may be in which the consent and submission of the major part of men or long custom and settled constitutions in any Polity have the force of a law and are a rule of Politick Justice provided they bind to nothing immoral or irreligious Secondly Justice is considerable in the grand cistern and conservatory as the brazen Sea in the Sanctuary which served the Temple with water which is the Soveraign and Legislative power in every Society and Polity as it is circumscribed and contained in its proper bounds and peculiar limits this is the center of Order Vnity Justice and Peace politick this dividing and dashing against it self by Caesar and Pompey by Senate and People by King and Parliament by Emperors and Electors all Justice Order and Peace are destroyed the leak in this sinks all there must be a fixed Soveraignty under God to whose Justice and Power paramount all must submit according to law contestations in this run all things to confusions as our sad experience hath taught us Here either Prince or State or Peers or People may severally have the Soveraignty of Justice under several polities or forms of government or there may be such a temperament both as to legislation jurisdiction and execution of Laws by legal power as may best relieve people in their grievances by Parliamentary representatives and best judge of differences by sworn Judges and best execute all legal sentences and decrees by an eminent power in a Soveraign Prince King or Emperor which is best for all estates and such is that admirable constitution of Soveraign Majesty in England from which all Laws are enacted by which they are declared and with which they are justly and effectually executed inclusive of and adapted to all just interests of King Lords and Commons 3. Justice is considerable in the pipes and conduits of aâ—l subordinate Magistrates through which as blood in the veins it flows from the chief Justiciaries to the very petty Constables for the relief of all sorts of people which are as parts and members noble or less honorable of that Body Politick according as the Law doth adjudge to every one their due the measure of all is either recta ratio right Reason or sacra Scriptura the holy Scripture or lex terrae the law of the Land to which all are subjected by their consent He is just who looks to these who willingly submits to them and exactly observes them 1. There is a Justice due to God above all on which his commands in the first table are founded To own him love fear reverence adore admire obey trust in depend on joy in and enjoy him as the supreme good If I be a Father or Master where is my fear 2. There is a Justice due to our selves in chastity sanctity and sobriety to keep up the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Imperial power of Reason and Religion above that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Democracy and Anarchy of lusts and passions which fight and rebell against God and the soul here every vertue is a branch or fruit of Justice as every vice is an act or habit of Injustice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Clem. Alex. out of the Platonists observes every sinful and inordinate passion or action either comes short or shoots beyond or wide of Justice which consists in the medium as in a line or point indivisible 3. There is also a Justice to others void of all fraud or force of which as the Word of God in general and the Laws of every Polity in special so the dictates of every mans own reason his duly reformed and well composed conscience are domestick Dictators {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Synesius observes God has made every mans rational Will the Monitor of justice hence men are a law in many things to themselves and their own thoughts do accuse or excuse their actions hence unjust men who act by fraud or force though never so successful yet are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} self-condemned and without any Apologie Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur And Exemplo quodcunque malo committitur ipsi Displicet autori every unjust doer as he is his own greatest tempter and Traytor so he will be his own summoner accuser witness tormenter and Executioner sibi poena omnis inordinatus animus as St. Austin So Josephs brethren accuse themselves first as guilty of their brothers blood they must needs be sooner or later Magor-missabib terrors to themselves who are by their unjust dealings injurious to others and a terror to the land of the living by their oppressions But I have done with the Theory of Justice in its Source Derivations and Practiques I come now to the second main Postulate or demand of God mercy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} misericordia or benignitas as it is variously rendred This is divinissimum in divinitate humanissimum in humanitate opus Mercy is the most orient gem in the Crown of Gods attributes and the greatest ornament as well as relief of humane nature It is the glory of God to pass by offences to pardon sins to temper the rigor of his Justice to supply defects to help infirmities and to save those sinners in his exceeding great mercy whom he might have condemned in the extremitie of his Justice By mercy God is sui victor seipso major as it were greater than himself and a conqueror of himself A denyer of himself and a sider with our interests All our hopes and happiness are founded upon and bound up in the mercy of God which is above all his works and ours In this fatherly benignity all our blessings are contained nor