Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	good_a	let_v	lord_n	12,952	5	4.4092	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89403	A pair of spectacles for this purblinde nation with which they may see the Army and Parliaments like Simeon and Levi brethren in iniquity walk hand in hand together. Or A perspective to take a view of the Army, and Parliaments political combination in betraying their countryes priveledges. By H.M a true friend to this nations liberties.	H. M.	1659 (1659)	Wing M30; Thomason E986_9; ESTC R202953	8,339	16

but Faith and the true fear of God and that riches and honour were vanity at first upon the greater opinion of their Humility Zeal and Devotion procured much Reverence and estimation with the people A●ter finding how many persons they had ensnared with their Hypoc●isie they began to propose to themselves to reform both the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government of State then because possibly they might meet with some opposition they secretly entred into a League of Association and shortly after finding the power they had got with the credulous people enriched themselves with all kind of spoyl and pillage and justified it upon our Saviours promise The Meek shall inherit the Earth and declared their title was the same which the Righteous Israelites had unto the goods of the wicked Egyptians This story is worth the reading at large and needs no application For the avoiding of this shadow of Religion I shall add an Antidote External holinesse invites awful regards there is no mask that becomes Rebellion Innovation so well as Religion nothing that so much conceals deformity and pretends beauty 'T is an excellent thing so to dissimulate piety that when we act strongly against it in that very artick of wickednesse the people Saint us Herod would fain worship when he means to worry This is that which leads the world in a string that hallows the most Hellish enterprises for the Common people which are the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} never see behind the Curtain a handsome glosse is with them as good as the Text 'T is the Ethick of these Hypocrites Let us injoy the temporal advantages of Religion and let others take the eternal Let us use it for a cloak or a crutch and let others expect from it a Crown The River Atheneus is my embleme whose upper waters were sweet and gratefull but towards the bottom brackish But let all sober Christians know that this shell of Religion which our new Masters do so hotly persue though it may be of external conducement that there is nothing that Gods pure and undeluded eye looks on with more abhorrency we may possibly deceive men but it is in vain to put Ironies upon God A counterfeit Religion shall find a real Hell and 't is pitty that such a sacred thing should be violenced and made subservient to rebellious irregular designs As for you gentlemen who have conspired with the wrath of God in the stupefaction of your conscierc●s though you may for a time struggle with those inward checks yet there will be a day if not in this life when that Witnesse that Judge that Jury will not be bribed God hath fixed it in the Soul as an internal Register as an impartial Diary as the Censor of the affections and the pedagogue of the passions and you that have by an inveterate wickednesse conquered the oppositions which God seated in your hearts to sin may possibly consult well with your present advantage and greatness but not at all with his future comforts for besides the losse of that intimate pleasure which waits upon innocency There is another wile that these Gibeonites have to seduce multitudes and is so prevalent with most people Their successe in all enterpises as their Demi-God Rogers the forge and bellowes of sedition Infernal Emisarie stiles in his Pamphlet against Mr. Prynne the blessed and successefull Parliament Seeing it is so great a Plea with these men I will first shew that successe is no argument of a good cause and then that the wickedest men have most used it Concerning the first David in the 73 Psalm describing the outward estate of evil men sayes they were successfull in their affaires insomuch that the people thereupon came in apace unto them yea so prosperous they were in their way that in a manner he was non-plus'd at the matter And Jeremy the Prophet argues with God about the same thing Jerem. 12. why it should be so That they who dealt very treacherously should be so very happy whose conditions also in another place he describes more fully in these words Jeremy 5 chapt. 