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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritual 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 it 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 f 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 only 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 only excepted which are of intrinsecal and mutual relation are the joynt and undivided works of the whole three Persons according to the common known Maxim constantly and uniformly received in the Catholick 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 unto 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 spiritual gifts proceed equally and undividedly from the whole three persons from God the Father and from his Son Iesus Christ our Lord and from the eternal Spirit of them both the Holy Ghost as from one intire indivisible and coessential Agent But for that we are gross of understanding and unable to conceive the distinct Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead otherwise than by apprehending some distinction of their operations and offices to us ward it hath pleased the Wisdom of God in the holy Scriptures which being written for our sakes were to be fitted to our capacities so far to condescend to our weakness and dulness as to attribute some of those great and common works to one person and some to another after a more special manner than unto the rest although indeed and in truth none of the three persons had more or less to do than other in any of those great and common works This manner of speaking Divines use to call Appropriation By which appropriation as power is ascribed to the Father and Wisdom to the Son so is Goodness to the Holy Ghost And therefore as the work of Creation wherein is specially seen the mighty power of God is appropiated to the Father and the work of Redemption wherein is specially seen the wisdom of God to the Son and so the works of sanctification and the infusion of habitual graces whereby the good things of God are communicated unto us is appropriated unto the Holy Ghost And for this cause the gifts thus communicated unto us from God are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual gifts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit We see now why spirit but then why manifestation The word as most other verbals of that form may be understood either in the active or passive signification And it is not material whether of the two ways we take it in this place both being true and neither improper For these spiritual gifts are the manifestation of the spirit actively because by these the Spirit manifesteth the will of God unto the Church these being the Instruments and means of conveying the knowledge of salvation unto the people of God And they are the manifestation of the spirit Passively too because where any of these gifts especially in any eminent sort appeared in any person it was a manifest evidence that the Spirit of God wrought in him As we read it Acts 10. that they of the Circumcision were astonished when they saw that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gifts of the Holy Ghost If it be demanded But how did that appear it followeth in the next verse For they heard them speak with tongues c. The spiritual Gift then is a manifestation of the Spirit as every other sensible effect is a manifestation of its proper cause We are now yet further to know that the Gifts and graces wrought in us by the holy Holy Spirit of God are of two sorts The Scriptures sometimes distinguish them by the different terms of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although those words are sometimes again used indifferently and promiscuously either for other They are commonly known in the Schools and differenced by the names of Gratiae gratum facientes Gratiae gratis datae Which terms though they be not very proper for the one of them may be affirmed of the other whereas the members of every good distinction ought to be opposite yet because they have been long received and change of terms though haply for the better hath by experience been found for the most part unhappy in the event in multiplying unnecessary book-quarrels we may retain them profitably and without prejudice Those former which they call Gratum facientes are the Graces of Sanctification whereby the person that hath them is enabled to do acceptable service to God in the duties of his General Calling these latter which they call Gratis datas are the Graces of Edification whereby the person that hath them is enabled to do profitable service to the Church of God in the duties of his particular Calling Those are
confession of their own learned Writers depend upon unwritten Traditions more than upon the Scriptures True it is that for most of these they pretend to Scripture also but with so little colour at the best and with so little confidence at the last that when they are hard put to it they are forced to fly from that hold and to shelter themselves under their great Diana Tradition Take away that it is confessed that many of the chief Articles of their Faith nature vacillare videbuntur will seem even to totter and reel and have much ado to keep up For what else could we imagine should make them strive so much to debase the Scripture all they can denying it to be a Rule of Faith and charging it with imperfection obscurity uncertainty and many other defects and on the other side to magnifie Traditions as every way more absolute but meerly their consciousness that sundry of their Doctrines if they should be examined to the bottom would appear to have no sound foundation in the Written Word And then must we needs conclude from what hath been already delivered that they ought to be received or rather not to be received but rejected as the Doctrines and Commandments of men 14. Nor will their flying to Tradition help them in this Case or free them from Pharisaism but rather make the more against them For to omit that it hath been the usual course of false teachers when their Doctrines were found not to be Scripture-proof to fly to Tradition do but enquire a little into the Original and growth of Pharisaical Traditions and you shall find that one Egg is not more like another than the Papists and the Pharisees are alike in this matter When Sadoc or whosoever else was the first Author of the Sect of the Sadduces and his followers began to vent their pestilent and Atheistical Doctrines against the immortality of the Soul the resurrection of the Body and other like the best learned among the Iews the Pharisees especially opposed against them by arguments and collections drawn from the Scriptures The Sadduces finding themselves unable to hold argument with them as having two shrewd disadvantages but a little Learning and a bad cause had no other means to avoid the force of all their arguments than to hold them precisely to the letter of the Text without admitting any Exposition thereof or Collection therefrom Unless they could bring clear Text that should affirm totidem verbis what they denied they would not yield The Pharisees on the contrary refused as they had good cause to be tied to such unreasonable conditions but stood upon the meaning of the Scriptures as the Sadduces did upon the letter confirming the truth of their interpretations partly from Reason and partly from Tradition Not meaning by Tradition as yet any Doctrine other than what was already sufficiently contained in the Scriptures but meerly the Doctrine which had been in all ages constantly taught and received with an Universal consent among the People of God as consonant to the holy Scriptures and grounded thereon By this means though they could not satisfie the Sadduces as Hereticks and Sectaries commonly are obstinate yet so far they satisfied the generality of the People that they grew into very great esteem with them and within a while carried all before them the detestation of the Sadduces and of their loose Errors also conducing not a little thereunto And who now but the Pharisees and what now but Tradition In every Mans eye and mouth Things being at this pass any Wise Man may Judge how easie a matter it was for Men so reverenced as the Pharisees were to abuse the Credulity of the People and the interest they had in their good Opinion to their own advantage to make themselves Lords of the Peoples Faith and by little and little to bring into the Worship whatsoever Doctrines and observances they pleased and all under the acceptable name of the Traditions of the Elders And so they did winning continually upon the People by their cunning and shews of Religion and proceeding still more and more till the Iewish Worship by their means was grown to that height of superstition and formality as we see it was in our Saviours days Such was the beginning and such the rise of these Pharisaical Traditions 15. Popish Traditions also both came in and grew up just after the same manner The Orthodox Bishops and Doctors in the ancient Church being to maintain the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead the Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father the Hypostatical union of the two Natures in the Person of Christ the Divinity of the Holy Ghost and other like Articles of the Catholick Religion against the Arrians Eunomians Macedonians and other Hereticks for that the words Trinity Homoiision Hypostasis Procession c. which for the better expressing of the Catholick sence they were forced to use were not expresly to be found in the holy Scriptures had recourse therefore very often in their writings against the Hereticks of their times to the Tradition of the Church Whereby they meant not as the Papists would now wrest their words any unwritten Doctrine not contained in the Scriptures but the very Doctrine of the Scriptures themselves as they had been constantly understood and believed by all faithful Christians in the Catholick Church down from the Apostles times till the several present Ages wherein they lived This course of theirs of so serviceable and necessary use in those times gave the first occasion and after-rise to that heap of Errors and Superstitions which in process of time by the Power and Policy of the Bishop of Rome especially were introduced into the Christian Church under the specious name and colour of Catholick Traditions Thus have they trodden in the steps of their Forefathers the Pharisees and stand guilty even as they of the Superstition here condemned by our Saviour in teaching for Doctrines mens Precepts 16. But if the Church of Rome be cast how shall the Church of England be quit That symbolizeth so much with her in many of her Ceremonies and otherwise What are all our crossings and kneelings and duckings What Surplice and Ring and all those other Rites and Accoutrements that are used in or about the Publick Worship but so many Commandments of men For it cannot be made appear nor truly do I think was it ever endeavoured that God hath any where commanded them Indeed these things have been objected heretofore with clamour enough and the cry is of late revived again with more noise and malice than ever in a world of base and unworthy Pamphlets that like the Frogs of Aegypt croak in every corner of the Land And I pray God the suffering of them to multiply into such heaps do not cause the whole Land so to stink in his Nostrils that he grow weary of it and forsake us But I undertook to justifle the Church of
and obedience other fruits of grace in some good and 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 and other sometimes again and oftner key cold presume not too much upon shews but suspect thy self still of hypocrisie and insincerity and never cease by repentance and prayer and the constant exercises 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 vers 27. And it came to pass 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 less power and withal 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 Vine-yard and there to his face charge him plainly with and shake him up roundly for and denounce Gods judgments powerfully against his bloody abominable oppressions We would think a Monarch nusled up in Idolatry and accustomed to blood and hardened in Sin and Obstinacy should not have brooked that insolency from such a one as Eliah was but have made his life a ransom for his sawciness 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 joints and tumble him from the height of his jollity and roll him in sackcloth 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 powerful 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 an analogy true of the revealed Word of God the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles that it is Quick and powerful and more cutting than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow Is not my word like as a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces Jer. 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 Ninevites 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 bloody Persecutors maskered at the bold consessions 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 hand are the hearts and the tongues and the ears 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 as to the chief agent that imployeth it We have this treasure in earthen Veslels saith St. Paul that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us 2 Cor. 4. We say words are but wind and indeed the words of the best Minister are no better as they are breathed out and uttered by sinful mortal man whose breath is in his nostrils but yet this wind as it is breathed in and inspired by the powerful eternal Spirit of God is strong enough by his effectual working with it not only to shake the top branches but to rend up the very bottom-root of the tallest Cedar in Lebanon Vox Domini confringens Cedros Psal. 29. The voice of the Lord is mighty in operation the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice The voice of the Lord breaketh the Cedars yea the Lord breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon Another Cause is in the Object and that is the force of Natural Conscience which the most presumptuous sinner can never so stifle though he endeavour all he can to do it but that it will be sometimes snubbing and stinging and lashing and vexing him with ugly representations of his past sins and terrible suggestions of future vengeance And then of all other times is the force of it most lively when the voice of God in his Word awakeneth it after a long dead sleep Then it riseth and Sampson-like rouseth up it self and bestirreth it self lustily as a Giant refreshed with Wine and it putteth the disquieted patient to such unsufferable pain that he runneth up and down like a distracted man and doth he knoweth not what and seeketh for ease he knoweth not where Then he would give all Dives his wealth for A drop of Water to cool the heat he feeleth and with Esau part with his birth-right for any thing though it were never so little mean that would give him but the least present refreshing and preserve him from fainting Then sack-cloth and ashes and fasting and weeping and mourning and renting the garments and tearing the hair and knocking the breast and out-cries to heaven and all those other things which he could not abide to hear of in the time of his former security whilest his conscience lay fast asleep and at rest are now in all haste greedily entertained and all too little if by any means they can possibly give any ease or asswagement to the present torment
