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A44070
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The creatures goodness, as they came out of God's hands, and the good mans mercy to the brute creatures, which God hath put under his feet in two sermons : the first preached before the University of Oxford : the second at the lecture at Brackley / by Thomas Hodges ...
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Hodges, Thomas, d. 1688.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing H2319; ESTC R17986
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37,570
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50
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his cruelty Lutum sanguine maceratum dirt or clay soaked in blood and of the rest as also of the Popes of Rome The first sort against Men the second against Christians the third against Protestants or such as concurr'd in Doctrine or Tenets with them The truth is Rome was and is a bloody City and well set out in the Revelations by a Woman cloathed in Scarlet a bloody colour It was at first planted and afterwards watered with blood The ten persecuting Roman Emperours slew so many Christians as that we are told 5000 Martyrs may be assigned to every day in the year except one And the learned Mr. Mede tells us that the Persecution of the Beast or of the Papacy was as great as that of the Roman Heathen Emperours And here Qualis Rex talis Grex as were their Rulers and Governours such so cruel and bloody were the common People witness the great delight the Roman Citizens took in beholding the Sword-sights where sometimes out of an opinion that it was good against the Falling-sickness they sucked the reaking blood out of the fresh wounds as well as bathed their hands in the blood of the slain D. H. from Pl. They were void of natural affection they had no Bowels for them that came out of their own Bowels for they sometimes exposed and sometimes murthered their own Children if Females if deformed or if the Parents were poor c. Yea sometimes they offered their own Children in Sacrifice to their Idol-Gods as also did the Carthaginians the Gaules and some of the ancient Britains Thus they became more brutish more savage than the very wild Beasts for which of these doth not love embrace nourish and cherish their Young the fruit of their own Bodies And well it were if only Heathens were guilty of such cruelty and liable to such reproof How many Christian Parents are there of whom it may be said as the Emperour said of Herod that it was better to be his Swine than his Son Better to have been their Beasts than their Children I cannot excuse King Philip the II. of Spain that delivered up or at least permitted his own Son Prince Charles the Heir of the Crown to be put to death in the Inquisition Beloved these things ought not so to be If you must be kind to you Cattel then much more to your own Children you must not hide your eyes from your own flesh you must not make their lives bitter to them bitter as death by reason of your harshness and severity Again hence be convinced of your duty and perswaded to it Ye that are Masters of Servants be kind not cruel to them If we must not be cruel to the Beasts much less to our Brother flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone Your Servants if Christians especially are your Brethren your Fellow-servants you and they have one and the same Master in Heaven To draw towards a Conclusion Let 's not be cruel to our own selves our own Souls or Bodies Let not any Man lay violent hands upon himself Let not any Man that is a Christian be felo de se Let not suicide or self-murther be once named among Christians We are Souldiers have our place and station set us and must not stir off the Guard till our General the Lord of Hosts call us off again We must not break Prison to set our Souls at liberty but stay till death come with power and authority from the Lord of liberty life and death to let them out Who ever hated his own flesh Lastly Let 's be kindly affected one towards another every Man to his Brother and his Neighbour be not Men-eaters in the worst sense do not bite and devour one another do not eat one another as one eateth Bread If we must not rent Christ's seamles Coat surely we must not tear and devour Christ's living Body Let not our Swords any more eat one anothers flesh or drink one anothers blood any more The Sword hath a mouth the edge of the Sword in the Hebrew signifies the mouth of the Sword If we do thus eat up one another or cruelly shed one anothers blood any more know that the voice of thy Brothers blood will cry to Heaven for vengeance as the blood of Abel did against Cain the Souls under the Altar in the Revelations How long Lord Holy and True will it be before thou avenge our blood upon them that have unjustly shed it or rather spilt our blood like water upon the Earth Doth God take care for Oxen or other Beasts in this Text Doubtless as unto us so for our sakes chiefly and ultimately was this written A good Man is merciful to his Beast but the mercies of the wicked are cruel As if the Wise-man had said A just or good Man is merciful to the Beasts but a wicked Man is cruel and merciles to Mankind And take this along with you That to use to shew mercy to our Beasts is a way and means to make us merciful to our Brother and Neighbour Si quis Conscientiâ Divini mandati ad cruentandum jumentum tardior suerit eum certè ad Hominem violandum multo magis aversum alienum habebimus So Chrisost in Loc. 