Thirty-Six Sermons, Collection of sermons 1 · Group of sermons 2 · Sermon 3
AD MAGISTRATUM.
The Third Sermon.
At the Assises at Lincoln, August 4th. 1625. at the Request of the High-Sheriff aforesaid, William Lister, Esquire.
Psal. CVI. 30.
Then stood up Phinees, and executed Iudgment: and the Plague was stayed.
THE Abridgment is short, which some have made1. of the whole Book of Psalms, but into two words,The Argument, aCited out of Guevara.Hosannah, and Hallelujah: most of the Psalms spending themselves as, in their proper Arguments, either in Supplication, praying unto God for his Blessings, and that is Hosannah; or in Thanksgiving, blessing God for his goodness, and that is Hallelujah. This Psalm is of the latter sort. The word Hallelujah, both prefixed in the Title, and repeated in the close of it, sufficiently giveth it to be a Psalm of Thanksgiving, as are also the three next before it, and the next after it. All which five Psalms together, as they agree in the same general Argument, the magnifying of God's holy Name, so they differ one from another in choice of those special and topical Arguments, whereby the Praises of God are set forth therein. In the rest, the Psalmist draweth his Argument from other Considerations; in this, from the Consideration of God's merciful removal of those Iudgments he had in his just wrath brought upon his own People Israel for their Sins, upon their Repentance.
For this purpose there are sundry instances given in the Psalm, taken out2. of the Histories of former times; out of which there is framed, as it were,and matter of this Psalm. a Catalogue, though not of all, yet of sundry the most famous rebellions of that people against their God, and of Gods both Iustice and Mercy abundantly manifested in his proceedings with them thereupon. In all which we may observe the passages betwixt God and them, in the ordinary course of things, ever to have stood in this order. First, he preventeth them with undeserved favours; they, unmindful of his benefits, provoke him by their rebellions: he in his just wrath chastiseth them with heavy Plagues; they, humbled under the rod, seek to him for ease: he, upon their submission, withdraweth his judgments from them. The Psalmist hath wrapped all these five together in Vers. 43, 44. Many times did he deliver them, but they provoked him with their Counsels, and were brought low for their iniquity: the three first. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry: the other two.
The particular rebellions of the people in this Psalm instanced in, are3. many; some before, and some after the verse of my Text. For brevity sake,The Coherence, Scope, those that are in the following verses I wholly omit, and but name the1. rest: which are, their wretched Infidelity and Cowardice upon the first approach of danger at the Red Sea, vers. 7. Their tempting of God in the desert,2. when, loathing Manna, they lusted for flesh, vers. 13. Their seditious 3.conspiracy under Corah and his confederates against Moses, vers. 16. Their4. gross Idolatry at Horeb, in making and worshipping the golden Calf, ver. 19.5. Their distrustful murmuring at their portion, in thinking scorn of the promised6. pleasant land, ver. 24. Their fornicating both bodily with the daughters, and spiritually with the Idols of Moab and of Midian, ver. 28. To the prosecution of which last mentioned story, the words of my Text do appertain. The original story it self, whereto this part of the Psalm referreth, is written at full by Moses in Numb. 25. and here by David but bBreviter totum dixit, quia non hic nescientes docet, sed commemorat scientes. Aug. hic.briefly touched, as the present purpose and occasion led him: yet so, as that the most observable passages of the History are here remembred, in three verses three special things, the Sin, the Plague, the Deliverance. The Sin, with the Agravation thereof, ver. 28. [They joyned themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.] The Plague, with the efficient cause thereof, both Impulsive and Principal, vers. 29. [Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions, and the Plague brake in upon them.] The Deliverance, with the special means and Instrument thereof is this 30th. verse. [Then stood up Phinees and executed judgment, and the Plague was stayed.]
In which words are three things especially considerable. The Person; 4.the Action of that Person; and the Success of that Action. The Person, Phinees: and division of the Text.His action two-fold: the one preparatory, he stood up; the other completory, he executed judgment: The Success, and Issue of both, the Plague was stayed. The Person holy, the Action zealous, the Success happy. Of each of these I shall endeavour to speak something applyable to the present condition of these heavy times, and the present occasion of this frequent Assembly. But because the argument of the whole verse is a Deliverance, and that Deliverance supposeth a Plague, and every Plague supposeth a Sin, I must take leave before I enter upon the particulars now proposed from the Text, first a little to unfold the original story, that so we may have some more distinct knowledge both what Israel's sin was, and how they were plagued, and upon what occasion, and by▪ what means Phinees wrought their Deliverance.
When Israel, travelling from the land of Bondage to the land of Promise 5.Balak▪s Plot;through the wilderness, were now come as far as cNum. 22. 1.the plains of Moab, and there encamped: Balak the then King of Moab, not dIbid. 2. 3.daring to encounter with that people, before whom eSihon King of the Amorites, and Og King of Basan. Num. 21.two of his greatest neighbour Princes had lately fallen, fAscitos sentores Madiani, qui proximi regno ejus erant, & amici; consuluit, quid facto opus esset. Hist. Scholast. in Num. c. 32.consulted with the Midianites, his neighbours and allies, and after some advice, resolved upon this conclusion, to hire gNum. 22. 5....7.Balaam a famous Sorcerer in those times and quarters, to lend them his assistance; plotting with all their might, and his art, by all possible means to withdraw God's protection from them; wherein they thought (and they thought right) the strength and safety of that people lay. But there is no Counsel against the Lord, nor hNum. 23. 23.inchantment against his people. Where he will bless, (and he will bless where he is faithfully obeyed and depended upon;) neither power nor policy can prevail for a Curse. Balaam the wicked wretch, though he i2 Pet. 2. 15.loved the ways of unrighteousness with his heart; yet God not suffering him, he could not pronounce a Curse with his lips against Israel, but instead of cursing them, kNum 23. 11. & 24 10.bles…ed them altogether.
But angry at Israel, whom, when fain he would, he could not curse; yea, and angry at God himself, who, by restraining his tongue, had voided his hopes, and lNum. 14. 11.withheld him from pay and honour: the wretched covetous Hypocrite, as if he would at once be avenged both of him and them, imagineth6. a mischievous device against them, full of cursed villainy. He givethand Balaam's policy against Israel; the Moabites and the Midianites mNum. 13. 16. Revel. 2. 14. See also Joseph. 4. Antiq. Jud. 5.counsel to smothe… their hatred with pretensions of peace, and by sending the fairest of their daughters▪ among them to inveigle them with their beauty, and to entice them first to corporal, and after, by that, to spiritual, whoredom; that so Israel shrinking from the Love, and Fear, and Obedience of their God, might forfeit the interest they had in his Protection, and by sin bring themselves under that wrath and curse of God, which neither those great Princes by their power, nor their wisest Counsellors by their Policy, nor Balaam himself by his Sorcery, 7.could bring upon them.with the success thereof, both in their sin,
This damned counsel was followed but too soon, and prospered but too well. The daughters of Moab come into the Tents of Israel, and by their blandishments put out the eyes, and steal away the hearts of God's people; whom, besotted once with lust, it was then no hard matter to lead whither they listed, and by wanton insinuations to draw them to sit with them in the Temples, and to accompany them at the nNum. 25.feasts, and to eat with them of the Sacrifices, yea, and to bow the knees with them to the honour of their Idols: Insomuch as Israel oPsal. 106. 28.joyned themselves to Baal-peor, and ate the Sacrifices of that dead and abominable Idol at the least (for all Idols are such) if not, as most have thought, a pQuem Oracia Priapum dixit Hist. Scholast. in Num. 34. & alii secuti Hieronym. in c. 9. Osee; & 1. cont. Io. 12. See Vatabl. in Num. 25. 3. Selden▪ Synt. 1. de DIS S…r. c. 5. Lael. Bisciol. 3. hor. subces. 20.beastly and obscene Idol withal: That was their Sin.
