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	lord_n	sin_n	14,626	5	4.9775	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29178	A minister's counsel to the youth of his parish when arriv'd to years of discretion : recommended to the societies in and about London / by Francis Bragge ...	Bragge, Francis, 1664-1728.	1699 (1699)	Wing B4199; ESTC R32860	70,334	248

Jesus come quickly Having thus Conducted Young Persons to the Holy Altar which unless they are extreamly wanting to themselves is next to Conducting them to Heaven I shall leave them there to the blessing of God and our Saviour who is ready to embrace them with the Arms of his Mercy and seal them with his life-giving Spirit to the Day of Eternal Redemption Only to their own Pious Meditations and Prayers they may if they please add the following Litany A LITANY FOR Young Gentlemen O God the Father of Heaven of Angels and of Men have Mercy upon us Miserable Sinners O God the Son who hast Redeem'd the World with thy most Precious Blood have Mercy upon us Miserable Sinners O God the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of Spiritual Heavenly Life have Mercy upon us Miserable Sinners O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity whose Wisdom and Power and Goodness is Infinite have Mercy upon us Miserable Sinners Remember not Lord the Sins and Offences of our Youth nor be extream to mark what we have done amiss Spare us good Lord spare us a little that we may recover our strength and according to thy Mercy think thou upon us for thy goodness Spare us good Lord. From forgetting our Creator in the Days of our Youth from wasting the flower of our age in vanity and folly and reserving our decrepid Years for the Service of God Good Lord deliver us From valuing the Blessings we enjoy more than the Giver of them from trusting in any thing more than in Providence and from loving Pleasure more than thee our God Good Lord deliver us From dishonouring our Bodies with Intemperance and Vncleanness from polluting our Souls with impure Imaginations from defiling our Mouths with prophane and impious or obscene Discourses Good Lord deliver us From abusing our Reason in opposing Religion from debasing our Wit to the service of our Lusts from living like Beasts when thou hast made us Men and Christians Good Lord deliver us From excesses of Passion and a turbulent Spirit from tormenting our selves because others misuse us from the guilt and the misery of Malice and Revenge Good Lord deliver us From Conceit and Pride Envy and Ambition from foolish Rashness and inconsiderate Heat from despising our Guides and following our own Counsel only Good Lord deliver us From stubborn Obstinacy and deafness to Advice from contempt of Reproof and anger at the Reprover from a blinded Mind and a seared Conscience Good Lord deliver us From deadness in thy Service and a formal Religion from obedience that is fanciful humoursome and uncertain from a superstitious use or neglect of the Ornaments of Worship Good Lord deliver us From forgetting Thee or our selves in raptures of Enthusiasm from pretending to Piety for the sake of the World and from all the Paths that lead to the Portion of Hypocrites Good Lord deliver us From conforming to the World in the Arts of Deceit from fawning and flattery Censure and Detraction from false Smiles and treacherous Friendship Good Lord deliver us From impatience in Trouble and excessive Dejections from distrust of thy Providence and Desperate Courses from fretting against God for what we bring upon our selves Good Lord deliver us In all time of Temptation by Prosperity or Adversity in all sudden Surprizes and imminent Dangers in the hour of Death and in the Day of Judgment O Blessed Jesus by all that thou hast done and suffered for us then succour and deliver us And tho' unworthy as we are and miserable Sinners yet encouraged by thy boundless Mercy and Goodness we beseech thee farther to hear us and as the Guardian and guide of our Youth shew us the way that we should walk in for we lift up our Souls unto thee Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us O that our ways might be directed by thy Commandments and our footsteps never wander from them that we might meditate upon thy Precepts and delight our selves in thy Service and never forget thy Word Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us Thy Hands have made us what we are from thee comes all we have or hope for O give us the Vnderstanding that we may entirely Praise and Love thee and not be stupid and insensible as the Beasts that perish Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us That it may please thee to inspire us with Affections becoming Christians that we may live worthy of that most Holy Profession as Disciples of Jesus and design'd for Glory We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That our Saviours life may be the rule of ours that we may tread in his steps and become like him in temper and spend our days as he did in advancing thy Glory and doing good in our Generation We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That we may employ our Youth and our Strength in the great work of our Salvation and run the way of thy Commandments with vigour and spirit and the warmth and fervour of a chearful Mind We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That Religion may be esteem'd by us as our chief good that all things else may be subservient to it as the delight and the joy of our hearts Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us That our Faith may be irreproveable steady and modest such as may work by Love and purifie our Hearts and bring down every thing that exalts it self against obedience to Christ Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us That with our whole Heart we may devote our selves to thy Service and be sincerely what we do Profess and value the Joys of a quiet Conscience above thousands of Gold and Silver We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That our Baptismal Vow may be kept Inviolate the Promises we have since made to thee faithfully perform'd and all our Pious Resolutions made good We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. O let us not go wrong thou guide of our steps O let us not fall thou that art our Support Discover to us the snares that are laid for our Souls and grant that we may ever escape them Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us And when we are down Lord do thou raise us up When we go astray like Sheep that are lost O seek thy Servants pity our sad state and bring us back unto thy fold again Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us We will think on our ways and turn our feet unto thy Testimonies we will make haste without delay to keep thy righteous Judgments with thy assistance which we humbly beg and Beseech thee to hear us good Lord. But who can tell how often he offendeth Cleanse thou us therefore from our secret faults and keep us from presumptuous Sins lest they get the Dominion over us Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us May we never despise the Riches of thy long-suffering and forbearance nor by our continu'd impenitence treasure up Wrath against the day of Wrath but be intirely softned

