Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	lord_n	miserable_a	sinner_n	6,143	5	8.8461	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61842	The indecency and unlawfulness of baptizing children in private, without necessity, and with the publick form seriously recommended to the consideration of both the clergy and laity of the Church of England : to which is added, a brief exhortation to the constant receiving of the Lords Supper.	Strong, Martin, b. 1663 or 4.	1692 (1692)	Wing S5995; ESTC R15237	25,798	32

and of the highest importance too 1. Consider that is the Command of Christ your Soveraign Lord who as your King and Supream Governor has an absolute right and a just Claim to your Vniversal Obedience nor can you deny it in any instance whatever without the highest Injustice 2. Consider further that 't is the dying Command of Jesus your Saviour and Redeemer your greatest Friend and your best Benefactor who stopt at no Dangers nor declined any Sufferings to do you service who freely parted with his own dearest and invaluable blood to ransom and redeem your Souls to purchase for you the pardon of your Sins the Graces of Gods Spirit and the immortal Joys of Heaven Who was contented to undergo all the Malice of Men and Devils to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief through the whole Scene of his Life to endure the greatest Torments of Body and Agonies of Mind to sweat and groan to bleed and die to deliver you from Eternal Death 'T is this Jesus that commands you to do this in remembrance of him So that here is both the highest Authority to command and the greatest Love in the world to invite your Obedience Will you then disobey a King and a Saviour too a Soveraign Lord and a Merciful Redeemer at once Alas What unpardonable Rebellion What scandalous Ingratitude is this Blessed Jesu What return can be sufficient What thanks can be big enough for such amazing Love And yet it is no hard or difficult but a very easy requital that the Son of God expects from us 't is only that we frequently remember his dying Love in that Memorial Feast he has appointed for that purpose that we there thankfully commemorate his Mercy solemnly renew and ratify our Baptismal Vows and Engagements and enter into a sacred League of Peace and Love and Charity with all the world A poor return God knows this is for so great a Mercy and shall we yet refuse to pay this 3. Consider that you are bound in Interest as well as in duty to pay a constant Attendance on this sacred Ordinance For 't is the most likely means in the world to make all your Prayers successful at the Throne of Grace and to fetch down even temporal Blessings upon you And 't is the most probable means in the world to promote and advance your everlasting well-being to confirm and increase your Faith to heighten your Repentance to raise your Sorrow for Sin and your Hatred against it To inflame your Love your Praise and Gratitude to God and your crucified Saviour and your Charity to all your Fellow creatures 't is the best way to advance your Hope to improve all your Graces to make all your Sins give up the Ghost and yield themselves perfect Victims to a Redeemers conquering Love In short the blessed Sacrament to every devout and worthy Receiver is full of divine and heavenly Blessings 't is not only our greatest Duty but 't is our highest Priviledge too What Reasons what Pretences then can be strong enough to keep you from so sacred and advantageous a Duty You know what I have formerly said at large to remove them all There are two faults that you may be guilty of in this affair Either by a careless refusal and neglect of this blessed Sacrament or by an unworthy abuse and profanation of it by unworthily coming to it or by profanely turning your backs upon it Both these are Sins equally dangerous and I beseech you by all the Hopes of Heaven and Fears of Hell to avoid both I have formerly and often told you how this may be done But if there be any Soul amongst you that wants either farther Instruction or Satisfaction in this matter I once more earnestly desire and invite all such to come to me for my private help and direction Come freely and without scruple the Poorest the Meanest of you By the Blessing of God you shall not go away without the best Assistance and Incouragement I am able to givé you And in order to the fitting your selves for the Blessed Sacrament I must beg and entreat you to lead pious and sober just and Christian Lives Impenitence and an obstinate going on in Sin is the only thing that makes men unworthy of the Sacrament A good man a true sincere penitent who understands competently the Nature of the Sacrament and is heartily resolved to forsake all his past Sins and to lead a new Life such a one is fit to come to the Sacrament at any time And he who will not do this is not fit to die nor can he go to Heaven And to enable you to lead this pious Christian Life let me beseech you often and daily upon your bended Knees to petition Almighty God for his preventing assisting and supporting Grace Morning and Evening at least let me desire every Soul amongst you to spend some little time in that divine and heavenly that honorable and advantageous duty of Prayer You that have Families must pray with them and teach your Children and Servants to live in the Fear of God Instruct and