The Seventh Sermon
THE
CEREMONIAL
LAWS OF GOD.
VI.] nacle,and noted unto you what was within the tabernacle;to wit, the ark of the covenant, the golden table, the golden candlestick,the altar of incense, the altar of burnt-sacrifices, and the brasen laver : the mysteries of all which I declared unto you.
In the treatiseof the holy time I touched all the kinds of holy-days and solemn feast-days,with alltheircertain and uncertain holy-days.
Last of all,in our. discourse upon the holy things6,I told you of the two sacraments of the old church, circumcision and the passover ; and also of the sacrifices, whereof some were burnt-offerings, some meat-offerings, some peculiar,and some of thanksgiving7 : wherein we spake somewhat also touching free-will-offerings and vowed sacrifices : finallyof vows, of the discipline8of the Nazarites,of clean and unclean creatures, of the choice of meats, of blood and strangled,and of the touching of unclean things.
The Lord Jesus enlighten your hearts, that all this may tend to the glory of his name, and the health of your souls!
Amen.
OF THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
THE SEVENTH SERMON.
IN prosecuting the treatise of God's laws, I have now lastlyto speak of that sort which are called the judicial laws : of which I willentreat, dearly beloved, as brieflyas I can, so far forth as I shall be persuaded to be expedient for your edification. This treatise will not be unpleasant nor unproThe judicial fitableto every zealous hearer, although it doth specially 'profitable, belong to courts of law, where judgmentis exercised : for the judicial laws were with wonderful faith and diligenceset out of God9 by the ministry of his servant Moses ; and God is not wont to reveal any thing to mankind with so precise and exquisitediligence,unless it do directlytend to mankind's great commodity.
[6et cultum sacrum, Lat. ; and upon the holy worship.] [7gratulatoria sou cucharistica, Lat.] [8vel institute,Lat. ; or institution.] [9ab optimo et sapientissimo Deo, Lat. ; of the most excellent and most wise God.]
THE THIRD DECADE.
[SERM-
Now although these judicial laws are very few in number, and not to be compared in multitude with the huge volumes of the laws and decrees of emperors, kings, and wisest sages; yet do they in their short breviary contain the chief points of judgmentand justice, and, in effect,as much almost as is contained in the books of the laws and constitutionsof the emperors and civillawyers.
The good Lord would not by too long and burdensome a pack of laws be too burdenous and troublesome unto his people; neither was it needful over curiouslyto stick upon every several thought of ill-disposed persons : it is sufficientfor allwise men, people, and nations, ifevery one have so much law as is sufficientfor the conservation of peace, civilhonesty, and public tranquillity; as all the holy scripture1witnesseth that the people of Israel had.
Most ancient Now these judicial laws are the most ancient,and very fountains of allother good laws which are to be found almost in allthe world.
Moses was before allother lawgivers that were of name and authority : among whom Mercurius2 Trismegistus and Rhadamanthus the Lycian3 are thought to be the eldest.
The Egyptians called their Mercurius by the name of Thoth, who, as Lactantius affirmeth,slew Argus that had so many eyes, and upon the murder fled into Egypt4.
He was called Now Argus and Atlas livedabout the time of Cecrops Diphyes ; and Cecrops is reported to have been in the same time that OTdu^iid"8'
Moses was5.
Rhadamanthus also is supposed to have lived c^seh'e'first maundy after the days of Joshue, Moses his servant and successor. among the Grecians.
[iUni versa historia sacra, Lat. ; all the sacred history.] [aHe is by Augustine (de Civit. Dei, Lib. xvni. cap.
8 and 39) made a late contemporary of Moses.] [3In Euseb.
Chron.
A.M.
are placed " Rhadamanthus et Sarpedon reges Lyciorum."
Moses is there placed from A.M.
to 3728.
Augustine (de Civit. Dei, Lib. xviu. cap. 12.)places Rhadamanthus in the interval between the Exodus and the death of Joshua.] [4legislatorem suum, Lat. ; their lawgiver.
Lactantius, on the authority of Cicero (de Nat.
Deor.
Lib. in.)having stated that there " quintum fuisse eum, a quo occisus sit Argus: ob eamque causam in ."Egyptum profugisse; atque JEgyptiis were five Mercuries, says: leges ac literas tradidisse.
Hunc uEgyptii Thoth appellant.
Lactant.
Div.
Instit.Lib.
I. cap. 6. pp. 29, 30. Lugd.
Bat. 1660.] [6Cecrops is placed by Abp.
Usher, B.C.
1556, a littleafter the birth of Moses.
In Euseb.
Chron. under date A.M.
3616, it is said:
Quidam scribunt Athlantem fratrem Promethei, et Argum cuncta cernentem hisfuissetemporibus ; aliivero jctate Cecropis (i. o.
A.M.
3640.)]
THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
VII.] But the most famous lawgivers of the greatest and most HIS image ancient nations did follow long after the death of Moses; STor two0 Draco and Solon among the Athenians, Minos with the Cretians,Charondas of the Tyrians [Thurians], Phoronaeus to the Argives, Lycurgus to the Lacedaemonians, Pythagoras to the Italians,Romulus and Numa unto the Romans.
