Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	church_n	see_v	2,983	5	3.6897	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80396	A pattern of mercy. Opened in a sermon at St. Pauls, before the Right Honorable, the Lord Mayor, and the Lord General Monck: February 12. 1659. / By Tobias Conyers, minister at St. Ethelberts, London.	Conyers, Tobias, 1628-1687.	1660 (1660)	Wing C5994; Thomason E774_8; ESTC R207295	28,966	47

other Mould then that wherein they lye in the Text Viz. Doct. That we all ought to be merciful even as our heavenly Father is merciful METHOD 1. I shall give you an account what mercy is and what it imports in the phrase of the Scripture 2. Wherein the mercifulness of our heavenly Fathers appears that we may see wherein we are to imitate him 3. What reasons and grounds we have to be merciful as he is merciful 1. Concerning Mercey Sometimes Mercy is the same with Pity Compassion and Tenderness Phil. 2. 1. the Apostle exhorts to Unity by the consolation of Christ by the comforts of Love by the fellowship of the Spirit by bowels and mercies i. e. If there be any tenderness pity and compassion in you towards your common Father fulfil you my joy where bowels and mercies are equipolent terms that serve to illustrate and explain the sense one of another To this we may refer that of the Prophet Jer 31. 20. where God is brought in troubled and discomposed in himself for the punishment and affliction of Ephraim Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. 2. Mercy is the same with pardon remission and forgiveness 1 Tim. 1. 13. Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained Mercy because I did it ignorantly i. e. being so much unfit and unworthy whil'st I was a Jew blaspheming Christ and persecuting his people yet I obtained mercy i. e. pardon and forgiveness of God God looked upon it as an act of blind zeal in me and not of propense malice against them 3. Mercy is used for the donation or vouchsafement of some Priviledge spiritual or temporal unto a person or people 1 Pet. 2. 10. Which in times past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy This is supposed to have been written from Rome to the converted Jews and then the meaning ls this You that for a long time for this Epistle is believed to have been written Anno Christi 44. whilst Christ was upon the earth had not the happiness to receive Christ and the Gospel now are made partakers of this great Mercy and Priviledge viz. to come into the Church and House of God So Rom. 9. 16. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy The Apostle here argueth in the behalf of God that he was at full liberty in the collation and distribution of his Mercies and that he did the Jews no wrong in calling the Gentiles to Christianity Ver. 15. As he saith unto Moses I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy c. As if he had said unto him In the distributing of my blessings I will do what I think good without giving thee or any man a reason though I have alwayes reason for what I do yet as it is ver 13. Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated which is either true in the Letter in chusing the Israelites and rejecting the Idumeans or else in the Type in preferring the Covenant of Grace before the Covenant of Works So then it is not of him c. i e. in point of merit satisfaction or condignity but of God that sheweth mercy i. e. vouchsafeth to call the Gentiles to Christianity when the obstinate and incredulous Jewes have rejected it 4. Mercy is taken for Charity or that relief which we give unto the poor Dan. 4. 27. Breake off thy sins by righteousnesse and thine iniquities by shewing mercy unto the poor i. e. by being liberal charitable towards the poor in which sence many understand that of Peter 1. 4. 8 Charity covereth a multitude of sins So likewise it is used Psal 37. 26. He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed For the further opening the nature of Mercy observe the difference betwixt Goodness and Mercy Goodness in God is supposed to be absolute but Mercy is a relative thing God might have been good to all Eternity though man had stood yet Merciful he could not have been without a supposition and introduction of sin As all Pardon includes an offence so all Mercy involves want and misery Goodness supposeth a man Mercy a sinner Goodness supposeth a man in being Mercy a man in misery God might have been eternally good and transcendently glorious in the free communication of himselfe though sin and misery had never introduced mercy Goodness and Mercy are thus distinguishable in men Goodness is the Root and Mercy the Branch growing out from it We must first be good in ourselves before we can be merciful towards others We must as our Saviour sheweth first make the Tree good before we can bring forth good fruit Charity begins at home if we be not good have not an inward principle of Goodness in our selves how can we laudably exercise any pity or compassion any bounty or clemency any love or charity towards others So much for the first point 2. Br. Come we now to speak of the mercifulness of God and produce a great Copy and Exemplar for your imitation And now methinks we are fallen upon the noblest subject in the World being we are to treat of Divine Mercy which the Scriptures declare which men experience which the Devils envy the good Angels admire and which all the World ought to adore A man that looks down from an high Precipice albeit he is in no danger of falling yet would his fear seize him and a secret trembling take hold of him The Scriptures and our own experience have set us upon a great Mount and being to look down upon the great abysse of Divine Mercies we are ready to cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and the mercies of God I shall speak to this 1. Negatively 2ly Positively 1. In that he beareth with the daily violation of his truth and suffereth with incredible lenity the breaches that are made upon it though men do not believe what God saith nay which is more do believe things different and contrary thereunto yet still God containeth himself and doth not with-hold his Mercy from them The Church of God is said to be the ground and pillar of truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Church it is that sacred Depositary wherein the truth is laid up The Frogs of Aegypt were not more numerous that came crawling into the Kings Palace then the Errors and mis-shapen Opinions which in all Ages especially in this have infested the Church the house of God and herein the mercifulness of God appears that he does not presently rid himself of them nor destroy the men for their opinion sake In the Jewish Church he suffered the Essens a pensive

