the latter branch in laying an unlawfulness where they should not 10. But I shall not meddle much with either sort though they are deeply guilty both because professedly abhorring all communion with us I presume none of them will hear and then what booteth it to speak There be others who for that they live in the the same visible communion with us do even therefore deserve far better respect from us then either of the former and are also even therefore more capable of better information from us then they Who yet by their unnecessary and unwarrantable strictnesse in sundry particulars and by casting impurity upon many things both of Ecclesiastical and civil usage which are not in their own nature unlawful though some of them I doubt not in their practise much abused have done and still do a world of mischief in the Church of Christ. A great deal more I am verily perswaded then themselves are aware of or then themselves I hope intend but I fear withal a great deal more then either any of us can imagine or all of us can well tell how to help That therefore both they and we may see how needful a thing it is for every of us to have a right judgement concerning indifferent things and their lawfulness I shall endeavour to shew you both how unrighteous a thing it is in it self and of how noysom and perillous consequence many wayes to condemn any thing as simply unlawful without very clear evidence to lead us thereunto 11. First it is a very unrighteous thing For as in civil judicatories the Iudge that should make no more ado but presently adjudge to death all such persons as should be brought before him upon light surmises and slender presumptions without any due enquiry into the cause or expecting clearer evidence must needs pass many an unjust sentence and be in great jeopardy at some time or other of shedding innocent blood so he that is very forward when the lawfulnesse of any thing is called in question upon some colourable exceptions there-against straightwayes to cry it down and to pronounce it unlawful can hardly avoid the falling oftentimes into errour and sometimes into uncharitableness Pilate though he did Iesus much wrong afterward yet he did him some right onward when the Jews cried out Crucisige Away with him crucifie him in replying for him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why what evil hath he done Doth our law judge a man before it hear him and know what he doth was Nicodemus his plea Iohn 7. I wonder then by what Law those men proceed who judge so deeply and yet examine so overly speaking evil of those things they know not as S. Iude and answering a matter before they hear it as Solomon speaketh Which in his judgement is both folly and shame to them as who say there is neither wit nor honesty in it The Prophet Esay to shew the righteousnesse and equity of Christ in the exercise of his kingly office describeth it thus Esay 11. He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity Implying that where there is had a just regard of righteousness and equity there will be had also a due care not to proceed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our first apprehension of things as they are suddenly represented to our eyes or ears without farther examination A fault which our Saviour reproved in the Jews as an unrighteous thing when they censured him as a sabbath-breaker without cause Iudge not according to the outward appearance but judge righteous judgment Joh. 7. 12. All this will easily be granted may some say where the case is plain But suppose when the Lawfulness of something is called in question that there be probable arguments on both sides so as it is not easie to resolve whether way rather to incline is it not at leastwise in that case better to suspect it may be unlawful then to presume it to be lawful For in doubtful cases via tutior it is best ever to take the safer way Now because there is in most men a wondrous aptness to stretch their liberty to the utmost extent many times even to a licentiousness and so there may be more danger in the enlargement then there can be in the restraint of our liberty it seemeth therefore to be the safer errour in doubtfull cases to judge the things unlawful say that should prove an errour rather then to allow them lawful and yet that prove an errour 13. True it is that in hypothesi and in point of practise and in things not enjoyned by superiour authority either divine or humane it is the safer way if we have any doubts that trouble us to forbeare the doing of them for feare they should prove unlawful rather then to adventure to do them before we be well satisfied that they are lawful As for example If any man should doubt of the lawfulness of playing at Cards or of Dancing either single or mixt although I know no just cause why any man should doubt of either severed from the abuses and accidental consequents yet if any man shall think he hath just cause so to do that man ought by all means to forbeare such playing or dancing till he can be satisfied in his own minde that he may lawfully use the same The Apostle hath clearly resolved the case Rom. 14. that be the thing what it can be in it self yet his very doubting maketh it unlawfull to him so long as he remaineth doubtful because it cannot be of faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin Thus far therefore the former allegation may hold good so long as we consider things but in hypothesi that is to say onely so far forth as concerneth our own particular in point of practise that in these doubtful cases it is safer to be too scrupulous then too adventurous 14. But then if we will speake of things in thesi that is to say taken in their general nature and considered in themselves and as they stand devested of all circumstances and in point of judgement so as to give a positive and determinate sentence either with them or against them there I take it the former allegation of Via tutior is so farr from being of force that it holdeth rather the clean contrary way For in bivio dextra in doubtful cases it is safer erring the more charitable way As a Judge upon the bench had better acquit ten malefactors if there be no ful proof brought against them then condemne but one innocent person upon meer presumptions And this seemeth to be very reasonable For as in the Courts of civil Iustice men are not ordinarily put to prove themselves honest men but the proof lieth on the accusers part and it is sufficient for the acquiting of any man in foro externo
And there is a reason of it there given also For bloud saith he defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed from the bloud that is shed therein but by the bloud of him that shed it Read that passage with attention and if both forehead and conscience be not harder then the nether milstone thou canst not have either the heart or the face to glory in it as a brave exploit who ever thou art that hast been the instrument to save the life of a murderer 20. Indeed all offences are not of that hainous nature that Murder is nor do they cry so loud for vengance as Murder doth And therefore to procure undeserved favour for a smaller offenderâ— is not so great a sin as to do it for murderers But yet so far as the proportion holdeth it is a sin still Especially where favour cannot be shewen to one man but to the wrong and grievance of some other as it happeneth usually in those judicial controversies that are betwixt party and party for trial of right Or where favour cannot be shewen to an offender but with wrong and grievance to the publick as it most times falleth out in criminal causes wherein the King and Common-wealth are parties Solomon hath taught us that as well he that justifieth the wicked as he that condemneth the just are an abomination to the Lord. Yea and that for any thing that appeareth to the contrary from the Text and in thesi for circumstances may make a difference either way in hypothesi they are both equally abominable In doubtful cases it is doubtlesly better and safer to encline to Mercy then to Severity Better ten offenders should escape then one innocent person suffer But that is to be conceived only when things are doubtful so as the truth cannot be made appear but where things are notorious and evident there to justifie the guilty and to condemn the innocent are still equal abominations 21. That which you are to do then in the behalf of the poor is this First to be rightly informed and so far as morally you can well assured that their cause be just For mean and poor people are nothing less but ordinarily much more unreasonable then the great ones are and if they finde the ear of the Magistrate open to hear their grievances as it very meet it should be they will be often clamorous and importunate without either cause or measure And if the Magistrate be not very wary and wise in receiving informations the countrey swain may chance prove too cunning for him and make him but a stale whereby for himself to get the start of his adversary and so the Magistrate may in fine and unawares become the instrument of oppression even then when his intention was to vindicate another from it The truth of the matter therefore to be first throughly sifted out the circumstances duly weighed and as well the legal as the equitable right examined and compared and this to be done with all requisite diligence and prudence before you engage in the poor mans behalf 22. But if when this is done you then finde that there is much right and equity on his side and that yet for want of skill or friends or means to manage his affairs he is in danger to be foiled in his righteous cause Or if you finde that his adversary hath a legal advantage of him or that he hath de rigore incurred the penalty of some dis-used statute yet did not offend wilfully out of the neglect of his known duty or a greedy covetous minde or other sinister and evil intention but meerly out of his ignorance and in-experience and in the simplicity of his heart as those two hundred Israelites that followed after Absalom when he called them not knowing any thing of his conspiracy had done an act of treason yet were not formally traitours In either of these cases I say you may not forsake the poor man or despise him because he is poor or simple But you ought so much the rather to stick by him and to stand his friend to the utmost of your power You ought to give him your counsel and your countenance to speak for him and write for him and ride for him and do for him to procure him right against his adversary in the former case and in the later case favour from the Iudge In either case to hold back your hand to draw back your help from him if it be in the power of your hand to do him any help is that sin for which in the judgement of Solomon in the Text the Lord will admit no excuse 23. Come we now in the last place to some reasons or motives taken from the effects of the duty it self If carefully and conscionably performed it will gain honour and estimation both to our persons and places purchase for us the prayers and blessings of the poor yea and bring down a blessing from God not upon us and ours only but upon the State and Common-wealth also But where the duty is neglected the effects are quite contrary First do you know any other thing that will bring a man more glory and renown in the common opinion of the world then to shew forth at once both justice and mercy by doing good and protecting the innocent Let not mercy and truth forsake thee binde them about thy neck write them upon the table of thy heart so shalt thou finde favour and good understanding or acceptance in the sight of God and man Prov. 3. As a rich sparkling Diamond addeth both value and lustre to a golden ring so do these vertues of justice and mercy well attempered bring a rich addition of glory to the crowns of the greatest Monarchs Hoc reges habent magnificum ingens prodesse miseris supplices fido lare protegere c. Every man is bound by the Law of God and of charity as to give to every other man his due honour so to preserve the honour that belongeth to his own person and place for charity in performing the duties of every Commandment beginneth at home Now here is a fair and honest and sure way for all you that are in place of authority and judicature or sustain the persons of Magistrates to hold up the reputation both of your persons and places and to preserve them from scorn and contempt Execute judgement and justice with wisdom and diligence take knowledge of the vexations of those that are brought into the Courts or otherwise troubled without cause be sensible of the grones and pressures of poor men in the day of their adversity protect the innocent from such as are too mighty or too crafty for him hew in pieces the snares and break the jaws of the cunning and cruel oppressour and deliver those that are drawn either to death or undoing 24. The course is preposterous and vain which some men ambitious of honour and reputation take to get themselves put
hand But the Fourth and Fifth are here still wanting because I could not finde them out and so is the Eighteenth also because I could not get it in The want of which last though happening not through my default yet I have made a kinde of compensation for by adding one other Sermon of those Ad Populum in lieu of that which is so wanting to make up the number an even Score notwithstanding The Reader shall finde it in the later end of the Book carrying on every leafe by a mistake in the printing the title of The First Sermon which he may please to mend either with a dash of his pen by putting out the whole 3. words The First Sermon seeing there are no more to follow it or else with reference to the Seven Sermons Ad Populum formerly published by writing Eighth instead of First all along in the Title 5. As for the Sermons themselves the matter therein conteined the manner of handling c. I must permit all to the Readers doome Who if he be homo quadratus perfectly even and unbyassed both in his Iudgment and Affection that is to say neither prepossessed with some false Principle to forestall the one nor carried aside with partiality for or prejudice against any person or party to corrupt the other will be the better able to discern whether I have any where in these Papers exceeded the bounds of Truth and Soberness or layed my self open to the just imputation either of Flattery or Falshood There hath been a generation of men wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for their own purposes but Malignants sure enough that laboured very much when time was to possess the world with an opinion that all Court-Chaplains were Parasites and their preaching little other then daubing I hope these Papers will appear so innocent in that behalf as to contribute somewhat towards the shame and confutation of that Slander 6. The greater fear is that as the times are all men will not be well pleased with some passages herein especially where I had occasion to speak something of our Church-Ceremonies then under command but since growen into disuse But neither ought the displeasure of men nor the change of times to cast any prejudice upon the Truth which in all variations and turnings of affairs remaineth the same it was from the beginning and hath been accustomed and therefore can think it no new thing to finde unkinde entertainment abroad especially from them whose interest it is to be or at leastwise to seem to be of a different perswasion For that the Truth is rather on my side in this point then on theirs that dissent from me there is besides other this strong presumption onwards That I continue of the same judgment I was of twenty thirty forty years agoe and profess so to doe with no great hopes of bettering my temporal condition by so professing whereas hundreds of those who now decry the Ceremonies as they do also some other things of greater importance as Popish and Antichristian did not many years since both use them themselves and by their subscriptions approve the enjoyning of them but having since in complyance with the times professed their dislike of them their portion is visibly growen fatter thereby If the face of affairs be not now the same it was when the Sermons wherein this point is most insisted on were preached what was then done is not sure in any justice now chargable upon me as a crime who never pretended to be a Prophet nor could then either foresee that the times would so soon have changed or have believed that so many men would so soon have changed with the times 7. Of the presumption aforesaid I have here made use not that the business standeth in need of such a Reserve for want of competent proof otherwise which is the case wherein the Lawyers chiefly allow it but to save the labour of doing that over again in the Preface which I conceive to be already done in the Work it selfe With what success I know not that lieth in the brest of the Reader But that I speak no otherwise then I thought and what my intentions were therein that lieth in my own brest and cannot be known to the Reader Who is therefore in charity bound to believe the best where there appeareth no pregnant probability to the contrary The discourses themselves for much of the matter directly tend to the peace both of Church and State by endeavouring to perswade to Vnity and Obedience and for the manner of handling have much in them of Plainness little I think nothing at all of Bitterness and so are of a temper fitter to instruct then to provoke And these I am sure are no Symptomes of very bad Intentions If there be no worse Construction made of them then I meant nor worse Vse I trust they neither will deserve much blame nor can do much hurt Howsoever having now adventured them abroad though having little else to commend them but Truth and Perspicuity two things which I have alwayes had in my care for whereto else serveth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith God hath endued man but to speak reason and to be understood if by the good blessing of Almighty God whom I desire to serve in the spirit of my minde they may become in any little degree instrumental to his Glory the Edification of his Church and the promoting of any one soul in Faith and Holiness towards the attainment of everlasting salvation I shall have great cause of rejoycing in it as a singular evidence of his undeserved mercy towards me and an incomparably rich reward of so poor and unworthy labours Yet dare I not promise to my self any great hopes that any thing that can be spoken in an argument of this nature though with never so much strength of reason and evidence of truth should work any kindly effect upon the men of this generation when the times are nothing favourable and themselves altogether undisposed to receive it No more then the choisest Musick can affect the ear that is stopt up or the most proper Physick operate upon him that either cannot or will not take it But as the Sun when it shineth clearest in a bright day if the beams thereof be intercepted by a beam too but of another kinde lying upon the eye is to the party so blinded as if the light were not at all so I fear it is in this case Not through any incapacity in the Organ so much especially in the learneder part among them as from the interposition of an unsound Principle which they have received with so much affection that for the great complacency they have in it they are loath to have it removed And as they of the Roman party having once throughly imbibed this grand Principle that the Catholick Church and that must needs be it of Rome is infallible are thereby rendred incapable to receive any impressions
