Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	accept_v	offering_n	zion_n	17	3	9.0158	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86932	A brief exposition of the prophecies of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. By George Hutcheson minister at Edenburgh. April the 29th. Imprimatur, Edmund Calamy.	Hutcheson, George, 1615-1674.	1654 (1654)	Wing H3820; Thomason E1454_2; ESTC R209590	241,869	310

yet think to continue in the reputation of being seekers of God and by prayer while yet they continue in unrepented sinne to turne away any stroke for this holy irony and putting them to it I pray you beseech God imports that they thought to assey that and to make all well 2. It is high time for a people to pray when guilt is contracted and wrath is threatened mercy also must be the praying mans refuge and all ought to be sensible of their having an hand in publick provocations for however this exhortation be directed to them as that which they could neither well obey nor would their obedience be accepted yet it containes in it selfe a pattern of duty that in such a time men should beseech God plead for graciousnesse to us where the Prophet ranks himselfe among the rest of the people needing this grace 3. It is a sore judgement to lie in such a condition as provokes God to reject prayer considering how we are indigent of all good and exposed to all danger and that prayer is the only meanes to obtaine the one or remove the other and especially it is a judgement to be so and not know it till we be put to the extremity for I pray you beseech God will he regard your persons imports that God would sufficiently punish them in not hearing them and that they were so stupid as not to know it till they essayed it 4. All who would finde acceptance and audience in prayer ought to study personall reconciliation with God and these who are imployed by Office or otherwise to intercede for others ought to be holy themselves that their personal wickednesse wrong not themselves and others for will he regard your persons imports that their persons were not reconciled and so they could not be heard and that they were most unfit to intercede for others 5. As ordinarily unfaithfull Ministers are chief in the guilt of the people so such as are chief authors in an evil way cannot but finde their prayers for themselves or others rejected for This hath been by your meanes or from your hand will he regard your persons saith the Lord of hosts 6. Whatever may be the presumption of secure and impenitent sinners yet God will make their own conscience when he awakens it in straite to pronounce their sentence for he appeales to themselves will he regard your persons Vers 10. Who is there even among you that would shut the doores for nought neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for naught I have no pleasure in you saith the LORD of hostes neither will I accept an offering at your hand The second branch of the sentence is the rejection of their persons and of all their sacrifices and services performed in the Temple which is amplified from a question in the beginning of the verse the meaning whereof as it is translated is as if he said All of you Porters Priests and others have been well rewarded by tythes and other casualties for your meanest service and yet ye have proven evil servants ye have been more greedy of gaine then duty ye have been carefull for your selves and would do nothing for me or any of the people for nought and yet ye have been negligent and did not your duty faithfully nor watched over the sacrifices to trie them exactly and therefore I reject you and your service both The words in the Original will also bear this reading Who among you would shut the doores and not kindle a fire on my altar in vaine c. as if he said Is there none among you that hath so much zeal as rather to shut the doores of the Temple and so hinder these offerings which are in vaine for I approve not of you nor will receive them Both these come to one purpose that God abhorred and would reject the service of these ingrate servants it being in some sort better they offered none at all Doct. 1. It is a sad judgement when a people are put altogether out of service that God will have no more from them or not accept them in it as importing that God is angry at them that he will put such away altogether from him at last and will deprive them of the free reward which is bestowed on his servants for this is their doom I will not accept an offering at your hand Whereas a people getting leave to offer service and God accepting it at their hand speaks mercy in saddest times Judg. 13.23 2. The worth and excellency of our service depends upon Gods free favour and his acceptation in Christ of our persons and worship which when we provoke him to take away or withhold no worth in us or it will avail whatever we may conceit or dream for where he hath no pleasure he will not accept an offering 3. The meanest service performed to God wants not a reward yea even the superficial service he gets hath its outward reward during the time of his patience for Priests and Porters did not shut the doors or kindle the fire for nought they were well paid 4. It is the Lords allowance that these whom he sets apart for his publick service in his Church do live and be maintained thereby for Priests and Porters had their allowance 5. It is the sin and a token of unfaithfulnesse in Ministers when they become covetous and eye the reward more then the work for this challenge imports also their covetousnesse and that as they had allowance so they minded it much and were sure to do nothing without that and having gotten that they regarded not much Gods part 6. The more kinde God hath been to any in serving him if yet they prove unfaithful the greater will their sin be for thus is their sin aggravated they did nothing for nought and yet did it not well 7. However it be still a sin to neglect altogether commanded duties yet in some respect sleighted service and resting upon external performances is more hainous then if men altogether let it alone as being an open proclamation of contempt of God and that to his face for so much doth the other reading of the words import See Isa 1.12 12. and 66.3 Verse 11. For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure offering for my Name shall be great among the heathen saith the LORD of hostes The third branch of the sentence is that he will transfer the Priesthood from their order and his worship from that people and get among the Gentiles whom they despise people and Ministers who will worship him more purely through the world then they do when he shall magnifie his grace and manifest his majesty among them this is subjoyned as a reason to the former sentence v. 10. he will reject them for he will get better service elsewhere Doct. 1. The Lord is

