Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	glory_n	grace_n	lord_n	5,866	5	3.7353	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70554	Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ... changed earth for heaven, Oct. 17. 1688 whereto are added some discourses on the true nature, the great reward, and the best season of such a walk with God as he left a pattern of.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Mather, Samuel, 1651-1728.	1689 (1689)	Wing M1097A; ESTC R20873	63,808	161

thus calls Bring me the first of thy Age and Bring me the first of thy strength How darest thou then carry it unto the Devil instead of him This Command is yet more express where the Lord calls for a present Repentance a present Obedience from us saith he not in Jer. 25. 5. Turn ye now every one from his evil way saith he not in Psal 95. 7. O that ye would hear his Voice to day saith he not in Psal 147. 12. Both young Men and Maidens old Men and Children O Praise the Lord Young Man do not venture to slight the Command of that God who can speak thee into Hell for slighting it Do not offend and provoke that God who can with hot Thunder-bolts avenge thy doing so CONSIDER II. 'T is for your own Interest and Benefit now to Remember God. It is impossible to reckon up all the Advantages of Early Religion Indeed Godliness is profitable for all things but Early Godliness that that is it which brings most profit unto the Owners of it It is truly said in Lam. 3. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the Yoke in his Youth Young Man Remember God and it will please Him. It was very pleasing unto God when Abel brought the Firstlings of his Flock unto Him The Lord said in Jer. 2. 2. I Remember the kindness of thy Youth If we Remember God in our Youth God will Remember the seriousness of our Youth the savouriness of our Youth and the kindness of our Youth a great while afterwards It was the Speech of God in Hos 11. 1. When Israel was a child I loved him When Persons are in their Childhood vertuous and gracious and such as Remember Him such persons are loved exceedingly by Him that loveth the Righteous When little Children were brought unto the Lord Jesus He blessed them What will the Lord then do for them that Remember to come themselves unto Him He will bless them for they please him exceedingly Remember God and it will also save thee O what a matchless Promise is there set before thee in Prov. 8. 17. They that seek me early shall find me Thou shalt find Christ and find God and find the Pearl of great price by the Ea●ly seeking thereof Whoever does miss of mercy from God yet unto the Young Person the Lord saith in 1 Chron. 28. 9. If thou seek him he shall be found of thee This is a certain way to find Grace to find Glory to find every good thing seek early for it Indeed they are not only centain Finders but also glorious Finders Eminent and Transcendent Finders that are Early Seekers of the Lord they are the Josephs and the Samuels and the Davids of the World. CONSIDER III. Remember God Now or there is Danger that you never will at all As he said in Joh. 3. 4. How can a Man be born when he is old so How can a Man be New-born then It seldom is Our Text says Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth It may be rendred In the days of thy Choice You now make your Choice If you choose God in your Youth Well but if you now choose Lust and Sin a thousand to one but God will confirm that Choice the Lord may say Let him that is filthy be filthy still and Let him that is wicked he wicked for evermore Besides the Mortality there is also an Obduration which thou art in danger of It is a direful Menace of God in Gen. 6. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive If thou dost now resist the strivings of the Lord thou dost as it were smother them and banish them 't is to be fear'd that they will take an Eternal Farewell of thy forsaken Soul. Dost not thou Tremble at this O thou Heart of Adamant If this horrible thing should be the Portion of thy Soul Down Down Down thou goest into the Pitt among them that cannot hope for the Truth of God. God prevent so great an Evil God make every young Person among us a Josiah that While he is yet young shall seek the Lord. God make every young Person among us an Abijah that while young shall have in him some good thing toward the Lord. God enable every young Person to say as Obadiah did I fear the Lord from my Youth Now unto thee O God I bend my knees with my Prayers that thy Converting Grace may produce multitudes of such tender Grapes in this Vineyard of the Lord. FINIS

