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
A43450	The case of eating and drinking unworthily stated, and the scruples of coming to the Holy Sacrament upon the danger of unworthiness satisfied being the substance of several sermons, preached in the parish church of S. Hellens, London / by Henry Hesketh ...	Hesketh, Henry, 1637?-1710.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1607; ESTC R14433	108,608	240

there is no such mighty difficulty in it in this sense nor any such long time necessary to the performance of it Every Man doth know or atleast easily may know his one temper and what the general bent and course of his life is what he loves and what he hates and whether Religion be the matter of his care or not a Man can no more be ignorant of his one temper if he will consider than he can fly from himself nor can any great Sins or wickednesses which require a particular repentance scape his notice any more than the visible actions of every day and how then can any Man be a stranger to or need any tedious difficult inquiry and search to know those things which he daily feels and is sensible of I do not at all doubt but that some wicked Men use arts to divert their minds and thoughts from any reflection upon their spiritual condition and study to live strangers to themselves but I am sure there is real difficulty in this and perhaps after all such endeavours their minds will somtimes emerge above their pressures break loose from these sensual restraints and force them to understand their condition whether they will or no it is natural for a Man to understand himself and to reflect upon his own actions and much more easie than to arrive to such a pitch of brutish carelesness insensibleness and inconsideration as to be perfectly a stranger to his one state it is not in this case as it is with a Merchant who may run on and undo himself before ever he know how his accounts stand for his Books lie out of his sight or he may be careless and neglect to look into them but in this case a Mans Books are always open always present and under his view and he must wilfully shut his eyes or look upon them and suspend the natural and even necessary exertions of his mind not to think of them So that whatever examining a Mans self can signifie it can be no very difficult thing nor require much time for the performance of it No wise Man lives without it and no Man of the most ordinary observation and reason can be such a stranger to his own affairs as to need much time or pains in the examination of them The great things of our Souls and what relate to the condition of them are always obvious and plain and there is no great difficulty that I know of relating to this matter but only to bring our minds to pronounce and judg honestly and impartially of them In this I must needs confess there is some difficulty for self-love is prevalent in all Men and they are not very willing to condemn themselves of all things in the world the falling under the reproach and censure of a Man 's own mind is the most irksom and therefore Men study arts and all possible ways to avoid it and in this it is that the deceitfulness of a Man 's own heart doth chiefly if not solely consist But still this difficulty ariseth not from the difficulty of knowing or examining our own state but from the difficulty of being honest and just in judging of it the case is always open and plain but the fault lies in partiality to it and in bribing a false opinion and judgment of it SECT III. ANd now having considered what it is the Apostle prescribes in this case and seen what this examination of a Man's self doth signifie and what little expence either of time or labour is needful for it I proceed to the second thing i. e. to examin the reason of the thing to consider what is necessary to eating and drinking becomingly i. e. worthily in the Holy Sacrament and what that preparation is that is needful in order theirto As for the first what qualifications are necessary to our communicating fitly and becomingly in the Holy Sacrament I mean with what tempers we ought to come and how to behave our selves there when we are come for these I think we need look no further than the exhortations of our Church in the Office for the Communion they are in our Common Prayer Books and I wish every one would often read and consider them they most plainly and fully instruct us in these things I shall reduce them to these four heads 1. Repentance as it includes a hearty sorrow for our sins an humble confession of their guilt to Almighty God and a resolution by the help of his grace to reform for the future from them 2. A stedfast humble faith in God's mercy through Jesus Christ for our pardon and acceptance 3. A grateful sence of God's mighty love to Mankind in sending his Son to die for us with a thankful remembrance of his death 4. Love and Charity to all Men forgiving those that have offended and injured us being reconciled or endeavoring to be so to all that we have offended and bearing love and good will to all so as to be ready and willing to do them good according to our power These contain the sum of all those qualifications with which we should come to the Holy Sacrament Now as these things are absolutely necessary to our being Christians and therefore necessary for us to regard and take care of at all times so there is no more difficulty in them to fright us from the Holy Sacrament than from other services of our Religion If the difficulty of them be an ●●ception against the Sacrament it is so against Christian Religion in general and we may throw off wholly the one as well as the other upon the reason of it but as their is no great difficulty at all in them nor any reason to accuse Christian Religion as a heavy yoke in requiring of them no more is there any cause to make them an exception against coming to the Holy Sacrament these are the conditions of our being Christians and with the help of the divine grace they are possible and easie too and as easie in order to this service as to any other purpose And then if we inquire how we ought to behave our selves at the Sacrament the same exhortations will direct us in that also which we may reduce to four heads as we did the former 1. A most profound reverence and humility such as becomes creatures when they approach the immediate presence of the great Creator when they ingage into the most solemn and mysterious service of their Religion when they dolefully reflect upon their own unworthiness and demerits and when they humbly supplicate and beg for the pardon thereof and which most certainly becomes all Chistians when they are set in the most affecting prospect of the death and passion of their Lord and Saviour 2. A most affecting exalted joy and rejoycing in Gods mercy and our Saviours love to us who hath remembred us in our low estate given us such reason to hope for his favor and pardon and in this Holy Sacrament lets us

