Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	new_a	testament_n	word_n	5,021	5	4.1195	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61180	A sermon preach'd before the right honourable Sir Henry Tulse, Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, and the citizens of the city of London, on May the 29th, 1684 being the anniversary-day of His Majesty's birth ... / by Thomas Sprat ...	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.; Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy (London, England)	1684 (1684)	Wing S5060; ESTC R18474	15,600	44

Contemplation of the mercies of God and their principal design it will be our next business to bring our thoughts nearer home to the great end of this days particular mercy Particular it was an Universal mercy And if we shall find it to have been so that the favour in it on God's part towards us was here at least as much as there it could be to the Psalmist then what can we doe less on our part but to imitate his steady resolution of fearing God And in order to that continually to wait for the Lord to hope for him in his own way the way of his own Word and Church to wait for him more than they that watch for the morning even more than we once watch'd and wished for the morning of this day My first particular is that which the Psalmist justly makes the ground of his whole argument the mercy and forgiveness that is with God The inexhaustible Love of God to Mankind as it is the chief subject of the written word of God and the very end for which it was all written so it is that on which the Holy Scripture the New Testament especially and this Book of Psalms one of the most Gospel-like parts of the Old Testament does more vary its expressions and in which the Holy Ghost seems more delighted to enlarge it self than on any other divine matter whatsoever Throughout the whole Bible we find it represented to us by many the most significant phrases similitudes and amplifications It is often here resembled to the greatest degrees of kindness which we behold in the sublunary World Sometimes it is compar'd to the natural tenderness for their young of those creatures that are onely guided by the motions and inclinations of Sense Sometimes it is likened to the higher and better directed affections of Mankind to the sympathy and endearments of a friend to the provident care and indulgence of a Father to the soft passions and yearnings of a Mother And all these coming infinitely short as needs they must For how can Earth or frail mortality supply examples or imaginations large or tender enough to set forth to us the heavenly compassions from thence the Scripture carries our thoughts into Heaven it self there gives us a view of the highest and most excellent images of goodness which are more than tongue can signifie or heart can conceive to be and yet are in the divine Nature and are manifested to us in all the distinct Works of the ever-blessed Trinity the undeserv'd favours of a Creator and Preserver the unspeakable Consolations of a Comforter the self-denying sufferings of a Saviour who took on himself our flesh and dyed in the flesh to save us Now of all this bottomless treasure of Eloquence by which the riches of God's goodness are set off to us in holy Writ this in my Text is one of the most affectionate words and therefore it ought to be proportionably effectual on our practice It is not onely mercy but forgiveness That with God who is infinitely above us in power was infinitely offended by our sins with him however there is not onely a common favour or a daily support of or a continued bounty towards us not onely gentleness to inferiours or liberality to those that most need it or beneficence to those that never merited it but that with him there is forgiveness peace with Enemies reconciliation with Rebels the requital of the freest grace for the highest provocations that after all his other mercies of kindness had been so often abused by us yet with him however still there is a mercy of pity and commiseration which as it is in Heaven the very Crown of all the blessed Attributes in the eternal power and Godhead so upon Earth it is the most God-like perfection of which the heart of man is capable I will not attempt to reckon up an exact particular of all the divine mercies and forgivenesses for which we all stand engaged to the divine benignity If they could be so soon reckon'd up they were not so divine as they are If they could be spread before us in one view would it not be a severe objection a just cause of sorrow to the best of us to behold so immense a Catalogue of our obligations whereof the far greater part is left wilfully uncancell'd by us because of our ingratitude And alas doe what we our selves can very much of it will be always unpay'd by reason of our inability Of God's mercy to all his creatures of his forgiveness moreover to Mankind may not the same be truly affirm'd that is of his presence wherever he is he is mercifull he has matter to forgive he is willing to forgive and he is every where Which way soever we turn our thoughts whether we regard the present life or the future whether we consider our selves as the Works of his hands as we are men or of his Grace as we are Christians or as I may say as the works of our own hands as we are sinners if we observe from how many terms of enmity and distance God has freed us with how many titles of nearness and relation he has endear'd us if we recollect how absolute our dependence is upon him how universal our receipts are from him which way soever we look his mercies are so far beyond our repaying by deeds that they are far above our acknowledgment by words nay beyond the very conceptions of our hearts We may as well undertake to comprehend God himself who is certainly incomprehensible For among all the mercies he bestows on the sons of men one and that the chief is that as he forgives us our selves so he gives us himself Yet though the mercies of God are so far beyond our recompencing that not onely our thanks but we our selves are said to be less than the least of them this does not at all acquit us of our duty rather the greatest bonds are laid upon us thereby We see the Psalmist does not onely here present us with a pleasant prospect but with a serious view of God's mercies he shews us that we are therefore ty'd to some special and irrevocable obligations And what to doe what retribution to make All benefits receiv'd should be answer'd by a greater requital if possible or by an equal by an equal good will at least Now for us men to think of making a greater or an equal return to Heaven were impiety How indeed can we upon our own strength hope to make any since all the return we can make to God is of no value at all of it self but onely according to the price which his pity not his justice puts upon it Wherefore our most gracious Benefactor has prescribed the proportion of our requital not at all according to the vastness of our receipts but rather with respect to the scanty measure of our weak abilities and that accepted by his grace which is without measure So that the very return of thanks