Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	faith_n	grace_n	repentance_n	2,335	5	7.5639	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34922	The voyage of the wandring knight shewing the whole course of man's life, how apt he is to follow vanity, and how hard it is for him to attain vertue / devised by John Cartheny, a French man ; and translated out of French into English by W.G. of Southampton, merchant ...; Voyage du chevalier errant. English	Cartigny, Jean de, 1520?-1578.; N. R.; Goodyear, William.	1661 (1661)	Wing C681A; ESTC R34789	91,602	121

good Hermit wherefore I was desirous to know his Name the which I asked Lady Memory who told me that it was good Understanding Then I received the holy Communion which being ended and Thanks given to God I meant to salute gratisie him But before we went to receive the holy Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ I remembred the great love of our Lord which humbly took upon him our fraile and weak nature for our sakes became accursed and suffered most bitter death upon the Cross to deliver us out of the bandage of Sin Hell and Eternal death and to bring us to everlasting life I remembred also that love which he shewed unto me in drawing me out of the sink of sin wherein I was plunged over head and ears so that I was not only drawn from my unspeakable sins but also made a Communicant of the mystery of his Divine Majesty by faith And to the end it might please him to give me grace to receive it aright I prayed unto him on this wise O Sweet Jesus and loving Redeemer I yield thee thanks for thy unspeakable love by which thou hast purged me from the filth of sin and pluckt me by thy grace out of the dark dungeon of death Behold I reconcile my self unto thee most heartily beseeching thee that thou wouldest vouchsafe amongst the great number of thy benefits of thy great liberality to give me grace to be a faithfull partaker of thy precious body and blood represented unto me under the visible form of Bread and Wine O immortal King I am not worthy I confess of so great a benefit yet I beseech thee as thou dost make the unworthy worthy and the sinners just so make me worthy to receive this holy blessed and Heavenly Sacrament to my Souls Health Feed my Soul O Lord with thy spiritual Body and let thy blood revive and quicken my Spirit O make me by thy grace daily encreasing in me a member of thy mysticall body that I may be included within the Covenant and blessing which thou madest with thy Saints and Apostles in thy last Supper communicating unto them the holy Sacrament of thy body and Blood and consequently that I may be of the number of them which according to the Vow and Promise made in Baptism do live in Faith and by thy grace are received into the company of Saints Amen This prayer being ended with all Reverence and Devotion I received the holy Sacrament and that being ended we went from the Chappel into a great Hall where I met the good Hermit Understanding whom when I had saluted and he me I thanked him for his good sermon Then as we were talking Gods Grace said unto me Sir Knight I give thee for thy Governour this good Hermit Understanding believe his Counsel and do what he commands Then I remembred my old Governess Folly whom I left in the bog amongst Serpents and Toads so I was very glad of my Governour and give thanks to Gods Grace who from the Table gave me drugs to eat and repeated unto me a place written in the 80 Psalme of David Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Then having swallowed that which she gave me I forgat the World and made no reckoning of any thing therein For all my desire was in haste to see the Palace of true Felicity I desired death to be with Christ in Heaven Dinner being done the Gates of Repentance were opened which were narrow contrariwise as it appeareth in the first Book that the entrance into the Palace of Voluptuousness was wide large and great but the end thereof was desperation and destruction as on the other side the entring into the Palace of Repentance is streight and narrow but the end thereof is eternal Life For Repentance as Saint Paul saith leadeth the Repentant to everlasting Salvation When the gates were open I mounted up into a Chariot of Ivory having golden wheels and two white Horses with wings drawing the same Gods Grace gat up first and with her hand helped me up then followed the good Hermit Understanding then Memory Conscience and Repentance but Gods Grace governed all who touching the Horses with her Rod they mounted up over the Mountains which are above the Earth So we passed through the Region of the Air where inhabiteth all the wicked spirits which watch to annoy such as would mount up to Heaven And though I was greatly agast hereat yet my trust was in Gods Grace under whose Wings I hid my self I trusted not in my Conscience although it was at peace nor to Repentance nor to Understanding but to Gods Grace only who safely throwded me under her Wings as the Hen doth her Chickens against the coming of the Kite Then she commanded the wicked Enemies to get them hence and they forthwith sled away crying aloud Now have we lost our Knight lo he is mounted up to the Palace of Vertue in despight of us all Now he is escaped under the Wings of Gods grace Being past this brunt I heartily thanked Gods grace of her goodness and on the sudden I saw upon the top of a Mountain a goodly Palace Now for that