Thirty-Six Sermons

AD MAGISTRATUM.

The Second Sermon.

At the Assizes at Lincoln, 7 March, 1624. at the request of William Lister, Esq, then high Sheriff of the County.

T Here is no one thing, ( Religion ever excepted) that more secureth and adorneth the State, than Justice doth. It is both Columna, and Corona Reipublicae: as a Prop to make it subsist firm in itself; and as a Crown, to render it glorious in the eyes of others. As the Cement in a building, that holdeth all together, so is justice to the public Body: as whereunto it oweth a great part both of its strength, (for by it the throne is established, in the sixteenth) and of its height too; for it exalteth a Nation, in the 14th of the Proverbs. As then in a Building, when for want of good looking to, the Mortar getting wet dissolveth, and the walls belly out; the house cannot but settle apace, and without speedy repairs fall to the ground: so there is not a more certain symptom of a declining, and decaying, and tottering State, than is the general dissolution of manners for want of the due execution and administration of Justice.

The more cause have we, that are God's Ministers, by frequent exhortations, admonitions, obsecrations, expostulations, even out of season sometimes, but especially upon such seasonable opportunities as this, to be instant with all them that have anything to do in matters of Justice, but especially with you, who are God's Ministers too (though in another kind) you who are in commission to sit upon the Bench of Judicature, either for Sentence or Assistance, to do your God and King service, to do your Country and Calling honor, to do yourselves and others right, by advancing to the utmost of your powers the due course of Justice. Wherein as I verily think none dare but the guilty, so I am well assured none can justly mislike in us the choice either of our Argument that we beat upon these things; or of our Method, that we begin first with you. For, as we cannot be persuaded on the one side, but that we are bound for the discharge of our duties, to put you in mind of yours: so we cannot be persuaded on the other side, but that if there were generally in the greater ones that care and conscience and zeal there ought to be of the common good, a thousand corruptions rife among inferiors, would be, if not wholly reformed, as leastwise practiced with less connivence from you, confidence in them, grievance to others,

But right and reason will, that every man bear his own burden. And therefore as we may not make you innocent, if you be faulty, by transferring your faults upon others: so far be it from us to impute their faults to you, otherwise than as by not doing your best to hinder them, you make them yours. For Justice we know is an Engine, that turneth upon many hinges. And to the exercise of judicature, besides the Sentence, which is properly yours, there are divers other things required; Informations, and Testimonies, and Arguings, and Inquests, and sundry Formalites, which I am neither able to name, nor yet covetous to learn: wherein you are to rest much upon the faithfulness of other men. In any of whom if there be, as sometimes there will be, foul and unfaithful dealing, such as you either cannot spy, or cannot help; wrong sentence may proceed from out your lips, without your fault. As in a curious Watch or Clock that moveth upon many wheels, the finger may point a wrong hour, though the wheel that next moveth it be most exactly true: if but some little pinn, or notch or spring be out of order in or about any of the baser and inferior wheels. What he said of old, Non fieri potest, quin Principes etiam valde boni iniqua faciant; was then and ever since, and yet is, and ever will be, most true. For say a Judge be never so honestly minded, never so zealous of the truth, never so careful to do right: yet if there be a spiteful Accuser that will suggest anything, or an audacious witness that will swear anything, or a crafty Pleader that will maintain anything, or a tame Jury that will swallow anything, or a craving Clark or Officer that for a bribe will foist in anything; the Judge who is tied (as it is meet he should) to proceed secundùm allegata & probata, cannot with his best care and wisdom prevent it, but that sometimes justice shall be perverted, innocence oppressed, and guilty ones justified.

Out of which consideration, I the rather desired for this Assise-Assembly, to choose a Text as near as I could of equal latitude with the Assise-Business. For which purpose I could not readily think of any other portion of Scripture, so proper and full to meet with all sorts of persons and all sorts of abuses, as these three verses are. Is there either Calumny in the Accuser, or Perjury in the Witness, Supinity in the Iurer, or Sophistry in the Pleader, or Partiality in any Officer; or any close corruption anywhere lurking amid those many passages and conveyances that belong to a Judicial proceeding? my Text searcheth it out, and indicteth •• e offender at the tribunal of that impartial Judge that keepeth a privy Sessions in each man's breast.

The words are laid down so distinctly in five Rules or Precepts, or rather (being all negative ) in so many Prohibitions, that I may spare the labor of making other division of them. All that I shall need to do about them, will be to set out the several portions in such sort as that every man, who hath any part or fellowship in this business, may have his due share in them. Art thou first an Accuser in any kind: either as a party in a Judicial controversy; or bound over to prosecute for the King in a criminal Cause, or as a voluntary Informer upon some penal statute? here is something for thee; Thou shalt not raise a false report. Art thou secondly a Witness: either fetched in by Process to give public testimony upon oath; or come of good or ill will, privately to speak a good word for, or to cast out a shrewd word against any person; here is something for thee too; Put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Art thou thirdly returned to serve as a sworn man, in a matter of grand or petty inquest? here is something for thee too; Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. Comest thou hither fourthly to advocate the cause of thy Client, who flieth to thy learning, experience, and authority for succor against his adversary, and commendeth his state and suit to thy care and trust? here is something for thee too; Neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest Judgment. Art thou lastly in any Office of trust, or place of service in or about the Courts, so as it may sometimes fall within thy power or opportunity to do a suitor a favor, or a spite: here is something for thee too; Thou shalt not countenance (no not) a poor man in his cause. The two first in the first, the two next in the second, this last in the third verse.

In which distribution of the Offices of Justice in my Text, let none imagine, because I have shared out all among them that are below the Bench, that therefore there is nothing left for them that sit upon it. Rather as in dividing the land of Canaan, Levi, who had no distinct plot by himself, having yet (by reason of the universal use of his office) in every Tribe something, had in the whole, all things considered, a far greater proportion, than any other Tribe had: So in this Scripture, the Judge hath by so much a larger portion than any of the rest, by how much it is more diffused. Not concluded within the narrow bounds of any one; but, as the blood in the body, temperately spread throughout all the parts and members thereof. Which cometh to pass not so much from the immediate construction of the words (though there have not wanted Expositors to fit the words to such construction:) as from that general inspection, and (if I may so speak) superintendency, which the Judge or Magistrate ought to have over the carriage of all those other inferior ones. A great part of whose duty it is, to observe how the rest do theirs: and to find them out, and check and punish them as they deserve, when they transgress. So that with your patience (Honorable, Worshipful, and dearly Beloved) I have allowance from my Text (if the time would as well allow it) to speak unto you of five things. Whereof the first concerneth the Accuser; the second, the Witness; the third, the Iurer; the fourth, the Lawyer; the fifth, the Officer: and everyone of them the Magistrate, Judge, and Justicer. But having no purpose to exceed the hour, (as I must needs do if I should speak to all these to any purpose:) whilst I speak to the first only, I shall desire the rest to make application to themselves, so far as it may concern them, of every material passage: which they may easily do, and with very little change for the most part▪ only if they be willing.

To our first Rule then, which concerneth the Accuser and the Judge; in the first words of the Text, Thou shalt not raise a false report. The Original verb signifieth to take up; as if we should read it Thou shalt not take up a false report. And it is a word of larger comprehension, than most Translators have expressed. The full meaning is, Thou shalt not have to do with any false report, neither by raising it, as the Author, nor by spreading it, as the Reporter, nor by receiving it, as an Approver. But the first fault is in the Raiser: and therefore our translations have done well to retain that rather in the Text; yet allowing the Receiver a place in the Margent. Now false reports may be raised of our brethren by unjust slanders, detractions, back-bitings, whisperings, as well out of the course of judgment, as in it. And the equity of this Rule reacheth even to those extrajudicial Calumnies also. But for that I am not now to speak of extrajudicial Calumny so much, as of that quae versatur in foro & in judiciis, those false suggestions and informations which are give into the Courts, as more proper both to the scope of my Text, and the occasion of this present meeting: Conceive the words for the present as spoken especially, or at leastwise as not improperly appliable to the Accuser. But the Accuser taken at large, for any person that impleadeth another in jure publico vel privato, in causes either civil or criminal; and these again either capital or penal. No not the Accused or Defendant excepted: who although he cannot be called in strict propriety of speech an Accuser; yet if when he is justly accused, he seek to defend himself by false, unjust, or impertinent allegations, he is in our present intendment to be taken as an Accuser, or as the Raiser and Taker up of a false report.

But when is a Report false? or what is it to raise such a report? and how is it done? As we may conceive of falsehood in a threefold notion; namely, as it is opposed, not only unto Truth first, but secondly also unto Ingenuity, and thirdly unto Equity also: accordingly false reports may be raised three ways. The first and grossest way is, when we feign and devise something of our own heads to lay against our brother, without any foundation at all, or ground of truth: creating (as it were) a tale ex nihilo. As it is in the Psalm, They laid to my charge things that I never did: and as Nehemiah sent word to Sanballat, There are no such things as thou sayest, but thou feignest them of thine own heart. Crimen domesticum, & vernaculum; a mere device: such as was that of Jezebel 's instruments against Naboth, which cost him his life; and that of Zibah against Mephibosheth, which had almost cost him all he had. This first kind of Report is false; as devoid of Truth.

The second way (which was so frequently used among the Roman Accusers that Custom had made it not only excusable, but allowable; and is at this day of too frequent use both in private and public calumniations) is, when upon some small ground of truth, we run descant at pleasure in our own informations, interweaving many untruths among; or preverting the speeches and actions of our adversaries, to make their matters ill, when they are not; or otherwise aggravating them to make them seem worse than they are. As tidings came to David, when Ammon only was slain, that Absalom had killed all the Kings sons. It is an easy and a common thing, by misconstruction to deprave whatsoever is most innocently done or spoken. The Ammonitish Courtiers dealt so with David, when he sent Ambassadors to Hanun in kindness, they informed the King as if he had sent spies to discover the strength of the City and Land. And the Jews enemies dealt so with those that of devotion repaired the Temple and the Wall of Jerusalem, advertising the State, as if their purpose had been to fortify themselves for a Rebellion. Yea and the malicious Jews dealt so with Christ himself; taking hold of some words of his, about the destroying and building of the Temple, which he understood of the Temple of his body, and so wresting them to the fabric of the Material Temple, as to make them serve to give color to one of the strongest accusations they had against him. This second kind of Report is false, as devoid of ingenuity.