in all the Chapter 3. The fountain of the Churches encouragement is in Gods free love and marriage-affection which as it doth not break off in affliction so will it be very severe in avenging injuries done to such as are beloved of him for so is here held forth I was jealous for Zion with great jealousie and I was jealous for her with great fury His jealousie proves he is married his fury testifies how much he resents their affliction and both these concur to comfort her 4. The Lord hath at all times prevented his Church and people with such manifestations of himself as may be abundant proof of his affection toward them and ground of encouragement for the time to come therefore he leads this people back to what had been done especially in their late deliverance to clear this truth and encourage them for the future I was jealous c. Verse 3. Thus saith the LORD I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth and the mountain of the LORD of hostes the holy mountaine The second ground of encouragement is that God was now reconciled to them again would dwell among them as of old and restore them to the dignity and priviledges they formerly enjoyed Doct. 1. The Lords being reconciled unto a people and their enjoying his favour is a special ground of their encouragement especially that after just wrath he will deigne them with mercy and be at paines to make up the friendship for thus he encourageth them Thus saith the Lord I am returned to Zion 2 When the Lord is reconciled unto his people he will manifest his presence unto them and be as near and careful to help every grievance as the heart is to supply every member for I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem saith he 3. Reconciliation with God is the way to recover a peoples lost honour and priviledges and to make them enjoy them and the comfort of them for upon his returning look what made her eminent before and it shall be restored She shall be called by her old names which is not a promise of a bare tittle only but that she shall be eminent in her duty and the priviledges and mercies following thereupon shall be as visible as if they were her name 4. It is the great honour of a people to enjoy and sincerely to adhere unto and professe the truth of God as he hath revealed it in his Word to adorne that Profession with fidelity and uprighteness in matters of the second Table and to be the people to whom God verifieth the truth of his promises so are we here taught Jerusal●m shall be called a City of truth in place of her idolatry and corrupting the worship of God her double dealing in her conversation and her feeling the sad fruits of threatenings 5. To have relation unto God and be owned as his speaks much honour to a people that he unto whom all things belong should appropriate them unto himself as a peculiar lot to be cared for in an especial way this honour is imported in that name the mountain of the Lord of hoster 6. As holinesse beseemeth a people who are the Lords so it is their special honour and dignity to be such and a commendation to the truth they professe when they hold a good conscience with it for this mountain shall be called the holy mountaine Vers 4. Thus saith the LORD of hostes There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem and every man with his staffe in his hand for very age 5. And the streets of the City shall be full of boyes and girles playing in the streets thereof The third ground of encouragement is held forth in a temporal promise of their increasing in number and enjoying of peace Whereas they were now a few of many they should again be many men and women living unto old and decrepitage and a numerous issue springing up to succeed them and whereas the sword had cut them off in their cities Lam. 2.21 and 5.11 12 13 14. and they might seare the like considering the times yet he promiseth that old men should walk and young children play in the streets as in times of great peace Doct. 1. The encrease of a people especially such as are members of the Church and peaceable times with the common refreshments thereof in living to old age want of terrour not being cut off by violent deaths childrens recreations and growing up without feare of enemies c. are in their own kinde choice mercies to be acknowledged where they are and to be a cause of humiliation where they are wanting for the promise of this is a ground of encouragement here See Ps 78.62 63 64. and 144.11 15. 2. A people reconciled to God and adhering to the true spiritual priviledges of Gods presence shall enjoy as much outward prosperity as is for their good for this promise is subjoyned to the former as a fruit of them Vers 6. Thus saith the LORD of hostes If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these dayes should it also be marvellons in mine eyes saith the LORD of hostes In regard these promises might seem improbable and impossible to be performed considering that the Jewes were at that time but a despicable remnant and the times full of dangers and feares the Lord removes all difficulties by leading them to look on him to whom nothing is impossible Doct. 1. As faith is very necessary for honouring of God and our owne comfort in receiving his promises so it is no small difficulty to attain to it Things promised may seem very impossible not only to carnal men but sometimes even to the Lords people for this confirmation of the former doctrine shewes that he expects faith to close with what he saith and its being marvellous or hid a thing which they cannot see through as feasible or possible shewes their temper 2. The fountain of much unbelief is mens looking to themselves and their present hard condition and receiving no more truth then reason and probability thus pre-occupied will convince them of for this is marvellous because they looked on themselves as the remnant of the people and on these dayes as hard dayes 3. The way to attain to faith in hard and difficult times is to eye God who makes the promise and give him the glory of being God of faithfulnesse in promising and Omnipotency to perform and overcome impossibilities whatever we be for he refutes their unbelief by leading them from themselves to eye him The Lord of hostes in whose eyes it is not marvellous 4 A people taking up God rightly will themselves being Judges condescend that it is a wronging of God to lay any thing in opposition to his power as able to over-balance it or to distrust his promises whatever they see in the world or their own condition to render