Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	good_a	grace_n	work_n	6,662	5	5.6625	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27168	Claustrum animae, the reformed monastery, or, The love of Jesus a sure and short, pleasant and easie way to Heaven in meditations, directions, and resolutions to love and obey Jesus unto death : in two parts.	Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.	1677 (1677)	Wing B1571; ESTC R23675	94,944	251

necessity and comeliness and then admire the great goodness as well as wisdom of thy creator and say with the Psalmist that thou art fearfully and wonderfully made and that Gods works are very marvellous After this let thy thoughts dive deeper and consider thine interior senses the mysterious union of thy soul and body with the beauty of that Divine Light which we call Reason thy memory thy will thine understanding which are the faculties of thy precious soul which is not only created after Gods image but is capable and desirous to enjoy him and then see how numerous or rather innumerable are the benefits which God hath bestowed upon us in our creation and how just it is that we should love him that we should glorifie God in our Body and in our Spirits which are Gods §. 3. Of Preservation Preservation comes next to be consider'd a benefit of very large extent and well deserving that rank the Church hath plac'd it in in making it the subject of our daily thanksgiving for ever since man chang'd the impenetrable armour of Original Righteousness for a thin covering of fig-leaves he became so defensless and yet expos'd to so many sharp and wounding arrows that should not Divine Protection interpose for to shelter and secure him his temporal Life would be a true and a sad emblem of Eternal Death It appears by the history of Patient Job that if we were not senc'd about with the hedge of a gracious providence we should find that all creatures conspire our vexation and ruine God had no sooner broke the inclosure but afflictions crowded in so fast upon that happy man that in a short time there remained nothing of his former prosperity but a bare and bitter remembrance to make the sense of his present misery more grievous There is no man but is expos'd to all the greatest Calamities that ever befel any of the Sons of Adam and there is none able by his own power to defend himself against the least of them Fortune and accidents sport themselves if I may so speak with our goods and estates Moths fret our garments rust cankers our mettals thieves break through and steal our riches or else they make to themselves wings and fly away besides their own corruptibility which of its self would consume them they are expos'd to so many hazards that it would be as impertinent as 't is impossible to number all the ways and means whereby men are afflicted with losses and brought to poverty only from hence we may justly infer that the same God who gives us all things richly to enjoy must also secure them in our possession or else we certainly lose them If we look on our selves we shall like the Prophets man in Dothan 2 King 6. see armed enemies on all sides of us our spiritual enemies are many strong and full of rage and malice and yet we have no defence against them but that God makes his heavenly host to wait on our safety incamps his Angels about us to be an invisible guard against our invisible enemies and not only so but to secure us also from thousands of sudden and sad accidents which might every moment befal us All creatures are now furnish'd with a sting wherewith they may either vex or kill us The elements and all compounded bodies the air we breath and the food that nourisheth us all things in nature and all things in chance may become our tormentors or murthers Nay we carry swords and daggers in our own bosoms we have within our selves the matter of all sorts of distempers not one joynt in our bodies but may be afflicted with the gout Not one humour but may overflow its banks and quench the light of Reason or the fire of Life Not one pore or part within or without but may unexpectedly at all times and in all places become an entrance to death and sorrow In the midst of so many and great dangers it were impossible for us to stand one moment but that God defends us under his wings and keeps us safe under his feathers Psal 90. as the Psalmist speaks and so the blessings of immunity which most men slight or over-look are never enough to be acknowledg'd but deserve the thanks of a whole life We dwell under the defence of the most high and abide under the shadow of the Almighty therefore let us set our love upon him and glorifie him §. 4. The Positive blessings of this life The Positive blessings of this life are now to be exposed to view but of them I may use the words of the Psalmist Psal 40. If I would reckon and speak of them they are more in number than can be numbred Health and strength and comliness with industry and learning are shar'd among the sons of men in several proportions and so are good friends and a good name peace plenty and pleasures any one of those single might make a rich portion for one man for each within it self contains many rich and precious blessings yet oftentimes God unites all or most of these together to crown us with loving kindness and tender mercies Psal 103. The works of creation and the works of providence are not more numerous then the graces and gifts of God to mankind any one that should seriously meditate upon this subject would find it multiply and increase almost to immensity and would be forc'd to break off with the exclamation of David Lord Psal 8.4 what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou so regardest him God renews his mercies to us every day together with our lives every hour Psal 36. we eat of the fatness of his house drink of the river of his pleasure and receive the sweet emanations that flow continually from the fountain of life But of those benefits which God pours open hands upon us how many are there that pass unregarded we usually mind not what we receive but what we desire Let heaven rain Manna never so thick upon us if we wish for Quails Angels food shall be unsavory and perhaps distastful They that long for great and well covered tables find no relish in their daily bread they that pursue after wealth look not on the blessings of competency they that aspire to honour receive health food and raiments rather with a disdainful anger than with thankfulness all the favours we receive from God are unobserved or slighted as long as he doth not gratifie our humour with what we desire and even these gifts whereof we are most sensible are soon laid in oblivion an hours pain will cause many longer pleasures to be forgotten and if God sends evil upon us only for one day it makes us forget the many good things which we for many years received from him This I say because many mens unsatiableness and ingratitude makes them overlook most of Gods blessings despise what they have and value only what they have not and

