Brotherhood of Grace by profession of the faith of Christ as we are Christian men As men we are members of that great body the World and so all men that live within the compass of the World are Brethren by a more general communion of Nature As Christians we are members of that mystical body the Church and so all Christian men that live within the compass of the Church are Brethren by a more peculiar communion of Faith And as the Moral Law bindeth us to love all men as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common Nature in Adam so the Evangelical Law bindeth to love all Christians as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common faith in Christ. 25. In which later notion the word Brother is most usually taken in the Apostolical writings to signifie a professor of the Christian Faith and Religion in opposition to heathen men and unbeleevers The name of Christian though of commonest use and longest continuance was yet but of a later date taken up first at Antioch as we finde Act. 11. whereas believers were before usually called Disciples and no less usually both before and since Brethren You shall read very often in the Acts and Epistles of the holy Apostles How the Brethren assembled together to hear the Gospel preached to receive the Sacrament and to consult about the affairs of the Church How the Apostles as they went from place to place to plant and water the Churches in their progress every where visited the Brethren at their first coming to any place saluting the Brethren during their abode there confirming the Brethren at their departure thence taking leave of the Brethren How collections were made for relief of the Brethren and those sent into Iudea from other parts by the hands of the brethren c. S. Paul opposeth the Brethren to them that are without and so includeth all that are within the Church What have I to do to judg them that are without 1 Cor. 5. As if he had said Christ sent me an Apostle and Minister of the Churches and therefore I meddle not but with those that are within the pale of the Church as for those that are without if any of them will be filthy let him be filthy still I have nothing to do to meddle with them But saith he if any man that is within the Christian Church any man that is called a Brother be a fornicator or drunkard or rayler or otherwise stain his holy profession by scandalous living I know how to deal with him let the censures of the Church be laid upon him let him be cast out of the assemblies of the Brethren that he may be thereby brought to shame and repentance 26. So then Brethren in the Apostolical use of the word are Christians and the Brotherhood the whole society of Christian men the systeme and body of the whole visible Church of Christ. I say the visible Church because there is indeed another Brotherhood more excellent then this whereof we now speak consisting of such only as shall undoubtedly inherit salvation called by some of the ancients The Church of Gods Elect and by some later writers the Invisible Church And truly this Brotherhood would under God deserve the highest room in our affections could we with any certainty discern who were of it and who not But because the fan is not in our hand to winnow the chaff from the wheat Dominus novit The Lord onely knoweth who are his by those secret characters of Grace and Perseverance which no eye of man is able to discern in another nor perhaps in himself infallibly we are therefore for the discharge of our duty to look at the Brotherhood so far as it is discernable to us by the plain and legible characters of Baptism and outward profession So that whosoever abideth in areâ Domini and liveth in the communion of the visible Church being baptized into Christ and professing the Name of Christ let him prove as it falleth out chaff or light corn or wheat when the Lord shall come with his fan to purge his floor yet in the mean time so long as he lieth in the heap and upon the floor We must own him for a Christian and take him as one of the Brotherhood and as such an one love him For so is the Duty here Love the Brotherhood 27. To make Love compleat Two things are required according to Aristotle's description of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Affectus cordis and Effectus operis The inward affection of the heart in wishing to him we love all good and the outward manifestation of that affection by our deed as occasion is offered in being ready to our power to do him any good The heart is the root and the seat of all true love and there we must begin or else all we do is but lost If we do never so many serviceable offices to our brethren out of any by-end or sinister respect although they may possibly be very usefull and so very acceptable to him yet if our heart be not towards them if there be not a sincere affection within it cannot be truly called Love That Love that will abide the test and answer the Duty required in the Text must be such as the Apostles have in several passages described it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfained love of the brethren 1 Pet. 1. Love out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. Love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 28. Of which inward affection the outward deed is the best discoverer and therefore that must come on too to make the love perfect As Iehu said to Ionadab Is thy heart right If it be then give me thy hand As in the exercises of our devotion towards God so in the exercises of our charity towards men heart and hand should go together Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis Good works are the best demonstrations as of true Faith so of true love Where there is life and heate there will be action There is no life then in that Faith S. Iames calleth it plainly a dead faith Iam. 2. nor heate in that Love according to that expression Matth. 24. the love of many shall wax cold that doth not put forth it self in the works of righteousness and mercy He then loveth not the Brotherhood indeed whatsoever he pretend or at least not in so gracious a measure as he should endeavour after That doth not take every fit opportunity of doing good either to the souls or bodies or credits or estates of his Brethren That is not willing to do them all possible services according to the urgency of their occasions and the just exigence of circumstances with his countenance with his advice with his pains with his purse yea and if need be with his very life too This is the Non ultra farther then this we cannot goe in the expressing of our love Greater love
performance what it can be God is both pleased and honoured therewithal Who so offereth praise glorifieth me Psal. 50. That is so he intendeth it and so I accept it 10. You have now all I would say by way of explication from these words The particulars are six First we should propose to our selves some end therein Secondly look at God Thirdly that God may have glory and that he alone may have it Fourthly Fifthly that something be done for the advancement of his glory and Lastly that it be done by us The result from the whole six taken together is That the glory of God ought to be the chiefest end and main scope of all our desires and endeavours In what ever we think say do or suffer in the whole course of our lives and actions we should refer all to this look at this as the main Whatsoever become of us and our affairs that yet God may be glorified Whether ye eat or drink saith S. Paul or whatsoever else ye do let all be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. He would have us not onely in the performance of good works and of necessary duties to intend the glory of God according to that of our Saviour Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven but even in the use of the Creatures and of all indifferent things in eating and drinking in buying and selling and in all the like actions of common life In that most absolute form of prayer taught us by Christ himself as the patern and Canon of all our