'T is thought that God most merciful forbad to eat Blood after the Flood to prevent the violence that did overflow the earth before the Deluge came for those two go together Gen. 9. He that sheddeth Man's blood by Man shall his blood be shed And Ye shall not eat the blood of the Beast because or for the life is in the blood Those who are used to shed blood though the blood of Beasts and though for necessity and publick good as Butchers amongst us are forbidden by the Law or may be excepted against if impannel'd upon a Jury of life and death because their calling as is conceived doth harden their hearts or at least make them less inclined to mercy and pity than other Men. Even doubtless the cruel Spectacles at Rome did render the People less merciful 'T is very probable that the custom there of casting Malefactours to the Lyons and other wild Beasts to be devoured by them and the custom of setting Beasts to sight with and kill one another in the Theatre might dispose them the more easily to delight in the Sword-sights wherein Men slaughtered one another to the great content satisfaction and joy of the Beholders and so though their hands were not yet they had their eyes in blood and as he that loâ—ks on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart so he that looked on these bloody Spectacles with a desire that one should kill the other and delighted therein when done committed Murther against his Brother in his heart And as 't is said of some that they had eyes full of Adultery so we may say of the Spectatours of these bloody Fights that they had eyes full of Murther Their eyes were blood shot in the worst sense their eyes were full of blood Beloved let it not be so amongst you you are Christians Children of the Father of Mercies your Bosoms are the nest of the Heavenly Dove you expect to follow the Lamb where ever he goes You who before your call conversion were as Lyons Tygres Wolves Bears as cruel as such one to another Put on as the Elect of God bowels of mercy kindness gentleness you who formerly lived in malice envy hateful hating one another now that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man hath appeared see that all bitterness wrath clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice be ye kind one to another tender hearted like the good Samaritan not only kind to your Neighbours but even to Strangers and like to the righteous Man in the Text whose character is that he is merciful to or regardeth the life of his Beast FINIS
Cases of Conscience saith thus For exercises such should be chosen as bring publick utility as the hunting of such Beasts as are an annoyance to the Country such as Foxes Badgers Wolves c. Aquinas cites Aristotle for the lawfulness of Hunting upon this ground or reason because thereby a Man challengeth to himself that he hath a right to by Nature Venatio Sylvestrium Animalium est justa naturalis quia per eam Homo vendicat sibi quod est naturaliter suum Sariburiensis in his Book called Policratic 500. years since brings Isaac the Patriarch his practice in sending his Son Esau to hunt to justify the lawfulness of Hunting Mr. A. J. And a late judicious and learned Commentator comparing and considering the holy Scriptures one place with another viz. Levit. 17.13 with Prov. 12.27 doth thence conclude that Hunting is lawful the covering of the blood of the Beast taken and killed in Hunting may imply according to him the lawfulness of killing the Creatures in this manner the covering of their blood signifying that it should not be imputed unto them that shed it as may appear by those places where the not covering of the blood doth imply the contrary So Job 16. 18. and Ezek. 24.7 8. The main Objection I conceive against Hunting is this viz. That the Antipathy betwixt the Creatures is usually reckoned as an effect and fruit of our Sin and therefore is not to be delighted in To this Objection I suppose that Huntsmen may answer that they delight and recreate themselves in the sagacity and swiftness c. of them and not in their tearing of one another And if we will believe Aquinas p. 1. q. 96. Artic. 