Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	world_n	worth_n	worthy_a	35	3	6.4995	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44218	A modest plea for the Church of England by Richard Hollingworth ...	Hollingworth, Richard, 1607-1656.	1676 (1676)	Wing H2495; ESTC R7010	76,028	182

it nor by its genuine and proper influënces upon the minds of men where it is heartily received but by the actions of a great number of men in the World he must needs enter his protest against it and judge it as an Engine framed and made for nothing else but to serve turns and cheat the World and upon serious and impartial reflections upon things we shall find from hence have proceeded many mens odd conceits of this excellent thing called Religion For casting their eyes abroad and observing how common a thing it is for men to shift their Principles when their Interest lyes at stake and those too such men as are in vogue among the people for the most precious Saints why alas prompted by their lusts and seduced by Satan they have first questioned whether there be any such thing in reality and truth as Religion yea or no and then by degrees have laughed at it as the product either of knavery or melancholy And I wish our Brethren of the separation could wash their hands of the ruine that hath befaln Religion upon this account 'T is true no men more ready to complain of the present degeneracy of the age than they and so far as those complaints are the effects of sorrow for sin and not of design to misrepresent the Government so far they do well and are to be commended but I do heartily advise them to look from whence this degeneracy proceeds Was sin so bold-faced and notorious impieties so confident and open before these complainants invaded the Churches Rites and slackned the Reins of Government by which the heady multitude were kept in some good awe and order I desire them heartily to read the History of the times from the Reformation to the beginning of the late dreadful War and to tell me whether from the highest to the lowest there were such numbers of men that scoffed at Religion and lived in a neglect of all those Offices which are appointed for men to keep an intercourse with Heaven and a sense of a Divine Being upon their Souls No if they will be impartial they must needs confess that Religion met with better entertainment both in Churches and in Families than now it does And therefore whence must we fetch this strange Apostasie this horrid contempt of things that were handled with more reverence even among the Heathens who are only conducted by the glimmering Light of Nature Why in short one great Reason of it hath been these mens inconsistency with themselves and changing their principles upon every change of affairs At first many of them were modest and a regulation of some things in the Government as it then stood established was a blessing that would make the Nation happy but afterwards when a little success put a greater power into their hands why then the ancient Government of the Church must be stubb'd up both root and branch and forsooth we must have another Model founded in a Divine Right and nothing less than Scripture and Apostolical Example must patronize it and then the Kingdom of God was come down amongst us and Babylon was faln and the Beast smitten through the fifth rib But alas within a few years I had almost said moneths many of those who had cryed up the new Discipline and Covenant as the pattern in the Mount as the greatest bulwark against Romish incursions went away from it and by the help of a sorry distinction were found very busie in overthrowing all National Churches and now nothing must be Gospel Worship but what was after the Independent cut And 't is very well known what skirmishes there were betwixt the Presbiterians and Independents for their several Platforms what petitioning on one side for liberty of Conscience and what on the other against it with I know not how many Reasons tendered to the High Court of Parliament and yet after all this no sooner was the King come in and the Ecclesiastical Laws revived and many persons formerly unjustly thrown out restored to their properties and free-hold again but those very men who had with full cry and open mouth pursued the Congregational men proclaimed them Schismaticks and great enemies to the work of Reformation that was then upon the wheel I say those men contrary to their formerly avowed principles Declarations Remonstrances and Petitions Prayers and Preachments fall in with the same practises and gather Churches out of Churches And nothing is more frequent now than to meet with Books dedicated to the Flock of such a man and to the Congregation over whom such a man is overseer when God knows it may be those people that make up the body of these Flocks live in all the quarters and corners of the town and countrey Now whether this be adherence to principles or bespeak a man fixed and well grounded I leave any man to judge No no it looks like a design and as far as actions can speak it tells the world that 't is not Religion about which all this stir is made but Pride and Interest And now pray let us consider what judgment can some men make of Religion if they have no better conveyance of its worth into them than such Examples and Instances as these are Alas it makes them throw dirt in its face and to cry it down as a thing not worthy of that care that it hath met withal from several Laws and they are apt to conclude that were it grounded in any Reason or had any Demonstration on its side certainly men of education and generous breeding would not be so long before they understand it and after they seem to understand it so fickle and uncertain in their Notions of it And truly I think this is no small cause of our present Atheism and I wish with all my heart our Brethren would lay it close to heart and when they complain of the Iniquities of the times either publickly or privately amend at the same time that which hath been so great an occasion of it 2. Atheism makes room for it self by those unjust and wicked actions committed by men who pretend to more than ordinary sanctity What must some men think of Religion especially such as have met with a careless education who have not had their natural notions of Religion strengthened by wholsome documents and good Examples what I say must these men think of Religion when they behold a violent stickler for the Rights of the Lord Jesus as he pretends lift up his eyes to heaven and then thrust his hand into his Neighbours pocket when they hear him profess himself ready to deny himself of any thing though never so profitable or pleasurable provided the cause of God may flourish and at the same time busie in signing Orders for sequestring other mens Estates and turning their Wives and Children out of doors without any consideration of sex or age when they see him riding from place to place to help to settle Religion and at the same time