Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A42952
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Trade preferr'd before religion and Christ made to give place to Mammon represented in a sermon relating to the plantations : first preached at Westminster-Abbey and afterwards in divers churches in London / by Morgan Godwyn ...
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Godwyn, Morgan, fl. 1685.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing G974; ESTC R15652
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53,257
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54
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faithful Israelites with which it will be replenished thro the numerous and large access unto it from these Nations The happy fruit and benefit whereof will redound as well to the Sower as to the Reaper For God is not unrighteous that he should forget our Work and Labour that proceedeth of Love which we have or shall shew for his Name and his Gospel's Sake Nor can any one lay out his Endeavours to greater Advantages either of the increase of God's Kingdom the glory of Christianity or the good of Mens Souls If we consider the vast multitudes of these Nations the greatness of their danger and their both aptness and readiness to embrace Christianity if duly applyed to them For as Acosta hath proclaimed it to the World long since Indorum Aethiopum certè copiosissimam paratissimam segetem cernimus neque aliud quam falcem Evangelicam expectantem Alacritate admirabili sese Coelorum regno aptissimam proclamantem invidorum segnium calumnias facile propulsantem operarios ipsos laetissime allicientem multitudine ubertate oculos omnium ad sese atque animos convertentem c. Which is no less true of them in every particular even at this very day could we be persuaded to use the means and to set about it But Oh! as the same Author doth most passionately lament tho with infinite less cause than we have here When will it come to pass that Men will cease to be Men When c. This will be the true removal of the Accursed thing the putting away those Baalims and Ashtaroths the false Gods and the false Religions that are amongst us The dismission of the captivated Ark The true Brazen Serpent to our Israel deriving Health to our Bodies and Prosperity to our Nation and the alone means both to secure and promote our Interest in those parts This will be the means to rid our Country of those Vermin and Diseases the Mice and Emerods that do so vex our Persons and mar our Land This the repairing of the Breaches and the rebuilding the shattered Walls of our Jerusalem And we no longer deferring to give to the God of Israel the Glory due unto his Name he will lighten his hands from off us and from off our Gods and from off our Land Lastly This will be to comply with our daily Prayers viz. That God's Name may be hallowed and his ways made known unto all Nations and Conditions of Men therein and that all Jews Turks Hereticks and Infidels may be converted to the Faith and saved among the remnant of the true Israelites And without which our Prayers are but a very Mockery and an Affront to the Diety unto whom they are presented Which whosoever utters cannot but at the same time be inwardly convinced of that Pharisaical Hypocricy which our blessed Lord so severely rebuked of drawing nigh unto God with his Mouth and honouring him with his Lips whilst his Heart is far from him and for which Exore tuo will be his Judgment and Condemnation Out of thine own-mouth will I judg thee thou wicked and slothful Servant To conclude It is the nature of God to do the good as saith St. Dionysius the Areopagite Every one then that will be like unto him must first fall to the Imitation of him One of the Fathers hath this Note That the Salvation of Man was Opus dignum Deo an Imployment not unbecoming God himself It cannot then be beneath even the best of us And there is a saying of S. Chrysostom to this purpose That for a Man to know the Art of Alms was more than to be crowned with the Diadem of Kings but to convert one Soul unto God was more than to pour out ten thousand Talents into the Baskets of the poor And if the Conversion of a very few unto Christ be worth the labour of many all their days what must it then be to be the Instruments and Means of converting so many Solomon ascribes the Epithet of Wise to those that win Souls And saith the Prophet Daniel They that be wise 't is Teachers in the Margent shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever And S. James makes it almost meritorious Let him know saith he that he that converteth a Sinner from the Error of his way shall save a Soul from Death and shall hide a multitude of Sins I shall end all with that devout Prayer of Syracides for the Conversion of the Heathen Ecclus. 36. 1 c. Have Mercy upon us O Lord God of all and behold us And send thy fear upon all the Nations that seek not after thee Lift up thy hand against the strange Nations and let them see thy power As thou wasty sanctified in us before them so be thou magnified among them before us And let them know thee as we have known thee that there is no God but only thou O Lord. Shew new Signs and make other strange Wonders glorify thy Hand and thy right Arm that they may set forth thy wonderous Works Raise up Indignation and pour out Wrath take away the Adversary and destroy the Enemies of thy Truth Make the time short remember the Covenant and let them declare thy wondrous Works Smite in sunder the Heads of those that say There is none other but we and let them perish that oppress thy People O be merciful to Jerusalem thy holy City the place of thy Rest Fill Sion that it magnify thine Oracles and thy People that they may set forth thy Glory Give Testimony to those whom thou hast possessed from the beginning and raise up Prophets that may speak in thy Name and let thy Prophets be found faithful O Lord hear the Prayer of thy Servants according to the Blessing of Aaron over thy People that all they which dwell upon the Earth may know that thou art the Lord the Eternal God Amen FINIS Rom. 14. 15 20. Esther 4. 14. Howell's Fam. Letters Vol. 1. §. 3. Lett. 33. * Acts 13. 6 7 c. Bar-Jesus or Elymas did oppose Christianity as not believing it but these whilst they profess it do yet oppose it Prov. 31. 8. * Alienus ab ira alienus à justitia Psal 39. 3. Job 13. 13. Mic. 3. 8. Isa 62. 6 7. St. Mat. 21. 28. St. Luke 18. 5. * Viz. In the Negro's and Indian's Advocate p. 111. * See Mr. Ricaut's Maxims of the Turkish Policy wherein he often mentions the Turks Zeal to promote their Faith Also Pet. Daniel in his History of Barbary tells us That the Turks will shew you kindness to make you embrace their Religion Pag. 308 309 310. 311. Quest By what Authority or Law he could do this to that or any other Person * In his Temple If the Negro knew his Priviledg he need not to desire Baptism for the obtaining of his freedom *
