Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A29139
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A true relation of the proceedings, examination, tryal, and horrid murder of Col. Eusebius Andrewe by John Bradshaw, President of the pretended High Court of Justice, and others of the same court published by Francis Buckley ...
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Buckley, Francis, Gent.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing B4155; ESTC R19632
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53,776
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80
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entertain animosities against your Judges you know who said Father forgive them And that great Martyr dying Lord lay not this to their charge Be assured they must one day give an account of your sentence before an higher Court of Justice If they have rightly judged complain not If they have done you wrong you know to whom vengeance belongeth shortly In your patience possess your soul that time you have to live abandoning all thoughts and eares of this world study how to appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give account for your 42 years consider what answer to make to that Judg which renders to every man according to his works let all your disquisition be what to do to obtain Eternal Life Much I have to say to that question Reduce all to these two those two ways which Almighty God has chalk'd out for all men to Eternal Glory One of innocency the fathers before the flood had none other those after were directed by that Our blessed Saviour resolves that question What 's written in the Law that do and thou shalt live Consider first how far or right you have walked in this way but if you perceive your aberrations despair not our good God has propounded a second way unto that end it 's humble penitence If you have erred from that good way come into this Repent you truly for all your sins Afflict your soul for offending your mercifull Father Implore his pitty mercy and pardon and your Soul shall live Remember you have a most gracious God That desires not the death of a Sinner but rather that he should repent and live You have a blessed Mediator Intercessor Saviour who dyed for your sins and rose again for your Justification and be assured Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish be confident he that believeth on him shall live though he die and he that liveth and believeth on him shall not die Eternally I am straitned while I would direct you in all the steps of this way which are humble Confession hearty Contrition serious Detestation and so far as you are able real Satisfaction These four I have already exceeded the limits of an Epistle what is wanting I shall beseech you to make your addresses to the most learned and reverend Bishop of Ely intreat his help and direction follow his counsel implore his absolution and consider how much gain it should be to you though you lose all the world so your Soul may be saved The God of all goodness in mercy look upon you direct you by his Wisdom guide you by his Counsell comfort and sanctifie you by his holy Spririt that alone shall make you wise unto Salvation and lead you through all the miseries of a perplexed life and untimely death to that glory which is beyond my expression and your apprehension is the daily prayer of your real partaker in all your sufferings August 17. 1650. Mr. Andrewe his answer to the aforesaid Letter Friend YOur words sent to me were such and so seasonable that I have given them the same entertainment and lodging as becomes me to afford to Apples of Gold with pictures of Silver and if I be after my decollation dissected you may find them in my heart where your self have always held a Mansion If fear were absolutely a necessary passion by which to denote a man I must as yet be accounted amongst some other species of animality there being not a scruple in the whole frame of my mind and body of so tenuous a Composure The fear of Isaac hath banisht all other dreadings I look upon death as upon that rod in the hand of God with which he would not have corrected me if less correction had not been unprevailing and which he doth now exercise upon me because he is resolved not to let me be less then a son beloved and I am content to bear the stripes and kiss the Instrument I am sorry that my rod is bound together with the sin of my betrayer and wish him repentance that when the Rod comes to be burn'd he suffer not in the flame I shall not need to say I forgive either him or my Judges having already forgotten them in all my prayers excepted I am proud and covetous to be released from the double imprisonment I lie under of the flesh and bonds and am ready for the opportunity to make my escape though in a fiery Chariot All things betwixt me and God are removed from my sight and I see him clearly without reflection upon my accusers and Judges and submit cheerfully to his fatherly dispensation and judgment It is Gods mercy that I was not long since consumed for an earlier death in my heats and follies had not proved less then a total consumption of all which now will become precious in despight of ignominious Death or attending nauseous Corruption My betrayer wanted only Judas his subject to make his sin as great being transcendent to his in the circumstance and I wish him Peters tears to wash away Judas guilt and to avoid Judas his punishment by Peters repentance My Judges have done me no wrong they have a law for their warrant and my confession for their evidence neither have capacity to be Chancellors in matters of life let them go free and the Law-makers and inforcers of it for their errors of constituting them before the padling in blood grow too customary to be thought a sin worthy their confession or sorrow which I desire for the sakes of their souls and the lives of the oppressed and indeed proscribed Free-Christians of the Nation The Fathers Plea of Innocence I cannot make but I can say and bless God that I can say Veri penitence est pene innocence I have erred and cannot say I have voluntarily returned but I am graciously brought home as a lost sheep not to be eternally slaughtered but put again amongst the flock to be kept safe under the staff as well as the rod for the great shepherd of my soul Christ Jesus I dare not tell you I have not sinned you are a witness against me if I had none within me but I can tell you what my faith dictates to me and Gods holy Spirit assures me that the Lord hath put away my iniquity I am already sensible and that in a measure unexpressable of Gods goodness to me who as he will be glorified upon me on earth so he hath given me an earnest of my future glory in heaven by the sweet perfume he hath cast upon my name amongst the people and the Christian-like compassion he hath begotten for me amongst all men who have yet an eye of expectation upon his return in mercy to this poor distressed Nation and oppressed People The God of all goodness hath in mercy looked upon me directed me counsel'd me comforted me and sanctified my affliction to me and I am ready to fall into his mercifull hands as soon as the heavy hand of the Executioner shall have given a
