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	great_a	lord_n	1,960	5	3.5757	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42432	A sermon preached upon the first occasion after the death of His Grace John Duke of Lauderdale, in the chappel at Ham by John Gaskarth ...	Gaskarth, John, d. 1732.	1683 (1683)	Wing G289; ESTC R543	31,206	52

proceeds from seeing others pleased and satisfied by their means will very powerfully influence such Men whose better parts and more generous temper has advanced them above the low thing of being envious Which Notion would have perswaded me that some great degree of Beneficence must needs have been in him whom I now speak of if I had not observed the instance of it And as to matters of Religion if we consider him as a private Man he was always just to his Creator and gratefully reflected upon him whatsoever he received from him he was not for setting up the Idol of Self in Man and deifying the Humane Faculties as some Sacrilegiously do but he ever with a due thankfulness ascribed all the Imperfect beginnings of good in our Nature to the Vertue and Influence of God's Spirit That indeed we could in the use of our magnified freedom oppose the gentle Inducements of Grace and render them ineffectual as alas we often do this is properly within our own Power but that we could not perform any good action without the special assistance of Heaven with us freely entertained and complyed withal His Faith was firmly grounded upon the Rock Christ Jesus those subtile Arguments of a sort of Men that would take away the God-head and Merits of their Saviour could make no Impression upon him altho he was well acquainted with them all he saw the insufficiency of their Carnal Reasonings as being quite contrary to the express Word of God and he humbly acquiesced in the plain Declarations of Scripture concerning the work and notion of a Redeemer and applied only to him for Salvation His Perswasions were far from the Roman Creed to which he not only often declared but liv'd contrary expecting acceptance with God by no other means then only that of a good Conversation through the alone Merits of Christ Jesus His Religion was no accidental thing the first stamp upon him or the Complexion of his Countrey which indeed is the Religion of most Men and all the account they can give of it but he undertook the Study of Controversies and observed the Arguments of all Parties that so from his own free deliberate choice he might be an Orthodox Christian after the best and most approved Plat-form And by this only Method of certainty he got above his Education and became a true Conformable Son of that Church which is most Apostolick so that none ever entertained the Protestant Doctrines according to the Church of England upon greater Judgment and none was more able or more ready to defend them against all Opposers And his Religion was not only notional but he conversed and lived under the influence of it his attendance upon God's publick Service was constant and certain I dare say in the happy time of my knowledge of him he never missed that blessed opportunity but when his health made it necessary And this he did perform not only as a Task and constrained business that he was under the Obligation of but in full freedom as his great delight and satisfaction always going chearfully to the House of Prayer And his Deportment there was very devout and serious he was a great Proficient in the Holy Scriptures and such an attentive hearer of them that for the most part after Chappel he either taught me or inculcated afresh some good Observation Indeed altho he was acquainted with all the Parts of Learning to such an extent and degree as one can scarce imagine in a Person that was always under the necessary Disersion of a publick employment either in Peace or War And this argued his extraordinary Capacity that he could attain to those high Improvements in horis subsicivis in his Vacant Intervals from his Publick Affairs which others could not do in their only Design and the whole business and study of their Lives He was a perfect Master of many Languages both Ancient and Modern to have observed his exquisite skill and readiness in them one would at first have been forc't upon this thought that he had imployed his main endeavours in words and Phrases which I am perswaded many have done with less proficiency but then one would have seen withal that his many Tongues were not in him as in most Men that can lay claim to them without Sence and Notion but were also attended with a large acquired Wisdom and could speak the best knowledge of the best Authors in each of them But like a Man of his Judgment he never valued himself upon his Languages or put any further esteem on them then only as they administred to his better Understanding I heard him once say in our mention of Rabbinical Learning That a Babel of Words always occasioned a Babel in the Intellect a confused Apprehension of things and that many Languages still came to Men in the nature of a Curse altho through their own free choice and Labour in that the study of them does so improperly exhaust time without any respect to Mind and Reason and so deprives those that devote themselves that way of more substantial Acquirements But to return I say although he was well acquainted with all the parts of Learning yet besides that which enabled him for his own Province to be a more accomplish'd Statesman and to serve his King more effectually in that difficult Station wherein he plac'd him And indeed he was most exactly knowing in the Histories and Policies of the whole World and these things being laid up in his comprehensive Memory and digested by his better Judgment it was more satisfaction to consult him for this kind of Knowledge than even the Books themselves of that Design and Subject But I say besides this Skill in Language and this State-Learning his Principal Care and Improvement was in that which is the only Method of being good and wise the Holy Science of Divinity and in this as all the Students of it he made a parallel Progress both as to Practice and Knowledge For as he had a true and becoming Notion of the most mysterious Instances of our Holy Faith so he was a very careful Observer of the Practical Parts of it Those Precepts of Vertue that were to influence Life and Morals I must needs say that I could never discover any prevailing Habit or Inclination to the contrary but methought from the Alacrity and Constancy of his Actings a mind well tempered and conform to them And in truth these things are a mutual Proof of one another His exquisite Skill in these Holy Mysteries is a sufficient Argument of his Vertue and that he had cleared and prepared his Understanding for that Sacred Knowledge by a good Life which is the only means to attain to any degree of it The wonderful Wisdom of God in the Gospel is Foolishness to the Greeks not discerned or apprehended by vicious Livers And as he was most firmly perswaded of the Articles of the Christian Faith and also had a demonstrative certainty of the Truth and Excellency

