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heart_n	according_a	let_v	lord_n	3,412	5	3.9674	3	true

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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

that enough Oh no But to doe good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased as much as to say the fruit of the lips without the fruit of the hand and of the life it is nothing Pray remember it this day and for ever herein saith Christ is my father glorified when you bring forth much fruit a little fruit serves not to give glory to God herein is my father glorified when you bring forth much fruit a little is as none my father is glorified when you bring forth much And so Phil. 1.11 Be ye filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God observe it not onely righteousness and fruit of righteousness but fruits of righteousness and filled with them too so that you see it is not a little that will doe it Pray remember this that your good works may so shine before men that you that doe them may glorifie God also by your lips he hath but single but by your works he hath double glory for you that doe them glorifie God and they that see them done will glorifie God O therefor give a glorious example But let me add a few things more I beseech you that your obedience may be qualified towards God as your mercy hath been qualified from God towards you how that is I will tell you presently onely this of the present mercy It was a preventing mercy to be prevented with the blessing of good is the greatest kind of mercy deliverance from evil is good but to be delivered so as not to be in evil is much more good Who will not reckon it a greater mercy alwaies to be in health then to be delivered from sickness though both are mercies in this mercy we know not a mysterie in others we have this is not like peace the joyful daughter of a sorrowful mother this is not like health after a Pestilence but this prevents all these so much the greater mercy it took away no good from us it brought no evil upon us and how great was this mercy If this mercy had not been for ought that I know many of us had not had a being or else which is worse a being not worth the having But now to the qualifications of your obedience The first qualification of your mercy was this it was free mercy it came not upon constraint it was not forc't nor wrested out of the hands of God freely you have received freely give God loves to give cheerfully and the same God loves a cheerful giver Secondly Your mercy was according to your own heart every way grateful and acceptable to you let your obedience be so to God be like David men after Gods own heart Thirdly It was seasonable mercy it was in our low estate it was when you knew not what to doe for you knew not the danger you were in So let your obedience be seasonable then 't is beautiful Fourthly It was a signal mercy digitus Dethic the finger of God was here the enemy being judge signal mercies call for signal obedience therefore be you sure to doe some singular and signal things for God to return to the Lord according to the benefits received Oh say What What answerable thing shall I return the Lord for all his benefits But again Fifthly It is a continued mercy we enjoy our mercies from that mercy to this day it is not one mercy and not more but a chain of mercy not the mercy of a day or a year but the mercy of Ages well then let us be continual in obedience let us be Christians not for a day or for a fit but Christians throughout every day in the year not onely Christians here at Church but at home in the Closet and in the shop And then again Lastly Sixthly We have superadded to this multitudes of other mercies heap upon heap he loadeth us with his benefits every day yea many a time many a time we may now say hath he saved us he is the God of all our Salvations and his mercy endureth for ever Let us then multiply obedience and be alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord Shall mercies encrease and obedience decrease God forbid Take a few provoking considerations and I have done I might draw considerations from the Author of the mercy God a God that was offended by us a God that needed us not and a God that gaines nothing by us and yet this God remembred us in our low estate that should engage us I might also draw obligations from the Objects and that is us that were not only an undeserving but an ill-deserving and are not a suteable returning People I might draw Arguments from the mercy that God remembred us in all the senses spoken of before and I might draw arguments from the season in our low estate and from the excellency of the duty of thanksgiving 't is a comely thing it makes us like the Angels whose whole employment and liturgy is to give and live praise to God And from this also I might enlarge the discoveries of the obligation that his mercy endureth for ever But onely take these four Arguments 1. It is dangerous sinning after mercy received and the greater the mercy the more danger in the sinning the greater the mercy hath been the greater the danger of sinning will be God was angry with Solomon that he turned his heart from the Lord God of Israel I but what was it that heightned this why it was this that God had appeared to him twice So saith Ezra shall we again sin after such a mercy as this such a deliverance as this What could we then expect but that God should be angry with us till he had consumed us and there should be no remnant nor escaping Ezra 9.14 O sin no more least a worse thing come unto us God knows how to fetch all his pennyworths out of us he hath Plagues yet seven times more in store if he give them vent Woe to us See Judges 10.11 14. And the Lord said unto the Children of Israel did not I deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites from the Children of Ammon and from the Philistins yet ye have forsaken me and served other Gods Wherefore I will deliver you no more go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen let them save you in the time of your tribulation O this this is a sad case I will deliver you no more If we forsake God and forget God after such remarkable Salvation let me tell you that we incur this that God should say I will deliver you no more 2. Our Mercies unless we make this answerable return to God our mercies are not compleat our mercies are long a compleating a mercy is never compleat to us till we have returned the glory of it to God mercies are not perfect mercies till praises are perfect praises See that in the 40 Psalm and the beginning

