Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	great_a	let_v	sinner_n	1,997	5	7.5506	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40442	A full enquiry into the power of faith, the nature of prophecy, the translation of Enoch and Elias, and the resurrection of Christ	Freke, William, 1662-1744.	1693 (1693)	Wing F2164; ESTC R100	66,199	82

expel the Canaanites till their Iniquities were grown to the full and Sodom and Gomorrah had not been destroyed had there been but five Righteous Persons remaining therein and even the Old World had the Patience of GOD for 120 Years ere they were destroyed by the Flood I see the matter we would fain excuse our Lusts and fling all on GOD we would fain make his ways unequal as the Children of Israel did about the sour Grapes when they aspersed GOD that the sins of the Fathers set the Childrens Teeth on edge But what are not these Calumnies false and have we not reason on the contrary to be even ravished with the unspeakable Love of GOD But to illustrate this the better shall not GOD bestow one or five Talents on whom he pleases Shall the Stone complain that he is not a Plant and the Horse that he is not a Man or the Man that he is not an Angel Or what ought we not rather all to joyn together to be thankful for the Bounty of our Maker At this rate like Lucifer else we shall endeavour at last to be our own Carvers even of the God-head also I say then if GOD gives him that has one Talent a fair Tryal as well as him that has two or him that has two a fair Tryal as well as him that has five have they reason to complain no surely Nor is this our case neither for GOD is more good than so he has promised to increase our Talents likewise if we use them well and if so where is the least room for those Calumnies Have we not rather reason to admire the infinite and unfathomable Mercies and Judgments of GOD Nor is the Objection from the Parable of the Labourers of any obstruction or difficulty in this matter neither for what though as our Saviour therein tells us that he that comes in to work at the latter end of the day shall have his Peny equally with him that bore the heat of the day must that destroy the degrees of Glory which his Apostles also have revealed unto us and which he himself also has declared by his Parable of the Talents No rather every Man shall answer for his Improvement only and live longer or shorter or work more or less yet shall no such accidental Advantages benefit or injure him but only his true and real advance through the Grace of God But you say GOD protected Moses and Christ from their Infancy and why not Where he has sown an extraordinary Seed of many Talents for the good of the World and his own Glory may not he justly in such a case also give notice of the birth of such a Seed nay and give it an extraordinary Preservation and that without the least prejudice to his Justice in their Tryals Thus could St. Paul's peculiar Call keep him from working out his Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 and Praying and keeping his Body under lest whilst he Preached he himself should be cast away 1 Cor. 9.27 Thus could Lucifer's Height secure him or Moses's Revelations bring him into the Land of Canaan Or to put the Argument to a higher Topick will you question that Justice that even the Devil does not who upon his certainty of its sincerity ventured to tempt even our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus No no the ways of God are too immutable to be drawn aside at any time into petty shifts and by-ways Nor on the same Account may we safely venture to Judge any Man what do we not see that greatest Sinners every day Repent And does not the Spirit often choose unlikely means to Worldly appearance lest therefore like those who would not let even that great Prophet Christ Jesus have Honour in his own Country let us forbear to censure and judge the Mercies and Judgments of God which are unfathomable Let us not look therefore on what Men are or have been but what they may be Upon the whole matter therefore if God usually lets the Father's Ignorances descend on the Son according to his Fourth Commandment and as we feel to our sorrow through the Fall of Adam and his Piety come as a Blessing to increase the Talents of his Generation as he did in Abraham yet if he allows them equally fair Tryals is he not Just And if he gives him that has one Talent five for the Improvement or takes his away quite that abuses them is not this Just also O the wonders of the Mercies and Judgments of GOD who can sufficiently admire the Mercies or dread the terrible Justice of our God And yet though the Scriptures Of our gradual access herein in pursuance of this Doctrine acquaints us that we shall not all dye 1 Cor. 15. as if the wickedness of one part of the World should draw down immediate Judgment and of the other side its Purity should attract Translation at the Consummation of all things Yet for all this we may assure our selves that this Conquest must be by a Gradual Access Christ tells us that the Kingdom of GOD is like a Seed sown that springs up we know not how Ue must not expect therefore to jump out of one state into another whether into Miracles or Translation but to proceed by degrees and as our time of Tryal will lead us for as Nemo repente fit turpissimus so Nemo repente fit optimus is as true and as if there were an Hundred Journeys to the Kingdom of GOD so we must have an Hundred rises and Stonds in Prayer and Purity ere we can receive our Crown We may see at first that Adam was intended for a tryal of time as he was to be Fruitful and multiply ere he was to be translated and if he as made a Prophet was in a state of delay what must we expect then that are a compleat Stage below him and that require as long a time ere we can be Prophets also Surely I say we may well have Patience would we travel our two long Journeys in a Minute or perfect such a Stage in an Hour And thus suppose our state to Prophecy required Ten Years the perfectest application to GOD and in the absolutest resignation after we are adult and as indeed seems rational enough in the Age of Christ and so I say suppose the like time were allotted for our Stage of Translation also could we be so unreasonable as to be angry at this bound of Tryal set us by God himself Or should we not rather patiently wait the leisure and Laws of our Purisication in it Had we not as rationally expect an Infant to be a Man and an Acron to be an Oak in a day and so over-rule all the Laws of Heaven Surely we had And if so why may not we have the Natural Patience of all things Nay and since we see that even the very World its self is forced to grow old and purifie it self thus by degrees But what after all dost thou think that thy Tryal proposed