unrest was the greatest part of his reign I note it not with a purpose to enter into a set discourse how many and great the troubles are that attend the Crowns and Scepters of Princes which I easily believe to be far both more and greater then we that stand below are capable to imagine but for two other reasons a great deal more useful and therefore so much the more needful to be thought on both by them and us It should first work in all them that sit aloft and so are exposed to more and stronger blasts the greater care to provide a safe resting place for their souls that whensoever they shall meet with trouble and sorrow in the flesh and that they shall be sure to do ofter then they look for they may retire thither there to repose and solace themselves in the goodness of their God saying eftsoones with our Prophet Return unto thy rest O my soul. It was well for him that he had such a rest for his soul for he had rest little enough otherwise from continual troubles and cares in his civil affairs and estate And it should in all reason secondly quicken the hearts of all loyal and well-affected subjects by their prayers counsels services aids and cheerful obedience respectively rather to afford Princes their best assistance for the comfortable support of that their weighty and troublesome charge then out of ambition discontent popularity envy or any other cross or peevish humor add unto their cares and create unto them more troubles 15. David you see had troubles as a man as a godly man as a King But who caused them Sure in those his first times when as I conjecture he wrote this Psalm Saul with his Princes and followers was the chiefest cause of most of his troubles and afterwards crafty Ahitophel caused him much trouble and railing Shimei some and seditious Sheba not a little but his rebellious son Absalon most of all He complaineth of many troublers raised by the means of that son in Psalm 3. Domine quà m multiplicati Lord how are they increased that trouble me Yet here you see he overlooketh them all and all other second causes and ascribeth his troubles wholly unto God So he did also afterwards in the particular of Shimei's rayling Let him alone saith he to Abishai Let him curse on for God hath bidden him Even as Iob had done before him when the Sabeans and the Chaldeans had taken away his cattle and goods he scarce took notice of them he knew they were but instruments but looked at the hand of God only as the chief and principal cause Dominus abstulit The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away Neither did David any injury at all to Almighty God in ascribing it to him for God also himself taketh it all upon himself I will raise him evil out of his own house and I will do it before the sun 2 Sam. 12. 16. How all those things wherein wicked men serving their own lusts only in their own purpose do yet unwittingly do service to God Almighty in furthering his wise and holy designs can have their efficiency from causes of such contrary quality and looking at such contrary ends to the producing of one and the same effect is a speculation more curious then profitable It is enough for us to know that it neither casteth any blemish at all upon him that he maketh such use of them nor giveth any excuse at all to them that they do such service to him but that all this notwithstanding he shall still have the whole glory of his own wisdom and holiness and they shall still bear the whole burthen of their own folly and wickedness But there is another and that a far better use to be made hereof then to trouble our selves about a mysterie that we shall never be able in this life to comprehend and that is this that seeing all the troubles that befall us in any kind whatsoever or by what instruments soever come yet from the hand of God we should not therefore when at any time we meet with trouble rage against the second causes or seek to venge our teen upon them as of our selves we are very apt to do but laying our hands upon our mouths compose our selves to a holy patience and silence considering it is his will and pleasure to have it so to whom it is both our duty and wisdom wholly to submit 17. We may learn it of holy Iob. His wife moved his patience not a little by moving him to impatience Thou talkest like a foolish woman saith he shall we receive good things at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil also Or we may learn it of good old Eli. When he received a message from the Lord by the mouth of young Samuel of a right heavy judgment shortly to fall upon him and his house for his fond indulgence to his ungracious children he made no more reply but said only It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Or to go no further then our Prophet David we may learn it sufficiently from him Psalm 39. I was dumbe saith he and opened not my mouth Quoniam tu fecisti for it was thy doing This consideration alone Quoniam tu fecisti is enough to silence all tumultuous thoughts and to cut off all farther disputing and debating the matter that it is God that causeth us to be troubled All whose judgments are not only done in righteousnesse as we have hitherto heard but towards his children also out of much love and faithfulnesse as we are next to hear I know that of very faithfulnesse thou hast caused me to be troubled 18. In the former part of the verse where he spake of the righteousnesse of God he did it indefinitely without mentioning either himself or any other person not particularly Thy judgments upon me but indefinitely I know O Lord that thy judgments are right But now in this latter part of the verse where he cometh to speak of the faithfulness of God he nameth himself And that thou of very faithfulnesse hast caused Me to be troubled For as earthly Princes must do justice to all men for Iustice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man may challenge it and there must be no respect had no difference made of persons therein but their favours they may bestow upon whom they think good so God will have his justice to appear in all his dealings with all men generally be they good or bad that none of them all shall be able to say he hath done them the least wrong but yet his tender mercies and loving kindnesses those he reserveth for the godly only who are in special favour with him and towards whom he beareth a special respect For by faithfulnesse here as in sundry other places of Scripture is meant nothing else but the special love and favour of God towards those that
holy and wise God the first cause of all things that happen suffereth it so to be as to particulars that is counsel to us and we may not search into those secrets only we are assured in the general that he doth it for just and gracious ends best known to himself But as to second causes we see evidently reason enough to satisfie us why it should be likely to fall out thus rather then otherwise if but in this that wicked men what worldly ends they propose to themselves they pursue to the utmost not boggling at any thing that they think may conduce to the obtaining of the same be it right or wrong whereas godly and vertuous men make conscience both of End and Means and will neither pitch upon any unworthy end nor adventure upon any unlawful means Hath it not been always seen and still is and ever will be more or less to the worlds end That extorting Vsurers oppressing Landlords unconscionable Traders corrupt Magistrates and griping Officers have gotten together the greatest wealth and most abounded in riches That obsequious Flatterers temporising Sycophants perfidious Traytors bold and insolent intruders bribing and simoniacal chafferers have climbed up the highest rounds of Civil and Ecclesiastical preferments That men of base and unmanly condition rather to be called beasts then men if not Monsters rather then either of both such as some of the old Assyrian and Persian Monarchy and after them some of the Romane Emperours were have surfeited of pleasures to the full and wallowed in all manner of luxury and sensuality Worthless and wicked men may swim up to the chin in rivers of oyle and have their heads and beards