and often to consider what God is what he hath done what he doth and what he will do for us if we love him sincerely as also what we are whence we come whither we go and how easie it is for us to be eternally happy if we will set our affections upon God who deserves them so infinitely Doubtless inconsideration is the cause why God is not loved It is not possible men could resist the charms of his love if they would open the eyes of their mind and of their faith to view them But how few are there that do it How fully is the prophesie fulfill'd Mat. 24.12 Iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold To how many Christians might our Blessed Saviour say as once to the Jews I know you Joh. 5.42 that you have not the love of God in you How justly might now S. Paul complain Phil. 2.21 all men seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs And how justly might our Blessed Lord the great lover of men complain in the words of his Apostle I will gladly spend and be spent for you or rather I have gladly spent and been spent for you though the more abundantly I love you 2 Cor. 12.15 the less I be loved Want of love is a very sad general evil among Christians in these worst of times and I hope some will be by me perswaded not carelesly to say that they shall do as well as others but as wise men would in pestilent times carefully to provide Antidotes to prevent or cure the infection But alass how should I perswade others de ingratis etiam ingrati queruntur Physician cure thy self I help to propagate the distemper and therefore am very unfit to prescribe against it Shall the unthankful teach gratitude Shall the Pharisee perswade others when he saith and doth not If it be as one saith qui non ardet non accendit that he that burns not with the Divine Fire of love cannot inflame others with it then I may well cry out with him vae mihi frigenti wo is me unhappy creature who am so far from burning that I am almost quite cold and indeed I know and grieve the defects and imperfections of my love and have writ for my self more than for any others and I heartily wish better hearts and pens would treat of this subject and help that way amongst others to reinkindle that almost extinct fire of charity and devotion in the hearts of men and in mine own who would thankfully use their assistance and heartily pray for a reward to them I have no more to say by way of Preface but that if I have been so unhappy as to write any thing contrary to the Doctrine of the Church I disown and retract it before hand and would blot it out with my blood as for particular persons who may find fault with any thing herein I desire them to pass it by It matters not much if they like not every passage and expression if they do but follow what they judge to be good and approve my design and love Jesus with all their hearts it will be enough for their profit and my satisfaction 1 John 4.9 He that loveth not knows not God for God is Love Claustrum Animae THE Reformed Monastery Or the Love of JESUS §. 1. Of the benefits of God to mankind IT were as easie to find out the bottomless depth of the inexhaustible fountain of the Divine Bounty as to tell the Streams which run from it Gods mercies are over all his works and all things that are made are a demonstration as much of his goodness as of his being I will not therefore undertake to number what is innumerable or to express what we cannot so much as comprehend but only insist briefly upon some of the most general benefits of God to mankind and in the representing of them endeavour to make us read our duty and to inflame our hearts with love §. 2. Of Creation First It is God that hath made us and not we our selves we owe him our very being thine hands have made and fashioned me saith David thine eyes did see my substance being yet imperfect Psal 119.13 and in thy book were all my members written Let us say therefore with the same Prophet 134.16 I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made and let us with him fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker You know that by the Laws of God and of all Nations there is an indispensable obligation upon all children to love and honour their Parents because they brought them into the world now certainly the obligation doubles upon every man in respect to his Father which is in heaven for our natural parents were but second causes under him his own power it was that form'd and created us they ingendred our mortal bodies only he is the Father of Spirits he himself gave being to our immortal souls Therefore let every man pay to his Maker those duties he would expect from his child Mal. 1.6 if I am a Father saith God where is mine honour If from our heavenly Father we have receiv'd our life and being let us pay that respect and love and obedience to him which thereby are become his due But there is yet more in this Creation is not a transient act the same power that once gave us our being doth still exert it self in the continuation thereof When a child is born he subsists by himself his parents need not take any care that he returns not to his pristine condition but we have the same dependance upon God in our preservation as we had in our creation should he withdraw his Almighty hand we should return to our first nothing in him we live and move and have our being Therefore we are the more bound to serve and love him that he not only made us to be but gives us as it were a new being every moment by continuing our life and duration by that Almighty will whereby he effected our first production Now if we consider further not only that God made us but what he made us it will yet inforce those bonds of duty which Creation tied upon us For it was in our Makers power either to make us vile and abject as the vilest of beasts or to deny us those faculties and abilities which are most honourable and most useful to our nature but he made us Men the most wonderful of his creatures in us he joyn'd what heaven and earth had most excellent an immortal Spirit created after his image with the most elaborated the most perfect of material things Take a view of the marvellous organs of thy senses of the curious contrivance of those joints and ligaments which unite thy several members of those various and delicate channels which contain thy blood and spirits in a word of all the parts and passions of thy body which are all made for

