Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B03557
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The sacred diary: Or, select meditations for every part of the day, and the employments thereof: With directions to persons of all ranks, for the holy spending every ordinary day of the Week. Propounded as means to facilitate a pious life, and for the spiritual improvement of every Christian.
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Gearing, William.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing G438; ESTC R177551
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109,549
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305
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and Men that in special do want our Prayers in publique and private Calamities Object But we must ask according to the Will of God Resp Yes according to his revealed Will We must not cannot look into his secret Will to see who are there excluded from his Mercy but those who are excluded in his revealed Will we must not sue for as the Devils and those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost if we knew them Object But do we not worship God in vain when we pray for whom the Lord will not hear us Resp I answer No Our Prayer shall return into our own bosoms as it was with the Psalmist when he prayed for his Enemies III. To whom must we pray I answer Unto God who is there called a Father a Word of Nature or Person In the former sense taken for the Holy Trinity in the latter for the First Person Here ye may understand it both ways in a compound sence 1. That you are to direct your Prayers to God the whole Divine Nature Father Son and Holy Ghost And then withal to the Father first in order through the Son by the Holy Ghost All are here condemned who pray unto any other None is to be prayed unto but whom we may call our Heavenly Father which is not due to any Creature IV. Through whom I answer Through Christ alone For through him and none other is God become our Father By Him we have the priviledg of Adoption and are made Sons and Daughters We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous who is the Prepitiation for our Sins 1 John 2.1 None can be our Mediator of Intercession unto God but He that is the Propitiation appeasing him and satisfying his Wrath due unto our Sins and therefore no Saint nor Angel must be employed in this Office There is but one Mediator of Redemption and Intercession between God and Man even Christ Jesus who is both God and Man V. How we must pray Resp 1. As to a Father 2. As to a Father which is in Heaven And therefore To one that is willing and ready to help infinite in Majesty and Soveraignty seeing and knowing all things our Hearts our Wants This should teach you to pray with Boldness Confidence Reverence Understanding Sincerity Pray with Boldness as to a Father with Confidence and Reverence as to an Heavenly Father with Sincerity and Understanding as to him that seeth your Hearts The things that we are to pray for every Morning at least one reduceth them to these Heads viz. That you may not offend God this Day That you may not want Grace Light and Courage to resist those Temptations which most assail you and those Sins to which you are most inclined That you may practise those Vertues which are most necessary for you That you may be guided this Day by God's good Providence in all that concerns your Soul Body and Estate That you may obtain new Favours and Assistance for the Necessities of your Neighbours which you may then set before him This kind of Supplication among other Commodities hath this withal that it daily reneweth in the Soul some good purposes and desires of Vertues and moveth it to be the more earnest to do that thing which he hath so frequently and so earnestly desired Chrysostom saith Such as pray earnestly in very deed will not suffer their Hearts to commit any thing that is unseemly for such an Exercise but ever have their Eyes upon God with whom a little before they talked and were conversant And so by that Cogitation they put away from them all the Suggestions of the Devil when they consider what an hainous matter it were that he that had a little before talked with Almighty God and desired of him Chastity and Holiness with all other Vertues should immediately run to his Enemies side and open the Gates of his Soul to receive in filthy and dishonest Delights and suffer the Devil to place him self in that Heart which a little before was the Temple of the Holy Ghost A form of Petition composed by Thomas Aquinas O God give unto me and unto all those whom I commend in my Prayer an understanding to know Thee and affectionate devotion to seek Thee a Wisdom to find Thee a Conversation to please Thee a Perseverance boldly to wait on Thee a Faith happily to embrace Thee My God so order it that I may be wounded with Thy sufferings in Repentance that in this Life I may use Thy Blessings in Grace and enjoy in the other Eternal Joys in Glory Amen SECT XIX Of Offering our selves to God ONe act of true Devotion is That a Man should every Morning offer up and make a Resignation of himself unto God which is an absolute parting with himself and a putting himself under the Power Wisdom and Soveraignty of God to be commanded ordered and disposed in all things by him according to his Will This work of Resigning our selves to God must be always doing whilst we are in this World When God hath wrought upon the Heart by effectual Perswasions and by his mighty Power the Lord saith to the Soul I am thy God and the Soul answers in truth And I am Thine As David Psal 116.6 O Lord I am thy Servant I am thy Servant Now is the Resignation actually made But though this be done yet it is still always doing whilst we are here upon Earth nay to Eternity For it is a thing that consists of an iteration of multiplied Acts. As Wedlock is not one single Act of Persons giving themselves each to other but if they live as Married Persons ought there is a daily giving of themselves each to other Their Hearts go out every day with Complacency and Delight willingly renewing the Bond and making the Contract yet firmer and firmer The end of this Resignation of your selves to God is that in all things you may be Commanded Ruled and Governed by him to have the Will of God to be your Bounds and to have it for your Rule and Pattern To be Bounded by God is to do nothing but what God doth either Command or Warrant All things are not Commanded a Christian that he may do But Commands and Warrants are the utmost Latitude of that Liberty which is left us we have no further to go and we need not there is scope enough to keep within these Limits Psal 119.16 Saith David I have seen an end of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad It is as if he had said I have walked over the fair Plains of every Creature I have viewed the extent of all Excellency in them and I could look beyond it But when I look upon the Commandment of God as it is either Mandatory or Promisory it is of so vast Dimensions so exceeding great that it exceeds all things in the World there is room enough for the Spirit of a Man that is in true subjection unto God Now as we need not step
