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
ears which denoted justice says he which must not be held by the ears by any formal accusation And indeed if it were enough to accuse no man could be innocent Not an upright David can avoid false witnesses w ch lay to his charge things that he knew not But my Lords I am so far from wishing a mutilation of justice that I pray it may never want two ears of an equal size that the Defendants plea may finde as much room as the Plaintiffs accusation Let it be quick-sighted too to discern what it sees with the eyes not what it feels with the hands Let it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a touch-stone to distinguish between gold and dross not pardon ravening vultures which bring plundered meat in their mouthes and punish innocent doves which have onely sighs and groanes to relieve them My Lords you sit here now by a full Commission and can answer to captious questions of Scribes and Elders if they shall dare to ask you as they did our Saviour Mar. 11. ver 28. By what authority do you these things and who gave you this authority You come not here to publish any Manliana imperia any Tyrants decrees or Usurpers instruments any Draco's laws written in blood You are sent by a Prince whose mercifull condescentions have made him less a King less absolute that they may make us more subjects more obedient And as our confidence is that our good Iehoshaphat hath sent us judges which have the fear of the Lord before their eyes with whom there is no respect of persons nor taking of bribes so if you should fail of that trust you would prove the greatest traytors of all others you would pull down that throne which is established in righteousness My Lords the law of which you are the mouthes is the line and rule of our actions Oh I beseech you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remove not the line do not set it in nearer to some and remove it farther back from others 'T was a severe reproof that Anacharsis gave to Solon when he told him that his laws were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to spiders webs which intangled little flies and sufferd great ones to break through them It is an old tradition that our English Forum Westminster Hall is roof'd with Irish wood which will harbour no spiders Oh let not the floor the Courts of Iustice there be full of Cobwebs to intangle poor innocent ignorant wretches with niceties and formalities which those with strong backs easily break through God does so often and so passionately recommend the poor mans case to your Patronages that methinks in one place he seems sollicitous least pity should make you partial thou shalt not countenance says he a poor man in his cause Exod. 23. verse 3. that is if he be querulous and vexatious and he that dares not steal because of the law shall under the cloak of poverty steal by the law and live by rapine and get what he can from others because he hath nothing to lose himself Suidas tells us of a King of Tenedus who ordain'd that an Officer should stand behinde the Iudges back holding up an hatchet pointed forward as well to terrifie vexatious informers and false witnesses as to let the Iudge know that he was mortal if he should under the pretence and form of Iustice wrong the innocent But here I humbly desire not to be misconceived I am far from closing with the Fanatical whimzes of some amongst us who cry out of all forms and legal proceedings because grounded perhaps upon Norman customs or couch'd in a language not understood by every high-shoon delver or whistling carter That sad and deplorable inter-regnum if I may so call it which we had when there was no King visibly reigning in our Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes gave us a taste of those innumerable contentions which would arise by translating the body of the law into the English tongue when every man would be Plaintiff Attorney Counsellour and he hopes Iudge too in his own case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I reverence those of the long robe and do know that they are the best Protectours of our properties and estates their abilities smell of the lamp in those knotty and irksome studies of the laws But Gentlemen I wish there were not so many left-handed Caelius's among you whose excellency lies in palliating a foul cause or blackning a fair one 'T is a common saying and too much made use of that a bad cause had need of the best Oratour for a good one will defend it self And if any thing can stick a disgrace upon the law 't is this that after equity and right and reason have adjudged a cause it may be retrived by picking out some punctilio wherein there hath been a miscarriage in the prosecution and formality of it But remember that God standeth in the Congregation of the mighty he stands in it and over it too for so the word imports he does praesidere he is president he is Lord chief justice he is judge among the Gods judges them here by a secret sentence their consciences either accusing or excusing every one And will judge them hereafter when he hath arrested them by his Bayliff death when the Devils will be Plaintiffs and the Angels Defendants At that great Assize I mean when at the sound of the trumpet we shall all appear before the judgement seat of Christ and every one shall receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or evil God fit us all for that account c. Samuel's Circuit THE THIRD SERMON Preached at the Assizes at St. Edmunds Bury Iuly 29. 1661. 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. 1 Sam. 7. 15 16. And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpeh and he judged Israel in all those places THE Government of Gods own people was at this time committed under him to Iudges neither so loose that every man durst do what was right in his own eyes nor so strict that any man did what was right in Gods eyes A Monarchick Government it was where one ruled alone but whether it was all one with the Regal which succeeds in the next chapter and was differenced from it but in name or onely a Praecursor an Usher to it I will not here determine God had run through many changes from Captains he had given them Iudges then Priests then Judges again as if he did contrive by experimenting several forms how he might best protect them And now the best of Magistrates Samuel ruled the worst of Subjects Israel whether we consider their seditious mutability and desire of change
