Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	bring_v	israel_n	lord_n	4,710	5	4.1598	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95851	Mercies memorial: or, Israel's thankful remembrance of God in their high estate, for his mercifull remembring of them in their low estate. In a sermon before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, the Right Worshipful the Aldermen, and the Companies of the city London, on the 5th. of November, 1656. / By Ralph Venning.	Venning, Ralph, 1621?-1674.	1656 (1656)	Wing V204; Thomason E899_1; ESTC R5095	21,499	40

as the 38 Psalm is A Psalm to call to remembrance only with this difference that that Psalm calls misery and this Psalm calls mercy to remembrance which is so much the sweeter to be remembred It was penned on an occasion and to an end like this for which we are met this day to make a thankfull acknowledgment and a pious commemoration of the mercies of God to the States of the Common-wealth the Vessell in which all our Interests were imbarqued Let us then give thanks to the Lord who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever In the words which may have for Title Mercies Memoriall you have these three generall parts First Here is their remembring and an ackcowledgment of Gods remembring them who remembred us in our low estate Wherein you may observe 1. The Mercy it self in this word remembred 2. The Author of this mercy in this word who who is this who the Lord in the first Verse the God of Gods in the second Verse the Lord of Lords in the third Verse who remembred us 3. You have the Objects of this Act or the Receivers of this mercy in this word us who remembred us 4. You have the Season of this mercy or the time when this God thus remembred this People and that was in their low estate who remembred us in our low estate Secondly You have an account here of the true Reason and Originall of this Mercy and that is in these words for his mercy endureth for ever There is no reason to be given for Grace but Grace there is no reason to be given for Mercy but Mercy who remembred us for his mercy endureth for ever Thirdly You have a Duty inferred hereupon and that is that which as I told you before is to run in common to every Verse O give thanks unto the Lord who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever From this Analysis or Resolution of the words you have these four observable Propositions 1. That Gods Israel Gods own People a People that are nearest and dearest to him may yet be in a low estate us in our low estate 2. God remembers his People in their low estate quoties premebamur as one words it as often as ever we were low God remembred us when ever our estate was low or whatever our low estate was God remembred us in our low estate who remembred us in our low estate 3. The Reason why God remembers his People in their low estate is because his mercy endureth for ever he remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever 4. Gods remembring his People in their low estate lays an obligation upon them to give thanks to the Lord O give thanks unto the Lord who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever The two first of these will take up the Doctrinall Discourse the third of these will be the Demonstration of the Discourse and the last the Application of the whole Then we shall say O give thanks unto the Lord when we have proved that he remembreth us in our low estate and that because his mercy endureth for ever This then is the Method which I shall observe First I shall open and explain the terms that we may understand this Truth Secondly Prove the truth of the Proposition that we may believe it And Thirdly Apply it that we may improve it which is the mercy of all our mercies For the explanation of the Contents here I shall propound only two Questions 1. When may a People be said to be in a low estate 2. What it is for God to remember his People in their low estate First When may a People be said to be in a low estate Some reade it when we were dejected and cast down as if he had said when we were faithless through fear when we were so overwhelmed that we knew not what to do when we were hopeless and least of all lookt for help then God remembred us and the things we feared came not upon us God being mercifull to us above all that we could ask or think But I did not nor shall handle it in this sense only let me say that Gods People are sometimes in this low estate low in faith low in hope and yet God remembers them so great is his goodness and our thankfulness should be the more But a People may be said to be in a low estate either 1. Actually or 2. Potentially First Actually and that more generally when they are in affliction and misery when they taste the wormwood and the gall as Jeremiah pathetically expresses it in his Lamentations when they are in want when they are low in estate or when as 't is said in Psal 107.39 they are diminished and from an high degree from a wealthy estate they are brought low through oppression affliction and sorrow when a People are under all or either of these oppression affliction or sorrow they may be said to be in a low estate But more especially they are said to be low with reference to the Text when they are in the Enemies hand that is when they are in the Enemies power as we may gather from the following Verse who hath redeemed us from our enemies And you shall finde that this is reckoned to be their low estate in 2 Chron. 28.18.19 The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low countrey and of the south of Judah and had taken Bethshemesh and Ajalon and Gederoth and Shocho with the villages thereof and Timnah with the villages thereof Gimzo also with the villages thereof and they dwelt there for the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz King of Israel The Lord brought Judah low and this was the lowness of their condition that they were in the Enemies hands their Enemies had dominion over them and took possession of their Possessions Thus you have it also in Psal 79.7 8. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling places O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low This was the lowness of their condition that their Enemies had devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling places But this was not our case through mercy this was not our low estate Yet again therefore Secondly A People are said to be low potentially when they are in the way to be low when they are designed and destinated to a low condition by the craft and cunning malice of wicked men who wo unto them dig deep to hide their counsell from the Lord and whose works are in the dark saying who sees us and who knows us who sit in the lurking places secretly to murder the innocent whose eyes are privily set against the poor who lie in wait secretly as a Lion in his den to catch the poor as if there were no help in their God and he were not able to deliver them out

