ΜΕΓΑΛΕΙΑ ΘΕΟΥ God's great DEMONSTRATIONS AND DEMANDS OF justice, Mercy and Humility, Set forth in a SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of Commons, at their Solemn Fast, before their first sitting, April 30. 1660. By JOHN Gauden, D. D.  Prov. 21.3. To do Justice and Judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Clem. Alex. Apud nos quo religiosior quisque eo justior. minute's, Fel. de Christ. 
LONDON, Printed by J. Best, for Andrew Crook, at the Green-Dragon in St. Paul's churchyard. 1660.   

TO THE honourable the Speaker, and other Members of the House of COMMONS,  
NO sooner had I done my duty to God's commands and yours (honourable and worthy) but (blessed be God) you presently applied to do your duty to God, the King and your Country with such Justice, Mercy and Humility, that you have by an astonishing joy revived the sunk spirits of all just, merciful, and humble men in these three Kingdoms, who had for many years been sorely depressed and almost despaired under the importune injuries of some insolent and proud Masters; who with Cesar or Pompey were impatient of any superior or equal; yea with Lucifer and Antichrist they exalted themselves above all that were called God in the British Honour and Authority; advancing their unjust and merciless ambition so high, that at last it fell, not by force so much, as its own weight, and that just confusion which God brought upon those Babel-builders; whose foolish building had indeed many pinnacles of fanatic opinions and projects daily starting up, yet but one great Tower or Mole, whose moorish or sandy foundation was tumult and violence; its line and measure, fancy and providence; its materials, the lives and estates of its Countrymen; its cement, the blood both of Kings, Priests, and People.  
§. The gracious and glorious God, who alone doth wonders, hath by the Justice, Mercy and Humility of the two Houses of Parliament (added to the most renowned Generals humble valour, and loyal courage) soon made Nehustan of those brazen Serpents and Idols which were made up of subtlety and hypocrisy, violence and impudence.  
7. In a few days (even before I could print what I had preached) we have lived to see that holy Motto under the King's Arms made good; Exurgat Deus, dissipentur inimici: Let God arise and his enemies shall be scattered, Psal. 68.1. The royal (Dieu & mon Droit) God and my right, hath like Moses his Serpent devoured the Serpents and rods of those Magicians, who usurped all things, yet nothing more falsely and unjustly than that Inscription Deus nobiscum, God with us; when indeed they had neither his Word, nor the Laws of the land with them: with the like vain and arrogant ostentation did Dionysius boast of the gods good will and approbation, when after his sacrilegious pillaging one of their Temples, he had a very fair gale of wind to carry him and his booty home by sea.  
§. Certainly, nothing is more remote from God's gracious presence, and the power of godliness than that brutal power, and inordinate might, which is carried on with penal prosperities and successes, but without any right, as to Law and Justice, which are the only rules and boundaries of good conscience, also the soul and life of all righteous Government; void of which the other is but (cadaverosa potentia) a putrid carcase of prevalent usurpation, which stinks in the Nostrils of God and all good men.  
§. But You even You are those True Worthies who by your just, loyal and humble agnition of, and submission to the King's lawful Authority, have made Mercy and truth meet together, yea righteousness and peace kiss each other: You have fulfilled in the affirmative that old and ambiguous verse (which I remember to have heard many years before our sad troubles) which ends with Nullus; In which Negative the time-serving Astrologasters and others strongly fancied, they found a fatal period of the British Monarchy, at least of the Stuartian royal family, O how must it make those Diviners mad, to see (what I long ago hoped would be the meaning of it) that King who was made and esteemed as Nullus, (a persecuted, expulsed, and as much as lay in human malice, a nullified King) to see him reign as surely and gloriously as any of those royal Predecessors did, who under the emblems of other words made up that strange verse.  
§. To which so benign an interpretation and event, there wanted not some providential omens and signatures; as first that star which appeared a little after noon on the day of the King's birth, 
May 20. Anno 630.  of which there were many eye witnesses in London and Westminster, Next were those medals of silver which were then coined, with this Inscription, Hactenus Anglorum nulli, to denote that Prince to be the Nonsuch, who alone had the glory to be born Heir apparent to these three British Kingdoms; Nor was his signal preservation after Worster-fight a small pledge of God's special protection, whose usual methods are to build up to an unwonted height and conspicuity of glory, there where he lays the deepest foundation of earthly affliction.  
§. I confess I cannot sufficiently (with you and all good men) admire the wonderful revolutions and intricate riddles of God's providence; punishing us justly for our sins, yet relieving us mercifully from our sufferings: We are yet in ecstasies of joy and wonder, as those that dream; hardly believing the strange undeserved and unexpected dispensations of God toward us; in which he hath made that precious stone which some builders refused, to become the corner, the capital, and crown-stone of the building; the only centre and stability of that Arch, in which the loyalty and love, the joy and hopes of all good Subjects, and true English-Protestants do meet and six.  
May you go on prosperously and unanimously under the Banner of the most high God to complete your religious, loyal, just and valiant Counsels; not only to establish his majesty's Throne, and our civil rights in Truth, Mercy, and Peace; but also to cleanse and repair the Temple, the Church and house of the living God, whose miserable dilapidations, and sordid ruins in doctrine, devotion, discipline, order and government are such, that you cannot but pity to see all things sacred covered with dust; and the ministry of the Church both Bishops and Presbyters almost buried with the rubbish of factions, confusions, dissensions and despiciencies.  
I confess this Church-work ought (as the Kingdom of God,) to be first in every good Christians intention, (as no doubt it was and is in yours) But you are not to be blamed, by any unseasonable severity, if, as to point of execution, you first applied yourselves, in the present distress of our times and affairs, to settle and secure as to the main, those things which belonged to your civil rights, and National peace. The exigents or extremities of which, not bearing any delays, do sufficiently justify your endeavours, to preserve the ship of the State, in which the Church is embarked, which being almost shipwrecked and sinking, it had been a very preposterous zeal, to have left the vessel to have contended with the Rocks and Sands, by a superdevout diligence to save the lading, or goods in it; Alas we had been much to seek for a reformed Church, in a ruined State.  
Your discreet and orderly diligence took the right method, in making way for religion, by civil justice; nor need you fear the dictates, frowns and censures of any Anastarchusses, whose piety like jacob's might hope to have supplanted this just necessary and honest policy, of restoring our civil laws, and royal authority, by which our Religion, as Christian and reformed, was best established.  
§. The settling or reforming of religion; in all its duties and devotions, discipline and decencies, together with its order, and Government, is a work which requires not only time, but that leisure which is attended with a calm and steady posture of civil affairs: Men cannot build God's Temple till they have first washed their hands and purged the land of innocent blood. No prudent piety can think such a storm as we were in, was a meet season for Church reformation; It would only fit those who might hope to fish best for their parties & opinions, in troubled waters, knowing their projects and models to be less consistent with the true interests and pristine welfare of this Church and State; doubtless they must have made strange work of Church and reformation, before ever they had owned, and restored the Master-builder, the King, who is supreme governor of it under Christ, as to all extern order and Authority. We hope and pray, that God will shortly give both his Majesty, his Parliaments and his loyal people, such rest on every side, as may be most apt for those sacred and serious concernments of the Church and true Religion, which require first Justice, as to the rights of Christ and his Church, both Bishops, Presbyters and People; Secondly they require mercy, as to that remission, moderation and condescension, in things not necessary, to the being and well being of religion, which either tender consciences, or weak, but humble and harmless Christians do require, yea and expect, agreeable to Christ's care of his little ones, and the Apostles regard to weak brethren, yea and the Kings gracious expressions touching his regard to such, that they may not be needlessly offended, superciliously despised, or rigorously oppressed, in matters that are neither of faith nor morality.  
§. Lastly, Religious composures require an unfeigned humility, and self denying, as the proper rule and measure, and of all Church-work, that nothing may swell out, beyond the plumline of verity and charity, order and decency, use and edification, either in the substances, or circumstances of Religion, nor yet in the controversies of it.  
§. In all which blessed counsels and endeavours, there will be need and use of the assistance of the best heads, the honestest hearts; and the softest hands which the Church of England affords; not only in the Nobility and Gentry, the Lords and Commons, but also among the Clergy, who are no doubt the Angels or Intelligences most proper, for those motions and that sphere of Religion.  
But we hope by the good hand of our good God, upon his Majesty and your loyal counsels, for the best of blessings, a wise constitution, and well ordered administration of religion, both as Christian and reformed, which will be the greatest glory and stability of all estates. As you have given to Cesar the things that are Caesar's, so no doubt you will be ready to give to God the things that are God's: In which just and humble retributions, you will both show mercy to many thousands of souls, and obtain mercies for your own; for which ends as you have the prayers and thanks of all worthy persons, so you shall never want mine, whose freedom in speaking and writing I presume your sound minds can bear, as abhoring to keep your Ministers like parrots in a cage, as at no great charge, so only for the pleasure to hear them speak; Your honour is, that you hear and know, and do the will of God; in which that you may enjoy his eternal rewards, is the Prayer of  
Your humble servant in Christ, I. Gauden. May 12. 1660.   

Books written by Dr. Gauden, and sold by Andrew Crook, at the green Dragon in St. Paul's churchyard.  
1. HIeraspistes, A Defence for the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England.  
2. Three Sermons preached on public occasions.  
3. Funerals made Cordials, in a Sermon preached at the Interment of the corpse of Robert Rich, Heir apparent to the Earldom of Warwick.  
4. A sermon preached at the Funeral of Dr. Ralph Brounrig Bishop of Excester (Decemb. 17. 1659.) with an account of his Life and Death,  
5. A Petitionary Remonstrace in the behalf of many thousand Ministers and Scholars.  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: sive Medicastri. Slight healers of public hurts, set forth in a Sermon Preached in St. Paul's Church, London, before the right honourable Lord Mayor, Lord General, Aldermen, Common-Council, & Companies of the honourable City of London, Febr. 28. 1659. being a day of Solemn thanksgiving unto God, for restoring the Secluded Members of Parliament to the house of Commons, (And for preserving the City) as a Door of Hope thereby opened to the fullness and freedom of future Parliaments: The most probable means under God for healing the Hurts, and recovering the health of these three British Kingdoms.   

Magna Dei postulata. God's great Demonstrations and Demands. Set forth in A Sermon preached at a Solemn Fast April 30. 1660. before the honourable House of Commons, Upon MICAH 6.8. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justice, to love Mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?  
I Am not so ignorant of my infirmities, 
Preface.  (Right honourable and Beloved) as to have adventured on so great a province, before so noble an Assembly, in such an important time, and on so short warning; if my obedience to God's call in your commands had not swayed more with me than any confidence of my own sufficiency, whose greatest ambition is to walk humbly with my God in the amplest services I were able to do for his glory, his church's peace, and my country's welfare.  

