Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	death_n	mercy_n	sin_n	3,579	5	4.7173	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01759	The epistle of Gildas, the most ancient British author who flourished in the yeere of our Lord, 546. And who by his great erudition, sanctitie, and wisedome, acquired the name of sapiens. Faithfully translated out of the originall Latine.; Liber querulus de excidio Britanniae. English	Gildas, 516?-570?; Abingdon, Thomas.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1638 (1638)	STC 11895; ESTC S103163	93,511	458

earth A sword of fire is sent out against yee and who is he that shall restraine it shall any man repulse a Lyon that hungereth in the wood or shall any one quench out the fire when the straw is burning our Lord God will send out evills and who is he that shall represse them and fire will passe forth from out his wrath and who shall extinguish it it shall brandishing shine and who will not feare it it shall thunder and who will not shake with dread God will threaten all and who will not be terrified before his face shall the earth tremble and the foundations of the sea fleet from the depth And marke ye also what Ezechiel the renowned Prophet and admirable beholder of the foure Evangelicall creatures speaketh of wicked offendors unto whom pittifully lamenting before hand the scourge that hung over Israel our Lord doth say Too farre hath the iniquity of the house of Israel and Iudah prevailed because the earth is fully filled with iniquity and uncleannesse Behold I am mine eyes shall not spare nor yet will I take pitty And afterwards Because the earth is replenished with people and the City fraughted with iniquity I will also turne away the force of their power and their holy things shall be polluted prayer shall approach and sue for peace and it shall not be obtained And somewhat after The Word of our Lord quoth he was spoken unto me saying Thou sonne of man the land that shall so farre sinne against me as transgressing it shall commit an offence I will streatch forth my hand upon her and breake in peeces her foundation of bread and send upon her famine and take away mankind and cattle from her and if these three men Noah Daniel and Iob bee in the midst of her they shall not deliver her but they in their justice shall be saved saith our Lord. If so be that also I shall bring 〈◊〉 evill beasts upon the land and punish her she likewise shall be turned to destruction and there shall not be one who shall have free passage from the face of the beasts and admit these three men are in the midest of her I live saith our Lord if their sonnes and daughters shall be preserved but they alone shall be saved and as for the land it shall fall to confusion And againe The sonne shall not receive the unrighteousnesse of the Father neither yet the Father the sonnes unrighteousnesse The justice of the just shall be upon himselfe And the unjust man if he turneth him away from all the iniquities which he hath done and keepeth all my Commandements and doth justice and abundance of mercy hee shall live in life and shall not dye All his sinnes whatsoever he hath committed shall have no further being he shall live the life in his owne justice which hee hath performed Doe I with my will voluntarily wish the death of the unrighteous saith our Lord ra●her than he should returne from his evill way and live But when the just shall turne himselfe away from his justice and doe iniquity according to all the iniquities which the unrighteous hath committed all the just actions which hee hath done shall remaine no further in memory In his offence wherein he hath fallen and in his sinnes in which hee hath transgressed he shall dye And within some words afterwards And all nations shall understand that the house of Israel are led captive away for their offences because they have forsaken me And I have turned my face from them and yeelded them over into the hands of their enemies and all have perished by the sword according unto their uncleane sinnes and after their iniquities have I dealt with them and turned my face away from them This which I have spoken may suffice concerning the threates of the holy Prophets onely I have thought it necessary to intermingell in this little worke of mine as well as the former menaces a few words also borrowed out of the wisdome of Salomon which declares unto Kings matter of exhortation or instructiō that they may not say I am willing to lade the shoulders of men with heavie and insupportable burthens of words but not so much as once with mine owne finger which is with speech of consolation to moove the same Let us therefore heare what the Prophet hath spoken to rule us Love justice saith he yee that judge the earth This onely testimony if it were with a full and perfect heart observed would abundantly suffice to reforme the governours of our Country For if they had loved Iustice they would also love God who is in a sort the fountaine and originall of all justice Serve our Lord in goodnesse and seeke him in simplicity of heart