I Am not so ignorant of my infirmi­ties, Preface. (Right Honorable and Be­loved) as to have adventured on so great a province, before so noble an Assembly, in such an im­portant time, and on so short warning; if my obedience to Gods call in your commands had not swayed more with me than any confidence of my own sufficiency, whose greatest ambition is to walk humbly with my God in the amplest services I were able to do for his glory, his Churches peace, and my Countries welfare.

[Page 2] The great and publique im­portance of this Parlia­ment,§. I well understand the great importance of this Parliamentary Convention as to the peace and setling of this Church and State; all things sacred and civil are imbarqued in your counsels, and ad­ventured on your Justice and Mercy, your piety and Humility, your Equanimity and Moderation. You, under God, are the Ark in which the wea­ther-beaten and scattered remains of our Religion, Laws, Estates, Liberties, Peace, Honors and Lives are deposited; so much of them as hath escaped the tedious tempest and the terrible deluge of our sad troubles and confusions these last score of years; in which the windows of heaven (the just wrath of God) and the fountains of the great deep (the lusts and passions of mens evil hearts) have met together to punish our sins.

§. You are looked upon as Noah and his family, (semen novi orbis) a seed and nursery of true Christi­an Protestants, of right English Gentlemen, in which there may yet be a blessing; you (with the other Right Honorable House of Peers) are the hoped Repairers of the vaste breaches made upon our Laws, and the Restorers of our Reformed Religi­on, so miserably deformed, defamed and almost quite desolated, as to any beauty, order, and anity.

§. You are the center in which all our secular Votes and hopes do meet; or rather you are the circumference, orbe and circle, in which they are all contained, that you may draw them all to their right point, and proper center, of fixed duty to God and Man: You are the answer of many prayers and tears; God forbid you should miscarry: yea, [Page 3] as St. Ambrose said to Monica of her Son St. Austin (while he was yet debauched in both morals and in­tellectuals, in opinion and practice) I am not a little confident you will not miscarry; nay I am sure you cannot miscarry if you steer your counsels and acti­ons by the compass of this Text, Doing Justice, loving Mercy, and walking humbly with your God. Pride, cruelty and Injustice have been and will be our un­doing.

§. It will be your wisdom to look to this cyno­sure or benign constellation; in which Law and Go­spel, Justice and Mercy are joyned with humility; in these, your inward peace of conscience no less than your outward comforts, together with your honor and all our safeties are conjoyned. Beware you mistake not blazing meteors of partial and fanatick interests, for the fixed stars of our firma­ment, our fundamental laws, and publique welfare, lest the hand of God break out against you, as it hath done against others, and cut you off by a fur­ther abscission, as parts of desperate and incurable distempers, which are to be smitten no more by the fruitless stroaks and superfluous severities of a chastising Father, or an healing and searching Chy­rurgeon, but with the wounds of such enemies, and cruel ones, as seek to cut us off from being a Refor­med Church, and a Renowned Nation under hea­ven.

I lately in a great ( [...]) and publick Assem­bly set forth the hurts and slight healings of the Daughter of my people, by a faithful scrutiny, and just severity, with which all honest hearts were af­fected: I now bring a vial of Balm from Gilead [Page 4] very precious and soveraign, wherewith to present you, who are by a miraculous Providence, and the wise conduct of a modern Heroe, called by God, and chosen by men to be our Physitians: Not that I am to teach Senators wisdom; but I know you will not disdain to learn of God; for from the tree of life, his holy Word, together with the tree of know­ledge of good and evill, (your own experience) this divine balsom is distilled;

1. There is a Justice of expiation, to break off our sins by repentance, which is Debitum Deo & animae, a debt to God and our souls.

2. A Justice of compensation, by meet repairing our publique injuries; which is Debitum bonis, a debt due to all good men.

3. A Justice of Vindication, to confirm our laws by inflicting such just penalties and restraints as some mens insolencies have deserved, which is debitum impiis, a debt you owe to wicked men, yea to all men, that they may hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

Secondly, Yet lest we should be terrified with the name of Justice only (which no men have more cause to dread, than those who once cried loudest Justice, Justice) there is the allay of Mercy, as to all such moderation, compassion and tenderness, by way of pardon, indempnity and oblivion, in order to close and compose our breaches (for praestat motos com­ponere fluctus) as may not only best suit with your pitty and compassion to the publique, but most be­come the humanity of Countrimen, and the charity of Christians to each other, without any reproach to the justice, piety and honor of the Nation.

[Page 5]Thirdly, There is added the root and crown of all vertues and graces, Humility; which makes you surest of Gods acceptation and benediction; as to all your counsels and actions, your fastings and prayers, your sacred and civil endeavors: For Hu­mility is the salt which must be mingled with every Sacrifice, a sweet perfume that must attend every Oblation; being the glory of all humane and divine perfections, the security of Justice, and sanctuary of Mercy; for from pride, and inordinate valuing of mens selves, come all those ambitious discon­tents and contentions, for getting more than men have, or indeed deserve, of estate and power; hence they are betrayed to all those cruelties and con­fusions, which we have not only read and heard, but to our cost both seen and felt in humane affairs, and never more than in those of our own Coun­try.

§. If you intend to walk with God, and hope that God should go along with you; you must not only ( vos totos subigere, sed & in nihilum redigere, as Calvin on the place) deny, but so far utterly re­nounce and annihilate your selves, as not to trust in or to seek your selves, but the living God; the less you lean to your own understandings, Prov. 23. [...]. and the more you attend ( [...]) the divine dictates of Justice, Mercy, and Humility (without Pharisaick boastings, popular complyings, and Popish presumptions) the more blessed you will be of God, and the greater blessing to your Country.

The Lord will be with you while you follow him in these holy ways of Justice, Mercy and humility; 2 Chron. 15.2. but if you pursue lying vanities, you will forsake and [Page 6] forfeit your own and all our mercies; if you attend passionate and partial interests, unjust and cruel coun­sels; if your hearts (as Pharoahs) be lifted up a­gainst God, and above your brethren, you also will be intangled in the wilderness of sin, your chariot wheels will be taken off; you will drive heavily, and at last engage your selves and all of us in a deeper sea of blood (if deeper can be) to the ut­ter ruine of our Reformed Religion, and our justly endeared, but afflicted Country, which is the nest of our posterity.

The way of our happiness.§. Give me leave therefore (O ye Heads of our Tribes and chief of our Families) to bespeak your attention (as Jotham did the men of Sechem) Hearken to me, Iudg. 9.7. that God may hearken to you; they are divine Revelations, not humane inventions that I offer to you; if you turn away from hearing and doing these few, Prov. 28.9. clear, and necessary commands of God, your prayers and fasts will be abominable, your consultations confusions, and your actions will be as well unsuccessful as injurious to God, your selves, and others.

§. We have been many years as the Lepers in their desperate dilemma, between famine and sword, 2 Kings 7.8: oppression and confusion, sin and suffering, death and despair; if we returned to the City, or but looked to our former Jerusalem, to our excel­lent laws and constitutions in Church and State, it was confiscation, plunder, sequestration, destruction; if we still advanced in the perplexed ways of some mens new inventions, and endless novelties, it was not only sinful confusion but sore oppression, and con­tinual exhausting of our estates and honors, beside [Page 7] our peace and liberty, together with the baffling of the very orderly profession, no less than the power of Religion.

§. Indeed we could neither have leave to live freely, as honest men, nor as good Christians; all our sacred, and civil, our temporal and eternal inte­rests were and still are at stake. Terrent etiam nunc nubila mentem, our bodies and souls, our persons and posterities are still engaged; yea, and the Ark of God too, our Religion, as reformed and Chri­stian.

§. In all these respects, our eyes and hearts are next God passionately toward you; we have many years been solicitous, with that Catholick Question, Who will shew us any good? we have long looked for the promised good things, of a glorious Church, of a flourishing and settled State but our iniquities have withheld them from us: Ier. 5.25. Here the Lord hath shewed you in a few words what is good; Bonum Ecclesiae, patriae, conscientiae, animae; good for souls and bodies, for Church and State; for Soveraign and Subjects, for rich and poor, for great and small, for their selves and their posterity, for civil and religi­ous interests, for temporal and eternal concernments; namely, To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God: All our evils arise from either our want of justice or mercy, or humility, from our injuriousness, uncharitableness, and arrogancy, which knows not how to be either thankful and content before God, or merciful and just toward men.

§. The Text, as a full and liberal fountain, Partition hath [Page 8] many emanations like the Rivers that watered the garden of God.

1. We have the main head or source, the Lord.

2. The great cistern or receptacle, Thee O man.

3. The ( tria fluenta) three grand Derivations or streams.

First, Of doing Justice. Secondly, Of loving Mercy. Thirdly, Of walking humbly with God.

All are clear, copious and comprehensive sub­jects of our meditation, discourse and practice. For 1. In una justitia omnes virtutes. 2. In una mise­ricordia omnes beatitudines. 3. In una humilitate omnes gratiae; Matth. 5.7. all graces are in humility, all bles­sednesses in shewing Mercy, and all moral vertues in Justice; for every vice and sin is an injury to God, our selves or others.

Nor have we God herein our Instructer only, but also our ( [...]) great example; for we Christians serve not only ( justum Dominum, & be­nignum Patrem, sed & humilem Deum) a just Lord and a merciful Father, but even an humble God, He abaseth himself (saith the Psalmist) to behold the things done upon earth, Psal. 13. to dwell with the Sons of men, especially with the humble and contrite spirit; yea, Phil. 2.8. the Lord of glory, in order to save us from the sad effects of our pride, hath humbled himself even to the death of the cross; and is it time for us sinful worms to be proud, unjust, and unmerci­ful!

§. There are four parts to be set forth.

• 1. [...], The Demonstrator or Shewer; The Lord.
• 2. [...], or things Demonstrated, Justice, [Page 9] Mercy and Humility; indeed the ( [...]) whole duty of man.
• 3. [...]; To whom this Demonstration is made, Thee O man.
• 4. [...], The manner of demonstration, how God sheweth to, and requireth of man these things.

§. It is not my design to handle each of them af­ter that ampleness which these subjects may bear or deserve, nor will the time and after duties per­mit: but only to make such short remarques and touches of them, as may not so much teach you (who are knowing in all the will of God, as to Justice and Mercy, Law and Gospel) but only stir up your pure and holy minds to be not knowers, or hearers only, but doers also of the will of God, that you may be blessed of God and man; and Saviours indeed, not Deceivers and Destroyers of your selves and your Country.

§. I begin with the first, The Demonstrator, who, The demon­strator. The Lord. Here two things are to be considered, First, [...], the rise or occasion of this demonstra­tion. 2. [...] or [...], the credit and authority of the Demonstrator.

§. First, The Occasion, 1 The occasion putting the Lord upon this way of remonstrating, to inculcate these (re­quisita & dictata) old lessons; this you will see in the foregoing words, vers. 6, 7. where we may observe the vaunting questions, and presumptuous postulations of a company of formal Hypocrites, who demand ( in Dei dedecus & legis contumeliam) to the reproach of God and his Laws, what he would have to please him? Burnt offerings or Rivers of oyl, or if need be, their very first-born; they will [Page 10] be at any cost to appease him, part with any thing, spare nothing but their sins.

