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	sing_v	song_n	2,112	5	9.1761	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94073	The vengeance of the temple: discovered in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Major and court of aldermen of the City of London, in Pauls Church, May 17. 1648. Being the day of publique thanksgiving for a victory obtayned by the forces under the command of Colonell Horton, at St. Faggons, neere Cardiffe in Wales. / By William Strong pastor of Dunstans in the west, and a member of the Assembly of Divines.	Strong, William, d. 1654.	1648 (1648)	Wing S6011; Thomason E450_20	38,327	55

first 6000. yeares of the World as Justine Martyr and after him Lactantius and others have observed And then shal be another condition of the Church which shall be even in this life compared with the former may wel be stiled Triumphant and glorious When Christ that great and mighty Angell shall come downe from Heaven clothed with a Cloud and a Rainbow upon his head and shall set his right foot upon the Sea and his left foot upon the Earth and thereby take to himselfe the dominion of both Revel 10.5.6 which is called taking to himselfe his great power and reigning Revel 11.17 when hee shall give the kingdome and dominion under the whole heaven which was before in the enemies hand unto the Saints of the most High and they shall possesse it for ever and ever When their enemies shall bow down before them and licke the dust under their feet In this militant condition hath the Church of God beene ever since the fall and how long it shall so continue no man can certainly determine But it is the concurrent judgement of our Divines that it drawes neere an end While this estate of the Church lasts their condition will be like that described by the Prophet A day wherein the light shall neither be cleare nor darke Zach. 14.6 full of uncertainties and subject to continuall changes and vicissitudes not so light that they shal say there is an end of our feares nor so darke that they shall say there is an end of our hopes Sometimes they may be under the power of the Enemy as prisoners in a pit wherein there is no water and by and by God will rayse up a deliverer for them that shall proclaime their liberty and be as a covering Cherub to the Ark of God for their defence A resemblance of this condition of the Church we have in the Jewish State which therefore is made the prototype of all the Gentile Churches thorowout the whole Book of the Revelation the Prophesie of the last times An embleme whereof you have in the former Chapters First the children of Israel did evill in the sight of the Lord and he gave them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim the king of Mesopotamia and hee ruled over them eight yeeres Then the Lord raysed up a deliverer to them Oihoniel the sonne of Kenaz Calebs yonger brother and the Land had rest forty yeeres Then the chilren of Israel did evill againe in the sight of the Lord and he strengthned against them Eglon the king of Moab and they served him eighteene yeeres and then the Lord raysed up a deliverer for them Ehud the sonne of Gera and the Land had rest fowrescore yeeres Afterwards they were oppressed by the Philistines and the Lord delivered them by Shamgar the sonne of Anath And they did evill againe in the sight of the Lord and he sold them into the hand of Iabin king of Canaan the most potent of all these enemies for he had nine hundred Chariots of iron and twenty yeeres hee mightily oppressed Israel And then the Lord raysed for their deliverance Deborah the wife of Lapidoth and Barach the son of Abinoham and gave the enemy into their hands Thus God never leaves his people in affliction but provides Saviours aswell as Persecutors not onely hornes but Carpenters also to beat them to pieces Zach. 1.21 A song of thanksgiving for this last victory and deliverance is the contents of this Chapter In which by way of context wee may observe these six particulars all which will helpe us in the duty of the present day 1 First the heart that shal be thankfull for a mercy must be gracious the song must be sung by a Deborah and a Barak they must have golden vials hearts refined and not drossie that shall have the harpes of God in their hands Revel 5.8 And they that shall sing the Lords song must be redeemed from the Earth being the first fruits to God and to the Lambe in whose mouth is found no guile Revel 14.4.5 An earthy spirit may put a man upon a prayer his owne necessity will therein carry him on to howle upon his bed for his corne and wine and oyle but it is a heart only redeemed from the earth that will enable a man to returne prayse so that if there bee ten cleansed we may say with our Saviour Where are the nine 2. Secondly whosoever shal be thankful for a mercy must prize it and rejoyce in it Gaudentis est gratias agere Levit. 