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	lord_n	see_v	6,623	5	3.5167	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19297	The worldlings aduenture discouering the fearefull estate of all earthwormes, and men of this world, in hazarding their pretious soules for the enioying of worldly happines / deliuered in two sermons before the worthy visitors of the right worshipfull Company of the Grocers, at the visitation of their free grammar schoole at Oundell in North-Hamptonshire, by Thomas Cooper, Batchelour in Diuinity, imployed in that businesse.	Cooper, Thomas, fl. 1626.	1619 (1619)	STC 5710; ESTC S3391	41,588	88

The Worldlings Aduenture DISCOVERING The fearefull estate of all Earth-wormes and men of this World In hazarding their pretious soules for the enioying of worldly happines Deliuered in two Sermons Before the Worthy Visitors of the Right Worshipfull Company of the GROCERS At the Visitation of their Free Grammar Schoole at OVNDELL in North-Hamptonshire By Thomas Cooper Batchelour in Diuinity Imployed in that Businesse LONDON Printed by N. O. for Richard Redmer and are to be sold at his Shop at the West end of S. Paules Church 1619. To the right Worshipfull the Wardens and Assistants and the rest of the Brethren of the Honourable Corporation of Grocers worthy Patrons of Religion and Learning and my very good Benefactors Grace mercie and peace from God the Father through our Lord Iesus Christ be multiplyed RIght Worshipfull and deerely beloued in our best beloued Christ Iesus Vouchsafe I pray you the reuiew of these Meditations which as they were conceiued especially for your sakes so they are of all other most necessarie for the well ordering and comfort of those Callings wherein God hath placed you For seeing man consists of a reasonable soule and body both which must be so prouided for in their order and measure as may tend to the well being of either in this life and to the eternal happines of both in the life to come What so necessarie as that one thing which indeed is onely necessarie euen by the iudgement of him that must saue or condemne the same namely the welfare safetie of the precions soule And yet seeing that God hath placed vs on the earth and that wisely in seuerall Callings and conditions that so by our holy managing thereof we may lay vp a good foundation against the life to come How necessarie is that knowledge which may enforme vs rightly herein most vsefull and so acceptable that skill must needes bee whereby we shall be so enabled to commerce with worldly things as not thereby to hazard our eternall happinesse Yea so much the more is the direction necessary because as it is a Mysterie concealed from Nature which knows not the things of God neither indeede can know them because they are spiritually discerned when as its chiefest wisedome is enemy against God and it owne happinesse as appeareth by the ordinary ship-wrake of the most through the ignorance thereof So it is the speciall gift of God to reueale the same vnto vs as without which it is not possible to secure our future estate in passing through such manifolde and slipperie occasions of our present Callings And surely if wee consider that Axiome of Sacred truth that we cannot serue God Mammon and compare therewith that damnable conclusion of the world as subscribing to the trueth of God out of the conscience of it owne vtter inabilitie and sottish dotage on it owne shadowes that conscionable Seruice of God is an hinderance to worldly thrift impossible to get riches and keepe a good conscience as implying a contradiction in those things which by right vse are subordinate to each other Is it not then more then necessarie to know such a way whereby wee may so thriue in the world as that withall wee may thriue to heauen that we may find out and practise an holy subiection to the worde of God and so discerne that to be possible with God which is impossible to men Oh how true is it which our blessed Sauiour speakes in this case that it is impossible for a rich man to enter into heauen meaning such a rich man as wanting this heauenly wisdome to vse the world aright sets his confidence in riches and rests on such slipperie foundations forsaking the God of his strength and rock of his saluation And it is also most true for our eternall comfort that though these things are snares to the wicked to entāgle and drowne them in euerlasting perdition yet we may take such a curse in the gayning and vse of these dangerous Wares that if we first seeke the Kingdome of heauen and the righteousnesse thereof these shall be cast vpon vs without any great care or labour if we make purchase of the great gaine which is Godlines we shall finde it profitable as well for this life both to order our worldly affaires and also to prosper them vnto vs as for the life which is to come And therefore as it is a brand of prophanenesse to renounce our birth-right in heauen for a Messe of pottage or any earthly happinesse whatsoeuer as if these could not well sort together so on the other side it is a marke of vnbeliefe to distrust God for the well being of our bodies seeing we haue trusted him for the happinesse of our soules Here then is wisedome to bring both ends together so to learne worldly thrift as that withall we may thriue to heauen This wisedome is best attained by Experience Experience which is the Mistresse of Fooles is then most