Catechize them in the Principles of Religion as well as you are able and send them to the Church to be instructed better As they grow up you must warn them often of the baseness and danger of Sin in general of Swearing and Cursing of Drunkenness and profaning the Lords day Vices to which Youth are extreamly addicted Tell them of the Excellency of a pious sober righteous Life and of the glorious rewards that attend it teach them by your Example as well as by your Instructions You will have the Comfort of it in this Life and be rewarded for it in a better From the Prayers of the Church I would desire you never to be wilfully absent Come at the beginning and behave your selves devoutly at them And for your Private Devotion I have here composed a short Form which I desire all such of you as have not better helps at hand to say daily humbly and devoutly upon your Knees O God the Father of Heaven have mercy upon me a miserable Sinner O thou God of Angels and men the Creator and Preserver of all the world I have sinned I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I have been a stubborn and a rebellious Child but do not thou O Lord cast off the bowels and compassions of a Father I have perverted all the ends of my Creation I have despised thy Authority abused thy Mercy and provoked thy Vengeance But O thou who willest not the Death of a Sinner have Mercy upon me For thy Names sake pardon mine Iniquities for they are great for thine own Mercies sake for thy dear Son and my Saviours sake have pity upon me a miserable Sinner O blessed Jesus the High-Priest the Saviour and Redeemer of Souls have Mercy upon me Let thy Stripes and Wounds thy Cross and Passion plead and intercede for me By thine Agony and bloody Sweat by all that thou didst and sufferedst for Sinners save and deliver me in the hour of Death and the day of Judgment And suffer not O holy Redeemer my Soul which is the purchase of thine own meritorious blood to perish O holy Spirit of Grace the Sanctifier of all the Elect People of God inspire I beseech thee into my Soul the Principles of an Vniversal Piety Sanctify me throughout in Body and Mind in Heart Will and Affections I am undone if thou leave me to my self follow me by thy motions and awaken my Conscience by thy blessed Suggestions or I perish for ever Quicken and excite my languishing Vertues Allure my hope by the glorious rewards of Obedience Alarm my fear by the stedfast belief of a judgment to come Affect my gratitude and love by a deep sence of the amazing mercies of my God and Saviour and by all let me be led to a speedy and vigorous Repentance to such a pious and godly sober and humble just and charitable life us becomes a Disciple of the most holy Jesus O God the Father Son and Holy Ghost three persons and one God! O holy and undivided Trinity have mercy upon me a miserable sinner Glory be to thee O God for all the mercies I have received Take me into thy Protection this day or this night and all that belong to me Bless all my Civil Spiritual and Natural Parents Relations and Governors Reward all my Friends and Benefactors Forgive and turn the hearts of my worst and greatest Enemies Let thy Gospel and Truth thy Peace and Salvation extend it self to all the World for the sake of Jesus my Saviour In whose Name and Words I further pray Our Father c. Canon 14. ALL Ministers shall observe the Orders Rites and Ceremonies prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer without either diminishing or adding any thing in the Matter or Form thereof Canon 38. If any Minister after Subscription shall omit to use the Form of Prayer or any of the Orders or Ceremonies prescribed in the Communion-Book Let him be suspended And if after a month be do not reform and submit himself Let him be Excommunicated And then if he shall not submit himself within the space of another month Let him be deposed from the Ministry Canon 81. There shall be a Font of Stone in every Church and Chapel where Baptism is to be administred In which only Font the Minister shall Baptize Publickly that is no doubt with the Form of Publick Baptism FINIS

hope that they will think the better and not the worse of us for being just to our Rule and true to our Promises Nor will they be so unreasonable as to expect our compliance in a thing so manifestly unlawful Much less conceive any Pet or Prejudice against us only because we cannot make the plainest Laws of the Church and our own Promises too bend and bow to their humors And since the London Clergies Practice is most taken notice of in this affair it would be happy if they would joyn with us in this Reformation 5. The Form of Public Baptism is so composed that it cannot be used in Private Houses without manifest Absurdities which is another demonstration that the Church never intended it should be so used The forementioned Mr Arwaker reckons up four several instances of this Nature in the Office of Public Baptism where he that has a mind may see them pag. 29. I shall only mention One at present and that is in the Preface to the Baptismal Covenant in these words Dearly beloved Ye have brought this Child here to be Baptized How can this be truly or rationally spoken when instead of the Childs being brought by the Sureties the Minister himself comes home to the house and is brought into the very Chamber were the Child