Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	apostle_n	better_a	great_a	108	3	2.0886	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18025	Chorazin and Bethsaida's vvoe, or warning peece A judicious and learned sermon on Math. II. vers. 21. Preached at St. Maries in Oxford, by tha[t] renowned and famous divine, Mr. Nathanael Carpenter, Batchellor in Divinity, sometime Fellow of Exceter Colledge; late chaplaine to my Lords Grace of Armah in Ireland.	Carpenter, Nathanael, 1589-1628?; N. H., fl. 1633.	1633 (1633)	STC 4673; ESTC S107660	26,403	96

our owne sufficiencie Shall all the Coffers and Cabbinets of that Babilonish Strumpet be enhanced to furnish their expedition Shall Rome disrobe her felfe of her braveries and the Indios expose their unknowne treasures in the defence of their Antichristian Hierarchy and shall we suffer the Worthies of our Church for want of encouragement or meanes like Ostriches to bury their neglected Egges in the sand of obscurity for the earth to ripen or the Sunne to quicken O beloved these are matters that will no lesse rise up to our condemnatign than Tyre and Sydon against Bethsaida and Chorazin More propitious shall Sodome and Gomorrah finde the day of judgement than Capernaum the pride of Palestine as shee which having received better meanes of recovery had marched further in the broad way of impiety Their contempt of Christ above ours of Christs Ministers can challenge no greater precedence or disproportion He that despiseth you saith our Saviour speaking of his Messengers and Apostles despiseth me Which leades our discourse to the next point propounded to our consideration the things wherein Tyre and Sydon were compared to Bethsaida and Chorazin to wit the contempt of Christs workes and impenitence 13. Contempt and Impenitency even in the smallest matters are accounted sinnes of the greatest moment as those which seeme to stand in tearmes of defiance with Law and dare Iustice to doe her worst This wicked disposition found our Saviour in the inhabitants of Bethsaida and Chorazin which it seemes he saw wanting in Tyre and Sydons inclination He found the contempt of his person the contempt of his words miracles hee found the contempt of his Lawes Commandements the contempt of his sacred courtesies And least they might seeme to owe any favour to Repentance or recant wickednesse they are taught to persevere in sinne and shut up all the progresse of their Contemptuous behaviour with hardnesse of heart and obstinate impenitence Hence our Saviour first sendes after them as a swift pursevant the woe of Commination to summon them to judgement then delivers them over to ruine and destruction as the speedy executioners of his vengeance As if hee would thereby copie out unto us this infallible observation That impenitence and contempt of Christs word and workes are seconded by his heavy indignation and mens certaine punishment Should I in the large Theatre of worldly changes shew the hand of Gods vengeance in the wounds of his rebellious Enemies Should I draw the Curtaine and open to your eyes at once all the sad spectacles of pride and Gods indignation Should antiquity communicate her store to Memory and History expose all her treasure to observation The whole world would seeme the Scene and the beginning and end of time the bounds Time which hath seene the rise and fall of many puissant and famous Empires the erection and decay of many stately Trophies the greatnesse and confusion of many magnificent nations Time which in his vaste gulfe hath swallowed up all former ages and for the most part envied them story hath notwithstanding almost every where left some register or other of Gods heavy wrath against mans impenitent rebellion What one chapter almost shall wee finde in the sacred volume of the Prophets which upbraides not Israel with Gods benefits and mans ingratitude and makes not their owne perversenesse the immediat Vaunt-currior of his vengeance Had Time cancelled all her records and bequeathed to posterity no monument but her owne losses it would seeme a book wherein the Characters of Gods anger and mans sinne are every where legible The scattered ruines of that sometime chosen generation groaning as yet under the worlds scorne and their owne calamitie carry as it were ingraven in their foreheads the fatall markes of Gods curse and their owne infidelity And that promised land wherewith as with a second Eden God sometimes inriched those sonnes of disobedience shewes her face to this age no otherwise than as an unpeopled wildernesse exposed to fruitlesse sterility and pagan usurpation Ierusalem that Sceptred Citty whose bosome had cherished so many kingly Prophets what other Monument hath shee consecrated to posterity than the example of her owne shame that she which somtimes as the bright starre of the East shone to the Nations terrour and the world admiration stands now as a blazing Commet in the worlds eye to threaten our security Should I leade your remembrance through the gates of that beseiged Citty and place your affections in the sad theater of desolation your passion might perhaps exceede my description yet fall short of their calamity Those bewteous buildings wherein peace sometimes had placed her Tabernacle behold now circled with a band of Romans and threatned with invasion Those seemely streets wherein Pride was wont to strut in