Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	jesus_n	sin_n	sinner_n	3,659	5	7.4408	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57529	Matrimoniall honovr, or, The mutuall crowne and comfort of godly, loyall, and chaste marriage wherein the right way to preserve the honour of marriage unstained, is at large described, urged, and applied : with resolution of sundry materiall questions concerning this argument / by D.R. ...	D. R. (Daniel Rogers), 1573-1652.	1642 (1642)	Wing R1797; ESTC R5451	341,707	420

should imagine a possibility of it seeing what the name of David Lot Salomon till this day suffer for it As a blur in faire cambrique so is this alway cast upon him as his shame God doth not usually upbrayde his people But this he alway casts him in teeth withall yet this Caution I adde by the way It is not lawfull hereby to condemne whom God hath justified but to cover it rather for our parts But for caution to others the Lord will rather make a Record of it and hang it on the file then it shal be forgotten And when we heare the uncharitable imputations of men fret not at them but say God is in it he will keep it on foot he will checke the soule with it and caufe the guilty therof to possesse the sin of their youth as Iob did If God shall conceale the shame of any guilty of this sin let them prayse him and make an end of all in his privy Chamber of mercy and Repentance that so his open judiciall proceeding in court may be stopped Let this also adde some weight of terror and divorce thee from this sin whip the slaves backe with this rod But the son will be drawne by love So much for this second of Meditation The third and last is to practise somewhat And this is the mayne of all other helpes to rid us of this muscheefe And it consists of sundry particulars Touching all which let the Reader understand that they properly concerne such as have beene actually defiled with uncleannesse in one kind or other And these men are either guilty of their Crime during their estate of ignorance and unregeneracy or else such as have revolted from that grace which they have either soundly or seemingly received To both I would give some advise and first to the former To that then which hath beene abundantly spoken of the Terrors of God against this sin let this only be added That all those men whose hearts God shall touch for it doe lay them close to their hearts that as that pearking presumptuous Asahel was met with and pierced in the fifth rib by Abners speare so may these wild creatures be in their ventrous provoking of God Surelie such a giddy lightnes is in every uncleane heart yea the religious they cannot be solid when as they would they are so drunken with this sin except the law or else that old Simeon speakes of which must open and let out the thoughts of many hearts do let out these wild and unbrideled affections And as that Asahel 2. Sam. 2. being once darted through was tame enough and stopt in his wantonnes so let thy soule be earnest with God to step out of his ordinary way to make an high sence and sharpe hedge of Thornes which he doth but for few in this kind yea to set an Angell before the doore of that harlot shaking a sword that thou mayst no more venture to returne This will not bee till a fire bee thrust into thy soule to feele the intolerable wrathe of God upon all Whoremongers which may so sting thee that as a man scalt or burnt hath small joy or mirth so the feeling of thy selfe in the suburbs of hell may cause thee to feele small list or edge to thy former occupation Hell my freind is no paynced sire on the wall such as thou seest in Alehouses to make drunkards merry but is kindled with the breath of God who hath vowed to bee a terrible judge and consuming fire to all defilers of themselves with whores or harlots single or married yet entreat him that this terror of his may not be extreeme and desperate as his was of whom I last spake ending in violent laying of hands upon himselfe and preventing of Repentance but rather breake the force of lust pull down thy jollity that it may bee as sad an object to thee as was the murthering of the Lord of life to Peters hearers Act. 2. 37. And not onely so but stoop and quaile under this terror of God wee see prisoners at the barre doe not descant or quarrell with the Iudge all their language is confession and supplication for why They know the Iudge hath them at advantage their lives stand at his curtesie Do thou likewise Will God judge Adulterers Stoop then at his barre hee can save or destroy Other Iudges admit appeale themselves may and must be judged their judgements may bee questioned disannulled they sit but upon the breath and life of a man Not so the Lord hee is Iudge of the high Court a Soveraigne King and Iudge If hee once passe sentence no revocation it toucheth the life of thy precious soule This should affright all uncleane persons What suing and seeking is there to the Iudges of spirituall Courts if they threaten but the sheet Oh! but here 's a greater Iudge that can damne thee in hell for ever No bribes prevaile here he is like that enemy of Babell who should scorne all gifts and bee above gold and silver Submit therefore under his hand confesse thy damnation is just lie prostrate upon the earth with thy mouth in