Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	holy_a	lord_n	spare_v	2,096	5	9.7701	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94051	Mercy rejoycing against judgement: or, God waiting to be gracious to a sinfull nation. A sermon preached before the honorable House of Commons in Margarets Westminster, upon the solemne day of their publique humiliation and monethly fast, Octob. 29. 1645. / By John Strickland, B.D. pastor of the church at Edmonds in the citie of New Sarum, now preacher at Peters Poor, London, and a member of the Assembly of Divines. Published by order of the House of Commons.	Strickland, John, 1600 or 1601-1670.	1645 (1645)	Wing S5973; Thomason E307_21; ESTC R200349	19,186	32

was a type of Christ in whom God and man were reconciled God will now magnifie his mercy and patience so that * Multa in scriptura efferantur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae tamen oportet intelligi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damasc lib. 4. de orth fide cap. 20. Saepe illa Hebraea particula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et graeca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in bibliis usurpatur adversative pro quamuis licet Tarn Exer. Bibl in 1 Sam. 2.25 though man be as sinfull as ever he was and deserves that the ground should be cursed again with another floud as well as ever he did yet God to shew the riches of his grace and mercy will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake though the imagination of mans heart is evill from his youth which leads me to the grounds of reason holden out in the next place The reasons of such Gods wonderfull dispensations somtimes are given in the text And first why he suspends his Judgements so unexpectedly and extraordinarily somtimes Reasons when yet a people do still provoke him even because he will be exalted in his mercy And therfore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you exaltabit Exalted se he shall stir up him self that he may have mercy as intending to show mercy with all his might When the psalmist would have God help the Church to purpose he intreats the Lord to stir up his strength and help her Psa 80.2 so when he intends here to be mercifull to purpose he will stir up himself Or exaltabitur parcendo vobis God shall be exalted in pardoning it shall appeare to be grandis clementia Dei as Hierom cals it when he pardoneth unexspectedly he lifts up his mercy above mens thoughts as far as the Heavens are above the Earth So in the Prophet God speaks of himself when he pardoneth aboundantly Isa 55.7.8.9 I will nor trouble you with the many other interpretations that are made of this phrase as that it signifies the exaltatiō of Gods hand in fimilitudinem percussuri as Oecolampadius or Gods going up again into Heaven from whence he was come down out of his place to punish them and the like The two first interpretations give you as I humbly conceive the genuine sense and mind of the words which holds out the reason of the point even that God may be the more exalted and set up in his mercy There is an ordinary course or path holden out in Scripture wherein divine justice and mercy do commonly proceed in punishing or in pardoning When a people sinne against God they shall be punished when a people repent of their sinne God will repent of their punishment and they shall be pardoned thus it is generally in Gods dispensations and because God hath not tyed or limitted himself to walke alwaies though he hath tyed us alwaies to waite upon and expect him in the way of his word for the dispensation of his justice and mercy there is also a way of Prerogative as I may call it wherein God may and sometimes doth dispense his mercy in reserved cases above the common rule Videtur miscricordiae limites transilire Theodo Suepsius he somtimes repents of punishing a people before they repent of sinning against him as you have heard in the proofe of the point and when he walks in such untrodden paths God is singularly exalted in his mercy these foure waies How God is exaleed in his mercy by such dispensations First In the principle of mercy I mean the goodnesse of his nature whereby he is so strongly so invincibly inclin'd to mercy that he will not retaine anger he will not be provoked somtimes though he be provoked by the sins of his people and this sets him up so incomparable high in the admiration of his people Mica 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage Mica 7.18 he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy According to what the Lord declared of himself to Moses when he made his glory to passe before him Exod. 34.6 The Lord God mercifull and gracious Exod. 24.6 long suffering and aboundant in goodnesse what goodnes is it that God will forbeare to strike in the midst of provocations The Prophet wholly ascribes the praise of our non destruction to that Lam. 3.22 It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed Lam. 3.22 because his compassions faile not What goodnes that the great God