Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A35177
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The summ of two sermons on the witnesses and the earthquake that accompanies their resurrection occasion'd from a late earthquake, Sept. 8 and preach'd on the fast following, Sept. 14 / by W.C., M.A. ...
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Cross, Walter, M.A.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing C7264; ESTC R31339
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35,336
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46
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come to call me to an Account Wo is me I have not minded a God more 2. It serves for our Conviction not only of being sinful but of Sin 's being rooted in us and reigning over us When God fills a Land with Prodigies it argues it guilty of Atheistical Unbelief carnal Security Earthly-mindedness Hard-heartedness and meer Formalness in Religion For 1st God doth nothing in vain he doth not use extraordinary Means when ordinary Means can prevail Isa 5.4 What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it I have used all ordinary means of Conviction and Conversion but yet they remain Covetous Por their Work is to joyn House to House They remain profane for they rise early to follow strong Drink they remain hypocritical therefore follows prodigious and extraordinary Methods Their Hills shall tremble and their Carcases shall be torn in the Streets After the same manner and with the very same People doth Christ deal in his time Matth. 11.17 They would neither dance to Piping nor would they lament to Mourning therefore prodigious Judgements destroys the People and lays their City desolate 2ly We find all these People toward whom God used miraculous Dispensations to have been an unbelieving carnal secure People We find three Seasons of Prodigies Moses's time Christ's time and Elijah's time in all of which we have the evident Discoveries of the most rude heard-hearted People that ever was on the Earth after their safe Passage through the Red Sea it is said The People feared the Lord and believed him But it is added They soon forgat his Word Ezek. 16. They were as unteachable as New-born Babes that were neither salted nor swadled 1 Cor. 14.22 Signs are only given for them that believe not hence God did not work Miracles in bringing his People out of Babylon as he did in bringing them out of Egypt 4ly If all Punishment suppose Sin extraordinary Punishment presupposes extraordinary Guilt One of these two we must conclude when God exerciseth a Land with extraordinary Prodigies that all Sin is very vile and hateful in his sight which a carnal Sinner is very unwilling to believe seeing a pure eternal Mind only in the spotted Glass of his own corrupt Mind Or we must conclude that there is a great deal of Sin in us when we see a God of all Grace and all Consolation a Father of Mercies whose very Being is Love unto whose natural Actions Judgement is a Foreign thing to see such an one Thundering in his Power from Heaven and stamping in his Anger upon the Earth untill the Dust of his Footstool ful the Air with Clouds When we see him either visibly threatning by Prodigies and only beating the Ground before us with his Rod of Iron or more surprizingly punishing us as he did Corah Dathan and Abiram we cannot but conclude we have highly offended him An Instance of the latter kind we have heard of with Terror from Jamaica and one of the former we have gently felt according to God's usual Method of patient and merciful dealing with England We have usually but some drops of the Hail that destroys our Neighbours the Rod is but shaken over our Heads while their Backs are severely smitten he deals with us as a Father with his Children to let the Blow fall on the Ground that he seem'd to level at our Face While we behold these things and consider the Nature of God we cannot but conclude Sin is a very evil thing or that we are very guilty 3d Vse That prodigious Presages serve for is to raise our Expectations about great future Judgments or Mercies 1st It puts us in expectation of the great Day of Judgment an Earthquake being one of it's Forerunners Rev. 16.18 Luke 21.26 There are considerable Reasons to perswade us of the Nighness of it tho' we know not the Year or the Day 1. Because the New Heaven and Earth which is to be the Foundation of that long look'd for 1000 years is to come after the Dissolution of the World by Fire 2 Pet. 3.7 The Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto Fire against the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly Men ver 13. Nevertheless we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Rom. 8.21 The Creature it self also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God So the Day of Judgment is nearer by a 1000 Years than many expect 2. The Day of Judgment seems partially to begin with the utter ruine of Antichristianism 2 Thes 2.8 The Lord shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming Rev. 19.3 Before the Marriage Supper of the Lamb it is said Her smoak rose up fir ever and ever ver 20. The Beast and the false Prophet are to be cast alive into the Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone Dan. 7.12 After the Body or Nation of the Beast is given to the burning Flame Greece and Asia with it's Inhabitants continue preserved though without Dominion until Christ's everlasting Dominion begins which is the second coming without Sin unto Salvation 3. After the Rise of the Witnesses there is but only one Woe to come and one Trumpet to sound Rev. 10.7 The Angel swore that there should be Time no longer but in the Days of the Voice of the 7th Angel 2ly It ought far more to put us in Expectation of the great Revolutions that must be before then Earthquakes also being Forerunners of them as we see in the Text and ver 19. in the opening of the Temple There are Seven Great Kevolutions at hand 1. The Rise of the Witnesses 2. A plentiful Effusion of the Spirit 3. The Reformation of a Nation or Kingdom 4. A great Military Slaughter of Persons or Civil Death of Papal Dignities 5. An utter Ruine of the Turkish Empire which is a passing away of the Second Woe 6. The Conversion of the Jews which is to be by the coming of the third Woe or drying up the River Euphrates by the Sixth Vial. Lastly The persecuting Arm of the Beast broken though his Life shall be longer continued 3ly It may put all impenitent Sinners whose Reformation neither ordinary means nor such extraordinary has produced in far more certain expectation of dreadful Punishments For 1. No impenitent Nation under such ordinary and extraordinary means continuing impenitent ever escaped Destruction Pharaoh and his Kingdom can witness this The Jews God's own peculiar People can also witness this Matth. 11. John 10. They would not be perswaded by the Miracles and prodigious Signs Christ wrought therefore he brought prodigious Desolations upon them and they remain Prodigies to this Day scattered like the quartered Members of Rebels against their King and preserv'd separate from all the Nations where they dwell that they may be the more visible 2. The God that has Power and cannot lie has sentenc'd utter Ruine for their Lot Because they regard not