Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	baron_n	chief_a	judge_n	3,349	5	7.3653	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14732	Balme from Gilead to recouer conscience In a sermon preached at Pauls-Crosse, Octob. 20. 1616. By Samuel Ward, Bach. of Diuinitie, and preacher of Ipswich.	Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640.; Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.	1618 (1618)	STC 25036; ESTC S119469	52,024	176

highest and greatest to the lowest least Instrument of Iustice from the Gouernour of the thousand to the Centurion from him to the Tithing-man or Decinour To the which ancient diuision of the Iewish Cōmon-wealth our platforme agrees in substance Their Sanedrim or Senate of seuenty to our Parliament Counsell-Table Starr-chamber Exchequer-chamber c. Our Iustices of Assises in their Circuit and Iustices of peace in their general commission or dominion High Sheriffs in their Shires answering to the Rulers of thousāds Our Iustices in their seuerall diuisions Iudges of hundred Courts and Turnes to their Rulers of hundreds to whom I may adde high Constables in their places our Court-leets and court-Court-barons to the rulers of fifties to whom I add ordinary Constables in their offices our cheefe Pledges Tything-men or Deciners to their rulers of tens Now all these Iethro meanes and speakes of euery one of them in their station and degree conceiuing the Common-wealth as an instrument not well in tune ●but the lest of these strings be false or naught Contrary to the common and dangerous opinion of the vulgar who to their owne iniury thinke say that it matters not for petty officers Constables and Bayliffs c. though they be of the lees and dregs of men nay they hold that for some offices It is pitty any honest men should come into them Alas alas the more subiect to tentation vice it is the more needfull it is that none other should haue them Oh but say they a good Iudge or Iustice may help all they erre are deceiued it is no one beame though neuer so bright that enlightens all It is not the light and influence of the fixed starres though the greatest and highest but of the Sun and Moone and the lowest and neerest Orbs that gouerne the world It is the ground-wind not the rack-winde that driues mills and ships It is the Ciuill as in the Ecclesiasticall body if Bishops be neuer so learned and the parishi●nall Minister negligent worldly proud or blind Sr. Iohns the people perish for want of vision What can the Superiour doe if the Inferiour informe not what can the eye doe if the hand and foot be crooked and vnserviceable yea not onely if such as be organs of Iustice such as haue places of Iudicature but if the media and spectacles of the sense will yeeld a false report how shall the common sense make a right iudgement If Pl●aders and Attourneyes will colour and gloze if the Clarkes and Pen-men make false records may not any of these disturb or peruor Iustice if the least finger or toe of this body be distorted I meane Iaylor or Sergeant or any other that should execute Iustice be remisse and slacke then must the Dutch-mans prouerb be veryfied Looke what the bell is without the clapper such are good lawes and iudgements without d●e execution Thus we see in this curious clock-work of Iustice the lest pin or whee●e amisse may distemper disorder all but if care were had to frame all ●hese parts of the building according to the plat-forme of this skilfull Architect what an absolute ●armony of the parts what an exact perfection of the whole yea what golden times should we liue to see Hearken o yee mountaines and little hills you Rulers of thousands you Rulers of tens you reuerēd Sages of the Lawes you worshipfull Knights and Gentlemen of the Countrey yee listen to this charg of Iethro ye of the meanest place of the common-welth weigh not things nor persons at the common beame of custome opinion but as the golden standart of Gods Sanctuary with these Goldsmiths waights of my text which if I shall perswade you to doe I feare that wee must say with the Psalmist that sonnes of men Beni-Adam yea the cheefest men Beni-ish to be layed vpon the ballance will bee found lies and lighter then vanity heere money will not make the man nor craft carry it away Euery Nabal of mount Carmel nor euery Achitophel may not bee admitted This text saith to euery timorous prophane falseharted couetous person as Samuel to Saul God hath rent thine office from thee and bestowed it on thy better or as the Scripture of Iudas let another more worthily take his place if this order rule of triall might take place how many would bee turned out of commission how many would bee effici● perdae how would benches Shire-houses bee ●hinned As for this present to the which God hath called me to speake for if I had called my selfe I could not nor durst not speake giue me leaue without offence to speake that plainly and openly which I conceiue inwardly when I haue come into the Shire-house sometimes to obserue the state of it it hath presented it selfe to my view not vnlike to that image of Dan●el or picture