Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	heart_n	let_v	lord_n	11,278	5	4.0773	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93147	White salt: or, A sober correction of a mad world, in some wel-wishes to goodness. / By John Sherman, B.D.	Sherman, John, d. 1663.	1654 (1654)	Wing S3387; Thomason E1517_1; ESTC R203564	80,830	261

chief Butler of Pharaoh forgat his ingagement and Iosoph but we should not forget the afflictions of Joseph we should as we may speak broach a new vessel of tears for him Nehemiah the Kings Cup-bearer had more affection to Ierusalem and gave the King a good account of his sad countenance in the 2. chap. 2 3. verses He good man was as ready to fill Gods bottles with tears as the Kings cup with wine that God might powre out a blessing upon Jerusalem Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Psal 81.10 Indeed we are like narrow mouthed vessels we can take in but as by drops and we can let out also but by drops if we could open our eyes and fill up the measure of tears or rather had we no measure we should have more of Gods mercies See if there were ever sorrow like unto this in the land of our nativity we are an Island without but within we should be as it were all Sea in sorrow for the most desperate breaches which ever Satan imagined and man made We had a Kingdom as great as those who had more compass In those things which are not great by bulk the goodness is the greatness as his rule is And this Nation was great by some kindes of goodness not by quantity Had it been but of indifferent credit and name it had not been envyed had it not been envyed it had missed these calamities When Excellency goes before Envy is like to go behinde to trip up the heels Sin hath deserved it but envy and covetousness of our own hath done it undone it If ever laughter was madness as the wise man saith then certainly now when we seem all to have lost our reason After the body of the Nation had lost so much bloud then to take off the Head what is it when ever so done by whom Can it be said to be done by two whereof one would be next to Christ the other to Jesus One would have it to be done according to their principle the other in form of justice according to their hypocrisie Where lived he who wished all had but one neck that he might be but once cruel And when but then did all lie under one head Head of the Church and of the Common-wealth could not stand together The head is taken from our Master so then our Master is taken from our head and as he said We are rather without a Master then in liberty unless to weep if even this Was not the punishment ours for we were beheaded And what is left in the body but a few equivocal spirits The breath of our nosthrils is taken away and how then do we live It is necessary said he to put unity before all multitude but we have preferred a multitude and when many are put before one what do they stand for Surely we are in a vertiginous disposition and our feet are where our head was and we think we are in England when we are out of the Kingdom Beelzebub hath now found out being the Prince of flies such flies as the Roman Eagle will catch And he hath found out a way to gratifie the Italian with such servants as will make their own liveries with home-made cloth I would the servant of servants had that foot in the grave which was wont to be kissed but I am afraid he hath set that foot on our ground Indeed we seem to drive him out as some do drive out beasts out of the corn when they drive them more in and they cry him down as those who mingle with the Hue that they may not be discovered But this object seems to exceed our faculty and we cannot almost think of it without sinking by the weight of it into sorrow without a bottom and without hope For those that are dead we sorrow not without hope in obedience to the precept 1 Thes 4.13 for they shall have a glorious Resurrection but for them who are living we sorrow without hope for there is little hope of a resurrection from this condition unless we hope in him that quickeneth the dead and maketh those things which are not as though they were We have in our selves the sentence of death as the Apostle there in another sense In our selves what have we to make us think that we are not condemned to uttter ruine when we think of all our enemies and all our sins which are yet whole in us What is there to be broken so soon as our hearts And what is there which is not broken but our hearts What vengeance may that Nation look for which by unamendment yea greater iniquities requireth more punishment or if it be spared without contrition even that may be the greatest punishment Nolo hanc misericordiam Domine said the devout man Lord let me have none of that mercy And therefore all the comfort is that we are yet punished that all the dose of the purge is not yet taken There is no doubt but we are weary of our punishments but we should be more weary of our sins and until we be more weary of our sins it is a favour not to be eased of our strokes and burthen of adversities We should have been weary of our sins before the rod came but I would we were weary of them now If any of our sins be not now committed are they yet mortified It may be some of them do not come abroad in the exercise but they keep close at home in the mind And that which locks them in is security We are like men in sleep upon the top of a mast when the windes blow and the waves roar and the Ship reels on this side and on that side and the Pilot thrown over and yet every one scuffling for the goods and every one will handle the rudder And yet we are fools and enemies if we do not like this condition How much do we suffer because we will not be deceived Have we not cause to mourn for these things have we not cause to mourn that we cannot mourn as we should have we not cause to mourn that we cannot mourn that we cannot mourn and so make our mournings infiinte What can we think of in the land which will keep us from bleeding to death in tears had we so serious apprehensions of things as their nature and circumstances do require Or if we had not matter enough within our own Territories for grief we might enlarge our selves and expatiate into the whole world For every Christian is Oecumenical and hath a care of the whole world and if he be right he doth grieve that the world hath so much work of repentance to do and yet hath so little time and that there are so many contrefait Christians who if they mend not must go soon from the white Devil to the black And what is there yet more deserving to be washed with this briny water then this that when sins and errors do so much every where abound