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
A62128	XXXVI sermons viz. XVI ad aulam, VI ad clerum, VI ad magistratum, VIII ad populum : with a large preface / by the right reverend father in God, Robert Sanderson, late lord bishop of Lincoln ; whereunto is now added the life of the reverend and learned author, written by Isaac Walton.	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.; Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.	1686 (1686)	Wing S638; ESTC R31805	1,064,866	813

understanding can fathom Sic Deus dilexit So God loved the world But how much that so containeth no tongue or wit of man can reach Nothing expresseth it better to the life than the work it self doth That the Word should be made Flesh that the holy One of God should be made sin that God blessed for ever should be made a curse that the Lord of life and glory should suffer an inglorious death and pour out his own most precious blood to ransome such worthless thankless graceless Traitors as we were that had so desperately made our selves away and that into the hands of his deadliest enemy and that upon such poor and unworthy conditions O altitudo Love incomprehensible It swalloweth up the sense and understanding of Men and Angels fitter to be admired and adored with silence than blemished with any our weak Expressions 29. I leave it therefore and go on to the next his Right When de facto we sold our selves to Satan we had de jure no power or right at all so to do being we were not our own and so in truth the title is naught and the sale void Yet it is good against us however we may not plead the invalidity of it forsomuch as in reason no man ought to make advantage of his own act Our act then barreth us But yet it cannot bar the right owner from challenging his own wheresoever he find it And therefore we may be well assured God will not suffer the Devil who is but malae fidei possessor an intruder and a cheater quietly to enjoy what is Gods and not his but he will eject him we have that word Ioh. 12. 21. Ejicietur now is the Prince of this world cast out and recover out of his possession that which he hath no right at all to hold 30. Sundry inferences we might raise hence if we had time I may not insist yet I cannot but touch at three duties which we owe to God for this Redemption because they answer so fitly to these three last mentioned assurances We owe him Affiance in respect of his Power in requital of his Love Thankfulness and in regard of his Right Service First the consideration of his Power in our Redemption may put a great deal of comfort and confidence into us that having now redeemed us if we do but cleave fast to him and revolt not again he will protect us from Sin and Satan and all other enemies and pretenders whatsoever O Israel fear not for I have redeemed thee Isa. 43. If then the Devil shall seek by any of his wiles or suggestions at any time to get us over to him again as he is an unwearied sollicitor and will not lose his claim by discontinuance Let us then look to that Cornu salutis that horn of salvation that God hath raised up for us in Christ our Redeemer and flie thither for succour as to the horns of the Altar saying with David Psalm 119. I am thine oh save me and we shall be safe In all inward temptations in all outward distresses at the hour of death and in the day of judgement we may with great security commit the keeping our souls to him both as a faithful Creator and as a powerful Redeemer saying once more with David into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth Psal. 31. 6. 31. Secondly The consideration of his love in our Redemption should quicken us to a thankful acknowledgment of his great and undeserved goodness towards us Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from the hands of the enemy Psal. 107. Let all men let all creatures do it but let them especially If the blessings of corn and wine and oyl of health and peace and plenty of deliverance from sicknesses pestilences famines and other calamities can so affect us as to provoke at least some overly and superficial forms of thanksgiving from us how carnal are our minds and our thoughts earthly if the contemplation of the depth of the riches of God mercy poured our upon us in this great work of our Redemption do not even ravish our hearts with an ardent desire to pour them out unto him again in Hymns and Psalms and Songs of Thanksgiving with a Benedictus in our mouths Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people 32. Thirdly The consideration of his Right should bind us to do him service We were his before for he made us and we ought him service for that But now we are his more than before and by a new title for he hath bought us and paid for us and we owe him more service for that The Apostle therefore urgeth it as a matter of great equity you are not your own but his therefore you are not to satisfie your selves by doing your own lusts but to glorifie him by doing his will When Christ redeemed us by his blood his purpose was to redeem us unto God Rev. 5. 9. and not to our selves and to redeem us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. and not to it And he therefore delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might the more freely and securely and without fear serve him in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our lives Luke 1. which being both our bounden duty and the thing withal so very reasonable we have the more to answer for i● we do not make a conscience of it to perform it accordingly He hath done his part and that which he was no way bound unto in redeeming us and he hath done it to purpose done it effectually Let it be our care to do our part for which their lye so many obligations upon us in serving him and let us also do it to purpose do it really and throughly and constantly 33. Thus is our Redemption done effectually it is also done freely which is the only point now remaining Not for price nor reward Isa. 45. 13. but freely and without money here in the Text. Nor need we here fear another contradiction For the meaning is not that there was no price paid at all but that there was none paid by us we laid out nothing towards this great Purchase there went none of our money to it But otherwise that there was a price paid the Scriptures are clear You are bought with a price saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 6. and he saith it over again Chap. 7. He that paid it calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom that is as much as to say a price of Redemption and his Apostle somewhat more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implieth a just and satisfactory price full as much as the thing can be worth Yet not paid to Satan in whose possession we were for we have found already that he was but an Usurper and his title naught He had but bought of us

