Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	let_v	lord_n	name_n	9,327	5	5.7485	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13707	The trying out of the truth begunn and prosequuted in certayn letters and passages between Iohn Aynsworth and Henry Aynsworth; the one pleading for, the other against the present religion of the Church of Rome. The chief things to be handled, are. 1. Of Gods word and Scriptures, whither they be a sufficient rule of our faith. 2. Of the Scriptures expounded by the Church; and of unwritten traditions. 3. Of the Church of Rome, whither it be the true Catholike Church, and her sentence to be received, as the certayn truth.	Ainsworth, John, fl. 1609-1613.; Ainsworth, Henry, 1571-1622? aut	1615 (1615)	STC 240; ESTC S100498	226,493	192

THE TRYING OVT OF THE TRVTH BEGVNN AND PROSEQVVTED IN CERTAYN Letters or Passages between Iohn Aynsworth and Henry Aynsworth the one pleading for the other against the present religion of the Church of Rome The chief things here handled are 1. Of Gods word and scriptures whither they be a sufficient rule of our faith 2. Of the Scriptures expounded by the Church and of unwritten traditions 3. Of the Church of Rome whither it be the true Catholike Church and her sentence to be received as the certayn truth Published for the good of others by E. P. in the yeare 1615. E. P. to the Christian reader CHristian reader I having had some interest in the conveyance of the passages here following and with the cōsent of both the writers taken knowledge of the matter in controversie was moved and did resolve to publish it to the view of others Considering that the subiect and question handled is very profitable and the truth therein necessary to be knowen And whereas the controverters are so different in iudgment and yet both of them for conscience sake suffer afflictiō being separated frō the Ch of Engl the one to the practise of a Romane Catholik the other to a way thereunto most opposite and both of them being leaders men of note in their so much different religions it may move a desire to see the thing further prosecuted between them and provoke a going forward where the stay is I have without prejudice but not as I hope without the good liking of both parties who ech of them seemed unto me very willing that any should read their writings put forth these things hoping that some benefit may come to the readers hereby whom I wish all of them to follow the Apostles counsel to try the spirits whether they be of God His grace be with us all to guide us in the truth Amen E. P. The occasion and beginning of the passages following MR. Iohn Aynsworth whiles he was prisoner in London had conference with some other prisoners that differed in religion from him about the right way of mans justification before God c which things he after answered in writing also with this challenge at the end Let who will answer it I could wish for name sake Mr Henry Aynsworth might see it If any answer it let him set to his name as I set down mine to stand to all and then I will deal with him Iohn Aynsworth This writing was as he wished sent to the party by him nominated who upon the receipt thereof wrote as foloweth To Mr Iohn Aynsworth prisoner in London Mercy from God our Father and the Lord Iesus Christ our hope MR Aynsworth I received a writing under your hand and name touching some controversie in religiō you defēding the faith of the church of Rome that now is against such as haue forsaken her for departing from the ancient faith of the church that was in Rome when Paul wrote thereunto among whom we are the witnesses of Iesus Christ. You provoke in the end who will to answer your writing but wish for names sake my self mought see it promising if any answer it affixing his name you then will deal with him Though I have at this tyme other opposites to answer and affayres important lying upon me yet vvould I not altogither let passe this occasion offred by your self whom for nation and name I knovv not vvhither also for neerer alliance I regard as is meet greeving for your estate who are in captivity not so much in body as in soul from vvhich if I could procure your release I should be glad The vvay to doe you good or any that is in like error I take to be this that vve begin at the root and ground vvork of our religions in vvhich if vve can accord there vvil●e more hope of other things As first hovv our differences shal be tried and composed vvhether by the verdict of God or of man If of God as I hold then vvhere this is to be found vvh●ther in the scriptures of the old and nevv testament or in the vvritings and mouthes of other men If in holy scriptures vvhich is my faith then commeth to be considered vvhat they are and hovv to be used My self doe imbrace the vvritings of all the Prophets novv extant from Moses to Mal●chie vvho vvrote all in Hebrue the Chaldee in Ezra and Daniel counted therevvith of all the Apostles and Evangelists vvhich vvrote in Greek as is novv generally received By all and every of these I offer my faith to be tried and to make t●yall of other faith