Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	draw_v	eternal_a	great_a	95	3	2.0984	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28541	The way to Christ discovered by Iacob Behmen ... ; also, the discourse of illumination, the compendium of repentance, and the mixt world, &c.; Weg zu Christo. English	Böhme, Jakob, 1575-1624.; Sparrow, John, 1615-1665?; Böhme, Jakob, 1575-1624. Selections. English. 1648.	1648 (1648)	Wing B3426; ESTC R19225	128,989	352

feare of any end where no evill thoughts could touch him neither care nor trouble neither heate nor cold where no night is knowne where there is no day or time any more but an everlasting joy where soule and body tremble for joy and where he should rejoyce at the infinite wonders and vertues in brightnesse of colours and ornament of the infinite begetting in the wisedome of God upon the new christaline Earth which shall be as transparent glasse that he doth so wilfully lose all this for so short and poore a times-sake which yet in this vanity in the evill life of the voluptuous flesh is full of miserie feare and trouble in meere vexation and it goeth with the wicked as with the righteous as the one must die so must the other yet the death of the Saints is an entrance into the eternall rest but the death of the wicked an entrance into the eternall unquietnesse Eightly He must consider the course of the world that all things are but a play wherewith he spendeth his time in unquietnesse and that it goeth with the rich and mighty as with the poore and the begger that all of us equally live and move in the foure Elements and that the mouthfull or morsell of the poore is as relishing and savoury to him in his toyle and labour as that of the rich is to him in his cares also that all of us doe live in one breath and that the rich man hath nothing but the pleasure of the palate and the lust of the eye more then other men for else it goeth with the one as with the other for which lust of the eye man so foolishly forgoeth so great a happinesse and for the sake thereof bringeth himselfe into so great and eternall unquietnesse In this consideration man shall feele in his owne heart and minde especially if he represent and set before his eyes his owne end that he shall get a hearty sighing and longing after the mercie of God and will begin to bewaile his committed sinnes that hee hath spent his dayes so ill and not observed nor considered that he standeth in this world in a field in the growing to be a fruit either in the Love or in the Anger of God and then he will first begin to find in himselfe that he hath not yet laboured at all in the vineyard of Christ and that he is a drie branch in the vine of Christ. And then in many whom the Spirit of Christ toucheth in such a consideration there ariseth aboundant sorrow griefe of heart and inward lamentation over the dayes of his wickednesse which he hath spent so in vanity without any working in the Vineyard of Christ. Such a one now whom the Spirit of Christ bringeth into sorrow and Repentance so that his heart is opened that he can know and bewaile his sins is very easily to be helped he needeth but to draw to him the promise of Christ viz. That God willeth not the death of a sinner but that he wisheth them all to come unto him and hee will refresh them and that there is great joy in heaven for one sinner that repenteth let such a one but lay hold on the words of Christ and wrap himselfe up into the passion and death of Christ. But I will speake with those who feele indeede a desire in themselves to repent and yet cannot come to acknowledge and sorrow for their committed sins the flesh saying continually to the soule stay a while it is well enough or it is time enough to morrow and when to morrow is come yet the flesh saith again to morrow the soul in the meane while sighing and fainting conceiveth neither any true sorrow for the sinnes it hath committed nor any comfort Unto such a one I say I will write a processe or way which I my selfe have gone that hee may know what he must doe and how it went with me if peradventure any be minded to follow it and then he shall perceive what is hereafter written A processe of Repentance WHen any man findeth in himself by the former consideration a hunger that he would willingly repent and yet findeth no true sorrow in himselfe for his sinnes which hee hath committed and yet perceiveth an hunger or desire to sorrow being the poor captive soule continually sigheth feareth and must acknowledge it selfe guilty of sinnes before the Judgement of God such a one I say can take no better course then this viz. to wrap up his senses and minde and also his reason together and make to himselfe at the same time presently in the first consideration when he perceiveth in himselfe a desire to repent a mighty strong purpose and resolution that he will this very houre nay this minite immediatly enter into Repentance and go forth from his wicked way and not at all