A SERMON PREACHED AT THE ASSIZES Held for the County of CORNWALL, AT LANCESTON, MARCH xviii. MDCLXXXV.  
By NICOLAS KENDAL, A. M. and Rector of Sheviock in Cornwall.  
LONDON, Printed for R. Royston, Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty; and are to be sold by George May, Bookseller in Exeter. 1686.   

TO THE Right Honourable Sir EDWARD HERBERT Lord Chief Justice of England; AND Sir ROBERT WRIGHT One of the Judges of his Majesty's Court of King's Bench.  
My LORDS,  
YOUR Lordship's having expressed a desire, that the Discourse You were pleased to hear with patience at the Assizes in Cornwall, should be made public; I have adventured it into the World, upon no other ground, but in obedience to Your Lordship's Commands, and in hope of Your favourable Protection; which as it must wholly proceed from Your own Goodness and Generosity, and is not pretended unto by any merit either in the Author, or the thing itself; so I trust it will be a clearer Instance of Your Lordship's Endeavours to promote any thing that may tend to the good of the Public: and it will also lay a greater obligation upon  
April 10. 1686. Your Lordships in all Duty most highly obliged Servant, Nicolas Kendal.   
1 Sam. two. 25. former part of the Verse. 
If one man sin against another, the Judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?  
IT has been observed concerning the Sanctions of humane Laws, that they have generally respect, rather to the bad Examples of Crimes, and the influence they may have upon the Public, than to the nature of the Crimes themselves: And hence it comes to pass that severer punishments are inflicted upon some Offenders, though their guilt in itself considered, may be less than that of those who escape unpunished. For the great end of all Laws being the conservation of the Public Good, and maintaining a Common Interest; as long as that is secured, men trouble not themselves so much about those things, wherein the Commonweal is not concerned. Not to give instances of this nearer home, 'tis said that in the Eastern Parts of the World, where men live promiscuously together, and have all things as it were in common; a small theft is thought to deserve the utmost penalty, because it is impossible they should subsist, in their way of living, unless they were very secure, that one dared not invade what was another man's. So true is it what old Eli has observed in the words before us, That if one man sin against another, if one man touches another in his Person or Interest, the Remedy is easy, the Law is open, or (as Dr. Hammond more critically renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) the Assizes are held, they may implead one another, and the Judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against God, the case is not so; he is not in a capacity of making any satisfaction to the Divine Majesty, and few will dare to interpose on the behalf of such an Offender: If a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?  
In which Words there is an evident distinction supposed between two sorts of sins, one, of those whereby one man sins against another, and then they have their remedy at Law; Est cognitio Civilis aut Ecclesiastica quâ res componi possunt (saith Junius in his Notes upon this place): the other is of such sins whereby a man sins against the Lord, not only as God is the great Legislator and Governor of the World, for so all sins are against him as transgressions of his Laws; but sins wherein God is a Party, whereby he is prejudiced or dishonoured in those things that relate unto him: such was the sin of Eli's Sons, who profaned the Sanctuary of God, and brought his Worship and Religion into contempt; and in this case they could not hope to escape either by the mercy and lenity of a Judge, or the skill of an Advocate; not by the intercession of Friends, or making an interest with Great Persons, or the like: If a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?  
I shall not trouble you with the different ways of rendering these words by several Interpreters, occasioned chief by the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though a Noun of the Plural Number, (yet by a peculiar Idiom of the sacred Language) sometimes signifies the only one supreme God, and at other times those whom the Psalmist calls Gods, 
Psal. 82.1.  i. e. Magistrates and Judges: but taking our English Version to be most agreeable both to the Hebrew truth, and to the intent of Eli in reproving his Sons; I shall in my following Discourse speak distinctly to both these sorts of Sins: 

I. Those whereby one man sins against another.  
II. Those whereby a man sins against God.    
I. Of Offences between man and man; of which it is said, If one man sin against another, the Judge shall judge him: Whence I observe these three things.  
1. That Courts of Judicature, for the decision of such Causes as might happen between man and man, was one of God's own Institutions among his people the Jews. Where if one man sinned against another, the Judge did judge him.  
