contract my speech to the scanting of time or you if I should lengthen it to the weight of the matter And therefore I resolved here to make an end and to give place as fit it is to the businesse whereabout we meet The Total of what I have said and should say is in effect but this No pretension of a good end of a good meaning of a good event of any good whatsoever either can sufficiently warrant any sinfull action to be done or justifie it being done or sufficiently excuse the Omission of any necessary duty when it is necessary Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things Now to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit c. AD CLERUM The Third Sermon At a Visitation at Boston Lincoln 13. March 1620. 1 COR. 12.7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall IN the first Verse of this Chapter S. Paul proposeth to himself an Argument which he prosecuteth the whole Chapter through and after a profitable digression into the praise of Charity in the next Chap. resumeth again at the 14. Chapter spending also that whole Chapter therein and it is concerning spirituall gifts Now concerning spirituall gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant c. These gracious gifts of the holy Spirit of God bestowed on them for the edification of the Church the Corinthians by making them the fuell either of their pride in despising those that were inferiour to themselves or of their envy in malicing those that excelled therein abused to the maintenance of schisme and faction and emulation in the Church For the remedying of which evils the Apostle entreth upon the Argument discoursing fully of the variety of these spirituall gifts and who is the Author of them and for what end they were given and in what manner they should be imployed omitting nothing that was needfull to be spoken anent this subject In this part of the Chapter entreating both before and after this verse of the wondrous great yet sweet and usefull variety of these spirituall gifts he sheweth that howsoever manifold they are either for kind or degree so as they may differ in the materiall and formall yet they do all agree both in the same efficient and the same finall cause In the same efficient cause which is God the Lord by his Spirit ver 4 6. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all And in the same finall cause which is the advancement of Gods glory in the propagation of his Gospel and the edification of his Church in this ver But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall By occasion of which words we may enquire into the nature convenience and use of these gifts First their nature in themselves and in their originall what they are and whence they are the works of Gods Spirit in us the manifestation of the Spirit Secondly their conveyance unto us how we come to have them and to have property in them it is by gift It is given to every man Thirdly their use and end why they were given us and what we are to do with them they must be employed to the good of our Brethren and of the Church is given to every man to profit withall Of these briefly and in their order and with speciall reference ever to us that are of the Clergy By manifestation of the Spirit here our Apostle understandeth none other thing then he doth by the adjective word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first and by the substantive word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last verse of the Chapter Both which put together do signifie those spiritual gifts and graces whereby God enableth men and specially Church-men to the duties of their particular Callings for the generall good Such as are those particulars which are named in the next following verses the word of Wisdome the word of Knowledge Faith the gifts of healing workings of miracles prophecy discerning of spirits divers kinds of tongues interpretation of tongues All which and all other of like nature and use because they are wrought by that one and self-same Spirit which divideth to every one severally as he will are therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall gifts and here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit The word Spirit though in Scripture it have many other significations yet in this place I conceive to be understood directly of the holy Ghost the third Person in the ever blessed Trinity For first in ver 3. that which is called the Spirit of God in the former part is in the latter part called the Holy Ghost I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Iesus accursed and that no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Again that variety of gifts which in ver 4. is said to proceed from the same Spirit is said likewise in ver 5. to proceed from the same Lord and in ver 6. to proceed from the same God and therefore such a Spirit is meant as is also Lord and God and that is onely the Holy Ghost And again in those words in ver 11. All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will the Apostle ascribeth to this Spirit the collation and distribution of such gifts according to the free power of his own will and pleasure which free power belongeth to none but God alone Who hath set the members every one in the body as it hath pleased him Which yet ought not to be so understood of the Person of the Spirit as if the Father and the Son had no part or fellowship in this business For all the Actions and operations of the Divine Persons those onely excepted which are of intrinsecall and mutuall relation are the joynt and undivided works of the whole three Persons according to the common known maxime constantly and uniformly received in the Catholike Church Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa And as to this particular concerning gifts the Scriptures are clear Wherein as they are ascribed to GOD the Holy Ghost in this Chapter so they are elsewhere ascribed to God the Father Every good gift and every perfect giving is from above from the Father of Lights Jam. 1. and elsewhere to God the Son Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Eph. 4. Yea and it may be that for this very reason in the three verses next before my text these three words are used Spirit in ver 4. Lord in ver 5. and God in ver 6. to give us intimation that these spirituall gifts
