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	lord_n	sin_n	25,125	5	5.0495	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34544	Self-imployment in secret ... left under the hand-writing of that learned & reverend divine, Mr. John Corbet ...; with a prefatory epistle of Mr. John Howe.	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.; Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1681 (1681)	Wing C6265; ESTC R32518	22,650	98

Servant O Lord but Remember me and Spare me according to thy great Mercy in Christ Jesus the great Propitiation for Sin in whom I desire to be found and under the Covert of whose Wing I stand that I may be Saved from thy Wrath and injoy thy Peace and live in thy Presence where is fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore Feb. 22. 1678 9 GOd will never Damn in Hell any Soul that hath the habitual predominant Love of God though culpably Remiss and otherwise Sinful while he remaineth such yea Hell and such Love of God are inconsistent I Love the Holy Will of God with all my Heart and hate all Disconformity to it Nothing is more Grievous to me than to displease God and nothing is more Pleasant to me than to please him I strive after Christian perfection I labour to be unbottomed of Self to dye to Self-advancement to Self-gloriation and to all selfish joys and to live wholly in and to God and to have Self swallowed up in the Love of Him I labour in the work of Self-resignation that my Will may be confined to and included in the Will of God I strive after Patience in its perfect Work and do find a willingness to yield to Gods Will in my Chastisements I still Justify God and do not entertain an hard Thought of his Dealing with me but conclude that it is altogether Holy Just and Good and for the best I feel my Sin a greater burden to me than my Affliction I had rather have Health of Soul in a Body full of Pain than Health and Ease of Body with a Distempered Soul And the Sense of my great Sinfulness disposeth me to Patience under my Afflicting Infirmities of Body I narrowly watch my Heart that it may not lodge or admit a vain Thought When I am surprized with Vanity I suppress it as soon as I observe it I am very fearful of offending in a Word When on the Sudden and by Incogitancy I have spoken a Word which upon Second Thoughts is doubtful to me though I had not such doubt in the speaking of it I have been much perplexed about it and have engaged my self to a greater Watchfulness Aug. 1680. SUrely Christ hath my Heart Whensoever I swerve from Christ in a Thought Word or Deed it is by inadvertency and surprizal against my fixed Principle and I have great Regret at it and Loath my self for it If I were out of all fear o damnation I had rather be holy then unholy and I take pains and use Gods means to be holy in opposition to the flesh and I make it my chief care And I do this because I make the enjoying of God my chief good and rather than lose the hope thereof I would willingly undergo the sufferings of this Life which lead to that blessed fruition not excepting the fiery-trial it self Aug. 1680. I Hope when the end cometh my God will say to me dear Child thy warfare is accompilshed thine iniquity is pardoned enter thou into my Rest. Therefore I will both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of God I will hope to the end Strengthen me O my God that I faint not October the 4. 1680. I Have no design I pursue nothing contrary to God's interest but all my designes and pursuits are for God and Holiness I think I am sure of this if I be sure of any thing My great aim and care and labour is to cleanse my self from all filthyness of Flesh and Spirit and to perfect Holyness in the fear of God To whom I yield my self a Servant to obey his Servant I am But I do not yield my self a Servant to sin to obey it but I do yield my self a Servant to God to obey Him The design and business of my life is to do his Will THE WORKINGS OF MY HEART IN MY AFFLICTION Aug. the 5th 1680. THe Will of God in laying this affliction upon me I unfeignedly approve as Holy Just and Good And I am unfeignedly willing to bear the Affliction as it is an Evil laid upon me by his Will till the time come in which he thinks fit to remove it I watch and pray and strive that I may not give way to a repining thought against his holy Hand In this point thē Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak My mind doth really consent to Gods dispensation and to my submission and being most agreeable to his wise and gracious Government and most conducing to my Salvation But my sensitive part and my mind also as it is in part unrenewed weak and sinful doth greatly reluctate so that I am put hard to it and I must say I am willing Lord help my unwillingness I have not observed in the several dayes that a thought of direct or positive discontentment or vexatious commotion of mind hath been admitted by me nevertheless I see to my grief that I fall exceeding short of that quietness contentation and cheerfulness in my condition and of that sreeness of Self Resignation to Gods Will that I desire and his goodness calls for I wrestle with God by importunate prayer that this thorn in the flesh might depart from me that this distemper might be removed or so mitigated that I might be in some comfortable ease and get a more cheerful freedom in doing my duty Yet I would not wrest this relief out of his hands unseasonably and without his good Will and his Blessing I would wait his time and desire to have it with his love and favour and with a saving benefit And so my earnest desire thereof is limited with submission to his holy Will Yet I find that this submission is no easy matter but that I must take pains with my own heart and that it is God who must work my heart to it and keep under the flesh which is alwaies ready to rebel It is hard to be willing to bear my wearisom condition And O how weak is my heart and ready to sink if it be not upheld by a strength above my own O let His Grace be sufficient for me and let His Power be made perfect in my weakness I feel my self bettered in the inner man by this chastening It hath furthered Mortification and Self-denyal and done much to the breaking of the heart of Pride and to bring me on towards that more perfect Self-Examination for which I labour It hath much deadned the World to me and my desire to the World It makes me know in earnest the Emptiness of all creatures and how great my concern is in God It drives me close to him and makes me to fetch all my comforts from him I see of how little value all outward contentments are and not only in my present afflicted state but if I were at ease and in full prosperity The sense of this benefit to my soul is the great means of bringing my Will to that weak degree of submission to God's Will to which I have atatined O that I

