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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	charity_n	feed_v	great_a	61	3	2.1251	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61671	Two ancient patternes of true goodnesse and charity one of Job in the midst of his honovr & wealth, the other of the widow of Sarepta in the extremity of her povertie : both now published together, as fit to be followed in these necessitous times, and both dedicated to the living patterne of true goodnesse and charitie, Gilbert Ld Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate and Metropolitan of all England, &c. / by David Stokes ...	Stokes, David, 1591?-1669.	1667 (1667)	Wing S5722; ESTC R38295	29,832	82

These referre to her selfe and notwithstanding all these she went first to supply the wants of Elijah Other considerations there are that referre to the Prophet And amongst these three that are most eminent and must not be concealed 1. That he was A stranger one of another country from her 2. That he was A Prophet and chiefly 3. That he was This Prophet Elijah the Tishbite That this man whom she thus entertaines was the very Prophet I doe not say that foretold this famine wherein they were all likely to perish But more then so The only man to whose zeale they wholly imputed this misery The maine instrument that brought it upon them and by whose meanes it seemed to be so long continued The man that saith in the first verse of this chapter and in the presence of the King himselfe As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand there shall not be dew nor raine these yeares but according to my word He that had said thus would you thinke that his mouth should be heard and fed too and with that food that is therefore wanting to her selfe would you thinke that her distressed house should be made a sanctuary for him and every thing should be done juxta verbum ejus as he would have it that brought the famine upon them It is a wonder she falls not about his eares or at least that she doth not raise up the people against him to apprehend him and take away his life that brought them all in danger of theirs But in that she conceales him in that shee obeyes him in that she saves his life and saves it with the hazard of her owne and her childs can there be any other circumstance added to this wonder 3. Yes there can be so for as I told you all this referres unto him but now something there is that amplifies the action it selfe from the order and the manner of it 1. Abiit fecit that is she doth it with alacrity and chearfulnesse wherein the life of every good action consists without any more adoe without any further dispute as soon as she knew his mind she went about it Fecit juxta verbum Eliae that is she doth it in that order that he would have it to serve him first before she provide for her selfe and her sonne She tooke not her owne method of charity to begin with her selfe and her sonne but she followes that order that the man of God prescribes her by speciall dispensation First and presently to begin with him And thus you see in all there be three severall wayes by which wee may perceive the true extent of her charity Now to look upon them more distinctly 1. I will begin first with those that reflect upon her selfe and in that ranke first to consider her as a woman She went and did according to the word of Elijah we are here provoked to oemulation by the weaker Sex And it must be confessed that as in many other vertues by Deborah by Hannah by the foure Maryes and some of that ranke so here in the workes of charity we have a Copy set by a silly woman I will not say that the greatest Ladies and Dames may learne to take out but I will say more that never any of the Nobler sex have come so neare as to expresse it in all things to the life And I would they had onely out-stript us in Charity to which being more tender hearted perhaps we may perswade them that they are more inclinable by nature but I feare they have sometimes had the happinesse to be able to instance a preheminence in something else I will not conceale what Saint Chrysostome saith of his time on Ephes 4. that things were come to that passe Men were growne so effeminate so proud so inconstant so phantasticall and women on the contrary so laborious so discreet and so resolute that he thought it might be a question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it were Englished such a question from such a one as Chrysostome would please some women too much And at this time whereof we read in my Text there was no piety matchable to that of the great Prophet Elijah but onely that of Obadiah that hid so many Prophets in a cave and this of the woman to whom Elijah came And I doubt not but Chrysostome was of opinion that in some respects she exceeded the great Elijah and Obadiah too For he seemes to conceive Elijah carried a little too farre in his zeale and perhaps brought hither to be schooled of this woman not so much by observing her want and misery as by seeing her wonderfull and Charitable affection that when he begged of her presently welcomed him with all her store Chrys Tom. 8. pag. 31. H.S. Him that was in no greater streights then she her selfe Him that had not besides himselfe a family also to provide for as she had and lastly Him that being thus heard at his first begging from her yet would not so much as begge and solicite his God by prayers for the release of hers and the common calamity O woman great is thy Charity I say not this to make women proud that are commonly too apprehensive of any fewell fit for that vice to feed on but to encourage them and withall to rouse up the guides and Lords of the weaker Sex that so we may have Omnia benè Women being after so good patternes and praecedents ambitious of all vertue to the highest capacity of their nature and men expressing by their actions that they move in a higher Spheare and are as worthy of preheminence as they are ready to challenge it by a grant and patent from the maker of them both But I goe on We have looked upon this Charitable person in her Sex 2. Now we come in the second place to consider her in her country as she was a Sidonian a woman of Sarepta how she that was so went and did according to the word of Elijah Sidon was a City in Syria by the Sea side and bordering upon Iudaea a very ancient and famous City from whence it seemes the whole Territory thereabout were called Sidonians Among them is Sarepta a lesser and more obscure Towne And. Masius in Jos some six miles from Sidon and a place as it was conjectured by the name where they were wont to melt and fashion diverse mettals This Country of the Sidonians was wholly overspread with gross Idolatry And yet you may see by the manner of her oath if there were no more that in the midst of wicked Pagans she served the true God And she served him in no ordinary measure as appeares by this high degree of Charity Mat. 25. A vertue that hath the Keyes of Heaven and by which only it may seem God will pronounce his sentence of blessing and cursing at the last day as if no other vertue were of like value with that And no mervaile For it is a vertue of so

