our Dissenters Gain by all their Perjuries between 40 and 60 what are they the better for all those they have procured or abetted since is not the hand of God against them in all they undertake defeating all their Projects and Designs and making them every day more Odious than others For my part I do not fear that perjurious Projects will ever prevail or do any body any good but the Crime being spread so vastly I fear a National Judgment a Calamity that shall be as general as the Sin and then no man will be free from suffering the sad Effects of it thô those that have procured it will smart most by it and this is enough to oblige every good Man that loves his Countrey especially all Magistrates to stand in the gap and to prevent the further Growth of it as much as is possible by discountenancing it and punishing it too as occasion serve Some are of Opinion this Sin might be stopped by a severe Law against it but I am of another mind and I heartily believe more innocent than guilty Men would suffer by it if we had such a Law because these wicked Wretches make Parties to uphold one another and will lay things so well together that it is almost impossible to discover the Cheat and then as for Oaths to prove them that they never want whereas good Men are not so vigilant suspecting as little ill as they mean and so would be more exposed to the force of such a Law But as for Publick Officers especially Constables and such like I wish together with their Oaths they might be compelled to enter a Recognizance of the same Condition with their Oaths which if it were but of small value as X or XX lib. it would work much upon them and in a great measure put a stop to this Impiety for some that do not reverence an Oath wou'd yet fear to forfeit their Recognizance and in time Religion would return and take away the necessity of such double Obligations As for Private Concerns there is excellent provision made by a late Statute 29 Car. 2. Cap. 3. and the extending it to a few more particulars might be very useful and till this can be done Men must commit as little as is possible to Verbal Testimonies by taking all things they can in Writing 2. Another of the best and most effectual means that is left to stop this inundation of Perjury is for Magistrates to express a great detestation of it not only by their words as Occasion serve but by their Actions too by shewing themselves to be exceeding Careful not to do any thing that is contrary to their Oaths and sometimes giving that for a reason of it for that makes a greater impression upon the Minds of Men than any words without it because it is at once a Verbal and a Practical Declaration and their Authority will make it the more taken Notice of and regarded The Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance are so frequently Administred that I need not take any further notice of them here but that which more immediately concerns the Justices of the Peace is as followeth YE shall Swear that as Justice of the Peace in the County of C. in all Articles in the King's Commission to you directed you shall do Egal Right to the Poor and to the Rich after your Cunning Wit and Power and after the Laws and Customs of the Realm and Statutes thereof made and ye shall not be of Councel of any quarrel hanging before you and that ye shall hold your Sessions after the form of the Statutes thereof made And the Issues Fines and Amerciments that shall happen to be made and all Forfeitures which shall fall before you ye shall cause to be entered without any Concealment or imbefilling and truely send them to the King's Exchequer ye shall not let for Guift or other Cause but well and truly you shall do your Office of Justice of the Peace in that behalf And that you take nothing for your Office of Justice of the Peace to be done but of the King and Fees accustomed and Costs limited by the Statute And ye shall not direct nor cause to be directed any Warrant by you to be made to the Parties but ye shall direct to the Bailiffs of the said County or other the King's Officers or Ministers or other indifferent Persons to do Execution thereof So help you God You shall do Egal right the very way of Writing which word Egal instead of Equal shews this Oath is of great Antiquity and that it hath been very carefully Transcribed when there have been so much scruple made of changing a G. into a Q. according to the Latin and our present Authography and it would be a burning shame to us if we that are Sworn should be less careful of the Articles in it than the Clerks have been of the Letters And that ye shall hold your Sessions how they can Answer it to God or Man I know not who reside in any County or act as Justices of the Peace in it and yet never appear at any Sessions by the space of many years together without any lawful excuse or hindrance or those who come and take the King's Wages and before half the Business is done betake themselves to the Tavern leaving two or three to finish and conclude the Business so that if any Controversie arise it must be left to another time or ended as it can rather than as it ought it is true neither of these Disorders can be Punished by the Court but then it is because the Law supposeth that Men of that Quality will not need it but will religiously observe their Oath so that the fault is so much the greater because it cannot be Punished but by God only I shall not make any more Reflections on this Oath because this whole Discourse is but a kind of Commentary upon it and whatever I have omitted is taken notice of by Lambard and other Writers But the Care of a Magistrate ends not in himself but is to extend to Others and therefore he ought to take great heed that he minister none but Lawful and Necessary Oaths Secondly That if he find Men ignorant he give them good Advice and sharp Reproofs in case of the least failure By Lawful Oaths I mean such as the Laws and Customs of England will allow him to give and therefore before he take an Oath he ought to consider whether he have Power to do it for thô he hath a great yet he hath not an unlimited Power as is manifest by that Parenthesis which is so frequent in our Statutes which Oath the said Justices are by this Act Authorized to Administer which is repeated almost as often as a new Power is given them and for the most part in these very words And yet I doubt not but when good Reason requires where ever they may Hear and Determine they may do it upon Oath thô the Statute doth not
requires because this Affair is so different in one place from what it is in another that it can hardly be brought under one general Rule and it seems but reason to intrust such and so many Gentlemen with a Power which is granted to almost every petty Corporation So likewise the Statute concerning Lands given to Charitable uses 39. Eliz. 6. might be made much more useful by Communicating that Power to any 4 Justices of the Peace without a Commission out of the Chancery and allowing an Appeal to the Sessions 1 with a Tryal by Jury And indeed all Lands given to Charitable uses would be better imployed if accounts were given to the Justices of the Peace which is already given in relation to those that are given to the repair of †13 14. c. 2. c. 6. § 14. High-ways and the Relief of * 22 23. c. 2. c. 20. ⧠11. Goals and Prisoners and there is the same reason for the rest There is one thing of which no care was ever taken that I know of and that is for Guardians for such Children as are neither so poor as to be a Charge presently to the Parish and yet have not such Estates as to be able to bear an Application to the Chancery for that Purpose many of which become at length a Charge to the Parish when what was left them is consumed Which might be prevented by giving the Quarter Sessions power to appoint them Guardians and take security of them for a good Account altering and changing them as occasion serves and compelling them to account and make payment without Suits of Law which such poor Orphans Estates will not bear There are too many other things to be brought into a Preface to so small a Discourse as this and therefore I will omit them but there is one I cannot pass