And now may Balak save his Money, and Balaam spare his pains; there is no need of hiring, or being hired to curse Whoremongers and Idolaters. These are two plaguy sins, and such as will bring a curse upon a people without the help of a Conjurer. When that God, who is a qExod. 20. 5.jealous God, and8. jealous of nothing more than his rEsa. 42. 8.honour, shall see that people, whom heand punishment. had made sDeut. 7. 6.choice of from among all the nations of the earth to be his own peculiar people, and betrothed to himself by an everlasting tEzek. 16. 8.covenant, to uIbid. 38.break the Covenant of Wedlock with him, and to strumpet it with the daughters and Idols of Moab: what can be expected other, than that his jealousie should be turned into fury, and that his fierce wrath should xPsal. 106. 29.break in upon them as a deluge, and overwhelm them with a sudden destruction? His patience so far tempted, and with such an unworthy provocation, can suffer no longer; but at his command yNum. 25. 4, 5.Moses striketh the Rulers; and at Moses his command, the under-rulers must strike each in their several regiments those that had offended, and he himself also striketh with his own hand, by a Plague, destroying of them in one day z1 Cor. 10. 8, 9. the other thousand (Num. 25. 9.) it seemeth, were those that were hanged up by Moses, and slain by the Rulers.three and twenty thousand.
If that Plague had lasted many days, Israel had not lasted many days: but the People, by their plague, made sensible of their sin, humbled themselves (as it should seem the very first day of the Plague) in a solemn and aNum. 25. 6.general Assembly, weeping and mourning both for Sin and Plague, before the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. And they were now in the heat of their holy sorrow and devotions; when lo, bIbid. 14.Zimri, a prince of 9.Zimri's provocation,a chief house in one of their Tribes, in the heat of his pride and lust, cometh openly in the cIbid. 6.face of Moses and all the Congregation, and bringeth his Minion with him, Cosbi the daughter of one of the dCompare Num. 25. 15. with Num. 31. ….five Kings of Midian, into his Tent, there to commit filthiness with her.
Doubtless, Moses the Captain, and Eleazar the Priest, and all Israel, that saw this shameless prank of that lewd couple, saw it with grief enough. But Phinees enraged with a pious indignation to see such a foul affront given to God, and the Magistrate, and the Congregation, at such a heavy time, 10.and his execution.and in such open manner, and for that very sin, for which they then lay under Gods hand, thought there was something more to be done than bare weeping; and therefore his blood warmed with an holy zeal, he eNum. 25. 7, 8.starteth up forthwith, maketh to the Tent where these two great Personages were, and as they were in the act of their filthiness, speedeth them both at once, and naileth them to the place with his Javelin. And the next thing we hear, is, God well-pleased with the fIbid. 11.zeal of his Servant, and the Execution of those Malefactors, is appeased towards all his people, and withdraweth his hand and his plague from them. And of that deliverance my Text speaketh, (Then stood up Phinees and executed judgment, and so the Plague was stayed.)
The Person, the instrument to work this deliverance for Israel, was Phinees. 11.He was the Son of Eleazar, who was then High-Priest in immediateThe person of Phinees considered. succession to his father Aaron, not long before deceased; and did himself afterward succeed in the High-priesthood unto Eleazar his Father. A wise, a godly, and a zealous man, employed afterward by the State of Israel in the greatest affairs, both of gNum. 31. 6.War and hJosh. 23. 13, 31, 32.Embassy. But it was this Heroical Act of his, in doing execution upon those two great audacious Offenders, which got him the first, and the greatest, and the lastingest Renown. Of which Act more anon, when we come to it. In his Person, we will consider only what his Calling and Condition was; and what congruity there might be between what he was, and what he did. He was of the Tribe of Levi; and that whole Tribe was set apart for the iNum. 1. 19, &c.service of the Tabernacle. And he was of the Sons of Aaron, and so foreign, of the Family and Linage of the High-Priests: and the Priests Office was to offer Sacrifices, and to burn Incense, and to pray, and make atonement for the People. Neither Levite nor Priest had to intermeddle with matters of Iudicature, unless in some few causes, and those for the most part concerning matters either meerly, or mixtly Ecclesiastical; but neither to give sentence, nor to do execution in matters and causes meerly Civil, as by any right or virtue of his Levitical or Priestly Office.
The more unreasonable is the High-Priest of Rome, to challenge to himself12. any temporal or Civil Iurisdiction, as virtually annexed to his spiritual The Spiritual power doth not include the Temporal.power, or necessarily derived thence, Templum and Praetorium, the Chair and the Throne, the Altar and the Bench, the Sheephook and the Scepter, the Keys and the Sword; though they may sometimes concur upon the same person, yet the Powers remain perpetually distinct and independant▪ and such as do not of necessity infer the one the other. Our Saviours kLuke 21. 26.Vos autem non sic, hath fully decided the controversie; and for ever cut off all claim of temporal Iurisdiction, as by any virtue annexed to the Keys. If the Bishops of Rome could have contented themselves to have enjoyed those Temporalities, wherewith the bounty of Christian Emperours had endowed that See (whether well or ill, whether too much or no, I now inquire not,) but if they could have been content to have holden them upon the same terms they first had them, without seeking to change the old tenure; and to have acknowledged them, as many of their fellow-Bishops do, to have issued not at all by necessary derivations from their spiritual Power, but meerly and altogether from the lNec in quenquam presbyterum, Episcopum, sive Papam convenit coactivam in hoc seculo jurisdictionem sibi habere, nisi eadem sibi per humanum legislatorem concessa fuerit, in cujus potestate est han… ab ipsis semper revocare. Marsil. Patav. 2. defens. Pacis. 5.free and voluntary indult of temporal Princes: the Christian Church had not had so just cause of complaint against the unsufferable tyrannies and usurpations of the Papacy; nor had the Christian world been embroyled in so many unchristian and bloody quarrels, as these and former ages have brought forth. Yet the Canonists, and they of the Congregation of the O…tory, like downright flatterers, give the Pope the Temporal Monarchy of the world, absolutely and mPapa jure divino est directe dominus orbis. Pesant. de immunit. Eccles p. 45. idem defendunt Baronius, Bossii duo, Zecchus, Carerius, alii.directly, as adhereing inseparably to his See, and as a branch of that Charter which Christ gave to Peter, when he made him Head of the Church, for himself and his successors for ever. The Iesuites more subtil than they, not daring to deny the Pope any part of that Power, which any other profession of men have dared to give him, and yet unable to assert such a vast power from those inconveniences which follow upon the Canonists opinion; have found out a means to put into the Popes hands the exercise of as much temporal power as they bluntly and grosly give him, and that to all effects and purposes as full, and in as ample manner as they: yet by a more learned and refined flattery, as resulting from his spiritual Power, not directly and per se, but nSee Bellarm. 5. de Rom. Pontif. 6.obliquely and indirectly and in ordine ad spiritualia. The man himself, though he pretend to be supreme infallible judge of all Controversies, yet heareth both parties, and taketh advantage of what either give him, as best sorteth with his present occasions, and suffereth them to fall foul each upon other, these accounting them gross flatterers, aud they again these oAdversus impios Politicos. Cater. de potest. in titulo libri.wicked Politicians, but dareth not for his life determine whether side is in the right; lest, if he should be put to make good his determination by sufficient proof, both should appear to be in the wrong, and he lose all; which, whilst they quarrel, he still holdeth. It is a certain thing; The spiritual Power conferred13. in Holy Orders, doth not include the Power of Temporal jurisdiction. nor yet exclude it.If Phinees here execute judgment upon a Prince of Isarel; it is indeed a good fruit of his zeal, but no proper act of his Priesthood.
