Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A92967
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Christ under the law with the times of the Gospel, and fullness thereof.
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Sadler, John, 1615-1674.
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1664
(1664)
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Wing S274; ESTC R227055
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102,835
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92
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thoushalt Love thy Neighbour As thy Self I am the Lord. Doth it not lie on our Saviour also Not to Avenge or bear any grudge against his People or the Children of his People May not This Include the Children of his Servant Noah the Thousand Generations of Him that Loved God and Served him with an Vpright heart which God himself owned for a Perfect heart To Noah David Job and Abimelech also As the Words in Hebrew Gen. 20. 5 6. And it is not only said that God did Covenant with a Thousand Generations But also Commanded it for a Thousand Generations As Ps 105. 8. And the Law is plain Thou mayest not bear a Grudge against the Children of thy People Thou shalt not Retain For So is the Word and often used against Retaining Anger So directly Opposite to Gods Retaining mercy Which he maketh so Great a part of his Name to Moses and with such an Emphasis that Moses left it Noted with a very Great Letter in the word of Keeping Mercy As the Jews yet observe it in Exod. 34. and again in Numb 14. They have another Great Letter in That Let the Power of My Lord be Great as thou hast spoken And Gods Keeping Mercy is the Tenor of the Song in all the Scripture And by Davids Last Words Some were set to sing it still and keep it up in the Peoples hearts And when they did agree in This the Glory of God appeared and some strange Return of Prayer 1 Chron. 16. 41. and 23 24. with 2 Chron. 5. 13. and 20 21 22. And there is scarce Any thing more Clear in all the Bible then that he will not Retain his Anger and much less For Ever Seeing he bids us not Let the Sun go down upon our Wrath. And himself gave us an example of it at the Fall and Afterwards the Cursed person must not Hang beyond Sunset As in Moses and Joshuah The Case of Saules Nephewes Hanged up before the Lord was Extraordinary and seemeth branded with Rispaes Goodness in Watching them which occasioned David to bury them with the bones of Saul and his Sons Hanged also And It is Giveing place to Sathan or Closing with the Devil To Reserve Anger but for One Evening As Ephes 4. and Wrath doth Rest or Lodge for a Night in the Bosome of Fools And Wrath is an Hebrew word implying somewhat to pass away or passing As Come my People Hide thee a little moment Till my Wrath be Past And the Great Cause of Gods taking up such a Lasting War with Esau and Amalech a Branch of Eâ—au was for that he Forgot the Brotherly Covenant or Kindness to his Brother Jacob and Let his Anger Tear perpetually and cast off pity and Kept his Wrath for Ever As in Amos and Ezek. 35. Yet Edoms Widows and Fatherless Children are called in to God in Jer. 49. And so the Law of War requireth in Deut. 20. Which is much to be pressed on Christ If thou Go to war thou shalt first offer Peace and if Peace be Rejected yet thou must Preserve the Women and Children So that In Judgment thou must still remember Mercy And wilt thou not yet say My Father the guide of my Youth Will be reserve his Anger for Ever will he keep it to the End as Jer. 3. And again Return O Back-sliding Israel saith the Lord. I will not cause my Anger to fall upon you For I am Merciful saith the Lord And I will not Keep Anger for Ever And in Lam. It is good for a man to wait and hope for the Salvation of God For He will not cast off for ever but though he cause grief yet he will have compassion according to the Multitude of his Mercies For he doth not afflict from his Heart or Grieve the Children of Men. And in the Psalms The Lord is Merciful and Gracious slow to Anger and plenteous in Mercy he will not alwayes Chide Nor will he keep his Anger for Ever And the 30th Psal Give thanks at the Remembrance of his Holiness Because or For his Wrath Endureth but a Moment As if During Lasting wrath could not consist with Holyness and least of All in God whose â—ure and Holy eyes Turn away from All that causeth Wrath or may prolong it and Therefore he blotteth out Iniquity For his Own Names sake Because he cannot endure to see it And he bids us Put him in mind of This Word and Plead it with him that we may be Justified Esay 43. And This Holynesse of God is Divers times made the Great Object of our Praise Or Reason Why we should Praise the Lord. Who might be Feared for his Power or Wisdom but Praised Only for his Holiness which is Godness in divers places Psal 22. 30. 97. 99 100. 136. with the former places in the Cronicles And Micah saith He will not Retain his Anger for Ever because he Delighteth in Mercy And in Esay I will not contend for Ever neither will I be Alwayes Wrath For the Spirit should fail before me and the Souls which I have made A Great Argument for Mercy Thy hands have made me and fashioned me Forsake not the Work of thy Own Hands And Hast Thou not poured me out as Milk And Curdled me as Cheese and Thou wilt have desire to the works of thy own hands And in our Greatest Sufferings we are bid to commit the Keeping of our Souls our Souls to God in Well doing As to a Faithfull Creator and a Faithful preserver also O Thou Preserver of Men What shall I do to thee I have Sinned but why Wilt thou not Pardon my Transgressions and Take away mine Iniquities Wilt thou not seek me in the morning And all these may comment on That Law of Love in Leviticus Thou shalt not avenge or Retain against the Children of thy People But Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self As plainly shewing that Any Retaining Anger is not consistent with the Good Law of God or Love of our Neighbour And lest we should mistake the Phrase of Neighbour and Brother used here the very same Chapter requireth to love a Stranger As ones self the 19. of Levit. 34. and the 25. doth also make a stranger as a Brother Saving If Thy Brother wax poor thou shalt relieve him though a Stranger or a Sojourner And to other Arguments for Strangers as that They were Strangers in Egypt and must know the Heart of a Stranger It is added also that God Loveth Strangers And the Hebrews are bidden not to Forget to entertain Strangers because some have so Entertained Angels unawares And yet One of the hardest words of our Saviour is I know you not or you are Strangers Though himself observeth the Law of strangers saying I was a stranger and you took Me not in as Job saith the Stranger did not Lodge without his Doors And in the Good Samaritan the phrase of Neighbour or Brother is plainly made to reach a Stranger and an Enemy And so in the Law also
