falsifies that which more lively than his coin bears his Royal impress on it to do thus is to make the Kings laws like the Pope's Canons plumbeas cereas as one speaks waxen and leaden laws to bend and bow this way or that and by perverting them besides or contrary to their genuine sence to make them become guilty of the same soloecism with that of the Canonist Statuimus id est abrogamus we command this that is we do the contrary And as Judgement is wrested by perverting the law so likewise by perverting those actions of which the law takes cognizance and this is too often done by Jurours who give in a verdict besides or contrary to the nature of the fact or matter that 's brought before them as though a verdict had its name given by an Antiphrasis like Diogenes his man manes à manendo because he would oft be running away so a verdict from verum dicere because they make it speak the contrary This is done too by those whose profession they think obliges or at least allows them to make the best they can of their Clients and the worst of their adversaries cause against whom upon some plausible pretence they usually run descant at pleasure perverting what is said or done either to make their matters ill when they are not or else aggravating them to make them seem worse than indeed they are and thus nimium altercando they are like that Rhetorician that could mirificè res exiguas verbis amplificare wonderfully amplifie small matters with great words for which Agesilaus thought he deserved no more commendation than the shoemaker that made great shoes for little feet and though these may count it the glory of their profession as Protagoras and the old Greek Sophisters were wont to do by dexterity of wit and volubility of tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make the worse side the better yet a good Oratour as well as good man which Cicero joyns together vir bonus dicendi peritus should make use of both the one and the other to decry injustice and defend equity to protect innocency and crush oppression to detect fraud and advance truth to succour the distressed and help them to right that suffer wrong They that make use of their rhetorick or eloquence reasons or arguments for or against any person should not be as the Roman Advocates of whom St. Bern. complains Hi sunt qui docuerunt linguam suam grandia loqui c. these are they that have taught their tongues to speak lies nimble-tongued against righteousness skilfull to defend falshood wise to do evil eloquent to oppose the truth but rather be as St. Paul able to do nothing against but for the truth The second prohibition is 2. Thou shalt not respect persons though a civil respect of persons be elsewhere commanded yet a judicial one is here forbidden though respect of persons is due in offices of humanity and overtures of love yet in the Gate in the seat of Judicature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not acknowledge or as the Syriac version thou shalt not honour faces The Septuagint changes the person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall not know a face or person The Greeks usually render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word non personam significat sed personae attributa circumstantias it is properly verbum forense de judicibus propriè praedicatur as Zanchy Respecting persons is a sin incident to those who are conversant about matters of judicature and transactions of law and 't is to be feared is as frequently practised as 't is seldom rightly understood When Jurours consider not so much the cause as the persons betwixt whom it is depending when respect to the latter sways more than equity in the former when the verdict speaks the language of their affection not of their judgement and is the result of their malice or prejudice not of their knowledge or Conscience When the authority of the Foreman whom the rest usually follow as sheep or the awe of some great person or interest of some relation or suggestion from some friend or consciousness of self-guilt or hopes of favour in the like case prevails with any of them more than the justness and merits of the cause it self When witnesses swear home in one man's cause but nicely or not at all in another because they fear some men's persons or bear ill will to and maligne others making their love or hatred a rule of their evidence rather then the obligation of their oaths or sense of duty When an Advocate or pleader argues the cause of the indigent faintly and coldly but that of the rich with a great deal of zeal and ardour when the one is narrowly and strictly examined the other sleightly and perfunctorily passed over when all dilatory courses are used to protract and delay the one but all means made use of to expedite and dispatch the other When by him that passes sentence a cause is weighed in the balance not of equity but of favour and affection when the person commends the cause not the cause the person like that of Caesar Causa Cassii melior sed Bruto nil denegare possum such a mans cause is the better but the other is more my friend such a case is equitable but another's person is more considerable so that the respect and reverence which is due to right and equity is given to the rich and mighty and laws hereby as Zeleucus or Anacharsis complained of old become like cobwebs wherein the smaller flies are caught but great ones are not ensnared by them petty thieves wear chains of iron but grand robbers chains of gold manacles and halters lay hold on less transgressours whilst the