The great and public importance of this Parliament, §. I well understand the great importance of this Parliamentary Convention as to the peace and settling of this Church and State; all things sacred and civil are embarked in your counsels, and adventured on your Justice and Mercy, your piety and Humility, your Equanimity and Moderation. You, under God, are the Ark in which the weather-beaten and scattered remains of our Religion, Laws, Estates, Liberties, Peace, honours and Lives are deposited; so much of them as hath escaped the tedious tempest and the terrible deluge of our sad troubles and confusions these last score of years; in which the windows of heaven (the just wrath of God) and the fountains of the great deep (the lusts and passions of men's evil hearts) have met together to punish our sins.  
§. You are looked upon as Noah and his family, (semen novi orbis) a seed and nursery of true Christian Protestants, of right English Gentlemen, in which there may yet be a blessing; you (with the other Right honourable House of Peers) are the hoped Repairers of the vast breaches made upon our Laws, and the Restorers of our Reformed Religion, so miserably deformed, defamed and almost quite desolated, as to any beauty, order, and anity.  
§. You are the centre in which all our secular Votes and hopes do meet; or rather you are the circumference, orb and circle, in which they are all contained, that you may draw them all to their right point, and proper centre, of fixed duty to God and Man: You are the answer of many prayers and tears; God forbid you should miscarry: yea, as St. Ambrose said to Monica of her Son St. Austin (while he was yet debauched in both morals and intellectuals, in opinion and practice) I am not a little confident you will not miscarry; nay I am sure you cannot miscarry if you steer your counsels and actions by the compass of this Text, Doing Justice, loving Mercy, and walking humbly with your God. Pride, cruelty and Injustice have been and will be our undoing.  
§. It will be your wisdom to look to this cynosure or benign constellation; in which Law and Gospel, Justice and Mercy are joined with humility; in these, your inward peace of conscience no less than your outward comforts, together with your honour and all our safeties are conjoined. Beware you mistake not blazing meteors of partial and fanatic interests, for the fixed stars of our firmament, our fundamental laws, and public welfare, lest the hand of God break out against you, as it hath done against others, and cut you off by a further abscission, as parts of desperate and incurable distempers, which are to be smitten no more by the fruitless strokes and superfluous severities of a chastising Father, or an healing and searching chirurgeon, but with the wounds of such enemies, and cruel ones, as seek to cut us off from being a Reformed Church, and a Renowned Nation under heaven.  
I lately in a great ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) and public Assembly set forth the hurts and slight healings of the Daughter of my people, by a faithful scrutiny, and just severity, with which all honest hearts were affected: I now bring a vial of Balm from Gilead very precious and sovereign, wherewith to present you, who are by a miraculous Providence, and the wise conduct of a modern hero, called by God, and chosen by men to be our physicians: Not that I am to teach Senators wisdom; but I know you will not disdain to learn of God; for from the tree of life, his holy Word, together with the tree of knowledge of good and evil, (your own experience) this divine balsam is distilled;  
1. There is a Justice of expiation, to break off our sins by repentance, which is Debitum Deo & animae, a debt to God and our souls.  
2. A Justice of compensation, by meet repairing our public injuries; which is Debitum bonis, a debt due to all good men.  
3. A Justice of Vindication, to confirm our laws by inflicting such just penalties and restraints as some men's insolences have deserved, which is debitum impiis, a debt you owe to wicked men, yea to all men, that they may hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously.  
Secondly, Yet lest we should be terrified with the name of Justice only (which no men have more cause to dread, than those who once cried loudest Justice, Justice) there is the allay of Mercy, as to all such moderation, compassion and tenderness, by way of pardon, indemnity and oblivion, in order to close and compose our breaches (for praestat motos componere fluctus) as may not only best suit with your pity and compassion to the public, but most become the humanity of countrymen, and the charity of Christians to each other, without any reproach to the justice, piety and honour of the Nation.  
Thirdly, There is added the root and crown of all virtues and graces, Humility; which makes you surest of God's acceptation and benediction; as to all your counsels and actions, your fastings and prayers, your sacred and civil endeavours: For Humility is the salt which must be mingled with every Sacrifice, a sweet perfume that must attend every Oblation; being the glory of all human and divine perfections, the security of Justice, and sanctuary of Mercy; for from pride, and inordinate valuing of men's selves, come all those ambitious discontents and contentions, for getting more than men have, or indeed deserve, of estate and power; hence they are betrayed to all those cruelties and confusions, which we have not only read and heard, but to our cost both seen and felt in human affairs, and never more than in those of our own Country.  
§. If you intend to walk with God, and hope that God should go along with you; you must not only (vos totos subigere, sed & in nihilum redigere, as Calvin on the place) deny, but so far utterly renounce and annihilate yourselves, as not to trust in or to seek yourselves, but the living God; the less you lean to your own understandings, 
Prov. 23. ●.  and the more you attend ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) the divine dictates of Justice, Mercy, and Humility (without Pharisaic boastings, popular complyings, and Popish presumptions) the more blessed you will be of God, and the greater blessing to your Country.  
The Lord will be with you while you follow him in these holy ways of Justice, Mercy and humility; 
2 Chron. 15.2.  but if you pursue lying vanities, you will forsake and forfeit your own and all our mercies; if you attend passionate and partial interests, unjust and cruel counsels; if your hearts (as Pharaoh's) be lifted up against God, and above your brethren, you also will be entangled in the wilderness of sin, your chariot wheels will be taken off; you will drive heavily, and at last engage yourselves and all of us in a deeper sea of blood (if deeper can be) to the utter ruin of our Reformed Religion, and our justly endeared, but afflicted Country, which is the nest of our posterity.  

The way of our happiness. §. Give me leave therefore (O ye Heads of our Tribes and chief of our Families) to bespeak your attention (as Jotham did the men of Sechem) harken to me, 
Iudg. 9.7.  that God may harken to you; they are divine Revelations, not human inventions that I offer to you; if you turn away from hearing and doing these few, 
Prov. 28.9.  clear, and necessary commands of God, your prayers and fasts will be abominable, your consultations confusions, and your actions will be as well unsuccessful as injurious to God, yourselves, and others.  
§. We have been many years as the Lepers in their desperate dilemma, between famine and sword, 
2 Kings 7.8:  oppression and confusion, sin and suffering, death and despair; if we returned to the City, or but looked to our former Jerusalem, to our excellent laws and constitutions in Church and State, it was confiscation, plunder, sequestration, destruction; if we still advanced in the perplexed ways of some men's new inventions, and endless novelties, it was not only sinful confusion but sore oppression, and continual exhausting of our estates and honours, beside our peace and liberty, together with the baffling of the very orderly profession, no less than the power of Religion.  
§. Indeed we could neither have leave to live freely, as honest men, nor as good Christians; all our sacred, and civil, our temporal and eternal interests were and still are at stake. Terrent etiam nunc nubila mentem, our bodies and souls, our persons and posterities are still engaged; yea, and the Ark of God too, our Religion, as reformed and Christian.  
§. In all these respects, our eyes and hearts are next God passionately toward you; we have many years been solicitous, with that Catholic Question, Who will show us any good? we have long looked for the promised good things, of a glorious Church, of a flourishing and settled State but our iniquities have withheld them from us: 
Ier. 5.25.  Here the Lord hath showed you in a few words what is good; Bonum Ecclesiae, patriae, conscientiae, animae; good for souls and bodies, for Church and State; for sovereign and Subjects, for rich and poor, for great and small, for their selves and their posterity, for civil and religious interests, for temporal and eternal concernments; namely, To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God: All our evils arise from either our want of justice or mercy, or humility, from our injuriousness, uncharitableness, and arrogancy, which knows not how to be either thankful and content before God, or merciful and just toward men.  
§. The Text, as a full and liberal fountain, 
Partition  hath many emanations like the Rivers that watered the garden of God.  
1. We have the main head or source, the Lord.  
2. The great cistern or receptacle, Thee O man.  
3. The (tria fluenta) three grand Derivations or streams.  
First, Of doing Justice. Secondly, Of loving Mercy. Thirdly, Of walking humbly with God.  
All are clear, copious and comprehensive subjects of our meditation, discourse and practice. For 1. In una justitia omnes virtutes. 2. In una misericordia omnes beatitudines. 3. In una humilitate omnes gratiae; 
Matth. 5.7.  all graces are in humility, all blessednesses in showing Mercy, and all moral virtues in Justice; for every vice and sin is an injury to God, ourselves or others.  
Nor have we God herein our instructor only, but also our ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) great example; for we Christians serve not only (justum Dominum, & benignum Patrem, sed & humilem Deum) a just Lord and a merciful Father, but even an humble God, He abaseth himself (saith the Psalmist) to behold the things done upon earth, 
Psal. 13.  to dwell with the Sons of men, especially with the humble and contrite spirit; yea, 
Phil. 2.8.  the Lord of glory, in order to save us from the sad effects of our pride, hath humbled himself even to the death of the cross; and is it time for us sinful worms to be proud, unjust, and unmerciful!  
§. There are four parts to be set forth.  

1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, The Demonstrator or shower; The Lord.  
2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or things Demonstrated, Justice, Mercy and Humility; indeed the ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) whole duty of man.  
3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; To whom this Demonstration is made, Thee O man.  
4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, The manner of demonstration, how God showeth to, and requireth of man these things.   
§. It is not my design to handle each of them after that ampleness which these subjects may bear or deserve, nor will the time and after duties permit: but only to make such short remarks and touches of them, as may not so much teach you (who are knowing in all the will of God, as to Justice and Mercy, Law and Gospel) but only stir up your pure and holy minds to be not knowers, or hearers only, but doers also of the will of God, that you may be blessed of God and man; and Saviours indeed, not Deceivers and Destroyers of yourselves and your Country.  
§. I begin with the first, The Demonstrator, who, 
The demonstrator.  The Lord. Here two things are to be considered, First, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the rise or occasion of this demonstration. 2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the credit and authority of the Demonstrator.  
§. First, The Occasion, 
1 The occasion  putting the Lord upon this way of remonstrating, to inculcate these (requisita & dictata) old lessons; this you will see in the foregoing words, vers. 6, 7. where we may observe the vaunting questions, and presumptuous postulations of a company of formal Hypocrites, who demand (in Dei dedecus & legis contumeliam) to the reproach of God and his Laws, what he would have to please him? Burnt offerings or Rivers of oil, or if need be, their very first-born; they will be at any cost to appease him, part with any thing, spare nothing but their sins.  

