Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	behold_v	lord_n	righteousness_n	1,751	5	7.2802	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66772	A proclamation in the name of the King of kings, to all inhabitants of the isles of Great Brittain and especially to those who have hypocritically pretended to justice, mercy, honesty, and religion (as also to them who have lived in open prophaness and impiety) summoning them to repentance, by denouncing God's judgements, and declaring his mercy, offered in the everlasting gospel / warrantably proclaimed and preached by Geo. Wither ... ; whereto are added, some fragments of the same authors, omitted in the first imprinting of the book, intituled Scraps and crums, and a few which were collected since that impression, and during his imprisonment.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1662 (1662)	Wing W3181; ESTC R12240	34,610	74

heads For as the Prophet saith Jerem. 49. 12. and 25. 29. Behold saith the LORD they whose Judgment was not to drink of the Cup have already drunk thereof and shall you go unpunished you shall not go unpunished but shall surely drink it I have begun to bring evil upon those who are called by my Name and shall you utterly escape punishment you shall not escape for I will bring a sword upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth saith the LORD But I will conclude with an Evangelical Consolation and that which I shall declare unto you is an Epitome of the Everlasting Gospel which ascertaineth that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Mercy of GOD and the Redeemer of all mankinde according to the Covenant of Grace the same to day yesterday and for ever This I am authorized to Preach unto you by an unquestionable Ordination and Commission For I declare it according to that Original Commission which was given to all who were or should be the Ministerial Disciples of Jesus Christ thereto qualified by the Gifts given to men from above though not Ordained by men For I declare it not by that Light alone which the Son of GOD potentially set up in me when he assumed the Humane Nature and wherwith he enlightens in some degree every one who comes into the World for the Salvation of his own Soul but by having his Gospel declared and witnessed also unto me by that Light in the Lanthorn of his Word which ought to be a guide to every mans feet and the direction of all men in their wayes left the other Light being but like that which the Moon receiveth by reflection from the Sun may be darkned by the interpositions of the Flesh and the World or by the delusions of the Devil GOD's Threatnings Mercies and Promises are all or for the most part conditional and may be or may not be according as we demean our selves when he calleth offereth his preventing and assisting Grace wherein he is never wanting to perform his part of the Covenant made with mankinde in Christ Jesus He is long-suffering slow to Anger would all men should be saved and desireth not the death of any sinner There is no end of his Mercy unless to them onely who wilfully forsake him first after he so sufficiently rewards the Will when he saith Give me thy heart which he may give up unto him by vertue of the Talent which he hath received And even to them who then resist his gracious offer he is not extreamly severe until they do as it were compell his Justice to limit his Compassion by justly hardening them into a final Impenitency that his Mercy may not be made contemptible to the disadvantage of others by their yeilding to the Flesh which by his ayd they might have subdued and by their ungratefully adhering to and believing his and their greatest Enemy rather then trusting to his Word who placed them in a happy Condition and when they forfeited it by their own default had so much compassion on them even whilst they were his Enemies as to give his onely begotten and dearly beloved Son ●o be disgracefully Crucified to death for their Redemption This Love being well considered ●s so strong a Motive to Repentance that they with whom it prevailes not will be little moved with Preaching Everlasting Damnation in Hell Fire If ye be not sensible of this unspeakable Mercy nor of Spiritual Judgments let the sense ye yet have of those that be Temporary and Corporeal make entrance for the former into your serious and timely consideration Beside many other Plagues that now lie upon you GOD hath lately threatned to deprive us of the Fruits of the Earth for our Trangressions we fear a Famine and it having already begun to pinch us we pretended a General Humiliation here in England that our fear might be removed But what follows we continue still in our unrighteousness and unmercifulness prosecuting our former courses rather with more then lesse violence The Oppressed are not eased but more oppressed Prisoners are not set free to whom the Lawes allow Freedom but Jayls are daily replenished with new guests barbarously treated Even harmless men and women suffer meerly for their Consciences in relation to GOD or upon misinformations and misprisions only unheard and uncondemned by a legal conviction Which proceedings are contrary to the Laws of GOD of Nature and likewise of these Nations if they have any in force For if the Complainants sad cryes which I hear and hear of be as creditable as they are lamentable many honest Families are and will be exposed to beggary and even rich men will probably be made beggars also They are shut up from their dearest Relations and they themselves being despoiled of all their livelihoods and of means to supply necessaries by their labours are destitute of all accommodations They are lodged worse than doggs thronged up together in sickness and in health nothing left or provided for them to feed on except they will eat their own flesh but what GOD providentially conveyes unto them by the charity of his Servants of which charity they are sometimes defrauded by their hard-hearted Keepers and that which comes to hand is handed-in also with much difficulty These cruelties are aggravated with many other oppressive concommitants which make them almost inexpressable and unsufferable yea the more unsufferable in regard that during the Sessions of Parliaments and Courts of Justice which were wont to be their ordinary Refuge the Oppressed can have no Relief and these Grievances are kept also from the King's ear who is their last hope next under GOD. Let us take heed how we fall into the hands of the living GOD when his Wrath is kindled lest he utterly suddenly consume us as he did Sodom and Gomorrah for shewing so little mercy to others who have lately received such extraordinary mercies from him Learn by Examples though ye have neglected Precepts seeing what hath been heretofore may be so again hereafter and in regard Cases that have a resemblance will bring down the like Judgments When Jeremiah the Prophet was a Prisoner for discharging his Conscience as I and many others are at this day the Famine so encreased that there was no Bread then left in the street of the Bakers at Jerusalem It will therefore concern us that we be wary we continue not in the like sins lest ere long there be little Meal in our Markets and a greater scarcity of Bread in the shops of our Bakers at London For as there are among us very great failings so there are very great appearances of GOD's high displeasure who hath more dreadful plagues ready to execute his Commands than Famine Pestilence and raging War joyned all together and he will here inflict that whereof we are most sensible and those hereafter if we repent not Consider this all ye who forget GOD and return for he is at all times ready to meet every one in