our hands towards the necessities of others Of the temporals we here enjoy we are not to account ourselves Proprietaries but Stewards and such as must be accountable It should be our wisdom therefore as it will be our happiness to dispose them into other hands by Alms-deeds and other charitable works and so to improve these Temporals which we cannot properly call our own to our own spiritual and eternal advantage That latter and more special application is in the next verse Make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon c. The words proposed contain the more general application our business at this time delivered here by way of comparison a way more effectual ordinarily to provoke endeavour than bare Exhortations are For the children of this world are in their Generation wiser than the children of Light 3. In which comparison there are observable first and secondly as the terms of the comparison two sorts of persons distinguished either from other by their several Appellations and compared the one with the other in the point of wisdom The children of this world on the one part and the children of light on the other between these the question is whether sort is wiser Thirdly the sentence or judgment given upon the question clearly on behalf of the former sort they are pronounced the wiser The children of this world wiser than the children of light Lastly the limitation of the sentence how far forth it is to be understood They wiser true but then you must take it right wiser in their generation not simply and absolutely wiser Of which in order 4. The persons are children of this world and children of light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both sons or children That is terminus convenientiae as opposites have always something wherein they agree Men of some special Country Profession Quality or Condition are by an usual Hebraism in the Scriptures expressed by this word Children with some addition thereunto as Children of Edom Children of the Prophets Children of death From the Hebrews other Languages have by derivation entertained the same Pleonasm as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so frequent in Homer filii medicorum and the like In the Scriptures it is very usual both in the good part and in the bad In the good part you have children of Abraham children of Wisdom children of God in the evil part children of Belial children of Disobedience children of Hell Here are both Children of the World and Children of Light 5. For the World first the Greeks have two words for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one importing more properly the frame of the creatures the other some space or duration of time rather That propriety is not always observed by Writers yet here it is for the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath respect unto Time Next whereas it is said this World that implieth there is another set oppositely against this distinguished Luke 20. by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this world and that world otherwhere by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world that now is and the world to come Again this world so taken to wit as it standeth distinguished from that world or the world to come is yet capable to be understood in a double notion For it may be taken either in a more general sence with respect to the common affairs of this life without difference of good or bad as it is taken in that place of Luke now mentioned The children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they that shall be counte'd worthy of that world c. The children of this world that is men that live here on earth whilest here they live and the children of that world they that hereafter shall live for ever in heaven Or it may be taken in a narrower and more restrained sence as the world is opposed an contradistinguished to the Church And the opposition of the children of this world to the children of light sheweth it must be so taken here in effect as if he had said the children of darkness Those then are the children of this world here meant who as subjects serve under the Prince of darkness the God of this world live in the works of darkness the employment of this world and when they die unless God in special mercy deal otherwise with them and that will not be done but upon the condition supposed that of their repentance shall be cast into utter darkness at the end of the world 6. And this title we may conceive to belong unto them in a threefold respect in asmuch as 1. Their affections are bent upon this world 2. Their conversations are conformed to this world and 3. There portion is allotted them in this world First children of this world for that their affections are wholly set upon the world The Godly are in this world tanquam in alieno as strangers and pilgrims in a foreign yea in the enemies country and they look upon the world and are looked upon by it as strangers and are used by it accordingly If they were of the world the world would own them and love them as her own party and they would also love the world again as their own home But because they are not of the world though they be in it but are denizons of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. therefore the world hateth them and they on the other side are weary of the world and long after heaven their own countrey where their treasure is laid up and where their hearts and affections also are Like an English Factor in Turkey that hath some dealings there if not rather like an English Captive that is held Prisoner there but still professeth himself a Subject of England and his heart and desires are here But the Children spoken of here in the Text are in the World tanquam in proprio as in their own Countrey at their own homes where if they might they would willingly set up their rest for ever As Socrates being asked what Countrey-man he was answered that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Citizen of the world so but in another and a worse sence are they No marvel then if they doat so much upon the world as bad as it is and settle their hearts and affections so entirely thereupon saying as St. Peter did when he said he knew not what bonum est esse hic It is good being here Their souls cleave to the world and it is death to them to part from it 7. And as for their Affections so secondly children of this world in respect of their Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle fashion not your self after this present world The Godly being changed in the renewing of their minds do
dissenting Brethren yet I am sure Mr. Richard Baxter was one and I am sure also one of the Points debated was Concerning a Command of Lawful Superiours what was sufficient towards its being a lawful Command this following Proposition was brought by the conforming Party That Command which commands an act in it self lawful and no other act or Circumstance unlawful is not sinful Mr. Baxter denied it for two Reasons which he gave in with his own hand in writing thus One was Because that may be a sin per accidens which is not so in it self and may be unlawfully commanded though that accident be not in the command Another was That it may be commanded under an unjust penalty Again this proposition being brought by the Conformists That Command which commandeth an act in it self lawful and no other act whereby any unjust penalty is injoyned nor any circumstance whence per accidens any sin is consequent which the Commander ought to provide against is not sinful Mr. Baxter denied it for this reason then given in with his own hand in writing thus Because the first act commanded may be per accidens unlawful and be commanded by an unjust penalty though no other act or circumstance commanded be such Again this Proposition being brought by the Conformists That Command which commandeth an act in it self lawful and no other Act whereby any unjust penalty is injoyned nor any circumstance whence directly or per accidens any sin is consequent which the Commander ought to provide against hath in it all things requisite to the lawfulness of a Command and paticularly cannot be guilty of commanding an act per accidens unlawful nor of commanding an act under an unjust penalty Mr. Baxter denyed it upon the same Reasons Peter Gunning Iohn Pearson These were then two of the Disputants still live and will attest this one being now Lord Bishop of Ely and the other of Chester And the last of them told me very lately that one of the Dissenters which I could but forbear to name appear'd to Dr. Sanderson to be so bold so troublesom and so illogical in the dispute as forced patient Dr. Sanderson who was then Bishop of Lincoln and a Moderator with other Bishops to say with an unusual earnestness That he had never met with a man of more pertinacious confidence and less abilities in all his conversation But though this debate at the Savoy was ended without any great satisfaction to either party yet both parties knew the desires and understood the abilities of the other much better than before it and the late distressed Clergy that were now restor'd to their former rights and power were so Charitable as at their next meeting in Convocation to contrive to give the Dissenting Party satisfaction by alteration explanation and addition to some part both of the Rubrick and Common-Prayer as also by adding some new necessary Collects with a particular Collect of Thanksgiving How many of these new Collects were worded by Dr. Sanderson I cannot say but am sure the whole Convocation valued him so much that he never undertook to speak to any Point in question but he was heard with great willingness and attention and when any Point in question was determin'd the Convocation did usually desire him to word their intentions and as usually approve and thank him At this Convocation the Common-Prayer was made more compleat by adding three new necessary Offices which were A form of Humiliation for the murther of King Charles the Martyr a thanksgiving for the Restoration of his Son our King and for the baptizing of persons of riper age I cannot say Dr. Sanderson did form or word them all but doubtless more than any single man of the Convocation and he did also by desire of the Convocation alter and add to the forms of Prayers to be used at Sea now taken into the Service-Book And it may be noted That William the now most Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury was in these imployments diligently useful especially in helping to rectifie the Kalendar and Rubrick And lastly it may be noted that for the satisfying all the dissenting Brethren and others the Convocations Reasons for the alterations and additions to the Liturgy were by them desir'd to be drawn up by Dr. Sanderson which being done by him and approv'd by them was appointed to be Printed before the Liturgy and may be now known by this Title The Preface and begins thus It hath been the wisdom of the Church I shall now follow Dr. Sanderson to his Bishoprick and declare a part of his behaviour in that busie and weighty imployment And first That it was with such condescension and obligingness to the meanest of his Clergy as to know and be known to most of them And indeed he practis'd the like to all men of what degree soever especially to his old Neighbours or Parishioners of Boothby Pannel for there was all joy at his Table when they came to visit him then they pray'd for him and he for them with an unfeigned affection I think it will not be deny'd but that the care and toyl required of a Bishop may justly challenge the riches and revenue with which their Predecessors had lawfully endow'd them and yet he sought not that so much as doing good with it both to the present Age and Posterity and he made this appear by what follows The Bishops chief House at Buckden in the County of Huntington the usual Residence of his Predecessors for it stands about the midst of his Diocess having been at his Consecration a great part of it demolish'd and what was left standing under a visible decay was by him undertaken to be erected and repair'd and it was perform'd with great speed care and charge And to this may be added That the King having by an Injunction commended to the care of the Bishops Deans and Prebends of all Cathedral Churches the repair of them their Houses and an augmentation of the revenue of small Vicarages He when he was repairing Bugden did also augment the last as fast as Fines were paid for renewing Leases so fast that a Friend taking notice of his bounty was so bold as to advise him to remember he was under his first fruits and that he was old and had a wife and children that were yet but meanly provided for especially if his dignity were considered To whom he made a mild and thankful answer saying It would not become a Christian Bishop to suffer those houses built by his Predecessors to be ruin'd for want of repair and less justifiable to suffer any of those poor Vicars that were call'd to so high a calling as to sacrifice at God's Altar to eat the bread of sorrow constantly when he had a power by a small augmentation to turn it into the bread of chearfulness and wish'd that as this was so it were also in his Power to make all mankind happy for he desired nothing more And for his Wife and Children he hop'd
despised it were enough without God's singular mercy and support to make him repent his late conversion and revolt from the Faith by fearful and desperate Apostacy And he that by such despising should thus offend though but one of the least and weakest of those that believe in Christ a thousand times better had it been for him that he had never been born yea ten thousand times better that a mill-stone had been hung about his neck and he cast into the bottom of the Sea ere he had done it Despising is a grievous sin in the despiser in the strong and despising is a grievous scandal to the despised to the weak Let not therefore the strong despise the Weak Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not And thus much for the former branch of St. Paul's advice The other followeth Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth Faults seldom go single but by couples at the least Sinful men do with sinful provocations as Ball-players with the Ball when the Ball is once up they labour to keep it up right so when an offence or provocation is once given it is tossed to and fro the receiver ever returning it pat upon the giver and that most times with advantage and so betwixt them they make a shift to preserve a perpetuity of sinning and of scandalizing one another It is hard to say who beginneth oftner the Strong or the Weak but whether ever beginneth he may be sure the other will follow If this judge that will despise if that despise this will judge either doth his endeavour to cry quittance with other and thinketh himself not to be at all in fault because the other was first or more This Apostle willing to redress faults in both beginneth first with the Strong and for very good reason Not that his fault simply considered in it self is greater for I take it a certain truth That to judge one that is in the right is a far greater fault considered absolutely without relation to the abilities of the persons than to despise one that is in the wrong But because the strong through the ability of his Judgment ought to yield so much to the infirmity of his weak Brother who through the weakness of his Judgment is not so well able 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 yieldeth the choice to his Nephew Lot upon the contention of their Herdsmen 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 judge as it is here taken is as much as 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 far 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 model of their own understandings in their private Censures they rashly passed their Iudgments upon and pronounced peremptory Sentence against such as used their Liberty in some things concerning the lawfulness whereof themselves were not satisfied as if they were loose Christians carnal 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 express Iudge not that ye be not judged Matth. 7. Iudge nothing before the time c. 1 Cor. 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 unlawful to exercise civil Iudgment or to pass condemning sentence upon persons orderly and legally convicted for such as have Calling or Authority thereunto in Church or Common-wealth for this Publick Politick Iudgment is commanded in the Word of God and Reason sheweth it to be of absolute necessity for the preservation of States and Common-wealths Nor that it is unlawful secondly to pass 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 self or of some strong signs 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 than 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 Blackamoor Beautiful Nor yet thirdly that all sinister suspicions are utterly unlawful even there where there wanteth evidence either of Fact or of great signs if our suspicions proceed not from any corrupt affections but only from a charitable Iealousie of those over whom we have special Charge or in whom we have special Interest in such sort as that it may concern us to admonish reprove or correct them when they do amiss so was Iob suspicious of his Sons for sinning and cursing God in their hearts But the judgment 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 and such sins without sufficient evidence either of fact or pregnant signs that they have committed them Or secondly when upon some actions undoubtedly sinful as Blasphemy Adultery Perjury c.
