Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	call_v	lord_n	sinner_n	2,337	5	7.5568	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85674	An historical anatomy of Christian melancholy, sympathetically set forth, in a threefold state of the soul. 1 Endued with grace, 2 ensnared in sin, 3 troubled in conscience. With a concluding meditation on the fourth verse of the ninth chapter of Saint John. / By Edmund Gregory, sometimes Bachelour of Arts in Trin. Coll. Oxon.	Gregory, Edmund, b. 1615 or 16.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1646 (1646)	Wing G1885; Thomason E1145_1; ESTC R40271	96,908	160

holy place and these holy duties with such prophane impieties within us sure we shall halfe think it better not to come to the holy exercises at all then by going thereto to provoke Gods greater Judgement against us Thus doth Devill alwaies ' ploy his wit If that he can to doe more mischiefe yet But certain in the end we ever find it our best way how crosse and averse soever our mind be to keep our constant course and to hold on as stedfast as may be in our outward endeavours though it seeme to be nevet so much against our inward feeling for we may observe that when we have no feeling in us in reading praying or the like duties of Religion and when we find nothing in our selves but contrarinesse to that which is in hand yet neverthelesse by the then keeping our intention to it as neer as we can and by lif●ing up our thoughts toward the sence to conceive and beleeve that which being for the present as we are we cannot conceive and beleeve we shall doubtlesse afterwards the more easily bring our thoughts into a due course and order againe for if we let flag our apprehension wholly to follow our own feeling and suffer our disturbed soul to be its own guide herein we may perchance fal into a strange dis-respect and unregardfull prophanation of the most sacred things that we shall hardly put it freely off again for the future To proceed every thing during the time of our trouble is so altogether out of order within us and our spirits are so daily spent and wearied out with this continuall labour and toyl of mind that we are as David in his 6. Psalm so weary so quite weary of our groanings and tormenting troubles that many times we doe wish to God that our apprehensions and understandings were rather taken cleane from us then thus to be left alone to the mercilesse torture of those distractions and truly were it not for Hell we should gladly rejoyce and count it our chiefest happinesse to dye wishing and often wishing with Iob in his 3 Chapter the 11. and 12. verses that we had never been borne into the world for now as it followes in the next verse we should have ●aine still and been quiet we should have slept then had we been at rest with Kings and Counsellors of the earth And againe as it is in the 20. verse Why is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the b●tter in soul Was it a pleasure for thee O Lord to give us being that we might be miserable Are we like the Whales Iob 7. that thou se●test a watch over us that thou wilt not spare no● passe by our iniquities Wilt thou hunt us as he he speaks againe in his 10. Chapter like a fierce Lion without mercy hast thou provided us as wild beasts are provided to be baited with destruction O no certainly thou delightest not in the death of sinners nor in the sad condition of the wicked it is doubtlesse thy mercy that we are chastned and thou hast compassion on our distresses we shall thinke sometimes in our extreme troubles that it is not possible for us that we can continue in this state above three or foure daies or a weeke more but either we shall die with the very anguish of soul and body which it seems to us that we cannot sustaine or indure any longer or else that we shall be quite sencelesse and distracted out of our minds O how many poore souls are there in the world who being not able to beare their owne misery any longer either destroy and desperately cast away themselves or peradventure grow utterly distracted therein It is thy mercy even thy great mercy O Lord that we are not thus confounded O let us ever pray and pray continually upon our bare and bended knees against this unhappinesse Hoc erit animae me ae vetum usque ad mortem this shall ever be my prayer untill I die both for my self and others Let our lives last no longer Then that we may serve God here Let affliction grow no stronger Then we may with patience beare When we do use to complaine to others of these terrible thoughts and troubles of mind many will reply unto us that they are the Devills not ours and that he meerly suggests and whispers them into our braines But verily me thinks we cannot beleeve but that they are our own truly flowing from our sin-corrupted souls at least wise that they are partly our own for did they come meerly from without from the Divel it could not doubtles so neerly touch us as they do Our Saviour Christ himself was moved from without even to the highest impiety to fall down and worship the Devill But sure our thoughts are neerer to us even from within and truly not without reason may be called ours it may be the Devil hath his hand in them it is no question but God hath his hand in them also laying them as a mercifull judgement upon us And now O Lord it is high time yea the