Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	according_a	day_n	law_n	1,555	5	4.7752	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86299	The parable of the tares expounded & applyed, in ten sermons preached before his late Majesty King Charles the second monarch of Great Britain. / By Peter Heylin, D.D. To which are added three other sermons of the same author.	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1659 (1659)	Wing H1729; Thomason E987_1	253,775	424

are so intermingled that there is no perfection to be looked for here and 2. That there want not great and weighty reasons why it should so be of which some relate unto the Tares some unto the Wheat some to God himself whose glory is most chiefly aimed at These are the points to be considered and of these I shall discourse in order beginning with Gods sufferance and the season of it and therein with the first enquiry What is here meant by messis the approching Harvest and what use we may make thereof for our own advantage Priùs dividendum quàm definiendum It was the Orators Rule of old First to distinguish of the termes before we take upon us to state the question A Rule exceeding necessary in the present business and much conducing to the Explication of the points in hand For the word messis is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of various significations according to the scope of the severall places where it doth occur And first not taking notice of it in the literall sense in the 9th Chapter of St. Matthew it signifieth the times and seasons fit for the preaching of the Gospel There read we messem esse multam that the Harvest was great i. e. that there were many people whose mindes were cheerfully prepared to receive the word And there 's another Harvest which the Baptist speaks of the bringing forth of fruits meet for repentance fruits worthy of the Preachers pains and the hearers diligence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Harvest of good works which we finde in Chrysostom But we have other Corn to thresh and therefore must look out for another Harvest an Harvest not of hearing nor of fructifying but of receiving the reward of our severall labours an Harvest in the which each workman shall receive his wages according to the works which he hath wrought in the flesh whether good or evill And this again is either taken for the day of Gods temporall judgements upon particular Men or Sects or Collective bodies or for the day of generall judgement when all flesh shall appear before the Lord to receive its sentence In this last sense the word is taken in the 14 of the Revelation where the Angel said to him that sate upon the Throne mitte falcem mete Thrust in thy sickle and reap for the time is come and the Harvest of the Earth is ripe i. e. all Nations were now ready to receive that judgement which God in his just anger should pronounce against them And in the other sense it is said by the Prophet Jeremy The Daughter of Babylon is a threshing-floore the time of her threshing is come yet a little while and the time of her Harvest will come Tempus messionis ejus veniet and what time was that even that wherein she had made up the measure of her iniquities and abominations and was to be given up for a prey to the Medes and Persians I know that most Interpreters as well old as new do take the Harvest in my Text for the generall judgement that which our Saviour doth describe in the 25. of this Gospel And they expound it thus for this reason chiefly because our Saviour gives this descant on his own plain song v. 39. Messis est consummatio seculi the Harvest is the end of the World A man would think the sense must be very obvious even to the vulgar wits when he that writ the Text made the comment also But then a question may be made what our Redeemer meanes by consummatio seculi or the end of the World or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Text hath it Assuredly not alwayes the last day precisely but the last times generally or the particular time appointed by Almighty God for the effecting of some speciall and particular purpose For in the 9 Chapter to the Hebrews the same words occur where the Apostle treating of the passion of our Lord and Saviour saith it was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in consummatione seculi in the end of the World Ask Beza what is meant there by the end of the World by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he will tell you that it is the same which the Apostle calls in another place plenitudinem temporis or the fulness of time i. e. saith he and so both Caietan and Ribera do expound the Text Seculorum perfectionem complementum the full perfection and accomplishment of some time appointed So then upon this disquisition we have gained thus much that though the Harvest in my Text be for the most part understood of the general judgement of which hereafter in the next yet may it also mean the time of Gods temporal punishments upon particular men or Sects or Collective bodies Whom though God suffereth for a while till their sins be ripe and lets