over I could never yet learn any power that was given to the Justices of the Peace to Summon or Compel Witnesses to appear in the Sessions except it were against Felons Now it is most certain no Case can be ended without them and that very often they will not appear without Compulsion and so many a good Cause must and doth miscarry And this a thing as worthy of a short Act of Parliament as any other I know of if it were but to make the Remedy more Authentick There are many Passages in the present Lord-Keeper's Speech which I have quoted above that would have been of great use to me if I had been so happy as to have seen it before I had finished this Piece but there is one which I had much rather misplace here then omit it altogether Pag. the 6th A private man is praised for shewing Humility and Deference to others in his Conversation and passing by Indignities But a Judg and so proportionably a Magistrate must take greatness upon him he must consider he represents the Kings Person in his Seat of Justice he must therefore be very careful to preserve the Dignity that belongs to it He must have passions but not of a private man that may disturb his Judgment but he must assume Passion to set off his Severity when the greatness of the Crime requires it but it must be so as it may appear that his Judgment governs his Passion and directs it against the offence and not against the Person A Judg must be covetous but not as a private man for his own profit but he must be very solicitous for the Kings profit knowing that the Kings Revenue is like Animal Spirits without which the Government would not be able to perform its ordinary Motions All which excellent Rules the last not excepted do belong as well to Justices of the Peace as to the Judges seeing so much of the Kings Revenue is committed to their care and it is the worst sort of Treason that can be starve our King And now if my Reader thinks fit to go on and read the Book too let me conjure him to do it without Partiality or Prejudice and with a resolution to reform whatever he shall remark to be amiss in his own Person or Practice and when he hath so done I will ask him no favour let him think and speak what he pleases of me I care not how low I lie in his Esteem how impertinent or tedious unlearned or ignorant nay how confident or impudent I may seem to be so I may do him good and if nothing else will do even anger him into an Amendment And if he will consider seriously of it he must grant I can have no other end because I write neither for Money nor Preferment nor Glory nor any other worldly interest but merely for the publick good And if any man is pleased with this Tractate I only beg of him the favour of one hearty Prayer for me and mine and the good success of this Discourse that it may advance the Glory of God the Execution of Justice and Judgment and the Prosperity and Welfare of the best Church the best King and the best Civil Government in the whole World Living at a great distance these Errata's have been made which the Reader is desired to amend with his Pen and to Pardon the greater faults of the Author Errata Page 18. Line 7. dele then l. 9. for that r. then p. 31. l. 22. for easy r. rasy p. 32. for profit r. Prophet p. 48. l. 7. r. Ruined p. 61. Parag. 2. fine dele they find p. 102. l. 10. for have r. had p. 106. l. 10. for would r. will p. 110. l. 17. for has r. as P. 112. l. 18. for mean r. can p. 142. l. 7. for expect r. except p. 167. l. 19. for take r. give To the Making of a Good Justice of the Peace these Things are required 1. Natural Abilities A Competent Apprehension Judgment Memory 2. Civil Abilities A Competent Estate A Good Reputation A reasonable good Education and Learning 3. Religious Dispositions consisting in A due Veneration of God Love for his Service in himself and others A true Esteem of his Ministers An earnest Desire of the Salvation of all Under his Care and Charge 4. Moral Qualifications Prudence in all his Actions Patience Meekness Sobriety Chastity Industry Courage and Honesty in the Execution of his Duty And Humility 5. Politick Qualifications A competent Understanding of the Nature of our Government and Love to it Of the Nature of the English People Of the several Factions that we have amongst us and how 〈◊〉 govern them 6. Publick Qualifications A Great Love of Justice Impartiality in Executing it Aversion for those things that may hinder it Bribery Prejudice and Prepossession Favour and Hatred Covetousness Irregular Heats and Hopes Laziness 7. Knowledge in our Laws and Customs By Reading Observation and Practice Conversation and Discourse with knowing and Experienced Men. 8. Prudent Execution of our Laws by Observing a due Method according to Law 1. In calling the Parties 2. In hearing the
Means to prevent it Memory is a Natural Faculty of Great Use in all Humane Transactions but Especially in Government and that in the Lowest degrees of it For it is the duty of a Magistrate to Execute Laws not to make them and he is to have an Eye to the matter of Fact at the same time too now he that hath such a defect in that Faculty that he can neither remember the Law which is to Direct him nor the matter of Fact to which it is to be applied is certainly very unfit to be a judge and so in Proportion in all the intermediate degrees of it The Office of a Justice of the Peace is very diffused and comprehends in it a vast Number and Variety of things and it will consequently require a good Memory to tell presently whether any particular case be within his Jurisdiction or No. Mr. Lambard complained in his time and that is near a hundred years ago that there were Stacks of Statutes imposed upon them to take care of and the Number is now perhaps double to what it was then So that in this respect also it is Necessary that he who Undertakes this Office should be a Man of a good strong Memory If any man doubts the truth of this he will find upon trial that no humane Memory how great soever it be can perfectly comprehend all the particulars Exactly and that it will be Necessary to have frequent recourse to the Books Especially in Statute Cases without which many and great Errors must of Necessity be committed so that the Prudence of a Magistrate doth consist in a great degree in not Trusting too much to his Memory But then that shews a Necessity of having that useful Faculty to a good degree SECTION III. THere are three other Accidental qualifications which are of great use and would be considered A Competent Estate a good Reputation and a tolerable good Education and Learning The Justice of the Peace enters upon an imployment that will occasion him much loss of Time some Expence and many Enemies and after all will afford him little or nothing towards the bearing these inconveniences but a little unprofitable Honour attended with much envy and had therefore need before-hand be provided of a competent Estate at least to support him in that imployment or else he will suddainly repent what he indiscreetly undertook and it may be intail the Mischief upon his Family who will remember his honour with small complacency when they reflect upon his debts occasioned by it Nor will he and his Family be the only Sufferers the Country will and must bear a part in it too Men of small Estates are very often of Mean spirits and dare not do their Duties where they Expect opposition and have great and rich men to deal with and so betray Justice not for want of Skill or Honesty but of Courage to undertake and go thro with it Besides their Poverty will Expose them to great Temptations of Bribery and tho the profit that can come by it is very inconsiderable yet the mischief that will attend it is not so for the perverting Justice in the smallest instance is a great Dishonour and Damage to a Country and the meaner the cause the greater the infamy the Meaner the People are that are injured the greater the Clamour But of all men those that are much indebted are the least fit for that both the Creditor and his Friends must too often be gratified by the wretched man at the Expence of his Oath his Integrity his Honour and his Justice and all occasions must be sought for this too