SInce that unhappy breach between Gen. 3. Man and God, there have been perpetuall dif­ferences between Man and Man; The seeds of injustice and oppression sown then in the hearts, spring forth so naturally and so plentifully in the lives of men, that they are be­come like Hab. 1.14. the fishes of the sea, the great ones devouring the lesse. As Gen. 4.8. this appears true in that horrid act of Cain against Abel, so is it visible in all those succeeding acts of injustice, so much complained of by Isa. 5.7. Jer. 6.6. Ezek. 22.7, 29. the Pro­phets. As this hath been too true in all ages, so especi­ally in ours, on whom the 1 Chr. 10.11 ends of the world are come. These are Heb. 1.2. the last dayes; and as our last dayes are ful­lest of diseases and miseries, so the worlds last dayes are most 2 Tim. 3.1 perillous, and most abounding with iniquity. The lower Time runs upon the lees and dregs, the worse ever: as Time grows older, oppression grows greater; [Page 2]and as oppressions increase, so will complaints increase. Sowas it here; The great and rich men trampled upon the poor, as if there were no God to punish them: they who were injured, did repine and grumble, as if there were no God to relieve them. The rich oppresse the poor, the poor grumble against the rich. The Apostle being to finde out a remedy against both these evils, pitches upon this Text, as the likeliest plaster to cure both sores; to prevent the outragious insolencies of the one, and remove the discontented grudgings of the o­ther; no likelier means, then by minding both of the Day of Judgment: As if he had said, You who abuse the power and greatnesse which God hath bestowed upon you, to the oppressing of the needy, who live in plea­sure, and are wanton; who Isa. 3.15. grinde the faces of the poor, and sell the Amo. 2.6. needy for a pair of shoos; who kill the just, and detaine the labourers hire; weep and howle, for the Judge standeth before the door to take vengeance of your injustice. And you whose miseries are written in letters of bloud, upon whose Ps. 129.3. backs the plowers have made long furrows, grudge not, complain not, murmur not; for the Lord cometh, yea he stands before the door, to plead the cause of the oppressed, and to help them to right who suffer wrong; And indeed, nothing hath, (I am sure nothing should have) a greater influence up­on the spirits of men, to keep them within the compass of their duty, then the remembrance of their last ac­count; be their conditions, their professions, what it will.

In which words the Apostle is quieting and cooling the minds and spirits of those whom the injuries and op­pressions of others have exasperated; and in them we have, 1. A Prohibition [Grudge not.] 2. The inforce­ment of that prohibition; from the danger of the fact, [lest ye be condemned.] 3. The Anticipation of an ob­jection, which they were about to make; What, may not losers have leave to speak? Shall they wrong us, [Page 3]and we not so much as complaine? this will but harden them in their evill ways, and expose us to more and greater injuries; he that quietly and tamely bears one affront, invites a second: Oh! says he, but be patient a while, leave revenge to him to whom it appertaines, com­mit your cause to him who judgeth all things righteously, and is coming to do it; Behold, he standeth before the door.

1. The Prohibition; Do not ye repine, [...]. Tyrinus in loc. or murmur or groane, either out of grief, that you cannot be re­venged; or impatiency at your present sufferings; do not murmur nor grudge one against another, Miserorum est ut malevolentes sint. Plautus. as poore men use to do, (who are querulous and complaning;) do not grudge against the rich, by calumniating and cur­sing them; much lesse against God, as if he were un­just, in suffering you to be afflicted; Take heed of mur­muring groanes, distrustfull groanes, revengfull groans, and envyous groans; Manton in loc. murmur not against Gods provi­dence, distruct not his protection, thirst not after the revenge of thine own injuries, envy not those who are exercised with fewer troubles then thy self; this is the pro­hibition, Grudge not.

2. The inforcement; least ye be condemned; as if he had said, Impatiency, discontent, distrust, envy, wil ex­pose you to greater miseries then you complaine of; Your sufferings here are but for your probation, but your grudging and repining will be your condemnation: be not out of patience, your deliverance is at hand, Be­hold, &c.

3. The Anticipation, (or forestalling) of the objection: where are three things. 1. A Judge, 2. His posture, he standeth; 3. The place, before the door: and all these ushered in with (an Ecce) Behold.— Behold the Judge; Behold, he standeth; Behold, he standeth before the door.

In each of which there is somewhat remarka­ble.

[Page 4]1. Behold, [...]. the Judge; some eminent person sure, who is ushered in with such solemnity! 'Tis The Judge: Em­phatically; not only A Judge, but the Judge, the supreme and universall Judge, who shall judge the quick and the dead. In the precedent verse he is stiled the Lord; 'tis the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, Rev. 19.16. His first co­ming was in humilitate. His second in majestate. In his first, judicandus; In his second, judicaturus. Solomons pe­tition. 1 King. 3.9. Tiberius wisht ut ipsi intelli­gentem bumani divinique juris mentem dii da­rent. Tacit. ann. l. 4. c. 7. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; whose first appearance was in humility, his second shall be in power and great glory; who was then Judged by his Creatures, but now in his second co­ming, shall judge his Judges — And indeed, who could be fitter for the work then he who was every way qualified for a Judge?

To make a Judge, two sorts of qualifications be re­requisite

• 1 Intrinsicall.
• 2 Extrinsicall.

1 Intrinsical, and those (amongst others of lesse mo­ment) are two. 1. Wisdom and judgment in the Laws, ability to find out the truth of an evidence [a knowing head.] 2. Integrity and uprightnesse, not to decline from the path of Justice; for fear, nor favour, [an honest heart.]

2. Extrinsicall, and they are likewise twofold: 1. Com­mission; every man that is able to discipline souldiers, may not beat up Drummes, [...], au­thoritatem. raise, lead, fight souldiers without Commission; Every one that can speak well, may not take upon him the office of a preacher, unlesse he be Rom. 15. sent; Every person who understands the Laws, may not arraigne and condemn men without commission; he must be able to answer that question, Quis te constituit judicem? who made thee a judg?

2. [...], porten­tiam. Power of Execution; else all the rest is to little pur­pose: To sit in state, and to condemn prisoners, and to have no power to execute the sentence, is but to expose the Law to contempt and scorne. Dan. histor. in the life of Ed. 3^d. It was said of Ed­ward the Third, that he was a Prince who knew his work, and did it: and his love to Justice is observed in this, that [Page 5]he made so many Laws for the Execution of Justice; Execution is the life of the Law; a knowing Head, an honest Heart, and an active vigorous Hand, make a Judge.

But all these qualifications shine most gloriously in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the wisdome of his Father, and understands the Lawes which himself hath made: who is a righteous Judg, no fear, no favour, no bribes, Joh. 5.22. no hopes can turn him aside from the path of Justice: he is Commissioned to this work; The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement to the Sonne. And to conclude, that he hath power of Execution, Mat. 25.41. is manifest by the very form of the sentence, — Depart ye cursed; those words are, as other of Gods words, effe­ctive, which work the thing they command; they send sinners to hell without resistance: The word Cast or turned into hel, Psa. 9.17. imports such an over-ruling power which the creature is no way able to resist. Behold, this is the Judge.

2. Behold! he standeth; Psa. 82.1. which is Gods posture when he comes to execute judgment; God standeth in the congregation of Princes, he is Judg among the Gods. Isa. 3.13. Act. 7.55. Non quasi cau­sam dicentem, sed quasi senten­tiam cito latu­rum. Morall. homil 29. Gataker, ap­peal to Prinn. in initio. The Lord standeth up to plead, and he standeth to Judg the people; Stephen sees Christ standing at Gods right hand, whom other scriptures usually represent sitting, not as an Advocate (saith Gregory,) to plead his cause, but as a Judge to take speedy vengeance on them for this bloody act: alluding (saith one of our own) to the cu­stomes of Judges, who sit to hear the cause, (which they do deliberately;) but stand up to passe sentence, (which they do resolvedly.) The Church when she would ha­sten God to judgment, prays. Arise O Lord and come, lift up thy self; he that stands is ready to come:—which yet is clearer in that he says,

3 Behold! he stands at the door; as 'tis Gen. 4.7. if thou dost evill, Poena peccati. sin lyes at the door; punishment is hard at hand; so, the feet of them which have buried thy hus­band, [Page 6]are at the door, Act. 5 9. Senibus mors in Januis: de con­ver si. cap. 14. 1 Pet. 4.5. they be hard by: and Bernard when he would shew the neernesse of the death of old men, phrases it thus, Death is at old mens door: so here, The Judge standeth at the door, he is at hand, he hath put on his Robes, he is ascending his Tribunall; he is (in Saint Peter's language) ready to judge.

The words are capable of a double consideration; 1. As a positive doctrine holding out the certainty and vicinity of the last judgment: Behold, the Judge stand­eth, &c. 2. Relatively, in reference to those things which the Apostle had treated of before; Take heed, ye rich men, of violence and oppression; Why? what's the danger? Behold, the Judge standeth at the door. Take heed ye poor oppressed people, of grumbling and repi­ning; why? who shall releeve us? Behold, the Judge standeth, &c. I shall not ingulph my self into that vast Ocean of matter, which the former proposition, concer­ning Christs second coming to judgment, will afford; only I shall point at the certainty of it, so farr as may make it serviceable to the second consideration of the word, which I chiefly intend. Nor will I trouble you with meaner witnesses then God and Nature to prove it; and when these vouchsafe to bear witness, 'tis vain curi­osity to expect others, and strange infidelity to suspend our assent.

Nor shall I multiply texts in so cleer a case; one or two arrows from Jonathans bow, may certifie David of the Kings pleasure, as well as a quiver full; two or three stones out of Davids Budget, may fell Goliah, as well as a whole quarry; In quotations of Scripture, I would ob­serve the weight, rather then the number. Should I cite all, I should be infinite: I shal select some few, and those such as perhaps labour with some other doubts; the first text is Rom. 14.10. Wee shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ. How doth that appear? why from another Scripture; Isa. 45.23. for it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue [Page 7]shall confesse to God. But stay,Dub. thou learned Doctor of the Gentiles, strive not to confirme our faith by false allega­tion of Scripture; that's the practice of the wily serpent the Divel, and of his factors at Rome, the subtil Jesuits; and suits not with the Candor and Religion of an Apo­stle; but the words in Isaiah, are read otherwise, I have sworne by my selfe, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousnesse, and shall not returne, Solut. that unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confesse. Magis expressus sensus, quàm expensa verba. Hierom. Regula videa­tur. Ribera in Hos. 2. Num. 14. Apostolorum ac Evangelistarū mos est, ut testi­moniis Vet. Te­stam, referen­dis, crebrò non verborum ordi­nem sequuntur, sed sensum. Vivo ego, in for­ma jurandi, Deo propria. 'Tis true indeed, they are so; but though here are not all the same words, yet here is the same sense. The Evan­gelists, the Apostles, and Christ himselfe, in citing the Old Testament, look not so much at the word as at the sense; in which these two places agree. That that is the sense of the Old Testament which is given of it in the New, is without controversie, the pen-men only differing, but the Spirit which dictates, being in both the same; to whom if we allow, what we deny not men, to be the best interpreter of his own meaning, we cannot but yeeld that he intended by Isaiah, what he exprest by Paul, and so the words make strongly for the last judgement. — As I live, saith the Lord — 'tis an oath peculiar to God himself; Have I purposed, and shall not I bring it to passe! have I sworne, and shall it not stand! Shall not I who punish perjury in others, fulfill mine own oath! doubtlesse I will; Every knee shall bow: Those knees which bowed to him in mockage, shall now do him homage; and those feeble sinnews shall trem­ble before him on the throne, whom in a contu­melious manner they scraped to on the Crosse, E­very tongue shall confesse. Every reviling tongue shal confesse him to be God, whom once they thought the worst of men; and upon constraint acknowledge him their Judge, whom they lately executed as a guil­ty Malefactor.