Plato writ of laws a littlebefore the reign of Philip,king of Macedon and father to Alexander the Great6.
And Cicero,Lib. n. de " I see thereforethat the opinion of the wisest Legibus, saith: sort was, that law was neither invented by men's wits,nor yet was the decree or ordinance of people ; but a certain eternal thing, rulingthe whole world with discretionto command or forbid,to do or leave undone.
So they said that the chief and highest law is the wisdom of God, which commandeth or The Latin "
"" i , i
i " i -rrri i i i " i copy hath lorbiddeth all things by reason.
Whereupon that law, which mentem Dei, '
* ', for the which the gods have given to mankind, is rightlycommended : for it^JfJ0^ .
... eof isthe reason and discretionof the wise which is able either to God"
" and so forth7. Therefore the judicial laws of God are eommended unto us, not so much for their command or elseforbid; antiquity,as for the authority which they have of God.
Now that we may plainly and distinctlydiscourse upon TO judge, thismatter, ye have to mark, that to judgeis an action; and j?udgmeent, in thistreatiseis taken for an action done in the courts of "u"ai laws, " i ,,.../, i i , , . what they be. judgment: for it sigmfiethto take up and determine of matters betwixt such as be at variance, or else upon the hearing of a cause to give sentence or judgment.Finally, to judge doth signify,to deliverthem that be in danger, to reh'evethe oppressed, to defend the afflicted,and with punishment to keep under mischievous offenders. Judgment, therefore, is not the sittingor meeting of judgesin assizesor sessions; but israther the very diligentdiscussingof causes, the giving of sentence according to right and equity by the laws of God, and also the assertion and defence whereby the good are delivered,and the punishment that is executed upon the ill- [6Draco, B.C.
624.
Solon, 694.
Minos is placed by Euseb.
Chron. thirty years later than Rhadamanthus.
Charondas at Thurium, 446.
Phoroneus is placed in Euseb.
Chron. about the 110th year of Isaac's age.
Lycurgus, 884.
Pythagoras, 547.
Romulus, 753.
Numa, 715.
Plato de Legibus, cir. 367.
See also Polydor.
Vergil, de rer. invent.
Lib. n. cap. 1 ; and Augustin. de Civit. Dei. Lib. xvm. cap. 3, 8, 25.] ['Cic. de Legib. Lib. ir. cap. 4.]
THE THIRD DECADE.
[sEKM.
disposed and wicked offenders.
The judgesare the overseers of judgmentand justice ; I mean, such as do justly according to the laws give sentence betwixt them that are at discord, which do defend and deliver the good, and punish and bridle the wicked.
And so the judicial laws are those which inform the judgeshow to determine of controversiesand questions,how to judgejustly, how to punish the wicked, and how to defend the good, that peace, honesty, justice, and public tranquillitymay be among all men ; which is the end and mark alone whereto both the judgeand all the judicial laws do tend and are directed. For God, our good Lord and lawgiver,would have it to go well with man, that we may live happily, civilly,and in tranquillity.And therefore we do not in this treatiseexclude the care and defence of pure religion, but do make it one of the especialpoints which the judicial laws do look unto.
The judicial And now even as the ceremonial laws, so also are the judicial laws added by God unto the ten commandments, to expound and confirm them therewithal.
For the precepts of the ten commandments are the chiefand principalprecepts, whemmto we must refer all laws, as to the eternal mind or will of God.
I think I need not to stand and shew you, dearly beloved, to what precepts of the ten commandments every several judicial law is to be referred: for that is very plain and evident to every one that will take but small pains to confer and lay them together.
For the judicial laws that are set out against murder and injury are appertaining to this precept :
" Thou shalt do no murder."
And whatsoever is spoken against adultery, fornication,and filthy " Thou shalt not lusts, are added to the commandment : commit adultery."
Likewise, whatsoever is said in the judicia laws against deceits,shifts,cozenings, and usury, do " Thou shaltnot steal." Lastly, belong to the commandment : allthe laws touching the bridlingof hereticsand suppressing of apostates by force are set down to make plain the first, second, third, and fourth commandments of the firsttable: for some laws may be applied to more precepts than one of the ten commandments.
But this is easy and plain to be perceived of every man : therefore I will not stand any longer about it. f"r because the judicial laws do firstof all require
THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
VII.] judges, such, I mean, as should maintain and put the laws in execution (forthe laws without executors seem to be dead, and on the other side are alive under a justmagistrate, who is for that cause calledthe living law1);therefore before all other laws are placed those judicial laws which were given bj God touching the magistrate or judges, with their office " Bring ye," [Deut.i.13.] and election.
Of their electionthus we read : saith Moses to the people, " men of wisdom and of understanding, and expert2, according to your tribes,and I will make them rulers over you."
Again:
" I will make thee3 !|{j^ut-x rulers and judgesto judgethe people, according to thy tribes,in allthy citieswhich the Lord thy God giveth thee."
