Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	good_a	sin_n	sinner_n	3,410	5	7.5691	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67470	The lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard Hooker, Mr. George Herbert written by Izaak Walton ; to which are added some letters written by Mr. George Herbert, at his being in Cambridge : with others to his mother, the Lady Magdalen Herbert ; written by John Donne, afterwards dean of St. Pauls.	Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.	1670 (1670)	Wing W671; ESTC R15317	178,870	410

possest with a high degree of spiritual wickedness I mean with an innate restless pride and malice I do not mean the visible carnal sins of Gluttony and Drunkenness and the like from which good Lord deliver us but sins of a higher nature because they are more unlike God who is the God of love and mercy and order and peace and more like the Devil who is not a Glutton nor can be drunk and yet is a Devil but I mean those spiritual wickednesses of malice and revenge and an opposition to Government Men that joyed to be the Authors of misery which is properly his work that is the enemy and disturber of Mankind and greater sins than Gluttony or Drunkenness though some will not believe it And of this party there were also many whom prejudice and a furious Zeal had so blinded as to make them neither to hear reason nor adhere to the wayes of peace Men that were the dregs of Mankind whom Pride and Self-conceit had made to overvalue their own pitiful crooked wisdom so much as not to be asham'd to hold foolish and unmannerly Disputes against those men whom they ought to reverence and those Laws which they ought to obey Men that labour'd and joyed to find out the faults and to speak evil of Government and then to be the Authors of Confusion Men whom Company and Conversation and Custom had at last so blinded and made so insensible that these were sins that like those that perisht in the gainsaying of Core so these dyed without repenting of these spiritual wickednesses of which the practises of Copinger and Hacket in their lives and the death of them and their adherents are God knows too sad examples and ought to be cautions to those men that are inclin'd to the like spiritual wickednesses And in these Times which tended thus to Confusion there were also many others that pretended a tenderness of Conscience refusing to take an Oath before a lawful Magistrate and yet these men in their secret Conventicles did covenant and swear to each other to be assiduous and faithful in using their best endeavours to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Discipline and both in such a manner as they themselves had not yet agreed on To which end there were many that wandred up and down and were active in sowing Discontents and Sedition by venemous and secret murmurings and a dispersion of scurrilous Pamphlets and Libels against the Church and State but especially against the Bishops by which means together with indiscreet Sermons the common people became so phanatick as to believe the Bishops to be Antichrist and the only obstructers of Gods Discipline and then given over to such a desperate delusion as to find out a Text in the Revelation of St. John that Antichrist was to be overcome by the Sword So that those very men that began with tender and meek Petitions proceeded to Admonitions then to Satyrical Remonstrances and at last having numbred who was not and who was for their Cause they got a supposed certainty of so great a Party that they durst threaten first the Bishops then the Queen and Parliament to all which they were secretly encouraged by the Earl of Leicester then in great favour with Her Majesty and the reputed Cherisher and Patron general of these pretenders to Tenderness of Conscience his design being by their means to bring such an odium upon the Bishops as to procure an Alienation of their Lands and a large proportion of them for himself which avaritious desire had so blinded his reason that his ambitious and greedy hopes had almost put him into a present possession of Lambeth-house And to these undertakings the Non-conformists of this Nation were much encouraged and heightned by a Correspondence and Confederacy with that Brotherhood in Scotland so that here they became so bold that one told the Queen openly in a Sermon She was like an untamed Heyfer that would not be ruled by Gods people but obstructed his Discipline And in Scotland they were more confident for there they declared Her an Atheist and grew to such an height as not to be accountable for any thing spoken against Her nor for Treason against their own King if spoken in the Pulpit shewing at last such a disobedience to Him that His Mother being in England and then in distress and in prison and in danger of death the Church denied the King their prayers for her and at another time when He had appointed a day of Feasting the Church declared for a general Fast in opposition to His Authority To this height they were grown in both Nations and by these means there was distill'd into the minds of the common people such other venemous and turbulent principles as were inconsistent with the safety of the Church and State and these vented so daringly that beside the loss of life and limbs they were forced to use such other severities as will not admit of an excuse if it had not been to prevent