of peace David in his prayer and blessing to his son King Solomon joynes these two Give the King thy judgements O Lord and thy righteousnesse to the Kings Son and that Hee shall rule the people with equity and the poore with judgement Then the Mountaines subordinate Magistrates and Judges and the little Hils inferiour Officers shall bring peace to the people by righteousnesse Hee must bee Melchisedec King of righteousnesse that will bee Melchisalem King of peace 3 There is a third Peace that results from the judgement of Truth as the crowne and greatest reward of the Iudge That is the inward peace and serenity of his owne conscience witnessing to him that as hee is in the stead of God so hee judgeth as God would judge according to his will and law which is the rule of Truth and Justice and the way of peace and happinesse This Peace is so pretious to a good man that hee will choose to lose all rather than this which is the soules immediate and inward enjoyment of it selfe and God The fruition of which as it passeth all understanding so the losse of it passeth all the skill and favour of the world to repaire or recompence it An Vnjust Iudge cannot but condemne himselfe Prima est haec ultio quod se Iudice nemo nocens absolvitur Hee becomes his owne Accuser Witnesse Judge and Executioner For where Astraea Justice dwels not in the conscience Nemesis Revenge will Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum His soule must needs be filled with a fearfull expectation of vengeance and the judgement to come 3 Execute it when you have judiciously considered what is Truth and tending to Peace Declare it pronounce it publikely Magistratus est lex loquens Judges are ora linguae publicae Plebis Regis Legis Dei the publike Oracles to declare the will of the State the Law the King and God To what purpose is finding out of true judgement if you doe not dare not speake out or speak otherwise than you judge in your selves Procaciùs peccant qui maturiùs quasi ex consilio Knowing and not declaring and doing justice is the aggravation of injustice It is a calamitous time as Hezekiah said When children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring them forth There must not bee only a Conception of what is true and just and then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an abortive judgement smothered and stifled in the breast of the Judge by silencing or suspending the sentence nor yet must it bee strangled and oppressed unnaturally as the Egyptian Tyrant did the Israelites infants after it is pronounced by diverting or perverting the sentence but there must bee an execution of it which is the soule and life of Justice and gives a quickening and animation to the Lawes Law as our learned Hooker tels us is a directive rule to the goodnesse of operation both in nature polity and religion What are Lawes in your books or brests if not put in execution The not executing the penalty of the Lawes upon offenders is the execution of the Lawes themselves and renders them cadaverosae Leges dead and breathlesse carcases It is the breath of the Iudge in a right and powerfull sentence which must blast the wicked and unjust and revive and renew the face and force of the Lawes of Justice and of good men Potentia est legis asylum Law and Justice hath its last recourse to Power for the executing Forcibly as Ioh and David pulling the prey out of the teeth of the lyon and breaking the jawes of the oppressor Restoring the oppressed and molested to his liberty right and quiet Commanding and inflicting condigne punishment on the purse or person of offenders If need bee and the publike good require it not only pruning and lopping off the branches and armes of luxuriant and spreading wickednesse by restraining the liberty by withdrawing the sap and nutriment of estate and meanes but cutting off those noxious weeds and thornes from the land of the living and utter extirpation of those that are Telluris inutile pondus Why cumber they the ground And this ne pars sincera trabatur not with more justice than mercy and gentlenesse lest connivence remissenesse and impunity spread the contagion to parts as yet found and untainted Quid enim tam iniquum quà m ut desertori boni bene sit What is more unjust than that it should bee well with him who hath left off to doe well What more just than that evill of suffering should light on evill doers But how must it bee executed 1 Couragiously and resolutely Iethro in the character of a Judge requires this in the first place That hee bee a man of Truth and Courage That feares God and none besides Not the face of man whose breath is in his nostrils The feare of man is a snare Qui fortis non est facilè ad injustè faciendum vincitur qui justus non est facilè ad imbecillitatem cogitur Iustice and fortitude as Twins grow together A weak and timorous man will easily bee unjust and like a Kite scared from the prey which the law hath justly seised on A just generous minded Judge will no more remit his judgement and the execution of it where the Law hath laid hold on a malefactor than the Lyon which the Prophet speaks of will quit his prey or abase himselfe for the multitude of shepherds gathered against him For this would bee as fatall to him as Ahabs letting Benhadad goe in peace or the Prophet not smiting when hee was