A sermon preached in St. Paul's before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor

3. There is justice in conversation, which is a sincere, entire, square, faithful conversing with men; when a man is constant to his word, fixed to his honest resolutions, yesterday and to day the same, this makes a man like unto God whose name is One, Zach. 14. 9. Like unto him whose name is Amen, Rev. 3. 14. And therefore we being members of him of whom we can learn nothing but what should be true and just one to another, Eph. 4. 5. It is said of Asper a servant of the Emperor Leo, That▪ finding him fail in performance of promise, he laid hold of […] purple robe, and told him it was too rich a cover for falsehood. Certainly it is not fit that such a robe as the name of Christ should be used to shroud and palliate deceit; and indeed such kind of unjust and false men, who are like him possessed of an unclean spirit, Luk. 8. 29. whom no bonds can hold, who care not how many they deceive, if they can have but a cloak to palliate it; who like the Serpent will insinuate, and then sting; like the Cockatrice weep, and then bite; like the Panther allure with the sweet breath, and then destroy with her sharp teeth; who make truth give place to turns, and for advantage say and unsay, do and undo; like those in Greg. Nazianzen, Johns to day, and Judases to morrow. Such men as these are not members but ulcers in the common body, and they must be sure that that justice which they hate will find them out at the last; for men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days, Psa. 55. 23.

3. There is justice in conversation, which is a sincere, intire, square, faithfull conversing with men; when a man is constant to his word, fixed to his honest resolutions, yesterday and to day the same, this makes a man like unto God whose name is One, Zach. 14. 9. Like unto him whose name is Amen, Rev. 3. 14. And therefore we being members of him of whom we can learn nothing but what should be true and just one to another,