The third way is, when taking advantage of the Law, we prosecute the extremity thereof against our brother, who perhaps hath done something contrary to the letter of the Law, but not violated the intent of the Law giver, or offended either against common Equity, which ought to be the measure of just Laws, or against the common good, which is in some sort the measure of Equity. In that multitude of Laws, which for the repressing of disorders, and for the maintenance of peace and tranquility among men must needs be in every well-governed Common-wealth; it cannot be avoided, but that honest men, especially if they have much dealings in the world, may have sometimes just and necessary cause to do that, which in regard of the thing done may bring them within the compass of some Statute or branch of a statute; yet such as, circumstances duly considered, no wise and indifferent man but would well approve of. Now, if in such cases always rigor should be used, Laws intended for the benefit, should by such hard construction become the bane of human society. As Solomon saith, Qui torquet nasum, elicit sanguinem; He that wringeth the nose too hard forceth blood. Guilty this way are not only those contentious spirits, whereof are too many in the world; with whom there is no more ado, but a Word and an Action, a Trespass and a Process: But most of our common Informers withal, Sycophants you may call them (for that was their old name) like Verres his blood hounds in Tully, that lie in the wind for game, and if they can but trip any man upon any breach of a penal statute, there they fasten their teeth, and tugg him into the Courts without help; unless he will dare offam Cerbero, (for that is it they look for) give them a Sop, and then they are charmed for that time, Zacchaeus, besides that he was a Publican, was it seemeth such a kind of Informer; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is the word Luke 19. If I have played the Sycophant with any man, If I have wronged any man by forged cavilation, or wrung anything from him by false accusation. A report of this third kind is false, as devoid of equity.

But it may be thought I injure these men, in making them raisers of false reports; and am myself a false accuser of them, whilst I seek to make them false accusers of others: when as they dare appeal to the world, they report not anything but what is most true, and what they shall be well able to prove so to be. At once to answer them, and clear myself, know that in God's estimation, and to common intendment in the language of Scripture, it is all one to speak an untruth, and to speak a truth, in undue time, and place, and manner, and with undue circumstances. One instance shall make all this most clear. Dog the Edomoite, one of the servants of the house of Saul, saw when David went into the house of Ahimelech the Priest, and how Ahimelech there entertained him, and what kindness he did for him: of all which he afterwards gave Saul particular information, in every point according to what he had seen. Wherein, though he spake no more than what was true, and what he had seen with his own eyes: yet because he did it with an intent to bring mischief upon Ahimelech, who had done nothing but what well became an honest man to do, David chargeth him with telling of lies▪ and telleth him he had a false tongue of his own for it, Psal. 52. [ Thy tongue imagineth wickedness, and with lies thou cuttest like a sharp razor: Thou hast loved unrighteousness more than goodness, and to talk of lies more than righteousness: Thou hast loved all words that may do hurt, O thou false tongue. ] Conclude hence; he that telleth the truth where it may do hurt, but especially if he tell it with that purpose, and to that end that it may do hurt, he hath a false tongue, and he telleth a false lie, and he must pardon us if we take him for no better than the raiser of a false report.

We see what it is to raise a false report: let us now see what a fault it is: The first Accuser that ever was in the world, was a false Accuser: and that was the Devil. Who as he began betimes, for he was a liar from the beginning: so he began aloft; for, the first false report he raised, was of the most High. Unjustly accusing God himself unto our mother Eve in a few words, of no fewer than three great crimes at once, Falsehood, Tyranny, and Envy. He was then a slanderous accuser of his Maker; and he hath continued ever since a malicious accuser of his Brethren: Satan, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. he hath his name from it is most languages. Slanderers, and Backbiters, and false Accusers may here hence learn to take knowledge of the rock whence they were hewn: here they may behold the top of their Pedigree. We may not deny them the ancienty of their descent; though they have small cause to boast of it; semen serpentis, the spawn of the old Serpent; children of their father the Devil. And they do not shame the store they come of; for the works of their Father they readily do. That Hellish Aphorism they so faithfully practice, is one of his Principles: it was he first instilled it into them, Calumniare fortiter, aliquid adhaerebit, Smite with the tongue, and be sure to smite home; and then be sure either the grief, or the blemish of the stroke will stick by it.

A Devilish practice, hateful both to God and man. And that most justly; whether we consider the sin, or the injury, or the mischief of it: the Sin in the Doer, the injury to the Sufferer, the mischief to the Common-wealth. Every false report raised in judgment, besides that it is a lie; and every lie is a sin against the truth, slaying the soul of him that maketh it, and excluding him from heaven, and binding him over unto the second death: it is also a pernicious lie, and that is the worst sort of lies; and so a sin both against Charity and Justice. Which whoso committeth, let him never look to dwell in the Tabernacle of God, or to rest upon his holy Mountain: God having threatened, Psal. 50. to take special knowledge of this sin; and though he seem for a time to dissemble, yet at least to reprove the bold offender to his face, [ Thou satest and speakest against thy brother: yea and hast slandered thine own mrothers Son. These things hast thou done, and I held my tongue, and thou thoughtest wickedly, that I was even such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set before thee the things that thou hast done. ]

And as for the Injury done hereby to the grieved party, it is incomparable. If a man have his house broken, or his purse taken from him by the high way, or sustain any wrong or loss in his person, goods, or state otherwise, by fraud, or violence, or casualty: he may possibly either by good fortune hear of his own again, and recover it, or he may have restitution and satisfaction made him by those that wronged him, or by his good industry and providence he may live to see that loss repaired, and be in as good state as before. But he that hath his Name, and Credit, and Reputation causelessly called into question, sustaineth a loss by so much greater than any Theft, by how much a good Name is better than great Riches. A man may out-wear other Injuries, or out-live them: but a defamed person no Acquittal from the Judge, no satisfaction from the Accuser, no following Endeavors in himself can so restore in integrum, but that when the Wound is healed, he shall yet carry the marks and the scars of it to his dying day.

Great also are the mischiefs that hence redound to the Commonwealth. When no innocence can protect an honest quiet man, but every busy base fellow that oweth him a spite, shall be able to fetch him into the Courts, draw him from the necessary charge of his family and duties of his calling, to an unnecessary expense of money and time, torture him with endless delays, and expose him to the pillage of every hungry Officer. It is one of the grievances God had against Jerusalem, and, as he calleth them, Abominations, for which he threateneth to judge her, Viri detractores in te. In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood.

Beware then all you whose business or lot it is at this Assizes, or hereafter may be, to be Plaintiffs, Accusers, Informers, or any way Parties in any Court of Justice, this or other, Civil or Ecclesiastical: that you suffer not the guilt of this Prohibition to cleave unto your Consciences. If you shall hereafter be raisers of false Reports, the words you have heard this day shall make you inexcusable another: You are by what hath been presently spoken, disabled everlastingly from pleading any Ignorance either Facti or Iuris; as having been instructed both what it is, and how great a Fault it is to raise a false Report. Resolve therefore, if you be free, never to enter into any Action or Suit, wherein you cannot proceed with Comfort, nor come off without Injustice: or, if already engaged, to make as good and speedy an end as you can of a bad matter, and to desist from farther prosecution. Let that Golden Rule, (commended by the wisest Heathens as a fundamental Principle of Moral and Civil Justice; yea and proposed by our blessed Savior himself as a full abridgment of the Law and Prophets, ) be ever in your eye, and ever before your thoughts, to measure out all your Actions, and Accusations, and Proceedings thereby: even to do so to other men, and no otherwise, than as you could be content, or in right reason should be content, they should do to you and yours, if their case were yours. Could any of you take it well at your Neighbors hand, should he seek your life or livelihood by suggesting against you things which you never had so much as the thought to do? or bring you into a peck of Troubles, by wresting your Words and Actions, wherein you meant nothing but well, to a dangerous construction; or follow the Law upon you, as if he would not leave you worth a groat, for every petty Trespass, scarce worth half the money? or fetch you over the hip upon a branch of some blind, uncouth and pretermitted Statute? He that should deal thus with you and yours, I know not what would be said and thought; Griper, Knave, Villain, Devil incarnate; all this and much more would be too little for him. Well, I say no more but this, Quod tibi fieri non vis, &c. Do as you would be done to. There is your general rule.

But for more particular direction, if any man desire it; since in every evil one good step to soundness is to have discovered the right Cause thereof: • know not what better course to prescribe for the preventing of this sin of Sycophancy and false accusation, than for every man carefully to avoid the inducing Causes thereof, and the Occasions of those Causes. There are (God knoweth) in this present wicked World, to every kind of evil, inducements but too too many. To this of false Accusation therefore it is not unlikely, but there may be more: yet we may observe that there are four things, which are the most ordinary and frequent Causes thereof; viz. Malice, Obsequiousness, Coverture, and Covetousness.