that the World may see how great a power the Rich Clown hath upon his Worship For these causes there was an Act of Parliament made some Ages since which is as followeth WHereas by Statutes made in the time of the Kings noble Progenitors it was Ordained That in every County of England Justices should be assigned of the most Worthy of the same Counties to keep the Peace and to do other things as in the same Statutes fully is Contained Which Statutes notwithstanding now of late in many Counties of England the greatest Number have beén Deputed and Assigned which before this were not wont to be whereof some be of small that is ill Behaviour by whom the People will not be governed nor ruled and some for their Necessity do great Extortion and Oppression upon the People whereof great inconveniences be likely to rise daily if the King thereof do not provide remedy The King willing against such inconveniences to provide remedy hath Ordained and Established by Authority aforesaid That no Justice of Peace within the Realm of England in any County shall be assigned or deputed if he have not Lands or Tenements to the Value of 20 l. by the year and if any be Ordained hereafter c. which have not Lands or Tenements to the Value aforesaid that he thereof shall give Knowledg to the Chancellor of England for the time being which shall put another sufficient in his place and if he give not the same knowledg as before within a Moneth after that he have notice of such Commission or if he sit or make any Warrant or Precept by force of such Commission he shall incur the penalty of 20 l. and nevertheless be put out of the Commission as before c. But this Act Extends not to Corporations and also Provided That if there be not sufficient persons having Lands and Tenements to the Value aforesaid Learned in the Law and of Good Governance within any such County That the Lord Chancellor of England for the time being shall have power to put other discreét Persons Learned in the Law in such Commissions tho they have not Lands or Tenements to the value aforesaid by his discretion The 18 H. 6. cap. 11. I have transcribed this Statute almost at large because it makes so lively a description of the inconveniences and takes so exact a care to prevent them and it is to be observed That xx l. by the Year at the making of this Statute was a Knights fee and that they would trust to Nothing but an Apparent Visible Estate for it must be in Lands or Tenements and yet was there not then the Hundredth part of that business committed to Justices then there is now and their Expences that were consequently much less and tho in case of Necessity some Lawyers of a less Estate were Admitted yet this was out of pure Necessity in those ignorant Times and then they were to be men of Good Governance that is of a Good Reputation for their Lives and Integrity and such men in those time might by their Professions be able to spend with men of good Estates But two inconveniences have arisen in our Times that were not in being then The first is That Men of great Estate do too commonly leave the Country and spend their times and Estates in London and other great Cities in perfect
the two first but I hope by placing them in the Conclusion they will Leave the stronger impression on the Mind of the Reader Courage is so necessary a Qualification in Magistrates Courage that God himself never omits it in his Charges to them and there is good cause for it For they are sometimes to deal with Men Equal to themselves in all things and at others with their Superiors and as the Nature of Mankind stands may justly fear hard usage for doing but their Duty And yet we have another difficulty that will try the most daring we live in a factious Age and a Divided Nation and a Magistrate must sometimes disoblige not only single persons but great Bodies of Men united for the carrying on ill designs And we have before our Eyes instances of many great Families that have been ruine or impoverished within the Memory of Man for their Loyalty and Honesty and too many have Considered the same may happen again and this hath made the difficulty the greater by les'ning the Number of them that should have overcome it But yet would men consider Seriously of it this will never justify their Pusilanimity who have refused to serve the Publick or not performed their Duty out of Cowardise For God himself hath promised to stand by them and protect them in the discharge of their Duty Ye shall not Respect persons in judgment but you shall hear the Small as well as the Great you shall not be afraid of the face of Man for the judgment is Gods Deut. 1. 17. So he is pleased to own the Act and is bound to protect his own Minister and he may securely rely upon him that he will for he hath ingaged his Veracity for it whose Power no Faction how formidable soever can Master And yet if he should Suffer a man to be persecuted for doing his Duty Even that is no such dismal thing as is represented by fancy and delusion but this subject hath been so Excellently treated of by the Author of Jovian in his Conclusion that for brevity sake I will refer the Reader to it Of Evils the least is to be chosen and in the state things are we must submit our Selves and Families as Eternal Slaves to these Factions or defend the Government against them by a Couragious Execution of our Laws We have tryed their Mercy and Clemency and found Solomon's Observation true The tender Mercies of the Wicked are Cruel We have felt the Smart of being Loyal and if we were so treated for being obedient to the Laws of God and Man we may Expect as much Mercy in other instances as we please We have tried what could be done by fair Courses and Concessions and our Experience tells us nothing but an intire submission at discretion will satisfie these insolent Men and this hath inspired some Besieged Starved Places with a resolution to perish bravely but blessed be God we are not upon such terms yet with them But then this reproacheth our faint-hearted Gallants who dare not do their Duty whilest they have the Advantage Clearly on their Side The thing is indeed not only possible but easie for all Combinations against an Established Government besides the Providence of God have the United Forces of all good men against them they are lyable to many hazards have no Authority to Unite them are and ever will be distrustful each of other and faithless too as occasion serves and one Passion prevails upon another So that it is not Prudence which makes men timorous but want of Considering the Nature of things together with Infidelity Distrust of God and Cowardize and if any man will aspire to these Titles of Honour and tamely purchase them with Slavery and Beggery much good may his bargain do him and let no man envy his happiness And as to the rest let them pluck up their spirits and with the Rosolution of English Men and Christians bring under this Hydra this Many-headed Monster and they may be assured the Event will answer their Desires and will find that the strength of our Factions lies more in our want of Wit and Will to Suppress them than in their own Ability to defend themselves much less to bring under and ruine us But not only Combinations of Men but single persons have sometimes over-awed Magistrates and made them not dare to do their Duties and here the fault is so much the greater as the Temptation is less For why should a Justice of the Peace under the Protection of God and the Laws fear a Wealthy Clown or a Ruffling Gentleman Let him be but once sure what the Law and the Matter of Fact is and he need not fear any man But 't is a great disgrace to the Magistrate and a great dishonour to Justice to have the Laws take none but the poor helpless offenders whose very Innocence may be easily trodden under foot and the great and insolent Offenders escape without any Chastisement It were great reason rather to take the latter than the former and tends more to the terror of ill men It is true that sometimes these great and rich Malefactors do find means by their Wealth and Friends to trouble a Justice of the Peace on some other pretence but this doth not often happen God in his Providence