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	lord_n	psal_n	4,045	5	7.5057	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29932	Dwelling with God, the interest and duty of believers in opposition to the complemental, heartless, and reserved religion of the hypocrite / opened in eight sermons by John Bryan ...	Bryan, John, d. 1676.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1670 (1670)	Wing B5243; ESTC R31994	149,472	465

will be with thee and through the Waters they shall not overflow thee and through the fire it shall not burn thee neither shall the flame kindle upon thee for I am the Lord thy God I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins Blessed be the Poor for theirs is the Kingdome of God Blessed are ye that hunger now for you shall be filled Blessed are ye that weep now for ye shall laugh All things shall work together for good to them that love God If there be a willing mind it is accepted according to what a Man hath with a thousand more This is the Musick that David desired to hear which he calls joy and gladness Such Musick and Dancing there is to it in this House every moment and frequently an expression of spiritual joy and jollity in Psalmes and Hymns and spiritual Songs makeing melody in the Heart unto the Lord. And as for Treasures of Gold and Silver there is not one of this House which hath not alway plenty of both Though many of them many a time may say as Peter did Silver and Gold have I none First they have that which is a thousand times better The Word of God which they justly claim as their Heritage for ever Thy Testimonies have I taken as an Heritage for ever as my true Soveraign and peculiar good which I hold from thee as a Child of thy grace The Law of thy Mouth is better unto me than thousands of Gold and Silver More to be desired than Gold yea than much fine Gold And in that word they have bonds which made by solvent Men are esteemed every whit as good as the sums therein specified Divine Promises One shall suffice for all Thou shalt lay up Gold as Dust and the Gold of Ophir as the Stones of the Brook yea the Almighty shall be thy Gold and thou shalt have plenty of Silver There are a World of goods more wherewith this House is stored the worth whereof is unvaluable the smallest quantity whereof being a thousand times more worth than a thousand such Worlds as this Visible one is The Lord the Lord God gracious merciful long-suffering abundant in goodness and truth The Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord thy right Hand is full of Righteousness Touching the Almighty he is excellent in Power and in Judgment and in plenty of Justice Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his glory Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in Mercy unto all them that call upon thee the Voice of the Lord is full of Majesty And O the fulness of God manifested in the Flesh We beheld his Glory the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth Of his fulness have we all received With him is plenteous Redemption 7. This is a living House other Houses are made of dead Materials Wood and Stone most of them of Clay whose Foundation is in the Dust which are crushed before the Moth. God the Father hath life in himself and he hath given to the Son to have life in himself and to be the cause and giver of life of the life of nature to all Men and of grace and godliness to sinful Men and of comfort to sorrowful Men and of Resurrection to dead Men and of Glory to godly Men. It is God in whom we live and move and have our Beeing and he it is that maintains our life O bless our God ye People and make the voice of his praise to be heard which holdeth our Soul in Life Watching continually to prevent them that seek after it and lay snares for it Men that are Princes Life-Guards are fain sometimes to sleep cannot watch always and Men that dwell in costly Houses are fain to watch their Houses Know this saith our Saviour that if the good Man of the House had known in what Watch the Thief would come he would have watched and not have suffered his House to be broken up But this House watcheth over all that dwell in it that no hurt be at any time done them He that keepeth thee will not slumber saith the Psalmist speaking to himself who dwelt in the secret place of the most High in the spirit Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep This is a new House alwayes new and so needs no repair it is not subject as all other Houses are to age and decay Though some old things are better than new No Man having drunk old Wine straight-way desireth new for he saith the old is better They sacrificed to new Gods that came newly up Yet generally new things are best and so accounted both things of Gods making Behold I make all things new I create new Heavens and a new Earth I will make a new Covenant A new Heart will I give you and a new spirit will I give you thou shalt be called by a new Name which the Mouth of the Lord shall Name And so of Mens Garments and all manner of Utensils when and while new are most set by Especially Houses both themselves live and lodge in and also Out-houses when they are over old they pull them down and build new ones This House is never old but as new at this day as it was when the first holy Man had his habitation in it as full of lustre and glory ten thousand times more glorious than that Palace of the Sun which the Poet describes and it must needs be so because every Inhabitant is not only glorious made so by it but glory it self Upon all the Glory shall be a defence By Glory are meant the Saints of God the abstract put for the concrete to note their eminent shining surpassing transcendent excellency though in this life they are compassed about with many infirmities which makes their glory less conspicuous They are all glorious within Now do but note what kind of defence what manner of covering this House is promised to be to all those glorious ones that dwell in it namely like that of the Israelites when they went out of Egypt The Lord went before them by Day to lead them in a Pillar of a Cloud in the way and by Night in a Pillar of Fire to give them light It shall be though not so visibly conspicuous yet as illustrious and miraculous and that against all manner of evils heat and rain and for all times Day and Night There shall be a Tabernacle for a shaddow in the Day-time from the heat and for a place of refuge from storme and from Rain God hath been ever such a house of defence to all his holy ones is now and ever shall be World without