are we capable as St. Bernard speaks of any other merit than that is made up of Gods mercy which is perventive and plenary beyond desert and desire so ample that none is denyed it upon the tearmes offered Nor can it be ever exhausted for it indures for ever yea and it is peculiar to mankind above the Angels From this great pattern of Gods mercy to such worthless wretches as we are springs this demand and demonstration by which God requires us to be merciful as he our heavenly father is merciful to imitate God in this which is not more necessary so others than our selves since no man can shew so much mercy to others as he either wants or hath received himself Mercy in God is a perfection of goodness by which he moderates the severity of his Justice toward sinful mankind yet without any diminution or blemish of his Justice since it is by the suffering of Messias so satisfied that while mercy rejoyceth Justice hath no cause to complain Mercy in man is an affection by which he lays to heart the misery of another and is disposed
prescribe to such new Saints angustam minus justitiam too narrow a loom for their wild justice these talk high of successes which are their racks when they look not to their consciences which are as empty mangers they talk of Religion and neglect civil Justice they are large-hearted to God and strict-handed towards men he shall have enough of praying preaching and fasting provided they may proudly usurp and cruelly oppress their Brethren and betters Yet will they pretend What will God have more why doth he yet complain when they have both wearied themselves and him too with the heapes of their formal services and vain oblations God here as elsewhere sharply retorts upon them ye need not go far O you hard-hearted and cruel-handed Hypocrites to learn that God will have mercy and not sacrifice that obedience moral is better than burnt offerings ceremonial that comparatively God hath not required these things at your hands not solely not chiefly that he is sick and surfeited and overladen with these sordid and sinful oblations nothing is cordial to him but humble hearts charitable hands and just actions He requireth not so much the outward cost pomp and ceremony of Religion as that equal piety and pious equity which is just to God and man Thus in vain do some Papists highly urge and prodigally insist of the excessive cost they bestow on their Religion when they applaud yea almost adore the Papal pride and usurpation persisting in that the Sacriledge and injury they do to God and man by denying the plenary doctrines and donations of Christ in the Sacraments to all communicants and in their communicating something of worship and merit to the creature beyond what the divine glory and jealousie set forth in the word of God doth permit Not that God loves a lazy or a penurious a hide-bound and illiberal Religion which seeks to serve God of that which costs us nothing much-less doth he approve those sacrilegious robberies which are pretended for his glory and the advantages of his service No he is neither a covetous nor a cruel God he gives all things and is content every one in Church and State should enjoy their own what ever by right that is by Law belongs to them From the occasion of this hypocritical insolency the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or inquisitiveness which they fallaciously use as if solicitous to content him the Lord himself by the Prophet inculcates not the Deuteronomy but the Hecatontonomy that law of justice mercy and humility which he had an hundred times repeated by Moses and the Prophets to the Jews as the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} principal pleasure of the Lord beyond all Holocausts and Hecatombs all rivers of oyl and sacrifices of the first born God who is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Dionysius calls him all essence wholly substance or self-subsistence without any shadow or accident cannot delight so much in any such shadows and leaves of ceremonious service with which the most barren Formalists may abound as in those real fruits and solid effects of Equity Charity and Sanctity with which as none but the truly godly do abound so whoever brings these to God from a pure and devoted humble heart is more welcome with two mites or a little meal then others are with all their luxurious costliness of all which the very Heathens had pregnant conceptions to offer to the gods Jus fasque animi sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto Haec cedo ut admoveam Templis farre litabo 2. We are to consider the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} credit and authority of this Demonstrator which makes his words both for the truth and goodness of them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} most worthy to be believed received and obeyed since he is the most wise God in and from whom are all treasures of wisdom intellectual moral and political He is the great eternal and inexhausted fountain of all power and order natural civil and spiritual the Father of lights the infallible Teacher the Soveraign Dictator {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the great Law-giver whose will is the highest Reason and his Word the most unalterable truth we have these lively Oracles of Justice Mercy and Humility not from Jupiter as Minos pretended or from Egeria as Numa or Minerva as Solon or Apollo as Lycurgus or from fictitious artifices as Mahomet or from fantastick Enthusiasms as Fanaticks but from that King immortal the only wise God