Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	grace_n	great_a	love_n	4,912	5	5.2007	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63826	A good day vvell improved, or Five sermons upon Acts 9. 31 Two of which were preached at Pauls, and ordered to be printed. To which is annexed a sermon on 2 Tim. 1. 13. Preached at St. Maries in Cambridge, on the Commencement Sabbath, June 30. 1650. By Anthony Tuckney D.D. and Master of St Johns College in Cambridge.	Tuckney, Anthony, 1599-1670.	1656 (1656)	Wing T3216A; ESTC R222406	116,693	318

fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghost 2. An effectual argument to inforce it because thus doing will be the most effectual way and means to have the Churches of Christ edified and multiplyed I begin with the duty and first with the first part of it in those words walking in the fear of the Lord and the Note thence is this That when God vouchsafeth to Doct. his Churches rest and peace it is their duty then especially to walk in his fear And here I shall not need by way of explication to hint that 1. By walking is meant their diligent and constant practise and course of life 2. And by Gods fear Primarily and most properly is meant that sanctified affection or sanctifying grace both in the habit and act of it whereby out of a filial and ingenuous awfulness we are afraid to offend God by sinning against him And Tropically the whole Eccles 12. 13. Deut. 6. 2. 13. See Cartwright on Prov. 1. 7. worship and service of God of which this fear as it is one great and especial part so also it awfully commandeth and putteth us upon all the rest and withholds us from the contrary So that this their walking in the fear of the Lord was their diligent and constant course of obedience and service out of an awfull and reverential respect to him and an ingenuous and filial fear to offend him This was their practise when God had given them rest and it is the duty incumbent now on us when the like mercy is vouchsafed to us viz. now upon consideration of it to Heb. 12. 28. serve him with reverence and godly fear indeed it must be without unbeleeving and slavish fear of man Luke 1. 74. but with as much nay with more Reverential fear of God then ever for although perfect love casteth out fear 1 John 4. 18. yet in true filial fear there is as much nay more love then fear and so they who are said to fear God Psal 145. 19. are in the 20th verse immediately following styled such as love him To have fear and joy meet is a riddle to a carnal heart yet to rejoyce with Psal 2. 11. trembling is a peece of the mystery of godliness which Grace teacheth and a godly heart is acquainted with And especially upon the receipt of any greater mercy as at the Resurrection of our Saviour it is said of the two Maries that they departed from the Sepulchre with fear and great joy Matth. 28. 8. So in any other kinde of Resurrection wherein God pleaseth to raise us as it were from the grave such a sweet mixture of those seemingly contrary graces should be felt in our hearts and expressed in our carriages so as at the same time to rejoyce in his goodness Nehe. 9. 25. yet to fear him and his goodness Hos 3. 5. Slavish spirits may fear his greatness but a good heart will fear him for his goodness will fear when inlarged Isa 60. 5. and with such a Systole and Diastole doth it breathe and live This being a great part of that Tribute which our Soveraign Lord requireth for all his bounty and blessings And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God c. Deut. 10. 12. and which a soul truly subjected to Christ doth most freely pay from mercy takes an argument of fear There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Psal 130. 4. it saith Let us fear the Lord who giveth unto us rain and reserveth to us the appointed weeks of the harvest Jer. 5. 24. fear's him for plenty and fear's him for peace as in a peaceable Solomons reign when the mountains shall bring peace to the people Psal 72. 3. and so you might think to find them most secure it is added that they shall fear him as long as the Sun and Moon indure v. 5. the less that in their peace they fear their enemies the more they fear their peaceable King That in Solomon as a type fore-prophesied what should be under the more peaceable government of Jesus Christ and in this Text that prophecy was fulfilled for when these his best subjects had rest and were still even then they trembled walking in the fear of the Lord. But you will say Is fear consistent Quest with the security of peace or rather is it not an aguish distemper to stand quaking and trembling in the Summers warm Sunshine The Psalmist saith when the Sea-man when he Psal 107. 