underneath you and you shall be able both to do and suffer all things through him that strengthneth you Upon all these and many more accounts Ascribe the strength unto God his excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the Heavens The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his People Blessed be God From the third property of your Habitation Viz. Largeness Learn rightly to conceive of this property holding forth the infiniteness immensness and omnipresence of God being without quantity and measure every where both within and without the World filling all places with his essence as the whole Soul is said to be in the whole Body and in every part of it so is God whole and wholly in every part of the World Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee His greatness is unsearchable infinite and incomprehensible The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afar off Can any hide himself in secret Places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Do not I fill Heaven and Earth Yea and Hell too If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there This must teach us to banish all gross conceits of God out of our mind and to detest the making any Picture of him by which he is denyed to be incomprehensible and to see him though invisible to be present with you where ever you are his Eye beholding whatsoever you are doing This Consideration filled David's heart with shame and sorrow for his sin and made it to lye so heavy upon his Conscience I have done this evil in thy sight All my care was to be secret to hide my sin from the Eyes of Men but all this while thine Eye was upon me There is no Man but would be restrained from many sins if they knew of any body that was by them to see what they did The Murderer Adulterer are brought in by Job imboldening themselves No Eye shall see me As if he had said if they knew there was any Eye to see them they durst not do it Moreover in all their Meditations Contemplations of God take as full a view of him as you can Hear him saying behold me behold me Especially take notice of the largeness and greatness of his goodness and bounty All the dimensions of its breadth length depth and heighth with admiration O how great is thy goodness which thou hast for them that fear thee As high as the Heaven is above the Earth as the space is between the East and West I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord his great goodness the multitude of his mercies And labour for largeness of heart in some sort answerable From the rest of the properties of this your habitation and from all the furniture in it and from each of the conveniencies belonging to it I shall leave you to gather comforts and duties in abundance having this one thing only more to do Namely to acquaint you with some of the Statutes Lawes and Ordinances of the House and earnestly to press upon you the Observation of them by promises and penalties annexed The general Laws of this House binding all that live in it are partly natural and partly supernatural The natural are Ten in Number called in Scripture Ten Words and some where One Word The Divine Law teaching and commanding Moral good and forbidding evil known by the Name of Moses Law Uttered and promulgate with God's own Mouth by his immediate Voice delivered in Fire and therefore termed a Fiery Law in the hearing of all Israel Afterwards written with his own Finger by a mere and miraculous divine Operation in Two Tables of Stone to signifie the perpetual use and continuance of it to the end of the World and so published and committed to the Church for all Ages as the Moral Law for Obedience to God our Soveraign Lord and King This self same Law did God engrave in Man's heart even when he created him For that before the written Law of Moses there was an unwritten Law of Nature must needs be granted because needs must they be bound to God who had their Beeing from him Nor could they have sinned against him if they had had no Law from him For where no Law is there is no transgression Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law But sin Men did all this space of time and were punished with a witness Witness Cain the old World Sodom Onan and innumerable of others and they were punished for the sins forbidden in Moses Law and the Apostle expresly teacheth that the Gentiles who never had the written Law of Moses had their Natural Law even this Law though less perfect imprinted in their Souls by which they were instructed and bound to do well and debarred from doing evil which are the two properties of all Lawes And these two properties called The work of the Law written in their Hearts they shewed their Conscience bearing witness their Hearts accusing or excusing one another The Conscience being but a correspondency and relation of a Man's Spirit unto the Law to bind or unbind condemn or absolve him Moreover the good Laws the Heathen made to punish the evils forbidden and to draw People to practice the good commanded in the Law of Moses and the endeavour of many of them to act accordingly argues the Unity of both Laws The reason of which unity is the unchangeableness of God who is alway the same Qu. What need was there of the repetition and renovation of this Law Or if there was need Why was it not sooner Answ To the former Branch though Nature brought the same things yet it did it very weakly and many conclusions were obliterated and others much obscured and all Mens hearts were weakly drawn to obey this Law very strong to obey the Law of sin And although the Law of Nature could scarce never have been extinguished in Principles and Grounds yet it might and was and would have been more in Applications Men took evil for good and good for evil and grew more and more vain in their imaginations To the latter Branch Man's heart was not after his Fall throughly humbled but thought his own reason sufficient for his Guide therefore God would leave the World a while to try them and let them see their own weakness Besides sin was not come quickly to such a pitch and height as afterward it did and yet we finde that God did by peece-meal and occasionally teach them this Law presently and almost equipollently before its solemn Proclamation The Unity of these two Laws lets you see as the constancy and Immutability of your God who is not as other Law-givers who build and pull down and whom a Man knows as well how to

