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	sinner_n	2,337	5	7.5568	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09831	The refutation of an epistle, written by a certain doctor of the Augustins order within the citie of Leige together with the arguments, which he hath borrowed from Robert Bellarmine, to proue the inuocation of Saints. By Iohn Polyander, minister vnto the French Church in Dort: and now translated by Henry Hexham, out of French into English.	Polyander à Kerckhoven, Johannes, 1568-1646.; Hexham, Henry, 1585?-1650?	1610 (1610)	STC 20096; ESTC S100869	112,398	138

you equal hir with our redeemer in calling hit Reparatrix and Sal●atrix of mankind The queene of mercy the valiant woman which hath broken the serpents head and she alone that hath rooted out all the heresi●s in the world Cardinall B●nauenture makes no conscience to appropriate to hit all that Dauid in his psalmes hath attributed to God the father the sonne and the holy Ghost Blessed● is that man saith he which liueth Mary which giueth praise vnto 〈◊〉 name which putteth his trust in hir which hopeth in hit Come vnto hir all ye that are wearie and she will giue rest vnto your soules The heauens declare thy glorie The earth and hir fulnesse is thine thou raignest eternally with God blessed are those which make much of thee because in thy mercies thou wilt wash their sins haue mercie on me mother of mercie and according to the bowels of thy mercies wash me from all mine iniquities Wicked serpent whereof bostest thou thy selfe put thy necke vnder Mary ô Ladie bruse him by the vertue of thy foot cast him down by thy force into the bottomlesse pu Saue me in thy name and deliuer me from mine vnrighteousnesse take pitie on me for my heart is readie to receiue thy will Lord for our sinnes thou hast repulsed vs and because of the virgin Marie hast taken pitie on vs. Let Marie arise and all hir enemies shall be destroyed Lord giue thy iudgement to thy sonne and thy mercy to the queene his mother God is the God of vengance Ladie saluation and life consists in thy hand O how good is God vnto them that worship his mother Come and let vs adore the Ladie let us giue praise vnto the virgin that hath saued vs. Let vs worship hir and confesse vnto hir our sinnes The Lord reigneth Mary fitteth vpon the Cherubins at his right hand wh● dwelleth vnder hir wing is vnder a safe protection haue remembrance ô Ladie of Dauid and of all those which call vpon thy name The Lord said to my Ladie sit my mother at my right hand thou hast taken pleasure in goodnesse and holinesse and therefore shalt thou raigne with me Praise the Lord because he is good for his mercie is giuen by Mary You transferre in like manner to the Virgin that which in all humilitie of heart she sung to the honor of her Creator and Sauiour And in stead of that which she sung as the Euangelist S. Luke witnesseth in the first chapter and 45. verse My soule magnifieth the Lord and my spirit reioyceth in God my Sauiour c. Because he that is mighty hath done for me great things c. you say My soule magnifieth my Ladie and my heart reioyceth in my Ladie because hee that is mightie hath done for mee great things through Mary his mother What should I say more You celebrate in your Canticles the Virgin Mary as Lady of the Angels espouse and Mother of the eternall king Promise of the Patriarches Veritie of the Prophets Teacher of the Apostles Mistr●s of the Euangelists Lady of the Word and Queene of Heauen And hereupon you beseech her that she would saue her people Likewise you craue of her in expresse tearmes all that which God himselfe will or can giue vnto vs by his onely sonne Iesus Christ Impetra nobis veniam applica nobis grattam prapar● nobis gloriam that is to say Obtaine pardon for vs applie grace vnto vs prepare glorie for vs. You haue corrupted Simeons song and in stead of that which the Euangelist Saint Luke reciteth in the second chapter and 29 verse how this good Father holding the Sauiour of the world in his armes blesseth God and saith Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes haue seene thy saluation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people you misturne these his words to the handmaide of the Virgin Mary saying Lord now lettest thou depart in peace the handmaid of the Virgin Mary for mine eyes haue seene the saluation of Mary which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light to inlighten the Gentiles c. You hold her for the true saluation the true felicitie the greatnesse of charitie the largenesse of pietie vnto whom the Angels obey as by one of your Letanies appeareth Which is worse your Cardinals and Bishops assembled in the Councel of Constance in which they condemned to death Iohn Hus and Ierome of Prague both of them Bohemians constant in the true faith to adde vnto the heape of their crueltie against these Martyrs some token of their impietie and hatred against the holy Ghost which had endowed these two witnesses with his truth and with such a mouth and wisedome against which these good fathers were not able to resist they thought good to applie vnto the Virgin Mary that prayer which is made to the honour of the holie Ghost and in stead of saying as before Veni sancte Spiritus c. to haue made them sing Veni maier gratiae fons misericordiae miseris remedium veni lux Ecclesiae tristibus laetiti● ●●ne infund● radium Simonis nanicula fi●y