Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	endure_v	lord_n	wonder_n	2,875	5	10.7301	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85668	An exposition continued upon the XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, and XXIX, chapters of the prophet Ezekiel, vvith many useful observations thereupon. Delivered at several lectures in London, by William Greenhill.	Greenhill, William, 1591-1671.	1658 (1658)	Wing G1856; Thomason E954_1; ESTC R207608	447,507	627

abominations I am for you Israelites they are for Egyptians God becomming our God is a great condescension a favour beyond comprehension and should knock us off from all false waies and cause us to conform to him Exod. 23.24 25. Lev. 11.43 44 45. chap. 18.2 3 4. ch 19.2 3 4. Numb 15.38 39 40 41. in all these places God uses this argument why they should conform to him and bee holy because hee is the Lord their God and an holy God hee made them his Temple to dwell in and among and his Temple must not bee defiled admit of any thing unsuitable to his minde therefore hee tells them Deut. 7.6 that hee hath chosen them to bee a special people unto himself special in their holinesse special in their love special in their obedience and special in their confidence in and reliance upon him Vers 8 But they rebelled against mee and would not hearken unto mee they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eies neither did they forsake the Idols of Egypt then I said I will pour out my fury upon them to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt In this verse you have two things to be considered 1 Their wickednesse which is set out 1 In general they rebelled they hearkned not 2 In particular they did not cast away the abominations of their eies they did not forsake the Idols of Egypt 2 Gods purpose hereupon which was severely to punish them then I said I will pour out my fury c. which is illustrated from the circumstance of the place where he would do it in the midst of the land of Egypt There is little in this verse which hath not been opened and spoken of formerly the word rebelled wee had chap. 17.15.2 3. And would not hearken unto me The Hebrew is And have not desired to hearken to me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had no desire that way but the contrary Non velle here is Nolle their not willing was nilling and Zachary calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refusing ch 7.11 they had not an heart inclinable to hearken unto God Non cuplerunt audire ad me Montan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Th●n I said I will pour out my fury upon them The Hebrew is And I said to pour out that is I purposed seeing they dealt thus by mee to make them examples of my fury and to destroy them Of pouring out fury and accomplishing anger was spoken ch 6.12.7.8.9.8.14.19 In the midst of the land of Egypt Wee find not in Moses any thing recorded of this nature but here the Prophet delivered what God commanded him vers 5. say unto them thus saith the Lord hee had it not by tradition that God bid them cast away the abomination of their eyes and not defile themselves with the Idols of Egypt that they rebelled and would not do so that God purposed their destruction in Egypt these things he had not by tradition but by Divine inspiration They were so corrupted with the Idolatry of Egypt and averse from hearkening to the Admonitions Counsells and Exhortations of God that hee thought in his heart to destroy them in the midst of Egypt many of their children were drowned and the oppressions they indured were very great and long which Lavater saith was for their Egyptian Idolatry Psalm 105.25 Hee turned their heart to hate his People to deal subtlely with his people Obs 1 Those the Lord hath bestowed great mercies upon and professed much kindnesse unto they even they are ingrateful when hee calls for reformation at their hands This people the Lord chose made himself known to promised to bring out of Egypt into a land hee had looked out for them even a land flowing with milk and honey the glory ornament desire of all lands and now calling upon them to purge themselves from their abominations and Idolatries and to conform to him who professed himself to be their God what do they rebel against him but they rebelled here was ingratitude and ingratitude at a height God bid them cast away abominations and they cast away his Counsels hee bids them eye him his beauty and glory and they eye the form beauty and glory of their Idols hee bids them be holy and they defile themselves with idols he bids them cleave to him the God of Israel and they cleave to the Idols of Egypt hee bids them forsake all their evill waies and they forsake him This people were very ingrateful what ever mercies they had from God hee seldome had any testimony of true thankfulnesse from them Neh. 9. see what a multitude of mercies great seasonable wonderful God bestowed upon them calling by his Prophets for turning to him and did they turn reform and testify a thankful frame