Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A81578
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A sermon preached on the fast-day, December 22. 1680. In the Cathedral Church of Rochester. By Robert Dixon, D.D vice-dean of the said church
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Dixon, Robert, d. 1688.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing D1748aA; ESTC R225588
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42,897
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68
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thought spoke and done the bed they can to the utmost of their power and taken all the best courses to avoid sin and misery and provide for their eternal good the wisest and best and strongest can do no more If after all this all their hopes fail for this life they have freed their own Souls they shall be saved in the life to come Means useless We have seen by woful experience all the ways of temporising and flattery and fraud and policy and cruelty and whatsoever else is contrary to Godliness and a sound Mind comes to nothing We have tried all means and beat upon every bush and all to no purpose every thing fails let us come to that at last that will never fail us Fear God and keep his Commandments A Rich man uses all means and nothing does him good all his Physitians are of no value and leave him to God We have contracted sins and by them brought these miseries upon our selves that we groan under and being found out for them as we never thought to be we look one upon another and say one to another as Josephs Brethren did We are verily guilty because of our Brothers Blood and because of our Fathers Blood and therefore is this distress come upon us The Prodigal came too when he came to his Husks and not before There are two Protestant Parties that hurt one another and a third Party that is Popish stands by and laughs and encourages them to worry one another and when he sees them spent he rushes upon them to destroy them And this is our Case 7. Make Observations in your Life Observations of Mercies 1. You shall find particular Deliverances to your Persons Estates great experiences of Gods Love in supporting you under your troubles and saving you from them whether they come mediately from the hands of Men or immediately from the hands of God if you mark them to your great comfort confirmation and assurance for future Mercies and Thankfulness to God for them 2. You shall find Publick Deliverances to the Church and State such as have happened in your days and in the days of old how the Lord doth build up Jerusalem and gathereth together the outcasts of Israel how he healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds how he satisfieth the longing Soul and filleth the hungry Soul with goodness Such as sit in Darkness and in the shadow of Death being bound in Affliction and Iron when they cried unto the Lord in their Trouble he saved them out of their Distresses he brought them out of Darkness and the Shadow of Death and brake their bonds asunder He sent his Word and healed them and delivered them from their Destruction Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men sacrifice the sacrifices of Thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoycing They that go down to the Sea in Ships that do business in greats Waters these see the goodness of the Lord and his wonders in the Deep For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the Waves thereof they mount up to the Heaven they go down again to the Depths their Soul is melted because of trouble they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresses He maketh the Storm a Calm so that the Waves thereof are still then are they glad because they be quiet so he bringeth them unto their desire Haven Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful works to the Children of men Let them exalt him also in the Congregation of the People and praise him in the Assembly of the Elders He turneth rivers into a wilderness and the water-springs into a dry ground A fruitful Land maketh he barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein He turneth the wilderness into a standing water and dry ground into water-springs and there he maketh the hungry to dwell that they may prepare a City for Habitations and sow the Fields and plant Vineyards which may yield Fruits of encrease he blesseth them also so that they are multiplied greatly and suffereth not their Cattel to decrease again they are minished and brought low through oppression affliction on and sorrow He poureth contempt upon Princes and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction and maketh him Families like a Flock The Righteous shall see it and rejoyce and all iniquity shall stop her mouth Whoso is wise will observe those things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Observation of correspondence with God 8. Besides these temporal personal and publick Mercies I exercise my Soul in the strict observation of the intercourse and correspondence of Business betwixt God and my own Soul which greatly comforts me in all outward Distress And I perswade all Christians to do the like As to observe Influence of Gods Spirit upon our Spirits ☞ 1. The Influence of God's Spirit upon our Spirits by the Illumination of our Minds and the Invitation of our Wills When you are serious and solitary you will find God knocking at the Door of your Hearts the motions of his blessed Spirit the Light within you the Voice behind you in your Consciences this is the way walk in it Take good heed that you listen to all these good things God's turning to us Refluence of our Spirits upon Gods Spirit 2. The Refluence of our Spirits upon God's Spirit by our approbation of the Mind of God in our Mind and the Consent of our Will to God's Will and a Return of Love for Love our turning to God The use and exercise of Graces given and received frequent resort to the Throne of Grace for Grace sufficient to help us in the time of all our need You shall find this employment beneficial towards a supportation and qualification of all outward perplexities driving the weak heart towards despair Mark what comes from God to us inwardly and what comes from us to God inwardly for God marks us We shall find enough to do to prepare for God's coming into our Souls and to stir up the Gifts of God in us and to use his Graces after he is come into our Souls These things will so take up our thoughts and exercise our facultâ—es that we shall be all in hopes and joyes because of our Union and Communion with God while the calamities of the World are round about us that we shall fear them the less and bear them the better and overcome them the sooner This I find to be the great Remedy and Medela Auimae the Earnest of Heaven upon Earth the great Anodine to expell worldly Sorrows I am safe in the midst of all Temptations and Dangers of