is the Lord. Happy is that people whose God is the Lord there were persons named before who were so vain as to say happy were the people that were in such a case viz. that had their Barns full and their Tables full and their Purses full in the World I but saith David Happy is the people that hath the Lord for their God if a man had all the World and had not the Lord for his God he is less happy then he that hath the Lord for his God and not at all of the World God alwaies remembers his either to deliver them from evil or to turn their evil into good either to supply them with the things they want or to let them know that it is good for them that they should want it My beloved methinks this should engage all of you to look after having God for your God it is a commendation that passeth among you when you see young men entring on the stage of the World you say he is like to do well for he minds the main chance he takes care to look after his Shop and his Trade and you say such a one is like to thrive If ever you mean to thrive to go from a low to an high estate from a poor to a rich estate from a miserable to an happy condition look after this the having God for your God what is God to you if he be not your God Tolle meum tolle Deum as he said 't is cold comfort to me while I live and when I die that there is a God but alas not my God You see then that nothing concerns you so much as this nay indeed to speak as properly as positively nothing but this this is your only interest and this only O what an ingagement should this be to every person living to go to the Father by the Son for this is the main chance the one thing necessary that ye might have a portion with the Son and the Father Beloved who would not live in Gods thoughts who would not have God to take notice of them who would not have God to lay their cause to heart to pity and compassionate them who would not have God to be well pleased with them who would not have God to hear and grant their requests who would not have God to help and succour them to redeem and deliver them O who would not be the Lords people it is the summe of all the Covenant I will make with them a new Covenant I will be their God and they shall be my people O what a sad case are they in that come not under the new Covenant whatever good we have from communion it flows from union all that comes savingly to us it all comes from this that God is our God therefore I beseech you to minde this more look after an interest in God O what will you do in your low estate else in your evil daies else when death and sickness shall bring you low what will you do if God be not your God if you have not a God to think of you a God to take notice of you a God to lay to heart and to pity and compassionate you and a God to grant your requests and to deliver and redeem you what will you do O therefore I beseech you to look after this to have God for your God for they they only are happy and they are thrice happy yea terque quaterque beati altogether and alwaies in all estates happy who have the Lord for their God But for the exhortations and that thus First Doth God remember his people in their low estate let us trust God then when we meet with future straits our God is a God that we shall need for ever and why do not we record the years of the right hand of the most high and the wonderful things that God hath wrought for us in ages past that the God that hath been our help may be our hope Are any of you in a low condition do any of you that are the Lords people fear you may be brought low in any condition whatsoever O remember this God remembers his People in their low estate and heretofore-mercies are grounds to look for hereafter-mercies mercies past are grounds to look for mercies to come as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 1.10 who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet delive rus O my beloved read over your experiences look over Gods dealings with you and remember how God dealt with you in such and such and the other low estate and then raise up your hopes surely that God that did the same God will remember me in my low estate Why for his mercy endureth for ever Gods stock is not spent his riches are unsearchable there is no fathoming of his goodnesse If David thought the experience of others a good ground to build his hope and expectation upon as he pleads it Psal 22.4 5. Our father 's trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them they cryed unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded Much more his own experience as he urgeth it v. 9 10 11. thou art he that took me out of the womb thou didst make me hope when I hung on my mothers brests I was cast upon thee from the womb thou wert my God from my mothers belly and he adds as if he had said therefore be not far from me now trouble new trouble is near and this was so successeful that before the Psalm is ended he praiseth and calls on others to praise God for saith he v. 24. God hath not despised nor abhor red the affliction of the afflicted but when he cryed unto him he heard Secondly Be like God doth God remember his people in their low estate be like God then and remember them that are in a low estate Godliness what is it but godlikeness what is it to be godly but to be like a God the life of godliness is called in the Scripture the life of God not in this respect only that we have this life from God or in this that we live this life to God but in this that 't is such a life as God lives God lives the life of love and God lives the life of mercy and shall not we now be like God to live a life of love and a life of mercy and good works you may please to observe that we cannot be in any thing said to be more like God then in this of mercy his Name when it is proclaimed what is it but the Lord gracious and merciful now when are we like God but when gracious and merciful When we are exhorted to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect it is as another Evangelist hath it to be merciful as our heavenly father is merciful And so when Moses Exod. 33.16 asked God to shew him his glory saith God I

