Two Sermons, Sermon 1 – Title page 2
SAINT Paul's Exercise. A SERMON PREACHED before the Iudges at ASSIZE.
ACTS 24.16.
And herein doe I exercise my selfe, to hauehave alwaies a conscience, void of offence, toward God, and toward men.
IN this Chapter we hauehave a very great triall: the sitting is at one of the Caesareaes; the Iudge, (vnderunder Claudius) Foelix; the Emperors Aduocate, Tertullus; Plaintiffes, the Iewes; Defendant, Saint Paul; the Enditement, schisme and heresie; the euidence, thousands of testimonies, The Defendant is now vponupon his answer, who hauing mard the Lawyers set starcht speech, tenders the Iudge an abridgment of his faith before, of his life here.
And here (for time denies discourse) is considerable an act, termed, Exercise: the subiect of it, Pauls selfe: the obiect of it, Pauls conscience: the end of it, void of offence, and that at all times, in all points; towards God, in the first; towards man, in the second table.
In the Atturnies speech you cannot aSo Melanthus of Diogenes his Tragedie. Plut.see matter for words; in Saint Pauls, scarce words for matter: eueryevery terme is stuft if wee had time; but generals once obserued, particulars shall be saluted as we passe.
Thus much you already see, that there is no cause so bad, but some will plead it; no man so good, but some will slander him; no case so cleere, but some will question it; no thing so false, but some will sweare it. Iudges then had neede to doe as bV. Causabon in Sueton. l. 2.their ancients did; first sacrifice, then sentence, and to be as Dauid was, wise like an Angell of God.
Thus the Context; for the Text, this abridgment must yet bee abridged, and all shut vp in this one conclusion: Doct. 1 Propound.EueryEvery man must chiefly looke to this, that his conscience bee not offended: men, be they pleased or not pleased, conscience must not bee displeased. This is the maine: and for our briefer dispatch of this point, this order will be taken; First, the termes must bee vnsolded; next, the proposition confirmed, and then applied.
My comming hither was to satisfie others, not my selfe; being come, my care shall bee, to satisfie my selfe (in point of conscience) not others: for the wise, I am secure in their loues; for the Countrey, I am much grieued that I hauehave not learning enough to bee plaine enough, in that explication which we now set vponupon.
In Saint Pauls Action, and our Proposition, three things come to be considered; 2 Expounded.The Subiect, Obiect, End.
For the first, no more but this; Wee inferre from Pauls exercise, cach mans duty: because this quatenùs, and respect of this reaches to all. It is true, he was a Preacher, but hee is not now considered as a Preacher, but as a man; and in my Text, his life is mentioned, not his faith, or function.
For the second, it is (Conscience) a word of great latitude and infinite dispute. It is taken sometime properly, sometime generally; if we will speake distinctly of it, wee must finde out its nature, place, office, (so we purposely terme the genus, subiect, and finall cause of conscience) which by order must concurre to its definition.
1 For the first, I take Conscience to bee both a faculty, and a distinct facultie too of the soule: the cV. Aquin. in sum. & in quaest. disputat.Schooles reiect that; others this; but besides reason, the written Word bends most that way: 1 Tim. 15.1 Tim. 1. it is distinguished from the will: Titus the 1. vers. 15. from the minde: and if we marke it, Conscience is so farre from being one of both, or both in one, as that there is betweene them, first a iealousie, then an open faction: the other powers of the soule, taking Conscience to be but a spie, doe what they can, first to hide themselues from it, next to deceiue it, after to oppose it, and lastly, to depose it; Conscience (on the other side) laboureth to hold it owne, and (till it be blinded, or bribed) proceeds in its office, in despight of all oppositions, it cites all the powers of nature, sits vponupon them, examines, witnesseth, iudges, executes: hereof come those foreign, selfe conferences, or reasonings, Rom. 2.as Paul termes them; thence those mutuall Apologies, and exceptions amongst themselues, when conscience sits. Romanes 2. I know the words are otherwise caried: but (foreign) will hardly brooke any other bias that is set vponupon them.
