabl'st Sentence that can be uttered by any Iudge If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Sect. 9. These words of the Apostle which I have thought a fit Subject for the second Part of my Design are first of all to have a general and then a more special Consideration Their Parts in the General are briefly Three First the necessary Duty which is incumbent on a Christian and that is the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Next the Latitude or Extent of the obligingness of the Duty which does not reach only to some but to all in general And this is imply'd in the Indefinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any man love him not Thirdly the dreadfulness of the Danger to whosoever shall despise or neglect the Duty And this is expressed in the sentence of esto Anathema Maranatha So that in order to the more plain and useful handling of the Text which is propos'd only to profit and not to please us we are to fasten our present Thoughts upon these three subjects of Meditation First the Nature of the Love which is here requir'd Next the Quality of the Curse which is here denounc't Thirdly the means we are to use to attain the first and in consequence of that to escape the second CHAP. I. Sect. 1. TO understand the first aright we are to view the Grace of Love by several steps of Gradation First of all we are to view it as it is fasten'd upon God and so is contradistinguish't to all other Love Such as is the love of men whether our Neighbours or our selves the love of our Bodies and of our Souls and so of all other Creatures not only such as are unlawful and under a special prohibition but also such as are commanded and of necessity to be lov'd It must be opposite to the former and hugely transcendent unto the later And then it is the Grace of Love as fastned in general upon God But we are secondly to consider it in its particular application I mean its Appropriation to the Lord Iesus Christ. And this again in a threefold respect as he is Dominus the Lord who is to rule and reign over us and as Iesus the Saviour who is like Ioshua and the Iudges at once to deliver and to conduct us and as Christ the Messias in all his Offices at once in that of Teaching and Blessing and Swaying his Scepter