for their strayings to bring them to repentance for their sins to make them more observant and careful of their duty thence-forward to exercise their faith and patience and other graces and the like Such as were those distresses that befell the whole people of Israel sundry times under Moses and in the dayes of their Iudges and Kings and those particular trials and afflictions wherewith Abraham and Ioseph and Iob and David and Paul and other the holy Saints and servants of God were exercised in their times 5. Both the one sort and the other are called Iudgments but as I said in different respects and for different reasons Those former plagues are called Gods Iudgments because they come from God not as a loving and merciful father but as a just and severe Iudge who proceeding according to course of Law giveth sentence against a malefactor to cut him off And therefore this kind of judgment David earnestly deprecateth Psalm 143. Enter not into judgment with thy servant for then neither can I nor any flesh living be justified in thy sight These later corrections also or chastenings of our heavenly father are called Iudgments too When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord but in a quite different notion Because God proceedeth therein not with violence and fury as men that are in passion use to do but coolely and advisedly and with judgment And therefore whereas David deprecated Gods judgment as we heard in that former notion and as Iudgment is opposed to Favour Ieremy on the other side desireth Gods Iudgment in this later notion and as it is opposed to Fury Correct me O Lord yet in thy judgment not in thy fury Jer. 10. 6. Now we see the severall sorts of Gods Iudgments which of all these may we think is here meant If we should take them all in the Conclusion would hold them and hold true too Iudicia oris and judicia operis publick and private judgments those plagues wherewith in fury he punisheth his enemies and those rods wherewith in mercy he correcteth his children most certain it is they are all right But yet I conceive those judicia oris not to be so properly meant in this place for the Exegesis in the later part of the verse wherein what are here called judgments are there expounded by troubles seemeth to exclude them and to confine the Text in the proper intent thereof to these judicia operis only but yet to all them of what sort soever publick or private plagues or corrections Of all which he pronounceth that they are Right which is the predicate of the Conclusion and cometh next to be considered I know O Lord that thy judgments are right 7. And we may know it too if we will but care to know either God or Our selves First for God though we be not able to comprehend the reasons of his dispensations the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the judgments are right it may satisfie us if we do but know that they are his Tua will infer recta strongly enough for the Lord who is righteous in all his wayes must needs be so in the way of his judgments too 1. Mens judgments are sometimes not right through mis-informations and sundry other mistakings and defects for which the Laws therefore allow writs of Errour appeals and other remedies But as for God he not only spieth out the goings but also searcheth into the hearts of all men he pondereth their spirits and by him all their actions are weighed 2. Mens judgments are sometimes not right because themselves are partial and unjust awed with fear blinded with gifts transported with passion carried away with favour or disaffection or wearied with importunity But as for God with him is no respect of persons nor possibility of being corrupted Abraham took that for granted that the judg of all the world must needs do right Gen. 18. And the Apostle rejecteth all suspicion to the contrary with an Absit what shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God God forbid Rom. 9. 3. Mens judgments are sometimes not right meerly for want of zeal to justice They lay not the causes of poor men to heart nor are willing to put themselves to the pains or trouble of sifting a cause to the bottome nor care much which way it go so as they may but be at rest and enjoy their ease But as for God he is zealous of doing justice he loveth it himself he requireth it in others punishing the neglect of it and rewarding the administration of it in them to whom it belongeth The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal. 11. 8. And then secondly in our selves we may find if we will but look enough to satisfie us even for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too so far as is meet for us to expect satisfaction The judgments of God indeed are abyssus multa his wayes are in the sea and his paths in the deep waters and his footstops are not known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soon may we lose our selves in the search but never find them out Yet even there where the judgments of God are like a great deep unfathomable by any finite understanding his righteousness yet standeth like the high mountains as it is in Psalm 36. visible to every eye If any of us shall search well into his own heart and weigh his own carriage and deservings if he shall not then find enough in himself to justifie God in all his proceedings I forbid him not to say which yet I tremble but to rehearse that God is unrighteous 9. The holy Saints of God therefore have ever acquitted him by condemning themselves The Prophet Ieremy in the behalf of himself and the whole Church of God The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his Commandement Lam. 1. So did Daniel in that his solemn confession when he set his face to seek the Lord God by prayer and supplications with fasting and sack-cloth and ashes Dan. 9. O Lord righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as it is this day to our Kings to our Princes and to our fathers because we have sinned against thee verse 7. and again after at verse 14. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doth for we obeyed not his voice Yea so illustrious many times is the righteousness of God in his judicial proceedings that it hath extorted an acknowledgment from men obstinately wicked Pharaoh who sometimes in the pride of his heart had said Who is the Lord was afterwards by the evidence of the fact it self forced to this confession I have sinned the Lord is righteous but I and my people are wicked Exod. 9. 10. They are then at least in that respect worse then wicked Pharaoh that
more refreshing then all those troubles could work him vexation Psal. 94. And S. Paul found that still as his sufferings encreased his comforts had withall such a proportionable rise that where those abounded these did rather superabound 2 Cor. 1. 34. These inward comforts are sufficient even alone Yet God knoweth our frame so well and so far tendereth our weakness that he doth also afford us such outward comforts as he seeth convenient for us A small matter perhaps in bulke and to the eye but yet such as by his mercy giveth us mighty refreshing For as any little affliction scarce considerable in it self is yet able to worke us much sorrow if God meane to make a rod of it so any otherwise inconsiderable accident when God is pleased to make a comfort of it is able to cheer us up beyond belief The coming of Titus out of Achaia into Macedonia seemed to be a matter of no great consequence yet coming at such a time and in the nick as it were S. Paul remembreth it as a great mercy from God and a great comfort to him in 2 Cor. 7. He was much distressed it seemeth at that time with fightings without and fears within insomuch as he was troubled on every side and his flesh had no rest at the fifth verse there Nevertheless saith he God that comforteth those that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus at ver 6. 35. Thirdly God manifesteth his love and faithfulness to his children in their troubles by the issues that he giveth out of them Deliverance and Honour Deliverance first That God hath often promised Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will heare thee Psal. 50. And he hath faithfully performed it Many or great are the troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all Psalm 34. And he delivereth him safe and sound many times without the breaking of a bone yea sometimes without so much as the loss of a haire of his head How oft do we heare it repeated in one Psalm and made good by sundry instances So when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble he delivered them from their distress 36. Some evidence it is of his love and faithfulness that he delivereth them at all but much more that he doth it with the addition of honour Yet hath he bound himself by his gracious promise to that also He shall call upon me and I will heare him yea I am with him in trouble I will deliver him and bring him to honour Psalm 91. As gold cast into the furnace receiveth there a new lustre and shineth brighter when it cometh forth then it did before so are the Saints of God more glorious after their great afflictions their graces evermore resplendent and many times even their outward estate also more honourable We may see in the examples of Ioseph of Iob of David himself and others if we had time to produce them that of Psalm 113. verified He raiseth the poore out of the dust and listeth the needy out of the mire and from the dunghil that he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people But we have an example beyond all example even our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ. Never any sufferings so grievous as his never man so emptied and troden down and made a man of sorrows as he Never any issues so honourable as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess to his honour And what hath befallen him the head concerneth us also his members not only by way of merit but by way of conformity also Si compatimur conregnabimus If we be partakers of his sufferings we shall be also of his glory God as out of very faithfulness he doth cause us to be troubled so will he out of the very same faithfulness give an honourable issue also to all our troubles if we cleave unto him by stedfast faith and constant obedience possibly in this life if he see it useful for us but undoubtedly in the life to come Whereunto c. AD AULAM. Sermon XI WHITE-HALL July 5. 1640. 