For the second, the common subiect of Conscience, is the reasonable soule: there is some shadow of this in a beast, as there is of reason, but it is a shadow. The proper seat is (I thinke) the highest part thereof; it is vsually referred (you know) to the practicall vnderstanding, because it is busied about actions, and driues all its workes to issue by discourse. But as that ground is too weake (for neither is eueryevery discourse conscience, nor eueryevery act of conscience a discourse) so is that roome too straight: wee had rather therfore place conscience somewhat higher, vnderunder God, but ouer all in man, distinct from other faculties, yet still sheathed in the body (as Daniel speakes of the whole spirit) and (as I thinke) is that which Origen meant by his Paedagogus, and others by their Genius.Dan. 7.
The third thing is its end and office; tis set in man to make knowen to man, in what termes he stands with God, thence its name; therefore fitly tearmed, the soules glasse, the vnderstandings light.
Conscience therefore is a prime faculty of the reasonable soule, Damasc.there set to giuegive notice of its spirituall estate, in what termes it stands with God. Vnderstand me thus; The soule (I suppose) is rankt into three parts; and those into as many courts and offices: the sensitiue part hath its court of Common pleas; the intellectuall, of the Kings Bench; the spirituall (so to speake) a Chancery; in this court all causes are handled, but still with speciall reference to God: here sits the Conscience as Lord Chancellor, the Synteresis as master of the Roles: to this court all the powers of man owe and pay seruice, till the Iudge be either willingly feed, or vnwillingly resisted. And this of conscience, strictly taken.
Now secondly, V. Heming. de l…geratur.'tis taken sometime more generally, sometime for the whole court and proceedings of conscience, by the fathers: sometime for the whole soule of man, either stooping to conscience, or reflecting vponupon it selfe: so the Hebrews euer; you neuer find that terme (Conscience) with them, but (heart, spirit.) So Iohn (who most abounds with Hebraismes) If our heart condemne, or condemne vsus not. Thus here the word may be vsed, though not necessarily, & (to speak popularly) Pauls heart, soule, conscience shal be the same thing. And thus of the second terme.
The third followeth (without offence) it is the conscience that caries the soule, as the foot the body, through all waies and weather: therefore Saint Paul would be as chary of this, as the trauellers of that; Conscience should not be offended, lest it should offend. Conscience, as the foot (for that is the allusion) is then offended, when the welfare of it is impeached: the welfare of it stands in its fit constitution, and working, or managing of its proper actions: which as Paul deliuers them, are;
1 Knowing.
2 Witnessing.
3 Comforting.
And now (accidentally) since the fall, accusing and tormenting. And for its constitution, it stands in cleerenesse, tendernesse, quietnesse, and when it is either so blinded or dazeled, seared, lamed, that it cannot doe its office, then it is said to be offended.
The degrees and meanes of this offence may not (for haste) be here inserted; as time will giuegive leaue, wee will touch vponupon some anon: in the meane we now put together, what all this while we hauehave bin spelling, and resume our point, thus explained.
EueryEvery Christian must be carefully watchfull, that his soule, spirit, or conscience bee no way grieued by sinnes. And this for explication: for the time, enough; for the thing, too little.
Now follows the proofe, 3. Proued.and that is most easie: First, from Precept; Aboue all keepings, keepe thy heart, saith Salomon, Prou. 4.23. Next, from Example; wee hauehave a cloud of witnesses, Prophets, Apostles, Martyres, who would hazard themselues vponupon the angry Seas, Lyons, Flames, rather then vponupon a displeased conscience. Thirdly, from Reason; First, for Gods cause we should make much of conscience, that being his officer, and therein standing the chiefest of his image, and mans excellency: the perfection of man is his knowledge; the perfection of knowledge, is e1 King. 2.44.the knowledge therof, which is conscience. Secondly, for our peace sake, conscience being (as Austen often) like a wife, Aug. in Psal.the best of comforts, if good: the worst of naughts, if bad: for first, deale friendly with conscience, and it proues the best of friends, next God; first, the truest, that will neuer flatter, but make thee know thy selfe; secondly, the surest, that will neuer start, it lies with thee, it sits with thee, it rides with thee, it sleeps with thee, it wakes with thee, it walkes with thee, in eueryevery place, beyond all times. Thirdly, it is the sweetest friend in the world: if naturall cheerefulnesse bee so good a house keeper to a good man, that it feasts daily (as Salomon saith) O then what be the bankets of conscience, sanctified and purified? what ioyes those which will carry a man aboue fQuasivolitare te facit recti Consc. Chrys. de neq. &c. Tom. 5.ground, & make him forget the best of natures comforts? what comforts those which will make one sing vnderunder the whip, in the stocks, at the stake in despight of the fire? what the strength of conscience, that can sooner tire the Tyrant than the Martyr? and can carry weake strength (as weake as water, as it were) in triumph through a world of bonds, rods, swords, racks, wheeles, flames, strappadoes, and whatsoeuer else? These ioyes be impregnable and vnspeakable indeed, this peace is vnconceiuable, this friend vnmatchable; and shall such a one, so true, so fast, so good, bee sleighted or offended?