commanded by the word of the Lord The blow and judgement as well as the crime and offense will light on himselfe for hee becomes guilty of what hee leaves unpunished The malefactor escapes lives continues to sin at the charge and hazard of the Judges soule 2 Freely For love of justice truth God and the publike good Parum est justitiam facere nisi diligas The motions of Justice must bee like the Heavens {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by inward principles not like mils and mechanick Engines that stir not but by force of winds waters and weight and hands by hopes promises or gifts In execution of justice it must not bee as in scenes of masques and pageants where things seeme of themselves gently to slide from heaven when indeed there are secret devices and inventions of Art that violently though cunningly move them The light of the Sun the liberty of heaven the day and ayre should not bee more cheap and free than justice Though an Advocate may sell his pleading and a Counsellor his counsell yet a Judge may not the execution of Iudgement Justice is a debt they owe to men Hee cannot bee just that must bee hired to pay his debts A purchased sentence though just is unjustly sold Gifts doe blinde the eyes of the wise Hee that
Iudgement thus carried will have the Two qualities in the Text of Truth and Peace 1 Of Truth that is a True and just Judgement For Truth and Justice are equivalent and inseparably twisted together in foro in Courts and decisions of right What is false must needs bee unjust what is just must bee true Truth is the foundation of Equity Truth in Iudgement is The conformity or agreement of the sentence and decision with the minde of the Law understood by the Iudge {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The intent of the Law is Suum cuique tribuere a Iudge must faithfully assigne to every one that portion which the Law doth give them in the true and literall sense and meaning of it without warping or straining the words by witty conceits and curiosity of interpretation beyond the intent of the Law or analogy of Justice which is Reason neither girding too strait by rigour nor slackning too loosly by indulgence the words which are but vestitus legis the clothing of the Law Pessima tyrannis lex in equuleo Lawes by the tyranny of wit may be so rack'd and tortured to such forced constructions that they may seeme to speak that which they never intended Obscure and ambiguous Lawes are the snares of a people and the dens or refuge of tyranny like Ancipites gladii two-edged swords that cut on both sides having no back whereon Innocence may safely rely Therefore Enacters of Lawes have endeavoured in plaine and perspicuous words to set downe their meaning according to which Iudgement must be executed if it be true Judgement The highest honour and most soveraigne employment and neerest to the supreame glory and majesty of God the great King and universall Iudge of the world is this to give true Iudgement to search finde declare vindicate Truth though darkned oppressed prejudiced with injuries and calumnies though prescribed and proscribed by power will time and custome Nullum tempus satis longum est quod possit aut debeat errori patrocinari injustitiae No might should bee and no time or usage is sufficient to patronize falsity and injustice against Truth and equity which out of doubt are most ancient and should bee most prevalent for falsity and injury presuppose them first and are but the superstructure a kinde of mosse and accrescency to them For this end saith our blessed Saviour was I born to this end came I into the world that I should beare witnesse of the Truth I can doe nothing against the Truth To this end Judges have reason learning experience conscience publike authority and trust from the King and Countrey that their judgement may bee true and just not false and unjust condemning the righteous or absolving the wicked both which are an abomination to God It is the prerogative of divine and omnipotent mercy to justifie an unrighteous person yet still with the safety of truth and integrity of justice for hee doth it not sine interventu mortis meriti Christi God so loved mercy that hee would magnifie it in justifying and saving of sinners yet so loves truth and justice that hee would not doe it without the death of his Son that just One to satisfie his justice That so hee might with infinite Mercy and Justice apply his righteousnesse to justifie the unrighteous By this meanes Righteousnesse and Peace kisse each other Your Judgement will bee not only just and true but a Iudgement of Peace the second quality required in the Text {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Peace is the daughter of true Judgement Truth and justice the mother and nurse of Peace The God of truth and justice is the Father of order and peace The Devill and father of lies is the autor and fautor of disorder and confusion It was not the true mother that required the division of the childe nor is it true and upright judgement that dissolveth peace 1 It must be judgement of Private Peace betweene a man and his neighbour which can never be maintained except each party by the light of the Law cleerely sees the truth of the judgement for or against them Endlesse and interminate suits and dissentions like Hydra's