from the most regular and concluding discourses that can be tendered to them if they discern any thing therein disagreeing from the dictates of Rome and so are perpetually shut up into a necessity of erring if that Church can erre unlesse they can be wrought off from the belief of that Principle which is not very easily to be done after they have once swallowed it and digested it without the great mercy of God and a huge measure of self-denial Even so have these our Anti-cerâ—monian Brethren framed to themselves a false Principle likewise which holdeth them in Errour and hardeneth them against all impressions or but Offers of Reason to the contrary 8. All Errours Sects and Heresies as they are mixed with some inferiour Truths to make them the more passable to others so do they usually owe their original to some eminent Truths either misunderstood or mis-applied whereby they become the lesse discernable to their own Teachers whence it is that such Teachers both deceive and are deceived To apply this then to the businesse in hand There is a most sound and eminent Truth justly maintained in our own and other Reformed Churches concerning the Perfection and Sufficiency of the holy Scriptures which is to be understood of the revelation of supernatural truths and the substantials of Gods worship and the advancing of moral and civil duties to a more sublime and spiritual height by directing them to a more noble end and exacting performance of them in a holy manner but without any purpose thereby to exclude the belief of what is otherwise reasonable or the practise of what is prudential This Orthodox Truth hath by an unhappy mis-understanding proved that great stone of offence whereat all our late Sectaries have stumbled Upon this foundation as they had layed it began our Anti-ceremonians first to raise their so often-renewed Models of Reformation but they had first trans-formed it into quite another thing by them perhaps mistaken for the same but really as distant from it as Falsehood from Truth to wit this That nothing might lawfully be done or used in the Churches of Christ unless there were either Command or Example for it in the Scriptures Whence they inferred that whatsoever had been otherwise done or used was to be cast out as Popish Antichristian and Superstitions This is that unsound corrupt Principle whereof I spake that root of bitternesse whose stem in processe of time hath brought forth all these numerous branches of Sects and Heresies wherewith this sinful Nation is now so much pestered 9. It is not my purpose nor is this a place for it to make any large discovery of the cause of the mistake the unsoundness of the Tenent it self and how pernicious it is in the Consequents Yet I cannot but humbly and earnestly intreat them for the love of God and the comfort of their own souls as they tender the peace of the Church and the honour of our Religion and in compassion to thousands of their Christian brethren who are otherwise in great danger to be either misled or scandalized that they would think it possible for themselves to be mistaken in their Principle as well as others and possible also for those Principles they rest upon to have some frailties and infirmities in them though not hitherto by them adverted because never suspected That therefore they would not hasten to their Conclusion before they are well assured of the Premises nor so freely bestow the name of Popish and Superstitious upon the opinions or actions of their Brethren as they have used to do before they have first and throughly examined the solidity of their own grounds finally and in order thereunto That they would not therefore despise the offer of these few things ensuing to their consideration because tendered by one that standeth better affected to their Persons then Opinions 10. And first I beseech them to consider how unluckily they have at once both straitned too much and yet too much widened that which they would have to be the adequate Rule of warrantable actions by leaving out Prudence and taking in Example Nor doth it sound well that the Examples of Men though never so godly should as to the effect of warranting our actions stand in so near equipage with the commands of God as they are here placed joyntly together without any character of difference so much as in degree But the superadding of Examples to Commands in such manner as in this Assertion is done either signifieth nothing or overthroweth all the rest which is so evident that I wonder how it could escape their own observation For that Example which is by them supposed sufficient for our warranty was it self either warranted by some command or former Example or it was not If it were then the adding of it clearly signifieth nothing for then that warrant we have by it proceedeth not from it but from that which warranted it If it were not then was it done meerly upon the dictates of Prudence and Reason and then if we be sufficiently warranted by that Example as is still by them supposed to act after it we are also sufficiently thereby warranted to act upon the meer dictates of Prudence Reason without the necessity of any other either Command or Example for so doing What is the proper use that ought to be made of Examples is touched upon a little in the Eighth Sermon Ad Aulam towards the later end but is very needful to be better understood then it is considering the ill use that hath been made of Scripture Examples both in former and much more in these our later times 11. Secondly I beseech them to consider whereof also I have given some touch more then once in the ensuing Sermons what scandal is given and what advantage to the Anabaptists Familists Quakers and the whole crew of our modern Sectaries by what other name or title soever they are called or distinguished When this gap was once opened What command have you in Scripture or what Example for this or that Unà Eurúsque Notúsque it was like the opening of Pandora's Box or the Trojane Horse As if all had been let loose swarms of Sectaries of all sorts broke in and as the Frogs and Locusts in Egypt overspread the face of the Land Not so only but as often it happeneth these yong Striplings soon out-stript their Leaders and that upon their own ground leaving those many Parasangs behinde them who had first shewed them the way and made entrance for them For as those said to others What Command or Example have you for kneeling at the Communion for wearing a Surplice c for Lord Bishops for a penned Liturgy for keeping Holy-dayes c. and there stopt So these to them Where are your Lay-Presbyters your Classis c. to be found in Scripture Where your Steeple-houses your National Church your Tithes and Mortuaries your Infant-sprinklings Nay where your Meeter-Psalms your two Sacraments your observing a weekly
it For whereas the precious Oyntment though it have in it much variety of pleasure in regard of the three now-mentioned qualities yet can it bring all that delight no farther then to the outward senses of Touch Sight and Smell As for that passage in Psal. 109. It shall enter like Oyle into his bones it is perhaps rather to be understood as an hyperbolical expression then to be taken as exactly true in rigore loquendi But as for a good Name that pierceth farther then either bones or marrow it entereth into the inner man and bringeth rejoycing to the very heart and soule A good report maketh the bones fat saith Solomon and that I weene is another-gates matter then to make the face to shine This for material Oyle Then for those other outward things which for some respects I told you might be also comprehended under the name of Oyntments Riches Honours and worldly Pleasures alas how poore and sorry comforts are they to a man that hath forfeited his good Name that liveth in no credit nor reputation that groaneth under the contempt and reproach and infamy of every honest or but sober man Whereas he that by godly and vertuous actions by doing justice and exercising mercy and ordering himself and his affiairs discreetly holdeth up his good Name and reputation hath that yet to comfort himself withall and to fill his bones as with marrow and fatness though encompassed otherwise with many outward wants and calamities Without which even life it selfe would be unpleasant I say not to a perfect Christian only but even to every ingenuous morall man The worthier sort of men among the Heathens would have chosen rather to have dyed the most cruel deaths then to have lived infamous under shame and disgrace And do not those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 9. shew that he was not much otherwise minded It were better for me to die then that any man should make my glorying void Thus a good Name is better then any precious Oyntment take it as you will properly or tropically because it yieldeth more solid content and satisfaction to him that enjoyeth it then the other doth 17. Compare them thirdly in those performances whereunto they enable us Oyls and Oyntments by a certain penetrative faculty that they have being well chafed in do supple the joynts and strengthen the sinews very much and thereby greatly enable the body for action making it more nimble and vigorous then otherwise it would be Whence it was that among the Greeks and from their example among the Romans and in other Nations those that were to exercise armes or other feats of activity in their solemn games especially wrestlers did usually by frictions and anointings prepare and fit their bodies for those athletique performances to do them with more agility and less weariness Insoas Chrysostome and other Greek Fathers almost every where use the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely when they speak of those preparatory advantages such as are prayer fasting meditation of Christs sufferings or of the joyes of heaven and the like wherewith Christians may fortifie and secure themselves when they are to enter the combate with their spiritual enemies but more generally to signifie any preparing or fitting of a person for any manner of action whatsoever 18. But how much more excellent then is a good Name which is of such mighty consequence advantage for the expediting of any honest enterprise that we take in hand either in our Christian course or civil life in this world It is an old saying taken up indeed in relation to another matter somewhat distant from that we are now treating of but it holdeth no less true in this then in that other respect Duo cum faciunt idem non est idem Let two men speak the same words give the same advice pursue the same business drive at the same design with equal right equal means equal diligence every other thing equall yet commonly the success is strangely different if the one be well thought of and the other labour of an ill name So singular an advantage is it for the crowning of our endeavours with good success to be in a good name If there be a good opinion held of us and our names once up whether we deserve it or no whatsoever we do is well taken whatsoever we propose is readily entertained our counsels yea and rebukes too carry waight and authority with them By which means we are enabled if we have but grace to make that good use thereof to do the more good to bring the more glory to God to give better countenance to his truth and to good causes and things Whereas on the other side if we be in an ill name whether we deserve it or no all our speeches and actions are ill-interpreted no man regardeth much what we say or do our proposals are suspected our counsels and rebukes though wholsome and just scorned and kickt at so as those men we speak for that side we adhere to those causes we defend those businesses we manage shall lye under some prejudice and be like to speed the worse for the evil opinion that is held of us We know well it should be otherwise Non quis sed quid As the Magistrate that exerciseth publick judgment should lay aside all respect of the person and look at the cause onely so should we all in our private judgings of other mens speeches and actions look barely upon the truth of what they say and the goodness of what they do and accordingly esteem of both neither better nor worse more or less for whatsoever fore-conceits we may have of the person Otherwise how can we avoid the charge of having the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons But yet since men are corrupt and will be partiall this way do we what we can and that the world and the affairs thereof are so much steered by Opinion it will be a point of godly wisdome in us so far to make use of this common corruption as not to disadvantage our selves for want of a good Name and good Opinion for the doing of that good whilst we live here among men subject to such frailties which we should set our desires and bend our endeavours to do And so a good name is better then a good ointment in that it enableth us to better and worthier performances 19. Compare them fourthly in their Extensions and that both for Place and Time For place first That Quality of the three before mentioned which specially setteth a value upon Oyntments advancing their price and esteem more eminently then any other consideration is their smell those being ever held most precious and of greatest delicacy that excell that way And herein is the excellency of the choisest Aromatical Oyntments that they do not only please
prohibitions by the Magistrate there should yet be found among our Gentry so many spirits of that desperate unchristian resolution as upon the slightest provoking word that but toucheth upon their reputation to be ready either to challenge or to accept tho duell Either of which to doe must needs leave a deep sting in the Conscience if yet it be penetrable and not quite seared up since thereby they expose themselves to the greatest hazard if not inevitable necessity of wilfull murther either of themselves or their brethren 2. Alas that there should still be found amongst our Clergy-men that formerly being perswaded that our Church-Ceremonies and Service were unlawfull and having during such their perswasion preached against them openly before their Congregations as unlawfull but have been since convinced in their judgements of the Lawfulness thereof should yet with-hold their conformity thereunto and chuse rather not only to expose themselves to such mischiefs and inconveniences as that refusal may bring upon them but to seem also to persist in their former error to the great scandal of their people and cheating their own Consciences then by acknowledging that they have erred adventure the loss of that great reputation they had by their former opposition gained amongst their credulous followers 3. Alas that there should still be found among our People men who being conscious to themselves of some secret wrongs done to their brethren in their worldly estate by oppression fraud or other false dealing do yet hold off from making them just restitution or other meet compensation for the same and so become really cruel to their own consciences whil'st they are so fondly tender over their reputations with others as rather to continue still dishonest in retaining then acknowledge their former dishonesty in obtaining those ill-gotten parcels 25. But leaving all these to the judgement of God and their own hearts and to ruminate on that sad Text Luk. 16. that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God For thee Christian brother who ever thou art that shalt at any time be in a strait between two evils shaken with doubtings and distractions what to do when thy Conscience and thy Credit lie both at stake together thou hast a ready resolution from the old Maxime E malis minimum As the Merchant in a storm throweth his dear commodities into the sea to save himself so do thou resolve to redeem thy Conscience howsoever and at any rate whatsoever betide thy Credit I forbid thee not to be tender of thy good name it is an honest care but I charge thee upon thy soule to be more tender of thy Conscience 26. This admonition premised I shall now with your patience proceed to some Inferences from what hath been delivered concerning the excellency of a good name and what a precious thing it is But the more precious it is the more grievous first is their sin that seek to rob others of it We read in Pliny that there were some Oyntments in the shops in his time made of such costly ingredients so great was the ryot of those times that every pound weight was sold at 400. Romane pence which by computation allowing to the Romane penny seven pence halfepenny of our coyne commeth to above twenty two pound English which was a very great rate especially considering the time wherein he lived about fifteen hundred years agoe We would all think that man had done a very foule robbery that should have broken a shop and carried thence any considerable quantity of such costly ware And must we not then adjudge him a far worse thief that injuriously taketh away a mans good Name from him which we have heard to be in many respects far more precious then the most precious Oyntments can be But Murther is a Felony of a higher degree then Theft Sometimes we pitty Theeves but we detest Murtherers Yet neither Theeves nor Murtherers are more cruel and injurious than Slanderers and Backbiters and Talebearers and Whisperers and false Accusers are Those bereave a man but of his Livelihood or at most of his Life but these take that from him which is justly more deare to him then either Life or Livelihood 27. It were to be wished that all malicious and envious persons would lay this to heart who seek to raise their own fame upon the ruine of their brothers whose daily endeavour it is and daily practise to raise scandalous reports of others and to cast foule aspersions upon them without cause to make their Names unsavoury and thereby to render their persons odious among such as will be ready to spread the report farther and it is great odds they will do it with some addition of their own too or otherwise make ill use of it to their prejudice But since such mischievous persons will not or cannot learn to do better having been long accustomed to do ill no more then a Leopard can change his spots or a Blackamore his skin it will concern us very much not to suffer our selves to become receivers to these Theeves or abetters to these Murderers by setting our ears wide open to their detractions but rather to suspect him as an impe of Satan that delighteth in Satans office in being an accuser of his brethren 28. Secondly how distant are they from Solomons judgement that value any outward thing in the world it may be some little sordid gain or some petite slippery preferment or some poor fruitless pleasure at a higher rate then they doe their good Name which Solomon here so much preferreth before them all 1. The Covetous worldling so he may but lade himself fast enough with thick clay what careth he what men say or think of him Call him Churle Miser Caytiff Wretch or what else they think good c at mihi plaudo domi Tush saith he let them say on the fox fareth best when he is curst If this man be a wise man as himself thinketh none wiser sure then Solomon was not so wise a man as he is taken for to say as he doth Prov. 22. A good Name is rather to be chosen then great riches c. 2. The ambitious man that panteth after preferment what regardeth he though all the world should taxe him of flattery of bribery of calumny of treachery of perjury so he can but climbe up to the step at which he aimed and from which he knoweth not how soon he may be justled off by another as ambitious as himself 3. The luxurious wanton the prodigal gamster the glutton drunkard or other voluptuous beast in any kinde when once imboldned in his wayes sitteth him down in the seate of the scorner laugheth at all mankinde that will not run with him to the same excess of riot resolveth against whatsoever dislikes sober men bewray of his exorbitancies to take his own pleasure howsoever and then let others take theirs bestoweth a nick-name or
