Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	call_v	lord_n	sin_n	6,583	5	4.5982	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42331	The Paschal or Lent-Fast, apostolical & perpetual at first deliver'd in a sermon preached before His Majesty in Lent and since enlarged : wherein the judgment of antiquity is laid down : with an appendix containing an answer to the late printed objections of the Presbyterians against the fast of Lent / by Peter Gunning ...	Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.	1662 (1662)	Wing G2236; ESTC R5920	244,843	370

qui ut nova antéque inaudita praecepta leges hominibus tradant designati sunt ad vestras jejunationes hoc tempore compelli non debent nec jure quoque valent At suis nihilominus locis unà cum caeteris virtutibus jejunii quoque observam iam Religionem ostensuri sunt Non quod aliquà legis necessitate h. e. legis terrore ad haec adigentur aut quòd vestro more aut sensu veteribus ritibus adhuc insistendum arbitrabuntur For since the Apostles are appointed Preachers and Teachers of the New Testament they ought not now to be bound by the laws of the old Ceremonies and observances You therefore O Pharisees viz. those that came to the Lord Mar. 2. who as yet addict your selves to those old rites customes and are bound up by Hereticks full well do ye observe the Mosaical Fasts But they who were designed to deliver unto men new Precepts and Laws not before heard of ought not and in right cannot be compelled to your Fastings in this time viz. of the Gospel But nevertheless they shall also together with other virtues show forth their OBSERVANCE AND RELIGION OF FASTING IN ITS PROPER PLACES OR SEASONS viz. In those days when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them to which Victor was here speaking on Mark 2. Not that they shall be driven or compelled thereunto by some legal necessity viz. as of old by terrour of Law nor by any express written Precept of God or that they shall deem that they ought after your manner and sense insist still on the old Rites or Rites of the old Law The sum is The Christian Law of Liberty which is not less obliging because such is principally a Law of Gratitude which is not wont to have all its measures and manner and degrees minutely and expresly defined Yet such obligation it hath to some great Evangelical mercies and benefits from God as are these of which we speak of Christ's Agony Death and Passion for our sins and his being raised from the dead for our Justification that never did any Apostle or other ancient Christians think the Christian Church less obliged to the solemn memory of the former at the set season or time thereof in the publick Religion of Fasting by them that were well able and knowing thereof or of the latter on the solemn joy or Festivity of Easter than the Iews were though not bound by any express written precept as they to their observation of their Paschal feast or their Humiliation on the day of Atonement For no Christian heart may deny that the Evangelical benefits and mercies which we have received of God beyond what they had doth as much increase our obligation in that regard beyond theirs as their precept was and needed to be more expresly written than ours Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall fast so shall their obligation and their needs require 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they will fast so will their gratitude and love compel them according to that of Psal. 110 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power Therefore we said also that the abstinence for such measures of time as their forty dayes if ye abstract from law Ecclesiastical was of Tradition but that of recommendation Apostolical For there were as I have shewn you from the ancients some observances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by precept and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some left to the willing choice of devotion ab Apostolis tradita commendata as St. Austin speaks l. 2. de Baptismo con Donatistas Hence it is that Saint Hierom writes in his Epistle 22. ad Eustochium Iejunium totius anni aequale est perhaps he means in each week ordinarily and at the four seasons of the year equally distributed exceptâ Quadragesimâ in quâ CONCEDITUR districtiùs vivere Except the fast of fortie days in which we have fair leave to live more severely So also in his seventh Epistle to Laeta about the bringing up of her daughter Prohibens in tenellâ aetate onera abstinentiae in Quadragesimâ tamen inquit continentiae vela pandenda sunt tota aurigae retinacula equis laxanda properantibus Severe burdens of abstinence are not to be laid on tender years yet in Lent saith he you may hoise up sails to her abstinence and lay loose upon the neck all the reins when ye see her of her own forwardness speeding The Quadragesimal fast hath a goodly space and lovely recommendation for our exercise therein a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Cyril Patriarch of Ierusalem Catech. 1. You have the space of penance or repentance the forty dayes you have a large opportunity both for putting off the old garments and washing your self clean and of putting on the wedding garments and of entring in into the marriage feast And indeed as the property of the grace of the Gospel would that much should be left to the willing choice of our Christian thankfulness so the nature it self of humane bodies and mindes makes it not reasonable so much as generally to prescribe the same measures Which St. Basil the great observed to himself l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither is it possible to prescribe any the same law for the time of mens refection nor for the manner nor for the measure Yea of this very Paschal fast Gregory Nazianzen in his fortieth Oration thus wisely teacheth us comparing Christs forty days fast and our Paschal abstinence he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ fasted a little before his temptation we before Easter the matter of fastings is one Christ indeed fasted forty dayes for he was God but we proportionate this to our power though zeal carry some beyond their strength Though this be so plain yet at last I expect to have it objected that so many of the Fathers even by me produced do call the fast of forty days not only a tradition but also a precept of the Apostles or of the Lord. As when St. Ambrose saith l. de Iejun Eliâ Behold through the mercies of God we have passed through the indicted fasts of Quadragesima or forty dayes and have fulfilled with the devotion of abstinence the commands of the Lord. But this he might say though all the forty days were not if something within it were commanded of God But when the abstinence of forty days is expresly mentioned it is more frequently then said that it is according to tradition or institution or instruction Apostolical or Evangelical than by precept of the Gospel or of the Apostles And if in some instance it be called their precept when the extent of forty days is mentioned since such speaches occur much more seldome we are to interpret them by the more usual The love of Christ in some sort constraineth where no precept of his or his Apostles enjoyneth It is easie to shew that some seldome times we are