1 Sam. 15.13.§. Thus they quarrel with God, and justifie themselves with Saul, that they had fulfilled the Law of God; Isa. 58.3. as those devout Bulrushes in Isaiah, who are not ashamed to ask, Why have we fasted and afflicted our souls? when they had not parted with any sin, nor loosed any bands of oppression.

§. We may observe as in Scripture, so in all our late experiences, that no men are more supercili­ous self-justifiers, and imperious retorters upon God and man, than those who are most defective in their duties to both; they are angry that God is angry, and unsatisfied that he is not satisfied with their Hypocritical chaff and formality; they plead ig­norance when wilfully blind; and ask for light when they shut their eyes; they would know what to do, when they do not what they know.

Such proud and insolent vaporers (like Jehu and the Pharisee) are audacious and frontless Hypo­crites, Ezek. 18 15. as if their ways were equal, and Gods un­equal; as if God were blameable, and themselves blameless: O what cost and pains will they be at to reform Religion, Laws, Liberties, Church and State when, they aim to be the most irreligi­ous Depravers, and licentious oppressors of all? O the Temple, [...]. 7.4. the Temple of the Lord! O his service, worship and Ministers; when they rob God, de­stroy his Church, and debace his Ministers; these do not so much err as lye and dissemble in their hearts: They brag of precious liberties, when they bring in both slavery and licentiousness: They boast of great Reformations, when they are most [Page 11] deformed Reformers; they finde fault with God, and all men but themselves; all their aberrations are gracious, and their very sins must be glorious essays or successes; while they follow Providences, they flye from plain Scriptures, and known Laws; these prescribe to such new Saints ( angustam mi­nus justitiam) too narrow a loom for their wild ju­stice; these talk high of successes, which are their racks, when they look not to their consciences which are as empty mangers: they talk of Reli­gion, and neglect civil Justice; they are large-hearted to God, and strict-handed towards men; he shall have enough of praying, preaching, and fasting, provided they may proudly usurp, and cruelly oppress their Brethren and betters.

§. Yet will they pretend, What will God have more? why doth he yet complain? when they have both wearied themselves and him too with the heapes of their formal services and vain obla­tions.

God here (as elsewhere) sharply retorts upon them; ye need not go far, O you hard-hearted, Ioh. 1 [...] 1 [...]. Psal. 50.8. [...]sa. [...]6.3. Psal. 51.17. 1 Sam. 1 [...].22. Hos. 6.6. and cruel-handed Hypocrites, to learn that God will have mercy and not sacrifice; that obedience moral, is better than burnt offerings ceremonial; that (com­paratively) God hath not required these things at your hands, not solely, not chiefly; that he is sick and surfeited, and overladen with these sordid and sinful oblations, nothing is cordial to him, but humble hearts, charitable hands, and just actions.

§. He requireth not so much the outward cost, pomp and ceremony of Religion, as that equal pi­ety [Page 12] and pious equity, which is just to God and man; Thus in vain do some Papists highly urge and pro­digally insist of the excessive cost they bestow on their Religion, when they applaud, yea almost adore the Papal pride and usurpation, persisting in that the Sacriledge and injury they do to God and man, by de­nying the plenary doctrines, and donations of Christ in the Sacraments to all communicants, and in their communicating something of worship and merit to the creature, beyond what the divine glory and jealousie set forth in the word of God doth permit.

§. Not that God loves a lazy or a penurious, a hide-bound and illiberal Religion, which seeks to serve God of that which costs us nothing; much-less doth he approve those sacrilegious robberies, which are pretended for his glory, and the advan­tages of his service: No, he is neither a covetous nor a cruel God; he gives all things, and is content every one in Church and State should enjoy their own, what ever by right (that is by Law) belongs to them.

§. From the occasion of this hypocritical insolency (the [...]) or inquisitiveness, which they falla­ciously use, as if solicitous to content him, the Lord himself by the Prophet inculcates not the Deutero­nomy, but the Hecatontonomy, that law of justice, mercy and humility, which he had an hundred times repeated by Moses and the Prophets to the Jews, as the ( [...]) principal pleasure of the Lord, beyond all Holocausts and Hecatombs, all rivers of oyl, and sacrifices of the first born; God who is ( [...], as Dionysius calls him) all essence wholly [Page 13] substance, or self-subsistence, without any shadow or accident, cannot delight so much in any such shadows and leaves of ceremonious service with which the most barren Formalists may abound; as in those real fruits and solid effects of Equity, Cha­rity and Sanctity, with which as none but the truly godly do abound, so whoever brings these to God from a pure and devoted humble heart, is more welcome with two mites or a little meal, then o­thers are with all their luxurious costliness; of all which the very Heathens had pregnant con­ceptions to offer to the gods.

§. 2. We are to consider the ( [...]) credit and authority of this Demonstrator, 2 The credit and authority of the De­monstrator. which makes his words both for the truth and goodness of them ( [...]) most worthy to be believed, received, and obeyed, since he is the most wise God, in and from whom are all treasures of wisdom, intellectu­al, moral and political. He is the great eternal and inexhausted fountain of all power and order, natural, civil and spiritual; the Father of lights, the infallible Teacher, the Soveraign Dictator, ( [...]) the great Law-giver, whose will is the highest Reason, and his Word the most unal­terable truth; we have these lively Oracles of Justice, Mercy and Humility, not from Jupiter as Minos pretended; or from Egeria, as Numa; or Minerva, as Solon; or Apollo, as Lycurgus; or from [Page 14] fictitious artifices, as Mahomet; or from fantastick Enthusiasms, as Fanaticks; but from that King im­mortal, the only wise God; who hath the authority of both Lord and Father, the sufficiency of infi­nity, and the exemplary Ideas in him of all per­fections; that being in him to the highest glory of goodness, Psal. 94.10. which he sheweth to us, and requireth of us in his Law; This is he that teacheth man wis­dom.

§. 2. He is not more ( [...], than [...]) able by his wisdom, than willing by his indulgence and love to instruct mankind in the way that is best for him, and in those Laws which are most just and equal, most easie and useful, most comely and honorable, for all conditions, single and social, pub­lique and private, Soveraign and Subject, for Ma­gistrate and Minister, for Church and State: This is he who teacheth man by way of eminency, that one great and fundamental lesson, Iob 28. That the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. He gave to the Jews the knowledge of his laws, not only ceremonial but political and moral; those are [...], or magna moralia, in comparison of which the cere­monies were but transient shadows, and begga [...]ly elements, as the Apostle speaks; Statutes that were not good, that is, not absolutely and in themselves or materially, but relatively; as referring to the Imposers authority, and those better things of which they were emblems or types; they were as heavy burthens, so but temporary dispensations, during the poedagogy or minority of Religion, till the better ages (or worlds) should come, in which [Page 15] Evangelical Justice, Mercy and Humility, should most fully be not onely demonstrated from the moral law, but also from the glorious example of the justice of God satisfied and his mercy procu­red, by the humiliation of Messias, the condescen­tion and crucifixion of the Son of God.

§. 3. The Lord hath shewed thee, these ( [...]) most infallible and immutable rules of Ju­stice, Mercy, and Humility, who is ( [...]) the justest exacter, and the exactest observer of our obedience, and con­formity to these laws; in other matters of cere­mony and service, he is not so severe and rigid, but gratiously dispenseth, upon many occasions, as of necessity and infirmity, of prepotent custom, disuse and prejudice; but in the grand points of Iustice, Mercy, and Humility, there is no dispen­sation or remission; no man can, as to these, be at any time unable, if he be not unwilling; here impotency is impiety; God strictly observes all wil­full and presumptuous transgressions, and will be the avenger of them; not is he to be deceived or satisfied with any formal excuses and pretentions used by wily hypocrites, who offer chaff instead of good weat, no more than he can be escaped or re­resisted by any tyrannique power and in­solencies, when he maketh inquisition for these no­torious omissions of Iustice, Mercy, and Humility, which are the summaries of all good Laws, and the seminaries of all piety, grace and vertue; nor shall these words of God, which drop like the rain and gentle dew from heaven return in vain, but will be swift witnesses against any soul, whose bar­renness [Page 16] presages it is nigh to our sing and burning: for these laws and lessons (as from Mount Sinai) are with thunder and lightning; Gods demonstrations are not only true but terrible, armed with omni­potency, never to be bafled, pregnantly shewed by their own perspicuity, and powerfully exacted by the divine severity, who will carry himself froward­ly or contrarily, and as I may say, with an uncon­descending height, and divine stiffness against those that are not humble in his sight, resisting the proud, and withdrawing mercy from the merciless; yea re­quiring the justice of punishment on us, because the justice of obedience is not done by us. Ideo enim patimur justitiam quia non agimus, as St. Bernard speaks; for this is by the eternal vengeance still in­culcated in hell (as Virgil expresseth)

Discite justitiam moniti, & ne temnite divos. while the Furies with their flaming iron whips (fla­gellis ferreis & flagrantibus) do compel wicked and unjust men to suffer that justice which they re­fused to do to God, to Man, to themselves and others.

But I have done with the first general; in which I observed the occasion and authority of this De­monstration.

§. Secondly, I now come to the ( [...], or [...]) thing demonstrated; 2 Gen. the thing demon­strated. the grand lesson which God teacheth so clearly and constantly to all men at all times, these are denoted under these three grand heads; Iustice, Mercy and Hu­mility,

These are considerable. 1. Conjunctim, joyntly. 2. Divisim, severally, in their united and distinct aspects.

[Page 17]1. Consider them together, and they afford us six things considerable.

First, The paucity of these ( magna mandata, or summè requisita) grand demands: The Lord lays but a few things upon us; Tria sunt omnia, a sacred Trinity of Precepts from the sacred Trinity of Iustice, Mercy and Humility, from the divine Wis­dom, Power and Majesty.

These make up that ( monile sacrum) holy pen­dent or jewel, which is the greatest ornament of humane nature, and blessing of all Societies, con­sisting but of three gems; but they are paragons of great price; for what is brighter than the in­vincible Diamond of Justice, which is scintilla Dei, a spark of God, as pearls are drops, and Diamonds sparks of the Sun? what more beautiful than the gentle Saphire of Mercy? what more amiable than the modest Emrald of Humility?

§. The paternal indulgence of God is pleased to give us, in his teaching us short lessons, compendi­ous Counsels, and holy Epitomes of his will and our duty.

§. At first he propounded but ( decem verba) ten commands in the Decalogue, which is a summa­ry of all Theological and Moral Institutions: After he reduceth these to a narrower compass, of loving the Lord thy God, and thy neighbor as thy self: So Solomon, To fear God and keep his Commandments; Christ makes up all in one grand sentence, of do­ing as we would be done unto; whence the Emperor Severus took his famous Motto; the Apostle St. Matth. 22.40. Paul brings all points and lines of the Laws and Gospels circumference to this one center, Love, as the fulfil­ling [Page 18] of all in one word. Nor doth he permit Ti­mothy to vary from that ( [...]) wholesome form of words, the faith once delivered to the Saints, which he had taught him, as a short creed or sum­mary (no doubt) of Christian doctrine, which other­where is expressed in beleiving with the heart, and confessing the Lord Iesus with the mouth; so in the end of the commandment, which is Charity, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith un­fained; So inexcusable are they who refuse to learn of God; whose commandments are neither grie­vous nor numerous, but condescending to the weak­est capacities, and frailest memories; to which, what ever is necessary in religion, is easie to be lear­ned and retained.

