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
A73391	Five sermons, preached upon several texts by that learned and worthy divine, Thomas Wetherel, B.D. sometimes fellow of Gonevile and Caius Colledge in Cambridge, and parson of Newton in Suffolke.	Wetherel, Thomas, 1586-1630.	1635 (1635)	STC 25292.3; ESTC S125573	76,283	292

fence in a great deale of good which else would be scattered and brought to nothing supplicia sunt bonorum defensoria Gen. 31. 29 In these three regards it is that God howsoever mercy pleaseth him is yet compelled to be severe and to make those who will not know how loving hee is to know how just he is that although he be all good secundum naturam in his nature yet is he also a punisher secundum causam upon occasion of mans rebellion Take this in Cap. 10. Tertullians words who handleth it heavenly in his second booke against Marcion Prior bonitas Dei severitas posterior illa ingenita haec accidens illa propria haec accommodata illa edita haec adhibitae But why goe I about to speak so much for Gods punishments I hope Marcion's spirit liveth in no man now to thinke God cannot bee both good and a Iudge and yet I know there are many who thinke the mercy of God swalloweth up his Justice Hence springs that erroneous conceit which they say once possessed Origen that after some time of punishment all men shall be saved Hence that opinion also that all crosses in this life are to no sorts of men punishments but onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admonitions to reclaime them Hence also that conceit of many that though they live wickedly I and evils befall them yet they are in the favour of God But what hath formerly beene said sheweth the contrary To leave them therefore and to conclude this point Gods revenging hand which we have heard to be agreeable to his goodnesse and see here in the Text sore upon Iehu's house may let us see how odious sinne is which compelleth the mercifull God to be an avenger hee who is goodnesse it selfe to prepare evill judgements for evill offences and therefore to get out of the borders of sinne if wee will escape feareful vengeance Say not thou saith Saint Augustine In Ps 101. Semper parcit Deus ecce feci heri et pepercit Deus facio et hodie et parcit Deus faciam et cras quia parcit Deus attendis ad misericordiā non times Iudicium We are all too forward to lay hold of Gods mercy good it is sometime to remember his Iustice not to say I have sinned yesterday and God hath spared mee I finne to day and God spareth mee therefore I will sinne to morrow for hee will spare mee no the Wise-man saith truly Eccles 5. 6. Both mercy and wrath come from him and his indignation descendeth upon sinners God avengeth and he avengeth none but the sinner it is for murther that he punisheth Iehu in the Text which is a species of sinne and the third thing now to be considered The blood that is the murther Murther is expressed by this word of blood because blood is as the Philosopher Aq 1. 2 q 102. a. 3. 8. speaketh Maxime necessarius ad vitam ratione cuius anima dicitur esse in sanguine so necessary to life that the soule is said to be in it so that the shedding of the blood is the letting out of the soule the murthering of a man This blood of man cruelly drawne out of his veynes God alwaies detested and thereby declareth that great difference betweene him and the gods of the heathen they must have sacrificiorum immanitates as Mat. Co. p. 65. one calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 horrible sacrifices no savour so sweet in their nostrill as that of mans blood melancholly Saturne was adored saith Plutarch with this more than wicked superstition the Carthaginians offered to Plut lib. de superstit him their children and while they were most cruelly massacred at the bloody altar all rang againe with Drums and Pipes that the cryes of the poore slaughterd infants might not be heard But the God of heaven loatheth hands imbrued with blood and therefore neither requireth the sacrifice of humane blood himselfe nor will have his delight in blood 1. He requireth none such himselfe nay he forbiddeth the Israelites to imitate this devellish custome of the heathen Deut. 12. 31. Once indeed hee commanded Abraham to offer up his sonne Isaac for an whole burnt sacrifice but it was onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to try his obedience and while Abraham was about the businesse God sent a countermand Ne extendas manum super puerum for a world let not me cause thee to butcher thy sonne Iephthai is the onely man whom some Divines conceive to have sacrificed his daughter according to his vow but that fact of his if hee did it hath no approbation from God the Scripture leaveth it uncensured and Saint Augustine C●p. 49. though in his questions upon the Iudges he goe about to excuse him what he may yet in his questions upon the old Testament if they at least be his he is bold to call Iephthat's devotion foolish his faith foolish and himselfe facinorosum et improvidum C●p 43. a Iewd and rash man in that enterprize finally so farre doth this kinde of bloody oblation displease God that when the Israelits had so strictly besieged the Moabites that the King thereof to pacifie his gods offered his eldest sonne for an whole burnt offering the Text saith Fervor erat magnus contra Israelitas Gods indignation grew hot against Israel 2 King 3. 