comfortably gained when we can be warned by others harmes This is my purpose in the ensuing Treatise Wherein I endeauour to set before the eies of your minds as in a cleare and true Mirrour the fearefull estate of Worldlings aduenturing and working out their owne damnation by their vnsatiable and deceitfull hunting after worldly profit Here you may take notice of an ordinary Bargaine betweene the god of this world earthly minds as willingly exchanging their eternal soules for the enioying of the pleasures and profits of sinne for a season Here you may see that our destruction is of our selues in that our corrupt and greedy desires do entice Satan to chaffer with vs and to preuaile for this Bargaine Here you haue the policies of Satan liuely discouered whereby he drawes vs on to the Bargaine and holdeth vs to the same that so we may preuent his subtill snares and delusions Lastly you haue here the censure of the Bargaine euen by our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe who onely can truely iudge of it and shall most righteously iudge for the same that you may wisely looke before hand into the yssue thereof and so fore-warned not to enter into any such couenant This is the summe of these Meditations which I doe most zealously commend vnto your best considerations as those that by your Callings may make good vse therof Which that you may vnfeignedly doe I further promise what here you haue not That my requests shall be dayly manifest at the Throane of Grace for your Worshipfull Societie Yea whatsoeuer I am or may be shall be deuoted to the good of your Companie that the Lord would mercifully make vp the Breach among you or sanctifie it more graciously to your more sure vniting to his Maiestie that hauing experience of the ficklenesse and contentious spirits of men you may be carefull to builde your foundation vpon the Rocke which may endure all counter-blasts Labouring your peace with God by the attonement of his glorious Sonne blessed for euer That so seeking first

therefore when thou hast most thou cariest thy clogge with thee if thou watchest not warily they will proue snares to entangle thee They are onely good to these that are sanctified and therefore labour first for the meate that shall endure for euer and be carefull to sanctifie them dayly vnto thee by the word praier 1 Tim. 4. 5. that so the blessing of thy God may make them vsefull vnto thee And seeing at the best they are but burdens vnto thee and thou but a steward of them ease thy selfe wisely of this but then by a bountifull communicating vnto others especially to the household of faith prepare thy soule to a dayly reckoning either by some change in this life or the day of refreshing when thou must giue vp a finall account Thus shalt thou so enioy these things as not onely to preuent the snares of Satan but to lay vp a good foundation thereby against the day of Christ. 1. Tim 6. 19. If the Lord hath yet kept thee short of that portion which he hath giuen wisely to others That thou maiest herein also be maister of thy desires learne first To submit thy will to the will of the Lord who may do with his owne what he will Is thine eye euill because his is good Consider that the least thou hast is more then thou deserue●●nd say with holy Iacob Oh Lord I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies and this shall prouoke to thankefulnes for what thou hast and teach thee to waite vpon thy God in the blessing thereof Remember that thou broughtest nothing into the world and shalt leaue all with the world and therefore hauing food and raiment therewith be thou content 1 Tim. 6. 7. 8. Consider the wisedome and goodnes of thy God that now thou maiest go lighter to heauen and hast a lesse account to make in the great day and therein blesse God for thy little because a small thing that the righteous hath is better then great riches of the vngodly Psa. 37. 9. And if yet thy desires may be enlarged for more yet bound them still with subiection to thy God set not the stock vpon it as if either thou must haue so much or else thou canst not waite on thy God in perswasiō of his loue but desire with condition as it shall turne to thy good and so what is best shal be suplied vnto thee either thou shalt haue more or that which thou hast shall giue contentment And heere it shall much auaile to order thy desires if in steed of enlarging the same thou rather restrainest them as well to be abased and emptied of what thou hast as to abound in seeking more oh how shalt thou thus maister thy greedy desires how maiest thou prepare thy selfe to euerlasting fulnes Lastly let thy rest be still vpon the prouidence of thy God who feedeth the rauens and clotheth the lillies though they neither spinne nor labour therefore And shal not he much more increase thy oile in the cruse the meale in the barrell if thou canst be faithfull a little shalt thou not see greater things thē these Thus maiest thou captiuate thy carnall affections especially if with thy small measure of outward things thou shalt compare thy portion of grace which if it be lesse thou hast more neede to raise thy affections higher if it bee more why art thou troubled for this outward want This grace shal be sufficient and so Sathan shal be excluded But alas he will not be shut out so his triumphs are too apparent his delusions too forcible how many are content for these things to trade with him to the losse of their soules how ordinarily do men transgresse for morsels of bread how willingly is the soule made a prey for the gaining of earthly things Behold the bargaine and tremble at it blesse thy God that thou hast not beene ouerraught and lamēt the misery of thy bretheren that are daily thus deceiued How commonly do men prostitute their soules for the loue of the world Shall wee discouer the delusions which preuaile hereunto They liue by Sense and not by Faith and see no better and cannot see a farre off 1. Peter 1. 