Ezek. 14.20 3. Cry mightily to God to pardon thy own and the Nation 's Impiety Iniquity Improbity and with an holy and pathetick vehemency call to Heaven and Earth in Isaiah's Words Chap. 45. ver 8. Drop down ye Heavens from above and let the Skies pour down Righteousness Let the Earth open and let them bring forth Salvation and let Righteousness spring up together And sue out those gracious Promises that God hath made to his Church concerning Righteousness yet to be fulfilled to hasten their Accomplishment Such as these amongst many I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Counsellers as at the beginning afterwards thou shalt be called a City of Righteousness the faithful City Isa 1.26 In Righteousness shalt thou be established and shalt be far from Oppression Chap. 54.14 I will make thy Officers Peace and thine Exacters Righteousness ch 60.17 ver 21. Thy People also shall be all righteous And pray down that New Heaven and New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell which we expect and St. John saw descending 2 Pet. 3.13 Rev. 21.1 II. The Second Branch of the Exhortation I shall direct to all concerned in the solemn Business of the Day Plaintiffs and Defendants Counsellers and Pleaders Jurors and Witnesses I beseech and warn you to do all you do say all you say as in the sight and hearing of him who judgeth righteously and will render to every Man according to his Deeds All whose Ways are Judgment a God of Truth and without Iniquity just and right is he Deut. 32.4 And if we must give an Account for every idle Word at the Day of Judgment Mat. 12.36 how much more for every false malicious scornful Word spoken before a sacred Tribunal of Judgment Briefly 1. Do to others as you would others should do to you None of you would be falsly witnessed against sworn out of your Estates Lives Liberties by a false Oath or have advantage taken of your Ignorance or Weakness to oppress you in Judgment or be run down by Noise and Clamour Do not serve others so 2. Do as Conscience will do by you at that Tribunal whither you are hastning that will then speak the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth Let that guide you not Favour nor Affection Love or Hatred Faction or Partiality Expectation of Reward or Fear of Revenge Lastly Let me without imputation of indecent Rudeness or immodest Boldness My Right Honourable Lords the Reverend Judges be your Remembrancer not to instruct you in your Duty which you know much better than I can teach it but to encourage you to persist in the performance of it As the Nations Happiness absolutely depends upon the flourishing of Righteousness and its flowing down as a mighty Stream so the promoting of Godliness and Piety Justice and Equity Honesty and Probity doth much depend upon your Love to them Zeal for them and Courage to execute true Judgment with Impartiality and Truth The Motives to it are so many and so cogent I have neither need nor time to reckon them up I only beseech you always to carry them with you and often to reflect upon them One is instead of all which I shall repeat in the Words of the good and great Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 19.6 Take heed what you do for you judge not for Man but for the Lord who is with you in Judgment Ver. 7. Wherefore now let the Fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord nor respect of persons nor taking of Gifts thus shall you do faithfully and with a perfect heart Ver. 10. And what Cause soever shall come to you of your Brethren between Bloud and Bloud Law and Commandments Statutes and Judgments you shall warn them that they trespass not against the Lord and so Wrath come upon you and upon your Brethren This do and you shall not trespass Ver. 11. Deal courageously and the Lord shall be with the Good Franciscus Alverius writes of some Aethiopian Judges who sate upon the Foot-stool of their Chairs leaving the Seat empty for God or Angels to sit in And Plato tells us That Judgment used to be administred near the Temples that the Reverence of the Deity might bend the Judges Mind to the doing of Justice and I humbly hope this taking the Pulpit in the way to the Bench may have the like Effect Amen FINIS BOOKS Published by Dr. Anthony Walker The Vertuous Woman or the Life of the Countess of Warwick The Danger of deferring Repentance In several Sermons A Sermon before the Company of Apothecaries upon Eccles 10.1 Say on An Assize-Sermon before the Judges Fire out of Water Devotions for Water-Drinkers Discourses on Several Scriptures By Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry Newly Published
