Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	pardon_v	sin_n	transgression_n	2,321	5	9.8948	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26921	Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and the latter times of his corporal pains and weakness.; Dying thoughts upon Philippians I, 23	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1683 (1683)	Wing B1256; ESTC R2942	256,274	424

me the Light of the Sun than the Light of thy Countenance Less miserable had I been without Life or Being than without thy Grace Without thee and my Saviour's help I can do nothing I did not live without thee I could not pray or learn without thee I never could conquer a temptation without thee and can I die or be prepared to die without thee Alas I shall but say as Philip of Christ I know not whither my Soul is going and how then shall I know the way My Lord having loved his own in the World did love them to the end Thou lovest fidelity and perseverance in thy Servants even those that in his sufferings forsook him and fled yet are commended and rewarded by Christ for continuing with him in his temptations Luk. 22. 28. And wilt thou forsake a sinner in his extremity who consenteth to thy Covenant and would not forsake thee My God I have often sinned against thee but yet thou knowest I would fain be thine I have not served thee with the resolution fidelity and delight as such a Master should have been served but yet I would not forsake thy service nor change my Master or my Work I can say with thy Servant Paul Act. 27. 23. that thou art the GOD WHOSE I AM and WHOM I SERVE and O that I could serve thee better For to serve thee is but to Receive thy Grace and to use it for my own and others good and so to glorifie thee and please thy will which being LOVE it self is pleased best when we receive and do most good I have not loved thee as Infinite Goodness and Love it self and fatherly Bounty should have been loved but yet I would not forsake thy Family and nothing in this World is more my grief than that I love thee no more forsake not then a sinner that would not forsake thee that looketh every hour towards thee that feeleth it as a piece of Hell to be so dark and strange unto thee that gropeth and groaneth and gaspeth after thee feeling to his greatest sorrow though thou art every where that while he is present in the body he is absent from the Lord. My Lord I have nothing to do in this World but to seek and serve thee I have nothing to do with a Heart and its affections but to breath after thee I have nothing to do with my Tongue and Pe● but to speak to thee and for thee and to publish thy Glory and thy Will What have I to do with all my Reputation and Interest in my Friends but to increase thy Church and propagate thy holy Truth and Service What have I to do with my remaining Time even these last and languishing hours but to look up unto thee and wait for thy Grace and thy Salvation O pardon all my carnal thoughts and all my unthankful neglects of thy precious Grace and Love and all my wilful sin against thy Truth and thee and let the fuller Communications of thy forfeited Grace now tell me by experience that thou dost forgive me Even under the terrible Law thou didst tell Man thy very Nature by proclaiming thy Name Exod. 34 6 7. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and Truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and is not the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel for our more abundant Faith and Consolation My God I know as I cannot Love thee according to thy Loveliness so I cannot Trust thee according to thy Faithfulness I can never be sufficiently confident of thy alsufficient Power thy Wisdom and thy Goodness When I have said as Psal 77. 7. Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever doth his Promise fail to Generations hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Conscience hath replied that This is my infirmity I never wanted comfort because thou wantedst mercy but because I wanted Faith and fitness to receive it and perceive it But hast thou not mercy also to give me even that Fitness and that Faith My God all is of thee and through thee and all is to thee and when I have the felicity the Glory of all for ever will be thine None that trusteth in thee according to thy Nature and Promise shall be ashamed If I can live and die in Trusting in thee surely I shall not be confounded § 12. Why then should it seem a difficult Question how I may willingly leave this World and my Soul depart to Christ in Peace The same Grace which regenerated me must bring me to my desired end as the same Principle of Vegetation which causeth the Bud must bring the Fruit to sweet maturity 1. BELIEVE and TRUST thy Father thy Saviour and thy Comforter II. And HOPE for the joyful entertainments of his Love and for the blessed state which he hath promised III. And long by LOVE for nearer Union and Communion with him and thus O my Soul thou mayest depart in Peace I. How sure is the Promise of God How suitable to his Love and to the Nature of our Souls and to the operations of every Grace It is initially performed here whilst our desires are turned towards him and the heavenly seed and spark is here ingenerated in a Soul that was dead and dark and disaffected Is it any strange thing for Fire to ascend yea or the fiery Principle of Vegetation in a Tree to carry up the earthy matter to a great procerity Is it strange that Rivers should hasten to the Sea Whither should Spirits go but to the Region or World of Spirits and whither should Christ's Members and holy Spirits go but to himself and the heavenly Society And is not that a more holy and glorious place and state than this below Earth is between Heaven and Hell a place of gross and passive matter where Spirits may indeed operate upon that which needeth them and where they may be detained a while in such operation or as incorporated Forms if not incarcerate Delinquents but it is not their center end or home Even sight and reason might persuade me that all the noble Invisible powers that operate on this lower World do principally belong unto a higher and what can Earth add to their Essence Dignity or Perfection § 13. But why O my Soul art thou so vainly solicitous to have formal clear distinct conceptions of the Celestial World and the individuation and operations of separated Souls any more than of the Angels While thou art the formal Principle of an animated Body thy conceptions must be but suitable to their present state and use When thou art possessed of a better state thou shalt know it as a possessor ought to do For such a knowledge as thou lookest after is part of the possession And to long to Know and Love in Clearness and Perfection is to