time is come that thou have mercy upon our souls for why I know it grieveth thy very heart O Lord it pittieth thee full sore to see them lie in the dust thus prostrate in their own misery And thus have we broke the heart of our troubles and past over the chief passages of this tragicall story of the Soul troubled in Conscience These troubles may perhaps continue with us two or three years before they begin to weare away and then when by Gods mercy they begin to slacken the mind and conscience by little and little takes some rest and satisfaction and though fits of disturbance do now and then come upon us yet it is more seldom then before After the strength of this storme is past we usually feel our inner man begin to be born againe into a new condition the former hard and stony flesh of our hearts like N●amons flesh being tender and ●enewed even as the flesh of a young child 〈◊〉 lo we can kindly weep now with the humility of children think none evill with the simplicity and single heartednesse of children love dearly and tenderly with the affection of children cry Abba Father with the comfort and confidence of children And here me thinks we cannot but remember even with joy and admiration the truth of that divine wisdome which our Saviour hath spoken in Iohn Except a man be born againe be cannot see the Kingdom of God Except we be borne againe and become like little children we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God for of such as he said in Mark 10. is or doth consist the Kingdom of God Doubtlesse when the soul is thus wonderfully born againe from the depth of sin and misery into comfort and grace although the comfort be but little even very little perchance in some of us yet it is Magna animae regeneratio I say no doubt a great regeneration and

I say of being in a lesser degree of Condemnation we cannot grant unto our selves for we shall reason chiefly thus If God be most just as he must needs be he cannot but distribute equall right and Justice unto all men and so he may not spare any one person more then other for any favour or respect whatsoever but only for their good behaviour and as they have better husbanded their time and his gifts in them for will the righteous God of all the world judge partially No verily he is truth it selfe farre be it from the Lord as it is in the 34. of Iob and the 10 verse that he shou●d doe wickednesse and from the Almighty that he should commit iniqutty for the worke of a man shall he render unto him and cause every man to finde according to his wayes and though there be mercy to be found in Christ for the greatest sinners yet are we notwithstanding me thinks to make account that God certainly requires our good behaviour in amendment of life according to that of Saint Paul in the second to the Corinthians the 5. Chapter If any man be in Christ he is a new creature As the Father is Truth so is the Son and if we meane to be the better for him and come thorough him as the way into Heaven we must follow him as he is the way and the truth in newnesse of life and therefore how can we who be thus in the greatest state of sinne as we conceive our selves to be both in the former passage of our life as also especially now for these present thoughts and tormenting impieties of minde but needs expect and look for the greatest Condemnation of all men so true is that Heathen but wise speech Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur There is no advocate can plead our cause When Conscience once doth prosecute the Lawes For nay yet further me thinkes we doe so much hate what we are and applaud Truth and Justice that unlesse we might be free from sinne from this wretched and hellish condition of minde though God himselfe should now call us into Heaven we would surely stand without we could not nor would not come in unlesse he would shew the like mercy upon all unlesse all other men were bidd●n come in too whom we are of opinion to be farre more fit for it then our selves Well this thought and conceit as it hath some reason in it in that we cannot deject our selves as low as our sins deserve we knovv so much of our selves that vve cannot but think all others better then our selves vvho are so exceedingly bad in our selves I say againe as it hath reason in it duely considering the unhappy state of sin and this transcendent unhappinesse of the minde vvhich is novv so full of the Hell of tormenting distempers and dispaire that we cannot thinke our selves possibly capable of that most holy place and glorious condition vvhich is only fit for the purity of Saints and Angels yet is there no question a kind of close stubbornnesse usually joyned vvith it even in this our lovvest dejection thus I say there may be though vve doe not all perceive it too much stomack in us too much stomack as much as to say Since that God hath not delivered us from these sinnes and vvretched untovvardnesses vve are therefore as it vvere carelesse to be delivered from the punishment as if a Father for some discontent should shut his Child out of doores for an houre or tvvo though perchance the Father aftervvards vvould let him come in yet forsooth he vvill not but in a mogging humour lyes abroad all night So verily in this aforesaid passage and conclusion of minde as I conceive it is not much unlike vvith us as if God had fcarce