understand that in his measure and according to his capacity he was perfect in all those Excellencies that did appertain to his Nature And as the Understanding is one of the noblest and the leader of the other Faculties of mans soul we must therefore conceive that to be made perfect in Knowledg so far as to be capable of rightly understanding whatsoever was necessary or suitable to the Nature of man to know That this Light was pure and free from being mixed with any darkness of Ignorance or Error And that the Will and Affections were perfectly subjected to the dominion of the Understanding so that they did then as readily obey and execute its Dictates as the Members of our Body do now move themselves at the appointment of the Will Nor are we to imagine that in this estate of perfect holiness and happiness in which man was placed there was any such drawing downward of the sensitive Appetite as might either disturb the peace of the soul by the contrariety of its motion to the dictates of Reason or else dispose and incline man to swerve from the right way But even as we believe the Saints in Heaven when their bodies shall be re-united to their souls to be made perfect in holiness Heb. 12.23 and nothing to remain in them that may tend either to disturb the perfection of their happiness or to draw them away from serving and enjoying him that is the chiefest good So we may most reasonably believe that in mans first Creation there was no manner of defect or error in his Understanding nor any discording motions arising from the union of the soul and body nor yet any clouds arising from the sensitive Appetite to darken the light of Reason And whereas there are some that conceive the Fall of man to have been occasioned by his Inadvertency that being of a Finite though perfect understanding he did not therefore apprehend or consider all things at once And therefore fixing his mind wholly upon the pleasantness of the Fruit so as not at the same time duly to consider the strictness of Gods command and the threatning that was annexed to it he did hereby come to violate Gods precept by embracing that pleasant fruit Neither doth this evince any shortness of sight or natural ignorance or error to have been in man from his Creation For if he did not consider all those things together which he ought to have considered yet had he power and capacity sufficient to have apprehended all things necessary to be considered at once for else we should lay a fault upon the Goodness or Wisdom of God in the Creation of man if we believe him to have permitted such a defect in his Nature as must needs occasion his sinning The default therefore is to be imputed to mans want of putting in execution that power which God had given him Man fell not because he wanted knowledg enough to hold him upright but because he did not put forth that power which his Creator had given him to apprehend the strictness of his Law and the certainty of the inflicting the penalty that was annexed in case of mans disobedience By what hath been spoken we may be put in mind to reflect with sadness of heart upon that happiness which once our Nature did enjoy Eccles 7.29 Thus God made man upright but he sought out many inventions And how art thou fallen from Heaven O thou that wast made but little lower than the Angels How unlike is man now to that Exquisite piece which our Creator sent forth of his hands perfect in beauty Now the course of Nature is inverted and as all things in mans soul were once governed with singular order and harmony so now there is as great discord and disorder in all our facultieâ— and the exercises thereof Now the Will and Affections do sometimes with their insinuation enveagle and bribe the Reason of man either to shut its eyes or else to pronounce false sentence upon things that differ Isa 5.20 to call good evil and evil good Or if they cannot prevail to do this they then rise up like unruly Subjects against the commands of their Sovereign and shake off that yoke of obedience which God in Nature hath laid upon them as in those incontinent persons who do with Medea in the Poet Videre meliora probare but deteriora sequi Nor hath the Understanding it self though freer from corruption than the other faculties wholly escaped without depravation but partly through a dimness and short-sightedness in it self is subject to Ignorance and Error and partly through the ill neighbourhood of a depraved Will and disordered Affections it is wofully swerved from its original Rectitude and Integrity The wonderful Wisdom and Power of God is manifest in making such variety of Features in mens Faces that amongst the many myriads of men that live upon the face of the Earch there are not any two so exactly alike but they are to be distinguished by him that looks heedfully upon them And the sad and wonderful mischief of sin is as manifest in that it hath begotten as much variety in mens minds as is in their Physiognomies so that you can hardly meet with two men so exactly of one mind that you will need to lay a thread upon them to know them apart From the beginning doubtless it was not so For as the God of Truth is but one and there is but one way of Truth we may believe that God who made the mind of man on purpose to apprehend the Truth did not put such various tempers into mens minds at first as might make them to have such different thoughts of the same thing of which some must