love ingendreth tamiliarity and familiarity breeds boldness I asked Gods grace what place it was and she told me it was the Palace of Vertue It was so high that it reached even to Heaven and about it were seven sair Towers of Alablaster In the first dwelt Faith in the second Hope in the third Charity in the fourth Wisdome in the fifth Justice in the sixth Fortitude and in the seventh Temperance In the first Tower Gods grace shewed me Faith which waited for our coming near unto whom I might perceive the Palace of true Felicity With that I desired Lady Memory to put me in mind in the morning of seeing that gallant City Whiles we talked thus our Chariot arrived at the Court where Lady Vertue with her Daughters Faith Hope Charity Wisdome Justice and Temperance dwelt At the first sight I knew it was the same Lady Vertue which afore-time had so well admonished me to whom I gave no ear Then reverently upon my knees lamenting I cryed her mercy for contemning her Counsell and following Voluptuousness Wherewith she made me arise and in token that she took in good part my recantation she sweetly kissed me and bade me Welcome So with great joy accompanied with Gods grace true Understanding quiet Conscience and unfained Repentance I entred into the Palace of Lady Vertue Thus much for the second part of the Wandring Knights Voyage THE VOYAGE OF The Wandring Knight The Third Part. CHAP. I. The Knight declareth the great good the solace and the pleasure which he found in the Palace of Lady Vertue IF I had a thousand tongues to tell the truth of all the good and pleasures which I found in the Palace of Vertue and if I live a thousand years to report this matter all were too little in every

the infallible Truth spake thus to Nicodemus God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that whosoever believeth in him should be saved and not perish but have everlasting life God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but to the end the World should be saved by him To the Scrives and Pharisies which murmured because he did eat and drink among Publicans and Sinners Christ said Those that be whole need not the Physitian but such as be sick Again I came not saith the Lord to call the just but Sinners to repentance Not as a Iudge but as a Physitian for such as languish in their Sins came I into the World not that they should remain Sinners but to turn them from their Sins that being Penitent they might be made righteous Likewise he told the Pharisees that the Angels in Heaven do more rejoyce in one penitent Sinner than in 99 just persons which need no repentance God saith Saint Paul spared not his only Son but gave him that he should rather dye for us than we be unpardoned If God spared not his only Son to dye for Sinners what thing is more precious unto him that he should resuse to give them And therefore the same Apostle speaking or Iesus Christ saith thus We have not an high Priest which cannot have Compassion of our Infirmities but such a one as in all points was tempted as well as we Sin excepted Let us go then boldly to the Seat of Grace that we may obtain merry and find grace in time convenient If I should rehearse all the places of the Scripture to this effect the ti … e would fail me Thus we see then none hath cause to distrust the goodness of God or to despair because of the greatness of his Sins seeing that God hath made so many fair promises to pardon the Penitent Sinner there be many Examples in the Old and New Testament of the performance of Gods promises as namely to David who commitred bath Adultery and Murther he even he by sorrowing for his offences and crying Peccavi obtained mercy and pardon of all his Wickedness Manasses the Son of Hezekiah set up the false worship of God which his Father had defaced and of an evill zeal to infidelity he himself offered up his own Children in fire for Sacrifice He persecuted the Prophets and sine innumerable Innocents amongst all which he caused the prophet Esay to be sawn in pieces In the end he was taken by his Enemies and led Captive into Babylon but when he was in his extreamity he acknowledged his offence and asked forgiveness of God by whom he was received to favour and restored to his Kingdom again The People of Ninive whom God threatned by the Prophet Jonas utterly to destroy for the multitude of their Sins they repented and prayed and so God forgave them The Samaritane also and the Canaanite notwithstanding their horrible sins when they asked Gods mercy he forgave them Matthew Zacheus and divers other Publicans upon their repentance were received into favour Peter that denyed his Master our Lord Iesus Christ three times swearing that he knew him not when he wept vitterly for his Sins he was received into mercy The Thief also upon the Cross being at the paint of Death even this Fellow who lived upon nothing but Robbery and Man slaughter all his life time acknowledged his hainous Sins asked pardon and God forgave him yea he obtained more than he required for Christ said unto him This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise This is Gods property even to give of his Liverality more than Men do or can ask Saint Paul was a Blasphemer and a Persecuter of Gods Church and yet he received mercy God hath set down such Persons as Examples for Sinners to the end they should not doubt of his Mercy and to teach them that he doth not Pardon offences for the merits of