Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	hear_v	lord_n	merciful_a	2,985	5	9.4011	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41125	The sacrifice of the faithfull, or, A treatise shewing the nature, property, and efficacy of zealous prayer together with some motives to prayer, and helps against discouragements in prayer : to which is added seven profitable sermons / by William Fenner ...	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1648 (1648)	Wing F698; ESTC R478	35,874	88

speake First the soule beleeves and then every action of a Christian wherin it moves to the keeping of the condition springs from this root nay beloved a man cannot keep any condition in the Bible without faith he must believe Secondly faith is the inabling cause to keep the condition Dost thou thinke to get weeping mourning and humiliation for thy sinnes and then thereby to get the promise to thy selfe then thou goest in thy owne strength and then in Gods account thou dost just nothing John 15. 5. Without me ye can doe nothing saith Christ therefore first lay hold on me beleeve in me abide in me What! doe you first think to pray to mourne to lament and bewaile your sinnes to do this and that in turning your selves and sanctifying of your selves Indeed you may fumble about these things but you can never do any of them in deed and to the purpose without me ye can doe nothing I had fainted saith the Prophet unlesse I had beleeved to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living Psal. 27. 13. where we may see three things First the Promise that he should see the goodnesse of the Lord otherwise he could not have beleeved Secondly the Condition if he doe not faint Thirdly the method the Prophet went by First he beleeved to see the goodnesse of the Lord As if he had said if he had not first laid hold on the Promise if I had not beleeved to have seen the goodnesse of the Lord in the Land of the living I had fainted Beloved it is true that the keeping of the Condition is before the fruition of the Promise but not before beleeving the Promise because the doing of the Condition is effected by beleeving the Promise This is the cause that many fumble about grace but never get it they are ever repenting but never repent ever learning but never learne the knowledge of the truth everlasting ever striving but never get power over their corruptions c. because they fumble about it in their own strength and take it not in the right method Let the soule come with faith in Christ and believe it shall speed and have grace and power from Christ his grace and from Christs power and then it shall speed Christ hath promised John 16. that whatsoever we aske the Father in his name he will give it us Christ beloved is an excellent Surety Indeed our credit is crackt in Heaven we may thinke to goe and fetch this and that grace in our owne names and misse of it as the servant may goe to the Merchant for wares in his owne name but the Merchant will not deliver them to him in his own name unlesse he come in his Masters name and bring a ticket from him and then when the servant sheweth his Masters ticket the Merchant will deliver him what wares he asketh for in his Masters name So when a soule goeth to the Throne of grace with a ticket from Christ if he can say Lord it is for the honour of Christ I come for grace and holinesse and strength against my corruptions Lord here is a ticket from Christ most certainly he shall speed But men must take heed that they foyst not the name of Christ that they foyst not a ticket to say that Christ sent them when it is their own selfe-love and their owne lust that sends them it is not enough to pray and at the end to say through Christ our Lord Amen No for this may be a meere foysting of the Name of Christ But canst thou pray and shew that Christ sent thee and say as the servant I come from my Master and he sent me Lord it is for Christ that I come it is not to satisfie my owne lust nor to ease and deliver me from the galls of my conscience nor to free me from hell but for Christ Lord I begge grace and holinesse that I may have power to glorifie Christ It is for the honour of my Lord Christ that I come When the soul comes thus in Christs name beleeving it shall speed then his prayer shall prevaile Wbatsoever saith Christ ye shall aske the Father in my Name he will give it you We come now to the third and last part of our Text to wit the supplies they had against danger and discouragements The Lord upheld their hearts from being dismayed in prayer thou saidst feare not There be two things that do much hurt in prayer First groundlesse incouragements Secondly needlesse discouragements First I say greundlesse incouragements and these the wicked are most subject to especially who because they pray heare the Word and performe many duties of religion therefore they incourage themselves in the goodnesse of their estates judgeing themselves happy though notwithstanding they go on and continue in the hardnesse of their hearts and rebellions against God We have abundance of sayings amongst us that if they were examined would prove false and unsound As that the vipers die when they bring forth their young for say they the young eate out the old ones bowels that beares shape all their young by licking of them that the Swanne singeth sweetest at her death that the Adamant stone is softned by Goats blood c. These things are not so as may be shewn out of ancient Writers So beloved there are abundance of sayings that goe up and down amongst men concerning Divinity which if they were examined will prove to be rotten sayings as he that made them will save them It is not so saith the Prophet Esai 27. 11. He that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will not pitty them It is commonly beleeved if men come to Church heare the Word and call upon God that then presently they are good Christians Beloved it is not so Matth. 7. 21. Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Men are ready when they can but call Lord have mercy on me O sweet Saviour pitty me most mercifull Lord Jesus have compassion on me if they can pray in their families and pray at Church c. to think now all is well with them and Christ cannot but save them and give them the Kingdome of Heaven but our Saviour puts a not upon it and saith not every one that saith Lord Lord it is not a Lord a Lording of Christ with the tongue onely it is not a taking up of an outward profession of Christ only that is sufficient for a man that shall inherit the Kingdome of Heaven no saith Christ but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven But of this by the by Secondly there are needlesse discouragements which doe much hurt in prayer Needlesse discouragements doe much hurt to many a poore soule that hath forcible wouldings and wracked desires after grace and holinesse and yet is held by discouragements yea many a Christian heart lieth a long time under it wrastling and striving