of Heart to bee in them no they were disobedient rebelled against him cast his Law behind their backs and slew his Prophets vers 26. God did choice things for this People all along but they forgate him and provoked him the 106. Psal is a Psalm of Gods mercies and their ingratitudes hee tells them they had a multitude of mercies but they provoked him at the Sea even the red Sea vers 7. but they lusted exceedingly in the wildernesse v. 14. but they murmured in their Tents v. 25. but they mingled among the Heathen v. 35. Here be four Buts testifying their ingratitude God hath done great things for us bestowed Israelitish mercies upon us hee hath made himself known amongst us brought us out of Egyptian bondage owned us for his people above any people and professed himself to bee our God and hereupon called upon us to cast away our abominations to reform and become a holy people conformable to his minde but may not the Lord come in with a reproaching But and say But yee rebel Your abominations are not cast away you do defile your selves with the Idols of England and notwithstanding all the mercies wee have had God may come in with many Buts and say but you provoke mee by your oppressions divisions and bitternesse but you lust exceedingly after a King and to bee like other Nations but you murmure against me my servants and dispensations but you mingle with the Customes corruptions and fashions of the times but you forsake my truths and runne into dangerous and damnable opinions Obs 2 Such is the corruption of mens natures that frequently the more mercies and means they have the worse they grow This People had variety of mercies and every mercy should have led them to repentance according to that in Rom. 2.4 especially such mercies as they had but above all Gods speaking to them should have done it how hee spake to them in Egypt wee finde not no Prophets are mentioned to have been there before Moses Whither hee spake himself unto them or by Angels or by Joseph or some others he did speak but they rebelled and hearkned not their corrupt hearts and natures degenerated more

Nations Heylin Cosmogr● Vide Lyra in Ezek. 20 6 besides women children and such as were not able to fight 2 Sam. 24. this land was the glory of all lands in regard of the fruitfulnesse and plenty of it of which see Deut. 8.7 8 9. cha 32.13 14. Isa 36.17 a land beyond Egypt though some have affirmed the contrary for Deut. 11.10 11 12. the land thou goest in to possesse is not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came out when thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of herbes But the land whither thou goest to possesse it is a land of Hells and Vallies and drinketh water of the rain of Heaven A land which the Lord thy God careth for the eyes of the Lord thy God are alwaies upon it from the beginning of the year unto the end thereof This is a divine Testimony and an high praise of it and doth justly intitle it to bee the glory of all lands What our Prophet saith here of Canaan may bee suspected and seems to bee contradicted by Isaiah ch 13.19 where hee calls Babylon the glory of Kingdomes and if that be the glory of them how can Canaan bee the glory of all lands Hee speaks of the City Babylon which was the head of Chaldea and gave denomination to a great part of Mesopotamia and Assyria the walls whereof were two hundred foot high filty Cubits broad and sixty miles in Compass which the Babylonians counted the glory of Kingdomes and boasted of if it did exceed Jerusalem in its greatnesse richnesse strength and populousness yet it fell short of it in other things Jerusalem represented the true Church Gal. 4.26 Heb. 12.22 Babylon the malignant and false Church Rev. 17.5 glorious things were spoken of Jerusalem and it was the faithful City Isa 1.21 the Holy City Isa 52.1 the City of Truth Zach. 8.3 a City of Righteousnesse Isa 1 26. the City of the Lord of Hosts such things were never spoken of Babylon Again if Babylon bee the Glory of Kingdomes it s not said to bee of all kingdomes it might bee the glory of Heathenish Kingdomes it was not the glory of Canaan for there was the Idol Bel other Images and abominable Idolatry Jer. 51.44 47. which eclipsed the other glory it had Again if it bee granted that Babylon was the glory of all Kingdomes and so of Judea or Canaan yet take Canaan in its latitude with all its excellencies and so considered it is the Glory of all Lands and beyond Babylon taken for the City or the Countrey for besides its milk and honey its fruitfulnesse and plenty there was something of an higher nature which made it so For 1 It was the land of promise Heb. 11 9. 2 A type of Heaven Heb. 3.11 3 The land God chose to dwell in Ps 132.13 14. Exo. 15.17 4 In it was the Temple Worship Ordinances and Oracles of God 1 Kin. 6. 