§. For secondly, as the particular heads are few in number, so very short in the discourse: some points may by long Orations be (like gold) malle­ated and extended to such great latitudes of dif­fused expressions, as make them very combersom; as the volumes of our times, both in Dogmatick, Po­lemick, and Practick Divinity do witness; while the superfluity of mans wit and eloquence glories to find out many inventions, definitions and di­stinctions, even in plain things; wire-drawing re­ligion into fine threads, and driving the solid mass of Divinity, as to Faith and Repentance, love of God and our neighbours to leaf gold, chopping, and hewing, and paring the pillars of wisdom into small chips and thin shavings. Doubtless (as Eras­mus writes to Archep. Warrham) the Church of Christ was never in a more happy estate, than when it was ( uno & brevissimo symbolo contenta) both [Page 19] contented with and kept in the compass of that one short Creed, which we call the Apostles, and which was yet once shorter than now it is.

Thirdly, But, commonly brevity is attended with obscurity; Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio; short and concise expressions many times wrap things up, as it were, in clouds; whereas Laws ought to be meridiana lumina, tanquam solis radiis scriptae, so clear, as none need complain; so legible that he that runs may read them; and so indeed are these divine demonstrations in the Text, where the wis­dom of God reconcileth brevity and perspicuity to­gether (as Pliny speaks of Trajans uniting Sove­raignty and Liberty, by an happy temper of Govern­ment or Empire, which neither diminished his own just Prerogative, as a Prince, nor oppressed the peoples legal immunities as his Subjects) so the Lord, designing these Laws for all sorts of peo­ple, fits them for all capacities in such a way, that the very babes and simple ones may learn, and un­derstand, and do them; [...]. Laws (saith Plato) ought to be as common and catholick in their expressions, as they are in their injunction or obligation, that none may plead ig­norance, either by the prolixity or obscurity, by the ennormious number, or by the tedious length of them.

Fourthly, We may observe the order and situa­tion of the particulars; First, Justice. Secondly, Mercy. Thirdly, Humility; there is (as Calvin and others observe) an ( [...]) inverting of the Primacy and order due to that dignity which hu­mility (as the summary of all Religion, or piety to [Page 20] God) justly requires before that of justice toward man; yet this is placed first, as most obvious for mans advantages and discerning, though not as most eminent in nature; as if the Lord more minded the welfare of mankind than his own service; im­portuning first for Justice and Mercy, and last for humble walking with himself; not but that religion toward God is and ought to be the chief intention; but Justice and Mercy may go before in the executi­on, especially in case of eminent danger and distress pri­vate and publick; here ( necessitas pellit Sabbatum) the Sacrifice, Shew-bread and Sabboth yeild to necessity, not immoral; God will have Justice and Mercy rather then burnt-offerings; yea in cases of fire, shipwrack, or sickness, and like exigencies of life and safety; it is venial to break off fastings, pray­ings, preachings, and communicating at the Lords Table, in order to save others or our selves.

§. As in private so in publick cases, when things are upon a precipice or extremity, the first care may be of the man, next of the Christian; to cure the Commonweals urgent paroxisms, and then the Churches chronick distempers; which was Davids method, who first composed the civil disorders, which war had occasioned, before he applied to bring the Ark to its rest, and establish the solem­nities of religious services. It is certain (as Opta­tus observes) that the Church is imbarqued in the Commonweal; and though the lading be better worth and more to be valued then the ship, yet there will be an ill account of the first, if the latter be not secured from great leaks, and desperate rocks of war and sedition, which to prevent is not [Page 21] only a mercy justly due to mankind, but an accepta­ble service to God; He were a very preposterous Zealot and ridiculous Divine, who in the exigents of pleu­ritick pains, and present faintings of spirits, would impose upon heart-sick Patients his long prayers, or tediously obtrude godly discourses, and other ghostly counsels, rather than give way to the Phy­sitians or Chyrurgeons skill and applications, for blood-letting or cordials; this were to act the part not of a pious and prudent Confessor, but of a de­vout and imprudent Executioner.

§. It is certain (as Minutius Faelix observes, Apud nos Christianos, quo quis (que) religiosior, eo justior) among good Christians, the best are most ready to mercy, and exactest in justice. Yea reverend Calvin observes on the place, Injustitia erga homi­nes est certissimum impietatis argumentum; although men may do many just things, and yet have no true Religion; yet injustice toward men is (as Leprosie on the forehead) a certain token of Irreligion toward God.

§. They are found lyars to God and man, and will be deceivers, yea damners of their own souls, who pretend to build Religion and Reformation on the ruines of Iustice and Civil Laws, by sacriledge, and violence, by robbery and rapine; they trust in ly­ing words which cannot profit; who steal, Ie [...]. 7.9. and mur­der, and lye, and swear falsely, and yet come, and stand before God in his house, and say We are deli­vered to do all these abominations; these are the projects of Iohn of Leyden and his complices, full of Enthusiastick folly and fury; men cannot be holy men with Iohn Baptist, nor devout with Cor­nelius, [Page 22] unless they be just with both; and also how can they be just to God whom they have not seen, if they be unjust to man whom they have seen! as St. 1 Ioh. 4.20. Iohn speaks of loving God! hence the blessed God puts the rendring to Caesar the things that are Caesars, before the rendring to God the things tha [...] are Gods; not as to the dignity or duty of our obedience, Luk. 10.25. but as to the evidence and outward te­stimony of our inward subjection to God, by that which is outward to our lawful Superiors, who are in Gods stead, having both power and commissi­on from God, and in serving of whom, in things lawful, we serve the Lord.

§. After the like method is that of the Apostle, which tells us, that the grace of God that bringeth salvation, Tit. 2.11. teacheth us first to live righteously, next so­berly, and then godlily in this present world; the first and pregnantest instances of pure Religion and undefiled are first to man and then to God; not but that the root of piety, and our Closet-religion to God is before the fruits of Iustice and Mercy, but those are more hidden, and these most manifested, so as men may see our good works, and glorifie our heavenly Father.

Fifthly, Nor is the juncture of these three inob­servable, because indeed they are inseparable where they are sincere; This is ( sancta & individua trias) an holy and undivided Trinity; where one is, all will be; the root of Humility, the leaf of Mercy, and the fruit of Iustice; if men be proud they will be cruel and covetous, void of Mercy and Justice too. So if they be unjust and uncharitable, you may con­clude them to be without humility; for these three [Page 23] are as one, which united bear witness to God, our own Conscience and others: Proud men are prone to envy others, to over-value themselves, and to use such unjust means as may gratifie their inordi­nate appetites, suitable to their high opinions of themselves; proud, and so unjust thoughts betray men to unjust actions.

Sixthly and lastly, We may observe the ( [...]) common epithite or predicate to all of them; The Lord hath shewed what is good; joynt­ly and severally, absolutely and respectively, to all men at all times, in all occasions and conditions ( [...]) in private and publick sta­tions, for Church and State, in war and peace, in revenge and restitution, for souls, bodies, and estates, for selves and others; good to begin, con­tinue and increase all blessings, that mankind can desire to enjoy in this life; for liberty, honor, peace and plenty, joyned with piety; these are ( divinissima & amaenissima bona) profitable and pleasant as well as most necessary.

1. Without Iustice there can be no good in the greatest plenty, which either exposeth to injury, or prospers by rapine and violence.

2. Without Mercy there is no relief or succor in the many miseries to which humane infirmities, and our mortal state is subject.

3. Without Humility neither Equity nor Charity will profit us, or please God; when they are as the vertues of Heathens, more from Pharisaick pomp and love of applause, than any sence of duty to men, or devotion to God; these may have their reward from men, but neither good nor great, because pro­portionable [Page 24] to what they sow, either formal or hypocritical, or incompleat and partial; while their lusts and passions either transport them beyond, or keep them short of that true and pure fountain of living waters, which while they forsake, to fol­low broken cisterns, and unfaithful pits, they can­not fail to suffer evil at last, because they do not follow that good which God hath set so free and full before them; Et ideo miseri quia mali; they are not miserable for Gods defects, as if he had de­creed them to be so, or denied them, the way of being, doing and enjoying good; but because they do or easily may know the way, and works, and rewards that are good, but will not; Maxima pars humanae impotentiae fluit exvoluntate; the most if not all of our immoral and sinful infirmities, flow from our want of will rather than of skill. God is not wanting to teach us the good we should chuse and do; but we are wanting to chuse and do the good he evidently teacheth us; we cannot com­plain of Gods not convincing us, but God complains justly of our not complying with, and converting to his conviction.

§. Thus I have considered these three things joyntly; now we may look on them distinct or se­verally.

First, In the subject or substance, spirit and quin­tessence of each of them, Justice, Mercy and Hu­mility.

Secondly, In the predication or addition to each; to do Justice, to love Mercy, to walk humbly with thy God.

§. First, Lets take a summary view of the subject [Page 25] or substance of each; not by the way of common place, wherein the three Preachers of this day might have found matter enough to have enter­tained both their meditation and your attention; but in such a short summary, as may only take the [...], the topmost and fairest fruit of each, and leave the other large harvest or vintage to your own gathering.

§. The first is [...], judicium, [...], such ju­stice as directs in judicature, not speculative, 1 I [...]stice. or habitual and dispositive justice, but transitive, decisive justice; forensis justitia, which from an inward principle brings forth the fruits of Justice or Righ­teousness to all. Io [...]. 18.38. Here we are to enquire as Pilat did of truth, What is Iustice? Quest.

§. 1. Some measure it by their power, Ans. What Iustice i [...]. by the length of their sword, and strength of their arm; when indeed (Id tantum possumus quod jure possu­mus) & in maxima potentia minima debet esse li­centia. The best and valiantest men neither can nor will do ought but what they lawfully may; they count ( [...]) unjust things impos­sible.

§. 2. Others measure justice by their wills, passi­ons, lusts, interests, &c. quicquid libet licet (meram voluntatem imperii limites ponunt) what serves their ambition, and covetousness, or their revenge and envy, or their faction or partiality, this is just with them though never so unlawful.

§. There are that measure justice by their fan­cies and imaginations, by their dreams and Enthu­siasms, by their presumed gifts and graces, as if they had a right and merit to all they can get; that [Page 26] they are the only Israelites, who have Gods com­mission to spoil the Egyptians; that all things are theirs, because they challenge Christ to be theirs; that civil dominion is founded in grace, and ju­stice is to be measured only by faith and assurance of salvation, of which themselves will be the onely Judges; these are the paultry pretentions of some Hucsters of Religion, and devout Beggars, who with the Pharisees, Euchites and Circumcellians, find it easier to devour others by long prayers and preach­ings, or (if these will not do) by fighting, than to get their own living by honest industry.

§. 4. There are that measure Justice by necessity; as if necessity justified all its commands, and gave checkmate to all laws: Tis true in some publick exigencies, private rights must yield to publick ne­cessities; yet so as to make just compensation, af­ter the tide of necessity is retired: but there is no immoral necessity to be allowed. Nullum pec­catum necessarium; no sin is necessary unless there be a necessity to be damned.

§. The first fallacy of measuring Justice by for­cible power and possession, is a giant or monster arising from the earth; The second which mea­sures gain by godliness, and godliness by gain, or propounds a necessity of doing evil that good may come thereby, are Meteors which rise from an higher region indeed, but they are both alike prodigious to any Church or State where they appear, and prove very pestilential to mankind in both respects civil and sacred.