the dust and say oh thou the Soveraigne God of the Creatures enemie of all uncleane wretches if thou send mee to hell I have nothing to alleadge if I perish I may thanke my selfe thou hast power to destroy Tremble at this Soveraignty doe not quarrell nor shift with him there is nothing to be pleaded save meere favour I can say nothing why the sentence of death should not be pronounced against me Secondly seeing all repentance stands not in a preparative go on be earnest with God to give thee a glimpse of hope in the Lord Iesus who was made all sinne and this by name not onely for David but for the nature of man and for thine and hath satisfied the wrath of this Iudge that he might say deliver him I have accepted a ransome The law of Moses knew no such attonement stoning and strangling was the end of it As the Iudge tells some felons that the law hath no mercy for them their sinnes exceed it so here But the Gospell affords more grace refuseth to pardon no sinne no offence which the soule can be humbled for I grant this will not easily enter so debauch't a spirit to dream of a possibility of such a grace For when that conscience which was so deeply benummed is once stirred to the bottom it becomes as sensible as ever it was senselesse before and while conscience holds under bondage it s no easie thing to fee such an hope of grace by the Gospell But yet in this thy amasement utter losse an despaire in thy selfe thou must wait upon God who can sustaine thy bottomlesse spirit from sinking altogether till in due time he open a crevis of light into thy dark dungeon And when it shall please him to turne thine eie towards some likelihood of finding mercy in the

hypocrites can teach thee It will intercept all thy succours of lust thy provision to fulfill thy lustes When the Court is pulled downe who needes to feare suires in it It will cause thee not morally but from a Principle of grace to shunne all meanes motives provocations and snares of uncleannes which the Devill shall straw in thy way That so the oile being gone the flames may vanish It shall change thy uncleane thoughts affections eyes eares into cleane and pure ones If thy harlot meet thee and say It is I thou shalt answer but I am not I not my selfe Another is become that in mee which my cursed selfe was wont to bee The signe is pulld downe the Alehouse is let to a man of trade no more harlots nor adulterers come there new Lords new Lawes all old things are done away behold all things are become new I am redeemed with a price not to be mine owne if my Lord and Master will endure lust if any accord betweene Christs body and an harlot aske him leave and I obey else I am not my owne Oh! this Grace shall bring thy lust to the horns of the Altar binde it thereto with cords cut the throate of it with the sacrificing knife of the Priest Thy Priest will teach thee to do that office very handsomely to let out the ranke blood of thy lust and the strength and sway which it bare in thee yea it shall drag thine uncleane heart to Golgotha and naile it to the crosse of thy Priest with the same nailes which nailed the body of Christ It is happier to find out those Implements Crosse blood nayles tombe and all then ever Helen was or any Popish relique-monger and to make use of them too to better end then at this daie that Popish Covent of Friats do who have hired those places of the Turke built Temples Altais and silver floores in honor of the Passion It shall cry in thy soule Oh lust I wil bee thy death oh Concupiscence I wil be thy destruction The sting of fin is death and the strength of lust is the law But thanks be to God in Iesus Christ who hath condemned sin in the flesh mortified it by the flesh of his holy body hat neither guilt nor dominion might prevaile Pursue the victory the Lord is with thee thou valiant man and in this thy strength fight and lin not while through thy Captaine both sin and luste die in thee Sixthly returne to the Lord with full bent of soule to renounce all cleaving to the flesh and to cleave to him without seperation That grace which hath killed lust will quicken the life of purenesse in thy soule it will indeed make thee a t●ue Pentient not only to renounce uncleanes but to embrace a Chaste spirit and live a Chaste life to returne to God in a contrary practice of unblameablenesse all thy daies so farre as weaknesse will permit As he tooke off from thy jawes the yoke of servitude so he shall make his owne joake easie and his burden light He shal bee as one that layeth meate before thee thou shalt be so preserved by the sweetnes of grace that all the sweetnesse of lust of adultery of lascivi usnes shall stinke before thee so that they shall never have hope to recover thee into their possession any more And what then remayneth but when lust knowes not what to doe with thee then thine eare be bored with Gods awle that so thou maist bee his servant and walke in purenesse and holines all thy daies The Lord blesse this maine Direction with all other unto thee and remember none but Christ can heale this sore And so much for the former branch of Counsell to them who are onely guilty of the sin I passe lastly to the other who have revolted from this Grace once obteyned Lastly therefore if thy uncleannes be yet of a deeper die as