Alas who shall live as one before us hath sayd to see these things performed by our Countrymen yea if perhaps they may be any where accomplished Because he is found of those who doe not tempt him he appeareth truely to them who have faith in him For these men without respect doe tempt God whose Commandements with stubburne despight they contemne neither yet doe they keepe to him their faith unto whose Oracles be they pleasing or somewhat severe they turne their backes and not their faces For perverse thoughts doe separate from God and this in the Tyrants of our time very plainely appeareth But why doth our meannesse intermeddle in this so manifest a determination Let therefore him who is onely true as wee have sayd speake for us the holy Ghost I meane of whom it is now pronounced The holy Ghost verily will avoyde the counterfetting of discipline And againe Because the spirit of God hath filled the globe of the earth And afterwards shewing with an evident judgement the end of the evill and righteous hee saith How is the hope of the wicked as the doune that is puffed away with the wind and as the smoake that with the blast is dispersed and as the slender froth that with a storme is scattered and as the memory of a guest who is a passenger of one day But the just shall live for ever and with God remaineth their reward and their cogitation is with the highest Therefore shall they receive the kingdome of glory and the crowne of beauty from the hand of our Lord. Because with his right hand he will protect them and with his holy arme defend them For very farre unlike in quality are the just and ungodly as our Lord verily hath spoken saying Them who honour me I will honour and who so despise me shall be of no estimation But let us passe over to the rest Hearken saith he all yee Kings and understand ye learne ye Iudges of the bounds of the earth listen with your eares who conteine multitudes in awe and please your selves in the troopes of nations Because power is given unto yee from God and puissance from the highest who will

led to death and forbeare not to redeeme them who are murthered because as the same Prophet saith Riches shall not profit in the day of wrath but justice delivereth from death And If the just truely be hardly saved where shall the wicked and sinner appeare If thou scornest us and all these the darkesome flood of hell shall without all doubt eternally drowne thee in that deadly whirlepoole and those most terrible fiery streames that shall ever torment and never consume thee and then shall the palpable knowledge of these paines and sorrow for sinnes bee altogether to late and unprofitable unto him who as now in this acceptable time and day of Salvation deferreth his conversion unto the righteous way of of life And here truely if not before was this so dolefull and lamentable an history of the miseries of our time to have received a conclusion that our mouth might no further discourse of the workes of men But that we may not be esteemed fearefull or overwearied whereby we might the lesse carefully avoyde that saying of Esay which is Woe be unto them who call good evill and evill good placing darkenesse for light and light for darkenesse bitter for sweete and sweete for bitter who seeing see not and hearing heare not whose he●rts are overshadowed with a certaine thicke and blacke cloud of vices We will breefely set downe what and how great threatnings are denounced against these five aforesayd lascivious horses the franticke followers of Pharaoh through whom his army is wilfully urged forward to their utter destruction in the red sea and also against such others by the sacred Oracles with whose holy testimonies as with a faire roofe the frame of this our little worke may be most assuredly covered that it be not subject to the showres of the envious which otherwise would be mainely powred thereupon Let therefore the holy Prophets who have beene unto mortall men the mouth in a sort of God and the Organ of the holy Ghost forbidding evils and favouring goodnesse answere for us as well now as in that before against the stubborne and proud Princes of this our age that they may not say we menace them with such threates and so great terrors onely of our owne invention and over-busie talking rashnesse For to no wise man is it doubtfull how farre more grievous the sinnes of this our time are than those of the first age the Apostle saying Any one transgressing the law being convicted by two or three witnesses shall dye how much worser punishments thinke ye then that hee deserveth who shall trample under his foote the Sonne of God And he first of all appeareth before us Samuel by the Commandement of God the stablisher of a lawfull kingdome dedicated to God before his birth undoubtedly knowne by admirable signes to bee a true Prophet unto all the people from Dan even to Bersheba out of whose mouth the Holy Ghost thundreth to all the Potentates of the world by denouncing unto Saul the first king of the Hebrews onely because he did not accomplish some matters commanded him from our