Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	let_v	lord_n	name_n	9,327	5	5.7485	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80530	Experience, historie, and divinitie Divided into five books. Written by Richard Carpenter, vicar of Poling, a small and obscure village by the sea-side, neere to Arundel in Sussex. Who being, first a scholar of Eaton Colledge, and afterwards, a student in Cambridge, forsooke the Vniversity, and immediatly travelled, in his raw, green, and ignorant yeares, beyond the seas; ... and is now at last, by the speciall favour of God, reconciled to the faire Church of Christ in England? Printed by order from the House of Commons.	Carpenter, Richard, d. 1670?	1641 (1641)	Wing C620B; ESTC R229510	263,238	607

S. Austin of Christ tanti S. Aug. emit ut solus possideat What he bought he therefore bought at so high a rate that alone he might possesse it all CHAP. 4. I Shall now expose my selfe to the censure of people that have divers natures and divers religions and some will frowne others laugh others speake merrily some furiously as their affections move them and as the present state in which they are in shall prompt them But how divers soever they be I shall be still one and the same Yet I could wish we were all of one minde not that they might speake well of mee for I am too too plyable to the temptations of Pride and shall be glad to be humbled by them but that they might please God It is a high and deepe observation which the Bishop of Pontus hath in his Epistle to Leo the Emperor Cùm nullus Episcopus Ponti in ep ad Leon. Imp. ignoret quia Sanctae laudabilis Trinitatis primum bonum sit pax indivisio Vnde Deus unus est esse creditur No understanding man is ignorant that the first good thing in the blessed Trinity considered as the Trinity in Unity is peace and indivision Wherefore God both is and is beleeved to be one by vertue of this peace and indivision And as our God is three and one I would to God wee were many and one But this will never be while the Pope commands so much and the Jesuits obey so much One of the lesse principall ends of my writing is the same with the end of warre to speake with a Councell ut in pace vivamus that I may live in peace Bonum Tho. Aq. part 1. quaest 1. art 5. exercitus saith Thomas Aquinas ad bonum civitatis ordinatur An Army is not raised but to maintaine the peace of a Citie or Common-wealth And before I have done it will be acknowledged they have endeavoured to disturbe my peace As for well-disposed people I desire them to learne that God speakes not in his owne person to us For besides that he stands infinitely above us in greatnesse and majestie he is a spirit He sends messengers to us some in the freshnesse of the morning some in the heat of the day some from one place some from another some from beyond France and Germany and even from Rome it selfe and those of the same forme and fashion as we are that wee should not start at the apparition with the priviledge of this faire promise to them He that heareth you heareth me and hee that despiseth you despiseth Luk. 10. 16 me and he that despiseth mee despiseth him that sent me Heere is a gradation without a fallacy and the strength of it relyes upon the mission by which Apostles are sent by Christ and Christ was sent by his Father and upon the authority of the Commission given to them Where note that the Father sends but is not sent for mission supposeth in the sender at least a kinde of priority the Sonne is both sent and sends the holy Ghost sends not but is sent The children of Israel desired that Moses one of their owne company and acquaintance might speak to them For God was so loud and terrible in the delivery that he seemed to crush and overwhelme mortality Speak thou with us said they to Moses and wee 20 Ex. 19. will heare but let not God speak with us lest we dye For hee speaks thunder and lightning and the trumpet sounds when hee speaks and perhaps hee is preparing for a battell and when he speaks the mountain smokes and the fire cannot be farre off I will say something And yet I will not say it But if I should say it what can the Papists say The Church which gives a mission gives it as she tooke it from Christ As she tooke it from Christ or his Apostles she was a pure Church As shee was a pure Church she gave and now giveth because she hath beene a pure Church and received her warrant in her purity when shee giveth a mission authority to preach against all impurity both in faith and manners either in her selfe or else-where And behold being sent I am come Now let us answer in some kinde to Gods kindnesse It is one part of wisedome in a serpent commended and commended to us by one who loved us dearely that going to drink he cleanseth every secret corner and dark turning of his mouth from poyson Be yee wise as serpents Moses was cōmanded to put off his shooes because it was holy consecrated ground All terrene thoughts and earthly affections bemired with treading deepe in the world All sinister opinions and judgments steeped in prejudice are here to be layd downe or purified Almighty God hath indeed a little good ground in the world but it is duly and daily weeded manured well clear'd from stones and briars before the heavenly sower comes to work Here therefore even here before we take another step let us turn the face of all our thoughts towards God to stand like officious and dutifull servants attending upon the nod and pleasure of our great Lord and Master Behold as the eyes of servants looke unto the hand of their Masters Psa 123. 