Confusion and the perillous consequences of it which without such prevention would have been Ruine and Misery to this numerous Nation These Errours and Animosities were so remarkable that they begot wonder in an ingenious Italian who being about this time come newly into this Nation writ scoffingly to a friend in his own Countrey to this purpose That the Common people of England were wiser than the wisest of his wiser Nation for here the very Women and Shop-keepers were able to judge of Predestination and determine what Laws were fit to be made concerning Church-government and then what were fit to be obeyed or abolisht That they were more able or at least thought so to raise and determine perplext Cases of Conscience than the wisest of the most learned Colledges in Italy That men of the slightest Learning and the most ignorant of the Common people were mad for a new or Super or Re-reformation of Religion and that in this they appeared like that man who would never cease to whet and whet his knife till there was no steel left to make it useful And he concluded his Letter with this observation That those very men that were most busie in Oppositions and Disputations and Controversies of finding out the faults of their Governors had usually the least of Humility and Mortification or of the power of Godliness And to heighten all these Discontents and Dangers there was also sprung up a generation of Godless men men that had so long given way to their own lust of delusion and so highly opposed the blessed motions of his Spirit and the inward light of their own Consciences that they had thereby sinned themselves into a belief which they would but could not believe into a belief which is repugnant even to humane Natu●e for the Heathens believe that there are many gods but these had sin'd themselves into a belief that there was no God so finding nothing in themselves but what was worse than nothing began

judged to hold proportion with many who had made that study the employment of their whole life Sir Francis being dead and that happy family dissolved Mr. Donne took for himself an house in Micham near to Croydon in Surrey a place noted for good air and choice company there his wife and children remained and for himself he took lodgings in London near to White-Hall whither his friends and occasions drew him very often and where he was as often visited by many of the Nobility and others of this Nation who used him in their Counsels of greatest consideration Nor did our own Nobility onely value and favour him but his acquaintance and friendship was sought for by most Ambassadours of forraign Nations and by many other strangers whose learning or business occasioned their stay in this Nation He was much importuned by many friends to make his constant residence in London but he still denyed it having setled his dear wife and children at Micham and near some friends that were bountiful to them and him for they God knows needed it and that you may the better now judge of the then present Condition of his minde and fortune I shall present you with an extract collected out of some few of his many Letters And the reason why I did not send an answer to your last weeks letter was because it found me under too great a sadness and at present 't is thus with me There is not one person but my self well of my family I have already lost half a Child and with that mischance of hers my wife is fallen into such a discomposure as would afflict her too extremely but that the sickness of all her children stupifies her of one of which in good faith I have not much hope and these meet with a fortune so ill provided for Physick and such relief that if God should ease us with burtals I know not how to perfome even that but I flatter my self with this hope that I am dying too for I cannot waste faster then by such griefs As for Aug. 10. From my hospital at Micham JOHN DONNE Thus he did bemoan himself And thus in other letters For we hardly discover a sin when it is but an omission of some good and no accusing act with this or the former I have often suspected my self to be overtaken which is with an over earnest desire of the next life and though I know it is not mearly a weariness of this because I had the same desire when I went with the tide and injoyed fairer hopes then I now doe yet I doubt worldly troubles have increased it 't is now Spring and all the pleasures of it displease me every other tree blossoms and I wither I grow older and not better my strength deminisheth and my lode grows heavier and yet I would fain be or do something but that I cannot tell what is no wonder in this time of my sadness for to chuse is to do but to be no part of my body is as to be nothing and so I am and shall so judge my self unless I could be so incorporated into a part of the world as by business to contribute some sustentation to the whole This I made account I began early when I understood the study of our Laws but was diverted by leaving that and imbracing the worst voluptuousness an hydroptique immoderate desire of humane learning and languages Beautiful ornaments indeed to men of great fortunes but mine was grown so low as to need an occupation which I thought I entered well into it when I subjected my self to such a service as I thought might exercise my poor abilities and there I stumbled and fell too and now I am become so little or