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	miserable_a	sinner_n	16,295	5	10.6580	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57477	The preciousnesse of Christ unto beleevers. Or, A treatise wherein the absolute necessity, the transcendent excellency, the supereminent graces, the beauty, rarity and usefulnesse of Christ is opened and applyed. By John Robotham, preacher of the Gospel	Robotham, John, fl. 1654.	1647 (1647)	Wing R1733; ESTC R208474	115,896	303

so an Advocate with the Father as that the Father is made ours fully and perfectly and so the eager and malicious adversary can doe nothing against us Fourthly Our Advocate is Jesus a most sweet and heart refreshing name it signifieth a Saviour one that doth not onely intreate for us but perfectly save us other Advocates may intreate and not prevaile but Christ intreates and prevailes and so saves his people from their sinnes Fiftly He is called Christ there 's an addition and increase of comfort in this name it signifies anointed Christ was anointed to be our Prophet to shew us the waies of life and salvation he was anointed to be our Priest to offer a reconciling sacrifice for us And he was also anointed to be our King to protect us and to destroy all our enemies Sixtly Our Advocate is called the Righteous by an eminency none so righteous as he he is perfectly righteous so that he needs not as other Advocates to plead for himselfe he pleadeth onely for us and he must needs have good successe in his pleading because he is righteous himselfe he is the Righteous just and a justifier absolutely and compleatly righteous by his own inherent purity and conveying righteousnesse to us by imputation Lastly our Advocate is such an one as stands in our roome and takes the whole penalty and punishment due to us for our offence upon himselfe therefore the Apostle addes that he is the propitiation for our sinnes that is he is the sacrifice that implores and begs pardoning Mercy for us Hence the bloud of sprinkling that is the bloud of Jesus Christ is said to speake better things then that of Abel Heb. 12. 24. for of Abels God speaks thus the voyce of thy brothers bloud crieth unto me from the ground Abels bloud cried unto God for vengeance to be executed upon Caine that murdered him but the bloud of Christ crieth unto God for mercy to be shewed unto poore miserable sinners Now then if Christ be our Advocate if he be an Advocate with the Father alwayes in his presence alwayes neere and deare unto him if he be an Advocae mighty to save if he be an Advocate separated and sanctified of God himselfe and anoynted to beare Office for us if he be an Advocate perfectly righteous and blamelesse in his owne person if hee be such an Advocate as is willing to stand in our stead and to beare the burden of our deserts like him that cried out when he saw his friend ready to be sl●ine Me me Adsum qui f●ci in me convertite ●er●ū Me mee I am he that did the fact turne your sword upon me Lastly if he be such an Advocate as refuses none but receives all without exception that come unto him if Christ I say be such an Advocate such a days-man so every way qualified and furnished to doe us good then surely it cannot be but that the prayers which we present unto God in his name must finde acceptance and obtaine a glorious returne Whatsoever you aske the Father in my name he will give it you saith Christ Joh. 16. 23. Christ puts incense upon our prayers and mingles them with the sweet odours of his owne merits he is the onely Altar of Christians sanctifying all their gifts and sacrifices Thus you have a taste of the excellent priviledges of Beleevers through Jesus Christ they have accesse to the Throne of Grace and all their petitions find acceptance with God returning as the Spies did out of Canaan with great and weighty clusters of blessings or as Jacobs sonnes did from their brother Joseph full and loaden with good things Oh then how precious how lovely how longed for ought Jesus Christ to be who accumulates and heapes such royall favours upon us who stores us with such rich and inestimable gifts who gives us free ingresse into the presence of God and regresse from him with joyfull hearts who makes way for our prayers that they may come as things of worth unto his Father and sends them back againe with good newes and glad tidings of blessed successe how precious I say and how highly to be esteemed and regarded is such a Benefactour as this how ought wee to draw out all our love and the very strength of our affections to cast them upon such a lovely object as this and to embrace Jesus Christ who hath done for us above all that wee can either name or thinke I passe now to some meanes by which we may awaken and stirre up our affections unto Christ And herein I shall give no other directions then the Church doth to the daughters of Jerusalem in Cant. 5. 