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A02591
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The true peace-maker laid forth in a sermon before his Maiesty at Theobalds. September 19, 1624. By Ios. Hall deane of Worcester.
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Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.
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1624
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STC 12715; ESTC S103756
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11,389
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49
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THE True Peace-Maker Laid forth in a Sermon before his Maiesty at Theobalds September 19 1624. By IOS HALL Deane of Worcester LONDON Printed by J. Haviland for Nath. Butter 1624. THE TRVE PEACE-MAKER ESAY 32. 17. Opus Iustitiae pax The worke of Iustice or righteousnesse shall be peace MY Text you heare is of Iustice and peace two royall graces and such as flow from soueraigne Maiesty There is a double Iustice Diuine and humane there is a double peace outward in the state inward in the soule Accordingly there is a double sense of my Text a spirituall a ciuill sense The spirituall concerning Theologicall Iustice and inward peace The ciuill concerning humane Iustice and outward peace The spirituall thus The Messias shall cause the fruit of his perfect iustice to be our inward peace with God and our selues The ciuill thus The Magistrate shall cause the worke of ciuill Iustice in his administration to be our outward peace with one another In both or either as Musculus well there is an allusion in the Hebrew word to a field the soile is the heart or the State the seed is Iustice the fruit peace That which was waste ground is now a Carmell a fruitfull field and the fruit of this field of Iustice is peace As there is good reason we will beginne with the spirituall Iustice and Peace The great King of Heauen will disforest that peece of the world which he calls his Church and put it to tillage it shall bee sowne with righteousnesse and shal yeeld a sweet crop of peace in this only not in the barren heaths of the prophane world shall true peace grow At first God and man were good friends How should there be other than good termes betwixt Heauen and Paradise God made man iust and iust man whiles he was so could not chuse but loue the iust God that made him sinne set them at odds in one act and instant did man leese both his iustice and peace now the world is changed now the stile of God is Fortis vltor God the auenger Ier. 51. 56. and the stile of men Filij irae sonnes of wrath Ephes 2. 3. There is no possible peace to bee made betwixt God and man but by the perfect Iustice of him that was both God and man I would there were a peace in the Church about this Iustice It is pitie and shame there is not but there must be heresies As there are two parts of Diuinity the Law and the Gospell so each of these haue their Iustice there is a iustice of the Law and an Euangelicall Iustice The Iustice of the Law when a meere morall man is iustified out of his owne powers by the works of the Law very Papists will giue so much way to S. Paul so much affront to Pelagius as to renounce this freely anathematizing that man who by the strength of humane nature or the doctrine of the Law shall challenge iustification Vnlesse perhaps some Andradius haue priuilege to teach that this Ethica Iustitia was enough to iustifie and saue the old Philosophers The Euangelicall Iustice is not without the interuention of a Sauiour To which claime is laid in two kindes either as imputatiue or as inherent The inherent wrought in vs the imputed wrought for vs. How easie were it to lead you through a thicke of distinctions into a large field of controuersie concerning the nature meanes manner of our Iustification No head in all Diuinity yeelds either more or more important Problems In so much as Cardinall De Monte Vice-President for the time of the Councell of Trent in an Oration made by him in the eleuenth session professes that when they meant to dispatch their Decree concerning Iustification in fifteene daies it cost them seuen moneths to finish without one daies intermission and when all is done they haue left the world which was before as Pighius ingenuously intricated by the thorny questions of Schoolemen rather more vnsatisfied perplexed than they found it It is the maine care of our liues and deaths what shall giue vs peace and acceptation before the dreadfull Tribunall of God What but righteousnesse What righteousnesse or whose Ours or Christs Ours in the inherent graces wrought in vs in the holy workes wrought by vs or Christs in his most perfect obedience and meritorious satisfaction wrought for vs applied to vs. The Tridentine faction is for the former wee are for the latter God is as direct on our side as his Word can make him Euery where blazoning the defects of our owne righteousnesse the imperfections of our best Graces the deadly nature of our least sinnes the radicall sinfulnesse of our habituall concupiscence the pollution of our best workes Euery where extolling the perfect obedience of our Redeemer the gracious application of that obedience the sweet comfort of that application the assurance and vnfailablenesse of that comfort and lastly our happy rest in that assurance I instance not open the Booke see where your eies can looke beside these Satis aperti saith their Cassander The Scripture is cleare ours So is all antiquity if they beleeue that learned Arbiter So are their more ingenuous Doctors of the last age So would they all be if they had grace to know God themselues grace sinne heauen hell God perfectly iust themselues miserably weake Grace sensibly imperfect sinne vnmeasurably sinfull Lastly if they knew that heauen is for none but the pure that hell is for the presumptuous O Sauiour no man is iust through thee but he that is sanctified by thee What is our inherent justice but sanctity That we aspire towards we attaine not to Woe were vs if we were not more iust in thee than sanctified in our selues we are sanctified in part according to the weaknesse of our receit we are iustified thorowly according to the perfection of thine acceptation were we fully sanctified here we should be more than men were we not thorowly iustified wee should be no more than sinners before thee whiles we stand before thee as sinners we can haue no peace Let others trust in the Charets and Horses of their owne strength we will remember the Name of the Lord our God The worke of thy Iustice shall be our peace Peace is a sweet word Euery body would be glad of it especially Peace at the last as the Psalmist speakes How haue the politickly religious held out twigs for the drowning soule to catch at Due satisfactions vndue supererogations patronages of Saints bargaines of Indulgences woollward pilgrimages and at last after whips and haire-clothes leaue the dying soule to a feare of Hell doubt of Heauen assurance of Purgatory flames How truly may it now say to these Doctors as Iob to his friends Miserable comforters are yee all Hearken O yee deare Christians to a better voice that sounds from heauen Come to me all yee that labour and are heauy laden and I will giue you rest Is there any of you whose
