Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
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A17334
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The schole of godly feare a sermon preached at the assises holden in Exeter, March 20, 1614.
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Bury, John, 1580-1667.
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1615
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STC 4180.5; ESTC S262
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20,285
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40
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THE SCHOLE OF GODLY FEARE A Sermon preached at the Assises holden in Exeter March 20. 1614. PSAL. 111.10 The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisedome a good vnderstanding haue all they that doe thereafter PSAL. 34.11 Come ye children harken vnto me I will teach you the feare of the Lord. MAL. 1.6 If I be a Father where is mine honour If I be a Lord where is my feare LONDON Printed by William Stansby for Henry Fetherstone 1615. TO THE HONORABLE SIR HENRY HOBART Knight LORD Chiefe Iustice of the Common Pleas and Sir LAVRENCE TANFIELD Knight Lord chiefe Baron of his Maiesties Exchequer continuance and multiplication of all heauenly Graces and earthly blessings THis Sermon being at first exacted by reuerend authority and since pulled foorth by violent importunity and euen pressed to the Presse inioyeth this onely freedome that it runneth cheerefully to your Lordships hands presenting it selfe a true howsoeuer slender testimony of the Authors thankefull and dutifull respect of your honourable fauours not onely in particular towards himselfe whom you haue beene pleased to grace farre beyond desert but also in generall to Gods Ministers whom with a iust and zealous care you as Gods vpon earth protect from oppression Who seeth not how resolute witnesses hauing armed themselues to seduce a tractable Iury with as formall a tale as the two Elders had deuised against Susanna your Lordship full of the spirit of Daniel that is the iudgement of God for so his name signifieth by prudent sifting and vnexpected interrogatories haue bunted out and dissolued their plotted falshood Who seeth not how vnaccustomed customes incroching vpon the Lords portion allotted and allowed to his Laborers haue shewed as faire pretences of remote Antiquity as were the old sackes old bottles old clothes and mouled bread of the Gibeonites when your discreet inquiry before the Inquest hath espied and descried their neere bordering neighbourhood In a word your Christian care to maintaine the hedge of Iustice for a fence to the Lords vine that euery one which passeth by may not plucke of her grapes putteth into our mouthes a ioyfull gratulation that your Honours are none of them that seek honor by muzzeling the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the Corne. And this leadeth vs to a farther duty viz. to looke vp towards Heauen vnto him that looketh downe from heauen vpon vs to behold and visit his vine which he hath planted with his owne right hand and made strong for himselfe and as hee hath giuen vs such nursing Fathers so we to returne vnto him prayse for your good beginnings and prayer for your good continuance to the glorie of his Name the vpholding of his Church the incouragement of his Ministers and your owne eternall reward through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen Your Honours to be commanded in all duty IOHN BERY THE SCHOLE OF GODLY FEARE 1. PET. 1.17 And if yee call him Father who without respect of persons iudgeth according to euery mans worke passe the time of your dwelling here in feare THis verse consisteth of a Doctrine and his Vse The Doctrine teacheth vs how to looke vpon God Ye call him Father c. The Vse warneth vs how to looke to our selues Passe the time of your dwelling here in feare The Doctrine proposeth God to our view like Ianus Bifrons as hauing two faces First the chearefull countenance of a Father Ye call him Father Secondly the seuere countenance of a Iudge who without respect of persons iudgeth according to euery mans worke If ye call him Father We neede not curiously discusse the seeming difference of Translations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greeke phrase here vsed being compared with other like places of Scripture as Iames 2.7 Genes 48.5.16 Esay 4.1 yeeldeth vnto vs this plaine sense If yee call him Father that is if yee will passe for his children and professe him to be your Father which we may done three wayes 1. By pretending to the eies of others in shew 2. By presuming in our owne hearts by perswasion 3. By contesting vnto his owne face in prayer that he is our Father and we his children But quo iure God is our Father by what claime Father is a royall prerogatiue originally and primarily due vnto God alone Matth. 