Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60344
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An earnest call to family-religion, or, A discourse concerning family-worship being the substance of eighteen sermons / preached by Samuel Slater.
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Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing S3961; ESTC R25152
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217,672
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342
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have the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth may you be richly stor'd with grace and come behind in no gift thoroughly furnished for every good work yea and fill'd with all the fulness of God but withall be very humble great in value and usefulness but little in your own eyes that will not be to your loss but much to your advantage for God gives grace to the Humble and no less to your Honour Humility eclipseth and obscures no Mans glory but sets a singular lustre and gloss upon it making it shine with a greater brightness Holy and Humble Paul was one of the most Eminent Servants God ever had in the World and his speaking of himself as being less than the least of all Saints detracted nothing from his real worth nor did it hinder his being equal with the chief of the Apostles if we may speak of a chief among them among whom our Lord appointed a Parity at that time there was no such thing as a Pope I would not speak one word to swell or puff any of you up if you study and know your selves as you ought you will soon find defects infirmities corruptions enough to keep the best of you down yet I cannot but say you are my Joy and Crown and as I do every day make mention of you in my Prayers so I can and frequently do bless and give thanks to my God upon my remembrance of you and that upon sundry accounts which I speak of for your encouragement and the promoting your farther progress I have reason to hope it is the true grace of God in which you stand and as you have a Name to live so you have been made partakers of the Life it self for as you do all make a good and excellent Profession so I know none of you that stain and contradict it by a scandalous walking You have been stedfast in shaking and falling Times some did indeed go off in the Days of sore Persecution not having on the whole Armour of God nor being able to indure Hardship as the good Souldiers of Jesus but they were few so few that we did not miss them we do not want them the Lord grant that they may find Mercy of the Lord at the great Day I shall be glad to meet them in Heaven You have received and owâ—â—d me as an Angel or Messenger of God and the delight you take in my Ministry hath evidenced it self and still doth by your constant attendance upon it In this Sceptick Age you have been Wise to Sobriety in this Erroneous Age you have been sound in the Faith neither admiring the pretended new Lights nor falling in love with those old rotten Errours which some have dig'd out of their Graves In this dividing Age you have kept the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace you are not for taking up a Yoke of Bondage but for standing fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free yet no Friends to Licenciousness While you flee to the Gospel for Relief and Comfort you own the Law for your Rule you do not divide Christ but take him just as God hath exalted him and doth offer him Prince as well as Saviour and not only to be an underling to pay your Debts and bear your Burdens and die for your Offences but likewise to be a King upon his Throne Commanding and Ruling you And as you rely only upon him for Righteousness so you desire to imitate and follow him in his Holiness and to shew forth his Vertues who hath called you out of Darkness into his marvellous Light Am I mistaken in any of you as to these things I hope I am not the Lord grant I may not I know of no wild Notions nor loose Opinions among you may there never be any but all of you have as one said Heads well-hearted and Hearts well-headed and so a soundness throughout May you approve your selves to God and Men being good Christians good Subjects good Citizens good Husbands and Wives good Parents and Children good Masters Mistresses and Servants good Friends and Neighbours filled with the Holy Ghost and Goodness and all the Fruits of Righteousness Love God Father Son and Spirit with a supreame intire and most intense love think the most vehement flame of your love too cold here Love the Church of God study seek and pray for her good Love all that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity though in some things they differ from you let not that cause any alienation in Affection so long as they hold the Head count them Brethren and be dear over them as such love one another help one another quicken strengthen comfort one another provoke one another to Love and good Works rejoice in one anothers Mercies sympathize with one anothers Afflictions bear one anothers Burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ. Most dearly Beloved my Mouth is open to you and my Heart enlarged The great God knows I do as really desire and pray for the Prosperity and Salvation of you all and of all yours as I do mine own and in the following Sermons I have commended no other things to you than what I believe and know to be both your Duty and Interest and would my self be found in the practice of if we call our selves Christians let us be Christians Israelites and Israelites indeed what signifies the Name without the thing Gird up I beseech you gird up the Loins of your Minds make no trifling Objections listen not yield not to any wicked Temptations but apply to your Work act for God in your Places to the utmost shine bright in your own Sphere keep your Hearts continually in an holy frame fit for Communion with God in Duty be not now backward to it nor hereafter weary of it Though you have but a little stock of Knowledge and Parts fall to Trading and you will increase it Be not discouraged because you cannot do what you would God accepts of the Will when the Disciples were offended with a good Woman Christ's plea for her was She hath done what she could The Lord told his Servant he had been faithful in his little and thereupon gave him an entrance into his Joy Your little will find great acceptance and be rewarded with great Blessings so it be your Best In short would you stem the Tide of Profaneness which breaks in upon us with fury Would you save the Life of Practical Religion which is brought very low and in a deep Consumption Would you be instrumental for the preserving of a Seed to serve the Lord Would you be able to give a good account of your selves in the Day when God shall come to Reckon with you And do you desire the present and future welfare of those precious Souls which are committed to your Care then observe the Rules and follow the Counsels of God which are given in this Book And the God of Heaven accept you in the Beloved grant your