1 COR. 10.23 All things are lawfull for me But all things are not expedient All things are lawfull for me But all things edifie not 1. IN which words the Apostle with much holy wisdom by setting just bounds unto our Christian Liberty in the Power first and then in the exercise of that power excellently preventeth both the Errour of those that would shrink it in and the Presumption of those that would stretch it out more then they ought He extendeth our Liberty in the Power but restraineth it in the use Would you know what a large power God hath permitted unto you in indifferent things and what may be done ex plenitudine potestatis and without scruple of conscience For that you have Omnia licent All things are lawful But would you know withall with what caution you ought to use that power and what at all times is fit to be done ex intuitu charitatis and for the avoiding of offence You have for that too Non omnia expediunt All things are not expedient All things edifie not If we will sail by this Card regulate our judgement and practise by our Apostles rule and example in the Text we shall neither dash against the Rock of Superstition on the right hand nor fall into the Gulf of Profaneness on the left we shall neither betray our Christian Liberty nor abuse it 2. In the words themselves are apparantly observable concerning that Liberty two things the Extension first and then the Limitation of it The Extension is in the former clause Wherein we have the Things and the Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things lawful and All lawful for me The Limitation is in the later clauses wherein is declared first what it is must limit us and that is the reason of Expediency But all things are not expedient And secondly one special means whereby to judge of that Expediency which is the usefulness of it unto Edification But all things edifie not I am to begin with the Extension of which onely at this time And first and chiefly in respect of the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are lawful 3. What All things simply and without exception All What meant Iohn Baptist then to come in with his Non licet to Herod about his Brothers Wife It is not lawful for thee to have her Matth. 14. Or if Iohn were an austero man and had too much of Elias's spirit in him Yet how is it that our blessed Saviour the very pattern of love and meekness when the Pharisees put a question to him Whether it were lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause resolveth it in effect as if he
on that behalf But he that suffereth for his errour or disobedience or other rashness buildeth his comfort upon a sandy foundation and cannot better glorifie God and discharge a good conscience then by being ashamed of his fault and retracting it 21. Seventhly hereby we expose not our selves onely which yet is something but sometimes also which is a far greater matter the whole Reformed Religion by our default to the insolent jeers of Atheists and Papists and other profane and scornful spirits For men that have wit enough and to spare but no more religion then will serve to keep them out of the reach of the Laws when they see such men as pretend most to holinesse to run into such extravagant opinions and practises as in the judgement of any understanding man are manifestly ridiculous they cannot hold but their wits will be working and whilest they play upon them and make themselves sport enough therewithal it shall go hard but they will have one fling among even at the power of Religion too Even as the Stoicks of old though they stood mainly for vertue yet because they did it in such an uncouth and rigid way as seemed to be repugnant not only to the manners of men but almost to common sence also they gave occasion to the wits of those times under a colour of making themselves merry with the Paradoxes of the Stoicks to laugh even true vertue it self out of countenance 22. Lastly for why should I trouble you with any more these are enow by condemning sundry indifferent things and namely Church-Ceremonies as unlawful we give great scandal to those of the Separation to their farther confirming in that their unjust schisme For why should these men will they say and for ought I know they speak but reason why should they who agree so well with us in our principles hold off from our Conclusions Why do they yet hold communion with or remain in the bosome of that Church that imposeth such unlawful things upon them How are they not guilty themselves of that luke-warme Laodicean temper wherewith they so often and so deeply charge others Why do they halt so shamefully between two opinions If Baal be God and the Ceremonies lawful why do they not yield obedience cheerful obedience to their Governours so long as they command but lawfull things But if Baal be an Idol and the ceremonies unlawfull as they and we consent why do they not either set them packing or if they cannot get that done pack themselves away from them as fast as they can either to Amsterdam or to some other place The Objection is so strong that I must confesse for my own part If I could see cause to admit of those principles whereon most of our Non-conformers and such as favour them ground their dislike of our Church-Orders and Ceremonies I should hold my self in all conscience bound for any thing I yet ever read or heard to the contrary to forsake the Church of England and to fly out of Babylon before I were many weeks older 23. Truely Brethren if these unhappy fruits were but accidentall events onely occasioned rather then caused by such our opinions I should have thought the time mis-spent in but naming them since the very best things that are may by accident produce evil effects but being they do in very truth naturally and unavoidably issue therefrom as from their true and proper cause I cannot but earnestly beseech all such as are otherwise minded in the bowels and in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ and by all the love they beare to