2. and as the eyes of a Mayden unto the hand of her Mistresse so our eyes waite upon the Lord our God untill that he have mercie upon us sayes the sweet singer of Israel We must place our eyes upon the hands of our Lord. For the hands are the instruments of work and it is in our duty to be ready when God gives as it were with his finger the first touch of actuall grace that we may joyne our soules by his help with him in vertuous action CHAP. 5. IT is an old Axiome as old as Philosophy Veritas una error autem multiplex Truth is one and error manifold Truth must needs be one because it hath but one first origine and such a one as is most constant to it selfe and can never be found in two contrary tales And error must needs be manifold because it hath many fountaines and such as seldome mingle their streames and seldome agree wholy in any thing but in this that they all erre and runne beside the channell There are many wayes out of the way and but one true way as there is but one health yet many sicknesses but one way to be borne yet many wayes to dye And man ever since he first erred is very prone to erre and having erred stops not in the first error but adds presently error to errour by loving and admiring his owne errour And errour is not alwayes desirous to be a neat and a fine errour but now and then it will be grosse The snow is evidently white Who will say in the hearing of a reasonable creature that snow is not purely white And yet a wise Philosopher whose name and memory have out-stayd the melting of many

without the troublesome connexion of a body But man is stored with a fairer number of perfections albeit those perfections which the Angel hath spread farther in fairenesse then these of man Shall this faire creature the noble work of God worship the meane work of man an Image which is but ashes in the likenesse of an Image and which the Popish Doctors confesse if a Papist or other person be driven with extremity of colde hee may burne to relieve his body Goe now man and worship him who when thy body falleth to the poore condition of a stone or block or of the Image that men would perswade thee to worship and stirreth onely as it is moved by a living power and shall be left not a man but the Image of a man the Image of God being departed with and in the soule shall acknowledge his owne Image if not defaced with the worship of Images or other sinnes and call thy soule and his Image home to his rest CHAP. 3. I Cannot come so nigh but I must needs have one pluck at the invocation of Saints By what device can we invocate the Saints without great injury to Gods glory For the more help we crave and expect from others though with some reference to God the lesse wee seeme to depend upon God and want of dependance be it reall or rationall and onely in appearance breeds neglect And a simple wretch beleeving that in what place soever of the world he is hee is there heard by his Saint and his petition granted and as they teach more easily granted doe you think his heart is not vehemently prompted to deifie his Saint I have heard an Italian say in Rome and hee spoke to me when he said it being transported with a high thought of the Popes greatnes so like the greatnesse of God that hee did exceedingly pitty the poore blind Englishmen who beleeved aright in some things and embraced many verities as that there is one God and three persons and the like and yet did not beleeve so plaine and open a matter that the Pope is God upon earth But they meet me as I goe A vile sinner is unworthy to appeare before God in his owne person Is it so Why then doth Christ make publike proclamation Come unto me all yee that labour and are heavy laden Mat. 11 28 and I will give you rest Wee must come unto him that giveth rest And all must come even they that labour under the waight of a burdened conscience they that are in labour and desire to be delivered of a Hedghog that wounds and teares them in their tender inside The spirits labour when men are upon dying and wee that labour to keepe life and soule together must come to him And it is God who as the Prophet David saith Humilia respicit in coelo in terra looks back upon the humble things of heaven and earth For as the low things of earth are humble in respect of him so also the sublime high things of Heaven But he bowes downe his attention to all as the Sun visiteth with equall clearenesse the garden of flowers the greene medow the field of Lillies and the dirty ditch One example is eminent And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cryed unto him saying Have mercy on mee O Mat. 15. 