Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
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A57156
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A sermon preached before the peers in the Abby Church at Westminster, November 7, 1666 being a day of solemn humiliation for the continuing pestilence / by Edward Lord Bishop of Norwich.
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Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.
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1666
(1666)
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Wing R1281; ESTC R618
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19,863
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55
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make hast and not to delay to keep his Commandements Again was it not a great and eminent Mercy when God commanded up into the Scabbard the Sword of violent men swell'd into Pride and Arrogance with their many Successes when he infatuated their Counsells shattered and dissipated their Undertakings and swallowed them up in the confusion of their own Consultations Was it not a glorious and wonderfull Mercy that after a long and bitter Banishment the Lord brought back our dread Soveraign in the Chariots of Aminadab upon the wings of Loyalty and Love unto his Royal Throne without the effusion of one drop of Blood and thereby made way for a stable and durable Settlement both of Church and State To say nothing of the other ordinary Mercies of flourishing of Trade and plenty of Provisions wherewith this Nation hath been for a long time blessed And may it not be said of us as it was of Hezekiah that we have not rendered again according to the Benefits done unto us but have surfeited and played the Wantons with these great Mercies so that the Lord hath been provoked to lift up his Hand in many sore and dismal Judgements against us For after that Thousands and Ten Thousands had fallen by the Sword of an unnaturall War in the High Places of the Field he hath stirred up Potent Adversaries abroad against us though blessed be his Name we have not only hitherto been delivered from their Fury but by signall Successes have had good reason to hope that the Lord hath owned our Righteous Cause Yet for all this his Anger is not turned away but his Hand is stretched out still for he hath in these two years last past emptied this City and Nation in very many parts thereof as we may I presume with good Reason compute above an Hundred Thousand of her Inhabitants by the fury of a raging and contagious Pestilence the like whereunto possibly cannot be paralell'd for some Hundred of years And yet after all this his Anger hath not been turned away but his Hand is streched out still He hath likewise contended by Fire and by the late direfull Conflagration hath laid in Ashes the glorious Metropolis of this Nation hath made desolate almost all her goodly Palaces and laid waste almost all the Sanctuaries of God therein Thus the Lord hath come with Fire and with his Chariots like a whirlewind to render his Anger with fury and his Rebuke with flames of Fire for by Fire and by Sword hath he pleaded with us and the Slain of the Lord have been many We see how the Lord hath been near us both in wayes of Mercy and of Judgement as if he would say of us as of Ephraim Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child for since I speak against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. And again How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fiercenes of mine Anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not Man c. Jer. 31. 20. Hos. 11. 8 9. I shall Limit the Inference from all this to the first Acception which I gave of the Original Word in the text namely to teach us from hence to walk as becometh the dignity of our High Calling according to that Exhortation of the Apostle Let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ. For every thing of the Gospel doth call upon us for Holyness of Life the Author of it a Pattern of Holyness He that saith he abideth in him must walk even as he walked 1. Ioh. 2. 6. The End of it a design of Holyness That we being delivered out of the hand of our Enemies might serve him without fear in Holyness and Righteousness before him all the dayes of our life The Doctrine of it a Mystery of Godliness 1. Tim. 2. 16. There is not an Article of the Creed which hath not Holyness a Consequent of it The Laws of it Prescripts of Holiness Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect Matth. 5. 48. The Cardinall Graces of it Faith Love and Hope all Principles of Holyness Faith Purifieth the Heart and worketh by Love Act. 15. 9. Gal. 5. 6. Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 10. Herein is Love if we keep his Commandements 1 Joh. 5. 3. And every one that hath this Hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. No man can rationally hope to be like unto Christ in Glory hereafter who resolves to be unlike unto him in Grace and Holyness here for Glory is the Consummation and Reward of Grace All the precious Promises of the Gospel invite unto Holyness Having these Promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our Selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holyness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. Lastly the dreadfull Threatnings of the Gospel drive unto Holyness since we know that without Holyness no Man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. and that he will come in flaming Fire to take vengeance on those that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ 2 Thess. 1. 8. And therefore as ever we expect to enjoy the Benefits of the Gospel without the which we are of all Creatures the most miserable we must shew forth the Efficacy and Power of the Grace of the Gospel in our Hearts and Lives which teacheth us to deny Vngodlyness and Worldly Lusts and to Live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this Present World Tit. 2. 11 12. which that we may all do The God of Peace who brought again from the Dead the Lord Jesus the Great Shepheard of the Sheep through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant make us perfect in every Good Work to do his Will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for Ever and Ever Amen FINIS a For the Church of England I am persuaded that the conâ—iaâ—t Doctrine of it is so pure and orthodox that whosoever believes it and lives according to it undoubtedly he shall be saved and that there is no error in it which may neâ—e sitate or warrant any man to disturb the Peace or renounce the Communion of it This in my opinion is all intended by Subscription and thus much if you conceive me not ready to subscribe your Charity I assure you is much mistaken In the Preface Sect. 40. b We do not suffer any man to reject the 39 Articles of the Church of England at his pleasure yet neither do we look upon them as Essentials of saving Faith or Legacies of Christ and his Apostles but in a mean as pious Opinions fitted for the preservation of Unity Neither do we oblige any man to believe them but only not to contradict them In the Treatise called Schisme guarded and beaten back upon the right Owners c. Sect. 1. cap. 11. pag. 190. See also his Iust Vindication of the Church of England Cap. 6. p. 156.