Lord in this sort Thou hast done foolishly neither yet hast thou kept the Commandements of our Lord thy God that he hath given thee in charge which if thou hadst not commited even now had our Lord prepared thy raigne over Israel for ever but thy kingdome shall no farther arise And what did hee commit adultery or any abhominable murder like to the offences of this time No truely but broake in part a Commandement because as well one of ours noteth The question is not of the quality of the sinne but of the violating of the precept Also when he endeavored to answere as hee thought the objections and after the fashion of men wisely to make defences for his offences on this wise Yea I have heard the voyce of our Lord and walked in the way through the which hee hath sent me with this reprehension was he corrected by him What will our Lord have burnt offerings or oblations and not rather that the voyce of our Lord should be obeyed Obedience is truely better than oblations and to hearken unto him better than to offer the fat of Rammes Because as the sinne of Southsaying so is it to resist and as the offence of Idolatry not to obey in regard therefore thou hast cast away the Word of our Lord hee hath also cast thee away that thou be not King And a little after Our Lord hath this day rent the Kingdome of Israel from thee and delivered it up to thy neighbour a man better than thy selfe The triumpher of Israel truely will not spare and will not be bowed with repentance neither yet is hee a man that he may doe pennance supposed ever upon the hard stony hearts of the wicked Wherein it is to bee noted how he saith that to be disobedient unto God is the sinne of Idolatry Let not therefore our wicked transgressors while they doe not openly sacrifice to the gods of the Gentiles flatter themselves that they are not Idolaters so long as they treade like swine the most precious pearles of Christ under their feete But although this one example as an invincible affirmation might abundantly suffice to correct the wicked Yet that in the mouthes of many witnesses all the offences of Britaine may bee approved let us passe to the rest What chanced to David for numbring his people the Prophet Gad speaking unto him in this sort Thus saith our Lord. The choise of three is offered thee Elect to thee one of these which thou wilt that I may execute it upon thee Either shall there befall thee a famine for seaven yeares or three monethes shalt thou flye thine enemies and they pursue thee or certainely there shall be three dayes Pestilence in thy land For being brought into great streights upon this condition and willing rather to fall into the hands of God who is mercifull than into those of men he was humbled with the slaughter of LXX thousand of his subjects and unlesse with the affection of an Apostolike charity he had desired to dye himselfe for his Country-men that the Plague might not further consume them by saying I am the same person that have offēd●d I the sheepheard have dealt unjustly these who are sheepe what have they sinned Let thy hand I beseech thee be turned against mee and against the house of my Father He should have purged the unadvised pride of his heart with his owne death For what doth the Scripture afterwards declare of his Sonne And Solomon wrought what was not pleasing before our Lord and he did not supply in his place that hee might as his Father follow our Lord. And our Lord said unto him Because thou hast thus behaved thy selfe and not observed my covenant and precepts which I have commanded thee breaking it asunder I will divide thy Kingdome and give the same unto thy Servant

Heare now likewise what fell upon the two sacrilegious Kings of Israel even such as ours are Ieroboam and Baasa unto whom the sentence and doome of our Lord is by the Prophet in this sort directed For what cause have I exalted thee a Prince over Israel in regard they have provoked me in their vanities Behold I will stirre up after Baasha and after his house and I will give over his house as the house of Ieroboam the Sonne of Nebat whoso of his blood shall dye in the City the dogges shall eate him and the dead carkasse of his in the field shall the foules of the aire devoure What doth hee also threaten unto that wicked King of Israel a fellow souldier of the former band by whose collusion and his wives deceit innocent Naboth was for his Fathers Vineyard oppressed talking by the holy mouth of that Elias yea the selfe-same mouth that was instructed with the fiery speech of our Lord. Thou hast killed moreover likewise thou hast possessed and after these thou wilt adde yet more Thus saith our Lord in this very place wherein the dogges have licked the blood of Naboth they shall lick up thy blood also Which that it fell out afterwards in that very sort we have certaine experience But least perchance according as it befell unto the aforesaid Achab The lying spirit which pronounceth vaine things in the mouthes of your Prophets may seduce ye harken ye to the speeches of the Prophet Michaias Behold God hath suffered the spirit