Isaac he kept with him and gave him all that he had Right so God giveth temporal gifts to Hypocrites and Cast-aways who are bastards and not sons and not sons of the freewoman not sons of promise not born after the spirit and that is their portion when they have gotten that they have gotten all they are like to have there is no more to be looked for at his hands But as for the Inheritance he reserveth that for his dear Children the godly who are Born after the Spirit and Heirs according to promise on these he bestoweth all that ever he hath all things are theirs for on them he bestoweth his Son the heir of all things in whom are hid all the treasures of all good things and together with whom all other things are conveyed and made over unto them as accessories and appurtenances of him and on them he bestoweth Himself which is All in all in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore To which joy unspeakable and glorious O thou the Father of mercies who hast promised it unto us bring us in the end for thy dear Son's sake Jesus Christ who hath purchased it for us and given into our hearts the earnest of his and thy holy Spirit to seal it unto us To which blessed Son and holy Spirit together with thee O Father three persons and one only wise gracious Almighty and eternal Lord God be ascribed by us and all thy faithful people throughout the world the whole kingdom power and glory for ever and ever Amen Amen AD POPULUM The Second Sermon At Grantham Linc. Feb. 27. 1620. 3 KINGS 21. 29. because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days I Will not so far either distrust your Memories or straiten my self of Time for the delivery of what I am now purposed to speak as to make any large Repetition of the Particulars which were observ'd the last time from the consideration of Ahab's Person and Condition who was but an Hypocrite taken joyntly with his present Carriage together with the Occasion and Success thereof He was humbled It was the Voice of God by his Prophet that humbled him Upon his humbling God adjourneth his Punishment From all which was noted first That there might be even in Hypocrites an Outward formal Humiliation secondly the Power and Efficacy of the Word of God able to humble an Oppressing Ahab thirdly the boundless Mercy of God in not suffering the Outward formal Humiliation of an ungodly Hypocrite to pass altogether unrewarded All this the last time by occasion of those first Clauses in the Verse Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not We are now next to consider of the Great Favour which it pleased God to shew to Ahab upon his humiliation what it was and wherein it consisted It was the Removal at least for a time that is the suspension of an heavy judgment denounced against Ahab and his house most deservedly for his bloody and execrable oppression Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days The Evil which God now promiseth he will not bring I will not bring the evil in his days is that which in vers 21. he had threatned he would bring upon Ahab and upon his house Behold I will bring evil upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the Son of Abijah for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin A great Judgment and an heavy But the greater the Judgment is when it is deserved and threatned the greater the mercy is if it be afterwards forborn as some of this was But whatsoever becometh of the Iudgment here we see is Mercy good store God who is rich in mercy and delighteth to be stiled the God of mercies and the Father of mercies abundantly manifesteth his mercy in dealing thus graciously with one that deserved it so little Here is mercy in but threatning the punishment when he might have inflicted it and more mercy in not inflicting the punishment when he had threatned it Here is mercy first in suspending the punishment I will not bring the evil and mercy again in suspending it for so long a time I will not bring the evil in his days Of these two points we shall entreat at this time and first and principally of the former I will not bring the evil It is no new thing to them that have read the sacred Stories with Observation to see God when men are humbled at his threatnings to revoke them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom more than once this is ever Gods manner when men change their deeds to change his doom when they renounce their sins to recal his sentence when they repent of the evil they have done against him to Repent of the evil he had said he would do against them Search the Scriptures and say if things run not thus as in the most ordinary course God commandeth and Man disobeyeth Man disobeyeth and God threatneth God threatneth and man repenteth Man repenteth and God forbeareth Abimelech thou art but a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken but Abimelech restoreth the Prophet his Wife untouched and God spareth him and he dieth not Hezekiah make thy Will and Put thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live but Hezekiah turneth to the Wall and prayeth and weepeth and God addeth to his days fifteen years Nineveh prepare for desolation for now but forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed but Nineveh fasted and prayed and repented and Nineveh stood after more than forty years twice told Generally God never yet threatned any punishment upon person or place but if they repented he either withheld it or deferred it or abated it or sweetned it to them for the most part proportionably to the truth and measure of their repentance but howsoever always so far forth as in his infinite wisdom he hath thought good some way or other he ever remitted somewhat of that severity and rigour wherein he threatned it A course which God hath in some sort bound himself unto and which he often and openly professeth he will hold Two remarkable testimonies among sundry other shall suffice us to have proposed at this time for the clear and full evidencing hereof The one in Ier. 18. 7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and pull down and to destroy If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will

