Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A65355
|
A sermon preached in the high church of Edinburgh at the election of the magistrates of the city, on the 2d of Octob. 1694 / by James Webster.
|
Webster, James, 1658?-1720.
|
1694
(1694)
|
Wing W1208; ESTC R26310
|
9,270
|
18
|
to 18. I put on Righteousness and it cloathed me my Judgement was a Rob and a Diadem I was eyes to the Blind and feet was I to the Lame I was a Father to the poor and the cause which I knew not I searcbed out And I brake the Jaws of the wicked and pluckt the spoil out of his teeth It appears from the History Job was not only a Good Man and a Good Citizen but a good Magistrat and he answers this Character by his sincere Love to Justice and Mercy like a Good Ruler he makes the Impartial Administration of Justice his chief Business and delight his Ornament and Glory 't is better in his account than a Diadem and Robs and indeed one single Act of Justice is of far greater value than those which without it are meer pageantry A good Ruler puts on Righteousness in the Morning wears it all the day and on the bench wraps it so closely about him that no Temptation can blow it aside From the forcited place 't is evident that Job has no less regard to the Exercise of Mercy I was eyes to the blind c. Micah 6. God reckons the Exercise of Justice and Mercy the whole of our obedience and prefers it before Ten thousand Rivers of Oyl and Rom. 13 4. the two very different setts of Men There make the Exercise of Mercy and Justice equally necessary For he is the Minister of God to thee for good But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain For he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil I shall follow forth this Head First by taking a separate view of Mercy and Justice the two essential parts of a well manag'd Government 2. Consider them in Conjunction as giving mutual help and support one to another 3. Demonstrat that in all publick Administrations Magistrats should have a particular regard to them 4. Bring home all to practice As to the first I shall begin with Mercy not only because our Psalmist does so but because this sweet and gentle method all Magistrates should observe Drawing the Sword is the last remedy and never to be used save in Extremity when all other ways prove uneffectual and nothing else can serve the turn God himself Reckons Justice his Strange Work a forreign part of his Providence and which he never works till constrained and ev'n then with some aversion Mercy is God's Darling and triumphant Attribute the immediat off-spring of his nature but for this divine affection the World long since had fallen about our ears Mercy challengeth the present scene as its own And the conclusion of time is almost All that is reserved for Justice The Mercy of Rulers ought to be a copy of that wondrous Compassion God shewed to a destroyed World and as far as possible an exact Transcript of that Grand exemplar and consisteth 1 In their protecting and defending the Innocent from all unjust violence and oppression They are by sacred Writters stiled Gods and by both sacred and prophane Fathers for the great tenderness they should Exercise towards their people that are their Children and creatures A Cruel Father is an Unnatural and a Cruel God is a Monstrous thing Magistrats are appointed to be Cities of Refuge where the oppressed may take Sanctuary and therefore should be all Eye to spy out the peoples Burdens all Ear to hear their Complaints and all Hands to relieve them and avenge them of their Adversaries The Unjust Judge in the Gospel is not branded with any wrongful Sentence or Act of Unjustice but with want of a Merciful Disposition he had not Bowels enough towards the injured Widow who makes many a vain Journey to his Lodgings This mercy in the second place is much concerned in regulating the Execution of the Laws on Offenders Magistrates may not go to the utmost rigour against them some considerration would be had of the disadvantageous circumstances mankind labours under Humane Frailties and Infirmities Surprises and ignorance plead strong for some abatement and moderation else the best and wisest Law givers can't so frame their Laws as that a strict and rigourous Execution of them shall not be an unsupportable severity for the highest act of Justice is a kind of unjustice and it were hard to urge the letter of the Law too farre when neither the intention of the Law-giver nor common Equity the standard of all Laws are violated and where the cause is doubtfull they should incline to mercy as the safer side for better spare ten Guilty then destroy one Innocent of the injury done the latter no reparation can be made the fault can not be mended but though the other may for some time flie from the hand of justice Vengeance will not suffer them always to escape 'T is somewhat strange what is storied of a sentence of the Areopagi the great court of Athens before whom a Lady was arraign'd and accused for killing her Husband and Son because they had kill'd a Son of hers by another Husband the Judges ordered her and her Accuser to appear before them some hundred of years after declaring thereby they would not absolve and could not condemne her but leave the determination of the cause to the gods I come now to the Second the Exercise of justice the Magistrats weareth not God's Sword in vain but to Manage and weild it as God himselfe Would were he on the earth A Godly Ruler Proposeth to himselfe the best and most Excellent Laws by which he is to Govern and takes up a fixt resolution never to swerve from nor do any thing that 's contrary or disagreable to them Yea in the smallest circumstances and on all Ocasions to exercise Justice without being diverted from the same by any temptation of promises or threats or nearness of relation Iustice is Blind and has no regard to these forreigne considerations but only to the merit of the cause Rulers are under the greatest obligation to this whither wee consider their relation to God or to the Law or to the People As to the first They are the Ministers of a righteous God who loveth and delighteth in Righteousness to do Judgement is more to him than all Sacrifices and whole Burnt-Offerings These without That are unprofitable unacceptable and an abomination Isa. 1 11 12 13 17. These Solemn and August Ordinances though Commanded and Rewarded by the Lord yet when divorced and separated from Justice are but bright Sins in his account He puts upon them a Slight as solemn as their Institution Who required those things at your hands The practice of Rulers should have a conformity to the eternal Law of Righteousness For the Power the Bench the Judgement are the Lord's and must not be made Tools and Weapons of Unrighteousness this were to profane the most sacred Things They are likewise appointed to be the Guardians of the Laws trusted with the keeping and execution of
