Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	look_v	lord_n	soul_n	5,124	5	5.4191	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43572	The best entail, or, Dying parents living hopes for their surviving children grounded upon the covenant of Gods grace, with believers and their seed, being a short discourse upon 2 Sam. 23, 5 : wherein is a collection of several covenant-promises to support the faith, and some pleas to direct and quicken the prayers of Gods covenanted people for their surviving posterity / by O.H. ...	Heywood, Oliver, 1629-1702.	1693 (1693)	Wing H1761; ESTC R40552	56,018	114

some pleas Arguments and Encouragements not to move God but to quicken your Faith Hope and Importunity Thus then say 1. Lord this Covenant thou hast made with Believers and their Seed did spring only from the Fountain of thy Free-grace this Promise commenced before I had a Being and therefore could not depend on any worthiness in me Deut. 7.7 8. the Lord did not set his love on Israel because they were better than others but because he loved them the love of benevolence produced the love of complacency it 's an Everlasting love both in its original and duration Jer. 31.3 it hath no cause but in Gods breast and shall have no end Lord for thy words sake 2 Sam. 7.21 compared with 1 Chr. 17.19 yea for thy Servants sake viz. Christ who is Gods Essential word and according to thy own heart hast thou done all these great things hadst thou seen any stop or obstruction on my part thou wouldest have forborn making this Covenant But such a Covenant there is and Grace made it look into thine own heart Lord and as Grace only made it so let Grace perform it 2. Lord Thou art true and faithful in the performance of thy promises Mercy made this Covenant with Abraham Mic. 7.20 Numb 23.19 Psal 89.35 Truth performs it to Jacob thou art not as man that thou shouldst lye thou hast sworn by thy holiness that thou wilt not lye unto David well Lord in hopes of the performance of thy Covenant I married begot Children gave them up to God in Baptism wherein thou tookest them as thine own and dost thou now repent of thy choice Oh no thou hast told me in thy word Isa 54.9 10. that thy Covenant-promises are as sure as the Waters of Noah not overflowing the World Jer. 31.35 36 37. yea the Mountains and Hills will sooner depart than God go back from his word yea his Covenant is as sure as the Ordinances of Heaven Sun Moon and Stars as sure as day and night Lord my Soul having got such good hold of thee by Faith I will not let go this hold but stick fast till thou make good thy promise to me and my seed I am resolved to sue thy Bond by Faith and Prayer till thou pay this debt 3. Lord thou hast made this Covenant good to others thou hast performed the mercy promised to our Fathers and remembred thy holy Covenant Luk. 1.45 55 72. there hath been a performance of the things spoken by the Lord never could any stand forth and challenge thee for the breach of promise from the beginning of the World to this day and I humbly hope thou wilt not begin with me Gen. 13.16 17 18. thou madest a promise to Abraham of a numerous off-spring and inhabiting Canaan and thou didst perform all to a tittle yea to a minute the least Iota did not fail or fall to the ground and thou art as great as good as powerful as merciful now as ever Gen. 18.14 Job 42.2 thou sayest is any thing too hard for the Lord My Soul Eccho's No I know that thou canst do every thing with God all things are possible I believe Lord help my unbelief thou art able to reduce my Prodigal Child to convert my stubborn Child Oh give a proof of thy power in this great work 4. Lord thou hast made good the Promise to my own Soul my Parents improved and pleaded thy Covenant for me a sinful wretch and wilt thou not make the same good to mine I must say as once Solomon Thou hast kept with thy Servant David my Father 1 Kin. 8.23 24. that thou promisedst him thou spakest also with thy Mouth and hast fulfilled it with thy hand as it is this day Blessed be the God of my Fathers that hath not cut off his kindness from me that am the Seed of those faithful ones that are now at rest with thee I my self can rise up and bear witness to thy faithfulness Ecce signum Behold a testimony of Divine love Psal 86.16 17. thou hast shewed me a token for good who am the Son of thy handmaid and I take this as a pledge of more kindness to mine Psal 116.16 thou hast loosed my Bonds wilt thou not also knock off the Fetters of sin from my poor Child I was as wicked as any and cost my Father and Mother many a tear and groan but thou heardest