Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	judge_n	king_n	lord_n	7,200	5	4.0035	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66096	[The character] of a good ruler as it was recommended in a sermon [preached before] His Excellency the Governour, and the honoura[ble] counsellors, and assembly of the representatives of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New-England : [on] May 30. 1694 : [which was the day] for election of [counsellors] for that province / by Samuel [Willard] ...	Willard, Samuel, 1640-1707.	1694 (1694)	Wing W2270; ESTC R40123	13,355	37

will not be so in another Farthermore he must be one whom neither Flattery nor B●i●ery may be able to remove out of his way Deut. 16. 19 Thou shalt not wrest Judgment thou shalt not Respect Persons neither take a Gift and hence he must be one who hates both Ambition and Covetousness Exod. 18. 21 Hating Covetousness which word signi●ies a Greedy Desire and is applicable to both the fore cited Vices for if these Rule him he will never be a just Ruler Finally he must be one who prefers the publick Benefit above all private and separate Interests whatsoever Every man in his place owes himself to the good of the whole and if he doth not so devote himself he is unjust and he who either to advance himself or to be Revenged on another will push on Injurious Laws or pervert the true Intention of such as are in Force is an unjust man and he who is under the influence of a Narrow Spirit will be ready to do so as occasion offers Nor is this Justice to be lookt upon as separate from the Fear of God but as influenced and maintained by it He therefore that Ruleth in the Fear of God is one who Acknowledgeth God to be his Soveraign and carries in his heart an Awful Fear of him who owns his Commission to be from him and expects ere long to be called to give in an Account of his managing of it which maketh him to study in all things to please him and to be afraid of doing any thing that will provoke him And accordingly he is a Student in the Law of God and Meditates in i● Day and Night making it the Rule into which he ultimately resolves all that he doth in his place We find that in the Old Law the King was to write a Copy of it with his own hand and to make use of it at all times Deut. 17. 18 19. If he hath any thing to do in the making of Laws he will consult a good Conscience and what may be pleasing of God and will be far from framing mischief by a Law And if he be to execu●e any Laws of men he will not dare to give a judgment for such an one as directly Crosseth the Command of God but counts it ipso facto void and his Conscience acquitted of his Oath Yea the Fear of God will make him not ●o think himself Lawless nor dare to bear witness by Laws and Penalties against sins in others which he countenanceth and encourageth by living in the Practise of himself But to use utmost endeavours that his own life may be an exemplification of Obedience and others may lea●n by Him what a Veneration he hath for the Laws that are enacted for the good of Man-kind In a word he is one that will take care to promote Piety as well as Honesty among men and do his utmost that the true Religion may be countenanced and established and that all Ungodliness as well as Unrighteousness may have a due Testimony born against it at all times So he resolves Psal 75. 10. all the horns of the wicked also will I cut off but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted It then follows that we enquire of what great moment or consequence it is that these should be such and there is a threefold respect in which the high importance of it is ●o be discovered by us I. In respect to the Glory of God Civil Rulers are Gods Vi●egerents here upon earth hence they are som●imes honoured with the ti●le of Gods Psal 82 6. I have said ye are Gods Government is Gods Ordinance and those that are Vested with it however mediately introduced into it have their right●ul autho●ity from him Prov. 8. 15 16. By me Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice By me Princes Rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the Earth and they that are from him should be for him and ought to seek the Honour of him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords which they only then do when they manage their whole Interest and Power with a Design for his Glory accordingly manage themselves in all their Ministrations by the Statutes of his Kingdom which none will ever do but they that are Just Ruling in the Fear of God Righteousness and Religion flourishing in these will be as a Torch on an Hill whose Light and Influence will be vastly extensive every one will be advantaged to see their good works and to Glorifie God for and in them Their very Example will have the force of a Law in it and win many by a powerful Attraction to the avoiding of sin and practising of Righteousness They will be a good Copy that many will be ambitious to write after and their faithful Administrations will render them a Terror ●o Evil Doers and an Encouragement to them that do well which will advance the very ●nd of Government Whereas the Evil Deportment and Ill Management of Rulers who are unjust and void of the Fear of God is an open scandal and of a more pernicious tendency than the wickedness of others inasmuch as their Example is a discouragement to them that are well disposed and animates those that are set in their hea●ts for iniquity and they are thereby emboldned to shew their heads and to declare their sin as Sodom hence that Remark of the Psalmist Psal 12. 8. ●he wicked walk on every side when the vi●est men are exalted Those that would ●ear their Testimony against Impiety and Debauchery are frown●d on and neg●ected and such as would Nourish them are Countenanced and either good Laws to suppress them are not provided or they are laid by as things Obsolete and of no Service and thus all Abominations come in upon a People as a Flood and the Name of God is wofully dishonoured by this means and hereupon the last and most excellent end of Government comes to be frustrated and what is there that we can conceive to be of greater weight than this if this be lost the Glory of such a people is gone 2 In regard to the weal of the People over whom they Rule A People are not made for Rulers But Rulers for a People It is indeed an Honour which God puts upon some above others when he takes them from among the People and sets them up to Rule over them but it is for the Peoples sake and the Civil felicity of them is the next end of Civil Policy and the happiness of Rulers is bound up with theirs in it Nor can any wise men in authority think themselves happy in the Misery of their Subjects to whom they either are or should be as Children are to to their Fathers We have the Benefit of Government expressed 1. Tim. 2 2. a quiet Life and a peacable in all Godliness and honesty and it lies espe●ialy with Rulers under God to make a People Happy or Miserable When men can injoy their Liberties and Rights without molestation or oppression