you under the wing and protection of your God and so free your Hearts from all fear and discouragement and disquiet The acts of Faith effectual to this end are Nine in Number and in this Order The first is an act of Information Faith informes the Soul of these things Namely concerning the nature Author ends measure and continuance of the affliction 1. Concerning the nature or matter of it that it is humane There hath no temptation overtaken you but such as is common to Man Let it be what it will other Men as good yea better than you have suffered in the same kind drank of the same Cup yea deeper than any of you have yet done Poverty sickness reproach loss of dear relations trouble of mind Job and David and Paul for example and the Macabee Confessors and Martyres 2. Concerning the Author that who or whatsoever is the Instrument God is the Principle Agent His Decree ordained it and his actual providence hath inflicted it 3. Touching the ends God aimes at in your afflictions Among others they are these To bring you to a sight of your sins long since or lately committed To humble and reprove you to purge and refine you to work self-denyal in you to reduce you into the right way to quicken your devotion To wean you from the love of the World and make you long for Heaven To cause you to relish mercies and comforts better To save you from Damnation and to make your Crown of Glory weightier 4. Touching the measure that it shall be no more than needs and no more than you shall have strength well to bear 1 Pet. 1. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 13. All your Enemies shall not be able to add one scruple more Job 1. 12. 2. 6. Wife and loving Parents correct their Children in measure there is no fear that they will break their Bones Learned and loving Physicians have due respect when they administer Doses to the strength of their Patients Such a Father and Physician is God and a thousand times more tender 5. Touching the continuance of the affliction incumbent Faith informes the Soul that the Diet-drink prescribed shall be no longer required to be taken than till health be recovered That the Plaster shall lie no longer on the sore than till the Cure be wrought that the Gold be no longer in the Fire than till the Dross be consumed at longest it shall be but until Death and all the space until then let it be never so long is but a little moment in respect of Eternity a little Cloud quickly passing The second is a quickning exciting act Faith excites the Soul first to make search and scrutiny into this affliction 2. To cast it self down in humble acknowledgment of its own desert and Gods Justice accusing and judging it self and justifying God in his sharp Dispensation 3. To pour out its complaint to God and cry for mercy and pardon of the sin procuring the Cross and for sanctification and removal of it 4. To cast off all purposes of falling into sin again of giving God any more cause to punish 5. To use all lawful meanes to get the Cross removed or mitigated Jos 7. 11. 13 16. The third is an employing act hear faith speaking thus We have no might neither know we what to do It causeth the Soul to renounce its own wisdome strength and all confidence in the Creature draws the heart from carnal repose in means or friends The fourth is an act of discovery it discovers to the Soul that sees no help any where else all-sufficiency of help in God All-sufficiency of wisdome power grace mercy truth and love and it discovers also the manner of God's dealing which usually is to grant deliverance and send help then when to sense and reason it is furthest off Deut. 32. 36. Jer. 30. 12 18. Psal 142. 6. It looks also back upon former favours which are as Bills obligatory of future good things even all that God sees necessary That which God hath once done for any of his in sustaining relieving and delivering them He will do over and over again for them if they inforce themselves towards him The fifth is a meekening act Faith makes the heart willing to submit it self to the good pleasure of God and patiently and gently to bear his corrections And the considerations whereby Faith moves and prevailes with the soul to carry it self meekly under Gods hand are such as these first from the desert of sin you have merited all this and much more and are punished beneath your iniquities 2. From the hand that layes this Rod upon the back It is a Fatherly one that gives you this bitter Cup. 3. From his predestinating you to be conformable to the Image of his Son who was a Man of sorrows acquainted with griefs 4. From the recompence of reward which is infinitely heavier than your sufferings The sixth is an act of remembrance It causeth the soul to call to mind those sweet and gracious promises God hath made in his Word to his People in their afflictions 1. That he will look down from Heaven in mercy and cast a gracious aspect upon them 2. That he will be with them to support and comfort them in their troubles 3. That he will deliver them out of trouble 4. After they have suffered a while establish strengthen them and then receive them to Glory where they shall never suffer more but in his presence have fulness of joy and at his right hand pleasures that shall please for ever more A seventh is an act of recumbency a resting rolling relying act casting the Soul upon God and staying there clasping a desiring depending committing it self to divine providence with assured trust and confidence that all shall be well because all shall end well though sense and reason say never so much to the contrary this confidence doth as it were oblige and bind the Lord to do his People good Psal 37. 40. 57. 1. 147. 8 9. Es 26. 3. Jer. 39. 18. The eighth is an act of expectation waiting for comfort and deliverance referring both time and meanes and manner unto God The nineth and last is an act of rejoycing and triumphing the former it doth because it feels the Physick to work kindly and the latter in assurance of a blessed issue There are besides these many several Laws which you that dwell in God are bound to observe continually A few of them I shall commend unto your practice you must be alway watching alway working alway rejoycing and alway praying and alway giving thanks and alway ready to remove out of the lower Rooms wherein you live into higher whither you shall hear a voice saying come up hither Every one in this House must be ever-more working watching They ought not to sleep at any time Ye Brethren are all the Children of the Light and the Children