the protection of an Hermite and his Reliques with which he had fortified and barricadoed himselfe against the invasions of death but all in vaine Superstition I say which is the Ape and Mimick of Religion having a Dream and fancy of external Holinesse when indeed it is the moth and rust both of true Religion and proper Holinesse the paint and meretricious beauty of a Church or Person the Ivy which by secret and unsensible steps creeps upon and overspreads its supporter Religion stealing away the sap of piety which should be in the heart and inward man in spirit and truth to the pleasing of the senses and fancy onely by nourishing them with externall and pompous formalities It is indeed a heavie Incubus when once it hath seised upon a Church or conscience oppressing it with needlesse scruples and ceremonious burthens which extremely abate if not quite take away that beauty vigour and majesty of true Religion and Holinesse which keeps the medium between superstition and profanenesse Yet must Holinesse have an universall influence upon the whole man all faculties motions and actions inward and outward on the soule and body In the Soule there must be a Holinesse of mind or understanding by seeing and beleeving the saving truth of God of the will by applying embracing and subjecting to it of the affections feare love joy anger hope sorrow zeale c. when they are by Gods Spirit carried to their right objects and moderated in their measure to them thus is truth rectitude and order the Holinesse of the mind will and affections Further Holinesse must have an influence on the externall expressions Truth and purity are the Holinesse of speech so chastity temperance meeknesse humility modesty c. are the Holinesse of our outward manners and comportments As Morality improves the affections and regulates the motions of the will to vertues so Holinesse beautifies and raiseth those vertues to graces and of the Philosophers Alchimy produceth the Christians pure gold while it keeps all our actions desires and affections within those bounds of honour and moderation which Reason and Religion doe require Holinesse is the Soules fitting for God its union and tie to God its communion with him in some sort deifying us and making us partakers of the divine nature What light is to the Sunne and day what clearnesse to the fountain what fruitfulnesse to the earth what beauty and health are to the body that indeed is Holinesse to the soule to the whole man and all our actions Holinesse is the supernaturall and universall beauty of the reasonable creature We are corruption till Holinesse make us sound ruined till Holinesse repaire us we are barrennesse till that make us fruitfull we are deformity till that make us beautifull we are darknesse till Holinesse enlighten us dead till that enliven us depraved till that rectifie us we are sin till Holinesse make us gracious wee are hell till Holinesse make us heavenly we are Devils till Holinesse make us Saints wee are damned wretches till Holinesse sets us in a capacity of salvation and seeing of God whose enimies we are till Holinesse have endeared us from whom sin would seperate us forever being filthy and abominable in his sight till holinesse wash and clense us through faith in the blood of Christ In the sight of the most holy God all beauty is deformity all wisedom folly all honour basenesse all plenty poverty all liberty bondage all happinesse misery all life but a death all our splendid works but dead and damnable without holinesse All words and humane notions are too grosse to set forth to you this spirituall beauty of holinesse like dead colours to paint the light and heat of the Sun one beame discovers it better than all the shadowes of words or Pencils could doe so the best knowledge of holinesse is experimentall in the soule and conscience For it is not only in words in notion fancy or speculation or outward shewes but in reality of effects serious and solid without vanity or ostentation or affectation setled upon indisputable principles and unmovable grounds the revealed will of God who since he is the author of our being nothing is more gratefully just than that his will should prescribe a rule to our actions to which the more we study to apply and conforme our selves in all our actions the more we follow holinesse This this is that frame and temper of our soules and lives which God our Father and Christ our Saviour and the holy Spirit our Sanctifier the Word our Instructer the Sacraments our confirmers the Saints our forerunners the Angels our protectors all with one voice recommend to us Follow holinesse O ye sonnes of men without which yet shall never see the face of God Our most holy faith and profession the precepts promises and hopes revealed all our duties of preaching hearing reading meditating praying receiving fasting almsgiving c. all are to advance this quality of holinesse in us This is one great intent of Christs comming his living with us and dying for us that hee might sanctifie as well as justifie us save us from the power as well as the punishment of sinne that he might give us a most perfect and excellent example and purchase to himselfe a holy people Luke 1.74 That we being delivered from our enemies might serve him without feare in righteousnesse and holinesse all the dayes of our life So Titus 2.11 The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared teaching us that denying c. 