may be in which the consent and submission of the major part of men or long custom and settled constitutions in any Polity have the force of a law and are a rule of Politick Justice provided they bind to nothing immoral or irreligious Secondly Justice is considerable in the grand cistern and conservatory as the brazen Sea in the Sanctuary which served the Temple with water which is the Soveraign and Legislative power in every Society and Polity as it is circumscribed and contained in its proper bounds and peculiar limits this is the center of Order Vnity Justice and Peace politick this dividing and dashing against it self by Caesar and Pompey by Senate and People by King and Parliament by Emperors and Electors all Justice Order and Peace are destroyed the leak in this sinks all there must be a fixed Soveraignty under God to whose Justice and Power paramount all must submit according to law contestations in this run all things to confusions as our sad experience hath taught us Here either Prince or State or Peers or People may severally have the Soveraignty of Justice under several polities or forms of government or there may be such a temperament both as to legislation jurisdiction and execution of Laws by legal power as may best relieve people in their grievances by Parliamentary representatives and best judge of differences by sworn Judges and best execute all legal sentences and decrees by an eminent power in a Soveraign Prince King or Emperor which is best for all estates and such is that admirable constitution of Soveraign Majesty in England from which all Laws are enacted by which they are declared and with which they are justly and effectually executed inclusive of and adapted to all just interests of King Lords and Commons 3. Justice is considerable in the pipes and conduits of aâ—l subordinate Magistrates through which as blood in the veins it flows from the chief Justiciaries to the very petty Constables for the relief of all sorts of people which are as parts and members noble or less honorable of that Body Politick according as the Law doth adjudge to every one their due the measure of all is either recta ratio right Reason or sacra Scriptura the holy Scripture or lex terrae the law of the Land to which all are subjected by their consent He is just who looks to these who willingly submits to them and exactly observes them 1. There is a Justice due to God above all on which his commands in the first table are founded To own him love fear reverence adore admire obey trust in depend on joy in and enjoy him as the supreme good If I be a Father or Master where is my fear 2. There is a Justice due to our selves in chastity sanctity and sobriety to keep up the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Imperial power of Reason and Religion above that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Democracy and Anarchy of lusts and passions which fight and rebell against God and the soul here every vertue is a branch or fruit of Justice as every vice is an act or habit of Injustice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Clem. Alex. out of the Platonists observes every sinful and inordinate passion or action either comes short or shoots beyond or wide of Justice which consists in the medium as in a line or point indivisible 3. There is also a Justice to others void of all fraud or force of which as the Word of God in general and the Laws of every Polity in special so the dictates of every mans own reason his duly reformed and well composed conscience are domestick Dictators {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Synesius observes God has made every mans rational Will the Monitor of justice hence men are a law in many things to themselves and their own thoughts do accuse or excuse their actions hence unjust men who act by fraud or force though never so successful yet are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} self-condemned and without any Apologie Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur And Exemplo quodcunque malo committitur ipsi Displicet autori every unjust doer as he is his own greatest tempter and Traytor so he will be his own summoner accuser witness tormenter and Executioner sibi poena omnis inordinatus animus as St. Austin So Josephs brethren accuse themselves first as guilty of their brothers blood they must needs be sooner or later Magor-missabib terrors to themselves who are by their unjust dealings injurious to others and a terror to the land of the living by their oppressions But I have done with the Theory of Justice in its Source Derivations and Practiques I come now to the second main Postulate or demand of God mercy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} misericordia or benignitas as it is variously rendred This is divinissimum in divinitate humanissimum in humanitate opus Mercy is the most orient gem in the Crown of Gods attributes and the greatest ornament as well as relief of humane nature It is the glory of God to pass by offences to pardon sins to temper the rigor of his Justice to supply defects to help infirmities and to save those sinners in his exceeding great mercy whom he might have condemned in the extremitie of his Justice By mercy God is sui victor seipso major as it were greater than himself and a conqueror of himself A denyer of himself and a sider with our interests All our hopes and happiness are founded upon and bound up in the mercy of God which is above all his works and ours In this fatherly benignity all our blessings are contained nor are we capable as St. Bernard speaks of any other merit than that is made up of Gods mercy which is perventive and plenary beyond desert and desire so ample that none is denyed it upon the tearmes offered Nor can it be ever exhausted for it indures for ever yea and it is peculiar to mankind above the Angels From this great pattern of Gods mercy to such worthless wretches as we are springs this demand and demonstration by which God requires us to be merciful as he our heavenly father is merciful to imitate God in this which is not more necessary so others than our selves since no man can shew so much mercy to others as he either wants or hath received himself Mercy in God is a perfection of goodness by which he moderates the severity of his Justice toward sinful mankind yet without any diminution or blemish of his Justice since it is by the suffering of Messias so satisfied that while mercy rejoyceth Justice hath no cause to complain Mercy in man is an affection by which he lays to heart the misery of another and is disposed
to relieve them Private mercies flow from a tender soft compassionate heart sensible of Gods mercies to it self which command it to recede in many things from the rigor of Justice and what of right it might either exact of or inflict on another No habit brings us neerer to God or makes the face of man shine with a diviner beam of Glory being the establisher of Princes Thrones which are supported by Justice and Mercy In publique transactions whose weight most-what lyes upon the cariage of Justice mercy doth not overthrow Justice or divert it out of the way of rectitude which is Gods High-way but onely smooths the paths and oyls the wheels and supplies the joynts that Justice goes on with less cry and complaint Mercy doth not take away the edge or point the of sword of Justice but only that rust and cancker which makes it wounds fester too deep Mercy is an inseparable attendant to humane Justice yea and to the Divine in this world where God punisheth less and later than we deserve and whatever is short of hell is mercy It is because his compassions fail not that we are not consumed Saith Jeremiah in his bitterest lamenting Where Justice falls heaviest on mens lives and estates for the enormity of their sins yet there is a beam of mercy to be shown them as to their souls by our prayers for their repentance and pardon of God the thief on the cross justly suffering as he confessed for his misdeeds yet tasted of the Divine mercy mixed with that bitter cup This mercy benignity moderation and compassion of which you have had a large and good account in the former exercise is a debt or Justice we owe to others as much as we desire it our selves and it is there seasonable where common errors and infirmities or vulgar simplicity and credulity or easiness and sequaciousness do imitigate the malice by mistake of doing Justice or of reforming the Publique state as in the silly peoples case who followed Absolom in his popular rebellion having so great a friend and wise a Counsellor as Achitophel to delude them Errabant sed bone animo they ment well though they did ill Here Justice ought to look more at the malice of the heart than the iniquity of the fact As that is true comittunt eadem diverso crimina fato so diverso affectu men do the same things from different designes and principles some out of zeal to Justice reformation and religion others out of faction Ambition Courteousnes Envy and Rebellion As common infirmities epidemick errors and popular delusions do make way for mercy so also multitudes of offenders Christ had compassion on the multitudes more then once not only quia miseri but quia multi to make promiscuous massacres and havocks of them when it is in the power of Justices to punish or spare them is barbarous and inhumane It was a word of Clemency worthy of Cesars great mind at the Pharsalian battel Parcite civibus Spare our Countrimen and fellow Citisens Multitudes of Offenders are best punished in their Ring-leaders setters and agitators whose sufferings due to their malice are not more just and necessary for the publique then remissions are to the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} many who do as it were so crowd up Justice that they pinion its armes it cannot well exert its power upon them Too much blood-letting is as dangerous as some may be necessary for health So also penitents are objects of mercy who so confess and deplore their former errors and offences that they give great hopes of future compensations by the revenge they take of themselves Pene innocens â—uem peccasse poenitet Greg. M. when more ashamed for their sin then affraid of their punishment these are objects of mercy and moderation especially if there be any thing to plead for their excuse as free from the great offences and presumptious sinnings as in point of wilful murther and destinate villany of which God hath said thine eye shall not pitty nor thy hand spare least the Land be defiled with blood or idolatry Here it is crudelis misericordia stulta clementia to spare such whose impunity would not not onely seem to lessen the enormity of their sins but expose the publique to infinite hazards in giving encouragement by such cruel pitty and foolish clemency In some cases severe Justice is the greatest mercy to the publique that men may hear and fear and do no more so presumptuously ne crudeli intempestiva miserecordia plectatur respublica Thousands of innocents are oft punished when some few facinorous nocents are spared Their impunity becomes many times the publique sin and punishment and the Nation is