The first is Malice. Which in some men (if I may be allowed to call them men, being indeed rather Monsters ) is universal. They love nobody: glad when they can do any man any mischief in any matter: never at so good quiet, as when they are most unquiet. It seemed▪ David met with some such; men that were Enemies to peace: when he spake to them of peace, they made themselves ready to battle. Take one of these men, it is meat and drink to him, which to a well-minded Christian is as Gall and Wormwood, to be in continual suits. Et si non aliqua nocuisset, mortuus esset: he could not have kept himself in breath but by keeping Terms; nor have lived to this hour, if he had not been in Law. Such cankered dispositions as these, without the more than ordinary mercy of God, there is little hope to reclaim: unless very want, when they have spent and undone themselves with wrangling (for that is commonly their end, and the reward of all their toil) make them hold off, and give over. But there are besides these, others also; in whom, although this malice reigneth not so universally, yet are they so far carried with private spleen and hatred against some particular men for some personal respect or other, as to seek their undoing by all means they can. Out of which hatred and envy they raise false reports of them: that being in their judgments (as it is indeed) the most speedy, and the most speeding way, to do mischief with safety. This made the Presidents and Princes of Persia to seek an Accusation against Daniel; whom they envied because the King had preferred him above them. And in all Ages of the World, wicked and profane men have been busy to suggest the worst they could, against those that have been faithful in their Callings; especially in the callings of the Magistracy or Ministry; that very faithfulness of theirs being to the other a sufficient ground of malice. To remedy this, take the Apostles rule, Heb. 12. Look diligently lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Submit yourselves to the Word and Will of God in the Ministry; submit yourselves to the Power and Ordinance of God in the Magistracy; submit yourselves to the good pleasure and Providence of God in disposing of yours and other men's Estates: and you shall have no cause by the grace of God, out of Malice or Envy to any of your brethren, to raise false Reports of them.

The second Inducement is Obsequiousness. When either out of a base fear of displeasing some that have power to do us a displeasure, or out of a baser Ambition to screw ourselves into the service or favor of those that may advance us; we are content, though we owe them no private grudge otherwise, yet to become officious Accusers of those they hate, but would not be seen so to do: so making ourselves as it were bawds unto their lust, and open instruments of their secret malice. Out of that base fear, the Elders of Jezreel, upon the Queens Letter, whom they durst not displease, caused an Accusation to be framed against innocent Naboth. And out of this base Ambition, Doeg to pick a thank with his Master, and to endear himself farther into his good opinion, told tales of David and Abimelech. To remedy this, remember, the Service and Offices you owe to the greatest Masters upon Earth, have their bounds set them which they may not pass. Usque ad aras: the Altar-stone that is the Mere-stone; and Justice hath her Altars too, as well as Religion hers. Go as far then as you can in Offices of love and service to your friends and betters, salvis pietate & justitiâ: but not a step farther for a world. If you seek to please men beyond this, you cannot be the servants of God.

Coverture is the third Inducement. And that is, when either to make our own cause the better, we seek to bring envy and prejudice upon our adversaries, by making his seem worse: or, when being ourselves guilty, we think to cover our own crimes, and to prevent the Accusations of others by getting the start of them, and accusing them first. As Potiphar 's Wife accused Joseph, and the Elders Susannah, of such crimes, as they were innocent of, and themselves guilty. An old trick, by which C. Verres, like a cunning Colt, often holp himself at a pinch, when he was Praetor of Sicily; as Cicero declareth against him by many instances, and at large. For sithence the Laws in most cases rather favor the Plaintiff, because it is presumed men should not complain without grievance: we may think perhaps to get this advantage to ourselves, and so rather choose to be Plaintiffs than Defendants, because (as Solomon saith) He that is first in his own tale seemeth righteous. To remedy this; Do nothing but what is just, and justifiable: be sure, your matters be good and right: they will then bear out themselves well enough, without standing need to such damned shifts for support.

But the fourth thing is that, which causeth more mischief in this kind, than all the rest. That which the Apostle calleth the root of all evil; and which were it not, there could not be the hundredth part of those suits, and troubles, and wrongs, which now there are, done under the Sun: Even the greedy worm of Covetousness, and the thirst after filthy lucre. For though men be wicked enough, and prone to mischief of themselves but too much: yet are there even in corrupt nature such impressions of the common principles of justice and equity, that men would not often do great wrongs gratis, and for nothing. If Zibah slander his Master falsely and treacherously; it is in hope of getting the living from him. And it was Naboth's Vineyard, not blasphemy, that made him guilty. Those sinners that conspired against the innocent, Prov. 1. [ Come let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without a cause: Let us swallow them up, &c. ] They had their end in it: and what that was the next following words discover, We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil. And most of our prouling Informers, like those Old Sycophants in Athens, or the Quadruplatores in Rome; do they aim think you so much at the execution of good Laws, the punishment of Offenders, and the reformation of Abuses, as at the prey, and the booty, and to get a piece of money to themselves? For let the Offence be what it will, deal but with them; and then no more speech of Laws or Abuses, but all is husht up in a calm silence▪ and no harm done. To remedy this; as John the Baptist said to the Soldiers in Luke 3. Accuse no man falsely ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is the word there too) and be content with your wages: so if you would be sure not to accuse your Neighbor falsely, content yourselves with your own Estates, and covet not his Ox or his Ass, his land or his money, or anything that is his. Reckon nothing your own, that is not yours by fair and just means: nor think that can prosper with you and yours, that was wrung from another by Cavil or Calumny.

I have now done with you that are Accusers: whose care must be, according to the Text reading, not to raise a false Report. But the Margent remembers me, there are others whom this prohibition concerneth besides you, or rather above you; whose care it must be, not to receive a false report. A thing so weighty, and withal so pertinent to the general argument of this Scripture, that some Translations have passed it in the Text. And the Original word comprehendeth it. For albeit the Raiser indeed be the first taker up; yet the Receiver taketh it up too, at the second hand. As it is commonly said of stolen goods, There would be no Thieves, if there were no Receivers; and therefore some Laws have made the Receiver equal Thief with the Stealer, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : so certainly there would be fewer false reports raised in judgment, if they were more sparingly received. And therefore in this case also the Receiver must go pari passu with the Raiser: who, if he give way or countenance to a false Report when he may refuse or hinder it, by being an Accessary maketh himself a Party; and becometh guilty of the same sins, the same wrongs, the same mischiefs, with the first Offender, the false Accuser. David as he envieth against Doeg in the Psalm for telling, so he elsewhere expostulateth with Saul for hearing unjust Reports of him. The Raiser and Receiver are both possessed with the same evil spirit: they have the same Devil, the same Familiar; only here is the difference, the Raiser hath his Familiar in his Tongue, the Receiver in his Ear. Whosoever then sitteth in the place of Magistracy and public judicature in foro externo, or is by virtue of his Calling otherwise invested with any jurisdiction or power to hear and examine the Accusations of others: I know not how he shall be able to discharge himself in foro interno from a kind of Champerty (if my ignorance make me not abuse the Word) or at leastwise from misprision of Calumny and unjust Accusations; if he be not reasonably careful of three things.

First, let him beware how he taketh private informations. Men are partial, and will not tell their own Tales but with favor, and unto advantage. And it is so with most men; the first Tale possesseth them so, as they hear the next with prejudice: than which there is not a sorer enemy to right and indifferent judgment. A point so material, that some Expositors make it a thing principally intended in this first branch of my Text, Ut non audiatur una pars sine alia, saith Lyra. Suiters will be impudent, to forestal the public hearing by private informations: even to the Judge himself, if the access be easy; or at leastwise (which indeed maketh less noise, but is nothing less pernicious) to his Servant or Favorite that hath his ear, if he have any such noted Servant or Favorite. He therefore that would resolve not to receive a false report, and be sure to hold his Resolution, let him resolve (so far as he can avoid it) to receive no Report in private; (for a thousand to one that is a false one) or, where he cannot well avoid it, to be ready to receive the Information of the adverse part withal; either both or neither, but indeed rather neither, to keep himself by all means equal and entire for a public hearing. Thus much he may assure himself; there is no man offereth to possess him with a Cause beforehand, be it right, be it wrong; who doth not either think him unjust, or would have him so.

Secondly, let him have the conscience first, and then the patience too (and yet if he have the (s) conscience, certainly he will have the patience ) to make search into the truth of things: and not be dainty of his pains herein, though matters be intricate, and the labor like to be long and irksome, to find out if it be possible the bottom of a business; and where indeed the fault lieth first or most. It was a great oversight in a good King, for David to give away Mephibosheth 's living from him to his Accuser, and that upon the bare credit of his accusation. It had been more for his honor to have done as Job did before him, to have searched out the cause he knew not; and as his son Solomon did after him in the cause of the two mothers. Solomon well knew, what he hath also taught us, Prov. 25. that it was the honor of Kings to search out a matter. God as he hath vouchsafed Princes and Magistrates his own name; so he hath vouchsafed them his own example in this point. An example in the story of the Law, Gen. 18. where he did not presently give judgment against Sodom upon the cry of their sins, that was come up before him: but he would go down first and see whether they had done altogether according to that cry; and if not, that he might know it. An example also in the Gospel story, Luk. 16. under the Parable of the rich man: whose first work, when his Steward was accused to him for embezeling his good, was not to turn him out of doors, but to examine his accounts. What through Malice, Obsequiousness, Coverture, and Covetousness, counterfeit reports are daily raised: and there is much cunning used by those that raise them, much odd shuffling, and packing, and combining, to give them the color and face of perfect truth. As then a plain Country-man, that, would not willingly be cosened in his pay, to take a slip for a currant piece, or brass for silver, leisurely turneth over every piece he receiveth; and if he suspect any one more than the rest, vieweth it, and ringeth it, and smelleth to it, and bendeth it, and rubbeth it, so making up of all his senses as it were one natural touch stone, whereby to try it: such jealousy should the Magistrate use, and such industry, especially, where there appeareth cause of suspicion, by all means to sift and to bolt out the truth, if he would not be cheated with a false report instead of a true.