tunicula 〈◊〉 scindatur prohibe quae Deū hominibus 〈◊〉 inngis ô puerpera Hereses interime schismataque reprime firm● pacis f●●era That is to say Come mother of grace fountains of mercie remedie of the wretched c●●e light of the Church shed vpon these heauie soules the beame of ioy the small ship of Simon surnamed Peter suffer not the little coat● of thy sonne to be torne in peeces ô mother in childbed which co●ioynest God with men and the inferiour creatures with the celestiall ab●lish Heresies represse Schismes and establish the couenants of peace I am astonished at the blasphemies of Barnardine de Busto and Anthonine Archbishop of Florence who set the Virgin Mary aboue the onely sonne of God for see what Barnardin● saith of her in his Mariall Men may say of the Virgin Mary that she is the light of the Gen●les and the glory of her people Israel For God at her natiuitie said vnto her I haue giuen thee as a light to the Gentiles to the end thou maist be our saluation to the ends of the earth a light to lighten the Gentiles All graces saith he come downe vpon vs from the Father and the Sonne by the Virgin Mary mediatrix between God and men no grace cōmeth from heauen but by her hands All graces enter into her and come foorth from her They are in Christ ●s in the head from whence they flow they are in Mary as in the neck which distributeth them Moreouer If any man feele himselfe grieued at Gods iustice hee may appeale to the Virgin Mary which hath been signified in the booke of Ester chap. 5. where it is said that King Abashueros● being in anger and wroth against the Iewes Queene Ester came to appease him and found such fauour with the King that hee said vnto her What

I am afraid that an Angel should be angry if I serue him not in stead of my God but he will be offended when a● thou wouldest serue him for he is good and loueth God And as the Diuels waxe angrie when they are not serued so Angels grow angry when they are serued by way of religion in stead of God And in his Meditations vpon the 96. Psalme Let vs behold saith he the holy men which were like to the Angels when thou hast found out a holy man which is the seruant of God and if thou wouldest worship or serue him for God hee will hinder thee from it because hee will not be to thee in stead of God but with thee vnder God Euen so did Paul and Barnabas for it tearing their cloathes told them Men and brethren what doe you we are men subiect to passion as ye are Consider then these examples which shew that godly men hinder such as would serue them by way of religion for Gods and had rather that one only God be serued one only God worshipped and that to him alone oblation be made And so all Saints and Angels seeke not but the glory of this only God whom they loue They haue no other study then to inflame vs and to draw by force all those that they loue to his seruice to his contemplation and to the inuocation of his holy name The Angels declare this alone God and not themselues For for that cause are they called Angels that is to say messengers of God because they are his souldiers they seeke nothing but the glory of their Captaine if they seeke after their owne glory they are as tyrants condemned and such the diuels haue been who haue filled the Temples of the Heathen and haue seduced them to set vp Images for them and to offer them sacrifices And therefore he reproueth the follie and rashnesse of such who seeking to returne vnto God and were not of themselues able had attempted this way to come vnto God through the mediation of Angels and Saints departed of whom he saith in his tenth booke of his Confessions chapter 42. that they were deceiued through the craft of Satan and through the iust iudgement of God were fallen into the desire of curious visions At which he taking an occasion describeth to vs in that same place and many others the personall vnion of two natures to wit diuine and humane which is to be found but only in our Redeemer Iesus Christ and prooueth besides that without this vnion Iesus Christ himselfe could not haue been capable to accomplish the office of a Mediatour betweene God and men It behoueth saith he that the true Mediatour betweene God and men had something like vnto God and something like vnto man Lest that being in the 〈◊〉 and in the other like vnto men he should haue bin too farre from God and in the one and in the other like vnto God he should haue been too farre from men and so could haue been no Mediatour This true Mediatour saith hee which God hath showne to the humble through his secret mercie hath appeared betweene mortall sinners and the immortall iust one being mortell with men and that forasmuch as the reward of iustice is life and peace iust with God that through a iustice ioyned with God he might abolish the death of sinners which he would haue in common with them Behold therefore saith he addressing himselfe to God the Father I haue in good earnest my strong hope in him which sitteth at thy right hand and beleeue that thou wilt heale all my griefes through him who maketh intercession for vs vnto thee without that I should despaire c. Likewise in his 28 epistle which he wrote to S. Ierome I know saith he there is not so much as one only soule in all mankinde for the deliuerance of which the Mediatour between God and men which is the man Christ Iesus was not necessary And in his second booke of the visitation of the sicke hee faith