Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	lord_n	people_n	spare_v	2,606	5	9.3833	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54805	The creples complaint, or, A sermon preached Sept. 29, 1661 at Akly, near Buckingham, upon some sad occasion in which among many motives unto loyalty and other religious duties is proved, by lamentable experience, that good things are better known when they are not, than when they are enjoyed / by Thomas Philpot.	Philpot, Thomas, b. 1588?	1662 (1662)	Wing P2124A; ESTC R28438	45,670	51

perceiving that there was no inequality in mens qualities for h●w could one be better than the other when they were all alike Fourthly The Talick Law was quite laid by for evil was repaied with good and good with evil Fifthly The Salick Law if any Law was then in force When as a Joanna was John or an Aaron among the Romans when Diana was Dea or a goddess among the Ephesians when Delilae was Sampson or a Judge among the Israelites So the Masculine gender in general was less worthy than the Feminine in England Last of all That Law which at that time was Law was not Jus legis but jus temporis not the Law according to Law but to the Times which were lawless and yet that Law was Inque diem for no longer than a day for what was Law this day would the next day be out of date In which times also Valiant men were cow'd and Cowards crowed on their dunghills Learned men were silenced and the illiterate had liberty to speak any thing but what tended unto Loyalty so that he was homo perpaucorum hominum a man that must be found out by Diogenes his Lanthorn and not by the light of the day who had any humility or humanity in his dealing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-love was every where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of Gods Servants or of their own Souls if it were any where was Raraavis in terris a rare Phaenix which seldom of any man hath been seen since as in St. Pauls time so now we were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as love to please our selves more than to please God Nor let any one be so uncharitable as to think that any man should tripudeate or glory in this our shame sed pudeat should be ashamed that our glory should be turned into shame Nor should we impute these our imperfections to any thing but to Predictions and Prophesies which must be fulfilled First To that of St. Paul who saith that by reason of distractions and desperate designs In the last times there shall be dangerous dayes 2 Tim. 3. the particulars whereof that I may avoid all suspition of spleen I refer you to the Text. Secondly To that of the Psalmist where the froward affections of the Aged Creature or Apolonius his old man regulating our actions maketh too many of the like condition for it is said of him Jiblu abbad tacalaphim be groweth old aged and decrepit declining to corruption who being also as St. Paul saith subject unto vanity and violence maketh man the object of them both by reason of his influence in whom there is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not hope but a serious sollicitude who having also the knowledge of the voice as Wisdome speaketh doth know that the Spirit of God is as weary with wrestling with mans flesh as he was before the stood ●isd 1. so that not only the creature but we must expect a fire before we can be refined and therefore every good man should be a Moses to stand in the gap betwixt his brethren and Gods anger that it might not proceed any farther and though he be not so zealous as to be blotted out of the book of life as Moses would have been for the safety of his brethren yet he should stand in the breach with that resolution that Si fractus elabatur Orbis should the Axeltree of heaven break and all the weight of the Wayne fall on him Impavidum ferient ruinae he should not fear the fall thereof hoping that mercy would fall down with it Every man also should be an Aaron Duplices tendens ad sidera palmas holding his hands as an evening sacrifice and say Parce pre●●r fulmenque tuum fera tela reconde Spare thy people O Lord spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood and be not angry with us for ever for hinc ille lachrimae here is our misery that what is amiss will not be amended it is so revealed unto us He that is unjust will be unjust still ●●v 22.11 and he that will be filthy will be filthy still This is an age not to alienate any thing from worse to better but from better to worse The ages fell from gold to silver from silver to brass from brass to iron and from iron to rust Our Swords which were turned into Mattocks are turned into Swords again our Spears which were turned into pruning-hooks are as they were Our souls that by grace were made the vessels of honour are made by sin the vessels of dishonour Nor are here the Hercules pillars of our impiety Man will have a Plus ultra though he perish in his pride The Bridge cannot confine our little Coricles they will shoot the Bridge though thereby they sink Our greater