The Apostle Jude in the 14 and 15 verses of his Epi­stle, hath another Testimony to the same purpose: [Page 8] And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of Saints, to execute judgement upon all; &c.

'Tis hard to say, Ʋtrumque vi­tium est, omni­bus credere, & nulli: tutiùs hoc crimen est, il­lud honestiùs. Sen. Raw­liegh. histor. lib. 1^o. part 1. cap. 5. §. 6. Vid. Bez. which is worst, to believe every one, or no body; they are both faults, only with this diffe­rence, the former is more ingenuous, the later is more secure: That this testimony is true, there will be more will averre: And who this Enoch was, is not so hard to ghesse, as what was his prophesie; That it was an un­written prophesie, calculated onely for that Nation, and delivered over from hand to hand, is not improbable; we find that he prophesied, that he spake it, but that it was written, we do not read.— Enoch, no question, was a faithfull Preacher in his time, and strove by a floud of divine Rhetorick, to beat down those sins, which no­thing could stop but a floud of water; and amongst other of his divine sayings, this might be one, by the care of the faithfull, continuing to succeeding ages.

Secondly, It might be written either by himselfe, or some other, yet not by divine inspiration, nor never reduced into the Canon: and such (it may be) was the Book of Jasher the upright: (if a very learned man mistake not,) Junius in loc. for the word rendred Book, signifies ei­ther a Catalogue of books, or else it signifies publick records, containing acts and proceedings in a Court of Judicature; or Ecclesiasticall, concerning Church-go­vernment; or historicall, concerning events and occurren­ces in the State; of all which sorts there were severall lod­ged up in the Ark, which never came to light, which might be lost without any detriment to the Canon: and of this sort, might be this of Enoch.

Thirdly, We are not to reckon all those books lost, whose names we find mentioned in Scripture, but not the books that bear those names; as those of Nathan the Seer, and Gad the Seer, with those which Samuel himselfe wrote, Manent libri, tacentur nomi­na. Junius. make up the two Books of Samuel; the books remaine, though their names be supprest or chan­ged; [Page 9]so have I often seen smaller streams emptying themselves into the vaster Channel, lose their own, and assume the name of the greater current; and so this of Enoch (as others) may remaine in holy Writ, though being annexed with greater works, it hath lost its name; And it moves not much, though we find not the very words, if we find that which is equivalent; which is sufficient to prove the citations out of the Old Testa­ment true, as you saw made clear in the former quo­tation. Thus having proved Enoch to be (bonum & legalem hominem) a man of credit and repute in his coun­try; let us hear his evidence, Behold, the Lord cometh, &c. where we have two things. 1 the Judge, and then 2 the Judgement it selfe: The Judge, set forth by his title, and his train. 1 His title, 'tis the Lord; and for his traine, ther's the quality or nature of them, (Saints) and the number of them, ten thousand of Saints: and for the judgement, 'tis to convince all the ungodly, of all their hard speeches, and evill works; and all this with (an ecce) Behold, ut de presenti loquitur; as if it were within his kenn; Enoch the seventh from Adam, through the perspective of faith, saw the day of judge­ment even at his heels: we are some thousands of years nearer then he; and can that be far from us, Verstegan in his tract of the ancient English tongue. p. 192. which so nearly bordered upon him? Had Enoch been silent, his very name had proclaimed a judgment to come: In the old Teutoni [...] language (the ancient speech of this Nation) E signifies Law or Equity, and Noch signifies, yet once again, or to come; so that his very name imports a time to come; where shall be the administration of justice according to right. 2 Tim. 4.8.

Paul when he came downe from the third heaven, brought with him the certaine newes of a Judge that should come to crown him at that great day; and not him onely, but all those that shall love his appea­ring; Causab. in annal. Ba­ron. exer. 2. c. 11. 1 Tim. 3. ult. [...]. Now there is a double appearance of Christ; the first called by the Ancients [...], the unridling [Page 10]of that great mystery, God manifested in the flesh: the second that is here mentioned by the Apostle, 2 Thes. 1.6, 7. When the Son of man shall come in the clouds, and every eye shal see him: or to use his own words in that most accurate and dreadfull expression; When the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, &c. Not to be injurious to your patience, in a businesse so obvi­ous; our Saviour, the best of preachers, hath laid down this truth in the parable of tares, and in plain terms, Matth. 25.31.

2 Thus have you heard the testimony of Nature; Naturae natu­rantis. Naturae natu­ratae. now lend an ear to nature her selfe. Nor is this word far from thee, that thou shouldest ask, Who will bring it unto me? only unrivet the secret Cabine of thy brest, and thou shalt find this doctrine legible; Whence else arise those secret twinges & girds of thy conscience, which like an under-officer, bind thee over to the great Assize? whence else that horror in thy dejected soule for sin committed? which anticipates thy finall doom, and exe­cutes thee before thou art condemned? whence else those renting spasmes, and tearing convulsions in his brest, whose sin is so secret that none can know it; whose person is so eminent that none can punish him? Every mans secret thoughts bode and fore-speak a judge­ment to come, when [...] conscience tels him that sinne went before. Culpam paena premit comes. Hor. Carm. lib. 4. Od. 4. Sin and judgement, as they are in them­selves, so they are in our apprehension too, twins; yet so prodigiously are they coupled, that when we have brought forth one, we have small hopes of being delive­red from the other.

The Heathens, who had but one eye, that of nature, and that film'd over with superstitious and carnall thoughts, Quaesitor Mi­nos Ʋrnam mo­vet. saw distinctly this truth; That there was a Judge below, the Poet knew; and that the Heathen ge­nerally did he like, wee have cleer evidence, in that [Page 11]the Apostle makes that the ground of his Argument to restrain the people from sin, Because Acts 17.31. [...] diphil. comicus. Vide hic de re Euseb de Pre­par. Evangelic. l. 11^o. c. 35.36. Idem l. 12. c. 6. & 52. cap. in fine. God had appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in Righteousnesse; which had not nature suggested the truth of it, might have been as easily rejected, as urged. Balthasars sinews refuse to bear the luggage of his carcasse, when the wall turned Preacher, and reproved his vanity; Felix himselfe, when Paul discours'd of Judgement, though in the pre­sence of his sweetest Drusilla, could not secure his limbs from the shiverings of an Ague; It was much that a pri­soner should so soon tremble his Judge, and that hee should quake at the mention of Judgment from his mouth, on whose head he was ready to passe present sentence. Look back to Adam the First Man, the Second Sinner, who had no sooner sinn'd, but trembles, and flies from the presence of that God, with whom but now he talk'd face to face; Look on Cain, who when he began to bee a Fratricide, left off (in this point) to be an Heretick: and by the basenesse of his manners, rectified his Judge­ment; Glassius Philo. sacra. pag. 60. Gen. 4.8. if that be true which is cited out of the Jerusalem Targum, which runs thus; Caine and Abel went out into the field to talk, and Cain said, There is no Judge, nor Judgement, nor life to come; no reward for the good, nor punishment for the wicked; for (if there were) why, I pray thee, should thy offering be accepted, mine rejected? But Abel answered, There is a Judge, and judgement, and life to come, a reward for the good and punishment for the wicked; because my works were done in integrity, they were accepted; thine in hypocrisie, and therefore rejected: And whilst they were thus wran­gling about the point, Caine smote his brother Abel, and kill'd him: Flagitium & flagellum, sicut acus & filues. But no sooner had he made a passage for his Brothers Soul, but he made a Scourge for His owne; he is now forced to recant his error, and with anguish and sorrow pine under that Judgement, which even now hee denyed; whilst the earth greedily drinks in his brothers blood, he sees Hell wide open, gaping for his owne; [Page 12]whilst his Butcherly hands are hiding his brothers car­casse, his distracted looks manifest his own guilt.

Thus you see, that God hath implanted in the hearts of all men, Haret lateri lathalis arundo. an expectation of a future Judgement, which, thought oft-times by ryot and excess they desire to obli­terate, yet it sticks deeper imprest in the soule, then let­ters ingraven in pillars of Marble. A sinner may (I deny not) in his jovialitie, Prov. 14.13. seem to smother all thoughts of future account; yet in the midst of laughter his heart is heavy; and whilst his face smiles, his heart bleeds; for do but track the guilty person to his chamber, where while he ruminates upon his acted villany; see how hee starts and and shunts at the wagging of every feather. Each friend that visits him is suspected for a Sergeant: and hee fears to be betrayed by his own members: his rowling eye, his shaking hand, and bloodlesse cheek, whispers his guilt; and if others were as suspicious, as hee is conscious of his sin, his stammering, broken, distra­cted language would soon discover him.

See him in his bed: The silent night, which befriends o­thers with rest and sleep, affects him with nothing but horror and amazement: the gloomy darknesse, that in­vites others to a sweet slumber, presents him onely with the blacknesse and foulnesse of his fault. How oft hee shifts his weary sides without rest, or ease! and if he be be­friended with a small parcell of sleep (good God!) what tongue can express the strange imaginations of his mind, the horror and astonishment into which a dreame casts him! 'Tis futuri judi­cii pra judicium Tert. This is the distressed estate of a sinner; what said I? is this his estate? alas! this doth but point at it: Sinfull man while he makes God his enemy is afraid of e­very thing; Sadeel. in 32. Psal. their hearts are like the troubled sea, now at present they seem to enjoy a pleasant calme, not a wrinkle of sorrow sits upon their brow, and they goe on in their sinfull pleasures with full sailes; yet by and by, the wind begins to blow, a storm ariseth, the waters rage, themselves are overwhelmed in the gulph of de­spair; [Page 13] they reel to and fro, and staggar like a drunken man, and are even at their wits end▪ It was so with Cali­gula, Qui Deos tan­topere contem­neres, ad mini­ma tonitrua co­nivere, & caput advolvere, ad majora proripe­re se electo, sub lectum (que) conde­re solebat! Sueton. Calig. §. 51. who though in the height of his pride he durst con­test with God, yet durst he by no means behold the lightning; but must stand beholding to the courtesie of a cave or an oven to secure him from the messengers of Heaven, who but now durst defie God himselfe: he that thought to speak as loud as the Almighty, is struck dumb, trem­bling and quaking at a clap of thunder. What are all these distractions of thoughts, and tortures of our spirits, but infallible symptomes of an innate principle carrying over our assent to this conclusion, That there is a judgement to come.

