Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A86400
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The [H]istory of the [l]ife and death [of] that antient father of the church, [D]r. Joh. Thauler [who] lived at Colen [sic] in Germany in the year of [Ou]r Lord, 1346, where he was in a [m]iraculous manner turned from his vain conversation to an extraordinary degree [of] holiness of life : [toge]ther with many of his precepts ... / [f]aithfully translated out of Latine.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing H2167A; ESTC R43640
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67,974
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161
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if compared with the Life of Christ and how as nothing his life was compared with the immence charity of Christ Great contrition and sorrow for all his sins and for all his ill spent and lost time ceazed upon him So that with his whole affection with heart and voice he said to the Lord Ah! merciful and compassionate Lord God have mercy have mercy upon me for the abiss of thy mercies sake because I am not worthy that the earth should bear me Whilest these words were in his heart and mouth being broad awake he heard with his bodily cars yet seeing nothing a voice saying unto him Now receive thy peace and put thy trust in God and take it for certain that when he lived upon earth that whatsoever sick person he cured in body the same he likewise healed in Soul Which words being ended instantly the Doctor fell into an extasie and was deprived of all rational understanding insomuch that he knew not what was done unto him where he was or whither he was snatch'd But after that he was restored to himself he found in himself in his whole nature a new and great power and vigour such as he confessed he had never in all his whole life time felt by experience before as also so clear and enlightned a discerning or illuminated reason as never was in the least known to him before that time But being amazed he wondred with himself from whence these things should so suddenly happen unto him and began to think thus with himself Certainly thou wilt never be able to clear up this matter of thy self send therefore for thy Friend to come unto thee and lay open the whole matter in order unto him And so he did The Layman being sent for readily obeyed the Doctor came to him forthwith the Doctor told him every thing in order as it happened unto him which when the Layman had beard he said How gladly even with my whole heart Sir do I hear this news I know that you have first now truly experienced the true grace of God and are now first touched in the superior powers of your mind Know also that as heretofore the Letter killed you so now the same will quicken you because all the holy Scripture proceeded and flowed from the holy Ghost Neither doubt Sir but the knowledge of the holy Scripture will for the future very much profit you now that you have been found worthy to be illuminated by the light of the holy Ghost For many things now will be made manifest to you by the Scriptures which were altogether unknown to you before For you know that the holy Scripture seemed to you and many other Theologists to be contrary to it self in many places But he who rightly knows how to look into it in the light of the holy Spirit as you hence-forward will be able to do such a one doth plainly know how that it agreeth with it self throughout Wherefore now you will begin wisely to understand Scripture and rightly to follow the true Pattern and Exempler of Truth our Lord Jesus Christ Now also you must again take upon you the care of Preaching which for some time hath been intermitted that by the Word you may edifie and instruct your Neighbours And now the time is come also that you must fetch home your Books again and fall to reading and perusing them And be certain that hereafter one Sermon of yours will be more profitable and fruitful than a hundred of your former for those that shall hear you hereafter will be profited and amended far more than they have been heretofore and that because the Word which you shall hereafter utter will flow from a clean vessel and therefore will be very grateful and acceptable to a clean mind and a lover of God Furthermore know this that as heretofore you have been by many accounted contemptible and appeared to them dispicable so now you will appear to them all an hundred times more amiable and be more acceptable than ever heretofore And now multitudes of people will begin to flock together to hear you so that it will for this cause be exceeding good for you to keep your self very humble and more carefully to watch over your self For as you know he that hath any great Treasure hath the more need carefully to guard them from Robbers And certainly those hellish Robbers the evil spirits are very much affrighted and always terrified as often as they perceive that God Almighty hath bestow'd upon any man so great a treasure And therefore be sure they will turn every stone and make use of all their strength and cunning to steal from you or rob you of this Treasure Therefore it exceedingly concerns you to keep it with all care and vigilancy But you will be able by no means better to preserve it then by a silent true and profound humility Finally as things are with you there is no more need that for the future I should converse with you as an instructer of you No verily I now exceedingly desire to be taught by you and intend here to remain so long till I have heard diverse of your Sermons And because as you have acknowledged you have felt and experienced a certain great power and such as is understood both in Nature and Grace I very much desire if the Lord permit that you would again Preach Master What advice therefore do you give me dearest Son for I have pawned several of my Books and have taken up upon them no less then thirty Crowns Layman Send some body for them and I on Gods behalf will redeem them and will give thee so many Crowns and if after you have redeemed your Books any thing shall remain you shall restore it to God so the Books were brought and redeemed After these things the Doctor caused it to be given out and spread abroad that upon the third day after he intended to Preach which when it was heard every body much wondered and because of the novelty of the thing a huge multitude of People came together The Doctor therefore when he was come and saw so many People come together got up into the Pulpit and covering his Eyes with his hood he thus prayed to himself O Mercyful God of it may be pleasing to thee grant I may so speak and do as that thy most acceptable will may be done in me Presently after he had spoken these Words 2 pang of weeping without any endeavour of his fell upon him he shed many most sweet Tears which continued so long that the People began to be weary of so tedious expectation So that one of the crowd said with a loud voyce How long I pray Sir do you intend to keep us Now it grows late and if you will not begin say so that we may rise and go home And when the Doctor himself did take notice that the time was nigh past he said again unto the Lord. Ah Merciful Lord my God if it be
