Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	king_n	power_n	regal_a	4,712	5	11.5491	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35438	An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Book of Job being the substance of XXXV lectures delivered at Magnus near the bridge, London / by Joseph Caryl.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.	1656 (1656)	Wing C760A; ESTC R23899	726,901	761

shall mortall man be more just than God It is as if he should say man hath no Justice at all compared with God shall man be more pure than his Maker Man compared with his Maker hath no purity at all not so much as a name or a shadow of Justice and purity compared with God though it be somewhat in it selfe yet it is nothing before him In thy sight or before thee shall no flesh living be justified or be just All that righteousnesse and purity which God hath put into the creature is but as the light of a candle to the light Humana justitic divinae comparata injuhitia est qu●a et lu●e●●a in tenebr●● 〈…〉 cerni●u● 〈◊〉 in solis radio posita tenebratur Greg. of the Sunne the candle hath no light in it compared to the Sunne the candle enlightens the night but a thousand candles cannot a day or make the day lighter then it is Sun-light overcomes and swallowes up candle-light The Starres helpe us to see in the dark but in the bright day time the Starres themselves cannot be seene so all creature purity disappeares and vanisheth vvhen once vve looke upon the purity of God who is light and in vvhom there is no darknesse at all The Apostle Paul hath a parallel expression 2 Cor. 3. 10. speaking of the administration of the Jewish ceremoniall earthly shadowes and the administration of light in Gospell heavenly ordinances Even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth I doe not deny saith he but there was great glory in the Jewish Church Gods institution stampt excellency upon the worship of the Jewes Their Ceremonies were made glorious but if you vvill compare Jewish vvorship to Christian vvorship it hath no glory in it at all that which was made glorious had no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth that is Gospell glory So vve may say man who vvas made glorious man vvho was made gracious and just hath no grace no justice no glory in him in comparison of that glory which doth excell namely that justice and purity which is in God God is so true that all men are lyars Rom. 3. 4. So righteous that all mans righteousnesses are a filthy Cajus participatione justi sunt ejus comparatione nec justi sunt Aug. lib. ad Orosium c. 20. ragge Isa 64. 6. Man who is just by participation from God is not just in comparison of God The fifth Conclusion is this and it is the principall point which we are to receive and attend from this Text. God is so just so pure in himselfe that he nether doth nor can doe wrong to any creature In this truth Eliphaz aimes to instruct Job chiefely for he supposed that Job had complained of God as if he had done him wrong wherefore he speakes reprovingly and chidingly shall mortall man be more just than God as if he should say art thou so grosse as to charge God with doing thee an injury It is impossible that God should doe any man wrong de Facto he doth no man wrong and de Posse he cannot wrong any man The power of God is seene most in this that he cannot doe any evill This impotencie if we may so call it is the strength of God yea the omnipotency of God consists in this that he can doe no wrong We have a Maxime of state amongst us and it is the glory of the Kings of this Nation we say The King can doe no wrong but it is not to be understood as this God can doe no wrong we know Kings are men and that 's enough to prove they may doe wrong As to say the Lord is God is enough to prove that he cannot Princes have a naturall power to doe evill but which is his glory God hath not The meaning then is the King hath not any civill power to doe wrong the Law hath so bounded ordered and directed him The constitution of the Kingdome hath given him the advice of Parliaments and Counsellours the assistance of Judges and Officers he acts by others so that The failings of his Ministers doe the subject wrong the regall power doth it not But when we speake thus of God we meane it of his naturall power which being essentially and infinitely just and good as well as soveraigne and supreme there is not the least imaginable seed in him which should be procreative of the least injustice Therefore the Scripture describes the Lord just and holy not only in his nature but in all his works and wayes Psal 145. 17. The Lord is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works And this implyes not onely that all the wayes wherein the Lord walks are righteous and the works he doth holy but that he can goe in no way but a righteous way nor doe any worke in the creature but a worke of holinesse Not onely is that just and holy which the Lord doth but let the Lord doe what he will that will be just and holy And here give me leave somewhat to enlarge this and plead for God against some objections which are made by the men of the world and some temptations which Satan will urge strongly upon the hearts of those who feare God by which possibly they may be so entangled and gravel'd that they know not how to extricate themselves or make out the justice of God in his administrations towards men For first it will be objected Is God so just that he neither doth nor can doe injustice to the creature How comes it to passe that both the righteous and the wicked fall under the same judgement if the judgement be right upon a wicked man surely it cannot be right upon the righteous man Is God righteous and just when they who differ as much as Heaven and Hell as light and darknesse doe yet meete as it were under the same act of God and are wrapt together in the same sentence If it be Justice upon the wicked if it be their portion how can it be the portion of the righteous or an award of Justice upon them As Abraham pleaded with God Gen. 18. 25. Shall the righteous be slaine or perish with the wicked that be farre from thee to doe in this manner shall not the Judge of all the earth doe right as if he should say if thou doest involve a just man and a wicked man in one and the same judgement this is not to doe as a righteous Judge farre be it from thee to doe such a thing Yet we see in frequent experiences that the same judgement falleth upon the righteous and the wicked By sword famine pestilence by stormes at Sea and enemies at Land both are overtaken and fall together Is this unerring Justice Justiee is to give every one his portion his due And God hath Justitia est suum cuique●●●buere given this exact distribution in charge to the Prophet he must say so

