Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	glory_n	vessel_n	wrath_n	3,740	5	9.3244	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42547	God's soveraignty displayed from Job 9. 12. : Behold he taketh away, who can hinder him? &c., or, A discourse shewing, that God doth, and may take away from his creatures what hee pleaseth, as to the matter what, the place where, the time when, the means and manner how, and the reasons thereof : with an application of the whole, to the distressed citizens of London, whose houses and goods were lately consumed by the fire : an excitation of them to look to the procuring causes of this fiery tryal, the ends that God aims at in it, with directions how to behave themselves under their losses / by William Gearing ...	Gearing, William.; Gearing, William. No abiding city in a perishing world.	1667 (1667)	Wing G435A; ESTC R18630	101,655	265

miseries deformities pains sicknesses shall all be abolished the substance that is the foundation being taken away the accidents that cleaves to them whether ornaments or blemishes must needs vanish with them When a goodly Palace is on fire the beauty of it the painting the engraving the carved work and also the decayes and ruines of it will be abolished with it So the substance of these things being destroyed all the materials whether beautiful or uncomely shall be destroyed together As the iron naturally hath its rust to consume it and each tree its worm and rottenness so all living creatures all Cities Kingdomes have their internal causes of decay Consider things above or below all Trades or Liberal Sciences they all ever had and ever shall have their perishings and as the rivers by a continual course do empty themselves into the Ocean so all worldly things do slide into the Channel of destruction as to their mark they aim at therefore labour not after these perishing things SECT VI. Do not expect much from these unstable things do not build your hopes upon them such hopes are but Cobweb hopes as Bildad speaks Job 8.13 14 15. Such a man may lean upon his house but both he and his house will fall together he may hold it fast but his hope will deceive him Every thing under the Cope of Heaven is but ill ground and an ill foundation every thing except God wanteth a bottom and cannot stand alone of it self and therefore can give no support to any one that shall rest or lean upon it Oh how many are there in the world whose hearts would die within them were these temporal things taken from them take away these temporal things from those that have made them their confidence and they have nothing else to rest upon All these visible things have miscarrying wombs and dry breasts that will deceive those that look for much from them the world still makes many fair promises of much good to us and of long continuance with us but in performances proveth contrary it promiseth joy but cometh accompanied with sorrow and when we have most need of its help it will be farthest from us Grapes never grew out of these thorns nor figs out of these thistles It is not good to trust to lying vanities which ever deceive those that trust unto them and God often strips us of these uncertain things these fading helps and weak-hearted runawayes that we might place all our hope and trust in him who never leaveth nor forsaketh them that trust in him CHAP. VII I Come now to handle the second Proposition which is this Prop. 2. That Heaven is a continuing City In the prosecution of this point I will shew you first how it is a City then how it is a continuing City That it is a City will appear by these demonstrations 1. In a City there be divers streets divers houses in those streets wherein some are bigger some are lesser a City is large and spacious so our Saviour saith In my Fathers house the City of the great King are many Mansions Joh. 14.2 It is a most magnificent City no greatness in the world can be compared with the greatness of it it is the Royal Palace of the great God who inhabiteth Eternity whom the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens are not able to contain there he vouchsafeth to dwell and in a most glorious manner to communicate himself to his Angels and his Saints 2. Heaven is populous as a City If you desire to know the number of the Inhabitants of this City S. John will tell you Revel 7.9 that he saw in Spirit such a great company of blessed Saints that no man was able to reckon them gathered together of all kinds of Nations people and tongues which stood before the Throne of Almighty God and of the Lamb apparrelled in white garments and with Triumphant Palms in their hands singing praise unto Almighty God Hereunto doth that of the Prophet Daniel agree Dan. 7.10 Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand-times ten thousand stood before him 3. It is full of glorious riches as a City It is said of Tyre that the Merchants thereof were Princes so all the Inhabitants of this City are Noble Personages there is no one among them of base Lineage or extraction forasmuch as they be all the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almighty and instated into a rich and glorious Inheritance 4. It is a City compact and at unity within it self We must not think that the greatness of the number of these Citizens causeth any disorder among them for there the multitude is no cause of confusion but of greater order there must needs be good agreement there being none but God and good company there there is no matter of discontent or discord among the Citizens for these commonly arise about partition and division either of honors or offices here is ambition or else of goods or possessions here is covetousness Now neither of these shall ever come there for heavens happy excess shall not be diminished nor any whit impaired by reason of the multitude of sharers in it for as S. August tells us the glory of heaven shall be Tanta singulis quanta omnibus such to every one in particular as it shall be to all in common and although there shall be dispar gloria singulorum yet there shall be communis laetitia omnium they all live so lovingly together that they are all as it were one heart and one soul All the Citizens of heaven live so harmoniously and peaceably together that the very City it self is called Jerusalem the Vision of Peace Although all the Saints shall be like Christ in glory yet one Saint will exceed another in glory God will cloathe all his children alike yet their garments shall be made proportionable to their stature all the Saints shall be Vessels of Mercy yet one Saint shall be a larger and a more capacious Vessel than another Christ in his answer to that curious request of Zebedees wife Mat. 20.23 Granting that some shall sit at his right hand and others at his left in his Kingdome implieth that there shall be degrees of glory to some more to others less they all shall have the same glory and happiness Ratione objecti faelicitat is gloria non ratione participationis In regard of the object of happiness God in Christ is the object of happiness they shall all enjoy God but in regard of the participation of the object one may and shall see him more clearly than another In my Fathers house are many Mansions saith our Saviour Patris Domus the Fathers House is put for one and the same object of glory Pluralitas Mansionum there be many Mansions that sheweth there are divers degrees of glory saith Aquinas This is his comparison there is but one Center unto which all things tend but some bodies are neerer than other bodies so God in