great ones break these bonds asunder small offenders receive severe correction whilst the great ones escape unpunished To prevent which partiality and respect of persons the Areopagites the Athenian Judges had their judicatures in some dark rooms and passed their sentence in the night that they might not be byassed by prejudice or affection to those upon whom they passed judgement but that sentence might be given equally upon all poor or rich small or great In pursuance of which impartiality Torquatus a Roman and Zaleucus a Grecian spared not to sentence even their own sons Favour must not be shewed by any onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Heathen speaks onely to the altar so far as Religion and piety will admit and by the Magistrate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely to the Judgement seat so far as Justice which confines affection will give leave Exuat says the Oratour personam Judicis qui induit amici which likewise was the apophthegme of Pericles an eminent Judge and Chieftain in Athens that when he put on him the person of a Judge he put off the person of a friend the affection of a friend suits not the function of a Judge hence was
misdemeanours makes offendours and as the Royal Psalmist speaks frames mischief by a law this is rather to stifle and suppress the law than to execute it and to make it partial in its proceedings than to judge according to just judgement which is the third thing proposed 3. Judicandi modus the manner of its execution and that 1. Positively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judicio justitiae with the judgement of justice summâ aequitate as Vatablus or as the Syriac version may be rendred that he may teach the people the judgement of equity That is just or equitable which is regulated according to the law proportioning punishments to the nature of the offence neither giving more nor less than that deserves to punish less gives too much encouragement to others to offend to punish more gives too great cause of complaint of injustice to the offendour for innocency it self suffers so far as any is punished beyond the demerits of the offence The Romans had their fasces or bundle of rods with an axe in the midst to signifie the equity of the Magistrates in punishing some onely with a rod others with an axe the one for petty the other for capital crimes and the Poet in the Greek Epigram taught the silver axe of justice carried before the said Roman Magistrates to proclaim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou be an offender I am an axe to punish thee but if innocent I am onely silver not to affright thee When judgement is justly executed there is no fear of punishment to the innocent nor flattering hopes of escaping justice to the delinquent when Judgement is thus laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet when every fact is laid to the rule of the law and sentenced according to its rectitude or obliquity to it when every action is weighed in the balance of justice and receives sentence according as it is found wanting then the people are judged with just Judgement This is that which is both the peoples safety and the laws security it is that which both conveys and entails a blessing upon a State or Nation it is both columna corona reipublicae a prop to make it firm in it self and a crown to render it glorious in the eyes of others this is that which as the Psalmist speaks when the foundations of the earth are out of course upholds the pillars of it it is as the cement in a building to unite and hold together the several parts of it Jus aequitas as the Oratour phrases it sunt vincula civitatum it is in the body politick as joynts and ligaments as nerves and sinews in the body natural by this is its strength derived and preserved for by righteousness according to that of the wise man is a nation exalted and by judgement is the Throne established Justice and Judgement are such inseparable adjuncts of the Throne and Nations happiness that they who subvert and undermine the one do thereby necessarily destroy and raze the very basis and foundation of the other and there can be no greater enemies to a King or Kingdom than those that by thus doing set themselves against both nor scarce can there be any sadder symptoms of a declining and decaying nation than when justice is thus obstructed and Judgement is turned backward No wonder therefore that Moses the King in Jesurun strengthens his command concerning Judgement with a threefold caution that like a threefold cord it might not easily be broken which is the Negative part of the injunction Thou shalt not wrest Judgement nor respect persons nor take a gift All which prohibitions were so necessary to be observed in Judgement that as Simeon de Muis notes from some of the Rabbins when Solomon ascended the several steps of his Throne mentionned 1 Kings 10. 