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	redeemer_n	2,002	5	9.8210	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01445	A briefe and cleare confession of the Christian fayth Containing an hundreth articles, after the order of the creede of the Apostles. Made and declared by Iohn Gardiner. Translated out of French into English by Iohn Brooke of Asshe, next Sandwitch. An. 1577.; Briefve et claire confession de la foy chrestienne. English.	Garnier, Jean, d. 1574.; Brooke, John, d. 1582.	1579 (1579)	STC 11565; ESTC S92644	48,655	130

❧ A briefe and cleare Confession of the Christian Fayth Containing An hundreth Articles after the order of the Creede of the Apostles Made and declared by Iohn Gardiner Translated out of French into English by Iohn Brooke of Asshe next Sandwitch An. 1577. Rom. 10. ¶ The beliefe of the hart iustifieth but to confesse with the mouth maketh a man safe Imprinted at London for Edward Wight and are to be sold at his shop at the litle North doore of Paules at the signe of the Gun. 1579. ❧ To the Right Honorable Syr William Cecill Knight Baron of Burgley Knight of the Honorable order of the Garter Master of her Highnesse Wardes and Liueries one of the Lordes of her Maiesties priuy Counsell and Lorde high Treasoror of England REading this small litle Volume fyrst written in French and collected by Maister Iohn Gardiner right honorable and perceiuing the same in my simple iudgement vnder a poore habite and litle showe to beare and importe great and waighty effect finding also therin such singuler ground of profound learning and rare wisdome and therewithall such firme approbations and inexpugnable defences with authorities of holy writ I thought it no lesse then needefull and nothing more then necessary to doo what in me mightlye to make the same obuious vsuall and familyer vnto my brethren of this Realme by translating the same into our mother tongue The which thing hauing once perfourmed and finished according to my poore talent and sclender skill although I doo not doubt to haue followed myne Authour directlye and truly in sence and exposition without corruption or abuse yet finding in my selfe such imperfections of learning such barrennes and want of fine Phrase and choise wordes wherwith to haue garnished the same vnneathes I durst of my selfe or in myne owne name launch foorth my silly barke into the troublesom waues not doubting saile she neuer so sure true but somtimes shee shal be countermet with churlishe byllowes and puffed at with outragious blastes and violent tempestes The force wherof more safely to defend and withstand being loth to leaue the same in such obscurenesse and secrecy as I found it whereof no Christian man ought to be ignorant I imagined with my selfe to seeke to ancor in your harborough being very desirous that this my vnsmoothed and roughe hewen workemanshippe might haue free passage and safe conduct vnder your Honors fauorable protection and defēce In which purpose and pretence being abashed and more then halfe dismaied by the occasions aforesaid yet grewe I in double hart and tooke treble encouragement that the authoritye of the matter it selfe would more then counteruaile the rest in your Honors fauorable acceptaunce But when I further considered wherof I should craue you to be a supporter namely of the Christian fayth for so the Booke is intituled and contayneth an hundreth Articles of the Christian fayth all fearefull doubtes expelled assured truste willed mee to abyde constant in my purpose For as to your Honorable tytle Wisdome hath annexed her enlargement of Authoritye so to that Authoritye godlye zeale hauing adioined a feruencie of true fayth and to these also humilitye of spirite hauing coupled franke curtesye and beneuolence towardes all These I saye right Honorable haue made me so bolde to craue that this my small peece of trauaile whatsoeuer maye receyue that hope hath promysed and with my good will would gladlye deserue being no wayes able excepte by prayer to almyghtye GOD on whome as dutye byndeth I shall not cease contynually to call for your Lordshippes long preseruation of lyfe and much encrease of his moste comfortable blessinges Your Honors dayly Orator Iohn Brooke ❧ Iohn Gardiner vnto all the litle French Church of Strasburg assembled together for the Gospell in the name of Iesus Christ grace peace and mercie of the Father through Iesus Christe our Lorde onely Sauior and redéemer in the vertue of the holy Spirite be geuen vnto you eternally Amen WHen I consider the cleare lightes the great ingenyous and sharpe wittes which the Lorde in our time