Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	judgement_n	sin_n	sinner_n	2,057	5	7.5058	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62591	A sermon preached before the King, April 18th, 1675 by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1675 (1675)	Wing T1228; ESTC R6940	11,844	38

or how little is remaining therefore be sure to make the best use of that little which may be left and wisely to manage the last stake 4. Seeing the delay of repentance doth mainly rely upon the hopes and encouragement of a future repentance let us consider a little how unreasonable these hopes are and how absurd the encouragement is which men take from them To sin in hopes that hereafter we shall repent is to do a thing in hopes that we shall be one day mightily ashamed of it that we shall one time or other be heartily grieved and troubled that we have done it It is to do a thing in hopes that we shall afterwards condemn our selves for it and wish a thousand times we had never done it in hopes that we shall be full of horrour at the thoughts of what we have done and shall treasure up so much guilt in our consciences as will make us a terror to our selves and be ready to drive us even to despair and distraction And is this a reasonable hope Is this a fitting encouragement for a wise man to give to himself to any action And yet this is plainly the true meaning of mens going on in their sins in hopes that hereafter they shall repent of them 5. If you be still resolved to delay this business and put it off at present consider well with your selves how long you intend to delay it I hope not to the last not till sickness come and death make his approaches to you This is next to madness to venture all upon such an after-game 'T is just as if a man should be content to be shipwrackt in hope that he shall afterwards escape by a plank and get safe to shore But I hope none are so unreasonable yet I fear that many have a mind to put it off to old age though they do not care to say so Seneca expostulates excellently with this sort of men Who shall ensure thy life till that time Who shall pass his word for thee that the providence of God will suffer all things to happen and fall out just as thou hast designed and forecast them Art thou not ashamed to reserve the reliques of thy life for thy self and to set apart only that time to be wise and virtuous in which is good for nothing How late is it then to begin to live well when thy life is almost at an end What a stupid forgetfulness is it of our mortality to put off good resolutions to the fiftieth or sixtieth year of our age and to resolve to begin to do better at that time of life to which but very few persons have reached But perhaps thou art not altogether so unreasonable but desirest only to respite this work till the first heat of youth and lust be over till the cooler and more considerate part of thy life come on that perhaps thou thinkest may be the fittest and most convenient season But still we reckon upon uncertainties for perhaps that season may never be however to be sure it is much more in our power by the assistance of Gods grace which is never wanting to the sincere endeavours of men to conquer our lusts now and to resist the most heady and violent temptations to vice than either to secure the future time or to recover that which is once past and gone Some seem yet more reasonable and are content to come lower and desire only to put it off for a very little while But why for a little while why till to morrow To morrow will be as this day only with this difference that thou wilt in all probability be more unwilling and indisposed then So that there is no future time which any man can reasonably pitch upon All delay in this case is dangerous and as senseless as the expectation of the Ideot described by the Poet who being come to the river side and intending to pass over stays till all the water in the river be gone by and hath left the channel a dry passage for him at ille Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aevum But the river runs and runs and if he should stay a thousand years will never be the nearer being dry So that if the man must go over and there be a necessity for it as there is for Repentance the onely wise resolution to be taken in this case is to wade or swim over as well as he can because the matter will never be mended by tarrying 6. Lastly consider what an unspeakable happiness it is to have our minds settled in that condition that we may without fear and amazement nay with comfort and confidence expect death and judgment Death is never far from any of us and the general Judgment of the world may be nearer than we are aware of for of that day and hour knoweth no man And these are two terrible things and nothing can free us from the terror of them but a good conscience and a good conscience is only to be had either by innocence or by repentance and amendment of life Happy man who by this means is at peace with God and with himself and can think of death and judgment without dread and astonishment For the sting of death is sin and the terror of the great day only concerns those who have lived wickedly and impenitently and would not be perswaded neither by the mercies of God nor by the fear of his judgments to repent and turn to him But if we have truely forsaken our sins and do sincerely endeavour to live in obedience to the Laws and Commands of God the more we think of death and judgment the greater matter of joy and comfort will these things be to us For blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find so doing Let us therefore as soon as possibly we can put our selves into this posture and preparation according to that advice of our blessed Saviour Luke 12. 35 36. Let your loins be girded about and your lamps burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord. And now I hope that enough hath been said to convince men of the great unreasonableness and folly of these delays nay I believe most men are convinced of it by their own thoughts and that their consciences call them fools a thousand times for it But O that I knew what to say that might prevail with men and effectually perswade them to do that which they are so abundantly convinced is so necessary And here I might address my self to the several ages of persons You that are young and have hitherto been in a good measure innocent may prevent the Devil and by an early piety give God the first possession of your souls and by this means never be put to the trouble of so great and solemn a repentance having never been deeply engaged in a wicked life You may do a glorious I had almost said a meritorious thing in cleaving stedfastly to