prevent Mistakes in this matter which are very often made and of very fatal Consequence 't will be needful briefly to shew what true Repentance is 'T is such a Sense of Sin as fills the Soul with Shame and bitter Remorse for having Committed it utterly condemning it as the greatest Baseness Ingratitude and Folly Resolving for the Future no more to be Guilty of it and keeping that Resolution to the best of our Power Or in other Words 't is a Mans willing Amendment of his former Faults proceeding from a thorough Change of his Judgment concerning them attended with great Sorrow and compunction of Spirit for his acting so contrary to His own Reason and best Interest and violating the Just Commands of God whose innumerable Benefactions to Him make his utmost Services but a Just Debt Now from this Description of Repentance we may take Notice that 't is not every Religious fright occasion'd either by some awakening Discourses of the Dreadful Punishments that will overtake a Sinner in the other World back'd with the Terrors of his own guilty Conscience or by a fit of Sickness when the near Approaches of Death open His Eyes and give him a Sight of those Torments and never dying Flames which He is like to suffer and seem to be just ready to take hold of Him Much less is it a few forc'd Sighs and Tears a Lord have mercy upon us and a heedless unaffectionate Repetition of some Penitential Forms the Sense of which we do regard but little Notwithstanding all this a Man may retain the same Affection to Sin and be as Bad again as ever and such sort of Penitents always are so and very often Worse This sort of Sorrow for Sin is like that of a Traytor at the Gallows He Repents him it may be that He was engag'd in such and such Practices because they brought Him thither and the Time of his Execution is come but at the same time He is as much an Enemy to his Prince as ever and would gladly Repeat his Treason could He do it with Impunity Let every one therefore have a Care of taking any thing of this Nature for Repentance The greatest and most pungent remorse for Sin unless 't is follow'd by a thorough amendment of Life is nothing but what we call trouble of Mind and the lashes of Conscience which tho' they are apt to put Men upon making serious Reflections upon their ill Courses and by Degrees may bring them to a true sense of the Wickedness of their Sin which is a good step towards Repentance yet 't is but a Step And a great deal more must be done by him that will repent indeed His Mind and Judgment must be intirely chang'd his Temper and Disposition alter'd ill habits must be rooted out and the contrary good ones Established in their Room And his sorrow for Sin which at first was for his own sake and for fear he should suffer what God had threatned to inflict must be improv'd into a true godly sorrow such as respects that infinitely good Being who he so ungratefully rebell'd against and melts him down into all the passions of Shame and Confusion and self Abhorrence and Condemnation which attend a deep sense of doing basely by one who is infinitely kind and good to us 'T is this alone that will work Repentance to Salvation 2 Cor. 7.10 not to be repented of i. e. a constant Better Life Now from this short Account of the Nature of true Repentance we may see plainly that 't is a Work which must be set about Immediately if we would bring it to Perfection 'T is as Difficult as Necessary and requires very great Resolution Watchfulness and Diligence to carry it on succesfully and is indeed the proper business of Youth Mat. 5.25 Agree therefore with thine Adversary quickly as our Lord adviseth and with all the speed imaginable set about that great Work without which our Ruine will be inevitable And that young Persons may be the more effectually Perswaded to so ungrateful a Task so Melancholly an Employment they may please to attend to the following Considerations First Every deferring this great Duty to some other time is a resolv'd Continuance in a state which we know God infinitely hates and a new step to final Impenitency No Mans Conscience is sear'd and benum'd in an instant there must be frequent Acts of Violence done to it to silence its Clamours and make it stupid and insensible Now every time we put off our Repentance we renew that Violence our Conscience has less and less of feeling sin grows more and more habitual and therefore seems to sit lighter and easier upon us and that makes us still more Confident and Careless and so we go smoothly on in the way of Ruine till we become past feeling Ephes 4.19 as the Apostle Phrases it and then past Cure Thus the Sinner if let alone will certainly in the end become his own Executioner Every Permission of Sin to abide with us without Disturbance has it's Proportion of the Guilt and Misery of that hardned State which St. Austin thought was the sin against the Holy Ghost And the longer 't is Permitted the greater is that Guilt Rom. 1.28 and 't will insensibly grow into a Reprobate Mind and then without Remedy will follow the intollerable Punishment And therefore unless we can dwell with Everlasting Burnings it nearly concerns us without further delays to destroy Sin in its Embryo and very first Beginning lest before we think on 't it arrive to this fatal Perfection and bring forth this Death But Secondly tho' by God's special Care and Assistance a Sinner may be awaken'd before he comes to this sad Period which yet because no Man can be sure of 't is a very great Madness to trust to yet the longer we delay our Repentance the difficulty of it will Proportionably increase upon us When length of time has made Sin habitual to a Man and it becomes fix'd and rooted in his Nature it must needs be a very hard task to destroy those inveterate ingrain'd Habits and pluck up those spreading Roots of Bitterness which have so long over-run and taken Possession of the Soul The Prophet Jeremy says 't is as easie for an Ethiopion to change his skin and a Leopard his spots Jer. 13.23 as for those to do good that are accustomed to do evil which signifies at least that 't is the greatest Difficulty and requires an almost endless labour to perform Now what strange folly is it to suffer so fatal and spreading a Disease as Sin to go on for many Years without controul when even now at first 't is hardly to be cur'd and will give us a full Employment to keep under even to the last of our Days tho' we take it in time and begin with it immediately Besides as much as Youth is apt to depend upon the future and still defer till to Morrow how uncertain is it whether