Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A59570
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A sermon preach'd before the King & Queen, at White-hall the 12th of November, 1693 : being the day appointed for a publick thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the gracious preservation of His Majesty, and his safe return / by John, Lord Archbishop of York.
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Sharp, John, 1645-1714.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing S2998; ESTC R10320
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14,115
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37
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Cowardise to despair of the Common-wealth We are in as good Hands as it is possible for us to be Nay we our selves cannot wish to be in any other Let but us do our Parts by qualifying our selves for God's Mercies and that is to be done by contributing our best Endeavours every man in his Place and Station to the Service of the Publick and then we may safely cast all our care upon him who careth for us and we may be sure we shall not be disappointed This Method as it is much more easie so we shall find it much more conducing towards the obtaining the Successes we desire than Complaining and Fretfulness and a tormenting Anxiety about our Affairs We may indeed by our Peevish and Querulous Humour disquiet our selves and put others into a Ferment nay and at last perhaps may contribute a great deal to the Glory of hindering and defeating the most wise Counsels that are proposed for our Safety but that is the greatest Point we gain God Almighty will not alter his Methods for any of our foolish Passions but there is a way to prevail upon God himself to do for us all that our own Hearts can desire provided that which we desire be good for us and that way is to own Him and his Government to love him and to serve him to be thankful for his Mercies to be easie and cheerful under all his Dispensations to us and lastly to referr our selves entirely to his Wise Counsels and to trust in his Mercy for all that is to come Great indeed and wonderful are the Promises that are made to those that put their Trust in God Cursed saith the Prophet be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm But Blessed is he that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Many sorrows saith the Psalmist shall be to the wicked but whose trusteth in the Lord mercy shall embrace him on every side And again O taste and see how gracious the Lord is blessed is the man that trusteth in him If now we believe these things and if we be Christians we do and must believe them consider I beseech you the Vse we are to make of them What have we All to do Let our late Disappointments have put us into never so bad a Humour let our present Circumstances be entangled with never so many Difficulties yet what have we All to do but to Rejoyce in GOD and to Trust in his Mercy All is well and All will be well for ever to them that Love God and put their Trust in Him Sing we therefore unto the Lord a new song let the congregation of saints praise him Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him and let the children of Sion be joyful in their King God is the King of all the earth let us sing praises with understanding The Lord hath pleasure in his people he will for ever help the meek hearted for his delight is in them that fear him and that put their trust in his mercy He is our help and strength a very present help in Trouble therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea Though the waters thereof rage and swell and the mountains shake at the tempest of the same Even in that case the rivers of the flood thereof shall make glad the city of God All the Blusterings and Storms that threaten God's People shall turn to their Advantage and shall really at length prove matter of rejoycing to them how terrible and dreadful soever they appeared at first For as it there follows God is in the midst of her therefore shall she not be removed God will help her and that right early God will be with his Church and will deliver his People whenever it is proper and seasonable so to do Nay let the Worst come tho' we were reduced even to the utmost Extremities which yet God be thanked we neither are nor I hope ever shall be yet even in that Cafe the Consideration that God is our King ought not only to support us but to fill us with Ioy. Even in that Case every Good Man should bear his part in the Song of the Prophet Habakkuk 3. 17. with which I conclude Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vine Although the labour of the olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat Although the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation FINIS Dan. 4. 17. Amo 3. 6. Psal. 33. 16 Psal. 33. 14 Prov. 19. 21 Eph. 1. 11. Matt. 10. 29 Psal. 135. 6 Psal. 33. 5. Psal. 145. 17 9. Heb. 12. 11 Jer. 17. 5. Psal. 32. 10 34. 8.
