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
A42622	The genuine epistles of the apostolical fathers, S. Barnabas, S. Ignatius, S. Clement, S. Polycarp, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the matyrdoms of St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp, written by those who were present at their sufferings : being, together with the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, a compleat collection of the most primitive antiquity for about CL years after Christ / translated and publish'd, with a large preliminary discourse relating to the several treaties here put together by W. Wake ...; Apostolic Fathers (Early Christian Collection) English.	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1693 (1693)	Wing G523A; ESTC R10042	282,773	752

away and corrupt my Resolution towards my God Let none of you therefore Help him Rather do ye joyn with me that is with God Do not speak with Jesus Christ and yet Cover the World Let not any Envy dwell with you No not though even I my self when I shall be come unto you should exhort you to it yet do not ye hearken to me but rather believe what I now write to you For though I am alive at the Writing this yet my Desire is to Die My Love is Crucified And the Fire that is within me does not desire any Water But being Alive and speaking within me says Come to the Father I take no Pleasure in the Food of Corruption nor in the Pleasures of this Life I desire the Bread of God which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ of the Seed of David and the Drink that I long for is his Blood which is Uncorruptible Love VIII I HAVE no desire to live any longer after the manner of Men neither shall I if you consent Be ye therefore willing that ye your selves also may be pleasing to God I exhort you in a few Words I pray you believe me Jesus Christ will shew you that I speak truly My Mouth is without Deceit and the Father hath truly spoken by it Pray therefore for me that I may accomplish what I desire I have not written to you after the Flesh but according to the Will of God If I shall Suffer ye have loved me But if I shall be rejected ye have hated me IX REMEMBER in your Prayers the Church of Syria which now enjoys God for its Shepherd instead of me Let Jesus Christ only Oversee it and your Charity But I am even ashamed to be reckon'd as one of Them For neither am I Worthy being the least among them and as one Born out of due Season But through Mercy I have obtain'd to be Somebody if I shall get unto God My Spirit salutes you and the Charity of the Churches that have received me in the Name of Jesus Christ not as a Stranger For even they that have not accompanied me in my Journy have yet been ready in every City to receive me X. THESE things I write to you from Smyrna by the most Worthy of the Church of Ephesus There is now with me together with many others Crocus most Beloved of me As for those which came with Me from Syria and are gone before me to Rome to the Glory of God I suppose you are not Ignorant of them Ye shall therefore signifie to them that I draw near for they are all Worthy both of God and of you Whom it is fit that you Refresh in all things This have I written to you the day before the Ninth of the Calends of September Be Strong unto the End in the Patience of Jesus Christ. To the ROMANS THE EPISTLE OF St. IGNATIVS TO THE Philadelphians THE CONTENTS The Salutation Chap. I. HE begins with a very Great Commendation of their Bishop whom they had sent unto Him II. He warns them against Divisions and to stick close to their Bishop as the best means to avoid falling into Errors and False Doctrines III.IV. Which Exhortation he again enforces and shews them the Danger of following Any Persons to the making of a Schism in the Church V. He excuses the length of this Advice which proceeded from his Love towards Them Desires their Prayers And shews how the Holy Men under the Law as well as since under the Gospel were all United in Christ. VI. Yet this must not prompt them to receive their Doctrine who would tempt them to Judaize VII He declares what his own Conduct had been whilst he was amongst Them VIII IX And exhorts them after his Example to maintain a Pure Doctrine in Unity with one Another X. He accounts to them how he had heard that the Persecution was stopp'd in his Church at Antioch And directs them to send some Messenger thither to Congratulate with Them thereupon XI He tells them what Persons were still with Him and thanks them for the kind Entertainment they gave to some of Them And so concludes with the common Salutation of those who were present at his Writing of this Epistle to Them THE EPISTLE OF St. IGNATIVS TO THE Philadelphians IGNATIUS who is also called THEOPHORUS to the Church of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ which is at PHILADELPHIA in Asia which has obtained Mercy being fix'd in the Concord of God and rejoycing evermore in the Passion of our Lord and being fulfilled in all Mercy through his Resurrection Which also I salute in the Bloud of Jesus Christ who is our Eternal and undefiled Joy Especially if they are at Unity with the Bishop and Presbyters who are with Him and the Deacons appointed