Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	heaven_n	holy_a	redeemer_n	2,054	5	10.3077	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26935	Gods goodness vindicated for the help of such (especially in melancholy) as are tempted to deny it, and think him cruel, because of the present and future misery of mankind, with respect to the doctrine of reprobation and damnation / by Richard Baxter ... ; published and prefaced by a friend at whose desire it was written, and to whom it was committed.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1671 (1671)	Wing B1278; ESTC R5256	19,834	110

And though some of these are fallen to be Devils God hath not told us how many Nor can we know that it is one to a million of happier Creatures And can that man then who is offended with God not for damning a very few but for the proportion of the damned in comparison of others tell what he saith can he say if God had cast off all this Earth that it had been more than one of a million of millions as to the whole Creation It s true I cannot tell the number But it is as true that when our foundation is sure that God is infinitely wise and Good it is madness to accuse him as unwise or evil or cruel for that which we must confess we do not know and to talk against him in the dark Stay till you see who dwelleth in all the superiour Regions and then take your selves for fitter discerners of your makers wayes Quest 16. Are you well acquainted with the nature and degrees of the future miseries which tempt you to think that God is cruel They are not all of one degree What if much of them be still voluntary to the miserable souls The Devils who are now tormented in Hell are yet inhabitants of the air and exercised in voluntary acts of Malice I take it to be no small degree of Hell which the ungodly choose and love and possess among us here on Earth and will not be disswaded from They are without all holy Communion with God and they would be so They are out of Heaven and they would be so They are debased and confined to sensual pleasures and wordly vanities and they will be so They are the drudges of the Devil and the servants of the flesh and the slaves of men and they would be so They are defiled with sin and imprisoned in their own Concupiscence and they would be so They are corrupted and tantalized and vexed and tossed up and down by their irregular desires In a word they have the plague of sin and have neither holiness nor true happiness and so they will have it to be and will not be cured Now these tempted persons can see a misery in pain but can see no such evil in sin for which such pain should be inflicted when as sin it self and that which they are willing of is so great a part of their misery as that in this life the rest is as nothing to it And though no doubt much will be involuntary hereafter we know not what the proportion will be between the voluntary and Involuntary part And what makes these men that they do not pitty a Drunkard a Fornicator a Worldling a sensual Lord or Gentleman that hath no better than the shadows which he chooseth Neither the Tempted nor they themselves would call God cruel if he would let them so live in health for ever even a healthful Beggar would call God Merciful if he might never die nor be more miserable But Princes or Lords would call him cruel if he should put them into the Beggars or Labourers case You accuse not God as Cruel for making Toads and Serpents Worms and Vermine because they are not troubled with their own condition But if you could imagine them to have the knowledge how much happier Man is the case would alter Or if God should change men into Toads and Serpents you would call him unmerciful when yet he is no more bound antecedently ●o man than unto them Thus because these tempted persons have as Adam when his eyes were opened 〈◊〉 disquieting knowledge to know Good and Evil penally their own apprehensions as Adams of his Nakedness maketh that seem cruelty which seemed a fruit of Goodness before The summ is when you come into another world and see what manner of punishment it is that God exerciseth on the damned as well as on how many you will then be perfectly satisfied that there is nothing but that amiable Justice which is the fruit of Holiness Goodness and Wisdom in it all and you shall see nothing in the punishment of the miserable which you shall either blame or wish were otherwise if you come to Heaven To which let me adde when you come to see the Heavenly Glory and how the God of infinite Goodness hath advanced such innumerable Hosts if not Worlds of Men and Angels into such wonderful felicity and compare this with the sufferings of the Devils and of his damned followers instead then of quarrelling with the Goodness of God you will be wrapt up in the admirations and Praises of it with ful● delights to all Eternity Quest 17. And tell me Is he fit to entertain suspicions and quarrels with God who knoweth God to be God and knoweth himself to be but a man I speak not only in respect of our inferiority as the Potsheard should not quarrel with the Potter But in respect of our great and certain Ignorance Are we not