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
A51223	Of religious melancholy a sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall March the 6th, 1691/2 / by the Right Reverend Father in God John, Lord Bishop of Norwich.	Moore, John, 1646-1714.	1692 (1692)	Wing M2547; ESTC R9401	15,050	33

Divine Assistance nothing will oftner carry your Thoughts to Heaven than your present Disconsolation and Trouble whose length and acuteness will also make Heaven it self taste the sweeter when soever God of his infinite Mercy shall bring you thither 6. Let not these afflicting Thoughts discourage you from the Exercise of your Devotions nor tempt you to omit or negligently discharge any one Christian Office or Duty Go still on in the ways of Religion and do the work of the Lord notwithstanding these performances to your selves may seem flat and heavy and such as will neither be grateful to him nor procure good to your Souls Let your Prayers ascend up to Heaven continually altho at present you find no Answer or Return to your Petitions Is any among you afflicted says St. James let him pray Prayer is the natural and the only safe refuge for the afflicted It is a sure stay to the heart when nothing else in the World can support it Nay the listnesness to Prayer so grievous to weak Christians will be removed by nothing so soon and so effectually as by Prayer it self For Prayer refines the Thoughts purifies the Heart and exalts the Soul above its natural pitch so that he who did enter upon his Prayers with some coldness shall often receive wonderful joy in his mind before he comes to the end of them Nothing will make the Soul partake so much of the Divine Nature and so closely unite it to God as devont Prayer But further at these disconsolate Seasons especially let the matter of your Prayers be such as doth imply your reposing an extraordinary confidence and trust in God altho he seems now to hide his face from you for it will be a thing most acceptable to him and a strong proof of your Integrity that you cease not to do your duty even when you find little pleasure in it and still continue to cast your self and cause wholly upon him when he does appear to be afar off and to have no regard to your cries and your tears And here it may be fit to give you a Caution against long Prayers for your heads under this disturbance will bear nothing which requires length of attention let your Prayers therefore be frequent rather than long such as may cause delight and not prove tedious There is no time or place or imployment do so engage you but you may have leisure now and then to send up your desires to Heaven and if they be sincere and fervent they will prevail with God how short soever they are for it is not the multitude of yourwords but the honestdisposition of your heart which will incline him to hear you And this Advice is therefore to be insisted upon because melanch oly Christians have been observed to suffer by the length of their Prayers and their Fasts Moreover do not forsake the Table of the Lord notwithstanding there also you meet no comfort and should be altogether unable to move and effect your hearts with holy reflections upon the most cruel and shameful death of your Blessed Saviour for that heavenly Bread will refresh your Souls and encrease your Graces and replenish your hearts with joy as soon as ever God shall find you qualify'd for so great mercies What evil thoughts then soever are injected into your Minds so long as you persist in a godly course of life there can be no colour of doubt but God will love you and approve your Services For he nowhere hath said that Men shall be condemned for their ungovernable Thoughts over which they have no dominion but he hath promised that all those who are not weary in well-doing shall in due season reap everlasting Life Now should these perplexing Thoughts last as long as you live which is the hardest thing you can suppose in this case yet that as I said before would be no more an Argument of God's Anger than a Fevor or a Fire or the loss of a Friend or any other Affliction nor of the unsoundness and hypoorisie of your Mind who in this matter are only the Sufferer for as you did not invite them so they continue with you much against your consent Let not therefore your present Trials and Humiliations make you despair of finding favour with a God of boundless Mercy and most tender Compassions Persevere in your Duty and confide in his infinite goodness and at length the clouds which now darken your Minds shall all vanish and be succeeded by steddy and pure light your fears shall be turned into full Assurances of unconceivable Happiness and all the Disorders Tumults and Confusions in your Souls shall be changed iuto Eternal Peace and undisturbed and endless Joys Give me leave to conclude all in the words of the Psalmist who had been a Man of Sorrows from his youth and yet ever received Supplies from the Lord answerable to his Distress Ye that fear the Lord praise him for he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from him but when he cried unto him he heard Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy for thou hast consider'd my trouble thou hast known my soul in adversities I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me yea I will hope continually and yet praise him more and more O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee O love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou hast not forsaken them who seek thee FINIS Mark 16. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 10. * Vide St. Basil de moderandis animi cogitationibus Tom. 2. p. 674. * Dum enim cogitatio mala in initiis est facile potest abjiti à corde Nam si frequenter iteretur diu permantat adducit animum ad consensum post consensum intra cer suum confirmatum certum est qui ad peccati tendat effectum Hieronym in Cantic Cantic Hom. 4. p. 117. † Reprime porro Cogitationem superbiae priusquam te superbia deprimat Destrue Cogitationem arrogantiae antiquam ipsa te subvertat Effringe atque exclude concupiscentiam pri usquam te concupiscentia ●●idat ac conterat Ephraem Syri Op. p. 404. * E●o mitis placidus benevolentiae plenus gratiae sine ullâ sermo ducatur contumeliâ Absit pertinax in familiari sermone contentio quaestiones enim magis excitare inanes quam utilitates aliquid efferre solet Disciptatio sine irâ suavitas sine amaritudine sit monitio sine asperitate hortatio sine offensione S. Ambr. Tom. 4. Col. 16. * Nolite litigare cum perversis ●ogitationibus vel perversa voluntate sed cum vobis insistae sunt aliqua utiii cogitatione voluntate mentem vestram donec evanescant fortiter o●cupate neque do●●atis neque contristemini de illarum insestatione quamdiu illas sicut dixi contemnendo superatis nullum eis ass●nsum Praebet●s ne occasione t●istitiae iterum r●deant ad memoriam suam importunitat●m resuscitent S. Anselm Ep. 133. p. 414. * Cum autem vultis orare aut aliquam bonam meditationem intendere si vobis tunc importunae sunt cogitationes quas non debetis suscipere nunquam propter illarum importunitatem ●onu● quod incepistis velitis demittere S. Anselm ib.