make God-father or dry nurse by not punishing those sins of which it justly abhors to have been the Father or doer Yet are there but few cases wherein summum jus is required although that saying be true in grand and publiques concerns which are the polar points and hinges of civil peace fiat justitia ruat caelum let Justice be done what evercome of it Yet it is as true in most cases which are capable of any remission and moderation Fiat justitia ruet caelum if thou Lord shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss who can abide it without Gods mercy to us and ours to our brethren the offenders our heaven is lost judgment without mercy shall be to those that shew no mercy Delayes also as to execution of Justice as David used to Joab and others are publique mercies many times when the factious influence of criminous men is so great and popular that they cannot at present be punished without endangering the publique peace But I have done with this second particular which God requires as to mercy which who so shews to others shews it to himself for of all things we do well the works of mercy shall not go unrewarded Thirdly Humility is required which is a most most Christian grace no less than a most manly vertue becoming all men 1. In the sense of their common infirmities and mortal condition 2. In the conscience of their many sins and deserved miseries 3. In the reflexion upon their best actions full of failing and defects besides their unproficiency as to God when they have done all Here nothing becomes man more or more sets off what he doth than the deepest shadow of humility both toward all mankind who are of the same mettal mould and make with him and toward God to whom he ows all he is or hath or can do for what hath he in nature or providence in soul body or estate which he hath not received Pride destroys and sowres all the good even of Justice and Mercy that any man doth It hath its first patern from the Devil who by pride fell from the Heaven of blessed Angels to the Hell of damned spirits Humility hath God for the
mercy and his blessing upon one great heroick and steady soul got the wind of the Jesuitick Anabaptistick and fanatick designs who have abused us with their long wiles O lose not the advantages which God hath given you to bring your Church and Country into a fair and happy haven after so many tempests and agitations of infinite loss and hazzard There are many holy Duties and Christian Rites which call for your Justice and Mercy the two blessed Sacraments which have a long time been either wholly despised or prophanely abused or very partially used The Lords Prayer also the Ten Commandments and the Creed all sacred and wholesom forms of excellent use to the people of Christs flock but despised and neglected by some of their supercilious Pastors to the great detriment of true Religion and abatement of piety these expect your exemplary Justice to restore them to their primitive and Catholick honor which will be a mercy to the whole Nation which by extemporary novelties and crude varieties in Religion hath been wholly deprived of all those pristine forms of liturgical devotions by which the generality of Christians were best informed and most affected as to the grand fundamentals of Religion Sure it is but the effect of crafty or crazy brains to deny us all use of Our Father in English because we gave over the Pater nosters the Ave Maries and other prayers which were in Latin and so of little use to the vulgar It was once thought a blessing to have prayers and holy duties in a language which people understood Now t is a seraphick stratagem of Satan to make people forget those things which they could easiest remember and best understand Lastly There are many prevalent and epidemical sins of Sacriledge Prophaness irreverence Perjury rash swearing Duelling Vncleanness and all manner of licentious discoveries of Atheism and irreligion which call for your Justice to suppress them for they are the cruellest enemies of Church and State If you will indeed do Justice love Mercy and walk humbly with your God if you will shew loving kindness and sense of honor to your Country resolve upon all those dispensations restitutions and exercitations of Justice and Mercy which are before you Which you will best do if you 1. Be pleased so to fix our Laws yea our legislative and Soveraign authority so that we may be no more tossed too and fro with every wind of mens ambitious fancies qui malunt leges quam mores mutare who had rather change our good laws than mend their own ill manners 2. To remove all obstructions which are inward in your own souls and outward in other mens passions or actions by which either Justice or Mercy are most hindred of their free course 3. If you listen not to that wicked maxim of the Devils politicks Fieri non debuit factum valet as if evil actions did call for perseverance not repentance Nullum tempus occurit Justitiae no time or fact must prescribe against justice truth God and the Church 4. When you have undone by justice what hath been done by injustice to the undoing of Church and State Prince and People Then will mercy be seasonable by acts of such amnesty pardon and oblivion as may rather compose than irritate the spirits of men praestat motos componere fluctus 5. If you needed which I hope you do not any motives to these great indeavours and discoveries of justice and mercy it is no small one which the Platonists observe as to the difference between just and unjust the good and evil men which is as great as between light and darkness order and confusion men and beasts good and bad Angels as between a King and a Tyrant God and the Devil God is the first fountain and grand example of justice and mercy as the Devil is of injuriousness and cruelty 6. If you inquire Cui bono what their reward shall be First the conscience of well doing and this to your Country and in its greatest distresses Next you shall have that reward of lasting honour and renown by which your names as repairers of our breaches shall be embalmed in the love of their Country and transmitted with a sweet resentment to all posterity where as the names of proud and cruel oppressors shall rot and perish like their own dung the blood thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes not only as to those dies naturales but as to those dies civiles which preserve the living fame of worthy men to many generations as blessed he is but short-lived whose infamy only survives as the damned in hell are counted dead because they only live to shame and torment As for your direction what and how to do excellent things you need not search Achitophels braines or rake the skull of Matchiavel you need not call up the Ghost of Richelieu or conjure up those subtil spirits of Government which may tell you the Adyta imperii arcana principum the depths mysteries intrigoes and riddles of States you need not listen any longer to those Seraphick Syrens and Phanatick Counsellors who under the title of Gods cause and the Saints interest which I know not what blessed projects or gainful godliness had made a shift to undo all but themselves yea and themselves too as to all sence of justice or mercy or honor or conscience of modesty or humility You need not advise with flesh and blood with humane passions and lusts facilis parata est ad virtutem via the counsel of God is at hand {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} you cannot easily miscarry by following his wisdome in justice mercy and humility however you had better perish in Gods way as to temporal effects then prosper for a season in the Devils which must end in endlesse infelicities There can no better course be followed in civil justice than that which was given by the Oracle to the Sicilian Pyrates when afflicted by the plague after they had gotten much booty they enquired What they should do to be releived Answer was given in these letters R. A. S. P. P. which some cunning man interpreted to import by the Acrostick letters thus much Reddite Aliena S'ultis Possidere Propria Restore to others what is theirs if you hope to preserve to your selves your own else your common weal will be but a common wo There is neither darkness in your way of justice and mercy nor will there be much difficulty God hath and will remove mountains of malice hypocrisie and injustice before you yea he hath prepared the vvay for you by levelling the levelers and confounding the confounders of all things civil and sacred His vvord and the lavvs of the Land vvill tell you vvhat is to be done State super vias autiquas bonas stand and enquire for the good old ways and walk therein that you and we may find that rest vvhich hath been a long time and ever vvill be denyed us in any of those fantastick and novel models vvhich make religion a nurse of rebellion pretend that the Kingdome of Jesus Christ vvill indure no temporal Christian Kingdome except such as they may rule and raign in But you have not so learned Christ neither his law nor his Gospel suggest any such unjust and cruel counsels nor do they favour any violent and rebellious designes Do as I believe you will what becomes your duty to God and man your love to your Country your respect to true Religion and your care of your posterity and no doubt God will be with you both to strengthen your hands and to make your faces to shine with that glory in this life which is the first but least recompense of just and honorable actions and also with that eternal glory which is the purchase of Christs blood and the honorary recompense of God to all that in the way of well doing seek for honor and immortality to which the Lord bring you and all his Church for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be all glory and honour now and ever Amen FINIS May 20. Anno 630. Preface The great and publique importance of this Parliament Prov. 23. â— 2 Chron. 15.2 The way of our happiness Iudg. 9.7 Prov. 28.9 2 Kings 7.8 Ier. 5.25 Partition Matth. 5.7 Psal. 13. Phil. 2.8 The demonstrator 1 The occasion 1 Sam. 15.13 Isa. 58.3 Ezek. 18 15. 〈◊〉 7.4 Ioh. 1â— 1â— Psal. 50.8 â—sa â—6 3 Psal. 51.17 1 Sam. 1â— 22 Hos. 6.6 2 The credit and authority of the Demonstrator Psal. 94.10 Iob 28. 2 Gen. the thing demonstrated Matth. 22.40 Ieâ— 7.9 1 Ioh. 4.20 Luk. 10.25 Tit. 2.11 1 Iâ—stice Ioâ—. 18.38 Quest Ans. What Iustice iâ— Iustice in the fountain Rom. 2. Iustice in the câ—stern Iustice in the conduits Iustice to God Mal. 5.6 Selves Others Gen. 4â— â—1 3 Demand Mercy Exod. 34. â— Psal. 103.8 Psal. 1 6 Mercy in God In Man Prov. 20. â—8 Lam. 3.22 Matth. 18.27 â— Sam. 15.11 Matâ—h 9.36 and 14.14 Deut. 29.11 13 Psal. 130.3 Iames 2.13 3. Humility Luke 17.10 1 Cor. 4.7 1 Per. 1.4 These three considered in their practicks The acts or exercises of three Vertues 1. To do Iustice Rom. 13.4 Luk. 12.14 Deut. 1.17 Exod. 11.25 and 23.3 Psal. 106. Hoseaâ— 11.8 To love Mercy Isa. 28.21 Mercy must be loved Col. 11. 2 Kings 20.31 3. To walk humbly with thy God Psal. 19.4 5. and 61.9 2 Cor. 11.12 Lev 16.41 so whom this Demonstration and demand is made Of Kings and Sâ—â—â—â—aign Magistrates Ier. 22.15 16. Of Counsellors c. Of Magistrates Of Soldiers and men of might Luk. 3 14. Of the most prosperous O Ministersf of the Church Of the glosing Hypocrites Of the whole Nation 4. The manner of Gods Demonstrating Application or Vses Iosh. 7.13 Conclusion