And yet again more plainly:
" Seek"
(saithJethro, being [Exod.jviu. inspiredfrom above, unto Moses) " out of all the people men of courage, and such as fear God, true men, hating covetous- " and ness,"
(towit, such as hate to take money and bribes), make of them over the people rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens : and let them judgethe people at all seasons.
Which if thou dost, thou shaftboth keep the ordinances of God4, and the people in peace and safety."
To this doth belong that which we read in the book of Numbers, where Moses prayed, saying:
Let [Num.
XX?H. the God of the spiritsof all flesh set a man over this congregation, which may go out ahd in before them ; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep without a shepherd."
Herein Moses hath left an example for us to imitate, in making our prayers to God for the electionof our judges.
For oftentimes our opinions or judgmentsof men do utterly deceive us ; but the God of spiritsdoth behold the minds and hearts, and knoweth what every one is in thoughts and inward meaning5.
He therefore must be besought to give and shew to us not hypocrites to be our judges, but men of truth and virtue.
In the same place doth Moses leave to us the descriptionof consecrating new chosen judges : for they were set before the Lord, and hands were laid upon them [i See Vol. i. p. 339.] [2spectatso probitatis viros,Lat. ; men of tried probity.
Heb. and Auth.
Ver. known.
Vulg. quorum conversatio sitprobata.] [3 Constitues tibi,Lat. ; thou shalt make thee.] [4servabis instituta Dei, Lat. ; implebis imperium
Dei, et pwecepta ejuspoteris sustentare, Vulg.] [5intus et in cute, Lat.]
THE THIRD DECADE.
[SERM.
"with making of prayers and supplications. Moreover the officeof judgeis very briefly,but yet in most effectualand absolute sentences, described of the Lord, by the mouth of Moses, in these words :
" Hear the causes of your brethren, fDeut.i.16, 17.] and judgerighteously betwixt every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.
Ye shall have no respect of any person1 injudgment : but hear the small and the great alike; and fear not the face of any man : for the judgment is God's."
Again:
"Judge the people with justjudgment.
Decline not in judgment2: have no respect of persons, neither take thou any bribes; for rewards do blind the eyes of the IDeut. xvi.
18-20.] wise, and doth pervert justcauses.
Do judgmentwith justice, that thou mayest live,and possess the land which the " Do no unjust thing in judgment; accept not the face of the poor, neither fear thou the face of the mighty, but judgethou justly unto thy neighbour."
Again :
Lord thy God shallgive thee."
And again :
[Ley.xix.
" Thou shalt not have to do with a false report ; thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a matter of justice according to the greater number for to pervertjudgment :" that is,ifthou seest an innocent to be condemned of the multitude, do not thou therefore condemn him because the multitude hath condemned him ; but judgethou justly, and commit not evil because of the many voices of the multitude.
" Thou shalt [Exod. xxiii.
1"3, 6, 7,9.] . not esteem a poor man in his cause : neither shalt thou hinder the poor of his right in his suit.
Keep thee far from a false matter ; and the innocent and righteous see that thou slay not3.
Thou shalt not oppress the stranger ; seeing ye yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt."
And God verily,when he had delivered the people from tiiin of a king and of princes. tne tyranny of the kings of Egypt, did not put them in subjectio to kings again, nor burden them with the tributes which kings are wont to exact of their subjects : for he made them a commonweal, or an aristocracy,which was the most excellent kind of regiment, wherein the choicestmen in all [inon agnoscetis facies,Lat. ; ye shall not acknowledge faces.
Auth.
Ver. Marg.] [2ne flectasjudicium, Lat. ; thou shalt not wrest judgment.Auth.
Ver.] [3Non enim justiftcabo impium, Lat. omitted by the translator; for I will not justify the wicked.]
THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
VII.] the multitude were picked out to bear the sway and to rule the rest : but yet because he was not ignorant of his people's foolishness,and that they, being weary of their liberty,would crave a king (whichthing he did afterward also dissuade them from* by his servant Samuel),he made laws for a king also, that he might understand that he was to live under the laws, and to give judgmentaccording to the laws.
The discipline or institutionof a king is thus expressed in the seventeenth " When thou art come into chapter of Deuteronomy : the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me ; then thou shalt make him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
One from among the midst of thy brethren shalt thou make king over thee ; and thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not of thy brethren.
But he shall not gather many horses unto himself, nor bring the people back again into Egypt, to increase the " that is,to get himself a strong troop of horsemen : "forasmuch as the Lord hath said,Ye shall henceforth number of horses ; go no more again that way.
Also let him not take many wives to himself, lesthis heart turn away : neither let him gather too much silver and gold.
And when he is set upon the seat of his kingdom, he shall write him out a copy of this law in a book, according to the copy of the book which the priests the Levites do use : and it shall be with him, and he ought to read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and to keep all the words of this law, and these ordinances, for to do them.
And let not his heart arise above his brethren, neither let him turn from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left; that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, both he, and his sons, in the midst of Israel."
Thus much hitherto of the magistrates, of judges, and of kings.
Now I suppose that in this institutionof a king all things are contained, which are most largely set out by other authors touching the disciplineand education of a prince.