19. there was a praeco or herald appointed to cry when he entred upon the first step 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not wrest Judgement when he ascended upon the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not respect persons when he ascended upon the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not take a gift The first prohibition is 1. Thou shalt not wrest Judgement The Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall not decline Judgement so the vulgar Latine nec in alteram partem declinent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Chaldee paraphrase thou shalt not pervert or according to the Syriac thou shalt not bend Judgement nec prece nec precio as Lyra. Wresting of Judgement is here immediately opposed to just judgement which seeing it is that which proceeds according to the standard of justice viz. the law which is the rule of right and wrong when that rule is distorted then is Judgement wrested And to do this as it is contrary to the nature of the law so to the office of those to whose protection the law is committed Judices as one descants on the word are juris indices they must jus dicere as their name signifies and jus dare too as their office imports The Judge is the laws interpreter he must not make it speak but what it means to do otherwise is to make it act a part of Jesuitism to declare one thing and by a mental reservation to understand another Jus wrested is turned into vis the letters transposed and justice perverted the former of which is not so obvicus as the latter is pernicious for this does not onely enervate and weaken the law but thwarts and crosses the very end and design of it it makes it patronize that which it chiefly opposes and contradicts and under a pretence of justice to do the greater injustice more plausibly and securely This was one of those great evils which Solomon saw under the sun that in the place of judgement wickedness was there and in the place of righteousness that iniquity was there This is so much the greater iniquity by how much it shrowds it self more closely under the covert and pretext of equity simulata aequitas duplex iniquitas This is to make the sword of Justice turn its edge and do execution upon those whom it should protect and defend it is to make the law instead of being an hedge of defence become as so many thorns and briars to rend those whom it should preserve it is to convert a medicine into poyson to turn the rod into a serpent to make that an instrument of cruelty which is the rule of equity and is so much the more intollerable by how much it cuts off all the means and methods of redress Scepters born by Kings and the Maces of Magistrates are all straight emblems of that justice which is held forth by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scepter carrieth a kind of instruction with it the straightness thereof should be a memento to shun crooked and perverted judgement he that wrests the law crooks the Kings Scepter and
The Judge's Authority OR CONSTITUTION A SERMON Preached in the Cathedral Church of S t. Peter in York upon Monday the 7 th day of March 1669 70 at the Assizes holden for that County before the Right Honourable Baron Littleton The Right Worshipfull S r Philip Monckton Knight being High-Sheriff of Yorkshire By James Johnson Bachelour in Divinity and Fellow of Sidney-Sussex Colledge in Cambridge Credant qui volunt malle me legendo quam legenda dictando laborare S. Aug. de Trinit l. 3. in Prooem CAMBRIDGE Printed by John Hayes Printer to the University for Samuel Simpson Bookseller in Cambridge 1670. TO THE Highly and worthily Honoured S r PHILIP MONCKTON Knight High Sheriff of YORKSHIRE HONOURED SIR TO make a trivial Apology for publishing the following Sermons would be as idle as themselves in this scribling age to some may seem superfluous Those usual reasons of friends intreaties and desired Copies might be as justly alleadged by me as they are commonly by others but these cannot so far prevail as your commands no longer now to be disputed much less denied Sir Your word carries Authority with it not onely ad praelium sed ad praelum in submission to which though I exchange charitable ears for critical eyes I rather choose to expose my self to the censure of others then become guilty of any disrespects to your self And though the meanness of these discourses may a little impeach the judgement of you the Approver and not a little shew the inabilities of me the Composer yet they presume to present themselves being not onely ennobled by your repeated commands but emboldned by your readiness to receive them into that Patronage and protection they cannot more confidently implore or better expect then from your self who have lately so eminently appeared and still make it your business to dethrone those Epidemical and reigning sins they decry and to uphold the forsaken Justice they plead for and maintain Whilst others enjoy their places for private advantage you freely conferring your Offices make use of yours for the Common good in laying down whereof you may avow as Nerva in a case not much unlike did se nihil fecisse quò minùs possit imperio deposito privatus tutò vivere with so much integrity have you demeaned your self in your place holding on like a Cato or Fabricius in the course of Justice notwithstanding all the difficulties did occurre Macte ergò sis virtute tuâ praestantissime Philippe never to find what another good Philip of the last Age to his great grief did any thing too hard for you but continue so prosperous a Patriot in your countrey that no Empson or Dudley may be able to stand before you and that by the faithfull discharge of those great Trusts reposed in you you may if possibly exceed the renown of your noble Ancestours And as from his late Majesty of glorious memory you had the sword of Honour as an Ensign or Trophy of your valour early brandished over your undaunted head so have you by his present Majesty this addition viz. both swords Civil and Military put into your hands as a farther marke of his Royal Grace and Favour for your former Loyalty and signal Services And though you may now with Vejanius justly