pardoned ready upon every occasion to smite him and to gall him with some touch and remorse of his old presumption Like as a man that having gotten some sore bruise in his youth and by the help of Surgery and the strength of youth overworn it may yet carry a grudging of it in his bones or joynts by fits perhaps to his dying day And as for the most part such grudgings of an old bruise are aptest to recur upon some new distemper of body or upon change of weather so the grief of an old presumptuous sin is commonly most felt upon the committing of some new sin or the approach of some new affliction Do you think David had not in all those afflictions that after befel him and at the apprehension of every sinful oversight into which he fell a fresh remembrance withall of the matter of Vriah not without some grief and shame thereat As the distress Iosephs brethren met with in Egypt Gen. 42. brought to their remembrance their treacherous dealing with him which was by probable computation at the least twenty years after the thing was done Yea and after their fathers death which by the like probable computation was near upon twenty years more the remorse of the same sin wrought upon their consciences afresh perplexing their hearts with new fears and jealousies True it is the sinner once throughly purged of the sin by repentance hath no more conscience of that sin in that fearful degree ordinarily as to be a perpetual rack to his soul and to torment him with restless doubtings of his reconcilement even to despair yet can it not chuse but put some affrightment into him to remember into what a desperate estate he had before plunged himself by his own wilful disobedience if God had not been infinitely gracious to him therein Great presumptions will not suffer him that hath repented them for ever quite to forget them and he shall never be able to remember them without shame and horrour 33. Great cause then had David to pray so earnestly as we see here he doth against them and as great cause have the best of us to use our best care and endeavour to avoid them being they spring from such cursed root and are both so grievous to the holy spirit of God and of such bitter consequents to the guilty offender Our next business will be the sin and danger being so great to learn what is best to be done on our part for the avoiding and preventing both of sin and danger Now the means of prevention our third Discovery are First to seek help from the hand of God by praying with David here that the Lord would keep us back and then to put to our own helping hand by seconding our prayers with our best endeavours to keep our selves back from these presumptuous sins 34. A Iove Principium We have no stay nor command of our selves so masterful are our Wills and headstrong but that if God should leave us wholly to the wildness of our unruly nature and to take our own course we should soon run our selves upon our own ruine Like unto the horse and mule that have no understanding to guide themselves in a right and safe way but they must be holden in with bit and bridle put into their mouths else they will either do or finde mischief If we be not kept back with strong hand and no other hand but the hand of God is strong enough to keep us back we shall soon run into all extremities of evil with the greatest impetuousness that can be as the horse rusheth into the battle running into every excesse of riot as fast as any temptation is set before us and committing all manner of wickedness with all kinde of greediness David knew it full well and therefore durst not trust his own heart too far but being jealous over himself with a Godly jealousy evermore he made God his refuge If at any time he had been kept back from sinning when some opportunity did seem to tempt or provoke him thereunto he blessed God for it for he saw it was Gods doing more then his own Blessed be the Lord that hath kept his servant from evil in the the case of Nabal 1 Sam. 25. If at any time he desired to be kept back from sinning when Satan had laid a bait for him without sutable to some lust stirring within he sought to God for it for he knew that he must do it himself could not keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins here in the Text. Without his help and blessing all endeavours are in vain his help and blessing therefore must be sought for in the first place by Prayer 35. But we may not think when we have so done that we have done all that lieth upon us to do and so an end of the business It is Gods blessing I confess that doth the deed not our endeavours but we are vain if we expect Gods blessing without doing our endeavours Can we be so sensless as to imagine it should serve our turn to say Lord keep us back and yet our selves in the mean time thrust forward as fast as we can No if we will have our prayers effectual and in their efficacy is our chiefest hope and comfort we must second our faithful prayers with our faithful endeavours Oculus ad coelum manus ad clavum Then may we with confidence expect that God should do his part in keeping us back when we are duly careful to do our part also towards the keeping our selves back from presumptuous sins Against which sins the best and most soveraign preservatives I am yet able to prescribe are these four following It is every mans concernment and therefore I hope it shall be without offence if after the example of God himself in delivering the Law I speak to every mans soul as it were in particular 36. For the avoiding then of Presumptuous sins First be sure never to doe any thing against the clear light of thine own Conscience Every known sin hath a spice of wilfulness and presumption in it The very composure of Davids Prayer in the present passage implieth as much in passing immediately after the mention of his secret and unknown sins to the mentioning of these presumptuous Sins as if there were scarce any medium at all between them And every sin against conscience is a known sin A man hath not a heavier Foe then his own Conscience after he hath sinned nor before he sin a faster Friend O take heed of losing such a Friend or of making it of a Friend an Accuser If I should see one that I loved well fall into the company of a cheater or other crafty companion that would be sure to inveigle him in some ill bargain or draw him into some hurtful inconvenience if he should close with him of whom yet he had no suspicion I should but doe the part of a Friend to take him aside
that there is nothing of moment proved against him for in the construction of the Law every man is presumed to be an honest man till he be proved otherwise But to the condemning of a man there is more requisite then so bare suspicions are not enough no nor strong presumptions neither but there must be a clear and full evidence especially if the triall concern life So in these moral trials also in foro interno when enquiry is made into the lawfulness or unlawfulness of humane acts in their several kindes it is sufficient to warrant any act in the kinde to be lawful that there can be nothing produced from scripture or sound reason to prove it unlawfull For so much the words of my Text do manifestly import All things are lawful for me But to condemn any act as simply and utterly unlawful in the kind remote consequences and weak deductions from Scripture-Text should not serve the turne neither yet reasons of inconveniency or inexpediency though carrying with them great shews of probability But it is requisite that the unlawfulness thereof should be sufficiently demonstrated either from express and undeniable testimony of scripture or from the clear light of natural reason or at leastwise from some conclusions properly directly and evidently deduced therefrom If we condemne it before this be done our judgement therein is rash and unrighteous 15. Nor is that all I told you besides the unrighteousness of it in it self that it is also of very noysome and perilous consequence many wayes Sundry the evil and pernicious effects whereof I desire you to take notice of being many I shall do little more then name them howbeit they will deserve a larger discovery And first it produceth much Vncharitableness For although difference of judgment should not alienate our affections one from another yet daily experience sheweth it doth By reason of that selfe-love and envy and other corruptions that abound in us it is rarely seen that those men are of one heart that are of two mindes S. Paul found it so with the Romans in his time whilest some condemned that as unlawful which others practised as lawful they judged one another and despised one another perpetually And I doubt not but any of us that is any-whit-like acquainted with the wretched deceitfulness of mans heart may easily conclude how hard a thing it is if at all possible not to think somewhat hardly of those men that take the liberty to do such things as we judge unlawful As for example If we shall judge all walking into the fields discoursing occasionally on the occurrences of the times dressing of meat for dinner or supper or even moderate recreations on the Lords day to be grievous prophanations of the sabbath how can we chuse but judge those men that use them to be grievous prophaners of Gods sabbath And if such our judgment concerning the things should after prove to be erroneous then can it not be avoided but that such our judgement also concerning the persons must needs be uncharitable 16. Secondly this mis-judging of things filleth the world with endless nicities and disputes to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which to every good man ought to be precious The multiplying of books and writings pro and con and pursuing of arguments with heat and opposition doth rather lengthen then decide controversies and insted of destroying the old begetteth new ones whiles they that are in the wrong out of obstinacy will not and they that stand for the truth out of conscience dare not may not yeeld and so still the warr goeth on 17. And as to the publick peace of the Church so is there also thirdly by this means great prejudice done to the peace and tranquillity of private mens consciences when by the peremptory doctrines of some strict and rigid masters the soules of many a well-meaning man are miserably disquieted with a thousand unnecessary scruples and driven sometimes into very woful perplexities Surely it can be no light matter thus to lay heavie burdens upon other mens shoulders and to cast a snare upon their consciences by making the narrow way to heaven narrower then ever God meant it 18. Fourthly hereby Christian Governours come to be robbed of a great part of that honour that is due unto them from their people both in their Affections and Subjection For when they shall see cause to exercise over us that power that God hath left them in indifferent things by commanding such or such things to be done as namely wearing of a surplice kneeling at the communion and tho like if now we in our own thoughts have already prejudged any of the things so commanded to be unlawful it cannot be but our hearts will be sowred towards our superiours in whom we ought to rejoyce and instead of blessing God for them as we are bound to do and that with hearty cheerfulness we shall be ready to speak evil of them even with open mouth so far as we dare for fear of being shent Or if out of that fear we do it but indirectly and obliquely yet we will be sure to do it in such a manner as if we were willing to be understood with as much reflexion upon authority as may be But then as for our Obedience we think our selves clearly discharged of that it being granted on all hands as it ought that superiours commanding unlawful things are not therein to be obeyed 19. And then as ever one evil bringeth on another since it is against all reason that our Errour should deprive our Superiours of that right they have to our obedience for why should any man reap or challenge benefit from his own act we do by this means fifthly exasperate those that are in authority and make the spirit of the ruler rise against us which may hap to fall right heavy on us in the end All power we know whether natural or civil striveth to maintain it self at the height for the better preserving of it self the Natural from decay and the Civil from contempt When we therefore withdraw from the higher powers our due obedience what do we other then pull upon our selves their just displeasure and put into their hands the opportunity if they shall but be as ready to take it as we are to give it rather to extend their power Whereby if we suffer in the conclusion as not unlike we may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom may we thank for it but our selves 20. Sixthly by this means we cast our selves upon such sufferings as the cause being naught we can have no sound comfort in Causa non passio we know it is the cause maketh a true Martyr or Confessour and not barely the suffering He that suffereth for the truth and a good cause suffereth as a Christian and he need not be ashamed but may exult in the midst of his greatest sufferings chearing up his own heart and glorifying God
holy and wise God the first cause of all things that happen suffereth it so to be as to particulars that is counsel to us and we may not search into those secrets only we are assured in the general that he doth it for just and gracious ends best known to himself But as to second causes we see evidently reason enough to satisfie us why it should be likely to fall out thus rather then otherwise if but in this that wicked men what worldly ends they propose to themselves they pursue to the utmost not boggling at any thing that they think may conduce to the obtaining of the same be it right or wrong whereas godly and vertuous men make conscience both of End and Means and will neither pitch upon any unworthy end nor adventure upon any unlawful means Hath it not been always seen and still is and ever will be more or less to the worlds end That extorting Vsurers oppressing Landlords unconscionable Traders corrupt Magistrates and griping Officers have gotten together the greatest wealth and most abounded in riches That obsequious Flatterers temporising Sycophants perfidious Traytors bold and insolent intruders bribing and simoniacal chafferers have climbed up the highest rounds of Civil and Ecclesiastical preferments That men of base and unmanly condition rather to be called beasts then men if not Monsters rather then either of both such as some of the old Assyrian and Persian Monarchy and after them some of the Romane Emperours were have surfeited of pleasures to the full and wallowed in all manner of luxury and sensuality Worthless and wicked men may swim up to the chin in rivers of oyle and have their heads and beards ey and the very skirts of their garments too bedrencht in great abundance with the choysest of these outward Oyntments 14. But a Good Name is Peculium bonorum Gracious and vertuous men have a more special interest a kinde of peculiarity in it as being in the ordinary course of Gods providence the proper effect and by his good blessing for the most part the most certain temporal reward of Vertue and Piety Si quae virtus si qua laus saith the Apostle Phil. 2. If there be any vertue if there be any praise As if there could be no praise where there is no vertue no more then there can be a shadow where there is no body to cast it It was by faith and the fruits of faith that the Elders obtained a good report The projectors of the Tower of Babel aymed by that building to get themselves a name and they did but the name was Babel a name of Confusion little comfort or honour to them Many men are ambitious of a great name and sometimes they get it too as he that set Diana's Temple on fire only to be talked of But a great name is one thing and a good name another Greatness may get a man a great name but goodness only a good name You that are great men if you be not good withall do what you can for the preservation of your name and memory use all your best wit and art spend the most costly perfumes and precious ointments you have about it when you have done your utmost endeavours we may justly put that rebuke upon you which the Disciples did unjustly upon the good woman in the Gospel Quorsum perditio haec whereto serveth this wast Oleum operam you shall not be able after all this expence of oyle and toyle to preserve your names from stench and putrifaction It is nothing but godliness and righteousness that can do that The memorial of the just when Envy and Calumny have done their worst to blast it shall yet be blessed but the name of the wicked when Hypocrisie and Flattery have done their best to prevent it shall not notwithstanding A good name then is therefore first more excellent then any precious oyntment either in the letter or metaphor because less Common 15. Compare secondly the delights and comforts and contents of both and see the issue Oyles and Oyntments do give exceeding great delight to the senses so as scarce any one kinde of thing more which perhaps might be some cause why Solomon should here make choice of them rather then any other things whereby to express outward and sensual pleasures And this they do by three distinct qualities whereby they â—ffect three distinct senses The Qualities are Laevor Nitor Odor The Senses affected therewith Feeling Seeing Smelling The first Quality is Laevor a kinde of gentle softness and smoothness and supple glibbiness wherewith the touch is much delighted Upon which quality David the father and Solomon the son do both reflect in those proverbial speeches of theirs where speaking the one of flattering dissemblers saith Molliti super oleum Their words are softer then Oyle Psal. 55. the other of the whorish woman saith Her lips drop like a hony-combe and her mouth is smoother then Oyle Prov. 5. The second Quality of Oyls and Oyntments is Nitor a kinde of brightness and varnish which they cast upon other bodies making them loook fresh and glister which quality taketh the eye and affecteth the sightâ— As colours laid in Oyle have a gracefull verdure and lustre beyond those that are not so laid Of which quality the Psalmist maketh special mention Psal. 104. where describing the manifold works of God among other things he saith that God bringeth food out of the earth as namely wine to make glad the heart of man and Oyle to make him a cheerful countenance or as our last translation hath it somewhat neerer the letter but to the same sense to make his face to shine Their third Quality is Odor the sweet fragrancy which they send forth round about them to a good distance which maketh them wondrous pleasant to the Smell The Poets therefore sometimes call Oyntments and Perfumes Odoers in the abstract as if they were nothing else but smell To this quality do referr those reciprocal speeches in the Canticles Of the Spouse to her well-beloved in the first Chapter Because of the savour of thy good Oyntments therefore doe the virgins love thee And of him again to her in the fourth Chapter How faire is thy love my sister my spouse how much better is thy love then wine and the smell of thine Oyntments then all spices When Mary powred out her costly spikenard on Christs feet the story telleth us that all the house was filled with the odour of the Oyntment Joh. 12. 16. Oyntments then are good and pleasant But as Aristotle sometimes pronounced of the Rhodian and Lesbian wine when he had tasted of both that the Rhodian was good too but the Lesbian was the pleasanter so it may as reasonably be pronounced in the present contest that though the precious Oyntment be good and pleasant in his kinde yet the good Name for goodness and pleasantness is far beyond
