Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A53326
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A present for teeming vvomen, or, Scripture-directions for women with child how to prepare for the houre of travel / written first for the private use of a gentlewoman of quality in the West, and now published for the common good by John Oliver.
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Oliver, John, 1601-1661.
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1663
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Wing O276; ESTC R30076
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85,614
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176
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the Scriptures peruse your Charter read the last Will and Testament of Jesus Christ and pick out and observe such promises as will sufficiently reach you in this or any condition imaginable In so great variety as the storehouse of Scripture affords I shall set only some few before your eyes Promises of pardon of sin Let the wicked forsake his way Isa 57.7 and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon I will cleanse them from all their iniquities Ezek. 37 23. and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have transgressed and whereby they have sinned against me I even I Isa 43 25. am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember thy sins Who is a God like unto thee Micah 7.18 that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse Heb. 8.12 and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Be it known unto you all Act. 13.38 men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you forgivenesse of sins Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavie laden Mat. 11.28 and I will give you rest Surely he hath born our griefs Isa 53.4.5 and carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all He was numbred with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors To him give all the prophets witness Act 10.43 that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins And Act. 13.39 by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses We are justified freely by his grace Rom. 3.25 through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for remission of sins that are past Many other places of this nature you may turn to at your leisure As Isa 33.24 Mat. 12.31 James 5.15 Psal 130.4 Dan. 9.9 Exod. 34.7 Luke 1.77 Luke 24.47 Mat. 26.28 John 20.23 Rom. 4.25 Rom. 5.16 18. Rom 8.33 And if you think your sinns greater then ordinary yet be not so weak as to count that any bar or impediment to saving grace To Omnipotency there is nothing great nothing difficult to infinite love nothing is troublesome or can be a hinderance God who commands us to forgive till seventy times seven can as easily forgive a thousand talents as a hundred pence What is our Bucket to his Ocean If you give your hope and your soul for lost Luk. 19.10 yet he came to seek and to save that which is lost He delighted to cure the most desperate diseases when he was upon earth And he usually healed body and soul together and told them that their sinnes were forgiven them as well as that they should arise and walk Many of those sinners that Christ shewed mercy to were most infamous and to mens seeming as unlikely to have been saved as any of that generation What think you of Mary Magdalene out of whom our Saviour cast seven devils and of that woman that washed his feet with her teares Luke 8.2 who though a notorious known sinner an harlot yet had all her sins forgiven her Luk. 7.37 38 39 c. our Saviour largely defending and explaining the freeness of his grace to her What of the woman taken in adultery whom our Saviour did not condemn but with charge to sin no more dismissed her in peace John 8.10 11. â— Titus 3.3 4 5 7. What think you of the Apostle himself who thus speaks For we our selves were sometime foolish and disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasure living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us That being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life 1 Pet. 4 3. What of Peter and the converted Jewes who had walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquettings and abominable idolatries and in the former lusts in their ignorance 1 Pet. 1.3 4 c. yet of such sinners he sayes Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead It were endless to heap up all examples in this kind You shall doe well to see what the Colossians were when they lived and walked in fornication Col. 3.5 6 7. 1 Cor. 5.9 10 11. uncleanness covetousness c. The Corithians when they were Fornicators Idolaters Sodomites Thieves Drunkards c. yet now are washed sanctified justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And was it for their sakes onely that God shewed mercy to them No but also to encourage us when heavy laden with sin to expect the like For so the Apostle more then once doth assure us Eph. 2.1 2 3 4 5 c. As when he speaks of the Ephesians and himself and all believers that in times past they were over-ruled by the Devil and the world and their own lusts fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ To the same purpose is that other excellent passage of his This is a faithfull saying 1 Tim. 1.25 16. and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners whereof I am chief Howbeit 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 on him to life everlasting Mr. Love his Zealous Christian To conclude this I shall onely adde the observation of a blessed Author In the Genealogie of Christ there are but four women mentioned and they are all branded with a mark of infamy in Scripture-story The first is Thamar Mat. 1.3 she was incestuous for she lay
