Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	call_v	lord_n	sinner_n	2,337	5	7.5568	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37208	The saints anchor-hold, in all storms and tempests preached in sundry sermons, and published for the support and comfort of Gods people, in all times of tryal / by John Davenport ...	Davenport, John, 1597-1670.	1661 (1661)	Wing D366; ESTC R7130	85,681	240

they shall mount up upon wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Isa 40. 31. The second case whereon believers are called to exercise this hope in their personal concernments is in reference to the time past the seeming frustration and disappointment of their former expectations For having prayed and waited for the good desired yet they have not o●tained it And many when they have given up their names unto Christ looked for peace prosperity and good dayes but find troubles crosses and afflictions of sundry kinds this much disquieteth and sometimes discourageth their spirits Hence they are apt to complain with the Church in Jer. 8. 15. We looked for peace but no good came and for a time of health and behold trouble and to conclude as they did in Isa 49. 14. Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me In this case that may be made for a right exercise of hoping in God I shall distinguish the subjects of it 1. There are some whom God forsakes really 1. Such as forsake God If ye forsake him he will forsake you 2 Chron. 15. 2. This is the condition of all Apostates that depart from the rules of Gods worship and the Churches of the Saints embracing and following worldly policies and advantages 2. Such as seem to seek God but rest in outward performances without inward sincerity and spiritualnesse and trust in their parts and gifts and duties not in Christ for acceptance with God This is the condition of all hypocrites who sin and pray and pray and sin without true repentance yet think to be accepted of God for the things they do in religion outwardly of such the Lord saith in Hos 5. 6. They shall go with their flock●● and with their Heards to seek the Lord but they shall not find him he hath with-drawn himself from them 3. Such as abuse the mercies they have received and yet presume that mercies shall be still continued and added though they go on in their impenitency This is the condition of all obstinate hard-hearted sinners These may receive their doom from that which the Lord denounced against Israel in Hos 1. 6. Call her name Lo-ruhamah for I will not adde any more to shew mercy to them As if 〈◊〉 had said They have received many mercies from me but they abuse the● all and presume that they shall receive more mercies from me but 〈◊〉 shall not be so I will not adde any more Of all these and the like the Apostle saith they are without Christ without God and without hope Eph. 2. 12. Therefore I have no more to say to them in this point 2. There are others whom God doth not forsake really but onely seemingly and that but in some respect and but for a time And that he is present with them graciously when they think he hath forsaken them appeareth by his efficacy in them 1. That he quickens them to seek him in the use of all means Psal 9. 10. For thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee 2. That they seek him as their portion as their chief good without injoyment of whom nothing will satisfie them This is from the efficacy of his grace in them as it was in the Spouse Cant. 5. 4 5 6 8 10. 3. That Gods with-drawing from them in any degree makes them fearful of his forsaking them utterly and for prevention thereof careful to engage themselves to obey him more perfectly Thus it wrought in David Psal 119. 8. I will keep thy Statutes O forsake me not utterly These are the persons who are called to exercise hope in God in this case To instruct them how to perform this great duty aright I shall propound five Directions 1. Direction Make it clear unto your own souls that you have a good ground of hope See that your faith in God is right For this hope is the daughter of faith And if you are in the dark as to present sight of your good estate consider whether formerly when you had a clear light you then knew that your soul said the Lord is my portion For it may be at sometimes with a true believer spiritually as it was with Eutychus bodily in Acts 20. 10. that though life is in him yet he hath not the sense of it Then though Gods face is towards him yet he complains that he hath long hid his face from him as David did in Psal 13. 1. and if his Ministers speak comfortably to him it is with him as it was with the people of Israel when Moses spake as comfortably unto them as at any time but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of heart Exod. 6. 9. and when he remembers God he is troubled and complaineth and his spirit is over-whelmed as Asaph found in Psal 77. 3. In this case faith it self must be helped by reflecting upon former experience This course Asaph took and found relief by it ibid. ver 5 6. So a believer having called to mind form 〈◊〉 passages betweeen God and his soul when he made diligent search and upon tryal of his estate toward God by Scripture light found it to be good hath good ground to hope in God that it is so still and that it will so continue for ever and that from the sure Word of God in the Scripture which ass●●●s us tha● Gods drawing us to himself in Christ is from his everlasting love Ier. 31. 3. and that Christ having loved his own which are in the World loveth them unto the end Ioh. 13. 1. and that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance Rom. 11. 29. As a man who hath deliberately cast up his accounts and summed up the particulars exactly when he took a fit season for it if afterward when being sick or in some hurry of businesse he is not fit to review the particulars he be demanded how the Accounts stand he will refer himself to the foot of his Account in a certain perswasion that it is right so a believer being under temptations and seeming desertion may and should exercise this hoping in God and hath good ground so to do from what he formerly found when he diligently searched into particulars though now he cannot call them to mind Or as a woman with child having felt it stir in her womb knowes thereby that she hath been quickened and conceived and hath thereby comforting hope that it will go on though she doth not alwayes feel it stir So 〈◊〉 is in this case and much rather For that conception may die and the woman may miscarry but so canno● the regenerate being born again● not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 23. 2. Direction When thus the ground of hope is cleared to be good and way is made for the excercise of it then let it be exercised in its purging work This is the

