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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	mark_v	peace_n	upright_a	1,413	5	10.3964	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95723	Two assize sermons preached at Bridgnorth for the county of Salop in the year 1657. The first, upon Psalm 58. verse 1. Doe you indeed speak righteousnesse, o congregation? Doe ye judge uprightly, o ye sonnes of men? The second, upon Psalm 37. verse 37. Marke the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace? / By Mich. Thomas; rector of Stockton in the same county.	Thomas, Michael, rector of Stockton.	1659 (1659)	Wing T970; Thomason E1790_1; ESTC R209682	31,232	144

to be slain And there was an end of Saul and Doeg his informer and their family The Lord by that army of the Philistines brake up the Congregation and made them know they were but the Sons of men and that they were not able to stand when he came to judge them Now the Lord help us to consider of these things and dispose our hearts to love the work of righteousnesse and in all our dealings with men to behave our selves justly and uprightly that when we shall come to dye like men we may finde the fruit of righteousnesse which is peace even Peace with God and peace with our owne consciences that we may commend our spirits into the hands of the God of our righteousness with joy and not with fear The Prayer after Sermon GReat and Glorious Lord God who art righteous in all thy wayes and holy in all thy works be good and gracious unto us thy poor Creatures who here stand guilt before thee of many acts of unrighteousnesse for having rejected and despised thy most pure and holy lawes and have chosen rather to walke after the lusts and imaginations of our owne hearts We have defaced that perfect Image of righteousnesse and Holynesse in which we were created we have defiled our selves with the pollutions of sinne so that all our righteousnesse is but as a filthy ragge and we cannot but loath and abhorre our selves for all our abhominations Blessed God we desire to return unto Thee and to seek thy face not only for thy mercy and pardon for the sins we have cōmitted but for thy Spirit and thy grace that we may be renewed restored to that state of holines whence we are faln And forasmuch as the Ministry of thy Word is the means which thou hast ordained promised to sanctifie to that end We humbly call upon thee for a blessing upon that portion of thy Word which hath bin dispensed unto us at this time Great God! our hearts are in thy hand we beseech Thee mould and fashion them according to thine own holy will Beget in us a constant purpose and resolution of giving to every one their owne and re-imprint in our hearts that excellent rule of righteousnesse Not to do any thing to our neighbour which we would not be content that he should doe to us We are met at this time O Lord about thine own worke The Execution of Justice and Judgement we beseech thee assist us in it As we begin this worke in thy Name give us grace to continue in it in thy Fear Touch the hearts of all those who are in any respects interested as parties in the administration of Justice that they may all speak righteousnesse and judge uprightly without respect to themselves or respect to their friends and without feare of the face of any man And give us all grace to consider that a congregation of men conspiring in an act of unrighteousnesse are but as a sheafe of straw not able to contest with thee who art a consuming fire Oh help us to consider that how great or mighty soever we be in this World we are yet but the sonnes of men fraile and mortall and know not how soon we may be called to thy Judgment Seat And let these meditations quicken us to an holy care to prepare our accounts and to behave ourselves so righteously toward all men here on earth as that we may cheerefully commend our Spirits to the God of Heaven Hear us O God and answer us according to thy wonted grace goodnesse supply all our defects out of the fullnesse of Christ Jesus who is the Lord our Righteousnesse to whom with thee O Father and thy blessed Spirit we desire to ascribe all honour and power and prayse now and for evermore Amen Amen A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES Held at BRIDGNORTH For the County of Salop in the year 1657. On the Lord's Day By Mich Thomas Rector of Sockton in the same COUNTY LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Armes in St. Paul's Church-yard 1659. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psalme 37. verse 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright For the end of that man is peace IT may perchance raise your attention to the Doctrine of this Text when you shall consider that it is a branch of that Psalme which hath alwayes bin in very high esteem both among the Antients and our Moderne Divines Origen calls it Humanae animae Medicinam It is Physick for the soul of man forasmuch as it reproves sinne and teaches us to live according to the lawes of God Athanasius recommends it to be readd by all those who are scandalized at the prosperity of the wicked and find themselves tempted to go along with them in their wayes and to think this world to be governed by chance or fortune that God is not a God of Judgment that he makes no difference between the righteous and the wicked Calvin and Mollerus meet both in this censure of it that it containes doctrinam apprimè utilem exceeding profitable doctrine and Lorinus tells us that Fulgentius that great light of the Church in Africa by reading St. Augustines commentary upon it was converted by it The tree then being so good you may fairely presume the Text which is a branch of it may yield you the like fruit I may not unfitly call the Text Totius Psalmi Epitomen The summary or abridgement of the whole Psalm The doctrine which is dispersed in the other verses of it is collected and united in this All the defect will lye on my part by reason of my weakenesse I shall not be able to shake this so full laden branch that all the fruit of it may fall amongst you So farre as the Lord hath enabled me to understand the doctrine of it I shall humbly present it to your religious consideration and shall hope that that sleight tast of it which you will receive at this time by my service will provoke your holy appetites to make a farther enquiry in your private meditations But not to waste more either of the time or your patience be pleased to take the Text divided into these three parts Here is an Act and an Object and they are both twofold The Act is to Mark and to Behold The Object of this Act is the Perfect and the Upright man And in the third place here is the reason of the Act which is very weighty and considerable For the end of that man is Peace But I must crave leave to invert the order of these parts and consider the Object first Who this perfect and upright man is And then passe to the Act what it is to Mark and to behold Him To which act we shall be the better disposed by the weight of the reason which enforces it Mark the perfect man and behold the upright For the end of that man is peace The first part The Object I confesse I find much variety in the severall Translations

TWO ASSIZE SERMONS Preached at Bridgnorth for the County of Salop in the year 1657. The first upon Psalm 58. verse 1. Doe you indeed speak Righteousnesse O Congregation Doe ye judge uprightly O ye sonnes of men The second upon Psalm 37. verse 37. Marke the perfect man and behold the upright For the end of that man is peace By MICH. THOMAS Rector of Stockton in the same COUNTY LONDON Printed by W. Wilson for Humphrey Moseley and are to bee sold at his Shop at the Prince's Armes in S. Paul's Church-yard 1659. A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES Held at BRIDGNORTH For the County of Salop in the year 1657. On the First day of the Assizes By Mich Thomas Rector of Sockton in the same COUNTY LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Armes in St. Paul's Church-yard 1659. TO MY WORTHY FRIEND MAJOR EDMUND WARING SIR WHen the Command of the Power of this County both Civill and Military was committed to your care and management you were pleased to exercise a little of that power you had over me in desiring me and your desires are commands according to my Function to attend upon the Judges You cannot but say you found me both willing obedient And I undertook the work upon a threefold encouragement First as it was a Service to your Selfe Secondly as it was a Service to my Country Thirdly as it was a Service to the Lord. For your selfe I am glad that I have occasion to make this publike profession that I am very sensible of those great Civilities I have received from you I know that by the laws of Friendship where there are receits there should be returnes which though they do not answer in proportion are yet compleated by their intention I have alwayes thought That to be the truest love which projects and works to the good of Souls It is strange that men should delight in the society and neighbourhood of each other in this and not desire to meet and live together in Another world That they should study the Comfort and Welfare of each other in respect of their Persons and Estates and not bestow a thought on their Salvation Devout Bernard complain'd of old Omnes amici et omnes inimici omnes necessarii et omnes adversarii pax à paganis sed non à filiis and we are fallen into such times There is a generall pretence of amity yet a generall emnity we are all neighbours yet all adversaries we have peace with the heathen and we Christians differ among our selves Our divisions are the sparks of that fire which our blessed Saviour came to kindle namely about the purity and power of Evangelicall doctrines and ordinances We agree about the substance of divine worship and contest about the circumstances It is our sinne and our shame that we out-doe the Jewes in our malice against Christ They crucified his body but kept his garment whole we teare both his body and his garment We dispute and wrangle about those reverend solemnities wherewith the Christian religion in all ages and among all nations hath bin apparelled and adorned But we should all sit downe and consider what St. James sayes The wrath of man worketh not the righteousnesse of God Jam. 1. 