There is no saluation but in one only Iesus Christ there is no other name giuen vnto men vnder heauen by which man can be saued Let vs then familiarly turne our faces towards our Mediatour who knoweth how to haue compassion of our infirmities I speake more ioyfully and more assuredly to my Iesus then to any of the holy celestial spirits because God hath vouchsafed to be made that which I am He hath taken the seede of Abraham and not the Angels to be our High-priest mercifull and faithfull in the things toward God to the end to make a reconciliation for our sinnes Now as S. Austin preached this doctrine to the Hipponians for the space of fortie yeeres to wit from the yeere of our Lord Iesus Christ about 391 vnto the yeere 430 so would he confirme it by his writings which I haue alleaged and by many formes of praier which he made to God only which here I cannot cite except I should bring in some of his whole bookes which is in no wise necessarie seeing that by those peeces and parcels which I haue alreadie produced out of them euery man may perceiue what was the doctrine of S. Augustine concerning this matter Which was approued by the Councels in which he was present and namely by the third Councell of Carthage wherein was ordained to all Christians by an expresse article that they euermore should addresse their prayers to God the Father and to vse no prayers composed by any for his owne vse if first they had not conferred them with some one of their best instructed brethren I will an●ex hereunto that which S. Austin himself testifieth in the first booke of the manners of the Catholike Church How the true Christians and Catholikes haue followed this rule in his time to stop the mouthes of the Manicheans and Doctors of the Heathen which vpbraided them that the Christians did call vpon the Saints Cull me not out saith he from the professors of the Christian name such as know not neither doe follow the vertue of their profession search not out against me the troupes of the ignorant which are superstitious euen in the true religion and so much giuen to their likings that they haue forgotten what they promised vnto God I know there are many which adore the sepulchres c. And it is no maruell among so many people Leaue off in time then I pray you from detracting the Catholike Church in blaming the fashions of such as it selfe doth condemne and daily seeke to correct them as vnto ward children And in his answere to the false accusations of a certaine Philosopher called Maximus To answere thee briefly saith he because thou mightest pretend no ignorance and that it should not draw thee into a scandalizing s●criledge know this that the Christian Catholikes of whom euen in your town there is a Church established doe not serue religiously any of the dead nor worship in stead of

and ioyned to the companie of Saints Now this that Ierome hath plainly spoken of Nepotian that he heard him not he also vndoubtedly hath beleeued and vnderstood of Paula and the other Saints departed who are established in their blessed estate and receiued into paradise to enioy there the same rest with him The second reason is that hee manifestly declareth to vs in his Commentaries vpon the prophecie of Ezekiel that the Saints liuing in this world cannot succour vs nor consequently the departed through their prayers and intercessions For in his exposition of this admonition of the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 14. vers 14. though these three men Noah Daniel and Iob were in the midst of Ierusalem c. they could neither deliuer them nor their owne daughters What shall we say saith Ierome of those which thinke that by the merit and vertues of their fathers their peruerse children may be deliuered frō hell fire Euery one shall die through his owne sin and and shall be saued through his owne righteousnesse In vaine the Iewes say Abraham is our father hauing not his workes b●t if there be confidence in any let vs put our trust only in the Lord. The third reason for that he testifieth of these two Christian women who had bin instructed by him to wit Paula and Blesilla is how they vpon the point of their death did not recommend themselues to the Virgin Mary nor any of the saints in paradise but to their only Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ. When saith he the feuer burned Blesilla and that her bed was bes●t with her dearest friends behold her last words were Pray yee to the Lord Iesus Christ that hee forgiue me Likewise who will giue me wings saith Paula as a doue that I may flie from hence and rest me My soule thirsteth after thee my flesh oftentimes wisheth for thee Notwithstanding this we cannot wholly excuse him For himselfe requiring Paula by his prayers to succour him in his old age followed not y ● rule which he himselfe had giuen to Paula and Blesilla to call only vpon God neither the example of their confidence in the only Sauiour Iesus Christ and sith that herein he hath failed as by his owne instructions we haue proued his authoritie bindeth not vs to follow his error Now resteth that supplication which according to your opinion S. Austin made to the Virgin Mary and to all the saints For proofe whereof you cite the 40 chapter of his Meditations where he saith Holy and immaculate Virgin mother of God mother of our Lord Iesus Christ vouchsafe to make intercession for me vnto him of whom through thy vertues and merits