Secondly, offend conscience, and it will proue as the inmost, so the vtmost enemy. First, vnauoidable, doe what thou canst thou canst not shake it off; when thou goest, it goes; when thou fliest, it runnes; still it cries and raises the countrey against thee, it meets thee in the darke, and makes thee leape; it meets thee in the day, and makes thee quake; it meets thee in thy dreames, and makes thee start; in eueryevery corner, and makes thee thinke eueryevery bush to bee a man, V. Pausan. in Plut. de sera vind. et Flacchum in Philo ludaeo.eueryevery man a deuill, eueryevery deuill a messenger sent to carry thee quicke to hell: thou commest to thy chamber, there conscience frights thee; thou commest to the field, there it turnes thee; thou turnest againe, it crosses the way vponupon thee againe; thou turnest, it turnes; thou criest, it cries; thou darest not call, if thou didst, conscience feares not company.
Secondly, vnsufferable, V. Aug. de catechi. rudibus.it strips one of all comforts at one time: if a sicke stomacke will make one weary of chaires, beds, meats, drinks, friends, all, Oh what will a sick conscience doe?
Next, it puts one to intolerable paines, it racks the memory, and makes it run backward twenty yeeres, as Iosephs brethren, De sera vindicta.and Aristocrates in Plutarch, yea, it twinges for sinnes of youth, as Iob complaines, it racks the vnderstanding, and carries it forward beyond the graue, and makes it feele the very bitternesse of death and hell, before it sees them; it racks the phantasie, and makes it see ghosts in men, Lyons in children, as it is storied of some, it troubles the eye, Procopius de bello Gothic. l. 1. Plut. vbi supra.and makes a murthering Theodericke see the face of a man in the mouth of a Fish: it troubles the eare, and makes a Bessus heare the cry of murther in the chattering of birds: it racks all the senses quite out of ioynt, and makes a Saunders runne ouer Irish mountaines out of his wits: In short, it so oppresses, V. Instit. Britan.that it causes the sweating soule to cry with Dauid, Psal. 51. Psal. 90.O my bones are broken; and with Moses, Who knowes the power of thy wrath? And to ioyne with Salomon, A wounded conscience who can beare? Pron. 18.what man? what Angell? who vnderunder Christ? Nay, this stroke vponupon the soule (separate from all sin) drew from the LORD of life those sad cries, My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That which thousand taunts, ten thousand racks could not hauehave done, this one alone apprehended, and felt, wrested from him: and shall such a thing as this, so neere, so great a neighbour be offended?
Wee hauehave done with proofes, Vses. wee now apply. Wherein first, shall we chide or weepe, to see the wickednesse of these times, and the infinite distance twixt Paul and vsus? O Paul, thou art almost alone; thou studiedst conscience, wee of this age craft: thou didst gage thine owne, wee other mens: thy care was to please conscience, wee the times: thine to walk euenly before God and man, ours to serue our selues on both: thou eueryevery where wast for conscience, wee almost no where: thou wouldst see conscience take no wrong, now wit out-reasons it, wealth out-faces it, money out-buies it, might ouer-matches it, all vnderunder-value it.