evil c. My aim at this present is to insist especially upon a Principle of practick Divinity which by joynt consent of Writers old and new Orthodox and Popish resulteth from the very body of this Verse and is of right good use to direct us in sundry difficulties which daily arise in vita communi in point of Conscience The Principle is this We must not do any evil that any good may come of it Yet there are besides this in the Text divers other inferior Observations not to be neglected With which I think it will not be amiss to begin and to dispatch them first briefly that so I may fall the sooner and stay the longer upon that which I mainly intend Observe first the Apostle's Method and substantial manner of proceeding how he cleareth all as he goeth how diligent he is and careful betimes to remove such cavils though he stept a little out of his way for it as might bring scandal to the Truth he had delivered When we Preach and instruct others we should not think it enough to deliver positive Truths but we should also take good care as near as we can to leave them clear and by prevention to stop the mouths of such as love to pick quarrels at the truth and to bark against the light It were good we would so far as our leisure and gifts will permit wisely forecast and prevent all Offence that might be taken at any part of God's Truth and be careful as not to broach any thing that is false through rashness errour or intemperance so not to betray any truth by ignorant handling or by superficial slight and unsatisfying answers But then especially concerneth it us to be most careful herein when we have to speak before such as we have some cause before hand to suspect to be through ignorance or weakness or custom or education or prejudice or partial affections or otherwise contrary minded unto or at leastwise not well perswaded of those Truths we are to teach If the ways be rough and knotty and the passengers be feeble joynted and dark-sighted it is but needful the Guides should remove as many blocks and stones out of the way as may be When we have gone as warily as we can to Work Cavillers if they list will take exceptions it is our part to see we give them no advantage lest we help to justifie the Principals by making our selves Accessories Those men are ill advised however zealous for the Truth that stir in controverted points and leave them worse than they found them A 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 eagerness 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 Original 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 amiss or unworthily of God that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and properly the sin we call Blasphemy And yet that very word of Blasphemy 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 qua talis is a sin of an higher strain than the same done to a Common Christian. Not at all for his persons sake for so he is no more God's good creature than the other no more free from sins and infirmities and passions than the other But for his Calling's 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 Personal 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 Contempt S. Paul is express 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 inhaunceth 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 Iohn's Mourning nor Christ's piping can pass the Pikes but the one hath a Devil the other is a Glutton and a Wine-bibber Though Christ come to fulfil the Law yet there he will accuse him as a destroyer of the Law Matth. 5. And though he decide the question plainly for Caesar and that in the case of Tribute Matth. 22. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's 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 forbad to give Tribute to Caesar Luk. 23. Now if they called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more them of his Houshold If Christ's 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 cavil How the Apostles were slandered as Seducers and Sectaries and vain Bablers and Hereticks and Broachers of new and false and pestilent Doctrines their Epistles and the Book of their Acts witness 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 effectual concurrence
could not be denied if the word Faith were here taken in that sence which they imagine and wherein it is very usually taken in the Scriptures viz. for the doctrine of supernatural 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 supernatural 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 lawfulness thereof in our own consciences is in our Apostle's 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 God's revealed will in his written Word And on the other side whatsoever action is done either directly contrary to the judgment 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 eo 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 Metonymy 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 Latin 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 unclean of it self That is I stedfastly believe it as a most certain and undoubted truth Again at the two and twentieth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God thatis Art thou in thy Conscience perswaded that thou maist lawfully partake any of the good creatures of God Let that perswasion suffice thee for the approving of thine own heart in the sight of God but trouble not the Church nor offend the weaker brother by a needless and unseasonable ostentation of that thy knowledge Lastly in this three and twentieth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith that is he that is not yet fully perswaded in his own mind that it is lawful for him to eat some kinds of meats as namely swines flesh or bloâ—dings and yet is drawn against his own judgment to eat thereof because he seeth others so to do or because he would be loth to undergo the taunts and jeers of scorners or out of any other poor-respect such a man is cast and condemned by the judgment of his own heart as a transgressor because he adventureth to do that which he doth not believe to be lawful And then the Apostle proceeding ab hypothesi ad thesin immediately reduceth that particular case into a general rule in these words For whatsoever is not of faith is sin By the process of which his discourse it may appear that by Faith no other thing is here meant than such a perswasion of the mind and conscience as we have now declared and that the true purport and intent of these words is but thus much in effect Whosoever shall enterprize the doing of any thing which he verily believeth to be unlawful or at leastwise is not reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulness of it let the thing be otherwise and in it self what it can be lawful or unlawful indifferent or necessary convenient or inconvenient it mattereth not to him it is a sin howsoever Which being the plain evident and undeniable purpose of these words I shall not need to spend any more breath either in the farther refutation of such conclusions as are mis-inferred hence which fall of themselves or in the farther Explication of the meaning of the Text which already appeareth but address my self rather to the application of it Wherein because upon this great Principle may depend the resolution of very many Cases of Conscience which may trouble us in our Christian and holy walking it will not be unprofitable to proceed by resolving some of the most material doubts and questions among those which have occured unto my Thoughts by occasion of this Text in my Meditations thereon First It may be demanded What power the Conscience hath to make a thing otherwise good and lawful to become unlawful and sinful and whence it hath that power I answer first that it is not in the power of any mans Judgment or Conscience to alter the natural condition of any thing whatsoever either in respect of quality or degree but that still every thing that was good remaineth good and every thing that was evil remaineth evil and that in the very same degree of good or evil as it was before neither better nor worse any man's particular judgment or opinion thereof notwithstanding For the differences between good and evil and the several degrees of both spring from such conditions as are intrinsecal to the things themselves which no Outward respects and much less then mens opinions can vary He that esteemeth any creature unclean may defile himself but he cannot bring impurity upon that creature by such his estimation Secondly that mens judgments may make that which is good in its own nature the natural goodness still remaining become evil to them in the use essentially good and quoad rem but quoad
the power of the Church to ordain any Rites or Ceremonies in the Service of God which the People are bound to observe other than such as God hath commanded in his Word 3. That Rites and Usages devised or abused either by Heathens or Idolaters may not be lawfully used by Christians in the Service of God 4. That it is unlawful or superstitious to kneel at the Holy Communion in the act of receiving the Sacrament 5. That Instrumental Musick may not be used in the Service of God as well as Vocal 6. That Episcopacy is Antichristian or repugnant to the word of God 7. That the Presbyterian Discipline is the very Scepter of Christs Kingdom or the order appointed by Christ himself for the perpetual Government of his Church which ought of all particular Congregations to be inviolably observed unto the worlds end 8. That it is simply unlawful for a Minister to be possessed of two Benefices 9. That Ecclesiastical persons may not meddle in secular affairs nor can with a good Conscience exercise any Civil office or Iurisdiction although by humane Authority Law or custom allowed them 10. That it is not lawful in preaching Gods word to recite sentences out of the Fathers much less from the writings of Heathen Writers 11. That the Election or consent of the people is of necessity required either to the ordaining of the Ministers or to the appointing of them to their particular charges 12. Lastly which though I find not positively delivered in terminis nor is the danger thereof so generally observed as of sundry of the former yet for that I find it often touched upon in these late Treatises and conceive it to be an error of no less dangerous consequence than many of the former I thought meet not to omit it That the examples of Christ and of his Apostles ought to be observed of all Christians as a perpetual Rule binding them to Conformity even as their Precepts do unto obedience 23. Concerning which Positions I do here in the face of this Congregation take God to witness who shall judge us all at the last day that I do verily believe and in my conscience am perswaded That all and every of them are the vain and superstitious inventions of men wholly destitute of all sound warrant from the written word of God rightly understood and applied and till they shall be better proved ought to be so esteemed of every man that desireth to make Gods Holy Word the rule of his opinions and actions Many and great are the mischiefs otherwise that come to the Church and People of God by the teaching of these and other like groundless Positions As amongst others these three following First great scandal is hereby given to Atheists Papists Separatists and other the enemies of our Religion especially to the Papists who will not only take occasion thence to speak evil of us and of the way of truth and holiness which we profess but will be themselves also the more confirmed in their own wicked errors by objecting to us that since we left them we cannot tell where to stay Secondly many sober and godly men both Ministers and other who chearfully submit to the established Laws and Government as they take themselves by the Law of God bound to do in things which they believe not to be repugnant to his word are by this means unworthily exposed to contempt and mis-censure as if they were time-servers or inclined to Popery or Superstition at the least But if they shall farther endeavour in their Sermons or otherwise to shew their just dislike and to hinder the growth of these unlawful impositions and to hold the people in their good belief by instructing them better they shall be sure to be forthwith branded as opposers of the Gospel As if there were such a spirit of infallibility annexed to some mens Pulpits as some have said there is to the Pope's Chair that whatsoever they shall deliver thence must needs be Gospel Thirdly hereby many an honest-hearted and well meaning Christian is wonderfully abused by being mis-led into Error Superstition and disobedience by having his Conscience brought into bondage in those things whereunto it was the good pleasure of God to leave him free and by being disposed to much uncharitableness in judging evil of his Brother that hath given him no just cause so to do 24. Besides these and sundry other mischiefs of dangerous consequence too long now to repeat the thing that I am presently to affirm concerning all and every of the positions aforesaid and other like them pertinently to the Text and business in hand is this That whosoever shall doctrinally and positively teach any of the same doth ipso facto become guilty of the Superstition here condemned by our Saviour and so far forth symbolizeth with the Pharisees in teaching for doctrines the commandments of men And I doubt not but there are in the Church of England sundry learned judicious and Orthodox Divines no way suspected of favouring Popery or Popish Innovations that by Gods help and the advantage of Truth will be ready to maintain what I now affirm in a fair Christian and Scholar-like trial against whosoever are otherwise minded whensoever by Authority they shall be thereunto required 25. I have now finished what I had to say from this Scripture by way of Application From the whole premisses would arise sundry Inferences as Corollaries and by way of Use. In the prosecution whereof had we time for it I should have occasion to fall upon some things that might be of right good use for the setling of mens Iudgments and Consciences in a way of Truth and Peace And truly my aim lay chiefly here when my thoughts fixt upon this Text. But having enlarged my self so far beyond my first purpose already I shall only give you a short touch of each of them and it may be hereafter as I shall see cause and as God shall dispose I may take some other occasion here or elsewhere to enlarge them further 26. The first should be an earnest request to such of my Brethren as through inconsideratian zeal against Popery or profaneness or any other cause have been a little too forward and faulty this way That they would in the fear of God review their own dictates and all partiality and self-seeking laid aside bestow a little pains to examine throughly the soundness of those principles from which they draw their Conclusions whether they be the very true word of God indeed or but the fancies and devices of the wit of man I know how lothly men are induced to suspect themselves to be in an Error and that it is with our Brethren herein as with other men may sufficiently appear in this that few of them will so much as bestow the reading of those Books that might give them satisfaction But beloved better try your own work your selves and if it prove but Hay or Stubble burn it your selves by acknowledging your