being almost Ship-wrackt and sincking it had been a very preposterous zeal to have left the vessel to have contended with the Rocks and Sands by a superdevout diligence to save the lading or goods in it Alas we had been much to seek for a reformed Church in a ruined State Your discreet and orderly diligence took the right method in making way for religion by civil justice nor need you fear the dictates frownes and censures of any Anastarchusses whose piety like Jacobs might hope to have supplanted this just necessary and honest policy of restoring our civil laws and royal authority by which our Religion as Cristian and reformed was best established The setling or reforming of religion in all its duties and devotions discipline and decencies together with its order and Government is a work which requires not only time but that leisure which is attended with a calme and steddy posture of civil affaires Men cannot build Gods Temple till they have first washed their hands and purged the land of innocent blood No prudent piety can think such a storme as we were in was a meet season for Church reformation It would only fit those who might hope to fish best for their parties opinions in troubled waters knowing their projects and models to be less consistent with the true interests and pristine welfare of this Church and State doubtless they must have made strange work of Church and reformation before ever they had owned and restored the Master-builder the King who is supream Governour of it under Christ as to all extern order and Authority We hope and pray that God will shortly give both his Majesty his Parliaments and his loyall people such rest on every side as may be most apt for those sacred and serious concernments of the Church and true Religion which require first Justice as to the rights of Christ and his Church both Bishops Presbyters and People Secondly they require mercy as to that remission moderation and condescention in things not necessary to the being and well being of religion which either tender consciences or weak but humble and harmless Christians do require yea and expect agreeable to Christs care of his little ones and the Apostles regard to weak brethren yea and the Kings gracious expressions touching his regard to such that they may not be needlesly offended superciliously despised or rigorously oppressed in matters that are neither of faith nor morality Lastly Religious composures require an unfeined humility and self denying as the proper rule and measure and of all Church-work that nothing may swell out beyond the plumline of verity and charity order and decency use and edification either in the substances or circumstances of Religion nor yet in the controversies of it In all which blessed counsels and endeavours there will be need and use of the assistance of the best heads the honestest hearts and the softest hands which the Church of England affords not only in the Nobility and Gentry the Lords and Commons but also among the Clergy who are no doubt the Angels or Intelligences most proper for those motions and that spheare of Religion But we hope by the good hand of our good God upon his Majesty and your loyal counsels for the best of blessings a wise constitution and well ordered administration of religion both as Christian and reformed which will be the greatest glory and stability of all estates As you have given to Cesar the things that are Cesars so no doubt you will be ready to give to God the things that are Gods In which just and humble retributions you will both shew mercy to many thousands of souls and obtain mercies for your own for which ends as you have the prayers and thanks of all worthy persons so you shall never want mine whose freedome in speaking and writing I presume your sound minds can bear as abhoring to keep your Ministers like Parots in a cage as at no great charge so only for the pleasure to hear them speak Your honor is that you hear and know and do the will of God in which that you may enjoy his eternal rewards is the Prayer of Your humble servant in Christ I. GAVDEN May 12. 1660. Books written by Dr. Gauden and sold by Andrew Crook at the green Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1. HIeraspistes A Defence for the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England 2. Three Sermons preached on publick occasions 3. Funerals made Cordials in a Sermon preached at the Interment of the Corps of Robert Rich Heir apparent to the Earldom of Warwick 4. A sermon preached at the Funeral of Dr. Ralph Brounrig Bishop of Excester Decemb. 17. 1659. with an account of his Life and Death 5. A Petitionary Remonstrace in the behalf of many thousand Ministers and Scholars {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sive Medicastri Slight healers of publique hurts set forth in a Sermon Preached in St. Pauls Church London before the right honorable Lord Mayor Lord General Aldermen Common-Council Companies of the honorable City of London Febr. 28. 1659. being a day of Solemn thanksgiving unto God for restoring the Secluded Members of Parliament to the house of Commons And for preserving the City as a Door of Hope thereby opened to the fulness and freedom of future Parliaments The most probable means under God for healing the Hurts and recovering the health of these three Brittish Kingdoms Magna Dei postulata Gods great Demonstrations and Demands Set forth in A Sermon preached at a Solemn Fast April 30. 1660. before the Honorable House of Commons Upon MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Iustice to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God I Am not so ignorant of my infirmities Right Honorable and Beloved as to have adventured on so great a province before so noble an Assembly in such an important time and on so short warning if my obedience to Gods call in your commands had not swayed more with me than any confidence of my own sufficiency whose greatest ambition is to walk humbly with my God in the amplest services I were able to do for his glory his Churches peace and my Countries welfare I well understand the great importance of this Parliamentary Convention as to the peace and setling of this Church and State all things sacred and civil are imbarqued in your counsels and adventured on your Justice and Mercy your piety and Humility your Equanimity and Moderation You under God are the Ark in which the weather-beaten and scattered remains of our Religion Laws Estates Liberties Peace Honors and Lives are deposited so much of them as hath escaped the tedious tempest and the terrible deluge of our sad troubles and confusions these last score of years in which the windows of heaven the just wrath of God and the fountains of the great deep the lusts and passions of mens
evil hearts have met together to punish our sins You are looked upon as Noah and his family semen novi orbis a seed and nursery of true Christian Protestants of right English Gentlemen in which there may yet be a blessing you with the other Right Honorable House of Peers are the hoped Repairers of the vaste breaches made upon our Laws and the Restorers of our Reformed Religion so miserably deformed defamed and almost quite desolated as to any beauty order and anity You are the center in which all our secular Votes and hopes do meet or rather you are the circumference orbe and circle in which they are all contained that you may draw them all to their right point and proper center of fixed duty to God and Man You are the answer of many prayers and tears God forbid you should miscarry yea as St. Ambrose said to Monica of her Son St. Austin while he was yet debauched in both morals and intellectuals in opinion and practice I am not a little confident you will not miscarry nay I am sure you cannot miscarry if you steer your counsels and actions by the compass of this Text Doing Justice loving Mercy and walking humbly with your God Pride cruelty and Injustice have been and will be our undoing It will be your wisdom to look to this cynosure or benign constellation in which Law and Gospel Justice and Mercy are joyned with humility in these your inward peace of conscience no less than your outward comforts together with your honor and all our safeties are conjoyned Beware you mistake not blazing meteors of partial and fanatick interests for the fixed stars of our firmament our fundamental laws and publique welfare lest the hand of God break out against you as it hath done against others and cut you off by a further abscission as parts of desperate and incurable distempers which are to be smitten no more by the fruitless stroaks and superfluous severities of a chastising Father or an healing and searching Chyrurgeon but with the wounds of such enemies and cruel ones as seek to cut us off from being a Reformed Church and a Renowned Nation under heaven I lately in a great {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and publick Assembly set forth the hurts and slight healings of the Daughter of my people by a faithful scrutiny and just severity with which all honest hearts were affected I now bring a vial of Balm from Gilead very precious and soveraign wherewith to present you who are by a miraculous Providence and the wise conduct of a modern Heroe called by God and chosen by men to be our Physitians Not that I am to teach Senators wisdom but I know you will not disdain to learn of God for from the tree of life his holy Word together with the tree of knowledge of good and evill your own experience this divine balsom is distilled 1. There is a Justice of expiation to break off our sins by repentance which is Debitum Deo animae a debt to God and our souls 2. A Justice of compensation by meet repairing our publique injuries which is Debitum bonis a debt due to all good men 3. A Justice of Vindication to confirm our laws by inflicting such just penalties and restraints as some mens insolencies have deserved which is debitum impiis a debt you owe to wicked men yea to all men that they may hear and fear and do no more presumptuously Secondly Yet lest we should be terrified with the name of Justice only which no men have more cause to dread than those who once cried loudest Justice Justice there is the allay of Mercy as to all such moderation compassion and tenderness by way of pardon indempnity and oblivion in order to close and compose our breaches for praestat motos componere fluctus as may not only best suit with your pitty and compassion to the publique but most become the humanity of Countrimen and the charity of Christians to each other without any reproach to the justice piety and honor of the Nation Thirdly There is added the root and crown of all vertues and graces Humility which makes you surest of Gods acceptation and benediction as to all your counsels and actions your fastings and prayers your sacred and civil endeavors For Humility is the salt which must be mingled with every Sacrifice a sweet perfume