A SERMON preached before his majesty at his Court of Thebalds, on Sunday, Sept. 15. 1622.  
In the ordinary course of attendance.  
By IOS. HALL D.D.  
LONDON, Printed by J. Haviland for N. butter. 1622.   

A SERMON Preached before his majesty, at his Court of THEBALDS, on Sunday the 15. of September 1622.  John 7.24. judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous iudgement. 
AS in the civil body, so in the natural; the head as it is the highest, so the chief part: according to the place is the dignity: Of the head, the highest Region is chiefest, serving only for the use of intellectual powers; whereas the lower part of it is only employed for bodily nutrition: Now, as the reasonable part of the soul is Vertex ainae, being contradistinguished to the sensitive; So, if ye distinguish the reasonable into Iudgement and Deliberation, Naturale Iudicatorium dicetur esse vertex, saith Aquinas; Iudgement is the top of our soul, and therefore calls for the top of our care: If the highest wheel go right, the inferior hardly err. hear then the golden rule of the Author, of the judge of our iudgement, judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous iudgement. The negative part is first, judge not; then, judge: Where the mind is free and clear, it is good to begin with the positive documents of right, which is the rule to itself and the wrong; but where the heart is forestalled with mis-opinion, ablative directions are first needful to vnteach error, ere we can learn truth. judge not therefore according to the appearance: {αβγδ} is( as the Vulgar rightly) secundùm faciem, according to the face, because the face only appears, the rest is hide: every thing, not man only, hath both a face and an heart; a face which is peruious to every eye, an heart to which none eye can pierce but the wise. This face, as of man, so of things, is a false rule of iudgement; Frons, oculi, &c. The forehead, eyes, countenance tell many a lie. judge not therefore according to appearance: it is no measuring by a crooked line: There is nothing more uncertain than appearance; some things appear that are not, and some things are that appear not; and that( besides natural occurrences) in morally both good and evil: Some things appear good that are not, and therefore mislead the heart both to an unjust prosecution, and to a false applause; some things appear evil that are not, and therefore mislead us to an injurious censure, and vndeserued abomination: again, some things are good that appear not, and therefore lose both our allowance and pursuit; some things are evil that appear not, and therefore insinuate themselves into our acquaintance and love, to our cost: Many a Snake lies hide under the Strawbery leaves, and stings us ere we be ware. Vitia virtutes mentiuntur, saith Gregory, 'vice too oft makes a mask of the skin of virtue, and looks lovely: virtue as often comes forth( like a Martyr in the Inquisition) with a San-benit vpon her back, and a cap painted with devils vpon her head, to make her ugly to the beholders; judge not therefore according to the appearance.  
The appearance or face, is of things, as of men: We see it at once with one cast of the eye, yet there are angles, and hills and dales, which vpon more earnest view the eye sees cause to dwell in: so it is with this appearance or face of things, which how ever it seems wholly to appear to us at the first glance, yet vpon further search will descry much matter of our inquiry: For every thing from the skin inclusively to the heart, is the face; every thing besides true being, is appearance. All the false {αβγδ} that use to beguile the iudgement of man, hid themselves under this appearance: These reduce themselves to three heads; Presumptions, false forms, events: Presumptions must be distinguished; for whereas there are three degrees of them, first ( levia Probabilia) light Probabilities, then faire Probabilities, and thirdly strong Probabilities, which are called, Indicia juris, the two first are allowed by very Inquisitors, but as sufficient to cause suspicion, to take information, to attach the suspected, not enough whereon to ground the libel, or the torture, much less a final Iudgement: Thus ely sees Annaes lips go, therefore she is drunk: The pharisees see Christ sit with sinners, he is a friend to their sins.  