Persons they ought to introduce it they would either Please GOD or Consult their own and their Peoples Welfare Such a Character we find is given in our Text and we may suppose David intended for an Instance of it The words are Introduced with greatest solemnity to give them the deeper impression on the hearts of those that read them and are concerned in them They are the words of David whom God had exalted to the Government over His People Israel and instructed in his Duty who was Gods own Anointed by an Extraordinary calling And they are his Last words Probably not that he ever spake but some of his dying words and the l●st that he uttered by a Peculiar Prophetical Inspiration they were not his own words but such as the Spirit of God dictated to him and spake by him whereof he was only the Instrument of their being committed to record They therfore came out of the Mouth of the God and Rock of Israel and surely there must be unspeakable Importance in words Ushered in with so Majestical a Preface I might here tell you the divers readings occasioned by the curt expression of the Hebrew Text but I shall not spend time in it since the general current of Interpreters runs the same way with our Translation And I need but Briefly acquaint you that the import or sense of the words is variously understood some apply them to God himself and accordingly read the words as a continued description of him he that Ruleth just men that ruleth men to fear God Others apply them to Christ as t●pified by David and take them to be a Prophesy of his Mediatorial Kingdom and then t●ey ●ead it shall be ●ust ruling the fear of God i. e. Divine Instituted worship pointing to the abrogating of the legal and bringing in of the Gospel administrations but then the Type also must be respected at le●st ●nder a shadow and so they suppose that Davids Typical Government is represented Others take them according to the sense of our Transla●ion not to be a predi●●ion but a precept giving us to understand what manner of persons such are required to be by the Divine Mandate and that it was left as a Rule to them who should succeed In the words there are two things to be observed 1 The Subje●t spoken of He that Ruleth over men He that ruleth The word Imports one that hath any Dominion right or authority over either Persons or things and is here applicable to all those degrees of men that have any ma●k of Authority upon them whether the King as Supream or any Ministers under him under what Character or title soever Over men the word Adam is frequently used to express the Commonalty or People that are to be Governed but how●●er there i● or ought to be a vast difference between the Government of Men and Beasts though some Brutish men may deserve to b● treated as Brutes Man is a Reasonable Creature and of the same order of being with them that Gove●n him and ought to be managed accordingly 2. The Duty incumbent on such an one He must be Just Ruling in the Fear of God Some suppose that the double Office of the Civil Magistrate is here pointed at who is Custos utriusque Tab●●ae who is to maintain Justice towards men Piety towards God Others suppose the latter Expression to be Exegetical to the former Just i. e One that makes Conscience to observe and keep to the Rule of Right● ousness in all his Administrations he ought not to Exert his Power Illimitedly and Arbitrarily but in Conformi●y to the Law of God and the Light of Nature for Gods Honour and the prom●●ing of the common benefit of those over whom he bears Authority And hence R●ling in the Fear of God And if he doth not so he cannot be Just and by the Fear of God we may either understand an holy Reverential Fear entertained in his heart which must Govern him or else he will never Rule well For though every good man will not make a good Ruler yet it is s●arce to be believed that a man will Acquit this Office well without Piety Or else it may be taken Metonimically for the Rules of Gods Word and those particular Precepts which direct men how to carry themselves in every Station which are therefore called the Fear of God because they serve rightly to Regulate our Fear of him Where it is said he must it doth not suppose that all who have such Authority with them do so Rule woful experience too frequently proves the contrary but that it is their Duty and a matter of great Importance for them to attend it Hence DOCTRINE It is of highest Consequence that Civil Rulers should be Just Men and such as Rule in the Fear of God Where shall we find any one Text in Scripture U●hered in more remarkably than this I may not ●arry here to draw out this Character in its full dimensions and give it all its Colours but must only make some brief Glances Civil Rulers are all such as are in the exercise of a rightful Authority over others These do not all of them stand in one equal Rank nor are alike influential into Government There are Supream and Subordinate Powers and of these also there are some who have a Legislative others an Executive Power in their Hands which two though they may sometimes meet in the same persons yet are in themselves things of a different Nature There are Superiour Magistrates in Provinces and such as are of Council with them and Assembly men the Representatives of the People There are Judges in Courts Superious and Inferiour Justices of the Peace in their several Precincts and in each of these Orders there Resides a measure of Authority Now that all these may be Just it is firstly req●ired that they have a Principle of Moral Honesty in them and Swaying of them that they Love Righteousness and Hate Iniquity that they be Men of Truth Exod. 18. 21. for every man will act in hi● Relation according to the P●inciple that Ruler in him so that an Unrighteous man will be an Unrighteous Ruler so far as he hath an Opportunity They must also be acquainted with the Rules of Righteousness they must know what is Just and what is Unjust be Abl● m●n Exod. 18. 21. For though men may know and not do yet without Knowledge the Mind cannot be good Ignorance is a Foundation ●or Error and will likely produce it when the man applies himself to act and if he do right at any time it is but by guess which is a very poor Commendation Again he must be one that respects the Cause and not the persons in all ●is Administrations Deut. 1. 17. Ye shall no● respect Persons in Judgment c. i● his Affections Oversway his Judgment at any time they will be a crooked Liass that will turn him ou● of the way and that shall be Justice in one mans case which