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made to us wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption This is the fire that inflames and the incense that perfumes all our duties sacrifices and services to God so as to make them accepted through Christ This sets a value on two mites and a cup of cold water and a handfull of meale without which all externall pompe and cost of services is not only not pleasing but fulsome nauseous and abominable to God Esay 1.12 Offer no more vaine oblations who hath required these things at your hands yet the Law did but not in such a manner with unwashed hands and unholy hearts Prov. 21.27 Even the prayers and sacrifices of the wicked are abomination to God The Heathen saw this well and hath admirably expressed it Quin demus superis Compositum jus fasque animi sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto Haec cedò ut admoveam templis farre litabo Holinesse is the Ladder of heaven whose lowest step is humility and the highest love and devotion by which the soule descends to men in charity and ascends to God in piety This is that which prepares and disposeth the soule for Heaven without which Heaven it selfe would be no Heaven or not pleasing to us Better be holy in hell if possible than unholy in Heaven though these two are unseparable Holinesse and Happinesse differing only in degree not in kinde For Holinesse is the sparke of
duty in all the course and turnings of life to steere his speech by the Compasse of Truth which by a heavenly sympathy tends it selfe and must alwayes carry us to that Cynosure the first and immoveable Pole of Truth which is in God Lying and falsity is the rich and Noble mans shame and dishonour Truth and veracity is the meanest mans riches and glory The greatnesse of the one will not beare him out in lying nor the necessity of the other excuse him Veritas animae sponsa Every reasonable creature should bee affianced and wedded to truth by so firme and indissoluble a band as will suffer no estrangement much lesse divorce It is the adultery of the soule to embrace an error and of the lips to speak a lie Every man must speak truth So much as wee lie wee are not men that is the sons of God and Truth but devils the children of him who is the father of lies and liars 3 To whom To his Neighbour But who is my Neighbour Whomsoever the affaires of life and civill conversation doe joyne us unto Indeed wee are all Proximi naturâ neere Neighbours by the proximity of common nature of the same stock and extraction More neerly wee are Neighbours by the consent and fruition of the same Lawes Countrey Government Common-wealth and publike good Many are neighbours by a vicinity of place and cohabitation many by community of businesse and employment As wee are Christians wee are all Proximi Religione Fide Numine Redemptore and should bee affectu charitate wee have a neerenesse nay samenesse of Religion God Saviour Faith Hope And affection one to another These are obligations enough of neernesse and vicinity to tye us each to other under the relation of Neighbours when the least of them may not bee violated with a lie without a great sin and unworthinesse Wee may not lie to a stranger an enimy a heathen a Turk an Infidel a Lyar nor to the Devill himselfe wee may not pay him in his owne coyne no more than the Archangel Michael durst give him railing accusation though hee bee {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a rayler and false accuser Certainly nothing is lesse neighbourly than lying for what trust affiance or security can one have in another if one cannot believe what another promises affirmes or denyes Commune vinculum indigentia The common tye of society is the mutuall want of each other and The common enterchange of good offices is in the way of truth-speaking Else every neighbour is Insidiator hostis an enimy and the more dangerous because neere and treacherous Better dwell in a Wildernesse than such a vicinity The knot and summe that folds up all the second Table is this To love thy neighbour as thy selfe Now nemo libenter dicipitur Falli nolunt qui fallere amant adeo rationalis natura errorem refugit Every man hates a lye in another so much as he loves himselfe No man loves you should lye to him though himselfe lies never so frequently no more than a thiefe will like you should steale from himselfe Doe then as wee would bee done to that is well and justly And speak as you would bee spoken to that is Every man the truth to his neighbour {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Standard of equity and vertue God hath set in every