Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	abel_n	blood_n	cry_v	2,397	5	9.4770	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80396	A pattern of mercy. Opened in a sermon at St. Pauls, before the Right Honorable, the Lord Mayor, and the Lord General Monck: February 12. 1659. / By Tobias Conyers, minister at St. Ethelberts, London.	Conyers, Tobias, 1628-1687.	1660 (1660)	Wing C5994; Thomason E774_8; ESTC R207295	28,966	47

in admiration because of advantage so he hath no mans person in disdain because of preiudice As there is no person excepted from the general pardon of the Gospel upon the terms proposed therein so is there no sin excepted save onely that sin unto death the nature of which may consist either in the contempt or despair of the pardon it self The mercy of heaven shineth forth in this that God is pleased to take our submissions accept of our acknowledgements and admit us to repentance Esau found no place for repentance though he sought it with tears Heb. 12. 17. i. e. He found no place for repentance with his Father Isaac for as it is in the same verse how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected pointing unto the story Gen. 27. But with God is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption True indeed God pardons no mans sins before they be repented of there are no indulgencies granted in heaven and obtained on earth by unrepentant sinners To say that some mens sins are pardoned before they be committed or that they are pardoned past present and to com or which is all one that they are pardoned from eternity is questionless a Doctrine to borrow the expression of a learned man that transcends the licentiousness of Popery and is of worse consequence then the Roman Indulgences and were there another Luther now alive he would enter his dissent from this Doctrine and make it another ground of separation 3. If you take Mercy for the vouchsafement of grace and favour unto a person or people and in this sence God is merciful having called all the World unto peace and felicities by the Gospel the Scriptures declare it Experience so far as it extendeth confirmeth it all Reason and Authority establisheth it 1 Col. 23. If you continue in the Faith c. not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard which was preached to every creature which is under heaven i. e. not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every creature which intimates not onely the vocal and external but also the internal and spiritual preaching of it In this Gospel we are told of the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel Abel died in former time and his blood cryed Justice Christ dyed in the fulnesse of time and his blood cryed Mercy We are told of a potent Advocate that continually intercedeth for us in Heavens Court We hear of the full and most gracious promises that Almighty God can make to all burdened and heavy laden souls and that whosoever comes unto him in the Name of Christ he will in no wise cast out And all this is laid down in a most plain and intelligible way sine fraude fuce without any secret Will any double mind or mental reservation God hath washed his hands in innocency and is free from the death of all men the dsteruction of men is of themselves and the blood of souls upon their own heads A question might here be moved How the mercifulness of God is consistent with his Severity we all understand how Mercy is consistent with Justice but how Mercy and Severity stand together is the subject of our present Inquiry and disquisition We find the Apostle puts Goodness and Severity together Rom. 11 22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Severity comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor taken ab arte Agricola from the cutting off unprofitable branches and so made applicable upon occasion unto God who cuts off unprofitable members both in Church and State In the solution of this question 1. I shall give you several instances of Divine Severity 2. I shall by a common distinction make peace betwixt the one and the other setting God's Severity and Mercy at a good consistency together Instances are many 1. Of the fallen Angels when all was peace in Heaven and a blessed security inviron'd them a thought of Pride did but spring up in them Aquinus thinks it was no more and God changed countenance presently tumbled them out of Heaven and as the Apostle Jude speaks Cap. v. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath reserved them in everlasting Chains unto the Judgement of the great Day 2. After that God had made unto himself another friend of flesh and blood placed him in Paradice conversed with him most familiarly made him his Substitute Vice-gerent and Deputy here on earth imparted unto him not only being with the rest of the creatures but his image likeness and similitude provided him an Associate and Companion that might bear him company in this his abode on earth and yet behold the Severity of God he committed but one sin and that of no great importanee neither as might seem to an eye of flesh and blood the eating of an Apple the tasting of the forbidden fruit and that not of his own contrivement and malice but at the solicitation and importunity of another and yet we see what ensued upon this trespass the amity and friendship 'twixt Heaven and Earth was broken mans communion with God was interrupted and he thrust out of Paradise and condemned to perpetual misery and exile with his posterity 3. Lots Wife did but look back from behind her in statuam mutatur she was turned into a pillar of Salt and so she stood for many years as a monument both of severity and disobedience till Time that consumes all things removed her Gen. 19. 26. 4. Uzziah with a good intent laid hold of the Ark 2 Sam. 6. 6 to keep it from falling when the Oxen shook it and because his hands were common and unconsecrated God there smote him and he dyed by the Ark of God 5. A poor man was but gathering a few sticks on the Sabbath day and God commanded him to be stoned Numbers 15. 36. In the New-Testament Ananias and Sapphyra did but conspire together to tell a lye and it cost them both their lives Acts 5. The Corinthians men subject to the like passions and infirmities that we are behaved themselves irreverently at the Lords Table and the Text tells us 1 Cor. 11. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this very cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Notwithstanding all this the Mercy of God is very well consistent with his Severity if we consider a threefold acceptation of Severity Severity is either in temper and disposition in purpose and decree or in act and execution In the first acceptation Mercy and Severity are absolutely inconsistent he that is severe in his temper and disposition cannot be likewise tender compassionate and merciful in his disposition these two are as contrary and imcompatible as light and darkness cold and heat that do mutually expel