him outwardly so as he is at a kinde of peace with them or howsoever sustaineth no harm by them Either of which when it is done it is thirdly Mutatio dexterae excelsi it is meerly the Lords doing and it may well be marvelous in our eyes It is he that maketh a mans enemies to be at peace with him 22. The scope of the whole words is to instruct us that the fairest and likeliest way for us to procure peace with men is to order our wayes so as to please the Lord. You shall therefore finde the favour of God and the favour of men often joyned together in the Scriptures as if one were and so usually it is a consequent of the other so it is said of our blessed Saviour Luke 2 that he encreased in favour with God and men My son let not mercy and truth forsake thee c. so shalt thou finde favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man saith our Solomon Prov. 3. And S. Paul Rom. 14. he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men In all which places favour and acceptation with God goeth before favour and approbation with men followeth after 23. You may see the proof of it in the whole course of the sacred story wherein the lords dealing with his own people in this kinde is remarkable When they started aside to walk after their own counsels displeased him how he stirred them up enemies round about them how he sold them into the hands of those that spoiled them how he hardned the hearts of all those that contended with them that they should not pitty them Againe on the other side when they believed his word walked in his wayes and pleased him how he raised them up friends how he made their enemies to bow under them how he enclined the hearts of strangers and of Pagans to pitty them Instances are obvious and therefore I omit them 24. Of which Effect the first and principall cause is none other then the overruling hand of God who not only disposeth of all outward things according to the good pleasure of his will but hath also in his hands the hearts of all men even of the greatest Kings as the rivers of water to turn them which way soever he will as our Solomon speaketh at the 21th ch of this Book The original there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Palge maijm as you would say the divisions of waters Which is not to be understood of the great rivers though the greatest of them all even the wide and great Sea also is in the hands of God to turne which way soever he will as he turned the waters of the red sea backwards to let his people goe through and then turned them forward again to overwhelme their enemies But the allusion there is clearly to the little trenches whereby in those drier Eastern countries husbandmen used to derive water from some fountain or cistern to the several parts of their gardens for the better nourishing of their herbs and fruit-trees Now you know when a gardner hath cut many such trenches all over his garden with what ease he can turne the water out of any one into any other of those channels suffering it to runne so long in one as he thinketh good and then stopping it thence and deriving it into another even as it pleaseth him and as he seeth it most conducible for the necessities of his garden With much more ease can the Lord stop the current of any mans favour and affections in the course wherein it presently runneth and turne it quite into another channel drying it up against one man and deriving it upon another even as it seemeth good in his sight and as will best serve other his holy and just purposes whether he intend to chastise his children or to comfort them or to exercise any other part or passage of his blessed providence upon them Thus he gave his people favour in the sight of the Egyptians so as they lent them all their precious things at their departure who but a little before had consulted the rooting out the whole generation of them And thus after that in his just displeasure against them for their sins he had given them over into captivity into their enemies hands when he was pleased again with their humiliations he not only pittied them himself according to the multitude of his mercies but he turned the hatred of their enemies also into compassion and made all those that had led them away captives to pitty them as it is in Psalm 106. 25. The Lord is a God of power and therefore can work such effects as he pleaseth for our peace without any apparent means on our parts But being withall a God of order for the most part therefore and in the ordinary course of his providence he worketh his own purposes by second causes and subordinate means At least he hath so tied us to the use of probable means for the bringing about of what he hath promised that although we ought to be perswaded he can yet we may not presume he will work our good without our endeavours Now the subordinate means to be used on our part without which we cannot reasonably expect that God should make our enemies to be at peace with us is our faire and amiable conversation with others For who will harme you if ye be followers of that which is good saith S. Peter As if he had said so long as you carry your selves graciously and wisely if the hearts of your enemies will not be so far wrought upon as to love and affect you yet their mouths will be muzled and their hands manacled from breaking out into any outragious either tearms or actions of open hostility so as you shall enjoy your peace with them in some measure Though they meane you no good yet they shall doe you no harme 26. But it may be objected both from scripture and experience that sundry times when a mans wayes are right and therefore pleasing unto God his enemies are nothing less if not perhaps much more enraged against him then formerly they were Our Saviour often foretold his Disciples that they should be hated of all men for his sake And David complaineth in Psalm 38. of some that were against him eo nomine and for that very reason because he was a follower of that which was good What a seeming distance is there between the Prophets and the Apostles speeches or else how may they be reconciled Who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good saith the one Yea saith the other there are some agaiâ—st me even therefore because I follow that which is good As if by seeking to please God he had rather lost his friends then gained his enemies 27. There are sundry considerations that may be of good use to us
wealthy and with the despitefulness of the proud but he doth not say it should be so Iobs carriage was otherwise in so far that he disavoweth it and protesteth against it utterly If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant when they contended with me c. He would affoord the meanest servants he had the honour to debate the matter with them and if there were reason on their side to allow it The greatest subject in the land need not think it any disparagement to him to give a just respect to a very mean person if he will but remember that it is the duty even of the King himself to vouchsafe that honour to the poorest begger within his Realm as to protect him from violence and to require an account of his bloud though it should be spilt by the hand of a Lord. 17. And yet behold a greater then Iob although I take it he was a King too within his own territories a greater then any of the great Kings of the earth ready to teach us this duty by his example even our Lord Iesus Christ and the same minde should be in us that was in him And what was that He was pleased so far to honour us base sinful unworthy creatures as we were as for our sakes to lay aside his own greatness emptying and devesting himself of glory and Majestie making himself of no reputation and taking upon him the form of a servant Ill do they follow either his Example or his Apostles Doctrine here who think themselves too good to condescend to men of low estate by doing them any office of service or respect though they need it never so much crave it never so oft deserve it never so well And they who look another way in the day of their brothers distress as the Priest and Levite passed by the wounded man in the parable without regard And not to multiply particulars all they who having power and opportunity thereunto neglect either to reward those that have worth in them according to their merit or to protect those that are wronged according to their innocency or to relieve those that are in want according to their necessity 18. There are a third sort that corrupt a good Text with an ill gloss by putting in a conditional limitation like the bodging in of a course shred into a fine garment as thus The Magistrate shall have his tribute the Minister his tythe and so every other man his due honour if so be he carry himself worthily and as he ought to do in his place and so as to deserve it In good time But I pray you then first to argue the cause a little with thee who ever thou art that thus glossest Who must judge of his carriage and whether he deserve such honour yea or no Why that thou hopest thou art well enough able to do thy self Sure we cannot but expect good justice where he that is a party will allow no other to be judge but himself Where the debter must arbitrate what is due to the creditor things are like to come to a fair reckoning 19. But secondly how dar'st thou distinguish where the Law distinguishes not Where God commandeth he looketh to be answered with Obedience and doest thou think to come off with subtilties and distinctions The precept here in the Text is plain and peremptory admitteth no Equivocation Exception or Reservation suggesteth nothing that should make it reasonable to restrain the Vniversality expressed therein by any such limitation and therefore will not endure to be eluded with any forced Gloss. 20. Least of all thirdly with such a Gloss as the Apostle hath already precluded by his own comment in the next verse where he biddeth servants to be subject to their Masters not only to the good and gentle but to the froward also and such as would be ready to buffet them when they had done no fault Such Masters sure could challenge no great honour from their servants titulo meriti and as by way of desert But yet there belonged to them jure dominij and by vertue of their Mastership the honour of Obedience and Subjection Which honour due unto them by that right they had a good title to and it might not be detained from them either in part or in whole by cavilling at their desert 21. But tell me fourthly in good earnest dost thou beleeve that another mans neglect of his duty can discharge thee from the obligation of thine dic Quintiliane colorem Canst thou produce any publick Law or private Contract or sound Reason wherenn to ground or but handsome Colour wherewith to varnish over such an imagination Fac quod tuum est do thou thy part therefore and honour him according to his place howsoever He shall answer and not thou for his unworthiness if he deserve it not but thou alone shalt answer for the neglect of thine own duty if thou performest it not 22. Lastly ex ore tuo When thou sayest thou wilt honour him according to his place if he deserve it dost thou not observe that thou art still unjust by thy own confession For where place and merit concur there is a double honour due The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour 1 Tim. 5. There is one honour due to the place and another to merit He that is in the place though without desert is yet worthy of a single honour for his place sake and justice requireth he should have it But if he deserve well in his place by rightly discharging his duty therein he is then worthy of a double honour and justice requireth he should have that too Consider now how unjust thou art If he deserve well sayest thou he shall have the honour due to his place otherwise not Thou mightest as well say in plain terms If he be worthy of double honour I can be content to afford the single otherwise he must be content to goe without any Now what justice what conscience in this dealing where two parts are due to allow but one and where one is due to allow just none 23. But I proceed no further in this argument having purposely omitted sundry things that occurred to my meditations herein and contracted the rest that I might have time to speak something to the later precept also Love the brotherhood To which I now pass hoping to dispatch it with convenient brevity observing the same method as before Quid nominis Quid juris Quid facti What we are to do and Why and how we performe it 24. First then for the meaning of the words we must know that as Adam and Christ are the two roots of mankinde Adam as in state of Nature and Christ as in a state of Grace so there is a twofold Brotherhood amongst men correspondent thereunto First a Brotherhood of Nature by propagation from the loines of Adam as we are men and secondly a
pardoned ready upon every occasion to smite him and to gall him with some touch and remorse of his old presumption Like as a man that having gotten some sore bruise in his youth and by the help of Surgery and the strength of youth overworn it may yet carry a grudging of it in his bones or joynts by fits perhaps to his dying day And as for the most part such grudgings of an old bruise are aptest to recur upon some new distemper of body or upon change of weather so the grief of an old presumptuous sin is commonly most felt upon the committing of some new sin or the approach of some new affliction Do you think David had not in all those afflictions that after befel him and at the apprehension of every sinful oversight into which he fell a fresh remembrance withall of the matter of Vriah not without some grief and shame thereat As the distress Iosephs brethren met with in Egypt Gen. 42. brought to their remembrance their treacherous dealing with him which was by probable computation at the least twenty years after the thing was done Yea and after their fathers death which by the like probable computation was near upon twenty years more the remorse of the same sin wrought upon their consciences afresh perplexing their hearts with new fears and jealousies True it is the sinner once throughly purged of the sin by repentance hath no more conscience of that sin in that fearful degree ordinarily as to be a perpetual rack to his soul and to torment him with restless doubtings of his reconcilement even to despair yet can it not chuse but put some affrightment into him to remember into what a desperate estate he had before plunged himself by his own wilful disobedience if God had not been infinitely gracious to him therein Great presumptions will not suffer him that hath repented them for ever quite to forget them and he shall never be able to remember them without shame and horrour 33. Great cause then had David to pray so earnestly as we see here he doth against them and as great cause have the best of us to use our best care and endeavour to avoid them being they spring from such cursed root and are both so grievous to the holy spirit of God and of such bitter consequents to the guilty offender Our next business will be the sin and danger being so great to learn what is best to be done on our part for the avoiding and preventing both of sin and danger Now the means of prevention our third Discovery are First to seek help from the hand of God by praying with David here that the Lord would keep us back and then to put to our own helping hand by seconding our prayers with our best endeavours to keep our selves back from these presumptuous sins 34. A Iove Principium We have no stay nor command of our selves so masterful are our Wills and headstrong but that if God should leave us wholly to the wildness of our unruly nature and to take our own course we should soon run our selves upon our own ruine Like unto the horse and mule that have no understanding to guide themselves in a right and safe way but they must be holden in with bit and bridle put into their mouths else they will either do or finde mischief If we be not kept back with strong hand and no other hand but the hand of God is strong enough to keep us back we shall soon run into all extremities of evil with the greatest impetuousness that can be as the horse rusheth into the battle running into every excesse of riot as fast as any temptation is set before us and committing all manner of wickedness with all kinde of greediness David knew it full well and therefore durst not trust his own heart too far but being jealous over himself with a Godly jealousy evermore he made God his refuge If at any time he had been kept back from sinning when some opportunity did seem to tempt or provoke him thereunto he blessed God for it for he saw it was Gods doing more then his own Blessed be the Lord that hath kept his servant from evil in the the case of Nabal 1 Sam. 25. If at any time he desired to be kept back from sinning when Satan had laid a bait for him without sutable to some lust stirring within he sought to God for it for he knew that he must do it himself could not keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins here in the Text. Without his help and blessing all endeavours are in vain his help and blessing therefore must be sought for in the first place by Prayer 35. But we may not think when we have so done that we have done all that lieth upon us to do and so an end of the business It is Gods blessing I confess that doth the deed not our endeavours but we are vain if we expect Gods blessing without doing our endeavours Can we be so sensless as to imagine it should serve our turn to say Lord keep us back and yet our selves in the mean time thrust forward as fast as we can No if we will have our prayers effectual and in their efficacy is our chiefest hope and comfort we must second our faithful prayers with our faithful endeavours Oculus ad coelum manus ad clavum Then may we with confidence expect that God should do his part in keeping us back when we are duly careful to do our part also towards the keeping our selves back from presumptuous sins Against which sins the best and most soveraign preservatives I am yet able to prescribe are these four following It is every mans concernment and therefore I hope it shall be without offence if after the example of God himself in delivering the Law I speak to every mans soul as it were in particular 36. For the avoiding then of Presumptuous sins First be sure never to doe any thing against the clear light of thine own Conscience Every known sin hath a spice of wilfulness and presumption in it The very composure of Davids Prayer in the present passage implieth as much in passing immediately after the mention of his secret and unknown sins to the mentioning of these presumptuous Sins as if there were scarce any medium at all between them And every sin against conscience is a known sin A man hath not a heavier Foe then his own Conscience after he hath sinned nor before he sin a faster Friend O take heed of losing such a Friend or of making it of a Friend an Accuser If I should see one that I loved well fall into the company of a cheater or other crafty companion that would be sure to inveigle him in some ill bargain or draw him into some hurtful inconvenience if he should close with him of whom yet he had no suspicion I should but doe the part of a Friend to take him aside
that so we may be able to judge rightly concerning own desires at all times whether they be such as are allowed and may consist with contentment or such as are forbidden and cannot consist therewith Which is to be done by duly considering of those three especial Qualifications which are all requisite the concurrence I mean of the whole three to the making up of an orderly desire in any of which if there be a failer the desire becometh inordinate and sinful These three are in respect First of the Object Secondly of the Act Thirdly of the Effect of the desire 25. For the Object first If I desire but that from my neighbour say it be his house land beast or other commodity which I find him willing or may reasonably presume he will not be unwilling for that I see no cause why he should be so to part withall especially if the having thereof be visibly so much greater advantage or convenience to me then the parting therewith could be loss or inconvenience to him that I should be as ready to pleasure him with mine were my case his as I am now desirous he should pleasure me with his If all this be done and meant by me bonâ fide and that I am willing withal to make him a valuable compensation to the full for whatsoever loss or inconvenience he shall sustain thereby and according to the worth of the thing my desire is thus far regular In this manner Abraham desired of Ephron the Hittite a spare portion in one end of his field for a burying-place for Sarah when as being a stranger he had no possession among them wherein to bury his dead Gen. 23. 26. But if I shall desire to have that from him which probably is as useful and expedient for him as it can be for me or which he taketh some pleasure or content in or is very unwilling howsoever though for no great reason perhaps but for his minds sake only to part withall or which if it were mine own case I should be loth to forgo to another that should in the like kind desire it from me If yet when all this appeareth to me I persist in my former desire notwithstanding and thirst after it still this is an uncharitable and so an inordinate desire in me Ahabs desire was such After he saw Naboths heart so set upon his ancient inheritance that he would not part with it upon any termes For he had given him a flat denial and rejected all motions for an alienation with an Absit the Lord forbid it me that I should part with the inheritance of my Ancestors yet he must have it tho nothing will content him without it That for the Object 27. Secondly for the Act or more immediate effect of the Desire If I desire any thing that is my neighbours with a moderate and sober desire so as I can set my heart at rest fall out as it will and compose my affections to an indifferent temper whether I obtain my desire or no If I may have it well and good if not no great harm done I am but where I was my desire is also thus far regular and hindereth not but that I may be well enough content notwithstanding 28. But if my desire raise mudde and perturbations in me and breed troubled confused thoughts so as to disquiet me in my sleep distract me in my devotions disturb me that I cannot walk in the wayes of my calling or perform the common offices of life with any cheerfulness or any other way distemper the calm tranquillity of my mind and soul then is my desire so far forth an inordinate and covetous desire and inconsistent with true Contentation And such again was Ahabs When he could not have his longing Nec manus nec pes He could neither eat nor drink nor sleep nor enjoy any thing he had nor do any thing he should for thinking of it nothing but lowre and â—umble and fret for grief and despight have it he must or he should never be well 29. There are thousands that would loth be reputed Covetous yet have a grudging of his disease and it is an evil disease For tell me to close a little with thee thou that scornest the name of Covetous whence is it that thou either pinest away with envie at the greatness of thy neighbours or repinest with murmuring at the scantness of thy own portion these are parlous symptomes VVhy art thou ever and anon maundering that his farm is better then thine his meddows greener then thine his corne ranker then thine his cattel fatter then thine his ware-house fuller then thine his office gainfuller then thine his service better rewarded then thine thine his trading quicker then thine and I know not how many things more Quodque capella aliena gerat distentius uber Tabescas Must thine eye needs be evil towards imbecause the hand of God hath been good to him Tolle quod tuum vade Take that is thine and go thy way and rest quiet with it Be thankfull to him that gave it it was more I ween then he owed thee and in Gods name make thy best of it Spartam quam nactus es hanc orna But do not desire that inordinately which thou canst not compass honestly and which if dishonestly gotten thou shouldest have little joy of when thou hadst it Say thy lot be not all out as thou couldest wish indeed what mans almost is so yet take comfort in it onward till better come Better may come when God seeth thee fit for better but fit thou art not so long as thou art not contented with what thou hast 30. Lastly for the Consequents or remoter effects of the Desire Desire looketh ever at the end carrying the minde and thoughts thither with some eagerness and therefore stirreth endeavour in the use of such means as are likely to bring men to the desired end the soonest and so putteth them upon action Whence commonly such as the desire is such is the endeavour also and that both for Quantity and Quality According to the strength of the Desire is the bent also of the endeavour and according as the Desire is qualified Morally qualified I mean that is either good or bad the endeavour also is conditioned much what like it If then I can so bound my desire of something which another hath as to resolve and hold not at any hand to attempt the obtaining thereof by any other then by fair and warrantable and conscionable means my desirâ— is also thus far a regular and lawful desire So David though he could not but desire the accomplishment of Gods gracious promise of advancing him to the Kingdom which was not his yet otherwise then in Gods designation but anothers yet when he was urged by his followers to lay hold of a faire opportunity which as they thought God had put into his hand for the effecting thereof his soule did so much abhor