in Horace or table of the Popes of Rome which for memories sake I reduce to these two Disticks Ex auro caput est argentea brachia vēter Aeneus admisto ferrea cruraluto Diuino capiti ceruix humana ferinus Assuitur truncus Daemonijque pedes The head of gold And with such honourable Iudges God hath vsually for a long time blessed this circuit If I had euer heard other of these present I durst not giue titles lest my maker should condemne me yet being vnknowne to me but by fame which hath spoken all good I desire you to proue and weigh your selues by Iethro's weights and accordingly to haue peace and approofe in your owne consciences before the Iudge of all Iudges The shoulders of siluer A worthy Bench yet mingled with som drosse and not so refined as I haue knowne and seene it like the skie in a cleere euening bespangled with bright stars Many such there bee at this present God be praised religious able Iustices and so many as I beleeue few other Benches are furnished withall yet in this siluer I feare some drosse some whose skill ability the Countrey doubts of being conceiued to be either so simple or so timorous that they dare meddle with none that dare meddle with them or else so popular they will displease none The Diuell himselfe they say may keepe an Ale-house vnder their nose Others whose religion they call into question at lest for the truth and for the power of it vnlesse religion may stand with common swearing with drinking with familiarity with Papists Recusants with vngouerned and vngodly families voyd of all exercises of religion fraught with spirits of the buttery Ruffians Ale-house hunters and such as are the Sin-tutours and sin-leaders to all the Countrey about them I hope there bee but few such I could wish there were none at all The brest and belly of brasse the strength of the Countrey in which ranke I account the great Inquest Iury-men and Constables of which number how few make a conscience to present disorders according to oath or that know and regard the bond of an oath

and owner where thou dwellest be a Sonne of Peace let thy Peace and thy Masters Peace abide and rest on him that Peace which the world neuer knowes nor can giue nor take away Be thou propitious and benigne speake good things cherish the least sparks and smoake of Grace if thou findest desire in trueth and in all things bid them not feare and doubt of their Election and Calling With those that desire to walke honestly walke thou comfortably handle the tender and fearefull gently and sweetly be not rough and rigorous to them binde vp the broken-hearted say vnto them Why art thou so disquieted and sad when thou seest them Melancholy for losses and crosses say vnto them in cheere as Elkanah to Annah What doest thou want am not I a thousand Friends Wiues and Children vnto thee Clap them on the backe hearten them in well doing spurre them on to walke forward yea winde them vp to the highest pitch of Excellencie and then applaud them delight in the Excellent of the earth Be a light to the blind and scrupulous Be a Goad in the sides of the dull ones Be an Alarum and Trumpet of Iudgement to the Sleepers and Dreamers But as for the Hypocrite gall him and pricke him at the heart let him well know that thou art Gods Spie in his bosome a secret Intelligencer and wilt be faithfull to God Bid the Hypocrite walke in all things Bid the Ciuill adde Piety to Charity Bid the wauering inconstant and licentious walke constantly Bid the luke-warme and common Protestant for shame amend be zealous and walke honestly But with the Sonnes of Belial the prophane Scorners walke ●●●wardly with them haunt and molest them giue them no rest till they repent be the gall of bitternesse vnto them when they are swilling and drinking serue them as Absolons seruants did Amnon stab him at the heart yet remember so long as there is any hope that thine office is to be a Paedagogue to Christ to wound and kill onely to the end they may liue in Christ not so much to gaster and affright as to leade to him and to that purpose to be instant in season and out of season that they may beleeue and repent But if they refuse to heare and sinne against thee and the Holy Ghost also then shake off the dust off they feete and either fall to torment them before their time and driue them to despaire or if thou giue them ease here tell them thou wilt flie in their throat at the day of hearing when thou shalt and must speake and they shall and must heare Conscience thou hast Commission to goe into Princes Chambers and Counsell Tables be a faithfull man of their Counsell Oh that they would in all Courts of Christendome set Policie beneath thee and make thee President of their Counsels and heare thy voyce and not croaking Iesuites Sycophants and Lyers thou mayest speake to them Subiects must pray for them and be subiect for thy sake to honour and obey them in the Lord. Charge the Courtiers not to trust in vncertaine fauours of Princes but to be trusty and faithfull as Nehemiah Daniel Ioseph whose Histories pray them to reade imitate and beleeue aboue Machiauels Oracles Tell the Foxes