Let it go for a non sequitur then, as it is no better; because Phinees, a Priest, or Priests son, executes judgment, that therefore the Priestly includeth a Iudicatory Power. Yet from such an act, done by such a Person, at least thus much will follow, that the Priesthood doth not exclude the exercise of Iudicature; and that there is no such repugnancy and inconsistency between the Temporal and Spiritual Powers, but that they may without incongruity concur and reside both together in the same Person. When I find anciently, that not only among the pi. e. Regis quidem haec munia esse jussit, primum, ut sacrorum & sacrificiorum principatum haberet▪ Dionys. Halicar. lib. 2. See also Cic. 1. de divin. foreign, de Aegyptiis Plutarch. lib. de. Is. & Osi.Heathens, but even among Gods own people, the same man might be a King and a Priest, qVirg. 3. Aeneid.(Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos,) as Melchisedec was both a rGen. 14. 17.Priest of the most high God, and King of Salem: When I see it consented by all that so long as the Church was Patriarchal, the Priestly and the Iudicatory Power were both setled upon one and the same Person, the Person of the sSacerdotium fuit annexum primogeniturae usque ad legem datam per Mosen. Lyran. in Gen. 14. 18. See also Lyr. in Num. 3. 12. & 8. 16. &c.first born: when I read of Eli the Priest, of the sons of Aaron t1 Sam. 4. 18.judging Israel 40 years, and of Samuel, uAug. 17. de clvit. 4. & in Psal. 98. Sulpit. Sever. lib. 1. Hist. sacra.certainly a Levite (though not as some have thought, xLev. Samuel, non Sacerdos, non Pontifex fuit. Hier. lib. cont. Jovin. v. Drus. not. ad Sulpit. Hist. p. 154.a Priest) both going circuit, as a y1 Sam. 7. 16.Iudge itinerant in Israel, and doing execution too with his own hands upon z1 Sam. 15. 33.Agag; and of a1 Chro. 26. 29, 32.Chenaniah and his sons, Izharites, and Hashabiah and his brethren Hebronites, and others of the families of Levi, appointed by King David to be Judges and Officers, not only in all the business of the Lord, but also for bIn omni negotio divino & humano. Vatab. in 1. Parab. 26.outward business over Israel, and in things that concerned the service of the King: when I observe in the Church-stories of all ages, ever since the world had Christian Princes, how Ecclesiastical persons have been employed by their Sovereigns in their weightiest consultations and affairs of State; I cannot but wonder at the inconsiderate rashness of some forward ones in these days, who yet think themselves (and would be thought by others) to be of the wisest men, that suffer their tongues to run riot against the Prelacy of our Church, and have studied to approve themselves eloquent in no other argument so much, as in inveighing against the Courts, and the Power, and the Iurisdiction, and the Temporalities of Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons. I speak it not to justifie the abuses of men, but to maintain the lawfulness of the thing. If therefore any Ecclesiastical person seek any Temporal office or power by indirect, ambitious, and preposterous courses: if he exercises it otherwise than well; insolently, cruelly, corruptly, partially; if he claim it by any other than the right title, the free bounty and grace of the Supreme Magistrate; let him bear his own burden: I know not any honest Minister that will plead for him. But since there is no incapacity in a Clergyman, by reason of his spiritual Calling, but he may exercise temporal Power, if he be called to it by his Prince, as well as he may enjoy temporal land if he be heir to it from his Father: I see not but it behoveth us all, if we be good Subjects, and sober Christians, to pray that such as have the power of Iudicature more or less in any kind or degree committed unto them, may exercise that power wherewith they are entrusted, with zeal, and prudence and equity, rather than out of envy at the preferment of a Church-man take upon us little less than to quarrel the discretion of our Soveraign. Phinees though he could not challenge to execute judgment by virtue of his Priesthood; yet his Priesthood disabled him not from executing judgment.
That for the person. Followeth his Action: and that twofold: He stood, 14.up, he executed judgment. Of the former first; which though I call it anPhinees his fact examined; Action, yet is indeed a Gesture properly, and not an Action. But, being no necessity to bind me to strict propriety of speech, be it Action, or Gesture, or what else you will call it; the cicumstance and phrase, it seemeth to import some material thing, may not be passed over without some consideration, [Then stood up Phinees.] Which clause may denote unto us either that extraordinary spirit whereby Phinees was moved to do judgment upon those shameless offenders; or that forwardness of zeal, in the heat whereof he did it; or both. Phinees was indeed the High-Priests son, as we heard; but yet a private man and no ordinary Magistrate: and what had any private man to do, to draw the sword of justice, or but to sentence a malefactor to die? Or, say he had been a Magistrate; he ought yet to have proceeded in a legal and judicial course, to have convented the parties, and when they had been convicted in a fair trial and by sufficient witness, then to have adjudged them according to the Law; and not to have come suddenly upon them foreign, as they were acting their villainy, and thrust them thorow uncondemned. I have cSerm. 2. ad Cler. Sect. 30.elsewhere delivered it as a collection not altogether improbable from the circumstances of the original story, that Phinees had warrant for this execution from the express command of Moses the supreme Magistrate, and namely by virtue of that Proclamation, whereby he authorised the dNum. 25. 5.Under-Rulers to slay every one his man that were joyned unto Baal-Peor, Num. 25. 5. And I since find that conjecture confirmed by the judgment of some learned men: insomuch as an eminent Writer in our Church saith, that eHall 7. Contempl 4.by virtue of that Commission every Israelite was made a Magistrate for this execution. But looking more nearly into the Text, and considering that the Commission Moses there gave, was first only to the Rulers, and so could be no warrant for Phinees, unless he were such a Ruler, which appeareth not; and secondly, concerned only those men that were under their several governments, and so was too short to reach Zimri, who being himself a Prince, and that of another Tribe too, the Tribe of fNum. 25. 5.Simeon, could not be under the government of Phinees, who was of the Tribe of Levi: how probable soever that other collection may be, yet I hold it the safer resolution which is comonly given by Divines for the justification of this fact of Phinees, that he had an extraordinary motion, and a peculiar secret instinct of the spirit of God, powerfully working in him and prompting him to this Heroical Act.