many Sins against such a good God as the Lord is III. What Mercies I had received for which I desire to bless the Lords Name 1. He hath given me to be born of Godly Parents 2. I have always had the means of Grace lengthen'd out unto me 3. The Lord hath graciously pleased to give me some answers of Prayer 1. As to the lengthning out of my Health 2. As to the Increase of my Library What shall I render to the Lord for all his loving kindness towards me I resolved to Dedicate my self wholly to God and his Service And he did accordingly This Year did not roll about before he had in a manner very solemn entred in to Covenant with God. This weighty and awful thing was not rashly done by him or in a sudden Flash and Pang of Devotion He Thought he Read he Wrote and he Prayed not a little before this Glorious Transaction between God and him and upon Mature Deliberation he judged it most adviseable for him to make his Covenant with God as Explicit as Writing and Signing could render it that so it might leave the more Impression upon his Heart and Life and be an Evidence likewise which in Temptation or Desertion he might have recourse unto Wherefore he set apart a Time for I think secret Fasting and Prayer before the Lord and then behold how this Young Man counting it high time for him to be bound out unto some Service took a course for it He subscribed an holy Covenant of which this was the Matter this the Form. The Covenrnt between God and my Soul renewed confirmed and signed Nov. 22. 1683. Whereas not only the Commands of God who hath often called upon me by his Word Preached to give up my self both Body and Soul to be at his Disposal which calls by the publick Ministry were enough to engage me unto this but also the Christian Religion which I profess and my Baptism in which I took the Lord to be my God and promised to Renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and to dedicate my self unto the Service Work and Will of God do bind me hereunto In that God is such a God as deserves this yea infinitely more than this at my hands my Creator the Fountain of my Being my Preserver my Benefactor my Lord my Soveraign my Judge He in whose Hands my Life my Breath and all my concerns are He that doth protect me from all Dangers and supply me in all wants support me under all Burdens and direct me in all streights He alone that can make me happy or miserable He alone that can save me or damn me He alone that can give inward Peace and Joy that is my Friend my God In that Self-Dedication is the Creatures Advancement these First-fruits if in Sincerity putting upon me a Gloriousness and Excellency In that Felicity hereafter depends upon my dedicating of my self unto God now In that this is the highest piec● of Gratitude I am capable of expressing unto God and I know no better way to Obey the Will of God than first to give up my self unto him And whereas the Mercies which the Lord hath been pleased graciously to bestow upon me are so many that even bare Morality doth shew me that I can never enough requite one that hath done so much for me except by giving up my self wholly to him 1669 Whereas God hath given me a Godly Father and Mother 1674 In that when I was like to dye being twice sick of a Feaver God was pleased to bless means for my Recovery and lengthen out the Thread of my Life 1675 Whereas when I by an Accident fell down and had like to have been deprived of the use of my Tongue God was in his good Providence graciously pleased to give me the use of it 1678 Whereas when I was sick of the Small-Pox God was pleased to bless means for my Recovery Whereas then I made Promises unto God that if he would give me my Health I would endeavour to become a New Creature and he hath done so for these five Years And whereas God hath of late been bestowing many and wonderful mercies upon me What can I do less than give up my self wholly to him Which now I do And O Lord God I beseech thee to accept of thy Poor Prodigal now prostrating of himself before thee I confess O Lord I have fallen from thee by my Iniquity and am by nature a Son of Hell but of thy Infinite Grace thou hast promised Mercy to me in Christ if I will but turn unto thee with all my Heart Therefore upon the Call of thy Gospel I come in and from the bottom of my Heart I renounce all thy Enemies with whom I confess I have wickedly sided against thee firmly Covenanting with thee not to allo● my self in any known Sin but co●scientiously to use all means which ● know thou hast prescribed for the u●ter destruction of all my Corruptions And whereas I have inordinately I out my Affections upon the World here resign my Heart unto thee th●● made it humbly Protesting before t●● Glorious Majesty that it is the fin● Resolution of my Heart and that I 〈◊〉 unfeignedly desire Grace from thee th●● when thou shalt call me thereunto ● may put in practice my Resolution through thine Assistance to forsake 〈◊〉 that