That there shall be such a day of account, 'tis, I hope, made cleer; that there should be such a day, let a few words shew you the equity: That Gods justice may be without blemish, in punishing the wicked who frolick it here, and rewarding the godly, who drink deep of di­stresse; If the righteous had onely hope in this life, 1 Cor. 15.19. they were of all men the most miserable: As it is with the Church, so it is with her members; she is a Lilly, but yet among the thorns; these are Jewels, but trampled under foot. If you look for a Saint, small hopes of finding him couch'd in a bed of down: no; the Stockes, the Den, Psal. 105.18. Dan. 3.21. Dan. 6.16. the Oven, is a more likely place to find a Joseph, a Daniel, or a nest of stiff kneed Jews that will not bow to an Idoll; the man of this world you may find ('tis likely) with Da­vids Image, at ease upon his pillow; 1 Sam. 19.13 1 Sam. 24.1. Act. 7.59. but David himselfe in some cave at Engedi. If you look for a Stephen, you'l hardly see him through the showre of stones, which in a horrid and detestable charity, the Jews threw to make his tomb and to bury him before dead. Act. 12.4. Mat. 14.3. Look you for a Peter, a Baptist? examine the prison, the not unlikely place to find an honest downright preacher: Look you for a Paul? you may know him by the wales of his back, imprinted by the sturdy hand of some cruell Bedle. 2 Cor. 11.23, 24. Mat. 27.31, To conclude: Look you for a Jesus, a Saviour? no so [Page 14]likely place to find him as between two theeves, num­bred amongst the transgressors, groaning under the hea­vy pressures, and bloody agonies of the Cross. And if this be all the reward that is in Gods service, Exod. 5.2. Job 21.15. Mat. 13.30. Mat. 25.32, 33 Luk. 16.25. Numb. 23.10. Heb. 4.9. Jer. 5.28, 29. Jer. 12.1, 3. men would be ready to ask with Pharaoh, Who is this Lord that I should serve him? and with those contemptuous ones in Job, What profit is there in serving the Almighty? On the o­ther side; should the tares overlook the wheat here, and hereafter be sheafed up into the barn; should the Goats enjoy their pleasure here, and hereafter feed with the Lamb; should Dives injoy his lusts here, and rest here­after in Abrahams bosom, men would readily invert Ba­laams wish, O that my life might he like the wickeds, and my latter end like his. But God hath prepared a rest for the Godly, and fitted the wicked for the day of slaugh­ter; Dives may be their witnesse, they cannot have their pleasure here, and hereafter both. That God suf­fers wicked men to ride on the backs of the righteous, and makes them groan under their burdens, is an act of that wisdome and providence which we must admire, but not dispute: But that he disposes his kingdome to the poor in spirit, when the wicked shall be shut out with dogs and swine; complies with, and salves that Justice of his, where at Good men rejoyce, and bad tremble.

But I leave this point to be applyed together with the next, and descend to the consideration of the words in their Relative sense: The Lord is ready to come to judg­ment:—therefore—O ye rich men, do not ye oppresse the poor; O ye poor men, do not ye repine and grumble at the rich: Whence this:

The consideration of Christs neer approach to judgement, Proposition. should awe the hearts of men; Demonstrated by testimony of 1. Heathen. and mould their conversati­ons into a dutifull obedience to all Gods Commandments.

For the evidencing of which truth,

1. If you consult with them who saw only by the dim eye of Nature, they are able to tell you; That no­thing hath a greater influence upon mens lives for their [Page 15]mendment, Nulla res ma­gis prodcrit, quam cogitatio, mortalitatis, Sen. de Ira l. 30. cap. 42. Julius Poll. & Harpoc. then the serious and frequent meditation of their death.

The Athenians had a law, that no man was to be que­stioned during the time of his office; which law they kept sacred and inviolable: but no sooner was his office expired, but there was (as it were) a Committee of A­counts, to whom they were to be exactly answerable for all their miscarriages in the precedent year. The Romanes had the like for their Consuls; and Darius, Polib. Histo. de cons. Rom. lib. 6. Dan. 6.2. a custome not much unlike for the Princes of his Provinces; an excel­lent meanes (doubtlesse) to keep them to their duty, when they knew they were to undergo so speedy and so exact a scrutiny.

If you look higher to those who had their eyes cleer­ed with Spirituall eye-salve, Fathers. Sic quotidic vi­vamus, quasi die illa judicandi simus. Hierom in 24 Matth. they look upon this as the most effectuall means to bridle their unruly passions; It was this which St. Jerome found of good use, for the crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts in him­selfe, and therefore prescribes it as a speciall remedy to others, that whether they eat or drink, Sive editis, &c. Surgite mortui & ve­nite ad judici­num. Id. ib. or whatsoever they did, they should still conceive that they heard the last Trumpet blowing, and the Arch-Angel crying, A­rise, ye dead, and come to Judgement.

Chrysostome expounding that Text, Rom. 13.11. [Now is the high time to awake out of sleep, &c.] (.i.) saith he, Paraeus in loc. The Resurrection is at hand, and the last Judgement is at hand, the day approaches; therefore let's awake out of sleep, and cast off the works of darknesse: How ge­nuinely the text is interpreted, let others censure; sure I am, that his sense is very apposite to our present purpose; that the sense of that day should quicken us to our duties.

And [...]. Hom. in Psal. 7. Basil the Great thus: in many places of the Scrip­ture there is mention made of the last and great Judge­ment, which is a consideration most necessary and most effectuall for the preservation of Piety in the hearts and lives of those that beleeve the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Apostles have not a more effectuall argument to keep men to the imbracement of the faith, 3 Apostles. and practice of holinesse, then by minding them of Christ's coming to judgement; 1 Thes. 5.1.6. Let us watch, and bee sober, for the day of the Lord cometh as a thiefe in the night: 2 Pet. 3.10, 11. The day of the Lord will come as a thiefe in the night, in which the Elements shall melt with fervent heat, &c. therefore what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse. Seeing, beloved, ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, 1 Pet. 4.7. without spot and blamelesse. The end of all things is at hand, Phil. 4.5. be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. Let your moderation be known unto all men, the Lord is at hand; and as if there were nothing by which he could more effectually obtest them, the Apostle beseeches them by the coming of Christ, 2 Thes. 2.1. and by their gathering together to him. And when he is closing up his first Epistle to the Corinthians, Chap. 16.22. as if he were most firmly to clench in that great duty of our love to Christ, which he had been long hammering at, he concludes,—If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, accur­sed; How accursed! Why Maran-atha, The Lord cometh, and though we cannot now expresse how heavi­ly he shall be accursed, yet he shall then feel it; It was the heaviest kind of all their cursings and execrations, Pessimum A­nathematis ge­nus. Vid.— Bez. Piscat. 4. Christ himselfe. when the sinner was left off, and given up as an incor­rigible person to the coming of Christ.

Nay, Our blessed Lord and Saviour hath at once san­ctified and strengthened this argument by his own u­sing it; when he forbids us to beat our fellow-servants, and not to eat, Matth. 24.49. and drink with the drunken, lest the Lord of the House come in an hour that we think not of and give us our portion with hypocrites, in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. Five things considerable about the last judgement. All which will yet appear more clear, if we consider these five things, which set out the na­ture of this judgement so, as may render it more vigo­rously quickning men to the performance of their duties, [Page 17]and more effectually restraining them from the violati­on of Gods sacred Lawes.

1 The Impartiality of it, as to persons; Rom. 14.10. it will teach all persons; wee must all stand, saith the Apostle, be­fore the Judgement Seat of Christ; the reverend age, the blooming youth, the eloquent Oratour, the blunt Pea­sant, rich Dives, poor Lazarus; the new fresh, varnish'd Lady, as well as she that sits grinding at the Mill. Heb. 9.27. As 'tis appointed for all men once to die, so for all that die to come to judgement; no prerogative can procure exemp­tion from his jurisdiction, who is to be Judge of quick and dead; and that is good Logick with Saint Peter, Acts 10.24.Because that without respect of persons, he judgeth every man according to his works, therefore we should passe the time of our our sojourning here in fear.

2 The Exactnesse of it, as to all manner of offences: Matth. 5.25. 1 Of Omission; where Christ gives us a pattern of the last judgement; the Sentence is past onely for negatives, for omitting the duties they should have done. Thou hast not cloathed, not visited, not fed, therefore Go ye cursed; If he who gives not cloathes to the naked, nor food to the hungry, nor lodging to them that want, be punish'd with such whips, what scorpions shall be pro­vided for them who strip the poor of their clothes, turn them out of their own houses, pull the bread out of their throats! if not to visit and comfort those that are imprisoned for Christs cause, be a sin; what is it to cast the innocent into prison? to feed them with the bread and water of affliction? 2. Of Commission; 1 King. 22.27. Whether they be open and notorious, or private and secret; for God shall bring every mans work to judgement, Eccles. 12.14. 1 Tim. 5.24. with e­very secret thing.—Some mens sins are open before-hand, going before to judgement: and some men they follow af­ter. Open profanenesse runs to the Bar of Justice before­hand, and waits for the sinner. Sly Hypocrisie and dis­sembled sins, these follow after. The murders, thefts, rapes, burglaries of the prisoner at the bar, they go be­fore [Page 18]to judgment; the passion, injustice, bribery of a Judg, the partiality of a Juror, the perjury of a witnesse, these follow after unto judgement. We must be brought to an account, not only for the outward acts and grosser com­mitments of sin, but for the first risings of the heart, & it's secreter tendencies, & inclinations to sin; for that sin which is conceived in the heart, though never produced, nor acted by the hand. Matth. 5.22. I need not trouble you for this further, then that one Text, But I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother without cause, shall be in danger of judgement; and whosoever shall say unto his brother, Racha, shall be in danger of the Councell; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall bee in danger of hell fire: where we may see, that if we go no further then the Pharisees, we shall come to judgement for actuall murder and adultery; we must give an account of all our works; thus far the divinity of a Pharisee will lead us: But is this all? no; not onely he that kils his brother, but he who is angry with him rashly, unadvisedly, shall be liable to a future account, and brought to judgement in another world for it.

Not that all anger binds over to judgement, [...] ad textum pertinere ex eo comprobatū da­ri potest; quod iram, quae à Christo prohi­betur, pulchrè determinat, & limitat, ne omni, justâ e­tiam, irâ, ac zelo interdi­ctum sibi esse Christiani exi­stimant. Sol. Glas. Philo. sac. lib. 1. tract. 2. but this rash, unadvised anger. Over and above the usuall inter­pretation which the Pharisees put upon this text, our Saviour shews, there be three other things, (beside actu­all murder) whereby this cōmandment is violated, to each of which he affixes a severall punishment, proportionable to the nature and quality of the offence. The first way by which the sixth commandment is broken, even by him who doth not actually kill his brother, is by rash and unadvised anger: which is then rash and unadvised, when it hath no good cause nor ground to warrant it, and when it exceeds its bounds either in the degrees or continuance of it; And to this rash andunadvised anger, though it never went further then the brest which bred it, he assignes a sutable punishment; it makes a man guilty of judgement. 2 But he that sayes, Racha, (which is a second way whereby this commandment [Page 19]may be broken without actuall murder,) 1. Either from [...] vacuum, mente, optbus, ingenio. 2. Or from [...] conspuere making it an interjection of disdaining and abhorring. Linwood pro­vinciall Constit. and suffers the anger conceived in his heart to break forth at his mouth, though with some moderation; that shall give any con­tumelious language, in calling his brother a vaine and empty fellow, a fool, ideot, or beggar; or shall by any significant gestures or carriages expresse the disdaine rancour and indignation of his heart, shall be in danger of the councell.

