Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	hear_v	lord_n	pray_v	6,088	5	6.6801	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69969	Eikōn basilikē The porvtraictvre of His sacred Maiestie in his solitudes and svfferings. Together with His Maiesties praiers delivered to Doctor Juxon immediately before his death. Also His Majesties reasons, against the pretended jurisdiction of the high court of justice, which he intended to deliver in writing on Munday January 22, 1648.	Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649. Reliqiæ sacræ Carolinæ.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.; Dugard, William, 1602-1662. aut	1649 (1649)	Wing E311; ESTC R39418	116,576	254

commonweal The eldest son must be involved in the punishment as he was infected with the sinne of the Father against the Father of his country root branch God cuts off in one day These observations are obvious to every fancy God knows I was so far from rejoycing in the Hotham's ruine though it were such as were able to give the greatest thirst for revenge a ful draught being executed by them who first imployed him against Me that I so far pitied him as I thought he at first acted more against the light of his Conscience then I hope many other men do in the same cause For he was never thought to be of that superstitious sowrnesse which some men pretend to in matters of Religion which so darkens their judgment that they cannot see any thing of Sin and Rebellion in those means they use with intents to refrom to their Models what they call Religion who think all is Gold of piety which doth but glister with a shew of Zeale fervency Sir John Hotham was I think a man of another temper and so most liable to those downright temptations of ambition which have no cloak or cheat of religion to impose upon themselves or others That which makes me more pity him is that after he begun to have some inclinations towards a repentance for his sinne and reparations of his duty to Me He should be so unhappy as to fall into the hands of their Justice and not my Mercy who could as willingly have forgiven him as he could have asked that favour of Me. For I think clemency a debt which wee ought to pay to those that crave it when wee have cause to beleive they would not after abuse it since God himself suffers us not to pay any thing for his mercy but only prayers and praises Poor Gentleman he is now become a noteable monument of unprosperous disloyalty teaching the world by so sad and unfortunate a spectacle that the rude carriage of a Subject towards his Soveraigne carries alwayes its own vengeance as an unseparable shadow with it and those oft prove the most fatall and implacable Executioners of it who were the first imployers in the service After-times will dispute it whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull or at Tower-hill though 't is certain that no punishment so stains a mans Honour as wilfull perpetrations of unworthy actions which besides the conscience of the sin brands with most indelible characters of infamy the name memory to posterity who not engaged in the Factions of the times have the most impartiall reflections on the actions But thou O Lord who hast in so remarkable a way avenged thy servant suffer me not to take any secret pleasure in it for as his death hath satisfyed the iniury he did to me so let me not by it gratifie any passion in me lest I make thy vengeance to be mine consider the affront against me more then the sinne against thee Thou indeed without any desire or endeavour of mine hast made his mischief to return on his own head and his violent dealing to come down on his own pate Thou hast pleaded my cause even before the sons of men and taken the matter into thine own hands that men may know it was thy work and see that thou Lord hast done it I do not I dare not say so let mine enemies perish O Lord yea Lord rather give them repentance pardon and impunity if it be thy blessed will Let not thy iustice prevent the obiects and opportunities of my mercy yea let them live and amend who have most offended me in so high a nature that I may have those to forgive who beare most proportion in their offences to those trespasses against thy Maiesty which I hope thy mercy hath forgiven me Lord lay not their sins who yet live to their charge for condemnation but to their consciences for amendment Let the lightning of this Thunderbolt which hath been so severe a punishment to one be a torrour to all Discover to them their sinne who know not they have done amisse and scare them from their sinne that sin of malicious wickednesse That preventing thy Iudgements by their true repentance they may escape the strokes of thine eternall vengeance And do thou O Lord establish the Throne of thy servant in mercy and truth meeting together let my Crown ever flourish in righteousnesse and peace kissing each other Heare my prayer O Lord who hast taught us to pray for to do good to and to love our Enemies for thy sake who hast prevented us with