Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	heart_n	incline_v	mercy_n	16,797	5	10.2482	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47484	Pillulæ pestilentiales, or, A spiritual receipt for cure of the plague delivered in a sermon preach'd in St. Paul's Church London, in the mid'st of our late sore visitation / by Rich. Kingston ...	Kingston, Richard, b. 1635?	1665 (1665)	Wing K614; ESTC R4398	31,246	136

do otherwise How are we fallen from our first love by prophaning the Sabbath either through Schismatical Petulancy or Idleness and Security snorting on a Bed or walking in the fields forgetting that he which on this day gathered sticks was paid home with stones Considering therefore the judgement of God that hangs over our head for this particular sin it is Christian Prudence to pray Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law Secondly Another Sin that pulls down God's vengeance on us is that of Pride Boetius sayes excellently well Cum omnia vitia fugiant à Deo sola Superbia se Deo opponit When all Vices flye from God Pride alone opposes it self to God In other vices men seek some imaginary good but in this they endevour to dethrone God it is an opposition to his very Being as he is Alpha and Omega the first Efficient and last End no wonder therefore if he blasts the persons and designs of those that harbour this Monster which beginning first in heaven will never forget its old Attempt And therefore St. Prosper in his Excellent Epistle to the Noble Virgin Demetrias says finely Cum aliae cupiditates ea tantum bona quibus adversantur imminuant haec dum omnia ad se trahit simul universa corrumpit That whereas other Lusts waste only that Good and Virtue to which they are contrary Pride whilest it arrogates all to it self corrupts all at once God therefore scatters the Proud he maketh them like Smoak to speak with the Psalmist which perisheth in ascending and vanisheth in dilating of it self I shall not need to tell you how he hath punish'd it in Wicked men as in Nebuchadnezzar Herod and Antiochus for he will not allow it in his own people And therefore if Corah Dathan and Abiram will be holier than Moses and Aaron and tempt the Jewish Congregation to a Contempt of their Superiours he will presently open the Earth and bury them alive They were ante Sepulti quam Mortui as the African Father Optatus speaks If David out of pride will number the People and sure it was so for the Text saith 1 Chr. 21.14 his heart was lift up to number the People God will send his Plague and sweep away seventy thousand of them 3. A third sin is that Cursed one of Swearing so much in Practice Because of Oaths saith the Prophet the Land Mourneth Jer. 3.10 And how can we but expect that God will send the lightning of his judgements from heaven when we do so thunder out Oaths on Earth This is a Reigning Sin not only amongst the Basest but those that would be thought the Ornaments of the Age as if Gentility consisted in belching out blasphemy If the King be spoken against it is high treason and deservedly punish'd with Death if a Noble man be traduced or slandered it is punishable by the Statute of Scandalum Magnatum yea a private man in cases of Obloquy hath his remedy by Action only the name of God though dear to him is not so tenderly regarded but is most grievously rent and torn by this common and Soul-ruining Sin of Swearing But let me advise the black mouthed Swearer to have a care of swearing in jest as men are apt to pretend lest he go to Hell in earnest for every Oath he swears gives his Soul a wound and that wound will be vocal enough to peirce heaven and call for vengeance on the Swearer Have not many of us uncharitably and blasphemously wish'd that the Plague of God would light upon our Brethren How justly now hath it overtaken us Curses and Execrations have proceeded from us like Arrows shot against heaven and now they are returned back upon our own heads Fourthly I must name that of Vncharitableness to one another upon occasions that should rather administer grounds of Repentance then of Malice The Apostle tells us Charity covers a multitude of Sins but we as if we were true Children of Noah delight in our Relations Nakedness What heart-burnings are between us upon small differences of Judgement The Turk cannot hate a Christian with a more Vatinian hatred then we persecute one another though baptized into the same Faith and equally professors of the same Gospell Is not the Plague come upon us that our Lord foretold that Father should be against Son and Son against Father will an Independant endure a Presbyterian or the Anabaptist and Fifth Monarchist one of the Episcopal persuasion No no we have known to our grief what blood hath been shed upon this account and that their mutual animosities have boyled to as great a height as those at present between Turk and Persian Constantine the Great when he summoned the first General Councel at Nice to extinguish the Arrian Heresie concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christ with his Father caused all the private Contentions and Strifes that were enflamed amongst the Bishops themselves to be drawn up into a Compendium of Articles before they should deliberate about that grand Affair which being done he sealed them up with his own Royal Signet and kept them in his bosome for a while as a Secret afterward in his Speech exhorting them to unity of Spirit and a serious discussion of those things that concerned the Cause of Christ he burnt all those envious Libells together Car. in Nice Conc. Appar pag. 45. in 16. Ne innotesceret ulli odium sugillatio Sacerdotum as Caranza informs me Let us that serve at the Altar imitate this Pious Prince and if there be any unchristian uncharitable fends amongst us bury them in Eternal Oblivion left they hinder us in the prosecution of the Cause of God and not only prove our shame but a stumbling block of Offence to the Enemies of the Faith Our Lord and Saviour at his departure left us this New Commandement that we should love one another but we have so affronted this Injunction that it is no marvel if he says he is come not to send Peace but a Sword a Sword that shall draw out our vitals and render us the victims of his fury Fifthly That Rebellious murmuring humour with which we have outraged Prince and Priest The Sacred Scripture never gives us an Account of Murmurers but it tells us likewise their Punishment Pharaoh murmured at the Israelites and God entombed him and his hoast in the Red Sea Joseph's Brethren murmured at him and their reward was vassalage they became his Servants Saul murmured at David's ten thousands and God left him to be his own Executioner Judas murmured at the Box of Oyle that was poured on his Masters head and what was his reward he hang'd himself And is not this our Case When King Charles the first lived though we may say of him as Homer said of Greece that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pap and Dug of the Earth He the Cream and Excellentest of Princes how did our ungodly and malicious humours load him

