Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	miserable_a	sinner_n	son_n	18,038	5	8.4630	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12814	Three sermons tvvo of them appointed for the Spittle, preached in St. Pauls Church, by John Squier, vicar of St. Leonards Shoredich in Middlesex: and John Lynch, parson of Herietsham in Kent.	Squire, John, ca. 1588-1653.; Lynch, John, 1590 or 91-1680. aut	1637 (1637)	STC 23120; ESTC S117834	61,921	114

Flockes over which the Holy Ghost hath made us Overseers If not so but that in this time of Plentie we bring our Corn into the Market but find it slighted both by Forreiners and Inhabitants then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poore despised Husbandmen we will carry it home to feed our owne Families Nay if Pride Idlenesse and Fulnesse of Bread should reigne under our owne roofes though a Minister cannot have Curam animarum yet if he can have but Curam Animae if through my Foolishnesse of Preaching I have saved but one Soule but mine Owne Soule this certainly is a precious Effect of a most pricelesse Vocation Now that in such a Calling there should be any such Defect of Conscience not to be instant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in season out of season of Commoditie not to conceive this Godlinesse to be great gaine of Content since God hath said it he will never Forsake us or of Courage God is on our side we need not care what Man can doe against us That we should but from a corner of our eye cast but a glaunce upon the Riches of the Citie the Honours of the Court the Reputation of the Lawyers Common or Civill the Esteeme of the Physicians or the Quiet of the Gentrie So that we should not commend this while we live as the only Treasure to our Soules and when we die as the principall Legacie Portion and Inheritance to our Sons That we should not Delight to discharge this blessed Function with all our Heart with all our Soule with all our Mind and with all our Strength but that we should leave any crannie in our Hearts either for Discontent at home or for Envie abroad either for Wishes of Additions to our Temporalls or for Feare of Opposition to our Ecclesiasticalls that we should not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Content and prompt and provided to publish Gods truth by our preaching pens and protestation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I confesse and professe it before God Men and Angels Here This is My Sin and herein God be mercifull to Me a Sinner Thus these three words minister to our notice two strange Extremes more distant than the Antipodes or than the Xenith and the Nadir than the most severed Paris of the Earth or the two more contrarie Points of Heaven God and sinfull Man And the word remaining Mercie is the Communis terminus is the Knot where these two termes doe meet Mercy is that miraculous Medium which doth alter the Colour yea and the Nature of the Visible Object Sinfull man in himselfe is Red red as Skarlet but God looking through Mercie apprehendeth him to be White white as the Snow in Salmon God in regard of Sinfull man is a Judge and Revenger but through Mercie even sinfull man looketh upon him as upon a Saviour a Redeemer yea as upon an indulgent Father This Collyrium cleared the dull sight of this devour Publican Being himselfe he did not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven but through this Medium he durst looke God in the very face saying God be mercifull to me a Sinner Mercifull to a Sinner Sin is the sicknesse of the Soule and Mercie is the Medicine thereof As a Medicine so Mercie is Sanativa Praeservativa Promotiva it is a Purge to Cure Sicknesse a Cordiall to Strengthen Weaknesse and an Antidote to Anticipate Relapses There is a Pardoning a Preserving and a Preventing Mercy a Mercy pardoning our sinnes Past preserving us against sinne Present and preventing us from sinne to Come 1 The first the Woman had taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the act of Uncleannesse I condemne thee not goe sin no more 2 The second God gave to Paul My Grace is sufficient for thee and my strength is made perfect in thy weaknesse 3. And the third rejoyced the Heart of holy David Blessed bee God and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me this day from avenging my selfe with my owne hand And this Publican desired needed hoped all these three Mercie to pardon him for the time past to preserve him for the time present and to prevent him for the time to come This threefold mercy gave this prayer to the soule of the Publican and the soule to this prayer of the Publican Hence hee praied God be mercifull to me a Sinner Those are lame Christians who tread not in the foot-steps of this Publican Parallel the particulars First look back-ward Remember the mispending of our time meanes and callings 1 Our time was all from God But to God what time have we returned the seventh the seventeenth yea or the seventieth What one here dare say that in his whole life hee hath given but One whole