on whom all the creatures in Heaven and earth should waite should waite on his poore creatures Secondly by such extraordinary dispensations God is exalted in the freenesse of his mercy punishing lesse then we deserve is confessedly mercy Ezra 9.13 Ezr. 9.13 pardoning fully where punishment is deserved is yet more but how is mercy exalted when blessings are given instead of punishments I say not praeter meritum but contrameritum when there is not only nothing at all in the people to help forward but almost every thing in them that might hinder the exercise of mercy when all the arguments and motives to mercy must be drawn out of Gods own bowels God must needs be very glorious in the freenesse of it Thus God held out the gloriousnesse of his free mercy toward Israel when after their rejection he restores them what blessings he bestowes upon them Ezek. 36.11 Ezek. 36.11 I will setle you after your old estates and will do better to you then at the beginning The very materials of the blessings are large demonstrations of mercy even that he will do such great things for them but lest they should not see the full glory of his mercy toward them therein he presseth them to take notice that he would do these things freely ver 22. ver 22. Say unto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for my own holy Names sake which ye have prophaned among the heathen Thirdly God is hereby exalted in the richnesse of his mercy when a people continue in their provocations rebellions against God t is not a little mercy that can stand in the breach When Israel Num. 14.11.12 had very far provoked the Lord num 14.11.12 so that he spake of plaguing disinheriting them Moses prays ver 17.19 ver 17.19 That the Lords power may be great in pardoning and that he will pardon according to the greatnesse of his mercie the Lords great wrath was kindled therefore his power had need be great to keep it in When a man is thoroughly moved with anger there is much ado to keep in his passion that it break not out now nothing can be so provoking to stir up our anger as sin is to stirre up Gods displeasure against a people how great is that mercy then that can keep in divine wrath

prevaile by Judgements or by mercies some must be brought in by an earth-quake others will be brought in as easily by a still voice Thirdly He waits because he is a God of Judgement to know when the giving in of mercies will bring God most honour and when Gods hand will be most clearly seen to give in mercies so that they may be convincing mercies thus he waited on his stiff-necked people that he might be mercifull to them even till Antiochus had broken all their power so that there was no help to be expected and then the Lord came in with Michaels deliverance Dan. 12.1.7 when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people Dan. 11.1.7 for then they could see that their help was from God Thus he waited upon the wastful Prodigall till he had spent all so that he must either have God or nothing Luk. 15. and then the Fathers imbraces are sweet and welcome Luk. 1. Before I come to the Use of the Prophets doctrine which the text presents you let us consider whether this age be not one of these sometimes wherein God wonderfully suspends his Judgments and waites upon a provoking people that he may be mercifull to them Are we not astonished and like unto them that dreame this day while wee looke upon the God of our salvation answering us as he doth by terrible things in his righteousnes doing terrible things that we looked not for whereby the moūtaines even the mountains of enemies and opposition do flow down and tremble at his presence he that hath formerly drawn out the sword and bent his bow and like an enemy fought against us giving Iacob to the spoile and Israel to the robbers has in the midst of wrath remembred mercy and when he saw that there was no man and wondred that there was no intercessor his own Arme hath brought salvation to him and his righteousnes it sustained him Who would have thought in a few months past that we should have seene such a change in England in so short a time that our solemn fasts the fast of the 4th monetle and the fast of the 5th and the 7th and the 10th month should be turned into solemne feasts of joy and gladnes that our thanksgiving dayes should over number our dayes of humiliation Yet am I so farr from the opinion of laying aside our humiliations in these times of rejoycing as if they were inconsistent with our joyfull feasts that I conceive the duties of humiliation and rejoycing spiritually performed very helpfull one to another and to spiritualize one another blessings obtained by prayer and fasting cannot but affect the soul and raise it unto a greater pitch of spirituall thankfulnesse and when mercies have made the soule to rejoyce in God it cannot but mourne over sinne more ingenuously then before If mercies will not work with a people this way when God gives them in after judgements they will be but lucida intervalla presages of greater Judgemēts to follow Sim. like