Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	lord_n	merciful_a	sin_n	9,948	5	4.9354	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80832	God's arraignment of Adam: declared in a sermon preach'd at St Pauls, Septemb 5. 1658. before the right honorable the Lord Major, aldermen, and Common-Council. By Thomas Cartwright, M.A. of Queens Coll. Oxon. and now vicar of Walthamstow in Essex.	Cartwright, Thomas, 1634-1689.	1658 (1658)	Wing C698; Thomason E960_1; ESTC R207676	18,353	29

viper into the fire left it pull him into those unquenchable flames out of which there is no escape If Adam offend against the law of God his own conscience will be sure to endite him and the Judg of heaven and earth will call him to the bar as he did in the language of my Text Adam where art thou which may be considered Secondly as they are 2. Verba patris filium increpantis the words of a father rebuking his son in which the affection of a father mitigates the severity of the judg God is not like that severe Roman qui exuit patrem ut consulem ageret who put off the father that he might put on the Consul for he does not condemn Adam without any more adoe as he did the lapsed Angels but he gives him an opportunity of repentance and in tenderness calls him to him after his delinquency that so he might have an oppertunity to sue out his pardon As if he had said O my son what is become of thy obedience and duty which thou owest to thy father how prodigal art thou of thy happiness how quickly hast thou morgag'd that inheritance which I so lately setled upon thee in Paradice how earnestly doest thou endeavour to disinherit thy self and thy posterity art thou so willing to devest thy self of the title of a son of God to be stiled a slave of sin doest thou not foresee the dangerous consequences of this thy disobedience what will be the end of thy travelling on in this road is it not high time for me now to call thee to an account and to reckon with thee for thy transgressions how canst thou possibly expect that I should spare thee any longer whilst thou continuest in this perverse course turn thine eye into thine own brest and see what will become of thee Adam where art thou which may be wound up on this bottom viz. Conclus That the love of a father is never so clearly manifested as when he can even oblige his children by reproving them Dignus patre amor est quem censura consileat It is the commendation of a fathers affection when it can so allay the sowreness of a reproofe that the patient son may not digest it but relish it kindly Thus did our Saviour John 4. 19 Christ oblige the woman of Samaria even by the discovery of her shame for when he told her of her adultery she made no reply but this Sir I perceive thou art a prophet and immediately ministred unto him When the party reproved can perceive that the reproof is the result of the reprovers love he cannot chuse but be in love with it for the lashes of a father are better then the kisses of an enemy reproofs that are thus qualified are like Seneca's poma suaviter aspera Apples that have a pleasant sowreness in them and so are more acceptable to the best pallates then flattering Sweetings Now that we may so correct our brother as not to corrupt him we must come to him as God here did to Adam in the cool of the day when his passion is over and like the King of Bees bring honey but no sting along with us and this is a lesson chiefly to be learned of them who are termed fathers of their country which very name carryes clemency along with it Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That so the greater is their power the lesser may bee their passion Set Moses's meekness as a pattern before you and then though you do rebuke men in hatred of their faults yet you will do it in love and long-suffering remembring your selves to be his Vicegerents who has said That he will visit their iniquities with stripes nevertheless his loving kindness will he not utterly take from Psal 89. 32 33. them And thus did he deal with Adam whom by a paternal increpation he indeavor'd to move to repentance saying Adam where art thou which you may look upon thirdly as they are 3. Verba medici confessionem morbi extorquere conantis the words of a Physician inquiring into the condition of his patient He does not condemne he does not reproach he does not revile him but makes a gentle search into his disease a meek inquiry into the state and condition in which he then was saying Adam where art thou least the remedy should offend him more than the disease Though hee knew well enough where and in what condition Adam now was yet was he pleas'd in starting this Quaere to tempt him to confession and then by an argument drawn from his present desperate condition to seek out for a Saviour of which he could not but be the● sensible how much need he had as if he should have said Adam how dishonorable is that which thou hast lately acted to me and how destructive to thy self Do'st not thou feel an insupportable burthen upon thy shoulders Does not the Law pursue thee for a rebel Where wilt thou take Sanctuary There 's nothing wanting but execution to make thee irrecoverably miserable Give me leave to search thy soar that so at length I may salve it tell me how dost thou feel thy self Adam where art thou From whence we may draw this conclusion Viz. Conclus That an hearty and ingenuous confession of our failings to Almighty God is the best invitation for his mercy to restore and strengthen us The confession of our disease makes way for our Physician which he that neglects does carelesly sleight his own cure Ipse sibi denegat curam qui suam medico non publicat causam It 's bad to transgress but it is worse to deny it for 't is a sign that we are not sufficiently asham'd of the offence when we blush to confess it Primae sanitatis pars est velle sanari The first step to health is a desire to obtain it which cannot be exprest without an acknowledgment of our disease He that is unwilling to discover his wound is not desirous to part with it The beggar will freely shew his raggs as the best invitation for your charity to relieve him The Petitioner will neglect no means possible of discovering his grievances that so his Prince may be the more graciously pleasad to redress them The Malefactor must confess his crime before ever he be capable of a pardon When a sinner is caught with the Tempters hook he must as the fish Scolopendra does its bowels cast it out again by an humble confession unless he desire to be further ensuar'd Non perit qui suum agnoscit errorem an humble ack 〈…〉 ledgment of our sins to God is the onely way to smother them 'T was the Prodigals peccavi which mov'd his father to make him so welcom The Pharisees Non sum sicut I am not like other men stopt the current of God's mercy but the Publicans Miserere mei Lord be merciful to me a sinner open'd it That therefore God may not impute our sins to us let us soundly aggravate them to our

