Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	word_n	world_n	worst_a	105	3	8.1157	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44196	The judgment of the late Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale, of the nature of true religion, the causes of its corruption, and the churches calamity by mens additions and violences with the desired cure : in three discourses / written by himself at several times ... ; humbly dedicated to the honourable judges and learned lawyers ... by the faithful publisher, Richard Baxter ; to which is annexed the judgment of Sir Francis Bacon ... and somewhat of Dr. Isaack Barrows on the same subject.	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.; Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Barrow, Isaac, 1630-1677.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1684 (1684)	Wing H247; ESTC R11139	41,043	77

esteemed and partly used And if in those Ages of the Churches greatest excellency the 4 th and 5 th Centuries the great Patriarchs themselves of Alexandria Antioch Constantinople c. who are supposed by some to be the Pillars of the Church for Government and Unity did live almost in continual Conflict Cursing or casting out each other as Hereticks or Schismaticks and oft fighting it out in Christian blood to say nothing of the following worser Ages what wonder if still the old Causes succeeding produce many of the old Effects Which a man that was thought wise enough to be the Lord Chancellour of England and the famous restorer of Learning might be allowed gently to touch while the Clergy themselves openly and greatly prefer those Ages and the Theophilus's Epiphanius's and Cyrils and Episcopal Synods thereof before our own and before themselves Let us hear what one more excellent person and no Fanatick or Schismatick saith Dr. Isaack Barrow a man if ever this Age had any that delivered digested TRUTH in clear Expressions vol. 2. p. 34. Whoever indeed will consider the Nature of man or will consult obvious experience shall find that in practical matters our will or appetite hath a mighty influence on our Judgment of things causing men with great attention to regard that which they affect and carefully to mark all reasons making for it but averting from that which they dislike and making them to overlook the arguments which perswade it whence men generally do suit their opinions to their inclinations warping to that side where their INTEREST doth lye or to which their Complexions their Humor their Passions their Pleasure their ease doth sway them So that almost any Notion will seem true which is Profitable which is Safe which is Pleasant or any way grateful to them and that Notion false which in any such respect doth cross them Very few can abstract their minds from such considerations or embrace Pure Truth divested of them And those few who do so must therein most employ their Will by strong effects of Voluntary resolution and patience and disengaging their minds from those clogs and byasses This is particularly notorious in mens adhering to Parties divided in opinion which is so regulated by that sort of causes that if you do mark what any mans Temper is and where his INTEREST lyeth you may easily prognosticate on what side he will be and with what degree of Seriousness of Vigour of Zeal he will cleave thereto A timerous man you may be almost sure will be on the safer side A Covetous man will bend to that Party where Gain is to be had An Ambitious man will close with the opinion passing in Court A careless man will comply with the fashion Affection arising from Education or Prejudice will hold others stiff Few follow the results of Impartial Contemplation And pag. 483. There is one Lawgiver who can save and destroy Who art thou that Judgest another That is How intollerably Rash Unjust and arrogant art thou who settest thy self on Gods Tribunal and thence dost adventure to pronounce Doom upon his People Did we well consider Gods Judgment we should rather think it adviseable to be mindful of our own Case than to pass Sentence on that of others Observing how lyable our selves are we should scarce have a Heart to Carp at others finding what great need our actions will then have of a Favourable Interpretation we should sure be more candid and mild in Censuring other mens Actions Specially considering that by harsh Judgment of others we make our own Case worse and inflame our reckoning We directly thence incur Guilt we aggravate our own Offences and render our selves unexcusable we expose our selves on that score to Condemnation See Mat. 7. 2. Luk. 6. 37. Rom. 2. 2 3. Jam. 5. 9. His two Sermons on Ro. 12. 18. well practised would heal England's Divisions Such also is his Sermon of Love to our Neighbour that against Slander and that against Detraction But that which I cite him for is the very same description of Religion which Judge Hale giveth Serm. 1. p. 10. The Principal advantage of Wisdom is its acquainting us with the Nature and Reason of true Religion and affording Convictive Arguments to perswade the Practice of it Which is accompanied with the purest delight and attended with the most solid content imaginanable I say the Nature of Religion wherein it Consists and what it requires The mistake of which produceth daily so many mischiefs and inconveniences in the World and exposeth so good a Name to so much Reproach It sheweth it consisteth not in fair professions and glorious pretences but in Real Practice not in a pertinacious adherence to ANY Sect or Party but in a sincere Love of Goodness and dislike of Naughtiness wherever discovering it self not in Vain Ostentations and Flourishes of outward performance but in an inward good complexion of Mind exerting it self in Works of true Devotion and Charity not in a Nice Orthodoxie or Politick Subjection of our Judgments to the peremptory dictates of Men but in a sincere Love of Truth and hearty approbation and compliance with the Doctrines Fundamentally Good and Necessary to be believed Not in harsh censuring and virulently inveighing against others but in careful amending our own ways Not in a peevish crossness and obstinate Repugnancy to received Laws and Customs but in a quiet and Peaceable Submission to the express Laws of God and Lawful Commands of Men Not in a furious Zeal FOR or AGAINST trivial Circumstances but in a conscionable practising the substantial parts of Religion Not in a frequent talking or contentious disputing about it but in a ready observance of the unquestionable Rules and Precepts of it In a Word True Religion consists in nothing else but doing what becomes our Relation to God in a Conformity or similitude to his Nature and in a willing Obedience to his Holy Will to which by potent incentives it allures and perswades us by representing to us his transcendent glorious Attributes c. See the rest too long to be transcribed If you say A Papist will own all this I answer 1. So much the better We will not feign a new Christianity to differ from Papists 2. But do they not own too much more How then come they to fill the World with Blood and Division for the Sake of their numerous humane Additionals I know no man that hath more fully confuted that Sect than he hath done in his Treatise of Supremacy and Church Vnity And saith the Publisher of his Life He understood Popery both at home and abroad He had narrowly observed it Militant in England triumphant in Italy disguised in France and had earlier apprehensions of the Approaching Danger and would have appeared with the forwardest in a needful time Whoever will truly confute his Treatise of the Popes Supremacy and that of the Vnity of the Church against the Supremacy and Foreign Jurisdiction of Councils called General I here promise him shall make me a Papist of the Italian or the Galliance sort accordingly if he will do it before I die and am Disabled from reading and considering it But I doubt not but the Papists will rather study to bury it in silence while they do their works by other means than Reasoning lest the notice of a Confutation should occasion more to read it And then especially if all men in Power should read it their Cause with such is utterly undone Saith Dr. Tillotson in his Preface to it I dare say that whoever shall carefully peruse this Treatise will find that this point of the Popes Supremacy on which Bellarmine hath the confidence to say The whole of Christianity depends is not only an indefensible but an Impudent Cause as ever was undertaken by learned Pens And nothing could have kept it so long from becoming ridiculous in the judgment of Mankind but its being so strongly supported by a worldly interest For there is not one tolerable argument for it and there are a thousand invincible Reasons against it IF these three Testimonies of the most Learned Wise and Impartial Conformists that these or many Ages have bred be all born down by Interest and Supercilious Confidence and a Flood of Words which may all be used for the worst Cause in the World the Lord be Judge and justifie his Truth and that Wisdom from above Jam. 3. 17. which is justified of her Children When Satan hath done his worst Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Mat. 5. 9. FINIS * I never met with any that have forborn subscription on no greater reason than this