Its a wonderfull thing, that so rich a Pearle should bee so cheape, so rare a thing, so commonly sold: surely markets are wondrous dead for conscience, eueryevery man is readier to sell than to buy, and to put off vponupon any rates; for sixpence a man will lye, for six-pence he will steale, for six-pence hee will sweare: yea, in some causes and Hals you may hauehave twelue consciences for one dinner. O Conscience, keepe not silence at this, know thy place, doe thy office; cry, now thou art among Schollers, Tradesinen, Iurers, Lawyers, Patrons, Landlords, Iudges; cry against those houses which discommon thee, against those shops which sell thee, those Patrons which keepe out thee, those Pleaders which purse thee, those Iurers which stretch and racke thee, those Iudges that disgrace and hang thee.
If any of any fort named be now within kenning, thou knowest him, goe, attach him, shake him, binde him ouer to Christs Assizes; if not, yet send word by these to such a one, that thou wilt hauehave him aliue or dead before thy master. As for those which doubt of Conscience, as the Cymmerians did of the Sun, & scorne all religion as if it were but superstition; arise, O conscience, vponupon them, thunder, lighten, flash flames, and whole hells into their eyes and hearts, till they cry, O Conscience, hold thy hand.
As for you present, be intreated to two things; Vse. 2 First, talke with your hearts alone, and in case conscience be angry with you once, agree, else neuer safe; nor field, nor towne, nor bed, nor boord, nor life, nor death, nor depth, nor graue can render you secure.
Conscience speakes not still indeed, but still it writes, and when it sees its time, twill read its bils; Item, such a time a lye, from such a man a bribe, with such a one adultery, &c. O preuent these reckonings thus; First, confesse thy debts, thy sinne, and reuerse thine owne doings, with some Martyrs. Secondly, sprinkle the blood of Christ vponupon thy Couscience, hide thy sinne in his wounds, the onelyonly place exempt from this Officer.
O but my debts sinke me. Obiect.
O but if Christ be thy Surety, Absol. he can pay more than thou canstowe. V. Greg. in Eze. hom. 9.O but I dare not see his face, Conscience doth so cry. Ay but the blood of Christ speakes better than the blood of Abel: that cries, The blood of a Brother is shed, Vengeance: Christs, The blood of a Sauiour is shed, Pardon. O but you little thinke how monstrous my sinnes bee. Yea, but I know that if wee confesse with broken hearts, the blood of Christ shall cleanse from all sinne, 1 Ioh. 1. V. Cypria. de caen. dom.and calme the Conscience, as Ionah did the Seas.
Secondly, be of Pauls minde; First, set conscience at a high price, consider what it will bee worth in the day of trouble, of death, of iudgement; weigh what the price of Conscience would be in hell, if men might buy their peace, and thereafter rate it; and resolue to beg, starue, burne, dye ouer a thousand deaths to saue Consciences life.
Next, vse Pauls meanes, looke to God, and man. For God; First (with Paul) wee must beleeue what is written; Faith and Conscience are embarked in the same ship, 1 Tim. 1.5. & 3.9. Heresie is a selfe condemning sinne. Secondly, wee must professe what is beleeued; concealements and aequiuocations before a Iudge, will shake for the time, a Bilney or Cranmer; V. Preface to Diasius his story.but will make a Spyra or Hoffme to roare. Thirdly, wee must practise whats professed, conscience cannot abide either halfing, or halting.
Secondly, for man; If we hauehave giuen our voice or hand against the innocent (with Saint Paul) wee must retract it, and though we hauehave wronged a Martyr (as he Saint Stephen) repentance will procure a pardon. Secondly, hereafter, our life (with his) must be, first, faire; secondly, fruitfull: and when wee thus procure things honest before God and man, man cannot, conscience must not, God will not once condemne vsus. This the generall.
