Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	commandment_n	keep_v	lord_n	5,285	5	4.5043	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93351	The three Kingdomes healing-plaister. Or, The solemne covenant of reformation and defence explained. Wherein is shewed the authority, antiquity, and use of an holy covenant: the occasions moving to it, and the ends in doing it, the necessity of it at this time, for diverse reasons herein expressed. Also a full explanation of each article of the Covenant, to the satisfaction of all: shewing the benefit that may redound by it, viz. Gods protection and blessing to heale our miseries, and establish truth in religion, peace and lasting happinesse to the three kingdomes. Likewise shewing the danger of refusing it, and Gods curse upon us, if we enter into it deceitfully. Imprimatur, Ia. Cranford. By G.S., Gent.	Smith, George, 1602 or 3-1658.	1643 (1643)	Wing S4039; Thomason E71_14; ESTC R460	14,884	18

wherein we sweare fidelity one to another and to God to reforme our evill wayes and walke according to his word in our lives and practice And such a Covenant is part of Gods worship yea it is sometimes in the Scripture put for the whole worship of God Esa. 19. 18. where men bind themselves by Covenant or oath for it is all one to covenant as to sweare to seeke God and to endeavour to doe his whole will sometime God is said to sweare by himselfe in G●n 17. 8. it is said He made a Covenant with Abraham to give him the Land of Canaan and in Exodus 6. 8. it is said Hee sware to give to Abraham the Land of Canaan and He sware to D●vid Psal. 8. 9. 3. and againe I have sworne by my selfe saith the Lord Jer. 49. 13. As God sweares to blesse the obedient so he sweares to destroy the disobedient It is said Heb. 4. 3. that hee swore the rebellious Covenant-breaking Israeli●e should not enter into his rest By Covenants or oaths God binds and engageth himselfe unto men and engageth men to him againe God sware to David and therefore David sware unto the Lord and to the mighty God of Iacob Psal. 132. 2. When God offers to Covenant with us and wee refuse to covenant with him Hee will sweare by himselfe that such a person such a family such a Kingdome shall become a desolation Ier. 22. 5. If we refuse when God calls God will refuse when we aske and will marke when our misery and calamity is upon us Pro. 24. 26. At this time God offers to make a Covenant with us And now he calls from heaven by his Judgements and by his mercies the distractions miseries and calamities of the three Kingdomes cry to us to make our peace with God who is offended for our sinnes when Israel was in capitvity and bondage seaventy yeares for their breach of Covenant with God they were not established untill they renewed their Covenant with God Therefore Ezra prayed and confessed the sinnes of the people with weeping and casting himselfe downe before the house of God the place of covenant and there assembled out of Israel a very great Congregation of men and women and children for the people wept very sore Ezra 10. 1. Now Shechaniah and Ezra consult together and with confidence beleeve that notwithstandig all their sinnes there was hope in Israel concerning this thing Therefore they conclude to make a Covenant with God and Ezra made the chiefe Priests the Levites and all Israel to sweare and they all sware verse 2. 3. 5. Nor was this a new thing to them but that which Moses did by Gods command as we have shewed and after him Ioshua as you may read Ioshua 24. 25. Now the examples of Gods people ought to be our rule especially in those things that are commanded by God himselfe but to covenant with God hath beene the frequent practise of Gods people commanded by God and alwayes with promise and president of acceptance When the Prophet Azariah being stirred up by the Spirit of God to move Asa Iudah and Benjamin to seek the Lord by entring into a covenant tells them The Lord is with you while yee be with him and if ye seeke him he will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you 2. 1 5. 2. Now to breake Covenant with God or to refuse to make a Covenant with God is all one and is no other then to forsake God it is the Lords owne expression Deut. 31. 16. They will forsake me and breake my Covenant which I have striken with them and what then Then my anger shall be kindled and I will forsake them that is I will hide my face take away my divine presence of protection from them vers. 17. See the example of this 2 King 17. 15. they rejected his Statutes and brake his Covenant What followes see vers. 18. Therefore the Lord was angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight c. Now when a people have broken covenant with God and caused God to depart from them the sure way to find God againe is to seeke him by renewing the covenant else we quite cast him off and then he will cast us off for ever 1 Chron. 28. 9. In the time of King Asa when by the sins and Idolatry of his fathers Israel had beene a long season without the true God and without a teaching Priest and without Law So that there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants of the Country Yet in all this trouble when they turned to the Lord their God and sought him he was found of them But how did they seeke him see the place 2 Chron. 15. 12. They entred into a Covenant to seeke the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soule and vers. 14 They Sware unto the Lord with a loud voyce and with shouting all Judah reioyced at the Oath for they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with their whole desire and he was found of them and the Lord gave them rest round about vers. 15. So after the great distractions and bloudy cruelties of Athalia that usurping Queene Ieh●iada the Priest established the Kingdome by making a covenant with the Rulers and Captaines and by a covenant between the Lord the King and the people 2 King 11. 4 and 17. and all the people brake downe the Idolls of Baal In like manner Hezekiah confess●●n the iniquities of his fathers and of the people and that for their sins the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem they were delivered to wrath and astonishment 2 Chron. 29. 8. 9. For lo our fathers saith he are fallen by the Sword and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this here 's their misery and Hezekiahs confession But what is the remedy see verse 10. Now saith the good King It is in my heart to make a Covenant with the Lord God of Israele Why a Covenant That his fierce wrath may turne away from us So he sets upon the worke and puts the Service of the house of the Lord in order that is Reformed Religion and Hezekiah rejoyced and all the people that God had so prepared the people thus to seeke God For saith the Text the thing was done suddenly vers. 35. 36. The like did I●s●●h when he had heard the words of the Law read and considered it he rent his clothes because of the wrath of God for not doing according to that Law therefore he sends to the Prophetesse Huldah to aske counsell who denounced evill against the Inhabitants because they had forsaken God and served Idolls Then Josiah gathered all Judah and Jerusalem and made a Covenant before the Lord to walke after the Lord and to keepe his Commandements c. 2