findeth himself hot in his body and fain he would know whether it be Calor praeter naturam or no whether a kindly and naturall heat or else the fore-runner or symptome of some disease There is no better way to come to that knowledge than by these two Notes Universality and Constancy First for Vniversality Physicians say of heat and sweat and such like things Vniversalia salutaria partialia ex morbo If a man be hot in one part and cold in another as if the palms of his hands burn and the soles of his feet be cold then all is not right but if he be of an indifferent equal heat all over that is held a good sign of health Then for Constancy and Lasting if the heat come by fits and starts and paroxysms leaping eftsoones and suddenly out of one extreme into another so as the party one while gloweth as hot as fire another while is chill and cold as ice and keepeth not at any certain stay that is an ill sign too and it is to be feared there is an Ague either bred or in breeding but if he continue at some reasonable certainty and with in a good mediocrity of heat and cold it is thought a good sign of health As men judge of the state of their bodies by the like rule judge thou of the state of thy soul. First for integrity and universality Is thy Repentance thy Obedience thy Zeal thy Hatred of sin other graces in thee Vniversal equally bent upon all good equally set against all evill things it is a good sign of Grace and Sanctification in the heart But if thou repentest of one sin and persistest in another if thou obeyest one commandement and breakest another if thou art zealous in one point and cool in another if thou hatest one vice and lovest another flatter not thy self too much thou hast reason to suspect all is not sound within Then for Continuance and Lasting I deny not but in case of prevailing temptations the godly may have sometimes uncomfortable and fearfull intermissions in the practice of godlinesse which yet make him not altogether Gracelesse as a man may have sometimes little distempers in his body through mis-dyet or otherwise and yet not be heart-sick or greater distempers too sometimes to make him sick and yet be heart-whole But yet if for the most part and in the ordinary constant course of thy life thou hast the practice of repentance and obedience and other fruits of grace in some good comfortable measure it is a good sign of Grace and Sanctification in the heart But if thou hast these things only by fits and starts and sudden moods and art sometimes violently hot upon them other sometimes again and oftner key cold presume not too much upon shewes but suspect thy self still of Hypocrisie and Insincerity and never cease by repentance and prayer and the constant exercise of other good graces to Physick and Dyet thy soul till thou hast by Gods goodness put thy self into some reasonable assurance that thou art the true child of God a sincere believer and not an Hypocrite as Ahab here notwithstanding all this his solemn humiliation was Here is Ahab an Hypocrite and yet humbled before the Lord. But yet now this humiliation such as it was what should work it in him That we find declared at verse 27. And it came to passe that when Ahab heard these words c. There came to him a message from God by the hand of Eliah and that was it that humbled him Alas what was Eliah to Ahab a silly plain Prophet to a mighty King that he durst thus presume to rush boldly and unsent-for into the presence of such a potent Monarch who had no lesse power and withall more colour to take away his life than Naboth's and that when he was in the top of his jollity solacing himself in the new-taken possession of his new-gotten Vineyard and there to his face charge him plainly with and shake him up roundly for and denounce Gods judgements powerfully against his bloudy abominable oppressions We would think a Monarch nusled up in Idolatry and accustomed to bloud and hardened in Sinne and Obstinacy should not have brooked that insolency from such a one as Eliah was but have made his life a ransome for his sawcinesse And yet behold the words of this underling in comparison how they fall like thunder upon the great guilty offender and strike palsie into his knees and trembling into his joynts and tumble him from the height of his jollity and roll him in sack-cloth and ashes and cast him into a strong fit of legal humiliation Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me And here now cometh in our second Observation even the power of Gods word over the Consciences of obstinate sinners powerfull to Cast down strong holds and every high thought that exalteth it self against God That which in Heb. 4. if I mistake not the true understanding of that place is spoken of the Essential word of God the second Person in the ever-blessed Trinity is also in some analogie true of the revealed word of God the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles that it is Quick and powerfull and more cutting than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow Is not my word like as a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces Ierem. 23. Like a soft fire to dissolve and melt the hearts of relenting sinners and true converts but like a strong hammer to batter and break in pieces the rocky and flinty consciences of obstinate and hardened offenders Examples hereof if you require behold in the stories of the Kings Saul whining when Samuel reproveth him in the books of the Prophets the Ninivites drooping when Ionas threatneth them in the Acts of the Apostles Felix trembling when Paul discourseth before him in the Martyrologies of the Church Tyrants and bloudy Persecutors maskered at the bold confessions of the poor suffering Christians in this Chapter proud Ahab mourning when Eliah telleth him his sin and foretelleth him his punishment Effects which might justly seem strange to us if the Causes were not apparent One Cause and the Principal is in the instrument the Word not from any such strength in it self for so it is but a dead letter but because of Gods Ordinance in it For in his hands are the hearts and the tongues and the eares both of Kings and Prophets and he can easily when he seeth it good put the spirit of zeal and of power into the heart of the poorest Prophet and as easily the spirit of fear and of terrour into the heart of the greatest King He chooseth weak Instruments as here Eliah and yet furnisheth them with power to effect great matters that so the glory might not rest upon the instrument but redound wholly to him
to discern what is fit for him to do What in most other contentions is expected should be done in this not he that is most in fault but he that hath most wit should give over first Indeed in reason the more faulty is rather bound to yield but if he will be unreasonable as most times it falleth out and not do it then in discretion the more able should do it As Abraham in discretion yielded the choice to his Nephew Lot upon the contention of their Heardsmen which in reason Lot should rather have yielded unto him But where both are faulty as it is not good to stand debating who began first so it is not safe to strain courtesie who shall end and mend first In the case of my Text both were faulty and therefore our Apostle would have both mend He hath school'd the Strong and taught him his lesson not to despise anothers infirmity Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not Now the Weak must take out his lesson too not to judge anothers liberty Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth I will not trouble you with other significations of the word to Iudge as it is here taken is as much to condemn and so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken in the worser sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tropically by a Synecdoche generis say Scholiasts and they say true But it is a Trope for which both in this and in divers other words we are not so much beholden to good Arts as to bad manners Things that are good or indifferent we commonly turn to ill by using them the worst way whence it groweth that words of good or indifferent signification in time degenerate so farre as to be commonly taken in the worst sence But this by the way The fault of these weak ones in the case in hand was that measuring other mens actions and consciences by the modell of their own understandings in their private censures they rashly passed their judgements upon and pronounced peremptory sentence against such as used their liberty in some things concerning the lawfulnesse whereof themselves were not satisfied as if they were loose Christians carnall professors nomine tenus Christiani men that would not stick to do any thing and such as made either none at all or else very little conscience of their actions This practice my Text disalloweth and forbiddeth and the rule hence for us is plain and short We must not judge others The Scriptures are expresse Iudge not that ye be not judged Matth. 