Yet that his judgment might appear ro be just he proceeds legally against him and asks him that which he knew wel enough before that he might leave Judges a president to ask the prisoner such things which they presum'd to know but might possibly be ignorant of and so by an over-hasty judgment might condemn or punish them before they heard them God was willing to try whether Adam could clear himself of the whole or excuse himself in part of the crime so that he chose rather to conceal his knowledge of the fault then to sentence the Delinquent before he had given him leave to make his defence The Divel that old Serpent was sentenc'd indeed without any summons because 't was impossible that he should either clear his innocence or make out his repentance But God deals not so with us that we might not deal so with one another for before Adam is sentenced he is summond to answer for himself Adam where art thou From whence we may draw these two conclusions viz. 1 That it is a rash and over-hasty judgment to pass sentence upon an arraigned person before we hear what it is that he can reply to his accusation 2 That judgment treads upon the heels of a sinner Conclu 1 That it is a rash over-hasty judgment to c. Qui statuit aliquid parta inanditâ alterâ aquum fecisset si nunquam statuisset It were better not to judg at all then to do it before you lend an equal care to both parties A judg had need know that man well to whom he trusts both his eares nor can there be a greater blemish charged upon him than that he will believe the probable argument of a friend before the demonstration of an enemy or that he cannot read any cause but thorow the false spectacles of a favourite by which means he can never clearly see what it is that the plaintiffe or the prisoner can plead for themselves Though the tempest were so great that the Ship was likely to be broken and Jonah declared to be the cause of the danger by the infallible oracle of heaven yet the Mariners who are usually in a greater rage then the Sea it self would Jonah 1. 8. not cast him over board till they had put these questions to him For whose cause is this evil come upon us What is thing occupation whence comest thou what is thy country why hast thou done this what shall we do unto thee Quem sors judicaverat cogunt propria voce confiteri as t is in the interlineary Gloss though the lot had judged him yet they asked him some questions as forc't him to confess it himself before they put the judgment in execution Rei inauditi indefensi tanquam innocentes pereunt It is as justifiable to condemn an innocent person as one that is guilty before you have heard what defence he is able to make for himself Vse Be not so over-hasty therefore as to judg any man or his cause before you have heard ot examined it Take heed of being over-curious in observing or over-critical in judging a mote in your brethrens eyes lest they turn again to your greater shame reprove you for a beam in your own Consider that charity will never make her conclusions like those of the Syllogisme to follow the worser part but the better nor will she judg men by a few actions lest the sentence should fall too heavy upon the righteous but by all and as near as she can square her judgment according to that straight rule of the Schools In judicandis aliis eorum bona certa meliora certa mala minora bona dubia certa dubia mala nulla judicemus In the judging of others let us reckon their certain good works to be better than they are their certain miscarriages to be lesser if their good deeds be doubtful let us look upon them as if they were certain if their offences be doubtful let us judg them none at all A doctrine that could never be more seasonably prest than in this age of ours in which the multitude like flyes that stick only upon sores are apt to make even the precious oyntment of a good name unsavory and such are those who will not be induced to believe that any good thing can come out of Nazareth I mean that any piety can lodg in such mens breasts as are not of their party and so being rapt with the pang of a furious and misordered zeal do judg censure and condemn them before ever they hear what evidence they are able to produce of a power of godliness working effectually in them beyond the bare form of which they are perhaps accused They presume too much of themselves who think they are as well acquainted with their brothers transgressions as God was with Adam's and yet he was pleased to hear him before he judged him to summon him before he sentenc'd him saying Adam where art thou And thus much for the first inference the second followes viz. 2. That judgment treads upon a sinners heels No sooner had Adam tasted of the forbidden fruit but God called him to an account for his transgression saying Adam where art thou Sin is not less old than Adam and punishment is altogether as old as sin so that after his work is done a sinner seldome tarries long for his wages which is death God is said to ride upon the wings of the wind to intimate that it will not be long before he overtake his enemies The gall of bitterness does immediately succeed the honey of sin nor do those rivers of unlawful pleasures ever leave running till they are buried in the salt sea of miseries Sin is like Gunpowder no sooner toucht with an hot appetite but it immediately flyes in our faces so that it is ill fighting for the Divel as a sinner does since the presse-money that he gives them is no small punishment and it will not be long before he pay them to the full nay the more service his Souldiers do him the worse it fares with them for he studies nothing more then how to torment them most because their Tragedy shall never have an Epilogue he takes care that where old go off new scenes of miseries shall be ready to take their Cut's So that sin and suffering are relatives near akin one to the other they are but like the two neighbouring links of that chain in which a sinner is bound the one hangs or borders upon the other so that he who bears one must bear both Credas individuo nexu sceleri illigatam poenam aut inhaerentem calcaneo illius tanquam viperam Suffering is so firmly entailed upon sinning that nothing but Gods mercy upon our repentance can cut off the entail For otherwise what Solomon sayes of one holds true of every sin ori Acts 28. 5. novissimo mordebit and he that would suffer no harm by it must with St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shake this