who hath the authority of both Lord and Father the sufficiency of infinity and the exemplary Ideas in him of all perfections that being in him to the highest glory of goodness which he sheweth to us and requireth of us in his Law This is he that teacheth man wisdom 2. He is not more {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} than {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} able by his wisdom than willing by his indulgence and love to instruct mankind in the way that is best for him and in those Laws which are most just and equal most easie and useful most comely and honorable for all conditions single and social publique and private Soveraign and Subject for Magistrate and Minister for Church and State This is he who teacheth man by way of eminency that one great and fundamental lesson That the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding He gave to the Jews the knowledge of his laws not only ceremonial but political and moral those are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or magna moralia in comparison of which the ceremonies were but transient shadows and beggaâ—ly elements as the Apostle speaks Statutes that were not good that is not absolutely and in themselves or materially but relatively as referring to the Imposers authority and those better things of which they were emblems or types they were as heavy burthens so but temporary dispensations during the poedagogy or minority of Religion till the better ages or worlds should come in which Evangelical Justice Mercy and Humility should most fully be not onely demonstrated from the moral law but also from the glorious example of the justice of God satisfied and his mercy procured by the humiliation of Messias the condescention and crucifixion of the Son of God 3. The Lord hath shewed thee these {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} most infallible and immutable rules of Justice Mercy and Humility who is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the justest exacter and the exactest observer of our obedience and conformity to these laws in other matters of ceremony and service he is not so severe and rigid but gratiously dispenseth upon many occasions as of necessity and infirmity of prepotent custom disuse and prejudice but in the grand points of Iustice Mercy and Humility there is no dispensation or remission
great example no less than Justice and Mercy have by this we draw nearest to God and are fittest to accord with him by this we are partakers of the divine nature of Christs Spirit graces and rewards Pride which is its own Idol and Idolater its own Carver and Comforter hath its reward onely from it self or the vain world for God resisteth the proud and they must be sure to be destroyed who dash against God Hell is the pit and prison of proud Angels and men the first {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they kept not their station or rank but lifted up themselves to be like to the most high beyond what was due to them The second because as Pharoah and Nebuchadnezzar they rob God of his glory both as to the justice which forbears to destroy them as they deserved and as to that Mercy which was conferred upon them beyond any merit in them Secondly As I have thus briefly considered these Three Subjects Justice Mercy and Humility in themselves so I am with like brevity to consider the predicates or actions applied to each of them 1. To do justice First Materially as to the merit of the cause and person Secondly Regularly as to the Law prescribed by God or man not by private opinion presumption or passion Thirdly Authoritatively by due order and commission derived to thee from the lawful supreme power for however all men must have the inward principles and desires for justice yet the doing or executing of it is not given to all but only those to whom the sword of justice is committed by the Law of God and man Christs question must be asked before a man does justice Who hath made me a judge or Ruler A man may be very unjust in punishing the greatest and most notorious offenders without due authority derived to him Fourthly Do justice formalizer as to the inward form principle or conscience for justice sake not for ambition as Absolom or reward or revenge or glory c. A Judge may give a just sentence before man and yet be an unjust Judge before God when he doth what is just materially but not mentally as to his end and design in doing Justice men must be sincere hoc agere make it their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} business for Gods sake or from a good conscience for judgement is the Lords as Moses tells the Elders 5. Do Justice practice effectually not only think and meditate consult vote decree enact and declare or talk and plead and dispute and cavil or contend but bring forth the fruits of righteousness that all may see them and enjoy the benefit of them just Laws made and never executed are as good seed sown upon barren ground which never comes up beyond straw and wilde oats 6. Do Justice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Impartially {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in all things to all persons poor and rich not oppressing the rich because his fleece is large nor the poor because his strength is small and friends few Aequum dicitur quia aequat leges omnibus as Varro observes Justice must be streight or right without warping as equal and indifferent to all blind as to the persons though Eagle-eyed as to the cause and rule 7. Do it speedily especially in