Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	israel_n	lord_n	redemption_n	2,132	5	10.1091	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05350	A warning for Israel in a sermon preached at Christ-Church, in Dublin, the 30. of October, 1625. By Henry Leslie, one of his Majesties chaplaines in ordinary.	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.	1625 (1625)	STC 15502; ESTC S102370	30,258	50

vaine for God doth not regenerate us by sudden enthusiasmes but by ordinary meanes and these exhortations are the meanes without which ordinarily no man is or can bee converted Wee are begotten by the word of trueth Iam. 1.18 Through the Gospell 1. Cor. 4.15 Of the incorruptible seede of the word 1. Pet. 1.23 Now no man will say that it is in vaine to use ordinarie meanes as to take meate for to nourish our bodies Physicke to recover our health to cast seede in the ground for to bring foorth fruite though the event bee not in our power but in Gods hands So neyther can these exhortations to repentance be in vaine though it bee not in our power to returne unto the Lord. Thirdly these exhortations serve to humble us with a sight of our owne inabilitie and also to direct us what things wee are to aske of God by prayer according to that of S. Augustine Deus jubet aliqua De gratia 〈◊〉 arbit cap. 16. quae non possumus ut noverimus quid ab illo petere debeamus God commaunds us some things which are not in our power that wee might know what things wee have to aske of him by prayer For when I heare that I am commaunded to returne unto the Lord and yet looking upon mine owne strength I finde no such power in my selfe this must make mee goe out of my selfe and flie unto the throne of Grace crying with the Spouse of CHRIST Draw mee and I will runne after thee Cant. 1.3 and with Ephraim Convert mee and I shal be converted Ierem. 2●,18 Psalm 51 13. and with David create in me a cleane heart and with the Disciples Lord increase our faith S. August and with that holy Father Domine da quod jubes jube quod vis Give mee a power to doe that which thou commaunds and then commaund mee to doe what thou wilt Finally this precept is given unto us because there is something in our power to doe we can use the meanes as goe to Church and heare the word Besides after that God in the first moment of our uprising hath revived the heart and given life to the dead will then acti agimus Wee are no longer passive but coworkers with God Ierem. 31.19 After I was converted I repented saith Ephraim Hence as our conversion is ascribed to God as the first and sole Author so it is ascribed to our selves as instruments of God apprehending his grace and working forward with it God is said to give faith and wee are said to beleeve God is said to give repentance and wee are said to repent God is said to turne us and wee are said to turne unto the Lord. From the exhortation I come to the arguments Indeede there is not a word in all the exhortation but it contaynes in it an argument to invite them to repentance First O Israel Thou that art Gods owne people What shame is it for thee to turne thy backe upon God Secondly Returne thou hast gone astray therefore come backe againe into the right way Thirdly unto the Lord hee is IEHOVAH the fountaine of all goodnesse that hath right unto thee by creation by redemption by covenant by many other obligations therefore returne unto him Fourthly he is thy God and therefore if thou wilt returne unto him hee will receive thee Fiftly Thou hast fallen by thine iniquitie therefore continue no longer in that course which hath procured thy fall least thou perish but returne unto the Lord that he may rayse thee up But the two last are the chiefe motives one whereof is taken from Gods mercie hee is thy God another from their owne miscrie Thou hast fallen by thine iniquitie First hee is thy God thine by creation thine by redemption thine by adoption thine by contract and covenant for this is the covenant which hee made with Abraham thy father I will bee a God unto thee Genes 7.7 and to thy seede after thee Therefore thou may assure thy selfe thy sinne is pardonable if thou wilt returne unto him hee will imbrace thee in the armes of his mercie Hence obserue that the exhortations to repentance in Scripture are founded commonly upon the mercie of God as Isai Chap. 55.7 Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous his owne imaginations and returne unto the Lord and he will have mercie upon him and to our God for hee will abundantly pardon In the Latin it is Multus ad ignoscendum Whereupon saith Bernard In hoc multo nihil deest ubi est omnipotens misericordia misericors omnipotentia Hee can pardon for his mercie is omnipotent and hee will pardon for his omnipotencie is mercifull Hos 6.1 Come say the repenting Israelits let us returne unto the Lord for hee hath torne and hee will heale us hee hath smitten and hee will bind us up Ioel 2.13 Turne unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindenesse and repenteth him of the evill And Ierem. 3. There bee many the like exhortations all upon this ground vers 12. Thou disobedient Israel returne and I will not let my wrath fall upon you for I am mercifull and will not alway keepe mine anger Againe vers 14. O yee disobedient Children turne againe for I am your Lord. And after vers 22. O yee disobedient children returne and I will heale your rebellions This is the argument used by the preacher of repentance Mat●h 35 Repent for the kingdome of heaven is at hand in which CHRIST is readie to dispense mercie and forgivenesse to the repenting sinner So here O Israel returne unto the Lord for he is thy God not hee is a great or a just or a wise or a powerfull God but hee is thy God grounding his exhortation upon Gods mercie The reason is because a sinner apprehending nothing but rigour and severitie in God will never come in and submit himselfe Psalm 130.4 No There is mercie with thee O Lord that thou mayst bee feared It is not the consideration of Gods greatnesse nor of his power nor of his justice nor of his wisedome that can make the heart of a sinner relent toward him but it is the consideration of his mercie when looking upon the mercy of God and merits of CHRIST I get some hope and inckling of pardon then will I come in creeping and crouching before God as the Syrians to Achab with ropes about their neckes because they had heard that the Kings of Israel were mercifull The thundering out of the threatnings and judgements of the Law will awake a secure heart but nothing will affect a mans minde and even melt his soule to make him returne unto the Lord but the due knowledge and consideration of the unspeakeable riches of Gods mercie The remembrance of his fathers house made the heart of the prodigall to relent So will the consideration of Gods mercies worke upon our heart if once our hearts