preventing it and when it doth ought to be born as other Calamities which God sends for Causes best known to himself and which for the most part end very well for the Minister of Justice But on the Other Side when a man hath purchased their good will at the loss of his Reputation by denying Justice or doing injury he hath but rendred himself more obnoxious to their injuries by shewing his fear of them which makes them yet more insolent and he hath made God and good men his Enemies to boot So that he is then become really miserable and yet must Expect no bodies Pity or Assistance So that all things Considered it is better to trust God and rely on the Protection of the Laws and so to proceed to do our Duty without the least Consideration Whether the Party Complained of be a Poor man or a rich man but according to Gods Commandment and Our Oath to do equal Right to both which in all probability will be as safe and much more honourable and at last bring a man to peace according to that of the Psalmist Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the End of that Man is Peace Psal 37. v. 37. There is another Fault which is just the opposite to this and doth not so often happen yet sometimes may out of too much Pity and Compassion ill Placed and Worse Expressed and that is when more regard is taken to the Poverty than Innocence of a man contrary to the Command of God Thou shalt not Countenance a poor man in his Cause Exod. 23. 3. That is any further than there is Right and Reason for it I might perhaps not have mentioned this
Principles favourers of Popery and Papists 4. The Ministers of State are all represented to the People as French Pensioners and Papists in Masquerade What the meaning of this is my Lord Bacon shall tell you This is a sure Rule that if the Envy upon the Minister be great when the cause of it in him is small or if the Envy be General in a manner upon all the Ministers of an Estate the Envy tho hidden is truely upon the State it self Essay the 9th But then 't is not so easie to destroy them as it was before because 't is better known now 5. Scotland and Ireland are quiet and His Majesty hath good Guards in both of them to keep them so whereas his Father had none and tho there have been dreadful Complaints of them and divers Attempts in Scotland to destroy them by the Covenanting Whiggs yet it will not do there they are still and no body can help it 6. The Nation hath a strong Impression left of the Miseries of the Late War the Blood-shed Taxes and Tyranny they then groaned under and his Majesty cannot forget the Methods that were used to destroy his Father and Banish him and he will never give them leave to play over the Old Game and this was it which made the Late Conspiracy to Murther him so necessary 7. The House of Peers have no mind to be Voted down the second time and they stoutly oppose what ever tends that way and the Dissenting Lords have lost the Assistance they formerly had from the Popish Peers in that House and may protest and complain but could never carry one Vote since a manifest Argument how much the Puritan and Popish Faction stand in need of each other 8. The liberty of the Press was for several years lost but since that restraint ended we have not wanted Seditious Pamphlets to incite the People to another Rebellion which were written by some body for something and were bought up and read by vast Numbers of People who in all probability had no mighty Aversion for them The same Fears and Jealousies have been revived and buzzed industriously into the Heads of the People but there is a cerrain Act of Parliament that makes it dangerous to Traduce the King as they did his Father but what no body durst speak directly they can slily insinuate and avoid the danger of the Law at the same time and there are several other Acts of Parliament which have made the design of the Republicans difficult which I will omit Now I say considering all these Difficulties that were not before and that all that were before are still in being and that Men have naturally an Aversion for hempen Neck-laces I say considering these things any man that will may see there hath been as much done as could be towards the setting up another Common-wealth and more then the Gentlemen in 41 durst do till they have an Army to back them and if any man be disposed to believe these things come to pass by chance and without any design there is no reason why I should disturb the rest of the world by endeavouring any further to satisfie him which in all probability is impossible But there is one question behind still and that is What the Inferiour Magistrates and Justices of the Peace shall do to prevent this Faction from attaining what they aim at 1. To which I answer first take away the Cause and the Effect will follow the Puritan Principles and Factions gave Being to this and with them it will fail but as long as they subsit and are powerful the Common-wealth Party will be so too it is true that many forsake the Factious in other things but joyn with them in this but then they are false at the heart and have left the rest only because it was chargeable being of that Party and are to be treated accordingly and never to be trusted 2. The People are frequently to be told of the Miseries they endured during the Late Times of Anarchy and Confusion that the Memory of them may not be forgot in the next Generation and by what means the Nations became involved in them that they may not have the opportunity of Re-acting the Old Tragedy 3. The Government ought to be represented to the People as it is that they may know their own happiness and live obediently under it A good Man would not endeavour to subvert any Government that were Established tho it were none of the best because the Miseries that attend such Changes are greater for the most part then those that are pretended to be removed by them but for us to attempt to pull down one of the Ancientest and best Constituted Governments in the World under which England hath flourished so many Ages and to deliver our selves up into the hands of a Company of Ambitious Men to be treated we know not how and Governed we know not which way is perfect Madness 4. It is well observed in Tacitus Liberty and other Specious Things are pretended Nor did ever any man seek a Dominion over others and to enslave them but he made use of such pretences for it We have tryed these Men and by experience have found that they are meer Pretences and that there is no sweeter Liberty in the World then to live under a good Prince and God hath given us one to our hearts desire let us not be such Fools as to catch at such shadows as they offer to us and loose the real and solid good things we do enjoy 5. The Throne is established by Righteousness Prov. 16. 12. And ancient Histories afford us many instances of good Princes that have been ruined by the Injustice of their under Officers when the People have been inraged by them Now every Inferiour Magistrate may in this contribute much to the disappointing the wicked Designs of this Faction by doing Justice and cutting the Roots of all Discontents before they rise to Assault the Throne or spread to undermine it It is a common Complaint that we have excellent Laws but they are ill Executed I know the whole fault of all this ought not to be ascribed to the Magistrates but yet we are not such as we ought to be If any share of it lies at our Doors and if the Throne be made odious and consequently weak by our defaults we must expect to suffer first and to bear the blame of it hereafter our Oaths will keep us from joyning in a Rebellion and our Loyalty make us obnoxious to their Cruelty which as Tacitus saith is the greatest Crime amongst Rebels If therefore neither the Memory of what is past nor the sence of what is present our own nor others experience will prevail upon us to prevent the ill Effects we must in reason expect from the Conjunction of the Puritan and Common-wealth Factions United and Fermented by the Popish if we will still resolve to try whether our Saviour's Rule is true That a Kingdom divided within
