Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	miserable_a	person_n	son_n	3,454	5	7.3934	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59163	The use of passions written in French by J.F. Senault ; and put into English by Henry, Earl of Monmouth.; De l'usage des passions. English	Senault, Jean-François, 1601-1672.; Monmouth, Henry Carey, Earl of, 1596-1661.	1671 (1671)	Wing S2505; ESTC R17401	255,670	850

of euring the Malady they serve only to make it the more contagious But those of Repentance drown sins save sinners and appease Gods just anger for he is so good as he is pacified with a little Sorrow He takes the dislike of of an offence for satisfaction and knowing that we cannot alter things that are past he is contented with our repenting for them As he reads mens hearts and understands the Tears which flow from a real Grief he never denies them pardon and before his Throne it is sufficient for an offender to get absolution if he confess his wickedness At the Tribunal of Judges men oft-times confound Guilt with Innocence they absolve a man who defends his sin by a Falshood and let him but deny a Murder of which there is no proof he forceth the Judg to give sentence on his side but if he yields under the violence of tortures or is surprised in his answers his Tears do not blot out his sins nor will his confession preserve his life In Repentance a man need but acknowledge his Fault and he is sure to obtain pardon for it the Laws thereof are so mild as God forgets all the injuries done unto him provided sinners mingle a little love with their Repentance and that the fear of punishment be not the only motive of their Sorrow Our own Interests do therefore oblige us to defend a Passion which is so advantageous to us and since the hope of our Salvation is grounded upon a Vertue which ows its Birth to Sorrow we ought to uphold her cause and to employ our best Reasons to authorize her who doth help to justifie us Mercy will find no less credit among men than Repentance and as there is none so happy but he may become miserable I perswade my self she will not want Advocates The Stoicks calumnies will not be able to banish her from off the Earth the weaknesses which men impute to her will not stain her glory If Injustice beat down her Altars Piety will erect others to her and if her Temples of Stone and Marble be thrown to the ground men will build up living and reasonable Temples to her They accuse her of being unjust and that she rather considers the Misfortune than the Sin of Offenders they blame her for bestowing Tears on persons that deserve them not and that she would break open prisons that she might confusedly let loose from thence as well the Guilty as the Innocent But whatsoever these inhumane Philosophers say 't is the best employment we can make of Sorrow it is the most sanctified use of Grief it is that feeling of the Soul which is most Universally approved of and men must have proceeded from Rocks or lived amongst Tygers if they condemn so reasonable a Passion She takes her Birth from Misery she imitates her Mother and she is so like unto her as she her self is another Misery She makes her self Master of the Heart by the Eyes and coming forth by the way she entred at she disperseth her self in Tears and evaporates in sighes Though she be accused of Weakness she stirs our desires and interessing us in the afflictions of the miserable she endues us with strength to assist them After she hath witnessed her fellow-feeling of them by her Sorrow she gives them testimony of her power by the Effects and giving out her Orders from the Throne where she is seated she engageth the Eyes to shed Tears for them the Mouth to comfort them and the Hands to relieve them She descends into Dungeons with Prisoners she mounts up to the Scaffold with Malefafactors she assisteth the afflicted with her Counsels she distributes her Goods amongst the Poor and not seeking any other motive than Misery it sufficeth her that a man be unfortunate to take him into her protection All these high endeavours proceed only from Sorrow and were not Grief mingled with Mercy she would not operate with so much Vigor for Self love hath put us so much out of order that divine Providence hath been fain to make us miserable by Pity so to interess us in the Miseries of others did not she touch us we should not seek out a remedy for them neither should we ever dream of curing a malady which were indifferent to us but because Mercy is a sanctified Contagion which makes us sensible of our Neighbours sufferings we ayd him to comfort our selves and we help him at his need to free our selves from the Grief we feel Thus Misery teacheth us Mercy and our own evil teacheth us to cure that of others Who can condemn so just a Resentment and who dares blame a Passion to which we owe our Innocence If the miserable are sacred Persons are the merciful prophane if we respect them whom Fortune hath set upon shall we censure those that assist them if we admire Patience shall we despise Compassion if Misery draw Tears from our Eyes shall not Mercy draw Praises from our Mouths and shall not we adore a Vertue which Iesus Christ hath pleased to consecrate in his own Person Before the Mystery of the Incarnation he had only that mercy which delivers the unfortunate without tasting their Misfortunes which cures the Disease without taking it upon her and which comforts the afflicted without adding to their number He saw our Miseries but had no Feeling of them his goodness making use of his Power succour'd the miserable and was not afflicted with them But since he hath vouchsafed to make himself Man he hath mingled his Tears with ours he hath suffered our Sorrows to wound his Soul and was willing to suffer our Miseries that he might learn Mercy We may then lawfully exercise a Vertue which Iesus Christ hath Practised and may well become miserable without any stain to our Honour since the Son of God in whose Person the least shadow of Defect cannot be found would be sensible of his friends Afflictions and shed Tears to bemoan them before he would work Miracles to relieve them All the Philosophers do also honour this Passion and to exalt her merit which the Stoicks have in vain laboured to debase they give her a glorious Title and admit her into the company of the Vertues they acknowledg she may be serviceable to Reason is all the chances of Life and that provided she agree with Justice a man must be 〈◊〉 not to reverence her when she helps the poor and pardons the guilty From all these Discourses 't is easie to gather that there is no Passion in our Soul which may not profitably be husbanded by Reason and by Grace For to sum up in a few words all which hath been said in this Work Love may be changed into a Holy Friendship and Hatred may become a Just Indignation Do●●●s moderated are helps to acquite all the Virtues and Eschewing is Chastities chief Defence Hope encourageth 〈◊〉 gallant Actions and Despair diverts us from Rash Enterprizes Fear is 〈…〉 to Wisdom