is dear unto me in the World r●ther than to turn from thee to t●● ways of sin and that I will watch again● all it's Temptations whether of Prosperty or Adversity lest they should wit●draw my Heart from thee beseechi●● thee to help me I renounce all my own Righteousnes● and acknowledge that of my self I a● helpless and undone and without Rig●teousness And whereas of thy bottomless Mercy thou hast offer'd to accept of 〈◊〉 and to be reconciled to me and 〈◊〉 be my God through Christ if I woul● accept of thee I do this day avouch thee to be the Lord my God. I do here take the Lord Jehovah Father Son and Holy Ghost for my portion and chief Good and do give up my self Body and Soul for thy Servant promising to endeavour to serve thee in Righteousness and Holiness I do here also on the bended knees of my Soul accept of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only and living Way by which sinners may have access to thee and do here joyn my self in a Marriage-Covenant with him O Lord Jesus I come to thee hungry poor miserable blind and naked and a most loathsome Creature a condemned Malefactor Who am I that I should be Married unto the King of Glory I do accept of thee for my Head and Husband and embrace thee in all thy Offices I renounce my own Worthiness and do choose thee the Lord my Righteousness I do renounce my own Wisdom and do take thine for my Guide I take thy Will for my Will and thy Word for my Law. I do here willingly put my Neck under thy Yoke I do subscribe to all thy

Looks made the Treasure in him wholly unsuspected by Strangers to him yet they that were intimately Acquainted with him can attest unto the Veracity of him that giveth this Description and there are no mean Persons who will profess with Admiration That they could scarce encounter him in any Theme of Discourse which he was not very notably acquainted with But the Bark is now split in which all these Riches were stowed A Spanish wrack hath not more Silver than the Grave of such a Young Man hath Learning buried in it Indeed these things Mort● Erunt perhaps they dyed with him Bu● there is a more Immortal thing to be observed in him and that is II. His PIETY Tho' a fine Carriage was the least thing that ever he affected yet a Good Nature made him dear to those that were familiar with him He was always very obliging and officious and more ready to do than others could be to ask a good turn at his hands But he was above all happy by being Early in pure Religion The Common Effects of such a Piou● Education as the Family in which he lived afforded unto him were seen even in his Childhood and secret Prayer became very betimes one of his Infant Exercises He does in his MSs. particularly take notice of a Scripture Copy set for him when he learned to Write as a thing that had much Efficacy on him but when he was Twelve or more Years old more powerful Convictions did the Spirit of God set home upon him than he had been used unto some Records therefore I find in his Papers with this Clause in the Head of the Account Rejoyce O my Soul for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee Now it was that he allowed his Pen to write these among other Expressions of his Trouble about his Estate Feb. 19. 1682. What shall I do What shall I do to be sav'd Without a Christ I am undone undone undone for Evermore O Lord let me have Christ tho' I lye in the Mire for ever O for a Christ O for a Christ a Christ Lord Give me a Christ or I dye It was now another of his Registred Meditations I have been in a Great Hesitancy whether I should choose Jesus Christ for my Prophet Priest and King with all his Inconveniencies to take up my Cross and follow him Wherefore I do now take him as mine my whole Christ and my only Christ and I am resolved to seek him All that I have shall be at his Service and all my Members and all my Powers shall endeavour his Glory And yet again there were these Considerations in his Mind Had I not better seek the Lord Christ while I have a Time of Prosperity and Peace while he offers himself to me saying Come unto me and I will save thee and lay all thy Burdens upon me and I will sustain thee Than in Affliction to cry and not be heard when he stretcheth forth his Hand and says Believe on me and thou shalt be saved and now to Day he offers himself shall I refuse and say Lord To Morrow No surely And these pathetical Groans then likewise got a Room in his Papers O that I had a Christ O that I had Him who is the Delight of my Soul Then O then I should be perfectly Blessed and want no food that would make me so This is a Copy of the Passages then Recorded in this Young Believers Diary Thus did he now Labour to affect his own Soul with his own State and leave things no more at peradventures between God and him He read many savoury Books about Faith and Repentance and Conversion and he Transcribed many Notes therefrom not resting satisfied within himself until he had some experience of a true Regeneration Among other workings of his Heart at this Age his Papers have such things as these Reasons for my speedy closing with Jesus Christ First It 's the Command of Jesus Christ that I should come unto him Secondly Jesus Christ Invites me also in Matt. 11. 