1 Sam. 15.13. §. Thus they quarrel with God, and justify themselves with Saul, that they had fulfilled the Law of God; 
Isa. 58.3.  as those devout Bulrushes in Isaiah, who are not ashamed to ask, Why have we fasted and afflicted our souls? when they had not parted with any sin, nor loosed any bands of oppression.  
§. We may observe as in Scripture, so in all our late experiences, that no men are more supercilious self-justifiers, and imperious retorters upon God and man, than those who are most defective in their duties to both; they are angry that God is angry, and unsatisfied that he is not satisfied with their Hypocritical chaff and formality; they plead ignorance when wilfully blind; and ask for light when they shut their eyes; they would know what to do, when they do not what they know.  
Such proud and insolent vaporers (like Jehu and the Pharisee) are audacious and frontless Hypocrites, 
Ezek. 18 15.  as if their ways were equal, and God's unequal; as if God were blameable, and themselves blameless: O what cost and pains will they be at to reform Religion, Laws, Liberties, Church and State when, they aim to be the most irreligious Depravers, and licentious oppressors of all? O the Temple, 
〈◊〉. 7.4.  the Temple of the Lord! O his service, worship and Ministers; when they rob God, destroy his Church, and debace his Ministers; these do not so much err as lie and dissemble in their hearts: They brag of precious liberties, when they bring in both slavery and licentiousness: They boast of great Reformations, when they are most deformed Reformers; they find fault with God, and all men but themselves; all their aberrations are gracious, and their very sins must be glorious essays or successes; while they follow Providences, they fly from plain Scriptures, and known Laws; these prescribe to such new Saints (angustam minus justitiam) too narrow a loom for their wild justice; these talk high of successes, which are their racks, when they look not to their consciences which are as empty mangers: they talk of Religion, and neglect civil Justice; they are large-hearted to God, and strict-handed towards men; he shall have enough of praying, preaching, and fasting, provided they may proudly usurp, and cruelly oppress their Brethren and betters.  
§. Yet will they pretend, What will God have more? why doth he yet complain? when they have both wearied themselves and him too with the heaps of their formal services and vain oblations.  
God here (as elsewhere) sharply retorts upon them; ye need not go far, O you hard-hearted, 
Ioh. 1● 1●. Psal. 50.8. ●sa. ●6. 3. Psal. 51.17. 1 Sam. 1●. 22. Hos. 6.6.  and cruel-handed Hypocrites, to learn that God will have mercy and not sacrifice; that obedience moral, is better than burnt offerings ceremonial; that (comparatively) God hath not required these things at your hands, not solely, not chiefly; that he is sick and surfeited, and overladen with these sordid and sinful oblations, nothing is cordial to him, but humble hearts, charitable hands, and just actions.  
§. He requireth not so much the outward cost, pomp and ceremony of Religion, as that equal piety and pious equity, which is just to God and man; Thus in vain do some Papists highly urge and prodigally insist of the excessive cost they bestow on their Religion, when they applaud, yea almost adore the Papal pride and usurpation, persisting in that the sacrilege and injury they do to God and man, by denying the plenary doctrines, and donations of Christ in the Sacraments to all communicants, and in their communicating something of worship and merit to the creature, beyond what the divine glory and jealousy set forth in the word of God doth permit.  
§. Not that God loves a lazy or a penurious, a hidebound and illiberal Religion, which seeks to serve God of that which costs us nothing; much-less doth he approve those sacrilegious robberies, which are pretended for his glory, and the advantages of his service: No, he is neither a covetous nor a cruel God; he gives all things, and is content every one in Church and State should enjoy their own, what ever by right (that is by Law) belongs to them.  
§. From the occasion of this hypocritical insolency (the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) or inquisitiveness, which they fallaciously use, as if solicitous to content him, the Lord himself by the Prophet inculcates not the Deuteronomy, but the Hecatontonomy, that law of justice, mercy and humility, which he had an hundred times repeated by Moses and the Prophets to the Jews, as the ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) principal pleasure of the Lord, beyond all Holocausts and Hecatombs, all rivers of oil, and sacrifices of the first born; God who is ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as Dionysius calls him) all essence wholly substance, or self-subsistence, without any shadow or accident, cannot delight so much in any such shadows and leaves of ceremonious service with which the most barren Formalists may abound; as in those real fruits and solid effects of Equity, Charity and Sanctity, with which as none but the truly godly do abound, so whoever brings these to God from a pure and devoted humble heart, is more welcome with two mites or a little meal, than others are with all their luxurious costliness; of all which the very Heathens had pregnant conceptions to offer to the gods.  
— Jus, fasque animi, sanctosque recessus  
Mentis, & incoctum generoso pectus honesto,  
Haec cedo ut admoveam Templis & far litabo.  
§. 2. We are to consider the ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) credit and authority of this Demonstrator, 
2 The credit and authority of the Demonstrator.  which makes his words both for the truth and goodness of them ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) most worthy to be believed, received, and obeyed, since he is the most wise God, in and from whom are all treasures of wisdom, intellectual, moral and political. He is the great eternal and inexhausted fountain of all power and order, natural, civil and spiritual; the Father of lights, the infallible Teacher, the sovereign Dictator, ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) the great lawgiver, whose will is the highest Reason, and his Word the most unalterable truth; we have these lively Oracles of Justice, Mercy and Humility, not from Jupiter as Minos pretended; or from Egeria, as Numa; or Minerva, as Solon; or Apollo, as Lycurgus; or from fictitious artifices, as Mahomet; or from fantastic Enthusiasms, as fanatics; but from that King immortal, the only wise God; who hath the authority of both Lord and Father, the sufficiency of infinity, and the exemplary Ideas in him of all perfections; that being in him to the highest glory of goodness, 
Psal. 94.10.  which he showeth to us, and requireth of us in his Law; This is he that teacheth man wisdom.  
§. 2. He is not more ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) able by his wisdom, than willing by his indulgence and love to instruct mankind in the way that is best for him, and in those Laws which are most just and equal, most easy and useful, most comely and honourable, for all conditions, single and social, public and private, sovereign and Subject, for Magistrate and Minister, for Church and State: This is he who teacheth man by way of eminency, that one great and fundamental lesson, 
Job 28.  That the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. He gave to the Jews the knowledge of his laws, not only ceremonial but political and moral; those are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or magna moralia, in comparison of which the ceremonies were but transient shadows, and begga●ly elements, as the Apostle speaks; Statutes that were not good, that is, not absolutely and in themselves or materially, but relatively; as referring to the Imposers authority, and those better things of which they were emblems or types; they were as heavy burdens, so but temporary dispensations, during the poedagogy or minority of Religion, till the better ages (or worlds) should come, in which Evangelical Justice, Mercy and Humility, should most fully be not only demonstrated from the moral law, but also from the glorious example of the justice of God satisfied and his mercy procured, by the humiliation of Messiah, the condescension and crucifixion of the Son of God.  
§. 3. The Lord hath showed thee, these ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) most infallible and immutable rules of Justice, Mercy, and Humility, who is ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) the justest exacter, and the exactest observer of our obedience, and conformity to these laws; in other matters of ceremony and service, he is not so severe and rigid, but graciously dispenseth, upon many occasions, as of necessity and infirmity, of prepotent custom, disuse and prejudice; but in the grand points of justice, Mercy, and Humility, there is no dispensation or remission; no man can, as to these, be at any time unable, if he be not unwilling; here impotency is impiety; God strictly observes all wilful and presumptuous transgressions, and will be the avenger of them; not is he to be deceived or satisfied with any formal excuses and pretensions used by wily hypocrites, who offer chaff instead of good wheat, no more than he can be escaped or reresisted by any tyrannique power and insolences, when he maketh inquisition for these notorious omissions of justice, Mercy, and Humility, which are the summaries of all good Laws, and the seminaries of all piety, grace and virtue; nor shall these words of God, which drop like the rain and gentle dew from heaven return in vain, but will be swift witnesses against any soul, whose barrenness presages it is nigh to our sing and burning: for these laws and lessons (as from Mount Sinai) are with thunder and lightning; God's demonstrations are not only true but terrible, armed with omnipotency, never to be baffled, pregnantly showed by their own perspicuity, and powerfully exacted by the divine severity, who will carry himself frowardly or contrarily, and as I may say, with an uncondescending height, and divine stiffness against those that are not humble in his sight, resisting the proud, and withdrawing mercy from the merciless; yea requiring the justice of punishment on us, because the justice of obedience is not done by us. Ideo enim patimur justitiam quia non agimus, as St. Bernard speaks; for this is by the eternal vengeance still inculcated in hell (as Virgil expresseth)  
Discite justitiam moniti, & ne temnite divos. while the Furies with their flaming iron whips (flagellis ferreis & flagrantibus) do compel wicked and unjust men to suffer that justice which they refused to do to God, to Man, to themselves and others.  
But I have done with the first general; in which I observed the occasion and authority of this Demonstration.  
§. Secondly, I now come to the ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) thing demonstrated; 
2 Gen. the thing demonstrated.  the grand lesson which God teacheth so clearly and constantly to all men at all times, these are denoted under these three grand heads; justice, Mercy and Humility,  
These are considerable. 1. Conjunctim, jointly. 2. Divisim, severally, in their united and distinct aspects.  
1. Consider them together, and they afford us six things considerable.  
First, The paucity of these (magna mandata, or summè requisita) grand demands: The Lord lays but a few things upon us; Tria sunt omnia, a sacred Trinity of Precepts from the sacred Trinity of justice, Mercy and Humility, from the divine Wisdom, Power and Majesty.  
These make up that (monile sacrum) holy pendent or jewel, which is the greatest ornament of human nature, and blessing of all Societies, consisting but of three gems; but they are paragons of great price; for what is brighter than the invincible Diamond of Justice, which is scintilla Dei, a spark of God, as pearls are drops, and Diamonds sparks of the Sun? what more beautiful than the gentle sapphire of Mercy? what more amiable than the modest Emrald of Humility?  
§. The paternal indulgence of God is pleased to give us, in his teaching us short lessons, compendious Counsels, and holy Epitomes of his will and our duty.  
§. At first he propounded but (decem verba) ten commands in the Decalogue, which is a summary of all Theological and Moral Institutions: After he reduceth these to a narrower compass, of loving the Lord thy God, and thy neighbour as thyself: So Solomon, To fear God and keep his Commandments; Christ makes up all in one grand sentence, of doing as we would be done unto; whence the Emperor Severus took his famous Motto; the Apostle St. 
Matth. 22.40.  Paul brings all points and lines of the Laws and gospel's circumference to this one centre, Love, as the fulfilling of all in one word. Nor doth he permit Timothy to vary from that ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) wholesome form of words, the faith once delivered to the Saints, which he had taught him, as a short creed or summary (no doubt) of Christian doctrine, which otherwhere is expressed in believing with the heart, and confessing the Lord Jesus with the mouth; so in the end of the commandment, which is Charity, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned; So inexcusable are they who refuse to learn of God; whose commandments are neither grievous nor numerous, but condescending to the weakest capacities, and frailest memories; to which, what ever is necessary in religion, is easy to be learned and retained.  
§. For secondly, as the particular heads are few in number, so very short in the discourse: some points may by long Orations be (like gold) malleated and extended to such great latitudes of diffused expressions, as make them very cumbersome; as the volumes of our times, both in dogmatic, polemic, and practic Divinity do witness; while the superfluity of man's wit and eloquence glories to find out many inventions, definitions and distinctions, even in plain things; wire-drawing religion into fine threads, and driving the solid mass of Divinity, as to Faith and Repentance, love of God and our neighbours to leaf gold, chopping, and hewing, and paring the pillars of wisdom into small chips and thin shavings. Doubtless (as Erasmus writes to Archep. Warrham) the Church of Christ was never in a more happy estate, than when it was (uno & brevissimo symbolo contenta) both contented with and kept in the compass of that one short Creed, which we call the Apostles, and which was yet once shorter than now it is.  
Thirdly, But, commonly brevity is attended with obscurity; Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio; short and concise expressions many times wrap things up, as it were, in clouds; whereas Laws ought to be meridiana lumina, tanquam solis radiis scriptae, so clear, as none need complain; so legible that he that runs may read them; and so indeed are these divine demonstrations in the Text, where the wisdom of God reconcileth brevity and perspicuity together (as Pliny speaks of Trajan's uniting sovereignty and Liberty, by an happy temper of Government or Empire, which neither diminished his own just Prerogative, as a Prince, nor oppressed the people's legal immunities as his Subjects) so the Lord, designing these Laws for all sorts of people, fits them for all capacities in such a way, that the very babes and simple ones may learn, and understand, and do them; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Laws (saith Plato) ought to be as common and Catholic in their expressions, as they are in their injunction or obligation, that none may plead ignorance, either by the prolixity or obscurity, by the ennormious number, or by the tedious length of them.  
Fourthly, We may observe the order and situation of the particulars; First, Justice. Secondly, Mercy. Thirdly, Humility; there is (as Calvin and others observe) an ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) inverting of the Primacy and order due to that dignity which humility (as the summary of all Religion, or piety to God) justly requires before that of justice toward man; yet this is placed first, as most obvious for man's advantages and discerning, though not as most eminent in nature; as if the Lord more minded the welfare of mankind than his own service; importuning first for Justice and Mercy, and last for humble walking with himself; not but that religion toward God is and aught to be the chief intention; but Justice and Mercy may go before in the execution, especially in case of eminent danger and distress private and public; here (necessitas pellit Sabbatum) the Sacrifice, showbread and Sabbath yield to necessity, not immoral; God will have Justice and Mercy rather than burnt-offerings; yea in cases of fire, shipwreck, or sickness, and like exigencies of life and safety; it is venial to break off fastings, prayings, preachings, and communicating at the Lord's Table, in order to save others or ourselves.  
§. As in private so in public cases, when things are upon a precipice or extremity, the first care may be of the man, next of the Christian; to cure the Commonweals urgent paroxisms, and then the Churches chronic distempers; which was David's method, who first composed the civil disorders, which war had occasioned, before he applied to bring the Ark to its rest, and establish the solemnities of religious services. It is certain (as Optatus observes) that the Church is embarked in the Commonweal; and though the lading be better worth and more to be valued then the ship, yet there will be an ill account of the first, if the latter be not secured from great leaks, and desperate rocks of war and sedition, which to prevent is not only a mercy justly due to mankind, but an acceptable service to God; He were a very preposterous Zealot and ridiculous Divine, who in the exigents of pleuritic pains, and present faintings of spirits, would impose upon heartsick Patients his long prayers, or tediously obtrude godly discourses, and other ghostly counsels, rather than give way to the physicians or chirurgeons skill and applications, for blood-letting or cordials; this were to act the part not of a pious and prudent Confessor, but of a devout and imprudent Executioner.  
§. It is certain (as Minutius Faelix observes, Apud nos Christianos, quo quisque religiosior, eo justior) among good Christians, the best are most ready to mercy, and exactest in justice. Yea reverend Calvin observes on the place, Injustitia erga homines est certissimum impietatis argumentum; although men may do many just things, and yet have no true Religion; yet injustice toward men is (as leprosy on the forehead) a certain token of Irreligion toward God.  
§. They are found liars to God and man, and will be deceivers, yea damners of their own souls, who pretend to build Religion and Reformation on the ruins of justice and Civil Laws, by sacrilege, and violence, by robbery and rapine; they trust in lying words which cannot profit; who steal, 
Ie●. 7.9.  and murder, and lie, and swear falsely, and yet come, and stand before God in his house, and say We are delivered to do all these abominations; these are the projects of John of Leyden and his complices, full of enthusiastic folly and fury; men cannot be holy men with John Baptist, nor devout with Cornelius, unless they be just with both; and also how can they be just to God whom they have not seen, if they be unjust to man whom they have seen! as St. 
1 Ioh. 4.20.  John speaks of loving God hence the blessed God puts the rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, before the rendering to God the things tha● are God's; not as to the dignity or duty of our obedience, 
Luk. 10.25.  but as to the evidence and outward testimony of our inward subjection to God, by that which is outward to our lawful Superiors, who are in God's stead, having both power and commission from God, and in serving of whom, in things lawful, we serve the Lord.  
§. After the like method is that of the Apostle, which tells us, that the grace of God that bringeth salvation, 
Tit. 2.11.  teacheth us first to live righteously, next soberly, and then godlily in this present world; the first and pregnantest instances of pure Religion and undefiled are first to man and then to God; not but that the root of piety, and our Closet-religion to God is before the fruits of justice and Mercy, but those are more hidden, and these most manifested, so as men may see our good works, and glorify our heavenly Father.  
Fifthly, Nor is the juncture of these three inobservable, because indeed they are inseparable where they are sincere; This is (sancta & individua trias) an holy and undivided Trinity; where one is, all will be; the root of Humility, the leaf of Mercy, and the fruit of justice; if men be proud they will be cruel and covetous, void of Mercy and Justice too. So if they be unjust and uncharitable, you may conclude them to be without humility; for these three are as one, which united bear witness to God, our own Conscience and others: Proud men are prone to envy others, to overvalue themselves, and to use such unjust means as may gratify their inordinate appetites, suitable to their high opinions of themselves; proud, and so unjust thoughts betray men to unjust actions.  
Sixthly and lastly, We may observe the ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) common epithet or predicate to all of them; The Lord hath showed what is good; jointly and severally, absolutely and respectively, to all men at all times, in all occasions and conditions ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) in private and public stations, for Church and State, in war and peace, in revenge and restitution, for souls, bodies, and estates, for selves and others; good to begin, continue and increase all blessings, that mankind can desire to enjoy in this life; for liberty, honour, peace and plenty, joined with piety; these are (divinissima & amaenissima bona) profitable and pleasant as well as most necessary.  
1. Without justice there can be no good in the greatest plenty, which either exposeth to injury, or prospers by rapine and violence.  
2. Without Mercy there is no relief or succour in the many miseries to which human infirmities, and our mortal state is subject.  
3. Without Humility neither Equity nor Charity will profit us, or please God; when they are as the virtues of Heathens, more from Pharisaic pomp and love of applause, than any sense of duty to men, or devotion to God; these may have their reward from men, but neither good nor great, because proportionable to what they sow, either formal or hypocritical, or incomplete and partial; while their lusts and passions either transport them beyond, or keep them short of that true and pure fountain of living waters, which while they forsake, to follow broken cisterns, and unfaithful pits, they cannot fail to suffer evil at last, because they do not follow that good which God hath set so free and full before them; Et ideo miseri quia mali; they are not miserable for God's defects, as if he had decreed them to be so, or denied them, the way of being, doing and enjoying good; but because they do or easily may know the way, and works, and rewards that are good, but will not; Maxima pars humanae impotentiae fluit exvoluntate; the most if not all of our immoral and sinful infirmities, flow from our want of will rather than of skill. God is not wanting to teach us the good we should choose and do; but we are wanting to choose and do the good he evidently teacheth us; we cannot complain of God's not convincing us, but God complains justly of our not complying with, and converting to his conviction.  
§. Thus I have considered these three things jointly; now we may look on them distinct or severally.  
First, In the subject or substance, spirit and quintessence of each of them, Justice, Mercy and Humility.  
Secondly, In the predication or addition to each; to do Justice, to love Mercy, to walk humbly with thy God.  
§. First, let's take a summary view of the subject or substance of each; not by the way of common place, wherein the three Preachers of this day might have found matter enough to have entertained both their meditation and your attention; but in such a short summary, as may only take the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the topmost and fairest fruit of each, and leave the other large harvest or vintage to your own gathering.  
§. The first is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, judicium, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, such justice as directs in judicature, not speculative, 
1 I●stice.  or habitual and dispositive justice, but transitive, decisive justice; forensis justitia, which from an inward principle brings forth the fruits of Justice or Righteousness to all. 
Io●. 18.38.  Here we are to inquire as Pilate did of truth, What is justice? 
Quest.   
§. 1. Some measure it by their power, 
Ans. What justice i●.  by the length of their sword, and strength of their arm; when indeed (Id tantum possumus quod jure possumus) & in maxima potentia minima debet esse licentia. The best and valiantest men neither can nor will do aught but what they lawfully may; they count ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) unjust things impossible.  
§. 2. Others measure justice by their wills, passions, lusts, interests, &c. quicquid libet licet (meram voluntatem imperii limites ponunt) what serves their ambition, and covetousness, or their revenge and envy, or their faction or partiality, this is just with them though never so unlawful.  
§. There are that measure justice by their fancies and imaginations, by their dreams and Enthusiasms, by their presumed gifts and graces, as if they had a right and merit to all they can get; that they are the only Israelites, who have God's commission to spoil the Egyptians; that all things are theirs, because they challenge Christ to be theirs; that civil dominion is founded in grace, and justice is to be measured only by faith and assurance of salvation, of which themselves will be the only Judges; these are the paltry pretensions of some hucksters of Religion, and devout Beggars, who with the Pharisees, Euchites and Circumcellians, find it easier to devour others by long prayers and preachings, or (if these will not do) by fighting, than to get their own living by honest industry.  
§. 4. There are that measure Justice by necessity; as if necessity justified all its commands, and gave checkmate to all laws: 'tis true in some public exigencies, private rights must yield to public necessities; yet so as to make just compensation, after the tide of necessity is retired: but there is no immoral necessity to be allowed. Nullum peccatum necessarium; no sin is necessary unless there be a necessity to be damned.  
§. The first fallacy of measuring Justice by forcible power and possession, is a giant or monster arising from the earth; The second which measures gain by godliness, and godliness by gain, or propounds a necessity of doing evil that good may come thereby, are Meteors which rise from an higher region indeed, but they are both alike prodigious to any Church or State where they appear, and prove very pestilential to mankind in both respects civil and sacred.  
§. My answer (then) to the Question, What Justice is? must be no other than that, which of old all wise men and the Apostle gives, that is, To render or preserve to every one their due; Justitia est quae suum cuique tribuit. Id suum cuique quod debitum; Id debitum quod à Deo & natura datum, aut lege designatum; that is a man's own and due to him which is either by God or Nature given, or is by Law assigned to him.  
§. The Platonists answer well to this ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) what is just? That which is according to law; What is lawful? That which is rational; What is rational? that which is divine; what is Divine? that which is best and eternal; most worthy of God and most useful for mankind.  
§. Justice is to be considered in three main things; 
justice in the fountain.  first in its fountain and original, the wisdom and will of God, which is the exactest measure, and infallible rule of Justice in itself; sufficit quod Deus voluit, as Salvian speaks; voluntas Dei summa ratio & lex suprema; not only in the divine nature, as the Arch-type of all perfections, but in those revelations of it to Angels & mankind; either by those, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} common principles of reason, to which all men (in their wits) must and will consent, which are (lex nata) the law written in our hearts; 
Rom. 2.  as it were the common law of all mankind (jus gentium) or by those further express mandates which God gives to any either by immediate revelation, or by such credible derivations of it to others, for the tradition of his word, by speech or writing, as his wisdom thinks fit to use.  
§ Hence are all good laws of Church and State, of civil and religious concerns derived: By these all are tried and confirmed as good and just, and accordingly ought to be established as valid by civil sanction or consent; by these all matters of commutative or distributive justice are dispensed, which either exchange for such compensations as are mutually agreed upon, according as one wants, and another abounds in any thing; or else such distributions are adjudged to any as are grounded on the law; Or lastly; such recompenses are made to every man by reward or punishment as his actions do merit, either good or bad, in reference to the public welfare, for the encouraging of well doing, or suppressing of evil.  
§. Here the moral law of God binds all men always; the Political laws of God bind no further than that proportion of moral justice, piety, and prudence which appears in them, according as the parallel state of times, and persons, and actions may be; in which the consent and submission of the major part of men, or long custom, and settled constitutions in any Polity have the force of a law, and are a rule of politic Justice; provided they bind to nothing immoral or irreligious.  