reason with it or to speak more like a Christian there is nothing August but what is enlivened by the Grace of Jesus Christ. But to the end you may not believe I seek out hateful examples to take from Choler that greatness of courage which she boasteth of I will examine the reasons that are alledged in her defence consider her in a condition wherein she may challenge either praises or excuses Ought we not to be angry when all Laws Divine as Humane are violated may not one give himself over to Choler when she perswades us to revenge our Parents and is it not an action of Piety to be incensed against an impious ●retch who prophanes Altars and disho●ors Churches I confess this Passion cannot have fairer pretexts that she is in her glory when she is irritated for so rational subjects but you will find that those who have been moved for the defence of their Countrey will have the same resentments for the preservation of their pleasures that they will be as angry for the loss of a horse as for the loss of a friend and that they will make it as great as business to correct a servant as to beat back an enemy it is not Piety but Weakness that excites this Choler and since she is highly mov'd as well for a word as for a murder we must conclude ●he is neither Courageous nor Rational the greatest part likewise of our Revenges are Injuries and we run hazard of committing a fault as oft as we will be Judges in our own cause our Interests blind us and our Self-love perswades us that the slightest injuries cannot be repaired but by the death of the guilty we are of the humour of Kings though we be not of their condition and imagine that all the wrongs that are done to us are as many High-treasons we would have neither Fire nor Gallows used save to punish our enemies are unjust enough to desire to engage the Justice of God in our Interests we could wish sh● would let no Thunder fall but upon th● heads of such as have offended us and ou● of a height of impiety we would that th● Heavens were always in Arms in our quarrel But though we made no such wishes ye● would our Revenge be still irrational he● very name sheweth us that she is faulty and though she seem so pleasing to those that cherish her there is nothing more cruel nor more pusillanimous for she differs from Injury only in Time and if he that provoketh be Faulty he that Revengeth is not Innocent the one begins the fault the other ends it the one makes the Chalenge the other Accepts of it the second is not more just than the first save that the injury he hath receiv'd serves for a pretence to do another Therefore is it that our Religion forbids Revenge as well as Injury and very well knowing we cannot keep the Rules of Justice in punishing our wrongs she commands us to remit them into the hands of God and to leave the punishment thereof to him whose judgments are never unjust she teacheth us that to revenge Affronts done unto us is to intrench upon his Rights and that as all glory is due to him ●ecause he is our Soveraign Lord so all Re●enge belongs to him because he is our edge but that which is yet more admira●e in her Doctrine and which surpasseth as ●ell the weakness of our Vertue as of our ●ind is that she will have us lose the de●re of Revenge and that stifling this re●entment which Nature thinks so just we ●ange our Hatred into Love and our Fury Mercy he will have us imitate His Goodness and that raised to a more than ●ortal condition we wish well to those ●hat do us mischief he will have us pray to 〈◊〉 for their Conversion and that accor●ing to the example of his only Son who ●btained Salvation for those that butcher'd ●im we ask p●rdon of him for our enemies he reserves his highest rewards for Charity and teacheth us that we cannot ●ope for forgiveness unless we shew mercy 〈◊〉 raiseth this Virtue above all others and ●eversing the worlds Maxims he will have 〈◊〉 to believe that greatness of Courage consisteth only in the forgetting of injuries all his endevours are to blot out of our ●ouls the memory of offences and hatred of our enemies to hear him speak you would ●hink his State were grounded on this Law only and that we cannot claim share in his Glory if we do not imitate his Clemen●cy Humane Philosophy hath not been abl● to attain to this degree of perfection yet sh● hath observed that Hatred was unjust an● that Revenge was poorly condition'd sh● hath made use of weak reasons to perswad● us to rare Virtues and when she hath no● been able to quite to abolish Choler she hat● endeavour'd to asswage it she hath shew'● us that the world is a Republique where●● all men are Citizens that if the body wer● holy the members thereof were sacred and that if it were forbidden to conspire a●gainst the State it was not lawful to at●tempt any thing against a man who mad● a part thereof that it would be a strang● disorder if the Eyes should fight against th● Hands or that the Hands should declar● war against the Eyes that Nature whic● had united them in one and the same body had inanimated them with one and th● same spirit and that contributing to th● publick good they should mutually assi●● one another lest the ruine of one part migh● draw on that of the whole that thus 〈◊〉 were bound reciprocally to preserve themselves for the welfare of the State knowing that Society subsists only by Love and tha● body cannot live when the members ●hereof are at discord All these maximes codemn Revenge Nature as corrupt as she 〈◊〉 teacheth us by the mouths of Philoso●hers that Jesus Christ hath commanded us ●othing which is not reasonable and if we ●eed his Grace to keep his Commandments it is not so much an argument of their difficulty as a mark of our unruliness as we ●aught to adore his Justice that punisheth 〈◊〉 we ought to adore his Mercy which for●ifieth our weakness and acknowledge that ●he imposeth no Laws upon us but that at the same time he gives us strength to observe them The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good use of CHOLER THe Poet had reason to say That the way to Hell lay open to all the world and that all men were indifferently permitted to descend thither but that to get from thence when one was once entred there and to see the light again after one had been in darkness was a favou● which the Heavens granted only to tho●● Grandees that had merited it by their glorious labours there is nothing more eas● than to abuse Choler and engage on● self in the unjust resentments of Re●venge corrupt Nature hath taught u● these disorders and without other instru●cters than our