vnquiet breast boiles continually with the conscience of any foule sinne whose heart is daily tyr'd vpon by the vultur of his secret guiltinesse whose bosome is gnawed before-hand with that hellish Worme which can no more giue ouer than die It boots not to aske thee if thou wouldst haue peace Peace Rather than life Oh wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and bow my selfe before the most high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rammes or with tenne thousand Riuers of Oyle Shall I giue my first borne for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sinne of my soule Heare O thou distracted heart what talkest thou of giuing to the owner The world is his thou art not thine owne Yea were these things thine and not his yet know it is not giuing but taking that must procure thy peace An infinite Iustice is offended an infinite Iustice hath satisfied an infinite mercy hath applied it Take thou hold by the hand of faith on that infinite mercy and justice of thy Sauiour The worke of his Iustice shall be thy peace Fly about whither thou wilt O thou weary Doue thorow all the wide Regions of the heauen and waters thou shalt no where finde rest for the soles of thy feet but in this Arke of Christs perfect righteousnesse In vaine shalt thou seeke it in schooles of morality in learned Libraries in spacious fields and forrests in pleasant gardens in sullen retirednesse in witty conuersation in wanton Theaters in drunken cellers in tables of gluttony in beds of lust chests of Mammon whiffes and draughts of intoxication songs of ribaldry sports of recreation No no the more thou seekest it in most of these the further it flies from thee the further thou art from finding it and if these things may giue some poore truce to thy thoughts it shall soone end in a more direfull warre There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Stray whither thou wilt O thou wounded heart thorow the Lawnds and Woods alas the shaft sticks still in thee or if that bee shaken out the head None but the soueraigne Dittany of thy Sauiours righteousnesse can driue it out and till it be out thou canst haue no peace In plaine termes wouldst thou haue peace None but Christ can giue it thee He will giue it to none but the penitent none but the faithfull Oh spend thy selfe into the sighes and teares of true repentance and then raise thy humbled soule to a liuely confidence in thine all-sufficient Redeemer Set thy Lord Iesus betwixt God and thy sinnes God cannot see thy debt but through thine acquittance By his stripes we are healed by his wounds we are stanched by his death we are quickned by his righteousnesse we are discharged The worke of his righteousnesse is our peace Oh safe and blessed condition of beleeuers Let sinne Satan world death hell doe their worst Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that iustifieth who shall condemne It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen againe who is also at the right hand of God and maketh intercession for vs Our enemy is now our Father our Iudge is our Sauiour the offended our surety that precious bloud our ransome that perfect righteousnesse our euerlasting peace Thus much of our spirituall Iustice and Peace The Ciuill followes I know these two are wide termes Iustice comprises all vertue as Peace all blessings For that is iust in all kinds which hath a meet adequation to the rule All vertue therefore conforming vs to the law of God which is the rule of perfection challengeth iustly to it selfe a stile of justice Narrower bounds will serue our turne We speake of Iustice first as a single vertue Habits are distinguished by their acts acts by their obiects The obiect of all morall vertue is good as of all intellectuall is True The obiect of this vertue of Iustice is the good of men in relation to each other Other vertues order a man in regard to himselfe Iustice in regard to another This good being either common or priuate common of all priuate of some the acts and vertue of Iustice must bee sutable Either as man stands in an habitude to the whole body or as he stands to speciall limbs of the body The former of these is that which Philosophers and Casuists call a legall and vniuersall Iustice The latter is that particular Iustice which we vse to distinguish by Distribution and Commutation the one consisting in matter of Commerce the other in Reward or Punishment both of them according to a meet though different equality An Arithmeticall equality in Commutation a Geometricall in distribution the former regarding the value or worth of the thing the latter regarding the proportionable difference of the person The worke of all these three Iustices is Peace First the legall Iustice is the apparent mother and nurse of publique Peace When Gouernors and subiects are carefull to giue each other their owne when both conspire to command and obey for the common good when men frame their liues to the wholsome lawes of their Soueraignes not more out of feare than conscience when respect to the community caries men from partiall reflections vpon thēselues As contrarily distractions and priuate ends are the bane of any state When the head and members vnite their thoughts and endeuours in the center of the common good the head to deuise and command the eies to see the eare to heare the palate to taste the heart to moue the bellowes of the lungs to blow the liuer to sanguifie the stomach to digest the guts to export the hands to execute the tongue to talke for the good of this naturall Common-wealth of the body all goes well and happily but if any of these parts will be gathering to themselues and obstructions grow within and mutinous distempers arise in the humors ruine is threatned to the whole If either the Superiors miscommand or the inferiors disobey it is an affront to Peace I need not tell you that good lawes are the walls of the Citie the sinewes of the politicke body the rule of our life the life of our state without which men would turne brute yea monstrous the world were a Chaos yea an hell It is wisdome that makes lawes it is Iustice that keeps them Oh let this Iustice still blesse vs with a perpetuall peace as those that doe not thinke the world made for vs but our selues made for the world let vs driue at an vniuersall good let there be euer that sweet correspondence betwixt Soueraignty and subiection that the one may be happy in the other both in peace Secondly the distributiue Iustice is not lesse fruitfull of peace when rewards of honors gracious respects are suited to the well-deseruing when malefactors smart according to their crimes This Iustice hath stocks for the vagrant whips for harlots brands for