Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	according_a	judge_v	righteousness_n	1,406	5	7.1256	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47648	A sermon preached at the assizes held at Lincoln, March the 6th, 1691/2 before the right honourale [sic] Sir John Holt, Kt., lord chief justice of England / by Walter Leightonhouse ... ; printed at the earnest request of the gentlemen of the country.	Leightonhouse, Walter, 1656-1701.	1692 (1692)	Wing L1032B; ESTC R202676	13,243	31

Injustice would be as common as Stones in the Streets Liberty and Property would be banish'd the Earth and our Lives as well as our Estates would be in continual Jeopardy A Tumultuous Rabble would insult over the greatest Potentates and an illbred Mob tread upon the learned and grave Tribulation and Anguish would be the Portion of the vertuous and religious and perpetual Dread and Fear would crowd into the Hearts of all the Sons of Adam These and innumerable worse Calamities would like an unbridled Deluge overflow universal Mankind were there no restraints but what are impos'd by Nature or by Grace and were the Purple and the Scarlet taken from us the State and the Altar would soon be so too So that 't is to such as you my Lord that we owe both the safety of our Persons the security of our Estates and the enjoyment of our Religion and all military Conquests abroad would do us little service unless you kept our Peace at home 'T is by your Administration alone that Piety is advanced Truth preserved Tranquility settled Privilege bounded Innocency protected Learning encouraged our Persons secured from Violence and our Estates from Plunder In short 'T is Judgment alone that establisheth a Land Prov. 19.4 And the exercise of that is by the Great King of Heaven and Earth reposed in your Hands And therefore you have need to Take heed what you do for ye judge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment Wherefore let the fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity in the Lord our God nor respect of Persons not taking of gifts Which words were spoken by good Jehosaphat King of Judah and may properly be call'd his Charge to the Judges when he Commissioned them to go their several Circuits and import as tho he had expressed himself more largely thus I am now about to entrust you with a concern of no less Moment than the Welfare of my Subjects the Honor of my Person and the Establishment of my Kingdom and therefore 't is necessary that I advise you in a Matter of so great Weight to be careful and circumspect how you behave your selves in the Management of so great a Charge greater perhaps than you at first sight conceive it to be For altho 't is true you have your Commission from me yet the Judgment which is committed to your Charge belongs to a much greater than I am for it is not mine but the * Deut. 1. v. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Judicium est Dei Deo utroque enim modo reddi forest commendatum vobis est a Deo Dei nomine illud administratis Lords who is constantly present in your Courts of Judicature and stands by and sees all your Proceedings hears all your Awards and Arbitraments and understands the whole Process of the Hall Wherefore let his dreadful Presence strike you into an awful regard of him and let it oblige you to act as impartially as tho he was really visible to your bodily Eyes I doubt not but were I your King personally upon the Bench with you no Judgment which was evidently false would either for Favor or Affection Lucre or Interest proceed out of your Lips Yet alas what am I when compared to the great King of Heaven and Earth I can 't is true at my pleasure send you a Quietus but what is that to the Terrors of the Omnipotent Jehovah who when provoked is a consuming Fire and who will most certainly summons you before the Tribunal of Heaven call you to a strict Account and if you have accepted of the person of the wicked and overthrown the righteous in Judgment Prov. 18.5 notwithstanding your Vestments of Honor if your Sins be of the same Dye you shall in the Day of Vengeance be covered with a Robe of shame and be clad in confusion as with a Cloak For there is no iniquity with the Lord our God but justice and judgment are the habitation of his Throne Psal 89.14 from whence he cannot be moved at any time thorough respect of Persons or taking of Gifts but be the Circumstances of the Man never so poor or never so lofty God judgeth not according to outward appearance but judgeth righteous Judgment and from the Equitableness of those proceedings no Interest or Passion no gilded Title or honorable Employ no Trust or Ability can divert him therefore let my Advice seem seasonable to you this Day and take heed what you do for you judge not for Man but for the Lord who is with you in the Judgment c. This is briefly the Paraphrase of the Text which suggests unto us these following Particulars I. That Judges do personate God himself who is II. A constant Eye witness of all their Proceedings and therefore III. They ought to be very circumspect and to have a reverential Awe