him to be first assured his cause was right and good for that purpose if it were doubtful 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 express 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 special 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 only and barely the equity and right of the cause without any respect of persons or partial 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 pains 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 judgment to be given meerly according to the goodness or badness of the cause without respect had to the person But the special 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 sits 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 his body that so he may proportion the remedies accordingly without error so ought every Magistrate in causes of Justice before he pronounce sentence or give his determination whether in matters judicial or criminal to hear both parties with equal patience to examine witnesses and other evidences advisedly and throughly to consider and wisely lay together all Allegations and Circumstances to put in quaeries and doubts upon the by and use all possible expedient means for the boulting out of the truth that so he may do that which is equal and right without error A duty not without both Precept and President 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 legal 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 witness 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 to 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 kind is that of King Solomon in 3 Kings 3. in the difficult case of the two Mothers Either of them challenged the living Child with a like eagerness either of them accused other of the same wrong and with the same allegations neither was there witness or other evidence on either part to give light unto the matter yet Solomon by that wisdom which he had obtained from God found a means to search out the truth in this difficulty by making as if he would cut the child into halfs and give either of them one half at the mentioning whereof the compassion of the right mother betrayed the falshood of her clamorous competitor And we read in the Apocryphal Story of Susanna how Daniel by x examining the two Elders severally and apart found them to differ in one circumstance of their relation and thereby discovered the whole accusation to be false Iudges for this reason were anciently called Cognitores and in approved Authors Cognoscere is as much as to do the office of a Judge to teach Iudges that one chief point of there care should be to know the Truth For if of private men and in things of ordinary discourse that of Solomon be true He that answereth a matter before he heareth it it is folly and shame unto him certainly much more is it true of publick Magistrates and in matters of Justice and Judgment by how much both the men are of better note and the things of greater moment But in difficult and intricate businesses covered with darkness and obscurity and perplexed with many windings and turnings and cunning and crafty conveyances to find a fair issue out and to spy light at a narrow hole and by wisdom and diligence to rip up a foul matter and search a cause to the bottom and make a discovery of all is a thing worthy the labour and a thing that will add to the honour I say not only of inferiour governours but even of the Supreme Magistrate the King It is the glory of God to conceal a thing but the honour of Kings is to search out the matter To understand the necessity of this duty consider First that as sometimes Democritus said the truth lyeth in profundo and in abdito dark and deep as in the bottom of a pit and it will ask some time yea and cunning too to find it out and to bring it to light Secondly that through favour faction envy greediness ambition and otherwise innocency it self is often laden with false accusations You may observe in the Scriptures how Naboth Ieremy S. Paul and others and you may see by too much experience in these wretched times how many men of fair and honest conversation have been accused and troubled
rest as I have done in this my Meditations would swell to the proportion rather of a Treatise than 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 less 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 less use of and the less work for false and suborned Witnesses ignorant or pack'd Iuries crafty and sly Pleaders cogging and extorting Officers but unto these I have no more to say at this time but only 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 withal to make application mutatis mutandis unto themselves of whatsoever hath been presently spoken to the Accuser and to the Magistrate from this first Rulē Whereof for the better furtherance of their Application and relief of our memories the summ in brief is thus First concerning the Accuser and that is every party in a Cause or Trial 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 whoever doth he first committeth a heinous sin himself and secondly grievously wrongeth his neighbour and thirdly bringeth a great deal of mischief to the Commonwealth All which evils are best avoided first by considering how we would others should deal with us and resolving so to deal with them and secondly by avoiding 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 tendered without Oath secondly to give such Interpretations as may stand with Equity as well 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 be 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 goodness 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 Lincoln August 4th 1625. at the Request of the High-Sheriff aforesaid William Lister Esquire Psal. CVI. 30. Then stood up Phinees and executed Iudgment and the Plague was stayed THE Abridgment is short which some have made of the whole Book of Psalms but into two words Hosannah and Hallelujah most of the Psalms 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 goodness and that is Hallelujah This Psalm is of the latter 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 Psalms together as they agree in the same general Argument the magnifying of God's holy Name so they differ one from another in choice of those special and topical Arguments whereby the Praises of God are set forth therein In the rest the Psalmist draweth his Argument from other Considerations in this from the Consideration of God's merciful removal of those Iudgments he had in his just wrath brought upon his own People Israel for their Sins upon their Repentance For this purpose there are sundry instances given in the Psalm taken out of the Histories of former times out of which there is framed as it were a Catalogue though not of all yet of sundry the most famous rebellions of that people against their God and of Gods both Iustice and Mercy abundantly manifested in his proceedings with them thereupon In all which we may observe the passages betwixt God and them in the ordinary course of things ever to have stood in this order First he preventeth them with undeserved favours they unmindful of his benefits provoke him by their rebellions he in his just wrath chastiseth them with heavy Plagues they humbled under the rod seek to him for ease he upon their submission withdraweth his judgments from them The Psalmist hath wrapped all these five together in Vers. 43 44. Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their Counsels and were brought low for their iniquity the three first Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry the other two The particular rebellions of the people in this Psalm instanced in are many some before and some after the verse of my Text. For brevity sake those that are in the following verses I wholly omit and but name the rest which are their wretched Infidelity and Cowardice upon the first approach of danger at the Red Sea vers 7. Their tempting of God in the desert when loathing Manna they lusted for flesh vers 13. Their seditious conspiracy under Corah and his confederates against Moses vers 16. Their gross Idolatry at Horeb in making and worshipping the golden Calf ver 19. Their distrustful murmuring at their portion in thinking scorn of the promised pleasant land ver 24. Their fornicating both bodily with the daughters and spiritually with the Idols of Moab and of Midian ver 28. To the prosecution of which last mentioned story the words of my Text do appertain The original story it self whereto this part of the Psalm referreth is written at full by Moses in Numb 25. and here by David but briefly touched as the present purpose and occasion led him yet so as that the most
with it as if it were his own personal debt so Christ becoming surety for our sins made them his own and so was punishable for them as if they had been his own personal sins Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree 1 Pet. 2. That he was punished for us who himself deserved no punishment it was because He was made sin for us who himself knew no sin So that I say in some sence the assertion may be defended universally and without exception but yet I desire rather it might be thus Christs only excepted all the Pains and Evils of men are brought upon them for their own sins These three Points then are certain and it is needful they should be well understood and remembred because nothing can be objected against Gods Iustice in the punishing of sin which may not easily be removed if we have recourse to some one or other of these Three Certainties and rightly apply them All the Three Doubts proposed in the beginning have one and the same Resolution answer one and answer all Ahab here sinneth by Oppression and yet the evil must light though not all of it for some part of it fell and was performed upon Ahab himself yet the main of it upon his Son Iehoram I will not bring the evil in his days But in his Sons days will I bring the evil upon his house It is not Iehoram's case alone it is a thing that often hath and daily doth befal many others In Gen. 9. when Noah's ungracious Son Ham had discovered his Fathers nakedness the old man no doubt by Gods special inspiration layeth the Curse not upon Ham himself but upon his son Canaan Cursed be Canaan c. And God ratified the Curse by rooting out the posterity of Canaan first out of the pleasant Land wherein they were seated and then afterwards from the face of the whole Earth Ieroboam's Idolatry cut off his Posterity from the Kingdom and the wickedness of Eli his Sons theirs from the Priesthood of Israel Gehazi with the bribe he took purchased a Leprosie in Fee simple to him and his heirs for ever The Iews for stoning the Prophets of God but most of all for Crucifying the Son of God brought blood-guiltiness not only upon themselves but upon their Children also His Blood be upon us and upon our Children The wrath of God therefore coming upon them to the utmost and the curse of God abiding upon their Posterity even unto this day wherein they still remain and God knoweth how long they shall a base and despised people scattered almost every where and every where hated Instances might be endless both in private Persons and Families and in whole Kingdoms and Countries But it is a needless labour to multiply instances in so confessed a point especially God Almighty having thus far declared himself and his pleasure herein in the Second Commandment of the Law that he will not spare in his Iealousie sometimes to visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation There is no question then de facto but so it is the sins of the Fathers are visited upon the Children but de jure with what right and equity it is so it is as Saint Chrysostom speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a question famous and much debated The Considerations which I find given in for the resolution of this question by those that have purposely handled it are very many But multitude breedeth confusion and and therefore I propose no more but two only unto which so many of the rest as are material may be reduced and those two grounded upon the certainties already declared The former concerneth the Nature of those Punishments which are inflicted upon the Children for the Fathers sins the latter the Condition of those Children upon whom such punishments are inflicted As to the first The punishments which God bringeth usually upon the Children for the Fathers sins are only temporal and outward punishments Some have been plagued with infectious diseases as Gehazi's posterity and Ioab's also if that curse which David pronounced against him took effect as it is like it did Some have come to untimely and uncomfortable ends as David's children Ammon and Absalom and the little ones of David and Abiram and others Some have had losses and reproaches and manifold other distresses and afflictions in sundry kinds too long to rehearse And all these temporal judgments their fathers sins might bring upon them even as the Faith and Vertues and other graces of the Fathers do sometimes convey temporal blessings to their posterity So Ierusalem was saved in the Siege by Senacherib for David's sake many years 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 goodness so neither to Hell for his Fathers wickedness 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 darkness without the least glimpse of the glorious light of the Gospel of God without which ordinarily there can be no knowledg of Christ nor means of Faith nor possibility of Salvation to be thus visited is more than a temporal punishment and yet this kind of Spiritual judgment doth sometimes light upon a Nation or People for the Unbelief and Unthankfulness 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 judgments 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 Judgment 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 dieth and the Son cometh after him there is not now the same person that was before but another but in Cities and Countries and Kingdoms 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