sinner he giveth travail to gather and to heap up The sinner possibly may gather as much together as the godly or more and raise to himself more and greater heaps of worldly treasure but when he hath done he hath but his travel for his pains He hath not wisdom and knowledge to understand the just valuation and the right use of that which he hath gathered together he taketh no joy he taketh no comfort in those heaps he findeth nothing in them but cares and disquietness and vexation of spirit All his dayes are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night It is not thefore without cause that our Apostle so speaketh of contentment as of the handmaid unto godliness But godliness with contentment is great gain 1 Tim. 6. 4. The truth whereof will yet farther appear unto us if we shall consider of these two grounds First that in all other things there is an unsufficiency and Secondly that there is a sufficiency in the grace of God to work Contentment We cannot conceive any other things besides the Grace of God from which Contentment can be supposed to spring but those three Nature Morality and Outward things All which in the triall will appear to be altogether insufficient to work this effect First Nature as it is now corrupt inclineth our hearts and affections strongly to the world the inordinate love whereof first breedeth and then cherisheth our discontent Whiles between the desire of having and the feare of wanting we continually pierce our selves thorough with a thousand cares and sorrows Our lusts are vast as the sea and restless as the sea and as the sea will not be bounded but by an almighty power The horseleach hath but two daughters but we have I know not how many craving lusts no less importunately clamorous then they Till they be served incessantly crying Give Give but much more unsatisfied then they for they will be filled in time and when they are full they tumble off and ther 's an end But our lusts will never be satisfied like Pharaohs thin kine when they have eaten up all the fat ones they are still as hungry and as whining as they were before We are by nature infinitely covetous we never think our selves rich enough but still wish more and we are by nature infinitely timerous we never think our selves safe enough but still feare want Neither of both which alone much less both together can stand with true Contentment This flower then groweth not in the garden of corrupt Nature which is so rankly over-grown with so many and such pestilent and noysome weeds 5. But perhaps the soyle may be so improved by the culture of Philosophy and the malignity of it so corrected by moral institution as that Contentment may grow and thrive in it No that will not do the deed neither True it is that there are to be found in the writings of heathen Orators Poets and Philosophers many excellent and acute sentences and precepts tending this way and very worthy to be taken notice of by us Christians both to our wonder and shame To our wonder that they would espy so much light as they did at so little a peep-hool but to our shame withall who enjoying the benefit of divine revelation and living in the open sun-shine of the glorious Gospel of truth have profited thereby in so small a proportion beyond them But all their sentences and precepts fall short of the mark they could never reach that solid Contentment they levelled at Sunt verba voces as he said and he said truer then he was aware of for they are but words indeed empty of truth and reality The shadow of contentment they might catch at but when they came to grasp the substance Nubem pro Iunone they ever found themselves deluded As the blinded Sodomites that beset Lots house they fumbled about the door perhaps sometimes stumbled at the threshold but could not for their lives either finde or make themselves a way into the inner rooms The greatest Contentments their speculations could perform unto them were but aegri somnia Not a calm and soft sleep like that which our God giveth his beloved ones but as the slumbring dreams of a sick man very short and those also interrupted with a medley of cross and confused fancies Which possibly may be some small refreshing to them amid their long weary fits but cannot well be called Rest. Now the very true reason of this unsufficiency in whatsoever precepts of Morality unto true Contentment is because the topicks from whence they draw their perswasions are of too flat and low an elevation As being taken from the dignity of man from the baseness of outward things from the mutability of fortune from the shortness and uncertainty of life and such like other considerations as come within their own spear Vseful indeed in their kind but unable to bear such a pile and roof as they would build thereupon But as for the true grounds of sound Contentment which are the perswasions of the special providence of God over his children as of a wise and Loving father whereby he disposeth all things unto them for the best and a lively faith resting upon the rich and precious promises of God revealed in his holy word they were things quite out of their element and such as they were wholly ignorant of And therefore no marvel if they were so far to seek in this high and holy learning 6. But might there not in the third place be shaped at least might there not be imagined a fitness and competency of outward things in such a mediocrity of proportion every way unto a mans hopes and desires as that contentment would arise from it of it self and that the party could not chuse but rest satisfied therewithall Nothing less For first experience sheweth us that contentment ariseth not from the things but from the minde even by this that discontents take both soonest and sorest of the greatest and wealthiest men Which would not be if greatness or wealth were the main things required to breed Contentment Secondly those men that could not frame their hearts to contentment when they had less will be as far from it if ever they shall have more For their desires and the things will still keep at a distance because as the things come on so their desires come on too As in a coach though it hurry away never so fast yet the hinder wheeles will still be behind the former as much as they were before And therefore our Apostle in the next verse maketh it a point of equall skill and of like deep learning to know how to be full as well as how to be hungry and how to abound as well as how to suffer need Thirdly it is impossible that Contentment should arise from the things because contentment supposeth a sufficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposeth to 〈◊〉
from him as from the first and only sufficient cause Who is pleased to make use of his Creatures as his instruments either for comfort correction or destruction as seemeth good in his own eyes When they do supply us with any comfort it is but as the conduit-pipes which serve the offices in a great house with water which yet springeth not from them but is only by them conveyed thither from the fountain or spring-head Set them once against God or do but take them without God you may as soon squeeze water out of a flint stone or suck nourishment out of a dry brest as gain a drop of comfort from any of the Creatures Those supposed comforts that men seek for or think they have sometimes found in the Creatures are but titular and imaginary not substantial and real comforts And such how ever we esteem of them onward they will appear to be at the last for they will certainly fail us in the evil day when our souls shall stand most of all in need of comfort The Consolations of God are first Pure they run clear without mud or mixture secondly Full satiating the appetites of the soule and leaving no vacuities thirdly permanent such as unless by our default no creature in the world can hinder or deprive us of In every of which three respects all worldly comforts as they come but from the Creatures fall infinitely short as might easily be shewen had we but time to compare them 16. It is hard to say the whiles whether is greater our Misery or Madness who forsake the Lord the clear fountain of living waters to dig to our selves broken pits that hold no water in the mean time but puddle and but a very little of that neither and yet cannot hold that long neither What fondness is in us to lay out our money for that which is not bread and our labour for that which satisfieth not to wear out our bodies with travel and torture our souls with cares in the pursuit of these muddy narrow and fleeting comforts when we may have Nectar and Ambrosia the delicacies of the bread of life and of the water of life gratis and without price Only if we will but open our mouths to crave it and open our hands to receive it from him who is so well stored of it and is withall so willing to impart it with all freedom and bounty even the Father of Mercies and the God of Consolation 17. Thus far of the two Titles severally let us now put them together and see what we can make out of them The God of patience and Consolation Where every mans first demand will be why the Apostle should chuse to enstile Almighty God from these two of Patience and of Consolation rather then from some other of those Attributes which occur perhaps more frequently in holy writ as God of Wisdom of Power of Mercy of Peace of Hope c. What ever other inducements the Apostle might have for so doing two are apparent and let them satisfie us The one the late mentioning of these two things in the next former verse That we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Having once named them both together there it was neither incongruous nor inelegant to repeat them again both together here 2. The other the fitness of these Titles and their sutableness unto the matter of the Prayer For the most part you shall finde in those forms of prayer that are left us registred in the book of God such Titles and Attributes given to God in the prefaces of those prayers as do best sort with the principal matter contained therein Which course the Church also hath observed in her Liturgies The Apostle then being to pray for Unity might well make mention of Patience and Consolation of Patience as a special help thereunto and of Consolation as a special fruit and effect thereof As if he had said If you could have patience you would soon grow to be of one minde and if you were once come to that you should find a great deal of comfort in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The God therefore of Patience and Consolation grant it may be so with you 18. First Patience is a special help to Unity For what is it but the pride and heat of mens spirits that both setteth contentions a foot at the first and afterwards keepeth them afoot Only by pride cometh contention saith Solomon Prov. 13. So long as men are impatient of the least contradiction cannot brook to have their opinions gainsaid their advises rejected their apparent excesses reproved will not pass by the smallest frailties in their brother without some clamour or scorn or censure but rather break out upon every slight occasion into words or actions of fury and distemper it cannot be hoped there should be that blessed Unity among brethren which our Apostle here wisheth for and every good man heartily desireth No! Patience is the true peace-maker It is the soft answer that breaketh wrath cross and thwarting language rather strengtheneth it As a flint is sooner broken with a gentle stroke upon a feather-bed then strucken with all the might against a hard coggle Better is the end of a thing Solomon again then the beginning and the patient in spirit is better then the proud in spirit The proud in spirit belike he is the boutefeau he is the man that beginneth the fray but the patient in spirit is the man that must end it if ever it be well ended and that sure is the better work and the greater honour to him that doth it 19. And as Patience is a special help to unity so is Comfort a special fruit and Effect thereof St Paul therefore conjureth the Philippians by all the hope they had of comfort in God to be at one among themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like-minded c. Ecce quà m bonum David in Psalm 133. Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is brethren to dwell together in unity Utile dulci in saying both he saith all Good and pleasant that is both profitable like the dew upon the mountains that maketh the grass spring and comfortable as the smell of a precious ointment And what can the heart of man desire more That for the Choice 20. For the Conjunction then it may be demanded secondly why the Apostle should joyn these two together Patience and Consolation there seeming to be no great affinity between them They are things that differ toto genere for Patience is a Grace or Vertue and Consolation a Blessing or Reward Is it not think you to instruct us that true Patience shall never go without Consolation He that will have Patience onward shall be sure to have comfort at the last God will crown the grace of Patience with the blessing of Consolation The
that there is nothing of moment proved against him for in the construction of the Law every man is presumed to be an honest man till he be proved otherwise But to the condemning of a man there is more requisite then so bare suspicions are not enough no nor strong presumptions neither but there must be a clear and full evidence especially if the triall concern life So in these moral trials also in foro interno when enquiry is made into the lawfulness or unlawfulness of humane acts in their several kindes it is sufficient to warrant any act in the kinde to be lawful that there can be nothing produced from scripture or sound reason to prove it unlawfull For so much the words of my Text do manifestly import All things are lawful for me But to condemn any act as simply and utterly unlawful in the kind remote consequences and weak deductions from Scripture-Text should not serve the turne neither yet reasons of inconveniency or inexpediency though carrying with them great shews of probability But it is requisite that the unlawfulness thereof should be sufficiently demonstrated either from express and undeniable testimony of scripture or from the clear light of natural reason or at leastwise from some conclusions properly directly and evidently deduced therefrom If we condemne it before this be done our judgement therein is rash and unrighteous 15. Nor is that all I told you besides the unrighteousness of it in it self that it is also of very noysome and perilous consequence many wayes Sundry the evil and pernicious effects whereof I desire you to take notice of being many I shall do little more then name them howbeit they will deserve a larger discovery And first it produceth much Vncharitableness For although difference of judgment should not alienate our affections one from another yet daily experience sheweth it doth By reason of that selfe-love and envy and other corruptions that abound in us it is rarely seen that those men are of one heart that are of two mindes S. Paul found it so with the Romans in his time whilest some condemned that as unlawful which others practised as lawful they judged one another and despised one another perpetually And I doubt not but any of us that is any-whit-like acquainted with the wretched deceitfulness of mans heart may easily conclude how hard a thing it is if at all possible not to think somewhat hardly of those men that take the liberty to do such things as we judge unlawful As for example If we shall judge all walking into the fields discoursing occasionally on the occurrences of the times dressing of meat for dinner or supper or even moderate recreations on the Lords day to be grievous prophanations of the sabbath how can we chuse but judge those men that use them to be grievous prophaners of Gods sabbath And if such our judgment concerning the things should after prove to be erroneous then can it not be avoided but that such our judgement also concerning the persons must needs be uncharitable 16. Secondly this mis-judging of things filleth the world with endless nicities and disputes to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which to every good man ought to be precious The multiplying of books and writings pro and con and pursuing of arguments with heat and opposition doth rather lengthen then decide controversies and insted of destroying the old begetteth new ones whiles they that are in the wrong out of obstinacy will not and they that stand for the truth out of conscience dare not may not yeeld and so still the warr goeth on 17. And as to the publick peace of the Church so is there also thirdly by this means great prejudice done to the peace and tranquillity of private mens consciences when by the peremptory doctrines of some strict and rigid masters the soules of many a well-meaning man are miserably disquieted with a thousand unnecessary scruples and driven sometimes into very woful perplexities Surely it can be no light matter thus to lay heavie burdens upon other mens shoulders and to cast a snare upon their consciences by making the narrow way to heaven narrower then ever God meant it 18. Fourthly hereby Christian Governours come to be robbed of a great part of that honour that is due unto them from their people both in their Affections and Subjection For when they shall see cause to exercise over us that power that God hath left them in indifferent things by commanding such or such things to be done as namely wearing of a surplice kneeling at the communion and tho like if now we in our own thoughts have already prejudged any of the things so commanded to be unlawful it cannot be but our hearts will be sowred towards our superiours in whom we ought to rejoyce and instead of blessing God for them as we are bound to do and that with hearty cheerfulness we shall be ready to speak evil of them even with open mouth so far as we dare for fear of being shent Or if out of that fear we do it but indirectly and obliquely yet we will be sure to do it in such a manner as if we were willing to be understood with as much reflexion upon authority as may be But then as for our Obedience we think our selves clearly discharged of that it being granted on all hands as it ought that superiours commanding unlawful things are not therein to be obeyed 19. And then as ever one evil bringeth on another since it is against all reason that our Errour should deprive our Superiours of that right they have to our obedience for why should any man reap or challenge benefit from his own act we do by this means fifthly exasperate those that are in authority and make the spirit of the ruler rise against us which may hap to fall right heavy on us in the end All power we know whether natural or civil striveth to maintain it self at the height for the better preserving of it self the Natural from decay and the Civil from contempt When we therefore withdraw from the higher powers our due obedience what do we other then pull upon our selves their just displeasure and put into their hands the opportunity if they shall but be as ready to take it as we are to give it rather to extend their power Whereby if we suffer in the conclusion as not unlike we may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom may we thank for it but our selves 20. Sixthly by this means we cast our selves upon such sufferings as the cause being naught we can have no sound comfort in Causa non passio we know it is the cause maketh a true Martyr or Confessour and not barely the suffering He that suffereth for the truth and a good cause suffereth as a Christian and he need not be ashamed but may exult in the midst of his greatest sufferings chearing up his own heart and glorifying God
