Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	heart_n	lord_n	way_n	4,954	5	4.7237	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93844	A plain discovery of the unrighteous judge and false accuser wherein is soberly ... brought to light ... the spirit of that pamphlet, intituled, The leper cleansed ... by Richard Ballamy ... as also, a clear vindication of ... Anabaptists ... / by Robert Steed and Abraham Cheare ...	Steed, Robert, of Dartmouth.	1658 (1658)	Wing S5376B; ESTC R223912	66,136	82

communion first to a particular member now with the Lord and then unto the whole Accuser 3. As I found no profit my self by attending on their teaching so I observed little to any other Nay it hath been not only mine but the experience of others who have constantly attended them as long as my self that there was nothing but deadness of spirit to be gained there which hath at last caused them to desert them also Answer The Accuser doth not tell you that those constant attenders that have deserted us were members with us there being but his wise and one or two more since that on that pretension have left that Church as for usual hearers if any of them are gone on this ground as it 's more then they have declared so neither is it visible by any loss of number in that great concourse But put case that we lying under so great reproach as the Accuser hath publickly and doeth dayly wait and labour with his new friends to cast upon us both Members of the Church and Attenders on it should be offended finding fault with Ministers Administrations c. would this become a convincing Argument with a serious heart that God is witnessing against the way hath it not been the common tryal of Gods own people heretofore and at this day is there not to be observed and lamented a spirit of giddiness taking great hold of men and things so that the whole series of what of late dayes had on it the impression of Reformation seeming as it were to labour and encline towards its ancient corruption In which house of temptation we are indeed in expectation of greater tryals then these and yet in the middest of them have this to be glad in our God for that all along he hath not left us without several gratious testimonies of his converting and quickning presence notwithstanding our Accuser and such spirits as his is may have tasted little of it but have been filled with their own wayes Accuser 4. They are very vigilant and watchful to finde out any that are convinced and awakened under the publick ministry and when they begin to see things a little darkly and confusedly they take the advantage of this twilight in which their soules are to put off their commadities where their soules have some tenderness and yet a great deal of ignorance they are fit to wrought upon by them for by reason of the first they dare not neglect a command of God and by reason of the second it appeares to them that it is necessary to be dipt Answer This fourth Experiment comes to appearance very big into the world and promising great discoveries suddenly easeth it self of six monstrous births conceived in the wombe of it all which for the substance of them are no other then the old pulpit and pressworne-slanders that the dragon hath had ready in all generations as a flood to poure out upon the Lords people who have laboured faithfully to beare their testimony and set their shoulders to the work of reformation or to the recovery of any truth in Doctrine or practise from the pollutions of the man of sinne against the interest and streame of the fleshly wisdome and glory of the times they have lived in All which as we might cast off at once by testifying an holy detestation through grace in our hearts against the baseness of the things suggested so need we and shall we say the less to them 1. For that there are no particular persons instanced who in the things layd to our charge may be made out demonstrably to be guilty and it is our comfortable assurance that on a faithful and impartial search they will not be found but that the slander will return on the Accusers head and none be stumbled at it unless such as may judge that this Accusers truth and faithfulness in this narrative examined deserves for him that he be believed in a matter of this moment upon his own word 2. In that our Accuser with his own pen freeth those that are Godly among us from these things saying toward the close I speake not this of all for as I have said I believe there is a mixture of godly among them c. our interest is not our cause needs not that we should plead for any ungodly ones or any ungodly deeds that they shall commit if any such shall be found guilty of the things charged and persist in them let them beare their judgment whoever they be the Lord will we hope in due time discover them and deliver us from them For what is said of our insinuations on the ignorant with pretensions of love from us or peace from God pressing them speedily to Baptisme and having all our zeale for the practise of holiness running into that we abhor and reject as base falshoods as might appeare from our not accepting the tenders of many persons desiring baptisme and communion with us when we cannot be satisfied in some good measure of illumination in their understanding and distinct knowledge of the work of conversion on their hearts though we judge it our duty to be tender to the babes in Christ Touching our own ignorance with which we are