Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	father_n	sin_n	son_n	6,077	5	5.1757	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39934	Grace and mercy to a sinner in a time of afflictions, or, The serious meditations of M. Tho. Ford of Rochester during the time of his imprisonment, before his execution, faithfully delivered from his own copie : together with his funeral sermon, preached by Mr. Wil. Sandbrook, P.M. Rochester / set forth for the strengthning of our faith in Jesus Christ ... ; published for the satisfaction of his friends ... by John Plasse.	Ford, Thomas, d. 1656.; Sandbrooke, William.; Plasse, John.	1657 (1657)	Wing F1513; ESTC R40949	26,591	84

my Barbarism so as to swallow it down without chewing give me leave to lay open the heart of the fact with the chief incendiaries thereupon attending and that only in two particulars First laying before you the person on whom I acted it and the sudden deprivation of life in the action The person upon whom I acted this bloody tragedy it was not a stranger but an acquaintance and friend not a common acquaintance or friend but a sister an only sister by flesh and blood and I can shew no reason could incite me to it except it were for her over tender care and respect to me had of which I am now truly sensible other perswasions were nothing else but the jugglings and delusions of that old enemy of mankind Satan who hath been a lyar from the beginning The second Scene in this cruell and bloody Tragedy which much aggravates the fact was the suddenness of the action which robbed her of her life in a moment without giving her any warning to prepare for heaven so that as much as in me lay I did deprive her temporal and eternal happiness without Gods great mercy I might blaze this my cruelty with several other colours but let these suffice to let you know the horridness of the crime Gentlemen you know how for a long time my conversation amongst you hath been very inconsistent to the gospel of Jesus Christ I have plaied the Atheist in my practice though not in my profession I have acknowledged there is a God but in my works I have denyed him and Atheism in practise is the worst sort of Atheism I have been in the highest nature a rebel a traytor against the King of Kings endeavouring to unthrone God by not yeilding obedience to his commands and he that plucks the King out of his throne is as bad or worse than he that saith there is no King Now that you may be the better senseable how I have idolized my profession I will give you the Catalogue of sins which our Saviour gives you in the seventh of Mark the 21 22 23. verses for from within out of the heart of man proceeds evil thoughts adulteries fornications murthers thefts covetousness wickedness deceit lasciviousness an evil eye blasphemies pride foolishness all these sins have lain lurking and been rooted in my heart originally being by nature the child of wrath and have in some kinde or other been put in execution though not in the same manner literally as they lye in the text yet circumstantially as they may be considered and applyed But one main sin which is not here rehearsed hath been my mother sin to wit drunkenness and excess the abuse of Gods creatures this hath been the engine of this cruelty and the door and inlet to all my misery Beware of this Lion-like sin least it command you to do the same cruelty give not the least entertainment to it as a cup and away for it is the greatest peece of witchcraft that I know to betray the soul to the Devil Thus I have given you a glimpse of my wounds now let me shew you my Physitian But Gentlemen I must not forget one sin which was almost slipt out of my memory namely the sin of uncleanness I do not mean with a woman Gentlemen there is other uncleanness than that with a woman and there be some young Gentlemen in company that looks upon me which are guilty of the same and know what I mean Then stooping to Mr. Rosewell he began upon the breach of Sabbath saying Gentlemen I have lived a long time amongst you and indeed frequented the Church but in all my time never kept one sabbath to the Lord aright as I ought to do I beseech you Gentlemen to have a special care of keeping the Sabbath and slight not the Ministers of God who are his Embassadours and truly I see apparently an imminent judgment hanging over the head of this Nation upon the account of the Ministers disagreeing for well may the sheep be scattered and the flock come to destruction when the Shepherds quarrel and go together by the ears Well but now to my Physitian It hath pleased the Father that in Jesus Christ all fulness should dwell and if all fulness then the fulness of power to effect and bring to pass the work of our redemption he is the horn the strength of our salvation Thus God the Father from all eternity foreseeing mans inability of standing did provide a remedy for his fall the Son of God the second person of the Trinity to take our nature upon him and to dy a cursed death on the cross that we might live