heads must needs grow up where the seeds of falsity and injustice are sowne in Judgement Of this great care must bee had that though men lose their Cause yet they may not lose their Peace and charity A man makes an ill bargaine that gaines his Processe and loseth the love and good-wil of his neighbour which is the greatest Dammages Proximorum odia sunt acerbissima Wine makes the sowrest vinegar The quarrels of neighbours and brethren set their hearts at the greatest distance and defiance 2 Where the coales of private dissentions are scattered in every corner the whole house will soone bee on fire and Publike Peace cannot long continue For where there are great divisions of hearts and Private grievances arise like swellings and distemper of parts to affect the whole body with the feaver of discontent what can be expected but Publike mutinies and combustions Lex est corporis politici nervus The great bodies of States must needs bee paralitick and vehemently shaken if not dissolved when the sinewes of justice faile An unjust Judge like a Comet portends warres and commotions and scatters so malignant an influence to mens mindes that they had rather venture the injustice of warre than suffer the injustice of peace This Principle is in most mens mindes Pax est omni bello tristior quae justitiae veritatis ruinâ constat That peace is more deplorable than warre it selfe which only maintaines power to waste and oppresse innocence and truth Isidore Pelusiot tels us truly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It is but the name and shadow of a false and lying peace where is not true justice Iustitiae debetur quod homo homini non sit lupus It is true judgement only that can secure peace and hinder men from degenerating to wolves and tygers which they doe when by injustice some are exasperated others are animated to sin and injurious insolencies One untrue and unjust judgement like the winde scatters and sheds the seeds of ill weeds and manners about the whole field which should by truth and justice have beene cut up by the roote and its contagious spreading hindred Besides nothing more slackens the reins of government and the stability of peace which is upheld by the reverent awe and respect which the people and subjects give to the Magistrate than when by injustice and unworthinesse they bring their persons and authority under contempt and dislike that they seeme to them not as Gods but Idols which have eares but heare not eyes but see not mouths but speak not true judgement Against such Magistrates people are prone to think it not only just but meritorious to rebell The Kings strength or throne loveth judgement and by righteousnesse it shall bee eshablished with abundance
reservation and to the forme of words in which the Oath is administred but also to the meaning and purpose of the Magistrate that requires him to sweare so farre as hee doth conceive it Which is S. Augustines determination in his Epist. 224. But I may not insist on this theame of Swearing I have done with the first part of the duty Veracity so farre as concernes all men in a private or publike way so as may further the execution of truth and peace in the gates to which wee are in a good forwardnesse if the first be learned and practised 2. The Magistrates duty in speciall Execute the judgement of Truth and Peace c. THis although it bee for every mans good yet is not every mans worke but chosen men appointed by lawfull authority as Moses at first did No man may arrogate this vice-gerency of God except hee bee called by God immediately or his vice-gerent Power on earth That was Lucifer's pride forwardnesse and fall that hee would bee similis Altissimo exalt himselfe Christ refuseth this employment because hee had no Commission from humane power Who made me a Iudge Absalom's ambition was not growne so violent and past all bounds of modesty and respect to his Parent Prince and Countrey as to assume this Office to himselfe but wisheth O that I were made a Iudge In places of Ecclesiasticall and Civill judicature the forwardest are seldome the fittest Wise grave and conscientious men who best understand the weight and charge of publike execution of Justice are willing enough to wave it as seeing no lesse burden than honour in it But Those that are called must not bee wanting to God the King their Countrey their owne Consciences but must execute c. 1 It must be Iudgement Not what their owne or others passion will power or pleasure suggests but what Reason sees secundûm normam legis agreeable to the rule of the Law which is the common vote and consent of men to Reason Iudex non jus dat sed docet Iudges doe not give Lawes but teach declare and execute them Plato saith That State will flourish where Magistrates serve the Lawes not Lawes the turne of the Magisrate who may not change licet into libet The Magistrate is but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as hee sayes of Moses the mouth by which the Law doth breath Iudicium à judicando Iudgement must proceed from a serious and deliberate examining of matters secundùm allegata probata It is but the product or just account which ariseth from the witnesse of persons presumption of circumstances and evidence of things which must bee weighed in the ballance of Iustice In the one scale whereof is laid the weight