Petitions water the Seed you sow and bless both you and yours and make you Blessings to one another and all of you Blessings to the City and the Nation I do heartily pray for you I need your Prayers too and earnestly beg them do not deny me do not forget me in praying for me you pray for your selves The gracious Good-will of him that dwelt in the Bush be upon you let God compass you about with his Favour as with a Shield and make you Rich in Blessings of the Right Hand and of the Left And Oh! that you and I may at last meet in Heaven and there together with the Saints and Angels Sing Eternal Allelujahs to God and the Lamb so prays Your Souls Friend and Servant in our Dearest Lord Samuel Slater From my Study Mar. 23. 1694. Family Worship Joshua 24 15. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. THese are the words of Ioshua once the Servant afterward the Successor of Moses a great Man and good too and this is an excellent pair how sweet and amiable in a conjunction like pure White and Red they make a curious complexion and render a person indeed Noble and Illustrious Goodness with Greatness is like a rich and sparkling Diamond sett in a Ring of Gold This good and great Man had followed the Lord not halting nor by halves but fully and it pleased God who takes special notice of his faithful Servants to reward him by exalting him Moses having as an Instrument in the Divine hand brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt and carried them through a wast and howling Wilderness to the very Borders of the promised Land God called him off having no more for him to do commanded him to go up to Mount Nebo and die there in order to his happy Transportation to a better Countrey the Celestial Canaan the Inheritance of the Saints in Light and chose Ioshua for the Man that must compleat that great and glorious work and put that beloved People into the actual possession of that good Land This being done and Ioshua now grown old and finding himself after so many tedious Journeys and hard Labours sit and ready to go to his Long home to his Everlasting Rest He gathered all the Tribes of Israel and the Chief Men among them unto Sechem if any ask why thither I answer it is by some conceived and not without an appearance of reason because after that Abraham had in obedience to the Divine Command gone out of his own Countrey and from his Fathers house God did there first appear to him and gave him the Promise of the Land of Canaan and upon that he did there first build an Altar unto the Lord as you may read in Gen. 12.6 7. And also because not long after their entrance into the Promised Land Ioshua himself had in Mount Ebal which was near unto Shechem built an Altar unto the Lord God of Israel and wrote upon the Stones a Copy of the Law of Moses and so renewed the Covenant between God and them as we find Iosh. 8.30 31 32. But that may suffice to be spoken as to the reasons of his gathering them unto Shechem Having there assembled them He began with giving them in the Name of the Lord a very short but pithy Narrative of those great and wonderful things which had been by God done for them all along from the mercy that had been shewn unto Abraham their Father to his giving them the Land of Canaan according as he had promised And then in his own Name He followed that Relation with a very serious and warm Exhortation grounded thereupon verse 14. Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the Gods which your Fathers served on the other side of the Flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. He knew what an uncertain and fickle People they were and so did endeavour to fix them and if they had any ingenuity any sense of kindness to bind them to God with these Silken Cords of Love and Goodness In this 15th verse He bids them chuse in case they did not like what he had propounded then think of one under whose Government and Protection they might promise themselves a secure and comfortable Being If it seem evil to you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom ye will serve whether the Gods which your Fathers served that were on the other side of the Flood or the Gods of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell which you must not look upon as a permission or allowance or leaving them to themselves as in a matter indifferent whether they would worship the true God or turn Idolaters For in the preceding Chapter he had earnestly persuaded and charged them vers 6. to be very couragious to keep and do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses not turning aside therefrom neither to the right hand nor to the left And vers 7. That they come not among the Nations that remain among them neither make mention of the Name of their Gods nor cause to swear by them neither serve them nor bow themselves to them But vers 8. cleave unto the Lord Jehovah their God And v. 11. to take good heed unto themselves that they liv'd the Lord their God And again in this Chapter v. 14. Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth But in this way he endeavours sweetly to insinuate and to get within them and by an holy Art prevail with them to oblige and bind themselves to God very well knowing that People care not for doing what they are forc'd to do but without a blush depart from that which they were brought to by meer constraint whereas they are pleas'd with their own choice and are most likely to stand firm to that unto which they have in Judgment and upon due deliberation engag'd themselves In order therefore to a wise Election which they may never have cause with sorrow and shame to reflect upon he doth on the one hand set before them the greatness excellency and glory of God together with those many and singular advantages that will accrue to them who are his faithful Servants and on the other hand he sets before them the vanity and baseness of Idols the folly of those that own and serve them and the mischiefs which do pursue them and will for certain overtake them and hereupon after a due weighing and comparing of things he would have them make their choice of one or the other being guided therein by right reason and their true Interest He knew that God would have his People serve him out of choice as he chuseth them so he would be chosen by them And for a motive and inducement he acquaints them with his own fixed and unalterable resolution whom they had by long experience found to be a gracious and holy Man a prudent and loving Governour a valiant and successful