Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	ghost_n	holy_a	redeemer_n	2,615	5	10.3339	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26870	A breviate of the life of Margaret, the daughter of Francis Charlton ... and wife of Richard Baxter ... : there is also published the character of her mother, truly described in her published funeral sermon, reprinted at her daughters request, called, The last work of a believer, his passing-prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ, to be received by him.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1194; ESTC R1213	62,400	127

him all my days 2. And an humble heart that I may be taught of God who looketh on the proud afar off 3. And a tender conscience that I may fear to offend him and hate all sin 4. And strength so to resist temptations that I be not led by Satan to dishonour God or to provoke him 5. And a meek and quiet frame of spirit that I may be contented to bear the afflictions that God shall lay me under without murmuring or repining § 3. This being that which she gave us in I find under her hand this secret renewal that same day of her Covenant with God which I annex This being a day set apart for returning thanks to God for his mercy in delivering me from the gates of death these people being they that have earnestly supplicated the throne of grace on my behalf I here now renew my Covenant with Almighty God and resolve by his grace to endeavour to get and keep a fresh sense of his mercy on my soul and a greater sense yet of my sin I resolve to set my self against my sin with all my might and not take its part or extenuate it or keep the Devils counsel as I have done to the wronging of God and the wounding of my own soul. I resolve by Gods assistance to set upon the practise of known duty and not to study shifts and evasions to put off those which are either troublesome chargeable or likely to render me dishonourable and vile in the eyes of the carnal persons of the world And this I do upon these considerations and for these reasons 1. My life hath been a life of great mercy God hath preserved it more than this once and hath done exceeding great things for me which engageth me more than many others though all rational creatures are obliged to live to God their Maker 2. God hath not only given me life but in some measure ability and opportunity to do him service yea and already some encouragement in the hopes of the success of some of my poor endeavours I suppose on some of her servants 3. God hath more engaged me to himself by taking me into his Family and planting me in his Garden and watering me with the dew from heaven He hath set me in a fruitful soil He hath given me the high priviledg of a part in the hearts and prayers of his people and I may say that I live to speak it That God is a God hearing prayers and hath heard and answered them Though the Tempter be busie to make me think diminitively of this mercy yet I must not but must acknowledg the greatness of it 4. As all these and more engagements are upon me so I am already engaged by the Baptismal Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as my God and chief Good and only happiness and as my Redeemer Head and Husband and as my Sanctifier and Comforter and I have renewed it in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and how can I go back that have thus far engaged my self and daily receive from God more obligations Yea God will expect more from me than from many others Let me therefore see that I be in good earnest with God and think not to put him off with hypocrisie let me not deceive my self for God will not be mocked what I sow I shall reap if I belong to God though I suffer whilst I am in the body they will be but light afflictions and but for a moment but the everlasting Kingdom will be mine inheritance and when this life is ended I shall reign with Christ I shall be freed from sin and suffering and for ever rejoyce with Saints and Angels But should I prove an hypocrite I lose my labour I lose my God and damnation with Devils and damned ones will be my reward for ever and rhis the greater as my mercies have been abundant and great Therefore I here desire this day to renew my Covenant with God and to beg the prayers of this people that God will not leave me to my self but help me by the sufficient Grace of Christ to keep the Covenant which I have made And I intend to keep this Paper by me to help to remember me and quicken me to duty and hinder me from sin and encourage me to go on cheerfully against temptations looking still to Christ who forsaketh not those that by faith and repentance come to him To all this let me add these Considerations of the vanity of the creature and of all false hopes It is contrary to the nature of the creature to be our peace they are our discomforts and troubles further than they help to lead us to the Creator Let me not forget the time when I seemed near death What comfort had I then in creatures What ease from them Was not all my hope in God All creatutes shewed me that side on which vanity was written and they had nothing that could satisfie my soul Though I had as much mercy in means and friends as I could possibly desire yet all this was nothing to me the trouble of parting with them was much more than the comfort of enjoying them and so it will be with me still which should teach me to keep my heart loose from the Creature and not over-love any thing on this side Heaven Why should my heart be fixed where my home is not Heaven is my home God in Christ is all my happiness and where my treasure is there my heart should be Come away Oh my heart from vanity mount Heavenward and be not dead or dull if thou wouldst be free from trouble and tast of real joy and pleasure Hath not experience yet taught thee that creature-comforts though they may be Roses have their pricks canst not thou be content to look on them and smell them at a distance and covet no other use while thou art in the Garden where they grow and be content to leave them there behind thee If thou must needs have them in thy bosome thou must scratch thy fingers to get them and when thou hast them though the smell a while delight thee they will quickly wither and are gone Away then O my carnal heart retire to God the only satisfying object There mayest thou love without all danger of excess Let thy love to God be fixed and transcendent Amen § 4. Though these were the strivings of her heart towards God her fears and troubles did not so pass away setled peace of soul doth seldom come quickly to young Converts though their sincere resolutions may be setled I find among her Papers yet more of that days work upon her after examination and review Bear with the length if I transcribe it as I find it under her hand Christ saith In the world you shall have trouble in me you shall have peace Something of both now I find at this time This night after returning thanks to God for my recovery I find my heart sad

