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A43855
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A sermon preach'd in the cathedral of Lincoln, August 1, 1680 (being the assize Sunday) by Tho. Hindmarsh ...
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Hindmarsh, Thomas.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing H2063A; ESTC R40988
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17,132
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40
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men Which consideration must needs make us infer a future state and day of accounts and then we shall be forced to acknowledge in the words of the Psalmist that Verily there is a reward for the righteous Psal 58.11 doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth Thus the belief of a Judgment-day is not you see a Panick fear or melancholy dream It is no trick of Polititians or Mormo of Priests to fright Fools and keep the World in awe but brings such reasons and considerations for its reception as may make us conclude it to be unquestionably certain And as we have considered the Certainty of the thing it self so in the next place let us not forget the Terribleness of its circumstances As to these indeed we are altogether beholden to Divine Revelation For although the light of Nature can inform us in general that there will be a Day of Judgment and we may surely look for it yet it is not able to conjecture what shall be the Solemnities of that time nor with what pomp and majesty the Judge shall appear It is true the Holy Ghost hath drawn the transactions of this day in lively colours and they are laid before us under the resemblance of a formal Judiciary Process The Books are said to be opened the Judge is placed upon his Throne and all the Sons of men that ever lived upon the Earth stand listning to hear their Sentence at that dreadful Bar. And seeing at our Lords coming the powers of Heaven shall be * Mat. 24.29 Orig. and Chrysosl shaken that is as some learned Fathers interpret the Angels themselves though pure and innocent Creatures shall quake and tremble What consternation shall seize upon the spirits of men who know themselves to be loaded with sin and dust O how passionately and differently will mankind be concerned at that time What transports of Joy what raptures of Bliss shall be read in the countenances of Gods Children when as the faces of the wicked shall gather blackness and the distraction of their eyes and shivering of their bodies will set forth those dismal agonies their souls are in The jovial Drunkard shall then drop the sparkling Glass out of his fingers and will find that his great draughts here will highly inflame both his reckoning and his thirst hereafter The spruce Lover shall then exchange his languishing for a more tormenting kind of unquenchable flame The profest Worldling will like a profuse Prodigal be throwing away his beloved Bags for alas he knows they will not be taken there as good security The merry Droll and scoffer at Religion will then be quite put out of tune as well as countenance The bold and daring Atheist shall then standsneaking and trembling and be horribly astonished at the sight of his former folly and approaching misery But as for the righteous it shall not be so with them It will be their day of festivity and triumph for they shall be called forth to the marriage-supper of the Lamb. The just man then shall live by his faith and the bountiful man shall find the rewards of his charity the temperate person shall drink of the Rivers of bliss and the chaste soul shall be swallowed up in the arms of infinite love These or such as these will be the various circumstances which will crown the solemnity of the last Judgment Happy are we if either the loveliness of the one or the affrightfulness of the other can prevail with us to make up our accounts against that day And thus much may suffice for the first particular having considered the subject or matter of S. Pauls Discourse as it contained in it these three things Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come I pass on now to the Second particular which is to consider the manner of the Apostles handling them and that is expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a way of Reasoning There are two sorts of men that are for far different ways of preaching from this which S. Paul used If they had been to make a Proselyte of Felix Oh! they would never have done it by the carnal way of reason The two extreams that I mean are the Romanists on one side and the Enthusiasts on the other Those would force you to be Christians by the severe methods of violence and cruelty and these would lead you by the Dark-Lanthern of the Spirit into a Fools Paradice taking all the Whimsies of their own Brains for Divine Illuminations We will consider each of them a little and then we shall better see the difference from that method which S. Paul took It cannot be denied but the Romish contrivance is very strong and powerful but then here is the fault of it they are so extreamly bent upon the making of us Christians as that they quite forget we are so much as Men. It was this method which the Spaniards used in the Conversion of the poor Indians when they hold Water in the one hand and a Dagger in the other putting them to their choice of the two Baptisms the one of Water and the other of Blood Thus Henry III. thought to fright the Young Prince of Conde out of his Religion by that equally sharp short way of argument containing but these three words * Davila's Hist Civ Wars of France Mass Death or Bastile The same sanguinary method they practised here with us in Q. Maries days when they made use of that admirable way of enlightning the Understanding with a Faggot And that they are well-wishers to the same way still their late attempts upon us have abundantly proved when if the mercy of God had not frustated their Cruelty they would have tried how our Nation might have been reformed by the destruction of it But this we are sure of our Lord never practised nor approved this severe way of proceeding For when his Disciples were in a transport of zeal and the two sons of Thunder would have been sons of Lightning too and would have called down fire to consume the Samaritans he cools their flame by a mild reproof saying Luke 9. â—5 Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of for the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them S. Peter too receives a check for drawing a Sword in defence of his Master when if ever it be lawful to use sanguinary weapons he might have urged it then for the defence of so much innocency S. Paul also was a great enemy to popular Reformations Ephes 6.17 advising them to take no other Sword than that of the Spirit which is the Word of God But here the Enthusiastick Zelot will be catching hold of the Sword of the Spirit and say why this is our method it is onely the Spirit that we plead for Take heed therefore that ye be not found fighters against God We are the men that discard Reason knowing that God has rejected the wise and prudent and will reveal