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	son_n	trinity_n	4,094	5	10.4029	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49698	God manifested by his works, and justified in his dealings with men a sermon preached at the cathedral church of Sarum, upon the 29th day of June, 1677 / by Paul Lathom.	Lathom, Paul.	1678 (1678)	Wing L573; ESTC R25447	13,396	34

wise and just God sets before us his commands backt with promises and threatnings when he sets before us fire and water life and death and bids us choose the one and refuse the other when he exhorts us to believe and tells us we shall be damned if we hearken not doth not this argue that God deals with Man as a reasonable Creature and a free agent capable of choosing and acting freely 6. And when God doth by his grace draw a Man unto himself from the error of his ways we believe that he doth not offer any force unto the will and make him cease to do evil and learn to do well against his will but that he begins with convincing a Man's judgment of the error and danger of his former courses alluring him with the beauty and necessity of holiness and then proceeds sweetly to encline the will to follow the dictates of the understanding so enlightned so that still we are a willing People whether we proceed in the ways of Ruine or of Happiness 7. Let any Man try whether in reference to particular acts of sin it be simply impossible for him to refrain for a time yea when meaner considerations than those of Heaven and Hell are the motive If the presence of a grave and good man will make men take truce with their lusts for a time if a wager a friend a bargain will make a man to compound with his appetite and to be sober for a time shall not the weightier motives of the Word of God be as prevalent with us 8. Let us up and be doing and the Lord will be with us we therefore know not how much is in the power of humble and serious resolutions because one of these qualifications is mostly wanting in our resolutions The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon too must be drawn and then who are those Hosts of Midian that shall oppose us in the ways of God 9. Therefore the servility of Man's will through the fall will excuse no Man before God's Tribunal that hath lived and died in sin No man shall be able to plead Lord I was convinced of the odiousness of dishonesty but yet my will forced me to be a knave I was convinced of the desirableness of Heaven and I did what I could to come thither but all in vain for I was subject to servility and impotency of will I did in vain strive against the stream But this will be the more clear by what follows Fourthly No man can plead that he hath wanted the offer of assistance from the Spirit of God to enable him to please God and to bring him to Heaven That we are not shut up under a necessity of sinning I believe as before and yet that we are not sufficient of our selves to do that which is good I also believe but whether God be wanting to help our infirmities is the Question To which the answer is that speaking of our selves that live under the means of grace for what have we to do to judge them that are without no Man shall be able to plead that God hath been wanting to him to offer him assistance to enable him to please him and to walk in his ways 1. I believe that together with the ordinances of God goes along his holy Spirit offering grace unto us and soliciting us to accept thereof that the promise hereof was sealed unto us in our baptism and the accomplishment of this promise we find daily in attending upon other Ordinances in our adult estate and that for this reason the Apostle distinguisheth the Gospel from the Law in calling it the ministration of life and a quickning spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 8. 2. We may also find at other times the spirit of God moving upon the waters of our Souls in our secret recesses When we commune with our own heart and are still convincing us of the error of our ways perswadeing and moving us to exchange them for better Hereby it both prepares us to receive benefit by the Word preached and also seconds what we have heard that it may become effectual 3. If at any time this spirit withdraw it self and suspend its motions it is then when we have resisted its operations in us and thereby grieved it by neglecting our own duty and interest Even good men find these withdrawings after the grosser and more wilful sorts of sins as David when he prays for restoring these establishments of the free spirit and from wicked men he wholly and finally departs when they have obstinately refused to accept of his counsel and then he leaves them to their own hearts lusts 4. But he mercifully continues his ordinances among us that if it be not our own fault we may not want the workings of his Spirit He hath promised to be with his Ordinances and the dispensation and dispensers thereof to the end of the World and his continuing these amongst us doth shew that he stands at the door and knocks 5. And he hath promised that he will never fail us nor forsake us I believe God never cast off that man that had not first wilfully and obstinately cast off him nor that the frailties of the flesh deprive us of his comforting and quickning workings but he will still be ready to stand by us and support us and if we neglect our duty it shall not be for want of help offered us by God's Spirit to do it Fifthly Nor shall any man be able to plead that God proposed unto him commands that were simply unpracticable or proposed salvation unto him upon terms to which it was impossible for him to come up 1. Indeed 't is true God proposeth unto us such Precepts in his Law and Gospel as are very exact and perfect it being inconsistent with the absolute perfection of God's holiness to propose unto us any Law but that which is like himself and the exactness of the Law at once upbraids us with our defects and thereby keeps us humble and also stirs us up to labour to be perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect Thus the fairest Copy is best to write after though a Learner cannot expect to come up to a perfect imitation thereof 2. But 't is as true that we are free from the Law as a covenant of works so that we are no more to expect life and happiness upon condition of unerring obedience or to fear death upon the least default in continuing in all things that are written in the Law to do them from the curse of the Law Christ hath delivered us by being made a curse for us and from its severe exaction by making a new and gracious covenant with us 3. So that now the great thing God requires is sincere desires and hearty endeavours to please him such as result from true love and gratitude that when we do amiss and fall short of our duty we be truly penitent for it and fly to the mercy of God and the merits of Jesus Christ for pardon that for sins of daily incursion we take this course in our daily prayers and after more eminent sins that we be more solemnly humbled before Almighty God that we do not allow our selves in our defects much less rolle sin as a sweet morsel under our tongue but that we bewail our defects and be daily pressing forward toward perfection 4. Upon these terms I believe God doth accept us in the beloved our sins being pardon'd through the imputation of Christ's righteousness apprehended by faith and our defects in obedience winked at by the fatherly indulgence of a merciful God who spareth us even as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Mal. 3.17 And being placed under these terms we have so little temptation to shun the service of God as of an austere master that will not be pleased let us do what we can that we have rather very great encouragement to run the ways of Gods commandments with enlarged hearts and to have our souls carried as on the Chariots of Aminadib as knowing that he is a good Master a liberal rewarder of them that diligently serve him and that his service is perfect freedom To conclude We see here the infinite wisdom and justice of God in his dealings with Man who gives him sufficient knowledge of his duty interest gives him sufficient encouragement to choose the good and refuse the evil leaves him under no insuperable indisposition for doing his duty and requires of him nothing simply impossible for him to do How wise then and happy are they that make a due use of these favours of God! that study not to dispute the commands of God or their consistency with his decrees but leave those secret things to the Lord and take care of those revealed things that belong to us How great an enemy then is the Devil that be fools us into those excuses that will signify nothing before the righteous Judge that first endeavours to rob us of our innocency by his temptations and then of the only refuge of sinners repentance by such suggestions as these But such is his nature he hath been a lyar and deceiver from the beginning How great is the folly of those that hearken to these delusions that neglect so great salvation through studying excuses to evade plain and necessary duties at once arguing themselves out of their reason while they seek to argue themselves out of a capacity to embrace and obey the Laws of their Maker Finally how will the righteous Judg of all the earth be justified in his sayings and clear when he judgeth the world At present wisdom is justified of all her children but then every mouth shall be stopped and the whole world be found guilty before God Then shall the Fig-leaves of excuses drop away and Men be judged according to the talents committed to their trust God of his mercy make us so wise as to prevent the severity of that judgment by repenting and amending in due time Now to the blessed and undivided Trinity God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost be given as is most due all honour and worship and service now and for ever Amen THE END