beeing a revolt from the Grace of God and the vow of thy spirituall baptisme once made then know the Cure is somewhat different from the former Here then Remember that the seed of God in his dyeth not Therefore if once God hath awakned thee out of this thy relapse and the dead sleep of security under it which if he love thee he will do by some three string'd whip or other which hee shall make for thee as once he did for those defilers of his Temple by some crosse or stirring terrors of the word in thy soule then take Davids course Beseech the Lord first that the despaire and extreame horror which an ill conscience sicke of a relapse might worke in thee through unbeleefe added to it may gratiously bee kept off and so thine heart may be stayd from utter departing from the living God upon feare that he is wholly departed from thee Secondly remember that the covenant of God cannot be repealed it comprehends thee when thou canst not it Therefore apply those mercies of old and be comforted Thirdly take heed lest Satan confound and oppresse thy spirit by the conscience of thy base revolting sinning against such mercies and snarling thy soule with so many successive evills as thou hast heaped upon one another without an heart to get out For its an easie thing to lose a mans spirit and selfe in the divells maze Fourthly with a penitent heart for thy trechery that thou shouldest kick up thy heele against former mercies and covenants behold that promise of which I formerly spake and apply it unto thy soule as thou art able knowing that whatsoever Satan hath to gainsay the Lord Iesus was made all sinne both of rebellion against and also revolt from God that thou mightst be his righteousnesse and recover it having lost it Fifthly let the affliction of thy soule so deeply cease upon thee till through mercy it have soaked into thee and pierced thee as deepe as thy sinne hath peirced God as the tent must go as deepe as the sore is festered and fetch out the bottome scurfe content not thy selfe with such an humbling as thy slight heart would admit For this is one attendant of this sinne to be light and wanton and not to bee able to bee serious Therefore set thine heart to it mocke not God make not the remedy worse then the disease that thou shouldest even be fetcht in againe by Satans clawes ere thy repentance is finished which were to unsettle the work of God in thee and worke thy heart to a despaire of recovery It hath beene the portion of many uncleane ones never to get a serious spirit If therefore thine heart be once downe hold it as if thou shouldst keepe corke under water and trust it not pray thus withdraw from me all objects of vanity and teach me thy law gratiously Arraigne accuse condemne thy selfe judge thy selfe lest God judge thee and till God raise thee be content to lye low beare the indignation of the Lord because thou hast sinned and be

so few backsteps comming from thenceward would thinke any other save that there they were devoured And who would dare to hasard himself upon such a point as whether he should come backe from tha●pit from which its ten to one if any at all returne That heathen Philosopher Xenocrates may teach us wisedome herein who was a Stoick of most exact cha●tity and morallity He having read to his scholers deep Lectures of austerity and abstinence from all pleasures seeming to his Scholers to speak more then he had strength to performe was attempted by them what he was they got an harlot of exquisit beauty and laid her in his bed to provoke him to folly But he according to his rules abhorring the temptation answered them he would not buy repentance at so deere a rate Surely if he who had no more to lose save his morrall conscience and feared lest the forfeit thereof would prove so irrecoverable what should we Christians say who have our soules to lose what should it profit to winne the world and lose them or what shall bee given in exchange of them And having no hope of recovering repentance any more how should they tremble at so great a losse In one word this I say that this sinne hath a wofull spirituall giddinesse and drunkennesse annexed unto it disabling the sinner from laying it to heart except strange mercie prevent him so that as Salomon speakes in comparing the two sexes so may I say in comparing these with other sinners I have seene of them one of a thousand to repent but of this scarse one of a thousand It s the Lords course to give over these sinners to their haunt and custome It s said of Queene Tomyris that having overcome Cambyses a bloody Tyrant in battell and surpris'd his person she cut off his head and sous'd in a barrell of blood saying satiate thy selfe with that whereof thou hast beene alway so insatiable So saith the Lord to the Adulterers since fleshly pleasure hath beene that which thou hast alway so hunted after fill thy selfe with it for ever Split thy soule against the rocke and stone-wall of my seventh Command at which thou hast so stumbled let that grind thee in peeces This curse of God sealing up the heart of the Adulterer gives him over to his owne sinfull sweetnesse so that the surfet thereof doth so wast and embezell the spirit of such an one that he walkes up and down staggering in the drunken pleasure of his uncleannesse he is quite