their Prayer wilt thou not also hear me 5. Lord I do find all that I want for my self and seed within the compass of the Covenant for as thou hast promised to be my God and pardon sin so thou hast undertaken to work the conditions thou requirest as absolutely necessary for obtaining the priviledges of the Covenant thou say'st they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them Jer. 31.34 i. e. as I understand it young as well as old Deut. 30.6 thou sayst the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy Seed to love the Lord thy God Again thou say'st They that dwell under his shadow shall return Hos 14.7 amongst whom are Children and that he will turn the hearts of the Fathers with the Children Mal. 4.6 so some read it this is enough Lord may my Children be savingly converted I have all my desire for this shall be their Salvation and I have these promises under thy hand and surely they are not insignificant 6. Yea Lord thou hast converted some whose immediate Parents were not in Covenant and whether their remote Parents were so who can tell I plainly discern thou sometimes leapest out of the ordinary road reaching over the heads of some nearlier related to lay hold on strangers hearts and I do not grudge them this mercy but adore the freeness of Divine Grace only my Soul fetcheth some encouragement thence Rom. 11.17 23. Hos 2.23 will my Lord graft into the true Olive some wild branches and not take in natural Wilt thou say Ammi my people to them that were not thy people and wilt thou say Lo ammi to such as cling to thee are resolved not to forgo thee Oh my Lord the exuberancy of Free-grace to strangers is an incouragement to me and thus I say will my Father give such lumps of bread to Dogs and can he not afford a crum to a Child I see some whose Parents never spake a word to God for them eminent in Grace and Monuments of free-grace and shall any of my Children which thou hast taken into thy Family be shut out of thy doors I hope not 7. Lord if thou hadst a design to deny my suit thou wouldst have shut my mouth in prayer for thy word saith Psal 10.17 Thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine ear to hear An inlarged heart in Prayer is not only a mean but a pledge of gracious audience surely thou wilt not send thy Spirit into my heart and

draw out my heart to thee in vain when a Father bids his Child ask he designs to give thou wilt not let this blessed spirit breathe in vain in my soul Wilt thou inlarge my heart and not grant my request Psal 38.9.15 Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee In thee O Lord do I hope thou wilt hear me O Lord my God Thou hast raised my heart in Expectation wilt thou not give me the mercy I expect 8. Lord is not thy Glory concerned in this affair as well as my comfort And yet my comfort is something in thine eye For thou sayst Ps 118.15 The voyce of rejoycing and salvation is in the Tabernacles of the righteous And alas What joy can there be in a family when a foolish Son is heaviness both to Father and Mother Prov. 10.1 and a disturbance to the whole house But oh thy Name is dishonoured by my own flesh wicked men hardened some scandalized by the miscarrying of the Children of the Covenant But on the other hand if Covenant-grace be spread upon my childs heart by Converting-grace many will glorifie God Gal. 1.24 His own Soul will be the actual lively Trumpet of Divine Glory by confessing sin and turning to God thy Omniscience Grace and Omnipotency will be made glorious And who can tell how many may be won to God by his Example 1 Pet. 2 1● 2 Thes 1 1● and every Convert Glorifies God in the day of their visitation and at the great Day God will be glorified in his Saints Lord consult thy Glory 9. Lord thou hast given me some incouragement concerning this Child I am praying for When my Child was young he was very hopeful now he is grown up my hopes are dasht He hath now embraced the world or is fallen into bad company and courses the less are my hopes now because he is a woful Apostate and sins against more light than others and this daunts and damps my spirit however I will pray and wait still for what is a daunting to me Gen. 22.14 is rather an advantage to thee In the mount of the Lord it is seen When the knife is at Isaac's throat Hos 2.14 the valley of Achor is a door of hope When men say our bones are dryed our hope is lost Ezeck 37.11 12. we are cut off for our parts then the graves are opened and there 's life from the dead The case is mine I am saying as Jonah I am cast out of his sight yet will I look again toward thy holy Temple