according to the Mind of Jesus Christ whom he has setled according to his own Will in all Firmness by His Holy Spirit I. WHICH Bishop I know obtain'd that Great Ministry among you not of Himself neither by Men nor out of Vain Glory but in the Love of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Whose Mildness I admire who by his silence is able to do more than others with all their Vain Talk For he is fitted to the Commands as the Harp to its Strings Wherefore my Soul esteems his Mind towards God most Happy knowing it to be Fruitful in all Vertue and perfect full of Constancy free from Passion and according to all the Moderation of the Living God II. WHEREFORE as becomes the Children both of the Light and of Truth flee Divisions and False Doctrines But where your Shepherd is there do ye as Sheep follow after For there are many Wolves who seem worthy of Belief that with a false Pleasure lead Captive those that run in the Course of God But in your Concord They shall find no place III. ABSTAIN therefore from those Evil Herbs which Jesus Christ does not dress because such are not the Plantation of the Father Not that I have found any Division among you but rather all manner of Purity For as many as are of Jesus Christ are also with their Bishop And as many as shall with Repentance return into the Unity of the Church even these shall also be the Servants of God that they may live according to Jesus Christ. Be not deceived Brethren If any one follows him that makes a Schism in the Church he shall not inherit the Kingdom of God If any one walks after any other's Opinion he agrees not with the Passion of Christ. IV. WHEREFORE let it be your Endeavour to partake All of the same Holy Eucharist For there is but one Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ And One Cup unto the Unity of his Bloud One Altar As also there is One Bishop together with his Presbytery and the Deacons my Fellow-Servants That so whatsoever

For they went down Alive into the Grave Death swallowed them up Pharaoh and his Host and all the Rulers of Egypt their Chariots also and their Horse-men were for no other cause drowned in the bottom of the Red Sea and Perish'd but because they hardened their foolish Hearts after so many Signs done in the Land of Egypt by Moses the Servant of God LII BELOVED God is not Indigent of any thing nor does he demand any thing of Us but that we should Confess our Sins unto Him For so says the Holy David I will Confess unto the LORD and it shall please him better than a Bullock that hath Horns and Hoofs Let the Poor see it and be Glad And again he saith Offer unto God the Sacrifice of Praise and pay thy Vows unto the most Highest And call upon Me in the day of Trouble and I will deliver Thee and thou shalt Glorifie me The Sacrifice of God is a Broken Spirit LIII YE know Beloved ye know full-well the Holy Scriptures and have thoroughly search'd into the Oracles of God Call them therefore to your Remembrance For when Moses went up into the Mount and tarried there Forty Days and Forty Nights in Fasting and Humility God said unto Him Get thee down quickly from Hence For thy People whom thou broughtest out of the Land of Egypt has committed Wickedness They have soon transgressed the way that I commanded Them and have made to themselves Graven Images And the LORD said unto Him I have spoken unto Thee several times saying I have seen this People and behold it is a stiff-necked People Let me therefore Destroy them and put out their Name from under Heaven And I will make unto thee a Great and a Wonderful Nation that shall be much larger than this But Moses said Not so LORD Forgive now this People their Sin Or if thou wilt not Blot me also out of the Book of the Living O admirable Charity O insuperable Perfection The Servant speaks freely to his Lord He beseeches him either to forgive the People or to destroy Him together with them LIV. WHO is there among you that is Generous Who that is Compassionate Who that has any Charity Let him say If this Sedition this Contention these Schisms are upon my Account I am ready to depart to go away whithersoever ye please and do whatsoever ye shall desire of me only let the Flock of Christ be in Peace with the Priests that are set over it He that shall do this shall get to himself a very great Honour in the LORD and there is no place but what will be ready to receive him For the Earth is the LORD'S and the Fullness thereof These things they who have their Conversation towards God not to be repented of both have done and will always be ready to do LV. NAY and even the Gentiles themselves have given us Examples of this kind For we read How many Kings and Princes in times of Pestilence being warned by their Oracles have given up Themselves unto Death that by their own Bloud they might deliver their Country-men from Destruction Others have forsaken their Cities that so they might put an End to the Seditions of them We know how many among our selves have given up themselves unto Bonds that thereby they might free others from them Others have hired out themselves to the most Servile Employments that with the Wages of them they might feed their Brethen And even Women themselves being