7. Iudge nothing before the time c. 1 Corinth 4. Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest Rom. 2. And If thou judgest thou art not a doer of the Law but a Iudge James 4. Not that it is unlawfull to exercise civill judgement or to passe condemning sentence upon persons orderly and legally convicted for such as have calling and authority thereunto in Church or Common-wealth for this publique politique judgement is commanded in the Word of God and Reason sheweth it to be of absolute necessity for the preservation of States and Commonwealths Not that it is unlawfull secondly to passe even our private censures upon the outward actions of men when the Law of God is directly transgressed and the transgression apparent from the evidence either of the fact it selfe or of some strong signes and presumptions of it For it is stupidity and not charity to be credulous against sense Charity is ingenuous and will believe any thing though more then Reason but Charity must not be servile to believe any thing against reason Shall any charity bind me to think the Crow is white or the Black-more beautifull Nor yet thirdly that all sinister suspicions are utterly unlawfull even there where there wanteth evidence either of fact or of great signes if our suspicions proceed not from any corrupt affections but onely from a charitable jealousie of those over whom we have speciall charge or in whom we have speciall interest in such sort as that it may concern us to admonish reprove or correct them when they doe amisse so was Iob suspicious of his sonnes for sinning and cursing God in their hearts But the judgement here and elsewhere condemned is either first when in our private thoughts or speeches upon slender presumptions we rashly pronounce men as guilty of committing such or such sins without sufficient evidence either of fact or pregnant signes that they have committed them Or secondly when upon some actions undoubtedly sinfull as blasphemy adultery perjury c. We too severely censure the persons either for the future as Reprobates and Castawayes and such as shall be certainly damned or at leastwise for the present as hypocrites and unsanctified and profane and such as are in the state of damnation not considering into what fearefull sinnes it may please God to suffer not onely his chosen ones before Calling but even his holy ones too after Calling sometimes to fall for ends most times unknown to us but ever just and gracious in him Or thirdly when for want either of charity or knowledge as in the present case of this Chapter we interpret things for the worst to our brethren and condemn them of sin for such actions as are not directly and in themselves necessarily sinfull but may with due circumstances be performed with a good conscience and without sinne Now all judging and condemning of our brethren in any of these kinds is sinfull and damnable and that in very many respects especially these foure which may serve as so many weighty reasons why we ought not to judge one another The usurpation the rashnesse the uncharitablenesse and the scandall of it First it is an Usurpation He that is of right to judge must have a calling and commission for it Quis constituit te sharply replyed upon Moses Exod. 2. Who made thee a Iudge and Quis constituit me reasonably alledged by our Saviour Luk. 12. Who made me a Iudge Thou takest too much upon thee then thou son of man whosoever thou art that judgest thus saucily to thrust thy self into Gods seat and to invade his Throne Remember thy self well and learn to know thine own rank Quis tu Who art thou that judgest another Iames 4. or Who art thou that judgest anothers servant in the next following verse to my Text. As if the Apostle had said What art thou or what hast thou to do to judge him that standeth or falleth to his own Master Thou art his fellow-servant not his LORD He hath another Lord that can and will judge him who is thy Lord too and can and will judge thee for so he argueth anon at verse 10. Why doest thou judge thy brother We shall all stand before the judgement-seate of CHRIST GOD hath reserved three Prerogatives royall to himself Vengeance
leave them worse than they found them Stomach will not bear out a matter without strength and to encounter an adversary are required Shoulders as well as Gall. A good cause is never betrayed more than when it is prosecuted with much eagernesse but little sufficiency This from the Method Observe secondly the Apostles manner of speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Translators render it As we are wrongfully blamed As we are slandered As we are slanderously reported And the word indeed from the Originall importeth no more and so Writers both profane and sacred use it But yet in Scriptures by a specialty it most times signifieth the highest degree of Slander when we open our mouths against God and speak ill or amisse or unworthily of God that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and properly the sin we call blaspemy And yet that very word of Blaspemy which for the most part referreth immediately to God the Apostle here useth when he speaketh of himself and other Christian Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we are slandered nay as we are blasphemed A slander or other wrong or contempt done to a Minister quà talis is a sin of a higher strain than the same done to a Common Christian. Not at all for his persons sake for so he is no more Gods good creature than the other no more free from sins and infirmities and passions than the other But for his Callings sake for so he is Gods Embassadour which the other is not and for his works sake for that is Gods Message which the others is not Personall Slanders and Contempts are to a Minister but as to another man because his person is but as another mans person But slanders and contempts done to him as a Minister that is with reference either to his Calling or Doctrine are much greater than to another man as reaching unto God himself whose Person the Minister representeth in his Calling and whose errand the Minister delivereth in his Doctrine For Contempts S. Paul is expresse elsewhere He that despiseth despiseth not man but God And as for Slanders the very choice of the word in my Text inferreth as much The dignity of our Calling enhaunceth the sin and every slander against our regular Doctrines is more than a bare Calumny if no more at least petty blasphemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we are slandered as we are blasphemed That from the word Observe thirdly the wrong done to the Apostle and to his Doctrine He was slanderously reported to have taught that which he never so much as thought and his Doctrine had many scandalous imputations fastened upon it whereof neither he nor it were guilty As we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say The best truths are subject to mis-interpretation and there is not that Doctrine how firmly soever grounded how warily soever delivered whereon Calumny will not fasten and stick slanderous imputations Neither Iohns mourning nor Christs piping can passe the pikes but the one hath a Devil the other is a Glutton and a Wine-bibber Though Christ come to fulfill the Law yet there be will accuse him as a destroyer of the Law Matthew 5. And though he decide the question plainly for Caesar and that in the case of Tribute Mat. 22. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars yet there be that charge him as if he spake against Caesar Iohn 19. and that in the very case of Tribute as if he forbade to give Tribute unto Caesar Luke 23. Now if they called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more them of his houshold If Christs did not think we the doctrine of his Ministers and his Servants could escape the stroke of mens tongues and be free from calumny and cavill How the Apostles were slandered as Seducers and Sectaries and vain bablers and Hereticks broachers of new false pestilent doctrines their Epistles and the book of their Acts witnesse abundantly to us And for succeeding times read but the Apologies of Athenagoras and Tertullian and others and it will amaze you to see what blasphemous and seditious and odious and horrible impieties were fathered upon the Ancient Christian Doctors and upon their profession But our own experience goeth beyond all Sundry of the Doctors of our Church teach truly and agreeably to Scripture the effectuall concurrence of GODS Will and Power with subordinate Agents in every and therefore even in sinful actions Gods free election of those whom he purposeth to save of his own grace without any motives in or from themselves The immutability of Gods Love and Grace towards the Saints elect and their certain perseverance therein unto Salvation The Iustification of sinners by the imputed righteousnesse of Christ apprehended and applied unto them by a lively faith without the works of the Law These are sound and true and if rightly understood comfortable and right profitable doctrines And yet they of the Church of Rome have the forehead I will not say to slander my Text alloweth more to blaspheme GOD and his Truth and the Ministers thereof for teaching them Bellarmine Gretser Maldonate and the Jesuits but none more than our own English Fugitives Bristow Stapleton Parsons Kellison and all the rable of that crew freely spend their mouths in barking against us as if we made God the author of sin as if we would have men sin and be damned by a Stoicall fatall necessity sin whether they will or no and be damned whether they deserve it or no as if we opened a gap to all licentiousnesse and profanenesse let them believe it is no matter how they live heaven is their own cock-sure as if we cryed down good works and condemned charity Slanders loud and false yet easily blown away with one single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These imputations upon us and our doctrine are unjust but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them that thus mis-report us know that without repentance their damnation will be just It would be time not ill spent to discover the grounds of this observation and to presse the uses of it something fully But because my aim lyeth another way I can but point at them and passe If seldome Truth scape unslandered marvel not the reasons are evident On Gods part on Mans part on the Devils part God suffereth Man raiseth and the Devil furthereth these slanders against the Truth To begin ordine retrogrado and to take them backwards First on the Devils part a kind of Contrariety and Antipathy betwixt him and it He being the Father of lies and Prince of darknesse cannot away with the Truth and with the Light and therefore casteth up slanders as Fogs and Mists against the Truth to bely it and against the Light to darken it Secondly on Mans part And that partly in the understanding when the judgement either of it self weak or else weakened
whereof we now speak had been more timely discovered and more fully and frequently made known to the world than it hath been Fourthly let that doctrine be once admitted and all humane authority will soon be despised The commands of Parents Masters and Princes which many times require both secrecy and expedition shall be taken into slow deliberation and the equity of them sifted by those that are bound to obey though they know no cause why so long as they know no cause to the contrary Delicata est obedientia quae transit in causae genus deliberativum It is a nice obedience in S. Bernards judgement yea rather troublesome and odious that is over-curious in discussing the commands of superiours boggling at every thing that is enjoyned requiring a why for every wherefore and unwilling to stir untill the lawfulness and expediency of the thing commanded shall be demonstrated by some manifest reason or undoubted authority from the Scriptures Lastly the admitting of this doctrine would cast such a snare upon men of weak judgements but tender consciences as they should never be able to unwind themselves thereout again Mens daily occasions for themselves or friends and the necessities of common life require the doing of a thousand things within the compasse of a few dayes for which it would puzzle the best Textman that liveth readily to bethink himself of a sentence in the Bible clear enough to satisfie a scrupulous conscience of the lawfulnesse and expediency of what he is about to do for which by hearkening to the rules of reason and discretion he might receive easie and speedy resolution In which cases if he should be bound to suspend his resolution and delay to do that which his own reason would tell him were presently needfull to be done untill he could haply call to mind some precept or example of Scripture for his warrant what stops would it make in the course of his whole life what languishings in the duties of his calling how would it fill him with doubts and irresolutions lead him into a maze of uncertainties entangle him in a world of wofull perplexities and without the great mercy of God and better instruction plunge him irrecoverably into the gulph of despair Since the chief end of the publication of the Gospel is to comfort the hearts and to revive and refresh the spirits of Gods people with the glad tidindgs of liberty from the spirit of bondage and fear and of gracious acceptance with their GOD to anoint them with the oyl of gladness giving them beauty for ashes and instead of sackcloth girding them with joy we may well suspect that doctrine not to be Evangelicall which thus setteth the consciences of men upon the rack tortureth them with continuall fears and perplexities and prepareth them thereby unto hellish despaire These are the grievous effects and pernicious consequents that will follow upon their opinion who hold that we must have warrant from the Scripture for every thing whatsoever we do not onely in spirituall things wherein alone it is absolutely true nor yet onely in other matters of weight though they be not spirituall for which perhaps there might be some colour but also in the common affairs of life even in the most slight and triviall things Yet for that the Patrons of this opinion build themselves as much upon the authority of this present Text as upon any other passage of Scripture whatsoever