they will fasten such a Character of Shame and Disingenuity upon them that the very Clemency of the Prince and the just occasion of Disgrace that it gives will be a sufficient Punishment to them I say this Gentle Temper in Princes begets the strongest Love and Esteem of them in the minds of the People which makes the best security against all Injuries and therefore this may be an Argument from Policy as well as Divinity to these mild Proceedings And in the Fifth place that he may be more successful in his Government both as to the Advancement of Religion and the right Worship of God and also to the promoting of good Morals and Honesty among his People he must imitate the Author of his Power in another Attribute and that is his Holiness Be ye holy for I am holy does especially belong to Governours who have another Image and Resemblance of God to express in the World than the rest of Men and Christians have He must be sure to give an Example in himself of those Vertues that he should maintain and propagate That of the Apostle Shew thy self a Pattern of good Works Titus 2.7 and also 1 Tim. 4.12 Be thou an Example of the Believers in Word in Conversation in Charity in Spirit in Faith in Purity together with 1 Pet. 5.3 Not as being Lords over God's Heritage but being Ensamples to the Flock altho' spoken concerning Bishops and Pastors of the Church yet upon the same Reason belongs to all Rulers in general of what kind soever whether their Province be Spiritual or Temporal There are many Men that cannot look into the inward Nature and Pulchritude of Vertue and make that the Influence of their Practice but are wholly taken up with the Externals of it the Credit or Disrepute that it is in from great Examples and so manage themselves accordingly As also Ambition of great Places or perhaps the bare Desire of being better stated with their Governour or in his more special Respect and Favour puts abundance more into this Circumstance of conforming to his Instance And therefore it often happens that the whole City is of the same Complexion with its Ruler whether he incline to Vice or Vertue But alas this is the Difference the Desires of Body which the greater number of Men place their whole Satisfaction in not being acquainted with Spiritual Enjoyments makes the Pattern on the worse side more spreading I shall not enlarge upon this Argument only translate a passage of Tully in his third Book de Legibus 18.19 which as it has the Advantage of Sence above any thing I can say from my self so it carries more of Authority with it As by the licentious Life and Vices of Princes says he the whole City is commonly infected so by their Continence and better Morals it is advanced to the same Vertues That great man and our Friend Lucullus when the Stateliness of his House at Tusculum was with some Reflection objected to him made this Answer which satisfied many That whereas his two Neighbours the more honourable of them being but a Knight and the other only a Freeman had very stately Mansions that Magnificence must needs be allowed to him which was permitted to those so much his Inferiours But it seems Lucullus did not observe that he himself was the Cause of their State to whom if he had not been guilty of it it would have been neither lawful nor tolerable for who would have endured them to have enjoyed such pompous Houses who would not rather have broken them down and destroyed them unless those who were most obliged to do so had given their Example and Authority for the having of them For that is not so great an Evil that Princes are vicious altho it be a great one as that other is that many are drawn into an Imitation of them For one may observe quite through the Histories of all times that howsoever qualified the Chief Men of the City were such was the City it self in a little while and every Change of Manners in Princes did induce the same in the People by how much ill Princes do worse deserve of their Countrey not only that they follow Vice themselves but because they infuse it into their Subjects and not only do harm that they are corrupted but that they corrupt others as it were making Sin Authentick by their practise of it Thus Rulers are obliged to maintain good Works even for these necessary uses that they may thus bring Vertue into Esteem and Honour among the People Good Princes have a Reward and share in all the Vertues of those that are under them by the Command and Influence of their own Piety And in respect of their after State may ascribe that of the Prophet to themselves they advancing the same thing by their Example viz. Those that turn many unto Righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 And this will enhaunce their Punishment if they be vicious and so much the more as Vice or an ill Pattern having the stronger Appetites of Body to advocate for it is more prevalent and dilates farther It is an easie effect of Vice to derive it self in a large Compass upon those suitable Inclinations that are in all men but the propagation of Vertue is a more difficult thing and requires a more than ordinary Example for the Success of it there being that violent Opposition of Sence to move against which is the prevailing Principle in most Men and which cannot be subdued or kept under in any without intense Labour and incessant Striving at least till a Habit have render'd the Business more facile But this should not deter a good Magistrate that considers his Heavenly Rule and Pattern from an Holy Instance but rather the more easie and influential Vice is the more cautious should this make him of acting it before his many Spectators or giving it the advantage of his high Example And the more difficult Vertue is or contrary to the Temper of most Men if he will satisfie his just Obligations to God and the People under him the more industriously ought he to assert it and with more vigour endeavour to gain Credit and Authority to it from the Uprightness of his own Actions This indeed requires Valor as all other his due Proceedings do And therefore in the Sixth place seeing that Magistrates are commissioned by God are his Deputies and Ministers of his Kingdom among Men as much as concerns the visible part of things they ought to be very couragious and resolute in the just Management of their high Province It is God's own Command and Counsel to them You shall not be afraid of the Face of Man for the Judgment is the Lords Deut. 1.17 That is seeing they manage God's Cause and Government in the World and upon this account are obliged to the most impartial Justice and Equity in all their Proceedings they ought to be valiant for the Truth even unto Death