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
A36172	Divine meditations written by an honourable person ; whereto is adjoyned a determination of the question, whether men ought to keele at the receipt of the holy communion ; and an essay of friends.		1641 (1641)	Wing D1723; ESTC R32791	36,040	168

dangers and frequent victories over all their enemies But when they went out of their way by murmuring disobedience and Idolatry then were they stung * Num. 21.6 with fiery serpents and sould into the hands of their Enemies or smitten with the Plague none of Gods Angels comming in to helpe them till they returnd into the way againe by Repentance The Royall Prophet oft harpes on this stringe in the Booke of Psalmes which Saint Hilary truly calles The Key of Scripture If we peruse the Psalmes 44.18.80.106 we shall see the Iewes prospering and flourishing under Gods Protection while they walkt in their way and dejected and abandoned when they started aside like a broken Bow While Samsons haire was uncut which was his Vow of a Nazarite his strength was unresistable but when he went out of his way to Timnah Iud. 14.1 and Delilah had cut his Lockes though he went out against the Philistins as at other times God having left him they prevailed against him When Saul sinned the Spirit of God departed from him 1 Sam. 16.14 Iosiah the best King that ever raigned in Ierusalem never went out of his way for ought We read but once when he would needs fight with Pharoah-Necho King of Egypt who had no quarrell to him and then as if God had watched him to take him in his first fault he miscarried and was slaine 2 Chro. 35. Let us then take heede how wee goe with Ionas to Tharsis when we are commanded to goe to Nineveh least we draw a bitter storme on our selves and those that are in our company The wayes we are to walke in if we expect the protection of God and Assistance of His holy Angels are traced out unto us in the Decalogue where we are taught what to doe and what not to doe The Old and New Testament are Commentaries on these tenne Commandements and therefore we must study read and meditate Gods word if we desire to know His Will and to doe it David askes the question Wherewithall shall a young man cleanse his way and instantly resolves it Even by ruling himselfe by thy word This word is a Lanterne to our way and a Light to our Paths Psalm 119 in which Psalme almost in every Line there is mention made of the word Law Statutes and Commandements of God wherein the Prophet desires to be instructed and professes to be singularly delighted Since then our way is chalked out in Gods word let us pray with the Prophet Order my steps in thy word so shall no wickednesse have dominion over me Psal 143. Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes make me to goe in the Paths of thy Precepts Psalm 119. If we can thus pray with a pure heart God will answer us as Psalm 32.9 I will informe and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt goe and I will guide thee with mine Eye If by prayer and Repentance we can purchase this Grace from God to be guided and directed in our wayes and if we looke to our steps and be carefull not to goe out of the way when he hath set us in we may rest assured of His gracious providence and angelicall protection in our severall vocations But O Lord What is man that thou art mindfull of him and the son of man that thou visitest him Psal 8.4 Thou madest him lower than the Angels and yet thou commandest thy blessed Angels to attend him to have charge over him and to beare him * As Nurles beare young children in their arms So the Originall imports in their hands What moveth thee O Lord to be so gracious and so good to this poore creature of thine 14. Because he hath set his love upon me therefore shall I deliver him I shall set him up because he hath known my Name 15. He shall call upon mee and I will heare him Yea I am with him in trouble I will deliver him and being him to honour 16. With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation The causall Particle here Because iterated Vers 14. is not to be understood as if it implied any Merit in us or as if God were obliged in regard of our knowledg of him to protect us from the Pestilence or to make Lions and Dragons subject to us as he did to David Daniel and others of his children but hath reference simply and purely to his mercy and goodnesse who hath a speciall care of his Elect whom he covers under his wings in all times of danger and to his promise which he hath made to reward freely and not for any desert those that entirely love him and faithfully invocate him If we desire the honour to be called his Sonnes are we not bound to love and honour him whom we call Father Can we doe lesse than love God the Father for creating us after his owne Image God the Sonne for redeeming us when we were lost God the Holy Ghost for alwayes comforting and assisting us And when we have done our best * Deus magis delectatur affectu quam effectu Amb. are we not unprofitable servants Herein is love saith Saint Iohn not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Sonne to be a propitiation for our sinnes 1 Ioh. 4.10 And indeed how could we possibly love him if he had not given us the grace to know him and consequently to love him Ignoti nulla cupido Now although we can claime no merit by our loving of God because it is our bounden Duty yet are we well encouraged thereto by the Reward which accompanies it in vertue of Gods Promise and of his pure Mercy and Goodnesse In the second Commandement he promises to shew mercy to Thousands in them that love him and keepe his Commandements And Psal 31. O love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserves them that are faithfull c. As therefore it is our duty to expresse our gratitude for graces or benefits received by loving God who conferres them so is it an Act of Gods meere goodnesse to love us for loving him and to make us see and feele the effects of his love by his preservation and protection David Psal 130.4 saith There is mercy with thee therfore thou shalt be feared which may seeme to have some repugnancy with the love formerly spoken of in that ordinarily men hate those whom they feare Oderint dum metuant This is true among Barbarians and those that are opprest by Tyrants But we must distinguish betwixt a servile and filiall feare The former is proper to the reprobate the latter to the elect There is no childe of God that will not feare to offend and displease his heavenly Father that hath beene so indulgent and gracious unto him as he must needs acknowledge and confesse if he have any sense of God or godlinesse or any understanding of his stupendious creation redemption and preservation Yea the more graces or benefits he hath received of him the

