Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	goodness_n	great_a	sin_n	6,173	5	4.6117	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15848	The victory of patience and benefit of affliction, with how to husband it so, that the weakest Christian (with blessing from above) may bee able to support himselfe in his most miserable exigents. Together with a counterpoyson or antipoyson against all griefe, being a tenth of the doves innocency, and the serpents subtilty. Extracted out of the choisest authors, ancient and moderne, necessary to be read of all that any way suffer tribulation. By R.Y.	Younge, Richard.	1636 (1636)	STC 26113; ESTC S102226	124,655	323

suffer tribulation and anguish and persecution and famine and nakednesse perill sword c. bee killed all the day long and counted as Sh●epe for the slaughter hee concludeth with Neverthelesse in all these things we are more than conquerours through him that loved us and so goeth on even to challenge of our worst enemies Death Angels Principalities Powers things present and to come heighth depth and what other creature besides should stand in opposition What voluminous waves be here for number and power and terrour yet they shall not separate the Arke from Christ nor a soule from the Arke nor a body from the soule nor an haire from the body to do us hurt What saith David Marke the upright man and behold the just for the end of that man is peace Psa. 37.37 Marke him in his setting out he hath many oppositions marke him in the journey he is full of tribulations but marke him in the conclusion and the end of that man is peace In Christ al things are ours 1 Cor. 3.22 How is that Why we have all things because we have the haver of all things And if we love Christ all things work together for our good yea for the best Rom. 8.28 And if all things quoth Luther then even sinne it selfe And indeed how many have wee knowne the better for their sin That Magdalen had never loved so much if she had not so much sinned had not the incestuous person sinned so notoriously he had never beene so happy God tooke the advantage of his humiliation for his conversion Had not one foot slipt into the mouth of hell he had never been in this forwardnesse to Heaven sinne first wrought sorrow saith S. Austine and now godly sorrow kils sin the daughter destroyes the mother neither do our owne sinnes onely advantage us but other mens sinnes worke for our good also If Arius had not held a Trinity of Substances with a Trinity of Persons and Sabellius an Vnity of Persons with an Vnity of Essences the Mysteries of the Trinity had not beene so cleerely explained by those great lights of the Church We may say here as Augustine doth of Carthage and Rome If some enemies had not contested against the Church it might have gone worse with the Church Lastly suppose our enemies should kill us they shall not hurt but pleasure us yea even death it selfe shall worke our good That Red Sea shall put us over to the Land of Promise and we shall say to the praise of God wee are delivered wee are the better for our enemies the better for our sinnes the better for death yea better for the devill and to thinke otherwise even for the present were not only to derogate from the wisdome power and goodnesse of God but it would bee against reason for in reason if he have vouchsafed us that great mercy to make us his own he hath given the whole army of afflictions a more inviolable charge concerning us than David gave his Host concerning Absalom See ye doe the young man my sonne Absalom no harme Now if for the present thou lackest faith patience wisdome and true judgement how to beare and make this gaine of the crosse Aske it of God who giveth to all men liberally and reproacheth no man and and it shall be given thee Iames 1.5 For every good giving and every perfect gift is from above and commeth downe from the Father of lights Verse 17. CHAP. 34. That though God disposeth of all their malice to his childrens greater good yet they shall bee rewarded according to their mischievous intentions Ob. IF it be so that the malice of wicked men makes so much for the behoofe of Gods people and that whatsoever they do unto us is but the execution of Gods will and full accomplishment of his just decree it may seeme to make on their side and not only extenuate their evill but give them occasion of boasting Ans. Although God disposeth it to the good of his children that hee may bring about all things to make for his owne glory yet they intend only evil in it as namely the dishonour of God the ruine of mens soules as I shall easily prove when I come to shew what is the final cause or end of their temptations and persecutions and the satisfying of their own serpentine enmity thirst of revenge We must therefore learne to distinguish betwixt the act of God and of an enemy as indeed Gods people do When ye thought evill against me saith Ioseph to his brethren God disposed it to good that he might bring to passe as it is this day and save much people alive Gen. 50.20 Yea the holy God challengeth to himselfe whatsoever is done in the City Amos 3.6 but so as neither wicked mens sins shal taint him nor his decree justifie them the sinne is their own the good which comes of it is Gods the benefit ours God wils the same action as it is a blessing tryall or chastisement of his children which he hates as the wickednesse of the agent The lewd tongue hand or heart moves from God it moves lewdly from Sathan wicked men are never the freer from guilt and punishment for that hand which the holy God hath in their offensive actions To instance in one example or two Satan did nought touching Iob but what the Lord upon his request gave him leave to do what then Did God and Belial joyne in fulfilling the same act No sooner shall Stygian darknesse blend with light the frost with fire day with night true God Satan will'd the selfesame thing but God intended good Satan ill Satan aimed at Iobs and God at his confusion God used the malice of Pharaoh and Shemei unto Good what then God afflicted his people with another minde than Pharaoh did God to increase them Pharaoh to suppresse them The sinne of Shemeis curse was his owne the smart of the curse was Gods God wils that as Davids chastisement which he hates as Shimeis wickednesse The curse of the Serpent bestowed blessednesse on Man yea our first parents had beene lesse glorious if they had not wanted a Saviour What then Doth Satan merit thanks No but the contrary for he only intended the finall ruine and destruction of them and all mankinde with the dishonour of their Maker Lastly the Devill does us good in this particular case for while he assaults us with temptations and afflicts us with crosses he in effect helps us to Crownes Yet still no thankes to Satan for to be charitable is more than his meaning it is that divine over-ruling providence of God which we are beholding unto and to him give we the thankes Alas there is nothing in the world bee it gall it selfe yea the excrement of a Dog or the poyson of a Serpent but mans shallow invention can finde it is good for something neither doe two contrary poysons mingled together prove mortall how much more is God able to worke good by evill

