Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	able_a	church_n	zion_n	12	3	8.5984	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03398	A suruay of the pretended holy discipline. Contayning the beginninges, successe, parts, proceedings, authority, and doctrine of it: with some of the manifold, and materiall repugnances, varieties and vncertaineties, in that behalfe	Bancroft, Richard, 1544-1610.	1593 (1593)	STC 1352; ESTC S100667	297,820	466

thinketh all them bewitched and aduersaries to the trueth that do impugne it He supposeth the present estate of the Church of England wanting that Allobrogicall deuise though reformed as it is to be as yet vnder the yoake of a wicked and vnlawfull gouernment as it were vnder that Iewish captiuitie of the Church vnder the Babilonians And therefore the better to incourage such factious persons as do gape for a change out of Gods blessing into the warme sunne hee taketh vpon him to be their Prophet and as it were another Esay sayth For Syons sake I will not hold my peace and for Hierusalems sake I will not rest vntill the righteousnesse thereof breake forth as the light and saluation thereof as a burning lampe that is in effect vntill the said glorious kingdome of this Geneuian Eldership be enthronized in this land and do carrie the scepter ouer euery parish in England There is also another sorte of Schismatickes amongest vs who although they condemne T.C. for a false Prophet and all his platforme as a meere forgerie yet doe they ioyne with him in slaundering not onely of our church most hainously but furthermore also of all the rest of the Churches in Christendome as hauing conspired together euer since the Apostles times to shut Christ out of his owne kingdome and to runne headlong into a voluntary bondage of greater blindnesse then was euer in Egipt In respect of the which our miserable estate forsooth in England grounding themselues vpon Cartwrightes propositions as they professe vz that seeing our Church our gouernement our ministerie our seruice our Sacramentes are thus and thus as he writeth of them therefore they will not pray with vs they will not communicate with vs they will not submit themselues to our Church or to the gouernment of it they will not baptise their children with vs they will haue nothing to doe with vs but in effect as though we were prophane persons Ethnickes or publicanes do abandon our societies And these men come in with another a far more royall kingdome then Cartwrig hts But it consisteth partly of his sayde officers and partly of some other of their owne that is of all the people whome they greatly magnifie not seeing their owne confusion Which forme or deuise they haue in suche admiration for their conceaued purity of it as that all the parishes in England they say must be first disparished and all the people of the land first sanctified and made a chosen people vnto the Lord before the same may be planted amongst vs. And therefore one of them whether Barrow Greenwood Harrison Glouer or which of their schollers I doe not nowe remember but one of them I am assured doth so greatly dislike the thraldome in his conceit of the Church of England at this day and so thirsteth to drinke the waters which they haue drawn out of their own cisternes that as rauished in spirit and for the comfort of his companions he protesteth that for Syons sake hee will not hold his peace nor for Ierusalems sake take any rest vntill the righteousnesse therof breake forth as the light and saluatiō therof as a burning lampe that is in effect vntill all the parishes in England bee purified after their fashion then an Eldership abridged by a popular authoritie bee placed in them But of all the cryers that I haue read of hee shall weare the garland for crying that presumed of late to printe a petition directed to her Maiestie but published and spread abroad amongst her subiectes for what other purpose I know not then to withdrawe them from their duetiful allegiaunce liking of her gouernment when thereby they should be informed sufficiently as he deemed of such notorious abuses as he falsly pretendeth and that notwithstanding her highnesse being acquainted with them yet she cared not for the reformation of them They say the man hath beene of a crased iudgement and I easiely belieue it partly for that he hath so giddily and so vntruely sought to disgrace asmuch as in him lieth the present gouernement of the Church and partly in respect of his desperate boldnesse that after so many rebukes giuen to such franticke fellowes in the like cases he durst presume againe to offer to the worlde such a fardell of malitious collections and vntruthes and yet thinke them fitte matters to be dedicated to her Maiestie But the thinge that most astonisheth me is this in that he saith thus I do not now write eyther to pull downe Bishoprickes or erect presbyteries With whome the truth is I will not determine For I knowe not c. And yet he taketh the said sentence out of Esay somewhat turkised for his poesie aswell as the rest And to the condemnation of the present gouernment and iustificatiō of the disturbers of it if he vnderstand himselfe he plainly professeth that although he knoweth not which part hath the truth yet for Syons sake he will not cease nor for Ierusalems sake hold his tounge till he hath aduanced his owne conceite and depraued that which hee knoweth not asmuch as possibly he is able And thus you see what loue on all sides is pretended to Syon and how the prophets wordes are wrested by euery one of them to serue their owne turnes But they who haue iudgement will not be much moued with such pretences It hath beene an ancient practise of the aduersaries of the Church of God then especially to be complotting of some mischiefe both against Syon and Ierusalem when in outward shew they haue pretended most of all to bee desirous to repayre them and to seeke their glory There are some men spoken of in the scriptures who vaunt that because their tongues are their owne they will speake what they list To whom also these men that professe they will not holde their peace may be more fitly compared then with the holy prophet Esay Or I doubt it that if a man shoulde iudge of many of them by the course which they haue taken or if they of themselues would resorte indeede to their owne coulours they might soone appeare to be so far from bearing any true affection to Syon as that we should rather finde them in the tentes of the Edomites cryinge in their heartes against the good estate of the Church of Christ now in England as the Edomites did in the day of Ierusalem Downe with it downe with it euen to the ground But because T.C. and his followers for with the rest I will not further meddle haue such a conceite as that the light and saluation of Ierusalem cannot well breake foorth vntill his pretended Eldership may bee generally admitted of in England I will leaue their harts to God and deliuer vnto you historically how this platforme was deuised and grew to bee so much in request which will be the contentes of the two next chapters following CHAP. II. How by whome and where the platforme of Presbytery Discipline was first