3.1 Peace offrings are called in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Retributions and they that thinke they have received little will make little conscience of returning There is an evill generation among the sonnes of men that undervalue mercies and despise them saying Would God we had died in Egypt Canaan is a L●nd that eats up his inhabitants These men are so far from accepting the punishment in an affliction that they accept not the mercy in their redemption Mercies will distinguish men aswell as Judgements Some are delivered to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 O poore murmuring soules to whom mercies are a burthen 3. Thirdly a thankfull heart must stir up it selfe unto prayse Awake Deborah awake awake utter a song arise Barak and let captivity captive Eph. 5.19 thou sonne of Abinoam Thanksgiving is melody in the heart of the Lord and before you can make melody your Instrument must be in tune Awake my glory awake lute and harpe I my selfe will awake right early Yee prophane and unthankfull spirits ingratus est qui injuriam voc at finem voluptatis that repine at blessings Sen. ad Polyb. ● 20 and looke upon your mercies as your injuries incredulous men that are scarce willing to beleeve the things you see that endeavour to bring up an evill report upon all the goodnesse of God procul hinc heere is no place for you in the worke of this day The garment of prayse is comely only for the upright ye wayward spirits that slight the gift because your selves did not chuse the messenger and because you like not the hand that brings it And yee seemingly compassionate that say shall we give thanks for the killing of men and that of our owne Nation in a Civill Warre In this case the Heathen man did forbeare his Triumph and therefore such Thansgivings seeme not only unchristian but inhumane To such I answer The War in which at first ye of this City were eminently ingaged and by you the Kingdom was eyther just or unjust if it were unjust then hide your Tropheyes and be ashamed of your victories for he that gives thankes to God because he prospers in a sinne makes God a patron thereof But if it were just you ought to rejoyce in the successe being the publike execution of divine justice and to glorifie God in those things wherein hee hath glorified himselfe T is farre from us to rejoyce in the bloud of

men much lesse of our brethren but yet if Christ will set up his Throne upon the carkases of the slaine heerein we may and will rejoyce 4. Fourthly he that will be thankfull must enlarge his thoughts by the remembrance of former mercies and all the circumstances of mercies present So doeth Deborah vers 4.5 Lord when thou wentest out of Seir when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom the earth trembled and the heavens dropped the clouds also dropped waters the mountaines melted from before the Lord even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel You must prayse God from the fountayne of Israel and sing both the song of Moses and of the Lambe And you must enlarge your thoughts in all the circumstances of the present mercies so doth Deborah by the violence of the enemy the kings came and sought then fought the kings of Canaan in Tanach by the waters of Megiddo they tooke no gaine of money By their confident expectations and their hopes Why is his chariot so long a comming why tarry the wheeles of his chariot have they not sped have they not divided the prey to every man a damsell or two to Sisera a prey of divers colours a prey of divers colours of needle worke of divers colours of needle worke of both sides meet for the necks of them that take the spoyle By the falshood and desertion of their friends Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds to heare the bleatings of the flocke for the divisions of Ruben were great thoughts of heart Gilead abode beyond Iordan and why did Dan remaine in ships Ashur continued on the sea shore and abode in his breaches Curse ye Meroz curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not out to the helpe of the Lord to the helpe of the Lord against the mighty By the immediate hand of God in the deliverance his arme was made bare They fought from heaven the starres in their courses fought against Sisera the River Kishon swept them away that ancient River the River Kishon 5. Fifthly a heart truly thankfull gives the instruments their due honour those that God hath honoured in the worke doe you honour also and God in them Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek after Benjamin among the people Zebulon and Nephthali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field Blessed above women shall Iahel the wife of Heber the Kenite be blessed shall she bee above women in the Tent. It is the property of a beast to crop the Tree that shelters it and of an unskilfull soldier to dismantle that Towne that must defend him Israel was never in a worse condition then when all their businesse was to murmur under their present sufferings and to quarrell with the Instruments of their deliverances 6. Sixthly mercies received with prayses must be followed with prayers As prayer should engage the heart to prayse so prayses should encourage the heart to prayer and those prayses are heartlesse and faithles that doe not end in prayers for when God is giving is our fittest season to be asking So heere prayse for a deliverance from one enemy drawes out the hearts in prayer against all Gods enemies So let all thine enemies perish ô Lord. Thus we are come home to the Text. The particuculars thereof are three 1. The persons prayed against Gods enemies with their note of universality All thine enemies 2. Secondly the end of these men Let them perish with that particle which directs us to the maner with an eminent utter and finall overthrow So let them perish 3. Thirdly the meanes which is by the power the prayses and the prayers of the Saints Hence the points are also three 1. First All the Churches enemies are Gods enemies 2. Secondly That perishing is their