justice in the c●stern.  Secondly, Justice is considerable in the grand cistern and conservatory (as the brazen Sea in the Sanctuary, which served the Temple with water) which is the sovereign and Legislative power in every Society and Polity, as it is circumscribed and contained in its proper bounds, and peculiar limits; this is the centre of Order, unity, Justice and Peace politic; this dividing and dashing against itself by Caesar and Pompey, by Senate and People, by King and Parliament, by Emperors and Electors, all Justice, Order and Peace are destroyed; the leak in this sinks all; there must be a fixed sovereignty under God, to whose Justice and Power paramount, all must submit according to law; contestations in this run all things to confusions, as our sad experience hath taught us: Here either Prince, or State, or Peers or People, may severally have the sovereignty of Justice, under several polities or forms of government; or there may be such a temperament, both as to legislation, jurisdiction, and execution of Laws by legal power, as may best relieve people in their grievances by Parliamentary representatives; and best judge of differences by sworn Judges, and best execute all legal sentences and decrees by an eminent power in a sovereign Prince, King or Emperor, which is best for all estates; and such is that admirable constitution of sovereign Majesty in England, from which all Laws are enacted, by which they are declared, and with which they are justly and effectually executed, inclusive of and adapted to all just interests of King, Lords and Commons.  
§. 3. 
justice in the conduits.  Justice is considerable in the pipes and conduits of a●l subordinate Magistrates, through which, (as blood in the veins) it flows from the chief Justiciaries to the very petty Constables, for the relief of all sorts of people, which are as parts and members (noble or less honourable) of that Body politic, according as the Law doth adjudge to every one their due; the measure of all is either (recta ratio) right Reason, or sacra Scriptura, the holy Scripture, or (lex terrae) the law of the Land, to which all are subjected by their consent; He is just who looks to these; who willingly submits to them, and exactly observes them.  