False forms are presented either to the eye or to the ear. In the former, besides supernatural delusions, there is a deceit of the sight, whether through the indisposition of the Organ, or the distance of the object, or the mis-disposition of the medium: So as, if wee should judge according to appearance, the sun should double itself by the first, through the crosnesse of the eye, it should diminish itself by the second, and seem as big as a large Siue, or no large Cart wheel at the most; It should dance in the rising, and move irregularly by the third. To the ear are mis-reports, and false suggestions, whether concerning the person or the cause. In the former, the calumniating tongue of the Detractor is the juggler that makes any mans honesty or worth appear such as his malice listeth: In the latter, the smooth tongue of the subtle Rhetorician is the Impostor, which makes causes appear to the unsettled iudgement, such as his wit or favour pleaseth: events, which are oft-times as much against the intention, and above the remedy of the Agent, as besides the nature of the Act: There is sometimes a good event of evil, as Iasons adversary cured him in stabbing him; the Israelites thrive by oppression, the Field of the Church yields most when it is manured with blood: There is sometimes an ill event of good; Ahimelec gives david the showbread, and the Sword, he and his Family dies for it: Sapientis est praestare culpam; It is enough for a wise man to wield the Act, the issue he cannot; wisdom makes demonstrative syllogisms, à priori, from the causes; folly paralogisms, à posteriori, from the success. Careat successibus opto quisquis ab eventu, &c. was of old the word of the Heathen Poet. If therefore either vpon slight probabilities, or false forms, or subsequent events we pass our verdict, we do what is here forbidden, judge according to appearance.  
Had the charge been only judge not, and gone no further, it had been very useful, and no other than our saviour gave in the Mount: we are all on our way; every man makes himself a Iustice Itinerant, and passeth sentence of all that comes before him, yea( beyond all commission) of all above him; and that many times, not without gross mis-construction, as in the case of our late directions: Our very Iudges are at our bar; Secrets of Court, of counsel, of State escape us not, yea not those of the most reserved Cabinet of heaven: Quis te constituit judicem? Who made thee a judge? as the Israelite( unjustly) to Moses: These are saucy usurpers of forbidden chairs; and therefore it is just with God, that( according to the Psalmist) such Iudges should bee cast down in stony places, yea, as it is in the original( {αβγδ}) that they should be left in the hands of the rock ( allidantur Petrae) that they should bee dashed against the rocks, that will bee sailing without carded or compass in the vast Ocean of Gods Counsels, or his anointeds.  
But now here our saviour seals our Commission, sets us vpon the Bench; allows us the act, but takes order for the manner, we may judge, we may not judge according to the appearance; we may be Iudges( whether {αβγδ}, or {αβγδ}) the one to condemn, the other to absolve, we may not be( {αβγδ}) Iudges of evil thoughts; and we shal bee evil thoughted Iudges, if we shall judge according to the appearance. Not only Fortune and love, but even Iustice also is wont to bee painted blindfold; to import that it may not regard faces. God says to every judge as he did to Samuel, concerning Eliab, look not on his countenance, nor the height of his stature: Is an outrageous rape committed? Is blood  shed? look not whether it be a Courtiers or a peasants, whether by a Courtier or a peasant; either of them cries equally loud to heaven: Iustice cannot be too Lyncean to the being of things, nor too blind to the appearance.  
The best things appear not, the worst appear most; God, the Angels, souls both glorified and encaged in our bosoms, grace, supernatural truths, these are most-what the objects of our faith, and faith is the evidence of things not seen; Like as in bodily objects, the more pure and simplo ought is( as air and etherall fire) the more it flieth the sight; the more gross and compacted( as water and earth) the more it fills the eye; judge not therefore according to appearance.  