such a nothing that I am not a subject good enough for one of my own letters I fear my present discontent does not proceed from a good root that I am so well content to be nothing that is dead But Sir though my fortune hath made me such as that I am rather a Sickness or a Disease of the world than any part of it and therefore neither love it nor life yet I would gladly live to become some such thing as you should not repent loving me Sir your own Soul cannot be more zealous of your good then I am and God who loves that zeal in me will not suffer you to doubt it you would pity me now if you saw me write for my pain hath drawn my head so much awry and holds it so that my eye cannot follow my pen. I therefore receive you into my Prayers with mine own weary soul and Commend my self to yours I doubt not but next week will bring you good news for I have either mending or dying on my side but If I do continue longer thus I shall have Comfort in this That my blessed Saviour in exercising his Justice upon my two worldly parts my Fortune and my Body reserves all his Mercy for that which most needs it my Soul that is I doubt too like a Porter which is very often near the gate and yet goes not out Sir I profess to you truly that my lothness to give over writing now seems to my self a sign that I shall write no more Sept. 7. Your poor friend and Gods poor patient JOHN DONNE By this you have seen a part of the picture of his narrow fortune and the perplexities of his generous minde and thus it continued with him for about two years all which time his family remained constantly at Micham and to which place he often retir'd himself and destined some dayes to a constant study of some points of Controversy betwixt the English and Roman Church and especially those of Supremacy and Allegiance and to that place and such studies he could willingly have wedded himself during his life but the earnest perswasion of friends became at last to be so powerful as to cause the removal of himself and family to London where Sir Robert Drewry a Gentleman of very noble estate and a more liberal mind assigned him a very choice and useful house rent-free next to his own in Drewry-lane and was also a cherisher of his studies and such a friend as sympathized with him and his in all their joy and sorrows Many of the Nobility were watchful and solicitous to the King for some secular preferment for him His Majesty had formerly both known and put a value upon his company and had also given him some hopes of a State-employment being alwayes much pleased when Mr. Donne attended him especially at his meals where there were usually many deep discourses of general learning and very often friendly debates or disputes of Religion betwixt his Majesty and those Divines whose places required their attendance on him at those times particularly the Dean of the Chappel who then was Bishop Montague the publisher of the learned and eloquent Works of his Majesty and the most reverend Doctor Andrews the late learned Bishop of

overthrown and then he proceeds to discover that way which Natural men and some others have mistaken to be the way by which they hope to attain true and everlasting happiness and having discovered the mistaken he proceeds to direct to that True way by which and no other everlasting life and blessedness is attainable and these two wayes he demonstrates thus they be his own words that follow That the way of Nature This the way of Grace the end of that way Salvation merited presupposing the righteousness of mens works their Righteousness a Natural ability to do them that ability the goodness of God which created them in such perfection But the end of this way Salvation bestowed upon men as a gift presupposing not their righteousness but the forgiveness of their Unrighteousness Justification their Justification not their Natural ability to do good but their hearty Sorrow for not doing and unfeigned belief in him for whose sake not doers are accepted which is their vocation their Vocation the Election of God taking them out of the number of lost Children their Election a Mediator in whom to be elected this mediation inexplicable mercy this mercy supposing their misery for whom he vouchsafed to dye and make himself a Mediator And he also declareth There is no meritorious cause for our Justification but Christ no effectual but his Mercy and sayes also We deny the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we abuse disanul and annihilate the benefit of his Passion if by a proud imagination we believe we can merit everlasting life or can be worthy of it This belief he declareth is to destroy the very essence of our Justification and he makes all opinions that border upon this to be very dangerous Yet nevertheless and for this he was accused Considering how many vertuous and just men how many Saints and Martyrs have had their dangerous opinions amongst which this was one that they hoped to make God some part of amends by voluntary punishments which they laid upon themselves because by this or the like erroneous opinions which do by consequence overthrow the merits of Christ shall man be so bold as to write on their Graves such men are demned there is for them no Salvation St. Austin saies errare possum Haereticus esse nolo And except we put a difference betwixt them that err Ignorantly and them that Obstinately persist in it how is it