Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	eye_n	lord_n	wait_v	2,901	5	9.3473	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47528	God acknowledged, or, The true interest of the nation and all that fear God opened in a sermon preached December the 11th, 1695 : being the day appointed by the king for publick prayer and humiliation / by Benjamin Keach.	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1696 (1696)	Wing K67; ESTC R18483	36,478	50

too hard for him to do Who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in Working 3. God can direct and save a People when all say there is no hope when every Man despareth of Succour and Relief and are at their Wits end as it were God can lead guide and direct us Infallibly He only gives certain and Infallible Counsel there are none can defeat his Counsel no wisdom nor craftiness of Men can stand before the Wisdom of God There is no Wisdom nor Understanding nor Counsel against the Lord What Encouragement is here to seek to God 4. As he can Direct us and none can withstand him or give us Counsel which none can overthrow so he can with ease defeat all the Counsels of his Peoples Enemies nay can turn their crafty counsel to the Advantage of his own People He taketh the Wise in their own Craftiness and the Counsel of the Froward is carryed head long or as the Prophet Isaiah saith The Counsel of the Wise shall be turned bac ward Omne Consilium Captatum in Festinatione est Stultitia God can mingle a perverse Spirit and and make the Princes of Zoan to become Fools 5. When he is sought truly unto he hath promised to direct a People or Person that feareth him his special care is over such that Trust in him Behold the eye of the Lord is over them that Fear him upon them that hope in his Mercy Mind my Text He shall direct thy Paths the steps of a good Man are ordered by the Lord and be delighteth in his ways Though the Young Lyons want and suffer hunger yet they that fear God shall want no good thing He will lead the Blind in ways they knew not c. Though we are in our selves Blind and Ignorant yet if we Acknowledge Him He will lead us and will not leave us to the lusts of our Enemies Brethren we are still in God's hand and none can pluck us out my and our times also are in his hand 6. You that are Godly have interest in this mighty God He is your Father therefore he will Teach and Direct you His Faithfulness and Fatherly Affections leadeth him thus to do 7. Do you also commit your selves to him and Trust in him and will he think you ever fail such that so do The Poor committeth himself to thee Thou art the Helper of the Fatherless If unfaithful Man will not fail such that wholly Trust in him will the Faithful God not help and direct such that put all their Trust in him though our Sins be many and our miseries and dangers many also yet Brethren let us lye low before the Lord and humbly confess with the Prophet our own Insufficiency O Lord I know that the way of Man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his Steps Let us use all due means which God directeth us to or be found in our duty and leave the Issue of all to God Men not seeking constantly to God nor relying on him may be the cause they prosper not But Let it go how it will with the Land or with the Wicked therein yet saith the Prophet Say to the Righteouss it shall go well with him A dismal day must come and will come upon this Land and upon all Nations of the Earth we see already Distress of Nations and Perplexities but these things are but the beginning of Sorrows but do you that Fear God Look up lift up your heads for your Redemption draws near 8. God will Bless and give Success to such that seek to him that humbly and sincerely Acknowledge him yea in their Civil Affairs such shall find their Endeavours crowned with a Blessing and also in Spiritual matters God will lead them The meek will be guide in Judgment and the meek will he teach his ways that is the humble and lowly ones that Acknowledge God and submit to his hand and are willing and desirous to be lead directed and governed by him in all their ways in doing Justice and Judgment who are not selfish or self-seeking persons who lay not burthens on others to ease themselves but act in all righte ousness and equallity in what they do in the Station where they are set for as all the ways of God are Mercy and Truth so should all the ways of Men be especially such that are Rulers and Magistrates who are intrusted with the great concerns of a Nation or People they ought to be Men fearing God Men of Truth hating Evil if not God may justly leave them and blast all their endeavours for they are the Meek the Humble and Righteous ones that God will guide in Judgment and direct their Paths 9. Know assuredly That none Teaches like God What is Man's teaching some Glory in their Phylosophical Learning but that only fills the head with knowledge it may make Men criticks but not Christians others boast of the Teachings of Natural Reason and will receive no Principles of Religion that is above this Teacher and thereby they cast contempt upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All True Knowledge flows from God's Soveraign Grace he guides and teaches whomsoever he pleaseth he can speak to the Heart nay give a heart to understand as well as instruction he can give a teachable frame or a teachable Spirit as well as direct those whom he hath given such a frame or heart unto therefore it followeth That to teach and direct our Souls is the effect of Almighty Power Be still and know that I am God Confess your weakness your Ignorance and acknowledge my Skill my Power as if God should say No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him What is his Drawing but his Teaching Every one therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me Men must be Un-taught or become Fools before they can be Wise I mean emptied of their own Wisdom and confess they know nothing as they ought to know Christ's Office and Work is to Teach his People He only hath the Tongue of the Learned therefore let all men Learn of him Wait upon him Acknowledge him to be their only Instructor and Counsellor and say with David Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterward receive me to Glory And thus I shall End as I Begun In all thy ways Acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy Paths FINIS ERRATA PAge 6. Line 41. for His Will His Law read His Will is His Law P. 12. L. 31. for Peruse r. Persue P. 13. L. 31. for Chooser Chose P. 21. L. 31. for Acknowledged r. Acknowledge P. 24. L. 7. for Man r. Men. P. 24. L. 10. for him● r. him P. 27. L. 22. for would r. should BOOKS Sold by William Marinal at the Bible in Newgate-Street and John Marshal at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1. BAptism discovered plainly and faithfully according to the word of God wherein is set

