OF GOD- REDEEMER. 293 you maydo him extraordinary service. You must so perform the very labors ofyour callings, that they may be ultimately for God : so love your dearest friends and enjoyments, that it beGod that is principally loved in them. More particularly as to the business ofthe day, what need I say more than in a word to apply this general doctrine to your special works ? 1. If the honorable judges and the justices will remember that they are God's, and not their own, what a rule and stay will it be to them for their work ! What an answer will it afford them against all solicitations from carnal self, or importunate friends viz. I am not mine own, nor come I hither to do mine own work ; I cannot therefore dispose ofmyself or it, but must do as he that owns me doth command me. How would this also incite them to promote Christ's interest with their utmost power, and faithfully to own the causes which he ówneth ! 2. If all counsellors, and solicitors of causes, did truly take themselves for God's, and not their own, they durst not plead for nor defend a cause they knew which God disowneth. They would remember that what they do against the innocent, or speak against a righteous cause, is done and said against their Lord, from whom they may expect, ere long, to hear, 'Inasmuch as you said or did this against the least of these, you said or did it against me.' God is the great patron of innocency, and the pleader of every righteous cause ; and he that will be so bold as to plead against him, had need of a large fee to save him harmless. Say not it is your calling which you must live by, unless you, that once listed yourselves in your baptism under Christ, will now take pay, and make it your profession to fight against him. The emptier your purses are of gain so gotten, the richer you are ; or at least the full- er they are, you are so much the poorer. As we that are minis- ters do find by experience, that it was not without provocation from us that God of late hath let loose só many hands, and pens, and tongues against us, though our calling is more evidently owned by God, than anyone in the world besides, so I doubt not but you may find, upon due examination, that the late contempt which hath been cast upon your profession is a reproofof your guilt from God, who did permit it. Had lawyers and divines less lived to them- selves, and more to God, we might have escaped, if not the scourge of reproachful tongues, yet at least the lashes of conscience. To deal freely with you, gentlemen, it is a matter that they who are strangers to your profession can scarce put any fair construction upon, that the worst cause, for a little money, should find an advo- cate among you. This driveth the stenders by upon this harsh
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