Gods holy truth which they seem so much to stand for to take these things into their due consideration and to lay them close to their consciences And as for those my brethren of the Clergie that have most authority in the hearts of such as byasse too much that way for they only may have some hope to prevail with them the rest are shut out by prejudice if I were in place where I should require and charge them as they will answer the contrary to God the Church and their own consciences that they would approve their faithfulness in their ministry by giving their best diligence to informe the judgments of Gods people aright as concerning the nature and use of indifferent things and as in love to their souls they are bound that they would not humour them in these their pernicious errours nor suffer them to continue therein for want of their rebuke either in their publick teaching or otherwise as they shall have opportunity thereunto 24. But you will say If these things were so how should it then come to passe that so many men pretending to godliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty Gods permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gracious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and schisms and scandals And then the wiliness of Satan who cunningly observeth whither way our hearts incline most to looseness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affection of singularity to goe beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extreme the great force of education and custome besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Errour to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest servants and children are in this life wholy exempted 25. Ignorance first is a fruitful mother of Errour Ye erre not knowing the scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much grosse Ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they erre they erre for company they judge not all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are lead be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgment which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withall very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falsehood nor to discern between a sound argument and a captious fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth
First the supposal of a duty though for the most part and by most men very slackly regarded and that is the delivering of the oppressed In the two former verses If thou faint in the day of adversity If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain Secondly the removal of the common pretensions which men usually plead by way of excuse or extenuation at least when they have failed in the former duty in the last verse If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondreth the heart consider it c. So that if we will speak any thing to the purpose of the Text we must of necessity speak to those two points that do there-from so readily offer themselves to our consideration to wit the necessity of the duty first and then the vanity of the excuses 3. The Duty is contained and the necessity of it gathered in and from the tenth and eleventh verses in these words If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain Wherein the particulars considerable are First the Persons to whom the duty is to be performed as the proper object of our justice and charity Them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain They especially but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also all others that are in their condition in any kinde or degree those that are injured or oppressed or in danger to be injured or oppressed by any manner way or means Secondly an act of Charity and justice to be performed towards those that are in such a condition by such as by reason of the power and opportunities and other advantages that God hath put into their hands are in a capacity to do it which is the very duty it self viz. to look upon them in the day of their adversity and to deliver them out of the hand of their oppressours Thirdly a possibility of the neglect or non-performance of this so just and charitable a duty by those that might and therefore ought to do it expressed here by the name of forbearance If thou forbear to deliver Fourthly the true immediate cause of that neglect wheresoever it is found viz. the want of spirit and courage in the heart faint-heartedness from whatsoever former ot remoter cause that faintness may proceed whether a pusillanimous fear of the displeasure or a desire to winde himself into the favour of some great person or the expectation of a reward or a loathness to interpose in other mens affairs or meer sloth and a kinde of unwillingness of putting himself to so much trouble or what ever other reason or inducement can be supposed If thou faint in the day of adversity Lastly the censure of that neglect it is an evident demonstration à posteriori and as all other visible effects are of their more inward and secret causes a certain token and argument of a sinful weakness of minde If thou faintest c. thy strength is small 4. The result of these particulars amount in the whole to this Every man according to his place and power but especially those that being in place of magistracy and judicature are armed with publick authority for it are both in Charity and justice obliged to use the utmost of their power and to lay hold on all fit