9. and therefore no maruaile if they dote vpon the present and so not long able to liue by faith in the speciall prouidence of God and hope of better things no maruaile if they make a contradiction betweene these things which are indeede onely subordinate concluding that they must liue and therefore they must deceiue breake Saboth what not As if conscience to God and care of this life were contradictions we could not thriue and liue in the world and thriue to heauen also whereas indeede if we could trust God waite vpon him we might finde that godlines hath the promise of this life as well as of that which is to come Indeed if we could trust in God waite vpon him in well doing we should verily be saued we shold want nothing that is good As worldlings want faith so they want patience and therefore seeing they cannot tary the Lords leasure for the blessing of their labours therefore they will take what is at hand whatsoeuer it cost them what is this birth-right vnto them seeing they dye for hunger tell me not of my soule I must not sterue and be discredited I must be receiued when I am put out of my stewardship and therefore I see no way but to deceiue and so to prouide for my selfe Thus want of patience breeds resolued wickednesse and this exposeth the soule as a prey vnto Satan Adde we hereunto that fearefull condition whereunto worldlings are subiect that whereas they account their conscience as their greatest enemy and their credit and estimation as their chiefe friend nay as the onely Idoll whom they worship therefore seeing their thriuing in the world is that which may both maintain their credit on the one side and also either lull the conscience asleep or flatter it on the other side if prosper in the world either they haue no sence of dāger or els all is well because they prosper Ephraim saith I am rich encreased in substance and therefore they shall find no iniquity in me that were wickednes either I am senceles of euill because my heart is fatted vp with prosperty or if I am priuie of my selfe of any yet God is at peace with me I haue more then my heart can desire Is it any maruaile if now hands be strucken the bargain is made vp either I haue no leasure to thinke on my soule because the world comes so fast vpon me or my soule is safe enough seeing I haue my desire or which is common with worldlings to wish in this case so I may enioy this happines let them take heauen who list I haue my portion already and therfore I looke for no other The iustice

hoorded vp bee a witnesse against them and consume them with fire so shall the cry of the poore whom they haue oppressed in scraping and defrauded in detaining from them pull downe vengeance vpon their heads and hasten their owne comfort in their iust confusion Doe they not in distrust of Gods prouidence vsually make Idols of these things and so are giuen vp to make Idols of themselues hauing mouthes and yet dare not taste hauing bellies and yet pine themselues As they vse their goods as Babies onely to gaze and play withall so they make babies and sots of themselues fit onely to be gazed at and scorned of the world Loe this is the man that boasted of his riches and put his confidence in the multitude of his treasures Thus they which haue oppressed others in gathering goods are iustly left to oppresse and defraude themselues of the lawfull vse of them feeding themselues chiefly with the winde of credite and vaine estimation and so they iustly reape the whirle-winde of Gods righteous vengeance And thus are many caried with this extreame others that thinke to hit it by taking their portion yet doe they not as fooles fall into the other extreame by prodigalitie and excesse Witnesse their fat paunches and leane soules their whorish attire and barren possessions where a paire of slippers shall deuoure a whole Lordship and a cast at dice cast the Master out of all hee hath when the Harlot shall bring another to a morsell of bread when the contentious spirite of some shall make them foote-stooles to set the Lawyer aloft and the idle braine of many shall make my gentleman a Begger when the Broker shall fleece him and the Vsurer flea my yong Master for his filthinesse and gaudery who will not say that this wealth was disposed for the owners destruction that plenty hath brought forth vanitie and the daughter hath deuoured the mother Thus by the gathering and abusing of these earthly things it is more manifest that Worldlings engage their soules for them and so following and honouring Satan herein doe bewray themselues to be his to whom they doe homage Oh that we were wise to try our selues hereby Is it not now a ruled Case among Worldlings that there is no hell but to be in debt that it is madnesse to thinke that there is any such couenant with Satan Haue not the worldly wise condemned the whole doctrine and practize of Witch-craft