needs be false For Cujus contrarium verum est c. contrary conceptions of the same object cannot both be true Now if Truth be so valuable or rather unvaluable a Jewel that the wise Man adviseth us to buy it at any rate Prov. 23.23 but to sell it at no rate then certainly Error which is contrary to it must needs be as evil and undesirableâ— as being not onely a debasing and perverting of the first and leading Faculty of the Soul and a drawing it beside the Truth which it was made on purpose to contemplate but also in that it produceth so many pernicious consequents in the world When God confounded the Language of the builders of Babel it is said That they were scattered abroad upon the face of the Earth Gen 11.3 and left off to build the City And that confusion of Mind and Language which hath befallen us as the just desert and proper fruit of our fins hath hindred the building up of the Church of God and the edifying of mens souls to Eternal Life And hath scattered and severed men one from another in their Affections and Associations Hence have issued Schisms and making of parties one for Paul another for Apollos a third for Cephas 1 Cor. 1.12
and to the end of his coming into the world viz. to take away the sins thereof 4. The greatest and most Authentick Testimony that can be defired or imagined is that of the Father from Heaven concerning him This is my well beloved Son Mat. 3.17 Chap. 17.5 in whom I am well pleased That he was truly man was evident to those that were about him that he was God was evident by the Testimony of God himself who is the God of Truth 5. The passages of his life upon Earth doth shew him to be both truly God and truly Man His hungring and thirsting his weariness and faintness his sighing and weeping and such other fruits of humane infirmity were sufficient Arguments to prove him to be truly man And all the miraculous works of his Power which he wrought upon earth of which I have spoken before as they shew him to be the Messiah Isa 35.5 6. that was foretold by the Prophets of whom it was foretold that he should work such miracles so also that he was truly God Joh. 5.36 as himself argues 6. The Testimony of the Evangelists and Apostles doth confirm this Of St. Peter Mat. 16.16 Acts 2.36 Chap. 3.17 18. and Chap. 4.11 12. and Chap. 10.43 1 Pet. 1.19 20. Of St. Paul Acts 9.22 and Chap. 13.23 34. Rom. 15.8 2 Cor. 1.10 2 Tim. 2.8 Of St John 1 John 2.22 and Chap. 5.2 15. Of St. Stephen the Proto-martyr Acts 7.52 Of St. Philip Acts 8.32 And many more Instances of this sort might be alledged but these are some of the chief 7. The general consent of the Catholick Church of Christ in all Ages ever since the time of Jesus and his Apostles who have held this Truth and made it a main Article of all their Creeds The concurrence of all Pious and Orthodox Fathers and Councils beside the chearful and undaunted sufferings of many thousands of Martyrs for the Profession of this Faith This I say together with the former Testimonies do argue this foundation of our Faith to be laid as so sure a Rock that The gates of Hell Mat. 16.18 shall never be able to prevail against it and that we may comfortably venture our selves upon this Truth that the same Jesus in whom we believe is both Lord and Christ God and Man Hypostatically united Secondly Let us proceed to the other Head viz. to prove that Christ did fully and in a true and proper sense make satisfaction to Gods justice for our sins And that Salvation is to be expected from him and no other way 1. It is very evident that the Apostles in the New Testament do affirm us to be reconciled to God and justified in his fight by the merits and sufferings of Christ Rom. 5.10 When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Which as it shews plainly that there was an enmity between God and man through the Fall and this enmity mutual God offended by mens transgression and man alienated from God by the depravation of his Nature So it shews whereby the Reconciliation was wrought between God and man even by the death of Christ the Son of God who did both by the merits of his death satisfie Gods justice and also by the efficacy of his Death and Resurrection take from us the stony heart and give us an heart of flesh And it is very observable Vers 19. how afterward the Apostle makes a direct Antithesis between the first and the second Adam the misery that befel us by the transgression of the first and the benefits we receive by the obedience and sufferings of the latter As by one mans disebedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Which words as they do suppose the Communication of the guilt of Adams sin to all his posterity whereby they are said to be made sinners and liable to Gods justice So they do plainly express the benefits of Christ's death to be communicated to the justification of as many as do believe in him And what can be a plainer proof of the point in hand Secondly The New Testament speaks of the blood of Christ being shed to make an attonement for us Phil. 2.8 Being found in fashion of a man having taken our Nature upon him and set himself in our stead in this nature and in our stead He humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross And that we may know that he died for us shed his blood to make attonement to Divine Justice for our sins 1 Joh. 1.7 St. John tells us That the blood of Jesus Christ his Son 1 Pet. 2.24 cleanseth us from all our