for the Holy Sacrament and he that lives such a life can never be unfit for it he is always habitually fitted and whatever curious dress he should at any time be in his constant pious and devout temper will easily be improved and heightened into it He that hath a Wedding Garment always ready and clean kept can easily put it on and he whose loyns are always girded and Lamp burning may be sooner ready to wait upon his Lord whenever he calls Or if we should suppose the worst of such a Man and that he should through the violence or surprise of a temptation have let down his Watch and indisposed himself yet a little matter will recover and set him to right again a light that is newly extinguished may soon be kindled again and an habitual goodness though it have been disordered will easily recover its temper a little matter will dispatch the business of a good Mans repentance and no great labour is needful to wash off that spot that is the stain of a Child and that some external accident hath cast upon the outside only 2. But the more material thing is to consider the case of a wicked Man who upon examining his condition finds too much reason to conclude ill of himself and to state that preparation that is necessary for him to make in order to this service For first I do not think this Man unconcerned in it but as much obliged to come to the Holy Sacrament as another if not rather more the command for the observation of it is general and no Christian is excepted or dispensed with our Lord administred it to all his disciples to Judas as well as St. Peter St. Paul when he comes to give directions about the same matter excepts none but rather includes all he commands indeed every one to examin himself but having done so then to eat and drink yea he commands those Corinthians to do this that of all Men one would think were the unfitest to do it And upon the whole matter there is so little reason to keep such a Man from the Holy Sacrament because he is in an ill condition that there is therefore the greater need why he should come it is very ill arguing as some do I fear my condition is bad therefore I must stay away the true reasoning holds just the other way My condition is bad why therefore come that it may be made better there is but own thing to be supposed to the truth and safety of this arguing i. e. that such a Man desires his condition should be amended if he resolve to continue wicked then he may stay away but so he may from all other services of Religion too for such a Man's Religion is all contradiction and nonsence and he may throw off all care of it as well as neglect the Holy Sacrament But this case I have argued before and need determin no more upon it now I only add one observation more at present and that is that the great and main qualification that the Church requires in them who come to the Holy Sacrament is repentance and the greatest part of the service she appoints in order to it consists in humble confessions in sad and passionate deprecations of the divine wrath and most earnest imploring Gods pardon all which is to me a plain argument that she thinks no Man unfit to come to the Holy Sacrament that doth repent of his former sins how great soever they may have been and that doth desire and resolve with Gods help to lead a better life for the future I am sure no Man hath more need to come than such a Man nor is any Ministry in Religion more proper for him to apply to which is so peculiarly fitted to his needs so efficacious to fasten his pious purposes and instituted on purpose to be a means of conferring that divine grace which is necessary to enable him to live up to them I know the Church in some cases adviseth some to stay away and commissions her Priests to suspend and keep away others but the first are only those whose consciences are yet perplexed and troubled for some grievious sin and the second are such as living notoriously in gross sins are become a publick scandal unto others but neither of these are either to keep off themselves or be kept off by others but only till the one by repentance prayer and consulting their spiritual guides get their consciences relieved and eased and the other by some publick testimony of repentance reconcile themselves to the Church and give some hopes of their amendment so that repentance and promises of amendment is thought by the Church sufficient to qualifie even bad Men for the Holy Sacrament This then being cleared we may proceed readily in the second place to consider that preparation which is necessary for such a Man and inquire whether any such long time or mighty labour be necessary for it and what hath been said just now will be of use to us in this inquiry for repentance is the great thing that such a Man hath to regard viz. with sorrow and grief to confess his sins to almighty God to implore and beg his mercy for the pardon of them and his grace to enable him to reform from them To this there is nothing necessary to be added but faith as it implies a great and grateful sense of Gods mercy in sending Christ to die for us and giving repentant sinners such hope of pardon and salvation in him and upon his merits and as it implies hope too of the same mercy and pardon to us upon our repentance together with an humble and steddy reliance upon Gods grace to enable us to repent and reform These things comprehend the sum of that preparation that is necessary for the worst Men to make for the Holy Sacrament and I pray consider what great difficulty there is in these or whether any such great deal of time be necessary for them that Men should except against coming to the Holy Sacrament upon that reason if Men make them an exception against this service they may as well make them an exception against Christian Religion in general for they are the great and necessary postulata's of Christianity and the only reasons upon which it promiseth salvation to any and therefore are no further any exceptions against the Holy Sacrament than they are against our whole Religion and upon the same reason that we abstain from it because of them we may renounce our Baptism and the name of Christ by which we are called If Men charge the Holy Sacrament to be severe and a hard service because it requires these preparations we may charge our Religion as well to be unreasonable and hard for they are made necessary by the one as well as required in order to the other So that if it be difficult to communicate because they are required it is difficult to be a Christian upon the same reason and