of his substance rob him of his Children punish him in his body Yet marke but the Sequell well and you shall find that he was crost with a blessing As the Physitian in making of Triacle or Mithridate for his Patient useth Serpents Adders and such like poyson that he may drive out one poyson with another Even so our spirituall Physitian is pleased to use the malice of Sathan and wicked men when he tempereth to us the Cup of affliction that hereby he may expell one evil● with another Yea two evills with one namely the evill of sin and the evill of punishment and that both temporall and eternall He suffers us to be afflicted because he will not suffer us to be damned such is the goodnesse of our heavenly Father to us that even his anger proceeds from mercy he scourgeth the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 5.5 Yea Ioseph was therefore abased in the dungeon that his advancement might be the greater It s true in our thoughts we often speake for the flesh as Abraham did for Ismael O that Ismael might live in thy sight no God takes away Ismael and gives Isaac he withdrawes the pleasure of the flesh gives delight to the soule The man sick of a burning feaver cries to his Physitian for drinke he pities him but does not satisfie him he gives him proper physick but not drink A man is sick of a Plurisie the Physitian lets him bloud he is content with it the arme shall smart to ease the heart The covetous man hath a plurisie of riches G●d le ts him bloud by poverty let him be patient it is a course to save his soule So if God scourge us any way so we bleed not or till we bleed so we faint not or till we even faint so we perish not let us be comforted for if the Lord prune his Vine he meanes not to root it up if he minister physick to our soules it is because he would not have us dye in our sins all is for salvation What if Noah were pent up in the Arke so long as he was safe in it what if it were his prison so long as it was his Fort also against the waters I might illustrate the point and make it plaine by sundry and divers comparisons We know one naile drives out another one heat another one cold another yea out of admirable experience I can witnesse it that for most constitutions there is not such a remedy under Heaven for a cold in the head or an accustomed tendernesse as a frequent bathing of it in cold water I can justly say I am twenty yeeres the younger for it Yea one sorrow drives out another one passion another one rumour is expelled by another and though for the most part contraries are cured by contraries yet not seldome will Physitians stop a Lask with a Purge they will bleed a Patient in the Arme to stop a worse bleeding at Nose Againe in some Patients they will procure a gentle Ague that they may cure him of a more dangerous disease Even so deales God with us he often punisheth the worser part of man saith S. Ierome That is the body state or name that the better part to wit the soule may be saved in the day of judgement Neither are chastisements any whit lesse necessary for the soule than medicines are for the body many a man had beene undone by prosperity if they had not beene undone by adversity they had perished in their soules if they had not perished in their bodies estates or good-names It s probable Naamans soule had never beene cleansed if his body had not beene leaprous and though affliction be hard of digestion to the naturall man yet the experienced Christian knowes that it is good for the soule that the body is sometime sick and therefore to have his inward man cured he is content his outward man should be diseased and cares not so the sins of his soule may be les●ened though the soares of his flesh be increased And why is it not so with thee I hope thou desirest thy soules safety above all and thou knowest the stomack that is purged must be content to part with some good nourishment that it may deliver it selfe of more evill humours Of what kinde ●oever thy sufferings be it is doubtlesse the fittest for thy soules recovery or else God the onely wise Physitian would not appoint it Now who would not be willing to bleed when by that meanes an inveterate sicknesse may be prevented Yea it is a happy bloud-letting which saves the life which makes S. Austine say unto God Let my body be crucified or burnt or doe with it what thou wilt so thou save my soule And another let me swim a River of boyling brimstone to live eternally happy rather than dwell in a Paradise of pleasure to be damned after death CHAP. 11. That it makes them humble 8 EIghthly that we may have an humble conceipt of our selves and wholly depend upon God We received the sentence of death in our selves saith the Apostle because we should not trust in our selves but in God who raiseth us up from the dead 2 Cor. 1.9 When Babes are afraid they cast themselves into the armes and bosome of their mother I thought in my prosperity saith David I shall never be moved But thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Then turned I unto thee c. Psal. 30.6 7 8. When a stubborne Delinquent being committed was no whit mollified with his durance but grew more perverse than he was before one of the Senators said to the rest Let us forget him a while and then he will remember himselfe the Heart is so hot of it selfe that if it had not the Lungs as Fannes to blow wind upon it and kindly moisture to coole it it would soone perish with the owne heat and yet when that moisture growes too redundant it againe drownes the Heart Who so nourisheth his servant daintily from his childhood shall after finde him stubborne We see then there is danger in being without dangers and what saith S. Paul Lest I should be exalted out of measure there was given unto me the Messenger of Satan to buffet me 2 Cor. 12.7 Our adversaries as well as our sins are Messengers sent from Satan to buffet us and the best minds troubled yeeld inconsiderate motions As water violently stirred sends up bubbles so the vanities of our hearts and our most secret and hidden corruptions as dregs in a glasse shew themselves when shaken by an injury though they lay hid before And so the pride of man is beaten downe as Iob speaks Iob 33.17 The sharpe water of affliction quickens our spirituall sight So proud are we by nature that before we come to the triall we think that we can repell the strongest assault and overcome all enemies by our owne power but when we feele our selves vanquished and foiled by every small temptation