sins And St. Peter tells us That by his stripes we are healed Not healed only in a moral sense as good examples tend to heal and take away corrupt manners as if Christ had come into the world onely to give us an example of Holiness in his life and of Humility and Patience at his death and that were all the benefit which we were to expect by him But we are so healed by his stripes that our sins are thereby pardoned being punished on his back He suffered the just for the unjust to the end that he might justifie the ungodly that believe in him So himself tells us Luk. 22.20 that his blood was shed for many for the remission of sins He died that he might purchase at Gods hands the pardon of our sins by undergoing that punishment which we had deserved To this agrees that Character which the Baptist gives of Christ Joh. 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world This sheweth plainly that he was slain and offered up as a Propitiatory sacrifice to expiate the guilt of our sins 3. The New Testament sets him forth as the Substance of all the Legal purifications and ceremonial Oblations and Expiations which were used by the Law of Moses And this argues that he made an Attonement for us Certainly the great God of Heaven and Earth did not take their Cattel from the Jews because he had need of them or because he delighted in shedding the blood of innocent Beasts that were no wayes accessary to the sins of their Masters But we have reason to believe there were further matters intended by these Ceremonies of the Law God did appoint these Ceremonial washings and expiations after legal defilements that the people might be put in mind of the defiling nature of sin and might be warned to take heed of it as that which defiles the soul and accordingly might endeavour after they had fallen into it to wash their souls with tears of Repentance and Contrition He charged their Estates and caused them to sacrifice their Cattel that they might learn that Sin is very displeasing to God and did expose them to that and a worse death then the innocent beast did sustain And yet further to put
6. Those that spend more Zeal in crying out against indifferent things then in reproving apparent ungodliness may justly be suspected by us Rom. 2.22 Thou that abhorrest Idols saith the Apostle dost thou commit Sacriledge It is true that in respect of the Authority of him that commands there is no small commandment and the breach of any of Gods Laws is a great sin But yet in respect of the nature of the Command Christ sometimes speaks of a first and great Commandment Mat. 22.38 Mat. 5.19 and sometimes of one of the least Commandments and he that is scrupulous in smaller matters and careless in greater doth betray himself to have a diseased Conscience Sermon on Acts 26.9 as I have elsewhere shewed And therefore those that Cry out with such a loud and bitter cry against things which in the judgement of the soberest of themselves are in their own Nature indifferent as if they were palpable Idolatry and yet have made no bones of sacriledge injustice and shedding of innocent blood it is a shrewd sign that they are Seducers and have a design to impose upon us 7. Those that contradict the sense of the Church of God in all ages are to be suspected as Innovators and that their opinions are rather new then good It is true that the antiquity of an errour doth not excuse it for there have been errours in the Church ever since the time of the Apostles But yet the constant judgement of the Church of God in all Ages concerning any point in controversie or concerning the meaning of any controverted Scripture gives us good encouragement to believe it and to disbelieve them that oppose it because it is not probable that our gracious God would leave his Church in the dark through so many ages and never discover the Truth till now of late 8. Lastly we may know them from the direction that God himself gives us Deut. 18. ult VVhen a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be affraid of him Those that pretend to a gift of prophecy as many have done in our age though they should by often shooting at random hit the Mark sometimes yet if they miss in anything that they foretel as we have seen it in our frequent experience this is a sure sign that the Lord hath not sent them but they speak of their own heads and we have reason to fear that they have not onely belyed the Lord in saying Thus saith the Lord Jer. 23.31 when the Lord hath not spoken but also that they have had a further design even to entice us to the embracing of their errours by these pretences Upon whomsoever we see any of these Marks we have reason to suspect them to be of those that lye in wait to deceive and therefore should avoid them and take Solomons counsel Prov. 19.27 to Cease or forbear to hear the instruction that tends to cause us to err from the ways of Wisdom To conclude I shall give you a recapitulation of what hath been spoken a little varying from my former Method You have heard 1. That there are many Winds of false doctrine stirring to try who are stable 2. That Seducers use a great deal of subtilty and diligence lying in wait to deceive 3. That a great number are by them tossed to and fro and carried about 4. That even those that are of honest affections and good lives are in danger of being ensnared by them and therefore he that thinketh he standeth should take heed lest he fall 5. That