which adds an infinite value and merit to our blessed Saviours Actings and Sufferings is this that they were the Actings and Sufferings not of a meer Man but of a God thô not of the Godhead If he had been a bare Man the obligation had been much inferiour to what it is but the same Person was God as well as Man which makes all Transcendently more precious than otherwise it had been God the Father did for our sins deliver his only begotten to death and that only Son voluntarily gave himself for us O the exceeding riches of God's Grace in his kindness towards us The whole World can afford nothing to parallel with this indeed the examples of Abraham and Isaac were Types of but nothing to it for what a comparison can there be between Eternal Almighty and infinite God with a poor worm of the Earth but dust and ashes as he said of himself And what was Isaac Abrahams Son to the Lord Jesus God's Son For he is simply properly and absolutely such which fundamental Truth to be confirmed in I desire the Reader to take the following Scripture Evidences wherein he is so called for I will omit no occasion to assert it The first sort are immediately from Heaven upon this account the Angel Gabriel before our Saviout was conceived said of him to the Virgin he shall be called the Son of the Highest (a) Luke 1.32 v. 35. and the Son of God But at his Baptism in an Authentick way God the Father declared him such from Heaven when this voice came thence (b) Chap. 3.22 Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased It is spoken in the Second Person which applies what we read of Matt. 3.17 where 't is in the Third This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Confirmed in the Transfiguration Chap. 17.5 Another kind of Evidences thô from Heaven were upon Earth John Baptist said of the Jesus (a) John 1.34 Chap. 5.33.34 c. and I saw and bare Record that this is the Son of God this Testimony our Lord thô he receives not testimony from man as he said yet to condescend to the Jews unbelief he appealed to but chiefly to his Father 's Nathaniess words are another Evidence (b) Chap. 1.49 Rabbi thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel Observe how the Title King of Israel absolutely taken is the same as God of Israel To this add Peter's Confession in his Name and of the other Apostles (c) Chap. 6 69. We believe and observe are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God Our blessed Saviour whose right and prerogative is to bear Record of himself as he told the Jews for (d) Chap. 8.14 he knew whence he came and whither he went in several places as John 8.42 and 10. I said I am the Son of God Martha said (e) Chap. 11.27 I believe that thou art the Christ the Son of God The end of St John's writing his Gospel is (f) Chap. 20.31 (f) Acts 8.37 that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God Upon this Faith the Eunuch was Baptized by Philip. (g) Chap. 9.26 I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God And by this fundamental Truth Paul after his Conversion began to Preach the Gospel (h) Luke 4.41 that he Christ is the Son of God other places I omit these being sufficient to confirm this fundamental and essential Truth of the Gospel that Jesus is the Son of God in a true and proper Sense We might bring in a third sort of Evidence for not only Heaven and Earth but Hell also hath owned that Truth for (h) Luke 4.41 the Devils themselves cry'd out and said thou art Christ the Son of God The very Heathens said no less for the Centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus at his death said (i) Matt. 27.54 truly this was the Son of God A Truth which no Christian no Child of God will deny after so many clear Proofs This short digression I have been put upon after the perusal of a most damnable Socinian Pamphlet of two whole Sheets which is fallen into my hands since this was under the Press it hath two Titles the first A Dialogue by way of Questions and Answers concerning the Deity The last A brief but clear Confutation of the Doctrine of the Trinity stuffed with the quintessence of diabolical and most abominable Impieties and Blasphemies usual with that sort of Men with Texts of Scripture wrested and misapplied with several impertinent Objections which again and again have been (a) See Gailhard against the blasphemous Socinian Heresy answered and exploded That wicked Spirit is restless neither Authority of Scripture true Reason nor Acts of Parliament are able to quiet them but they will vent their venom spiritual ignorance and the gall of bitterness which is in them against the most Holy Trinity and the Persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Foolish and crackt Men may be pitied but when the humour turns into Rage and Fury then mad Men should be Chained up to prevent their doing others mischief How often in this last part doth that hellish Instrument prophane and take God's Name in vain with saying good God when he spits in his Face and curses him in his heart But how much reason have we to cry out good God that such horrid Blasphemies which make Christians hair stand on end should come abroad and the Author go unpunished Poor England within thy Bowels thou hast the two most cursed things that are or can be and the most abominable to God Blasphemy and Idolatry wrapt up in Socinianism and Popery The one denies the Lord that bought them to be God as he is the