ratione voluntas As therefore it is true that Cuius vult miseretur He hath mercy on whom hee will haue mercy neither hath hee any other cause of extending his mercy to any saue only his will so it is as true that Deus nihil potest facere iniqui dum facit pro suâ voluntate God can doe no iniustice because he ever workes according to his owne will and iniustice he cannot will his will being iustice it selfe that generall rule of iustice which only of all other can suffer no exception Seeing then both the mercy iustice of God is God himselfe far be it from any Christian heart to seeke to set God at ods with himselfe by opposing his mercy against his iustice as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and could not stand togither or to denie that to our Iehovah which the heathen attributed to their Ioue to wit that hee is Optimus Maximus the Best and the Greatest the Best for his mercy and the Greatest for his iustice But are these two virtues mercy and iustice thus reconciled in the Divine nature only as being essentiall vnto it No i Psal 85.18 the Psalmist tels vs Psal 85. that in the person of Christ consisting of two natures Divine and Humane Mercy and truth are met togither Mercy and iustice in Christ righteousnesse and peace haue kissed each other For k Austin l. de Spir. liter c. 9. Legem misericordiam in linguâ portat Christus legem quâ reos faciat superbos misericordiam quâ iustificet himiliatos Christ carries in his tongue both a Law of iustice and a Gospell of mercy a Law of iustice wherewith to convince the proud of sin and a Gospell of mercy whereby to iustifie those that are humbled And l Bernard de adven serm 2 St Bernard compares our Saviour Christ to a Bee which flying into the city Nazareth which by interpretation signifieth a flowre there allighted vpon the sweetest flowre of virginitie that ever the earth yeilded The Psalmist saith m Psal 101.1 hee knewe well that this Bee had Mel Aculeum hony and sting both when hee said Psal 101. My song shall bee of mercy and iudgement vnto thee o Lord will I sing And n Psalm 25.8 againe Psal 25. Dulcis rectus Dominus The Lord is sweet and righteous o Bernard in tract de 12. grad humil Dulcis quia perire non patitur rectus quia punire non obliviscitur Sweet because he doth not suffer vs to perish righteous because he doth not forget to punish Sweet in his first comming righteous in his second sweet in his promises righteous in his iudgements sweet in his mercy righteous in his iustice And whosoever hee is that will not taste of the hony of his mercy shall be sure to feele the sting of his iustice So p Cant. 5.10 Cant. 5. he is said to be Candidus rubicundus white and red White in his right hand Ratione influxuum gratiae misericordiae in reguard of the sweet influences of his grace and mercy and Red in his left Respectu defluxuum iustitiae punitionis in respect of the bloudy fluxes of iustice vengeance descending from him And it is q Cant. 8.3 the Spouses wish Cant. 8. that hee would put his left hand of iustice vnder her head that so remembring his iudgements shee may the rather apply herselfe to divine things and that hee would embrace her with his right hand of mercy of which it is written r Psalm 16. v. vlt. Psal 16. At thy right hand there is pleasure for euermore Thus are mercie iustice wel agreed both in God his Christ But yet withal it would be observed that Oleum supernatat vino Gods mercy exceeds his iustice the oyle of Gods mercy doth swimme abone the wine of his iustice A man would haue thought that if ever the iustice of God shoulde haue gotten the victory over his mercy it should haue bin in triumph over those cruel persecutors that so grievously tormented Christ at his passion yet Christ not only prayed for them but as ſ Austin de vtilit poenit S. Augustin sweetly speaks his mercy left them not Quousque eius iam sanguinem nôssent bibere credentes quem fuderant saeuientes till they knew how to drink that bloud of his as belieuers which they had spilt as bloudy persecutours Iustly then may it be questioned what the Psalmist might meane Psal 150. when he saith t Psal 150.2 Laudate dominum secundùm multitudinem magnitudinis eius Praise ye the Lord according to the multitude of his greatnes The multitude of his greatnes what 's that Surely the multitude of God if we consider him according to his Divine essence is the number of persons in the Godhead which is finite because but three But the magnitude of the divine essence is not finite but infinite Wherefore David willeth vs to praise God not according to the greatnes of his multitude that is