not materiall to the businesse in hand it sufficeth that the expression takes it for granted that to be childlesse was a curse and a reproach in Israel So that 2 Sam 6.25 of Michal the daughter of Saul who mocked David it is mentioned as a memorable and severe judgment that she had no child to the day of her death 6 God hath in his Scriptures ever taken to himself the praise of this work and his people have ever acknowledged it as his gift mercy when they conceived and bare children Thus the wives of Jacob. Thus Jacob himself answering his brother Esau Gen. 30.6.17.22 c. 35.5 these are the children which God hath graciously given thy servant Thus Hannah Elizabeth and others still their phrase is God opened their wombs Psal 113.9 Faecundicas foeminarum casta vota filios desiderantium ad quem pertinent nisi ad Dominum Deum Aug. Enarr in Psal 66. God rolled away their reproach God gave them children c. He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyfull mother of children Seeing therefore by this cloud of Scripture-testimonies 't is evident that women are not with child but by the mercy and gift of God I must adde a few inferences from what I have said 1 That none be dejected at a state of barrennesse though among the Jews it was esteemed so great an affliction If the age of one or both parties render you not uncapable you may with modesty and moderation make your request known to God and then rest satisfied in his pleasure concerning you For though the posterity of Abraham did all desire that the promised seed might come of them as some do uncertainly conjecture and had also too high esteem of temporal blessings and carnal apprehensions of promised blessings did much possesse the mind of the generality yet we are now under a better testament containing exceeding great and precious promises of things Spiritual If therefore we stick too much on the letter of old-Testament promises we shall commit as great an errour in our faith as the Jews by resting in the bare letter of the precepts ran into gross error in their practice God never delighted in their most glorious and costly ceremonies unlesse they gave him their hearts and now he accepts of internal worship with simplicity and spirituality of mind without any further desire of those pompous observations So let us learn to worship God without their Rites John 4. Rom. 14. and to love God though without their mercies Let us count riches and posterity nothing without God and God sufficient without either of them If Christ be ours every thing needfull is ours If we be the Sons and Daughters of God it shall be no unhappinesse if we have neither Sons nor Daughters of our own There is then no curse in what we have no need of what we have not Dr. Gouge of domest duties a Where naturall impossibilities doe hinder the fecundity of the wombe they should also if known have hindred marriage But when the sterility is meerly accidentall from some such present prevailing infirmity as discomposes the body of either party it may by the blessing of God upon medicinall helps be lawfully and success fully removed But when the cause is unknown and unfruitfullnesse seems meerly judiciall viz. immediately inflicted by the hand of God in that case prayer is the Proper course that he who shuts the womb Luke 1.13 Psal 10.17 Psal 145.19 as he did the wombs in the house of Abimelech would open them again as he did theirs upon the prayer of Abraham It may be he will grant thy petition as he hath done of some that for above twenty years in a state of marriage went childlesse yet at last he made the solitary to dwell in families and gave them children like olive plants round about their table Or perhaps he will not yet answer thee Perkins Cas of consc lib. 2. c. 6. qu. 4. Reinolds on Hos 14.1.2 Serm. 1. p. 53. 1 John 5.15 to exercise thy faith prayer and dependence in waiting upon him or perhaps he will deny thee this mercy at last to exercise thy patient submissivenesse to his Will and thy heavenly-mindednesse and wisdom in seeking some better blessing Sure it is thy prayers shall returne into thine own bosom with some answer of peace and if we aske aright we shall receive (c) Deus non sempèr audit ad voluntatem vel voluptatem at Sempèr exaudiet ad salutem Isidor de summo bono l. 3 c. 3. according to Gods choice if not according to our own He hath variety of blessings which like the stars of heaven differ from one another in glory Therefore blesse his name if by this providence he promote in thy heart humility saith patience or any other grace (d) Ward â—n Mat. 8. pag. 451. seeing its better to be fruitfull in grace then fruitfull in children If he give us his favour (e) Bonus qui non triâ—uit quod â—olumus ut â—ribuat quod malimus Aug. epist 34. that 's a blessing of more value The Angels neither marry nor are given in marriage yet have happinesse enough in God Let him be to thee worth ten Sons In a word I say of these certain cares and uncertain comforts that he who hath none of them hath lesse incumbrance here and lesse to reckon for hereafter 2. T is an an addition to the mercy when God gives children in a state of marriage T is a mercy to be kept in a single estate from the unclean libidinous practices of beastly sinners (f) Mat. 22.30 and to be at last happily entred upon that state of matrimony which God appointed and hath sanctified as his ordinance 1 Cor. 7 2 3 4 5. for preventing of fornication and 't is also I say a greater blessing when he is pleased to Crown the chast embraces of wedlock with a hopefull conception Oh how dreadfull are the scripturee-xamples of many women whom God having partly or totally left to their vile affections and inordinate lusts having prostituted their chastity brought shame upon Israel and disparaged the innate modesty of the female sex grew at last past feeling and spent their life in common whoredome till their sin was come to a ripeness But alas in these last days 2 Tim. 3.1 3. the sin of incontinency is grown more perillous by its commonness and also by the impunity of our intemperate Grandees whose example herein gives a law to others And surely those who are priviledged from punishment here shall find it a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb 10.31 Heb. 13.4 who hath said whoremongers and adulterers I will judge i.e. though the secrecy of their actions the potency of their persons or the negligence of Magistrates may secure them for a while yet there is nothing so secret but is under his eye nothing so great but is under