prayers the glory of God standeth at both ends When we begin the first petition we are to put up is that the Name of God may be hallowed and glorified and when we have done we are to wrap up all in the conclusion with this acknowledgement that to him alone belongeth all the kingdom the power and the glory for ever and ever 11. The glory of God you see is to be the Alpha and the Omega of all our votes and desires Infinitely therefore to be preferred not onely before riches honours pleasures friends and all the comforts and contentments the World can afford us in this life but even before life it self The blessed Son of God so valued it who laid down his life for his Fathers glory and so did many holy Martyrs and faithful servants of God value it too who laid down their lives for their Masters glory Nay let me go yet higher infinitely to be preferred even before the unspeakable joyes of the life to come before the everlasting salvation of our own souls It was not meerly a strain of his Rhetorick to give his brethren by that hyperbolical expression the better assurance of his exceeding great love towards them that our Apostle said before at Chap. 9. of this epistle that he could wish himself to be accursed to be made an Anathema to be separated and cut off from Christ for their sakes Neither yet was it a hasty inconsiderate speech that fell suddenly from him as he was writing fervente calamo and as the abortive fruit of a precipitate over-passionate zeal before he had sufficiently consulted his reason whether he should suffer it to pass in that form or not for then doubtless he would have corrected himself and retracted it upon his second thoughts as he did Acts 23. when he had inconsiderately reviled the High-Priest sitting then in the place of judicature But he spake it advisedly and upon good deliberation yea and that upon his conscience ey and upon his Oath too and as in the presence of God as you may see it ushered in there with a most solemn asseveration as the true real and earnest desire of his heart I speak the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience bearing me witness in the holy Ghost Not that S. Paul wished their salvation more then his own understand it not so for such a desire neither was possible nor could be regular Not possible by the law of Nature which cannot but begin at home Omnes sibi melius esse malunt quà m alteri Nor regular by the course of Charity which is not orderly if it do not so too That is not it then but this That he preferred the glory of God before both his own salvation and theirs In so much that if Gods glory should so require hoc imposibili supposito he could be content with all his heart rather to lose his own part in the joyes of heaven that God might be the more glorified then that God should lose any part of his glory for his salvation 12. And great reason there is that as his was so every Christian mans heart should be disposed in like manner that the bent of his whole desires and endeavours all other things set apart otherwise then as they serve thereunto should be the glory of God For first all men consent in this as an undoubted verity That that which is the chiefest good ought also to be the uttermost end And that must needs be the chiefest good which Almighty God who is goodness it self and best knoweth what is good proposeth to himself as the End of all his actions and that is meerly his own glory All those his high and unconceiveable acts ad intra being immanent in himself must needs also be terminated in himself And as for all those his powerful and providential acts ad extra those I mean which are exercised upon and about the creatures and by reason of that their effluxe and emanation are made better known to us then the former if we follow them to their last period we shall finde that they all determine and concenter there He made them he preserveth them he forgiveth them he destroyeth them he punisheth them he rewardeth them every other way he ordereth them and disposeth of them according to the good pleasure of his will for his own names sake and for his own glories sake That so his wisdom and power and truth and justice and mercy and all those other his divine excellencies which we are to believe and admire but may not seek to comprehend might be acknowledged reverenced and magnified Those two great acts of his most secret and unsearchable counsel then the one whereof there is not any one act more gracious the Destination of those that persevere in Faith and Godliness to eternal happiness nor any one act more full of terrour and astonishment then the other the designation of such as live and die in Sin and Infidelity without repentance to eternal destruction the scriptures in the last resolution referr them wholy to his Glory as the last End The glory of his rich mercy being most resplendent in the one and the glory of his just severity in the other Concerning the one the scripture saith that he predestinated us to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.
as it can upon a weak staff rather then none Chariots and Horses and Riches and Friends c. any thing will serve to trust in whilest no better appeareth 2. But that our hearts deceitful as they are delude us not with vain confidences we may learn from the Text where it is and where alone that we may repose our selves with full assurance of hope not to fail David affirmeth positively what he had found true by much experience that when all others from whom we expect helpe either will not or cannot God both can and will help us so far as he seeth it good for us if we put our trust in him When my Father and Mother forsake me the Lord will take me up The words import First a possibility of failing in all inferiour helps It is supposed Fathers and Mothers and proportionably all other friends and helps may forsake us and leave us succourless when my Father and my Mother forsake me Secondly a never-failing sufficiency of help and relief from God though all other helps should fail us Then the Lord will take me up The two points we are to speak to 3. Father and Mother First who are they Properly and chiefly our natural Parents of whom we were begotten and born to whom under God we owe our being and breeding Yet here not they only but by Synecdoche all other kinsfolks neighbours friends acquaintance or indeed more generally yet all worldly comforts stayes and helps whatsoever 2. But then why these named the rathest and the rest to be included in these Because we promise to our selves more helpe from them then from any of the other We have a nearer relation to and a greater interest in them then any other and they of all other are the unlikeliest to forsake us The very bruit Creatures forsake not their yong ones A Hen will not desert her chickins nor a Bear endure to be robbed of her whelps 3. But then Thirdly why both named Father and Mother too Partly because it can hardly be imagined that both of them should forsake their childe though one should hap to be unkinde Partly because the Fathers love being commonly with more providence the Mothers with more tenderness both together do better express then either alone would do the abundant love of God towards us who is infinitely dear over us beyond the care of the most provident Father beyond the affection of the tenderest Mother 4. But then Fourthly when may they be said to forsake us When at any time they leave us destitute of such helpe as we stand in need of Whether it be out of Choise when they list not help us though they might if they would or out of necessity when they cannot help us though they would if they could 4. The meaning of the words in the former part of the verse thus opened the result thereof is that There is a possibility of failing in all inferiour helps Fathers and Mothers our nearest and dearest friends all earthly visible helps and comforts alwayes may faile us sometimes will fail us and at last must fail us leaving us destitute and succourless The truth whereof will the better appear if