8. chapt Whence it was called the Holy Land Zach. 2.12 holy Habitation Exod. 15.13 the land of the Lord Isa 14.2 Ps 85.2 the land of uprightnesse Isa 26.10 the land of Immanuel Isa 8.8 and upon this account it was the glory of all lands For no land besides in all the world was so called as this or had such prerogatives Obs 1 Old mercies should bee minded not onely by those they were first bestowed upon but also by their posterity who had benefit by them also In the former vers and this God mindes them of Old mercies his choice of them his making known himself unto them his professing himself to bee their God his bringing them out of Egypt which were some eight or nine hundred years before and his espying out a land for them which was four hundred years before that for it was in Abrahams daies that God took notice of that land Gen. 12. get thee to a land that I will shew thee vers 7. unto thy seed will I give this land These Old mercies God would have them to mind though they were in Babylon and deprived of that good land God had given them Let men bee in what condition they will Old mercies should not bee forgotten especially signal great emphatical mercies When God shall publikely own a people deliver them from great slavery put them into a state of freedome safety and honour provide all good things for them such mercies ought not to bee forgotten but to bee remembred from generation to generation This was done in Davids dayes Ps 44.1 2. Wee have heard with our ears O God our fathers have told us what wor● thou didst in their daies in the times of Old how thou didst drive out the Heathen with thy hand Judges 6.13 Fathers told their children of the miracles God had wrought for them and how hee brought them out of Egypt and because men are apt to forget former mercies when they grow old they grow out of minde the Lord laid a charge upon the Jews that they should not forget them Deut. 6.10 11 12. And commanded them to remember the daies of Old and to consider the years of many generations and to inquire of the ancient what he had done for them Deut. 32.7 There bee no works like unto Gods works and they ought to bee had in remembrance David kept them in mind for hee professes to the Lord himself I remember the daies of Old I meditate on all thy works I muse on the work of thy hand he looked back to the daies of Noah of Abraham of Joseph of the Israelites and of Gods dealing with them because the heart is not quickly affected with old mercies and works of God he meditated and mused on them and that till his heart was warmed and stirred up to praise as it is Psal 105.5 remember his marvellous works that hee hath done his wonders and the judgements of his mouth O yee seed of Abraham his servant Obs 2 That Lands Countries and Habitations of People are appointed ordered and disposed of by the Lord hee brings them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that hee had espyed for them All souls and all lands are the Lords and whom hee will hee plants where hee pleases Hee distributes lands and habitations to whom hee thinks meet The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof Psal 24.1 hee is the sole owner thereof the true Lord of the soil and all it brings forth and hee hath given it to the children of men Psal 115.16 hee hath assigned them their several portions Deut. 32.8 the most high divided to the Nations their inheritance when he separated the Sonnes of Adam the most high God being Lord paramount would not have the Sonnes of Adam to live all in one Country or Land but appointed them several lands and Countries to dwel in and set them their bounds and limits as you may see in Gen. 10. especially vers 25. where Eber names his Son Peleg which signifies division because the earth was divided in

Septuagint is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sublevationem the lifting up of your glory The Temple was their glory and that cheared and lifted up their hearts both Junius and Piscator have it gaudium ornatus eorum the joy of their ornament the Temple was their ornament Ezek. 7.20 nothing did so become and adorn them as their Temple did and that worship which God appointed to bee in it but they corrupted that worship stained their glory and joyed sinfully therein The desire of their eyes They took pleasure in beholding the Temple which was a stately building beautified with pretious stones and gold of Parvaim 2 Chron. 3.6 8. The second Temple took them much Matth. 24.1 Luke 21.5 yet that was inferiour to the first Temple The material Temples were very dear unto the Jews And that whereupon they set their minds In the Hebrew it is Veeth massa naphsham which Montanus renders Elevationem animae eorum the lifting up of their souls or minds id ad quod attollunt an●mam suam that unto which they lift up their soul So Junius The Vulgar Super quo requiescunt animae eorum That on which their souls do rest Stephen in phrasibus Hebraicis renders the place thus In quod elevatur animas eorum aut onus animae ipsorum That their hearts are lifted up unto or that which is the burden of their souls and pressed them most as the Temple and their children they were perplexed about the losse of these This phrase of setting the minde upon a thing imports 2 Sam. 18.3 1 