And by the way this is especially to be noted ; that kings are~not set asToTctTahd ruleriTover the word and laws of God; but^agcr [4multis et validis rationibus, Lat. omitted ; with many and powerful reasons.] "
THE THIRD DECADE.
[sKRM.
as subjects, to be judgedpfGod by the_jEflicL as they that ought to rule and govarrTajJl things according to the rule of * "*"""
" nd C0mman3ment.
And here I have to rehearse unto you some of the judicial laws ; I mean, not alland every several one, but those alone which are the chief and choicestto be noted : by which ye may consider of the rest, and plainlyperceive,that the people of Israel were not destituteof any law which was necessary and profitablefor their good state and welfare.
I will recite them unto you as brieflyas may be, and in as natural and plain an order as possiblycan be.
Hoiy twngs.
Of the holy buildings,of the not making away of such things as were consecrated to the Lord, and finally,of the maintaining and publishing of true religion,there is large speech everywhere throughout the whole scripture.
Neither do I think it to be greatly to the purpose word by word to reciteall the laws, nor particularlyto make mention of all the commandments touching those matters.
Verily, of the heathen, and of the overthrowing of their temples and superstitious holy toys, this commandment is brieflygiven by the [Deutvu.
Lord himself: "When the Lord thy God hath cast out many nations before thee, thou shalt root them out ; neither shalt thou make league with them, nor pity them, nor joinaffinity with them : because they willseduce thy sons to serve strange gods; and so my fury wax hot against thee, and I destroy thee.
But this shalt thou do to them : ye shalldig down Jtheiraltars,ye shall break their idols1,ye shall cut down their groves, and burn their images with fire.
For an holy people art thou unto the Lord thy God ; and the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiarpeople unto himself."
The same law isset down in the twenty-third of Exodus, and is again repeated in the twelfth of Deuteronomy.
Hereunto idolatry. belong the laws that were published against idolsand images.
In the nineteenth of Leviticusthe Lord saith:"Look not back to idols,neither make you molten gods : I am the Lord your God."
Also in the twenty-sixthchapter : "Ye shallmake you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up any pillar, neither shallye set you up any image of stone2 in your land, f1 statuas, Lat. ; statues, or pillars.Auth.
Ver. Marg.] [2lapidem figuratum, Lat. ; a stone of picture, or figured stone.
Auth.
Ver. Marg.]
THK JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
VII.] to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God."
Again in tho sixteenthof Deuteronomy : "Thoushalt plant no grove of any trees nigh unto the altar of the Lord thy God : neither shalt thou set thee up any image, which the Lord thy God hateth."
There are, beside these, also many other laws to thisend and purpose in every place through allthe volume of the scriptures.
Of the wellhandling and entreatingof the poor,ofwidows3, The poor. of orphans, and strangers,the Lord giveth this commandment:
"Ye shallnot afflictthe widow, nor the fatherless. But if ye [EXO"I.xxu.
22"24.] go on to afflictthem, without doubt they shallcry to me, and I willassuredly hear them, and will be angry with you, and willslay you with the sword, and your wives shallbe widows, and your children fatherless." To thisbelongeth a good part of the fifteenthchapter of Deuteronomy.
In the twenty-fourth " Do not pervert the judgmentof the chapter the Lord saith: stranger, of the fatherless,and of the widow.
Remember that thou wast a stranger in the land of Egypt."
Of the receiving and refusing of witnesses and their wit-witness and . i if " witness-bcarness-beanngs in judgment these few notes are given m the ines- " One witness shall not be of force against a man, [Deut xix. law :
, .
~, .
, ,.15,16,18,10.] whatsoever his sin or oftence shall be : but in the mouth of two or three witnessesshallevery word be established.
If a falsewitness rise up against a man, to accuse him of trespass, the judgesshall make diligentinquisition;and if they find that the witness hath borne falsewitness against his brother, then shallthey do to him as he had thought to have done to his brother ; and thou shalt put evilaway from out of the midst of thee."
Now, for the oath which the judgeshave to exact, or they that are at variance, or else the witnesses,have to take, that doth the Lord command to be done by the calling to record of his holy Name, and that too of none other but his name alone.
Deuteron. x.
"c.
Moreover, that in effectis a kind of appeal, where Moses An appeal, doth so often bid the judgesin an hard and doubtful matter to have recourse unto the high priest,and so, as it were, to God himself,or the oracle of God, for the declarationof the same ; as is to be seen in the eighteenth chapter of Exodus, and in the firstand seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy.
[3pupillis,Lat. omitted ; fatherless.] r
[UULLINGEK,
II.J
THE THIRD DECADE.
[sERM.
Marriage.
Of lawful wedlock, against incestuous and unprofitable marriages,and alsoof the degrees of consanguinityand affinity, there are exquisiteprecepts as well in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus,as also in other places of the books of Moses.
Verily,where lawfulmarriages are not, there isno matrimony : therefore the children that are so born are counted bastards ; neither isthere for them any dowries or inheritance.
Parents and The Lord in many places of his law doth charge parents children.
, .
J r , to bring up their children honestly, and to instruct them in [Deut.vi. the fear of God.
