the world Therefore privates meddle not with these things that last is too large for their shooe Secondly to provide by 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawes edicts and proclamations to keepe every man under them in good order And thirdly to give judgement 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his lawes and ordinances for the punishment of evill doers and praise of them Rom. 13. 4. that doe well And Judges know their duties under them that is according to lawes edicts orders helped forth by the God of truth to waite upon truth and passe judgement for it with an equall ballance of causes a blinde eye to persons and a sharpe sword of offence and defence as neede requires Now if this bee away God judgeth not He is kept from judgements seates because his truth is not honored and his 2 What brings the Lord to judgement seates kingdome of truth advanced These two keepe the Lord the Judge from judging amongst men There are two things also which bring God to judge First when such persons sit to judge as God would have They should be shepheards to defend and keepe their flocks Psal 77. 70. Ezek. 28. 12. Gen. 50. 20. 2 Sam. 14. 17. signets upon Gods right hand to seale no rescripts and warrants but his saviours to preserve and save much people and Angels to guard the good and inflict punishment upon the wicked God hath made them images of his excellencie 1. When such persons sit to judge as God would have in being set aloft of his wisedome in making and applying lawes of his Iustice in punishing malefactors of his mercy in passing by and pardoning if neede require and of his goodnes in fostering and cherishing his people Therfore he maketh glorious Emblems of them in the Scriptures we reade of one in the image of an hee Goate Dan. 8. 5. with a notable horne betwixt his eies There is an horne for glory and strength to offend and defend A notable one visible to all his subjects that stand in neede An horne betweene the eyes because it is used with circumspection and wisedome such must bee a Judge And let it not grieve them that they are set out by a beast when Christ himselfe is called the Lyon of the tribe of Iudah We reade of another in the image of a goodly spreading Dan. 4 19 tree A beautifull tree because of majestie A spreading tree because he offers accesse to others A fruitfull tree because of his doing of good A shadowing tree because of his mercy And a tree having branches for birds because he extendeth favours to others according to qualities Such must be a Judge But above all wee reade of 1 Kings 10. 18 19 20. Salomons goodly throne which was thus set out On each side were sixe Lyons because all the twelve tribes were subject unto him not Levie excepted Two Lyons before the stayres because two tribes in after-defection should not depart from his house The assent unto it was by six steps whereon when the King ascended as the Rabbines say the cryer proclaymed thus when hee was upon the first wrest not judgement when he was upon the second accept no mans person when hee was upon the third take no bribe when hee was upon the fourth plant no groves for Idols when hee was upon the fift erect no piller to honour them and when he was upon the sixt kill not an oxe to sacrifice unto them And all this to put him in minde of religion and justice If they be such as God hath thus resembled this brings the Lord to judge now Gods are come downe unto Acts 14. 11. us in the likenesse of men Not as if God did not judge though the persons are faulty for if sentence passe according to Gods truth though it bee by Antiochus a wicked person Herod that Foxe or Ananias that painted wall yet these sit in Moses Chaire heare them But when their persons qualities and judgements center and meete in holinesse then then are they the fuller image of the Lord the Judge and hee bowes the heavens and 2 When the whole worke is carried for the honour of the God of truth comes downe among them Secondly this also brings the Lord to judge when the whole worke is carried for the honour of the God of truth When truth in witnesses Oathes Allegations Evidences Judgements and Records meete then Christs kingdome is advanced and God is Judge indeede For here is a conformity betwixt truth and the things that are to honour God If now you shall aske mee Quest how this may be I answer By an holy heart hand eye and mouth in the whole worke of the Assize There must be an holy heart Answer By an holy heart Iohn 6. when all persons are faithfull to the rruth Christ distributed bread and fish by the hands of his Disciples to the hungry people they kept none for themselves but gave for Christ and gathered for Christ Here was faithfulnesse Iosua divided the land of promise to the Israelites and as if hee had forgot himselfe hee reserved not a part nor would have any to hinder his office Here was faithfulnesse too Ioseph might have amassed up a world of wealth to himselfe in the time of famine but hee was content with the portion from the King and here was faithfulnesse also When all you shall receive from the Lord the King and the law distribute faithfully without seeking your selves this is an holy heart God judgeth There must bee holy hands 2 By holy hands Hos 4. 