opportunities by all lawful means to help those to right that suffer wrong to stand by their poorer brethren and neighbours in the day of their calamity and distress and to set in for them throughly and stoutly in their righteous causes to protect them from injuries and to deliver them out of the hands of such as are too mighty or too crafty for them and as seek either by violence or cunning to deprive them either of their lives or livelyhoods Briefly thus and according to the language of the Text It is our duty every one of us to use our best strength to deliver the oppressed but our sin if we faint and forbear so to do And the making good and the pressing of this duty is like to be all our business at this time 5. A point of such clear and certain truth that the very Heathen Philosophers and Lawgivers have owned it as a beam of the light of Nature insomuch as even in their account he that abstaineth from doing injuries hath done but the one half of that which is required to compleat Iustice if he do not withal defend others from injuries when it is in his power so to do But of all other men our Solomon could least be ignorant of this truth Not onely for that reason because God had filled his heart with a large measure of wisdom beyond other men but even for this reason also that being born of wise and godly parents and born to a kingdom too in which high calling he should be sure to meet with occasions enough whereon to exercise all the strength he had he had this truth considering the great usefulness of it to him in the whole time of his future government early distilled into him by both his parents was seasoned thereinto from his childhood in his education His father David in Psal. 72. which he penned of purpose as a prophetical benediction and instruction for his son as appeareth by the inscription it beareth in the title of it a Psalm for Solomon beginneth the Psalm with a prayer to God both for himself and him Give the King thy judgements O God and thy righteousness unto the Kings son And then after sheweth for what end he made that prayer and what should be the effect in order to the Publick if God should be pleased to grant it Then shall he judge the people according unto right and defend the poore ver 2. He shall keep the simple folke by their right defend the children of the poor and punish the wrong doer or as it is in the last translation break in pieces the oppressour ver 4. and after at the 12. 13. and 14. verses although perhaps the passages there might principally look at Christ the true Solomon and Prince of peace a greater then Solomon and of whom Solomon was but a figure yet I beleeve they were also literally intended for Solomon himself He shall deliver the poor when he cryeth the needy also and him that hath no helper He shall be favourable to the simple and needy and shall preserve the soules of the poor He shall deliver their soules from falshood and wrong and dear shall their blood be in his sight And the like instructions to those of his father he received also from his mother Bathsheba in the prophesie which she taught him with much holy wisdom for the matter and with much tenderness of motherly affection for the manner What my Son and what the Son of my wombe and what the Sons of my vowes
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
most looked upon and soonest drawn into example so to order themselves in their whole conversations that such as come after them may be rather provoked by their good example to do well then encouraged by their evil example to do amiss If at any time hereafter Saul should take any mans Ox or Asse from him by any manner fraud oppression or bribery the constant practise of his immediate predecessour for sundry years together shall stand up and give evidence against him and cast him Samuels integrity shall condemn him both at the bar of his own conscience and in the mouths of all men at leastwise he shall have no cause to vouch Samuel for his precedent no colour to shroud his miscarriages under the authority of Samuels example 14. We cannot now marvel that Samuel should thus offer himself to the tryal when as no man urged him to it sith there may be rendred so many congruous reasons for it Especially being withal so conscious to himself of having dealt uprightly that he knew all the world could not touch him with any wilful violation of justice He doth not therefore decline the tryal but seek it and putteth himself upon it with marvellous confidence challenging all comers and craving no favour Behold here I am witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed Here is no excepting against any witness nor refusal of any Iudge either God or Man He had a good cause and therefore he had also a good heart All vertues are connext among the rest so are Iustice and Fortitude The righteous are bold as a Lion The Merchant that knoweth his wares to be faulty is glad of the dark shop and false light whereas he that will uphold them right and good willeth his customers to view them in the open sun Qui malè agit odit lucem He that doth evil loveth to skulke in the darke and will not abide the light which is to him as the terrours of the shadow of death lest his evil deeds should be found out and laid open to his shame Even as Adam hid his head in a bush when he heard the voice of God because his conscience told him he had transgressed 15. A corrupt Magistrate or Officer may sometimes set a face upon it and in a kinde of