such cases when the effects of justice are not penal but beneficial Delays of Justice are so far denials and so long unjust when it is in the power of a Judge or Prince or Magistrate to do it no usury is so unjust as that which makes advantages by dilatory justice In penal effects of Justice there dilatory executions may be more venial and tolerable because they are mixtures of mercy and reprieves in order to repentance for which God gives us the great pattern in his giving us space to repent and being so slow to excute vengeance on us though daily provoked by us 8. Do it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in rigor but in measure judgement and proportion as they said of old {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God is an axact Geometritian duly measuring and weighing or pondering the actions of all men and proportioning his judgements to them so ought men to demean themselves in doing justice calmely as in the cool of the day without passion or transport Perit judicium quum res transit inaffectum the eyes of judgement are blinded when the mists of any passions arise either prejudicating the person for the cause or the cause for the person 9. Do justice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with humanity pitty and compassion to the person in the greatest severities against and justest detestations of their sins Justice among men much more among Christians must have not only vulnera but also viscera bowels as well as blows Ingenuous Justice dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox is afflicted when compelled to inflict punishment and feels the strokes it gives condemning the Judge to commiseration when he condemns others to misery this tenderness or temperament it learns from God who deplores when he executeth or denounceth his judgements his bowels are turned within him when he is forced to give over his people to the destroyers hence are his many forewarnings importunings and beseechings of men to flye from the wrath to come as why will ye die c. and How shall I give you over to be as Admah and Zeboim how shall I make thee as Sodom and Gomorah Secondly To love Mercy here first the order is observable That Justice must first be done before Mercy else it is as very preposterous to exclude Justice to make way for Mercy as it is presumptuous to do unjustly under pretence of shewing Mercy Like the design of some mens cruel charity to get an estate by all imjurious ways in order to do works of charity or to build an Alms-house like the giving alms or legacies before we pay our debts Such Sacrifices are abominable to God we must not rob the Exchequer of Justice to put into the Corban or poor mans box of the sanctuary 2. We may observe the emphasis of the word put to Mercy beyond that is to Justice this must be done as a work and task which is enjoyned us but the other Mercy must be loved and delighted in Justice is opus necessarium alienum a necessary but strange and unwelcome work compared to Mercy in this also we have the precedent of the divine goodness whose {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pleasure and delight is in shewing mercy where there is any capacity but his executions of Justice are as it were a pressure and distress upon him not that he is not infinitely just to all the extents of Justice but he is superinfinitely merciful so as to set even
we are humiliati most humbled and debased by Gods providence it is very insutable then to boyl and swell with thoughts of repining and murmuring against God as if he injured us or treated us unworthy of us No here to be humble is to be silent and submisse to pray to prostrate at Gods feet to accept of the punishment and own it as from a Father who chastiseth us that we may not be condemned with the world humility disarms God and is a salve shield and cordial in the worst estate which is then best for us when we grow more humble as pride is a moth or curse that blasts all even the best we are injoy or do Alienating God from us and driving away his good Spirit when it finds us our own Gods and worshippers It is but just to leave us to the heaven of our own fancies and to be satisfied with our own delusions Third General Cui to whom God shews and of whom he requires these great lessons and duties Thee O man 1. To all mankind in general as creatures capable to know good and evil just and unjust and accordingly to chuse and do as they are directed from the inward dictates of right reason and those self-convincing principles which are within their own consciences 2. To thee O man more especially who enjoyest the light of Gods Word in the pale and bosom of the Church where the righteous precepts and merciful commands of God are more evidently set forth by laws repeated by examples multiplied by judgements and rewards proportioned to mens works none here can plead ignorance of duty both to God and man 3. Thee O man in thy particular station as occasion and power are put into thy hand whether Jew or Gentile great or small rich or poor Prince or Peasant Lords or Commons Priest or people no man is unconcerned in these Demonstrations to every one God says as Nathan did to David Thou art the man God requires Justice Mercy and Humility of thee O King who sittest on the throne of Majesty who art in Gods stead as his Vicegerent a kind of mortal Deity honored with the name and vested with the power of God and much more with the imitations of the divine excellencies of Justice and Mercy toward man as of Humility toward God Shalt thou reign because thou closest