Among the rest he saith: "The words which I command thee thisday thou shalt shew unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou art at home in thine house, and as thou walkest by the way, and when thou liestdown, and when thou risestup.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontletsbetwixt thine eyes ; and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house, and upon thy gates,"c."
Again, for the honouring, reverencing, and nourishing of parents, there are not in the moral law only, but also in the judicial laws, some things set down wherein the honour and duty to be given to parents is diligentlycommended to all sorts of people : of which I willspeak when I come to treat of parricide,under which titleI do comprehend the evilhandling and naughty demeanour of men to their parents, or the power Now, how great the authority of fathers over their chiland authority .
. of fathers, dren was, we may conjecture by that especially,where, in the twenty-firstof Exodus, it is permitted to the father,that isin
[Exod. xxii. poverty, to sellhis daughter.
Again, in another place,leave is given to the father either to deny, or else to give, his deflowere daughter in marriage to him that did defileher. And again, it was in the father'spower to break the vow1 which the childhad made without his knowledge or consent, NumDisinheriting. bers xxx.
But that to disinheritthe children(ifthe children had not deserved it, but that some corrupt affectionhad blinded the parents)lay not in the power or will of the parents,that law doth shew, which is published in the twentyfirstchapter of Deuteronomy
; and doth forbid the father to place the second in the right of his eldest or first-begotten son. inheritance.
Concerning the coming to inheritance,and the succession [lDeo nuncupatum, Lat. ; made to God.]
THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
VII.] of goods, or the lawful successionby kindred, there is a precise law in the twenty-seventh chapter of the book of Numbers.
There is set down the case of the daughters of Zelphad, who did request that their father'sname should not be wiped out, but that their father'sinheritance and name might be given unto and stillremain with them.
Upon that occasion was the law made, that ifthe sons did die,the heritage should be conveyed over and given to the daughters, or, at leastwise,to those that were nearest of affinity. And thereunto belongeth the law of raising seed unto the deceased brother, and the whole thirty-sixthchapter almost of the book of Numbers.
Upon this law also doth hang the right which cometh by adoption.
Furthermore, of whoredoms, adulteries,and the ravishingwhoredom an of virgins,there are many profitable,honest, and wholesome " There laws.
In the twenty-third of Deuteronomy it is said, shallbe no whore of the daughters of Israel,nor whoremonger of the sons of Israel."
And in the same place he forbiddeth to bring oblationswhich are the price of an harlot'shire.
In " Set not out thy daughter [Lev. xix. for hire, to make her play the harlot; lest the land be defiled, Leviticus charge is given, saying : and filledwith sin."
Therefore, in the twenty-second of Deuteronomy, the maid that was deflowered, and yet feigned herselfto be a virgin still, when she was given to an husband, was commanded to be stoned to death before the doors of her father's house ; to the end that parents, being terrified with so grievous a thing, might be stirred up to look more warily unto their children.
In the twenty-second of Exodus thislaw is given: "If a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and liewith her, he shall endow her and take her to wife."
There are most sharp laws against whoredoms and adulteries,Deuteronomy xxii.; for there adulterers are punished with death.
The same punishment was appointed for him that did by violence ravish a virgin.
For suspicionsand jealousy there are rules given in the fifthchapter of Numbers.
Against detestable,unlawful, and altogether devilishlusts,there are most severe and yet most justlaws expressed ; as against most filthyincest,abominable sodomy, horrible and unnatural bestiality,and such sins as God hath cursed, and are not once worthy to be named among men.
Levit. eighteenthand twentieth chapters.
15"2
THE THIRD DECADE.
[sERM.
Divorcements and separations were permitted by the law Divorcein the twenty-fourth of Deuteronomy, for nothing else but for the hardness of the Jewish people's hearts, and for the avoiding of some greater inconvenience; to wit, lest peradventure any man should poison,strangle,or otherwise killthe woman, his wife,which he hated, when he could by none other means rid his hands of her.
And they that were in that manner divorced might at their pleasures be married to others.
Moreover, that justice might be maintained, and that The divui every man might enjoyhis own, in the law there was charge very diligentlygiven for the divisionof things,for the partition of the land of promise by equal portions, and for the peculiar possessionof proper goods ; that to every tribe possessions might be given by lot,and that no man should by any means make away the possessionswhich were given him.
For hereunto belongeth that which is spoken by Moses in the thirty-second,thirty-third,thirty-fourthchapters of the book of Numbers, and oftentimes in other places also.
And yet notwithstanding, thislaw was nothing prejudicia to trafficby exchange.
For there were many and very upright laws published for buying and selling,for lettingand hiring, Buying and for borrowing and lending,forusury and things leftin custody.
Whosoever desireth to see the places in the law, he shallhave them in the twenty-fifthof Leviticus,in the twenty-second of Exodus, in the fifteenthand twenty-third chapters of Deuteronomy.
And I suppose that to this is to 'be referred the law which is given concerning pawns or pledges :
" If thou hast taken thy neighbour's garment to pledge, thou shalt Pawns and Exod restore it him again before the sun be set.
