service and himself much honour now and then to use it Fourthly since nothing is so powerfull to represse audacious Accusers as severe Punishment is it is observable what care and caution was used among the Romans whilest that State flourished to deterre men from unjust Calumniations In private and civil Controversies for tryall of right between party and party they had their Sponsiones which was a summe of money in some proportionable rate to the value of the thing in Question which the Plaintiffe entred bond to pay to the Defendant in case he should not be able to prove his Action the Defendant also making the like sponsion and entring the like bond in case he should be cast But in publick and criminall matters whether Capitall or Penall if for want of due proof on the Accusers part the party accused were quit in judgment there went a tryall upon the Accuser at the suite of the Accused which they called Iudicium Calumniae wherein they examined the originall ground and foundation of the Accusation Which if it appeared to have proceeded from some just error or mistake bonâ fide it excused him but if should appeare the accusation to have proceeded from some left-handed respect as Malice Envy Gain c. he was then condemned of Calumny And his ordirnary punishment then was whereunto he had virtually bound himself by subscribing his libel Poena talionis the same kind of punishment whatsoever it was which by the Laws had been due to the party accused if the libell had been proved against him Yea for his farther shame it was provided by one Law that he should be burnt in the forehead with the Letter K. to proclaim him a Calumniator to the world that in old Orthography being the first letter of the word Kalumnia The same letter would serve the turn very well with us also though we use it to signifie another thing and yet not so much another thing as a thing more generall but comprehending this as one species of it But as I said I may not prescribe especially beyond Law The thing for which I mention all this is this If all that care and severity in them could not prevent it but that still unjust actions would be brought and false accusations raised what a world of unconscionable suits and wrongfull informations may we think there would be if contentious Plaintiffs and calumnious Sycophants when they have failed their proof should yet get off easily and escape out of the Courts without Censure or Punishment or at the most but with some light check and the poor injured innocent the while be held in as in a prison till he have paid the utmost farthing I say not of what is due but of what shall be demanded by every man that hath but a piece of an office about the Courts It is a strong heartning to Accusers and multiplieth false reports beyond belief when they that are wrongfully accused though the cause go with them shall yet have the worst of the day and shall have cause to answer the congratulations of their friends as Pyrrhus did his after he had gotten two famous victories over the Romans that if they should get a few more such victories it would be to their utter undoing If the Magistrate had power to make the wronged party full restitution allowing him all costs and dammages to a half-penny nay if he had power to allow him double or treble out of his unjust adversaries estate it were all little enough and but too little Zacheus took himself bound to do more when for this very sin of false accusation he imposed upon himself as a kind of satisfactory penance a four-fold restitution Luc. 19. Here was a right Quadruplator indeed and in the best sense you shall not lightly read of such another Lastly men have not fenestrata pectora that we can see them throughly and within yet there want not means of probable discovery Of ordinary private men we make conjecture by their gestures by their speeches by their companions But Magistrates and great ones who live more in the eye of the world and are ever as it were upon the stage and so do personati incedere walk under a continuall disguise in respect of their outward deportment are not so well discoverable by those means They are best known by their servants and retinue by their favourites and officers by those they keep about them or employ under them If these be plain and down-right if these be just and upright if these be free and conscionable Sycophants will pluck in their horns and be out of heart and hope to find the Masters of such servants facile to give way to their false Calumniations But if these be insolent hungry companions if these be impudent and shameless exactors it is presently thought they are then but brokers for the Master and there is no question then made but that false reports will be received as fast as they can be raised and entertained with both arms We have learned from Solomon Pro. 29. that if a Ruler hearken to lies then all his servants are wicked They durst not be so openly wicked if they were not first sure of him It was but a sorry one when it was at best but is now withall grown a stale excuse for great ones to impute their own wilfull oversights to the fault or negligence of their servants Caius Verres whom I cannot but now and then mention because there is scarce to be found such another compleat Exemplar of a wicked Magistrate would usually complain that he was unjustly oppressed not with his own but with the crimes of his followers But why then did he keep such a kennel of sharks about him why did he not either speedily reforme them or utterly discard them It were indeed an unrighteous thing to condemn the Master for the Servants fault and an uncharitable inference because the servant is naught to conclude straight the Master is little better For a just Master may have an unconscionable Servant and if he have a numerous Family and keep many it is a rare thing if he have not some bad as in a great herd there will be some rascall Deer But then it is but one or a few and they play their prises closely without their Masters privity and they are not a little sollicitous to carry matters so fairly outward that their Master shall be the last man shall hear of their false dealing and when he heareth of it shall scarce believe it for the good opinion he hath of them But when in the generality they are such when they are openly and impudently such when every body seeth and saith the Master cannot chuse but know they are such it cannot be thought but the Master is wel enough content they should be such Even their servants bear rule over the people saith good Nehemiah of the Governours that were
to discern what is fit for him to do What in most other contentions is expected should be done in this not he that is most in fault but he that hath most wit should give over first Indeed in reason the more faulty is rather bound to yield but if he will be unreasonable as most times it falleth out and not do it then in discretion the more able should do it As Abraham in discretion yielded the choice to his Nephew Lot upon the contention of their Heardsmen which in reason Lot should rather have yielded unto him But where both are faulty as it is not good to stand debating who began first so it is not safe to strain courtesie who shall end and mend first In the case of my Text both were faulty and therefore our Apostle would have both mend He hath school'd the Strong and taught him his lesson not to despise anothers infirmity Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not Now the Weak must take out his lesson too not to judge anothers liberty Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth I will not trouble you with other significations of the word to Iudge as it is here taken is as much to condemn and so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken in the worser sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tropically by a Synecdoche generis say Scholiasts and they say true But it is a Trope for which both in this and in divers other words we are not so much beholden to good Arts as to bad manners Things that are good or indifferent we commonly turn to ill by using them the worst way whence it groweth that words of good or indifferent signification in time degenerate so farre as to be commonly taken in the worst sence But this by the way The fault of these weak ones in the case in hand was that measuring other mens actions and consciences by the modell of their own understandings in their private censures they rashly passed their judgements upon and pronounced peremptory sentence against such as used their liberty in some things concerning the lawfulnesse whereof themselves were not satisfied as if they were loose Christians carnall professors nomine tenus Christiani men that would not stick to do any thing and such as made either none at all or else very little conscience of their actions This practice my Text disalloweth and forbiddeth and the rule hence for us is plain and short We must not judge others The Scriptures are expresse Iudge not that ye be not judged Matth. 7. Iudge nothing before the time c. 1 Corinth 4. Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest Rom. 2. And If thou judgest thou art not a doer of the Law but a Iudge James 4. Not that it is unlawfull to exercise civill judgement or to passe condemning sentence upon persons orderly and legally convicted for such as have calling and authority thereunto in Church or Common-wealth for this publique politique judgement is commanded in the Word of God and Reason sheweth it to be of absolute necessity for the preservation of States and Commonwealths Not that it is unlawfull secondly to passe even our private censures upon the outward actions of men when the Law of God is directly transgressed and the transgression apparent from the evidence either of the fact it selfe or of some strong signes and presumptions of it For it is stupidity and not charity to be credulous against sense Charity is ingenuous and will believe any thing though more then Reason but Charity must not be servile to believe any thing against reason Shall any charity bind me to think the Crow is white or the Black-more beautifull Nor yet thirdly that all sinister suspicions are utterly unlawfull even there where there wanteth evidence either of fact or of great signes if our suspicions proceed not from any corrupt affections but onely from a charitable jealousie of those over whom we have speciall charge or in whom we have speciall interest in such sort as that it may concern us to admonish reprove or correct them when they doe amisse so was Iob suspicious of his sonnes for sinning and cursing God in their hearts But the judgement here and elsewhere condemned is either first when in our private