of the Word Or as if they that made use of such exornations did preach themselves and their own wit rather than Christ Iesus and his Cross or else sought to make the Faith of their hearers to stand rather in in the wisdom of men than in the power of God 5. These are the common Objections but they are soon answered I confess there may be a fault this way and in young men especially before their judgments are grown to the just ripeness many times there is And so far the exceptions made here against may be in some degree admitted Affectation in this as in every other thing is both tedious and ridiculous And in this by so much more than in other things by how much more the condition of the person and the nature of the business require a sober serious and grave deportment Those Preachers therefore by a little vanity in this kind take the readiest way to bring both their own discretions into question and the Sacred Word they handle into contempt that play with words as children do with a feather A too too light-coloured habit certainly suteth not well with the gravity of a Sermon But as it will not ill-become a sober grave Matron though she will never be light and garish yet to be always decent in her attire yea and sometimes also upon fit occasions to put on her Iewels and other costlier ornaments So neither is it blame-worthy but rather a commendable thing in Preachers of the Gospel though they ought to avoid by all means all fruitless ostentation of a frothy Wit yet to endeavour at all times so far as their gifts and leisure will permit to express themselves in pertinent and proper forms of speech yea and sometimes also as occasion may require and especially the disposition and temper of the hearers to put their matter into a more accurate and elaborate dress and to adorn their discourses with the choicer habiliments of Art 6. Provided First that it be done seasonably discreetly and with judgment Sparingly and as it were offering it self fairly and without enforcement And secondly that it be directed to the right end Which is not to gain glory or applause to the speaker that is a base and unworthy end much less to poyson the Iudgments or pervert the Consciences of their Hearers by drawing them the more easily thereby into Errour or Sin that is a cursed and pernicious end But either thereby the better to inform the Understanding or to work upon the affections or to quicken the attention or to succour the memories or some other way to please their Neighbour for his good unto edification I may not dwell on a by-note therefore in brief thus If Preachers seek with wisdom to find out pleasant words besides the practice of the holy Prophets and Apostles to warrant them therein they have our Preachers warrant also for it Who as he professeth elsewhere the doing of it so here he hath actually done it Look but at the very outside the shell of the Letter and you must grant that the Preacher hath found out pleasant words 7. But where he professeth that he professeth another thing withal without which pleasant words would be either to none or to bad purpose and that is that the things that should be written should be upright even words of Truth Search we therefore a little into the pith and kernel of the matter and see if he have performed that part also as well as the other A good name is better than precious Oyntment The Terms of the comparison are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Name an Oyntment The common Attribute wherein they both agree is Goodness The name good the Ointment good The difference is in the inequality of degree Name and Ointment both good yet so that of the two Goods the good Name is better than the good Ointment A good Name I understand then to be when the common voice of men either all or most or best doth from the approved evidence of a mans worthy carriage in the constant tenour of his life and conversation give a frequent and commendable testimony thereunto 8. Then for the other Term in the comparison whereas we read it Ointment the Greek calleth it Oil. Between which two tho' there be some difference and accordingly as well in the Greek and Latine Tongues as in the English that difference is acknowledged by allowing them distinct names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Unguentum and Oleum in the Latine as well as Ointment and Oil in our English yet the same Hebrew word comprehendeth both and the words are very often promiscuously and reciprocally used the one for the other in the Greek Latin and most other Languages because they agree much in the same qualities and are much of like use and the most ancient confections of Ointments did consist for the most part of Oil with some addition of herbs spices or other ingredients Yea and even yet in the most precious and exquisite Ointments such as are either most aromatical for smell or of most soveraign operation for medicine common Oil hath a very great part in the confection and is therefore esteemed as the basts or foundation of all Ointments But whether Oil or Ointment the word seemeth to be here used by a kind of Synecdoche to signifie all the delights of the Sons of men Because anciently and in those Eastern Countries especially Oils and Ointments were much in use and in great request for pleasing the senses or comforting the brain for refreshing the spirits for chearing the countenance for suppling the joynts and for fundry other services tending to delight and chearfulness Wherein they abounded even unto Wantonness and Luxury Whose excess therein as in all other manner of riotous and voluptuous living was soon followed by the Greeks and thence derived into Italy and entertained once at Rome quickly over-spread the greatest part of the World then under her Empire as appeareth by the frequent complaints and other passages in the Writings of the Learned of those times Not to speak of the great use of Oils and Ointments then and ever since in order to health as well as pleasure 9. The Epithete here given to Ointments is in some former Translations Good and so the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifieth but in our last rendred Precious All to one effect for good things are ever precious and the better they are the more precious The meaning is as if Solomon had said A good Name is better than the most fragrant and odoriferous Ointments which for their exquisite pleasantness are held in greatest price and estimation 10. The word Better which decideth the whole controversie between the compared terms and is the just importance of that which the Hebrews in their Idiom for want of the
answer the Command and such is not ours True it is if the Lord should look upon our very best Endeavours as they come from us and respect us but according to our merit he might find in every step we tread just matter of offence in none of acceptance If he should mark what is done amiss and be extreme in it no flesh living could be able to please him It must be therefore upon other and better grounds than any desert in us or in our ways that God is graciously pleased to accept either of us or them The Apostle hath discovered two of those grounds and joined them both together in a short passage in Heb. 13. Now the God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ. Implying that our good works are pleasing unto him upon these two grounds First Because he worketh them in us Secondly Because he looketh upon us and them in Christ. 18. First Because he worketh them in us As we see most men take pleasure in the Rooms of their own contriving in the Engines and Manufactures of their own devising in the Fruits of those Trees which themselves have planted Now the crooked ways of evil men that walk according to the course of the World are indeed the Works of the Devil he is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Eph. 2. such works therefore may please the Devil whose they are But it is not possible they should please God who sent his Son into the World on purpose to destroy the Works of the Devil And as for those strayings also and outsteppings whereof Gods faithfullest servants are now and then guilty although they be not the Works of the Devil for he hath not now so much power over them as to work in them yet are they still the Works of the flesh as they are called Gal. 5. Such works therefore may be pleasing to the flesh whose they are but they are so far from being pleasing unto God that they rather grieve his holy Spirit The works then that must please God are such as himself hath wrought in us by that his holy Spirit which are therefore called the fruits of the Spirit in the same Gal. 5. As it is said by the Prophet O Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us And again in the Psalm The Lord ordereth a good mans ways and maketh them acceptable unto himself they are therefore acceptable unto him because they are ordered by him 19. That is one ground The other is because God looketh not upon us as we are in our selves neither dealeth with us according to the rigour of a legal Covenant but he beholdeth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the face of his beloved One even Jesus Christ his only Son and as under a Covenant of Grace He is his beloved Son in whom alone he is well pleased for his own sake and in whom and for whose sake alone it is if at any time he be well pleased with any of us or with any of our Ways For being by him and through faith in his Name made the children of God by adoption and grace he is now pleased with us as a loving Father is with his beloved Child As a loving Father taketh in good part the willing Endeavours of his Child to do whatsoever he appointeth him though his performances be very small So the Lord is graciously pleased to accept of us and our weak services according to that willingness we have and not according to that exactness we want not weighing our merits but pardâ—ning our offences and passing by our imperfections as our loving Father in Iesus Christ. That is the other ground 20. And we doubt not but the acceptance we find with God upon these two grounds if seasonably applied will sustain the soul of every one that truly feareth God with strong comfort against two great and common discouragements whereunto he may be subject arising the one from the sense of mens displeasure the other from the conscience of his own imperfections Sometimes God and his own heart condemn him not and yet the World doth and that troubleth him Sometimes God and the World condemn him not and yet his own heart doth and that troubleth him more If at any time it be either thus or so with any of us let us remember but thus much and we shall find comfort in it that although we can neither please other men at all nor our selves sufficiently yet our Works may for all that be graciously accepted by our good God and so our ways may please the Lord. 21. But I forbear the amplification of these comforts that I may proceed from the Antecedent in those former words when a mans ways please the Lord of which I have spoken hitherto unto the Consequent in the remaining words he maketh even his Enemies to be at peace with him Wherein also as in the former part we have three things observable The Persons the Effect the Author The Persons a mans Enemies the Effect Peace the Author the Lord. He maketh a mans Enemies to be at peace with him The words being of an easie understanding will therefore need the less opening Only thus much briefly First for the Persons they that wish him ill or seek to do him Harm in his Person Estate or good Name they are a mans Enemies And Solomon here supposeth it possible that a man whose Ways please the Lord may yet have Enemies Nay it is scarce possible it should be otherwise Inimici Domestici rather than fail Satan will stir him up Enemies out of his own house 2. And these Enemies are then said to be at peace with him which is the Effect when either there is a change wrought in their Affections so as they now begin to bear him less ill-will than formerly they have done or when at least-wise their evil Affections towards him are so bridled or their power so restrained as not to break out into open hostility but whatsoever their thoughts are within to carry themselves fairly and peaceably towards him outwardly so as he is at a kind of peace with them or howsoever sustaineth no harm by them Either of which when it is done it is thirdly Mutatio dextrae excelsi it is merely the Lords doing and it may well be marvellous in our Eyes It is he that maketh a mans Enemies to be at peace with him 22. The scope of the whole words is to instruct us that the fairest and likeliest way for us to procure peace with men is to order our ways so as to please the Lord. You shall therefore find the favour of God and the favour of men often joined together in the Scriptures as if the one were and so usually it is a consequent of the other So
