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
A92747	Two discourses, the first, a Christian's exhortation, against the fears of death: the second, a brief and clear declaration of the resurrection of the dead With suitable meditations and prayers touching life and death. Recommended as proper to be given at funerals. By W. S.	W. S.	1690 (1690)	Wing S207A; ESTC R229960	54,870	186

is endued with understanding with reason and with judgment to know the soveraign good which is God to love him to adhere and unite our selves unto him that we may have part of his immortality and happiness Now we forsake and contemn this great good for to grovel upon the earth and to go down into the pit of carnal desires applying the vigour of our understanding and judgment to things that are not worth the pains that we employ in them We bury our selves quick of heavenly we become earthly and of men created for eternal life we endeavour as much as in us lieth to set our selves in the rank of brute Beasts God doth not forsake us nevertheless although that our ingratitude hath well deserved it but calls us unto him by his word presents unto us infinite testimonies of his grace continues it daily he supports exhorts counsels chides and fatherly chastiseth us Nevertheless we continue blind deaf and negligent despising his goodness or use it not as we should or indeed abusing it nay which is worse we love vain and transitory things better and have our minds too much fixed and setled upon them God stretcheth forth his hand to conduct us we draw back ours and fly when he calleth us If he put us into the way of salvation we grudge and repine for the world we look behind us deferring and remitting our amendment till to morrow Let us awake then let us not always stick in the mire let us strengthen our selves in the vertue of him that supports and succours us let us a little undertake to despise corruptible things and to desire those that are truly good and everlasting When God calleth us let us hearken if he guids us let us follow him that we may come to his house let us receive his good things and himself too for he gives himself unto us in the person of his Son He shews us the means to get to Heaven let us then desire of him to give us the will and courage by faith repentance charity and hope to aim thither and that he would maintain his grace in us until the end to sigh in this mortal life and to wait through the assurance of his mercy for our departure out of this world and our last day which shall be the beginning of our true life Prayers and Meditations HOW great are the illusions and impostures of the enemy of our salvation He sheweth us afar off things that are ridiculous and vain and perswades us that it is all good and happiness he scares us with things that we ought not to fear and makes us to fly from those things which we ought to imbrace He calleth inticeth and flattereth us by the means of our desires if that will not serve he roars and storms and endeavours to astonish us within and without O eternal Light and Verity O Lord and merciful Father disperse those clouds of ignoranee and error illuminate our understanding and do not suffer us to come near to that which thou hast commanded us to flie from and which is hurtful and pernicious unto us let us not desire but what is truly to be desired to wit thy self who art the spring-head of all goodness of our life and of eternal happiness All flesh is grass and the glory of the man is like the flower of the field cause then that we may seek for our firmness and contentment in the grace which thy Son hath brought us let our life lye hid in him so that at the day of the separation of our souls from our bodies we may find it holy in Heaven waiting with assured rest and joy the happy Resurrection of this flesh in which all corruption infirmity and ignominy being abolished and death being swallowed up of victory we shall live eternally with thee in an incomprehensible happiness in thee by the which thou shall be glorified Maintain then thy Children O Lord in this faith and hope finishing thy work in us until they be altogether with thee for to enjoy the inheritance and the glory which thine only Son hath by his Merit purchased for them Amen Prayer OLord Jesus Christ Creator and Redeemer of Mankind who hast said I am the way the Truth and the Life I do bessech thee by this unspeakable Charity which thou hast shewed in yielding thy self to Death for us that I may never stray any jot from the who art the way nor that I doubt of thy Promises seeing thou art the Truth and dost accomplish that which thou promisest Cause that I may only take pleasure in thee who art the Eternal Life beyond the which there is nothing to be desired neither in Heaven nor Earth Thou hast taught us the true and only way to Salvation because we should not abide erring like stray'd Sheep in the lost ways of this World shewing us clearly that which we ought to believe to do to hope and wherein we ought to yield and settle our selves It is thou that hast given us to understand how cursed we are in Adam and that there is no way to escape from this Perdition in the which we are plunged but by Faith in thee Thou art that true Light which dost appear to those that walk in the desert of this Life and who having drawn us out of the darkness of the spiritual Egypt hast driven away the darkness of our Understanding and dost enlighten us to the end we may tend towards the promised Inheritance which is the Life Everlasting into the which the Unbelievers does not enter but those that have assuredly relied upon thy holy Promises O what a Goodness is it that thou hast vouchsafed to descend from thy Fathers-Bosom and from the Everlasting Throne to the Earth to put on our poor Nature of Master to become Servant to the end that by thy Doctrine thou mightest do away the darkness of our Ignorance to guide our feet into the way of Peace and to make plain the way of Salvation unto us which if we follow we cannot stray nor wax weary seeing that thy Grace and Power do accompany us therein all the days of our Life Moreover by thy Spirit thou dost strengthen us in it and double our Courage Thy word is Bread which nourisheth us therein thy promise is the staff which upholds us Thou thy self by thy secret and incomprehensible vertue dost bear and maintain us in it in an admirable manner to the end that both in fair and foul weather we may walk with all Alacrity unto thee And as in preserving us thou hinderest that we do not fall into the snares of Satan and the World also seeing thou art the Truth thou takest away all doubts scruples and mistrusts which may trouble and let us or turn us during our course thou causest us to behold the supernal Vocation the misery and vanity of the World the frailty of this present Life the Gate of Death and the most happy Life which is beyond that And as thou art