which is the reason why we have stood thus long upon the examination of it we are therefore 〈…〉 next place to clear the Text from that their mis-interpretation The force of their collection standeth thus as you heard already that faith is ever grounded upon the word of God that therefore whatsoever action is not grounded upon the word being it is not of faith by the Apostles rule here must needs be a sin Which collection could not be denied if the word Faith were here taken in that sense which they imagine and wherein it is very usuall taken in the Scriptures viz. for the doctrine of supernaturall and divine revelation or for the belief thereof which doctrine we willingly acknowledge to be compleatly contained in the holy Scriptures alone and therefore dare not admit into our belief as a branch of divine supernaturall truth any thing not therein contained But there is a third signification of the word Faith nothing so frequently found in the Scriptures as the two former which yet appeareth both by the course of this whole Chapter and by the consent of the best and most approved interpreters as well ancient as modern to have been properly intended by our Apostle in this place namely that wherein it is put for a certain perswasion of mind that what we do may lawfully be done So that whatsoever action is done by us with reasonable assurance and perswasion of the lawfulnesse thereof in our own consciences is in our Apostles purpose so far forth an action of Faith without any inquiring into the means whereby that perswasion was wrought in us whether it were the light of our own reason or the authority of some credible person or the declaration of Gods revealed will in his written Word And on the other side whatsoever action is done either directly contrary to the judgement and verdict of our own consciences or at leastwise doubtingly and before we are in some competent measure assured that we may lawfully do it that is it which S. Paul here denieth to be of faith and of which he pronounceth so peremptorily that it is and that co nomine a sin About which use and signification of the word Faith we need not to trouble our selves to fetch it from a trope either of a Metonymie or Synecdoche as some do For though as I say it do not so often occur in Scripture yet it is indeed the primary and native signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith derived from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perswade Because all kinds of Faith whatsoever consist in a kind of perswasion You shall therefore find the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly to believe and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly not to be perswaded to be opposed as contrary either to other in Iohn 3. and Acts 14. and other places To omit the frequent use of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Fides in Greek and Latine authors in this signification observe but the passages of this very Chapter and you will be satisfied in it At the second verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one believeth that he may eat all things that is he is verily perswaded in his conscience that he may as lawfully eat flesh as herbs any one kind of meat as any other he maketh no doubt of it Again at the fourteenth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know and am perswaded that there is nothing
a good man as well as a great and being good he was by so much the better by how much he was the greater Nor was he onely Bonus vir a good man and yet if but so his friends had done him much wrong to make him an Hypocrite but he was Bonus Civis too a good Common-wealths-man and therefore his friends did him yet more wrong to make him an Oppressour Indeed he was neither the one nor the other But it is not so useful for us to know what manner of man Iob was as to learn from him what manner of men we should be The grieved spirit of Iob indeed at first uttered these words for his own justification but the blessed spirit of God hath since written them for our instruction To teach us from Iobs example how to use that measure of greatness and power which he hath given us be it more be it lesse to his glory and the common good So that in these words we have to consider as laid down unto us under the person and from the example of Iob some of the main and principal duties which concern all those that live in any degree of Eminency or Authority either in Church or Common-wealth and more especially those that are in the Magistracy or in any office appertaining to Iustice. And those Duties are four One and the first as a more transcendent and fundamentall duty the other three as accessory helps thereto or subordinate parts thereof That first is a Care and Love and Zeal of Iustice. A good Magistrate should so make account of the administration of Iustice as of his chiefest businesse making it his greatest glory and delight Ver. 14. I put on righteousnesse and it clothed me my judgement was a robe and a diadem The second is a forwardnesse unto the works of Mercy and Charity and Compassion A good Magistrate should have compassion of those that stand in need of his help and be helpful unto them ver 15. and part of 16. I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a father to the poor The Third is Diligence in Examination A good Magistrate should not be hasty to credit the first tale or be carried away with light informations but he should hear and examine and scan and sift matters as narrowly as may be for the finding out of the truth in the remainder of ver 16. And the cause which I knew not I searched out The Fourth is Courage and Resolution in executing A good Magistrate when he goeth upon sure grounds should not fear the faces of men be they never so mighty or many but without respect of persons execute that which is equall and right even upon the greatest offender Ver. 17. And I brake the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth Of these four in their order of the first first in these words I put on righteousnesse c. This Metaphor of clothing is much used in the Scriptures in this notion as it is applyed to the soul things appertaining to the soul. In Psalm 109. David useth this imprecation against his enemies Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a cloke And the Prophet Esay speaking of Christ and his Kingdome and the righteousnesse thereof Chap. 11. thus describeth it Righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulnesse the girdle of his reins Likewise in the New Testament Saint Paul in one place biddeth us put on the Lord Iesus Christ in another exhorteth women to adorn themselves instead of broydered hair and gold and pearls and costly aray with shamefastness and sobriety and as becoming women professing godlinesse with good works in a third furnisheth the spirituall souldier with Shooes Girdle Breastplate Helmet and all necessary accoutrements from top to toe In all which and other places where the like Metaphor is used it is ever to be understoood with allusion to one of the three speciall ends and uses of apparell For we clothe our selves either first for necessity and common decency to cover our nakednesse or secondly for security and defence against enemies or thirdly for state and solemnity and for distinction of offices and degrees Our cloaks and coats and ordinary suits we all wear to cover our