did not hinder him from honouring Christ nor from minding his own salvation nor from rebuking his fellow Luke 23. 39. to 43. Nor did Christs sorrow on the Crosse which was far greater than that thiefs take him off from minding the future good of his Mother Joh. 19. 26. 2. In duty It turned Davids praying wherein he should have exercised repentance out of love unto God into roaring out of inordinate self love Psal 32. 3. and it hindred the Israelites in hearing Moses when he spake most comfortably to them from receiving comfort thereby Exod. 6. 9. It is with the soul in this case as it is with the body VVhen Physick works upon the right humour it carries away that which distempers without hurting the body But if it onely exasperates the distemper and removes not the cause it doth hurt 3. If your minds are so fixed upon a particular grievance that you cannot be duly thankful for other mercies nor take comfort in them like froward children that being crossed in one thing throw away all the rest For this Joab justly blamed David though he erred in the manner because he wept excessively for the death of Absalom and did not rejoyce in the victory and give thanks to God for it 2 Sam. 19. 1. to 8. ●4 If it inclines the will to seek ease and comfort in some un-warrantable and unsafe way This is called halting whereby men are turned out of the way Heb. 12. 12 13. 5. If the soul sinks and faints under it is wholly subdued by it so as it cannot bear up it self This is one of the extreams which wisdom forbids all her children to fall into and which to forget is a sin Heb. 12. 5. Now the exercise of a right hoping in God is of necessary use in this case to moderate sorrow and to keep it within due bounds This it doth especially two wayes 1. By striking at the root and weakning the causes of it 1. If it be for outward losses and crosses hoping in God raiseth up the soul by looking up to God and seeing that they are either from him as our God in Covenant Thus it raised up Iob Iob 1. 21. and David 1 Sam. 30. 6. or that they are for God and for their witnesse-bearing to his truth This inabled the Saints of old to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance Heb. 10. 34. 2. If it be from losse of dear relations and Gods displeasure apprehended therein this hope will quicken in you godly sorrow and endeavours to seek reconciliation and peace with God by repentance and faith in Christ Hos 6. 1. 2. It will purge out inordinate affections to the creatures 1 Ioh. 3. 3. over-grieving for the losse of creature-comforts ariseth from over-joying in creature-contentments 3. If it be from bodily weaknesse or sicknesse or pain or any distemper that renders a man unserviceable in his place this hope being rightly exercised w●ll moderate that sorrow 1. By bringing a spiritual light into the soul to prepare it to receive comfort For the body is compared to an house and to a garment Hence they can argue à pari the more worn and tattered the garment is the sooner we shall have a new one So it is with the soul 1 Cor. 15. 42 43 44. And the more crazy and weak the house or rather the prison is the nearer the prisoner is to be delivered from it So it is with the soul imprisoned in this earthly house of the body 2 Cor. 5. 1. c. 2. By quickning us unto those duties which such a condition cals for viz. Patience passive obedience quitnesse contentednesse prayer c. Psal 39. 9 10. 4. If it be from sin in our selves or others or in our families and near relations this hope will be of necessary use to keep the soul from being swallowed up with over-much sorrow He that grieves for sin must grieve in hope For a vexing discouraging despairing grief will do no good but much hurt as you may see in Ier. 18. 12. and Ezek. 33. 10 11. But that sorrow for sin which is accompanied with hope of mercy quickneth to prayer of faith Iob 7. 20. and to reformation Ezra 10. 2 3 5. If it be from an apprehension that God is your enemy and fighteth against you as he is and doth sometimes Isa 63. 10. this hope is of necessary use whether your apprehension be right or wrong If it be so indeed it will quicken you to make all speed to be reconciled unto God in Christ Hereunto this hope encourageth 1. From the mercy and grace of God in forgiving repenting sinners Psal 130. 4. 2. From his willingnesse to deal so with you declared sundry wayes 1. By sending his Son to make attonement for lost sinners 2. By sending his Embassadours to beseech you to be reconciled unto him 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. 3. By his never refusing Rebels that sought his favour in Christ upon Gospel terms 4. By his commanding us to forgive such as repent though they have sinned against us unto seventy times seven times and himself will not be behind us in mercy and kindnesse 2. But if it be not so indeed if God be not our enemy this hope will awe the soul from wronging God by our mis-apprehensions It is an injury to a man that is our friend and hath approved himself so to be by many kindnesses if we should charge him with enmity and say to him you do not love me you hate me you are mine enemy when you cannot prove it Hoping in God will arme the soul against such conclusions by former experiences of sundry effects of Gods favour towards you in pardoning some sins subduing some lusts healing some distempers scattering some temptations working some spiritual good in you as faith in the Lord Jesus and love to all the saints granting some prayers Say not I know not whether God hath done thus in mercy and favour toward me and whether he will continue them unto me or not for these are Covenant mercies and therefore sure mercies even the sure mercies of David Isa 55. 3. Every answer of prayer every gift of grace that makes the more prayerful humble watchful thankful serviceable to God and man that leads the soul to God in Christ is from his fatherly goodnesse and love to thee in Christ Say not if God were my Father I should see his face but he hides his face from me For that doth not alwayes follow Sometimes children are infants and know not their Father though he acts for them as a father Sometimes grown children see not their father many years together yet rest in his fatherly love and care for them So God will have his stronger children many times to walk by faith and not by light 2 Cor. 5. 7. Sometimes the child being forth at School or at Prentiship desireth earnestly to come home and see his father but the