offertures of thy love even when we were thine Enemies and hast sent thy Son Iesus Christ to die for us when we were disposed to crucifie him 9. Vpon the listing and raising Armies against the King I Finde that I am at the same point and posture I was when they forced Me to leave White-Hall what Tumults could not doe an Army must which is but Tumults listed and enrolled too a better order but as bad an end My recesse hath given them confidence that I may be conquered And so I easily may as to any outward strength which God knowes is little or none at all But I have a Soule invincible through Gods grace enabling Me here I am sure to be Conqueror if God will give Me such a measure of Constancy as to feare him more then man and to love the inward peace of My Conscience before any outward tranquility And must I be opposed with force because they have not reason wherewith to convince Me O My Soule be of good courage they confesse their knowne weaknesse as to truth and Justice who choose rather to contend by Armies then by Arguments Is this the reward and thanks that I am to receive for those many Acts of Grace I have lately passed and for those many Indignities I have endured Is there no way left to make Me a glorious KING but by My sufferings It is a hard and disputable choice for a King that loves his People and desires their love either to kill his own Subjects or to be killed by them Are the hazards and miseries of Civill War in the bowels of My most flourishing Kingdome the fruits I must now reap after 17. years living and reigning among them with such a measure of Justice Peace Plenty and Religion as all Nations about either admired or envied notwithstanding some miscarriages in Government which might escape rather through ill counsell of some men driving on their private ends or the peevishnes of others envying the publike should be managed without them or the hidden and insuperable necessities of State then any propensity I hope of my selfe either to injuriousnes or oppression Whose innocent bloud during My Reign have I shed to satisfie My lust anger or covetousnes what Widdowes or Orphans tears can witnesse against me the just cry of which must now be avenged with My own bloud For the hazards of War are equall nor doth the

made choice of men as no way that I know scandalous so every way eminent for their learning and piety no lesse than for their Loyalty nor can I imagine any exceptions to be made against them but only this that they may seem too able and too wel affected toward me and My service But this is not the first service as I count it the best in which they have forced Me to serve My self though I must confesse I bear with more greif and impatience the want of My Chaplains than of any other My Servants and next if not beyond in some things to the being sequestred from my Wife and Children since from these indeed more of humane and temporary affections but from those more of heavenly and eternall improvements may be expected My comfort is that in the inforced not neglected want of ordinary means God is wont to afford extraordinary supplies of his gifts and graces If his Spirit will teach me help My infirmities in prayer reading and meditation as I hope he will I shall need no other either Orator or Instructer To Thee therefore O my God doe I direct my now solitary prayers what I want of others help supply with the more immediate assistances of thy Spirit which alone can both enlighten My darkness and quicken My dulnesse O thou Sun of righteousnesse thou sacred Fountaine of heavenly light and heat at once cleare and warme my heart both by instructing of me and interceding for me In thee is all fulnesse from thee all-sufficiency By thee is all acceptance Thou art company enough and comfort enough Thou art my King be also my Prophet and my Priest Rule me teach me pray in me for me and be thou ever with me The single wrestlings of Jacob prevailed with thee in that sacred Duell when he had none to second him but thy selfe who didst assist him with power to overcome thee by a welcome violence to wrest a blessing from thee O look on me thy Servant in infinite mercy whom thou didst once blesse with the ioynt and sociated Devotions of others whose fervencie might inflame the coldnesse of my affections towards thee when we went to or met in thy House with the voice of I●y and gladnesse worshiping thee in the unity of spirits and with bond of Peace O forgive the neglect and not improving of those happy opportunities It is now thy pleasure that I should be as a Pelican in the wildernesse as a Sparrow on the House top and as a coale scattered from all those pious glowings and devout reflections which might best ●indle preserve and encrease the holy fire of thy graces on the Altar of my heart whence the sacrifice of prayers and incense of praises might be duly offered up to thee Yet O thou that breakest not the bruized Reed nor quenchest the smoaking Flax do not despise the weaknesse of my prayers nor the smotherings ●f my soul in this