thoughts or speeches upon slender presumptions we rashly pronounce men as guilty of committing such or such sins without sufficient evidence either of fact or pregnant signes that they have committed them Or secondly when upon some actions undoubtedly sinfull as blasphemy adultery perjury c. We too severely censure the persons either for the future as Reprobates and Castawayes and such as shall be certainly damned or at leastwise for the present as hypocrites and unsanctified and profane and such as are in the state of damnation not considering into what fearefull sinnes it may please God to suffer not onely his chosen ones before Calling but even his holy ones too after Calling sometimes to fall for ends most times unknown to us but ever just and gracious in him Or thirdly when for want either of charity or knowledge as in the present case of this Chapter we interpret things for the worst to our brethren and condemn them of sin for such actions as are not directly and in themselves necessarily sinfull but may with due circumstances be performed with a good conscience and without sinne Now all judging and condemning of our brethren in any of these kinds is sinfull and damnable and that in very many respects especially these foure which may serve as so many weighty reasons why we ought not to judge one another The usurpation the rashnesse the uncharitablenesse and the scandall of it First it is an Usurpation He that is of right to judge must have a calling and commission for it Quis constituit te sharply replyed upon Moses Exod. 2. Who made thee a Iudge and Quis constituit me reasonably alledged by our Saviour Luk. 12. Who made me a Iudge Thou takest too much upon thee then thou son of man whosoever thou art that judgest thus saucily to thrust thy self into Gods seat and to invade his Throne Remember thy self well and learn to know thine own rank Quis tu Who art thou that judgest another Iames 4. or Who art thou that judgest anothers servant in the next following verse to my Text. As if the Apostle had said What art thou or what hast thou to do to judge him that standeth or falleth to his own Master Thou art his fellow-servant not his LORD He hath another Lord that can and will judge him who is thy Lord too and can and will judge thee for so he argueth anon at verse 10. Why doest thou judge thy brother We shall all stand before the judgement-seate of CHRIST GOD hath reserved three Prerogatives royall to himself Vengeance
Glory and judgement As it is not safe for us then to encroach upon GODS Royalties in either of the other two Glory or Vengeance so neither in this of Judgement Dominus judicabit The Lord himself will judge his people Heb. 10. It is flat Usurpation in us to judge and therefore we must not judge Secondly it is rashnesse in us A Judge must understand the truth both for matter of fact and for point of Law and he must be sure he is in the right for both before he proceed to sentence or else he will give rash judgement How then dare any of us undertake to sit as Iudges upon other mens Consciences wherewith we are so little acquainted that we are indeed but too much unacquainted with our own We are not able to search the depth of our own wicked and deceitfull hearts and to ransack throughly the many secret windings and turnings therein how much lesse then are we able to fadome the bottomes of other mens hearts with any certainty to pronounce of them either good or evil We must then leave the judgements of other mens spirits and hearts and reines to him that is the Father of spirits and alone searcheth the hearts and reines before whose eyes all things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is most Emphaticall Hebrewes 4. Wherefore our Apostles precept elsewhere is good to this purpose 1 Cor. 4. Iudge nothing before the time untill the LORD come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts Unlesse we be able to bring these hidden things to light and to make manifest these counsels it is rashnessi in us to judge and therefore we must not judge Thirdly this judging is uncharitable Charity is not easily suspicious but upon just cause much lesse then censorious and peremptory Indeed when we are to judge of Things it is wisdome to judge of them secundùm quod sunt as neer as we can to judge of them just as they are without any sway or partiall inclination either to the right hand or to the left But when we are to judge of Men and their Actions it is not altogether so there the rule of Charity must take place Dubia in meliorem partem sunt interpretanda Unlesse we see manifest cause to the contrary we ought ever to interpret what is done by others with as much favour as may be To erre thus is better than to hit right the other way because this course is safe and secureth us as from injuring others so from endangering our selves whereas in judging ill though right we are still unjust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the event onely and not our choyce freeing us from wrong judgement True Charity is ingenious it thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13. How far then are they from Charity that are ever suspicious and think nothing well For us let it be our care to maintain Charity and to avoid as far as humane frailty will give leave even sinister suspicions of our brethrens actions or if through frailty we cannot that yet let us not from light suspicions fall into uncharitable censures let us at leastwise suspend our definitive judgement and not determine too peremptorily against such as do not in every respect just as we do or as we would have them do or as we think they should do It is uncharitable for us to judge and therefore we must not judge Lastly there is Scandall in judging Possibly he that is judged may have that strength of Faith and Charity that though rash and uncharitable censures lie thick in his way he can lightly skip over all those stumbling-blocks and scape a fall Saint Paul had such a measure of strength With me it is a very small thing saith he that I should be judged of you or of humane judgement 1 Cor. 4. If our judging light upon such an object it is indeed no scandall to him but that 's no thanks to us We are to esteem things by their natures not events and therefore we give a scandall if we judge notwithstanding he that is judged take it not as a scandall For that judging is in it self a scandall is clear from ver 13. of this Chapter Let us not therefore saith S. Paul judge one another any more but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way And thus we see four main Reasons against this judging of our brethren 1. We have no right to judge and so our judging is usurpation 2. We may erre in our judgements and so our judging is rashnesse 3. We take things the worst way when we judge and so our judging is uncharitable 4. We offer occasion of offence by our judging and so our judging is scandalous Let not him therefore that eateth not judge him that eateth And so I have done with my Text in the general use of it wherein we have seen the two faults of despising and of judging our brethren laid open and the uglinesse of both discovered I now descend to make such Application as I promised both of the case and rules unto some differences and to some offences given and taken in our Church in point of Ceremony The Case ruled in my Text was of eating and not eating the Differences which some maintain in our Church are many in the particular as of kneeling and not kneeling wearing and not wearing crossing and not crossing c. But all these and most of the rest of them may be comprehended in grosse under the terms of conforming and not conforming Let us first compare the Cases that having found wherein they agree or disagree we may thereby judge how far S. Pauls advice in my Text ought to rule us for not despising for not judging one another There are four speciall things wherein if we compare this our Case with the Apostles in every of the four we shall find some agreement and some disparity also 1. The nature of the matter 2. The abilities of the persons 3. Their severall practise about the things and 4. Their mutuall carriage one towards another And first let us consider how the two Cases agree in each of these First the matter whereabout the eater and the not-eater differed in the case of the Romans was in the nature of it indifferent so it is between the conformer and not conformer in our Case As there fish and flesh and herbs were meerly indifferent such as might be eaten or not eaten without sin so here Cap and Surplis Crosse and Ring and the rest are things meerly indifferent such as in regard of their own nature may be used or not used without sin as being neither expresly commanded nor expresly forbidden in the Word of God Secondly the Persons agree For as there so here also some are strong in faith some weak
whereof we now speak had been more timely discovered and more fully and frequently made known to the world than it hath been Fourthly let that doctrine be once admitted and all humane authority will soon be despised The commands of Parents Masters and Princes which many times require both secrecy and expedition shall be taken into slow deliberation and the equity of them sifted by those that are bound to obey though they know no cause why so long as they know no cause to the contrary Delicata est obedientia quae transit in causae genus deliberativum It is a nice obedience in S. Bernards judgement yea rather troublesome and odious that is over-curious in discussing the commands of superiours boggling at every thing that is enjoyned requiring a why for every wherefore and unwilling to stir untill the lawfulness and expediency of the thing commanded shall be demonstrated by some manifest reason or undoubted authority from the Scriptures Lastly the admitting of this doctrine would cast such a snare upon men of weak judgements but tender consciences as they should never be able to unwind themselves thereout again Mens daily occasions for themselves or friends and the necessities of common life require the doing of a thousand things within the compasse of a few dayes for which it would puzzle the best Textman that liveth readily to bethink himself of a sentence in the Bible clear enough to satisfie a scrupulous conscience of the lawfulnesse and expediency of what he is about to do for which by hearkening to the rules of reason and discretion he might receive easie and speedy resolution In which cases if he should be bound to suspend his resolution and delay to do that which his own reason would tell him were presently needfull to be done untill he could haply call to mind some precept or example of Scripture for his warrant