Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A44070
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The creatures goodness, as they came out of God's hands, and the good mans mercy to the brute creatures, which God hath put under his feet in two sermons : the first preached before the University of Oxford : the second at the lecture at Brackley / by Thomas Hodges ...
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Hodges, Thomas, d. 1688.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing H2319; ESTC R17986
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37,570
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50
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at first and who hath restored all things and redeemed his People to God by his blood out of every kindred and Tongue and People and Nation If with the Apostle John Rev. 5.11 12 13. We behold and hear the voyce of many Angels round about the Throne and the Beasts and the Elders the number of them ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voyce Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And every Creature in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and in the Sea saying Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever If God had his Sabbath to celebrate his work of Creation good reason Christ should have his Sabbath wherein we should commemorate his work of Redemption And now this being the Lords day and our Christian Sabbath let us do the duty of the day in the season thereof Bless the Lord O our Souls and all that is within us bless his Holy Name Forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all our iniquities who redeemeth our life from destruction who crowneth us with loving kindnesses and tender mercies Psal 103.1 2 3 4. U II I shall conclude all with a few words of Exhortation When God looked upon his works did he see every thing very good 1. Then let us not cavil or carp at any of all God's works Wo to him that striveth with his Maker Let the Potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth Let 's not blame or find fault with God for any of all his works either of Creation or Providence for God hath made all things well and he hath made every thing beautiful in his season If any of God's Creatures or Providences prove evil and hurtful to us let 's blame our selves let 's blame our sins For Sin that it might appear Sin worketh death in us by that which is good Rom. 7. 2. Let 's admire and adore God Let 's bless and praise and magnify him for ever for all his goodness For his goodness is in and over all his works Let 's have high thoughts of God and low of our selves And this is the use the Prophet David makes of this Doctrine Psal 8.147 148 149 150. Yea this is the use which God himself would have Job make of it when he preached upon part of this Text in the 38 39 40 41. Chapters of the Book of Job And let us say with the Psalmist Ps 103. when we take a survey of Gods works Bless the Lord ye his Angels who excel in strength ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Bless the Lord all his Works in all places of his Dominion every one of us Bless the Lord O my Soul 3. Let 's learn good from the Creatures God would have us go to school to the Creatures to learn many good Lessons from them He would have the Sluggard go to the industrious Ant to consider her ways and be wise Those who are ignorant of God their Lord and feeder are reproved by the bruit Creatures For the Oxe knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib Those who do not or cannot discern the times and seasons even the times of their Visitation the Prophet would that we go to the Stork the Crane and the Swallow for all these know their appointed seasons And because Christians and Ministers especially are sent out in the World as Sheep among Wolves Christ would have them to be as wise as Serpents and innocent as Doves Last of all did God look upon daily and at the end of the sixth day again review all his works Did he examine judge and find them all very good Let us go and do likewise let us imitate God we cannot have a better precedent or example to follow Let us every evening look back upon the works of the day and at the end of the week upon the works of the week Let 's examine and judge them This has been the practice of many precious Saints as the Lord Harington Mr. Herbert Palmer and others Yea some such thing as this viz. calling himself to an account at night for what had passed him in the day Seneca tells of himself These examples we shall do well if we follow so as they followed God himself This is a right method to proceed from good to very good to have all good but our latter work better than our former But because that in many things we offend all whil'st we are in this World here upon Earth let us look for and long after that place and state I mean for Heaven when we shall be made like unto God and our works like his works When from day to day and Sabbath to Sabbath even to all eternity we may look upon every thing that we have done and behold it shall be very good The END of the first Sermon Proverb 20.10 The righteous Man regardeth the life of his Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ACcording to the Hebrew 'tis A righteous Man knows that is regardeth taketh care of the life of his Beast If on the one hand we consider the great commendations which the Holy Scriptures give of diverse of the bruit and unreasonable Creatures together with God's great care of and cost about them himself and his charge and laws to Men concerning them And on the other hand compare therewith Men's vilifying disregarding abusing of them It may seem not unreasonable nor unprofitable to bestow one lecture about them namely for this end to instruct and teach Men who have a right to use them how to use them aright to make them good Lords to those good Servants As he that rules over tnen must be just so he that is Lord over these bruit Creatures must not be cruel towards them As God will require the life of a Man of the Beast that slayeth him Gen. 9.5 Ex. 21.29 the Beast shall be put to death So will God call Men to accompt for the lives of their Beasts if they be cruel unto them For my own part I would not when my Lord cometh be found causelesly or cruelly beating or misusing these my Servants and my fellow Servants From the words we may observe 1. That Man hath a Right and Title to the Beasts of the Earth and that not only in common but each Man hath a particular Right and Propriety in them The righteous Man regardeth the life of his Beast 2. That a good or righteous Man is good or merciful to his Beast 3. That unrighteous or wicked Men are unmerciful or cruel to their Beasts I. Psal 8.6 7. Of the First God the soveraign Lord of Heaven and Earth the Maker of Man and Beast hath made him Lord over the Beasts he hath put them all under his hand or under his feet Gen. 1.25.26 28. He that made the Beast of the Earth