on that behalf But he that suffereth for his errour or disobedience or other rashness buildeth his comfort upon a sandy foundation and cannot better glorifie God and discharge a good conscience then by being ashamed of his fault and retracting it 21. Seventhly hereby we expose not our selves onely which yet is something but sometimes also which is a far greater matter the whole Reformed Religion by our default to the insolent jeers of Atheists and Papists and other profane and scornful spirits For men that have wit enough and to spare but no more religion then will serve to keep them out of the reach of the Laws when they see such men as pretend most to holinesse to run into such extravagant opinions and practises as in the judgement of any understanding man are manifestly ridiculous they cannot hold but their wits will be working and whilest they play upon them and make themselves sport enough therewithal it shall go hard but they will have one fling among even at the power of Religion too Even as the Stoicks of old though they stood mainly for vertue yet because they did it in such an uncouth and rigid way as seemed to be repugnant not only to the manners of men but almost to common sence also they gave occasion to the wits of those times under a colour of making themselves merry with the Paradoxes of the Stoicks to laugh even true vertue it self out of countenance 22. Lastly for why should I trouble you with any more these are enow by condemning sundry indifferent things and namely Church-Ceremonies as unlawful we give great scandal to those of the Separation to their farther confirming in that their unjust schisme For why should these men will they say and for ought I know they speak but reason why should they who agree so well with us in our principles hold off from our Conclusions Why do they yet hold communion with or remain in the bosome of that Church that imposeth such unlawful things upon them How are they not guilty themselves of that luke-warme Laodicean temper wherewith they so often and so deeply charge others Why do they halt so shamefully between two opinions If Baal be God and the Ceremonies lawful why do they not yield obedience cheerful obedience to their Governours so long as they command but lawfull things But if Baal be an Idol and the ceremonies unlawfull as they and we consent why do they not either set them packing or if they cannot get that done pack themselves away from them as fast as they can either to Amsterdam or to some other place The Objection is so strong that I must confesse for my own part If I could see cause to admit of those principles whereon most of our Non-conformers and such as favour them ground their dislike of our Church-Orders and Ceremonies I should hold my self in all conscience bound for any thing I yet ever read or heard to the contrary to forsake the Church of England and to fly out of Babylon before I were many weeks older 23. Truely Brethren if these unhappy fruits were but accidentall events onely occasioned rather then caused by such our opinions I should have thought the time mis-spent in but naming them since the very best things that are may by accident produce evil effects but being they do in very truth naturally and unavoidably issue therefrom as from their true and proper cause I cannot but earnestly beseech all such as are otherwise minded in the bowels and in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ and by all the love they beare to Gods holy truth which they seem so much to stand for to take these things into their due consideration and to lay them close to their consciences And as for those my brethren of the Clergie that have most authority in the hearts of such as byasse too much that way for they only may have some hope to prevail with them the rest are shut out by prejudice if I were in place where I should require and charge them as they will answer the contrary to God the Church and their own consciences that they would approve their faithfulness in their ministry by giving their best diligence to informe the judgments of Gods people aright as concerning the nature and use of indifferent things and as in love to their souls they are bound that they would not humour them in these their pernicious errours nor suffer them to continue therein for want of their rebuke either in their publick teaching or otherwise as they shall have opportunity thereunto 24. But you will say If these things were so how should it then come to passe that so many men pretending to godliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty Gods permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gracious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and schisms and scandals And then the wiliness of Satan who cunningly observeth whither way our hearts incline most to looseness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affection of singularity to goe beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extreme the great force of education and custome besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Errour to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest servants and children are in this life wholy exempted 25. Ignorance first is a fruitful mother of Errour Ye erre not knowing the scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much grosse Ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they erre they erre for company they judge not all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are lead be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgment which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withall very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falsehood nor to discern between a sound argument and a captious fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth
with favour and at the opposites either with envie if they be above him or if below him with scorn and how can such a man chuse but be partiall And Hypocrisie ever leaneth on a naile it will make a man halt before his best friends and when fainest he would be thought to goe upright The spying of motes in our brothers eye and baulking of beams in our own which is Partiality our Saviour therefore chargeth with Hypocrisie Thou Hypocrite first cast the beam out of thine own eye Luke 6. And S. Iames coupleth them together as things that seldome goe asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without partiality and without hypocrisie 30. Besides these two internal causes Pride and Hypocrisie from within which first breed it there are sundry other external causes of Partiality from without which after it is bred help to feed it and increase it One whereof is the great force of Education and Custome which commonly layeth such strong anticipations upon the judgement that it is a matter of great difficulty to worke out those first impressions afterwards by any strength of reason or but so much as to bring us to suspect there can be any errour in those things whereto our eares have bin so long enured Another is that which the Apostle calleth the having of mens persons in admiration when we have such a high opinion of some men as to receive whatsoever they deliver as the undoubted oracles of God though wanting both probability and proof and such a prejudice again on the other side against some others though perhaps of better worth and sounder judgment then the former as to suspect every thing that cometh from them especially if it do not sapere ad palatum be it laid down never so clearly proved never so substantially But I must omit both these and the rest only one I cannot chuse but name because it so much concerneth this point of lawfulnesse whereof we now speak and it belongeth also to this last mentioned branch of admiring mens persons And that is the great credit that is usually given to such Divines as in their Expositions of the Commandements or other treatises concerning cases of conscience have set a Non licet upon very many things and that with very much confidence and yet upon very weak grounds Yea so corruptibly or slightly is that useful part of Divinity handled by most that have travelled therein either in the Romish or Reformed Churches that scarc◠is to be found one just volume in that kinde able to give satisfaction to a reader that is both rationall and conscientious in sundry weighty points and namely in those two then which there are few of more general use in our daily conversation to wit the point of Christian Liberty and the point of Christian Subjection By means whereof many of them that should teach others better are many times themselves miss-taught and so the blind leading the blind both teachers and people are plunged deep either in superstition or disobedience or both before they ever so much as mistrust themselves to have stepped awry But of this enough 31. In this former clause of my Text besides the things whereof we have hitherto spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things the Apostles expressing of his own person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only all these lawful but all lawful for me though I will not press it much yet may not be wholy neglected There is an opinion taken up in this last age that hath passed for currant amongst many grounded upon one mis-understood passage in this Epistle but is indeed both false in it self and dangerous in the consequents namely this that the godly regenerate have a full right to all the creatures but wicked and unregenerate men have right to none but are malae fidei possessores intruders and usurpers of those things they have and shall at the day of judgement be answerable not only for their abusing of them but even for their very possessing of them Possibly some may imagine yet none but they whose judgments are forestalled with that fancy that these words of our Apostle look that way and that there lieth an Emphasis in the pronoun to this sence All things are lawful for me but not so for every man Being a godly and regenerate man and engraffed into Christ by faith I have a right and liberty to all the Creatures which every man hath not 32. But to feign such a sence to these words besides that it seemeth apparently to offer force to the Text it doth indeed quite overthrow the Apostles main purpose in this part of his discourse which is to teach the Corinthians and all others to yield something from their lawful liberty for their brethrens sakes when they shall see it needful so to do either for the avoiding of private scandal or for the preservation of the publick peace So that the Apostle certainly here intended to extend our liberty to the creatures as far and wide in respect of the persons as of the things as if he had said All things are lawful for all men The interlinear Gloss is right here Quod sibi dicit licere innuit de alijs We know it is an usual thing as in our ordinary speech so in the Scriptures too in framing objections in putting cases and the like to make the instance personal where the aime is general As Rom. 3. If the truth of God have abounded through my lye unto his glory why am I also judged as a sinner that is through my lye or any mans else why either I or any man else So after in this Chapter Why is my liberty judged and why am I evil spoken of mine or any mans else I or any man else And so in a hundred places more 33. There is no great necessity therefore for ought I see that we should place any Emphasis at all in the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or if we doe it must then be understood as if the Apostle intended thereby not to exclude others thus All things are lawful for me that is for me rather then for some others but only to include himself as thus All things are lawful for me that is for me also as well as for others He did not conceive that his Apostolical calling did any whit either infringe his Christian liberty or abridge it but that notwithstanding he was set apart for the service of Christ in the worke of the ministry he had still the same fulness of power and right that ever he had or that any other person had to all the good creatures of God S. Paul was content to forbear his power in some things but he would not forgoe it tho in any thing He used his liberty indeed very sparingly but yet he maintained it most stoutly Am I not an Apostle am I not free have we not power to eat and drink as well as others to lead about a sister
that have succeeded in their rooms 7. Thirdly parents whose affection towards their children hath not been sowred by any personal dislike may yet have their affection so over-powred by some stronger lust as to become cruel to their children and forsake them For as in the World Might oftentimes over-beareth Right so in the soul of man the violence of a stronger passion or affection which in the case in hand may happen sundry wayes beareth down the weaker It may happen as sometimes it hath done out of superstition So Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia The Heathens generally deceived by their cheating Oracles and some of the Iews led by their example sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils and caused their children to pass through the fire to Molech Sometimes out of revenge As Medea to be revenged of Iason for leaving her and placing his affection elsewhere slew her own two sons begotten by him in his sight Saevus amor docuit natorum sanguine matres Commaculasse manus Sometimes out of fear So the parents the blinde man owned their son indeed Iohn 9. but for fear of being cast out of the Synagogue durst not speak a word in his just defence but left him to shift as well as he could for himself And Herod the great for no other cause then his own causeless fears and jealousies destroyed many of his own sons Sometimes out of the extreamity and impatience of hunger As in the sad story of the two mothers who in the great famine at the siege of Samaria had covenanted to dress their children by turns and to eat them so fulfilfilling even to the letter that heavie curse which God had long before threatned against Israel in case of their disobedience Sometimes out of voluptuousness and sensuality As do thousands of prodigal ding-thrifts every where in the World who by gaming drinking luxury and other riot and intemperance vainly wasting their estates out of which by S. Pauls rule they ought to provide and lay up for their children bring themselves to penury and leave their children to beggery 8. And if by all these and sundry other wayes besides it may happen fathers and mothers so often to forsake their children the less are we to marvell if our brethren kinsfolkes and neighbours if our familiar acquaintance companions and friends prove unfaithfull shrink from us when we stand in need to them dealing deceitfully as a brook It is Iobs comparison Iob 6. The Brooks in Winter when the Springs below are open and the bottles of heaven powre down water from above overflow the banks and the medows all about and look like a little Sea but when the heat of Summer is come and the season dry vanish so as the weary traveller can finde no refreshing nor the cattel quench their thirst thereat Such is the common friendship of the World Whilest we are full and stand in no need of them they are also full of kindness and overflow with protestations of love and service Amici divitis multi every friend will say I am his friend also Yet they talk but vanity all this while every one with his neighbour they do but flatter with their lips and dissemble with their double heart When we seek to them in our need they look upon us slightly and at a distance at the most let fall some overly expressions that they wish us well and pity our case Good words are good cheap but do little or nothing for us It may be while we are up and aloft they will crouch under us apply themselves to us lend a shoulder ey and sweat to lift us up yet higher But if we be going down then at the best as the Priest and Levite in the parable they will see and not see but pass by without so much as offering a hand to help us up nay it is well if they lift not up the heel against us and help to tread us yet lower 9. As then first natural parents many times want natural affection so common friends many times want common honesty and fail those that trust to them And as they secondly sometimes withdraw their love from their children upon slender dislikes so these many times take toy at a trifle actum est de amicitiâ and pick quarrels to desert us when we have not done any thing that may justly deserve it at their hands And as they lastly too much forgot their children whilest they too eagerly pursue their own lusts so these to serve their own ends lay aside all relations and break through all obligations of friendship and if our occasions require something should be done for us that may chance put them to some little trouble hazard or charge or otherwise standeth not with their liking put us off as they did their fellow-virgins Ne non sufficiat Provide for your selves we cannot help you This is the first kinde a voluntary forsaking wherein the fault is theirs when our fathers and mothers and friends might help us but do not 10. The other kinde is an enforced forsaking and without their fault when they cannot help us if they would Which also ariseth from three other causes Ignorance Impotency Mortality First there is in the understandings of men a great deal of darkness for the discerning of Truth and Falsehood even in speculativis matters which stand at a certain stay and alter not but much more for the discerning of Good and Evil in Practicis matters which by reason of the multiplicity of uncertain and mutable Circumstances are infinitely various Whereby it becometh a matter of greater difficulty to avoid folly in practise then Errour in judgement No wonder then if the carefullest Parents and faithfullest Friends be many times wanting in their help to those they wish well to when either they can finde no way at all whereby to do them good or else pitch upon a wrong one whereby unawares they do them harme Sedulitas autem stultè quem diligit urget Nil moror officium quod me gravat The body of a Patient may be in such a condition of distemper that the learned'st Doctor may be at a stand not knowing perfectly what to make of it and so must either let it alone and do nothing or else adventure upon such probabilities as may lead him to mistake the Cause and so the disease and so the cure and so in fine to destroy the Patient by those very means whereby he intended his recovery So Parents and others that love their children or friends well and desire nothing more then to do them good may be so puzled sometimes by the unhappy conjuncture of some cross circumstances as that they cannot resolve upon any certain course how to dispose of them deal with them or undertake for them with any assurance or but likely hope of a good effect but they must either leave them to wrestle with their own burdens as well as they