2. That 'tis the great happiness of any people, when there are such Courts of Judicature open, and the Laws have their free course, that so if one man sin against another, the Judge may judge him.  
3. That 'tis the Duty of every private person to submit himself to such Judgements and Sentences, For when one man sins against another, the Judge must or shall judge him.  
1. That Courts of Judicature, for the decision of, etc. While the Lord was their Political Sovereign, and their Government was (what Josephus truly calls it) a Theocracy, 
In lib. contra Appion.  we find such Courts as these erected among them. At the instance of Jethro, together with the command of God himself, did Moses choose able men out of all Israel, and made them Heads over the people; rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of ten, and they judged the people at all seasons: the bard Causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves, Exod. 18. Out of these men (as some think) or at least such as these did Moses again by God's command choose seventy men of the Elders of Israel, Numb. 11. and God endued them with a Spirit of Prophecy, that they might be able to instruct the people in the Law, and help to bear the burden of them, which Moses had complained was too heavy for him: in agreement to which the Jews had always among them a supreme Court called the Sanhedrim, consisting of seventy one persons, seventy from the number Moses called unto him, and one whom they looked upon as his Successor, and therefore called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princeps Senatus, or Lord-Chief-Justice: and this High Court exercised Jurisdiction over them, not only under those extraordinary Judges whom God raised up at several times, and the Kings that succeeded them; but also in all vacancies and inter-regnums, continuing (if we believe their 
* Josephus Antiq. l. 14. c. 17.  Historian) until Herod put them down to secure himself of the Kingdom; beside this, they had inferior Courts or Consistories in every City, from all which there lay an Appeal to the great Sanhedrim at Jerusalem. I shall not trouble you with the several places of Scripture that allude to these Courts, it being sufficient to my present purpose to know that they were instituted at the command of God, supported by his authority and assistance in cases of greater difficulty, and that they continued among them 
† Or as Grot. Notis ad Deut. 17. usque ad tempora Messiae, quo misso authoritas Synedrii evanuit.  until the Romans came, and took away both their place and nation. Now though we cannot draw Arguments from every particular Law and Divine Institution among the Jews, to infer an obligation to the same in any other Nation, (they being instituted for such peculiar reasons as agree not to other people:) yet I think in the general an Argument is good, That whatsoever God appointed among them (the reason continuing the same) is expedient and necessary in any Government whatsoever. I'm sure Christ introducing the Christian Religion upon that of the Jews made no alteration as to this Point; our Saviour was tried by the Sanhedrim, and submitted to their unjust Sentence, when he suffered, he threatened not; 
1 Pet. 2.23.  the Apostles were brought before the Council, 
Acts 4.  and never pleaded to the Jurisdiction of the Court: St. Paul particularly acknowledges that Ananias sat to judge him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, according to Law, 
Acts 23.3.  and begs pardon of the Court when he had reviled him, alleging his ignorance for excuse, and adding that he was instructed out of the Law not to speak evil of the Ruler of God's people. 