27. is tossed and reeleth to and fro and staggers in a tempest is like a drunken man but is it not right out drunkenness or rather madness to do so in a calme and when gotten on the shoare To which I answer It is so Answ indeed to do so out of a slavish or unbelieving distraction or despondency which yet the best of Gods servants are sometimes overtaken with yea and that sometimes when both for inward and outward man they have all cause of joy and an holy confidence and security But as the Schoole observeth Biel. there is a double act of a chast and filial fear 1. One when we avoid sin for fear of offending God and so of being in any measure separated or estranged from him and thereby of losing of any either measure or manifestation of that good which we injoy through communion with him And thus Austin Tractat. in Johan defineth fear to be Fuga animi ne perdat quod diligit 2. The other is an awfull Reverence of God not as to any fear in us of our loss of him but onely as in himself he is the most perfect and absolute good and so most worthy of all humble observance The first of these they truly say is only here in via whilest we are here travellers in our way because when we come to our journies end and confirmed in glory there will be no danger and therefore no fear of any such offence and loss and disjunction But the latter abideth yea is perfected in heaven and so is both of in via and in Patria I am sure both of them are or at least should be found in us whilest we are here in the way and that not only in the foulest but even in the fairest plat of it where we should not onely be afraid of Gods judgements Psal 119. 120. but also of his tenderest mercies not only in the time of our danger and trouble but of our greatest rest and security even then we should walk in the fear of the Lord and that upon a twofold ground answerable to that forementioned double act of this godly fear 1. In the time of our rest and peace we have great need to put forth the first A●t of it in taking heed of offending God and so of being estranged from him because Then we are in the greatest danger of it 2. And as great cause we have Then also to put forth that second

it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every Synagogue yea so as to persecute them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to strange or remote cities Damascus by what you heard before was at a pretty distance But although in all this he sorely tyrannized over their bodies and outward man yet you may hope he attempted not their souls our Saviour seemeth to set bounds to these raging waves Hitherto shall you go and no further and therefore saith that when they have killed the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have nothing more that they can do Luk. 12. 4. And blessed be God that they have not in that sense which our Saviour there intendeth and yet the devilish Assasinate after he hath made his wretched enemy blaspheme Christ can then stab him that he may undo body and soul both together our Saul arose not to that height of hellish malice but he went very far when he compelled them to blaspheme And might he not then well add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was raving mad nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding mad when he added a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where our Saviour said there was not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now truly this was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 1. 21. an abundant superfluity of malicious madnesse so that where sin did thus abound unlesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5. 20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grace had not much more abounded as he humbly and thankfully afterwards acknowledged it did to him in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was exceeding abundant 1 Tim. 1. 14. he had been past hope of receiving any mercy from God who had shewed so little but the quite contrary to his people But it may be thought I have stepped too far out of the way and insisted too long on the view of this sad spectacle you will more easily pardon me while ye think that such dolefull objects sometimes make us stand still and fix our eyes on them 2 Sam. 20. 12. 2 Sam. 2. 23. as much as those that are more pleasing But to return to what I intended all these sad passages of Pauls outrage I have the rather mentioned and so largely insisted upon to shew How far some may go in a desperate way whom yet afterwards God in mercy may bring home And how far blinde zeal and seeming good intentions such were in Paul all this while may carry men in such a way And how open ingenuous punctuall and abundant such as Paul here was should be in their 1 Cor. 15. 9. 1 Tim. 1. 13. humble confessions afterward But especially and to my present purpose to shew when it is that after foregoing troubles and exercises God useth to vouchsafe rest to his wearied people and Churches Deut. 32. 36. and that is after the heaviest pressures a birth after the sharpest throwes day-break when it had been darkest a little before So Christ tarrieth till the fourth watch of the night and cometh in the heighth of a storme to make a calm of it when the ship was now sinking Mat. 14. 