in peace and take their rest suspecting no harm because they mean none theeves and robbers are up and abroad spreading their nets for the prey and watching to do mischievously They that were against Christ were stirring in the dead time of the night and marched with swords and staves to apprehend him when they that were about him though bidden and chidden too could not hold from sleeping two or three hours before Martyres Diaboli How slack we are to do God any service how backward to suffer any thing for him and how they on the other side can bestir them to serve the Devil and be content to suffer a kinde of martyrdom in his service The way sure is broad enough and easie enough that leadeth to destruction yet so much pains is there taken to finde it that I verily believe half the pains many a man taketh to go to Hell if it had been well bestowed would have brought him to Heaven 21. Thirdly the children of this world are marvellous cunning and close to carry things fair in outward shew so far as to hold up their credit with the abused multitude and to give a colour to the cause they manage be it never so bad Partly by aspersing those that are otherwise minded then themselves are and dare not partake with them in their sins in what reproachful manner they please wresting their most innocent speeches and actions to an evil construction and taking up any slanders or accusations against them whether true or false they matter not so they can but thereby render them odious to the world Partly by their hypocrisie stealing away the hearts of well-meaning people from those to whom they owe honour or subjection and gaining reputation to themselves and their own party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is Rom. 16. with faire speeches and specious pretences the glory of God the asserting of liberty the propagation of the Gospel the reformation of abuses and the like Right Pharisees by their long-winded prayers winding themselves into the opinions of some and estates of others The main of their care is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set the fairest side forward to enoile a rotten post with a glistering varnish and to make bright the outside of the vessell whatsoever nastiness there remaineth within Thus the grand rebel Absolon by discrediting his fathers government pretending to a great zeal of justice and making shews and promises of great matters to be done by way of reformation therein if the supreme power were setled upon him did by little and little ingratiate himself with the people ever easily cheated into rebellion by such smooth pretences insensibly loosen them from the conscience of their bounden allegiance and having gotten together a strong party engaged them in a most unjust and unnatural war against his own father and their undoubted Soveraign 22. Lastly the children of this world the better to effectuate what they have resolved upon are at a marvelous great unity among themselves They hold all together and keep themselves close Psal. 56. They stick together like burs close as the scales of Leviathan And although they be not alwayes all of one piece but have their several aims and act upon different particular principles yet Satan well knowing that if his kingdom should be too much divided it could not stand maketh a shift to patch them up so as to make them hang together to serve his turn and to do mischief Herod and Pilate at some odds before must now be made friends Pharisees and Sadduces sectaries of contrary opinions and notoriously factious either against other will yet conspire to tempt Christ. The Epicurians and the Stoicks two sects of Philosophers of all other the most extremely distant and opposite in their Tenents and Doctrines came with their joynt forces at Athens to encounter Paul and discountenance Christianity And to molest and make havock of the people of God the tabernacles of the Edomites and Ismaelites the Moabites and the Agarenes Gebal and Ammon and Amalek with the rest of them a Cento a rhapsody of uncircumcised nations could lay their heads together with one consent and combine themselves in confederacies and associations Psal. 83. Faciunt unitatem contra unitatem To destroy the happy unity that should be among brethren they that were strangers and enemies to one another before grow to an unhappy cursed unity among themselves 23. Thus whilest Christian men who profess themselves children of light by their improvidence sloth simplicity and dis-union too often suffer themselves to be surprised by every weak assault and so to become a prey both to their spiritual and temporal enemies the children of this world the while by their subtilty industry hypocrisie and unity do shew themselves so much beyond the other in all points of wisdom and prudence in their way that we cannot but subscribe to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the truth of the sentence here pronounced by our Saviour that certainly the children of this world are wiser in their generations then the children of light 24. But then for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we be not satisfied how it should come to pass that they are judged the wiser For that First they have a very able Tutour to direct them the Old Serpent Wisdom belongeth to the Serpent by kinde he hath it by nature Be ye wise as Serpents And that wisdom improved by the experience of some thousands of years must needs increase and rise to a great proportion Now this Old subtil serpent infuseth into the children of this world who are in very deed his own children also semen serpentis the seed of the serpent some of his own spirit is not that it think you which in 1 Cor. 2. is called Spiritus mundi the spirit of the world and is there opposed to the spirit of God I mean some of his own serpentine wisdom Not that wisdom which is from above that is from another alloy and is the only true wisdom indeed but that which is from beneath which S. Iames affirmeth to be earthly sensual divelish From this infusion it is that they do patrissare so right having his example withall to instruct them in all the Premises Their providence in forecasting to doe mischief they learn from him he hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his devises and his methods his sundry subtil artifices in ordering his temptations with the most advantage to ensnare us Their unwearied diligence from him who never resteth compassing the earth and going to and fro in it as a hungry lyon hunting after prey Their double cunning both in slaundering others and disguising themselves from him who is such a malicious accuser of others to make them seem worse then they are that he hath his very name
from it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the primary signification of the word is no more then an accuser and withall such a perfect dissembler that to make himself seem better then he is he can if need be transforme himself into an Angel of light Their unanimous accord from him who though he have so many legions of cursed Angels under him yet keepeth them together all at such unity among themselves that they never divide into factions and parties By this infusion to give you one instance he taught Iudas to be so much wiser as the world accounteth wisdom and according to the notion wherein we now speak of it then his fellow-Apostles that whereas they rather lost by their master then gained having left all to follow him who had not so much as a house of his own wherein to harbour them he plaied his game so well that he made benefit of him He first got the keeping of the bag and out of that he got what he could by pilfering and playing the thief but because his gettings there could not amount to much his Masters store being not great he thought he were as good make a handsom bargain once for all to bring him in a pretty lump together and so sold his Master outright for present money Silly fellows the eleven this Puny you see out-witted them all But let him not impute it wholly to himself or his own Mother-wit that it may appear to whom he was beholding for it the story saith the Devil put it into the heart of Iudas to betray his Master And the infusion of that spirit of Satan was so strong in him that it did after a sort transform him into the same image in so much as he called by his name Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil Let all Iudas-like traytors know lest they be too proud and sacrifice to their own-wits to whom they owe their wisdom 25. But perhaps you will say this consideration can weigh but little For as Satan by his spirit infuseth wisdom into the children of this world so God by his spirit infuseth wisdom into the children of light and then since the spirit of God is stronger then the spirit of Satan it should rather follow on the contrary that the wisdom of the children of light should exceed the wisdom of the children of this world The fullest answer hereunto would depend upon the prosecution of the next point the limitation which I shall have occasion to speak something unto anon to wit that the wisdom of the children of this world being but of a very base metal in comparison though it be more in bulk is yet far lesse in value as a little Diamond may be more worth then a whole quarry of ragge 26. But I answer rather which is sufficient for the present because it leadeth us also to a second reason of the difference That the spirit of God in the children of light doth not act ad ultimum sui posse according to the utmost of his Almighty power but according to the condition of the subject in whom he worketh leaving him as a rational creature to the freedom of his will and as a childe of Adam obnoxious to the carnal motions of original concupiscence and after the good pleasure of his own will withall When Satan therefore infuseth of his spirit into a man he hath this advantage that he hath all the wisdom of the flesh to joyn with him readily and to assist him without any thing within to make opposition there-against and to counter-work the working of that spirit that it should not take effect and so the work meeting with some help and no resistance is soon done Facilis descensus as a ston◠when it is set a going tumbleth down the hill apace or as a Boat that having winde and tide with it runneth glib and merrily down the stream But when God infuseth his spirit into a man though that spirit once entred maketh him partly willing yet is there in every childe of Adam so long as he liveth here another inward principle still which the Scriptures use to call by the name of flesh which lusteth against the good spirit of God and opposeth it and much weakneth the working of it From whence it cometh to pass that the spirit of God worketh so slowly and so imperfectly in us like a ship adverso flumine much ado to tug it along against the current or the stone which made Sisyphus sweat to roll up the hill although it tumbled down again alwayes of it self 27. Thirdly since it is natural to most men out of self-love to make their own dispositions and thoughts the measure whereby to judge of other mens hence it cometh to passe that honest plain-dealing men are not very apt unless they see apparant reason for it to suspect ill of others Because they mean well themselves they are inclinable to believe that all other men do so too But men that have little truth or honesty themselves think all men to have as little and so are full of fears and jealousies and suspicious of every body Mala mens malus animus Now this maketh them stir up their own wits the more and bestir themselves with the greater endeavours because they dare trust no body else and so they become the more cautelous and circumspect the more vigilant industrious and active in all their interprises and worldly concernments and consequently do the seldomer miscarry Whereas on the contrary those that out of the simplicity of their own hearts suspect no double-dealing by others are the more secure and credulous by so much less solicitous to prevent dangers and injuries by how much less they fear them and consequently are often deceived by those they did not mistrust Which very thing the world being apt withal to judge well or ill of mens counsels by their events hath brought simplicity it self though a most commendable vertue under the reproach of folly we call those simple fellows whom we count fools and hath won to craft and dissimulation the reputation of wisdom 28. Lastly the consciousness of an ill cause unable to support it self by the strength of its own goodness driveth the worldling to seek to hold it up by his wit industry and such like other assistances like a ruinous house ready to drop down if it be not shored up with props or stayed with buttresses You may observe it in Law-suits the worser cause ever the better solicited An honest man that desireth but to keep his own trusteth to the equity of his cause hopeth that will carry when it cometh to hearing and so he retaineth counsel giveth them information and instructions in the case getteth his witnesses ready and then thinketh he needeth trouble himself no farther But a crafty companion that thinketh to put another beside his right will not rest so content but he will be
First the supposal of a duty though for the most part and by most men very slackly regarded and that is the delivering of the oppressed In the two former verses If thou faint in the day of adversity If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain Secondly the removal of the common pretensions which men usually plead by way of excuse or extenuation at least when they have failed in the former duty in the last verse If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondreth the heart consider it c. So that if we will speak any thing to the purpose of the Text we must of necessity speak to those two points that do there-from so readily offer themselves to our consideration to wit the necessity of the duty first and then the vanity of the excuses 3. The Duty is contained and the necessity of it gathered in and from the tenth and eleventh verses in these words If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain Wherein the particulars considerable are First the Persons to whom the duty is to be performed as the proper object of our justice and charity Them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain They especially but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also all others that are in their condition in any kinde or degree those that are injured or oppressed or in danger to be injured or oppressed by any manner way or means Secondly an act of Charity and justice to be performed towards those that are in such a condition by such as by reason of the power and opportunities and other advantages that God hath put into their hands are in a capacity to do it which is the very duty it self viz. to look upon them in the day of their adversity and to deliver them out of the hand of their oppressours Thirdly a possibility of the neglect or non-performance of this so just and charitable a duty by those that might and therefore ought to do it expressed here by the name of forbearance If thou forbear to deliver Fourthly the true immediate cause of that neglect wheresoever it is found viz. the want of spirit and courage in the heart faint-heartedness from whatsoever former ot remoter cause that faintness may proceed whether a pusillanimous fear of the displeasure or a desire to winde himself into the favour of some great person or the expectation of a reward or a loathness to interpose in other mens affairs or meer sloth and a kinde of unwillingness of putting himself to so much trouble or what ever other reason or inducement can be supposed If thou faint in the day of adversity Lastly the censure of that neglect it is an evident demonstration à posteriori and as all other visible effects are of their more inward and secret causes a certain token and argument of a sinful weakness of minde If thou faintest c. thy strength is small 4. The result of these particulars amount in the whole to this Every man according to his place and power but especially those that being in place of magistracy and judicature are armed with publick authority for it are both in Charity and justice obliged to use the utmost of their power and to lay hold on all fit opportunities by all lawful means to help those to right that suffer wrong to stand by their poorer brethren and neighbours in the day of their calamity and distress and to set in for them throughly and stoutly in their righteous causes to protect them from injuries and to deliver them out of the hands of such as are too mighty or too crafty for them and as seek either by violence or cunning to deprive them either of their lives or livelyhoods Briefly thus and according to the language of the Text It is our duty every one of us to use our best strength to deliver the oppressed but our sin if we faint and forbear so to do And the making good and the pressing of this duty is like to be all our business at this time 5. A point of such clear and certain truth that the very Heathen Philosophers and Lawgivers have owned it as a beam of the light of Nature insomuch as even in their account he that abstaineth from doing injuries hath done but the one half of that which is required to compleat Iustice if he do not withal defend others from injuries when it is in his power so to do But of all other men our Solomon could least be ignorant of this truth Not onely for that reason because God had filled his heart with a large measure of wisdom beyond other men but even for this reason also that being born of wise and godly parents and born to a kingdom too in which high calling he should be sure to meet with occasions enough whereon to exercise all the strength he had he had this truth considering the great usefulness of it to him in the whole time of his future government early distilled into him by both his parents was seasoned thereinto from his childhood in his education His father David in Psal. 72. which he penned of purpose as a prophetical benediction and instruction for his son as appeareth by the inscription it beareth in the title of it a Psalm for Solomon beginneth the Psalm with a prayer to God both for himself and him Give the King thy judgements O God and thy righteousness unto the Kings son And then after sheweth for what end he made that prayer and what should be the effect in order to the Publick if God should be pleased to grant it Then shall he judge the people according unto right and defend the poore ver 2. He shall keep the simple folke by their right defend the children of the poor and punish the wrong doer or as it is in the last translation break in pieces the oppressour ver 4. and after at the 12. 13. and 14. verses although perhaps the passages there might principally look at Christ the true Solomon and Prince of peace a greater then Solomon and of whom Solomon was but a figure yet I beleeve they were also literally intended for Solomon himself He shall deliver the poor when he cryeth the needy also and him that hath no helper He shall be favourable to the simple and needy and shall preserve the soules of the poor He shall deliver their soules from falshood and wrong and dear shall their blood be in his sight And the like instructions to those of his father he received also from his mother Bathsheba in the prophesie which she taught him with much holy wisdom for the matter and with much tenderness of motherly affection for the manner What my Son and what the Son of my wombe and what the Sons of my vowes