to you even the pains and torments of Hell that the damned there indure Col. I know it is due in righteous judgment but I know again I have a Satisfaction made by my elder Brother Christ Jesus and then I say it is not due it 's due to me but acquitted by his Mediation Dr. Do you believe to besaved by that Mediation and no other Col. By that and that only renouncing all Secondary Causes Dr. Are you truly and unfeignedly sorry before God as you appeare to us for all these sins that have brought you hither Col. I am sorry and can never be sorrowfull enough and am sorry that I cannot be more sorry Dr. If God should by a miracle not to put you to a vaine hope but if God should as he did to Hezekiah renue your days what life do you resolve to lead hereafter Col. It is a question of great length requires a great time to answer men in such streights would promise great things but I would first call some friends to limit how far I should make a Vow that I should not make a rash one and so offer the Sacrifice of fooles but a Vow I would make and by Gods help endeavour to keepe it Dr. Do you wish health and happiness upon all lawfull authority and government Col. I doe prize all obedience to lawfull Government and the adventuring against them is sinful and I do not justifie my self what ever my judgment be for my thus venturing against the present Government I leave it to God to judg whether it be righteous if it be it must stand Dr. Are you now in love and charity with all men do you freely forgive them Col. With all the world freely and the Lord forgive them and forgive me as I freely forgive them Dr. You have for some late years laid down the Gown and took up the Sword and you were a man of note in these parts where you had your residence I have nothing to accuse you for want of diligence in hindring in doing of injuries yet possibly there might be some wrong done by your Officers or those under you to some particular men if you had your Estate in your hands would you make restitution Col. The wrongs themselves you bring to my mind are not great nor many some things of no great moment but such as they are my desire is to make restitution but have not wherewithal Dr. If you had ability you would likewise leave a Legacy of thankfulness to Almighty God something to his poor Servants to his Lame members to his Deaf members to his Dumb members Col. My will hath been alwayes better then my ability that way Dr. Sir I shall trouble you very little farther I thank you for all those heavenly Colloquies I have enjoyed by being in your company these three days and truly I am very sorry I must part with so heavenly an associate we have known one another heretofore but never to Christianitie before I have rather been a Schollar to learne from you then an instructer I wish this Stage whereon you are made a spectacle to God Angels and the World may be a School to all about you for though I will not diminish you sins nor shall I conceal or hypocrize my own for they are great ones between God and my self but I think there is few here have a lighter load upon them then you have if we consider things well and I only wish them your repentance and that measure of faith God hath given you and that measure of courage you have attained from God and that constant perseverance God hath crowned you hitherto with Col. His Name be praised Here the Doctor prayed with him almost a quarter of an hour after which the Colonel turning himself again to the people spake as followeth One thing more I desire to be clear in There lyeth a common imputation upon the Cavaliers that they are Papists and under that name we are made odious to those of the contrary opinion I am not a Papist but renounce the Pope with all his dependencies where the distractions in Religion first sprung up I might have been thought apt to turn off from this Church to the Romish but was utterly unsatisfied in their Doctrine in point of Faith and very much as to their Discipline The Religion I Profess is that which passeth under the name of Protestant though that be rather a name of distinction then properly essential to Religion but that Religion found out in the Reformation purged from all the Errors of Rome in the Reign of Edward the 6th practised in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles that blessed Prince deceased that Religion before it was defaced I am off which I take to be Christ's Catholick though not the Roman Catholick Religion Then he turned himself to the Executioner I have no reason to quarrel with thee thou art not the hand that throws the Stone I am not of such Estate to be liberal but here is 3l for thee which is all I have now tell me what I lack Executioner Your hair to be turned up Col. Shew me how to fit my self for the Block After which his doublet off his hair turn'd up he turned himself about to the people and prayed a good while before he lay down to the Block He spake to the people as followeth There is none that looks upon me though many faces and perhaps different from me in opinion and practice but hath something of pity in it And may that mercie that is in your hearts fall into your own bosomes when you have need of it And may you never find such a block of sin to stand in the way of yout mercy as I have met with I beseech you joyn with me in Prayer Then he prayed leaning on the Scaffold half a quarter of an hour Having done he had some private conference with Dr. Swadling then he taking his leave of the Sheriff and his friends kissing them and saluting him next him he prepared himself for the Block kneeling down said Let me try the Block which he did After casting his eyes and fixing them very intentively above he said When I say Lord Jesus receive me Executioner then do thy office then kissing the Axe he lay down and with as much undaunted yet Christian courage as possibly could be in man did he expose his Throate to the fatal Axe his life to the Executioner and commended his soul into the hands of God as into the hands of a faithful and merciful creator through the Meritorious passion of a gratious Redeemer Saying the forementioned words his Head was stricken off at one blow Vera copia exam. FINIS * This is mentioned because the Speaker I his Brother hold me in jealousie and were both accused by that printed paper * This error in time as some others both of substance and circumstance are rectified upon better memory by some following papers sent to the Lord