so murmur and complain when they should give thanks But whoever shall diligently observe all the gracious distributions of that God who always giveth to all men being debtor to none all the supplies and comforts we receive from him will heartily say with the Psalmist Psal 31.107 O love the Lord all ye his Saints and O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men that they would exalt him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the seat of the elders sect 5. What returns we should make for them Those Benefits we have hitherto mention'd we receive as we are men and that from the free goodness of our gracious God we are his people and the sheep of his pasture we are and we have nothing that is good but it comes from him he made us he preserves us and he provides for us therefore O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and speak good of his name It was Jacob's vow that if God would keep him and give him food and raiment whilst he sojourn'd in Haran then the Lord should be his God Now what was his vow should be our resolution and practice God feeds and clothes and defends us therefore ought he to be our God That is we ought to own him for such by faithful service and hearty obedience Therefore 1. Let us pay our bounteous Benefactor the just and easie tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving for our creation preservation and all the blessings of this life 2. Let us set apart daily some of that time which he gives us for acts of Worship and Religion 3. Let us honour the Lord with our substance either in secret charities or publick offerings paying him an acknowledgement that he is our land-lord and lastly let us apply our selves to observe his Laws to do what pleaseth him because we are not our own we owe our selves to him we are his he gave us our being These are acts of natural Religion and them we owe to God as he is our Creator and Benefactor §. 6. Of Redemption and first of the infinite miseries we are redeemed from Now are to be considered the benefits we receive from God as we are sinners the mercies of our Redemption how God our Creator is become JESUS our Saviour how after having given us many good things he at last gave himself for us And that we may the better understand the greatness of this unspeakable and Divine Mercy let our meditation descend a while into that bottomless gulf of perdition wherein we were plunged by nature in this plain manner Represent to thy self a man in Job's condition having added to his ulcers and poverty all the saddest calamities that ever afflicted any man upon earth especially the remorses and horrors of a guilty and tormented conscience crying out of impatience and despair with Cain my pain is greater than I can bear This unhappy creature having for many years born the uneasie weight of his miseries linger'd out a tedious and disconsolate life is at last struck to the heart with a mortal wound and dies and so passeth from temporal to eternal sorrows he falls into a lake of fire and brimstone a place where there is nothing but woe and darkness weeping and gnashing of teeth where there is no company but of tormented and tormentors nothing to be seen but what is frightful no voices to be heard but curses shrieks and lamentations where there is the absence of all good and the presence of all evil where men desire to die and death flees away from them This is the fulness of his misery that it shall have no end that he must dwell with everlasting burnings their fire is not quenched and their worm dies not If weeping but one tear every day he might expect to be releast after he had wept as much as would make an ocean it would be some comfort but at the end of so many millions of years as would suffice to weep a Sea his torments will be as far from ending as the first day they began and if after this manner in process of time he should shed tears enough to make many more seas yet still it might be truly said this is but the beginning of sorrows still there is an intolerable Eternity to come for after as many thousands of millions of years as tongue can express or heart comprehend Eternity is nothing lessened still it is what is was before an abyss of duration that can have no end this excludes all comfort this fills his soul with a woful despair this is another hell in the midst of hell which inrageth him and perpetually tortures his mind to think that there will be no end of his sufferings that he can conceive no hope of being deliver'd but that he must bear to all Eternity what every moment is intolerable O dreadful Eternity who can seriously think of thee and not tremble Now if thou dost ask for what reason this wretched creature is thus tormented know that it is for sin because his first parents broke the Law of their Creation and he followed their footsteps they involv'd him first in the guilt of a wicked rebellion against God and afterwards by his own acts he made himself yet more criminal by nature he was a child of wrath and then he became so yet more by his own transgressions he was sold under sin and then he became a willing slave to it his own thoughts words and works being evil and that continually he forsook God and dishonor'd him and profest enmity against him and oppos'd his depraved will to Gods Holy Will and so became obnoxious to the infinite justice of God which therefore justly inflicts this deserved punishment upon him And now if knowing the reason thou dost inquire after the person who by being so unholy is become so extremely unhappy I could say with the Prophet thou art the man this is thy patrimony as thou art a child of Adam this thou art by nature but the Divine Mercy hath rescu'd thee from this misery and therefore I must say thou wert the man this must have been thy case had not the Holy JESUS work't thy Redemption by means as wonderful as was his pity and charity But before I proceed I must also propound one question Two men are equally indebted and equally unable to pay the one is patiently forborn and at last freely acquitted the other is cast into the dungeon and a while after compassionately releast and set at liberty I demand is not he that never entred the Prison as much bound to love his generous creditor as he that was deliver'd out of it yes doubtless or rather more because his debt is also forgiven and yet he is freed from that trouble and sorrow which his fellow debtor underwent Why then thy gracious Redeemer by saving thee from