ey and the very skirts of their garments too bedrencht in great abundance with the choysest of these outward Oyntments 14. But a Good Name is Peculium bonorum Gracious and vertuous men have a more special interest a kinde of peculiarity in it as being in the ordinary course of Gods providence the proper effect and by his good blessing for the most part the most certain temporal reward of Vertue and Piety Si quae virtus si qua laus saith the Apostle Phil. 2. If there be any vertue if there be any praise As if there could be no praise where there is no vertue no more then there can be a shadow where there is no body to cast it It was by faith and the fruits of faith that the Elders obtained a good report The projectors of the Tower of Babel aymed by that building to get themselves a name and they did but the name was Babel a name of Confusion little comfort or honour to them Many men are ambitious of a great name and sometimes they get it too as he that set Diana's Temple on fire only to be talked of But a great name is one thing and a good name another Greatness may get a man a great name but goodness only a good name You that are great men if you be not good withall do what you can for the preservation of your name and memory use all your best wit and art spend the most costly perfumes and precious ointments you have about it when you have done your utmost endeavours we may justly put that rebuke upon you which the Disciples did unjustly upon the good woman in the Gospel Quorsum perditio haec whereto serveth this wast Oleum operam you shall not be able after all this expence of oyle and toyle to preserve your names from stench and putrifaction It is nothing but godliness and righteousness that can do that The memorial of the just when Envy and Calumny have done their worst to blast it shall yet be blessed but the name of the wicked when Hypocrisie and Flattery have done their best to prevent it shall not notwithstanding A good name then is therefore first more excellent then any precious oyntment either in the letter or metaphor because less Common 15. Compare secondly the delights and comforts and contents of both and see the issue Oyles and Oyntments do give exceeding great delight to the senses so as scarce any one kinde of thing more which perhaps might be some cause why Solomon should here make choice of them rather then any other things whereby to express outward and sensual pleasures And this they do by three distinct qualities whereby they â—ffect three distinct senses The Qualities are Laevor Nitor Odor The Senses affected therewith Feeling Seeing Smelling The first Quality is Laevor a kinde of gentle softness and smoothness and supple glibbiness wherewith the touch is much delighted Upon which quality David the father and Solomon the son do both reflect in those proverbial speeches of theirs where speaking the one of flattering dissemblers saith Molliti super oleum Their words are softer then Oyle Psal. 55. the other of the whorish woman saith Her lips drop like a hony-combe and her mouth is smoother then Oyle Prov. 5. The second Quality of Oyls and Oyntments is Nitor a kinde of brightness and varnish which they cast upon other bodies making them loook fresh and glister which quality taketh the eye and affecteth the sightâ— As colours laid in Oyle have a gracefull verdure and lustre beyond those that are not so laid Of which quality the Psalmist maketh special mention Psal. 104. where describing the manifold works of God among other things he saith that God bringeth food out of the earth as namely wine to make glad the heart of man and Oyle to make him a cheerful countenance or as our last translation hath it somewhat neerer the letter but to the same sense to make his face to shine Their third Quality is Odor the sweet fragrancy which they send forth round about them to a good distance which maketh them wondrous pleasant to the Smell The Poets therefore sometimes call Oyntments and Perfumes Odoers in the abstract as if they were nothing else but smell To this quality do referr those reciprocal speeches in the Canticles Of the Spouse to her well-beloved in the first Chapter Because of the savour of thy good Oyntments therefore doe the virgins love thee And of him again to her in the fourth Chapter How faire is thy love my sister my spouse how much better is thy love then wine and the smell of thine Oyntments then all spices When Mary powred out her costly spikenard on Christs feet the story telleth us that all the house was filled with the odour of the Oyntment Joh. 12. 16. Oyntments then are good and pleasant But as Aristotle sometimes pronounced of the Rhodian and Lesbian wine when he had tasted of both that the Rhodian was good too but the Lesbian was the pleasanter so it may as reasonably be pronounced in the present contest that though the precious Oyntment be good and pleasant in his kinde yet the good Name for goodness and pleasantness is far beyond
in the present difficulty As First if God have not yet made our enemies to be at peace with us yet it may be he will do it hereafter being no way bound to us we may give him leave to take his own time Non est vestrum nossê if it be not for us to know much less is it for us to prescribe the seasons which the Father hath kept in his own power It is his Prerogative to appoint the times it is our Duty to wait his leasure It may be secondly neither is it unlikely that we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk with an even foot and by a straight line But tread awry in something or other which displeaseth God and for which he suffereth their enmity to continue But it is most certain thirdly that we please him but imperfectly and in part even those graces wherewith we please him are in us but imperfectly and in part And therefore no marvaile if our peace also be but imperfect and in part Possibly he will procure our peace more when we please him better 28. But where none of these or the like considerations will reach home it will sufficiently clear the whole difficulty to consider but thus much and it is a plain and true answer that generally all Scriptures that run upon temporall promises are to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as universally but as commonly true Or as some Divines expresse it cum exceptione crucis not absolutely and without all exception but evermore with this reservation unlesse the Lord in his infinite wisdome see cause why it should be good for us to have it otherwise But this you shall ever observe withall and it infinitely magnifieth the goodness of our gracious Lord and God towards us that where he seeth it not good to give us that blessing in specie which the letter of the promise seemeth to import he yet giveth it us eminenter that is to say if not that yet some other thing fully as good as that and which he well knoweth though perhaps we cannot yet apprehend it so to be presently far better for us then that Say he do not give us wealth or advancement yet if he give us a contented minde without them is it not better Say he do not speedily remove a temptation from us whereunder we groan which was St Pauls case yet if he supply us with a sufficiency of grace to encounter with it is it not better So in the present case if we do not presently make our enemies to be at peace with us yet if he teach us to profit by their enmity in exercising our faith and patience in quickning us unto prayer in furthering our humiliations or encreasing any other grace in us is it not every way and incomparably better Now will any wise man tax him with breach of promise who having promised a pound of silver giveth a talent of gold or who can truly say that that man is not so good as his word that is apparently much better then his word 29. From the words thus cleared may be deduced many profitable Inferences for our further instruction but that the time will not suffer us to enlarge them As first we may hence know what a blessed thing and desireable Peace is not onely that inward peace with God and in our own breasts which passeth all understanding but even this outward peace with men When the holy spirit of God here