imire yeere unto Gods service 2 Our meanes God i● the Fountaine issuing forth those also But returne we any Rivers for the Oceans we have received the tenth nay the tenth of the tenth How much how much have we imploied on our selves How little how very little have wee set apart for our God 3 Our Callings Have we used them as Gods talents to Gods glory Have wee not used them as Rakes to draw riches to us or as Stirrups to raise us to promotion What then would become of us if it were not for Gods pardoning mercy if God would not be mercifull to us miserable Sinners Next let us looke inward indeed downward and blush at the infinite frailties of our best abilities 1 Our Faith is sicut Luna nunquam Una in many Warnes Cloudings and Eclipses 2 Our Hope is like an anchor of reed apt to bee torne up with every triviall temptation 3 And our Charitie like the Cypresse tree very tall but bearing little fruit Our soules have need of a Cordiall of a preserving mercy That God would bee Mercifull to us sinners by his strengthning Grace and gracious assistance Finally let us looke forward yea backeward yea inward also let all men at all times looke all waies And if we can let us turne our eye from some preventing mercie which is the mercy of mercies 1 Full often shall wee have wee doe we swell with prosperitie but that Gods mercy doth send us some moderate adversitie to prick that windie bladder and to prevent us from security 2 As often are wee dejected with adversitie but then Gods mercie doth raise us with some prosperitie to prevent as from impatience and blasphemie 3 Nature maketh us prone to superstition but Gods mercie hath given us birth in a blessed Land which is the kingdome of the Gospell and hath the Gospell of the kingdome to prevent us from Idolatrie 4 Company allureth us many times to bestow Gods Day on their Societie but Gods mercy in giving us customarie Sabbath Sermons doth draw us to Church for shame and preventeth us from that too frequent and publike profane impietie 5 Our people are apt enough to act the part of those

Boyes of Jericho to have a bald-head some scornefull nick-name for the Prophets of the Lord but the mercie of the Lord hath a little prevented them and a little touched their hearts as he did the heart of Lidia that they doe in some sort esteeme them to be the Horsemen of Israel and the Chariots of the same Have we not beene angry too often too suddenly too much And this is a prologue to Murder But blessed be that mercie which as often prevented us Immoderate diet fantasticall fashions too loose speeches if Gods mercie prevented not who dare say that they might not lead us to uncleannesse Yee know our desires cares and indeavours to thrive our selves and to raise our Posterity if we doe this without covetousnesse admire Gods preventing mercy indeed beyond admiration Corrupt nature hath framed us with broad eares and wide mouths with a strange aptnesse to speake of the absent more than becommeth the innocent Have we learned the lesson of holy David in any measure so to take heed to our waies that we offend not with our tongue Reverence Gods preventing mercie as our onely instructor in that singular vertue And that our Bosome Aetn● our continuall concupiscence if we can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quench those desires in any degree that they Flame not forth into actuall Ambition Covetousnesse and Voluptuousnesse the voice of our Praise and Prayer must ascribe all this to Gods preventing mercie in the phrase of this Publican God is ever hath beene and ever may hee bee a God mercifull to us miserable Sinners The consideration of Gods mercy in generall but of his preventing mercie in especiall may incline our hearts to treasure up this precious Praier for our perpetuall practice It were well if like the Israelites wee could write it as a select Scripture in our Phylacteries and verges of our garments It were well if like that Emperour we could paint it as a choyce sentence in our windowes and Walles of our houses It were well if like that Father wee could carry it as an Obvious Poesie on our Tables and Trenchers All this were well but it were farre better if with the blessed Virgin we could Lay it up in our Hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in the tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of the Heart That Nulla dies sine linea that every houre we may utter this Prayer God be mercifull to Me a Sinner God be mercifull to us Surely God Hath Been Appl. and Is Mercifull unto us alreadie That we are here now met together at this time in this place it is the Lords mercy It is Gods mercy that the substance of this Text which is writ in this verse was not written upon all our Houses as it was upon some of our poore Neighbours LORD HAVE MERCIE UPON US What am I that I did not fall amongst those eight hundred which died this yeere in my owne poore Parish and what are you that you servive those eight and twentie thousands which were buried within the circuit of your famous Citie That our eight