Certainly, God will not approve that work which himself hath not15. wrought. But to this action of Phinees God hath given large approbation,and justified; both by staying the plague thereupon, and by rewarding Phinees with an gNum. 25. 12, 13.everlasting Priesthood therefore, and by giving express testimony of his zeal and righteousness therein: as it is said in the next verse after my Text, [hPsal. 106. 31. And it was accounted to him for righteousness] Which words in the judgment of learned Expositors, are not to be understood barely of the righteousness of Faith, as it is said of Abraham, that iGen. 15. 6. applied by St. Paul Rom. 4. 3.he believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness (as if the zeal of Phinees in this act had been a good evidence of that faith in Gods promises, whereby he was justified, and his Person accepted with God;) though that also: but they do withal import the justification of the Action, at least thus far, that howsoever measured by the common rules of life it might seem an unjust action; and a rash attempt at the least, if not an heinous murder, as being done by a private man without the Warrant of authority; yet was it indeed not only in regard of the intent a zealous action, as done for the honour of God, but also, for the ground and warrant of it, as done by the special secret direction of Gods holy Spirit, a just and a righteous action. Possibly, this very word of standing up, importeth that extraordinary spirit. For of those Worthies, whom God at several times endowed with Heroical spirits, to attempt some special work for the delivery of his Church, the Scriptures use to speak in words and phrases much like this. It is often said in the book of Iudges, that God kJud. 3. 9, 15. &c. & 2. 16, 18.raised up such and such to judge Israel, and that Deborah, and Iair, and others lJud. 5. 7. & 10. 1, 2, &c.rose up to defend Israel: that is, mJud. 3. 10.The spirit of God came upon them, as is said of Othoniel Iudg. 3. and by a secret, but powerful instinct, put them upon those brave and noble attempts, they undertook and effected for the good of his Church. Raised by the impulsion of that powerful Spirit, which nNescit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia. Ambr. 2. in. Luc. 3.admitteth no slow debatements, Phinees standeth up, and feeling himself called not to deliberate, but act; without casting of scruples, or fore-casting of dangers, or expecting Commission from men when he had his warrant sealed within, he taketh his weapon, dispatching his errand, and leaveth the event to the providence of God.
Let no man now, unless he be able to demonstrate Phinees spirit, presume16. to imitate his fact. Those Opera liberi spiritus, as Divines call them,yet not to be imitated, as they proceed from an extraordinary spirit, so they were done for special purposes: but were never intended, either by God that inspired them, or by those Worthies that did them, for ordinary or general examples. The error is dangerous, from the privileged examples of some few exempted ones to take liberty to transgress the common rules of Life and of Laws. It is most true indeed, the Spirit of God is a free spirit, and not tyed to strictness of rule, nor limited by any bounds of Laws. But yet that free spirit hath astricted thee to a regular course of life▪ and bounded thee with Laws: which if thou shalt trangress, no pretension of the Spirit can either excuse thee from sin, or exempt thee from punishment. It is not now every way, as it was before the coming of Christ, and the sealing up of the Scripture Canon: God having now settled a perpetual form of government in his Church, and given us a perfect and constant rule, whereby to walk, even his holy word. And we are not therefore now vainly to expect, nor boastingly to pretend a private spirit, to lead us against, or beyond, or but beside the common rule: nay we are commanded to try all pretensions of private spirits, by that common rule, oEsay 8. 20.Adlegem & ad testimonium, To the Law and to the Testimony: at this Test, examine and p1 Joh. 4. 1.Try the spirits whether they are of God, or no. If any thing within us, if any thing without us, exalt it self against the obedience of this Rule; it is no sweet impulsion of the holy Spirit of God, but a strong delusion of the lying spirit of Satan.
But is not all that is written, written for our Example? or why else is17. but with limitationPhinees act recorded and commended, if it may not be followed? First indeed Saint Paul saithqRom. 15. 4. All that is written, is written for our learning: 1.but Learning is one thing, and Example is another: and we may learn something from that which we may not follow. Besides, there are examples 2.for r1 Cor. 10. 11.Admonition, as well as for Imitation. Malefactors at the place of execution, when they wish the by-standers to take example by them, bequeath them not the Imitation of their courses, what to do; but Admonition from their punishments, what to shun: yea thirdly, even the commended actions of good men are not ever exemplary in the very substance 3.of the action it self; but in some vertuous and gracious affections, that give life and lustre thereunto. And so this act of Phinees is imitable: Not that either any private man should dare by his example to usurp the Magistrates office, and to do justice upon Malefactors without a Calling: or that any Magistrate should dare by his Example, to cut off graceless offenders without a due judicial course: but that every man who is by virtue of his Calling endued with lawful authority to execute justice upon transgressors, should set himself to it with that stoutness and courage and zeal, which was in Phinees.18.
If you will needs then imitate Phinees, imitate him in that for which18. unto his zeal.he is commended and rewarded by God, and for which he is renowned amongst men: and that is not barely the action, the thing done; but the affection, the zeal wherewith it was done. For that zeal God commendeth him, Numb. 25. vers. 11. sNum. 25. 11.Phinees the son of Eleazer, the son of Aaron the Priest, hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel, whilst he was zealous for my sake among them. And for that zeal God rewardeth him, Ibid. 13. tIbid. 13.He shall have, and his seed after him, the Covenant of an everlasting Pristhood, because he was zealous for his God. And for that zeal did Posterity praise him: the wise uSyrac. 45. 23.son of Syrac, Eccl. 45. and good old x1 Macc. 2. 54.Matthias upon his death bed, 1 Macc. 2. And may not this phrase of speech, he stood up, and executed judgment, very well imply that forwardness and heat of zeal? To my seeming, it may. For whereas Moses and all the congregation sate weeping (a yAs Neh. 1. 4. Job 2. 13. Psal. 137. 1. Esay 47. 1, 8.gesture often accompanying sorrow,) or perhaps, yet more to express their sorrow lay grovelling upon the earth, mourning and sorrowing for their sin, and for the Plague: it could not be but the bold lewdness of Zimri in bringing his strumpet with such impudence before their noses, must needs add much to the grief, and bring fresh vexation to the souls of all that were righteous among them. But the rest continued, though with double grief, yet in the same course of humiliation, and in the same posture of body, as before. Only Phinees, burning with an holy indignation, thought it was now no time to sit still, and weep: but rowzing up himself and his spirits with zeal as hot as fire zVerbum ipsum soliditatem mentis ostendit. Cassiodorus. Constanter. Lyranus. Constantiâ mentis & audacia operis. Ludolfus hic. He had zeal in the fear of the Lord, and stood up with good courage of heart. Syrac. 45. 23.he stood up from the place where he was, and made haste to execute judgment.
