Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
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A43730
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A sermon preached July 26, 1682, in the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in York at the assizes for that county / by James Hickson ...
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Hickson, James, b. 1650.
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1682
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Wing H1930; ESTC R34939
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12,130
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28
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Iniquity and the punishing of it the one whereby he beholds what Iniquities are predominant which indanger and threaten his Throne and the other whereby he looks that Punishments be inflicted upon Malefactors that they be inflicted not only by the Sentence but by the execution of the Sentence 'T is the execution of the Penal Laws which destroyes Evil for a bare beholding of Iniquity without punishing of it is but to mock Justice One of the Fathers upon the Devils expostulating with our Saviour St. Mark Chap. 1. Ver. 24. What have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth art thou come to destroy us saith upon our Saviours reply Hold thy peace That our Saviour would not be praised by the Devils voice but by his Torments and one applying it to our Subject saith That their is no greater praise of a King than his sitting upon the Throne of Judgment and destroying Wickedness by punishing the Authors of it for their Ruin is his Glory In most Expositors which I have met with upon our Subject I find 'em quoting this Proverb Oculus Heri saginat Equum and thus they apply it as the Masters Eye fats the Horse so the Kings Eye disperseth Evil blasts the increase of it and by his Eye Justice flourisheth Cyrus the first Persian Monarch signifies the Sun in their Dialect and thus I find the King compared to the Sun upon several Accounts For First As the Sun arising and being gloriously seated as it were in his Charitor upon his Throne disperseth Mists and Darkness and likewise causeth Thieves Traytors Murtherers Adulterers and whose works hate the light to conceal themselves least their Works of Darkness should be discover'd and made manifest so a Wise and Just King by his Sun-like inspection scattereth by his Justice the Ungodly and Workers of Iniquity Secondly As the Sun in his course not only views successively the parts of the Earth but also makes them fruitful by his auspicious influence so the King by his Delegates and Representatives suppresseth Iniquity by his presence composeth the Differences of Litigious men helps those to right who suffer wrong and are oppress'd and puts a Curb into the mouth 's of such unreasonable men who would if let alone turn Religion into Rebellion and Faith into Faction Thirdly As the Sun is pleasant and delightful to sound Eyes but to the unsound very troublesom and vexatious so the King's Eye towards the good is pleasant but to Malefactors 't is terrible though he only looks upon 'em through his Delegates and inferior Magistrates The words of our Subject may be likewise mystically understood as well as literally for as generally it belongs to all Kings so peculiarly it is appropriate to the King of Kings our Lord and Saviour to whom God has given all Power all Judgment for when he shall come to Judge all the Earth at the great Day of Account he shall have no need of Prisons or Chains he shall not stand in need of Military Forces to compel them but by his very look he shall scatter and confound the Wicked in their own Devices The Proverbial sence of our Subject is this That Authority being ready and constant in doing Justice upon Malefactors doth drive away all Evil with the very look of it Or in a Phrase equally intelligible the puting of the Penal Laws in Execution is the most proper if not only method to restrain and curb the growing Vices of the Age. From the Words themselves we shall deduce Three Observables First As the word King denotes Power so we shall remind you that Magistracy and especially Monarchy is Gods Ordinance Secondly We shall shew you that as the Kings Throne is Gods so God hath constituted him over his People for the punishment of Wickedness and Vice to execute Vengeance upon Malefactors as well as for the praise of them that do Well Thirdly That none may flatter themselves who make no Conscience to disoby the Lawful Commands of a Lawful Authority because of their present impunity we shall remind such that although they may for the present escape the Temporal Sword by their Politick Contrivances yet the Judg of all the Earth shall meet with 'em for as there is a Reward for the Righteous so doubtless there is a God that Judgeth the Earth First then as the word King denotes Power we shall remind you that Majesty and especially Monarchy is God's Ordinance A King that sits in the Throne of Judgment In the eighth Chapter of Ecclesiastes at the fourth Verse the Wise man tells us that where the Word of a King is there is Power Another Translation reads it There is in the word of a King a kind of Power 'T is most true of God that his Will effects his Work and his Word gives Power and God having made Kings his Vicegerents hear on Earth has in some sort communicated his Power to them Magistracy is an Office of Gods own institution and there is Divinity impress'd and Stamp'd upon the very Face of it As Moses so every Princes Face shines with the Glorious Beams of Divine Power communicated to them He is the Fountain of all Lawful Authority for all Power belongs unto God and he gives it to whom he pleaseth Such Promotion says the Psalmist comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from any point in the Compass but 't is God that sets up and appoints Magistracy Therefore did S. Paul plainly tell the Romans in the Thirteenth Chapter what Majesty was viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ordinance of God And God himself declares in the Eighth Chapter of the Proverbs Verse 15. That by him Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice For me Kings Reign saith another Vertion It is the Tenure but of some men to hold their Lands in chief immediately from the King but it is the Tenure of all Kings to hold their Crowns in chief of the Lord of Heaven and Earth 'T is the Royal Charter which God himself hath granted to Kings that they wear their Crowns not by his Permission only but by his Commission they Reign not only by his Sufferance but by his Ordinance And though St. Peter in his first Epistle Chapter the second Verse the thirteenth calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ordinance of man yet it is not so to be understood as if it were of mans invention But because man is the Subject man is the Object man is the End of it because 't is executed by them exercis'd concerning them and intended for their good so upon these accounts 't is call'd an Ordinance of man The forms of Adminstrations indeed may be of man but the Original institution is of God For says the Prophet Daniel it is the most High that Ruleth in the Kingdom of men and he giveth it to whomsoever he will Daniel the fourth Nay even wicked Rulers derive their Power from God And thus our Saviour himself told Pilate St. John the Ninetenth Thou could'st have no
