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	sinner_n	trinity_n	4,842	5	11.8970	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86270	Repentance and conversion, the fabrick of salvation: or The saints joy in heaven, for the sinners sorrow upon Earth. Being the last sermons preached by that reverend and learned John Hewyt, D.D. Late minister of St. Gregories by St. Pauls. With other of his sermons preached there. Dedicated to all his pious auditors, especially those of the said parish. Also an advertisement concerning some sermons lately printed, and presented to be the doctors, but are disavowed by Geo. Wild. Jo. Barwick.	Hewit, John, 1614-1658.; Wilde, George, 1610-1665.; Barwick, John, 1612-1664.	1658 (1658)	Wing H1637; Thomason E1776_1; ESTC R209722	86,537	249

Repentance and Conversion THE Fabrick of Salvation OR The SAINTS joy in Heaven FOR The Sinners sorrow upon Earth Being the last SERMONS Preached by that Reverend and Learned JOHN HEWYT D. D. Late Minister of St. Gregories by St. Pauls With other of his Sermons preached there Dedicated to all his pious Auditors especially those of the said Parish Also an Advertisement concerning some Sermons lately printed and pretended to be the Doctors but are disavowed By GEO. WILD JO. BARWICK LONDON Printed by J. C And are to be sold by Samuel Speed at the sign of the Printing Press in St. Pauls Church-yard 1658. TO THE PIOUS AUDITORS OF THE LATE REVEREND AUTHOR Especially those of St. Gregories Parish in London IT is not the Ignis fatuus of Applause and popular Euge's that produced this Publication since 't is perspicuous no man but he that hath as great a stock of impudence as impiety can lay claim to it being the composition of your Reverend Pastor lately devested of Mortality Nor is the exposing these Sermons to publique view intended to add to the mass of any mans dolor or Internal Regret for the violent death of the pious Author but to prevent the fictitious Chimaera's of many crazy brains that would shroud themselves under his Name induced to it by Avarice whose thoughts level at no other mark but their own sordid Lucre and also that so pious a Beads-man might have somewhat engraven upon the forehead of Time and his name velit nolit invidia vigere Wherefore here ye have a Volume of the elaborate Pieces of this famous Pillar of the Church some as they did flow in their native purity from his own mouth others penned by no meaner a Scribe then his sacred self 'T is but small as to the Bulk but vast as to the Value in which is such a plerophory of significant expressions besides the solid Divinity that if uprightly fathom'd by the utmost extent of the sublimest thought it will be judged so neat and terse a Piece that the whole World can scarce produce a Parallel Therefore they croud and thrust themselves under the wings of your Patronage that so being acceptable to you all his quondam-Parishioners they may be sheltered from the contagious emissions of that universal Basilisk Detraction That there is nothing able to preserve a mans fame intire and verdant in spite of the Iron teeth of time but the issue of the Brain the Muse of Mellifluous Naso as ingenuously as harmoniously informs us by this warbling Rithme Nil non mortale te nemus Pectoris exceptis ingeniique bonis Pity it is they should continue in the obscure darkness of Latency and the opack shades of silence Therefore do they now like Noahs dove bear an Olive-branch of Assurance and Consolation to all soules that as yet remain in the Ark of God preserved from the deluge of sin They were the last that he pronounced in a Pulpit therefore should be entertained with more zeal and read with more circumspection that God may be praised his servant admired your souls benefited and our Holy Mother the Church lamented for the death of so pious a Son of hers whose loss no pen can pourtray with its sable colours nor tongue express by all it s diapred variety But since it is the will of the Almighty to permit such things for our correction and amendment let us with a pious silence resign our selves up unto God according to the advice of this renowned Clergy-man in his last words and pray for a more comely decorum in the Church that so the coelestial Manna of Gods Word may be administred to us by the truly-Orthodox that the Queen of Sciences Divinity may not be so sluttishly attired as it appoars too often she is to our intolerable grief that men may no longer shun the beauty of the Church but dwell in Gods Holy Temple One thing may not be omitted and that is this when the Library of this famous Divine was surveyed on some of his writings there was found engraven with his own pen these words Luk. 18.13 God be merciful to me a sinner and underneath this ingenious and divine Paraphrase To separate God and Mercy would be blasphemy To separate Mercy and Sinner would be despair To separate me and sinner would be presumption A divine Paraphrase worthy so rare a Divine To accumulate his Herse with Encomiums will be to little purpose since his works will predicate his Fame A Gabibus usque Auroram Gangem This is the comfort of all true Christians he is not amissus but praemissus not lost but sent before let us crave therefore of the Almighty Jehovah that we may all meet in Heaven with him there to sing perpetual Hallelujahs VVorld without end An Advertisement concerning some Notes pretended to be Doctor HEWYT'S Sermons WHereas some imperfect notes were upon a false suggestion and by other indirect means entred into the Hall-book of the Company