Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	miserable_a	sinner_n	spare_v	2,547	5	11.3533	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29178	A minister's counsel to the youth of his parish when arriv'd to years of discretion : recommended to the societies in and about London / by Francis Bragge ...	Bragge, Francis, 1664-1728.	1699 (1699)	Wing B4199; ESTC R32860	70,334	248

Jesus come quickly Having thus Conducted Young Persons to the Holy Altar which unless they are extreamly wanting to themselves is next to Conducting them to Heaven I shall leave them there to the blessing of God and our Saviour who is ready to embrace them with the Arms of his Mercy and seal them with his life-giving Spirit to the Day of Eternal Redemption Only to their own Pious Meditations and Prayers they may if they please add the following Litany A LITANY FOR Young Gentlemen O God the Father of Heaven of Angels and of Men have Mercy upon us Miserable Sinners O God the Son who hast Redeem'd the World with thy most Precious Blood have Mercy upon us Miserable Sinners O God the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of Spiritual Heavenly Life have Mercy upon us Miserable Sinners O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity whose Wisdom and Power and Goodness is Infinite have Mercy upon us Miserable Sinners Remember not Lord the Sins and Offences of our Youth nor be extream to mark what we have done amiss Spare us good Lord spare us a little that we may recover our strength and according to thy Mercy think thou upon us for thy goodness Spare us good Lord. From forgetting our Creator in the Days of our Youth from wasting the flower of our age in vanity and folly and reserving our decrepid Years for the Service of God Good Lord deliver us From valuing the Blessings we enjoy more than the Giver of them from trusting in any thing more than in Providence and from loving Pleasure more than thee our God Good Lord deliver us From dishonouring our Bodies with Intemperance and Vncleanness from polluting our Souls with impure Imaginations from defiling our Mouths with prophane and impious or obscene Discourses Good Lord deliver us From abusing our Reason in opposing Religion from debasing our Wit to the service of our Lusts from living like Beasts when thou hast made us Men and Christians Good Lord deliver us From excesses of Passion and a turbulent Spirit from tormenting our selves because others misuse us from the guilt and the misery of Malice and Revenge Good Lord deliver us From Conceit and Pride Envy and Ambition from foolish Rashness and inconsiderate Heat from despising our Guides and following our own Counsel only Good Lord deliver us From stubborn Obstinacy and deafness to Advice from contempt of Reproof and anger at the Reprover from a blinded Mind and a seared Conscience Good Lord deliver us From deadness in thy Service and a formal Religion from obedience that is fanciful humoursome and uncertain from a superstitious use or neglect of the Ornaments of Worship Good Lord deliver us From forgetting Thee or our selves in raptures of Enthusiasm from pretending to Piety for the sake of the World and from all the Paths that lead to the Portion of Hypocrites Good Lord deliver us From conforming to the World in the Arts of Deceit from fawning and flattery Censure and Detraction from false Smiles and treacherous Friendship Good Lord deliver us From impatience in Trouble and excessive Dejections from distrust of thy Providence and Desperate Courses from fretting against God for what we bring upon our selves Good Lord deliver us In all time of Temptation by Prosperity or Adversity in all sudden Surprizes and imminent Dangers in the hour of Death and in the Day of Judgment O Blessed Jesus by all that thou hast done and suffered for us then succour and deliver us And tho' unworthy as we are and miserable Sinners yet encouraged by thy boundless Mercy and Goodness we beseech thee farther to hear us and as the Guardian and guide of our Youth shew us the way that we should walk in for we lift up our Souls unto thee Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us O that our ways might be directed by thy Commandments and our footsteps never wander from them that we might meditate upon thy Precepts and delight our selves in thy Service and never forget thy Word Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us Thy Hands have made us what we are from thee comes all we have or hope for O give us the Vnderstanding that we may entirely Praise and Love thee and not be stupid and insensible as the Beasts that perish Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us That it may please thee to inspire us with Affections becoming Christians that we may live worthy of that most Holy Profession as Disciples of Jesus and design'd for Glory We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That our Saviours life may be the rule of ours that we may tread in his steps and become like him in temper and spend our days as he did in advancing thy Glory and doing good in our Generation We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That we may employ our Youth and our Strength in the great work of our Salvation and run the way of thy Commandments with vigour and spirit and the warmth and fervour of a chearful Mind We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That Religion may be esteem'd by us as our chief good that all things else may be subservient to it as the delight and the joy of our hearts Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us That our Faith may be irreproveable steady and modest such as may work by Love and purifie our Hearts and bring down every thing that exalts it self against obedience to Christ Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us That with our whole Heart we may devote our selves to thy Service and be sincerely what we do Profess and value the Joys of a quiet Conscience above thousands of Gold and Silver We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That our Baptismal Vow may be kept Inviolate the Promises we have since made to thee faithfully perform'd and all our Pious Resolutions made good We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. O let us not go wrong thou guide of our steps O let us not fall thou that art our Support Discover to us the snares that are laid for our Souls and grant that we may ever escape them Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us And when we are down Lord do thou raise us up When we go astray like Sheep that are lost O seek thy Servants pity our sad state and bring us back unto thy fold again Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us We will think on our ways and turn our feet unto thy Testimonies we will make haste without delay to keep thy righteous Judgments with thy assistance which we humbly beg and Beseech thee to hear us good Lord. But who can tell how often he offendeth Cleanse thou us therefore from our secret faults and keep us from presumptuous Sins lest they get the Dominion over us Good Lord we beseech thee to hear us May we never despise the Riches of thy long-suffering and forbearance nor by our continu'd impenitence treasure up Wrath against the day of Wrath but be intirely softned

