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	son_n	spare_v	2,140	5	9.5336	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92765	Gods warning to England by the voyce of his rod. Delivered in a sermon, preached at Margarets Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons, at their late solemn fast, Octob. 30. 1644. By Henry Scudder, Rector of Collingborn-Ducis in Wiltshire. Published by order of the said House.	Scudder, Henry, d. 1659?	1644 (1644)	Wing S2139; Thomason E18_20; ESTC R209986	35,861	47

of stopping the mouths of such is by sound Doctrine to convince them Tit. 1. 9. 11. of their Errour and if they will not be convinced to proceed against them by Ecclesiasticall censure laying a command upon them not to teach such Doctrine but if still they will persist God hath given power to the Civill Magistrate to restrain them For he is to govern so that under him men may live a 1 Tim. 2. 2. godly as well as a quiet life and he beareth not the sword in vaine but is Gods Minister to punish therefore to his power Rom. 13. 4. to restrain him that doth evill And what greater evill can a man do then to seduce his brother But to return where I left be sensible of the divisions that are amongst us if they be not made up but increase we shall Gal. 5. 15. clash one against another that we shall be consumed one of another and confusion will be in the end It doth presage very Jam. 3. 19. much evill to a Land when the Lord shall do with it as he did with the Land of Judah when he shall sill the Kings Priests and Prophets and the Inhabitants thereof with drunkennesse First drunk with Errour and wickednesse which they have drunk in abundantly then God maketh them drink till they be drunk with the wine of his indignation He saith he will Jer. 13. 13. 14 15. dash them one against another even the fathers and the sons together saith the Lord I will not pitty nor spare nor have mercy but destroy them Hear ye and give eare he not proud saith the Prophet for the Lord hath spoken And his councell is to give glory to God namely in confessing and amending their faults and making their peace with him Before he bring darknesse and the Jer. 13. 1● sha low of death this great destruction upon them Happy should we be if we would take this Counsell We have need of it if ever any Nation was silled with such a drunkennesse certainly at this time this our Land is God saith oft Shall I not be avenged Jer. 5. 9. 29. of such a Nation as this when men grow worse in stead of amending proceeding from evill to evill and will not know God and see his Name when they are under his rod. I speak all this to the end that we may earnestly seek the Lord and cry aloud to him this day for mercy who cryeth to us with a loud voyce To hear the rod and who hath appointed it Jer. 9. 3 4 9 16. Lastly we have oft times fasted and humbled our selves before the Lord yet you see that this great Judgement is not removed but increasing dayly Certainly this is because either we have not been sincere and unfeigned herein which if it be let us afflict and humble our selves this day as we ought to do for our selves and for the Land or else it argueth that God will yet plague us more for our sins and we may fear to our destruction Formall Fasts are just provocations of God against a Land as were the solemn meetings and prayers of the Jews Isa 1. 14 15. whose hands were full of blood and their fastings seperate from Isa 58. 4 5. Reformation It concerneth us to repent of our former Fastings and humblings for in the generality men have not kept such a Fast as God requireth no marvell then if God have not regarded it We have not fasted from our sins we have fasted to strife and Isai 58. 3 4. debate and contention and Schisme and all manner of wickednesse and ungodlinesse We have not been so humbled as to turn from our sins to the Lord as to loose the bonds of wickednesse Isa 58. 6 c. and to walk in the wayes of holinesse sobriety mercy and righteousnesse That Land is in a very sad condition when albeit Fasts are Proclaimed and kept God shall say I will not hear their cry but Jer. 14. 12. will consume them with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence Yet God forbid that we should give over humbling our selves and our praying unto him his deferring of help may be because he would have us seek him more earnestly and more unfeignedly then we may hope He will be found of us Jer. 29. 12. 13. when we shall seek him with our whole heart And who hath appointed it Namely God hath appointed it we learn hence In all Judgements and corrections of any person or people whatsoever Doct. the rod or instrument may be God is the appointer It is of God it is from him and is ordered by him This is abundantly proved in Leviticus 26. and in Deut. 28. Levit. 26. Deut 28. where God saith I will appoint over you such and such diseases I will send such and such punishments or the Lord shall smite thee thus and thus Is there any evill in the City that is Amos 3. 6. evill of punishment and the Lord hath not done it I make peace and create evill I the Lord do all these things saith the Lord Isa 45. 7. Affliction ariseth not out of the dust Job 5. 6. Punishments and corrections are Acts of Gods vindicative Reas 1. justice which he reserveth to himself as part of his Prerogative belonging to his Soveraignty Vengeance is mine saith the Lord Deut. 32. 35. Rom. 12. 19. God will have the ordering of all corrections All things are of God and in him do consist and there is not Reas 2. any thing but God willeth it to be either by his effecting or permitting What Herod and Pontius Pilate did against Christ was Act. 4. 28. nothing but what his hand and Counsel determined before to be done The creatures and second causes they are all Gods servants to do and to execute his will Man by whom he correcteth any Isa 10. 6. Psal 17. 14. is but his rod or his sword I desire that this truth should be beleeved for then when a Vse man is afflicted and under any judgement he will know and consider That it is God that smiteth it is God to whom he must return it is God of whom he must seek favour and mercy and with whom he must make his Peace This confuteth an Errour and reproveth a great fault in many Vse who look upon the punishments and judgements they feel as upon things that come casually by hap hazzard or ill fortune as they call it or from the malice of men they look no further than to the immediate actors or instruments thereof They do not many will not see the hand of God in it This Atheism is common amongst men beware of it for from hence it is that men in their afflictions are impatient under them and do fret and chafe at the instrument and do studie revenge against men and use indirect means to get them off Let none shut their eyes against