thy self in cedar and art compassed about with strong guards Did not thy Father do justice and mercy and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy was not this to know me saith the Lord Thou even thou O King art to fear him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords higher than the highest the terror of Tytants who pulleth Princes from their seat and poureth contempt upon all their glory thy surest policy is true piety and the best reason of State is this pure Religion and undefiled even to do Justice to love Mercy and walk humbly with that God by whom Kings raign Whose thrones are not to be established without Justice Mercy and Humility Nor can they be injured so much by any as by themselves their Pride before God like Nebuchadnezzars and Belshazzars will abase them and their oppression of their people will most oppress themselves at last Secondly Of Thee O wise man and mighty Counsellor who art esteemed by others and thy self as a great State Intelligence digging deep for counsels and wrapping up thy self in the darkness of thy cloudy projects and designs thou who gloriest in thy Oracular Policies as Achitophel and disdainest to be nonplust in thy wisdom or defeated in thy designs Of thee the Lord requires to give no counsel but such as is just nor to decree other than righteous decrees To agitate nothing in Councils of State and Parliaments by partiality faction and oppression to sinister ends and unjust interests either of Prince of people because the Lord sitteth among Senators and will cause a just decree without mercy to be executed upon those who either execute or decree unrighteous and cruel things Thirdly Of Thee O subordinate Iudge and Magistrate O great Lawyer and eloquent Pleader the Lord repuires not to turn Justice into gall and Judgement to wormwood not to judge for reward or pervert the cause of any either for fear or favour or for respect of persons not to make pleadings of Law to be as gins and snares to innocent simplicity by a fallacious sophistry and dilatory felony which robs the Clients purse as the bushes and brambles do the sheep of his fleece when he seeks and hopes for shelter from them No temporal advantage can counterpoise the detriment and danger which unjust and merciless actions bring upon those who willingly offend against the laws of the just and merciful God and thereby incur eternal damnation deserving to be beaten with many stripes because they know the will of God and do it not St. Bernards Motto to all judges is omnia judicata rejudicabuntur what comes short in mans measure or weight of Justice shall be made up by Gods eternal recompences 4. Of thee O Soldier O valiant and mighty man who hast power in thy hand to save or destroy to kill poor men and lay wast fenced Cities of thee God requires justice and mercy which must be the measures of War as well as of Peace there are jura belli laws of righteousness and moderation which God exacts in wars even defensive which seem the onely wars that can be just For sure to make war without some precedent or threatned injury must needs be very injurious Not might but right must be looked at where the lives of men are concerned justice is not to be measured by the length of thy sword or the strength of thy Arme or the number of thy Soldiers but by the Laws of God of Nations and of every polity The Justest war must not by passionate transports be carryed on to unjust exorbitant and cruel oppressions either to harmless and unarmed people or to immoderate demands in point of reveng and compensation much less to build ambitious Babels and covetous confiscations upon others ruines The Soldiers had their lesson of John Baptist what to do when they had so much grace as to ask the question they are not commanded to lay down their Armes but to do violence to no man c. 5. Of thee O man God requires Justice mercy and humility whose prosperity either in violent or injurious ways have made thee rich and great or who increasest thy estate by that which is not thine in equity and conscience who makest no scruple of Extortion rapine racking rents sacriledge oppression and rigorous extortions who hast built thy nest on high and feathered it with the spoils either of thy Neighbours and Tennants or of Church and State of the Crown and Crosier where cheap purchases witness to your faces and upbraid both byars and sellers of the injustice of
the bargain thou even thou must so repent by making restitution of unjust acquisitions as may make thee capable of Gods pardon who will not be mocked by lame and crackt titles nor may be robbed without making the curse threatned to light on such injurious presumptuous sinners who neither fear God nor reverence man though great and rich and many though Courts and Councils and Armies and whole Nations conspire to do injustly yet will God be a swift witness against them and bring his Justice upon them 6. Of thee O godly gull and holy-cheat who pleadest an hypocritical nonplus and a state necessity of doing somthings both injust and cruel in order to do good to advance Justice to glorifie God to reform Church and State as if the reasons and interests of both Religion and Justice did sometimes want unjust proceedings as pills to keep them in health which Aristides pleaded by way of Irony to those who impatient of exact Justice forced him somtimes to deviate from it by their popular peevishness he told them he did it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in order to the publick good God will discover these impudent fallacies and so