Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	day_n	judge_v	world_n	6,326	5	5.0834	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61608	A sermon preach'd before the King, Feb. 24, 1674/5 by Ed. Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1675 (1675)	Wing S5647; ESTC R5021	22,002	48

presently repent and resolve never to be guilty again of the same folly as in all reason it ought to do then by time and company he wears off the impression of his guilt and the next occasion of sinning makes him forget the wounds of his Conscience and the smart he endured before and the fresh temptation revives the sense of his former pleasure and then he is able to withstand no longer and thus by repeating the same acts by degrees he becomes a very hopeful sinner and the reports of his Conscience are but like that of sounds at a greater distance they lessen still more and more till at last they cannot be heard at all And when he hath thus mastered his Conscience as to any one sin which at first he was fearful of committing and hath found such an Ice upon his Conscience as will bear him he goes on still farther and farther till nothing be too hard for him He that at first started and trembled at the hearing of an horrid oath now can hear whole volleys of them discharged without shrinking and can bear his part in that hellish Concert and he that was so hardly brought to be wicked himself may in a little time as some men are strange proficients in wickedness tempt and encourage others to the practice of it 3. And when men are arrived to an habitual continuance in sin then for their present ease and security they cast about for any wayes to defend it For whatever is become of Conscience they may have such a sense of reputation left that they would not be thought Fools and be contemned and despised by others But although it be impossible for such to avoid scorn and contempt among all those who have any true regard to Vertue or Honour yet they will endeavour rather to defend themselves in doing ill than recover their reputation by repentance And because it would puzzle the wits of the most subtle and concerned persons to find out pretences and excuses for some kinds of sins therefore the easiest way is to represent all the World as alike bad although not alike cunning and although it may be not in the same way yet in something as ill in it self but more agreeable to their Age temper and condition of life Thus the greatest sinners love to herd themselves in a croud and think it some poor defence for their sins that they would have others believed to be as bad as they as though a man were in the less danger by the plague because it is a general contagion But if it happen that some persons in the World should have any reputation for Vertue among them then all the weaknesses and indiscretions of such are sure to be enquired after that so what is accounted vertue may be thought only natural sourness of temper or want of wit to be otherwise But if any such should be found in a miscarriage what Joy and Triumph doth this make what load of circumstances and aggravations do they lay upon them as though one single miscarriage of such persons were to weigh down a thousand enormities of theirs And because it is impossible to defend their extravagant courses by Reason the only way left for them is to make Satyrical Invectives against Reason as though it were the most uncertain foolish and I had almost said unreasonable thing in the World and yet they pretend to shew it in arguing against it but it is pitty such had not their wish to have been Beasts rather than men if any men can make such a wish that have it not already that they might have been less capable of doing mischief among mankind by representing all the excellencies of humane nature which are Reason and Vertue and Religion but as more grave and solemn fopperies But how hard are such men put to defend their vices that cannot do it without trampling under foot the most noble perfections of their own nature These however are the more ingenuous sort of sinners that yield Reason and Religion to be of Vertues side but there are others that make use of some shallow pretences of Reason to excuse themselves in their sins which is the second way whereby sin deceives men viz. 2. By false Reasonings and those taken either 1. From their Present impunity 2. Or from their Future Repentance 1. From their present impunity in sinning men are apt to deceive themselves into a continuance in it This is the account the Wise man hath long since given of mens being hardned in sin Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil It seems somewhat hard to understand the consequence why men should grow more desperately wicked because God gives them a space to repent Is it necessary that if God doth punish at all he must do it presently that would seem to be rage and fury or a necessity of nature and not justice Cannot judgement be duly executed unless the Judge break open the Prison doors and torment the Malefactor in his chains Why may not God respite the punishment of sinners when he pleases to another state since he hath declared that he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World in righteousness What incongruity is there in this to any principle of reason or justice Will not this time of Gods patience be a sufficient vindication of his lenity and goodness in order to the drawing men to repentance And will not the day of his future judgement be a full vindication of his justice Will not the insupportable honours of a miserable eternity discover far more Gods abhorrence of sin than present sufferings in this life which the greater they are the less they continue But all this false way of reasoning ariseth from that gross piece of self-flattery that such do imagine God to be like themselves i. e. as cruel and revengeful as they are and they presently think if any persons did offend them at the rate that sinners are said to offend God and they had so much power in their hands to punish them as he has without any fear of revenge upon themselves they would be sure to dispatch them presently but because they see God doth it not therefore they conclude that all the talk of Gods anger and hatred against sin is without ground and from hence they take encouragement to sin So the Psalmist saith in Gods name These things thou didst and I kept silence and they presently took his silence for consent for it follows and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self but the Psalmist adds how ill he took this at mens hands and that he would one day make them know the difference between the forbearance of sinners and the love of their sins but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thee And therefore he bids them be better advised and consider this while they

