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	judge_v	righteousness_n	1,406	5	7.1256	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85832	Englands complaint: or, a sharp reproof for the inhabitants thereof; against that now raigning sin of rebellion. But more especially to the inhabitants of the county of Suffolk. With a vindication of those worthyes now in Colchester. / By Lionel Gatford B.D. the true, but sequestred rector of Dinnington, in the said county.	Gatford, Lionel, d. 1665.	1648 (1648)	Wing G332; Thomason E461_27; ESTC R205193	55,099	61

the most inferiour of which companie carries better blood in their veines because untainted then the proudest Adversarie that fights against them and I trust God will preserve it as preciously and the Citie wherein they are High exceeding high alreadie is the Honour of that Citie for being the Citie wherein Lucius Helena and Constantine the first Christian King Empresse and Emperour in the world were borne And it may please the Lord in his mercie notwithstanding our multiplied iniquities crying so loud for the contrarie to rayse its honour yet much higher by making it the Citie wherein King Charles the most Religious of Christian Kings the Established Religion of the Church of England the Helena or Empresse of Christian Religion and the Incomparable Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome which for equitie and Christianitie deserve the Crowne Imperiall of the World shall be preserved from ruine and be restored to their pristine glory The same Almightie God that wrought that first great Work in that Citie is all-sufficiently able there even there to accomplish this second And we humbly beseech him that neither their nor our sinnes may separate betweene his blessing and their Loyall and Christian indeavours to that purpose and whatever the successe be that that Citie nor those Worthies that are in it may never want their due honour nor his gracious protection and comforts But suppose the worst Suppose that by your ingagement against that Citie and those Worthies in it their Enemies should prevaile over them to their and this whole Kingdomes further weltering in blood must not their and the rest of the blood of this Kingdome be charged upon your score When as if you had but sat still and not ingaged against them as you were by many bonds never to be cancelled obliged to doe there had not beene in all probalitie at this time any Enemies to Peace or thirsters after Blood that durst to have showne themselves so throughout the whole Nation And therefore what will God say or doe unto you when he comes to make inquisition for blood to avenge it This is the bloody Countie that had Peace layd at their feet and trampled on it that had Peace brought home to their doores and not onely shut it out but called to bloodie Warre to enter in that had many thousands of their fellow Brethren and Neighbours that would have ventured their lives to have preserved them in Peace and they chose rather to lose many of their owne lives to take away some of theirs They loved not Peace therefore it shall be farre from them they delighted in Warre therefore shall it cleave close to them and they thirsted for blood therefore shall they be drunke with their owne blood Doe not thinke that I speake more in Gods Name then I have warrant from Gods Word for though ye have bin too long used so and abused by such lying Prophets Search the Scriptures and observe from thence what God speakes of the shedding of blood and you I find that I speak very sparingly as having regard to your infirmities For there God tells you That shedding of blood is one of those crying sinnes which makes a land to mourne and every one that dwelleth therein to languish Hos 4. v. 2.3 That blood defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein or there can be no expiation for the Land but by the blood of him that shed it and that If a people would have God to dwell among them they must not so defile the land which they inhabit Numb 35. v. 33.34 That the shedding of innocent blood is such a sinne that of all other horrid sinnes the Lord will not pardon 2 King 24. v. 4. And therefore no satisfaction was to be taken for the life of a murtherer which was guiltie of death but he was to be surely put to death Numb 35. v. 31. with a multitude of other sayings on that subject that are to be trembled at by the Rebellious Subjects of this Kingdome 'T is true if a man killed any person unawares there were Cities of refuge appointed by God for such a one to flye unto from the avenger of blood but Oh my poore Countrey-men what Cities of refuge can ye fancie to your selves who wilfully murther your brethren And what lesse can the King say of you then this or to this effect The Countie of Suffolke 't is the most Rebellious Countie of all my Dominions For when one of my Kingdomes moved not against me when a second rose up for me and when the third Petitioned for me from almost all parts and tooke up Armes for me in most parts they of Suffolke neither Petitioned for me nor moved for me but rose up against me and when