mans owne reason and conscience to measure by it to others so as hee would they should mete to him If but this one branch of it in truth speaking were conscientiously observed wee should not have so many contentions which call for publike examination and execution of truth for lying breeds injuries Hee that feares not to offend God by lying will not feare to offend man by defrauding whence spring so many suits and quarrels Every man though hee cannot judge what is aequum just in mine and thine yet hee may of what is verum in regard of his owne thoughts which needs no other Court Witnesse or Judge than his owne conscience for the speaking of it Neither private nor publike good can flourish if this commerce of Truth-speaking to our neighbour faile and decay Which if in daily and domestick converse it must bee maintained how much more in publike attestations when by word or oath wee are called forth as Witnesses or Iurors to speak the truth not only to our neighbour but to the face of our Countrey to our Prince to the law to justice it selfe and in a high degree to the glory of God as Ioshua perswades Achan to give glory to God by telling the truth by which the execution of the judgement of Truth and Peace may be promoted and the common good advanced by a just punishment of the wicked and absolving of the innocent Publike lies are impudent and enormous lies when death and life justice and injustice are in the power of the tongue But a lie upon oath is beyond expression abominable to God and man In this if in any sin men exceed the devils whom wee read of notorious for lying but not for perjury as never having the honour to bee called to witnesse a truth with the invocation of the Name and Majesty of God Perjurium est mendacium sacrilegum That 's the definition of perjury it is a sacrilegious lie Which besides the falsity seeks to rob his neighbour of his right and innocency the law and justice of a due debt of punishment which every malefactor owes robs the King Countrey and Common-weale of safety and God of his glory who is justified in his providence when sin is detected condemned and punished A sin out of measure sinfull while a man openly deliberately solemnely upon the word of God pretends to call God to witnesse of his truth speaking when hee meanes nothing lesse St. Augustine tels us It is a lesse sin to sweare by a false God truly than by the true God falsly Hee is neerer piety who ownes and feares a false God than hee that denyes the only true and so all Gods yet hee that denyes the true God is lesse wicked than hee that despiseth and blasphemeth him as a perjured person doth while hee endeavours so much as lies in him to make the true God his omniscience and power an abettor and maintainer of his lye and falsity Quantò magis sanctum est per quod juratur tantò magis poenale perjurium So that as Truth speaking is required of every man to his neighbour in private so much more in publike speaking and most of all in solemne and publike swearing before the Magistrate Where one false witnesse and false swearer may so plunder a truth and snarle a cause that it will bee hard for the Judge to finde the true method to unwinde it The truth and religion of an Oath is then fulfilled when he that is lawfully called to sweare doth so swear as is not only agreeable to his owne knowledge without equivocation or
with God before you judge and teach the people To the Law and to the Testimony these will informe you the will of God which is the highest law and perfectest rule to examine truth to measure justice and to maintaine peace which though they flow from that pure and eternall fountaine of essentiall truth justice and peace most clearly and plentifully in the conduit of his Word yet are ready to contract much soil and dregs in the vessels of mens hearts and course of humane actions so that the best have need often to refine and renew their minds by a fresh information of their judgements concerning the will of God and resolution of their wills to doe it His Word no doubt teacheth the best politicks his precept and example shew the happiest platforme of government whose almighty power is so tempered with wisedome and goodnesse That as he made at first the state and frame of all things full of beauty order and harmony by number weight and measure so he still preserves and governes the great Common-wealth of all creatures in heaven and earth with that just proportion of power and goodnesse as keeps the generall peace of things and keepes off that confusion to which the variety and contrariety of particular natures seeme to tend So that who so will judge and governe aright shall not need to use those Machiavellian engines lying fraud simulation and injustice mysteries indeed not of true policy but of iniquity unreasonable reasons of state which the impotency and folly of wicked men pretend as necessary when indeed â—â—ey tend not to the establishing but undermining of States and ruine both of governours and governed We need goe no further than this