uncomfortable loneness to which I am constrained by some mens uncharitable deni●lls of those helps which I much want and no lesse desire O let the hardnes of their hearts occasion the softnings of mine to thee and for Them Let their hatred kindle my love let their unreasonable de●●alls of my Religious desires the more excite my prayers to thee Let their inexorahle deafnesse encline thine eare to me who art a God easie to be ●ntreated thine eare is not heavy that it cannot nor thy heart hard that it will not heare nor thy ●and shortned that it cannot help M● thy desolate Suppliant Thou permittest men to deprive me of those out●ard means which thou hast appointed in thy Church but they cannot debarre me from the com●union of that inward grace which thou alone ●reathest into humble hearts O make m● such and thou wilt teach me thou ●ilt hear me thou wilt help me The broken and ●●ntrite heart I know thou wilt not despise Thou O Lord canst a● once make me thy Temple ●hy Priest thy sacrifice and thine Altar while from an humble heart I alone daily offer up in holy meditations fervent prayers and unfeigned tears my self to thee who preparest me for thee dwelle s● in me ●ad acceptest of me Thou O Lord didst cause by secret supplyes miraculous infusions that the handful of meal in the vessell should not spend nor the little oyl in the cruise fail the Widow during the time of drought and dearth O look on my soul which as a Widow is now desolate and forsaken let not those saving truths I have formerly learned now fail my memory nor the sweet effusions of thy Spirit which I have sometime felt now be wanting to wy heart in this famine of ordinary and wholsome food for the refreshing of My Soul Which yet I had rather chuse than to feed fom those hands who mingle my bread with ashes and my wine with gall rather torme nting than teaching me whose mou●hs are proner to bitter reproaches of me ●hen to hearty prayers for me Thou knowest O Lord of truth how oft they wrest thy holy Scriptures to my destruction which are clear for their subiection and my preservation O let it not be to their damnation Thou knowest how some men under colour of long prayrs have sought to devour the houses of their Brethren their King and their God O Let not those mens balms break my head nor their Cordialls oppresse my heart I will evermore pray against their wickednesse From the poyson under their tongues from the snares of their lips from the fire and the swords of their words ever deliver Me O Lord and all those Loyall and Religious hearts who desire and delight in the prosperity of my soule and who seek by their prayers to relieve this sadnesse and solitude of thy servant O my King and my God 25. Penitentiall Meditations and Vowes in the Kings solitude at Holmeby GIve eare to my words O Lord consider my Meditations aud hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray I said in my hast I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes neverthelesse thou hearest the voice of my supplication when I cry unto thee If thou Lord shouldst be extream to mark what is don amisse who can abide it But there is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared therefore shall sinners fly unto thee I acknowledge my sius before thee which have the aggravation of my condition the eminency of my place adding weight to my offence Forgive I beseech thee my Personall and my Peoples sinnes which are so far mine as I have not improved the power thou gavest me to thy glory and my Subiects good Thou hast now brought Me from the glory and freedom of a King to be a Prisoner to my oun Subiects Justly O Lord as to thy over-ruling hand because in many things I have rebelled against thee Though Thou hast restrained my Person yet enlarge my heart to Thee thy grace towards Me. I

come far short of Davids piety yet since I may equall Davids afflictions give Me also the comforts and the sure mercies of David Let the penitent sense I have of my sins be an evidence to me that thou hast pardoned them Let not the Evils which I and my Kingdomes have suffered seem little unto thee though thou hast no● punished us according to our sins Turn thee O Lord unto Me have mercy upon Me for I am desolate and afflicted The sorrows of my heart are enlarged O bring thou me out of my troubles Hast thou forgotten to be gracious and shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure O Remember thy compassions of old and thy lovi●g kindnesse which have been for many Generations I had utterly fainted if I had not believed to see thy goodnes in the land of the living Let not the sins of our prosperity deprive us of the benefit of thy afflictions Let this fiery tryall consume the dross which in long peace and plenty we had contracted Though thou continuest miseryes yet withdraw not thy grace what is wanting of prosperity make up ●n patience and repentance And if thy anger be not to be yet turned away but thy ●and of iustice most be stretched out still Let it I beseech thee be against me and my Fathers