Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A46742
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A sermon preached at the assizes held in Warwick, March the nineteenth 1682/3 by Samuel Jemmat ...
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Jemmat, Samuel.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing J550; ESTC R34479
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10,599
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38
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enacted and continue in force for the Government of this Nation wherein we live And for superadding the high favour of his Royal Promise to govern by Law and to protect the true Protestant Religion as it is by Law established as well as the Properties of his Subjects against all invaders and opponents For these inestimable benefits all the grateful Addresses of his Subjects the greatest inlargement of their hearts and most intimate exultations of their souls are too mean returns Nothing but unmoveable Loyalty to the King Conformity to the Church and active Obedience to his Laws can bear any true proportion to them Certainly we have as great reason as any Nation under Heaven to make an hearty and grateful use of that Exclamation of the Psalmist e Ps 144.15 Happy are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God That it is highly incumbent upon all Truth III Judges to be most critically cautious and careful Both God and the King say to them Take heed what you do Caution and Care in such high concerns as they are conversant withal seem to me to include these four things 1. Wisdom and Knowledge Prudence and Experience 2. Courage and braveness of spirit 3. Vigilance and Activity 4. True Christian Piety The first will teach them how to take heed The second will make them dare to do it at all times and in all causes The third will not suffer them to slip any opportunity wherein they ought to be cautious And the last will make them have respect both to God and the King 1. When Caution is thus recommended to the Judges it is implyed that they ought to be men of Wisdom and Knowledge Prudence and Experience i. e. men of great natural abilities and skilful in all those Causes which shall come before them They ought to have a general knowledge and comprehension of the Laws and still to apply that knowledge to the greatest variety of actions Without these it will be impossible for them to take heed what they do notwithstanding they be of themselves well-minded and willing to do justly because Ignorance as forward as it is can hardly be more impudent than it is weak nor can Folly be more swift to discover its Presumptions by its undertakings than it is to testifie its Impotency by its miscarriages But when Prudence and Experience come to be superadded to great natural Abilities and acquired Accomplishments they will certainly prove the most excellent ingredients out of which Care and Caution can be compounded 2. It is implyed hereby that they should be endued with courage and braveness of spirit without which Knowledge and Experience will be but insignificant words and ineffectual sounds Which may sufficiently appear from the consideration of the persons with whom they have to deal the high matters about which they are conversant the rebukes and punishments they are subject too from those who are above them the hatred and violence of inferiours as well as the obloquies and evil speeches of the multitude things which no man in the world can be able to cope withall except he be endued with an extraordinary spirit Mean souls are naturally unfit for high imployments because Cowardice will certainly betray men to base and ignoble actions 't will make them afraid of righteousness both in a Legal and Evangelical sense because it wears a sword 3. T is implied that they should be men of Vigilance and Activity industrious to discover the Truth in every Cause and willing to be guided by it when discovered Though Justice it self ought to be blind yet the Ministers thereof ought to be all eye because the great Governour of the World who hath stiled them Gods never made them Omniscient and though he calls them by his Own name to add Veneration to their Authority yet hath he frequently made it evident to themselves and the world that they are but Men by their Failings It is the unparallel'd excellency of God that He is Omnipresent i. e. as the Schools interpret it in all places at all times by the same indivisible act and undoubtedly he expects it from all those of whom he hath said ye are Gods that they should endeavour to assimilate themselves to Himself by a Politick Vbiquity From whence t is evident that such high Officers are obliged to testifie their Fidelity by their Care their Conscience by their Circumspection Especially because the lives and fortunes of their Brethren are frequently put into their hands and t is possible for them without such caution not only to do unrighteousness in Judgment but also to become the veriest Cut-throats and Pick-pockets in the world Lastly it is implyed that they should be endued with true Christian piety because that will be sure to make them have respect to the commands both of God and the King to the commands of God for his own to the commands of the King for God's sake It will make them reverence Justice because God