God Thus I am searching and trying my heart and wayes and what I find by my self I write down that I may have it by me for my relief in an Evil day and an hour of temptation For I must expect the time when by weakness or anguish of Body or mind I may be disabled to recollect my self and duly to state the case of my own Soul And the Powers of Nature may so fail that I may have but a very weak Apprehension of what I have to do in this great Concernment I am warned by the parable of the ten Virgins to look to it that together with my Lamp I may have Oyl in my Vessel and be ready to enter in with the Bridegroom at his coming Lord be Merciful to me a sinner to me one of the chiefest of Sinners O my exceeding sinfulness O the Riches of thy goodness towards me Should not I loath my Carnal self should not I grieve for grieving thy Spirit I desire to do so I hope to do so Do what thou wilt with me so thou pardon and Sanctify and save me I am afraid of thy judgments I can endure but little O how weak is my heart Nevertheless I will endeavour and I trust through Grace that that I shall be enabled to bear thy correcting hand Thou art Wise and Holy Thou art Merciful and Gracious Thou retainest not thine Anger for ever because thou delightest in mercy O spare me and consider me and deal with me not after my Sins and reward me not after mine Iniquities but as far as the East is from the West so far remove my transgressions from me comfort me and satisfy me for I wait for relief from thee Whatsoever befalls me I will put my trust in thee I believe O Lord help my unbelief Lord increase my Faith O my God I lie at thy feet and Mercy I put my sinful distressed Soul into the hands of Jesus Christ and I rest on the Covenant of grace made in him as all my Salvation and all my desire Amen More Observations touching the State of my Soul March the 27th 1676. O The wonderful mercy of God towards me a most vile and ●●etched sinner in convincing rebuking and awakening me unto a self-abhorrence and an utter detestation of my sins my special sins so that I cannot be reconciled to them Since the more powerful awakening of my Conscience I never have and am perswaded never shall return to those former sins which made a breach between God and my Soul I hate every sin impartially A sinful state is in my internal sense an horrid and an hellish state I finde my self firmly resolved to give up any part of my worldly Estate that I shall be found to hold to anothers Wrong If it be doubtful where the Right lies I am resolved first to indeavour a Reference to Conscientious knowing Men and if that cannot be fitly had to submit it to a Legal Tryal with a desire that Right may take place I know not that I hold any 〈◊〉 Estate or that there is any doubt of my Legal Right to any thing that I possess but I have made supposition for the Tryal of my own Spirit When I had a Father or Mother I would have trusted them to defend or deliver me from any Evil from which it was in their power to defend or deliver me In the same manner I now trust to my loving Wife Why then should I be suspicious of God in whose Hands I am Why should I doubt of his Dear Love and Tender Mercy towards me or call in question his good Will to preserve or deliver me from any Affliction that would be too hard for me to bear or to sustain and comfort me under any Suffering which he sees fit to inflict upon me If when I was more careless and forgetful of God and when I ventured upon breaches with him he was pleased to convince me of my Sin and to rouze me up to a greater Care and to make me more earnest for Pardon and for Healing and for all needful Grace and more throughly Resolved to follow him throughout surely he will not refuse me in my Addresses for more Grace and a more confirmed State of Holiness If I follow on to know the Lord I shall know him and see his Salvation Though Death and Judgment be of dreadful Consideration though God be Holy and Just and I be vile and guilty and worthy of eternal Perdition yet why should I doubt of Mercy and Forgiveness and of Support and Comfort in the Darkness of Death and of Justification in the Day of Judgment from a Merciful and Faithful God through a Powerful Redeemer and Advocate seeing as a humble Penitent Believer I lye at his Feet and cast my self into his Arms and wait on his Grace and am resolved to keep his Wayes and never to return to Folly I more desire to be Sincere than to know that I am so The comfort and delight of being and doing Good I fet not so much by as the very being and doing Good To Love God and to be Conformable to him is that which I most of all desire should be in me I will trust God in his Wayes I will strive against an over-timorous sollicitude about my own Salvation and will commit my self to God who is the infinite Goodness and Love and I will lye down and take my Repose therein I am grieved when I observe or hear of the Scandals of some Professors and the disorders of those that are in Charity to bejudged Sincere and the follies and frailties of the more Sincere and Upright And it humbles me by causing me to reflect upon my self and my own Faultiness and Weakness and Proness to Offend and it makes me more to desire the Heavenly Society and to be among the Spirits of Just Men made perfect My Sins of Sensuality in every kind and degree I search out and Repent of I am kept by Grace from gross Sins of this sort In the Gratifications of Sense which are Lawful in general I Scrupulously dread Excess and unduness of Circumstances How earnestly do I desire an absolute Purity All Envy Unrighteousness Uncharitableness Uncompassionateness Undutifulness and base Selfishness which is the Root of all I have Seen Lamented and Abhorred The motions and stirrings of Mind that way are suppressed and dislodged I will never give way thereunto Self-applauding Self-seeking in matter of Praise and Honour before Men I strive against I desire to be as Sincere to anothers Reputation as to my own I would not value others by their regard to me but by their true Worth I would be contented to be little in the Eyes of others This I unfeignedly desire and endeavour and I hope that I have it in some good Degree All my Omissions and Negligences in the Work of the Ministry in Preaching in Personal private Application I bewail and heartily resolve upon more diligence and faithfulness Enter not into Judgment with thy