man of blood He that taketh away his neighbours living slayeth him and he that defraudeth the labourer of his hire is a bloodshedder Ecclesiasticus 34. 17. And as these poore ones deserve our pity and our help in regard of the grievousnes of their distresses so are we secondly bound so much the more to endeavour to succor them by how much the more they are distitute of freinds or other means whereby to relieve or helpe themselves The scriptures therefore especially commend to our care and protection the stranger the fatherles and the widdow for these are of all others the most exposed to the injuries and oppressions of their potent adversaries because they have few or no friends to take their part so that if men of place and power shall not stick close to them in their righteous causes they will be over borne and undone This Solomon saw with much griefe and indignation insomuch as out of that very consideration he praised the dead that were already dead more then the living that were yet alive Eccles. 4. when viewing all the oppressions that are done under the sun he beheld the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressours there was power but they had no comforter Power and might and friends and partaking oâ— the one side no power no strength no friends no comfort on the other side When things are thus and thus they have ever been and thus will they ever be more or less whilest the world continueth there is then a rich opportunity for every great and good man especially for every conscionable Magistrate to set in for Gods cause in Gods stead and by the greatness of his power to stop the course of violence and oppression and to rescue out of the hands of the mighty those that are marked out to destruction or undoing Then is it a fit time for him to buckle on his armour with Iob to gird himself with zeal and righteousness as with a breast-plate to close with the gyant-oppressour and not to give over the combate till he have broken the jawes of the wicked and plucked the prey out of his teeth A good Magistrate should be as he was eyes to the blinde feet to the lame a husband to the widow a father to the orphane a brother to the stranger in a word as St. Paul was but in another sence Omnia omnibus all things to all men according to their several necessities and occasions that by all means he might at least save some from oppression and wrong 18. But that which above all other considerations should stir up our compassion to those that are in distress and make us bestir our selves in their behalf is that which I mentioned in the third place The Equity of their Cause when by the power and iniquity of an unjust adversary they are in danger to be over borne in a righteous matter For unless their matters be good and right be they never so poor their distresses never so great we should not pity them I mean not so to pity them as to be assistant to them therein For as in God so in every minister of God every Magistrate and in every child of God every good man Iustice and Mercy should meet together and kiss each other Iustice without Mercy and Mercy without Justice are both alike hateful to God both alike to be shunned of every good man and Magistrate Lest therefore any man should deceive himself by thinking it a glorious or a charitable act to help a poor man howsoever the Lord hath given an express prohibition to the contrary Exod. 23. Thou shalt not countenance a poor man in his Cause That is in a good cause shrink not from him but if his cause be naught let his poverty be what it will be thou mayest not countenance him in it He that hath respect of persons in judgment cannot but transgress and he that respecteth a man for his poverty is no less a respecter of persons then he that respecteth a man for friendship or neighbourhood or greatness or a bribe In this case the Magistrate cannot propose to himself a fitter or safer example then that of God himself who as he often professeth to have a special care over the stranger and fatherless and widow and needy so doth he often declare his proceedings to be evermore without respect of persons 19. That therefore whilest we avoid the one extreme that of incompassion we may not fall into the other that of foolish pity it will be needful that we rightly understand Solomons purpose in the Text. For it may perhaps seem to some to be here intended that every man should do his utmost to save the life of every other man that is in danger to lose it And accordingly many men are forward more then any good subject hath cause to con them thanks for to deprecate the favour of the Iudge for the saving of some hainous malefactor or to sue out a pardon for a wilful murderer or say it be but to help some busie crafty companion to come fair off in a foul business And when they have so done as if they had deserved a garland for their service so do they glory among their neighbours at their return from these great asâ—semblies that their journey was well bestowed for they had saved a proper man from the gallows or holpen a good fellow out of the bryers Alas little do such men consider that they glory in that which ought rather to be their shame such glorying is not good For albeit in the Text it be not expressedly so set down yet must Solomon of necessity be understood to speak of the delivering of such only as are unjustly drawn to the slaughter and not of such malefactors as by robberies rapes murders treasons and other guiltinesses have justly deserved the sentence of death by the Law For we must so understand him here as not to make him contradict himself who elsewhere telleth us that it is the part and property of a wise King to scatter the wicked and to bring the wheele over them and that he that hath done violence to the bloud of any person should fly to the pit and no man should stay him Against murder the Lord provided by an early Law Gen. 9. enacted and published before him out of whose loins the whole world after the flood was to be repeopled to shew it was not meant for a national and temporary ordinance but for an universal and perpetual Law whoso sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed And that Iudges should be very shy and tender how they grant pardons or reprivals in that case he established it afterwards among his own people by a most severe sanction Numb 35. Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death but he shall surely be put to death
heard both Nay may we not many times farther say when both tales are told that neither is good Because there is most-what in every mans tale a mixture of some falshoods with some truths whereby it may so happen sometimes that he which hath in truth the more equity on his side by the mingling in some easily discoverable falshoods in telling his tale may render his cause the more suspicious to him that heareth it to think the whole tale naught and he that hath indeed and upon the whole matter the worse cause may yet by the weaving in some evident truths or pregnant probabilities in the telling of his tale gain such credit with him that heareth it that he will be very inclinable to beleeve the whole tale to be good Or howsoever they may be both so equally false or at least both so equally doubtfull as no one that heareth them can well tell whether of both to give credit to It was so in the famous case of the two inmate harlots whereof King Solomon had the hearing The living child is mine the dead one thine saith the one No saith the other the dead child is thine and the living mine Here were presumptions on both sides for why should any woman challenge another womans child but proofs on neither for being there were none in the house but they two neither of them could produce any witnesses The case hung thus even no more evidence on the one side then on the other no lesse confidence on the one side then on the other Solomon indeed by that wisedom wherewith God had endowed him in a transcendent measure found out a means whereby to turn the scales to untie that hard knot and to discover the hidden truth But what could a Iudge or a Iury of no more then ordinary wisdom then have been able to have said or done in such a case but even to have left it as they found it And truly for any I know Ignorance must have been their best excuse 12. And as first in the Information so there may be a defect secondly in the Proofs He that hath the better cause in veritate rei may yet fail his proofs and not be able to make it judicially appear that he hath the better Cause In which case the old axiome holdeth Idem est non esse non apparere it is all one in foro externo and as to the determination of a Judge upon the Bench who is to pronounce secundùm allegata probata for a man not to have a right not to be able to make it appear in a legal way and by such evidence as is requisite in a judicial proceeding that he hath such a right Or he may be outsworn by the depositions of the witnesses produced on the behalf of the adverse part though it may be utterly false yet direct and punctuall against him and so strong enough howsoever to cast him in his suit For what Iudge but the great Judge of heaven and earth can certainly and infallibly know when two or three men swear directly to a point and agree in one whether yet they swear a falshood or no Or what should induce a mortall Iudge not to beleeve them especially if withal he see the proofs on the other side to fall short And if in such a case following the evidence in the simplicity of his heart he give away an honest mans right from him to a Knave he is not to be charged with it as a perverter of justice but hath his apologie here ready fitted for him in the Text Behold we knew it not 13 Adde hereunto in the third place the great advantage or disadvantage that may be given to a cause in the pleading by the artificiall insinuations of a powerfull Orator That same flexanimis Pitho and Suadae medulla as some of the old Heathens termed it that winning and perswasive faculty which dwelleth in the tongues of some men whereby they are able not only to work strongly upon the affections of men but to arrest their judgements also and to encline them whether way they please is an excellent endowment of nature or rather to speak more properly an excellent gift of God Which whosoever hath received is by so much the more bound to be truly thankful to him that gave it and to do him the best service he can with it by how much he is enabled thereby to gain more glory to God and to do more good to humane society then most of his brethren are And the good blessing of God be upon the heads of all those be they few or many that use their eloquence aright and employ their talent in that kinde for the advancement of justice the quelling of oppression the repressing and discountenancing of insolency and the encouraging and protecting of innocency But what shall I say then of those be they many or few that abuse the gracefulness of their elocution good speakers but to ill purposes to enchant the ears of an easie Magistrate with the charms of a fluent tongue or to cast a mist before the eyes of a weak Iury as Juglers make sport with Countrey people to make white seem black or black seem white so setting a fair varnish upon a rotten post and a smooth gloss upon a course cloth as Protagoras sometimes boasted that he could make a bad cause good when he listed By which means judgement is perverted the hands of violence and robbery strengthened the edge of the sword of justice abated great offenders acquitted gracious and vertuous men molested and injured I know not what fitter reward to wish them for their pernicious eloquence as their best deserved see then to remit them over to what David hath assigned them in Psalm 120. What reward shal be given or done unto thee O thou false tongue Even mighty and sharpe arrowes with hot burning coales I might adde to those how that somtimes by the subtilty of a cunning sly Commissioner sometimes by the wilful misprision of a corrupt or the slip of a negligent or the oversight of an ignorant Clerk and by sundry other means which in regard of their number and my inexperience I am not able to recite it may come to passe that the light of Truth may be so clouded and the beams thereof intercepted from the eyes of the most circumspect Magistrate that he cannot at all times clearly discern the Equity of those Causes that are brought before him In all which cases the only Apology that is left him is still the same as before even this Behold we knew it not 14. But when he perfectly understandeth the whole business and seeth the Equity of it so as he cannot plead Ignorance of either there may yet be thirdly place for his just excuse if he have not sufficient means wherewith to relieve and to right his wronged brother A mere private man that is not in place of authority may bemoan his poor brother in the day of
excuses which he pretendeth in his own defence Whether they have justae excusationis instar and will bear a good and sufficient plea or be but rather shifts devised to serve a present turn more for outward shew then real satisfaction within Which is that Iudicium cordis the judgement of the heart whereunto Solomon as I told you referreth over this pretension Behold we knew it not to receive its first and most immediate trial Doth not he that pondreth the heart consider it What the tongue pleadeth is not a thing so considerable with God as how the heart standeth affected 29. For the approving his heart therefore in this business before him that knoweth it perfectly and is able to ponder it exactly let every Magistrate and other Officer of justice consider in the fear of God First whether he hath been willing so far as his leisure amidst the throng of other his weighty imployments would permit to receive the petitions and with patience to hear the complaints of those poor men that have fled to him as to a Sanctuary for refuge and succour Iob professeth himself to have been a father to the poor and he is a very unnatural father that stoppeth his ears against the cryes of his children or so terrifieth them with his angry countenance that they dare not speak to him Solomon in the twenty ninth of this book distinguisheth a righteous man from a wicked by this that the righteous considereth the cause of the poor but the wicked regardeth not to know it He that rejecteth their complaints or beateth them off with bug-words and terrour in his looks either out of the hardness of his heart or the love of ease or for whatsoever other respect when he might have leisure to give them audience if he were so minded and to take notice of their grievances cannot justly excuse himself by pleading Behold we knew it not But I must hasten Let him consider Secondly whether he have kept his ear and his affection equally free to both parties without suffering himself to be possessed with prejudices against or to be carried away with favourable inclinations towards the one side more then the other He is too little a Iudge that is too much either a friend or an enemy Thirdly whether he hath used all requisite diligence patience and wisdom in the examination of those causes that have been brought before him for the better finding out of the truth as Iob searched out the cause which he knew not without shuffling over business in post-haste not caring which way causes go so he can but dispatch them out of the way quickly and rid his hands of them Fourthly whether he hath indeed endeavoured to his power to repress or discountenance those that do ill offices in any kinde tending to the perverting of justice as namely Those that lay traps for honest men to fetch them into trouble without desert Those that sow discord among neighbours and stir up suites for petty trespasses and trifles of no value Those that abett contentious persons by opening their mouths in their behalf in evil causes Those that devise new shifts to elude good Laws Lastly whether he hath gone on stoutly in a righteous way to break the jaw-bones of the Lions in their mouths and to pluck the spoil from between their teeth by delivering them that were ready to be slain or destinated to utter undoing by their powerful oppressours without fearing the faces of men or fainting in the day of their brothers adversity He that hath done all this in a good mediocrity so far as his understanding and power would serve though he have not been able to remedy all the evils and to doe all the good he desired may yet say with a good conscience and with comfort Behold we knew it not and his excuse will be taken in the judgment both of his own heart and of God who knoweth his heart whatsoever other men think of him or howsoever they censure him But if he have failed in all or any the premises though he may blear the eyes of men with colourable pretences he cannot so secure his own conscience much less escape the judgment of God before whose eyes causeless excuses are of no avail Which is the last of the three points proposed whereunto I now proceed 30. The judgment of a mans own heart is of great regard in utramque partem then the censures of all the men in the world besides Better the world should condemn us if our own hearts acquit us then that our hearts should condemn us and all the world acquit us This is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience saith S. Paul The approbation of men may give some accessioâ—â— to the rejoycing the other being first supposed but the main of it lieth in the testimony of the Conscience This is the highest tribunal under heaven but not absolutely the highest there is one in heaven above it St. Paul who thought it safe for him to appeal hither from the unjust censures of men yet durst not think it safe for him to rest here but appealeth from it to a higher Court and to the judgment of the great God 1 Cor. 4. It was a very small thing with him to be judged of mans judgment So long as he knew nothing by himself so long as his own heart condemned him not he passed not much for the censures of men Yet durst not justifie himself upon the acquital of his own heart He knew there was much blindness and deceitfulness in the heart of every sinful man and it were no wisdom to trust to that that might fail He would up therefore to a higher and an unerring Iudge that neither would deceive nor could be deceived and that was the Lord. I judge not mine own self saith he but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Even so here Solomon remitteth us over for the triall of our pretended excuses from our mouthes to our hearts and from our hearts unto God If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the hearts consider it c. As if he had said No matter for thy words look to thy heart If thou pretendest one thing without and thy conscience tell thee another thing within thou art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast and condemned by the sentence of thine own heart But if thy heart condemne thee not the more indeed is thy comfort and the stronger thy hope yet be not too confident upon it There is an abyssus a depth in thy heart which thou canst not fathome with all the line thou hast Thou hast not a just ballance wherein to weigh and to ponder thy own heart That must be left therefore wholy to the Lord who alone can do it perfectly and to whose judgment alone every man shall finally stand or fall and if he deserve to fall all his vain excuses shall not be able to hold him up 31. Which of
is unperformed the disobedience is sure to be punished let the offender pretend and alledge never so largely to excuse it Quid verba audiam facta cum videam It is the work he looketh at in all his retributions and where the work is not done vain words will not ward off the blows that are to be inflicted for the neglect nor any whit lessen them either in their number or weight Will they not rather provoke the Lord in his just indignation to lay on both more heavier strokes For where a duty is ill-neglected and the neglect ill excused the offender deserveth to be doubly punished once for the omission of the duty and once more for the vanity of the excuse 36. Let me beseech you therefore dearly beloved brethren for the love of God and your own safety to deal clearly and unpartially betwixt God and your own soules in this affair without shuffling or dawbing and to make straight paths to your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way Remember that they that trust to lying vanities and false pretences are no better forsake their own mercy And that fained excuses are but as a staff of reed a very weak stay for a heavie body to trust to for support which will not only crack under the weight but the sharp splinters thereof will also run up into the hand of him that leaneth upon it You see what God looketh at It is the heart that he pondereth and the soul that he observeth and the work that he recompenseth Look therefore that your hearts be true and your souls upright and your works perfect that you may never stand in need of such poor and beggarly shifts as forged pretences are nor be driven to fly for refuge to that which will nothing at all profit you in the day of wrath and of triall Let your desires be unfeighned and your endeavours faithful to the utmost of your power to doe Iustice and to shew Mercy to your brethren and to discharge a good Conscience in the performance of all those duties that lye upon you by vertue either of your general calling as Christians or of your particular vocations what ever they be with all diligence and godly wisdom that you may be able to stand before the judgment seat of the great God with comfort and out of an humble and well-grounded confidence of his gracious acceptance of your imperfect but sincere desires and endeavours in Christ not fear to put your selves upon the triall each of you in the words of holy David Psal. 139. Try me O God and seek the ground of my heart prove me and examine my thoughts Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me and lead me in the way everlasting in the way that leadeth to everlasting life Which great mercy the Lord of his infinite goodness vouchsafe unto us all for his dear sons sake Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour To whom c. AD MAGISTRATUM The Third Sermon At the Assises at Notingham in the year 1634. at the request of ROBERT MELLISH Esq then High-Sheriffe of that County 1 Sam. 12.3 Behold here I am witness against me before the Lord and before his Annointed Whose Oxe have I taken or whose Asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blinde mine eyes therewith and I will restore it you 1. A Bold and just challenge of an old Iudge made before all the people upon his resignal of the government into the hands of a new King Samuel was the man Who having continued whilest Eli lived in the service of the Tabernacle as a Levite and a private man was after his death to undergoe a new business in the exercise of publick judicature For that fanatical opinion which hath possessed some in these later times that no Ecclesiastical person might lawfully exercise any secular power was in those dayes unheard of in the world Eli though a Priest was a Iudge also and so was Samuel though a Levite after him And we finde not that either the people made any question at all or that themselves made any scruple at all of the lawfulnesse of those concurrent powers Samuel was now as it is collected by those that have travelled in the Chronology aged about five and thirty yeers and so in his full strength when he was first Judge Which so long as it continued in any measure he little respected his own ease in comparison of the common good but took his yearly circuits about the countrey keeping Courts in the most convenient places abroad besides his constant sittings at Ramah where his dwelling was for the hearing and determining of Causes to the great ease of all and content no doubt of the most or best 2. But by that he had spent about thirty years more in his countries service he could not but finde such decayes in his body as would call upon him in his now declining age to provide for some ease under that great burden of years and business Which that he might so do as that yet the publick service should not be neglected he thought good to joyn his two sons in commission with him He therefore maketh them Iudges in Israel in hope that they would frame themselves by his example to judge the people with such like diligence and uprightness as himself had done But the young men as they had far other aims then the good old father had so they took quite other wayes then he did Their care was not to advance Iustice but to fill their own coffers which made them soon to turn aside after lucre to take bribes and to pervert judgement This fell out right for the elders of Israel who now had by their miscarriage a fair opportunity opened to move at length for that they had long thirsted after viz. the change of the government They gather themselves therefore together that the cry might be the fuller and to Ramah they come to Samuel with many complaints and alledgements in their mouthes But the short of the business was a King they must have and a King they will have or they will not rest satisfied It troubled Samuel not a little both to hear of the mis-demeanour of his sonnes of whom he had hoped better and to see the wilfulness of a discontented people bent upon an Innovation Yet he would consult with God before he would give them their answer And then he answereth them not by peremptorily denying them the thing they so much desired but by seriously disswading them from so inordinate a desire But they persisting obstinately in their first resolution by farther direction from the Lord Samuel condescendeth to them and dismisseth them with a promise that it should be done to them as they desired and a King they should have ere it were long 3. And within a while he made