Here is a rich example for all you to imitate, whom it doth concern: I speak not only nor indeed so much, to you the Honourable and Reverend Iudge of this Circuit; of whose zeal to do justice and judgment, I am by so much the better perswaded, by how much the eminency of your place, and the weight of your charge, and the expectation of the people doth with greater importunity aMajora populus semper à summo exigit. Senec. in Octav. Act. 2.exact it at your hands: But I speak withal, and most especially to all you, that are in Commission of the peace, and whose daily and continual care it should be, to see the wholsome laws of the Realm duly and seasonably executed. Yea, and to all you also that have any office appertaining to justice, or any business about these Courts, so as it may lie in you to give any kind of furtherance to the speeding either of Iustice in Civil, or of judgment in Criminal causes. Look upon the zeal of19. manifested by executing Iudgment;Phinees: observe what approbation it had from God; what a blessing it procured to his seed after him; what glorious renown it hath won him with all after-ages; what ease it did, and what good it wrought for the present State: and think if it be not worthy your imitation. bGal. 4. 18.It is good, saith the Apostle, to be zealously affected always in a good thing. And is it not a good thing to do justice, and to execute judgment? nay, Religion excepted (and then care of that is a branch of justice too) do you know any better thing? any thing you can do, more acceptable to God, more serviceable to the State, more comfortable to your own souls? If you be called to the Magistracy; it is c3 King. 9.your own business, as the proper work of your Calling; and men account him no wiser than he should be, that sluggeth in his own business, or goeth heartlesly about it. It is the Kings business, who hath entrusted you with it: and he is scarce a good subject that slacketh the Kings business, or doth it to the halves. Nay, it is d2 Chro. 19. 6.the Lords business; for [Ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the cause and in the judgment:] and eJer. 48. 10.Cursed is he that doth the Lords business negligently. That you may therefore do (all under one) your own business, and the Kings business, and the Lords business, with that zeal and forwardness which becometh you in so weighty an affair; lay this pattern before your eyes and hearts! See what Phinees did: and thereby both examine what hitherto you have done, and learn what henceforth you should do.
First, Phinees doth not post off the matter to others: the fervency of20. his zeal made him willing to be himself the Actor. He harboured no1. Personally; such cool thoughts as too many Magistrates do. [Here is a shameful crime committed, by a shameless person, and in a shameless manner: pity such an audacious offender should go unpunished. My heart riseth against him; and much ado I have to refrain from being my self his executioner, rather than he should carry it away thus. But why should I derive the envy of the fact upon my self, and but gain the imputation of a busie officious fellow, in being more forward than others? A thousand more saw it as well as I; whom it concerneth as nearly as it doth me: and if none of them will stir in it, why should I? Doubtless my Uncle Moses, and my father Eleazer, and they that are in place of Authority, will not let it pass so; but will call him to an account for it, and give him condign punishment. If I should do it, it would be thought but the attempt of a rash young fellow. It will be better discretion therefore to forbear, and to give my betters leave to go before me.] Such pretensions as these would have kept off Phinees from this noble Exploit, if he had been of the temper of some of ours: who owe it to nothing so much as their lukewarmness, that they have at least some reputation of being moderate and discreet men. But true zeal is more forward than mannerly: and will not lose the opportunity of doing what it ought, for waiting till others begin. Alas, if every man should be so squeamish as many are; nothing at all would be done. And therefore the good Magistrate must consider, not what others do, but what both he and they are in conscience bound to do: and though there should be many more joyned with him in the same common care, and with equal power, yet he must resolve to take that common affair no otherwise into his special care, than if he were left alone therein, and the whole burden lay upon his shoulders. As when sundry persons are so bound in one common bond for the payment of one entire sum conjunctim & divisim, every one per se in toto & in solidum, that every particular person by himself is as well liable to the payment of the whole, as they all together are. Admit loose or idle people (for who can hold their tongues?) shall for thy diligence say, thou art an hard and austere man, or busiest thy self more than thou hast thank for thy labour. First, that man never cared to do well,1. that is afraid to hear ill, fEccles. 11. 4.He that observeth the wind, saith Solomon shall not sow; and the words (especially of idle people) are no better. Secondly, 2.He maketh an ill purchace, that fore-goeth the least part of his duty, to gain a little popularity: the breath of the people being but a sorry plaster for a wounded conscience. Thirdly, what a man by strict and severe execution 3.of Iustice loseth in the breadth, he commonly gaineth it all and more in the weight, and in the length of his Credit. A kind quiet man; that carrieth it for the present, and in the voice of the multitude: but it is more solid, and the more lasting praise, to be reputed, in the opinion of the better and the wiser sort, a Iust man, and a good Patriot, or Commonwealthsman. Fourthly, if all should condemn thee for that wherein thou hast done4. but gRegium est, cùm rectè feceris audire malè.well, thy comfort is, thine own conscience shall bestead thee more than a thousand witnesses, and stand for thee against ten thousand tongues, at that last day, when h1 Cor. 4. 5.the hearts of all men shall be made manifest, and every man that hath deserved well, shall have praise of God, and not of man.
Secondly, Phinees as he did not post off this execution to other men, so21. he did not put it off to another day. Phinees might have thought thus,2 Speedily; [We are now in a religious work, humbling our selves in a publick, solemn, and frequent assembly, before the face of God, to appease his just wrath against us for our sins: iVirgil. Eclog. 9.Et quod nunc instat agamus. It would be unseasonable leaving this work now; another time may serve as well to inflict deserved punishment upon that wicked miscreant. But zeal will admit no kQui tardè fecit, diu noluit. Senec. 1. de benes. 1.put offs; it is all upon the spur, till it be doing what it conceiveth fit to be done. There are no passions of the mind so impetuous, and so impatient of delay as lOdit verus amor, nec patitur moras. Senec. in Herc. fur. Act. 2.Love and mDum poen… odio per vim festinat inultè. Horat. 1. Ep. 2.Anger, and nNunc ira amórque causam jùnxere; quid sequetur? Senec. in Med. act. 4.these two are the prime ingredients of true zeal. If any man should have interposed for Zimri, and taken upon him to have mediated with Phinees for his reprival: I verily think, in that heat he might sooner have provoked his own, than have prorogued Zimri's exécution. Delays in any thing that is good, are ill: and in the best things worst. As Wax when it is chafed, and Iron when it is hot, will take impressions: but if the Seal or Stamp be not speedily put to, the hear abateth, and they return to their former hardness: so the best affections of the best men, if they be not taken in the heat, abate, and lessen, and die. In the administration then of Iustice, and the execution of Iudgment, where there is Zeal, there will be Expedition: and the best way to preserve Zeal where it is, is to use Expedition. I am not able to say where the want is, or where specially: but certainly a great want there is generally in this Kingdom of Zeal to Iustice, in some that should have it, if that complaint be as just, as it is common among men that have had sutes in the Courts, that they have been oSaepè causa… tantum differunt, quod litigantibus plu… quam totum auferunt; quia major est expensarum sumptus quam sententiae fructus. Innocent.wronged with far less damage than they have been righted: there have been so many pBern. lib. 1. de consid.frustratoriae and venatoriae dilationes (as St. Bernard in his time called them) so many lingring and costly delays used. And for Executing Iudgment upon Malefactors; if Phinees had suffered Zimri to have lived but a day longer, for any thing we know the plague might have lasted also a day longer: and why might not to morrow have been as yesterday with them, and lessened the peoples number twenty three thousand more? especially their former crying sins having received a new accession of a double guilt, the guilt of Zimri's fact, and the guilt of their connivance. No rack should make me confess that man to be truly zealous of judgment, who when he hath power to cut him short, shall but so much as reprieve a foul and notorious Malefactor; or grant him any respite or liberty to make his friends, and to sue a pardon. Solomon hath told us, and we find it but too true, qEccl. 8. 11.Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
