with good to conquer violence with patience as fire is not quench't by fire but water As to our Saviours Charge In no case resist evil with tumult with force in all cases resist not evil with Law with justice Suits of law are like bitter pills that ought to be candyed with due qualifications The first is That the cause we contend in be just Otherwise we design to abuse a Court of Law of Equity to make it a shelter for violence a sanctuary for mischief a protection for oppression we endeavour to render Iustice it self a Pander for malice or avarice A crime of the deepest dye since a Magistrate is Gods Substitute it is to make God a stale a cloak for Satan and like the Witch of Endor to present the Devil in Samuel's mantle The Apostle layes it to the charge of some Christians at Corinth That they who were injurious were querulous contentious They who oppressed dedefrauded yet complained impleaded You your selves do wrong defraud and that your brethren Oecumenius observes a three-fold aggravation the first not to be passive to be contentedly patiently injured mentioned in the former verse the second to be active to befiercely set to injure whereas it is better in the judgement of the wisest Philosopher to suffer wrong then to offer it the third aggravation is and that to your brethren to those that are endeared by the same womb by the same dugs the two Testaments A link of relation a charm to chase away the suits of Christians especially such as are unjust injurious Among the Romans before any Action was suffred to be entred the Plaintiff was required to swear the justice of his cause The Athenian practise was the same An unjust cause as it deserves a severe censure when it is manifested convicted so also a speedy repulse if possible not to be admitted As for the first qualification the cause ought to be just no unholy interest so for the second qualification it ought to be substantiall weighty not for every triviall petty flander not for every light dammage every slight trespasse The Apostles negative question Why do you not rather take wrong why do you not suffer your selves to be defrauded amounts to a positive determination Some indignities neglects are to be brooked some injuries some offences to be smother'd rather then suits of Law are to be prosecuted In our Saviours first instance of patience though a personall provocation be tendred to smite thee on the one cheek yet a hot reparation is not counsell'd but a setled composition of mind to turn the other also importing a readinesse to receive a second affront rather then to revenge the first In the second instance of patience in the next verse the scene is expresly laid in judicature though Beza labours wriggles to shift it off else where But our English translation is agreeable to that of Erasmus and the vulgar Latine and renders the genuine force of the Originall And if any will sue thee at the Law and take away thy coat thy meaner inner garment let him have thy cloak also thy better thy outer garment In a case of so inconsiderable importance as ordinary apparell better it were to quit a double vestment then to espouse a single quarrell then to engage in one suit Better in point of conscience as to the next world perhaps better also in point of prudence as to this These instances are not speciall counsells onely as to the excellency of perfection in the Romish gloss but generall precepts as to the sincerity of Religion Which will afford us this doctrinall Observation That small wrongs are not commendable I had almost said not warrantable grounds of suits and quarrells Among the Iewes there were peculiar Officers significantly entitled by the Septuagint {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} who were commissioned to admit or reject all causes without whose approbation and recommendation to the Iudges none were allowed to be determined Of this use not without an affinity both in name and nature were the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} among the Athenians who were the keyes of justice to lock out all frivolous vexatious suits These are unholy blemishes unseemly unworthy disturbances and scandalls to Christian Courts As the Cause ought to be just and weighty so the mind ought to be calme and serene not embittered with gall not clouded with rancour The defect of the necessary grace of Charity stains other spirituall vertues much more temporall jarrs Even in a legall contention when any suit of law is started by reason of the temptation of Satan and the corruption of a mans own heart there is ordinarily a bosome leven of wrath a spice of secret spleen which is not destitute of a train of other guilt Where there is envying and strife there is confusion and every evil work There is perturbation trouble as Erasmus renders it according to the Originall a discomposure a disorder of the soul a tumult of the passions Certainly he is much damnifyed by his most successefull suit who gains his cause be it his debt his farme his patrimony who yet discards