It is an useful and excellent rule for the avoiding of error in our iudgement of all matters whether natural, civil, or divine.  
natural; what is the appearance of a person, but the colour, shape, stature? The colour is oft-times bought or borrowed, the shape forced by Art, the stature raised( to contradict Christ) a cubit high; judge not therefore according to appearance. What are the collusions of Iuglers and Mountebanks, the weepings and motions of Images, the noises of miraculous cures and dispossessions, but appearances? Fit aliquando in Ecclesiâ maxima deceptio populi in miraculis fictis à sacerdotibus; There is much cozenage of the poor people by cogged miracles, saith cardinal Lyranus; these holy frauds could not guile men, if they did not judge according to appearance. Should appearance be the rule, our harvest had been rich; there was not more show of plenty in our fields, than now of scarcity in our streets. This dearth( to say truth) is not in the grain, but in the heart; If the hearts of men were not more blasted with covetousness and cruel self-love, than their grain with distemper of air, this needed not; The barns and Granaries are full, the Markets empty; Authority knows how to remedy this evil, how to prevent a dearth in abundance, that men may not affamish whom God hath fed; and that when God hath given us the staff of bread, it may not be either hide, or broken, shortly, that our store may not be judged by the appearance.  
civil; Wisemen and statesmen especially may not always look the same way they would go; like skilful Sea-men, they sometimes lauere, and( as the wind may stand) fetch compasses of lawful policies to their wished point. That of Tiberius was fearful; of whom Xiphiline,( {αβγδ}) That he sailed ever against the wind of his words: But sometimes a good Constantius, or Anastasius, will wisely pretend what he intends not: As our saviour made as if he went further, when he meant to turn into Emaus: The hearts of Kings are as deep waters; we may not think to drain them in the hollow of our hand: Secret things to them of whom God hath said, Dixi Dij estis; things revealed to us and our children. even we mean ones would be loth to haue always our hearts red in our faces; judge not therefore according to the appearance.  
divine; In these our speech must dwell; If we should judge according to the appearance, we should think basely of the saviour of the world; Who that had seen him sprawling and wringing in the Cratch, flitting to egypt, chopping of chips at Nazareth, famishing in the Desert, transported by Satan, attended by Fishermen, persecuted by his Kindred, betrayed by one Seruant, abjured by another, forsaken of all, apprehended, arraigned, condemned, buffeted, spat vpon, scourged to blood, sceptred with the reede, crwoned with thorn, nailed to the cross, hanging naked betwixt two Theeues, scorned of the beholders, sealed up in a borrowed grave, could say other, than, He hath no form nor beauty, when wee shall see him, there is nothing that wee should desire him? Who that should haue seen his skin all dewed with pearls of bloody sweat, his back bleeding, his face blubbered and besmeared, his forehead harrowed, his hands and feet pierced, his side gushing out, his head bowed down in death, and should withall haue heard his dying lips say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? would not haue said, he is despised and rejected of men, yea( in appearance) of God himself. Yet even this while, to the cutting of the sinews of those stiffnecked Iewes, the Angels owned him for their Lord, the Sages adored him, the Star designed him, the Prophets foreshowed him, the devils confessed him, his Miracles evinced him, the earth shooke, the Rocks rent, the Dead looked out, the Sun looked in, astonished at the sufferings of the God of nature; even whiles he was despised of men, he commanded the devils to their chains: whiles base men shot out their tongues at him, Principalities and Powers bowed their knees to him; whiles he hanged despicably vpon the three of shane, the powers of hell were dragged captive after the triumphant chariot of his cross; the appearance was not so contemptible, as the truth of his estate glorious. judge not therefore according to the appearance.  
Should appearance be the rule, how scornfully would the carnal eye overlook the poor ordinances of GOD? What would it find here but foolishness of preaching, homeliness of Sacraments, an inky Letter, a Priests lips, a sauorlesse message, a morsel of Bread, a mouth full of Wine, an handful of Water, a slander-beaten cross, a crucified saviour, a militant Church, a despised Profession. When yet this foolishness of preaching is the power of God to salvation; these mute Letters the lively Oracles of God, these vile Lips the Cabinets of heaven to preserve knowledge; this vnplausible Message, Magnalia Dei; this Water, the Water of Life in the midst of the Paradise of GOD:( {αβγδ}) this Bread the Manna of Angels, this Wine heavenly Nectar, this Church the Kings Daughter, all glorious within, this dying Sacrifice the Lord of life, this cross the Banner of Victory, this Profession heaven vpon earth. judge not therefore according to appearance.  