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

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

Others. §. 3. There is also a Justice to others, void of all fraud or force; of which as the Word of God in general, and the Laws of every Polity in special, so the dictates of every man's own reason, his duly reformed, and well composed conscience, are domestic Dictators ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as Synesius observes) God has made every man's rational Will the Monitor of justice; hence men are a law in many things to themselves, and their own thoughts do accuse or excuse their actions; hence unjust men, who act by fraud or force, though never so successful, yet are ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} & {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) self-condemned, and without any apology; Prima est haec ultio, quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur; And Exemplo quodcunque malo committitur ipsi Displicet autori; every unjust doer, as he is his own greatest tempter and traitor; so he will be his own summoner, accuser, witness, tormenter and Executioner; (sibi poena omnis inordinatus animus) as St. 
Gen. 4●. ●1.  Austin: So Joseph's brethren accuse themselves first as guilty of their brother's blood; they must needs be sooner or later (Magor-missabib) terrors to themselves, who are by their unjust dealings injurious to others, and a terror to the land of the living by their oppressions. But I have done with the Theory of Justice, in its Source, Derivations and practics.  
I come now to the second main Postulate or demand of God; mercy, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: 
3 Demand, Mercy.  misericordia, or benignitas as it is variously rendered; This is divinissimum in divinitate, & humanissimum in humanitate opus. Mercy is the most orient gem in the Crown of God's attributes, and the greatest ornament as well as relief of human nature; It is the glory of God to pass by offences, to pardon sins, 
Exod. 34. ●.  to temper the rigor of his Justice: to supply defects, to help infirmities, and to save those sinners in his exceeding great mercy, whom he might have condemned in the extremity of his Justice.  
§. By mercy God is sui victor, & seipso major, as it were greater than himself, and a conqueror of himself, A denyer of himself, and a cider with our interests; All our hopes and happiness are founded upon, and bound up in the mercy of God, 
Psal. 103.8.  which is above all his works and ours: In this fatherly benignity all our blessings are contained; nor are we capable as St. Bernard speaks; of any other merit, than that is made up of God's mercy; which is perventive and plenary, beyond desert and desire, so ample, that none is denied it, upon the terms offered; 
Psal. 1 6  Nor can it be ever exhausted for it endures for ever; yea and it is peculiar to mankind above the Angels.  
§. From this great pattern of God's mercy to such worthless wretches as we are, springs this demand, and demonstration, by which God requires us to be merciful as he our heavenly father is merciful; to imitate God in this, which is not more necessary so others, than ourselves, since no man can show so much mercy to others, as he either wants, or hath received himself.  

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

In Man §. Mercy in man, is an affection, by which he lays to heart the misery of another, and is disposed to relieve them. Private mercies flow from a tender, soft, & compassionate heart, sensible of God's mercies to itself, which command it to recede in many things from the rigor of Justice, and what of right it might either exact of, or inflict on another; No habit brings us nearer to God, or makes the face of man shine with a diviner beam of Glory, being the establisher of Prince's Thrones, 
Prov. 20. ●8.  which are supported by Justice and Mercy.  
§, In public transactions, (whose weight mostwhat lies upon, the carriage of Justice,) mercy doth not overthrow Justice, or divert it out of the way of rectitude (which is God's highway) but only smooths the paths, and oils the wheels, and supplies the joints, that Justice goes on with less cry and complaint, Mercy doth not take away the edge or point the of sword of Justice, but only that rust and cancer which makes it wounds fester too deep.  
§. Mercy is an inseparable attendant to human Justice; yea and to the Divine, in this world where God punisheth less and later than we deserve; and whatever is short of hell is mercy; It is because his compassions, fail not that we are not consumed. 
Lam. 3.22.  Saith Jeremiah in his bitterest lamenting.  
§. Where Justice falls heaviest on men's lives and estates, for the enormity of their sins, yet there is a beam of mercy to be shown them, as to their souls, by our prayers for their repentance and pardon of God; the thief on the cross, justly suffering (as he confessed) for his misdeeds, yet tasted of the Divine mercy mixed with that bitter cup.  
§. This mercy, benignity, moderation and compassion, (of which you have had a large and good account in the former exercise) is a debt, or Justice, we owe to others, as much as we desire it ourselves; 
Matth. 18.27.  and it is there seasonable, where common errors and infirmities, or vulgar simplicity and credulity, or easiness and sequaciousness do imitigate the malice, by mistake of doing Justice, or of reforming the public state (as in the silly people's case, 
● Sam. 15.11.  who followed Absolom in his popular rebellion) having so great a friend and wise a Counsellor as Achitophel to delude them Errabant sed bone animo, they meant well, though they did ill; Here Justice ought to look more at the malice of the heart, than the iniquity of the fact; As that is true (comittunt eadem diverso crimina fato; so diverso affectu) men do the same things from different designs and principles; some out of zeal to Justice, reformation and religion, others out of faction, Ambition, courteousness, Envy and Rebellion.  
§. As common infirmities, epidemic errors, and popular delusions, do make way for mercy, so also multitudes of offenders. Christ had compassion on the multitudes more than once; 
Mat●h. 9.36. and 14.14.  not only quia miseri, but quia multi; to make promiscuous massacres and havocks of them, when it is in the power of Justices to punish or spare them, is barbarous and inhuman: It was a word of Clemency worthy of Caesar's great mind, at the Pharsalian battle, Parcite civibus: Spare our countrymen and fellow citizens.  
§. Multitudes of Offenders are best punished in their ringleaders, setters, and agitators: whose sufferings due to their malice, are not more just and necessary for the public, than remissions are to the ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) many, who do as it were so crowd up Justice, that they pinion its arms; it cannot well exert its power upon them. Too much blood-letting is as dangerous, as some may be necessary for health.  
§. So also penitents are objects of mercy; who so confess and deplore their former errors, and offences, that they give great hopes of future compensations, by the revenge they take of themselves. Pene innocens ●uem peccasse poenitet Greg. M. when more ashamed for their sin, then afraid of their punishment, these are objects of mercy and moderation; especially if there be any thing to plead for their excuse, as free from the great offences and presumptuous sinnings, 
Deut. 29.11, 13  as in point of wilful murder and destinate villainy, of which God hath said thine eye shall not pity, nor thy hand spare; lest the Land be defiled with blood, or idolatry.  
§. Here it is crudelis misericordia, & stulta clementia, to spare such, whose impunity would not not only seem to lessen the enormity of their sins, but expose the public to infinite hazards: in giving encouragement by such cruel pity and foolish clemency; In some cases, severe Justice is the greatest mercy to the public, that men may hear and fear and do no more so presumptuously; ne crudeli & intempestiva miserecordia plectatur respublica; Thousands of innocents are oft punished, when some few facinorous nocents are spared; Their impunity becomes many times the public sin and punishment, and the Nation is make godfather, or dry nurse by not punishing those sins, of which it justly abhors to have been the Father or doer.  
§. Yet are there but few cases, wherein summum jus is required; although that saying be true in grand and public's concerns, which are the polar points and hinges of civil peace, fiat justitia ruat caelum; let Justice be done what evercome of it; Yet it is as true in most cases, which are capable of any remission and moderation, Fiat justitia, ruet caelum; if thou (Lord) shouldst be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who can abide it; 
Psal. 130.3.  without God's mercy to us, and ours to our brethren the offenders, our heaven is lost; judgement without mercy shall be to those, 
James 2.13.  that show no mercy.  
§. delays also, as to execution of Justice, (as David used to Joab and others,) are public mercies many times, when the factious influence of criminous men is so great and popular that they cannot at present be punished without endangering the public peace.  
§. But I have done with this second particular, which God requires, as to mercy; which who so shows to others, shows it to himself; for of all things we do well, the works of mercy shall not go unrewarded.  

3. Humility. Luke 17.10.  Thirdly, Humility is required; which is a most most Christian grace, no less than a most manly virtue, becoming all men. 1. In the sense of their common infirmities, and mortal condition. 2. In the conscience of their many sins, and deserved miseries. 3. In the reflection upon their best actions, full of failing and defects; besides their unproficiency as to God when they have done all.  
Here nothing becomes man more, or more sets off what he doth, than the deepest shadow of humility; both toward all mankind, who are of the same metal, mould and make with him; and toward God, to whom he owes all he is, or hath, or can do; for what hath he in nature or providence, in soul, body or estate, 
1 Cor. 4.7.  which he hath not received?  
§. Pride destroys and sours all the good even of Justice and Mercy that any man doth: It hath its first pattern from the Devil, who by pride fell from the Heaven of blessed Angels, to the Hell of damned spirits: Humility hath God for the great example, no less than Justice and Mercy have; by this we draw nearest to God, and are fittest to accord with him; by this we are partakers of the divine nature, of Christ's Spirit, graces, and rewards.  
§. Pride, (which is its own Idol and Idolater) its own Carver and Comforter, hath its reward only from itself, or the vain world; for God resisteth the proud; and they must be sure to be destroyed who dash against God.  
§. Hell is the pit and prison of proud Angels and men; 
1 Per. 1.4.  the first ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} & {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) they kept not their station or rank; but lifted up themselves to be like to the most high, beyond what was due to them: The second, because as Pharaoh and Nabuchadnezzar, they rob God of his glory, both as to the justice which forbears to destroy them as they deserved, and as to that Mercy which was conferred upon them beyond any merit in them.  
Secondly, 
These three considered in their practics  As I have thus briefly considered these Three Subjects, Justice, Mercy and Humility in themselves; so I am with like brevity to consider the predicates or actions applied to each of them.  
1. To do justice. First, Materially, 
The acts or exercises of three virtues.  as to the merit of the cause and person.  
Secondly, Regularly, as to the Law prescribed by God or man, not by private opinion, 
1. To do justice.  presumption or passion.  
Thirdly, Authoritatively, by due order and commission derived to thee, from the lawful supreme power; for however all men must have the inward principles and desires for justice; yet the doing or executing of it is not given to all, but only those to whom the sword of justice is committed by the Law of God and man; 
Rom. 13.4.  Christ's question must be asked before a man does justice, Who hath made me a judge or Ruler? 
Luk. 12.14.  A man may be very unjust in punishing the greatest and most notorious offenders, without due authority derived to him.  
Fourthly, Do justice, formalizer; as to the inward form, principle, or conscience, for justice sake, not for ambition as Absolom, or reward, or revenge, or glory, &c. A Judge may give a just sentence before man, and yet be an unjust Judge before God, when he doth what is just materially, but not mentally, as to his end and design; in doing Justice men must be sincere (& hoc agere) make it their ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) business for God's sake; or from a good conscience; for judgement is the Lords, as Moses tells the Elders. 
Deut. 1.17.   
5. Do Justice, practice, effectually; not only think and meditate, consult, vote, decree, enact and declare, or talk and plead, and dispute, and cavil or contend, but bring forth the fruits of righteousness, that all may see them, and enjoy the benefit of them; just Laws made and never executed are as good seed sown upon barren ground, which never comes up beyond straw and wild oats.  
6. Do Justice, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Impartially ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) in all things, to all persons, poor and rich, not oppressing the rich because his fleece is large, nor the poor because his strength is small, and friends few: 
Exod. 11.25. and 23.3.  Aequum dicitur, quia aequat leges omnibus, as Varro observes: Justice must be straight or right, without warping, as equal and indifferent to all, blind as to the persons, though Eagle-eyed as to the cause and rule.  
7. Do it speedily, especially in such cases, when the effects of justice are not penal but beneficial; Delays of Justice are so far denials, and so long unjust, when it is in the power of a Judge, or Prince, or Magistrate to do it; no usury is so unjust, as that which makes advantages by dilatory justice: In penal effects of Justice, there dilatory executions may be more venial, and tolerable, because they are mixtures of mercy, and reprieves in order to repentance; for which God gives us the great pattern, in his giving us space to repent, and being so slow to excute vengeance on us, 
Psal. 106.  though daily provoked by us.  
8. Do it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} (not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, in rigor, but) in measure, judgement and proportion, as they said of old ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) God is an axact geometrician, duly measuring and weighing, or pondering the actions of all men, and proportioning his judgements to them; so ought men to demean themselves in doing justice calmly, as in the cool of the day, without passion, or transport. Perit judicium x res transit inaffectum; the eyes of judgement are blinded, when the mists of any passions arise; either prejudicating the person for the cause, or the cause for the person.  
9 Do justice, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, with humanity, pity and compassion to the person, in the greatest severities against, and justest detestations of their sins; Justice among men, much more among Christians, must have not only vulnera, but also viscera, bowels as well as blows; Ingenuous Justice (dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox) is afflicted when compelled to inflict punishment; and feels the strokes it gives, condemning the Judge to commiseration, when he condemns others to misery; this tenderness or temperament it learns from God, who deplores when he executeth, 
Hosea● 11.8.  or denounceth his judgements; his bowels are turned within him, when he is forced to give over his people to the destroyers; hence are his many forewarnings, importunings and beseechings of men to fly from the wrath to come; as why will ye die? &c. and How shall I give you over to be as Admah and Zeboim? how shall I make thee as Sodom and Gomorah?  