hang up your armour and betake your self to rest Tanquam miles emeritus yet to the joy of your Countrey are you still employed to serve your King and them doing worthily in Ephratah and being famous in Bethlehem Sir to enumerate particulars were more fit for a Volume than an Epistle yet should my pages swell in that kind I need not fear the imputation of the Delphick Oracle in the case of your name-sake of Macedon niìs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all is so well known in your own County the very mention of your Name is enough to bring them to remembrance amongst which the grand and publick affair fit onely for so publick a spirit as your own now in hand deserves not the least commendation Be not dismayed Great S r if a Golden Calf be not so soon broken or burned as once it was New upstart Idols as our Henry the seventh upon another occasion said were always God Almightie's vexation and so are they his people's too but yet when zeal and power unite against them they cannot long be idolized A Golden Eagle was once observed to fall down at the approach of a Noble Philip and still Magna est veritas praevalebit which that it speedily may I with the joynt suffrages of innumerable more both injured and others of our Countrey men do congratulate its valorous Champion and cordially wish an event proportionable to the merits of your Cause and an issue as successfull as your designs are just and honourable so prays he whose ambition is to be Sir The meanest of Your Votaries J. J. Sid. Suss. Coll. Camb. Octob. 20. 1670. Deut. 16. 18 19. Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgement Thou shalt no wrest judgement thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and and pervert the words of the righteous IT were to be wished that the dictates of reason and religion that the rules of justice and equity that the laws of Christianity and piety were so generally entertained and cordially imbraced that the voice of oppression and injustice of deceit and wickedness of fraud and violence were not so much as heard amongst us then would primitive innocency and neglected justice that divine Astraea that hath left the earth so long return and once more take place amongst us then would the world become as a garden of Eden no forbidden fruit of what belongs not to us would then be touched nor would there be any serpent there to envy at or tempt us from our happiness then might every one with no less satiety than content eat the fruit of his own vine and sit under his own fig-tree then would each man's possession by a secure and peaceable enjoyment thereof be doubly blessed unto him The Wolf might then as the Prophet Isaiah speaks dwell with the Lamb the Leopard lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the fatling together they should not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain But whilst in stead of this divine and evangelical this calm and serene meek and innocent temper men if so they may be called that cast off all reason and religion and abandon natural justice and equity become brutish and savage inhumane and ravenous the garden of Eden is turned into a wilderness and men become serpents to each other or as the same Prophet expresses it the wild beasts of the desert meet with the wild beasts of the island satyres
and vultures tygers and dragons viz. men of cruelty and barbarity of brutish and unnatural dispositions become possessours of it And now man that is by nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher terms him a gentle and sociable creature made for converse society becomes degenerate and overthrows those very foundations that should uphold it they that should be helps and supporters become supplanters and underminers of each other instead of Homo homini Deus it is Homo homini Lupus and men live together as though they were made to bite and devour to ruine and destroy one another And as being impatient of all restraint and controule the excentrick and irregular passions of such degenerate minds become so furious and headstrong as that which was intended for their restraint does but irritate and stir them up and make them oftentimes the more outragious like the troubled sea to which such like men are by the Prophet compared they are continnally casting forth mire and dirt and as the waves thereof contemne all bounds and in anger foam and clash and break themselves against the rocks that keep them in so these mens restless and raging passions overflow all banks that should bound them and in contempt spit defiance in the face of laws and lawgivers And now when mens passions become as wild and boundless as they are otherwise lawless and unaccountable 't is time for the law to take courage to it self and double its strength to chastise the boldness of such offenders 't is but equal that that against which they offend should become the instrument of their punishment Thus by reason of offenders laws and the execution of them become as necessary as they would otherwise be useless and the Magistrates power to preserve every one in his right and defend him from the violence of another is as requisite as the prostitution of laws to every extravagant and unbridled humour would be intolerably pernicious and mischievous to prevent the sad consequences and insufferable enormities whereof Judges and overseers of the law are constituted and appointed for the safety and security of those that live under its protection that there may be a due and right administration of justice and that the