in the text useth it as an especial strong inducement to quicken us up the rather to the performance of that with cheerfulness which we are in Duty bound to perform howsoever in seeking to please the Lord. We may learn hence secondly If at any time we unfainedly desire peace by what course we may be likeliest to procure it Preposterous is the course which yet most of men take when to make their peace with mortal men they hazard the disfavour of the eternal God The right and ready way is chalked out in the Text First to make our peace with God by ordering our wayes so as to please him and then to commit our wayes to his ordering by leaving the whole success to him and so doing it is not possible we should miscarry Those that are now our enemies either he will turn their hearts towards us so as to become our friends if he seeth that good for us or else he will so curb and restrain them that with all their enmity they shall not be able to do us any harme if he see that better for us or if by his just sufferance they do us harm one way and yet he will not suffer that neither unless he see that absolutely best for us it shall be recompensed to us by his good providence in a far greater comfort another way We may learn hence Thirdly how hateful the practise is and how wretched the condition of make-bates tale-bâ—arers whisperers and all those that sow dissention among brethren Light and Darkness are not more contrary then are Gods ways and theirs He is the author of peace and lover of concord they are the authors of strife and lovers of discord It is his work to make a mans enemies to be at peace with him it is their business to make a mans friends to be at odds with him We may learn hence fourthly if at any time our enemies grow to be at peace with us to whom we owe it Not to our selves it is a thing beyond our power or skill to win them Much less to them whose malice is stiff and will not easily relent But it is principally the Lords own work He is the God of peace which maketh men to be of one minde in an house it is he that causeth wars to cease in all the earth and that giveth unto his people the blessing of peace And therefore the glory of it and the thanks for it belong to him alone 30. But I willingly omit all further enlargement of these inferences that I may somewhat the longer insist upon one other inference only very needful to be consider'd of in these times which is this We may hence learn fifthly if at any time we want peace probably to guess where the fault may partly be and that by arguing from the Text thus I reade here that when a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him I finde in mine no relenting but an utter averseness from peace I am for peace but when I speak to them thereof they make them ready to battel I have cause therefore to feare that all is not right with me either my heart is not right or my wayes are not right I will examine them both throughly and search if I can see any way of wickedness in me for which my God may be justly displeased with me and for which he thus stiff'neth mine enemies still against me 31. Thus
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
in a most base and treacherous fashion too not without a great deal of dawbing and hypocrisie withall The circumstances aggravate much No doubt Davids heart that was so ready to smite him at other times upon very small occasions in comparison would now buffet him with stronger checks and not suffer him to be ignorant of the wickedness and unlawfulness of his foule intentions But all is one for that Iacta est alea. He was in and he must on so it must be now thinketh he or else we are shamed for ever This is David in the matter of Uriah a fearful example for our Admonition 8. Heaven and Hell are not at more distance nor light and darkness more unlike then Davids carriage in the one case and in the other Of which so great difference and unlikeness if we examine what was the true cause we shall finde it to have bin none other but this that in the former he looked chiefly at the unlawfulness of the thing and in the later at the expediency only In the matter of Saul he saw the thing was utterly unlawful to be done as being repugnant to the ordinance of God and the duty of a subject and therefore expedient or inexpedient he resolves he will not do it for a world and that was certainly the right way In the matter of Uriah he saw the thing was expedient to be done as conducing to his ends for the saving of his credit at that time and therefore lawful or unlawful he resolveth he will do it whatsoever come of it and that was certainly the wrong way 9. Take we warning by his example it is the cheapest learning to profit by anothers harme not to adventure the doing of any thing that we know to be unlawful seem it never so expedient and conducible to such ends as we intend Alas why should any of us for the serving of our own bellies cast the Commandments of God behind our backs or violate his holy laws to satisfie our own impure lusts Can the compassing of any thing we can desire in this world profit pleasure preferment glory revenge or any thing else be to us of so great advantage that for the attainment thereof we should so far dishonour God and quench the light that is in us as to lye and forswear and flatter and slander and supplant and cheat and oppress or do any other unjust or unlawful act against the light of our own reason or contrary to the checks of our own consciences 10. Nor ought we to be careful hereof then only when in our ends we look meerly at our selves and our own private conveniencies in any of the forementioned respects of profit pleasure and the rest but even then also when our intentions are more noble and honourable the honour of God the edification of our brethren the peace of the Church and the common good For neither pious intentions alone nor reasons of expediency alone nor yet both together will either warrant us before hand to the choice nor excuse us afterwards for the use of unlawful means What ever Sauls intention was in sparing the fatter cattel I make no question but that Vzzah's very intention was pious in reaching forth his hand to stay the Arke from falling when it tottered in the cart The things themselves both the one and the other seemed to be very expedient But Gods special command to Saul that all should be destroyed and his law given by Moses concerning that sacred and mysterious utensil having made both those things unlawful did thereby also make both the facts inexcusable and Almighty God to win reverence and honour to his own ordinances punished with great severity both the disobedience of the one and the rash presumption of the other 11. Be our ends and aimes therefore what they will unless we arm our selves with strong resolutions before-hand not to do any thing we know to be unlawful upon any terms seem it otherwise never so expedient and then afterwards use all our best prayers and endeavours by Gods grace to hold our resolutions We are gone Satan is cunning and we but weak and he will be too hard for us if he do but finde us any whit staggering in our resolutions for doing nothing but what is lawful or lending an ear to any perswasions for the doing of any thing that is unlawful By this very means he got within our Grandmother Eve and prevailed with her to taste of the forbidden fruit though it were unlawful by perswading her that it was expedient This once is a sure ground for us to build upon to a good Christian that desireth to make conscience of his wayes nothing can be truly expedient that is apparently unlawful And so much for the first Observation 12. The Apostle first supposeth the thing to be lawful else it may not be done howsoever But if it be lawful then we hope we may use it at our pleasure without either scruple in our selves or blame from others Indeed that is the common guise of the World Have but the opinion of some Divine of note concerning any thing we have a minde to that it is lawful and then we think we need take no more care nor trouble our selves about circumstances But there is a great deal more belongeth to it then so Lawfulness alone