§. My answer (then) to the Question, What Ju­stice is? must be no other than that, which of old [Page 27] all wise men and the Apostle gives, that is, To render or preserve to every one their due; Justitia est quae suum cui (que) tribuit. Id suum cui (que) quod debitum; Id debitum quod à Deo & natura datum, aut lege de­signatum; that is a mans own and due to him which is either by God or Nature given, or is by Law assi­gned to him.

§. The Platonists answer well to this ( [...]) what is just? That which is according to law; What is lawful? That which is rational; What is rational? that which is diuine; what is Divine? that which is best and eternal; most worthy of God and most useful for mankind.

§. Justice is to be considered in three main things; Iustice in the fountain. first in its fountain and original, the wisdom and will of God, which is the exactest measure, and infallible rule of Justice in it self; sufficit quod Deus voluit, as Salvian speaks; voluntas Dei summa ratio & lex suprema; not only in the divine nature, as the Arch-type of all perfections, but in those revelations of it to Angels & mankind; either by those, [...] common principles of reason, to which all men (in their wits) must and will consent, which are ( lex nata) the law written in our hearts; Rom. 2. as it were the common law of all mankind ( jus gentium) or by those further express mandates which God gives to any either by immediate revelation, or by such credible derivations of it to others, for the traditi­on of his word, by speech or writing, as his wisdom thinks fit to use.

§ Hence are all good laws of Church and State, of civil and religious concerns derived: By these all [Page 28] are tried and confirmed as good and just, and ac­cordingly ought to be established as valid by civil sanction or consent; by these all matters of commuta­tive or distributive justice are dispensed, which ei­ther exchange for such compensations as are mu­tually agreed upon, according as one wants, and another abounds in any thing; or else such distri­butions are adjudged to any as are grounded on the law; Or lastly; such recompences are made to every man by reward or punishment as his actions do merit, either good or bad, in reference to the publick welfare, for the encouraging of well doing, or suppressing of evil.

§. Here the moral law of God binds all men al­ways; the Political laws of God bind no further than that proportion of moral justice, piety, and prudence which appears in them, according as the parallel state of times, and persons, and actions may be; in which the consent and submission of the major part of men, or long custom, and settled constitutions in any Polity have the force of a law, and are a rule of Politick Justice; provided they bind to nothing immoral or irreligious.

Iustice in the c [...]stern.Secondly, Justice is considerable in the grand cistern and conservatory (as the brazen Sea in the Sanctuary, which served the Temple with water) which is the Soveraign and Legislative power in every Society and Polity, as it is circumscribed and con­tained in its proper bounds, and peculiar limits; this is the center of Order, Ʋnity, Justice and Peace politick; this dividing and dashing against it self by Caesar and Pompey, by Senate and People, by King and Parliament, by Emperors and Electors, all Ju­stice, [Page 29] Order and Peace are destroyed; the leak in this sinks all; there must be a fixed Soveraignty un­der God, to whose Justice and Power paramount, all must submit according to law; contestations in this run all things to confusions, as our sad experi­ence hath taught us: Here either Prince, or State, or Peers or People, may severally have the Sove­raignty of Justice, under several polities or forms of government; or there may be such a tempera­ment, both as to legislation, jurisdiction, and execu­tion of Laws by legal power, as may best relieve people in their grievances by Parliamentary repre­sentatives; and best judge of differences by sworn Judges, and best execute all legal sentences and de­crees by an eminent power in a Soveraign Prince, King or Emperor, which is best for all estates; and such is that admirable constitution of Soveraign Majesty in England, from which all Laws are en­acted, by which they are declared, and with which they are justly and effectually executed, inclusive of and adapted to all just interests of King, Lords and Commons.

§. 3. Iustice in the conduits. Justice is considerable in the pipes and con­duits of a [...]l subordinate Magistrates, through which, (as blood in the veins) it flows from the chief Justi­ciaries to the very petty Constables, for the relief of all sorts of people, which are as parts and mem­bers (noble or less honorable) of that Body Politick, according as the Law doth adjudge to every one their due; the measure of all is either (recta ratio) right Reason, or sacra Scriptura, the holy Scripture, or ( lex terrae) the law of the Land, to which all are subjected by their consent; He is just who looks [Page 30] to these; who willingly submits to them, and ex­actly observes them.

Iustice to God§. 1. There is a Justice due to God above all, on which his commands in the first table are founded; To own him, love, fear, reverence, adore, admire, obey, trust in, depend on, joy in and enjoy him as the su­preme good: Mal. 5.6. If I be a Father or Master, where is my fear?

Selves▪§. 2. There is a Justice due to our selves, in cha­stity, sanctity, and sobriety, to keep up the ( [...]) Imperial power of Reason and Religion, above that ( [...]) Democracy and Anarchy of lusts and passions which fight and rebell against God and the soul; here every vertue is a branch or fruit of Justice, as every vice is an act or habit of In­justice ( [...], as Clem. Alex. out of the Platonists observes) every sinful and inordinate passion or action, either comes short, or shoots beyond, or wide of Justice, which con­sists in the medium, as in a line or point indivisible.

Others.§. 3. There is also a Justice to others, void of all fraud or force; of which as the Word of God in general, and the Laws of every Polity in special, so the dictates of every mans own reason, his duly reformed, and well composed conscience, are dome­stick Dictators ( [...], as Synesius observes) God has made every mans rational Will the Monitor of justice; hence men are a law in many things to themselves, and their own thoughts do accuse or excuse their actions; hence unjust men, who act by fraud or force, though never so successful, yet are ( [...] & [...]) self-condemned, and without any Apologie; Prima [Page 31] est haec ultio, quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur; And Exemplo quodcun (que) malo committitur ipsi Dis­plicet autori; every unjust doer, as he is his own greatest tempter and Traytor; so he will be his own summoner, accuser, witness, tormenter and Executi­oner; (sibi poena omnis inordinatus animus) as St. Gen. 4 [...]. [...]1. Austin: So Josephs brethren accuse themselves first as guilty of their brothers blood; they must needs be sooner or later ( Magor-missabib) terrors to themselves, who are by their unjust dealings in­jurious to others, and a terror to the land of the li­ving by their oppressions. But I have done with the Theory of Justice, in its Source, Derivations and Practiques.

I come now to the second main Postulate or de­mand of God; mercy, [...]: 3 Demand, Mercy. mise­ricordia, or benignitas as it is variously rendred; This is divinissimum in divinitate, & humanissimum in humanitate opus. Mercy is the most orient gem in the Crown of Gods attributes, and the greatest or­nament as well as relief of humane nature; It is the glo­ry of God to pass by offences, to pardon sins, Exod. 34. [...]. to tem­per the rigor of his Justice: to supply defects, to help infirmities, and to save those sinners in his exceeding great mercy, whom he might have con­demned in the extremitie of his Justice.

§. By mercy God is sui victor, & seipso major, as it were greater than himself, and a conqueror of himself, A denyer of himself, and a sider with our interests; All our hopes and happiness are founded upon, and bound up in the mercy of God, Psal. 103.8. which is above all his works and ours: In this fatherly be­nignity all our blessings are contained; nor are we [Page 32] capable as St. Bernard speaks; of any other merit, than that is made up of Gods mercy; which is per­ventive and plenary, beyond desert and desire, so ample, that none is denyed it, upon the tearmes offered; Psal. 1 6 Nor can it be ever exhausted for it indures for ever; yea and it is peculiar to mankind above the Angels.

§. From this great pattern of Gods mercy to such worthless wretches as we are, springs this demand, and demonstration, by which God requires us to be merciful as he our heavenly father is merciful; to imitate God in this, which is not more necessary so others, than our selves, since no man can shew so much mercy to others, as he either wants, or hath received himself.

Mercy in God.§. Mercy in God is a perfection of goodness, by which he moderates the severity of his Justice, to­ward sinful mankind, yet without any diminution or blemish of his Justice, since it is by the suffering of Messias so satisfied, that while mercy rejoyceth, Justice hath no cause to complain.

In Man§. Mercy in man, is an affection, by which he lays to heart the misery of another, and is dispo­sed to relieve them. Private mercies flow from a tender, soft, & compassionate heart, sensible of Gods mercies to it self, which command it to recede in ma­ny things from the rigor of Justice, and what of right it might either exact of, or inflict on another; No habit brings us neerer to God, or makes the face of man shine with a diviner beam of Glory, being the establisher of Princes Thrones, Prov. 20. [...]8. which are sup­ported by Justice and Mercy.

§, In publique transactions, (whose weight most-what [Page 33] lyes upon, the cariage of Justice,) mercy doth not overthrow Justice, or divert it out of the way of rectitude (which is Gods High-way) but onely smooths the paths, and oyls the wheels, and sup­plies the joynts, that Justice goes on with less cry and complaint, Mercy doth not take away the edge or point the of sword of Justice, but only that rust and cancker which makes it wounds fester too deep.

§. Mercy is an inseparable attendant to humane Justice; yea and to the Divine, in this world where God punisheth less and later than we deserve; and whatever is short of hell is mercy; It is because his com­passions, fail not that we are not consumed. Lam. 3.22. Saith Jeremiah in his bitterest lamenting.

§. Where Justice falls heaviest on mens lives and estates, for the enormity of their sins, yet there is a beam of mercy to be shown them, as to their souls, by our prayers for their repentance and par­don of God; the thief on the cross, justly suffering (as he confessed) for his misdeeds, yet tasted of the Divine mercy mixed with that bitter cup.

§. This mercy, benignity, moderation and compassi­on, (of which you have had a large and good ac­count in the former exercise) is a debt, or Justice, we owe to others, as much as we desire it our selves; Matth. 18.27. and it is there seasonable, where common errors and infirmities, or vulgar simplicity and credulity, or easiness and sequaciousness do imitigate the ma­lice, by mistake of doing Justice, or of reforming the Publique state (as in the silly peoples case, [...] Sam. 15.11. who followed Absolom in his popular rebellion) having so great a friend and wise a Counsellor as Achitophel to delude them Errabant sed bone animo, they ment [Page 34] well, though they did ill; Here Justice ought to look more at the malice of the heart, than the iniquity of the fact; As that is true ( comittunt eadem diverso crimina fato; so diverso affectu) men do the same things from different designes and principles; some out of zeal to Justice, reformation and religion, others out of faction, Ambition, Courteousnes, Envy and Rebellion.

§. As common infirmities, epidemick errors, and popular delusions, do make way for mercy, so also multitudes of offenders. Christ had compassion on the multitudes more then once; Mat [...]h. 9.36. and 14.14. not only quia mise­ri, but quia multi; to make promiscuous massacres and havocks of them, when it is in the power of Justices to punish or spare them, is barbarous and in­humane: It was a word of Clemency worthy of Ce­sars great mind, at the Pharsalian battel, Parcite civibus: Spare our Countrimen and fellow Citi­sens.

§. Multitudes of Offenders are best punished in their Ring-leaders, setters, and agitators: whose sufferings due to their malice, are not more just and necessary for the publique, then remissions are to the ( [...]) many, who do as it were so crowd up Ju­stice, that they pinion its armes; it cannot well ex­ert its power upon them. Too much blood-letting is as dangerous, as some may be necessary for health.