26 27. Among my people are found wicked men who lie in wait and set traps and snares to catch their brethren their houses are full of deceit and wrong yea they do in their Justice and cruelty surpasse wicked men they take upon them to be Judges and yet judge not the cause no not so much as the cause of the fatherlesse or the right of the needy and yet they prosper are become great grown rich waxen fat and shine Here was prosperity we see here was successe but no honesty no goodnesse In the 11. of Daniel 36. certain vile persons so intitled are prophesied of who should do much mischief against the holy people whom they should kill and destroy and speak blasphemous things against the God of Gods they should honour onely the god of forces i. e. they should trust only in their Militia or strength of weapons for safety and protection all these it seems are the conditions of vile persons and should prosper for an appointed time untill the indignation be accomplished saies the Text which was determined to be done VVe know that Cain prevailed against Abel yet Abel was the better man and offered the better sacrifice nay the Pharisees we know prevailed against Christ himself for a season had their wills of him got him Crucified by the common vote and consent of the people even according to the desires of their own hearts And from hence it was believed by a great many that Christ was even such a man as his enemies reported him a deceiver and a malefactor that it was the Judgement of God upon him for his sins He was despised rejected of men Esay 53. 4. Hence it is that some of his Disciples themselves were so staggered at the matter that even they made a question whether he were the man whom they took him to be because of that successe which his enemies had against him Indeed it is the humor of men to passe sentence upon others from a view of their outward conditions if they prosper then they conclude them good and beloved of God if not then wicked presently When the viper was seen hanging on St. Pauls hand he was judged a murtherer immediately and the worst of men in all the Company Does not Scripture throughout and dayly experience both inform us that the best men are usually the most afflicted and thus we see that to argue from successe is but a weak kind of arguing But I shall proceed to the next place that the worst men have alwayes been wont to plead this Argument one or two examples amongst many shall be alleged to this purpose The Scripture tells of Rabshaketh when he moved the people of Jerusalem as these men do us to make a general revolt from good Hezekiah he pretended that God had set him on work and had said Go up against this Land and destroy it and his main argument was his Masters extraordinary great successe Isay 36. 10 19. to which purpose he reckoned up as our Tyrants doe a great many Cities and Castles which he had taken as Hamah and Arphad Sepharvaim and Ivah And so the Turks to this day argue against the Christians that their Religion excells ours because they have prospered better and prevailed more than we have done Indeed there is no Argument more popular than successe because the bulk of men is not able to distinguish the permission of God from his approbation and although it be in it self fallacions and feeble yet the misery of the conquered denies them the opportunity to dispute it for the opposition of the sword will never be confuted by the bare fist of Logick I wonder that any would be so importunate to preach Laws and Moral reasons to these men with swords by their sides who are like those in Livy That all Laws are engraven on the hilt of a victorious sword to whose Mandamus all other Statutes must submit But our new Masters by quoting the successe of their undertakings besides the plausiblenesse and insinuating nature of the proposition it self have the advantage of power to make us believe them nor is this bait contemptible many of parts and prudence yea and of Religion have been staggered by it The Heathen could say happy Piracy is a thing of unhappy presidency fortunate sins may prove dangerous temptations But for these men to say that God doth signally attest the actions of their persons or the Justice of their cause by permitting it to prosper and taper up in the World is such a deceit as deserves our serious abhorrency And now Reader let us mix our prayers that God would for ever banish this cur●●d policy out of Europe and the whole Christian VVorld and Damn it down to Hell from whence originally it came and let such as delight to abuse others think of that self-cousenage with which in the interim they abuse themselves God permitting the Devil to revenge the Imposture And whilst we are busie with politick Stratagems and tortious arms to invade the rights of others let us all consider that this is not the violence which takes Heaven It is manifest that we are fallen into the dregs of time we live in the rust of the Iron age and must accordingly expect to feel the dotages of a decrepit VVorld what is become of truth sincerity charity humility those Antiqui mores whether are they gone did they attend Astraea and have left such degenerous successors as cruelty pride fraud envy oppression c O God be thou pleased to magnifie thy power and thy mercy in converting these men bring them upon their Knees good Lord before thee and before the Nation and perswade their proud and Rebellious Spirits to beg pardon for all their evils done and to this end let them feel that Hell which is in their own bosomes let the blood which they have shed cry and the evils they have committed roar within them Let them seriously think of those Devouring flames of those everlasting burnings upon the worm that never dieth and upon the fire that never shall be quenched FINIS