what stops would it make in the course of his whole life what languishings in the duties of his calling how would it fill him with doubts and irresolutions lead him into a maze of uncertainties entangle him in a world of wofull perplexities and without the great mercy of God and better instruction plunge him irrecoverably into the gulph of despair Since the chief end of the publication of the Gospel is to comfort the hearts and to revive and refresh the spirits of Gods people with the glad tidindgs of liberty from the spirit of bondage and fear and of gracious acceptance with their GOD to anoint them with the oyl of gladness giving them beauty for ashes and instead of sackcloth girding them with joy we may well suspect that doctrine not to be Evangelicall which thus setteth the consciences of men upon the rack tortureth them with continuall fears and perplexities and prepareth them thereby unto hellish despaire These are the grievous effects and pernicious consequents that will follow upon their opinion who hold that we must have warrant from the Scripture for every thing whatsoever we do not onely in spirituall things wherein alone it is absolutely true nor yet onely in other matters of weight though they be not spirituall for which perhaps there might be some colour but also in the common affairs of life even in the most slight and triviall things Yet for that the Patrons of this opinion build themselves as much upon the authority of this present Text as upon any other passage of Scripture whatsoever which is the reason why we have stood thus long upon the examination of it we are therefore 〈…〉 next place to clear the Text from that their mis-interpretation The force of their collection standeth thus as you heard already that faith is ever grounded upon the word of God that therefore whatsoever action is not grounded upon the word being it is not of faith by the Apostles rule here must needs be a sin Which collection could not be denied if the word Faith were here taken in that sense which they imagine and wherein it is very usuall taken in the Scriptures viz. for the doctrine of supernaturall and divine revelation or for the belief thereof which doctrine we willingly acknowledge to be compleatly contained in the holy Scriptures alone and therefore dare not admit into our belief as a branch of divine supernaturall truth any thing not therein contained But there is a third signification of the word Faith nothing so frequently found in the Scriptures as the two former which yet appeareth both by the course of this whole Chapter and by the consent of the best and most approved interpreters as well ancient as modern to have been properly intended by our Apostle in this place namely that wherein it is put for a certain perswasion of mind that what we do may lawfully be done So that whatsoever action is done by us with reasonable assurance and perswasion of the lawfulnesse thereof in our own consciences is in our Apostles purpose so far forth an action of Faith without any inquiring into the means whereby that perswasion was wrought in us whether it were the light of our own reason or the authority of some credible person or the declaration of Gods revealed will in his written Word And on the other side whatsoever action is done either directly contrary to the judgement and verdict of our own consciences or at leastwise doubtingly and before we are in some competent measure assured that we may lawfully do it that is it which S. Paul here denieth to be of faith and of which he pronounceth so peremptorily that it is and that co nomine a sin About which use and signification of the word Faith we need not to trouble our selves to fetch it from a trope either of a Metonymie or Synecdoche as some do For though as I say it do not so often occur in Scripture yet it is indeed the primary and native signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith derived from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perswade Because all kinds of Faith whatsoever consist in a kind of perswasion You shall therefore find the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly to believe and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly not to be perswaded to be opposed as contrary either to other in Iohn 3. and Acts 14. and other places To omit the frequent use of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Fides in Greek and Latine authors in this signification observe but the passages of this very Chapter and you will be satisfied in it At the second verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one believeth that he may eat all things that is he is verily perswaded in his conscience that he may as lawfully eat flesh as herbs any one kind of meat as any other he maketh no doubt of it Again at the fourteenth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know and am perswaded that there is nothing
unclean of it self That is I stedfastly believe it is a most certain and undoubted truth Again at the two and twentieth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God that is art thou in thy conscience perswaded that thou maist lawfully partake any of the good creatures of God Let that perswasion suffice thee for the approving of thine own heart in the sight of God but trouble not the Church nor offend thy weaker brother by a needlesse and unseasonable ostentation of that thy knowledge Lastly in this three and twentieth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith that is he that is not yet fully perswaded in his own mind that it is lawfull for him to eat some kinds of meats as namely swines flesh or bloodings and yet is drawn against his own judgement to eat thereof because he seeth others so to do or because he would be loth to undergo the taunts and jears of scorners or out of any other poor respect such a man is cast and condemned by the judgement of his own heart as a transgressor because he adventureth to do that which he doth not believe to be lawfull And then the Apostle proceeding ab hypothesi ad thesin immediately reduceth that particular case into a generall rule in these words For whatsoever is not of faith is sin By the processe of which his discourse it may appear that by Faith no other thing is here meant than such a perswasion of the mind and conscience as we have now declared and that the true purport and intent of these words is but thus much in effect Whosoever shall enterprise the doing of any thing which he verily believeth to be unlawfull or at leastwise is not reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulnesse of it let the thing be otherwise and in it self what it can be lawfull or unlawfull indifferent or necessary convenient or inconvenient it mattereth not to him it is a sin howsoever Which being the plain evident and undeniable purpose of these words I shall not need to spend any more breath either in the farther refutation of such conclusions as are mis-inferred hence which fall of themselves or in the farther Explication of the meaning of the Text which already appeareth but addresse my self rather to the application of it Wherein because upon this great principle may depend the resolution of very many Cases of Conscience which may trouble us in our Christian and holy walking it will not be unprofitable to proceed by resolving some of the most material doubts and questions among those which have occurred unto my thoughts by occasion of this Text in my meditations thereon First it may be demanded What power the Conscience hath to make a thing otherwise good and lawfull to become unlawfull and sinfull and whence it hath that power I answer First that it is not in the power of any mans judgement or conscience to alter the naturall condition of any thing whatsoever either in respect of quality or degree but that still every thing that was good remaineth good and every thing that was evil remaineth evil and that in the very same degree of good or evil as it was before neither better nor worse any mans particular judgement or opinion thereof notwithstanding For the differences between good and evil and the severall degrees of both spring from such conditions as are intrinsecall to the things themselves which no Outward respects and much lesse then mens opinions can vary He that esteemeth any creature unclean may defile himself but he cannot bring impurity upon that creature by such his estimation Secondly that mens judgements may make that which is good in its own nature the naturall goodnesse still remaining become evil to them in the use essentially good and quoad rem but quoad hominem and accidentally evil It is our Apostles own distinction in the fourteenth verse of this Chapter Nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean unclean to him But then we must know withall that it holdeth not the other way Mens judgements or opinions although they may make that which is good in it self to become evil to them yet they cannot make that which is evill in it self to become good either in it self or to them If a man were verily perswaded that it were evil to ask his father blessing that mis-perswasion would make it become evil to him But if the same man should be as verily perswaded that it were good to curse his father or to deny him relief being an unbeliever that mis-perswasion could not make either of them become good to him Some that persecuted the Apostles were perswaded they did God good service in it It was Saint Pauls case before his conversion who verily thought in himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Iesus But those their perswasions would not serve to justifie those their actions Saint Paul confesseth himself to have been a persecutor and blasphemer and injurious for so doing although he followed the guidance of his own conscience therein and to have stood in need of mercy for the remission of those wicked acts though he did them ignorantly and out of zeal to the Law The reason of which difference is that which I touched in the beginning even because any one defect is enough to render an action evill and consequently a defect in the agent may do it though the substance of the action remain still as it was good but all conditions must concur to make an action good and consequently a right intention in the agent will not suffice thereunto so long as the substance of the action remaineth still as it was evill Thirdly that the Conscience hath this power over mens wils and actions by virtue of that unchangeable Law of God which he establisheth by an ordinance of nature in our first creation that the will of every man which is the fountain whence all our actions immediately flow should conforme it self to the judgement of the practique understanding or conscience as to its proper and immediate rule and yield it self to be guided thereby So that if the understanding through Errour point out a wrong way and the will follow it the fault is chiefly in the understanding for mis-guiding the will But if the understanding shew the right way and the will take a wrong then the fault is meerly in the will for not following that guide which GOD hath set over it It may be demanded secondly Whether or no in every particular thing we do an actuall consideration of the lawfulnesse and expediency thereof be so requisite as that for want thereof we should sinne in doing it The reason of the doubt is because otherwise how should it appeare to be of faith and Whatsoever is not of faith is sin I answer First that in