hard for him His Arm is not shortned nor his Hand weakned Jer. 32.27 With God nothing shall be impossible Luke 1.37 He made Heaven and Earth with a Word and nothing can withstand or resist his Power he doth whatever he pleases in the Armies of Heaven and amongst the Inhabitants of the Earth Not the second for he is faithful that hath promised Heb. 10.23 They are the Promises of him that cannot lie Tit. 1.2 not only will not but cannot and may as soon cease to be God as to be true He is not a Man that he should lie or the Son of Man that he should repent Numb 23.19 Hath he said it and shall he not do it Hath he spoken it and shall he not make it good See 1 Sam. 15.29 Now the Promises are so many of this kind Inopem me copia fecit the abundance of them distracts my Choice And indeed it is the scope and drift of all the Promises to encourage Righteousness both Personal and National and of the Threatnings to discourage and restrain Vnrighteousness See at leisure Lev. 26. Deut. 28. But to touch a few He withdraweth not his Eyes from the Righteous yea he establisheth them for ever and they are exalted Job 36.7 He shall judge the People with Righteousness and the Poor with Judgment then the Mountains shall bring Peace a comprehensive word for all Prosperity and the little Hills by Righteousness Psal 72.2 3. Righteousness and Peace kiss each other as is said of Melchisedec King of Salem first King of Righteousness then King of Peace Heb. 7.2 Righteous Kings shall inherit Peace to themselves and People for the Throne is established by Righteousness Prov. 16.12 to them that sit upon it and over whom it is set The Work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the Effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever And my People shall dwell in peaceable Habitations and in sure Dwellings and in quiet resting Places Isa 32.17 18. He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly that despiseth the Gain of Oppression and shaketh his Hands from holding of Bribes and stoppeth his Ears from hearing of Blood and shutteth his Eyes from seeing of Evil he shall dwell on high Isa 33.15 See farther Jer. 22.3 4 Execute Judgment and Righteousness For if you do this indeed then shall there enter in by these Gates Kings sitting upon the Throne of David c. Secondly Experience confirms the same the most religious just and vertuous Nations have generally speaking been most flourishing and the most righteous Governments the most renown'd and prosperous 'T is a good Observation of St. Augustin That God gave that prosperous Success to the Romans by which they obtained the Dominion of so great a part of the then known World for their Justice Fidelity Temperance and Chastity and their Love and Practice of Moral Vertues and punishing of Vice in which they exceeded and may justly rise up in Judgment against most Christian Nations who under so much clearer Light and stricter Obligations came so much short of them Time would fail me to instance in particular Persons How religiously tender were they of the Publick Faith when * See Aul. Gal. lib. 20. o. 1. Which Festeem the most excellent Chapter in all his Book containing a Vindication of the strictness of the Roman Laws and the impartial Execution of them Noct. Art Tu dictis Albane maneres Albanus was rent in pieces by four Chariots for violating of it when given to an Enemy And be Men never so impatient to hear of it 't was those that made the Reign of Q Elizabeth so flourishing and her Memory so dear to English-men And the sacred Story from the time of the Jews beginning to be a People through all their Judges and Kings till they ceas'd to be so is a constant exemplification of this Truth how Righteousness set them up and Unrighteousness pull'd them down Shalt thou reign because thou inclosest thy self in Cedar Did not thy Father eat and drink and do Judgment and Justice and then it was well with him He judged the Cause of the Poor and Needy then it was well with him Was not this to know me saith the Lord Jer. 22.15 16. And 't is a Method worthy of God to proceed thus to make himself known and to teach the stupid World this Lesson that the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness but them who do Iniquity and love Violence his Soul hateth 'T is Righteousness which keeps Destruction far off or prevents it when threatned and approaching What sav'd Judah and Jehosophat from that mighty Host which came against them but Faith and Prayer and Reformation 2 Chron. 