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A42869
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Ekdikēsis or A discourse of vengeance Delivered in a sermon preached at Dorchester, at the assizes holden there for the county of Dorset, March. 4. 1663. By Henry Glover rector of Shroton.
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Glover, Henry, b. 1624 or 5.
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1664
(1664)
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Wing G889B; ESTC R217417
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16,653
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28
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the several Tempers and dispositions it met withall would allow it the Angry man finding enough in them to justify his Revenge as well as the Meek man to content and satisfy his Patience 2. Moses the mouth of God to the Israelites and therefore the Ablest the meekest man upon Earth Num. 12. 3. and therefore the Fittest to supresse the sin of Revenge layes down more punctuall Precepts to this purpose Levit. 19. 17 18. Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine Heart thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the Children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self I am the Lord. Now this being a Law stampt with Gods own Authority and of Divine Revellation was likely to have had better Effects then what was onely the Product of Naturall Light and had nothing but the bare word of a Philosopher to support it against the unruly Passions of men But there were two things especially which hindered the desired successe of that Law First the Jews looking upon none as their Brother or neighbour but onely a Jew And secondly the Pharises corrupt Gloss upon that Text of the Law Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self which they Expounded Thou shall love thy neighbour and hate thine Enemy Mat. 5. 43. By the first of these all mankind beside a Jew or a Proselite was cut off from any Benefit by that Law and by the second the Jews themselves too prone to Revenge were taught so to interpret it as their Duty to performe any such civilites to an Enemy although a Jew 3. But Jesus Christ the great shepheard of the sheep whose businesse into the world was to pull down the partition Wall to make the whole world one great Fraternity one common sheepfold began this great work in his Sermon upon the Mount Mat 5. which laying down more pressing more particular and more extensive Precepts for Bearing of wrongs Loving of Enemies and Doing good for Evil then ever the world before was acquainted withal And the Apostles who followed after treading in their Masters steps pressed nothing more frequently then an holy Amnesty of injuries and forgiving of Enemies looking upon no vice so universally opposite to Christianity as Anger and Revenge Among the many Precepts and Exhortations to this purpose this is one that I have now read unto you Dearly Beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written c. In which words you may observe two general parts viz. A Prohibition and A Proof The Prohibition in the former part of the Text Dearly Beloved Avenge not your selves but rather c The proof in the following words For it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. In the first of these you may be pleased to observe 1. A Compellation by way of Preface Dearly Beloved significans Vindictam dilectione repugnare saith Aretius The Apostle being with this Compellation to insinuate into them that the great duty of Christians is to love one another as Christ loved them with which the sin of Revenge is utterly inconsistent You loose that Noble Title of Beloved if you study Revenge 2. The Prohibition it self Avenge not your selves Revenge indeed is solatium doloris as Tertullian calls it but withall Aug. Qu. 70 super L. v. t. it is De alieno malo saith St. Austin A kind of solacing our own sorrows in another mans misery And how unsuitable is this to those that are Members of the same Body The Hand doth not rejoice if the Foot be broken nor the Foot glory if the Eye be put out Remember what you are and avenge not your selves 3. A Remedy or Direction which is to be used instead of Revenge But rather give place unto wrath Either first Orig. in loc to the wrath of man by yeilding to it and endevouring to appease it for A soft answer turneth away wrath but grieveous words stir up anger Proverbs 15. 1. When two Flints strike together Fire comes out but strike a Flint against Wool it will not do so Or else Give place unâ—o wrath that is to the wrath of God by referring the whole matter to his Decision And this brings in the Proof the second part of my Text where observe again 1. Gods Prerogative Vengeance is mine The place is in Deut. 32. 35. To me belongeth Vengeance and Recompence God claims it as his Right we must not meddle with it For to rob God of his Prerogative-Rights is the Highest sort of Sacriledge You may as justly though not as easily rob him of his Thunder Vengeance is mine saith God touch it not 2. Gods promise I will repay saith the Lord. This is to prevent an objection Perhaps may the Angry man say God will never mind the business so far as to do me Right and then Mihi permisissâ—e debnerat si ipse non praestat Tert advers Marc. l. 4. as Tertullian heightens the objection God should suffer me to do that which he never intends to do himself Yes saith God I will do thee Right fear not for Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. The words being thus opened that you may see the Inside of them I must now crave leave in the handling of them to tread in a Method a little unusual to my self viz First to observe the first Rise and spring of Revenge as it issues clear as Chrystal out of the Throne of God Secondly to trace it down through the several Chanells and Currents of Magistracy where it runs still clear unlesse it be troubled by some unjust and indirect Courses And last of all to see how this clear water becomes a very puddle when once it is mudied by the unclean Feet of the multitude Briefly we shall see these Three things 1. How Vengeance is Gods Prerogative 2. How it is the Magistrates Duty 3. How it is the Peoples Sin 1. Vengeance is Gods Prerogative Here he claims it Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. God is primarily and originally the Revenger and none but he Nor hath any Person whatsoever an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-terminated power to take away Life but onely he that hath power to give Life And as this is Gods Prerogative so he held it a long time in his own hands nor doth it appear that ever the sword of Justice was drawn or any Capitall punishment inflicted till after the Floud which was above 1600 years at least after the Creation Lactan. div Instit lib. ca. 10. Adhuc enim videbatur Nefas quamvis malos tamen Homines supplicio capitis afficere saith Lactantius For as yet it seemed an Heinous thing to put any man to Death though he were a wicked man When Cain had killed his Brother God himself took the Judgement seat arraigned endited and pronounced sentence against him as the onely Revenger of Bloud Nor was that the sentence of Death but he was condemned to be a Vagabond and Runagate upon the