other every day Crucifies him and with attributing to the Creature that which belongs only to the Creator namely Divine worship and to forgive Sins hath matched and concentered Blasphemy with Idolatry that Society under the notion of probability doth admit of any thô never so abominable Doctrine and under pretence of directing the Intention receives all execrable practices yet this is known seen and suffered but thô Men do God will not But as punishment is tied to the tail of Sin God in his due time will make us smart for it Are we thus rescued from Popery when by a detestable tolleration or winking at against the Laws of God of the Land and the Rules of true Policy we are more than overgrown with it I wish God doth not lay it to the charge of the Government is it possible for Protestants to forget the cruel Canons of the Councils of Lateran and of Constance and the Congregation in Rome for the Propagation of their Faith and the Extirpation of Hereticks or can England forget bloody Mary's Reign the barbarous Irish Masfacre which is still a bleeding and what of late James would have been at
hinting that there is no God Giddily Impiously Prophanely and Blasphemously striking if not at the Being yet at his Attributes Works Word and Providence express it in their Discourses and Coversation and some in their Writings whereby they seduce and corrupt the Judgment of some influence the Weak and give a great Scandal to those who fear God and have an awful reverence for his Holy Name when they happen to hear them in their Atheistical fits This is a presumptuous and defying Sin which among us too many are guilty of such teach the way to Hell and were taught in the School of Vanninus and of such abominable Wretches for he who owns not the true God and hath not the right Notion of and due Reverence for him is as if he believed no God This is so odious and shameful that Men take it as a great Injury to be call'd Atheists and thô the thing be really in them yet hate to be call'd by its Name and we have cause to remember how because the Title of a Bill was against Atheism c. great exceptions were taken against it as of a great stain upon the Nation that we thereby should declare to Foreign Countries how we have Atheists among us which is too true thô some whom there is cause to suspect to be such would not have it said But I would have such to answer me one question Which of these two brings a greater Scandal and Reproach to England either not to forbear saying we have Atheists when we have and not to punish them or else to own the Truth that we have some but care not to restrain and punish them David declareth Ps 53.1 that where abominable Iniquity is committed and no regard had to Virtue or Vice there is no God Next we have the Deists whose Religion consists only in acknowledging one God and think that is enough to be Saved Who thô they own a God yet fancy him to be other then he is and to act otherwise then he doth they are for a Natural Religion without and against Revealed they think all Religions to be equal and that any one is at liberty to chuse which he pleases and that he may be saved in any Idolatry is another Sin of the Nation I mean not only the Spiritual one of those whose God is their Riches Honour Pleasures and their Belly but gross and material Idolatry of those who believe Religious Worship to be due to the Creature and actually render it and in too many Places there are too many Books that justifie it I thank God Protestants here are not of that Opinion but Papist are own and practise it and that Abomination is in the sight of all still committed in the Land which is thereby defiled Priests contrary to Laws do every where even out of Foreign Parts swarm as much as ever Papists are as free as can be whilst poor Protestants against the Laws of their Country are barbarously Persecuted in Popish Dominions yet one would think we might somewhat better their Condition with threatning here Papists with the like Usage I shall not say as to Liberties and Lives for our Religion like theirs doth not bind us to be Sanguinary but as to Estates and Fortunes with our Neglecting to take the same care to Defend our Religion as they do to Promote theirs we seem to intimate that theirs is better than ours but if we whosoever we are under the Notion that we are not Persecutors be ashamed of Christ and of his Cause in his due time he will be ashamed of and disown us I may say I remember the time when here it was not so Is it not the height of impudence for Popish Priests to go as of late they have done to dying Men To Doctor Connor after they by Protestant Ministers had been prepared for Death to disquiet them and not give over till they had made them do what upon such occasions is usual for Papists yet this hath been winked at no inquiry made no examination taken against those who so notoriously break the Laws of the Land The following Paper in French was on a Lord's Day April 24. 