27. 2. God will not have his people given to blood-sucking this mind of his he hath declared divers wayes 1. By his command Thou shalt not kill we see in the decalogue that next after his owne worship and the duty to be done to parents whom he hath given unto us as gods in his stead in the first place he giveth this precept against blood as being most dishonourable unto him in defacing his Image wherein hee made man Gen. 9. 8. and most injurious to man whose greatest good is thereby destroyed 2. By renewing this Commandement visibly in the beasts which were daily slaine for sacrifice for whereas some part of them was allotted to the Priests use some part to the use of the people God expressely commanded that neither Priest nor people should have share in the blood but it should bee sprinckled upon the ground as water Ad informationem humanae Aq 1. 2. q. 102. a. 3. 8. vitae ut horrerent humani sanguinis effusionem saith Aquinas to teach man to abstaine from shedding the blood of man 3. In making the Law of blood for blood whereby the murtherer was to be punished with death Who so sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed Gen. 9. 6. All that take the sword shall perish by the sword Matth. 26. 52. 4. By taking the revenge of murtherers into his owne hands when as either they were concealed from the Magistrate or were so great that they had no superiours to execute Law upon them This he doth two waies 1. By strangely revealing murthers done never so closely 2. By sharply punishing the murtherer 1. By

It is directly expressed by the Prophet Amos chap. 4. 12. Thus will I doe unto thee O Israel and because I will doe thus unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel The comminations of God in Scripture doe not shut up the way to repentance but rather open it inviting the sinner to send up his humility his penitence his prayers to stand in the gappe and to keepe off the wrath of God that it come not foorth to consume him If I speake saith God against a Nation to plucke it up and destroy it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill way I will repent of the evill which I thought to do unto them Ier. 18. 7. A manifest example wherof we have in that threatning denounced against Ninivie a threatning than which in Scripture none more absolute none more peremptory yet forty dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed yet was this sentence reversed by God upon the Ninivits conversion though hereby men might conceive of him that he was as a man to repent and of Ionas his messenger that he was a false prophet And I doubt not but I may safely say If the house of Iehu had by the message of Hosea learned to walke in the wayes of God this revenge here denounced might have beene removed or at leastwise deferred till succeeding generations Let men who find the curses due by the Law dogging them for their transgressions not hereupon grow desperate as if there were no way of evasion but they must dye for it Daniels counsel was otherwise to Nebuchadnezzar even after the decree of the Watch-man and the word of the holy One O King breake off thy sinnes by righteousnesse if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity Dan 4. 27. Prolata est sententia ut non fiat saith Chrysostome upon these words God threatneth Iudgment that he may not execute it telleth men of evils to come not onely that they may know but especially that they may avoyd them For the second these predictions assure the impenitent of vengeance they are the earnest of that price which shall hereafter be paid them to the utmost farthing for shall God speake the word and shal it not be done hath he said and shall he not make it good assuredly his word shall stand and his threatning not returne to him in vaine every jot and tittle thereof shall be fulfilled in his season He foretold of a flood to come upon the old world the world remained impenitent the flood came and swept them all away Hee foretold plagues to light upon Egypt Egypt remained impenitent and the plagues with multiplication layd hold upon them In a word hee foretold to Iehu's house the departing of their glory Jehu's house remayned impenitent and in a smal while their glory departed from them This point the Apostle Paul hath laid down in plaine terms Rom. 9. 