Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	according_a	church_n	word_n	2,212	5	4.2793	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52043	Meroz cursed, or, A sermon preached to the honourable House of Commons, at their late solemn fast, Febr. 23, 1641 by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing M762; ESTC R19516	35,043	59

themselves willingly among the people Hallelujah Praise the Lord They are not so much as named without an Euge. The Princes of Issachar are blessed for being with Barak Zebulun and Nepthali were a people that jeoparded their lives to the death in the high places of the field These are blessed also Blessed above women was Iael the wife of Heber the Kenite What made Jael such a blessed woman Even this she put her hand to the naile and her right hand to the workmans hammer and with the hammer she smote Sisera she smote off his head when she had pierced and smitten through his temples On the other side see the displeasure that there is against the Tribes who came not out to helpe in this expedition Ruben had businesse of his own his flocks were to be attended Gilead could plead that the River Jordan divided him from Barak and his company Asher had his own breaches to make up and the Sea coasts to looke to A man might think these were faire excuses But God had great thoughts of heart against them all And wo to him or them against whom God hath great thoughts The whole Chapter runs in this straine they are cryed up they are honoured and blessed not only the heart of Gods people but the soule of God himselfe as I may say tooke pleasure in them who appeared on the Churches side his displeasure indignation wrath and curse did rise against all who came not to the helpe This is most plaine in many other Scriptures I shall cull out but three among three hundred Jer. 48. 10. That whole Chapter containes the doome of Moab Gods curse was now to be executed upon Moab and you may read of Moab that the Lord once sent to him when his people were in distresse Let my out-casts divell with thee Moab be thou a shelter to them in the time of a storme But Moab was too proud to listen to Gods counsell Moab was alwaies an ill enemy to Israel Now God comes to reckon with him for it Now the spoyler shall come upon all his Cities And to them who were to execute this vengeance of God against them marke what a charge is given in the tenth verse Cursed is he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently or fraudulently or deceitfully as the word signifies Now what was the worke which was to be done the next words will tell you Cursed is every one that withholds his hand from shedding of bloud the strangest reason of a curse that ever was read of if ever a man might have pleaded with Peter when the voice said unto him Arise Peter kill and eate not so Lord I have not beene accustomed to this here were roome for such a plea when his worke was to go and embrew his hands in the bloud of men to spill and powre out the bloud of women and children like water in every street But he is a cursed man that withholds his hand from this or that shall do it fraudulently that is if he do it as Saul did against the Amalekites kill some and save some if he go not through with the work he is a cursed man when this is to be done upon Moab the enemy of Gods-Church So that whatsoever imployment men are put to they are cursed men that take not part with God in his worke Another place you shall find in Psal. 137. v. 8 9. The daughter of Babylon was there to be destroyed observe now the epithete which God gives to the executioners of his wrath against Babylon Blessed is the man that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Blessed is the man that makes Babylon drinke the same cup which Babylon had made Gods people to drinke Now he that reades the booke of the Lamentations may finde how Babylon had used the Church of God they had broken their bones as a Lion breakes the bones of a Lamb brought their necks under persecution made their skin blacke like an oven hang'd up their Princes by the hand and which is most of all cruell had dashed their children against the stones Now saith the Spirit of God Blessed is the man that thus rewards Babylon yea blessed is the man that takes their little ones and dashes them against the stones What Souldiers heart would not start at this not only when he is in hot bloud to cut downe armed enemies in the field but afterward deliberately to come into a subdued City and take the little ones upon the speares point to take them by the heeles and beat out their braines against the walles what inhumanity and barbarousnesse would this be thought Yet if this worke be to revenge Gods Church against Babylon he is a blessed man that takes and dashes the little ones against the stones But there is one Text of Scripture if no other were to be found in the whole booke of God which is a sufficient proofe that all are blessed or cursed according as they doe or doe not helpe the Church of God in their need and that you shall finde Matth. 25. 33. c. The summe whereof in a few words is this At the latter end of that Chapter is a description of the day of judgement and of the manner of Christs proceeding at that day First that when Jesus Christ shall come in the glory of his Father he will divide all the godly to the right hand and all the wicked to the left hand as the Shepheard divides the Sheep from the Goates Secondly he pronounces all on his right hand blessed all upon the left hand cursed Come yee blessed goe ye cursed Here are all the blessed and there are all the cursed Marke now what is assigned as the only reason and evidence why the one sort are blessed and the other cursed It is most plaine in the Scripture that at that day the Lord will call people to an account for all they have done in their whole course whether good or evill but in this place Christ gathers all that shall be opened and come to receive blessing or cursing reward or punishment to this one head according as they did or did not helpe and succour his Church and people in their time of need To the one side Come yee blessed receive the Kingdome prepared for you for you visited my Church when it was sicke you gave meale to my Church when it was hungry you gave my people drinke when they were thirsty you tooke them in when they were strangers you cloathed them when they were naked you came to them when they were in prison Inasmuch as you have done it unto these even unto one of the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me On the other side Go ye cursed Why are they cursed I was hungry and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and you cloathed me not sick and in prison