Chron. 34. 31. The occasions moving Gods people to enter into covenants have beene either engagements by way of thankfulnesse to God for great mercies and deliverances or for reformation by way of humiliation for sinnes committed to remove or prevent wrath and sometimes both these together Vpon the first occasion Joshuah drew the people to make a Covenant with God Ioshuah 24. upon the second Shechaniah and Ezra caused all the people to enter into a Covenant Ezra 10. Vpon both those occasions together Asa made that solemne Covenant with God partly for the great deliverance from the great Army of the Aethiopians 2. Chron. 14. 12. and partly for reformation to prevent wrath and to appease Gods anger 2 Chron. 15. 6. 7. Now we of great Britaine have all these occasions at this day to move us speedily and heartily to enter into Covenant with God If wee looke upon the mercies preservations and deliverances which we have received from God they are innumerable not onely of former yeares but now every day even in these times of our revolt and of Gods indignation against us He hath had respect to the Covenant which he made with our fathers as he had to Iudah in the time of Jehoram 2 Chron. 21. 7. and spar'd us for his owne names sake because his compassions faile not If we looke upon our sinnes by which he is provoked they are crying and hasten destruction to us and to our posterities Our idolatry strange wives adultery prophanation of Gods name and day are prodigious as if we had utterly cast off God from being our God And for these sinnes Gods wrath is gone out against us as if he would speedily make us no Nation If we consider either of these apart or looke upon them both together they call upon us to seeke the Lord by convenanting for reformation and thankesgiving for deliverance It is a duty absolutely necessary of greatest utility Therefore not to be refused nor deferred except wee will declare before God and men that we are hardned to destruction and will not be healed It is absolutly necessary because it is an Ordinance of God commanded for God commandeth nothing unnecessary It is also of greatest profit and benefit to Gods people to procure blessings and happy condition without compare the examples in Scripture that prove it so are obvious Now whatsoeve● hath beene necessary and profitable to the people of God is the same to us now for we have the same God who is the same for ever we are bound by the same commands that his people were before and stand in the same n●ed of the use of such divine and holy Ordinances Whatsoever things were written before were written for our learning that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope Rom. 15. 4. and whatsoever is written is for our practise Therefore this is a duty to us as to the Jewes Nay I will not feare to affirme that as the case now stands with the people and Kindomes of great Britaine it is of more necessity to us at this time then ever it was to the Nation of the Jewes and of greater utility if rightly done and well performed The necessity will appeare by these reasons First because our revolt hath bin as great ●a ever the Iewes was to cause God to hide his face from us and to procure his fierce wrath against us Secondly because the judgements that are present upon us and that daily threaten us are not inferiour to any judgement or captivity that ever the Iewes lay under Thirdly because our enemles have more subt●●ely combined confederated and covenanted against us then ever any brood of hell did against a people and sworne our destruction Fourthly because the mysterie of iniquity now worketh in it 's full power by lying wonders to delude insinuate and draw men from God to the Devill from the true Protestant Religion to Popery by protestations that they fight for God for Religion for Lawes priviledges of Parliament and the liberty of the subject but they intend as the Israelites when they had forsaken God and their Prophet Moses proclaimed and said tomorrow is a feast to Iehovah when they intended it to the worship of their new Gods their Idole Calves Fiftly because of their ludifying Declarations to steale away the hearts and hands of the people by great promises of reward and gratefull acceptance of their service as at first they did to the people of Yorke-shire to raise an Army under pretence of a personall guard with protestations that they intended no warre against the Parliament The like Declaration is lately sent to the people of Cornwall to be read in all Churches and kept for their assurance of future rewards to their posterity not a flap with a Fox taile but chastisement with Scorpions as such evill Counsellours sometime promised to the ten Tribes Sixtly because there are many Judases traytors mingled among us through the three Kingdoms that professe to be our brothers but prove our butchers seeme friends and under pretence of a kisse or Hale Master betray us fight against us as it was once practised by the Ephramites against Iepthtah who could not be discovered but by the word Shibboleth Seventhly because of the many Sects Schismes and dangerous opinions of men that live amongst us which by these meanes may be discovered and purged ou● as those that dishonour God and disturbe the peace of Gods people In all these respects this Covenant is of necessity to be entred into Now because every one may speedily willingly and joyfully enter into this Covenant I would commend to all men these foure considerations First the matter of the Covenant 2. The authority commending it 3. The end 4. The profit or benefit First consider the matter of the Covenant is just and holy in every thing therin contained agreeable to the holy Scriptures expressely comm●nded necessarily implyed by Texts both of Old and New Testament As first we covenant in our places and callings to endeavour to preserve the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in doctrine worship discipline and government against the common enemy Papists for none but Papists deny the Church of Scotland to be Orthodoxall therefore we are bound to endeavour to preserve it if the Apostles example be a rule to us 1 Cor. 11. 28. besides wee are commanded to doe to others as we would that others should doe to us Math. 7. 12. Now they jointly Covenant and sweare to preserve the reformed Religion of the Kingdomes of England and Ireland in doctrine discipline and government so far as it is for shall be agreeable to the word of God and we covenant but the very same for them and although the two Kingdomes should not in every particu●ar agree in government that is no breach of Covenant But because conjunction and uniformity in doctrine and discipline is most glorious acceptable to God and