1698. posted up over the French Chapel door in St. James's and other Places in these words Hereby notice is given that in case any French Refugee be willing to go back into France there to abjure Heresie he may address himself to the French Ambassador and according to his Quality he shall be rewarded By this beginning we may see what we must expect from his being here one would think such things should not belong to his Instructions or Commission but what would they say if our Ambassador in Paris had attempted any thing of the like nature Never till of late any Foreign Minister was allowed two Popish Chapels one Private for Himself and Family which no Man will question and to the great grief of many another Publick one for all that have a mind to come to 't with Four or Five Priests belonging to it and neither Legislarive nor Executive Powers would take any notice of it but God will in his due time and may be punish us by such Snakes as we keep in our Bosom For these many years together we have had very near this City a Nunnery hitherto undisturbed and one more near about the same distance but another way is a forming or rather already formed Another Mass-Chapel in Town is as much frequented by hundreds at this time as it was when in the hands of Benedictine Friars And now Priests to seduce People as much as ever do transform themselves into all shapes and too often do prevail upon Servants Prentices and Masters too Yet by the Laws it is Treason to intice any one to be reconciled to the Romish Church as well as to be reconciled to 't But as yet it doth not appear that any effectual care hath been taken to hinder that great Evil and to prevent this Venom of Popish Idolatry from spreading farther to the Ruine and Destruction of precious Souls the Scandal of Religion and Shame of the Nation Blasphemy unhappily we have here Socinians who would be called Vnitarians and others have in every possible way taken great care to infect the Nation and spread among us their Blasphemous Opinions against the most Holy Trinity they are so well known by their impious Doctrines and unwarrantable Practices to propagate them that there is no need any longer to mention them here in this Place 'T is pity they have not been taken notice of in the way of Punishment as in their presumptuous Offences against God's Cause Another sort of Blasphemers as execrable as can be do impiously in their Discourses ridicule the adorable Mystery of the Incarnation our Saviour's Birth of a Virgin the Holy Scripture and the whole Christian Religion which they call Priest-Craft a Forgery of Melancholick Brains and such other abominable things as makes one's Hair stand on end Libertinism is here
promoted by a Sect call'd Antinomians who Believe as if Men might go to Heaven in the way to Hell without Faith Repentance and new Obedience thus no necessity of good Works and all this because we are said to be Saved thorough Grace which is most True and indeed excludes Good Works from being the meritorious Cause of Salvation but not from being means and way to it for he who created us without us will not Save us without us Here is also a kind of Free-willers who directly strike at God's free Grace in Christ and I dare say are as much against it as Socinians are against his Person Sins against God's Justice his Truth and other Attributes are great but I look upon Sin against his Grace as one of the greatest and less pardonable Here we have a Monstrous Sect call'd Quakers Monstrous I call it for its Doctrine is a Rhapsody of Errors in several kinds they have troubled the World with a number of idle Pamphlets containing a confused heap of Spiritual and Natural Ignorance full of Nonsense Presumption wresting and misapplying of Holy Scripture and a meer racking of good Sense and sound Reason which is able to disgust any Rational Man from Reading them as I confess I soon was but some who made it their Business to go throughly with them have therein found several Pernicious Impious and Blasphemous Tenets drawn out of their Writings which they have Published and set their Names to 't This I may say of Quakers that to themselves they assume the Name of Christians but in my Opinion without True grounds For they own no other Christ but him whom they say to be within them whom they make speak any thing they please then they are not Baptized in the Name of Christ whose Ordinances they Reject and Despise for they own no Sacraments deny Ministry by way of Office in the Church which is the House of the God of Order yet all Order therein but what is of their own making they would destroy and condemn All that are not of their own Persuasion usurping only to themselves the name of God's People withal in their Worldly Concerns they are Cunning and Crafty Busie and Active Thriving and Multiplying medling with many Things with a Stock of ready Money to supply their Occasions and carry on their common Interest in the World The Government hath thought fit to give them a Toleration I wish they do not prove a Snake in its Bosom for they are as dangerous to the State as to the Church Certainly 't is a great Sin to suffer them to Dishonour God through their Blasphemies as 't is in them to do 't Several other Heresies and Errors in Doctrine we have here whereof some are more and others less known Who can tell them all But all thô in different Degrees are contrary to Gospel Truths and thô winked at are to be reckoned among the sinful Opinions and Doctrines in the Nation But as the Nation is infected with many Sins in the Mind so 't is full of others seated in the Heart wherein is the Spring of all sinful Practises For Matth. 