double according to her works it may seeme that her harvest of punishment must exceed in Rev. 18. 6. double proportion her seed time of sinning The Psalmist speakes yet higher Render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosome their reproach wherewith they have reproached thee O Lord. Render Psal 79. 12. sevenfold that is manifold That number in Scripture multiplies the sense into any number To render sevenfold may be rendred the greatest number I answer Babylons punishment shall be double respecting what Babylon shall have acted but not double respecting what Babylon shall have deserved Give to her double if it be possible let her have as much blood more to drinke as she hath spilt for she deserveth to drinke an hundred times more The blood of Saints is precious blood one drop of the blood of Sion is more worth than a whole ocean of the blood of Babylon therefore give her double though it be more in quantity it is not so much in value And so reward our neighbours that have reproached thee sevenfold it is not sevenfold beyond their deserts for one scorne that a wicked man powreth upon a childe of God and so upon God for that 's the meaning of the Psalme cannot be recompensed with ten thousand reproaches powred upon wicked men Reproach is the due of ungodly men here and everlasting reproach shall be their portion hereafter But the least reproach cast upon God is an infinite wrong and the reproach of his people is so much his that he reckons it as his own And will therefore take away all reproach from his people and render to their unkinde neighbours their reproach sevenfold and that 's but equall into their bosomes Lastly When it is said They shall reape the same We are taught That the punishment of sinne shall be like the sinne in kinde It shall be the same not only in degree but also in likenesse Punishment often beares the image and superscription of sin upon it You may see the fathers face and feature in the childe Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reape saith the Apostle Gal. 6. 7. If a man sowe wheate he shall reape wheate the harvest tells you what kinde of graine was sowed in every feild if a man sowes wheate he shall not reape tares and if a man sowe tares he shall not reape wheate Thus God often returnes the sin of man upon him sin comes to him in its own likenesse and he may reade the name of it stampt upon the affliction or by the judgement inflicted interpret the wickednesse committed This was openly confess'd by Adonibezek Judg. 1. 7. As I have done so God hath requited me just so and what was that He speakes out in the former words Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbes and their great tooes cut off gathered their meate under my Table there was his sowing his reaping was the same They caught him saith the Text and cut off his thumbes and his great toes The very first Law that was formally made and published after the fall was a Law of retaliation or of counterpassion Gen. 6. 9. Whosoever sheddeth mans blood what shall he reape by man shall his blood be shed he must reape the same The Judicials of Moses are plaine for this Exod. 21. 24. Eye for eye and tooth for tooth c. They have moved me to jealousie saith the Lord by that Deut. 32. 21. which is not God and I will move them to jealousie by those who are not a people Like as ye have forsaken me and served strange Gods in your Land so shall ye serve strangers in a Land which is not yours Jer. 5. 19. God payeth them in their owne coine Who so stoppeth his eares at the cry of the poore he also shall cry himselfe but shall not be heard Prov. 21. 13. And so concerning the preaching of the word contemned Zech. 7. 13. Therefore it is come to passe that as he cryed and they would not heare so they cryed and I would not heare saith the Lord of Hosts They reape as they sowed they would not heare that was their sin they shall not be heard that 's the punishment they shall see how good it is to be wilfully deafe when God commands by his being judicially deafe when they complaine The Sodomites had a fire of unnaturall lust among them and God sent a showre of fire unnature to destroy them The Egyptians killed the Israelitish children that was the seed they sowed they reape the same God slew their children even all their first-borne in one night Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire there was their wickednesse they reaped the same God by fire from Heaven in a strange manner slew them in a moment Yea we find the Lord sometimes dealing thus with his own deare servants he will cause them to reape that which they have sowen in kind David had defiled his neighbours wife therefore saith the Lord I will take thy wives from before thine eyes 2 Sam. 12. 11. and give them to thy neighbour and he shall lye with thy wives in the sight of this Sunne Againe The Lord tells him Thou hast slaine Vriah with the sword of the children of Ammon therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house You see here was sword for sword and defilement for defilement even holy David reaped the same which he had sowed It is very remarkeable which is reported in the history of the Church by Socrates concerning Valens the Emperour who was a great persecuter Socrat Histor Eccl. l. 4. c. 3. of the orthodox Christians and a maintainer of Arianisme The story tells us that in his warres against the Gothes he was overthrowne and hiding himselfe in a little cottage the enemy came by burnt it and him together Now see how God in this gave him to reape what he had sowen for when fourscore of the orthodox sayled from Constantinople to Nicomedia to treate with him about the points of Arrianisme and to settle the matter by way of dispute the Emperour hearing of their approach while they were in the haven and before they could come on shore caused the Ships to be fired wherein they were and so consumed them all here was burntng for burning And it is observed in the French Historie that Charles the ninth of France who was the Anno 15 72. contriver of that great Massachre in Paris wherein so many thousand Protestants were forced through a Red sea a sea of blood to their rest in Canaan this bloody King at last dyed himselfe by a strange eruption of blood from all the passages of his body thus he also reaped what he had sowne he had powred out blood and his blood was powred out It were easie to give you plenty of instances bearing witnesse of this accurate justice of God Examples were frequent in Jobs time you see Eliphaz had store of these in his note-booke Even as I have seene they that plow iniquity and