Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	father_n	sin_n	sinner_n	3,110	5	7.5131	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B18025	The councils of wisdom: or, A collection of the maxims of Solomon. Most necessary for a man wisely to behave himself. : with reflections on those maxims. / Rendred into English by T.D..; Conseils de la sagesse. English. 1683	Boutauld, Michel, 1604-1689.; Fouquet, Nicolas, 1615-1680.	1683 (1683)	Wing B3860B; ESTC R30809	78,936	219

and the same heart Compare them from hence forth and do at the feet of the Cross before your Redeemer and your Father what you will do that day before your Judge when that you shall see the truth written in the Book where all is written Consider that this is a Mercy which has out-run your merits Ingratitude which hath follow'd Mercy and which hath been conceived in the midst of favours Justice which examins the good and the evil which weighs the goodnesses of God and the sins of man and who in the one and the other sees nothing but Infinite In fine it is an eternity where sinners shall never cease to be sinners and proud and where the Judge shall never cease to be just where his Holiness shall be the measure of his anger his anger infinitely offended the measure of their pain and his infinite beauty which they shall never see the measure of their despair I say too much in a Subject where is least need of speaking The whole History of man needs but these four words His pleasures shall end His actions shall be judged His sins shall be punished His pains shall be eternal There is not only whereof to read but to contemplate and meditate What opinion so ever the World hath of an able man if he has not yet begun to meditate thereupon he has not yet begun to be wise Youth and Folly think only on the present time Avarice on time to come Prudence and Policy remembers often what passed yesterday and foresees what will happen to morrow true Wisdom looks on one side even to the beginning of time and the creation of man and on the other side to death and eternity and from these two distant extreams it makes its time present and gives them thoughts of this day V. MAXIME When the wicked man cometh then cometh also contempt Prov. 18. PARAPHRASE THat which hinders you from making serious on Christian truths and which makes you slight the business of your conversion as least of all the affairs of a Man of wit and quality is the custome that you have contracted of living disorderly and not refusing any thing to your passions This unhappy custome is the bottom of that Gulf from whence it is rare to see any sinner go out and to enter again into the ways of repentance and salvation It is nevertheless necessary to go out from thence The Holy Fathers and the fathers spiritual will tell you means One of the best is that which Solomon presents you in the following Maxime VI. MAXIM When I perceived that I could not otherwise obtain her except God gave her me I prayed unto the Lord and besought him with my whole heart Wisd 8. PARAPHRASE DEsiring to obtain grace to overcome my evil habits and to live holily I address my self to God and I have asked it of him with all my affection and with all the endeavour that an ardent desire could produce Steep'd in tears and prostrate before His Altars where I heard his voice which called me to repentance I said unto him O Lord shed into me that Wisdom and Light which makes Man see that beauty of vertue which is in thee Thou commandest me to be chast and devout give me devotion and chastity and then command what thou pleasest REFLECTION HOpe not to receive these sorts of favors nor any other spiritual or temporal if you ask them not Without prayer there will be no change of life You would have Grace which gives the first power to be chast but according to the ordinary Laws of Wisdom you shall not have it but by the means of Prayer Grace gives the will to be and to accomplish effectually this good desire In like manner hope not for them if you ask them not strongly and with an ardent and sincere affection To pray to God feebly to have pitty on your miserable life is to pray him to defer punishing of you to the end that you might defer turning to him and this testifies that you fear that he hears you not because you fear to break the chains which tye you to the Creature and to love nothing more then it God would Deprecatus sum illum ex totis praecordiis when we pray to him that our bowels themselves should have a voyce and that there should be in us a Divine fire which should give to our groans the force to mount up to himself and to follow him as far as his justice would make him fly that he might not hear us God would be pursued solicited importuned Follow Him press Him be importunate and be constant Fear nothing but letting your self be overcome by his refusals and your not persevering Hope in his Word as the Saints have done against hope it self Etiamsi occideris me in ipso sperabo and in despight of despair Tell him when you see him with a sword in his hand to sacrifice you to his wrath and when you see the sword thrust into your Heart that from the bosom of Death even to the gates of Hell you will adore his goodness and that you will yet expect favour and you may be assured of his succours Say that the way to perish is to fly when he threatens That there is no place so sure during in wrath in the World as to be near him that it is the only way where the afflicted sinners and the dead can find safety Ad quem ibimus Verba vitae aeternae habes I am a sinner I am mortal where shall I go too but to thee Confess that he can do all that he is the Master but maintain that as all powerful as he is Indignum c. In te Domine speravi non confunda in aeternum he cannot resist the Prayers of the humble and afflicted and since all is put to trust before him desire him to regard you without pitty and to abandon a heart who sincerely confides in his protection and love Talk boldly and say with the Canaanitish Woman that he ought to be no more cruel nor more pittyless towards you then Masters towards the little Dogs of their houses that you ask not but the Crums of his table as the rest of the Saints Speak as this Woman who knew well how it was necessary to speak to a God Although he calls you an importunate Body although he pu●h you back and bids you to get out Stay Fasten your self to his feet and declare to him there you will be so long as that he hath either punish'd importunity with death or heard you In fine do well by your holy violences as that you may draw from his heart the lovely word which hath comforted so many sinners and which may oblige you to say O Mulier magna est fides tua fiat tibi sicut vis Matt. 15. Thou astonisht me oh infidel Great is thy confidence be gone then in peace what thou wilt shall be done The glory of a mortal Prince is to