shews and needless Superstitions and yet have not one spark of Fire from above to set their Offerings on fire It is not a body of Sin that will make a pleasing Sacrifice unto God but a Body and Soul washed by the Blood of Christ Therefore you to whom God hath thus given you must offer up your selves to him as our Saviour saith to his Disciples To you it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given So I say To you it is given to pray to you it is given to reade the Scriptures and to hear the Word of God To you it is given to meditate on the Word To you it is given to see and conceive aright of Heavenly Things Ye have tasted of Love and Mercy and therefore to you it is given to shew Love and Mercy Think ye of your Talents and of your Receipts unto whom God hath given much look what ye have received mind your Account tender his Glory whose Love in all Eternity was so tender to your Souls above many thousand others SECT XXX Of the Improvement of all Means Gifts and Abilities inward and outward bestowed upon us LEt every one labour to improve all inward Gifts Means and Abilities bestowed upon them 1. Whosoever hath a larger Understanding and a more searching Head than others God requires the more of such an one his Brains should not be busied in hatching crafty and mischievous Plots against God and his Service against the Church of God or against his Neighbour God did not allow that great Politician Achitophel to use that wit he had given him to invent nor his Tongue which was an as Oracle to deliver a pestilent Counsel against his Anointed a Man after God's own Heart not to teach the Son how to kill his Father This is the height of Satan's wickedness that whereas the Lord made him a glorious Angel of Light and endued him with an admirable understanding and knowledg he on the other side abuseth it most wickedly to the Dishonour of God his Maker to oppose his Glory to ensnare his Servants and weaken his Kingdom Some Men have notable Heads and great Apprehensions but they fill them meerly with Earth the World possesseth them altogether they are wholly busied in laying plots for Gain or in compassing and grasping more of the World than they can well rule when they have it as if God had given them more Wit than others that they may be greater Drudges and Slaves to Mammon than others Some again do abuse their Wits in frothy Jesting and Scoffing at others in wanton and licentious Rhimes and Poems A witty Poem of one Licentius a young Noble Man coming into the hands of St. August Epist 39. ad Licen Augustine whose Scholar he had sometime been the said Father perceiving he had wickedly abused his Wit therein writes to him in this manner I have read this Poem of thine and I know not with what Verses to lament and mourn over it because I see a pregnant Wit in every Line but such an one as I cannot dedicate unto God Then he exhorteth him Da te Domino meo c. Give thy self unto my Lord who hath given thee this excellent Wit If thou hadst found a Golden Cup wouldst thou not have given it to some publique use God hath given thee a Golden Wit thy Vnderstanding is a Golden Cup and wilt thou let thy Lusts drink out of it Or wilt thou drink thy self to the Devil in it Know thou that Satan seeks to make thy Wit an ornament to him and thy Parts the credit of his Court and Cause The best Wits are fittest for the best and highest Employments It is pity that Men of excellent understandings should be set to dig in the mines of base Employments They should use them in searching the Scriptures and in gathering Knowledg out of the Word of God who doth not require of the unreasonable Creature that it should know his Will in his Word but of Man to whom he hath given a more excellent Spirit But this is to be lamented that Men that naturally have notable Understandings quick Wits and solid Judgments are very blind and shallow in the knowledg of God's Word How will these stand before the Lord at the last Day when he shall say unto them I gave thee a great Understanding but thou knewest any thing rather than me whom thou shouldst have laboured to know above all things How hast thou busied thy Wits Didst thou not think me worth thy knowledg and acquaintance Thou knewest the way to thrive and get Wealth to please and get the good will of Men but didst not care to know the way to please Me to find out the way which I had ordained for thee to walk in Thou knewest how to speak unto Men but didst not care how to call upon my Name Then wilt thou cry out Oh! that I had had a saving knowledg of God and his Will although all that had known Me had derided me for a Fool and contemned me for want of Worldly Wisdom Oh that I had known Jesus Christ and him Crucified though I had known nothing else Oh that I had throughly and spiritually known the Scriptures which would have made me wise unto Salvation though I had not known my right Hand from my left Wo is me that I busied my Head about Trifles and cared not to know the Way of Life and everlasting Peace Alas all my Wit my Craft my Policy now faileth me it will not serve to help me with one excuse whereby to shift off the Wrath and Justice of God it doth me no good now that I am to appear before my Judg. Labour then for such knowledg as may tend some way or other to your furtherance in Godliness and use your Understandings also to bring things about as well as ye can for the promoting of God's Glory For as the Lord doth by his infinite Wisdom defeat and bring to nought the crafty malicious plots of Satan so also he would have his Children to whom he hath given better Understandings and more Wisdom than to others to oppose their Wits against the Craft of wicked Men and use their best skill to uphold Religion and to overthrow the strong-holds of Satan Thus was Hushai among all David's followers chosen out to match Achitophel and to be a means to defeat his crafty Counsel and turn it into Foolishness And as for those that have not so good Natural Understandings as these yet according to their measure they must use their Talent for which they are accountable to the Lord Even weak natural Parts may be excellently perfected and bettered by Grace and raised to an higher degree than could be expected therefore none must give over exercising their Gifts although they cannot match some that are more excellent II. In the second place as to the Memory some Men have a great Gift this way They can remember things even