their own and the Gospels reputation before men they must endeavour both to do the will of the most Wise God and to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men by submitting to every humane Creature that the Lord hath set over them for his sake 2. This I conceive to be the scope of that part of the Chapter whence the Text is taken which I now stand not with farther curiosity to Analyze Suffice it us to know that in this seventeenth verse St. Peter shutteth up his general Exhortation concerning subjection to Superiours in four short Precepts or Aphorisms of Christian life Honour all men Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King Which four though considerable also apart and as each hath a complete sence within it self may yet not unfitly be ranged and that agreeably as I conceive to the Apostles intendment into two Combinations The two former into one as thus Honour all men but not all men alike you must be ready to do all offices of respect and love as occasion serveth to every man but yet you are to remember that your brethren in Christ may claim a nearer and deeper interest in your affections and so in the exercise of your charity too than they that are without have any reason to do Honour all men but especially love the Brotherhood The two latter also into one thus Fear God and the King where the fear of the one will consist with the fear of the other But where they are incompatible hold fast to the fear of God howsoever but even in that case where you may not fear the King you must yet do him all the honour otherwise that may be Fear God yet honour the King too 3. We shall now hold us to the former Combination only consisting of these two Precepts Honour all men love the Brotherhood In either of which we may observe First the Duty what it is and then how that duty is either extended or limited in regard of the Object The duties are Honour and Love The duty of Honour in the former Precept tand that extended to every man Honour all men The duty of Love in the latter Precept and that limited to the Brethren Love the Brotherhood Of which in their order keeping the same method in both even this to consider first Quid nominis then Quid Iuris and lastly Quid facti The first by opening the Duty and what we are to do The next by enquiring into the Obligation and why we are so to do The last by examining our Performance and whether we do therein as we ought to do or no. And first of the former Precept Honour all men 4. Honour properly is an acknowledgment or testification of some excellency or other in the person honoured by some reverence or observance answerable thereunto Thus we honour God above all as being transcendently excellent and thus we honour our Parents our Princes our betters or superiors in any kind And thus the word is clearly used in the last Precept of the four in this verse Honour the King But so to take it in this first Precept would be subject to sundry difficulties and inconveniences this especially above the rest that the Scripture should here bind us to an impossible thing Impossible I say not only ex hypothesi and by consequent in regard of the weakness and corruption of our nature for so is every good duty impossible to be performed by us without the grace of God preventing and assisting us but impossible ex natura rei as implying a flat contradiction within it self For honouring in that notion being the preferring of some before other some we should be bound by this Text were the word so to be understood to prefer every man before every other man which how it should be possible for us to do is beyond the wit of man to imagine For to prefer all is in truth to prefer none and so the Apostles command to honour all men shall be all one upon the point as if he had directly forbidden us to honour any man It is necessary therefore for the avoiding of this contradiction and sundry other absurdities which would follow thereupon and I omit to take the word Honour in this place in a signification somewhat looser and larger than the former so as to import all that esteem or regard be it more or less which either in â—ustice or charity is due to any man in respect of his place person or condition according to the eminency merit or exigency of any of them respectively together with the willing performance of such just and charitable offices upon all emergent occasions as in proportion to any of the said respects can be reasonably expected In which sence it is a possible thing for us to honour not only our Superiors that are over us or above us but our Equals too that are in the same rank with us yea even our inferiours also that are below us or under us 5. And in this latitude you shall find the word Honour sometimes used in the Scriptures though not so frequently as in the proper signification You have one example of it in the seventh verse of the next Chapter where St. Peter enjoyneth husbands to give honour to the Wife as to the weaker vessel It was far from his meaning doubtless that the husband should honour the wife with the honour properly so called that of Reverence or Subjection For that were to invert the right order of things and to pervert Gods Ordinance who hath given man the preeminence and commanded the woman to be in subjection The woman therefore may not by any means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usurp authority over the man but it is her duty to reverence her husband and she must see that she do it His meaning clearly is that the husband should cherish the wife as one that though in some degree of inferiority is yet his yoke-fellow bearing with the weaknesses whether of her Sex or Person framing to her disposition and yielding to her desires as far as reason and wisdom will allow Being her head he must not make himself her slave by giving her the honour of dutiful observance and obedience and yet being his Companion he may not make her his drudge by denying her the honour of a tender respect and loving condescension Which kind of honour is in some measure and according to their different proportions due also to be given by Parents to their Children and by the greatest Masters to the meanest of their Servants 6. We have another example of the like use of the word 1 Tim. 5. where St. Paul biddeth Timothy honour Widows that are Widows indeed Timothy was a man of eminent rank in the Church of God a Bishop and that of no mean See but of Ephesus a famous City and the chief Metropolis of Asia and the Widows he there speaketh of were poor old women such as in those
glorifie God And then two Amplifications thereof the one respecting the person whom they were to glorifie thus described God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the other respecting the manner how or the means whereby they were to glorifie him with one mind and with one mouth Of which in their order the End first and then the Amplifications 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That ye may glorifie God We must a little search into the words that we may the more fully understand them The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though but a Particle hath its use It pointeth us out to some end or final cause Would St. Paul have so bestirred himself as he doth spent so much breath so much oratory so many arguments been so copious and so earnest as he is by his best both persuasions and prayers to draw all parts to unity if he had not conceived it conducible to some good end He that doth not propose to himself some main end in all his Actions especially those that are of moment and such as he will make a business of is not like either to go on with any good certainty or to come off with any sound comfort There would be ever some fixt end or other thought of in all our undertakings and endeavours 4. And so there is most an end Nature it self prompting us thereunto but for the most part our Nature being so foully depraved a wrong one Omnes quae sua he speaketh of it complainingly as of an error that is common among men and in a manner universal All seek their own seldom look beyond themselves but make their own profit their own pleasure their own glory their own safety or other their own personal contentment the utmost end of all their thoughts Which upon the point is no better than very Atheism or at the best and that but a very little better Idolatry He that doth all for himself and hath no farther End make an Idol of himself and hath no other God The ungodly is so proud that he careth not for God neither is God in all his thoughts Psal. 10. He is so full of himself his thoughts are so wholly taken up with himself that there is no room there for God or any thing else but himself But this self-seeking St. Paul every where disclaimeth Not seeking his own profit 1 Cor. 10. Nor counting his life dear unto himself so as he might do God and his Church any acceptable service either with it or without it Act. 20. If he had looked but at himself and his own things what need the dissention of the Romans have troubled him any thing at all If they be so minded let them go to it hardly judge on and despise on tug it out among themselves as well as they can bite and devour one another till they had wearied and worried one another what is that to him It would be much more for his ease and possibly he should have as much thanks from them too for to part a fray is most what a thankless office to sit him down let them alone and say nothing This is all true and this he knew well enough too But there was a farther matter in it he saw his Lord and Master had had an Interest his honour suffered in their dissentions and then he could not hold off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his Phrase is twice in one Chapter he could not for his life forbear but he must put in for the love of Christ constrained him We are by his example to make God our chiefest good and the utmost end of all our actions and intentions Not meerly seeking our own credit or profit or ease or advancement nor determining our aims in our selves or in any other Creature But raising our thoughts to an higher pitch to look beyond all these at God as the chief delight of our hearts and scope of our desires That we may be able to say with David Psal. 16. I have set the Lord alway before me That is a second Point 5. And if we do so the third will fall in of it self to wit his Glory for he and it are inseparable The greatest glory on earth is that of a mighty King when he appeareth in state his robes glorious his attendants glorious every thing about him ordered to be as glorious as may be Solomon in all his glory Mat. 6. There is I grant no proportion here finiti ad infinitum But because we are acquainted with no higher it is the best resemblance we have whereby to take some scantling of the infinite glory of our heavenly King And therefore the Scriptures fitted to our capacity speak of it to us mostly in that key The Lord is King and hath put on glorious apparel Psal. 93. O Lord my God thou art become exceeding glorious thou art cloathed with Majesty and honour Psal. 104. But as I said before it holdeth no proportion So that we may not unfitly take up our Apostles words elsewhere though spoken to another purpose Even that which is most glorious here hath no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth 2 Cor. 3. 10. And the force of the Argument he useth at the next verse there holdeth full out as strongly here For saith he if that which is done away be glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious The glory of the greatest Monarch in the world when it is at the fullest is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word fitteth the thing very well a matter rather of shew and opinion than of substance and hath in it more of fancy than reality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is St. Luke's expression Acts 25. Yet as emptie a thing as it is if it were of any permanency it were worthy the better regard But that that maketh it the verier vanity is that it is a thing so transitory it shall and must be done away But the glory of the great King of Heaven remaineth and shall not cannot be done away for ever The glorious Majesty of the Lord endureth for ever Psal. 104. If then that be glorious much more this but how much more is more than any tongue can utter or heart conceive So that if we look at God we cannot leave out Glory 6. Neither if we speak of Glory may we leave out God and that is a fourth Point For as no other thing belongeth so properly to God as Glory so neither doth Glory belong so properly to any other person as to God The holy Martyr St. Stephen therefore calleth him The God of Glory And the holy Apostles when they speak of giving him glory do it sometimes with the exclusive Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the only wise God or as the words will equally bear it only to the wise God be Glory to him and only to him Yea and the holy Angels in that Anthem they sang upon our
