Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A90993
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Mans delinquencie attended by divine justice intermixt with mercy. Display'd in a sermon to the Right Honourable the House of Lords assembled in Parliament, in the Abby Church at Westminster, Novemb. 25. 1646. being the solemn day of their monethly fast. / By William Price, B.D. Pastor of Waltam-Abby; and one of the Assembly of Divines.
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Price, William, d. 1666.
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1646
(1646)
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Wing P3401; Thomason E363_1; ESTC R201226
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28,963
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60
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your ey-strings crack yet to this can God bring us To be delivered to sharne and confusion of face to be a pity to our friends a scorn to our foes to be a by-word an hissing to forrain nations to be abject objects for others to whet their wits and to spend their dark sarcasmes upon that our names should rot or if remembred by posterity with reproach as Pilats in the Creed Nothing pierces ingenuous spirits more then shame and scorn Heb. 11.36 mockings the Apostle thought cruell No sword so sharp as the tongue it flies lightly but wounds deeply Leviter volat graviter violat to all these disasters can God eâ—pose us Oh let us not continue to be cruell to our selves but for your own sakes if you value not Gods honour for the wives fake of your bosome for your childrens sake which you pretend to tender as the appleâ— of your eyes the â—ignet on your right hand your heart-strings lay what I have said to heart if not we can but weep in secret for you To confesse sin this day and to persist in it is to professe This I have done this I will do To beat our brests and not to reform is to harden them But I must not forget my main errand hither You Right Honourable have summon'd mee to attend you in this service 2. Particular and I know you would not have me prevaricate or forfeit my trust Give me leave to make my humble addresses to you in serious exhortation My Text specifies the guilt of Kings and Priests and people and the third verse affirms that the Princes and Rulers were chief in the trespasse I come not hither to upbraid but with all humility to advise you to what you are neerly concern'd in both in reference to your selves and us for the aversion of that wrath that is gone out against us and is to be read in legible characters on us and for the prevention as much as in you lies of that inundation of miseries that it may be the heavens are big with ready to be delivered if your failings prove the mid-wives Kings and Priests are in the Text and Rulers in the Chapter but Kings here are none and I hope no Priests therefore I shall meddle neither with Crowns nor Miters I love not to speak to the absent but the present Rulers here are a ring of Auditors and you the Diamond Let me mind you what Jewels are a glosse to your Corcnets 1. Prudence You are our heads and the head is the Throne of Prudence It is prudence to be able to discern between persons and things that differ between tendernesse of Conscience and obstinacy between zeal and spleen Doeg is called a lyar though he spake truth of David Psal 120.3 because he spake not truth in love of truth but spleen to David to discerne between self-seeking Privadoes and publike Spirits between true Church and State converts and complyers with times shifting of sayles with every wind calculating for every Meridian that when time was would bow to the Altar now would pull downe Churches that would in Pulpit shrivell up all Prayer and confine it to the Lords prayer and now will censure the saying of that Prayer Your strength lies in your head as Samsâ—ns in his hair When Severus was ill of his feet and some for that thought him unfit to governe he replyed that he govern'd with his head and not with his feet And you had need of your eies in your head that sit at helme and steere between so many rocks and sands 1 Kin. 3.9 10 11. God was in love with Solomons request who wished nothing more and nothing else but wisdom to manage his affairs Secondly another sparkling Jem is Justice Justice without which prudence is but Achitophelian Machiavelian Jesuiticall craft Job 29.14 Plutarch Moral l. 3. Job counted Justice his Robe and Diadem Philip of Macedon displaced a Magistrate because he coloured his beard he was jealous he might colour a cause too You must be as able so men of truth and unswayed integrity Exod. 18.21 such as Jethro's Justicers were to be 1. It is Justice to be accessible that Petitioners may come at you and not your doors guarded with living as Solomons Throne was with livelesse Lions As it was said to Augustus he that dares approach thee seems not to know thy greatnesse he that dares not seems not to know thy goodnesse Gods presence-chamber is alwaies open 2. It is Justice to have two eares Si sat accusasse quis erit innocens one for the Defendant as well as one for the Plaintiffe For though it be true if it be enough to denie who will be guilty it is as true if it be enough to accuse who shall be innocent Caâ—â— was accus'd ninety times and his integrity still brought him off 3. It is Justice to awarâ— the accusers the same punishment they intended the accused in case they make not their accusation good The geese in the Capitol at Rome were to be beaten if they gaggled without cause though they once sav'd the Capitol by gaggling and the dogs legs were to be broken that bark'd when no danger appreach'd such punishment saith Cicero do aspersers in Courts of Judicature deserve Pro Rosc Aâ—erin â—unes venatici and then those setting-dogs durst not causlesly hurry innocence before your tribunals detracters are more bound to restitution than theevs by how much the name preponderates the estate if at least there can be any recompence for defamation There are three things that may not be dallied with Non patitur ludum fama fides â—culus Tertul. de Pall. c. 5. our faith our eye and our reputation It is Justice to proportion the punishment to the offence He is a strange Justicer that knocks out a Mans braines to kill a Waspe on his forehead As Pollio cast his servant to the Lampries for breaking a glasse As the grand Seignior of the Turks ripped nine Eunuches for one Melon that was eaten without leave 5. It is the life-blood of Justice to expedite Justice and not to turn it into Wormwood by unjust sentences or into Vinegar by delaies to suffer poor souls to lie longer languishing at hopes hospital than needs 6. Exod. 23.2 3. Prov. 24.23 It is Justice to be impartiall and not respect Persons but Causes Commineus complains that many mens Offices and Lands were taken from them for running away in the battell between Lewis the eleventh and the Burgundians and given to those that ran nine miles farther than they 3. Mercy Psal 10â— 1 But this Justice must be intermix'd with mercy and moderation My Song shall be of Mercy and Judgement saith David The robes of Judgement are usually red bestreaâ—â— with white the one the colour of severity the other of mercie You are the fathers of your Country stil'd Patricians among the Romans we would look on you with veneration not slavish terror You must bear