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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	great_a	law_n	people_n	2,690	5	4.4864	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62467	A sermon preached at the assizes held at Chelmsford in the county of Essex, September 2d, 1691 before the Honourable Sir William Dolben, Knight, one of the justices of the Court of Kings Bench by Stephen Thornton ...	Thornton, Stephen, 1657 or 8-1744.	1691 (1691)	Wing T1061; ESTC R16613	14,636	34

stains the best Life and the clearest Duties The Sacrifices of all Nations have been a kind of Confession that this needed Blood And indeed if on one hand we consider Sin in all its horrors and on the other the Purity and Justice of God we may as soon bring Antipathies together as God and Man without a Mediator The Afflictions of this Life were they evenly distributed would be far from clearing our Accounts with Divine Justice but indeed they are not so therefore cannot be relied upon as Satisfactions And whatever some may think of the vertues of a true Repentance come to matter of Fact and there is none so true but if it stand alone it self is a thing to be repented of needs a Sacrifice and leads to a Redeemer The other parts of Faith which are a train of Propositions from these two There is one God and One Mediator between God and Man 1 Tim. 2.5 will be Rational because they are so And I know not why we should be afraid of that way of speaking That the Mysteries of this Religion are rational too since this cannot be denied of things above Reason so they are not contrary to it which whoever affirms concerning the Revealed Acts of an infinite incomprehensible Nature is himself most irrational And perhaps some of these things which are above Reason in its present state may not be so much Secrets to us in another when we shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 nor perhaps are so now to some higher Reasons in the World The Active part of our Religion is reduced by our Saviour to the exercises of Love to God and our Neighbour which are so confessedly Rational that all Moralists of good Credit have thô in different terms used them as Principles Therefore to be short with them if that be Rational which makes us like God and admits us into his Favour which employs and advances our diviner part and renders us profitable in the World then nothing can be more Rational than Religion Thus have I considered some of the common Obligations to Religion Secondly I shall urge the Obligation of National Interest I call this our greatest Interest and indeed it is little to none but those whose Souls are such Other Creatures have a Principle that directs them to preserve their own Being but Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capable of a Publick Care Nay we might consider the Community so too a Great Animal whereof we are all parts living by one common Soul And as it is unnatural that one of the Members should rejoyce whilst the rest suffer 2 Cor. 12.26 so in this great Body none should have a Felicity by himself 'T is monstrous that the Case of the whole should not be the Case of particulars By this our private Respects are to be tried The love of Parents in comparison with that of our Country scarce deserves the name of Vertue nor our fondness of Princes but as they are a Common Good otherwise it is but a private Respect to say no worse of it I believe it is our Duty to love our Country above any one part of it It is hard to think of this and not be a little warm against an unnatural Generation amongst us that would sell us We have many that speak half Ashdod enough to make it questioned whether they had English Fathers But I will leave them to other hands to be treated suitably to their Merits and shew how Religion serves this Interest 1. By a Natural Influence inasmuch as it makes good Citizens Fear might indeed bring Men into Society but there must be some other Principle to keep them together That makes them a great heap of People but Love cements and unites them Without this Society is but a more sly state of War and Compacts are but Snares to them that hold them Sacred Now whatever tends to Settlement as Justice Sobriety Contentment love of Peace and Common Good is the Dictate of Religion whose Kingdom is in the Minds and Affections of Men and makes them not only a Society but Sociable A People is secure under Governours that fear God of good Laws and those in good hands that they shall enjoy their Labours and find the Protection they pay for They would know their meaning in their Solemn Professions and not fear their having Interests distinct from their People On the other hand a Prince does not find that Service from his own Laws as from Religion Obedience from an inward Principle needs not the quickning of Legal Penalties but moves by an everlasting Spring and scorns to stay for Motives that were invented for Slaves and Cattel Men would more freely pay for their share in the Publick Safety and redeem it out of some Chargeable Vanity Religion would cut off Murders Invasions of Right and all Disorders at the Root and leave no work for the Law and this by taking away Envy unlawful Desires and softning the Genius of Men yet makes them not so soft as to shrink from their Stations in a Just War when their Country requires their Service That 's the effect of Vice and Luxury These will make Men great Souldiers in Peace to distinguish themselves now and then in a fit of drunken Valour but dare not see an Enemy sober and whilst others spend their Blood and Rest for their Country these lye inglorious at home dissolved and dispirited by a corrupt Life It 's for want of a due sense of Religion among Men that a Government notwithstanding the Caution of Oaths and Tests scarce knows her own I know that accidentally the true Religion brought a sword upon earth Mat. 10.34 Pretences to it have hurried Men into Immoralities and some false Religions have very Casuistically determined them Lawful But let this be laid to the Vices and Passions and Prepossessions of Men which where Religion could not reform it irritated Some from the hot advices of these fill the World with Desolation and call it Religion and the undistinguishing Fool that says in his heart there is no God cants Lucretius Tantum Relligio potuit c. Certainly men would think it hard to be dealt with in their own Reputations as they deal with that Wisdom which is from above pure peaceable James 3.17 no Parent of Strife or Ruin its Mistakes and Pretences indeed may be so but it self is naturally fitted to the Happiness of Humane Society 2. As it procures God to be gracious to a Nation Ambition can propound nothing higher than to command the Creation and this follows from the Friendship of Omnipotence In Calamities the Libertine would be glad of a God too to mend the state of the World Now whether we can apply the promises of the Old Testament or no it 's certain that the encouragement of present things is no such strange found under the Gospel Godliness has the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 and if ever