ostentation now become a Shambles of civill Butchery Those populous houses wherein plenty had set her store made now a prey to the hungry Iawes of pining scarcity That pleasant ayre wherein millions had beene cherished now overspread with the poysonous vapours of pestilent contagion That sacred Sanctuary wherein the King of Kings had set his rest now a Brothell house prostitute to all impiety Behold and see with greefe and wonder here the sprawling Infants tossed on the pikes of remorslesse souldiers There age and sickenesse gasping in the streets in vaine for pitty Here a miserable Myriam sacrificing her sonne to famine making the wombe of her increase the toombe of her posterity There an outragious bloodhound dragging some disconsolable widdow by her dishevilled haires Here blazing Comets and signes from heaven the apparent Markes of anger There prodigies and wonders of the earth the forerunners of feare and desolation All these calamities notwithstanding the highest pitch of misery which eyther history could ascend or nature suffer is by our Saviour termed but the beginning of sorrowes Hell and the grave are ready to receive them where worldly vexation leaves them Sinne and security which have thus farre dragged them to the Barre of Gods judgement never shakes them off till execution That promised seede which should have beene the prime guest at the Lords Table are now the least in his affection while the scattered and despised Gentiles as it were from the hedges and high waies are invited home to his sacred banquet As if hee would shew us in a vision his Apostles shaking off the dust of their feete as an Evidence of the Iewes contempt and turning to the Gentiles These are the poore witnesses of Christ in whose opposed wants and miseries they might well reade their owne sinne and condemnation Which leades our observation to the third and last point which is the effect and consequence which should have followed Christs workes had they beene wrought among the Tyrians and Sydonians 14. The repentance of the Tyrians and Sydonians offers it selfe unto us under a threefod consideration First our Saviours foresight supposed to bee the ground of his Prediction Secondly the cause out of which Grace and Repentance are

are layd open yet vouchsafes he first to threaten ere he inflicts his vengeance as one who in his wisedome thought it most convenient as to approve the righteous so to make the wicked inexcusable that eyther the word preached outwardly to their eares or written inwardly in their hearts should eyther correct or condemne speake their comfort or confusion Betwixt mans transgression Gods Iustice a space is wide open for Repentance to make attonement Ere the Lord rained downe fire and Brimstone on Sinfull Sodome Abraham had his turne to play the Advocate and the Sodomites a time of mercy Ere the Ninivites expected their just destruction a truce of 40. dayes was granted for Repentance to gather forces Hence might every true Christian draw a doctrine for Gods mercy and judgement in that he usually threatens before he strikes and sends his Comminations as the Heralds to proclaime his vengeance The sharpest curbe to head-strong affections is the feare of censure farre too predominant should we finde the swinge of our carnall desires were there not a sharpe whip at their owne girdles Where transgression ends there judgement accoumpt begins and there of necessity must arraignement commence the first action where guilt left his last Impression But yet the greatest prerogative of a Iudg is mercy he strikes not ever where hee ought to spare nor spares alwayes where hee ought to strike at least he lightens where he thunders he displaies his red flagge of defiance ere hee gives the onset hee speaks at least unto the conscience of every wretched sinner ere hee seale his blacke warrant of death and destruction So that not without good cause might our Saviour in this Chapter take up the complaint of little children sitting in the Market place and crying We have piped unto you and yee have not danced wee have mourned unto you and yee have not wept At least might God speake unto them as Iob in another sense unto God Once have I spoken but I will speake no more yet twice but I will proceede no further Spake not God to the conscience of prophane Esau through his fathers neglected blessing the childish losse of his owne birthrigh Spake he not to the sinfull Sodomites through the month of Lot a carefull and religious Preacher Spake he not to Iosephs brethren through the remorse of a guilty conscience and their owne Confession Spake hee not to the idolatrous Israelites through sundry punishments and the fiery indignation of his servant Moses Who more proud and contemptuous than Nebuchadnezzer the founder of admired Babel yet was his courage suddenly cast downe at the sight of his owne vision and Daniels propheticke comment Who more stately than Royall Blashaser sitting at a costly banquet and crowned with a troope of Princes yet was hee taught in the fatall inscription on the wall to reade the Lords Iudgements and the subversion of his stately Empire Who more perverse and tyrannous than Pharaoh to the servile Israelites yet might hee heare the Almighty speaking through Moses unexpected Message prodigious miracles Who more frozen to piety than the furious Philistims in Davids admired victories and Goliahs