24 25. as in the same place when Peter was also sinking he then immediately stretched forth his hand and caught him v. 30 31. When their afflictions are so continued multiplied aggravated that they can bear no more God will then stay no longer but he that shall come will come and then not tarry Then a still voice cometh and God in it after the winde earthquakes and fire after an Hab. 2. 3. 1 King 19. 11 12. Gen. 26. 20 21 22. Ezek and Si●nah then a Rehoboth Then as it is in the Text or Therefore the Churches had rest And if you ask why so or Why. wherefore Then I answer with the Psalmist Reason 1 God remembreth us in our low estate because his mercy endureth Psal 126. 26. for ever Because his mercies endure for ever therefore it is that our miserie do not last alwayes The Churches affliction is not because Gods faithfulness and compassion is everlasting And hence it is that although as the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if need 1 Pet. 1 6. be the people of God be in heaviness through manifold temptations yet when that Need is over because he doth not willingly or from the heart afflict or grieve the children of men much less his own children when the child is humbled the Father more willingly casts away the rod then ever he took it into his hand and therefore although being constrained he sometimes and that for our good causeth grief yet then he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Lam. 2. 32 33. And if at any time we think he tarrieth long before he sheweth mercy it is onely because indeed we stay long before we are fit to receive it Make we but haste and he will not stay long he then tarrieth nor and so reconcileth that seeming contradiction Luke 18. 7. with 8. that although he bear long with them viz. Till they be ready yet when once they are he will then avenge them speedily so that although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He reserveth wrath for his enemies Nahum 1. 2. yet it is expresly said and that in the same word on the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will not keep anger for ever towards his children Psal 103. 9. they are his own words I will for this afflict the seed of David but not for ever 1 King 11. 39. Such and so great is the sweetnesse of his goodnesse Such is the wisdom that is from above in us and therefore infinitely more transcendent that above all is in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle and easie to be intreated James 3. 17. And such also his faithfulnesse and righteousness not to forget his servants work and labour of love and patience of hope in their former sufferings but to reward them with proportionable after rest and comfort and so we read Isa 40. 1. Comfort ye comfort ye my peo-people double comfort as they had received of him double for their sins v. 2. Nor this onely at death when they shall most certainly rest from their labours nor in Heaven onely where they Rev. 14. 13 shall have an everlasting sabbath of rest from all their toilsome Heb. 4. 9 travell here but oftentimes even in this life Christ knoweth how to make his flock to rest at Cant. 1. 7. noon as he took his Disciples aside and bad them rest a while when by their wearisome imployment they had not so much leisure as to eat Mat. 6. 31. which we have most elegantly expressed by the Prophet comparing Gods tenderest care of his wearied servants to the wise and merciful Husbandmans care of his wearied beast Hose 11. 4. I was to them as they that take off the yoak on their jawes as the Plowman doth from off his oxen when come home from work

against God himself the giver of them even Jesurun when grown fat begins to kick Deut. 32. 15. At least the heaping of such grosser fewell keepeth the fire from burning as it was in Ridleys Martyrdome and so too often in Fox Acts and Mon. Tom. 3. pag. 204. our hearts those sparkling joyes which should mount up to heaven are smothered and choked as the thornes of pleasures and lusts of other things are said to Luk. 8. 14. Mark 4. 19. choak the word and so these stifle all our spiritual comforts And what is this but in the clear warm Sunshine to sit dulling over our culinary fire and to shut out Heavens light that by such candle-light we may work the works of darkness But such of us as are children of the day what ever our outward condition be let our delight be to be in heavens light in the shine of the Sun of righteousness and if others will have theirs to be in corn and wine let ours with David be in Gods lifting up the light Psal 4. 6 7 of his countenance upon us that not onely his face may be towards us for so a mans may be and yet if held down may not be seen by us but so lifted up as to be beheld of us that not onely God may be reconciled to us but that we may see and know so much and let the same Davids prayer ever be ours let thy mercifull kindness be for my comfort Psal 119. 