great latitude reaching both of them to our bodies souls our estates to all that concerns Gods glorious name which he proclaimed to Moses made up of these two Exod. 34. 6 7. It would be endless to handle them according to the latitude of their common places I shall be able only to put you in remembrance of some principal particulars To do justly reacheth as I conceive in this place unto a three-fold justice according to the different conditions of men Justice in administration in negotiation in conversation In administration and that both sacred and secular In sacred administration the Ministers of the word are said to judge Ezec. 20. 4. to be rulers over the houshold to give them meat Mat. 24. 45. to have power of binding and loosing Mat. 16. 19. to have it in their power to avenge disobedience 2 Cor. 10. 5. to be Stewards Embassadors Officers between God and man 1 Cor. 4. 1. and there is no office but justice belongs to it and that is in this case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly to divide the word 2 Tim. 3. 15. and to give to every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own Dimensum and allowance Threats to the obstinate promises to gainsayers comfort to mourners counsel to the unsetled There can be no greater injustice to the souls of men than to say peace where there is no peace or to make sad where the Lord hath not made sad Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to corrupt or adulterate the word of God 2 Cor. 4. 2. to put chaff with wheat and dross with silver and wine with water and straw and stubble with precious stones and the language of Ashdod with the language of Canaan and leaven with sacrifice Samaritan contemperations of purity and Popery of piety and profaness Our Saviour gives us both in a word Feed my sheep they must be fed not poysoned In administration of civil Thus a Magistrate and Judg is as the Philosopher elegantly Tanquam argentarius to distinguish between that which is base and pretious and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keeper of the tables of the Law As the Priestslips must preserve knowledg so the Magistrate must preserve judgment and the people seek it at their mouth So long as there are in common-wealths contentions to be composed enormities to be punished innocence to be protected incroachments to be restrained property to be distinguished and preserved and in all these manifold emergent difficulties to be resolved and antinomies to be reconciled there will be a necessity of learned faithfull and religious Ministers who may be the depositories of publick justice Deut. 16. 18. And when such there are it is their great work to do judgment it is not enough to have it in the brain to know it and in the lips to praise it Non loquimur magna sed vivimus Justice is never in its right place till it come to the hand to do it It is not enough for the honour and security of a Kingdome that justice be in the Laws but it must be in the Judges too they must be a living and speaking Law Righteousness in the Law is but like Ezechiels vision of the dead bones in the valley they never have the strength of Law till the Magistrate puts Life into them by execution Justice in the Law is like Gold in the mine which while it is there only doth no man good but when in the Magistrate is like gold coyned or plate on the Cupboard for use and honour A magistrate is the keeper of publick justice as the conduit is of common water in a City It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they must let it out for the use of others and so the phrase in scripture is Egrediatur Iudicium Hab. 1. 4. It must run down like waters Amos 5. 24. and it is said of it that he should bring forth judgment unto truth Isa. 40. Ambitious hopes shrinking fears low passions domestick ends personal interests foreign compliance and correspondence may prove miserable weeds and obstructions in the stream of justice And therefore the sins of Judges and Magistrates in their publick administrations are called by the Prophet Mighty sins Amos 5. 12. Diseases in the bones of the common-wealth for so much the original word importeth sometimes Moving of Foundations Psal. 82. 5. Removing of Bounds Hos. 5. 10. which was one of the solemn curses upon mount Ebal Deut. 27. 17. Therefore saith the Lord I will pour out my wrath upon them like water as a man that pulleth down the sea-banks letteth in a floud to destroy himself whereas on the other side upright and just Magistrates like Moses stand in the gap and are binders healers sanctuaries hiding places unto the people from the storm and tempest 2. There is justice in negotiation which we may in no case leave out for if you look but a verse beyond the text you will find our Prophet complaining for want of it and crying out against scant measure wicked balances deceitfull and light weights 10 11. scant measures will fill up a full measure of guilt and light weights bring upon the soul a heavy weight of judgment The Prophet makes mention of wickedness in an Ophir Zach. 5. 8. And therefore as Iob was carefull that the Furrows of the field might not complain of him Iob 31. 38. so be you carefull that your Ephah and your balance which are unto you your lands and your furrows as the Prophet calls it the harvest of the sea Isaiah 23. 3. do not cry out unto God against you Let not any one saith the Apostle defraud or over-reach his brother in any matter for God is the avenger of those things 1 thes 4. 6. Take heed of severing the portion of gain from godliness to esteem all good profit that comes in by sordid and sinfull acts a snare a temptation a drowning follows upon it 1 Tim 6. 9. He that overloads his ship though it be with gold heaps it up for the sea and not for himself Learn so to converse with the world as not to be without God in the world Let not the Ephah and the sheckle wrangle with the New Moon and the Sabbath as it is Amos 8. 5. Let not the world get into your hearts to choke the word Your coffers are good enough for money keep your consciences for God They who go down into mines to dig up gold and silver carry candles with them and when the damp comes though it be gold they dare not stay with it your trades are your mines out of which you dig your treasure sink not your selves into them without Davids Lanthorn the word of God and if your consciences feel the damp of the Earth covetous lust begin to work then make hast upward with Davids prayer Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness Psal. 119. 26. Though you may not carry the shop into the Temple make that a place of money-changers yet you