will not bear us out in the use of a thing unless there be care had withal to use it lawfully lest otherwise our liberty degenerate into a carnal licentiousness as easily it may do For preventing whereof the Apostle here requireth that we consider as well what is expedient to be done as what is lawful Which was our second Observation All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient 13. S. Bernard to Eugenius requireth trinam considerationem a threefold consideration or enquiry to precede the doing of any action of moment and worthy our deliberation An liceat An deceat An expediat Whether it be lawful or no whether comely or no whether expedient or no lawful in it self comely for us expedient in respect of others He maketh there that of decency and that of expediency two different considerations the one from the other yet both necessary And as well the difference that is between them as the necessity of both ariseth from those two grand vertues which must have a special influence into every action morally and spiritually good to wit Discretion and Charity of which two Discretion is the proper judge of decency and Charity of expediency though both do in some sort belong to both But as for decency it may be the Apostle intended not to speak of it at all as being not so very pertinent to his present argument and having besides a purpose to mention it more seasonably afterwards Or if he did he then taketh expediency in a larger sence so as to comprehend under that name all that which Bernard meaneth by decency and expediency
there is no beauty in any thing we do if it be unseasonable As Hushai said of Ahitophels advice The counsel of Ahitophel is not good at this time And as he said to his friend that cited some verses out of Homer not altogether to his liking and commended them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholesom counsel but not for all men nor at all times If any man should now in these times endeavour to bring back into the Church postliminiò and after so many years cessation thereof either the severity of the ancient Canons for publick penances or the enjoyning of private confessions before Easter or some other things now long dis-used he should attempt a thing of great inexpediency Not in regard of the things themselves which severed from those abuses which in tract of time had through mens corruption grown thereunto are certainly lawful and might be as in some former times so now also profitable if the times would bear them But in regard of the condition of the times and the general aversness of mens mindes therefrom who having been so long accustomed to so much indulgence and liberty in that kinde could not now brook those severer impositions but would cry out against them as they do against some other things with very little reason as Antichristian and superstitious Paul thought fit to circumcise Timothy at one time when he saw it expedient so to do but would by no means yield that Titus should be circumcised at another time when he saw it inexpedient 29. Sith then the difference of times may make such a difference in the expediency and inexpediency of things otherwise and in themselves lawful and indifferent and so may the other circumstances also of places persons and the rest wise men therefore must be content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you will allow that reading Rom. 12. Ey to be down-right time-servers you will say No such matter but to suffer themselves now and then to be over-ruled by circumstances and to yield to the sway of the times and other occasions in sundry things though perhaps somewhat against their own liking and judgement otherwise so long as they be not enforced thereby either to do any dishonest or unlawful thing or to omit any part of their necessary duty As a skilful Pilot must of necessity hold that course that the winde and weather will suffer him winning upon them by little and little what he can by his skil and making his advantage even of a side-winde if he can but get it to bring his Bark with as much safety and speed as may be to the intended Haven For to tug against winde and tide besides the toyl he knoweth would be both bootless and dangerous It is an easie matter for a Workman upon his bed to frame to himself in his own fancy an exact idaea of some goodly Fabrick that he is to raise and he may please himself not a little with an imagination that all shall be done just according to that Plat-form But when he cometh ad practicandum and to lay his hand to the work indeed he shall be forced do what he can in many things to vary from his former speculations if the matter he hath to work upon will not serve thereunto as like enough a good part of it will not Velis quod possis is the old saying it must be our wisdom when we cannot hope to bring all things to our own votes and desires for that is more then yet ever any man could do since the World began to frame our selves to the present occasions and taking things as they are when they will be no better to make the best of them we can for our own and others and the common good Nothing doubting but that if so we do we shall do that that is expedient although possibly we may see some inconveniencies likely to ensue thereupon For if we shall suspend our resolutions till we can bethink our selves of something that is free from all inconveniencies in most of our deliberations we shall never resolve upon any thing at all as Solomon saith He that observeth the winde shall not sowe and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap God hath so tempered the things of this World that every commodity hath some incommodiousness and every conveniency some inconvenience attending the same which many times all the wit and industry of man is not able to sever If therefore out of the whole bunch we can cull out that which may prevent the most and greatest inconveniencies and be it self subject to the least and fewest we shall not have much cause to repent us of our choice And all this our Discretion will teach us 30. Charity also will tell us in the general that we must bear with the weakness of our brethren and forbear our own liberty in some cases where we may see hope that any good will come of it For as the stones in a building if they be well layed together do give mutual strength and support one to another so it is our duty to bear one anothers burdens that so we may fulfil the law of Christ. Charity seeketh not her own 1 Cor. 13. She standeth not ever upon the tip-to with those high terms This I may do and this I will do whosoever sayes nay I may eat flesh and I will eat flesh take offence at it who list but where she may hope to do good cometh down so low as to resolve never to eat flesh while the world standeth rather then give offence thereby Our Apostle professeth in the last verse of this Chapter that he sought to please all men in all things not seeking his own profit but the profit of many And it was no flourish neither S. Paul was a real man no bragger what hee said hee did He became as a Iew to the Jews as a Gentile to the Gentiles not to humour either but to win both And at Corinth he maintained himself a long while together with his own hand-labour when he might have challenged maintenance from them as the Apostles of Christ But he would not only to cut off occasion from those that standered him as if he went about to make a prey of them and would have bin glad to finde any occasion against him to give credit to that slander 31. But what is S. Paul now all on a suddain become a man-pleaser Or how is there not yea and nay with him that he should here profess it so largely and yet elsewhere protest against it so deeply Doe I seek to please men No saith he I scorn it such baseness will better become their own slaves I am the servant of Christ. Gal. 1. Worthy resolutions both both savouring of an Apostolick spirit and no contrariety at all between them Rather that seeming contrariety yieldeth excellent
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