22 Lord thou Son of David my daughter is grievously vexed with a devill Shee was a woman of Canaan but for her unworthinesse her name is concealed And shee came out of the same coasts but what coast or where her house stood or whether or no she had a house wee must not learne And yet shee boldly cries unto him for mercy She gives him his titles by which she acknowledges his power and his gentlenesse For she calls him Lord and the Sonne of David a meek man And shee goes to him for a remedy against the devill that came to destroy the works of the devill Her daughter was possessed with a devill and quod possidetur saith Thomas of Aquine expounding the definition Tho. Aqu. 1. p. q. 10. art 1. of Eternity given by Boetius firmiter quietè habetur We hold fast and quietly the thing we possesse Yet shee hopes and feares and feares and hopes againe and in that hope goes to him couragiously Now certainly hee will come running towards her and meet her above halfe way It is quite otherwise But hee answered her not a word O poore woman why then Ver. 23. the Popish doctrine will appeare probable Christ will not answer a word to a vile sinner speaking in her owne person Had he but look'd upon her with a compassionate eye and said Alas poore woman she would have called him Son of David once again But he answered her not a word And his Disciples came and besought him saying Send her away for she crieth after us She follow'd still and her cries went before her if hee will not see her he shall heare her and he shall know that she is a woman His Disciples begin to think that shee is as much vext with a devill as her daughter shee cries so loud and beseech him to send her away But he answered and said I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Ver. 24. Poore wretch what shall become of her She is lost and lost againe lost in her selfe and lost in her daughter but shee is not of the sheep of the house of Israel And therefore if hee be sent to none but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel hee will never finde her though shee be lost and hee finde what is lost Then came she and worshipped him saying Lord help mee Make roome Ver. 25. give way there now she comes She breaks through the presse and down she falls upon her knees before him shee feares that shee was rejected because she had not worshipped him and now she humbles her heart and her body and lifts up her hands crying Lord help me Is it possible now that Christ should not melt into compassion and thaw into sweet drops of teares and mercy But he answered and said It is not meet to take the Ver. 26. childrens bread and to cast to dogs What a dog If shee be a dog shee is not a curst dog Was ever a dog heard to cry Lord help me I wonder she breaks not out Am I a dog I would have you well know I am not a dog I am a woman You a man sent from Heaven and call a woman dog Had I beene call'd any thing but an unclean dog I had not car'd I doe not remember that I ever bark'd or bit any man And must I now be call'd a dog Her language is of another straine And she said Truth Lord Ver. 27. yet the doggs eat of the crums which fall from their Masters table The woman will be a dog or any thing that hee calls her and shee

one stretched out with pride that should after two months die like a Dog in a ditch He saw another pawning his very soule for honour that should not live out the fourth part of a yeare to enjoy it What silly fooles the Devill makes us Here he saw one catching and scraping for mony that he was certain should be call'd to a strict account and cast into Hell within the short space of a month There another cheering up pampering his flesh with dainties and still the tother cup that the wormes were within lesse then seven dayes to enter upon Here he heard one swearing and tearing God the holy name of God and there presently he heard God also swearing in his wrath that he should not enter into his rest And here another venting as many lies as sentences while he heard God say cut him off let him speake no more it is my course for the longer he lives he will be the more wicked He might see two goe reeling in their drunkennesse one of whom the same night should break his necke from a window and the other be stab'd to death in a riot Two more following the vile motions of their owne filthy lusts and in league with base women that the same weeke should cut their purses and throats together He saw the greatest part of them pursuing earnestly their owne sinfull desires and either diseases gathering to a head inwardly in their bodies or Gods judgements outwardly mustering their forces to send them to Hell out of hand These mournefull passages Christ saw and being very sorry to see them wept He pronounces the sentence of destruction against the City and he weepes while he does it Hinc illae lacrymae Hence came those teares He wept not put on with the thought of his owne passion though very nigh but of their destruction And therefore he sayes Daughters of Jerusalem weepe not for mee for whom then Lord but weepe for your selves and for your children Doe we love our children our pretty little Babes let us weep for our sins that we may not weepe for them And can we see Christ weep him that died for us weep and not offer our service to wipe the teares from his eyes Saint Gregorie Nazianzen rapt out of himselfe in consideration of the poore condition of the poore cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O my dainties and their misery And thus we may cry of the soules in Hell of some of our friends and neighbours that died lately O our joy our quiet and their miserable torments which we ought not to pity which God pities not When I have wrote all I can write I feare