them They should be a living Law The best Laws without Execution are a dead Letter they want edge The Law must take special hold of Persons guilty of gross Immoralities and Disorders unsupportable to any Government such Disturbers of human Society have need to be mortified For they are a Scandal to Christianity a Reproach of Mankind and draw down Judgements on themselves and others Compassion to the Innocent makes the Punishment of others sometimes necessary and the Perverseness of some Men accents the Song of Judgement against them Lastly Their relation to the People who have lodged in them all exercise of Power is a strong Bond They have trusted them with all their most precious Things their Estates their Liberties their Lives and which is to them dearest of all their Religion Now to betray under Trust those unvalueable Priviledges were an unpardonable Treachery We come now to the Second Thing proposed the consideration of the Two in conjunction and First They make the Magistrat the lively Image of God who is both Merciful and Just those Two Divine Attributes have their different Actings on their proper Objects without doing prejudice one to another and in the Proclamation God makes of himself to Moses Mercy is the first and Justice the last part of his Name Besides his two eternal Decrees concerning Man's final state are commonly thought Acts of the highest Mercy and Justice Rom. 9 18. And farther his glorious Providences shine bright with a wise mixture of them In every Dispensation Mercy and Justice kiss each one other Such an Administration is also an Enblem of the Great and General Judgement which God has design'd for the Manifestation of his Mercy and Justice Secondly The double Title of Father and Ruler of God and Judge the Magistrate wears is to be considered The one Designation is as full of Pity as the other is of Terrour Thirdly They are a counterpart of and fitly answer the two essential Peeces of Sanctification Love to Good and hatred of Evil. Fourthly By a Government so qualified God doth in a manner make streight that which seem'd crooked What is wanting in immediat Providence with respect to the Evil and the Good is here supplied so that the Atheist has no reason to talk so much of prosperous Wickedness and oppressed Innocence In the Third place I come to shew That 't is very necessary and reasonable that Persons in Authority should in all their publick Administrations mingle Mercy and Justice together and here I shall confine my self to one main Topick as most proper for the Day namely The mighty and universal Influence such a Government has on the publick Happiness and Prosperity of human Society Prov. 14. 34. Righteousness exalteth a Nation Two things prove this 1. The Justice of the Divine Providence Indeed as to particular Persons the Providences of God are many times promiscuously administred in this World so that no Man can certainly conclude God's Love or Hatred to any person by any thing that befalls him in this Life But God do's not deal thus with Nations because Publick Bodies and Communities of Men as such can only be rewarded and punished in this World For in the next all those publick Societies and Combinations wherein Men are now link'd together under several Governments shall be dissolved God will not then reward or punish Nations as Nations And a litle after In the usual Course of his Providence he recompenseth Religious and Vertuous Nations with temporal Blessings and Prosperity For which Reason Austin tells us That the mighty Success and long prosperity of the Romans was a Reward given them by God for their eminent Justice This the Scripture declares to be the setled Course of God's Providence That a Righteous Nation shall be Happy The work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the effects of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever Thus far the Learned Primate 2. Their joint exercise doth in its own nature conduce to the publick interest When Rulers do checker their Administrations with Mercy and Justice this tends to make men live together in Peace and like a Cement to the Common Wealth unites and holds all fast together There cannot be a more certain presage of a declining State than dissolution of manners through the neglect of Mercy and Justice But to come a little nearer an equal mixture of Mercy and Justice does by ballancing the procedure of Rulers prevent all the evil consequences of bad Administration For as on the one hand an effeminat Pity and undiscreet Compassion makes both the Laws and Authority to be trampled on so on the other hand unmix'd wrath turns men desperate and we can't tell what men driven to extremitie may do But let us yet take a nearer view prospect of the matter and we shall observe how admirably the two are adjusted to the two great governing passions of man Hope and fear that are as the helme of Societies a well temper'd Government by taking hold of Them constrains men to Good and restrains from evil Some Petsons are of a Good and Generous disposition such are a proper province for Mercy to gain they must be drawn with Cords of a man and bands of Love Others have a more ackward temper and tempt the Ruler to instruct them as Gideon did the men of Succoth with Briers and Thorns In fine the great variety of Peoples conditions and manners and their different circumstances call for different treatment to some the Melancholy tune of Justice must be Sung Others must be comforted with the calm and still voice of Mercy I come now in the last place to make some improvement of what is said by bringing it home to the business of the Day And I beg liberty to address my selt to those Honourable Persons who had the Government of the City this last year and are now to lay down the Staff and commit their power to Others I trust that ye with respect to your publick management have the approbation of Heaven and the Testimony of your own Consciences and honour from men and to use our Psalmists Phrase since God came to you he has been ever with you and ye have walk'd with him and been Just ruling in the fear of God and as the light of the Morning when the Sun riseth as a morning without Clouds as the tender Grass springing out of the Earth by clear shining after Ram ye are under the deepest Obligations to preserve the power in its proper subject by handing it down to Faithful men for ye are the Image of God as ye are men as Christians as Magistrats and as Ministers of Mercy and Justice to the People look therefore that the Persons ye Elect this day have the Qualifications required in a good Ruler Exod 18 21. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the People able men such as fear God men of Truth hating Covetousness and place such over them to be Rulers c. Let this Text serve