Man from whom the provocation cometh Such curses as they proceed from the bitterness of the soul of the grieved person in the mean time so they will be in the end bitterness to the soul of him that gave cause of grievance And if there were not on the other side some comfort in the deserved blessings of the poor it had been no wisdom for Iob to comfort himself with it as we see he did in the day of his great distress The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy Job 29. 28. But say these poor ones should be so charitable as very seldom they be as not to curse us when we have despised them or so unthankful as seldom they are otherwise as not to bless us when we have relieved them yet the Lord who hath given every Man a charge concerning his brother and committed the distresses of the poor to our care and trust will take district knowledge how we deal with them and impartially recompense us thereafter Doth not he consider And shall not he render to every Man according to his works The last words of the Text. If therefore you have done your duty faithfully let it never discourage you that unrighteous and unthankful Men forget it They do but their kind the comfort is that yet God will both remember it and requite it God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love saith the Apostle Heb. 5. He will remember it you see And then saith David Psal. 41. Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble He will requite it too He that for God's sake helpeth his poor brother to right that suffereth wrong he doth therein at once first an act of mercy because it is done in the behalf of a distressed Man and an act secondly of Iustice because it is done in a righteous cause and thirdly being done for the Lord's sake an act of Religion also Pure Religion and undefiled before God even the father is this to visit the fatherless and widow in their afflictions Jam. 1. And is it possible that God who delighteth in the exercise of every one of them singly should suffer an act to pass unrewarded wherein there is a happy concurrence of three such excellent vertues together as are Iustice Mercy and Religion The Prophet Ieremy to reprove Iehoiachin's tyranny and oppression upbraideth him with his good father Iosiah's care and conscience to do justice and to shew mercy after this manner Did not thy father eat and drink and do judgment and justice and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord But now on the contrary He shall have judment without mercy that sheweth no mercy He that stoppeth his ears against the cry of the poor he shall also cry himself but shall not he heard c. Many other like passages there are in the Scriptures to the same effect 29. Nay moreover the general neglect of this duty pulleth down the wrath of God not only upon those particular persons that neglect it but also upon the whole nation where it is in such general sort neglected O house of David thus saith the Lord execute judgment in the morning and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor lest my fury go out like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings Jer. 21. Brethren we of this nation have cause to look to it in time against whom the Lord hath of late manifested his just wrath though tempered as we must all confess with much clemency yea and his hand is streched out against us still in the heavy plagues both of dearth and death Though the Land be full of all manner of sins and lewdness and so the Lord might have a controversie with us for any of them yet I am verily persuaded there are no other kinds of sins that have overspread the face of the whole Land with such an universal contagion as it were of a Leprosy as the sins of Riot and Oppression have done Which two sins are not only the provoking causes as any kind of sins may be in regard of the justice of God but also the sensible instrumental causes in the eye of reason and experience of much penury and mortality among us 30. Surely then as to quench the fire we use to withdraw the fewel so to turn away the heavy wrath of God from us we should all put to our helping-hands each in his place and calling but especially the Minister and the Magistrate the one to cry down the other to beat down as all sins in general so especially these of Riot and Oppression Never think it will be well with us or that it will be much better with us than now it is or that it will not be rather every day much worse with us than it is never look that disorders in the Church distempers in the State distractions in our judgments diseases in our bodies should be remedied or removed and not rather more and more encreased if we hold on as we do in pampering every Man his own Flesh and despising every Man his poor brother So long as we think no pleasures too much for our selves no pressures too heavy for our brethren stretch our selves along and at ease upon our Couches eat of the fat and drink of the sweet without any touch of compassion in our bowels for the afflictions of others we can expect no other but that the rod of God should abide upon us either in dearths of pestilences or if they be removed for God loveth sometimes to shift his rods in greater and heavier judgments in some other kind 31. But as to the particular of Oppression for that of Riot and Intemperance being beside the Text I shall no farther press my humble request to those that are in place of authority and all others that have any office or attendance about the Courts is this For the love of God and of your selves and your Country be not so indulgent to your own appetites and affections either of Ease as to reject the complaints or of Partiality as to despise the persons or of filthy Lucre as to betray the cause of the fatherless and friendless Suffer not when his cause is good a simple Man to be circumvented by the wiliness or a mean Man to be over powred by the greatness of a crafty or mighty Adversary Favour not a known Sycophant nor open your lips to speak in a cause to pervert judgment or to procure favour for a mischievous person Turn not judgment into wormwood by making him that meant no hurt an offender for a word Wrangle not in the behalf of a contentious person to the prejudice
though somewhat more obscure is yet oftner found in the Scriptures than of the other Samuel undoubtedly learned it from Moses who hath it twice once in Exodus and again repeated in Deuteronomy in the self-same words Thou shalt take no gift for a gift blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous A marvellous power sure there is in them that can work upon Men so strongly yea sometimes upon wise and righteous Men as Moses his words express as to stop their mouths and bind their hands and blind their eyes that they can neither speak nor do nor see what is right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Euripides They say that even the Gods may be tempted with gifts Very like if applied to such gods as are spoken of in the Psalm Dixi Dii I have said ye are gods 40. But then what is it to blind the eyes Or how can bribes do it Iustice is not unfitly pourtrayed in the form of a Man with his right eye open to look at the Cause and his left eye shut or muffled that he may not look at the Person Now a gift putteth all this out of order and setteth it the quite contrary way It giveth the left eye liberty but too much to look asquint upon the person but putteth the right eye quite out that it cannot discern the Cause Even as in the next fore-going Chapter Nahash the Ammonite would have covenanted with the Inhabitants of Iabesh-Gilead upon condition he might thrust out all their right eyes From this property of hood-winking and muffling up the eyes it is that a Bribe is in the Hebrew the Text-word here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Copher of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caphar to cover to dawb up or to draw over with lime plaister or the like Whereunto our English word to cover hath such near affinity in the sound that were it not apparently taken from the French Couvrir and that from the Latin Cooperire it might with some probability be thought to owe its Original to the Hebrew But however it be for the word the thing is clear enough this Copher doth so cover and plaister up the eyes that they cannot see to do their office aright and as they ought 41. And the reason of all this is because gifts if they be handsomly conveyed and not tendred in the name nor appearing in the likeness of Bribes for then wise and righteous Men will reject them with disdain and shake their hands and laps from receiving them but I say if they come as presents only and by way of kindness and respect they are sometimes well accepted and that deservedly even of wise and righteous Men as testimonies of the love and observance of the givers And then the nature of ingenuous persons is such that they cannot but entertain a good opinion of those that shew good respect unto them and are glad when any opportunity is offered them whereby to manifest such their good opinion and to requite one courtesy with another Whereby it cometh to pass that gifts by little and little and by insensible degrees win upon the affections of such Men as are yet just in their intentions and would not willingly be corrupted and at the last over-master them and the affections once throughly possest it is then no great mastery to do the rest and to surprise the judgment The good Magistrate therefore that would save his eyes and preserve their sight had need not only to hate bribes but to be very jealous of presents lest some of those things which he receiveth but as gifts be yet meant him for bribes But especially to suspect those gifts as so meant where the quantity and proportion of the gift considered and compared with the quality and condition of the giver may cast any just cause of suspicion upon them but to conclude them absolutely so meant if they be sent from persons that have business in the Courts 42. The only thing now remaining to be spoken to from the Text and that but in a word or two is Samuel's Equity in offering in case any thing should be truly charged against him in any the premisses to make the wronged parties restitution Whose Oxe have I taken Or c. And I will restore it you Samuel was confident he had not wittingly done any Man wrong either by Fraud Oppression or Bribery whereby he should be bound to make or should need to offer Restitution Yet partly to shew what was fit to be done in such cases and his own readiness so to do if there should be cause and partly for that it was possible in so long time of his Government and amid so many causes as passed through his hands that he might through misinformation precipitancy negligence prejudice or other humane frailty have committed some oversight in Judgment for which it might be reasonable for him to make some kind of compensation to the parties thereby damnified he here offereth Restitution A duty in case of Injury most necessary both for quieting the Conscience within and to give satisfaction to the World and for the more assurance of the Truth and Sincerity of our repentance in the sight of God for the wrongs we have done Without which at least in the desire and endeavour there can be no true repentance for the sin and consequently no security of the remission of the guilt That of Augustine Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum is a famous received Aphorism in this case well known to all but little considered and less practised by most 43. There is an enforced Restitution whereof perhaps Zophar speaketh in Iob 20. That which he laboured for he shall restore and not swallow it down according to his substance shall the restitution be and he shall not rejoice therein and such as the Law imposed upon thefts and other manifest wrongs which altho not much worth is yet better than none But as Samuel's offer here was voluntary so it is the voluntary restitution that best pleaseth God pacifieth the Conscience and in some measure satisfieth the World Such was that of Zacheus Luk. 19. in restoring four-fold to every Man from whom he had gained any thing wrongfully It may be feared if every Officer that hath to do in or about the Courts of Iustice should be tied to that proportion many one would have but a very small surplusage remaining whereout to bestow the one moity to pious uses as Zacheus there did 44. There is scarce any one point in the whole body of Moral Divinity that soundeth so harsh to the ear or relisheth so harsh in the palate of a worldling as this of Restitution doth To such a Man this is durus sermo indeed a hard very hard saying yet as hard as it seemeth to be it is full of Reason and Equity So full that I dare confidently say whoever he be that complaineth