bravery bid defiance to all the world but it is then when he is sure he hath power on his side to bear him out when he is so backt with his great friends that no man dare mutire contra once open his lips against him for fear of being shent Even as a ranke Coward may take up the bucklers and brave it like a stout Champion when he is sure the coast is clear and no body neer to enter the lists with him And yet all this but a mere flourish a faint and fain'd bravada his heart the while in the midst of his belly is as cold as lead and he meaneth nothing less then what he maketh shew of If the offer should be indeed accepted and that his actions were like to be brought upon the publick stage there to receive a due and unpartial hearing and doom how would he then shrink and hold off trow ye then what crowching and fawning and bribing and dawbing to have the matter taken up in a private chamber and the wound of his credit a little overly salved though upon never so hard and base conditions His best wits shall be tried and his best friends to the utmost if it be possible by any means to decline a publick trial 16. Be just then Fathers and Brethren and ye may be bold So long as you stand right you stand upon your own legs and not at the mercy of others But turn aside once to defrauding oppressing or receiving rewards and you make your selves slaves for ever Intus pugnae soris timores Horrours and gripes within because you have knowingly done what you ought not Terrours and fears without lest your wicked dealings should come to light whereby you might receive the due shame or punishment thereof Possibly you may bear up if the times favour you and by your greatness out-face your crimes for a while But that is not a thing to trust to O trust not in wrong and robbery saith David Psal. 62. The winde and the tide may turn against you when you little think it and when once you begin to goe down the winde every base and busie companion will have one puff at you to drive you the faster and the farther down 17. Yet mistake not as if I did exact from Magistrates an absolute immunity from those common frailties and infiâ—mities whereunto the whole race of mankinde is subject The imposition were unreasonable It is one of the unhappinesses that attends both your calling and ours Magistracy and Ministry that every ignorant Artisan that perhaps knoweth little and practiseth less of his own duty can yet instruct us in ours and upon every small oversight make grievous out-cries by objecting to you your place to us our cloath A man of his place a man of his Cloath to do thus or thus As if any Christian man of what place or of what cloath soever had the liberty to do otherwise then well or as if either we or you were in truth that in respect of our natures which in respect of our offices we are sometimes called we Angels and you Gods Truly how ever it pleaseth the Lord for our greater honour thus to stile us yet we finde it in our selves but too well and we make it seem by us alas but too often that we are men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to the like passions ignorances and sinful aberrations that other men are And I doubt not but Samuel notwithstanding all this great confidence in his own integrity had yet among so many causes as in so many years space had gone through his hands sundry times erred in judgment either in the substance of the sentence or at least in some circumstances of the proceedings By mis-informations or mis-apprehensions or by other passions or prejudices no doubt but he might be carried and like enough sometimes was to shew either more leâ—ity or more rigour then was in every respect expedient 18. But this is the thing that made him stand so clear both in his own conscience and in the sight of God and the world that he had not wittingly and purposely perverted judgment nor done wrong to any man with an evil or corrupt intention but had used all faithfulness and good Conscience in those things he did rightly apprehend and all requisite care and diligence so far as humane frailty would suffer to finde out the truth and the right in those things whereof he could not know the certainty This doe exercising your selves with St. Paul to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men and then you may with him also be bold to call both
repeated in Deuteronomy in the self-same words Thou shalt take no gift for a gift blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous A marvelous power sure there is in them that can work upon men so strongly yea sometimes upon wise and righteous men as Moses his words express as to stop their mouths and binde their hands and blinde their eyes that they can neither speak nor doe nor see what is right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Euripides They say that even the gods may be tempted with gifts Very like if applyed to such gods as are spoken of in the Psalm Dixi Dij I have said ye are gods 40. But then what is it to blinde the eyes or how can bribes do it Iustice is not unfitly pourtrayed in the forme of a man with his right eye open to look at the Cause and his left eye shut or muffled that he may not look at the Person Now a guift putteth all this out of order and setteth it the quite contrary way It giveth the left eye liberty but too much to look asquint upon the person but putteth the right eye quite out that it cannot discern the Cause Even as in the next fore-going Chapter Nahash the