offred The use of these to be vvith all care and reverence sobriety sanctitie and vvisdome ministred by the holy Ghost And here may be questioned in vvhom the faith of a Christiā should rest vvhither on the Churches sentence vvithout doubt or contradiction or vvhither he should also have assurance in his owne hart by Gods vvord and spirit If the Church be our stay then are vve to inquire vvhere and vvhich it is and so to consider the doctrines that it teacheth Among vvhich this is one principal vvhich you treat of in your vvriting hovv our synns shal be forgiven and vve justified in the sight of God Thus may vve proceed in order if you please to begin vvith these grounds I am vvilling as my leysure shal serve me not only to hear vvhat you can say for your religiō but also to inform you vvhere I see you err If you like not thus to deal but vvill insist on the question in hand I shall not be unvvilling to defēd my Saviours suffrings as alsufficient for my salvation and of all that trust in him That vvhich shal be prosecuted betvveen us if ought be I desire may be doon in love and meeknes in simplicitie and sincerity vvith brevity and perspicuitie all vvhich I shall labour for through the grace of God and exhort you to doe the like Othervveise from fruitlesse quarrels I shall furcease folovv more comfortable meditations Thus vvish I your farevvell in soule and body From Amsterdam this 4. of September 1609. Your freind to use in all Christian dutie Henry Ainsworth Vnto this letter Mr Iohn Aynsworth returned this answer I Accept with all willingnes Mr Aynsworth of your ready offer viz. that we should draw our disputations and controversies to a maine and principall point and foundation of our religion For as in the spiritual building faith is a foundation and main pillar so also in the mysteries and principalls of our faith there be some that as it were transcend through the whole body of controversies and serve therein as Maister-springes by whose motion and proof all things rest sufficiently satisfyed and proved to any indifferent judgement Amongst others this question by you propounded hath no meane place For if I square out all the beleife I mainteyn onely by approved and vnfallible rule my affertiōs must needs be as

to this second answer of a long time about 3. yeres after H. A. wrote as foloweth To his very loving freind M. John A●nsworth prisoner in Newgate be these in London MR. Aynsworth I vvas glad to hear of your former release ou● of bands and exspected your answer to my last letter which you promised but now loe some yeres are past and I hear not from you It is not my desire to contend vvith you but to save your soul from death by converting you from poperie to true Christianity I had not begun this busynes but that I vvas provoked by your self if you mean to give over and so signify I also vvil so rest but vvith pittying your estate and praying for you If you think good to prosequute your vvork begun I also purpose God assisting me eyther to manifest your aberrations or to yeild unto you I am the more occasioned thus to vvrite by reason of an other chalenge lately made by some of your side but reason vvould that the old be mainteyned or let fall before vvay be given to any nevv Thus vvith unfeighned desire of your good I commend you to the mercy of the most high remayning your freind to command in all Christian duty Henr Ainsworth From Amsterdam this 12. of April 1613. I. A. his answer to the former short letter To his loving freind Mr Henry Aynsworth ● Amsterdam deliver these MR. H Aynsworth That you were so kindly gladde for my releasement out of prison I am to thank you but wheras you say you ery●cted my answer to the lost of yours as I promised I cannot see how you can take any just erceptions For first my releasement was but rather a cha●●ge of restraint then absolute a freedome being a banishment so that I hav been inforced to coast many parts since and before my banishment immediately all the books and papers I had were taken from me here in prison amongst which I take pours and my ●●●ferentes were As for the latter replie I can not tel where it is now though I promise you I had half answered it and had fully satisfied you therein if my papers and I had not suddainly bene severed Although I averr there is no special poinct therein conteyned that I take I have not abundātly satisfied in my former That you seeme to say I gave the onset it much imports not whether I did or no I seeking to draw you from the AEgyptian darkness that is so palpable But this I can remember this question now controverted by you was by your self proposed howsoever in your former rep●●e you desired to change the thesi● or discourse which argued you had litle advantage or hope to prevaile in the former Wee both agree belike in the intention each seeking each others conversion though wee are ex diametro opposed in our assertions I wonder what hope you should have by any thing you writt to pervert my obedience to the Church of God that you so seeffingly terme Poperte but therin you shew your ignorance distinguishing a