20. What delivered Jerusalem from Senacharib's Host consisting of Hundreds of thousands but the Prayer of Isaiah the Prophet and Hezekiah the King the Ministers of Religion and Justice yea routed his Army in a Night by an Angel slaying 185000 Isa 37. What sav'd Nineveh from God's peremptory threatned Ruine within Forty days but their crying mightily to God turning every one from his Evil and ceasing from the Violence that was in their Hands Jonah 3.4 where we may easily take notice of all the Three Branches of Righteousness in our Proposition They cried mightily to God there 's Piety They ceased from the Violence of their Hands there 's Justice They turned every one from the Evil of their Ways there 's Moral Honesty or Probity 3. This Truth may be confirm'd from the relation there is between Causes and their Effects We easily believe the production of Effects when we see Causes prepared apt and fit to bring them forth as That things shall be burnt when we see them cast into the Fire that Men's Hunger and Thirst shall be satisfied and slaked when we see them eat and drink what 's wholesome in both kinds Now Piety Equity Honesty are Causes as fit to bring forth Honour Safety and Prosperity as any Causes can be to produce their proper Effects And that First With respect to God the Righteous Judge of all the Earth who will as certainly encourage and reward them as punish the Contraries Mark Abraham's Plea for Sodom Gen. 18.25 To slay the Righteous with the Wicked and that the Righteous should be as the Wicked that be far from thee shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right And so Abimelech pleaded his Innocency for his Safety Gen. 20.4 Wilt thou slay also a righteous Nation The Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness and he will act so that a man any man that takes notice of his Providences shall say doubtless there is a reward for the Righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth in the Earth Psal 58.11 Every man may see it man may behold it afar off Job 36.25 He that runs may read it I confess as to particular Persons God's Proceedings with them are not always so obvious because he hath another Place and Time to reckon with them and reward them and on purpose forbears present Payment
sometimes to prove there is a future Judgment But for Nations as Nations this is the proper Season for Rewards or Punishments the Nations of the World ceasing to be Nations when the World shall cease to be Secondly With respect to the Things themselves they have an apt Tendency to produce such Effects they are as Seed which brings forth Fruit of its own kind As Wheat bears Wheat so Righteousness bears Honour and Safety As Grace is the Seed of Glory future to Persons so these Vertues are the Seed of Glory present to a Nation His Salvation is nigh to them that fear him that Glory may dwell in our Land Psal 85.9 Light is sown for the righteous and Gladness for the upright in heart Psal 97.11 These Light and Gladness are comprehensive Words including all we speak of to make a People happy and as they are sown for the Righteous so Righteousness is the Seed sown from whence they spring Glory to the Righteous was the Prophet's Song Isa 24.16 We oft meet this Expression tendeth to Righteousness tendeth to Life Prov. 10.16 11.19 Religion and Justice they have a propense Tendency to the production of these things and we may thence conclude they will infallibly produce them These are those Waters of the Sanctuary which heal all to which they flow and give Life to every thing whither the River cometh Ezek. 47.9 2. When do they do it In what Season and Circumstances I Answer When Religion and Justice become National Vertues are in Esteem and Reputation and 't is Men's Interest to own and practise them As there is no Temptation greater than for men to find or think it their Interest to be wicked for few escape that Snare So no Conjuncture is happier than when 't is men's Interest to be good and vertuous for that encourages many to be truly so and invites more to appear such when a Nation exalts these they will exalt that Nation Exalt her and she shall promote thee she shall bring thee to Honour when thou dost embrace her she shall give to thine Head an Ornament of Grace a Crown of Glory shall she deliver to thee Prov. 4.8 9. But some may farther ask When may Righteousness be esteemed National that we may expect and hope for these Effects from it To which let me first say without offence I heartily wish that we knew this so well by a gusty relishing and sweet experience that it were needless to be taught it by dry and more insipid speculations and that we had not known it by its Contraries more feelingly than by it self and by the Vexations wherewith God did vex us with Adversity for our unrighteousness as Azariah spake to Asa 2 Chron. 