and prayers of the poor thirdly the blessing of God upon us and ours fourthly the continuance of Gods mercies unto and the reversing of Gods judgements from the Land 34. In the opening of which reasons I have purposely pressed the duty all along somewhat the more largely that I might not trouble you with any farther application at the close and therefore I hope it will not be expected I presume you would rather expect if we had time for it that I should procâ—ed to examine the usual excuses and pretensions that are made in this case when the duty hath been neglected which Solomon hath comprehended in those few words in the 12 verse Behold we knew it not and withal referred them over for the trial of what validity they are to the judgement of every mans own heart as the deputed Iudge under God but because that may be faulty and partial in subordination to a higher tribunal even that of God himself from whose sentence there lieth no farther appeal This I aimed at in the choise of the Text as well as the pressing of the duty But having enlarged my self already upon the former point beyond my first intention I may not proceed any farther at this time nor will it be very needful I should if what hath been already delivered be well laid to heart Which God of his mercy vouchsafe c. AD MAGISTRATUM· The Second Sermon At the Assises at Lincolne in the year 1632. at the request of Sr. WILLIAM THOROLD Knight then High-Sheriffe of that County II. Ser. on Prov. 24.10 12. 10. If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small 11. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawen unto death and those that are ready to be slain 12. If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soule doth not he know it and shall not he render to every man according to his works 1. WE want Charity but abound with Self-love Our defect in that appeareth by our backwardness to perform our duties to our brethren and our excess in this by our readiness to frame excuses for our selves Solomon intending in that particular whereat the Text aimeth to meet with us in both these corruptions frameth his speech in such sort as may serve best both to set on the Duty and to take off the Excuses And so the words consist of two main parts the supposall of a Duty which all men ought to performe in the 10. and 11. Verses and the removall of those Excuses which most men pretend for non performance in the 12. Verse Our Duty it is to stand by our distressed brethren in the day of their adversity and to do our best endeavour by all lawfull wayes to proteâ—â— them from oppressions and wrongs and to rescue them out of the hands of those that go about either by might or cunning to take from them either their lives or livelihoods If 〈◊〉 faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn to death and those that are ready to be slain From which words I have heretofore upon occasion of the like meeting as this is spoken of the Duty in this place shewing the necessity and enforcing the performance of it from sundry important considerations both in respect of God and of Our selves and of our pâ—or Brethren and of the Thing it self in the blessed effects thereof which I shall not now trouble my self or you to repeat 2. Taking that therefore now for granted which was then proved to wit that it is our bounden duty to do as hath been said but our great sin if it be neglected I shall at this time by Gods assistance and with your patience proceed as the Text leadeth me to consider of the Excuses in the remaining words vers 12. If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it and shall not he reward every man according to his works For the better understanding and more fruitful applying of which words we are to enquire of two things first what the Excuses are which Solomon here pointeth at and then of what value and sufficiency they are 3. Many Excuses men have to put by this and every other duty whereof some are apparently frivolous and carry their confutation with them Solomon striketh at the fairest whereof three the most principal and the most usual of all he seemeth to have comprehended in these few words 1. Behold we knew it not As thus Either first we knew it not that is we never heard of their matters they never made their grievances known to us Or secondly we knew it not that is we had no clear evidence to give us full assurance that their cause was right and good Or thirdly we knew it not that is though to our apprehension they had wrong done them yet as the case stood with them we saw not by which wayes we could possibly relieve them we knew not how to help it 4. These are the main Excuses which of what value they are is our next Enquiry Wherein Solomons manner of rejecting them will be our best guide Who neither absolutely condemneth them because they may be sometimes just nor yet promiscuously alloweth of them because they are many times pretended without cause but referreth them over for their more particular and due triall to a double judicature That is to say to the judgment of every mans heart and conscience first as a deputy Iudge under God and if that faile in giving sentence as being subject to so many errours and so much partiality like enough it may then to the judgment of God himself as the supreme unerring and unpartial Iudge from whose sentence there lieth no appeal Which judgment of God is in the Text amplified by three several degrees or as it were steps of his proceeding therein grounded upon so many divine attributes or properties and each fitted to other in so many several Propositions Yet those not delivered categorically and positively but to adde the greater strength and Emphasis to them put into the form of Negative Interrogations or Questions Doth not he consider doth not he know and shall not he render That is most certainly and without all peradventure he doth consider and he doth know and he will render 5. The first step of Gods judicial proceeding is for Inquisition and that grounded upon his Wisdom 1. Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it As if he had said The Lord is a God of admirable Wisdom by whom are weighed not only the actions but also the Spirits of men and their very hearts pondered neither is there any thing that may escape his Enquiry Trust not therefore to vain Excuses for certainly thy heart shall be throughly sifted and thy pretensions narrowly looked into when he taketh the
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
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
bound to render an account of his actions to any yet he doubteth not but to acquit himself before the whole congregation from having any wayes in all that so long a time abused his so vast power unto oppression Whom have I oppressed 32. He well knew that Oppression though it were a common yet was withall a grievous and a base sin A very common sin it is Elihu speaketh of multitudes of Oppressions Job 35. How do the wealthy every where swallow up the needy as in the forrests the greater beasts prey upon the lesser and in the ponds the larger fishes eat up the smaller fry Grinding the faces of the poor first and then eating them up like bread racking their rents taking in their commons overthrowing their tenures diminishing their wages encreasing their boones In a word for it would be endless to run through particulars taking advantage of their inability to help themselves or other their necessities in any kinde whatsoever to work their own wills upon them and to get somewhat from them for their own enriching 33. Yet is it indeed a very grievous sin forbidden by God himself in express terms Levit. 