18. Gen. 14. 21. when all persons are not guilty of shamefull Give Give Higher powers will hate it but may they not bee abused by some inferiours who love it too well The King of Sodome when hee was rescued said to valiant Abraham give me the soules take the goods to thy selfe but just Abraham would have none from a thread to a shooe latchet least he should say he had made Abraham rich Here were holy hands Ye know how it was with Balaam hee would for a reward have said good of evill and evill of good in cursing Numb 22. Esa 5. Israel An Angel meets him his Asse speakes and Balaam wonders not but speakes to his Asse againe thou hast mocked mee Saint August lib. quaest V. Augustine wonders at that and layes the fault upon the love of money which blockt him up so as he could not see miracles to keepe him in a right course his were not holy hands Take heede let Israel be Israel and remember Balaam There must bee holy eyes 3 By holy eyes which may be two waies first when all are looked upon without any respect of persons The Judge and the Altar are all one said an heathen of old all appeale unto 1 King 1. 50. 2. 29. them As Adonijah runnes to the hornes of the Altar so Absalom in his case referres himselfe to the King the Judge
that ye doe not this day wilfully sinne against his judgement and so I turne to the children of Israel and the children of Ammon and their cause The children of Israel are 2. 3. The parties Iudged and their cause here in full colours something like Adam in innocency making all the beasts before them to tremble They have 1 The children of Israel all the advantage of lawes libertie Judges of Israel and the Lord the Judge looking upon their cases You are not Israelites according Though wronged to the flesh yet God prevailed with for abundance of blessings upon you Notwithstanding some of you have been feared in your lives some of you have beene spoyled in your goods some of you have beene hurt in your names Must get the Lord to judge some of you have beene disquieted in your possessions some of you have beene battered in your members and in this onely different from the children of Israel heere As you have the Lord the Judge let the Lord the Judge judge for you in the judgements of men When Hezekiah received a blasphemous letter from By declining revenge 2 King 19. 14. proud Senacherib hee went to the temple and spread it before the Lord hee thus appealed to this great Judge you are now as in the temple even so doe you Shew God your cause with honest hearts and seeke and receive judgements as from him How gloriously will this worke it will make you proceede not in the lust Non Libidine unidictae sed amore justitiae of revenge which God hates but in the love of justice which God loves you have the sword of justice in your hands upon the best termes and in truth Christ saith for you sell a garment and buy a Luk. 22. 39. sword But heare how an ancient worthy meditated upon that text O Lord why dost Ambr. in Lucam thou bid me buy a sword forbiddest mee to strike with it Surely it is for just defence not for revenge Thou hast shewed me that I could revenge but I will not of conscience to thy command Even so doe you So be it Love law love justice love peace love truth but Rom. 12. vengeance is mine saith the Lord the Judge Philosophers say that seeing is the noblest sense if not for discipline yet for generall use because it suffers not by contrary objects It can looke upon blacke and white without an appetite of revenge on either Why should it not bee thus with Christians who are better enlightened by him who is all eye If your annoyances bee great let the Lord the Judge judge by his Iphtahs liefetenants and deputies and rest in that without the picklocks of new vexations But if they be lesse cloy no◠surfet not the honorable bench Is there not a wise man amongst you shall the pillars 1 Cor. 6. of the earth weare themselves out in bruising dust small when there are mountaines enough to levell God forbid If you and your causes are such the Lord the Judge will not judge for you at last But for the children of Ammon 2 The Children of Ammon where are they It is pitty they have not a ring in some place of this crowne that the word may fall upon them like raine upon the dry ground They are peeping out of their gates thinking this time too short which haply some of you do think too long I can say nothing to them because absent yet give mee leave to speake a word of them against them for them This be spoken of 1 Of them them They are such as love not the law Though let the Vivat Rex currat Lex King live and the law runne be the good subjects prayer yet the old law Iulia could not please adulterers nor the law Cornelia murtherers nor the law Rhemnia promoters so nor our lawes can please those wicked Belialists Their blisters must bee let out This bee spoken against 2 Against them Ne sint pedes nimium lanei ne tandem manus fint nimium ferreae them They have lived in this blessed Church where they might have beene better taught or