is the Authour and Archetype thereof and t will incline them to moderate the rigour of Justice with lenitives of Mercy lest they should transgress the rules of true Christian charity You see how necessary it is for them to be cautious and careful both from the nature of the thing it self and also from the Commands of God and the King To which I may most justly superadde the consideration of the Age in which we live This calls for the height of Wisdom the greatest Abilities the bravest spirits the most eminent Activity and the best grounded Religion Because the purest Church which Christ hath this day upon Earth and the best of Monarchies are design'd to be subverted and ruin'd by men of the most different Principles and Interests The Jesuites abroad and the Fanaticks at home are closely engaged in undermining both The former will own no Allegiance to the King if it be inconsistent with the Supremacy of the Pope nor think the vilest murthers or treasons sinful if they will but promote their Hierarchy And the latter behave themselves as if they were of different interests both from the Church and Kingdom and it were chiefly incumbent upon them to ballance Prerogative with Property They therefore study the King's Laws that they may be in a capacity to evade his Power and pretend the Laws of God to take away the force of the Laws of the King They are ready upon all occasions to plead the liberty of the Subject whenever it may prove a snare to the Government and make use of those Franchises and Liberties which have been given by the gracious Kings of this Realm to their once loyal Subjects to deprive their Successors of their Sovereign Authority They so well understand the inclinations of the giddy multitude as at most of their Popular Elections they design to choose such Representatives of the People as are best qualified to restrain the spirit of Princes as if they were with the degenerating Romans to set up the Tribunes of the People with this only design that they might beard the Consular Dignity That 's the third Truth Truth IV Give me leave to speak very briefly to the last and I shall immediately conclude It is this That all who are duely advanced to such Eminent places of Trust and Dignity have the greatest reason in the world to be faithful in the performance of their Duty and that because God is with them in the Judgment T is certain that Omnipresence is an attribute inseparable from the Divine nature they that climb up into Heaven and they that dig down into Hell they that take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea and they that cover themselves with the most opacous darkness can never get out of the sight or company of the Almighty And yet God hath been pleased to make the promise of his special presence an act of Grace and that whereby he would incourage his most eminent Servants in the performance of his own work Hence we read Psalm 82.1 God standeth in the Congregation of Princes He is a Judge among Gods and in the Text He is with you in the Judgment God is with them and stands by them not as an idle Spectator or unconcern'd Auditor but as one who gives them their best Commission will countenance maintain protect and reward them for their lawful Acts but will keep a severe book of remembrance against them if ever they force Judgment which should run as as a pure and mighty stream to spring up as f Hos 10.4 hemlock or g Amos 5.7 wormwood My Lords I don't question but that You are prepared and resolved to obey the King and to judge not for man but for the Lord and therefore I have good warrant to declare that God will be with you in the Judgment For which and all other gracious vouchsafements to Mankind let us render unto the Glorious and Eternal Trinity God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost the only Wise and True God all Honour Obedience and Adoration now and for ever Amen THE END ERRATA Pag. 2. l. 7. read making p. 5. l. 10. r. for the Lord. l. 12. r. the Jews p. 7. l. 5. r. whosoever p. 10. l. 2. r. viz. the fear of p. 18. l. 21. r. mens p. 21. l. 2. r. that Allegiance p. 23. l. 1. r. with them p. 31. l. 11. r. Text we read
offenders in both cases are warned not to trespass against the Lord. Which plainly discovers God's interest in Judgment be it of what kind or nature soever whether it be Civil or whether it be Ecclesiastical God is the primary source and original of it And whatsoever they be that are intrusted with the executive parts of Judgment they judge not for man but for the Lord. This I am sure is agreeable with the analogy of Scripture which informs us not only f Is 30.18 that the Lord is a God of judgment implying that it is his nature or unalterable property or that g Ps 33.5 Is 1.8 he loveth judgment to denote his affection or h Deut. 32.4 that all his ways are judgment to discover his steadiness and uniformity in the exercise of it or i Ps 9.16 that the Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth to show how remarkable he is for this property or that k Job 27.33 the Almighty is excellent in judgment to demonstrate how far he transcends those that are most critical amongst men but it also assures us that the judgment is Gods l Deut. 1.17 to teach us this lesson that though the Ministers and Executioners of Justice may be varied according to the exigencies of times and places yet