instancing especially in our natural Parents as the Text leadeth us we take a view of sundry particular causes of their so failing us under the two general heads but now mentioned to wit Choise and Necessity Under either kinde three Sometimes they forsake us voluntarily and of their own accord and through their own default when it is in their power to help us if they were so pleased which kinde of forsaking may arise from three several Causes 5. First Natural Parents may prove unnatural meerly out of the naughtiness of their own hard and incompassionate hearts For although God hath imprinted this natural affection towards their own of-spring in the hearts of men in as deep and indeleble characters as almost any other branch of the Law of Nature O nimiùm potens Quanto parentes sanguinis vinculo tenes Natura yet so desperately wicked is the heart of man that if it should be left to the wildeness of its own corruption without any other bridle then the light of natural principles only it would eft-soons shake off that also and quite raze out all impressions of the Law of Nature at least so blur and confound the characters that the Conscience should be able to spell very little or nothing at all of Duty out of them Els what needed the Apostle among other sins to have listed this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this want of natural affection in two several Catalogues Rom. 1. and 2 Tim. 3 Or to have charged Titus that yong women should be taught among other things to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to love their Children if he had not observed some to have neglected their duty in that particular hereof Histories and experience afford us many examples Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion of the son of her wombe saith the Lord by the Prophet He speaketh of it as of a monstrous thing and scarce credible of any Can she forget she in the singular number But withall in the same words implyedly confessing it possible in more then one Yea they may forget They in the plural number Esay 49.15 6. Secondly Parents not altogether void of natural affection may yet have their affections so alienated from their children upon some personal dislike as to forsake them Of which dislike I not deny but there may be just cause As among the Hebrews in the case of Blasphemy the fathers hand was to be first in the execution of his son Deut. 13. And both Civilians and Casuists allow the Father jus abdicationis a right of Abdication in some cases But such cases are not much pertinent here or considerable as to our purpose For they that give their earthly Parents just cause to forsake them can have little confidence that God as their heavenly Father should take them up But when Parents shall withdraw their love and help from their children upon some small oversights or venial miscariages or take distaste at them either without cause or more then there is cause upon some wrong either surmise of their own or suggestion of others as Saul reviled Ionathan and threw a Iavelin at him to smite him interpreting his friendship with David as it had been a plotted conspiracy between his son and his servant to take his crown and his life from him Or when they shall disinherit their children for some deformity of body or defect of parts or the like As reason sheweth it to be a great sin and not to be excused by any pretence so it is an observation grounded upon manifold experience that where the right heirs have been dis-inherited upon almost whatsoever pretence the blessing of God hath not usually followed upon the persons and seldom hath the estate prospered in the hands of those
as our corrupt nature is subject to to doe or say all that is needful in a weighty business and not in something or other to over-say and over doe Yet this I can say in sincerity of my heart and with Comfort that my desire was the nature of the business considered both to speak as plain and to offend as little as might be If I can approve my carriage herein to the judgment and consciences of sober and charitable men it will be some rejoycing to me but I am not hereby justified I must finally stand or fall to my own master who is the only infallible Iudge of all mens hearts and wayes Humbly I beseech him to look well if there be any way of wickedness or hypocrisie in me timely to cover it himself and discover it to me that it may be by his grace repented of and pardoned by his mercy by the same mercy and grace to guide my feet into the wayes of Peace and Truth and to lead me in the way everlasting Decemb. 31. 1655. O be favourable and gracious unto Sion build thou the walls of Ierusalem Repair the breaches thereof and make no long tarrying O Lord our helper and our Redeemer ETIAM VENI DOMINE IESU A Table of the places of Scripture to which some light more or less is given in the foregoing Sermons Chap. Ver. Pag. Gen. III 5 236 IV 13 197 VI 5 406 6 405 IX 3 50 6 343 27 155 XI 4 8 XIV 21 98 XV 2 130 XVIII 21 372 XXI 15-16 278 19 282 XXVIII 12 265 20 110 XXXI 29 412 XXXIII 4 412 XLII 21-22 80.339 L 15-17 80 Exod. I 6 282 II 9 282 10 264 III 15 388 XIV 17 411 25 468 XVIII 21 318 XX 17 384 XXIII 2 349.364 3 342 8 395 Levit. 6 1 398 XXV 17 390 Num. 23 3 412 19 406 Deut. 10 15 284 XV 11 335 XVI 19 395 XXXI 8 286 1 Sam. 11 30 259 VIII 5 376 11 380 XII 3 375. c. XV 30 368 XXIII 26.27 412 XXIIII 6 234 13 102-103 XXV 34 81 XXVII 1 322 2 Sam. 4 1 315 XII 13 78 XV 3 302 6 302 31 412 XXIII 16 83 1 King 15 5 79 2 Chro. 25 13 84 XXXII 31 324 Nehem. 2 5 c. 29 Esther 4 14 338 Iob. 1 9 259 21 200 22 278 11 10 126 V 12-15 401 VI 15 277 XX 18 396 XXII 23-28 415 XXIX 13 348 16.17 369 XXXI 13 53 XXXV 8 390 Psalm 11 1 6 401 Iâ—I 1 200 IX 9 285 20 207 XII 4 411 XVI 5 295 XIX 12 66 13 65 c. XXI 11 406 c. XX 7.8 280 XXII 14 315 XXVII 10 273 XXX 6 323 6.8 208 XXXII 9 81 XXXIII 10 406 10.11 401 XXXVI 6 197 XXXVII 5 288.415 19 411 23 33 XXXVIII 20 36 XXXIX 4 266 9 201 XLI 1 367 XLIV 21 373 Psal. XLV 1 266 7 14 L 21 399 23 256 LVI 6 302 LVIII 8 401 LXII 10 382 11 259 11.12 337 LXV 7 413 LXVI 1 255 LXXII 1 c. 334 14 388 LXXIII 20 403 LXXVI 5 403 LXXVII 2 208 10 287 12 337 LXXVIII 72 247 LXXIX 12 337 LXXXII 5 309 6 336 LXXXIII 5 302 LXXXIV 6 295 LXXXVI 11 315 LXXXIX 2 407 XCI 4 288 15 211 XCIV 11 406 19 210 XCVII 11 297 XCIX 1 401 CIV 15 9 31 254 CVI 3 351 CVII 2 148 16 315 CVIII 2 266 CIX 18 10 28 347 CXI 10 309 CXII 9 125 10 412 CXV 1 260 CXVI 7 200 16 408 CXIX 28 315 57 295 75 193 c. 89 407 91 408 96 363 Psal. CXIX 105 296 115 86 116 285 122 390 CXXII 3 271 CXXVII 3 114 CXXXIII 1 c. 59.161 CXXXV 6 285.401.410 CXL 9 412 12 282 CXLI 4 288 6 263 CXLII 5.6 282 CXLIII 2 195 CXLVI 2.3 279 CXLVII 9 282 5 409 CL 5 268 Proverb I 10 86.318 11-13 339 III 3.4 345 5 410 VI 6 307 X 2 386 7 9 XI 18 389 26 347 XIII 10 160 24 204 XIV 3 391 XV 1 161 30 10 XVI 2 355.372 3 415 4 254 7 25. c. 9 410 XVII 15 168.343 26 366 XVIII 13 217 14 3â—6 17 359 XIX 3 20.197 21 399. c. XX 14 389 XXI 1 17.35.408 XXII 1 6 16 394 22.23 391 XXIII 2 83 5 279 XXIIII 10-12 331. c. 21 44 24-26 347 XXV 27 260 XXVI 2 347 13 313 16 107.308 XXVII 6 205 XXVIII 3 338.392 11 308 XXIX 7 369 XXXI 8.9 334 Eccles. II 11 208 26 114 III 1 365 11 365 IV 1 357.365 5.6 107 V 8 365 VII 1 1 c. 7 366 8 161 29 405 IX 1 40 3 7 8 7 X 1 18 20 366 XI 4 245 XII 10 4 Esay II 22 279 XI 34 217 XIII 6 315 XXIX 13 265 XXXIII 15 392 XXXVI 5 411 XXXVII 7.9 412 29 412 XLII 8 255.259 XLVI 10 407 XLIX 14.15 283 15 275 L 1 144 LI 20 412 LII 3 135. c. LV 5.6 403 8.9 400 LVII 15 286 LVIII 5 83 7 335 Ier. II 13 280 VIII 9 309 X 23 410 24 195 Ier. XII 2 265 XVIII 18 21 XXI 12 348 XXV 9 408 XXXVII 7-9 412 29 412 38 4 315 XLIII 10 408 LI 20 412 Ezech. I 16 408 III 19 351 VII 17 314 XIV 14 c. 351 XXI 7 315 XXIX 20 408 Daniel V. 6 314 27.28 372 Hosea II 9 126 V 15 208 XIII 14 405 Amos IV 1 390 V 11 391 12 393 13 365 VIII 4 390 5 388 Ionah II 8 208 III 10 406 Nahum II 10 314.315 Zephan I 9 388 12 372 Malac. I 6 265 III 6 409 Matth. III 17 33 IV 10 86 V 16 265 VI 2 296 17 7 VII 12 48 16 187 20 187 X 16 380 XI 12 155 XV 8 265 19 406 XVI 1 302 24 320 XVIII 7 168 27.28 392 XXIII 37 281 XXV 24 197 Mark VI 26 84 X 30 202.416 XII 40 302 Luk. I. 51 411 II 14 302 VI 42 167.226.378 X 34.35 293-4 41 405 XI 18 302 XII 4 316.319 15 92 XIV 26 321 XV 12 341 21 c 283 XVI 8 291 c. 9 292 XIX 8 397 XXI 4 341 XXII 23 167 42 414 XXIV 38 406 Iohn 1 29 151 12 265 III 20.21 382 VI 27 151 70 304 IX 24 262 XI 50 233 XII 6 304 XIII 2 304 23 60 XIV 27 318 30 151 XV 19 294 XIX 11 413 XX 17 265 Acts 2 23 178.413 IV 32 164 VIII 22 406 IX 5 411 XII 23 260 XIV 15 260 XVII 18 302 28 408 XX 24 253 33 98 XXIII 5 257 XXIV 16 383 XXVI 9 72 Rom. 3 4 259 7 227 IV 18 285 20.21 285 V 4.5 288 VII 14 137 VIII 7.8 32 33 283 39 284 IX 3 257 19 410 X 10 266 XI 36 258 XII 2 295 5 335.165 18 19 XIII 7 46.47 XIV 17 263 19 166 XV 2 28.268 5 153 c. 6 251 c. XVI 18 302 27 257 1 Cor. 1. 10 270 19 410 20 308 31 410 II 12 303 III 19 410 10 246 18 210
