Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	ancient_a	enemy_n	great_a	15	3	2.0890	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47772	The blessing of Iudah explained, and applied to the present times, in a sermon preached at S. Maries, Oxford, March 27, 1644 : being the anniversary of His Majesties inauguration to his crowne ... : wherein by Henry Leslie ...	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.	1644 (1644)	Wing L1161; ESTC R21216	30,794	49

the duty which I owe unto this day to make some acknowledgement of those manifold graces wherewith God hath indued His Majesty and therein blessed us and I shall intreat you in the phrase of Philo to behold the image of a great mountain in a small ring to conceive the worth of a good King in the narrow words of an unskilfull speaker for I freely confesse the mercies of God bestowed on us in and by him are higher and greater then I can measure Turn over all your Chronicles and tell me what King was there ever in this Land so free from vice so eminent for vertue whose life was so Religious and exemplary as His Plinie saith there be three vertues which especially commend a Prince Paneg. namely Piety Temperance and Meeknesse and I believe that these are hardly to be found in a more eminent measure in any man living then in Him His Piety is seen in His frequenr acts of devotion and great reverence in Gods worship which I wish were recommended unto all His Subjects as a patterne for imitation His Temperance is such as may be in some sort compared with that of the ancient Philosophers And this is no smale blessing unto the Land Eccles. 10.17 for saith Salomon blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the sonne of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenesse His Meeknesse mercy and clemency is so great that his greatest enemies and most perfidious Traytors do not dispaire of his pardon I should come farre short if I should only apply unto him the commendation of Augustus Quo nihil immensus mitius orbis habet He goes farre beyond that and hath learned the hardest lesson in Christianity not only to forgive his enemies but also to render good for evill Vnto these I might adde His great Iustice and Integrity which is such that He may make Samuels testament and say 1. Sam. 12.3 witnesse against me before the Lord whome have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blinde mine eyes Surely when God gave us such a King as he Crowned him with a Crown of Gold so he Crowned us with a Garland of Peace every man did sitt under his own vine and did eate the fruit of his own laboures Religion and Iustice did flourish there was great plenty in the Land there was no leading into captivity no complaining in our streets But alas we did not know our owne happinesse but were weary of his government as the Israelites were of Samuels so that for a long time he hath been driven from his People But it may be now we will learne to prize the blessing of a good King Carendo magis quàm fruendo by the miseries which we have endured since he was driven from his people Since our gracious Soveraigne hath been kept in Wardship under Tutors and Governors these Aegyptian taskmaisters have not only usurped the rights of his Crown but with more then Spanish cruelty Tyrannized over the Goods Lives and Liberties of the Subjects yea and over their Consciencies too forceing men to forsweare themselves and to forsake the true Religion wherein they were bred The time was when there was no King in Israel and these were very bad dayes Iud. 17. for in these dayes every man did that which was good in his owne eyes In these dayes Micha made him an Image set up a new Religion and got him a Chaplaine for the purpose In these dayes the men of Dan did rob kill and burn Iud. 18. In these dayes the men of Gibeah ravished a Woman Iud. 19. a Levites wife and that unto death And the censure which the holy Ghost passeth upon all these facts is this In these dayes there was no King in Jsrael but every man did that which was right in his owne eyes Almighty God because of our sinnes and especially for not acknowledging the blessing of a good and peaceable King hath caused these dayes to returne upon us There are many Michas who will have a new Religion by themselves for one image which Macha made they have set up an hundred fond imaginations so that they have already more Religions in London then ever was in Amsterdam Others kill burne and spoile a thousand times more then the men of Dan did Women also are ravished and much more wrong done to the Levites now then that which was done by the men of Gibeah So that one would think that even in these dayes there is no King in Israel Yet praised be God we have a King the best of Kings of whom I may truely say as a late Historian saith of Henry 6th against whom there was such a Treasonable combination Speed Pag. 856. as is against our King That he hath no fault but that he is too good to live amongst such Subjects But for all this every man doth what is right in his own eyes because the sonnes of Belial have risen up against him and taken from him that power whereby he should controule the wickednesse of men and execute vengeance on him that doth evill And a King who is thus robbed of his power Rom. 13.4 beareth the sword in vaine which ought not to be if we may beleive the Apostle or if you will take Solomons word for it Eccles 8.4 who saith Where the word of a King is there is power and who shall say unto him what doest thou If Solomon did live now he needed not to aske that question Who shall say unto the King what doest thou For now every one questions the King for his doings they charge him with many things which he never did accuse him even for these things which he did aright with these men the Kings word hath no power and so with them he is no King The same Solomon amongst the three or four comely things that order well their going reckoneth as the cheife in the last place Prov. 30.29.31 A King against whom there is no rising up If a King who is so powerfull that against him there is no rising up be a comely thing then certainly to take Power from a King and to rise up against him is a thing very uncomely But it may be the Close Committee is wiser then Solomon and they thinke it comely and decent to curbe a King to keep Him in bondage to rise up against him and to take all Power from him howsoever I beleeve Solomon and I know that to deale thus with a King is not onely uncomely but most unjust and impious It is unjustice to rob any man of his right much more to rob a King whom God hath priviledged and exempted from humane touch When there was onely a conspiracy intended against Henry the 3d the Traitor was put to most cruell death and the historian saith it was well done Speed 616. for that a Traitor is guilty of homicide of parricide