that must attend every Oblation being the glory of all humane and divine perfections the security of Justice and sanctuary of Mercy for from pride and inordinate valuing of mens selves come all those ambitious discontents and contentions for getting more than men have or indeed deserve of estate and power hence they are betrayed to all those cruelties and confusions which we have not only read and heard but to our cost both seen and felt in humane affairs and never more than in those of our own Country If you intend to walk with God and hope that God should go along with you you must not only vos totos subigere sed in nihilum redigere as Calvin on the place deny but so far utterly renounce and annihilate your selves as not to trust in or to seek your selves but the living God the less you lean to your own understandings and the more you attend {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the divine dictates of Justice Mercy and Humility without Pharisaick boastings popular complyings and Popish presumptions the more blessed you will be of God and the greater blessing to your Country The Lord will be with you while you follow him in these holy ways of Justice Mercy and humility but if you pursue lying vanities you will forsake and forfeit your own and all our mercies if you attend passionate and partial interests unjust and cruel counsels if your hearts as Pharoahs be lifted up against God and above your brethren you also will be intangled in the wilderness of sin your chariot wheels will be taken off you will drive heavily and at last engage your selves and all of us in a deeper sea of blood if deeper can be to the utter ruine of our Reformed Religion and our justly endeared but afflicted Country which is the nest of our posterity Give me leave therefore O ye Heads of our Tribes and chief of our Families to bespeak your attention as Jotham did the men of Sechem Hearken to me that God may hearken to you they are divine Revelations not humane inventions that I offer to you if you turn away from hearing and doing these few clear and necessary commands of God your prayers and fasts will be abominable your consultations confusions and your actions will be as well unsuccessful as injurious to God your selves and others We have been many years as the Lepers in their desperate dilemma between famine and sword oppression and confusion sin and suffering death and despair if we returned to the City or but looked to our former Jerusalem
to our excellent laws and constitutions in Church and State it was confiscation plunder sequestration destruction if we still advanced in the perplexed ways of some mens new inventions and endless novelties it was not only sinful confusion but sore oppression and continual exhausting of our estates and honors beside our peace and liberty together with the baffling of the very orderly profession no less than the power of Religion Indeed we could neither have leave to live freely as honest men nor as good Christians all our sacred and civil our temporal and eternal interests were and still are at stake Terrent etiam nunc nubila mentem our bodies and souls our persons and posterities are still engaged yea and the Ark of God too our Religion as reformed and Christian In all these respects our eyes and hearts are next God passionately toward you we have many years been solicitous with that Catholick Question Who will shew us any good we have long looked for the promised good things of a glorious Church of a flourishing and settled State but our iniquities have withheld them from us Here the Lord hath shewed you in a few words what is good Bonum Ecclesiae patriae conscientiae animae good for souls and bodies for Church and State for Soveraign and Subjects for rich and poor for great and small for their selves and their posterity for civil and religious interests for temporal and eternal concernments namely To do justice to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God All our evils arise from either our want of justice or mercy or humility from our injuriousness uncharitableness and arrogancy which knows not how to be either thankful and content before God or merciful and just toward men The Text as a full and liberal fountain hath many emanations like the Rivers that watered the garden of God 1. We have the main head or source the Lord 2. The great cistern or receptacle Thee O man 3. The tria fluenta three grand Derivations or streams First Of doing Justice Secondly Of loving Mercy Thirdly Of walking humbly with God All are clear copious and comprehensive subjects of our meditation discourse and practice For 1. In una justitia omnes virtutes 2. In una misericordia omnes beatitudines 3. In una humilitate omnes gratiae all graces are in humility all blessednesses in shewing Mercy and all moral vertues in Justice for every vice and sin is an injury to God our selves or others Nor have we God herein our Instructer only but also our {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} great example for we Christians serve not only justum Dominum benignum Patrem sed humilem Deum a just Lord and a merciful Father but even an humble God He abaseth himself saith the Psalmist to behold the things done upon earth to dwell with the Sons of men especially with the humble and contrite spirit yea the Lord of glory in order to save us from the sad effects of our pride hath humbled himself even to the death of the cross and is it time for us sinful worms to be proud unjust and unmerciful There are four parts to be set forth 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Demonstrator or Shewer The Lord 2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or things Demonstrated Justice Mercy and Humility indeed the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} whole duty of man 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} To whom this Demonstration is made Thee O man 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The manner of demonstration how God sheweth to and requireth of man these things It is not my design to handle each of them after that ampleness which these subjects may bear or deserve nor will the time and after duties permit but only to make such short remarques and touches of them as may not so much teach you who are knowing in all the will of God as to Justice and Mercy Law and Gospel but only stir up your pure and holy minds to be not knowers or hearers only but doers also of the will of God that you may be blessed of God and man and Saviours indeed not Deceivers and Destroyers of your selves and your Country I begin with the first The Demonstrator who The Lord Here two things are to be considered First {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the rise or occasion of this demonstration 2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the credit and authority of the Demonstrator First The Occasion putting the Lord upon this way of remonstrating to inculcate these requisita dictata old lessons this you will see in the foregoing words vers. 6 7. where we may observe the vaunting questions and presumptuous postulations of a company of formal Hypocrites who demand in Dei dedecus legis contumeliam to the reproach of God and his Laws what he would have to please him Burnt offerings or Rivers of oyl or if need be their very first-born they will be at any cost to appease him part with any thing spare nothing but their sins Thus they quarrel with God and justifie themselves with Saul that they had fulfilled the Law of God as those devout Bulrushes in Isaiah who are not ashamed to ask Why have we fasted and afflicted our souls when they had not parted with any sin nor loosed any bands of oppression We may observe as in Scripture so in all our late experiences that no men are more supercilious self-justifiers and imperious retorters upon God and man than those who are most defective in their duties to both they are angry that God is angry and unsatisfied that he is not satisfied with their Hypocritical chaff and formality they plead ignorance when wilfully blind and ask for light when they shut their eyes they would know what to do when they do not what they know Such proud and insolent vaporers like Jehu and the Pharisee are audacious and frontless Hypocrites as if their ways were equal and Gods unequal as if God were blameable and themselves blameless O what cost and pains will they be at to reform Religion Laws Liberties Church and State when they aim to be the most irreligious Depravers and licentious oppressors of all O the Temple the Temple of the Lord O his service worship and Ministers when they rob God destroy his Church and debace his Ministers these do not so much err as lye and dissemble in their hearts They brag of precious liberties when they bring in both slavery and licentiousness They boast of great Reformations when they are most deformed Reformers they finde fault with God and all men but themselves all their aberrations are gracious and their very sins must be glorious essays or successes while they follow Providences they flye from plain Scriptures and known Laws these
no man can as to these be at any time unable if he be not unwilling here impotency is impiety God strictly observes all wilfull and presumptuous transgressions and will be the avenger of them not is he to be deceived or satisfied with any formal excuses and pretentions used by wily hypocrites who offer chaff instead of good weat no more than he can be escaped or reresisted by any tyrannique power and insolencies when he maketh inquisition for these notorious omissions of Iustice Mercy and Humility which are the summaries of all good Laws and the seminaries of all piety grace and vertue nor shall these words of God which drop like the rain and gentle dew from heaven return in vain but will be swift witnesses against any soul whose barrenness presages it is nigh to our sing and burning for these laws and lessons as from Mount Sinai are with thunder and lightning Gods demonstrations are not only true but terrible armed with omnipotency never to be bafled pregnantly shewed by their own perspicuity and powerfully exacted by the divine severity who will carry himself frowardly or contrarily and as I may say with an uncondescending height and divine stiffness against those that are not humble in his sight resisting the proud and withdrawing mercy from the merciless yea requiring the justice of punishment on us because the justice of obedience is not done by us Ideo enim patimur justitiam quia non agimus as St. Bernard speaks for this is by the eternal vengeance still inculcated in hell as Virgil expresseth Discite justitiam moniti ne temnite divos while the Furies with their flaming iron whips flagellis ferreis flagrantibus do compel wicked and unjust men to suffer that justice which they refused to do to God to Man to themselves and others But I have done with the first general in which I observed the occasion and authority of this Demonstration Secondly I now come to the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} thing demonstrated the grand lesson which God teacheth so clearly and constantly to all men at