it self cannot stand Math. 12. 25. then are we such men as deserve no pity from God or Men whatever follow But on the other side if we would buckle to the Work and with Zeal and Industry and Patience pursue it by God's Gracious Assistance we might soon bring under these two Factions and in time Extirpate all the three not by a destruction of their Persons but of their Pernicious and Disloyal Principles and whoever hath but the least share in this great work shall be blessed in this and all succeeding Generations SECTION VI. I Come in the next place to speak of a sort of Qualifications so necessary in a Magistrate that without them he would never be able to discharge his Duty as he ought which I shall reduce under these three heads 1. A great Love to Justice 2. Impartiality in executing it 3. Aversion for those things that may hinder it Solomon saith It is a joy to the just to do Judgment Prov. 21. 15. And except men take a joy in it Judgment will certainly be ill done if at all especially by those men who have no other reward for it then the satisfaction of their own minds and the sense of having served God and their King and Country in a Station that brings them no personal Advantage We may say truly of the Justice of Peace his Calling that there is much Noise and no Wool and as for honour the better he is the less he must expect it in this perverse Generation Envy and Ill will he may be sure to reap but for any sollid satisfaction unless what results from the Peace of his own Mind and the blessed hopes of a Future Reward from God the Righteous Judge of Men and Angels he will find himself miserably deceived in the Event if he at all expects it And this is not the worst of it neither difficulties he will meet that will require the utmost degree of Patience Prudence Industry and Attention to dispel them and without Gods particular Assistance it will not be done at last but instead of doing Justice he will do Injury and Injustice and he will have cause to complain Dum falsum nefas exequor vindex scelestus incidi in verum nefas Whil'st I pursued and punished an imaginary and supposed Crime in another I have committed a real one my self and this will be a great misfortune even then when it is no fault and much more when it is When these and a thousand other difficulties which no man can foresee are considered it will I suppose be easily granted that he that is to encounter overcome them had need have a strong and almost invincible Love to Justice to enable him and support him in his undertaking And perhaps if it were well considered there is not a greater instance of the Divine Providence in the Government of the World then that so many friends to Justice can be found as there is Men that Court and Espouse her purely for her own sake without any other Dower then that of Sorrow and Vexation of Spirit whose Business Pleasures Recreations nay their very Prayers and Meals are interrupted by their thankless unprofitable uneasie employment and yet God for the good of others sweetens all this and tyes them as close to it by the Cords of Love as a Hen to her Eggs and Chickens from which she can never reap any advantage But then those that are not so qualified should in Prudence never attempt to meet these Rampant Lyons which they may be sure are in the way and if any of them will not consider it before-hand his own experience will soon inform him of the truth of what I say I speak not this to discourage any man but to forewarn him that he may be provided with a resolution equal to the opposition which only Love can inspire fear it is true hath sometimes made Men Valiant but then that is a forced Courage which will not last lay the man a golden Bridge open him a way and you may be sure never to be troubled more with his Valour or his Justice But he that loves any thing pursues it through Fire and Water and Death it self cannot extinguish the desire Tell him of dangers and he replyes At contra Audentior ibo but I am resolved to master them These and these only are the fit Men to serve in this Honourable Employment and may God Almighty bless and reward those we have and send more such Heroick Souls into the Field to discountenance Faction and Vice and to protect Innocency Religion and Virtue And to the rest I shall offer two or three things to be thought of at their leisure Will any man in his right Wits expect Peace without Justice What were the World but a Hell of Misery and a Chaos of Confusion if every man might say and do what he list Were it not for the publick Justice to terrify some and cut off other Malefactors your House would be a Castle to you indeed but surrounded with such dangers that you should neither eat nor drink nor sleep in Peace and Security and the more Opulent your Fortunes were the greater would be the temptation to destroy and impoverish you go into the fruitful Countries of the Mogull in the East-Indies and you shall find vast Spaces of Rich Soyl desolate and unhabited only for want of Country Magistrates to protect the good and punish the disorderly for that Prince sends but few Governors into his vast Provinces and they reside in the great Cities so that the Poor and Remote have small advantage by them and so would it be in England if all men were of your minds But you will say there is no fear of that but then you shall be as accountable to God and your Country has if it had really happened for tho man cannot punish these Sins of Omission God can and will But you must gain Portions for your Children and encrease your Estates yes and your Sorrows too to see all your Labours end in Smoak a Civil War destroy that in an hour you have been carking for many years and your Beloved Daughter become the Prey of a Lieutenant or a Captain at the best who has nothing to Joynture her in and takes her and all the Thousands you have scraped together for her in part of payment for the publick service or dis-service as it happens and it may be your Grand-children may after all this have the honour and happiness to be Tapsters or Ostlers in some great place When if the Publick had been better minded your Daughter and her Descendants might have been happy These are no vain speculations so that if men would consider seriously of it they would love Justice if not for it self yet for the Consequences of it 2. Next to the love of Justice impartiality in doing it is to be considered for it is possible to turn Justice into Worm-wood and Gaul the best and sweetest of things into the bitterestâ— and
self to reduce the Scales of Justice once sway'd down to an eqnal Ballance Wherefore it is the safest Course for a Judge that Nothing touching the proofs and merit of the cause be intimated before-hand untill both Parties be heard together Thus far this great Man who was once Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England And a Justice of the Peace is in much more danger of being prepossessed than a Judge because the Complaint is made at first immediately to him and he may afterwards be more easily approached yea and deceived too than a Judge as being not so well versed in affairs or prepared for the Execution of his Office by his Education and therefore should be the more Wary and Jealous of himself Sometimes the prejudice is of an Ancienter date than the Complaint depending and is sometimes the fault and at others the misfortune of the Party if he have given just cause for it by his former misdemeanors and ill Life then he can blame no body but himself and yet the Justice ought not to condemn him in his very thoughts till he is clearly proved Guilty for the Worst of Men may be Wronged and every man is supposed at first innocent and afterwards penitent till the contrary be shown not by surmises but by proof But alass we live in so False and Slanderous an Age that the Fame of very Good men is often blasted behind their backs and it is become a common practice for men to blacken their Reputation whose Persons or Estates they design to Ruine and for the most part more mischief is done the Party by these Under-hand Accusations which he can never answer then by all the direct proof And therefore the Justice of the Peace ought to suspect all informations that are from the purpose as Slanders and designed for no other purpose than to prepossess him with an ill opinion of the party What I have said will in some degree discover the Mischief of Prejudice but there is this further in it Reason is the Light and Eye of the Soul Now if the Eye be simple the Whole shall be full of Light but if it be darkened with prepossession how great is that Darkness Matth. 