in a most base and treacherous fashion too not without a great deal of dawbing and hypocrisie withall The circumstances aggravate much No doubt Davids heart that was so ready to smite him at other times upon very small occasions in comparison would now buffet him with stronger checks and not suffer him to be ignorant of the wickedness and unlawfulness of his foule intentions But all is one for that Iacta est alea. He was in and he must on so it must be now thinketh he or else we are shamed for ever This is David in the matter of Uriah a fearful example for our Admonition 8. Heaven and Hell are not at more distance nor light and darkness more unlike then Davids carriage in the one case and in the other Of which so great difference and unlikeness if we examine what was the true cause we shall finde it to have bin none other but this that in the former he looked chiefly at the unlawfulness of the thing and in the later at the expediency only In the matter of Saul he saw the thing was utterly unlawful to be done as being repugnant to the ordinance of God and the duty of a subject and therefore expedient or inexpedient he resolves he will not do it for a world and that was certainly the right way In the matter of Uriah he saw the thing was expedient to be done as conducing to his ends for the saving of his credit at that time and therefore lawful or unlawful he resolveth he will do it whatsoever come of it and that was certainly the wrong way 9. Take we warning by his example it is the cheapest learning to profit by anothers harme not to adventure the doing of any thing that we know to be unlawful seem it never so expedient and conducible to such ends as we intend Alas why should any of us for the serving of our own bellies cast the Commandments of God behind our backs or violate his holy laws to satisfie our own impure lusts Can the compassing of any thing we can desire in this world profit pleasure preferment glory revenge or any thing else be to us of so great advantage that for the attainment thereof we should so far dishonour God and quench the light that is in us as to lye and forswear and flatter and slander and supplant and cheat and oppress or do any other unjust or unlawful act against the light of our own reason or contrary to the checks of our own consciences 10. Nor ought we to be careful hereof then only when in our ends we look meerly at our selves and our own private conveniencies in any of the forementioned respects of profit pleasure and the rest but even then also when our intentions are more noble and honourable the honour of God the edification of our brethren the peace of the Church and the common good For neither pious intentions alone nor reasons of expediency alone nor yet both together will either warrant us before hand to the choice nor excuse us afterwards for the use of unlawful means What ever Sauls intention was in sparing the fatter cattel I make no question but that Vzzah's very intention was pious in reaching forth his hand to stay the Arke from falling when it tottered in the cart The things themselves both the one and the other seemed to be very expedient But Gods special command to Saul that all should be destroyed and his law given by Moses concerning that sacred and mysterious utensil having made both those things unlawful did thereby also make both the facts inexcusable and Almighty God to win reverence and honour to his own ordinances punished with great severity both the disobedience of the one and the rash presumption of the other 11. Be our ends and aimes therefore what they will unless we arm our selves with strong resolutions before-hand not to do any thing we know to be unlawful upon any terms seem it otherwise never so expedient and then afterwards use all our best prayers and endeavours by Gods grace to hold our resolutions We are gone Satan is cunning and we but weak and he will be too hard for us if he do but finde us any whit staggering in our resolutions for doing nothing but what is lawful or lending an ear to any perswasions for the doing of any thing that is unlawful By this very means he got within our Grandmother Eve and prevailed with her to taste of the forbidden fruit though it were unlawful by perswading her that it was expedient This once is a sure ground for us to build upon to a good Christian that desireth to make conscience of his wayes nothing can be truly expedient that is apparently unlawful And so much for the first Observation 12. The Apostle first supposeth the thing to be lawful else it may not be done howsoever But if it be lawful then we hope we may use it at our pleasure without either scruple in our selves or blame from others Indeed that is the common guise of the World Have but the opinion of some Divine of note concerning any thing we have a minde to that it is lawful and then we think we need take no more care nor trouble our selves about circumstances But there is a great deal more belongeth to it then so Lawfulness alone will not bear us out in the use of a thing unless there be care had withal to use it lawfully lest otherwise our liberty degenerate into a carnal licentiousness as easily it may do For preventing whereof the Apostle here requireth that we consider as well what is expedient to be done as what is lawful Which was our second Observation All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient 13. S. Bernard to Eugenius requireth trinam considerationem a threefold consideration or enquiry to precede the doing of any action of moment and worthy our deliberation An liceat An deceat An expediat Whether it be lawful or no whether comely or no whether expedient or no lawful in it self comely for us expedient in respect of others He maketh there that of decency and that of expediency two different considerations the one from the other yet both necessary And as well the difference that is between them as the necessity of both ariseth from those two grand vertues which must have a special influence into every action morally and spiritually good to wit Discretion and Charity of which two Discretion is the proper judge of decency and Charity of expediency though both do in some sort belong to both But as for decency it may be the Apostle intended not to speak of it at all as being not so very pertinent to his present argument and having besides a purpose to mention it more seasonably afterwards Or if he did he then taketh expediency in a larger sence so as to comprehend under that name all that which Bernard meaneth by decency and expediency
there is no beauty in any thing we do if it be unseasonable As Hushai said of Ahitophels advice The counsel of Ahitophel is not good at this time And as he said to his friend that cited some verses out of Homer not altogether to his liking and commended them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholesom counsel but not for all men nor at all times If any man should now in these times endeavour to bring back into the Church postliminiò and after so many years cessation thereof either the severity of the ancient Canons for publick penances or the enjoyning of private confessions before Easter or some other things now long dis-used he should attempt a thing of great inexpediency Not in regard of the things themselves which severed from those abuses which in tract of time had through mens corruption grown thereunto are certainly lawful and might be as in some former times so now also profitable if the times would bear them But in regard of the condition of the times and the general aversness of mens mindes therefrom who having been so long accustomed to so much indulgence and liberty in that kinde could not now brook those severer impositions but would cry out against them as they do against some other things with very little reason as Antichristian and superstitious Paul thought fit to circumcise Timothy at one time when he saw it expedient so to do but would by no means yield that Titus should be circumcised at another time when he saw it inexpedient 29. Sith then the difference of times may make such a difference in the expediency and inexpediency of things otherwise and in themselves lawful and indifferent and so may the other circumstances also of places persons and the rest wise men therefore must be content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you will allow that reading Rom. 12. Ey to be down-right time-servers you will say No such matter but to suffer themselves now and then to be over-ruled by circumstances and to yield to the sway of the times and other occasions in sundry things though perhaps somewhat against their own liking and judgement otherwise so long as they be not enforced thereby either to do any dishonest or unlawful thing or to omit any part of their necessary duty As a skilful Pilot must of necessity hold that course that the winde and weather will suffer him winning upon them by little and little what he can by his skil and making his advantage even of a side-winde if he can but get it to bring his Bark with as much safety and speed as may be to the intended Haven For to tug against winde and tide besides the toyl he knoweth would be both bootless and dangerous It is an easie matter for a Workman upon his bed to frame to himself in his own fancy an exact idaea of some goodly Fabrick that he is to raise and he may please himself not a little with an imagination that all shall be done just according to that Plat-form But when he cometh ad practicandum and to lay his hand to the work indeed he shall be forced do what he can in many things to vary from his former speculations if the matter he hath to work upon will not serve thereunto as like enough a good part of it will not Velis quod possis is the old saying it must be our wisdom when we cannot hope to bring all things to our own votes and desires for that is more then yet ever any man could do since the World began to frame our selves to the present occasions and taking things as they are when they will be no better to make the best of them we can for our own and others and the common good Nothing doubting but that if so we do we shall do that that is expedient although possibly we may see some inconveniencies likely to ensue thereupon For if we shall suspend our resolutions till we can bethink our selves of something that is free from all inconveniencies in most of our deliberations we shall never resolve upon any thing at all as Solomon saith He that observeth the winde shall not sowe and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap God hath so tempered the things of this World that every commodity hath some incommodiousness and every conveniency some inconvenience attending the same which many times all the wit and industry of man is not able to sever If therefore out of the whole bunch we can cull out that which may prevent the most and greatest inconveniencies and be it self subject to the least and fewest we shall not have much cause to repent us of our choice And all this our Discretion will teach us 30. Charity also will tell us in the general that we must bear with the weakness of our brethren and forbear our own liberty in some cases where we may see hope that any good will come of it For as the stones in a building if they be well layed together do give mutual strength and support one to another so it is our duty to bear one anothers burdens that so we may fulfil the law of Christ. Charity seeketh not her own 1 Cor. 13. She standeth not ever upon the tip-to with those high terms This I may do and this I will do whosoever sayes nay I may eat flesh and I will eat flesh take offence at it who list but where she may hope to do good cometh down so low as to resolve never to eat flesh while the world standeth rather then give offence thereby Our Apostle professeth in the last verse of this Chapter that he sought to please all men in all things not seeking his own profit but the profit of many And it was no flourish neither S. Paul was a real man no bragger what hee said hee did He became as a Iew to the Jews as a Gentile to the Gentiles not to humour either but to win both And at Corinth he maintained himself a long while together with his own hand-labour when he might have challenged maintenance from them as the Apostles of Christ But he would not only to cut off occasion from those that standered him as if he went about to make a prey of them and would have bin glad to finde any occasion against him to give credit to that slander 31. But what is S. Paul now all on a suddain become a man-pleaser Or how is there not yea and nay with him that he should here profess it so largely and yet elsewhere protest against it so deeply Doe I seek to please men No saith he I scorn it such baseness will better become their own slaves I am the servant of Christ. Gal. 1. Worthy resolutions both both savouring of an Apostolick spirit and no contrariety at all between them Rather that seeming contrariety yieldeth excellent
do but look upon some general considerations only we shall see reasons enough why the Apostle notwithstanding his approving of their former carriage might yet be jealous over them with a godly jealousie in this matter 25. First he knew not persecutions ever attending the Church as her lot but they might and Christ having foretold great tribulations shortly to come upon that nation it was very like they should meet with more and stronger trials then they had ever yet done It was indeed and by the Apostles confession a great trial of afflictions they had undergone already and they had received the charge bravely and were come off with honour and victory so that that brunt was happily over But who could tell what trials were yet behinde These might be for ought they knew or he either but the beginnings of greater evils to ensue You have not resisted unto blood saith he in the very next words after the Text as if he had said You have fought one good fight already and quit your selves like men I commend you for it and I bless God for it Yet be not high-minded but fear you have not yet done all your work your warfare is not yet at an end What if God should call you to suffer the shedding of your blood for Christ as Christ shed his blood for you you have not been put to that yet but you know not what you may be If you be not in some measure prepared even for that also and resolved by Gods assistance to strive against sin and to withstand all sinful temptations even to the shedding of the last drop of blood in your bodies if God call you to it you have done nothing He that hateth not his life as well as his house and lands for Christ and his kingdom is not worthy of either Sharp or long assaults may tire out him that hath endured shorter and easier But he that setteth forth for the goal if he will obtain must resolve to devour all difficulties and to run it out and not to faint or slug till he have finished his course to the end though he should meet with never so many Lions in the way 26. Secondly so great is the natural frailty of man so utterly averse from conforming it self entirely to the good will and pleasure of Almighty God either in doing or suffering that if he be not the better principled within strengthened with grace in the inner man he will not be able to hold out in either but every sorry temptation from without will foil him and beat him off Be not weary of well-doing saith the Apostle Gal. 6. for in due time we shall reap if we faint not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word again Weariness and faintness of minde we are subject to you see in the point of well doing But how much more then in the point of suffering which is of the two much the sorer trial 27. Marvel not if ordinary Christians such as these Hebrews were might be in danger of fainting under the Cross when the most holy and eminent of Gods servants whose faith and patience and piety are recorded in the Scriptures as exemplary to all posterity have by their failings in this kinde bewrayed themselves to be but men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to passions of fear and distrust even as others Abraham the father of the faithful of so strong faith and obedience that he neither staggered at the promise of having a son though it were a very unlikely one at that age through unbelief nor stumbled at the command of sacrificing that son though it were a very hard one having no more through disobedience yet coming among strangers upon some apprehensions that his life might be endangered if he should own Sarah to be his wife his heart so far mis-gave him through humane frailty that he shewed some distrustfulness of God by his doubting and dissimulation with Pharaoh first and after with Abimelech Gen. 13. and 20. 28. And David also so full of courage sometimes that he would not fear though ten thousands of people whole armies of men should rise up against him and encompass him round about though the opposers were so strong and numerous that the earth should be moved and the mountains shake at the noise thereof yet at some other times when he saw no end of his troubles but that he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains day after day and chased from place to place perpetually that he could rest no where his heart began to melt and to faint within him And although he had a promise from God of succeeding in the kingdom and an anointing also as an earnest to confirm the promise yet it ran strongly in his thoughts nevertheless that he should perish one day by the hands of Saul Insomuch that in a kinde of distrust of Gods truth and protection he ventured so far upon his own head never so much as asking counsel at the mouth of God as to expose himself to great inconveniences hazards and temptations in the midst of an hostile and idolatrous people The good man was sensible of the imperfection acknowledgeth it an infirmity and striveth against it Psal. 77. 29. But of all the rest S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome often stileth him a man of great boldness and fervency of spirit betrayed the greatest weakness Who after so fair warning so lately given him and his own so confident profession of laying down his life in his masters quarrel yet within not many hours after when he began to be questioned about his Master and saw by the malicious and partial proceedings against the Master how it was like to goe with him if he were known to have such a near dependance upon him became so faint-hearted that contrary to his former resolutions and engagement he not only dis-owned him but with oaths and imprecations forswore him Such weakness is there in the flesh where there is yet left some willingness in the spirit that without a continual supply of grace and actual influence of strength from above there is no absolute stedfastness to be found in the best of the sons of men 30. Yet is not our natural inability to resist temptations though very great the cause of our actual faintings so much because of the ready assistance of Gods grace to relieve us if we would but be as ready to make use of it as a third thing is To wit our supine negligence that we do not stand upon our guard as it concerneth us to do nor provide for the encounter in time but have our armes to seek when the enemy is upon us As Ioseph in the years of plenty laid in provision against the years of dearth so should we whilest it is calm provide for a storm and whilest we are at ease against the evil day It is such an ordinary point of wisdom in the common affairs
man of blood He that taketh away his neighbours living slayeth him and he that defraudeth the labourer of his hire is a bloodshedder Ecclesiasticus 34. 17. And as these poore ones deserve our pity and our help in regard of the grievousnes of their distresses so are we secondly bound so much the more to endeavour to succor them by how much the more they are distitute of freinds or other means whereby to relieve or helpe themselves The scriptures therefore especially commend to our care and protection the stranger the fatherles and the widdow for these are of all others the most exposed to the injuries and oppressions of their potent adversaries because they have few or no friends to take their part so that if men of place and power shall not stick close to them in their righteous causes they will be over borne and undone This Solomon saw with much griefe and indignation insomuch as out of that very consideration he praised the dead that were already dead more then the living that were yet alive Eccles. 4. when viewing all the oppressions that are done under the sun he beheld the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressours there was power but they had no comforter Power and might and friends and partaking oâ— the one side no power no strength no friends no comfort on the other side When things are thus and thus they have ever been and thus will they ever be more or less whilest the world continueth there is then a rich opportunity for every great and good man especially for every conscionable Magistrate to set in for Gods cause in Gods stead and by the greatness of his power to stop the course of violence and oppression and to rescue out of the hands of the mighty those that are marked out to destruction or undoing Then is it a fit time for him to buckle on his armour with Iob to gird himself with zeal and righteousness as with a breast-plate to close with the gyant-oppressour and not to give over the combate till he have broken the jawes of the wicked and plucked the prey out of his teeth A good Magistrate should be as he was eyes to the blinde feet to the lame a husband to the widow a father to the orphane a brother to the stranger in a word as St. Paul was but in another sence Omnia omnibus all things to all men according to their several necessities and occasions that by all means he might at least save some from oppression and wrong 18. But that which above all other considerations should stir up our compassion to those that are in distress and make us bestir our selves in their behalf is that which I mentioned in the third place The Equity of their Cause when by the power and iniquity of an unjust adversary they are in danger to be over borne in a righteous matter For unless their matters be good and right be they never so poor their distresses never so great we should not pity them I mean not so to pity them as to be assistant to them therein For as in God so in every minister of God every Magistrate and in every child of God every good man Iustice and Mercy should meet together and kiss each other Iustice without Mercy and Mercy without Justice are both alike hateful to God both alike to be shunned of every good man and Magistrate Lest therefore any man should deceive himself by thinking it a glorious or a charitable act to help a poor man howsoever the Lord hath given an express prohibition to the contrary Exod. 23. Thou shalt not countenance a poor man in his Cause That is in a good cause shrink not from him but if his cause be naught let his poverty be what it will be thou mayest not countenance him in it He that hath respect of persons in judgment cannot but transgress and he that respecteth a man for his poverty is no less a respecter of persons then he that respecteth a man for friendship or neighbourhood or greatness or a bribe In this case the Magistrate cannot propose to himself a fitter or safer example then that of God himself who as he often professeth to have a special care over the stranger and fatherless and widow and needy so doth he often declare his proceedings to be evermore without respect of persons 19. That therefore whilest we avoid the one extreme that of incompassion we may not fall into the other that of foolish pity it will be needful that we rightly understand Solomons purpose in the Text. For it may perhaps seem to some to be here intended that every man should do his utmost to save the life of every other man that is in danger to lose it And accordingly many men are forward more then any good subject hath cause to con them thanks for to deprecate the favour of the Iudge for the saving of some hainous malefactor or to sue out a pardon for a wilful murderer or say it be but to help some busie crafty companion to come fair off in a foul business And when they have so done as if they had deserved a garland for their service so do they glory among their neighbours at their return from these great asâ—semblies that their journey was well bestowed for they had saved a proper man from the gallows or holpen a good fellow out of the bryers Alas little do such men consider that they glory in that which ought rather to be their shame such glorying is not good For albeit in the Text it be not expressedly so set down yet must Solomon of necessity be understood to speak of the delivering of such only as are unjustly drawn to the slaughter and not of such malefactors as by robberies rapes murders treasons and other guiltinesses have justly deserved the sentence of death by the Law For we must so understand him here as not to make him contradict himself who elsewhere telleth us that it is the part and property of a wise King to scatter the wicked and to bring the wheele over them and that he that hath done violence to the bloud of any person should fly to the pit and no man should stay him Against murder the Lord provided by an early Law Gen. 9. enacted and published before him out of whose loins the whole world after the flood was to be repeopled to shew it was not meant for a national and temporary ordinance but for an universal and perpetual Law whoso sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed And that Iudges should be very shy and tender how they grant pardons or reprivals in that case he established it afterwards among his own people by a most severe sanction Numb 35. Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death but he shall surely be put to death