vessels cannot be kept within the compasse of the Line they must shoot the Gulf though they be never seen again There was a great Gulf betwixt Abrahams bosome and Dives his dark Dungeon the passage through which Abraham in his navigation never could find out but Dives did or else he never had been where God grant none of us may be Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas Man that hath tasted of the heavenly gift and hath been partaker of Gods favors will fall away from them so far that he cannot be renued again by repentance ●br 6.6 not but that he might be pardoned if he could repent but he shall not find grace to repent whereby he may be pardoned for although graces are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 graces in their proper places graces ascending and descending Yet no grace descendeth so low as to be found in such a fall And now for all this falling-sickness is so fatal and infectious yet few follow the advice of St. Paul which is Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall and yet when he is falling no man that loveth his own quietness will advise him to stand for man is Cereus in vitium flaecti monitoribus asper as pliable as wax to leave any impression of sin on him but to take off the impression by perswasion will be as hard as to wash away the blood of some murder which is done with so much difficulty that though it be slubbered over would appear as the blood of many murders do until this day Imperfections of nature are divers times so prevalent in the parents that their children do fare the worse for them as when there is any deformity or crookedness in the father it doth commonly come unto the child and there is no doubt but that a child may be like the father in condition as well as in proportion and seldom also shall we see any blemish in the body but there 's some ill condition attending on it Venus is said to have a mole in her face which mole did seeme to be a badge of beauty but they that are skilled in

that forty dayes should end their dayes made a Quadragessima or Fast of those forty dayes not having one day of feasting in it unlesse it were Festum cineris a feast of ashes considering how soon to ashes they might be turned But we with those in the dayes of Noa eat drink marry and are merry cast away all sorrow and yet with Jerusalem do not know whether the day of our Visitation may not be before to morrow Now as our English are careless in keeping their Language from corruption so the true Brittans are as careful to keep theirs from being corrupted and though the Dialect may differ yet the Idiom is still the same and not as much as an iota alter'd since first it was spoken as appeareth by an ancient Manuscript being one of David's Psalms written in Welch and so long since that we need not inquire for any other Original it being as likely to be penned by David and writ with his own hand as any Psalm made by Moses Assaph or any other some of the words I have set down and how they do agree with the writings of these times any ingenuous Native shall be the Judge Trugarog a glas-lawn yw'r Arglwydd hwyrfrydic i lid a mawr o drugarogrwydd The Lord is full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy Thus we may see that how careful soever others are yet we are careless of all such thin●s as do concern us and all for want of constancy And so we come to Courage which is the second thing that is required which must be performed as often as any lawful cause is offered concerning which Courage though every man cannot be a Mucius Scevola to fly into the fire to save his Countrey from the flame yet he must not be a Mecius Cephesies to sit still and be of no side when there is occasion of sideing And if a man be a Mephiboseth and not fit to fight then he must with Nicodemus come by night and shew his love unto his Lord with such accommodation as may be consonant to his condition First when flags of defiance are set up at Sea when fire and water do strive which of them shall out-rore each other we must not like cowards creep into our Cabins or get within the gable but with Saint Pauls follow-passengers every man must be doing something that all may not be undone Secondly when bullets are flying in the field we must not with the Ephraemites turn our backs and run away so fast that we shall out-fly the bullets but observe the word of Command given to the Ephesians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stand as a Statue though the storm be never so tempestuous And now as our Countrey hath expected her part so Tully hath appointed the next part for our Parents to whom we must not with the Hypocrites cry Corban preferring a feigned Sacrifice before a filial Obedience but with the Stork 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who when their Dams are aged and not able to help themselves do nourish them as they were nourished by them when they were young But if we will not learn of birds we may learn of men Anchises when he was left in the Trojan flames his son Aeneas