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
A69969	Eikōn basilikē The porvtraictvre of His sacred Maiestie in his solitudes and svfferings. Together with His Maiesties praiers delivered to Doctor Juxon immediately before his death. Also His Majesties reasons, against the pretended jurisdiction of the high court of justice, which he intended to deliver in writing on Munday January 22, 1648.	Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649. Reliqiæ sacræ Carolinæ.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.; Dugard, William, 1602-1662. aut	1649 (1649)	Wing E311; ESTC R39418	116,576	254

True it was an Act unparallel'd by any of My Predecessors yet cannot in reason admit of any worse interpretation then this of an extream confidence I had That my Subjects would not make ill use of an Act by which I declared so much to trust them as to deny my self in so high a point of my Prerogative For good Subjects will never think it just or fit that my condition should be worse by my bettering theirs Nor indeed would it have been so in the events if some men had known as well with moderation to use as with earnestnes to defire advantages of doing good or evill A continuall Parliament I thought would but keep the commonweal in tune by preserving Laws in their due execution and vigour wherein my Interest lyes more then any mans since by those Laws My Rights as a King would be preserved no lesse then My Subjects which is al I desired More then 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 setling that act many would needs perswade Me I had cause so to do But I could not easily nor sudenly suspect such ingratitude in Men of Honour That the more I granted them the lesse I should have and enjoy with them I still counted my Selfe undiminished by my largest Concessions if by them I might gain and confirme the love of my people Of which I do not yet despair 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 freindly Contributions which I granted toward the perpetuating of their happines who are now only miserable in this That some mens ambition will not give them leave to enioy what I intended for their good Nor do I doubt but that in Gods due time the Loyall and cleared affections of My people will strive to returne such retributions of Honour and love to Mee 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 pretended 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 knowes falsly divulge I repini●g 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 extreme fatuity of minde in Me so farre to binde My owne hands at their request If I had shortly meant to have used a Sword against them God knowes though I had then a sense of injuries yet not such as to think them worth vindicating by a Warre I was not then compelled as since to injure my selfe by their not using favours with the same candour wherewith they were conferred The Tumults indeed threatned to abuse all Acts of Grace and turne them into wantonnesse but I thought at length their owne feares whose black arts first raised up those turbulent Spirits would force them to conjure them down 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 wel 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 solemly setled by an Act of Parliament God knows I longed for nothing more then that My selfe 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 owne too in all probability if some men had not feared where no feare was whose security consisted in scaring others I thank God I knew 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 se●m lesse a Politition 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 pinacle of the temple was a temptation to them to cast me downe headlong Concluding that without a miracle Monarchy it self together with Me could not but be dashed in peices 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 enioyed by them are not worth the gaining by wayes of sinfull ingratitude and dishonour which hazards a Soule worth more worlds then this hath Kingdoms But God hath hitherto preserved Me made Me to see That it is no strange thing for men left to their own passions either to do much evill themselvs or abuse the over-much goodness 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 reflections upon it as a sin of my will though an errour of too charitable a iudgment only I am sorry other mens eyes should be evill because mine were good To thee O My God do I still appeale whose Aldis●erning Justice sees through all the disguises of mens pre●ensions and deceitfull darknesses of their Hearts Thou gavest Me a heart to grant much to my subiects and now I need a heart fitted to suffer much from some of them Thy will be don though never so much to the crossing of ours even when we hope to doe what might be most conformable to thine theirs too who pretended they aimed at nothing else Let thy Grace teach me wisely to enioy as w●ll 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 My Own and by setling them have unsetled My self Thus have they requited Me evill for good and hatred for My good will towards them O Lord be thou my Pilot in this dark dangerous storme which neither admits My return to the Port whence I set out nor My making any other with that safety and honour which

his owne glory I am sure the event or successe can never state the Justice of any Cause nor the peace of mens conscinces nor the eternall fate of their soules Those with Me had I thinke clearly and undoubtedly for their Justification the Word of God and the Lawes 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 Armes 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 alledge who being My Subjects were manifestly the first assaulters of Me and the Lawes first by unsuppressed Tumults after by listed forces The same allegations they use wil fit any Faction that hath but power and confidence enough to second with the sword all their demands against the present Lawes Governour 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 dyed fighting against Me the Laws their Oaths and the Religion Established But sober christians know That glorious Title can with Truth be applyed only to those who sincerely preferred Gods 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 my self wch lay their Souls both for obedience 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 belive at the Barre of Gods Tribunall or their owne 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 the● owne thoughts then they oft were in a desperate bravery to fight against those Forces which sometimes God gave Me. Whose condition conquered and dying ● make no question but is infinitely more to be chosen by a sober man that duely values 〈◊〉 duty his soule 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 wherwith their suspicious or now convicted Consciences doe pursue them especially since they and all the world have seen how false un-intended those pretensions were which they first set forth as the only plausibl though not justifiable grounds of raising a War and continuing it thus long against Me and the Laws established in whose ●afety and preservation all honest men think the welfare of their Countrey doth consist For and with all which it is far 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 owne soules as they were to Me. That the defects of the one might not blast the endeavours of the other Yet I cannot thinke that any shews 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 sence 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 sin And yet I never suffered any defeate which made Me despair of Gods mercy and defence I never desired such Victoryes as might serve to conquer but only restore the Laws and Libertyes 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 denyed Me Victory My desire was neither to boast of My power nor to charge God foolishly who I beleved at ●ast would make all things to work together for my good I wished no greater advantages by the Warr then to bring My Enemies to moderation and my Freinds 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 denyed 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 winnow us That by punishing ou● sinnes he might purge them from us by deferring peace he might prepare us more to prise and better to use so great a blessing My often Messages for Peace shewed that I delighted not in Warre as my former Concessi●ns sufficiently testified how willingly I would have prevented it and My total unpreparedness 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 y●ilded 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 only 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 fel● is not desirable 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