of the Law pondus legis in the other pondus causae the merit of the case fact or person Though Justice must bee coeca in exequendo impartially blinde in executing yet it must bee oculata in dijudicando most eagle-ey'd and acute-sighted in searching out a matter The matter I knew not I searched out As I heare I judge and my judgement is just Descendam ut videam God himselfe who is omniscient and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} teacheth us by his slownesse not to proceed to execution till wee have a manifest cognoisance of things by a faire free and calme hearing of matters on both sides else you know Though a Iudge may in his sentence hit on the right yet hee merits the brand of an unrighteous Judge Though the decision be just yet the Decider is not Doth our law condemne any man before it heare him There must bee {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} before {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} before {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A hearing with patience and judgement before the executing of judgement Judges must bee scrutatores indagatores viri decretorii men of piercing judicious and discerning spirits for Veritas in profundo dicti facti cordis Truth doth seldome swim and float in the surface but is hidden and sunke in the bottome of the words actions and hearts of men They had need to bee urinatores men of profound and diving mindes that get this Pearle Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgement Truth indeed as God is but One yet falsities and pretentions like Penelopes sutors are many and shape themselves into diverse formes and semblances of Truth As Omne malum fundatur in aliquo bono so all falsity and injustice pretends a shew of truth and pleads for the protection of justice and may easily impose upon a carelesse drowsie and oscitant Judge that hath not his understanding and conscience vigilant and intentive A Judge saith Basil must have {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} needs bee a Critick of sharp and exact understanding to discerne betweene man and man cause and cause just and unjust true and veresimilous false and specious betweene the confidence of accusing or denying and the truth or falsity of the accusation betweene the modesty or rudenesse of the defendant and the innocency of his cause betweene the weight of the complaint and the malice or envie of the plaintiffe For if it suffice to accuse boldly who shall be innocent If to deny roundly who shall be guilty Aspice quantâ Voce negat quanta est ficti constantia vultus Oft times the false confidence of the worser part and that prostitutae vocis venalis audacia as Cyprian hired impudence of voluble tongues which are Lenones injustitiae the Bauds and Pandars to injustice are ready to carry it with a brasen forehead and Stentorian voyce On the other side Right and Innocence is ready to betray it selfe through a rudenesse simplicity and diffidence of minde carriage and expression Quibus honestior conscientia iis plerumque frons imbecillior Innocence is often timorous uneloquent unexpert in termes and formalities to explaine it selfe when Dishonesty like Tamar is oft vailed with a mask of faire words and a smooth tongue gilds over a rotten cause A Judge here must bee eyes to the blinde and shew himselfe judicious to have studied men as well as bookes and like Solomon by his wisedome represse the impudent guiltinesse of the one part and relieve the diffident innocence of the other Hee must not bee {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} carried away with a streame of words or like Pigmalion preferre an adorned statue before a naked yet true and living man A Judge must be as Christ with his fan in his hand throughly to purge his floor where chaffe and wheat injury and innocence justice and injustice truth and falsity promiscuously lye before him His just clemency must gather the wheat to a safety his just severity must scatter and consume the chaffe with condigne punishment
the profit or honour can content you and like an unwholesome and undigested morsell will corrupt and taint all the comfort of your other good parts and deeds O let not that prove true by your meanes that hee complaines of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The name and thought and desire of peace is every-where the endeavour for it nowhere Blessed are the peace-makers O rob not your selves and us of so great and pretious a blessing Last of all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Remember that exact and unavoydable and unappealeable Tribunall of the just Judge of the whole world For Hee commeth for hee commeth to judge the earth righteously and the nations with his truth Hee will try all things as the Refiner by fire Which will discover and make legible that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the blinde and subtill characters of mens thoughts and actions which before could not bee read or perceived A good and wise Judge will not sciens volens wittingly give any sentence that shall then bee reversed or judge any judgement that need to bee rejudged much lesse deserve to bee condemned with him at that day Iudicandum se diffidit qui injustè judicat Hee believes not hee shall bee judged who executes unrighteous judgement