Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
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A61456
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Ad magistratum three sermons preached before the justices of assize, at Bury-St.-Edmunds in the countie of Suffolk : with sacred hymns upon the Gospels for the hyemal quarter / by Tho. Stephens.
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Stephens, Thomas, fl. 1648-1677.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing S5456; ESTC R26257
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67,843
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154
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says the wise man blindeth the eyes But if justice be thus blinded it will have its reward in the land of darkness And yet although justice be blinde not to distinguish between party and party it must not be deaf too to neglect the cry of the poor Either cease to be a King or do me right says the bold Petitioner to the Persian Monarch Oh my Lords Let not the cries of the oppressed reach heaven before you least it bar your entrance there When Philip sate sleeping on the bench whilst a false judgement passed in the Court he was wakened with the bold appeal of Machaetas The King disdaining a higher Iudicatory to which an appeal could be made replies with indignation whither dost thou appeal thou Varlet To thy self To K. Philip says he Te in te appello to Philip waking from Philip sleeping Such sleepy Iudges love darkness and the deeds of darkness more then light But as their ears must be open yet they must open but one at once W th the Graecian Monarch they must stop up one while the Plaintiff is objecting and leave it free not prepossest when the Defendant makes his Plea For this cause too as a Magistrate hath two ears to hear both sides speak so he hath but one tongue to pronounce single judgement To w ch he must come impartiall and unpraejudicate Remember that Gods law was wrote in Tables of Stone not of Leather or Parchment which would stretch wider or contract narrower His Command Thou shalt not steal takes in as well Alexanders royall pillaging Navy as a poor fly-boat of a single pick-aroon Such corruption of the laws Severus complained of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he he that steals much to inable him to give a little makes a bridge of gold for his own escape I press this the more because all the guilt of a malefactor is contracted by that Iudge who takes cognisance of it and lets it go unpunished Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet That Magistrate that consents to a thief is himself a robber and he that winks at an adulterer lets in that foul Devil at his closed eye Bitter was that reply of the malefactor who being asked of his judge who was accessary to his felony Thou thy self says he for hadst thou trusst me up for my former I had not lived to commit another which leads me my Lords to your second capacity as you are Gods you must execute wrath on evildoers you must spoil the spoilers And here you have need of Hercules his strength to cleanse another Augaean stable This age hath furnished us with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Comaedian calls them gulfs and whirlpools of rapine and oppression But since his royall Majesty hath thrown a mantle over them not such an one as Ahasuerus the Persian did over Haman a token of condemnation but of pardon and absolution I will not uncover their nakedness but leave our spoilers to Gods plentifull reward at the last account if they do not before that time make satisfaction for their extortion and violence Let it suffice your Lordships with a Calendar of such criminals as have in other places or may come before you here or rather the prophet Hosea shall do it for me Hos. 4. 2. They brake forth into swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery and blood touching blood And well may I call those criminals which are guilty of these because for such sins as these the Land hath mourned and if they be not removed or cut off by the hand of justice the Land shall mourn again and the inhabitants thereof shall languish Yet all this while God hath but a controversie with these sinners he will implead them and proceed judicially against them But in the fourth verse there follows a sin that stops Gods plea that he will no more take pains to convince them but give them up to an obdurate sense Let no man strive nor reprove another says he for the people are as they that strive with the Priest So near relation betwixt God and his Vicars those which are labourers in his stead that they that rob them of their Tithes and Offerings rob God Mal. 3. 8. They that strive against Aaron are gathered together against the Lord Numb 16. 11. Tremble then thou Theomachus that darest fight against God in his holy Ministers darest fight against God in his holy Ordinances God will take no pains to reprove thee he will give thee up to a reprobate minde Thou art one that strivest with the Priest thou art one of those that castest him out of the Synagogues Nay to make up our Saviours prophesie thou thinkest thou dost God good service if thou killest him And truly my Lords this is onerosa prophetia this is the burden of the Land that by a pretended kind of Saintship men intitle God to the Devills cause they think they do the Lord service by killing his servants and as if his kingdome were divided against it self they fancy that they set up the Scepter of Christ by pulling down his anointed Thus was it in St. Peters days if any man suffered as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bloody cut-throat or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thievish felon or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spoiling plunderer or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishop in another mans Diocess a Sequestrator in anothers living it was voyced abroad to be suffering for the name of Christ. And if your sword of justice should cut off any such ulcerated gangrain'd member the congregation of these Saints would be ready to murmure against you as they did against Moses and Aaron Numb 16. and say ye have killed the people of the Lord. But remember I beseech you Jehoshaphats instruction to his Judges 2 Chr. 19. 6. Take heed what ye do for ye judge not for man but for the Lord who will be with you in judgement Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts Arise therefore up and be doing and the Lord be with you Hypocrisie unmask'd THE SECOND SERMON Preached at the Assizes at St. Edmunds Bury March 4. 1660. At the request of Sr. Iohn Castleton Baronet High-Sheriff of the County of Suffolk HINC ◆ LVCEM ◆ ET ◆ POCVLA ◆ SACRA ALMA MATER CANTABRIGIA CAMBRIDGE Printed by Iohn Field Printer to the Universitie 1661. 2 TIM 3. 5. Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof THe Context will tell you that these words are part of the description of those men who should cause perillous times in the last days Which days although a learned Paraphraser contends to be all one with St. Iohns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 2. 18. the last hour before Christ's coming in vengeance to destroy his enemies the Jews an hour which of all the Disciples St. John