left had it pleased God to lengthen her life and I am far from fearing want my self But so much for opening the course of her studies labours expences and indeed her delights CHAP. VIII Of her Mental Qualifications and her Infirmities § 1. I Doubt not but some of these accusers will say Why open you all this Were not you the Master and do not you hereby praise your self or else confess that she was your governess Ans. 1. Perhaps love and grief may make me speak more than many will think fit But though some passion blind the judgment some doth but suscitate it to duty and God made it to that end and I will not be judged by any that never felt the like 2. Did not Christ say of Marys Box of Ointment that it should be remembred wherever that Gospel was Preached And was it not Iudas that said what need this wast And were not the poors clothing made by Dorcas shewed to move Peter The poor we have always with us Do the covetous believe that what we do to his people we do to Christ 3. It was not mine which she gave but her own that I am now mentioning and what she procured 4. But I am not ashamed to have been much ruled by her prudent love in many things And you will the less wonder when I have told you what she and I were § 2. For my self my constant pains and weakness and Ministerial labours forbad me the care of outward things I had never much known worldly cares Before I was Married I had no need afterwards she took the care on her and disuse had made it intolerable to me I feel now more of it than ever I did when yet I have so little a way to go § 3. And as for her I speak the truth her apprehension of such things was so much quicker and more discerning than mine that though I was naturally somewhat tenacious of my own conceptions her reasons and my experience usually told me that she was in the right and knew more than I. She would at the first hearing understand the matter better than I could do by many and long thoughts § 4. And the excellency of her reason lay not so much in the speculative as the prudential practical part I must say that in this I never knew her equal In very hard cases about what was to be done she would suddenly open all the way that was to be opened in things of the Family Estate or any civil business And to confess the truth experience acquainted her that I knew less in such things than she and therefore was willing she should take it all upon her § 5. Yea I will say that which they that believe me to be no liar will wonder at Except in cases that require Learning and skill in Theological difficulties she was better at resolving a case of conscience than most Divines that ever I knew in all my life I often put cases to her which she suddenly so resolved as to convince me of some degree of over-sight in my own resolution Insomuch that of late years I confess that I was used to put all save secret cases to her and hear what she could say Abundance of difficulties were brought me some about Restituti on some about Injuries some about References some about Vows some about Marriage promises and many such like and she would lay all the circumstances presently together compare them and give me a more exact resolution than I could do § 6. As to Religion we were so perfectly of one mind that I know not that she differed from me in any one point or scarce a circumstance except in the prudential management of what we were agreed in She was for universal love of all true Christians and against appropriating the Church to a Party and against censoriousness and partiality in Religion she was for acknowledging all that is of God in Conformists and Nonconformists But she had much more reverence for the elder Conformists than for most of the young ones who ventured upon things which Dissenters had so much to say against without weighing or understanding the reasons on both sides meerly following others for worldly ends without a tender fear of sinning especially if any young men of her own friends were inclined meerly to swim with the stream without due tryal of the case it greatly displeased her and she thought hardly of them § 7. She had in her Youth been tempted to doubt of the Life to come and of the Truth of the Scripture But she was so fully resolved and setled herein that her confident Assurance of it was the life of all her Life and Practice § 8. After all the doubts of her Sincerity and Salvation and all the Fears and Sadness thereupon which cast her into Melancholy she so far overcame them all that for near these Nineteen years that I have lived with her I think I never heard her thrice speak a doubting word of her Salvation but oft of her hopeful perswasions that we should live together in Heaven It being my judgment and constant practice to make those that I teach understand that the Gospel is glad Tidings of great Joy and that Holiness lies especially in delighting in God his Word and Works and in his joyful praise and hopes of Glory and longing for and seeking the Heavenly Ierusalem and living as fruitfully to the Church and others as we can do in the world And that this must be wrought by the most believing apprehensions of God's Goodness as equal to his Greatness and of his great Love to Mankind manifested in our Redemption and by believing the Grace and Riches of Christ and the Comforting-Office of the Holy Ghost and studying daily God's Promises and Mercies and our everlasting Joys And that Religion consists in doing God's commanding Will and quietly and joyfully trusting and resting in his promising and disposing Will. And that Fear and Sorrow are but to remove Impediments and further all this And this Doctrine by degrees she drunk in and so fully consented to that though Timerousness was her Disease her judgment was quieted and setled herein § 9. The nature of true Religion Holiness Obedience and all Duty to God and man was printed in her conceptions in so distinct and clear a Character as made her endeavours and expectations still look at greater exactness than I and such as I could reach She was very desirous that we should all have lived in a constancy of Devotion and a blameless Innocency And in this respect she was the meetest helper that I could have had in the world that ever I was acquainted with For I was apt to be over-careless in my Speech and too backward to my Duty And she was still endeavouring to bring me to greater wariness and strictness in both If I spake rashly or sharply it offended her If I carried it as I was apt with too much neglect of Ceremony or humble Complement to any