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mercy_n father_n lord_n redeemer_n 2,002 5 9.8210 5 false
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A29162 A sermon preached at St. Catherine Cree-Church, upon Sunday the 1st of March 1695/6 upon occasion of the late horrid plot / by Nicholas Brady ... Brady, Nicholas, 1659-1726. 1696 (1696) Wing B4180; ESTC R19559 10,459 37

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And this leads me to the consideration of the 2d Branch of my Text namely The Prophet's Exhortation to an absolute dependance upon God for his Protection fear ye not stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord. Since the Race is not always to the Swift nor the Battle to the Strong or the Couragious but time and chance as the Preacher observes happens to them hoth the best way to secure to our selves a certainty of Success is to fix our dependance upon the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning Then tho the Arm of Flesh should be never so strongly exalted against us yet shall we find that the Right hand of the Lord has the preeminence that the Right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass It is better therefore to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man it is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in Princes But since the mercy of God is not such a foolish tenderness or unaccountable relenting as is sometimes found in those whom we stile good-natur'd Men an easiness of being wrought upon without any reason for it I shall therefore 1st Enquire what is to be performed upon our part in order to fit us for the Divine Protection or to qualify us for seeing the Salvation of the Lord. And 2dly I shall prove that if we are so qualified we shall certainly be Protected we shall assuredly see the Salvation of the Lord. 1st Then I shall enquire what is to be performed upon our part in order to fit us for the Divine Protection or to qualify us for seeing the Salvation of the Lord. The Lord is on my side says the Royal Psalmist I will not fear what man can do unto me We must be secure that God is on our side if we would be free from Human Apprehensions Now to make us secure of this it is not enough that we can say we are Christians we are Protestants we are called by his Name we are Members of the Purest Church upon Earth No unless our Practices are agreeable to our Profession unless we exemplify our high calling in our Lives and Conversations these are but so many enhancements of our guilt abuses of the manifold advantages which God has bestowed upon us and are so far from affording us impunity and Protection that they only qualify us for being beaten with many stripes Neither are we to reflect upon the faults and errours of those who seem design'd for the inflicters of God's Judgments and from thence presently conclude That God will not Fight against us upon their side Their Offences are no extenuation of our guilt and the Scourge may be made use of tho it is afterwards to be cast into the Fire Executioners we know are seldom chosen out of the best of men the vilest and the meanest are generally thought fit enough for such an employment and not only the wicked part of human Kind but even Lice and Flies the meanest Particles and Refuse of the Greation in the avenging hand of God become dreadful Instruments of his wrath and indignation The surest way to give a guess at our own condition and the circumstances we lye under for a well provided hope of Protection is to examine our own ways lest otherwise by endeavouring to shun one extream we should ignorantly and unadvisedly run into another and avoiding Despair should be guilty of Presumption To this purpose the Royal Psalmist in the person of God gives us this clear information O! That my People would have harkened unto me For if Israel would have walked in my ways I should soon have put down their Enemies and turned my hand against their Adversaries This is the necessary and indispensible condition without which we have no title to the Protection of our God Let every one therefore amongst us duly enquire into himself and Commune with his own Heart secretly Have I hearkened unto the Voice of my God and have I walled in his ways Have I diligently sought out his will and carefully endeavoured to square all my Actions according to that rule Have my Paths been the Paths of Righteousness and have I walked faithfully with my God He that upon such an Examination finds his Conscience bearing witness for him may Expostulate with the Almighty in the Pathetical words of the Prophet Isaiah Look down O Lord from Heaven and behold from the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory Where is thy Zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy Bowels and of thy Mercies towards me are they restrained Doubtless thou art our Father tho Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledg us not thou O Lord are our Father our Redeemer thy name is from everlasting But if upon a due examination we find the contrary as I fear it is the case of too many amongst us upon a just and serious Reflection that we have hearkened only unto the voice of our Lusts and that our ways have been the ways of Death let us then in the Name of God endeavour to renew our selves by a hearty Repentance by a thorough Reformation immediately setting about to remove our Sins far from us by which only we can be removed from the Protection of our God Let every man turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hand and God will assuredly turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Thus if by a speedy and sincere Repentance we make our sins that were red as Crimson become whiter than the Wooll God also will certainly do his part he will make us to hear of joy and gladness and cause the bones which he had broken to rejoyce Then may we take up the Prophet David's chearful Ejaculation God shall deliver us from the snare of the hunter and from the noisome Pestilence he shall defend us under his Wings and we shall be safe under his Feathers his Faithfulness and Truth shall be our Shield and Buckler we shall not be afraid for any Terrour by Night nor for the Arrow that flieth by day a thousand shall fall beside us and ten thousand upon our Right Hand but it shall not come nigh us for the Lord is our defence the God of Jacob is our Refuge And this leads me to the consideration of the 2d Particular namely to prove that if we are thus qualified we shall certainly be Protected we shall assuredly see the Salvation of the Lord. Fear ye not stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord. Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortned that it cannot save neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear unless our iniquities do separate between us and our God and our sins do hide his Face from us he will hear the cry of such as call upon him yea of all such as call upon him faithfully This we find to have been his constant way of Proceeding with his