France, styled the Saint, that he reversed a pardon wrought from him to a malefactor, upon reading that verse in the Psalm, Beati qui faciunt justitiam in omni tempore; Blessed are they that do justice at all times; Psalm cvi. 3. No marvel, if one of those four things, which Isabel of Spain was wont to say she loved to see, were, "A Thief upon the Ladder." Even through his halter might she see the prospect of peace. Woe be to them, that, either for gain or private interest, engage themselves in the suit of favour to maliciously bloody hands: that, by the dam of their bribes, labour to stop the due course of punitive justice! These, these are the enemies of peace. These stain the land with that crimson dye, that cannot be washed out by many woeful lavers of revenge. Far, far be it from any of you, Generous Christians, to endeavour, either to corrupt or interrupt the ways of judgment; or, for a private benefit, to cross the public peace. Woe be to those partial Judges, that justify the wicked, and condemn the innocent; the girdle of whose equity sags down on that side, where the purse hangs! Lastly, woe to those unworthy ones, that raise themselves by frauds, bribes, simony, sacrilege ! Therefore are these enemies to the state, because to peace; and therefore enemies to peace because violaters of justice; And the work of justice is Peace.

Let

(3.) That COMMUTATIVE JUSTICE works Peace, needs no other proof, than that all the real brabbles and suits amongst men, arise from either true or pretended injustice of contracts. me lead you, in a Term morning, to the spacious Hall of Justice, What is the cause of all that concourse? that hive-like murmur? that noise at the Bar? but injurious bargains, fraudulent conveyances, false titles, disappointment of trusts, wrongful detentions of money, goods, lands, cozenages, oppressions, extortions? Could the honesty and private justice of men prevent these enormities, silence and solitude would dwell in that wide Palace of Justice: neither would there be more pleas than cobwebs under that vast roof. Every way, therefore, it is clear, that the work of Justice is Peace: insomuch as the Guardians of Peace are called Justicers.

(2.) This for the Commonwealth. If it please you to cast your eyes upon her sister, the Church, you shall find that the outward Peace thereof also must arise from Justice.

Alas! thence is our hopelessness: never may they prosper that love not, that wish not peace within those sacred walls; but what possibility of peace, in the peremptory repulses of Justice? What possibility of justice, in the long usurped tyranny of the successor of Romulus? Could we hope to see justice once shine from those Seven Hills, we would make account of peace; but oh, the miserable injustice of that imperious See! injustice of CLAIM; injustice of PRACTICE.

(1.) Of CLAIM; over Kings, Church, Scriptures, Conscience.

VOL. V.

Over Kings. There is St. Paul's superexalted repaιpóμevoç. His usual title is Orbis Dominus; "Lord of the World:" Dominus universorum, in the mouths and pens of his flatterers. And, lest princes should seem exempted, he is Rex Regum, as Paulus IV. He is super Imperatores et Reges; “Over says of himself. Emperors and Kings;" saith their Antonius, Triumphus Capistranus, and who not? How much? you know the calculation of the magnitude of the two great lights. How, over them? as the master over the servant: they are the words of their Pope Nicholas. The imperial throne is unde nisi à nobis ; " whence but from us;" saith Pope Adrian. What should I tell you of his bridle, stirrup, toe, cup, canopy? Let the book of Holy Ceremonies say the rest. These things are stale. The world hath long seen and blushed.

Över the Church. There is challenged a proper headship, from whom all influences of life, sense, motion come as their Bozius. Why said I, Over? He is Under the Church: for he is the foundation of the Church, saith Bellarmin: over, as the head; under, as the foundation. What can Christ be more? Thence, where are General Councils, but under him? as the stream of Jesuits. Who, but he, is Regula Fidei? as their Andradius. He alone hath infallibility and indefectibility, whether in Decretis Fidei, or in Præceptis Morum; " in Decrees of Faith or Precepts of Manners:" as Bellarmin. He hath power to make new creeds, and to obtrude them to the Church: the denial whereof was one of those Articles, which Leo the tenth condemned in Luther.