often branded by this our Accuser and our shunning the light its true we are reputed and know our selves to be a weak and darke people yet we declare that through the supporting mercy of God whom we fear and on whom in this day of rebuke and blasphemy we rely for help we shall not cease to witness be-before great and small as the Lord shall minister ability and clear up our way That the doctrine which we profess and particularly that point of baptising only upon personal profession of saving faith is a doctrine according to Godliness and the same which was once delivered to the Saints excepting nevertheless to our selves and owning whatever miscarriages through personall defects may accompany this profession of truth in this day of small things Neither shall we shun to testifie that the imposing of the fleshly off spring upon the Gospel-Church is a doctrine without Scripture foundation And we doe testifie that in this faith we stand through grace and have peace with God in it withall we desire the upright in heart to weigh and consider faithfully as for God how much the said doctrine imposing the fleshly off-spring on the Gospel Church sperplexeth and obscureth the light and order of the ministration of the everlasting covenant established by the Son of God how it confoundeth the main distinction of the two Convenants in the different principle of their respective subjects typified by Ishmael and Isaac Gen. 21.10 and explained Gal 4 22-30 Rom. 9.8 distinguished in plain terms by the children of the flesh and the children of promise with respect to the several seasons of Law and Gospel Rom. 4.13 14. How it also darkneth the honor and dignity which the Gospel Ministration exalteth the Jew and his posterity unto by confirming unto them the first tenders of divine Grace by a special institution of this Ministration Mat. 10.5 6. whereby from their former priviledge of servants under the bondage-convenant they by faith in the grace so tendred to them obtain for ever the priviledge and dignity of Sons and heirs of God a more noble descent then that of Abraham Neither can that suggestion That baptizing only upon personall profession is a narrowing of the Covenant of grace be of any weight seeing no subject which the Covenant of grace either in the nature or present exhibition thereof declareth and judgeth competent in any degree stands excluded by it although we be thereof judged because we dare not presume in point of practise in instituted worship to depart from a plaine known rule to follow uncertain suppositions Notwithstanding also our Accuser be among others come forth to mock and reproach us for it a man that hath been our companion in the counsels of the house of God and as David found that an aggravation to his afflictions Psal 41.9 and 55.12 13 14. so is it with us this day in behalf of this poor man who may doubtless become a stumbling stone to credulous incantious souls but we are taught to cast our care in such a case upon God seeing the case is particularly his to provide for and we are perswaded that though thousands should fall off be offended in this day of manifold temptations through worldly disadvantages yet that thereby the truth wherein we stand should only receive purgation from the blemishes that are brought upon it by

Magistracy and Ministery as he hath informed the world then indeed leave us as he hath perswaded you But if these appear to be the unrighteous accusations of a person puffed up at best with the heat of his own passions then take heed and beware of that spirit which hath acted this man and led him aside according to the pride of his own heart to play both the unrighteous Judge and false Accuser against the way of God wherein we stand Friends We intend not in this defence to justify any evil person or matter for our advantage we are assured we have in hand a cause of God that needeth not save to be stated in its own simplicity wherein we shall endeavour to be faithfull with you being made willing by the grace of God to stand and fall with it The persons of men we shall not care to overvalue or presume to detract but as men stand approved or disapproved of the truth to give them their due and particularly for this our Judge and Accuser we shall cast behind us the filth of his invectives without retaliation his impertinencies and absurdities as much as may be we shall passe over with silence that what may be found in him to bear upon the mayn cause may be dealt withal Accuser It may seem strange to all that know me to see me in print and if any that see me thus appear judge that it is my mayn business to vindicate my self they are mistaken I am partly driven to this by the irregular proceedings of those who have judged me at an offender and yet would not give me liberty to speak for my self so that I am enforced to speak this way or to justify them by my silence but that which most of all prevails with me is First to give glory to God-in acknowledging his mercy who hath opened my eyes and shewed me the error of my way 2. I judge it my duty to labor to undeceive all the simple and plain hearted 3. I think it as necessary to discover the hypocrisie of some that ly in wait to deceive and by cunning insinuations and pretences to draw aside many souls to their own loss if not to their destruction Answer It is not much that we should think needfull to speak to this paragraph only whereas he begins It may seem strange to all