if they have beene taught where they have unlearned many a good lesson If the ministery can doe no good the magistrate must take the care Let not your feet bee too much made of wooll least at last your hands bee made of two much yron Magistrates and ministers are compared to the teeth Some are Cutters which cut the meat and Incisores forme the voyce these are like ministers who convince Tit. 1 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Molares cuttingly Some are grinders which bruise the meate and fit it for passage these are like magistrates who by justice bruise the sonnes of wickednesse in peeces and send them downe into the draffe of the world Neither let it grieve you to be so compared seeing Christ is called the Rock of offence that breaks them in peeces on whom hee falls This lastly bee spoken for 3 For them them They are subjects though bad ones for else the law could not fall on them And though they have made themselves of christians in name Barbarians indeede in particular acts yet are they of two sorts Some are misled Errones Turbones and some are misleaders some are apprentices to sinne some monsters in that blacke art Now doe but consider how For mercy of Gods making carefull the Lord the Judge is least he slay with the wicked the righteous who are so either in present act or under charitable hope If he worke a worke of mercy hee delighteth in mercy if a worke of Mic. 7. 18. justice hee calleth it a strange worke because hee shaves with Esa 26. 21 a razor that is hired if he had no justice of his owne If he Esa 7. 20. be to work a worke of justice he is slow to anger comes to Exod. 34. it when there is no remedy but if a worke of mercy he is rich Chro. 36. 15. in mercy abundant in goodnesse If he looke upon occasions it is a great matter that mooves his justice when the sinnes of the Amorites are at the full Gen. 15. 16. when all flesh had corrupted her waies and the wickednesse Gen. 6. 5. of man was great in the earth when old and young even all the people from every quarter Gen. 19. 4 were given to sinne but a small matter mooves him to shew mercy If there be but tenne men in Sodom If Gen. 18. there bee but one Iacob in the house of Laban one Moses praying for Israel one Phinehas executing judgement and one man in Ierusalem Ier. 5. 1. that seekes the truth hee will spare multitudes So doe you and prosper when it is fit God is well pleased if you follow his owne sonne who excused his disciples in some infirmities saying their spirit is willing their Mat. 26. 41. Eph. 5.
Lord the Iudge 2. The causes to bee heard the life liberty goods good name of Israel and Ammon 3. The persons betwixt whom the children of Israel and the children of Ammon And now what shall I say the same or such like causes are the worke of this day Let it therefore be all our wishes desires prayers purposes and practises as it was Iphtahs That the Lord the Iudge may The issue of the Text. judge them 1. If he doe not Judge hee will Judge the Judgement Hee onely is reason it selfe wisedome it selfe justice it Summa ratio selfe 2. If hee judge them hee is Gen. 18. the Iudge of all the world whose waies are equall and cannot but judge justly Thus we shall have an happie assize for the maintenance of vertue and punishment of vice which is alwaies the issue when the Lord the Judge judgeth But what shall we wish to decline the judgements of Object men God forbid God is the Answer Iam. 5. onely Saviour yet the prayer of faith saveth too God onely converts the heart yet Luke 1. 16 17. Iob 33. 23 24. Iohn Baptist shall turne many hearts of the fathers to the children and of the disobedient to the wisedome of the just God onely delivers from hell yet the Interpreter one of a thousand shall deliver a soule from the pitte God onely forgives Mic. 7. 18. Ioh. 20. sinnes out of authority as the great Judge yet whose sinnes ye remit shall be remitted In a word God accounts them as authors with him that are instruments from him of good If therefore men judge with God from God the Lord the Judge judgeth too So be it this day wee decline them not let them judge and spare not There are two things 2. What keepes the Lord frō judging Rom. 1. 18 1 When truth is withholden in unrighreousnesse keepe God from judgement seates First when truth is withhold in unrighteousnesse when it is held in prison that it cannot speake Thus the Gentiles did in themselues when a beame of naturall knowledge was ready to breake out of them to give them light to see more of God then they did they withheld and smothered it and so God judged not in them Thus it may be at the barre Bee pleased to conceive it thus As in a reasonable man you may see an Assizes set for there is a Iudge Conscience which viewes and censures all the waies of man There is a Iury of naturall or revealed principles There is a prisoner to be tryed and that is truth Her case is this whether shee shall bee set at liberty yea or no to goe freely speake freely rule freely in all our courses Truth pleades I am the Veritas odium parit daughter of the great King his very Image But when I appeare I am hated and suppressed and this bringeth this trouble upon me The jury of naturall principles is silenced or corrupted by carnall reason and wisedome The judge hearing no evidence is silent and as loath to trouble himselfe is content to put off enquirie till another time as Foelix Heereupon the will triumphs Acts 24. 