§. So also penitents are objects of mercy; who so con­fess and deplore their former errors, and offences, that they give great hopes of future compensations, by the revenge they take of themselves. Pene inno­cens [...]uem peccasse poenitet Greg. M. when more [Page 35] ashamed for their sin, then affraid of their punish­ment, these are objects of mercy and moderation; especially if there be any thing to plead for their excuse, as free from the great offences and presump­tious sinnings, Deut. 29.11, 13 as in point of wilful murther and desti­nate villany, of which God hath said thine eye shall not pitty, nor thy hand spare; least the Land be de­filed with blood, or idolatry.

§. Here it is crudelis misericordia, & stulta cle­mentia, to spare such, whose impunity would not not onely seem to lessen the enormity of their sins, but expose the publique to infinite hazards: in gi­ving encouragement by such cruel pitty and foolish clemency; In some cases, severe Justice is the great­est mercy to the publique, that men may hear and fear and do no more so presumptuously; ne crudeli & intempestiva miserecordia plectatur respublica; Thousands of innocents are oft punished, when some few facinorous nocents are spared; Their impuni­ty becomes many times the publique sin and punish­ment, and the Nation is make God-father, or dry nurse by not punishing those sins, of which it justly abhors to have been the Father or doer.

§. Yet are there but few cases, wherein summum jus is required; although that saying be true in grand and publiques concerns, which are the polar points and hinges of civil peace, fiat justitia ruat caelum; let Justice be done what evercome of it; Yet it is as true in most cases, which are capable of any remis­sion and moderation, Fiat justitia, ruet caelum; if thou (Lord) shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss, who can abide it; Psal. 130.3. without Gods mercy to us, and ours to our brethren the offenders, our [Page 36] heaven is lost; judgment without mercy shall be to those, Iames 2.13. that shew no mercy.

§. Delayes also, as to execution of Justice, (as David used to Joab and others,) are publique mer­cies many times, when the factious influence of cri­minous men is so great and popular that they cannot at present be punished without endangering the pub­lique peace.

§. But I have done with this second particular, which God requires, as to mercy; which who so shews to others, shews it to himself; for of all things we do well, the works of mercy shall not go unrewarded.

3. Humility. Luke 17.10.Thirdly, Humility is required; which is a most most Christian grace, no less than a most manly ver­tue, becoming all men. 1. In the sense of their common infirmities, and mortal condition. 2. In the conscience of their many sins, and deserved miseries. 3. In the reflexion upon their best actions, full of failing and defects; besides their unproficiency as to God when they have done all.

Here nothing becomes man more, or more sets off what he doth, than the deepest shadow of humility; both toward all mankind, who are of the same met­tal, mould and make with him; and toward God, to whom he ows all he is, or hath, or can do; for what hath he in nature or providence, in soul, body or estate, 1 Cor. 4.7. which he hath not received?

§. Pride destroys and sowres all the good even of Justice and Mercy that any man doth: It hath its first patern from the Devil, who by pride fell from the Heaven of blessed Angels, to the Hell of damned spirits: Humility hath God for the great [Page 37] example, no less than Justice and Mercy have; by this we draw nearest to God, and are fittest to ac­cord with him; by this we are partakers of the divine nature, of Christs Spirit, graces, and re­wards.

§. Pride, (which is its own Idol and Idolater) its own Carver and Comforter, hath its reward onely from it self, or the vain world; for God resisteth the proud; and they must be sure to be destroyed who dash against God.

§. Hell is the pit and prison of proud Angels and men; 1 Per. 1.4. the first ( [...] & [...]) they kept not their station or rank; but lifted up themselves to be like to the most high, beyond what was due to them: The second, because as Pharoah and Nebu­chadnezzar, they rob God of his glory, both as to the justice which forbears to destroy them as they deserved, and as to that Mercy which was conferred upon them beyond any merit in them.

Secondly, These three considered in their practicks As I have thus briefly considered these Three Subjects, Justice, Mercy and Humility in them­selves; so I am with like brevity to consider the pre­dicates or actions applied to each of them.

1. To do justice. First, Materially, The acts or exercises of three Vertues. as to the me­rit of the cause and person.

Secondly, Regularly, as to the Law prescribed by God or man, not by private opinion, 1. To do Iu­stice. presumpti­on or passion.

Thirdly, Authoritatively, by due order and com­mission derived to thee, from the lawful supreme power; for however all men must have the inward principles and desires for justice; yet the doing or executing of it is not given to all, but only those [Page 38] to whom the sword of justice is committed by the Law of God and man; Rom. 13.4. Christs question must be asked before a man does justice, Who hath made me a judge or Ruler? Luk. 12.14. A man may be very unjust in pu­nishing the greatest and most notorious offenders, without due authority derived to him.

Fourthly, Do justice, formalizer; as to the inward form, principle, or conscience, for justice sake, not for ambition as Absolom, or reward, or revenge, or glory, &c. A Judge may give a just sentence before man, and yet be an unjust Judge before God, when he doth what is just materially, but not mentally, as to his end and design; in doing Justice men must be sincere (& hoc agere) make it their ( [...]) business for Gods sake; or from a good conscience; for judgement is the Lords, as Moses tells the El­ders. Deut. 1.17.

5. Do Justice, practice, effectually; not only think and meditate, consult, vote, decree, enact and declare, or talk and plead, and dispute, and cavil or contend, but bring forth the fruits of righteous­ness, that all may see them, and enjoy the benefit of them; just Laws made and never executed are as good seed sown upon barren ground, which never comes up beyond straw and wilde oats.

6. Do Justice, [...], Impartially ( [...]) in all things, to all persons, poor and rich, not op­pressing the rich because his fleece is large, nor the poor because his strength is small, and friends few: Exod. 11.25. and 23.3. Aequum dicitur, quia aequat leges omnibus, as Varro observes: Justice must be streight or right, without warping, as equal and indifferent to all, blind as to the persons, though Eagle-eyed as to the cause and rule.

[Page 39]7. Do it speedily, especially in such cases, when the effects of justice are not penal but beneficial; Delays of Justice are so far denials, and so long un­just, when it is in the power of a Judge, or Prince, or Magistrate to do it; no usury is so unjust, as that which makes advantages by dilatory justice: In penal effects of Justice, there dilatory executions may be more venial, and tolerable, because they are mixtures of mercy, and reprieves in order to repentance; for which God gives us the great pat­tern, in his giving us space to repent, and being so slow to excute vengeance on us, Psal. 106. though daily pro­voked by us.

8. Do it [...] (not [...], in rigor, but) in measure, judgement and proportion, as they said of old ( [...]) God is an axact Geometritian, duly measuring and weighing, or pondering the acti­ons of all men, and proportioning his judgements to them; so ought men to demean themselves in doing justice calmely, as in the cool of the day, with­out passion, or transport. Perit judicium quum res tran­sit inaffectum; the eyes of judgement are blinded, when the mists of any passions arise; either preju­dicating the person for the cause, or the cause for the person.

9. Do justice, [...], with humanity, pitty and compassion to the person, in the greatest severities against, and justest detestations of their sins; Ju­stice among men, much more among Christians, must have not only vulnera, but also viscera, bowels as well as blows; Ingenuous Justice ( dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox) is afflicted when compelled to inflict punishment; and feels the strokes it gives, [Page 40] condemning the Judge to commiseration, when he condemns others to misery; this tenderness or tem­perament it learns from God, who deplores when he executeth, Hosea [...] 11.8. or denounceth his judgements; his bowels are turned within him, when he is forced to give over his people to the destroyers; hence are his many forewarnings, importunings and beseechings of men to flye from the wrath to come; as why will ye die? &c. and How shall I give you over to be as Ad­mah and Zeboim? how shall I make thee as Sodom and Gomorah?

To love Mercy Isa. 28.21.Secondly, To love Mercy; here first the order is observable, That Justice must first be done before Mercy; else it is as very preposterous to exclude Justice to make way for Mercy, as it is presumptu­ous to do unjustly under pretence of shewing Mercy.

§. Like the design of some mens cruel charity to get an estate by all imjurious ways, in order to do works of charity, or to build an Alms-house, like the giving alms or legacies before we pay our debts.

§. Such Sacrifices are abominable to God; we must not rob the Exchequer of Justice, to put into the Corban or poor mans box of the sanctuary.

§. 2. We may observe the emphasis of the word put to Mercy, beyond that is to Justice; this must be done as a work and task, which is enjoyned us; but the other Mercy, must be loved and delighted in: Justice is opus necessarium & alienum, a neces­sary, but strange and unwelcome work, compared to Mercy; in this also we have the precedent of the divine goodness; whose [...], pleasure and [Page 41] delight is in shewing mercy, where there is any ca­pacity; but his executions of Justice, are as it were a pressure and distress upon him; not that he is not infinitely just to all the extents of Justice, but he is superinfinitely merciful, so as to set even bounds to the infinity of his justice, which as a consuming fire would in a moment have destroyed the whole cre­ation of lapsed sinful natures, if Mercy had not in­terceded.

§. This Affection of Love is conjoned to Mercy: Mercy must be loved. First, As (res in se amabilis) a thing in it self most lovely and desirable, one of the brightest beams of the divine beauty. Secondly, As that which is most beautiful and comely for mankind, Col. 11. especially the Church of God, and children of their heavenly Fa­ther, who are commanded to put on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercy: Bowels, as to the inward principle or love of it, and putting them on, as to outward manifestation in good works, which are the royalest robes and richest ornaments of Christians.

3. Love mercy, as that which is most beneficial to our selves and others too; He that shews mer­cy to others, shews it to his own soul; by way of re­bound it returns into his own bosom; Mercy is that which all need, all desire in their distress, all have tasted of, and received from God.

4. Love it in obedience to Gods commands, and in imitation of his divine perfections; among which not any is so commended to us as this; Not be ye wise and strong, and infinite and great, as your heavenly Father, but merciful. What Mat. 5.48. is put Be ye merciful, is Luk. 6.26. Be ye perfect, &c. as if ( in una misericordia omnes perfectiones) this [Page 42] one prefection of mercy included all.

5. Love mercy (in augmentum gratiae) for the advance of all graces, for this is the compass or ma­nure, which makes the richest soyl of a Christian soul; as a man sows mercy liberally, so he shall reap graces.

6. Love mercy in ornamentum religionis Christianae, the best trial of the best religion is, that which abounds most with mercy, as the true God, who is optimus maximus, is greatest by his goodness, and best in his mercifulness. 2 Kings 20.31 The Kings of Israel are esteemed mer­ciful Kings; as mercy is the most humane, so the most Princely quality, because the divinest endow­ment. Cruelty is one of the highest scandals of Christianity, which makes Lambs of Lyons, and tames the feircest tempers.

7. Love mercy ( memor propriae. indigentiae & mi­seriae) remembring that sin which exposeth thee to misery, and that necessity thou hast of Gods mercy, yea and the want thou mayst have of mans; for no state of mortality, is so fixedly happy, but it may be (as Job was) the object of pitty, which the Tra­gedies of our times have evidenced in the highest nature; voluit deus, ut sibi quis (que) sit mensura miseri­cordiae, as St. Jerom tels us; they that flow most with mercy, shall be filled most with it.