For that is his only covering:" that is, it is the garment wherewith he covereth his flesh,and wherein he sleepeth.
"For it shall come to pass, that ifhe cry to me, I willhear him ; because I am merciful." Again; "Thou shalt not take the nether or upper mill-stoneto pledge : for he hath laid that whereon he liveth to pledge to thee."
The laws for things leftin custody, or committed to the Things left creditof another man, and for taking of oaths, commandeth every man to make true restitutionof the thing which was given unto him to keep.
But if it were stolen away from him to whom the custody of it was committed, then he that
THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
VII.] kept itought to purge himself by an oath before a magistrate, to shew that he consented not to the conveying of the thing away.
The same order is commanded to be observed in things borrowed, that are lost,or otherwise broken : as is to be seen in the twenty-second chapter of Exodus.
And for because itis manifest that no small part of the Bondage. goods of the ancient Israelitesdid consistin the multitude of bondmen, therefore the law of God doth sticklong upon the discourseof bondage and bondmen, and of the binding and manumission of them.
And yet it doth diligentlycommand to handle bondmen mercifullylikemen, and every sixth year1 to set them free from slavery.
But if it so fellout, that at Mancipation. the sixth year's end any bondman were desirous to stay still in his master's house, he was permitted so to do, upon condition that his voluntary bondage should be confirmed by the ceremony of mancipation ; to wit, that the bondman, being f"g*xxibrought before the judges, should there testifythat he would serve in bondage voluntarily; and thereupon the nether lap of his ear should be bored with an awl, and fastened to the door.
And that was the sign or token of faith and obedience.
For David, alludingthereunto, did say, that the Lord had bored through his ear, that is,that by faith he had bound him to obedience.
Moreover, the Lord did in these laws limit out the time Manu of bondmen's manumission, because the lords of bondmen should not use them over-cruelly for their gain and commodity's sake : all which are at fullset down in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus.
We must also refer that to the clemency that ought to be shewed to servants, where as in the twenty- " Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his third chapter of Deuteronomy it is said : master unto thee ; but let him dwell in any place whereunto he is fled."
And yet manstealing is most sharply forbidden.
Now they commit the offencecalled Plagium2, that is to say, manstealing, whosoever do entice other men's bondmen to run from their masters, or which do, by theft or robbery, steal other men's servants, whom they do either keep to themselves, or else sellto others.
Against such this law is " Whosoever stealeth a man, and sellethhim, ifhe be given :
[lsexennio finite,Lat.] [2 See above, page 47.]
THE THIRD DECADE.
[SERM.
convinced of the crime,lethim die the death." And the same law is again repeated in the twenty-fourth of Deuteronomy.
Of free men littleis said in the law ; but they were exempted from bearing officein the commonwealth, which were Bastards. known to be harlots'children,whose fathers1 no man knew.
Strangers also,as the Ammonites and Moabites, were utterly barred from rule and authority in the Israelitishweal public.
Deuteronomy xxiii.
All deceit,cozening,robbery, shiftings,and subtilcrafts, are flatlyforbidden in the law under the titleof theft.
For " Ye shall not steal, in the nineteenth of Leviticus we read : nor deal falsely,nor lie one to another."" And in the nineteenth "
Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's of Deuteronomy : meerstone2."
In the twenty-second of Exodus the Theft and deceit.
Lord doth punish theft with four or five-folddouble restitution Restitution.
: which whosoever did not perform, he was sold, and brought into extreme bondage.
But ifthe stolenthing were found with the thief,and recovered again,then did the stealer restore to the owner double the value of that which was stolen.
To this law belonged whatsoever was spoken concerning sacrilege,stealingof cattle,robbing of the common Sacrilege. treasury, and carrying away of other men's bond-slaves; of which I spake somewhat a littlebefore3.
And to this doth The hireling'sappertain that excellentlaw which saith:
Thou shalt not waes.
"*"
*" deny, nor keep back, the wages of an hired servant that is wages.
Ijjeut x poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of the strangers that are within thy land ; thou shalt give him his hire the same day4, and that before the sun go down; because he is needy, and doth therewith sustain his life5: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee."
Concerning doing and receivingdamage, and the making of damage, of fullrestitutionfor the harm that is done, there are many constitutionsin the law of the Lord.
" If any man," saith [Exod. xxi.
3J, 34.] [*and whose, Lat.] [2mere : a boundary.
Johnson.] [3sacrilegium, abigeatum, et peculatum, Lat.
See above, p. 44-48.] [4die suo, Lat. ; at his day.
Auth. Ver.] [5 Sustentat ex eo vitam suam, Lat.
So Vulg. and Coverdale, 1535, "and his life(is)susteyned therwith."
Ainsworth in loc. : "And unto it he liftethup his soul ; that is,hopeth for and desireth it for the maintenance of his life."]
THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
VII.] the law, " doth dig a well,and do not cause it to be covered, so that an ox or a sheep of another man's do fall into it; then lethim that owneth the well take to himself the beast that perished,and pay the worth of the beast to him that is the owner thereof."