his charity and consequently forfeits his Christianity As in suits of law there ought to be no malicious so no covetous tincture In the cause propounded to our Saviour for dividing an inheritance betwixt two brethren A cause that in the judgement of some Expositors had been bandyed in severall Courts at last he that was worsted in all and injur'd having appealed to our Saviour Christ doth not order a Writ of partition as a Iudge but read a lecture of mortification as a Prophet Take heed beware of covetousness According to an ancient Greek edition according to the Syriac Vulgar Latine translations it is beware of every covetousnesse The caution thus rendred is fitly proportioned to the variety of the occasion Though one brother onely were injurious in the eye of the world yet both in severall strains were covetous irreligious in the sight of God The one unjustly detained what was not his own his brothers portion his moiety the other too eagerly pursued what was his own whose thoughts were more eagerly bent how to be redrest in his cause then how to be reclaimed in his soul Our blessed Saviour diverts takes off his edge from the interests of possession to the interests of Salvation Lastly though the cause be just weighty and conscionable the mind calm pure and charitable in a suit of Law yet this ought to be the last refuge That there be an endeavour a private treaty a tryall for peace before a publick jarre a suit a tryall in law Our bare affection to a reconcilement is not sufficient without an active sollicitation The Apostles word denotes not a bare following of peace but an eager pursuing not to be waved for the hazard of fortune offame oflife it self
might be defended no justice executed Whilst God brands and sorbids a false testimony he allowes injoyns a true My Text explodes a false testimony expresly at the first blush that is pernicious but secondarily consequently a false testimony that is officious also An Evidence is not to be byast by favour but truth It is taynted not by the damage which accrewes to another but the falshood which the Witnesse himselfutters As the expression of the Act so of the Object challengeth our consideration recommended by a propriety of relation Thy neighbour There is much emphaticall Divinity in Pronounes The relation it self is presented in the widest latitude of sense though the softest dresse for language Reang a friend a neighbour A name that is a charme of truth This expression endeares but restraines not A Neighbour not for nearnesse of place of situation but of nature of constitution According to the Fathers glosse Every man is a neighbour to every man I have thus broken the shell the better to discern the kernell in my Text I shall not critically enlarge any nicetyes of observations on the words lest I be censur'd like Antoninus Pius to be a cutter of cummin-seed or to deal with my Text as the Levite did with his Concubine to divide it in pieces But I shall humbly conduct your attention from the manner of the expression to the matter of the Prohibition The offence forbidden is a false testimony which is brancht out to be extrajudiciall or judiciall I shall entirely wave an extrajudiciall false testimony in discourse without the pale of justice and shall confine my meditation to a judiciall false testimony as most sutable to the occasion of this present assembly God grant the meditation may be as profitable as it is seasonable This judiciall false testimony at the first view is not unlike the little cloud ken'd by Eliah's servant but it will spread like that cloud which quickly darkened the heaven This will eclipse the whole Orbe the Court of judicature and showre down drops of guilt to every corner of it it extends to the injustice of the Cause to the injustice of the Evidence to the injustice of the Pleading to the injustice of the Verdict to the injustice of the Decree to the injustice of the Record As many of these parts as the time will conveniently permit are the boundaries of my present meditations This is a varyed gradation of transgression a Climax a ladder of sinne not like Iacob's that reacht from earth to heaven for blessed Angells ascending and descending but a ladder it is that reacheth from earth to hell for lewd men descending in their corruptions for damned Spirits ascending in their temptations The first Round in this ladder is the injustice of the cause A Generation of men there is who with more grains of zeal then knowledge disallow all Courts of judicature all suits of Law without distinction without moderation Whose inconsiderate tenet is like a desperate Chymicall pill that worketh not on the humors but the spirits that purgeth out of the body politick not corrupt manners but precious lawes It were piety exhaled refined to phrensy holynesse strained to madnesse This were to sacrifice sheep to wolves to invite those wolves to worry them to open a gap to prophanenesse to licentiousnesse to encourage to tempt all exorbitancies of tumults of rapines of murders to