Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A67012
|
The duty of compassion to the souls of others in endeavouring their reformation being the subject of a sermon preached December the 28th 1696 at St. Mary-le-Bow before the Societies for Reformation of Manners in the city of London / published at their request by Josiah Woodward.
|
Woodward, Josiah, 1660-1712.
|
1697
(1697)
|
Wing W3515A; ESTC R26400
|
16,419
|
58
|
apply'd to the Author This is a very inglorious Conquest like Herod's Victory over the poor Infants of which this Day puts us in mind But there is not the least Affinity betwixt the inhumane Persecution of good Men and the legal Punishment of wicked ones That is diametrically opposite to this for that crushes the best of Men this chastises the worst That puts Men out of the way of their Duty this brings them into it That injures the Conscience this relieves it That locks up the Gate of Heaven this puts a Bar in the Passage to Hell And in a word that is uncommanded by God yea it is forbidden by him but this is the express Will of God which is the strongest Argument in the World to enforce it upon every sensible Conscience And this leads me to the third Part of spiritual Charity in the Text namely III. That we ought to use all lawful and sutable Means to reclaim the open and obstinate Transgressor Thou shalt not suffer Sin upon him i. e. Thou shalt diligently pursue all proper Means to pull this Firebrand out of the Fire Thou shalt appeal to the Minister and to the Magistrate not against the Man but against the Sin Thou shalt tell it the Church Mat. 18. 17. Thou shalt inform the Bench the Seat of Justice of it Deut. 13. 8. That all fit spiritual Censures and temporal Chastisements may be applied to him in time that his Soul perish not to all Eternity And surely this cannot be disagreeable to the Rules of natural Affection or Christian Charity or humane Friendship since the very Parents amongst the Jews were to appeal to the Magistrates of their City to punish even with Death their Son who was a Drunkard or a Glutton and an ungovernable Rebel as we read Deut. 21. 19. And however severe this may seem to the Person who fell under this exemplary Punishment it was certainly a Kindness to the Community which must needs find that good Order and sober Behaviour was maintained by this strict Law which was the Benefit proposed in the Institution of it viz. That all Israel might hear and fear and do no more any such Wickedness ver 21. And that such good Laws as these might not prove useless for want of due Information and Prosecution it was a standing Rule and Statute in the Jewish Government That in all great Enormities such as heard or saw the Fact were to be Informers and Witnesses against the Offender tho it were a Friend as dear as their own Soul or a Brother of their own Blood yea they were to be the Executioners too as we read Deut. 17. 7. The Hands of the Witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to Death and afterwards the Hands of all the People And this it is said was the only way to put away the Evil from among them So that in such a Case where the Bowels of Nature and the Endearments of Friendship begin to struggle against the Administration of Justice and the publick Good the Love and Fear of God must turn the Ballance considering that our overlooking of any gross Sin is a taking the Guilt of it into our own Bosom yea 't is a spreading and diffusing of the Curses due unto it upon the Face of the whole City and Nation in which we dwell So that it is very manifest That the due Ministration of Justice is absolutely necessary to the Happiness of any State in order to suppress Vice and support Vertue and so to procure the Blessings and avert the Judgments of Almighty God the Righteous Governour of the World Now the Tribunal of Justice is seated on these two Pillars viz. First Upon due Information against Offenders Secondly An impartial Execution of Justice upon them according to the Proof of the Fact As to the first viz Information against the impudent and profligate Contemners of the Laws of God and Men. The desire of God's Glory and Mens Salvation may induce us to it and the Love of Vertue and the common Good must needs enforce the Practice of it Or however the Laws of God ought to constrain us to it and the Fear of God's Wrath should awaken us to wash our Hands from the Guilt of other Mens Sins For you are unjust to the Offender's Soul and your own and to the publick Good if you neglect it And as for the vulgar Odium and the common Reproaches against such Informers they are vain and sensless and are merely contrived by the lovers of Sin and the invisible Patron and Promoter of it to be a Shelter and Subtersuge for Vice and Profaneness For every Body knows that without Legal Evidence there can be no Legal Punishment And tho the Magistrate be the best in the World yet if the Crime be not duly proved and testifi'd before him Justice it self will bind his Hands and chain his Sword Had not the People who heard the Blasphemy and Curses of the Son of Shelomith gone and told Moses of it Lev. 24. 11. the Wretch might have curst on and blasphemed as long as his Breath would have served him to do it But they that heard him did better they went forthwith and informed the Magistrate of it as they were in Duty bound and so the Curses of Man were stopt and the Blessings of God procured And O! where is the love of God or of Vertue or of the Souls of Sinners or of the Publick Good if we are discouraged from so good and necessary a Work by such unreasonable Cavils as are usually made against it Alas what Love of God have they who will not speak a good word for him before the face of his Enemies Or what Courage have they in the Cause of God who cannot bear an ill word or a Nick-name for his sake And what a poor and pusillanimous Soul is that who dares not be good in ill Company or in evil Times Ah! what insupportable Shame and Contempt will be poured out on those at last who are now asham'd of Christ and of his Doctrine How will they be able to stand before the great God or to shew their Faces before his Holy Angels those zealous Ministers of his who do his Pleasure or before that noble Army of Martyrs who counted not their Lives dear when ever they might glorify God by such a Sacrifice Yea who shed their Hearts Blood for the sake of Religion with greater Resolution than many now speak a few good words for it either in reproving of Vice or informing against it Let us for Shame awaken out of such a tepid and torpid State A brutish Stupidity is a shameful Reproach to a Man and Spiritual Insensibleness is much more so to a Christian and therefore let every one that bears the Name of Christ be zealous and indefatigable in his Work and couragious and undaunted in his Cause Do you see a Person so void of Reason as well as Faith as to profane the sacred Name of God in vile and