Thirdly, let him take heed he do not give countenance or encouragement, more than right and reason requireth, to contentious persons, known Sycophants, and common informers. If there should be no Accusers, to make complaints, Offenders would be no offenders, for want of due Correction; and Laws would be no Laws, for want of due Execution. Informers then are necessary in a Common-wealth, as Dogs are about your houses and yards. If any man mislike the comparison, let him know it it Cicero 's simile, and not mine. It is not amiss, saith that great and wise Orator, there should be some store of Dogs about the house, where many goods are laid up to be kept safe, and many false knaves haunt to do mischief; to guard those, and to watch these the better. But if those Dogs should make at the throat of every man that cometh near the house, at honest men's hours, and upon honest men's business: it is but needful they of the house should sometimes rate them off, and if that will not serve the turn, well favouredly beat them off, yea, and if (after all that they still continue mankeen) knock out their teeth, or break their legs, to prevent a worse mischief. Magistrates are petty God's, God hath lent them his name. Dixi Dii, I have said ye are God's, Psa. 82. and false Accusers are petty Devils; the Devil hath borrowed their name, Satan, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Accuser of his brethren. For a Ruler then or Magistrate, to countenance a Sycophant, what is it else, but as it were to pervert the course of nature, and to make God take the Devils part? And then besides, where such things are done; what is the common cry? People as they are suspicious, will be talking parlously, and after their manner: Sure, say they, the Magistrates are sharers with these fellows in the adventure; these are but their setters, to bring them in gain, their Instruments and Emissaries to toll grist to their mills for the increasing of their moulter. He then that in the place of magistracy would decline both the fault and suspicion of such unworthy Collusion; it standeth him upon, with all his best endeavors, by chaining and muzling these beasts to prevent them from biting where they should not; and, if they have fastened already▪ then by delivering the oppressed (with Job ) To pluck the prey from between their teeth, and by exercising just severity upon them to break their jaws for doing farther harm.

I am not able to prescribe (nor is it meet I should to my Betters) by what means all this might best be done. For I know not how far the subordinate Magistrates power, which must be bounded by his Commission, and by the Laws, may extend this way. Yet some few things there are, which I cannot but propose, as likely good Helps in all reason and in themselves, for the discountenancing of false accusers, and the lessening both of their number and insolency. Let every good Magistrate take it into his proper consideration; whether his Commission and the Laws give him power to use them all, or no, and how far.

And first; for the avoiding of Malicious suits, and that men should not be brought into trouble upon slight informations, I find that among the Romans, the Accuser in most cases might not be admitted to put in his libel, until he had first taken his corporal oath before the praetor, that we was free from all malicious and Calumnious intent. Certain it is, as daily experience showeth, that many men who make no conscience of a lie, do yet take some bog at an Oath. And it cannot but open a wide gap to the raising and receiving of false reports, and to many other abuses of very noisome consequence in the common weal; if the Magistrate when he may help it, to enrich himself or his Officers, or for any other indirect end, shall suffer men to be impleaded and brought into trouble upon Bills and Presentments tendered without Oath.

Secondly, since Laws cannot be so conceived, but that through the infinite variety of human occurrences, they may sometimes fall heavy upon particular men: and yet for the preventing of more general inconveniences it is necessary there should be Laws [for better a mischief sometimes, than always an Inconvenience: ) there hath been left, for anything I find to the contrary, in all well governed Policies, a kind of latitude more or less, and power in the Magistrates, even in those Courts that were strictissimi juris, upon fit occasion to qualify and to mitigate something the rigor of the Laws by the Rules of Equity. For I know not any extremity of wrong beyond the extremity of Right: when Laws intended for fences, are made snares, and are calumniously wrested to oppress that innocence which they should protect. And this is most properly Calumny in the prime notion of the word, for a man upon a mere trick or quillet from the letters and syllables of the Law, or other writing, or evidence pressed with advantage, to bring his Action, or lay his Accusation against another man; who yet bonâ fide, and in Equity and Conscience, hath done nothing worthy to bring him into such trouble. Now if the Magistrate of Justice shall use his full power, by interpreting the Law in rigor where he should not, to second the boldness of a calumnious Accuser: or if he shall not use his full power, by affording his lawful favor in due time and place, to succor the innocence of the so accused; he shall thereby but give encouragement to the Raisers, and he must look to answer for it one day, as the Receiver of a false report.

Thirdly, since that Justice which especially supporteth the Common-weal, consisteth in nothing more than in the right distribution of rewards and punishments: many Law-givers have been careful, by proposing rewards, to encourage men to give in true and needful Informations, and on the contrary, to suppress those that are false or idle, by proposing punishments For, the Informers Office, though it be (as we heard) a necessary, yet it is in truth a very thankless office; and men would be loath, without special grievance, to undergo the hatred and envy, which commonly attendeth such as are officious that way; unless there were some profit mixed withal to sweeten that hatred, and to countervail that envy. For which cause, in most penal Statutes, a moiety, or a third, or fourth (which was the usual proportion in Rome, whence the name of quadruplatores came) or some other greater or lesser part of the fine, penalty, or forfeiture expressed in the Law, is by the said Law allowed to the Informer, by way of recompense for the service he hath done the State by his information. And if he be faithful and conscionable in his Office good reason he should have it. For he that hath an office in any lawful Calling (and the Informers calling is such, howsoever through the iniquity of those that have usually exercised it, it hath long labored of an ill name: ) but he that hath such an office, as it is meet he should attend it, so it is meet it should maintain him; for, Who goeth to warfare at any time of his own cost? But if such an Informer shall indict one man for an offense, pretending it to be done to the great hurt of the Common-weal, yet for favor, fear, or fee, balk another man, whom he knoweth to have committed the same offense, or a greater; or, if having entered his complaint in the open Court, he shall afterwards let the suit fall, and take up the matter in a private Chamber, this is Collusion; and so far forth a false report, as everything may be called false when it is partial, and should be entire. And the Magistrate, if he have power to chastise such an Informer, some semblance whereof there was in that Iudicium Praevaricationis in Rome, he shall do the Common-weal good service, and himself much honor, now and then to use it.

Fourthly, since nothing is so powerful to repress audacious Accusers, as severe punishment is; it is observable, what care and caution was used among the Romans whilst that state flourished, to deter men from unjust Calumniations. In private and civil Controversies, for trial of right between party and party, they had their Sponsiones; which was a Sum of Money in some proportionable rate to the value of the thing in Question; which the Plaintiff entered Bond to pay to the Defendant in case he should not be able to prove his Action; the Defendant also making the like Sponsion, and entering the like Bond, in case he should be cast. But in public and criminal matters, whether Capital or Penal, if, for want of due proof on the Accusers part, the party accused were quit in judgment; there went a Trial upon the Accuser, at the suit of the accused, which they called Iudicium Calumniae, wherein they examined the original ground and foundation of the accusation; which if it appeared to have proceeded from some just error or mistake bonâfide, it excused him; but if it should appear, the Accusation to have proceeded from some left handed respect, as Malice, Envy, Gain, &c. he was then condemned of Calumny. And his ordinary punishment then, was, whereunto he had virtually bound himself by suscribing his Libel, Poena talionis, the same kind of punishment, whatsoever it was, which by the Laws had been due to the party accused, if the libel had been proved against him. Yea, and for his farther shame it was provided by one Law, that he should be burnt in the forehead with the Letter K. to proclaim him a Calumniator to the world; that in old Orthography, being the first letter of the word Kalumnia. The same letter would serve the turn very well with us also, though we use it to signify another thing; and yet not so much another thing▪ as a thing more general, but comprehending this as one species of it. But, as I said, I may not prescribe, especially beyond Law. The thing for which I mention all this, is this; If all that care and severity in them could not prevent it, but that still unjust actions would be brought, and false accusations raised, what a world of unconscionable Suits and wrongful Informations may we think there would be, if contenticus Plantiffs, and calumnious Sycophants, when they have failed their proof, should yet get off easily, and escape out of the Courts without Censure or Punishment, or at the most but with some light check; and the poor injured innocent the while be held in as in a prison, till he have paid the utmost farthing? I say not of what is due, but of what shall be demanded by every man that hath but a piece of an Office about the Courts. It is a strong heartening to Accusers, and multiplieth false reports beyond belief when they that are wrongfully accused, though the cause go with them, shall yet have the worst of the day, and shall have cause to answer the congratulations of their friends, as Pyrrhus did his, after he had gotten two famous victories over the Romans, that if they should get a few more such victories, it would be to their utter undoing. If the Magistrate had power to make the wronged party full restitution, allowing him all costs and damages to a half penny; nay, if he had power to allow him double or treble out of his unjust adversaries estate, it were all little enough and but too little. Zacchaeus took himself bound to do more, when for this very sin of false accusation, he imposed upon himself, as a kind of satisfactory penance, a four-fold restitution, Luk. 19. Here was a right Quadruplator indeed, and in the best sense; you shall not lightly read of such another.