To love Mercy Isa. 28.21.  Secondly, To love Mercy; here first the order is observable, That Justice must first be done before Mercy; else it is as very preposterous to exclude Justice to make way for Mercy, as it is presumptuous to do unjustly under pretence of showing Mercy.  
§. Like the design of some men's cruel charity to get an estate by all imjurious ways, in order to do works of charity, or to build an Alms-house, like the giving alms or legacies before we pay our debts.  
§. Such Sacrifices are abominable to God; we must not rob the Exchequer of Justice, to put into the Corban or poor man's box of the sanctuary.  
§. 2. We may observe the emphasis of the word put to Mercy, beyond that is to Justice; this must be done as a work and task, which is enjoined us; but the other Mercy, must be loved and delighted in: Justice is opus necessarium & alienum, a necessary, but strange and unwelcome work, compared to Mercy; in this also we have the precedent of the divine goodness; whose {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, pleasure and delight is in showing mercy, where there is any capacity; but his executions of Justice, are as it were a pressure and distress upon him; not that he is not infinitely just to all the extents of Justice, but he is superinfinitely merciful, so as to set even bounds to the infinity of his justice, which as a consuming fire would in a moment have destroyed the whole creation of lapsed sinful natures, if Mercy had not interceded.  
§. This Affection of Love is conjoned to Mercy: 
Mercy must be loved.  First, As (res in se amabilis) a thing in itself most lovely and desirable, one of the brightest beams of the divine beauty. Secondly, As that which is most beautiful and comely for mankind, 
Col. 11.  especially the Church of God, and children of their heavenly Father, who are commanded to put on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercy: Bowels, as to the inward principle or love of it, and putting them on, as to outward manifestation in good works, which are the royalest robes and richest ornaments of Christians.  
3. Love mercy, as that which is most beneficial to ourselves and others too; He that shows mercy to others, shows it to his own soul; by way of rebound it returns into his own bosom; Mercy is that which all need, all desire in their distress, all have tasted of, and received from God.  
4. Love it in obedience to God's commands, and in imitation of his divine perfections; among which not any is so commended to us as this; Not be ye wise and strong, and infinite and great, as your heavenly Father, but merciful. What Mat. 5.48. is put Be ye merciful, is Luk. 6.26. Be ye perfect, &c. as if (in una misericordia omnes perfectiones) this one prefection of mercy included all.  
5. Love mercy (in augmentum gratiae) for the advance of all graces, for this is the compass or manure, which makes the richest soil of a Christian soul; as a man sows mercy liberally, so he shall reap graces.  
6. Love mercy in ornamentum religionis Christianae, the best trial of the best religion is, that which abounds most with mercy, as the true God, who is optimus maximus, is greatest by his goodness, and best in his mercifulness. 
2 Kings 20.31  The Kings of Israel are esteemed merciful Kings; as mercy is the most human, so the most Princely quality, because the divinest endowment. Cruelty is one of the highest scandals of Christianity, which makes Lambs of lions, and tames the feircest tempers.  
7. Love mercy (memor propriae. indigentiae & miseriae) remembering that sin which exposeth thee to misery, and that necessity thou hast of God's mercy, yea and the want thou mayst have of man's; for no state of mortality, is so fixedly happy, but it may be (as Job was) the object of pity, which the Tragedies of our times have evidenced in the highest nature; voluit deus, ut sibi quisque sit mensura misericordiae, as St. Jerom tells us; they that flow most with mercy, shall be filled most with it.  
8. Love mercy (in spem & Augmentum gloriae) in order to confirm thy hope, and increase thy reward of Glory, there is no better evidence of a gracious heart and an excellent spirit, than this merciful propensity, even natural men, who have most humanity, are least distant from the kingdom of heaven; there wants but faith in Christ, (who is the highest instance, and grand exemplar of divine mercy, to raise up the grosser allays of natural softness, compassion and gentleness, to the pure Elixir of that grace of merciful-mindedness, which God requires, and which denotes a Divine and heavenly disposition; doubtless the mites of mercy, which we show here to others for Christ's sake, will be repaid with Talents in heaven, nor shall a cup of cold water be unrewarded.  
3. To walk humbly, the LXX. 
3. To walk humbly with thy God.  render it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: to be ready and prepared to go with God, and the Latin vulg.. humiliare se ambulando; the words imply.  
1. A freedom and familiarity of conversation, which cannot be had unless two are agreed; nor can there be any agreement with God, except where the heart is humble. God resists the proud, (quia congreditur cum deo tanquam hostis ex parte adversa) who doth not walk with God, but against him, as one that justles, assaults, encounters, and fights against him  
2. Walking as it is a social and friendly motion, so it is progressive and parellel, in a way of conformity, not contrariety, when we keep pace with God, neither out-running his word by a precipitant wantonness, and over-righteousness of our own imaginations, nor yet so lagging behind as we lose God, nor yet straying to the right or left hand diverticles, of profaneness or superstition, of despare or presumption, but keeping close with God, who looks on the proud afar off, because they are still at distance from him, one way or other.  
3. As an humble man is only fit for God's presence, and company, so the more a man walks with God, the more he will grow humble, when he sees what an inconsiderable nothing himself is, Nihilo nihilius, 
Psal. 19.4, 5. and 61.9.  less than nothing; at his very best estate altogether vanity; at his worst only sin, hell and misery, fit company for none but devils, and that fatal sentence, Go ye cursed; nothing in merits, nothing in graces, nothing in gifts, nothing in duties, Toti sumus indigentia, we are altogether defect and emptiness, till grace fills us, and Christ supplies us; we shall easily vanish and disappear as to all self conceit, and pride of heart, when once we assiociate with God; then Abraham and Job abhor themselves in dust and ashes, (both eminent persons, the one the great Father of the faithful, the other the great pattern of patience) so Jacob, less than the least of God's mercies; and St. Paul who was not inferior to the chief Apostles, and laboured more abundantly than any one of them, yet sums up his all in this, 
2 Cor. 11.12.  though I am nothing, esteeming Christ to be all in all to him.  
4. Walk humbly (cum Deo quia Deus, & quia tuus) because with God, and with thy God; a Son and Subject will know himself best when with a King and Father, who is their own; however they may carry themselves high to others their betters, yet not to those, whose near relation and high merit command observance. If the thought of God's excellency doth not abase us in our own eyes, yet the consideration of his condescending to us, to be ours in so many undeserved mercies, and favours, to a transcendency of desert, and unrequitable obligations, this will deplume us, and pull down all high imaginations in us, It is ignorance of God, and distance from him, which make us so conceited of ourselves, a spark or star cannot glory in the light of the sun.  
5. Especially when we remember (humilem deum & humiliatum Christum pro nobis) an humble God, in our humbled Saviour for us; the sight and sense of Christ on the Cross, for our sakes, will make us ashamed of one proud thought or high look, which is not tolerable in any estate, in the greatest gifts and graces, the best endowments, and highest successes, wherein we are but instruments, and seconds, not principals; And in the greatest afflictions, when we are (humiliati) most humbled and debased by God's providence, it is very insutable then to boil and swell with thoughts of repining and murmuring against God, as if he injured us, or treated us unworthy of us. No, here to be humble, is to be silent, 
Lev 16.41.  and submiss to pray, to prostrate at God's feet, to accept of the punishment, and own it as from a Father, who chastiseth us, that we may not be condemned, with the world; humility disarms God, and is a salve, shield and cordial, in the worst estate, which is then best for us when we grow more humble, as pride is a moth or curse, that blasts all, even the best we are, enjoy or do, Alienating God from us, and driving away his good Spirit, when it finds us our own Gods and worshippers. It is but just to leave us to the heaven of our own fancies, and to be satisfied with our own delusions.  
Third General, Cui, to whom God shows, 
so whom this Demonstration and demand is made.  and of whom he requires these great lessons and duties; Thee O man.  
1. To all mankind in general, as creatures capable to know good and evil, just and unjust, and accordingly to choose and do as they are directed from the inward dictates of right reason, and those self-convincing principles which are within their own consciences.  
2. To thee O man more especially, who enjoyest the light of God's Word in the pale and bosom of the Church, where the righteous precepts and merciful commands of God are more evidently set forth, by laws repeated, by examples multiplied, by judgements and rewards proportioned to men's works; none here can plead ignorance of duty both to God and man.  
3. Thee O man, in thy particular station, as occasion and power are put into thy hand, whether Jew or Gentile, great or small, rich or poor, Prince or Peasant, Lords or Commons, Priest or people; no man is unconcerned in these Demonstrations; to every one God says as Nathan did to David, Thou art the man.  

Of Kings and S●●●●aign Magistrates. §. God requires Justice, Mercy and Humility of thee O King, who sittest on the throne of Majesty, who art in God's stead, as his Vicegerent, a kind of mortal Deity; honoured with the name, and vested with the power of God, and much more with the imitations of the divine excellencies of Justice and Mercy toward man, 
Ier. 22.15, 16.  as of Humility toward God; Shalt thou reign because thou closest thyself in cedar, and art compassed about with strong guards? Did not thy Father do justice and mercy, and then it was well with him: He judged the cause of the poor and needy, was not this to know me, saith the Lord? Thou, even thou, O King art to fear him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, higher than the highest; the terror of Tytants, who pulleth Princes from their seat, and poureth contempt upon all their glory; thy surest policy is true piety, and the best reason of State is this pure Religion and undefiled, even to do Justice, to love Mercy, and walk humbly with that God by whom King's reign, Whose thrones are not to be established without Justice, Mercy and Humility; Nor can they be injured so much by any as by themselves; their Pride before God, like Nebuchadnezar's and Belshazzars', will abase them; and their oppression of their people, will most oppress themselves at last.  
Secondly, Of Thee O wise man, 
Of Counsellors, &c.  and mighty Counsellor, who art esteemed by others and thyself as a great State Intelligence; digging deep for counsels, and wrapping up thyself in the darkness of thy cloudy projects and designs; thou who gloriest in thy Oracular Policies as Achitophel; and disdainest to be nonplussed in thy wisdom, or defeated in thy designs: Of thee the Lord requires to give no counsel but such as is just, nor to decree other than righteous decrees: To agitate nothing in Councils of State and Parliaments by partiality, faction, and oppression, to sinister ends and unjust interests either of Prince of people; because the Lord sitteth among Senators, and will cause a just decree without mercy to be executed upon those who either execute or decree unrighteous and cruel things.  
Thirdly, 
Of Magistrates.  Of Thee O subordinate judge and Magistrate: O great Lawyer and eloquent Pleader, the Lord repuires not to turn Justice into gall, and Judgement to wormwood; not to judge for reward, or pervert the cause of any, either for fear or favour, or for respect of persons; not to make pleadings of Law to be as gins and snares to innocent simplicity, by a fallacious sophistry, and dilatory felony, which robs the client's purse, as the bushes and brambles do the sheep of his fleece, when he seeks and hopes for shelter from them.  
§, No temporal advantage can counterpoise the detriment and danger which unjust and merciless actions bring upon those who willingly offend against the laws of the just and merciful God, and thereby incur eternal damnation, deserving to be beaten with many stripes, because they know the will of God, and do it not. St. Bernard's Motto to all judges is, omnia judicata rejudicabuntur, what comes short in man's measure, or weight of Justice, shall be made up by God's eternal recompenses.  