A SERMON PREACHED IN S t. PAUL'S BEFORE THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE Lord Mayor BY THE Late Reverend Father in GOD D r EDWARD REYNOLDS Late Lord Bishop of Norwich LONDON Printed by I. M. for Iohn Martyn at the Bell in St Paul's Church-yard 1678. THE STATIONER TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Here present thee with a Sermon many years since Preached in St. Paul's before the Lord Mayor and his Brethren by the late Right Reverend Father in God D r Edward Reynolds late Lord Bishop of Norwich This Copy I received from the hands of a Gentleman who being an Auditor himself of the Sermon and of good acquaintance with the said Lord Bishop obtained it of him fairly written in his own hand with liberty to transcribe it Which being carefully done and revised by the original is here presented to thy view This Gentleman bad me farther assure thee that notwithstanding he knows his copy to be exact he would not have taken that boldness to have printed it had he not first obtained from the Author a willingness that it might be printed which himself would have done but could not readily find his papers This encouragement made him willing to let the world be partaker of this excellent and elaborate discourse by which he being dead yet speaks to thee in the words of the Prophet to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Thine in all service I. M. A SERMON Preached in St. Pauls before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Micah Chap. 6. Ver. 6 7 8. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God IN the beginning of this Chapter we find mention of a controversy between God the Plaintiff and his People the Delinquent The action an action of unkindness and ingratitude after two great deliverances from the tyranny of Pharaoh in Egypt from the subtilty of Balaam in Moab And this is an high aggravation of injury when it is done by a friend the Philosopher tells us Rhet. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you know was the deepest wound that Caesar felt and Moses is at the self same figure Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father Deut. 32. 6. Iob complains of it as of one of his greatest afflictions They whom I loved are turned against me Iob 19. 19. yea he that was greater than Iob at Iobs greatest excellency of patience cannot but complain of this that his wounds like Amnons were given him in the House of a friend Zach. 13. 6. The kiss of a Disciple did no less pierce him than the Nails of a Souldier His Enemies that wounded him found mercy when his friends that betrayed him found none The people being cited to appear to this action and being condemned by their own witness begin to betake themselves to counsel Not how they may come and stand before God which is the gesture of men that can abide a trial Isai. 50. 8. but how they may come and bow before him to deprecate the judgment which they are forced to acknowledge And when they have advised upon a course of their own and made tender of performances of their own to make an expiation they all come short and are rejected God himself is pleased to be of their counsel and he who in the beginning of the suit was the Plaintiff to accuse them in the issue becomes their Advocate to instruct them and when he had a judgment entred against them upon their own confession doth himself notwithstanding direct the way how that judgment may be reversed and avoided He hath shewed thee O man c. But what then are the counsels that he gave Surely one would judge but such as were very obvious and which any man might have given to himself To be just merciful humble religious Who could not have said as much as this Certainly how mean instructions soever we may judg them there is not a man can learn them but of God Let Israel alone here to counsel himself we find him at his Sacrifices and Holocausts with rams and oyls with thousands and ten thousands with a child a first-born with as many costly and hyperbolical evasions and circuitions of his own carnal worship will-worship as Rhetorick can express Sacrifices more sumptuous than justice could provide Sacrifices more bloody than mercy would allow but all this while not a word of Justice or Mercy themselves But what did not God shew those as well as these did not Moses as well receive the pattern of the Sanctuary as the Tables of the Law did not the law give an express indicavit for these too Surely we may not deny it But it is still with respect to judgment and mercy Commanded they were but not as principal either in point of obedience for they must yield to the great duties of the law or in point of expiation for they must lead to the great Sacrifice of the gospel Leave these things out and then ask of God whether he required those or no and he will answer you with a Quis requisivit Isai. 1. 12. Ask whether he will own them or no and he will tell you they are yours and not his Amos 5. 21. Nay ask him whether they be good or no and he will tell you plainly Dedi eis praecepta non bona I gave them Statutes which were not good and judgments whereby they should not live Well then my people if you will needs be saved by offering of thousands and ten thousands go not to the Mountains for them but go to thy Conscience there thou shalt find thousands of beastly and ten thousand of inordinate desires fit to be slaughtered and sacrificed unto him If ye will be saved by Sacrifices and oblations and rams No Sacrifice to that which is reasonable Rom. 12. 1. No oblation to that of thy self Rom. 15. 16. No Rams to the rams of Nebaioth the confluence of the Gentiles to the Gospel Isai. 60. 1. If you will needs swim through rivers to Heaven Rivers of oyl are nothing worth to rivers of judgment Let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream Amos 5. 24. If thou wilt needs go to God with meat-offerings of oyl no oyl to the Samaritans oyl of mercy and compassion Luc. 10. 34. If you dare not come to God without a first-born go not to thy self for one Thine is like thy self sinful and unclean but take him in thy arms who is the first-born of every