10. c. And the occasion was this The Church was seeking Christ earnestly and diligently and in her seeking enquires of the daughters of Jerusalem for her beloved upon which the daughters utter these words What is thy beloved more then another beloved ô thou fairest among women The Church for answer and as a meanes to draw forth the affections of the daughters sets forth exactly the high perfections and excellencies of Christ shee doth anatomize him in every part and particularize him in every excellency setting him forth thus First the Church describes Christ in generall and that two wayes 1. Positively 2. Comparatively First positively my beloved is white and ruddy verse 10. that is he is of the most compleate perfect healthy constitution The strongest complexion and constitution is noted by these two colours white and ruddy and it denotes unto us the power and omnipotency of Christ whereby he is able to doe the greatest things in the world Also his whitenesse denoteth his purity and Righteousnesse and ruddy his owne bloud and sufferings and likewise his vengeance on his enemies for he hath his garments dipt in bloud Isaiah 63. 2. Secondly comparatively he is the chiefe of ten thousand or having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the banner above ten thousand Christ is the Standard bearer of ten thousand that doth excell all men and Angels and all other creatures in the world Now in Armies the goodliest men use to carrie the Ensigne or banner so Christ is incomparable beyond all other and hath the perfections of Angels of men and of all creatures beside Againe the Ensigne is a warlike Instrument and the bearer thereof one of the chiefe so Christ is for the Ensigne of his people Isa 11. 10. And all the Armies in Heaven and earth doe follow him Rev. 19. 11. the Saints they worship him the Angels they adore him for he is the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah and he is the first-borne of God set above all the Kings of the Earth Secondly the Church descends from her generall commendations of Christ to that which is more particular setting him forth by all the members and lineaments of his body First the Church begins with Christs head which is the most eminent part of all the body His head is as the most fine gold verse 11. that is

Father begotten yet eternall and the Holy Ghost is proceeding from them both yet eternally too for though they be one before another in order of nature yet not in order of time But now here is the Question seeing the Father is first the Sonne second and the Holy Spirit last in that naturall order why doth the Apostle in the fore-mentioned place set the Sonne first verily because he is next and immediate unto us being our Mediatour being the canalis or conduit pipe as I may say by which the love of God and the communion of the Holy-Ghost is brought and conveyed to us as the meanes is ever before the end Now the Saints being convinced and perswaded of this Truth this is the thing that makes Christ so deare and precious unto them as he is if Isaac loved Esau for his venison for a carnall respect much more have wee cause to love the Lord Jesus and highly to esteeme of him having procured for us the love of the Father a love like Jonathan's love to David passing the love of women yea a love of infinite dimensions and measures if I may so speake the breadth of it is infinite because it is without respect of persons the length also infinite because it is from everlasting to everlasting the depth infinite because it redeemes and delivers from Hell and the height likewise infinite because it lifts us up to Heaven Certainly Christ having purchased such a wonderfull love as this he must needs be precious he must needs be amiable and lovely to a beleeving soule Secondly for the pardon of sinne there is likewise an absolute necessity of Christ The bloud of Christ onely and not of Buls and Goats is availeable to take away sinnes The soule being convicted of its sinfulnesse speakes as the Prophet doth Who among us shall dwell with devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings God is devouring fire and everlasting bumings in relation to sinners his wrath is the fewell of Hell as I may say the breath of his indignation is like a river of brimstone kindling and perpetually maintaining the flames of Tophet what shall the poore sinfull soule doe now here 's nothing but menaces and threatnings terrours and amazements death and destruction and where is the remedy verily no where but in Christ alone Israel passing through the wildernesse had a cloud to cover him and defend him from the scortching Sunne-beames now what was this cloud but a type and shadow of Christ as the Apostle makes it 1 Cor. 10. 