on me And if it would not be too tedious to you I would tell you some things which would be not a little congruous to this place and would be profitable for you to hear it Then very many of the People altogether with one voice said Speak assuredly Sir for you shall find us patient and benevolous hearers I rehearse therefore unto you Beloved a thing that befell my self Upon a certain time I sat alone in a Cell and when I had began to think of the wonderfull things of God and how strange the state of the Church was at this time how all good order was too much neglected and went to rack In the midst of these meditations I heard a certain voice with my bodily ears speaking to me although I saw no body at all But after this manner it spake Arise now you must experience some things wherby you may be enabled so much the more certainly to speak the truth openly to your neighbours And at this last word I were deprived of all my sensual discerning and being taken into an extasie I was in that very rapture permitted to see into Purgatory where I beheld the torments of multitudes of men many of which I knew so painfull and so intolerably bitter and so immense punishments and sorrows so intense and fearfull that no reason no understanding is sufficient to express them In brief take it for certain that I beheld there so many so various and divers kinds of torments in a wonderfull manner painfull that such a terrour and trembling hath seized upon me that all the natural joyes of this life can in no wise make me merry and if I should live yet an hundred years I think I should never be merry except God should make me so by some supernatural means But I beseech you Beloved let not any be offended at this that I would relate such things as these are unto you Truly I fear that some peradventure do think that in divulging these things I seek glory to my self But let me assure you I seek or wish the praise of no man nay nor the wealth of any one for this reason for I am abundantly contented with those things which in our Monastery according to the custom of the Covent are provided for me Nay I am never without fear lest peradventure I should take that which is superfluous of those things which are set before me in our Hall And certainly I believe that there is not one here present who if he had seen and experienced those things which I have seen and experienced namely such horrible and fearfull punishments but would peradventvre have been better contented with a small provision and allowance than I am Therefore let none of you be scandalized at my words fore-spoken In good earnest I find no other cause why God would have me to see such things but because of my sins and iniquities that I might both reform my self and the more boldly speak to others the truth which I have certainly known and in no wise flatter their wickednesses and sins And hence if I were sure for this cause to be put to death I should nevertheless speak the naked and simple truth Truly I saw some in those most vehement pains and was taken with extream admiration that they should desire to remain so long in so great anguish sith some of them had departed this life many years before who whilst they lived I did believe were both good and pious and yet they did undergo in those places of Purgatory so great and ineffable punishments that no man can in this life ponder or understand them as they deserve Wherefore this I from my heart do counsel all that we slight not Purgatory but be speedily converted and seriously reform our selves Certainly if you did know how above measure valuable and profitable the present time is you would not esteem it so little nor suffer it to passe away so foolishly for truly when we are brought out of this transitory time into things future and eternal there exceeding speedy simple right and rigid judgment passeth upon those who suffer this present time foolishly to pass away But what shall I say Beloved for if I attempt to speak any thing to you of divine Justice that is so immeasurable strict and rigid that I fear some of you may take occasion of despair from hence If contrariwise I would discourse of his infinit mercy how ready he is to shew it to all in this life I fear on the other hand some would presume so upon it that they would live worse and more foolishly and so may admit of some such sin as it were to be feared God would not pardon either here or hereafter I fear truly Beloved lest I have been too tedious although many things yet remain to be spoken of divers sorts of men and divers affairs because that we have gone too far astray from the right way And in truth if I did laying aside all things else attend only the duty of Preaching for this whole year I think I could in no wise sufficiently lay open all our defects and sins But when the Lord shall order it I will further speak of this matter Arise now and say the Lords Prayer with the Angels Salutation After these things it fell out on a certain time that the Master made a journey to a certain Inclusory in which there abode five Inclusis which earnestly entreated him to preach to them a Sermon of the true and perfect secluse life To whom he said that he would willingly do what they desired if the Lord so ordered it upon the Lords day next following When therefore that Lords-day was come there came together to that place a multitude of men and the Master began his Sermon thus The following Sermon was preached upon the Lords day of Sexagesima the subject of it was this namely Why St. Paul kept in silence his Rapture into the third Heaven so many years That the Gifts of God come by afflictions or at least are confirmed by afflictions Of a twofold Self-denial one of Nature the other of the Spirit Lastly What belongs to a true Incluse I knew a man in Christ above forty years ago c. 2 Cor. 12.2 SAint Paul Beloved hath delivered unto us in his Epistles to day a wholsom and necessary instruction But because the said Epissle is too long I will not rehearse to you all of it but only part of it The Apostle therefore saith speaking of himself I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years since such a one whether in the body or out of the body I know not God knoweth taken up even into the third Heaven Here my Beloved take notice I beseech you how the holy Apostle kept in silence this his Rapture for full fourteen years together neither would he bring it forth in publick until it was permitted him so to do by God Against rash bablers of their visions He did not