puzzled about the poorest Worm and pile of Grass whose manifold mysteries no Mortal man can yet Discover Are we not grosly ignorant about every thing even visible and palpable which we see and touch and have to do with Do we not know that we know but little even of our selves or of any thing about us in the world And shall the darkened soul while it must operate in such a puddle of brains and humours be so madly proud as to presume of a knowledge which findeth out errours and badness in God who is infinitely wise and good Nothing is more sure than that God is most wise and Good and nothing should be easilier known to us than that we are very blind and bad And if such wretches then cannot reconcile their thoughts about Gods works should they not rather suspect themselves than him suspect did I say should they not take it as the surest verity that it is God that is not only Justifiable but infinitely Amiable and Laudable and that it is worse than bruitishness for such Moles to be his accusers Quest 18. Yea is this accusing God a fit employment for that person who liveth in a Land of mercies who hath been bred up in mercy preserved by mercy 〈◊〉 differenced by saving mercy from the ungodly who hath been called from blindness carnality and prophaneness and entertained many a time in holy Worship with God who hath been washed in Christs blood and Justified from so many and grievous sins and made of an enemy an adopted Child and of an heir of Hell an heir of Heaven and all this by the tender mercies of a provoked God a gratious Redeemer and a holy Sanctifier Shall this person I say this be one that instead of praising God with the raptures of continual Joy shall turn his accuser O let the guilty that readeth this stop here and fall down on his knees to God and melt into tears in the sense of such unkindness Quest But can a Child of God be possibly guilty of so great a sin as this Answ I speak

such a Creature as noble and as meet for God to make as a stone or a toad or worm or Serpent If God choose to please his own holy will by making a world of such Intellectual free agents whom he will ordinarily rule by the way of Moral Lawes and Motives is this any disparagement to his Wisdome and Goodness It is true that such a mutable free-will is below a confirmed immutable will But it is as true that a Toad is below a man And that Infinite wisdome thought not meet to make all his Creatures of one rank or size not to make all faces alike nor all the stones in the street alike but in wonderful variety It is not then unbeseeming God to make a world of Rational free agents under such a moral Government by Laws Quest 11. If all these free agents have abused their Liberty and undone themselves if he so far shew mercy to them all as that they may be all happy if they will and none of them shall perish but for wilfull and final refusing of the saving means and mercy which is offered to them and if they will they may live with God himself and Christ and Angels in endless Glory and none shall lose this free-given felicity but for final refusal and contempt preferring certain vanity and dung before it And if officers be commissioned and means provided to acquaint all in several measures with the reasons why they should choose Heaven and Holiness before the dirty pleasures of sin and to importune them daily to such a choice And if a life of mercies be granted to allure them and afflictions to drive them and examples to invite them to choose aright I say after all this have any of these persons cause to complain that God dealeth not mercifully with them Shall they that will not accept of life and mercy offered them accuse him as cruel that importuneth them to accept it Quest 12. Is the Goodness of a King to be judged of by the Interest of Murderers in the Goal when he restrained them by Laws when he warned them by legal penalties when he encourageth and protecteth all the Good When the lives of the Innocent need this severity against the wicked when the Common Wealth would take him to be bad that would not restrain Thieves and Murderers by penalties Yea though this King could if he would have set a constant guard on these men to have kept these men from Murdering but he thinketh meet only to Govern them by Laws Will you rather argue That the Goal is a place of misery Therefore the King is cruel Then The rest of the Kingdom flourish in prosperity and peace Therefore the King is wise and gratious And is not this little dirty spot of Earth the next door to Hell a place defiled by wilful sin and unfit to be the Index of Gods benignity from whence we should take an Estimate of it Quest 13. Do not all men in the World confess Gods Goodness first or last Do not all true believers that are themselves acknowledge that he is Infinitely Good and Good to them and that his mercy is over all his works and endureth for ever And do not the Consciences of the Damned grind and tear them for the contempt of Goodness and setting against mercy even mercy to themselves This is the fewel that feedeth Hell not by way of delusion but experimental conviction If the man that doubteth of Gods Goodness and mercy to him do