them flourish and grow mighty both in power and wickedness yet have they all their severall Harvests in which they shall be mowed and threshed and winnowed to his greater glory The sickle of the Lord is alwayes ready and his van alwayes in his hand And when his Harvest-time is come and the fruits of wicked men be ripe he shall not only mowe them down as when the Harvest-man gathereth the corn and reapeth down the eares with his arme in the Prophets language but he will throughly purge his floore and make them like the chaffe in the Psalmists words which the wind drives away before it But for the just and righteous person he either shall be saved from the day of trouble or preserved in it Or if he fall as fall he may sometimes into the hand of the Reapers like a good eare of corn well grown or Grapes fully ripe he shall be congregatus in horreum gathered into the barn of the heavenly Husbandman In execution of which acts of his will and justice he many times makes use of Angels literally and properly so called which are the Reapers of this verse and the 39 and many times of other Ministers who do supply the place of Angels and may be called so in a borrowed metaphoricall sense as Attila the Hun the scourge of the impenitent Western Christians was in the Stories of those times called Flagellum Dei That there have been such Harvests in former times and that such Harvests are in the compass of our Saviours meaning the Stories of Gods Book and all the Monuments of the Church do most clearly evidence And to say truth did not the Text admit such Harvests all the seditious aggregations of unquiet men all the Idolatries of Rome Heathen and superstitions of Rome Christian the Pride of Babylon and the filths of Sodom with all the rabblement of pernicious Hereticks and factious Sectaries which have disturbed the Church in foregoing Ages must be still extant and unpunished to this very day But they have had their severall Harvests and the Lord hath reaped them

occasions there 's no such need of imus colligimus as we think there is So is it also with opinions with some points of Doctrine which if beheld with prejudice or inadvertently looked over will be counted Tares though in themselves of that good seed wherewith Gods Field was sowed from the first beginning There is so specious a resemblance such a fair similitude between the merit of good works and the reward that 's due unto them according to the will and pleasure of Almighty God between the efficacy of good life in the point of justification and the necessity thereof in the way of salvation between the influence of Gods grace on the will of man the cooperation of mans will with the grace of God between the conscientious confession of our sins to those from whom we may receive the benefit of absolution and that auricular Confession which hath been so abused of late by some Priests and Jesuites between the reverence required at the receiving of the Sacrament in the Church of England and that unjustifiable Adoration of it which is obtruded on the people in the Church of Rome between the dedicating of some dayes to the honour of God with a relation to the creature and a devoting of them to the creature with some relation unto God that the true Tenet in those points as in many others commended to us in the writings of the ancient Fathers if eithe● looked upon with the eye of prejudice or through the false lights of inadvertence may be took for Tares And what can follow thereupon but an eradication of the Tenet and the Teachers too if every man may go and gather when and where he listeth and that ne fortè be not laid as a barre before them by their Lord and M●ster Indeed there is no reason we should look for other or that the Doctrines of the Fathers may not passe for Tares when the Apostles Creed it self is subject to the same misprision one of the Articles whereof hath been already noted with a Deleatur and all the rest obnoxious to the like calamity on the next imus colligimus upon the setting out of the Expurgatorius Index which is now in hand Therefore to set the matter right that neither zeal may be disheartned nor the edge of courage taken off and yet that imus colligimus may both be regulated and restrained to its proper bounds there 's a ne fortè in the way which shewes how farre it is fit to go and when fit to stop We must so cherish zeal and give way to courage that the Lords work may be promoted and his Field preserved and yet so curb and keep them in when they grow irregular that they transport us not beyond our limits or make us run upon mistakes Zeal many times is full of prejudice and an excess of courage makes us inconsiderate In both these cases and they are such cases as do happen often we are not governed by truth but by appearances and he that is good Wheat indeed is looked upon as a Tare and condemned accordingly He that beholds his Brother with the eye of prejudice either looks on him through a Multiplying Glasse which makes his faults seem greater then indeed they be or by some new invented Optick which represents things contrary to what they are And he