Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	abel_n	blood_n	cry_v	2,397	5	9.4770	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00581	Comfort to the afflicted. Deliuered in a sermon preached at Pauls-Crosse the xxi. day of May, M. DC. XXVI. Being the last Sunday in Easter terme. By Antony Fawkener, Mast. of Arts, of Iesus Colledge in Oxford	Fawkner, Antony, b. 1601 or 2.	1626 (1626)	STC 10718; ESTC S118330	17,791	36

iniquitie cannot loue himselfe For he hates his owne soule Psalm 11.15 Cum ergo edissem animam meam S. Aug. ad Mart epist 155. de verâ amicitiâ verum amicum quomodò habere poteram ea mihi optantem in quibus ipse meipsum patiebar inimicum saith S. Augustin If in louing sinne I hate my soule how can my vicious friend be my true friend which onely can wish that content vnto me the desire of which makes me an enemy to my selfe If then our selues be bad we cannot loue our friends wel again if our friends be bad they cannot loue vs well The wicked is alwayes conscious of his owne vnfaithfulnesse and iealous of his fellowes constancy by his guiltinesse of his owne inconstancy he loues without trust as if he would one day hate and his friendship is alwaies startled with suspition The vicious then cannot loue for they dare not trust though they be confederate and ioyned by company they are diuided in heart so that religion onely and goodnesse can vnite the soules A vertuous friend-ship corrects Nature and what shee hath diuided in bodies it makes one in affection Wherefore the Poet liuely insinuates the nearenesse of friends by diuiding their soule as though there were not two soules Hor. Od. lib. 1. Od. 3. but one parted so that himselfe had but Animae dimidium halfe a soule his friend had the other part Confes cap. 6. and they two had but one life S. Augustine commends this most significant and expressiue description of true friendship by sharing of spirits and the Scripture properly exemplifies in two religious friends for the soule of Ionathan was knit with the soule of Dauid 1. Sam. 18.1 So almost were they one that they could not be absolutely two and the only difference between them was that each might be but halfe the other This amitie is as constant as neare and cannot be dissolued vnlesse the friend should be vnioynted from himselfe If Iobs friends had beene such his petition would haue beene granted before framed and as soone as he had felt affliction he might haue demanded pitie by the title of a Symphathie But they are not so affectionate as to condole nor so neare as to haue a fellow-feeling Wherefore if he will require compassion he must pleade for it which he doth in the next place by shewing the causes of his affliction and first the instrumentall For the hand of God hath touched me The hand De serm Dom. in mont lib. 1. Quemadmodum in oculo contemplatio sic in manu actio intelligitur saith S. Augustine The eye and the hand are the principall instruments of sense The one of seeing the nobler sense of discipline The other of feeling the most necessarie to the simple being So that as we vnderstand contemplation by the Eye In lib. Reg. cap. 1. Hom. 2. so we intimate power and action by the hand Per manus intelliguntur opera saith S. Origen The hand is the most operatiue instrument of the will and what we doe by it commonly we expresse by it So that nature hath established it a custome and in most common-wealths at any publicke election Hist lib. 4. the motion of the hand declares the assent of the will Vultu manuque assentiebantur saith Tacitus Isidorus lib. 1. In the Romane Senat they manifested fested their consent by holding vp their hands and in their Armies too to auoide the confusion of vocal suffrages it was a militarie custome to signifie their mindes by their hands withall intimating by that instrument of vigour and force not onely their approbation but also their constancie and readinesse to the maintaining their resolution so expressed The Scriptures are as copious of testimonies as their authors of customes We will vrge a few First God himselfe in a solemne Protestation is said to lift vp his Hand Num. 14.30 insinuating the maintenance of his decree by his power The light of his countenance can blesse his people but when he miraculously deliuers them and plagues his enemies 't is with a mightie Hand Psal 136.12 The signe of strength is in a stretched out arme and if Israel will conquer Amaleck Aaron and Hur must stay vp Moses Hands Exod. 17 12. Alas weake Iob If the Hand of God be his power and that wholly vpon thee thy friends had neede pitie thee The hand that can span the Heauens must needes squieze a worme The Finger of God was enough to plague a whole great nation Aegypt Exod. 8.19 Was it then possible that one miserable man should sustaine the weight of his whole hand Qui dat pati dat posse pati He that sends affliction will send patience God is merciful as well as iust and it was the Hand of God Yet that might be a question God if it were not an axiome and be disputed as but probable if the Holy Ghost did not warrant the necessitie God approued of Iob whom the Deuill slandered Satan smote him with boiles Iob. 2.7 Then was that the Hand of God Malignus spiritus malâ voluntate nocere appetit tamen nocendi potestatem non accipit Ad Simpl. l. 2. q. 1. nisi ab illo sub quo sunt omnia certis iustis meritorum gradibus ordinata Thus S. Augustine answeres The Deuill would hurt but he wants the power God must giue him leaue else he cannot execute his will Satan hath the will in himselfe but he cannot performe it vnlesse God lend him power The cause is Gods and Satan cannot persecute till he will prosecute God of himselfe is iust and Satan malitious vnlesse God wil execute his iustice Satan cannot actuate his malice So that Gods permission is his action and the power that he lends is stiled his Hand God is Iudge Satan the executioner 't is the Deuills will but Gods power Now the Lambe is mercifull but the Dragon is cruell and though Satans malice would crush vs yet the hand of God will but Touch vs. Hath touched Touched And 't is enough for at the touch of the Lord the mountaines smoake and are the wicked any thing saue an heape of transgression is the world of man ought else saue a mountaine of sinne We are nothing saue a lumpe of disorder a Babel of contumacie built so high that our rebellion may reach to Gods cares and need not with the bloud of Abel crie but whisper for a vengeance a fraile masse of confusion on which if he doth but blow he puffes vs into a nothing and if he wil but touch this Babylon our smoake must ascend for euermore Yet is he not more iustice than mercie can expresse himselfe to be both at once So that the Scripture attributes to him a three-fold touch s Tactum iusticiae tactum misericordiae tactum medium or tentationis He confounds by the touch of iustice when hee will reuenge So the Lord of hosts shall touch the land and it shall melt away