Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	anger_n	lord_n	slow_a	2,036	5	9.7827	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02520	Christian moderation In two books. By Jos: Exon.	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1640 (1640)	STC 12648B; ESTC S103629	96,446	388

vvhich cannot but naturally abhorre paine and torture What malefactor vvas ever in the vvorld that vvas not troubled to thinke of his execution There is a sorrow that lookes not at the punishment but the sinne regarding not so much the deserved smart as the offence that is more troubled with a Fathers frowne then with the whip in a strangers hand with the desertions of God then with the feare of an hell Under this sorrow and sometimes perhaps under the mixture of both doth God suffer his dearest ones to dwell for a time numbring all their teares and sighes recording all their knocks on their breasts and stroakes on their thighes and shakings of their heads and taking pleasure to view their profitable and at last happy self-conflicts It is said of Anthony the holy Hermite that having beene once in his desart beaten and buffeted by Divells he cryed out to his Saviour O bone Iesu ubi eras O good Iesus where wert thou whil●s I was thus handled and received answer Iuxta te sed expectavi certamen tuum I was by thee but stayed to see how thou wouldest behave thy selfe in the combat Surely so doth our good God to all his he passeth a videndo vidi upon all their sorrowes and will at last give an happy issue with the temptation In the meane time it cannot but concerne us to temper this mixed sorrow of ours with a meet moderation Heare this then thou drouping soul thou are dismayed with the haynousnesse of thy sinnes and the sense of Gods anger for them dost thou know with whom thou hast to doe hast thou heard him proclaim his own style The Lord the Lord mercifull and gratious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquities and transgressions and sinnes and canst thou distrust that infinite goodnesse Lo if there were no mercy in heaven thou couldst not be otherwise affected Looke up and see that glorious light that shines about thee With the Lord there is mercy and with him is plentious redemption And is there plentious redemption for all and none for thee Because thou hast wronged God in his justice wilt thou more wrong him in his mercy and because thou hast wronged him in both wilt thou wrong thy selfe in him Know O thou weak man in what hands thou art He that said Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the clouds said also Thy mercy is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds It is a sure comfort to thee that he cannot faile in his faithfulnesse and truth thou art upon earth and these reach above thee to the clouds but if thy sinnes could be so great and high as to over-look the clouds yet his mercy is beyond them for it reacheth unto heaven and if they could in an hellish presumption reach so high as heaven yet his mercy is great above the heavens higher then this they cannot If now thy hainous sinnes could sink thee to the bottome of hell yet that mercy which is above the heavens can fetch thee up againe Thou art a grievous sinner we know one that said he was the chiefe of sinners who is now one of the prime Saints in heaven Looke upon those whom thou must confesse worse then thy selfe Cast back thine eyes but upon Manasseh the lewd son of an holy Parent See him rearing up Altars to Baal worshipping all the host of heaven building Altars for his new Gods in the very courts of the house of the Lord causing his sonnes to passe through the fire trading with witches and wicked spirits seducing Gods people to more then Amoritish wickednesse filling the streets of Jerusalem with innocent bloud say if thy sinne can be thus crimson yet behold this man a no lesse famous example of mercy then wickednesse And what is the hand of God shortned that he cannot now save Or hath the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy cleane gone for ever hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies O man say justly on This is mine infirmity thine infirmity sure enough and take heed if thou persist to distrust that it be not worse These misprisons of God are dangerous The honour of his mercy is justly deare to him no marvell if he cannot indure it to be questioned when the temptation is blowne over heare what the same tongue sayes The Lord is mercifull and gratious slow to anger and plentious in mercy He will not alway chide neither will he keep his anger for ever He hath not dealt with us after our sinnes nor rewarded us after our iniquities For as the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy towards them that feare him Oh then lay hold on the large and illimited mercy of thy God and thou art safe What cares the debtor for the length of a bill that is crossed what cares the condemned person for the sentence of death whiles hee hath his pardon sealed in his bosome Thou art an hainous sinner Wherefore came thy Saviour wherefore suffered he If thy sinne remaine wherefore serves his bloud If thy debt bee still called for wherefore was thine obligation cancelled If thou be still captive to sin and death wherefore was that deare ransome paid why did he stretch forth his blessed hands upon the crosse but to receive thee why did he bow downe his head but to invite thee why vvas his precious side opened but that he might take thee into his heart Thou despisest him if thou trustest him not Iudas and thou shall sin more in despairing then in betraying him Oh then gather heart to thy selfe from the merits from the mercies of thine All-sufficient Redeemer against all thy sinfulnesse For who is it that shall be once thy Judge before what Tribunall shalt thou appeare to receive thy sentence Is it not thy Saviour that sits there He that dyed for thee that he might rescue thee from death shall he can he doome thee to that death from which he came to save thee Comfort thy self then with these words and if thou wouldst keep thy soule in an equall temper as thou hast two eyes fixe the one of them upon Gods justice to keep thee low and humble and to quit thee from presumption fixe the other upon his transcendent mercy to keepe thee from the depth of sorrow and desperation §. XIV Of the moderation of the Passion of Feare SOrrow is for present and felt evils Feare is onely of evils future A passion so afflictive that even the expectation of a doubtful mischief that may come is more grievous to us sometimes then the sense of that mischiefe when it is come That which Torquemade reports of a Spanish Lord in his knowledge I could second with examples at home of some who have been thought otherwise