8. Love mercy ( in spem & Augmentum gloriae) in order to confirme thy hope, and increase thy re­ward of Glory, there is no better evidence of a gracious heart and an excellent spirit, than this mer­ciful propensity, even natural men, who have most humanity, are least distant from the Kingdome of hea­ven; there wants but faith in Christ, (who is the [Page 43] highest instance, and grand exemplar of divine mercy, to raise up the grosser allayes of natural soft­ness, compassion and gentleness, to the pure Elixir of that grace of merciful-mindedness, which God requires, and which denotes a Divine and heaven­ly disposition; doubtless the mites of mercy, which we shew here to others for Christs sake, will be repayed with Talents in heaven, nor shall a cup of cold water be unrewarded.

3. To walk humbly, the LXX. 3. To walk humbly with thy God. render it [...]: to be ready and prepared to go with God, and the Latin vulg. humiliare se ambulan­do; the words imply.

1. A freedome and familiarity of conversation, which cannot be had unless two are agreed; nor can there be any agreement with God, except where the heart is humble. God resists the proud, (quia congreditur cum deo tanquam hostis ex parte ad­versa) who doth not walk with God, but against him, as one that justles, assaults, encounters, and fights against him

2. Walking as it is a social and friendly motion, so it is progressive and parellel, in a way of confor­mity, not contrariety, when we keep pace with God, neither out-running his word by a precipitant wantonness, and over-righteousness of our own imaginations, nor yet so lagging behinde as we lose God, nor yet straying to the right or left hand di­verticles, of prophanness or superstition, of de­spare or presumption, but keeping close with God, who looks on the proud afar off, because they are still at distance from him, one way or other.

3. As an humble man is onely fit for Gods [Page 44] presence, and company, so the more a man walks with God, the more he will grow humble, when he sees what an inconsiderable nothing himself is, Nihilo nihilius, Psal. 19.4, 5. and 61.9. less then nothing; at his very best estate altogether vanity; at his worst onely sin, hell and misery, fit company for none but Divels, and that fatal sentence, Go ye cursed; nothing in merits, nothing in graces, nothing in guifts, nothing in duties, Toti sumus indigentia, we are altogether defect and emptiness, till grace fills us, and Christ supplies us; we shall easily vanish and disappear as to all self conceit, and pride of heart, when once we assiociate with God; then Abraham and Job abhor themselves in dust and ashes, (both eminent persons, the one the great Father of the faithful, the other the great pattern of patience) so Jacob, less then the least of Gods mercies; and St. Paul who was not inferiour to the chief Apostles, and laboured more abundantly then any one of them, yet sums up his all in this, 2 Cor. 11.12. though I am nothing, esteeming Christ to be all in all to him.

4. Walk humbly (cum Deo quia Deus, & quia tuus) because with God, and with thy God; a Son and Subject will know himself best when with a King and Father, who is their own; however they may carry themselves high to others their betters, yet not to those, whose neer relation and high merit command observance. If the thought of Gods ex­cellency doth not abase us in our own eyes, yet the consideration of his condescending to us, to be ours in so many undeserved mercies, and favours, to a transcendency of desert, and unrequitable obligati­ons, this will deplume us, and pull down all high [Page 45] immaginations in us, It is ignorance of God, and distance from him, which make us so conceited of our selves, a spark or star cannot glory in the light of the sun.

5. Especially when we remember ( humilem deum & humiliatum Christum pro nobis) an humble God, in our humbled Saviour for us; the sight and sense of Christ on the Cross, for our sakes, will make us asha­med of one proud thought or high look, which is not tolerable in any estate, in the greatest guifts and graces, the best endowments, and highest successes, wherein we are but instruments, and seconds, not principals; And in the greatest afflictions, when we are ( humiliati) most humbled and debased by Gods providence, it is very insutable then to boyl and swell with thoughts of repining and murmuring against God, as if he injured us, or treated us unwor­thy of us. No, here to be humble, is to be silent, Lev 16.41. and submisse to pray, to prostrate at Gods feet, to accept of the punishment, and own it as from a Father, who chastiseth us, that we may not be condemned, with the world; humility disarms God, and is a salve, shield and cordial, in the worst estate, which is then best for us when we grow more humble, as pride is a moth or curse, that blasts all, even the best we are, injoy or do, Alienating God from us, and driving away his good Spirit, when it finds us our own Gods and worshippers. It is but just to leave us to the heaven of our own fancies, and to be satis­fied with our own delusions.

Third General, Cui, to whom God shews, so whom this Demonstrati­on and de­mand is made. and of whom he requires these great lessons and du­ties; Thee O man.

[Page 46]1. To all mankind in general, as creatures ca­pable to know good and evil, just and unjust, and accordingly to chuse and do as they are directed from the inward dictates of right reason, and those self-convincing principles which are within their own consciences.

2. To thee O man more especially, who enjoyest the light of Gods Word in the pale and bosom of the Church, where the righteous precepts and merci­ful commands of God are more evidently set forth, by laws repeated, by examples multiplied, by judgements and rewards proportioned to mens works; none here can plead ignorance of duty both to God and man.

3. Thee O man, in thy particular station, as occa­sion and power are put into thy hand, whether Jew or Gentile, great or small, rich or poor, Prince or Peasant, Lords or Commons, Priest or people; no man is unconcerned in these Demonstrations; to every one God says as Nathan did to David, Thou art the man.

Of Kings and S [...]aign Ma­gistrates.§. God requires Justice, Mercy and Humility of thee O King, who sittest on the throne of Majesty, who art in Gods stead, as his Vicegerent, a kind of mortal Deity; honored with the name, and vested with the power of God, and much more with the imitations of the divine excellencies of Justice and Mercy toward man, Ier. 22.15, 16. as of Humility toward God; Shalt thou reign because thou closest thy self in cedar, and art compassed about with strong guards? Did not thy Father do justice and mercy, and then it was well with him: He judged the cause of the poor and needy, was not this to know me, saith the Lord? Thou, even [Page 47] thou, O King art to fear him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, higher than the highest; the ter­ror of Tytants, who pulleth Princes from their seat, and poureth contempt upon all their glory; thy surest policy is true piety, and the best reason of State is this pure Religion and undefiled, even to do Justice, to love Mercy, and walk humbly with that God by whom Kings raign, Whose thrones are not to be estab­lished without Justice, Mercy and Humility; Nor can they be injured so much by any as by themselves; their Pride before God, like Nebuchadnezzars and Belshazzars, will abase them; and their oppression of their people, will most oppress themselves at last.

Secondly, Of Thee O wise man, Of Counsel­lors, &c. and mighty Coun­sellor, who art esteemed by others and thy self as a great State Intelligence; digging deep for coun­sels, and wrapping up thy self in the darkness of thy cloudy projects and designs; thou who glori­est in thy Oracular Policies as Achitophel; and disdainest to be nonplust in thy wisdom, or defeated in thy designs: Of thee the Lord requires to give no counsel but such as is just, nor to decree other than righteous decrees: To agitate nothing in Coun­cils of State and Parliaments by partiality, faction, and oppression, to sinister ends and unjust inte­rests either of Prince of people; because the Lord sitteth among Senators, and will cause a just de­cree without mercy to be executed upon those who either execute or decree unrighteous and cruel things.

Thirdly, Of Magi­strates. Of Thee O subordinate Iudge and Ma­gistrate: O great Lawyer and eloquent Pleader, the [Page 48] Lord repuires not to turn Justice into gall, and Judgement to wormwood; not to judge for reward, or pervert the cause of any, either for fear or fa­vour, or for respect of persons; not to make plea­dings of Law to be as gins and snares to innocent simplicity, by a fallacious sophistry, and dilatory fe­lony, which robs the Clients purse, as the bushes and brambles do the sheep of his fleece, when he seeks and hopes for shelter from them.

§, No temporal advantage can counterpoise the detriment and danger which unjust and merciless actions bring upon those who willingly offend against the laws of the just and merciful God, and thereby incur eternal damnation, deserving to be beaten with many stripes, because they know the will of God, and do it not. St. Bernards Motto to all judges is, omnia judicata rejudicabuntur, what comes short in mans measure, or weight of Justice, shall be made up by Gods eternal recom­pences.

Of Soldiers and men of might.4. Of thee O Soldier; O valiant and mighty man, who hast power in thy hand to save or destroy, to kill poor men, and lay wast fenced Cities, of thee God requires justice and mercy, which must be the measures of War, as well as of Peace; there are ( jura belli) laws of righteousness and moderation, which God exacts in wars, even defensive, which seem the onely wars that can be just: For sure to make war without some precedent or threatned in­jury, must needs be very injurious. Not might but right must be looked at, where the lives of men are concerned; justice is not to be measured by the length of thy sword, or the strength of thy Arme, [Page 49] or the number of thy Soldiers, but by the Laws of God, of Nations and of every polity: The Justest war, must not by passionate transports be carryed on to unjust, exorbitant, and cruel oppressions, either to harmless and unarmed people, or to immo­derate demands, in point of reveng and compen­sation, much less to build ambitious Babels, and co­vetous confiscations, upon others ruines; The Sol­diers had their lesson of John Baptist, what to do, when they had so much grace as to ask the question, Luk. 3 14. they are not commanded to lay down their Armes, but to do violence to no man, &c.

5. Of thee O man, (God requires Justice, mer­cy and humility) whose prosperity either in violent or injurious ways, have made thee rich and great, Of the most prosperous. or who increasest thy estate by that, which is not thine in equity and conscience, who makest no scruple of Extortion, rapine, racking rents, sacriledge, op­pression, and rigorous extortions; who hast built thy nest on high, and feathered it with the spoils, either of thy Neighbours and Tennants, or of Church and State, of the Crown and Crosier, where cheap pur­chases, witness to your faces, and upbraid both byars and sellers of the injustice of the bargain; thou, even thou, must so repent by making restitution of unjust acquisitions, as may make thee capable of Gods pardon, who will not be mocked by lame and crackt titles; nor may be robbed, without making the curse threatned to light on such injurious & pre­sumptuous sinners, who neither fear God nor reve­rence man; though great, and rich, and many, though Courts and Councils, and Armies, and whole Nations conspire to do injustly, yet will God be a swift [Page 50] witness against them, and bring his Justice upon them.

O Ministersf of the Church6. Of thee O godly gull, and holy-cheat, who pleadest an hypocritical nonplus, and a state necessity of doing somthings, both injust and cruel, in order to do good, to advance Justice, to glorifie God, to reform Church and State, as if the reasons and inte­rests of both Religion and Justice did sometimes want unjust proceedings, (as pills to keep them in health) which Aristides pleaded by way of Irony, to those who impatient of exact Justice, forced him somtimes to deviate from it, by their popular peevishness; he told them he did it ( [...]) in order to the pub­lick good: God will discover these impudent fal­lacies, and so punish the presumption of doing evil, that good may come thereby, that all men shall shall hear and fear, and confess there is a God that judgeth the earth, when they shall see vengeance to overtake these men, and the iniquity of their heels to compass them about.

§. Better to follow Gods counsel by doing Justice, though we perish with Lazarus on a dung-hill, and suffer the last strokes of humane Justice in this world, than to fall under Gods eternal and inexerable Ju­stice, which will strip thee of all the goods thou gettest, and bring upon thee infinitely more evil than that, which by unjust and wicked means thou soughtest to escape; there is no necessity ( scelera sceleribus tueri) to make evil deeds good by doing worser; it is the Devils hardning Maxim to damn souls by desperation; as if a theif should plead it necessary to kill that man whom he hath rob­bed, [Page 51] lest he be pursued and taken by him.