Rebellion was expiring its last poysonous breath they hazarded their owne lives to prolong its life and to preserve the lives of those Rebells that seeke nothing more then to take away mine When thousands of my Loyall Subjects were indeavouring to fetch me out of my Cruell Bondage and Imprisonment then they helpt to besiege and imprison to kill murther those very Subjects and when others with them were making what haste they could to set my Crowne againe firme on my head and to restore me againe to those Rights Honours and Comforts which I was wont to injoy they did what they could to throw my Crowne back againe to the ground and to keepe mine Honour still in the dust and me from all hopes of enjoying any Rights or externall Comforts here in this life Thus have they indeavoured to continue and adde to my Miseries who have therefore indured such Miseries in such Extremities because I would not yeeld to the delivering up of them amongst others to extreme Slavery and Tyranny Thus have they not onely fought against me without a cause but for the love that I had unto them they take now my contrarie part and have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my good will But I give my selfe unto Prayer Stirre up thy selfe and awake to my judgement even unto my Cause my God and my Lord. Judge me O Lord according to thy righteousnesse and let them not rejoyce over me Psal 35. Let them not say in their hearts Ah so would we have it Let them not say We have swallowed him up Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoyce at my hurt Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnifie themselves against me Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous Cause yea let them say continually Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperitie of his servant and my tongue shall speake of thy righteousnesse and of thy prayse all the day long Amen Amen But what then will all the other Counties of England say of you O bewitched besotted Countie of Suffolke They that had lived in peace and plentie all these times when in the most

c. Isa 54.4 and that promise in Ezech. puts it out of all question But if the wicked will turn from all his sinnes that he hath committed c. All his transgressions that he hath committed Ezeck 18 v. 21 22. they shall not be mentioned unto him They do best that doe avoyd the committing any thing worthy of shame but when any such thing is committed the next best is to acknowledge it and to be ashamed of it to the abhorring of it and themselves for it And where God hath any love to any people he will never leave them when they have committed any notorious sins till he have brought them to an humble acknowledgement of them Ezeck 20 43. and to a true loathing of themselves for them and that is an act of his mercy by how many judgements soever it be effected as the longer that men hold off from it the more and the more severe judgements does God inflict till he have brought them to it as is easily collected from that twentieth of Ezech. and other scriptures But then there is another acknowledgement and shame of sinne which God brings upon men by way of vengeance which though the former be terrible enough is yet more terrible as having confusion alwayes attending it and there is no way for the avoiding either but a voluntary acknowledging of sin and taking the shame thereof to themselves before God scourge them to it or confound them by it T is a saying very often repeated in sacred writ in the closes of Gods denuntiations of judgements and 't is to be trembled at wheresoever 't is so mentioned Then shall they know c. or And they shall know c. Happy are they that know those things before they are so made to know them In the first place then be forewarned of the putting off the acknowledging your sinnes till God force you thereto by his judgements least whiles a foolish feare of shame fained to your selves by such an acknowledgement scare you from it and a terrible shame and confusion of faces caused by God for want of such an acknowledgement seize upon you to your unspeakable torment Oh but will too many reply would you have us now to acknowledge our selves guilty of Rebellion and of the Blood which hath been shed in the prosecution thereof and of all those other horrid crimes that have accompanied the same We have long since again and again charged those crimes upon the adverse party upon the King himself and all those that have taken part with him And if we should now take them upon our selves how would all men jeer at us and they of the other party insult over us Nay what would become of us and ours and all that we have Surely therefore now t is our best course to stand upon our own justification and to go on as hitherto we have done or else we are but in a miserable condition Thus when the Devil and Devilish men have tempted and seduced any to commit any foule notorious wickednesse the next thing they endeavour is to draw or carry them on therein as farre and as deep as possibly they can and if the seduced doe but begin to consider what they have done and how farre they have gone and