25. over truth I will doe as I have done and all the affections put Ier. 44. in after the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life And thus is Truth 1 Iohn 2. imprisoned and God the Judge judgeth not in man So in places of judicature truth is tryed too There are judges set godly wise grave impartial hating covetousnes and persons out of the cause who are ready to passe sentence according to allegation and proofe set on with all good conscience There are juries of naturall subjects and brethren who should not be like Diogenes his man who was called Manes à non manendo because he ranne away so jury a non jurando because they forget the oath of God and runne away from it but must present according to truth so helpe them God There is a glorious Martyr to be tryed and that is Truth which would have truth in person of Judge jurer guilty innocent plaintife and defendant and truth in cause too nothing but truth objected nothing but truth answered that all may cry great is truth and it prevaileth But now if on all sides Ioh 18. 38 there be Pilates good motion what is truth But no further sifting into the nature and power of it by witnesse oath circumstances then are at Si inficiari sat est ecquis erit nocens hand these prisons to with hold truth The first is venially I did it not And if it be enough to deny who shall be guilty The second is false accusation Si accusasse sat est ecquis erit innocens by those who are Graeca fide testes knights of the post and will sweare any thing for a fee. And if it be enough to accuse who shall bee innocent The third is Profit in those Canes venaticos who will rouse up Verres his hounds who continually doe Dare offam Cerbero lie in the winde for gaine except a man will stoppe their mouthes by some fatte morsell The fourth is off-putting to Frustratoriae dilationes another time that is lingring and costly delayes though the case bee never so cleare in truth The fift is malice and all ill will which never speakes well in those that pant after the earth on the head of the Amos 2. 7. poore and turne aside the way of the meeke And lastly that which helpes on all these is selfe-flattery friendflattery feare hope or some other by-place for truths oppression These or the like prisons are in a readinesse and then truth is clapt up and kept out of sight like some malicious mans adversarie who is with great care put in prison before the day of hearing comes because he feares his cause Say I pray who Judges now not the God of truth but the Prince of darkenesse lying and vanity Secondly God is kept from 2. When judgement doth not attend upon truth in full glory judgement seates when if truth do appeare judgements doe not attend upon it in full glory All judgements of men are not good enough to waite upon truth There is darkenesse in them and nothing but light in truth Yet if God will so honour our judgements as to put them into that service whensoever she appeares we must bee glad to follow her and for truths sake to doe and for truths sake to die because God is in truth and the faithfull witnesse Christ is in truth Apoc. 1. too To conceive it call to minde that God requires as you know a threefold duty of chiefe magistrates First to 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 advise consult and take care for common good as our good King doth These are the secrets of government which Arcana imperij if they were discovered the strength and weakenesse of a kingdome would soone bee discovered to all
Therefore Cleon of old when hee was delegated to the helme of the common wealth called al his old frinds into a chamber to him to dissolve all relations and respects of old frindship that he might looke upon all with impartiall eies And the old Ephe. 25. Bona est erga pauperem misericordia sed non contra Judicium Iob 31. Gen. 12. Gen. 18. Judges of Athens called Aâ—eopagitae did heare all causes in darkenesse where they could see no persons why should it not be thus still especially considering Gods saying thou shalt not respect a poore man in judgement Surely mercy to a poore man is good saith Saint Augustine but not against judgement this is an holy eye Secondly when the cause is searched out diligently As God in the case of Babel-builders and Sodomites came down to see whether the case were according to the cry so must all doe that looke towards judgement Philip the Macedonian sitting in jvdgement upon one Machetes was not attentive he was more ready to sleepe then Dormitabundas heare saith the Historian yet at the end of the pleading hee pronounced sentence against him Poore Machites cryed out I appeale To whom saith Philip A te ad te from thee halfe asleepe to thee whole awake with that Philip rowzed himselfe up and heard the cause againe And though hee would not reverse the sentence to discredit his publike judgement yet hee himselfe paid the fine to punish his owne sloath Heere is an image of an holy eye 4 By an holy mouth Lastly there must bee an holy mouth when nothing is spoken in judgement which doth not become an holy mouth Christ looketh upon himselfe as the Judge of the world and saith I can Ioh. 5. 