Now we hauehave some speciall errands yet to deliuer; First, to you of lower ranke; Vse. 3 Doe you stand in the face of iudgment this day, with Pauls conscience. In priuate, you would seeme sicke of the Countrey; you sigh at miscariages, that the common horse is no better sadled: make good these priuate whisperings by publik verdicts and enditements, else I shall hold you slanderers. You know your charge: is any thing amisse in waies, fields, townes, tenants, landlords, Recusants, officers of any sort? now speake, now commence it, spare none. What? Shall I endite my friend? No, nor foe neither, vnlesse conscience binde thee; if, present him what euer he be: What, a neighbour? a neighbour, a kinsman? a kinsman, a Iustice? a Iustice, my Landlord? thy Landlord. Nay, Ile rather lose my Issues. O basenesse, what said the heathen to such a dastard? Zeno in Plut. of bashfulnesse.Is not hee afraid to appeare in a bad cause? Demosih.and fearest thou in a good? And againe, if thou thus feare a lampe, how wilt thou stand before the Sun? Ay, but I dwell in his house: What then? resolue as the Cantabrians to Augustus, Plut. vbi supra.Though my house & land be yours, yet whilst I breathe, I wil be none but mine owne, and Gods. But I cannot liue without him; but thou canst dye without him: and tis better to dye a thousand deaths, than to stab one Conscience. No more to you, but Eliahs farewel to Naaman, who had the like thorn in his foot; what euer becomes of your places, or estates, so walke, so goe, as may be for your peace: for so I thinke the words may truly be read, the original hauing ל not כ: thogh these I grant be oftē confounded.
Next, to you of higher ranke I hauehave a double suit; First, that you will hauehave some mercy on other mens consciences; next, on your owne.
For the first, my meaning is, not to plead for the conscience of any, either Familist, or Separatist, least of all for Hannoes faction, which wil not bee tamed, I meane the Papists, these cry out (I know) of money-lawes, V. Epistle of English persecutions.of bloody-lawes, bloody Iudges, bloody Preachers, bloudy proceedings against poore consciences. But what (I wonder) hath ignorance, idolatry, wilfulnesse, treachery to doe with Conscience? Had I time, I thinke I could proue, that Popery hath beene the sorest enemy that euer conscience met withall in the Christian world: whether doctrines, or dispensations, or medicines, or practises be considered. But howsoeuer, an erroneous conscience euer bindes: So Bellarmine deliuers it as an axiom, but better Schollers than Bellarmine will not bee so generall, so confident; they distinguish, and indeed, needs must; I cannot now dispute: for our purpose this may suffice.
First, ignorance is not conscience, which euer implies science.
Secondly, Conscience hath no power to bind of it selfe, but what it deriues from some word; and where the word binds mee (for the purpose) to come to Church, Conscience cannot binde to the contrary.
Thirdly, there is no word that makes conscience the rule of faith, and life simply, but as it is well informed. It is somewhat thats said in the Schooles, an erroneous conscience may suffice to sinne, but not to vertue: and well it may be, that it may entangle like a common Barrettor, but in proper speech it cannot binde, especially when a third waylies open, V. Aug. epist. 50.and wilfulnesse will not take it, as it is in some Recusants. Touching these I wish they might bee first priuately conuinced; next, publikely compelled, ad media fidei; & so leauing them, I come to those of whō I was speaking amongst our selues. There bee of Pauls faith, who hauehave not Pauls conscience; some so wicked, Cic. pro Milone.that for a need theile sweare that their friend or foe was at Rome, and Interamna, both at once: Sucton. l. 6.some so weake, that for a great Claudius theil first dreame, and then sweare their dreames be true. Of these (if knowen) the one sort would be affrighted from an oath, the other heartened to performances. Let it bee Antichrists sinne, to sit euen in this walking temple also (Conscience) and so to terrifie men, Throgmor, in Euerards Britannokom.that they dare not liue, nay die (as it is said of one) without leaue: doe not any of you meance before hand, or frowne after, when a Iurer, witnesse, Constable, officer, hath said or done but conscience: if hee doe, conscience marke him, frowne vponupon him, pursue him as fiercely, as hee doth his poore brother cruelly.
Lastly (with S. Paul) be fauourable to your own consciences. And here, as you must keepe the Philosophers diet: to fast from sinne; so chiefly from these three; first, from sinning against your places of trust: secondly, against your oaths taken: thirdly, against humanity, especially a multitude: all which being against the lawes of the land, of nations, of nature, of God, cannot chuse but be most wrongful to conscience. And here is that which toucheth all our freeholds: I wil begin at home, lest I seeme partiall. 1 Tutors, you hauehave a great charge, and withall a great aduantage, a whole parish, lordship, countrey, diocesse contracted into a few youths; keepe a good conscience towards God and man in discharging your trust, and fitting your charge for both.