house as for these sheep what have they done Let my sufferings satiate the malice of Mine and thy Churches Enemies But let their cruelty never exceed the measure of my charity Banish from me all thoughts of Revenge that I may not lose the reward nor thou the glory of my patience As thou givest me a heart to forgive them so I beseech thee doe thou fergive what they have done against thee and me And now O Lord as thou hast given me an heart to pray unto thee so hear and accept this Vow which I make before thee If thou wilt in mercy remember me and My Kingdoms In continuing the light of thy Gospell and setling thy true Religion among us In restoring to us the benefit of the Laws and the due execution of ●●●tice In suppressing the many Schisms in Church and Factions in State If thou wilt restore me and mine to the anci●nt Rights and glory of my Predecessours If thou wilt turne the hearts of My people to thy self in Piety to me in Loyalty and to one another in Charity If thou wilt quench the flames and withdraw the fewell of these Civill Wars If thou wilt bless us with the freedom of publique Counsels and deliver the Honour of Parliaments from the insolency of the Vulgar If thou wilt keep me from the great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience and especially from consenting to sacrilegious rapines spoilings of thy Church If Thou wilt restore Me to a capacity to gloref●e Thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my soule praise thee and magnifie thy name before my People Then shall thy glory be dearer to me then my Crownes and the advancement of true Religion both in purity and power be My chiefest care Then will I rule my People with iustice and my Kingdomes with equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever owne as the rightfull succession so the mercifull restauration of My Kingdomes and the glory of them If thou wilt bring Me again with peace safety honour to my chiefest City and my Parliament If thou wilt againe put the Sword of Iustice into my hands to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemics to enioy the benefit of this Vow and resolution of Christian Charity which I now make unto thee O Lord. As I do freely pardon for Christ's sake those that have offended me in any kind so my hand shall never be against any man to revenge what is past in regard of any particular iniury done to me We have been mutually pnnished in our unnaturall divisions for thy sake O Lord for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in tbe wayes of amne●ly and indempnity which may most fully remove all fears and bury all iealousies in forgetfulnesse Let thy mercies be toward me and mine as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are toward my People Hear my prayer O Lord which goeth not out of fayned lips Blessed be God who hath not turned away my prayer nor taken his mercy from Me. O my soule commit thy way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to passe But if thou wilt not restore me and mine what am I that I should charge thee foolishly Thou O Lord hast given and thou hast taken Blessed be thy name May my people and thy Church be happy if not by me yet without me 26 Vpon the Armies Surprisall of of the King at Holmeby and the ensuing destractions in the two Houses the Army and the City VVHat part God will have Me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affaires I am not much solicitous since little practise will serve that man who onely seeks to represent a part of honesty and honour This surprize of Me tells the world that a KING cannot be so low but He is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appeares This motion like others of the Times seemes excentrique and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vaine to strive against it These are but the struglings of those twins which lately one womb enclosed the younger striving to prevaile against the elder what the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves So impossible is it for lines to be drawn from the center and not to divide from each other so much the wider by how much they go farther from the point of union That the Builders of Babell should from division fall to confusion is no wonder but for those that pretend to build Ierusalem to divide their Tongues and hands is but an ill omen and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots whose intestine bitternesse and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatall destruction of that City Well may I change my Keepers and Prison but not my captive condition onely with this hope of bettering that those who are so much professed Patrons for the Peoples Liberties cannot be utterly against the Liberty of their King what they demand for their own Consciences they cannot in Reason deny to Mine In this they seem more ingenuous than the Presbyterian rigour who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to laws are become the greatest Exactors of other mens submission to their novell injunctions before they are stamped with the Authotity of Lawes which they cannot well have without my consent 'T is a great argument that the Independents think themselves manumitted from their Rivals service in that they carry on a businesse of such consequence as the