hath placed in his Church déerely beloued brethren and welbeloued in Iesus Christe who neuer cease day nor night to aduaunce the glorye of God and to promote the kingdome of Iesus Christe his sonne aswell by their wordes as writing of whome I am not worthy to be a Disciple I am ashamed and feare lest I be iudged raish to put my hand to the pen after them and chiefly for to entreat of thinges so litle and common the which they haue entreated of in theyr Catechismes from the beginning But the holy desire of you and of manye other good brethren who hauing heard openly the reading of this litle Treatise instantly requiring to be pertakers haue incited yea constrained mee to do it with the great desire that I haue of the aduauncement of the glory of God and of the health of all my brethren Knowing that God would haue al the world to come vnto the knowledg of the trueth and by that meanes to be saued I know also that for the building of the Lordes tabernacle made by Moyses euery one brought that he had some golde and siluer others precious stones others linnen cloth goates and buckes skinnes others wood and common stones and all of it was set a worke So I estéeme for the building of this house of the Lorde which is his Church euery one may and ought to bring that that he hath some more some lesse according to the tallentes which the Lorde of the house hath geuen them I wil content my self to carry litle common stones for this building and do hope that the Master worke men will not reiect my seruice nor my litle stones so that they be fitte for the building as I hope they shal be God ayding me The poore wydowe which did put into the box but two litle peeces of siluer was not reiected nor despised of the Lorde but was as much praysed as the great ritch men which gaue a great deale more then she All that being well considered hath mooued me to set forth this litle treatise in this tyme chiefly in which the Lorde hath the siue in his hand to sifte examine and repurge his Church in which it should be verye good in my iudgment that euerye mans fayth should be knowen and chieflye of those which make profession of the Gospell for to teach others as are the Doctors and Ministers of the word that the false Prophets and Hypocrites which doo bowe theyr shoulders and leane theyr eares vnto false papisticall doctrine of Antechriste should be knowne driued and chased a way from the good faythful For that cause I am contēt that my faith in which I will lyue and dye thorow the grace of the Lord be knowen of al the world Now this litle Treatise shall haue much neede of a second which shal geue the reason of that that this here confesseth for it is one thing to confesse the fayth

and another to geue a reason of the fayth To confesse the fayth that is purely symply and clearely to say and confesse with hart and mouth or by writing that that one beléeueth of God and 〈◊〉 ●is word But to geue a reason of the fayth is to prooue and openly to shew by teres of the holy scripture and manifest reasons groūded in the same what one beléeueth and wherfore one beléeueth as Saint Peter the Apostle commaundeth The which I haue made in tymes past in the time of the faires as you haue heard and vnderstood in declaring that confession by Articles for to geue some lytle taste of the Gospell vnto the straingers which came hether and to make them to vnderstand what is our faith and religiō in which we wil liue and dye and that we are not heretickes seditious nor blasphemers as many do estéeme vs to be but faithfull and true Christians hauing and receyuing one onely Iesus Christ for our Lord Sauiour Mediatour and Aduocate beleeuing hoping in him only and not in any other for which also we wil venter and ieopard not onely our externall goods but also our bodyes vnto the last droppe of our bloud Knowing that whosoeuer shall loose his life for the loue of him shall fynde it and he that will kéepe it in renouncing and forsaking him he shall loose it eternally This hath beene my marke and principall end all that time there in which I had not nor haue yet at this present the leisure to collect and put in wryting all the probation arguments reasons which I haue vsed aswel of the holy scriptures as of the aunciēt fathers for to yeeld a reason of my faith to shew the truth of the articles therof therein contained But if the Lord do geue vs good peace and keepe vs yet stil in this place as I hope that he will do thorowe his mercy although we haue not merited it I promise to geue vnto you the second treatise correspondāt vnto this here in which I wil geue the reason of my faith as in this