The other look may fetch the mercy There 's a may be in the case Can a Child of so many Prayers and Fears miscarry This brings to mind a passage in Melchior Adamus De vitis Theol. Germ. pag. 724. It is this The mother of Hunnius being with child of him had a Vision She thought she was in the Church and took up a Reed or a Straw or such a small thing While she held it in her Fingers it so increased that she was almost oppressed with its weight even to death She presently saw it turned into a Pillar of the Temple Then she was eased of her burden This was verified in her Son Hunnius who though religiously educated and hopeful in Childhood yet fell into bad Company and then into horrible Temptations and sad Apprehensions That he had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost but by Grace was recovered and proves an excellent instrument in the Church of God This may be of use to poor afflicted desponding Parents 10. Lord If thou deny my suit and glorifie thy Justice in the rejection and damnation of My child I must and will acquiesce in thy Soveraign righteous Will It 's hard to bring my heart to it but I will say Thy Will be done Rom. 11.33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledg of God! How unsearchable are thy judgments and thy ways past finding out I my self deserve to be forsaken and cast into Hell I have many a time told thee I must for ever justifie God with flames about mine ears if thy justice be glorified in my destruction for all my abominations And if thou deal thus with my beloved Off spring I will say The Lord is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works Dan. 9.7 Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto me and mine confusion of faces I submit my all to thee and thank thee for grace in my own soul and hopes of Glory and if my wilful child may not bring a revenue of Glory to free Grace I will be content with thy raising up a revenue of Glory to thy Justice in his just condemnation Obj. But what tender-hearted Parent can be contented to see his Child damned Answ You must distinguish betwixt Nature and Grace Nature loves its own and cannot bear to see part of it self in misery Yea grace cannot but desire cannot but earnestly breathe after the spiritual and eternal good of our Children And 't is not only lawfull but duty to desire it Yet if God deny it Grace brings man's Will to a due submission to the Divine disposal for the more a Christian is like to God the more is his Will melted into God's Will and therefore will a Child of God rejoyce in the execution of Gods justice upon dearest carnal Relations at the great Day As sanctified Levi in the cause of God Deut. 33.9 said to his Father and his Mother I have not seen neither did he acknowledg his Brethren nor knew his own Children Nature will be in a sort swallowed by grace in Gods good pleasure That was a remarkable passage of a gracious Gentlewoman that had a vicious Son who fell into many debaucheries and into one hainous Act which sunk her tender spirit But recovering her self she said to him with some warmth Ah! my sinful Son thou hast cost me many a Tear Groan and bitter hour but a day is coming when I shall triumph in seeing the just vengeance of God excecuted upon thee this did so appall the young Gentleman that he laid it to heart repented and became a new man to the joy of his Godly Mother But 2. You must distinguish about Damnation and look on it as under a double notion 1. as a state of compleat Sinning Blaspheming and hating God to the utmost God calls you not to be content with this which is so directly contrary to the Grace of God in the Christian nor yet may you be content to have your Child separated from God the cheifest good which is the worst part of hell But 2. Hell may be considered as a place or state of torment and misery to the Rational Creature and upon this account you must not be contented simply to have your Child tormented which is abhorent to nature but your Souls must be so overr-uled with the Divine pleasure as where his will is