and Fear upon them for that IV. If they pervert Judgment God will vindicate his own Honor and punish them severely for it For there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts All these seem plainly imply'd in the Text. Upon each of which I purposed to have enlarged at this time but in the treating of them I found my Meditations croud in so thick upon me that for fear of being too tedious I was obliged to confine my self to speak only to the Two former of them I. That Judges do personate God himself who is II. A constant Eye witness of all their Proceedings Of which in their Order And first Judges do personate God himself And for this Reason it is that the Greek Fathers do frequently denominate Magistrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coassessors with God in the Throne of Judgment Not that he delivers up an absolute Sovereignty to them but they as his Stewards Deputies or Lieutenants are substituted to represent him in administring Justice and Equity maintaining Order and supporting Peace among the Children Men helping them to right who suffer wrong justifying the righteous and condemning the wicked Deut. 25.1 And for this purpose the Almighty hath been pleased to impress his own Character upon them and to stile them by his own peculiar Title Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the ruler of thy people Exod. 22.28 And who those Gods there mentioned were you may see if you please to have recourse to the 8 Verse of that Chapter If the thief be not found then the master of the house shall be brought unto the Judges those were the Gods before mentioned thus again Psal 86.6 I have said ye are Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods i. e. in respect to the Fountain of their Power which was from the Most High who for that reason honored them with his own Name And 't is a most remarkable place to our purpose which we have from the Mouth of God himself Exod. 4.16 where speaking to

and to turn judgment into wormwood Amos 5.7 by glossing over a bad Cause with the Paint of Insincerity an Falshood in that you have given in a false Testimony against your Neighbour or brought in a false Verdict against the innocent and oppressed in that you have not to the best of your knowledg laid all things naked and open before my Deputy but have through the Cloud of your Impiety darken'd his Understanding and his Knowledg you have as much as in you lay endeavour'd to cheat and delude the judge of all the Earth and have in effect in open Court boldly proclaim'd How doth God know can he judg through the dark Cloud Job 22.13 Tush he seeth not is there knowledg in the most High Which leads me to the Second thing considerable viz. That as Judges personate God so he is a constant Eye Witness of all their Proceedings Take heed what you do for you judg not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment I am not ignorant that many Learned Commentators have interpreted these words is with you in the judgment in a twofold Acceptation First That he is with them to take notice of and eye all their Proceedings Secondly to assist them or as the Prophet speaks Isa 28.5 6. To be a Spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment But I shall for Brevity sake confine my self at this time to speak to these words only in the former Sense that being most suitable to strike all that are concern'd in this publick Solemnity into an awful Reverence of that great Judg of Heaven and Earth by reason of his immediate Presence in the midst of them It was wholsom Advice that one gave to his lewd Friend That he should have the Picture of his grave and serious Father in the Room where he was wont to celebrate his Debauches imagining that the severe Eye of the good old Man tho but in Effigie would give check to the wanton Sallies of the intemperate Youth And to the same purpose Seneca advised Lucilius to fix the Idea of some grave Person a Cato or a Laelius before him Epist 11. as a very convincing Method to restrain him from Vanity and Excess To which I might add that of Zeno who being ask'd by his Friends how they might keep themselves in a regular and due Order when he was gone he made this reply Si me presentem semper putetis by imagining me to be always present as a beholder of your Actions But we who live under the Dispensation of the Gospel have no need of such Foreign Exhortation as these we have a more sure word of Prophecy which does direct us to level our Thoughts and fix our Apprehensions upon an Object infinitely surmounting those in prophane Story We are taught that God is a constant Spectator of all our Actions that we are in the Eye of our Friend our Father and our Judge that we can go no whether from his presence Ps 139.7 8. but that all things are naked and open before that great God with whom we have to do Heb. 4.12 13. And that no man let his attempts be never so earnest can hide himself or his Actions in secret places that this Lord shall not see them Jer. 23.24 And indeed these Thoughts are so riveted in the mind of every Christian that nothing but a dark Cloud