all will end here There is a blessed repose in God for good men and a cursed prison for wicked livers But we are so busie in the world betwixt both that we have no time to thinke of either to looke upwards or downewards Yet know that we cannot stay betwixt both forever We are certainely appointed for one where we must reside for ever and ever Good Reader stand firme against the Devill and against his two Factours the Flesh and the World Beware you that thinke your selves to be morall men and women of little sinnes Of sinnes little in our weake estimation because they canker not our credits nor cast upon us the staine of wicked livers Doe wee give to our endeavours in their commission a command to please God or men Saint Austin speakes like himselfe Noli quotidiana peccata contemnere quia minima sunt sed time quia plura sunt Plerunque minimae bestiae si multae sint necant Doe not contemne thy daily sinnes because they are small but feare them because they are many Small beasts if they bee many many times kill And the smallest sinne that can be committed but once committed troubles exceedingly and offends the most cleane cleare eyes of God If you are still obstinate the Devill is more good then you the blacke Devill of Hell For Grace is not offered to him and therefore he cannot lay hold upon it It is offered to you with entreaties and you refuse it And moreover the Devill is confirmed in his obstinacie you are not God invites you I am sure of it I am sure I came from him The Angels and Saints from Heaven all the chosen of God from all parts of the world pray you as very desirous of your company The holy Church entreats you for I came likewise from her to you Lissen to your thoughts marke there your own poore soules beseech you trembling like the Hart shot neare the heart and strucke with the fear of eternall damnation crying to you we were made for God O put us into his hands Our hearts are very sicke of a very dangerous disease worse then the Plague chilnesse in Gods service Let us write upon the dore in red letters as they doe upon the dores of houses infected with the Plague the pen being dipt in the bloud of Christ Lord have mercie upon us Yes yes have mercie upon us and not for our sakes not for our Fathers sakes not for our Ancestors sakes not for the Saints and Angels sakes not for the Virgin Maries sake but for Jesus Christ his sake CHAP. XIX EXtraordinary occasions require extraordinary proceedings The Copie of a Letter sent to my Lodging in Thames-street Mr. Carpenter AN old acquaintance of yours sends his hand accompanied with his heart to you although he dares not trust you either with his person or name Especially considering that you traduced an innocent man before the Bench as a seducer because he lov'd you and therefore desired you to remember from whence you had fallen and repent of your errour Poore man I pitie you and therefore I pitie you because I love you Whither so fast Looke backe God is a Father still and his Church still a mother and each hath many bowels of compassion You seemed to us a man of a good nature and religiously enclined And I remember when your Pen also was imployed in the behalfe of the Catholike Church And yet I understand that you are not contented to speake but that you have wrote also and are now ready to speake from the Presse the dishonour of her that was your own Mother and is Christs own Spouse Thinke without passion Is not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight with God And with what weapons when you fight with him can you wound him to hurt him Or did he ever fight and at last went not away conquerour As God hath furnished you with gifts of nature which you by his helpe have bettered with labour so he requires the imployment of them in his owne service And if the imployment or use be not reasonably paid a severe account must be rendered Can you without a pressure of conscience call that a Church in which you are a thing so torne and distracted Can your soule which hath hungred after heavenly things feede now with the swine upon

quickly after she began to faint and suffer a kind of ecclipse of Nature Shee fell into the armes of one of her mayds and she vvas not able to looke upon him or stand before him till hee rose from his throne caught her into his armes and said What is thy request it shall be even given thee to the halfe Est 5. 3. of the Kingdome Farre more vveake and afflicted vvould be the case of a soule appearing in the presence of God did not God himselfe enable her The splendour of his Glory vvould appeare so bright that hee could not be look'd upon The greatnesse of his Majestie vvould shew it selfe so terrible that hee could not be endur'd And therefore hee does as it vvere put out his hand and lift up the soule being fallen before him and then she takes courage and runnes upon him as a pretty little mayd into her Fathers armes MEDITATION XIIII BUt the vvicked besides their present punishments must expect a dreadfull sentence in the Lords day Depart from me yee cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Mat. 25. 