23.9 Call no man father vpon the earth for one is your Father which is in heauen but due to others secondarily and vnder him and to him it is due both by Creation and Generation Creation inuested him with an Vniuersall Fatherhood ouer all creatures 1. By Creation but among all principally of Adam who alone resembled his Father being made to the Image of his Maker Genes 1.27 and stiled Adam the sonne of God Luke 3.38 Nor is he Father of Adam alone but of vs also and of both parts of vs our bodies and our soules of our bodies mediately and virtually created in Adams loines and of our soules actually and immediately infused by himselfe For our bodies indeed we are bound to thank Patres carnis whō the Lord hath substituted to be our fathers according to the flesh but for our soules our soules must be lifted vp vnto Patrem spirituū Heb. 12.9 the Father of spirits qui infundendo creat creando infundit who at one and the same instant both createth and infuseth them into these earthly mansions of their fleshly tabernacle But what comfort is it thus to salute him by the name of father in this peculiar language before other creatures seeing the vnhappiest of all his creatures the damned reprobates that shall neuer come neere him or his patrimony are yet as neere as we to this paternitie and may take vp the Prophets words Malach. 2.10 Haue we not all one Father hath not one God made vs Wherefore seeing this is too low 2. By Generation mount we higher from Creation to Generation and here wee finde one Sonne begotten of his Nature and others begotten of his Grace I say one of his nature that is one with him in nature a Sonne as old and as good as his Father coeternall and coequall But as the former was too low Not of nature so this is too high a straine vnto which neither men nor yet Angels can reach for vnto which of the Angels said hee at any time Thou art my Sonne this day haue I begotten thee Heb. 1.5 In medio virtus nostra But of Grace the sinewes of our comfort lye in the middest viz. in the sonneship of grace by which a remnant of mankind through the election of grace Rom. 11.5 are separated in the name and for the sake of the naturall beloued Sonne to be sonnes and heires and coheires with him of euerlasting glory Rom. 8.17 for which purpose he granted forth a Dedimus potestatē and as many as receiued him potestatem dedit to them hee gaue power to be the sonnes of God euen to them that beleeue on his name Ioh. 1.12 For this inheritance
so keycold surely there is some defect and failing in the conditions Some hold the glasse too farre off and thinke of the mercies of God in Christ but slightly and confusedly some hold it too neere and being all vpon mercy mercy make remission of sinnes a plaister for presumption in sinning some hold it not still by steddy and fixed meditations but superficially glaunce vpon it by spurts and flashes and some others are not of combustible matter not so fit to be fired with the feare of his mercies as to be feared with the fire of his iudgements But we beloued as we desire with solide comfort of soule to call him Father that not onely our heads may imagine or our tongues discourse but also our consciences may feele that wee are his children Let the confluence of all his gracious beames of loue heat our chill hearts and our benummed hands with a deuout feare of his name Let euery naming of this sweet word Father bee as the sunne in his strength to warme and reuiue our filiall obedience so that as often as wee call him Father so often wee remember to passe the time of our dwelling here in feare Here is good being here I could build tabernacles and passe my time and dwelling on Gods fatherly goodnes for this is none other but the house of God and gate of heauen God is also a Iudge But me thinkes with Saint Iohn Reuel 4 1.2 a Trumpet calleth me away Come vp hither and see things which must be done hereafter a Throne is set out of which proceed lightnings and thundrings and voyces and a Iudge vpon the Throne which without respect of persons iudgeth according to euery mans worke What a sudden change is here Yet no change in the same verse and line but now a gracious Father clothed all in the white robes of mercy and presently a seuere Iudge attired in the searlet robes of iustice and is there indeed such change in the immutable God none at all with him is no