leave the innocent in the eye of man without defence or redresse and the violent without check or controll It is truly alleadged Vengeance is Gods prerogative and it is as truely replyed that he executes it not onely immediately by himself but mediately also by his Vice gerent the Magistrate supreme and subordinate He is Gods Deacon to officiate for him in the administration of justice the fort of good men to secure them from the assaults and outrages of the evil He bears not the sword in vain the sword being the emblem the rhetorick of greater punishments as the rod of lesse to which end both were carryed before the Roman Consuls In the one and the other the Ordinance is Divine but the exercise humane God onely can empower man may execute it But not to scrue this string too far Though the lawfullnesse of Magistrates and Tribunalls may clearly abundantly be vindicated demonstratively maintained yet law-suits are not indefinitely and peremptorily to be justifyed unlesse we will run counter with the Apostle There is utterly a fault among you that you go to law one with another The scandall of the Church at that time the reflection upon Christian religion in exposing it by law-suits to the censure of unbelievers is recited in the former verse as Theophylact observes but in this 7. v. the Apostle condemns the action it self being not rightly qualifyed displayes it's guilt in the fullest dimensions Some Divines start a Criticisme to mince it That it is not exprest {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a default but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a defect a diminution a lessening of Christian perfection an impotency a frailty whereas both Greek words appear in the same uncomely hue in the same unholy strain Rom. 11. 12. There is an enhancing aggravation prefixed by the Apostle It is utterly a fault An errour according to the Arabick a sin according to the Syriac Translation The softnesse of the Greek word savours of the sweetnings of the Apostles style not of the abating of the sin at Corinth If we render this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a defect it is a want of humility of charity in most men This defect will amount to a full default This diminutive this lessening of grace without speciall caution will administer fewell to the increasing of sinne This impotency this spice of weaknesse will quickly be heightned to impiety to a strain of wickednesse to be subdued by a mans own passions to be a captive to a solemn revenge Moses entirely cancell'd private revenge but Christ warily restrains the publick You have heard it hath been said An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth The law talionis of returning like for like wherein the sinne was made a pattern for the doom a law establisht among the Iewes approved by the twelve Tables eminently reputed anciently practised by many nations did not allow the parties themseves to carve out their own reparation but the Magistrates onely But our blessed Saviour pronounces a repeal to this judiciall Iudaicall redresse as to the formality of it not without a check to our fierce rancor to our eager desire and pursuit of such rigour But I say unto you Resist not evil not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to the Septuagints use of the word forbids the forwardnesse to prosecute in Law to implead in judgement I shall not too confidently presse this sense However it is unquestionably the excellency of Christianity to overcome evil
to vile gaines to mean inconsiderable advantages to raise your fortunes temporally on the ruines of your selves eternally The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death The glosse on the words applyes them to the injustice of pleading It is a dismall aphorisme and it should not have dropt from my mouth had it not proceeded from the Holy Ghost Spira the disconsolate example of despair first maintained false causes in Law afterwards renounced true tenets in Religion To be a corrupt Advocate was his first step towards hell I shall not recommend * Tertul lian for a pattern whose quitting his profession of an Advocate upon his conversion to Christianity was a very unnecessary rigour But beware of Tertullus stamp whose eloquence dispenced with his conscience Let not the lustre of your Rhetorick abate the light of your Religion Let not any exquisite ability in the law prepare a fucus a paint for oppression or malice let not so sweet an oyntment be spilt upon an unsavoury cause to be ingeniously ungracious accurately irreligious It is an uncomfortable commendation an unhappy elogy to be a better lawyer then a Christian to be more acute then upright to plead well in ill causes It is a perfume to the fame of Ivo that he pleaded onely for the afflicted vindicated the oppressed being entitled the Advocate of the poor and canonized for a Saint Give not cause to present or succeeding ages to apply to any of you that character of Coelius an Advocate which sticks a slurre a taint to his name