shamefull overthrow Who more senceles than the old worldlings before the deluge yet might they understand Gods holy Majesty in Noahs unregarded Ambassage who more stubborne than the hard hearted and stiffnecked Iewes yet heard they daily in their streets and temples as it were the prostituted voyce of many Prophets and to descend a little lower in this streame of sacred History wherein all changes and actions give testimony Iudas that Epitome of all impiety never wanted a master to forewarne him of his sinne and a worme of conscience as it were to prepare him to eternall torments And what Pagan so drowned in the ditch of ignorance and so nusled up in the schoole of impiety to whose soule and secret apprehension God himselfe dictates not a law of nature grounded on certaine and undoubted Principles This might teach every true Christian not to spurne at Gods judgements or wilfully to kicke at his Invitations It is the Almighty who threatens a grievous punishment and shall wee not tremble at his displeasure He sends out his summons for our appearance and shall wee not provide against the time of our arraignement By his Ministers he daily cites us to the barre of justice by his workes by his word by his wonders he is wont to awaken us from security and rouze up our attention and shall we as the deafe adder stop our eares against so wise a charmer or returne backe his messengers with a sleevelesse answer What other can we expect but that the Lord at length finding all his shafts of judgment and commination eyther slightly lodged in their breasts or contemptuously reflected backe will be enforced at the length to draw home to the head and enforce our stiff-necks to acknowledge his power or stand it out to their owne destruction A wronged pacience among men soone degenerates into furious indignation and in the couse of ordinary conversation what greater motives of unkindenes than contempt or ingratitude But with one who in the precise scale of justice waighes all unrighteousnesse what greater motive can happen to stirre his indignation or hasten our destruction than to neglect his threats and carelesly to slight his judgements Two sorts of men are here found subjected to reprehension the first are such as carelesly neglect the other are such as contemptuously reject the soveraigne meanes of their salvation In the former ranke are numbred all such carnall Christians who too boldly trespasse on Gods pacience and like those unworthy guests whom our Saviour invited to his great Supper never want excuses One hath bought a farme and must goe see it the other a Yoake of Oxen and must goe try them the third hath married a wife and therefore cannot come as if Repentance were alwaies at hand to serve their humours and the Holy Spirit of God obliged to prostitute his graces to each howers importunity In these mens hearts is the Word of God sowen as seede amongst Tares which the cares of this world are ready to choak up in the first growth to prevent all hope of fruit or mature perfection Speakes the holy Spirit of God to the soule of the swinish drunkard and shewes him the shame of his lavish expences his riotous reyeling and lewd conversation A cup of wine is neare at hand to quench and extinguish his ungratefull melancholy Speakes he to the lustfull leacher presents unto his conscience his lustfull and wanton behaviour and Goatish fornication Some bewitching Lais is not farre off to ransome his soule from pensivenesse and drowne his sences in delicious and voluptuous pleasures Speakes he to the covetous Cormorant and discovers to his secret thoughts his griping Vsury his base Lucre and tyrannous oppression The very sight of his golden Coffers proves as strong as one of Circes charmes to bewitch his sences and inchant his Iudgment

Lawyer cry Tho case is altred Should we set in view of judicious insight the matchlesse industry of our bordering Neighbours the supine negligence of our owne nation the manifold obstacles barring their passage in the progresse of Religion the store of opportunities which stirre and steare us to Salvation what starting hole can be left us to escape Gods sentence or secure us from perdition What serious judgement would not admire in their penury what we neglect in our plenty and confesse their industrious humility to ascend higher than our insolent security Compare and oppose on the one side that bounteous hand of plenty which fills up our channells with milke and honey the wasting Iaw of famine which devours their Vineyards and dries up their vintage the sweet calme of peace which daily smiles on our security The boysterous stormes of warre which depopulates their Citties and lay waste their villages The cleare Rivers of Science and Religion derived through each veine of our vigorous government the contagious vapour of Idolatry and superstition as a pestilence spreading their infection The charming tongues of many sweet singers which daily speake to our instruction the inchanting tongues of many false Prophets which like Syrens forerun their ruine or like Zim and Ohim breath nothing but desolation Compare and oppose on the one side their devout humility ambitious with the diseased woman in the Gospel to kisse the hemme of our Saviours garment our supercilious pride ready to crucifie againe Christ in his members crowne him with a bush of thornes Their zealous fervency panting