matters of weight and worthy of consultation it is very necessary that the lawfulnesse and expediency of them be first diligently examined before they be enterprised And secondly that even in smaller matters the like examination is needfull when there is any apparent cause of doubting But thirdly that in such small and triviall matters as it much skilleth not whether we do them or no or whether we do this rather than that and wherein no doubt ariseth to trouble us an actuall consideration of their lawfulnesse or expediency is so far from being requisite that it would rather be troublesome and incommodious True it is that all voluntary actions are done with some deliberation more or lesse because it is the nature of the will to consult with the understanding in every act else it should be irrationall and brutish Yet there are many things which we daily do wherein the sentence of the understanding is so quick and present because there is no difficulty in them that they seem to be and are therefore sometimes so termed actus indeliberati such as are to sit down and to rise up to pluck a flower as we walk in a Garden to aske the time of the day or the name of the next Town as we travell by the way or whether we eat of this or that dish at the table and the like For the doing of every of which it were a ridiculous servility to be imposed upon men if they should be tyed to district examination of the lawfullnesse and expediency thereof There is not in them dignus vindice nodus and a mans time ought to be more precious unto him than to be trifled away in such needless and minute enquiries It is even as if we should tye a great learned man that is ready in his Latine tongue to bethink himself first of some grammar rule or example for the declining and parsing of every word he were to speak before he should adventure to utter a Latine sentence But as such a man is sufficiently assured out of the habit of his learning that he speaketh congruously and with good propriety though he have no present actuall reference to his Grammar rules so here an habituall knowledge of the nature and use of indifferent things is sufficient to warrant to the conscience the lawfulnesse of these common actions of life so as they may be said to be of faith though there be no farther actuall or particular disquisition used about them A very needfull thing it is the whilest for Christian men to endeavour to have a right judgement concerning indifferent things without which it can scarcely be avoided but that both their Consciences will be full of distracting scruples within themselves their conversations full of unbrotherly carriage towards others It may be demanded thirdly Since Whatsoever is not of faith is sin What measure of Faith or what degree of Perswasion is necessary for the warranting of our actions so as lesse than that will not serve I answer that what is here demanded cannot be positively defined by any peremptory and immoveable rules There is most an end a Latitude in such things as these are which may be straitned or extended more or lesse according to the exigence of present occasions and as the different state or quality of particular businesses shall require There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fulnesse of perswasion arising from evident infallible and demonstrative proofes which is attainable for the performance of sundry duties both of civill Iustice and of Religion And where it may be attained it is to be endeavoured after though it be not of absolute necessity for we cannot make our assurances too strong The Apostle useth that word at the fifth ver Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a metaphoricall word and seemeth to be borrowed from a Ship under full saile that hath both wind and tide with it to carry it with a straight and speedy course to the desired point and nothing to hinder it But as men when they are to purchase lands will desire and propose to have as good assurance as by learned counsell can be devised but yet must be content to take such assurance as the sellers can make or else they shall make but a few markets so although we may desire ex abundanti a full assurance of faith in every weighty action we shall enterprise yet ordinarily and in most things we must content our selves to take up with a conjectural probable and moral certainty or else we shall find very few things left for us to do Fides Logica is not to be expected in all cases in some and those the most Fides Ethica must serve the turne Nay I say yet further and I beseech you brethren to take notice of it as a matter of speciall use both for the directing and quieting of your consciences that ordinarily and in most things we need no other warrant for what we do than this onely that there is not to our knowledge any law either of Nature or Scripture against them As the Lawyers use to say of mens persons Quisque praesumitur esse bonus c. The Law taketh every man for a good man and true till his truth and honesty be legally disproved and as our Saviour sometimes said He that is not against us is for us so in these matters we are to believe all things to be lawfull for us to do which cannot be shewn by good evidence either of Scripture or Reason to be unlawfull Those men therefore go quite the wrong way to work to the fearefull puzling of their own and other mens consciences who use to argue on this manner This I have no warrant to do for where is it commanded Whereas they ought rather to argue thus This I have good warrant to do for where is it forbidden Apply this now a little to those Ceremonies that for orders sake and to adde the greater solemnity to sacred actions are appointed in the Church Wearing the Surplize bowing at the Name of the Lord Iesus kneeling at the Holy Communion and the rest Though I might say and that truly that these also are commanded even by divine authority in genere that is to say as they fall within the compasse of decent Ceremonies by virtue of that grand Ecclesiasticall Canon Let all things be done honestly and in order and that even in specie too they are commanded by the authority of those governors whom God hath set over us and to whom we are bound in conscience and by vertue of Gods commandement to yield obedience Yet I waive all this for the present because it is not so direct to the point in hand Onely I aske Where are any of these things forbidden if they be let it be shewn and that not by weake collections and remote consequences which are good for nothing but to engender strifes and to
forbear than to adventure the doing of that whereof he doubteth is because in doubtfull cases wisdome would that the safer part should be chosen And that part is safer which if we chuse we are sure we shall do well than that which if we chuse we know not but we may do ill As for example in the instances now proposed If I doubt of the lawfulnesse of Usury or of Marrying after divorce I am sure that if I marry not nor let out my money I shall not sin in so abstaining but if I shall do either of both doubtingly I cannot be without some fear lest I should sin in so doing and so those actions of mine being not done in faith must needs be sin even by the Rule of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whatsoever is not of faith is sin But then thirdly if the liberty of the agent be determined by the command of some superiour power to whom he oweth obedience so as he is not now sui juris ad hoc to do or not to do at his own choice but to do what he is commanded this one circumstance quite altereth the whole case and now he is bound in conscience to do the thing commanded his doubtfulnsse of mind whether that thing be lawfull or no notwithstanding To do that whereof he doubteth where he hath free liberty to leave it undone bringeth upon him as we have already shewn the guilt of wilfull transgression but not so where he is not left to his own liberty And where lawfull authority prescribeth in alterutram partem there the liberty ad utramque partem contradictionis is taken away from so many as are under that authority If they that are over them have determined it one way it is not thenceforth any more at their choice whether they will take that way or the contrary but they must go the way that is appointed them without gainsaying or grudging And if in the deed done at the command of one that is endued with lawfull authority there be a sin it must go on his score that requireth it wrongfully not on his that doth but his duty in obeying A Prince commandeth his Subjects to serve in his Warres it may be the quarrel is unjust it may be there may appear to the understanding of the subject great likelihoods of such injustice yet may the subject for all that fight in the quarrell yea he is bound in conscience so to do nay he is deep in disloyalty and treason if he refuse the service whatsoever pretensions he may make of conscience for such refusall Neither need that fear trouble him lest he should bring upon himself the guilt of innocent blood for the blood that is unrighteously shed in that quarrel he must answer for that set him on work not he that spilt it And truly it is a great wonder to me that any man endued with understanding and that is able in any measure to weigh the force of those precepts and reasons which bind inferiours to yield obedience to their superiours should be otherwise minded in cases of like nature Whatsoever is commanded us by those whom God hath set over us either in Church Common-wealth or Family Quod tamen non sit certum displicere Deo saith S. Bern. which is not evidently contrary to the Law and will of God ought to be of us received obeyed no otherwise then as if God himself had commanded it because God himself hath commanded us to obey the higher powers and to submit our selves to their ordinances Say it be not well done of them to command it Sed enim quid hoc refert tuâ saith he What is