Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	action_n	bring_v	law_n	1,527	5	4.5368	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51812	The nature and effects of superstition in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons on Saturday the fifth of November, 1692 / by Thomas Mannyngham ...	Manningham, Thomas, 1651?-1722.	1692 (1692)	Wing M493; ESTC R4396	12,601	35

Little do People think what an instance it is of God's especial Goodness towards us that we are nor given over as a Prey unto his Teeth that He can only Attempt and Threaten and that His terrible fierceness is still bound up and restrain'd tho' not confounded That we have struck a hook into the Jaw of that Leviathan by our late Victory at Sea and hope in a short time to take an effectual care that that Leviathan shall no longer take his Pastime in the deep And tho' it be an Amphibious Creature that we have to deal with whose greatest Strength lyes on the Land yet by a prodigious Gallantry of some of the Bravest Men that ever gave their Lives for their Country He has been lately taught that it would not be so hard for us to Conquer if he had but Courage to give us one fair Battel 'T is not the Method of Divine Providence to do all for us at once but to try our Gratitude by several instances of his goodness gradually dispens'd and to mingle some Hardships with the Deliverances he sends us to see whether we will repent and amend and whether we are worthy of the continuance of his Favour If he finds by the daily increase of Wickedness amongst us that he shall not be Glorify'd by our Prosperity he will change his Method of dealing with us and be Glorify'd in our Oppression If we grow so nice as to murmur at his proceedings because they do not exactly answer to all our Desires if we prove so unreasonable as to think we are undone because our Safety puts us to some Expences and if our Condition appear miserable because our Blessings are somewhat chargeable to us then have we Reason to fear lest our Repining should provoke God to make us Drink deeper of the Cup of Afflictions before he gives us a farther Delivery The Ministers of the Gospel have been often put to make Apologies for the darker Providences of God but the untoward Temper of this Age puts us upon making Apologies for his very Mercies too Men have been so much us'd to Infidelity that they will not believe their own Temporal Happiness if they can find the least thing to object against it We all understand what Discontents there are in this Kingdom and can any of you remember when this Nation was without its Complaints we know what ill Representations some are ready to make of every Management and of every Event we grant there are many difficulties under which we lye at present and that the carrying on of so Necessary and so Diffusive a War must needs be our burthen as well as our Security but none of these things must put a damp upon our Spirits lessen our Gratitude to God or check our forwardness in contributing largely towards the Maintaining of that Cause in which the whole Protestant Interest is bottom'd and in which his Majesty has been so Nobly seconded by the concurrent Assistance of a Wise a Sensible and a Generous Parliament III. I come in the last place to lay down some Directions to preserve us from the Horrible Sin of Superstition which is one great occasion of all the Troubles of this Kingdom And here I beg leave to recommend Three Things more especially 1. The first is a thorough insight into the Law of Nature and the obligation of Moral Actions an excellent piece of Wisdom and brought to great Perfection in some late Writings The study of this will render Mens Judgments sound and masculine make them less lyable to Superstitious Fancies and consequently less subject to Atheistical Conceits which many run into by an Injudicious and too hasty abhorrence of the other Make but a sober Enquiry into the True Nature of Humane Actions and that will quickly Teach you to distinguish between Moral Duties and Ritual Performances and Barbarous Impieties acted under the pretence of Religion and to prefer Obedience Righteousness Temperance and Mercy before the Sacrifice of Fools and Madmen it will bring you to acknowledge that your best Actions fall below your Rule and then the Defects of Morality will directly lead you to seek after an Expiation for those Defects and that Expiation is Christ our Saviour 2. Do but take a serious view of the horrible Superstitions of the Ancient and Modern Heathen and you will quickly abhor all approaches towards such Degeneracies from common Reason and from the first Notions of Religion and not indure that Christianity should have any of those sordid mixtures brought into it which in time would make that Heavenly Institution an Instrument of the vilest practices in the World For when once the Superstitious get a Head there will be no stopping of them they will rage in all manner of bloody and barbarous Effects in the destruction of Cities Families Provinces as very acceptable parts of Devotion they will proceed for all that I know from Plots and Massacres to worship God directly by Humane Sacrifices from the attempting to blow up Parliaments to the offering up their own Sons and Daughters unto Devils 3. Do but peruse the History of the Church in its first and purest Ages and you will wonder how that Grave Matron the Christian Religion came to put on such a meretricious Paint as it appears with in the Church of Rome how old plainness and Sincerity came to be so supplanted by Artifice and Fraud how Goodness Candor Peaceableness and lawful Subjection came to be run down by Fury and Rebellion and horrid Conspiracies undertaken with Ceremonies of Religion and how the most Solemn Worship of one God thro' one Mediator came to be turn'd almost into the Worship of one Pope and all such Saints as he shall please to Canonize either for their Holiness or for their Villany 2. For a general Direction to all Christians who would not be ensnar'd by Superstition I intreat them to stand to the Holy Scriptures and to well season their Minds with a due sense of the Christian Religion from those Pure and Spiritual Discourses which our Saviour himself has left us To consider what are the especial Duties to which he has annexed his Blessings and what is the Hypocrisie and Formal Worship he has most zealously oppos'd 'T is conversing much with the Holy Scriptures that alone is able to make a Man Devout and Discreet at the same time there is no such security against all Superstition as a constant recourse to the Word of God that Crystal Fountain of all Truth Holiness Wisdom and Love and when these Graces are well infus'd into our Hearts nothing but what is solid in Religion will be able to make any strong Impression on our Souls To conclude That which I am willing to leave very affecting and warm upon your Minds is this That I fear our little Differences in Politicks have very much abated of that just abhorrence which is due to the Abominable Superstitions of the Church of Rome and so the last Error may be worse than the first But whatever miscarriages we mutually impute to each other let us all assure our selves that Popery is still the same Corruption of Christianity as before and that there is no Alteration in the Opinions and Designs of that Church whatever there may be in the Piety and Constancy of those who seem to slacken very much in their Opposition against it Let us endeavovr to behave our selves with that Moderation that all Parties may come into the true Interest of the Nation which is the preservation of the Protestant Religion that all our Hearts may be united into the same general Policy and Wisdom that our Divisions may be no longer a Reproach to our selves and a Triumph to our Enemies And in a word that Luxurious Fasts Murmuring Thanksgivings and false Professions of Allegiance may not be the ruin of this Church and Kingdom If neither Judgments nor Mercies will do us any good if we are of too perverse a Temper either to be Humbled or Oblig'd then our greatest Calamity is not remov'd but only deferr'd but if we have Hearts truly thankful for former Deliverances and have the Grace and Skill to manage a present Blessing when 't is put into our Hands we may still be a Prosperous and a Great People and such as the Lord shall delight to visit with Mercies Deliverances and a mighty Salvation Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant us thro' Jesus Christ his Son our Lord. To God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be all Honour Glory Power Praise and Thanksgiving now and for ever more Amen FINIS