6. 23. and I may add how incurable how inexcusable too It is certain we shall all stand before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ and whatever Judgment we here pass upon Things and Persons shall be there reviewed and therefore it befits us to be very exactly careful that we do not draw upon us a just Condemnation from that most Righteous and All-seeing Judge by condemning our fellow-Servants thro Prejudice and Prepossession Wrongfully Nor let us ever think that we shall escape the censure of men for they will certainly at one time or other discover the Cheat and esteem us according as they find cause tho perhaps they will not dare freely to tell us their minds and if they never should yet our Consciences will Accuse us for it and God in his Providence will take care to punish us for it and that it may be in the same way we have offended So that he that can be secure in the midst of so many dangers and open his Ears and expose himself to every secret Whisper against a Man is a Person disposed for ruine and doth neither deserve the Advice or Pity of any Man Bribery and Prepossession do for the most part spring from others Favour and Hatred Favour and Hatred take their Rise from our selves and are as great hinderances to Equal and Impartial Justice as the other two there is no man so mean but he may by Accident or upon Design oblige his Betters and beget in them a good opinion of him and most men are naturally apt to do it before hand and all the little Arts of Flattery Obsequiousness and Courtship are on such occasions made use of and many a man hath been drawn in by them who would have abhorred a Bribe Nor can any man on the other side live so innocently as at all times to avoid the displeasure of his Neighbours and a Justice of Peace is as capable of resentment as other Men and in some degree more because Pride and great Expectations of Submission and Regard do naturally follow Power in all its degrees and Circumstances and the least opposition or defeatexasperates such more then ten times as much would another so that the Natural Consequence is that a man in Authority and Power will have many pretending Friends and if he be not the more careful as many real or suspected Foes and if his Love and his Hatred have any room left for their Activity in the Execution of his Office they will betray him to many Inconveniences and Acts of Injustice which he would otherwise have avoided Whereas Justice should in this respect be blind and not see the Parties but the Fact on one side and the Law on the other and then with discretion and impartiality without Favour or Affection Hatred or ill Will give to every Man according to his Works But in the State man is this is so difficult that if Reason and Religion be not called in to our Assistance it will not be done the man hath injured me and therefore another is false Logick but yet so powerful that it is almost impossible to see the Fallacy especially whilest a Man is under the Dominion of Anger and Hatred which are powerful Passions and the Argument is as weak the other way the man is an honest man and therefore would not do amiss or complain without good Cause Why he is a man still and subject to all the Infirmities of Flesh and Blood and therefore I ought not to surrender my self blind-fold to his Conduct but diligently search out the truth And indeed if men would entertain low and humble thoughts of themselves they would seldom be mistaken but if I think my Smile my Nod my kind Word or Look a mighty Obligation and make a Muster of my Friends by the List of my Flatterers and Admirers I shall soon have a large Roll but they will in Adversity appear to be what they are like false Musters in Peace appear in their Ranks and Files a full Body but in time of necessity and need be like the gleaning after the Vintage thin and of no use and every Act of Injustice I do will diminish the number of my Friends even of those for whose sakes I did it and increase the number and fury of my Enemies But on the other side Exact and Impartial Justice is venerable and lovely in the sight of God and Men and even those that suffer by it will when the smart is over love and revere the man that Administred it to them so the upright Impartial Magistrate shall in the end have fewer Enemies and more hearty Friends then the other If there were nothing but this to be said for it there were reason enough to banish all our Affections and Passions when we sit
of the same mind and rectifies his mistakes before they become dangerous to him or to others But then it must be with Knowing Men for no man can communicate to another that which he hath not he may mislead him or confirm him in Error and so make his mistake more fatal but other good he can expect little from him except it be the diversion of his Chat. When the Person with whom we converse hath not only a Speculative but a Practical Knowledge too of any thing if he appear honest and disinterested we may rely the better on his Judgment and the little Stories which he will be able to tell of things well or ill done will strangely dwell upon the memory and fix things and at the same time rectifie the Judgment too It was well said by the Lord Bacon Set before thee the best Examples for imitation is a Globe of Precepts and for that end were Histories written that one Generation might learn from another and take Example what to follow and what to avoid and Discourse is of the same Nature thô not so perfect I may then justly detest their ill nature and folly who when they meet with Men of Knowledge and Experience and willing to Communicate both to them envy and traduce them and when they have nothing else to say think to make them Odious by saying They love to talk and are conceited of their own Knowledge or Abilities and are Proud men why if all this were true it is better to be Proud of Something than of Nothing and yet the last happens oftenest solid Knowledge will make a man humble when there is nothing so conceited as Ignorance and a communicative Man is better company than a close churlish Nature who values himself upon the Ignorance of others which shall never be rectified by him And it is usual for these men too to learn from them whom they thus traduce Secondly I may justly reprehend them who spend all their time in tittle tattle about their Currs and their Kites their Debaucheries and Recreations or which is worse in defaming their Neighbours but if any useful Discourse is begun that may tend to the Publick Good or to make them wiser or better are ill at ease till it be ended turn sick and are ready to surrender their over-charged Stomachs 'T is true the Age in which we live is learned but if this humour prevail a little more the next will not only be debauched but barbarous and ignorant SECTION VIII THe End of all that knowledge I have been discoursing of in the foregoing Section is for Practice for that makes it truly beneficial a Man had better be totally Ignorant of all Laws than to Study them to find ways to defeat them that so he may at once avoid the Directive and Coercive Power of them But the Great design of a Good Magistrate is a Prudent Execution of them by observing a due Method according to Law 1. In calling the Parties 2. In hearing them 3. In determining the Cause It is an old and a just Complaint that no Nation hath better Laws than this nor hardly any that executes them worse and yet we are possest with an Hydropical thirst after more the cause of which is that every man would be free himself and have another bound but of what use are the best Laws without severe Execution If we design nothing but ostentation in my Judgment the Book of Statutes is big enough all ready We are almost in the same condition with the Ancient Romans Nec vitia nostra nec remedia eorum