1. hee makes there the cloud and the Sea and the Manna and the water of the Rocke to be all figures and Images of Christ Christ is a sea to wash Manna to feed water to refresh and a cloud to hide the soule from the hot and burning wrath of God the fiery beames of that wrath would surely suffocate it and stifle it were not the bloud of Christ interposed and set between to veile it the bloud of Christ obnubilates and covers the soule from the fierce anger of God it is Christ onely that reconcileth us to God it is he alone that is our Advocate to plead our cause with his Father when man had sinned Justice and Mercy strove one with another seemed to be at variance Christ redintigrates them and makes them friends againe he is our blessed Umpire to set there two together againe giving satisfaction to Justice and place to mercy so honouring and dignifying both making both to rejoyce both to kisse and embrace each other God smels a sweet sav●ur of rest in Christ onely all the hilasticall and propitiatory sacrifices of the Law did ●●oke to him as to their end and substance of themselves they could not pu●ge away the guilt of the least sinne the repetition of them as the Apostle teacheth showes plainely how invalid they were to expiate the crimes and offences of the soule the strictest observance of them could not make the worshipper perfect as touching cleerenesse of Conscience Heb. 9. 9. When David cryes purge me with bysope and I shall be cleane wash me and I shall be whiter then snow he alludes indeed to the Leviticall Ceremony but he aimes at the bloud of Christ onely this alone was able to purge away his foule spot his hainous sinne of murder would not out by any other washing then this In one of the old sacrifices there were two Goates appointed one to be slaine and the other to be kept alive which was called the scape-Goate now both these have an eye to Christ the slaine or sacrificed Goate was a type of his dying for sinne and the surviving or scape-goate figures his rising againe and ever living to mainetaine the worth of that oblation the Apostle saith that he ever liveth to make intercession for us and how doth he make intercession but by continuall holding forth in the presence of his Father the merit of his sufferings so that still Christ both dying and living is the fountaine of our peace and attonement with God still Christ is he and the onely he that obtaineth remission of sinnes for us Now if wee consider the many and great benefits that redound to us by the pardon of sinne we must needs conclude that Christ is very precious by whom we enjoy such a mercy When sinne is pardoned there is an end of Gods heavie wrath and displeasure Satan's Kingdome goes downe the power of our corruptions daily decaying we have peace and joy within whereas before wee had nothing but raging stormes and tempests and a very hell in our Consciences our prayers finde acceptance at the throne of Grace all the creatures are in league with us and are become our faithfull servants that which comes from them is sweet and benigne healthfull and good our blessings are blessed yea our very curses if they may be so called are likewise blessed unto us Judgements are removed every bitternesse is taken away even the sting of death is puld our Christ as a tree of most excellent vertue is cut downe and throwne into our Marah Some things may worke adve●sly and crosly to us but the Apostle speakes of a cooperating or working together which makes amends for all all things worke together saith he for good unto them that love God Rom. 8. 28. and they be such that have their sinnes pardoned Though some things worke untowardly and against the haire as I may say yet take them altogether and there is a blessed harmony and complyance a sweet relishablenesse and savourinesse in them one thing doth recompence and make up another the mixture of sweet and sowre through the wisdome and mighty working of God is very demulcent and wholsome full of benediction and blessednesse that even the sinnes of the Godly are an advantage to them and turne to their melioration and betternment God makes use even of them to doe his children good he brings meate out of the very eater and converts the causes of damnation into

the Father hath bestowed upon us that wee should be called the Sonnes of God Joh. 3. 1. and the Father was not alone in this Love but the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost too if the love of the Saints to Christ be so hot that many waters of affliction cannot quench it nor the flouds of persecution drowne it if it will not be scourced or exchanged for any wealth if it be strong as death and cruell as the grave urging and constraining them to lay downe life and all for him if the coales thereof be coales of fire which hath a most vehement flame as we reade Cant. 8. 6 7. What is then the love of Christ to his people who is not onely loving but love it selfe in the very abstract certainly such a love as this cannot but be very attractive and drawing very conciliating and winning it must needs like the first wheele move and turne about all our affections our desire to enjoy Christ our joy in the fruition of him our love toward him our feare to displease him our anger when he is offended our jealousie of losing him Our nature is such that wee will love where we are first loved as the heat of the Sunne-beames reflects from a wall so Christs love to us cannot but cause a reflection of ours upon him ours is but a sparke of his we love him saith the Apostle because hee loved us first 1 Ioh. 4. 