Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	beseech_v	lord_n	sin_n	5,996	5	4.9683	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30736	A Serious advice to the citizens of London by some ministers of the Gospel in the said city upon occasion of the horrid murder and dreadful death of Nathaniel Butler, an high malefactor.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1657 (1657)	Wing B6286; ESTC R209007	10,096	23

A SERIOUS ADVICE TO THE CITIZENS OF LONDON By some MINISTERS of the GOSPEL in the said CITY Upon occasion of the HORRID MURDER And DREADFUL DEATH OF NATHANIEL BUTLER An high Malefactor Beloved in Christ AS we thought it a great duty lying upon us before the execution of the sentence of death upon Nathaniel Butler to lay out our selves to the utmost for the promoting of his spiritual and eternal good in frequent praying with him or for him in endevouring to convince him of the superlative greatness of his sins and in spreading the freeness of the grace of God in Christ before him according to the penitential workings we observed in him So having done our duty to him who is dead under the stroke of justice and as is hoped with some success too through the grace of God for which we bless him we humbly judge there is a further duty incumbent upon us unto you the inhabitants of this famous City who have been spectators of this Tragedy in a serious recommending of this providence to you and the duty which it calls for Psal. 9 16. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth And surely this latter Age though an Age full of sin hath not set before you a more dreadful instance of mans sinfulness and Gods justice though in the end sweetned much with mercy then that which in and upon this notorious Malefa●tor hath been laid before your observation And therefore we cannot here be silent but must take this advantage with all humility and affection to your souls good plainly to open our hearts to you By some we know before hand we shall be sleighted and censured as men too busy and may be as men too credulous but in the presence of God we can say our aim is publick good and the discharge of our consciences and therefore we are not discouraged And we are not wholly without hope but that some benefit may be reaped from these few lines which here with all sincerity we do present upon that late providence which hath been before you That providence we say which like the Cloud is on one side very dark on the other side bright very dark as to the mans sin but bright as to Gods mercy unto him as is believed T is the daily and inward grief of our spirits God knows it that our Ministry is so successeless that we see so little fruit of the word preached by us that in a City where there is such plain and powerful preaching such horrid sins should be committed This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation But possibly some secure sinners may be a little startled and awakened by this terrible judicial hand of God and so a word setting in with this providence may be more effectual then many in an ordinance We cannot but comply with the will of God in the use of all means for the furtherance of your salvation And oh that God would so bless this dispensation that you all may hear and fear and sin no more Touching the sad occasion we will not inlarge upon that the hainous murder the abominable uncleanness the wicked theft of which Nat Butler was guilty of the former but once which we speak not by way of extenuation for that 's too much of the two latter very often as also the shamefulness and dreadfulness of his death these we pass over as being very well known to all of you Neither shall we interest our selves in any narrative of the workings of God upon his heart during his imprisonment and at his execution though herein we could speak much as being for the most of us very often with him in this time and narrow observers of him Nor shall we expatiate upon some of those great truths of the Gospel which this famous instance doth lead us to Namely that sometimes it pleases God in the sovereignty and prerogative of his grace to ceaze upon the greatest sinners and out of the coursest rubbish to erect the monuments of his unlimited mercy 1 Tim. 1. 16. The Lord doth sometimes take the vilest wretches and hangs them out as patterns of his infinite love that the freeness of his grace may be admired and the greatest of sinners may be incouraged but still in the way of Faith and Repentance we do not we dare not limit the Grace of God as to exclude this Notorious and Bloody sinner from it nay we have good hope that through the infinite Mercy of the Father and the All-sufficient Merits of the Son he is accepted to eternal Life Indeed when we consider the horribleness of his sin the greatness of his joy after a short humiliation yet deep and through we hope we easily conjecture that some will question both the prudence of any publication and the truth of his Conversion But we will meddle with neither of these leaving men to jude of the former and God alone who searches and knows the heart to judge of the latter Waving therefore all these things our only design and businesse in this application is to press upon you the inhabitants of this City to some of whom we are more neerly related in our respective Charges the several duties which do naturally result from this Providence We would exhort you in the first place To be thankful to God for his Restraining Grace which though it be short of his Renewing Grace yet t is with all thankfulness to be valued Oh! bless the Lord who keeps you from those sins which this poor Wretch was guilty of that you are not Adulterers Theeves nay Murderers and Malefactors to be punished by the Iudge this is the Lords mercy 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who makes you to differ from others Have not you the same Natures Have not you the Seed and Spawn of all wickedness in you And should God leave you to the baseness of your own hellish hearts would not you also run to all Excess of sin and that with Greediness too When you read over this sad Story we beseech you lay your hands upon your hearts and say What a mercy is it I was neither the Murderer nor the Murdred We desire you to mourne over the crying sins that are to be found amongst us Oh! the Scarlet sins that swarm in London even in London Swearing Drunkenness Uncleanness Profanation of the Lords Day Contempt of the Gospel and of the Ministry thereof nay even Blood-guiltiness is to be found amongst us Should not your Souls like the Soul of Righteous Lot be vexed within you for these things 2 Pet. 2. 7 Should you not all come up to be Ezekiel's mourners in the remembrance of them Ezek. 9. 4 Especially considering that these things are done in times of Reformation and in a place of Vision even in London where the Light of the Gospel shines so gloriously where the Word is Preached so plentifully and powerfully even there these abominations are to be found Will you not lay them to heart And what