that doth condemn a man on no other grounds then the opinion and esteem which the world hath of him is but like Herod in the Acts who when he stretched out his hands to vex the Church killed James and then imprisoned Peter videns quia placeret Judaeis because he saw it pleased the people Our Saviour therefore gives this Caveat unto his Disciples Nolite judicare secundum faci●m Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgement If we took notice of this Caveat as we ought to do zeal should not swallow up our charity or inadvertency put out the eyes of our understanding nor should we be so hot and urgent upon the imus colligimus as we have been lately without reflecting on ne fort● those inconveniencies and dangers which the Church of Christ might suffer by it Now t is a property of charity as St. Paul hath told us that it thinketh no evill and t is a rule in charity as St. Bernard tells us non temerè de fratre mali aliquid credendum esse not easily to entertain an ill opinion of our Brother nor lend too credulous an eare unto those reports which the world makes of him And as for Doctrinalls which are the proper subject of the understanding he who doth take them upon trust without further search shall run upon received opinions as Calderinus in Ludovicus Vives went to Masse Eamus ergo quia sic placet in communes errores And in defence of these opinions shall condemn for Tares whoever doth oppose or opine the contrary Ne fortè is a good caution here as in most things else which had it been regarded as it should have been so many points of Protestant Doctrine had not been rooted up for Tares under the odious name of Popery nor had Episcopacy been so often and so blindly struck at under pretence of being but a step to the Throne of Antichrist nor Monarchy so openly undermined as inconsistent with the liberty of the Sonnes of God therefore no imus colligimus but ne fortè first This further justifieth the non the wise Masters Negative but there is one thing yet to come which indeares it further and was a seasonable fear lest that by too much hast and precipitation they had gone and gathered up some Tares which might in fine have proved good Wheat and so become a plentiful addition to the Harvest For such is the nature of the Tare that though it generally ariseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from its own proper seed as St. Basil tells us yet as good Authors do observe they do often spring ex corrupto tritici semine from some corrupted corns of Wheat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theophrastus The Greek Etymologians seem to look this way who tell us of those Tares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that not being sowen nor coming from their proper seed they took root together with the Wheat and grew up with it Of the same minde is Galen also who justifieth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transmutation of the Wheat to Tares by his own observation and experience Which transmutation or corruption as it hapneth often so is it then most frequent and apparent when the Wheat takes wet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Theophrastus either by some great glut of rain or from the moorishness of the ground in which t is sowen Galen affirms it more expresly who in his first de facultate alimentorum relates a passage that once the constitution of the year being unseasonable and intemperate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his

Gothes and Vandalls in the declining times of the Christian purity Onely the Tyrant Maximus who usurped the Empire though otherwise an Orthodox Prince caused the Arch-Heretick Priscillian and some of his Associates to be put to death at the instigation of Ithacius a Catholick Bishop whom the impieties of the man had extremely stirred Concerning which Sulpitius Serverus tells us that though they were homines luce indignissimi men most unworthy of the light yet they were pessimo exemplo necati and that their execution was of dangerous consequence to succeeding Ages And as it seemes the French and German Prelates did conceive so of it by whom Ithacius was deprived of the Communion for no other reason then that he had been a chief Actor in that woful Tragedy Thus also when Alexius of Constantinople had caused Basilius and others of the Bongomili to be burnt to ashes Hereticks lewd enough of conscience if their Opinions have been transmitted to us by ingenious hands the Eastern Prelates generally disallowed the fact But what need further search be made in this particular when we have confitentem reum For even Baronius doth acknowledge though otherwise a professed Champion both of the customs and corruptions of the Church of Rome that anciently it was the usage of the Christian Bishops when they addressed themselves to the secular powers in matters of this present nature so to insist on the correction of the Heretick ut tamen à capitali supplicio inferendo dehortati sunt that they disswaded them by all meanes imaginable not to shed their bloods From which sweet moderation of the Primitive Prelates how