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A43562
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Three sermons preached at the Collegiate Church in Manchester by Richard Heyricke.
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Heyrick, Richard, 1600-1667.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing H1751; ESTC R27425
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61,652
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202
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them O my soule come not into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united Secondly with malediction and execration cursed be their anger it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel Lastly with a Propheticall prediction what should become of them I will divide them in Iacob and scatter them in Israel Of these in their order briefly Revenge is a base and cowardly passion proceeding from a weake effeminate abject mind unworthy the breast of men much more of men of God thunder haile and tempest and the rest of those fearefull motions that we have in the aire here below neither trouble nor hurt celestiall bodies anger rests in the bosome of fooles but revenge to kil argues wicked weaknes and savage cruelty murdering revenge indeed ends the quarrell but wounds the reputation he strikes safely but villanously and dishonourably that strikes and kils And this was the sin of Simeon and Levi The story is well known if any be ignorant of it read it at better leisure in Gen. 34.25 Their bloudy massacre will appeare more horrid if you be pleased to consider with me these aggravating circumstances some are in the text the rest in the story I must make choise of some I cannot travell through all First in their anger they slew a man Thargum Ierusalem reades it Kings and Rulers Hamor and Sechem the chiefe of them murdered was the King and Prince of the Country He that kills a man strikes at Gods Image he that kills a King strikes at his Soveraignty Kings are Gods though not by participation of nature yet of name and power They that conspire against Kings they fight against God Thou shalt not saith the God of these Gods revile the Gods of thy people God imparts his own name to them that they might have his own safety Kings are living and breathing Images of God it is against the Law of nations against the Law of nature against the Royall Law of God to kill to smite to touch a King yea to revile him or in our secret Chambers to thinke evill against him The greater was the sinne of Simeon and Levi In their Anger they slew a man a King This is the first aggravation Secondly Innocents are not to be punished with the guilty As I live saith God this Proverb shall be used no more in Israel The fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge Farre be it from thee saith Abraham to destroy the righteous with the wicked even heathen Abimelech could plead wilt thou destroy a Righteous Nation shall one man sinne and the whole City perish I have sinned but these sheepe what have they done If Hamor and Sechem had beene worthy of death what had the rest of the Citie done what had their wives their children their servants their horses their cattell their oxen done The Greeke Beza and many others reade it in the plurall number slew men and digg'd downe walls overthrew their house or as in the Margin houghed the Oxen in pieces This is the second Aggravation Thirdly there ought to bee a proportion betwixt the punishment and the offence though all sinnes are mortall yet all are not equall wee are so farre Catholicke that we are not Stoicall lesser sins are not to be punished with the great censures of the law anger in heart is not so evill as Raca in the frowne or foole in the mouth the person against whom as well as the person that offends aggravates the sinne That word which is spoken against a private man will but beare an action against a Lord of the Councell is Scandalum magnatum against the King Treason against God blasphemy sinne and judgement have their Climaxes simple fornication was not to bee punished with death but with maryage or a Dowry Sechem was guilty of no more yet they kill'd him This was the third aggravation Fourthly Ministers of justice ought not rashly to proceed in judgment God hath proclaimed himselfe and would have the Gods of the earth to take notice of it that he is slow to wrath ready to forgive Our Law forbids all men trading in bloud to beare the sword of Government Vespasian sighed and groaned at just execution Nero wished he could not write when hee was to signe a condemnation Queene Elizabeth next to the holy Scriptures prefers as the best piece Seneca his booke of Clemencie Our Gracious King you have often heard it proclaimed how backward hee is to unsheath the sword even as to draw bloud from his owne veines If punishment must follow revenge may not a member may not be cut off without sighes and teares softly deliberately must men execute judgement the greater was the sin of Simeon and Levi that in their anger slew a man and in their selfe will digg'd downe a wall this is the fourth aggravation Fifthly to do as we would be done unto is the standing Law of God and Emperours oathes and covenants are to be sacred and inviolably kept Shall he prosper saith God shall hee breake the covenant and bee delivered Thou Iesus saith Amurath the great Turke if thou be a God as they say thou art Revenge the treachery of thy servants Covenants and agreements ought to be most simple and most naked Hamor and Sechem were at Truce with Israel at Peace not only in covenant with them but in covenant with God they were proselytes in Religion they dealt sincerely and truly the greater was the sin of Simeon and Levi that dealt treacherously and falsly This was the fifth Aggravation Lastly Religion ought to bee the surest bond men that professe Religion that countenance their doings by Religion ought especially to them that are without to be most Religious just and exact that the name of God be not blasphemed that the holy profession be not evill spoken of Simeon and Levi were visible members of the Church militant they themselves professed Religion and undertooke all the Treaty in the way of Religion the more Irreligious their treachery and perfidious their cruelty this is the sixth and last aggravation Collect these all together my brethren Their sinne was murder they shed the sacred bloud of Kings they murdered Innocents they deemed them above their offence they delight in punishing they breake oathes and covenants and they did all this under a pretence of Religion Laborat Annalium fides After ages would never have beleeved this if Gods sacred Annals the History of this book had not recorded it you have seene the sin of Simeon and Levi more briefly see their censure Cursed be their Anger sometimes wee shall have the holy man David cursing not onely mens passions as Iacob his sonnes here but also their persons but then his curses are Indefinite or conditionall or propheticall either hee names not the man or intends it if God intend it so or his curses are rather predictions than male-dictions Non tam vota quam vaticinia God appointed sixe Tribes