Mark 13.9.  And the first Christians, when they were brought before Councils and Magistrates and Rulers (as our Saviour had foretold of them) though the accusations were false, and the crimes could not sufficiently be proved against them, yet they questioned not the Authority of the Magistrate; if the Judge judged them guilty, they patiently submitted themselves. All this is so plain, that I should not have mentioned it, but for the Enthusiastic conceits of some of our Northern Neighbours, who for the erecting of (what they blasphemously call) the Kingdom of Christ, cry down all Magistrates and Laws, as unnecessary under the Gospel, and but so many infringements of our Christian Liberty: the extravagance of which error needs no other confutation, than the horrid confusions it has, and will always, raise wherever it shall be entertained. And therefore,  
2. 'Tis certainly the great happiness of a people when there are such Courts of Judicature open, and the Laws have their free course, that so if one man sin against another, the Judge may judge him. For either we must suppose men to be so just and equal of themselves, as to have no need of Laws, or Judges to judge them; or else we must allow private revenge, and suffer every man to judge for himself. The first of these, viz. That men should be just and equal without Laws, we may well talk of, and wish for, as a most happy condition, and most agreeable to the nature and sublime Excellencies of Mankind; but no man that is ever so little acquainted with the World will venture to try the experiment. Among all the diversities of Laws and Governments that have been in the World, there was no man ever attempted to establish a Society without any at all, as well knowing that to be wholly impracticable, and those Societies have always been looked on as the most prosperous and happy, where the Laws have been most equal, and the execution of them most punctual: for let men be never so well instructed in the Precepts of Virtue, and let Religion too come in for a new obligation to Duty, yet still there are hopes and fears, passions natural to men's minds, and these must be wrought upon by Rewards and Punishments; and all little enough, God knows, to keep up the face of Order, and the Decorum of a Society among men. Nunquam tam bene actum est cum rebus humanis ut plures sint meliores, the worse are always the most in number; and should men be let alone to their own inbred Notions of right and wrong, and good and evil: the few that would live up to these Rules, would be an easy prey to the many that would despise them: Without Laws then, and the execution of them, we cannot be happy or safe. Nor on the other side, can it be less ruinous to permit private revenge, and suffer every man to judge for himself. This is what no equal man will desire, and what the unjust will always abuse; 'tis to give way to force and violence, and to let Right be determined by the strength of men's Arms, and sharpness of their Weapons; 'tis to expose Innocence, which of itself is but a weak defence against blind rage and brutish passion: We may guests to what a wretched estate this would reduce us, (if generally allowed) by the evils caused among us by those, that will avenge their Quarrels in private Combats and Duels: On what slight accounts do men engage in them? To what an height of revenge are they carried on? and how does the shedding of Blood slain our Shores, and the cry of it invade Heaven? 
Rom. 12.19.  Vengeance is mine, I will repay (saith the lord) The Magistrate has provided Laws for the punishment of evil Doers, 
1 Pet. 2.14.  and for the praise of them that do well; but these men, as neither fearing God, nor regarding man, acknowledge no Laws but their own will, no God 
‖ So Mezentius in Virgil, Dextra mihi Deus.  but their own right hand. A Barbarity this, that was first introduced into these parts of the World, by the incursions of the Goths and Vandals: for in the ancient Greek and Roman Histories we meet with few or no footsteps of this practice among men of Honour: Not that they wanted either Spirit to resent an injury, or Courage to right themselves. No men ever expressed a more generous contempt of life than these did upon all occasions; and if at any time they thought it Great and Roman-like to die, the Draught of Poison or the Poniard, the Barber's Razor or the River, cannot be more ready now than they were then: but they had not that false Notion of Honour among them, that so prevails now adays, whereby men persuade themselves that the least affront is not to be expiated but with the blood of the Offender; that 'tis beneath a man that wears a Sword to submit his Cause to the decision of the Law, and therefore they will be their own Judges and Avengers too: in the first, they usurp upon the Laws of the Land; in the second, upon the Laws of God. If this be true Courage, if it be that Fortitude that is recommended as a Virtue, 'tis what no Moralist has ever yet acquainted us with; 'tis rather the dictate of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as 