19. when he reveales his love to us such a fire must needs kindle and melt our affections be they never so key-cold and frozen Secondly the beauty of Christ is likewise very attractive I doe not meane it of the aspect and face of the outward lineaments and proportion of his body although his comlinesse in that behalfe need not to be doubted of being formed in the sanctified wombe of a Virgine by the Holy-Ghost but of his spirituall beauty and gracefulnesse Now wee know that true beauty consists In fairenesse of complexion And in a just symmetry or proportion of parts Neither of these was wanting in Christ First he was of a faire and comely complexion as the Church describeth him Cant. 5. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy saith she the mixture of these two colours makes a beautifull and good complexion White and red as they shew the best temperature in man so here it may signifie in Christ his God-head and manhood God appeared in a vision all white as snow and pure as fine wooll Dan. 7. 9. And man had his name Adam from the red mould or Earth that his body was made of and Christ vouchsafed to be like unto us in this Againe the red colour may signifie the bloudy sufferings of Christ and the white his righteousnesse thereby inherent in himselfe but conveyed to all his members by Gods free imputation righteousnesse is so described by white linnen Revel 19. 8. Now this temperament and mingling of white and red after such a mysticall way in Christ denotes the surpassing beautie of Christ makes him precious to the Saints and inflames their affections to embrace him and follow him Secondly in Christ there is also a comely proportion of parts from the correspondency and agreement of parts ariseth a feature compleatly beautifull and lovely This every faithfull soule findes in Christ The Church enumerates and reckons up all his parts Cant. 5. 10. c. his head as most fine gold his lockes bushie and blacke as a Raven excellently well agreeing with a faire face his eyes as the eyes of Doves by the rivers of water washed with milke and fitly set his cheekes as a bed of spices as sweet flowers his lips like Lillies dropping sweet-smelling mirrhe his hands as gold Rings set with the Berill his belly as bright Ivorie overlaid with Saphires his legges as pillars of Marble set upon sockets of fine Gold his counteance as Lebanon excellent as the Cedars and his mouth or voyce most sweet What a pleasant harmony and specious consent of parts is here figuring unto us the supreame and absolute Government of Christ his unsearchable Councells his pure nature hating all impurity and uncleannesse his amiable and delightfull smilings upon his Saints his gracious promises and soule-saving instructions all his actions and administrations just and holy his mercies and inward affections very precious like the Saphire that glittereth with golden points the workings of his spirit in his Saints most firme and stedfast like marble pillars the whole shew and cast of his person most glorious most excellent most Majesticall and yet most delightfull like the forrest of Lebanon and the stately Cedars that grew in it so that he is altogether lovely all over from top to toe as we say desirable and the chiefest among ten thousand as much as to say matchlesse and incomparable on earth and in all the world there is not his like who is made without spot or blemish yea who is made and not made a creature and yet the mighty Creatour of all things God and man in one person wholy excellent and beautifull every part sutable a most ravishing and wooing object Thirdly Christ is attractive in his graces considered either as inherent in himselfe Or infused into Beleevers First as they be inherent in himselfe they transcend in excellency all the thought and conceit both of men and Angels they have if I may so speake a most fragrant smell and allicient quality in them compared therefore to sweet spices and ointments as myrrhe aloes frankincense spikenard and the like As these are delightfull to our senses so are the graces of Christ to a beleeving soule attracting the affections winning the love of the heart making all other things vile and base in comparison of him that the soule loathes them and spues at them as I may say when they offer to stand in competition with him It was the grace of Christ that made him so glorious as we read of Joh. 1. 14. We beheld his glory saith the Apostle as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth that is wee beheld him glorious in all perfection of grace wisdome goodnesse and Mercy It is the gemme or Diamond in a ring that makes it very precious and beautifull so it is the grace that God hath treasured up in Christ which makes him so glorious so attractive and so alluring as he is Secondly Christ is attractive in his graces bestowed upon the Saints As a Father is dignified by having a worthy sonne and a School-master by the learning and proficiency of his Scholars so is Christ by the Graces of his people A Master is honoured by his livery which his servants weare now the graces of love and humility and meeknesse and patience and the like are as I may say Christs livery by which wee are distinguished and known to be his servants and he is much honoured by those badges By this shall all men know saith Christ that you are my Disciples if you love one another Joh.