that to thee Let them look to that whom it concerneth Tolle quod tuum est vade Do thou what is thine own part faithfully and never trouble thy self further Ipsum quem pro Deo habemus tanquam Deum in his quae apertè non sunt contra Deum audire debemus Bernard still Gods Vicegerents must be heard and obeyed in all things that are not manifestly contrary to the revealed will of God But the thing required is against my conscience may some say and I may not go against my conscience for any mans pleasure Judge I pray you what perversnesse is this when the blessed Apostle commandeth thee to obey for conscience sake that thou shouldest disobey and that for conscience sake too He chargeth thee upon thy conscience to be subject and thou pretendest thy conscience to free thee from subjection This by the way now to the point Thou sâ—yest it is against thy conscience I say again that in the case whereof we now speake the case of doubtfulnesse it is not against thy conscience For doubting properly is motus indifferens in utramque partem contradictionis when the mind is held in suspence between two wayes uncertain whether of both to take to When the scales hang even as I said before and in aequilibrio without any notable propension or inclination to the one side more than to the other And surely where things hang thus even if the weight of authority will not cast the scale either way we may well suppose that either the authority is made very light or else there is a great fault in the beame Know brethren the gainsaying conscience is one thing and the doubting conscience another That which is done repugnante conscientiâ the conscience of the doer flatly gainsaying it that is indeed against a mans conscience the conscience having already passed a definitive sentence the one way and no respect or circumstance whatsoever can free it from sin But that which is done dubitante conscientiâ the conscience of the doer onely doubting of it and no more that is in truth no more against a mans conscience than with it the conscience as yet not having passed a definitive sentence either way and such an action may either be a sinne or no sinne according to those qualifications which it may receive from other respects and circumstances If the conscience have already passed a judgement upon a thing and condemned it as simply unlawfull in that case it is true that a man ought not by any meanes to do that thing no not at the command of any Magistrate no not although his conscience have pronounced a wrong sentence and erred in that judgement for then he should do it repugnante conscientiâ he should go directly against his own conscience which he ought not to do whatsoever come of it In such a case certainly he may not obey the Magistrate yet let him know thus much withall that he sinneth too in disobeying the Magistrate from which sinne the following of the judgement of his own conscience cannot acquit him And this is that fearfull perplexity whereof I spake whereinto many a man casteth himself by his own errour and obstinacy that he can neither go with his conscience nor against it but he shall sinne And
a good man as well as a great and being good he was by so much the better by how much he was the greater Nor was he onely Bonus vir a good man and yet if but so his friends had done him much wrong to make him an Hypocrite but he was Bonus Civis too a good Common-wealths-man and therefore his friends did him yet more wrong to make him an Oppressour Indeed he was neither the one nor the other But it is not so useful for us to know what manner of man Iob was as to learn from him what manner of men we should be The grieved spirit of Iob indeed at first uttered these words for his own justification but the blessed spirit of God hath since written them for our instruction To teach us from Iobs example how to use that measure of greatness and power which he hath given us be it more be it lesse to his glory and the common good So that in these words we have to consider as laid down unto us under the person and from the example of Iob some of the main and principal duties which concern all those that live in any degree of Eminency or Authority either in Church or Common-wealth and more especially those that are in the Magistracy or in any office appertaining to Iustice. And those Duties are four One and the first as a more transcendent and fundamentall duty the other three as accessory helps thereto or subordinate parts thereof That first is a Care and Love and Zeal of Iustice. A good Magistrate should so make account of the administration of Iustice as of his chiefest businesse making it his greatest glory and delight Ver. 14. I put on righteousnesse and it clothed me my judgement was a robe and a diadem The second is a forwardnesse unto the works of Mercy and Charity and Compassion A good Magistrate should have compassion of those that stand in need of his help and be helpful unto them ver 15. and part of 16. I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a father to the poor The Third is Diligence in Examination A good Magistrate should not be hasty to credit the first tale or be carried away with light informations but he should hear and examine and scan and sift matters as narrowly as may be for the finding out of the truth in the remainder of ver 16. And the cause which I knew not I searched out The Fourth is Courage and Resolution in executing A good Magistrate when he goeth upon sure grounds should not fear the faces of men be they never so mighty or many but without respect of persons execute that which is equall and right even upon the greatest offender Ver. 17. And I brake the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth Of these four in their order of the first first in these words I put on righteousnesse c. This Metaphor of clothing is much used in the Scriptures in this notion as it is applyed to the soul things appertaining to the soul. In Psalm 109. David useth this imprecation against his enemies Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a cloke And the Prophet Esay speaking of Christ and his Kingdome and the righteousnesse thereof Chap. 11. thus describeth it Righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulnesse the girdle of his reins Likewise in the New Testament Saint Paul in one place biddeth us put on the Lord Iesus Christ in another exhorteth women to adorn themselves instead of broydered hair and gold and pearls and costly aray with shamefastness and sobriety and as becoming women professing godlinesse with good works in a third furnisheth the spirituall souldier with Shooes Girdle Breastplate Helmet and all necessary accoutrements from top to toe In all which and other places where the like Metaphor is used it is ever to be understoood with allusion to one of the three speciall ends and uses of apparell For we clothe our selves either first for necessity and common decency to cover our nakednesse or secondly for security and defence against enemies or thirdly for state and solemnity and for distinction of offices and degrees Our cloaks and coats and ordinary suits we all wear to cover our nakednesse and these are Indumenta known by no other but by the generall name of Clothing or Apparel Souldiers in the warres wear Morions and Cuiraces and Targets and other habiliments for defence and these are called Arma Armes or Armour Kings and Princes were Crowns and Diadems inferiour Nobles and Judges and Magistrates and Officers their Robes and â—urres and Hoods and other ornaments fitting to their severall degrees and offices for solemnity of state and as ensigns or marks of those places and stations wherein God hath set them and these are Infulae Ornaments or Robes It is true Iustice and Iudgement and every other good vertue and grace is all this unto the soul serving her both for covert and for protection and for ornament and so stand both for the garments and for the armour and for the Robes of the soul. But here I take it Iob alludeth esecially to the third use The propriety of the very words themselves give it so for he saith he put righteousnesse and judgement upon him as a Robe and a Diadem and such things as there are worn not for necessity but state Iob was certainly a Magistrate a Iudge at the least it is evident from the seventh verse and to me it seemeth not improbable that he was a King though not likely such as the Kings of the earth now are whose dominions are mider and power more absolute yet possibly such as in those ancient times and in those Eastern parts of the world were called Kings viz. a kind of petty Monarch and supreme governour within his own territories though perhaps but of one single City with the Suburbs and some few neighbouring Villages In the first Chapter it is said that he was the greatest man of all the East and in this Chapter he saith of himself that When he came in presence the Princes and the Nobles held their tongues and that He sate as chief and dwelt as a King in the Army and in this verse he speaketh as one that wore a Diadem an ornament proper to Kings Now Kings we know and other Magistrates place much of their outward glory and state in their Diadems and Robes and peculiar Vestments these things striking a kind of reverence into the subject towards their Superiour and adding in the estimation of the people both glory and honour and Majesty to the person and withall pomp and state and solemnity to the actions of the wearer By this speech then of putting on Iustice and Iudgement as a Robe and a Diadem Iob sheweth that the glory and pride which Kings and Potentates