41 devill and his angels What horrour vvhat fearfull trembling vvhat a mighty confusion of severall cries vvhat howling vvhat bellowing vvill there then be how they vvill be tormented even before they are dragg'd to the torment Depart from mee O gracious God perhaps they may reply remember vve are thy creatures and thou canst not but remember for vvee depend now in our being of thee We vvere made by thee and for thee let us not O let us not be divided from our last end for after such a divorce vvee shall never enjoy repose or take any rest vvhich every thing vvith all the bent of nature desires If we should goe from thee now wee should never know vvhere to meet vvith thee again Wee are made according to thine owne image O drive us not from our patterne Shall we part from thee in whom are met the excellencies of all creatures in a most excellent manner purified from all stain of imperfection and in whom all finite perfections are infinite From thee who art the great sea out of which all Rivers run and to which they ow themselves return Wee were the master-peece of all earthly creatures When thou hadst created all the spacious Universe thou diddest draw an abridgement and Epitome of it againe in us and nothing was found in the whole Volume which was not touch'd and mention'd in the Epitome All other creatures were framed looking downwards toward the earth as having nothing heavenly in them or in heaven to hope for thou gavest us faces erected towards thee and heaven And since we have look'd towards thee so long let us be with thee now in the end we beseech thee No Depart from me Yee have no part in me My merits by which yee hope for mercy are so farre from helping yee that they rise in judgement against yee Depart from mee and goe to him yee serv'd demand your wages If then wee must goe and goe from thee at least good Father give us your blessing before we go Set a mark upon us that when we are found by thine and our enemies they may know to whom we belong and spare us for feare of thee Thou that hast so great store of blessings to give we hope hast one yet in store for us We crave but a small blessing O it is a little one Thou art our Father witnesse Gen. 19. 20. our Creation and it is a chiefe property of a Father to blesse his children No. Depart from mee yee cursed In place of a blessing take the full curse of your Father as having beene most prodigall and disobedient children I catch from yee all your title to mee and my Kingdome and because yee have followed him who had my first curse share curses with him If if then wee must goe from thee and goe accursed Yet appoint us blessed God a meet and convenient place for our residence Create a fruitfull peece of ground let a goodly Sun daily shine upon it let it have sweet and wholsome ayre and be stor'd with fruits and flowers of all formes and colours Give us under-creatures in great variety to serve fitly for our uses And because we are enforced to goe from thee the source and fountaine of heavenly sweetnesse afford us plenty of earthly pleasure which may in some sort recompence our paine of losse Speak but the old word Fiat let it be and such a place will presently start up and shew it selfe No Depart from mee yee cursed into fire Though I intended not the burning of spirits and soules For I am faine to lift and elevate fire above it's nature O the wisedome of God! to such an extraordinary way of action because sinners have transgressed the Law of na●ure in disobedience You sinned against nature I punish above nature because I cannot punish against nature vvho am the prime Origin of nature and may not proceed against my selfe Fire Alas that ever wee were borne Of all the foure Elements of which the world consisted it is the most active and curious and searches farthest and where it but onely touches a sensible thing it is seconded by a paine unsufferable Thou didst create fire for mans use and shall it now rebell against man as man against thee and become his tormentor Who is able to rest in fire The very thought of it burneth us already we are tormented Come come let us run away but whither Lord God if it be irrecoverably in thy Decree that wee must goe thus naked as we came into the world and went out of the vvorld into fire let the sentence stand but for a very short time quench the fire quickly halfe an houre will seeme a great while there and be alwayes mindfull that they are thy creatures vvho are in the fire that they are men and vvomen whose nature thou hast exalted to a personall Unity with thy Divinity No Depart from mee yee cursed into everlasting fire It was kindled by my breath and it hath this property amongst other strange qualities that it is an unquenchable fire as long as I am God it shall endure and yee broile in it which being the most active and powerfull amongst inferiour creatures hath a charge to revenge the injuries done to God and all other creatures by man O horrible Yet heavenly Judge alot to vs some good Comforters whose smooth and gentle words may i● it can be sweeten our torment and somewhat dull the most keene edge of our extremity Let the Angels recreate us with Songs and Hymnes of thee and thy blessednesse that we may heare at least that sweetly deliver'd which others in a full manner enjoy No no to the rich man in the Parable I did not grant one of his requests which he made from hell nor will I meet your desire in any thing Therefore Depart from mee yee cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devill and his