the Sunshine between two dread full stormes or rather like a reviving between two fits of a feaver when the patient dyes of the latter Chorazin that had been lift up to heaven by mercies and the great works that were done in her was afterwards thrust down to hell in Judgements Ingentia beneficia ingentia flagitia ingentia supplicia If great wickednesse follow great benefits great punishments shall follow great wickednesse as is confessed by Ezra 9.13.14 Ezra 9.13.14 Repentance and reformation is the point that we must be brought unto either by Judgments or mercies and since former Judgements have not brought us to it O that the Lord would melt our hearts this day with his astonishing mercies that our hard and frozen Spirits which would not be broken hitherto by the hammer of his Judgements might now be softened by the fire of his mercies And truly honorable and beloved mercies especially when they are given in to an undeserving people as our mercies are are very proper premises and principles of godly sorrow and shame for sin seeing that this is promised as a fruit of mercy I have looked into the Book of God to see whether God hath been wont in former times to bring in his people to repentance and reformation by deliverances and mercies For if God have never gone in such a way with a people heretofore I should feare that notwithstanding our many and wonderfull publick mercies wherewith God hath at present blessed our Land we should have an after-clap and be brought back again into the refiners fire and furnace of affliction that our drosse which is not yet severed from us may be purged out and our filthinesse depart from us which is the way whereby God ordinarily prevailes with a people in that kind And of all the hopefull presidents I could find wherein God hath brought in a people by mercy this is the most eminent Ezek. 36.31 32. Applied Ezek. 36.31.32 Then shall yee remember your own evill wayes and your doings that are not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Not for your sakes doe I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own wayes O house of Israel You may look upon Israel in this chapter as Englands parallell in our present condition They had defiled their own land with the bloud that they had shed and with their Idols yea they had profaned the name of God among the heathen also and therefore the Lord had powred out his fury upon them V. 17-21 v. 17 -21 but the Lord pitied them for his own holy Name which they had profaned and he resolved to sanctifie his great and holy Name by delivering them from captivity and setting them at peace in their own Land V. 21-25 v. 21 -25 And further he would reform them according to his covenant and make them a holy people and their land which had been laid waste a fruitful land v 25-31 V. 25-31 And when the Lord shall have done all this and that without the least desert of theirs as the Lord bids them take notice of it Be it known unto you then shall they repent and be ashamed He is a stranger to England that hath not seen England like unto Israel in their sinnes it hath been defiled with bloud and idols whereby the Name of our God hath been profaned and like to Israel in their punishments the Lord hath powred out his fury upon them and like unto Israel in their deliverances and mercies God is now sanctifying his holy Name which we had polluted by delivering us and making way to settle us at peace in our own land The Lord make England like unto Israel in their repentance and reformation also Now because the undeservednesse of mercie and that they are given to those that could not expect them has a great influence upon the heart

as appears in that God presseth it so often v. 21.22 32. I desire to set before your judicious cōsideration three things How to mourn in the sight of present mercies Directions that may help us to a mourning frame of spirit in the sight of our great mercies that we may loath our selves in our own sight this day for our iniquities and be confounded for our own wayes First Let us set our sins this day at least some of them in the sight of our hearts together with our mercies David looks upon both together while from his mercies he reflects upon himself when his people offered so willingly toward building the Temple 1 Cro. 29.14 Who am I and what is my people So wee while we look upon the mercies that God hath heaped on us may sit down astonished say Who are we and what is our people are we not an Apostatizing nation we werefallen from our Primitive reformation there is yet a spirit of whoredom in the midst of us to oppose reformatiō to this day Let us look upon Ierusalem how severely the Lord dealt with her for abusing his love and turning aside to spirituall fornication as we have done Ezek. 16.38.40 Ezek 13.36.40 I will judge thee saith God as women that break wedlock and shed bloud are judged and I will give thee bloud in fury and jealousie We are also a Covenant-breaking people and having taken the name of God in vaine how should the Lord hold us guiltlesse