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	miserable_a	sinner_n	16,295	5	10.6580	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47748	Liturgy's vindicated by the dissenters, or, The lawfulness of forms of prayer and liturgies proved from the very texts of Scripture urged against them by John Bunyan and the dissenters / by the author of the Religious conference between a minister and his parishioner about infant baptism.	Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.	1700 (1700)	Wing L1137; ESTC R34970	43,840	127

thou not been a Prodigal Spend-thrift wasted thy Substance with Riotous living and devouerd thy Estate among Harlots and yet darest thou say to God Father Thus Rudely Unchristianly and Uncharitably would Jo. Bunyan treat the Prodigal Son as the elder Brother would have had him treated but God himself treats him far otherwise even as a dear and tender Child for when he was yet a great way off his Father saw him and had Compassion on him and ran and fell on his Neck and kissed him and his Reception and Entertainment was extraordinary ver 22.23 The Author of the Pilgrims Progress had likewise forgotten the Parable of Dives and Lazarus the former tho' in Hell call'd Abraham Father Luke 16.24 But Jo. Bunyan wou'd for this alone have call'd him Damn'd Wretch and Child of the Devil and demanded of him What hast thou to do cursed Man to call Abraham Father But Abraham has better Language in his Mouth and is so far from reproving even this Damned Rich man for calling him Father that he gives him a mild Answer and the Title of Son perhaps because he was one of his Off-spring tho' much degenerated from him that was the first Root and Stock of them Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things c. In like manner the most wicked Person in the World may call God Father he being the God and Father of all Men by Creation who are therefore said to be all his Off-spring Acts 17.28 29. So on the Account of their natural Being which they receiv'd from God all Mankind may truly call God Father as all the Children of an earthly Parent tho' of far different Natures and Behaviour may yet call him their Father 2dly God is the Father of all Men by Redemption which is universal and extended to all that will sincerely accept and lay hold of it as is clear from 1 Joh. 2.1.2 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World So that Jesus Christ dyed for all Men even the most profligate Wretches in the World or else they were not bound to Repent and Believe the Gospel for to what purpose shou'd they do either since none can be saved but those for whom Christ dyed and then all their Repentance and Faith wou'd be in vain So that on the account of Creation and Redemption we may all call Almighty God Father altho' we were never so wicked even as Satans Children as this Author supposes us to be and by consequence may safely use the Lords Prayer without being guilty of Lying or Blasphemy altho' none of us were Saints at least not one in Forty did deserve that Name Indeed William Pen and his Party upbraid us for saying in our Prayers Lord have Mercy upon us miserable Sinners and We have erred and strayed from thy Ways like lost Sheep And John Bunyan and his Party upbraid us for saying Our Father which art in Heaven c. So that if we should hearken to these Men we must not Pray at all neither address our selves to God as Saints nor as Sinners neither say Our Father nor God be merciful to me a Sinner but the truth is we may and on good Grounds do say both having the Examples of David and St. Paul to justifie our Practice whom I presume our Author will allow in the number of Saints and that they might truely call God Father and yet one of them says in his Prayer to God I have gone astray like a lost Sheep O seek thy Servant Ps 119.176 the other says Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief 1 Tim. 1.15 and if after their Examples and that of the penitent Publican we come to Church and confess our Sins and desire God to be Merciful to us Sinners and also after the Example of the poor Prodigal we arise and go to our Father and say unto him Father we have sinned against Heaven and before thee and are not worthy to be called thy Children we may hope to go back again to our Houses justified before the envious Elder Brother and proud Pharisee that Censure and condemn us for our Humility and Faith CHAP. IV. AS nothing is more usual than for Hereticks and Schismaticks to propogate their false and pernicious Doctrines by Fire and Sword and all the studied Arts of Cruelty and Violence that what is wanting of Truth on their side may be made up with blind furious Zeal and ungovernable Rage so none are more forward to shift the Odium of such bloody Proceedings and cast it upon others that are not guilty thereof and to make loud Outcries of Persecution and Oppression which in reality must be charged upon themselves and laid at their own Doors Thus of old the Arians dealt with the Orthodox Christians complain'd of hard Usage from them and of their great Sufferings for Conscience sake and yet none were more bloody Persecutors than themselves as the Orthodox found by sad Experience when these Men had gotten the Power into their own Hands from whom they suffered more than ever they did from the most barbarous Nations or under the worst Heathen Persecutions And thus their Successors the Anabaptists have carried themselves towards the Churches of Christ where they have had means and opportunities to shew the Savageness of their Natures and Dispositions witness the dismal Tragedies they acted at their first rise in Manster and other Parts of Germany which were so barbarous and inhumane that the Modern Anabaptists pretend to be asham'd of them and of the levelling carnal Principles which their first Founders held However this by the way shews their Religion to be very bad whose Foundation was laid in Rebellion and Blood and so indeed has it been propogated ever since when any fair occasion has been offered for the discovery of their Intentions witness their Persecuting King Charles the Martyr and some of his loyal Subjects to the very Gates of Death and some of them to strange Cities in which these Men had a great Hand being some of the worst tho' most potent in Cromwel's Army who with their assistance rul'd all and accomplish'd those Villianies which are a Scandal to our Nation and Reproach to the Protestant Religion And yet Page 45 speaking to a member of our Church John Bunyan says art not thou a desperate Persecutor of the Children of God He is their Father whom thou Persecutest Strange confidence indeed that this Man should not be ashamed to complain of Persecution who was himself a great Persecutor as this very Book of his shews wherein he treats us with bitter Words and railing Language which is one kind of Persecution and not the least neither even that of the Tongue for what Moses calls Ishmaels mocking St. Paul styles his Persecuting of Isaac Gen. 21.9 compared with Gal. 4.29