then this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend and thus far we must goe if God call us to it So far went Christ for our redemption and so far the Scriptures press his example for our imitation Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren 1 Joh. 3. 29. To recollect the premises and to give you the full meaning of the precept at once To Love the Brotherhood is as much as to bear a special affection to all Christians more then to Heathens and to manifest the same proportionably by performing all loving offices to them upon every fit occasion to the utmost of our powers A duty of such importance that our Apostle though here in the Text he do but only name it in the bunch among other duties yet afterwards in this Epistle seemeth to require it in a more speciall manner and after a sort above other duties Above all things have fervent charity among your selves Chap. 4. And S. Iohn upon the performance hereof hangeth one of the strongest assurances we can have of our being in Christ. We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 30. Now of the Obligation of this duty for that is the next thing we are to consider there are two main grounds Goodness and Neerness First we must love the Brotherhood for their goodness All goodness is lovely There groweth a Love due to every creature of God from this that every creature of God is good Some goodness God hath communicated to every thing to which he gave a beeing as a beame of that incomprehensible light and a drop of that infinite Ocean of goodness which he himself is But a greater measure of Love is due to man then to other Creatures by how much God hath made him better then them And to every particular man that hath any special goodness in him there is a special Love due proportionable to the kinde and measâ—re thereof So that whatsoever goodness we can discern in any man we ought to love it in him and to love him for it whatsoever faults or defects are apparently enough to be found in him otherways He that hath good natural parts if he have little in him that is good besides yet is to be loved even for those parts because they are good He that hath but good moralities only leading a civil life though without any probable evidences of grace appearing in him is yet to be loved of us if but for those moralities because they also are good But he that goeth higher and by the goodness of his conversation sheweth forth so far as we can judge the graciousness of his heart deserveth by so much an higher room in our affections then either of the former by how much Grace exceedeth in goodness both Nature and Morality Sith then there is a special goodness in the Brethren quatenùs such in regard of that most holy faith which they profess and that blessed name of Christ which is called upon them we are therefore bound to love them with a special affection and that eo nomine under that consideration as they are brethren over and above that general love with which we are bound to love them as men or that which belongeth to them as men of parts or as Civil men 31. The other ground of Loving the Brotherhood is their Neerness The neerer the dearer we say and there are few relations neerer then that of brotherhood But no brotherhood in the world so closely and surely knit together and with so many and strong tyes as the fraternity of Christians in the communion of Saints which is the Brotherhood in the Text. In which one brotherhood it is not easy to reckon how many brotherhoods are conteined Behold some of many First we are Brethren by propagation and that ab utroque parente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of the one Eternal God the common father of us all and of the one Catholick Church the common mother of us all And we have all the same Elder brother Jesus Christ the first born among many brethren the lively image of his fathers person and indeed the foundation of the whole Brotherhood for we are all as many of us as have been baptised into Christ the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus Therefore as Ioseph loved Benjamin his brother of the whole bloud more affectionately then the other ten that were his brethren but by the fathers side only so we ought with a more special affection to love those that are also the sons of our mother the Church as Christians then those that are but the sons of God only as Creatures 32. Secondly we are Brethren by education 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Foster-brethren as Herod and Manahon were We are all nursed with the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincere milk of the word in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament which are ubera matris Ecclesiae the two brests whence we sucked all that wholsome nourishment by which we are grown up to what we are to that measure of stature of strength whatsoever it is that we have in Christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle and common experience sheweth it so to be They that have been nursed or brought up together in their childehood for the most part have their affections so seasoned and setled then that they love one another the better while they live 33. Thirdly we are Brethren by Covenant sworn brothers at our holy Baptism when we dedicated our selves to Gods service as his Souldiers by sacred and solemn vow Do we not see men that take the same oath pressed to serve in the same Wars and under the same Captains Contuâ—ernales and Comrades how they do not only call Brothers but hold together as Brothers and shew themselves marvelous zealous in one anothers behalf taking their parts and pawning their credits for them and sharing their fortunes with them If one of them have but a little silver in his purse his brother shall not want whiles that lasteth Shame we with it that the children of this world should be kinder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards those of their own generation then we are in ours 34. Fourthly we are Brethren by Cohabitation We are all of one house and family not strangers and forrainers but fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God What a disquietness and discredit both is it to a house where the children are ever jarring and snarling and fighting one with another but a goodly sight Ecce quam bonum when they dwell together in love and unity Even so a sad thing it is and very grievous to the soule of every good man when in the Church which is the house of God Christians