strengthned by the Grace of God have done many Glorious and Manly things on such Occasions The Blessed Judith when her City was besieged desired the Elders that they would suffer her to go into the Camp of their Enemies And she went out exposing her self to Danger for the Love she bare to her Country and her People that were Besieged and the Lord delivered Holofernes into the Hands of a Woman Nor did Esther being perfect in Faith expose her self to any less Hazard for the Delivery of the Twelve Tribes of Israel in danger of being destroyed For by Fasting and Humbling Her self she intreated the Great Maker of All things the God of Ages So that beholding the Humility of her Soul He delivered the People for whose sake she was in Peril LVI WHEREFORE let us also pray for all such as fall into any Trouble or Distress That being endued with Humility and Moderaration they may submit not unto Us but to the Will of God For by this means they shall obtain a Fruitful and Perfect Remembrance with Mercy both at the Hands of God and of his Saints Let us receive Correction at which no Man ought to repine Beloved the Reproof and the Correction which we exercise towards one another is good and exceeding Profitable For it unites us the more closely to the Will of God For so says the Holy Scripture The LORD corrected me but he did not deliver me over unto Death For whom the LORD loveth he Chastneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth The Righteous saith He shall instruct me in Mercy and reprove me but the Oyl of Sinners shall not make fat my Head And again he saith Happy is the Man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the Chastning of the Almighty For he maketh sore and bindeth up He woundeth and his hands make whole He shall deliver thee in six Troubles Yea in seven there shall no Evil touch Thee In Famine he shall redeem thee from Death and in War from the Power of the Sword Thou shalt be hid from the Scourge of the Tongue neither shalt thou be afraid of Destruction when it cometh Thou shalt laugh at the Wicked and Sinners neither shalt thou be afraid of the Beasts of the Earth The wild Beasts shall be at peace with thee Then shalt thou know that thy House shall be in peace and the Habitation of thy Tabernacle shall not err Thou shalt know also that thy Seed shall be great and thy Off-spring as the Grass of the Earth Thou shalt come to thy Grave as the ripe Corn that is taken in due time like as a Shock of Corn cometh in in his Season Ye see Beloved how there shall be a Defence to those that are corrected of the Lord. For being a good Instructor he is willing to Admonish us by his Holy Discipline LVII DO YE therefore who laid the first Foundation of this Sedition submit your selves to your Priests and be Instructed unto Repentance bending the Knees of your Hearts Learn to be subject laying aside all proud and arrogant Boasting of your Tongues For it is better for you to be found little and of good Reputation in the Sheepfold of Christ than to seem to your selves better than others and be cast out of his Fold For thus speaks the excellent and all-vertuous Wisdom Behold I will pour out the word of my Spirit upon

Hopes of Suffering for Christ unless they Prevent it II. Which he Earnestly Intreats them not to do III. But rather to Pray for Him that God would Strengthen Him to the Combat unto which He had called Him IV. He expresses the Great Desire he had to Suffer Martyrdom V.VI. And the Mighty Advantage it would be to Him so to do VII VIII And therefore again intreats them that they would not do any thing to prevent it IX He desires their Prayers for his Church at Antioch and expresses the Kindness of the Christians to Him on his Way to Them X. And then Concludes with his Recommendations of Those who came from Syria with Him and were gone before to Rome to their Favourable Acceptance THE EPISTLE OF St. IGNATIVS TO THE Romans IGNATIUS who is also called THEOPHORUS to the Church which has obtained Mercy from the Majesty of the Most High Father and his only Begotten Son Jesus Christ Beloved and Illuminated through the Will of Him who Willeth all things which are according to the Love of Jesus Christ our God Which also Presides in the Place of the Region of the Romans and which I salute in the Name of Jesus Christ as being United both in Flesh and Spirit to all His Commands and filled with the Grace of God All Joy in Jesus Christ our God I. I HAVE at last obtained of God through my Earnest Prayers to see your Faces which I have much desired to do For being Bound in Christ Jesus I hope e're long to salute you if it shall be the Pleasure of God to grant me to attain unto the End I hope for For the Beginning is well-disposed if I shall but be so Happy as without Hindrance to receive what is Appointed for me But I fear your Love least it do me an Injury For it is easie for you to do what you please But it will be hard for me to attain unto God unless you spare me II. BUT I would not that ye should please Men but God whom also ye do please For neither shall I ever hereafter have such an Opportunity of going unto God Nor will you if ye shall now be silent ever be intituled to a better Work For if you shall be