especially those that are children and weak in knowledge are in great danger and consequently that we should labour to be men and not children in understanding 6. Lastly that God hath appointed the Office of the Ministry in the Church as a special preservation from errours Now the Lord Joh. 5.29 of his Mercy grant to all of us Grace and Wisdom to search the Scriptures 1 Joh. 4.1 and to try the spirits whether they be of God and to hold fast the Faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 now when so many have made shipwrack of both that so we may not be drawn away with the errour of the wicked to depart from our own stedfastness 2 Pet. 3.17 18. but may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Grant this O Lord we beseech thee through the Merits of thy dear Son and the working of thy Holy Spirit To which glorious Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory world without end Amen FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR HEAVENLY WISDOM described by its seven Properties An ASSIZE SERMON Preached in the CATHEDRAL at SARVM July 9th 1665. at the Wiltshire-Assizes Before the Right Honourable his Majesties Judges of Assize and Nisi Prius for the WESTERN Circuit In the Sheriffalty and at the request of THOMAS MOMPESSON Esquire By Paul Lathom M. A. Pro. 4.7 Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get Wisdom and with all thy getting get Vnderstanding Printed by T. M. 1666. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR Heavenly WISDOM described By its Seven PROPERTIES James 3.17 But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie WIsdom is the soul of Nature the eye of the Soul the light of the Eye the sun of that Light the copy of Heaven the standard of the Earth the helm of Reason the guardian of Life the glory of Men the mirror of Angels the shaddow or reflection of God himself who is as the Psalmist speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 covered with Light as with a Garment Psal 104.2 It is Wisdom that makes a man Denizon of the upper Regent of the lower World correspondent of both Without which we should be but clods of moving Earth steept to dirt in Phlegm and kneaded into humane shape This general term Wisdom divides it self ut analogum in sua analogata into worldly Policy moral Prudence and Christian Wisdom Worldly Policy trades in the World as its City from whence it seems to take its name Now all that is in the world is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 2.18 or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pleasures Profits or Honours That which designes riches as its end our Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earthly that which designes pleasures Jam. 3.15 he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sensual that which designes honour he stiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Devilish because it imitates that great sin of the Devil Pride And of all worldly wisdom in general St. Paul pronounceth that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolishness before God 1 Cor. 3.19 Moral Prudence whether we take it for a practical
fallen may be raised up and we our selves may be clear from the blood of them that wilfully and obstinately resolve to perish Acts 20.26 CHAP. IV. An Introduction to the Doctrine of Christ our Mediator shewing how far the Light of Nature will lead us toward Eternal Happiness and wherein it comes short The various acceptions of the Words Christ and Mediator in the Scriptures opened for preventing Erronious constructions of those places of Scriptures THe Apostle tells us Rom. 1.20 that The invisible things of God even his Eternal Power and Jodhead are clearly seen and to be understood by the things that are made The Philosophers and as many amongst the Heathens as did improve the Light of Nature and study the Book of the Creatures as they ought could not but apprehend that this stately Fabrick of Heaven and Earth could not be reared up without an Architect yea that Praesentem refert quaelibet herba Deum The smallest Creatures that are in the World may convince us that there was some first cause to Create or produce them upon the Earth And as every Workman is more noble then his Work so he that made all Things must be a more Noble and Excellent Being then any or all of those Creatures And this was sufficient to convince them that there is a Being Infinite in all Excellencies and Perfections in Wisdom Power Goodness c. who had a Being before any of the Creatures even from all Eternity and gave beginning and being to all things beside Himself and this is that Supream Being and first Cause which we call GOD. And he that duly considers himself and all Things else to be Creatures might easily from hence conclude that this Supream Being which gave beginning and being to all things ought by them all to be Loved and Served and Adored as he Acts 17.28 In whom they live and move and have their beeing And as Reason binds us to believe the Maker of Heaven and Earth infinitly to excel the most excellent of all the Creatures so it must be thought very unreasonable to entertain any dishonourable thoughts of God to subject our Maker to our own making or to carve out him from the stock of a Tree who formed Us and all other Creatures out of nothing To impute to him those Quarrels Rapes Adulteries Incests and other Enormities which the Heathens fathered