Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	good_a	grace_n	work_n	6,662	5	5.6625	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A73585	A necessarie admonition out of the prophet Joël concerning that hand of God that of late was upon us, and is not clean taken of as yet: and othervvise also verie fitlie agreeing (in divers good points) unto these dayes wherein wee live. By Edm. Bunny.	Bunny, Edmund, 1540-1619.	1588 (1588)	STC 4090.5; ESTC S125205	86,469	206

A Necessarie Admonition out of the Prophet Joël concerning that hand of God that of late was upon us and is not clean taken of as yet and otherwise also verie fitlie agreeing in divers good points unto these dayes wherein wee live By Edm. Bunny PROVERB 15.32 He that refuseth to be reformed despiseth his own soule but he that submitteth himself to correction is vvise JACOB 4 8 10. Draw neere to God and he will draw neere to you Cast down your selves before the Lord and he will lift you up Imprinted at London by Robert Robinson for Thomas Man and Thomas Gubbins 1588. TO THE MOST Reverend father in God his verie good Lord IOHN by the providence of God Archbishop of Canterburie one of her Maiesties most honorable Privie Counsell Primate of all England and Metropolitane IN what sort this land of ours was lately visited by the hand of the Lorde for two yeares together with vnseasonable weather so consequently with some scarcitie then although to say the truth it was nothing so grievous as heretofore our elders haue had and others then felt as it was reported yet was it so evident and plaine in it selfe that I shall not neede to stande to shew what it was or how far we were all generally touched therewith but especially those that were the poorer sort among us Our owne experience for that matter was such that whosoever woulde goe about to make any farther demonstration of it might verie well spare his labour therein But whereas in such case some other way there is wherein we might bee fruitfully occupied and to verie good purpose and so as the nature of the thing it selfe doth require therein whosoever could rightly and orderly imploy his labour he might be able thereby to discharge some part of his duetie and doe a peece of good service to God and his countrey That other way I take to bee especially this that we acknowledge the same to bee sent of God and therewithall that só we be touched therewith as in such case doth appertain In which because I did not then know nor yet doe that others did labour therefore the last yeare I did endevour mee self to set downe somewhat thereof which also I finished as is pleased the Lord to blesse me therein And to the end that I might safelier doe it without offending on either side either on the right hand or on the left I sawe no better way then to take some text of Scripture such as belonged to this kinde of argument and out of it to derive some such instruction as the text it selfe shoulde naturally yeeld So did I take the Prophet Ioel and out of him framed this Admonition that thén I praesented your Grace withall But seeing that since it hath beene stayed I wote not by what sinister meanes by one that undertooke the printing of it now of late it is come to my hands again although that in some respect it may seeme to come out of season now yet because that in others it doth not nor but little in that I thought it my dutie again to praesent your Grace therewith Which thing the lesse that it is in it selfe in respect of any thing therin that is mine the lesse bould I ought to have beene both at the first and now also to have offered the same unto so grave and learned a censure But seeing that it pleased your Grace to accept of it then I might not turn it an other way now especially when as the nature of it in my iudgement is such as that before I thought mee self bound and yet do in order and duetie to make it yours And so beseeching your Grace to pardon both my former bouldnes therein and the renuing of it now again I humblie praie that Almightie God the father of lights only fountain of all good graces of his great and infinite mercie for the glorie of his holie name and in the face of his Annointed would vouchsafe so to visit us from above by his Holie Spirit that we maie be in such sort touched with this his gentle and gracious warning and so seeke vnto him while it is time that we provoke no heavier displeasure but maie attaine to his further mercies and euer stand in his gracious fauour From Bolton-Percy Aprill 6. 