nakednesse and these are Indumenta known by no other but by the generall name of Clothing or Apparel Souldiers in the warres wear Morions and Cuiraces and Targets and other habiliments for defence and these are called Arma Armes or Armour Kings and Princes were Crowns and Diadems inferiour Nobles and Judges and Magistrates and Officers their Robes and â—urres and Hoods and other ornaments fitting to their severall degrees and offices for solemnity of state and as ensigns or marks of those places and stations wherein God hath set them and these are Infulae Ornaments or Robes It is true Iustice and Iudgement and every other good vertue and grace is all this unto the soul serving her both for covert and for protection and for ornament and so stand both for the garments and for the armour and for the Robes of the soul. But here I take it Iob alludeth esecially to the third use The propriety of the very words themselves give it so for he saith he put righteousnesse and judgement upon him as a Robe and a Diadem and such things as there are worn not for necessity but state Iob was certainly a Magistrate a Iudge at the least it is evident from the seventh verse and to me it seemeth not improbable that he was a King though not likely such as the Kings of the earth now are whose dominions are mider and power more absolute yet possibly such as in those ancient times and in those Eastern parts of the world were called Kings viz. a kind of petty Monarch and supreme governour within his own territories though perhaps but of one single City with the Suburbs and some few neighbouring Villages In the first Chapter it is said that he was the greatest man of all the East and in this Chapter he saith of himself that When he came in presence the Princes and the Nobles held their tongues and that He sate as chief and dwelt as a King in the Army and in this verse he speaketh as one that wore a Diadem an ornament proper to Kings Now Kings we know and other Magistrates place much of their outward glory and state in their Diadems and Robes and peculiar Vestments these things striking a kind of reverence into the subject towards their Superiour and adding in the estimation of the people both glory and honour and Majesty to the person and withall pomp and state and solemnity to the actions of the wearer By this speech then of putting on Iustice and Iudgement as a Robe and a Diadem Iob sheweth that the glory and pride which Kings and Potentates
is no lesse good to the poor that whippeth him when he deserveth This is indeed to be good to the poor to give him that almes first which he wanteth most if he be hungry it is almes to feed him but if he be idle and untoward it is almes to whip him This is to be good to the poor But who then are the poor we should be good to as they interpret goodnesse Saint Paul would have Widowes honoured but yet those that are widowes indeed so it is meet the poor should be relieved but yet those that are poor indeed Not every one that begges is poor not every one that wanteth is poor not every one that is poor is poor indeed They are the poor whom we private men in Charity and you that are Magistrates in â—ustice stand bound to relieve who are old or impotent and unable to work or in these hard and depopulating times are willing but cannot be set on work or have a greater charge upon them than can be maintained by their work These and such as these are the poor indeed let us all be good to such as these Be we that are private men as brethren to these poor ones and shew them mercy be you that are Magistrates as Fathers to these poor ones and do them justice But as for those idle stubborn professed wanderers that can and may and will not work and under the name and habit of poverty rob the poor indeed of our almes and their maintenance let us harden our hearts against them and not give them do you execute the severity of the Law upon them and not spare them It is Saint Pauls Order nay it is the Ordinance of the Holy Ghost and we should all put to our helping hands to see it kept He that will not labour let him not eat These Ulcers and Drones of the Common-wealth are ill worthy of any honest mans almes of any good Magistrates protection Hitherto of the Magistrates second Duty with the Reasons and extent thereof I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a Father to the poor Followeth next the third Duty in these words The cause which I knew not I searched out Of which words some frame the Coherence with the former as if Iob had meant to clear his mercy to the poor from suspicion of partiality and injustice and as if he had said I was a Father indeed to the poor pitifull and mercifull to him and ready to shew him any lawfull favour but yet not so as in pity to him to forget or pervert justice I was ever carefull before I would either speak or do for him to be first assured his cause was right and good and for that purpose if it were doubtfull I searched it out and examined it before I would countenance either him or it Certainly thus to do is agreeable to the rule of Iustice yea and of Mercy too for it is one Rule in shewing Mercy that it be ever done salvis pietate justitiâ without prejudice done to piety and justice And as to this particular the commandment of God is expresse for it in Exod. 23. Thou shalt not countenance no not a poor man in his cause Now if we should thus understand the coherence of the words the speciall duty which Magistrates should hence learn would be indifferency in the administration of Justice not to make difference of rich or poor far or near friend or foe one or other but to consider onely and barely the equity and right of the cause without any respect of persons or partiall inclination this way or that way This is a very necessary duty indeed in a Magistrate of justice and I deny not but it may be gathered without any violence from these very words of my Text though to my apprehension not so much by way of immediate observation from the necessity of any such coherence as by way of consequence from the words themselves otherwise For what need all that care and paines and diligence in searching out the cause if the condition of the person might over-rule the cause after all that search and were not the judgement to be given meerly according to the goodnesse or badnesse of the cause without respect had to the person But the speciall duty which these words seem most naturally and immediately to impose upon the Magistrate and let that be the third observation is diligence and patience and care to hear and examine and enquire into the truth of things and into the equity of mens causes As the Physician before he prescribe receipt or diet to his patient will first feel the pulse and view the urine and observe the temper and changes in the body and be inquisitive how the disease began and when and what fits it hath and where and in what manner it holdeth him and inform himself every other way as fully as he can in the true state of the body that so he may proportion the remedies accordingly without errour so ought every Magistrate in causes of Justice before he pronounce sentence or give his determination whether in matters judiciall or criminall to hear both parties with equall patience to examine witnesses and other evidences advisedly and throughly to consider and wisely lay together all allegations and circumstances to put in quaeres