Lastly, men have not fenestrata pectora, that we can see them thoroughly and within, yet there want not means of probable discovery. Of ordinary private men we make conjecture by their gestures, by their speeches, by their companions; but Magistrates, and great ones, who live more in the eye of the world, and are ever, as it were, upon the stage, and so do personati incedere, walk under a continual disguise, in respect of their outward deportment, are not so well discoverable by those means. They are best known by their servants and retinue, by their Favorites and Officers, by those they keep about them, or employ under them. If these be plain and down-right, if these be just and upright, if these be free and conscionable, Sycophants will pluck in their horns, and be out of heart and hope to find the Masters of such servants facile to give way to their false Calumniations. But if these be insolent and hungry companions, if these be impudent and shameless exactors, it is presently thought they are then but brokers for the Masters; and there is no question then made, but that false reports will be received as fast as they can be raised, and entertained with both arms. We have learned from Solomon, Prov. 29. that if a ruler hearken to lies, then all his servants are wicked. They durst not be so openly wicked, if they were not first sure of him. It was but a sorry one, when it was at best, but is now withal grown a stale excuse; for great ones to impute their own willful oversights to the faults or negligence of their Servants. Gaius Verres (whom I cannot but now and then mention, because there is scarce to be found such another complete Exemplar of a wicked Magistrate;) would usually complain, that he was unjustly oppressed, not with his own, but with the crimes of his followers. But why then did he keep such a kennel of Sharks about him? why did he not either speedily reform them, or utterly discard them? It were indeed an unrighteous thing to condemn the Master for the Servants fault, and an uncharitable inference, because the Servant is naught, to conclude straight the Master is little better. For a just Master may have an unconscionable Servant; and if he have a numerous family, and keep many, it is a rare thing if he have not some bad; as in a great herd there will be some rascal Deer. But then it is but one or a few, and they play their prises closely, without their Masters privity; and they are not a little solicitous to carry matters so fairly outward, that their Master shall be the last man shall hear of their false dealing; and when he heareth of it, shall scarce believe it for the good opinion he hath of them. But when in the generality they are such, when they are openly and impudently such; when everybody seeth, and saith, the Master cannot choose but know they are such: it cannot be thought, but the Master is well enough content they should be such. Even their Servants bear rule over the people, saith good Nehemiah of the Governors that were before him; but so did not I, because of the fear of God, Neh. 5. What? did not Nehemiah bear rule over the people? yes, that he did; there is nothing surer. His meaning then must be, ( so did not I ) that is, I did not suffer my Servants so to do, as they did theirs: implying, that when the Servants of the former Governors oppressed the people, it was their Masters doing, at leastwise their Masters suffering: [Even their Servants bare rule over the people; but so did not I, because of the fear of God.] The Magistrate therefore that would speedily smoke away these Gnats that swarm about the Courts of Justice, and will be offering at his ear, to buz false reports thereinto: he shall do well to begin his reformation at home; and if he have a Servant that heareth not well deservedly, to pack him away out of hand, and to get an honester in his room. Say he be of never so serviceable qualities, and useful abilities otherwise, so as the Master might almost as well spare his right eye, or his right hand, as forgo his service; yet in this case he must not spare him. Our Savior's speech is peremptory Erue, abscinde, projice; if either eye or hand cause or tempt thee to offend, pull out that eye, cut off that hand, cast them both from thee with indignation, rather want both, than suffer corruption in either. David 's resolution was excellent in Psal. 101. and worthy thy imitation: Whoso privily slandereth his Neighbor, him will I destroy: whoso hath a proud look, and high stomach, I will not suffer him. Mine eyes look to such as be faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me: whoso leadeth a godly life, he shall be my Servant. There shall no deceitful person dwell in my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. He that will thus resolve, and thus do, it may be presumed, he will not knowingly give either way to a false report, or countenance to the reporter. And so much for our first Rule, Thou shalt not raise a false Report.

My first purpose, I confess, was to have spoken also to the Witness, and to the Iuror, and to the Pleader, and to the Officer, from the other four Rules in my Text, as punctually and particularly as to the Accuser, from this first: for I therefore made choice of a Text that taketh them all in, that I might speak to them all alike. But if I should enlarge myself upon the rest, as I have done in this, my Meditations would swell to the proportion rather of a Treatise than a Sermon; and what patience were able to sit them out? therefore I must not do it. And indeed, if what I have spoken to this first point were duly considered, and conscionably practiced, I should the less need to do it. For it is the Accuser that layeth the first stone, the rest do but build upon his Foundation. And if there were no false reports raised or received, there would be the less use of, and the less work for false and suborned Witnesses, ignorant or packed Iuries, crafty and sly Pleaders, cogging and extorting Officers: but unto these I have no more to say at this time, but only to desire each of them to lay that portion of my Text to their hearts, which in the first division was allotted them as their proper share; and withal, to make application ( mutatis mutandis ) unto themselves, of whatsoever hath been presently spoken to the Accuser, and to the Magistrate, from this first Rulē. Whereof, (for the better furtherance of their Application, and relief of our memories ) the sum in brief is thus. First, concerning the Accuser, (and that is every party in a Cause or Trial) he must take heed he do not raise a false report; which is done, first, by forging a mere untruth; and secondly, by perverting or aggravating a truth; and thirdly, by taking advantage of strict Law against Equity: any of which whoever doth, he first committeth a heinous sin himself, and secondly grievously wrongeth his neighbor, and thirdly, bringeth a great deal of mischief to the Commonwealth. All which evils are best avoided, first, by considering how we would others should deal with us, and resolving so to deal with them; and secondly, by avoiding, as all other inducements and occasions, so especially those four things, which ordinarily engage men in unjust quarrels, Malice, Obsequiousness, Coverture and Greediness. Next concerning the Judge or Magistrate; he must take heed he do not receive a false report: which he shall hardly avoid, unless he beware, first, of taking private informations; secondly, of passing over Causes slightly without mature disquisition; and thirdly, of countenancing accusers more than is meet. For whose discountenancing and deterring, he may consider, whether or no these five may not be good helps; so far as it lieth in his power, and the Laws will permit; first, to reject informations tendered without Oath; secondly, to give such Interpretations as may stand with Equity as well as Law; thirdly, to chastise Informers that use partiality or collusion; fourthly, to allow the wronged party a liberal Satisfaction from his Adversary; fifthly, to carry a sharp Eye, and a strait Hand over his own Servants, Followers, and Officers. Now what remaineth, but that the several Premises be earnestly recommended to the godly consideration, and conscionable practice of everyone of you whom they may concern; and all your persons and affairs both in the present weighty businesses, and ever hereafter to the good guidance and providence of Almighty God: we should humbly beseech him of his gracious goodness to give a Blessing to that which hath been spoken agreeably to his Word, that it may bring forth in us the fruits of Godliness, Charity, and Justice, to the Glory of his Grace, the Good of our Brethren, and the Comfort of our own Souls; even for his blessed Son's sake, our blessed Savior Jesus Christ: To whom with, &c.

AD MAGISTRATUM.

The Third Sermon.

At the Assizes at Lincoln, August 4th. 1625. at the Request of the High-Sheriff aforesaid, William Lister, Esquire.

T HE Abridgment is short, which some have made of the whole Book of Psalms, but into two words, Hosannah, and Hallelujah: most of the Psalms spending themselves as, in their proper Arguments, either in Supplication, praying unto God for his Blessings, and that is Hosannah; or in Thanksgiving, blessing God for his goodness, and that is Hallelujah. This Psalm is of the latter sort. The word Hallelujah, both prefixed in the Title, and repeated in the close of it, sufficiently giveth it to be a Psalm of Thanksgiving, as are also the three next before it, and the next after it. All which five Psalms together, as they agree in the same general Argument, the magnifying of God's holy Name, so they differ one from another in choice of those special and topical Arguments, whereby the Praises of God are set forth therein. In the rest, the Psalmist draweth his Argument from other Considerations; in this, from the Consideration of God's merciful removal of those Iudgments he had in his just wrath brought upon his own People Israel for their Sins, upon their Repentance.

For this purpose there are sundry instances given in the Psalm, taken out of the Histories of former times; out of which there is framed, as it were, a Catalogue, though not of all, yet of sundry the most famous rebellions of that people against their God, and of God's both Justice and Mercy abundantly manifested in his proceedings with them thereupon. In all which we may observe the passages betwixt God and them, in the ordinary course of things, ever to have stood in this order. First, he preventeth them with undeserved favors; they, unmindful of his benefits, provoke him by their rebellions: he in his just wrath chastiseth them with heavy Plagues; they, humbled under the rod, seek to him for ease: he, upon their submission, withdraweth his judgments from them. The Psalmist hath wrapped all these five together in Vers. 43, 44. Many times did he deliver them, but they provoked him with their Counsels, and were brought low for their iniquity: the three first. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry: the other two.

The particular rebellions of the people in this Psalm instanced in, are many; some before, and some after the verse of my Text. For brevity sake, those that are in the following verses I wholly omit, and but name the rest: which are, their wretched Infidelity and Cowardice upon the first approach of danger at the Red Sea, verse. 7. Their tempting of God in the desert, when, loathing Manna, they lusted for flesh, verse. 13. Their seditious conspiracy under Corah and his confederates against Moses, verse. 16. Their gross Idolatry at Horeb, in making and worshipping the golden Calf, ver. 19. Their distrustful murmuring at their portion, in thinking scorn of the promised pleasant land, ver. 24. Their fornicating both bodily with the daughters, and spiritually with the Idols of Moab and of Midian, ver. 28. To the prosecution of which last mentioned story, the words of my Text do appertain. The original story itself, whereto this part of the Psalm referreth, is written at full by Moses in Numb. 25. and here by David but briefly touched, as the present purpose and occasion led him: yet so, as that the most observable passages of the History are here remembered, in three verses three special things, the Sin, the Plague, the Deliverance. The Sin, with the Agravation thereof, ver. 28. [ They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.] The Plague, with the efficient cause thereof, both Impulsive and Principal, verse. 29. [ Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions, and the Plague brake in upon them.] The Deliverance, with the special means and Instrument thereof is this 30th. verse. [Then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment, and the Plague was stayed. ]

In which words are three things especially considerable. The Person; the Action of that Person; and the Success of that Action. The Person, Phinehas: His action twofold: the one preparatory, he stood up; the other completory, he executed judgment: The Success, and Issue of both, the Plague was stayed. The Person holy, the Action zealous, the Success happy. Of each of these I shall endeavor to speak something appliable to the present condition of these heavy times, and the present occasion of this frequent Assembly. But because the argument of the whole verse is a Deliverance, and that Deliverance supposeth a Plague, and every Plague supposeth a Sin, I must take leave before I enter upon the particulars now proposed from the Text, first a little to unfold the original story, that so we may have some more distinct knowledge both what Israel's sin was, and how they were plagued, and upon what occasion, and by▪ what means Phinehas wrought their Deliverance.