1588. Your Grace most humble in the Lord Edm. Bunny The Praeface to the Reader WHeras gentle Reader this admonition of mine out of the Prophet Ioel was to haue come foorth the last summer That this Prophecie fitteth us also and these our daies marvelous well though I know not how it hath beene stayed till this praesent by this meanes it cummeth to passe that now I am iustly occasioned to say sumwhat unto thee not only of the Treatise it selfe but also of this late publishing of it Concerning the Treatise it selfe although it be out of the Prophet Ioel who was sent of God to his people of old and about such things as concerned a speciall estate of theirs thén yet doth it so fitly agree with ús also now and with the waies that are most common and rife among us that the selfe same Prophet may seeme as much to have beene preserved for ús against this time that now we are in as he was before sent unto others to speake unto thém For we also are found in the self same waies that they were in at that praesent and therefore hath the Lord for these few of the last yeeres in much like sort laide his hand vpon us as he did upon them and yet also doth in very plaine and sensible maner But as théy were senseles and could not see it therfore turned nor unto the Lord that so had laide his hand upon them so wé likevvise at this praesent have notably beene provoked diuers waies to acknowledge the hand of God upon us and to turne unto him and yet notwithstanding we have not done it but either shame with it or thinke it needeles to take such a course And yet as at that time God did but with one hand shake the rod at them with the other held foorth special mercies vnto them a further advancement of religion among them and a special deliverance from al their enimies so at this time also we may see the Lord to observe that course toward vs not onely laying his hand upon us but also tendering and offering unto us by manie good and comfortable tokens both a further manifestation of the gospel and a better riddance of our enimies if so be that we can truely turn unto him As therefore this call of the Prophet was to speciall good use unto thém to quicken them up both to a sensible feeling of that hand of God upon them to cast thēselves to be in a redines to receave those greater mercies at his hands likewise even so may it be as much to our purpose that he should nowe stir us up unto a feeling of such hands of God as are

lightnes and vanity by the peace and wealth that God hath given us and for that we have tasted so litle of the rod as now for a good time we have done that it is lesse marvaile if hardly we can growe to any such earnest and publike sorrowing or so much as like of the motion when it is made But in this case also it is good to remember that the wisedome of a Christian ought to be such as that whatsoever is an offence or hinderance unto us in the way of godlines though it be as dear as is our hand or our foote yet ought we rather to cut it óf and cast it away though we should be much mained thereby then that we should suffer our selves to be let or hindred by them If therefore we have any sense or feeling of our great manifold sins or of this gētle hand of God that for the same is cast upon us if we have any harty desire to be partakers of those great and inaestimable mercies of God a more generall and a further fruition of his aeternall Truth and so comfortable securitie from all our enemies what is there then that with any colour may stay us from that which the Prophet doth here require or if in heart we consent unto it why should not our deede also beare witnesse or rather expresse our meaning therein Well may our dalliance deceave our selves but others it cannot especially God The fruites that we beare will plainely witnesse what we are If they be ill or if they be none either of those doe plainely cast us if they be good and such as argue a sounde reverence and a readie obedience to the Worde of God then doe we finde to our singular comfort that now in deede we are the children of God and that our reward without all quaestion must needes be great Long inough have we wallowed in careles security it is time nów to looke about us to accept of those more speciall favours of God that he in this acceptable time of his doth offer unto us God give us grace ever to bee easie to bee admonished that he neede not to use any rougher meanes to quicken us up and to take such holde of those good opportunities that in these our daies he offereth unto us that wee may in like sort enjoy such blessings as are tendered withall God graunt the same through Iesus Christ his Sonne our Lorde to the advauncement of his Kingdome among us and to our own vnspeakeable comfort FINIS A praier of the same argument and meete for the time that now we are in WE acknowledge O Lord before thy most glorious and aeternall maiestie That we have deserved this and much more that we most iustly have deserved not onelie the hardest estate that thy people have at anie time had but utterlie to be cast of likewise from being thy people much more this gentle and fatherly chastisment which at this praesent thou hast cast upon us Neverthelesse because we knowe by thy holie worde that thou delightest not in the death of a sinner but wouldest rather have him to live and it is not thy pleasure that the rodde of thy chasticement should ever lie upon thine inhaeritance but covetest rather that they should soone remember them selves and turn unto thee wee are bold even now and thou hast enboldned us to seeke unto thee and to intreat thee now to take from us this hand of thine before that thou thereby hast chasticed our former sinnes anie thing neere to that measure no not by the thousand part that wee haue deserued For thy mercie ô Father in thy Sonne our Lord is verie great towards all that are his and so spread foorth over all thy workes in so plentifull measure that wee make no doubt but that