though but a corruptible crowne There is comfort in doing good to one but to advance the good of many especially of the Church of God how honourable how glorious is it Thirdly Gods cause is a successefull cause no weapon can prosper that is formed against it and every tongue that rises up in judgement against it shall be condemned The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it This Gamaliel saw when he advised the councell of the high Priests and Pharisees and Rulers to refrain from opposing the Apostles If this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it it is in vaine to fight against God Since then the Churches cause is Gods cause and consequently a good cause a noble and succesful cause you may easily hence conclude the happinesse that accompanies the promoting of it And on the contrary as easily discern how cursed a thing it is not only to undergo the disgrace of mannaging a wicked and base enterprise but to fail of that which wicked men use to cherish themselves with the hopes of the comfort of reward and obtaining their desires Secondly consider our relation to the Church And that affords three other excellent arguments to prove men blessed or cursed according as they help or help not the Church of God First whatsoever abilities any man enjoyes wherewith he may any wayes be usefull they are all given him to this very end to make him serviceable to the Church All the manifestations of the spirit are given to profit withall All the gifts which Christ powred out when he ascended up on high are for the perfecting of the Saints and the building up of the body of Christ As every one hath received a gift so let him minister as good stewards of the manifold graces of God The Church is the common storehouse to which all our wealth must be carried Salus Ecclesiae suprema lex Which being so the happinesse of every thing being the attaining of the end for which it was appointed and the curse of it the perverting of it to a wrong end they must needs be blessed who serve the Church and he must needs be cursed that deprives the Church of its own due Salomon saith that he that withholds corne in a time of famine the people shall curse him though it were his owne corne but suppose a man had the keeping of the provision of the whole town corne which were none of his owne he only intrusted with the keyes of it and should let the people starve for want of that food which he should keepe purposely for them or that a man had the keeping of a Magazen for an Army to furnish them with what might make them victorious and their safety and victory hazzarded if not lost through his default were not this man a villaine and a traitor to his country Secondly Consider how neare the relation is betwixt the Church and us except we be of the malignant Church of the Dragons army and then no more need be said to prove men cursed The Church is our Mother and all the Saints are our Brethren a Relation which all Lawes of God and man do fasten duty upon The eye that mocketh at his father or despiseth to obey his mother the Ravens of the vally shall picke it out and the young Eagles shall eate it Paul thought he did no more than his duty when he had great heavines and continuall sorrow in his heart and could wish himselfe accursed from Christ for his Brethren his kinsmen who were Israelites Thirdly All our own blessednesse stands or falls with the blessednesse of the Church The Church is such a corporation or mysticall body as hath in it all the properties of a naturall body wherein no members can be happy in an abstracted sense but as parts conjoyned with the whole because every part hath besides the neare relation to the whole a subsistency in it which is the foundation of any other good it receives And so consequently the good or gaine of the whole is the gaine of every member and whatsoever tends to the dissolution of the whole cannot but be destructive to all the parts As when a company of Merchants have but one joyned stocke every penny gained or lost is gaine or losse to them all Or as it is with a company of passengers in the same Ship save the vessell and you save all sinke the Ship and every mans Cabbin is cast away Now this is a more prevailing argument than reason can make it is grounded in nature which must prevaile with all Nature makes heavy things to ascend rather than the whole should be endangered by a vacuum Nature teaches the tongue to cry out when the toe is trod upon the hand to work that the belly starve not the feet to runne that the back be not cold Every man finds this in the naturall body and Gods Spirit dwelling in all the Saints workes the same spirituall disposition in them that are partakers of the divine nature That there be no Schisme or division in the body of Christ but that all the members may have the same care one for another That whether one member suffer all the members should suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members should rejoyce with it By this time I hope it is cleare that if we look upon Gods promises or threatnings mens experience in all ages or the Churches interest in God his neare union with it his affection to it his owning the Churches cause or if we consider our own engagements to the Church our neare conjunction with it and under God the dependance of all our comforts and wellfare upon it we may and must conclude that all men are blessed or cursed according as they help or help not the church of God The rest of the time I shall spend in the Application of it that what is thus cleare to your judgement and conscience may by Gods blessing take due place in your hearts and conversations And there are but two collections which I shall make for use The first briefly for terrour and reproof the second more largely for exhortation and duty First for reproofe This speaks very sadly against two sorts of people whereof God knowes there are many hundreds of thousands who yet professe themselvs to be Christians As first Are all they cursed that doe not thus helpe the Lord against the mighty what then are they who instead of helping the Lord against the mighty do help the mighty against the Lord who instead of joyning all their strength and giving all their assistance to the Church in her distresse doe give all the assistance they can to the enemies of the Church that they may do mischief against the Church What shall we thinke of these men How many are there who have as it were entred their names into the