6. It is impossible the word of God should fall and yet many stumble at this stone calling into question both the justice and truth of God when as contrary to the propheticall threats impenitent sinners enjoy earthly good things the Law having denounced many temporall judgements against them all which notwithstanding they live many times in great delight and prosperity as if they were the sonnes of blessing and had nothing to doe with cursing To cleare therefore this point in a word or two I affirme that not to exccute vengeance threatned against impenitent sinners is neither against the Iustice nor the Truth of God 1. Not against his Iustice for the rule whereby God squareth his Iustice is not alwayes retributio pro meritis that hee doe to the sinner according to his desert but sometime condecentia bonitatis suae that he doe to the sinner what becommeth his owne goodnesse as Aquinas Prima q. 2. primo 3. speaketh though evill men in themselves deserve most righteously all the punishments denounced in the Law yet the goodnesse of God requireth that hee empty not the treasure of his wrath upon every occasion but sometime spare when he might strike whether therefore he striketh he is just or whether he holdeth his hands he is still just Cum punis malos iustus es quia illorum meritis eonvenit cum parcis iustus quiae bonitatituae condicit said Anselmus Ansel ci● Aq. loco pred cto truly In the former just because mans sinnes deserve it in the latter just because it is consonant to his owne goodnesse 2. Not against his Truth If the sinner goe unpunished in Zanch in 2. praecep p. 374. one sort or other even of temporall punishments then say God is untrue but never think a thought against his truth because the sinner is not punished in this kind or that for howsoever God hath annexed these and these judgements to the violation of his Precepts to the intent that the wicked may know what is their due guerdon and what they may expect De n●t Dei l. 4. 6. 5. q 2. from him yet is he I●dex liber not Iuratus as Zanchy saith well Hee is not bound at all times to inflict them or upon all sinners but in his wise dispensation so to order them as may make most for the manifestation of his owne Iustice for the conviction of the wicked for the good of his Saints and for the terror of all men His speciall threatnings against particular either Nations or men lay fast hold and misse not the burthen of Ierusalem of Ahab of Jehu of infinite more wee see have fallen heavy upon them but his generall threatnings against generall sinners are then made good not when they al light upon every sinner but when some of them light upon all and so it may be truly averred God never said hee would avenge but hee hath avenged to the full and the transgressor hath found it to his smart To conclude this point wee which are the Heraulds of the Lord of Hosts are bound to denounce destruction against his enemies not so that wee can surely tell them as the Prophets did If they offend in this kind they shall be punished in this sort we have no such visions now adayes and we may be too bold in speaking beyond our Commission but this we may yea and must say that even the temporall evils of this life are the portion of sinners as Zophar hath excellently described it through the whole twentieth Chapter of Job and they may justly feare to be overtaken by them cursings in the City cursings in the field cursings in their body cursings in their seed cursings in their soules cursings in their estate all these wait for them and were it not for the curbing fence of Gods mercy would suddenly as the old worlds water make away with them Repent therefore this is the end of all that you may bee free from the curse sons of promise not of threatning to whom God may say I will doe good and not as hee did here to

Iehu I will avenge And so I proceed from Gods woollen feet to his iron hands from his mercy in threatning to his severity in executing which appeareth in the nature of the evill here denounced which is avenging Avenge The Original word 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to visit and visiting is in Scripture taken two ways there is visitatio misericordiae a visiting in pure mercy our Saviour speaketh of that Luk 19. 44. Oh that thou hadst knowne the day of thy visitation and there is visitatio vindictae a visiting in wrath and indignation called sometime the visitation of evill Exod. 20. 4. sometime the visitation for evill Esay 13. 11. Our Prophet Hosea chap. 9. 7. speaking of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dayes of visitation pre●ently ●ddeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dayes of ●etribution declaring this unto us that Gods visiting it is his punishing his repaying unto evill doers the stipend of their ●mpieties this visiting here of ●ehu's house is certainly of the atter kind of visitation the ●easing of Israe Is kingdome the breaking of his bow were effects of it and these without doubt were the works of Gods displeasure Tremellius therefore reads the word animadvertam I will punish and our last English translation significantly I will avenge which word setteth forth God unto us as a Iudge proceeding to take vengeance upon such as have broke his Law and to punis● them 1. God as a Iudge for wee are not to imagine that we have a God to deale withall who i● all mercy all meekenesse al● compassion hee hath in hi● Iustice also hee hath severity he hath anger not onely in preparing against that generall day of slaughter at the end of time but even now working in this present world Davids Ditty when he sung unto God wa● composed of Discords then was judgement as well as me●● cy Psal 101. 