forget God lest he tear them in pieces and there be none to deliver 2. Men are hardned by the deceitfulness of sin from the hopes of their future repentance For that is one of the great cheats of sin that every one thinks he can repent and shake off his sins when he hath a mind to do it Sin doth not lye like a heavy weight upon their backs so that they feel the load of it and therefore they think it is easily removed if they would set themselves to it Most of those that believe a God and a judgement to come and yet continue in sin do it upon this presumption that one time or other they shall leave their sins and change the course of their lives before they go out of this world They have not only thoughts of repentance but general purposes of doing the acts of it at one time or other but that time is not come and God knows whether it ever will or no. For sin entices them and draws them on still and when any motions towards repentance come into their minds that presently suggests It is time enough yet why so much haste there will be trouble enough in it when you must do it what need you bring it so fast upon you Are not you likely to hold out a great many years yet what pitty it is to lose so much of the pleasure of life while you are capable of enjoying it There is old Age coming and when you will be good for nothing else then will be time enough to grow wise and to repent But O foolish sinner who hath bewitched thee to hearken to such unreasonable suggestions as these are For 3. In the last place it ought to be our present our constant our greatest care to prevent being hardned by the deceitfulness of sin For to this end it is not enough to consider of it at one time or other in our lives but we must be exhorting one another daily while it is called to day lest any of us be hardned through the witchcraft and deceitfulness of sin And if it be so much the duty of others to shew that regard to one anothers souls how much more doth it become us to do it who expect to be called to an account at the great day for the discharge of our trust in this matter It is a dreadful passage we read of in the Prophet Ezekiel and enough to make our ears to tingle at the repeating it When I say unto the wicked O wicked man thou shalt surely dye if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way that wicked man shall dye in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thine hand We would fain believe this to have been some particular and extraordinary commission given to the Prophet by God himself which doth not concern us for what will become of us if not only our own faults which God knows are too many but other mens shall be charged upon us when either through neglect or flattery or fear of displeasing or for any mean and unworthy ends we betray our trust and instead of preventing prove the occasion of mens being too much hardned through the deceitfulness of sin But although we neither pretend to be Prophets nor Apostles yet it is our Office to take care of the Souls of men and can we discharge that as we ought to do if we do not with all faithfulness warn men of the danger they run into through the deceitfulness of sin It were happy for us if we could say that all the Lords people are holy for then we should have nothing to do but to praise and commend their Vertues which were an easie and a delightful task but what pleasure is it to rake into the sores or to reprove the Vices of a degenerate age to be thought troublesome and impertinent if we do our duty and men of no conscience if we do it not But our work is neither to libel our Auditors nor to flatter them neither to represent them as better nor worse than they are nor to charge them with more guilt than their own consciences do charge them with but our business is to beseech and exhort them by the mercies of God by the sufferings of Christ by the love and tenderness they have for their immortal souls that they would to day while it is called to day take heed lest they be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin And that will appear to be very reasonable on these considerations 1. That none are out of the danger of it while they live in this tempting World What need have we to take care of being deceived by that which hath been too hard for the best the wisest and the greatest of men Man in his best state even that of Innocency was deceived by the insinuations of sin when there was no matter within for the temptation to work upon no reason suggested that could move a common understanding no interest or advantage that could sway him no other moving cause appears to us of that fatal Apostasie of Adam but either the imagination of some unknown pleasure or the bare curiosity of trying an experiment what the effects would be of tasting the forbidden fruit And ever since so general hath the corruption of mankind been so successful have the artifices and deceits of sin been in the World that the best of men have not wholly escaped them but have sometimes fallen in those very Graces which have been most remarkable in them as Abraham in his trust in God Moses in his meekness Iob in his patience Peter in his zeal for Christ. What cause then have others to look to themselvs If wisdom and experience would have secured men we should have thought of all men in the World Solomon the least in danger of being deceived by the insinuations of sin who had given such excellent cautions against those very snares he fell into himself and that to such a degree that his case is left disputable to this day whether he ever recovered by repentance or no. What numbers are there upon record of those mighty men who have made the earth to tremble at the noise of their Armies who have led Kings in chains after their Triumphal Chariots and have been served by those whom others have adored yet have notwithstanding all this been enslaved themselves by some mean lust and destroyed by the power of an effeminate passion What can be strong enough to resist those charms which neither innocency nor wisdom nor power are sufficient security against Nothing but the Grace of God and continual care of our selves 2. The less men suspect their danger the more cause they have to be afraid of it None are more fatally deceived by sin than those who apprehend no danger in it or think they can escape it when they please How strangely infatuated are those through the deceitfulness of sin who think with themselves that after they