Text to see what God requires and teacheth us as best and necessary for the well ordering of humane societies both for private and publi ke or judiciary proceedings 1 In private that every one speake the truth to his neighbour this would stop many injuries and complaints with which the publike courts are pestred 2 In publike and judiciary proceedings every one promote the execution of truth and peace in the gates 1 The people and governed By their presence obedience assistance by their testimony and evidence of word and oath for the search and finding out of truth By their hands and power for the maintaining of peace both in the safety of the person of the Magistrate and execution of that â—ust sentence which they give 2 The Magistrate and persons governing 1 by their knowledge of what is judgement and justice 2. By their authority and power to execute what they know is just 3. By their integrity in the execution according to truth and peace For these three things are you know necessary in Magistrates and those minores Dii inferiour mortall gods 1. Skill to governe power 2. Power to arme their skill 3. Willâ—â— actuate both uprightly That neither ignorance breed error and so injustice nor weaknesse contempt and opposition nor corruptnesse injury and oppression What is knowledge of truth and equity if there be not courage and conscience to speak it What is skill courage and conscience if destitute of power to execute what they know and decree Fundamentum pacis veritas stabilimentum utriusque potestas Truth is the foundation of peace and power the support of both truth and peace which without authority grow feeble and despised as authority not grounded upon equity and guided by truth proves violence tyranny and oppression and becommeth not a file sive and schreene to separate the rust from the metall the bran from the flowre the chaffe from the graine the vile and refuse from the choice and precious but mola malleus plebis the maul and mill that violently and promiscuously grindes and beats to peices all that comes under its rigour and weight Your Honours and wisedomes I presume are provided with all three Power and authority I am sure you have the highest and amplest from the King of Heaven by the mediate appointment of our gracious King on earth Skill and knowledge you have through Gods blessing by the study and experience in the lawes Vprightnesse and integrity we charitably pray and hope you have from the grace of God and the tendernesse of your owne consciences Indeed you have all from God whose word hath ordained your power and regulated this by just law and exacts a conscience in executing these lawes So that by attending to Gods word you may confirme your authority encrease your knowledge and incite your consciences The judgement in all points is the Lords as power justice and truth in your judgements flow from him so will they as rivers returne back to him in your reckonings and accounts Happy is it when every one of these as so many rivulets contribute their strength to the publick current of justice that so judgement may runne downe as a noble and mighty streame and know no stop or resistance That every one being a lover of truth and peace the first and severest censurer and judge of himselfe and his owne actions you may with the more patience and cheerfulnesse attend to what I shall out of Gods word with all modesty and due observance but yet truth and faithfulnesse endeavour by the discharge of my owne conscience to informe some to reforme others and at least to confirme yours by stirring up your prudent mindes by way of remembrance of what is just and true and tends to your owne and others peace Which since you know and have authority to doe happy are you if you doe them These are the things you shall doe c. Two things are considerable in the words 1. The forme of the charge or command These are the things yee shall doe 2. The duty or matter 1. Private personall and universall to all men speak every man the truth to his neighbour 2. Publick politicall and speciall to Magistrates Execute the judgement of truth and peace in your gates We will begin with the duties themselves and reserve the forme of the command to the last place when wee shall apply the duties to every one as they concerne them 1. The first branch of the duty and command is private personall and universall to all men Veriloquentia Speak yee the truth every man to his neighbour 1. What we must doe speak the truth 2. Who every man 3. To whom to his neighbour 1. Speak the truth Man is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a sociable creature Speech is the meanes of society and commerce The common change and coyne The mine of truth is Gods the mint and coynage of it Speech must have his Image and superscription the stamp and impression of truth It is capitall offence of the highest Majesty to counterfeit or falsifie this by a lie By Reason we come neere the Angels by reason and speech both wee exceed the beasts by truth speaking we come neerest to God and get farthest from the Devill the father of lies