7. Of thee, Of the glosing Hypocrites. O Minister of the Church and Pastor of souls, God requires, first to do justice to thy bro­ther of the same tribe and calling, by not intruding thy self into his work, against right and reason and law, that thou mayst have a plea or pretence to the profits of his living, and so thou mayst feed thy self by feeding anothers flock against his will; when Justice requires us not onely to eat our own bread, but to do our own business, and not ( [...]) to Vsurp on anothers either emolument or em­ployment, which they are able and willing to per­forme.

Of thee, O Church-man, great & small God requires this Justice, to God, to Christ, to the Church, to peo­ples souls, to the holy word and worship of God, to the truth of Doctrine, to the solemnity of his service, to the necessity of mens souls, by feed­ing them with wholesome food, by giving them their portion in due season, by not denying the children their bread, for fear of dogs eating it, by admi­nistring the blessed Sacraments duly and reverently, according as the Church, in which thou servest, hath appointed thee, not setting up and urging thy own fancies and whimseys, thy novel inventions and schismatical partialities, thy humane traditions, and unauthentick because uncatholick observations, in­stead of Christs institutions, not so shy and startling at the shadow of some decent and innocent rites or circumstances and ceremonies in religion, as to fly from the unity, order, harmony and authority of the whole Church, by a supercilious, unjust and merciless severity, which savors too much of pride, [Page 52] and self conceit, hereby shaking and overthrow­ing the faith of many poor souls, who are ignorant, weak and instable, by the perturbatious thy pragma­tique and popular activity gives them.

Of the whole Nation.8. Lastly of thee, O whole Palestina, O Church and State, O my native County, and Nation, both in thy latitude and diffusion, and in thy Parliamenta­ry▪ Epitome, or representation; of thee the Lord requires not only to do justice, but to shew mercy there, where is the cryingest injustice and cruelty in the world; There is a voyce from abroad and at home, which crys ( Oro miserere laborum Tantorum, miserere animi non digna ferentis) O do not approve, confirm or adopt that pride, injustice and cruelty of some sons of Belial, who lifted up themselves above all that is called God; all Laws of God and man, all duty to their betters and Superiors.

§. If what hath been done in this sorely afflicted and abused nation, with expence of so much blood and treasures, with so much terror and extravagan­cy, be well and worthily done; it will be an act of your Justice to assert it, and of your Mercy, to ab­solve other of us poor scrupulous souls of those scruples of conscience which we have; of those fears and jealousies, lest the Nation lying under so great sins, may be exposed to Gods sorest judgements, even to an utter vastation.

§. But if it appear to your wisdom, piety, Justice and Mercy, to have been a violent and unparalleld method of presumptuous wickedness, of unjust cruel­ty, and most cruel injustice; in which was neither matter nor form essential of Justice, under the for­mality of high justice; if men have killed and co­sened, [Page 53] and taken possession, even the spoil and price of blood: I doubt not but you will so far re­member Gods Demonstrations and demands, as to do Justice to God, to your Country, to your Laws, to your Superior, to Soveraign power, to the whole Nation, and to all mankind, as to testifie a just ab­horrence and perfect detestation of those things, to which as you would not have been Fathers, so I believe you will not be Godfathers. It is an usu­al saying among Statists to excuse their excentrici­ties and deviations, from the exact rules of justice (Nullum magnum exemplum justitiae sive aliqua in­justitia; I am sure we have known magnum exem­plum injustitiae sine aliqua justitia; a transcendent injustice, which had not any grains of justice in it) in the vindication of which, I do not so urge the rigor of justice, as not to require also such tem­perament of mercy, as may distinguish between the flower and the bran, the vile and precious, the pertinacious and penitent; such as sinned with ma­litious wickedness, with an high hand, and those that were only carried down the rapid torrent and strong delusions of times.

§. There is yet one instance of doing justice and shewing Mercy to the whole Nation, which I cannot but recommend to my Country, and to you the Fathers of our families, and heads of our Tribes; which is in reference to the souls of many poor people, that in a land of plenty they may not be fa­mished, for want of able and industrious Preachers, which cannot be had or expected (whatever ver­bal severities are pretended of Reformation, of Religion, and propagation of the Gospel) unless [Page 55] there be some way found, by the wisdom, piety, honor and bounty of the Nation, of Prince, Parlia­ment and People, for the competent maintenance of such Ministers as may do the work of God, and take care of mens souls: with what Justice or Mercy can you exact a full tale of bricks from poor Ministers when they have no straw? Alas, when shall the scandal of livings not worth fifty, or thirty, or twenty pounds a year be taken away by the ge­nerosity, justice, liberality and mercy of England? How many years tax, how much treasure hath been spent, to maintain Soldiers and a war, of which the publick hath no fruit but those of tears, oppression and repentance; me thinks it should not seem much to allow one years tax to be gathered in some convenient time, by which to begin a banck or treasury (an aerarium sacrum) for the ma­king some augmentations and purohases of Impro­priations to poor livings: One good foundation laid for so great and good a work, many other super­structures would easily be added by the piety, wis­dom, and charity either of the publick or of the pri­vate, and well-disposed persons.

§. If this may not be put upon the account of Justice to be done to the Church and Clergy of Eng­land in compensation of the many diminutions, de­predations and indignities, which they have of late, or long since sustained, by the policies, powers or superstitions of later times; yet I beseech you look upon it as a signal and eminent act of Mercy, for which thousands of poor people in the Countries ( who perish for want of knowledge, having no Pro­phet nor seer among them) will bless God and you to many generations.

[Page 54]§. And since God hath by a most miraculous re­turn of mercy, brought you thus far to the morn­ing of your redemption from civil slavery and op­pression, where we were under Chams curse to be servants of servants. O bethink your selves, whe­ther it be not worthy of your munificent piety and gratitude to offer some oblation of thankfulness as a peace-offering and Eucharistical monument to God and his Church; but I may not so far distrust your nobleness, as to urge you too far in this thing, which is so much its own Orator, and wherein many thousands both Ministers and people are silently and humbly importune for your favour in so great a concern of Church and State, yea of mens souls eternal welfare.

The Fourth and last General Head is ( [...]) the manner of Gods shewing and requiring these duties of all sorts of men, in all occasions, times, 4. The man­ner of Gods Demonstra­ting. in all dealings and administrations, in the whole tenure of their conversation, to God and men, civil and re­ligious.

I formerly gave an account of this, which will excuse me if I here briefly insist on some main heads only.

1. God hath shewed it to mankind ( in principiis internis) in those inward principles of right Reason, and that standard of Justice which is set up in each mans own heart, besides the Chancery of Mercy; both which he cannot but desire in his own case; yea he expects and exacts humility, reverence and submiss respect from those that are his descendents and in­feriors, especially if many ways obliged to him, by undeserved favours; so as every mans case is to­ward God.

[Page 56]2. Praeceptis scripturae, by the Letters pattents of the holy Scriptures, whereof no man in the light of Religion which shines in the Church can without sin be ignorant; because no lessons are easier to be learned, and set out in greater characters, or text letters, both of the ten Commandments and the Gospel, than these three of Justice, Mercy and Hu­mility. Nor is any man meet to learn or observe the more abstruse mysteries of Christianity, who doth not first apply to these plain morals of humanity, and native Divinity; in which instructions who so pro­fited most among the Jews or Gentiles, and lived accordingly, were most capable vessels of Gods Mercies, although they had not such an explicite faith in the Messias, as we Christians are now obliged to, as a condition of the Evangelical Covenant.

3. God hath shewed us these demonstrations, magnis exemplaribus, & exemplis; by the greatest exemplars of holy men in all degrees; in the best of Kings, and vvisest of Counsellors, yea in his bles­sed self and his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom Justice was satisfied, Mercy Magnified, and Humi­lity most exalted for mans imitation; To these are added the great examples of his Judgements on those whose exorbitant lusts and passions, for­getting God and themselves, presumed to do be­yond these bounds and prescriptions, which the Divine Iustice and Mercy had set to mankind, run­ning out to violence and cruelty, in order to gra­tifie their pride: On the other side, God hath by many blessings on Prince and People; manifested his approbation of their ways, when conform to those grand Precepts, which suppress first all private ex­travagancies [Page 57] by humility, and all publick oppressions by justice, mixed with mercy; no man that is hum­ble can be unhappy, nor any people or Prince mise­rable, who keep to Justice and mercy, except in mar­tyrly cases for trial of their faith, patience, and con­stancy, which are found most in those (if not onely) who are most endued with principles, and wonted, as to Justice, so to the practice of mercy, and humility.

§. Lastly God hath shewed and required these things ( cum gravi interminatione poenae) not lightly and arbitrarily, but with great earnestness, and frequent obtestation, threatning punishment, answerable to the neglect, and executing vengeance on the presump­tous, nor are they Laws of ( [...]) diur­nal justice, to day loyalty, to morrow Treason, this week lawful and just, next week illegal and un­just, like a Lesbian rule, but they are standards, fixed in Gods immutable Justice, mercy, and excellent Ma­jesty, which no men at any time may dispense, with­all, nor can they be dispensed with, as to Gods judg­ments, if they break them.

§. But it is now time for me to releive your at­tention with the variety of my successors paines; onely I crave your Christian patience so far, as to give me leave, to make some such improvement of this Text, as the grand occasion and present sollem­nity do require.

§. You are all this day, Application or Vses. as the Representatives of the Commons of this Nation met before the Lord, to fast and pray, to humble and afflict your souls, to confess your sins, and the sins of your people, a­mong which none are more crying to heaven for vengeance, then the want of Justice, mercy, and [Page 58] humility; for pride, ambition, covetousness, cruelty, and oppression, the land hath mourned these many years, and the more deploredly, because it hath suffered by all these pests of Church and State, under the name and pretensions of humility, sanctity, liberty and equity. It was a small matter for us to be miserable by the insolency of some men; but we were commanded, by their hypocritical and cruel mocking to beleive our selves to be an happy, and free people; in a glorious and reformed way of Re­ligion, laws and liberties.

§. It is a saying of that great Orator, as acute as true ( Totius injustitiae nulla est capitalior, quam eorum, qui quum maximè fallunt, ita tamen agunt, nt viri boni videantur.) No men are more criminally injust, than those, who when they most deceive and op­press, yet then boast of their justice and piety.

§. What have been the effects of some mens ju­stice, mercy and humility, all the English, yea British world hath seen, and your selves have felt; to whom have some mens factious and Phanatick hu­mors shewed any tokens of these vertues, except to themselves, and their complices? to others who are persons far more righteous then themselves, their ve­ry mercies have been cruel, and their highest ju­stice the highest injuries to the publique; indeed it is of the Lords mercys that we have not been all con­sumed; that a remnant is escaped to see the Salva­tion of the Lord; in the land of the living. O with what pride, petulancy, haughtiness and disdain, have, mean men and vile persons carried them­selves against the honorable, far their betters and su­periors, yea against the whole honor and Majesty of [Page 59] this Nation! how have we seen servants riding on horseback, and Princes going on foot! this is their humility; they have flattered both Prince and Peo­ple in their sore distresses, as if they would relieve them, when they proved at last Physitians of no value, miserable comforters, very severe exact­ors, and tragical destroyers; This is their mercy; They have subverted all law, order, and govern­ment, troubled the fountaines, cut off the con­duits, and inverted all the course of civil Justice, and ecclesiastical authority, as well as unity; this is their Justice.