Prayers are heard Christ offers up all the Prayers of his own People with his own Incense and when he offerred up their Prayers with his Incense their were Voices Lightnings and Thunder 1. Joyn Confession of Sins with your Supplications O find out every one of you the Plague of his own heart and lie low at the Foot of God confess your own Sins and the Sins of the Nation and the Sins of God's People thus you have heard Daniel did Brethren to Confession of Sin add also deep Humiliation this must be joyned with our Prayers and Confessions nay and Reformation of Life also every one must turn from his evil way See 2 Chron. 7. 14. If my People that are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their Evil Ways then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their Sins and will be al their Land If we regard Iniquity in our hearts God will not hear our Prayers 'T is true a National Humiliation and Reformation may prevent National Judgments as in the case of Nineveb O that we could see but such an Humiliation as was among them among us in England for the Sins of this Nation are grievous in the Sight of God being attended with such Lamentable Aggravations we are a People of exceeding great Mercies but O! the Wickedness of these Days God is therefore angry with us the Inhabitants of England may see their Sins in their Punishment Doth not God touch us in our Trade and Coyn Is it not because those two things have been as it were the Idols of England or of Multitudes among us Sirs Let us look higher than to secondary Causes of these present distresses that are upon us and acknowledge God to be just in permitting these Evils to come upon the Land If we cannot find out the Cause of our Distempers how shall we find out a Cure I am afraid least this Pretended Fast should be but as a Mock-Fast or a day of Humiliation in shew only and not in heart if we see all persons reforming their ways we shall have ground to hope better things If Magistrates do their part not only in making good Laws against Vice and Prophaneness but in seeing those Laws put into due execution and they themselves and every man to turn from his evil ways and from the violence that is in his hand then may Gods Wrath and Anger cease but if not his judgment will break forth upon us Brethren God is a jealous God and will not be mocked what men sow they shall reap 'T is said of Niniveh ' And God saw their Works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and did it not It was not their words but their works that God looked at 't is not what we speak but what we do that will prevail with the Allmighty 1. Terror and wo to them that cast off all fear of God and acknowledge him not or do it not in truth and sincerity Thou casteth off fear and restrainest prayer before God Some men look upon it vain and uproficable to pray to God or to acknowledge him What profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts But what will these men do in the day of Wrath Judgments shall bow them and break them if Mercies will not melt them 2. Those that refuse to acknowledge God or who follow not his Direction and walk not in his Ways nor hearken not to his Voice nor wait for his Counsel he will in Wrath and Judgment leave and give them up to their own hearts lusts and to walk in their own counsel as he did Israel of old My people would not bearken to my voice and Israel would have none of me so I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsel God may iustly withdraw all his directing influences from such and blind their Eyes who through Pride think they have Wisdom enough to manage their own Affairs and direct their own Paths God's counsel is to men to forsake their sinful ways to embrace his Son or believe in Christ and trust in him alone and rest on his word and cry to him in their trouble but when they refuse to do this he oftentimes utterly leaves them and then they fall and bring ruin on themselves and others whose counsellers they pretend to be or chosen to be The truth is while the Nation continueth in its Rebellion against God and all Prophaneness aboundeth to such a degree as to this day it dothe what can we expect but Wrath and fearful Judgments What signifies a few formal Prayers whilst men hold fast their sins Are such Laws made and executed to check and restrain the cursed enormities of the ungodly That may tend as an effectual way to accomplish such a Reformation that God calls for Alas whilst every Mans Hand at Sea and Land is up against God fighting against him can we expect he should appear to fight for us O what horrid Pride Uncleanness Oaths and Blasphemy and all Prophaneness do we see and hear of every day 'T is a wonder the Earth opens not its Mouth to swallow them up at Land as it did them at Jemeca and that the Sea doth not swallow up our Ships and those in them they having such a wait and load in them Sin is a heavy burthen and our sins are so heavy they are enough to sink as one observes seventeen Kingdoms Moreover what Errors and detestable Heresies do abound among us And also what Divisions Discord and Animosities are there among Professors One set against another little Love and Charity being now to be found in the Earth Much Preaching but little Practise Are not many Professors as Proud Covetous Carnal and Loose as others O where is the Life and Power of Religion What can we look for whilst things are thus but some fearful calamity and dissolution But to proceed to a Use of Comfort and Consolation to such who do in uprightness acknowledge God Observe the Motive or Encouragement that is laid down in the later part of my Text and he shall direct thy Paths I cannot now speak to this part of the words as I might for want of time but certainly here is great ground of Comfort to all godly Christians yea to all that rightly acknowledge God For 1. He will shew us the right way that we might saith Ezra seek a right way none but God can lead us into a right way every mans way may seem right in his own Eyes but no mans way is right but such as God teaches and directs 2. Let our Straits and Distresses be never so great nay beyond the wisdom of Man to find out a Remidy yet God can soon direct us and all that seek to him in a way for present Relief nothing is