I wil declare and confesse with the helpe of the Lord the verity of all these Articles which are in number an hundreth aswell by the word of God as by the writings of the auncient Fathers according to my litle faculty the grace which the Lord shall geue me and then I will content my self that I haue liued in this world In the meane time deere brethren I praye you to receyue and take in good part this litle gifte and present of the hand of your lawful brother and faithfull friend hoping to receiue a greater I assure you that the onely word of the Lord is the fayre and large garden of pleasure within which I putting my selfe haue gathered these goodly swéete smelling flowers and made this fayre garlande of triumphe for to put it vpon the heads of the true faithfull Christians such as now are And I haue taken nothing from the sinke puddle and takes of Luiterim nor from other such like papisticall doctrines Antechristians and inuentions of men For out of such sinkes puddles and infections such flowers spring not forth but rather thornes bryers and thystles for to fede and crowne the Asses of Antechriste I may boldlye saye that there is nothing in this litle Treatise but that I can shew and prooue it by the worde of God the which I haue folowed and not the diuers opinions of men For I haue not sworne in any mans word but in that same of Iesus Christe vpon which my fayth is builded and not vpon the opinion of men therfore I haue spoken here and written freelye that which I féele in my harte without hauing regard vnto any other then vnto my only Lord and Master Iesus Christe This may serue at all tymes for a paterne rule of the confession of faith to all those which wyll declare them selues to be of the number of our assembly following the holye custome most allowable of this litle Church that all those which will perticipate or communicate with vs in the holye table of the Lorde firste of all ought to make publike confession of their fayth that is to saye to declare before the assembly the fayth and knowledge which the Lorde hath geuen vnto them of the word and Gospell of his sonne Iesus Christ that they may be knowen and manyfested vnto all the congregation to be of the number of the faithfull and true members of Christ worthy to perticipat of the giftes graces and benefits of the Lord with the brethren As also of late vnder the lawe all straungers which would communicate or perticipate the pascall Lambe with the people of Israell ought first to renounce all Idolatry to receiue circumcision to make profession of all the lawe and religion of God geuen by Moyses promising to liue and walk in the same all the daies of their life And by that meanes were admitted to the Passeouer to eate and communicate with the other and not otherwise As it is written in the booke of the lawe Truly it is more to perticipat in the holy table of the Lord that is to say in the holy Sacrament of the Supper thē to eat the pascall Lambe for somuch as the cleerenesse is more then the shadow and the verity more then the figure For the lawe was but the shadow and figure of the verity the which we haue present before vs If thē there were vnder the law obserued and kept such discipline in the Churche of God among the faithfull how much more ought it to be obserued vnder the verety in the shéepfold of Iesus Christ which is his Church who commaundeth the shepheardes thereof to knowe the sheepe and call them by their name and diligently to consider theyr estate lest they should geue the childrens bread vnto dogs and the pearles vnto hogs Then as Moyses the seruaunt of God did not admit vnto the Passeouer anye straungers before they firste declared their faith so the good faythfull ecclesiastical pastor ought not to admit according to my aduise saued alwayes a better iudgement vnto the holy table any straungers whose fayth is vnto him vnknowē but to endeuor him self firste to knowe their fayth and religion by all meanes priuately and perticulerly if he cannot publikelye before the Churche and Congregation that he maye witnesse of theyr fayth before all the brethren And by that meanes to admytte them with the other This pollycye and lowable disciplyne was kepte and obserued in this our litle Church as you knowe from the beginning vnto this daye The Lorde thorowe his grace graunt that it may long continue to the praise of his name For by the same many ignoraunt are taught in the rudimentes of the Christian faith And there knowledge is alwaies augmented and there is none of vs but receiueth great profit To this then this litle Treatise maye well serue for a patterne and rule