Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	court_n	lord_n	plea_n	2,563	5	9.6852	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67153	A practical commentary or exposition upon the Pentateuch viz. These five books of Moses Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Wherein the text of every chapter is practically expounded, according to the doctrine of the Catholick Church, in a way not usually trod by commentators; and wholly applyed to the life and salvation of Christians. By Ab. Wright; sometime fellow of St. John's Colledge in Oxford.	Wright, Abraham, 1611-1690.	1662 (1662)	Wing W3688; ESTC R221054	292,675	224

A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION Upon the PENTATEUCH VIZ. These five Books of MOSES GENESIS EXODUS LEVITICUS NUMBERS DEUTERONOMY Wherein The Text of every Chapter is Practically expounded according to the Doctrine of the Catholick Church in a way not usually trod by COMMENTATORS and wholly applyed to the Life and Salvation of Christians By Ab. Wright sometime Fellow of St. John's Colledge in OXFORD LONDON Printed by G. Dawson for The. Iohnson at the Golden-Key in St. Pauls-Church-Yard 1662. TO THE Right Honourable The Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Kings-Bench The Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of common-Common-Pleas The Lord Chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer And the rest of the Honourable Justices of the said several COURTS Right Honourable IT is not the weight and excellency of what is here presented that may plead for so Noble a Patronage as your Lordships is it is the Subject not the Work the Text and not the Comment that deserves both your Protection and Perusal For my Lords you have here Moses that Grand Legislator of the Old Testament dedicated to you that are the reverend Iudges under the New His Laws have been the Magna Charta of the whole World and this small Pentateuch hath proved the ground-work for the Pandects of all Nations to build upon In this respect therefore it may claim a kind of propriety and right to your Honourable Patronage and take the presumption to shelter it self under your grave long Robes Here indeed are no Controversies stated no Law-cases judged and determined My Sole design and endeavours have been to make our great Law-giver Moses altogether Practical and wholly applicable to the Life and Conversation of Christians In these sheets then you have described those Antient Patriarcks of Gods Church who were also Aeconomical Iudges and so not unfitting guids for your Honours to follow where their steps have been straight and upright nay their very slips and deviations may serve to make us stand more firm and our treadings more steady and setled in the wayes of Godliness and Iourny towards Heaven But if your Lordships had rather walk by Rule than Example here is that Moral everlasting Rule of God himself in the Book of Exodus to direct you and withal that you may see how proper and convenient even a Ceremonial Law is for Gods Church you have a whole Book of it in Leviticus and this also decreed and setled after those necessary Acts of the Ten Commandments as if the very Moral Law it self had not been curb sufficient to keep in a Rebellious People without some binding Ceremonies And here my Lords I must needs confess upon the sad experience of Schism under both Testaments that all those Laws Moral and Ceremonial have not been powerful enough to settle the Peace of Gods Church something was wanting to the Jews and is at this day to us which under God is only able to produce that great and glorious Work and that is a General Council This General Council my Lords hath ever been the most approved successful way of the Catholick Church to compose her differences and it is this also that will prevent the ruin of our own miserably devided National Church and frustrate the design of that Politick Aphorisme of some that the Church of England must be ruin'd by the same way that it was reform'd for say they it was reform'd by Schisme and it must be ruin'd by Schisme Now to prevent this ruine contrived by Sectaries I know not any way more Prudential more blessed by God than a General Council to procure this that every Peaceful Christian and such are your Honours may joyn the strongest Forces of his Endeavours shall be the daily Prayers of My Lords Your most devoted Servant in all Church-Offices Ab. Wright A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY UPON THE FIRST BOOK OF MOSES CALLED GENESIS CHAP. I. Verse 1. THere was a Time or something like to that before the beginning of Time when God did not work and yet was not idle For though we grant that there was no External work of the Godhead until the making of the World yet can there be no necessary illation of Idleness in the Deity seeing it might have as indeed it had actions immanent included within the circle of the Trinity Just so ought it to be with every Christian who though he doth not alwayes perform the outward actions of Religion yet he may alwayes be imployed within himself in some practice of Christianity holy Thoughts religious Meditations mental Prayer faithful Vows and Resolutions are those inward immanent operations of a Christian whereby he may imitate his Creator in not working and yet not being idle But then when he doth begin to express himself in some outward action let him here also follow the example of his Maker and whereas it is said in the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth first the Heaven and then the Earth so et our actions respect chiefly Heavenly matters in the first place let us exercise our selves in those things that are above and when from those we descend to things below let even those Terrestrial affairs look upwards and be fix'd and terminated in Heaven and let all this be done by way of Creation too let our Gifts and Graces and Endowments be acknowledged to arise from nothing in our selves and let every faculty of our Souls be subject to Gods Will as the Creation was to his Command for he spake the word and they were made so when God speaks let us hear and let our will be actuated and formed and regulated by his voice as the whole World was by his Word Verse 2. The word Ferebatur in the vulgar Latine in the English moved denotes both motion and rest beginnings and wayes and ends We may best consider the motion the stirring of the Holy Ghost in zeal and the rest of the Holy Ghost in moderation If we be without zeal we have not the motion if we be without moderation we have not the rest the peace of the Holy Ghost he moved and he rested upon the Waters in the Creation as the word Incubabat doth imply he came and tarried still upon Christ in his Baptism He moves us to a zeal of laying hold of the means of Salvation which God offers us in the Church and he settles us in a peaceful Conscience that by having well used those means we are made his Children A holy hunger and thirst of the Word and Sacraments a remorse and compunction for former sins a zeal to promote the cause and glory of God by word and deed this is the motion of the Holy Ghost and then to content my self with Gods measure of temporal blessings and for spiritual that I do serve God faithfully in that Calling which I lawfully profess as far as that Calling will admit this peace of Conscience this acquiescence of having done that that belongs unto me this is the Rest of the Holy Ghost