15.19 saith our Blessed Saviour out of the heart proceed evil thoughts or desires murthers adulteries fornications thefts false witness blasphemies This leads us to the Second Branch of the great and many Sins of the Nation which consist in Practice and upon this Head with David I may say thô very short of what the thing deserves Rivers of water run down mine eyes Ps 119.136 because they keep not thy Law The Sins properly lodged in the Heart are First Hypocrisie a damnable Sin in this World and accordingly to be rewarded in that which is to come Matt. 24.51 for there is a portion for hypocrites who indeed can sometimes dissemble with and impose upon Men but not so with God The Hypocrite is Squint-ey'd and thô he looks one way yet like the Waterman Row's towards a quite contrary It is bad upon all accounts but in Matters of Religion abominable like the Pharisees as our Saviour with many a Woe tells them they are like unto whited Sepulchres Matth. 23.23 24 25. c. which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead mens bones and of all uncleanness an outward shew of Piety and Virtue but in reality are nothing less They strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel and outwardly appear righteous unto Men but within are full of hypocrisie and iniquity The Roman Poet could say of such Qui Curios simulant sed Bacchanalia vivunt In some things of the least moment they would seem to be Pious and Conscientious they pay tithe of Mint of Anise and Cumin but omit the weightier matters of the Law like the Jews who upon the preparation day of the passover John 18.28 would not go into the Judgment-Hall lest they should be defiled but made no Conscience to shed innocent Blood and to cry out Crucifie Crucifie Pride and Vanity is another Sin of the Heart Mark 7.22 or it proceedeth out of it of it I make but one Sin for a Proud Man is a Vain Man Pride is the Sin of the Devil and of our First Parents now too natural with many among us who look very big upon others as if they were not Flesh Blood and Corruption as well as other Men yet they are not made of a Matter of a different nature of what others are they came into the World like other Men shall Die and be a Pasture for Worms as well as others Some are proud of their Riches which as Solomon saith Prov. 23.5 certainly they make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle others are proud of their Honours which in a short time are laid in the Dust others of their Pleasures for they have all that Heart can wish so had Belshazzar in the great Feast he made to a Thousand of his Lords to his Wives and Concubines Dan. 5.5.6 but in the same Hour came forth fingers of a Man's hand and wrote over against the Candlestick upon the plaistering of the Wall of the King's Palace Then the King's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another and in that night was the King slain v. 30. 1 Cor. 3.1 Others are proud of their Parts as Wit Learning c. for knowledge puffeth up for want of knowing themselves those parts they prophane and make a wrong use of Others are proud of their Strength Comliness Beauty and such Bodily Endowments but to all such the Apostle saith What hast thou that thou didst not receive Ch. 4.7 now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Be thankful for what thou hast received and Glory not in thy self or in thine own Shame but glory in the Lord. Ch. 1 31. Pride is a Sin odious to God and Man which
are those not the Wise except it be in their own Conceit but Fools for long ago by Solomon's Pen God hath proclaimed them for such when he said Fools make a mock at Sin Prov. 14.9 now in Solomon's and David's stile the Fool is the Wicked Man who at the latter end shall appear to be the greatest Fool of all No jesting with Holy Things nor with God who will not be mockt and Men who believe otherwise are much deceived and if their Conscience tells them not before shall at last find they were so Sabbath-breaking is one of the Chief and Epidemical Sins of the Nation Every one that can read Scripture may know how strict and severe God was against Sabbath-breakers by his immediate command they were (a) Numb 15.32 35. stoned to death The holy Observation of that day was what he mostly required of that People not only now and then here and there but he made it the Fourth Commandment of the first Table of the Law greatly complain'd of the breach thereof and severely punish'd it upon Persons and the whole Nation There is the same reason for the Christian Sabbath in Scripture call'd the (b) Rev. 1.10 Lord's Day and several breakers thereof God hath in the Christian Church made Examples of his Judgments A great one we had in this Nation of that Prince who at several times having with Stage-Plays polluted the Lord's-Day and by means of a Book of Sports allowed and encouraged others to do so was out of the same Place where he had seen them acted brought upon the Scaffold where he lost his Life I do not pretend to dive into the secret Causes of God's Judgments but I must take notice how the Circumstance of the Place is very remarkable and we may be allowed to say how upon that Ground as well as upon others (c) Ps 76.12 God is terrible to the Kings of the Earth This is Matter of Fact Thô in his Son's Reign Piety was little regarded yet then we saw Acts of Parliament for the better Observation of the Lord's-Day to come out but now 't is thought not to be worth looking after in (d) That of 29 Ch. II. 1677. one of those Acts the Sale of any Wares Merchandizes Fruits Herbs Goods or Chattels whatsoever upon the Lord's Day or any part thereof was forbidden upon