his cruelty Lutum sanguine maceratum dirt or clay soaked in blood and of the rest as also of the Popes of Rome The first sort against Men the second against Christians the third against Protestants or such as concurr'd in Doctrine or Tenets with them The truth is Rome was and is a bloody City and well set out in the Revelations by a Woman cloathed in Scarlet a bloody colour It was at first planted and afterwards watered with blood The ten persecuting Roman Emperours slew so many Christians as that we are told 5000 Martyrs may be assigned to every day in the year except one And the learned Mr. Mede tells us that the Persecution of the Beast or of the Papacy was as great as that of the Roman Heathen Emperours And here Qualis Rex talis Grex as were their Rulers and Governours such so cruel and bloody were the common People witness the great delight the Roman Citizens took in beholding the Sword-sights where sometimes out of an opinion that it was good against the Falling-sickness they sucked the reaking blood out of the fresh wounds as well as bathed their hands in the blood of the slain D. H. from Pl. They were void of natural affection they had no Bowels for them that came out of their own Bowels for they sometimes exposed and sometimes murthered their own Children if Females if deformed or if the Parents were poor c. Yea sometimes they offered their own Children in Sacrifice to their Idol-Gods as also did the Carthaginians the Gaules and some of the ancient Britains Thus they became more brutish more savage than the very wild Beasts for which of these doth not love embrace nourish and cherish their Young the fruit of their own Bodies And well it were if only Heathens were guilty of such cruelty and liable to such reproof How many Christian Parents are there of whom it may be said as the Emperour said of Herod that it was better to be his Swine than his Son Better to have been their Beasts than their Children I cannot excuse King Philip the II. of Spain that delivered up or at least permitted his own Son Prince Charles the Heir of the Crown to be put to death in the Inquisition Beloved these things ought not so to be If you must be kind to you Cattel then much more to your own Children you must not hide your eyes from your own flesh you must not make their lives bitter to them bitter as death by reason of your harshness and severity Again hence be convinced of your duty and perswaded to it Ye that are Masters of Servants be kind not cruel to them If we must not be cruel to the Beasts much less to our Brother flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone Your Servants if Christians especially are your Brethren your Fellow-servants you and they have one and the same Master in Heaven To draw towards a Conclusion Let 's not be cruel to our own selves our own Souls or Bodies Let not any Man lay violent hands upon himself Let not any Man that is a Christian be felo de se Let not suicide or self-murther be once named among Christians We are Souldiers have our place and station set us and must not stir off the Guard till our General the Lord of Hosts call us off again We must not break Prison to set our Souls at liberty but stay till death come with power and authority from the Lord of liberty life and death to let them out Who ever hated his own flesh Lastly Let 's be kindly affected one towards another every Man to his Brother and his Neighbour be not Men-eaters in the worst sense do not bite and devour one another do not eat one another as one eateth Bread If we must not rent Christ's seamles Coat surely we must not tear and devour Christ's living Body Let not our Swords any more eat one anothers flesh or drink one anothers blood any more The Sword hath a mouth the edge of the Sword in the Hebrew signifies the mouth of the Sword If we do thus eat up one another or cruelly shed one anothers blood any more know that the voice of thy Brothers blood will cry to Heaven for vengeance as the blood of Abel did against Cain the Souls under the Altar in the Revelations How long Lord Holy and True will it be before thou avenge our blood upon them that have unjustly shed it or rather spilt our blood like water upon the Earth Doth God take care for Oxen or other Beasts in this Text Doubtless as unto us so for our sakes chiefly and ultimately was this written A good Man is merciful to his Beast but the mercies of the wicked are cruel As if the Wise-man had said A just or good Man is merciful to the Beasts but a wicked Man is cruel and merciles to Mankind And take this along with you That to use to shew mercy to our Beasts is a way and means to make us merciful to our Brother and Neighbour Si quis Conscientiâ Divini mandati ad cruentandum jumentum tardior suerit eum certè ad Hominem violandum multo magis aversum alienum habebimus So Chrisost in Loc. 'T is thought that God most merciful forbad to eat Blood after the Flood to prevent the violence that did overflow the earth before the Deluge came for those two go together Gen. 9. He that sheddeth Man's blood by Man shall his blood be shed And Ye shall not eat the blood of the Beast because or for the life is in the blood Those who are used to shed blood though the blood of Beasts and though for necessity and publick good as Butchers amongst us are forbidden by the Law or may be excepted against if impannel'd upon a Jury of life and death because their calling as is conceived doth harden their hearts or at least make them less inclined to mercy and pity than other Men. Even doubtless the cruel Spectacles at Rome did render the People less merciful 'T is very probable that the custom there of casting Malefactours to the Lyons and other wild Beasts to be devoured by them and the custom of setting Beasts to sight with and kill one another in the Theatre might dispose them the more easily to delight in the Sword-sights wherein Men slaughtered one another to the great content satisfaction and joy of the Beholders and so though their hands were not yet they had their eyes in blood and as he that loâ—ks on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart so he that looked on these bloody Spectacles with a desire that one should kill the other and delighted therein when done committed Murther against his Brother in his heart And as 't is said of some that they had eyes full of Adultery so we may say of the Spectatours of these bloody Fights that they had eyes full of Murther Their eyes were blood shot in the worst sense their eyes were full of blood Beloved let it not be so amongst you you are Christians Children of the Father of Mercies your Bosoms are the nest of the Heavenly Dove you expect to follow the Lamb where ever he goes You who before your call conversion were as Lyons Tygres Wolves Bears as cruel as such one to another Put on as the Elect of God bowels of mercy kindness gentleness you who formerly lived in malice envy hateful hating one another now that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man hath appeared see that all bitterness wrath clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice be ye kind one to another tender hearted like the good Samaritan not only kind to your Neighbours but even to Strangers and like to the righteous Man in the Text whose character is that he is merciful to or regardeth the life of his Beast FINIS