regard the power and honour of the world and if it should be required would forsake and disesteeme all things for true Repentance sake and take such an earnest firme and strong resolution that he will never goe forth from it againe though he should be made the foole scorne of all the world for it and that with his minde he will goe forth from the beauty and pleasure of the world and patiently enter into the Passion and Death of Christ in and under the Crosse and set all his hope and confidence upon the life to come and that now in righteousnesse and truth he will enter into the Vineyard of Christ and doe the will of God and in the Spirit and will of Christ begin and finish all his actions in this world and for Christs Word and Promise sake who hath promised us heavenly reward willingly suffer and beare every adversitie and crosse that he may but be numbred in the communion or fellowship of the children of Christ and in the bloud of the Lambe Jesus Christ be incorporated and united unto his Humanity He must firmely imagin to himself wholly wrap up his soule in this that in this his purpose he shall obtaine the love of God in Christ Jesus and that God will give unto him according to his faithfull promise that noble pledge the holy Ghost for a beginning that in the Humanity of Christ as to the heavenly divine substance he shall be borne a new againe in himselfe and that the Spirit of Christ will renew his minde with his Love and Power and strengthen his weake faith also that in his divine hunger he shall get the flesh and bloud of Christ for foode and drinke in the desire of his soule which continually hungreth and thristeth after it and with the thirst of the soule drinke the water of eternall life out of the sweete fountaine of Jesus Christ as Christs most true and stedfast Promise is He must also wholly and firmely imagine to himselfe the great love of God That God willeth not the death of a sinner but that he repent and live that

give me thy Rayes of fier bring thy desire into me and kindle me and then I will bring the Rayes of my love from my meekenesse into thy fiery Essence and kisse thee for ever O my Bridegroome how well am I now I am in wedlock with thee O kisse me with thy desire in thy strength power then I will shew thee all my beauty and will rejoyce and delight my selfe with thy sweet love and shining brightnesse in thy fiery life All the holy Angels doe rejoyce with us to see us now married together againe My deare Love I now intreate thee to abide in my faith and doe not turne thy face away from me any more worke thou thy wonders in my love for which God hath raised thee up II. The Soule sayth againe to its Noble Sophia its Love that is borne againe in the Soule O My Noble Pearle and opened flame of my light in my anxious fiery life O how thou changest me into thy joy O beautifull Love I have broken my faith with thee in my father Adam and with my fiery strength have turned my selfe to the pleasure and vanity of the outward world and have fallen in love with a stranger and had been constrained to walke in the valley of darkenesse in this strange love if thou hadst not come to me into the house of my misery in thy great faithfullnesse by thy piercing through and destroying Gods Anger Hell and darke Death and restored thy meekenesse and love to my fiery life O Sweete Love thou hast brought the water of eternall life out of the fountaine of God with thee to me and refreshed me in my great thirst I behold in thee the mercy of God which was hidden from me before by the strange Love in thee I can rejoyce thou changest my anguish of fire to be great joy to me O amiable Love give me thy Pearle that I may continue in this joy for ever Upon this the Noble Sophia answereth the Soule againe and sayth MY Deare Love and faithfull treasure thou highly rejoycest me in thy beginning I have indeed broken into thee through the deepe gates of God through Gods anger through hell and death into the house of thy misery and have graciously bestowed my love upon thee and delivered thee from the chaines and bondes wherein thou wert fast bound I have kept my faith with thee But thou desirest now an exceeding great thing of me which I will not willingly venture with thee Thou wouldest have my pearle as thy proper owne remember I pray O my beloved Bridegroome that thou didst carelesly loose it before in Adam and besides thou standest yet in great danger and walkest in two dangerous Kingdomes viz. in the originall fire thou walkest in that Countrey wherein God calleth himselfe a strong Zealous God and a consuming fire The other Kingdome thou walkest in is the Outward world the Aire wherein thou dwellest in the vaine corrupt flesh and bloud where the pleasure of the world and the assaults of the devill passe over thee every houre thou mayest perhaps in thy great joy bring earthlynesse againe into my beauty and darken my Pearl thou mayest also perhaps grow proud as Lucifer did when he had the