did not fear the fire but ran into it bearing his father on his back and bringing him out of it having more smell of the fire about him than the three children had when they came out of the fiery furnace We read also of a daughter who when her father was to be starved in prison did feed him so long with her breast-milk unknown to his enemies that her piety at last being perceived the daughter was praised and the father pardoned But many of us are so far from this piety that we are like those Hippopotami or savage creatures who are the death of their Sire for the insatiable desire they have of their Dam or like Aristotles Spiders or Saint John Baptists Vipers who enjoy their life by the death of their genitors or else why hath it been said as it is said in St. Matthew Filius ante diens parrios inquirit in annos Mat. 21. the children shall rise up against their Parents and cause them to die The last part that is expected of us is from our friends where although every man cannot be a Damon and Pythius a Pilades and Orestes a Jonathan and a David Yet he must be alter idem ad aras both as one and one unto the end Unas bodas in Spanish signifieth a married couple or a wedding And though friends have not one body as man and wife have or should have Joh. 2.1 yet they should have but one soul sympathising both in their sorrows joys and sufferings There were in the memory of a man two Didymi or twins who as it should seeme had but one soul betwixt them for the first-borne was lively chearful and fell to the ter the other lay like a child still-born having so much heat only that there was hope of life and in those conditions they both continued about six hours but when the soul had acted its part with the first-born she began to enter into the other and then the first-born began to droop and the later grew as lively as the former did before and so continued in their vicessitudes and strange intercourses six dayes together keeping life and death betwixt them at last the soul being weary and tired as it were with so many transmigrations departed from them laving them both dead in that order as she gave them life Such a soul should be betwixt two friends the one willing to leave his joy that the other might not grieve the other to lose his life that the other might live Nam sic Eurioli Perithoique fides such formerly was the love of friends and such should be their love unto the end But the love of friends in these our dayes is not unto the end but for ends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who hath a friend hath a treasure saith Periander but he might as well have said he that hath a treasure hath a friend for so saith Job wealth maketh many fri nds but poverty seperateth a mans neighbours from him Meander secondeth both Job and Periander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that hath a table hath a friend but he that hath no table hath no friend and so saith Ben Sirach Ecclus. 6.10 There is a friend at thy table but he will not continue in the time of affliction The birds would never have come unto Abrahams bare Altar but when the Sacrifice was on he could hardly beat them off Where the bodies are saith our Saviour the Eagles will resort Which words as they have admitted sundry contrary constructions some of them aluding to what hath been said so it may admit this one construction more that is where bodies are subject unto sin especially unto that silly sin of self-love there the flatterers love to flock together Who as Carrain Crows

should lie eight and thirty years and have no man to help him It is answered That he did not lie all that while at Bethesda but that it hapned to him as unto the woman which had the bloody issue who spent all that she had among Physicians as many have done and are rather worse than better So that he made the Bath his Vltimum refugium or last refuge to fly unto and it was well for him that he had this refuge For as every disease is a Scurge and every Scurge is Plaga or a Plague so many have been scurged and plagued and yet not so soon cured as this Creple was First The Jews that dwelled in India delighting in Mummi or mans flesh because they might not eat Swines flesh were plagued with the Mark of the Beast that Lues veneria or the verola which Disease though it were long before it came into our Land yet it came to some purpose at the last Secondly The Philistines for being too bold with the Ark of God were plagued with Emralds and Mice in their hinder parts with a perpetual shame so that not cured at all Thirdly Pharaoh and his family had ten plagues sent unto them for making Moses and Aaron to attend on them wh●n they should have attended on their God as here in brief Fit cruor ex undis conspurcant omnia rana Dat pulvis siniphes Postea musca venit Dein pestis post ulcera grando locusta tenebrae Tandem Prototocos ultima plaga necat First Tears of compassion turned to bloody execution Secondly Bufones venomous beasts billited in the Kings Chambers Thirdly Backbiters noysome creatures creeping