portion 3. Thirdly That they shall perish under the power by the prayers and prayses of the Saints All the Churches enemies Gods enemies Doctrine It is a question the Schoolmen usually put Num Deus possit odio haberi Whether it be possible for the creature to be an enemy to God who is goodnesse it selfe seeing evill onely is the object of hatred which is not to be found in him It is answered That as God is bonum universale hee cannot bee hated by the creature but inparticulari being a good that is contrary to us so men doe hate the Lord. For Men and Angels in their fall as some Schoolemen observe lost three things in respect of God Delectationem pulchritudinis adorationem Majestatis imitationem bonitatis They neyther delight in his beauty nor adore his glory nor imitate his goodnesse Thus all men by nature are Gods enemies But the enemies heere spoken of are Israels enemies enemies to God in his Church as Psal 78.1 Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered Isay 57.23 I know they going forth and comming in and thy rage against me Yea even all their neglects and omissions towards the Church referre to God and hee will judge them accordingly at the last day I was hungry and ye gave me no meat inasmuch as ye did it not to the least of these ye did it not to me Therefore Gods enemies heere spoken of are his Churches enemies In the opening of this point there are three things to be explayned First the Church of God in all ages and places hath met with enemies Secondly that these enemies are not onely theirs but Gods Thirdly some short discoveries who these enemies are First the Church of God hath from the beginning met with enemies For the nature of Christs kingdome in this world is to rule in the midst of his enemies in the world to come he shall rule over them The Apostle sayth There is a schema a fashion of the world that passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 it continues not alwayes in one fashion but yet cast it into what shape you will and the Church of God hath alwayes found enemies in it and usually they have beene the greatest persons and the most prevayling party These enemies are of two sorts from without or from within While the Church was wandring among the Heathen as sheepe among wolves what else could be expected When Israel went downe into Aegypt they met with a Leviathan who by cruelty and subtilty sought to destroy them Ps 74.14 and when they came into the Land of Canaan they were as a speckled bird all the bordering Nations hated them Jer. 12.9 There arose fowre great Monarchies or principall kingdoms in the world called Beasts Dan. 7.1.2 chiefly for their cruelty to the Saints Under the Chaldean Monarchy Israel is as a scattered sheepe the Lions have driven him away the former Kings of Assyria Tiglath Pileser and Salmanaser have devoured him and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon hath broken his bones Jer. 50.17 In the Persian Monarchy there was an Haman and a Cambises who with a Samaritan faction of their

lesse time 2. Secondly these last sufferings shall be an inlet to the most glorious deliverances that ever the Church of God had for the killing of the witnesses shall make way for their resurrection Rev. 11.12.15 when they shall ascend to heaven in a cloud their enemies beholding them And then shall the Kingdomes of the earth become the Kingdomes of the Lord and the dominion under the whole heaven shall be given to the Saynts of the most High Dan 7.27 and they shall possesse it for ever and ever 3. Thirdly all your sinfulnesse and unworthines shall not hinder your redemption though the people of God fall yet they shall rise and though they may sit in darknesse the Lord will bee light about them Indeed the great discouragements to the Saints are their sinnes and their unanswerable walking unto meanes and mercies but yet the Lord cannot alter the word gone out of his lips nor suffer his faythfulnesse to fayle Esay 10.27 The burden shall bee taken away from off thy shoulder and the yoke from off thy necke and the yoke shall bee destroyed because of the annointing Glass Rhetor sacr Calv. in loc Some take the annointing for Christ the annointed of the Lord and others for the Kingdome of Christ which by an unction the Lord had established whether Christ or the Kingdom of Christ be understood yet there is an annointing that will breake every yoke Their sinnes may procure their affliction but they shall never hinder their redemption 4. Fourthly The enemies shall never bee able to set up Popery in this kingdome againe and to establish any of those things that relate to it that the Lord hath removed in these late yeeres they shall never bee able to root out the Saints out of the Reformed Churches but they shall grow by their opposition Christ will surely keepe the ground that hee hath won in a way of Reformation and what the former vialls have destroyed shall never be made up againe for hee will not lose the fruit of his conquest in any one of them His shakings of heaven and earth are to this end that hee may remove the things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things that cannot be shaken may remain Heb. 12.27 There is nothing that is made by man in the things concerning God but he will have a shaking time for it and his end in shaking it is that hee may remove it and he doth not so remove it that the enemies should againe establish it And therefore what ever of Popery the Lord hath