20. When all 's done when all is written and spoken that can be on either side The work of righteousnesse must be minded and regarded That 's soul-work That will be the businesse of inqeust at the last day The question then will not be Who hath bin the best Souldier nor who the best Scholler but who hath bin the best Christian Sir Upon this meditation I thought no argument more proper for such a solemne Convention than this of Righteousnesse It is a doctrine of universall concernment and since you were pleased to call me to preach these two Sermons I conceived it the best expression of a reall affection to present them to You as a testimony that I am an hearty wisher both of your present and future happinesse That as you have bin a man of Warre so by the study and acquest of that righteousnesse which is taught and recommended in these discourses your end may be Peace The second encouragement was the Service of my Country for which though not my native I have a great observance and respect I came a poor stranger into it yet have received many and great favours from some eminent members of it and no small ones from the generality Their candid censures and acceptance of my weake labours in this kind was not the least motive to undertake this service And they are able to testifie for me that so often as I have appear'd in it my discourse hath had a tendency this way to instruct in some point of righteousnesse that through the blessing of God upon his Ordinance I might redeem the reputation of this County from an unhappy obloquie it lay under The Third Encouragement which was the highest and the greatest was the Service of the Lord whose honour and glory we should all study and endeavour to promote and advance and which we can do in no better or more acceptable way than by speaking and doing righteousnesse Sir I humbly present these plain Discourses to your and my Countrie 's service but more especially I devote them to the Glory of our God whose unprofitable servant I am but desire to improve And as I have cast forth this holy seed of righteousnesse into the world so I shall not cease to beseech the Lord to water it with the dew of his grace that it may bring forth the wished fruits of it Peace and quietnesse and assurance for ever This is the desire and shall be the prayer of Sir Your affectionate Friend and Servant MICH. THOMAS A SERMON Preached at the Assizes holden at Bridgenorth for the County of Salop in the year 1657. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psalm 58. verse 1. Doe ye indeed speak righteousnesse O Congregation Doe ye judge uprightly O ye sonnes of men IF we inquire into the Argument or Occasion of this Psalm and guesse aright at that It will give us some light to the proper Application of the Text. And I shall neither waste the time nor your patience in unnecessary quotations or comparing the opinions of Expositors I shall present that conjecture which I humbly conceive the most probable and so proceed upon it Lorinus who with great industry hath collected the opinions of the Greek and Latine Fathers And Marlorate who with the like diligence hath summed up the Judgements of the Divines of the Reformed Churches do both agree in this that this Psalm was written by David and intended as an admonition to all the Officers of Justice in the Court of Saul that when Saul shall call them to Councell and they shall be sitting in Judgment upon Him that they vvould speak righteousesse and judge uprightly that they would not hearken to the malicious informations of his Enemies nor forme their Judgements according

yet in his infinite wisedome he sees it fit to continue it and still we see the poor and needy become a prey to the rich and mighty But these permissive acts of Providence are no warrant or security for such acts of Injustice He is far from a perfect man who seeks to slay the upright or as Solomon speaks Robs the poor because he is poor and unable to help himselfe The third instance is The wicked borroweeh and payeth not againe In which is noted an high act of injustice and contrary to that Evangelicall precept delivered by St. Paul Owe nothing to any man but love provided alwayes there be sufficiency and ability to pay Whosoever shall pretend poverty to his creditour and make a fraudulent composition contracts upon his owne soul the guilt of theft in an high degree And some have been so curious to make the observation That estates compounded for seldome prosper there is for the most part something of fraud and concealment and that constitutes the wicked man whom David here points at He borroweth and payeth not again You see in common experience how the Courts of Justice are troubled and pestered with suits and causes in these cases with actions in regard of conspiracy The wicked plotting against the Just with actions of trespasse and battery The drawing his sword against the poor and by might oppressing Him and with actions of debt The wicked borroweth and paying not again And no doubt David