this brought wrath upon Israel and Iudah unavoidably the house of Israel and Iudah have broken my Covenant Isa 11.11 Ier. 11.11 Therefore I will bring evill upon them which they shall not be able to escape We have been and are apt to say a Confederacy to such as God would not have us say a Confederacy to and to cover with a covering but not of Gods Spirit as our Prophet complains Isa 30.1 we subject Religion and the things of God Isa 30 1. to carnall ends being led by carnall policie in matters of conscience and highest concernment too much verifying in that of old Mater peperit filiam et filia devoravit matrem Policy hath alwaies been a clog to Religion and would never suffer former ages to adventure upon a through reformation the Lord keep our generation that we dash not against the same rock Though the Lord hath pronounced them cursed that trust in man Ier. 17.5 and make flesh their arme Ier. 17.5 we are full of carnall confidence lifted up or cast down according as outward means and humane probabilities do ebb or flow like Israel we seek God when we need him Psa 78. in a low condition and when we are delivered we forget him Psal 78. We are guilty of self-seeking every man looks for his gaine from his quarter as Paul complained all men seek their own none the things of Jesus Christ To be acted by a private Spirit in publike undertakings doth not only blemish the beauty but alters the nature of the undertaking and makes that sinfull which if acted with a publique Spirit had been commendable and glorious 2 King 10.30 Jehu in cuting off the house of Ahab did according to the word of the Lord but because he had ends of his own in doing it Hos 1.4 the bloud of Ahab is put upon his account We suffer Gods House to lye wast while we dwell in seiled houses by division and errors truth is fallen in the street and confusion hasteth and yet we look on and lay it not to heart We turn head against Jesus Christ like those that break his bands and cast away his cords from them Psa 1. we refuse his easie yoke and cast off his light burden as if we were of their mind that said wee will not have this man rule over us Luc. 19.21 Luc. 19.21 All this scumme is in the midst of us untaken away and all this drosse and much more is in us in the very fire of Gods Judgements so that in our filthinesse is lewdnesse Now consider Gods usuall manner of proceeding with such sinners He will set his face against them and they shall be slain before their enemies c. Lev. 26.17 Lev. 26.17 and if they walke contrary he will punish them seaven times more and seaven times more and seaven times more for their sinnes and at last walke contrary unto them in fury The like also when Israel grew incorrigable as England hath been and would not return to the Lord what gradations of Judgment are mustered up against them Amos 4.6 Amos 4.6 2ly Consider Gods admirable patience towards us above his former dear people he bare with their maners in the wildernes 40 years but what 's that to fourscore years patience wherein he hath born with England and all these yeares what pride and contempt what abominations hath God put up at the hands of a foolish Nation And is not England yet destroyed She hath boyled in Sodoms lust but she is not consumed with Sodoms fire she hath committed Israels iniquities but she hath not suffered Israels punishments God did exalt his mercy in sparing the rebellions of Israel Ezek 20.14.17.22 Ezek. 20.14.17.22 when it was breaking forth against them three times yet still he wrought for his own names sake but how often hee hath restrained his wrath when it was ready to break out against England and wrought for his own names sake to spare us in turning his wrath away I appeal unto you In all this if we consider how God hath out-gone I say not our desert but even our faith our prayers and expectations in the greatnesse multitude of his blessings giving them in most seasonably when we were upon the brink of ruine by his own hand so that we may say If it had not been the Lord who was on our side we had been swallowed up And that he should doe all these after so much patience wherein he hath many a time turned his wrath away notwithstanding our many and provoking sinnes wherewith we have pressed the Lord as a Cart is pressed that is full of sheaves so that he hath groaned under us as it were and complained of our unkindnesse Micah 6.3 O my people what have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee Testifie against me What hard heart can yet tread upon such bowels Whose eyes would not run over in looking upon those divine meltings and say It is known unto us this day that not for our sakes but for his own holy names sake which we had polluted the Lord hath done all this we are ashamed and confounded for our own wayes Blessed are all they that wait for him Vse The use which our Prophet makes of his own Doctrine is of Exhortation to a duty Wayt upon the Lord backed with the encouragement of a promise Blessed are all they that wait for him He that of meer goodnesse turnes