Third; Phinees was nothing retarded in his resolution by fore-casting22. what ill will he might purchase, or into what dangers he might cast3 Resolutely himself, by executing judgment upon two such great Personages. The times were such, as wherein sin had gotten head, and was countenanced both with might and multitude: Zimri was a mighty man, a rNum. 25. 14.Prince of a chief house; and he that should dare to touch him, should be like to pull upon himself the enmity of the whole Tribe of Simeon. It seemeth he was confident that his might and popularity in his own Tribe, would privilege him from the enquiry of the Magistrate; how durst he else have so braved Moses, and the whole Congregation; And the woman also was the daughter of one of the sNum. 25. 15. compared with Num. 31. 8.Five Kings of Midian: And could Phinees think that the death of two such great persons could go unrevenged? All this either Phinees either fore-casteth not, or regardeth not. His eye was so fixed upon the glory of God, that it did not so much as reflect upon his own safety: and his thoughts strongly possessed with zeal of the common good, had not any leisure to think of private dangers. Zeal is tAmor timere neminem verus potest. Seneca in Med. Act. 3. foreignever couragious; and therefore Iethro thought none worthy to be Magistrates, but such as were uviros virtutis. Exod. 8. 21. Iustum esse facile est cui vacat pectus metu. Senec. in Oct. Act. 2.Men of courage: And he hath neither Courage nor Zeal in him besitting a Magistrate, that is afraid to do justice upon a great offender. xProv. 22. 14. & 26. 13.The sluggard saith, there is a Lyon in the way: and then he steppeth backward and keepeth aloof off. But the worthy Magistrate would meet with such a Lyon to choose; that he might win awe to Gods ordinances, and make the way passable for others, by tearing such a beast in pieces: and would no more fear to make a Worshipful thief, or a Right Worshipful murderer (if such a one should come in his Circuit) an example of Justice, than to twitch up a poor sheep-stealer. Great ones will soon presume of impunity, and mean ones too by their example in time learn to kick at authority, if Magistrates be not forward to maintain the dignity of their places by executing good Laws without favour or fear. Hitherto of the spirit and zeal of Phinees; by occasion of this his former Action or gesture of standing up: There yet remain to be considered the other Action, and the success of it; He executed judgment, and the plague was stayed. Both which, because I would not be long, I will joyn together in the handling; when I shall have first a little cleared the translation.
The Hebrew foreign here used, is a word that hath three different significations:23. Executing of Iudgmentto Iudge, to Pray, to Appease. And Interpreters have taken liberty to make choice of any of the three in translating this place. The Greek rendreth it [foreign] and the vulgar Latine, which for the most part followeth the Septuagint, [Placavit:] as if we should read it thus, Then stood up Phinees and made an atonement, or appeased God. And the thing is true, God himself testifying of Phinees, Num. 25. that yNum. 25. 11.By being zealous for God he had turned away his wrath, and zIbid. 13.Made atonement for the Children of Israel. The Chaldee interpreteth it by Vetsalle; and the ordinary English translation of the Psalms usually read in our Churches, accordingly [Then stood up Phinees, and prayed.] But Hierom, and Vatablus, and the best translators render it, according to the most proper signification of the word, and most fully to the story it self, (Dijudicavit, he executed judgment.) Verily, prayer is a special means to appease Gods wrath, and to remove his Plagues; and prayer is as the salt of the Sacrifice, sanctifying and seasoning every action we undertake: and I doubt not but Phinees; when he lift up his hand to execute judgment upon Zimri and Cosbi, did withal lift up his heart to God, to bless that action, and to turn it to good. In which respects, (especially if the word withal will bear it, as it seemeth it will,) some men should have done well not to have shewn so much willingness to quarrel at the Church translations in our Service-Book, by being clamorous against this very place as a gross corruption, and sufficient to justifie their refusal of subscription to the book.
But I will not now trouble either you or my self, with farther curiosity in examining Translations: because howsoever other Translations, that render it, praying, or appeasing, may be allowed either as tolerably good or at least, excusably ill; yet this that rendreth it by Executing Iudgment, is certainly the best, whether we consider the course of the Story it self, or the propriety of the word in the Original, or the intent of the Holy Ghost in this Scripture. And this Action of Phinees in doing judgment upon such a pair of great and bold offenders was so well pleasing unto God, that his wrath was turned away from Israel, and the plague which had broken in upon them in a sudden▪ and fearful manner, was immediately stayed thereupon.
Oh how acceptable a sacrifice to God, above the blood of Bulls and of24. Goa… the death of a Malefactor slaughtered by the hand of Iustice! When the Magistrate, who is a… the …ath oft God; a Rom. 13▪ 4.foreign, the Minister and Priest of God for thi… very thinge… putteth his knife to the throat of the beast, and with the …ire of … holy zeal for GOD, and against sin, offereth him up in Holoca… stum, for a Whole burnt Offering, and for a peace-Offering, unto the Lord. Samuel saith, that b1 Sam. 15. 22.to obey is better than Sacrifice: and Solomon; that cProv. 21. 3.to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Obedience, that is the prime, and the best sacrifice: and the second best is the punishment of Disobedience. There is no readier way to appease Gods wrath against sin, than is the rooting out of sinners: nor can his deputies by any other course turn away his just judgments so effectually, as by faithful executing of Iustice and Iudgment themselves.
When Phinees did this act, the publick body of Israel was in a weak state,25. and stayed the Plague.and stood in need of a present and sharp remedy. In some former distempers of the State, it may be they had found some ease by diet, in dPsal. 35. 13.humbling their souls by fasting; or by an issue at the Tongue or Eye, in an humble confession of their sins, and in weeping and mourning for them with tears of repentance. And they did well now to make tryal of those Remedies again, wherein they had found so much help in former times: especially the Remedies being proper for the Malady, and such as often may do good, but never can do harm. But alas, fasting, and weeping, and mourning, before the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, had not strength enough against those more prevalent Corruptions, wherewith the State of Israel was then pestered. This Phinees saw; who well perceived, that (as in a dangerous Pleurisie the party cannot live unless he bleed; so) if there were any good to be done upon Israel in this their little less than desperate estate, a Vein must be opened, and some of the rank Blood let out for the preservation of the rest of the Body. This course therefore he tries: and languishing Israel findeth present ease in it. As soon as the Blood ran, instantly the Grief ceased: he executed Iudgment, and the Plague was stayed.