28. Come unto me Thirdly He hath laid me under many Obligations to turn unto him in that he hath recovered me from Sickness so often and now given me a curious Study Fourthly In that I have vow'd unto the Lord if he would do so and so for me I would make a solemn Covenant with him and endeavour to serve him And again elsewhere O that God would help me to seek Him while I am Young O that he would give unto me His Grace However I will lay my self down at his Feet If he Save me I shall be happy for ever if he Damn me I must Justifie him O thou Son of God have mercy on me I know not what to say but I will take thee at thy Word Thou sayst Come unto me my Soul answers Lord at thy Command I will come He thus continued following hard after God enjoying and answering many striveings of his Holy Spirit until he was about Fourteen Years Old. In this time he did not a little acquaint himself with profitable Godliness being frequent and fervent in his Prayers to God upon all occasions and careful not only to hear Sermons but also to consider after them what Improvement he should make of what he heard Not only his Prayers but his Praises too now took notice of even the smallest Affairs before him I know not whether you can see any thing Childish I am sure I see something serious in a passage or two that I shall fetch out of his Diary written when he was about Thirteen years old On March 13. he wrote This day I received of my Father that famous Work The Biblia Polyglotta for which I desire to praise the Name of God Again on June 29 he wrote This day my Brother gave me Schindlers Lexicon a Book for which I had not only longed much but also prayed unto God Blessed be the Lords Name for it The Thoughts of Death also now found a Lodging in his Heart and he Rebuked himself because he had been so much without them Tho' at this Age for the most part Persons think of any thing every thing more than of their dying day And his writings discovered him to be pec●liarly affected with that Ancient History or Apologue of him who after a dissolute and ungodly Youth going to repent in Age heard that Voice from Heaven to him Des illi Furfurem cui dedisti Farinam The Devil had thy Flower and thou shalt not bring thy Bran to me Self-Examination was also become one of his Employments and once particularly in one of his Diaries he does thus express himself April 8. 1683. This Morning I was much cast down with the sense of my Vileness I Examin'd I. What Sins I had that were not Mortified 1. My sin of Pride 2. My sin of Vnthankfulness 3. My not improving the means of Grace as I ought to do II. What Graces I find need of 1. Converting and Regenerating Grace 2. Humiliation for my

it is not too late as yet for you so to do The Lord said in Jer. 3. 1. Though thou hast play'd the Harlot with many Lovers yet return unto me Even so thô thou hast committed many sins thô thou hast been sinning many years yet return unto me saith the Lord. There was in this very Land one that had lived a carnal stupid ignorant Person for about an hundred years and yet became a serious Christian before he dyed Unto the Oldest Enemy of God among us all I this day proclaim the mercy of the Lord O let this break thy heart and cause thee to come and say I will do Iniquity no more But let this also Terrifie you it will be too late for you e're long It is said in Psal 6. 5. In Death there is no Remembrance of thee Thy Death thy Death is just ready to seize upon thee and there is no work no wisdom in the Grave whither thou art going Then thy cry will be like that of Despairing Ones All too late All too late God prevent such a miscarriage of thy never-dying Soul. VSE II. Let us that are in our Youth Now Remember our Creator in it There are a multitude of young Persons to vvhom the Word of God may reach this day Now the Almighty God make this Word of his Quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged Sword within their Souls Hear O Young People Hear that your Souls may live It is reported of Jotham in Judg. 9. 