the Sinners which are stark Naught even when they are best but for his mercies sake which is adove all his Works For so to imagine of Mens merits is Destruction if any thing be ascribed unto merits then to the merits of his Son Iesus Christ and for his bitter Passion sake Let this be the conclusion that albeit the Sinner hath committed as many Sins as there be drops of Water in the Sea or Sands on the Sea shore yet he hath no cause to despair for though they be never so monstrous and manifold yet the mercy of God doth infinitely exceed them For his mercy consumes them sooner than the fire doth durn up the dry Ton. When I heard Lady Remembrance read these words I took heart a grace and recited a place Written in the Psalmes of David According to the multitude of the grief and sorrowes of my heart thy consolations have refreshed my Soul And then falling on my knees holding up my hands with sorrowfull Countenance and Compunction of Heart resting wholly upon the mercies and promises of God and the merits of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ I most humbly desired pardon for my Sins at the hands of Gods grace Vpon which unfained confession of mine offences and heart-grief hand-maids of perfect Repentance and fore-runners to the purpose I received by the means of Gods grace the benefit of the death and Passion of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen CAP. VI. A Sermon which Understanding the good Hermit made unto the Knight upon the History of Mary Magdalen IN the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Amen The great goodness and unspeakable mercy which hath been used in all Ages and times of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ towards all poor Sinners are in many places of the Gospel made manitest and clearly notified but chiesty in the seventh of Luke Wherein mention is made of a sinfull Woman lewd of Life and of ill name contemned despised and abhorred of Men whom sweet Iesus did not only receive to Favour but also by inward and secret inspiration drew her to repentance how and in what sort hear and understand The Gospel saith that there was a Pharisie furnished with false Faith and nuzled with a vain Opinion of holiness he was a great Doctor of the Law and a renowned Iusticiary howbeit weak in Faith and yet very high minded When our Saviour had one day preached and instructed the People by his Divine and holy Doctrine exhorting poor Sinners to turn to God by repentance and uttering many Parables and Similitudes as the Prodigal Child the lost Sheep and such like whereby he doth declare and signifie that he is inclined to compassion ready to have mercy and to receive into savour all repentant Sinners the proud Pharisie prayed him to come into his House and to dine with him The good Lord which had taken upon Him Mans Nature

against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evill Amen Besides all this thou must also most heartily humble thy self before God acknowledging thy self a sinner and that thou canst do nothing that is righteous but if there be any goodness in thee either of Nature or of Gods Grace thou must sreely confess that all comes from above Repute not thy self better than another but rather the least of all If any despise thee mock thee or injure thee suffer it not only patiently but also willingly and gladly even for the love of God For the sealing Ladder of Heaven is Humility a full denying of thy self in worldly causes Think not well of thy self for any thing that thou doest hast done or mayest do but if thou hast any goodness in thy body or in thy soul be not ashamed to confess that it is not thine because it comes not from thee but of God for from him indeed it proceeds And when at any time thou findest thy self as it were lest of God and destitute of consolation whether it be inwardly or outwardly be not discouraged for it neither think that God hath Forgotten thee but heartily Humble thy Self before God putting all thy confidence in God as in one that knows how to save his Elect. If thou receive any blessing inwardly as Wisdom or any other gift exalt not thy self in pride neither discommend others that have not received of God such grace but use that which thou hast to Gods glory Again if thou see thy Neighbour fall take heed judge him not but think that God permits thee to see his effence for thy profit Imagine thou wast never touched with that crime well it is much but yet thou hast been culpable in some other as bad or else worse upon this examination reform thy self suppose thou art in no fault thou must not therefore esteem thy self better than he that is in fault knowing thou art of such a nature as he is and made of the same stuff as he is and therefore notwithstanding thy supposition a sinner and offender as well as he so that both need amending Be thou sure that if God had provided no better for thee than thy self deserved thou hadst committed the like offence or else greater and thank God for that he hath kept thee so and pray for him that doth amisse and is not yet converted When thou seest a sinner only led to lose his life by Law know that thou standest a sinner before God as well as he although before the world thou be esteemed better There is no School wherein a Christian may so well learn to live well as in the contemplation of Christs life and conversation thou must oftentimes think on thy last end as Death Iudgement