of Stationers for the use of Mr. Eversden at the Gray-hound and Mr. Rook at the Lamb both in St. Pauls Church-yard under the Title of Dr. HEWYT'S Sermons These are to signifie to all whom it may concern 1. That they are none of Dr. HEWYT'S Sermons but only imperfect notes taken from him as he preached or perhaps from some others in short writing 2. That they were entred without the consent or knowledg of the right Honorable the Lady MARY HEWYT Relict of the said Doctor and are printed contrary to the best endeavours her Ladyship could use by fair means to suppress them as is very well known to the Master Wardens and Assistants of the Stationers Company 3. That if any thing shall be printed or produced in writing pretending the said Ladies consent the same hath been as is still disavowed by her Ladyship as none of hers For all that she gave her hand for or her consent unto was only a caveat that nothing should be printed in Doctor HEWYTS name without her consent and whatsoever there is more in that paper under her hand was an addition to call it no worse of some other whose name we conceal in meer charity after the paper was subscribed as was manifested to the Company at their Court holden on Monday the 14. of June and will be further justified upon oath by two sufficient witnesses when occasion shall serve Geo. Wilde Jo. Barwick IN HAS Conciones Elucubratas admodum Reverendi Doctissimique Viri JOANNIS HEUETI S. T. D. ITae profanatae procul huc decedite chartae Praelorum pudor perniciosa Lues Hic vates Divina docet Mundique caducas Spernere Delicias meliora sequi Tum Peccatorem lapsos convertere gressus Admonet vitae poenituisse suae Inde Redemptoris pandit Mysteria magni Nosque docet solam justificare Fidem Tum monstrat trepidis quae sit vexatio Sanctis Ballaque cum populis irrequieta Piis Scilicet in mediis posita est Ecclesia damnis Vt cingunt teneras

since much more then may we now Rari quippe boni numero vix sunt totidem quot Thebarum portae vel divitis ostia Nili There are but seven good men at most saith he A small number indeed What the Philosopher saith of Good I 'm sure is in these our Times verified of Evil Malum est sui diffusivum Evil is diffusive 't is of a spreading nature a disease that is catching therefore we should never go abroad without an Antidote against it and that is the Word of God for Antidotum verbi serpentis venenum expugnat The Word of God is a soveraign Antidote against the poyson of the Serpent We live now in the sink of Time wherein Vertue is accounted a Prodigie and Piety a Crime or at the best a Simplicity And our Aarons are taken away and put aside as useless and the people die of the Plague I wonder who shall stand between the living and the dead holding the Censers and making Atonement for them They are cast aside Beloved and none but a Spurious Issue admitted of that have no Authority nor Commission Quicquid libet licet nunc dierum and yet 't is strange non licet esse bonus And take this by the way That he that will be a godly Christian must like the Antipodes run a contrary course to the men of the world 'T is sin and the Fall of our parents that hath brought us into this condition here we lie but thanks to the Almighty here is comfort enough for the most hainous sinner so he have not committed the sin against the holy Ghost if he will but repent Sacrae paginae scatent hujusmodi consolationibus The Scripture abounds with Lectures of Comfort to all penitent sinners Isai 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous his own imaginations and turn unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he is ready to forgive And so likewise in Ezek. 18.21 22. If the wicked will return from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live and not die all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him but in his righteousness that he hath done shall he live The Scripture is an Ocean that flows with such comfortable streams and that both the Old and New Testament as it appears in 1 Joh. 1.9 If we acknowledge our sins God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all injustice And so in the 2. Chap. of the same Epistle vers the 1. and 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the just And he is the reconciliation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now what need we care what suit we commence at the Upper-bench in Heaven so long as we have Christ for our Lawyer our Counsellor Si Deus nobiscum quis contra nos if God be for us who shall be against us 1 Use This then should serve for a Use of Consolation to stir up all persons to a real and true repentance Since Christ is for them since he calls himself their Advocate their Pleader their Counsellor and hath promised so often that whosoever repenteth shall not perish but have everlasting life And though every man be an enemy to his own salvation the flesh resist the same work the divel doth endeavour by his wicked machinations to stir up in the heart of a man an aversion to conversion this should create in us more firm and setled resolutions after the work since we have the promise of our blessed Saviour for success in our undertaking but this cannot be performed without a holy indefatigable industry on our part for 't is called in holy writ a Birth a Death a Circumcision and you know no Birth no Death no cutting off of the flesh can be without care pain and labour The Embryo is not delivered out of the womb of the mother without pain nay many times the womb proves the tomb and therefore you cannot