that right which every man stands obliged at all times to practise and sometimes it s put for the law or rule it self according to which every man is to doe right Judgement is sometimes opposed to anger and severity and then it signifies mercy and moderation and t is sometimes opposed to folly and indiscretion and then it implies an ability to judg and t is sometimes opposed to injustice and wrong which is the vulgar and common import of it and so tis-to be understood here in the Text I have read Drusius and some others differencing and distinguishing Judgement and Justice thus First Judgement they say it signifies the due order in trying and finding out the state of a Cause and Justice the passing of Sentence or Verdict upon the trial Secondly Judgement they say is a clear knowledge of what ought to be done and Justice is the doing of that which we know Justice is an evennesse and uprightnesse of conscience in passing every thing according to received light and evidence Thirdly Judgement say some respects capital causes which are for life but Justice respects civil causes which are for estate and liberty Fourthly and lastly Judgement sayes Drusius Poenam respicit t is in condemning those that are guilty but Justice that respects Compensationem benefactorum t is in acquitting the innocent and in recompensing them that do well It is a Rule That when Judgement and Justice are put together in Scripture the latter is but an epithete to the former and so t is in the Text They shall judge the people with just judgement that is they shall do judgement justly exactly and to a hair So then my Lords you see your duty just you must be and that upon this account First Arg. 1 Because God not onely expects it and commands it but accepts of it Pinguior mactari Deo victima non potest quam homo sceleratus saies one We cannot present God with a more pleasing oblation then is that of the cutting off of a criminal person Judgements just execution t is attended on with Gods approbation See this in the case of Phineas Psal 106.30 31. yea with Gods remuneration Levi had the Vrim and Thummim the Covenant of God and the honour of an infallible Priesthood because he knew no relation no interest no engagement when he appeared on Gods side and fulfilled his command Exod. 22.27 Secondly Arg. 2 Just you must be my Lords your office binds you to it the judiciary power is talented in your hands you are entrusted with the Laws they are the Charter and sodder of all Society the Sanctuary the flaming Sword of right to be brandished against all violence and wrong the Land-marks that bound out to every man his Propriety the Bulwarks and Defences of a peoples Peace and Safety the right and strait rules by application whereunto all injustice is discerned and judged of now this high and sacred trust is deposited with you though the sanction or first enacting of Law be the act of an higher power yet the resolution and declaration of what is Law resides in you you have a right Jus or Legem dicere though not Legem dare Now without this Law is but a ruffled skain of silk where no end is to be found a Meander and Labyrinth without a clew where men may sooner lose themselves then finde any place to sit down and rest in Nay farther the execution of Law is yours now this every man knows is the life of Law without this Law is at least but Justices bare Scales without her Sword a Pistol that is charged only with powder that can at most but threaten and make an empty noise Oh then let the Laws have life by your just execution of them consider I beseech you that the Laws are the Nations joints whereby each part is tied to other which once cut asunder must needs discontinue and unjoint the whole frame to its most certain and unavoidable ruine You are my Lords the subordinate Custodes Libertatis Angliae and should you be unjust you would then Briareus-like doe evil with an hundred hands and give us just cause to cry out with the Poet Hei mihi custodes quisnam custodiet ipsos Thirdly You must be just Arg. 3 the Land requires it without this it can never be exalted t is not all the depths of carnal policy t is not Jeroboams Calves in Dan and Bethel t is not Jehu's pompous zeal that would fain be lookt upon t is not all the mountains of Samaria nor mines of India t is neither Magazines nor Arsenals nor gold piled up to heaven nor silver as plenty as dust and stones nor numerous Armies nor formidable Fleets nor impregnable Forts t is none of all these that can exalt a Nation t is only Justice that can do that Prov. 14.34 just Judges they are the best Saviours and the best builders in any Land for they and only they make a Land a habitation of righteousnesse on the other hand injustice and publick impunities they procure publick and popular judgements the not doing Justice upon criminals when publickly complained of and demanded especially when the