silent in my behalf I shall become partaker of God But if you shall love my Body I shall have my Course again to run Wherefore a greater Kindness ye cannot do Me than to suffer me to be Sacrificed unto God now that the Altar is already Prepared That when ye shall be gather'd together in Love ye may give Thanks to the Father in Christ Jesus that He has vouchsafed to bring a Bishop of Syria unto you being sent from the East even unto the West For it is good for me to Set from the World unto God that I may Rise again unto Him III. YE HAVE never envied me in any thing ye have taught others I would therefore that ye should now do those things your selves which in your Instructions you have prescribed to Others Only Pray for me that God would give me Strength that I may not only be called a Christian but may also be found one For if I shall be found a Christian I may then deservedly be called one And be thought Faithful when I shall no longer appear to the World Nothing is Good that is seen For even our Lord Jesus Christ now that he is in the Father does so much the more Appear To be a True Christian is not a Work of Opinion but of Greatness of Mind especially when he is hated by the World IV. I WRITE to the Churches and signifie to them All that I am willing to die for God unless you hinder me I beseech you that you shew not an unseasonable good Will towards me Suffer me to be Food to the Wild Beasts by which means I shall go unto God For I am the Wheat of God and I shall be Ground by the Teeth of the Wild Beasts that I may be found the pure Bread of Christ. Rather encourage the Beasts that they may become my Sepulchre and may leave nothing of my Body that being Dead I may not be troublesome to any Then shall I be the True Disciple of Jesus Christ when the World shall not see so much as my Body Pray therefore unto Christ for me that by these Instruments I may be made the Sacrifice of God I do not as Peter and Paul Command you They were Apostles I a Condemned Man They were Free I am even to this day a Servant But if I shall Suffer I shall then become the Freeman of Jesus Christ and shall rise Free And now being in Bonds I learn not to desire any thing V. FROM Syria even unto Rome I fight with Beasts both by Sea and Land both Night and Day Being bound to Ten Leopards that is to say to such a Band of Souldiers Who though treated with all manner of Kindness are but the Worse for it But I am the more instructed by their Injuries Yet am I not therefore Justified May I enjoy the Wild Beasts that are prepared for me Which also I wish may exercise all their Fierceness upon me And whom for that End I will encourage that they may be sure to devour Me and not serve me as they have done some whom out of fear they have not touched But and if they will not do it willingly I will provoke them to it Pardon me in this Matter I know what is profitable for me Now I begin to be a Disciple Nor shall any thing move me whether Visible or Invisible that I may attain to Christ Jesus Let Fire and the Cross let the Companies of Wild Beasts let Breakin gs of Bones and Tearing of Members let the shattering in pieces of the whole Body and all the Torments of the Devil come upon me only let me enjoy Jesus Christ. VI. ALL the Compass of the World and the Kingdoms of it will profit me nothing It is better for me to die for Jesus Christ than to rule to the utmost Ends of the Earth Him I seek who died for us Him I desire that rose again from the Dead for us He is the Gain that is laid up for me Pardon me my Brethren ye shall not hinder me from living Nor seeing I desire to go to God may you separate me from Him for the sake of this World nor seduce me by any of the Desires of it Suffer me to enter into Pure Light Where being come I shall be indeed the Servant of God Permit me to imitate the Passion of my God If any one has Him within Himself let him consider what I desire and let him have Compassion on me as knowing how I am streightned VII THE Prince of this World would fain carry me

much Jesus Christ vouchsafed to suffer for our sakes What Recompense then shall we render unto him Or what Fruit that may be worthy of what he has given to us For indeed how great are those Advantages which we owe to him in Relation to our Holiness He has illuminated us as a Father he has called us his Children he has saved us who were lost and undone What Praise shall we ascribe to him Or what Reward that may be answerable to those things which we have received We were defective in our Understandings worshiping Stones and Wood Gold and Silver and Brass the Works of Mens Hands and our whole Life was nothing else but Death Wherefore being encompassed with Darkness and having such a Mist before our Eyes we have look'd up and through his Will have laid aside the Cloud wherewith we were surrounded For he had Compassion upon us and being moved in his Bowels towards us he saved us having beheld in us much Deceit and Destruction and seen that we had no hope of Salvation but only by him Therefore he called us who were not and was pleased from nothing to give us a Being II. REJOICE thou Barren that barest not break forth and cry thou that travailest not for she that is desolate hath