upon their gods For if we esteem these the fruits of the most debauched Natures amongst men and every man accounts them faults wheresoever they are then sure to impute these Acts to that Supream Being that infinitly excels whatsoever is excellent in us and is free from whatsoever is evil or imperfect in us must needs be a great wrong to our Maker and to be esteemed no better then a project of the sensitive Appetite in man to excuse its own highest enormities by fancying the same to have been acted by him that made us and whom we ought as near as we can to resemble in our Affections and Practises Beside the like exercise of Reason would readily shew us that the first Cause and Mover of all things is but one and that to conceit more than one infinite Being or first Cause is equally absurd as to believe none at all And consequently they might easily have seen that their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a most absurd Chimera fancied by idle and extravagant brains Yea further Reason might be ready to prompt us that as we owe our beginning and being and whatsoever we do enjoy to this first Cause the Lord our Maker so we owe to him the best and fairest of those fruits that we can possibly bring forth as a testimony of our thank fulness to him for his favours vouchsafed unto us And as the infinit perfections that are in him may reasonably be supposed to oblige him to love what is like them and to abhor what is contrary so whosoever doth desire to please his Maker must endeavour to be like him in his Imitable Attributes of Holiness Justice Goodness and Mercy c. and that whosoever doth not endeavour to frame his Heart and Life to a conformity to the Nature and Will of God cannot please him nor be said to answer the ends of his Creation Nor yet can reasonably expect to partake of those rewards which Nature prompts us to hope for from the goodness of God in pleasing him nor to be free from those punishments which Nature tells us we are to expect to suffer from the Justice of God in displeasing and provoking him Thus far I say the Light of Nature and right Reason will easily carry any man who doth not violently disturb it in its proceedings And from hence the Apostle Ro 1.20 c. in the forecited place doth conclude that even the Gentiles though they had not enjoyed the written Law of God yet would be without excuse before Gods Tribunal for that they had not walked up to these Dictates of Reason but had entertained dishonourable apprehensions concerning him whom Reason did prompt them to believe to be their Maker Some of them denying the being of God others by multiplying it confounding their own conceptions touching a first cause Most of them by the impious practices which they imputed to their gods dishonouring that God in whose Throne they set these Idols And all of them by their own impious and wicked lives coming short of that obedience which the Law of Nature did oblige them to pay to him that made them As to this light that shines unto us from the Heavens and all the host thereof the earth and the Sea and all that therein is the Psalmist tells us Ps 19.3 4. That it is gone forth into the ends of the world and that there is no Speech nor Language where the voice of it is not heard But that this is not sufficient to lead a man to heaven without a further guide is evident both in that the Lord hath thought meet to set up a clearer Light before his own people in all ages the light of the Law and the Prophets to the Jews and the light of the Gospel to us Christians which though they differ in the way of administration the services of the Law pointing them to Christ that was to come the services of the Gospel pointing us to Christ as already come and also in the clearness of them the Law representing Christ in Types and shadows the Gospel taking off the vail from Moses face and letting us with open face 2 Cor. 3.18 as in a glass behold the glory of the Lord Yet I say That as the light of the Gospel is sufficient to us Christians so was the light of the Law and Prophets sufficient to the Jews to point them to Christ who was represented in all their typical oblations and expiations and who is the onely way to eternal Righteousness and Salvation Now forasmuch as the great God of heaven and earth who maketh nothing in
onely silly women but even men also who think themselves wiser then the rest of the world both from the obedience of the Faith from their allegiance to the King Tacitus Hist l. 1. Of whom we may say as Tacitus of the Mathematicians in Rome They are Genus hominum potentibus infidum sperantibus fallax quod in republicâ nostrâ vetabitur semper retinebitur A sort of men disloyal to their Prince Seducers to the people whom the laws do condemn but do not as yet prevail to restrain These are they who zealously affect men but not well Gal. 3.17 and who indeed do fill them with that which our Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 3.14 bitter Envy and Strife These are so far from deserving the Title of the Wisdom that is from above that they are rather to be reckoned among them 2 Pet. 2.10 whom the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 despisers of Government And another Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jud. v. 13. raging waves of the Sea Eph. 4.14 by whom ignorant and unstable souls are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tossed to and fro Whatsoever such