Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	goodness_n	lord_n	merciful_a	1,997	5	8.9155	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66335	A sermon preach'd before the honourable House of Commons, at St. Margaret's Westminster June 5th. 1689 being the fast day appointed by the King and Queen's proclamation, to implore the blessing of Almighty God upon Their Majesties forces by sea and land, and success in the war, now declared, against the French King / by William Wake ...	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1689 (1689)	Wing W263; ESTC R4808	16,657	42

of Both ever be able to prevail against it And this brings me to the other thing I am to speak to Our Encouragement to this Duty II. For God is Grciouas and Merciful slow to anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. It is not at all needful for me to enter on any particular Explication of all these Gracious Attributes and shew what Arguments every one of them affords to engage us to Repentance Two things in General there are which will at first sight arise from them to excite us to it viz. 1st The Goodness and Mercy of God to the greatest Sinners upon their Repentance God is Gracious and Merciful and of great Kindness 2dly His unwillingness to pronounce any Judgments at all against them and his readiness to recal them if they repent He is slow to Anger and Repenteth him of the Evil. And 1st Of the Goodness and Mercy of God to the Greatest of Sinners upon their Repentance He is Gracious and Merciful and of great Kindness When God Proclaimed his own Name in the midst of the People of Israel we read in the xxxiv of Exodus that he chose to do it not so much in the terrible Attributes of his Majesty and Power as in the soft Idea's of his Mercy and Goodness 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 if we look into all the following Representations which he makes of himself whether by his Holy Prophets under the Legal but especially by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles under the Christian Dispensation we shall find there is no Character he so much delights in as this of being Good and Gracious not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance 2 Peter iii. 8. And now what more forcible Encouragement can any one desire to bring him to Repentance than to be thus assured of the Goodness and Mercy of God to the greatest of Sinners if they Repent That he will not only forgive him upon his return but will even assist him with Grace and Strength in the doing of it That he desires not the death of the most Profligate Offender but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live In a word That he has promised forgiveness without exception to the most wicked Men upon their Repentance so that if they will but yet break off their evil Course and keep his Statutes and do that which is lawful and right they shall surely live they shall not dye Ezek. xviii 21. Many are the ways and excellent the Methods that God has taken to convince us of his Mercy and the time would fail me to enter on a particular Consideration of them Sometimes he declares not only that he is ready to pardon us if we repent but that he even desires we should repent that he may forgive us And least his Word should not be sufficient he confirms that desire with an Oath Ezek. xxxiii 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your Evil ways for why will ye die O House of Israel Sometimes he Expostulates with us in the way of Reasoning to see if by that means he may be able to bring us to consider his Love and Affection to us Isai. i. 16. Wash ye make ye clean put away the Evil of your doings from before mine Eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Tho your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wooll If he Exhorts us to Repentance he always does it upon this Promise that he will Pardon us if we repent If we turn from our Sins Iniquity shall not be our ruine If he threatens Judgments yet still he keeps a reserve for Mercy to triumph over Judgment and will rather be thought inconstant in his most Peremptory Decrees than inexorable to Repenting Sinners Thus he commanded Jonah to go to Niniveh and to pronounce an utter destruction against it He fix'd the very time too Yet fourty days and Niniveh shall be overthrown But what now was the issue of all this Why the City believed and feared God and turn'd from their Evil way And God repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not Jonah 3. And what must the Consequence of all these Reflections be but to engage us not to dispise the Goodness of God whereby he thus Graciously invites us to Repentance but to conclude with Holy David Psal. cxxx 3. If thou LORD shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss O God who may abide it But there is Mercy with thee therefore shalt thou be feared And what I have now said of Gods mercy in General will yet more hold in the other Part of this Character wherein is set out to us in Particular Secondly his great unwillingness to pronounce any Judgments at all against Sinners and his readiness to recal them upon their Repentance He is slow to anger and repenteth him of the Evil. And because I would now were I able speak not so much to your Reason as to your Sense and Experience to your Consciences and Affections I will for the Proof of this no more lead you back to the Israelites in this Prophecy to Past-times and unknown Countries but will rather desire you to consider your own Times your own Country and if you will allow me freely to add it your own Souls Which of all these will not afford me an evident Demonstration of the Patience and long-suffering of God And speak him in the words of the Text to be a God slow to anger and that repenteth him of the Evil That after so many Sins as we have every one the very best of us committed we are yet alive this day whereas God might if he had pleased long since have cut us off in the midst of our Sins That after so many calls and invitations as he has sent to bring us to Repentance he is still pleased to call and to invite us to it That notwithstanding we have so far abused his Goodness and long-suffering as to improve that which above all things should have the most engaged us to our Duty into an encouragement to go on the rather in our Sins he nevertheless still continues to us the Offers of Pardon and Peace if we will even now in this our day consider the things that make for our Peace What is all this but a most Demonstrative as well as a most Affectionate Proof that God is indeed slow to anger not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance That he has deliver'd us out of so many