HEre's a high testimony in this Text of some Honorable Per­son, but who that was, this text does not tell us; surely he was a person of great Au­thority and power, an emi­nent Magistrate, a Judge at the least, perhaps a King; nay without perhaps, the learn­ed Expositors upon the Booke of Job tell us that Job was a King, Non dubito quin Job Rex suerit in oriente; (saith Didacus) I nothing doubt, but Job was a King in the East: and if you read over the Inventory of his Goods and substance, Job 1. you will find that it [Page 4]was so great that it might well become the State of one of the Kings in those places, and parts of the world in those times; and as Moses was a King in Je­shurun, so himselfe tells us of himselfe, in the last verse of this Chapter, that he dwelt amongst them as a King in the Army; and to go no farther then the Text, we see him here clothed with his Regalia, his Royall Robes and his Diadem: And yet all this Greatnesse (& which is more his Goodness too, added to it, & joyn'd with it) could not secure, nor protect him from the strangest change that ye have heard of, and from the state of high Majesty, to the lowest estate of Misery that man could be capable of; here you see him in the text, in State and Majesty, sitting upon the Throne, executing Judgment and Justice unto the people, and by and by look upon him in the first of Job, and you find him sitting upon the dunghill, stript of all those Robes of royalty and of glory, and scraping his ulcerous body with a pot-sheard, to day the richest man in all the East, and to morrow the poorest man in all the world, ‘ Irus & est subitò qui modò Craesus erat.’

This is all the hold we have of the things of this world, all the assurance we have of our temporalls, riches, honour, power, glory, all that this world can give, or lend, they take themselves to the wings and fly away, and leave us in worse case then they found us: you know the story of the rich man in the Gospell, Luke 15. in the abundance of these things he sings a Requiem to his soul, Soul take thy ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years; alas poor man he [Page 5]dreames of many years, and (God know's) he hath not many hours to live, this night (saith the Text) they shall setch away thy soul; and then whose shall these things be? nay, whose shalt thou be?

But howsoever this was Job's comfort in the day of his calamity that when things were better with him, and when he was in his prosperity and power, he carried himselfe as he should do, and laid them both forth to do good in his generation; the remem­brance whereof now is a great comfort to him, and upon which he feeds with much joy, and content. A rare example for all great Ones, yea for the best of men in their best estate, when they are in prospe­rity, and power, and have time, and opportunity, and ability to doe good, that they improve it, and take the advantage of it, to do all the good they can; to doe good while they have time, as St. Paul admonisheth us Gal. 6.9, 10. to do something, the remembrance whereof may be a cordiall and a comfort to them, in the day of their distresse; this was Hezekiah's comfort in the day of his visitation: Isaiah 38.3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart; This was his food and his best Physick, very soveraigne for the lightning of his Crosse, and the sweetning of the bitternesse of affliction; and so shall wee find it to be too in such a day, Conscientia benè actae vitae, mul [...]orum (que) bene facto­rum recordatio jucundissima est; the conscience of a life well spent, and the remembrance of much good done by us in time of our prosperity, (when we had time to do it) is sweet and precious: Job found it so here [Page 6]in the Text, and his minde ranne upon it with much satisfaction and content; I put on Justice and it clothed me: I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame &c.

But admit all this, doth Job well to commend himselfe for it? Let another man praise thee, and not thy selfe, a stranger, and not thine own lipps: Pro: 27.2. 'Tis true, the praise of a man sounds better out of anothers mouth, then of his own; yet there are some cases wherein it is not expedient only, but necessary for a man to speak in his own praise; where silence a­gainst fowl and false accusations may be interpreted a confession, then it is but necessary that a man should stand upon his own justification: if another man do a man open wrong, 'tis but reason that he should do himselfe open right, by insisting upon his own just vindication; and whatsoever seeming vanity or often­tation there may appear to be in it, they are justly to be charged with it that compell us to it, not we that did it: I am become a fool in boasting myselfe, but ye have compelled me. 2 Cor: 12.11. This was Job's case at this time, (seeing God had turn'd his hand against him, and broken down his hedges that he had made about him) wicked and uncharitable men, begin to censure him and to charge him with many and fowl and false ca­lumnies and aspertions, that all the fair shewes that he had made of. Justice and piety, were but hypocrisie; and certainly he was all this while but a wicked man, and now God had found him out, and punish't him for it; nay (to lay his accusation the more close and home) they fall to instances, and charge him with particulars, clean [Page 7]contrary to these vertues that here he mentions, Thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their cloathing; thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast witholden bread from the hungry. Job 22.6, 7. In such a case of calumny, can any man blame the good man if he do insist more then ordinarily in his just vindication, by putting in his just defence against their unjust allegations, for the clearing of his uprightnesse, innocency and integrity, as in the Text; Where by the way let us take up this Observation,

Obser. That there's not the wisest, the justest, nor the uprightest Magistrate that can with all his integrity, justice, or sincerity, free himselfe from the calumnies and obloquies of wicked, and unreasonable men.

Was there ever a juster Magistrate then Moses was, that governed the people by immediate direction from God himselfe, yet how often do we hear that unthankfull people murmuring against him and against Aaron, many times were ready to stone them? what do we thinke of Solomon the wisest of the sonns of men, Jedidiah, the beloved of the Lord, who had the priviledge to ask at the hand of God what he would, and had what he ask't, a spirit of wisedome and understanding that he might wisely go in and out before the people; 1 Kings 3.5. yet what grumblings, and murmurings of the people were there under his governement? in what a muti­nous manner doe they come to Rehoboam the young King, with their seditious petition, 1 Kings 12.4. [Page 8] Make our yoke easier, and our burthen lighter, thy Father made our yoke grievous, and our burthen heavy: belike the had charged them with some Carts and Carriages to fetch home some of the materialls that were for the building of the Temple; or required some Con­tribution toward the charge of that great work; and oh what a grievance this was! make thou our yoke easier, and burthen lighter. So when Kings, and Princes, and great Magistrates have done their best, and laid out themselves with their utmost endeavours for the good of their people, and made it their very study, and their businesse to preserve their peace, and to guide them with a faithfull and a true heart, and to rule them prudently with all their power; This is the thanks they have from unworthy people, to be clamour'd upon, to be charged with Tyrany, oppression, and cruelty; if any thing be amisse in a whole Kingdome, if all parties be not pleased (which is impossible) presently they fall upon the Rulers, and Governours, (not sparing the highest) when (God knowes) the cause of those distempers are in them­selves. 2 Sam: 24.1. we read, that God was angry with Israell and he moved David to number the people: here was a great judgement in the Land, it swept away in three dayes threescore and tenne thousand of the Subjects: marke how this plague took its rise, it was in the people; God was angry with Israell, and he moved David to muster the people; his anger was not against David, but against Israell: 'twas the cold of the feet that strucke up to the head, and caused that [Page 9]distemper. But let not Kings nor Magistrates be discouraged in the execution of their Offices, and performance of the duties of their High-calling for all this: let them not thinke the worse of themselves for the obloquies of those mutinous tongues that speake evill of them; but let them remember, they are under the care of him that is able to deliver them from the strivings of the people, and under the protection of that mighty power which is able to still the raging of the Sea; and the madnesse of the people (as raging as it is when they set a madding) and will subdue the people that is under them: Psal: No man could have greater discouragements and affronts then this holy Ruler had; yet the more they opposed or resisted the greater courage did he take unto himselfe to sup­presse their insolencies; for which purpose, He put on Justice and it clothed him: and his judgement was as a Robe and a Diadem, &c.