25. If thou sell ought unto thy neighbour or buyest ought of thy neighbours hand ye shall not oppress one another and so going on concludeth Ye shall not therefore oppress one another but thou shalt fear thy God Implying that it is from want of the fear of God that men oppress one another Solomon therefore saith that he that oppresseth the poor reproacheth or despiseth his maker Prov. 14. And indeed so he doth more wayes then one First he despiseth his Makers Commandment who hath as you heard peremptorily forbidden him to oppress Secondly he despiseth his Makers Creature the poor man whom he so oppresseth being Gods workmanship as well as himself Thirdly he despiseth his Makers Example who looketh upon the distresses of the poor and oppressed to provide for them and to relieve them Fourthly he despiseth his Makers Ordinance in perverting that power and wealth which God lent him purposely to do good therewithall and turning it to a quite contrary use to the hurt and damage of others And he that goeth on to reproach his Maker without repentance must needs doe it to his own confusion He that made him can marr him when he pleaseth and the greatest oppressours shall be no more able to stand before him then than their poorer brethren are now able to stand out against them 34. Adde to the grievousness of this sin the baseness of it also and that methinks should work much upon every noble and generous spirit to abhor it Alass who are they you thus trample upon and insult over but these poor worms of the earth who when they are trodden on dare scarce so much as turn again for as much as your treading is upon the poor Amos 5. and it is a poor and inglorious conquest that is gotten by the foile of such an adversary Rob not the poor saith Solomon because he is poor neither oppress the afflicted c. Prov. 22. These first words are capable of a double construction First Rob not the poor because he is poor that is Let not his poverty and inability to withstand thee encourage thee the rather to rob him Which construction agreeth very well with the reason given in the next verse For the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them As if he had said Be well advised what you doe weak though they be and can do little for themselves yet they have a strong one to take their part who will see that such as do them wrong shall not goe unpunished Yet is there another sence to be made of those words also neither unfitly nor unprofitably as thus Rob not the poor because he is poor that is Let the consideration of his poverty keep thee off from medling with him 1. A little loss would be his undoing because he is poor 2. And if thou shouldest wring all he hath from him it could make no great addition to thee because he is poor 3. Or if it could yet is he no fit match for thee to exercise thy strength upon if thou art rich because he is poor 35. But herein especially may you behold the baseness of Oppression that the basest people men of the lowest rank and spirit are evermore the most insolent and consequently according to the proportion of their power the most oppressive Asperius nihil est humili in the Poet. But take it from Solomon rather who compareth a poor man when he hath the opportunity to oppress another poor man to a sweeping rain that leaveth no food Prov. 28. How roughly did that servant in the Parable deal with his fellow-servant when he shook him by the throat for a smal debt after his master had but newly remitted to him a sum incomparably greater The reason of the difference was the master dealt nobly and freely and like himself and had compassion but the servant being of a low and narrow spirit must insult Senties qui vir siem If a mean man in any of our towns or hamlets be a little gotten up to over-top most of his neighbours in wealth or be put into some little authority to deal under some great man for the disposing of his farms or grounds or have something to sel to his necessitous neighbour â—â— at must buy upon day or have a little money lying by him to furnish another that for the supply of his present necessities must sell off somewhat of that little he hath though at an under-rate or the like it is scarce credible did not every dayes experience make proof of it how such a man will skrew up the poor man that falleth into his hands without all mercy and beyond all reason Conclude hence all ye that are of generous births or spirits how unworthy that practise would be in you wherein men of the lowest minds and conditions can in their proportion not equall only but even exceed you Which should make you not only to hate Oppression because it is wicked but even to scorn it because it is base and to despise it He that despiseth the gain of oppressions Esay 33. This for the second particular whom have I oppressed 35. There is yet a third behinde against which Solomon protesteth as a branch of Injustice also which also concerned him more properly as a Iudge to wit Bribery Or of whose hands have I received a bribe that I might blinde mine eyes therewith In the place now last cited the Prophet Esay speaking of an upright just man describeth him amongst other things by this that he shaketh his hands from hâ—lâ—ing of bribes as a man would shake off a Viper or other venemous beast that should offer to fasten upon his hand as Paul did at Mal a Acts 28. The word that here
the commandments of God But he meaneth it of his secret will the wil of his everlasting Counsels and purposes and that too of an effectual resistance such a resistance as shall hinder the accomplishment of that will For otherwise there are thousands that offer resistance to that also if their resistance could prevail But all resistance as well of the one sort as of the other is in vain as to that end Though hand joyn in hand it will be to no purpose the right hand of the Lord will have the preheminence when all is done Associate your selves O ye people and ye shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsel together and it shall come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand Esay 8.9 10. But the counsel of the Lord that shall stand and none shall be able to hinder it 31. Lay all these together the Soveraignty the Eternity the Wisdom and the Power of God and in all these God will be glorified and you will see great reason why the Lord should so often blast mens devices bring all their counsels and contrivances to nought and take the wise in their own craftiness Even to let men see in their disappointment the vanity of all humane devices that they might learn not to glory in or trust to their own wisdome or strength or any thing else in themselves or in any creature but that he that glorieth might glory in the Lord only 32. Let every one of us therefore learn that I may now proceed to the Inferences from the consideration of what we have heard First of all not to trust too much to our own wit neither to lean to our own understandings Nor please our selves over-much in the vain devices imaginations fancies or dreams of our own hearts Though our purposes should be honest and not any wayes sinfull either in Matter End Means or other Circumstance yet if we should be over-confident of their success rest too much upon our own skill contrivances or any worldly help like enough they may deceive us It may please God to suffer those that have worse purposes propose to themselves baser ends or make use of more unwarrantable means to prosper to our grief and loss yea possibly to our destruction if it be but for this only to chastise us for resting too much upon outward helps and making flesh our arme and not relying our selves intirely upon him and his salvation 33. Who knoweth but Iudgment may nay who knoweth not that Iudgment must saith the Apostle that is in the ordinary course of Gods providence usually doth begin at the house of God Who out of his tender care of their wel-doing will sooner punish temporally I mean his own children when they take pride in their own inventions and sooth themselves in the devices of their own hearts then he will his professed enemies that stand at defiance with him and openly fight against him These he suffereth many times to goe on in their impieties and to climbe up to the height of their ambitious desires that in the mean time he may make use of their injustice and oppression for the scourging of those of his own howshold and in the end get himself the more glory by their destruction 34. But then Secondly howsoever Judgment may begin at the house of God most certain it is it shall not end there but the hand of God and his revenging justice shall at last reach the house of the wicked oppressour also And that not with temporary punishments only as he did correct his own but without repentance evil shall hunt