Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A76857
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Bloody Babylon discoverd
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[Londinatus, Christianus].
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1659
(1659)
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Wing B3227; Thomason E1928_3; ESTC R209991
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40,143
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119
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but their reasonable service and cause their return'd answers to speak nothing but O Lord God most mercifull we prostrate our selves at thy feet and confesse our former numberlesse number of sins of rebellion against thee our God in sleighting thy precepts in fighting against thine Anoynted Servant our Soveraign and supream Governour the King in destroying our fellow-subjects their persons and estates which we should have preserved offending contrary to the principles of our Religion the practice and commands of Christ Jesus and the established Laws of England For all which we repent we repent we repent and cast our selves into thy arms of mercy Thus do good Father to all such who have erred and gone astray from thy paths and this even before thy battering decree for an everlasting destruction both of soul and body issueth forth And all this grant for the onely merits of thy Son our Saviour Christ Jesus Because in the originall of this bloody Rebellion the plot like the former and untill now unparallel'd Powder-plot * Gunpowder-Treason was laid so deep under ground covered over with more seemingly innocent materialls to make it thereby more invisible to the eye That indeed being intentionally this very designe acted and this but that conspiracy actually effected In the first were combining Papists fighting under the bloody Banner and obeying the commands of Antichrist the Pope In the second are pretending Protestants being such onely nomine non re making use of the same Papisticall and Antichristian bloody principles means and method both of them obedient children of the same father of lies the devill and enemies to the Gospell of Christ Jesus In the first they resolved at one blow by their suddenly consuming powder to destroy Rem Regem Regimen Regionem Religionem but execution was by the miraculous mercy of the God of Heaven prevented In the second These with a kind of unthought-of whiter Powder Pretences of a glorious Reformation and setting Christ upon his Throne Christi nomine armati tamen conâ—ra Christum dimicantes have by the permission of the same God now displeased and angry with a sinfull people actually brought to passe and accordingly have ruined the King's Majesty destroyed our Government Religion Laws and Liberties But How long Lord how long wilt thou be angry for ever shall thy jealousie burn like fire See O Lord we are all thy people Isa 64.9 10 11. thy holy Cities are a wildernesse Zion and Jerusalem are a desolation Our holy and our beautifull houses where our fathers praised thee are destroyed and our pleasant things laid waste O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low Because this Rebellious Designe in the beginning was I say a mystery to most of the common people I shall now unveil it that so all such who formerly have been misleadd or still ignorantly persist in such bloody waies may return repent and do their first works lest God come against them in judgment in this world and they receive the reward of Traitors with Faulks Percy and their complices here or with Corah and his company be in an instant swallowed up into an eternal grave Because former antient and meer or if you will Athesticall Polititians like your Water-men on the Thames seldome or never directed their faces the same way they steered their courses untill they were arriv'd at the pretended end of their short voyage their primarily resolved ends And in regard our modern Polititians have walked in the self same paths trode those very steps with this addition onely that they have gone beyond all former Presidents in their excessive and accumulative wickednesse themselves being become the onely black and bloody copies for the imitation of the worst of men in future ages yet if it be possible these times which cannot easily find place in my belief can produce a generation of men so impudently bad that will not look pale and start at such unparallel'd patterns of superlative villanies reserving choice of them for their exemplary presidents For in respect of comparison I challenge the whole world since the reduction of the first rude Chaos into an orderly division untill this new Chaos of Anarchicall confusion in these daies of ours Let the best travelling brain therein whose busie studies have been onely Historically employ'd in collecting the successive vices of all generations let him sum up all those collections and out of them abstract the quintessence of Hypocrisie and Ambition the poyson of Rebellion and Treason the rancour of Envy and Hatred the venome of malitious Murderers and of all other conglomer ata facinora monstrous sins hainous crimes that ever were committed and let him contract the spirits of all those into one entire heap nay let him by his chymicall brain once more distill the quintessence of that hypocriticall and ambitious quintessence the poyson of that treacherous and rebellious poyson the venom of that malitiously murdering venom yet after all this the comparison will not hold in the least proportion These worst and latest times by their over-ballancing ponderous weighty crimes will mount those lighter faults of former ages into the aire Tam ingeniose sumus literis diabolicis diserti men are grown such proficients in destructive bloody doctrines and diabolicall actions Thus Lord are sinners by addition of sin to sin and aggravation of that addition by an obstinately continuance therein become incomparably sinfull But Father of mercies reward us not according to our deserts but spare us good Lord spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most pretious blood Now at last and the better to make a progression in my intended purpose I shall shew you the method of these latter Polititians styling themselves Christians agreeing with the former professed Atheisticall ones with the premised addition that these titular Christians have out-stripp'd the antiquated Atheists in their most unchristian hypocriticall and bloody practises To this end I shall by a seeming way of propounding questions give a resolution to all unprejudiced eyes and ears in that respect Can any age afford a people professing so seemingly well and acting so really desperately ill Review the then Petition Decemb. 