change that it will cost us some pangs and throws before we be born again For when nature hath been long bent another way it is not to be expected that it should be reduced and brought back to its first streightness without pain and violence But then it is to be considered that how difficult and painful soever this work be it is necessary and that should over-rule all other considerations whatsoever that if we will not be at this pains and trouble we must one time or other endure far greater than those which we now seek to avoid that it is not so difficult as we imagine but our fears of it are greater than the trouble will prove if we were but once resolved upon the work and seriously engaged in it the greatest part of the trouble were over it is like the fear of children to go into the cold water a faint trial increaseth their fear and apprehension of it but so soon as they have plunged into it the trouble is over and then they wonder why they were so much afraid The main difficulty and unpleasantness is in our first entrance into Religion it presently grows tolerable and soon after easie and after that by degrees so pleasant and delightful that the man would not for all the world return to his former evil state and condition of life We should consider likewise what is the true cause of all this trouble and difficulty 'T is our long continuance in a sinful course that hath made us so loth to leave it 'T is the custom of sinning that renders it so troublesome and uneasie to men to do otherwise 'T is the greatness of our guilt heightned and inflamed by many and repeated provocations that doth so gall our consciences and fill our souls with so much terror 'T is because we have gone so far in an evil way that our retreat is become so difficult and because we have delayed this work so long that we are now so unwilling to go about it and consequently the longer we delay it the trouble and difficulty of a change will encrease daily upon us And all these considerations are so far from being a good reason for more delays that they are a strong argument to the contrary Because the work is difficult now therefore do not make it more so and because your delays have encreased the difficulty of it and will do more and more therefore delay no longer 3. Another pretended encouragement to these delays is the great mercy and patience of God He commonly bears long with sinners and therefore there is no such absolute and urgent necessity of a speedy repentance and reformation of our lives Men have not the face to give this for a reason but yet for all that it lies at the bottom of many mens hearts So Solomon tells us Eccles 8. 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil But it is not always thus There are few of us but have seen several instances of Gods severity to sinners and have known several persons surprized by a sudden hand of God and cut off in the very act of sin without having the least respite given them without time or liberty so much as to ask God forgiveness and to consider either what they had done or whither they were a-going And this may be the case of any sinner and is so much the more likely to be thy case because thou dost so boldly presume upon the mercy and patience of God But if it were always thus and thou wert sure to be spared yet awhile longer what can be more unreasonable and disingenuous than to resolve to be evil because God is good and because he suffers so long to sin so much the longer and because he affords thee a space of repentance therefore to delay it and put it off to the last The proper design of Gods goodness is to lead men to repentance and he never intended his patience for an encouragement to men to continue in their sins but for an opportunity and an argument to break them off by repentance These are the pretended reasons and encouragements to men to delay their repentance and the reformation of their lives and you see how groundless and unreasonable they are which was the first thing I propounded to speak to II. I shall add some farther considerations to engage men effectually to set about this work speedily and without delay And because they are many I shall insist upon those which are most weighty and considerable without being very curious and solicitous about the method and order of them For provided they be but effectual to the end of perswasion it matters not how inartificially they are rang'd and disposed 1. Consider that in matters of great and necessary concernment and which must be done there is no greater argument of a weak and impotent mind then irresolution to be undetermined where the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent to be always about doing that which we are convinced must be done Victuros agimus semper nec vivimus unquam We are always intending to live a new life but can never find a time to set about it This is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another till he have starved and destroyed himself It seldom falls under any mans deliberation whether he should live or not if he can chuse and if he cannot chuse 't is in vain to deliberate about it It is much more absurd to deliberate whether we should live virtuously and religiously soberly and righteously in the world for that upon the matter is to consult whether a man should be happy or not Nature hath determined this for us and we need not reason about it and consequently we ought not to delay that which we are convinced is so necessary in order to it 2. Consider that Religion is a great and a long work and asks so much time that there is none left for the delaying of it To begin with Repentance which is commonly our first entrance into Religion This alone is a great work and is not only the business of a sudden thought and resolution but of execution and action 'T is the abandoning of a sinful course which we cannot leave till we have in some degree mastered our lusts for so long as they are our masters like Pharaoh they will keep us in bondage and not let us go to serve the Lord. The habits of sin and vice are not to be plucked up and cast off at once as they have been long in contracting so without a miracle it will require a competent time to subdue them and get the victory over them for they are conquered just by the same degrees that the habits of grace and virtue grow up and get strength in us So that there are several duties to be