Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	grace_n	great_a	sin_n	12,671	5	4.8839	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09850	A looking-glasse for the soule, and a definition thereof. Written by Edward Popham Gentleman	Popham, Edward, gentleman.	1619 (1619)	STC 20115; ESTC S102083	11,412	70

obedience of the Church millitant heere on earth that wee may atchieue to the Church triumphant in Heauen knowing that wee haue beene long aliants in the Tabernacles of sinners and straied too long from the fold of Gods flocke Let vs now turne the biace of our hearts towards the Sanctuary of Saluation and Citie of refuge seeking to recompence our wandring steps troden in sinne and wickednesse with a swift gate and zealous progresse to Christian perfection redeeming the time because the daies be euil The fall of our spring is past and the streame of our life runneth at a lowe rate or ebbe our tyred Ship beginneth to leake and grateth on the grauell of our graue it is high time for vs to strike saile and put in harbour lest remaining in the scope of wicked winds and weather some vnexpected gulfe and sodaine storme dash vs vpon the Rock of eternall ruine Let vs tender the pittifull estate of our distressed Soules and be hereafter more feareful of Hell and more desirous of Heauen then worldly repose that at the great day of our Lord Christ Iesus may acknowledge vs to be his and that our Soules and bodies may inioy the fruition of his most glorious death and passion vnto which God for his mercie sake say yea and Amen The Conclusion IF God the Father had beene the indighter heereof God the Sonne the sender and God the holy Ghost the Scribe and writer of the same If he had dipped his pen in the wounds of our Sauiour and vsed his pretious blood in liew of Inke If one of the highest Seraphins had beene formed into some visible personage and come in most solemne embassage for to deliuer this vnto you would it not straine your hearts and enforce your thoughts to fulfill the contents and alter your courses according to the Tennor of it Oh I beseech you let it take a proportionable effect knowing that the Scripture teacheth vs that God reuealeth to little ones that which he oft times concealeth from the wisest Sages and his truth is not abased by the meanes of the speaker for if men should be silent hee would cause the very stones to cry out in these times wherein sin and wickednes so exceedingly aboundeth Wherefore I humbly pray and exhort you for to surrender your Assents that we may yeeld our selues happie Captiues to Gods mercifull inspirations That hee may in the temptations of our three ghostly enemies the World the Flesh and the Diuell euen for his Sonnes sake shrowd vs vnder the shadow of his mercifull wings and close vp the day of our life with a cleare Sun-set that leauing all darknesse behinde vs and carrying in our consciences the light of grace wee may escape the horrour of an eternall Night and passe from a Mortall day to an euerlasting Morrow The God of peace who hath brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus the great shepheard of the sheepe through the blood of the euerlasting couenant make vs perfect in all good workes to doe his will working in vs that which is pleasant in his sight through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen The Prayer VVHat was I Lord what am I what shall I be I was nothing I am now nothing worth and am without thy grace in hazard to be worse then nothing I was conceiued in originall sinne now full of actuall sinne and but for thy goodnesse may hereafter feele the eternall smart for sinne I was in my mother a loathsome substance I am in the world a sacke of corruption and I shall be in the Graue a prey for vermine when I was nothing I was without hope to be saued or feare to be damned I am now if I looke upon my selfe rightly in no hope of the one and in manifest danger of the other I was so that I could not then be damned and now such are my sins that in thy instice I cannot be saued But I know sweet Iesus thy grace is sufficient for me Wherefore I humbly beseech thy Maiestie to turne from me those plagues which my sinnes cry out for I confesse oh Sauiour Iesus that my sinnes are exceeding many and fearefull yet thy Mercie is farre greater for thou art infinite in mercy but I cannot be infinite in sinning and thy righteousnes is more for mee then my owne unrighteousnesse can be against my selfe I beseech thee therefore strengthen my weaknesse correct my sinnefulnesse direct my future frailty and through thy pretious Bloud and Passion conuert my passed euils to present good and future ioyes in thy eternall and most glorious Kingdome Amen FINIS

when stripped out of our mortall weede and turned out of the seruice house-roome of this world we were forced to enter into vncouth and strange pathes and with vnknowne strange and ougly company be convented before a most seuere Iudge carrying in our consciences our iudgement written and a perfect register of our misdeeds when wee should see him prepared to passe sentence vpon vs against whom wee haue grieuously transgressed and the same to be our Vmper whom by many offences we haue vrged to be our aduersary when not onely the Diuells but Angels should plead against vs and our selues maugre our wills should be our sharpest appeachers What should we doe in these dreadful exigents when we saw that gastly Dungeon and huge gulfe of Hell breaking out with most dreadfull flames when wee should see the weeping howling and gnashing of teeth the rage of hellish Monsters the horrour of the place the rigour of the paine the terrour of the company and eternity of the punishment wee would not thinke it time to delay such