shaken and removed I doe conclude that all the power of the enemy shall never set up againe I doe not doubt but there will bee many and desperate attempts for it but they shall never bee able to prevayle as when the Heathenish way of worship was destroyed there were many endeavoured to set it up againe Fiftly God will in an especiall manner owne you in all your sufferings as he calls you forth for him so will hee assuredly appeare for you and therefore he saith when men reject them and cast them out Rev. 11.3 they are my two witnesses and they shall have the same power with him that any of the ancient Saints have had in times past they shall turne water into bloud with Moses and Aaron they shall shut Heaven that it shall not raine with Elijah they shall be two Olive trees standing before the God of the earth with Joshua and Zorobabel if any man hurt them fire shall come out of their mouthes and devour them and they shall smite the earth with plagues as often as they will so that the greater persecution they shall meet with all from men the nearer accesse they shall have to God and the greater acceptance with him and as the affliction shall abound so shall also the consolation and to be owned eminently by God and to be looked upon as those of whom the world is not worthy when they are disowned by men and accounted not worthy to live in the world is a great meanes to beare up mens spirits in the greatest sufferings Sixtly It shall end in their finall and utter destruction for there shall follow an earthquake Rev. 11.13 in which the tenth part of the City shall fall Christ shall be clothed with a vesture dipt in bloud Rev. 19.13.15 and he shall tread the wine presse and fiercenesse of the wrath of Almighty God and all those ancient Prophesies as well for the enemies destruction as for the Saints redemption shal be fullfilled for time or delay shal be no more Rev. 10.6.7 the mystery of God shal be finished as he hath declared to his servants the Prophets and then shall that ancient prediction of Lactantius be fullfilled De divino praemio lib. 7. c. 15. Romanum nomen quo nunc regitur ab orbis horret animus dicere sedd cam quia futurum est tolletur de terra All that power of Rome which hath for many hundred yeares as the fourth Beast tyrannized over the Churches all this shall be destroyed in the little horne Dan. 7.11.26 and the Beast given to the burning flame to be consumed and destroyed unto the end But especially by Iulian who did in dispight to Christ and Christianity use all meanes to bring in Pagan Idolatry againe and to build the Temple at Jerusalem and to set up againe the Jewish worship and to this end set a great multitude of poore deluded Jewes about this worke but when they had gotten materialls together and thought to set about the building that night the Lord sent a whirl-winde and scatered all the materialls but they were not thus discouraged from the worke but they sought out the ancient foundation of the Temple to build upon it and having found it the Lord sent an earthquake which cast up all the former foundation and then that Prophesie was full filled there was not a stone left upon a stone not throwne downe Ecce globus igneus e fundamentis Templi erumpeus laborantibus occur tens operarios multos ambussit incendio illo per totum diem durante Ea miracula quosdam Iudaeos ita permoverunt ut Christum Deum agnoscerent Religio vero indurati cum indignatione opus caeptum dereliquerunt Osiander Epitom hist Ecclesiast Cent. 4 l. 3. c. 34. but such was their blindenesse and desperate madnesse that they would not desist from the enterprise therefore the Lord sent a fire out of the foundations of the Temple which consumed many of the workmen their materialls and instruments for the building and then at last they began with shame and indignation to give it over The like endeavours wee may expect for Rome Antichristian and with greater violence but they shall be alway so crossed that they shall at last perish in their owne opposition what ground the Lord hath won upon Rome he will maintayne for he will by degrees destroy her Neyther shall

they ever prevayle to root out godlinesse or a godly party out of this Kingdome but they shall encrease by persecution raised against them for as the ten Kingdomes did at first give their power to the Beast to set him up so he will turne their hearts to hate the whore and they shall plucke her downe for the Lambe shall overcome the ten kingdomes not in a way of destruction but in a way of conversion and hee will win ground upon them dayly and will have a prevayling party in them who shall bee the more stirred up against her for her last cruelty and they shall hate her eat her flesh and burne her with fire The last use is for direction to those that feare the Lord Vse 3 and that in three particulars and I will conclude First let this present mercy raise your hopes and revive your now drooping and sinking spirits truly had you no pledge given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suff●●tum corejus Montan. yet there is ground enough of encouragement in the Lord Ps 112.7.8 Trusting in the Lord his heart is established the word signifies underpropped which of it selfe would fall and sincke But much more when God gives in mercy for an earnest Rom. 5.4 experience should bring forth hope This shewes that God hath not yet sold us into the hands of our enemies that he will yet goe forth with our armies let this bee added to