pearle in his possession and so mayest turne thy selfe away from the Harmony of God and then I must afterwards be deprived of my Love for ever I will keepe my Pearle in my selfe and dwell in the Heaven in thee in thy extinguished but now in me revived Humanity and reserve my Pearle for Paradise untill thou puttest away this earthlynesse from thee and then I will give it thee to possesse But I will readily afford and present my countenance to thee and the sweete Rayes of the Pearle during the time of this earthly life I will dwell with the Pearle in the inner Quire and be thy faithfull loving Bride I will not espouse my selfe with thy earthly flesh for I am a heavenly Queene my Kingdome is not of this world yet I will not cast thy outward life away but visite it often with my Rayes of love for thy outward humanity shall returne againe but I will not have the beast of vanity neither did God create it in Adam with a purpose to have it so grosse and earthly but in Adam thy desire through lust formed this beastiall grossenesse from and with all the Essences of the awakened vanity of the earthly property wherein heate and cold paine enmity and dissolution consisteth Now my Deare Love Bridegroome yeeld but thy selfe up into my will I will not forsake thee in this earthly life in thy danger though the Anger of God should passe upon thee so that thou shouldest grow affrighted and disheartened or shouldest thinke that I had forsaken thee yet I will be with thee and preserve thee for thou thy selfe knowest not what thine office is Thou must in this time worke and beare fruite thou art the Roote of this Tree branches must be produced out of thee which must all be brought forth in anguish but I come forth together with thy branches in their sappe and bring forth fruite upon thy boughes and thou knowest it not for the Most High hath so ordered that I should dwell with and in thee Involve thy selfe therefore into patience and take heede of the pleasure of the flesh breake the will and desire thereof bridle it as an unruly horse then I will often visit thee in thy fiery Essence give thee my Kisse of love and bring a Garland for thee out of Paradise with me for a token of my love and put it upon thee in which thou shalt rejoyce But I give thee not my Pearle for a possession during this time thou must continue in Resignation and hearken what the Lord playeth in thy Harmony in thee Moreover thou must give sound and essence to thy tune out of my strength and vertue for thou art now a messenger of his mouth and must set forth his praise and glory For this cause I have now contracted my selfe a-new with thee and set my Triumphant Garland upon thee which I have gotten in the battell against the Devill and Death but the Crowne of Pearle wherewith I crowned thee I have layd that aside for thee thou must weare it no more till thou art become pure in my fight III The Soule sayth further to the Noble Sophia O Thou faire and sweet Consort what shall I say before thee let me be onely commended unto thee I cannot preserve my selfe If thou wilt not now give me thy Pearle I leave it to thy will give me but thy Rayes of love and carry me through this Pilgrimage Awake thou and bring forth what thou wilt in me I will from henceforth be thy owne I will or desire nothing for my selfe but what thou thy selfe wilt through me I had fooled away thy sweete love and not keept my faith with thee whereby I was fallen into eternall punishment but seeing of Love thou art

if it would wholly yeeld it selfe to death and cease to be a creature any more and so did yeeld it selfe to death and desired nothing else but to dye and perish in the death of its Redeemer Jesus Christ who had suffered such torments and death for its sāke and in this perishing it began to sigh and pray in it selfe very inwardly to the mercy of God and to sink down into the meerest mercy of God Upon this there appeared unto it the amiable countenance of the love of God and penetrated through it as a great light by which it grew exceeding joyfull and began to pray aright and to thank the most high for this grace and to rejoyce exceedingly that it was delivered from the death and anguish of Hell and there it tasted of the sweetnesse of God and of his promised truth And in that very instant all evill spirits which had afflicted it before and kept it back from the grace love and inward presence of God were forced to depart from it and the wedding of the Lamb was kept and solemnized with the espousing or contracting of the Noble Sophia with the Soule and the Seal-ring of Christs victory was impressed or printed or set upon its substance or into its essence and it was received to be a child and heire of God again When this was done the soule became very joyfull and began to work in this power and to celebrate with praise the wonders of God thought henceforth to walk continually in this power strength and joy but it was assaulted from without or outwardly by the shame