Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	great_a	lord_n	spare_v	2,993	5	9.3697	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07526	A true and certaine relation of a strange-birth which was borne at Stone-house in the parish of Plimmouth, the 20. of October. 1635. Together with the notes of a sermon, preached Octob. 23. 1635. in the church of Plimmouth, at the interring of the sayd birth. By Th. B. B.D. Pr. Pl.	Bedford, Thomas, d. 1653.	1635 (1635)	STC 1791.3; ESTC S120122	17,459	26

the afore-mentioned Psalme when hee saith I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Mervailous are thy Workes and that my Soule knoweth right-well Know wee not that God hath just cause to blast every birth of ours if he would be extreme Partly in respect of the abuse of the Bed which though hee hath sanctified to the use of man by the benediction of the Church that so in the sober use thereof every one should possesse his Vessell in sanctification and honour yet is it too often riotously and wantonly abused Partly I say for these Abuses but specially in respect of that Originall corruption which cleaveth to the Fruit of the womb even from the first conception as the Psalmist sheweth From this gilt and filth not one of all the Race of Adam is exempted No sooner doe we receave a Being but it is accompanied with sinfulnesse In which respect who can denie but God might justly blast the body with deformity Which if hee doe not when hee might is it not a favour and so to be acknowledged Wee acknowledge it a speciall favour to the Soule as it is reason wee should that God doth exempt any from that common damnation which is due to all by Adams transgression And is it not to be confessed a Mercie to the body For why VVhen the body doth want its perfect feature when the Soule doth want the exercise of wit and reason more or lesse Is not this an effect of Sinne and so to bee accounted Doth God in this any thing more than what Iustice doth allow Shall wee say it is an act of his absolute Dominion I trow not VVhat is justly done to some is it not mercie not to doe to others Yes my Dearely beloved it is Mercie free and undeserved Mercie O that in this also as in other things I say O that men would therfore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderfull VVorks to the Sonnes of men Contrarily when the Hand of Iustice hath found any out when any birth of ours is brought into the world misformed and mis-featured If God hath as it were spit in the face and laid the black-finger of Deformity upon the body ought it not to bee entertained with sorrow of Heart and Humiliation Hath God written in great Letters the guilt of Sin and in a deformed body drawn a resemblance of the Soules deformity drawn it I say so that others may see and know that wee also are defiled in his sight and shall wee not blush to heare it to see it thus cast in our teeth and laid before us This for the Parties but is this all Is it nothing to you all that passe by or that come to see Mee thinkes It should Can you any of you wash your hands in Innocencie are not you also Sinners in the sight of God VVhat can you alledge why this might not have beene yours Did you prevent it by prayer I trust you will hereafter and acknowledge the justnesse of their Devotion who remember women with child but happily you have not hitherto thought upon it If so If God might have throwne the tower of Siloam upon your heads also if set a marke of his displeasure upon your births and yet hath not done it will you not see and say The Lord hath done great things for us Lord what am I that thou hast spared mee am I more holy lesse sinfull than my neighbour No no It is thy free Mercie and undeserved Favour Oh inlarge my heart to praise thy Name Heere then see and bewaile the iniquity and irreligion of this our Age at least of numbers in the same The common sort make no further use of these Brodigies and Strange-births than as a matter of wonder and table-talk looke upon them with none other eyes than with which they would behold an African monster a mishapen beast It was not thus in the better Ages of the world VVee reade in the ninth Chapter of Saint Iohn that the Disciples when they saw the man that was borne blind they come to our blessed Savior with Quis peccavit M r Who hath sinned See the Religion of those times They lookt upon sinne as the cause of defective or redundant births Truth indeed our Saviour answereth Neither this man nor his parents By which Speech of Christ wee must not thinke that they are excused from all sinne doubtlesse his parents had sinned and conceived him in sinne else had not this beene cast upon him No place for defects and deformities in the state of Innocence But why God should take the forfeiture in this rather than in his Neighbour this was meerely Ex Dei bene-placit● the good pleasure of God who had in this a purpose to prepare and make way for the glory of Christ in curing the man The same happily might bee said in these occasions whereof wee speake To the Question Quis peccavit Who hath sioned happily Christ who was acquainted with the Counsels of his Father might answer Neque hic neque parentes Neither he nor his Parents Not to exempt them from sinne altogether but to teach us that some other end purpose God had beside the visitation of their sin though that also we find somtimes to bemanifested when God by such occasions doth awaken the coscience to confesse secret and unbewailed sins beside I say the visitation of sin Somtimes to discover the Atheism Irreligion of many perhaps also their Covetousnesse who would rather make a benefit of such births instead of Humiliation for a Crosse teach the parents to account such births for blessings which doe prove so profitable Sometimes to prompt unto the Ministerie a word of exhortation needfull for the present state of the people A meditation which happily his text would not afford him Ex. gr This Lesson as you see is by this occasion prompted to me presented to you That you remember hereafter to acknowledge it as a Mercie when Children come into the world well-featured the members of their body in a due proportion aptly each to other corresponding neither defective nor redundant To bewaile it as a crosse from God when it is otherwise that so penitencie may provide a Remedie either of the deformity by the hand of Man or of the discomfort by the stroke of Death This Lesson I say is now presented to you and I trust will bee remembred by you And if so the Answer to the Question may goe on as it is in the words of our Saviour Neither this man nor his parents but that the works of God should bee made manifest in him To winde up this first observation in a word I noted the religion of the Disciples they looke up to sinne as to the cause of Gods Hand nor shall it misbecome us to doe the like provided alway that it bee what they forgot in our owne occasion rather than in anothers Doe I suffer Let mee say Lord I have sinned Thou art just Doth another