and Polititians that make the Maine the by and the by the Maine that an ill Conscience hanged Achitophell ouerthrew Haman Shebna c. Tell them it 's the best policie and Salomons who knew the best to get and keepe thy fauor to exalt thee and thou shalt exalt them be a shield to them and make them as bold as the Lion in the day of trouble not fearing the enuie of all the beasts of the Forrest no nor the roaring of the Lyon in righteous causes Conscience Thou art the Iudge of Iudges and shalt one day iudge them in the meane while if they feare neither God nor man be as the importunate Widdow vrge them to doe Iustice Oh that thou satest highest in all Courts especially in such Courts as are of the Iurisdiction and receiue their Denomination from thee su●●er not thy selfe to be exiled make Foelix tremble discourse of Iudgement to them To the iust Iudges bid them please God and thee and feare no other feare assure them for what ●u●r they doe of partialitie or popularitie thou wilt leaue them in the lurch but what vpon thy suite and command thou wilt beare them out in it and be their exceeding great reward If thou meetest in those Courts findest any such Pleaders as are of thine acquaintance and followers be their fee and their promoter tell them if they durst trust thee and leaue Sunday workes bribing on both sides selling of Silence pleading in ill Causes and making the Law a nose of waxe if they durst pleade all and onely rightfull Causes thou hast riches in one hand and Honour in the other to bestow on them As for the Tribe of Leui there mayest thou be a little bolder as being men of God and men of Conscience by profession Be earnest with them to adde Con to their Science as a number to Cyphars that will make it something worth Desire them to preach not for filthie lucre or vaine-glory but for thy sake wish them to keepe thee pure and in thee to keepe the mysterie of Faith assure them thou art the onely Ship and Cabbinet of Orthodoxall Faith of which if they make shipwracke by lazinesse and couetousnesse they shall be giuen ouer to Poperie and Arminianisme and lose the Faith and then write bookes of the Apostasie and Intercision of Faith and a good Conscience which they neuer were acquainted withall nor some Drunkards of them euer so much as seemed to haue And whereas thou knowest that many of all sorts are discouraged with the taxation and slaunders some that conferre some that are fearefull and doubtfull if they doe it to the Lord and thee as who knowes but God bid the world as Paul doth here turne censuring into praying and if they will not let them as they preach thee so regard thee in all godly simplicity and expect their reward at the hand of the great Shepheard For the Citie get thou into the high places into the Pulpits into the Entries and gates of the Citie crie aloud and vtter thy words in the streetes Oh that thou wert free of it and hadst freedome of speech and audience in all their Courts and Companies and that for thy sake they would make and keepe wholesome Constitutions for the Sabbath and orderly keeping of it and see that well executed and obserued which is the Nurse of all Piety and Conscience Charge them that are rich Citizens and in their Thousands that they lay no weake Foundation no three halfe-penny Foundation but be bountifull to pious vses to the poore and to the Ministery of the Citie that they take away the scandall of the times and vpbrayding of the Romish Penninuah against the Anna of our times Let the Hospitall Widdowes and Orphanes

The legs and feet of iron and clay or mire Indeed the very mire dirt of the Countrey the Bayliffs Stewards of small liberties Bum-Bayliffs laylours c. if Beelzebub wanted officers he needed no worse then some of these what misteries haue they to vex the poore Countrey-men with false arrests and by vertue of that Statute tying euery Free holder of forty shillings per annum to attend the Assises but I list not to stirr this sediment of the countrey too vnsauoury to be taken vp in a sermon Oh that some Iehosophet would 〈◊〉 reforme or that you Iudges in th●se your dayes of visitations wold redresse some part of these greeuances and reduce all to this Ideae of lethro's which indeede would make an Heauen vpon earth amongst vs. An Vtopia I feare some will say too good to be true obiecting to me as to Cat● that he not discerning the times hee liued in looked for Plato's Common-wealth in the dreggs of Romulus And so that these Magistrates thus limbed ou● might be found in Moses golden age of the world but not in these lees of time To which I answere that if Iethr● were now to giue aduice hee would double the force of it If Dauids r●a●son bee true it is now high time for God to worke for men haue destroyed his Law Was there euer more 〈◊〉 of courage then now when sin 〈◊〉 audacious of truth when 〈◊〉 of religion when hypocrisie i●iquity of contentation when the 〈◊〉 of the world so abounds The onely way to repayre these ruines of the dying world is to renew gouernmēt to the primitiue beauty of it the f●ce whereof I haue now shewed in this excellent Mirrour or