pain that every Person so offending shall forfeit the same Goods so cryed or shewed forth or exposed to sale Sabbaths were never more prophan'd then of late and now The generality of People make Play and Sport Days of them On that day we see Markets set up in many Places Children publickly at play Taverns Alehouses Coffee and Chocolate-Houses doors open and full of People and those Beasts which in the 4th Precept God had a regard to must not rest upon that day though upon every other in the Week they labour with all imaginable hardness which is a Cruelty for (e) Prov. 12.10 a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast Yet these must be for the Service of many Sabbath-breakers When the Drunkard is so fuddled that he without Reeling and Staggering cannot go he must have a Coach to carry him home We have but one true Christian Holy-day which ought to be employ'd only for Holy uses He who makes no Conscience to break the Lord's Holiday will make no Scruple of breaking any of the Ten Commandments and he who delights to observe it will the use Authority to make others observe it too 'T is strange yet true that some who in the Church have been and still are most fond after the reading of every Commandment of the fourth as well as of every one else to say Lord have merey upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law such as Pocklington Heylin and the Highest Church-men in their Writings Sermons and Discourses declared much against the Morality of the Sabbath or Lord's-Day how then can they pray to God to incline their Heart to keep a Law which they believe and profess to be abrogated But if herein one was to consult with Man's Opinion besides the Judgment of several Divines that of the good Pious and Learned James Vsher Primate of Ireland is with me of greater weight then the Authority of all Anti-Sabbatharians and all know how much in his judgment and practice he was for the strict observation of the Lord's Day One thing more though by the by and not to my present purpose I shall observe out of the Words Incline our Hearts to keep this Law it appears how the Opinion of those who compiled the Common-Prayer-Book and appointed these words to be said after every Precept was that Men cannot incline their Hearts to keep God's Law but must pray to God to do 't and consequently that to believe and obey doth not depend upon Man's Will but upon God's working upon and inclining it There is another crying Sin in the Nation which hath several branches as Lying Swearing Cursing and Perjury We have a sort of People who in this kind offend in the least Degree yet thereby contract a Guilt upon themselves out of an ill Habit and Custom upon most or any trivial account saying O Lord O God which is to take that Holy Name in vain and a Breach of the Third Commandment But others worse impiously take the Lord by his Bloud Wounds c. and swear by the Creatures 't is abominable sometimes to hear in the Streets Children of Eight and Ten years old and upwards to Curse and Damn themselves and others which ought to be the Care of Parents to prevent a horrid Sin God hath given us a Tongue to Bless not to Curse him nor our Neighbour or our selves yet some as soon as they are able to speak rap out Oaths A Curse in God's Name never falls without an Effect either against the Curser or Cursed That abominable Sin of Perjury and Swearing falsly in God's Name is too common Forswearing Covenant-breaking and Burning are so grievous a Sin as that in every judgment we undergo we may therein see a Grain of it as the Jews did in theirs in relation to the Golden Calf The Sin of Vncleanness is Loud and Epidemical in its several branches of Fornication and Adultery and there is too much cause to name Incest and Sodomy for which the Earth affords no sufficient Punishment therefore in Fire and Brimstone God as it were rained down Hell from Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah Uncleanness is among People of all Conditions Ages and Kinds now as common frequent and publick as between Dogs and Bitches without Curb and Restraint put upon 't so that Whoredom is certainly one of the Master Sins of the Nation Bawdy-Houses are tolerated and even in high Places want no Advocates to speak for them at any time specially towards the Evening one can hardly go up and down the Street but he meets with Inticements and Temptations Sometimes an honest Woman who goes about her
that cunning and dangerous Master and are become great Proficients in his Art and as Scripture calls it his (f) 2 Cor. 2.11 Devices and his (g) Rev. 2.24 Depths Some of these I shall give a hint of Certainly Injustice is one of the loudest and most crying Sins in the Nation the Evil and Wickedness whereof we may unquestionably know by its being directly opposed to one of God's Essential Attributes for God is essentially Righteous and Just And according to our power and measure we ought to endeavour to be such for as we must be Holy because God is Holy so we must be Just because he is Just that is as near as we can we ought to conform to God Nothing in Scripture is more often and earnestly commanded and commended than to be Just as nothing more strictly forbidden then Injustice especially to those whom God hath appointed to administer it There are three sorts of Justice the Distributive Commutative and Legal The first consists in the distribution of Rewards and Pains and