‖ Rhet. lib. 2. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Aristotle calls them, those warm Youths, whom he would scarce allow to be fit Hearers of Morality, so far are they from being fit Teachers of it; 'tis the Ethics of a Fencing-School. If this be an evil among us that is grown too great for a remedy, I hope we may be permitted without affront to lament it as the unhappiness of our times, that under such excellent Civil Constitutions, and a Religion so well reform, as we live; men should yet be given over to that degree of madness, as to throw away their Souls, for which they are to give an account to Almighty God; their Lives, which they own to the Service of their King and Country; their Estates, for which they are in some sort indebted to their Posterity; and their Fame and Reputation, for which they are accountable to the whole World; and all this upon such pitiful and trivial accounts, as any great or wise man must needs think foolish and beneath him. So than if we cannot subsist, much less be happy, without Laws, or at the mercy of every one that will make Laws, and execute them himself; our happiness must consist (as it does) in that our Laws are in the hands of such men as are described in Deut. 1. Men of wisdom and understanding, men of courage and integrity, that will hear the Causes between us, and judge righteously between every man and his brother; that will not respect persons in Judgement, but will hear the small as well as the great, that will not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgement is God's. And hence it follows,  
3. That 'tis the Duty of every private person to submit to the Judgements and Sentences of such men; for if one man sin against another, the Judge must judge him. 'tis every man's Duty, as he is Member of a Society, to contribute what he can to the prosperity and welfare of it. And this prosperity consists mainly in keeping the Magistrates Authority entire and in repute; which, next under God's Providence, is the great support of any Government. Now the chief end of the Magistrates Power is to compose Quarrels and Disputes, howsoever they are raised; and, when men will neither be persuaded by reason, nor inclined by good nature, to force them to be just and equal by exemplary Punishments; for a man then to decline the Sentence of the Judge, and to take any other way to right himself, is to vacate all Authority, and to dissolve the very Bonds and Ligaments of Society. Besides the obligations of Oaths and Covenants to obedience, even moral honesty and gratitude itself should teach us to submit: for how can we otherwise answer the happiness we enjoy in the protection of the Laws? Whence it comes to pass that every man calls what he has, his own; that in the Scripture-Phrase, 
Micah 4 4.  We may sit every man under his own Vine, and under his own Figtree, 
Prov. 5.15.  and drink the waters of his own Cistern; if in return we do not willingly abide the trial of the Law, and submit to the penalty when we are found guilty. Saint Paul takes it so much for granted, That an Oath for confirmation is (and aught to be) an end of all strife, that he thereby illustrates the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the immutability of God's counsel, Heb. 6.16, 17. And this Oath (saith Estius upon that place) ought to be coram Judice; upon which evidence a Sentence pronounced has by all civilised Nations been ever reckoned sacred and inviolable. No man then dares appeal from the Laws to himself, but the lawless and disobedient, who therefore hate the Laws because they fear them. And thus have I done with the first sort of sins, whereby one man sins against another; I come now to consider,  
II. The sins whereby we sin against God, of which it is said, If a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? Whence I observe these two things: 

1. That sins against God leave a man in a more desperate estate, than those whereby one man sins against another.  
2. That therefore a greater care should be taken to avoid these sins, and a greater degree of sorrow and repentance when we fall into them.    
1. That sins against God leave a man in a more desperate estate, than those whereby one man sins against another. For in this latter case restitution may be made to the person wronged, and satisfaction to the Law, and God may also please to accept of these sufferings, and remit the guilt: But when a man sins with an high hand, aiming directly at the Person and Majesty of God, what can he propose to make an atonement? 
Heb. 10.27.  There remains no more sacricrifice for such sins; but a certain fearful looking for of Judgement and fiery indignation, to devour those adversaries. These sins are so common among us, that I need not name them, but to wonder withal how they come to be so little regarded. Such are blasphemy and cursing, rash and false Oaths, abuse of God's Word, ridiculing the holy Scriptures, Sacrilege, and contempt of things Sacred, Idolatry, Irreligion and Atheism itself. These are the causae majores in God's Canon-Law, that are reserved for the highest Tribunal; these too men may punish, as far as concerns the Public, to hinder the spreading and prevalence of them: but who shall remit, or who can inflict God's part of the penalty? No man may deliver his Brother, 