therein In the rest the Psalmist draweth his argument from other considerations in this from the consideration of Gods mercifull removall of those judgements he had in his just wrath brought upon his own people Israel for their sinnes upon their repentance For this purpose there are sundry instances given in the Psalme taken out of the Histories of former times out of which there is framed as it were a Catalogue though not of all yet of sundry the most famous rebellions of that people against their God and of Gods both justice and mercy abundantly manifested in his proceedings with them thereupon In all which we may observe the passages betwixt God and them in the ordinary course of things ever to have stood in this order First he preventeth them with undeserved favours they unmindfull of his benefits provoke him by their rebellions he in his just wrath chastiseth them with heavie plagues they humbled under the rod seeke to him for ease he upon their submission withdraweth his judgements from them The Psalmist hath wtapped all these five together in Vers. 43 44. Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their counsels and were brought low for their iniquity the three first Neverthelesse he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry the other two The particular rebellions of the people in this Psalme instanced in are many some before and some after the verse of my Text. For brevity sake those that are in the following verses I wholly omit and but name the rest Which are their wretched infidelity and cowardise upon the first approch of danger at the Red Sea verse 7. Their tempting of God in the desert when lothing Manna they lusted for flesh verse 13. Their seditious conspiracy under Corah and his confederates against Moses verse 16. Their grosse Idolatry at Horeb in making and worshipping the golden Calfe verse 19. Their distrustfull murmuring at their portion in thinking scorn of the promised pleasant Land verse 24. Their fornicating both bodily with the daughters and spiritually with the Idols of Moab and of Midian verse 28. To the prosecution of which last mentioned story the words of my Text do appertain The origine story it self whereto this part of the Psalme referreth is written at full by Moses in Numb 25. and here by David but briefly touched as the present purpose and occasion led him Yet so as that the most observable passages of the History are here remembred in three verses three speciall things The Sin the Plague the Deliverance The Sinne with the Aggravation thereof v. 28. They joyned themselves also unto Baal-Peor and ate the Sacrifices of the dead The Plague with the Efficient cause thereof both Impulsive and Principall verse 29. Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions and the Plague brake in upon them The Deliverance with the speciall meanes and Instrument thereof is this 30. verse Then stood up Phinehes and executed judgement and the plague was stayed In which words are three things especially considerable The Person the Action of that Person and the successe of that Action The Person Phinehes His Action twofold the one preparatory he stood up the other completory he executed judgment The Successe and issue of both the plague was stayed The person holy the action zealous the successe happy Of each of these I shall endeavour to speak something applyably to the present condition of these heavy times and the present occasion of this frequent assembly But because the argument of the whole verse is a Deliverance and that Deliverance supposeth a plague and every plague supposeth a sin I must take leave before I enter upon the Particulars now proposed from the Text first a little to unfold the originall story that so we may have some more distinct knowledge both what Israels sinne was and how they were plagued and upon what occasion and by what means Phinehes wrought their deliverance When Israel travelling from the Land of bondage to the Land of Promise through the wildernesse were now come as far as the plaines of Moab and there encamped Balac the then King of Moab not daring to encounter with that people before whom two of his greatest neighbour Princes had lately fallen consulted with the Midianites his neighbours and allies and after some advice resolved upon this conclusion to hire Balaam a famous Sorcerer in those times and quarters to lend them his assistance plotting with all their might and his art by all possible meanes to withdraw Gods protection from them wherein they thought and they thought right the strength and safety of that people lay But there is no Counsell against the Lord nor inchantment against his people Where he will blesse and he will blesse where he is faithfully obeyed and depended upon neither power nor policy can prevaile for a Curse Balaam the wicked wretch though he loved the wayes of unrighteousnesse with his heart yet God not suffering him he could not pronounce a Curse with his lips against Israel but in stead of cursing them blessed them altogether But angry at Israel whom when faine he would he could not curse yea and angry at God himself who by restraining his tongue had voided his hopes and withheld him from pay and honour the wretched covetous Hypocrite as if he would at once be avenged both of him and them imagineth a mischievous device against them full of cursed villany He giveth the Moabites and the Midianites counsell to smother their hatred with pretensions of peace and by sending the fairest of their daughters among them to enveigle them with their beauty and to entice them first to corporall and after by that to spirituall whoredome That so Israel shrinking frow the Love and Feare and Obedience of their God might forfeit the interest they had in his protection and by sinne bring themselves under that wrath and curse of God which neither those great Princes by their Power nor their wisest Counsellers by their Policy nor Balaam himself by his Sorcery could bring upon them This damned counsell was followed but too soon and prospered but too well The daughters of Moab come into the Tents of Israel and by their blandishments put out the eyes and steal away the hearts of Gods people whom besotted once with lust it was then no hard matter to leade whither they listed and by wanton insinuations to draw them to sit with them in the Temples and to accompany them at the feasts and to eate with them of the sacrifices yea and to bow the knees with them to the honour of their Idols Insomuch as Israel joyned themselves to Baal-peor and ate the sacrifices of that dead and abominable Idol at the least for all Idols are such if not as most have thought a beastly and obscene Idoll withall That was their sin And now may Balak save his
directly and per se but obliquely and indirectly and in ordine ad spiritualia The Man himself though he pretend to be supreme infallible judge of all Controversies yet heareth both parties and taketh advantage of what either give him as best sorteth with his present occasions and suffereth them to fall foul each upon other these accounting them grosse flatterers and they again these wicked â—oliticians but dareth not for his life determine whether side is in the right lest if he should be put to make good his determination by sufficient proof both should appeare to be in the wrong and he lose all which whilest they quarrell he still holdeth It is a certain thing The spirituall Power conferred in Holy Orders doth not include the Power of Temporall jurisdiction If Phinehes here execute judgement upon a Prince of Israel it is indeed a good fruit of his zeal but no proper act of his Priesthood Let it go for a non sequitur then as it is no better because Phinehes a Priest or Priests sonne executed judgement that therefore the Priestly includeth a Iudicatory Power Yet from such an act done by such a Person at least thus much will follow that the Priesthood doth not exclude the exercise of Iudicature and that there is no such repugnancy and inconsistency between the Temporall and Spirituall Powers but that they may without incongruity concurre and reside both together in the same person When I find anciently that not onely among the Heathens but even among Gods own people the same man might be a King and a Priest Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos as Melchisedec was both a Priest of the most High God and King of Salem when I see it consented by all that so long as the Church was Patriarchall the Priestly and the Iudicatory Power were both setled upon one and the same Person the Person of the first-born when I read of Eli the Priest of the sonnes of Aaron judging Israel 40. yeares and of Samuel certainly a Levite though not as some have thought a Priest both going circuit as a Iudge itinerant in Israel and doing execution too with his own hands upon Agag and of Chenaniah and his sonnes Izharites and Hashabiah and his brethren Hebronites and others of the families of Levi appointed by King David to be Judges and Officers not onely in all the businesse over the Lord but also for outward businesse over Israel and in things that concerned the service of the King when I observe in the Church-stories of all ages ever since the world had Christian Princes how Ecclesiasticall persons have been imployed by their Soveraigns in their weightiest consultations and affairs of State I cannot but wonder at the inconsiderate rashnesse of some forward ones in these daies who yet think themselves and would be thought by others to be of the wisest men that suffer their tongues to runne riot against the Prelacy of our Church and have studied to approve themselves eloquent in no other argument so much as in inveighing against the Courts and the Power and the Iurisdiction and the Temporalties of Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall persons I speak it not to justifie the abuses of men but to maintain the lawfulnesse of the thing If therefore any Ecclesiasticall person seek any Temporall office or power by indirect ambitious and preposterous courses if he exercise it otherwise then well insolently cruelly corruptly partially if he claim it by any other then the right title the free bounty and grace of the supreme Magistrate let him bear his own burden I know not any honest Minister that will plead for him But since there is no incapacity in a Clergy-man by reason of his spirituall Calling but he may exercise temporall Power if he be called to it by his Prince as well as he may enjoy temporall Land if he be heire to it from his Father I see not but it behoveh us all if we be good Subjects and sober Christians to pray that such as have the power of Iudicature more or lesse in any kind or degree committed unto them may exercise that power wherewith they are entrusted with zeal and prudence and equity rather than out of envy at the preferment of a Church-man take upon us little lesse than to quarrel the discretion of our Soveraignes Phinehes though he could not challenge to execute judgement by vertue of his Priesthood yet his priesthood disabled him not from executing judgement That for the Person Followeth his Action and that twofold He stood up He executed judgement Of the former first which though I call it an Action yet is indeed a Gesture properly and not an Action But being no necessity to bind me to strict propriety of speech be it Action or Gesture or what else you will call it the circumstance and phrase since it seemeth to import some materiall thing may not be passed over without some consideration Then stood up Phinehes Which clause may denote unto us either that extraordinary spirit whereby Phinehes was moved to do judgement upon those shamelesse offenders or that forwardnesse of zeal in the heat whereof he did it or both Phinehes was indeed the High Priests sonne as we heard but yet