was born We have already proved that the Church at the beginning of this Office requires the Child to be brought to the Font and that the Priest standing at the Font shall say From whence 't is manifest that by the word Here in this place is meant the Church where alone the Font stands And how then can the Minister in the very place where the Child was born say to the Sureties Ye have brought this Child here viz. to the Font to be Baptized Or ought he not rather to alter the words to a quite contrary sense and say Ye have brought me here to baptize this Child For this is true and proper but the former is evidently false and absurd and the Absurdity is so plain that I am verily perswaded that he that does not perceive it 'T is not because He cannot but because He will not understand it Now whether it becomes either Minister or People to use such gross Absurdities in so solemn a part of Gods sacred Worship is a Question to which I would beg a serious Answer There is the same Absurdity in the Office for Churching Women when 't is used in Private houses The very Title proves this Practice to be absurd It ought to be called Chambering or Houseing of Women But Churching of them it can never be in any place out of the Church But not to insist on that the Rubrick before this Office says The Woman shall come into the Church decently apparalled and there shall kneel down in some convenient Place c. than which no command can be more plain The Rubrick at the End of the Office directs the Woman to receive the Holy Communion if there be any which still farther argues it to be done in the Church and the last Verse of the Psalm appointed to be read in this Office makes the Absurdity undeniable 'T is this I will pay my Vows now In the Courts of the Lords house How can this be said in any Private Chamber Was ever any Place beside the Church called the Lords house Or can any other Place be so called without a manifest and daring Absurdity An Absurdity too gross to be offer'd to the great God in return for a Mercy which deserves not only a Private Acknowledgment See Bp. Sparrow and Dr. Comber on this Office but a most solemn Thanksgiving in the Public Assembly of Christians which is both a greater Honour and more acceptable to God than any Private returns can be And now a modest man would think that after all this there should be no possible Objectious against so undeniable a truth Dr. Sherlock tells us Rel. Assemb p. 290. That he could never hear any thing that deserved a serious Answer But lest the Pretences should be thought unanswerable let us hear what they are And the first grand Pretence is Custom 'T is objected to us that 't is generally practised in most parts of the Kingdom and by many great and eminent Divines of the City of London too and therefore why may it not be continued This Objection tho it make a great deal of Noise yet it signifies just nothing as will be evident to any one that considers these things First That however prevailing this Custom now is yet 't is but of very late date even in this Church Dr Sherlock tells us Rel. Assemb p. 290 That this unhappy Custom was begun by as unhappy a Cause Namely by our late Civil Wars and a tyrannical Usurpation When our Laws were all subverted and our Religion ruined When the Orthodox Clergy were all turned a begging and their Churches usurped by their Enemies then 't was that the Loyal Party being first banished from the Church were forced and compelled to Baptize their Children in their own Houses There was a Necessity then of doing it privately or not at all But this Necessity is now removed our Churches now thanks be to Almighty God are at Liberty And therefore this can be no Argument to excuse us But it becomes us rather to abhor a Custom brought into the Church by such Vngodly means and to remember that our Forefathers would have been glad and thankful too to have injoyed that Liberty and Priviledge of bringing their Children to the Church which we now despise And yet 't is very observable that even in those times when the Common-Prayer Book was abolished and the Presbyrerian Directory established in its room by what was then called an Ordinance of Parliament Anno 1644. Even that very Directory expresly decrees That Baptism is not to be administred in Private places or privately but in the place of Public Worship and in the Face of the Congregation as may be seen p. 19 And this is the more remarkable because the Compilers of this Directory do in their Preface declare that they composed and agreed upon it after earnest and frequent calling upon the Name of God and after much consultation not with Flesh and Blood but with Gods holy word 'T is well known that our Brethren of this Perswasion were always great Enemies to all Needless and Superstitious Ceremonies in the Worship of God from whence I infer that even in their Opinion The Administration of Baptism in the Public place of Gods Worship is not a Needless Ceremony but a Necessary Circumstance to the due and decent Performance of that divine Sacrament What their Practice now is it concerns not me to inquire 't is plain This is their Rule and This their Judgment Secondly Tho many eminent Divines and particularly of London do comply with this Custom yet some others no less eminent refuse to do it Dr Sherlock and Mr Arwaker have both writ expresly against it