miserably the Church hath deviated in these latter dayes the publick Martyrologies of both sides do declare too evidently What then may some men chance to say shall Theeves and Murderers die the death which onely rob us of our goods or destroy our bodies and shall the Heretick which robs us of our precious faith and damn both soul and body to the pit of hell either escape unpunished or be punished onely with some light pecuniary mulct or short imprisonment Is there no case in which the desperate Heretick may be rooted up and such vile tares be liable to an extirpation I say not so The Lord himself decreed in his holy Law and caused execution to be done upon it That whosoever did blaspheme the name of the Lord should be stoned to death and that if a Prophet did arise which did entice the people after other Gods they should also slay him without either pity or delay The Jewes though they transgressed in the second case were alwayes zealous in the first and howsoever they connived at some grosse Idolatries would not spare a blasphemy This made them when they sate in judgement on our Saviour Christ to balk all other Accusations and lay hold on this interpreting some words of his in which he called himself most truly the Sonne of God for blasphemous passages And then the high Priest said with great joy no question what need we any further witnesses we have heard his blasphemy and thereupon they all concluded he is guilty of death In which the ground was true and justifiable it was Gods own Rule but the judgement wicked and erroneous as being utterly perverted in the Application Now though these Lawes were given particularly to the Jewes for their square and measure by which they were to punish malefactors of that odious nature yet in the equity thereof they relate to us to whom the honour of Almighty God ought to be as precious as ever it was among the Jewes and all blasphemers of his name to be held as execrable as in the Commonwealth of Israel If therefore there arise an Heretick which belcheth his blasphemous follies against the Majesty of God or any person of the holy undivided Trinity or seeks to draw the people after other Gods or add the Jewish Ceremonies or the heathenish sacrifices to the pure worship of the Lord as did the Manichees of old and Anatolius in the close of the sixth Centurie let the Sword in Gods name passe upon him My eye shall neither pity him nor my house conceal him There are some Heresies as well as sins which if unretracted are neither pardoned in this World nor in that to come Such wretched miscreants as these in the body mystical are like a gangrened member in the body natural and must be cut off in due time or else will suddenly infect and destroy the whole so true a Rule is that in the Poet Ovid Namque immedicabile vulnus Ense rescindendumest ne pars sincera trahatur Next to the Majesty of God is that of Kings and Soveraign Princes to whom God hath not onely pleased to impart his name but delegated a great part of his royall power And therefore if an Heretick set on foot such Doctrines as tend to the destruction of the Princes person or the seducing of his Subjects from their due allegiance or otherwise grow practical and embroyl the State for the promoting of their dreams and dotages though of lower quality let them receive the wages due to their lewd attempts There are as well seditious Doctrines as seditious practises both dangerous alike and therefore to be punished with the like severity and this have the chief Priests of the Jewes understood full well when having brought our Saviour to the Judgement-hall and fearing Pilate would be little moved with the noyse of blasphemy they cast their accusation in another mould We found say they this fellow perverting our Nation forbidding to pay tribute unto Caesar and calling himself Christ a King then if Pilate will not hasten to his condemnation he shall be instantly proclaimed for no friend of Caesars In which although they shewed themselves to be false accusers yet they declared sufficiently that in their opinion and in the opinion of a vigilant and careful Magistrate all Doctrines which may tend to perturb the State or rather that all such whoever which have raised factions in the State to promote their Doctrines were worthy of a Crucifige And so farre we may take St. Paul along for Company who tells us of coitiones in Synagogis seditions raised in the Synagogues as well as in the streets or Citie Acts 24. Of either of the which if his malicious enemies could have proved him guilty he had deserved to die as himself doth intimate Acts 25. v. 11. And this no question was the reason why some Roman Emperors proceeded more severely against the Donatists then against many other Heresies of an higher nature because they were an active sect and cared not to distract or subvert a Province so they might settle their opinions and increase their Proselytes though to say truth in this and all such parallel cases it was their faction not their faith not their Religion but rebellion which was punished in them In these two cases and these onely dare I set any