15.6 And First I 'll tell you in a Word when it will not do it When it is discountenanced look'd upon askew with a suspicious and a jealous Eye reproach'd ridicul'd scorn'd hated persecuted that Men are made ashamed and affraid to own it The Righteous God will not exalt that Nation which thus treats Righteousness unless for some little Time ut graviori lapsu ruant that the higher they are lift up their Fall may be more conspicuous to others and more painful to themselves But Secondly Religion and Justice then become and are to be esteemed National 1. When they are practised and encouraged by the Greatest whose special Province and peculiar Duty it is to do it Great is the influence of Example but the Example of Great Men it of greatest influence The Court sets the Fashion and is the Standard to City and Country not only of Garbs but Manners For as when a Ruler hearkens to Lies all his Servants are wicked Prov. 29.12 So a wise King which sits on the Throne of Judgment whose Throne is a Throne of Righteous Judgment scattereth all Evil with his Eyes and bringeth the Wheel over the Wicked Prov. 20.8 26. If a Sun of Righteousness shine in that Orb give me leave to use that Phrase in an inferiour secondary Sense he heals the Nations of their Impiety and Oppression But if it be eclipsed or turned into Bloud thick Darkness covers all the Nation There shines the Moon which governs the Tides of Vertue and Vice and they rise and fall ebb and flow as influenced thence 'T is almost constant in the Sacred Histories to give account of the Jewish Nation as to Religion or Wickedness according to the Disposition of their Great Men. When the Great Men were Rulers of Sodom the Inferiours are People of Gomorrah Isa 1.10 2. When Piety and Honesty and Fidelity and Ability are esteemed the best Qualifications for publick Employment and the next Steps to Preferment and no diminishing Terms are not a Bar or Stainant Colours in a Man's Coat-Armour Unrighteous Governments must have Tools suitable to their Designs and Work and Honest Men will not do dishonest Things and therefore are not for their Turn and 't is well if they can scape with only being neglected Bonus Vir Cajus Seius sed Christianus So such and such are Able Men Honest Men but they are too Precise too Zealous and Strait-lac'd 'T is the Ruine of Nations when Ambitious Men court high Places and are admitted to them for Favour or for Money for they that buy must sell First Themselves to do wickedly Next The Righteous and their Cause because they scorn to purchase what the Laws of God and Men had given them so just a Claim and Title to But happy the Land where Jethro's Counsel is Canonical to place able Men fearing God Men of Truth and hating Covetousness over the People Exod. 18.21 When the Righteous are in Authority the People rejoyce saith Solomon Prov. 29.2 And Reason good they should for then Piety Equity and Probity are like to be promoted 3. When 't is approved by most and practised by many good Looks and good Company are two great advantages to make Piety and Honesty thrive and spread These are like the Solum and Caelum to a Plant good Soil and good Sun and Rain fertile Earth and kind Heaven when 't is not dash'd out of Countenance with a wrinkled scowling Brow nor forc'd into the Stable as Joseph and the Blessed Virgin when there was no room for them in the Inn Luk. 2.7 Or like a speckled Bird must fly into the Wilderness because the Birds of the Forest are all against it Jer. 12.9 and constrain'd to sigh out David's Option O that I had the Wings of a Dove to fly away to be at rest Psal 55.6 Or to sit as a Sparrow alone upon the House-top because in the opening of the Gates and Concourse of the People none will regard her How can Righteousness be counted National when a Nation abhors it and it s own Mother's Children account it a Stranger and an Alien But when they who ask the way to Zion with their Faces thitherward Jer. 50.5 go as the Tribes went to Jerusalem in Troops and with Musick then weak Hands and feeble Knees
weary Legs and fainting Hearts renew their Strength and mount up as Eagles and Religion spreads amain like the Vine which God brought out of Egypt which when his Hand planted fill'd the Land Psal 80.9 4. When 't is scorn'd by few persecuted and suppress'd by none then as the Gospel when it hath a free Course runs and is glorified 2 Thes 3.1 when the Stream of Righteousness hath no Dams in its Chanel to obstruct its flowing it will like Jordan in the time of Harvest overflow its Banks and water the Land as Nilus doth Aegypt to make it fertile When neither the Sword of the Mouth nor the Mouth of the Sword are whet against it When no Arrows of invenom'd bitter Words dipp'd in the Poison of Asps are shot against it 'T is not stigmatized or branded with opprobious Names which blast it as the burning East-wind nips the tender Buds and when the Foot of Violence cannot approach to hurt it but those Dogs who delight to worry and to suck the Blood of the Lambs of Christ are so muzzled or chain'd up that though they may grin and show their Teeth they cannot tear and rend them But Men may be as good as they will and the Grace of God excites and enables them to be and the Voice of Providence say to them even in this Life present what Christ spoke with relation to the Life to come Fear not little Flock Luke 12.32 And what our Lord speak in a Vision to Paul Be not affraid but speak and hold not thy Peace for I am with thee and none shall set upon thee to hurt