hundreds arose not to eight thousands and that your eight and twenty thousands did not multiply to eightscore Thousands and that we were made but Cyphers among those numbers appointed to die that the Lord swep us not All away with that besome of his indignation the Plague that they were scopae dissolutae that we escaped this was Gods mercie Gods great mercy That the Tower of Siloam fell upon eighteen and upon no more of the Inhabitants of Jerusalem it was Gods mercy unto them That the Plague hath destroied so many of the Inhabitants of London but no more this is Gods mercie unto us Yea Gods mercy was to us as preferment should be to men of merit Fugientem sequitur it did follow us when we did flee from it Stulti Stoici cum misericordiam quasi vitium devitabant when the foolish people did forsake their owne mercies and did pluck down Lord have mercy upon us from their Doores even then God did write over their Heads Miserebor cujus miserebor I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and preserve many from the Plague Gods mercy Gods miraculous mercie Nay whilest our provoked Judge did destroy us with the plague even then also hee shewed mercy in his Judgements That in our parish and in your Citie there dyed so many it was too many had not God designed it to bee so but that there dyed no more this was citra condignum lesse than wee did deserve Gods mercy and that I and you were Titiones ab incendio Brands snatched out of that fire that wee dyed not of the plague this was supra condignum more than we did deserve Gods gracious mercie Carnall consultations it may be may conclude that so many children died of the plague this was a cruell affliction But I say Deus fecit nihil inaniter nihil inhumaniter that these judgements were not without wisdome they were not without mercies That Infants were destroyed carnall men may call it cruelty but it was crudelitas parcens in verity very mercy Although they did not know their right hand from their left yet God it may be did know that they would patrizare imitate the sinister dealings of their naughty Parents and therefore to withhold them from a sinfull life by a timely death this was Gods mercy and wee who have escaped the plague if we continue in our sinnes it is misericordia puniens to incurre greater judgements if we be not prevented by Gods mercy But now if the Lord would be pleased to say a Consummatum est to our Crosse to say of the plague It is finished that our inhabitants might safely and securely return to their houses follow their trades and frequent their Churches in the feare of God without feare of one another that we might no more be destroyed by the plague devoured by poverty afflicted for our friends affrighted in our mindes and which is most miserable hindered from comming to Church this would bee the mercy the tender mercy of our God whereby from on high he hath visited us and delivered us from that heavie visitation Then as the last yeere in the plague the heart of every good Christian was like Aristotle booke rasatabula a Faire folio wherein the letters of this text were written in text letters God bee mercifull to mee a sinner so this yeere being freed from the plague we should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all of us should be one heart to be one booke that book of Ezekiel scriptus intus foris written within and without like Psalme 136. every line For his mercy endureth for ever Now that God may cease plaguing and that we may cease sinning God be mercifull to us All for Evermore Amen Finally to make my Exordium my Conclusion I may re-enforce this exhortation from this present occasion of hearing

it was a sacrifice offered in remembrance of that same passage in the truth of the thing done Israels first-borne you see were preserved in figure of that same truth a certaine Lamb you see was slain Yea but in the meane while where is nostrum you will say Where is that same Passeover which I said was Ours For all this while have we been only in Israel you know and what is Israels I am sure is nought to us True it is not I must confesse but yet for all this have but patience I beseech you for a little time and I nothing doubt but with Gods assistance to repay with interest what erst I promised and to make it cleare unto you how that as well as Israel even we Christians also have a Passeover a passage over from as great an evill a passage over to as great a good For proofe hereof I pray tell me what think you I beseech you of our soule Is not that a thing we must needs grant every whit as deere unto us as our first borne Yea a thing in truth for whose salvation for whose safe passage I meane from hence to Heaven there is no man I thinke so devoid of reason that will not give both first borne and all hee hath too Againe what think you I beseech you of Gods vengeance continually hovering over us for our sinnes and every houre every moment ready to powre us downe to hell Is not that a thing as much to bee dreaded by us as that destroying Angell was by the Israelites yea and by so