somuch as his greatnes is to be praised for that 's impossible but according to the multitude of his greatnes even the multitude of three persons in the divine greatnes which is but one for that c 1. tractar 31. in Ioan. we both may and must do But if we consider the multitude magnitude of God according to his attributes of goodnes sweetnes and mercy then impossible it is that we should praise him according to the multitude of his greatnes For both his u Psal 147.5 multitude is without number Psal 147. and x Psal 145.3 there is no end of his greatnes Psal 145. The multitude of his mercies such that no Arithmetike can number thē the magnitude such that no Geometry can measure them both of them such that y Psal 31.21 David cannot but admire them Ps 31. Quà m magna multitudo dulcedinis tuae domine Ohox great is the multitude of thy goodnes O Lord which thou hast laid vp for them that feare thee And this admiration he afterwards turnes into z Psal 51.1 a petition Psal 51. Haue mercy vpon me ô God secundùm magnam misericordiam tuam after thy great mercy Et secundùm multitudinem miserationum tuarum and according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offenses Wherefore ô thou drooping and soule sicke sinner perplexed and affrighted with the dread and horrour of thy sins thy many Application and great sinnes still threatening thee a present precipitation into that dangerous down fal of despaire O taste and see how gratious the Lord is If thou haue the multitude of thy sinnes to amate thee behold here the multitude of Gods mercies to recomfort thee or if thou haue the magnitude of thy sinnes to apal thee behold here the magnitude of Gods mercies to refresh thee so that now thou may'st safely resolue with a Hilar. in Ps 129. S. Hilary Ad spem
deceased which being once confirm'd k Gal 3.15 S. Paul thought no man so impious as to abrogate Gal. 3. that though it ayme at never so good charitable vses yet if they haue but somuch wit and so litle conscience as to picke a quarell with it all is hazarded It was therefore a wise and blessed resolution of him who intending to haue the poore fare the better by him said hee would not stand to the curtesie of Executors Overseers after his death but in his life time would make his owne hands his executors his owne eyes his overseers O that this were also the common care and resolution of you the worthy Almoners of this honorable city whom the Lord in the riches of his mercy hath annointed with the oyle of gladnesse aboue your fellows that at least some part of it might run downe to the chearing and cherishing of the poore distressed members of Iesus Christ Yee are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as l Laërt l 6. the Philosopher sometime spake sheepe cloathed with golden fleeces Oues faetosae sheepe great with yong even with great store of yong poore and fatherlesse Orphans Qui suxerunt vbera senserunt vellera who haue sucked the paps of your bounty felt the warme fleece of your charity And though many glorious things be spoken of thee ô thou city of God yet among them all nothing so glorious as that thou so aboundest with piety and mercy that thou fillest so many empty bellies cloathest so many naked backes lodgest so many houselesse strangers relievest so many maimed souldiers providest for so many impotent creeples and mainteinest so many fatherlesse Orphans Into these and many other the like channels do the sylver-streames of your mercifull devotion runne But yet giue me leaue to speake freely what I may truely speake The fountaines from which these streames flow are for the most part dying not liuing fountains A blessed thing no doubt it is thus to do good though it be but at your death But much more blessed should ye be in your work not only in the sight of men but of God himselfe if in your life time ye would deale distribute with your owne hands that which ye cannot tell whither ye shall hold till your death which indeed is to do good rather as sheepe than as swine vitâque magis quà m morte iuvare as m Ovid. Met. l. 15. the Poët speaks of sheepe to benefite others rather by your life than by your death So should ye be well assured that no posthumous fraude or cunning should be able to disappoint your religious purposes And I doubt not but ye would soone fall to a godly vy and aemulation one with another which of you should haue the precedency in this kinde of mercy being both the surest the truest kinde of mercy if ye could but perswade your selues as the n Prov. 11.17 wiseman doth Prov. 11. that Benefacit animae suae vir misericors He that is a benefactor to others is a benefactor to his owne soule or as some of our English translations haue it He that is mercifull rewardeth his owne soule 2 If a righteous man reguard the life of his beast because it is his ought not then every righteous Minister to provide for the good and welfare of his flocke be cause they are his And every righteous Magistrate for the good and welfare of his people because they are his Are not these o Rom. 13.4 the ministers of God ordeined by him for the wealth of those that are vnder them Rom. 13. 