all times these are denoted under these three grand heads Iustice Mercy and Humility These are considerable 1. Conjunctim joyntly 2. Divisim severally in their united and distinct aspects 1. Consider them together and they afford us six things considerable First The paucity of these magna mandata or summè requisita grand demands The Lord lays but a few things upon us Tria sunt omnia a sacred Trinity of Precepts from the sacred Trinity of Iustice Mercy and Humility from the divine Wisdom Power and Majesty These make up that monile sacrum holy pendent or jewel which is the greatest ornament of humane nature and blessing of all Societies consisting but of three gems but they are paragons of great price for what is brighter than the invincible Diamond of Justice which is scintilla Dei a spark of God as pearls are drops and Diamonds sparks of the Sun what more beautiful than the gentle Saphire of Mercy what more amiable than the modest Emrald of Humility The paternal indulgence of God is pleased to give us in his teaching us short lessons compendious Counsels and holy Epitomes of his will and our duty At first he propounded but decem verba ten commands in the Decalogue which is a summary of all Theological and Moral Institutions After he reduceth these to a narrower compass of loving the Lord thy God and thy neighbor as thy self So Solomon To fear God and keep his Commandments Christ makes up all in one grand sentence of doing as we would be done unto whence the Emperor Severus took his famous Motto the Apostle St. Paul brings all points and lines of the Laws and Gospels circumference to this one center Love as the fulfilling of all in one word Nor doth he permit Timothy to vary from that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} wholesome form of words the faith once delivered to the Saints which he had taught him as a short creed or summary no doubt of Christian doctrine which otherwhere is expressed in beleiving with the heart and confessing the Lord Iesus with the mouth so in the end of the commandment which is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfained So inexcusable are they who refuse to learn of God whose commandments are neither grievous nor numerous but condescending to the weakest capacities and frailest memories to which what ever is necessary in religion is easie to be learned and retained For secondly as the particular heads are few in number so very short in the discourse some points may by long Orations be like gold malleated and extended to such great latitudes of diffused expressions as make them very combersom as the volumes of our times both in Dogmatick Polemick and Practick Divinity do witness while the superfluity of mans wit and eloquence glories to find out many inventions definitions and distinctions even in plain things wire-drawing religion into fine threads and driving the solid mass of Divinity as to Faith and Repentance love of God and our neighbours to leaf gold chopping and hewing and paring the pillars of wisdom into small chips and thin shavings Doubtless as Erasmus writes to Archep Warrham the Church of Christ was never in a more happy estate than when it was uno brevissimo symbolo contenta both contented with and kept in the compass of that one short Creed which we call the Apostles and which was yet once shorter than now it is Thirdly But commonly brevity is attended with obscurity Brevis esse laboro obscurus fio short and concise expressions many times wrap things up as it were in clouds whereas Laws ought to be meridiana lumina tanquam solis radiis scriptae so clear as none need complain so legible that he that runs may read them and so indeed are these divine demonstrations in the Text where the wisdom of God reconcileth brevity and perspicuity together as Pliny speaks of Trajans uniting Soveraignty and Liberty by an happy temper of Government or Empire which neither diminished his own just Prerogative as a Prince nor oppressed the peoples legal immunities as his Subjects so the Lord designing these Laws for all sorts of people fits them for all capacities in such a way that the very babes and simple ones may learn and understand and do them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Laws saith Plato ought to be as common and catholick in their expressions as they are in their injunction or obligation that none may plead ignorance either by the prolixity or obscurity by the ennormious number or by the tedious length of them Fourthly We may observe the order and situation of the particulars First Justice Secondly Mercy Thirdly Humility there is as Calvin and others observe an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} inverting of the Primacy and
great example no less than Justice and Mercy have by this we draw nearest to God and are fittest to accord with him by this we are partakers of the divine nature of Christs Spirit graces and rewards Pride which is its own Idol and Idolater its own Carver and Comforter hath its reward onely from it self or the vain world for God resisteth the proud and they must be sure to be destroyed who dash against God Hell is the pit and prison of proud Angels and men the first {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they kept not their station or rank but lifted up themselves to be like to the most high beyond what was due to them The second because as Pharoah and Nebuchadnezzar they rob God of his glory both as to the justice which forbears to destroy them as they deserved and as to that Mercy which was conferred upon them beyond any merit in them Secondly As I have thus briefly considered these Three Subjects Justice Mercy and Humility in themselves so I am with like brevity to consider the predicates or actions applied to each of them 1. To do justice First Materially as to the merit of the cause and person Secondly Regularly as to the Law prescribed by God or man not by private opinion presumption or passion Thirdly Authoritatively by due order and commission derived to thee from the lawful supreme power for however all men must have the inward principles and desires for justice yet the doing or executing of it is not given to all but only those to whom the sword of justice is committed by the Law of God and man Christs question must be asked before a man does justice Who hath made me a judge or Ruler A man may be very unjust in punishing the greatest and most notorious offenders without due authority derived to him Fourthly Do justice formalizer as to the inward form principle or conscience for justice sake not for ambition as Absolom or reward or revenge or glory c. A Judge may give a just sentence before man and yet be an unjust Judge before God when he doth what is just materially but not mentally as to his end and design in doing Justice men must be sincere hoc agere make it their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} business for Gods sake or from a good conscience for judgement is the Lords as Moses tells the Elders 5. Do Justice practice effectually not only think and meditate consult vote decree enact and declare or talk and plead and dispute and cavil or contend but bring forth the fruits of righteousness that all may see them and enjoy the benefit of them just Laws made and never executed are as good seed sown upon barren ground which never comes up beyond straw and wilde oats 6. Do Justice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Impartially {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in all things to all persons poor and rich not oppressing the rich because his fleece is large nor the poor because his strength is small and friends few Aequum dicitur quia aequat leges omnibus as Varro observes Justice must be streight or right without warping as equal and indifferent to all blind as to the persons though Eagle-eyed as to the cause and rule 7. Do it speedily especially in such cases when the effects of justice are not penal but beneficial Delays of Justice are so far denials and so long unjust when it is in the power of a Judge or Prince or Magistrate to do it no usury is so unjust as that which makes advantages by dilatory justice In penal effects of Justice there dilatory executions may be more venial and tolerable because they are mixtures of mercy and reprieves in order to repentance for which God gives us the great pattern in his giving us space to repent and being so slow to excute vengeance on us though daily provoked by us 8. Do it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in rigor but in measure judgement and proportion as they said of old {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God is an axact Geometritian duly measuring and weighing or pondering the actions of all men and proportioning his judgements to them so ought men to demean themselves in doing justice calmely as in the cool of the day without passion or transport Perit judicium quum res transit inaffectum the eyes of judgement are blinded when the mists of any passions arise either prejudicating the person for the cause or the cause for the person 9. Do justice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with humanity pitty and compassion to the person in the greatest severities against and justest detestations of their sins Justice among men much more among Christians must have not only vulnera but also viscera bowels as well as blows Ingenuous Justice dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox is afflicted when compelled to inflict punishment and feels the strokes it gives condemning the Judge to commiseration when he condemns others to misery this tenderness or temperament it learns from God who deplores when he executeth or denounceth his judgements his bowels are turned within him when he is forced to give over his people to the destroyers hence are his many forewarnings importunings and beseechings of men to flye from the wrath to come as why will ye die c. and How shall I give you over to be as Admah and Zeboim how shall I make thee as Sodom and Gomorah Secondly To love Mercy here first the order is observable That Justice must first be done before Mercy else it is as very preposterous to exclude Justice to make way for Mercy as it is presumptuous to do unjustly under pretence of shewing Mercy Like the design of some mens cruel charity to get an estate by all imjurious ways in order to do works of charity or to build an Alms-house like the giving alms or legacies before we pay our debts Such Sacrifices are abominable to God we must not rob the Exchequer of Justice to put into the Corban or poor mans box of the sanctuary 2. We may observe the emphasis of the word put to Mercy beyond that is to Justice this must be done as a work and task which is enjoyned us but the other Mercy must be loved and delighted in Justice is opus necessarium alienum a necessary but strange and unwelcome work compared to Mercy in this also we have the precedent of the divine goodness whose {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pleasure and delight is in shewing mercy where there is any capacity but his executions of Justice are as it were a pressure and distress upon him not that he is not infinitely just to all the extents of Justice but he is superinfinitely merciful so as to set even