eyes of the blind as well as to give light to them that see When we are Psal 19. 8. rightly principled by the word we shall learn by it to see God in Psal 19. 7. his works You must first beleeve and then you shall know then it will make you wise Also be you much in observing and considering the works of Psal 107. 43. God and the wayes of Gods Providence the more you exercise your selves therein the more able you shall be to see Gods Psal 64. 9. Name And lastly pray for this Wisdome as David saith Open mine Psal 119. 18. eyes that I may behold wonderfull things out of thy Law so intreate the Lord that you may understand the voyce of his mercies and Judgements what he would have you to learn by them touching Jam. 1. 5. him If any want wisdome let him aske Heare the rod. God would have his people learn by his corrections and by his Judgements Doct. 3. which he bringeth upon them and doth execute amongst them All that are under the rod or that have it shaken over them must learn what God teacheth them thereby The Lord complaines of and sharpely rebuketh the City Jerusalem Reason because she did not Hear and obey his voyce nor receive correction Zeph. 3. 2. Every morning the just Lord did bring his judgement to light but the unjust knew no shame verse 5. He said to her Surely thou wilt feare me thou wilt receive instruction verse 7. This sheweth what men should do when he doth afflict them God expecteth his people should have heard his rod. The Rod of God is doctrinall man may know Gods mind and will and his own duty by it as by the Word God doth Discipline his people by his rod as well as by his Word in the exercise of both he doth Open the eares of men to Discipline and doth seal their instruction as we reade in the book of Job The rod and Job 33. 16. reproof when they go together give wisedome as to a childe in a family in whose heart folly is bound so to such children and servants in Gods great family in the world who will not learn nor be corrected with words Many like Manasses carry a deaf Job 36. 10. care unto nay will not hear the Word yet may be brought to hear the rod he thereby learned to see the Name of God and to know that the Lord was God and did humble himself greatly 2 Chron. 33. 11 12 13. before him The Judgements of God which are his rod they do second his Word and what it spake to the eare they do speak to the other senses with a louder voyce Smart and pain seconding the Word do usually make a deeper impression upon the soules and Spirits of men The Lord never smites but he hath spoken first and warned by his Word and like a father that standeth over his childe when he correcteth him remembreth him of his faults and of his duty When the Lord openeth the eare to discipline with the correction and doth awaken the conscience a wise child will readily know what God meaneth in those his corrections We in this kingdome are under Gods Rod and he is punishing Vse us with the rod of his anger The sorest temporall judgement that can come to a Nation is come upon us We must hearken and learn what God would have us to do now that he is correcting of us we must hear what the rod speaketh unto us If we consult the Word it will tell us what it is that the rod speaketh shewing us why God smiteth us and what he would have us to do now we are smitten and it will tell us what he will yet do unto us if when these his Judgements are upon us we do not learn righteousnesse submit unto him and make our peace with him First it telleth us that this Judgement is come upon us for sin and it being a sore stroak we may learn that it is for our great sins When God was angry with the children of Israel at the siege of Ai the men of Ai smote of them and chased them Josuah 7. 2 3 unto vers 12. from before the gate and slew divers of them and made them turn their backs upon their enemies This caused Joshuah to humble himself before the Arke of the Lord Gods answer unto him was Get thee up wherefore lyest thou upon thy face Israel hath finned and they have also transgressed my Covenant which I commanded them for they have even taken of the accursed thing This sin of one man was accompanied with other sinnes of Rulers and people namely carnall confidence in the Arme of flesh and carnall pollicy following it not asking counsell of the Lord. They thought all the people were too many to go up they presumed that because there were but few men in Ai a party of about two or three thousand men would be enough to take it If thou say in thine heart saith Jeremy to Judah when God should punish Jer. 13. 22. Wherefore come these things upon me the answer is For the greatnesse os thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered and thy heels made bare In all Gods judgements upon a person or people they may hear God telling them that this is for your sin But this is not all it speaketh It secondly doth minde all of searching and trying their wayes to finde out their sins and that they might turn to him that smiteth them This counsell the Prophet giveth after he had said Wherefore doth a living man complain A man for the punishment of Lam. 3. 39 40. his sin Let us search and try our wayes and turn to the Lord c. Come say they in Hosea and let us return to the Lord he hath torn Hos 6. 1. and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Thirdly the rod bids men not onely to finde out their sins and confesse them to God but to seek his face and to aske pardon that God may be at peace with them This is one end why God afflicteth men that they might be brought to acknowledge their offence Hos 5. 15. Hos 14. 3. and seek his face In their affliction they will seek me diligently saith the Lord. To say from the heart I have sinned I will do so no more is a good answer to the voyce of the rod upon this ground namely because God had already punished his people and had threatned a great judgement therefore Prepare to meet Amos 4. 12. thy God O Israel saith the Lord. Fourthly the rod teacheth another lesson which is If men do not amend by present Judgements they shall be punished with more and those greater Seven times more for their sin he will Levit. 26. from v. 10. to v. 40. then avenge the quarrell of his Covenant and if yet they shall walk contrary to him he will again and