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	see_v	sin_n	9,542	5	4.7336	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43703	A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-hall, on Sunday the 26th of October, 1690 by Charles Hickman.	Hickman, Charles, 1648-1713.	1690 (1690)	Wing H1900; ESTC R11429	12,291	29

convers'd with Men Face to Face that he might instruct them in his holy Will by his own Presence and teach them Vertue from the original For this it was that he appointed all the Sacrifices under the Law namely to purge his People from their Sins till they had learnt the art of retaining their sins in spite of all their Sacrifices and then God cryed out Bring me no more vain oblations Then came our Saviour to shew us a more excellent way and therefore this was the only design of the publication of the Gospel too not to indulge our sloathful Vices and give us a lazy Inheritance in the Kingdom of God but by a severe Repentance to attone for our sins past and by an active Faith to preserve us from them for the time to come that we might improve our Vertue by the preaching of his Word and by the power of Prayer might bring it to some perfection Without this improvement all the attempts of the Gospel are but thrown away upon us our Faith is dead and our Repentance vain the preaching of God's Word is ineffectual and our Prayers can have no return As we increase in Knowledge we do but increase our Sorrow and the Sacraments themselves those means of Grace which have been so often administer'd to us will prove but so many aggravations of our Sins So far as we have amended our Lives so far are we advanc'd in Christianity but to expect Salvation upon any other terms is imposing upon our selves and mocking of our God To think with some that a superficial attendance at the Altar an outward compliance with the formalities of Religion will serve our turn is such a slight Notion of religious Duty as would disparage the worship of a Heathen Idol To fansie with others that an implicite Faith will make us whole and that we shall be saved by believing as the Church believes is making our Religion to be we know not what and expecting to be sav'd we know not why Nay to suppose that any Faith whatsoever can do us good but only that which works a Reformation to imagine that a strong presumption can make us Saints in spite of all our sins is like the rest an absurd Opinion devis'd by wicked Men to delude the World with a shew of Godliness and under that colour to disguise a wicked Life St. Peter tells us There is none other name under Heaven given unto man whereby we must be saved but only the name of Jesus Christ And St. Paul assures us that in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but only a new Creature It is not holding with this or the other Church neither the using nor the forbearing of any Rites or Ceremonies though it be by Gods own appointment that can entitle us to the benefits of the Gospel without the Concurrence of an industrious Vertue and an obedient Life He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This is our duty here lies the main stress of our Religion for this it was that God spake in times past to our Fathers by the Prophets for this it was that he sent at last his own Son into the World and by this test we must know whether we are his Disciples for whatever Doctrine does not naturally lead us to newness of Life is not the Wisdom of God from above but the vain suggestion of our own Lust or the false insinuation of the Devil Thus we see that the great business and concern of Man is to preserve himself from Sin and yet against sin we have no Antidote but in Religion How Religion comes to work this Cure upon us is the Second thing observable in my Text. That we may learn not to sin it teaches us to stand in awe We have already seen what a powerful influence our Passions have upon us how they lead us into Vanity and drive us into Sin and do so tyrannize over our Reason that we have no remedy left but to combate one Passion with another and by a Religious Fear to overcome the extravagance of a sensless Joy We cannot chuse also but perceive how subtily Lust insinuates itself into our affections and by degrees gets the dominion over us how artificially it closes in with our Flesh and so overtops our Spirit that we stand in need of some supernatural assistance to subdue it and all the succours of Religion are little enough to cast it out Some may think perhaps that natural Religion it self those notions of a God which are born and bred within us and are so deeply imprinted in the hearts of all Mankind should be sufficient to secure our Vertue and force us to stand in awe But by universal experience we find that these notions are apt to degenerate into superstition and superstition leaves us naked and expos'd only to our fears but takes away all our security Others perhaps may conceive that our own rational fears the necessary sense of our weakness and the natural apprehension of our danger might be a sufficient guard unto us and teach us to avoid those practices which do but weaken and expose us more but what can our nature do when 't is corrupted it self and grown impotent and unable to relieve us Nay what is worse 't is grown obstinate and perverse and most commonly takes part against us For though our reason sometimes keeps us in and confines us to the Rules of Vertue yet how often does Passion break the Chain and turn us loose to our own inventions Others there are who depend upon their own honour for the security of their Vertue and would have us depend upon it too But alas what is the honour of a Man when his Religion is lost it is but the staff of a broken reed that has just strength enough to pierce through our hand but not enough to support our Body In short there is nothing but an awful regard for God and a just respect for his holy Attributes that can effectually put a restraint upon us and over-rule the violence of our Passions and this awe we owe purely to our Religion which for that very reason is call'd the fear of God Gen. 20.11 To what purpose else did God reveal himself to the Patriarchs and Prophets of old but to put this fear of his name into their hearts and what other use but this did they make of those his Revelations We shall surely die says one for we have seen the Lord. Wo is me for I am undone says another for I am a man of unclean Lips and mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts To what purpose did God appoint the Sacrifices under the Law but to give us a dreadful instance that death is the natural consequence of our Sins a necessary tribute which we owe to his Justice though his Mercy allows us to