them to their everlasting destruction that despise his knowen Counsels to follow the cursed devices and imaginations of their own naughty hearts The Persecutors of God in his servants of Christ in his members that say in the pride of their hearts with our tongues with our wits with our armes and armies we will prevail We are they that ought to speak and to rule who is Lord over us We have Counsel and strength for war c. what do they but even kick against the pricks as the phrase is Act. 9. which pierce into the heels of the kicker and worke him much anguish but themselves remain as they were before without any alteration or abatement of their sharpnesse God delighteth to get himself honour and to shew the strength of his arm by scattering such proud Pharaohs in the imagination of their hearts and that especially when they are arrived and not ordinarily till then almost at the very highest pitch of their designes When they are in the top of their jollity and gotten to the uppermost roundle of the ladder then doth he put to his hand tumble them down headlong at once and then how suddenly do they consume perish and come to a fearful end Then shall they finde but too late what their pride would not before suffer them to believe to be a terrible truth that all their devices were but folly and that the Counsel of the Lord must stand 35. A terrible truth indeed to them but Thirdly of most comfortable consideration to all those that with patience and cheerfulness suffer for the testimony of God or a good conscience and in a good cause under the insolencies of proud and powerful persecutors When their enemies have bent all the strength of their wits and power to work their destruction God can and as he seeth it instrumental to his everlasting counsels will infatuate all their counsells elude all their devices and stratagems bring all their preparations and enterprizes to nought and turn them all to their destruction his own glory and the welfare of his servants 1. Either by turning their counsels into folly as he did Achitophels 2. Or by diversion finding them work elsewhere as Saul was fain to leave the pursuit of David when he and his men had compassed him about and were ready to take him upon a message then brought him of an invasion of the land by the Philistines And as he sent a blast upon Senacherib by a rumour that he heard of the King of Ethiopia's coming forth to war against him which caused him to desert his intended siege of Ierusalem 3. Or by putting a blessing into the mouth of their enemies instead of a curse as he guided the mouth of Balaam contrary to his intendment and desire 4. Or he can melt the hearts of his enemies into a kinde of compassion or cause them to relent so as to be at peace with them when they meet though they came out against them with mindes and preparations of hostility as he did Labans first and Esaus afterwards against Iacob 36. Howsoever some way or other he can curb and restrain either their malice or power or both that when they have devised devices against them as they did against
Coward to be an honest man or a true friend either to God or man He is at the best but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double-minded man but God requireth simplicity and singleness of heart He hath a good minde perhaps to be honest and to serve God and the king and to love his neighbour and his friend and if he would hold him there and be of that minde alwayes all would be well But his double-minde will not suffer him so to do He hath a minde withall to sleep in a whole skin and to save his estate if he can howsoever And so he becometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fickle and unstable in his wayes turneth as the tide turneth there is no relying upon him no trusting of him Iethro well considered this when he advised Moses to make choise of such for Magistrates as he knew to be men of courage they that were otherwise he knew could not discharge their duty as they ought nor continue upright And when our Saviour said to his Disciples Luke 12. I say unto you my friends Fear not them which kill the body he doth more then intimate that such base worldly fear cannot well consist with the Lawes of true friendship 19. I insist somewhat the more upon this point because men are generally so apt to pretend to their own failings in this kind the outward force offered by others supposing they have said enough to excuse what they have done when they have said they did it by compulsion As if any man could be master of anothers will or enforce a consent from him without his consent which carrieth before it a manifest contradiction Indeed if we suffer what we should not without any our provocation that is not our fault because it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not in our power to help it But if we do what we should not upon what inducement so ever we do it we must bear the greatest part of the blame our selves because it is our doing still 20. For a man then when he hath been frighted out of his conscience and his duty and done amiss to say I was compelled to do it against my minde I could neither will nor chuse and the like are as the most common so the most vain and frivolous excuses in the world Not only false but ridiculously false and such as carry their confutation along with them fig-leaves so thin that any body may see through them For tell me thou that sayest thou wast compelled to do it against thy minde if thou hadst been minded to have withstood the pretended compulsion and hadst continued in that minde whether such compulsion could have taken effect or no Thou that sayest thou couldest neither will nor chuse was it not left to the choise of thine own will whether thou wouldest do that which was required or suffer that which was threatned and didst not thou then when thou mightest have chosen if thou wouldest to suffer the one rather chuse to do the other Qui mavult vult Sure it is the will evermore that determineth the choise in every deliberation It is manifestly absurd therefore for any man to pretend that thing to have been done by him against his will which how hard soever the choise was he yet chose to doe 21. If these allegations would serve the turn or that we had any good warrant to decline suffering evil by doing evil those glorious Martyrs and Confessours so much renowned through the Christian world for their patience and constancy in suffering persecution and laying down their lives for the testimony of saith and a good conscience were a generation of very silly men Who never had the wit to save their lives when they might have done it with some little compliances with the times and if their consciences had smitten them for so doing licked themselves whole again by pleading Compulsion 22. Unless then we will condemn those blessed souls whose memories we have hitherto honoured not onely of extream folly but of foul self-murder too in being prodigal of their lives to no purpose and casting away themselves wilfully when they needed not we must needs acknowledge That there lyeth a necessity upon us if we will be Christs disciples and friends to deny our selves our lusts our interests our fortunes our liberties our lives or if there be any thing else that can be dearer to us rather then for fear of any thing that can befal in any of these consent to the least wilful violation of our bounden duty either to God or our Neighbour That no force or violence from without no straits we can be driven into by any conjuncture of whatsoever circumstances can make it either necessary for us to sin or excusable in us to have sinned That we are bound by vertue of Christs both example and command to take up any cross that it is his good pleasure to lay before us and to bear it as long as he pleaseth with patience cheerfulness courage That if we grow weary of it and faint in our mindes so as to cast about how we may work our selves from under it by such means as we have no clear warrant from him for we must answer wholly for it our selves and cannot justly charge it upon any other person or thing then upon our own selves and our own base cowardise That