eternally in heaven and now he sits at the right hand of God making intercession for us that by a lively faith joined with contrition and mortification of the old man and sin in us can lay hold of him the right way to see the aboundant mercy of God in Christ is to see our own misery by reason of sin how lost and undone we are without him Behold what love the Father hath shewed unto us that we should be called the Sons of God Seemeth it saith David being moved by the Courtiers to entertain the offer of Sauls daughter a light thing to be the Kings Son in law and it is registred as a fruit of Moses faith to prefer the rebuke of Christ before the title of the Sonne of Pharaohs daughter between God and Saul what comparison between the King of heaven and the Daughter of Pharaoh what proportion David might have been Son in law to Saul yet not entituled to the Crown Moses might have been the adopted Son of Pharaohs daughter yet but a subject still Seemeth it a light matter to us to be called the Sons of God or to be the Sons of God which is all one this Prerogative which we have by Christs blood makes us heirs every one Not onely sons but heirs joint heirs with Iesus Christ we are all made Kings and Princes by ●im all of us intituled to a Crown of ●lory an eternal weight of glory which ●s laid up for us in heaven a most ●nestimable benefit which the tongue of men and angels are not able to express O let I beseech you the serious Considerations of Gods mercies in Christ constrein us from sinful courses ●et the words of me a dying man work ●n your spirits that you may speedily ●xamine your own hearts how you ●●and affected to a Saviour that offers ●imself to be yours ●●on condition you will leave your sins and turn unto him ●y repentance Gentlemen he were a desperate man ●●at being condemned to dy would not ●ccept of the Kings pardon if it were ●ffered Behold here is a pardon from the King of Kings here Jesus Christ ●●ffereth his Blood if we do not wilfully ●efufe it in persisting and going on in a ●ourse of sin Gentlemen be perswaded I beseech you to make your title good to heven fo● temporal things we bend all

Grace and Mercy to a Sinner in a Time of Afflictions OR The serious Meditations of M. Tho. Ford of Rochester During the time of his Imprisonment before his Execution Faithfully delivered from his own COPIE Together with his Funeral Sermon Preached by Mr Wil. Sandbrook P. M. Rochester Set forth for the strengthning of our Faith in Jesus Christ and to arm our selves against Satan Published for the satisfaction of his Friends and conviction of his Enemies By Iohn Plasse LONDON Printed by Ioseph Moxon for Francis Cossinett and sold at his shop in Tower street at the sign of the golden Anchor at Minsin lane end 1657. To the Reader Courteous Reader I Having the Original of this Coppy committed to my hands by the Author thereof it being a grand part of his serious meditations during the time of his imprisonment in Rochester was desired by many of the Inhabitants and others adjacent to transcribe the same that it might be committed to Presse thereby to come to the publique view The Peece it self is but small yet full of many precious Truths and altho penned by a Person statned with the guilt of the blood of his own Sister yet in it thou shalt find so much of Gods glorious Countenance shining out upon him after so long a time of Gods with-drawing which thou shalt find fully discovered in his last Speech annexed to this Treatise that thou maiest conclude with me doubtless he is now at rest in the arms of a faithful Redeemer Iudge charitably accept of it kindly and walk thank fully with God for a● his mercies These are the only desire of him that is Margarets Rochester Ian. 26. 1656. Thine John Plasse Several Notes and Observations collected by me Tho. Ford for the strengthning of my Faith in my Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ and fealing of the assurance of my everlasting salvation Dedicated to any tender eye that will pardon the mistakes and correct the Errors My entrance by Prayer MOst high and mighty Lord God that didst create Man after thine own image but he fell from thee and by his fall made himself despicable and most vile in thy eyes O Lord we are in his loyns and are corrupted in him so that our original corruptions are enough to sink us into Hell without any actual transgressions But ever blessed be thy Name thou didst not leave us in this condition but didst provide a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ to randsom us from the thraldom of sin and death that whosoever beleeves in him should not perrish but have everlasting life Strengthen me O Lord the greatest of sinners that I may by sure evidences from thy good spiri● working in me a lively faith receive some crums of mercy from thy Table Take away O Lord the hardness of my heart the blindness of my understanding the deadness of my affections Create in me O God a new heart and renew a right spirit within me Make me to hear joy and gladness