Speech is the peculiar glory of men and veracity of good men and Christians It is the glory of God that his word is truth agreeing with his eternall minde and intention The glory of man is to come neerest God Speech is the glasse and reflection of our soules words are the characters Ambassadors and Interpreters of our mindes which must give by a true reflection a true information of our meaning to others The soule of words is truth separated from that they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} cadaverosa verba rotten corrupt and unsavory words To commend Truth in knowing or speaking is to commend the Sun Sol est lux mundi veritas mentis As the Sun seated in the heaven from thence derives his beames to all things so truth is placed in the heaven of man the understanding from thence it must shine forth into our words As light is to our eyes for guiding our steps so is truth to our tongues for ordering our speech Solem e mundo tollunt qui veritatem e verbis Veritas caeleste mentis pabulum Truth is that pure heavenly and immortall food of the reasonable soule A Liar feeds on the dust as the Serpents curse nay on the ashes of hell He that is in an error is in an ecclipse or mist through the common imbecillity of humane understanding but he that is in a way of lying is in a night of utter darknesse in the chaines of everlasting darknesse with the Devill and his Angels He carries his Devill and lying spirit about him as Ahabs false Prophets and his Hell within him in his conscience Giving the lie is in point of honour an offense of the highest nature to ingenuous mindes because it reproacheth a man either of Athiesme or extreme basenesse and cowardize that either he ownes no God or which is worse feares more to offend man than God not daring to speak the truth Synesius de Regno most elegantly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Truth is the honour and noblenesse of words and it argues a generous minde to speak it though alone yet truth as the Sun is faire though displeasing odium parit though dangerous grande praesagium mali as Lactant. though desperate vitamque impendere vero Nec propter vitam vivendi perdere causam It is folly to preferre life before the end of life which is the knowing love and manifesting of truth Speak it therefore and feare not Veritas nihil erubescit nisi solum abscondi Truth is ashamed of nothing but to be hidden But let it be Verum not verisimile not probabile but certum compertum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a cleere pregnant and well assured truth not what is taken upon flying rumors suspitions or envious disaffections For to affirme as certaine what is dubious and only probable is out of doubt a lie Wee must not like Balaams Asse speak what wee understand not nor affirme what wee know not Therefore our speech must not be rash precipitant tumultuary and passionate but calme and deliberate issuing from a heart without prejudice partiality or injust interests as silver streames from a chrystall fountaine flowing without any mud or tincture of malice or oblique and sinister designes Our mindes also must be prudent steddy and reserved not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} credulous like soft wax taking easily any impressions That of Epicharmus is safe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Keep alwayes the reines and curb of diffidence and sobriety in thy minde and tongue {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the way to truth hath many turnings and needs a capacious minde to finde out the right Speak not what the shew and superficies or skin presents but what the inside substance and marrow of things discover to our judgements There is veritas entis quae est mentis quae videtur The first we must alwayes seek to attaine The second we must not faile to affirme else it is a lie which Lactant. defines mendacium est cum linguae animi interpres a sensu cogitatione discordat When the tongue agrees not with the thoughts S. Austin tels us non vera fideliter vera infideliter dici possunt A man may speak what is truth yet falsly and what is false yet truly such a one is not mendax but temerarius nec tam fallit quam fallitur hee is not a lyar but a rash speaker The rule is Cum cogitare secundùm veritatem semper non possumus at loquamur secundùm cogitata Our first happinesse and care is to conforme our thoughts to the truth of things our second to conforme our words to the truth of our thoughts Multi taedio investigandae veritatis ad proximos divertunt errores Many out of a lazy or credulous disposition think it tedious to search out the way of truth and so turne to the next and easiest path of error and probabilities {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Thucidides speaks What wee know uncertainly speak not as certaine what wee know assuredly speak not as dubious and with suspence and by halfes For as wee must speak truth only so the whole truth when