When Israel, travelling from the land of Bondage to the land of Promise through the wilderness, were now come as far as the plains of Moab, and there encamped: Balak the then King of Moab, not daring to encounter with that people, before whom two of his greatest neighbor Princes had lately fallen, consulted with the Midianites, his neighbors and allies, and after some advice, resolved upon this conclusion, to hire Balaam a famous Sorcerer in those times and quarters, to lend them his assistance; plotting with all their might, and his art, by all possible means to withdraw God's protection from them; wherein they thought (and they thought right) the strength and safety of that people lay. But there is no Counsel against the Lord, nor enchantment against his people. Where he will bless, (and he will bless where he is faithfully obeyed and depended upon;) neither power nor policy can prevail for a Curse. Balaam the wicked wretch, though he loved the ways of unrighteousness with his heart; yet God not suffering him, he could not pronounce a Curse with his lips against Israel, but instead of cursing them, bless • ed them altogether.

But angry at Israel, whom, when fain he would, he could not curse; yea, and angry at God himself, who, by restraining his tongue, had voided his hopes, and withheld him from pay and honor: the wretched covetous Hypocrite, as if he would at once be avenged both of him and them, imagineth a mischievous device against them, full of cursed villainy. He giveth the Moabites and the Midianites counsel to smothe • their hatred with pretensions of peace, and by sending the fairest of their daughters▪ among them to inveigle them with their beauty, and to entice them first to corporal, and after, by that, to spiritual, whoredom; that so Israel shrinking from the Love, and Fear, and Obedience of their God, might forfeit the interest they had in his Protection, and by sin bring themselves under that wrath and curse of God, which neither those great Princes by their power, nor their wisest Counselors by their Policy, nor Balaam himself by his Sorcery, could bring upon them.

This damned counsel was followed but too soon, and prospered but too well. The daughters of Moab come into the Tents of Israel, and by their blandishments put out the eyes, and steal away the hearts of God's people; whom, besotted once with lust, it was then no hard matter to lead whither they listed, and by wanton insinuations to draw them to sit with them in the Temples, and to accompany them at the feasts, and to eat with them of the Sacrifices, yea, and to bow the knees with them to the honor of their Idols: Insomuch as Israel joined themselves to Baal-peor, and ate the Sacrifices of that dead and abominable Idol at the least (for all Idols are such) if not, as most have thought, a beastly and obscene Idol withal: That was their Sin.

And now may Balak save his Money, and Balaam spare his pains; there is no need of hiring, or being hired to curse Whoremongers and Idolaters. These are two plaguy sins, and such as will bring a curse upon a people without the help of a Conjurer. When that God, who is a jealous God, and jealous of nothing more than his honor, shall see that people, whom he had made choice of from among all the nations of the earth to be his own peculiar people, and betrothed to himself by an everlasting covenant, to break the Covenant of Wedlock with him, and to strumpet it with the daughters and Idols of Moab: what can be expected other, than that his jealousy should be turned into fury, and that his fierce wrath should break in upon them as a deluge, and overwhelm them with a sudden destruction? His patience so far tempted, and with such an unworthy provocation, can suffer no longer; but at his command Moses striketh the Rulers; and at Moses his command, the under-rulers must strike each in their several regiments those that had offended, and he himself also striketh with his own hand, by a Plague, destroying of them in one day three and twenty thousand.

If that Plague had lasted many days, Israel had not lasted many days: but the People, by their plague, made sensible of their sin, humbled themselves (as it should seem the very first day of the Plague) in a solemn and general Assembly, weeping and mourning both for Sin and Plague, before the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. And they were now in the heat of their holy sorrow and devotions; when lo, Zimri, a prince of a chief house in one of their Tribes, in the heat of his pride and lust, cometh openly in the face of Moses and all the Congregation, and bringeth his Minion with him, Cozbi the daughter of one of the five Kings of Midian, into his Tent, there to commit filthiness with her.

Doubtless, Moses the Captain, and Eleazar the Priest, and all Israel, that saw this shameless prank of that lewd couple, saw it with grief enough. But Phinehas enraged with a pious indignation to see such a foul affront given to God, and the Magistrate, and the Congregation, at such a heavy time, and in such open manner, and for that very sin, for which they then lay under God's hand, thought there was something more to be done than bare weeping; and therefore his blood warmed with an holy zeal, he starteth up forthwith, maketh to the Tent where these two great Personages were, and as they were in the act of their filthiness, speedeth them both at once, and naileth them to the place with his Javelin. And the next thing we hear, is, God well-pleased with the zeal of his Servant, and the Execution of those Malefactors, is appeased towards all his people, and withdraweth his hand and his plague from them. And of that deliverance my Text speaketh, ( Then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment, and so the Plague was stayed. )

The Person, the instrument to work this deliverance for Israel, was Phinehas. He was the Son of Eleazar, who was then High Priest in immediate succession to his father Aaron, not long before deceased; and did himself afterward succeed in the High-priesthood unto Eleazar his Father. A wise, a godly, and a zealous man, employed afterward by the State of Israel in the greatest affairs, both of War and Embassy. But it was this Heroical Act of his, in doing execution upon those two great audacious Offenders, which got him the first, and the greatest, and the lastingest Renown. Of which Act more anon, when we come to it. In his Person, we will consider only what his Calling and Condition was; and what congruity there might be between what he was, and what he did. He was of the Tribe of Levi; and that whole Tribe was set apart for the service of the Tabernacle. And he was of the Sons of Aaron, and so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of the Family and Linage of the High-Priests: and the Priests Office was to offer Sacrifices, and to burn Incense, and to pray, and make atonement for the People. Neither Levite nor Priest had to intermeddle with matters of Judicature, unless in some few causes, and those for the most part concerning matters either merely, or mixedly Ecclesiastical; but neither to give sentence, nor to do execution in matters and causes merely Civil, as by any right or virtue of his Levitical or Priestly Office.

The more unreasonable is the High Priest of Rome, to challenge to himself any temporal or Civil Jurisdiction, as virtually annexed to his spiritual power, or necessarily derived thence, Templum and Praetorium, the Chair and the Throne, the Altar and the Bench, the Sheephook and the Scepter, the Keys and the Sword; though they may sometimes concur upon the same person, yet the Powers remain perpetually distinct and independent▪ and such as do not of necessity infer the one the other. Our Savior's Vos autem non sic, hath fully decided the controversy; and forever cut off all claim of temporal Jurisdiction, as by any virtue annexed to the Keys. If the Bishops of Rome could have contented themselves to have enjoyed those Temporalities, wherewith the bounty of Christian Emperors had endowed that See (whether well or ill, whether too much or no, I now inquire not,) but if they could have been content to have holden them upon the same terms they first had them, without seeking to change the old tenure; and to have acknowledged them, as many of their fellow-Bishops do, to have issued not at all by necessary derivations from their spiritual Power, but merely and altogether from the free and voluntary indult of temporal Princes: the Christian Church had not had so just cause of complaint against the unsufferable tyrannies and usurpations of the Papacy; nor had the Christian world been embroiled in so many unchristian and bloody quarrels, as these and former ages have brought forth. Yet the Canonists, and they of the Congregation of the O •• tory, like downright flatterers, give the Pope the Temporal Monarchy of the world, absolutely and directly, as adhering inseparably to his See, and as a branch of that Charter which Christ gave to Peter, when he made him Head of the Church, for himself and his successors forever. The Jesuits more subtle than they, not daring to deny the Pope any part of that Power, which any other profession of men have dared to give him, and yet unable to assert such a vast power from those inconveniences which follow upon the Canonists opinion; have found out a means to put into the Popes hands the exercise of as much temporal power as they bluntly and grossly give him, and that to all effects and purposes as full, and in as ample manner as they: yet by a more learned and refined flattery, as resulting from his spiritual Power, not directly and per se, but obliquely and indirectly and in ordine ad spiritualia. The man himself, though he pretend to be supreme infallible judge of all Controversies, yet heareth both parties, and taketh advantage of what either give him, as best sorteth with his present occasions, and suffereth them to fall foul each upon other, these accounting them gross flatterers, and they again these wicked Politicians, but dareth not for his life determine whether side is in the right; lest, if he should be put to make good his determination by sufficient proof, both should appear to be in the wrong, and he lose all; which, whilst they quarrel, he still holdeth. It is a certain thing; The spiritual Power conferred in Holy Orders, doth not include the Power of Temporal jurisdiction. If Phinehas here execute judgment upon a Prince of Isarel; it is indeed a good fruit of his zeal, but no proper act of his Priesthood.