ferre possumus we can neither bear our great and manifold Vices nor the Remedies of them And it was the Observation of a Wise man Corruptissima Repub. plurimae Leges that most Laws were made in the most corrupted States But then never was any People amended with Ink and Paper and Laws are no more till they be put in Execution It was good Advice which Tiberius gave the Senate that they should not teach the World by ineffectual Laws what Vices were too strong for their Authority for which he gives this reason That when Men had once prevailed against that Remedy too Neque metus ultra neq pudor est there was neither Fear nor Modesty left to amend them If we think much to Execute those we already have to what end should we desire more If we think it burthensome to Obey our old Laws why should we desire to encrease the weight except it be to shew by the breach of more how much we despise them But as in the making so in the executing of Laws there will be occasion to make use of much Prudence and Discretion to make a dextrous Application of the General Rule to the particular instance and to order the Business so too if it be possible that the Offender may be Reformed and not Ruined it is impossible to give any General Rule or Advice in this Case but it must be left to the discretion of the Magistrate Only the Saying of the last Lord Chancellor will ever be found true Happy is that Government where men Complain of the strict Execution of the Laws And if I might presume to give the Reason it should be this Severity prevents Offences whereas too much lenity encreaseth them and makes the Offender by Custom and Time incorrigible When a Complaint is brought before a Justice of the Peace his first care must be to consider diligently whether the Case be within his Jurisdiction for it is no unusual thing for mean People to complain to them in Cases in which they can afford them no Relief and it is much better to consider this at first than when it is too late for then a Man hath betrayed his ignorance and indiscretion if there happen nothing worse Some Men have a custom to extend their Power beyond the just bounds of it that they may have the more Business and others will not do what they might and ought either out of fear or ignorance or unwillingness to be Troubled neither of these are good It is unsafe and often injurious too to stretch the Jurisdiction beyond its due bounds And it is unjust on the other side to deny Men the Benefit of the Laws when it is in Our Power to Right them And therefore a Good Magistrate will avoid both the Extremes and neither give his Neighbours Trouble to no purpose nor spare his own Pains when he can serve his Country And herein he will soon find the great Benefit of his Care to inform himself Exactly of his Duty without which it will be very difficult to determine whether he hath a right to meddle or no and if he thinks he hath it will not be amiss at first especially and afterwards in all doubtful Cases to consult his Books and so go on or desist as he finds Cause And the Safety will sufficiently Compensate for the Trouble When he is resolv'd to grant a Warrant it is an excellent
which hath not been said before on this Account Instead of which I am rather inclined to deplore the Miseries of the Age and Nation in which we live for it may be that since the Creation of the World there is not one to be found in which Perjury and Disregard of the Obligation of all Oaths have taken such Deep rooting and become so Epidemical and General If we inquire into the Reasons of it we shall find two which have contributed especially to it Factions and Irreligion The Popish Faction led the Way and long since by Papal Dispensations taught Christians to play fast and loose with those dreadful ties which honest Heathens revered and trembled at and to Uphold their tottering Greatness Decreed at last That Faith was not to be kept with Hereticks a Doctrine which they have since most religiously observed when it hath been safe as they thought whether to their greater Infamy or Dammage I shall not now inquire The Dissenters at length imbraced in the beginning of our late Confusions the same Opinion and being to undertake a War against their King were Necessitated to absolve themselves from the Oath of Allegiance they had made to him and afterwards the same Necessity brought them to take the Covenant which was contrary to that Oath the Engagement which was contrary to both and so on they went Swearing Contradictions and imposing them upon the People till no body did any longer regard what they Swear to and they became so Persidious too and distrustful of each other that this Persidy and Perjury in which they had put their greatest trust by a just Judgment of God upon them ruined all their Designs and brought their Affairs into such Confusion that they were forced to Submit to His Majesty and accept a Pardon from him whom they had abjured but a few Months before But the Nation being once infected with this Leprosie of Perjury thô one cause was gone the War yet the Factions kept up the Distemper partly to secure themselves against the Laws made against them and partly in hopes to make great use of it in another Revolution which they have lived in Expectation of ever since So they Minted new Doctrines That it is better to Trust God i. e. to try whether he will be as good as his Word and Punish them for false Swearing than Man That it was a less Sin if it were any for a Man to forswear himself than to betray a Godly Brother to the Wicked or to inform against him to his loss And as they taught so they practised they took all Oaths and kept none And if any body was scrupulous and fearful they tried what Perswasion would do if that failed they fell to close Revenges Defamations Suits at Law on other Pretences and all the Ways they could till at last partly for Love partly for Fear they brought incredible Numbers of Men to Perjure themselves for them Thus our Ignoramus Juries our Perjured Constables our Conforming-Nonconforming Ministers our Sacramentary distinctions into Legal and Spiritual Sacraments our Moderate Magistrates so call'd and our Journeyman Freemen were produced So that by degrees things are now come to that pass that no man can tell how to trust his Life his Honour his Fortunes to the truth of a Witness or Jury for Men have learned to serve themselves in their private Concerns of the same Engine that have wrought such wonderful Effects in the Publick and the Contagion hath spread it self so vastly that there is hardly any security left Nor have the Dreadful Judgments of God upon the first Inventers the learned Writings and Sermons of the conformable Clergy nor any thing else that could yet be thought of been able to put a stop to it Nay the Atheism and Irreligion which the Observation of all this impious Villany hath produced joyned with the Debauchery of the Times have given a great increase to it so that now not only the demure Hypocrite forswears himself for the Glory of God and the Good of his Children but the Atheist when there is occasion doth it by their Example for his Own sweet sake and his Friends But what will be the Effect of all this Without Oaths there can be no Administration of Justice no Determination of Controversies and without Truth and Honesty in those Oaths there can be as little Justice in the Event That Perjury that did a man a Kindness to day may ruin him to morrow and in probability will do so Besides no man almost can mannage a Perjury so cunningly but that it will be known not only to God but to some Men who will afterwards distrust and hate that Man to the day of his Death even the Party for whom he did it will be forever after jealous of him So that a Man that is once guilty of this Sin if he be not prosecuted for it by Publick Justice will yet be infamous and suspected by all his Neighbours so that if Men were Wise thô they did not fear God yet to avoid the Hatred and distrust of Men they would avoid this detestable Sin of Perjury But if they could conceal it from the Knowledge of all Mankind can they deceive their own Consciences too no sure and if they did but mind it they should find many