imagine it is a thing possible to be delivered of sin which is in you was conceived with you and which you since your nativity unto this moment have cherished with such delight and not to have a relish or gust of pain and travail in the new birth in your regeneration Assure your self that it will cost you many a salt tear many a bitter groan many a heavy sigh before you have this work of regeneration perfectly wrought in you Nemo repente fit optimus No man can arrive to the height of a vertue in a moment since 't is res tam ardua tantae molis opus so difficult and so necessary a work you ought all to labour more fervently then hitherto you have done and use all holy means that God hath constituted and appointed in sacred writ as subservient thereunto viz. The Word read and preached by the faithful Orthodox Pastors of the Church the Sacraments reverently and duly administred in the most decent and devout manner Prayer and holy ejaculations that dart up the desire of the soul to God and meditation on the Law of God crying unto him noctes atque dies night and day for his blessed assistance in a work of so great moment and consequence as the regeneration of man add hereunto an unfeigned repentance of all sins committed and let it not be a little lip-labour only but it must proceed from a real and contrite heart free from hypocrisie and dissimulation 2 Use Secondly this serves as Use of Terror to all careless and impenitent sinners that will follow the swinge of their own pleasure and the lusts of the flesh though they shipwrack their souls inevitably How should this pull down and totally demolish the Pyramide of pride mans heart and devest them of their gawdy attire and change it for sackcloth and ashes which is far more sutable to their spiritual condition Yet how do they ruffle in velvet a la mode and boast and vaunt in the spoils of a poor silk-worm yet in the interim they consider not that the sores of Lazarus will make as good dust as the paint of Jezabel and that their poor souls languish and are very near starved for want of heavenly Manna Gods Sacred word whilest they pamper their bodies and plump them with delicacies which serves onely to make them more fat and gorgious nourishment for worms Learn to wash your selves by the tears of repentance from the filth of sin your whole life should be a continued Lent the Spring-time of your sanctified resolutions and the hour-glass of your remaining dayes should be fill'd with the dust of mortified concupiscence you should read nothing but lectures of penitency and so like a good and solid Christian verifie

of Heaven and these devout Jews here whom it pitied to see the glory of Zion laid in the dust wept when they remembred it Appl. What shall we say then of those who now in the time of our Church and Kingdoms calamity when God seems to call to us as sometimes Jehu did Who is on my side who When the Church cries to us as sometimes she did Is it nothing to you all ye that passe by the way have ye no regard behold and see if ever sorrow were like my sorrow yet neither in heed to his voice nor in pity to her complaints will they humble themselves by fasting and prayer to cry to Heaven for mercy upon her but rather when God calls to mourning they are a revelling they drink wine in bowles and anoint themselves with precious oyntments but remember not the afflictions of Joseph wherefore I have sworn by my self saith the Lord God of hosts I abhor the excellency of Jacob Amos 6.6 8. And let such read the 22 Chapter of Isaiah vers 12 13 14. and tremble at the close of it Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you dye Ye would take it in foul disgrace to be called hard-hearted Jews yet these were more compassionate of the Churches miseries then are many of you these wept when they remembred Zion How then shall not our hearts agonize under Gods displeasure and our bedewed cheeks trickle down with tears for the miseries of our Church and State seeing the Heavens themselves have with waterish eyes long wept for our calamities not with dews but showers of compassion all the summer long and still now in winter keep their gloomy face to reproove the hardness of our obdurate hearts that can neither weep for our own nor pity the miseries of others O insensate hearts Is it nothing to you that you all passe by Zions sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted her in the day of his fierce anger The senceless creatures groan and travel in a fellow-feeling pain but you when your own members suffer and perish O where are the sounding of your bowels are they quite restrained The earth trembles at the voice of God the Sea saw him and was afraid and the rocks cleft at our Saviours passion and shall men be so obdurate as not to be moved nor split asunder at a Church and a Kingdoms passion If rocks be more affected then we O God take away from us these obdurate hearts of flesh and give us hearts of stone that seeing we cannot with innocent yet we may with hearts broken by repentance for all these sins that have pulled down those judgments upon our heads by these waters of Babylon sit down and weep when we remember thee O Zion And so I have done with the words in their literal sense and proceed now to them Secondly in their moral sense of which briefly In this sense St. Hilary St. Augustine Hugo de Sancto Victore Hugo Cardinalis with many others have taken these words nor in this do we offer any violence to the truth of the history but only digest gesta in exemplum scripta in doctrina as saith