But he that shall say, Thou fool (which is the third way that is, whose anger breaks out by some speciall and re­markeable kind of reproach; and vents his passion, not only in contumelious language, but in virulent and bitter raylings; shall be guilty of hell fire. You have seen the three severall sorts of sin, whereby the sixth Command­ment is broken, as well, as by the actuall shedding of the blood of man; now cast your eyes upon the three sorts of punishment which are here threatned to these three de­grees of sin, and you wil find then rise in degrees as the sins do in guilt.

The first, to wit, rash anger, shall bee in danger of judgement; where by judgement is meant that Court of Judgement which sate almost in every Town, Dr Reynolds praelect. in Apoc. Practicall ca­tech. and in matters criminall of inferiour nature, had power of life and death, who punish'd the offender with beheading. But he that saith Racha, shall be in danger of the Coun­cell, which meanes the great Councell, the Sanhedrim, consisting of seventy one persons, who had cognizance of the greater and more notorious crimes, and punisht the offender with stoning, a death more grievous then that of bebeading.— But he that saith, Thou fool, shall be in danger of Hell fire, ignis Gehennae; a Metaphor taken from the fire in the place called the valley of Gehinnom, which was a place neer Jerusalem, where the Idolatrous in an accursed imitation of the barbarous practice of some of their neighbour nations, were wont to sacrifice their children unto Moloch, which was (say some) by ma­king them passe through the fire, till they were dead: [Page 20]Others, That they were put into the belly of a brazen Image, shaped proportionally to the limbs of a man, in which, being heated extreamely hot, they were burnt and scortch'd to death; which way soever it was, the torment was most exquisite, and their lamentations most intolerable; wherewith least their parents, the sacrificers should be moved and affected, the Trumpets did continu­ally sound (and they made otherwise a piteous dinne) that the skreeks and groans of the tortured children might not be be heard; whence the place was called To­phet from a wordt hat signifies a Timbrell, or a Trum­pet; and the torments that these poor creatures suffered were chosen out as the fittest resemblance to set out the pains of hell by. The summe of all is: that as he who actually murders a man, is subject here to be punished by the laws of men; so shall he that sins against the law of God in any of these forementioned ways, be subject to the judgement of God, at that great day; he that is an­gry with his brother unadvisedly, shall be, without repen­tance, cast into hel: he that expresseth that rancour of his mind by some disdainfull gesture, or contemptuous speech, Regula peccatis quae poenas irro­get aquas. Hor. scr. l. 1. sat. 3. D^r Reynolds praelect in Apoc. p. 269. shall bee cast into hell, into greater torments; but he that shall ad any speciall kind of reproach, or bit­ter rayling, shall be cast into torments inexpressable, such as were the torments of those who were sacrificed unto Moloch. All our sins (you see) must come to judgment, thoughts and words, as well as actions; they shall bee all (the evil ones) rewarded with stripes, though the last with more.

But what? must we then give an account for our words also? Mat, 12.36. Yes, for every idle word we must give an account. But (by the way) by idle word, we are not to understand e­very jesting, pleasant speech; for al such is not idle, no more then all that is serious, is profitable. Nor are we to think every witty jeer, 1 King. 18.27 or biting sarcasm an idle word; Elijah jeered the priests of Baal, and Solomon the riotous young person; Eccles. 11.9. but those are idle words, which neither savour of [Page 21] wisdom or holinesse, be they spoken in jest and earnest. Verbum otic­sum est quod infructuosum est Greg. de Cur. pastor. par. 3. adm. 15. otiosum verbum est quod ratione justae necessita­tis, et intentione piae utilitatis ca­ret. [...], Basil. in Ps. 7. De peccatis cogitationum nemo poenam pu­titur. Ulpian in digest. Bishop of Car­lile's speech in Parliament. 1 Hen. 4. Trus­sell. Conatus, consi­lia, cogitationes justissimè casti­gat vindicta divina Polib. Non decet so­lùm manus in­nocentes, sed & oculos, animos­que puros habe­re. Thats an idle word (saith Tertullian) which tends neither to the instruction or edification of the hearer; And another, thats an idle word, which is needlesse and unprofitable; and if we must give so strict and solemn account for eve­ry idle word, how much more for every false and deceit­full word? for every scurrilous and rotten word? for every envious and malicious word? for every slandering and disgracefull word? for every hereticall and blasphe­mous word?

But is this all? shall our works and words alone bee weighed in the strict ballance of divine Justice? Shall the Proverb bear us out that Thought is free; the Lawyer lays it down as a ruled case. That no man is punisht for thinking; But the Lawyer saw only with his own specta­cles, and lookd not beyond his own consistory; in hu­manes judicatories ('tis true) we punish not thoughts; till backt with consent, some outward expression, or execu­tion: But in Gods judgment, 'tis otherwise; He who is the seacher of the hearts and tryer of the reines, may just­ly punish the inward motions and waiward Counsels of the same; As the Oracle answered Glaucus in another case, idem est tentare Deum & facere, in Gods account, it is all one to intend and act, a villany; Christ the best ex­positor of the Law himself made, mightily convinceth the Pharisees of mis-interpreting the Law, and proves, that not only the outward Act but the inward risings of the heart are sinfull; not he only who kills, but he that is angry with his Brother unadvisedly; breaketh the Com­mandments; not only he that lies with a woman, but he that lusts after her, is liable to judgement: The pure and holy Law of God requireth truth and holinesse in the inward parts, as well as a bare forbearance of the out­ward act; 'Tis not enough that our hand be cleer from bloud (unlesse our hearts be free from malice, and our tongues from reproach.

There may be a guilty eye, a guilty hand, us well as [Page 22]unlawfull imbraces: For Christ in that place blames not the Law as too narrow, Non legem cul­pat, sed interpre­tandi modum. as not reaching to forbid evill words or thoughts: but quarrells at the false in­terpretation of the Pharisees, who corruptly straitned, and so marrd the text.

The Commandments of God, as they are sincerely pure, Psa. 19. so are they also exceeding broad, reaching to the dividing between the marrow and the bones, betwixt the intentions and secret thoughts of the heart; The Law is compared to the Sun, from the lustre of whose rayes the most secret closets lie not hid, 'tis therefore call'd a spi­ritual Law, Lex Dei dicitur spiritualis, ratione 1 Originis.2 Impletionis.3 Finis.4 Obligationis. by the Apostle, and so 'tis in four respects; first in regard of its Originall, proceeding from a spirit. 2. In regard of the power of fulfilling of it; all the strength of Nature cannot fulfill it, it must be from the renewing of the spirit: 3. In regard of its end, which is to bring us to God the Father of spirits. 4. (Which belongs hi­ther) in regard of its obliging power, because it doth not only restrain the outward act of wickednesse, but the first motions of the heart, the first tendencies and inclinations of the thoughts to evil; God even in his Law set bounds to our thoughts, the transgression of that law implies guilt, and guilt doth but pave the way to judgement, which Christ the righteous judg will execute, as wel for hard thoughts, Jude ver. 14. as for ungodly deeds. Will you heare the conclusion of the whole matter. God shall bring every work, Eccles. 12. ult. to judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evill. What the design of some men is, Catech. Racov. in charging the morall Law with imperfections and vacuities, which were fill'd up (as they pretend) by these Additions of our Saviour, is sufficiently evident; and that the consequences of this position (with them) are no lesse then the utter evacuating and nulling the meritori­ous passion of our blessed Lord. For others who so­lemnly professe to abhorr such impious conclusions, and aim at nothing, in the use of such language, but the bringing men up to a higher degree of holinesse and perfe­ction [Page 23]then the Pharisees prest upon the Jews. I wish they would consider, whether the same end might not be as well attained, by charging the Pharisees with mis­interpretation of the Law, as by charging the Law it self with imperfections, and vacuities? And if so, whether were not more sutable to Christian charity (to say no more) to forbear those expressions, Master Jean's Treatise, of the appearance of evill, in ex­pressions. p. 28. which smell so strongly of the Polonian-infected aire, rather then to grieve, and give just occasion of offence to such who are, as conscienciously solicitous to preserve the truth, so exemplarily zealous, Antequam nas­ceretur Arius, innocenter quae­dam, & minus cautè loquuti sunt Patres: & quae non possunt perversorum hominum ca­lumniam decli­nare. Hierom. Apol. 2. cont. Ruff. Ante errorum & [...]eres [...]n originem, non­dum satis illu­stratâ & pate­factâ rei veri­tate, quaedam scriptis suis as­perserint Pa­tres, quae cum orthodoxae fidei regulâ minimè consemiant. Dion Petav. in Epiphan. Daille. trea­tise of the right use of the Fa­thers. p. 80. to carry men up to the highest degrees of holinesse, in conscience and conversation?

An honest and grave Matron would blush to be found in the dresse and harnesse of an harlot; and those who would be accounted orthodox, should not contend for such expressions as carry with them (but) an appearance of evill: for though they may be used by us perhaps in a good sense, (and so used by the An­cients) yet being abused by wicked men to broach their heresies under, they carry a shrewd shew of evill, and render others jealous and suspicious of our soundnesse; In points not controverted the Fathers speak oftentimes more uncircumspectly then they would in a businesse that is under dispute; and I am apt to believe, that if those Fathers, who are pretended to have maintained this doctrine of the vacuities of Mo­ses Law, and the additions thereunto by Christ, (how farre, and how fully they do it, let others judge, but) if they had but fore-seen those sad and dismall conclusi­ons, which some desperate wretches have deduced thence, in derogation to the satisfaction made by Christ, they themselves would have done execution upon those papers, which are pretended to have conveyed it to the Christian World: But I have been too long in this point.

3. The un-appealablenesse from this judgement: he is the supreme Judge; to him all appeals are made, but [Page 24]none from him; Acts 25.10. Paul made his appeale from Festus Court to Caesars Throne; 'tis the priviledge of this Nation, that we have a Chancery to appeal to, by such who are cast by the Rigour of the Common-Law. The Countesse of Arundel made her bold appeal against King Richard the third, Life of Ri­chard the 3^d. to the Tribunal of him that was a­bove. The woman in the story who appealed from King Philip sleeping, to King Philip waking, had some ground for what she did; but we have none such for our appeal. Non temere è triclinio absces­sit, nisi disten­tus & madens, interdiu in jure­dicendo non­nunquam ob­dormisceret, vix (que) ab advoca­tis de industriā vocem augenti­bus exitaretur. Sueton. in vi­ta Claud. 33. 'Tis not with him as it was wont to be with Claudius the Emperour, who never used to rise from dinner but with a full panch, and well whitled, and was wont to sleep so soundly on the Bench, that the Lawyers who pleaded before him, though they purposely strained their voices, and bawled, could hardly awake him; a posture very much mis-becoming a Judge; But the Judge of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; he is unli­mited in power, and untainted in point of Judicature; he admits of no superiour, 'tis at his Judgement Seat that that we must stand or fall.

4 The un-repealablenesse of this judgment, it can never be revers'd; It is appointed for all men once to die, and after death to judgment; Qualem te in­venit Deus cum vocat, talem­pariter & ju­dicat. Cypr. de mort. after death, comes judgment; and after judgment nothing but the continuation of happinesse or misery; as death leaves us, judgement finds us; and as judgement leaves us, we must remain for ever. This present age is the [...]. Greg. Nazian­zen. Oratio. 15 season of mercy, that to come is the time of justice; when the Sentence is past, and the door is shut, thou mayest cry and call, and plead thine anci­ent acquaintance, but thou shalt hear nothing but that comfortlesse language, I know you not, Go ye cursed; God's Sentence is firmer then the decrees of the Medes and Persians, which can never be revers'd.