In which words we have a perfect Character of a worthy Magistrate, a Prince, a King, any in high place and power, to execute judgement: and it con­sists of four Parts;

• 1. His love to Justice, with his zeal, care, and con­science duly to execute it, in the 14 verse: I put on Justice and it cloathed me, and my Judgment was a Robe and as a Diadem upon me.
• 2. His inclination to mercy & compassion, where he found stirr Objects for it, in the 15 verse: I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame; and a fa­ther to the poor.
• [Page 10]3. His paines and patience, his care and diligence, in examining of the Causes that came before him; for finding out of the truth, that so he might give judgment in them without error: in the later part of the 16 verse, The cause which I knew not I searched out.
• 4. His courage in executing justice and judgment upon offenders, when he had by diligent search found them guilty, though they were never so great, or never so insolent, never so mighty; I brake the jaws of the wicked, and I pluckt the preyout of his teeth. First, He pluckt the prey out of their teeth, by causing them to make restitution and satisfaction for the wrong they had done: And secondly, he break their jaws that they should do so no more. Of these (something in the or­der proposed) as the time and businesse of the day will permit.

And first, of the first part of his character, in his love, and care, and zeal to execute Justice and Judg­ment, exprest in the words of the 14 verse I put on Justice, and it cloathed me, and my Judgement was as a Robe and as a Diadem upon me. In which words are exprest two things concerning the Magistrate; first, his Office; secondly his Honour: his Office, in these words, I put on Justice and it clothed me; his Honour in these words, my Judgment was as a Robe and as a Diadem: in the former we have his duty, and in the latter his dignity: the former is intimated to us by [Page 11]this expression of putting on Justice, and being clothed with it; a metaphor which the Scripture much delight­eth in: Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ: Rom: 13.14. Put on bowells of mercy: Coloss: 3. Put on the whole armour of God. Ephes: 6. so in the Text here, I put on Justice and it clothed me; intimating thereby, that look what clothing is to the body, that was Justice unto him. Now we put on clothes for these three uses; first, to cover our nakednesse, and so they are indumenta, for a covering; secondly, to protect us from the in­jury of the weather, and so they are munimenta, for defence: thirdly, for comelinesse and decency, and so they are ornamenta, for ornaments: and as cloths are all this to the body, so are all vertues to the mind; and such was justice and judgement to Job, and is to every worthy Magistrate: from hence arise's this point or Observation.

Obs: 1. That it is the great duty or office, of great Princes, Rulers, and Magistrates to execute Justice and Judgement unto the people.

Our Lord Jesus Christ (the fountaine of Honour and Power, from whom all Kings and Princes derive that power which they have) accounts it his great honour and office to execute Judgment and Justice; for of him doth the Father say, Faithfulnesse shall be the cloathing of his reins, and righteousnesse the girdle of his loynes: and when his titles of Honour are reckoned up, Isa, 9. this is not the least of them, [Page 12] that he shall sitt upon the Throne of David, and upon his Kingdom, to order & to establish it; and to execute Justice & Judgment for ever; w ^h (by these his Deputies, & Vice-gerents) he does to this day: and what greater Honour, Power, and Trust can be committed to them? or how can they better lay out themselues, then in the faithfull discharge of it? it is the very object of their calling, the summ and substance of their duty; the end why God hath exalted them above other men, anoynted them with the oyle of honour above their Fellows, put a greater measure of his Spirit upon them, stampt a clearer impression of his Image upon them, that so they may rule with the greater Authority, and the people submit unto them with all that due reverence and obedience, that belongs unto them.

And as it is their great duty to administer Justice, and to execute Judgment unto us; so it is our great benefit that God hath appointed such an Ordinance among us, and given such power unto men for the good of us all: without, it what would become of us? without it, what would become of our liberty, our property, our peace, our security? which of us could call any thing our own, or secure our selves of our lives for one hour? it is by the execution of Justice and Judgement that we live; it is by the benefit of justice that we enjoy any thing we have, that we sit every man quiet under his own Vine, and his own Fig-tree, and eat the fruit of our labours. [Page 13]Oh therefore blesse God for Government, for the administration of justice and judgement amongst us: Pray for them to whom the power is committed to execute it; give them all encouragement, that they may do it with chearfulnesse; and shew your thank­fulnesse to them by yeilding all due reverence and obedience to their just commands. And so I passe from the Office to the Honour, from the Duty to the Dignity of the Magistrate, intimated in those Ensignes of honour which he wore, the Robe, and the Diadem. ‘— My judgement was as a Robe, and a Diadem.’

It aprears by this expression, that in those times, and those parts of the world, (scarce yet throughly civiliz'd) yet they had Government, they had Ma­gistrates among them: not only reason, but nature it selfe taught the necessity of them, inasmuch as in all Nations (though otherwise never so barbarous) the use of them was taken up.

It appears further, that when they went forth to fit in the Gate, or upon the Bench, or the Throne to execute judgement, they were clothed with gar­ments of honour, and wore such Ensignes of Autho­rity and power, as might well become the dignity of their Office and Calling: so we read of King Priamus, ‘ Hoc Priami gest amea erat cum jura vocatis More dabat populis: Virgill, in the 8. of his Aehids.—’ These Robes did Priamus wear when he gave Lawes [Page 14]and administred Justice to the people: and when So­lomon gave judgement; we read that he sate upon a magnificent Throne, and was clothed with royall Robes and ornaments, answerable to his royal State, 1 King: And this is necessary; first, for State and Dignity, when God had called Aaron to the honour and office of the high preist, he com­manded Moses to give direction, for the making of him rich garments, the richest that could be made, both for the materials, and the workmanship; for the materials, they were to be of Purple, and fine Linnen, Gold, and Silver, and precious stones; and for the workmanship, it was of Embroidery, and that so curious, that the world did not afford men cunning enough to work it, but Almighty God did endue two chosen men, ( Bezaleel and Aholiab) with a spe­cial and extraordinary spirit for that purpose; and when all was so done, the Lord tells us, that this was, the speciall use of them, they were to be made for Aaron, for Beauty and for Glory. Exod: 28.2.

Secondly, They were for distinction; as for beauty and glory, so for distinction: God did not make the world levell at the first, nor never meant it should be so, and although he made all men of one mettle, yet he did not cast them all in one mould; he hath made some high, and some low, some rich, and some poor; some to command, and some to obey; upon some he hath put a greater measure of his Spi­rit, then upon others; some he hath endued with ex­traordinary [Page 15]gifts above others, gists of wisdome, understanding, and knowledge, whereby he hath fitted and enabled them for high Callings, Offices, and Employments above others; and as there is this internal difference between one man and another, so it is agreeable to reason, that there should be some visible ensigns of it, whereby it may outwardly appear to others: nature it selfe hath taught a diffe­rence and distinction of men, one from another; and even in this Kingdome before clothes were in use (any more then such as the Inhabitants clothed the nether parts of their bodies with, and they were the skinns of wild beasts,) they did visibly declare a distinction among themselves, by the painting of the upper parts of their bodies: hence those that were acknowledged for Primes among them, and great men, bore in the painting of their bodies, one the Sunn, another the Moon, another the picture of the Lyon, another the Eagle, and so of other creatures; from whence our great English Antiquary conjec­tures that this Island took its name to be called Brit­tania, from the ancient Brittish-word Brith, which signifies Painted; and the Greek [...], which signifi­eth a Region or Country: as if he should say Regio pic­torum, the Region of painted men. Upon this account is it, that Kings have their Crowns, Bishops their Mitres, Nobles their Ermins, Judges their Robes, and we (of the University) our severall Hoods and Habits, (according to our Degrees) for Dignity, and distinction.

