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	sin_n	sinner_n	3,410	5	7.5691	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17142	Dauids strait A sermon preached at Pauls-Crosse, Iuly 8. 1621. By Samuel Buggs Bachelor of Diuinitie, sometime Fellow of Sidney-Sussex Colledge in Cambridge: and now minister of the word of God in Couentrie.	Buggs, Samuel.	1622 (1622)	STC 4022; ESTC S106913	31,160	62

Orbes if the Intelligences faile in their mouing office nor can I wonder at the inordinate actions of this sublunarie world when Gods Intelligencers dare not tell Israel of her sinne Isa 58.1 and Iudah of her transgressions Now if I durst aduenture I could put some into a wonderfull Strait and bring some soules before the iustice of God whom the opinion of the world hath openly quitt Should I say that Simon Magus is turned a great Patron of Benefices amongst vs and that his bosome-seruant Quid dabis were a disposer of Liuings I know not how this Age would take it Should I say that some gallants weare Vicars cloathes or spend the Clergies bookes in yellow ruffes they may perhaps haue pepper in the nose as well as Cloues in their bands Or should I condemne the generall Apostacie of the world from that good estate and plight wherein our Fathers haue knowne it some Stoicall Athenian may iustly as his wisedome thinketh aske what will this babbler say If they or any of them will needes know then this I say and yet not I but others whose shooe latchets I am not worthy to loose that for the particular sinne of Sacriledge all that is so gotten is aurum Tholossanum and that all the bread at such Patrons tables are cheat loaues And for the generall estate of the whole world as one sayd bitterly of Rome probabilius est strui nouam quam emendare antiquam more like to haue a new Rome built then the old to be amended so I say of the world that it is more probable sooner to see it changed in substance then in manners in regard that so farre as I see the world is likely sooner to cease to be then to be wicked and hence is nostri mundi calamitas that men had rather ten times commit one sinne then once heare of ten sinnes Dauid tooke all in good part that Gad spake though it were neuer so harsh and blamed none but himselfe for being brought into this Strait I would that all that heare me this day were herein not almost but altogether such as Dauid then would Herod heare the reproofe of Iohn Baptist gladly then would euery man so heare the word as to amend his life according to the word then would God be honoured his Ministers comforted and the World well amended But if the dease Adder will not heare when wee charme the world with zeale and discretion happily vnited then the Lord commands to cry aloud and spare not to lift vp our voyces like a trumpet Luk. 18.1 and to deale as that oppressed widow moue them with vncessant preaching and to be bolde as Lyons in Gods cause Let Peter tell Simon Magus plainely Act. 8.23 Acts 13.10 that he is in the gall of bitternesse and the bond of iniquitie Let Paul tell Elymas the sorcerer that he is the child of the diuell if he be full of all wickednesse We must learne of Gad not spare to speake though we spare to speed And all godly and conscionable hearers must learne of Dauid to heare with quietnes to beare with patience and to mend with willingnes As Dauid chides not with Gad so he quarrels not with God and though as our Prouerb goes losers must haue leaue to speake yet hee though I suppose his heart waxed hote within him neuer spake with his lips to iustifie himselfe Psal 39. Thus might his Pharifaicall thoughts haue suggested Ah my Lord I haue a long time gone in and out before this thy people O Lord thou knowest that I loue thee and haue with all my heart sticken to thy testimonies I haue had so great a care of my wayes as not to offend in my tongue O thou Lord good and gracious full of mercy and compassion is thy mercy cleane forgotten or shall all the former passage of my life be too little to expiate one small sinne Thou madest proffer of mercy to fiue Cities for ten righteous and wilt thou not spare one man for one sinne Thou that pardonest such a number of sinnes to thy people wilt thou not pardon such a sinne as numbring of the people Thus might Dauid seem to haue pleaded for himselfe Apud Linium Tullus an interpreter of the Law hauing pleaded for the life of Horatius who had murdered his Sister and not preuailing the Father of this Horatius demands of the Romans whether they could lead his sonne to death but his owne demerits and valiant acts would euen giue a dumbe shew to haue his life saued So might humane iudgement had it now beene Aduocate haue pleaded for Dauid but it would not haue preuailed nor haue beene a sufficient baile to haue freed Dauid from this vnsuspected Sinne and vnexpected sorrow Now he that hath an eare to heare a heart to consider and a memory to remember cannot in sense but heare in reason he must vnderstand and vnlesse he will forget himselfe remember this for his instruction Doctr. That the waight of mans merit is not sufficient by many graines to counterpoise the burden of one wilfull sinne if God be extreame to enter into iudgement with the Sonnes of men though they be such as are indeed the Sonnes of God How faire soeuer the preceedent part of their liues haue been both in their publique and priuate callings yet that great King of heauen who can espie one man amongst many without a wedding garment can in his omniscience and may and doth often in his iustice enter into iudgement for the commission of one sinne especially if wilfull as was this of Dauid as we see in the Church of Ephesus Reu. 2.2 though laudable for her workes her labour her patience and perseuerance yet there is a something that God hath against her for which he will remoue the Candlesticke out of his place except she repent Many plankes well pind and calkt make the Ship to float one and but one leake will sincke it One wound may strike Goliah dead as well as three and twenty did Caesar Sam. 17. Sueton. Iudg. 16.18 One Dalilah will doe Sampson as much spight as all the Philistims One wheele broken spoiles all the whole clocke One veines bleeding will let out the vitall spirits as well as more One flie will spoile a whole boxe of ointment 1 Reg. 49. One hearb Colloquintida spoiles all the pottage One Apple lost Adam the pleasant Paradise 1 Sam. 14.27 One licke of honey endangered the life of Ionathan One Achan was a trouble to all Israel Ios 7.25 One Ionah if faulty Ionah 17. is lading too heauy for a whole Shippe And one sinne is enough to procure Gods anger and too much for a man to commit Reason Now that God may not be challenged of any iniustice as though hee would easily picke a quarrell with men Iam. 2.10 heare what S. Iames auerreth That he that failes in one point is guilty of all A stone cast into the midst of the