wheresoever Judgment is faithfully done God is the director author and owner of it By that emanation of power from himself whereby he communicated existence to the World and all the Creatures that are therein He became the absolute Sovereign of the Vniverse and did Himself at first exercise this jurisdiction which I am speaking of As appears by his punishing of Cain for murdering his Brother before the Promulgation of any Law to the contrary And by his Commissioning Abraham to kill his Son which made the real intentions of the Patriarch so to do an act of Faith and commendable obedience which without that would have been down-right murder And t is as certain that he did afterwards devolve this power upon Man when he delivered that Law to the sons of Noah whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed m Gen. 9.6 which power he cannot be imagined to have committed promiscuously to every man who would be glad to be an avenger of blood because that would have given authority to the most notorious murthers and countenanced the vilest outrages in the world but to persons of knowledge and fidelity elected commissioned and set apart for that Office Since which time t is manifest he hath in all Ages selected choice persons for the administration of Justice hath given to some the spirit of Government and to others the spirit of Subjection hath given to the Higher Powers the greatest encouragements they are capable of by his Promises in case of diligent faithful Obedience and hath deterr'd Subjects from injustice and disobedience by the great movers of mankind viz. Temporal and Eternal Death Use 1 How bold and couragious how diligent and faithful how resolute and unmoveable by the entreaties threats flatteries collogueings and all other artifices of men should the consideration hereof make all those who judge not for Man but for the Lord A wicked Baalam could say n Numb 22.18 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more Nehemiah could say in the sincerity and integrity of his heart Should such a man as I fly Nehem. 6.11 And it will well become every person that is entrusted with Judgment to take up the like forms of speech and say Should I he faint-hearted or negligent should I be partial or injust shall I be drawn aside by any sinister respects who judge not for Man but for the Lord Sure I am they have as good a ground so to do because God's Commission doth not only license them to execute justice and judgment but it lays a necessity upon them by making it their Duty And on the other side how ready to obey Use 2 and fearful to offend should it make all those who are subjected to their Power How should they be inclined to account their persons Sacred and to look upon them as Representatives of God himself Yea how thankful to God should it Use 3 make all those who are under jurisdiction for being so mindful of the Sons of Men God is that High and Holy one who sits upon the Circle of the Heavens and beholds all the Inhabitants of the Earth as Grass-hoppers all the Kingdoms of the World are very little and inconsiderable things to Him There can be no advantage accrue to God by their felicity nor detriment though all their counsels be turn'd to folly and all Civil Government to Anarchy and Confusion And yet he is pleased to contrive the good of All and to fortify Civil Powers by his own Commission that Judgment may run down like water and Righteousness like a mighty stream Lord What is man that thou art so mindful of him or the son of man that thou dost so regard him Use 4 How effectually should this convince all the Anarchical spirits amongst us and assure them that Dominion is neither founded in Power nor Property nor Compact nor Grace but in the great Authority of the Absolute Sovereign and most gracious Governer of the whole World Could it be founded in Power Angels would have a right to destroy all Mankind Children their aged Parents nay Thieves themselves would have an undeniable title to the goods of the Impotent Could it be founded in Property it must be possible to suppose that Man had a right to Sovereignty before God gave him a dominion over the fish of the Sea and the fowls of the Air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth o Gen. 1.28 which was long before he back'd it with that commandment Thou shalt not steal p Exod. 20.25 Could it be founded in Compact 't would have been at the pleasure of the People heretofore and would be so still whether they would engage themselves or not and they might have frustrated the great design of the Almighty by their refusal Could it be founded in Grace there must have been some better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than we now enjoy whereby to distinguish between the Holy and the Vile or the crafty hypocritical Pretenders would certainly go away with the greatest shares of the Earth But being founded in the power and wisdom of God and it being determined that he is the primary source of Judgment it will necessarily follow That the subordinate Authors of Judgment are not meerly the ordinance of Man They are so indeed subjectivè as the Offices of Justice are born by Men not immediately by God himself not hy Angels or any other Creature They are so objectivè as Justice is imployed among men they being the persons who are to be restrained or punished by Laws They are so