unto this day for to be reputed worthy of a better mind of an honester soul for to be the pearl of Advocates in the French style and yet not to appertain to Gods cabinet in the day that he shall sort make up his jewels To conclude this caveat Let not your counsells your pleadings be tempered with more grains of the Serpent then the Dove Let not your profits exceed eclipse your graces The fees of just causes onely can entayl blessings to your families and assure comforts to your souls With melting bowells I tender this unwelcome meditation to your candid censures to your retired mortifyed thoughts which lay upon my own being call'd to this place like a weight of lead untill I utter'd it I have freely discharged my conscience in the presence of God and this Congregation and should now proceed from the injustice of the Pleading to the injustice of the Verdict of the Decree of the Record But the time hath trod upon my heels like a wearied traveller I must take up my rest before I have scarce finisht half my journey and like Issachar must stoop betwixt two burdens I have the rather enlarged my meditation on the three first rounds of Injustice because Courts are like Elements the corruptions the distempers above take their rise from exhalations from below Unjust causes indirect evidences and pleadings are the source and bane of all judiciary proceedings Well we may juggle with men on earth we cannot play the Sophisters with heaven and put a cheat on our God As for all sorts and degrees here present When you hear the trumpet sound let it be an alarm to your soules to rowze you to an apprehension of the generall Sessions of the great judgement of the world when we shall all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ not onely appear but become transparent like Drusus fancyed house of glasse Our minds shall be as clearly seen as conspicuous as our faces Then all the Iudges of the earth shall stand at the Bar. The Counsellors must plead for themselves render an account for every idle word If for every light frivolous pro otioso much more pro odioso for every false scandalous plea Then the books of records our own consciences shall be unclasped to be manifest evidences of our secret sinnes in the sight of God of Angells and men No unjust causes no corrupt evidences or pleadings can taint this judgement no demurror can shift it off no quirk or subtlety reverse no power or authority repeal it Let us be awfully prepared conscientiously qualifyed at this great Sessions that at the approach of a farre greater we may be graciously summon'd and acquitted by the dreadfull Iudge of men and Angells that we may be refresht ravisht with the joy and solace of that sentence Come you blessed inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Wherein God of his infinite mercy estate us for the merits of his Son and our alone Saviour Iesus Christ to whom and the Holy Ghost be glory honour power majesty and dominion ascribed this day and for evermore Amen Amen FINIS Tul. de leg. l. 3. Iust. Iur. Civ. l. 1. â— 2. Aquin. 1â— 2ae q. 91. a. 4. Rom. 2. 14. Iustit Iur. Civ. l. 1. tit. 1. Matth. 7. 12. Mufculus Rom. 3. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Ioh. P. de Fer. in proct For. jur Test. Omni homini proximus omnis homo S. Aug. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Iudg. 19. 29. Deus faciat tam commodum quam accommodum S. Aug. 1 Kings 18. vers. 44. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 13. 4. Same v. 4. Camer. in Or. pro Flacco 1 Corinth 6. 7. Melan in 1 Cor. 6. Levit. 19. 18. Matth. 5. 38. Exod. 21. 24 25. Arist. 5. Eth. Gell. At. N. l. 20. Justin. l. 4. tit. 4. de injuriis Matt. 5. 39. Dr. Hamm in his Annotat. 1. 1 Cor. 6. 8. Socrates Godw. Rom. Ant. l. 3. s. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} In Arist. Vesp. Schol. 2. 1 Cor. 6. 7. Matth. 5. 39. Isid. Pel. l. 2. ep. 6. Vers. 40. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Is. Casaub. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Deut. 1. 15. Car. Sig. de Rep Heb. l. 7. 6. 7. Sigon de Rep. Atheniensi 3. 1 Cor. 13. S. Iames 3. 16. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Luke 12. 15. August in Ser. 196. Omnia videntus prius tentanda esse quam ad judicia disceda mus P. Mart. in L. Com. cl 4. Heb. 12. 14. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Genes 13. 8. 1 Cor. 6. 5. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hom. Iliad {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Theoph. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Amm. Marcel Hist. l. 18. Prov. 25. 18. Bernard Decret. tit. de test Mat. 18. 16. Alex. Al. S. Th. p. 3. qu. 43. Aqu. 2a. 2ae qu. 70. Art 3. Greg. dist. 2. q. 1. Aquin. ib. can dist. 32. q. 5. Car. Sig. de R. Heb. l. 6. c. 6. Aquin. ib. Non idonei testes quibus imperari potest ut testes fiant Can. dist. 4. q. 3. Ne inopes sint Greg. dist. 2. q. 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