much the more too by how much wee are to feare eternall death more than temporall But now when by reason of Adams sinne we were all liable to condemnation expecting hourely when Gods justice should have ceazed upon our soules that God in mercy was then pleased not to destroy us with the Egyptians that is as S. Paul phraseth it not to condemn us with the world but to passe over us to spare us as he did his own children some times the Israelites not suffering the Exterminator to have any power at all upon us that thus it was what is more plaine I beseech you throughout the whole body of the New Testament Where read wee not if you have observed it in many places of our being delivered from wrath 1 Thess 1.10 Of our being freed from the Law Rom. 8.2 Gal. 3.13 Ephes 2.5 Of our being redeemed from the Curse Of being saved by Grace And in the fift of St. John the 24. vers where wee have both the terminos of this happy passage of ours reade we not expresly how that each true beleever is already passed from death to life Well then that a Passeover we have that is most certaine you see even we Christians as well as the Jewes yea and that such a Passeover in truth if wee well examine it as wherewith the Jewish Passeover must not compare No neither in respects of that evill which in either Passeover was avoyded the evill in theirs being only a bodily danger wheras it was a spirituall danger you see that wee escaped in ours nor yet in respect of that good which in either Passeover was effected the good in theirs being only a temporall deliverance whereas it was an eternall deliverance you see that was wrought in ours What will you say now unto the meanes ordained by God in either Passeover for the effecting of this good for the avoiding of this evill for the working of this deliverance for the escaping of this danger Even in this respect too is not their Passeover far inferiour alas to ours even as farre as the earth is inferiour unto the heavens even as farre as the creature is inferiour to the Creator Yes for whereas the meanes in theirs was only agnus as saith Saint Ambrose irrationabilis naturae behold in ours it was agnus divinae potentiae whereas the meanes in theirs was only a lamb that was taken by them out of the fould behold in ours it was that Lambe that descended for us downe from heaven even that very Lamb which both S. Peter speakes of and S. John the Baptist points at namely Christ Pascha nostrum Christus est 1 Pet. 1.19 our Passeover saith my text is Christ 2 And the truth is if wee well consider with our selves what was to be done for us in our Passeover what the state we were to passe from what the state wee were to passe unto wee must needs grant how that in all reason none could have been our Passeover save onely Christ alone none the meanes of our passage from the state of wrath to the state of grace none the meanes of our passage from the state of death to the state of glory save onely that Lambe qui tollit peccata mundi even that Lamb of God Joh. 1.36 qui in sinu Patris est that most holy immaculate Lambe Christ For alas alas in the case wee were in could any other lamb have served the turne think you could a lamb out of the stock have beene a sufficient ransome for a mans soule for that which is of more worth than all the lambs in the whole world are yea in truth than the whole World it selfe is or a whole world of worlds besides Why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Proclus of Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the redemption of a soule is a greater purchase than either the wealthiest Saint could have compassed or the mightiest Angell how much lesse then could a common lamb trow you have a considerable recompense and counterprice I say not for all the soules in this or that onely particular Kingdome but even for all the soules of all the people in all the Kingdomes under Heaven But now such a Lambe it was that wee wanted such a Lambe that we stood in need of even a Lambe by whose meanes and merit the destroying Angell might bee made passe over not the soules onely of some few Israelites in our little Angle only of the Land of Egypt but over all the soules of all mankinde that either are or have beene since the world began Why and blessed be God and we have cause to feast for it I think such a Paschal Lambe it is that we now have God in mercy having so provided for us that even his onely Son you see should be our Lambe for Pascha nostrum Christus est our Passeover saith my text is Christ Christ I say and in very deed such a true Paschal Lamb is Christ such a perfect Passeover our Passeover such a compleat Passeover ours as that to ours the Jewish Passeover was but as the shadow unto the substance the Jewish Lambe to ours but as the type unto the truth For proofe hereof doe but see the Parallels I beseech you betwixt their Passeover and ours betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they call it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt our crucifigible Passeover and their legall one and I