St. Hilary the passages into example and Scripture into doctrine The soul we all know hath four several states 1. Of innocence 2. Of a lapsed condition 3. Of renovation by grace 4. Of expectation of glory And going along with her from her first instant of creation to the last of eternity we shall find all of them in the Text. 1. That of innocence but implied so as that captivity supposeth a foregoing freedom this freedom was that of our created holiness which we enjoyed in Paradise that new Jerusalem that vision of peace but God knows we stay'd not long there before we were carried captive by the devil into Babylon from Paradise into the world from our country into exile from liberty into servitude from glory into disgrace from pleasure into grief from happiness into misery from integrity into corruption from life into death and therefore Merito illic sedemus merito flemus there we deservedly sit and weep as Hugo Victorinus concludes and that is the second state 2. The souls lapsed condition figured in Babylon and the waters of Babylon That Babylon properly signifies a City of confusion and that mystically here is meant this sinful world is agreed on by a general suffrage of Fathers and therefore consonantly they make the waters of Babylon to be bona temporalia so Hugo Cardinalis temporal things which as the rivers stay not but pass from one elbow of earth unto another the world passeth away and the lusts thereof 1 Joh. 2.17 or as Victorinus calls them decursiones nostrae corruptiones the decursions of our corruption and mortality which as Solomon speaks tend to the grave as the rivers into the Sea or as saith St. Augustine flumina Babyloniae sunt omnia quae hic amantur transeunt the rivers of Babylon are all transitory things whereon we set our hearts and so St. Hilarie omnia saeculi corporalium opera all secular and corporal travels which like rivers are transient without the least station for what bodily pleasure is it but when once 't is past by that time becomes none What earthly joy that dies not in the sense and perishes not in the enjoying yet are these those rivers on which the heart of man sets and fastens his delight and engulphs his care till at last they drown his soul and sink it as low as that pit which knows no bottom 3. But not so the Saints whose spiritualized souls are lifted up to a third state of graces renovation who though they do with patience wait their desired change in this flesh of sin as well as of mortality and so may be said to sit by the waters of Babylon which they account no better then the place of their short captivity yet humiliatione humiliati saith St. Augustine they sit in humiliation so Victorinus not erect by pride nor cast down by despair but humbly set so Hugo Cardinalis because they attend that misery in which they are that happiness from which they are distant Or there they sit but 't is supra flumina above the waters so the old Latine word reads it The Citizens of Babylon so drench themselves into the delights of the sinful world as they drown themselves in their pleasing but deadly waters whereas the Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem sit higher sit above not so low as to fear drowning nor so high as not to need to weep and weep they do too as well as sit if sitting be a posture that pleaseth the body weeping I am sure is an evacuation that easeth the soul O quam fic flere juvat saith St. Hierome O what sweets are there in hallowed tears how the soul delights to melt it self into such blessed showers because when she goeth into the lowest pitch of mourning she is then lifted up into the highest rapture of joy You have heard of them that have wept for joy but not so oft of them that have rejoyced for weeping yet of all the passions the soul is owner of she is a debtor to none more for her joy then this this is her rich treasure in which she traffiques with Heaven this the rarest dissolved pearl with which she defrayes all the passages of her captivity through the valley of tears Feel'st thou sin sit down and weep there is no innocence so clear among mortal men as that which is drencht in tears Fear'st thou hell sit down and weep flames cannot burn where these drops do fall O happy weeping that redeems from eternal weeping 4. But lookest thou up to Heaven that last state of thy souls glory her Country her Kingdom her Security sit down and weep that thy Pilgrimage is prolonged that mortality is not swallowed up of life that thou art yet a stranger and a sojourner nor art thou yet joyned with those innumerable companies of Angels and the first born that are written in Heaven O when shall that time be when our souls being delivered from the Babylon of this world from the prison of this flesh from the bondage of this corruption shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God How long Lord till these souls of ours which like streams here wander from the fountain of bliss be again re-admitted into that glorious source of immortality For this we breathe for this we groan for this each devout heart weeps when he recounts the miseries of this present exile but the happiness of Zion which we expect where all tears shall be wiped from our eyes where is no death nor sorrow nor lamentation any more but all joyes tranquillity and peace even for ever and ever To which the God of mercy for his Sons sake who is gone before us thither in his due time bring us to whom with the holy and ever-blessed Trinity three Persons and one God be all honour and glory world without end Amen FINIS