Rebuke the Tempter that hath been too strong for me and while I live here let me live to thy glory and before I depart hence receive that blessed and comfortable sentence from thee Thy sins are forgiven thee And this I begg of thee for the sake of Jesus Christ my alone Saviour and Redeemer Amen Of God He is glorious in his Essence and glorious in his Persons In his Essence of an eternal being by himself without beginning and without end Iehovah Elohim He is glorious in his Persons Father Son and Holy Spirit The Father is glorious in his great work of Election The Son is glorious in his great work of Redemption The Holy Ghost is glorious in his great work of Application The Father is glorious in choosing the House The Son is glorious in buying the House The Holy Ghost is glorious in dweling in the House To apply this to my self Is God so full of glory and Majesty with what an awfulness and dreadfull reverence of his Majesty should I come before him to beg pardon for my sins for my sins that have been so sinfull beyond measure the whole course of my life hath been nothing else but a continual act of sin and to all my sins have added Murder and that not of a stranger but of my own Sister Well Where shall I rest for Comfort In the Father He is full of Majesty and Glory I cannot But here must I rely upon Jesus Christ my Redeemer that by true repentance for my sins principally as they have been an offence against the Majesty and dishonour to his Name joyned by a lively Faith in Jesus Christ Here must I cast Anchor and upon this Rock must I be preserved from dispair of Gods mercies But how shall I come to Christ that I may find mercy 1. Come to him mourning and loathing thy self for thy long continuance in sin and refusing of him come with a broken and lamenting heart for all thy sins but especially for thy sleighting of Christ for the shedding of his blood the renting of his bowels and if thou canst not come as well as thou shouldst yet come as well as thou canst come to him and make thy moan of thy unbeleef and inability to come 2. Come with this assured confidence ●hat those that come unto him he will in to wise cast away and thou being come he will not cast thee away Let us draw neer with full assurance of Faith having ●ur hearts sprinkled from an evil Consci●nce and our bodies washed with pure water 3. Come gladly and willingly glorifying the grace of God but abasing thy ●elf Come with gladness that thou shalt ●e brought and enter into the Kings pre●nce receive not the grace of God as ● common thing but thankfully and with all thy heart for the end why the Lord gives Christ to a man is the glory ●f his Grace If the Lord attain his end he desires no more For why should ●e when he hath his end The only way and means to obtain pardon from God the Father by his ●on Jesus Christ is set down briefly by S. Iohn thus If we acknowledge our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins Make therefore a diligent search of ●hy heart by the Law of God arraign thy self in thine own thoughts before God Supposing this were the day o● reckoning rip up thy heart and lay open all thy known sins without lesning them without excusing them without hiding them without taking upon thee to defend them thus did David Psal 51 3. 4. thus did Ezra 9. 6. and then go on to give Iudgement to thy self I say Iudge thy self that thou be not Iudged Thus did Daniel in the 9. and the 7 Thus did the Prodigall Luke the 15 21. One thing is very observable in the Prodigals return to his Father and that on the Fathers part the Text saith His Father went and met him intimating unto us the goodness and infinit● mercy of God

in the Lord Jesus Christ to humble and penitent sinners that by hearty repentance come home unto him He is very ready and willing to meet them to imbrace them in the arms of his mercy to kill the fatted Calf to provide delicates heavenly delicates for his the bread of life the food of immortality ushered in with the most delightfull Musick for there is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth That by the way When thou hast judged thy self then earnestly beg of God pardon for Christs sake and never leave him off untill he give this blessed answer to thy Conscience that thy sins are pardoned The unjust Judge by reason of the importunity of the Widdow granted her request how much more shall the just God grant the request of his that pray day and night unto him Thus did David Let thy good spirit lead me c. These things are necessary if we would be saved we must not be Cowards in a business of this nature if we intend to win the field but we must work our best endeavours and still hold out wrestling with God if we intend to win the Victory Some Captives amongst men are redeemed by price only some by power without price but such is the lamentable captivity of all men under sin and the severity of Gods Justice that without the price of Christs blood and the power of his spirit there is no deliverance from sin and misery the Lord Jesus Christ having paid the full and absolute price of our deliverance Ioh 8. 