not worth thanks Nay this very upbraiding Israelite shall save Moses his life For if this mans tongue had not cast him in the teeth with bloud he had been surprized by Pharaoh ere he could have known the fact was known Now he grows jealous flies and escapes no Friend is so commodious in some cases as an Adversary Verse 15. God hath alwayes one place of refuge or other for his Servants to fly unto If Iudea be dangerous for the Child Iesus in Egypt he shall find safety and again if Egypt threaten death to Moses Midian shall preserve him and improve him likewise For God by forty years exile fitted Moses for further light and advancement Much he had learnt in Egypt but more in Midian There is no doubt but he had good School-masters in Pharaohs Court but his own affliction was his best Moses had never been so illuminate a Doctor nor so excellent a Ruler afterwards if he had not been first humbled here Verse 17. Moses when he may not in Egypt he will be doing Justice in Midian In Egypt he delivers the oppressed Israelite in Midian the wrong'd Daughters of Iethro A good Man will be doing good wheresoever he is his Trade is a compound of Charity and Justice But who would have thought in this present condition as Moses was so cast down with his own complaints that he would have had any feeling of others yet how hot is he upon Justice No adversity can make a good Man neglect good Duties he sees in the oppression of the Shepherds the image of that other he left behind him in Egypt The Maids Daughters of so great a Peer draw water for their Flocks the inhumane Shepherds drive them away rudeness hath not respect either to Sex or condition If we lived not under Laws this were our case Might would be the measure of Justice we should not so much as injoy our own water Verse 22. It seems by this Text that Moses his affection was not so tyed to Midian that he could forget Egypt He was a Stranger in Midian What was he else in Egypt Surely either Egypt was not his Home or a miserable one and yet in reference to it he cals his Son Gershom a Stranger there Much better were it to be a Stranger there than a Dweller in Egypt How hardly can we forget the place of our abode or education although never so homely And if he thought of his Egyptian Home where was nothing but bondage and tyranny how should we think of that Home of ours above where is nothing but rest and blessedness Verse 23. This is a Comfort to the Godly as likewise it should be a Warning to all Oppressors of Gods Children they shall die and be packing and shall not continue to deal cruelly with Gods Inheritance The rod of the ungodly lighteth upon the Faithful but the Lord hath said it shall not rest and dwell upon them But however it was but just with God to let them sigh by reason of their bondage Such sobs of sorrow were but due to them that rejected and would not see what God offered them of ease A singular Warning to beware the rejection of Gods Mercy when it is offered for such a refusal hath ever a sure punishment attending upon it Forty years agoe God offered them deliverance by Moses which when they refused they were plagued with forty years more of slavery But yet at length when they sighed God heard that very sorrowful breathing Sweet Father so it is ever with thee just to correct but gracious to give over not ever offended but in due time intreated pittiful loving and of endless mercy CHAP. III. Verse 1. THat great men may not be ashamed of honest Vocations the greatest that ever were have been content to take up with mean Trades The same Moses that in the former Chapter was a Courtier is in this verse a Shepherd The contempt of honest Callings in those which are well born argues Pride without Wit How constantly did Moses stick to his Hook and yet a man of great Spirit of excellent Learning of curious Education and if God had not called him off he had so ended his dayes In the mean time how had he learn'd to subdue all ambitious desires and to rest content with his obscurity so he might have the freedome of his thoughts and full opportunity of holy Meditations he willingly leaves the World to others and envies not his proudest Acquaintance of the Court of Pharaoh He that hath true worth in himself and familiarity with God finds more pleasure in the Desarts of Midian than others can do in the Palaces of Kings Verse 2. This manner of appearing may occasion us to remember how God useth to apply himself to the purpose and intent of his appearing Isai. 6. 1. He is said to appear like a Judge because as then the judgement of Ifrael drew near At the Baptisme of Christ it pleased the Holy Ghost to appear like a Dove because that form might shew the innocency and mild nature of our Saviour And now here like a Bush burning but not consumed that it might declare the present state of his People in Egypt and the condition of his Church unto the Worlds end Verse 5. In this appearance God meant to call Moses to come yet when he is come inhibits him Come not hither We must come to God but we must not come too near him When we mediate of the great Mysteries of his Word we come to him we come too near him when we search into his Counsels The Sun and the Fire say of themselves come not too near how much more the Light which none can attain unto We have all our limits set us and very good reason for it For the Waves of the Sea had not more need of bounds than mans presumption Moses must not come close to the Bush at all and where he may stand he may not stand with his shooes on This Command was significant What are the shooes but worldly and carnal affections If these be not cast off when we come to the holy Place we make our selves unholy How much lesse should we dare to come with resolutions of sin This is not only to come with shooes on but with shooes bemired with wicked filthiness the touch whereof prophanes the Pavement of God and makes our presence odious Verse 6. God could not describe himself by a more sweet Name than this I am the God of thy Father and of Abraham c. yet Moses hides his face for fear If he had said I am the Glorious God that made Heaven and Earth that dwels in Light inaccessible whom Angels cannot behold here had been just cause of terror But why was Moses so frighted with a familiar compellation God is no lesse awful to his own in his very Mercies Great is thy Mercies that thou maist be fear'd For to them no lesse Majesty shines in the Favours of God than in his Judgements and Justice