in the judgement of Origen The motion of most men is fleet from it but haste towards it being clogg'd and fetter'd with pride and rancor We cannot unload unmanacle ourselves unless before suits of law be commenced all engines and expedients for prevention be assayed As candid Conferences Both parties are oft-times bitterly enraged against each other because they understand not aright each other they contend because they converse not Abraham the more innocent venerable person condescended to intreat his inferiour Lot whom he had educated obliged to court him with the charm of their relation with the rhetorick of an Hebraisme Let there be no strife betwixt me and thee betwixt my heardsmen and thy heardsmen for we are brethren It was no complementall condescension he quits not onely titular respects but reall advantages also tenders the option the choyce of the soyl of the right hand or the left of the North or South according to the Chaldee Paraphrase They are no sonnes of Abraham who will not quit the least grain of respect the least punctilio of right and advantage who are devoted to an implacable spleen wedded to an irreconcilable suit who with the greatest hate and expence prosecute the least wrong and interest If candid conferences calm discourses be not effectuall to conjure out this evil spirit of contention yet unpartiall references may The Apostles question sounds a reprehension Is it so is there not a wise man amongst you not one that shall be able to judge betwixt his brethren Not as touching one empower'd to doom commissioned to sentence but is there none qualifyed to discern to intercede to arbitrate that private variances be not vainly and unnecessarily improved to publick suits To be resolutely averse from arbitration be mens causes never so just and pious argues the spirits of such persons to be peevish and contentious They are like Salamanders that cannot live but in flames of debate {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Suits of Law are their darling delights and designes Their badge and at last their entire treasure is a meer bundle of vexatious papers the character of a phrantick person in Theophrastus But I forbear This first meditation of the injustice of the Cause hath too far transported me which being once embraced as sinne must be fortifyed by sinne will be seconded by the injustice of the Evidence my next Consideration When Numerius confidently disclaimed a Crime that he was charged with before Iulian the Emperour Delphidius tartly objected That if to deny were to be guiltlesse no man would be a Delinquent But the Emperour gravely and acutely retorted That if to be accused were to be guilty no man could be innocent It is the Evidence alone that can give light to justice to acquit or condemn When the Evidence is indirect it insensibly sets a false by asse on the Verdict and the Decree For the degrees of justice are not unlike those of concoction An errour in the first degree is not to be corrected or redressed in the second or the third A false witnesse misguides betrayes the Iury and the Iudge He is an hammer a sword and an arrow saith Solomon An Hammer to the Iudge whom he stounds amazes that he cannot distinguish betwixt truth and falsehood a Sword to the party that corrupts him a sword to fight for him and a sword to pierce his soul an Arrow to the innocent party a poyson'd arrow to fester to wound him with a ranckling venom in his life his fortune or his reputation The consequences of a false testimony being so pernicious witnesses are not loosely to be credited or admitted In point of quantity of number it is a rule in the Civil in the Canon-law One witnesse is no witnesse It is Gods own statute In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be establisht In point of quality in reference to Religion the Schoolmen and Canonists offer a Demurror against those whose infidelity is profest as manifest unbelievers against those whose impiety is convicted as notorious scandalous miscreants In reference to Reason they debarre distracted persons Idiots and Children Though Seneca's fancy more ingenious then judicious allows the age of seven years to be capable of tendring an Evidence because Children are then old enough to observe and too young to deceive to dissemble Upon this rationall account because of the ordinary defect of weight of judgement not onely the School-Doctors and Canonists but the Iewish Rabbies have in some cases excepted against the female sex to be Witnesses in regard of their vehement swinge and excesse of passion their love being proue to be too fond and indulgent to preserve their hate apt to be too fierce and violent to destroy In consideration of disaffection the divinity of the School and Canon excludes Enemies from the capacity of being Witnesses in respect of condition Servants and others whose relations are temptations to corrupt them as also those whose necessityes render them plyable to be moulded for the impressions of mercenary false testimonies Wherein I shall not track the scruples of the School but the sinnes of