so that Conquest which would have cost you but small pains may become doubtful where you are to contend with thoughts whose long standing hath confirm'd and almost rooted them in your Nature Thus frequent Reviews taken of your Thoughts will produce both power and skill to manage them wisely and may in good measure prevent or cure the Troubles complained of by these Melancholy Persons 2. Endeavour to keep all your Passions within due bounds since Storms of Passion confound the Soul and make way for evil thoughts And whatever was the first Cause of the Passion it is apt before it goes off to run them into those frightful Reflections which they so much dread and after the weakness and indisposition which a strong Passion leaves behind it they will be less able to repel them So that it is very bad for splenetick Persons to give way to their Passions which both bring their Distemper upon them and unfit them to grapple with it Nay they cannot safely give any scope to the most pleasing Passions for they sometimes shall find as bad effects in the excesses of Joy as of any of the sowr and churlish Passions and be as greatly dejected after them It would be much for their advantage to bring themselves to an equal and steddy temper so as none of the Affairs of the World may make a deep impression upon them to be mild and gentle in their behaviour to avoid all needless contentions and heats to be ready to do good to every body but never to do things seemingly hard except where great necessity requires it Neither to set their hopes nor their fears too high not groundlesly to despair where God has pronounced no threats nor fondly to presume where he hath made no promises 3 Do not leave your Callings nor forsake the Post wherein Providence hath placed you As before it was my Advice not to set your hearts too much on the World nor to suffer your Passions to run out vehemently after it so now I exhort you not to quit your Imployment and utterly to forsake it by reason of the trouble of your Mind For no business at all is as bad for you as too much and there is always more Melancholy to be found in a Cloyster than in the Market-place As when a man is too full of business he is ready to forget God so when he is idle and destitute of all Employment his Head is apt to become a Cage not only of unruly but unclean Thoughts It will be therefore much to your detriment to hide your selves from your Friends and to quit the Calling wherein you were exercised in that People of dejected tempers never fare worse than by themselves and when they have nothing to do For when they have neither Company nor secular Affairs to take up their time they will be musing perpetually upon the Objections they make against themselves and their Thoughts will all fix and centre upon the desperate Condition wherein their disturbed Phancy hath placed their Souls Whereas vertuous and cheerful Conversation innocent Recreations and moderate Business will give a great diversion to the Distemper and much conduce to chace away these gloomy Apprehensions 4. When you find these Thoughts creeping upon you be not mightily dejected as if they were certain Tokens of your Reprobation For so far as they depend upon the indisposition of the Body which for the most part they chiefly do I take them no more to be marks of the Divine Displeasure than Sickness or Losses or any other Calamity you may meet with in the World Neither violently struggle with them since experience doth teach that they increase and swell by vehement opposition but discipate and wasteaway come to nothing when they are neglected and we do not much concern our selves about them for it is the custom of the Mind of Man much oftner to think and reflect upon those things which either delight orgrieve him than upon those which he judges are to be despised I know this would be no good advice did these Thoughts lye within our power and were the products of our choice as all sins are for then the sooner and the more vigorously we resist them so much the better it will be for us for at first sin is weak and has little interest in us and Conscience is tender and is made extream uneasie by any compliance with it so that if we did bravely oppose it in the beginning of the Siege the Victory would be most certain But when in length of time sin hath got both strength and confidence our very Nature must undergo a great change before it can be subdued But now having proved that these bad Thoughts do result more from the weakness of the Body than from the vitiousness of the Mind it is evidently apparent that by another sort of treatment they must have a cure It is not therefore a furious Combat with Melancholy Thoughts which will but weaken and sink the Body and so make the Case worse but a gentle Application of such comfortable things as restore the strength and recruit the languishing Spirits that must quash and disperse these disorderly Tumults in the Head Whenever therefore these troublesome Thoughts begin to stir do not fall into any violent Passion which will abate the Gourage and shatter the Resolutions of your Soul but having first commended your miserable Case to the tender care and compassions of your Heavenly Father who will not let you be afflicted above measure endeavour with a meek and sedate temper quietly to bear them 5. Do not think the worse of God for them or accuse his Providence of want of care of you For he might have permitted such Thoughts to have continued perpetually or at least to have visited you much oftner and in a more frightful manner and all this without the least diminution of his Justice But as his Mercy appears in the degrees and intervals of your Sufferings so it doth also in the ends of them He sending these Afflictions for wise and kind Reasons that they might be powerful Preservatives of your Souls against the hainous sins of a crooked Generation in which you live that cry loudly to Heaven for vengeance that they might lessen your Inclinations to the Enjoyments of this Life that they might deaden your Appetites to sensual Pleasure and take your hearts off of the perishing Goods of the World which can afford you small Satisfaction so long as your Minds are haunted with these black Thoughts Nothing will dispose you more to have Compassion on your suffering Brethren than your own Sorrows and nothing make you less envy the towring height and prosperity of others which to Persons in your mournful state must be so insipid and uncomfortable that you will indeed be concern'd for the many dangers of their station but never wish you could supplant them In a word nothing will cause you more to feel your own Infirmities and a want of the