my self contented with his alotment whatsoever it be and to have a sufficiency within my self though in never so great a deficiency of outward things Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content 6. The words contain a Protestation and the reason of it First because his commendation of their Charity to him might be obnoxious to mis-construction as if he had some low covetous end therein to prevent all evil suspicion that way he disavoweth it utterly by protesting the contrary in the former part of the verse Not that I speak in respect of want And then to make that Protestation the more credible he assigneth as the Reason thereof the Contentedness of his minde For I have learned saith he in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content Concerning which Contentedness in the later part of the verse he giveth a touch what a manner of thing it was and withall acquainteth us how he came by it giving us some hint in that of the Nature in this of the Art of true Contentment Which are the two things indeed mainly to be insisted upon from the Text. Yet would not the Protestation be wholy slipt over sith from it also may be deduced sundry profitable Inferences Some of which I shall first minde you of with convenient brevity and then pass on to the main 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not that I speak in respect of want 7. Hence learn first what a base and unworthy thing it is indeed for any man for a Christian man much more most of all for a Church-man to be covetously minded Would our Apostle be so careful to quit himself but of the suspicion if the crime it self were any whit tolerable Nor doth he it here only but upon every needful occasion otherwhere also using the like preventions and protestations To the Ephesians I have coveted no mans silver or gold or aparel To the Corinthians I have not written these things that it should be so done to me I was not neitâ—er will I be burthensome to you for I seek not yours but you To the Thessalonians Neither at any time used we a cloak of covetousness God is witness He calleth God in to be his compurgator which sure he would not do nisi dignus vindice nodus if it did not much concern him to stand clear in the eye of the world in that behalf And he speaketh there of a cloak of covetousness too for who indeed shameth not to wear it outwardly No man will profess himself covetous be he never so wretchedly sordid within but he will for very shame cast as handsome a cloak as he can over it Frugality good Husbandry Providence some cloak or other to hide the filthiness of it from the sight of other But filthy it is still be it cloaked never so honestly Still God abhorreth it as a filthy thing He speaketh well of the covetous whom God abhorreth To it in a more peculiar manner hath the very name of Sordidness been appropriated of old and still is in every mans mouth Our Apostle hath set a brand of Filthiness upon it more then once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling it filthy lucre Yea so unfit he holdeth it to be found among the Priests that he would not have it if it were possible so much as once named at least not with allowance not without some stigma upon it among the Saints 8. There is an honest care to be had I confess of providing for a mans self and those that depend upon him no less requisite in a Church-man then in every other man if not in some respects even much more and verily he wanteth either wit or grace or both whoever neglecteth it Yea further sith God hath assigned by his own ordinance wages to him that laboureth in his work and if he be a faithful labourer he is well worthy of it he may without injustice not only expect it but even exact it of those that would unconscionably defraud him therein But why may not all this be done and that effectually too without either bearing inwardly or betraying outwardly a greedy and covetous minde Whether then we provide for our own by well husbanding what we have or whether we look for our own by requiring our dues from others still still let our conversation be without covetousness Take heed and beware of Covetousness saith our Saviour doubling his charge that we should double our circumspection Which if we do not and that with more then ordinary heedfulness the love of the world will creep upon us and by little and little get within us and steal away our hearts ere we can think it Take heed and beware of Covetousness It is an evil spirit but withal a subtile and can slily winde it self in at a little hole But having once made entrance and gotten possession it is not so easily outed again Rather it will quickly set open a wide door to seven more and in time to a whole legion of other evil spirits I cannot say worse then it self for there are not many such but certainly bad enough to render the end of that man much worse then the beginning For the love of money is the root of very many and even almost of all evill which while some have coveted after they have erred from the faith made shipwrack of their consciences and entangled themselves in a world of piercing cares and sorrows But thou O man of God flye from these things flye covetousness Observe how careful the Apostle is every where to disclaim it and be thou as careful evermore to avoid it 9. Observe hence secondly what an aptness there may be even in very good men through the remainders of natural corruption to mis-interpret the speeches and actions of their spiritual Fathers as if in much of what they said or did they aimed most at their own secular advantage That these Philippians had charitable hearts if there were no other proof their great bounty both to our Apostle and others so often by him remembred were evidence enough Yet surely if he had not withall known those dregs of Uncharitableness that as the sediments of depraved nature lurke in the hearts of the most charitable men he might have saved the labour that sometimes he is put upon of his own purgation Hard the mean while is the straite men of our cloath are often put unto If we let all go and permit it to mens consciences how they will deal with us resolving to suffer and say nothing besides that we expose our selves both to loss and scorn we also betray Gods and the Churches right and are also unfaithful in the work of our calling in suffering sin upon our neighbour for want of a rebuke But if we look better about us and require what of right belongeth to us then do men set their mouthes wide open against us straight And covetous
sinner he giveth travail to gather and to heap up The sinner possibly may gather as much together as the godly or more and raise to himself more and greater heaps of worldly treasure but when he hath done he hath but his travel for his pains He hath not wisdom and knowledge to understand the just valuation and the right use of that which he hath gathered together he taketh no joy he taketh no comfort in those heaps he findeth nothing in them but cares and disquietness and vexation of spirit All his dayes are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night It is not thefore without cause that our Apostle so speaketh of contentment as of the handmaid unto godliness But godliness with contentment is great gain 1 Tim. 6. 4. The truth whereof will yet farther appear unto us if we shall consider of these two grounds First that in all other things there is an unsufficiency and Secondly that there is a sufficiency in the grace of God to work Contentment We cannot conceive any other things besides the Grace of God from which Contentment can be supposed to spring but those three Nature Morality and Outward things All which in the triall will appear to be altogether insufficient to work this effect First Nature as it is now corrupt inclineth our hearts and affections strongly to the world the inordinate love whereof first breedeth and then cherisheth our discontent Whiles between the desire of having and the feare of wanting we continually pierce our selves thorough with a thousand cares and sorrows Our lusts are vast as the sea and restless as the sea and as the sea will not be bounded but by an almighty power The horseleach hath but two daughters but we have I know not how many craving lusts no less importunately clamorous then they Till they be served incessantly crying Give Give but much more unsatisfied then they for they will be filled in time and when they are full they tumble off and ther 's an end But our lusts will never be satisfied like Pharaohs thin kine when they have eaten up all the fat ones they are still as hungry and as whining as they were before We are by nature infinitely covetous we never think our selves