32. Yet it is with us as with a company of Captives in prison our sins like strong chains holds us Satan our Keeper will not let us go the Prison doors through unbeleef are shut upon us and thereby God and Christ are kept our from us what power now can rescue us that are held fast unto such a power even after the price is paid The spirit of God speaketh of a power in Christ Thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help As Christ hath redeemed us so we must go unto him For strength and power that we may make application of this Redemption to our selves that by his spirit we may find the fruits of it on our own souls and here consists our comfort that as Christ was abased to purchase redemption for us so now he is exalted at the right hand of God the Father to apply this redemption unto us Four causes of mans misery joyned with four acts of Christs power Mans misery 1. The ignorance of his own misery 2. Security and unsenceableness of it 3. Carnal confidence in their own duties 4. Presumption or resting upon the mercy of God by a Faith of their own forgeing Christs Act 1. Conviction of sin 2. Compunction for sin 3. Humiliation or self-abasement 4. Faith These are the works of Christ on the soul There must be an actual deliverance in man wrought by the efficacy and power of the spirit of Christ as well as a purchased deliverance wrought by the blood of Christ therefore untill we can find the former wrought in us we can lay no claim to the latter until we can see sin in its own colours with the several aggrevations thereof and the wages of sin which is eternal death we cannot truly hate it and not truly hating it we cannot repent of it and not repenting of it we cannot with a true faith lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ Shew me thy Faith without thy work saith S. Iames and I will shew thee my Faith by my works He that repents and beleeves shall be saved but he that beleeves not shall be damned Thus you see where our rest and rock of comfort for salvation is only in our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ You see the manner how we must come to Christ so that we may be accepted we must come loathing and abhorring our selves out of our selves into Christ come humbly come willingly to Christ as with all thy might and power as to the only spring fountain and head of comfort of wisdom of excellency come even as the Bride to the Bridegroom as the members to the Head as the branches to the Vine and let thy confidence when thou comest inwardly perswade thee that Those who come to him he will in no wise cast away for we have his promise for it Behold saith our Saviour I stand at the dore and knock c. Let every beleeving Soul then say with Thomas My Lord and my God Objection may arise Is God such a merciful God and is Iesus Christ so willing to imbrace us when we come unto him and seek to him by those we 〈◊〉 which he hath appointed us in his Word ●hen what is the reason that he hears ●t the Prayers of his People that they ●t up unto him to be delivered from sin ●om some particular sin which it may is more predominant than any other against hardness of heart It may be thou art not humbled e●ough in thy self thou dost not pray as ●ou oughtest to pray in Faith or if thou ●st God may for present not answer ●ee according to thy desire for the try●● of thy Faith and Patience to make ●ee the more earnest suitor unto him ●oahs Dove returns not presently with 〈◊〉 Olive branch of Peace in his mouth ●rayer sometimes that speeds well re●●rns not presently for want of compa●● enough to fetch away that abun●nce of mercy that God hath to give the Lord ever gives them that ask in ●aith their asking in mony or monies ●orth God is long many times before ● gives but pays them well for their ●aiting Approve thy self to God in all thy ●aies for he is an omniscient God no ●atter what he world saith of thee God is thy Spie taking notice of all actions and they are in print in Hea●● which that great spectator and Ju●● will open at the great day Fear the●●fore to sin in secret unless thou canst a dark hole to sin where God cannot thee Have a care of playing the Ath●● in practice although thou be not so thy profession to confesse there is God yet by thy works to deny hi● even if it were possible to unthrone ●●●sus Christ they that pluck the 〈◊〉 from his throne are as bad or as vile they that say there is no King But that we may the better understa●● how sin is remitted by Christ and him Consider that in him there 〈◊〉 three things that makes Sin exceed 〈◊〉 Sinfull 1 The Crime of Sin 2 The Guilt of Sin 3 The Stain and blot or pollution Sin The Crimes by which God is offen●ed The Guilt by which we are liable punishment The blot or stain which the 〈◊〉 ●ommitted leaveth in the offender These three are taken away by the ●erits of Christ 1 The Crime is taken away by his Obedience 2 The Guilt is removed by his suffer●ngs 3 The blot stain and coruption is