that know me to see me in print In this the Accuser speaketh right for we have ground to judge he doth but personate the contrivance of other men Who have judged me as an offender and yet would not give me liberty to speak for my self We shall hereafter meet our Accuser in this his false allegation in its due place I think it as necessary to discover the hypocrisie of some that ly in wait to deceive c. Whom he intends under these expressions as hypocrites lyers in wait c. he manifests in the title page how well he proves us to be such appeareth by the sequele of his book where we shall have full opportunity to examine it He proceeds Accuser It is notoriously known to all the Inhabitants of Tyverton that I was deeply ingaged in that way which is commonly known by the name of Anabaptists yea so far as that I thought I was bound to oppose all that dissented from that way as being antichristian so zealous was I to promote that interest that I forsook my relations and left my fathers house not caring for any society but such as were for that way refusing to joyn in prayer with such as differed from me in that though otherwise godly thus I continued for the space of nigh two yeers but at last God was pleased to cause me to reflect upon my self and wayes and by some speciall providences of which by and by I shall give an accompt he made me willing to stand upon the ways and see and enquire for the way of the Lord for untill this time I was so filled with prejudice against the publick Ministery that I refused all conferences and debates with any though offered with never so much mildness concerning the way in which I was or if I did at any time admit of any it was to defend and not to examine it Answer All this rash and uneven walking while under this profession that this man makes discovery of himself in for we should not have judged it worth the while to have given such a character of him it easily appeareth to have sprung from the youthfull vanity and lightness of his own spirit not from any priaciple owned among us nor was the observation of it any comfort to us in that he was severall times reproved for sundry of those very things Accuser But now God having put some check upon my spirit I began to lay things in the balance and observing another people in this place walking under Ordinances and joyned with the publick Ministery such thoughts as these would come in sometimes We say we are in the way of God and they say they are in the way of God may not I all this while be mistaken Though I often opposed such thoughts as these yet they returned upon me by my observation for I could not but take notice that those I walked withall were looser both in their Principles and Practises then those I dissented from Answer Then I began to lay things in the balance c. Those unsteady revolutions of thoughts always learning never coming to the acknowledgment of the truth argue a minde unstable as water and therefore cannot excell I could not but take notice that those I walked with were looser both in their Principles and Practises then those I dissented from We shall not in this place insist on the weakness of the Argument urged from the practises of some persons to the error of their profession But to the generall charge we say That if to state the everlasting Covenant made and given by the Lord himself for the redemption of sinners and the efficacy of the Ministration thereof upon the free grace of God in Christ alone and so stated to minister the same for the calling and gathering of the elect the true seed in that Covenant given unto Christ for the bringing them into visible communion with Christ their head and each with other If to require a proof of the truth of this work before admission into such visible communion and fellowship with an pen profession upon such admission to take up the cross of Christ and follow him in doing and suffering his whole will as himself requireth Mat. 16.24 Luk. 14.26 If to administer such Gospel Ordinances as import the peculiar priviledges of the children and family of the Son of God to persons so approved and no others If to acknowledge and believe the everlasting Kingdom and Priesthood of Jesus Christ in providing for governing and perfecting his people although a feeble flock and therefore set at nought by them that are full and at ease If while these

so that God may not lose his Glory nor any of his people lose their comfort which if you tender be sure to prize those ways in which you received the first Conviction lest you one day lie down in sorrow for going away from God and from the striving of his Spirit Let me ask you that have with drawn from that Ministery to whom ye can say We are your work of the Lord have you the same tenderness the same affections to God that you once had in former days are not these much decayed O return from whence you are fallen and repent And now I shall conclude by giving the Reader an account of the sad experience that I have had in two yeers digression from the publick Ministery in Tiverton which God did at first bloss to the awakening of my soul Answer As he draws towards his Conclusion you have the Application of his miserable Doctrines after he hath with some flattering insinuations bespoke the farther attention of his ignorant young Christian as he calls him in his Title-page That now he may give a testimony of his fixed enmity to the way he was in and shew farther what Oracle he