commute for the punishment and the Beast suffers for the Man's offence What is the meaning of all the Rites and Ceremonies of Worship but that the sense of our Sins teaches us to keep our distance and this appointed distance makes us the more sensible of our Sins These are the bounds which God has set about his holy Mount the necessary fences of our devotion that we might not rudely and familiarly break through upon the Lord and perish in our uncleanness Nay what other design had God in imposing Religious Worship it self upon us which is more particularly call'd in Scripture the fear of God 2 Kings 17.28 but that it might bring us to a religious awe that having God more immediately in our thoughts and all his holy Attributes before our Eyes we might learn to purify our selves even as he is pure and to abhor those sins of ours that make us unworthy of his presence 'T is this worship that strikes a reverence into us and sets us as it were before Gods Tribunal where the sight of his Majesty must needs affect us with a sorrowful sense of our own Corruptions and this godly sorrow will soon bring us to Repentance With what other intention do we meet here in our Religious Assemblies to what purpose do we attend to the word of God but to work our Souls into pious resolutions and to improve those resolutions into an actual amendment of our Lives that when the Judgments of God are here declared unto us the Vengeance which he denounces against our Sins we may hear and fear and do no more such wickedness amongst us There is indeed an antipathy in our nature against this manner of correction and as we were born free so we desire to preserve our liberty and look upon all fear as a servile thing Had we preserv'd our Innocency we might have maintain'd our freedom still but where there is sin there must be punishment and where there is punishment there will be fear Nay 't is our happiness that we have this Curb upon us for fear is now become a necessary qualification in Man not only to preserve his Vertue but to accomplish his Nature too 'T is this that must give weight and moment to our thoughts and poize our Souls which are light and airy and full of Vanity of themselves and require such grave serious reflections to make them steady and considerate There is a giddy heedless intemperate Spirit in the generality of Mankind which nothing but Religion can fix nothing but the fear of God can humble There is a sort of Men whom Mercies only encourage to be more wanton still indulgence does but make them arrogant and as they are untractable to all gentle means so nothing but a strict rein and a heavy hand can bring them into order But this Discipline will certainly reclaim them divine worship must needs inspire us with diviner thoughts For how dare we offend in the very face of an angry God how can we provoke him any more when we see his hand is already lifted up against us and for ought we know the very next provocation may bring it down in vengeance upon our heads But if this is true if the fear of God is able to produce such wonderful effects to turn the tide of our affections restrain the over-flowing of our Lusts and say to our unruly Passions thus far shall ye go and no farther If Religious Worship necessarily puts an awe upon us and that awe naturally restrains us from committing sin it may be objected How comes it then to pass that notwithstanding the frequency and solemnity of religious worship yet so many Men lead irreligious Lives that they can frequent the Altar of God and leave their Sacrifices there but carry their Sins back again to the place from whence they came 'T is pity indeed that such an objection should be made but to our shame we must confess that there is too much reason for it and we must needs perceive that this non-performance on our parts does effectually bring a reproach upon our Religion and yet the fault is not in our Religion but in our selves The best Medicine in nature may fail us if our Bodies are not well prepar'd And the best Religion in the World may be ineffectual if we do not come to it with a due preparation of Mind If therefore we find that the publick worship of God does not make us stand in awe we must call in the help of our own private Devotion and this brings me to the 〈◊〉 Third Rule observable in my Text. We must commune with our own hearts 'T is a great Art and Excellence in Man to know how to Think To look into the nature of humane Actions to weigh well the Causes and compare the consequence of things and to exercise that reason which God has put into us on purpose for the government and direction of our Lives 'T is what he himself will exact from us at the great Account when he will certainly judge of all our works according to this very Standard which he has put into our hearts We may neglect this duty if we please and as we our selves make no scruple of what we do so we may think that God also will accept of all our actions in the gross but when the fatal doom shall come he will bring them all to that righteous Balance where there are no grains of allowance to be made Since God has given us a discerning Faculty to distinguish between good and evil what strange perverseness is it in us to return it back upon his hands as a useless thing and manage our Lives without it to commit our ways to blind Chance and trust Fortune for the event When God reckons with the World for Sin Ignorance indeed may be some excuse but inconsiderateness is none at all 't is a fault it self and an aggravation of all those faults that follow from it We might have known our duty but we purposely shut our Eyes for fear the light should be offensive to us The temptation was inviting and the bait was pleasant and therefore we would not stand to deliberate upon the thing but boldly swallowed the Bait without considering how we could digest the Hook We think perhaps there is no resisting a temptation when it comes upon us so powerfully recommended We think so because we are loath to try and 't is easier indeed to yield but 't is much safer to resist and more honourable too We cannot tell what efficacy and power there may be in our Soul till we come to put it to the stress We know not but we may be able to stand it out or if we should chance to fall at last yet then our Vertue has something to plead in its behalf we did what Men could do and then no doubt but God will supply the rest If we are infirm he knows whereof we are made and does not expect from us the steadiness of