expected and required Quantum supprimitur quaesitae veritatis supplet mendacium As much as wee defalk or smother of an inquired Truth which wee pretend fully to discover wee make up by a tacit Lye Which is an interpretative denyall of Truth When thou knowest and believest a truth in ordinary converse it is enough to speak it no more is required of thee Therefore not sweare the truth Truth hath native strength sufficient and needs not the volleys or barricadoes of oaths and imprecations Swearing is more than God requires or truth needs or ingenuous mindes will exact or will consist with thy peace and a good conscience Let your yea be yea and your nay nay what is more than these is sinne That is the simplicity and plainnesse of our Saviours prescripts and bounds of speaking even Truth it selfe Sweare not at all no not to the truth in ordinary and familiar converse except in weighty matters of great concernment in private or in publike and judiciary attestations when called to it Ne jurandi facilitate in perjurium prolabamur praeceptum est ne juremus omnino Hee is in the confines and next step to false-swearing and perjury who accustomes himselfe to sweare though truly in triviall matters Bono viro constans vita loco juramenti est The credit and faithfulnesse of an honest man hath the force of an oath Lyars only neede to sweare and for the most part doe whose vanity or falsity hath bred them this just unhappinesse that when they speak the truth they think they shall not be believed unlesse they sweare it Though hee that deserves to bee disbelieved in his truth speaking merits not beliefe though he sweare For if hee feare
Iudgement thus carried will have the Two qualities in the Text of Truth and Peace 1 Of Truth that is a True and just Judgement For Truth and Justice are equivalent and inseparably twisted together in foro in Courts and decisions of right What is false must needs bee unjust what is just must bee true Truth is the foundation of Equity Truth in Iudgement is The conformity or agreement of the sentence and decision with the minde of the Law understood by the Iudge {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The intent of the Law is Suum cuique tribuere a Iudge must faithfully assigne to every one that portion which the Law doth give them in the true and literall sense and meaning of it without warping or straining the words by witty conceits and curiosity of interpretation beyond the intent of the Law or analogy of Justice which is Reason neither girding too strait by rigour nor slackning too loosly by indulgence the words which are but vestitus legis the clothing of the Law Pessima tyrannis lex in equuleo Lawes by the tyranny of wit may be so rack'd and tortured to such forced constructions that they may seeme to speak that which they never intended Obscure and ambiguous Lawes are the snares of a people and the dens or refuge of tyranny like Ancipites gladii two-edged swords that cut on both sides having no back whereon Innocence may safely rely Therefore Enacters of Lawes have endeavoured in plaine and perspicuous words to set downe their meaning according to which Iudgement must be executed if it be true Judgement The highest honour and most soveraigne employment and neerest to the supreame glory and majesty of God the great King and universall Iudge of the world is this to give true Iudgement to search finde declare vindicate Truth though darkned oppressed prejudiced with injuries and calumnies though prescribed and proscribed by power will time and custome Nullum tempus satis longum est quod possit aut debeat errori patrocinari injustitiae No might should bee and no time or usage is sufficient to patronize falsity and injustice against Truth and equity which out of doubt are most ancient and should bee most prevalent for falsity and injury presuppose them first and are but the superstructure a kinde of mosse and accrescency to them For this end saith our blessed Saviour was I born to this end came I into the world that I should beare witnesse of the Truth I can doe nothing against the Truth To this end Judges have reason learning experience conscience publike authority and trust from the King and Countrey that their judgement may bee true and just not false and unjust condemning the righteous or absolving the wicked both which are an abomination to God It is the prerogative of divine and omnipotent mercy to justifie an unrighteous person yet still with the safety of truth and integrity of justice for hee doth it not sine interventu mortis meriti Christi God so loved mercy that hee would magnifie it in justifying and saving of sinners yet so loves truth and justice that hee would not doe it without the death of his Son that just One to satisfie his justice That so hee might with infinite Mercy and Justice apply his righteousnesse to justifie the unrighteous By this meanes Righteousnesse and Peace kisse each other Your Judgement will bee not only just and true but a Iudgement of Peace the second quality required in