Thirdly, That their very presence may strike an awfull reverence in those that are to be governed by them: Cultus magnificus addit hominibus authoritatem; says Quintillian, Institut: lib. 1. They speak Majesty, Power and Authority in them that wear them, and adde (in the estimation of the people) glory and ho­nour, to those that are clothed with them: And state, and magnificence to the actions that are done in them.

Fourthly, They are documents to them that wear them, and put them in mind what they are, and what they have to do; and admonish them to carry in them that state and gravity that becomes them, and so to demeane themselves that they may be a greater honour to their Robes, then their Robes are to them.

Upon all these accounts, how unreasonable are the exceptions of vain and sordid men against them, who look upon them with an envious, and an evill eye, and charge them with vanity, and ostentation, and such as might well be spared? surely had these men been in Moses's time, they would have control'd the wisedome of God, in appointing such rich Gar­ments to be made for Aaron with an ad quid haec perdi­tio? what needs this wast? whereto is all this cost? they would have told us, that God is a spirit, and that Aaron should have worshipped him in spirit and in truth; and if he did so, it were all one whether he did Minister in a pair of linnen, or of letherne Breeches an Ephod, or a Miller's jacket: and so I leave this [Page 17]first part of the Character, and come to the second, ‘His inclination to mercy & compassion where he found fit objects for it, in that he was Eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and to the poor a Father.’

Under these three sorts of people are comprehen­ded all such poor, impotent, helplesse people of what sort or kind soever, which stand in need of our help and relief. And if I take the words litterally, and so plead the cause of such, I shall therein do the Text no wrong; for how do the streets swarme with such? how are the high-wayes and hedges lin'd with them? besides, how many Hospitalls, and Almes-houses are there full of such, founded by the piety and charity of mercifull men for their releif, yet (what by the cruelty and covetuousness of some, what by the negligence and unfaithfulnesse of others intrusted for them, what through the inabilty of those that are in them to helpe themselves) shame­fully wronged and defrauded, and the meanes be­longing to them in a second, or third generation (well nigh) quite extinguished: now (in such cases) for the Magistrate to looke upon them with a mercifull eye, and provide for their releife, by reviving wholesome Lawes made for that purpose, by setting on foot the Commissions for pious and charitable uses, and taking care to the due execution of them, is certainly a work not only of Justice but of mercy too, well worthy the [Page 18]care of a worthy Magistrate, by which he shall be­come as Job in the text, Eyes to the Blind, feet to the lame, and to the poor a father.

But Job had a farther meaning in this Expression then this; he speakes Metaphorically; by the blind, doth Job understand the ignorant man, by the lame, the impotent man, and by the poor the indigent man: and they all equally stand in need of help. The blind man hath leggs good enough to walk with, but he wants eyes to see his way; and so he must necessarily fall into one of these two mischiefs, or both, either to erre out of the way, or to stumble and fall in it; the lame man hath eyes good enough to see his way, but he wants leggs to go in it, and so is in as ill case as the other: the poor man may have both his eyes, and his limbs, and yet being poor, and wanting a purse to carry on his businesse, he is in as ill a condition as any of the other: the worthy Magis­trate is a releif to them all, and supplies them with those helps that are most suitable to their several ne­cessities; Ignorantem dirigendo, impotentem supportando, indigentem sublevando; by directing the ignorant, sup­porting the impotent, and relieving the indigent, and thus make good the Character here in the Text, and becomes Eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and to the poor a father. The ignorant man hath a good Cause, but wants skill to mannage it, wants eyes to spy out all those niceties which (in his proceedings, and carrying of it on) might destroy it; and indeed he had need of [Page 19]good eyes indeed, that can spy out all the windings and turnings, the niceties, quirks, quillets, quidities, that a good Cause may be subiect to, and yet ther's not the least of these, (suppose the misdateing a De­claration, mistaking a Name, or mis-spelling of it, vitium scriptoris, or some such slight matter) but it shall be pleaded to the destruction of the whole bu­sinesse; and the poor Clyent shall be forc't either to loose his Cause, or to put his Cap to daying (as we use to say) or to fetch it about again, and again upon some such other light and slight Cause, till he be­come weary of his Suite, and his life too, and chuse rather to sit down and to loose all, then to hazard the recovery of it, by a remedy worse then the disease: now in such a case for a Magistrate to lend an eye to the blind, is certainly on Act not only of Justice, but of Mercy too, and of pure charity. And here by the way, let me propose it to you nimble-Pleaders as a case of conscience, whether in such a case (when you see the Cause clearly against you, truth and equity on the other party,) for the love of a Fee, or to advantage a Clyent you may lawfully undertake in it, and set your witts upon the tenters to find out some such slight errors or mistakes to overthrow it, and to use your cunnings against your conscience to the perverting of judgment. And so I passe from the blind to the lame, another sort of impotent People here quartered in the next room of this Spittle in the Text; I was eyes to the blind, and limbs to the lame.

The former sort of impotent people we spake of, wanted eyes to see, these want limbes to walke; and so are in as ill a case as they: for though they see their way never so well, yet if they want leggs and limbs to goe, there may they sit still and perish, and without helpe must needs do so; look what the want of leggs is to an impotent man for walking, such is the want of means to any man to carry on his busi­nesse in any undertaking: for instance, In the mili­tary way Rabshakeh says truly 2. Kings 18.20. Wise­dome and Counsell are for the warre, they are the eyes; but let those be never so good to contrive, yet if they want men, munition and moneys (they are the leggs or sinewes of warre, as we call them) they will make but slow marches or Progresse in their undertakings; even such as a man would do in a journey travel­ling without leggs, or with leggs without sinewes: Hāniball in his warr against the Romans found it so; and for this we may (if we please) multiply instances enough in any kind of undertaking: take one in that way which is proper for our discourse at this season; in carrying on of a Suit in Law: An honost man hath a Cause good enough, he hath eyes good enough to see it, and knowes the way of the pro­ceedings, and how it should be mannaged, but he wants wherewithall; he wants leggs: first, he wants a purse, that's one legg; and secondly, he wants power and friends to countenance his Cause, that's another legg, and that must needs go hard with him when he wants both leggs; if he had but one of [Page 21]them, yet he would make some hard shift to hop, or halte along, or help himselfe with a Crutch, or a wooden-legge, or (rather then fail) a silver-legge (I have heard of such) but when a man wants both, that must needs go hard with him, and such were the impotent which Job reliev'd in the Text; I was limbes, or leggs to the lame: he speaks in the plurall number: Now in such a case for a compassionate Magistrate, to lend a Hand, a Crutch, a Legg, or any thing to a helplesse lame man, is certainly an act of pure mercy, and charity: or if he will not lend a legg to the man, yet to lend a legg to his Cause, and to his proceed­ings in it, that it may goe on with expedition, and be brought to some issue, in some time, and not hang in suspence, and be delayed from time to time, by new motions, and orders, writs of error, devices to carry it out of one Court into another, till they tyre out a man at a long runnning, for want of leggs to maintain his course. You know the story of the impotent man in the 5. of John which lay at the Banks of the Bath or Poole of Bethesda, so many years; at certain times there came an Angell and moved the waters of the Bath, and then whosoever stept in next, had certain cure of his infirmity whatsoever it was: this poor man had lay'n under his infirmity 38 yeares; how many of these he lay at those bankes (expecting cure) we cannot tell; perhaps most of them; and yet for want of limbes to help him into the water when it was stirred, still he was carried backe as he came without cure: perhaps you would be angry with me (some of you) if I should make an [Page 22] allegory of this and apply it by way of allusion to the method of your proceedings in your course, for the relieving of such impotent creatures as come to you for cure in their severall necessities; if I should com­pare that Bath to some of your Courts, soeveraigne enough for their cure if they could but seasonably get into them, or when they are in, get out again; the stirring of the waters to your active proceedings in them; the impotent man lying on the bankes to the poor Clyent; his long lying there, toyour long detain­ing of him without relief, without dispatch; it would suit but too well in all the parts of it, for there shall you have a poor Clyent attend from Term to Term, from year to year, and for well nigh as many years as this impotent man did; and yet (what for want of the Angells to stirre the waters, or of limbes to help him in, when they are stir'd, or out again when he is in) still he comes back again as he went, without the cure he hoped for: a great disparagement cer­tainly, though not to the Law, yet to the proceed­ings in it; and a great grievance to the subject, that the Sunne shall travail twenty times between the Tropicks too and fro; and he many times twenty as far (as will take in many of the paralells) for relief; and yet can bring his matters to no issue; where the tediousnesse of the journeyings adds no small aggravation to the tediousnesse of the delay and ex­pectation: Certainly this one consideration is much for the justification of those worthy Patriotts in this Kingdome, that lay out themselves in their en­deavours [Page 23]for the resurrection of that Ancient and Ho­nourable Court of a Presidentship here once esta­blished in these Northern-parts; the reasons for which, are as strong and as many now as ever they were; and that with some additions.

