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
A41720	The communicants guide directing the younger sort, which have never yet received, and the elder, and ignorant sort, which have hitherto received unworthily, how they may receive the sacrament of the Lords Supper to their souls comfort together with a treatise of divine truths, collected out of ancient and moderne divines / by R. Gove ...	Gove, R. (Richard), 1587-1668.	1654 (1654)	Wing G1452; ESTC R17638	26,688	79

THE COMMUNICANTS GUIDE Directing The younger Sort which have never yet Received and the Elder and ignorant sort which have hitherto Received unworthily How they may Receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to their Souls comfort Together With a Treatise of DIVINE Truths Collected out of Ancient and Moderne DIVINES By R GOVE Sometime Preacher of Gods Word at Henton St. George in Sommerset 1 CORINTH. 11. 29. Hee that Eateth and Drinketh unworthily Eateth and Drinketh Damnation to himself LONDON Printed by J. G. for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane 1654. To all those that do desire to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper worthily and to their Souls comfort ESPECIALLY To the younger sort which have never yet received and to the elder and ignorant sort which have hitherunto received unworthily R GOVE Who can do very little yet desireth to doe very much for the good of their Souls DEDICATETH These his Sacramentall instructions following A CATECHISME Short for Memory and plaine for Capacity containing the Grounds and Principles of the Christian Religion in generall Which every one should know that desires to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper worthily and to his Souls comfort QUESTION OF what Religion are you Ans. Of the Christian Religion Q. What Religion is that Ans. That which teacheth a Man to looke for salvation only by Jesus Christ Q. Where is this Religion taught you Ans. In the Holy Scriptures which are the written Word of God and containe all things needfull for our salvation Q What are the principall things and those most necessary to salvation which are taught us in the Scriptures A. They are two the one is what we are bound to know and the other is what we are bound to practise Q. What are we bound to know A. God and our selves Q. What must wee know concerning God A. We must know three things 1. that there is a God 2. What a one this God is and 3. What he hath done Q. How doe you assure your selfe there is a God A. 1. Gods Word reveales it 2. Gods Workes confirme it and 3. mine owne conscience doth assure me of it Q. What a one is God A. God is a Spirit most glorious in Nature three in Persons and one in Essence Q. What hath God done A. Hee hath decreed with himselfe from all eternity how all things shall be he made all things in the beginning and hee hath ever since sustained them and disposed of them Q. Thus much of that which we are to know concerning God tell me now next what we are to know concerning our selves A. We are to know three things 1. What we were 2. What we are and 3. What we shall be Q. What were we A. We were all in our first Creation perfect and happy Q. What are we A. We are all by nature sinnefull and miserable but by grace in Jesus Christ as many as God doth call are made righteous and happy Q. What shall we be A. Those amongst us that are good shall be everlastingly blessed in Heaven and those that are wicked shall be everlastingly tormented in Hell Q. And thus far touching our knowledge tell me now next what is required concerning our practise A. There is required in us all a care so to lead our lives as that thereby God and our Christian profession may have praise we comfort and others profit Q. How may we so leade our lives A. By ordering them according to the prescript rule of Gods Word set downe partly in the Law and partly in the Gosspell Q. What doth the Lord require A. Piety towards God Charity towards our Neighbours Sobriety towards our selves and Mercy towards all other living Creatures Q. What doth the Gospell require A. True faith and unfeigned Repentance as our only remedy for the breach of the Law Q. How are these Graces to be begun continued and perfected in us A. By faithfull and fervent Prayer by a due hearing and reading of the word and by worthy receiving of the Sacraments Q. How many Sacraments hath Christ ordained in his Church thus to be received of us A. Two onely Baptisme and the Lords Supper Q. What is the use of Baptisme A. By Water washing the body to assure us that the bloud of Christ being applied to the Soule of the believer clenseth him from all his sins Q. What is the use of the Lords Supper A. To be a signe a seale and pledge unto us that Christ Jesus is given for us and to us for the nourishing and preserving of us unto eternall life JOH. 13. 17. If ye know these things blessed are ye if ye do them THE Communicants Guide Directing The younger sort which have never yet received and the elder and ignorant sort which have hitherunto received unworthily how they may Receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper worthily and to their Soules comfort Question WHat must he doe that would Receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper worthily and to his Soules comfort A. He must doe that which is required of a worthy Receiver before he commeth to receive whilest hee is Receiving and after he hath Received Q. What is required of a worthy Receiver before he commeth to receive A. There is required a serious and solemne preparation of himselfe Q. Wherein doth that serious and solemne preparation of a Mans selfe consist A. It consisteth in two things First in a solemne sequestring and setting apart of some convenient time wherein hee may betwixt God and his own Soule meditate on that which hee is about to doe and secondly in doing that which may prepare him for it Q. What time is fittest to be set apart for this businesse A. The whole time from the warning given of a Communion to the very time of receiving it should take up some of our thoughts touching the same but especially we should spend some part of the day immediately foregoing it in that businesse by retiring our selves from other company into some private place if it may be to performe the same and by withdrawing our minds for that time from all other businesses Q. What are the duties which in this time thus set apart a mam is to perform that he may be rightly prepared A. They are two The first is examination and the second is Prayer Q. Concerning what must a man examine himselfe A. He must examine himselfe whether he have in him those things which ought to be in a worthy Receiver Q. What are those things A. They are especially five First knowledge Secondly Faith Thirdly Repentance Fourthly Charity and Lastly an hungring and thirsting desire after Christ and the benefits of his death and passion Q. What knowledge ought there to be in a worthy Receiver A. There ought to be in him besides a competent knowledge of the grounds and principles of the Christian Religion in generall a more particular knowledge

