Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	authority_n	peace_n	power_n	2,673	5	4.5185	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48734	A sermon preached in Lent-assizes, holden for the county of Bucks, at Alesbury, March 8th 1671/2 being Ash-Wednesday by Ad. Littleton ...	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.	1671 (1671)	Wing L2570; ESTC R21353	20,489	39

the Patriarch or chief Father of all the several Families And this power by lineal descent fell to the Eldest Sons so that the first-born were by prerogative of their birth Kings and Priests unless there happen'd a forfeiture as it was with Esau and Reuben who were therefore justly put by Afterward when kindreds themselves what with the propagation of their own Families what with the commixtion of strangers were so inlarged that they became Nations then the government was intrusted with Kings as Gods Vicegerents For though there be other Forms which I shall not now dispute against yet the Monarchical has this advantage at least over them all that it was the first and far the most antient of them all as the Historian Justin has observed that principio rerum at the beginning of the world that is when the world was first divided into Nations it was governed by Kings This among all other people but then God having a special care of his own people did not at first set up Kingly Government amongst them though afterwards upon their desire he did but to maintain the Theocracy his own Government among them did upon occasion of great troubles or imminent dangers raise them up Judges who were tantamount to Kings Nay Moses himself gives himself the very Title too Deut. 33.5 where he says that Moses was King in Jeshurum when the heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together And thus Sufetes which is the word for Judge with the Phaenicians and Carthaginians their descendents as well as with the Hebrews is used by Seneca and others that speak of those people for the Supreme Magistrate 2. And such was Samuels power here as that of all the other Judges before him differing from the Kingly rather in name then substance as to the exercise of it Some tell us it was much-what like that of the ●ictators at Rome in that they were raised only upon extraordinary occasions and intrusted with an arbitrary power 'T is true as the occasion was extraordinary so 't was fit their power too in some measure should be But then these Judges of ours differed from them in this that these had extraordinary assistances from God not to say that these having taken upon them once the Government some of them as Eli Samuel c. never laid it down again nor returned back to their private condition as they all did but JulJus Caesar. By this power then they were instated in a supremaecy and were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlimited unaccountable and unappealable They had the universal dispensation of Justice an absolute right to make War and Peace command of mens persons and fortunes and power of Life and Death And all other Magistrates and Officers derived their authority from them It is the opinion of some and those learned that the great Council of Seventy which Moses for his assistance set up by the advice of his Father-in-law Jethro to help him in the tryal of lesser causes usually called the Sanhedrim or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jewish Parliament continued down from Moses without any interruption till Herods time if so then the Judge was chief over them Besides there were lesser Courts too in each City much like our Hundred-Court's and Courts-Leet to judge of smaller matters who as they received their authority from the Supreme Court so might be appealed from to it And all these inferiour Courts subordinate to the great Consistory and that it self to the Judge But I rather incline to GrotJus who thinks that in these times all the bands of Government were losened amidst the popular licentiousness when every one did what they list and that there were no Courts at all kept to call them to account but that God raised these Judges on purpose as well to recal the people to good order as to deliver them from the oppression of their enemies since the History makes it clearly out that at every vacancy or interval of Government the people fell off a fresh into their former disorders and those disorders brought new troubles upon them which both occasioned the raising of a new Judge to rescue them from one and t'other from their sins and from their foes For so we find Judge Samuel in this very Chapter first call them together to Mizpeh for a Fast and Humiliation before he venture them to Battel against the Philistines However it were these Judges had not their power from the people though sometimes the peoples consent and desire too was not wanting but immediately from God himself And so is it proportionably with all supreme Magistrates For that Ascham's position is not true that they receive their power by compact and agreement of the people this one argument amongst many is enough to evince that no man in the world has power over his own Life and consequently cannot transfer that power to another which he has not himself Nor has the