In the flourishing Kingdome of France, there are eight such Courts, they call them Parliaments, thogh from any of them there may be an Appeal to the grand-Parliament at Paris; yet these are eight standing Courts of great Honour and Authority erected (in so many severall Provinces of the Kingdome) for the ease of the Subjects, that they may not be forc't all (from the remoter parts of the Kingdome upon all occasions) to come up to Paris, and to travell so far for Justice, as to make it dear of fetching: for the same reason, have there bin the like Courts of Justice erected here in England, (though not so many) one of which is yet in being in the West, and another was here in the North; and why it should not be continued or restored, I cannot imagine, except it be this, That as that great City of London (the very belly of the Kingdome) hath engros't unto it selfe all the Tra­ding, so that other (her sister of Westminster) would do the like by the Law, and so make of them both two great Monopolies. And so I passe from this sort of impo­tent people in the Text, (the lame) though it be long first: I had been more brief in this discourse, if those whom it concern'd had been so in their dispatches.

The next sort of helplesse people in this Spittle in the Text, and quarter'd in the next room, are the poor; and to them ( Job tells us) he was a Father. ver: 17.

Here we are to consider, first, the object of his charity and compassion; they were the poor: secondly, his charity & cōpassion toward them, exprest under the notion and relation of a Father. As to the first, well did the Lord know that (what through the oppres­sion, covetuousnesse, and cruelty of some, what through the idlenesse, ill-husbandry, prodigality, and improvidence of others) there would be allwayes some poor in the Land; as our Saviour tells us Math. 26, 11. The poor you shall have allways with you; and therefore God hath mercifully provided for their releife. In the Law there was a Tythe provid­ed for them, Deut. 14.29. that speakes home to us that receive Tythes; and tells us, that we are not to receive them all, and altogether for our own selves: we are not altogether Proprietaries; but ra­ther, Usu-fructuaries of them in part: though we have the best title to them, and share in them, yet they were not originally sett a part onely for our selves, but partly in trust; we receive them to have, but not to hold; we must distribute with one hand, aswell as receive with the other; by this very Law (the equity whereof remaineth to this day, and so far forth is Morall) there is a share due out of them to the poor. Secondly, for the possessours of Fields and Vineyards, the command was, that they should not reap their Corne clean, nor gather it all into their [Page 25]own Barnes; but they must leave a portion of it in the corners, and in the furrowes of the field, for the poor, the fatherlesse, the widow, and the stranger; Levit: 19. and so likewise, at the gathering in of their Vintage, they must not gather them clean; but leave a portion of the grapes, and of the olives, and of their other fruits upon the trees for the same use, a 40th. part, say some of the Hebrewes; a 50th. say some others at the least; and in the times of the Gos­pell an Office was erected (cheifly for this purpose) to take care of the poor, Acts. 6. the Office of Dea­conship, much like that of the Overseers of the poor amongst us: and in these our dayes, and in this Kingdome, the Lawes of the Land (concorning the Poor) are so wisely made and contriv'd, as I think it is a hard thing to devise how to amend or better them; only as a divine Lawyer of our times (Sir Francis Bacon I mean) once said of the Lawes of this Kingdome in generall, That no Nation nor Kingdome under heaven had better, only there wanted one to enforce the due execution of all the rest: so may I say of these Lawes concerning the Poor, They are as good as wise­dome it selfe can devise, only they are not duely executed: Hence it is that both Townes and Countrey are so full of them, that we had need have in every Vil­lage an Hospitall to put them in; and they do mul­tiply so exceedingly upon us, that (as in Pharaoh's time) the lean Kyne are ready to eat up the fat. And here, my Lord Mayor, with the rest of the Gover­nours of this Honourable and Loyall City, give me [Page 26]leave to turne my selfe to you in a word of admoni­tion: I see no place where they do more swarme, then here amongst you; so numerous, that a Gentle­man cannot come to Towne, nor alight at his Inne, or goe into a Shop to lay out his money, but present­ly the house is besett with a multitude of these dis­orderly people; a great scandall to your Govern­ment: This is not for want of Lawes to remedy it, but for want of due execution of them; for certain­ly if the Lawes (that are in force concerning these) were well executed, not only here, but every where throughout the Kingdome, this disorder would be remedied; and there would be none found begging amongst us, but such, as it is either a shame for them to begge, or a shame for us to suffer them so to do.

But there are two sorts of poor; as St. Paul wri­ting of this subject, 1 Tim: 5.5. distinguisheth of wi­dowes, tells us there is a widow, and a widow in­deed; so say I of the Poor, there are poor, and there are poor indeed: in the first lift of these, I ranke all sturdy Rogues, wandring beggars, that are never out of the way, nor never in it; all drunken, and idle persons, that will not worke; but finding an ease in idlenesse, goe about from Towne to Town, and take up begging for their Trade; these are all poor, but not poor indeed, they are poor, and they will be so, and it is a just judgement of Almighty God upon their lewd, loose, and prophane courses, that they should be so: Solomon hath given them their doom, Pro: 23.21. The drunkard and the glutton shall be poor, & [Page 27]the sleeper shall be clothed with raggs: these are the ve­ry scorne of the Nation, the reproach of our Govern­ment, the sinke, the kennell of all lewdnesse, pro­phanesse, and uncleanesse; yet to these Job was, and the worthy Magistrate is a father; but how? not by relieving them, not by protecting them, not by main­taining and encouraging them in these their lewd courses, but by correcting them, by punishing them, by putting in execution those wholesome Lawes, providing for the restraining of their lewdnesse, the setting of them on worke, and reducing them into order: and herein shall he shew himselfe a father unto these, as well as unto the other by his mercy and compassion.