of lying to poss●sse the mouths of all thy Prophets that doe here remaine and our Lord hath pronounced evil against thee For even now it is certaine there are some Doctors replenished with a contrary spirit preaching and affirming rather naughty pleasure then truth whose words are softer then oyle and the selfe same are darts who say peace peace and there shall be no peace to them who persevere in sinnes as the Prophet in another place on this wise speaketh It is not for the wicked to rejoyce saith our Lord. Azarias also the sonne of Obed did speake unto Asa who returned from the slaughter of the Army of ten hundred thousand Ethiopians saying Our Lord is with yee while ye remaine with him and if yee will seeke him out he will be found by ye and if ye will leave him he will forsake ye For if Iehoshaphat but yeelding assistance unto a wicked King was thus reproved by the Prophet Iehu the sonne of Anany saying If thou givest aid to a sinner or lovest them whom our Lord doth hate the wrath of God doth therefore hang over thee what shall become of them who are fettered in the proper snares of their owne offences whose sinnes but not whose soulēs we must of necessity hate if wee will fight in the Army of our Lord the Psalmist saying Hate ye evill who love our Lord. What was said to the sonne of the afore rēcited Iosaphat named Ioram that most horrible murtherer who being himselfe a bastard slew his noble brethren that hee might possesse the throne in their place by the Prophet Elias the wagon and wagoner of Israel Thus speaketh quoth he the Lord God of thy Father David Because thou hast not walked in the way of thy Father Iosaphat and in the waies of Asa the King of Iudah but hast made thy passage through the wayes of the Kings of Israel and in unsensiblenesse according to the behaviour of the house of Achab and hast moreover killed thy brethren the sonnes of Iosaphat men farre better then thy selfe behold our Lord shall strike thee and thy children with a mighty plague And a little afterwards And thou shalt be marveilous sicke of a disease of thy belly until the entrailes of thy belly shal together with the malady it selfe from day to day passe forth away from thee And listen also what the Prophet Zachary the sonne of Ioiades menaced to Ioas the King of Israel leaving our Lord even as ye now do who arising spoke in this manner to the People Thus saith our Lord why doe ye transgresse the Commandements of our Lord and doe not prosper Because ye have left our Lord he will also leave you What shall I mention of Esay the first and chiefe of the Prophets who beginneth the proeme and enterance of his Prophesie or rather vision saying in this sort Heare O yee Heavens and O thou earth conceive in thine eares because our Lord hath spoken I have nourished children and exalted them but they themselves have despised me The Oxe hath knowne his owner and the Asse the manger of his Master but Israel hath not knowne me and my people hath not understood And after a few words framing threatnings answerable to so great a folly he saith The Daughter of Sion shall be uterly left as a shelter in the Vineyard and as a hovell in the Cowcumber Garden and a City that is sacked And especial-conventing and accusing the Princes he saith Heare the word of our Lord O yee Princes of Sodome perceive ye the Law of our Lord O yee people of Gomorrah Where truely it is to be noted that unjust Kings are tearmed the Princes of Sodome for our Lord forbidding sacrifices and gifts to be offered unto him by such where we with greedy covetousnesse receive those offerings which in all Nations are displeasing unto God and to our owne destruction suffer them not to be bestowed on the poore and needy speaketh to them who laden with abundance of riches are likewise given to the filth of offences on this wise Offer not any more your sacrifice in vaine your incense is abomination unto me And againe he denounceth And when yee shall stretch out your hands I will turne away mine eyes from ye and when ye shall multiply your prayers I will not heare And hee declareth wherfore he doth this saying Your hands are full of blood And likewise showing how he may be appeased he saith Be ye washed be ye cleane take away the evill of your thoughts from mine eyes leave of to deale perversly learne to doe well seeke for the judgement succour the oppressed doe justice to the pupill or Orphan And then assuming as it were the part of a reconciling appeaser he adding saith If your sinnes shall be as scarlet they shall be made white as Snow if they shal be as red as the little worme they shall be as white as wooll If ye shall be willing and will heare me ye shall feede on the good things of the Land but if ye wil not and shall provoke mee unto wrath the sword shall devoure ye Receive ye heare the true and publike avoucher witnessing without any falshood or flattery the reward of your good and evill not like the soothing humble lippes of your Parasites whispering poysons into your eares And also directing his sentence against ravenous judges he saith thus