despair or fear damnation he foolishly contradicteth himself For Hell and Damnation is a state of misery and torment in the loss and in the Conscience and sense of refused and abused mercy If therefore God be not merciful to you then you need not fear being damned for sinning against and refusing mercy For that which is not cannot be sinned against or abused If God be merciful you may be saved if you will accept this mercy If he be not you cannot in Justice be damned for rejecting that mercy which was none And if God be not merciful and Just he is not God And if there be no God there is none to damn you But all confess in Heaven and in Hell some with Joy and some with self-tormenting anguish that God was unconceiveably Good and merciful Quest 14. What if it were but one or two in a whole Kingdom that were damned and that only for obstinate unperswadable final refusal of grace and salvation and all the rest of the World should be saved tell me would you then still suspect God of cruelty or deny his Goodness If not I further ask you Quest 15. Have you so good acquaintance with the extent of the universe the superiour World the number of Angels and blessed spirits as that you are sure that it is proportionably more in the whole universe that are miserable Though some pievish men have wrangled at what I have said of this in my forecited Books I am so far from flattering their self conceited Wisdom that I will say it over again That it is agreed on by Philosophers that the Earth as to the universe is no bigger than a point or inch is to the whole earth we see over our heads a wonderful Sun a multitude of fixed and unfixed Stars of wonderful magnitude divers of them many times bigger than all the earth besides the vast Ethereal interspaces we see in a Tube or Telescope a marvellous Likeness of the Moon to this Earth with Shades inequalities c. Multitudes of Starrs in the Galaxie and elsewhere are discernable in the Telescope which without it no eye can see Little know we how far the World extendeth it self beyond all these Starrs and Sun which we can see or whether there be Millions of the like beyond our sight The Scripture telleth us of innumerable Angels Holy and Glorious spirits that attend Christ in the service of this lower World No Scripture telleth us whether all the Glorious or blessed Spirits be thus imployed as Angels for Mankind or whether ten Thousand Thousand fold more be otherwise employed No Scripture or Reason telleth us whether Sun or Moon Starrs and intermediate Aether be inhabited or not It is temerity to affirm that they are And it is as great temerity to say that they are not It is lawful to doubt And it is lawful to conjecture that it is most probable they are Considering 1. That l●fe is the excellency of the Creation and the deadest parts are the basest 2. That the Earth and Water and Aire are full of Men Beasts Fishes Birds Worms Flies c. 3. That it is incredible to him that looketh upward that Sun Moon Starrs and Aether are baser Regions than this dirty Earth and consequently that they are baser as to their use and inhabitants These thoughts of an uncertain thing are lawful to him that will go no further than he hath evidence and not make an uncertain thing seem certain And certain it is that spirits are innumerable

moreover assert a special Decree and Grace of God which with a chosen number shall antecedently Infallibly secure his Ends in their repentance faith perseverance and salvation Is this any detraction from or diminution of his universal Grace or rather a higher Demonstration of his Godness As it is no wrong to man that God maketh Angels more holy immutable and happy 14. And what if men cannot here tell how to resolve the question Whether any or how many are ever converted and saved by that meer Grace which we call sufficient or rather Necessary and common to those that are not converted and whether mans will ever make a saving determining improvement of it must plain truth be denyed because difficulties cannot easily be solved And yet in due place I doubt not but I have shewed that this question it self is formed upon false suppositions and is capable of a satisfactory solution 15. I conclude in general that nothing is more sure than that God is most Powerful Wise and Good and that All his works to those that truly know them do manifest all these in conjunction and perfect Harmony and that as to his Decrees and Providences he is the Cause of all Good and of no sin in act or habit and that our sin and destruction is of our selves and of him is our Holiness and Salvation And that he attaineth all his ends as certainly as if mans will had no liberty but were acted by Physical necessitation And yet that mans will hath as much natural Liberty as if God had not gone before it with any Decree of the Event and as much moral liberty as we have moral virtue or holiness And these Principles I have laid down in a little room that Tempted persons may see that it is our dark and puzzled braines and our selfish diseased hearts that are the cause of our quarreling with God his Decrees and Providences and as soon as we come to our selves and are cured these odious apprehensions vanish and God appeareth as the unclouded Sun in the Lustre of his Amiable Goodness And when we come to Heaven we shall see to our Joy and his Glory that Heaven Earth and Hell declare him to be all perfectly Good without any mixture of evil in himself or in any of his word or works And we shall find all our sinful suspicions and murmurings turned into a joyful consent to the Angelical praises Psal 136.1.2 26 c. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is Good for his mercy is for ever O give thanks unto the God of Heaven for his mercy is for ever Rom. 4.8 11. Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast Created all things and for thy Pleasure they are and were Created Rev. 7.12 Amen Blessing and Glory and Wisdome and Thanksgiving and Honour and Power and Might unto our God for ever and ever Amen The Lord is Good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his works The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great Mercy Psal 145.8 9. The Word of the Lord is right and all his works are done in truth He loveth righteousness and judgements the Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Psal 33.4.5 O how great is thy Goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men Psal 31.19 O therefore that men instead of quarrelling with his unknown mysteries would praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful works to the Children of men Psal 107.8 15 21 31. In the Conclusion I take it to be wholsome advise to those that are under this Temptation 1. That they will oft read over the Psalms of Praise and think when they read them whether David and the ancient Church were not like to know what they said than a self-conceited or a melancholy tempted sinner 2. That they would consider who it is that is the Grand enemy of the Glory of Gods Goodness And they shall soon find that it is no other than the Devil None but he that is most evil can most envy Infinite Goodness his honour And is the Devil fit to be believed against God And that after the warning of our first Parents ruine which befell them for believing Satan when he slandered both Gods Wisdome Truth and Goodness to them 3. That they would bethink them to what end it is that the Tempter and the Enemy of God doth thus deny his Goodness Is it not a plain act of malice against God and us Is it not that he may disgrace God as evil and rob him of his Glory and also that he may hinder man from Loving him and so destroy all piety and virtue and goodness in the World Who can Love him whom he believeth to be bad and so unlovely And what Grace or happiness can there be without the Love of God 4. That they would think what horrid wickedness this sin containeth where Melancholy and involuntariness doth not extenuate it Is it any better than a denying that there is any God As is said before To be God is to be Perfectly Powerful Wise and Good And if be none such there can be no God And then who made the World and all that is Good in it by derivative goodness Yea is it not to represent the most amiable blessed God in Satans Image who is most evil and a Murderer from the beginning Joh. 8.44 that so men may hate him and fly from him as they do from Devils And can you tell how great a crime this is 5. That they would consider how this impious conceit is calculated for the licensing of all manner of villany in the world and to root out all the relicts of goodness from among mankind For who can expect that any man should be better than his Maker and that he should have any Good which denyeth God to be Good 6. That they would labour hard to be better themselves For he that hath a true Created Goodness is thereby prepared to relish and admire Gods primitive uncreated goodness Whereas a wicked or a guilty sinner cannot much value that which he is so unsuitable to and which he thinks will be to him a consuming fire Truly God is good to Israel and to such as are of a clean heart Psal 73.1 But he that liveth in the Love of sin will be doubting of the Love of God and fearful of his wrath and unfit to relish and delightfully perceive his goodness Psal 34.8 Taste and see that the Lord is Good blessed is the man that trusteth in him 7. Study Gods Love as manifested in Christ Then you shall see what man on earth may see But think not falsly narrowly basely of his office his performance or his Covenant 8. Dwell in the believing foresight of the Celestial Glory The reflections of which may wrap up a believing soul on earth into extasies of gratitude and delight 9. Remember what Goodness there is in the Holiness of God which is demonstrated in his severest Justice Yea what mercy it is to forewarn men of the punishment of sin that they may want no necessary means to scape it 10. Remember how unfit the selfish Interest of obstinate despisers of Grace and salvation is to be the measure or index of the Goodness of God And how much more credible the concordant testimony of the Heavenly Host is who Live in the Love of Love it self and are everlastingly delighted in the Praises of the Infinite Greatness Wisdom and Goodness of the most perfect blessed Glorious God FINIS