you lose Or at least your Crown And why will you Give your Glory to another It is the Glory of Man to Pass by Transgression and the Glory of God to Cover a Matter To be pressed much on Christ as Man and God also The Apostle Paul could not find a better Pattern or a better Argument then to beseech us by the Meekness and Gentleness of Christ And For This cause I Obtained Mercy that in me First Jesus Christ might shew forth All Long-suffering for a Pattern to them which should hereafter believe And the Jews deliver it as one of the First Traditions of Moses to the Elders and so downwards that they should make Disciples of the Law by Meekness being slow to speak as Moses was and slower to Wrath or Judging which we find also in Ieams Who tells us God Vpbraideth not but Giveth Freely Simply And if Any Man want wisdom he should ask it of God That Giveth Simply But let Patience have its Perfect Work that ye may be Entire Wanting Nothing And may we not Press it on Christ also and Plead it with him That His Patience also Have its Perfect Work And sure If All True Wisdom be Peaceful Gentle Easy to be Intreated full of Mercy and Good works It is much more So in him who hath All Treasures of Wisdom and Meekness also So that All Moses Meeknesse was but a Little branch or rivulet of His Great Root and Ocean of Wisdom and Meeknesse And yet Moses could say to Joshuah Enviest Thou for my Sake O that All the Lords People were Prophets and that God would put his Spirit on them and to God forgive I pray thee or else Blot me out of thy Book And was it not the Spirit of Christ that prayed so in Moses and Other Prophets of God so much Longing that All the Lords People were Prophets and that All Might Prosper and be Safe And was he not heard in What he prayed Is it not He that spake in Job and David and the Prophets and Apostles sighing O that Thou hadst Heard and O that Thou wouldest hear and Then Thy Righteousnesse should be as the Sea and thy Peace as the Great Rivers and my heart is Broken with Longing and mine eyes run down with Rivers of Tears because They keep not thy Holy law Give ye wings to Moab that it may flee away and be at rest Mine Heart Mourneth for it and shall sound as Pipes my Bowels yearn and I must weep and Water thee with Tears And Thus To Moab and Edom the Worst of Sinners and the most Threatned And would to God that All men were not only Almost but Altogether Christians and as I am but my bonds And I would you knew my Earnest Longing and Agony which I have to you and to Others even All and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh and who is afflicted and I burn not And the Lord make you to encrease and abound in Love towards one another and to All men to All men As we do towards you And I could wish my self Accursed for my Brethren in the flesh Was it Paul only that Said these things or Christ in Him and doth he not Then both Love and Pitty Men and Long For Their Good and Happinesse Doth he put Others only Upon it Will he bind Heavy Burthens of Desires on Others and not Touch them with his little finger Was it not His Spirit that saith in Job Did I not weep for Him that was in Trouble and was not my Soul Grieved for the Poor My Bowels boyled and rested not I went mourning without the Sun If I have dispised the Cause of my Man-Servant or Maid-Servant when they Contended with me the worst of All their Doings what shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Did not One fashion us in the Womb If I have eaten my Morsel alone If I have seen Any perish for want of clothing Or Any Poor without Covering If his loins have not blessed me And he were not warmed with my fleece If I have lift up my Hand against the Fatherless when I saw my Help wanting in the Gate Then let my arme be broken from the bone and fall from my shoulder If I rejoyced at the destruction of him that Hated me or lift up my self when Evil found him Was not All This but a little shadow of the Better larger Heart of Christ so far beyond the Heart of Job or Moses or David or Paul or Any other in the World And yet Here also we find a Tender Heart To All in Want and Misery So that Job stayed not for Tears or Intreaties but anothers Wants were Prayers Loud enough If I have seen Any Perish for want And till we come to see This also in the Heart of Christ We stagger and are still in fear and doubt of him While we think he measures out to us but as we do to Him and that we must begin to him before His Giving out to us or Seeking us And yet we see Gods Tenderness to Beasts that do not Pray at all but with Natural Voices Which his Pitty doth Interpret into Crying unto Him As Paul said to the Athenians Whom ye Ignorantly Worship Him I declare and so God to Job Who hath established Food to the Raven When his Young Ones Cry to God Yea and when They do not Cry but only Wander Lacking Food For he giveth Food to Every Living thing not For its Crying but Because his Mercy Endureth for ever And the Sparrows and the Swallows come and may or have leave to come and lay their eggs and Young Ones On his Altars O my King and my God! And Hezekiah did but Chatter as a Crane or as a Swallow and yet God heard him And so he promiseth in Exod. 22. If they do at All Cry to me I will surely Hear And the reason is added alittle after I will Hear For I am Gracious If they do at All Cry How much more when they Cry Mightily For He that heard Young Solomon in his sleep and in a Dream Only Will he not hear him Waking Yet it is not said that he Askt his Dream again when he awaked But the Lord Heard and Granted what he did but Ask in a Dream How much more in Sore Affliction Lo he Prayeth and he heareth All Afflicted and executeth Judgement for All that are Opressed as Psal 103. and He Heard Jehoahaz when he cryed Though he were a Wicked King and continued so in 2 Kings 23. And he saw Ahaz Going softly though a Wicked man And he seeth Affliction and it Cryeth Lowde in his ears And Hagar did Rightly call it the Well of Him that Saw her rather then Heard her or Any Prayers that we read of but her Misery And so it was in Aegypt I have seen I have seen their Misery and I have heard their sighs although they had as little heart to pray or speak to God as