whether it may be more urged from the eye or from the feet So tender are both of them the feet no less then the eye the veins meeting all there and making them also easily affected to the quick with the least touch And therefore for this my Lords having two wayes to urge it I may presume we are sure to speed apud tam aequos rerum Judices And so we should do though it were not urged at all To pity the Innocent to commiserate the distressed estate of the poor it needs no persuasion all good natures bring it with them from their Cradles Only this is our misery Great fortunes they say use to alter our dispositions and many when they are come to be great men are fain to be intreated to put on the natural affectiont of men Anatomists tell us that in the eye of man there is a muscle that lifts it upwards and so I confess it should be not in pride but in some better ejaculations towards heaven But there is a Connexion in these words of my Text which like a strong muscle seems to draw the eyes of the Judge downward as low as may be He is made the eye to the blind and the feet to the lame and therefore should his care and oversight of the poor and fatherless and widow be like the desires of the eye never satisfied but with the sight and succour of them And then somewhat would be done in reference to the feet which now we come to For a near challenge we have to the Judge as he is the eye but to make it sure here is another part of my Text that makes him still the more ours and puts him yet the more in mind of what we may expect from him It is not enough for him to sit aloft in the chiefest Castle of the body like an imperious eye and perhaps be a little affected with the trouble of it The eye is of it self the busiest member and will be ever employed in the variety of several objects And so must they be that are the eyes of the Common-wealth ever in action Rest must be rather for others then them That is something more then we heard before But that is too little to set out the labour of a good Judge We must bring the Metaphore down to the very feet rather then not express this to the very full It is the feet that are to bear the burden of the whole body and that must fall to the Judges share if he will be like Job in goodness as well as greatness He must be the pillar the prop the foot of the Common-wealth yes of the meanest part of it I was the foot to the lame saith Job there We need not go sarre to learn that The name of a King the supreme Head and Judge over all implies this in the Greek The young Scholars will tell you that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a King is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very foundation the lowest part of all So is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew the name of a Prince or great man of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bear because he takes the burthen and care of others upon himself He is the foot as well as the eye This was Plinie's Dialect to express the care of Trajan Incedis pedibus ambulas inter nos saith he in Panegyr where ambulare hath the same sense of publick conversation that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew often hath in the old Testament And in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have in the new Ambulare in this notion when it is used of Princes of such as Trajan it doth as good as tell us that something of importance it is expected he should do by which succeeding ages as by several footsteps may trace him out and find an easier way to the publick good Shall I put you in mind of the language wherein Hobab Moses his Kinsman expressed the great trouble that Moses had in judging the people Numb 17. Sustentent tecum onus populi non solus graveris Put them together and here is both ambulare and sustentare and of the two this sustentare is more properly the use of the foot And so it is of Judges and the greatest and noblest amongst men The whole body especially the blind and the lame the weakest part must rely upon them And though I speak much for sustentare yet I beseech you my good Lords remember ambulare too And when you walk about in your several Circuits to see the ruines of the land think upon the great Judge that says Scrutabor Jerusalem in lucernis And make this your comment upon it and the Application for every Judge in his own person I will be the eye to the blind and feet to the lame in my Circuit to find them out and to help and support them I know you will give me leave to say so And we all hope my good Lords that you will be such Searchers and such Lights and such Eyes in every Circuit where you come And then the next thing I have to say shall be only this Psal 25.5 Ride on and good luck have you with your Honor. Let your Table be richly decked and your head refreshed with oyl and your cup overflow and more then that Let all the eyes that see you bless you and Let all the feet that come near you bow down unto you For you are the eyes to the blind and the feet to the lame You see as my Text doth so do I I joyn the parts together again the eye and the foot And so it agrees well every way the Eye of Honor and Contemplation and the foot of Labour and Practice The Eye that sees what is to be done and Foot that is able to go about it When these are joyned together what title can we give them good enough They are like Starres in their several orbes that impart the benefit of their light and motion to the inferiour bodies Like another great Elias Currus Auriga Israelis The Charriot and the Horseman of Israel The Charriot to carry the burden and the Horseman or Waggoner to see and direct the way that is Oculus Pes the Eye and the Foot Which are ever so well met that the Prophet Isaiah puts them in other terms into the promise of a future happy government 49.23 Erunt Reges nutritii tui Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers and Queens thy nursing Mothers Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers What 's that to carry them about as it were in their bosomes To be their eyes and their feet I cannot put it into better words then those of my Text. For let the Nurse leav the Child a while to it self and it will soon appear that the poor Infant had no other eyes or feet to help it self withall but only those of the Nurse And let those that God hath set over us either

