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
multiply suits to be like bellows to blow to kindle these flames to fanne to heighten them A b dilatory plea for suspence of justice hath been sentenc'd by a Synod with excommunication But of this onely {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} on the by The main injustice of pleading consists in deserting in quitting a good cause in asserting in maintaining a bad The former was the blemish of Demosthenes who was muffled with the bribe of the adverse party disengaged and silenc'd by the rich present of Harpalus which occasion'd a tart Sarcasme that his disease was not angina but argentina There needs no multiplying glasse of a Rhetoricall aggravation to present the bulk or hue of this guilt The title of a prevaricator a treacherous Advocate that warps in pleading is the blackest stain in the Civil law Vlpian inserts such in the most infamous vicious list I shall forbear to presse any dissuasive arguments as to this horrid injustice upon the same account as Solon and Romulus did to enact penalties against parricides as presuming there are no such offenders no Christian face so steeled to own no conscience so feared for to practise such perfidiousnesse of wickednesse I shall insist onely on the latter branch of injustice in vindicating in pleading for a wicked cause Whilst the misinformation of the Client misguides the Counsellor this exempts an unjust plea from guilt But when the cause pleaded for is manifestly injurious the pleading it selfis manifestly ungracious This is to imitate the perfection or corruption rather of the Greek Sophisters To make the better cause the worse the worse the better It was the observed eminent faculty and infamy of Carneades It may passe for art and skill but it must passe for sin also to smooth and varnish the deformed complexion of a depraved interest In this nature a painted cause is more irreligious then a painted face Indirect proofs patheticall strains and proems were not allowed in pleadings before the Areopagites the renowned Athenian Iudges Though a false flourish cannot seel the eyes not delude prudent cautelous Iudges yet it may cast a mist beguile ignorant credulous Iuryes wch commonly are kneaded out of the dregs of the people such as wait for empanellings as the impotent person the Cripple did at the Pool of Bethesda for the troubling of the waters But not to digresse This false flourish is not consistent with the morality of Heathens much lesse reconcilable with the integrity the severity of Christians The a great Master of the Roman Rhetorick Quintilian b qualifyes his Orator to be a good man wittingly and willingly to plead good causes onely It became a great disrepute to c Hortensius notwithstanding a great fee that he appeared in the defence of the rapine and Sacriledge of Verres d Plato sharply censures those who would separate justice from Rhetorick truth from pleading innocence from eloquence Though it were the professed it was the disgusted the branded Paradox of e Cornelius Celsus That the Advocates design ought not to be the pursuit of equity but victory not to regard the better cause but to have the better in the cause to countenance his Client to be his Champion be the cause right or wrong Whereas it was the honour of f Brutus That his tongue kept correspondence with his heart he ever approved that Cause which he defended The pleading of Scaurus was as solemn as sincere as a deposition I shall adde onely the lustre of Phocion's upright resolution which set such an edge on his eloquence that when he argued it was apprehended and dreaded as a sword for to cut and destroy the most vigorous false pleadings I muster up these instances of the uncircumcised in the Temple with no vain affectation but I consider to whom I propound them to literate judicious persons whose ingenuity may excite their blush and anguish by the recollection of these Heathen Worthies who though they could not sufficiently acquit themselves yet may serve abundantly to condemn others who are accountable not onely for the bare talent of Nature of Reason but that of Grace also of Religion As the injustice of pleading is exploded by the morality of the Heathens so much more by the divinity of the Schoolmen To a afford advice assistance defence to an unjust cause is in their opinion to cooperate to share directly eminently in the guilt though but indirectly obscurely in the first wrongfull fact Though an oppressing defrauding Client affords the womb to the injustice yet the pleading Counsellor nurseth it saith b Soto he dandles he cockers this pestilent brat The Schoolmen stating this practice to be an evident print of iniquity of injury peremptorily c prescribe restitution Indeed if the point of transgression be granted that of restitution is not to be disputed This was the fruit of Zacchaeus conversion if I have taken any thing from any man by false acusation if I have d acted the Sycophant The phrase is borrowed from e Athens where the action was ordinary a familiar calumny falsly to charge men for conveighing away of Figs that were prohibited to be transported thence Though the occasion was speciall yet our English translation is not improperly generall a If I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation I restore to him fourfold If the jnjustice of the cause appears not in the first engagement for the Client but in the prosecution of the suit b the secret of the cause is not to be betrayed nor yet an apparent injustice to be promoted pleaded for but the cause is either absolutely to be deserted renounced or a private composure a reconcilement betwixt the parties litigant to be endeavoured Gerson c recites and recommends the Advocates solemn Oath to this effect As the determinations of the Schoolmen are severe in dooming all pleas in unjust causes so are the invectives of the Fathers of the Church sharp in censuring them d Clemens of Alexandria rejects this contentious fallacious faculty brands it with Plato for a vicious skill with Aristotle for a pernicious rapine He blasts it with the menace of the Holy Ghost e I will destroy the wisdome of the wise I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent The most searching judgement if unseason'd with Grace will quickly be tainted insensibly putrified in the end entirely frustrated To be an acute polite Sophister to enwrap a false plea in a fair elegant dresse is to * temper poison in a golden viall to borrow the resemblance of Isidore Pelusiot Whilst saith he an Advocate vayls justifies another offender he unmasks condemns himself discovers the depravation of his own heart in the corruption the dissimulation of his tongue Nay Pelusiot transported with this meditation conjectures this trim artifice of injustice to have been a speciall occasion of the Apostles large hyperbolicall
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