5. And beyond all this which ye have heard, The nearnesse of this judgement, 'tis at hand; Behold! the Judge standeth at the door; 'tis a desperate degree of boldnesse to be cutting of purses, while the Judge is on the bench. [Page 25]this is to sin in defyance of Justice; next to him who sins as Ahaz did, when hee was under judgement, those who sin while judgement is at their heels, are most de­sperately guilty; 'tis a strange boldnesse in a Scholer to set himselfe to play when his Master is taking out the rod; and for a sinner to go on in his evill ways, when God hath bent his bow, and fitted his arrows upon the string, and prepared the instruments of death, is either blockish stu­pidity, or daring presumption.

Oh, but say the scoffers in Peter, 2 Epist. 3.4. where is the promise of his coming? This hath been long talk'd of, but 'tis not yet come, nor is there any likelihood of it, for all things remaine as they were: but what sayes the Apostle to this Objection? God is not slack as men count slacknesse; a thousand yeers is with him but as one day; though it be much to us, yet 'tis nothing to his eternity, 'tis but a day; Behold hee'l come quickly, hee'l come suddenly, as a whirlewind, as lightning, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in an hour we little dream of. What if he should rend the heavens and come downe, draw the curtaines, and do execution, when thou art in the heat of thy lust, as in Zimri and Cosbies case? what if that day overtake thee when thy heart is overcharged with surfetting and drunkennesse? the light shines from heaven, but thou hast not an eye to see it; the Trumpet sounds, but thou hast no ears to hear it; the Angel cryes, Awake ye that sleep and stand upright, but thou hast not a foot to stand on; Christ cals for an account, but thou hast not a tongue to answer. O then [...] since there is such a Judge, at the very door, 2 Pet. 3.11.14. who is ready to passe such an irreversible and unchangeable sentence upon all persons, for all sinnes, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse? How diligent should wee be to be found of him in peace, with­out spot and blamelesse!

This speaks terror to all ungodly persons, whom, Ʋse 1 no not the neer approach of such a Judg can take off from their [Page 26]beloved sins; to whom let me speak in the language of Solomon, Eccles. 11.9. and resume his sacred Irony; Rejoice O young man in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the dayes of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: [...], &c. Greg. Nazian. oratio. 53. But know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee to judgement. Let the cove­tous wretch hugg himselfe in the company of his good Angels, let him say to his gold, Thou art my hope, and to his fine gold, Thou art my confidence: Let the Am­bitious cheer up himselfe with those Honors, which cost him the price of a conscience; and the Lascivious court his Paramour in beds of roses; yet let them know, that for all this God will bring them to Judgment. Let the Mur­derer multiply his slaughters as the sand, and swill his soul with the blood of the slain: Let the Thief imbrace the op­portunity of the night, and glut himself with the sweetness of the waters he hath stollen: Let the Amorous idolize a piece of Damask'd flesh, and bow down to a lump of gil­ded clay; but withall let them know, that the Judg is at the door, and for all this &c. Let the Swearer belch out as ma­ny oathes as words: Let the Profane contemn the Sabbaths of the Lord: Let the Judges hand be so fill'd with bribes, that he cannot handle the cause of the poor: Let the Councell sell the cause for a double fee, and the Witness his conscience for a morsell of bread; yet let them know, that the Judge is at the door, and for all these things, &c. Let the Tradesman help away his brayded wares, by the smoothnesse of his tongue, and the darknesse of his shop: let him inrich himselfe by his unequall scales, and wrap up his conscience in each penny worth of ware: In a word, Let every man enjoy his dearest wish, and hugg his darling sin; but withall let them know, that the Judg stands before the door, and that for all these things he will bring them to judgement: for all this; as well for thy secret and most retired sin, as for that which was done in the sight of the Sun; what skils it how secretly thou contrivest this mans death; with what privacy [Page 27]thou defilest another mans wife? thy midnight imbraces shall be as manifest as the day, and thy curtaine dis­courses proclaimed upon the house top: Those thoughts, those loathsome thoughts, adulterous thoughts, mali­cious, envious, murderous, blasphemous, black thoughts, which thou durst not impart to thy friend in thy bo­some, shall be writ in characters legible by every eye; and thy heart, that polluted, hypocritical, deceitful heart, made transparent as the Christall, shal give way to the scrutiny of each prying beholder, who shall greedily gaze upon that seminary of villany, which thou wouldst have trembled here to have been thought guilty of; when the secrets of thy heart shall be laid open, and the inside of thy gastly soul discovered, and that loathsomenesse laid na­ked, which was varnish'd over with guilded hypocrisie. Conceive thy self conveyed into the most secret chambers of the earth, and there invellopt in the most gloomy darknesse, it were in vaine to think thy sins would lie hid, unlesse thou couldest flee from thy selfe, or escape his view, to whom the darknesse is as cleer as the day; There is no darknesse, nor the shadow of death, Job. 34.22. Credis hoc pos­se effici, inter videntes omnia ut lateas Deos? where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves from him; In thy se­cretest sin thou hast a Divell to accuse, a conscience to bear witnesse, and a God to condemn. Admit thy sin to be as secret as the night, yet canst thou think to cheat him that seeth the first risings of the heart? or that a trick of leger-demain can juggle him out of sight, whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter then the Sun? No, he shal surely see, and as certainly condemn; for who shall dare to speak for thee when thy Mediator must be thy Judge; and shall smilingly condemn, whom (hadst not thou rejected him) he would willingly have interceded for? Who shall dare to speak for thee, when thou hast contemn'd thine Advocate, and counted his blood an unholy thing? who shall umpire thy cause before that Judge, who himselfe hath suffered in all thy misdoings? when thou murderest thy brother, thou woundest thy [Page 28]Judge; when thou tumblest out oathes, thou tearest (as it were) thy Judge lim-meale; when thou grindest the poor, thou oppressest thy Judge; when thou takest his rayment, thou starvest thy Judge; when thou de­tainest his wages, thou defraudest thy Judge; when thou with-holdest thy grain, thou famishest thy Judg; for in as much as thou dost it to one of those little ones, in whom his soul delighteth, Mat. 25. thou dost it to thy Judge. Now if one man sin against another (saith Ely) the Judge shall judge him; 1 Sam. 2. but if a man sin against God, against his Judge, who shall plead for him? when thy poor naked soul shall be dragged forth in the midst of so many Angels, men, and divels, to give up a strict account before this just and impartiall Judge; what strains of Rhetorick shall be able to move; [...], &c. Greg. Nazian. orat. 15. or what Mines of gold shall be sufficient to bribe thy Judge? what prevalent Courtier shall be solicitous in thy cause? what adulterous Mistris shall dare to begge thee? the sweetnesse of thy person shall move no pity; the great­nesse of thy place shall draw no reverence; the eloquence of thy tongue shall captivate no heart; the noblenesse of thy birth, the excellency of thy parts, shall not draw a sigh, a tear, a groan from any that behold thy ruine; though thou wert clothed with the treasures of the east, and thy garments bespangled with the pearles of heaven, yet no eye shall pitty, nor at thy destruction say, Ah! my brother, Non, Torqua­te, genus, non te facundia, non te restituet pie­tas. Horat. ah! my Lord, or ah! his glory. Sinn'd thou hast; condemn'd thou art, down thou must; none, none, none will, none can, none dare speak for thee.

2. In particular, the text lays down wo at some par­ticular mens doors; for to grudg here (saith Hensius) is to be quarrelsome and litigious, [...] is the same with [...] clamorem edere & con­tentionem. and denotes such a con­tentious spirit, as wil be ever drawing others into courts, ever comencing fresh and vexatious suits; and these are either 1. Rich men, who if they cannot have their wills of their poor neighbours, molest them with groundless and vexatious suits; Do not rich men draw you before the judg­ment [Page 29]seat (saith our Apostle? 2 cap.) not that they have cause of just complaint, but upon triviall, pretended occasion, commence suit after suit, til either they have ruin'd them, by corrupting judgment, and obtaining unrighteous de­crees; or by forcing them to yeeld to their unjust desires, for the purchase of their peace; such as Ahab, who cove­ted Naboths Vineyard, and because he might not have it upon his own termes, accused, arraigned, 1 King. 21.14. condem­ned Naboth as a Traytor, that he might gain the posses­sion. Such as these in this chapter, who imploy poore men in their service, and make them go to Law for their wages, and undo them ere they can recover their own; if there be any such here, weep and howle, for the miseries which shal come upon you; the cryes of the oppressed people are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. The pale cheeks, the thin fides, the naked backs, the hun­gry bellies of the wives and children, whose soul fain­teth in them, for want of what you wrongfully with­hold, cryes to heaven, (as once the stones did out of the wall) for vengeance against you; and this Judg, 2 Hab. 11.12. who is at the door, is the severe avenger of all such injustice and oppression; you have made them mourne and weep for want of bread: and you shall weep and howle for a drop of water, and not obtain it.

2. Poor men; There is a sort of poor people (pover­ty is usually querulous) who will ever be at law; a vexati­ous sort of men, who are enemies to peace, whose meat and drink 'tis to be in law; they'l fare hard, work hard, go bare, pinch themselves and their families, and all to provide fees against the next Term, or against the next Assizes; who verifie that part of the proverb, which sayes, the Jews spend at Easter, the Moors at marriages, and the Christians in suites; these Salamanders, who delight to live in the fire of contention, when as in an hundred ells of contention, there is not an inch of love; whom every pety triviall businesse drawes into suites, against the ad­vice of the wise, who tell us, We must not go to the Physi­cian [Page 30]for every griefe, nor to the pot for every thirst, nor to the Lawyer for every quarrel: O ye perverse people, when will ye be wise! ye besotted wretches, when will ye understand! Gal. 15.5. Know ye not yet that while ye devour one another, ye are devoured one of another! Know you not that you raise others by your own ruine; for Lawyers houses are built on the heads of fools: As these men should be look'd upon, and discountenanced by the Judges here, as the Bote-feux and firebrand of a Common­wealth, so shall they be sure to have their share of judg­ment, Satia te san­guine quem si­tisti. Justin. when he is come, who now stands at the door. As it was said to Cyrus, when his head was cast into a vessel of bloud, Thou delightedst in bloud, take thy fill of bloud; so shall it be done to those who delight to be before the judgement-seat, they have their fill on't, when Christ comes to judgement.

Once more, it reaches such whose spirits are more imbitterr'd against their Christian Brethren, because they come not quite up to their opinion in every cir­cumstantiall thing, then they are against the common enemies of Religion; so some conceive the ground of their groaning and grumbling here, was some small dif­ference between Christians themselves in the matter of Circumcision, which was carried up by the heat of their passion, to a higher pitch of enmity, then they bare a­gainst the Heathens, or the Jews; A fault it were to be wish'd, were not so rise in our age; wherein some pety differences in matters of opinion, and that in points not fundamentall too, have been fanned up by the po­licy of Satan for the serving of civill interest, so farre, that those who have been as dear to each other as bre­thren, do prosecute one another with the deadliest ha­tred, and by their impudent and unchristian dealing one against another, make way for the common enemy to dance in the ashes of them all; Pendant que les chiens sen­tregrondent, le loup devour la brebis. Pro­verb. The French-men say, while the dogs art snarling and grumbling one at ano­ther, the wolfe devours the sheep: I am sure the applica­tion of the proverb is too true, that the divisions of [Page 31]those who are of the same Religion, especially of those who undertake to be guides to others, is the Divels harvest.