which is by compact with Satan because they would be sure of their couenants with him and is not the ground thereof that roote of Atheisme that they account of no God but Mammon no heauen but worldly happinesse Tell a Worldling that he is ruled by the god of this World that his loue of money argues him to bee his slaue and he will boldly reply That he defies the diuel he hopes to blesse himselfe frō him as well as the best And yet his way vtters his folly and desperate estate he hath made the wedge of gold his hope and therefore his hope and foundation is built vpon the sandes his wisedome is worldly and therefore sensuall and so consequētly diuellish Deceiue not therfore thy selfe in the feare of God thou mayest be receiued into an outward couenant with God yet make a secret compact with Satan for the vn doing of thy soule Oh how many Demi-asses may bee found among vs that howsoeuer they haue giuen their names vnto Christ yet they haue giuen their hearts to the diuell and all by embracing this present world Shall we for our better informing take a view of some of them Doth Cain build Cities seeke to nestle himselfe surely on the earth to auoid the storme of heauen This plainely doth auouch his reiection from God If Balaam for promotion will bring God to his wicked bent doth he not loue the wages of iniquitie and expose his soule to the rage of Sathan If Saul to cloake his sinne will be hindered of the people shall he not be reiected of God and hasten his own confusion Doth Iudas sell his Maister for the wages of vnrighteousnesse and doth he not set his soule to sale to the deuill As by these and the like examples of Diotrephes Hymenius Alexander c wee may take some scantling of our estates whether wee haue made this bargaine or no so yet to make a more particular search hereof let vs examine our hearts by these Rules Do we first seeke the world and not the Kingdom of heauen Will wee make sure of thriuing first before wee labour for knowledge and the feare of God And if it come to the iumpe that either we must straine our conscience or lose our profit because we cannot bee contented with a meane wee cannot waite vpon the blessing of God in the way hee hath commanded wee will venture a ioynt whatsoeuer come of it Is the Sabboth no barre to hinder our vnsatiable desires but either we wish it were gone that wee may returne to our vomit or we cannot stay so long but euen on the Lords day we will serue our lusts in buying and selling in tossing and tumbling vp and downe making that day of rest restlesse by our worldly thoughts and carnall pursuites by our prophane pleasures and pretended liberty Haue we begun in the spirit and haue quickly enough thereof and so we can easily limite our selues in heauenly things we haue knowledge enough nay we may be too zealous too holy more precise then wise too much learning may make vs madde or fooles to leaue a bird in hand for that in the bush that so we may enlarge our desires with hell and stil cry with the daughters of the horseleech Giue giue And haue we no leasure for religion our thrift comes in so fast al time is too little either to husband wel that we haue or to better our estate Lastly for the better iustifying of our selus in our temporising and hypocrisie do we now labour to stint others to our measure both by traducing such as are before vs in grace as vnreasonable and madde fellowes that know no compasse as by alluring them with our glorious shewes to curse where they will blesse to call light darknes and darknes light Surely these are more then probable coniectures that our soules are engaged to the world that our heauen is on earth and our happines in hell In a word where credit is the guide and bridle of conscience and profit the touchstone and square of religion where conscience is the Broker to colour deceite and religion the factor and handmaide for profit where ciuill honestie goes currant for substantiall righteousnes and bodily seruice is a sufficient couering for secret wickednes where the fruite of the body must satisfie for the sinne of the soule and the mercy of God must be the cloake to cruelty against our selues and others will the Lord be mercifull to presumptuous sinners can there be hope of mercy without the bonds

thereof seeing there is mercy onely with him that he may be feared And is there any feare of God where prophanesse is iustified that by abusing and peruerting the straight waies of God and can these be but abused where credit is made the head and conscience the tayle can the conscience be free where profit limits religion and ciuility is the iudge thereof and can wee admit of any Iudge then ciuill honestie must we not make the best of what we haue seeing wee will haue no better This serues the turne for the present and what neede we any more And is not now bodily seruice made an Idoll and will worship set in the seate of the scorners We despise all others that make conscience of their waies they are but a base and beggerly multitude that know not the law if they cannot liue by their religion they haue a bad master And therefore welfare worldly wisdome that hath two strings to it bow if God will not helpe yet wel fare Mammon to helpe at a pinch And seeing Mammon serues our present turne what more profit shall we haue in the seruice of God nay may not our precisenesse hinder our profit And therefore religion must be cast off as