1642. accompanying that grand Remonstrance or rather that plotted foundation of sedition laid purposely for other intended superstructures to cheat the common sort of people into an assisting conspiracy there you shall find them petitioning for the uniting of all loyall and obedient Subjects Who are these but Subjects by the Law declared to the supream Governour the King Obedient Subjects that joyn together in the same fundamentall truths against a Popish faction who had as in the Declaration is pretended a resolution to alter the Religion of the Kingdom Who can these be but true Protestants of England the onely prevailing parties against the Popish and Jesuitized strongest holds Yet in their united actions and doctrinall principles how do these two factions joyn
Faction alwayes had and still possesse all possible means tending to this end As at first in having the Command of London that Magazin of mony and men and with them a great part of the Nation and now all under their power besides his Majesty's Revenues Pallaces Bishops lands the Estates of many of his loyall-Subjects Excise and other Contributions by which helps the Faction hath rather bought victories than really fought for them the Silver Bullet burying more of the King's Army alive in prisons than the Enemy's Cannons did ever wound in the field Again consider that his Majestie 's party excepting some few Judasses did fight out of a religious Conscienciousnesse loyall affection to their God Soveraign and Country and not for a pecuniary reward onely Consider also that his Majesty wanted those means and wayes of procuring men and mony which the Faction had alwayes in aboundance That his armies were but as an handfull the Faction's numerous However take serious notice that the King and his party have Scripture Reason and Law on their Side but the Faction neither Therefore look to it you Continuing Sinfull adherers Never did National Sinns long escape the heavy hand of an Avenging God and if England London expect to be freed their hopes will deceive them Isaiah 30th 1 2 c. Jerem 9th 13 14 15. Further Consider the Vanity of pleading success also a way of justification of the worst of actions In respect of religion as Christians The people of God almost in all ages having been worsted in that respect God's intent in suffering the enemyes of his Church to prevail being only to try the faith and patience of his children to make them humble Acts 14.22 Gal. 6.14 fitting them thereby for Himselfe In respect of their Eternall well being in heaven and in reference to his owne honour upon earth that so his People coming as it were like pure gold out of the furnace of affliction they may be as shining and burning lamps for after-ages to walk by Again consider that the flock of Christ alwayes was little therefore to have Sucesse by power of a multitude is no argument of being Christians That as I have already inserted for the most part the Church was under Persecution and affliction therefore Prosperity is no ground of Saintship as the Faction pretend Hebr. 12 2. Math. 5.4 Be advised therefore my dear Country-men beware of acting and maintaining any thing against right Reason In it self both a sin and a punishment How many men so contrary to common sense and reason did following the deceiving sense of the Faction account and highly cry up Cromwel's marching into Scotland No invasion of that Kingdom where he could not ground the least pretence of a quarrell 1650. in his own unjust construction the end of his march being onely in prosecution of his first resolv'd-upon Designe of ruining his Majesty and Royall Family destroying our and their Laws and Liberties only to mount himself into the chair of Supremacy Neverthelesse many were possessed with such a sottish kind of stupidity Futall Worcest a sure presager of utter destruction as to esteem his majesty's last March out of Scotland into England with resolves only to Regain his right and that he might restore his subjects to their Religion Laws and Liberties to be an Invasion of England O Anglia Anglia quae vos dementia cepit Be for the future therefore advised keep closer to the Scriptures and right reason Approve follow and act nothing but what they warrant or is deducible from them for if you once but slipp from that firm Square you Tumble from once errour to another like a man fallen from the top of a Steep hill never resting untill you come to the bottom where without the Infinitely preserving mercy of God you will receive the reward of Such your wilfull Neglect even destruction Isaiah 30th 12 th 13. verses Again If God should continue still punishing England beware of making your selves Instrumentall-scourging Rodds in his hands which his will being performed he alwaies casteth into the fire But O holy blessed and glorious Trinity have mercy upon us miserable sinners Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers neither take thou any further vengeance of our sinnes spare us good Lord spare thy people whom thou hast redeem'd with thy precious bloud and be not angry with us for ever To this pupose we beseech thee to give us true repentance to forgive us all our Sinnes negligences and ignorances and to endue us with the grace of thy holy Spirit to amend our lives acording to thy holy Word For my part I call heaven and earth to witnesse I have now sett before you life and death blessing and cursing Choose life for why will you dy O England why will you destroy your selves O people of Great Brittain Why will you not turn to the God of heaven with whom are treasures of mercy O ye Citizens of London Turn ye Turn ye from your evill wayes by a serious suddain unfeigned repentance that so God may return unto us in loving kindnesse by restoring to us our Governours as in former dayes K. Charles and cause us again to fit peaceably under our owne vines That our religion in purity may practically be revived That we may enjoy Pastors and Teachers that may again feed us with true knowledge understanding That our lawes and liberties may be continued That Great Brittain may be preserved from this Imminent and Eminent Menacing Ruine That God may be glorified in our preservation and not in our absolute destruction That all our Souls at the great day of Account may be everlastingly saved Amen Amen Amen FINIS