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 unpartially recompense us thereafter Doth not he consider and shalt 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 kinde the comfort is that yet God will both remember it and requite it God is not unrighteous to forget your work 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 Gods 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 justice because it is done in a righteous cause and thirdly being done for the Lords 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 affliction Iames 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 Iehoâ—achins 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 judgement 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 judgement without mercy that sheweth no mercy He that stoppeth his ears against the cry of the poor he shall also cry himself but shall noâ— be 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 oppressour lest my fury go out like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings Ier. 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 stretched out against us still in the heavie plagues both of dearth and death Though the land be full of all manner of sin and lewdness and so the Lord might have a controversy with us for any of them yet I am verily perswaded 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 Leprosie as the sins of Riot and Oppression have done Which two sins are not only the provoking causes as any kind of sinnes 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 heavie 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 Ryot and Oppression Never think it will be well with us or that it will be much better with us then now it is or that it will not be rather every day much worse with us then 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 doe 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 or pestilences or if they be removed for God loveth sometimes to shift his rods in greater and heavier judgments in some other kinde 31. But as to the particular of Oppression for that of Ryot 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 fatherlesse and friendlesse Suffer not when his cause is good a simple man to be circumvented by the wilinesse or a mean man to be overpowred by the greatnesse 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 wormwod by making him that meant no hurt an offender for a word Wrangle not in the behalf of a contentious person to the prejudice 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 doe what lieth in your power to the utmost for the curbing of Sycophants and oppressours and the
heard both Nay may we not many times farther say when both tales are told that neither is good Because there is most-what in every mans tale a mixture of some falshoods with some truths whereby it may so happen sometimes that he which hath in truth the more equity on his side by the mingling in some easily discoverable falshoods in telling his tale may render his cause the more suspicious to him that heareth it to think the whole tale naught and he that hath indeed and upon the whole matter the worse cause may yet by the weaving in some evident truths or pregnant probabilities in the telling of his tale gain such credit with him that heareth it that he will be very inclinable to beleeve the whole tale to be good Or howsoever they may be both so equally false or at least both so equally doubtfull as no one that heareth them can well tell whether of both to give credit to It was so in the famous case of the two inmate harlots whereof King Solomon had the hearing The living child is mine the dead one thine saith the one No saith the other the dead child is thine and the living mine Here were presumptions on both sides for why should any woman challenge another womans child but proofs on neither for being there were none in the house but they two neither of them could produce any witnesses The case hung thus even no more evidence on the one side then on the other no lesse confidence on the one side then on the other Solomon indeed by that wisedom wherewith God had endowed him in a transcendent measure found out a means whereby to turn the scales to untie that hard knot and to discover the hidden truth But what could a Iudge or a Iury of no more then ordinary wisdom then have been able to have said or done in such a case but even to have left it as they found it And truly for any I know Ignorance must have been their best excuse 12. And as first in the Information so there may be a defect secondly in the Proofs He that hath the better cause in veritate rei may yet fail his proofs and not be able to make it judicially appear that he hath the better Cause In which case the old axiome holdeth Idem est non esse non apparere it is all one in foro externo and as to the determination of a Judge upon the Bench who is to pronounce secundùm allegata probata for a man not to have a right not to be able to make it appear in a legal way and by such evidence as is requisite in a judicial proceeding that he hath such a right Or he may be outsworn by the depositions of the witnesses produced on the behalf of the adverse part though it may be utterly false yet direct and punctuall against him and so strong enough howsoever to cast him in his suit For what Iudge but the great Judge of heaven and earth can certainly and infallibly know when two or three men swear directly to a point and agree in one whether yet they swear a falshood or no Or what should induce a mortall Iudge not to beleeve them especially if withal he see the proofs on the other side to fall short And if in such a case following the evidence in the simplicity of his heart he give away an honest mans right from him to a Knave he is not to be charged with it as a perverter of justice but hath his apologie here ready fitted for him in the Text Behold we knew it not 13 Adde hereunto in the third place the great advantage or disadvantage that may be given to a cause in the pleading by the artificiall insinuations of a powerfull Orator That same flexanimis Pitho and Suadae medulla as some of the old Heathens termed it that winning and perswasive faculty which dwelleth in the tongues of some men whereby they are able not only to work strongly upon the affections of men but to arrest their judgements also and to encline them whether way they please is an excellent endowment of nature or rather to speak more properly an excellent gift of God Which whosoever hath received is by so much the more bound to be truly thankful to him that gave it and to do him the best service he can with it by how much he is enabled thereby to gain more glory to God and to do more good to humane society then most of his brethren are And the good blessing of God be upon the heads of all those be they few or many that use their eloquence aright and employ their talent in that kinde for the advancement of justice the quelling of oppression the repressing and discountenancing of insolency and the encouraging and protecting of innocency But what shall I say then of those be they many or few that abuse the gracefulness of their elocution good speakers but to ill purposes to enchant the ears of an easie Magistrate with the charms of a fluent tongue or to cast a mist before the eyes of a weak Iury as Juglers make sport with Countrey people to make white seem black or black seem white so setting a fair varnish upon a rotten post and a smooth gloss upon a course cloth as Protagoras sometimes boasted that he could make a bad cause good when he listed By which means judgement is perverted the hands of violence and robbery strengthened the edge of the sword of justice abated great offenders acquitted gracious and vertuous men molested and injured I know not what fitter reward to wish them for their pernicious eloquence as their best deserved see then to remit them over to what David hath assigned them in Psalm 120. What reward shal be given or done unto thee O thou false tongue Even mighty and sharpe arrowes with hot burning coales I might adde to those how that somtimes by the subtilty of a cunning sly Commissioner sometimes by the wilful misprision of a corrupt or the slip of a negligent or the oversight of an ignorant Clerk and by sundry other means which in regard of their number and my inexperience I am not able to recite it may come to passe that the light of Truth may be so clouded and the beams thereof intercepted from the eyes of the most circumspect Magistrate that he cannot at all times clearly discern the Equity of those Causes that are brought before him In all which cases the only Apology that is left him is still the same as before even this Behold we knew it not 14. But when he perfectly understandeth the whole business and seeth the Equity of it so as he cannot plead Ignorance of either there may yet be thirdly place for his just excuse if he have not sufficient means wherewith to relieve and to right his wronged brother A mere private man that is not in place of authority may bemoan his poor brother in the day of
bound to render an account of his actions to any yet he doubteth not but to acquit himself before the whole congregation from having any wayes in all that so long a time abused his so vast power unto oppression Whom have I oppressed 32. He well knew that Oppression though it were a common yet was withall a grievous and a base sin A very common sin it is Elihu speaketh of multitudes of Oppressions Job 35. How do the wealthy every where swallow up the needy as in the forrests the greater beasts prey upon the lesser and in the ponds the larger fishes eat up the smaller fry Grinding the faces of the poor first and then eating them up like bread racking their rents taking in their commons overthrowing their tenures diminishing their wages encreasing their boones In a word for it would be endless to run through particulars taking advantage of their inability to help themselves or other their necessities in any kinde whatsoever to work their own wills upon them and to get somewhat from them for their own enriching 33. Yet is it indeed a very grievous sin forbidden by God himself in express terms Levit. 25. If thou sell ought unto thy neighbour or buyest ought of thy neighbours hand ye shall not oppress one another and so going on concludeth Ye shall not therefore oppress one another but thou shalt fear thy God Implying that it is from want of the fear of God that men oppress one another Solomon therefore saith that he that oppresseth the poor reproacheth or despiseth his maker Prov. 14. And indeed so he doth more wayes then one First he despiseth his Makers Commandment who hath as you heard peremptorily forbidden him to oppress Secondly he despiseth his Makers Creature the poor man whom he so oppresseth being Gods workmanship as well as himself Thirdly he despiseth his Makers Example who looketh upon the distresses of the poor and oppressed to provide for them and to relieve them Fourthly he despiseth his Makers Ordinance in perverting that power and wealth which God lent him purposely to do good therewithall and turning it to a quite contrary use to the hurt and damage of others And he that goeth on to reproach his Maker without repentance must needs doe it to his own confusion He that made him can marr him when he pleaseth and the greatest oppressours shall be no more able to stand before him then than their poorer brethren are now able to stand out against them 34. Adde to the grievousness of this sin the baseness of it also and that methinks should work much upon every noble and generous spirit to abhor it Alass who are they you thus trample upon and insult over but these poor worms of the earth who when they are trodden on dare scarce so much as turn again for as much as your treading is upon the poor Amos 5. and it is a poor and inglorious conquest that is gotten by the foile of such an adversary Rob not the poor saith Solomon because he is poor neither oppress the afflicted c. Prov. 22. These first words are capable of a double construction First Rob not the poor because he is poor that is Let not his poverty and inability to withstand thee encourage thee the rather to rob him Which construction agreeth very well with the reason given in the next verse For the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them As if he had said Be well advised what you doe weak though they be and can do little for themselves yet they have a strong one to take their part who will see that such as do them wrong shall not goe unpunished Yet is there another sence to be made of those words also neither unfitly nor unprofitably as thus Rob not the poor because he is poor that is Let the consideration of his poverty keep thee off from medling with him 1. A little loss would be his undoing because he is poor 2. And if thou shouldest wring all he hath from him it could make no great addition to thee because he is poor 3. Or if it could yet is he no fit match for thee to exercise thy strength upon if thou art rich because he is poor 35. But herein especially may you behold the baseness of Oppression that the basest people men of the lowest rank and spirit are evermore the most insolent and consequently according to the proportion of their power the most oppressive Asperius nihil est humili in the Poet. But take it from Solomon rather who compareth a poor man when he hath the opportunity to oppress another poor man to a sweeping rain that leaveth no food Prov. 28. How roughly did that servant in the Parable deal with his fellow-servant when he shook him by the throat for a smal debt after his master had but newly remitted to him a sum incomparably greater The reason of the difference was the master dealt nobly and freely and like himself and had compassion but the servant being of a low and narrow spirit must insult Senties qui vir siem If a mean man in any of our towns or hamlets be a little gotten up to over-top most of his neighbours in wealth or be put into some little authority to deal under some great man for the disposing of his farms or grounds or have something to sel to his necessitous neighbour â—â— at must buy upon day or have a little money lying by him to furnish another that for the supply of his present necessities must sell off somewhat of that little he hath though at an under-rate or the like it is scarce credible did not every dayes experience make proof of it how such a man will skrew up the poor man that falleth into his hands without all mercy and beyond all reason Conclude hence all ye that are of generous births or spirits how unworthy that practise would be in you wherein men of the lowest minds and conditions can in their proportion not equall only but even exceed you Which should make you not only to hate Oppression because it is wicked but even to scorn it because it is base and to despise it He that despiseth the gain of oppressions Esay 33. This for the second particular whom have I oppressed 35. There is yet a third behinde against which Solomon protesteth as a branch of Injustice also which also concerned him more properly as a Iudge to wit Bribery Or of whose hands have I received a bribe that I might blinde mine eyes therewith In the place now last cited the Prophet Esay speaking of an upright just man describeth him amongst other things by this that he shaketh his hands from hâ—lâ—ing of bribes as a man would shake off a Viper or other venemous beast that should offer to fasten upon his hand as Paul did at Mal a Acts 28. The word that here