yet his very injustice is a strong and sure argument against him of an after Iudgement which shall which must repeale his injurious sentence and punish his impious practices for the goodnesse and justice of God and his providence doe require this Veniet veniet dies qui malè judicata rejudicabit The day is comming when not astuta verba but pura corda not plena marsupia but conscientiae probae valebunt as St. Bernard not faire words but honest hearts not full purses but upright consciences shall prevaile which day shall rejudge all you have judged and judge both you and mee and us all and all wee have done or said For wee must every man give account of himselfe at the judgement seat of God For which Accounts fit and prepare us O Lord by thy infinite mercy as thou wilt raise us by thy infinite power that we may appear not in our own unrighteousnes which we abhor but cloathed and accepted in the righteousnes of Jesus Christ in whom wee believe who is our Saviour and shall bee our Judge To whom c. A SERMON PREACHED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD In S. Maries July 11. 1641. Being Act-Sunday EPHES. 4.23 And bee renewed in the spirit of your mind THere is in our nature I know not what {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an importunate desire after and delight in what-ever is presented to us under the Notion of New Whether it bee out of the restlesnesse of our minds and their infinite capacity or out of the emptinesse and insufficiency of all things under the Sun which rather satiate than satisfie which keeps our soules in a continuall appetite and longing still expecting to finde that content in what is New and unexperienced which they have hitherto failed of Thus daily deceiving the tediousnesse of our life which for the main is but the Crambe and repetition of yesterday by the sweetnesse of variety and a taste of novelty which are the sauce and seasoning of all things wee enjoy New fashions New cloaths New houses New Doctrines New opinions New Countrey New Teachers Any thing New though as our Saviour said of the Wines The elder bee the better Omne enim antiquius verius melius In manners and Doctrines for the most part it holds The elder is the better and truer Yea so studious are wee of Newnesse that our whole life is but a repairing and continuall renewing of what through age and infirmity is daily decaying in us seeking in vaine to blot out the footsteps of old age and with weak endeavours to row against the streame of Time which silently and insensibly carries us and all things downward to the Gulph of death and destruction which as it hath involved all the most renowned men Cities States and Monuments ut ipsae periere ruinae that the very ruines are now ruined so will it shortly swallow up us and all that wee magnifie and esteeme as ours Yet there is one thing in us whose ruines though they oppresse us they grieve us not and though they make us miserable they offend not These are the Impairings and Decayes of our best and Divinest part our spirits and mindes These wee are patient as wee grow elder they should grow worser and though they are pieces built for eternity yet wee suffer them as much as in us lyes to lapse and fall to eternall ruines not only of their happinesse but of their very Being In quantum enim mali sumus in tantum minus sumus The more wee have of sin the lesse wee have of wel-Being and deserve to have of simple Being because wee frustrate that end for which the wise and best Maker gave us our Being And by sin wee goe farther from the Fountaine of our Being and our Happinesse his will which is the rule of Goodnesse And happinesse is nothing else but a perfection of Goodnesse Yet the power of God will perpetuate wicked men by a necessity of being to all eternity That since they would not bee the Objects of his renewing Mercies to happinesse They should be the Subjects of his revenging Justice to everlasting miseries These ruines and decayes then which of all are most considerable because most dangerous well merit our survey and care especially if wee seriously weigh how vast the decayes are how short the time is allotted for this work being magnae mentis molis opus a great designe indeed and which falls not under the compasse of low narrow and smaller spirits but requires a raised enlarged and ennobled minde to begin to persevere and to perfect it Which that wee may doe with the more happy successe Let us look to this Modell of the blessed Apostle who having in the 21. and 22. verses cast away all that trash and rubbish of the old man which is not so much ruined as Ruine it selfe In this verse layes the Foundation of this stately structure whose heigth must reach to Heaven and whose paterne is the Beauty and Image of that first perfect and divinest mind which wee call God Bee renewed in the spirit of your mind In the words are two main things 1. The Subject of our worke The spirit of our mind 2. The Nature of the work Renewing Wee will seek to comprehend them both under these foure Heads of Discourse 1 What is this Spirit of our mind and how worthy Renewing 2 Wherein it is Impaired and needs Renewing 3 How and by what meanes it is to bee renewed 4 The Idea or Character of a renewed Mind Lastly Wee will conclude so as by Gods Grace may make the deepest Impressions on your minds