people may be judged with just judgement without wresting or distoring that which is the common rule of every one's right without favouring or respecting any persons upon whom the law looks with an equal and impartial eye without selling or taking gifts for that which the law freely dispenses and imparts to all This is the end and design of the law this is the duty and employment of Judges and Officers of Justice this is the work and business of this time and this accordingly is the injunction and command of Moses here in his charge to or concerning the Judges Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee and they shall judge the people with just judgement c. In which words here is 1. Judicum institutio the Judge's authority or constitution Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee 2. Judicii executio the Judge's Office and employment viz. the execution of Justice they shall judge the people 3. Judicandi modus the manner how that execution of Justice is to be performed 1. Positively with just judgement 2. Negatively 1. Without perverting of equity Thou shalt not wrest judgement 2. Without partiality Thou shalt not respect persons 3. Without bribery Thou shalt not take a gift And that enforced by a twofold reason First because it blinds the eyes of the wise And secondly as a consequent of that because it perverts the words or as some read it the matters of the righteous The Charge consists of many parts each of which might be directed to the several persons concerned in the administration of Justice To the Head and Chief of which that sits in Moses's chair to hear and determine judge and pass sentence to him that gives a charge to others in the first place is a Charge given Thou shalt judge the people with just judgement To him that prepares and makes ready the cause for the Judge's hearing the Advocate or Pleader to whose care and trust the state and suit of the Client is committed when he speaks in a cause there 's a caveat for him Thou shalt not wrest judgement To him that 's returned to serve as a sworn man or Juror in matters of grand or petty inquest or that is in any office of trust or place of service in or about the Courts so as it may come within the verge of his power to do a suitor a courtesie or displeasure is the next injunction Thou shalt not respect persons Lastly to him that 's bound over to prosecute for the King in a criminal cause or that offers himself as a voluntary informer upon some penal statute or is brought in by process to give publick testimony upon Oath or comes of good or ill will to speak a good word for or a contrary one against any person is the last prohibition Take not a gift when he opens his mouth to give witness he must not open his hand to receive a gift for a gift doth pervert the words of the righteous But because the several corruptions of justice do often unite in the same persons and as the Philosopher observes of moral vertues are concatenated and linked together in the same subject that the same men Proteus-like put on several shapes that they rather endeavour an engrossing of all abuses than a monopoly of any particular one to themselves and that by such a complication of them they as Saint James speaks in another case in many things offend all I shall not be so injurious to the words as to imprison them in such narrow limits and confine that to some sort of persons to which mens general practises have unhappily given a greater extent and latitude The first thing that presents it self to our view is the Judge's authority or constitution Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee Moses in the precedent verses had given charge concerning religious matters he now descends to civil affairs as before he had taken care for the establishment of piety towards God so here he endeavours the promotion of justice towards men the affairs both of Church and State fall under the Magistrate's care and inspection he is custos utriusque tabulae both the Tables of the Law were given Moses to be kept and though he once in anger broke them yet now in zeal he takes care for restoring and preserving of them What he here gives in charge command to others was the discharging of that which himself undertook like Gideon to his followers or Caesar to his souldiers he bids them do no more than what he had done before them At first indeed he judged the people by himself but their contentions growing as numerous as their persons and their strifes as
that renowned act of Brutus who condemned his two sons to be executed for conspiring with Tarquin's Embassadours against the Common wealth sacrificing their lives for the preservation of that justice which was more dear unto him so exactly was he observant of what 's here prohibited not to respect persons The last prohibition is 3. Thou shalt not take a gift Omnia venalia the complaint of old that all things are set to sale grows yet but slowly out of date being still too much verified amongst us whilst scarce any office or place is to be had without Judas his question what will ye give We have not onely of old had the Pope's ridiculous merchandise sale of pardons and of late the Poet 's venales manus sale hands or mercenary souldiers and still sale Churches by those who are rather the Plagues than Patrons thereof selling their own and the people's souls for Balaam's reward but venalem Justitiam sale justice or rather injustice under that name by those that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enhansers of fees bribe-eaters or ravenous