who have afterwards had so deep and grievous a sense of this Sin that they have put an end to their own Lives to escape the fury of it others have died Distracted and Dispairing and those that have recovered by the Mercy of God have yet many of them lived miserable unfortunate uncomfortable lives ever after And after all this the Judgments of God Almighty come up in the Reer with a Vengeance so much more heavy as it is the flower It is observed by the Author of the Wisdom of Solomon Chap. 14. v. 30 31. that those Heathens who swore falsly by their Idols were yet for those Perjuries punished by the true God For it is not saith he the Power of them by whom they swear but it is the just Vengeance of Sinners that punisheth always the offence of Sinners If the true God seemed thus careful to preserve Religion amongst Men by avenging the Injuries that were done to false Gods by those that worshipped them as true which he often did in pity to the deceived World because without Religion Communities would degenerate into Bands of Thieves and Herds of Beasts each one preying upon another and keeping no more Faith than Necessity could enforce as is well observed by the Author of The Life of Agathocles than by a necessary Consequence he is much more obliged to assert his own honour basely abused by Pretended Christians and we may be sure he will for he hath never yet failed to do it How many Princes trusting to the Papal Absolutions have been destroyed by their own Perjuries what did the Emperor gain by the breach of his Faith at the Council of Constance or any other Prince since what did
but that it hath been more frequent here in England of late than perhaps in all the World besides Especially as to our Penal Laws for every Township with us being bound to maintain its own poor Inhabitants which way soever they become such many men interest themselves in the Cases of these People and for fear they should become a Charge to the Parish connive at many of their Misdemeanors and intercede with the Magistrates in others for their non-punishment till for Want of timely Correction for small faults and thro hopes of impunity they become insufferably Wicked and are cut off by the hand of Justice or grow Insolent and are a plague all the days of their Lives to the Places in which they live It is great pity the power of inflicting Corporal punishment instead of Pecuniary should not be Extended further than it is for that is the way to meet these small ill natured Animals As for Instance Many of them turn Atheists and never come at Church onely because they are not able to pay Twelve pence for their absence And I might instance in some other particulars but till this can be done it is certainly much better to run the Hazard of maintaining these men when they are reformed than thus to suffer them to become worse and worse by impunity till in the End they become not only Extreamly wicked and troublesome but poor also and so the thing that was feared falleth upon them which might in likelihood have been prevented by a timely Severity By Honesty Honesty I understand that Comprehensive Virtue which in Scripture is call'd an Honest and Good Heart and includes in it Sincerity in a man's Words and Actions Veracity a strong propension to do good to all and fair dealing without fraud or hypocrisie which make a man's Conversation Safe and Profitable Easie and Delightful and was once the General Temper of the English Nation till Foraign Vices and the Last Rebellion altered it Sincere Vpright dealing is an Excellent quality in a private man Sincerity but so necessary in a Magistrate that without it he will be in danger to infect men and make them worse than they would have been by Conversing with them for they will be sure to transcribe the Copy and Out-do it too they will observe how he Circumvented and Deluded them and they will try how the same Arts may be made use of another time for their Advantage against him or any other Neighbour as occasion serves till they turn errant Knaves unfit for humane Society and good for Nothing But this Sort of Dealing is not onely mischievous and hateful but for the most part unsuccessful too for men will soon see thro the thin pretence and discover the insincerity that lurks behind it and then all their Care will be to Countermine it and prevent the Cheat. And where they cannot discover any fraud designed they will yet suspect it and such a man's Words will have no Credit with them and as for his Actions they will Eternally and restlesly turn them and toss them to and fro in their Minds to find the Secret design of them entertaining a Thousand Surmises and Jealousies of them and in the mean time what ever outward respect they pay him out of fear or flattery they will inwardly hate him and always study to defeat and Baffle him and this must needs make his Life uneasie and unsafe and his Actions unprosperous But on the Other Side when a man is Esteemed an upright sincere man every body will love and trust him and they will interpret his Actions Favourably and Candidly and what ever he doth or saith to them will be regarded and revered and the more they try the more willingly will they trust him and rely upon his honesty as their best Security and when they observe the Blessing of God and the Love and Favour of Men and good Success to Attend such men which very rarely sail they will endeavour to be like them in the One that they may be so in the other too Veracity is a debt Veracity that all men who live in Society ow each to others our Souls being not able to Communicate each with others by reason of the interposition of our bodies God hath given us speech as a Means to Communicate our inward Sentiments each to other for Our Mutual Good and Comfort But the Lyar perverts all these great Benefits of Society and turns them into Poyson he thinks no man can see the Contradiction that is between his Thoughts and Words and from thence presumes he shall cheat his Neighbour and give him Chass instead of Corn but he will certainly be deceived in the End for all men have a Natural Logick that will in time by Comparing one thing with another discover the Sophistry and if they frequently trap a man they will never after trust or believe him Matters of Fact and things that are past can never be made out but by testimony either by Writing or Word of Mouth and According to the Credibility of the Person that relates it is the belief Stronger or Weaker that is bui't upon that Testimony So that here is another great use of Speech for when a man is present at the Doing or Speaking of any thing if he minds it it leaves a Picture Impression or Representation of the Words and Things in his Memory as in a Register but then these Characters are visible to none but himself and the use of Speech is to represent them truly to others according as the man finds them now the Lyar in this instance plays the false transcriber fains things that he finds not there and changes and varies what he doth Extends it in some places diminisheth it in others is certain when he should be doubtful and doubtful when he should be certain and here and there interlaces Circumstances Words and Actions of his own and then fathers them upon others and all the while relyes upon this single security That no body but himself can Search his Memoires and find out and prove the Cheat nay perhaps so often tells the Lie that the the false Story defaces the true and at length impregnates his fancy with a false Conception and he arrives at that height of Folly as to deceive himself and believe his own lie to be a real truth And indeed for the most part the man deceiveth none so much as himself for by one means or other the Cheat is at one time or other discovered and very often by himself and his Complices he that tells a Story truly is but like him that reads a Paragraph carefully which will be the same how often soever it be done but if he adds words of his own and his Memory fails he will necessarily vary and observing men soon spy the disagreement and discover the Cheat as plainly as if they stood behind him and saw every letter as well as he and if he have Confederates it will be