Should appearance be the rule, woe were Gods children, happy were his enemies. Who that had seen Cain standing masterly over the bleeding carcase of Abel, joseph in his bonds, his mistress in her dress, Moses in the Flags, Pharaoh in the Palace, david skulking in the wilderness, Saul commanding in the Court, Elias fainting under his juniper three, jezebel painting in her closet, Michaiah in the prison, Zidkijah in the presence, jeremy in the dungeon, Zedekiah in the throne, Daniel trembling among the lions, the Medean Princes feasting in their Bowers, Iohns head bleeding in the Platter, Herods smiling at the bowels, Christ at the bar, Pilate on the Bench, the Disciples scourged, the Scribes and Elders insulting, would not haue said; O happy cain, Potiphars wife, Pharaoh, Saul, jezebel, Zidkijah, Zedekiah, Median Princes, Pilate, Herod, Elders, miserable Abel, joseph, Moses, david, Eliah, Michaiah, jeremy, Daniel, John, Christ, the Disciples: Yet we know Caines victory was as woeful, as Abels martyrdom glorious; Iosephs irons were more precious, than the golden tires of his mistress; Moses Reedes were more sure than Pharaohs Cedars; Dauids cave in the desert more safe than the Towers of Saul; Eliahs raven a more comfortable purueyor than all the Officers of jezebel: Michaiahs prison was the gard-chamber of Angels, when Ahabs presence was the counsel Chamber of evil spirits; Ieremies Dungeon had more true light of comfort than the shining state of Zedekiah; Daniel was better guarded with the Lions, than Darius and the Median Princes with their Ianisaries; Iohns head was more rich with the crown of his martyrdom, than Herods with the Diadem of his Tetrarchate; Christ at the bar gave life and being to Pilate on the Bench, gave motion to those hands that struck him, to that tongue that condemned him, and in the mean while, gave sentence on his judge; The Disciples were better pleased with their stripes and wales than the jewish Elders with their proud Phylacteries. After this, who that had seen the primitive Christians, some broiled on Gridirons, others boiled in led, some roasted, others frozen to death, some flayed, others torn with horses, some crashed in pieces by the teeth of Lions, others cast down from the rocks to the stakes, some smiling on the wheel, others in the flamme, all wearying their tormentors and shaming their Tyrants with their patience, would not haue said, Of all things I would not be a Christian? Yet, even this while were these poor torturing-stocks higher( as Marcus Arethusius bragged) than their persecutors; dying Victors, yea Victors of death; never so glorious as when they began not to be; in gasping crwoned, in yielding the ghost more than conquerors; judge not therefore according to appearance.  
When thou lookst about, and seest on the one hand, a poor conscionable Christian drooping under the remorse for his sin, austerely checking his wanton appetite, and kerbing his rebellious desires, wearing out his dayes in a rough penitential severity, cooling his infrequent pleasures with sighs, and sawcing them with tears; on the other hand ruffling Gallants made all of pleasure& jovial delights, bathing themselves in a sea of all sensual satieties, denying their pampered naturenothing under heaven, not wine in bowls, not strange flesh, and beastly dalliance, not unnatural titillations, not violent filthiness; that feast without fear, and drink without measure, and swear without feeling, and live without God, their bodies are vigorous, their coffers full, their state prosperous, their hearts cheerful: O how thou blessest such men: lo these( thou saist) these are the dearlings of heaven and earth; Sic o sic juvat vivere: Whiles those other sullen mopish creatures are the( {αβγδ}) offscouring and recrements of the world; Thou fool, give me thy hand, let me led thee with david into the sanctuary of God: Now what seest thou? The end, the end of these men is not peace. Surely o God thou hast set them in slippery places, and castest them down to desolation: how suddenly are they perished, and horribly consumed! Woe is me, they do but dance a Galliard over the mouth of hell, that seems now covered over with the green sods of pleasure; The higher they leap, the more desperate is their lighting: Oh woeful, woeful condition of those godless men, yea those epicurean Porkets, whose belly is their god, whose heaven is their pleasure, whose cursed jollity is but a feeding up to an eternal slaughter: the day is coming, wherein every minute of their sinful vnsatisfying joys shal be answered with a thousand thousand millions of yeeres frying in that unquenchable fire; And when those damned Ghosts shal forth of their incessant flames see the glorious remuneration of the penitent and pensive souls which they haue despised, they shal then guash and yell out that late recantation; We fools thought their life madness, and their end without honour; now they are counted among the children of God, and their portion is among the Saints, ours amongst devils: judge not therefore according to appearance.  