of our own when we place our Devotion in them And no less unworthy of God and unbecoming our selves is the other Extreme of rejecting all Order and Decency in Religious Exercises It deprives him of that Publick Honour and Homage which 't is fit the Lord of Heaven and Earth should receive from his Creatures and his Vassals and quite takes away all Face of Religion out of the World Which yet when in Conjunction with the Religion of the Mind he has often declar'd himself well pleas'd with and expresly commanded his Peculiar People to pay him and was their Director in the manner how and never has forbid to any since And nothing certainly more unbecoming us poor Sinful Dust and Ashes and who had been extremely miserable but that the Mercies of our God were Infinite nothing more unbecoming us in our Addresses to him especially in Publick than to confine within our Breasts the Sence we have either of his Majesty or of his Mercy Rather with all humble Postures of our Bodies and grateful Expressions of our Lips should we declare to all the World and glad of an Opportunity to do so that there is an Infinitely Excellent tho' to us Invisible Being to whom we owe all that we are and have and hope for and to whom all possible Adoration and Praise is due And till of late this was the Sence and Practice of all the World But one Extreme generally produces another and too much of outward Religion in some has been the occasion of none at all in others Both equally unreasonable and far from true Devotion As for Familiarities and Intimacies with God they are likewise utterly condemn'd for the same Reasons as before being only an Argument of Mens unmeasurable Boldness and Confidence and that they very little understand or will not understand either God or themselves True Devotion is the most Humble Modest Decent thing in the World and is always attended with Reverence and Godly Fear And therefore such Men would do well to consider that Passage Luke 13.25 26. where we find the Door is shut upon those who with great Assurance could knock and cry Lord Lord open unto us and plead great Intimacy too We have eat and drunk in thy Presence and thou has taught in our Streets but still the Door continues shut and this Killing Answer given 'em Depart from me I know you not whence ye are ye workers of iniquity And then it follows There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets Persons peculiarly remarkable for their Great Modesty and Humility and profoundest Awe and Dread of the Divine Majesty and that tho' the Highest Favours were shown to them by God when ye shall see these in the Kingdom of Heaven who were far short of you in their Pretences to it and you your selves thrust out as Bold and Confident Intruders There is one more Mistake in this matter which it will not be amiss to take notice of and that is of those who are mightily for Blending Religion with common Conversation putting every thing into a Religious Dress and make this a great Argument of a Devout and Heavenly Mind Now tho' I readily grant that where there is True Devotion innumerable Hints and Opportunities will be taken to dart up Pious Thoughts to God and Holy Aspirations and nothing more acceptable to him nor a more becoming and grateful and beneficial Employment of a Christian's Mind and which I would therefore earnestly recommend to the Practice of all good People as the Beginning of their Heaven upon Earth Yet Devotion being a Rational thing all the outward Expressions of it to Men must be guided by Discretion and made use of only in proper Times and upon just Occasion But now every Time certainly is not proper nor every Occasion just for things of so Sacred a nature as is this we are speaking of And at every turn right or wrong to wedge in a Religious or Scripture-Sentence and affect to speak nothing but the Language of the Temple is the ready way to cloy Men with Religion and make them nauseate the most Holy Things And what has such a Tendency as this is a Strange kind of Devotion very Indiscreet if not much worse Having thus Consider'd the Description we gave of true Devotion in order to the preventing several great and dangerous Mistakes which are often made about it before I proceed to Recommend the Practice of it to young Persons from the great Benefit and Pleasure that attends it I can't but take notice how true the Devotion of the Church of England is and how infinitely to blame and without Excuse those of her Communion are if not truly devout Her Doctrine relating to it is what we have now explain'd and 't is founded on the Nature of God and the Nature of Man consisting in what is highly agreeable to each and excluding Mens Private Fancies and Humours Superstition and Enthusiasm and every thing that is unbefitting either God or our selves And as for the Manner of expressing it in Private we are left to our Liberty provided we keep within the Bounds of Decency and Reverence And in Publick there is every thing that is needful to raise and increase true Devotion and fix it upon its due Object and make it look like it self but nothing to divert the Mind from its Holy Employment and divide and weaken its Attention or make it degenerate either into Sordidness and cold Indifferency or an unbounded Liberty of Expression and Behaviour How few and how comely are her Ceremonies Such as an humble Devotion would choose were they not enjoyn'd such as express with Decency tho' without Pomp the Inward Sentiments of a Pious Mind and distinguish our Religious from Common Assemblies and that 's all So careful is our Church not to give Offence that altho' something more of this nature would not be too much yet less than she prescribes would be indeed too little Her Service I may truly call Divine it being for the main collected from the Holy Writings and the rest taken out of the best Liturgies of the Primitive Church Compil'd it is with excellent Judgment express'd in plain but very proper Language divided into short but comprehenfive Collects with variety enough to entertain the Mind and prevent its tiring but not so much as to scatter its Thoughts and tempt it to lose it self in unprofitable Wandrings And where all we have to do is to bear our part in it with all the Warmth and Fervour that we can and to which the Brevity of each particular Prayer does very much conduce As for the Musick of our Church in Declaiming against which many are so strangely Religious as to place a great part of their Devotion and Zeal who really are Objects of our Pity as well as Indignation no Man can express to what a Pitch it wings Devotion what Holy Flames and Ardors it excites how