Comforts at hand to support our Hearts his Power and Providence continually ready to protect our Persons to vindicate our Innocence to allay the wrath and rebuke the attempts of any that would harm us This is one Principal cause of all our Impatiency and Perturbation that we are so soon shaken and discomposed with every Temptation so soon posed with every Difficulty that we do soon despond under every Storm Because we do not with an Eye of Faith look up unto God as one that Careth for us and is ever near at hand as a Sun and a Shield a Sanctuary and an Hiding Place to secure us against all our Fears Prope ad judicium Near to judge us to take a Full and Impartiall Review of all that is done by us and accordingly to Recompence either Rest or Trouble as the Apostle speaks This is a Fundamentall doctrine which we all avow as an Article of the Christian Faith Act. 17. 13. Rom. 14. 10. 2. Cor 5. 10. That Christ shall Come as the Ordained Officer to whom all Judgement is Committed in flaming Fire attended with all the Holy Angels Matth. 25. 31 2. Thess. 1. 7 8. Iud. 10. 14 15. to give a Righteous an Impartiall and finall Doom and State unto the Everlasting Condition of all men Before whose most dreadfull Tribunal we must all appear Stripp'd of all our Wealth Honors Dignities Retinues accompanied with nothing but our Consciences and our Works whether good or Evill to beare witness of us and there receive a proportionable Sentence to the things which we have done Holy men a Sentence of Absolution and Mercy for the manifestation of Gods glorious Grace when he shall come to be Magnified in his Saints and admired in all those that believe Wicked men a Sentence of Rejection and Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord for the manifestation of his glorious Power and Justice when all the Devils in Hell and Powers of Darkness shall be brought all together and be trodden down under his Feet when all the low and narrow Interests of Secular wealth pleasures power and greatness which short-sighted men so passionately dote upon and so eagerly pursue shall to their Everlasting disappointment be swallowed up in the general Conflagration and so vanish for ever When the poor and pittiful Artifices whereby angry Mortalls do countermine and supplant one another and mutually project each others vexations shall to the confusion of the Contrivers be detected and derided In a word when nothing that ever we have done shall afford benefit or comfort to us any further then as it was with a single and upright aime directed to the Glory of God and mannaged by the Law of Love Certainly this is one principal Reason of all Immoderation amongst Men of Despondence in Adversity of Insolence in Prosperity of Excess in Delights of Perturbation in Passions of vindictive Retaliations one principal Reason why they do not with a single Eye and an unbiassed Heart mannage all their Actions and Designes to the Glory of God the Credit of the Gospel the Interest of Christianity the Edification and Salvation of the Souls of Men but often suffer weak Passions Prejudices Interests to State model and over-rule their Designes the Reason I say of all is Because the Terror of the Lord hath not perswaded them because they are not sufficiently awed with the All-seeing Eye and near approach of the Lord of Glory before whom all their wayes are naked with whom all their Sinnes are laid up in store and sealed amongst his Treasures Let us therefore seriously resolve to regulate all our Actions by our Great Accompt To say with Iob What shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Job 31. 14. He hath entrusted me with many Talents with a Rich Treasure of Power and Interest of Wisedom and Honour of Wealth and Learning he hath deposited with me the Custody of his Eternal Gospel the Grand Interests of the Church of Christ and of the Precious Souls which he redeemed with his own Blood God forbid that I should ever suffer any Immoderate Passions or Prejudices or Partialities or low and narrow Interests of mine own so farr to transport me as that I should betray so great a Trust and provoke the wrath of so Holy and Just a Judge God enable me with that Equanimity and Singleness of Heart without Hypocrisie and without Partiality with a direct Eye to the Glory of God the Kingdom of Christ the Edification and Peace of his Church the Flourishing of his Gospel and the Prosperity of the Souls of his People so to discharge every Trust reposed in me as that I may be able to give up mine Accompts with Joy and when the Chief Shepheard shall appear I may lift up my Head in the day of Redemption and receive a Crown of Glory which fadeth not away Thus let your Moderation be known unto All men because the Lord is at hand in his future approaching Iudgements But hath not the Lord been at hand near us in the middest of us already by many strange intermingled Providences by a series of Glorious Mercies and a vicissitude of dreadfull Judgments as if he would both wayes try whether by the one we would be led unto Repentance or by the other learn Righteousness Is it a small Mercy that we have had the Gospel of Salvation in the purity of the Reformed Religion for so long a time in this Land having brought forth so little Fruit in answer to the Light and Grace which hath been therein revealed unto us I have read an Observation in one of the Homilies of our Church if my memory do not greatly faile me That we shall not often finde that a Nation which hath had the Gospel in purity and not brought forth the Fruits thereof hath enjoyed it much longer than 100 years I do not mention this as a sad Presage for I dare not set bounds to the infinite Mercy and Patience of God his Judgements are unsearchable and his Wayes past finding out the secret things belong unto him and things revealed to us and our Children It is not for us to know the Times or the Seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power onely I desire by this sad Observation to awaken both my self and you timely to consider the things that do belong unto our Peace before they be hidden from our Eyes for this is a sober and certain Truth that the Sins of a Church as the Fruits of a well-ordered Garden do ripen much faster than those of a Wilderness and therefore the Prophet Amos calleth them by the name of Summer Fruit Amos 8. 2. The Prophet Ieremiah compareth the Judgements threatned against them unto the Rod of an Almond-tree Jer. 1. 11. which shooteth forth her Blossoms before other Trees And therefore when we have reason to fear that God will hasten Iudgements we have great reason to resolve with holy David to