A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES HELD AT CHELMSFORD IN THE County of Essex September 2d 1691. Before the Honourable Sir WILLIAM DOLBEN Knight one of the JUSTICES of the Court of KINGS BENCH By STEPHEN THORNTON Rector of Ludsdown in Kent LONDON Printed for Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1691. To the Honourable Coll. John Cook High Sheriff for the County of Essex SIR I Could have easily sate down contented with the good Reception this Performance found upon the place nor am I ignorant how impolitick it is to push on too far upon the Flatteries of an happy beginning but as your Commands alone drew me from my private Station so they have prevaled with me to be yet more Publick If any thing prove worthy of blame in this Attempt you must be pleased to be in a great measure answerable for it with those other Gentlemen who would not be denied and indeed whose Kindnesses have merited this and a greater Obedience I confess it is something uneasie to think of being exposed to the Censures of Men which are not commonly so fair as they should be But let them be what they will I ought to gratifie you at some hazard and for once will try the Ingenuity of the World in hope that what is here said may benefit some part of it Not being conversant in Modern Writings perhaps I have said nothing here but what some others have said better before me If any know where they have my leave to repair thither and my Prayers for a Blessing upon their Applications I would not willingly be accessary to any man's loss of time and disappointment But I hope they will allow me a Province among those of lesser Reading and Attainments And I assure you Sir there are those in the World to whom the things here spoken are new and some of them such as pretend to converse and talk of Books and from whom one might expect other things Writing would be at a stand were every one bound to produce something perfectly new the Actions of the World being little else but a series of Repetitions I never had the Vanity to think of pleasing all Men on the contrary I certainly reckon upon it that I shall displease some Perhaps too the fault will be on their side which I pray God to forgive them If any shall desire to triumph in my Infirmities I shall prevent them in the honour of the Discovery being alway ready to make a large confession of them But if an honest Intention may make amends let them know that I am a great lover of Mankind and when I please them least I desire to do them good God grant this Performance may attain that end and I have mine That those who are skilled in Criticks may not think themselves neglected I will excuse one thing to them Perhaps some things may seem to be brought into this Discourse impertinently It may be necessary therefore to tell them That my Text was not only those few words of the Prophet prefixt to the Sermon but the temper of the World as it fell under my Observation And if they think I ought not to have accommodated my thoughts to it it may be sufficient to tell them that I am of another mind and if in an Error not past all hopes of being made sensible of it Sir I beg your Pardon if I have done you any dishonour in this Dedication and shall take this Occasion publickly to acknowledge my Obligation to your self and Relations to whom I owe the Opportunities which I have of serving the Church of God That you may continue immoveable in the love which I know you have to our established Church and your largeness of Soul towards all good Christians That you may still become your Honourable Station and find returns of all in this and another World is the hearty Prayer of SIR Your Most Humble and Most Obliged Servant STEPHEN THORNTON AMOS V.XV. Hate the evil and love the good and establish Judgment in the gate it may be that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious unto the Remnant of Joseph BY the Complaints that make so considerable a part of this Prophecy we understand That the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes was at this time fallen into great Corruptions of Religion and Civil Justice For as if it had been but a light thing to walk in the ways of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who had taught them to sin they had multiplied their Impieties and made the Abominations of Gilgal and Beersheba as Famous as those of Dan and Bethel ver 5. The bitterness of their Judgment their Exactions upon the Poor the Affliction of the Righteous and taking Bribes make up the rest of their Character in this Chapter to such a suspension of Justice that it was become a prudent thing to keep silence ver 13. rather than to be wasted with delays to dissemble an Injury rather than suffer a greater in form of Law All then seem to be silent but their sins and the Prophet who discharges his Office at that rate that the Land was not able to bear his words Chap. 7.10 Indeed the Land was not in case to bear much searching and the poor Man found by his Reception that he had not much changed his Employment when the Lord took him from among the Herdsmen to make him a Prophet ver 14. but had now as senseless Creatures to deal with as those he had fed in the Fields of Tekoa Yet no fear of disturbing the Land which desired to be left in a quiet Apostacy nor any construction of disrespect to the King's Court and Chappel ver 13. can make him suppress a Divine Message but he fills them with Reproofs Lamentations and Warnings of approaching Judgment and sometimes clears up into a milder Exhortation with Propositions of Mercy of which latter sort is the Text now under consideration Hate the evil and love the good c. These words Hate the evil and love the good are in themselves of a large signification but compared with the 6th and 14th Verses and the occasion of the Discourse they seem capable of this limited sense viz. Be Religious To establish Judgment in the Gate is to administer Publick Justice which in those Times and Countries was done at the Gates of Cities By Joseph he understands the Ten Tribes which it seems the Syrian Wars and other Calamities had now reduced to a Remnant And the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be imports no distrust of God's Mercy for never any one so perswades Repentance but is an artificial propounding of a Difficulty to heighten and warm their Applications I shall enlarge the sense of the Prophet into this general Proposition That beside the common Obligations to Religion and Justice there is that of the greatest Interest we have in the World viz. The Establishment of a Nation in the favour of God and securing the Publick Happiness I begin with