accountable to God at the day of Judgment Immoderate Care and Sollicitude for outward things is another impediment of Thankfulness Under which Title I comprehend Covetousness especially but not only Ambition also and Voluptuousness and every other Vice that consisteth in a desire and expectation of something for the future Which desire and expectation if inordinate must needs in the end determine in unthankfulness For the very true Reason why we desire things inordinately is because we promise to our selves more comfort and content from them than they are able to give us this being ever our Error when we have any thing in chase to sever the Good which we hope from it from the Inconveniencies that go therewith and looking only upon that never so much as to think of these But having obtained the thing we desired we find the one as well as the other and then the Inconveniences we never thought of before abateth much of the weight and the price we formerly set thereupon and taketh off so much from the estimation we had of the good whereby it cometh to pass that by how much we over-valued it in the pursuit by so much we undervalue it in the possession And so instead of giving thanks to God for the Good we have received we complain of the Inconveniences that adhere thereunto and so much underprize it as it falleth short of our expectation and look how far we do underprize it so far are we unthankful for it To remove this Impediment whoever would be thankful let him moderate his desires after these outward things fore-cast as well the inconveniences that follow them as the Commodities they bring with them lay the one against the other and prepare as well to disgest the one as to enjoy the other The last Impediment of Thankfulness is Carnal Security joined ever with Delays and Procrastinations When we receive any thing from God we know we should give him Thanks for it and it may be we think of doing such a thing but we think withal another day will serve the turn and so we put it off for the present and so forwards from time to time till in the end we have quite forgotten both his benefit and our own Duty and never perform any thing at all My Text doth after a sort meet with this corruption for here the Apostle saith the Creature should be received with thanksgiving as if the thanks should go with the receipt the receipt and the thanks both together To remove this Impediment consider how in every thing Delays are hurtful and dangerous how our Affections are best and hottest at the first and do in process of time insensibly deaden and at last die if we do not take the opportunity and strike as we say whilest the Iron is hot how that if pretensions of other businesses or occasions may serve the turn to put off the tendering of our devotions and rendering of our thanks to God the Devil will be sure to suggest enow of these pretensions into our heads and to prompt us continually with such Allegations that we shall seldom or never be at leisure to serve God and to give him thanks Let us remember these five impediments and beware of them Pride Envy Epicurism Wordly Carefulness and Delay All which are best remedied by their contraries Good helps therefore unto thankfulness are 1. Humility and Self denial 2. Contentedness and Self-sufficiency 3. Painfulness and Sobriety 4. The Moderation of our desires after earthly things 5. Speed and Maturity And so much for this third Inference of Direction I should also have desired if the time would have permitted although my Text speaketh of our Thanksgiving unto God precisely as it respecteth the Creature yet to have improved it a little farther by a fourth Inference that if we be thus bound to give God thanks for these outward blessings how much more ought we then to abound in all thankfulness unto him for his manifold Spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ for Grace and Election for Mercy and Redemption for Faith and Justification for Obedience and Sanctification for Hope and Glorification If we ought to pray for and to give thanks for our daily bread which nourisheth but our bodies and then is cast into the draught and both it and our bodies perish how much more for that Bread of life which came down from heaven and feedeth our Souls unto eternal life and neither they nor it can perish If we must say for that Give us this day our daily bread shall we not much more say for this Lord evermore give us this bread But I have done Beseech we now Almighty God to guide us all with such holy discretion and wisdom in the free use of his good Creatures that keeping our selves within the due bounds of Sobriety Charity and civil Duty we may in all things glorifie God and above all things and for all things give thanks always unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ. To which our Lord Jesus Christ the blessed Son of God together with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one only wise gracious and everlasting God be ascribed as is most due by us and his whole Church all the Kingdom the Power and the Glory both now and for evermore Amen Amen AD POPULUM The Sixth Sermon At St. Paul's Cross London April 15. 1627 Gen. XX. 6. And God said unto him in a dream Yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thine heart For I also withheld thee from sinning against me therefore suffered I thee not to touch her FOR our more profitable understanding of which words it is needful we should have in remembrance the whole story of this present Chapter of which story these words are a part And thus it was Abraham cometh with Sarah his Wife and their Family as a Stranger to sojourn among the Philistines in Gerar covenanteth with her before-hand thinking thereby to provide for his own safety because she was beautiful that they should not be to know that they were any more than Brother and Sister Abimelech King of the place heareth of their coming and of her beauty sendeth for them both enquireth whence and who they were heareth no more from them but that she was his Sister dismisseth him taketh her into his house Hereupon God plagueth him and his House with a strange Visitation threatneth him also with Death giveth him to understand that all this was for taking another Mans Wife He answereth for himself God replieth The Answer is in the two next former Verses The Reply in this and the next following Verse His Answer is by way of Apology he pleadeth first Ignorance and then and thence his Innocence And he said Lord wilt thou slay also a righteous Nation Said not he unto me She is my Sister And she even she her self said He is