Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A43645
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The righteous judge a sermon preached at Hertford-Assize, March 10, 1682 / by Edward Hickes, D.D.
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Hickes, Edward.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing H1836; ESTC R38791
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10,691
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29
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THE Righteous Judge A SERMON PREACHED At Hertford-Assize March 10. 1682. By Edward Hickes D.D. PSAL. 145.17 The Lord is Righteous in all his Wayes and Holy in all his Works LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXII To the Right Worshipful Sir NICHOLAS MILLER Knight High Sheriff of the County of Hertford Justice of the Peace and one of his Majesty's Deputy Lieutenants for the said County Honoured SIR I Never pretended to be good at any thing of this I am sure I am now bad at Limning my old Pencil and decay'd Colours will not do and besides I have no daring hand so that should I offer at a Picture I should wrong the Person Really Sir It is the sense of my own Weakness that frights me from attempting to celebrate your Worth and the Truth is it is in vain to light a Candle before the Sun it is lost Labour to praise him whom all admire it is ill spent pains to gild a Diamond or paint a Ruby red This I can truly say That since I had the Happiness to know you I have had an Ambition to serve you and 't was that which made me not dispute but readily obey your Commands when I understood you designed me for the Pulpit the last Assize What I then preached I am by unanswerable Importunity even forced much against my own Genius to print Censures I expect to meet with why should I think to fare better than my Betters but I shall not much regard them for my Comfort is that no one can have meaner Thoughts of me than I have of my self and being already on the Ground I can fall no lower than the Grave which by reason of my many Indispositions I daily expect That your worthy self your truly vertuous Lady and the two young Gentlemen your hopeful Sons may have all the Happiness that Heaven can give both here and hereafter is the hearty Prayer of Buckland March 29. 1682. Honoured Sir Your most obliged Servant E. Hickes THE Righteous Judge GEN. 18. v. 25. pars ult Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right IN this Chapter the Sacred History sets before us an amicable Congress and Conference between the Lord and Abraham the great God dissimulata majestate veiling his Majesty under a humane Shape with two attendant Angels in the like form gives him a friendly visit re-assures to him that high Mercy before-mentioned a Son a Son by Sarah a Son of Promise and of Blessing in whose Off-spring all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed And withall being upon an Expedition of Judgment the overthrow of Sodom he acquaints him with his Purpose and Process therein In this Discovery the Lord 1. Consults for his own Glory he reveals his Design to his Servant who would diligently and duely observe and improve it would be a faithful Register and Relator of it The Lord doth his wonderful Works that they may be remembred Psal 3.4 The World is much mistaking or oblivious of God's Judgments those dreadful of late among us yea still incumbent are but Wonders for a few days We are apt to forget the Smart so soon as the Rod is from our Backs 2. God hath here a Tryal and Task for Abraham's Graces his Charity his Compassion his Faith O quanta justi fiducia imo O quanta animi compassio 1. His deep Compassion stirs up in him the Spirit of Supplication when he hears of destroying he falls a deprecating Though Sodom were exceeding wicked yet he cannot behold the Ruine of it without Remorse When God casts abroad the Thunder of his Vengeance how can we but tremble at it though it touch not us It is a sign of a savage Spirit to look upon Executions with Delight though of Malefactors or Enemies And if it be an Office beseeming a Saint and grateful to God to intercede for a Sodom who would not lay out all his Intersses in Heaven and draw out his Soul to the utmost for a Sion Abraham's principal drift and care was for the righteous supposed to be in Sodom for them he buckles and bestirs himself that they might not be involved in that direful Calamity and for their sakes he begs if not a total Exemption yet a protraction or mitigation of the Judgment to the whole 2. Consider how nobly his Faith works and acts it self in his wrestling with God He closes with him and comes in upon him with reiterated Instances humble Importunity that will brook no denial When he hath got something of God he doth as I may so say incroach upon his Concessions and must have more He brings down God from fifty to ten and that gradatim in six several steps of descent 'T is impossible for us to outbid Gods Bounty by our cravings when they are right and ordinate his Condescensions will be as large as our Ascensions when they are most elevated the more we ask the more he grants still yea he doth and giveth exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think Why Abraham went not beneath the number of Ten cannot be determined Conjectures of Jewish Authors are light because say they there were Eight in the Ark which saved not the old World from drowning and with them Ten is the least number to make up a Congregation under which there could be no Church-Assembly amongst them 'T is certain though God doth not stint himself to a proportion for such a number of just ones to spare such a multitude of wicked ones yet as we may conclude from Abraham's Petitions and Gods Concessions for the righteous sake though but a few temporal Indulgence is afforded to the vast heaps of the wicked This is well observed by S. Ambrose Vides quantus murus sit patriae vir justus c. You see what a Wall a righteous a good man is to his Country c. But to proceed the main Medium or Argument of persuasion used and urged by Abraham to prevail with God to spare those Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is drawn ab aequo from just and right God delights to be minded of his Attributes his Glory to be put in mind of his Mercy his Faithfulness his Justice as here The force of the Argument is knit up close together in the few words of my Text. From the Hypothesis the particular instance or case of Justice Not to slay the righteous with the wicked to make the righteous as the wicked the Holy Man ascends to the Thesis the general Assertion of Gods Justice Thou art Judge of all thou must do justly Shall not the Judge of all the earth do rigbt In the words you may be pleased to abserve I. The Matter II. The Manner of their Expression First In the Matter or Substance are observable 1. A Title of Office given to God Judge 2. The Extent of his Jurisdiction All the earth 3. The Justice of his Administration Do right 1. Here 's a Judge and among men