3 Againe If a righteous man reguard the life of his beast because it is his ought he not then much more to reguard both Vitam victum the life and living the Greeks haue exprest both in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both Esse and Benè esse the being and well-being of his wife because shee is his of his children because they are his of his servants because they are his Knowing that as p 1. Tim. 5.8 the Apostle teacheth 1. Tim. 5. If there be any that provideth not for his owne and namely for them of his houshold he denieth the faith and is worse than an infidell And if he ought to provide for their corporall welfare ought he not then much more to provide for their spirituall welfare And to say with good q Iosu 24.15 Iosuah c. 24. Ego domus mea I and my house will serue the Lord 4 Lastly in a word If a righteous man reguard the life of his beast because it is his ought he not then much more to reguard the life of his owne naturall body Not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lay violent hands vpon himselfe as some in a desperate fit of male-contentednesse haue done whom the Apostle deemeth monsters rather than men For r Eph. 5.29 no man saith he euer yet hated his owne flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it Eph. 5. And if the life of his naturall body how much more then his spirituall life the life of his soule which is so his owne as that without it himselfe were not his owne What a madnesse then is it saith one Plorare bestiam amissam non plorare animam To mourne for the losse of thy beast and not to mourne for the losse of thine owne soule It is therefore the counsaile of ſ Sirac 30.23 Siracides c. 30. Miserere animae tuae placens Deo Haue pity vpon thine owne soule pleasing God Please him better thou canst not than if thou haue pity vpon thine own soule And it is the rule of the schoole Charitas ordinata incipit à seipsâ Regular charity begins with it selfe And as it begins with it selfe so will I end with it Beseeching God even the Father of our Lorde and Saviour Iesus Christ for his sake to giue a blessing to that which hath ben spoken in your outward eares that it may inwardly fructifie bring forth much fruit of mercy in your hearts in some 30 in some 60 in some an hundreth-fold that so when that great day of refreshing shall come ye may every one of you receiue seven-fold into your bosome c. FINIS
man is naturally iust yea so iust that man is no man vnlesse he bee iust The truth hereof hath z Eccles 12.13 Salomon sealed and delivered vnto vs Eccles 12. Let vs heare the end of all feare God and keep his commandements there is vniuersall righteousnesse for this saith he is the whole duty of man So our English translations haue it but the vulgar Latine Hoc est omnis homo this is whole man or pefit man Out of which place a Hugo de Sāct Victore Hugo de Sancto Victore reasoneth thus Siomnis homoest qui Deum timet mandata cius obseruat constat quod ille homo nonest qui hoc non facit if he be whole man or perfit man that feareth God and keepeth his commandements why then it 's cleare and out of controversie that whoso feareth not God nor keepeth his commandements is no man For it hee know God his commandements yet neither feare the one nor obserue the other hee is a contemner of both and is magis Diabolus quà m homo rather a Diuell than a man but if he knowe not God not his commandements hee is blind and is magis bestia quà m homo rather a beast then a man but if he knowe and feare God and keepe his commandements verè homoest why then he is a man indeed saith Hugo that is a whole a perfit man Yee shall see this note made good out of the very letter of my text For it is not here said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek or vir iustus in the Latin though the English phrase enforce the additament of man to iust but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iustus iust without the addition of man as if it were all one to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iustus or vir iustus iust or a iust man because