the Court in concealing in mincing of truths in venting untruths at the bar in bolting out light uncertain conjectures for firm and certain evidences Whereas it was a Grecian provident Law That eares perk not for witnesses That we make not the loose reports of others our stanch and sober testimonyes The Iewish Iudicatories admit none but eye-witnesses Some false testimonies are notorious without paint or disguise Such was the double deposition against Naboth He hath blasphemed God and the King Others are more covert when truth is presented but in a false dresse and accent Such was the evidence against our Saviour This fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and to build it in three dayes An evidence misinterpreted misrelated It ill becomes a Witnesse to be a Sophister To equivocate to dissemble in ordinary conference is hainous but in judiciary evidence monstrous Subtle doubling expressions dark winding reservations of witnesses have perhaps been the lewd practice of all Ages but the owned tenet onely of the Romish Casuifts of the last Age The guilt of a false witnesse is much enhanced by his guile He is worse then a murderer A murderer destroyes the body naturall but a false witnesse banes the body politick the administration of justice which depends on the truth of witnesses being the sinewes nay the vitall spirits of a Common-wealth To raise this to a higher key of guilt A false witnesse is worse then an Idolater An Idolater makes an idoll a God but a false witnesse makes God an idoll makes a direct mockery of the Deity as not discerning regarding his falshood He seems to disown to outbrave Gods omnipotence his omniscience to deride as it were to summon him to descend from his throne in heaven to countenance
to abett his villany on earth at the bar Whilst a false witnesse appeals to God as the supreme Iudge he presumes he tempts he dares his vengeance The false witnesses who conspired against Naboth are decyphered children of Belial Imps of Satan because of the imitation of him because plyable to be seduced at the beck of each lewd temptation It is emphatically expressed of Belial that in Hebrew signifie's without a yoke False witnesses are not yoked restrained not by the rule of truth not by the equity of justice not by the piety of an oath This offence is a threefold cord of guilt not easily unravelled it is twisted by a lye an injury a perjury An Oath being the end of all Controversies is the seal of depositions to ratifie them it is the sacred stamp of religion not to be soyled falsifyed prophaned The Evidences of the Grecian witnesses were sworn at their Altars as a holy tye and solemnity But Xenocrates was called back from the Altar by the Areopagites who accounted his assertion a sufficient asseveration because of the strictnesse of his life they esteemed his word as valid as an Oath who may rise up in judgement against profest Christians whose oaths are lesse credible then the bare word of a Heathen Tell it not in Gath nor publish it in the streets of Ascalon It is Gods strict charge Put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witnesse That is saith Vatablus Swear not unjustly it being the customary practice of the Iewes ancient and modern in their Oaths to lay their hands on the Thorah the books of the law of Moses to that end retained in their Courts The Ceremony is thence derived to Christianity But let it be more then an empty Ceremony a heedlesse formality When the Witnesse or the Iuror layes one hand on the Bible let him lay the other on his heart lest if he faulter in what he swears he renounce his portion the comforts the ravishing mercies of the Gospell lest he contract for lest he inherit all the menaces the terrifying judgements of the Law The Proverbiall passage * Lend me a testimony was a foul stain to the Greek nation Perjuries are ungracious lones or boons to gratify any man with villany But the slurre is not confined to Greece The Brittish feuds and quarrells of persons and familyes have in former Ages been prosecuted with swords but in latter times with suits and perjuries the tumults being lesse but the crimes greater Pardon my just indignation I wish from my soul it were a scandall to averre it Let not any inducement of affection or obligation any tye of alliance or dependance extend further then Pericles bounds to the Altars not to be endeared to any so farre as in his behalf to be perjured not to imagine to acquit our selves true friends by being false witnesses not to purchase the favour of a mortall man with the frown the doom of an immortall God The violation of justice by a false witnesse the contempt of the religion of an Oath hath God for a sufficient avenger Let not any wonder that a speedy earthquake doth not swallow up that a fierce thunderbolt doth not crush and blast a false witnesse to chastise his insolency He sinnes against an invisible God and hath an invisible punishment the stings and lashes of a guilty conscience which being seared and pacifyed this very