§. Can a Nation be sick of its health, and weary of its happiness, or thus dayly and bitterly com­plain, if it injoyed such a glorious state of Justice; and mercy, by the humility and sanctity of its Gover­nours; as some have pretended? Why doth the whole land cry out of burthens and bloodshed, of its oppressors and exactors, of its endless troubles and terrors? if our estate were so setled and blessed, as some men have told us, why, as Dromedaries, do they every month so traverse their ways, de­stroying what they build, and building what they destroy, like so many foolish builders! it is strange, that neither these Baalams nor their asses which car­ry them; in the ways, and after vvages of iniquity, can yet see the Angel of the Lord, vvith a dravvn svvord, stopping their vvay; all lavvs of God and man, all good mens votes, and prayers, are against their madness, pride, presumption, cruelty, hy­pocrity and injustice, by vvhich they have brought shame and dishonour, a blot and great reproach, upon the nation and the reformed Religion.

[Page 60]§. You have enough to do (honorable and worthy) to undo vvhat some men have done amiss, to recti­fie their crookedness, to bring to the standard of Ju­stice and rule of mercy, vvhat their injurious cruelty and vvanton vvickedness have perverted and di­stracted, as their pride, ambition, and various lusts have driven them.

Iosh. 7.13.§. You vvork is not only as Josuah, to fall dovvn before the Lord, as ye do this day, but to Arise and to do the work of God, of the Church, and of the State, vvith justice, mercy and humility; For if you still fast for strife and oppression, to smite vvith the fist of wickedness, and to bind heavy burdens on us, you vvill be found mockers of God as others have been, your prayers vvill be turned into sin, and your counsels vvill turn to confusion.

§. The appeals and petitions of all honest-minded people ( next God) are to your prudence, justice and charity, that you vvould judge betvveen the daugh­ter of your people, and her shameless ravishers, her cruel vvounders, and endless oppressors.

§. Three antient and sometimes flourishing Kingdomes, and the adjacent Dominions call to you for mercy, and you cannot shevv them greater mercy, then to do them justice, in restoring them to their former happy governments, and excellent constitutions.

§. All estates of Soveranity, Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, Commonalty call upon you for justice and mercy; so the poor and rich, the City and Coun­try, so God himself, and your Saviour, so true Religion and its novv so deformed Reformation, so your ovvn and your posterities interests, do [Page 61] dayly importune; it vvill be your justice and mer­cy to them all and us, not to bring upon all our heads the guilt of that innocent blood, which the cruel­ty, pride and injustice of some men have shed, even the blood of War in a time of peace, and after a long Treaty, When God makes inquisition for this blood, let him not find it, and avenge it upon you and your Children, by your not expiating, deprecating and detesting of that sin, with infinite horror and abhorence; to leave it unexamined and unpunished is every day to contract the guilt of a new regicide.

§. The Soveraign fountain of honor, civil power, and secular authority in Church and State, calls for, and expects your Justice, where it hath been inju­red; your Mercy, where unrelieved; your humble subjection, where duly established.

§. The House of Peers cannot but own your Ju­stice, Modesty and Humility, in removing those obstructions which some mens pride and injurious insolency had for many years put in the way of that House, which was ever one of the highest points of this Kingdoms Wisdom, Honor, stability and hap­piness.

§. The House of Commons also, and whatever becomes the dignity and freedom of a Parlia­ment of England, calls to your Justice and Mercy, to redeem that almost sacred Senate (than which in its full constitution, the world had not any thing more august and venerable; when Lords Spiritual and Temporal, when the Gentry and Commons, all concurred to advance next the glory of God, the majesty of this Empire, and the Throne of its [Page 62] Soveraign;) to redeem this (I say) from those abominable desolations of tumultuary and military insolencies which for many years have made that house a Charnel house, or a kind of Augean stable, full of all faction, fury and and fanatick filthi­ness.

§. Our Church and Religion, our Bishops and Pres­byters, our Ministers and Ministry, all call to your Ju­stice and Mercy to redeem them from popular de­pendencies, from vulgar impudence and usurpation; at least to relieve them from those Harpyes which have driven them to, and defiled them with so many shameful disorders; divisions and distractions unbe­coming men, much more Christians and Ministers, who are pretenders to Reformation.

§. The famous Ʋniversities, and all Nurseries of good literature implore your Justice and Mercy, to defend these eyes of the Nation, from those birds of prey, foraign and domestick vultures, which hope when these are pulled out, to seize upon the blind and deformed Nation, with greater freedom of Ro­mish superstition, and fanatick Vsurpation, who gape to devour all that is lest of the civil or sacred patrimony, of Gods, or the Kings, the Churches or the Crowns portion.

§. We have once again (by Gods wonderful mercy, and his blessing upon one great heroick and steady soul) got the wind of the Jesuitick, Anabap­tistick and fanatick designs, who have abused us with their long wiles; O lose not the advantages which God hath given you to bring your Church and Country into a fair and happy haven, after so many tempests and agitations of infinite loss and haz­zard.

[Page 63]§. There are many holy Duties, and Christian Rites which call for your Justice and Mercy; the two blessed Sacraments which have a long time been either wholly despised, or prophanely abused, or very partially used; The Lords Prayer also, the Ten Commandments and the Creed, all sacred and wholesom forms, of excellent use to the people of Christs flock, but despised and neglected by some of their supercilious Pastors, to the great detri­ment of true Religion and abatement of piety; these expect your exemplary Justice, to restore them to their primitive and Catholick honor, which will be a mercy to the whole Nation, which by extem­porary novelties and crude varieties in Religion, hath been wholly deprived of all those pristine forms of liturgical devotions by which the generality of Christians were best informed and most affected, as to the grand fundamentals of Religion; Sure it is but the effect of crafty or crazy brains, to deny us all use of Our Father in English, because we gave over the Pater nosters, the Ave Maries, and other prayers which were in Latin, and so of little use to the vulgar. It was once thought a blessing to have prayers and holy duties in a language which people understood; Now tis a seraphick stratagem of Sa­tan to make people forget those things which they could easiest remember and best understand.

§. Lastly, There are many prevalent and epide­mical sins of Sacriledge, Prophaness, irreverence, Perjury, rash swearing, Duelling, Ʋncleanness and all manner of licentious discoveries of Atheism and irreli­gion which call for your Justice to suppress them, for they are the cruellest enemies of Church and State.

[Page 64] Conclusion.If you will (indeed) do Justice, love Mercy, and walk humbly with your God; if you will shew loving kindness and sense of honor to your Country, resolve upon all those dispensations, restitutions, and exer­citations of Justice and Mercy, which are before you: Which you will best do if you

1. Be pleased so to fix our Laws, yea our legisla­tive and Soveraign authority, so that we may be no more tossed too and fro with every wind of mens am­bitious fancies; qui malunt leges quam mores mutare, who had rather change our good laws, than mend their own ill manners.

2. To remove all obstructions which are inward in your own souls, and outward in other mens pas­sions or actions, by which either Justice or Mercy are most hindred of their free course.

3. If you listen not to that wicked maxim of the Devils politicks, Fieri non debuit, factum valet, as if evil actions did call for perseverance not re­pentance. Nullum tempus occurit Justitiae, no time or fact must prescribe against justice, truth, God and the Church.

4. When you have undone by justice what hath been done by injustice, to the undoing of Church and State, Prince and People; Then will mercy be seasonable, by acts of such amnesty, pardon, and oblivion, as may rather compose than irritate the spirits of men; praestat motos componere fluct­us.

5. If you needed (which I hope you do not) any motives to these great indeavours and discoveries of justice and mercy, it is no small one which the Platonists observe, as to the difference between just [Page 65] and unjust, the good and evil men, which is as great as between light and darkness, order and confu­sion, men and beasts, good and bad Angels, as between a King and a Tyrant, God and the Devil. God is the first fountain and grand example of justice and mercy, as the Devil is of injuriousness and cruelty.

6. If you inquire Cui bono? what their reward shall be? First the conscience of well doing, and this to your Country and in its greatest distresses; Next, you shall have that reward of lasting honour, and renown, by which your names, as repairers of our breaches, shall be embalmed in the love of their Country, and transmitted with a sweet resentment to all posterity; where as the names of proud and cruel oppressors, shall rot and perish like their own dung; the blood thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes; not only, as to those dies naturales; but as to those dies civiles, which pre­serve the living fame of worthy men to many ge­nerations as blessed; he is but short-lived whose infamy only survives; as the damned in hell, are counted dead, because they only live to shame and torment.

§. As for your direction what and how to do ex­cellent things, you need not search Achitophels braines, or rake the skull of Matchiavel; you need not call up the Ghost of Richelieu, or conjure up those subtil spirits of Government, which may tell you the Adyta imperii, & arcana principum, the depths, mysteries, intrigoes, and riddles of States; you need not listen any longer to those Seraphick Syrens, and Phanatick Counsellors, who under [Page 66] the title of Gods cause and the Saints interest, which I know not what blessed projects or gainful godli­ness, had made a shift to undo all, but themselves, yea and themselves too, as to all sence of justice, or mercy, or honor, or conscience of modesty or humility; You need not advise with flesh and blood, with humane passions and lusts ( facilis & parata est ad virtutem via,) the counsel of God is at hand, ( [...]) you cannot easily miscarry by fol­lowing his wisdome in justice, mercy and humility; however, you had better perish in Gods way, as to temporal effects, then prosper for a season in the Devils, which must end in endlesse infelicities.

§. There can no better course be followed in ci­vil justice, than that which was given by the Oracle to the Sicilian Pyrates, when afflicted by the plague, after they had gotten much booty, they enquired What they should do to be releived? Answer was given in these letters; R. A. S. P. P. which some cunning man interpreted, to import by the Acrostick letters thus much, Reddite Aliena, S'ultis Possi­dere Propria, Restore to others what is theirs, if you hope to preserve to your selves your own; else your common weal will be but a common wo.

§. There is neither darkness in your way of ju­stice and mercy, nor will there be much difficulty. God hath and will remove mountains of malice, hypocrisie and injustice before you, yea he hath prepared the vvay for you by levelling the leve­lers, and confounding the confounders of all things civil and sacred. His vvord and the lavvs of the Land vvill tell you vvhat is to be done, State super vias autiquas & bonas, stand and enquire for the good [Page] old ways and walk therein, that you and we may find that rest, vvhich hath been a long time and ever vvill be denyed us, in any of those fanta­stick and novel models vvhich make religion a nurse of rebellion, pretend that the Kingdome of Jesus Christ vvill indure no temporal Christi­an Kingdome except such as they may rule and raign in.

§. But you have not so learned Christ; neither his law, nor his Gospel suggest any such unjust and cruel counsels, nor do they favour any violent and rebel­lious designes. Do (as I believe you will) what be­comes your duty to God and man, your love to your Country, your respect to true Religion, and your care of your posterity, and no doubt God will be with you, both to strengthen your hands, and to make your faces to shine with that glory in this life, which is the first, but least recompense of just and honorable actions, and also with that eternal glory, which is the purchase of Christs blood, and the honorary recompense of God, to all that in the way of well doing seek for honor and immortality; to which the Lord bring you and all his Church, for Jesus Christ his sake, to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be all glory and honour now and ever, Amen.