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	sin_n	15,720	5	5.7661	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29150	Church-musick vindicated a sermon preach'd at St. Bride's church, on Monday, November 22, 1697, being St. Caecilia's day, the anniversary feast of the Lovers of musick / by Nicholas Brady.	Brady, Nicholas, 1659-1726.	1697 (1697)	Wing B4169; ESTC R6317	9,287	27

have many present witnesses of the truth of it that whenever they have been present at the performance of this nature they have felt their zeal grow warm if it were not kindled before and encrease considerably if it were Is the Spirit of the Lord to descend upon Elisha and that upon an occasion more extraordinary than usual A Minstrel must be brought to play before him and to make his Soul susceptible of the Divine Inspiration Is Saul's Melancholy and Despair to be driven away and his mind to be set in order for the discharging his great Office The Harp of David must apply the Medicine and chase away his gloomy imaginations Such was the power of that Sacred ●yre when tuned to the Voice of the Sweet-Singer of Israel and such would the effect of it remain to this day if it were still touch'd by the same inimitable hand but the unskilfulness of those that have played upon it since has destroyed in a great measure the Melody of the Instrument and it 's Efficacy has lessened as it's Harmony has been impaired This Divine Art has such an admirable Secret of uniting Earth and Heaven together that the Scale of Musick appears to me to be the exact counterpart of Jacobs Ladder with one end resting upon the Earth in the material Organs that compose it and the other end reaching up to Heaven in the Life and Spirit of it's performances upon the several Degrees of this are the Holy Angels those Celestial Choristers perpetually Ascending and Descending and the Lord himself stands at the top of it to countenance and encourage the devout employment Who then can with-hold at such an Heavenly Entertainment where Devotion embraces Delight and pleasure seems to be Spiritualized from breaking out with the Patriarch into his Rapturous Exclamation Surely the Lord is in this place This is none other than the House of God! And this is the Gate of Heaven For indeed what Idea can we form to our selves of those happy Regions of Joy and Tranquility of which this will not be a most lively Transcript What is Heaven but an Assembly of Saints and Blessed Spirits in the immediate presence of their Almighty Creatour Rejoycing in the Service of so bountiful a Master and celebrating his praises with their Voices and their Instruments And such an imitation of them here will qualisie us for their Society he easter when we with Angels and Archangels and with all the company and Host of Heaven shall land and magnifie his Holy Name and this leads me to the 2 d Observation which may be drawn from the words of my Text namely That the proper Office of Musick in the Service of God is to praise him and give him thanks because he is good and because his Mercy endureth for ever The earliest instance which we have of Sacred Musick are certain Songs of Triumph which were composed to celebrate some Great and Signal Deliverances such as those already mentioned of Moses and Deborah It's first Introduction into the Jewish Church was by the grateful piety of King David who appointed certain Levites to thank and praise God in a form which he borrowed from one of his own Psalms and which are the very words recorded in my Text pursuant also to this the Apostle advises us that when we are merry we should sing Psalms for Musick being the most chearful way of exercising our Devotion should therefore be appropriated to the most Delightful Act of Piety and that is praising God for the manifold expressions of his Goodness and Mercy towards the Sons of Men. All other Duties of Religion seem to carry some sort of uneasiness along with them for they either put us in mind of our igno●ance and forgetfullness as in hearing the Word or of our wants and necessities as in Prayer or of our Sins and Infirmities as in Repentance but Praise is such a Duty as is entertaining in it's Nature and carries no allay with it to damp our satisfaction To Reflect upon the goodness of our God and the many Signal Evidences which we have had of his loving kindness to thank him for those Mercies which we have already received and thereby put our selves in a condition to expect fresh Blessings this is nothing else but the perfection of Delight and an employment the most desirable and most Ravishing of any it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God yea a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful And therefore this is the Religious Worship which is practised by the Church Triumphant in Heaven as being not at all inconsistent with our conveniency of the most consummate Happiness Indeed in our times of Humiliation in the Acts of Mortisication and Self-denial when we afflict our Souls and keep our Bodies under Musick which is apt to elevate the Spirits and Recreate the Senses would appear as improper as Mirth at Funerals but the Church has it's Festivals as well as Vigils and where the occasions of 〈◊〉 together are of a more chearful nature this delightful expression of our Gratitude is as Decent as a becoming Dress a Sprightly Air or a Look that declares our inward Satisfaction And certainly if ever any People had just Reason to join together their Voices and their Instruments and to give the greater Evidences of a Devout Thankfullness We of this Kingdom are most eminently obliged to it upon the account of those Blessings which we have so lately experienced when in stead of the Calamities of a dismal War we find our Souls refresht with the abundance of Peace and with his safe Arrival and long wished for presence to whom we stand indebted for so precious a Treasure Peace then is restored to us within our Walls Peace that Banisher of Discord that Mother of Harmony that Band of Union to consenting Minds that Nurse and Patroness of useful Arts and Sciences This our long absent guest condescends to visit us again Let us receive her with Hearts overflowing with Gratitude with a joy as great as the Advantages she imparts as Universal as the Blessings she dispences And O! That all the several parties in this Kingdom however formerly divided by interest or design would Resemble the Trumpeters and Singers in the Text That they were as one That they would make one Sound to be heard in Praising and Thanking the Lord That they would lift up their Hearts and their Voices together with Trumpets and Cymbals and Instruments of Musick and with Joint consent would praise the Lord saying For he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever How delightful a Melody would this Consort of Brethren that dwell together in Unity make in the Ears of God our common Father How certainly would he testifie his Approbation of this Harmony by filling the whole Nation with his Glory Which brings me to the 3 d. And last Observation which may be deduced from the words of my Text Namely how Signal an Evidence God has been pleased to give