Let it go for a non sequitur then, as it is no better; because Phinehas, a Priest, or Priests son, executes judgment, that therefore the Priestly includeth a Judicatory Power. Yet from such an act, done by such a Person, at least thus much will follow, that the Priesthood doth not exclude the exercise of Judicature; and that there is no such repugnancy and inconsistency between the Temporal and Spiritual Powers, but that they may without incongruity concur and reside both together in the same Person. When I find anciently, that not only among the Heathens, but even among God's own people, the same man might be a King and a Priest, ( Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos, ) as Melchizedek was both a Priest of the most high God, and King of Salem: When I see it consented by all that so long as the Church was Patriarchal, the Priestly and the Judicatory Power were both settled upon one and the same Person, the Person of the first born: when I read of Eli the Priest, of the sons of Aaron judging Israel 40 years, and of Samuel, certainly a Levite (though not as some have thought, a Priest ) both going circuit, as a Judge itinerant in Israel, and doing execution too with his own hands upon Agag; and of Chenaniah and his sons, Izharites, and Hashabiah and his brethren Hebronites, and others of the families of Levi, appointed by King David to be Judges and Officers, not only in all the business of the Lord, but also for outward business over Israel, and in things that concerned the service of the King: when I observe in the Church-stories of all ages, ever since the world had Christian Princes, how Ecclesiastical persons have been employed by their Sovereigns in their weightiest consultations and affairs of State; I cannot but wonder at the inconsiderate rashness of some forward ones in these days, who yet think themselves (and would be thought by others) to be of the wisest men, that suffer their tongues to run riot against the Prelacy of our Church, and have studied to approve themselves eloquent in no other argument so much, as in inveighing against the Courts, and the Power, and the Jurisdiction, and the Temporalities of Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons. I speak it not to justify the abuses of men, but to maintain the lawfulness of the thing. If therefore any Ecclesiastical person seek any Temporal office or power by indirect, ambitious, and preposterous courses: if he exercises it otherwise than well; insolently, cruelly, corruptly, partially; if he claim it by any other than the right title, the free bounty and grace of the Supreme Magistrate; let him bear his own burden: I know not any honest Minister that will plead for him. But since there is no incapacity in a Clergyman, by reason of his spiritual Calling, but he may exercise temporal Power, if he be called to it by his Prince, as well as he may enjoy temporal land if he be heir to it from his Father: I see not but it behooveth us all, if we be good Subjects, and sober Christians, to pray that such as have the power of Judicature more or less in any kind or degree committed unto them, may exercise that power wherewith they are entrusted, with zeal, and prudence and equity, rather than out of envy at the preferment of a Church-man take upon us little less than to quarrel the discretion of our Sovereign. Phinehas though he could not challenge to execute judgment by virtue of his Priesthood; yet his Priesthood disabled him not from executing judgment.

That for the person. Followeth his Action: and that twofold: He stood, up, he executed judgment. Of the former first; which though I call it an Action, yet is indeed a Gesture properly, and not an Action. But, being no necessity to bind me to strict propriety of speech, be it Action, or Gesture, or what else you will call it; the cicumstance and phrase, it seemeth to import some material thing, may not be passed over without some consideration, [ Then stood up Phinehas. ] Which clause may denote unto us either that extraordinary spirit whereby Phinehas was moved to do judgment upon those shameless offenders; or that forwardness of zeal, in the heat whereof he did it; or both. Phinehas was indeed the High-Priests son, as we heard; but yet a private man and no ordinary Magistrate: and what had any private man to do, to draw the sword of justice, or but to sentence a malefactor to die? Or, say he had been a Magistrate; he ought yet to have proceeded in a legal and judicial course, to have convented the parties, and when they had been convicted in a fair trial and by sufficient witness, then to have adjudged them according to the Law; and not to have come suddenly upon them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as they were acting their villainy, and thrust them thorough uncondemned. I have elsewhere delivered it as a collection not altogether improbable from the circumstances of the original story, that Phinehas had warrant for this execution from the express command of Moses the supreme Magistrate, and namely by virtue of that Proclamation, whereby he authorised the Under-Rulers to slay everyone his man that were joined unto Baal-Peor, Num. 25. 5. And I since find that conjecture confirmed by the judgment of some learned men: insomuch as an eminent Writer in our Church saith, that by virtue of that Commission every Israelite was made a Magistrate for this execution. But looking more nearly into the Text, and considering that the Commission Moses there gave, was first only to the Rulers, and so could be no warrant for Phinehas, unless he were such a Ruler, which appeareth not; and secondly, concerned only those men that were under their several governments, and so was too short to reach Zimri, who being himself a Prince, and that of another Tribe too, the Tribe of Simeon, could not be under the government of Phinehas, who was of the Tribe of Levi: how probable soever that other collection may be, yet I hold it the safer resolution which is commonly given by Divines for the justification of this fact of Phinehas, that he had an extraordinary motion, and a peculiar secret instinct of the spirit of God, powerfully working in him and prompting him to this Heroical Act.

Certainly, God will not approve that work which himself hath not wrought. But to this action of Phinehas God hath given large approbation, both by staying the plague thereupon, and by rewarding Phinehas with an everlasting Priesthood therefore, and by giving express testimony of his zeal and righteousness therein: as it is said in the next verse after my Text, [ And it was accounted to him for righteousness ] Which words in the judgment of learned Expositors, are not to be understood barely of the righteousness of Faith, as it is said of Abraham, that he believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness (as if the zeal of Phinehas in this act had been a good evidence of that faith in God's promises, whereby he was justified, and his Person accepted with God;) though that also: but they do withal import the justification of the Action, at least thus far, that howsoever measured by the common rules of life it might seem an unjust action; and a rash attempt at the least, if not an heinous murder, as being done by a private man without the Warrant of authority; yet was it indeed not only in regard of the intent a zealous action, as done for the honor of God, but also, for the ground and warrant of it, as done by the special secret direction of God's holy Spirit, a just and a righteous action. Possibly, this very word of standing up, importeth that extraordinary spirit. For of those Worthies, whom God at several times endowed with Heroical spirits, to attempt some special work for the delivery of his Church, the Scriptures use to speak in words and phrases much like this. It is often said in the book of Judges, that God raised up such and such to judge Israel, and that Deborah, and Jair, and others rose up to defend Israel: that is, The spirit of God came upon them, as is said of Othoniel Judge. 3. and by a secret, but powerful instinct, put them upon those brave and noble attempts, they undertook and effected for the good of his Church. Raised by the impulsion of that powerful Spirit, which admitteth no slow debatements, Phinehas standeth up, and feeling himself called not to deliberate, but act; without casting of scruples, or fore-casting of dangers, or expecting Commission from men when he had his warrant sealed within, he taketh his weapon, dispatching his errand, and leaveth the event to the providence of God.

Let no man now, unless he be able to demonstrate Phinehas spirit, presume to imitate his fact. Those Opera liberi spiritus, as Divines call them, as they proceed from an extraordinary spirit, so they were done for special purposes: but were never intended, either by God that inspired them, or by those Worthies that did them, for ordinary or general examples. The error is dangerous, from the privileged examples of some few exempted ones to take liberty to transgress the common rules of Life and of Laws. It is most true indeed, the Spirit of God is a free spirit, and not tied to strictness of rule, nor limited by any bounds of Laws. But yet that free spirit hath astricted thee to a regular course of life▪ and bounded thee with Laws: which if thou shalt trangress, no pretension of the Spirit can either excuse thee from sin, or exempt thee from punishment. It is not now every way, as it was before the coming of Christ, and the sealing up of the Scripture Canon: God having now settled a perpetual form of government in his Church, and given us a perfect and constant rule, whereby to walk, even his holy word. And we are not therefore now vainly to expect, nor boastingly to pretend a private spirit, to lead us against, or beyond, or but beside the common rule: nay we are commanded to try all pretensions of private spirits, by that common rule, Adlegem & ad testimonium, To the Law and to the Testimony: at this Test, examine and Try the spirits whether they are of God, or no. If anything within us, if anything without us, exalt itself against the obedience of this Rule; it is no sweet impulsion of the holy Spirit of God, but a strong delusion of the lying spirit of Satan.

But is not all that is written, written for our Example? or why else is Phinehas act recorded and commended, if it may not be followed? First indeed Saint Paul saith All that is written, is written for our learning: but Learning is one thing, and Example is another: and we may learn something from that which we may not follow. Besides, there are examples for Admonition, as well as for Imitation. Malefactors at the place of execution, when they wish the by-standers to take example by them, bequeath them not the Imitation of their courses, what to do; but Admonition from their punishments, what to shun: yea thirdly, even the commended actions of good men are not ever exemplary in the very substance of the action itself; but in some virtuous and gracious affections, that give life and luster thereunto. And so this act of Phinehas is imitable: Not that either any private man should dare by his example to usurp the Magistrates office, and to do justice upon Malefactors without a Calling: or that any Magistrate should dare by his Example, to cut off graceless offenders without a due judicial course: but that every man who is by virtue of his Calling endued with lawful authority to execute justice upon transgressors, should set himself to it with that stoutness and courage and zeal, which was in Phinehas.

If you will needs then imitate Phinehas, imitate him in that for which he is commended and rewarded by God, and for which he is renowned amongst men: and that is not barely the action, the thing done; but the affection, the zeal wherewith it was done. For that zeal God commendeth him, Numb. 25. verse. 11. Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the Priest, hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel, whilst he was zealous for my sake among them. And for that zeal God rewardeth him, Ibid. 13. He shall have, and his seed after him, the Covenant of an everlasting Pristhood, because he was zealous for his God. And for that zeal did Posterity praise him: the wise son of Syrac, Eccl. 45. and good old Matthias upon his death bed, 1 Macc. 2. And may not this phrase of speech, he stood up, and executed judgment, very well imply that forwardness and heat of zeal? To my seeming, it may. For whereas Moses and all the congregation sat weeping (a gesture often accompanying sorrow, ) or perhaps, yet more to express their sorrow lay grovelling upon the earth, mourning and sorrowing for their sin, and for the Plague: it could not be but the bold lewdness of Zimri in bringing his strumpet with such impudence before their noses, must needs add much to the grief, and bring fresh vexation to the souls of all that were righteous among them. But the rest continued, though with double grief, yet in the same course of humiliation, and in the same posture of body, as before. Only Phinehas, burning with an holy indignation, thought it was now no time to sit still, and weep: but rousing up himself and his spirits with zeal as hot as fire he stood up from the place where he was, and made haste to execute judgment.