bounds to the infinity of his justice which as a consuming fire would in a moment have destroyed the whole creation of lapsed sinful natures if Mercy had not interceded This Affection of Love is conjoned to Mercy First As res in se amabilis a thing in it self most lovely and desirable one of the brightest beams of the divine beauty Secondly As that which is most beautiful and comely for mankind especially the Church of God and children of their heavenly Father who are commanded to put on as the elect of God bowels of mercy Bowels as to the inward principle or love of it and putting them on as to outward manifestation in good works which are the royalest robes and richest ornaments of Christians 3. Love mercy as that which is most beneficial to our selves and others too He that shews mercy to others shews it to his own soul by way of rebound it returns into his own bosom Mercy is that which all need all desire in their distress all have tasted of and received from God 4. Love it in obedience to Gods commands and in imitation of his divine perfections among which not any is so commended to us as this Not be ye wise and strong and infinite and great as your heavenly Father but merciful What Mat. 5.48 is put Be ye merciful is Luk. 6.26 Be ye perfect c. as if in una misericordia omnes perfectiones this one prefection of mercy included all 5. Love mercy in augmentum gratiae for the advance of all graces for this is the compass or manure which makes the richest soyl of a Christian soul as a man sows mercy liberally so he shall reap graces 6. Love mercy in ornamentum religionis Christianae the best trial of the best religion is that which abounds most with mercy as the true God who is optimus maximus is greatest by his goodness and best in his mercifulness The Kings of Israel are esteemed merciful Kings as mercy is the most humane so the most Princely quality because the divinest endowment Cruelty is one of the highest scandals of Christianity which makes Lambs of Lyons and tames the feircest tempers 7. Love mercy memor propriae indigentiae miseriae remembring that sin which exposeth thee to misery and that necessity thou hast of Gods mercy yea and the want thou mayst have of mans for no state of mortality is so fixedly happy but it may be as Job was the object of pitty which the Tragedies of our times have evidenced in the highest nature voluit deus ut sibi quisque sit mensura misericordiae as St. Jerom tels us they that flow most with mercy shall be filled most with it 8. Love mercy in spem Augmentum gloriae in order to confirme thy hope and increase thy reward of Glory there is no better evidence of a gracious heart and an excellent spirit than this merciful propensity even natural men who have most humanity are least distant from the Kingdome of heaven there wants but faith in Christ who is the highest instance and grand exemplar of divine mercy to raise up the grosser allayes of natural softness compassion and gentleness to the pure Elixir of that grace of merciful-mindedness which God requires and which denotes a Divine and heavenly disposition doubtless the mites of mercy which we shew here to others for Christs sake will be repayed with Talents in heaven nor shall a cup of cold water be unrewarded 3. To walk humbly the LXX render it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be ready and prepared to go with God and the Latin vulg. humiliare se ambulando the words imply 1. A freedome and familiarity of conversation which cannot be had unless two are agreed nor can there be any agreement with God except where the heart is humble God resists the proud quia congreditur cum deo tanquam hostis ex parte adversa who doth not walk with God but against him as one that justles assaults encounters and fights against him 2. Walking as it is a social and friendly motion so it is progressive and parellel in a way of conformity not contrariety when we keep pace with God neither out-running his word by a precipitant wantonness and over-righteousness of our own imaginations nor yet so lagging behinde as we lose God nor yet straying to the right or left hand diverticles of prophanness or superstition of despare or presumption but keeping close with God who looks on the proud afar off because they are still at distance from him one way or other 3. As an humble man is onely fit for Gods presence and company so the more a man walks with God the more he will grow humble when he sees what an inconsiderable nothing himself is Nihilo nihilius less then nothing at his very best estate altogether vanity at his worst onely sin hell and misery fit company for none but Divels and that fatal sentence Go ye cursed nothing in merits nothing in graces nothing in guifts nothing in duties Toti sumus indigentia we are altogether defect and emptiness till grace fills us and Christ supplies us we shall easily vanish and disappear as to all self conceit and pride of heart when once we assiociate with God then Abraham and Job abhor themselves in dust and ashes both eminent persons the one the great Father of the faithful the other the great pattern of patience so Jacob less then the least of Gods mercies and St. Paul who was not inferiour to the chief Apostles and laboured more abundantly then any one of them yet sums up his all in this though I am nothing esteeming Christ to be all in all to him 4. Walk humbly cum Deo quia Deus quia tuus because with God and with thy God a Son and Subject will know himself best when with a King and Father who is their own however they may carry themselves high to others their betters yet not to those whose neer relation and high merit command observance If the thought of Gods excellency doth not abase us in our own eyes yet the consideration of his condescending to us to be ours in so many undeserved mercies and favours to a transcendency of desert and unrequitable obligations this will deplume us and pull down all high immaginations in us It is ignorance of God and distance from him which make us so conceited of our selves a spark or star cannot glory in the light of the sun 5. Especially when we remember humilem deum humiliatum Christum pro nobis an humble God in our humbled Saviour for us the sight and sense of Christ on the Cross for our sakes will make us ashamed of one proud thought or high look which is not tolerable in any estate in the greatest guifts and graces the best endowments and highest successes wherein we are but instruments and seconds not principals And in the greatest afflictions when
we are humiliati most humbled and debased by Gods providence it is very insutable then to boyl and swell with thoughts of repining and murmuring against God as if he injured us or treated us unworthy of us No here to be humble is to be silent and submisse to pray to prostrate at Gods feet to accept of the punishment and own it as from a Father who chastiseth us that we may not be condemned with the world humility disarms God and is a salve shield and cordial in the worst estate which is then best for us when we grow more humble as pride is a moth or curse that blasts all even the best we are injoy or do Alienating God from us and driving away his good Spirit when it finds us our own Gods and worshippers It is but just to leave us to the heaven of our own fancies and to be satisfied with our own delusions Third General Cui to whom God shews and of whom he requires these great lessons and duties Thee O man 1. To all mankind in general as creatures capable to know good and evil just and unjust and accordingly to chuse and do as they are directed from the inward dictates of right reason and those self-convincing principles which are within their own consciences 2. To thee O man more especially who enjoyest the light of Gods Word in the pale and bosom of the Church where the righteous precepts and merciful commands of God are more evidently set forth by laws repeated by examples multiplied by judgements and rewards proportioned to mens works none here can plead ignorance of duty both to God and man 3. Thee O man in thy particular station as occasion and power are put into thy hand whether Jew or Gentile great or small rich or poor Prince or Peasant Lords or Commons Priest or people no man is unconcerned in these Demonstrations to every one God says as Nathan did to David Thou art the man God requires Justice Mercy and Humility of thee O King who sittest on the throne of Majesty who art in Gods stead as his Vicegerent a kind of mortal Deity honored with the name and vested with the power of God and much more with the imitations of the divine excellencies of Justice and Mercy toward man as of Humility toward God Shalt thou reign because thou closest thy self in cedar and art compassed about with strong guards Did not thy Father do justice and mercy and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy was not this to know me saith the Lord Thou even thou O King art to fear him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords higher than the highest the terror of Tytants who pulleth Princes from their seat and poureth contempt upon all their glory thy surest policy is true piety and the best reason of State is this pure Religion and undefiled even to do Justice to love Mercy and walk humbly with that God by whom Kings raign Whose thrones are not to be established without Justice Mercy and Humility Nor can they be injured so much by any as by themselves their Pride before God like Nebuchadnezzars and Belshazzars will abase them and their oppression of their people will most oppress themselves at last Secondly Of Thee O wise man and mighty Counsellor who art esteemed by others and thy self as a great State Intelligence digging deep for counsels and wrapping up thy self in the darkness of thy cloudy projects and designs thou who gloriest in thy Oracular Policies as Achitophel and disdainest to be nonplust in thy wisdom or defeated in thy designs Of thee the Lord requires to give no counsel but such as is just nor to decree other than righteous decrees To agitate nothing in Councils of State and Parliaments by partiality faction and oppression to sinister ends and unjust interests either of Prince of people because the Lord sitteth among Senators and will cause a just decree without mercy to be executed upon those who either execute or decree unrighteous and cruel things Thirdly Of Thee O subordinate Iudge and Magistrate O great Lawyer and eloquent Pleader the Lord repuires not to turn Justice into gall and Judgement to wormwood not to judge for reward or pervert the cause of any either for fear or favour or for respect of persons not to make pleadings of Law to be as gins and snares to innocent simplicity by a fallacious sophistry and dilatory felony which robs the Clients purse as the bushes and brambles do the sheep of his fleece when he seeks and hopes for shelter from them No temporal advantage can counterpoise the detriment and danger which unjust and merciless actions bring upon those who willingly offend against the laws of the just and merciful God and