hath consulted with and what Spirit he is of he adventures on the house top in the sight of the Sun under the coverts of his two yeers sad experience to cast upon the way of the Lord and them that walk therein such horrible reproaches as the thoughts of Temperance Righteousness and Judgement to come would have made him tremble at having though seemingly aimed at them in Tiverton therein yet so shot as may indifferently reach all them anywhere that serve the Lord Jesus Christ under that name of reproach Under all which as a part of our Crown we could quietly sit down and pray Lord lay it not to his charge Father forgive him he knoweth not what he doth appealing for our Vindication to the Consciences of all serious unbyassed and unprejudiced Christians that have tasted our Doctrine and observed our walkings in the three Nations whether the things be so or nay and so leave it to the God and Father of the Spirits of all flesh who is coming out to pass righteous judgement in all such cases for his poor people that wait for him But yet for their sakes at whom he levels who being ignorant of us may be apt to be offended at such an impudent testimony we present a few animadversions on the two or three first things he saith the rest being such wretched falshoods as we abhor the thoughts of and delivered in such general termes without any particular instance wherein it is possible to trace him we reckon not worthy any other answer then that Psal 120.2 3 4. and 52.1 4. Accuser 1. I do not remember that I have had one conviction under all the sermons which I heard whilest I walked among them but that sence of my condition which I had before did abate and by little and little fall away after I turned my back upon the means which God made use of in working upon me Therefore I beg all those upon whose hearts God is working to take heed of despising or slighting those instruments with whom God is present Answer The Reader must suppose his meaning to be either that he felt no such thing as motions quicknings soule-searchings c. while with us or else that whatever of that kinde he had they are now to be accounted no other then delusions and so not worthy the name of convictions or of being remembred If the former be imagined to be his meaning we have abundant and pregnant testimonies how that many times he hath declared his having met with God to admiration while he hath with us been waiting on him so that he would not have given such opportunities as he hath reported for the world But if he mindes all these to have been the delusions of his own heart we shall not contend about it but that likely they were so or that he dissembled those pretensions of enjoying God Only it further shewes the mercy we have of being delivered from such a deceitful m●mber who either then belyed the spirit while he owned such operations to him as were none of his or if they were the spirits works doth now in effect deny them Nay the mistake is very great if it cannot be made good that he being shortly upon the publishing of this pamphlet in his name demanded by a member how he could date affirm such a thing that he had no convictions c. replyed that he never had sayd such a thing If so the Reader may guess what hand it 's likely himself had in compiling the book which with other evidences if we liked to produce them would put that matter out of question Accuser 2. I was drawn off by these men when I was in the greatest probability of receiving good from the ministry that I ever was for I doe remember still the impressions which were made upon my soule by those truths which I heard from Mr. Chishul a little before I was thus drawn aside which did work mightily to conviction and to resolution in me but the devill envying my prosperity sent me this thorne in the flesh and their insinuations and temptations did so prevaile with me that I left this ministry to attend on them which was but a diversion from the work of my soule and I finde that whereas before I had some things of weight upon my spirit these were soon layed aside and I had nothing to doe but to dispute about Baptisme and to raile against ministers so that my former awakenings were turned into drousiness and doting about questions Answer How unskilful this man is of judging about Convictions appears in part by what is last said How infaithful he is in reporting them is no less evident by considering that when he came at first to make out among us a profession of his faith in order to fellowship with us he testified that the first convictions that were wrought on his soule were through the word of the Lord held forth in the Church after which as himself said for worldly respects he went again to attend on the publick ministry but was there met with by some word of Mr. Chishul which put life again into his former convictions begotten by the ministry with us whereupon he returned again and on a declaration of the work of faith was baptised and admitted If this testimony of his was in truth and a true work of grace was on him then did the Lord witness to our ministry if he deceived us in that profession then hath the Lord witnessed to our rejecting him he went out from us because he was not of us Whereas he lays the stress of his coming to us upon our insinuating and tempting him after the strictest search it doth not appeare that any were urgent with him at all but that of his own voluntary inclinatition he proposed his desires of