Psal. 49.7, 8.  or make an agreement unto God for him; for it cost more to redeem their souls, so that he must let that alone for ever. The dignity of the person offended, the obligations he has laid upon us, and consequently the Duty we own him, the abuse of his mercy, presuming upon his Goodness, and slighting his acts of Grace, (which single are great aggravations) do all concur here; and though the sin be thus heightened, yet all the usual methods of atonement fail us too: He that has dishonoured God, can never make amends by his after-endeavours to set forth his Glory; for this is but his Duty, and can quit no Scores: there is no hope to palliate or blanche a crime before him that knows not the matter of Fact only, but the very design and intention of the Actor. He may entreat others to pray for him: I dare not say their prayers will be altogether in vain: but St. John hath told us, that he can give no encouragement to pray for those that sin a sin unto death, 
1 Joh. 5.16.  i. e. are guilty of any heinous and daring impiety. Thus in the case before us, the iniquity of Eli's Sons, who had made themselves vile or accursed, 
1 Sam. 3.14.  could not be purged with sacrifice, nor offering for ever. And we read in the History of Job, that while his Sons were feasting one another, and revelling in all the luxury of a plenteous Fortune, the pious Father was careful to offer burnt-offerings for each of them: for (said he) it may be that my Sons have sinned, 
Job 1.5.  and cursed God in their hearts, and no doubt but the good man had reason enough to suspect his Sons might be thus guilty: but however that were, his Sacrifices prevailed little; for they were all destroyed by a very signal Judgement. Whither then can we fly but to that God whom we have offended? from his Justice we may appeal to his Mercy: but when we have sinned against that too, when Mercy itself shall condemn us, Who then shall entreat for us? The result of all is,  
2. That the greatest care should be taken to avoid those Sins, and a very great degree of sorrow and repentance when we fall into them. For where the danger is every way so great, and no other means left of escaping it, we need not be long to determine ourselves in the choice; indeed there is nothing so easy, if we rightly consider it, as to keep ourselves from sinning against God: to fear him as our Lord, to love him as our Benefactor, to obey him as the supreme Governor of the World, is natural to us as men, and highly becoming us as his Creatures. We can pretend no temptation to dishonour him; it must be the effect either of inveterate malice, or gross inconsideration. The Adulterer and the Drunkard may talk of gratifying their lusts and appetites; the ambitious and revengeful man may raise himself upon the ruins of his Adversary; the Thief gets by his stealing, and the covetous man lays up something in store; but he that sins against God can pretend to none of these; he gratifies no lust, serves no appetite, gets neither pleasure nor wealth, is not the richer or the more esteemed, but sells himself to work wickedness at no rate. A man but of ordinary prudence will not easily provoke an Adversary he knows he can no way prevail against, 
1 Cor. 10.22.  Why then do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he? A man that shall scorn to do an ill or a low thing, a man that is jealous of his own Honour to the last Point, and sensible of the least abuse that is put upon him, shall yet dishonour God in his Day, in his Church, in his Service, in any thing that belongs unto him, and make light of it: This, as it shows the great danger of corruption into which we are fallen, so it should likewise show us what we are to do to recover the Dignity of our Nature, the Perfections of our Being. We cannot higher advance ourselves, than by drawing near unto God in doing him worship; and he has said it, Those that honour me, I will honour; 
1 Sam. 2.30.  and they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed. Men cannot be so stupid as to think God's Judgements shall never overtake them, because they are spared a while: 
* Plutar. de sera Numinis vindicta.  All the wise men in the World have ever dreaded a vengeance that is slow and long a coming. Whoever then reflecting upon his former life, shall find himself guilty of those sins for which there is no remedy, unless it shall please God to accept his sorrow and repentance, let him earnestly repent, and be hearty sorry for these his misdoings. It was the Prophet Jeremiah's course, Lament. 1.16. For these things I weep, mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. Let his repentance be as sincere as his fault has been heinous, and then who knows but God too may return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him.  
And thus I have gone through the Severals I observed from the Text: But I should forget that we are not under the Law, 
Rom. 6.14.  but under Grace, if in conclusion I should not supply the sense that Eli hath left imperfect, by answering the Question here proposed, If a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? Take the Answer in the words of S. John, 
1 Joh. 2.1, 2.  If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins. We need no other Mediator to intercede for us, neither do we put our trust in any other; his Merits are all-sufficient, his Intercession is most powerful. Let us therefore beseech him by his Agony and Bloody Sweat, by his Cross and Passion, by his precious Death and Burial, by his glorious Resurrection and Ascension, to deliver us from the wrath to come.  
To him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all Honour, Praise and Glory, now and for ever. Amen.  
FINIS.