Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	world_n	worth_a	worth_n	58	3	9.7404	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31771	Basiliká the works of King Charles the martyr : with a collection of declarations, treaties, and other papers concerning the differences betwixt His said Majesty and his two houses of Parliament : with the history of his life : as also of his tryal and martyrdome.	Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649.; Fulman, William, 1632-1688.; Perrinchief, Richard, 1623?-1673.; Gauden, John, 1605-1662.; England and Wales. Sovereign (1625-1649 : Charles I)	1687 (1687)	Wing C2076; ESTC R6734	1,129,244	750

My own and My Subjects Miseries while as they confidently but God knows falsly divulge I repining at the establishment of this Parliament endeavoured by force and open hostility to undo what by My Royal assent I had done Sure it had argued a very short sight of things and extream fatuity of mind in Me so far to bind My own hands at their request if I had shortly meant to have used a Sword against them God knows tho I had then a sense of Injuries yet not such as to think them worth vindicating by a War I was not then compelled as since to injure My self by their not using favours with the same Candor wherewith they were conferred The Tumults indeed threatned to abuse all Acts of Grace and turn them into wantonness but I thought at length their own Fears whose Black arts first raised up those turbulent Spirits would force them to conjure them down again Nor if I had justly resented any indignities put upon Me or others was I then in any capacity to have taken just revenge in an Hostile and Warlike way upon those whom I knew so well fortified in the love of the meaner sort of the people that I could not have given My Enemies greater and more desired advantages against Me than by so unprincely Inconstancy to have assaulted them with Arms thereby to scatter them whom but lately I had solemnly setled by an Act of Parliament God knows I longed for nothing more than that My self and My Subjects might quietly enjoy the fruits of My many Condescendings It had been a course full of Sin as well as of Hazard and Dishonour for Me to go about the cutting up of that by the Sword which I had so lately planted so much as I thought to My Subjects content and Mine own too in all probability if some men had not feared where no fear was whose security consisted in scaring others I thank God I know so well the sincerity and uprightness of My own Heart in passing that great BILL which exceeded the very thoughts of former times that although I may seem less a Politician to men yet I need no secret distinctions or evasions before God Nor had I any reservations in My own Soul when I passed it nor repentings after till I saw that My letting some men go up to the Pinnacle of the Temple was a temptation to them to cast Me down headlong concluding that without a Miracle Monarchy it self together with Me could not but be dashed in pieces by such a precipitious fall as they intended Whom God in mercy forgive and make them see at length That as many Kingdoms as the Devil shewed our Saviour and the glory of them if they could be at once enjoyed by them are not worth the gaining by ways of sinful ingratitude and dishonour which hazards a Soul worth more Worlds than this hath Kingdoms But God hath hitherto preserved Me and made Me to see that it is no strange thing for men left to their own Passions either to do much evil themselves or abuse the overmuch goodness of others whereof an ungrateful Surfeit is the most desperate and incurable disease I cannot say properly that I repent of that Act since I have no reflections upon it as a Sin of my Will tho an Error of too charitable a Judgment Only I am sorry other mens eyes should be evil because Mine were good To Thee O my God do I still appeal whose all-discerning Justice sees through all the disguises of mens pretensions and deceitful darknesses of their hearts Thou gavest Me a heart to grant much to my Subjects and now I need a heart fitted to suffer much from some of them Thy will be done tho never so much to the crossing of ours even when we hope to do what might be most conformable to thine and theirs too who pretended they aimed at nothing else Let thy Grace teach Me wisely to enjoy as well the frustratings as the fulfillings of my best hopes and most specious desires I see while I thought to allay others Fears I have raised mine own and by setling them have unsetled My self Thus have they requited me evil for good and hatred for my good will towards them O Lord be thou my Pilot in this dark and dangerous storm which neither admits my return to the Port whence I set out nor my making any other with that Safety and Honour which I designed 'T is easie for Thee to keep Me safe in the love and confidence of my people nor is it hard for Thee to preserve Me amidst the unjust hatred and jealousies of too many which Thou hast suffered so far to prevail upon Me as to be able to pervert and abuse my acts of greatest Indulgence to them and assurance of them But no Favors from Me can make others more guilty than My self may be of misusing those many and great ones which Thou O Lord hast conferred on Me. I beseech Thee give Me and them such Repentance as thou wilt accept and such Grace as we may not abuse Make Me so far happy as to make a right use of others abuses and by their failings of Me to reflect with a reforming displeasure upon my Offences against Thee So altho for My sins I am by other mens sins deprived of thy temporal Blessings yet I may be happy to enjoy the comfort of thy Mercies which often raise the greatest Sufferers to be the most glorious Saints VI. Vpon His MAJESTIES retirement from WESTMINSTER WIth what unwillingness I withdrew from Westminster let them judg who unprovided of tackling and victual are forced to Sea by a Storm yet better do so than venture splitting or sinking on a Lee-shore I stayed at White-hall till I was driven away by shame more than fear to see the barbarous Rudeness of those Tumults who resolved they would take the boldness to demand any thing and not leave either My self or the Members of Parliament the liberty of Our Reason and Conscience to deny them any thing Nor was this intolerable Oppression My case alone though chiefly Mine For the Lords and Commons might be content to be over-voted by the major part of their Houses when they had used each their own freedom Whose agreeing Votes were not by any Law or Reason conclusive to My Judgment nor can they include or carry with them My consent whom they represent not in any kind nor am I further bound to agree with the Votes of both Houses than I see them agree with the will of God with my just Rights as a King and the general good of my People I see that as many men they are seldom of one mind and I may oft see that the major part of them are not in the right I had formerly declared to sober and moderate minds how desirous I was to give all just content when I agreed to so many Bills which had been enough to secure and satisfie all if some mens Hydropick insatiableness had not