a sleepe as Jona under the hatches If any of Gods Marriners Ministers I meane cry out Arise thou Adulterer call upon God and pray if possi●ly this tempest of wrath may bee prevented Alas hee is as that fellow upon the top of the mast ready to topple into the Sea and yet neither awakes nor feares any danger Once I knew and still there bee some alive who will beare me witnesse a most o●ious Adulterer of seventy yeare old who having long consumed his strength with harlots as he in the Proverbs wasted himselfe and all at last being laid in a barne good enough for him for no man could endure the vermin and savour which came from his rotten body was rèquested thus Potter so was his forename call upon God he replyed with his ordinary oathes Pox and woundes is this a time to pray thus he spake at death All his life long the season of Praier and Repenting was not come And now at his death lo it s gone As he merrily sayd of Marriage either it s not yet time or past time Oh! its just with God to bereave such of all list to apprehend any sound notion of their misery they are held off from capablenesse to mourne after God and in a following deceipt of sin even to death I heard once an Oxford man of worthy Memory in a Sermon relate of two students of eminent parts in that Vniversity who were sunke in a brutish Custome of Tobacco and Sacke and then into a loathsome habite of uncleane Pleasures and in time grew into such a slavish Impotency of spirit in those waies that when Necessity urged them to returne to their Chambers they could not there rest till they had pitcht a new meeting and so another till in time they grew so enfeebled and past all sense of Sobriety that with their pipes and Pots at their mouthes they were faine to be had into their beddes and so miserably died Alas no wonder If drinke and riot alone can do it how much more when lust is added to it as a threefold cord not easily broken Both streames meeting in one channel to overflow the bankes This is that Arrow of God shot through the livor of all such uncleane ones to be so enthralled to their lust that all sap of the spirit is dried up and a kingdome of uncleannes set up in their hearts and bodies to carry them beyond all hope of repenting Muse of this seriously if thou wouldest roote up the love of lust and kindle a deadly fewd with it never to be razed out Touching the outward Penalties what should I say Or what can I adde to that I have already said of Gods judgments against this sin Looke to the former doctrine Onely I adde this Exhortation Suffer not thy selfe when thou readest the judgments of God against the Name body person of an uncleane wretch to passe away without Meditation till they have wrought thy heart to a due abhorring therof yet lest I might seeme to mention this point for nothing let me adde one outward Penalty to all the former and that is That even Repentance it selfe is not able wholly to wast off the staine of this sin from the Committers of it Such is the wounde that those men give to the Name of God his religion and truth do suffer so deadly by their meanes that God in justice suffers them to expiate it by an outlasting infamy This was Gods threat to David Thou hast made the Enemies of God to blaspheme therfore lo the sword shall never depart from thy house nor reproach from thy name That same text which shall most eternize thee for a man according to Gods heart shall againe crocke thee saying Save in the matter of Bathsheba That 's a back blow yet just for he thought his secret conveyance would cover all but he saw not this That the thing he had done displeased the Lord therfore he must feele it to his smart His repenting God knew but yet that must not serve to quit him of a worke of sorrow as before I noted He that comitteth folly with a woman is destitute of understanding his blot shall never goe out Courts of men absolve such from all aspersions but when they are white and fayre in them they are foule and blacke in Gods No time no concealment of witnesses no dwelling farre off no oaths of purging no bribes must ever looke to doe it when as Repentance cannot do it Who

just yea thy deserting of my spirit cutting off my daies and sending me into the hottest place of hell had beene little enough for me But oh if thou shalt wash this spot away and cleanse me with hyssop I shall be whiter then the snow what I am is not the thing confusion belongs to me for it it s all I can plead But there is mercy with thee that thou maist bee feared and some little hope hath opened my heart to confesse my sinne as rather relying upon thy word then upon my owne feares that thou wilt deale rigorously and of mine owne mouth as thou moughtst condemne mee Fourthly thou must not thus walke onely with thy Penance fagot upon thy shoulders and the sheet of thy shame upon thy back as one shut out and excommunicated from the Assemblies upon whose face thy father hath spit But thou must set before thine eyes a double promise One this That if the Lord shall once accept thee all thy former sins shall never bee so imputed as to cast thee off Looke that place in Jeremy full of Comfort If an harlot be divorced from her husband shall he returne to her any more No surely But loe thou Adulterer thou harlot you have defiled the B●d which I made