Of Soldiers and men of might.  4. Of thee O Soldier; O valiant and mighty man, who hast power in thy hand to save or destroy, to kill poor men, and lay wast fenced Cities, of thee God requires justice and mercy, which must be the measures of War, as well as of Peace; there are (jura belli) laws of righteousness and moderation, which God exacts in wars, even defensive, which seem the only wars that can be just: For sure to make war without some precedent or threatened injury, must needs be very injurious. Not might but right must be looked at, where the lives of men are concerned; justice is not to be measured by the length of thy sword, or the strength of thy arm, or the number of thy Soldiers, but by the Laws of God, of Nations and of every polity: The Justest war, must not by passionate transports be carried on to unjust, exorbitant, and cruel oppressions, either to harmless and unarmed people, or to immoderate demands, in point of revenge and compensation, much less to build ambitious Babel's, and covetous confiscations, upon others ruins; The Soldiers had their lesson of John Baptist, what to do, when they had so much grace as to ask the question, 
Luk. 3 14.  they are not commanded to lay down their arms, but to do violence to no man, &c.  
5. Of thee O man, (God requires Justice, mercy and humility) whose prosperity either in violent or injurious ways, have made thee rich and great, 
Of the most prosperous.  or who increasest thy estate by that, which is not thine in equity and conscience, who makest no scruple of Extortion, rapine, racking rents, sacrilege, oppression, and rigorous extortions; who hast built thy nest on high, and feathered it with the spoils, either of thy Neighbours and tenants, or of Church and State, of the Crown and Crosier, where cheap purchases, witness to your faces, and upbraid both buyers and sellers of the injustice of the bargain; thou, even thou, must so repent by making restitution of unjust acquisitions, as may make thee capable of God's pardon, who will not be mocked by lame and cracked titles; nor may be robbed, without making the curse threatened to light on such injurious & presumptuous sinners, who neither fear God nor reverence man; though great, and rich, and many, though Courts and Councils, and Armies, and whole Nations conspire to do injustly, yet will God be a swift witness against them, and bring his Justice upon them.  

O Ministersf of the Church  6. Of thee O godly gull, and holy-cheat, who pleadest an hypocritical nonplus, and a state necessity of doing somethings, both injust and cruel, in order to do good, to advance Justice, to glorify God, to reform Church and State, as if the reasons and interests of both Religion and Justice did sometimes want unjust proceedings, (as pills to keep them in health) which Aristides pleaded by way of Irony, to those who impatient of exact Justice, forced him sometimes to deviate from it, by their popular peevishness; he told them he did it ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) in order to the public good: God will discover these impudent fallacies, and so punish the presumption of doing evil, that good may come thereby, that all men shall shall hear and fear, and confess there is a God that judgeth the earth, when they shall see vengeance to overtake these men, and the iniquity of their heels to compass them about.  
§. Better to follow God's counsel by doing Justice, though we perish with Lazarus on a dunghill, and suffer the last strokes of human Justice in this world, than to fall under God's eternal and inexerable Justice, which will strip thee of all the goods thou gettest, and bring upon thee infinitely more evil than that, which by unjust and wicked means thou soughtest to escape; there is no necessity (scelera sceleribus tueri) to make evil deeds good by doing worser; it is the Devils hardening Maxim to damn souls by desperation; as if a thief should plead it necessary to kill that man whom he hath robbed, lest he be pursued and taken by him.  
7. Of thee, 
Of the glozing Hypocrites.  O Minister of the Church and Pastor of souls, God requires, first to do justice to thy brother of the same tribe and calling, by not intruding thyself into his work, against right and reason and law, that thou mayst have a plea or pretence to the profits of his living, and so thou mayst feed thyself by feeding another's flock against his will; when Justice requires us not only to eat our own bread, but to do our own business, and not ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) to usurp on another's either emolument or employment, which they are able and willing to perform.  
Of thee, O churchman, great & small God requires this Justice, to God, to Christ, to the Church, to people's souls, to the holy word and worship of God, to the truth of Doctrine, to the solemnity of his service, to the necessity of men's souls, by feeding them with wholesome food, by giving them their portion in due season, by not denying the children their bread, for fear of dogs eating it, by administering the blessed Sacraments duly and reverently, according as the Church, in which thou servest, hath appointed thee, not setting up and urging thy own fancies and whimsies, thy novel inventions and schismatical partialities, thy human traditions, and unauthentick because uncatholick observations, instead of Christ's institutions, not so shy and startling at the shadow of some decent and innocent rites or circumstances and ceremonies in religion, as to fly from the unity, order, harmony and authority of the whole Church, by a supercilious, unjust and merciless severity, which savours too much of pride, and self conceit, hereby shaking and overthrowing the faith of many poor souls, who are ignorant, weak and instable, by the perturbatious thy pragmatic and popular activity gives them.  

Of the whole Nation.  8. Lastly of thee, O whole Palestina, O Church and State, O my native County, and Nation, both in thy latitude and diffusion, and in thy Parliamentary▪ Epitome, or representation; of thee the Lord requires not only to do justice, but to show mercy there, where is the cryingest injustice and cruelty in the world; There is a voice from abroad and at home, which cries (Oro miserere laborum Tantorum, miserere animi non digna ferentis) O do not approve, confirm or adopt that pride, injustice and cruelty of some sons of Belial, who lifted up themselves above all that is called God; all Laws of God and man, all duty to their betters and Superiors.  
§. If what hath been done in this sorely afflicted and abused nation, with expense of so much blood and treasures, with so much terror and extravagancy, be well and worthily done; it will be an act of your Justice to assert it, and of your Mercy, to absolve other of us poor scrupulous souls of those scruples of conscience which we have; of those fears and jealousies, lest the Nation lying under so great sins, may be exposed to God's sorest judgements, even to an utter vastation.  
§. But if it appear to your wisdom, piety, Justice and Mercy, to have been a violent and unparalleled method of presumptuous wickedness, of unjust cruelty, and most cruel injustice; in which was neither matter nor form essential of Justice, under the formality of high justice; if men have killed and cozened, and taken possession, even the spoil and price of blood: I doubt not but you will so far remember God's Demonstrations and demands, as to do Justice to God, to your Country, to your Laws, to your Superior, to sovereign power, to the whole Nation, and to all mankind, as to testify a just abhorrence and perfect detestation of those things, to which as you would not have been Fathers, so I believe you will not be Godfathers. It is an usual saying among Statists to excuse their eccentricities and deviations, from the exact rules of justice (Nullum magnum exemplum justitiae sive aliqua injustitia; I am sure we have known magnum exemplum injustitiae sine aliqua justitia; a transcendent injustice, which had not any grains of justice in it) in the vindication of which, I do not so urge the rigor of justice, as not to require also such temperament of mercy, as may distinguish between the flower and the bran, the vile and precious, the pertinacious and penitent; such as sinned with malicious wickedness, with an high hand, and those that were only carried down the rapid torrent and strong delusions of times.  
§. There is yet one instance of doing justice and showing Mercy to the whole Nation, which I cannot but recommend to my Country, and to you the Fathers of our families, and heads of our Tribes; which is in reference to the souls of many poor people, that in a land of plenty they may not be famished, for want of able and industrious Preachers, which cannot be had or expected (whatever verbal severities are pretended of Reformation, of Religion, and propagation of the Gospel) unless there be some way found, by the wisdom, piety, honour and bounty of the Nation, of Prince, Parliament and People, for the competent maintenance of such Ministers as may do the work of God, and take care of men's souls: with what Justice or Mercy can you exact a full tale of bricks from poor Ministers when they have no straw? Alas, when shall the scandal of livings not worth fifty, or thirty, or twenty pounds a year be taken away by the generosity, justice, liberality and mercy of England? How many years tax, how much treasure hath been spent, to maintain Soldiers and a war, of which the public hath no fruit but those of tears, oppression and repentance; methinks it should not seem much to allow one years tax to be gathered in some convenient time, by which to begin a bank or treasury (an aerarium sacrum) for the making some augmentations and purohases of Impropriations to poor livings: One good foundation laid for so great and good a work, many other superstructures would easily be added by the piety, wisdom, and charity either of the public or of the private, and well-disposed persons.  
§. If this may not be put upon the account of Justice to be done to the Church and Clergy of England in compensation of the many diminutions, depredations and indignities, which they have of late, or long since sustained, by the policies, powers or superstitions of later times; yet I beseech you look upon it as a signal and eminent act of Mercy, for which thousands of poor people in the Countries (who perish for want of knowledge, having no Prophet nor seer among them) will bless God and you to many generations.  
§. And since God hath by a most miraculous return of mercy, brought you thus far to the morning of your redemption from civil slavery and oppression, where we were under Cham's curse to be servants of servants. O bethink yourselves, whether it be not worthy of your munificent piety and gratitude to offer some oblation of thankfulness as a peace-offering and Eucharistical monument to God and his Church; but I may not so far distrust your nobleness, as to urge you too far in this thing, which is so much its own Orator, and wherein many thousands both Ministers and persons are silently and humbly importune for your favour in so great a concern of Church and State, yea of men's souls eternal welfare.  
The Fourth and last General Head is ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) the manner of God's showing and requiring these duties of all sorts of men, in all occasions, times, 
4. The manner of God's Demonstrating.  in all dealings and administrations, in the whole tenure of their conversation, to God and men, civil and religious.  
I formerly gave an account of this, which will excuse me if I here briefly insist on some main heads only.  
1. God hath showed it to mankind (in principiis internis) in those inward principles of right Reason, and that standard of Justice which is set up in each man's own heart, besides the Chancery of Mercy; both which he cannot but desire in his own case; yea he expects and exacts humility, reverence and submiss respect from those that are his descendents and inferiors, especially if many ways obliged to him, by undeserved favours; so as every man's case is toward God.  
2. Praeceptis scripturae, by the Letters patents of the holy Scriptures, whereof no man in the light of Religion which shines in the Church can without sin be ignorant; because no lessons are easier to be learned, and set out in greater characters, or text letters, both of the ten Commandments and the Gospel, than these three of Justice, Mercy and Humility. Nor is any man meet to learn or observe the more abstruse mysteries of Christianity, who doth not first apply to these plain morals of humanity, and native Divinity; in which instructions who so profited most among the Jews or Gentiles, and lived accordingly, were most capable vessels of God's Mercies, although they had not such an explicit faith in the Messiah, as we Christians are now obliged to, as a condition of the Evangelical Covenant.  
3. God hath showed us these demonstrations, magnis exemplaribus, & exemplis; by the greatest exemplars of holy men in all degrees; in the best of Kings, and wisest of Counsellors, yea in his blessed self and his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom Justice was satisfied, Mercy Magnified, and Humility most exalted for man's imitation; To these are added the great examples of his Judgements on those whose exorbitant lusts and passions, forgetting God and themselves, presumed to do beyond these bounds and prescriptions, which the Divine justice and Mercy had set to mankind, running out to violence and cruelty, in order to gratify their pride: On the other side, God hath by many blessings on Prince and People; manifested his approbation of their ways, when conform to those grand Precepts, which suppress first all private extravagancies by humility, and all public oppressions by justice, mixed with mercy; no man that is humble can be unhappy, nor any people or Prince miserable, who keep to Justice and mercy, except in martyrly cases for trial of their faith, patience, and constancy, which are found most in those (if not only) who are most endued with principles, and wonted, as to Justice, so to the practice of mercy, and humility.  
§. Lastly God hath showed and required these things (cum gravi interminatione poenae) not lightly and arbitrarily, but with great earnestness, and frequent obtestation, threatening punishment, answerable to the neglect, and executing vengeance on the presumptuous, nor are they Laws of ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) diurnal justice, to day loyalty, to morrow Treason, this week lawful and just, next week illegal and unjust, like a Lesbian rule, but they are standards, fixed in God's immutable Justice, mercy, and excellent Majesty, which no men at any time may dispense, withal, nor can they be dispensed with, as to God's judgements, if they break them.  
§. But it is now time for me to relieve your attention with the variety of my successors pains; only I crave your Christian patience so far, as to give me leave, to make some such improvement of this Text, as the grand occasion and present solemnity do require.  
§. You are all this day, 
Application or uses.  as the Representatives of the Commons of this Nation met before the Lord, to fast and pray, to humble and afflict your souls, to confess your sins, and the sins of your people, among which none are more crying to heaven for vengeance, than the want of Justice, mercy, and humility; for pride, ambition, covetousness, cruelty, and oppression, the land hath mourned these many years, and the more deploredly, because it hath suffered by all these pests of Church and State, under the name and pretensions of humility, sanctity, liberty and equity. It was a small matter for us to be miserable by the insolency of some men; but we were commanded, by their hypocritical and cruel mocking to believe ourselves to be an happy, and free people; in a glorious and reformed way of Religion, laws and liberties.  
§. It is a saying of that great Orator, as acute as true (Totius injustitiae nulla est capitalior, quam eorum, qui x maximè fallunt, ita tamen agunt, nt viri boni videantur.) No men are more criminally injust, than those, who when they most deceive and oppress, yet then boast of their justice and piety.  
§. What have been the effects of some men's justice, mercy and humility, all the English, yea British world hath seen, and yourselves have felt; to whom have some men's factious and fanatic humours showed any tokens of these virtues, except to themselves, and their complices? to others who are persons far more righteous than themselves, their very mercies have been cruel, and their highest justice the highest injuries to the public; indeed it is of the Lord's mercies that we have not been all consumed; that a remnant is escaped to see the Salvation of the Lord; in the land of the living. O with what pride, petulancy, haughtiness and disdain, have, mean men and vile persons carried themselves against the honourable, far their betters and superiors, yea against the whole honour and Majesty of this Nation! how have we seen servants riding on horseback, and Princes going on foot! this is their humility; they have flattered both Prince and People in their sore distresses, as if they would relieve them, when they proved at last physicians of no value, miserable comforters, very severe exactors, and tragical destroyers; This is their mercy; They have subverted all law, order, and government, troubled the fountains, cut off the conduits, and inverted all the course of civil Justice, and ecclesiastical authority, as well as unity; this is their Justice.  
§. Can a Nation be sick of its health, and weary of its happiness, or thus daily and bitterly complain, if it enjoyed such a glorious state of Justice; and mercy, by the humility and sanctity of its governors; as some have pretended? Why doth the whole land cry out of burdens and bloodshed, of its oppressors and exactors, of its endless troubles and terrors? if our estate were so settled and blessed, as some men have told us, why, as Dromedaries, do they every month so traverse their ways, destroying what they build, and building what they destroy, like so many foolish builders! it is strange, that neither these Baalam's nor their asses which carry them; in the ways, and after wages of iniquity, can yet see the Angel of the Lord, with a drawn sword, stopping their way; all laws of God and man, all good men's votes, and prayers, are against their madness, pride, presumption, cruelty, hypocrity and injustice, by which they have brought shame and dishonour, a blot and great reproach, upon the nation and the reformed Religion.  
§. You have enough to do (honourable and worthy) to undo what some men have done amiss, to rectify their crookedness, to bring to the standard of Justice and rule of mercy, what their injurious cruelty and wanton wickedness have perverted and distracted, as their pride, ambition, and various lusts have driven them.  