the Text {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Peace is the daughter of true Judgement Truth and justice the mother and nurse of Peace The God of truth and justice is the Father of order and peace The Devill and father of lies is the autor and fautor of disorder and confusion It was not the true mother that required the division of the childe nor is it true and upright judgement that dissolveth peace 1 It must be judgement of Private Peace betweene a man and his neighbour which can never be maintained except each party by the light of the Law cleerely sees the truth of the judgement for or against them Endlesse and interminate suits and dissentions like Hydra's heads must needs grow up where the seeds of falsity and injustice are sowne in Judgement Of this great care must bee had that though men lose their Cause yet they may not lose their Peace and charity A man makes an ill bargaine that gaines his Processe and loseth the love and good-wil of his neighbour which is the greatest Dammages Proximorum odia sunt acerbissima Wine makes the sowrest vinegar The quarrels of neighbours and brethren set their hearts at the greatest distance and defiance 2 Where the coales of private dissentions are scattered in every corner the whole house will soone bee on fire and Publike Peace cannot long continue For where there are great divisions of hearts and Private grievances arise like swellings and distemper of parts to affect the whole body with the feaver of discontent what can be expected but Publike mutinies and combustions Lex est corporis politici nervus The great bodies of States must needs bee paralitick and vehemently shaken if not dissolved when the sinewes of justice faile An unjust Judge like a Comet portends warres and commotions and scatters so malignant an influence to mens mindes that they had rather venture the injustice of warre than suffer the injustice of peace This Principle is in most mens mindes Pax est omni bello tristior quae justitiae veritatis ruinâ constat That peace is more deplorable than warre it selfe which only maintaines power to waste and oppresse innocence and truth Isidore Pelusiot tels us truly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It is but the name and shadow of a false and lying peace where is not true justice Iustitiae debetur quod homo homini non sit lupus It is true judgement only that can secure peace and hinder men from degenerating to wolves and tygers which they doe when by injustice some are exasperated others are animated to sin and injurious insolencies One untrue and unjust judgement like the winde scatters and sheds the seeds of ill weeds and manners about the whole field which should by truth and justice have beene cut up by the roote and its contagious spreading hindred Besides nothing more slackens the reins of government and the stability of peace which is upheld by the reverent awe and respect which the people and subjects give to the Magistrate than when by injustice and unworthinesse they bring their persons and authority under contempt and dislike that they seeme to them not as Gods but Idols which have eares but heare not eyes but see not mouths but speak not true judgement Against such Magistrates people are prone to think it not only just but meritorious to rebell The Kings strength or throne loveth judgement and by righteousnesse it shall bee eshablished with abundance
reservation and to the forme of words in which the Oath is administred but also to the meaning and purpose of the Magistrate that requires him to sweare so farre as hee doth conceive it Which is S. Augustines determination in his Epist. 224. But I may not insist on this theame of Swearing I have done with the first part of the duty Veracity so farre as concernes all men in a private or publike way so as may further the execution of truth and peace in the gates to which wee are in a good forwardnesse if the first be learned and practised 2. The Magistrates duty in speciall Execute the judgement of Truth and Peace c. THis although it bee for every mans good yet is not every mans worke but chosen men appointed by lawfull authority as Moses at first did No man may arrogate this vice-gerency of God except hee bee called by God immediately or his vice-gerent Power on earth That was Lucifer's pride forwardnesse and fall that hee would bee similis Altissimo exalt himselfe Christ refuseth this employment because hee had no Commission from humane power Who made me a Iudge Absalom's ambition was not growne so violent and past all bounds of modesty and respect to his Parent Prince and Countrey as to assume this Office to himselfe but wisheth O that I were made a Iudge In places of Ecclesiasticall and Civill judicature the forwardest are seldome the fittest Wise grave and conscientious men who best understand the weight and charge of publike execution of Justice are willing enough to wave it as seeing no lesse burden than honour in it But Those that are called must not bee wanting to God the King their