whole Community together that power since the particular persons which make up the Community have no such power and the whole cannot have more in it then the parts had to contribute to it The Judicatory power then is not derived from the people but from God himself transmitted to the King as supreme and from him to the Judges as Ministers of Justice sent by him the King being the fountain of Justice and the Soul and Life of the Law 3. And this to the whole body and every part of it in all its concerns which is the extent of this power First over all persons for so 't is said of Samuel that he gathered all Israel to Mizpeh and there judged them The Church of Rome indeed priviledgeth her Priests from the civil judicature and there are Others though seemingly of far different perswasion that would fain have it believed they are not concerned in Law or consequently in government upon that assertion of the Apostles that the Law is not made for the righteous and in another place where he speaks of meekness temperance c. that against such there is no Law and I agree to them that if they do well as the same Apostle says Rom. 13. they need not fear but that upon this condition then eâ Lege if they observe the Law For what says the Apostle elsewhere Do we then by faith and I may say do we then by our good works make void the Law yea rather we establish it by performing what it commands Further Innocence it self may be impleaded and so fall under the inquisition of the Law and 't is the evidence must fetch her off The Law then is for clearing and acquitting the guiltless no less then for condemning criminals As at a Goal-delivery the Billa vera casts the Prisoner the no-evidence of the fact sets him free Again as this judicial power is over all Persons so 't is in all Causes Temporal by the Judge Spiritual by the Bishop by each as the Kings Delegate And Samuel acted

when any Noble Faculty as yours is designed for the Good of Mankind is made to serve the Practicioners private Advantage more then the Benefit of Society To you the Plaintiffs and Parties concerned that you would study to be quiet not to trouble Law with every trifle I know the Apostle 1. Cor. vi speaks of Heathen Judicatures that he would not have Christians repair to for Justice I know the Law in it self and its own purposes is good and was appointed to determine controversies and to put an end to differences But 't is such Differences as cannot be otherwise ended To bring every small matter before the Judge that might have been taken up at home is to abuse Law and Gospel both as being a great disturbance to Government and as great a breach of Christian Charity The Apostles reproof I am afraid may be applyed to too too many in the 7th ver of that Chap. There is utterly a fault among you because you go to Law with one another Why do you not rather take wrong Why do you not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded Nay you do wrong and defraud and that your brethren There are some it seems who as we use to say will neither do right nor take wrong In the last place to you Witnesses that you set the God of Truth before you and assure your selves that your souls will go along with your depositions He that attests a falshood knowingly wounds God in his dearest Attribute and where he does not know he ought not to say Especially you Jurors remember you are sworn men It must be a Verdict a true saying upon your Oaths you are to give in It is a shame to consider how cheap Oaths are grown amongst us how the reputation of English Faith and honesty is lost in this point An Oath the Author to the Hebrews says is the end of all controversie Justice cannot be effected nor Government secured without it There are two sorts of men peccant upon this account Let me beg the favour of your patience to speak a word with both of them 1. Those that refuse to take Oaths at all 2. Those that will take them hand overhead and not care how nor what they swear 1. There is a sort of men that will not take Oaths I have a charity for them but I wish it be not upon this ground because they have formerly broken their Oaths or because they are resolved afore-hand not to keep them that they will not take them now Let me tell them this stubborn refusal if so is in it self interpretative perjury for they are born-subjects whether they swear or no. But we will suppose it is out of Conscience of an Oath as 't is an Oath They object that Christ and his Apostle James have expresly forbidden it Swear not at all say they Right but examine the Context it stands thus It hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self But I say unto you swear not at all First then from the opposition I ask them whether Christ in this place has cancelled that Prohibition of forswearing ones self or no for so the opposition stands It has been said thou shalt not forswear thy self But I say swear not at all If they say he has there will follow this absurdity that Christ though he bids us not swear at all yet he allows us to forswear our selves But this prohibition without doubt stands good still for 't is brought in with the same form of words as the 6 th and 7 th Commandments are Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery and I hope they will not say Christ has repeal'd those commandments If the prohibition then stand good it follows that if a man must not forswear himself he may lawfully swear for else how can he possibly forswear himself And it were a foolish idle impertinent precept which forbids a sin that 't is impossible for a man to commit to forbid perjury and not allow an Oath 2. From the particular instances Swear not at all neither by Heaven nor by the Earth nor by Jerusalem nor by thy Head It is evident our Saviour meant only frivolous Oaths by any of the Creatures or by any other thing then God and so Saint James enlarges it for leaving out Jerusalem and ones head he adds nor any other Oath that is as it must be understood any other such Oath and this is further confirm'd by the reason given to each instance which refers not to the act of swearing as it should have done had Christ intended as they say but to the nature of the thing sworn by Not by Heaven for it is Gods Throne not by the Earth for it is his Foot-stool not by Jerusalem for it is the City of the great King not by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black And so as Saint James not by any other thing qd These and the like are all Gods Creatures and therefore swearing being a Religious act they are not to be sworn by Now in that he forbids swearing by Heaven and Earth c. because Creatures can we therefore infer we may not upon just cause swear by God himself the Creator Rather it follows that seeing we are forbidden to swear by these things because Creatures therefore we may and must when there is occasion swear by God 3. From our Saviours design We must observe Christ's scope and purpose in all that 5. Chap. of Saint Mat. It was to clear and vindicate the Moral Law from those abuses and corruptions which the Pharisees false Glosses had put upon it This appears by those other two They held so a man did not kill his brother it was well enough he might be angry with him he might call him Fool and not be guilty of the breach of that command so he did not actually lye with a woman he might look on her and lust after her without any offence Our Saviour contrariwise condemns Murther in the Heart and Adultery in the Eye So here the Pharisees Tenet was that so a man did not forswear himself did not swear falsely he might swear as he pleased and by what he pleased as idly as he would Wherefore 't is only such idle impertinent unnecessary swearing that is here forbidden as well as swearing false 4. From the close or latter opposition Swear not at all But let your Communication be yea yea nay nay 'T is plain that swearing is here forbidden only in ordinary discourse in our Communication not upon extraordinary occasion before the Magistrate or in a place of Judicature where an Oath is to be the end of strife 5. Lastly and I will leave it with them from Saint James himself Yea Yea Nay Nay Where will they find that Christ himself and his Apostles or any of the New Testament Saints used these forms of speech so as they do even to a ridiculous superstition What do you think of St. Paul who in his Epistles which are reckoned familiar discourses where he is to vouch any weighty Truth fears not to use such forms as these Before God I lye not I protest by your rejoycing and the like Would he do you think had he been called into a Christian Court solemnly to bear witness to the Truth have scrupled an Oath would he have answered to an Interrogatory Yea or Nay No that was not the meaning Saint James will tell them what Christ meant Swear not at all says he but let your Yea be Yea and your Nay Nay i. e. in your conversation be honest men and stand to your word in your dealings in your assertions in your promises let your word be your word your yea yea and your nay nay and then you need not swear your word will be taken without an Oath For 't is commonly seen that those find least credit who bind all they say with Oaths and that those who swear most are least believed And this brings us to Those who make light of Oaths are very ready to take them and more ready to break them But such must know that the violation of an Oath is the highest violation of Conscience that can be and that God is Witness and Judge both and that 't is dangerous to call him to be Witness of a lye who will be sure to be an Avenger of it and that though Perjury perhaps is got into that practice that it has lost the Infamy which does of right belong to it amongst men yet it will not miss of divine Vengeance even in this life that 't is the boldest affront can be offered to Gods Omniscience to his Veracity to his Justice to his Wisdom to his Power to intitle him to falshood and cover it with his holy and blessed Name and that though they may elude a Humane Judicature and escape in this life yet in the next when they appear as we all must before the judgment seat of God their injured consciences will stand out and witness and draw uplarge declarations against them to their eternal confusion and condemnation Now may God the righteous Judge of all the Earth so direct you all in what you go about that you may have the Blessing that the Country may have the Benefit and that God himself may have the Glory Amen FINIS