a private man and no ordinary Magistrate and what had any private man to do to draw the sword of justice or but to sentence a malefactor to dye Or say he had been a Magistrate he ought yet to have proceeded in a legall and judiciall course to have convented the parties and when they had been convicted in a fair triall and by sufficient witnesse then to have adjudged them according to the Law and not to have come suddenly upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were acting their villany and thrust them thorow uncondemned I have elsewhere delivered it as a collection not altogether improbable from the circumstances of the originall story that Phinehes had warrant for this execution from the expresse command of Moses the supreme Magistrate and namely by vertue of that Proclamation whereby he authorized the Under-Rulers to slay every one his men that were joyned unto Baal-Peor Num. 25.5 And I since find that conjecture confirmed by the judgement of some learned men insomuch as an eminent Writer in our Church saith that By vertue of that Commission every Israelite was made a Magistrate for this execution But looking more neerly into the Text and considering that the Commission Moses there gave was first onely to the Rulers and so could be no warrant for Phinehes unlesse he were such a Ruler which appeareth not and secondly concerned onely those men that were under their severall governments and so was too short to reach Zimri who being himself a Prince and that of another Tribe too the Tribe of Simeon could not be under the government of Phinehes who was of the Tribe of Levi how probable soever
of all men shall be made manifest and every man that hath deserved well shall have praise of God and not of man Secondly Phinehes as he did not post off this execution to other men so he did not put it off to another day Phinehes might have thought thus We are now in a religious work humbling our selves in a publick solemn and frequent assembly before the face of God to appease his just wrath against us for our sinnes Et quod nunc instat agamus It would be unseasonable leaving this work now another time may serve as well to inflict deserved punishment upon that wicked miscreant But zeal will admit no put-offs it is all upon the spur till it be doing what it conceiveth fit to be done There are no passions of the mind so impetuous and so impatient of delay as Love and Anger and these two are the prime ingredients of true zeal If any man should have interposed for Zimri and taken upon him to have mediated with Phinehes for his reprivall I verily think in that heat he might sooner have provoked his own then have prorogued Zimries execution Delayes in any thing that is good are ill and in the best things worst As Wax when it is chafed and Iron when it is hot will take impressions but if the Seal or Stamp be not speedily put to the heat abateth and they return to their former hardnesse so the best affections of the best men if they be not taken in the heat abate and lessen and dye In the administration then of Iustice and the execution of Iudgement where there is Zeal there will be Expedition and the best way to preserve Zeal where it is is to use Expedition I am not able to say where the want is or where specially but certainly a great want there is generally in this Kingdom of Zeal to Iustice in some that should have it if that complaint be as just as it is common among men that have had suits in the Courts that they have been wronged with far lesse damage then they have been righted there have been so many frustratoriae and venatoriae dilationes as Saint Bernard in his time called them so many lingring and costly delaies used And for Executing judgement upon Malefactors if Phinehes had suffered Zimri to have lived but a day longer for any thing we know the plague might have lasted also a day longer and why might not to morrow have been as yesterday with them and lessened the peoples number twenty three thousand more especially their former crying sinnes having received a new accession of a double guilt the guilt of Zimries fact and the guilt of their connivence No rack should make me confesse that man to be truly zealous of judgement who when he hath power to cut him short shall but so much as reprive a foul and notorious Malefactor or grant him any respite or liberty to make his friends and to sue a pardon Salomon hath told us and we find it but too true Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sonnes of men is fully set in them to do evil Thirdly Phinehes was nothing retarded in his resolution by forecasting what ill-will he might purchase or into what dangers he might cast himself by executing judgement upon two such great personages The times were such as wherein sin had gotten head and was countenanced both with might and multitude Zimri was a mighty man a Prince of a chief house and he that should dare to touch him should be like to pull upon himself the enmity of the whole Tribe of Simeon It seemeth he was confident that his might and popularity in his own Tribe would priviledge him from the enquiry of the Magistrate how durst he else have so braved Moses and the whole Congregation And the woman also was the daughter of one of the Five Kings of Midian and could Phinehes think that the death of two such great persons could go unrevenged All this Phinehes either forecasteth not or regardeth not His eye was so fixed upon the glory of God that it did not so much as reflect upon his own safety and his thoughts strongly possessed with zeal of the common good had not any leisure to think of private dangers Zeal is ever courageous and therefore Iethro thought none worthy to be Magistrates but such as were Men of courage And he hath neither Courage nor Zeal in him befitting a Magistrate that is afraid to do justice upon a great offender The sluggard saith there is a Lion in the way and then he steppeth backward and keepeth aloof off But the worthy Magistrate would meet with such a Lion to choose that he might win awe to Gods Ordinance and make the way passable for others by tearing such a beast in pieces and would no more fear to make a Worshipfull theef or a Right worshipfull murtherer if such a one should come in his Circuit an example of Justice then to twitch up a poor sheepstealer Great ones will soon presume of impunity and mean ones too by their example in time learn to kick at authority if Magistrates be not forward to maintain the dignity of their places by executing good Lawes without favour or fear Hitherto of the spirit and zeal of Phinehes by occasion of this his former Action or gesture of standing up There yet remain to be considered the other action and the successe of it He executed judgement and the plague was stayed Both which because I would not be long I will joyne together in the handling when I shall have first a little cleered the translation The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used is a word that hath three different significations to Iudge to Pray to Appease And interpreters have taken liberty to make choice of any of the three in translating this place The Greek rendreth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the vulgar Latine which for the most part followeth the Septuagint Placavit as if we should read it thus Then stood up Phinehes and made an atonement or appeased God And the thing is true God himself testifying of Phinehes Numb 25. that By being zealous for God he had turned away his wrath and Made atonement for the children of Israel The Chaldee interpreteth it by Vetsalle and the ordinary English translation of the Psalmes usually read in our Churches accordingly Then stood up Phinehes and prayed But Hierome and Vatablus and the best translators render it according to the most proper signification of the word and most fully to the story it self Dijudicavit He executed judgement Verily prayer is a speciall meanes to appease Gods wrath and to remove his Plagues and prayer is as the salt of the Sacrifice sanctifying and seasoning every Action we undertake and I doubt not but Phinehes when he lift up his hand to execute
judgement upon Zimri and Cosbi did withall lift up his heart to God to blesse that action and to turn it to good In which respects especially if the word withall will bear it as it seemeth it will some men should have done well not to have shewn so much willingnesse to quarrell at the Church-translations in our Service-book by being clamorous against this very place as a grosse corruption and sufficient to justifie their refusall of subscription to the Book But I will not now trouble either you or my selfe with farther curiosity in examining Translations because howsoever other Translations that render it praying or appeasing may be allowed either as tolerably good or at least excusably ill yet this that rendreth it by Executing Iudgment is certainly the best whether we consider the course of the Story it selfe or the propriety of the word in the Originall or the intent of the Holy Ghost in this Scripture And this Action of Phinehes in doing judgement upon such a paire of great and bold offenders was so well pleasing unto God that his wrath was turned away from Israel and the plague which had broken in upon them in a sudden and fearfull manner was immediately stayed thereupon Oh how acceptable a sacrifice to God above the blood of Bulls and of Goates is the death of a Malefactor slaughtered by the hand of Iustice When the Magistrate who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister and Priest of God for this very thing putteth his knife to the throat of the beast and with the fire of an holy zeal for GOD and against sin offereth him up in Holocaustum for a whole burnt-offering and for a peace-offering unto the Lord. Samuel saith that to obey is better than sacrifice and Salomon that to do justice and judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice Obedience that is the prime and the best sacrifice and the second best is the punishment of Disobedience There is no readier way to appease GODS wrath against sinne then is the rooting out of sinners nor can his deputies by any other course turn away his just judgements so effectually as by faithfull executing of Iustice and judgement themselves When Phinehes did this act the publick body of Israel was in a weak state and stood in need of a present and sharp remedy In some former distempers of the State it may be they had found some ease by dyet in humbling their soules by fasting or by an issue at the tongue or eye in an humble confession of their sinnes and in weeping and mourning for them with teares of repentance And they did well now to make triall of those