Over-prizing of the thing when the mind is set upon a thing that is valued every man values what his lust is set upon 2 Adhering to it when the minde is set upon a thing it cleaves to it and fixes upon it 1 Sam. 9.20 set not thy minde on them 3 Taking content and delight in a thing seeking no further Col. 3.2 set your affections upon things above 26 Hee that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee to cause c. The Lord in his wise providence ordered it so that some three years after this Prophesy there came one who escaped at the delivery up of Jerusalem unto Nebuchadnezzar and brought tidings that the City was smitten Ezek. 33.21 which was half a year after the smiting of it if you compare this place in Ezekiel with Jer. 52.6 2 King 25.3 To cause thee to hear it with thine ears The Hebrew is To the hearing of the ears not to tell what hee hath heard as some Rabbins would have it but to tell in the ears of Ezekiel what hee had seen and been an eye witnesse thereof it s not improbable but that they had heard some rumor of it before it being half a year since the taking of that City and desolation of all things This man therefore came to inform Ezekiel of the certainty of all things had passed 27 In that day shall thy mouth bee opened to him that is escaped and thou shalt be no more dumbe That Ezekiel was dumbe and prophesied not at all till the man brought tidings of Jerusalems destruction is not the sense of this place for in the 26. chapter hee saith The Word of the Lord came unto him in the eleventh year in the first day of the month the meaning then is this that as to the Jews hee ceased Prophesying and was as a dumb man unto them God gave him not the gift nor called him to speak any more unto them they beleeved not what hee had prophesied unto them but gave ear to false Prophets who seduced them telling them that they should shortly return and Jerusalem should not bee destroied but when the news came to our Prophet that God had fulfilled what hee had Prophesyed against the City and Temple then God put his word into his mouth again and he spake freely and boldly And thou shalt bee a sign unto them As thou hast oft been a sign unto them sometimes representing an Army laying siedge against a City chap. 4. sometimes a Barber shaveing the hair chap. 5. sometimes a man removing his stuffe chap. 12. sometimes representing a mourner chap. 21.6 sometimes a condition wherein there must not bee mourning as vers 16 17 18. of this chapter so here hee must bee a sign unto them by his silence all the time from this chapter to the day that tydings came of the taking and smiting of Jerusalem he was for a sign unto them They shall know that I am the Lord. Those are here in Babylon those escape the Famine Pestilence sword shall know that I am the Lord and sent thee to Prophesy that I am the Lord and have made good what thou didst Prophesy that I am the Lord and have punished them justly for their iniquities Obs 1 That our Natures are prone to over-prize adhere to and rest in external priviledges and mercies The Temple they doted upon they made it their strength their glory the joy of their glory the desire of their eyes they set their minds upon that and their Sonnes and Daughters these had their thoughts affections and hearts they ran out strongly unto them their souls were lift up unto them they looked at their Temple as their strength against all enemies as their joy at home and their glory abroad so for their children they made idols of them setting them up in their hearts and their hearts upon them Hos 9.11 their children were their glory they gloried in them their hearts were set upon them because children are parts of their Parents coming out of their loines because they bear their image are their hopes perpetuate their lives names and memories therefore they let out their hearts too far towards them and set their minds upon them and not onely on these but on other things also as riches Psalm 62.10 If riches increase set not your hearts upon them as they increase usually mens affections and desires increase towards them so that they come to trust in them Psalm 52.7 Hee trusted in the abundance of his riches they were his security against all dangers all enemies There is scarce any thing wee have of any moment but wee are apt to set our mindes and hearts thereon hence wee are commanded to keep our hearts with all diligence Prov. 4.23 The Hebrew is above all keeping keep that The lesse wee set our mindes upon the creatures the longer wee are like to injoy them the more we set our minds upon them the sooner they may be pulled away God will not indure any thing to deprive him of his interest in the heart Obs 2 God hath his times to take away mercies priviledges idolized and confided in In the day when I take from them their strength the joy of their glory the desire of their eyes and that whereupon they set their minds c. God took away the Temple their children hee had his day for them both 1 Sam. 4.3 the Jews trusted in the Ark and idolized that Let