As God brought upon that people for their sins a fearful destruction; so26. he hath in his just wrath sent his destroying Angel against us for ours. TheEngland's Plague sins that brought that Plague upon them were, Whoredom and Idolatry. I cannot say the very same sins have caused ours. For although the execution of good Laws against both Incontinent and Idolatrous persons, hath been of late years, and yet is (we all know) to say no more, slack enough: yet, (God's holy Name be blessed for it) neither Idolatry nor Whoredom are at that height of shameless impudency and impunity among us, that they dare brave our Moseses, and out-face whole Congregations, as it was in Israel. But still this is sure no Plague but for sin: nor National Plagues but for National sins. So that albeit none of us may dare to take upon us to be so far of God's Counsel, as to say for what very sins most this plague is sent amongst us: yet none of us can be ignorant, but that, besides those secret personal Corruptions which are in every one of us, and whereunto every man's own heart is privy, there are many publick and National sins, whereof the people of this Land are generally guilty, abundantly sufficient to justifie GOD in his dealings towards us, and to ePsal. 51. 4.clear him when he is judged. Our wretched unthankfulness unto GOD for the long continuance of his Gospel, and our Peace: our Carnal Confidence and security in the strength of our wooden and watry Walls: our Riot and Excess (the noted proper sin of this Nation) and much intemperate Abuse of the good Creatures of GOD in our Meats, and Drinks, and Disports, and other provisions and comforts of this life: our incompassion to our brethren miserably wasted with War and Famine in other parts of the World: our heavy Oppression of our Brethren at home, in racking the rents, and cracking the backs, and fEsay 3. 15.Grinding the faces of the poor: our cheap and irreverent regard unto Gods holy Ordinances of his Word, and Sacraments, and Sabbaths, and Ministers: our Wantonness, and Toyishness of understanding, in corrupting the simplicity of our Christian Faith, and troubling the peace of the Church with a thousand niceties, and novelties, and unnecessary wranglings in matters of Religion: and (to reckon no more) that universal Corruption which is in those which (because they should be such) we call the Courts of Iustice, by sale of Offices, enhaunoing of Fees, devising new subtilties both for Delay and Evasion, trucking for Expedition, making Traps of petty poenal Statutes, and but Cobwebs of the most weighty and material Laws. I doubt not but by the mercy of God, many of his servants in this Land are free from some, and some from all of these common Crimes in some good measure: but, I fear me, not the best of us all, not a man of us all, but are guilty of all, or some of them, at least thus far, that we have not mourned for the Corruptions of the Times so feelingly, nor endeavoured the reformation of them to our power so faithfully, as we might and ought to have done.
By these and other sins we have provoked God's heavy judgment against27. to be stayed by adding to our humiliations.us, and the Plague is grievously broken in upon us: and now it would be good for us to know, by what means we might best appease his wrath, and stay this Plague. Publick Humiliations have ever been thought, and so they are, Proper Remedies against Publick Iudgments: fJoel 2. 12, 15, &c. & Num. 25. 6.To turn unto the Lord our God with all our heart, and with Fasting, and with Weeping, and with Mourning, to sanctifie a Fast, and call a solemn Assembly, and gather the People and Elders together; and weep before the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation; and to let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar, and to pray the Lord to spare his people, and not be angry with them for ever. Never did people thus humble themselves with true, lowly and obedient hearts, who found not Comfort by it in the mean time, and in the end benefit. And blessed be God who hath put it into the heart of our Moses, with the consent of the Elders of our Israel, by his Royal Example first, and then by his gProclamation for a weekly fast, with a form of divine Service, and other directions; published 1625.Royal Command, to lay upon us a double necessity of this so religious and profitable a course.
But as our Saviour told the young man in the Gospel, who said, he had kept the whole Law, hMark 10. 21.Unum tibi deest, One thing is wanting: so when28. we have done our best and utmost, fasted, and wept, and prayed as constantly, and frequently, and fervently, as we can; unless you the Magistrates and Officers of Justice be good unto us, one thing will be wanting still; One main Ingredient of singular Virtue, without which the whole Receipt besides, as precious and sovereign as it is, may be taken, and yet fail the Cure. And that is, the severe and fearless, and impartial Execution of Iudgment. Till we see a care in the Gods on Earth faithfully to Execute theirs; our hopes can be but faint, that the God of Heaven will in mercy remove his judgments. If God send a i2 Sam. 21. 1, &c.Famine into the Land; let holy David do what he can otherwise, it will continue year after year: so long as judgment is not done upon the bloody house of Saul, for his cruelty in slaying the Gibeonites, God will not be kIbid. ver. 14.intreated for the land. One known Achan, that hath got a wedge of gold by sacrilege or injustice, if suffered, is able to lJosh. 7. 25, 26.trouble a whole Israel: and the Lord will mI will not be with you any more, except you destroy the accursed from among you, v. 12.not turn from the fierceness of his Anger, till he have deserved judgment done upon him. If nNum. 25. 3, 4.Israel have joyned himself unto Baal-Peor, so as the Anger of the Lord be kindled against them; he will not be appeased by any means, until Moses take the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the Sun. If the Land be defiled with blood, it is in vain to think of any other course, when God himself hath pronounced it impossible that the Land should be oNum. 35. 33.purged from the blood that is shed in it, otherwise than by the blood of him that shed it.
Up then with the zeal of Phinees, up for the love of God and of his29. people, all you that are in place of authority. Gird your Swords upon your thigh, and with your Iavelins in your hand, pursue the Idolater, and the Adulterer, and the Murtherer, and the Oppressor, and every known Offender into his Tent, and nail him to the Earth, that he never rise again to do more mischief. Let it appear what pforeign. Lypsias apud Stob. Serm. 44.love you bear to the State, by your hatred to them: and shew your pity to us, by shewing none to them. The destroying Angel of God attendeth upon you for his dispatch: if you would but set in stoutly, he would soon be gone. Why should either sloth or fear, or any partial or corrupt respect whatsoever, make you cruel to the good in sparing the bad? or why should you suffer your selves, for want of courage and zeal to execute Judgment, to lose either the Opportunity, or the Glory, of being the instruments to appease Gods wrath, and to stay his plagues?
But, for that matters appertaining to Iustice and Iudgment, must pass30. with particular applications tothrough many hands before they come to yours, and there may be so much juggling used in conveying them from hand to hand, that they may be represented unto you many times in much different forms from what they were in truth and at the first: That your care and zeal to execute Iustice and Iudgment faithfully according to your knowledge, may not through the fault and miscarriage of other men, fail of the blessed end and success that Phinees found; I desire that every of them also, as well as you would receive the word of Exhortation, each in his place and office to set himself uprightly and unpartially, as in the sight of God, to advance to the utmost of his power the due course and administration of Iustice. And for this purpose, by occasion of this Scripture, which pointeth us to the End of these Assemblies; I shall crave leave to reflect upon another, which giveth us sundry particular directions conducing to that End. And it is that Scripture whereinto we made some entrance the last Assizes, and would have now proceeded farther, had not the heavy hand of God upon us in this his grievous Visitation led me rather to make choice of this Text, as the more seasonable. That other is written in Exodus 23. the Three first Verses. [Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment. Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.] Wherein were noted five special Rules, shared out among five sorts of persons; the Accuser, the Witness, the Iurer, the Pleader, the Officer. I will but give each of them some brief intimation of their duty, from their several proper rules; and conclude.
If thou comest hither then as a Plaintiff, or other Party in a civil cause, 31.or to give voluntary Information upon a Statute, or to prosecute against athe Accuser; Malefactor, or any way in the nature of an Accuser: Let neither the hope of Gain, or of any other advantage to thy self: not secret malice or envy against thine adversary, nor thy desire to give satisfaction to any third party, sway thee beyond the bounds of Truth and Equity, no not a little, either to devise an untruth against thy neighbour of thine own head, or by an hard construction to deprave the harmless actions or speeches of others, or to make them worse than they are by unjust aggravations; or to take advantage of letters and syllables to entrap innocency without a fault. When thou art to open thy mouth against thy brother, set the first Rule of that Text as a watch before the door of thy lips, Thou shalt not raise a false report.
