Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	great_a	know_v	sin_n	3,760	5	4.7877	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43457	A sermon preached before the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London at Guild-Hall Chappel, upon the second of September, 1679 being the day of their humiliation in memory of the late dreadful fire / by Henry Hesketh ...	Hesketh, Henry, 1637?-1710.	1679 (1679)	Wing H1616; ESTC R18213	13,713	44

had perished We were in a fair way to destruction and very near it and nothing but God's gracious and powerful Interposition could rescue us from it That we were indeed so we need not one would think to be told nor indeed can we well stand in need of a Remembrancer Thirteen Years one would think could not so efface the Impression nor wear off the Sense of so stupendious a Judgment that there should now be any great need either of refreshing our Memory or renewing our Apprehension thereof But because Vanity is apt to steal upon the Minds of Men and the most important things soonest pass from us it cannot be more needless than I am sure it is unconducing to represent something of this now to the Considerations of Men. I must have leave therefore a little to renew your Sorrows and call you to the repetition of your sad Reflexions I must beg you a little while to impregnate your Fancies with fresh Idea's of the late dreadful and amazing Conflagration It is one part of the Business of this Day and to what good purposes it may conduce you shall hear in part by and by A Judgment so extremely terrible as to be equally effective of Astonishment and Grief A Misery above the reach of common Sorrows and fitter to be entertained with horror and amazement and silence Had an Orator this Theme and would give himself scope to expatiate on it how easily might he represent it to those heights of Terror and dress it up in such dismal colours as might amaze and drown in tears a tender Auditory Lord to what extreme degrees did thine Anger then burn like Fire and how lively a Preludium was it of thy great Appearance in Wrath and of the final Conflagration How did all the Tribes of this great City mourn and how did blackness and horror sit in all Faces How did the Heavens look red with thine Indignation and how did the Elements melt with Heat of thy Wrath How did that worst of Masters then tyranize over us and how did the best of Servants degenerate into the cruellest of Rebels How did it triumph over all restraints and scorn all oppositions made against it In what a little time did it bring down the Glory of one of the Considerablest Cities on Earth and lay its Honour in the Dust How did the stately Turrets fall and the beautiful Palaces sink into Confusion Nay how O Lord did thine own Portions fall too and how afflictive a Symptom was it that thou wouldst no more be intreated since thou left us no places to supplicate thee in How justly might the Prophet compose for us a second Lamentation and how easily might he out do all the doleful Accents in the former How did the delicate City lie among the pots and how was the Beauty of the Earth buried in Ashes How did she that afore-time was filled with Troops now sit alone and she that was Queen of the Earth remain desolate and unattended How was the faithful City become more deformed than an Harlot and how instead of Righteousness there was a Cry How were the Chambers of the Daughters of Israel become Habitations only of Monsters and Dragons and how well might the filthy Satyrs dance there How was she whom Kings of the Earth admir'd for her Riches and Beauty become now her own amazement and wonder How did those that had known her know her no more and how strange was she become even to her own Children and she that aforetime was the Joy of the Earth now become the Sorrow and Hatred of her own Sons But I must forbear and not extort Blood instead of Tears I must not kill when I would only wound nor grow cruel in sporting with these Miseries I only desire a sober remembrance of these things and not to bring us really to re-act our former transports I would not have these things forgotten and I but comply with the Institution of this Day in recounting them again that they may not II. And therefore now pass on to a second afflictive Consideration for yet I must detein you in the dismal Prospect and that is to consider how just all this was for the Almighty saith the Prophet in this Chapter doth not causelesly afflict nor willingly grieve the Children of Men. And indeed a little Enquiry will soon satisfie us that in this he did not If any Man therefore ask as they did Jer. 22.8 Wherefore hath the Lord done this to this great City the Prophet there furnisheth me with an Answer Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord their God and worshipped other Gods and served them i. e. in plain English they have sinned against their God they have contemned his Laws and by their Transgressions they have brought upon themselves this Destruction And for God's sake my Brethren how justly might such an Answer be made in our Case and how well might God's Judgments against us be justified upon the Reasons of it I would much rather Men's own Thoughts should speak than force me to become their Accuser I know it is an invidious Task to recount the Sins of a great Body of Men and I do not delight to rake into the Imperfections of my Brethren It is not an acceptable performance to go to convince Men of their Sins but yet it is necessary that they see them I do not therefore desire to become your Confessor at this time nor would I publish our shame to the insulting of our Enemies But I must have liberty to say as these Men by the Prophet do Chap. 1. 18. The Lord is righteous for we have rebelled against him in what instances our Consciences will tell us and to what heights we should soon hear might our own Minds speak If we were equal in Judgments to that City for which this Lamentation was penn'd it is certain we have equalled it in sinning nay if we had exceeded her in suffering it had been but just for we have exceeded her sins and to borrow the prophetical Emblem if she were Aholah we have been Aholibah and not only transcribed but exceeded her Fornications If the fire kindled upon us and prevailed it was because we had prepared Combustibles for it to consume and feed on It was our Sins that oyled the Flames and first kindled the raging Consumer It was our Wickedness that more than the preceding Drought made us fit for burning and it was want of penitent Tears more than of Water that render'd it unquenchable If the Stones were calcined in our Walls and the Beams consumed to powder it was because these had cryed each to other as unable to support the Load of our Frauds and Violences And if the Almighty thunder'd against us in Flames it was our Exorbitances that had created Clouds for those Thunders to breed in If our Habitations tumbled to the Earth it was because our Sins had clamor'd up to Heaven and if God fought against us in Flames of Fire it