good his promise The Lord had designed Saul to be their King and had secretly revealed the same to Samuel Who did also by Gods appointment first anoint him very privately no man being by but they two alone and after in a full assembly of the people at Mispeh evidenced him to be the man whom God had chosen by the determination of a lot Whereupon the most part of the people accepted Saul for their King elect testifying their acceptance by their joyful acclamations and by sending him presents Yet did not Saul then immediately enter upon his full Regalities whether by reason of some contradiction made to his election or for whatsoever other cause but that Samuel still continued in the government till upon occasion of the Ammonites invading the land and laying siege against Iabesh-Gilead Saul made such proof of his valour by relieving the Town destroing the enemy that no man had the forehead to oppose against him any more Samuel therefore took the hint of that victory to establish Saul compleatly in the kingdom by calling the people to Gilgal where the Tabernacle then was where he once more anointed Saul before the Lord and in a full congregation investing him into the kingdom with great solemnity sacrifices of peace-offerings and all manner of rejoycings 4. Now had the people according to their desire a King and now was Samuel who had long governed in chief again become a private man Yet was he still the Lords Prophet and by vertue of that calling took himself bound to make the people sensible of the greatness of their sin in being so forward to ask a King before they had first asked to know the Lords pleasure therein And this is in a manner the business of this whole Chapter Yet before he begin to fall upon them he doth wisely first to clear himself and for the purpose he challengeth all every of them if they could accuse him of any injustice or corruption in the whole time of his government then and there to speak it out and they should receive satisfaction or else for ever after to hold their tongues in the three first verses of this Chapter but especially in this third verse Behold here I am witness against me before the Lord c. 5. In which words are observable both the Matter and Form of Samuels challenge The Matter of it to wit the thing whereof he would clear himself is set down first in general termes that he had not wrongfully taken to himself that which was anothers Whose Ox have I taken or whose Asse have I taken And then more particularly by a perfect enumeration of the several species or kindes thereof which being but three in all are all expressed in this challenge All wrongful taking of any thing from another man is done either with or without the parties consent If without the parties consent then either by cunning or violence fraud or oppression over-reaching another by wit or over-bearing him by might If with the parties consent then it is by contracting with him for some fee reward or gratification Samuel here disclaimeth them all Whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received a bribe to blinde my eyes therewith That is the matter of the challenge 6. In the forme we may observe concerning Samuel 3. other things First his great forwardness in the business in putting himself upon the triall by his own voluntary offer before he was called thereunto by others Behold here I am Secondly his great Confidence upon the conscience of his own integrity in that he durst put himself upon his triall before God and the world witness against me before the Lord and before his Annointed Thirdly his great Equity in offering to make reall satisfaction to the full in case any thing should be justly proved against him in any of the premises whose oxe or whose asse c and I will restore it you 7. The particulars are many and I may not take time to give them all their due enlargements We will therefore pass through them lightly insisting perhaps somewhat more upon those things that shall seem most material or useful for this assembly then upon some of the rest yet not much upon any Neither do I mean in the handling thereof to tie my self precisely to the method of my former division but following the course of the Text to take the words in the same order as I finde them there laid to my hand Behold here I am witness against me c. 8. Behold here I am More hast then needeth may some say It savoureth not well that Samuel is so forward to justifie himself before any man accuse him Voluntary purgations commonly carry with them strong suspicions of guilt We presume there is a fault when a man sweateth to put off a crime before it be laid to his charge True and well we may presume it where there appeareth not some reasonable cause otherwise for so doing But there occur sundry reasons some apparent and the rest at least probable why Samuel should here do as he did 9. First he was presently to convince the people of their great sin in asking a King and to chastise them for it with a severe reprehension It might therefore seem to him expedient before he did charge them with innovating the government to discharge himself first from having abused it He that is either to rebuke or to punish others for their faults had need stand clear both in his own conscience and in the eye of the world of those faults he should censure and of all other crimes as foul as they lest he be choaked with that bitter proverb retorted upon him to his great reproach Physician heal thy self Vitia ultima fictos Contemnunt Scauros castigata remordent How unequal a thing is it and incongruous that he who wanteth no ill conditions himself should binde his neighbour to the good behaviour That a sacrilegious Church-robber should make a mittimus for a poor sheep-stealer Or as he complained of old that great theeves should hang up little ones How canst thou say to thy brother Brother let me pul out the mote that is in thine eye when behold there is a beam in thine own eye That is with what conscience nay with what face canst thou offer it Turpe est doctori every school-boy can tell you See to it all you who by the condition of your callings are bound to take notice of the actions and demeanours of others and to censure them that you walk orderly and unreprovably your selves It is only the sincerity and unblameableness of your conversations that will best adde weight to your words winn awe and esteem to your persons preserve the authority of your places put life into your spirits and enable you to doe the works of your callings with courage and freedom 10. Secondly Samuel here justifieth himself for their greater conviction
into the place of magistracy and authority having neither head nor heart for it I mean when they have neither knowledge and experience in any measure of competency to understand what belongeth to such places not yet any care or purpose at all to do God their King and Countrey good service therein The wise son of Sirac checketh such ambitious spirits for their unseasonable forwardness that way Sirac 4. Seek not of the Lord preeminence neither of the King the seat of honour Think not he hath any meaning to disswade or dis-hearten men of quality and parts for medling with such employments for then the service should be neglected No men that are gifted for it although the service cannot be attended without some both trouble and charge yet should not for the avoiding either of charge or trouble indeed they cannot without sin seek either to keep themselves out of the Commission or to get themselves off again being on His meaning clearly is only to repress the ambition of those that look after the Title because they think it would be some glory to them but are not able for want either of skil or spirit or through sloth not willing to perform the duties And so he declareth himself a little after there Seek not to be a Iudge being not able to take away iniquity lest at any time thou fear the person of the mighty and lay a stumbling block in the way of thy uprightness 25. Did honour indeed consist which is the ambitious mans errour either only or chiefly in the empty Title we might well wish him good luck with his honour But since true honour hath a dependance upon vertue being the wages as some or as others have rather chosen to call it the shadow of it it is a very vanity to expect the one without some care had of the other Would any man not forsaken of his sences look for a shadow where there is no solid body to cast it or not of his reason demand wages where he hath done no service Yet such is the perversness of our corrupt nature through sloth and self-love that what God would have goe together the Honour and the Burden we would willingly put asunder Every man almost would draw to himself as much of the Honour as he can if it be a matter of credit or gain then Why should not I be respected in my place as well as another But yet withall would every man almost put off from himself as much of the burden as he can if it be a matter of business and trouble then Why may not another man do it as well as I Like lazy servants so are we that love to be before-hand with their wages and behind-hand with their work 26. The truth is there is an Outward and theâ—e is an Inward honour The outward honour belongeth immediately to the Place and the place casteth it upon the Person so that whatsoever person holdeth the place it is meet he should have the honour due to the place whether he deserve it or not But the Inward honour pitcheth immediately upon the Person and but reflecteth upon the Place and that honour will never be had without desert What the Apostle said of the ministery is in some sence also true of the Magistracy they that labour faithfully in either are worthy of double honour Labour or labour not there is a single honour due to them and yet not so much to them as to their places and callings but yet to them too for the places sake and we are injust if we withhold it from them though they should be most unworthy of it But the double Honour that inward Honour of the heart to accompany the outward will not be had where there is not worth and industry in some tolerable measure to deserve it The knee-worship and the cap-worship and the lip-worship they may have that are in worshipful places and callings though they do little good in them But the Heart-worship they shall never have unless they be ready to do justice and to shew mercy and be diligent and faithful in their Callings 27. Another fruit and effect of this duty where it is honestly performed are the hearty prayers and blessings of the poor as on the contrary their bitter curses and imprecations where it is slighted or neglected We need not look far to finde the truth hereof asserted in both the branches we have Text for it in this very chapter ver 24-26 He that saith unto the wicked Thou art righteous him shall the people curse nations shall abhor him But to them that rebuke him shall be delight and a good blessing shall come upon them Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer As he that withholdeth corn in the time of dearth having his garners full pulleth upon himself deservedly the curses of the poor but they will powr out blessings abundantly upon the head of him that in compassion to them will let them have it for their mony Prov. 11. So he that by his place having power and means to succour those that are distressed and to free them from wrongs and oppressions will seasonably put forth himself and his power to do them right shall have many a blessing from their mouths and many a good wish from their hearts but many more bitter curses both from the mouth and heart by how much men are more sensible of discourtesies then of benefits and readier to curse then to bless if they finde themselves neglected And the blessings and cursings of the poor are things not to be wholy dis-regarded Indeed the curse causeless shall not come neither is the Magistrate to regard the curses of bad people so far as either to be deterred thereby from punishing them according to their desert or to think he shall fare ever the worse doing but his duty for such curses For such words are but wind and as Solomon saith elsewhere He that observeth the wind shall not sow so he that regardeth the speeches of vain persons shall never do his duty as he ought to do In such cases that of David must be their meditation and comfort Though they curse yet bless thou And as there is little terrour in the causeless curses so there is as little comfort in the causeless blessings of vain evil men But yet where there is cause given although he cannot be excused from sin that curseth for we ought to bless and to pray for not to curse even those that wrong us and persecute us yet vae homini withall woe to the man from whom the provocation cometh Such curses as they proceed from the bitterness of the soul of the grieved person in the mean time so they will be in the end bitterness to the soul of him that gave cause of grievance And if there were not on the other side some comfort in the deserved blessings of the poor it had been no wisdom for
Iob to comfort himself with it as we see he did in the day of his great distress The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy Job 29. 28. But say these poor ones should be so charitable as very seldom they be as not to curse us when we have despised them or so unthankful as seldom they are otherwise as not to bless us when we have relieved them yet the Lord who hath given every man a charge concerning his brother and committed the distresses of the poor to our care and trust will take district knowledge how we deal with them and unpartially recompense us thereafter Doth not he consider and shalt not he render to every man according to his works the last words of the Text. If therefore you have done your duty faithfully let it never discourage you that unrighteous and unthankful men forget it They do but their kinde the comfort is that yet God will both remember it and requite it God is not unrighteous to forget your work labour of love saith the Apostle Heb. 5. He will remember it you see And then saith David Psal. 41. Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble He will requite it too He that for Gods sake helpeth his poor brother to right that suffereth wrong he doth therein at once first an act of mercy because it is done in the behalf of a distressed man and an act secondly of justice because it is done in a righteous cause and thirdly being done for the Lords sake an act of Religion also Pure religion and undefiled before God even the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction Iames 1. And is it possible that God who delighteth in the exercise of every one of them singly should suffer an act to pass unrewarded wherein there is a happy concurrence of three such excellent vertues together as are Iustice Mercy and Religion The Prophet Ieremy to reprove Iehoâ—achins tyranny and oppression upbraideth him with his good father Iosiah's care and conscience to do justice and to shew mercy after this manner Did not thy father eat and drink and do judgement and justice and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord But now on the contrary He shall have judgement without mercy that sheweth no mercy He that stoppeth his ears against the cry of the poor he shall also cry himself but shall noâ— be heard c. Many other like passages there are in the Scriptures to the same effect 29. Nay moreover the general neglect of this duty pulleth down the wrath of God not only upon those particular persons that neglect it but also upon the whole nation where it is in such general sort neglected O house of David thus saith the Lord execute judgment in the morning and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressour lest my fury go out like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings Ier. 21. Brethren we of this nation have cause to look to it in time against whom the Lord hath of late manifested his just wrath though tempered as we must all confess with much clemency yea and his hand is stretched out against us still in the heavie plagues both of dearth and death Though the land be full of all manner of sin and lewdness and so the Lord might have a controversy with us for any of them yet I am verily perswaded there are no other kinds of sins that have overspread the face of the whole land with such an universal contagion as it were of a Leprosie as the sins of Riot and Oppression have done Which two sins are not only the provoking causes as any kind of sinnes may be in regard of the justice of God but also the sensible instrumental causes in the eye of reason and experience of much penury and mortality among us 30. Surely then as to quench the fire we use to withdraw the fewel so to turn away the heavie wrath of God from us we should all put to our helping hands each in his place and calling but especially the Minister and the Magistrate the one to cry down the other to beat down as all sins in general so especially these of Ryot and Oppression Never think it will be well with us or that it will be much better with us then now it is or that it will not be rather every day much worse with us then it is never look that disorders in the Church distempers in the State distractions in our judgments diseases in our bodies should be remedied or removed and not rather more and more encreased if we hold on as we doe in pampering every man his own flesh and despising every man his poor brother So long as we think no pleasures too much for our selves no pressures too heavy for our brethren stretch our selves along and at ease upon our couches eat of the fat and drink of the sweet without any touch of compassion in our bowels for the afflictions of others we can expect no other but that the rod of God should abide upon us either in dearths or pestilences or if they be removed for God loveth sometimes to shift his rods in greater and heavier judgments in some other kinde 31. But as to the particular of Oppression for that of Ryot and Intemperance being beside the Text I shall no farther press my humble request to those that are in place of authority and all others that have any office or attendance about the Courts is this For the love of God and of your selves and your Country Be not so indulgent to your own appetites and affections either of Ease as to reject the complaints or of Partiality as to despise the persons or of filthy lucre as to betray the cause of the fatherlesse and friendlesse Suffer not when his cause is good a simple man to be circumvented by the wilinesse or a mean man to be overpowred by the greatnesse of a crafty or mighty adversary Favour not a known Sycophant nor open your lips to speak in a cause to pervert judgment or to procure favour for a mischievous person Turn not judgment into wormwod by making him that meant no hurt an offender for a word Wrangle not in the behalf of a contentious person to the prejudice of those that desire to live quiet in the land Devise not dilatory shifts to tug men on along in a tedious course of Law to their great charge and vexation but ripen their causes with all seasonable expedition for a speedy hearing In a word doe what lieth in your power to the utmost for the curbing of Sycophants and oppressours and the