vsed at Geneua It was no lewder a saying of Pope Boniface to my vnderstanding when he affirmed it a point of the necessitie of saluation for all men to be subiect to the Bishop of Rome If they of Zuricke Berne Schafhusin and Basill the Magistrates and Ministers there had but suspected or once but dreamed that their assisting of maister Caluin to the hauing of his will ouer the Citizens of Geneua would haue growen to such insolencie would haue brought forth such pride such sedition and so great presumption as that like Pharaoes euill fauored and leane Kyne the sayd his deuise would haue sought to deuoure all other Churches their orders their seruice and formes of Discipline much fayrer creatures and in better liking then his scragge I am perswaded that all the friendship all the intreaties deuises and stratagemes nay all the gold and goods in the world could neuer haue drawen them vnto it But I will end this Chapter They were no Iosephes to foresee these mischiefes or what a dearth of true reformation indeed both in Fraunce Germanie and diuerse other places the vrging with such boldnesse and violence of such a meere fancy and most apparant forgery would procure or did portend Time hath disclosed it And Gamaliels Councell hath proued true The factioners in this folly haue been so long suffered to take their owne swinge that now they are growne giddie and finde not what to stand vppon It was from men that they sought for and therefore it beginneth alreadie to come to nought as by diuerse points following I trust it shall appeare CHAP. IIII. Our English Geneuaters vpon a better inquirie made are grown to a great vncertaintie touching sondry pointes of the Geneuian platforme THe rule of the Apostle being well vnderstood is very notable where hee saith trie all things and keepe that which is good Many thinges haue faire showes but trie them and like the apples of Sodome they fall into dust In gold the chiefest mettall there is great sophistication He that will be easily led is soone deceaued To hold a thing for good before a man haue tried it by such a touchstone as is meete for his calling I hold it great folly The credit which Popery grew vnto did partly proceed of such rashnesse Men were content hauing a good opinion of their Priestes to be led by them as it were a Beare by the nose and without any triall to accept in good part of whatsoeuer they gaue them And as the people were carried thus away by their owne perswasions of their Priestes so were the poore Priests themselues many of them no doubt misse-led through the honourable regard which they had of their superiors It is wonderfull what time and custome will worke A man may tell a lye so oft that forgetting himselfe to be the authour of it he may thinke he heard it at the first from some person of credite and so beleeue it to be true It may be that the Bishops of Rome through the continuall flattery of their Parasites telling them still they coulde not erre and that they were the Lordes of the whole world though at the first they knew they lyed yet afterwardes beginning by little and little to beleeue them they are now in time come to this that he who saith otherwise they will by no meanes endure him he is become an heretique and I wot not what The Bishops also and other great learned men following the streames as they ranne in their dayes did grow by degrees to reckon of the Popes as they found them in their times to account of themselues And thus I suppose or at the least by some such meanes that both the Priestes of all sortes and likewise the people became in time to be so drowned in the puddles of Poperie all of them together from the top to the toe forgetting the Apostles saide rule of trying euery thing whatsoeuer before they held it for good Which notable point of this Apostocall wisedome being of later yeares fallen into practise by euery man that feared God according to the measure of his giftes and as his calling did require we see it to be true by our owne experience that euen children now in a maner are able to discerne the trueth in sondry thinges wherein many men of iudgement and good learning were heretofore blinded And euen in some such like sorte hath it happened in this matter of the Geneua Discipline Men haue been carried headlong with it before they knew well what they did and all vnder godly pretences It is a plausible matter with the people to heare them depraued that are in authoritie but especially to vnderstand of anie libertie or power which may appertaine to themselues Besides when men haue been bitten with abuses it is an acceptable point to heare the things themselues which were abused exclaimed against For it falleth not vnder euery simple mans cap to distinguishe well in that matter Furthermore also it is not vnknowne to any of iudgment what the profession of any extraordinary zeale and as it were contempt of the world doth work with the multitude When they see men go simply in the streetes looking downward for the most part wringing their necks awry shaking their heades as though they were in some present griefe lifting vp the white of their eies sometimes at the sight of some vanitie as they walke when they heare them giue great grones crie out against this sinne and that sinne not in them their hearers but in their superiours make long praiers professe a kinde of wilfull pouertie speaking most earnestly against some mens hauing too much and some men too litle which beateth into the peoples heades a present cogitation of some diuision to be made in time when I say the multitude doth see and heare such kind of men they are by and by carried away with a marueilous great conceite and opinion of them especially when withall they take vpon them to shewe a way or maner of Discipline which shalbe forsooth nothing preiudiciall to the people but rather bring them great libertie and yet shalbe such a way as shall reforme all thinges amisse and that in such sorte as they themselues would eyther wish or desire And as many people in this our time haue beene thus beguiled by a certaine crue of Ministers so they the Ministers amongst themselues vpon the like outward shewes and false pretences in this point I speake of concerning the pretended holy Discipline haue beene greatly misled one sorte by another the inferior by the superior as by Cartwright and some others and these superiors here with vs by two men especially maister Caluin and maister Beza whilest the first sorte haue wholly depended vpon the second and the second vppon the third Maister Caluin that deuised the said platforme was surely an excellent man and so is maister Beza who since that time hath beene the principall maintainer of it But yet both of them in their times