remedies again wherein they had found so much help in former times especially the remedies being proper for the malady and such as often may do good but never can do harm But alas fasting and weeping and mourning before the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation had not strength enough against those more prevalent corruptions wherewith the State of Israel was then pestered This Phinehes saw who well perceived that as in a dangerous pleurisie the party cannot live unlesse he bleed so if there were any good to be done upon Israel in this their little lesse than desperate estate a vein must be opened and some of the rank blood let out for the preservation of the rest of the body This course therefore he tries and languishing Israel findeth present ease in it As soon as the blood ran instantly the grief ceased He executed judgement and the plague was stayed As God brought upon that people for their sinnes a fearfull destruction so he hath in his just wrath sent his destroying Angel against us for ours The sinnes that brought that Plague upon them were Whoredome and Idolatry I cannot say the very same sinnes have caused ours For although the execution of good Lawes against both incontinent and idolatrous persons hath been of late yeares and yet is we all know to say no more slack enough yet Gods holy name be blessed for it neither Idolatry nor Whoredome are at that height of shamelesse impudency and impunity among us that they dare brave our Moseses and out-face whole Congregations as it was in Israel But still this is sure no plague but for sinne nor nationall Plagues but for Nationall sinnes So that albeit none of us may dare to take upon us to be so far of Gods counsell as to say for what very sinnes most this plague is sent among us yet none of us can be ignorant but that besides those secret personall corruptions which are in every one of us and whereunto every mans own heart is privy there are many publick and nationall sinnes whereof the people of this Land are generally guilty abundantly sufficient to justifie GOD in his dealings towards us and to cleer him when he is judged Our wretched unthankfulnesse unto GOD for the long continuance of his Gospel and our peace our carnall confidence and security in the strength of our wooden and watry walls our riot and excesse the noted proper sinne of this Nation and much intemperate abuse of the good creatures of GOD in our meates and drinkes and disperts and other provisions and comforts of this life our incompassion to our brethren miserably wasted with War and Famine in other parts of the world our heavy Oppression of our brethren at home in racking the rents and cracking the backes and Grinding the faces of the poor our cheap and irreverent regard unto Gods holy ordinances of his Word and Sacraments and Sabbaths and Ministers our wantonnesse and Toyishnesse of understanding in corrupting the simplicity of our Christian Faith and troubling the peace of the Church with a thousand niceties and novelties and unnecessary wranglings in matters of Religion and to reckon no more that universall Corruption which is in those which because they should be such we call the Courts of Iustice by sale of offices enhauncing of fees devising new subtilties both for delay and evasion trucking for expedition making trappes of petty penall Statutes and but Cobwebs of the most weighty and materiall Lawes I doubt not but by the mercy of God many of his servants in this Land are free from some and some from all of these common crimes in some good measure but I fear me not the best of us all not a man of us all but are guilty of all or some of them at least thus farre that we have not mourned for the corruptions of the times so feelingly nor endeavoured the reformation of them to our power so faithfully as we might and ought to have done By these and other sinnes we have provoked Gods heavy judgement against us and the Plague is grievously broken in upon us and now it would be good for us to know by what meanes we might best appease his wrath and stay this Plague Publick Humiliations have ever been thought
himself to continue and persist in any known ungodlinesse And thus much for our second Observation I adde but a Third and that taken from the very thing which Abimelech here pleadeth viz. the integrity of his heart considered together with his present personal estate and condition I dare not say he was a Cast-away for what knoweth any man how God might after this time and even from these beginnings deal with him in the riches of his mercy But at the time when the things storied in this chapter were done Abimelech doubtlesse was an unbeleever a stranger to the covenant of God made with Abraham and so in the state of a carnal and meer natural man And yet both he pleadeth and God approveth the innocency and integrity of his heart in this businesse Yea I know that thou diddest this in the integrity of thine heart Note hence That in an unbeleever and natural man and therefore also in a wicked person and a cast-away for as to the present state the unregenerate and the Reprobate are equally incapable of good things there may be truth and singlenesse and integrity of heart in some particular Actions We use to teach and that truly according to the plain evidence of Scripture and the judgement of the ancient Fathers against the contrary tenet of the later Church of Rome that all the works of unbeleevers and natural men are not only stained with sin for so are the best works of the faithful too but also are really and truly sins both in their own nature because they spring from a corrupt fountain for That which is born of the flesh is flesh and it is impossible that a corrupt tree should bring forth good fruit and also in Gods estimation because he beholdeth them as out of Christ in and through whom alone he is well pleased St. Augustines judgement concerning such mens works is well known who pronounceth of the best of them that they are but splendida peccata glorious sins and the best of them are indeed no better We may not say therefore that there was in Abimelechs heart as nor in the heart of any man a legal integrity as if his person or any of his actions were innocent and free from sin in that perfection which the Law requireth Neither yet can we say there was in his heart as nor in the heart of any unbeleever an Evangelical integrity as if his person were accepted and for the persons sake all or any of his actions approved with God accepting them as perfect through the supply of the abundant perfections of Christ then to come That first and legall integrity supposeth the righteousnesse of works which no man hath this latter and Evangelical integrity the righteousnesse of Faith which no unbeliever hath no mans heart being either legally perfect that is in Adam or Evangelically perfect that is out of Christ. But there is â— third kinde of integrity of heart inferiour to both these which God here acknowledgeth in Abimelech and of which only we affirm that it may be found in an unbeliever and a Reprobate and that is a Natural or Moral integrity when the heart of a meer natural man is careful to follow the direction and guidance of right reason according to that light of Nature or Revelation which is in him without hollownesse halting and hypocrisie Rectus usus Naturalium we might well call it the term were fit enough to expresse it had not the Papists and some other Sectaries by sowring it with the leaven of their Pelagianism rendred it suspicious The Philosophers and learned among the Heathen by that which they call a good conscience understand no other thing then this very Integrity whereof we now speak Not that an Unbeliever can have a good conscience taken in strict propriety of truth and in a spiritual sense For the whole man being corrupted through the fall of Adam the conscience also is wrapped in the common pollution so that to them that are defiled and unbeleeving nothing is pure but even their minde and conscience is defiled as speaketh S. Paul Tit. 1. and being so defiled can never be made good till their hearts be sprinkled from that pollution by the bloud of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God and till the Conscience be purged by the same bloud from dead works to serve the living God as speaketh the same Apostle Heb. 9. and 10. But yet a good Conscience in that sense as they meant it a Conscience morally good many of them had who never had Faith in Christ nor so much as the least inckling of the Doctrine of Salvation By which Not having the Law they were a Law unto themselves doing by nature many of the things contained in the Law and chusing rather to undergo the greatest miseries as shame torment exile yea death it self or any thing that could befall them than wilfully to transgresse those rules and notions and dictates of piety and equity which the God of Nature had imprinted in their Consciences Could heathen men and unbeleevers have taken so much comfort in the testimony of an excusing Conscience as it appeareth many of them did if such a Conscience were not in the kinde that is Morally Good Or how else could St. Paul have made that protestatâ—on he did in the Councel Men and Brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God untill this day At least if he meant to include as most of the learned conceive he did the whole time of his life as well before his conversion as after Balaam was but a cursed Hypocrite and therefore it was but a copy of his countenance and no better for his heart even then hankered after the wages of unrighteousnesse when he looked a squint upon Balaks liberal offer with this answer If Balak would give me his house full of gold and silver I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do lesse or more But I assure my self many thousands of unbeleevers in the world free from his hypocrisie would not for ten times as much as he there spake of have gone beyond the Rules of the Law of Nature written in their hearts to have done either lesse or more Abimelech seemeth to be so affected at least in this particular action and passage with Abraham wherein God thus approveth his integrity Yea I know that thou diddest this in the integrity of thy heart The Reason of which moral integrity in men unregenerate and meerly natural is that Imperium Rationis that power of natural Conscience and Reason which it hath and exerciseth over the whole man doing the office of a Law-giver and having the strength of a law They are a law unto themselves saith the Apostle Rom. 2. As a Law it prescribeth what is to be done as a Law it commandeth that what is prescribed be done as a Law it proposeth rewards and punishments accordingly