Should we judge according to appearance, all would be Gold that glistereth, all dross that glistereth not: Hypocrites haue never shewed more faire, than some Saints foul. Saul weeps, Ahab walks softly: Tobias and Sanballat will be building Gods walls; Herod hears John gladly; Balaam prophesies Christ, Iudas preaches him, Satan confesses him; When even an Abraham dissembles, a david cloaks adultery with murder, a Salomon gives( at least) a toleration to idolatry; a Peter forswears his Master, briefly, the prime disciple is a Satan; Satan an angel of light. For you: How gladly are we deceived in thinking you all such as you seem; None but the Court of heaven hath a fairer face. Prayers, sermons, sacraments, geniculation, silence, attention, reverence, applause, knees, eyes, ears, mouths full of God; Oh that ye were thus always! Oh that this were your worst side! But if we follow you from the Church,& find cursing and bitterness under your tongues; licentious disorder in your lives, bribery and oppressionin your hands; If God lookeinto the windows of your hearts, and find there be ( intus rapinae) we cannot judge you by the appearance; or, if we could, What comfort were it to you to haue deceived our charity with the appearance of Saints, when the righteous judge shall give you your portion with Hypocrites; What ever we do, he will be sure not to judge according to the appearance.  
If appearance should bee the rule, false religion should be true, true false. Quaedam falsa probabiliora quibusdam veris, is the old word; Some falshoods are more likely than some truths: native beauty scorns Art: Truth is as a matron; Error a courtesan: The matron cares only to concile love by a grave& graceful modesty; the courtesan with philtres and farthing We haue no hierarchy mounted above Kings, no pompous ostentation of magnificence, no garish processions, no gaudy altars, no fine images clad with Taffataes in summer, with velvets in winter, no flourishes of universality, no rumors of miracles, no sumptuous canonisations, we haue nothing but( {αβγδ}) the sincerity of Scriptures, simplicity of sacraments, decency of rare ceremonies, Christ crucified. We are gone if ye go by appearance: Gone? alas, who can but blushy& weep, and bleed to see that Christian souls should( after such beams of knowledge) suffer themselves to be thus palpably cozened with the gilded slips of error, that after so many yeares pious government of such an incomparable succession of religious Princes, authority should haue cause to complain of our defection?  
dear Christians( I must bee sharp) are we children or fools, that we should bee better pleased with the glittering tinsel of a painted baby from a peddlers shop, than with the secretly rich and invaluable jewel of divine Truth? Haue wee thus learned Christ? Is this the fruit of so clear a gospel? of so blessed sceptres? For Gods sake be wise and honest, and ye cannot be Apostates.  