heart to purge out of us by the fire of his Holy Spirit all dross of pride and Hypocrisie to increase in us by the grace of his Holy Spirit the love of Truth and Godliness to support us by the comforts of his Holy Spirit amidst all our distresses and fears and to lead us by the guidance of his Holy Spirit along the paths of holiness unto the ports of happiness And all this for the alone merits sake of his blessed Son and our alone Saviour Iesus Christ. To which blessed Father Son and Holy Spirit be ascribed by us and the whole Christian Church all the Kingdom the Power and the Glory from this time forth for evermore Amen Amen LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell 1686. AD MAGISTRATUM The First Sermon At a Publick Sessions at Grantham Lincoln Iune the 11th 1623. JOB XXIX ver 14 15 16 17. 14. I put on righteousness and it cloathed me my judgment was a Robe and Diadem 15. I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame 16. I was a Father to the poor and the cause which I knew not I searched out 17. And I brake the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth WHere silence against foul and false imputations may be interpreted a Confession there the Protestation of a mans own innocency as ever just and sometimes necessary When others do us open wrong it is not now Vanity but Charity to do our selves open right and whatsoever appearance of folly or vain boasting there is in so doing they are chargeable with all that compel us thereunto and not we I am become a fool in glorying but ye have compelled me 2 Cor. 12. 11. It was neither pride nor passion in Iob but such a compulsion as this that made him so often in this Book proclaim his own righteousness Amongst whose many and grievous afflictions as it is hard to say which was the greatest so we are sure this was not the least that he was to wrestle with the unjust and bitter upbraidings of unreasonable and incompassionate men They came to visit him as friends and as friends they should have comforted him But sorry friends they were and miserable comforters indeed not comforters but tormenters and accusers rather than friends Seeing Gods hand heavy upon him for want of better or other proof they charge him with Hypocrisie And because they would not seem to deal all in generalities for against this general accusation of hypocrisie it was sufficient for him as generally to plead the truth and uprightness of his heart they therefore go on more particularly but as falsly and as it were by way of instance to charge him with Oppression Thus Eliphaz by name taxeth him Chap. 22. 6 c. Thou hast taken a pledge from thy Brother for naught and hast stripped the naked of their cloathing Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink and thou hast witholden bread from the hungry But as for the mighty man he had the Earth and the honourable man dwelt in it Thou hast sent Widows away empty and the Arms of the Fatherless hast thou broken Being thus shamefully indeed shamelessly upbraided to his face without any desert of his by those men who if he had deserved it should least of all have done it his neighbours and familiar friends can you blame the good man if to remove such false aspersions he do with more than ordinary freedom insist upon his own integrity in this behalf And that he doth in this Chapter something largely wherein he declareth how he demeaned himself in the time of his prosperity in the administration of his Magistracy far otherwise than was laid to his charge When the Ear heard me then it blessed me and when the eye saw me it gave witness to me Because I delivered the poor that cryed and the Fatherless and him that had none to help him The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy in the next immediate verses before these And then he goeth on in the words of my Text I put on righteousness c. It seemeth Iob was 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 ony 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 Oppressor 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 Iustification but the blessed Spirit of God hath since written them for our instruction To teach us from Iob's example how to use that measure of greatness and power which he hath given us be it more be it less 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 fundamental duty the other three as accessary helps thereto or subordinate parts thereof The 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 business making it his greatest glory and delight Ver. 14. I put on righteousness and it cloathed me my judgment was a robe and a diadem The second is a forwardness 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 equal 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 righteousness c. This Metaphor of cloathing is much used in the Scriptures in this notion as it is applyed to the soul and things appertaining to the soul. In Psalm 109. David useth this imprecation against his enemies Let mine adversaries be cloathed with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a Cloak And the Prophet Esay speaking of Christ and his Kingdom and the righteousness thereof Chap. 11. thus describeth it Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness 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 broidered hair and gold and pearls and costly aray with shamefac'dness and sobriety and as becoming women professing godliness with good works in a third furnisheth the spiritual 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 understood with allusion to one of the three special ends and uses of Apparel For we cloath our selves either first for necessity and common decency to cover our nakedness 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 nakedness and these are Indumenta known by no other but by the general name of Cloathing or Apparel Souldiers in the wars wear Morions and Cuiraces and Targets and other habiliments for defence and these are called Arma Arms or Armour Kings and Princes wear Crowns and Diadems inferiour Nobles and Judges and Magistrates and Officers their Robes and Furrs and Hoods and other Ornaments fitting to their several 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 Iudgment 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 especially to the third use The propriety of the very words themselves give it so for he saith he put righteousness and judgment 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 like such as the Kings of the earth now are whose dominions are wider and power more absolute yet possible 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 or 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 Subjects towards their Superiour and adding in the estimation of the people both glory and honour and Majesty to the person and withal pomp and state and solemnity to the actions of the wearer By this speech then of putting on Iustice and Iudgment as a Robe and Diadem Iob sheweth that the glory and pride which Kings and Potentates are wont to take in their Crowns and Scepters and Royal Vestments is not more than the glory and honour which he placed in doing justice and judgment He thought that was true honour not which reflected from these empty marks and ensigns of Dignity but which sprang from those vertues whereof these are but dumb remembrances If we desire yet more light into the Metaphor we may borrow some from David Psal. 109. where speaking of the wicked he saith ver 17. that he cloathed himself with cursing like a garment and by that he meaneth no other than what he had spoken in the next verse before plainly and without a Metaphor His delight was in Cursing By the Analogy of which place we may not unfitly understand these words of Iob as intimating the great love he had unto Iustice and the great pleasure and delight he took therein Joyn this to the former and they give us a full meaning Never ambitious usurper took more pride in his new gotten Crown or Scepter never proud Minion took more pleasure in her new and gorgeous Apparel than Iob did true glory and delight in doing Justice and Judgment He put on Righteousness and it cloathed him and Iudgment was to him what to others a Robe and a Diadem is honourable and delightful Here then the Magistrate and every Officer of Justice may learn his first principle and if I may so speak his Master-Duty and let that be the first Observation namely to do Iustice and Iudgment with delight and zeal and cheerfulness I call it his Master-duty because where this is once rightly and soundly rooted in the Conscience the rest will come on easily and of themselves This must be his primum and his ultimum the foremost of his desires and the utmost of his endeavours to do Justice and Judgment He must make it his chiefest business and yet count it his lightsom Recreation and make it the first and lowest step of his care and yet withal count it the last and highest rise of his honour The first thing we do in the morning before we either eat or drink or buckle about any worldly business is to put our clothes about us we say we are not ready till we have done that Even thus should every good Magistrate do before his private he should think of the publick Affairs and not count himself ready to go about his own profits his shop his ship his lands his reckonings much less about his vain Pleasures his jades his currs his kites his any thing else till first with Iob he had put on righteousness as a garment and clothed himself with judgment as with a Robe and a Diadem Nor let any man think his
of those that desire to live quiet in the land Devise not dilatory shifts to tug men on along in a tedious course of Law to their great charge and vexation but ripen their causes with all seasonable expedition for a speedy hearing In a word do what lieth in your power to the utmost for the curbing of Sycophants and Oppressors and the protecting of the peaceable and innocent use the Sword that God by his Deputy hath put into your hands for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise and safety of those that do well So shall the hearts of every good Man be enlarged towards you and their tongues to honour you and to bless you and to pray for you Then shall God pour out his blessings abundantly upon you and yours yea it may be upon others too upon the whole Land by your means and for your sakes The Lord by his Prophet more than once hath given us some comfortable assurance of such blessed effects to follow upon such premisses The words are worthy to be taken notice of If thou throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour if thou oppress not the stranger the fatherless and the widow and shed not innocent blood in this place Then will I cause you to dwell in this place for ever and ever Jer. 7. And in Ier. 22. Execute ye judgment and righteousness and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor and do no wrong do no violence to the stranger the fatherless nor the widow neither shed innocent blood in this place For if ye do this thing indeed then shall there enter in by the gates of this house Kings sitting upon the throne c. But if ye will not hear these words I swear by my self faith the Lord c. 32. Concerning which and other-like passages frequent in the holy Prophets I see what may be readily opposed True it is will some say where these things are constantly and generally performed a national Iudgment may thereby be removed or a Blessing procured But what are two or three of us if we should set our selves to it with all our strength able to do towards the turning away of God's Iudgments if there be otherwise a general neglect of the Duty in the Land There is something of truth I confess in this Objection for doubtless those passages in the Prophets aim at a general reformation But yet consider first we have to deal with a wonderful gracious and merciful God slow to anger and of great kindness and such a one as will easily be induced to repent him of the evil And who can tell but he may return and repent and leave a blessing behind him where but two or three in a whole Nation do in conscience of their duty and in compassion of the State set themselves unfeignedly to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with their God though the generality should be corrupt Especially since we have in the second place such excellent precedents of the riches of his Grace and Goodness in this kind upon record that we might not be without hope if we do our part tho we were left even alone God was ready to have spared the five Cities of old Gen. 18. if there had been in them to be found but twice so many righteous Men. But he did actually spare Israel by instantly calling in a great plague which he had a little before sent among them for their sin upon one single act of Iustice done by one single Man Phineas moved with an holy zeal did but stand up and execute judgment upon two shameless offenders and the plague was stayed Psal. 106. Add hereunto that most gracious Proclamation published Ier. 5. and you cannot want encouragement to do every Man his own part whatsoever the rest do Run to and fro through the streets of Ierusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof if you can find a Man if there be any that executeth Iudgment that seeketh the Truth and I will pardon it Or say thirdly that the sins of a Nation should be grown to that ripeness that the few righteous that are in it could not any longer adjourn the Iudgment for as there is a time of Mercy wherein the righteousness of one or a few may reprieve a whole Nation from destruction so when the appointed time of their fatal stroke is come tho Noah Job and Daniel should be in the midst of it they could prevail no farther than the delivery of their own souls yet even there those that have been faithful shall have this benefit that they shall be able to say with comfort either in the one sense or in the other Liberavi animam meam That is They shall either be preserved from being overwhelmed in the common destruction having their life given them for a prey and as a brand snatched out of the fire as Noah escaped when all the World was drowned and Lot from the deflagration of Sodom or if God suffer them to be involved in the publick calamities have this comfort to sustain their Souls withal that they were not wanting to do their part toward the preventing thereof But howsoever why should any Man fourthly to shift off his duty unseasonably obtrude upon us a new piece of Metaphysicks which our Philosophers hitherto never owned in abstracting the general reformation from the particulars For what is the general other than the particulars together And if ever there be a general reformation wrought the particulars must make it up Do not thou then vainly talk of Castles in the air and of I know not what general reformation but if thou truly desirest such a thing put to thy hand and lay the first stone in thine own particular and see what thy example can do If other particulars move with thee and so a general reformation follow in some good mediocrity thou hast whereof to rejoice that thou hadst thy part a leading part in so good a work But if others will not come on end chearfully so as the work do not rise to any perfection thou hast yet wherewithal to comfort thee that the fault was not thine 33. Thus have you heard sundry reasons and inducements to stir you up to the chearful performance of the duty contained in the Text of doing justice and shewing mercy in delivering the oppressed Some in respect of God who hath given us first his express command to which our obedience and secondly his own blessed example to which our conformity is expected Some in respect of our selves because first whatsoever power we have for the present it was given us for this end that we might therewithal be helpful to others and we know not secondly in what need we may stand hereafter of like help from others Some in respect of our poor distressed brethren who deserve our pity and best furtherance considering first the