and doe them no hurt In this Visitation the Angell of God the executioner of His Iustice is abroad they therefore that desire to be spared must by Faith apprehend the merits of Iesus Christ and have their soules sprinkled with His Bloud else how can they hope or trust in God or have confidence in His Protection being not reconcil'd to Him by His Sonne Nor having by a true and lively Faith apprehended the merits of His Passion and applied them to themselves It is true our Saviour hath promised to ease those that labour and are heavie laden but conditionally if they come unto Him which is done by Faith and Repentance Wherefore in so dangerous a Visitation when the Defence of the most High is so necessary and our Trust in Him so comfortable let us be sure that our Hope be well grounded on Faith and pray without ceasing for Faith Hope and Penitence which are Graces that we cannot attaine of our selves but are gratis datae and cannot be obtained but by fervent Prayer Hee then that by Prayer and Repentance often renewed hath got sensible Encrease of the saving Graces of Faith and Hope may safely and sincerely trust in God for deliverance from the Plague either by taking it away from him or him from it Faith with out Repentance a meere mock Faith which latter Saint Paul accounts farre better desiring to depart * Psalm 1.23 and to be with Christ Death being to the Godly a Rest to the body and happinesse to the soule which is freed from falling into sinne and admitted to the blissefull Vnion of her Creator and Redeemer Howbeit in time of Visitation and Vengeance when the destroying Angell is abroad with his Sword drawne it is no small comfort to a Christian man when Thousands fall beside him and tenne thousands at his right hand to be preserved from Infection His comfort may well be encreased and doubled in contemplation of Gods mercy * See this excellently exprest Esa 30 1● and goodnesse to him Yet must we take heed of passing rash Iudgement on those that are visited by Gods hand concluding our selves to bee more righteous then they Our Saviour taught His Disciples another Lesson Luk. 13 upon occasion of the Galilaeans whose Bloud Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices and of those on whom the Tower of Siloe fell telling them that they were not greater sinners then other men and except they repented they likewise should perish Saint Paul's Counsell is seasonable Let him that stands take heed least he fall and his example is worthy our Imitation professing himselfe to bee the Greatest sinner though hee were an elect Vessell When therefore wee see Gods Iudgements powred upon * What then are we better then they No in no wise Rom. 39. others let us not fondly and rashly condemne them as more ungodly then we are but confesse that we have deserved as much as they and thanke him for having spared us and given us a longer Time of repentance Give glory to God for shewing mercy to thee which thou deservedst not when his wrath was powred on others which perhaps deserved it lesse than thou Improve the Time lent thee to Humiliation Contrition and Amendment of Life Be frequent and fervent in praier Let the Lord be thy Hope * Ioel. 3.16 let thy faith be operative by works of Piety and Charity Gal. 5.6 Vers 9.10 11 12 13. and then shall no evill happen unto thee for Hee shall give His Angells charge over thee to keepe thee in all thy wayes c. These Angels being Spirits are not to be seene by the eye of Faith but when by Gods order they assume Bodies and therefore we must looke up with an eye of Faith to Him who rules and commands them and hath made them all ministring spirits sent forth for the behoofe of them who are heires of Salvation Heb. 1.14 and therefore when the Angell executioner of Gods justice is abroad we may hope and trust in God that His Angells encampe about us that feare and worship Him in sinceritie of heart In the eighteenth of Genesis we reade of three Angels that appeared to Abraham in the shape of men and from him they went to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah yet in the nineteenth wee finde mention but of two Angels that were entertained by Lot and did execute the vengeance of God on those sinfull Cities Some have observed that God Almighty who was one of the three that appeared to Abraham and ministred occasion to him to pray for Lots deliverance did afterward retire and leave to his Angels the execution of His justice and that throughout the Scripture God Himselfe is never recorded to shew Himselfe visibly but when Hee glorifies Himselfe in Mercy ever committing the executing of Iudgements to His ministers This Conceipt is strengthened by our Saviours Interpretation of the Parable of the Teares Mat. 13. where Hee saies that the Officers which are to burne the Teares are the Angels Psal 39.41 42. which in the end of the world Hee will send forth to gather out of His Kingdome all things which offend and them which doe Iniquity and to cast them into a Furnace of fire When the Devill tempting our Saviour had set Him on the Pinacle of the Temple he perverted part of this Psalme to perswade Him to shew Himselfe to be the Sonne of God by casting Himselfe downe for saith he it is writen He will give his Angels charge over thee that thou hurt not thy foote against a stone Matth. 4. Pope Alexander the third is observed to have followed the Devill very close applying to Himselfe the words following abusing them likewise when he set his foote on the neck of the Emperor Fredericke saying Thou shalt goe upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou tread under thy feete This had no conformity with the Doctrine of our Saviour nor with the practise of Himselfe and His Apostles He paid Tribute to Caesar not trode on his necke But I will not amplifie this Exorbitancy Transeat inter caeteros errores Canonistarum and let that Pope passe among them that detort Scripture to their owne Damnation Let us beware we stumble not at the same stone by misinterpreting * or misapplying Scripture carelesly and negligently See a learned Sermon preached at Oxford by Master Iohn Hales the rare Ornament of Eton College as Satan did subtilly and maliciously God hath given His Angels charge over us that they beare us in their hands c. but they are bound to keepe thee but in all thy wayes which words the Devill omitted because they made not for his purpose This point is clearely demonstrated in the History of the Iewes from their Exit or comming out of Egypt till their Entrance into Canaan For as long as they were in their way and were obedient to the word of the Lord nothing could hurt them as appeares by their miraculous Deliverances from