Shortly, for it were easy to be endless: If appearance might be the rule, good should be evil, evil good; there is no virtue that cannot be counterfetted, no 'vice that cannot be blanched; we should haue no such friend as our enemy, a flatterer; no such enemy as our friend that attacks vs. It were a wonder if ye great ones should not haue some such burrs hanging vpon your sleeves; As soon shall corn grow without chaff, as greatness shal be free from adulation: These servile spirits shal soothe up all your purposes,& magnify all your actions, and applaud your words,& adore your persons: Sin what ye will, they will not check you; project what you will, they will not thwart you; say what ye will, they will not fail to second you; bee what ye will, they will not fail to admire you; Oh how these men are all for you, all yours, all you; They love you as the ravens do your eyes. How dear was Sisera to jael, when she smoothed him up,& gave him milk in a lordly dish; Samson to Dalilah, when shee lulled him in her lap; Christ to Iudas, when he kissed him; See how he loved him, would some fool haue said, that had judged by appearance.  
In the mean time, an honest plain dealing friend is like those sauces which a man praises with tears in his eyes: like a ches-nut, which pricks the fingers, but pleases our taste; or like some wholesome medicinal potion, that distastes and purges us( perhaps makes us sick) that it may heal vs. Oh let the righteous smite me, for that is a benefit, let him reprove me, and it shall be a precious oil that shall not break my head; break it? no, it shall heal it, when it is mortally wounded by my own sin, by others assentation: Oh how happy were it, if we could love them that love our souls, and hate them that love our sins. They are these rough hands that must bring us savoury dishes, and carry away a blessing; truth is for them now, thankes shall be for them hereafter, but in the mean time they may not bee judged by the appearance.  
Lastly, if we shall judge friendship by compliment, salubrity by sweetness, service by the eye, fidelity by oaths, valor by brags, a Saint by his face, a devill by his feet, we shall be sure to be deceived: judge not therefore according to appearance.  
But( that ye mistake not) though we may not judge only by the appearance, yet appearance may not bee neglected in our iudgement. Some things according to the Philosopher( {αβγδ}) seem and are, are as they seem: Semblances are not always severed from truth; Our senses are safe guides to our understandings. We justly laugh at that Scepticke in Laertius, who because his seruant robbed his Cup-bord, doubted whether he left his victuals there: What do we with eyes if we may not beleeue their intelligence? That world is past, wherein the gloss Clericus amplectens foeminam praesumitur benedicendi causâ fecisse; The wanton embracements of another mans wife must pass with a clerk for a ghostly benediction; Men are now more wise, less charitable: Words and probable shows are appearances, actions are not; and yet even our words also shall judge us; If they be filthy, if blasphemous, if but idle, wee shall account for them, wee shall bee judged by them: Ex ore tuo; A foul tongue shows ever a rotten heart; By their fruits ye shall know them, is our saviours rule; I may safely say, No body desires to borrow colours of evil: If you do ill, think not that we will make dainty to think you so; When the God of love can say by the Disciple of love, Qui facit peccatum ex diabolo est; He that committeth sin is of the devill: even the righteous judge of the world iudgeth ( secundum opera) according to our works; we cannot err whiles we tread in his steps. If we do evil, sin lies at the door; but it is on the street side; every Passenger sees it, censures it; How much more he that sees in secret? Tribulation and anguish vpon every 〈◇〉 ●●le that doth evil: every 〈…〉 here is no exemption by ●●itnesse, no buying off with ●●ibes, no bleering of the eyes with pretences, no shrouding ourselves in the night of secrecy; but, if it be a soul that doth evil, Tribulation and anguish is for it; Contrarily, If wee do well, shall we not be accepted? If we bee charitable in our alms, just in our awards, faithful in our performances, sober in our carriages, devout in our religious services, conscionable in our actions; Glory, and honour, and peace to every man that worketh good; wee shall haue peace with ourselves, honour with men, glory with God and his Angels: Yea that peace of 〈…〉 passeth all understanding; 〈…〉 ●●nour as haue all his Sai●●● 〈…〉 incomprehensible glory 〈…〉 God of peace, the God of Sa●●●● and Angels; to the participa●●● whereof, that good God th●● hath ordained us, as mercifully bring us for the sake of his dear son Iesus Christ the just: To whom with thee O Father, and thy good Spirit, one infinite God, our God, be given all praise, honour and glory now and for ever. Amen.  
FINIS.