Secondly, we in the Ministery are in places of trust, the Gospell is committed to vsus, as to S. Paul; O happy wee, if wee can say after him, We preach not as pleasing men, but God which tries the heart: wee are men of conscience, let conscience rule and master vsus: hauehave we charges? when they pay for their diet after a hundred a yeere, let Conscience tell vsus, that fiue a yeere in conscience will bee too little. Are wee in the Pulpit? bring Conscience thither, and lose it not there; let Conscience choose the Text, pen the Sermon; and if (with Chrysostome) wee hauehave once been carried with applause, now let vsus delight in their repenting, and our owne conscience.
Thirdly, Patrons, you are farre entrusted with the Churches goods, her portion lies in your hands; Landlords ye bee, but not Churchlords; you are but executors, nay seoffees only in trust; if you must hauehave a fee for paying a due legacy, it is not an apocryphall competency that will stop conscience mouth: Be not deceiued (saith Saint Paul) in this case, God is not mocked; Gal. 6.mens soules were bought with blood, they will not be sold better cheape: let not the price of blood come into your common treasury; set not soules and schollars on crying, we cannot liue for want of teaching, nor wee teach for want of liuing, this will not proue comfort one day.
Fourthly, Lieutenants, you bee in places of trust, turne Theaters into Artillery yards with Pyrrhus, and when you muster, make not Ioabs muster, by halfes.
Fiftly, as for you much reuerenced and honoured Fathers, Sheriffes, Iustices, Iudges, besides trust, you hauehave taken an oath for the common good; if euer (as I trust euer) you make conscieuce of any thing, you will of an oath; good Fathers, make conscience Porter at all your gates, let none come in or out without this Porters leaue: let Conscience lead you thorow all chambers to the hall, and tell you, these roomes were built, these commons ordained, these places giuen to the poore, to the honest, to the learned, not to sonnes of worship, of honour, not: I know you are importuned with letters, but would you send Conscience to the Court with a supplication, I doubt not but that you should receiue that order that Antiochus once made, Plut. in Apotheg. saith it was Antigonus.That if Letters came from him or his Nobles, to the preiudice of the Common good, his subiects should pocket them as vnwittingly written.
6 As for you that now are, and others that hereafter shall be Sheriffes, I beseech you know your place, your oath; looke to vnderunder-officers that they abuse not poore men with exactions, and executions; the countrey with talesses and other exorbitances; look to yonder Castle (your charge for the time) see what order is there kept, which corrupts (if same lye not) more than corrects: looke vponupon those poore soules, which vsually be as vnfit to dye as to liue, for want of instruction; and let Conscience perswade you to take some publike and setled course for them amongst your selues.
Souenthly, and touching you (much honoured Iustices and Gentlemen) no more but so, till I come to a Iudges duty; you are sworne men, I beseech you peruse your oath: and if you heed not a Plutarch or a Pliny, which cry shame vponupon those Magistrates that will sit by the fire, or bee in the field with reapers, when they should be on the bench, & cast more to end the Sessions, than to amend faults; yet feare that double cannon which Gods word discharges vponupon the negligent, Curse ye Merosh, Iudg. 5.which will not come to helpe the Lord against the mighty; Ier. 48.and cursed bee hee that doth the worke of the Lord negligently, and with-holds the sword.
Generally, all yee that are more publike and eminent, remember you are Christians, you are men: say as good Nehemiah touching your poore tenants, brethren, vnderlings, Neh. 5.they are our flesh and our brethren; if you stiffen your selues against their cries, when they lie at your foot as Ioseph at his brethrens, Obrother Iudah, helpe; why, brother Leui; why, brother Zebulon, all or some pitty me; know that a time shall come, when Conscience shall cry vponupon you, and you vponupon God, but all in vaine.
Eightly, I end with you, Reuerend Iudges: God speakes Law by you, Conscience by vsus; in both, hee, and he alone must be acknowledged. Your persons I neither know, nor touch: with your Conscience my businesse is this, To mind them, that they may mind you of, first, your places, and secondly, your oaths.