Romane catholicke and a true Christian although all Papists in your opinion are not true Christians But I could with better reason retort and desire to convert you frō Death●nisme or Judaisme to true Christianitie For I take according to your grounds a man might prudently doubt whether yow are baptised or not in that your Parents or Ministers might as much slight as your se●t doth the necessitie of baptisme If I had your last papers though tedious and long in a few lines I could answer any thing that urgeth me therin and that is not answered in my former replies But this is sufficient you have p●●lded to me onely quotations and that d●sparatas hanging togither sine calce in lieu of the reasons antiquitie vniversalitie and consent which I urged against you from Distories the registers of tyme from Holy Fathers and Doctors the interpreters of scripture and from all kind of witnesses All which you call carnal motives the errors of flesh and blood or some such other scor●f●l terme of the Fathers Doctors reasons I proposed to you as I referr my self to any indifferent judgment are full for all your pretended reasons in full force But ●erein you mi●●e for being onely exercised to coape with Protestants against whom your writings ar in ful force in that they urge against you antiquitie visibilitie and consent of Councells and Fathers all which being brought by us against them they flie presently from all these to their private spirit and interpretatiō yet they are no reasons or urge not against us For we Catholiks have still one rule of faith that must tri● all Rom. 12. v. 7 for keeping of which rule the Romanes before 6 6 v. 17. were before praised which square S. Paul commendeth into Timet●●e as in s depositum This line of truth and analogie of faith makes us all agree and it makes us not to be vanqui●ned of our enemies Therfore 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ainsworth ●f ● d●e not hear you for I must ●●t beleeve you against this rule though you were an Angel from heaven in that by private interpretation against the rule of faith you invert the gospel of Christ. As for the beginning of your new subject I know neyther the controversie nor your Antagonist If you be minded to deale further in your question begun answer my argumento and that breifly and in forme For I charge you that by the multipl●●●tie of quo●●tions you have rather avoided then answered my reasons But if you be wearie of this subject at your pleasure you may begin another provided it bee stil a maine essentiall or substantiall po●●ce But since you seem so willing to give me satisfaction in any thing I desire you breifly and yet distinctly to answer these questiōs I shal propose First I demand how you challenge your faith to be the same of the Apostles I desire to know which of the Apostles s●h●ll●rs whether Abdias Bishop of Babylonia whether S. Dyonis●●s ●rcopagita S. Ignatius whether S. Polycarpus aut S. Clemens the schollar of S. Peter or the canons of the holy Apostles did teach this your doctrine if they did teach show how long it did cōtinue in the visible church of Christ what monuments you have to warrant you therein 2. Set down the essential and fundamentall points without which your religion can not stand and which being graunted your religion is graunted 3. Name the authours that successively from thence unto this tyme have mainteyned these poincts you now hold 4. Who and on what occasion did suppresse them Howsoever I desire you to give a direct answer to these 〈◊〉 question 's hers propounded 5. Whether it was in time of persecution or in the tyme of peace that your church begā to be invisible In the time of peace there was no adversarie to make it invisible In the tyme of persecution no man can persequ●te an invisible thing 6. I ask you which of

Pet. 1. 24. 25. Finally you are farr from an uniforme consent of the fathers to prove your haeretical assertion Though many of them were mistaken in some things yet were they not so senseless as to beleeve that graceless reprobate Popes must needs have such grace as to desine nothing but truth out of their chair But you that have abused the holy scriptures as I have proved what wrong wil you not doo to the fathers You are moved I see with my free applying of the scriptures that speak of Antichrist unto your Pope I am content to bear your contempt but I must call evil evil and faithfully witness what God hath manifested though men gnaw their tongues for payn You goe about to prove that the Pope is not Antichrist First for then it should folow that hel gates have prevayld against Gods church many 100. yeres c. I answer nay For it is prophesied the woman the church should flee into the wildernes where God should feed her 1260. dayes Rev. 12. 6. which may be so many prophetical yeares as Dan. 9. 24. though therefore the church was persecuted into secret places yet hel prevayled not agaynst it In the old world the church was but in that one familie of Noah Gen. 6. 1. Pet. 3. 20. And Christ likeneth these last dayes vnto those Mat. 24. 