at anie time wee may be bold to seeke thy fauour and to entreate thee to staie thy hand when yet thou hast scant begunne to strike notwithstanding that we have iustlie deserved that thou shouldest turn awaie from us thy face for ever That he would graunt us true repentance Howbeit that no way it tend to the impechment of thy glorie in the order and course that thou hast ordeyned in all thy woorkes laying out the meanes whereby thou dost worke it aswell as the effect that is to ensue wee humblie beseech thee and much more earnestly for this then the other that by this smal portion of this thy chasticement that nów we have felt our former securitie maie be so quickened unto a diligent and sound advicement of the corruption of our nature and of the foule and loathsome fruits that out of the same have alreadie proceeded and so truelie and earnestlie repent our selves thereof that thou having obteined that which thou soughtest at our hands maist the more easilie be induced to spare us and to withdrawe thy hand from us And both deliver us from this our praesent distresse To this ende ô Lord we most humbly beseech thee to give us a sound an hartie and a sensible feeling of our former and woonted coldnes in the advauncement of thy glorie and of that whole course of our life wherein by the immesurable thirst that wee have to the things of this world wee have beene and yet are so iniurious and hard unto manie and even to thee also among the rest and not onely to give us such a feeling of those things our selves but also to vouchsafe us such an inward detestatation thereof withall so resolute a purpose to betake our selves to a better course in all such matters that as now we make bold with thee to seeke thy favour before that ever we have beene chasticed anie thing neere as wee have deserved so we maie hereafter likewise throughout our whole life bee so carefull in all things to advaunce thy glorie and in nothing to anoy our neighbour for the bettering of our selves in worldly matters but in all things to uphold his good estate the best that we maie that neither wee provoke thee again to strike us for these offences neither yet occasion it to appeare that now thou hast withdrawne this thine hand from us over soone And because it pleaseth thee to put us in hope of much greater mercies And vouchsafe us those other mercies also then onely such relief of these our bodily necessities and these are the daies whereunto those mercies of ●●ine are promised we likewise beseech thee in most humble manner to vouchsafe us that further manifestation of thy Truth and that notable protection from our enemies also that not onely the likelier sort of thy people but the meaner likewise may both knowe and glorifie thee and that we all being ever preserved from those that hate us for thy names sake in that our safetie may imploy our selves the best that we can to the service of thee and ever praise thy holie name for these thy mercies Our enemies ô Lord have ruled over us very long alreadie and they of long have done unto ús even as those others did unto thém They have taken away our silver and golde and whatsoeuer Iewels we had besides of spirituall graces in Iesus Christ and those have they carried into the Temples of their owne proper idols and wickednes ascribed all unto them Our selves also they have not spared but have done with us whatsoever they would Not onely the boy but the honourable also and auncient of yeares have they given for an harlot and not onely the girle but godlie matrons and the chast soules of thy faithful people have they given for a cup of wine and for their bellies And not so content they have likewise in such sort solde us as most might avail them to send us away far from our countrie that afterwards we should never be able for to returne thither again But thou ô Lord thee self hast seene it and knowest well inough that they have beene so greevous unto us not so much for any thing that we had done though in truth we be most wretched sinners and have deserved much more then it as in despight of thy holy Truth and of an inward hatred to thee Be it therefore thy gracious pleasure to undoe whatsoever they have done and to gather us together again from all those places whereinto we were dispersed by them And as théy had sold us a far óf never to see our Countrie again so we beseech thee that so manie of them as in thy secret election belong unto thee thou also would in like maner sell over not unto us but to thy holie Truth ever to have them in full possession and never to suffer them for to returne unto their woonted wandrings againe And where as heretofore they have alreadie so much praevailed against thy people now be it thy pleasure to bring them under and daily more and more to enlarge the safetie of thy peculiar people against them all We graunt ô Lord the things we desire are very great but it hehooveth thy people should know thy aboundant mercie and thine enemies also the inuincible power of thy mightie hand Graunt us therefore these things we beseech thee through Iesus Christ thy Sonne our Lord to whom with thee and the holie Ghost as of right apperteineth be ascribed all thankes honor and glorie for ever and ever Amen FINIS