Here is a rich example for all you to imitate, whom it doth concern: I speak not only nor indeed so much, to you the Honorable and Reverend Judge of this Circuit; of whose zeal to do justice and judgment, I am by so much the better persuaded, by how much the eminency of your place, and the weight of your charge, and the expectation of the people doth with greater importunity exact it at your hands: But I speak withal, and most especially to all you, that are in Commission of the peace, and whose daily and continual care it should be, to see the wholesome laws of the Realm duly and seasonably executed. Yea, and to all you also that have any office appertaining to justice, or any business about these Courts, so as it may lie in you to give any kind of furtherance to the speeding either of Justice in Civil, or of judgment in Criminal causes. Look upon the zeal of Phinehas: observe what approbation it had from God; what a blessing it procured to his seed after him; what glorious renown it hath won him with all after-ages; what ease it did, and what good it wrought for the present State: and think if it be not worthy your imitation. It is good, saith the Apostle, to be zealously affected always in a good thing. And is it not a good thing to do justice, and to execute judgment? nay, Religion excepted (and then care of that is a branch of justice too) do you know any better thing? anything you can do, more acceptable to God, more serviceable to the State, more comfortable to your own souls? If you be called to the Magistracy; it is your own business, as the proper work of your Calling; and men account him no wiser than he should be, that sluggeth in his own business, or goeth heartlessly about it. It is the Kings business, who hath entrusted you with it: and he is scarce a good subject that slacketh the Kings business, or doth it to the halves. Nay, it is the Lord's business; for [ Ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the cause and in the judgment: ] and Cursed is he that doth the Lord's business negligently. That you may therefore do (all under one) your own business, and the Kings business, and the Lord's business, with that zeal and forwardness which becometh you in so weighty an affair; lay this pattern before your eyes and hearts! See what Phinehas did: and thereby both examine what hitherto you have done, and learn what henceforth you should do.

First, Phinehas doth not post off the matter to others: the fervency of his zeal made him willing to be himself the Actor. He harboured no such cool thoughts as too many Magistrates do. [Here is a shameful crime committed, by a shameless person, and in a shameless manner: pity such an audacious offender should go unpunished. My heart riseth against him; and much ado I have to refrain from being myself his executioner, rather than he should carry it away thus. But why should I derive the envy of the fact upon myself, and but gain the imputation of a busy officious fellow, in being more forward than others? A thousand more saw it as well as I; whom it concerneth as nearly as it doth me: and if none of them will stir in it, why should I? Doubtless my Uncle Moses, and my father Eleazar, and they that are in place of Authority, will not let it pass so; but will call him to an account for it, and give him condign punishment. If I should do it, it would be thought but the attempt of a rash young fellow. It will be better discretion therefore to forbear, and to give my betters leave to go before me.] Such pretensions as these would have kept off Phinehas from this noble Exploit, if he had been of the temper of some of ours: who owe it to nothing so much as their lukewarmness, that they have at least some reputation of being moderate and discreet men. But true zeal is more forward than mannerly: and will not lose the opportunity of doing what it ought, for waiting till others begin. Alas, if every man should be so squeamish as many are; nothing at all would be done. And therefore the good Magistrate must consider, not what others do, but what both he and they are in conscience bound to do: and though there should be many more joined with him in the same common care, and with equal power, yet he must resolve to take that common affair no otherwise into his special care, than if he were left alone therein, and the whole burden lay upon his shoulders. As when sundry persons are so bound in one common bond for the payment of one entire sum conjunctim & divisim, everyone per se in toto & in solidum, that every particular person by himself is as well liable to the payment of the whole, as they all together are. Admit loose or idle people (for who can hold their tongues?) shall for thy diligence say, thou art an hard and austere man, or busiest thyself more than thou hast thank for thy labor. First, that man never cared to do well, that is afraid to hear ill, He that observeth the wind, saith Solomon shall not sow; and the words (especially of idle people) are no better. Secondly, He maketh an ill purchase, that fore-goeth the least part of his duty, to gain a little popularity: the breath of the people being but a sorry plaster for a wounded conscience. Thirdly, what a man by strict and severe execution of Justice loseth in the breadth, he commonly gaineth it all and more in the weight, and in the length of his Credit. A kind quiet man; that carrieth it for the present, and in the voice of the multitude: but it is more solid, and the more lasting praise, to be reputed, in the opinion of the better and the wiser sort, a Just man, and a good Patriot, or Commonwealthsman. Fourthly, if all should condemn thee for that wherein thou hast done but well, thy comfort is, thine own conscience shall bestead thee more than a thousand witnesses, and stand for thee against ten thousand tongues, at that last day, when the hearts of all men shall be made manifest, and every man that hath deserved well, shall have praise of God, and not of man.

Secondly, Phinehas as he did not post off this execution to other men, so he did not put it off to another day. Phinehas might have thought thus, [We are now in a religious work, humbling ourselves in a public, solemn, and frequent assembly, before the face of God, to appease his just wrath against us for our sins: Et quod nunc instat agamus. It would be unseasonable leaving this work now; another time may serve as well to inflict deserved punishment upon that wicked miscreant. But zeal will admit no put offs; it is all upon the spur, till it be doing what it conceiveth fit to be done. There are no passions of the mind so impetuous, and so impatient of delay as Love and Anger, and these two are the prime ingredients of true zeal. If any man should have interposed for Zimri, and taken upon him to have mediated with Phinehas for his reprival: I verily think, in that heat he might sooner have provoked his own, than have prorogued Zimri 's execution. Delays in anything that is good, are ill: and in the best things worst. As Wax when it is chafed, and Iron when it is hot, will take impressions: but if the Seal or Stamp be not speedily put to, the hear abateth, and they return to their former hardness: so the best affections of the best men, if they be not taken in the heat, abate, and lessen, and die. In the administration then of Justice, and the execution of Judgment, where there is Zeal, there will be Expedition: and the best way to preserve Zeal where it is, is to use Expedition. I am not able to say where the want is, or where specially: but certainly a great want there is generally in this Kingdom of Zeal to Justice, in some that should have it, if that complaint be as just, as it is common among men that have had suits in the Courts, that they have been wronged with far less damage than they have been righted: there have been so many frustratoriae and venatoriae dilationes (as St. Bernard in his time called them) so many lingering and costly delays used. And for Executing Judgment upon Malefactors; if Phinehas had suffered Zimri to have lived but a day longer, for anything we know the plague might have lasted also a day longer: and why might not tomorrow have been as yesterday with them, and lessened the people's number twenty three thousand more? especially their former crying sins having received a new accession of a double guilt, the guilt of Zimri 's fact, and the guilt of their connivance. No rack should make me confess that man to be truly zealous of judgment, who when he hath power to cut him short, shall but so much as reprieve a foul and notorious Malefactor; or grant him any respite or liberty to make his friends, and to sue a pardon. Solomon hath told us, and we find it but too true, Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

Third; Phinehas was nothing retarded in his resolution by fore-casting what ill will he might purchase, or into what dangers he might cast himself, by executing judgment upon two such great Personages. The times were such, as wherein sin had gotten head, and was countenanced both with might and multitude: Zimri was a mighty man, a Prince of a chief house; and he that should dare to touch him, should be like to pull upon himself the enmity of the whole Tribe of Simeon. It seemeth he was confident that his might and popularity in his own Tribe, would privilege him from the enquiry of the Magistrate; how durst he else have so braved Moses, and the whole Congregation; And the woman also was the daughter of one of the Five Kings of Midian: And could Phinehas think that the death of two such great persons could go unrevenged? All this either Phinehas either fore-casteth not, or regardeth not. His eye was so fixed upon the glory of God, that it did not so much as reflect upon his own safety: and his thoughts strongly possessed with zeal of the common good, had not any leisure to think of private dangers. Zeal is ever courageous; and therefore Jethro thought none worthy to be Magistrates, but such as were Men of courage: And he hath neither Courage nor Zeal in him besitting a Magistrate, that is afraid to do justice upon a great offender. The sluggard saith, there is a Lyon in the way: and then he steppeth backward and keepeth aloof off. But the worthy Magistrate would meet with such a Lyon to choose; that he might win awe to God's ordinances, and make the way passable for others, by tearing such a beast in pieces: and would no more fear to make a Worshipful thief, or a Right Worshipful murderer (if such a one should come in his Circuit) an example of Justice, than to twitch up a poor sheep-stealer. Great ones will soon presume of impunity, and mean ones too by their example in time learn to kick at authority, if Magistrates be not forward to maintain the dignity of their places by executing good Laws without favor or fear. Hitherto of the spirit and zeal of Phinehas; by occasion of this his former Action or gesture of standing up: There yet remain to be considered the other Action, and the success of it; He executed judgment, and the plague was stayed. Both which, because I would not be long, I will join together in the handling; when I shall have first a little cleared the translation.

But I will not now trouble either you or myself, with farther curiosity in examining Translations: because howsoever other Translations, that render it, praying, or appeasing, may be allowed either as tolerably good or at least, excusably ill; yet this that rendereth it by Executing Judgment, is certainly the best, whether we consider the course of the Story itself, or the propriety of the word in the Original, or the intent of the Holy Ghost in this Scripture. And this Action of Phinehas in doing judgment upon such a pair of great and bold offenders was so well pleasing unto God, that his wrath was turned away from Israel, and the plague which had broken in upon them in a sudden▪ and fearful manner, was immediately stayed thereupon.

Oh how acceptable a sacrifice to God, above the blood of Bulls and of Goa ••• the death of a Malefactor slaughtered by the hand of Justice! When the Magistrate, who is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Minister and Priest of God for thi • very thing • putteth his knife to the throat of the beast, and with the • ire of ••• holy zeal for GOD, and against sin, offereth him up in Holoca • stum, for a Whole burnt Offering, and for a peace-Offering, unto the Lord. Samuel saith, that to obey is better than Sacrifice: and Solomon; that to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Obedience, that is the prime, and the best sacrifice: and the second best is the punishment of Disobedience. There is no readier way to appease God's wrath against sin, than is the rooting out of sinners: nor can his deputies by any other course turn away his just judgments so effectually, as by faithful executing of Justice and Judgment themselves.

When Phinehas did this act, the public body of Israel was in a weak state, and stood in need of a present and sharp remedy. In some former distempers of the State, it may be they had found some ease by diet, in humbling their souls by fasting; or by an issue at the Tongue or Eye, in an humble confession of their sins, and in weeping and mourning for them with tears of repentance. And they did well now to make trial of those