desiring to winne and work up the souls of men to this perfection and uprightnesse hath proceeded in that Method throughout this Psalme as it were Antiphonically and by way of contra-position to set down the Characters of the upright and the wicked man and describe them by their intentions by their words and by their actions Of so much concernment did David conceive it to be exactly to know the perfect and the upright man And in all this discourse I have pursued the same method as contraries are best discern'd when they are placed together so in every mark of this perfect man you have had something positively something negatively delivered And now that I have presented the Object before you in which the great part of my businesse lay I am now to invite you to the Act To mark and to behold him which was the second part I proposed to observe The second part The Act. But I need not detaine you long in this Act. I do not find any Expositour whom I have consulted that stops upon it Mollerus conceives that David onely calls upon us to observe the passages of Divine Providence and the various issues of his Dispensations concerning the wayes and the ends of the wicked and the perfect man It is the humour or rather the weaknesse of most men to judge outward appearances and to conclude a man either Happy or Miserable according to his successes in this world So Job's friends passed their censures upon Him and he must needs be a dissembling Hypocrite because He was so grievously afflicted But this according to that saying of our Saviour was unrighteous Judgement And as David had made his observation concerning the righteous man I have been young but now am old yet I never saw the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their bread so he calls upon all others to make the like observation concerning the perfect man Mark and behold Him sayes He And although ye may see the wicked flourishing like a bay tree and the upright man withering like a shrub the one in honour and flowing with all temporall abundancies the other vile and despised and lacking necessaries yet judge not They are yet upon their way they are not yet come to their journeys end they are now busied in their severall works and have not received their wages but when the day of our life shall begin to close and the shaddowes of death shall spread themselves and the grave begin to open her mouth and the Arch-angell's trumpet in a passing bell shall summon the sonnes of men to Judgement then will be fulfilled that of the Prophet Malachi At that time God will make up his Jewells and men shall discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Chap. 3. vers 17 18. The third part The reason of the Act. And now here enters our third part for the conclusion of all Marke and behold the perfect man for he is worthy of your observation The end of that man is peace Our blessed Saviour speaking of John the Baptist What saith He went yee out into the wildernesse to see A reed shaken with the wind It may be in the eyes of some that saw him he seemed not much more considerable but I tell you He is a Prophet and more then a Prophet And if any prophane spirit should say What do you call us to mark and behold broken reeds and smoaking flax persons that have lived in trouble and are dying in dishonour such as have been the subject of wanton wits to make Songs of and the object of mens hatred and scorn Such indeed is the lot and portion of the upright man yet let me tell you he is somewhat more yea very much more then he is conceived to be Though the Wicked raise warre against him yet He is the Son of peace though he sayle through a rough Sea yet he hath a calm haven though he meet with crosses on his way yet he shall find comforts in his end And herein lyes the weight of the reason and upon which the state of the perfect man becomes so worthy of all observation Man as he is a rational creature proposes to himself some end in all his actions That 's the great wheel that moves him and sets him to work and whatsoever he proposes to himself as his end that in his present sense and opinion hath an appearance of Good Those two maxims in Philosophy consist well together Omnia agunt propter finem and Omnia appetunt Bonum But now it oft-times comes to passe that there is a sad miscarriage men project one thing and another falls out There is Finis Operis Finis Operantis The end which is properly consequent to the Work And the end which is in the design of the Workman And these doe oftentimes differ Men engage themselves into sinfull actions and propose to themselves as their End pleasures or profits or preferments this is Finis Operantis the end of the workman but this is not Finis Operis the end of the worke For the wages of sinne is death In the eighth of the prophecy of Amos the Lord threatens his people Israel for their oppression and prophannesse Hear this ye that swallow up the needy I will turn your feasts into mourning I will make it as the mourning for an only Son and the end thereof as a bitter day at the 10 verse This bitter day was the end properly consequent to the worke of