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
A80611	Christ the fountaine of life: or, Sundry choyce sermons on part of the fift chapter of the first Epistle of St. John. Preached by that learned judicious divine, and faithfull minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. John Cotton B.D. now preacher at Boston in New-England. Published according to Order.	Cotton, John, 1584-1652.	1651 (1651)	Wing C6418; Thomason E630_1; ESTC R206444	209,049	264

Sonne he hath him as a Saviour aad those that have him for a Saviour they waite on him and only look for salvation from him There is a second duty for every man to performe that hath Christ for his Saviour and that is he doth not only looke for salvation from him when he stands in need of it as we daily doe for Salvation is deliverance out of danger and preservation in a good estate and he lookes for all salvation from him Psal 3. last Salvation belongs to God and though many means may be used yet it is the Lord and his mercy and blessing that saves and delivers and nothing else and Gods servants they know it But there is a second duty in having Christ for a Saviour and that is in looking up to Christ and cleaving to him and not only desiring salvation from him from all our distresses Christ a Saviour from sin as well as from distresse but salvation also from all our sins and he that hath Christ for a Saviour he from would be saved from all his sins as well as from all his miseries Act. 5.31 God hath appointed him a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes there is therefore this salvation to be had in Christ not only deliverance out of the hands of dangers but from the hands of all our sins and rebellions and to be saved from them by turning from them and repenting of them and we desire not only forgivenesse of them but salvation from them to be saved from our stubborne spirits and saved out of our covetousnesse and wantonnesse and worldlinesse and carnall vanity of heart and life that we are subject to to be saved from the vaine fashions and in all these we looke for salvation from Christ we desire to be saved not only from all our distresses but especially from the sinfull distempers of our soules It is a notable Psalme the 130.1 If thou Lord should marke iniquity who should stand but there is forgivenesse with thee that thou mayest be feared I waite for the Lord my soule doth wait and in his word doe I hope My soule waiteth for the Lord more then they that watch for the morning Let Israel waite for the Lord for with him is mercy and plenteous redemption and he shall redeeme Israel from all his iniquities ver 7 8. and he is therefore called Iesus Matth. 1.21 And notable is that expression Hos 14.2 Take away all our iniquities and receive us graciously so will we give thee thankes Thus they desire salvation from all their iniquities and not so much salvation in the pardon of all their iniquities for there is more in it then forgivenesse of sinne but a turning them from them they desire both pardoning and healing and God so understood them as appeares by vers 4. God answers them That he would pardon them and heale them he wil remove them all away from them not an hoofe be left behind but all taken away There is a generation of men that are marvellous unwilling to yeeld to this so that you see it is an ordinary thing for men to say they have Christ for a Saviour but it is a rare thing to be so indeed you know how affectionate our Saviours speech is Matth 23.37 O Ierusalem Ierusalem how often would I have gathered thee under my wing of salvation but y u would not be gathered The body of the Church of God though some was gathered yet others of them would not be gathered and if it was thus with Jerusalem it is no wonder if you read the like of Babilon Ier. 51.9 We would have healed Babel but she would not be healed God sent his Church and kept it there seventy yeares among them that some of them at least might imbrace the salvation of God but she would not be healed we have used the best meanes we could to heale her but it wil not be she wil not be healed of us and therefore let us be going home againe God would not send his Church among them for nothing but he lookes for some fruits among them but since either none were gathered or so few as that they were not a considerable number therefore God will send his people home againe when they say Let us breake their bonds asunder and cast their cords from us then God will take no further paines Psal 2.3 It is a notable place that in Ier. 2.25 God cals upon his people most affectionately that they would be healed but they snuffe up their iniquities as the wind and like unto wilde Asse colts would be at liberty and take pleasure in their running at random and God said With-hold thy foot from being unshod and thy throat from thirsting after such vanities An hard matter to be willing to be saved by Christ but thou sayest desperately There is no hope I have loved strangers and after them will I goe What a marvellous speech is this in Gods own Servants when God would with-hold them from running for salvation elsewhere and from such other sins as they thirsted after no there is no hope but the course they had taken they would take and no meanes should save or draw them from their haunts so that you see it is no easie matter for a man to be willing to be saved by Christ and though many would be saved by him yet few there be that would looke for all salvation from Christ and are not willing to be saved from all their sins but are willing to keep some sins still alive in their soules Are they not ready in their hearts to say as they said Matth. 8.29 Art thou come to torment us before the time It was when Christ came to save two men from the possession of a Legion of Devils the men spoke it though the Devils acted it in them so when Christ comes to bring salvation it is a torment to our soules the two witnesses vexed men and they came but to save men it is a torment to men to have sinne pulled out of their soules as you read Act. 16.19 When the Apostles had cast out of the maide the spirit of Divination when their Masters saw that the hope of their gaine was gone they were in a rage and caused them to be stoned and left them for dead now when men take it ill that they should be saved or are loath that their children or servants should be saved take it ill that they dare no more lye and sweare and couzen and buy and sell on the Sabbath day and such and such a gaine is thereby lost and this they cannot endure it is a dangerous signe of an ill heart and therefore however it is an usuall saying that every man wil have Christ for a Saviour and yet if in truth we consider it I assure you in plaine English we wil not be saved that is our resolution when it comes to the point It is an use of Triall that we