dealt vvell enough vvith us to let us fall into these snares of sin and distraction therefore novv peradventure in this case vve doe not much care for mercy our Melancholly forsaken soule as David in the 77. Psalm refuseth comfort and as Iacob at the supposed nevves of ●osephs death in the 37. of Genesis vvould not take comfort of his friend so now either we cannot or will not take comfort from others it is hard to tell ●ruely vvhich is the cause for sin These motions have so deep a secresie The truth thereof there 's none can well discry As I say let the cause be vvhat it vvill be either reall or imaginary or deluding for note this that the excesse of Melancholly in many of us is altogether a strong distempered delusion of phansie however sure enough it is to our seeming that vve are not able to receive it because vvhatsoever is said to us by any of our friends or others in the vvay of comforting us novv in this our extream distresse of mind for the most part it is all in vaine and to no purpose as touching the sins vvhich lye upon our consciences like mountaines of Lead too heavy for us to beare If it be urged and applyed that St. Peter forsvvare Christ his deare Lord and Master after that he had a long time received so many gracious courtesies from him after that he had been an ancient Apostle full of heavenly vvisedom and understanding that David committed both Murder and Adultery in his elder age after he had familiarly vvalked vvith God many yeares together and yet both these so great offenders vvere easily forgiven Againe that our Saviour Christ came into this World for nothing else dyed for no other purpose but only to save sinners and that he delighted in mercy whilst he vvas here amongst us rejo●cing to doe his Fathers vvork that great vvork of mercy as appeareth by his generall Proclamation Come unto me all yee that are weary and heavy laden c. and as it eminently appeareth by his manner of conversation upon earth by being usually amongst and familiar with Publicans and sinners by his favourable and kind speech and behaviour to that Woman taken in Adultery to Mary Magdalen and the like Nay ●et once further if it be urged and pressed unto our Consciences that the mighty Jehovah even the Lord God himselfe in his ovvne vvords hath spoken by the Prophet Ezekiel As I live saith the Lord God I desire not the death of the wicked And againe most Pathe●tcally by the Prophet Isaiah Though your sins were as crimson they shall be made as white as snow though they were red like scarle● they shall be as wooll If you vvill I say if you vvill at last but endeavour to be reclaimed if the consent c. as it follovves in the next verse intimating that it is not the greatnesse of our sins that can seperate his mercy from us if there be any desire or inclination to good be it never so little even as nothing for he will not quench the smoking flax nor breake che bruised reed Alas it must needs be a very little fire that doth but make the flax to smoak when as

it is so combustable a thing that the least sparke is able to set it in a flame Alas the brickle reed being bruised and crusht into shivers it is a very little hold-fast that it hath it is as good as quite broken off and yet he will not breake it off it shall grow together againe become firme and usefull Such is the exceeding mercy of the Lord to poor sinners even beyond all humane likelihood and capacity When man doth see no hope or life at all Our God can then revive us with a call And yet loe all these comfortable perswasions can doe no good all this is but Surd● cavere to sing as it were to a dead man this nor nothing of this fits our Disease it comes not aneer me thinks unto our case it agrees not with our malady though Christ came into the world to save sinners and though the Lord hath given most large and mercifull promises in the Scripture for the comfort of sinners yet this is nothing to us this concernes not such sinners as we such grievous such constant such highly rebellious sinners if others have sinned grievously and yet are saved certaine there was a farre greater reason for it in their other towardlinesse to good or the like then that we can find in our selves Mark it it is this our present untowardnesse that alwaies puts us into the greatest plunges of despaire and thus our thoughts stand fully possest with nothing else but that we are remedilesse wretches desperate miscreants and utterly forsaken of God And no marvaile that thorough this sad unhappinesse of mind that we we miserable wretched and sinfull souls are thus forsaken when as our blessed Saviour himself in that his great agony of trouble and distresse of minde on the Crosse cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me No marvaile I say that we who are the greatest of sinners should be forsaken and left alone to sinke into unmercifull despaire when as he that was no sinner at all even one with God himselfe with the imputative burden of our sins Cryed out as if he had been left destitute and even ready to yeeld under them My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But to goe on O the strength of Melancholly or rather indeed the strength of sin and a convicted Conscience In Melancholly natures there are no Arguments and Reasons of the most skilfull Divines that can ease our hearts or refresh our souls in