or cruelty is lodged in his eternal breast he loved man in the state of his innocency uprightness and obedience and when man degenerated he turned his love into pity and his delight into commiseration and even then when his Justice makes him severe it is exercised to speak after the manner of men with reluctancy and regret The pity and compassion which we so much admire in men are but weak umbrages and representations of Gods and yet the first wants not its due praise and commendation The Court of Areopagite mentioned Asts 17. so much famed in the World put to death a young child for that he took an unnatural pleasure in depriving the very Birds of their sight and letting them flye for his recreation fearing least he who exercised so timely an apprentiship of Cruelty upon Birds might in his more ripe years exercise it upon men The like is reported of the Senate at Carthage who censured one of their own Citizens for no other cause in the world but that he had civilized and made tractable a Lyon supposing so frequent a conversation with wild Beasts had made him put off all humanity and pity and degenerate into the nature of that Beast with whom he had so much conversation Marcellus the Roman Consul being commanded by his Masters at Rome to raze Syracuse even then when he saw their Commands put into execution and beheld the great City on fire he began to relent and out of his good nature to shed tears in abundance wherewith if it had been possible he would have quenched those flames which himself had kindled And Caesar Titus whom for his clemency they called the delight of mankind beholding the streets of Jerusalem covered with the dead bodies of the Jews found his heart much touched but when he saw the glorious Temple all on fire and the Jews themselves that were entered thereinto would not suffer it to be quenched he could then contain himself no longer but with hands to Heaven protested that it was the act of the gods and not effect of his disposition But as the heavens are high above the earth even so are the compassions of men exceeded by the compassions of God behold a greater then Marcellus a greater then Caesar Titus is here Sin hath set the world on fire and we like the Jews will not suffer it to be quenched God came down from heaven in his own person communicated his thoughts to the Patriarchs before and after the Flood beseeched his people by his Prophets and lastly by his own Son the man Christ Jesus and still endeavoureth by his Word and Spirit to quench this great flame and conflagration kindled by sin so that if it be not quenched but proceed to devour the souls of men God Almighty may with Caesar Titus enter his just protestation that the destruction of the World is an effect of our Wickedness and not of his own inclination and disposition The love of our gracious God is more to be judged of by what he would do for us then by what he does for us though to speak the truth he hath done all that did become a great Wisdom checked with Justice to do Even as the love of a tender-hearted Father is more seen by what he would do for his obstinate and ungracious Son were he a capable subject then by what he ever actually does for him He frowns upon him gives him correction dis-inherits him and goes down into the grave with a resolution of not doing him the least good thing for him in the sence the World calls good and yet whilst he lived his heart was set upon him his bowels yern towards him his desires are great that he might enrich him and his complaints many that he was not a subiect capable of his favour In like manner the love of our heavenly Father is rather to be estimated by what he would do for us then what he does for us were we capable subiects of his Grace and Favour according to that Deut. 5. 29. O that there were an heart in them that they would fear me that it might be well with them and their children for ever The Soveraign Creator he hates not any thing in the World because the whole World is the rare and singular Workmanship of his hands for as his Wisdom is free from Error so are his Works devoid of repentance all things are eminently in him and under the covert of his pure and simple Omnia unum sunt in Deo cum Deo c. Ber. Scrm. Essence are hid all creature-perfections whatsoever Nec aliunde Justus aut Bonus quam unde Magnus that I may borrow the expression of that contemplative and devout person which is English't thus That form of Divinity which makes him Great makes him by the same means Wise Just and Good which is the true reason that he can no more hate or neglect any thing that he hath made then the Architect or Master-builder can sleight his own piece which he findes agreeable to the fair Idea's of Art set up in his own mind God having thus united all in himself therefore he loves all and regardeth all as raies of his own light issues of his own bounty productions of his own Wisdom and Goodness the venom and malignity of the Toad and Aspick the poyson of the Scorpion which are so destructive to ours are very good and suitable to their natures that which is to us poyson is to them blood and spirits the giving it to us and the taking it away from them we find equally preiudicial to both their natures and ours May I shut up this point in the words of a learned man God hates nothing nor curseth any thing but what he is not and he is all sin excepted It is that alone which he abhorreth which he accounts worthy of all detestation which he chastiseth here and which he pursueth with an armed hand to the Gates of hell and beyond the Gates of hell and which he will never forgive in its proper subject either in this world or in the world to come 2. Take Mercy for Pardon and in this sence God is merciful he is known by this great Title which he assumed in that Solemn Publication Exod. 34. 7. Keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin It is the glory of a man much more of God to pass by an offence God cannot desire sin as no man can wish to be displeased but man having sinned it is infinitely pleasing to the Divine Nature to shew mercy pardon and forgiveness He that hath set us that Rule Matth. 18. 22. That we should not onely forgive till seven times but until seventy times seven wil not transgress it himself God excepts against no mans person but as it is Prov. 28. 13. Whosoever confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall have mercy Because God respecteth no mans person therefore he excepteth against no mans person As he hath no mans person