of Impiety can obscure our belief of it An upright Judg is fully convinced that God sees the intention of his Heart and an uncorrupt Pleader is the very same A faithful Witness knows that the Almighty is in the Court and an impartial Jury does so too In short The good man sets the Lord always before him Ps 16.8 and does really think that God stands by and sees all the Passages of his Life And therefore I shall be so charitable as to believe that you all agree in the Assertion and shall insist no longer upon the proof of it least by so doing I should seem to bring the Integrity of some of you into question Proceed I therefore to draw only one practical Observation from this second Proposition and so I shall conclude Doth God eye all your Proceedings Then I pray you consider to what purpose it is to varnish over a bad Cause with the Fucus of Oratory or the Paint of specious Pretences What signifies the being brib'd in the dark or suborn'd in a corner To what purpose is the smothering your Falshood from the eye of Men when it is seen and view'd by that great God who knoweth all the hearts of the children of men 1 Kings 8.39 and the secrets thereof Ps 44.21 It is an ingenious Comparison and very well suits this Case which is put by a modern Writer Suppose says he that you beheld the Almighty Dr. Scott 's Christian Life part 1. being fitting upon a Cloud in some visible Form with a Thunder-Bolt in his Hand and from thence looking down upon you curiously observing how you demean your selves and closely pursuing you with his awful Eye through all your dark Retreats and Privacies would not the Thought of any Action that is displeasing to him be ready to strike you into Trembling and Horror could you imagine your selves to be any where secure in your Wickedness while you saw your selves uncovered to his Allseeing Eye to which your Closets lie as open as your Halls and your Hearts as the Highways To which he adds farther If I were throughly assured that the King were listning behind the Curtain and heard every Word that is spoken in the Room I should doubtless be as much afraid of talking Treason against him tho I saw him not as if he stood just before me And so if God be in your Court in an invisible manner and you are not able to see him through that thick Curtain of Matter which is drawn between you and his spiritual Essence yet you may be well assured that he is behind it is listning to what you say and prying into what you do keeps intelligence with your Thoughts and is intimately acquainted with all your Pleadings your Evidence and your Awards and therefore you ought to be every jot as cautious of all your Proceedings as if you saw him standing by you to record every Thought every Word and every Action that there passes and to enter into his Debt-Books every Item of your Guilt against the great Day of Account Justice is every Mans Birth-right and a Man can with no more Equity bereave me of it than he can take away my Life my Liberty or Estate and therefore he that either doth so himself or by false Witness or the like occasions others to do so is not only unfaithful to his Trust but is indeed a Felon and an Usurper robbing me of that to which I have not only a Claim by Nature but by the Laws of the Realm too and therefore must expect to have a very severe Sentence passed upon him when he gives up his Accounts to that God who was an Eye-witness of his Failures To conclude I remember 't is recorded of Henry IV. that so great was his Wisdom so considerable his depth of Knowledg that 't was said that he that would corrupt his Council must first begin with the King And blessed be God we may as truly say that our Laws are so exactly contrived our Courts so well filled with Men of Politie and profound Parts that he that would pervert Judgment must begin with the Bench for it is scarce possible to imagine that Injustice can be so closely managed either upon the account of Witness Jury or Advocate as that a Cause shall suffer without the Knowledg of the Judge who like Solomon will in all probability find out the Fallacy under the most close Disguise And therefore give me leave my Lord to add that if you be not wanting to your self and to us we may be assured that Justice will run down like a mighty Torrent and that there will be no complaining in our Streets Let me take the Freedom therefore once more to remind you that you must one day appear at the Bar of that great God whom you personate and who is a Judge among Gods Hear therefore the word of the Lord c. Thus saith the Lord execute ye judgment and righteousness and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor do no wrong do no violence to the stranger neither shed innocent blood in this place Jer. 22.1 c. Ezek. 42.27 but defend the poor and fatherless do justice to the afflicted and needy and rid them out of the hand of the wicked and in all your Proceedings both Judicial and Criminal Take heed what you do for ye judge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment wherefore let the fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts FINIS