the former manifold experiments that you have had and let it be as the head of Leviathan Psal 74 1● food for your fayth to feed upon in the wildernesse which as yet ye are to passe through before ye enter into rest 2. Secondly though your power bee small and your party few and weake that by power you have little hope to prevable yet by the meanes you have prayers and prayses and by them God hath ordayned that ye shall still the enemy and the avenger Psal 8.2 Rev. 11.5 the fire with which they must bee killed must proceed out of your mouths Flie to the old refuge of fasting and prayer in a communion of Saints formerly practised when persecuted but now wholly neglected when it may with liberty be enjoyed truely in these your strength lyes and prayer never comes too late In the time of Eliah when it rained not upon the earth in three yeares and fix moneths one would have thought now the rootes of all hearbes and trees were withered in the grownd and prayer now could do little good but Eliah prays and God sends raine and the earth yeeld her fruit as in times past Prayer in the most desperate state of things comes not too late because God can never come too late 3. Thirdly that you may unite your prayers labour to unite your hearts and if you desire that God should shew himselfe against your enemies Prima iratum tela sunt maledicta quicquid non possumus imbccilli optamus irati Salv. de gub l. 3. Dr. Reynoldes selfe-denyall be not ye enemies one to another let all jealousies evill surmisings all bitternesse slanders and reproaches be layd aside as becomes persons professing Godlinesse speake not evill one of another the judge stands before the doore It is well observed by a learned Divine of our owne that the former division of Conformists and non-Conformists in this Kingdome was cherished and fomented by an Episcopall interest that they might spend themselves one against another Ez●ch 37.19 Rev. 22.1 Homines docti Ecclesiarum Ministri pace ingrati ac busi sunt ac multas contentiones rix●s simplici doctrinae immiscuerunt acmutuo intercedi gladiantes simplicem populum ab unitate Ecclesiae in varias sectas adduxere Castigavit igitur Deus Ecclesiam suam propter contentiones ●ixas scismata non tantum Ariana persecutione sed nova ethnica c. Bulling de persecutionibus Eccles Christian and the other might have objects for their favours and their frownes to worke upon in them both Some such principle evidently workes in our present divisions that both parties spending their strength and being so zealously busied one against another A third party being neglected if I may not say courted by both may secretly and insensibly grow up and come in to deside the controversie which I assure my selfe they at this day confidently expect there is a glorious union promised to be betwene the people of God in the latter daies the long breach betweene the ten and two Tribes among the Jewes shal be made up and the two sticks became one in the Prophets hand and the fi●e that is in the Sea of glasse in the reformed Churches shall be put out and shall againe become cleere as Christall but it will be some great affliction that must make up this union being melted they will soder but not else It is observed that after the reformation in Constantines time there arose great divisions and contentions amongst themselves especially in the Ministry and therefore God gave them up in Iulians time into the hand of the Heathen so Rome Pagan had for three yeeres and halfe a reviving so shall Rome Antichristian have three years and halfe and the growned of it I feare will be our own divisions also This Parents use to doe if children cannot agree among themselves they whip them both And every man knowes that no man gaines by the differences between brethren but he that is an enemy to both I thinke every one that is wise hearted doth more feare our owne divisions then all the enemies combinations for what is sayd of England may be as truely sayd of those that feare God in it It is a mighty creature that can never dye unlesse it kill it selfe My humble request is that of Nazian to Theodosius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you would use all your Authority and interest to put an end to the differences between these that are godly and act upon conscientious principles Our differences are not so great Nos quantum in nobis est propter haereticos cum collegis coepiscopis nostris non contendimus cum quibus divinam concordiam dominicam pacem tenemus Servatur a nobis patienter firmiter collegii honor vinculum fidei concordia Sacerdotii Cyprian ad Jubaian Epist 73. Zach. 12.3 that wee stand at such a distance that to hold an opinion a man should hazard his destruction In Cyprians time they could keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace with those that did not onely thinke but teach that which was contrary to what was received in things of lesser concernment and surely wee might in our differences at least so far agree as to act together if pride and party were layd aside and wee acted by the same spirit of humility and brotherly love that the ancient Saints and Churches were And if this designe of union might take place though the enemy threaten and the clouds gather and grow black every day more and more yet I should assure my selfe that all that burthen themselves with the Saints should be cut in pieces though all the people of the earth should be gathered together against them FINIS