serenity this calmnesse is a presage of a succeeding low ring tempest A false witnesse is recited among the abominations of the Lord He shall not escape unpunisht He may fence for a time from a humane vengeance but a divine shall in the end oretake him He shall not be clean saith Vatablus His offence shall be imputed the deformity of his iniquity shall be presented the stain the horrour of it discovered at the day of Iudgement If these considerations scare us not from the injustice of the Evidence the next refuge and prop is the injustice of the Pleading which directs my humble addresse to you the Gentlemen of the long Robe To vilify your title your Office were in some measure to derogate from the sacred Trinity God the Father is titled Baalrib the pleader It was Davids humble suit to be Gods Client Plead thou my cause God the Son is recommended to us by the endearment of this name and notion We have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous A Mediator for intercession to plead as well as redemption to merit for us The Holy Ghost is decyphered {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A word which in it's genuine signification more properly denotes the Pleader then the Comforter He pleadeth maketh intercession for us with the choicest flowers of Rhetorick with grones that cannot be uttered The truth of this criticisme is honoured with the approbation of a Councell To question the expediency of your function were to controll the wisdome of all or most nations which have owned principles of piety or civility There is no man that hath a more meet respect for your persons nor a more venerable esteem of your profession then my self Yet there is no calling can justifie the unjust practises of them that undertake it As I am not to learn whose message I ought to deliver in this place so I am not to doubt but that your piety conducts you hither not to censure the Preacher but to practise the Sermon not to look up to the pulpit as to a stage for the pleasing of an itching ear but for the searching the lancing of an ulcer'd soul of a fester'd tongue if any be for caution for prevention lest any be by the injustice of pleading A varied injustice By being engaged in more causes then can sufficiently be discussed or dextrously managed a course resented and taxed by Heathen Rhetoricians Were Westminster the Scene I should here with due reverence to the Sages of the Law crave leave to adde to amplify for illustration By being Intelligences in divers sphears pleaders in severall Courts as opportunityes invite whereby even in the justest weightyest interests especially by the most eminent practitioners whilst one Client is supported another at the same time at a little distance may be unfortunately distrest I say not betrayed because not entirely voluntarily neglected and yet perhaps by this occasion irrecoverably ruin'd Or by ingenious perhaps injurious irreligious cavills to spin out causes to the burdensome expence the attendance of Clients I humbly offer it to your mature consideration Since there is a portion of benediction of adoption expressed for those that compose jarres and differences a Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God they shall be owned crowned for such by the Topick proof the rule of Contraries there is intimated a worse condition and relation for such who are instrumentall straining their wits unnecessarily to create to protract to
expression The tongue is a fire a world of iniquity Even in this restriction this application of Pelusiot This little member kindles the greatest contentions combustions and it self either commits or shelters and encourages all the iniquities the enormities in the world a Theophylact determines this malady incurable To glance from the Greek on the Latine Fathers S. Austin complains of the plausible lure of this injustice Unhallowed wiles and windings of subtletyes in the managing the pleading of unjust causes being b reputed and magnified for singular parts and excellencyes To omit other copious testimonyes and reproofs Bernard runs variety of sharp descant on this impure note of guilt c Who have disciplined trained their tongues in lyes being quaint against justice learned to promote falshood prudent to commit evil eloquent to oppose truth who revile innocency obstruct all judiciary passages block up the channells This character may I fear sound a Satyr in your eares As for modern Divines I know none Reformed or Romish that is an advocate to defend to approve this injustice of Advocates But if the tenet of the Schoolmen the Fathers be superciliously rejected by any as a fable yet the sacred Scripture must be acknowledged for a rule an Oracle This is the last and chiefest test for to examine the injustice of pleading It is Gods expresse charge Keep thee far from a false matter This distance imports defiance As an indulgent countenance a connivence on the Bench so a smooth oily defence at the Bar is too near an approach to a false matter It is a step of the