37. Agayn you except how many martyrs Doctors c. in offring up homage to the beast should broyl in hel c. I answer this is no proof if it were as you inferr But howsoever it is true the sowl that synneth shall dye yet in many things we syn all and the blood of Iesus Christ clenseth us from all syn except the syn against the holy Ghost even from our secret synns Although therefore many Doctors helped vp Antichrist vnawares yet doubt I not but Gods mercy hath superabounded above all their syn and saved them for they did it ignorantly Your 2. reason is Antichrist shal be one particular man as Ioh. 5. 43. another shal come in his own name so he is opposed by Christ person to person c. but the Popes are many successively And 2 Thes. 2. he is caled the man of syn c. I answer when Christ sayd Another shal come he meant not one persō but many of one kind successivly My reasons are first because he sayd elswhere many shal come in my name saying I am Christ and there shal arise false Christs false Prophets Secondly because Antichrist is described as a Beast Rev. 13. which beast in the Prophets signifieth a kingdom and many persons of one sort as is sayd in Dan. 7. 23. the fourth beast shal be the fourth kingdom c. So the Lion vvas for all the Kinges of Babylon the Bear for all the Kings of Persia c. Dan. 7. 4. 5. so by proportion that deformed beast Rev. 1● for all Popes Thirdly because the word Allos another vvhich Christ useth often noteth many particular men of one kind as in Ioh. 4. 37. one soweth and another reapeth which he expoundeth in the next words v. 38. other man laboured meaning the Prophets and ye my Apostles enter into their labours And thus the man of syn though he be one person at once yet successively meaneth many as when Christ sayth Ioh. 10. 10. the theef cōmeth not but to steal he restreyneth it not to one theef in person alwayes but meaneth every theef whensoever he cōmeth Fourthly Antichrist cannot be one singular man as you think because he must reign at least 1000. yeres as may be gathered by Rev. 20. 4. vvhere the godly vvhich worshiped not the Beast lived reigned with Christ 1000. yeres during vvhich time the Beast persecuted and kylled them also by the vvomans lying hid in the vvildernes so many dayes Rev. 12. Your 3. reason is Antichrist shal be of the tribe of Dan as Gen. 49. 17. Dan shal be a serpent c. Ier. 8. 16. the neyghing of horses was heard from Dan. c. I answer first you shew no reason that this is meant properly of Antichrist And if figuratively it is nothing to the purpose for Antiochus Nabuchodonosor and others figured him also Secondly Iakobsprophefie which was a blessing and not a curse as Antichrist is vvas literally meant of Samson a man of that tribe caled therefore Bedan 1 Sam. 12. 11. vvho for his subtile vndermining of the Philistins vvas likened to a serpent Iudg. 14. c. And thus the Chalde paraphrast on that place expoundeth it saying There shall be a man which shall be chosen rise out of the house of Dan vvhose fear shal fal vpon the peoples and he shall valiantly smite the Philistians as an adder as an asp he shal lye in wayt by the path he shal s●ay the strong horsmen in the host of the Philistians c. That of 〈◊〉 8. is meant properly of vvarrs in those costs of Dan in those times not of Antichrist now as the vvhole scope of the scripture there manifesteth Your 4. reason is Antichrist shal oppugn the misteries of our saviour 1 Ioh. 2. 22. and extol himself above all that is sayd God 2. Thes. 2 I answer this is true in your Popes for they oppugn Christ in his office of prophesie preisthood and kingdom in their heretical doctrine of mans merits mass sacrifice purgatorie c. and in making lawes for the church in forbidding people the holy scriptures in their mother tongue and many the like Though this is doon vnder colour of meeknes and holynes for the beast hath 2. hornes like the lamb as if he were Christs own vicar Rev. 13. 11. If you rest not in the scripture let S. Bernard move you who vvitnessed that the Beast in the Revelation which hath a mouth speaking blasphemies occupied Peters chayr Your 5 reason is The 7. mountayns in Rev. 17. are sayd to be 7. Kings none of vvhith agree vvith the Pope I answer yes the seventh agrees very vvel For the woman is the great city Rome Rev. 17. 18. the beast on vvhich she rideth hath 7. heads vvhich are expounded there to be both 7. mountains and 7. Kings Rev. 17. 3. 9 The 7. mountayns ar famous through the world as Palatinus Capitolinus Aventinus Esquilinus Caelius Viminalis Quirinal●s on vvhich mountayns Rome was builded The 7. Kings are also the 7. goverments of Rome renoumed also in histories As by Kings by Consuls by Decemiviri by Dictators by Triumviri by Caesars by forreyn Emperours and Popes Therefore vvhen Iohn vvrote the five first vvere fallen removed Rev. ●7 10. and one sayth he is namely the sixt by the Caesars and another is not yet come vvhich vvas the forrayn Emperors as Trajan the Spanyard and the like who vvhen they came should continue but a vvhile Constantine going to Bizantium and the Empire being over●un by the barbarous Gothes c. And the Beast sayth