Honorable yet I will deale better with you returne and I will accept you sayth the Lord And what upon tha● Surely it shal bee with thee in my accompt as if thou hadst never sinned The Lord will open to such a fountaine for sin and uncleannes This may seeme as a cable to the eye of a Needle such mercie for so gracelesse a wretch yes bee encouraged for the Lord lookes not at the greatnesse of the sin if thy Traytors heart distrust him not but at the expression of his owne grace and getting himselfe a name in pardoning it that where sin hath abounded grace might abound much more A dog will catch at this moisell and poison himselfe for he will sin to try a conclusion But this must not east off a poore penitent soule who hath sinned alreadie and beene carried by the streame of his Sensuality Neither must an hypocrite be bolstred nor yet the grace of God to his own frustrate And secondly consider What thou hast beene the Lord lookes not at he beholdes thee in his Son as washed purified therfore wil bee honored even by these members which have most served the lusts of thy uncleannes The Lord delights to see it so if once the property bee altred Witnesse Mary Magdalene so highly honored by Christ to bee the first witnesse of his Resurrection and so enrolled in the book of God that wheresoever the Gospell should come her Name should be honorable How did our Lord Iesus admit her to come to his body and with those eyes handes wherewith shee had beheld embraced those tresses and forelocks which had allured so many uncleane lovers yet he was content to be washed annointed and wiped what exceeding love is this thus to restore an Adulterer to his blood and to entertayne him to that dignity and service which he had forfeited Try thine owne heart in this Case no other Medicine save this made of the blood of Christ can satisfy for thy sin nor wash off the guilt and stayne of it Beleeve this promise apply this blood and this wil bee a true seed of abhorring it for ever Fayth will carry thee to the Crosse of the Lord Iesus tell thee thus I have seene him bleed and breath out his last conflict with wrath and overcome it for the full expiation of thy uncleannes if it could have overcome him thou hadst lost the day for ever but seeing he got the victorie thy sin shall not damne thee so long as he prevailed against death and hell for thee Christ onely can make a divorce between thee and thy sin Till he shed his pretious blood in the defiance of sin the soule and sin could never be made Enemies Onely death which separated his soule and body asunder can divide them If then thou seekest no other morrall shifts nor carnall Popish waies of abhorring this sin at least dost rest in no other all is well Thou takest a sure course to part with it for ever I Come in therfore and claspe to this pardon offred thee in the promise sue it out and apply it to thy soule Perhaps thy base heart will chuse rather to lose it then to take it Gods way But consider since God will not stoope to thy way and there is but one way to come to him bee it never so unwelcome stoope to that way and come in Any way of thine own dawbing with untempered mortar will please thy flesh better then this But seeing in them thou must perish by this thou maist bee saved to use Esai's wordes in the promises there is continuance in the other lying vanity cleave to this and know this onely can satisfy God and change thy lepers skin therfore venture upon this If thou canst possibly perish in beleeving this perish yet know much more sure it is thou must perish except thou beleeve If thou like those nasty lepers sit still in the city die thou must no shift of it here thou mayst live value thy life at no greater rate then the life of a desperate man is worth if elswhere there were hope thou mightst shrug at it But worse then thou art thou canst not bee if thou finde more favour then thou deservest count it for a vantage But howsoever do not preferre assured death before hope of recovery nor lose it for venturing Fiftly rest not here neither but if more mercy be shewed thee then thou lookedst for for God is best to a sinner when he is past pleading then let this perswade thee to follow him for further Grace I meane when the guilt of thy Conscience is gone sue to him for Repentance for the mortifying and subduing the rage power defiling and snaring property of thy sin And begin with the roote kill there first begin not with Adoni-bezek at the fingers endes Christ stabbes the old man at heart first As himselfe told the Pharisee nothing which comes from without can defile the man But that which defiles the man comes from within From the heart proceed as other sins so uncleannes and all the fruits Therefore either purge the roote first or else let all alone Thou shalt fynde this a new worke Yet that faith which hath washt thy Conscience and inner man from guilt and feare and hell Can purge thee a second way from all slavery to thy lust Mercy will act the part of a Priest it will both set an eternall oddes betweene thee and thy lust And it will mortify thy Concupiscence dayly till it be quite dead It will trvely set thee on mourning Truely worke thee to an hearty indignation against thy selfe It will teath thee the art of sinne detesting which no wit of man no skill of