blasphemous Language You must in any wise rebuke the Wretch and not only so but deliver him up to the Magistrate as the People did in the like Case Lev. 24. 11. They went and told Moses of it See you a Person so void of God's Fear as to profane that Day which God hath blest and sanctified Dare he expose his Wares on that Sacred Day or follow his Sports or Vices See that you suffer not this Sin upon him but suppress it by all lawful Ways and Means As pious Nehemiah Neh. 13. 17. who not only threatned and drove away such as brought their Goods to be sold but contended with the Nobles of Judah who suffered it upon the Sabbath The same Care should be taken to reform not only plain and down-right Drunkenness but unseasonable and immoderate frequenting of Publick Houses which are not designed to cherish the Vices but to supply the Necessities of Men. And partieular Care must always be taken to root out that nasty Sin which above others deserves the Name of Vncleanness and to brand those impudent People with publick Shame and Correction who dare proclaim their Impudence in the very Streets and before the Sun By these Sins a Land is greatly defiled and the Wrath of God highly incensed against it And therefore it becomes every Christian to set himself couragiously against them and to rejoice in an Opportunity of doing such a piece of Service to his great and good Master as to bring them before the Magistrate to receive condign Punishment That the World may see that there are some who dare be as bold and vigilant for the Honour of the Prince of Light as some others are in the Service of the Prince of Darkness And tho your Adversaries will cry out of a Beam in your own Eye we are sure these are not Motes which you endeavour to pull out of theirs nor can they with any Reason or Justice apply those words of our Saviour to you Mat. 7. 5. unless they can prove you abundantly more guilty of that Sin for which they are punished than themselves And as to the second Point which is necessary to support our Religion and the publick Good namely The impartial Execution of Justice upon profane and licentious Persons This is the Magistrate's peculiar Province and blessed be God that as we have good and excellent Laws against Profaneness and Debauchery so we have some righteous Magistrates who duly put them in Execution The good God raise up more of these Labourers to cut down this ripe and exuberant Vintage of Vice the Fields of which are grown even white unto Havest O! what an Honourable and Divine thing is Magistracy duly exerted in its proper Acts How venerable is that Person in the sight of Angels and Men who piously uses that Sword wherewith the God of Justice to whom Vengeance belongeth has girded him withal Ah! let none dare to wear that Sword in vain lest it be drawn at last forth against themselves by the Almighty God as David did Goliath's to the destruction of him that wore it Truly I here testify to you that I know no other way for Magistrates to shun this but by their present and impartial executing of Justice upon Evil-doers and supporting them that do well This is indeed a blessed Work and will receive a glorious Reward at last from God the Righteous Judg. It is so God-like to distribute just Punishments to such as do Evil and to support Religious and Vertuous Persons that the Magistrate who does it in the Integrity of his Heart will find Favour with God and Esteem among Men. It is indeed more than a single Good there is a Constellation of Vertues and Advantages in it it will glorify God and credit our Religion it will make our Publick Affairs Prosperous and our Nation Happy It will make the Name of such a Magistrate truly Honourable and his Conscience serene yea 't will make his Life Comfortable his Death Hopeful and his Eternity Blessed And to press this further let us consider the Motives express'd or imply'd in the Text which tend to fix Holy Purposes of setting in good earnest to this Duty in every Person according to his Station and Capacity And this will be the proper Application of what has been said Motive 1. Let us therefore remember in the first place That it is Hatred to any one not to rebuke him for his Fault For indeed it is the greatest Declaration of God's Wrath towards a Sinner that he expresses upon Earth when he will no more reprove nor correct him for his Offences As in that dreadful Expression Hos 4. 17. Ephraim is join'd to Idols let him alone Let him be no more disturbed either by Reproof or Affliction but let him securely persist in his Sin and harden in it and perish And can we be content that our Remisness in our Duty to our Brother's Soul should draw on him these direful and eternal Plagues It is a part of the Law of Nature as well as a Statute in Israel That no Person hate his Brother in his Heart but that he be very kind and compassionate towards him We are to live by the mutual Kindness of each other this is the end of our incorporating into Societies And indeed this is suggested to us in the Frame of Nature Our good and wise Creator has so ordered the state of Humane Life that no Person of what Rank or Condition soever can subsist without the Help and Assistance of others We are born naked destitute and impotent and should not survive our Birth many Hours except some Eye pitied us and did the common Offices of sutable Ministration to us And thus we live many Years by the Kindness and Charity of others being in our Infancy not only unable to provide our own necessary Food and Raiment but even incapable of feeding or dressing our selves tho the Means of both be provided to our hands And when a Man comes to maturity of Years and Strength he is absolutely insufficient to supply his own wants of himself but must crave the helping Hands of many others both as to the necessaries of his Soul and Body And it has pleased the common Father of all Men to give peculiar Accomplishments to the various Individuals sutable to the Exigencies of the universal Kind And the thing in which one Man excels is providentially fitted to make up the Defects of the rest by Him who distributeth to every one severally as he will And the Case is the very same if we are considered as Christians We are often minded in the Gospel that we are Members one of another and are to have the same Care of one anothers Welfare as the Members in the Natural Body where the least part has its necessary Use and the greatest cannot say to it I have no need of you And this is one end of our Blessed Saviour's uniting us in a Church or Christian Society that we might be like Stones