variablenes In himselfe nor shaddow of change Iam. 1.17 A piece of taffata that is equally wrought of crosse threds greene red seemeth and is called changeable yet is not changed but one way as you look on it it beareth vpon the red another way it chiefly expresseth the greene euen so in God there is an equall temper of mercie and iustice whose threds doe seeme to crosse each other But in the Obiect and if you stand on the right hand among his sonnes the greene verdure of his goodnesse carrieth away the sight of his iudgements but if you cast your eye on the left side as one of his prisoners the red fiery hiew of his Iustice seemeth to drowne the sight of mercie Yea the same day of Iudgement Malac 4.1.2 proueth both a consuming furnace and a cheerefull sun-shine the obiect maketh the difference It shall burne like an Ouen and all that doe wickedly shall bee stubble to burne therein but verse 2. vnto you that feare my name shall the Sunne of righteousnesse arise and saluation shall be vnder his wings c. Wherefore as we before turned our faces to the Sunne to warme vs ye call him Father so let vs now turne about to the fire to heate vs he iudgeth without respect of persons c. The Thebans had amōg them the image of a Iudge sitting without eyes or hands The integritie of his iudgement no eyes that he might not diguish persons friend from foe no hands that he might not receiue gifts to corrupt Iustice But the iustest Iudge of all the World is deciphered open-eyed and open-handed his eyes open not to procure but to preuent respect of persons his hands open not to take vndue bribes but to giue due reward Ier. 32.19 His eyes are open vpon all the wayes of the sonnes of men to giue to euery one according to the fruit of his workes Propose we then to our serious meditatiō The circumstances the worlds generall Assises which will beginne and end in one day for the Lord will make a short count in the Earth the Iudge of this vniuersall Circuite is the Iudge of all Iudges the Lord chiefe Iustice the Sonne of God but visible in body as the Sonne of man Luk. 21.27 clothed as in scarlet robes with the power and maiesty of his Father Matth. 16.27 his Bench a tribunall or throne of State Rom. 14.10 the Iustices of the Bench his Assessours the twelue Peeres of Christendome his twelue Apostles Matth. 19.28 his Crier an Archangell with the sound of a shrill Trumpe that shall eccho ouer all the world and waken the bodies that are dead and rotten 1. Thes 4.16 the Prisoners all mankind 2. Cor. 5.10 our Cause to answere vpon Life and Death The Diuell comes forth for the Accuser that would also faine be the Executioner the Conscience is produced for an vntainted Witnesse and the allegations are proued by pregnant Records Reu. 20.12 The Bookes are opened and the dead are iudged of those things which are written in the Bookes according to their workes Two Bookes are to be opened The euidence most euident Libriscientiae Dei conscientiaenostrae the Lieger Booke of Gods knowledge and the Count Book of our own conscience which shall then be inlarged by a new Edition For in this present and former Edition of our consciences Booke some things wee cannot reade some wee doe not reade some wee will not reade and some wee will not suffer others to read Here many things are but dimmely and as it were but halfe printed in our conscience so that our dull eyes cannot read them whence Dauid Psa 19.12 Who knoweth how oft he offendeth Oh cleanse thou mee from my secret sins but then the print will be clearer our secret sinnes legible and the scales of mortal ignorance being fallen off We shal know our selues euen as we are known of God who is greater then our hart knoweth all things 1. Iohn 3.20 In this Edition are many things of a small print which because we wil not trouble our selues to put on the spectacles of Care and consideration we passe ouer and doe not read them but then they shall be set out in a larger print and the sins that now seeme too smal to be regarded wil then be seen too great to be indured Here many things being distastfull we blot out of our Booke and will not read them but then they shall reuiue and will wee nill wee wee shall remember them Here we finde in some passages such inky and vgly characters of sinnes that wee are loth any other should read with vs and therefore wee shew them onely a faire outside gilded with hypocriticall shew But then the Booke shall be laid open and lying open the faire couering shall lye couered and all that wee haue done spoken yea or thought shall be obuious to euery eye and as looking glasses set in a round doe each represent to other