an enemy to our owne profit or else submitted to the compasse thereof Behold the power of delusion preuailing with worldlings and let vs wisely trie our selues hereby To conclude this point seeing this bargaine is a mysterie rather performed in deedes then in words not without it glorious pretences to ensnare vs more easily accompanied with dangerous sophistrie whereby we hope to come out thereof learne we then in the feare of God first what these vizers and pretences are and how we may disclaime them The vizers vnder which this fearefull bargaine is concealed are first that the blessing of God maketh rich to thriue and encrease in the world is the gift of God and recompence of our labours and therefore who would not labour for aboundance seeing the Lord giues time thereto what neede we feare danger in that which is a blessing Which though it bee true to those that be sanctified yet neither any childe of God must looke for this blessing because it seemeth good to our God to giue some more that they may be stewards for others so also to giue some lesse that there may be a maintenance of the holy fellowship by this mutuall communication of each others gifts And so this diuersitie of outward gifts that the rich may ease the poore of their burthen of want by communicating of their store vnto them and the poore may also ease the rich of their burthen of riches and further their reckoning against the day of the Lord by their thankfulnes and prayers thus the rich and the poore meete together the Lord is the maker of them both And the Lord may haue the onely glory of his wise prouidence though in giuing to each as pleaseth him yea in satisfying each in this different measure here with thankfulnes and contentment And so either of them may be prouoked to hunger after durable riches the rich in that they are but tennants at will and stewards for others and therefore must giue vp their account and the poor also hereby prouoked to hunger after heauenly treasures in that they are wisely stinted dieted of the present And therefore as neither the Saints must reckon of these blessings so neither must they measure the worth of their labours hereby as if they did not serue God aright if they were not recompenced with aboundance because as our seruice of God deserueth not the least so to serue God for these things is to serue our selues aboue him and so though we haue our reward heere yet we may misse of it in a better life And therefore that Iob may not be iustly challenged to serue God for these things they shal be taken from him that his secret corruption may be purged out sincerity approued And on the contrary many an hypocrite and earthworme shal haue his portion in this life be glutted in these things more then his heart can desire that so he may be iustly deceiued in what he desires to be flattered namely an opinion of goodnes and may also deceiue others hereby that measure righteousnes by outward prosperitie yet most fearefully also deceiue himselfe not onely in finding no contentment in this his supposed happines but on the contrary being giuen vp by one delusion to another That as he accounts it a seale of his vprightnes to be crowned with aboundance so he shal esteeme this his happines either on the one side to abuse these things by putting them to no vse but vsury and so defrauding himselfe and others of the comfort of them or else on the other side imagining this his happines to crowne his head with roses fare deliciously euery day he shall be giuen vp to the abuse of these things by riot and excesse not onely to the iust shame and confusion of all his ciuill honestie and conceited goodnes but to the iust ouerthrow of his conceited happines in them as by his ryot and superfluity bringing himselfe ofttimes to a morsell of bread and yet cannot haue so much as the huskes which the Swine fed on to satisfie his necessitie and so hereby plunging himselfe into fearefull shifts and wofull despaire Behold here the power of his delusion And conclude we iustly hence that the aboundance of outward things as they are but common blessings so they are often giuen to the wicked as curses to hasten their destruction And they are often denyed to the godly in mercy to try their sincerity their faith and patience and also to prouoke their appetite to more heauenly treasures So that it is not the hauing of aboundance but the right vse thereof which is the blessing of God 1. Tim. 6. 18 19. whereby wee shall lay vp a good Foundation against the life to come And therefore it is but a delusion to imagine that the more we haue the more we are blessed as being the colour whereby Satan drawes vs on to this Bargaine laying hereupon this false ground in our hearts that wee must abound in these things or else we cannot be blessed And so vpon this sandy foundation raysing vp this Towre of Babell by diuers stones As first to take vp our hearts especially to the compassing hereof and so to preuent them of the true riches Next to plunge vs into any base and carnal courses for the enioying of the same and so harden the conscience in sinne And lastly to exclude repentance euer by the enioying hereof as if this were our happinesse to be secure of our Estates and why may we not be secure seeing we sit as a Queene and shall see no euill we say in our prosperitie we shall neuer bee remooued we haue feathered our neasts on high and our habitations shall