many more Children than she that hath an Husband In that he said Rejoice thou Barren that bearest not He spake of us For our Church was barren before that Children were given unto it And again when he said Cry thou that travailest not He implied thus much That after the manner of Women in Travail we should not cease to put up our Prayers unto God only And for what remains Because she that is desolate hath more Children than she that hath an Husband It was therefore added because our People which seem'd to have been forsaken by God now believing in him are become more than they who seem'd to have God And another Scripture saith I came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance The Meaning of which is this that those who were lost must be saved For that is indeed truly great and wonderful not to confirm those things that are yet standing but those which are falling Even so did it seem good to Christ to save what was lost and when he came into the World he saved many and called us who were already perishing III. SEEING then he has shew'd so great Mercy towards us and chiefly for that we who are alive do now no longer sacrifice to dead Gods nor pay any Worship to them but have by him been brought to the Knowledge of the Father of Truth Whereby shall we shew that we do indeed know him but by not denying him by whom we have come to the Knowledge of him For even he himself saith Whosoever shall confess me before Men him will I confess before my Father This therefore is our Reward that if we confess him we shall be saved by him But wherein must we confess him Namely in doing those things which he saith and not disobeying his Commandments By worshiping him not with our Lips only but with all our Heart and with all our Mind For he saith in Isaiah This People honoureth me with their Lips but their Heart is far from me IV. LET us not then only call him LORD for that will not save us For he saith Not every one that saith unto me LORD LORD shall be saved but he that doth Righteousness Wherefore Brethren let us confess him by our Works by loving one another in not committing Adultery not speaking Evil against each other not envying one another but by being Temperate Merciful and Good Let us also have a mutual Sense of one anothers Sufferings and not be covetous of Mony But let us by our Good Works confess God and not by those that are otherwise Also let us not fear Men but rather God For this cause and to the End that we should do thus hath the LORD said Though ye should be joyn'd unto me even in my very Bosom and not keep my Commandments I would cast you off and say unto you Depart from me I know not whence you are ye Workers of Iniquity V. WHEREFORE Brethren laying aside our sojourning in this present World let us do the Will of him who has called us and not fear to depart out of this World For the LORD saith Ye shall be as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Peter answered and said What if the Wolves shall tear in pieces the Sheep Jesus said unto Peter Let not the Sheep fear the Wolves after Death And ye also fear not those that kill you and after that have no more that they can do unto you but fear him who after you are dead has power to cast both Soul and Body into Hell Fire For consider Brethren that the sojourning of this Flesh in the present World is but little and of a short Continuance but the Promise of Christ is Great and Wonderful even the rest of the Kingdom that is to come and of Eternal Life But what then must we do that we attain unto it We must be converted to a divine and just Course of Life and look upon all the things of this World as none of ours and not desire them For if we shall desire to possess them we are fallen from the Way of Righteousness VI. FOR thus saith the LORD No Servant can serve two Masters If therefore we shall desire to serve God and Mammon it will be without Profit to us For what will it profit us if we shall gain the whole World and lose our own Souls Now this World and that to come are two Enemies This calls us to Adultery and Corruption to Covetousness and to Deceit but that commands us to renounce these things We cannot therefore be the Friends of both but we must resolve by forsaking one to enjoy the other And we think that it is better to hate the present things as little short-lived and corruptible and to love those which are to come which are truly good and incorruptible For if we do the Will of Christ we shall find Rest But if not nothing shall deliver us from Eternal Punishment if we shall disobey his Commands For even thus saith the Scripture in the Prophet Ezekiel If Noah Job and Daniel should rise up they shall not deliver their Children in Captivity Wherefore if such Righteous Men are not able by their Righteousness to deliver their Children how can we hope to enter into the Kingdom of God except we keep our Baptism Holy and Undefiled Or who shall be our Advocate unless we shall be found to have done what is Holy and Just VII LET us therefore my Brethren contend with all Earnestness knowing that we are now called to the Combat and that many go long Voyages to corruptible Encounters in which all are not concern'd but they only that labour much and