persons interessed call for Justice and the execution of good Laws and the Magistrates arm is at liberty and in full strength this engages a Land deep in ruine See this in the case of the Benjamites they refused to do justice upon the men that had forced and killed the Levites Concubine and they lost twenty five thousand in battel their Cities were destroyed and the whole Tribe almost extinguished and therefore t is observable in Scripture how that the punishing of great and publick acts of injustice t is called A putting away of evil from a Land Not to punish an evil is a voluntary retention of it and makes that sinne by forbearing become National which was in the acting but personal And where impunities are t is no thank to the publick if the best men be not as bad as the worst Fourthly Arg. 4 Just you must be in respect of the innocent t is a debt you owe to them Qui malis parcit piis nocet to spare the bad t is cruelty and hard-heartednesse to the good to let the Wolves and Bears alone t is to wrong the Sheep and Lambs If you will pity Cataline sayes one pity Rome much more let the whole have a share in your pity rather then a part Pereat unus magis quam unitas Better have one injurious person sit mourning then a whole Nation languishing Fifthly and lastly You must be just Arg. 5 because the malefactors themselves call for it the end of Law and Magistracy is to be a terrour both to evil works and to evil workers Impunity oft times proves the malefactours encouragement and by accident hardens him whereas the acts of Justice being Gods appointments though they be pathemata corrections yet they sometimes prove mathemata instructions and being blessed and sanctified by God become wholesome spiritual
war but all 's as husht and peaceable as the Halcyons nest which stills the tempests and sliks and calmes the brow of Heaven where all the Citizens entertaine one another like fingers on the hand every one taking part with the good of his fellow being all great in the obedience they render to the law being all rich in the contenment of their desires and being all well pleased in the happinesse one of another In summe for I have no more room for particulars whatsoever the Luxuriant and free fancies of Poets or the choice and delicate pens of antiquity have either conceited or written of the Elysian fields of the fortunate Islands of the felicities of a golden age of the vertues and ornaments of an Agathopolis which was drest as rich as the Ideaes of the divine Plato could make it why all these do but help to piece out that traine of blessings that follow a good government When any Land becomes blest with such Magistrates and Judges as are indeed the faithfull deputies of their Maker and whose breasts are the Oceans or sewers into which all the cares of private men empty themselves and whose vigilant eyes are the constant centinels of the peoples safety and whose steady hands have learned to hold the seales of justice try and even and to weigh right and wrong by their proper weights and whose just breath is the peoples best and wholsomest aire as being that that gives life and soul to all their proprieties rights and priviledges In a word when people have such Judges that neither turn Judgment into wormwood nor into vinegar that neither imbitter it by injustice nor sowr it by delay that suppresse as well fraud as force that only hear causes speake and not persons that are Melchisedeck-like without father or mother that hate to pay private wrongs with the advantage of their office that have so well got the rule over themselves that their passions do not unfit them to rule over others that look straight forward in a right line upon equity without glancing aside upon revenge displeasure or recompence that keep not only their hearts clean but their hands too take heed of bos in lingua that in that cause bestow diligence in sifting where the right is difficult in finding that love to have truth come naked to the bar without false bodies and disguises that neither make briars nor springes of the laws to catch every thing they lay hold of that neither crook nor bow the laws by hard constructions and strained inferences but straiten them by just expositions and if they seem to be antiquated or obsolete wipe off their dust by a judicious clearing that never browbeat a Witnesse or look an Evidence damp but with a gentle midwifery helpout the stammering tongue that his proof may not miscarry that in their callings approve themselves to be the dreadfull instruments of Divine revenge and the ministers of God for good to the people and to be legum vindices the guard of laws and as was said of Cassius reorum scopulos the Rocks or as one cals them the comets of the guilty the refuge of innocency the paymasters of good deserts the Champions of right the patrons of peace the supporters of the Church and the true Patres Patriae or Fathers of their Country being more learned then witty more reverend then plausible and more advised then confident hearing all things debated with patience and then proceeding to sentence in uprightnesse and pronouncing nothing but just judgement I say where Judges are such happy yea thrice happy are such a people and blessed is the Land that is in such a case for then such a Land becomes like the Israel of God when her Officers are peace and her Exactors righteousnesse such Magistrates God commands to be chose to be Commission'd and to be impowred even over his own people for so you see runs the Writ of election in my Text. Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy Tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgement In this great Patent and Divine Charter of Magistracy or in this Theocratia or Government of Gods own setting up There is considerable First The Honour Secondly The Office First The Dignity Secondly The Duty Or if these be too generall take it in more particulars First Here is Gods mandamus from heaven for Government here is the charge of the Almighty for the erecting of a Magistracy and this is contained in the word constituito Thou shalt make or Make thou Secondly As here is the charge so here is the stile or the titles Judices Moderatores constituito Judges and Officers shalt thou make Thirdly Here are the persons invested with the right and power of electing and constituting Officers and they are the Collective body of the people or the Community in whole and these are included in the Pronown tibi Judices Moderatores constituito tibi Judges and Officers thou shalt make thee Fourthly Here is the Circuit of these Judges or the Territories of these Magistrates In singulis portis tuis quas Jehovah Deus tuus dat tibi per tribus tuas Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes By Gates we are to understand all the Judicatories in Israel for Gates they were Domus Judicii the seats of Judgement They were of old placed in the Gates at the entrance of Cities for many reasons as Tarnovius notes at large upon Amos 5.10 but principally for this To let us know that Justice sitting at the Gate is a better safeguard for a City then a Corps-du-gard then either Bullwarks Percullises draw-Bridges or whatsoever else that hath most defence in it Fifthly and lastly Here is the duty of these Judges in the concluding words of the text Qui judicent populum judicio justo Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgement And thus I have presented you with the Logick of the Text and shewed you how the parts lye in it I shall endeavour to slide apace through them all as intending only ut Canis ad Nilum to glance upon the former but to stop yea and to stay upon the later First then I will begin with the constituito of the Text Thou shalt make 'T is God 's mandamus to his own Israel Inde potestas unde spiritus Tertul. Apol. so saies Tertullian And an ancienter then he Cuius jussu homines ejus jussu Reges so Irenaeus Iren. lib. 5. cap. 24. And an ancienter then either of them The powers that are are ordained of God so Saint Paul Rom. 13.1 Anarchy is the peoples phrensie but Magistracie the Ordinance of the Almighty I deny not but the primitive state of the first created
demurring Judges consider seriously the admirable passage of Theodorick King of the Romans as it stands related at large in the Chronicle of Alexandria There was one Juvenalis a Widow who came to him with a sad complaint that she had had a suit depending in the Court three years which might have been ended in a few dayes the King demands of her the Judges names she tels him there issues out an especiall command from the King to them to give all the speedy dispatch that was possible to this Widowes cause which they did and in two dayes determined it to her very good liking which being done Theodorick cals for these Judges and they supposing it had been to receive their applause and reward for their quick decision and excellent justice hastned to him full of joy but the King having first interrogated with them about the cause of their former delay and having sharply reprehended them he commanded both their heads to be struck off because they had spun out that cause to a three yeares length which two dayes would have ended Seventhly You must be stedfastly just a Judge should be such an one qui nec fallitur nec flectitur lenity becomes not a Judge levitas est mobilitas animi qua homines levi de causa mentes vel sermones facile mutant Judges must not be like the vulgar Jews who would this day deifie and to morrow crucify the same man nor yet like Pilate who commanded Christ to the Crosse with those very lips with which a little before he procounced him innocent A Judge he must be propositi tenax though not pecuniarum petax he must be like the needle toucht with the Loadstone of constancy ever looking