Imprimatur Octob. 18. 1682. SAM CROBROW A SERMON Preached July 26. 1682. IN THE Cathedral Church Of St. Peter in YORK At the Assizes for that County By James Hickson M. A. and Rector of St. Cuthbert's in York LONDON Printed for Richard Lambert Bookseller in York 1682. To the Honourable WILLIAM LOWTHER Esq HIGH-SHERIFF Of the County of YORK SIR HAD not your desire which I shall always look upon as Equivalent to a Command such have been your repeated Favours to have those unpolish'd Notes made Publick delivered before you never calculated for the Press overpersuaded me no other Motive should have prevail'd And for a Reason of this my Resolution once positively espous'd and determin'd upon I could tell the World as others have done if I had that kindness for it for my Inability and draw up an Indictment against my own Imperfections but these if ever will be too soon discover'd and who will applaud that Mans discretion who should knowingly uncover his Defects before those who instead of Pitty and Redress would expose and deride ' em My Design in the ensuing Tract is Just and Honest and the knowing Reader will connive at though he cannot commend the Method and Management of it As for the censorious who are commonly prejudic'd and disaffected whose Bolts are soon Shot as it hath never been my Practice either Publickly or Privately to Claw and Curry their Factions humors so I shall not be concern'd for their Disrespect One thing will recommend the Discourse to the Generality namely its Brevity which in a great Measure will compensate for the coursness of the dress I am SIR Your real and obedient Servant James Hickson PROV 20.8 A King that sitteth in the Tbrone of Judgment scattereth away all Evil with his Eyes IN the Fourth Chapter of the First Book of the Kings we there read the Wisdom of King Solomon particularly discrib'd and character'd from the effects of it for if we consider him only quatenus Man none of the Philosophers since Adam may be compar'd to him either for Ethicks Politicks Physicks or Metaphysicks So great a Botanist so curious a Simpler that he writ from the Cedar to the Hyssop so admirable in Natural Philosophy that he spake of Beasts and Fowl and Creeping things and Fishes And though all his profound Commentaries upon Nature are withdrawn from Mankind which would but have fed their Curiosities yet his Divine Morals in this incomparable Book of the Proverbs are transmitted to all Ages and shall out-live the World By these our Lives are directed and the Enormities of them curb'd and condemn'd I find good Proverbs recommended by one above other Discourses for five Excellencies which we shall only Name First For their Antiquity Antiquiora nobiliora and in this respect these of our Royal Author are especially valluable Secondly Their Brevity doth signallize their Worth in that they do not like tedious Discourses so burthen the Memorative faculty Thirdly Their Significancy in couching a great deal of matter in a few words is no small addition to their worth and upon this account I find 'em call'd Mucrones verborum Pointed Speeches whose succinct profoundness makes amends and recompenseth for their plain homely and familiar habit Fourthly Their Experience pleads fair for their entertainment They have for the most part a Probatum est affix'd to them for their ground and rise was from experience and that many times woful So that we may be wise upon better and more safe and easy Terms than those who made 'em or from whom they had their rise Fifthly They are to be reverenced for their Truth and though Proverbs have their limits as well as General Rules have their exceptions and though they do not always hold good yet there is presumption that for the most part they do The Greeks express them by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 high-way Expressions because as a Father observes such Proverbs or Sentences were written and ingraven by the High-ways for the information as well as for the delight and divertion of Travellers not only affording them matter of Contemplation but also to confer and discourse of with others as they Journy'd The Proverbs of Solomon are call'd his Sons Reigning by them as gloriously in his Wisdom as he ever did over Israel by his outward Splendor and Magnificence They are for the most part independent and intire of themselves without having any relation to the precedent or subsequent Words of which our Subject is one A King that sitteth in the Throne of Judgment scatterth away all Evil with his Eyes We shall First Explain the particulars of the Proverb it self Secondly Deduce those natural inferences from it which may serve both for our Admonition and Caution A King that sitteth in the Throne of Judgment 'T is a Hebrew phrase and Lavater upon the place makes the signifiation of it very large and extensive It implies to know Causes to administer true Justice to defend the Good and to force and compel the Refractory and Disobedient and this saith he is the Duty of all Kings and Magistrates This if they do impartially and without respect of Persons then nutu oculorum they will depress and run down Wickedness and Vice with the greatest ease and facility The Septuagint render it When a just King sits upon his Throne Evil dare not face him it dare not offer or present it self before him For the Generality though they have so little of Christianity how great a Clamor and Noise soever they may seemingly make about it as not to obey the Publick Magistrate for Conscience sake because 't is their duty and commanded them by the express Word of God yet when once Justice comes to be impartially executed few or none of such great Pretenders will indure the Lash of the Penal Laws A King that sits in the Throne of Judgment i. e. saith Lapide the Jesuit A King who makes use of his Regal Authority committed to him by God himself by being a Father and a Tutor to the Good but to the Disobedient a Revenger to execute Wrath. Great saith another is the Majesty of a King many ways but he is in his greatest Majesty when he sitteth upon the Throne of Judgment for when Judgment is his Throne then Glory is his Canopy A Monarch is then in his true altitude his Lustre is then vertical and in its full brightness A King who thus sits in the Throne of Judgment who irrespectively commands that Justice shall be executed according to the demeris of those who transgress the Laws will scatter away all Evil with his Eyes His angry Eyes against Evil being so sharp that the Transgressors dare not look upon him to appear before him Then are the Sun and the Wind met the Sun of his Wisdom and the Wind of his Power by searching and punishing to drive away and disperse even all the Clouds of Wickedness Scattereth away all Eveil with his Eyes His Eyes are the beholding of