Hell and Heaven persevere in Prayer so shalt thou please God and not be loath to die Remember thy end saith the wife Man and thou shalt never sin thou must often pray deboutly to God and when thou wilt so do thou must draw thy self from all affairs for Prayer is a lifting up of the heart to God and a private speech of the soul with God If it be so were there any reason that a man should draw his cogitations from God or rather all outward businesse put apart with all reverence to submit thy soul before him All this notwithstanding it is not forbidden in all our affairs to pray and sing Psalms to Gods glory and oftentimes with Tears to say the Lords Prayer or any other Prayer to that effect And here by the way thou must understand that the longest Prayer is not the profitablest because of the multitude of cogitations of the minde besides that thou must be devout for the prayers which are done with devotion of the heart do profit all other prayers are but vain and to no purpose If thou pronounce but three words as the Publican did saying God be mercifull to me a sinner or as the Canaanite said O Son of David have mercy upon me it is enough Again be not curious of thy tongue nor line in speaking it sufficeth that thy heart speaks within thee and thy tongue though but bleatingly if unfainedly it is well as we read of Moses and Anna Samuels Mother Worldly goods superssuonsly thou oughtest not to ask but necessarily and with measure for thy bodily health and for the succour of the needy If thou be sick poor or in adversity thou mayst ask Health Riches or Prosperity so it be done to Gods glory But if thy asslictions do more advance Gods glory than thy prosperity doth yeelding thy soill to Gods will thou oughtest to ask Patience and say with a meek heart Lord thy will be done and not mine I thy senses be inclined to sin be not dismayed for there is a God to whom if thou pray he will by the power of his grace suppresse that inclination Wherefore take courage when thou art tempted ask help of God saying O God make speed to save me O Lord make haste to help me Lord God leave me not but be my help O thou Lord God of my health Do what thou canst to resist the Devil and he shall go from thee approach unto God by Faith and be will draw near unto thee by his Spirit If the Devil assault thee desy him and make thy moan to thy Saviour saying Lord help me and be with me Do thou thy endeavour and assure thy self that God will make thee strong he will aid thee he will ease thee and in the end will set thee free from all verations placing thee in the Heaven of Heavens the Portion and Inheritance of his Servants To this God and to Iesus Christ with the holy Ghost he all glory honour and praise world without end Amen CHAP. XII The Authors Peroration or Conclusion to the devout Readers or Hearers I Thank Almighty God of his goodnesse that I am come to the End of the Voyage of the wandring Knight by the which thou mavest understand that in following Folly and vain Voluptuousnesse he forsook God to the prejudice and hurt of his Soul yea to the danger of everlasting damnation Here thou mayest learn that all voluptuous worldlings are the very Subjects of Sathan and their earthly goods and worldly pleasures shall quickly consume Thou art taught likewise what great clemency God used to … m drawing him by his grace from the sink of sin wherein he was sunk how he was led to the Palace of Repentance and from thence to the Palace of Vertue where by Gods grace he is now and what goodnesse he hath found there thou hast heard at large The Lord grant us to land where he is landed even in the Land promised to the Elect. Amen And now to conclude I beseech your courtesies that if any thing in this my labour mislike you interpret the same to the best and lay nothing to my charge in the way of presumption but commending my good meaning and allowing my will not to contemn but to speak well and esteem of this my Work and to use it for thy benefit and edincation for the which end I made and compiled the same And now I exhort you all in Christian love and charity that if by Gods grace you be resident in Vertues Palace to persevere and continue there to the end humbling your selves before God and allwayes trusting unto his goodnesse not unto our own strength or merits acknowledging also Gods grace by the which you are as you are and of whom you have that you have Let all your considence be in his mercy and in his goodnesse Furthermore if any feel and perceive himself out of Vertues Palace by the means of wordly vanities let him consider the great peril he is in and speedily turn to repentance with a contrite and sorrowfull heart requiring pardon of God and trusting wholly in the merits and passion of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Let him not be ashamed to acknowledge his sins which if he do he shall finde at Gods hands grace and mercy And now I beseech nor Lord God to give us all Grace to do according unto that which is here spoken for otherwise of our selves it is not possible that leading a life acceptable and agreeable unto his holy will we may in the end after the Voyage which we have to passe in this world see and enjoy possesse and have the full fruition of that glorious city of Paradise where true Blessednesse and perfect Felicity welleth even in the Habitation of God Almighty unto whom be all Honour Glory Power and Dominion for evermore Amen FINIS