Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	father_n	heaven_n	holy_a	5,066	5	5.4557	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77809	Oratio Dominica: or, The Lords prayer, pleading for better entertainment in the Church of England. A sermon preached at Saint Mary Woolnoth, London, Jun 11. 1643. By Peter Bales, Mr. in Arts, and minister of the Gospel.	Bales, Peter, 1547-1610?	1643 (1643)	Wing B550; Thomason E55_6; ESTC R16272	23,410	48

all our prayers for we have loved strange prayers Jer. 2.25 A blind 〈◊〉 l●ade●h them out of the way and them will wee follow Doe not these men follow an ignis fatuus whiles they embrace their owne Chymeraes and fanaticke conciets And least that any should say or thinke I have wronged them by this discourse let us bring to the touchstone their ordinary prayers made and uttered in our publike Congregations None can or I hope will deny the currant stamp onely excepted that they present to God rude and undigegested extemporall evaporations of their desires yea Immethodicall prayers such tautologies battologies and reiterations as no hearer can truly joyne with them in these their prayers for though they often licke them over in one sermocination they are no fitter to be compared then to Beares whelps without forme without fashion And I pray you tell me is this the way to pray according to the Lords prayer Matth. 6.7 hath not our Saviour forbidden vaine repetitions is there in his prayer one word placed amisse is there an iota in it that hath not its full weight things necessary asked out of place Bona oratio quae ordinem ser vat Aug. are not so convenient Christ teacheth not onely what but how to aske He keepeth a good order Againe that their prayers are oblong and tedious for they are an houre 2 Oblong prayers sometimes two houres yea three houres long as if words could prevaile with God Matth. 6.7 and they should be heard for their much babling notwithstanding the Wiseman telleth us that our words must be sew Eccles 5.2 and our Saviour giveth the reason thereof Matth. 6.8 Non vocem audi● Deus sed affectum Aug. for your Father knoweth whereof ye have need be●ore ye aske of him Is this the way therefore to pray according to the Lords Prayer Ludolphus div●ta Christi part 1. cap. 89. which is so short that it may be written in the compasse of a penny doth it not containe an ocean of matter in a little current of speech Brevis sermone capi●sa virtute Cypr. ser de orat dom It is short in words long in vertue so if we will make it our patterne our prayers must be fuller of devotion then words Thirdly that they present to God immodest irreverent prayers Immodest prayers for they doe sollicit God in such homely rude and sawey language as they dare not tender to men they are so familiar with him as in their prayers to tell him newes out of their weekly Intelligencer so that their Diurnals Qui orat ut qaasi Deo ignoranti suam necessitatem exponat and Corantoes stand them in great stead In this their immodest carriage and behaviour they imitate that sawcy fellow whom Saint Chrisostome reprehendeth who when he prayed expressed his necessity in such a manner as if God had beene ignorant of it And doe these men likewise pray according to the Lords Prayer Behold its language is sad and serious grave and gracious declaring an holy reverent zeale with true and sanctified judgement In that we say Our Father we call upon the bowels of Gods mercy which begets an holy holdnesse In that we say Which art in Heaven we invocate the arme of his power which begets an holy feare and therefore saith the wiseman Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God Eccles 5.2 Reg. Bible for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth Lastly that they offer up their prayers to God in the heat of fury Immane prayers Luke 9.54 as the two sonnes of thunder let fire come from Heaven and consume the Samaritans And vent the bitternesse of their intemperate spleen in curses and imprecations to Gods dishonour and the breach of Charity even against those whose faces they never saw and from whom they never received any wrong Doe these men pray according to the Lords Prayer which as one said is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ingaging of our charity and love for we desire to have remission of sin no otherwise then as we forgive our brethren whereby the love of our brethren is continually encreased It runnes altogether in the plurall number in a common strane not My Father but Our Father give us forgive us lead us not into temptation deliver us from evill which kind of expression doth include all men for all men are by creation and by conservation and protection the sonnes of God and of these God onely knoweth who are his It is not in our power to discerne who are reprobated and who are elected they be all our fellow creatures and the law of Charity doth bind us to the love of their persons We must therefore pray for all sorts of men not onely for our friends but for our enemies Matth. 5.44 First for our personall enemies Secondly Luke 23.34 for the enemies of our Country and Kingdome Thirdly we must pray for the enemies of Religion nisi Stephanius orasset Jer. 29.7 Fulgentius Ecclesia Paulum non haluisset unlesse Saint Steven had prayed for Saul the Church had never had Paul Acts 7. ve ult And it is Saint Pauls exhortation that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thankes be made for all men for Kings 1 Tim. 2.2 and all that are in authority Hominem s●c●t Deus pecratorem bama non est homo qu●est adversator sed peccator ora p●o homine ut Deus occidat peccatorem Aug. And in his time all Kings were persecuters of the truth Consider what God made and what man made God made man man made the sinner it is not the man which is thy adversary but the sinner Pray therefore for the man that God may slay the sinner it is a way to destroy our enemy and to save the man Saint Paul did not kill Steven but Saint Steven killed Saul David did not pray against the person of Achitophel but malignity O Lord I pray thee turne the Councell of Achitophel into foolishnesse 2 Sam. 16.31 We may I hope then by this time plainly perceive that instead of sweet savour Isa 3.24 we have stinke and instead of a girdle a rent and burning instead of beauty Our Novelists have made them crooked pathes Isa 59.8 Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Are they not bereft of understanding and true Christianity they are saith Hugo Cardinalis Hugo Cardin. in Matth. 6. Stulti qui non orant sicut docuit Christus nec sunt Christi they are fooles saith he which doe not pray as Christ hath taught neither are they of Christ Quisquis id dicit saith Saint Austin quod ad istam Evangelicam precem pertinere non possit Aug. Ep. 121. cap. 12. carnaliter orat whosoever praveth that which cannot appertaine to this Evangelicall prayer prayeth carnally Therefore let every good Christian individually say O my soule