this World Why Because I know and feel That 1. God is mine by his own Act and Deed not only of Creation as he is to all but of Redemption as he would be to all if they would take it and is to all that do embrace it to whom he therefore giveth power that they should be called the Sons of God And then God's Work is done 2. I am God's by my own Act and Deed not only by owning my self to be the Work of his Hands but covenanting with him to do and suffer his Will in and upon me and to trust to him that he will be my exceeding great Reward And so I may call God Father And then my work is done While a Soul is abstracted with mutual Enjoyments Studies and Raptures with God no worldly Grievances can affect such sublime Spirits as they do those that grovel upon the ground in the concerns chiefly of the Flesh and of the World 'T was said of Archimedes that his Mind being intent upon Demonstrations when the City was besieged and the Enemy broke in upon him he perceived not the Danger of his Death till it seized upon his Contemplations Death it self is not fear'd nor felt so much in the Flesh to a man that is mortified to the Flesh before-hand from the Corruptions and Lusts thereof waiting all the days of our appointed time till his change do come looking for after this earthly house of his Tabernacle is dissolved to have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens but groaning earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with his house which is from Heaven that being clothed he shall not be found naked not for that he would be unclothed but clothed upon so that mortality might be swallowed up of life desiring not in the Flesh but in the Spirit to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Other thoughts and cares are eating fretting and consuming but these are healing comforting and reviving caring for God how we may please him that cares for us By these the Soul is upheld from sinking into despair when the Flesh the World and the Devil are alltogether about our ears Thus we bear up against the Waves because our Stern is good or Keel is sound and our Pilot steers a right Course Do not therefore break my heart with worldly fears I have a mind to hope as well as fear I have crowded my Head already among the Stars I may be vex'd in my Body but that also being ioyn'd to the Head will follow after it by degrees and Christ which is my Head will draw my whole Body Soul and Spirit after him with whom I am already in Faith in Heavenly places My Tribulation worketh in me patience and patience experience and experience hope and I shall never be ashamed So I encourage all Sufferers Durate rebus vosmet servate secundis Dabit Deus his quoque finem Virg. Upbraid me not but pity me for I am resolved and therefore tempt me no more it is enough that I suffer I murmure not let me alone Oro miserere laborum tantorum miserere animi non digna ferentis They that sow in tears shall reap in joy and bring their Sheaves with them after a few days I shall find the comfort of it An humble Soul aims high God and my Right but all in Christ God be merciful to me a Sinner for his free Grace in Christ Jesus only Amen If in this Life only we have hope we are of all men the most miserable It is so short and miserable that in our Extremities we look one upon another and know not what to do What shall we do in Death That puts an end to all worldly Extremities eases the poor Captive in the Dungeon from his Bonds and the oppressed from all Tyranny and is too often wished for in the error of our Life but is a beginning of endless Extremities to them that have no hope We that could not tell what to do in Life what shall we do in Death When the naked Soul sits trembling upon the pale lip to be plunged into the bottomless Abyss of Eternity But if in this Life our hope be full of a Glorious and Blessed Immortality we know what to do there is hope in Death When the Body goes to the Dust the Soul returns to God that gave it to the God of Abraham and of Isaac and Jacob who is not the God of the Dead but of the Living for they are all alive in the Spirit with God and shall live with him in the Body when the times of Refreshment shall come from the Lord. My Son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy Soul for Temptation set thy Heart aright and constantly endure and make not hast in time of trouble Cleave unto him and depart not away that thou mayst be encreased in thy last end Whatsoever is brought unto thee take chearfully and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate For Gold is tried in the Fire and acceptable men in the Furnace of Adversity Believe in him and he will help thee order thy way aright and trust in him Ye that fear the Lord wait for his Mercy and go not aside lest ye fall Ye that fear the Lord believe him and your reward shall not fail Ye that fear the Lord hope for good and for everlasting Joy and Mercy Look at the Generations of old and see Did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded Or did any abide in his Fear and was forsaken Or whom did he ever despise that called upon him For the Lord is full of Compassion and Mercy long suffering and very pitisul and forgiveth sins and saveth in time of Affliction Wo be to fearful hearts and faint hands and the Sinner that goeth two ways Wo to him that is faint-hearted for he believeth not therefore shall he not be deseded Wo unto you that have lost patience and what will ye do when the Lord shall visit you They that fear the Lord will not disobey his Word and they that love him will keep his ways They that fear the Lord will seek that which is well-pleasing unto him and they that love him shall be filled with the Law They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts and humble their Souls in his Sight saying we will fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of Men for as his Majesty is so is his Mercy Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Mercies and the God of Comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God For as the Sufferings of Christ abound in us so our Consolation also aboundeth by Christ and whither we be afflicted it is for our Consolation and Salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the