Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A96707
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Spicilegium, or, A glean of mixtling by John Winter, minister of East Dearham in Norfolke.
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Winter, John, 1621?-1698?
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1664
(1664)
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Wing W3083B; ESTC R42990
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32,830
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47
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Jacob for doting upon such a promising child I see it in his dreams so pleasant so harmless and so significant which he told as freely and confidently without any fear or suspition of his brethrens envy I see it in his readiness to go at his father's word to visit his froward brethren who could not speak kindly to him Gen. 37. but plotted at first sight of him to kill him for his pains I see it in the prison in his cheerfullness and affability to his fellow-prisoners Wherefore said he look ye so sadly to day Gen. 40. And who then there had more cause than he But I see it in him most apparently in the height of his dignity he being sempèr idem alwayes the same man and alwayes a good man He could not see his brethren troubled but he was troubled to see it neither could he hear them confess their faults and condemn themselves but he was forced to turn away and weep He overcame their evill with his goodness in every circumstance They cast him into a pit to eat gravell and stones and to drink his own tears whilest they sate down to their dinner with pleasure But he caused them to sit down before him and to eat drink and be merry They sold him for money Gen. 45. He sells them corn and then gives them their money again They stripped him of his coat But he sent them home with changes of rayment Mee thinks I see this humour appear in David's red cheeks and cheerfull countenance when he took Saul asleep the second time and none keeping guard about him when he took away the spear and the cruse of water from his boulster 1 Sam. 26. thereby showing that he could have taken away his life and then calling Abner and upbraiding him and his Souldiers for their negligence by all which Saul might know how little cause he had to take him for his enemy or to pursue him as a traytour Posse nolle nobile To be able to revenge and to be unwilling is the noblest resolution in the world Every Dog can grin and bite every Wasp can sting and the most despicable brutes can show spite and pursue revenge but he that can forbear is a man at least whatsoever he is more And we need no other example hereunto than his who expressed rich drops of his sacred blood in prayer for us Luk. 22.44 and afterward poured forth the main ocean of it upon the Cross who going to die had an eye upon the mourners and seemed not to regard his own in commiseration to their condition Daughters of Jerusalem said he Weep not for me but for your selves Luk. 23.28 and for you children This resolution the holy Martyrs in intimation of their and our Master have alwayes taken up forgetting their own injuries pitying those who had no pity on them and praying for the salvation of their souls who were the destruction of their bodies and estates Let us learn to be likeminded Let us break off Enmity and renew Friendship Let all men learn to record the Act of Oblivion in the Court of Conscience and most chiefly those who have most benefit by it and then let them execute it one towards another Themistocles his resolution will fit in this case Plut. who being offered to be taught the art of memory answered he had rather be taught the art of forgetfullness for said he I can remember what I please but I cannot forget what I would I know not whether any have such a birdlim'd memory to remember what they please I believe there are many and know there are some cannot forget what they would But I am sure there are more will not forget what they should that is to say their mischief spite revenge wrath malice and uncharitableness There is none but the great Schoolmaster can teach men this lesson And he instructeth us to it both by precept and patern in assurance of whose lenity and mercy we are taught to pray Psal 79.8 O remember not our old sins but have mercy upon us And remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers Familiar or civil Observations A treacherous memory OFten have I heard men of happy memories blame themselves for weakness of memory but seldom any person accuse himself for a weak judegment Thus folly loves to be praised and sin to be excused But the defects and deformities of Creeples are most discerned in their motions and the greatest weakness of men appear when they stand up in defence of their own imperfections In both our civil and spiritual station judgement and memory are our two legs and commmonly when one fails the other doth us but lame service Had we not an erroneous judgement and a perverse will we should not haue a treacherous memory Omnia quae curant senes meminerunt Ter. old men remember what they have a mind to to serve their own turn Alas we love to hood-wink our intellectual parts that we may pursue out brutish passions and vile affections And this makes us forget our God forget our selves forget our neighbours and do the things that are unseemly A help at hand or a remedy with a mischief LItera scripta manet The written word is permanent The invention of Bibliography hath well eased the narrow table of mans heart and delivered his gilded sheet of brain-paper from the tenters allowing him recourse 〈◊〉 upon all occasions to the standing Records of learned Collectors But it had been good for many that they had never attained to the use of this invention For then many mischiefs had happily died and many injuries had been honourably buried in oblivion which are now kept above ground in black and white untill they stink upon the face of the earth being made everlasting by pen ink and paper I have seen many men enter notes into their Almanacks which the Prognosticators neither foretold nor foresaw of the trespasses their neighbour had done them with the punctuall time place and witnesses that they might have mischief by heart and vengeance ad unguem But I never yet saw men set down their own trespasses committed either against God or their neighbours They have not a panick fear but a panick faith They are afraid to forget other mens faults loth to remember their own Their practise obliges them unto phanaticisme for they cannot safely say the Lord's Prayer lest the fifth petition should make a blot in their book Thus Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites have oppressed and wellnigh suppressed the Evangelists and the abuse of the Law hath almost overthrown the Gospel The question St Peter put to our Saviour is now out of date Mat. 18.21 Lord how oft shall my brother trespasse against me and I forgive him And rather than men will stand to Christ's award to forgive untill seventy times seven there are many would if possible have seventy times seven quarrels with their brethren for the value of