But these latter are the poor indeed, such as are not only indigent, but inevitably such; many sicke & weak, and olde, and blind, and lame, and either past their worke, or, by reason of their infirmities disa­bled to worke, especially if they be such as while they had ability were laborious and industrious, and either through unavoidable losses and crosses, or the greatnesse of their charge, where there were many more mouthes to eat, then hands to worke, have fallen into inevitable poverty; these are the poor indeed, these the true objects of our mercy and com­passion; here, to give and to distribute, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased; here, cast thy bread upon the waters, it shall not be cast a­way, for after many dayes thou shalt find it; here, give to such, and lend to the Lord, and thou shalt [Page 28]certainly be no looser by it; put it upon his score, he will repay it seaven-fold into thy bosome: if a cup of cold water so given to a Disciple shall not loose his reward, surely our charity exprest in more consi­derable proportions will not be forgotten; it is a strange argument to perswade to liberallity, to pi­ous and charitable uses, which St. Paul uses Philip: 4.17. when he say's, that it shall redound to our account another day; and stronger is that which our Saviour uses, Luke 16.9. even to prevail with covetous men to make them liberall, when he say's, that by laying out the Mammon of iniquity, they shall make themselves friends which may receive them in­to everlasting habitations: All this speaks to men as men, perswading them to workes of piety & mercy, and so to become as fathers to the poor. But Job speaks in the person of a Magistrate, and so such a one in that capacity, though as a man he may be slacke in these workes of mercy, yet as a Magistrate he may so carry as to be a greater father to the poor then a hundred private men can be; a private man may looke to private persons and families, and do good to the indigent people in the place where he dwells, but a Magistrate (as a more publique person) stretcheth his armes o're whole Countries, & Coun­ties, and by his prudent care to make good orders for the relief of them, to see to the due execution of those that are so made, by restraining the covetous­nesse and cruelty of those that oppresse them, and make them poor, by reviving the cōmissions for pious [Page 29]and charitable uses: the like Magistraticall duties may become the preserver, protector, and reliever of many thousands as Job in that capacity was (besides his personall charity as a good man, and so he was) and every good Magistrate is, and ought to be unto the poor a Father.

But more then this; Rulers & Governours, Princes and great Magistrates, are not only Fathers of the poor, but of the rich also; they are Patriots, and Fa­thers of the Country and Kingdome, and all the peo­ple under their Government; so amongst the Romans when any great Officer (civill or military) had done good service for the Commonwealth, he was ho­noured with the title of a good Patriot or a Father of his Country; and when men of the best ranke a­mongst them (the Patricii) came to be listed among the Senatours, they were stiled Patres conscripti; listed Fathers: the Kings of the Philistines were stiled Abi­melech, which is as much as to say the King my Father; and nothing more frequent nor familiar with Solo­mon throughout the whole booke of the Proverbs, then (speaking to his Subjects) to call them his sonnes: and why all this? but to shew with what a Fatherly affection Princes and Rulers ought to go­verne their Subjects, and with what filiall, and sonne­like duties of honour, reverence and obedience Sub­jects ought to carry towards them again. In the first commandement of the second Table (which St. Paul takes notice of to be the first Commande­ment [Page 30]with promise Ephes: 6.1.) the duty of Subjects to their King and Governours is call'd for under the notion of honour, and the motive perswading to the duty (that it may come sweetly and chearfully) is the relation of a Father; Honour thy Father and thy Mother: thy Father the King, and thy Mother the Church; thy Father the Civill Magistrate, thy Mo­ther the Ecclesiasticall: for, that this command doth not only concerne our naturall Parents, nor cheifly them, but principally the Magistrate, our Civill Father, and the Church our Holy Mother, the reason in the commandment (which is the promise annex't to such obedience) doth clearly evince, That thy dayes may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee: which clearly declareth, that this command is not principally meant of a family com­mand, but of a Nationall command; nor the promise, a personall promise, but a more generall promise to the People; nor the duty, so much intended of a family duty, of piety of children toward their Pa­rents; as of subjection and obedience of Subjects to­ward their Civill and Ecclesiasticall Parents, the King, and the Church; the neglect of which duty toward them, and their undutifull murmurings, mu­tinings, seditions, conspiracies, treasons, and rebelli­ons against them, is the ruine of Kingdomes, the des­truction of Monarchies, great States, Cities, Com­mon-wealths, and the ready way to shorten the pe­riod of them: for by these they expose themselves to the Rapine of all their enemies, or of any any Nati­on [Page 31](that will take the advantage of their divisions and dissentions) to fall in upon them, and to make a prey of them, and so throw them (with their Kings and Princes) out of the Land which the Lord their God had given unto them, as it is now with this ve­ry People to whom this command was given; as you may read, 2 Kings 17. and 2 Chronicles 36.

The only way for a people to live long in the Land which the Lord their God giveth them, to prolong their dayes in peace and happinesse, is by honouring and being obedient to their father and their mother, their Rulers and Governours, both Civill and Eccle­siasticall; yet it pleaseth the wisedome of God to commend these duties to us under this near and dear relation of Parents and children, that both the termes in it may from this expression learn their du­ty; that Princes and Rulers may govern with a gentle hand, much tendernesse and affection; not as Ty­rants, but as Fathers; not as over slaves, but as o­ver sonnes: and on the other hand, that Subjects may know how to obey, not as by compulsion, but of a free & willing minde; not out of a slavish fear, but out of a filiall affection. Thus while Rulers go­verne their People as Fathers, and the People honour and obey as sonnes, it is the only way to prolong our dayes in peace & plenty, happinesse & security, and to live long in the Land which the Lord our God giveth unto us and all this is taught us under this sweet notion and relation in the Text, wherein Job professeth himselfe to be unto the poor a father. And [Page 32]this was the second Character of a worthy Magi­strate; we now come to the third in the next words of the Text,

The Cause that I knew not, I searched out.

These words shew the pains and patience, pru­dence & diligence which Job did, and all other wor­thy Judges and Magistrates do, and ought to use in examining Causes & Persons brought before them, for finding out of the truth, that so they may judge righteous judgement, all these are comprehended in the word [searched,] The cause, &c. I searched out. The righteous Judge of all the world when he came down from heaven to earth (as sometimes he did) to exe­cute judgement, though he knew the cause before he came, yet before he past sentence, or executed judgment, he would examine the Cause and find out the truth by diligent enquiry; see this in the examination of Adam, Gen: 3. the arraignment of Cain; Gen: 4. the judgement of Sodom, Gen: 19. Adam where art thou? (to the first) and hast thou eaten of the fruits of the tree, of which I commanded thee thou shouldst not eat? as if he knew nothing of it: Cain, where is thy brother Abel? (to the second) thy father hath lost a sonne, the world a saint, and I a faithfull servant and martyr; thou must not so carry it, thou shalt not so go away with the murder; ubi est Abelfrater tuus? where is thy bro­ther Abel? I will go down & see; (to the third) he nee­ded not to go down and see for his own information; [Page 33]the cry of the City was come up to him, and might save his labour for going down to them, as to his own information; but by this his judiciary proceedings, the Judge of all the world would teach all earthly Judges to know, how warily and orderly they ought to proceed in hearing & determining causes that are brought before them, that so they may find out the truth, and give sentence without error: hence it is that Judges were anciently called Cognitores, and to hear a cause (in the Roman Orators language) was cognoscere causam, to know a cause; and this requires much paines and patience, prudence and diligence, not slightly to passe it over, but to search into it: It is the honour of a King to search out a matter: saith Solomon, Pro: 25.2. a rare example whereof, he was himselfe in the case between the two harlots, in dis­covering the true mother of the child in question; 1 Kings 3. and such is the command in all other ca­ses; in the case case of Idolatry, Deut: 17.4. and in the case of false witnesse, Deut: 19.17. in the former (saith the Text) Thou shalt make diligent enquiry: in the latter, Thou shalt make diligent search: both made good here in my Text, by this worthy King, Judge, and Magistrate, the subject of our discourse; the cause which I knew not, I searched out: and great rea­son is there for all this care, paines, patience, dili­gence, and Prudence in searching out the truth; if you consider these four things.