1. and it is the stile of his Royall Title proclaimed by himselfe Exod. 34. 6. The Lord mercifull and gracious who will not cleare the guilty but visit iniquity unto the third and fourth generation 2. This word Avenge sheweth us that from Gods Iustice it commeth to passe that wicked men are truly and properly punished in this life as Iehu's house here was I say properly for among those three things which the Schoole-men make Aq. quae disp de malo in com q. 1 ar 4. of the essence of punishment this is one that it have respect unto and follow upon a fault Dicitur enim proprie aliquis is puniri quando patitur malum pro aliquo quod commisit Hee is truly punished who suffereth some evill for some fact when therefore God for the sinnes of men sendeth temporall evils upon them then doth hee properly punish them And this hee doth oftentimes for although it cannot be denyed but that some of the evils which God inflicteth upon men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle chastisements of a loving father as warning-pieces to deterre them from sinne and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trials of their faith patience their obedience yet are there also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revenging judgements whereby God he weth downe the tree for unfruitfulnesse and casteth it irrecoverably into the fire as we see in the sudden destruction of Corab Dathan and Abiram in the present death of Anania● and Sapphira manifest examples and beyond all gainsaying of Gods revenging judgements upon transgressors This punishing of sinners here with temporall punishments is necessary in a three fold respect 1. It declareth the Iustice ●● God 2. It maketh way for th● goodnesse of God 3. It conserveth the order of the world in all which respects supplicia they are bona and Deo digna as Terdullian speaketh befitting Lib. 2. cont Mar. c. 11. God Zeph. 1. 12. Psalm 58. 11 12. 1. They declare his Iustice so saith Saint Paul 2 Thes 1. 6. it is righteous with God to crush those in pieces who torment you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pay them their due hire Had not God this power or did hee not execute it the sonnes of men would soone in their impudency make a skare-crow of him and set as light by his precepts as a rebellious multitude doth by the lawes of their King when they thinke themselves sure enough for his punishing them Tertullian Ibid. c. 10. expresseth it well when hee saith Si Deus non Iudex certe perversus ac vanus disciplinae non vindicandae constitutor It were a preposterous course and to no no purpose for God to make lawes if he were not a Iudge to revenge the breach of them But it will be sayd he deferreth this vengeance till the day of Iudgement But alas did hee deferre it till then iniquity would so abound and the swelling waves of sinne so prevaile that the societies of mankind would be destroyed and no roome left for honesty upon the earth The Iudge of the earth well aware of this keepeth his petty Sessions now letting the law passe upon some few reserving the rest till the grand day of Assizes when all shall appeare before his Tribunall 2. Punishments make way for the goodnesse of God yea Te●t l. 1. cit c. 13. they doe maintaine it saith the Father Ordo Dei Judicis protect or est Catholicae et summae illius bonitatis they doe protect it two wayes in it selfe and as it is communicable to man 1. In it selfe by stopping the mouthes of those filthy dogges who are ever barking against heaven and were it not that these plagues are as a gag unto them would not cease blasphemously to speake of God himselfe if they have not their owne minde they would straight beginne to raile at God but that they feare some fire from heaven some gaping from the earth some stifling from the waters or some such other mischiefe to seize upon them for it punishment is a good curbe for such hell-hounds so restraining them as that they dare not violate that goodnesse which yet they care not for 2. As it is communicable to man for wicked wretches labour what they can to keepe the good from either spirituall or temporall blessings like the Philistims Gen. 26. 15. they stoppe the wells of water and are as flaming sword standing in the way of the tree of life that none can passe by them but Iudgements meet with these Caitiffs and plucke them from their standings that so the rivers of Gods goodnesse may flow out freely and those that have a mind may drinke their fill thereof 3. Punishments conserve the order of the world by keeping every thing in his due place they are it may be things evill in themselves and to those that feele them yet have they a twofold good whereby they are a very beneficiall 1. In that they expell the evill of sin which hath put the world out of frame and marred all malum Esa 26. 9 supplicii malo delicti inimicum 2. In that they guard and