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	sing_v	song_n	2,112	5	9.1761	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90720	Sectaries vnmasked and confuted. By the treating upon divers points of doctrine in debate betwixt the Presbyterialists and sectarists, Anabaptists, Independents, and Papists. / By George Palmer wel-wisher to a warrantable uniformity in godly religious exercises.	Palmer, George, b. 1596 or 7.	1647 (1647)	Wing P229; Thomason E396_27; ESTC R201662	58,190	61

were to be sung afterwards to Gods glory this you cannot deny I am sure And if you say men do now but speak the words of it and therefore if they were debarred of them then they would pray in the Spirit if they have any saving grace in them To this I answer in the first place with the words of St. Paul To the pure all things are pure but to the contrary party nothing is pure for their mindes and consciences are defiled the meaning is this That those that have honest hearts will honestly make use of honest things Again if you would utterly deprive all sorts of a Form of prayer how then shall ignorant youths and little young maids pray nay many times old men are but new converts and what will you have them do If they use many words in a prayer they will too soon ask they know not what like the mother of Zebedees children yea they being ignorant will presently in their pride of Spirit think themselves fit to fit at the elbows of Christ in heaven for they will think they are fitter for the place then Moses or Aaron surely it were safer for such to use that Form which God taught the people in the time of Moses Deut. 28. it was to them a Form viz. Amen But if you can pray knowingly then poure out your hearts to God according to true knowledge But I have heard some pray or say many words and but little matter but chiefly it was tautologie and often repeating the same words and could not proceed farther and thought themselves highly gifted too therefore take heed of spirituall pride judge of your abilities with a single eye I know some that have applauded a Minister for making such an admirable prayer as none near him was to be compared unto him but it was the sillyest tautologie that I was ashamed to heare it Doe you think in your conscience that if you were taught in a Form to ask for a hundred pounds of some that are both able and willing to give it and also you wanted bread to put in your belly being hungry and empty that then you could not ask in that Forme yes I warrant you therefore beware of spirituall pride But now having thus a little prepared you as I hope for some sure instruction I now come more home to you Luke 11. 1. you may see that our Saviour taught his Disciples a Form of prayer they not knowing how to pray as it seems unlesse some short prayer as at some other times they did as in these words Lord increase our Faith c. in these words When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. here you may see that they were to use the words that he taught them And although Luke hath it in this manner Pray you that 's nothing to overthrow this Evangelist for both wayes are lawfull nay God sometime did bid the Jews that they should take unto them words and come to him in prayer and taught them a Form of words too by the Prophet H●sea 14. 2 3. these are the words Take unto you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquitie and receive us graciously so will wee render the calves of our lips Ashur shall not save us we will not rid upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands Ye are our Gods for in thee the fatherlesse findeth mercy All this Form of Prayer the Lord taught the people by the Prophet Hosea And Col. 3. 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdome teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms hymnes and spirituall songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord c. He did not here mean in this place any new Psalmes or hymnes for he bad them admonish each other in those Psalmes and hymnes therefore those Psalmes and hymnes were then Canonicall although I could wish that upon some occasion were it not for startling the weak in knowledge that some Preacher that were a solid man would frame a Psalm for that speciall occasion for he that can make a prayer according to the Word is able also to make a Psalm but this I think would be inconvenient but this is fit to bee done viz. the Preacher himself should fit a Psalme out of the Book of Psalmes for the severall occasions and suitable to his Sermon And thus much for this point also with this conclusion Now since we had no Prayer-booke The Sabbath afternoons The sleep so much some heads have tooke That dead they are in swoons Some Scriptures we in stead thereof Might safely entertaine Lest wee so much from it be off That there wee sit in vaine And now me thinketh I see another stand by with a question in his mouth for these times are fraught with them now And this is it viz. How if Pipes and Organs should chance to be put upon us againe as they were before the Parliament begun will not that bee Idolatry thinke you and if so then I hope you will graunt us a warrant to run out of the Church To this I answer First what is lawfull in it selfe is one thing and what is an inconvenience is another thing therefore ye ought to be informed well in your judgement before you bee too forward to make a conclusion First if in it selfe it be Idolatry now what was it all that time when God himself in Davids time allowed it in the praises of his people If you say that the Pope useth it to his Idols and therefore it is Idolatry I answer so did the heathen very likely And besides if that be it by the which you would gather a conclusion viz. that because the Papists use it therefore we may not use it then may not we sing unto the true God because the Papists sing unto their Idols for singing is melody therefore this your argument is of no validity But here is another question put to mee and this is the maine one viz. In the time of the old Law it was lawfull but is not now it being not now commanded therefore it is unlawfull To this I answer briefly if you consider the end wherefore it was at the first allowed you may easily make conclusion The end why it was first allowed was this to occasion joyfulnesse or chearfulnesse in the users and hearers of it that so they might praise God with the more lively affections for all know it is an outward occasion of naturall joy and the Word of God being then used with it viz. in Psalmes or hymnes doe turn the use of it by the operation of Gods Spirit to the more hearty praising of God Secondly to your question more fully that is because it is not commanded by the Apostles therefore it is not now lawfull for us to use it in the praises of God Why the Apostles would have us to use all meanes possible to inable us to praise God