rich enough but still wish more and we are by nature infinitely timerous we never think our selves safe enough but still feare want Neither of both which alone much less both together can stand with true Contentment This flower then groweth not in the garden of corrupt Nature which is so rankly over-grown with so many and such pestilent and noysome weeds 5. But perhaps the soyle may be so improved by the culture of Philosophy and the malignity of it so corrected by moral institution as that Contentment may grow and thrive in it No that will not do the deed neither True it is that there are to be found in the writings of heathen Orators Poets and Philosophers many excellent and acute sentences and precepts tending this way and very worthy to be taken notice of by us Christians both to our wonder and shame To our wonder that they would espy so much light as they did at so little a peep-hool but to our shame withall who enjoying the benefit of divine revelation and living in the open sun-shine of the glorious Gospel of truth have profited thereby in so small a proportion beyond them But all their sentences and precepts fall short of the mark they could never reach that solid Contentment they levelled at Sunt verba voces as he said and he said truer then he was aware of for they are but words indeed empty of truth and reality The shadow of contentment they might catch at but when they came to grasp the substance Nubem pro Iunone they ever found themselves deluded As the blinded Sodomites that beset Lots house they fumbled about the door perhaps sometimes stumbled at the threshold but could not for their lives either finde or make themselves a way into the inner rooms The greatest Contentments their speculations could perform unto them were but aegri somnia Not a calm and soft sleep like that which our God giveth his beloved ones but as the slumbring dreams of a sick man very short and those also interrupted with a medley of cross and confused fancies Which possibly may be some small refreshing to them amid their long weary fits but cannot well be called Rest. Now the very true reason of this unsufficiency in whatsoever precepts of Morality unto true Contentment is because the topicks from whence they draw their perswasions are of too flat and low an elevation As being taken from the dignity of man from the baseness of outward things from the mutability of fortune from the shortness and uncertainty of life and such like other considerations as come within their own spear Vseful indeed in their kind but unable to bear such a pile and roof as they would build thereupon But as for the true grounds of sound Contentment which are the perswasions of the special providence of God over his children as of a wise and Loving father whereby he disposeth all things unto them for the best and a lively faith resting upon the rich and precious promises of God revealed in his holy word they were things quite out of their element and such as they were wholly ignorant of And therefore no marvel if they were so far to seek in this high and holy learning 6. But might there not in the third place be shaped at least might there not be imagined a fitness and competency of outward things in such a mediocrity of proportion every way unto a mans hopes and desires as that contentment would arise from it of it self and that the party could not chuse but rest satisfied therewithall Nothing less For first experience sheweth us that contentment ariseth not from the things but from the minde even by this that discontents take both soonest and sorest of the greatest and wealthiest men Which would not be if greatness or wealth were the main things required to breed Contentment Secondly those men that could not frame their hearts to contentment when they had less will be as far from it if ever they shall have more For their desires and the things will still keep at a distance because as the things come on so their desires come on too As in a coach though it hurry away never so fast yet the hinder wheeles will still be behind the former as much as they were before And therefore our Apostle in the next verse maketh it a point of equall skill and of like deep learning to know how to be full as well as how to be hungry and how to abound as well as how to suffer need Thirdly it is impossible that Contentment should arise from the things because contentment supposeth a sufficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposeth to 〈◊〉
taken into our consideration and practise as well as that of lawfulness Even because things lawful in themselves and in the kinde may for want of a right End or through neglect of due Circumstances become sinful in the doer Not as if any act of ours could change the nature of the things from what they are for it is beyond the power of any creature in the world to do that God only is dominus naturae to him it belongeth only as chief Lord to change either the physical or moral nature of things at his pleasure Things in their own nature indifferent God by commanding can make necessary and by forbidding unlawful as he made circumcision necessary and eating of porke unlawful to the Jews under the old Law But no scruple of conscience no command of the higher powers no opinions either consent of men no scandal or abuse whatsoever can make any indifferent thing to become either necessary or unlawful universally and perpetually and in the nature of it but it still remaineth indifferent as it was before any act of ours notwithstanding Yet may such an indifferent thing remaining still in the nature of it indifferent as before by some act of ours or otherwise become in the use of it and by accident either necessary or unlawful pro hic nunc to some men and at some times and with some circumstances As the command of lawful authority may make an indifferent thing to us necessary for the time and the just fear of scandal may make an indifferent thing to us unlawful for the time Therefore it behoveth us in all our deliberations de rebus agendis to consider well not only of the nature of the thing we would do whether it be lawful or no in the kinde but of the end also and all present circumstances especially the most material lest through some default there it become so inexpedient that it cannot be then done by us without sin For as we may sin by doing that which is unlawful so may we also by doing even that which is lawful in an undue manner 19. And it will much concern us to use all possible circumspection herein the rather for two great reasons for that by this means I mean the supposed lawfulness of things we are both very easily drawn on unto sin and when we are in very hardly fetched off again First we are easily drawn on The very name and opinion of lawfulness many times carrieth us along whilest we suspect no evil and putteth our foot into the snare ere we be aware of it The conscience of many a good man that would keep a strait watch over himself against grosser offences will sometimes set it self very loose when he findeth himself able to plead that he doth nothing but what is lawful In things simply evil sin cannot lurk so close but that a godly wise man that hath his eyes in his head may spy it and avoid it as a wilde-beast or thief may easily be descried in the open champain But if it can once shroud it self under the covert of lawfulness it is the more dangerous like a wilde-beast or thief in the woods or behinde the thickets where he may lurk unseen and assault us on a sudden if we do not look the better about us And the greater our danger is the greater should be our circumspection also 20. And as we are easily inveigled and drawn in to sins of this kinde so when we are in we get off again very hardly If we chance through humane frailty or the strength of temptations to fall into some gross offence by doing something that is manifestly unlawful although such gross sins are of themselves apt to waste the conscience to beat back the offers of grace and to harden the heart wonderfully against repentance