thou wast made the holy Temple You alleage with a bad conscience this booke of Meditations for you know that Erasmus and some other Doctors durst not affirme it to be S. Austins Also you are not ignorant that the Canon Garet attributeth this supplication to Fulbert Bishop of Chartres And indeed whosoeuer shall conferre this prayer printed vnder S. Austins name with his sentences which I haue alreadie alleaged against you whereby he absolutely condemneth the inuocation of Saints will iudge with these learned men who had a better conscience then you that none can attribute vnto him this prayer without doing him shame and accusing him of manifest contradiction in his writings and of faining in that which he saith of Iesus Christ that hee only can present vnto God his Father the prayers of his people because there is no saluation but only in him and of himselfe that he speaketh more safely to Iesus Christ then to all other saints in paradise After this as in a passage you propose against vs the authoritie of S. Leo and S. Gregory Popes S. Gregory of Tours S. Anselmus and S. Bernard And you could name many other protectors of your cause if you were not of an opinion that the halfe of them which you haue already named were not more then too sufficient to make the Caluinists and Lutherans to blush if they had any blood in their hearts I confesse that the inuocation of Saints and namely of the Virgin Mary was finally authorized by the latter of these Popes if that be true as is reported and brought vp by all force into the seruice of the Church about the yeere of Christ 600 because that in those daies there was no more Athanases nor Chrysostoms nor Cyprians nor Austins to stop the breach and repulse it from gaining the heart of the vulgar people I confesse also that Anselmus and Bernard liuing in that miserable age wherein superstition was the Mistris of the field strooke their sailes and halted on both sides to accommodate themselues to the custome of their time through feare and carnall wisedome but I adde hereunto that if you had euer a veine in your heart of shame you would then blush in your soule and would be ashamed to ranke Anselmus and Bernard with these who through their writings haue confirmed your tradition touching the adoratiō of Saints For it was impossible for them to confirme you and your predecessors in your opinion seeing themselues were neuer firme therein but very inconstant and variable For at sometimes they counselled the Christians to come vnto God by the Virgin Mary calling her the Mediatrix and Sauiouresse of mankinde at other times they admonished them of the cleane contrarie and to addresse themselues to God only through the intercession of his only Son and not to put their hope but in the mercie of the Father and in the full satisfaction which his Sonne hath made to him for our sinnes Howsoeuer it be we finde in Anselmus Meditations the formall of prayer which he made vnto God and published to the intent al Christians might vse it with him for their instruction and consolation Lord my God saith he I pray vnto thee because thou art neere vnto all those which ●all vpon thee and those which call on thee in truth for thou art the Truth I beseech thee let thy truth then teach me that I may inuocate thy clemencie for I cannot pray as I ought but most blessed truth I beseech thee to instruct me To be wise without thee is to become foolish but to know thee is perfect knowledge O diuine wisedome instruct me and learne me thy law for I beleeue that he is blessed whom thou shalt instruct and he to whom thou shalt teach thy law I desire to inuocate thee and intreate thee that it may be in truth What is it to call on the truth in truth but to inuocate the Father by the Sonne for what is there more sweete then to pray the Father by his only Sonne and to moue the Father vnto compassion by the remembrance of his owne Sonne So haue wicked liuers been taken out of prison and bonds so those which are condemned to lose their heads recouered not only their liues but an extraordinarie fauour when they shew to the angrie fathers

Bernard who was Abbat of the Cloister of Claitual liued in Burgundie one of the principall Prouinces of France and was there in greater reputation then al the other Monkes of his Order His bookes doe plainly witnesse that hee was more inclined to the inuocation of our only God and celestiall Father then to the adoration of Saints and that he beleeued that no man could haue sure accesse vnto his throne of grace but by the merit of the death of our only Sauiour Iesus Christ. Your Fathers haue brought in and receiued his bookes in their Church without any contradiction and euen vnto this present you haue them in your Cloisters and handle them daily And yet for all this you loue rather to affirme against your owne consciences that S. Bernard constantly maintained the inuocation of Saints then roundly to confesse that he spake thereof with some scruple of conscience and very doubtfully as appeareth by his writings In the repetition of the prayers which our Fathers haue addressed to the departed Saints you nominate that prayer of Origens and aske me whether Origen that Doctor praying to the Prophet Iob about the yeere of Christ 220 Was an Idolater But sith that Origen was before S. Ieromes time S. Chrysostomes S. Cyprians S. Austins S. Iohn Damascenus and many other Doctors of the Primitiue Church