manner of similitude in the day the Lord spake with them in Horeb c. lest they should corrupt ●hemselves and make a graven Image the similitude of any figure the ●ikenesse of male or female or the likenesse of beast fowle fish or ●reeping thing or sun moon or stars or host of Heaven and so they ●hould be driven to worship them and serve them I pray observe the word driven viz. God will deliver such a one up to the power of Sa●an and so become a worshipper of the Image it self and truly it is the onely way to become an Idolater First to invent a similitude of God and make it accordingly and then worship God by it and after that to worship and adore the thing it selfe and History doth declare thus much to us as we may read in the book of Wisdome chap. 14. ver. 12 13 14. to the end of ver. 20. Now if we have cause to beware of Idolaters then much more of Popish Idolaters for they are more dangerous then those former Idolaters were for these do more persecute the true Servants of God then those Idolaters did these professe they do God good service in slaying of us the true Servants of God as our Saviour foretold and we always have found it to be true by all their treacherous and murtherous plots yea they are so much the more dangerous because that although they call themselves Christians in way of dissimulation they call us Hereticks and our Religion Heresie too and therefore wee ought to bee more wary of them then of other Idolaters for all the Devils in hell cannot devise a more dangerous People and Religion then they and theirs is therefore it is good to lay out some of their Tenets by the which we may see them the more clearly to bee the Doctrine of Devills leading to damnation And thus I do begin briefly They hold that there is a Purgatory or a place to purge us of our sins after this life so that if wee bee not the true servants children of God in this life yet notwithstanding we may be there made capable of everlasting salvation in heaven the which will nourish all men in sin that so beleeveth for if men be perswaded that there is another place after their death to prepare them for heaven then they will live here as they list and so be damned But to what end is the doctrine of faith and sanctification so much preached in this life both by the Prophets our Saviour his Apostles and succeeding Ministers And why is Dives complaining in hell so to speak if this be a truth Those that are not converted in this life shall not be acknowledged by Christ after this life ended he will then say to them Goe yee cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Secondly that Images of God and Saints are to bee worshipped Thirdly that prayers to Saints departed are to be made and their intercession to be required Fourthly that there is a propitiatory Sacrifice to be offered daily in the Masse for the sinnes of the quick and dead Fifthly that a man may merit heaven by his good works Sixthly that it is a mortall sin to read the Scripture but by the Popes dispensation Seventhly that their Clergy ought to preach in an unknown tongue Eightly that if the Pope do pronounce a man to be a Saint he then is one and must be so Ninthly that there is a vertue in their water with which they baptize their infants that doth conjure the evill spirits out of them putting oyle upon them and salt and spittle in their mouths Tenthly that the Pope cannot erre in his judgement or decrees 11 That the Laity are not to drink the blood of Christ in the Sacrament viz. the Wine 12 That those are Hereticks that have recourse to the Hebrew and Greek Tongues 13 They represent God the Father in the similitude of an old man 14 They represent God the Son sometimes like a Lambe c. they may as well make a Rock a brasen Serpent a Pillar in a Cloud c. 15 They resemble the Holy Ghost like a Dove and why not as Cloven tongues as Fire but as the Holy Ghost saith by the Prophet Esay 46. 5. To whom will ye liken me that I may be like him 16 They pray to the Crosse blasphemously in these words Haile Crosse our only hope give to the godly righteousnesse and to the guilty pardon yea all that passe by it must worship it otherwise they are liable to be punished 17 They offer Cakes to the Picture of the Virgin Mary and worship it 18 Bonaventure hath transformed the Psalter of David to the honor of the Virgin Mary changing God into Goddesse and Lord into Lady and where it is said by David Praise the Lord by him it is said Praise the Lady and for trust in the Lord trust in the Lady and in his 35 Psalm are these words Incline the countenance of God upon us and compell him to have mercy upon us 19 Bellarmine affirmed that if the Pope did erre commanding vice forbidding vertue the Church should bee bound to believe vice to be good and vertue to bee evill except shee would sin against conscience 20 They offer incense to the Saints in generall and pray unto them and sweare by them 21 The Roman Church maintaineth that the merits intercession and blood of the Saints and Martyrs are mixed as satisfactory with the blood merits and intercession of Christ O horrid blasphemy 22 They baptize Bels and Ships 23 They blesse Holy water as they call it and sprinkle it upon Men and Beasts upon St. Anthonies day as they call it and on all the horses and beasts in the Countrey as some that are converted from their Religion affirm whereby the Monks get abundance of mony to maintain them in their base knavery and idlenesse a long time afterward 24 They allow incestuous marriages contrary to the fourth Commandement 25 They deny concupiscence to be formally sin after Baptisme as if in any article of time it might bee said of man that he is without sin 26 Notwithstanding all these blaspemies and abominations hee yet affirmeth himself to bee the Vicar of Christ yea the head or supreme over the Catholick Church of Christ And now I will note the Popes Pride 1 Frederick Barbarossa was forced to lay down his neck upon the stairs of the Church of St. Mark as it is called in Venice to bee trod upon by that proud man of Sin and his son after the Pope had crowned him was uncrowned again by the Popes kicking off his Crown with his foot c. 2 Kings and Emperors must act the parts of Foot-grooms to lead his horse by the bridle and supporting him by holding his stirrup and mounting him upon his horse 3 They must be as Pioners or Porters to beare him upon their shoulders 4 They must be as Pages to hold water to his