shall re-establish reason in its force and in its Empire which renders truths apparent which makes duty and vertue loved which reimplants courage makes a coherence between the light and our hopes and which appears on our Horizon but to tell us that the Sun comes to us assuredly and that we are of the number of the Predestinated who shall see him Far be it from you to abate by secret persecutions Non contristabit justum quidquid ei acciderit or by the ordinary accidents of fortune to be troubled or disturbed trouble not your selves either at your sins or unforeseen relapses When you happen to fall into any fault do not amuse your selves to cry and complain as a Child fallen into the mire Withdraw your self gently and help your self in stretching your hand to mercy who offers you his Weep but hope hate your malice and infirmity which have rendred you a sinner hut adore the Wisdom of God who can draw his glory out of that shameful and reproachful estate that you are in Learn that the most Divine action of his power and love is to change into good the evil that you have done Whilst that you blush to see your self contemplate with admiration the designs of Love and Grace that his Providence considers of occasioned by your fault Fear his justice and flee it but never avoid it but by running to his goodness Be ye touched with compunction without being dejected be you resolved to govern your self better for time to come without being impatient or despairing from what is past Although true contrition bursts the heart it has yet somwhat of sweetness that bears it up and which makes it known and distinguisheth it from a false repentance The two marks most certain that we are in that condition God would have have us are Tranquility and Humility Assure your self that every affair where there is too much earnestness although it be the most Holy is done without intention to please God All inspiration that causes disorder in you comes not from the Holy Spirit All grief for sin which carries you to despair comes infallibly from the Devil All mortification that renders you disobedient and proud is the Council of your enemy All humility which makes you fear that there is no pardon for you and that God despiseth your tears is false and deceitful it leads you to impenitence and the death of the proud and reprobates Treat your selves the most meanly and with the most severity you can Humble your self and confess that Holiness is above your courage and that you are one of the most slack and ungrateful of men but have not the humility of the damned and say not that Salvation is above your might Pray to God to give what he commands from you and then offer your self to Him and pray Him to command all that he please ARTICLE II. MAXIMS For the Conduct of the Wit FIRST MAXIM Buy the Truth and sell it not also Wisdom and Instruction and Understanding Prov. 23. PARAPHRASE ENdeavour to purchase but take good heed you sell not that which is more worth than all the gold and silver in the World Buy truth but don't rid your self of Wisdom part not these two vertues possess both the one and the other Let Truth be in your words and Wisdom in your thoughts when that you judge of things know them and deceive not your self When that you speak lye not and deceive those that hear you Think wisely and speak sincerely In one word aspire to the highest and happiest estate that the Wit of man may be raised unto Have the courage to believe nothing nor to say any thing that is untrue Be wise and be sincere Veritatem eme noli vendere sapientiam REFLECTION IT is a precious Grace the grace of being sincere and not to yield to the violences of injustice nor to its flatteries when it would engage us to tell a lye and betray our Consciences Many have bought this Grace by their own blood and have given for it what hath been most dear to them in the World And if you have it not as yet spare nothing to purchase it at any rate That which you shall give is infinitely less worth then it Fear not to dye but fear to live with the reputation of a man without Word and who loves the Truth less th●n a mortal life and a miserable fortune Eme veritatem Grave that Maxime in your heart that a wise Prince writ with his finger on the lips of his Son Rather dye then lye Hate a lye more then death and although in Company men call it Verbum mendax justus detestabitur the most innocen● sin and in the Palace th● most necessary yet do you call it the most shameful to nature the most intollerable to a man of honour and Conscience Since that you bear in your Soul the Image of the Truth of God Non decet principem verbum mentiens Prov. 17. Take that for you that Solomon said to the Kings that whatsoever ornament you can give to a lye it is very indecent in your mouths Conscendam ero similis Altissimo It becomes none but the proud Angel who chose it for his character and who began by it when he would render himself the horrour of nature and transform himself into a Devil The first proposition he made to the Angels in Paradice was a lye Nequaquam morte morieris eritis sicut Dii Gen. 3. The first word he spake on earth was another lye that he made to the Man The first thought he had at his entrance into Hell and the first design he took there to revenge himself on God was to lye eternally And the first promise that he made himself to comfort him in his pains that all Men should lie also and that he would find a means to spread his sin and his own corruption as far as the sin of the first Man An enterprize alas wherein he has been too lucky and wherein he succeeds this day six thousand years Who is the Man that lies not Children do in the Cradle The Philosophers and holy Men in the Schools of Wisdom and even on the Throne of Truth Men do it in every condition and every age Among all those who have sinned in Adam and who have been able to speak there is not one who has not lied and who hath not born on his tongue this Image of the Devil Leave it not upon yours Tear away all the remains of this unhappy inclination Remove à te os pravum detrahentia labra sint procul à te Prov. 4. Viam pravam os bilingue detestor Pro. 8. detest this fatal sin Politicians make it their study many make it their pastime and others their trade Make you of it what all great Men have the abomination of your heart look upon it as the unworthiest crime and the most infamous accident which can happen to a noble Soul