Subject Nor do I wish other than the safe bringing of the ship to shore when they have cast me over-board though it be very strange that Marriners can find no other means to appease the storme themselves have raised but by drowning their Pilot. I thank God my Enemies cruelty cannot prevent my preparation whose malice in this I shall defeat that they shall not have the satisfaction to have destroyed my Soule with my Body of whose salvation while some of them have themselves seemed and taught others to despaire they have only discover'd this that they do not much desire it VVhose uncharitable and cruell Restraints denying me even the assistance of any of my Chaplains hath rather enlarged than any way obstructed my accesse to the Throne of Heaven Where thou dwellest O King of Kings who fillest Heaven and Earth who art the fountain of eternall life in whom is no shadow of death Thou O God art both the iust Afflicter of Death upon ns and the mercifull Saviour of us in it and from it Yea it is better for us to be dead to our selves and live in thee than by living in our selves to be deprived of thee O make the many bitter agravations of my death as a Man and a King the opportunities and advantages of thy speciall graces and comforts in my Soule as a Christian If thou Lord wilt be with me I shall neither fear nor feel any evill though I walk through the valey of the shadow of death To contend with death is the work of a weak and mortall man to overcome it is the grace of thee alone who art the Almighty and immortal God O My Saviour who knowest what it is to dye with Me as a Man make Me to know what it is to pass through death to life with thee My God Though I dye yet I know that thou my Redeemer livest for ever though thou slayest Me yet thou hast incouraged me to trust in thee for eternal life O withdraw not thy favour from me which is better than life O be not farre from me for I know not how neer a violent and cruel death is to Me. As thy Omniscience O God discovers so thy Omnipotence can defeat the designes of those who have or shall conspire my destruction O shew me thy goodnesse of thy will through the wickednesse of theirs Thou givest me leave as a man to pray that this cup may passe from me but thou hast taught Me as a Christian by the example of Christ to adde not my will but thine be done Yea Lord let our wills be one by wholy resolving mine into thine let not the desire of life in me be so great as that of doing or suffering thy will in either life or death As I believe thou hast forgiven all the errors of my life so I hope thou wilt save me from the terrours of my death Make me content to leave the worlds nothing that I may come really to enioy all in thee who hast made Christ unto me in life gaine and in death advantage Though my destroyers forget their duty to thee and me yet do not thou O Lord forget to be mercifull to them For what profit is there in my bloud or in their gaining my Kingdoms if they lose their own Souls Such as have not only resisted my iust Power but wholy usurped and turned it against my selfe though they may deserve yet let them not receive to themselvs damnation Thou madest thy Son a Saviou to many that Crucified Him while at once he suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them O let the voice of his hloud be heard for My murtherers louder than the cry of mine against them Prepare them for thy mercy by due convictions of their sinne and let them not at once deceive and damme their owne Soules by fallacio●s pretentions of Iustice in destroying me while the conscience of their uniust usurpation of power against me chiefly tempts them to use all extremities against me O Lord thou knowest I have found their mercies to me as very false so very cruell who pretending to preserve me have meditated nothing but my ruine O deal not with them as bloud-thirsty and deceitfull men but overcome their cruelty with thy compassion and my charity And when thou makest inquisition for My bloud O sprinkle their polluted yet penitent Souls with the bloud of thy Sonne that thy destroying Angell may passe over them Though they think my Kingdoms on earth too little to entertaine at once both them and me yet let the capacious Kingdome of thy infinite mercy at last receive both me and my enemies When being reconciled to thee in the bloud of the same Redeemer we shall live farre above these ambitious desires which beget such mortall enmities When their hands shall be heaviest and cruellest upon me O let me fall into the arms of thy tender and eternall mercies That what is cut off of my life in this miserable moment may be repaiedin thy ever blessed eternity Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy salvation Vota dabunt quae bella negârunt FINIS