to curse as well as sixe to blesse Moses the meekest man in all the earth was mediator of the condemning Law Saint Paul that was compounded of affection yet pronounced the greatest curse in the Book of God mens persons ought not so to be had in admiration that their wickednesse passe without condemnation In Courts of Iustice mens causes not their persons should speake Iacob lookes not on his sons cruelty with a fathers indulgent lenity but with a frowning Austerity whom GOD curses Iacob will not blesse cursed be their anger This censure will aggravate their sinne if you consider these circumstances First The Parents curse saith the wiseman rootes out the foundation of a child Gods curse usually goes along with theirs Noah cursed Cham and the Canaanites were cursed of God Saint Austen tells us of a Mother cursing her tenne Children that immediately from Heaven they were shattered in pieces Camerarius relates of one cursed by his father that presently by a miracle hee was fastned to the ground of a second devoured by Serpents of a third torne by devils sad and dreadfull examples a fearefull document to Parents to take heed how they rashly curse their children and for children how they provoke their Parents Parents are not easily moved to curse their children especially if they be religious parents men fearing God and yet Iacob Simeon and Levi's father holy Iacob curses but it is their anger not them their passions not their persons cursed be their anger this is the first aggravation Secondly the words of dying men are living oracles then men speak most affectionately and their words pierce most deepely Iacob at this time was on his death bed his sons crave his blessing he loves them but hates their sins as his soule at first gave no consent so his tongue now shall give no approbation to it at first he reproves them but having more liberty he detests it He was presently to appeare before Gods Tribunall so he calls them to his Thirdly an honest heart doth not only not act wickednes but abhors it Iacob as hee was no Counsellor to the offence so he would be no Patron to the offendors O my soule come not into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united Iacob as before he protested against it so now he disclaimes it Fourthly it 's the curse that followes the Iewes to this day to be a scattered people on the face of the earth division will follow unity in sin Simeon and Levi brethren in evill therefore Iacob makes them strangers in dwelling I wil divide them in Iacob and scatter them in Israel Simeon had no entire inheritance Levi no certaine Thus you have seen their sin and their censure But what 's this to us wil you say or what 's this to the busines of this day Have patience and this shall give more light and bee more welcome to you considering that Iacob in thus speaking is our spokesman Brightman speaking of the seaven Churches saith they were Typicall of the Churches of the Gentiles to the comming of Christ I should be too singular if I did say this history were Typicall and did set forth the tragedy for this day I wil not undertake to give an interpretation but I will promise and your selves shall see an exact application in all the particulars be pleased therefore once more to have recourse to the words of the Text and with a little variation of names and time read it thus Iesuites and Iesuited Papists are Brethren Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations O my soule come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine Honour be not thou united for in their Anger they slew a man and in their selfe will they digg'd downe a wall cursed bee their Anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruell God divide them from the sonne of our Iacob and scatter them from our English Israel I will follow the same method that I did before I will shew you the sinne of these and their censure and that aggravated with the same circumstances as that of Simeon and Levi First then Simeon and Levi in their anger they slew a man a King The lives of Kings are sacred therefore those doctrines the most remote consequences whereof will maintaine killing of Kings are to be abhor'd among us But as for the doctrine of Iesuites and Iesuited Papists their Tenets and and principles sticke point blancke to this killing of Kings and in this their cruelty is farre worse than that of Simeon and Levi Simeon and Levi did once kill a King though de facto they did it yet they did it but once and their Religion condemned it and their father Iacob cursed it But it is the Religion of the Church of Rome and the constant practise of the Iesuites to doe it not only once but often yea their Religion maintaines it and in some cases makes it meritorious yea the Pope their father allowes it countenances and blesses it you were once taught to say on the service of this day that their Religion is Rebellion and their faith faction it is now altered And I have reason enough to beleeve there 's sufficient Reason of State for it though I see none I hope I shall make it easily appeare to you that the Religion of the Church of Rome maintaines killing of Kings Bellarmine in his Letter to Blackwell the Arch-Priest of England makes this Rhetoricall flourish did ever any Pope from the Infancy of the Church at any time command any King though heathenish to be kill'd or approve the Act after it was done Therefore saith hee why shall the King of England feare that that never any Christian King in the Christian world did ever or hath cause to feare boldly spoken and as a Cardinall Iesuite Let Bellarmine answer Bellarmine and throw blushing in his owne face I have the rather made choice of him because he is their Coripheus and few of them I beleeve deny what he affirmes yea I have him to shew if any denies what I say to you in his fifth booke De Roman Pontific 7. cap. he saith plainly Non licet Christianis c. It is not lawfull for Christians to tollerate a Heathenish Infidell Hereticall King yea saith hee it pertaines to the Pope alone to judge if the King be so or no he saith also in the same place if any sheepe become a Wolf any Christian Prince become a Heretick and labours to withdraw his subjects then the Pope ought to expell them excommunicate them drive them away from their kingdome and discharge their subjects of obedience And he gives this Reason and I beseech you marke it why the Christians in the Primitive times did not thus proceed against Nero Caligula Dioclesian Iulian the Apostate Valerian and the rest of those monsters Gods plagues to the Church because they wanted force So that by the doctrine of Bellarmine if Christian Kings are once Hereticks by the Pope