and art lukewarm dead hearted and secure still to what end are all thy praiers when thou enjoyest not the end of thy praiers to what end is plowing of thy ground if it be not fallow when thy plowing is done to what end is the worke of thy servant if thy businesse be not done and dispatched when all is done As good never pray as pray to no end as good that thou never hadst begun to pray as to cease and to give over thy praiers before thou hast obtained the grace thou prayest for The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. that is the praiers of a wicked man that continues in his wickednesse when his praiers are done praiers are an abomination to the Lord but the praiers of the upright though he were before he praied never so wicked yet if it be the praier of an upright and godly man when his praiers are done that his praiers rid him of his sin and make him an upright man his praiers are Gods delight Beloved many pray against distrust in Gods providence Infidelity in Gods promises Impatiency under Gods corrections c. and yet have never the more trust and affiance in God never the more patience under the hand of God all these praiers are endlesse Secondly thy praiers are fruitlesse to what purpose is a beggers begging of an almes if he be gone before the almes be bestowed his begging is fruitlesse so all thy praiers are lost if thou art gone from the Throne of grace before grace is given thee for if such a praier be endlesse then is it also fruitlesse it will never do thee any good what is a fruitlesse tree good for but to be cut down what is a fruitlesse Vine good for but to be burned So all thy praiers are lost all thy beginnings of grace are lost we know saith the man that was borne blind John 9. that God heareth not sinners we know it Why may some say how do you know that God heares not sinners why we know it by e●perience by examples A drunkard prayeth to God to cure him of his drunkennes yet he doth not leave his ill company all the world may see that God hears not the drunkards praier because he cures him not but lets him go on in his sin and so for all other sins seest thou a man goe on in his sinnes thou mayest see that God heareth not his praiers if a man should be sicke on his death bed and send for the Physicians and Apothecaries in the Country and send for his Father Mother and for all his friends to come to him to minister to him yet I know he is not cured by them so long as I see his deadly disease remaines upon him so if I see a mans pride hypocrisie security deadnesse of heart his lust anger c. lie upon him notwithstanding all his praiers I know God heares not his praiers he prayes to be cleansed from his sinnes and to be purged from his lust and to be redeemed from his vaine conversation if now God let his sinnes continue in him and lets him goe on in them we see plainely God heares not him O what a pittifull and miserable case are such men in that pray and pray and yet all their praiers are endlesse and fruitlesse is not that man in a pittifull case that all physick all cost and charges is lost upon him when his cating and drinking his sleeping and winding and turning from this side to that side do him no good do we not say of him that he is a dead man so if a mans praiers and supplications to God be endlesse and fruitlesse that man must needs be a dead and a damned man so long as he goeth on in that case Now we come to the second part of the Text the sensiblenesse of the godly soule whether it speed or no the soule that praies aright that praies unsatiably it is able to say the Lord doth heare me the Lord doth grant me the thing that I praied to him for Thus saith Jonah I cried unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of Hell cryed I and thou heardst my voice Jonah 2. 2. How could Jonah say God heard his voice if he had not known it therefore he knew it But against this some may object How can this be how can the soule know that God heares it we have no Angels nor voices from Heaven now to tell men as the Angel told Cornelius that his praiers were accepted and come up before God or to say as Christ to the woman in the Gospell Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee I know God heares me with his All-hearing eare and therefore I have a good beliefe in God but how shall I know that God heares my praiers in mercy so as to grant that I pray for There be sixe wayes to know whether the soule shall speed in prayer yea or no The first is the having of a Spirit of further and further praying When God gives the soule a further and further ability to pray when God opens a way for the soule to the Throne of grace and gives him a free accesse to the gate of mercy and a spirit to hold out in prayer It is a signe that God meanes to hear it When a Petitioner hath accesse to the King and presents his Petition If the King imbolden him in his speech and let him speak all that he would speak it is a signe that the King meanes to grant that man his petition because otherwise the King would never have endured to have heard him so long but would have commanded him to be gone So it is with the soule at the Throne of grace if it come with a petition and prayer to God if God dispatch the soule out of his presence so that the soul hath no heart to pray nor to continue its suite but praies deadly and dully and is glad when he hath said his prayers and hath done it is a fearefull signe that God never means to heare that mans prayers but if thou praiest and praiest and hast not done in thy praiers but God by casting in a spirit of prayer and zeale and fervency in prayer imboldens thy heart in its petitions it is a signe that God will heare thee and grant thee thy prayers Blessed be God saith the Prophet that hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me How could the Prophet say that the Lord did not turne away his mercy from him How because he turned not away his prayer from him Many Expositors expound it of not turning away his prayer from his heart as if he should say Lord thou continuest my heart to pray thou hast not taken away my prayer from my heart therefore I know that thou continuest thy mercy unto me Secondly the preparednesse of the heart to pray is a signe that God