mother the Church and Countrey that bare thee Such fasters I cannot better resemble then to the ancient blood-thirsty Tyrants who commanded their Lions to be kept some daies fasting and hungry that they might with uglier greediness devour the meek condemned Christians The 5 Rule was That as our feasts so our fasts be inseparably conjoyn'd with alms and mercy to the poor Is not this the fast that I have chosen saith God is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee c. Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer Isa. 58. 79. This is properly to forget to eat our bread with David and not forget or hide ourselves from our own flesh One fasting joyn'd with many works of mercy feeding with our bread covering with our garments and bringing into our house This is righteousness going before thee making thee friends of unrighteous Mammon that may receive thee This makes thy fasting assuredly health and these two together fail not to obtain that the 3 d thy prayers miss not to be heard and answer'd of the Lord. Thus much the Prophet I was fasting saith Cornelius of himself unto this hour the 9 th But the Angel of God said unto him Thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial before God And S. Luke saith of him He gave much alms to the people and prayed to God alwayes Act. 10. 2. 4. 30. After whose example Leo in his 3 d serm de jejunio Pentecostes directs our fast ●…m sanctas continentiae delicias appetentes aliquantulum nobis de terrenorum ciborum abundantiâ subtrahamus ita proficiat eleemosynis quod non impendit r mensis Tum enim demùm ad animae curationem proficit medicina jejunii cùm abstinentia jejunantis esuriem resicit indigentis When we desirous of the holy delights of abstinence substract from ourselves something of the abundance of our earthly viands that what is not expended upon our tables may bring us in great gain by being laid out on our alms For then doth the medicine of fasting work to the curing of the Soul when the abstinence of him that fasts refreshes the indigence of him that hungers That Antient writer Origen speaking of Lent-fast and the weekly stations tels us of a certain saying of the Apostles which had come down to him Hom. 10. in Levit. 16. Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos habemus quartam sextam septimanae dies quibus solenniter jejunamus est alia adhuc religiosa jejunandi ratio cujus laus quorundam Apostolorum literis praedicatur Invenimus enim in quodam libello ab Apostolis dictum Beatus est qui etiam jejunat pro eo ut alat pauperes Hujus jejunium valdè acceptum est apud Deum We have the dayes of Lent consecrated to fastings we have the 4 th and 6 th dayes of the week whereon we solemnly fast there is also yet another Religious way of fasting whose praise is set forth in writing from certain of the Apostles for we find in a certain book that it was said by the Apostles Blessed is he who fasts also for that end that he may relieve the poor This mans fast is much accepted with God Misericordia pietas eleemosynae orationes jejuniis sunt alae per quas tollitur portatur ad coelum sine quibus jacet volutatur in terrâ saith Chrysolog serm 8. de jejun Alms and prayers are the wings of fasting by which 't is carried up to Heaven as was Cornelius's without which it lies dead and spiritless upon the earth Idem ibid. Iejunantes ergo fratres prandium nostrum reponamus in manu pauperis ut servet nobis manus pauperis quod venter nobis fuerat perditurus Manus pauperis est gazophylacium Christi Pauperi qui non jejunat Deo singit Iejunium sine misericordiâ simulachrum famis est sine pietate jejunium occasio est avaritiae Quia parcitas ista quantùm siccatur in corpore tantùm tumescit in sacculo Let us therefore O my brethren when we fast deposit our dinner in the hand of the poor that that hand may preserve for us what our belly would lose to us The hand of the poor is the treasury of Christ He that fasts not to the poor doth but feign a fast to God fasting without works of mercy is but an empty image of hunger Without pity to others 't is but an occasion taken of covetousnesse Because by such sparing what is taken 〈◊〉 in the flesh swels in the bag And in his 7 th sermon on Mat. 6. Sciat ille sustinere 〈◊〉 incassum se nihil habiturum qui premens jeju●… aratrum abscindens gulae gramina atque ●…adicans luxuriae sentes misericordiae semina nulla jactaverit Let him know that he suffers pain i●… vain and shall receive nothing who ●…ing up his fallow with the plow of fasting and roo●…ng up gluttony and the thorns of luxury yet casteth into the furrow no seed-corn of the works of mercy As thine own use of meat and drink and other blessings so also thy fast itself wherewith thou wouldst purify and cleanse thy heart hath need being not without mixture of sinful infirmities of that method wherewith to be purify'd prescrib'd by our Lord. Give alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you Luke 11. 41. Imple commiserationis officia jejunia sanctificâsti saith S. Austin The 6 th Rule by these premised duties there is now roome made for thy fervent prayers which together with more frequent hearing of Gods word and other works of Devotion are the 6 t necessary company of the fast As in the examples of Moses Daniel and Cornelius and infinite more might be shewn for Moses Deut. 9. 18 25. I fell down before the Lord as at the first 40 daies and 40 nights I did neither eat bread nor drink water because of all your sins c. But the Lord hearkned unto me at that time also Thus I fell down before the Lord 40 daies and 40 nights as I fell down at the first I prayed therefore unto the Lord and said And in the New Testament not only the Apostles have coupled them together 1 Cor. 7. 5. For a season 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A season of vacant attendance on fasting and prayer of which none so common so fixed so holy as this of Lent But also our Lord himself concerning what was most difficult even to the Disciples themselves gives this singular prescription This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting Upon which words S. Chrysostome thus comments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