hand But the Fourth and Fifth are here still wanting because I could not finde them out and so is the Eighteenth also because I could not get it in The want of which last though happening not through my default yet I have made a kinde of compensation for by adding one other Sermon of those Ad Populum in lieu of that which is so wanting to make up the number an even Score notwithstanding The Reader shall finde it in the later end of the Book carrying on every leafe by a mistake in the printing the title of The First Sermon which he may please to mend either with a dash of his pen by putting out the whole 3. words The First Sermon seeing there are no more to follow it or else with reference to the Seven Sermons Ad Populum formerly published by writing Eighth instead of First all along in the Title 5. As for the Sermons themselves the matter therein conteined the manner of handling c. I must permit all to the Readers doome Who if he be homo quadratus perfectly even and unbyassed both in his Iudgment and Affection that is to say neither prepossessed with some false Principle to forestall the one nor carried aside with partiality for or prejudice against any person or party to corrupt the other will be the better able to discern whether I have any where in these Papers exceeded the bounds of Truth and Soberness or layed my self open to the just imputation either of Flattery or Falshood There hath been a generation of men wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for their own purposes but Malignants sure enough that laboured very much when time was to possess the world with an opinion that all Court-Chaplains were Parasites and their preaching little other then daubing I hope these Papers will appear so innocent in that behalf as to contribute somewhat towards the shame and confutation of that Slander 6. The greater fear is that as the times are all men will not be well pleased with some passages herein especially where I had occasion to speak something of our Church-Ceremonies then under command but since growen into disuse But neither ought the displeasure of men nor the change of times to cast any prejudice upon the Truth which in all variations and turnings of affairs remaineth the same it was from the beginning and hath been accustomed and therefore can think it no new thing to finde unkinde entertainment abroad especially from them whose interest it is to be or at leastwise to seem to be of a different perswasion For that the Truth is rather on my side in this point then on theirs that dissent from me there is besides other this strong presumption onwards That I continue of the same judgment I was of twenty thirty forty years agoe and profess so to doe with no great hopes of bettering my temporal condition by so professing whereas hundreds of those who now decry the Ceremonies as they do also some other things of greater importance as Popish and Antichristian did not many years since both use them themselves and by their subscriptions approve the enjoyning of them but having since in complyance with the times professed their dislike of them their portion is visibly growen fatter thereby If the face of affairs be not now the same it was when the Sermons wherein this point is most insisted on were preached what was then done is not sure in any justice now chargable upon me as a crime who never pretended to be a Prophet nor could then either foresee that the times would so soon have changed or have believed that so many men would so soon have changed with the times 7. Of the presumption aforesaid I have here made use not that the business standeth in need of such a Reserve for want of competent proof otherwise which is the case wherein the Lawyers chiefly allow it but to save the labour of doing that over again in the Preface which I conceive to be already done in the Work it selfe With what success I know not that lieth in the brest of the Reader But that I speak no otherwise then I thought and what my intentions were therein that lieth in my own brest and cannot be known to the Reader Who is therefore in charity bound to believe the best where there appeareth no pregnant probability to the contrary The discourses themselves for much of the matter directly tend to the peace both of Church and State by endeavouring to perswade to Vnity and Obedience and for the manner of handling have much in them of Plainness little I think nothing at all of Bitterness and so are of a temper fitter to instruct then to provoke And these I am sure are no Symptomes of very bad Intentions If there be no worse Construction made of them then I meant nor worse Vse I trust they neither will deserve much blame nor can do much hurt Howsoever having now adventured them abroad though having little else to commend them but Truth and Perspicuity two things which I have alwayes had in my care for whereto else serveth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith God hath endued man but to speak reason and to be understood if by the good blessing of Almighty God whom I desire to serve in the spirit of my minde they may become in any little degree instrumental to his Glory the Edification of his Church and the promoting of any one soul in Faith and Holiness towards the attainment of everlasting salvation I shall have great cause of rejoycing in it as a singular evidence of his undeserved mercy towards me and an incomparably rich reward of so poor and unworthy labours Yet dare I not promise to my self any great hopes that any thing that can be spoken in an argument of this nature though with never so much strength of reason and evidence of truth should work any kindly effect upon the men of this generation when the times are nothing favourable and themselves altogether undisposed to receive it No more then the choisest Musick can affect the ear that is stopt up or the most proper Physick operate upon him that either cannot or will not take it But as the Sun when it shineth clearest in a bright day if the beams thereof be intercepted by a beam too but of another kinde lying upon the eye is to the party so blinded as if the light were not at all so I fear it is in this case Not through any incapacity in the Organ so much especially in the learneder part among them as from the interposition of an unsound Principle which they have received with so much affection that for the great complacency they have in it they are loath to have it removed And as they of the Roman party having once throughly imbibed this grand Principle that the Catholick Church and that must needs be it of Rome is infallible are thereby rendred incapable to receive any impressions
in the present difficulty As First if God have not yet made our enemies to be at peace with us yet it may be he will do it hereafter being no way bound to us we may give him leave to take his own time Non est vestrum nossê if it be not for us to know much less is it for us to prescribe the seasons which the Father hath kept in his own power It is his Prerogative to appoint the times it is our Duty to wait his leasure It may be secondly neither is it unlikely that we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk with an even foot and by a straight line But tread awry in something or other which displeaseth God and for which he suffereth their enmity to continue But it is most certain thirdly that we please him but imperfectly and in part even those graces wherewith we please him are in us but imperfectly and in part And therefore no marvaile if our peace also be but imperfect and in part Possibly he will procure our peace more when we please him better 28. But where none of these or the like considerations will reach home it will sufficiently clear the whole difficulty to consider but thus much and it is a plain and true answer that generally all Scriptures that run upon temporall promises are to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as universally but as commonly true Or as some Divines expresse it cum exceptione crucis not absolutely and without all exception but evermore with this reservation unlesse the Lord in his infinite wisdome see cause why it should be good for us to have it otherwise But this you shall ever observe withall and it infinitely magnifieth the goodness of our gracious Lord and God towards us that where he seeth it not good to give us that blessing in specie which the letter of the promise seemeth to import he yet giveth it us eminenter that is to say if not that yet some other thing fully as good as that and which he well knoweth though perhaps we cannot yet apprehend it so to be presently far better for us then that Say he do not give us wealth or advancement yet if he give us a contented minde without them is it not better Say he do not speedily remove a temptation from us whereunder we groan which was St Pauls case yet if he supply us with a sufficiency of grace to encounter with it is it not better So in the present case if we do not presently make our enemies to be at peace with us yet if he teach us to profit by their enmity in exercising our faith and patience in quickning us unto prayer in furthering our humiliations or encreasing any other grace in us is it not every way and incomparably better Now will any wise man tax him with breach of promise who having promised a pound of silver giveth a talent of gold or who can truly say that that man is not so good as his word that is apparently much better then his word 29. From the words thus cleared may be deduced many profitable Inferences for our further instruction but that the time will not suffer us to enlarge them As first we may hence know what a blessed thing and desireable Peace is not onely that inward peace with God and in our own breasts which passeth all understanding but even this outward peace with men When the holy spirit of God here in the text useth it as an especial strong inducement to quicken us up the rather to the performance of that with cheerfulness which we are in Duty bound to perform howsoever in seeking to please the Lord. We may learn hence secondly If at any time we unfainedly desire peace by what course we may be likeliest to procure it Preposterous is the course which yet most of men take when to make their peace with mortal men they hazard the disfavour of the eternal God The right and ready way is chalked out in the Text First to make our peace with God by ordering our wayes so as to please him and then to commit our wayes to his ordering by leaving the whole success to him and so doing it is not possible we should miscarry Those that are now our enemies either he will turn their hearts towards us so as to become our friends if he seeth that good for us or else he will so curb and restrain them that with all their enmity they shall not be able to do us any harme if he see that better for us or if by his just sufferance they do us harm one way and yet he will not suffer that neither unless he see that absolutely best for us it shall be recompensed to us by his good providence in a far greater comfort another way We may learn hence Thirdly how hateful the practise is and how wretched the condition of make-bates tale-bâ—arers whisperers and all those that sow dissention among brethren Light and Darkness are not more contrary then are Gods ways and theirs He is the author of peace and lover of concord they are the authors of strife and lovers of discord It is his work to make a mans enemies to be at peace with him it is their business to make a mans friends to be at odds with him We may learn hence fourthly if at any time our enemies grow to be at peace with us to whom we owe it Not to our selves it is a thing beyond our power or skill to win them Much less to them whose malice is stiff and will not easily relent But it is principally the Lords own work He is the God of peace which maketh men to be of one minde in an house it is he that causeth wars to cease in all the earth and that giveth unto his people the blessing of peace And therefore the glory of it and the thanks for it belong to him alone 30. But I willingly omit all further enlargement of these inferences that I may somewhat the longer insist upon one other inference only very needful to be consider'd of in these times which is this We may hence learn fifthly if at any time we want peace probably to guess where the fault may partly be and that by arguing from the Text thus I reade here that when a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him I finde in mine no relenting but an utter averseness from peace I am for peace but when I speak to them thereof they make them ready to battel I have cause therefore to feare that all is not right with me either my heart is not right or my wayes are not right I will examine them both throughly and search if I can see any way of wickedness in me for which my God may be justly displeased with me and for which he thus stiff'neth mine enemies still against me 31. Thus
any thing proposed to debate under any name or notion What doth that name or word import To presume then in the common use and notion of the word with us importeth ever a kinde of confidence or boldness in the Presumer And it may be taken either in a good or in a bad sense but more usually in the bad as by reason of common abuses most other indifferent words are He that hath a fast friend that he thinketh will support him will sometimes adventure upon an undertaking which he is not able to go through with all alone nor durst undergo if he had not such a friend to rely upon When a man doth so we say he presumeth upon that friend that is he is confident that friend will not fail to assist him therein to his utmost power Now if a man be bold to do but what he may and should do and that withall he have some good ground for his confidence from the consideration of his friends ability the experience of his love some former promises on his friends or merit on his own part or other like so as every man would be ready to say he had reason to presume so far of his friend this is a good reasonable and warrantable presumption But if he fail in either respect as if he presume either to do unlawful unworthy or unbefitting things or to do even lawful things when there appeareth no great cause why any man should think his friend obliged by the laws of friendship to assist him therein then is such his presumption a faulty and an evil presumption And whatsoever may bear the name of a Presumptuous sin in any respect is some way or other tainted with such an evil irrational presumption 9. But we are further to note that presumption in the worser sense and as applied to sin may be taken either Materially or Formally If these termes seem obscure with a little opening I hope the difference between these two will be easily understood Taken materially the sin of Presumption is a speciall kinde of sin distinguished from other species of sins by its proper Object or Matter when the very matter wherein we sin and wherby we offend God is Presumption and so it is a branch of Pride When a man presuming either upon his own strength or upon Gods assisting him undertaketh to do something of himself not having in himself by the ordinary course of nature and the common aid which God affoordeth to the actions of his creatures in the ordinary wayes of his providence sufficient strength to go through therewithall or expecteth to receive some extraordinary assistance from the Mercy Power c. of God not having any sufficient ground either from the general promises conteined in the Scriptures or by particular immediate revelation that God will certainly so assist him therein 10. All those men that over-value themselves or out of an overweening conceit of their own abilities attempt things beyond their power That lean to their own understandings as Solomon That minde high things and are wise in their own conceits as St Paul That exercise themselves in great matters and such as are too high for them as David expresseth it All those that perswade themselves they can persist in a holy course without a continual supply of Grace or that think they can continue in their sins so long as they think good and then repent of them and forsake them at their leasure whensoever they list or that doubt not but to be able by their own strength to stand out against any temptation All these I say and all other like by presuming too much upon themselves are guilty of the sin of Presumption To omit the Poëts who have set forth the folly of this kind of Presumption in the Fables of Phaethon and Icarus A notable example we have of it in the Apostle Peter and therein a fair warning for others not to be high minded but to fear who in the great confidence of his own strength could not believe his Master though he knew him to be the God of truth when he foretold him he would yield but still protested that if all the world should forsake him yet he would never do it 11. Nor onely may a man offend in this kinde by presuming upon himself too much but also by presuming even upon God himself without warrant He that repenteth truly of his sins presuming of Gods mercy in the forgiveness thereof or that walketh uprightly and conscionably in the wayes of his calling presuming of Gods Power for his protection therein sinneth not in so presuming Such a presumption is a fruit of Faith and a good presumption because it hath a sure ground a double sure ground for failing first in the Nature and then in the Promise of God As a man may with good reason presume upon his friend that he will not be wanting to him in any good office that by the just Laws of true friendship one friend ought to doe for another But as he presumeth too much upon his friend that careth not into what desperate exigents and dangers he casteth himself in hope his friend will perpetually redeem him and relieve him at every turne So who ever trusteth to the Mercy or to the Power of God without the warrant of a promise presumeth farther then he hath cause and though he may flatter himself and call it by some better name as Faith or Hope or Affiance in God yet is it in truth no better then a groundless and a wicked Presumption Such was the presumption of those Sons of Sceva who took upon them but to their shame and sorrow to call over them that had evil spirits the name of the Lord Iesus in a form of adjuration Acts 19. when they had no calling or warrant from God so to do And all those men that going on in a wretched course of life do yet hope they shall finde mercy at the houre of death All those that cast themselves into unnecessary either dangers or temptations with expectance that God should manifest his extraordinary Power in their preservation All those that promise to themselves the End without applying themselves to the Means that God hath appointed thereunto as to have Learning without Study Wealth without Industry comfort from children without carefull education c. for as much as they presume upon Gods help without sufficient warrant are guilty of the Sin of Presumption taken in the former notion and Materially 12. But I conceive the Presumptuous sins here in the Text to belong clearly to the other notion of the word Presumption taken formally and as it importeth not a distinct kinde of sin in it self as that Groundless Presumption whereof we have hitherto spoken doth but a common accidentall difference that may adhere to sins of any kinde even as Ignorance and Infirmity whereunto it is opposed also may Theft and Murther which are sins of speciall kinds distinguished either from
marvellously weakning the spirit and giving a mighty advantage to the flesh even to the hazard of a compleat Conquest 24. Lastly he speaketh of the great offence Totall and Final Apostacy which some understand to be the very sin against the Holy Ghost which cutteth off from the offender all possibility of pardon and reconcilement because it is supposed to be attended with finall impenitency and without pennance there is no hope of reconcilement or place for pardon David petitioneth to be kept back from these Presumptuous sins and free from their Dominion that so he might be upright and innocent from the great transgression As if these Presumptuous sins did make some nearer approaches to that great transgression and as if no man could well secure himself against the danger of final impenitencie but by keeping out of the reach of these Presumptuous sins 15. From all these intimations in the Text we may conclude there is something more in Presumptuous sins then in sins of Ignorance and Infirmity the Obliquity greater and the Danger greater Which we are now a little farther to discover that so our care to avoid them may be the greater Their Obliquity is best seen in the Cause their Danger in the Effects It hath been cleared already that Presumptuous sins spring from the perversness of the Will as the most proper and Immediate cause and it is the Will that hath the chief stroke in all moral actions to render them good or bad better or worse It is a Maxim among the Casuists Involuntarium minuit de ratione peccati and Voluntas distinguit maleficia say the Lawyers So that albeit there be many circumstances as of Time Place Persons c. and sundry other respects especially those of the Matter and of the End very considerable for the aggravating extenuationg and comparing of sins one with another yet the consent of the Will is of so much greater importance then all the rest that all other considerations laid aside every sin is absolutely by so much greater or lesser by how much it is more or less voluntary Sithence therefore in sins of Ignorance and Infirmity there is less Wilfulness the will being misled in the one by an Errour in the Judgment and in the other transported by the violence of some Passion and in sins of Presumption there is a greater wilfulness wherein the will wanting neither information nor leisure to resolve better doth yet knowingly and advisedly resolve to do ill it will necessarily follow that Presumptuous sins are therefore far greater sins then either of the other are The Will being abundantly and beyond measure wilful maketh the sin to be abundantly and beyond measure sinful Doubtless far greater was Davids sin in murthering though but his servant then either Peters in denying his Master or Sauls in blaspheming and persecuting his Saviour 26. Nor only do Presumptuous Sins spring from a worse Cause then the other and thence are more Sinful but do also produce worse Effects then they and so are more Dangerous Whether we look at them before or at the time of Repentance or after Before Repentance they harden the heart wonderfully they waste the conscience in a fearful manner and bring such a callous crust upon the inner man that it will be a long and a hard work so to supple soften and intender the heart again as to make it capable of the impressions of Repentance For alas what hope to do good upon a Wilful man The most grave admonitions the most seasonable reproofs the most powerful exhortations the most convincing Reasons that can be used to such a man are but Tabula caeco as a curious picture to a blinde man for who so blinde as he that will not see and Fabula surdo a pleasant tale to a deaf man for whoso deaf as he that will not hear 27. Thus it is with wicked men and cast-aways whose brawny hearts are by these wilful rebellions fitted for and fatted up unto destruction And verily not much better then thus is it with Gods faithful servants for the time if at any time they hap to fall into any presumptuous sin In what a sad condition may we think poor David was after he had layen with the wife and slain the husband What musick could he now trow ye find in his own Anthems with what comfort could he say his Prayers Did not his tongue think ye cleave to the roof of his mouth and had not his right hand welnigh forget her cunning To the judgment of man no difference for some moneths together during his unrepentance betwixt holy David the man after Gods own heart and a profane scorner that had no fear of God before his eyes Such waste and havock had that great sin made and such spoil of the graces and pledges of Gods holy Spirit in his soul. Look how a sober wise man who when he is himself is able to order his words and affairs with excellent discretion when in a sharp burning-fever his bloud is inflamed and his brain distempered will rave and talke at randome and fling stones and dirt at all about him and every other way in his speeches and motions behave himself like a fool or mad-man so is the servant of God lying under the guilt of a Presumptuous sin before Repentance 28. And then when he doth come to repent Lord what ado there is with him before that great stomach of his will come down and his masterful spirit be soundly subdued And yet down it must subdued it must be or he getteth no pardon What shrinking and drawing back when the wound commeth to be searcht And yet searcht it must be and probed to the bottome or there will be no perfect recovery Presumptuous sins being so grievous as hath been shewed let no man think they will be removed with mean and ordinary Humiliations The Remedy must be proportioned both for strength and quantity Ingredients and Dose to the Quality and Malignity of the distemper or it will never do the cure As stains of a deep dye will not out of the cloath with such ordinary washings as will fetch out lighter spots so to cleanse the heart defiled with these deeper pollutions these crimson and scarlet sins and to restore it pure white as snow or wooll a more solemn and lasting course is requisite then for lesser transgressions It will ask more sighs more tears more indignation more revenge a stronger infusion of all those soveraign ingredients prescribed by St Paul 2 Cor. 7. before there can be any comfortable hope that it is pardoned The Will of a man is a sowre and stubborne piece of clay that will not frame to any serviceable use without much working A soft and tender heart indeed is soon rent in pieces like a silken garment if it do but catch upon any little nail But a heart hardened with long custome of sinning especially if it be with one of these presumptuous sins is like the knotty