Iosh. 7.13. §. You work is not only as Josuah, to fall down before the Lord, as ye do this day, but to Arise and to do the work of God, of the Church, and of the State, with justice, mercy and humility; For if you still fast for strife and oppression, to smite with the fist of wickedness, and to bind heavy burdens on us, you will be found mockers of God as others have been, your prayers will be turned into sin, and your counsels will turn to confusion.  
§. The appeals and petitions of all honest-minded people (next God) are to your prudence, justice and charity, that you would judge between the daughter of your people, and her shameless ravishers, her cruel wounders, and endless oppressors.  
§. Three ancient and sometimes flourishing kingdoms, and the adjacent Dominions call to you for mercy, and you cannot show them greater mercy, then to do them justice, in restoring them to their former happy governments, and excellent constitutions.  
§. All estates of Soveranity, Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, Commonalty call upon you for justice and mercy; so the poor and rich, the City and Country, so God himself, and your Saviour, so true Religion and its now so deformed Reformation, so your own and your posterities interests, do daily importune; it will be your justice and mercy to them all and us, not to bring upon all our heads the guilt of that innocent blood, which the cruelty, pride and injustice of some men have shed, even the blood of War in a time of peace, and after a long Treaty, When God makes inquisition for this blood, let him not find it, and avenge it upon you and your Children, by your not expiating, deprecating and detesting of that sin, with infinite horror and abhorence; to leave it unexamined and unpunished is every day to contract the guilt of a new regicide.  
§. The sovereign fountain of honour, civil power, and secular authority in Church and State, calls for, and expects your Justice, where it hath been injured; your Mercy, where unrelieved; your humble subjection, where duly established.  
§. The House of Peers cannot but own your Justice, Modesty and Humility, in removing those obstructions which some men's pride and injurious insolency had for many years put in the way of that House, which was ever one of the highest points of this kingdom's Wisdom, honour, stability and happiness.  
§. The House of Commons also, and whatever becomes the dignity and freedom of a Parliament of England, calls to your Justice and Mercy, to redeem that almost sacred Senate (than which in its full constitution, the world had not any thing more august and venerable; when Lords Spiritual and Temporal, when the Gentry and Commons, all concurred to advance next the glory of God, the majesty of this Empire, and the Throne of its sovereign;) to redeem this (I say) from those abominable desolations of tumultuary and military insolences which for many years have made that house a Charnel house, or a kind of Augean stable, full of all faction, fury and and fanatic filthiness.  
§. Our Church and Religion, our Bishops and Presbyters, our Ministers and Ministry, all call to your Justice and Mercy to redeem them from popular dependencies, from vulgar impudence and usurpation; at least to relieve them from those harpies which have driven them to, and defiled them with so many shameful disorders; divisions and distractions unbecoming men, much more Christians and Ministers, who are pretenders to Reformation.  
§. The famous universities, and all Nurseries of good literature implore your Justice and Mercy, to defend these eyes of the Nation, from those birds of prey, foreign and domestic vultures, which hope when these are pulled out, to seize upon the blind and deformed Nation, with greater freedom of Romish superstition, and fanatic usurpation, who gape to devour all that is lest of the civil or sacred patrimony, of Gods, or the Kings, the Churches or the Crowns portion.  
§. We have once again (by God's wonderful mercy, and his blessing upon one great heroic and steady soul) got the wind of the Jesuitick, Anabaptistick and fanatic designs, who have abused us with their long wiles; O lose not the advantages which God hath given you to bring your Church and Country into a fair and happy haven, after so many tempests and agitations of infinite loss and hazard.  
§. There are many holy Duties, and Christian Rites which call for your Justice and Mercy; the two blessed Sacraments which have a long time been either wholly despised, or profanely abused, or very partially used; The Lord's Prayer also, the Ten Commandments and the Creed, all sacred and wholesome forms, of excellent use to the people of Christ's flock, but despised and neglected by some of their supercilious Pastors, to the great detriment of true Religion and abatement of piety; these expect your exemplary Justice, to restore them to their primitive and Catholic honour, which will be a mercy to the whole Nation, which by extemporary novelties and crude varieties in Religion, hath been wholly deprived of all those pristine forms of liturgical devotions by which the generality of Christians were best informed and most affected, as to the grand fundamentals of Religion; Sure it is but the effect of crafty or crazy brains, to deny us all use of Our Father in English, because we gave over the Pater nosters, the Ave Maries, and other prayers which were in Latin, and so of little use to the vulgar. It was once thought a blessing to have prayers and holy duties in a language which people understood; Now 'tis a seraphic stratagem of Satan to make people forget those things which they could easiest remember and best understand.  
§. Lastly, There are many prevalent and epidemical sins of sacrilege, profaneness, irreverence, Perjury, rash swearing, Duelling, uncleanness and all manner of licentious discoveries of Atheism and irreligion which call for your Justice to suppress them, for they are the cruelest enemies of Church and State.  

Conclusion.  If you will (indeed) do Justice, love Mercy, and walk humbly with your God; if you will show loving kindness and sense of honour to your Country, resolve upon all those dispensations, restitutions, and exercitations of Justice and Mercy, which are before you: Which you will best do if you  
1. Be pleased so to fix our Laws, yea our legislative and sovereign authority, so that we may be no more tossed too and fro with every wind of men's ambitious fancies; qui malunt leges quam mores mutare, who had rather change our good laws, than mend their own ill manners.  
2. To remove all obstructions which are inward in your own souls, and outward in other men's passions or actions, by which either Justice or Mercy are most hindered of their free course.  
3. If you listen not to that wicked maxim of the devil's politics, Fieri non debuit, factum valet, as if evil actions did call for perseverance not repentance. Nullum tempus occurit Justitiae, no time or fact must prescribe against justice, truth, God and the Church.  
4. When you have undone by justice what hath been done by injustice, to the undoing of Church and State, Prince and People; Then will mercy be seasonable, by acts of such amnesty, pardon, and oblivion, as may rather compose than irritate the spirits of men; praestat motos componere fluctus.  
5. If you needed (which I hope you do not) any motives to these great endeavours and discoveries of justice and mercy, it is no small one which the Platonists observe, as to the difference between just and unjust, the good and evil men, which is as great as between light and darkness, order and confusion, men and beasts, good and bad Angels, as between a King and a Tyrant, God and the Devil. God is the first fountain and grand example of justice and mercy, as the Devil is of injuriousness and cruelty.  
6. If you inquire Cui bono? what their reward shall be? First the conscience of well doing, and this to your Country and in its greatest distresses; Next, you shall have that reward of lasting honour, and renown, by which your names, as repairers of our breaches, shall be embalmed in the love of their Country, and transmitted with a sweet resentment to all posterity; where as the names of proud and cruel oppressors, shall rot and perish like their own dung; the blood thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; not only, as to those dies naturales; but as to those dies civiles, which preserve the living fame of worthy men to many generations as blessed; he is but short-lived whose infamy only survives; as the damned in hell, are counted dead, because they only live to shame and torment.  
§. As for your direction what and how to do excellent things, you need not search Achitophel's brains, or rake the skull of Matchiavel; you need not call up the Ghost of Richelieu, or conjure up those subtle spirits of Government, which may tell you the Adyta imperii, & arcana principum, the depths, mysteries, intrigoes, and riddles of States; you need not listen any longer to those seraphic Sirens, and fanatic Counsellors, who under the title of God's cause and the Saints interest, which I know not what blessed projects or gainful godliness, had made a shift to undo all, but themselves, yea and themselves too, as to all sense of justice, or mercy, or honour, or conscience of modesty or humility; You need not advise with flesh and blood, with human passions and lusts (facilis & parata est ad virtutem via,) the counsel of God is at hand, ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) you cannot easily miscarry by following his wisdom in justice, mercy and humility; however, you had better perish in God's way, as to temporal effects, then prosper for a season in the Devils, which must end in endless infelicities.  
§. There can no better course be followed in civil justice, than that which was given by the Oracle to the Sicilian pirates, when afflicted by the plague, after they had gotten much booty, they inquired What they should do to be releived? Answer was given in these letters; R. A. S. P. P. which some cunning man interpreted, to import by the acrostic letters thus much, Reddite Aliena, S'ultis Possidere Propria, Restore to others what is theirs, if you hope to preserve to yourselves your own; else your common weal will be but a common woe.  
§. There is neither darkness in your way of justice and mercy, nor will there be much difficulty. God hath and will remove mountains of malice, hypocrisy and injustice before you, yea he hath prepared the way for you by levelling the levelers, and confounding the confounders of all things civil and sacred. His word and the laws of the Land will tell you what is to be done, State super vias autiquas & bonas, stand and inquire for the good old ways and walk therein, that you and we may find that rest, which hath been a long time and ever will be denied us, in any of those fantastic and novel models which make religion a nurse of rebellion, pretend that the kingdom of Jesus Christ will endure no temporal Christian kingdom except such as they may rule and reign in.  
§. But you have not so learned Christ; neither his law, nor his Gospel suggest any such unjust and cruel counsels, nor do they favour any violent and rebellious designs. Do (as I believe you will) what becomes your duty to God and man, your love to your Country, your respect to true Religion, and your care of your posterity, and no doubt God will be with you, both to strengthen your hands, and to make your faces to shine with that glory in this life, which is the first, but least recompense of just and honourable actions, and also with that eternal glory, which is the purchase of Christ's blood, and the honorary recompense of God, to all that in the way of well doing seek for honour and immortality; to which the Lord bring you and all his Church, for Jesus Christ his sake, to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be all glory and honour now and ever, Amen.  
FINIS.