save to the uttermost Heb. 12.6 Jam. 1.6 7. all that come to God by him Heb. 7.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the uttermost i. e. to the utmost extent of the Covenant-grant yea saist thou I believe his ability but I question my right coming therefore 2. There is a particular persuasion that God will grant this request Ergo for this child or in this case 't is true sometimes the Lord doth impress this upon the Spirit with power that this Mercy shall be granted this Child shall be Converted but this is not necessary for the obtaining of the Mercy a godly Soul may want faith to believe the issue of his Prayer and yet be heard as you see in David Psal 31.22 I said in my hast I am cut off from before thine eyes Mark it he had no particular faith for his preservation yet he prayed still nevertheless Saith he Thou heardest the voyce of my supplication when I cryed unto thee Observe it the want of his Faith hindred not the fruit of his Prayer nor will it do of thine 2. What ailes thee to follow so hard after God Is it not a principle of Faith Hast thou not laid hold on Gods Covenant for thine own Soul What means that frequent renewing of thy Covenant with the Lord in taking God to be thy God chiefest Good and utmost End and thy dedicating thy all to the Lord This shews thou art in Covenant for this is the Essence of saving Faith and thy being so much concerned for thy Seed declares plainly thy being in Covenant Thou goest daily to the Lord in earnest pleadings for thy Children and wilt not be beat off like the foresaid woman though one while he answers not another while he gives discouraging answers And is not this sincere faith Our Lord accounted it so in the woman that weathered out so many affronts in her importunate pleas And are not thy motions still more vigorous Poor soul thou art following the Lord with tears sighs and groans for thy wandring Child saying still Mar. 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief I will still express my desires of Grace for my child or children nothing else shall serve my turn Civility will not please me nor profit them without Sanctity I am not satisfied with Gifts without Grace Common Grace without Saving Grace Carnal men are well content to see their Children Witty Ingenious Industrious and likely to thrive in the World good Husbands notable Tradesmen and likely to come to preferment But oh my Lord thou knowest my breathings I look further My soul longs for a principle of Grace and a Portion in another World This is all my desire and all my Salvation Yea you 'l say But I am afraid I offend God by being too importunate Who can tell whether my Child be Elected and if not it 's in vain to pray I cannot alter Gods Decree Deut. 29.29 I Answer The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things that are revealed belong unto us and to our Children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law You must not make Gods hidden Councels but his holy Scriptures the Rule of your Prayers 1 Tim. 2.4 God saith he will have all men saved Thus his Will is manifested and I told you the Warrant you have to believe and pray for the Children of the Covenant and you cannot be too importunate so as you do not limit the Holy One of Israel and as longas there is life there is hope Therefore continue your Prayers the term of your natural life unless God take you off by some remarkable Providence I knew a very gracious zealous woman many years ago who was weeping and wrestling with God in an Out-house in the night for the precious Soul of her Prodigal Son who was now fallen sick and upon his Death bed and while she was groaning out her soul with tears and strong cryes she thought she heard a voyce saying to her Be content what I have done I have done She rose off her knees could not speak a word more went away quieted and upon enquiry found that her Son breathed out his last breath at that very instant in a Town two miles thence I am not credulous of such Storys but have great reason to believe the truth of it yet the instance is singular However this is a truth that God shuts up the Spirit of Prayer when he doth not intend to hear a good Woman so God had never denyed what she had asked of God in Prayer One objected a child of hers dying she replyed it's true but I could never Pray for that Child Gods assistings or withdrawings often portend the event But 't is safest for us to suspect some fault in our Persons or Prayers if God do not hear us for our Children therefore it becomes us to search our Consciences and Conversations to find out the Sin confess it beg a pardon in the Blood of Christ and Mortify it and then Pray say as Divine Herbert's Church Lock and Key I know it is my Sin which locks thine ears and binds thy hands Out-crying my requests drowning my tears Or else the chilness of my faint demands But as cold hands are angry with the Fire and mend it still So I do lay the want of my desire Not on my Sins or coldness but thy will Yet hear Oh God! only for his bloods sake which pleads for me For though sins plead too yet like stones they make His bloods sweet current much more loud to be The End