armies nor any mighty man delivered by his own strength but salvation is from the Lord. And so are Disappointments also There we are assured that He from his habitation looketh down upon all that dwell on the earth He fashioneth the hearts of them he understandeth all their ways And though many are the devices that are in their hearts yet it is his counsel only that shall stand In a word it is God as the Apostle tells us that worketh all things and he worketh them all according to the counsel of his own will So that nothing comes by chance nothing is done in vain but all Events are in pursuance of a Design Nay not so much as the Event of casting a Lot which seems the most fortuitous contingent thing in the whole World is left at random For even in that Case the disposal of the Lot as Solomon tells us Prov. 16. 33. is from the Lord. All this is not only the Doctrine but in a great measure the very Language and Expression of those Holy Books And what can we desire more Or what words can we invent that shall declare more fully the thing we are speaking of None can that I know of except perhaps those of our Saviour with which I shall shut up this point Fear not saith he to his Disciples Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing yet not one of them falls to the ground without the will of your Father Nay I say unto you the very hairs of your head are all numbered O wonderful this what God Almighty number the very Hairs of our Heads Lord what is man that thou shouldst have such respect unto him and do that for him which even the nicest and most delicate of Men never yet did for themselves But thus art thou pleased to express thy particular regard to the Sons of Men. Thus art thou pleased to let us see that none of us are so inconsiderable but that we are within the Verge of thy Providence and Objects of thy Care And therefore much more are Cities and States and Kingdoms so wherein the Fortunes of so many Individuals are wrapt up O blessed be God for his Love to Mankind O for ever adored be his Name for thus humbling himself to take notice of us and our Affairs and likewise for giving us such abundant Assurance that He doth so Since therefore we have such mighty Evidence of all sorts that the Lord is King let the earth be glad yea let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof And we shall still see greater reason thus to be glad if we consider a little more particularly the Rules and Measures by which God administers the Affairs of his Kingdom Which are not as too often happens in Human Governments Arbitrary Will or Humour but perfect Wisdom and Iustice and Goodness Tho' it be true what the Psalmist saith That Whatsoever the Lord pleaseth that doth he in Heaven and in Earth and in the Sea and all deep places Yet it is as true that the Lord will never be pleased to do any thing either in Heaven or in Earth but what is suggested by Infinite Goodness and in such ways as are the Result of Infinite Wisdom For as the same Psalmist tells us He loveth righteousness and judgment the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. He is holy in all his ways and righteous in all his doings and his tender mercies are over all his works To say That God deals arbitrarily with any of his Creatures or that He dispenseth Good or Evil to them meerly because He will without any other Reason is in truth to disparage His Nature and gives us such a notion of Him as we have perhaps of some of the Great Monarchs of the World but whom we are far from esteeming the Best Men. No certainly if we Mankind find in our selves that the wiser and better we grow the less are we led by Humour and Will and the more do we shake off our Indifferency to Good and Evil and the more steadily do we cleave to the eternal Laws of Reason and Righteousness in all our Actions We may be sure that God who is Wisdom and Iustice and Goodness it self can never in any of his Actions or Dealings with his Creatures depart from these Principles The true Scheme of God Almighty's Government is plainly this His Infinite Mind clearly understood all the Possibilities of things long before they were in actual being He knew what things were possible to be and how they would act if they were put into being and what the Events of all their Actings would be His Infinite Goodness moved him to put into actual being every thing that he saw was Good to Be and to give them all those powers of Action that they have and withal to look after them so as that both they and all their Motions and Actions should at last be to the Praise and Glory of the same Goodness that first enclined him to create them His Infinite Wisdom contrived the Methods in which all this should be brought to pass and so laid the Scheme and Platform of things that nothing could happen in the whole Creation from the beginning of the World to the end thereof tho' it was in it self never so bad never so mischievous but what both might and should be so ordered as to be subservient to that end And lastly The Scheme of Things being thus laid His Infinite Power first produced All things and still upholds All things and from time to time in their several seasons actually brings to pass every thing according to the Determinations of his eternal Wisdom And tho' it doth it in ways secret to us yet it doth it certainly and surely and withal most easily and gently with the least violence to the establish'd Laws of Nature and without any force at all upon the Free Wills of Intelligent Beings This I say is the Account that both Reason and Scripture give us of God's Making and Governing the World Infinite Knowledge is the Foundation of All. Infinite Goodness is the Author and Mover of All. Infinite Wisdom is the Contriver and Director of All. And Infinite Power executes All. Admit now these Principles and see what will follow from them It will follow from hence in the first place that every Event that happens in the World is beautiful in its season as Solomon expresses it That is to say How unaccountable soever it may appear to us yet there is a good Reason to be given both why it happens at all and likewise why it happens at that time and with those circumstances that it doth It helps to adorn the Great Drama and Contrivance of God's Providence and ministers to excellent Ends tho' we poor Creatures do little apprehend how it makes for them As indeed it is impossible we should unless we had the whole Comprehension of Things in our Minds and saw the entire Scheme of God's