offer him He hath the Witness in himself that there is in Believers a sanctifying Spirit calling up their Minds to God and Glory and warring victoriously against the Flesh so that to will is present with them and they love and delight in a Holy conformity to their Rule and it is never so well and pleasant with them as when they can trust and love God most and in their worst and weakest condition they would fain be Perfect This Spirit and its renewing work so greatly different from the temper and desires of worldly men is given by Christ to all sound believers § 10. It is true that some that know not of an Incarnate Saviour have much in them that is very laudable whether it be real sa●ing Holiness and whether Abraham were erroneous in thinking that even the Sodom's of the World were likely to have had fifty righteous Persens in them I am not now to enquire But it is sure 1. That the World had really a Saviour about Four thousand Years before Christ's Incarnation even the God of pardoning Mercy who promised and undertook what after was performed and shall be to the end 2. And that the Spirit of this Saviour did Sanctifie God's Elect from the beginning and gave them the same holy and heavenly dispositions in some degree before Christ's Incarnation as is given since yea it is called The Spirit of Christ which was before given 1 Pet. 1. 11. 3. That this Spirit was then given to more than the Jews 4. That Christ hath put that part of the World that hear not of his Incarnation into no worse a Condition than he found them in That as the Jews Covenant of Peculiarity was no repeal of the Universal Law of Grace made by God with fallen Mankind in Adam and Noah so the Covenant of Grace of the Second Edition made with Christ's peculiar People is no repeal of the foresaid Law in the first Edition to them that hear not of the second 5. That all that wisdom and Goodness that is in any without the Christian Church is the work of the Spirit of the Redeemer as the light which goeth before Sun rising and after Sun setting and in a cloudy day is of the same Sun which others see even to them that see not the Sun itself 6. That the liker any without the Church are to the Sanctified Believers the better they are and the more unlike the worse so that all these six things being undeniable it appeareth that it is the same Spirit of Christ which now giveth all men what real goodness is any where to be found But it is notorious that no part of the World is in Heavenliness and Virtue comparable to true and serious Christians § 11. 7. And let it be added that Christ who promised the greatest measures of the Spirit which he accordingly hath given did expresly promise this as a Means and Pledge First-Fruits and Earnest of the Heavenly Glory And therefore it is a certain proof that such a Glory we shall have He that can and doth give us a Spiritual change or renovation which in its Nature and tendency is Heavenly and sets our Hopes and Hearts on Heaven and turneth the endeavours of our lives to the seeking of a future Blessedness and told us before hand that he would give us this preparatory Grace as the Earnest of that felicity may well be trusted to perform his Word in our actual glorification § 12. And now O weak and fearful Soul Why shouldst thou draw back as if the case were yet left doubtful Is not thy Foundation firm Is not the way of Life through the Valley of Death made safe by him that conquered Death Art thou not yet delivered from the Bondage of thy fears when the Jaylor and Executioner who had the power of Death hath by Christ been put out of his power as to thee Is not all this Evidence true and sure Hast thou not the Witness in thy self Hast thou not found the motions the effectual Operations the renewing changes of this Spirit in thee long ago and is he not still the Agent and Witness of Christ residing and Operating in thee Whence else are thy groanings after God Thy desires to be nearer to his glory To know him better To Love him more Whence came all the pleasure thou hast had in his Sacred Truth and Ways and Service Who else overcame thy Folly and Pride and vain desires so far as they are overcome Who made it thy choice to sit at the Feet of Christ and hear his Word as the better part and to despise the Honours and Preferments of the World and to account them all as Dung and Dross Who breathed in thee all those Requests that thou hast sent up to God Overvalue not corrupted Nature it bringeth not forth such Fruits as these If thou doubt of that remember what thou wast in the Hour of Temptation even of poor and weak Temptations And how small a matter hath drawn thee to sin when God did but leave thee to thy self Forget not the Days of youthful Vanity Over-look not the case of the miserable World Even of thy sinful Neighbours who in the midst of Light still live in darkness And hear not the loudest Calls of God Look about on Thousands that in the same Land and under the same teaching and after the greatest judgments and deliverance run on to all excess of riot and as past feeling are greedily vicious and unclean Is it no work of Christ's Spirit that hath made thee to differ Thou hast nothing to boast of and much to be humbled for but thou hast also much to be thankful for Thy Holy desires are alas too weak but they are Holy Thy Love hath been too cold but it is Holiness and the Most Holy God that thou hast loved Thy Hopes in God have been too low but it is God thou hast hoped in and his Love and Glory that thou hast hoped for Thy prayers have been too dull and interrupted but it is Holiness and Heaven that thou hast most prayed for Thy labours and endeavours have been too sloathful but it is God and Glory and the Good of Mankind that thou hast laboured for Though thy motion were too weak and slow it hath been Godward and therefore it was from God O bless the Lord that hath not only given thee a Word that beareth the Image of God and is sealed by uncontrolled Miracles to be the matter of thy Belief but hath also fulfilled his Promises so oft and notably to thee in the answer of Prayers and in great and convincing deliverances of thy self and many others And hath by wonders oft assisted thy Faith bless that God of Light and Love who besides the universal attestations of his Word long ago given to all the Church hath given thee the internal Seal the nearer indwelling attestation the effects of Power Light and Love imprinted on thy Nature Mind and Will the Witness in thy self