punish the presumption of doing evil that good may come thereby that all men shall shall hear and fear and confess there is a God that judgeth the earth when they shall see vengeance to overtake these men and the iniquity of their heels to compass them about Better to follow Gods counsel by doing Justice though we perish with Lazarus on a dung-hill and suffer the last strokes of humane Justice in this world than to fall under Gods eternal and inexerable Justice which will strip thee of all the goods thou gettest and bring upon thee infinitely more evil than that which by unjust and wicked means thou soughtest to escape there is no necessity scelera sceleribus tueri to make evil deeds good by doing worser it is the Devils hardning Maxim to damn souls by desperation as if a theif should plead it necessary to kill that man whom he hath robbed lest he be pursued and taken by him 7. Of thee O Minister of the Church and Pastor of souls God requires first to do justice to thy brother of the same tribe and calling by not intruding thy self into his work against right and reason and law that thou mayst have a plea or pretence to the profits of his living and so thou mayst feed thy self by feeding anothers flock against his will when Justice requires us not onely to eat our own bread but to do our own business and not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to Vsurp on anothers either emolument or employment which they are able and willing to performe Of thee O Church-man great small God requires this Justice to God to Christ to the Church to peoples souls to the holy word and worship of God to the truth of Doctrine to the solemnity of his service to the necessity of mens souls by feeding them with wholesome food by giving them their portion in due season by not denying the children their bread for fear of dogs eating it by administring the blessed Sacraments duly and reverently according as the Church in which thou servest hath appointed thee not setting up and urging thy own fancies and whimseys thy novel inventions and schismatical partialities thy humane traditions and unauthentick because uncatholick observations instead of Christs institutions not so shy and startling at the shadow of some decent and innocent rites or circumstances and ceremonies in religion as to fly from the unity order harmony and authority of the whole Church by a supercilious unjust and merciless severity which savors too much of pride and self conceit hereby shaking and overthrowing the faith of many poor souls who are ignorant weak and instable by the perturbatious thy pragmatique and popular activity gives them 8. Lastly of thee O whole Palestina O Church and State O my native County and Nation both in thy latitude and diffusion and in thy Parliamentary Epitome or representation of thee the Lord requires not only to do justice but to shew mercy there where is the cryingest injustice and cruelty in the world There is a voyce from abroad and at home which crys Oro miserere laborum Tantorum miserere animi non digna ferentis O do not approve confirm or adopt that pride injustice and cruelty of some sons of Belial who lifted up themselves above all that is called God all Laws of God and man all duty to their betters and Superiors If what hath been done in this sorely afflicted and abused nation with expence of so much blood and treasures with so much terror and extravagancy be well and worthily done it will be an act of your Justice to assert it and of your Mercy to absolve other of us poor scrupulous souls of those scruples of conscience which we have of those fears and jealousies lest the Nation lying under so great sins may be exposed to Gods sorest judgements even to an utter vastation But if it appear to your wisdom piety Justice and Mercy to have been a violent and unparalleld method of presumptuous wickedness of unjust cruelty and most cruel injustice in which was neither matter nor form essential of Justice under the formality of high justice if men have killed and cosened and taken possession even the spoil and price of blood I doubt not but you will so far remember Gods Demonstrations and demands as to do Justice to God to your Country to your Laws to your Superior to Soveraign power to the whole Nation and to all mankind as to testifie a just abhorrence and perfect detestation of those things to which as you would not have been Fathers so I believe you will not be Godfathers It is an usual saying among Statists to excuse their excentricities and deviations from the exact rules of justice Nullum magnum exemplum justitiae sive aliqua injustitia I am sure we have known magnum exemplum injustitiae sine aliqua justitia a transcendent injustice which had not any grains of justice in it in the vindication of which I do not so urge the rigor of justice as not to require also such temperament of mercy as may distinguish between the flower and the bran the vile and precious the pertinacious and penitent such as sinned with malitious wickedness with an high hand and those that were only carried down the rapid torrent and strong delusions of times There is yet one instance of doing justice and shewing Mercy to the whole Nation which I cannot but recommend to my Country and to you the Fathers of our families and heads of our Tribes which is in reference to the souls of many poor people that in a land of plenty they may not be famished for want of able and industrious Preachers which cannot be had or expected whatever verbal severities are pretended of Reformation of Religion and propagation