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	lord_n	spare_v	2,870	5	9.3705	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61897	Bishop Sanderson's judgment concerning submission to usurpers	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1678 (1678)	Wing S607; ESTC R8226	14,341	48

Bishop Sanderson's JUDGMENT Concerning SUBMISSION TO Usurpers LONDON Printed by for Richard Marriott MDCLXXVIII Bishop Sanderson's JUDGMENT Concerning SUBMISSION TO USURPERS SIR WHEREAS you desire to know what my judgment and practice is concerning the using or forbearing the establish'd Liturgy either in whole or in part in the publick Service of God and Office of the Church If it be any satisfaction to your Friend I shall fully acquaint you what my practice is whereunto if my own Judgment be not conform I am without all excuse my own condemner and upon what considerations I have according to the variation of the times varied from my self therein So long as my Congregation continued unmixt with Souldiers as well after as before the Promulgation of the Ordinance of the two Houses for the abolishing of the Common Prayer I continued the use of it as I had ever formerly done in the most peaceable and orderly times not omitting those very Prayers the silencing whereof I could not but know to have been chiefly aim'd at in the Ordinance viz. three for the King and Queen and Bishops and so I did also though some Souldiers were casually present till such time as a whole Troop coming to Quarter in the Town with a purpose to continue a kind of Garison or Head-quarter among us were so enrag'd at my reading of it the first Sunday after they came that immediately after Morning Service ended they seiz'd upon the Book and tore it all in pieces Thenceforward during their continuance there for full six months and upwards viz. from the beginning of November till they were call'd away to Naseby Fight in May following besides that for want of a Book of necessity I must I saw that it also behoov'd me for the preventing of farther Outrages to wave the use of the Book for the time at least in the Ordinary Service only I read the Confession the Lord's Prayer all the Versicles and the Psalms for the day Then after the first Lesson in the Forenoon Benedictus or Iubilate and in the Afternoons Cantate After the second Lesson also sometimes the Creed sometimes the Ten Commandements and sometimes neither but only sang a Psalm and so to Sermon But in all that while in the Administration of the Sacraments the Solemnization of Matrimony Burial of Dead and Churching of Women I constantly used the ancient Forms and Rites to every of them respectively belonging according to the appointment in the Book only I was careful in all the rest to make choice of such times and opportunities as I might do them with most secresie and without disturbance of the Souldier But at the Celebration of the Eucharist I was the more secure to do it publickly because I was assur'd none of the Souldiers would be present After their departure I took the liberty to use either the whole Liturgy or but some part of it omitting sometimes more sometimes less upon occasion as I judg'd it most expedient in reference to the Auditory especially if any Souldiers or other unknown persons hapned to be present But all this while the substance of what I omitted I contriv'd into my Prayer before Sermon the phrase and order only varied which yet I endeavour'd to temper in such sort that any person of ordinary capacity might easily perceivve what my meaning was and yet the words left as little liable to exception or cavil as might be About two years ago I was advertis'd but in a friendly manner by a Parliament man of note in these parts that at a publick Meeting at Grantham great complaint was made by some Ministers of the Presbyterian Gang as I afterwards found of my refractoriness to obey the Parliaments Order in that behalf The Gentleman told me withal That although they knew what my judgment and practice was yet they were not forward to take notice of it before complaint made which being now done in so publick a manner if they should not take notice of it the blame would lie upon them He therefore advised me to consider well what I had to do for I must resolve either to adventure the loss of my Living or to lay aside Common Prayer which if I should continue after complaint and admonition it would not be in his power nor in the power of any Friend I had to preserve me The effect of my then Answer was That if the case were so the deliberation was not hard I having long ago considered of the case and resolved what I might do with a good Conscience and what was fittest for me in prudence to do if I should ever be put to it viz. to forbear the use of the Common Prayer Book so far as might satisfie the letter of the Ordinance rather than forsake my Station My next business then was to bethink my self of such a course to be thenceforth held in the publick work in my own Parish as might be believed neither to bring danger to my self by the use nor to give scandal to my Brethren by the disuse of the establish'd Liturgy And the course was this to which I have held me ever since I begin the Service with a Preface and an Exhortation infer'd to make Confession of Sins which Exhortation I have fram'd out of the Exhortation and Absolution in the Book contracted and put together and exprest for the most part in the same words and phrases but purposely here and there transplac'd that it might appear not to be and yet to be the very same Then follows the Confession it self in the same Order it was enlarg'd only with the addition of some words whereby it is rather explain'd than alter'd The whole frame whereof both for the fuller satisfaction in that particular and that you may conjecture what manner of addition and change I have made proportionably hereunto yet none so large in other parts of the holy Office I have here under-written O Almighty God and merciful Father we thy unworthy Servants do with shame and sorrow confess that we have all our life long gone astray out of thy ways like lost sheep and that by following too much the vain devices and desires of our own hearts we have grievously offended against thy holy laws both in thought word and deed We have many times left undone those good duties which we might and ought to have done and we have many times done those evils when we might have avoided them which we ought not to have done We confess O Lord that there is no health at all nor help in any Creature to relieve us but all our hope is in thy mercy whose justice we have by our sins so far provoked Have mercy upon us therefore O Lord have mercy upon us miserable Offenders Spare us good Lord who confess our faults that we perish not but according to thy gracious promises declared unto mankind in Christ Iesu our Lord restore us upon our true Repentance into thy grace and favour And grant O most merciful Father