seen By whose means the Name of God came to be discovered to the Heathen who might otherwise have never heard of it Even as long afterwards the Persecution which attended S. Stephen's Martyrdom was an occasion for by nothing less will Men be persuaded to adventure abroad tho upon never so important an account of dispersing the Disciples and thereby a happy means of introducing the knowledge of Christ into remoter Countries Even such a Fatality may this unconcernedness draw upon these An unexpected Storm may force them into the parts we are speaking of and where these Impieties are so eminently practised as unto a Sanctuary and Refuge there as our Apochryphal Esdras relates of his Captive Israelites to keep those Statutes I shall also add and to promote that Faith which they neither kept nor thought needful whilst remaining in their own Land Wherefore to use the Prophet Daniel's Advice to King Nebuchadnezzar Let my Councel be acceptable unto you O my Fathers and Countrey-men and let us break off our Sins by Righteousness and our Iniquities by shewing Mercy unto the Souls of these poor innocent oppressed people if it may be a lengthning of our Tranquility as undoubtedly it will And in order thereunto let us lay before us these things and consider within our own Breasts whether this dishonour to our Religion and infamy to our Church and Nation this canker to our Estates calamity to our People and destruction to our Country hereby threatned these plagues to our Bodies and Damnation to our Souls be things so worthy our standing out against God and our contending for Rather let us endeavour a speedy composure and reconciliation At once striving to make at least some kind of reparation for what is past and no less joining in all laudable Proposals and ways for effecting these poor Peoples Christianity without any further delays still remembring that things of this Consequence are not to be made light of as was very piously discoursed to the great and no less zealous S. Athanasius upon the like occasion and considering that as many Souls as shall perish thro our neglect must be charged to our Account And first let us search into the Cause that so we may the easier arrive at the method and means of the Cure If it be Interest let it be satisfied as far as reasonably it may be if Ignorance let it be corrected by better advice if Sloth or Irreligion let it be check'd and disgrac'd not let any Obstinacy or Perversness be endured If ENCOVRAGEMENTS be needful let them be no longer wanting if Persuasions let them be discreetly applied but above all let us shew our selves hearty and sincere therein armed with most intense resolutions of persistance and persevering until arrived to its Accomplishment That so we may silence the Slanderer and the Blasphemer stop the Mouths of both Papists and Schismaticks and take away the reproach from our Church and Nation That those Sanballats and Elymas's the restless Obstructers of this work despairing of their wonted Success may be wearied out of and be made to desist from their prophane Opposition even as the old Heathens were of their Persecutions For nothing is able to withstand Zeal saith Solomon Prov. 27. For Zelus est aestus viri Zeal is the heat and ardency of a Man to the thing undertaken as the same Wise-Man hath it in another place And Cant. 8. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeal is as invincible as the Grave or even Death it self and as it goes on The Coals thereof are the Coals of Fire which hath a most vehement Flame such a Flame as many Waters cannot quench nor can the Flouds drown it that is nothing can be too hard for And here let us call to mind that the Gospel hath once overcome the World armed with its full strength and force to withstand it And what a shame would it be now after so long possession to suffer it to be baffled and worsted by a few handfuls of scattered Inerm Out-laws Nor let any noise or pretence arising from the supposed difficulty of this work which Men fuller of Mischief than of Reason or Religion do create affright us nor any excuse from the remoteness of the places nor the condition of the parties be at all mentioned Our God being a God of the Valleys no less than of the Mountains and afar off as well as near at hand and it being not to be doubted but that a most plentiful Harvest might be thence obtained from suitable endeavours edged and heartened with due ENCOVRAGEMENTS Nor of the time no time being unseasonable to serve God and to do good in Nor from the present posture of Affairs which this very neglect may have but too much influenced and given occasion to And then the cause being removed the effect must presently cease For Piety and Holiness saith the Orator do appease God's Wrath and saith Solomon When a Man's way do please the Lord he maketh his Enemies to be at peace with him And likewise Isaiah The work of Righteousness is Peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever And saith devout Ezra The Hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him Nay even Heathen Rome went not without her Blessing for her Piety For Diis te minorem quod geris Imperas Was Horace's Divinity and no less an Article of Levie's Faith when he tell us that during King Numa's long raign this very thing viz. their Piety struck their before troublesom Neighbours into a dread of molesting them for fear lest at the same time they should be injurious to God unto whose Worship and Service they saw them so intensely addicted Now if their Piety was thus rewarded why should not we expect the same our Religion and Service being so much purer and infinitely more agreeable to God's Will than theirs in probability could possibly be The Prophet David assures us That when all the People should praise God then should the Earth bring forth her increase The Jews were to date Their Blessing from the very day of the laying of the Foundation of the Temple And may not we much more hope for the like Prosperity and Happiness to our Church and Nation for our laying a Foundation and setting about this so much greater and more glorious Work He doubtless that blessed Obed Edom for his Ark's resting in his House and Laban the Syrian for Jacob's sake will send his Blessing upon us also whilst by our charitable and pious Labours and our unwearied and faithful Idustry in this his sacred Vineyard we do become Instruments in God's Hand to save Men's Souls from Hell and their Lives from the Destroyers and do deliver such from the Snares of the Devil who are taken Captive at his Will And no less also for his Churches establishment in those parts and for the many