But we come to the Offenders, upon whom he executed this judgement, and the crimes for which: The offenders were great Ones, great Oppressors, men of power, which notwithstanding they did abuse to the crushing of those that were under them, and therefore compar'd to wild beasts, ravenous beasts, beasts of prey, Lyons, Bears, Wolves, Tygres, which teare and devour the smaller Cattle that they seize upon; and such cruell devourers indeed there are amongst bruitish and unreasonable crea­tures, the Fishes, the Fowles, and the wild beasts; but amongst men and reasonable creatures, tis strange that any should be found so unreasonable, so bruitish; yet, as strange as it is, it is too true, and too cōmon, Homo homini Lupus, Leo, Tygris, Daemon, one man is even a divell to another, more cruell then those favage creatures, biting and devouring one another, at St. Paul expresses it: Gal. 5.15. Eating up my people as they would eat bread: as God himselfe spea­keth of them; and therefore in executing justice upon them, he is said to break their teeth, and to smite the jaw-bones of them: Psal: 3.7. Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the jaw-bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly: just in the language of the Text here, I brake the jawes of the wicked, [Page 38]and pluck't the prey out of their teeth. Where, he ma­keth mention of two sorts of instruments of cruelty, and oppression, teeth & jawes; by the teeth, meaning those fore-teeh, with which they lay hold, bite, and tear off the flesh; and by the jawes, the double-teeth that are in the innermost part of the jaw-bone, with which they grinde what they have gotten into them, that so they may devour it [called here mo­lares, grinders:] by which Job seems to discover two sorts of Offenders, first Biters, secondly Grinders; by the teeth he intimates unto us the Biters; and by the molares in the jawes, the Grioders; and there are of both sorts but too many: to instance in some of each sort.

First, The Usurer he is a Biter; from it he hath his very name, [Neshek] in the learned Language signifieth Usury, and it is derived from Nashak, which signifieth to bite: so he is most properly a Biter, where he layes hold, he bites fore.

Secondly, Your Under-Excise-man, that farms the Excise at the second, third, or fourth hand; he is a Biter, a sorer Biter then the former; for, let it come through as many hands as it will, they will all gaine, let it fall never so heavy upon the subject; and very heavy it must needs fall; for these two rea­sons, first, because there are so many Chapmen one under another, all which must and will make up their markets, make themselves gainers. Secondly, because there are so many under-Officers belonging [Page 39]to them; Informers, Gagers, Spies, Collectors, Clarks, and I know not how many more subservient to the Farmers; all which will have a living out of it, and some of them more then every man shall know off, or that any man can take account of them for: all which must be squeezed out of the poor subject; yet never comes home to the place, or use for which it was intended; whereas, if it were assess't as now it stands, and collected [Villatim] as some other of his Majesties Revenues are, by Officers of Trust in every Parish; and so transmitted to other higher Officers, till it, were landed where it should be, the Revenue would be greater, and the Cla­mour lesse: but where there are so many Biters on worke at once; and with such long teeth too, day­ly and hourly tearing of by such full bitts as they do; no marvail, if the poor people shrinke under their teeth, and complain so sore; no marvail, if they grow so fatt, and the people so lean, upon whom they prey: these long teeth of theirs would be filed at least, if not broken off; they are both too sharpe and to long: the Government of this Kingdome is in no par­ticular Arbitrary, but in this Male-administration of the Excise: the Excise-man is a Biter.

3. A third sort of biters, are your cunning and unconscionable Barterers in buying & selling, bargai­ning or exchanging, Thou shalt not defraud thy brother, nor go beyond him in bargaining; say's the Apostle 1 Thes 4.6. and that with an intimation too, for the Lord is the avenger of all such things. (in the same text) there is [Page 40]a great deal of fraud in buying and selling; by which men goe beyond their brethren; by lying and swear­ing, false weights, false measures, false gloses, up­on counterfeit wares; to set them forth to the eye, to make them the more vendable; by asking so far above the worth, that if a man bid but to the halfe or sometimes to the fift part, he is sure to be catch't; by recommending things by perswafive arguments above the worth, thus much it cost me, thus much it is worth, thus much I have been offer'd, and never a word true; by trusting at too great an advantage, and a hundred more such frandes, which it is no wise­dome so much as to mention: ne magis admonere quam prohibere viderer; neither is the buyer free from his frauds too; It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone he boasteth: and therefore our Sa­viour takes them both in, when speaking of buyers & sellers even in the Temple, he calls them both thieves Mat: 21.19. It is written, my house shall he called the house of prayer, but you have made it a denne of thieves. the cunning and unconscionable bargainer, whether it be in buying or selling, is a biter, & in the Scripture language a thief, though the Law do not call him so: under this head, I may ranke all Engrossers, Fore­stallers, Regrators, Monopolizers, and a hundred more; but what need I go so far as to the shops and markets to looke after them? I doubt they may be found nearer home.

[Page 41] 4. What thinke you of a driving Lawyer? that is not willing to bring his Clyents Cause to an issue too soon; but, having discovered a good purse to follow it, makes it his study to spinne it out with as long a thred as he can. I heard a soldier of fortune say in the beginning of these late unhappy warrs (a great Officer he was) that if they did husband it wel, he did not doubt but they might so mannage their businesse as to make those warrs last seaven years: I wish he had had his wish, so he had had no more; and I the next, he should have been but little better for them: I doubt there are some other professions of his mind in these driving and protracting wayes; and I should have told you something more of your proceedings in this kind, but that you heard somthing of it already.

5. For a small Officer to grope for a small Bribe, perhaps to excuse a Jury-man; or, to helpe a friend or two to be put upon the taly; to help a verdict; is but a small matter: he is scarce worth the name of a biter, he doth but snap and away; let him passe.

6. But what think you of a Martiall; he is an Offi­cer (I think) that hath the ordering of Causes, to put them into ranke and file, and to dispose of them in such a method, and order, as they are to be call'd on; which, being oft' times numerous, are enough to make up a pretty Army: he had need be honest, for great is his power, and much to the advantage or dis-ad­vantage of those, for, or against whom he will please to use it: he can alter his rankes and files as helist­eth; cut off his files by the middle; and by a word [Page 42]of command and a motion (not of his pike, but of his pen) dispose of each of the divisions when he please; make the whole body of the Causes wheel to the right or to the left, and so alter the ground, or by a countermarch bring the front into the rear, and the rear into the front; he had need be honest, he shall have temptations enough to use this his power and skill for the speeding of Trialls, and too often doth so, but he cannot herein gratify one but he must in­jure another asmuch; and that bites fore but, that's no matter; so he have a morsell from the one, hee'll make no bones to snap at the others good; he may well go for a Biter.

7. There is one sort of beasts amongst you, I know nor whether I may place hī amōg the wild beasts or tame but a deadly biter he is; they call him a Barrater, a Common-barrater; he is made up of many ingre­dients, all starke naught; this is one that makes it his businesse to create suits of Law, and to foment them, vexatious suits, and then to imploy himselfe in them with all treachery, falshood and unfaithfullnesse that may be, that out of the troubled waters he may fish to himselfe advantage: is not this one of his tricks, to sue a Neighbour unto an outlawry: and he never hear of it, nor know who hurt him till he see it come out against him? is not this another? for some slight? respasse to sue a man that dwells the next door by him, a man that keeps Church and market, and which he sees and converses with every day, yet for vexationsake sends out his writs into Kent, or [Page 43] Cornwall, or some other the remotest Counties in the Kingdome to seek him; where God knowes he never was: this writ in Latine you call a latitat; and yet the charge of this and all these indirect processes, and proceedings, must come in the bill of charges a­gainst him; as if he were a man that hid his head. This other that I mention is but a poor one, but yet it is common, for a man that hath some slight matter against his neighbour to send for a processe for him, in the same processe to put in four severall men, and all for trifles not worth the defending: the designe is to call them all severally to cōposition, this is easily made; but then every one of them payes the whole charges of the writ & proceedings; whereas the pay­ment of one discharges all, and so the other three are put up for clear gain: this is a Biter too, a paltry curr, yet of an ill mouth, his teeth wrankle where they bite; 'twere good they were knockt out they snap at so many: these are not the tyth of tricks of this currish biter: but I am weary of pursuing him, and many more; and therefore turne me from them to those grand Oppressors in the text, the Grinders, whose jaws ( Job tells us) he brake, that they might grind no more, I brake the jaws of the wicked.