hath respect to the Dignity of Persons according to the Geometrical Proportion It composes the whole with the part that is the common Goods of the Republick bestowing them upon those who deserve it best The second allows every Man his own the Workman his Hire the Servant his Wages Soldiers their Pay and it depends much upon agreements thus a Nobleman is to pay the price of a Horse as well as an ordinary Man and it is according to the Numerical Proportion It also doth compose one part with another making one Citizen equal with another The third is that Justice which is according to Right and Law it doth compose and fit the Part for the whole making every particular Man contribute to the Common Good and Private Interests subservient to the Publick and Great one Now 't is too true that in all these there are wants and abuses and I leave it for those who are concern'd to examine themselves about it As to the first There should be Rewards and Punishments adequate to the Good and Evil done by Men and I wish all Princes would but consider some of the last words of a great and good King David I mean who said with a great Emphasis (a) 2 Sam. 23.3 The God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me he that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of God Reward and Punish well and God will be pleased and you well served but to let some who deserved well to Want and Starve whilst others that were very unworthy Men receive abundantly to supply their Lust this I say is a great breach of Distributive Justice As to the Commutative how many and great Abuses about it there is in this our World Some have forgotten or mind not what our Blessed Saviour said in his Sermon upon the Mount (b) Matth. 7.12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do ye even so to them And the more to persuade them to 't he adds for this is the Law and the Prophets If when Men wrong others they would but say to themselves Wouldest thou be content to be so used Their Conscience would fly into their Faces Why then will not they give every one their own Several in the Kingdom against Justice Honour and all Rules of Honesty make no Conscience to take other Men's Goods and not to pay for them thô they have plentiful Estates yet will not pay one Six-pence of Debts rather bestow it upon their own Lust Whoring Gaming Drinking c. to the Starving and Undoing of many Persons and whole Families yet think themselves Priviledged to do so Do such People think there is no God in Heaven to hear (c) Jam. 5.4 the cry of the hire of the Labourers which have reaped down their Fields Of those who sold them their Wares and Goods but cannot get one Farthing from them that always are ready to Buy but never care to Pay Certainly saith the Apostle such (d) Gen. 18.21 cries are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth God heareth the Cries of the sins of the wicked to punish them for it thus (d) Gen. 18.21 the cry of those of Sodom went up to God He also heareth the (e) Exod. 2.24 groaning and cry of the Afflicted and oppressed as he did that of his People in Egypt For saith the Lord to Moses (f) Ch. 3.9 The cry of the children of Israel is come unto me thus David's (g) Psal 18.6 cry came before him even into his ears for indeed 1 h Psal 34.15 the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry to avenge and deliver them The Wicked and Oppressor is but a fool for his pains to (i) Psal 10.13.14 say in his heart thou wilt not require it for thou hast seen it saith the Psalmist for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand the poor committeth himself unto thee for thou art the helper of the fatherless The helpless Man upon Earth hath a God in Heaven to go to There are high degrees of this sort of Injustice called Oppression and Extortion Oppression is a vexation and tormenting a weaker or inferior Person by Violence and Authority this is the sin of Superiour Powers and Rulers thus Tyrants oppress God's People laying so heavy burthens of several sorts upon them as they are not able to bear but are thereby pressed down and must ly under in this God is highly concern'd it being an abominable Abuse of that Power and Authority which he hath committed to some over others this in David's words is (k) Psal 94.20 To frame mischief by a Law Now this odious Sin God hath taken special care to deterr Men from (l) Lavit 25.14 17 Ye shall not oppress one another The Quality of the Oppressed is an aggravation to the Sin as to oppress the Afflicted (m) Prov. 22.22 Rob not the poor because he is poor neither oppress the afflicted in the gate which instead of Comfort is to add Affliction to the Afflicted so 't is to oppress the Widow and the Fatherless which by name as well as the Poor the (n) Zach. 7.10 Lord hath forbidden to do among the several Characters which God gives of a wicked Man this is one (o) Ezek. 18.12 he hath oppressed the poor and needy God who is a Just Judge hath solemnly Declared that he will punish several sorts of Sinners Oppressors are among the black List (p) Mal. 3.5 I will come near to you to judgment and I will be a swift witness against the Sorcerers the Adulterers false Swearers and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages the widow and the fatherless Extortion is when Men lay hold upon the Straits and Necessities of others to extort and squeeze out of them more than they ought or can give and