either a man must bee iust or else no man that is no whole no perfit man And so from the former part of the Thesis which is the Subiect iustus a iust man which must be as yee haue heard euery man that will be a man indeed I come now to the later which is the affection 2. Miseretur or attribute of that subiect Miseretur is mercifull As the roote of his righteousnes is piety so the fruite of it is pitty which is Proprium quarto modo a proper passion so inseparably attending the righteous man that it agreeth Omni soli semper to every righteous man to a righteous man only alway to the righteous And therefore it is not here said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ille iustus that iust man per excellentiam a man in the superlatiue degree of iustice iust as if it were possible for a man to be iust in some inferiour degree yet not mercifull but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indefinitely a iust man a man that hath but any iot of iustice in him it cannot be but that such a man will be mercifull So that as before I noted that every man truly and properly so called is iust yea so iust that if hee bee not iust he is no man so may I also truly averre that every iust man is mercifull yea so mercifull that if he bee not mercifull hee cannot be iust For so inviolably are all virtues ioin'd together that all of them make but as it were one chaine like that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or golden chaine in b Homer Iliad θ. sub init Homer reaching from earth to heaven so that if yee breake but any one link that is if yee lacke but anie one virtue the whole chain will presently be dissolued and fall in sunder Vnaquaeque enim virtus tanto minor est quanto desunt caeterae For every virtue saith c Greg. Moral l. 22. c. 1. St Gregory is so much the lesse the lesse it is accompanied with other virtues and if any virtue bee single or solitarie from other it is either none at all or at the best but vnperfit Now if such bee the affinity and coniunction of all virtues that no one of them may be divorced or sequestred from other much lesse may two so neare friends two such Alter Ego's as are mercy and iustice be dissociated or disunited one from the other I know it to be the erroneous conceit of the vulgar sort that of all other virtues these two are most incompatible and are opposed as it were at crosse-angles Mercy and iustice are not cōtrary one to the other But see I pray you the inconsequence and absurdity of that conceit For first 1. One virtue is not contrary to another If wee graunt them to bee contraries then shall wee bee enforced to deny at the least one if not both of them to bee virtues because though one vice may be contrary to another vice yet one virtue is never contrary to another virtue but only to vice Againe If wee admit them to bee contraries 2. God is not capable of contrariety then may wee not in any case suppose them to bee in God because God being ever vnchangeably one and the same is not capable of any contrariety whatsoever And if we suppose them not to be in God then where shall bee that bountifulnesse and severity of God spoken of by d Rom. 11.22 St Paul Rom. 11 Or how shall it bee true that e Psal 25.10 David saith Psal 25 All the waies of the Lord are mercy and truth Where veritas is put for severitas truth for iustice Mercy and iustice are the very essence of God Diue but yet a little deeper into this point and yee shall finde that the mercy and iustice of God are so farre from crossing or contradicting one the other that they are the very essence of God according to that ancient rule of the Schooles Quic quid est in Deo Deus est whatsoever is in God is God himsefe and therefore both of them as great as himselfe both infinite as hee is infinite Whence it is that God in that his gratious proclamation of mercy f Esa 43.25 I even I am he that putteth away thine iniquities addeth Propter me for mine own sake g Zanch de attrib l. 1. c. 1. His meaning was for his mercies sake not for any merit of ours yet hee saith not Propter misericordiam meam for my mercies sake but Propter me for mine owne sake to shew that his mercy is not in him as ours is in vs a thing different from his essence but that himselfe in the simplicitie of his owne essence is mercy it selfe Now h Mart. Bucer in Rom. 9. the same which wee call the mercy of God is also his iustice because it is his nature as is his iustice whereof wee haue no knowledge or apprehension saue only by his workes And of all his works whither of mercy or iustice he hath none other reason saue only his will Stat pro