For the first, your place (in summe) is very publike, and your reuerend selues must be wholly publike; you eat not your owne bread, possesse not your owne seat, swallow not your own ayre; you may not here know your owne friends, owne your owne words, thoughts, breath, but lose your selues in the common cause, as riuers their names in the maine Ocean. Particularly, the Lord honours you with these titles. Hos. 4.18. Psal. 47.First, you are termed Shields, your place is to stand betweene God and the people; and by timely censuring knowne sinnes, Deut. 21.and sacrificing for vnknowne, to keepe publike plagues and the land apart; your office is to plucke the spoile out of the teeth of the mighty, as Iob did; and to bestride your poore brother, when hee is stricken downe. Alas, Iustice will fall in the streets, and swound at the barre, if you doe not support her; a poore man cannot be a constant Tearmer, and retaine halfe a dozen Lawyers at once: hee can buy beggery with as little cost, and lesse paines at home, and therefore heeds his people; Husband (saith the wife) father (saith the child) let all goe, let vsus liue together tho wee starue together: did you but see the teares that are shed in some families at the beginning and ending of tearmes, by occasion of tedious suits, your hearts would bleed. Next, Iudg. 18.7.you are tearmed Heires of restraint; stand for your inheritance, and (what you may) restrain multitudes of suits, delaies in suits frowne vponupon those Athenians, who will neuer heare of peace, till they bee (as he said) clothed with blacke; Iudg. 11.vponupon those quarrelling Ammonites, that rake amongst the moths (as one speakes) for a title that was rotten three hundred years before: frowne vponupon those Tertullusses, who care not what the cause bee, so the fee bee good: frowne vponupon the drunkards, swearers, and other Belialists of this age, and botches of the state; and as your place is, Iudg. 18. put them to shame.
Thirdly, you are called Healers: Esa. 3.would God you would go to the quicke, and heale our breaches in the causes thereof. The Countrey is sicke of superstition, idlenesse, vncleannesse, thefts, and the like: but whence the disease? that would be thought vponupon: the idle is whipt, but who sets him on worke? the vncleane seruant is punisht, but who pitties him for mariage? the ignorant is censured, but who teaches him? the wanderer is paid for roauing, but who puld downe his house? poore men indited for eating of sheep, but who endites sheepe for eating of men? the law takes order for all (you will say) wee read it enacted, would we could see it executed.
Next, as you must begin at the cause, so proceed in order: heale the greatest breaches. Ile name but one in the State, two in the Church; and I would you were as able, as I presume you are willing to make them vp.
The first is a decay, not of husbandry, but of husbandmen: V. Sir W. Ral. story.twas once the saying, That the Husbandry and Yeomanry of England were the freest men in the world: but if all paiments and emploiments be rolled vponupon them, whilst Landlords encroche & Vsurers go tole-free, the whole body will be leane, when the belly is so lanke.
For the Church there be two maimes, which would my blood could cure. The first is, the misplacing of Church liuings: which once made improper, run too often into Papists hands, who hauehave wit enough to defeat law, and to present a Clerke that is blinde and poore enough. The second is the paring of other Church liuings. Men may speake their pleasure of the pride and idlenesse of the Clergie (neither of which, where either is found, shall by me be defended) but this I am sure of, by reason that now and then (it is but now and then) a peece of gold is put into my hands to giuegive a Scholler: some men who can be charged with neither, hauehave scarce any bookes in the studie, any bread in the cubboord: and (that which is worse) there is scarce a countrey Preacher that hereafter will breed his childe a Scholler; partly because he cannot, pouerty it selfe is now so deare: partly because he sees no liuing can be had without the losse of two the dearest things, liberty and conscience: the world hath found a remedy to helpe all this: first, let them not marry: secondly, let them teach schoole. Heare O ye heauens, and blush at these answers: that which is granted (to wit, maintenance and marriage) to eueryevery painfull Tailor, Tapster, Cobler, thats denied to Christs Ambassador, because hee is an Ambassador: he must not liue, vnlesse hee will peece two such callings together as will breake a backe of steele.