Countrey their owne Consciences but must execute c. 1 It must be Iudgement Not what their owne or others passion will power or pleasure suggests but what Reason sees secundûm normam legis agreeable to the rule of the Law which is the common vote and consent of men to Reason Iudex non jus dat sed docet Iudges doe not give Lawes but teach declare and execute them Plato saith That State will flourish where Magistrates serve the Lawes not Lawes the turne of the Magisrate who may not change licet into libet The Magistrate is but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as hee sayes of Moses the mouth by which the Law doth breath Iudicium à judicando Iudgement must proceed from a serious and deliberate examining of matters secundùm allegata probata It is but the product or just account which ariseth from the witnesse of persons presumption of circumstances and evidence of things which must bee weighed in the ballance of Iustice In the one scale whereof is laid the weight of the Law pondus legis in the other pondus causae the merit of the case fact or person Though Justice must bee coeca in exequendo impartially blinde in executing yet it must bee oculata in dijudicando most eagle-ey'd and acute-sighted in searching out a matter The matter I knew not I searched out As I heare I judge and my judgement is just Descendam ut videam God himselfe who is omniscient and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} teacheth us by his slownesse not to proceed to execution till wee have a manifest cognoisance of things by a faire free and calme hearing of matters on both sides else you know Though a Iudge may in his sentence hit on the right yet hee merits the brand of an unrighteous Judge Though the decision be just yet the Decider is not Doth our law condemne any man before it heare him There must bee {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} before {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} before {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A hearing with patience and judgement before the executing of judgement Judges must bee scrutatores indagatores viri decretorii men of piercing judicious and discerning spirits for Veritas in profundo dicti facti cordis Truth doth seldome swim and float in the surface but is hidden and sunke in the bottome of the words actions and hearts of men They had need to bee urinatores men of profound and diving mindes that get this Pearle Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgement Truth indeed as God is but One yet falsities and pretentions like Penelopes sutors are many and shape themselves into diverse formes and semblances of Truth As Omne malum fundatur in aliquo bono so all falsity and injustice pretends a shew of truth and pleads for the protection of justice and may easily impose upon a carelesse drowsie and oscitant Judge that hath not his understanding and conscience vigilant and intentive A Judge saith Basil must have {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} needs bee a Critick of sharp and exact understanding to discerne betweene man and man cause and cause just and unjust true and veresimilous false and specious betweene the confidence of accusing or denying and the truth or falsity of the accusation betweene the modesty or rudenesse of the defendant and the innocency of his cause betweene the weight of the complaint and the malice or envie of the plaintiffe For if it suffice to accuse boldly who shall be innocent If to deny roundly who shall be guilty Aspice quantâ Voce negat quanta est ficti constantia vultus Oft times the false confidence of the worser part and that prostitutae vocis venalis audacia as Cyprian hired impudence of voluble tongues which are Lenones injustitiae the Bauds and Pandars to injustice are ready to carry it with a brasen forehead and Stentorian voyce On the other side Right and Innocence is ready to betray it selfe through a rudenesse simplicity and diffidence of minde carriage and expression Quibus honestior conscientia iis plerumque frons imbecillior Innocence is often timorous uneloquent unexpert in termes and formalities to explaine it selfe when Dishonesty like Tamar is oft vailed with a mask of faire words and a smooth tongue gilds over a rotten cause A Judge here must bee eyes to the blinde and shew himselfe judicious to have studied men as well as bookes and like Solomon by his wisedome represse the impudent guiltinesse of the one part and relieve the diffident innocence of the other Hee must not bee {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} carried away with a streame of words or like Pigmalion preferre an adorned statue before a naked yet true and living man A Judge must be as Christ with his fan in his hand throughly to purge his floor where chaffe and wheat injury and innocence justice and injustice truth and falsity promiscuously lye before him His just clemency must gather the wheat to a safety his just severity must scatter and consume the chaffe with condigne punishment