those Beasts of prey which leave nothing unworried which they can master Not a fearfull Hare nor an innocent Lamb which can escape their ravenous appetites That fore-quoted place Luk. 3. 14. accuse no man falsely hath more in it in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come not with your blandishments or flattering insinuations to prepossess the Iudges ears The Scholiast says the word came from the practise of presenting a basket of figs to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift-devouring Iudges as Hesiod calls them and a Magistrate thus prejudging a person to be criminal leaves him fit to be spoiled Hence St. Barnard says the false unjust accuser carries the Devil in his tongue the receiver in his car No such sure way to rob Naboth of his Vineyard as for false witnesses to accuse him that he hath blasphemed God and the King Blasphemed God! O impious wretch away with him such a man is not fit to live upon the earth Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently And the King that 's treason if thou let this man go thou art not Cesars friend Hereupon Luther makes the slanderer the greatest offender against the second Table for whereas the thief sends one soul to the Devil and the adulterer two he is ter homicida at one thrust he stabs three himself the party to whom the party of whom he tells the tale But this injury of the tongue is nothing comparable to that of the hand if it did not make way for it For thus have we found by too sad experience that once voyce a man to be a Malignant the Courts of justice have been obstructed against him and the benefit of the law denied him he is exposed to Kites and Vultures he is fleec'd to the very bones and thus the second brings in the third Injury makes way for Rapine And now I do heartily wish that the Harpy's were onely a Poetical brood which built their nests in the Poets fictions Tristius haud illis monstrum should I give you the description of them from the Poets you would believe you had seen their walking pictures They are fancied to be Virgins in that they are barren because goods so gotten descend seldome to posterity when they cease to spoil they shall be spoiled says the text they have wings to fly and that swift in extorting witness those prodigious sums raised in one Harpie's time more then in all the reigns of the Kings from the Conquest to his days they are covered with plumes for cloaking of their prey they have the talons of Vultures from griping and fast holding of their ill got riches And hath not our age seen some of these think you what think ye of Solomons sinners Prov. I. II. which say come let us lay wait for blood let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause Let us swallow them up alive as the grave and whole root and branch as those that go down into the pit we shall finde all precious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil Have you seen none of these What think you of Elijah's spoilers 1 Kin. 21. who have killed and also taken possession have you seen none of these What think you of Iacob's sons Gen. 34. which spoil the whole city of the Shechemites upon a pretence of introducing religion there have you seen none of these What think you of Ieremie's spoilers Jer. 12. 1◠which are come upon all the high places they have defiled the Sanctuary of God and broken down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers nay pardon great God the irreverence they have used the Temple as Iehu did the house of Baal and made a draught house of it unto this day Have ye seen none of these in a word what think ye of our Saviours spoilers Mat. 23. 14. Scribes and Pharisces hypocrites who under a pretence of long prayers devour whole widows houses who from Pharisees turn Publicans and instead of tithing Mint or Rue decimate or sequester whole estates which makes that of Zeno most true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Publicans are rapacious And if the Law Books say true that the word Fellon comes from fell or cruel we may conclude them the greatest Fellons of all for they have been the fiercest spoilers of all others And now you would think here were matter enough for an Endictment against them but this is but the first branch of it that they are spoilers there is another yet behind they are treacherous dealers We have seen them hitherto as raging Lions behold them now as subtle Dragons watching for their prey And this likewise in a threefold respect First in their pretending false fears and punishing others for them Secondly in their fomenting real dangers and imputing them to others Thirdly in their assigning others for causes of that which they know arises from another hand For the first of these I know it is a judgement upon Tyranny that it is never secure from jealousies and suspicions the wicked feareth where no fear is Psal 14. 5. Nero suspects his own shadow for harbouring his mothers Ghost yet oftentimes it happens that great dangers are pretended that the blame may fall on them who are mark'd out for sacrifice Thus Richard our third shall I say or our first usurper imputes his natural mishapen withered arm to the sorcery of such as he had devoted to execution Iehu knew himself to be established King over Israel he was proclaimed by the Souldiers acknowledged by the people he had slain Ioram his lawfull Soveraign he had by a cunning hypocrisie cheated the people into a great opinion of his zeal yet by a fine reach of policy a letter must be sent to Samaria to perswade the Elders of Israel to set up the best of their Masters Sons upon his Throne and fight for him 2 King 10. 3. he knew he had the City already at his devotion by the terror he had cast upon them But by this means he obtained a noble present the heads of Ahabs seventy sons were sent in baskets to him Thus the Lapwing flutters most and cries the lowdest to cheat the traveller when she is farthest from indangering her nest Potiphars wife had too great trial of Iosephs honesty yet he must be accused as an Hebrew brought in to mock her And thus Daniel faithfull religious loyal Daniel upon a pretence of disobeying the Kings decree must be thrown into the Lion den But secondly they sometimes contrive and foment real plots and dangers to punish others for them Thus that monster of mankinde Nero sets the City of Rome on fire whilst he sits in his Tower and makes musick to the dancing flames singing there his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilst many thousand Christians are condemned to tortures for being the Incendiaries And this was a good mans even Iosephs policy too who secretly conveys the price of the corn and his own divining cup withall into his brethrens sacks mouths that he