there is no neighbour we have but as we handle the matter we are the worse for him We finde in him something or other that serveth as fewel either to our Pride or Vncharitableness or other corrupt lust We look at our poorer neighbour and because we are richer then he we cast a scornful eye upon him and in the pride of our hearts despise him VVe look at our richer neighbour and because we are not so full as he we cast an envious eye at him and out of the uncharitableness of our hearts malice him Thus unhappily do we misplace our thoughts or mis-apply them and whatsoever the prâ—mises are draw wretched conclusions from them as the spider is said to suck poison out of every flower Whereas sanctified wisdom if it might be heard would rather teach us to make a holy advantage of such like comparisons for the encrease of some precious graces in us and namely those two of Thankfulness and Contentedness as theâ— Bee gathereth hony out of every weed And the course is this Observe thy present corruption what ever it be when it beginneth to stirr within thee and then make the comparison so as may best serve to weaken the temptation arising from that lust As for example When thou findest thy self apt to magnifie and exalt thy self in thine own greatness and puft up with the conceit of some excellency whether reall or but imaginary in thy self to swell above thy meaner brethren then look upwards and thou shalt see perhaps hundreds above thee that have somewhat that thou hast not It may be the comparing of thy self with them may help to allay the swelling and reduce thee to a more sober and humble temper But when on the other side thou findest thy self apt to grudge at the prosperity of others and to murmure at the scantness of thine own portion then look downwards and thou shalt see perhaps thousands below thee that want something that thou hast It may be the comparing thy self with them may help to silence all those repining thoughts and obmurmurations against the wise dispensations of Almighty God For tell me why should one or two richer neighbours be such a grievous eyesore to thee to provoke thy discontent rather then ten or twenty poorer ones a spurr to quicken thee to thankfulness If Reason by the instigation of corrupt nature can teach thee to argue thus my house my farme my stock my wbole condition is naught many a man hath better why should not Reason heightened by Gods grace teach thee as well to argue thus mine are good enough many a good man hath worse 28. Fifthly for the getting of Contentment it would not a little avail us to consider the unsufficiency of those things the want whereof now discontenteth us to give us content if we should obtain them Not only for that reason that as the things encrease our desires also encrease with them which yet is most true and of very important consideration too as Solomon saith He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver but for a farther reason also because with the best conveniences of this life there are interwoven sundry inconveniences withall which for the most part the eagerness of our desires will not suffer us to foresee whilest we have them in chase but we shall be sure to finde them at length in the possession and use Whilest we are in the pursuit of any thing we think over and over how beneficial it may be to us and we promise to our selves much good from and our thoughts are so taken up with such meditations that we consider it abstractedly from those discommodiousnesses and encombrances which yet inseparably cleave thereunto But when we have gotten what we so importunely desired and think to enter upon the enjoyment we then begin to find those discommodiousnesses and encombrances which before we never thought of as well as those services and advantages which we expected from it Now if we could be so wise and provident before hand as to forethink and forecast the inconveniencies as well as the usefulness of those things we seek after it would certainly bring our desires to better moderation work in us a just dis-estimation of these earthly things which we usually overprize and make us the better contented if we must go without them O miserum panâ—um as he said of his diadem What a glorious lustre doth the Imperial Crown make to dazle the eyes of the beholders and to tempt ambition to wade even through a sea of bloud and stretch it self beyond all the lines of justice and religion to get within the reach of it yet did a man but know what legions of fears and cares like so many restless spirits are incircled within that narrow round he could not be excused from the extremity of madness if he should much envy him that wore it much less if he should by villany or bloudshed aspire to it When Damocles had the sword hanging over his head in a twine-thread he had little stomach to eat of those delicacies that stood before him upon the boord which a little before he deemed the greatest happiness the world could affoord There is nothing under the Sun but is full not of vanity only but also of vexation Why then should we not be well content to be without that thing if it be the Lords will we should want it which we cannot have without much vanity and some vexation withall 29. In the sixth place a notable help to Contentment is Sobriety under which name I comprehend both Frugality and Temperance Frugality is of very serviceable use partly to the acquiring partly to the exercising of every mans graces and vertues as Magnificence Iustice Liberality Thankfulness c. and this of Contentation among the rest Hardly can that man be either truly thankful unto God or much helpful to his friends or do any great matters in the way of charity and to pious uses or keep touch in his promises and pay every man his own as every honest man should do nor live a contented life that is not frugall We all cry out against Covetousness and that justly as a base sin the cause of many evils and mischiefs and a main opposite to Contentment But truly if things be rightly considered we shall find Prodigality to match it as in sundry other respects so particularly for the opposition it hath to Contentedness For Contentedness as the very name giveth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-sufficiency consisteth in the mutual and relative sufficiency of the things unto the mind and of the minde unto the things Where Covetousness reigneth in the heart the mind is too narrow for the things and where the estate is profusely wasted the things must needs be too scant for the minde So that the disproportion is still the same though it arise not from the same principle As in many other things we may observe an unhappy coincidence of
it nor benefit to them from it but yet by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God who most wisely and powerfully ordered all those various and vitious motions of the creature for the effectuating of his own most glorious and gracious purposes That is one Reason 10. Secondly we use to call all such things Mysteries as cannot possibly come to our knowledge unless they be some way or other revealed unto us whether they have or have not otherwise any great difficulty in them Nebuchadnezzars dream is so called a Mystery Dan. 2. And S. Paul in one place speaking of the conversion of the Iews calleth it a Mystery I would not Brethren that you should be ignorant of this Mystery Rom. 11. and in another place speaking of the change of those that should be found alive at Christs second coming calleth that a Mystery too Behold I shew you a Mystery we shall not all dye c. 1 Cor. 15. In this notion also is the Gospel a Mystery it being utterly impossible that any wit of man by the light of Nature or strength of humane discourse should have been able to have found out that way which Almighty God hath appointed for our salvation if it had not pleased him to have made it known to the world by supernatural revelation The wisest Philosophers and learnedst Rabbies nor did nor could ever have dreamt of any such thing till God revealed it to his Church by his Prophets and Apostles This mystery was hid from ages and from generations nor did any of the Princes of this world know it in any of those ages or generations as it is now made manifest to us since God revealed it to us by his spirit as our Apostle elsewhere speaketh 11. The Philosophers indeed saw a little dimly some of those truths that are more cleerly revealed to us in the Scriptures They found in all men a great proclivity to Evil and an indisposition to Good but knew nothing at all either of the true Causes or of the right remedies thereof Some apprehensions also they had of a Deity of the Creation of the world of a divine providence of the immortality of the soule of a final retribution to be awarded to all men by a divine justice according to the merit of their works and some other truths But those more high and mysterious points especially those two that of the Trinity of persons in the Godhead and that of the Incarnation of the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers use to call them together with those appendices of the later the Redemption of the world the Iustification of a sinner the Resurrection of the body and the beatifical Vision of God and Christ in the kingdom of Heaven not the least thought of any of these deep things of God ever came within them God not having revealed the same unto them 12. It is no thanks then to us that very children among us do believe and confess these high mysterious points whereof Plato and Aristotle and all the other grand Sophies among them were ignorant since we owe our whole knowledg herein not to our own natural sagacity or industry wherein they were beyond most of us but to divine and supernatural revelation For flesh and bloud hath not revealed them unto us but our Father which is in heaven We see what they saw not not because our eyes are better then theirs but because God hath vouchsafed to us a better light then he did to them Which being an act of special grace ought therefore to be acknowledged with special thankfulness Our Saviour hath given us the example I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Mat. 11.25 13. Truly much cause we have to bless the holy Name of God that he hath given us to be born of Christian parents and to be bred up in the bosome of the Christian Church where we have been initiated into these sacred mysteries being catechised and instructed in the doctrine of the Gospel out of the holy Scriptures even from our very childhood as Timothy was But we are wretchedly unthankful to so good a God and extremely unworthy of so great a blessing if we murmur against our Governours and clamour against the Times because every thing is not point-vise just as we would have it or as we have fancied to our selves it should be Whereas were our hearts truly thankful although things should be really and in truth even ten times worse then now they are but in their conceit only yet so long as we may enjoy the Gospel in any though never so scant a measure and with any though never so hard conditions we should account it a benefit and mercy invaluable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St Paul esteemed it the very riches of the grace of God for he writeth According to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdome and prudence having made known to us the mysterie of his will Eph. 1. If he had not made it known to us we had never known it And that is the Second Reason why a Mystery 14. There is yet a Third even because we are not able perfectly to comprehend it now it is revealed And this Reason will fetch in the Quantum too For herein especially it is that this mysterie doth so far transcend all other mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great marvellous great Mysterie In the search whereof Reason finding it self at a loss is forced to give it over in the plain field and to cry out O altitudo as being unable to reach the unfathomed depth thereof We believe and know and that with fulness of assurance that all these things are so as they are revealed in the holy Scriptures because the mouth of God who is Truth it self and cannot lie hath spoken them and our own Reason upon this ground teacheth us to submit our selves and it to the obedience of Faith for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so it is But then for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nicodemus his question How can these things be it is no more possible for our weak understandings to comprehend that then it is for the eyes of bats or owles to look stedfastly upon the body of the Sun when he shineth forth in his greatest strength The very Angels those holy and heavenly spirits have a desire saith S. Peter it is but a desire not any perfect ability and that but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither to peep a little into those incomprehensible mysteries and then cover their faces with their wings and peep again and cover again as being not able to endure the fulness of that glorious lustre that shineth therein 15. God hath revealed himself and his good pleasure towards us in his holy
on that behalf But he that suffereth for his errour or disobedience or other rashness buildeth his comfort upon a sandy foundation and cannot better glorifie God and discharge a good conscience then by being ashamed of his fault and retracting it 21. Seventhly hereby we expose not our selves onely which yet is something but sometimes also which is a far greater matter the whole Reformed Religion by our default to the insolent jeers of Atheists and Papists and other profane and scornful spirits For men that have wit enough and to spare but no more religion then will serve to keep them out of the reach of the Laws when they see such men as pretend most to holinesse to run into such extravagant opinions and practises as in the judgement of any understanding man are manifestly ridiculous they cannot hold but their wits will be working and whilest they play upon them and make themselves sport enough therewithal it shall go hard but they will have one fling among even at the power of Religion too Even as the Stoicks of old though they stood mainly for vertue yet because they did it in such an uncouth and rigid way as seemed to be repugnant not only to the manners of men but almost to common sence also they gave occasion to the wits of those times under a colour of making themselves merry with the Paradoxes of the Stoicks to laugh even true vertue it self out of countenance 22. Lastly for why should I trouble you with any more these are enow by condemning sundry indifferent things and namely Church-Ceremonies as unlawful we give great scandal to those of the Separation to their farther confirming in that their unjust schisme For why should these men will they say and for ought I know they speak but reason why should they who agree so well with us in our principles hold off from our Conclusions Why do they yet hold communion with or remain in the bosome of that Church that imposeth such unlawful things upon them How are they not guilty themselves of that luke-warme Laodicean temper wherewith they so often and so deeply charge others Why do they halt so shamefully between two opinions If Baal be God and the Ceremonies lawful why do they not yield obedience cheerful obedience to their Governours so long as they command but lawfull things But if Baal be an Idol and the ceremonies unlawfull as they and we consent why do they not either set them packing or if they cannot get that done pack themselves away from them as fast as they can either to Amsterdam or to some other place The Objection is so strong that I must confesse for my own part If I could see cause to admit of those principles whereon most of our Non-conformers and such as favour them ground their dislike of our Church-Orders and Ceremonies I should hold my self in all conscience bound for any thing I yet ever read or heard to the contrary to forsake the Church of England and to fly out of Babylon before I were many weeks older 23. Truely Brethren if these unhappy fruits were but accidentall events onely occasioned rather then caused by such our opinions I should have thought the time mis-spent in but naming them since the very best things that are may by accident produce evil effects but being they do in very truth naturally and unavoidably issue therefrom as from their true and proper cause I cannot but earnestly beseech all such as are otherwise minded in the bowels and in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ and by all the love they beare to Gods holy truth which they seem so much to stand for to take these things into their due consideration and to lay them close to their consciences And as for those my brethren of the Clergie that have most authority in the hearts of such as byasse too much that way for they only may have some hope to prevail with them the rest are shut out by prejudice if I were in place where I should require and charge them as they will answer the contrary to God the Church and their own consciences that they would approve their faithfulness in their ministry by giving their best diligence to informe the judgments of Gods people aright as concerning the nature and use of indifferent things and as in love to their souls they are bound that they would not humour them in these their pernicious errours nor suffer them to continue therein for want of their rebuke either in their publick teaching or otherwise as they shall have opportunity thereunto 24. But you will say If these things were so how should it then come to passe that so many men pretending to godliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty Gods permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gracious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and schisms and scandals And then the wiliness of Satan who cunningly observeth whither way our hearts incline most to looseness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affection of singularity to goe beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extreme the great force of education and custome besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Errour to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest servants and children are in this life wholy exempted 25. Ignorance first is a fruitful mother of Errour Ye erre not knowing the scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much grosse Ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they erre they erre for company they judge not all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are lead be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgment which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withall very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falsehood nor to discern between a sound argument and a captious fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth
a wife as well as others to forbear working as well as others in the Chapter before this 34. I finde not any where in scripture that the Priesthood of the Gospel doth render a man incapable of any thing whereunto he hath either a natural or civil liberty but that whatsoever is lawful for any other man to doe is lawful also for a Church-man to doe notwithstanding his ministerial office and calling What is decent and expedient for a Minister of the Gospel to do that is quite another business I speak now only of lawfulness which respecteth the things themselves only considered in their own nature and in the general without relation either to the opinions and fashions of times and places which is the measure of decency or to such particular circumstances as attend particular actions which ought to be the measure of Expediency 35. For a grave Clergy-man to weare a green suite a cap and feather and a long lock on the one side or to worke journey-work in some mechanick or manuall trade as with a Mason Carpenter or Shoomaker as things are now setled among us no wise man can think it either decent or expedient Yet that decency and expediency set aside no man can truly say that the doing of any of this is simply unlawful For why might not an English Minister if he were prisoner in Turkey to make an escape disguise himself in such a habit as aforesaid which if it were simply unlawful rather then do it he should dye a thousand deaths And why it should not be as lawful now for a Minister as it was once for an Apostle to work journey-work to make shooes now as then to make tents if it might stand with decency and expediency now as well as then let him that can shew a reason Let them look how they will answer it therefore that make it unlawful for Priests either to marry as some do or to be in commission of the peace as some others do as if either the state of Wedlock or the exercise of temporal jurisdiction were inconsistent with holy Orders When the maintainers of either opinion shall shew good Text for what they teach the cause shall be yeelded but till that be done they must pardon us if we appeal them both of Pharisaism in teaching for doctrines mens precepts So long as this Text stands in the Bible unexpunged All things are lawful for me if any man either from Rome or elsewhere nay if an Angel from heaven should teach either of those things to be unlawful and bring no better proof for it then yet hath been done he must excuse me if I should not be very forward to believe him 36 Well you see the Apostle here extendeth our liberty very far in indifferent things without exception either of things or persons All things lawful and lawful for all men In the asserting of which liberty if in any thing I have spoken at this time I may seem to any man to have set open a wide gap to carnal licentiousness I must intreat at his hands one of these three things and the request is but reasonable Either First that all prejudice and partiality laid aside he would not judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the appearance but according to right and truth and then I doubt not but all shall be well enough Or Secondly that he would consider whether these words of our Apostle taken by themselves alone do not seem to set open the gap as wide as I or any man else can stretch it Omnia licent All things are lawful for me Or that Thirdly he would at leastwise suspend his judgement till I shall have handled the latter clauses of my Text also wherein our liberty is restrained as it is here extended Then which may be ere long if God will he shall possibly finde the gap if any such be sufficiently stopped up again to keep out all carnal licentiousness and other abuse of Christian liberty whatsoever In the mean time and at all times God grant us all to have a right judgement and to keep a good conscience in all things AD AULAM. Sermon XII HAMPTON COURT July 26. 1640. II. Ser. on 1 COR. 10.23 But all things are not expedient But all things edifie not 1. THe former clause of the Verse here twice repeated All things are lawful for me containeth the Extension as these later clauses do the Limitation of that Liberty that God hath left us to things of indifferent nature That Extension I have already handled and set our Christian liberty there where according to the constant doctrine of our Apostle I think it should stand From what I then delivered which I now repeat not plain it was that the Apostle extendeth our liberty very far without exception either of things or persons All things lawful and lawful for all men All the fear was lest by so asserting our liberty we might seem to set open a gap to carnal licentiousness Although there be no great cause for it in respect of the thing it self yet is not that fear altogether needless in regard of our corruption who are apt to turn the very best things into abuse and liberty as much as any thing Yet that fear need not much trouble us if we will but take these later clauses of the verse also along with us as we ought to do Where we shall finde the gap if any such were sufficiently made up again to keep out all carnal licentiousness and other abuse of Christian liberty whatsoever 2. Of those clauses we are now to speak But all things are not expedient But all things edifie not Wherein the Apostle having before extended our liberty in the power now restraineth it in the use and exercise of that power Concerning which I shall comprehend all I have to say in three Observations grounded all upon the Text. First that the Apostle establisheth the point of lawfulness before he meddle with that of expediency Secondly that he requireth we should have an eye to the expediency also of the things we do not resting upon their lawfulness alone And thirdly that he measureth the expediency of lawful things by their usefulness unto edification Of which in their order 3. And first Expediency in S. Pauls method supposeth lawfulness He taketh that for granted that the thing is lawful before he enter into any enquiry whether it be expedient yea or no. For expediency is here brought in as a thing that must restrain and limit us in the exercise of that liberty which God hath otherwise allowed us but God hath not allowed us any liberty unto unlawful things And this Observation is of right good use for thence it will follow that when the unlawfulness of any thing is once made sufficiently to appear all farther enquiry into the expediency or inexpediency thereof must thenceforth utterly cease and determine No conjuncture of circumstances whatsoever can make that expedient to be done at
that have succeeded in their rooms 7. Thirdly parents whose affection towards their children hath not been sowred by any personal dislike may yet have their affection so over-powred by some stronger lust as to become cruel to their children and forsake them For as in the World Might oftentimes over-beareth Right so in the soul of man the violence of a stronger passion or affection which in the case in hand may happen sundry wayes beareth down the weaker It may happen as sometimes it hath done out of superstition So Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia The Heathens generally deceived by their cheating Oracles and some of the Iews led by their example sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils and caused their children to pass through the fire to Molech Sometimes out of revenge As Medea to be revenged of Iason for leaving her and placing his affection elsewhere slew her own two sons begotten by him in his sight Saevus amor docuit natorum sanguine matres Commaculasse manus Sometimes out of fear So the parents the blinde man owned their son indeed Iohn 9. but for fear of being cast out of the Synagogue durst not speak a word in his just defence but left him to shift as well as he could for himself And Herod the great for no other cause then his own causeless fears and jealousies destroyed many of his own sons Sometimes out of the extreamity and impatience of hunger As in the sad story of the two mothers who in the great famine at the siege of Samaria had covenanted to dress their children by turns and to eat them so fulfilfilling even to the letter that heavie curse which God had long before threatned against Israel in case of their disobedience Sometimes out of voluptuousness and sensuality As do thousands of prodigal ding-thrifts every where in the World who by gaming drinking luxury and other riot and intemperance vainly wasting their estates out of which by S. Pauls rule they ought to provide and lay up for their children bring themselves to penury and leave their children to beggery 8. And if by all these and sundry other wayes besides it may happen fathers and mothers so often to forsake their children the less are we to marvell if our brethren kinsfolkes and neighbours if our familiar acquaintance companions and friends prove unfaithfull shrink from us when we stand in need to them dealing deceitfully as a brook It is Iobs comparison Iob 6. The Brooks in Winter when the Springs below are open and the bottles of heaven powre down water from above overflow the banks and the medows all about and look like a little Sea but when the heat of Summer is come and the season dry vanish so as the weary traveller can finde no refreshing nor the cattel quench their thirst thereat Such is the common friendship of the World Whilest we are full and stand in no need of them they are also full of kindness and overflow with protestations of love and service Amici divitis multi every friend will say I am his friend also Yet they talk but vanity all this while every one with his neighbour they do but flatter with their lips and dissemble with their double heart When we seek to them in our need they look upon us slightly and at a distance at the most let fall some overly expressions that they wish us well and pity our case Good words are good cheap but do little or nothing for us It may be while we are up and aloft they will crouch under us apply themselves to us lend a shoulder ey and sweat to lift us up yet higher But if we be going down then at the best as the Priest and Levite in the parable they will see and not see but pass by without so much as offering a hand to help us up nay it is well if they lift not up the heel against us and help to tread us yet lower 9. As then first natural parents many times want natural affection so common friends many times want common honesty and fail those that trust to them And as they secondly sometimes withdraw their love from their children upon slender dislikes so these many times take toy at a trifle actum est de amicitiâ and pick quarrels to desert us when we have not done any thing that may justly deserve it at their hands And as they lastly too much forgot their children whilest they too eagerly pursue their own lusts so these to serve their own ends lay aside all relations and break through all obligations of friendship and if our occasions require something should be done for us that may chance put them to some little trouble hazard or charge or otherwise standeth not with their liking put us off as they did their fellow-virgins Ne non sufficiat Provide for your selves we cannot help you This is the first kinde a voluntary forsaking wherein the fault is theirs when our fathers and mothers and friends might help us but do not 10. The other kinde is an enforced forsaking and without their fault when they cannot help us if they would Which also ariseth from three other causes Ignorance Impotency Mortality First there is in the understandings of men a great deal of darkness for the discerning of Truth and Falsehood even in speculativis matters which stand at a certain stay and alter not but much more for the discerning of Good and Evil in Practicis matters which by reason of the multiplicity of uncertain and mutable Circumstances are infinitely various Whereby it becometh a matter of greater difficulty to avoid folly in practise then Errour in judgement No wonder then if the carefullest Parents and faithfullest Friends be many times wanting in their help to those they wish well to when either they can finde no way at all whereby to do them good or else pitch upon a wrong one whereby unawares they do them harme Sedulitas autem stultè quem diligit urget Nil moror officium quod me gravat The body of a Patient may be in such a condition of distemper that the learned'st Doctor may be at a stand not knowing perfectly what to make of it and so must either let it alone and do nothing or else adventure upon such probabilities as may lead him to mistake the Cause and so the disease and so the cure and so in fine to destroy the Patient by those very means whereby he intended his recovery So Parents and others that love their children or friends well and desire nothing more then to do them good may be so puzled sometimes by the unhappy conjuncture of some cross circumstances as that they cannot resolve upon any certain course how to dispose of them deal with them or undertake for them with any assurance or but likely hope of a good effect but they must either leave them to wrestle with their own burdens as well as they
Proverbs 31. where she giveth him this in charge vers 8.9 Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction Open thy mouth judge righteously and plead the cause of the poore and needy 6. For the farther evidencing of the necessity of which Duty that so we may be the more effectually quickened to the chearful and conscionable performance of it there are sundry important whether reasons or inducements or both for we shall not now stand so much upon any nice distinguishing of the. termes but take them togetherward the one sort with the other very well worthy our Christian consideration Some in respect of God some in respect of our selves some in respect of our Brethren and some in respect of the Thing it self in the effects thereof 7. To begin with the most High we have his Command first and then his Example to the same purpose First his Command and that very frequently repeated both in the Law of Moses and in the Psalms and in the Prophets I shall the less need to cite particular places since that general and fundamental law which is the ground of them all is so well known to us even that which our Saviour maketh the second great Commandement that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St Iames calleth it that royall Law Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Oh how we can stickle in our own Causes and solicite our own business with unwearied diligence How active and provident and vigilant we can be in things wherein our selves are concerned or when our own lives or livelihoods are in jeopardy Not giving sleep to our eyes or slumber to our eye-lids till we have delivered our selves from the snare of the Oppressour as a Roe from the hand of the hunter or as a bird from the snare of the fowler Now if we can be thus fiery and stirring when it is for our selves but frozen and remiss when we should help our neighbour how do we fulfil the royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self 8. Let no man think to put off this duty with the Lawyers question Luke 10. But who is my neighbour Or with the Pharisees evading Gloss Mat. 5. Thou shalt love thy neighbour My neighbour true but not mine enemy Or with Nabals churlish reasoning 1 Sam. 25. Shall I put my self to pains and trouble for men whom I know not whence they be For in all the Cases wherein the offices whether of Iustice or Charity are to be exercised every man is every other mans neighbour All men being by the ordinance of God so linked together and concorporated one into another that they are not only all members of the same body of the same civil body as they are men and of the same mystical body too if they be Christians but even members also one of another Eph. 4. yea even every one one anothers members Rom. 12. So that if any man stand in need of thy help and it be in the power of thy hand to do him good whether he be knowen to thee or a stranger whether thy friend or thy foe he is a limbe of thee and thou a limbe of him He may challenge an interest and a property in thee as thy poor and thy needy Deut. 15. Yea more as thine own flesh Esay 58. Thou maiest not therefore hide thy self from him because he is thine own flesh For thy flesh thou art bound though not to pamper yet to nourish and to cherish it by affording all convenient succour and supply to the necessities of it 9. God then hath laid upon us his royal command in this behalf Nor so only but he hath also laid before us a royal president in his own blessed example Lord thou hast heard the desire of the poor to help the fatherless and poor unto their right that the man of the earth be no more exalted against them Psal. 10. saith David for the time past And for the time to come Psal. 140. Sure I am that the Lord will avenge the poor and maintain the cause of the helpless If you would hear it rather from his own mouth take it from Psal. 12. Now for the comfortless troubles sake of the needy and because of the deep sighing of the poor I will up saith the Lord and will help every one from him that swelleth against him and will set them at rest You see which way your heavenly father goeth before you Now be ye followers of God as dear children It is the hope of every good Christian that he shall hereafter be like unto God in glory and happiness it should therefore be his care in the mean time to be like unto God in grace and goodness in being merciful as his heavenly father is merciful in caring for the strangers and defending the fatherless and widow in helping those to right that suffer wrong and in doing works of piety and charity and mercy The duty concerneth all in general 10. But Princes Iudges Magistrates and all that are in authority are more specially engaged to follow the example of God herein sith God hath been pleased to set a special mark of honour upon them in vouchsafing to put his own name upon them and so to make them a kinde of Petty-Gods upon earth Dixi Dij I have said ye are Gods Psal. 82. Not so much be sure for the exalting of their Power and to procure them due honour esteem and obedience from those that are under them though that also no doubt was intended thereby as to instruct them in their Duty and eftsoons to remember them that they are very unworthy the glorious title they bear of being Gods if they do not imitate the great and true God by exercising their God-ships if I may so speak in doing good and protecting innocency Flaterers will be ready enough to tell you You are Gods but it is to evill and pernicious purposes To swell you up with conceits of I know not what omnipotency You are Gods and therefore may do what you will without fear in your selves or controll from any other They that tell you so with such an intention are lyers and you should not give them any countenance or credit or so much as the hearing But when the God of truth telleth you Ye are Gods he telleth you withall in the same place and as it were with the same breath what you are to do answerably to that Title and by what evidence you must approve your selves to be Gods Defend the poor and fatherless saith he in that Psalm See that such as be in need and necessity have right Deliver the outcast and poor Save them from the hand of the ungodly This premised it then followeth one verse only interserted I have said Ye are Gods As if he had said So doe and then you are Gods indeed