which of the Saints shall we turn who can say of all the Sons of Jacob that God hath forgotten them did not God remember Joseph in his low estate did not God remember Israel in their low estate and did not God remember David in his low estate Nay to speak of all at once did not God remember Christ in his low estate and this day speaks for us that God hath remembred us in our low estate And indeed my beloved we may take up that Song and sing it in the 124 Psalm If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may England say If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our Soul then the proud waters had gone over our soul Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth This may we say thus may we sing Is it not so is there a contradiction to be made against this truth Nay my beloved the case was this that if God had not been on our side we had been swallowed up quick and our not being so shews God on our side that God remembred us in our low estate I shall therefore proceed to the third thing which is the reason why God remembreth his people in their low estate that is as in the Text for his mercy endures for ever he harps only on this string he reckons up a long Catalogue of many mercies and the reason of all these is mercy only mercy the reason of one is the reason of all as I told you before there is no reason for mercy but mercy no reason for grace but grace who is gracious why because he will and to whom he will be gracious so that you see that mercy in God is all the reason of mercy from God to man in his low estate it is not mans merit but Gods mercy it is not mans due but Gods gift it is not mans demand nor was it in this case mans desire but Gods grant who many times answers before they call and when they are yet speaking he is hearing it was not mans measure but Gods allowance it was not after the manner of men who use to go over where the stile is low this was not because man could make God a requitall but because God would act like himself it was not Gods profit but mans necessity it was not that God needed man but man needed God therefore grace still is as free after it is received as it was before it was given it was not deserved and cannot be requited God therefore gave as looking for nothing again that is nothing that can requite it and you shall have for this a double witness God speaks it and Saints speak it that God shews not mercy to man because man pleaseth him but because mercy pleaseth him indeed one end that God hath in shewing mercy is that man should please him but that is not the main motive for in truth to put mans will before Gods is such an hysteron proteron that if I may use so homely an expression in so solemn a case I say it is to put the cart before the horse You shall finde God speaking Ezek. 36.21 22 23. But I had pity for my holy Name which the house of Israel had profaned among the Heathen whither they went Therefore say unto the House of Israel Thus saith the Lord God I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy names sake which ye have profaned among the Heathen whither ye went And I will sanctifie my great Name which was profaned among the Heathen which ye have profaned in the midst of them and the Heathen shall know that I am the Lord saith the Lord God when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes It is a fulsom Doctrine to flesh and blood to think it must be beholding for all to grace shame and confusion belongs to man mercy belongs to God man makes work for shame and for sorrow God works mercy as never obliged to it but for his holy Names sake and Jeremiah in his Lamentations makes this acknowledgement and so confirms the witness of God in Lam. 3.21 22. This I recall to my minde therefore have I hope it is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not If it be of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed and brought to utter desolation surely then that we are remembred and delivered is for no other reason but because his compassions fail not but his mercy endureth for ever Thus I have given you the Doctrinall part with what brevity I could I come now to the Application First then it will afford us an information Secondly Some exhortations The Information is this Doth God remember his people in their low estate O happy how happy are they then that are the People of this God! that have the Lord for their God it is not every man in generall that is thus remembred no God hath his peculiars for whom he hath his peculiar favours indeed his mercy is over all his works he is good and doth good to all but there is a specialty to the houshold of faith and God that doth command us to do good to all but especially to the houshold of faith he doth but command us that which he patterns us therefore David makes his Prayer in Psal 106.4 5. Remember me O Lord with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy salvation that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoyce in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thine inheritance O Lord favour me with the favours c. The good of Gods chosen is a choice good and so he goes on O remember me with the favours wherewith thou remembrest thy people It is an expression in Psal 146.5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God Why the God of Jacob because God though he be every bodies God and God of the whole Earth yet he is Jacobs God in a more peculiar manner he is the God of all the World by the opening of his hands and filling them with such blessings and he is Jacobs God by opening his heart and filling him with those blessings and so far as heart is above hand so far are heartmercies above hand-mercies and so far are Gods people more happy then other people David hath a saying in Psal 144. ver ult Happy are the people that are in such a case yea happy is that people whose God