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 Psal 107.8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderful works to the children of men LONDON Printed for John Rothwell at the Fountain in Goldsmiths-row in Cheapside 1657. TICHBORN Mayor Tuesday the 11th of November 1656. IT is ordered that Mr. Venning be desired from this Court to Print his late Sermon at Pauls Sadler To the Right Honourable Sir ROBERT TICHBORN LORD MAYOR And the Right Worshipful The ALDERMEN of the City of LONDON Honourable and Honoured WHen I had received your Order for the Printing of this Sermon I procured the best Copy I could by which and the best memory I had of what I delivered I have endeavoured to present it to your view not without a little addition to some heads which then I could not enlarge The rest of this addresse My Lord and Gentlemen is not to complement and flatter you but earnestly yet humbly to beseech you that you would as Mordecai said to Hester seriously and studiously consider wherefore God hath brought you to this high estate hear the place and as the Prophet said of the rod him that hath appointed it Be pleased to Know and account that the doing your duty in your Place is the greatest honour of your place whereas else it will be said that your Places honoured you but you honoured not your Places Indeed 't is the fashion of this World to seek great things for themselves 't is their devotion to sacrifice to their own nets 't is their ambition to Lord it they are passionately enamoured with the Delights and Delicacies of this life which the heavenly St. John calls the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh and the pride of life 'T is all but lust and the lust of the World which World and which lust saith he passeth away and which the Wise Solomon on sad and dear bought experience calls vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit yet after all these things do the Gentiles seek But saith our blessed Lord and Saviour it shall not be so with you you are not your own and therefore shall not seek your own but are Christ's and therefore seek the things of Christ and endeavour to doe great things for God Oh be not led away with the error and example of this World's admirers to be fond of a poor and miserable because but temporary and perishing greatness 'T is a meer Pageant which is but a shew and a shew that passeth away as you know 'T was David's praise and 't will be yours if you tread in his steps that he served not onely his generation but the will of God in his generation or his generation according to the will of God Consider then what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God that you may be in readinesse to every good word and work walking worthy of God to all well-pleasing Indeed to speak as the thing is you have none to please none to serve but God you may not be the servants of Men and you must not be the servants of Sin onely sanctifie the Lord in your hearts love him serve him let him be your fear and your dread Fear to displease the God you love and love to please the God you fear lest you be found which God forbid among them that had a name to live but were dead that had been professors of Christ but practitioners for selfe and for the World If the World frown and accuse you for non-conformity let it be to you a small thing as it was to the good as well as great Apostle to be judged by mans day seeing your judgement is with the Lord and give me leave to tell you let the World look as big and as sowre as it can you may safely and honourably avow it that the best way to please all or displease any with least danger is to please him who is all in all Remember with all that you must one day give an account of your Stewardship to the great God of Heaven and Earth who will not judge according to appearance but he searching hearts will judge righteous judgement and give to every man according to his works Now I wish with my soul that you may doe so well in this your day as that in that great and terrible day of the Lord you may hear the joyful sound of Well done good and faithful servants enter ye into your masters joy I shall add no more but my desire to God for a blessing on this Sermon that as your ears by what you heard so your eyes by what you see may affect your heart to live for that is to give thanks to God in your high estate who remembred us in our low estate So prayes Right Honourable And Right Worshipful Your humble Servant in the service of Christ Jesus RALPH VENNING Decemb. 1656. MERCIES MEMORIAL OR Israels thankfull remembrance of God in their high estate for his mercifull remembring of them in their low estate From PSAL. 136.23 Who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever FOr the compleating of the sense you are to reade it thus O give thanks unto the Lord who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever I presume it cannot I am sure it ought not to be said of us this day as it was said of them in Acts 19. ver 32. Some therefore cried one thing and some another for the assembly was confused and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together Who is such a stranger in this our English Israel as not to have heard of the Gunpowder Treason is there either Popish enemy or Protestant friend that knows not what a just Right and lawfull Title the fifth of November hath to this Observation and Solemnity If David would not have his soul forget all that is not any of all the benefits of God much less such as have a remark upon them for being signall and transcendent If Personall mercies deserve their memoriall surely Nationall mercies deserve a memorable celebration Of this then I may say as in the twelfth of Exod. ver 42. only turning night into day and Israel into England It is a day much to be observed unto the Lord for bringing them out of the Land of Egypt this is that day of the Lord to be observed of all the children of England in their generations But not to Preface away any more of your time in a case so cleer as this is not only known by us but acknowledged by our enemies we need not ask Is there any cause for they themselves have confest the cause This Psalm may be intitled