That the motto of the most afflicted soule may be The mercies of our God are great The rather for these reasons following In the act of punishing God punisheth a little and pardoneth a great deale not suiting his plagues according to our deserts for then wee should be consumed but as a louing and mercifull Creditor when the debtor owes an hundred bids him take his pen and write fiftie or at the most foure score nay indeede not taking so much as fiue in the hundred of his debtors cutting off onely the hemme of our garment or the skirt of our rayment when we owe vnto him our soules as forfeit by reason of our transgression Any sinne committed against our infinite God deserues an infinite punishment If God therefore shall abate eternitie and send vs punishment is not his mercy great If when we deserue many stripes he giues vs but stripes is not his mercy great for man in this kind would haue had the vtmost farthing In the end of punishing farre is it from God to ayme at the destruction of his people nay hee aymes at their instruction that they might learne to keepe his Statutes and Commandements And whereas an enemie would funditus delere nocentem that his name Esa 55.8 nor the name of Israel might be had no more in remembrance Gods wayes are not as mens wayes God indeede sometimes destroyes the body that he may saue the soule he punisheth his children with the world that they may not be condemned with the world Others take vengeance out of hatred God out of his loue Castigans non quod odio habeat sed quod amet The originall of this action being so farre different must of necessitie suppose a contrary end A great Armada preuailing kills vp all A Powder-treason vndiscouered blowes vp all Ab vno intenditur ruina ab altero doctrina God meanes good man meanes mischiefe In the manner of punishing Gods mercies are great Albeit the iustice of God be mooued and his patience prouoked and though with men Laesa patientia vertitur in furorem Patience prouoked turnes to furie and yet not furor breuis a short furie but an irreconcileable hatred Yet God though offended will not alwaies be chiding Psal 103.9 neither keepeth he his anger for euer yea although he whet his sword and bend his bow and make ready his arrowes yet a poore soule may haue a present appeale a Deo irato ad Deum placatum being so appeasable and facile vnto such as shall vpon the bended knees of their soules sue out grace and pardon by renouncing of their sinnes and relying vpon his great mercies Nay the Lord himselfe of himselfe in this present plague without any intreaty to the comfort of penitent sinners I speake it did commaund the destroying Angell to hold his hand as grieuing to see the misery of his people and that so soon that Dauid had not time to offer any sacrifice propitiatorie but at the ceasing of the plague a free-will offering gratulatory for the remouall of so heauy a iudgement In this very punishment the Lord is more then iustifiable in all his wayes and holy in all his works and had he now decreed that whatsoeuer was left of the famine the sword should destroy and whatsoeuer was left of the sword the pestilence should destroy and so haue sent althose three furies of hell at once to haue assailed Israel what cursed Atheist durst haue said or thought but the Lord is iuste but now hehold him also mercifull he opens but one Seale sends but one punishment Nor is that positiuely set downe or cald out by name to enter combat with Israel but left arbitrary to Dauid Chuse one It is much if beggers may be chusers more if sinners Traian intending the death of Seneca bade him make choyce of the manner of his death Traian was cruell in his decree though kind in such a proffer God not cruell but mercifull vnto all his workes makes Dauid heere pronounce the sentence of iudgement Chuse one Is not heere great mercy Now Seneca in his wisedome chose the easiest to bleed to death in a bath and Dauid now hauing considered the mercies of God great of themselues but yet greater if compared with the mercies of men chuseth to fall into the hands of God who is iust and mercifull in the act of punishment gracious and mercifull in the end of punishment patient and merciful in his manner of punishment and lastly exceeding mercifull in this very punishment As the great mercies of God may iustly prouoke our admiration so Dauids wise choyce may be iustified as Christ did that of Mary he chose the better part Luk. 10.42 to fall into Gods hands whose mercies are great Can we now but wonder at Dauids choyce when all things considered ipsa iustitia Dei sit misericordia Foolish and vnfortunate was the ingresse into this sinne but most prudent and happy the euasion out of it Obiect But how was it so happy seeing the Apostle to affright from Sinne determines and defines It is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the liuing God Heb. 10.31 After that I haue serued necessity in the reconciling these two places I must obey the time Thus then briefely Resp 1 Two things must here be considered First of what maner of sinne and sinners the Apostle speaketh Willet vbi supra namely of those that tread vnder foote the Sonne of God that count the bloud of the Couenant wherewith he was sanctified an vnholy thing and haue despited the spirit of grace as appeareth verse 29. But Dauids case and theirs are not alike his was a Sinne but of a child of God it was a Sinne but of infirmity Theirs are Sinnes but Sinnes of reprobates theirs are Sinnes but of that nature that the first is intolerable the second is like vnto it abhominable and the third as Christ the truth it selfe hath pronounced impardonable either in this world or in the world to come That is sauing Bellarmines patience they shall not haue any sense or feeling of pardon in this world Explic. locus Mat. 12.32 or benefite of remission of sinnes in the world to come or as our Church in shorter termes neuer Here then is the case It is one case to appeare before a temporal Iudge as a malefactor in wrong or violence to my neighbour which may be answered and auoyded by some legall meanes or if not the punishment may extend to losse of goods or good name and not touch life It is another case when a man shall appeare as guilty of that roaring sin of Treason against his Soueraigne a monstrous sinne worthy ten thousand deaths if a malefactor had so many liues what a wofull and fearefull case is this So it is one thing to sinne and another thing to sinne with so high an hand and herein it is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the liuing God The Apostle speakes not of