crooked wayes be made strait and rough wayes made smooth Isa 40.3 4. and this is the preparation we must make for Christ to come into us you have sometime heard this fully spoken to that is when the high mountaines of our great spirits and lofty lookes are brought so low that we are content to be nothing in our owne eyes that we have all we have in Christ and are able to bring nothing to him and are willing that he should take all from us whatever he would have us to part with and when we are willing to be whatsoever he would have us to be and that he should doe with us what is good in his owne eyes then these high mountaines being brought low we are made fit for Christ to come into us we must have no crooked wayes of our owne if we have any imagination of our owne left in us that we wil part with such and such Lusts but yet are loath to be disposed of in all things as God wil have us then there is no roome for God he wil not climbe for it but if we smooth the way for him then he wil come into our hearts But besides this there is to be filled up every low valley and that holds forth two things Every Valley shal be filled that is first every base heart shall lift up it selfe to the high things of God for he speakes of vallies first as if there were such a low dejectednesse in the Creature as made it unfit for Christ God requires that every base heart should be exalted to the minding of high and heavenly things lifted up farre above these low things that cannot reach the wayes of God these Gates must stand open and be lifted up that the King of glory may come in Psal 24.7 to 10. and he meanes the gates of our hearts and he calls them the gates of eternity they are our hearts and soules stand not poring upon earthly things here below but lift up your heads higher looke for a God and for a Kingdome stand not pedling about these earthly things as if you had nothing else to looke after your hearts lye too low for Christ to come into but if you would lye levell with him then lift up your minde to heavenly things let the bent of your heart be for pardon of sinne and for everlasting life be of a levell frame of spirit to the Kingdome of Heaven and then Christ will come into you And as it implyes that the heart must not be too low for Christ through basenesse of spirit and an earthly mind so it may be too low through despaire and through excessive sorrow for sinne he may be cast so low downe in dejection of spirit that his heart lyes too low for Christ not able to lay hold on Gods favour to him in Christ thinkes the Promises belongs not to him it is well and happy for them that can lay hold upon them but for his part there is none of these Promises reach him Did yee ever know any in my case finde mercy now the heart lyes something too low this mans heart is not base he looks at Christ as the most honourable thing in the world he sets his heart upon the bloud of Christ and would be glad with all his heart that he had his part in it but he is dejected and lyes too low fit to despaire and therefore in this case a Christian must be thus farre exalted as to be made levell with Christ to beleeve there is hope in Israel touching his estate Christ hath had mercy upon many in such a case and he wil doe so to us if we seeke him in the way of his Ordinances and if therefore we resolve to seek him and put our mouthes in the dust expecting salvation to be revealed by him and follow him in his Ordinances and never have fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse and wil still continue to seeke him then we begin to be something levell with Christ But you say There is such a crookednesse in my heart and un-evennesse that Christ cannot come in truly that must be made strait Princes are not wont to goe downe back lanes but downe plaine wayes so Christ as he would have his way neither too high nor too low so he would not goe round about but would have the way to lye plaine before him the judgement and heart and affection lye in such sort of evennesse as simply to aime at the glory of God in his way and therein to be ruled by the Word of God and then is the heart of a man in a good frame if there be nothing in a mans heart but hee is willing to bee guided in it by the streight rule of Gods Word and hee aimes directly at the glory of God and the comming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will then is all a mans crooked wayes laid aside and the heart lyes so levell that Christ will suddenly come into his Temple these crooked windings of a spirit of hypocrisie are made streight when he is brought low yet he may have much hypocrisie in him pretend to be more then he is he may be doing good dutys more to be seen of men then that God should observe him therefore when God hath brought us to this that we are desirous of grace rather in truth then in outward shew or if in shew but that we might doe others good thereby and singly aime at Gods glory in it and desire and endeavor to walk by the streight rule of the Word of God then are our hearts cleansed in some measure from the crooked windings of hypocrisie which might hinder the free passage of Christ into the soul And yet there is another winding in a mans heart though in some truth the dutyes be done yet there is many times an aptnesse in us to cover and to wind about our own sinnes and to make them lesse then they be and this is a wicked course Psal 125.4 5. and therefore God would have us deale most plainly with him that in the singlenesse of our hearts when it may stand with the glory of God and the confusion of our own faces we will not be wanting to lay open our hearts before him these be such windings as will not profit us when we deal plainly and confesse what we have done and come to be thus open hearted to God then is Christ ready to come suddenly into his Temple when we have brought downe our high spirits and raised up our too low base and dejected spirit and laid all levell before him then there remaines no more but for Christ to come suddainly into his Temple But yet besides all this when al this is don yet there may be stil a great measure of a rough and harsh and sharpe and fiery spirit in him which Christ will have removed before he comes to dwel there before that he will have this harshnesse and bitternesse laid down that they shal