was because we had engaged before in a daring and impious Theomachie If our Temples were made Habitations for Owls it was because we had made them Dens of Thieves If our Streets were made lurking places for Robbers it was because we had filled them before with Violence If the Prophets were not to be seen amongst us it was because we had poured contempt upon them And if the Elders sat no more in our Gates it was because those Gates had been corrupted with Injustice If our great Conventions and Halls were not it was but to impose a Fast for their former Plethories And in a word if our City was made a fiery Oven it was because we had contracted Dross from which we needed a refining If God had punished to the height of our Demerits we had not been here now either to complain of his Severity or to praise his Mercy But I pass from this Theme also only with this Request That we soberly consider both these things and entertain in our Thoughts a constant Memory of them Which to what excellent purposes it may conduce is the III. Third thing proposed to intimate You have raised up a Monument to be a lasting Remembrancer of this Judgment and you have instituted this Day to be a Comment upon it I do not stay to tell you how in this you are presidented by the Practice of all sober Nations who have not thought it fit that extraordinary Accidents should be over-run with Oblivion and buried in the common Crowd of Things and therefore in order to the preventing that have signalized them with some extraordinary Remarks set aside some-Time for their stated Remembrance and raised Monuments and Pillars to perpetuate that Remembrance to succeeding Ages But I would rather intimate to what excellent Purposes this Memory may serve us I shall mention these four I. To make us live in a constant fear of God and his Judgments II. In a sense of our own great Mutability and the uncertainty of these Enjoyments III. To excite our care and watchfulness against any Parties of Men that have been Instruments in such Judgments and are ready to be so again IV. Especially to excite our care and indignation against those Sins of our own that may so again incense God as to permit them to be so I. To make us live in an awe of God and his terrible Judgments than which there are not many rarer Instruments of Virtue or more effectual to restrain Vice Who would not fear thee ô thou King of Nations that considers thy Greatness but who can chuse but do so that sees thy Judgments and such terrible Specimens of thy Power and Wrath I do not doubt but the sight of the Judgment wrought such awful apprehensions of God when it was present and to Men in any measure instructed in Religion it was almost impossible but that it should And therefore I recommend the steady Memory of it in order to the perpetuating the same good effect for if Men continue the one they can scarce miss to feel the other What just cause have all of us to tremble before the God of the whole Earth who can so easily bring down the Strength of ungodly Nations and can look the strongest Cities into confusion My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments cryeth David Psal 119.120 And certainly they that have seen such dreadful Instances of these Judgments cannot but do so II. Especially if secondly they consider That they are still subject to the same and in reach of them And there are not many Meditations more effective of humility and destructive to presumption and pride and confidence than this It was the great Folly as well as Sin of Jerusalem to dwell carelesly and securely to say none was besides her she should not sit as a Widow nor know the loss of Children as God chargeth her to do Isa 47.8 i. e. to glory in her strength and to think her self impregnable And God let her therefore see the folly of her pride and vanity of her confidence And the truth is most great Cities are apt to fall into the same folly to glory in their Walls or the Strength of their Inhabitants in the Multitude of their People or in the greatness of their Riches as if these were Fences against Miseries and Amulets against Destruction Against which Vanity and Danger it were well for such to continue the Memory of any Judgments that have befallen others but much more such as have befallen themselves It was thought enough to awaken and humble proud Jerusalem to bid her as the Prophet doth Amos 6.2 pass now to Calneh and see and from thence go to Hamath the great then go down to Gath of the Philistins be they better than those Kingdoms or their Border greater than these Nations Another Prophet thought he said enough to startle proud Nineveh by telling her as he did Nah. 3.8 9. That she should consider whether she were better than populous No that was situate among the Rivers and had the Water round about it whose Rampart was the Sea and her wall from the Sea Ethiopia and Egypt were her Strength and it was infinite Put and Lubin were her Helpers and yet she went into Captivity And those that see the strongest Cities subject to the same Destructions and dance the same Fate before them have little reason to exempt themselves from it or to think it impossible But then certainly those have much less reason to think so that consider they themselves formerly have known what Misery meant What befalls others may befall them too but what befalls them at one time may do so at another as well The things that have been may be again and she that hath been taught to know what it is to suffer hath little reason to magnifie her self against all future possibility of it III. Another End not unprofitable for us perhaps in this Matter may be to excite our Care and Watchfulness against those Men that were instrumental in inflicting upon us this Destruction and yet may be ready to repeat the same My Brethren I am not one I thank God that is apt to entertain hard thoughts of any Men much less that take pleasure in reflecting on them And I plainly confess to you I think it would have been next to impossible to have induced me to believe That Men professing Christian Religion should ever have a hand in such a thing were I not convinced by their Doctrines and some subsequent Practices of the possibility of it It is certainly hard for any Man that hath not shaken off all Remains of Religion and Humanity too to think it possible for Men to be so debauched in the one or so wholly to have abandoned the other as purposely to inflict such barbarous Cruelties upon their Fellow Brethren and Fellow Christians But sad Experience hath taught us That these things are possible to some Men and warranted by their very Religion