one way like the unshaken rock that in the midst of the angrie foaming brine and raging billowes appears that apt emblem of stabilitie with this motto on it Immota triumphans or else like the Egyptian pyramis wearing this inscription Nec flatu Nec fluctu Eightly You must be mercifully just there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ordinate rule of all affections a Judge must not come under that character that Josephus gives Herod that he was Legis dominus but irae servus Lord of the Law but yet Lorded over by his own lusts a Judg must not be too much affianced to his own will Vel. pater lib. 1. Hist not like Brutus and Cassius of whom Velleius Paterculus hath this note quicquid voluit Brutus valdè voluit nimium Cassius but he must plant his Judgement upon an even ground and as much as in him lies make inequality equal considering that merciful Aphorisme of Solomon Qui fortiter emungit elicit sanguinem the wringing of the nose bringeth forth bloud where the winepresse is hard wrought it yields a harsh wine that tastes of the grape-stone a butcher they say may not be of the Jury much lesse may he be a Judge There is just cause of relenting whether we consider our selves or others as being of the same mould and subject to the same temptations with others Though we may and must delight in justice yet say Divines to be glad of it as 't is the evill and grief of an other is very sinfull for a Judge upon the Bench to put the poor malefactor out of countenance whom he may put of life what triumph is it To jest at man in misery 't is the worst use a man can put his wit to and will come home to him nay 't is worse then brutish and beneath a beast the Lion scornes it so sayes the Poet Corpore magnanimo satis est prostrasse leoni O then my Lords be mercifull even as your Heavenly Father is mercifull and to whomsoever you think God himself if he were upon the Bench and in your place would shew mercy why to all such let your mercy extend I have read of three cases that seem to be out of the reach of civill mercy First wilfull murder prepared and projected murder here your eye is not to pitie in the time of the Law and by Gods own order such a murderer no Asylum no City of refuge Deut. 19.11 12 13. no Sanctuary no Altar could protect but he might be snatcht thence A second case is when accessaries suffer then the principall must not be spared this the voice of God Numb 24 4 5. of nature and of the Law all give assent to A third and last case is when the quarrel is laid in principles of irreconcileable enmity against true Religion and the government of Christ and yet even in all these three grand Cases Luk. 19.27 though mercy must not degenerate into a softnesse prejudiciall to Justice those Just sentences are best pronounced that are deepest drenched and most steeped in the Judges tears Ninthly and lastly You must be universally just You are called Scuta terrae the shields of the earth and the Law with us t is called Lex terrae to note the universal Benignity thereof and the equal interest that every person is to have therein to weigh one mans cause by the rule of Law and anothers by the rule of favour this is like divers weights and measures which the Lord abhorres This is not to be Scutum a shield but rather Galea a helmet to protect onely the heads of the people You must be like the Sunne whose beams shed themselves with as sweet an influence on a Garden of Cucumbers as on the Forest of Lebanon Your Justice must extend it self like the wisdom of Solomon from the Cedar to the Hysop The Apostles rule is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the small as well as the great must be heard Deu. 1.17 Laws must neither be like Nets to let out little Fishes and catch onely great ones nor yet like Cobwebs to be broken by great offenders and to catch only Flies Universal Justice is that which respects all rewarding the meanest in well-doing and punishing the greatest in evil-doing if justice be thus universal 't will cashier 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Partiality all Bribery and all Timidity now Timiditas judicis est calamit as innocentis And thus my Lords I have shewed you why you must be just and how you must be just I had thought in the next place to have reacht the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the obstructers of Justice but I see that cannot be without intrenching too farre upon that patience which I would not abuse or borrowing too much of that time which is allotted your other affairs I shall only therefore beg your pardon whilest in words as few as may be I take leave particularly to apply this great duty of the Text to those that shall be more immediately concerned in the Transactions of this season Justice you see is the great businesse of the Text and t is the great businesse of such a time as this And that the people may the better