Over Scriptures. There is claimed a power to authorize them; for such: a power to interpret them, sententialiter et obligatorie; being such a power to dispense with them, ex causâ ; though such.

Over the Consciences of men: in dispensing with their oaths; in allowance of their sins. It is one head of their Canon Law, A Juramento Fidelitatis absolvit; "He absolves from the Oath of Allegiance;" Decret. p. 2. Caus. 15. qu. 6. And in every oath is understood a reservation and exception of the Pope's power, say his parasites. I am ashamed to tell, and you would blush to hear, the dispensation reported to be granted by Sixtus IV. to the family of the Cardinal of S. Lucie; and by Alexander VI. to Peter Mendoza, Cardinal of Valentia.

(2.) And, as there is horrible injustice in these Claims, so is there no less in PRACTICE. Take a taste of all. What can be more unjust, than to cast out of the lap of the Church, those, that oppose their novelties; to condemn them to the stake, to hell, for heretics? What more unjust, than to falsify the writings of ancient or modern authors, by secret expurgations, by wilful mis-editions? What more unjust, than the withholding the remedy of General Councils, and transacting all the affairs of the Church by a packed Conclave? What more unjust, than the

suppression of the Scriptures, and mutilation of the Sacrament to the Laity? What more unjust, than allowance of equivocation; than upholding a faction, by willing falsehood of rumours; than plotting the subversion of king and state, by unnatural conspiracies? Well may we call heaven and earth to record, against the unjustice of these claims, of these practices. What then? Is it to hope for peace, notwithstanding the continuance of all these? So the work of Injustice shall be peace and an unjust and unsound peace must it needs be that arises from injustice. Is it to hope they will abandon these things for peace? Oh, that the Church of God might once be so happy! that there were but any life in that possibility! In the mean time, let God and his holy angels witness betwixt us, that on their part the peace faileth; we are guiltless. What have we done? What have we attempted? What have we innovated? Only we have stood upon a just and modest negative, and have unjustly suffered. Oh, that all the innocent blood we have shed could wash their hands from injustice, from enmity to peace!

3. That from them we may return to ourselves; for the public, we enjoy a happy peace. Blessed be God for Justice. And if, in this common harmony of Peace, there be found some private jars of discord, whence is it, but from our own injustice? The world is of another mind; whose wont is to censure him that punishes the fault, not him that makes it. Severity, not guiltiness, in common opinion, breaks the peace.

Let the question be, who is the great make-bate of the world? Begin with the Family. Who troubles the house? not unruly, headstrong, debauched children, that are ready to throw the house out of the windows; but the austere father, that reproves, that corrects them; would he wink at their disorders, all would be quiet. Not careless, slothful, false, lime-fingered servants; but the strict master, that observes, and rates, and chastises them: would he hold his hands and tongue, there would be peace. Not the peevish and turbulent wife, who, forgetting the rib, usurps upon the head; but the resolute husband, that hates to lose his authority in his love; remembering, that though the rib be near the heart, yet the head is above the shoulders: would he fall from the terms of his honour, there would be peace.

In the Country: not the oppressing gentleman, that tyrannizes over his cottagers, encroaches upon his neighbour's inheritance, encloses commons, depopulates villages, screws his tenants to death; but the poor souls, that, when they are crushed, yield the juice of tears, exhibit bills of complaint, throw open the new thorns, maintain the old mounds: would these men be content to be quietly racked and spoiled, there would be peace.

The like discourse to this ye shall find in Conrad. Schlusselburgius, in his Preface to his xiiith Book, Catal. Hæret.

In the City not the impure sodomitish brothels that sell themselves to work wickedness; nor the abominable panders; not the juggling cheater; not the counterfeit vagrant: but the marshal, that draws these to correction: not the deceitful merchant, that sophisticates his commodities, enhanceth prices, sells every inch of (what he cannot warrant) time; not the unconscionable and fraudulent artisan: but the promoter and the bench.