other Mould then that wherein they lye in the Text Viz. Doct. That we all ought to be merciful even as our heavenly Father is merciful METHOD 1. I shall give you an account what mercy is and what it imports in the phrase of the Scripture 2. Wherein the mercifulness of our heavenly Fathers appears that we may see wherein we are to imitate him 3. What reasons and grounds we have to be merciful as he is merciful 1. Concerning Mercey Sometimes Mercy is the same with Pity Compassion and Tenderness Phil. 2. 1. the Apostle exhorts to Unity by the consolation of Christ by the comforts of Love by the fellowship of the Spirit by bowels and mercies i. e. If there be any tenderness pity and compassion in you towards your common Father fulfil you my joy where bowels and mercies are equipolent terms that serve to illustrate and explain the sense one of another To this we may refer that of the Prophet Jer 31. 20. where God is brought in troubled and discomposed in himself for the punishment and affliction of Ephraim Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. 2. Mercy is the same with pardon remission and forgiveness 1 Tim. 1. 13. Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained Mercy because I did it ignorantly i. e. being so much unfit and unworthy whil'st I was a Jew blaspheming Christ and persecuting his people yet I obtained mercy i. e. pardon and forgiveness of God God looked upon it as an act of blind zeal in me and not of propense malice against them 3. Mercy is used for the donation or vouchsafement of some Priviledge spiritual or temporal unto a person or people 1 Pet. 2. 10. Which in times past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy This is supposed to have been written from Rome to the converted Jews and then the meaning ls this You that for a long time for this Epistle is believed to have been written Anno Christi 44. whilst Christ was upon the earth had not the happiness to receive Christ and the Gospel now are made partakers of this great Mercy and Priviledge viz. to come into the Church and House of God So Rom. 9. 16. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy The Apostle here argueth in the behalf of God that he was at full liberty in the collation and distribution of his Mercies and that he did the Jews no wrong in calling the Gentiles to Christianity Ver. 15. As he saith unto Moses I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy c. As if he had said unto him In the distributing of my blessings I will do what I think good without giving thee or any man a reason though I have alwayes reason for what I do yet as it is ver 13. Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated which is either true in the Letter in chusing the Israelites and rejecting the Idumeans or else in the Type in preferring the Covenant of Grace before the Covenant of Works So then it is not of him c. i e. in point of merit satisfaction or condignity but of God that sheweth mercy i. e. vouchsafeth to call the Gentiles to Christianity when the obstinate and incredulous Jewes have rejected it 4. Mercy is taken for Charity or that relief which we give unto the poor Dan. 4. 27. Breake off thy sins by righteousnesse and thine iniquities by shewing mercy unto the poor i. e. by being liberal charitable towards the poor in which sence many understand that of Peter 1. 4. 8 Charity covereth a multitude of sins So likewise it is used Psal 37. 26. He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed For the further opening the nature of Mercy observe the difference betwixt Goodness and Mercy Goodness in God is supposed to be absolute but Mercy is a relative thing God might have been good to all Eternity though man had stood yet Merciful he could not have been without a supposition and introduction of sin As all Pardon includes an offence so all Mercy involves want and misery Goodness supposeth a man Mercy a sinner Goodness supposeth a man in being Mercy a man in misery God might have been eternally good and transcendently glorious in the free communication of himselfe though sin and misery had never introduced mercy Goodness and Mercy are thus distinguishable in men Goodness is the Root and Mercy the Branch growing out from it We must first be good in ourselves before we can be merciful towards others We must as our Saviour sheweth first make the Tree good before we can bring forth good fruit Charity begins at home if we be not good have not an inward principle of Goodness in our selves how can we laudably exercise any pity or compassion any bounty or clemency any love or charity towards others So much for the first point 2. Br. Come we now to speak of the mercifulness of God and produce a great Copy and Exemplar for your imitation And now methinks we are fallen upon the noblest subject in the World being we are to treat of Divine Mercy which the Scriptures declare which men experience which the Devils envy the good Angels admire and which all the World ought to adore A man that looks down from an high Precipice albeit he is in no danger of falling yet would his fear seize him and a secret trembling take hold of him The Scriptures and our own experience have set us upon a great Mount and being to look down upon the great abysse of Divine Mercies we are ready to cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and the mercies of God I shall speak to this 1. Negatively 2ly Positively 1. In that he beareth with the daily violation of his truth and suffereth with incredible lenity the breaches that are made upon it though men do not believe what God saith nay which is more do believe things different and contrary thereunto yet still God containeth himself and doth not with-hold his Mercy from them The Church of God is said to be the ground and pillar of truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Church it is that sacred Depositary wherein the truth is laid up The Frogs of Aegypt were not more numerous that came crawling into the Kings Palace then the Errors and mis-shapen Opinions which in all Ages especially in this have infested the Church the house of God and herein the mercifulness of God appears that he does not presently rid himself of them nor destroy the men for their opinion sake In the Jewish Church he suffered the Essens a pensive