It is said of the Civil wars of France, Herbert's Ja­cula Pruden­tum. that they made thirty thousand witches, and a Million of Atheists: and of the civill wars of England, that they and the division of the Princes of the West, which followed thereupon, Habington hist. of Edw 4. pag. 228. brought the greatest damage to the Christians, and gave the greatest advantage to the Infidels: and 'tis more sadly true in the businesse before us, Principum Christianorum inanis discordi­a, intestinis o­diis aucta sum­mum in modum latissimam e­vertendae reli­gionis januam laxat Barbaro. Supplement. Annal. Baron. ad annum. 1635. that the pri­vate animosities and heart burnings (between those that agree in the same fundamentall truths of Religion) con­cerning the Fringe and Trimming of that garment, and things of lower concernment, have reduced many pre­cious souls to downright Atheism, and given more ad­vantage to that man of sin, to inlarge his territories, then ever he could get here since the time of Reformation. I would not speake this in Gath, nor publish it in Asca­lon, but that the daughters of the uncircumcised re­joyce, and the daughters of the Philistims triumph at it already.

O that the grave and sober Counsel of old Father A­braham to his Nephew Lot, Gen. 13.8. Gen. 45.24. were written on all our hearts, Let there be no difference between us (for such triviall matters) for we are brethren; and since we are all travelling to the same Canaan; let Joseph's cantion to his brethren be for our instruction, See that ye fall not out by the way: I remember what was said by that learned and excellent Oratour of our Nation, D^• Hall. Quid nobis cum infami illo Remonstranti­um, & contra-Remonstr. ti­tulo Christiani sumus, simus, & [...]. who prea­ched the Sermon at the first sitting of the Councel of Dort: What have we to do (saith he) with those pro­digious and odious nick-names of Remonstrant and Anti­remonstrant? &c. We be all Christians, all of one bo­dy; let's be all of one mind, and one way: So may I say of those names which are cast upon one another by way of scorn, and reproach amongst us; What have we to do with such odious titles, and reproachfull names, which serve onely to heighten our differences, [Page 32]and set our spirits at a more irreconcileable distance! Now, Per tremendum Dei nomen; per dulcissima ma­tris gremium; per sanctissima Christi Servato­ris viscera, &c. enite pacem, &c Vid. Concil. Dodr. (by the blessing of God) our Armes are laid down, let not our mouthes be spears and arrows, and our tongues sharp swords: let me beseech you, as he did there his Auditours, by the dreadfull name of God the Father; by the teeming womb, and fruitfull breasts of the Church our Mother; by the tender bowels of Jesus Christ our elder Brother; by the sweet and chearing influences of the Dove-like Spirit! that you will study peace, and quietnesse, and meeknesse, and gentlenesse, not provoking to wrath, but forbearing one another in love.

Here's the balme of Gilead for the fainting soule, Ʋse 2 and abundant consolation for him that is opprest; M^r. Manton, in loc. 'tis (doubtlesse) a great asswagement to a Christians's mi­sery, to think that Christ is ready to come to judgment. Lift up your heads, O ye dejected spirits, for the day of your redemption draweth nigh; though thou be as discon­so late as grief can make thee, either with sorrow, because thou art, or persecution, because thou wilt not be sinfull; yet have patience a while, and see the salvation of God; he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry; the Sun of Righteousnesse with healing in his wings to redeem thee from thine own misery, and thine enemies cruelty. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, he went up before them in a fire, and a cloud: And when Christ shall come to judgment, Exod. 13.21. 2 Thes. 1.8. Luke 21.27. Nubes refrige­rium indicat. Aquin. Isai. 32.2: Dies refrigerii. Acts 3.19. he shall come in a fire, & a cloud; in a fire to the bad, in a cloud to the good; in a fire to con­sume, but not to light; in a cloud to refresh, in a cloud to cover: A cloud imports refreshment, and is as the shadow of a rock in a weary land; the day of judge­ment, is called the day of refreshing; Christ is there­fore said to come in a cloud, because he comes to com­fort and refresh the drooping and the fainting soule; we are here in a wildernesse, the dust of opposition, contradiction, persecution, ever blowing in our eyes; but there's a Canaan we expect will make amends for all. We are here in a sea, whose surging waves, and [Page 33]swelling billows put us every moment in danger; but behold, (secundam post naufragium tabulam,) Here's one will preserve us from sinking, and will bring us to the Haven where we would be.

This is the proper year of Jubile, Fuller. Miscel. lib. 4. cap. 8. Levit. 25.9.10 Buxtorf. Lexi­con, in verb. the true day of re­joycing to a gracious spirit; whether we derive the word Jubile, as some do from ( [...], which signifies a Ram) because the Jubile was proclaimed with a trum­pet made of a Rams-horn; in this sense the day of judgement shall be a day of Jubile; For the trumpet shall blow, and the dead shall arise, 1 Cor. 15.42. and all shall be chan­ged: Or whether ye derive the word Jubile from [...], in other significations, Jubilaus An­nus est annus, 1. Restitutio­nis. Levit. 25.13.24.28. 2. Remissionis. yet the day of judgement is still a day of Jubile. The year of Jubile is sometimes ren­dred the year of Restitution; Had a man forfeited his estate, or morgaged his lands, yet he entered again upon his inheritance at the year of Jubile. 2 'Tis sometimes rendred the year of remission, or forgivenesse; if the man-slayer had fled to the cities of refuge, and there abode till the year of Jubile; he was to be acquitted. 3. 'Tis sometimes rendred the year of freedome; Emancipati­onis. Levit. 25.54. when those, whom nature or indigence had made slaves, had leave to go forth free: In all these senses, the day of judgement is a day of Jubile; then we shall be restored to the full and quiet enjoyment of that possession, which we lost in Adam, whereof the earthly Paradise was but a type; Jubilatio, is by the Greek gloss rendred [...], which is, fau­sta ac lata ac­clamatio, quae à victoribus, ad­versus victos excitatur. G eg. Nyss. orat. de sancto feste Pasch. in fine. then shall we receive a full discharge from all our sins; then they who have been here unwil­lingly held under the power of the world, and the Di­vel, shall utterly break those bonds, and cast away those cords from them, singing Haleluiah's to him that sits upon the Throne: Since then there is such a day at hand, when our forfeited estates shall be restored, our sins blotted out of the book of remembrance, and our inveterate enemies, who have holden us captives, tram­pled under foot, we may well rejoyce, seeing that then we shall keep a true day of Jubile.

[Page 34]2. In particular; this is improveable to enlarge both the patience and the comfort of two sorts of people: 1. Such as are over-matched with too too potent Adversa­ries, who are overcome by might, and purse, and friends, that they can get no justice in an honest cause; Possesse your soules with patience; the coming of the Lord draw­eth nigh: if we have our houses broken, our goods stollen, our dearest friends murdered, yet we expect with patience till the Assizes come, to have justice against our adversaries; so do you, grudge not, grumble not, vex not your souls with impatience: Behold, the Judge standeth at the door.

2 Of the Ministers of the Gospel; It was with this that Luther supports the drooping spirits of Melancthon, and others, Nolite timere, fortes estote, Dominus propè adest. Agant quicquid possunt Henri­ci, Episcopi, Turca, Diabo­lus, consputum & occisum Ser­vatorem coli­mus & expe­ctamus. under the greatest oppositions and discourage­ments; Fear not (saith he) be chearfull, the Lord is at hand. Let Kings, and Bishops, and Turks, and Divels, do their worst, we owne and worship that Christ who was spit upon and crucified, whom we expect from heaven to our encouragement and reward. And with this may the Ministers of the Gospel support their spi­rits against all the prejudices, and calumnies, and inju­ries, which the world casts upon them, Dominus propè adest, the Judge standeth before the door. Let the co­vetous earth-worm, the debauched sinner, the Atheisti­cal Politician, raise and foment what slanders their wits and malice can invent; yet here's your comfort, (Brethren) the Judge is at the door, the righteous Judg, who will clear up your innocence, and vindicate you from their aspersions, who laid to your charge things that ye knew not. Ephes. 4.11. The Ministery (which is Gods own Ordinance) never lay so low in the eyes of men, as at this day, yet 'tis as a candle in a Lanthorn (still) on the top of a hill, all the winds blowing against it, with this Motto, Frustrà: Papists, Atheist, Libertine, and Sectarie, would all extinguish it, but all their endea­vours will be in vaine. 2 Cor. 5.20. The Ministers, who are Christ's [Page 35]Embassadours, never lay under more reproach, and scorn, and contempt, then at this day; Micah 6.9. God give them grace to hear the rod, and who hath sent it; to see for what sins this befals them, and be humbled for them! And now we have casually made mention of the Ministers, give me leave for their sakes, Luke 10.34. to make a short-digression; what was commendable in the Samari­tan, may at least be pardonable in me, to step a little out of the way to pour wine and oile into their wounds, who lie gasping for their last breath.

You have probably heard in your Circuit (my Lords) complaints enough against Ministers, these are the common Buts now, against which most men shoot their poysoned arrows; and it may be, the bottome of most of those complaints, if well looked into, will be found on­ly this, that they look for a little of that which is their own, and desire rather to live upon their own propriety, then upon (which I woos is wondrous cold) the peo­ples charity. If they be forced to flie for succour to your justice, which should run a like to all, Deut. 16.19. let not their Cal­lings be their erime, nor they fare the worse for their functions sake. Homo bonus, sed ideo malus quia Christia­nus. It was once the impiety of some former ages, that a man in all other points without exception, was accused and condemned, onely because he was a Christian: Let it not be (by your fault) the reproach and scandall of this age, that a man, learned, religious, sober, orthodox, should fare the worse, because he is a Minister.

It is storied of that wretched, that Apostate King John, that when the Sheriffs officers had brought a thiefe bound, who had robbed and killed a Priest, and desired to know what should be done with him; he replied, Loose him, let him go, he hath killed our enemy: Indeed, Princes do most fear, and least love, Vid. Zanch. i [...] Hos. 1. ver. 1. Verbum Dei factum est. those whose gravity and judgement keep them most in awe: Let it not be the crime of any in authority amongst us, to account Mi­nisters their enemies, because they tell them the truth. The [Page 36] Magistracy and Ministry are alike God's Ordinan­ces, which like those twins, smile and weep together; when it goes well with one, 'tis not amisse with either; when bad with one, 'tis well with neither: these are like the two Pillars against which Samson leaned, Jud. 16.25, 26. Cartwright. in Prov. 29.4. they stand and fall together, Pietas & justitia, columnae rei­publicae: Piety and justice be those two pillars, which mutually support each other, and the Common-wealth: if piety be destroyed, in (the rule of) the ruine of the Mi­nistery; justice will not long remaine in the practice of the law.