thereby incur eternal damnation deserving to be beaten with many stripes because they know the will of God and do it not St. Bernards Motto to all judges is omnia judicata rejudicabuntur what comes short in mans measure or weight of Justice shall be made up by Gods eternal recompences 4. Of thee O Soldier O valiant and mighty man who hast power in thy hand to save or destroy to kill poor men and lay wast fenced Cities of thee God requires justice and mercy which must be the measures of War as well as of Peace there are jura belli laws of righteousness and moderation which God exacts in wars even defensive which seem the onely wars that can be just For sure to make war without some precedent or threatned injury must needs be very injurious Not might but right must be looked at where the lives of men are concerned justice is not to be measured by the length of thy sword or the strength of thy Arme or the number of thy Soldiers but by the Laws of God of Nations and of every polity The Justest war must not by passionate transports be carryed on to unjust exorbitant and cruel oppressions either to harmless and unarmed people or to immoderate demands in point of reveng and compensation much less to build ambitious Babels and covetous confiscations upon others ruines The Soldiers had their lesson of John Baptist what to do when they had so much grace as to ask the question they are not commanded to lay down their Armes but to do violence to no man c. 5. Of thee O man God requires Justice mercy and humility whose prosperity either in violent or injurious ways have made thee rich and great or who increasest thy estate by that which is not thine in equity and conscience who makest no scruple of Extortion rapine racking rents sacriledge oppression and rigorous extortions who hast built thy nest on high and feathered it with the spoils either of thy Neighbours and Tennants or of Church and State of the Crown and Crosier where cheap purchases witness to your faces and upbraid both byars and sellers of the injustice of
the bargain thou even thou must so repent by making restitution of unjust acquisitions as may make thee capable of Gods pardon who will not be mocked by lame and crackt titles nor may be robbed without making the curse threatned to light on such injurious presumptuous sinners who neither fear God nor reverence man though great and rich and many though Courts and Councils and Armies and whole Nations conspire to do injustly yet will God be a swift witness against them and bring his Justice upon them 6. Of thee O godly gull and holy-cheat who pleadest an hypocritical nonplus and a state necessity of doing somthings both injust and cruel in order to do good to advance Justice to glorifie God to reform Church and State as if the reasons and interests of both Religion and Justice did sometimes want unjust proceedings as pills to keep them in health which Aristides pleaded by way of Irony to those who impatient of exact Justice forced him somtimes to deviate from it by their popular peevishness he told them he did it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in order to the publick good God will discover these impudent fallacies and so punish the presumption of doing evil that good may come thereby that all men shall shall hear and fear and confess there is a God that judgeth the earth when they shall see vengeance to overtake these men and the iniquity of their heels to compass them about Better to follow Gods counsel by doing Justice though we perish with Lazarus on a dung-hill and suffer the last strokes of humane Justice in this world than to fall under Gods eternal and inexerable Justice which will strip thee of all the goods thou gettest and bring upon thee infinitely more evil than that which by unjust and wicked means thou soughtest to escape there is no necessity scelera sceleribus tueri to make evil deeds good by doing worser it is the Devils hardning Maxim to damn souls by desperation as if a theif should plead it necessary to kill that man whom he hath robbed lest he be pursued and taken by him 7. Of thee O Minister of the Church and Pastor of souls God requires first to do justice to thy brother of the same tribe and calling by not intruding thy self into his work against right and reason and law that thou mayst have a plea or pretence to the profits of his living and so thou mayst feed thy self by feeding anothers flock against his will when Justice requires us not onely to eat our own bread but to do our own business and not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to Vsurp on anothers either emolument or employment which they are able and willing to performe Of thee O Church-man great small God requires this Justice to God to Christ to the Church to peoples souls to the holy word and worship of God to the truth of Doctrine to the solemnity of his service to the necessity of mens souls by feeding them with wholesome food by giving them their portion in due season by not denying the children their bread for fear of dogs eating it by administring the blessed Sacraments duly and reverently according as the Church in which thou servest hath appointed thee not setting up and urging thy own fancies and whimseys thy novel inventions and schismatical partialities thy humane traditions and unauthentick because uncatholick observations instead of Christs institutions not so shy and startling at the shadow of some decent and innocent rites or circumstances and ceremonies in religion as to fly from the unity order harmony and authority of the whole Church by a supercilious unjust and merciless severity which savors too much of pride and self conceit hereby shaking and overthrowing the faith of many poor souls who are ignorant weak and instable by the perturbatious thy pragmatique and popular activity gives them 8. Lastly of thee O whole Palestina O Church and State O my native County and Nation both in thy latitude and diffusion and in thy Parliamentary Epitome or representation of thee the Lord requires not only to do justice but to shew mercy there where is the cryingest injustice and cruelty in the world There is a voyce from abroad and at home which crys Oro miserere laborum Tantorum miserere animi non digna ferentis O do not approve confirm or adopt that pride injustice and cruelty of some sons of Belial who lifted up themselves above all that is called God all Laws of God and man all duty to their betters and Superiors If what hath been done in this sorely afflicted and abused nation with expence of so much blood and treasures with so much terror and extravagancy be well and worthily done it will be an act of your Justice to assert it and of your Mercy to absolve other of us poor scrupulous souls of those scruples of conscience which we have of those fears and jealousies lest the Nation lying under so great sins may be exposed to Gods sorest judgements even to an utter vastation But if it appear to your wisdom piety Justice and Mercy to have been a violent and unparalleld method of presumptuous wickedness of unjust cruelty and most cruel injustice in which was neither matter nor form essential of Justice under the formality of high justice if men have killed and cosened and taken possession even the spoil and price of blood I doubt not but you will so far remember Gods Demonstrations and demands as to do Justice to God to your Country to your Laws to your Superior to Soveraign power to the whole Nation and to all mankind as to testifie a just abhorrence and perfect detestation of those things to which as you would not have been Fathers so I believe you will not be Godfathers It is an usual saying among Statists to excuse their excentricities and deviations from the exact rules of justice Nullum magnum exemplum justitiae sive aliqua injustitia I am sure we have known magnum exemplum injustitiae sine aliqua justitia a transcendent injustice which had not any grains of justice in it in the vindication of which I do not so urge the rigor of justice as not to require also such temperament of mercy as may distinguish between the flower and the bran the vile and precious the pertinacious and penitent such as sinned with malitious wickedness with an high hand and those that were only carried down the rapid torrent and strong delusions of times There is yet one instance of doing justice and shewing Mercy to the whole Nation which I cannot but recommend to my Country and to you the Fathers of our families and heads of our Tribes which is in reference to the souls of many poor people that in a land of plenty they may not be famished for want of able and industrious Preachers which cannot be had or expected whatever verbal severities are pretended of Reformation of Religion and propagation
of the Gospel unless there be some way found by the wisdom piety honor and bounty of the Nation of Prince Parliament and People for the competent maintenance of such Ministers as may do the work of God and take care of mens souls with what Justice or Mercy can you exact a full tale of bricks from poor Ministers when they have no straw Alas when shall the scandal of livings not worth fifty or thirty or twenty pounds a year be taken away by the generosity justice liberality and mercy of England How many years tax how much treasure hath been spent to maintain Soldiers and a war of which the publick hath no fruit but those of tears oppression and repentance me thinks it should not seem much to allow one years tax to be gathered in some convenient time by which to begin a banck or treasury an aerarium sacrum for the making some augmentations and purohases of Impropriations to poor livings One good foundation laid for so great and good a work many other superstructures would easily be added by the piety wisdom and charity either of the publick or of the private and well-disposed persons If this may not be put upon the account of Justice to be done to the Church and Clergy of England in compensation of the many diminutions depredations and indignities which they have of late or long since sustained by the policies powers or superstitions of later times yet I beseech you look upon it as a signal and eminent act of Mercy for which thousands of poor people in the Countries who perish for want of knowledge having no Prophet nor seer among them will bless God and you to many generations And since God hath by a most miraculous return of mercy brought you thus far to the morning of your redemption from civil slavery and oppression where we were under Chams curse to be servants of servants O bethink your selves whether it be not worthy of your munificent piety and gratitude to offer some oblation of thankfulness as a peace-offering and Eucharistical monument to God and his Church but I may not so far distrust your nobleness as to urge you too far in this thing which is so much its own Orator and wherein many thousands both Ministers and people are silently and humbly importune for your favour in so great a concern of Church and State yea of mens souls eternal welfare The Fourth and last General Head is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the manner of Gods shewing and