this extreamity of trouble perhaps moderate Physick convenient employment and the constant company direction and guidance of some wise understanding party may be necessary outward helps for us but verily the best inner comfort that at any time we doe gather though usually it be but little is as I have formerly said by those that are or have been afflicted with troubles and disturbance of mind somewhat alike us in the same kind either by a full understanding of the event passages and condition of their trouble or else by conference with them if it may be and communicating our estates and maladies together Take 't for a rule that that Physician still In all Diseases fits the Patient best Whos 's owne experience doth improve his skill And it confirmes with a probatum est The experience I say of others misery is the best satisfaction we can find in our own and truly we do not meet with a better or more generally soveraign salve in the comparing of all our judgments experiences together then in the midst of all our grievous tortures and distresse of mind to strive wholly to rest our selves as quiet as contented and as patient as we may and to tarry the Lords leasure Our souls our bodies and all are in thine hands O God deale with us as it shall seeme good in thine eyes if thou hast ordained and prepared us for Heaven blessed be thy Name if thou hast given us over and that we are like Tares bound up and fitted for Hell blessed also be thy Name it is doubtlesse for thy glory and it is but our just desert come life come death come Heaven come He●l the Will of the Lord be done we are not able to sustaine the care of our selves all the strength of our poor souls and bodies is not sufficient to take a full charge or undergoe care enough to preserve the least creature in the world much lesse of so noble a creature as is the soul of man Since therefore we are not sufficient for these things we must doe the best we may and cast the rest of our care upon God humbly resigning over our selves unto him that so he may beare that care for us which our weak and narrow ●ouls cannot beare for themselves Sure we doe not a little offend God I am verily of the mind in being over much discontented and impatiently grieved as many times we are in our selves ●ot though in the bitternesse of our misery being perswaded to be content and to be resolved with more quietnesse of mind we shall usually not without reason plead for our grieving and taking on so deeply O Lord how can we be quiet and at rest to sustaine such a Hell in our breasts Can we carry fiery coals in our bosome and not be burnt therewith Can our soul be rackt with such tormenting anguish of impious thoughts and despairing terrours and yet not weep sigh and abundantly complaine thereof Doth not Hezekiah in the 38. of Esay Chatter like a Crow and a Swallow and mourn like a Dove for the feare of cutting off of a few momentary daies and can we be sufficiently impatient with griefe to be cut off from the Land of the living even all hope of Heaven for ever Shall Rachell mourne for the losse of her Children so that she will not be comforted and can we weep and cry out enough for the losse of our souls unto all Eternity Nay can we endure but so much as to conceive the Devill haling ●erking and tormenting any of our deare friends either living or departed this life I say to see their distracted looks to heare their lamentable and intolerable cryes and not to have our bowels melt within us and we can endure to see our selves turned out from the face of God for ever to burne and fry most deservedly with everlasting paines in Hell fire O let us alone at the thoughts of these things to poure out our selves into Oceans of tears and to roare even roare aloud forthe very disquietnesse of our hearts I say O let us houle cry out and make a moane Able to break the very hearts of stone So just cause have we in this case me thinks to forrow without measure nay more if it were possible then to the very death Is there any cause of sorrow like this cause Weep not for me that labour may be spared to weep for other things but weep for our selves there is cause enough that is truly to be wept for and nothing else but

new birth of the soul and that which we have great cause to rejoyce of for you must understand it pleaseth God differently to dispose of the finall period and conclusion of this our trouble according to his most blessed Will and purpose giving some of us much more joy in the end of it then some as also in some of us continuing it like an ach in the limbs ever now and then to mind us untill our dying day and some of us againe after a while never feele it any more O Lord what reward of thanks can we give unto thy mercy that hast done so great things for us whereof we now rejoyce Verily no Tongue can speak no finite understanding can comprehend it hath never entred into the apprehension of either man or Angell the infinite goodnesse that thou dost extend to the souls of sinners O now with David we may sweetly sing Of Mercy and Iudgement to our heavenly King And hath the Lord God Almighty that is most wonderfull in all his Works done this great Miracle for us in casting out this foul Devill this foming and raging Beelzebub this chief of all misery out of our souls O let us then take heed that we sinne so no more least a worse thing