Ammonite would have covenanted with the inhabitants of Iabesh-Gilead upon condition he might thrust out all their right eyes From this property of hood-winking and muffling up the eyes it is that a Bribe is in the Hebrew the Text-word here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Copher of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caphar to cover to dawbe up or to draw over with lime plaister or the like Whereunto our English word to cover hath such nere affinity in the sound that were it not apparently taken from the French Couurir and that from the Latine Cooperire it might with some probability be thought to owe its Original to the Hebrew But however it be for the word the thing is clear enough this Copher doth so cover and plaister up the eyes that they cannot see to do their office aright and as they ought 41. And the reason of all this is because guifts if they be handsomely conveighed and not tendred in the name nor appearing in the likeness of Bribes for then wise and righteous men will reject them with disdain and shake their hands and laps from receiving them but I say if they come as presents only and by way of kindness and respect they are sometimes well accepted and that deservedly even of wise and righteous men as testimonies of the love and observance of the givers And then the nature of ingenuous persons is such that they cannot but entertain a good opinion of those that shew good respect unto them and are glad when any opportunity is offered them whereby to manifest such their good opinion and to requite one curtesie with another Whereby it cometh to pass that guifts by little and little and by insensible degrees win upon the affections of such men as are yet just in their intentions and would not willingly be corrupted and at the last over-master them And the affections once throughly possest it is then no great mastery to doe the rest and to surprise the judgment The good Magistrate therefore that would save his eyes and preserve their sight had need not only to hate bribes but to be very jealous of presents lest some of those things which he receiveth but as Gifts be yet meant him for Bribes But especially to suspect those gifts as so meant where the quantity and proportion of the gift considered and compared with the quality and condition of the giver may cast any just cause of suspition upon them but to conclude them absolutely so meant if they be sent from persons that have business in the Courts 42. The only thing now remaining to be spoken to from the Text and that but in a word or two is Samuels Equity in offering in case any thing should be truly charged against him in any the premises to make the wronged parties restitution Whose oxe have I taken or c. And I will restore it you Samuel was confident he had not wittingly done any man wrong either by Fraud Oppression or Bribery whereby he should be bound to make or should need to offer Restitution Yet partly to shew what was fit to be done in such cases and his own readiness so to doe if there should be cause and partly for that it was possible in so long time of his government and amid so many causes as passed through his hands that he might through mis-information precipitancy negligence prejudice or other humane frailty have committed some oversight in judgment for which it might be reasonable for him to make some kinde of compensation to the parties thereby damnified he here offereth Restitution A duty in case of Injury most necessary both for quieting the Conscience within and to give satisfaction to the world and for the more assurance of the truth and sincerity of our repentance in the sight of God for the wrongs we have done Without which at least in the desire and endeavour there can be no true repentance for the sin and consequently no security of the remission of the guilt That of Augustine Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum is a famous received Aphorism in this case well knowen to all but little considered and less practised by most 43. There is an enforced Restitution whereof perhaps Zophar speaketh in Iob 20. That which he laboured for he shall restore and not swallow it down according to his substance shall the restitution be and he shall not rejoyce therein and such as the Law imposed upon thefts and other manifest wrongs which although not much worth is yet better then none But as Samuels offer here was voluntary so it is the Voluntary Restitution that best pleaseth God pacifieth the Conscience and in some measure satisfieth the world Such was that of Zacheus Luk. 19. in restoring fourefold to every man from whom he had gained any thing wrongfully It may be feared if every Officer that hath to doe in or about the Courts of Iustice should be tied to that proportion many one would have but a very small surplusage remaining whereout to bestow the one moity to pious uses as Zacheus there did 44. There is scarce any one point in the whole body of Moral Divinity that soundeth so harsh to the eare or relisheth so harsh in the palaâ—e of a worldling as this of Restitution doth To such a man this is durus sermo indeed a hard very hard saying yet as hard as it seemeth to be it is full of reason and Equity So full that I dare confidently say who ever he be that complaineth of it as a hard imposition when he is required to restore to the right owner that which he hath unjustly taken from him that man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