And there is a reason of it there given also For bloud saith he defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed from the bloud that is shed therein but by the bloud of him that shed it Read that passage with attention and if both forehead and conscience be not harder then the nether milstone thou canst not have either the heart or the face to glory in it as a brave exploit who ever thou art that hast been the instrument to save the life of a murderer 20. Indeed all offences are not of that hainous nature that Murder is nor do they cry so loud for vengance as Murder doth And therefore to procure undeserved favour for a smaller offenderâ— is not so great a sin as to do it for murderers But yet so far as the proportion holdeth it is a sin still Especially where favour cannot be shewen to one man but to the wrong and grievance of some other as it happeneth usually in those judicial controversies that are betwixt party and party for trial of right Or where favour cannot be shewen to an offender but with wrong and grievance to the publick as it most times falleth out in criminal causes wherein the King and Common-wealth are parties Solomon hath taught us that as well he that justifieth the wicked as he that condemneth the just are an abomination to the Lord. Yea and that for any thing that appeareth to the contrary from the Text and in thesi for circumstances may make a difference either way in hypothesi they are both equally abominable In doubtful cases it is doubtlesly better and safer to encline to Mercy then to Severity Better ten offenders should escape then one innocent person suffer But that is to be conceived only when things are doubtful so as the truth cannot be made appear but where things are notorious and evident there to justifie the guilty and to condemn the innocent are still equal abominations 21. That which you are to do then in the behalf of the poor is this First to be rightly informed and so far as morally you can well assured that their cause be just For mean and poor people are nothing less but ordinarily much more unreasonable then the great ones are and if they finde the ear of the Magistrate open to hear their grievances as it very meet it should be they will be often clamorous and importunate without either cause or measure And if the Magistrate be not very wary and wise in receiving informations the countrey swain may chance prove too cunning for him and make him but a stale whereby for himself to get the start of his adversary and so the Magistrate may in fine and unawares become the instrument of oppression even then when his intention was to vindicate another from it The truth of the matter therefore to be first throughly sifted out the circumstances duly weighed and as well the legal as the equitable right examined and compared and this to be done with all requisite diligence and prudence before you engage in the poor mans behalf 22. But if when this is done you then finde that there is much right and equity on his side and that yet for want of skill or friends or means to manage his affairs he is in danger to be foiled in his righteous cause Or if you finde that his adversary hath a legal advantage of him or that he hath de rigore incurred the penalty of some dis-used statute yet did not offend wilfully out of the neglect of his known duty or a greedy covetous minde or other sinister and evil intention but meerly out of his ignorance and in-experience and in the simplicity of his heart as those two hundred Israelites that followed after Absalom when he called them not knowing any thing of his conspiracy had done an act of treason yet were not formally traitours In either of these cases I say you may not forsake the poor man or despise him because he is poor or simple But you ought so much the rather to stick by him and to stand his friend to the utmost of your power You ought to give him your counsel and your countenance to speak for him and write for him and ride for him and do for him to procure him right against his adversary in the former case and in the later case favour from the Iudge In either case to hold back your hand to draw back your help from him if it be in the power of your hand to do him any help is that sin for which in the judgement of Solomon in the Text the Lord will admit no excuse 23. Come we now in the last place to some reasons or motives taken from the effects of the duty it self If carefully and conscionably performed it will gain honour and estimation both to our persons and places purchase for us the prayers and blessings of the poor yea and bring down a blessing from God not upon us and ours only but upon the State and Common-wealth also But where the duty is neglected the effects are quite contrary First do you know any other thing that will bring a man more glory and renown in the common opinion of the world then to shew forth at once both justice and mercy by doing good and protecting the innocent Let not mercy and truth forsake thee binde them about thy neck write them upon the table of thy heart so shalt thou finde favour and good understanding or acceptance in the sight of God and man Prov. 3. As a rich sparkling Diamond addeth both value and lustre to a golden ring so do these vertues of justice and mercy well attempered bring a rich addition of glory to the crowns of the greatest Monarchs Hoc reges habent magnificum ingens prodesse miseris supplices fido lare protegere c. Every man is bound by the Law of God and of charity as to give to every other man his due honour so to preserve the honour that belongeth to his own person and place for charity in performing the duties of every Commandment beginneth at home Now here is a fair and honest and sure way for all you that are in place of authority and judicature or sustain the persons of Magistrates to hold up the reputation both of your persons and places and to preserve them from scorn and contempt Execute judgement and justice with wisdom and diligence take knowledge of the vexations of those that are brought into the Courts or otherwise troubled without cause be sensible of the grones and pressures of poor men in the day of their adversity protect the innocent from such as are too mighty or too crafty for him hew in pieces the snares and break the jaws of the cunning and cruel oppressour and deliver those that are drawn either to death or undoing 24. The course is preposterous and vain which some men ambitious of honour and reputation take to get themselves put
and prayers of the poor thirdly the blessing of God upon us and ours fourthly the continuance of Gods mercies unto and the reversing of Gods judgements from the Land 34. In the opening of which reasons I have purposely pressed the duty all along somewhat the more largely that I might not trouble you with any farther application at the close and therefore I hope it will not be expected I presume you would rather expect if we had time for it that I should procâ—ed to examine the usual excuses and pretensions that are made in this case when the duty hath been neglected which Solomon hath comprehended in those few words in the 12 verse Behold we knew it not and withal referred them over for the trial of what validity they are to the judgement of every mans own heart as the deputed Iudge under God but because that may be faulty and partial in subordination to a higher tribunal even that of God himself from whose sentence there lieth no farther appeal This I aimed at in the choise of the Text as well as the pressing of the duty But having enlarged my self already upon the former point beyond my first intention I may not proceed any farther at this time nor will it be very needful I should if what hath been already delivered be well laid to heart Which God of his mercy vouchsafe c. AD MAGISTRATUM· The Second Sermon At the Assises at Lincolne in the year 1632. at the request of Sr. WILLIAM THOROLD Knight then High-Sheriffe of that County II. Ser. on Prov. 24.10 12. 10. If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small 11. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawen unto death and those that are ready to be slain 12. If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soule doth not he know it and shall not he render to every man according to his works 1. WE want Charity but abound with Self-love Our defect in that appeareth by our backwardness to perform our duties to our brethren and our excess in this by our readiness to frame excuses for our selves Solomon intending in that particular whereat the Text aimeth to meet with us in both these corruptions frameth his speech in such sort as may serve best both to set on the Duty and to take off the Excuses And so the words consist of two main parts the supposall of a Duty which all men ought to performe in the 10. and 11. Verses and the removall of those Excuses which most men pretend for non performance in the 12. Verse Our Duty it is to stand by our distressed brethren in the day of their adversity and to do our best endeavour by all lawfull wayes to proteâ—â— them from oppressions and wrongs and to rescue them out of the hands of those that go about either by might or cunning to take from them either their lives or livelihoods If 〈◊〉 faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn to death and those that are ready to be slain From which words I have heretofore upon occasion of the like meeting as this is spoken of the Duty in this place shewing the necessity and enforcing the performance of it from sundry important considerations both in respect of God and of Our selves and of our pâ—or Brethren and of the Thing it self in the blessed effects thereof which I shall not now trouble my self or you to repeat 2. Taking that therefore now for granted which was then proved to wit that it is our bounden duty to do as hath been said but our great sin if it be neglected I shall at this time by Gods assistance and with your patience proceed as the Text leadeth me to consider of the Excuses in the remaining words vers 12. If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it and shall not he reward every man according to his works For the better understanding and more fruitful applying of which words we are to enquire of two things first what the Excuses are which Solomon here pointeth at and then of what value and sufficiency they are 3. Many Excuses men have to put by this and every other duty whereof some are apparently frivolous and carry their confutation with them Solomon striketh at the fairest whereof three the most principal and the most usual of all he seemeth to have comprehended in these few words 1. Behold we knew it not As thus Either first we knew it not that is we never heard of their matters they never made their grievances known to us Or secondly we knew it not that is we had no clear evidence to give us full assurance that their cause was right and good Or thirdly we knew it not that is though to our apprehension they had wrong done them yet as the case stood with them we saw not by which wayes we could possibly relieve them we knew not how to help it 4. These are the main Excuses which of what value they are is our next Enquiry Wherein Solomons manner of rejecting them will be our best guide Who neither absolutely condemneth them because they may be sometimes just nor yet promiscuously alloweth of them because they are many times pretended without cause but referreth them over for their more particular and due triall to a double judicature That is to say to the judgment of every mans heart and conscience first as a deputy Iudge under God and if that faile in giving sentence as being subject to so many errours and so much partiality like enough it may then to the judgment of God himself as the supreme unerring and unpartial Iudge from whose sentence there lieth no appeal Which judgment of God is in the Text amplified by three several degrees or as it were steps of his proceeding therein grounded upon so many divine attributes or properties and each fitted to other in so many several Propositions Yet those not delivered categorically and positively but to adde the greater strength and Emphasis to them put into the form of Negative Interrogations or Questions Doth not he consider doth not he know and shall not he render That is most certainly and without all peradventure he doth consider and he doth know and he will render 5. The first step of Gods judicial proceeding is for Inquisition and that grounded upon his Wisdom 1. Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it As if he had said The Lord is a God of admirable Wisdom by whom are weighed not only the actions but also the Spirits of men and their very hearts pondered neither is there any thing that may escape his Enquiry Trust not therefore to vain Excuses for certainly thy heart shall be throughly sifted and thy pretensions narrowly looked into when he taketh the
most looked upon and soonest drawn into example so to order themselves in their whole conversations that such as come after them may be rather provoked by their good example to do well then encouraged by their evil example to do amiss If at any time hereafter Saul should take any mans Ox or Asse from him by any manner fraud oppression or bribery the constant practise of his immediate predecessour for sundry years together shall stand up and give evidence against him and cast him Samuels integrity shall condemn him both at the bar of his own conscience and in the mouths of all men at leastwise he shall have no cause to vouch Samuel for his precedent no colour to shroud his miscarriages under the authority of Samuels example 14. We cannot now marvel that Samuel should thus offer himself to the tryal when as no man urged him to it sith there may be rendred so many congruous reasons for it Especially being withal so conscious to himself of having dealt uprightly that he knew all the world could not touch him with any wilful violation of justice He doth not therefore decline the tryal but seek it and putteth himself upon it with marvellous confidence challenging all comers and craving no favour Behold here I am witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed Here is no excepting against any witness nor refusal of any Iudge either God or Man He had a good cause and therefore he had also a good heart All vertues are connext among the rest so are Iustice and Fortitude The righteous are bold as a Lion The Merchant that knoweth his wares to be faulty is glad of the dark shop and false light whereas he that will uphold them right and good willeth his customers to view them in the open sun Qui malè agit odit lucem He that doth evil loveth to skulke in the darke and will not abide the light which is to him as the terrours of the shadow of death lest his evil deeds should be found out and laid open to his shame Even as Adam hid his head in a bush when he heard the voice of God because his conscience told him he had transgressed 15. A corrupt Magistrate or Officer may sometimes set a face upon it and in a kinde of bravery bid defiance to all the world but it is then when he is sure he hath power on his side to bear him out when he is so backt with his great friends that no man dare mutire contra once open his lips against him for fear of being shent Even as a ranke Coward may take up the bucklers and brave it like a stout Champion when he is sure the coast is clear and no body neer to enter the lists with him And yet all this but a mere flourish a faint and fain'd bravada his heart the while in the midst of his belly is as cold as lead and he meaneth nothing less then what he maketh shew of If the offer should be indeed accepted and that his actions were like to be brought upon the publick stage there to receive a due and unpartial hearing and doom how would he then shrink and hold off trow ye then what crowching and fawning and bribing and dawbing to have the matter taken up in a private chamber and the wound of his credit a little overly salved though upon never so hard and base conditions His best wits shall be tried and his best friends to the utmost if it be possible by any means to decline a publick trial 16. Be just then Fathers and Brethren and ye may be bold So long as you stand right you stand upon your own legs and not at the mercy of others But turn aside once to defrauding oppressing or receiving rewards and you make your selves slaves for ever Intus pugnae soris timores Horrours and gripes within because you have knowingly done what you ought not Terrours and fears without lest your wicked dealings should come to light whereby you might receive the due shame or punishment thereof Possibly you may bear up if the times favour you and by your greatness out-face your crimes for a while But that is not a thing to trust to O trust not in wrong and robbery saith David Psal. 62. The winde and the tide may turn against you when you little think it and when once you begin to goe down the winde every base and busie companion will have one puff at you to drive you the faster and the farther down 17. Yet mistake not as if I did exact from Magistrates an absolute immunity from those common frailties and infiâ—mities whereunto the whole race of mankinde is subject The imposition were unreasonable It is one of the unhappinesses that attends both your calling and ours Magistracy and Ministry that every ignorant Artisan that perhaps knoweth little and practiseth less of his own duty can yet instruct us in ours and upon every small oversight make grievous out-cries by objecting to you your place to us our cloath A man of his place a man of his Cloath to do thus or thus As if any Christian man of what place or of what cloath soever had the liberty to do otherwise then well or as if either we or you were in truth that in respect of our natures which in respect of our offices we are sometimes called we Angels and you Gods Truly how ever it pleaseth the Lord for our greater honour thus to stile us yet we finde it in our selves but too well and we make it seem by us alas but too often that we are men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to the like passions ignorances and sinful aberrations that other men are And I doubt not but Samuel notwithstanding all this great confidence in his own integrity had yet among so many causes as in so many years space had gone through his hands sundry times erred in judgment either in the substance of the sentence or at least in some circumstances of the proceedings By mis-informations or mis-apprehensions or by other passions or prejudices no doubt but he might be carried and like enough sometimes was to shew either more leâ—ity or more rigour then was in every respect expedient 18. But this is the thing that made him stand so clear both in his own conscience and in the sight of God and the world that he had not wittingly and purposely perverted judgment nor done wrong to any man with an evil or corrupt intention but had used all faithfulness and good Conscience in those things he did rightly apprehend and all requisite care and diligence so far as humane frailty would suffer to finde out the truth and the right in those things whereof he could not know the certainty This doe exercising your selves with St. Paul to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men and then you may with him also be bold to call both
in the text is rendred Munus a gift or a bribe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tâ—e Targum there rendreth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mammon dishqar whereunto that Mammon of unrighteousness mentioned Luke 16. and wherewith our Saviour would have rich men make themselves friends may very well seem to have reference Although I confess that phrase there may not improbably be conceived in another notion somewhat different from this to note the falseness deceitfulness and uncertainty of these wordly riches in opposition to spiritual riches a little after there called the true riches for so the words Mammon dishquar do properly import as who say the false or lying riches or in comparison of the true and durable riches falsly so called However the phrase seemeth to be proverbial and taken in the former sence to bear this meaning in that place As wordly wise men that have suits depending in the Courts will attempt by bestowing gifts upon him or his servants to make the Iudge their friend that so the cause may be carried on their side when it cometh to an hearing with the like wisdom should Christian men make themselves friends of the poor who are Gods favourites by giving alms to them out of their worldly goods that so they may finde favour with him at the day of judgement The proverbial use of that phrase which made me the rather observe it sheweth what was the common opinion men held of gifts bestowed to procure favour in judgement to wit that they were the Mammon of unrighteousness And that in a double respect first as the price of an unrighteous sentence in the intention of the giver and then as a piece of unjust and unrighteous gain in the receiver Prohibited by the Lord in the Law as well as the other two branches of Injustice were and that both frequently and expresly and taxed by the Prophet as a sin of a very high nature a mighty sin I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins they afflict the just they take a bribe and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right Amos 5. 36. But it may be said Since we have already comprehended all injuries under the two former heads Fraud and Oppression how cometh it to be here mentioned as a third thing and distinct from them both Either we must free it from being injurious or reduce it to one of the two Fraud or Oppression I answer in short that Bribery is properly a branch of Oppression For if the bribe be exacted or but expected yet so as that there can be little hope of a favourable or so much as a fair hearing without it then is it a manifest oppression in the receiver because he maketh an advantage of that power wherewith he is intrusted for the administration of justice to his own proper benefit which ought not to be and is clearly an oppression But if it proceed rather from the voluntary offer of the giver for the compassing of his own ends then is it an oppression in him because thereby he getteth an advantage in the favour of the Court against his adversary and to his prejudice For observe it the greatest oppressours are ever the greatest bribers and freest of their gifts to those that may bestead them in their suits Which is one manifest cause besides the secret and just judgement of God upon them why oppressours seldom thrive in their estates near the proportion of their gettings Even because so much of what cometh in by their oppressions goeth out again for the upholding of their oppressions It was not for nothing you may well think that Solomon so yoaked these two things together Oppressing the poor and giving to the rich in Prov. 22. He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want As he hath a spring one way so he hath a drain another way which keepeth him from rising to that excess of height he aimeth at 37. Bribery then is a branch of Oppression That we have clâ—â—red But yet one part of the doubt remaineth why if it belong to one of the two is it here mentioned as a third species different from both For this I say First it might be specially mentioned as a corruption more peculiarly incident to the office of Iudicature in respect whereof especially Samuel now stood upon his justification whereas Frauds and most other Oppressions are of a larger and more comprehensive extent And secondly because it hath a peculiar formality by it self whereby it differeth from other injuries of either sort in this that whereas all other whether Frauds and Oppressions are involuntary on one part for Volenti non fit injuria no man is willing to be either defrauded or oppressed if he knew it and knew how to help it this of Bribery is done with the mutual knowledge and consent both of the Giver and Receiver 38. Which circumstance maketh it at least in this one respect somewhat worse then either of the former that whereas in other frauds and oppressions the one party only is guilty because they are done without the consent of the other party in this of Bribery both parties are guilty because both consent Neither doth this joynt consent of both parties hinder but that it is still injurious Because the injury that is hereby done is not done to either of the parties thereunto consenting supposing the consent on both parts free and spontaneous but it is done by them both to a third party namely to the adversary of him that giveth the bribe whose consent you will easily suppose never to have been asked in the business So that the injury is still done non volenti 39. Of the commonness of which sin especially in inferiour officers who are ever and anon trucking for expedition it would be impertinent to speak from this Text wherein Samuel speaketh of it only as it might concern himself who was a Iudge Of the heinousness of it in the sight of God and the mischief it doth to the Common-wealth when it is found in Iudges and Magistrates I shall forbear to speak the time being withall now welnigh spent because out of the confidence I have of the sincerity of those that now hear me I deem the labour needless Only I cannot the Text offering it but touch somewhat at that property which Samuel here ascribeth to a bribe of blinding the eyes Solomon speaketh much of the powerful operation of guifts and bribes how they pacifie anger procure access into the presence of great persons and favour from them and sundry the like which are all of easie understanding and the truth of them as well as the meaning obvious But the effect here mentioned of blinding the eyes though somewhat more obscure is yet oftner found in the Scriptures then any of the other Samuel undoubtedly learnt it from Moses who hath it twise Once in Exodus and again
