Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	great_a	let_v	sinner_n	1,997	5	7.5506	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38007	A farther enquiry into several remarkable texts of the Old and New Testament which contain some difficulty in them with a probable resolution of them / by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1692 (1692)	Wing E206; ESTC R37315	201,474	386

on the unjust who lets the greatest Delinquents share in his Favour and communicates his Mercies and Blessings to the vilest Sinners In short it is the excellent and generous Nature of Christianity to forgive Offences when the Criminal acknowledges them i● is yet a greater degree and height of it to take no notice of them where the Community is not concerned but to pass them by as not worth our observing but the greatest and highest Glory of it is to love our Enemies to pray for them that persecute us to return Good for their Evil and to be kind and obliging even to the worst of Men. 3. Self-Murder which is a Notorious Affront and Injury to Humane Nature was defended by the Chiefest Philosophers of them all They held that a Man need not ask Leave before he went out of the World that when they saw themselves in Danger they might be as cruel to themselves as the Gods were yea that it was Religious to dispatch that Life which the Gods were resolved to destroy It was determined by the Stoicks that a Man might Kill himself rather than endure Servitude Reproach or Long and Grievous Diseases And this Cato defends if Tully doth not belie him as we have no reason to think he doth That Stoick it seems was a Severe Common-wealth's Man and could not fit himself to the Turn of the Times The Gods must give him a Reason why Caesar vanquish'd Pompey and because they would not he fell upon his own Sword and dispatch'd himself This the Great Roman Philosopher approves of and thinks it was not without God's Leave that he departed hence He expresly saith * Tusc. Quaest. God gave him a just Occasion of dying as he d●d Socrates and he reckons him among those who are discharg'd and dismiss'd by God Some others of the most Philosophical Men either directly slew themselves or were wilfully accessary to their own Deaths Thus Lycurgus the Great and Renowned Lawgiver of Sparta pined himself to death which Fact † In vitâ Lycurg Plutarch approves and applauds with a Jest viz. that he made an end of himself by a total abstinence from Meat to teach his Country-men Temperance ‖ Cic. Tusc. Quest. l. 1. Cleombrotus a Platonist having read Plato's Ph●do where Socrates being about to die discourses of the Immortality of the Soul went and threw himself down headlong into the Sea And other Great Men of Morals as Empedocles Demosthenes Anaxagoras Chrysippus yea and Zeno the Father of Stoicism were Felons of themselves Those who pretended to be great Despisers of Pains and Sufferings ran away from them as soon as they felt the Anguish of them Observe it the very Stoicks who were such Unpassionate and Immoveable Moralists were for leaving the World before their Time This they call'd Withdrawing themselves and a fair Retiring out of the World And the Famous Seneca in no fewer than Four Epistles maintains this Practice In one of which he plainly tells us whatever he had said at other times concerning the Great Extremities which might put a Man upon killing himself that * Nec hoc tanti●m in necessitate ultimâ facit sed cum primum illi coeperit suspecta esse fortuna c. Epist. 70. his Wise Man need not stay till Extreme Necessity urgeth him to such a violent Action but as soon as his Fortune begins to be suspected as soon as he perceives there is some likelyhood of his being brought into ill Circumstances he may prevent them all by going aside He hath this leave given him by the Stoicks as well as by the Platonists and other Philosophers But Reason and Christianity and some of the Philosophers too in a better Mood oppose it as a Rash and Foolish Attempt nay as a vile and wicked Enterprize It is an usurping on God's proper Right and Authority who only hath Power to dispose of Man's Life When God calls for our Lives then we are to part with them submissively and willingly but not before In the mean time we must entertain Poverty Sickness Disgrace or whatever Crosses befal us with invincible Patience and Resolution We must not shamefully relinguish our Stations and like imprudent Pilots quit the Guidance of the Vessel in the midst of a Storm We must bear up undauntedly against the briskest Assaults and resolve to grapple with all sorts of Hazards and Extremities We must prepare our selves to look new Dangers in the face and by the Divine Assistance make way through the thickest Troops of Opposition When we are assaulted with Sufferings we must not crouch and sneak and fly like Cowards but we must resolve to maintain our Post and weather out our Miseries with a Courage becoming Christianity Be the Way we pass through rough or smooth difficult or easy 't is the Divine Appointment and God hath not made any Calamity insupportable it may soon wear off of it self however Time will take it away But we must be careful that we do not by any means put an end to it by doing so to our Lives This is a high Offence against God against the Community of which we are a part and against our selves and Humane Nature it self This is a manifest token of base Fear and Cowardice and Abjection of Mind it argues unmanly Precipitancy and Unadvisedness a distrust of Providence a defect of Faith and Hope and Christian Courage and even black Despair it self But how brave and noble is it after all our hard Service to go off honourably with the Comfort of having fought a good Fight and finished our Course and kept the Faith and of having persevered in our Duty to the end maugre all Discouragements and Hardships This is true Christian Philosophy 4. Lewdness i. e. Immodest and Obscene Speeches Ribaldry and loose Talk with Lascivious Gesture and Behaviour with Lewd and Filthy Practice were countenanced by the greatest Pretenders to Deep Notions and Morality yea and were not thought contrary to the Principles of Philosophy As for the Stoicks they professedly held that there is no Obscenity in Words And Chrysippus more particularly is named by Sextus Empiricus as the chief Assertor of this Chrysippus who was the very Prop and Buttress of the Stoicks Porch as Tully tells us was a Great Defender of this Opinion and propagated it among his Disciples They were wont as the same Author saith * Suo quamque rem nomine appellare Cic. Epist. l. 9. Ep. 22. to call every thing by its Name hereby excusing and palliating their Obscenity and he seems to take their part † Ibid. calling this Lewdness of Speech Libertatem loquendi a Liberty of speaking From tolerating of Obscene Words they proceeded to license the Lewdest Actions and therein were justified by the concurrent Practice of other Philosophers He that rifles Plato's Politicks shall find that Plurality of Wives and even a Community of Women are allowed by him The wisest Philosopher shews himself here most absurd for thus he argueth