continue it with his grace bread and royall dainties Napthali as wild as a Buck a Hinde let loose Joseph a fruitfull bough and Benjamin like a younger brother is design'd to ravine as a Wolf Plâ—to though deserving better for his learned pains for his supercilious deportment and lofty carriage Brus was by Antisthenes dub'd a Horse And Diogenes for his snarling humour not canonized but canonized and made a Dog by Patent The Prophet amazed at the cruelty and violence of the world compared men to the fishes in the sea where the great make a pastime of devouring the small Yea he likens the poor and helpless to silly fishes and the Mighty and rapacious partly to Anglers Hab. 1.14 and partly to men fishing with a drag-net thereby shewing that there is a Generation which will still be catching either by hook or crook by fraud or force and that all is fish that cometh into their net Such men as these the Psalmist frequently termeth Lyons and the Lamb of God who saith false prophets are wolves in sheeps clothing Mal. 7.15 Luk. 13.32 called Herod the tyrant a fox Thus Man who sometimes was in honour forfeiting his primitive innocent understanding is by serpentine craft become like unto the beasts that perish And now may we say with David Psal 8. Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him Lord what is man Lord what is he not He is any thing but what thou once madest him and what he should be He is the mirrour of frailty times pride and spoil fortunes laughing-stock the picture of inconstancy and the tennis-ball of envy and calamity A worme he is and no man Corruption is our father and the worm our mother Man is like a thing of nought his time passeth away like a shadow So Homer's heroick Iliads are brought within the compass of a nutshell the great world into the little world and the little world into nothing O then love not the world nor the things of the world The world is a riddle which destroyeth them who bend their minds to unfold it or their hearts to infold it It is too great and yet too small for a man's affections too great for his head and his hands too little for his heart more than enough to trouble a quiet soul but nothing sufficient to quiet a troubled spirit That man alone reapeth content within it who is content without it 1 Joh. 2.17 The world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Mores sequuntur humores Manners follow the Humours Phlegme I Have no quarrell with the work of God God forbid nor nor am I out of homour with the humours though alternis vicibus they often put me out of humour I look upon phlegme as an allay to choler and know that fire and water as well in the body naturall as in the body politick are very good servants though bad masters And as 〈◊〉 it is on all hands confessed that the blood is the chariot of life so it must be granted that a modicum of phlegme is instead of oyl to make the wheels run merrily But omne nimium vertitur in vitium too much is alwayes bad and the old world perished by a deluge Where phlegme prevaileth above all the rest there is good ground made fenn and bogs each thought is like a Pout or muddy Eel the recovery beyond the reach of Dutch devices and the improvement of such bottomless parts enough to break mean undertakers It is true Art will do much but the water will have the course And it is not worth the pains and cost to make sluces to the sea or to bray a fool in a mortar Prov. 27.22 This soft effeminate lazy humour is apt to invade men's spirits with insensible approaches and like the tide to environ them before they be aware And then over shooes over boots This humour may well take the gout and the dropsy for companions and it often doth so And though it deserveth not their patronage it hath need of great persons to uphold it otherwise it maketh them beggers Yet a little sleep Prov. 6.10 a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep So shall thy poverty come as one that that travelleth and thy want as an armed man Whoso is overcome with this disease is buried alive unprofitable to others uncomfortable to himself He is intomb'd in his house as the dead in their graves so that a man may epitaph over his door as the Philosopher did upon Vacia's Lazines Hic situs est c. Here lieth the body of such a person or he may write as in pestilentiall places Lord have mercy upon us Lord let not this waterflood of Sloth overwhelm us neither let the deep of negligence swallow us up Choler NEver was there so great a superfluity of water but there hath been or may be as great a drought As the world once for sin was drenched so once for all it shall be scorched In the mean time the little world of Man is frequently impaired by this domestick fire of choler which when it is too little doth not warme the house when too great it consumeth both the Inhabitant and hazard's the neighbours Igne quid utilius Ovid. Tris si quis tamèn urere tecta Caeperit audaces instruit igne manus What more usefull and yet what more dangerous than fire A drop of water cannot possibly do any considerable harm to any But one spark of fire neglected may do very much to many Choler and fire are like a false rumour and an evil report getting strength by every wind and laying hold upon all that is near it A cholerick breast is a tynderbox apt to catch any fire having a happy use when it stands right under the sparks of grace and is subservient to a holy indignation But is then unfortunate when it is inflamed with balls of wild fire cast in by the grand Spirit of discord or by the busy hands of Malecontented spirits He had need be vigilant against his undermining Enemy and against all adventitious Incendiaries who hath such a Magazin of Gunpowder within his own bosome Eph. 4.26 Be angry but sin not is a most divine lesson but a nice distinction for a man's practise to hit on And therefore the Authour having sometimes been a persecuter of the Church gave this rule that men should be zealously affected alwayes in a good thing Gal. 4.18 He is no good disputant who transferreth his quarrell from things to persons and leave 's the question to revile the opponent And choler will quickly do this and more That child deserveth to smart and bleed who spits in his fathers or mothers face because some of his brethren did him wrong And yet God help us nothing is at this day more common amongst us Witness those frequent petulant and pestilent oppositions against all Laws and injunctions of the King