but of God in the deliverance for a deliverance is nothing so sweet as when the soul tasts God in it mercies are never so savory as when they savour of a Saviour study then not only the mercy but the God of mercy This did Jacob when his brother Esau asked him Whose are all these why saith he the Children that the Lord hath graciously given thy servant Gen. 33.5 mark it not only children or children which God hath given but children which God hath graciously given And so Samuel you find him 1 Sam. 7.12 not only taking notice of the mercy but of God in the mercy hitherto the Lord hath helped to have the help without God is to have help without a blessing and they that do not see God in it they have but half-mercy they have but the body of mercy to tast God in it and to enjoy God in it that is the mercy of the mercy So that in Num. 23. v. 23. Surely there is no inchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel what hath God wrought Jacob and Israel shall not say loe what is wrought but what hath God wrought 't is the Lords doeing and therefore marvellous in our eyes we shall not look upon mercy as marvellous sweet and precious unless we see it is the Lords doing God remembred us saith David But again Secondly Do not onely take notice of God in mercy but as David doth here keep catalogues of the mercies of God Gods mercies are not to be forgotten you will remember the kindnesses of your friend all his favours and tokens you will keep your Books of account wherein all your debts shall be entered that they may be remembred and shall God be forgotten Memory is a slippery thing and many times le ts go quickly therefore did God command Israel to write down their deliverances they had not onely a table for Commands but a table for Salvations also for that that is written will abide littera scripta manet and records brings that to mind which else would not be thought upon by us as Mordecai was remembred by Ahasuerus God hath a Book of remembrance written for what you do and will not you have a Book of remembrance written for what he doth God hath it upon record you have not a good thought but God writes it down you shed not a tear but God bottles it up you make not a prayer but God puts it in his Book of remembrance now shall God do so for you not that God hath a weak memory but it is for your consolation and will not you write down his mercies You know you dare not trust your memories for your debters or your debts O my beloved will you commit every thing to Book but Gods dealings you can by your Book tell how much such a one owes you and that such a one is so much in your debt such a time so much and such a time so much but can you doe so by Gods dealings to you that such a time such a deliverance and such a time such a remarkable mercy Oh let a Book of remembrance be written But again Thirdly Lay to heart the mercy of God If it be written in a book and not in the heart it will have but little impression and therefore 't is commanded in the Scripture Deut. 4.9 Take heed to thy self and keep thy soul diligently least thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and mark this least they depart from thine heart as if he had said let not thine heart forget as if the best memorie lay in the heart therefore saith he let not thy heart forget the sense of mercy is the best memory I and beloved let me tell you this mercy then works sweetly when it works inwardly when it doth not onely affect the eye and the ear but the heart Moreover you will not be able to give glory to God if you lay not mercies to heart Mal. 2. v. 2. If ye will not hear and ye will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my Name saith the Lord of Hosts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart all else will be nothing if you do not lay it to heart you cannot give glory to God But again Fourthly Give thanks unto the Lord who remembred us in our low estate this the very Text calls upon us for and let the redeemed of the Lord say and do so whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy Psal 107.2 You may please to observe that in Scripture God hath these three Titles the Hope of Israel the Saviour of Israel and the Glory of Israel pray who was your Hope was not God who was your Saviour was not God pray then who shall be your Glory shall not God If we have had our mercies from God shall not God have our thanks The streames in this World the rivers of Water do all pay their tribute to the Fountain they come from the Sea and thither they go again All the world teacheth us to be true tributaries to God doth not all come from God by the same reason all ought to go to him for saith the Text of whom and to whom are all things de facto all is of him and de jure all ought to be to him First then Let me beseech you to give him the the calves of your lips let your glory awake and give glory to God the tongue of man is called his glory my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth saith David Psal 16.9 And saith the Apostle Acts 2.26 my heart is glad and my tongue rejoyceth that which David calls glory Peter from the Septuagint calls tongue So in many places the tongue of man is called his glory and wherein in nothing but in glorifying God in any thing else it is his shame but in this that it speaks to the praise of God 't is the glory of man if man at any time say to God open my lips my mouth shall shew forth thy praise and this is required from us in Heb. 13.15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name God doth not think the fruits of our lips small things Why hast thou a tongue but to speak to the praise of God why hast thou lips but to give fruit to God And then Secondly Give thanks to God by the fruit of you lives the calves of your lips if they go alone are poor perishing calves thanks living is the best thanksgiving that can be therefore you shall find in Heb. 13.15 16. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name and is that all is

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