A WARNING For Israel IN A SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST-CHVRCH IN Dublin the 30. of October 1625. By Henry Leslie one of his Majesties Chaplaines in Ordinary PROVERB 22.3 A prudent man foreseeth the evill hideth himselfe but the foolish goe on still and are punished LUKE 19.42 O if thou haddest even knowne at the least in this thy day those things which belong unto thy peace Imprinted at Dublin by the Societie of STATIONERS Anno 1625. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE HENRY LORD VISCOVNT FALKLAND Lord Deputie generall of the Kingdome of IRELAND RIGHT HONOVRABLE INeyther as valewing your greatnesse or abilitie present this before your Honour but your goodnesse and vertue not that I thinke the subject unfit your consideration but because I am iealous of the compiler Yet my presumption is not great for what I now doe is obedience yea but seconding in action what your Honour thought worthy to be effected Discourses of this nature have not many Patrons and to see great men busie both their senses with Divinitie is mirum in terris Yet the Church hath had a Sergius Paulus a prudent Deputy and a Publius also from whom our Apostle might receive incouragement and we have not lost but changed our late learned King that mixed his meales with divine thoughts and taught his Nobles the like wisedome and herein I know not whether we can judge him more happy in his Princely power or Priestly prudence That path that honoured him a King may crowne you a subject Neyther doe I provoke you by the father as if there were nothing imitable in the sonne for who doth not see freshly budding in his sacred person what his Father presented to us in full eare And your glory will be no lesse in imitating his graces then in presenting his person This whatsoever it is I place at your Lordships feet if it please you as well published as presented I have my desire but if it fayle herein I shall not want to rejoyce that it once gave content God adde to your dayes honours and graces and make you a true professor of his distressed Church in this kingdome as also that your Lordship may long remaine with us a firme columne for the upholding the peace and tranquilitie of this State For which with the rest of your true Honorers I shall ever pray Your Honours in all duty and service HENRY LESLY A VVARNING FOR JSRAEL HOSHA 14. VERS 2. O Israel returne unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquitie IT is the ordinary method of the Prophets first to threaten and then to comfort first to denounce Gods judgements and after to promise mercie and forgivenesse And accordingly the Prophet Hosea in this 14. Chapter which is a breviary and compend of the whole prophecie begins with a threatning in the former verse Samaria shall become desolate for shee hath rebelled against her God they shall fall by the sword their Infants shall bee dashed into peeces and their women with childe shall bee ript up And after in the fift verse there followeth a promise I will heale their rebellion I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him What can bee the cause of such a suddaine change Iudgement is presently turned into mercie and the reason is because the threatnings and the promises of God in Scripture are conditionall The threatning in the former verse is conditionall Samariashall bee desolate namely unlesse she repent The promise likewise vers 5. is conditionall I will heale their rebellion namely if so be they doe repent and therefore between the threatning and the promise there is interlaced an exhortation to repentance O Israel returne unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Where consider with me first the exhortation it selfe O Israel returne unto the Lord then the arguments to inforce this exhortation which are two one taken from Gods mercy Hee is thy God another taken from their owne misery for thou hast fallen by thine iniquitie Againe in the exhortation consider first the people exhorted O Israel then the dutie required Returne unto the Lord. O Israel returne unto the Lord they God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquitie The people exhorted is Israel whereby wee may understand eyther the ten Tribes who made defection from the house of David following after Ieroboam against whom the judgement is denounced in the former verse under the name of Samaria because Samaria was the Metropolitan Citie of that kingdome or else by Israel wee may understand that Israel which was in the land of Iudah for these two Tribes of Iudah and Benjamin are often called Israel by a Synecdoche If by Israel we understand the tenne Tribes against whom the judgement was threatned then it ministers unto us these two instructions First that Gods threatnings in Scripture are conditionall for in the former verse desolation is threatned against Israel and yet heere he exhorts Israel to repentance that so shee might prevent that desolation Now unlesse in the threatning Samaria shal be desolate there were understood this condition except she repent the subsequent exhortation were in vaine and indeede it is a certaine rule set downe by God himselfe When I have spoken against a nation to destroy them and to reote them out If they repent of their sinnes I will repent of the evill I thought to bring upon them againe If the wicked will returne from all his sins he shall surely live shall not die Hence it is that God many times seemes to repeale his sentence according to that of Gregory Nevit Deus aliquādo mutare sētētiā sed nūquā nouit mutare cōsiliū he changes his sentence not his purpose It was Gods sentence against Nineveh Yet fortie dayes Ionah 3 4. Nineveh shall be destroyed It was Gods sentence to Hezekiah Put thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live Isai 38 1. and yet neyther of these came to passe at that time Doth this argue any inconstancie in God or want of power that hee could not performe what hee had spoken No Numb 23 19. God forbid God is not as man that he should lye neyther as the sonne of man that he should repent Hath he said and shall he not doe it Hath he spoken and shall he not accomplish it I am the Lord and change not Mal. 3.6 My counsell shall stand and my will shal be done Isa 46.10 But the reason is because all the threatnings of God are conditionall although the condition be not expressed God said to Abimelech Thou shalt die because of the woman which thou hast taken Gen. 20.3 This would seeme an absolute sentence yet was it onely conditionall for God saith unto him againe vers 7. Deliver the man his wife if not thou shalt die Thus the condition sometimes is expressed and alwaies is to be understood according to that generall rule Ierem. 18.7.8 So fortie dayes and Nineveh shall be