The likelaw is made in the twenty-first of Exodus touching an ox that pusheth with his horns.
In the twenty-second chapter is given the law of restitutionin giving likefor like; if either one man's pasture be eaten up by another man's cattle,or if one man hurt another's corn or vineyard.
For the law commandeth to restore other pasturings,other corn-ground, and other vineyards, not of the worst, but of the best,to him that had the damage done him.
Likewise if any man had set thorns on fire,and by [Exod.xxiu his negligence had suffered itto catch hold upon corn, eitherxkiv.
18"21.] standing in the fieldupright,or stacked up in mows6 at home ; then he, by whose negligencethe firebegan, did make amends for the lossthat the other received.
The same law is again repeated in the twenty-fourth of Leviticus.
In the twentysecond of Deuteronomy there are many things expressed that must be referred unto this title: of which sort is the law that biddeth us to bring back the ox that goeth astray, and to restore the things that are found to him that lostthem ; to keep our buildingsin good reparations,that by misfortune in the fallof them our brethren be not mischieved.
And " Thou shalt have rneut. xxuu
13.1 a place without the host to go forth unto ; and shalt bear a like to these is the law also which saith:
' paddle-stick at thy girdle,wherewith as thou sittestthou shaltdig a hole to hide thy ordure, or cover thine excrements in."
And in the civillaw the likematter in effectis handled7: for very necessitydoth require, that in commonweals there should be laws concerning draughts, and order of buildings, so that no man by his excrements or building of new houses should trouble or annoy his neighbours about him.
To this place,also,we may add the laws that were made concerning the separating of lepersfrom them that were clean, lest peradventure the contagious disease should by littleand little infectthe healthful.
The laws of lepersand the leprosy are ["mow, a heap of corn or hay ; when laid up in a house, said to be in mow; when heaped together in a field,in rick. Johnson's Diet.] [7Codex Justin. Lib. vm. tit. 10, de sedificiisprivatis. Tom. n.
Lugd.
1561.]
THE THIRD DECADE.
[SERM.
at large set down in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Leviticus. weiRmand Just weights and just measures the Lord commanded to " Thou shalt not have in he kept in the law, -where he saith: thy bag two manner of weights, a great and a small : neither shalt thou have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.
But thou shalt have a right and a justweight, and a perfectand a just measure shalt thou have : that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
For all that do such things,and all that deal unrightly, are abomination unto the Lord thy God."
This law is given in the twenty-fifthof Deuteronomy, and is again repeated in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus.
The punuhOf public judgments, of witchcrafts,and the punishment s"iuyof offenders, there are many laws set down in the book of " sufferwitches " Thou shalt not,'1 saith the Lord, [Exod.xxii. the Lord.
The fathers shall not be killed for the xxiv.i6.j to live."
Again : sons, nor the sons for the fathers: but every one shall be slain for his own offence."
Neither doth the law conceal the manner of killing: for itgiveth the use of the sword, of stones, and of fire,into the magistrate's hands.
And sometime it is leftto the judge's discretionto punish the offender according to the circumstance of the crime committed, either in body or goods, in loss of limbs or life,in scourging with rods, or sellinginto bondage.
In the twentieth chapter of Leviticus allthe offences are almost reckoned up that are to be punished with present death.
And in like manner the like are repeated in the eighteenth and twenty-first chapter of the same book, witches and Against witches and soothsayers1 there is precise charge soothsayers.
, .
, i i"
-r% given in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy.
In the nineteenth of Leviticusthis short precept is given :
Ye shall not seek after witches, nor observe your dreams : ye shallnot decline to sorcerers, nor inquireof soothsayers to be defiledby them.1'
Against such the law doth expressly give judgmentof death and extreme punishment, Leviticus xx.
In the twenty-second " Let of Exodus this straitsentence is sharply pronounced : not a woman live that is a witch."
Heretics and Against heretics,schismatics,apostates,and falseprophets, piletr0" the law giveth judgmentin the thirteenth and eighteenth [!Mathematicis, Lat.
See Vol.
I. p. 221, note 7.]
TUB JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
VII.] chapters of Deuteronomy ; where it doth most plainlyteach how such kind of people are to be handled.
And like to this is the law for the stoning of blasphemers, which is contained in the twenty-fourth of Leviticus; and also the law for contemners and breakers of the Lord's sabbath, Numbers xv.
Against seditious rebels and secret slanderers there is Rebels and much to be found in many places of the law.
Chore, Dathan, and Abirom were rebels, of whose ends ye may read in the sixteenth of the book of Numbers.
If any man did maliciously bring up a slander upon his wife's chastity,and was not able to prove it true, he was merced at a sum of money, or punished with stripes,as isto be seen in the twenty-second of Deuteronomy.
In the nineteenth of Leviticus thisprecept is given :
" Thou shalt not go up and down with talesamong thy people: neither shalt thou hate thy brother in thine heart ; but shalt rebuke him and tellhim thy mind plainly."
Also in the twenty-second of Exodus it is said, " Thou shalt not rail upon the gods (orjudges1), nor blaspheme the ruler of thy people."
Moreover there are sundry kinds of murder, whereof Murder, some are greater or smaller than other.