yet have we in sundry other respects more and better helps and advantages towards repentance for such sins then when we transgress by abusing our liberty in lawful things 1. It is no hard matter to convince our understandings of those grosser transgressions their obliquity is so palpable 2. They often lie cold and heavy at the heart where the burden of them is so pressing and afflictive that it will force us to seek abroad for ease 3. We shall scarce read a Chapter or hear a Sermon but we shall meet with something or other that seemeth to rub upon that gaul 4. The World will cry shame on us 5. and our enemies triumph that they have now gotten something to lay in our dish 6. Our friends will have a just occasion to give us a sharp rebuke 7. And the guiltiness of the fact will so stop our mouthes that we shall have nothing to answer for our selves All which may be so many good preparations unto repentance 21. But when we are able to plead a lawfulness in the substance of the thing done 1. Seldom do we take notice of our failings in some circumstances 2. Nor do our hearts smite us with much remorse thereat 3. The edge of Gods holy Word slideth over us without cutting or piercing at all or not deep 4. We lie not so open to the upbraidings either of friends or foes but that if any thing be objected by either we can yet say something in our own defence All which are so many impediments unto repentance Not but that who ever truly feareth God and repenteth unfainedly repenteth even of the smallest sins as well as of the greatest but that he doth it not so feelingly nor so particularly for these smaller as for those greater ones because he is not so apprehensive of these as he is of those For the most part his repentance for such like sins is but in a general form wrapt up in the lump of his unknown sins like that in Psal. 19. Who can tell how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou me from my secret faults Onely our hope and comfort is that our merciful Lord God will graciously accept this general repentance for currant without requiring of us a more particular sence of those sins whereof he hath not given us a more particular sight 22. By what hath been said you may perceive how unsafe a thing it is to rest upon the bare lawfulness of a thing alone without regard to expediency For this is indeed the ready way to turn our liberty into a licentiousness sith even lawful things become unlawful when they grow inexpedient Lawful in themselves but unlawful to us lawful in their nature but unlawful in their use But then the question will be how we shall know from time to time and at all times what is expedient to be done and what not Which leadeth us to the third and last Observation from the Text viz. That the expediency of lawful things is to be measured by their usefulness unto edification For if we shall ask Why are not all lawful things alwayes expedient the Apostles answer is Because they do not alwayes edifie When
And there is a reason of it there given also For bloud saith he defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed from the bloud that is shed therein but by the bloud of him that shed it Read that passage with attention and if both forehead and conscience be not harder then the nether milstone thou canst not have either the heart or the face to glory in it as a brave exploit who ever thou art that hast been the instrument to save the life of a murderer 20. Indeed all offences are not of that hainous nature that Murder is nor do they cry so loud for vengance as Murder doth And therefore to procure undeserved favour for a smaller offenderâ— is not so great a sin as to do it for murderers But yet so far as the proportion holdeth it is a sin still Especially where favour cannot be shewen to one man but to the wrong and grievance of some other as it happeneth usually in those judicial controversies that are betwixt party and party for trial of right Or where favour cannot be shewen to an offender but with wrong and grievance to the publick as it most times falleth out in criminal causes wherein the King and Common-wealth are parties Solomon hath taught us that as well he that justifieth the wicked as he that condemneth the just are an abomination to the Lord. Yea and that for any thing that appeareth to the contrary from the Text and in thesi for circumstances may make a difference either way in hypothesi they are both equally abominable In doubtful cases it is doubtlesly better and safer to encline to Mercy then to Severity Better ten offenders should escape then one innocent person suffer But that is to be conceived only when things are doubtful so as the truth cannot be made appear but where things are notorious and evident there to justifie the guilty and to condemn the innocent are still equal abominations 21. That which you are to do then in the behalf of the poor is this First to be rightly informed and so far as morally you can well assured that their cause be just For mean and poor people are nothing less but ordinarily much more unreasonable then the great ones are and if they finde the ear of the Magistrate open to hear their grievances as it very meet it should be they will be often clamorous and importunate without either cause or measure And if the Magistrate be not very wary and wise in receiving informations the countrey swain may chance prove too cunning for him and make him but a stale whereby for himself to get the start of his adversary and so the Magistrate may in fine and unawares become the instrument of oppression even then when his intention was to vindicate another from it The truth of the matter therefore to be first throughly sifted out the circumstances duly weighed and as well the legal as the equitable right examined and compared and this to be done with all requisite diligence and prudence before you engage in the poor mans behalf 22. But if when this is done you then finde that there is much right and equity on his side and that yet for want of skill or friends or means to manage his affairs he is in danger to be foiled in his righteous cause Or if you finde that his adversary hath a legal advantage of him or that he hath de rigore incurred the penalty of some dis-used statute yet did not offend wilfully out of the neglect of his known duty or a greedy covetous minde or other sinister and evil intention but meerly out of his ignorance and in-experience and in the simplicity of his heart as those two hundred Israelites that followed after Absalom when he called them not knowing any thing of his conspiracy had done an act of treason yet were not formally traitours In either of these cases I say you may not forsake the poor man or despise him because he is poor or simple But you ought so much the rather to stick by him and to stand his friend to the utmost of your power You ought to give him your counsel and your countenance to speak for him and write for him and ride for him and do for him to procure him right against his adversary in the former case and in the later case favour from the Iudge In either case to hold back your hand to draw back your help from him if it be in the power of your hand to do him any help is that sin for which in the judgement of Solomon in the Text the Lord will admit no excuse 23. Come we now in the last place to some reasons or motives taken from the effects of the duty it self If carefully and conscionably performed it will gain honour and estimation both to our persons and places purchase for us the prayers and blessings of the poor yea and bring down a blessing from God not upon us and ours only but upon the State and Common-wealth also But where the duty is neglected the effects are quite contrary First do you know any other thing that will bring a man more glory and renown in the common opinion of the world then to shew forth at once both justice and mercy by doing good and protecting the innocent Let not mercy and truth forsake thee binde them about thy neck write them upon the table of thy heart