so think of breaking off and returning from their wickednes then feare shame and dispaire are presently represented unto them to scare and hurry them on or at least to keep and hasten them where they are Jer. 38. When Zedekiah King of Judan had disobeyed Gods word by the Prophet Jeremiah and began upon after thoughts to listen to what that Prophet had advised him presently feare and shame were presented to his fancy and by them was he scared off from hearkening to the Prophets counsaile And when all the people of Judah were admonished by the same Prophet to break off their Idolatry and their other iniquities and to return to the Lord and doe their duty and had so much told them to that purpose Jer. 18. v. 12. that they had nothing to say for themselves then despaire furnished them with this desperate answer There is no hope say they but we will walk after our own devices and we will every one doe the imagination of his evill heart But to answer more particularly to each part of this objection That many have charged both this Rebellion and all the blood that hath been spilt in the pursuance thereof upon the King and those faithfull subjects of his that adhered to him is too well known and t is pretty well known that this way of shifting off sinne from themselves to others is of all the many other wayes the most impudent and detestable That others perswaded them tempted them incited them scared them or forced them to commit such and such sins have been frequent excuses that we read of in severall sacred and other stories but this shifting off sin wholly from themselves when they know themselves fouly guilty and charging it upon others whom they know to be in that respect most innocent is never practised but by men of brazen faces Adamantine foreheads black tongues and blacker hearts And if God will bee a swift witnesse against any then surely against such as doe not onely bear false witnesse against Mala. 35. but condemn the innocent and if he will plead the cause of any or execute judgement for them so as to bring them forth to the light Micah 7. v. 9. that they may behold his righteousnesse and others theirs then without all peradventure he will doe it for them that are so palpably and unjustly standered and accused and have so just and cleare cause of appealing to his Justice for it But why stay I so long upon a recrimination so foolish and ridiculous as well as false and odious I dare appeale to the Consciences of them themselves that have so charged it as cauterised as they are for the unjustnesse of the charge If the Rebellion and Blood guiltinesse of this Nation I joyn them together because they that are guilty of the Rebellion are without all further dispate guilty of all the blood that hath been shed in it can be charged upon the King and his loyall Subjects why have not the other party all this while put it upon that issue and when they had the King as to our unspeakable griefe they have and the most of his loyall Subjects in their power why did they not legally charge them therewith and urge the Lawes and indite them I mean the Subjects though they blush not to talke of inditing the King himselfe by those laws and so proceed to tryall against them according to the laws of the Land the true and onely rules whereby Rebellion and Murther is to be tryed and judged here in this Nation Was it their mercy Why then have they waved that way of trying and judging those particular Persons of the Kings party upon whom they have exercised their power

he apprehended to be according to the judgement of the times in point of liberty of Conscience when I heard this and observed how liberty of conscience was every where contended for I no longer wondered at the cooling Cards which the Priest gave me for I perceived they of his part had plaid their Cards so well that they might afforded any of us the knowledge of such a triumph nor did I then think it strange which but a few dayes before I admired that so many Jesuits and other Priests did daily flock into this Kingdome from France Flanders and the Countries adjacent and all by the way of Holland there having been nine or ten such newly shipt at the Brill under the same Convoy if not in the same Vessell that Master Strickland the Parliaments Agent for Holland came over in about Michaelmas last and multitudes of them more have been there and in other Parts of the Low Countries past for England within few moneths when God knows many worthy Ministers of the Church of England driven beyond the Seas choose rather to endure some hardship there amongst strangers then yet to adventure the hazard of worse usage here in their own Country These things I thought it my duty to acquaint you with as I have done others already upon all occasions both in publike and in private and though perhaps they may be sleighted by some engaged with the Sectaries calling themselves Protestants or quarrelled by others that are professed Papists I solemnly avouch before the Almighty God of truth that I have not falsifyed in the least particular of what I have spoken upon mine own knowledge nor varied so far