30. Non per infirmitareÌ„ sed per integritatem faciendi sed per observantiam Iudicandi Examinat causae merita non mutat Ambrosi doe nothing of my selfe what nothing he saith not so for weakenesse but for integrity not for his impossibility of doing but for his uprightnes in judging And againe As I heare I judge not judging by pleasure but by the religion of right judgement He is not indulgent to his owne will but doth examine the deserts of causes and determines without alteration Heere is an holy mouth Againe wicked men had taken a wicked woman in adultery even in the very act Christ came not to judge as an earthly governour and therefore hee pronounced not sentence according to the law Hee doth measure them all as wicked persons and saith he that is guiltlesse throw the first Iohn 8. Put a vit lapidandaÌ„ sed non a lapidandis Ambros stone Hee though her worthy to bee stoned but not by them that would have done it they must pull the beame out of their owne eye before they undertake that in their brothers Here againe is an holy mouth Againe Mary Magdalen was not invited to Luk. 7. the Pharises house but yet shee came and pressed upon Christ while others intertained him with meate she did it with teares Christ coÌ„mands her not to be shut out of dores though shee troubled him at dinner no hee commandes Omnium horarum judex Iohn 3. Iohn 4. the grumblers to let her alone He is for all houres for Nicodemus that came to him by night and for her that interrupts him at meate It was meate and drinke to him to doe his fathers will Heere was an holy mouth Yet once more Publius Rutilius the Roman when a deare friend prest him hard with an unjust suite denied him His angry friend cryes out what neede I thy friendship if thou wilt not grant mee my request He should have beene a Christian that thus answered what neede I thy friendship if thou presse mee to sinne against lawe and justice Here is an holy mouth Right honorable Right worshipfull and beloved oh Application that all that are to deale in any passage of justice this day were thus good as that they had such hearts hands eyes mouthes then should the Lord the Judge judge in the judgements of men I confesse that justice as every other vertue is harder in practise then in contemplation for not onely the Minorites Hist of Councel of Trent but the Majorites are the objects of reformation high as well as low are two guilty and an oxe flayes hardest when he comes to the head Besides our vices Vitia sunt a dulta praevalida are not infants they are growne men and strong and as Livy of old complained of Neque vitia neque remedia ferre possumus Rome wee neither can indure faults nor their corrections so may we say of some popular and Epidemicall vices and sicknesses of the soule now This made David groane under the burthen of Ioab who had slaine Abner a prince and a great man in Israel when he could not doe as he would for the present I am this day 2 Sam 3. 38. 39. weake though a King and the sonnes of Zervjah are too hard Mar. 14. 18. In bonum vniversitatis for me yet if every one in his place doe what he could for the common good upon sound examining of witnesses with all circumstances which is that which doth bring the edge of the law upon offenders then the Lord the Judge judgeth But if it fall out that reason Iudicium legis est Iudicium solius rationis Iudicium hominis est Judicium rationis libidinis soundly regulated rule not for the judgement of law is the judgement of pure reason the judgement of the man is the judgement of reason and lust or if witnesse bee not truely weighed as in Pilates case who sentenced Christ to death though he might legally know he was innocent because Mar. 14. 59. the witnesses agreed not or if circumstances bee not 2 Sam. 1. well sifted as David did who justly put the Amalekite to death upon his owne confession that hee killed Saul for though Saul killed himselfe as at least after knowne yet considering these two circumstances first that his confession was not out of Phrensie and discontent with his life but out of full reason to claw David and secondly that his bad thoughts were discovered by himself against the Lords annoynted which justly make him an unworthy traytor his death was justly inflicted by David or if it fall out that conscience be not fully satisfied with the light of truth before verdict and judgement and so proceedings be precipitate and hasty which Nero himselfe could scarce endure in his first part and therefore being mooved to set to his hand to an execution he would say I would I Vtinam nescirem literas cauld neither reade nor write If either of these foure fall out then the Lord the Judge judgeth not Now I beseech you you having heard thus much both how you may drive God from draw God unto judgement seates preach the rest of this judge to your own hearts