76. not my estate honour friends or any thing else but thy mercifull kindness Lord let that let that be for my comfort and then as He addeth in another Psalm Thou hast made him exceeding glad with the light of thy countenance Psal 21. 6. Glad we may be of outward refreshments even glad at heart in the sweet comfort of friends as Aaron was of Moses Exod. 4. 14. but exceeding glad the light of Gods countenance shining out in the face of Jesus Christ onely should make us as in this blessed example in the Text they were no doubt joyfully thankfull for their outward rest and peace But the comfort of the holy Ghost was their most pleasant walk which it 's therfore said they walked in in whose steps we should tread and for our incouragement herein consider that 1. On the one side this spiritual Motive joy in God will be more then able to fill up what ever shall be wanting as a great deal always will be in our outward comforts Have we never so much if there be never so little wanting that little want troubleth us more then all that great deal else which we enjoy can satisfie or in that case can pacify us at a little hole in the wall or window we feel a cooler winde come in then if the window had been all open Haman is in such a pett for want of a cap and a knee as without it all the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children and that great deal more which he reckoneth up Esth 5. 11 12. availeth him nothing v. 13. but he that hath this comfort of the holy Ghost hath more then enough to answer and satisfy for all that otherwise he wants I have all I abound I am full saith Paul Phil. 4. 19. he speaketh at the rate of one that had now risen from a full and rich feast or banquet whereas this great all that he is so filled with was but a present that those Philippians had sent him and Calvin thinks it was no great matter and yet as though he had received as much as all the world was worth he crieth out I have all I am full viz. because he was filled with all joy and peace Rom. 15. 13. Iohn 4. 32. in beleeving Such with their Saviour have meat to eat that others know not of even hidden Manna as that was laid up in Revel 2. 17. the ark so this hid in a Christians breast and there it abides incorruptible vinum in pectore able to make us a full meal of hungry Commons and to make up what ever our dish or cup wants of full as the aire doth all the Caverns yea and least chinks in the earth so that there is no vacuum on the one side I say the comforts of the Spirit sweetneth and supplyeth what ever is bitter or defective in outward comforts 2. Whereas on the other hand our sitting down and taking up and so committing folly with these outward mercies takes out yea imbittereth all the sweet of them as a child begotten of fornication or adultery may be a very sweet and pleasant one and how much comfort and joy saith the parent should I have in it but that it is a bastard and that dampeth all and how much refreshment may others say might we have in this estate pleasure preferment but that our hearts have gone a whoring from God after them as it 's said of Ephraim Hos 13. 1. though when he spake trembling he exalted himself in Israel yet when he sinned in Baal he dyed or as it is said of the King of Tyrus Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee Ezech. 29. 15. that blasts and kills all And therefore as it is said of Abishag that she ministred to David and 1 King 1. 4. cherished him but He knew her not So with Gods good leave and much good do it you let these outward comforts cheer and refresh us but let us not commit folly with them that they do not befool us of better i. e. of spirituall delights but that in their greatest entertainments we may retain nay have quickned by them a spirituall appetite and ability to taste more sweetness in more blessed dainties as here in their outward peace amidst the crowd of other comforts they had hearts not shrunk up and contracted but inlarged to walk in the comfort of the holy Ghost A help hereto would be in Means our Survey and valuation of Gods gifts to us in temporall mercies to be sensible of spiritual as Jacob in his children of the Grace of God which had given them Gen. 33. 5. and accordingly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psalmist all along in Psal 136. speaking of outward deliverances and provisions in redeeming from enemies and giving of food c. at the mention of every one of them endeth every verse with this thankfull Epiphonema for his mercy indureth for ever Labour we with him to see ever induring mercies in transitory injoyments that they come to us from a Fathers love by the blood of his Son in the way of a covenant proceeding from electing love and leading to everlasting life and that will add to them more worth and weight not to abase and press down and bury our souls under them but so as to raise up our hearts to God by them and to that more precious love of the Giver which hath put so much worth