The Ministers (such as are conscientious and peace­able, and for such onely I would be understood to plead) have generally no enemies, but such whose de­testable vices, have made even God himselfe their enemy. The covetous worldling, who measures the goodnesse of his Minister, not by the excellence of his parts, nor his painfulnesse in his calling, nor the unblamablenesse of his conversation, but by the cheapnesse of his tithes; the prophane wretch, who would enjoy his sin uncon­trolled; Matth. 13.25. and that envious person, who would be sowing the tares of errour and heresies, but is hindred by these watch-men: If the Ministers were but rooted up, these miscreants might enjoy their errors and their lusts at more quiet. Monsieur Da­ille, of the right use of the Fa­thers. lib. 2. cap. ult. But as one proposes the question in a case not much different; what wonder is it if a whore, or a Bawd cry down that discipline which condemnes those vices, to everlasting fire? What wonder is it, that he who drownes himselfe all the day, and at night vomits up his soul in wine, should hate that religion which for­biddeth drunkennesse under the paine of damnation? What greater wonder is it that he who is resolved to keep and cocker up his basest lusts, should hate that Mini­stery, which plows up his soul, and suffers them not to root nor grow at quiet? to take any notice of what such wretched things as these say, is all one, as if you should take the opinion of common strumpets, to judge [Page 37]of the equity or injustice of those lawes, which enjoyne people to live honest: this is the very case, and what­soever is the pretence, this is the true ground of the quar­rell. And as David said to the woman in another case, 2 Sam. 14.19, 20. Is not Joabs hand in all this? so may we demand, what hath set all these wheels and engines on work? Judges 14.5. who ti­ed these foxces together, with firebrands in their tailes? who twists these severall disagreeing conditions of men, into this united enmity against the Ministers of the Gospel? Is not the Vid. Preface to the Anno­tations of the Bible, by di­vers learned Divines, (of the Assembly) Edict. the 2^d. Jesuits hand in all this? who hope thus to ruine those whom they cannot confute: that when they have destroyed the watch-men, they may make a prey of the souls of the poor people at their pleasure? When Philip of Macedon had laid siege a­gainst Athens, he sends a Trumpeter to tell them, that if they would deliver up to him ten of their Oratours, whom he should chuse, he would instantly raise his siege, and depart. The Athenians, by the advise of Demo­sthenes, return him their answer in this Apologue; There had been a long quarrell between the wolves, and the Shepherds; at the last the wolves sent the Shepherds this message; That they, (the wolves) had no quarrel against the Shepherds, nor their flocks, but only against their dogs, who were ever barking at them, molestiug, and troubling them; if the Shepherds would but hang up their dogs, there would be an end of all differences, the Shepherds, and they should live together like neigh­bours and friends; the credulous Shepherds incline to the proposition, and dispatch their dogs; which was no sooner done, but the wolves fall upon the sheep, worry them, and tare out their throats without resistance, and without remedy. The evidence of the fable, and the sutablenesse of it to the case in hand, spare me the ap­plication.

The next and last shall be a word of caution, Ʋse 3 and that first generally, to all; Let the consideration of this approaching day, represse thy exorbitant thoughts, [Page 38]and crush those brats, which issue from thy corrupted nature: if a filial fear bridle them not, this slavish, must, and will bee a good needle to introduce the other. When thoughts of malice and murder spring up in thee, as in Gen. 4.8. Cain; of oppression, as in 1 King. 21. Ahab; of rebellion, as in Num. 16.2.3. Corah; of idolatry, as in the Exod. 32.2. Israelites; of hypocrisie, as in Acts 5.6. Ananias; when any speaking eye would insnare thy heart, any lascivious gesture kindle thy bloud, or when Gen. 39.7. Potiphars wife, putting off woman and mode­sty together, shall in plain terms, say, Come, lie with me; answer them all, as Joseph did that strumpet; Verse 9 How shall I doe this great wickednesse, and sin against God? How shall I provoke that Majesty, who is all eye, and must needs see? who is all hand, and must needs strike? who shall intercede for me at the day of judgement, or wipe away that staine which this sin will contract? this sin, though it be sweet in the mouth, will prove gall in the stomack; For the Lord cometh in flaming fire, Ribera in 2^d of Amos 3. Exoritur cla­morque virum, clangorque tu­barum. Virg. to render to every man according to his works; the Judge is at the very door, and comes ushered with the sound of the trumpet; & tuba signum belli; the trumpet strikes horrour and amazement into every ear: and who shall free me from his anger, who comes to take vengeance of my sin? who shall free me from that scorching fire, which hath heat to burn, but not light to discover a way to escape?

2. This may caution those particular ranks of men who are to be imployed in the publick administration of justice; which is the proper work of this day; and first, to begin with the stars of the greatest magnitude, that move in this Orbe.

My Lords, and Gentlemen! I shall not take upon me the confidence of chalking out your severall duties to you, whom I presume every way fitted for those imploy­ments, which your Commissions impower you to exe­cute; onely let me (to use the 2 Pet. 3.1. Apostles words) stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may [Page 39]be mindfull of the words spoken by the holy Prophets; and because I would not clog your Lordships memories, which have such variety and weight of affairs upon them, I shall mind you of only two texts; which I would have not written only on your Matth. 23.5. Phylacteries, (as the Phari­sees were wont to do) but in your memories, and that you would constantly repeat them every night when you lie down, and every morning when you rise; the first is, 2 Chronicl. 19.6, 7. And he said to the Judges, Take heed what ye do; for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgement; wherefore, now let the fear of the Lord be upon you, take heed, and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor taking of gifts. You are God's Judges, you must judge with sutable integrity: his you are, and he is with you in the judgement; God is in a more speciall manner with you on the Bench: Psal. 82.1. he sitteth and judgeth among the Gods: he is there to be a witnesse of what you do, and as a Judge to reward your righteous service, and to a­venge your mis-doings. When you go to the Bench, look well into your hearts, if there be any thing of fear, or favour, or spleen, or prejudice, or profit, that may turn you from the path of justice; take heed what you do, Deus videt; That God sees, who must be your Judge. And as he is there to awe you from false and corrupt judgment, so to encourage you in upright and just judgement; when you judge advisedly and justly, you may do it boldly and severely too. God is with you in the judgement, he will bear you out against the prou­dest offender; An act of indemnity is already drawn up in heaven for you; and when you your selves shal be brought before this Judge in the Text, your entertainment shall be, Euge, bone serve! Well done, Matth. 25.21. thou good and faithfull servant, thou hast been faithfull in a few things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. The next Scripture is that Micah 6.8. which though in generall terms, it reaches all, yet in a more peculiar manner belongs to you. He hath [Page 40]shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of thee; to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Some of the Rabbins say, that this ver. is the abridgment of the whole Law. If I mistake not, 'tis the sum of your Commissious, wherein are contained your du­ties to man, in the works of the second, and your duties to God in the works of the first Table: your dutie to man in two things: 1. Do justice. 2. Love mercy. 1. Do justice. Justice is the life bloud that quickens and a­ctuates the whole Body of the Commonwealth. There is a twofold Injustice, whereby this holy Command of God is broken: 1. Negative, not relieving the poor, not righting the widow, and the fatherlesse, when they justly complaine; Petit disner longuement at­tendu, n' pas donnee, mais cheremens ven­du. not to do them right, is to do them wrong; to delay justice, is a breach of Magna Charta, as well as to deny it. What the French-man sayes, of a little dinner for which we waite long, that 'tis not gi­ven, but dearly bought; that we may truely say of ju­stice. He that did justice at the last, because it was so long first, and then he did it meerly upon importunity, lies under the black character of an unjust Judge still. Luke 18.2. A good work impiously managed, merits no more then an evill one; not to do justice to the oppressed, or to do it only for your own sakes, credit, quiet, profit, are both sins which you must answer for to the Judge, who stands before the door. Micah 7.3. 2. Positive Injustice; where e­vill is done with both hands greedily; the Prince asketh, and the Judge asketh for a reward; and the great man utters his mischievous desires, and so they wrap it up; when through fear or favour of men, the poor is tur­ned from his right in the gate; when the Judges fa­vour is cast into one scale, and makes it sink too fast. If not to do justice be a sin, what a crime is it to do wrong? If not to relieve the distressed in their cause be injustice, what is it to grind their faces? if you prove not a shield to protect them, which is your duty, but a spear and sword to wound them; if you prove [Page 41]not a bush to shelter them from the storm, which is your duty; but briers and thornes to tear and spile them; how great is such injustice! Men account themselves lesse injuriously rifled in a wood, Dan. histor. in the life of King John. then in a place where they pre­sume of safety: and grieve not so much when they are cheated by a Shark, as when they are injured by a Judge. An unjust Judge is the greatest plague a Commonwealth is capable of; he turnes justice into gall, Amos 6.12. and righteousnesse into hemlock; he makes a man's physick, his poison; and what then can cure him? Master of the Hospitall of Jerusalem, to King John. But he that is an unjust Judg to others, is just against, and doth excution upon himself; he puts himselfe out of commission, and cancels that au­thority by which he sits: for as he said once to the King, So long as you will observe justice, you may be a King: Dan. bist. p. 168. but when you once violate it, you cease to be a King. So say I, so long as you do justice, you are a Judge; when you pervert judgement, you cease to be a Judge.

The second Branch of your duty to men, is, Love mercy: You must do justice, when necessity cals for it; but you must love mercy. Mercy is the choice attribute which God delights to exercise; when he comes to judgment, he comes slowly, but chearfully to shew mercy; when God is coming to pu­nish Israel, Isai. 7.20. 'tis said, that he will shave with a razor that is hired, as if it were a work which he came so unwilling­ly to, that he kept no tools by him to work withall, but was faine to hire them; God strikes but with his finger; Non debet dis­pensator crude­lis esse, ubi pa­ter-familias misericors est. but he saves with his arme. He gives his wrath by weight; but without weight his mercy: Be ye therefore mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull: you may possibly meet with some, whose youth, or ignorance, or hope­fulnesse of amendment, may render them the objects of your mercy, without prejudice to the Commonwealth; in such cases, be tender of drawing bloud; Chap. 2.13. 'tis a preci­ous thing: Let mercy rejoyce against judgement; and re­member that of our Apostle, that he shall have judgment without mercy, who will shew no mercy.

2. As to God-ward; Ribera in lo­cum. your duty is to walk humbly with your God; Solicitum esse ad ambulandum, to make it your [Page 42]businesse and your care to walk humbly with your God, in your own persons, in your families, in your places & offices.

1 In your own persons; Gen. 30.39. Vita Judicis est censura, ea­que perpetua, ad hanc converti­mur, ad hanc dirigimur; re­ctè facere, fa­ciendo docent. Plus exemplo, quam peccato nocent. Inferiours live more by the eye, then by the ear, and are guided by example, much rather then by command; they are like Jacob's sheep, which pro­duce fruit like to that they look upon, speckled and ring­straked; The people look upon the life of the Judge, as the best commentary upon the Law; they will hardly believe the meaning of the Law is to punish swearing, or Sabbath-breaking, or the like sins, whil'st they see the Judge practice that himselfe, which he forbids in others. Every good Judge, (and 'tis true too, of every good Mi­nister, Magistrate, Father, Master,) must be exemplary in goodnesse: Judges 7.17. and be able to say in reference to good things, as Gideon did in another case, As you see me do, so do ye. They should teach those who are under their power to do good, by doing it themselves first: let it not be in the reformation of manners, Drant. on Eccles. 11.1. as 'tis in the flaying of a beast, where the matter sticks most, when it comes to the head: let not that proverb be made good in you, that they who hold the best farmes, pay the least rent; that they who are the greatest men, should be the worst Christians; that they whom Gods speciall favours ingage to be more eminently good, should be below others in piety and holinesse.