As there are Biters amongst men, so there are Grinders too; of these the Lord complaines, Isa: 3.15. What mean you that you break my people in pieces and grind the faces of the poor? and in the Psalmes they eat up my people as they would eat bread. our Saviour [Page 44]goes further in the reproof of some of them, and tells them they are such insatiable Helluo's; that they devour whole houses, as well as those that are in them; Mat: 23. Of these Grinders and Devour­ers, take notice of these four sorts.

First, The cruell Extortioners; who (where he can lay hold and fasten his teeth) will never let goe till he consume all that a man hath: Psal, 109.11. such are they that lay hold of men and their estates by Bills, Bonds, Mortgages, that take the advanta­ges of all forfeitures; that deal upon mens necessities; and pursue them with all rigour and extremity, till they break their backs and their bones; these are the Grinders, which the Lord complaines of, [ Isa: 3.15.] which beat his people in pieces: and then the unmercifull Opressour, which with-holds from the hireling his wages, or making him worke for nought, lives by the sweat of the poor mans browes; such as Job speaks of, Job 22.6. which take the pledge from a man for nought, and strip the naked of their cloathing; such as with-hold bread from the hun­gry, and break the armes of the fatherlesse; that take a­way the widowes bed from under her; and sell the poor for shooes: (as the Prophet speakes) these are those which God complaines of, in the latter part of that verse, which grinde the face of the poor: all these are crying sinns, they make the poor cry; but these sinns of oppression and cruelty, make a greater cry a­gainst them, and such as entereth into the eares of the Lord Almighty, & will not be still'd till it brings [Page 45]down judgement and vengeance upon them: if the sentence of condemnation be pronuone't against all those which when Christ in these was hungry, gave him no meate, and when he was thirsty gave him not to drink; what shall become of those that take from them the bread that they should eat, and the water that they should drinke? if those be guilty that doe not visit the members of Christ in prison; what shall become of those that cast them there? Mat: 25. these may well be rank't among the Grin­ders: but there is a mill-stone which our Saviour Christ speaks of in the Gospell; which though it be not hang'd about their necks here, and they cast into the Sea with it; yet will one day be cast upon them and grinde them to powder.

2. The Second sort of Grinders are your great Depopulators, that lay whole Townes even with the ground; fair Churches wherein God had been wor­shipped; ancient houses wherein had been kept by their Ancestors good hospitallity; all laid wast: ante ostia solitudo; they stand onely as emblems of desolation places for Zim to lodge in, the houses full of Ohim; for Ostriches to dwell in, and the satyrs to dance: Isa: 34. these throw out whole families, and turne them out of doors by whole sale, by droves, without house and harbour, making them to wander up and down, scattered about the Country (as once the Israelites did) to gather stubble instead of straw) and forc't to embrace the Rocke for a shelter, and all this to make roome for their Cattell, or wild beasts, doggs and horses; either for their pleasure, or per­sonall [Page 46]profit; when to make roome for them, so many hundred Christian souls are turn'd a grazing: these are the Nimrods of the world; mighty hunters before the Lord: Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord; what did he hunt? not so much wild beasts, as men; he hunted them out of their habitations, & drave them up into corners, that he might enlarge his Territories and Dominions: such are these depo­pulators, mighty hunters, that drive men out of their harbours and habitations to make them roome for them, and for their pleasures, profits, and dis­ports; but let such remember the woe pronounc't against the Assyrian for the like crime, Isa: 33.1. Woe unto thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; when thou hast done spoiling, thou shalt be spoiled thy selfe: the first great depopulator of this Kingdome was a terri­ble exāple of Gods severe wrath & vengeance against such unreasonable, such unmercifull, and destroying Oppressors the depopulator is a grinder.

3. A third sort of grinders are the insatiable pur­chasers: [Poor-chasers] you may call them, that joyne house to house, and land to land, till there be no more roome, that they may dwell alone in the earth: to these I may say by way of allusion as Bildad to Job, (Job: 18.4.) Shall the earth be removed for thee? so, was the earth made for these alone, that they will not allow others a small roome in it, or a corner of it to dwell in? and when they have done all they can doe in this kind, what have they done? but loa­dened themselves with thicke clay? and when they [Page 47]have purchased what they can, what have they pur­chased? but a lump of earth; and let that lump be never so bigge, still tis but earth? tis an inheritance in heaven that must inrich us, and make us happy: what profit is it for a man to have a share of the earth, and none of heaven? to have great store of lands and livings, and not one foot in the land of the living? and when all is done, had one man the whole earth to himselfe, or that which now serves manythousads, to his own use; he can use no more of it while he is living, then will serve one man; and when he is dead, and box't up in his Coffin, as litle roome in it shall serve his turne, as shall do the meanest of those whom he oppress't, and from whom he hath taken that which he had to augment his portion. The royall Prophet rightly apprehended this vain hu­mour of earthly-minded men; Psal: 46.11. where he tells them their very thoughts thus, Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever. and their dwelling places to all generations; and therefore they call their lands after their owne names: this is the way of them: (saith the Prophet) withall it is their folly too, for ver: 14. They lye in the grave like sheep, death gnoweth upon them; and more then so, the righteous shall have dominion over them in the morning: and this is the end of their purchase; but in the meane time, while their teeth are in their head, they bite sore, & devoure whole multitudes; and therefore are right­ly listed amongst the Grinders.

[Page 48] 4. A fourth sort of Grinders, I shall acquaint you with, and I shall mention no more; and that is the Rack-renting Landlord: which, though he cannot mannage his lands himselfe, and hath as much need of the Tenant's labour, as the Tennant hath of his Land; yet is not willing that a poor Tennant should live upon his labour: he will have rent not only for his Land, but for his Tennant's labour too, and so live by the sweat of other mens brows; peeping into every corner, every Cottage, to see whe­ther he can spy any advantage, out of which he may squeeze if it be but the other crowne, to mend his Rencall; though it come so hard, that he is fain to presse blood in stead of sweat to make it up. And a­mong all your Rack-renters, take heede of your Ci­ty-purchaser, that hath rais'd himselfe into an Estate out of small wares; as for your Nobility, and Gen­try, whose Estates descende unto them from their Ancestors, they have some sence of honour in them, and a care to uphold the reputation of the Noble Families they springe from, by keeping up the An­cient hospitality of their houses, and by preserving the honour of their fore-Fathers, which (among o­ther things) consisted much in this, that they were good Masters to their servants, and good Land-Lords to their Tennants: but these new Upstarts, that have raised themselves out of pinns and points, or some such small matters, did so value a farthing when they were not worth it, that they thinke it now very ill husbandry in them, that any man should get [Page 49]penny under them; hence is it, that they doe so ex­actly dispute the value of every Cottage, every cor­ner, every foot of Land within their purchase, in which in short time (by the helpe of some officious Informers) they become as skilfull and expert as ever they were in their trade: of all kind of Land-lords, take heed of such, they bite sore, and there is no bit so little, but they will fasten their teeth in it, and ne­ver let goe till they tear away their hold at the least.