The most detestable murder of all is parricide,(when one killeth his father or his kinsman2),under which we do comprehend the evilentreating or currish handling of parents by their children.
Whosoever striketh father or mother, or curseth them,"
(E*OA. xxi. saith the law, "let him die the death.'1
Again, they are bidden to killthe rebel that dareth stand up to resistthe upright decrees and holy ordinances of the elders,Deuteronomy xvii.
And also in the twenty-first of Deuteronomy " If any man have a stubborn, a froward, and rebellious we find : son, that will not hearken to the voice of his father, and the voice of his mother, and they have chastened him, and he would not hearken unto them : then shall his father and his mother take him, and bring him out unto the elders of that city,and to the gate of that place ; and say unto the elders of the city,This our son is stubborn and disobedient, and will not hearken to our voice ; he is a rioter and a drunkard : and straightway all the men of that city shall stone him with stones until he die : and thou shalt put evil from thee : and all Israel shall hear and fear."
[2The translator's addition.]
THE THIRD DECADE.
[sERM.
Furthermore, murder is either committed willingly or else unwillingly.
Of murder unwillingly committed there is an example in the nineteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, where the case is put as followeth : Two friends go to the wood to hew wood together ; and as the one fetcheth his stroke, the head of the axe falleth from the helve, and striketh the other so that he dieth upon it.
This deed the Lord doth neither impute, nor would have it to be imputed to the man, but to himself ; and therefore he giveth licence to the man to fly unto the sanctuary.
For his mind was that the sanctuaries should be a safeguard to such kind of people as killed men unwillingly, and not to bladers1 and cutters, not to them that poison, or otherwise killtheir neighbours of a set pretence or purpose2 : of which there is much to be seen in the thirty-fifthof Numbers, the fourth and the nineteenth chapters of Deuteronomy.
To the law for murder unwillingly committed doth the case belong3 that is thus put forth : Two men fighttogether, and in their fight they strike a woman with child, so that either she falleth in travail before her time, or else doth presently die out of hand.
In such a case what is to be done, the Lord did teach in the twentyfirst of Exodus, where the law of like for like is also set down:
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand," "c.
In the same place, also, is put another kind of murder, which is committed either by thy beast, as by thine ox that pusheth with his horns, or by thy wolf, or by thy dog that thou keepest in thine house; or else by some instrument, or building, that is in thy possession.
Now thou didst either know, or not know, the fierceness of thy beast, the peril in thine instrument, or the rottenness of thy building.
If thou knewest it not, thou wast then excused : but if thou knewest it,and didst not seek a way to prevent the mischief, the Lord gave charge that thou shouldest die for it.
But if of clemency it were granted thee to redeem thy life,thou shouldest not refuse to pay any sum of money, how great soever it were.
Now wilful murder, committed upon pretended malice4, [!bladers, latronibus, Lat.] [2 non veneficis aut parricidis,Lat.] [3etiam, Lat. ; also.] [4quse fit voluntate destinata per insidias aut malevolentiam, Lat. ; which is perpetrated of set purpose by lying in wait or malice.]
THB JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.
VII.] is utterly unpardonable in the law of God.
" Such an one," rExod.xxL saith the law, " thou shalt pull from mine altar,that he maybe killed."
In this case redemption of lifeis not permitted, but the blood of the murderer is straitlyrequired.
Many cases of this severity, and many other things tending to thisend, are to be read in the thirty-fifth chapter of Numbers and the twenty-firstof Exodus.
In the twenty-firstof Deuteronomy is described the action, partly ceremonial, and partly judicial, which was solemnized when any man was found to be slain,and no man knew who was the murderer;where also the manner is prescribed,how to make an atonement for the murder : whereby we may gather how horrible a sin murder isin the sight of God and the catholicchurch.
Lastly, the law doth not leave the order of war untouched : war. for it giveth precepts concerning the beginning, the making, and the ending of war ; which are to be read in the twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy.
Moreover in the law there are set out the examples of terriblewars; as that with the Amalachites in the seventeenth of Exodus, and that with the Madianites in the thirty-firstof the book of Numbers : where somewhat also is said touching the divisionof spoilsgotten in the wars.
I know, my brethren, that I have been somewhat tedious conclusion. unto you in making this rehearsal of the laws unto you : but for because the most wise and mighty God doth nothing without especialcauses and the evident profitof mankind, I could not therefore suffer this part of the law to pass me untouched ; considering that I see it so diligentlytaught by God himself, and that it maketh much to the opening and maintaining of the moral law.
Our good God, who knoweth allthings,doth also know the dulness and overthwart slackness of man's wit, and how it requireth to be driven perforce many times to do good and eschew evil.
And therefore the holy Lord hath in these judicial laws added an holy kind of compulsion to drive men on withal.
In the morals he frameth our manners, and teacheth us what to do, and what to leave undone.
With the ceremonials he helpeth forward the morals; and doth under types and figures lay before the eyes of our body and mind the mysteries of God5 and his heavenly kingdom.
And lastly,by [5 mysteria regni Dei, Lat.]