starres of either operation our anger then proves vicious when it offends either in the cause or the quantity when the cause is unjust or the quantity excessive The cause is unjust when we are angry with a man for a thing that is good for an indifferent thing for a thing that is triviall Kain is angry because his brothers sacrifice is accepted Pharaoh was angry with Israel because they vvould be devout and goe serve God in the wildernesse vvhen the man of God reproves Ieroboam and his Altar he in a rage stretches forth his hand for a revenge Iehoiakim when he heares some lines of Ieremia●s scroll cuts it vvith a pen-knife and casts it into the fire in a fury and Ahab professes to hate Michaiah because he never prophesied good to him whiles he should have hated himselfe that would not deserve any newes but evill So that Tyran Cambyses because Praxaspes reproved him for his drunkennesse shoots his son to the heart and sayes See what a steddy hand I have when I am drunk this we feele every day Let a man never so discreetly reprove a swearer or drunkard or uncleane person or any other enormious sinner hee straight flyes out into a raging anger and verifies the old word veritas odium Am I become your enemy because I told you the truth saith S. Paul to the Galathians It may be possible which wise Solomon observes that he who rebukes a man afterwards may finde more favour then he that flattereth but in the meane time whiles the blood is up that anger which a man should turne inward upon himselfe for his sin he spends outwardly upon his reprover To be angry for good is devilish to be angry for that which is neither good nor evill or that which is sleight and frivolous is idle and absurd for whereas anger is a kindling of the blood about the heart how unfit is it that it should be set on fire with every straw and wherefore serves our reason if not to discern of those objects wherewith it is or is not meet for us to be affected Thus the Jewish Doctors tell us that Pharaoh was angry with his baker and butler for no other cause but for that there was a fly in his cup and a little grain of gravell in his bread It is our Saviours word upon the Mount He that is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Iudgement the well governed heart must be like a strong oake which is not moved but with a blustering winde not like an aspen leafe that shakes with the least stirring of the ayre Now even where the cause is just yet the quantity may offend And the quantity shall offend if it be either too long or too vehement Those leaden angers can never be but sinfull which lye heavy and goe slowly away What shall be done to thee thou false tongue saith the Psalmist even sharp arrowes of the mighty with codes of Iuniper And why of Juniper S. Ierome tells us that of all wood that keeps fire the longest in so much that the coales raked up in ashes will as he saith hold fire for a whole yeare those therefore which were formerly turned carbones desolatorii are now translated justly coals of Iuniper It must be onely a lying false slanderous tongue that is a fit subject for coals of Juniper even the same that is no lesse fit for the fire of hel what should these Juniper fires doe in Christian hearts against offending brethren I find in Suidas certain fishes that are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which carry their coler in their heads such should Christians be not letting it settle in their hearts but venting it at their tongues The charge of the Apostle is that we should not let the Sun goe down upon our anger much lesse may we let it rise againe nightly anger is like the Serene in other countryes unwholsome if not deadly but to yeare and day our wrath is more then brutish and partakes too much of him that is a man-slayer from the beginning And as our anger may not be too long so not too intense vehement whiles it lasts it is not for a Christians wrath to be like the Dog-star which when it rises scorches the earth and burnes up the fruits or like a Comet that still portends war and death but rather like unto one of those gliding starres that we see in a winters night which as it is blazes not long and hurts nothing so ends in a coole and not unwholsome moisture Our anger therefore must be tempered with mercy and charity otherwise it is like to a fire under an empty kettle which burnes the vessell to no purpose Such wrath is cruell such anger outragious Now for the moderation of this dangerous passion it is not for me to prescribe Athenodorus his Alphabet that remedy is so poore that the very prescription is enough to move anger rather let me commend that of Bernards Consideration and that not so much when wee are once provoked for that is too late and the assaults of this passion are too sudden but as wise Princes are wont in the midst of peace to provide for warre so must we in the calmest state of our mindes prepare against this inward turbulency Art thou therefore subject to choler Look upon that passion with sober eyes see whether it be any other but a short fit of madnesse Look upon the person of a man thus transported see his eies red glaring sparkling his cheekes now pale as ashes then fiery and swolne up as with a poyson his head and hands shaking his lips quivering his mouth foaming his tongue doubling his feet unconstantly shifting and the whole man which Hippocrates notes as the effect of a most desperate disease become utterly unlike himselfe See in another how well this forme doth become thy selfe Look upon thy selfe be sensible of thine owne distemper thou shalt finde anger justly fetcht from angor vexation thou shalt finde it it is Austins comparison like to vinegar vvhich discolours the vessell it stands in thou shalt finde thou canst not take up a coale to throw at another but thou shalt burne thy owne fingers thou shalt finde that while thou stingest others thou shalt make a drone of thy selfe and that of Solomon shall bee verified of thee Anger resteth in the bosome of fooles Look to the effects of it thou shalt finde it utterly disables thee from good The wrath of man do●h not work the righteousnesse of God as St. Iames Thou shalt finde it exposes thee to all mischief for he that hath no rule over his owne spirit is like a City that is broken downe and without walls saith Solomon What enemy may not rush into such a City at pleasure Just such advantage doth thine anger give to thy spirituall enemies and therefore St. Paul when he charges us not to suffer the Sun to goe