which are made and pretended by Ignorant People for not Receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper so often as they should do but the chiefest of them and those that are most common in the mouths of the ignorant are these that follow I. Excuse They have no leisure HAve they leisure to fill their bodies every day and want they leisure to feede their soules Our Saviour in Ioh. 6. 27 gives them better counsell Labour not saith he for the meate that perisheth but for the meate that endureth to eternall life II. Excuse They want Cloathes IT is not outward apparell but the inward ornaments that make us gracious in the sight of God And therefore be our outward apparell never so meane if wee have on us the wedding garment of Faith made of the fleece of that Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the World lined inwardly with humility and trimmed outwardly with Charity God will bid us welcome to his Table III. Excuse They are not in Charity WHat is this but to excuse one sinne with another Our neglect or contempt of Gods Ordinance by our uncharitable affection to our brother and that is so farre from excusing us in the sight of God that it doth much aggravate our sin For why are they not in Charity What is the cause of it Is it not their owne rankorous heart their owne malitious and revengefull will and nothing else that keepes them from it And because their neighbour hath wronged them will they rather than they will forgive their Neighbours wrong more wrong God and their own soules IV. Excuse They are not prepared ARt thou prepared to pray and art thou not prepared to receive the Communion The same things that make us unfit to receive the Communion make us as unfit to pray for except a man abandon the purpose of sinne Psal. 66. 18. and except he be in Charity Mat. 6. 14. hee is no more fit to pray than to communicate and therefore should abstaine from the one as well as from the other V. Excuse Their Wives are sick or lie in or their Husbands are from home or not well and therefore they will stay till they be returned or well againe and then they will come and receive together INdeed for matter of sicknesse of the one or other party where there is a necessity of our attendance on them there may be some excuse for I make no question but in this case God will have mercy rather than Sacrifice But where there is no such necessity I see not how we can be excused And as for the other viz. the Husbands or Wives being from home how that can excuse any from communicating when God calls them thereunto I know not For our Receiving of the Sacrament must not depend upon others Receiving of it albeit they be never so neere or deare unto us VI Excuse They use to Receive at Easter every yeare and they hope that it is sufficient THis Communicating once a yeare at Easter was hatched in Popery when ignorance prevailed in the Church and is by no meanes to be followed of us to whom God hath afforded better meanes of knowledge And indeed it were a shame that Protestants in profession should be Papists in opinion But what is it that makes them to put off their Receiving to this time If it were their respect and reverence to the Sacrament as fearing if they should receive it oftener they should not come so well prepared to it as they hope to be then that indeed were some though but a poore Excuse But that is not it it is rather either because they place more holinesse in that time above other and so thinke the better the day the better the worke which is meere popish superstition or rather because it is the custome and fashion so to doe which is prophane irreligion Whereas good Christians looke rather to Christs Command and their own necessity than to any thing else and because he commands it they doe it and their own need and necessity of it makes them to do it not once in a yeare but as often as it may be done VII Excuse They would come and Receive but their Ministers will not suffer them IF their Ministers doe hinder them without cause they shall beare their condemnation but if for want of Knowledge Repentance Charity and the like which their profession or practise doe witnesse he do stay them from it and be diligent and willing to teach and warne them and they continue still in their obstinacy and wickednesse their bloud shall be upon their own heads VIII Excuse That they are conscious to themselves of some great and crying sinnes which they have committed and of which they have not yet sufficiently repented and therefore they will stay till the next opportunity of receiving hoping by that time to have more fully repented of them and to be better prepared THis Excuse indeed might be the more tolerable if hee that hath committed such sinnes were sure of these two things First that he shall have longer time to repent in and Secondly that he shall have grace to repent having had such a time But of neither of these can any man for the present be assured of 'T is true God hath promised indeed to have mercy upon a Sinner at what time soever he shall truly repent and turne unto him but he hath no where promised to give him either time or grace to repent when he will And therefore if thou art wise or desirest to be wise for the everlasting good of thy Soule dispeede thy Repentance out of hand and take the present opportunity that God offereth thee as not knowing whether God will ever offer thee the like opportunity againe being also assured of this for thy comfort that God in all our graces and so in Repentance too looketh not so much at the measure of them as at their sincerity Plaine EXPRESSIONS OF Sacramentall Truths TO Uulgar Capacities By the helpe of which the younger and ignorant sort may easily understand and remember the most necessary things belonging to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper EXPRESSION I. Of this That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper doth truely and really exhibite to the worthy Receiver the Body and Bloud of Christ with all the benefits of his Death and Passion FOr it is here as it is in a Lease A Lord of a Mannor makes seales and delivers a Lease of a Farme to a Tenant containing two or three hundred Acres of Land butting and bordering thus and thus upon condition that the Tenant shall pay him such a Fine and so much yearly Rent The Tenant● receives the Lease and having it in his hand shewes it to his friend and tells him that he hath for two hundred pounds a yeare three hundred Acres of Land The Parchment Inke and Wax of the Lease have not the very Acres of Ground nor Trees nor other appurtenances thereunto belonging being and growing therein