according to S. Ieromes testimonie who saith that in the yeere of Christ 203 Origen was then of the age of seuenteene yeeres it is maruell why you haue not done him that honour to place him in his ranke and to cite his prayers aswell as others Moreouer it is a wonder that you doe this wrong to Origen to attribute this prayer to him O S. Iob pray for vs miserable wretches that the mercie of God may deliuer vs. True it is that Origen had many strange and dangerous opinions in such sort that S. Ierome saith of him that hee commended his spirit but not his faith that he set greatly by his translations but not by his doctrines and expositions which hee tearmeth venomous and farre from the sense of holy Scriptures and doing them violence but howbeit as wee haue alreadie proued by his disputations against Celsus the Philosopher that he spake well of the inuocation of Gods name and maintained that religious adoration appertaineth onely to God and the presentation of out prayers to our only Mediatour and Intercessor Iesus Christ. If Celsus reproched Origen that he and the other Christians worshipped our Lord Iesus Christ and from thence sought to conclude that the Christians worshipped after the fashion of the Gentiles some other then God would not he Celsus also haue replied that hee and his followers called vpon the Prophet Iob and that they beleeued they offended not God in seruing religiously his seruant would hee not likewife in good earnest haue flouted at this distinction of Origens that the Christians worshipped no other but God in calling on the name of Iesus Christ forasmuch as Christ was not a simple man as the Prophets other departed Saints were nor likewise a simple creature as the Angels but forasmuch as hee was also one God with the Father and Lord of all things And what likelihood is there that hee besought Iob to pray for him when he himselfe prescribed this rule to all Christians to offer their prayers only to God through his only Sonne and protesteth in his eighth booke against Celsus to haue followed it with the other Christians His rule is That wee must adore the only soueraigne God and present our prayers to the only Sonne of God who is his Word and the first borne of all creatures that as a high priest he might offer them vp to his God and to our God to his Father and according to his word the father of all liuing The practise agreeable to this rule is expressed in these words We worship as much as we can through supplications and seruices one only God and his only Sonne his word and his image offering our prayers to God the Lord of all things by his only Sonne to whom first we doe addresse them beseeching him that being propitiatour far our sinnes he would vouchsafe as high priest to offer vnto God our prayers sacrifices and intercessions and therefore our faith lieth in God through his Son who hath confirmed it in vs. It is not credible then that Origen hath inuocated Iob not the other departed Saints not the Virgin Mary likewise sith that hee himselfe in his sermons comprehendeth them all together in the number of sinners which are not entred into heauen through their owne merits but by the only faith in Iesus Christ. Shall we thinke saith he in his 27. Sermon and 2. tome that all the Apostles were offended in our Lord and that his mother was exempted If she hath suffered no scandall in the passion of the Lord then Iesus died not for her sinnes But if all haue sinned and haue all need of the glorie of God to be iustified and redeemed through his grace surely Mary was offended in that very houre And this is it which Simeon prophecied saying And thy soule also which knowest thou hast conceiued without a man and who hast heard by Gabriel that the holy Ghost should come vpon thee and the power of the most High should ouershadow thee euen thine shall a sword pearce thorow and thou shalt bee smitten with the blade of doubtfulnesse and thy thoughts shall distract thee when thou shalt see him to be crucified and put to death whom thou hast heard called the Son of God and knewest to be begotten without the seede of man But what will you say if I should shew you that your owne men haue not held these Commentaries vpon Iob nor Origens Lamentations wherein hee praieth the Saints to prostrate themselues for him to the mercies of God for authenticall bookes For as Pope Gelasius hath reiected the booke of Lamentations attributed to Origen and iudged to be Apocrypha so Sixtus Senensis sheweth in his fourth booke that the Treatise vpon Iob and some such like books were not composed by him but by some other author which certaine of our Fathers suspected of heresie For in his second booke he compareth these three diuine persons to wit the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost to three hornes of the Diuell and tearmeth the doctrine of the holie Trinitie a sect and a heresie of three Gods All men of reason and discretion taking heede to the falsehood of these allegations will they not haue in abomination your audaciousnesse and impudencie to proue the anciencie of the adoration of Saints by witnesses of no credit and by depraued bookes cast off a long while agoe by your predecessors Moreouer as the Arrians Montanists and sundrie other heretikes haue mixed their poyson among the sound doctrine contained in the bookes of the ancient Fathers and like as diuers superstitious persons haue annexed to the wholesome