come unto us least he get power to come in againe and bring seven other with him worse then himselfe Here you may take notice as I say That in some of us this our misery is not so fully quencht nor this Devill so cast out but that there remains in us ever now and then the touches of our former misery though the heart of it be broken yet the being is not wholly taken away God in his infinite Wisedome so ordering it perchance to exercise our patience or some other cause which he only knoweth and we cannot fully judge only let this be our chiefest care sithence sin and misery must needs dwell with us whilst we live that if possible we keep our selves within the compasse of patience and humility in all conditions of our life let us in patience possesse our souls and though as St. Paul in the 20. of the Acts when he was going to Ierusalem knew not what things should come unto him there save only saith he That the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying That bands and afflictions abide me so we that are travelling to the new Ierusalem being sure of nothing in our Journey but sure of trouble yet as Aeneas in the Poet comforted his wandering Souldiers whom necessity had banisht from their own Country that the Destiny had promised them in the end a resting place in Italy I say as he thus comforted them Pervarios casos per tot discrimina rerum tendimus in latium sedes ubi fata quietus ostendunt So in like manner may we Pilgrims and Strongers of this world thus cheere up our selves in consideration of our Journies end although that now Thorough many dangers miseries and woe Like Pilgrimes we are tossed to and fro Our comfort is the Fates tell we shall come In death at length to have a resting home Whilst this our trouble is wearing away we shall be for the most part full of charitable and fellow-feeling thoughts to be lovingly affected and doing good unto all especially to the distressed in what case soever even unto our utmost ability as also we shall use to be frequently weeping and condoling our unhappy life weeping I say and sorrowing like melancholiy Heraclitus and wishing that we might dissolve out the residue of our daies into teares in redeeming the time because our daies have been so evill and that the whole action of our momentary life might now be nothing else but a mournfull and Swan-like Song of preparation to our end Our sighing soul with Dove-like melody L●ments her sins and learneth how to dye Iacob when Pharaoh asked him how old he was answered That his daies were few and evill how much more truly may we say of our short and sinfull daies that they are few and evill he was an old man and yet his daies were few he was a good man and yet his daies were evill Oh the short and evill estate of mans life wise men have alwaies accounted their daies but few for that their thoughts are fixt upon God and then saies David Min● age is nothing in respect of thee and againe for that their thoughts are fixt upon the blessed Eternity of the world to come and then they consider with St. Paul That they have no continuing City here but they seeke one to come I say wise men thus esteemed their daies few and they accounted them likewise evill evill in regard of sin for they feele the experience of St. Pauls case That when they would doe good evill is present with them and evill also in regard of misery for Iob saies Man is borne to trouble as the sparkes fly upwards And is it not too true that man is thus borne to trouble If not what meaneth that complayning which I heare Harke how Cai●e cries out in the fourth of Genesis My punishment is greater then that I am able to beare and do you not heare Eliah under the Juniper Tree in the first of Kings the 19. Chapter how he requesteth for himselfe That he might dye and Ionah under the Gourd saying Take away my life for it is better for me to dye then to live Ieremy is even blind with weeping Lamentations the second Chapter Mine eyes doe faile with teares my bowels are troubled my liver is poured out upon the earth and all for the affliction of his people for the misery of man Salomon in the 6. of Ecclesiastes thinks it farre better not to be borne then to undergoe the miseries of this life how often doth Iob lament his daies and David complaine of his troubles the Shunamites Child in the second of Kings cries out O my head my head another perchance cries out Oh my stomack oh my heart oh my Conscience oh my belly oh my feet A capite ad calcem from the top to the toe from the beginning to the end for ought we can perceive there is little true comfort or pleasure in the life of man With teares we came into this life With sorrow we go out againe We live in trouble care and strife And have our labour for our paine We have seen not a little experience of the manifold changes and variety of alterations that are Created for mankind under the Sun and verily me thinks the counsell of Ecclesiasticus in his 38 Chapter and the 20 Verse well weighing the condition of all things is full of wisedom and discretion that is To take no heavinesse to heart to drive it away and to remember the latter end I say To take no heavinesse to heart that is Not to grieve over much or take on out of reason least as St. Paul said of the excommunicate person in the second Epistle to the Corinthians and second Chapter We be swallowed