leave the people to themselves or be forced so to leave them And then tell me if such a people would not soon prove as these are in my Text blind and lame And happy then would be the feet of those that could bring us tydings of one that would be in Job's description Oculus coeco pes claudo Eye to the blind and Foot to to the lame But here I must stop For now my Lords I have finished the greatest part of my Task If you will give me leave to search a little further into Job's meaning it may be we shall find that this verse contains the Form the Soul and the Essence of a good Judge For of all the parts and members of the body only these two are peculiarly attributed unto the soul The Understanding is the Eye the Affections are the Feet and these two make up the whole soul And again these Eyes in my text though in some sense they may be understood of the body politick yet in no sense can they be understood of the body of a man For though it be against reason that the greater light should be extinguished by the lesser Yet so it falls out that corporal eyes rather trouble the understanding in the course of Justice Therefore we use to paint Justice rather blinded then having the liberty of such eyes And those famous Judges among the Graecians in Areiopago were wont to sit at midnight that they might not discern the difference of any man's person And thirdly If we search what may be the meaning of it which is the surest way by the law of Opposition then we shall both confirme this sense of the words and gain somewhat else unto it For what do you take to be meant by the blind and the lame in this reference to a Judge Sure If we referre it to the under-officers of Justice which his eye must chiefly observe and guide What is Blindness in the Informers in the Witnesses in the Jury in the Pleaders but only Ignorance And what is Lameness on their parts but the tedious protraction of poor mens Suits or what else of that nature offends the currat lex the swift course of Justice Now then to build upon this if Blindess and Lameness be Ignorance and Slowness in those that are to be guided by the Judge what must his Eye be in reference to them but the Eye of Understanding the eye of Wifdome And thus it referres to such Officers of Justice as are not worthy of that name Then in a second place If these blind and lame referre to them that are to be judged to the rei that is to them whose cause is in hand Then must blindness and lameness in them be nothing else but impotency inability to help themselves which should move the Judge like God himself to incline rather to the weaker side not to look upon the greatest through the optique-glass of his own affections and so to make them seem greater and nearer to him then they should be but to be the eye to the blind and the feet to the lame rather to help them that cannot otherwise help themselves You see the ground of what we are to say Now to set upon it in particular The first ranck of our blind men are such in the Courts of Justice as should be the eyes to the Judge but some way or other are so blinded that he is fain to find eyes for them And that we may discover them the better their ignorance will teach us to make them of two kinds according to the cause of their blindness some of them being blinded by gross ignorance which we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others by affected ignorance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And of the two the latter are the more dangerous and call for a greater caveat from the Judge For they can indeed but they will not pierce any further then to the scum and top of things wherein to say truth we are apt to offend most of us It may well pass for an epidemical disease for it is not our ignorance but our hope and fear and love and anger and hate that is commonly suffered to bind up our sight in darkness and lead us blindfolded into all error All which are so ordinary that Solomon accounted them for wise men that had their eyes in their heads For many have found out new devices by placing their eyes where they should not be in the hand rather then in the head by that means seeing more where they have some feeling of the cause then where their heads might better direct them If there be any such that hear me this day it is likely they do not see any such things in themselves For what sight can we expect in blind men yet perhaps in a Sermon by the help of the Preachers candle they may begin to see a glimmering light of what they should But when they come to their old places of gain their old thoughts meet them afresh as familiarly as if they had left them there till their return And this I would it were their fault alone There we erre too all of us whatsoever we think of our worst affections in Gods house when their ugliness is ript up we shall easily come to our old former opinions when we come to the former places of our practise unless with the Lamiae we could leave our old eyes at home and carry new and better along with us I have been the larger in this discovery of their blindness as being the cause of another vice that follows after it For in that method my Text brings them in first the blind and then the lame A lame pace must needs proceed from that blindness And when we have found the cause of the one we may safely presume that to be the cause of the other also If their blindness proceed from gross ignorance that is it that makes their delayes If it grow from affected ignorance if gain or passion stand between them and wisdome then they are lame they go slowly in the course of law for the same cause That is it that makes the Tryal creep so slowly or rather so slily forward that it carrieth with it no witness of any proficiency That is it that makes them crie with the sluggard yet a little and yet a little while the poor man's cause turns about like the dore on her hinges and is never the nearer to what it should be after all their delayes But here I would be understood with some caution for I know the use and the need of just demurres The Romans had it in their law under the terme of Ampliare as appears by more then one place in Tullies Orations In the Greek we find it under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apostle Pauls case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 24.22 Faelix put them off for a while and took an amplius deliberandum a demorari that is a demurre This