Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
peace_n	beseech_v	hear_v	mercy_n	3,285	5	9.4648	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79784	Fiat lux or, a general conduct to a right understanding in the great combustions and broils about religion here in England. Betwixt Papist and Protestant, Presbyterian & independent to the end that moderation and quietnes may at length hapily ensue after so various tumults in the kingdom. / By Mr. JVC. a friend to men of all religions.	J. V. C. (John Vincent Canes), d. 1672.	1661 (1661)	Wing C429; Thomason E2266_1; ESTC R210152	178,951	376

head and half pourtraict Christians used upon their altars even as they do at this day amongst other things of his great simplicity and ignorance Some will haply say if this were all that is done to saints to keep the pictur and read the lives of such renowned personages who consecrated themselvs to Gods glory and service for the incitement of our affections unto the like virtuous atchievements I should not much blame it But papists over and above this do pray to saints too and that is no wayes excusable Give me leav to reply to this That which you now say you cannot much blame has been made so odious that never a Catholick in England durst for this hundred years so much as let a Crucifix hang in his chamber lest both he and it should be torn asunder by us And what you judg in excusable their praying to saints which I have so often heard and read in our protestant Churches and books objected so eagerly and constantly against them when I found it other-wayes than we in England conceiv it to be I was glad both for their sakes and ours too I did therfor curiously examin and turn over the whole Roman Breviary and Missal which is the devotion of the Catholick Church and contains almost a fourth part of it a commemoration of several Saints according to the daies of the year wherin they flitted hence into a better life And I did not meet with so much as any one prayer addressed to any saint or angel of heaven no not upon those dayes wherin commemoration of them is made but directed all of them from the very first prayer to the last unto God the father by Jesus Christ in the unity of the holy ghost either exprest or implied And their practis herin is conform to antient tradition confirmed by their own law in a councel at Carthage under Pope Siricius an 397. wherin it was declared and ordained that all publick prayers of the Church should be made directly unto God the Father And Catholicks even upon a saints day making their prayer to God beg only of him amongst other their requests that the good works of such a saint in whom he glorified himself may speak better things for them than they can themselvs deserv For example upon St. Bennets day Intercessio nos quaesumus Domine Benedicti Abbatis commendet ut quod nostris meritis non valemus ejus patrocinio assequamur Upon the feast of St. Francis O God who by the merits of St. Francis doest inlarge thy Church with a new off-spring grant unto us by the imitation of him to despise earthly things and enjoy celestial And so run all the other praiers of the Church wherin any invocation of saints is made directed ever unto almighty God by his son Jesus Christ And this is no more than what was ever don in the Hebrew Church both befor and after Christianity was in the world as the works of ancient Rabbies can witnes and no less holy writ it self when it makes almighty God sooner as it were condescending to the peoples petition by the mediation of the merits of glorious patriarchs whom he singularly favoured and his wrath and displeasur against the Jews then at a height when he refuses to hear those saints in their behalf If Moyses and Samuel saith the sacred text Jer. 15. should stand before me yet is not my soul unto this people that is to say he would not in the behalf of such desperate wicked people accept of the praiers even of those saints that were most dear unto him and this was spoken by the prophet long after Moses and Samuel was dead Long before this the Patriarch Jacob does most plainly insinuate this custom of saints invocation as ordinary and familiar among the Hebrews when being to bless his two nephews Ephraim and Manasseh he speaks thus The angel who brought me out of all my evils bless these children and upon them be invocated my name and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac Gen. 48. And ther is a formal prayer to that purpose Exod. 32. which expresses as much invocation of saints as any or all the praiers of the Christian Church do ever use Remember saith Moses remember O God Abraham Isaac and Israel thy servants unto whom thou hast sworn by thy self saying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven Which prayer was after imitated by Daniel c. 3. Withdraw not O Lord thy mercy from us for Abraham thy beloved Isaac thy servant and Israel thy holy one And if Daniel and Moses praied to saints well may we do it and if that of theirs was not a praying to saints but only to almighty God by the concurrence of their merits then is the Catholick Church to be not excused only but commended for she does the like in those prayers of hers she makes any mention either of saint or angel and no otherwise In their letanies indeed and short ejaculations Catholicks seem to invocate saints directly when in one part of them they say Holy Mary pray for us St. Peter pray for us c. But this though in words and sound it seems direct yet in sense and purpose it is indirect so that sancta Maria ora pro nobis omnes sancti Dei intercedite pro nobis is in sense but this Sancta Maria omnes sancti intercedant pro nobis ad Dominum ut nos mereamur c. And if we ponder it right it must needs be so for when I pray any one to pray for me considering the object and matter of my desire which both of us must joyn in I do not properly speaking pray to him but by him and only desire in my good affection that the prayers he makes for all may be available unto me And this is the more apparent becaus the letanies are directed unto God beginning continuing and ending with him Lord have mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy Father of heaven God Have mercy on us O Son redeemer of the world God Have mercy on us c. Holy Mary pray for us St. Michael pray for us c. Be propitious spare us O Lord. From all evil Deliver us O Lord c. By the mystery of thy incarnation Deliver us O Lord. By thy nativity Deliver us O Lord c. We sinners Beseech thee to hear us That thou grant us peace We beseech thee to hear us c. Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world spare us O Lord c. Lord have mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy Our Father c. Thus the letanies run and he that directs continues and ends his letany or praier to God must needs pray to him and objectively to none but him So that the interposition of any intercessour must needs be indirect in sense however it be exprest in words and can signifie no more but this that God would gratiously accept of the prayers they make in our behalf For