controversie were brought before the Priests and Levites who must shew them the sentence of judgement And this was practised in David's days 1 Chron. 26. 29. when Chenaniah and his sons of the tribe of Levi were set over Israel for all outward business in omni negotio divino humano says Vatablus for officers and Iudges The same we shall finde in the days of good Iehoshaphat who set of the Priests and of the Levites for the judgement of the Lord and for controversies between blood and blood between Laws and Commandments between Statutes and Ordinances 2 Chron. 19. 8. And if the Embassey of the Gospel be more honourable then that of the Law let not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Embassadours be more dishonoured Our Samuels are bred up in Ramah-Sophim too in the Schools of the Prophets and at the feet'of Doctors And as their education may intitle them to some talents of knowledge some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so pity it is that they should want the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should be excluded those offices in which they may improve them Samuel's first title I know was to be set apart for the service of the Tabernacle and he did not seek his temporal power by any indirect ambitious or preposterous courses but being called by God he judged Israel all his life time And if the favour and grace of the Supream Magistrate which indeed is Gods call shall call any Clergy man to the exercise of any temporal power let us not quarrel at the preferment of a Priest as in contempt we use to call them for in such oblique descants we glance at the royal prerogative and either ty up the hands or question the discretiō of our Soveraigns And so much for the Person of Samuel which judged Israel all the days of his life 2. We have seen the Judge and his commission proceed we now to his Circuit He went from year to year in Circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpeh Indeed Josephus adds to the story and says that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Twice every year passing through the cities he sate in judgement there I confess the temper of the Jews was so turbulent and their nature so seditious that without two Assizes in the year their prisons would swarm and like the Colledge of the sons of the prophets be too little for them Witness those unparalleld riots which we read of in the latter end of the Iudges where in the short inter-regnum of judiciary power they fall to Idolatry in families Burglaries in Counties and Rapes in cities And would to God England were so well tempered that the justice and righteousness of the inhabitants did not call for judgement as often But the Original is from year to year whether once or twice is not determined The places whither he went were Bethel and Gilgal Mizpeh Bethel signifies the house of God Gilgal Revelation Mizp Intention From whence Rabanus makes this observation that judgement in the house of God is to be pronounced not indiscreetly or with a malevolous soul but as Scripture reveals and with a good intention and brotherly love and so we must return to our own house at Ramah to the closets of our breasts and there give up our selves to Meditation All this is very true but too much forced 'T is ultra sobrietatem sapere to be too wise in fixing such sence upon holy Scripture as the Spirit of God never pointed at Lyra's short gloss is much more significant that he went per loca ad judicandum idonea to places most fit to hold Assizes in and such were these whether we consider the Situaation or the capacity of them Look upon the site and you will find Bethel upon mount Ephraim the navel of the Country Gilgal and Mizpeh in the middle of the Longitude So placed that Mizpeh was on the west side of the Latitude and Gilgal on the East In the middle and on both sides of the Country were the Courts of judgement erected Again look to the receit of the places and ye will finde that Bethel after it was honoured by Iacobs pillar became populous and large At the return of the Israelites into Canaan it had a King of its own was of so great a strength that the children of Joseph were constrained to take it by Stratagem not by force Judg. 1. 21. As for Gilgal it was the constant head-quarters where Joshua pitched his camp And Mizpeh was the place where all Israel randezvous'd to expiate the Idolatry of Baalim and Ashtaroth They must needs therefore be large and capacious towns fit for the reception of all that repaired to the Courts of Iustice there Appointed no doubt for the ease and benefit of the inhabitants whose charge and pains would have been too great to have repaired to Ramah the common seat of judgement Upon which precedent no doubt our King Henry the second by the counsel of his Son and Bishops which was afterward ratified by Parliament authority under Ed. the third appointed Iustices of Eyre justiciarios itineris that is Judges itinerant to hear and deterwine Pleas of the crown and pleas between party party in the several Counties where the facts are committed That so the notoriety of them may appear and the chargeable attendance upon Law-Suits at Westmin may not make men think the remedy worse then the disease And now I should have done with the Places the Parallel that is run between them and us if I were not assured that there is something Emphatical and extraordinary in them to intitle them to the seats of Justice Bethel was at first called Luz Gen. 28. 19. which signifies an Almond a rod of which tree God made to flourish miraculously to shew the preheminence of Aaron in the Priesthood It was by Jacob dedicated to God and called the house of the Lord and the gate of heaven because of Gods gracious appearance to him at that place After the return of the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage it was set apart for the worship of God For there was an Altar and thither went men up to sacrifice and to pray even at this very time as will appear 1 Sam. 10. 3. by the three men which Saul met there upon that occasion A place consecrated by Gods especial presence and manifestation of himself there according to that of the Prophet in Bethel invenit eum He found him in Bethel then he spake with us Hos. 12. 4. Yet Bethel the house of God is made choice of by Samuel for the seat of justice Gilgal was remarkable for the twelve stones which Ioshua pitched there in remembrance of the twelve Tribes w ch at that place passed over Iordan It is called the hill of fore-skins Iosh. 5. 3. from the circumcision which by Gods command was renewed there upon all the children of Israel There the camp continued till the Passover was celebrated Nay so convenient Quarters it was that for