and doubts upon the by and use all possible expedient meanes for the boulting out of the truth that so he may do that which is equall and right without errour A duty not without both Precept and Precedent in holy Scripture Moses prescribeth it in Deut. 17. in the case of Idolatry If there be found among you one that hath done thus or thus c. And it be told thee and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently and behold it to be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel Then thou shalt bring forth that man c. The offender must be stoned to death and no eye pity him but it must be done orderly and in a legall course not upon a bare hear-say but upon diligent examination and inquisition and upon such full evidence given in as may render the fact certain so far as such cases ordinarily are capable of certainty And the like is again ordered in Deut. 19. in the case of false witnesse Both the men between whom the controversie is shall stand before the Iudges and the Iudges shall make diligent inquisition c. And in Iudg. 19. in the wronged Levites case whose Concubine was abused unto death at Gibeah the Tribes of Israel stirred up one another to do justice upon the inhabitants thereof and the method they proposed was this first to consider and consult of it and then to give their opinions But the most famous example in this kinde is that of King Solomon in 3 Kings 3. in the difficult case of the two Mothers
before him but so did not I because of the fear of God Neh. 5. What did not Nehemiah bear rule over the people yes that he did there is nothing surer His meaning then must be so did not I that is I did not suffer my servants so to do as they did theirs implying that when the servants of the former governours oppressed the people it was their Masters doing at leastwise their Masters suffering Even their servants bare rule over the people but so did not I because of the fear of God The Magistrate therefore that would speedily smoke away these Gnats that swarm about the Courts of justice and will be offering at his ear to buzze false reports thereinto he shall do well to begin his reformation at home and if he have a servant that heareth not well deservedly to pack him away out of hand and to get an honester in his room Say he be of never so serviceable qualities and useful abilities otherwise so as the Master might almost as well spare his right eye or his right hand as forgo his service yet in this case he must not spare him Our Saviours speech is peremptory Erue Abscinde Projice if either eye or hand cause or tempt thee to offend pull out that eye cut off that hand cast them both from thee with indignation rather want both then suffer corruption in either Davids resolution was excellent in Psal. 101. and worthy thy imitation Who so privily slandereth his neighbour him will I destroy whoso hath a proud look and high stomach I will not suffer him Mine eyes look to such as be faithfull in the Land that they may dwell with me whoso leadeth a godly life he shall be my servant There shall no deceitfull person dwell in my house he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight He that will thus resolve and thus do it may be presumed he will not knowingly give either way to a false report or countenance to the reporter And so much for our first Rule Thou shalt not raise a false report My first purpose I confess was to have spoken also to the Witness to the Iurer to the Pleader to the Officer from the other four Rules in my text as punctually particularly as to the Accuser from this first for I therefore made choice of a Text that taketh them all in that I might speak to them all alike But if I should enlarge my self upon the rest as I have done in this my meditations would swell to the proportion rather of a Treatise then a Sermon and what patience were able to sit them out Therefore I must not do it And indeed if what I have spoken to this first point were duly considered and conscionably practised I should the lesse need to do it For it is the Accuser that layeth the first stone the rest do but build upon his foundation And if there were no false reports raised or received there would be the lesse use of and the lesse work for false and suborned Witnesses ignorant or packt Iuries crafty and slie Pleaders cogging and extorting Officers But unto these I have no more to say at this time but onely to desire each of them to lay that portion of my Text to their hearts which in the first division was allotted them as their proper share and withall to make application mutatis mutandis unto themselves of whatsoever hath been presently spoken to the Accuser and to the Magistrate from this first rule Whereof for the better furtherance of their Application and relief of all our memories the summe in brief is thus First concerning the Accuser and that is every party in a cause or tryall he must take heed he do not raise a false report which is done first by forging a meer untruth and secondly by perverting or aggravating a truth and thirdly by taking advantage of strict Law against Equity Any of which who ever doth he first committeth a haynous sin himself and secondly grievously wrongeth his neighbour and thirdly bringeth a great deal of mischief to the Common-weal All which evils are best avoyded first by considering how we would others should deal with us and resolving so to deal with them and secondly by avoyding as all other inducements and occasions so especially those four things which ordinarily engage men in unjust quarrels Malice Obsequiousness Coverture and Greediness Next concerning the Iudge or Magistrate he must take heed he do not receive a false report Which he shall hardly avoid unless he beware first of taking private informations secondly of passing over causes slightly without mature disquisition and thirdly of countenancing Accusers more than is meet For whose discountenancing and deterring he may consider whether or no these five may not be good helps so far as it lyeth in his power and the Laws will permit first to reject informations tendred without Oath secondly to give such interpretations as may stand with Equity as wel as Law thirdly to chastise Informers that use partiality or collusion fourthly to allow the wronged party a liberal satisfaction from his adversary fifthly to carry a sharp eye and a strait hand over his own Servants Followers and Officers Now what remaineth but that the several premises earnestly recommended to the godly consideration and conscionable practice of every one of you whom they may concern and all your persons and affairs both in the present weighty businesses and ever hereafter to the good guidance and providence of Almighty God we should humbly beseech him of his gracious goodnesse to give a blessing to that which hath been spoken agreeably to his word that it may bring forth in us the fruits of Godliness Charity and Iustice to the glory of his grace the good of our brethren and the comfort of our own souls even for his blessed Son's sake our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. To whom with c. AD MAGISTRATUM The Third Sermon At the Assises at Lincolne 4. Aug. 1625. at the request of the High Sheriffe aforesaid WILLIAM LISTER Esquire PSALME 106.30 Then stood up Phinehes and executed judgement and the plague was stayed THe abridgement is short which some have made of the whole Book of Psalmes but into two words Hosannah and Hallelujah most of the Psalmes spending themselves as in their proper arguments either in Supplication praying unto God for his blessings and that is Hosannah or in Thanksgiving blessing God for his goodnesse and that is Hallelujah This Psalme is of the later sort The word Hallelujah both prefixed in the title and repeated in the close of it sufficiently giveth it to be a Psalm of Thanksgiving as are also the three next before it and the next after it All which five Psalmes together as they agree in the same general argument the magnifying of Gods holy name so they differ every one from other in choyce of those speciall and topicall arguments whereby the praises of God are set forth
