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
A38258	Eikōn basilikē, The pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his solitudes and sufferings; Eikon basilike.	Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649.; Gauden, John, 1605-1662.	1648 (1648)	Wing E268; ESTC R18840	116,516	280

as with earnestnesse to desire advantages of doing good or evill A continuall Parliament I thought would but keep the Common-weale in tune by preserving Lawes in their due execution and vigour wherein My interest lies more than any mans since by those Lawes My Rights as a KING would be preserved no lesse than My Subjects which is all I desired More than the Law gives Me I would not have and lesse the meanest Subject should not Some as I have heard gave it out that I soon repented Me of that setling Act and many would needs perswade Me I had cause so to doe but I could not easily nor suddenly suspect such ingratitude in Men of Honors That the more I granted them the lesse I should have and enjoy with them I still counted My self undiminished by My largest concessions if by them I might gaine and confirm the love of My People Of which I doe not yet dispaire but that God will still blesse Me with increase of it when Men shall have more leisure and lesse prejudice that so with unpassionate representations they may reflect upon those as I think not more princely then friendly contributions which I granted towards the perpetuating of their happinesse who are now onely miserable in this That some mens ambition will not give them leave to enjoy what I intended for their good Nor doe I doubt but that in Gods due time the Loyal and cleared affections of My people will strive to returne such retributions of Honour and love to Me or My Posterity as may fully compensate both the acts of My confidence and My sufferings for them which God knowes have been neither few nor small nor short occasioned chiefly by a perswasion I had that I could not grant too much or distrust too little to Men that being professedly My Subjects pretented singular piety and religious strictnesse The Injury of all Injuries is That which some men will needs load Me withall as if I were a wilfull and resolved Occasioner of My owne 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 undoe what by My Royall assent I had done Sure it had argued a very short sight of things and extreame fatuity of mind in Me so farre to bind My owne hands at their request if I had shortly meant to have used a Sword against them God knows though 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 candour wherewith they were confer●ed The Tumults indeed threatned to abuse all Acts of Grace and turne them into wantonn●sse but I thought at length their owne feares whose black arts first raised up those turbulent Spirits would force them to conjure them downe againe 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 then by so unprincely Inconstancy to have assaulted them with Armes thereby to scatter them whom but lately I had solemnly setled by an Act of Parliament God knowes I longed for nothing more then that My self and My Subjects might quietly enjoy the fruits of My many condescendings It had been a Course full of sinne as well as of Hazard and dishonour for Me to goe 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 uprightnesse of My owne heart in passing that great Bill which exceeded the very thoughts of former times That although I may seeme lesse a Polititian to men yet I need no secret distinctions or evasions before God Nor had I any reservations in My own Soule 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 head-long Concluding that without a miracle Monarchy it selfe 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 Kingdomes as the Devill shewed our Saviour and the glory of them if they could be at once enjoyed by them are not worth the gaining by wayes of sinfull ingratitude and dishonour which hazards a Soule worth more Worlds then this hath Kingdomes But God hath hitherto preserved Me and made Me to see That it is no strange thing for men left to their owne passions either to doe much evill themselves or abuse the overmuch goodnesse of others whereof an ungratefull Surfet is the most desperate and incurable disease I cannot say properly that I repent of that Act since I have no reflexions upon it as a sin of my will though an error of too charitable a judgement Onely I am sorry other mens eyes should be evill because mine were good To Thee O my God doe I still appeale whose All-discerning Iustice sees through all the disguises of mens pretensions and deceitfull 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 though never so much to the crossing of ours even when we hope to doe 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 feares I have raised Mine owne and by setling them have unsetled My selfe 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 storme which neither admits My returne 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 prevaile upon Me as to be able to pervert and abuse My acts of greatest Indulgence to them and assurance of them But no favo●rs from Me can make others more guilty then My Selfe may be of misusing thos● many and great ones which Thou O Lord hast conferred on Me. I beseech Thee give Me and