studies Can we hope that that Man's prayer should be acceptable to God whose heart in stead of being lifted up to the throne of Grace is sunk into the Earth by the love of Terrene pleasures No we must have hearts purified with the fire of Divine love and hands wash'd in innocency before we can be acceptable Under the Law the burnt offerings were to be flea'd and cut in peices and their Legs and Inwards were to be wash'd Upon which Saint Cyril of Alexandria says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fleaing off the Skin was a riddle of naked discovery Hom. Pasc 22. p. 240. for nothing at all in us is hid or veiled from the Divine and pure eyes of God We must not be content with the superficies and out-side of a good life but we must flea our Sacrifices and look to the Integrity of our inwards we must as it were cut our selves in peices by a strict examination of the particular actions of our whole life whatever belongs to us our desires our thoughts all must be purified if we would have our Sacrifice Grateful How many are there in the World that make long prayers yet devour Widows houses How many that have nothing in their mouths but Gospel light and the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ yet do but flea them and you shall find them full of Avarice Pride Faction and the greatest uncharitableness Godfrey of Bulloine being asked by the Ambassador of a Sarazen Prince how he had his hands tam doctas ad praeliandum so able to fight returned this answer Quia manus semper habui puras ab impuris contractibus peccati Because I never defiled my hands with any notorious Sin Our Prayers will never be prevalent with God until we first combat and foyle our own Sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato defines Purity a Separation of the worse from the better We must in a good sense be Separatists and come out of Babylon before we can be fit company for the Lamb and when we have once done this we may confidently hope a relaxation of our miseries and that God will hear from heaven forgive our Sins and heal our Land And so I come to the third Ingredient in the Text Repentance If my people humble themselves and pray and turn from their evil ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land In the Pythian and Olympick Games the Contenders for honour and renown had their way chalk'd out with two white Lists out of which they were not to salley so it was with Adam in Paradice his via morum was rayled in with Innocence aswell as his via pedum adorned with Flowers and other delightful Objects but he having leap'd over the pale by eating the forbidden fruit took upon him the Trade of wandring into by-paths and his children like so many Gypsies have ever since exercised the same Profession I have heard of some that they have been so much in love with the wandring humour that though they have been heirs to good fortunes yet they have consorted themselves with the begging Crew only to have the Liberty of roving up and down And thus it is with man generally as to his Spiritual condition though God hath elevated us to the dignity of Sons-ship and Christ accepted the Title of our elder Brother yet we have strayed away from his blessed Company and that heavenly inheritance he purchased for us with his blood We have taken more delight in the meanders of Sin and folly that can afford us nothing of sollid worth than in those durable and eternal riches of Grace and Holyness Upon this score it is that the Text saith If my people turn from their evil ways which implyes they were out of the way of God and altogether journying the Mazes of Idolatry and Sin that God would heal and redress the miseries that for such deviations were come upon them But because I will speak more distinctly of Repentance I shall consider it in its three parts 1. Compunction or Contrition for Sin 2. Confession of Sin 3. Conversion from Sin to God First Compunction or Contrition And now how happy should I be if my discourse to you at this time could have the same operation on your hearts that St. Peter's Sermon had upon his Auditors as St. Luke describes it in the second of the Acts and the 37. vers where it is said Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do A true and holy Sorrow like so many Needles peirced them thorough as Eupolis recounts of Pericles's Oration to the People of Athens Cicero de Clar. Orat. In animis auditorum aculeos reliquit it left stings in his Auditors minds Now that we may a little consider the phrase we must make a difference between spiritus compunctionis and compunctio spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit of Compunction which St. Paul complains of in the unbelieving Rom. 11.8 believing Jews and Compunction of Spirit or of the heart mentioned in this place of the Acts St. Paul says God hath given them a Spirit of Slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day as if he would say they are possest with a Spirit of stupidity and obstinacy in Sin that slash and wound them never so yet they will not be sensible but this compunction or pricking of the heart which St. Peter's Auditors endured was a godly Sorrow for their Sins and sight of their miserable Condition Now Lorinus affords us a ternary of reasons why godly Sorrow for Sin is called compunction of the heart Act. C. 2. 1. Quia vel aperitur Cordis apostema 2. Vel quia vulneratur Cor amore Dei 3. Vel quia daemon dolore invidia sauciatur Either because the corruption of the heart is discovered as an Aposteme or Vlcer is opened by the prick of a Launce Or because the heart is wounded with the love of God as the Spouse in the Canticles cries out I am sick of Love Or because thereby the Devil is wounded with Indignation and Envy as knowing the ruine of his Interest and Kingdome must needs be caused when Sinners return to God the Centre of their happiness from which they recoyled But if any one ask me the reason why they were thus pricked thus wounded at the heart the 23. 24. Verses of the second of the Acts will tell us him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God Ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain It was high time for the Jews to be touched to the quick that had put to death the Lord of Life their Messiah and Saviour of the World And truly if we reflect aright upon our selves we shall find it high time for us to