up and down in every corner Fourthly Tarantula the troublesome Fly making men sottish and mopish and yet not enduting melody and harmony the only means to help them Fifthly The Plague of Jelosies and fears frighting men and women out of that little wit they had Sixthly Blaines and blemishes upon the reputation of honest men and botches and Buboes upon the beasts that did abuse them Seventhly Fire and hail fiery Zeal and frozen Charity running together grievous to behold Eighthly Locusts not Bishops Doctors and all learned men taking degrees in any University as it is in the Geneva note but Genevaists themselves who did eat up all the good in the Land Ninthly Darkness Error Ignorance even in the Directories which should lead unto the light Last of all No elder brother in any house which was not dead in duty either to Father or Mother Nursing or Natural These are the ten Plagues which were in Egypt yea and in our Israel when it was Egypt and Pharaoh had the governing of it All which were to teach us that God doth punish our offences with the Rod and our sins with Scurges so that according to the quality of our sin there will be as we may say the quantity of our punishment First Those transgressions which are in Transitu or in passing to and fro shall not have punishments answerable to those that are in Tentoriis in the Tents of the ungodly Secondly They that walk in the counsel of the wicked who turn and return as Cato going in to the Senate to come out again are not so great offenders as they that stand in the way of sinners Thirdly Those that stand in the way of sinners are not so much to be blamed as they that sit and set up their rest in the seat of Scorners for the Chair-men deserve the chiefest scurging There was one Scurge or one Plague more in Egypt which hath not yet been mentioned Those Urinatores or divers under water who as David saith be Gods wonders in the Deep do find that there is one wave in the Sea which is more dangerous and obnoxious to Mariners than any other and it is thus described Posterior nono est undecimoque prior it cometh after the ninth wave and is before the eleventh which must be the tenth but the greatest Plague in Egypt was neither the ninth nor the tenth but the eleventh Quae venit haec pestis pestes supereminet omnes for it comes like an After-reckoning which vexeth one more than the total sum of all the particulars And though Decimation was the last of our Egyptian plagues while our Israel was Egypt as is already said yet if that Plague by Providence had not been prevented from farther proceeding there would have been nothing left to be Decimated for we should have been robbed or spoiled as the Egyptians were who making a Bridge of gold for their enemies to pass over left not a penny in their purse and not to trouble you with the Hebrew the Spanish Text saith They lent to Israel Vasos de plata y vasos de oro y vestidos not only their money but their plate and their apparel and so brought on themselves the plague of Poverty which was the plague Paramount of all plagues When the Famine was in Canaan they had money in their Sacks to buy food in Egypt but the Famine being in Egypt and having no money nor plate nor apparel to pawn there would be cold comfort in coming to Canaan or into any other Countrey In this condition was this Creple who being sick of this poverty shall neither as David saith have kindred or acquaintance come near him but stand afar off Psa 38. ●● They see the Crosse upon the door without but not a Crosse within they see the superscription over the Cross 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord have mercy upon us But if it were not for him whose Superscription Pilate set on his Crosse there would be no Lord nor any other man to help them and that which is worst of all when the Plague-sore breaketh there is hope of recovery but when this sore breaketh there is no recovery This is that Ingens telum as the Adage termeth it That breaketh not men but battereth down Batteries and with the help of hunger breaketh through stone-walls And although this is not alway true That Necessitas cogit ad turpia Necessity should make noble Spirits to conspire with any ignoble actions yet this is true That Dura aegestas Spiritus altos domans Insuet a facere cogit Necessity sometime goeth beyond the bounds of Civility and David when he was hungry was more bold with Abiathars bread than at another time he would have been not that he intended Sacra prophanis That the Souldiers should part Christs garments among them again as it were but foreseeing that an inconvenience was better than a mischief gave unto them some of the consecrated Cakes that they might not be their own Carvers knowing also that where Souldiers are something must be had Prevention say the Polititians is the principal point of Policy And to meet a disease at the door say the Physitians is the best way to keep him out of the house Let some Remora say the Oculists stay the rushing of the rhumes and we shall not need to cuppe the Catarrs