And thus I have given you an account of the De­linquents in the text both the biters and the grinders: there is nothing remaines now, but the breaking of their jawes, and plucking the prey out of their teeth: here­in Job shewed both his justice and his courage; and in both of thē declar'd himselfe a worthy Magistrate in breaking their jawes, andplucking the prey out of their teeth: and this will be the honour of all Judges and Magistrates even to the highest, seeing there are so many Lyons and Bears, and Wolves and Tygres a­mongst men, aswell as among beasts; that tear and devour those smaller helples creatures which they can over-power: what can be more just, or more honourable, then for the worthy Magistrates, the Rulers, and Governours of the Land, to cloth them­selves with justice as with a Rohe and Diadem? to sit in judgment upon them? to reach the head of such in­solent offenders? to plucke the prey out of their teeth, by causing them to make restitution and satis­faction for all the wrongs, injuries and oppressions, by which they have endammaged innocent and harm­lesse [Page 50]men; and then to break their jaws by such se­vere and wholesome Lawes, and paenall Statutes, that they shall not dare to do so any more. And this is an Act that will require courage & magnanimity, of all other vertues most necessary in a Magistrate, in these four respects;

First, for preserving the Authority of the Lawes which without due execution will become ridicu­lous, and render them so that made them; it is a reproach to Laws, when they shall be compar'd but to cobwebs which entangle the smaller Flyes, but the great humming Bees break through them.

Secondly, for the maintaining and upholding the honour of their persons and places, and the high Offices they bear, that they fall not into contempt.

Thirdly, in respect of the Offenders themselves, especially such as the Text speaks of, Biters and Grin­ders of the people; they are the Lyons, and Bears, and Wolves, and Tygers, among the smaller Cat­tell; strong, insolent, and stubborne, such as hate to be reformed, and scorne to be reproved; here, it is necessary that a Magistrate cloth himselfe with zeal, courage, and magnanimity, to let the proudest of them know; that he bears not the sword in vain.

Fourthly, in [terrorem] to terrify others, that they may see, and hear, and fear, and not dare to Act presumptuously: severe execution of Justice upon a few of those great, and insolent Offenders, shall be of more force to keep the Country in awe and in order, then upon a 100. petty delinquents of a lesser size.

Fifthly, it declares the integrity of the Magistrate and that he doth justice without respect of persons. Upon all these accounts of all the Magistraticall ver­tues, there's none more necessary then courage, and magnanimity; to take down the insolency of great Offenders: we whip beggars when they goe about the Country begging; we hang up sheep-stealers, and petty thieves; but, what do we to those great Robbers we have spoken of? that rob by whole­sale, rob whole Townes and Families in them? oh for the courage of Phineas, in such cases, or of Job in the Text, to break the jaws of such, and to pluck the prey out of their teeth! And so I have done with all the parts of the Character of a worthy Magistrate, set forth in the Text: there are three conclusions to be gathered out of them all (considered together) by good conscequence; which I would have acquain­ted you with, if the time would have served for it, as well as the Text; I will only name them, and so I have done.

1. The first is this, the great necessity of this great Or­dinance of Magistracy and Government: it is the very stay of the world; the pillars and supporters, not only of the Kingdome, but of the Societies in it; the mother of our peace and joy. When there are so many poor, and blind, and lame amongst us; what would become of them, if there were none to be eyes to the one, limbes to the other, and to the third as Faethers? While there are so many Lyons, and Bears, and Wolves, and Tygers amongst us, ready to bite, and to tear, and to devour those that are not able to resist them: what would become of us, if we had not amongst us, such men of [Page 52]wisedome and courage, power and authority, to break their jawes, and to pluck the prey out of their teeth?

2. The second thing is this, the great happinesse of this Nation, in the full fruition of this so blessed an Ordinance; where we have so many Courts of Justice of all sorts erected amongst us, and men of choise wisedome, courage, learning, uprightnesse, and integrity, sitting in them; unto which we may have resort at all times, for justice and judgement, upon all occasions; where, that promise made to the people of God upon their turning to him, is made good to us: Isa: 1.25.26. And I will turne my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy drosse, and take away all thy tinne. And I will restore thy Judges as at the first, and thy Counsellors as at the beginning, the Lord hath thus gracioussy dealt with us, and made this word good unto us; he hath turn'd his hand upon us, and purg'd away our drosse, and taken away all our tinne; and he hath re­stored our Judges as at the first, and our Counsellors as at the beginning: Blessed be God, this day is this Scripture fulfilled in our ears; this day, doe we see it with our eyes. That of Amos, (whether precept, or promise, or prophecy, or what you will call it) [ Amos 5:24.] is this day the joy and rejoycing of our hearts; where Judgment doth runn down­like water; and righteousnesse as a mighty streame; as water, for the plenty of it, and freedome to it; and as a mighty stream, for the conveyance of it through the land; 'tis true the fountain of it is at Westminster; there's the spring, the well head; but, here's the comfort of it, it is not stagrum, a standing pool: Justice doth not contain it selfe within those bankes, but it runns down as a stream, as a mighty river like that of Nilus watering the whole Kingdome, branching it selfe into many streams, running East, West, North, and South through all the Counties, all the Countries, all the quarters of the Land in the severall Circuits, allotted unto severall learned Judges of the Land, in which they with their Coun­sellors, [Page 53]and Officers riding from County to County, from City to City, as so many streames convey justice unto us; bring home Justice to our houses, carry it to our very doors: That which Moses speaks in the in the honor of the Isralites, [ Deut: 4.8.] may truly be said in the honour of our Nation, in the same respect, What Nation is there so great, which hath Statutes and Judgements so righteous, as is all the Law that I set before you this day? so, what Nation is there under Heaven, so happy as England, is this day, which hath Statutes, and Judgemenst, and Laws, so righteous as we have; and such choyce men for wisdome, learning, uprightnesse, and integrity, to admi­nister Justice and Judgement unto the people according to them? And this brings on the third Conclusion, and that followes, ex congrue.

3. What thanks do we ow to God, to the King, to the Par­liament, and to all our Rulers and Governours, for so great mercy, blessings, and benefits, which under their Govern­ment, and by the means of it, we do dayly receive? we owe to them our peace, our liberty, our security, our property, all the enjoyment of the good things we have here; yea, even our very lives: 'tis by Government, and by the due execu­cution of justice and judgement, that we live securely, that we enjoy our peace and plenty, that we sit every man quiet­ly under his own vine, and fig-tree, and enjoy the fruit of our labours: without it, how soon would the Biters and the Grinders fall in upon us, tear us in pieces, and devour us when there was none to helpe. Oh, blesse God for Govern­ment; cartainly of all the blessings that God hath sent down down from heaven to earth, (as to the things of this life) there is none so great as this of Government; therefore, blessed be God that hath eastblish't Government amongst us; and bles­sed be the King, which (with good Jeh shaphat) hath taken care to send forth Judges and Officers to administer justice [Page 54]and judgement unto the people; and blessed be the Parlia­ment, which hath made us Statutes, Judgements, and Laws, so just, so good, so righteous, to be govern'd by; and blest be all the Ministers of true Justice amongst us, which lay out themselves in their utmost endeavours, to preserve our peace and protect us, from wrong and voilence; from the fury of the Biters, and the Grinders, that would devour us: and now how shall we shew our thankefulnesse to them all? but by pray­ing for them, by paying tribute unto them, where tribute is due; by yeilding all due honour and reverence to their per­sons, all Subjection and due obedience to their Orders, In­junctions, and Commands, which they lay upon us for our good this is the way to preserve our peace; this is the way to continue our happinesse; and to make our dayes long in this good Land which the Lord our God hath given unto us; AMEN.