men may pretend the word of God tells us that the Wisdom that is from above is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an obedient temper But leaving this let us advance towards the Fifth Pillar in this Edifice 5 Pillar and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of mercy and good fruits St. Gregory Nazianzene Greg. Naz. Orat. 19. exhorting to care for the poor perswadeth us to works of Charity in this manner If we believe St. Paul yea Christ himself Charity is to be esteemed the first and chief amongst those things that God commands and the substance of the Law and the Prophets And the branches of Charity are Taking care for the poor and mercy and compassion towards our kindred For God delights in no service so much as Mercy because nothing is so suitable to his Nature of whom it is said Mercy and Truth Psal 89 14. Jam. 2.13 go before his Face and Mercy rejoyceth over Judgment And indeed as every Tree is known by his fruits so hereby onely can a man be known to have a good root and principle within if he bring forth these good fruits in his life But as Ludovicus Vives tells us Lud. Viv. in Aug. Civ Dei that Epicurus held indeed that there were Gods but that they did not regard humane affairs which is all one as to hold no Gods at all so many men hold and profess a faith but such as is regardless of good works which as this Apostle tells us is but a dead faith St. Augustine sets forth many of the eminent acts of some of the Romans Jam. 2. ult Aug. Civ Dei l. 5. c. 18. and as he saith If such low motives as love to their Country and desire of fame in the World as the Poet expresseth it Vicit amor patriae Virgil. Aineid laudumque immensa cupido if these Motives did extimulate Brutus Torquatus Camillus Scaevola Curtius and those other famous Hero's to undertake such noble attempts then what shame is it for Christians Tit. 2.14 if the Love of Christ and hopes of heaven do not make them Zealous of good works Civ D. l. 21. c. 27. But yet as the said Father doth admonish us we must not think our good works to be meritorious or that some acts of Charity will make satisfaction for the leading of an evil life But we must endeavour to be constant and eeven in leading a good life Luk. 17.10 and when we have done all we can acknowledge our selves to be but unprofitable servants This is the property of the Wisdom that is from above But let us now pass on to the Sixth Pillar in this Structure 6 Pillar it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render without partiality and in this sense it may shew us what Wisdom doth in a special manner belong to Magistrates in the execution of Justice even not to respect persons in judgement Deut. 7.17 but to judge righteous judgement Not to reverence the person of the rich Exod. 23.2 3. nor yet to favour the person of the poor But to be like Aristides or Fabricius that it may be as impossible to move them from the wayes of Justice as to disturb the Sun in its course But my Lords I am confident you are so sensible of the obligations that lye upon you as to this both from Conscience and Honour also that I shall not need to speak any more of it nor should I have said so much if the Text had not drawn me to it But there are some that render this Dr. Ham. in locum without wavering or inconstancy in the Faith and so it will return to the same purpose with that of St. Paul Those that are come to be perfect men that are arrived at the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.14 that are filled with this Wisdom which is from above are secured that they be no more like Children and Novices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tossed like Ships at Sea and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carried about like chaff with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive And to this agrees that of our Saviour Those that are built upon a solid Foundation Mat. 7. ul will stand fast against the assaults of wind and waves and those that fall do shew that they were never built upon any good Foundation of Divine and Heavenly Wisdom The Wisdom that is from above is fixed But Beza renders it sine dissidio and Tremellius out of the Syriack sine disceptatione without wrangling or disputing The Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 6.4 5. that he is a man of a corrupt minde and destitute of the Truth who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not come and resign up his judgement to a form of wholesome words but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth dote or is sick about questions and strifes of words the ordinary and natural Fruits whereof are envy strife railings evil surmisings and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perverse disputings or gallings of one another not so much with a design to finde out the Truth as to cross and vex the adversary vers 11. But saith he Thou O man of God flee these things and follow after Righteousness Godliness Faith Love Patience Meekness We read of Anaxagoras Ludov. Vives that because a stone fell out of the Air into the River Aegos in Thrace he did therefore peremptorily hold an opinion that the Heavens were made of stones and that the Sun was a fiery stone Whereupon Euripides his Scholar calleth it a Golden-Turfe And we are still brain-sick in studying the secrets of Nature One will take upon him to command the Sun to stand still and the dull Earth