Fourthly, you are termed Fathers: 2 King. 5. Et passim ne sis Deo magis misericors.direct you must, correct you may, but all in louelove. A heathen man could say, that mercy must be shewen to a beast in his death, much more to a man in a Christian state. Tis true, when God bids slay, tis not mercy but hypocrisie to spare; but yet mercy must bee in the heart, when iustice is in the hand, and a Iudge must smite a sinner, as Ioshua did Achan, as a father his child, with a weeping eie and feeling heart.
Lastly, you are rearmed gods: Chrysost. in act. 24. Psal. 82.God hath set you in his chaire, lent you his name; and when we come to the Hall, wee come to see and heare the Lord in you: Oh remember whose person you sustaine, so walke that you may honour him and your selues both in one. When the rude Soldiers saw the Senators at Rome sit grauely in their Robes, they held them gods: but so soone as one grew waspish, and discouered himselfe, they tooke them for men, despised, spoiled them. It will bee so with all Magistrates, so long as they hold themselues to grauity, iustice, equity, they will bee honoured as gods; but if once they discouer the feares, passions, partialities of men, they grow into contempt euen with their friends, as Tacitus notes of Tiberius his flatterers: mans heart knowes not how to reuerence any thing but Gods image; where this is darkened, mens tongues and pens will be bold with the greatest. Thus the storie speakes of Claudius, V. Sucton. & Dion.a very moderate and painfull Iustice; but then his wife and seruants turnd him round: of Vespasian, a worthy Iudge, that could in iudgement forget priuate offences; but then he was too couetous: of Alexander, a great man, of great parts; but then a kinswoman could make him partiall: and againe, hee was still in haste; Plut.and if Dauid himselfe giuegive sentence rather running than sitting, a hundred to one he miscaries in the matter of Mephibosheth: yea, this wee see in Pilate himselfe, a man willing to hauehave all well, but too timorous; when once that thunderclap came, You are not Caesars friend, downe falls the Iudge, and for the keeping of one, lost three friends, God, Conscience, and Caesar too. It is then a disgrace to the Iudge, not to sample his Lord; but to God himselfe an infinite dishonour, when his excellencies shall be concealed, and himselfe presented to the world, a passionate, fearefull, corrupt, vnright Iudge.
It is (you know my Lords, a great sinne to bely a man in publike; but to corrupt Gods records, to peruert his words, to make Gods mouth on the Bench to condemne the innocent, to commend the wicked, or Gods hand to act iniustice, this will make Conscience cry.
Now then (O yee visible Gods) receiue your charge from Iehosaphat his mouth, Take heed, 2 Chron. 19.7.the iudgement is Gods, not mans; hee respects no persons, receiues no gifts. God is the substance, you but lines and the superficies, which moues onelyonly as the body moues them: you must receiue your charge from him; what God saith, you must say; what hee doth, you must doe; what hee abhorres, you must shun: hee respects none, nor rich, nor poore, nor friend, nor foe; no more must you: he receiueth no gift, by himselfe, nor his man Elijah, nor his mans man Gehesie, without distaste; no more must you. Looke vponupon him your Iudge, vponupon your age, (your confidence as well as Solons:) vponupon your oath, which is so strict: looke vponupon your Conscience, and let the peace thereof be your friend, gold, siluer, all, as Austen speakes. And so if you doe, In Psal. 36.we proclaime another Assises, and doe you to vnderstand for your encouragement, that if you can say with Saint Paul, I labour (still labour) to keepe conscience (my owne Conscience) void of offence, (all offence) towards all persons, in all causes; you shall hauehave Pauls boldnesse before men, his comfort in death, his honour after with men, euer with God, before, at, after that his Assises to be held by his Son, before two worlds of men, and millions of Angels.
Now, O thou who art the God of gods, and Iudge of men, fasten that in our hearts, which thou hast spoken to our eares: and giuegive Iudges, Iustices, Iurers, Preachers, Tutors, all, grace to practise what thou hast taught; that so hauing Pauls Conscience in life, wee may hauehave Pauls comfort in death, &c.
FINIS.
S. PAƲLS CONFIDENCE DELIVERED IN A SERMON before the IVDGES of ASSISE. By Robert Harris.
FIDE IVSTVS VIVET DEVS PROVIDEBIT
יהוה
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LONDON, Printed for IOHN BARTLET, at the gilt Cup in Cheape-side, 1628.