thee Acts 18.9.10 And Righteousness obtains that Privilege with which St. Luke concludes the History of the Acts in relation to St. Paul He received all that came into him preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all Confidence no Man forbidding him When the Children of God are not at the proud and cruel Mercy of the Slaves of Satan nor at the Will of them who hate them for their Father's sake When a Nation is an holy safe and quiet Habitation to righteous Men. When under Kings and those in Authority we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 as St. Paul directs us to pray and as our own Liturgy excellently teacheth us with Fervency to beg for our King and Queen That in all their Thoughts Words and Actions they may ever seek God's Honour and Glory and study to preserve the People committed to their Charge in Wealth Peace and Godliness In such a Season Piety Equity and Honesty are in a hopeful way to be exalted in a Nation and then they will exalt that Country People Government in Honour Safety Plenty which was the second Head of Discourse to shew when or in what Circumstances of Time it doth it I proceed to the third Head to be discoursed on viz. To demonstrate the Reasons why and shew the means by which Piety Equity Probity thus exalt a Nation And though they are many Time will allow me to insist upon but few of them The first and principal is because they engage God to be God of such a Nation and to own them and bless them as his People To demonstrate this might supersede the rest as needless or leave them but as Grains to be cast into the Balance which add but little to the main weight I may say of this as the great Statesman who being ask'd what was the wisest and safest way to govern a Kingdom wrote in the top the middle and foot of the Page Moderation Moderation Moderation Or as the Rhetorician who was ask'd what was the chief Excellency of an Orator reply'd Pronunciation Pronunciation Pronunciation So may we truly answer him who asks what exalts a Nation with redoubled Repetition God's Presence with them This is the First the Second and the Third this is truly all in all 'T was a bold Motto that King us'd Cui adhaereo praeest He prevails whose part I take But it is certainly so with those on whose side God vouchsafes to be Isa 43.5 Fear not for I am with thee is full Security If God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 Let who will let who dare kick against the Pricks they are like to have a hard Task and they are sure to be over-match'd The Lord is on my side I will not fear what Man can do unto me Psal 118.6 124.1 2. When David spent many Verses in recounting what makes Nations flourish in Men's Esteem and concluded Happy is the People which are in such a Case he corrects himself in the last Words yea Happy is that People whose God is the Lord Psal 144. ult They chiefly nay they only will be found so In his Hand is Power and Might so that none is able to withstand him 2 Chron. 20.6 as Jehosophat strengthned his own Faith and the Faith of his People And David as fully as excellently Thine O Lord is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty for all that is in Heaven and in Earth is thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as Head above all Both Riches and Honour come of thee and thou reignest over all and in thine Hand is Power and Might and in thine Hand it is to make great and to give Strength unto all 1 Chron. 29.10 11 12. Safety is of the Lord as the holy Father David Psal 3.8 and the wise Solomon Prov. 21.31 both assure us Yea how oft and fully doth Nebuchadnezar an Heathen acknowledge God's absolute Dominion as God of Gods and Lord of Kings Dan. 2.47 His Dominion is an Everlasting Dominion and his Kingdom from Generation to Generation All the Inhabitants of the Earth are as nothing He doth according to his Will in the Armies of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the Earth None can stay his Hand or say What doest thou Dan. 4.34 35. How oft doth David call him his Strength And when 't is said of Sampson his Strength departed from him the next Verse explains it telling us God was departed from him Judg. 16.19 20. Excuse my overdoing in so plain a Case I must suppose they have no Bibles or use them not or believe them not to be God's Word that need more Now to have this All-sufficient God to be with us and to be our Sun and Shield we must walk before him and be perfect which I look upon not as spoken to Persons only but to Nations because to Abraham to whom God said upon the changing of his Name and the reason of his doing it A Father of many Nations have I made thee and I will make thee exceeding fruitful and I will make Nations of thee and Kings shall come out of thee Gen. 17.5 6. He was to be the Father of the Faithful and all Nations were to be blessed in him 'T is spoke to