requiring these duties of all sorts of men in all occasions times in all dealings and administrations in the whole tenure of their conversation to God and men civil and religious I formerly gave an account of this which will excuse me if I here briefly insist on some main heads only 1. God hath shewed it to mankind in principiis internis in those inward principles of right Reason and that standard of Justice which is set up in each mans own heart besides the Chancery of Mercy both which he cannot but desire in his own case yea he expects and exacts humility reverence and submiss respect from those that are his descendents and inferiors especially if many ways obliged to him by undeserved favours so as every mans case is toward God 2. Praeceptis scripturae by the Letters pattents of the holy Scriptures whereof no man in the light of Religion which shines in the Church can without sin be ignorant because no lessons are easier to be learned and set out in greater characters or text letters both of the ten Commandments and the Gospel than these three of Justice Mercy and Humility Nor is any man meet to learn or observe the more abstruse mysteries of Christianity who doth not first apply to these plain morals of humanity and native Divinity in which instructions who so profited most among the Jews or Gentiles and lived accordingly were most capable vessels of Gods Mercies although they had not such an explicite faith in the Messias as we Christians are now obliged to as a condition of the Evangelical Covenant 3. God hath shewed us these demonstrations magnis exemplaribus exemplis by the greatest exemplars of holy men in all degrees in the best of Kings and vvisest of Counsellors yea in his blessed self and his Son our Lord Jesus Christ in whom Justice was satisfied Mercy Magnified and Humility most exalted for mans imitation To these are added the great examples of his Judgements on those whose exorbitant lusts and passions forgetting God and themselves presumed to do beyond these bounds and prescriptions which the Divine Iustice and Mercy had set to mankind running out to violence and cruelty in order to gratifie their pride On the other side God hath by many blessings on Prince and People manifested his approbation of their ways when conform to those grand Precepts which suppress first all private extravagancies by humility and all publick oppressions by justice mixed with mercy no man that is humble can be unhappy nor any people or Prince miserable who keep to Justice and mercy except in martyrly cases for trial of their faith patience and constancy which are found most in those if not onely who are most endued with principles and wonted as to Justice so to the practice of mercy and humility Lastly God hath shewed and required these things cum gravi interminatione poenae not lightly and arbitrarily but with great earnestness and frequent obtestation threatning punishment answerable to the neglect and executing vengeance on the presumptous nor are they Laws of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} diurnal justice to day loyalty to morrow Treason this week lawful and just next week illegal and unjust like a Lesbian rule but they are standards fixed in Gods immutable Justice mercy and excellent Majesty which no men at any time may dispense withall nor can they be dispensed with as to Gods judgments if they break them But it is now time for me to releive your attention with the variety of my successors paines onely I crave your Christian patience so far as to give me leave to make some such improvement of this Text as the grand occasion and present sollemnity do require You are all this day as the Representatives of the Commons of this Nation met before the Lord to fast and pray to humble and afflict your souls to confess your sins and the sins of your people among which none are more crying to heaven for vengeance then the want of Justice mercy and humility for pride ambition covetousness cruelty and oppression the land hath mourned these many years and the more deploredly because it hath suffered by all these pests of Church and State under the name and pretensions of humility sanctity liberty and equity It was a small matter for us to be miserable by the insolency of some men but we were commanded by their hypocritical and cruel mocking to beleive our selves to be an
happy and free people in a glorious and reformed way of Religion laws and liberties It is a saying of that great Orator as acute as true Totius injustitiae nulla est capitalior quam eorum qui quum maximè fallunt ita tamen agunt nt viri boni videantur No men are more criminally injust than those who when they most deceive and oppress yet then boast of their justice and piety What have been the effects of some mens justice mercy and humility all the English yea British world hath seen and your selves have felt to whom have some mens factious and Phanatick humors shewed any tokens of these vertues except to themselves and their complices to others who are persons far more righteous then themselves their very mercies have been cruel and their highest justice the highest injuries to the publique indeed it is of the Lords mercys that we have not been all consumed that a remnant is escaped to see the Salvation of the Lord in the land of the living O with what pride petulancy haughtiness and disdain have mean men and vile persons carried themselves against the honorable far their betters and superiors yea against the whole honor and Majesty of this Nation how have we seen servants riding on horseback and Princes going on foot this is their humility they have flattered both Prince and People in their sore distresses as if they would relieve them when they proved at last Physitians of no value miserable comforters very severe exactors and tragical destroyers This is their mercy They have subverted all law order and government troubled the fountaines cut off the conduits and inverted all the course of civil Justice and ecclesiastical authority as well as unity this is their Justice Can a Nation be sick of its health and weary of its happiness or thus dayly and bitterly complain if it injoyed such a glorious state of Justice and mercy by the humility and sanctity of its Governours as some have pretended Why doth the whole land cry out of burthens and bloodshed of its oppressors and exactors of its endless troubles and terrors if our estate were so setled and blessed as some men have told us why as Dromedaries do they every month so traverse their ways destroying what they build and building what they destroy like so many foolish builders it is strange that neither these Baalams nor their asses which carry them in the ways and after vvages of iniquity can yet see the Angel of the Lord vvith a dravvn svvord stopping their vvay all lavvs of God and man all good mens votes and prayers are against their madness pride presumption cruelty hypocrity and injustice by vvhich they have brought shame and dishonour a blot and great reproach upon the nation and the reformed Religion You have enough to do honorable and worthy to undo vvhat some men have done amiss to rectifie their crookedness to bring to the standard of Justice and rule of mercy vvhat their injurious cruelty and vvanton vvickedness have perverted and distracted as their pride ambition and various lusts have driven them You vvork is not only as Josuah to fall dovvn before the Lord as ye do this day but to Arise and to do the work of God of the Church and of the State vvith justice mercy and humility For if you still fast for strife and oppression to smite vvith the fist of wickedness and to bind heavy burdens on us you vvill be found mockers of God as others have been your prayers vvill be turned into sin and your counsels vvill turn to confusion The appeals and petitions of all honest-minded people next God are to your prudence justice and charity that you vvould judge betvveen the daughter of your people and her shameless ravishers her cruel vvounders and endless oppressors Three antient and sometimes flourishing Kingdomes and the adjacent Dominions call to you for mercy and you cannot shevv them greater mercy then to do them justice in restoring them to their former happy governments and excellent constitutions All estates of Soveranity Nobility Gentry Clergy Commonalty call upon you for justice and mercy so the poor and rich the City and Country so God himself and your Saviour so true Religion and its novv so deformed Reformation so your ovvn and your posterities interests do dayly importune it vvill be your justice and mercy to them all and us not to bring upon all our heads the guilt of that innocent blood which the cruelty pride and injustice of some men have shed even the blood of War in a time of peace and after a long Treaty When God makes inquisition for this blood let him not find it and avenge it upon you and your Children by your not expiating deprecating and detesting of that sin with infinite horror and abhorence to leave it unexamined and unpunished is every day to contract the guilt of a new regicide The Soveraign fountain of honor civil power and secular authority in Church and State calls for and expects your Justice where it hath been injured your Mercy where unrelieved your humble subjection where duly established The House of Peers cannot but own your Justice Modesty and Humility in removing those obstructions which some mens pride and injurious insolency had for many years put in the way of that House which was ever one of the highest points of this Kingdoms Wisdom Honor stability and happiness The House of Commons also and whatever becomes the dignity and freedom of a Parliament of England calls to your Justice and Mercy to redeem that almost sacred Senate than which in its full constitution the world had not any thing more august and venerable when Lords Spiritual and Temporal when the Gentry and Commons all concurred to advance next the glory of God the majesty of this Empire and the Throne of its Soveraign to redeem this I say from those abominable desolations of tumultuary and military insolencies which for many years have made that house a Charnel house or a kind of Augean stable full of all faction fury and and fanatick filthiness Our Church and Religion our Bishops and Presbyters our Ministers and Ministry all call to your Justice and Mercy to redeem them from popular dependencies from vulgar impudence and usurpation at least to relieve them from those Harpyes which have driven them to and defiled them with so many shameful disorders divisions and distractions unbecoming men much more Christians and Ministers who are pretenders to Reformation The famous Vniversities and all Nurseries of good literature implore your Justice and Mercy to defend these eyes of the Nation from those birds of prey foraign and domestick vultures which hope when these are pulled out to seize upon the blind and deformed Nation with greater freedom of Romish superstition and fanatick Vsurpation who gape to devour all that is lest of the civil or sacred patrimony of Gods or the Kings the Churches or the Crowns portion We have once again by Gods wonderful