reason have you to admire the patience of God to this City T is a wonder London is not made as Sodom that desolation doth not seize upon your houses that you are not all swept away with the Bee●ome of suddain destruction that you are not hung upon the Gibbet as Spectacles of Gods vengeance to all the Nations round about What so much provocation and yet the City to stand Oh the Patience and Long-suffering of God! Doubtless if God had not a Romnant amongst you who seek him daily and fear his Name you had been laid desolate long before now Isa. 9. We need not from hence to stir you up to submit to Government and to bless God that you live in a place where Laws are Executed What a Chaos what a Wilderness of wild Beasts should we be if Malefactors were not punished What Confusion Cruelty Barbarousness would overspread all if by wholsome Laws and the care of good Magistrates in the Execution of them we had not some Boundaries set to the Lusts of men whether would the heart of man run if there were not some reins upon it T is sad the Law of God will not keep men from sin but seeing it will not t is mercy we have the Laws of Man Many are afraid of the Gallowes which have no sense of Hell This great Sinner is represented to you as an eminent instance of the Grace of God and so we hope he was T is very necessary therefore we should here insert a Caveat against the abusing of this Grace of God How apt are we with the Spider to such Poyson where with the Bee we should suck Honey How many will be apt from hence to encourage themselves in sin and to say Let us sin that Grace may abound Rom. 6 1. Or let us sin for Grace will abound Man is not more prone to any thing then to catch at eminent Acts of Grace and to make that Fewel to his Lust which God intended only to be Food to his Faith And never was there any age wherein there was more of this Spirit of Presumption then this wherein we live insomuch that upon this very account some of us were very inclinable to think That 't was better to have the story of this man suppressed then published But since providence hath so ordered it that it doth see the Light we cannot but annex to it an Antidote against presuming Sinners do not pervert this Grace of God God lets you have it to keep you off from the rock of despair not that you should run upon the rock of presumption Deut. 29. 19 20. If you sin you may have mercy but if you presume to sin can you then expect mercy Grace rejected may yet save you though that will cost you dear but oh tremble to abuse the grace of God to incourage you in sins God sometimes gives some rare instances of his grace to notorious sinners that none may de pair but he is very choice in these that none may presume T is true upon repentance the greatest sinner shall find mercy but how do you know that God will give you repentance How many are in the same condemnation that this offender was that die without any such work upon them we affectionately beseech you and warn you not to turn this grace of God into wantonnesse These things we hint in general More particularly we shall address our selves to you in the several capacities wherein you stand You the Right honourable Magistrates of the City with all submission and yet with all holdness we exhort you to do your duty T is nor enough for you to punish sin when 't is before you but you are to endevour the preventing of it you see what is the sad fruit of Ale-houses Whore-houses and such places we hope your zeal will yet continue nay be heightned in the suppressing of them Down with them Down with them spare them not they are the Divels Shops and let him have no Free-Trade amongst us If you will none shall have so many Customers as he How many Labourers drink that away at these houses which should maintain their wives and children with bread How are the youth of this City debauched at them where they have their Gaming Cheating Whoring and what not Oh let your Reformation be severe and throughout in this particular But herein blessed be God we have great cause as wel to commend as quicken the zeal of many We heartily wish that those who have power in the Suburbs of the City would be as active in the restraining of sin as you are that those places and persons which you will not indure in the City the naming of which would foul our pen might not be held up and harboured there otherwise it will be small advantage to smother Whores out of one Hive when they have another ready to receive them We hear and fear t is too true that Priests and Jesuites those Romish Locusts do swarm amongst us in the City and Suburbs We beseech you for the sake of Jesus Christ and for love to the Gospel to put forth your power to the utmost for the discovering suppressing of them And the rather because they and their party are so bold as to intrude themselves upon prisoners condemned to die to pervert them from the true Religion for this attempt they were bold to make upon N. B. before he was executed We should also speak to our selves and to our reverend Brethren in the Ministry Doth not this providence speak something to us Should we not from hence be stirred up in our several congregations more vigorusly to reprove sin and to deter men from sin Whither will sinners go if we let them alone Let our preaching be lively quick powerful by Gods blessing it may be a means to prevent these abominable practises However let 's do this and then let our hearers do what they will their blood shall be required at their own hands Ezech. 3. 18 19. We shall be free from it Let us beat down drunkenness Adultery c. and such scandalous sins and while we labour to preach down unbelief let us take heed that presumption and gross sins do not break in upon us with a mighty breach Should we enlarge upon these things we should be tedious Our principal intendment was to speak a word to you the people and Citizens of the place which we shall dispatch with all plainness and brevity And here we will only take the liberty of advising you in the Notion of Governours and Governed You that are Governours we mean Governours of families give us leave to set in with this providence and to stir you up to make more conscience of the Family-duties and engagements that lie upon you in reference to your children and Servants Probably if things be not mis-represented had there been a consciencious discharge of these duties in the Family where this young man lived he had never come to this sad end But