7. He stood in the top of the Mount and he lift up his voice and cryed and said Hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you Thus would I do thus would I speak this day Here I stand in the Name of God that made you all I would lift up my voice and cry and say O Remember your Creator now in the dayes of your youth If you will not hear this Call of God now God will not hear your cry to Him another Day God will be deaf to the Words of thy Roaring in the dayes of thy Age and of thy Death and of thy Wrath if thou art now deaf to the Words of his Counsel The Counsel and it is wholsome Counsel of our God now unto us is Remember me betimes In order thereunto these things are to be done Rule I. Let us Remember that which will help us to Remember God. First Remember thy Death and thou wilt Remember thy God. A Remembrance of Death will produce in a Man a serious and godly frame of Spirit One that was Remarkable for his Devotions gave that Reason of it O I must Dye I must Dye If a Young Man would awfully realize unto himself that thing I must dye it would highly promote an Acquaintance between God and him And young Man it is not too soon for thee to have the Apprehensions of it There was a young Man in this Land that left behind him in Writing Meditations to promote Preparation for Death O that every young man would be no Stranger to such prudent Meditations Let every young Person Remember this I shall dye very certainly As Job could say in Ch. 30. 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to Death So let the young Person say I know that I must e're long look the King of Terrors in the Face and I know that e're long I shall go thither whence I shall not return Often look upon that Scripture in Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed unto all Men once to dye Often look upon that Scripture in Psal 89. 48. What man is he that liveth and shall not see Death And let these warnings make a deep Impression upon thy Mind There was a Prince who gave a Pension unto a Person that he might once a day come and say unto him Remember that thou art a Mortal Man Do that office unto thy self every Day Look upon Death as the way of all the Earth And Remember I must go that Way Look upon Death as the End of all men and Remember I shall have that End. Remember there is no discharge in that War. Let every young Person also Remember this I shall dye very speedily While we are young we strangely promise our selves to live long Do not harbour that mistake but rectifie it by that Premoniton in Jam. 4. 14. What is your life It is even a Vapour that appeareth for a little time and vanisheth away Rectifie it by that Premonition in 1 Chron. 28. 15. Our dayes on the Earth are as a shadow and there is none abiding What are the poor Seventy years that the Life of Man is now contracted into Remember they are winged things they fly away with a marvellous Velocity We are truly told of them in Job 9. 25. that they are swifter than a Post yea more than so swifter than a Ship yea more than that swifter than an Eagle hast'ning to the Prey Besides Remember 't is possible that half of those years may be all that thou shalt ever see it hath been well said That an old Man has Death before his Face but a young Man has Death behind his Back Perhaps Death may strike thee down before him that is old enough to be thy Father Remember that there are Skulls of all sizes in Golgotha Secondly Remember thy Soul and thou wilt Remember thy God Thou hast a never-dying Soul within thee a Spiritual and an Immortal Substance able to discern and argue and affect with a wonderful Apprehension How frequently and fearfully do young Persons forget that they are Owners of such a Jewel Let every young Person Remember this The state of my Soul is miserable Remember the guilt and filth which thy Soul by it's becoming a constituent Essential part in one of Adams Children soon was defil'd withal Remember what a dreadful Anger and Vengeance of God thy Soul by thy sin is expos'd unto Remember that Character of thy Soul in Gen. 6. 5. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart is only evil continually Remember that condition of thy Soul in Eph. 2. 12. Without Christ a stranger from the Convenant of promise having no hope and without God in the World. Remember what thou hast been doing unto thy Soul ever since thy Birth It is said in Prov. 8. 36. He that sinneth wrongeth his own Soul. O Remember what Wrongs what Wounds thy own Soul has had from thy own hand and Remember what an ever-gnawing Worm what an ever-burning Fire is now ready to seize upon that poor Soul of thine Thou art mindful of thy Body of thy Estate of thy Credit and mindful of almost every Creature which thou art concerned in Thy Soul now begs of thee O Remember me Let every young Person likewise Remember this The worth of my Soul is invaluable A Great Man was well advised once every day to remember that Sentence of our Lord in Matt. 16. 26. What is a man profited if he gain the whole World and lose his own soul Thou canst not Remember a