If thou comest hither, secondly, to be used as a Witness; perhaps qSee Cic. pro Flac. although Turneb. 13. ad v. 14. interprets the Proverb otherwise; Graecd fide, id est optimâ.Graecâ 32.the Witness;fide, like a down-right Knight of the Post, that maketh of an r—quibùs jusjurandum jocus est, testimonium ludus; laus merces, gratia gratulatio proposita est—Cic. pro Flac.Oath a jest, and a pastime of a Deposition; or dealt withal by a bribe, or suborned by thy Landlord, or great Neighbour, or egged on with thine own spleen or malice, to swear and forswear as they shall prompt thee; or to (s) enterchange deposition with thy friend, as they use to do in Greece, Hodie mihi, cras tibi, (Swear thou for me to day, I'll swear for thee to morrow;) or tempted with any corrupt respect whatsoever, by thy Word or Oath to strengthen a false and unrighteous report. When thou comest to lay thy hand upon the book, lay the second Rule in that Text to thy heart, Put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Though hand joyn in tProv. 19. 5. & 9.hand, The false witness shall not be unpunished.
If thou comest hither, thirdly, to serve for the King upon the Grand Inquest, f foreign. dictum solenne Graecorum.or between party and party, in any cause whatsoever (like those u—deinde Pratores urbani qui jurati debent optimum quemque in selectos judices referre. Cic. pro Cluent. Unum ex selectis judicibus objiciebat. Horat. 1. Serm. sat. 4.selecti judices among the Romans, whom the Praetor for the year being, was to nominate, and that upon Oath, out of the most able and serviceable men in his judgment, both for Estate, Understanding and Integrity;) or to serve upon the Tales, perhaps at thine own suit to get something toward33. bearing charges for thy journey; or yoked with a crafty or a wilful foreman the Iurer;that is made before-hand, and a mess of tame after▪men withal that dare not think of being wiser than their Leader; or unwilling to stickle against a Major part, whether they go right or wrong; or resolved already upon the Verdict, no matter what the Evidence be: Consider what is the weight and religion of an Oath. Remember that he sinneth not less that sinneth with company. Whatsoever the rest do, resolve thou to do no otherwise than as God shall put into thy heart, and as the Evidence shall lead thee. The third Rule in that Text must be thy rule, Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. They are silly, that in point either of Religion or Iustice, would teach us to measure either Truth, or Right by multitudes.
If thou comest hither, fourthly, as to thine Harvest, to reap some fruit34. of thy long and expenceful study in the Laws, to assist thy Client and histhe Pleader; Cause with thy Counsel, Learning and Eloquence: think not, because thou speakest for thy Fee, that therefore thy tongue is not thine own, but thou must speak what thy Client will have thee speak, be it true or false; neither think, because thou hast the liberty of the Court, and perhaps the favour of the Iudg, that therefore thy tongue is thine own, and thou mayest speak thy pleasure to the prejudice of the Adversaries, person or cause: Seek not preposterously to win the name of a Good Lawyer, by wresting and perverting good Laws: or the opinion of the best Counsellor, by giving the worst and the shrewdest Counsel. Count it not as Protagoras did, the glory of thy profession, by subtilty of wit, and volubility of tongue to xforeign A. Gel. 5. Noct. Att. 5.make the worse cause the better: but like a yVir bonus dicendi peritus. Cicero.Good Man, as well as Good Orator, use the power of thy tongue and wit to shame impudence, and protect innocency, to crush oppressors, and succour the afflicted, to advance Justice and Equity, and to help them to right that suffer wrong. Let it be as a Ruled case to thee in all thy pleadings, not to speak in any cause to wrest judgment.
If lastly, thou art in any place or office of service, or trust, or command, 35.or attendance about the Courts: rejoyce not as if it were now in thythe Officer, power to do a friend a courtesie, or a foe a spite. Do not shew a cast of thy Office, for the promise or hope of a reward, in helping a great Offender out of the Briars. Compel not men that have been long weather-beaten in the Main, and are now arrived at the Haven of their business, to weather for their Passports, until they have offered some sacrifice to that great Diana, Expedition. Let no fear, or hope, or bribe, or letter, or envy or favour, no not charity it self and compassion to the poverty or distressedness of any, make you partial for the person, to disregard the Cause. If you would be charitable to the poor, give them from your own; but do not carve them from another's Trencher. To relieve a poor man in his wants, is the proper Office of Charity; but Iustice must have no eyes to see, nor bowels to yern at the wants of any man. Be he rich or poor that bringeth his cause hither; Currat Lex, Let him find such as he bringeth; Let him have as his cause deserveth. The last of those Rules must be thine. Thou shalt not countenance, no not a poor man in his cause.
If any of these to whom I have now spoken, Accusers, Witnesses, Iurers, 36.Pleaders, Officers, shall transgress these Rules, to the perverting of Iustice: and the Iudge.our refuge must be next under God to you that are the Magistrates of Justice, and sit upon the Bench of Judicature. At your gravity and authority we must take sanctuary, against them that pursue us wrongfully, as at the horns of the Altar. It is your Duty, (or if it be, as to most men it is, a more pleasing thing, to be remembred of their Power than of their Duty) it is in your power, if not to reform all the abuses and corruptions of these persons; yet to curb their open insolencies, and to contain them at least within modest bounds. Nay; since I have begun to magnifie your power; let me speak it with all the due reverence to God and the King, there is no power so great, over which (in a qualified sence) you have not a greater power. It is in your power to zPsal. 75. 2, 3.bear up the pillars of the State when the land is even dissolved, and the pillars thereof grown weak: for that is done by judging the Congregation according to right, Psal. 75. In yours; to make this yet flourishing Country and Kingdom glorious or despicable: for aProv. 14. 34.Righteousness exalteth a Nation, but sin is a reproach to any people, Prov. 14. In yours; to settle the Throne upon the King, and to entail it by a kind of perpetuity unto the right heir for many succeeding generations: for bProv. 16. 12.The Throne is established by justice, Prov. 16. In yours; to discharge Gods punishing Angel, who now destroyeth us with a grievous destruction, and by unsheathing your Sword to make him sheath his: as here in my Text, Phinees stood up, and executed judgment, and the plague ceased. In yours; though you be but Gods on Earth, and in these Courts, mortal, and petty Gods, yet to send prohibitions into the Court of Heaven, and there to stop the judgments of the great and Eternal God before they come forth; yea, and when the Decree is gone forth, to stay Execution. In a word, as it was said to Ieremy, but in another sence, you are cJer. 1. 10.Set over Nations, and over Kingdoms, to root out, and to destroy, to build and to plant. Only then be intreated to use that power God hath given you, unto edification, and not unto destruction. And now I have done my message. God grant unto all of us, that by our hearty sorrow and repentance for our sins past, by our stedfast resolutions of future amendment, and by setting our selves faithfully and uprightly in our several places and callings to do God and the King, and our Country service, in beating down sin, and rooting out sinners; we may by his good grace and mercy obtain pardon of our sins, and deliverance from his wrath, and be preserved by his power through faith unto salvation. Now to God the Father, the Son, &c.