Looking-glasse so you goe no● away and forget both the comlinesse and sports it hath shewed you but wash and bee cleane and such as it would haue you to bee There being nothing else remaining ●o your perfection the peace of the Common-wealth but this one Item following in my text requiring assiduity and diligence Let ●hem iudge the people at al times c A most needefull 〈…〉 in times that loue ease and priuate employments with neglect of publique Sitting in the gate is perpetually needefull Diligence in hearing and ending ca●ses would preuent that greeuance of delayes which occasioned Iethro his discourse How doe you thinke it would haue affected him to haue seen six or seuen I haue heard sixteene sums set vpon one suit These our English delayes being as Marnixius complayned worse then the Spanish strapadoes And it is fit though publique and generall courts haue their termes yet 〈◊〉 particular audience of petty gree●ances should haue no vacation Many are the suits and controuersies many are the criminall offences that neede continuall inspection Let him therefore that hath an office attend to his office with cheerefulnesse hee that hath no leisure to heare his neighbours causes Let him as the woman said to Philip haue no leisure to beare office Cursed is he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently withholdeth his hands there from You Gentle-men complaine often of Idoll shepheards dumb dogs c. in the Ministery But how many such in ●he Magistracy Som in commission that neuer sit on the Bench but for fashion Constables that are but cyphers in their place Forsooth they will be no pragmatical fellowes no busiebodies to trouble the Countrey Is there no mean between busi-bodies and tell-clockes between factotum and fay't neant From this neglect comes that wrong and iniury to the Assises that such petty causes tribling actions and complaints trouble these graue and reuerend personages which a meane Yeo man were Iudge fit enough to end in a chaire at home when the whole Shire must be troubled to heare and iudge of a curtesie made out of the path or a blow giuen vpon the shoulder vpon occasion of a wager or such like bawble-trespasses which I shame to mention And to punish euery petty larceny euery small ryo● or disorder which lighter controuersies and faults if perticular Office●s wold comprimize redresse in their Spheares these greater Orbs should not be troubled with them Then indeed would that follow which Iethro assures Moses of in the last part of my Text ver 23 If thou do this thing God so commanding thee then shalt thou thy people endure al this people shal go quietly to their place An admirable emolument of Magistracy sufficient reward of all the paines of it that they and the people may goe home in peace sit vnder their vines and fig-trees follow their callings and that which is the cheefe Iewell of all may lead their liues in al godlines and honesty That the gold blew purple silke might shine and glister within the Tabernacle the out side was couered with red skins and goats haire such a shelter is Magistracy to Gods Church and Religion Nebuchadnezzar was a great tree euery particular Magistrate a little one vnder whose boughs people build sing bring vp their young ones in religious nurture euen foster fathers ●s Ioseph in Aegypt Such were the rich religious ●imes vnder Dauid Salomon vnder such as are described Esa. 32. which whole chapter is worth the reading as a iust Commētary vpon this poynt setting foorth the felicity quietnesse plenty vertue and piety of iust gouernours as are hiding places from the winde and refuges from the tempest riuers of waters to dry places and as raine to the new mowen grasse c. Such also were the times enioyed by the Church vnder Constantine deciphered as I take it Reu●la 8. when there was silence in the heauen about halfe an houre the golden vialls filled with sweet odors the prayers of the Saints ascending as a pillar of smoke vp to heauen Of these times see Panegyricall Sermōs and Encomiasticall discourses storied of old and one of them at large recorded by Eusebius which whole booke is nothing but an Elogium of those peaceable dayes wherin the Church was edified multiplied The Common-wealth being to the Church as the Elme to the Vine or as the garden to the Bees the flourishing of the one the thriuing of the other and the disturbance of the one the disquiet of the other How can men either attend Gods seruice or their owne worke when they are molested at home with drunkards barretors quarrelous persons when hurried vp to London with suits As I haue knowne a Constable molested with fiue or six actions for an act o●●●stice in punishing vice according to his office With what bitternesse of spirit do men groāe vnder delayed and peruerted Iustice when it is turned into Hemlocke and turnes them out of their wits some of them swouning at the sight of their orders as I haue heard from credible eye-witnesses others ready to destroy themselues their aduersaries yea sometime their Iudges Oh the benefit of good Magistrats It is an vnknowne good as the Country-man in an ancient