Church-Musick Vindicated A SERMON PREACH'D At St. Bride's Church on Monday November 22. 1697. BEING St CAECILIA's Day The Anniversary Feast of the Lovers of Musick By Nicholas Brady M. A. Minister of Richmond in Surry and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty Published at the request of the STEWARDS LONDON Printed for Joseph Wilde at the Elephant at Charing-Cross 1697. To the Stewards of St. Caecilia's Feast Hugh Colvill Esq Capt. Tho. Newnam Orlando Bridgman Esq Theophilus Butler Esq Leonard Wessel Esq Paris Slaughter Esq Jeremiah Clerk Gent. Fran. Le Riche Gent. Gentlemen However favourable a Reception this Discourse might meet with at the time and place of it's Delivery when every body was disposed to Applaud Church-Musick by the irresistible charms of that Admirable performance which by a management peculiar to your selves laboured under no inconveniencies of Disorder or Confusion Yet now that the Pulpit is no longer backed by the Organ-Loft when that which was spoken from the One is no longer supported by what was acted in the Other I have just reason to fear that it will but indifferently answer either the prepossessed Opinion of those who heard it or the expectation of those that did not Notwithstanding this since only I am to be the Sufferer and not the Cause which has been already too well defended by Abler Pens to undergo any prejudice by the weakness of mine I shall gladly run that hazard in Compliance with your desire and shall not dispute giving even this Dangerous Testimony of that sincere Respect which shall be always paid you by GENTLEMEN Your Obliged Humble Servant N. BRADY A SERMON Preached on St. Caecilia's Day 2 Chron. 5th Ch. 13th 14th Verses verse 13 It came even to pass as the Trumpeters and Sing rs were as one to make one Sound to be heard in Praising and Thanking the Lord And when they lift up their Voice with the Trumpets and Cymbals and Instruments of Musick and praised the Lord saying For he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever That then the House was filled with a Cloud even the House of the Lord verse 14 So that the Priests could not stand to Minister by reason of the Cloud For the Glory of the Lord had filled the House of God WE do not I think meet in the whole Book of God with a more Signal Instance of his favourable Acceptance of that Devout Employment in which we are now Conversant our praising him and giving him Thanks with Voices and Instruments of Musick than we have in those words which I have now read to you and which I have chosen for the Subject of my following Discourse where we find it makes up a very considerable part of one of the most Eminent Solemnities of Religion that we ever heard of under the Legal Dispensation A Solemnity Regulated by the Wisest amongst Men and in which we cannot suppose anything to have been allowed of but what was suitable to the Gravity and Majesty of the occasion It was Solomon's Dedicating that Glorious Temple which was justly Reputed the Noblest Structure in the World and his Solliciting the Almighty that he would Arise into his Resting-place He and the Ark of his Strength To set off a performance so Remarkable as this with all the Characters of a becoming Grandour he Summons the Elders and Heads of Tribes and even all the Men of Israel to attend him at Jerusalem where having offered up Sheep and Oxen without number they accompanyed the Priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant and conducted it with Reverence into the most Holy place whilst to add to the Magnificence of the Ceremony the Levites which were the Singers having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Brazen Altar and with them a hundred and twenty Priests Sounding with Trumpets as you may read in the Verses just preceding my Text. And certainly if an incredible Multitude of Spectators and Assistants if the quality as well as number of the Persons Assembled if the Stateliness and Beauty of the Scene and Action if a pompous expence of almost innumerable Sacrifices and a Delightful Variety of all sorts of Musick can give Life and Quickness Majesty and Splendour to any performance the Religious Festival which this Chapter gives an account of may justly challenge the preference above all others that ever occurred throughout the whole Jewish Oeconomy And therefore we find that according to God's method of proceeding with that People whose more eminent Acts of Piety he usually Honoured with some Sensible Demonstration of his favour he Manifested his Approval of this Devout Solemnity by filling the Temple with his Glory and giving visible Tokens of of his more immediate Presence But if amongst all those Religious performances which were severally exercised upon this Solemn occasion we may be allowed to Conjecture or Determine which was most valuable in the sight of God we may I believe very safely conclude that it was not the bare Assembling themselves together nor the Costly Pageantry of their Numerous Oblations since these were but so many dumb shews of Religion and a compliance only with the dead Letter of the Law But it was that Lively Sacrifice of Praises and Thanksgiving that agreeable Melody and Harmonious Consort of many Hearts and Voices and Instruments as one that drew down upon the devout performers an unquestionable evidence of his Approbation to this it was that he set his own Seal and made it as it were the Signal of his extraordinary Appearance For we are not told that he took any publick notice of all the foregoing Exercises of Devotion But says the Text it came even to pass as the Trumpeters and Singers were as One to make one Sound to be heard in Praising and Thanking the Lord and when they lift up their Voice with the Trumpets and Cymbals and Instruments of Musick and praised the Lord saying For he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever that then and not before the House was filled with a Cloud even the House of the Lord So that the Priests could not stand to Minister by reason of the Cloud For the Glory of the Lord had filled the House of God Such an Authentick Testimony of his favourably accepting that Religious Entertainment which employ● us at the present as may justly encourage us to Repeat the Practice frequently and may stop the Mouths of all Gainsayers I shall therefore single out in my following Discourse from the great variety of Matter with which my Tent abounds some few instructive and useful Observations which may be proper to the occasion of our present meeting together And 1 st We may from hence observe that Musick whether Vocal or Instrumental may both innocently and profitably be made use of in the publick Service and Worship of God 2dly We may observe yet farther that the proper Office of Musick in the Service of God is to praise him and give him thanks because he is good and