must not thrust the Temple out of the shop there is no place but holiness will become it In the Prophet a merchant is called Chanan Hos. 12. 7. but in the parable a Christian is called a merchant Mat. 13. 45. Remember in your professions to be Christians and not Canaanites 3. There is justice in conversation which is a sincere intire square faithfull conversing with men when a man is constant to his word fixed to his honest resolutions yesterday and to day the same this makes a man like unto God whose name is One Zach. 14. 9. Like unto him whose name is Amen Rev. 3. 14. And therefore we being members of him of whom we can learn nothing but what should be true and just one to another Eph. 4. 5. It is said of Asper a servant of the Emperour Leo That finding him fail in performance of promise he laid hold of 〈◊〉 purple robe and told him it was too rich a cover for falshood Certainly it is not fit that such a robe as the name of Christ should be used to shroud and palliate deceit and indeed such kind of unjust and false men who are like him possessed of an unclean spirit Luk. 8. 29. whom no bonds can hold who care not how many they deceive if they can have but a cloak to palliate it who like the Serpent will insinuate and then sting like the Cockatrice weep and then bite like the Panther allure with the sweet breath and then destroy with her sharp teeth who make truth give place to turns and for advantage say and unsay do and undo like those in Greg. Nazianzen Iohns to day and Iudases to morrow Such men as these are not members but ulcers in the common body and they must be sure that that justice which they hate will find them out at the last for men of bloud and deceit shall not live out half their days Psa. 55. 23. But we no sooner hear of sincerity but presently mercy like Rachel as the more beautiful calls upon us for our love to her I will not curiously inquire into the reason why justice is bid to be done but mercy to be loved for of Christ it is said that he loved righteousness Psal. 45. 1. But surely for the punishing part of justice Ieremy tells us that he did not desire the wofull day though he did denounce it Ier. 17. 16. yea God himself when he oft beateth doth it not willingly he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner but when he saveth when he sheweth mercy in that he delighteth Mic. 7. 18. Haply to give unto a man that which he hath a just property and claim unto men can be contented to do 't is violence and robbery to withold it but when we must give that which is our own to another here grudging and unwillingness may creep in upon us Now in justice I give a man that which is his but in mercy I give that which is mine own and therefore to prevent repining I am called upon not only to do it but to do it cheerfully heartily willingly to love mercy to draw out the soul in it Isa. 58. 1. I shall not need to inquire the nature or kind of it if it were as well in our hearts and hands as it is in our heads we should need the less to be bid to love it In one word there is Misericordia donans a bountifull mercy and misericordia condonans a pardoning mercy Mercy to them the mercy of relief to those who are in any distress be as Iob was eyes to the blind feet to the lame father to the poor Iob 29. 15. To instruct the ignorant reclaim the wandring confirm the weak comfort the distressed exhort thesluggish support the feeble cloth the naked feed the hungry heal the sick harbour the harbourless wash the feet and minister to the necessities of the brethren Pardon to shew mercy to those that are overtaken in a fault forgiving one another and forbearing one another It is a grave observation which the Historian makes when he compares the different dealings of Fabius and Manlius in crimes which were much alike Non minus firmatum Imperiu c. That Government was as much honoured by mercy shewed to the one as by the ruine of the other I shall use but three inducements unto both these duties of mercy First the excellency of it nothing makesus so like unto God That which St. Luke calls mercy Luke 6. 36. St. Matthew calls persection Mat. 5. 48. When God shewed Moses his glory it was by his goodness Gen. 35. 18. His name full of mercy Exod. 34. 6. His works full of mercy the Earth full Psal. 35. 5. the Heaven full Psal. 36. 5. knowledg wisdome power greatness Evil men may have some resemblance of but none can imitate God in mercy but good men for the mercies of the wicked are cruel Pro. 12. 10. Secondly The Necessity of it unto all For the truth is as Solon said to Croesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man is calamity it self corrupting the life distressing the conscience sorrows wounding the heart and fears weakening it death making pleasures short and guilt making life bitter What difference doth a Fever make between a Lord and a begger or what manners doth lightning and thunder observe more toward a Cedar than a shrub All have need of mercy therefore all must love it Thirdly The benefit of it No grace hath more abundant promises made unto it than this of mercy a sowing a reaping a thrifty grace Prov. 11. 22. Solomons excellent houswife stretched out both her hands to the needy Prov. 3. 20. Every tear that your mercy wipes away every sigh and groan that it removeth every back that it clothes every belly that it fills every sinking and oppressed man that it relieves turn all into so many advocates sollicitors and reall promises to procure greater mercies for you than you have been able to extend to them And now that you may always be in a readiness to come before God in these great duties of justice and mercy he is always in a readiness to come unto you and teach you what he requires of you He hath shewed thee O Man Man the author of the enmity but God the director unto peace and reconciliation And ever where God requires a duty he doth first reveal a light and according to the light which he revealeth is the account which he requires where much is given much shall be required And surely in all Gods service either sacred or civil we must have an Indicavit for what we do we can have no knowledg wisdome obedience to serve Cod but only out of the scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athanasius speaks out of the holy Scriptures not out of the abundance of our own hearts If we pray it must be according to his will Ioh. 5. 14. if preach it must be according to his counsel Ier. 25. 22. if hear it must be