the commandments of God But he meaneth it of his secret will the wil of his everlasting Counsels and purposes and that too of an effectual resistance such a resistance as shall hinder the accomplishment of that will For otherwise there are thousands that offer resistance to that also if their resistance could prevail But all resistance as well of the one sort as of the other is in vain as to that end Though hand joyn in hand it will be to no purpose the right hand of the Lord will have the preheminence when all is done Associate your selves O ye people and ye shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsel together and it shall come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand Esay 8.9 10. But the counsel of the Lord that shall stand and none shall be able to hinder it 31. Lay all these together the Soveraignty the Eternity the Wisdom and the Power of God and in all these God will be glorified and you will see great reason why the Lord should so often blast mens devices bring all their counsels and contrivances to nought and take the wise in their own craftiness Even to let men see in their disappointment the vanity of all humane devices that they might learn not to glory in or trust to their own wisdome or strength or any thing else in themselves or in any creature but that he that glorieth might glory in the Lord only 32. Let every one of us therefore learn that I may now proceed to the Inferences from the consideration of what we have heard First of all not to trust too much to our own wit neither to lean to our own understandings Nor please our selves over-much in the vain devices imaginations fancies or dreams of our own hearts Though our purposes should be honest and not any wayes sinfull either in Matter End Means or other Circumstance yet if we should be over-confident of their success rest too much upon our own skill contrivances or any worldly help like enough they may deceive us It may please God to suffer those that have worse purposes propose to themselves baser ends or make use of more unwarrantable means to prosper to our grief and loss yea possibly to our destruction if it be but for this only to chastise us for resting too much upon outward helps and making flesh our arme and not relying our selves intirely upon him and his salvation 33. Who knoweth but Iudgment may nay who knoweth not that Iudgment must saith the Apostle that is in the ordinary course of Gods providence usually doth begin at the house of God Who out of his tender care of their wel-doing will sooner punish temporally I mean his own children when they take pride in their own inventions and sooth themselves in the devices of their own hearts then he will his professed enemies that stand at defiance with him and openly fight against him These he suffereth many times to goe on in their impieties and to climbe up to the height of their ambitious desires that in the mean time he may make use of their injustice and oppression for the scourging of those of his own howshold and in the end get himself the more glory by their destruction 34. But then Secondly howsoever Judgment may begin at the house of God most certain it is it shall not end there but the hand of God and his revenging justice shall at last reach the house of the wicked oppressour also And that not with temporary punishments only as he did correct his own but without repentance evil shall hunt them to their everlasting destruction that despise his knowen Counsels to follow the cursed devices and imaginations of their own naughty hearts The Persecutors of God in his servants of Christ in his members that say in the pride of their hearts with our tongues with our wits with our armes and armies we will prevail We are they that ought to speak and to rule who is Lord over us We have Counsel and strength for war c. what do they but even kick against the pricks as the phrase is Act. 9. which pierce into the heels of the kicker and worke him much anguish but themselves remain as they were before without any alteration or abatement of their sharpnesse God delighteth to get himself honour and to shew the strength of his arm by scattering such proud Pharaohs in the imagination of their hearts and that especially when they are arrived and not ordinarily till then almost at the very highest pitch of their designes When they are in the top of their jollity and gotten to the uppermost roundle of the ladder then doth he put to his hand tumble them down headlong at once and then how suddenly do they consume perish and come to a fearful end Then shall they finde but too late what their pride would not before suffer them to believe to be a terrible truth that all their devices were but folly and that the Counsel of the Lord must stand 35. A terrible truth indeed to them but Thirdly of most comfortable consideration to all those that with patience and cheerfulness suffer for the testimony of God or a good conscience and in a good cause under the insolencies of proud and powerful persecutors When their enemies have bent all the strength of their wits and power to work their destruction God can and as he seeth it instrumental to his everlasting counsels will infatuate all their counsells elude all their devices and stratagems bring all their preparations and enterprizes to nought and turn them all to their destruction his own glory and the welfare of his servants 1. Either by turning their counsels into folly as he did Achitophels 2. Or by diversion finding them work elsewhere as Saul was fain to leave the pursuit of David when he and his men had compassed him about and were ready to take him upon a message then brought him of an invasion of the land by the Philistines And as he sent a blast upon Senacherib by a rumour that he heard of the King of Ethiopia's coming forth to war against him which caused him to desert his intended siege of Ierusalem 3. Or by putting a blessing into the mouth of their enemies instead of a curse as he guided the mouth of Balaam contrary to his intendment and desire 4. Or he can melt the hearts of his enemies into a kinde of compassion or cause them to relent so as to be at peace with them when they meet though they came out against them with mindes and preparations of hostility as he did Labans first and Esaus afterwards against Iacob 36. Howsoever some way or other he can curb and restrain either their malice or power or both that when they have devised devices against them as they did against
Coward to be an honest man or a true friend either to God or man He is at the best but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double-minded man but God requireth simplicity and singleness of heart He hath a good minde perhaps to be honest and to serve God and the king and to love his neighbour and his friend and if he would hold him there and be of that minde alwayes all would be well But his double-minde will not suffer him so to do He hath a minde withall to sleep in a whole skin and to save his estate if he can howsoever And so he becometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fickle and unstable in his wayes turneth as the tide turneth there is no relying upon him no trusting of him Iethro well considered this when he advised Moses to make choise of such for Magistrates as he knew to be men of courage they that were otherwise he knew could not discharge their duty as they ought nor continue upright And when our Saviour said to his Disciples Luke 12. I say unto you my friends Fear not them which kill the body he doth more then intimate that such base worldly fear cannot well consist with the Lawes of true friendship 19. I insist somewhat the more upon this point because men are generally so apt to pretend to their own failings in this kind the outward force offered by others supposing they have said enough to excuse what they have done when they have said they did it by compulsion As if any man could be master of anothers will or enforce a consent from him without his consent which carrieth before it a manifest contradiction Indeed if we suffer what we should not without any our provocation that is not our fault because it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not in our power to help it But if we do what we should not upon what inducement so ever we do it we must bear the greatest part of the blame our selves because it is our doing still 20. For a man then when he hath been frighted out of his conscience and his duty and done amiss to say I was compelled to do it against my minde I could neither will nor chuse and the like are as the most common so the most vain and frivolous excuses in the world Not only false but ridiculously false and such as carry their confutation along with them fig-leaves so thin that any body may see through them For tell me thou that sayest thou wast compelled to do it against thy minde if thou hadst been minded to have withstood the pretended compulsion and hadst continued in that minde whether such compulsion could have taken effect or no Thou that sayest thou couldest neither will nor chuse was it not left to the choise of thine own will whether thou wouldest do that which was required or suffer that which was threatned and didst not thou then when thou mightest have chosen if thou wouldest to suffer the one rather chuse to do the other Qui mavult vult Sure it is the will evermore that determineth the choise in every deliberation It is manifestly absurd therefore for any man to pretend that thing to have been done by him against his will which how hard soever the choise was he yet chose to doe 21. If these allegations would serve the turn or that we had any good warrant to decline suffering evil by doing evil those glorious Martyrs and Confessours so much renowned through the Christian world for their patience and constancy in suffering persecution and laying down their lives for the testimony of saith and a good conscience were a generation of very silly men Who never had the wit to save their lives when they might have done it with some little compliances with the times and if their consciences had smitten them for so doing licked themselves whole again by pleading Compulsion 22. Unless then we will condemn those blessed souls whose memories we have hitherto honoured not onely of extream folly but of foul self-murder too in being prodigal of their lives to no purpose and casting away themselves wilfully when they needed not we must needs acknowledge That there lyeth a necessity upon us if we will be Christs disciples and friends to deny our selves our lusts our interests our fortunes our liberties our lives or if there be any thing else that can be dearer to us rather then for fear of any thing that can befal in any of these consent to the least wilful violation of our bounden duty either to God or our Neighbour That no force or violence from without no straits we can be driven into by any conjuncture of whatsoever circumstances can make it either necessary for us to sin or excusable in us to have sinned That we are bound by vertue of Christs both example and command to take up any cross that it is his good pleasure to lay before us and to bear it as long as he pleaseth with patience cheerfulness courage That if we grow weary of it and faint in our mindes so as to cast about how we may work our selves from under it by such means as we have no clear warrant from him for we must answer wholly for it our selves and cannot justly charge it upon any other person or thing then upon our own selves and our own base cowardise That for us 23. To return now to these Hebrews the Persons in the Text and the last of the four particulars proposed from that part of the Text. It may be demanded with what reason the Apostle could entertain the least suspition of such mens shrinking and fainting under the Cross who had already given such good proof of their constancy and courage in some former and those no small conflicts neither Nay of whose Christian patience and magnanimity himself had given a very ample testimony a little before in this very Epistle how they had endured a great fight of afflictions and had been made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions suffered the spoiling of their goods and not onely suffered it patience perforce but suffered it joyfully Yet you see for all this how urgent he is upon them still in the remainder of that tenth Chapter in the whole next and in a great part of this both before in and after the Text by admonitions exhortations examples and other topiques artifices and insinuations of great variety not to cast away their confidence to hold fast their profession without wavering to run with patience the race that was set before them to take heed they be not wearied and faint in their mindes 24. Not to say positively that he had of late observed some thing in some of them that might perhaps give him some particular cause of suspicion more then ordinary although there be some passages in his discourse especially at the fifth verse that seem to carry a sound as if something were not right with them If we
into the place of magistracy and authority having neither head nor heart for it I mean when they have neither knowledge and experience in any measure of competency to understand what belongeth to such places not yet any care or purpose at all to do God their King and Countrey good service therein The wise son of Sirac checketh such ambitious spirits for their unseasonable forwardness that way Sirac 4. Seek not of the Lord preeminence neither of the King the seat of honour Think not he hath any meaning to disswade or dis-hearten men of quality and parts for medling with such employments for then the service should be neglected No men that are gifted for it although the service cannot be attended without some both trouble and charge yet should not for the avoiding either of charge or trouble indeed they cannot without sin seek either to keep themselves out of the Commission or to get themselves off again being on His meaning clearly is only to repress the ambition of those that look after the Title because they think it would be some glory to them but are not able for want either of skil or spirit or through sloth not willing to perform the duties And so he declareth himself a little after there Seek not to be a Iudge being not able to take away iniquity lest at any time thou fear the person of the mighty and lay a stumbling block in the way of thy uprightness 25. Did honour indeed consist which is the ambitious mans errour either only or chiefly in the empty Title we might well wish him good luck with his honour But since true honour hath a dependance upon vertue being the wages as some or as others have rather chosen to call it the shadow of it it is a very vanity to expect the one without some care had of the other Would any man not forsaken of his sences look for a shadow where there is no solid body to cast it or not of his reason demand wages where he hath done no service Yet such is the perversness of our corrupt nature through sloth and self-love that what God would have goe together the Honour and the Burden we would willingly put asunder Every man almost would draw to himself as much of the Honour as he can if it be a matter of credit or gain then Why should not I be respected in my place as well as another But yet withall would every man almost put off from himself as much of the burden as he can if it be a matter of business and trouble then Why may not another man do it as well as I Like lazy servants so are we that love to be before-hand with their wages and behind-hand with their work 26. The truth is there is an Outward and theâ—e is an Inward honour The outward honour belongeth immediately to the Place and the place casteth it upon the Person so that whatsoever person holdeth the place it is meet he should have the honour due to the place whether he deserve it or not But the Inward honour pitcheth immediately upon the Person and but reflecteth upon the Place and that honour will never be had without desert What the Apostle said of the ministery is in some sence also true of the Magistracy they that labour faithfully in either are worthy of double honour Labour or labour not there is a single honour due to them and yet not so much to them as to their places and callings but yet to them too for the places sake and we are injust if we withhold it from them though they should be most unworthy of it But the double Honour that inward Honour of the heart to accompany the outward will not be had where there is not worth and industry in some tolerable measure to deserve it The knee-worship and the cap-worship and the lip-worship they may have that are in worshipful places and callings though they do little good in them But the Heart-worship they shall never have unless they be ready to do justice and to shew mercy and be diligent and faithful in their Callings 27. Another fruit and effect of this duty where it is honestly performed are the hearty prayers and blessings of the poor as on the contrary their bitter curses and imprecations where it is slighted or neglected We need not look far to finde the truth hereof asserted in both the branches we have Text for it in this very chapter ver 24-26 He that saith unto the wicked Thou art righteous him shall the people curse nations shall abhor him But to them that rebuke him shall be delight and a good blessing shall come upon them Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer As he that withholdeth corn in the time of dearth having his garners full pulleth upon himself deservedly the curses of the poor but they will powr out blessings abundantly upon the head of him that in compassion to them will let them have it for their mony Prov. 11. So he that by his place having power and means to succour those that are distressed and to free them from wrongs and oppressions will seasonably put forth himself and his power to do them right shall have many a blessing from their mouths and many a good wish from their hearts but many more bitter curses both from the mouth and heart by how much men are more sensible of discourtesies then of benefits and readier to curse then to bless if they finde themselves neglected And the blessings and cursings of the poor are things not to be wholy dis-regarded Indeed the curse causeless shall not come neither is the Magistrate to regard the curses of bad people so far as either to be deterred thereby from punishing them according to their desert or to think he shall fare ever the worse doing but his duty for such curses For such words are but wind and as Solomon saith elsewhere He that observeth the wind shall not sow so he that regardeth the speeches of vain persons shall never do his duty as he ought to do In such cases that of David must be their meditation and comfort Though they curse yet bless thou And as there is little terrour in the causeless curses so there is as little comfort in the causeless blessings of vain evil men But yet where there is cause given although he cannot be excused from sin that curseth for we ought to bless and to pray for not to curse even those that wrong us and persecute us yet vae homini withall woe to the 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