this true Life even in this World thou dost quicken by thy Truth us that are poor wretched and dead in Sin thou dost augment that life by the Ministry and Efficacy of thy holy Gospel and dost confirm it by the use of the Sacraments which thou hast established to confirm the Faith of those that are thine until that our Corruption and what we have in mortality in us being abolished by the Resurrection we shall be and live everlastingly with thee both in Body and Soul when thou shalt be all in all Life Everlasting is to know the true God and thee his Son which wert sent unto us Now we see thee by Faith in a Glass and in Obscurity but one day we shall behold thee face to face and shall be transformed into thy Glory nd wholly reformed unto thy Image I do beseech thee merciful Saviour to increase my Faith that I may be so well grounded in the Doctrine of my Salvation that nothing may turn me from it Increase in my Heart the Reverence which I owe thee that I may never turn from thy Obedience Strengthen me in such sort that the allurements nor threatnings do neither intrap nor astonish me but that constantly I may cleave unto thee who art my Life till Death Cause that in vertue of thy holy Promises and of thy Spirit I may increase more and more in thy Love and leaving behind me the things of this World I may tend to that which is firm and perfect Increase thy Grace in me that every day I may dye in my self for to be quickned and guided by thy Favour fearing no other but thou God Almighty loving nothing but thee as there is nothing but thee to be beloved boasting my self in nothing but in thy only Grace and Mercy which is the Glory of all thy Servants seeking no other good but thee nor desiring any thing but thee who art the full and entire felicity of all the Faithful Amen Another LOrd Jesus who art always merciful who dost not stick to be my Saviour as well in Adversity as in Prosperity Give me the Grace in all humble obedience to yield unto thy will when it shall please thee to mingle bitterness amongst so many sweet things which thou causest me to taste in living under thy Protection Thou art admirable and most good in the time of Afflictions In that by such means thou dost heal spiritual Diseases and in visiting of us in this World thou disposest us to meditate of a better Life having thy self shewed us the Example thereof True it is that I find it very hard to digest but thou hast been brought to a more strange condition when for to draw me out of Hell thou wentest down into it thy self and for to reconcile me to thy heavenly Father thou hast undergone his Curse by reason of my Sins I have so often deserved Hell and the fiery Torment and thou deliveredst me assuring me that I have part in the merits of thy Death and thy Obedience and that I am one of thy Co-heirs for to reign one day with thee in thy Kingdom and at this present in the midst of so many Afflictions to be nevertheless set in the heavenly Places Having part in so many good things why shall I vex my self for a little endurance by the means whereof thou wilt awaken me and make me better and draw me so much the more to thee But seeing thou knowest me better then I know my self if it be thy pleasure to put me to any tryal give me necessary force and patience to glorifie thee converting all the evil that may happen unto me to good and Salvation And if in supporting my weakness thy goodness is pleased to advertise me by some light affliction cause that this thy well-willing may draw me more and more to love and honour thee to give thee thanks for the care which thou hast of thy poor Servant and by that means to dispose me to weight for thee at my Death that after it I may find the Life which thou hast purchased for me by thy Death and therein with thee to have part in Joy and Rest for Ever Amen Another Lord God Heavenly Father when I consider in how many sorts I have sinned before thy Face and against thy high Majesty I have horrour in my self in thinking that I have so often turned from thee Propitious and favourable Father I detest my ingratitude seeing in what servitude of sin I have been too often precipitate selling as much as in my lay of the precious Liberty which thy Son had purchased for me I condemn my folly I altogether dislike of my self I see nothing but Death and mishap hanging over my head and my Conscience rising for a Judge and Witness of my Iniquities But when on the other side I enter into a Contemplation of thy infinite mercy the which surmounteth all thy works and in the which if so I dare to speak thou surmountest thy self my soul is comforted And indeed why should I make my self believe that I cannot find grace before him that summons and so often and gently calls the sinner to repentance protesting expresly that he desires not the death of a sinner but rather that he turn from his wickedness and live Moreover thy only Son hath so well assured us that we shall find favour in thy sight by the sweet words which himself had uttered as that of the lost sheep and of the prodigal Son the image of whom I acknowledg'd my self to be that I should be most unthankful incredulous and wicked to go back and to be ashamed of thy presence although I am wretched seeing thou dost so stretch forth thy hand unto me and draw me to thee with such wonderful affection I have very vildly forsaken thee O merciful Father I have unhappily let slip thy Graces and adhering to desires of my flesh and straying from thy Obedience I have wrapped my self in the base servitude of sin I am fallen into extream misery I know not whether to retire unless it be towards thee whom I have abandoned Let thy mercy receive this poor supplication whom thou hast supported during his errors I am unworthy to lift up mine Eyes unto thee or to call thee Father But I pray thee bow down thine Eyes to me seeing thou wilt have it so being without that in the power of thine Enemies The sight of thy Face will revive me and bring me again to thee Seeing I have some displeasure in my self I know thou lookest upon me that thou hast given me Eyes to see the danger wherein I was thou hast sought and found me in death and in the world and hast through thy mercy given me a desire to enter into thy house I dare not desire that thou shouldst kiss and embrace me nor that hou shouldst weep for joy that thou hast found thy poor Servant and Slave I do not demand the precious Ornaments wherewith thou doest honour thy great servants