Earth pursued by the Furies of his own guilty Conscience Fag in Gen. 4. 12. Munst in Gen. 96. which God appointed to be his executioners for that sin Whence Fagius and Munster have both given their Opinion that before the Floud no mans life was taken away by the Hand of Justice the greatest punishment that we find inflicted on the greatest Malefactor being only Banishment and Excomunication from the Church which in the defect of a more severe Punishment was accompanied with the Terors of God upon the soul So that though the Poets Fiction of the Golden Age was but a Fiction in this that he thought there were no Injuries nor Outrages that deserved Death commited during that time Sponte sua sine Lege Fidem Rectumque colebant yet it holds true enough in the other part Nec supplex Turba timebat Judicis ora sui sed erant sine Iudice tuti Vide Grot de Jure B. P. b. 1. c. 2. §. â— There was no standing authorized Judge to punish such crimes with death And thus stood the Case in that first Age of the world till after the Floud God as the supreme Revenger kept the sword in his own hand and did not communicate his power with any Creaturae whatsoever And so Vengeance is Gods Prerogative which was my first particular 2. Yet now it is become the Magistrates Duty and that by vertue of a Delegation or Deputation from God himself Gen. 9. 6. Who so shedeth mans bloud by man shall his Bloud be shed for in the Image of God made he Man By man shall his bloud be shed not by every man not by any man that will not by a private man but by the Magistrate Masius The word Man is here put by way of Eminency to signify Egregium prae Caeteris atque eximium Virum an extraordinary Man And for the manner of executinâ— Justice in the sheding of such guilty Bloud the Chaldee Paraphrase gives us a light which reads that Text thus Cum Testibus ex sententia Judicis fundetur sanguis ejus His Bloud shall be shed by the sentence of a Judge upon the Deposition of witnesses Whereupon Munster affirmes of that Text that it is Fons ex quo manat totum jus civile jus Gentium The Fountain from whence all our Civil and National Laws do flow It being not to be questioned but God hath put the power of smaller Controversies into their Hands into whose hands he hath put the power of life and Death And whatsoever bloud is thus deservedly shed Non est effusio sanguinis sed Legum Ministerium saith St. Hierome is not Murther but Justice Such bloud hath no voice as the Bloud of Abel had but having nothing to plead for it self is dumb and quiet Guilty Bloud let out by the hand of Justice for the preservation of the Body politique makes no more noise in the Eares of God then the Bloud that 's let out of a vein by the hand of a skilful Phisician for the preservation of the Body Natural And thus you see how the Magistrate comes to be a Revenger God hath put him into his own seat and put his own sword into his hand to execute that Vengeance which before he executed himself And that this is so beside what hath been already said may be further proved by our Apostle himself who though in the Text he brings in God laying claim to Vengeance as his peculiar yet within six or seven verses after Rom. 13. 4. he tells us that the Magistrate is the Minister of God a REVENGER to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Now certainly as Grotius observes the holy Ghost would not speak Contradictions and therefore the Text must be necessarily understood of Private Revenge executed by private Persons â—plendi doloris causa to gratify their own malice not of Vindictive Justice which the Magistrate who is Gods deputy doth in his Name and by his Authority execute And then so sacred is the Name so uncontrolable the Mouth of Justice that after the sentence prounounced No private hand must meddle no other punishment must be inflicted 't is Felony to kill a Malefactor going to the Gallows Now God to honour the Magistrate and to make him a more fit Representer of his own Majesty on Earth hath communicated three things to him which he hath not to others 1. He hath communicated his own Name to him I have said ye are Gods c. and Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the Ruler of the people Exod. 22 28. It is the observation of Justin Martyr or whoever was the Author of those Questions and Answers to the Orthodox Qu. Res ad Orthod qu. 124. which go under his Name That when ever God appointed an Angel to transact any business in his Name with Mankind that Angel was during the time of that Transaction called by the Name of God himself whom he represented but as soon as the business was done he ceased to be called by the Name of God He instanceth in Gen. 18. 22. where the Angel that talked with Abraham is called Jehovah and Gen. 32. 30. I have seen God face to face saith Jacob when he wrestled with the Angel and Exodus 23. 20 21. My name is in him saith God of the Angel that he sent before the People of Israel If any body will contend that those Angels were Christ let him remember he must contend with the Author of those Questions not with me And then he must contend with Grotius too who justifies that Authors Opinion and from Heb. 1. 2. where it is said that God hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son Grot. Expli De calog in praefâ—t censures the other opinion with an Errant gaviter c. They do greatly erre who think that God did so frequently speak to the world in those first days by his Son before the Incarnation But I say as in these Authors Opinion God put his own name upon those Angels whom he employed in some speciall Embassies So 't is more clear that when God makes choice of a Man to supply his own Room in Judging the People and executing Vengeance he cloaths him with his own Titles puts his own name upon him during the Time of his Magistracy So that when God saith Ye are Gods the meaning is saith the same Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have conferred mine own Honour Dignity Order and Name upon you and therefore Judge you the People as I my self would judge them 2. He hath with his Name conferred his own Power and Authority upon the Magistrate so that what he doth justly In Ep. Rom. ser 23. God himself doth by him The Magistrate is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use St. Chrysostomes words stamped with Gods own Image and therefore ought to exercise Gods own Power Now this stamp or Image of God upon the Magistrate is not barely that which is yet left