who are found guiltie of the same or of the like Prevarications and this I believe in regard he who doth nothing in vain would not have preserved during so many Ages this Record of his Judgements and of the particular passages between him and his People and caused it to have been so dispersed throughout the Earth had it not concerned all his People in all Times and Places Therefore it evidently appearing unto me that GOD moved me to apply it to these Nations I have accordingly made Application in this manner conceiving it will operate the more effectually by being expressed in the Prophets own powerful words sense and much better heeded and regarded then in mine onely or if it had been undertaken by my own Premeditated Design though I have seen enough to warrant the justness and necessity of making such an Addresse upon a morral account I have not hereby charged upon these Nations any transgression which was charged upon the Inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem by the Prophet Jeremiah nor any Prevarications resembling their sins or to them equivolent but such as GOD my own Conscience and most men know or may know these Nations are guilty of nor do I exclude my self out of that number which needs Repentance but have performed my duty faithfully without respect or disrespect of Persons according to my understanding And being conscious that it is my duty so to do I will now by the Authority of those Credentials which GOD hath written in my heart and which are in part publickly shown make use of them in such Immergencies and Contingencies as occur faithfully adding what I believe he hath further Commissioned me to declare so far forth as my Experience and his known Instructions joyntly considered shall indubitably warrant And that is at this time to send out among you an Exhortation to be wary that you still harden not your hearts as in those former dayes of Temptation and Provocation wherein ye provoked GOD's wrath but that you hearken unto his Voice whilst the day of Grace lasteth But alas I am between hope and fear it is almost too late with many For they who are worst have so high a conceit of themselves that there is more hope of meer fooles then of them They think themselves to be safe clear-sighted when they are indeed miserable poor blind and naked they suppose they are setled upon the hill of Sion whereas they are yet but as it were upon the mount Gilboa even in slippery places where they cannot long stand fast For we have almost so generally indulged Oppressions Injustice and Vanities that they seem to be the principal supporters of our Safety Power and Honour yea to be essential to our Lawes and legal Customs as also so great a part of our Revenues the means of our Subsistance that we can hardly live without them Verily break off in due time from your sins and from all the occasions of transgressing Hear repent and turn speedily to the LORD our GOD not presuming nor despairing In the first place I do humbly though I might do it Magisterially beseech you my dear brethren who seeming to be Professors of the Gospel have dissembled or Apostatized or any way given occasion of Scandal be exemplary to others in a signal Repentance For nor your formal nor your former Righteousness will avail if you have Apostatized from it Though not in respect to my words yet for the Honour of GOD whose servants you are thought to be and for your own safety sake repent and turn to the LORD unfeignedly all ye who have hitherto taken the Name of Christ in vain and prophaned it by not living the Life of Christ according to those Doctrines of his which ye have professed nor acting nor suffering constantly according to that honesty and Piety whereof ye made fair outward shewes For many of you have made sordid Gain by a pretended Godliness and like the Religious Whore of whom Solomon speaketh have made your seeming holiness and formal Devotions and Conformities to be Preambles and Brokers to your Avarice and uncleanness There have been very great failings of late in that kind among the best of us so much self-seeking dissembling and Apostatizing that there was little truth in our words or deeds and very great and severe are those chastisements which GOD hath already laid upon us for our transgressions and greater are yet to come if we more heartily repent not All GOD's Judgements afore-mentioned and threatned against Judah by the Prophet Jeremiah might have been prevented by timely Penitence and so may those wherewith we are threatned and these also be quite removed which yet continue But neither our Righteousness in time past from which we have Apostatized shall profit us nor shall our sins which we have heretofore committed damnifie us if we reform our wayes For GOD hath not onely said it but sworn it also by his own Life Ezek. 33. 11 12. c. As I live saith the LORD I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live The Righteousness of the Righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his Transgression nor shall the wicked fall by his wickedness in the day that he turneth from it neither the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be remembred when he committeth Sin without Repentance nor the wickedness of the wicked be mentioned when he forsaketh his Sin but he shall surely live though I formerly said unto him thou shalt surely die GOD who will not be mocked hath begun to execute Judgements at his own House and we prolong and increase them by continuing and encreasing our Trangressions yea and not onely by our little awe of his Judgements but by not rightly considering his Love and by defect of that mutual and hearty love to each other which most essentially denominats us to be Christs Disciples for we have thereby multiplyed our sorrows and Troubles more then all our Adversaries could else have done And though we had no other Oppressors or Persecutors that alone is suffcient if it continue to make us utterly destroy our selves Consider this my dear brethren with what it hath already brought upon us that ye may speedily repent GOD vouchsafe his Grace to assist you therein and to me Perseverance also in unfeigned Repentance and Amendment Repent likewise all ye who say in your hearts There is no GOD and sport away your Salvation by such horrible Imprecations as GOD damn me For though you not onely think but speak and act also as if indeed there was no GOD you will one day find there is one and that he hath several wayes manifested himself unto you both openly and in secret by his Judgements and Mercies upon your selves and others for your example though you will not yet acknowledge it but run on impudently into all manner of impietie and prophaness promising unto your selves Peace when destruction hangs over your