possible that any man should hope to be saved give me a Pope or a Cardinal whom great afflictions have made to know himself whose heart God hath touched with true sorrow for all his Sins and filled with a Love of Christ and his Gospel whose eyes are willingly open to see the truth and his mouth ready to renounce all errour this one opinion of merit excepted which he thinketh God will require at his hands and because he wanteth trembleth and is discouraged and yet can say Lord cleanse me from all my secret sins shall I think because of this or a like errour such men touch not so much as the Hem of Christs Garment if they do wherefore should I doubt but that vertue may proceed from Christ to save them no I will not be afraid to say to such a one you err in your opinion but be of good comfort you have to do with a merciful God who will make the best of that little which you hold well a●d not with a captious Sophister who gathereth the worst out of every thing in which you are mistaken But it will be said The admittance of Merit in any degree overthroweth the foundation excludeth from the hope of mercy from all possibility of Salvation And now Mr. Hookers own words follow What though they hold the truth sincerely in all other parts of Christian Faith although they have in some measure all the Vertues and Graces of the Spirit although they have all other tokens of Gods Children in them although they be far from having any proud opinion that they shall be saved by the worthiness of their deeds although the onely thing that troubleth and molesteth them be a little too much dejection somewhat too great a fear arising from an erroneous conceit that God will require a worthiness in them which they are grieved to finde wanting in themselves although they be not obstinate in this opinion although they be willing and would be glad to forsake it if any one reason were brought sufficient to disprove it although the onely cause why they do not forsake it ere they dye be their Ignorance of that means by which it might be disproved although the cause why the Ignorance in this point is not removed be the want of knowledge in such as should be able and are not to remove it Let me dye sayes Mr. Hooker if it be ever proved that simply an Errour doth exclude a Pope or Cardinal in such a case utterly from hope of life Surely I must confess that if it be an Errour to think that God may be mercifull to save men even when they err my greatest comfort is my error were it not for the love I bear to this error I would never wish to speak or to live I was willing to take notice of these two points as supposing them to be very material and that as they are thus contracted they may prove useful to my Reader as also for that the answers be arguments of Mr. Hookers great and clear reason and equal Charity Other exceptions were also made against him as That he prayed before and not after his Sermons that in his Prayers he named Bishops that he kneeled both when he prayed and when he received the Sacrament and sayes Mr. Hooker in his defence other exceptions so like these as but to name I should have thought a greater fault then to commit them And 't is not unworthy the noting that in the manage of so great a controversie a sharper reproof than this and one like it did never fall from the happy pen of this Humble man That like it was upon a like occasion of exceptions to which his answer was Your next argument consists of railing and of reasons to your Railing I say nothing to your Reasons I say what follows And I am glad of this fair occasion to testifie the Dove-like temper of this meek this matchless man and doubtless if Almighty God had blest the Dissenters from the Ceremonies and Discipline of this Church with a like measure of Wisdom and Humility instead of their pertinacious zeal then Obedience and Truth had kissed each other then Peace and Piety had flourished in our Nation and this Church and state had been blest like Jerusalem that is at unity with it self But this can never be expected till God shall bless the common people with a belief that Schism is a Sin and That there may be offences taken which are not given and That Laws are not made for private men to dispute but to Obey And this also may be

charity ought to be imitated for though the spirit of revenge is so pleasing to Mankind that it is never conquered but by a supernatural grace being indeed so deeply rooted in humane Nature that to prevent the excesses of it for men would not know Moderation Almighty God allows not any degree of it to any man but sayes Vengeance is mine And though this be said by God himself yet this revenge is so pleasing that man is hardly perswaded to submit the menage of it to the Time and Justice and Wisdom of his Creator but would hasten to be his own Executioner of it And yet nevertheless if any man ever did wholly decline and leave this pleasing passion to the time and measure of God alone it was this Richard Hooker of whom I write for when his Slanderers were to suffer he laboured to procure their pardon and when that was denied him his Reply was That however he would fast and pray that God would give them repentance and patience to undergo their punishment And his prayers were so far returned into his own bosom that the first was granted if we may believe a penitent behaviour and an open confession And 't is observable that after this