2. Josh. 24.15. In your Families; It becomes you to say as Jo­suah did, Psal. 101.6, 7. I, and my house will serve the Lord: and as David did; He that worketh deceit, shall not dwell in my house: He that telleth lies, shall not tarry in my sight; But mine eyes shall be upon the faithfull of the Land, that he may dwell with me; he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. A riotous and disorderly servant causeth, if not his Masters piety, yet his prudence to be called in question.

And this your pious care should reach, not only to those meniall servants which attend your persons, but also to those Ministers, and Ʋnder-officers, whose service you use in the dispatch of publick businesse. As it hath been said, that they who work the greatest mischiefs, are of­tentimes the men that can best repair them: so it may not [Page 43]seldome be seen, that those who come to redresse the grie­vances of the Countrey, are the men that work them. I have heard some men complaine, that the fees and bribes, wher­with Mistris Expedition hath been courted, have amoun­ted to more, then the whole portion which the Lady Ju­stice hath brought along with her.

3. In your places and offices; improving all your power to the encouragement of vertue, the suppressing of vice, and the advancement of the interest of Jesus Christ, from whom you have received your power, and to whom you must give up an account of the discharge of your office. The rivers which receive their rise from the sea, they re­turn their waters back again into the lap of the Ocean: Your power and authority is derived to you from Christ; and should be imployed by you, and improved to all pos­sible advancement of the glory of Christ.

My Lords! We willingly pay your Lordships all that respect and reverence, which is due to your Persons, and places: we acknowledge you, and submit to you, as Gods; but withall, we beseech you remember too, that you are but men, and must die like other men; and after death, Psal. 82.6, 7. you must come to judgement as well as others; there is a Judge coming, even at the very door, whose Person, whose Power, whose Train, is greater then yours; where the Judge, and the poorest prisoner at the Bar, must stand upon even terms, and receive according to their work.

2. Next to you, the Gentlemen of the long robe, whose Persons and profession, I am obliged to honour; as one who in the blackest and darkest times of England's trouble, have found not only shelter and protection, but warmth and life, under the wings of your profession. The Law of England, is the happinesse of the People of England, against which, no man hath yet spurned, but to his own prejudice; The profession of the Law of England is ancient, and honourable, and necessary; against which, no man opens his mouth, but such who would have their own wils a law. Yet remem­ber, I beseech you, that there be them who have an aking tooth against your profession, as well as others; take heed [Page 44]lest by your neglect, delayes, betraying of your Clients, and mal-practice of the Law, you give none occasion to those, who are already apt to speak against the Law.

Epistol. l. 1. Epist. 3. Cyprian conceiving he could read Dives sin in his pu­nishment; because he suffered in his tongue, conjectured that he had mightily offended with his tongue; Luke 16.24. whence some others have been willing to perswade themselves, that Dives was a Lawyer, because men of that profession ma­ny times offend with their tongues; but they are not the onely men who offend with that member; Whosoever offends not in his tongue, James 3.2. he is a perfect man: yet it were to be wish'd, that they would be more carefull how they used it; not to put a fair glosse upon a foul cause, nor to varnish over an ill businesse with gilded rhetorick. Let there be no Tertullus amongst you, Acts 24.1. &c. to abuse good parts, and a voluble tongue, to plead against God, and the truth. God hath given you those parts, improved by the excellence of your education, to defend the oppressed, not to wrong them: to assert the truth, not to stifle, or destroy it. Take heed of being false to your Clients cause, lest it be said of the Councell of both sides, as it was of the Pope, and Henry the third, In the life of Henry the 3^d. that they were like the Shepherd and the wolfe, combined to macerate the flock.

Be not like the Crow, which at first seems to bewail the dying sheep, and then picks out his eyes: Doe not at first compassionate your Clients case, and then your selves devour him: let that of the Apostle be written upon all, your studies? 2 Cor. 13.8. nay, your hearts; I can doe nothing against the truth, Dan. histor. in the life of Edw. the first. but for the truth. Bruce of Scotland, refused the Crown of that Kingdome, because he could not en­joy it, without infringing the Liberties of his Countrey: take you heed of receiving that fee which you cannot keep, but by doing prejudice to your conscience. As 'tis easie for Princes who will break their faith, to find evasions to fly from the strictest treaties: so 'tis not hard for a subtile Advocate to find plausible pretences to elude ju­stice: But what though thou couldest baffle a puny-Lawyer, or impose upon a Judge, or Jury, to obtaine an [Page 45]unrighteous decree; if by this means thou withhold the poor from his desire, Job 31.16.21. and causest the eyes of the widow to faile; what wilt thou do when God arises? Bolton, In­structions for comforting an afflicted con­science. pag. 18 and when he comes to visit, what wilt thou answer him? Cast but your eyes upon the sad acknowledgement of Francis Spira, who became a spectacle of such woe and misery to the whole world, that there is not any thing left unto the memory of man more remarkable. I was (sayes he) exces­sively covetous of money, and accordingly I applied my selfe to get it, by injustice, corrupting judgement by de­ceit, inventing tricks to delude justice: Good causes I either defended deceitfully, or sold them to the adversary perfidiously. Ill causes I maintained with all my might; I willingly opposed the known truth; and the trust com­mitted to me, I either betrayed, or perverted; But what was the issue of this practice, when God let conscience loose upon him? Hear some rufull expressions of his des­perate state, out of his own mouth▪ Oh! (saith he) that I were gone hence, that some body would let out this weary soul! I tell you, never was there such a monster as I am, never was man alive spectacle of such ex­ceeding misery. I now feel Gods heavy wrath, that burns like the torments of hell within me, and afflicts my soul with pangs unutterable: the gnawing worme of un­quenchable fire, horrour, confusion, and which is worst, desperation it selfe, continually tortures me. My state is worse then that of Cain, and Judas, and the very damned in hell endure not such misery as I do. It would even break an heart of flint to hear him go on, and to see him tugging with the very pangs of despair. But I forbear; only I beseech you, among all your cases, forget not Spira's Case.

3. To the Jury: Oh, that the Bayliff who attends them, could shut out relations, as well as persons; and keep them as well from partiality, and passions, as from fire and candle! 'Twas not sure without a mysterie, that the makers of our Law, forbad the Jury, fire and candle. There must be no fire amongst them; no heat, no passion, no [Page 46] love, no malice, but all must be done cooly and sedatly, without reflection upon any parties.

There must be no Candle; they must have no light but that of the Sun; they must be guided only by clear and manifest evidence, and not destroy mens persons or their estates, upon uncertain, unclear, and glimmering grounds. You are (especially you Gentlemen of the Grand-Inquest) the Judges eyes and ears, and the Countries mouth. My Lords the Judges know nothing but what you present: and the Country (whose representatives you are) rely up­on you for the discovery of their grievances. If mis­chiefs be not redrest, 'tis much your fault; and if you would have your diseases cured, discover them. And a­mong your Presentments forget not (what God hath en­joyned should be remembred) his Day, Stultorum in­curata pudor, malus ulcera ce­lat. Horat. which is yet de­sperately prophaned, notwithstanding all the good laws made by the former, and our present Governors: and forget not (which make men so much and often forget themselves) the Ale-houses, in order to their suppression, which are the Nurseries for the Gaol, the seminary for the Gallowes, and the Suburbs of Hell.

4 To the Witnesses: 'Tis much in you that Justice be done; 'tis your evidence which must guide both Judge and Jury; False witnesse is an error in the first concoction, which is not mended in the second, but made worse; it produceth a wrong verdict and an unjust sentence. Let me use the words of the Prophet Zachary, Chap. 8.17. Let none of you imagine evill in his heart, and love no false oath; for all these things the Lord hates. ‘Perjury is a sin which like a sword with two edges, strikes both against Humane and Divine faith.’ Among the seven things which the Lord hates, Prov. 6.19. one is a witnesse that speakes lies. Hee that fears not a false oath is master of thy good name, thy e­state, thy life, thy all: therefore God in a more pecu­liar way undertakes to be the avenger of this sin. This is an iniquity to be punish'd by the Judges (saith Solomon) who are to be strictly inquisitive, Prov. 19.5, 9. and severe in punishing [Page 47]this offence. We have an excellent Pattern to proceed a­gainst false witnesses by, where the law injoynes them le­gem talionis, that they be mulcted so far forth, Deut. 19.16. as their false witnesse would have prejudiced their neighbour. But if the Judge cannot find it out, yet God will; you call God to be a witnesse, that you speak truth, and to be an Avenger if you speak falsly; God is both a witnesse and a Judge: Behold, Mal. 3.5. I will be a swift witnesse against the false swearer, whereby the hireling, the widow and the father­lesse are opprest, and the stranger turned from his right. And he will be a swift Judge too; it will not be long be­fore he rip up all your combinations, concealments of truth, your equivocations, reservations, falsehoods, perju­ries, in the face of all the world; he stands at the door, and sees all; Take heed what you do.

5. To All (in one word) that shall be imployed in this businesse, whether Judges, Sheriffs, Justices, Jurors, Witnesses, and all inferior Officers; and I shall wind up all with a short story out of Damascene, which runs thus: There was a mighty and Puissant King, In Historiâ, versus principi­um. who being clothed in his Royall Apparrell, riding in his golden Chariot, atten­ded with all his Nobles, met (upon the way) with two poor thred-bare Ministers of Jesus Christ; and presently leaping from his Chariot, runs and fals down at their feet, and kisses them. Which act of his, his Nobles disdaining, but not daring to reprove, acquainted the Kings owne brother with what had past, and desired him to rebuke his brother the King, for thus debasing his power and greatnesse: which accordingly he undertook to do, and performed his task with sufficient tartnesse; which yet the King bare with much patience, and made him no answer at all. It was the custome of that place, that when the King (whose will was the only law) was resolved to take a­way any mans life, he sent one, whose office it was, to sound a Trumpet before that mans door, whereby he and all his neighbours knew, that such a man must die. At night the King sends this Trumpeter to blow before his [Page 48]brothers door: who no sooner heard that fatall sound, but giving up himselfe for dead, spent the night in weeping and wringing of his hands, setling his estate, condoling his wife and children; and in the morning comes to the Kings gate, all in mourning, trembling & every minute expecting execution. The King being informed that his brother was thus at the gate, sends for him into his presence, and seeing him in such a miserable pickle, prostrate at his feet, be­speaks him thus; O thou foolish and unwise man! if thou thus fear and tremble at the sound of the Trumpet of thine own naturall, brother against whom thou hast done no hurt; how dost thou find fault with me for humbling my self before these living Trumpets, who proclaim the com­ing of the Great God to Judgement, against whom I have most grievously offended!

My Lords and Gentlemen! I hope you have prevented me in the application of this story; and that when (by and by) you shal see the faces of poor prisoners grow pale, their hands shake, their knees beat together, at the sound of that Trumpet, which summons them to your Tribunall: You will then be pleased with an awfull Reverence, and a trembling fear, Judex quisque judicii sui sem­piternum susti­nebit judicium. Chrysol. ser. 26 to consider that there is another Assizes, another Trumpet, another Tribunall, where you your selves must (every one) give up an account, as of all other things, so, of this dayes work, before this Just and Impartiall Judg, who standeth at the door. The Lord touch your hearts with his fear, and direct you in your work!