afflictions in sundry kinds too long to rehearse And all these temporal judgements their fathers sinnes might bring upon them even as the faith and vertues and other graces of the fathers do sometimes conveigh temporal blessings to their posterity So Ierusalem was saved in the siege by Senacherib for Davids sake many yeares after his death Esay 37.35 And the succession of the Crown of Israel continued in the line of Iehu for four descents for the zeal that he shewed against the worshippers of Baal and the house of Ahab So then men may fare the better and so they may fare the worse too for the vertues or vices of their Ancestors Outwardly and temporally they may but spiritually and eternally they cannot For as never yet any man went to heaven for his fathers goodnesse so neither to hell for his fathers wickednesse If it be objected that for any people or person to suffer a famine of the word of God to be deprived of the use and benefit of the sacred and saving ordinances of God to be left in utter darknesse without the least glimpse of the glorious light of the Gospel of God without which ordinarily there can be no knowledge of Christ nor meanes of Faith nor possibility of Salvation to be thus visited is more than a temporal punishment and yet this kind of spiritual judgement doth sometimes light upon a Nation or people for the unbelief and unthankfulnesse and impenitency and contempt of their Progenitors whilest they had the light and that therefore the Children for their Parents and Posterity for their Ancestry are punished not only with Temporal but even with Spiritual judgements also If any shall thus object one of these two answers may satisfie them First if it should be granted the want of the Gospel to be properly a spiritual judgement yet it would not follow that one man were punished spiritually for the fault of another For betwixt private persons and publick societies there is this difference that in private persons every succession maketh a change so that when the Father dyeth and the son cometh after him there is not now the same person that was before but another but in Cities and countries and Kingdomes and all publick societies succession maketh no change so that when One generation passeth and another cometh after it there is not another City or Nation or People than there was before but the same If then the people of the same land should in this generation be visited with any such spiritual judgment as is the removal of their Candlestick and the want of the Gospel for the sinnes and impieties of their Ancestors in some former generations yet this ought no more to be accounted the punishment of one for another than it ought to be accounted the punishing of one for another to punish a man in his old age for the sinnes of his youth For as the body of a man though the primitive moysture be continually spending and wasting therein and that decay be still repaired by a daily supply of new and alimentall moysture is yet truly the same body and as a River fed with a living spring though the water that is in the chanel be continually running out and other water freshly succeeding in the place and room thereof is truly the same River so a Nation or People though one generation is ever passing away and another coming on is yet truely the same Nation or People after an hundred or a thousand yeares which it was before Again secondly The want of the Gospel is not properly a spiritual but rather a temporal punishment We call it indeed sometimes a spiritual Iudgement as we do the free use of it a spiritual Blessing because the Gospel was written for and revealed unto the Church by the Spirit of GOD and also because it is the holy Ordinance of GOD and the proper instrument whereby ordinarily the Spiritual life of Faith and of Grace is conveyed into our soules But yet properly primarily those only are Spiritual blessings which are immediately wrought in the soul by the spirit of God and by the same Spirit cherished and preserved in the heart of the receiver for his good and are proper and peculiar to those that are born again of the spirit and all those on the contrary which may be subject to decay or are common to the reprobate with the Elect or may turn to the hurt of the receiver are to be esteemed temporal blessings and not spiritual And such a blessing is the outward partaking of the word and Ordinances of GOD the want thereof therefore consequently is to be esteemed a temporal judgement rather than spiritual So that notwithstanding this instance still the former consideration holdeth good that GOD sometimes visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children with outward and temporal but never with spiritual and eternal punishments Now if there could no more be said to this doubt but only this it were sufficient to clear Gods Iustice since we have been already instructed that these temporal judgements are not alwayes properly and formally the punishments of sinne For as outward blessings are indeed no true blessings properly because Wicked men have their portion in them as well as the Godly and they may turn and often do to the greater hurt of the soul and so become rather Punishments than Blessings so to the contrary outward punishments are no true punishments properly because the Godly have their share in them as deep as the Wicked and they may turn and often do to the greater good of the soul and so become rather Blessings than Punishments If it be yet said But why then doth God threaten them as Punishments if they be not so I answer First because they seem to be punishments and are by most men so accounted for their grievousnesse though they be not properly such in themselves Secondly for the common event because ut plurimùm and for the most part they prove punishments to the sufferer in case he be not bettered as well as grieved by them Thirdly because they are indeed a kind of punishment though not then deserved but formerly Fourthly and most to the present purpose because not seldome the Father himself is punished in them who through tendernesse of affection taketh very much to heart the evils that happen to his child sometimes more than if they had happened to himself See David weeping and puling for his trayterous son Absalom when he was gone more affectionately than we find he did for the hazzards of his own person and of the whole State of Israel whiles he lived For if it be a punishment to a man to sustain losses in his cattel or goods or lands or friends or any other thing he hath how much more then in his children of whom he maketh more account than of all the rest as being not only an Image but even a part