In the Commonwealth: not the cruel robber by sea or land, that lies in the way, like a spider in a window, for a booty, for blood; not the bold night-walker, that keeps savage hours, fit for the guilty intentions of his burglaries; but the watch, that takes him not the rank adulterer, that neighs after his neighbour's wife, and thirsts after only stolen waters; but the sworn men, that present him: not the traitorous coiner, that in every stamp reads his own conviction, while he still renews that face against which he offends; but the sheriff that attaches him: not the unreformed drunkard, that makes a god of his liquor, a beast of himself, and raves and swaggers in his cups; but the constable, that punishes him: would these officers connive at all these villanies, there would be peace.

In the Church: not the chaffering patron, or perjured chaplain; not the seducing heretic, or seditious schismatic; not the scandalous Levite; not the careless questman; not the corrupt official but the clamorous preacher, or the rigorous highcommission.

:

In the World: lastly, not the ambitious encroachers upon others' dominions; not violaters of leagues; not open usurpers of mis-gotten titles and dignities; not suborners, or abettors of conspiracies, and traitors: but the unkind patients, that will not recipere ferrum. I wis the great potentates of the world might see a ready way to peace.

Thus in Family, Country, City, Commonwealth, Church, World, the greatest part seek a licentious peace in a disordered lawlessness: condemning true justice of cruelty; stripping her of the honour of peace; branding her with the censure of troublesome.

Foolish men speak foolish things. O noble and incomparable blessing of Peace, how injuriously art thou ascribed to unjust neglect! O divine virtue of Justice, how deservedly have the Ancients given thee wings, and sent thee up to heaven in a detestation of these earthly indignities; whence thou comest not down at all, unless it please that essential and Infinite Justice to communicate thee to some choice favourites!

It is but a just word, that this Island hath been long approved the darling of heaven. We have enjoyed peace, to the admiration, to the envy, of neighbourhood. Would we continue it? would we traduce it to ours? Justice must do it for us.

Both justice and peace are from the throne. Peace is the King's peace; and justly descends from sovereignty by commission. Let me have leave to say, with the princely Prophet, (a word that was too good for the frequent text of a Pope,) Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram. Still, O God, give thy judgment to the king, and thy justice to the king's son.

And, if any shall offer wrong to the Lord's Anointed, in his person, in his seed, the work of that injustice shall be war; yea, Bellum Domini, The Lord's War; 1 Sam. xxv. 28. Then let him, who is both the Lord of Hosts, and the God of Peace, rise up mightily for his Anointed, the true king of peace that he, who hath graciously said all this while, Da pacem Domine, "Give peace in our time, O Lord;" may superscribe at the last his just trophies, with, Blessed be the Lord, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.

III. Ye have heard of the Spiritual Justice and Peace: ye have heard of the Civil: may it please you, to mix both of them together. My text alone doeth it; if you do but, with our most accurate Translation, read Righteousness for Justice. So shall you see the spiritual disposition of Righteousness produce the civil effect of Peace. What is righteousness, but the sincere uprightness of the heart to God in all our ways? He is perfect with God, that would be so.

What need I tell you, that this is the way to true inward peace, nil conscire; "Not to be guilty of ill." A clear heart will be a quiet one. There is no feast to a good conscience: this is meat, music, welcome.

It seems harder, that true spiritual honesty should procure even outward peace. Hear wise Solomon: By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted; Prov. xi. 11: When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him; Prov. xvi. 7: Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people; Prov. xiv. 24. It follows then, as a just corollary, That the honestest and conscionablest man is the best subject. He may perhaps be plain, perhaps poor, perhaps weak; but the state is more beholden to his integrity, than to the ablest purse, than to the strongest arm: whereas the graceless and vicious person, let him be never so plausible a talker, never so careful an officer, never so valiant a leader, never so officious a courtier, never so deep in subsidies, never so forward in actions, is no other than an enemy to the state, which he professes to adore. Let no philosopher tell me of, Malus vir bonus civis ; "An ill man a good subject." I say, from better authority, that a lewd man can no more be a good subject, than an ill subject can be a good man. Hear this, then, wheresoever ye are, ye secret Oppressors, ye profane Scoffers, ye foul-mouthed Swearers, ye close Adulterers, ye kind Drunkards, and whoever come within this black list of wickednesses: how can ye be loyal, while you lodge