as my memory would serve me from what others and they men of known honour and honesty have informed me I know well that t is a foule sinne to speake wickedly for God or to talke deceatfully for him Job 13.7 as Job sometimes intimated to his friends and I abhor to be charged with a Romish trick my self whilest I endeavour to discover some of theirs Had divers of this Nation but that courage and spirit as to speak what they know to this purpose and but that love and zeale to the established Protestant Religion as to thinke it worthy of their adventuring that courage and spirit which they have in that service you would finde that all this little that I have said is scarce the gleanings to their harvest or an handfull to their Barnsfull for the clearing this discovery of the Jesuits and Jesuited Papists having their hands deep in all our miseries and a desperate designe upon our Religion And let such take heed that God doe not one day require it at their hands in vengeance for that they did it not when he required it of them in dutie I know there are some in this Kingdome of the Romish Religion that have given ample and honourable testimonies of their Allegiance and fidelity to their Soveraign and of their love to their Country for which they deserve all Christian and civill respect and honour that can be shewn them and that makes me so often to use that limitation of Jesuites and Jesuited to distinguish them from such which as hath been often and truly said like Sampsons Foxes look contrary wayes to our furious Separatists and other Sectaries but joyn with them in the setting this Kingdome on fire But t is to be feared that if Religion should come again to be contested for betwixt the Protestants and Papists here in England which God of his mercy forbid the most moderate and loyall amongst the Popish party would loose no advantage that they could catch or lay hold on for the exalting of their own Religion and the pulling down and destroving ours And t is certain that since the first Reformation of Religion in this Kingdome they never had so great advantages given them to that purpose It was a frequent saying of an ancient and knowing Dr. in Cambridge that had very much observed as well as too much served the times in alteration of Religion and I have heard it severall times cited by a most learned and reverend Professor of that University in his Commencement Orations That if ever Popery came into this Land again to have any power it would be by the Precisian called then the Puritan And what an open broad way the Precisians or Puritans properly so called have made for Popery to march in or to use the Prophet Ezekiels expression how they have opened the sides of this Church to those enemies of that Faction to enter and repossesse her Ezeck 25 v. 9. and what arms and amunition of all sorts they have furnished them with and what ayde and encouragement of all kindes they have given them to make good their entrance and keep their possession is very deplorable to consider and much more deplorable that t is not considered as it should The most learned and acute Divines and Artists are driven from the Schools and Colledges in both Universities The most Orthodox and conscientious Pastors and Teachers are forced from their Pulpits and Pastorall charges The most reverend and renowned Bishops are cast out of their Bishopricks and Episcopall power and jurisdictions and all these are robbed and deprived of their lively-hoods and necessary subsistance yea many of them of their lives and all others that shall succeed them of all hopes of any honourable encouragements And what then may not the enemies of our Religion doe when so much is already done to their hands towards the undoing of this lately most flourishing but now languishing Church of England Who shall dare to take up the weapons or venture on an encounter with the Adversary when all our stout Champions are gone and onely Children and weaklings with unexpert Tradesmen and Mechanicks are left to graple with Giants and experienced warriers Take away the encouragements and you take away the sin●ws of warre who will goe to war at their own costs especiall when they know where good pay and good preferment too are to be had in another service There are too few that serve God out of pure zeale and meer conscience In the combate between the Flesh and the Spirit the Flesh ought to be mortified and kept down as much as possibly may be but in all incounters wherein the Flesh is to joyn with the Spirit against a third adversary there t is best to let the Flesh have its neceslaries yea and its honest allurements and encouragements to or else the Spirit will be but ill assisted and served by it It hath been severall times attempted and the poore simple Country people have been put upon it and incited to it with much earnestnesse and no little deceit That all Tithes should also be taken away from the Clergie and the Ministery be provided for by way of Pension or Benevolence And truely were I one of the Church of Rome or wisht well to the returning of her power and tyranny into this Nation I would