devourers of gifts who hasten to the Tribunal as Dramoclidas Stratocles in the Historian tanquam ad messem auream as to a golden harvest hoping for such Clients that shall come to them as Jupiter came into Danae's lap per impluvium in a shower of gold after which they have a constant thirst continually crying out with the greedy daughters of the Horsleech give give This is a sin which hath both multitude of offenders to plead for it and the greatness of the delinquents to grace and countenance it insomuch as it is made a note of a generous and heroick mind to receive great gifts and not stoop unto any mean or sordid prey and it 's counted a badge of folly and sottish stupidity to be bashfull in exacting bribes when the party is backward in tendring of them few being of Epaminondas his resolution who though poor yet refused great presents sent to him saying If the thing were good he would do it without any bribe because good if not honest he would not do it for all the goods in the world Of the like mind was Phocion to whom an hundred talents being brought as a gift from Alexander he demanded of the messenger wherefore 't was sent to him rather than to any other of the Athenians and upon this answer returned because he knew him to be an honest and just man then said he I would entreat your master that he would suffer me to continue in my honesty and justice implying that he could not possibly be such an one if he suffered himself to be corrupted with rewards which when they are entertained the receivers of them are so far animated as they will adventure upon any villany suborn witnesses distort justice oppress the innocent devour widows and orphans betray their friends enervate God's laws and the King 's violate equity and conscience and whatsoever is or should be dearest to them Quid non mortalia pectora cogit Auri sacra fames These and many more are the mischiefs that are effected by the unsatiable thirst after that which as the Apostle speaks is the root of all evil all the other corruptions of justice are small and inconsiderable if compared with this This is more dangerous in its enterprises more successfull in its event more pernicious in its practises more bewitching in its allurements more secret in its workings and more universal in its infection than all the other intercepters of justice and judgement and therefore whereas they are mentioned with a single prohibition this is urged with a double enforcement for First It blinds the eyes of the wise Secondly It perverts the words of the righteous 1. It blinds the eyes of the wise A sword is put into the Magistrate's hand but a bribe turns the edge thereof though the law bids strike yet a gift stays the hand when the law should give sentence if there be bos in lingua it stops its mouth so the wise son of Sirach Presents and gifts blind the eyes of the wise and stop up his mouth that he cannot reprove Wresting of Judgement distorts and draws the eyes aside and favour makes them pore-blind but gifts quite blind and put them out The Ancients painted justice peplo oculis obducto with a veil drawn over her eyes to signifie that no partiality by bribes or other means should be admitted in the administration of justice and the Statues of the Judges in Egypt were without hands and with their eye lids closed against those two soloecisms respecting persons and taking gifts so also the Judges Oath in Athens protested against both with imprecation and wish of destruction to himself and his house if he transgressed in either to prevent both which was Jethro's direction to Moses to choose out for Judges those that were men fearing God and hating covetousness fearing God that they might not respect the persons of men and hating covetousness that they might not receive a gift which as it does blind the eyes of the wise so Secondly It perverts the words of the righteous verbainnocentium or justorum as some Causas justas as others verbarecta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Chaldee paraphrase right words or the words of those that would seem to be or are or should be righteous It perverts the words of him whose tongue is hired to speak what another pleases of the Pleader that shall argue indifferently for right or wrong as his fee emboldens him that shall palliate and smooth over any cause though he speaks against his own and the judgement of the law which is venalis Advocatorum perfidia as was sometimes said of the Roman Advocates such being like the Oracle of Delphos whereof Demosthenes complained in his time that it did speak nothing but what Philip would have it who had given a double fee. It perverts the words of the Jurours who often weigh out their sentence proportionable to the gift that 's received with whom the greatest evidence often times is not half so convincing as a secret gift a bribe shall be more perswasive than all the evidentest testimony that can be brought their mouthes will be open for him whose hand is so towards them and that cause shall be best which brings the best reward with it Ibifas est ubi maxima merces Lastly It perverts the words of the witness who will swear or forswear at what rate his briber will have him who regards not so much what Oath as what gift he hath taken for which either Naboth's blasphemy or Susannahs adultery shall be attested though neither the one was spoken nor the other done like knights of the post that make a jest and sport of an Oath a play and pastime of a deposition that will exchange a testimony which is verborum munus as some