same sin a progresse of the same injustice though not in the same path An unjust plea is a bait to an unjust decree It was Iehu's rebuke of Iehosaphat a question that pierced like Ehud's dagger * Wouldst thou help the wicked and love them that hate the Lord therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon thee It is according to the Originall ‖ Hath it become thee to ayd the wicked As if no assistance of an ungodly person in an ungodly enterprise were decent or innocent †If thou succourest the sinner as the Scptuagint translate it The legall pleading for sin is a signall principall succouring of the sinner Whilst the offendor is abetted argued for the party offended is doubly injured It is related by David as a cognizance an evidence a speciall note a property of a true member of Gods Church a not to take reward against the innocent This is b not to be appropriated to the Iudge but to be enlarged to the Sollicitor the Atturney eminently to the Counsellor They receive unjust reward against the innocent who daub palliate c unjust causes by their favours their counsells their pleadings * S. Ierome strains this to be a resemblance of the offence of Iudas It is the description of an unsanctified person d The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit A terse false pleading is woven with this mingled thread He deviseth mischief on his bed in the 4. v. He contriveth it in his a heart or it is his night study his perplexity on his Couch how to be prepared to enter into the lists in this quarrell how to fortify to shrowd and adorn this work of darknesse in the day-light He setteth himself in a way that is not good in 4. v. b Pelusiot applyeth it to an expert Advocate who is ready to engage in an ungodly cause to help to vindicate to acquit it The close is in the same verse he abhorreth not evil or more agreeably to the Originall c he rejecteth not evill He that pleades for any crime neither sufficiently detests nor discards it It is yet a more rowsing terrifying impeachment d When thou sawest a thief then thou e rannest or thou consenteà st with him He who oppresseth defraudeth who detaineth a just debt saith Philo is a thief If thou seest him or assoon as thou seest him craving thy defence if thou runnest not with him to the bar to support his cause by pleading that 's Valterotz yet thou mayest consent to him in the chamber by thy advice that 's Valteretz f Both readings are solemnly allowed by Interpreters I presume your ingenious souls do here take the cue and tacitely object That the Psalmists lecture is the Levites portion a manifest bill of enditement of the Ministers guilt Your thoughts may belike quivers fraught with arrows of retortions That to preach false doctrines for lucre is more hainous then to plead false causes That it is more prodigious in S. Ignatius language to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to adulterate to huckster it in the Gospell then the law to abuse the message of Christ then the cause of the Client to make ungracious merchandise of religion then justice and that an unholy corrupt mercenary tongue in the pulpit is much more ulcerous then at the bar I abundantly confesse it is and that the Prophets charge doth eminently appertain to us of the Ministry and were I to preach to those of my own function I should accent it with much more sharpnesse then I shall to you And in the first place I desire to presse it with the greatest severity to my own soul recollecting a Origens tears and S. Austins b trembling in the recitall of this Psalm But whilst it endites the Minister it acquits not the Counsellor The reproof is like a Mirrour which being distinctly look't into will discover disfigured lineaments of your profession as well as mine Do but withdraw the curtain c Mutato nomine de te Fabula narratur and I may close as Nathan did with David d Thou art the man e Thou givest thy mouth to evil givest full swinge lettest the reins loose by a liberty a licentiousnesse of wickednesse of a subtle voluble tongue Thy tongue frameth deceit in the same verse it f smooths it tricks it polishes a cunning false plea it hath quilted it round according to the Septuagints expression g Thou sittest speakest against thy brother As if judiciary detraction were an ordinary occupation The act of calumny at the bar is vicious much more the art the custome the habit It is a blemish in a martiall profession much more in a legall The Baptists Catechism to the Souldiers h Accuse no man falsly is in Beza's judgement a more applyable to Courts then Camps to the bandings the clashings of pleadings then of swords Neither the bar nor gown is priviledg'd for slander b Epictetus a most famous Advocate upon this account for a single lapse of a virulent aspersion being excluded from both It is a tincture of the Rhetorick of hell A false impeachment though never so accurate is a glimpse of the c name and the nature of the Devil It appears in a blacker aspect to revile to traduce innocence then to defend to flourish