and reproach of the world and within by great temptation so that it began to doubt whether its ground were from God or no and whether it had really and truly partaken of the grace of God or no for the Accuser or Satan went to it and would lead it out of this way and make it doubtfull of its way and sayd to it inwardly The Accuser or Satan spake to the Soule saying It is not of God it is but thy Imagination Also the Divine Light retired in the soule and shone but in the inward ground as light in Embers or fire raked up in ashes so that Reason was solly to it selfe and thought it selfe forsaken and the soule knew not what had happened to it selfe nor whether it were true that it had tasted the Divine Light of Grace or not and yet it could not leave off strugling for the burning fire of love was sowne in it by which there arose in it a great hunger and thirst after the Divine sweetnesse and now at length began to pray aright and to humble it self in the presence of God and to examine and trie its evill inclinations in its thoughts and to put them away by which the will of reason was broken and the evill inbred innate or native inclinations were killed and destroyed more and more And this was very wofull to the nature of the bodie for it made it faint feeble and weake as if it had been very sick and yet it was no naturall sicknesse that it had but it was the Melancholy of the eatthly Nature of the bodie because its evill lusts were destroyed And when the earthly Reason found it self thus forsaken the poore soule saw that it was derided outwardly and despised by the world because it would now walke no more in the way of the wicked and ungodly and that it was inwardly assaulted by the Accuser Satan who also mocked it and continually set before it the beautie Riches and glorie of the world and esteemed the soule foolish that embraced them not which made the soule thinke thus with it selfe O Eternall God! what shall I now doe to come to Rest The Enlightned soule met it again While it was in this consideration the enlightned soule met with it againe and said What ailest thou my brother that thou art so heavie and sad The distressed soule said I have followed thy counsell and thereby attained a ray looke or glimps of the Divine sweetnesse but it is gone from me againe and I am now forsaken and outwardly have very great tryalls and afflictions in the world for all my good friends forsake me and scorne me and also inwardly I am assaulted with Anguish and doubt and I know not what to doe The enlightned soul sayd Now I like thee very well for now our beloved Lord Jesus Christ walketh in his pilgrimage on earth with thee and in thee as he did himselfe when he was in this world being alwayes reviled slandered and evill spoken of and had nothing of his own and now thou bearest his mark or Ensigne but doe not wonder at it nor think it strange for it must be so that thou must be tried refined and purified In this anguish and distresse thou shalt have often cause to pray and hunger after deliverance and in thy hunger and thirst thou attractest grace to thee from within and from without For thou must grow from above and from beneath to be the image of God again And as a young plant is stirred by the wind and must stand in heat and cold drawing strength and vertue to it from above and from beneath by that stirring and must endure many a tempest and undergoe much danger before it can come to be a tree and bring forth fruit for in that stirring the vertue of the Sunne commeth to move in it whereby the wild properties of that plant come to be penetrated and tinctured or qualified with the vertue of the Sun and grow thereby And now is the time wherein thou must behave thy selfe as a valiant Souldier in the Spirit of Christ and cooperate with it thy selfe For now the eternall Father by his fiery power begetteth his Sonne in thee who changeth the fire of the Father or the wrath into the flame of love so that out of fire and light viz. wrath and love there commeth to be one Essence Being or Substance which is the true Temple of God and now thou shalt bud forth out of the vine Christ in the vineyard of Jesus Christ and bring forth fruit in thy life and teaching of others and shew forth thy love in abundance as a good Tree For paradise must thus spring up again in thee through the wrath of God and Hell be changed into Heaven in thee Therefore be not troubled at the temptations of the Devill for he striveth for the kingdome which he had in thee and having lost it once he must be confounded and depart from thee therfore he coveres● thee outwardly with the shame and disgrace of the world that his own shame may not be known and that thou mayst be hidden to the world for with thy New-birth or regeneration thou art in the divine harmony in heaven therefore be patient and wait upon the Lord and whatsoever shall befall thee take it from the hands of the Lord as intended by him for thy best good And so the enlightned