time he would often say to Dr. Saravia Oh with what quietness did I enjoy my Soul after I was free from the fears of my Slander and how much more after a conflict and victory over my desires of Revenge About the Year 1600 and of his Age 46 he fell into a long and sharp sickness occasioned by a cold taken in his passage betwixt London and Gravesend from the malignity of which he was never recovered for till his death he was not free from thoughtful Dayes and restless Nights but a submission to his Will that makes the sick mans Bed easie by giving rest to his Soul made his very languishment comfortable and yet all this time he was sollicitous in his Study and said often to Dr. Saravia who saw him daily and was the chief comfort of his life That he did not beg a long life of God for any other reason but to live to finish his three remaining Books of POLITY and then Lord let thy servant depart in peace which was his usual expression And God heard his prayers though he denied the Church the benefit of them as compleated by himself and 't is thought he hastened his own death by hastening to give life to his Books But this is certain that the nearer he was to his death the more he grew in Humility in Holy Thoughts and Resolutions About a month before his death this good man that never knew or at least never consider'd the pleasures of the Palate became first to lose his appetite then to have an aversness to all food insomuch that he seem'd to live some intermitted weeks by the smell of meat only and yet still studied and writ And now his guardian Angel seem'd to foretell him that the day of his dissolution drew near for which his vigorous Soul appear'd to thirst In this time of his Sickness and not many dayes before his Death his House was rob'd of which he having notice his Question was Are my Books and written Papers safe And being answered That they were his Reply was then it matters not for no other loss can trouble me About one day before his Death Dr. Saravia who knew the very secrets of his Soul for they were supposed to be Confessors to each other came to him and after a Conference of the Benefit the Necessity and Safety of the Churches Absolution it was resolved the Doctor should give him both that and the Sacrament the day following To which end the Doctor came and after a short retirement and privacy they return'd to the company and then the Doctor gave him and some of those friends which were with him the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of our Jesus Which being performed the Doctor thought he saw a reverend gaity and joy in his face but it lasted not long for his bodily Infirmities did return suddenly and became more visible in so much that the Doctor apprehended Death ready to seize him yet after some amendment left him at Night with a promise to return early the day following which he did and then found him in better appearance deep in Contemplation and not inclinable to Discourse which gave the Doctor occasion to require his present Thoughts to which he replied That he was meditating the number and nature of Angels and their blessed obedience and order without which peace could not be in Heaven and oh that it might be so on Earth After which words he said I have lived to see this world is made up of perturbations and I have been long preparing to leave it and gathering comfort for the dreadful hour of making my account with God which I now apprehend to be near and though I have by his grace lov'd him in my youth and fear'd him in mine age and labour'd to have a conscience void of offence to him and to all men yet if thou O Lord be extreme to mark what I have done amiss who can abide it and therefore where I have failed Lord shew mercy to me for I plead not my righteousness but the forgiveness of my unrighteousness for his merits who dyed to purchase pardon for penitent sinners and since I owe thee a death Lord let it not be terrible and then take thine own time I submit to it let not mine O Lord but let thy Will be done with which expression he fell into a dangerous slumber dangerous as to his recovery yet recover he did but it was to speak only these few words Good Doctor God hath heard my daily petitions for I am at peace with all men and he is at peace with me and from that blessed assurance I feel that inward joy which this world can neither give nor take from me● More he would have spoken but his spirits failed him and after a short conflict betwixt Nature and Death a quiet Sigh put a period to his last breath and so he fell asleep And here I draw his Curtain till with the most glorious company of the Patriarchs and Apostles the most Noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors this most learned most humble holy man shall also awake to receive an eternal Tranquillity and with it a greater degree of Glory than common Christians shall be made partakers of In the mean time bless O Lord Lord bless his Brethren the Clergy of this Nation with effectual endeavours to attain if not to his great learning yet to his remarkable meekness his godly simplicity and his Christian moderation for these bring peace at the last And Lord let his most excellent Writings be blest with what he design'd when he undertook them which was Glory to Thee O God on High Peace in thy Church and Good Will to Mankind Amen Amen This following Epitaph was long since presented to the World