weighty matters and idly to play away the time allotted to preuent those intollerable punishments And would we then thinke it secure to nurse in our bosomes as many Serpents as sinnes or to foster in our Soules so many malitious accusers as mortall faults would we not thinke one life too little to doe pennance for so many Sinnes Why then doe we not deuote thesmall remnant of our time and surplussage of our daies to make Attonement with God by the blood of Iesus Christ What haue wee gotten by being so long a customer to the world but false ware sutable to the shoppe of such a Marchant whose trafficke is toyle wealth is trash and whose gaine is misery What interest haue we got that may equal our detrements in grace and vertue Or what could wee finde in a Vale of teares proportionable to the fauour of God with the losse whereof we were contented to buy it Let vs not still be inueagled with the passions of youth which make a partial estimate of things setting no difference betweene currant and counterfeit But let such passions either now be worne out of force by tract of time or fall into reproofe by the triall of folly If this carnal security be but an vngrounded presumption of the mercy of God and the flattring hope of his assistance at the last plunge but the ordinary Lure of the Diuell to reclaime Sinners from the pursuite of vertue as it is with many it were too palpable a collusion to mislead sound sensible people howsoeuer it preuaile with sicke and infected Iudgements For who would relye eternal affaires vpon the gliding slipperinesse and running streame of our vncertain life Or who but of distempered wits would offer fraud to the decipherer of al thoughts With whom dissemble wee may to our costs but to deceiue him it is vnpossiible Shal wee esteeme it cunning to rob the time from him bestow it on his enemies who keepeth a talle of the lest minutes of our life and will examine in the end how each moment hath beene imployed It is a preposterous pollicy in any wise conceit to fight against God till our weapons be blunted our forces consumed our limbs impotent and our best time spent and when we fall for faintnes and haue fought our selues almost dead to presume of his mercie The wounds of his sacred Bodie so often rubbed and renued by our sinnes and euery parcell of our owne so sundry wayes abused being so many whetstones to edge and exasperate his reuenge against vs why should we then presume of mercy It were a strange peece of Art and a very exorbitant course while the Ship is sound the Pylot well the Sailers strong and the Gale forcible to lye idly at Roade burning so seasonable weather and when the Ship leaketh the Pylot is sick the Marriners faint the storme boysterous and the Sea a turmoile of outragious surges to hoise vp sailes and set out for a farre voyage into a strange Countrey Such is the skill of these euening Repenters who though in the soundnesse of health and perfect vse of reason they cannot endeauour to cut the Cables and weigh the Anchors that withhold them from God Neuertheles they feed themselues with a strong perswasion that when their senses are astonied their wits distracted their vnderstanding dusked and both body and mind racked tormented with the throbs and gripes of a mortall sicknesse Then forsooth they will thinke of the weightiest matters and become sodaine Saints when they are scarce able to behaue themselues like reasonable creatures If neither the Cannon Ciuill nor Common Law alloweth that a man perisht in iudgement shall make any Testament or bequest of his temporall substance being then thoughtto belesse then a man How can he that is turmoiled with inward garboiles of an vnsetled Conscience distrained with the wringing fits of his dying flesh maimed in all his abilities and circled in with so strange incumbrances bethought of due discretion to dispose of his chiefest treasure which is his Soule and to dispatch the whole mannaging of eternity and the treasures of heauen in so short a space of time No no they that loiter in seed time and beginne onely to sowe when others reape they that will ryot out their health and cast their accounts when they can scarce speake they that doe slumber out the day and enter their iourney when the light doth faile them let them thanke their owne folly if they dye in debt and eternall beggary and fall headlong into the lapse of euerlasting perdition Let such hearken vnto S. Cyprians lesson who saith Let the grieuousnes of our sinne be the measure of our sorrow let a deepe wound haue a diligent cure let no mans contrition be lesse then his crime Thinke wee that our Lord can so soone be appeased whom with perditious words we haue offended No wee must fall prostrate on the ground humbling our seiues in Sackclothe and Ashes and hauing forced our stomackes with the surfet of the Diuell wee must now desire to fast from all earthly foode applying our selues to good works instead of offences and in singlenesse of heart effect our Christian duties to auoide the death of our Soules that Christ may receiue that which the persecuter would haue spoyled Euery short sigh will not be a sufficient satisfaction nor euery knocke a warrant to get in many cry Lord Lord and are not accepted the foolish Virgins knocked and were not admitted Iudas had some sorrow and yet died desperate forslowe not the time saith the Holy Ghost to be conuerted to God linger not off from day to day for sodainely will his wrath come and in his reuenge hee will destroy thee Let vs not soiourne long in sinnefull security nor passe ouer Repentance till feare inforce vs to it let vs frame our premises as wee would finde our conclusion and indeauor to liue as wee desire to dye Shall we offer the