and breathing with David for the sweet springs of comfort and consolation our contemptuous sensuality with the murmuring Israelites in the desert loathing the wholesome Manna and food of our soules Their religious charity willing with the very dogges to licke the soares of pining Lazarus our uncharitable cruelty and reproach of Christs Ministers with delicious Dives scarce affording them our Gates for succour Here could I wish some modest Aposiopesis would secretly suggest and whisper to each mans conscience that judgement which my discourse feares almost to pronounce yet our sinnes deserve But in spight of my infirmities or mens presumption the consequence will needes follow his undoubted premisses and where to my former proposition stampt by God himselfe by truth and evidence our owne conscience addes an assumption what cunning Sophister can shut out the conclusion But casting mine eyes on this faire assembly mee thinkes I stand as the Prophet Balaam amidst the Lords Army inforced to turne my bitternesse into blessing at least as an indulgent Phisitian to sweeten out this pill of judgement to your digestion Can any people plead more exemption than the sonnes of the Church or any prescription give more immunity than the Charter of the Christians Was not populous Iury spacious enough to shut out this Assises nor the Regions round about large enough to bung up the mouth of Iustice or blunt the edge of execution but must London with her Sister Citties of great Brittaine stand the push of this arraignement and submit themselves to so strict an examination How ready here is flesh and blood with Ionas to fly from the judgement which is in the midde way attending it or with the subtile Sepes by stirring the streame to avoyd danger Some righteous Lot is alwayes expected to come betwixt flaming Sodome and threatned Zoar with this passionate petition This Citty is neare to fly unto and it is a little one O let mee escape thither is it not a little one and my soule shall live But the verdict is given up and the fact is evident Law must proceede justice disdaines all encounters but a cleare Conscience and bootelesse it is to hide those sinnes from our owne censure which lye open to Gods judgement What ingenuous stranger from the face of this populous and stately Citty will promise himselfe lesse proficiency in Religion than hee findes advantages of meanes or in other places expect greater where hee sees lesse encouragement The huge Bulke of your stately Churches and number of your Preachers the free and frequent use and practise of Religious exercises the strict forme of your discipline the due administration of justice the wholesomnesse of your lawes are all able to burthen each mans expectation and make every mans hopes as prodigall as his eyes should I set in view of these gracious indowments the dispeopled Citties of our neighbour countries wasted with sword famine their Pastors chased away or slaughtered in the streets the free use of the Gospel prohibited Idolatry and superstition under paine of death commanded Should I usher your remembrance through the large field of Germany and the adjoyning Territories and shew you as in a Map of desolation their houses razed their vineyards spoyled their Corne fields consumed their bounds altered their right usurped and their very ground it selfe as it were yet panting under the hoofes of armed horses and insulting enemies who would not admire in their penury what we neglect in our plenty hold their very imitation more praiseworthy than our example I am no humorous travellour to affect no flowers but such as grow in a forraine garden yet from the improvement of our Neighbours poore stocke and good husbandry might we extract some good argument of perswasion to awaken our owne industry Can we with patience behlod them gleaning a few eares of Corne from the short stubble can we sleepe amidst the full sheaves of a plentiful harvest Can wee behold them plowing up the barren soyle to extort from her needy entrailes a small crop of knowledge and Religion and shall we suffer our fruitfull vineyard so often watered with the dew of heaven and planted by so many skillfull Gardners to groane under ungratefull Bryars and starve for want of husbandry Their straw is taken from them by their cruell Taske-Masters yet with the poore Israelits in Aegypt they are inforced to make Bricke All materialls are supplied us towards the erection of the Lords house and shall our Iudustry be only wanting to our selves What more could the Lord doe unto his Vineyard than hee hath already performed hath he not hedged it planted it dressed it and built a Wine-presse in it and shall all our fruits prove wilde grapes in the gathering or the Wine shrinke in the vintage If the example of our friends cannot stirre up Imitation or checque our sluggish disposition let our very Enemies shame our backwardnesse instruct us in our duties See wee not our factious Romanists to compasse sea and Land to make Proselites and shall we sitting at home in our houses shut our doores against the entrance of Christs Messenges Shall the Iesuits like those mighty sonnes of Anak come against us with their overstudied Impostures and subtile stratagems rather to tyre our Iudustry than refute our grounds and shall we sit in the Market place all the day idle chusing rather to buy their trifles than make sale of