requiring obedience to My just Commands but to none other under Heaven without Me or against Me in the point of raising Armes Those on the other side are forced to flie to the shifts of some pretended Feares 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 alledge who being My Subjects were manifestly the first assaulters of Me and the Lawes first by unsuppressing the 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 Lawes Governours 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 Lawes their Oathes and the Religion Established But sober Christians know That glorious Title can with Truth be applied only to those who sincerely preferred Gods Truth and the●r duty in all these particulars before their lives and all that was dear to them in this world who having no advantageous designes 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 eternall life whose lives were lost in so just a Cause The destruction of their bodies being sanctified as a means to save their Soules Their wounds and temporall ruine serving as a gracious opportunity for their eternall health and happinesse 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 then that which their enemies brutish and disloyall fiercenesse 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 barre of Gods Tribunall or their own Consciences where they are more afraid to encounter those many pregnant Reasons both from Law Allegiance and all true Christian grounds which conflict with and accuse them in their own thoughts then they oft were in a desperate bravery to fight against those Forces which sometimes God gave Me. Whose condition conquered and dying I make no question but is infinitely more to be chosen by a sober man that duly values his duty his soul and eternity beyond the enjoyments of this present life then the most triumphant glory wherein their and Mine Enemies supervive who can hardly avoid to be daily tormented by that horrid guilt wherewith their suspicious or now convicted Consciences do pursue them especially since they and all the world have seen how false and un-intended those pretensions were which they first set forth as the only plausible though not justifiable grounds of raising a War and continuing it thus long against Me and the Lawes established in whose safety and preservation all honest men think the welfare of their Country doth consist For and with all which it is farre more honourable and comfortable to suffer then to prosper in their ruine and subversion I have often prayed that all on My side might joyn true piety with the sense of their Loyalty and be as faithfull to God and their own soules as they were to Me. That the defects of the one might not blast the endeavours of the other Yet I cannot think that any shewes or truth of piety on the other side were sufficient to dispence with or expiate the defects of their Duty and Loyalty to Me which have so pregnant convictions on mens Consciences that even profaner men are moved by the sense of them to venture their lives for Me. I never had any victory which was without My sorrow because it was on Mine owne Subjects who like Absolom died many of them in their sinne And yet I never suffered any Defeat which made Me despaire of Gods mercy and defence I never desired such Victories as might serve to conquer but onely restore the Lawes and Liberties of My people which I saw were extreamly oppressed together with My Rights by those men who were impatient of any just restraint When Providence gave Me or denied Me Victory My desire was neither to boast of My power nor to charge God foolishly who I believed at last would make all things to work together for My good I wished no greater advantages by the War then to bring My Enemies to moderation and My Friends to peace I was afraid of the temptation of an absolute conquest and never prayed more for victory over others than over My self When the first was denied the second was granted Me which God saw best for Me. The different events were but the methods of divine justice by contrary winds to winow us That by punishing our sinnes he might purge them from us and by deferring peace he might prepare us more to prize and better to use so great a blessing My often Messages for Peace shewed that I delighted not in Warre as My former Concessions sufficiently testified how willingly I would have prevented it and My totall unpreparednesse for it how little I intended it The conscience of My Innocency forbade Me to feare a Warre but the love of My Kingdomes commanded Me if possible to avoid it I am guilty in this Warre of nothing but this That I gave such advantages to some men by confirming their power which they knew not to use with that modesty and gratitude which became their Loyalty and My confidence Had I yeilded lesse I had been opposed lesse had I denied more I had been more obeyed 'T is now too late to review the occasions of the Warre I wish onely a happy conclusion of so unhappy beginnings The unevitable fate of our sinnes was no doubt such as would no longer suffer the divine justice to be quiet we having conquered his patience are condemned by mutuall conquerings to destroy one another for the most prosperous successes on either side impaire the welfare of the whole Those Victories are still miserable that leave our sinnes un-subdued flushing our pride and animating to continue injuries Peace it self is not desireable till repentance have prepared us for it When we fight more against our selves and lesse against God we shall cease fighting against one another I pray God these may all meet in our hearts and so dispose us to an happy conclusion of these Civil Warres that I may know better to obey God and govern My People and they may learn better to obey both God and Me. Nor doe I desire any man should be further subject to Me then all of us may be subject