avenged and will avenge with the forest destruction the Temple in Jerusalem was afterward burnt and utterly overthrown by the Romans no flame is more fierce than when oyl wine or sugar are fired if you will know when the sins of a people are at the full and ripe for the sickle of destruction it is when the Gospel is rejected and his Messengers despised and misused They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Caldees who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their Sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden old men or him that stooped for age he gave them all into his hand and all the vessels of the House of God great and small and the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the King and of his Princes all these brought he to Babylon and they burnt the house of God and brake down the wall of Jerusalem and burnt all the Palaces thereof with fire and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof 2 Chron 36.16 17 19. Whether you are guilty of this sin you best know SECT III. A third sin is the sin of oppression when men grinde the faces of their needy Brethren and make the necessities of others their advantages to oppress them the more how can the love of God dwell in such hearts I may say to such you rob the poor because they are poor and grieve their sad hearts rather than relieve them dealing with them as the Jews did with our Saviour in their extreme sufferings give them gall and wormwood to drink instead of waters of comfort their own poverty like Solomon chastiseth them with whips and your oppression like Rehoboam whips them with Scorpions and as he told the oppressed people that his finger should be heavier than his Fathers loins it is most true of your oppression it is far more tyranny than their wants whereas you should pour oyl into their hearts you pour in vinegar to aggravate their calamities whereas you should shew mercy to them in misery you shew all cruelty to the miserable your bounty should relieve them your cruelty draws more from them Oppression is like unto a Grindstone yea it is as a Milstone hung about the necks of the needy and sinks them deeper and deeper into want and misery the poor are the grapes and you are the Wine-pressers squeezing out the blood of the poor It is a notable phrase of Solomon Prov. 12.10 The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel it is in the Hebrew the bowels of the wicked are cruel The tender mercies that is when men seem to shew mercy to their needy brother their words and actions carry fair shews of compassion as lending money to them in their necessity yet there is much cruelty in those mercies in the event ensuing thereupon How often do Oppressors fetch home their money lent to needy brothers with a vengeance and unconscionable exactions How often do they take the garments which should cover the nakedness of their needy brethren for a pledge aad instead of cloathing the naked they expose them to nakedness Exod. 22.22 23. God threatens if thou afflict any stranger widow or fatherless childe and they cry at all unto me I will surely hear their cry Oppression is a crying sin it cries for vengeance yea Gods anger will burn against such merciless men And my wrath saith he shall wax hot and I will kill you with the sword God threatens to meet with the Oppressor by one judgement or other and God will make your Wives and Children to be in the same extremity that your needy Brethren are The stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it Habak 2.11 Suppose the poor and needy whom you oppress do not cry against you yet these dumb inanimate creatures will cry out against your oppressions for vengeance upon you Amos 5.11 Forasmuch as your treading is upon the poor and ye take from him burdens of wheat ye have built houses of hewn stone but ye shall not dwell in them God threatens to take away the habitations of such as oppress the poor and needy SECT IV. A fourth sin I will set before you is incorrigibleness under former judgements God sent the Plague to the great City of this Land the last year which swept away many thousands of the Inhabitants week after week for a great while together and even to this day the Plague rageth in many Towns Cities and other places in this Land But my Brethren who is the better after this sore Visitation Did not sins of all sorts and kinds abound in the great City before God consumed great part of it with fire Oh what wicked and profane practises hath over-spread it since the late devouring Plague like the Sluggards Field that Solomon speaks of that was all over-spread with thorns and thistles and not only so but persons of all ranks and conditions and estates it is to be feared have been Actors Factors and Abettors of sin most men have run into sin with more greediness than before As Noahs flood covered hills dales mountains vallies so the flood of ungodliness hath covered high and low rich and poor Though God justly punished us yet in the time of his just wrath he remembred to shew mercy Habak 3.2 The mercies of God are over all his works even over his penal judiciary works Psa 145.9 his mercy is most conspicuous in times of judgement to command deliverance when we are in the mouth of danger in the Den of Lions in the Burning Furnace is mercy indeed to save a people being in the very jaws of death is mercy indeed it is the Lords mercies you were not utterly consumed the Sword would have consumed the Plague would have devoured all these judgements like fire and water are merciless had not God interposed his own mercy you had been utterly consumed if mercy had not rebuked his judgements they had swallowed you up quick you can no more resist an overflowing judgement than a level of Sand can withstand the inundation of the Sea The Lord gave you a respite after the last years wasting plague he moderated his wrath and did not make a full end of you the Lord would make tryal whether you would act according to your resolutions vows and promises made in the day of your distress When the plague of Frogs was upon Pharaoh when the Frogs were crawling on his bed on his table in his chamber when he heard Frogs every where croaking and saw all Egypt to be filled with them then he sent for Moses and Aaron and begs them to pray for him Entreat ye the Lord to remove the Frogs and then he promised to let Israel go and they should serve the Lord Moses prayed and