1. he teacheth us that there would have been naturalis discordia inter quaedam Animalia a natural discord betwixt some Animals although Sin had never been Non enim per peccatum Hominis natura Animaliu est mutata i. e. For the nature of these Creatures is not changed by Mans Sin 2 Pet. 2.12 Besides it may be argued and pleaded that the Apostle speaks of some of those Creatures that they are made to be taken and destroyed And our own reason and sense and experience teach us that there are other Creatures who seem to be made on purpose for this use namely to find out pursue and take others But supposing this Antipathy betwixt the Dog and the Hare c. should be a fruit effect or consequent of Mans Sin I conceive that it doth not necessarily follow that we may not moderately delight in Hunting for our Clothes are a consequent of Mens Sin and yet we may moderately delight in our Clothes or Ornaments Isa 61.10 Jer. 2.32 I suppose as well as in our Meat and Drink These things then premised I shall not dare to condemn Hunting as unlawful but shall rather apply my self to give such directions and cautions to those that use this recreation that they may not offend in it 1. Men must not make Hunting Hawking or any other recreation how lawful soever their calling not their Meat and Drink but as their Sawce both to their meat and to their work to get them a stomach to both Those certainly are to be condemned saith learned Rivet on Gen. 11. Qui voluptatem venationis praeferunt officiis suis quid Reipublicae subditis debeant obliviscuntur 2. Men must not give all their goods to feed their Hounds their Hawks their Horses and have no ability or charity to feed the Poor It was well done of King Stephen who converted a Rent-charge of 24 sheaves of Oats payable out of every Plough-land betwixt Trent and Edinburgh-Frith for the King's Hounds to his new built Hospital in York for though as the Historian observes it is not lawful to take the Children's bread and give it unto Dogs F. H. b. 3. p. 29. yet it is lawful to take the Dogs bread and give to the Children 3. Men must not be lovers of Pleasure more than lovers of God nor let either the cares or pleasures of the World hinder the profitable and saving hearing of the Word of God 'T is observable that amongst all those that made excuses from coming to the Feast when invited although we find one saying I have bought a yoke of Oxen and go to prove them Lu. 14.18 19. Another I have bought a Form and I go to see it I pray thee have me excused Yet I find none so hardy as to say I have bought a pack of Hounds or a cast of Hawks and must go to prove them I pray thee have me excused 4. Men must not injure or wrong their Neighbours in their Goods or Lands or Profits whil'st they follow their own pleasures Our Princes saith Luther do grievously sin with their Hunting they destroy the seeds and grounds of poor People And these are to be reproved saith Rivet on Genesis 11. Qui misellis Rusticis plagas inferunt sata laeta boumque labores diruunt c. Much more are they to be reproved and condemned that depopulate Towns and Countries to make room for Beasts wild or tame Deer or Sheep 'T is observed in our Chronicles that VVilliam the Conquerour did depopulate 30 or more Parishes to make his new Forest and that in that Forest one of his Sons namely King VVilliam sirnamed Rufus and one of his Nephews or Grand-children came to untimely ends there 5. Men must be cautioned to be careful lest while they pursue their sports their game they lose not or hazard not their own or others limbs or lives Our own Histories tell us of some that shot at Beasts and kill'd Men So one Tyrel kill'd King VVilliam Rufus Archbishop A. the Keeper And we read elswhere of Adrian the Emperour that he broke his shoulder in Hunting If we must not be cruel to the bruit Beasts then surely not to our selves hazarding or exposing our own lives whiles we hunt them to death And this makes way for these Third Observations viz. III. That wicked or unrighteous Men are cruel unmerciful to the bruit Beasts And this appears in that 1. They keep them hardly provide not carefully and conscientiously Food Physick Harbour for their hungry sick and weary Beasts 2. They work drive lead or burden them immoderatly and not as they are able to bear 3. They will rail at them be in rage with them and curse them bitterly these poor Beasts which were justly cursed for them are again cursed by them without a cause 4. They will beat and misuse them shamefully How oft are these poor dumb Creatures beaten cruelly with many stripes and that when they know not their Masters will what it is they would have them do How have I heard wicked Men curse and ban their Beasts How have I seen them beat and abuse them without a cause threatning with Balaam if there were a Sword in their hand to slay them If these dumb Creatures should have their mouths opened as Balaam's Asse's