height as to interpret all fair Condescendings as Arguments of Feebleness and glory most in an unflexible stifness when they see others most supple and inclinable to them A grand Maxime with them was always to ask something which in reason and Honour must be denied that they might have some colour to refuse all that was in other things granted setting Peace at as high a rate as the worst effects of War endeavouring first to make Me destroy My self by dishonourable Concessions that so they might have the less to do This was all which that Treaty or any other produced to let the world see how little I would deny or they grant in order to the Publick Peace That it gave occasion to some mens further restiveness is imputable to their own depraved tempers not to any Concessions or Negations of Mine I have always the content of what I offered and they the regret and blame for what they refused The highest tide of Success set Me not above a Treaty nor the lowest ebb below a Fight tho I never thought it any sign of true Valor to be prodigal of mens lives rather than to be drawn to produce our own Reasons or subscribe to other mens That which made Me for the most part presage the unsuccessfulness of any Treaty was some mens unwillingness to Treat which implied some things were to be gained by the Sword whose unreasonableness they were loath to have fairly scanned being more proper to be acted by Soldiers than by Counsellors I pray God forgive them that were guilty of that Treaties breaking and give them grace to make their advantages gotten by the Sword a better opportunity to use such Moderation as was then wanting that so tho Peace were for our sins justly deferred yet at last it may be happily obtain'd What we could not get by our Treaties we may gain by our Prayers O Thou that art the God of Reason and of Peace who disdainest not to Treat with Sinners preventing them with offers of Atonement and beseeching them to be reconciled with thy self who wantest not Power or Justice to destroy them yet aboundest in Mercy to save soften our hearts by the Blood of our Redeemer and perswade us to accept of Peace with Thy self and both to procure and preserve Peace among our selves as Men and Christians How oft have I intreated for Peace but when I speak thereof they make them ready to War Condemn us not to our Passions which are destructive both of our selves and of others Clear up our Vnderstandings to see thy Truth both in Reason as Men and in Religion as Christians and encline all our hearts to hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Take from us that Enmity which is now in our hearts against Thee and give us that Charity which should be among our selves Remove the evils of War we have deserved and bestow upon us that Peace which only Christ our great Peace-maker can merit XIX Vpon the various Events of the War Victories and Defeats THE various Successes of this unhappy War have at least afforded Me variety of good Meditations Sometimes God was pleased to try Me with Victory by worsting my Enemies that I might know how with Moderation and thanks to own and use his Power who is only the true Lord of Hosts able when he pleases to repress the Confidence of those that fought against Me with so great advantages for Power and Number From small beginnings on My part he let me see that I was not wholly forsaken by My Peoples Love or his Protection Other times God was pleased to exercise my Patience and teach Me not to trust in the arm of Flesh but in the living God My Sins sometimes prevailed against the Justice of my Cause and those that were with Me wanted not matter and occasion for his just Chastisement both of them and Me. Nor were my Enemies less punished by that Prosperity which hardened them to continue that Injustice by open Hostility which was begun by most riotous and unparliamentary Tumults There is no doubt but personal and private Sins may oft-times over-balance the Justice of publick engagements nor doth God account every gallant man in the worlds esteem a fit instrument to assert in the way of War a righteous Cause The more men are prone to arrogate to their own Skill Valour and Strength the less doth God ordinarily work by them for his own Glory I am sure the Event or Success can never state the Justice of any Cause nor the peace of mens Consciences nor the eternal fate of their Souls Those with Me had I think clearly and undoubtedly for their Justification the Word of Cod and the Laws of the Land together with their own Oaths all requiring Obedience to My just Commands but to none other under Heaven without Me or against Me in the point of raising Arms. Those on the other side are forced to flie to the shifts of some pretended Fears and wild fundamentals of State as they call them which actually overthrow the present Fabrick both of Church and State being such imaginary Reasons for self-defence as are most impertinent for those men to alledg who being My Subjects were manifestly the first assaulters of Me and the Laws first by unsuppressed Tumults after by listed Forces The same Allegations they use will fit any Faction that hath but power and Confidence enough to second with the Sword all their demands against the Present Laws and Governors which can never be such as some Side or other will not find fault with so as to urge what they call a Reformation of them to a Rebellion against them Some parasitick Preachers have dared to call those Martyrs who died fighting against Me the Laws their Oaths and the Religion established But sober Christians know that glorious Title can with truth be applied only to those who sincerely preferred God's Truth and their Duty in all these particulars before their Lives and all that was dear to them in this world who having no advantagious designs by any Innovation were religiously sensible of those ties to God the Church and My self which lay upon their Souls both for Obedience and just Assistance God could and I doubt not but he did through his Mercy crown many of them with Eternal Life whose lives were lost in so just a Cause the destruction of their Bodies being sanctified as a means to save their Souls Their Wounds and temporal Ruine serving as a gracious opportunity for their eternal Health and Happiness while the evident approach of Death did through Gods Grace effectually dispose their hearts to such Humility Faith and Repentance which together with the Rectitude of their present Engagement would fully prepare them for a better Life than that which their Enemies brutish and disloyal Fierceness could deprive them of or without Repentance hope to enjoy They have often indeed had the better against My side in the Field but never I believe at the Bar of