so shalt thou finde favour and good understanding or acceptance in the sight of God and man Prov. 3. As a rich sparkling Diamond addeth both value and lustre to a golden ring so do these vertues of justice and mercy well attempered bring a rich addition of glory to the crowns of the greatest Monarchs Hoc reges habent magnificum ingens prodesse miseris supplices fido lare protegere c. Every man is bound by the Law of God and of charity as to give to every other man his due honour so to preserve the honour that belongeth to his own person and place for charity in performing the duties of every Commandment beginneth at home Now here is a fair and honest and sure way for all you that are in place of authority and judicature or sustain the persons of Magistrates to hold up the reputation both of your persons and places and to preserve them from scorn and contempt Execute judgement and justice with wisdom and diligence take knowledge of the vexations of those that are brought into the Courts or otherwise troubled without cause be sensible of the grones and pressures of poor men in the day of their adversity protect the innocent from such as are too mighty or too crafty for him hew in pieces the snares and break the jaws of the cunning and cruel oppressour and deliver those that are drawn either to death or undoing 24. The course is preposterous and vain which some men ambitious of honour and reputation take to get themselves put
God and men to bear witness to your Integrity Ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved our selves among you 1 Thess. 2. and with good Samuel here to put your selves for the tryal of your uprightness upon your God King and Country Behold here I am witness against me before the Lord and before his Anointed 19. Thus much of Samuels confidence See we next what the things are he doth with so much confidence disclaim as the matter of the Challenge It is in the general Injury or Wrong the particular kindes whereof in the Text specified are Fraud Oppression and Bribery Against all and every of these he expresly protesteth Whose Oxe have I taken or whose asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blinde mine eyes therewith To begin with the General Whose Ox have I taken or whose Asse have I taken These two creatures the Ox and the Asse are here mentioned because of their great usefulness the strength of the Ox and the patience of the Asse enabling them the one for labour the other for carriage For in those times and countries they used Asses altogether for journeys and for burdens as we now adayes and in these parts of the world do Horses Whereof in old time we finde very little speech of any other use then for the services of war only Whence it is that the Ox and the Asse are in the Scriptures so frequently mentioned together and so reckoned together as a principal part of a mans wealth and also both here and elsewhere by way of Synecdoche put for a mans whole substance or estate In the last Commandement of the Ten after those words Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours Ox nor his Asse it is added nor any thing that is thy neighbours What is there expressed the same is here to be understood as if Samuel had said I have neither taken any mans Ox nor Asse nor any thing else that was another mans 20. And then by Taking he must needs mean wrongful taking the words will else bear no reasonable construction For to deny the lawfulness of commerce and civil contracts such as are buying selling giving exchanging and the like wherein the right and property of things is transferred from one man to another by delivering and taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what were it else but to overthrow all humane society and utterly to destroy all the offices of Commutative Iustice which is wholly conversant about contracts of that nature His meaning clearly is that contenting himself with his own portion he had not sought to enrich himself by the spoil of others or to gain any thing to himself to his neighbours hurt by any unjust or unconscionable means It is the first and principal office of Justice suum cuique to let every man have his own And the holy law of God bindeth our very thoughts and desires from coveting but how much more then our hands from taking that which of right belongeth not to us That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore in the Law Thou shalt not covet that which is anothers is by our Saviour himself the best interpreter of the Law rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Gospel Thou shalt not take that which is anothers To teach us that whoso will allow himself the liberty to desire it will not deny himself the liberty if opportunity serve to take it And that therefore whosoever would hold his hands must first learn to subdue his covetous lusts 21. It is verily nothing so much as our Covetousness that maketh us unjust which S. Paul affirmeth to be the root of all evil but is most manifestly the root of this evil of injustice Aristotle sheweth it out of the native signification of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as to say a desire of having more more then is our due more then falleth to our part or share As if a man that were to divide something betwixt himself and his fellow by even portions should share the biggest part to himself whereby to make himself a gainer and his partner a loser This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is indeed quite contrary to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Iames calleth it that Royal Law Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and to that great fundamental Rule of Equity by which as by the Standard we ought to mete out all our dealings towards our brethren Quod tibi fieri non vis c. Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you do you even the same to them 22. If all men would first look back into the most suspected passages of their former dealings unpartially trying them but by this one Rule and by this one Rule they shall all be tryed at the last day and then would secondly resolve to lay this Rule ever before their eyes for the levelling of their future conversations what a world of injustice might they finde out by the one keep out by the other which because that Rule is so much neglected are therefore now so little regarded Say thou that by thy cunning over-reachest thy brother in buying selling or bargaining or deceivest the trust reposed in thee by thy friend couldest thou brook to be in like sort cheated thy self Thou that Ahab-like wringest thy poor neighbours Vineyard from him drivest him by continual molestations to this strait that either he must forsake the town if thou hast a minde to enclose it or else consent to his own and most of his neighbours undoing or any other way enforcest him to come to thy bent for fear of a worse displeasure couldest thou think it reasonable if his case were thine to be so plagued and oppressed thy self Thou that bribest a corrupt Officer subornest a perjured witness procurest a packt Iury and where thou canst conceive any hope that it will be taken offerest to conveigh a reward into the bosom even of the Iudge himself to pervert judgement and to get the day of thine adversary when his cause is more righteous then thine couldest thou be patient thy self to be wrested out of thine own apparant right by such engines In a word thou that takest thy brothers Ox or his Asse or any thing that is his from him wrongfully wouldest thou be content thy brother should wrongfully take thine Whosoever thou art that doest another wrong do but turn the tables imagine thy neighbour were now playing thy game and thou his and then deal but squarely in this one point and if thine own heart condemn thee not go on and prosper 23. But men that are resolved of their End if this be their End to make themselves great and rich howsoever are not much moved with arguments of this nature The evidence of Gods Law and conscience of their own duty work little