for us 23. To return now to these Hebrews the Persons in the Text and the last of the four particulars proposed from that part of the Text. It may be demanded with what reason the Apostle could entertain the least suspition of such mens shrinking and fainting under the Cross who had already given such good proof of their constancy and courage in some former and those no small conflicts neither Nay of whose Christian patience and magnanimity himself had given a very ample testimony a little before in this very Epistle how they had endured a great fight of afflictions and had been made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions suffered the spoiling of their goods and not onely suffered it patience perforce but suffered it joyfully Yet you see for all this how urgent he is upon them still in the remainder of that tenth Chapter in the whole next and in a great part of this both before in and after the Text by admonitions exhortations examples and other topiques artifices and insinuations of great variety not to cast away their confidence to hold fast their profession without wavering to run with patience the race that was set before them to take heed they be not wearied and faint in their mindes 24. Not to say positively that he had of late observed some thing in some of them that might perhaps give him some particular cause of suspicion more then ordinary although there be some passages in his discourse especially at the fifth verse that seem to carry a sound as if something were not right with them If we
do but look upon some general considerations only we shall see reasons enough why the Apostle notwithstanding his approving of their former carriage might yet be jealous over them with a godly jealousie in this matter 25. First he knew not persecutions ever attending the Church as her lot but they might and Christ having foretold great tribulations shortly to come upon that nation it was very like they should meet with more and stronger trials then they had ever yet done It was indeed and by the Apostles confession a great trial of afflictions they had undergone already and they had received the charge bravely and were come off with honour and victory so that that brunt was happily over But who could tell what trials were yet behinde These might be for ought they knew or he either but the beginnings of greater evils to ensue You have not resisted unto blood saith he in the very next words after the Text as if he had said You have fought one good fight already and quit your selves like men I commend you for it and I bless God for it Yet be not high-minded but fear you have not yet done all your work your warfare is not yet at an end What if God should call you to suffer the shedding of your blood for Christ as Christ shed his blood for you you have not been put to that yet but you know not what you may be If you be not in some measure prepared even for that also and resolved by Gods assistance to strive against sin and to withstand all sinful temptations even to the shedding of the last drop of blood in your bodies if God call you to it you have done nothing He that hateth not his life as well as his house and lands for Christ and his kingdom is not worthy of either Sharp or long assaults may tire out him that hath endured shorter and easier But he that setteth forth for the goal if he will obtain must resolve to devour all difficulties and to run it out and not to faint or slug till he have finished his course to the end though he should meet with never so many Lions in the way 26. Secondly so great is the natural frailty of man so utterly averse from conforming it self entirely to the good will and pleasure of Almighty God either in doing or suffering that if he be not the better principled within strengthened with grace in the inner man he will not be able to hold out in either but every sorry temptation from without will foil him and beat him off Be not weary of well-doing saith the Apostle Gal. 6. for in due time we shall reap if we faint not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word again Weariness and faintness of minde we are subject to you see in the point of well doing But how much more then in the point of suffering which is of the two much the sorer trial 27. Marvel not if ordinary Christians such as these Hebrews were might be in danger of fainting under the Cross when the most holy and eminent of Gods servants whose faith and patience and piety are recorded in the Scriptures as exemplary to all posterity have by their failings in this kinde bewrayed themselves to be but men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to passions of fear and distrust even as others Abraham the father of the faithful of so strong faith and obedience that he neither staggered at the promise of having a son though it were a very unlikely one at that age through unbelief nor stumbled at the command of sacrificing that son though it were a very hard one having no more through disobedience yet coming among strangers upon some apprehensions that his life might be endangered if he should own Sarah to be his wife his heart so far mis-gave him through humane frailty that he shewed some distrustfulness of God by his doubting and dissimulation with Pharaoh first and after with Abimelech Gen. 13. and 20. 28. And David also so full of courage sometimes that he would not fear though ten thousands of people whole armies of men should rise up against him and encompass him round about though the opposers were so strong and numerous that the earth should be moved and the mountains shake at the noise thereof yet at some other times when he saw no end of his troubles but that he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains day after day and chased from place to place perpetually that he could rest no where his heart began to melt and to faint within him And although he had a promise from God of succeeding in the kingdom and an anointing also as an earnest to confirm the promise yet it ran strongly in his thoughts nevertheless that he should perish one day by the hands of Saul Insomuch that in a kinde of distrust of Gods truth and protection he ventured so far upon his own head never so much as asking counsel at the mouth of God as to expose himself to great inconveniences hazards and temptations in the midst of an hostile and idolatrous people The good man was sensible of the imperfection acknowledgeth it an infirmity and striveth against it Psal. 77. 29. But of all the rest S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome often stileth him a man of great boldness and fervency of spirit betrayed the greatest weakness Who after so fair warning so lately given him and his own so confident profession of laying down his life in his masters quarrel yet within not many hours after when he began to be questioned about his Master and saw by the malicious and partial proceedings against the Master how it was like to goe with him if he were known to have such a near dependance upon him became so faint-hearted that contrary to his former resolutions and engagement he not only dis-owned him but with oaths and imprecations forswore him Such weakness is there in the flesh where there is yet left some willingness in the spirit that without a continual supply of grace and actual influence of strength from above there is no absolute stedfastness to be found in the best of the sons of men 30. Yet is not our natural inability to resist temptations though very great the cause of our actual faintings so much because of the ready assistance of Gods grace to relieve us if we would but be as ready to make use of it as a third thing is To wit our supine negligence that we do not stand upon our guard as it concerneth us to do nor provide for the encounter in time but have our armes to seek when the enemy is upon us As Ioseph in the years of plenty laid in provision against the years of dearth so should we whilest it is calm provide for a storm and whilest we are at ease against the evil day It is such an ordinary point of wisdom in the common affairs
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