Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	court_n	judge_n	law_n	3,614	5	4.9602	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48944	The honour of the magistrate asserted In a sermon preached at the assizes holden at Lincoln on Monday, March the 23. 1673/4. By Thomas Lodington, M.A. Sometimes fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge, and now rector of Welby in the county of Lincoln.	Lodington, Thomas, 1621-1692.	1674 (1674)	Wing L2812A; ESTC R217723	19,040	35

they cannot persecute us we are content so far to be reputed Persecuters As to the cause of Religion we desire you to use the Civil Sword to protect us of the Clergy in the Profession and Exercise of it no further than we shall be able through the grace of God to use the Sword of the Spirit to defend the Doctrine of it against all adversaries whatsoever We are so well assured of the goodness of our Cause and have of late been so well awakened by the insolencies of our adversaries that the weapons of our spiritual warfare that before lay in their rust when no adversary appeared are now furbished up and appear able to desend us But against their cunning contrivances and secret conspiracies against their bloody massacres and open violences we have no means to defend our selves onely our Prayers are unto God who is a God of truth and delights in the safety of those that stand up for the truth Our Prayers are also unto you whom God hath stiled Gods under your shelter we betake our selves Vmbra Principis est umbra Dei So the Arabick Proverb Under your shadow we hope to be safe You are Gods not Titular gods who have the name of God and nothing else but Tutelar Gods to whom our defence and safety is committed There is another sort of People yet remaining who are a dishonour to Religion and hinderers of it both in the publick exercise and pious practise I mean the Atheist and Profane I put them together for they both live without God in the World the one impudently with his mouth the other Sinfully in his heart and life says There is no God The emptiness of our seats in our solemn assemblies proceeds chiefly from these mens contempt of the holy Ordinances of God The greatest profanations of the Lord's day are from these The ancient Heathens not understanding that the Sabbatical rest was appointed not to satisfie the flesh with ease and sloth but to make way for work of e higher nature and greater concern to be performed by the whole man derided the Institution of the Sabbath And Seneca as St. Augustine observes doth unjustly accuse the Jewish Sabbath as depriving men of the seventh part of their time and as devoting that to idleness which might be profitably spent in their lawful employments and as if the God of the Jews wearied out with his six dayes labour in creating the World did devote the seventh day to his ease and refreshment Our moderu Heathens by their loose observance of the Lord's day seem of the same opinion with the Ancient while they either grudg to have it give intermission to their secular affaires or else spend it wholly in sloth and carnal pleasures Your severer Eye my Lords upon these persons might happily cast an awe upon them to spend the Lord's day with more conscience or at least less scandal Our Givil rights come next into our thoughts and present themselves to you my Lords in our Petition that Justice be administred for the preserving to every man his right in possession and the recovering it where he is disseized And here all persons concerned in this Court either in bringing any Cause to tryal or in preparing it for judgment are to be earnestly requested that they do what truth and justice requires of them You that bring the action do not bring trivial matters before my Lords the Judges for they fit on the tribunal of the great God Do not more vexations Suits to disquiet your neighbour without Cause The Law is good as the Apostle says of the Law of God if a man use it lawfully namely to preserve or recover his just right Do not bring an unjust Cause in hopes of good success either through the wisdome and eloquence of your Councel or favourableness of your Jury not to mention any other more S●●ister meanes For as an Angel of God so is my Lord the King to discern good and had and my Lord is wise according to the wisdom of an Angel this is said of David and may be applied to others whom God hath placed on the seat of Justice It would make much for the honour of the long Robe and give check to contentious Spirits if the Learned Councel would refuse the Patronage of such Causes as appear unto them manifestly bad I do believe some causes are declined by those worthy Persons upon this very account because their integrity and generous minds will not suffer their choyce parts and great accomplishments in knowledge and eloquence to ingage against the truth least they should serve too happily to bear down a Righteous Cause And many times where Persons of integrity and worth are retained in unrighteous Causes the blame may justly be cast upon the Client who out of a natural partiality to himself misreports his Cause and puts such a disguise upon it that the blemishes of it are not seen by his Councel He declares his cause before his Counsel as before his Judge not as to the person who is to edvise him in it but as to him who●● to give Sentence upon it Witnesses have a singular usefulness in judicial proceedings If they prevaricate and attest what is false they are an unavoidable obstruction of justice judgment proceeds secundum Allegata et Probata it's the proof that gives weight to the allegation and that lyes upon the witnesses If they give false evidence the very nature of the thing is thereby changed a being is given to that which is not and taken away from that which is For in Courts of Judicature the appearance is more than the essence Quod non apparet non est and what is made appear though by false evidence is supposed and adjudged to be Therefore false witnesses do in the Prophet's Expression Justifie the wicked and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him Jurors are as much coucerned as any in the administration of justice and therefore must be addressed to in our request The Law takes them for good and lawful men and if we make them participants in the stile of the Text though in the lowest degree we advance them much higher and they indeed are the judges in all causes though they sit not on the Seat yet do they the Office of the Judge They bring to the Bar that sentence which the Judge pronounces on the Bench. Act like your selves like men of repute as men advanced to great employment and trust The lives and estates of others are in your hands stand upon your credit and do nothing base and unworthy Look not now upon your selves as you are in your private capacity but what you are in your publick employment You are summoned hither upon the credit of your abilities and integrity you are impannelled into Juries and so made Judges in matters criminal betwixt the King and his People in matters Civil betwixt man and man shew your selves in your present service persons worthy of such eredit and such

verse The Chaldee Paraphrase reads the whole Text in a lower strain Thus the Latine version Velut Angeli vos 〈◊〉 retutati A double allay in the stile instead of Gods they are called Angels and instead of their being they are but reputed Angels Attamen in veritate siout homines moriemini Though you are in reputation Angels immortal creatures not obnoxious unto death yet in reality and truth you are men and shall die like men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Plebeians men of lowest quality and frailest nature who have the lest helps to preserve life and prevent death Ego dixeram Deos esse vos nunc autem siout homines moriemini thus the Syriack is rendred God seems to revoke his large Commission given to Magistrates and to take away the Honour he had bestowed on them upon supposal of their male administration of Government and because they do not live and act like Gods he will now have them to die like men The like revocation as this seems to be God makes of his gracious Grant to Eli concerning the succession of his Family in the Priest's office 1. Sam. 2.30 I said indeed that thy House and the House of thy Father should walk before me for ever but now the Lord saith be it far from me for them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed And likewise to King Saul concerning the establishment of the Kingdom in his House 1. Sam. 13.14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue But I do not take the latter verse to be a repeal of the law in the former which constitutes Magistrates Gods but an Interpretation and restriction of it how far and in what sence they are to be so taken And thus the most wise and gracious God knowing that the sacred Ordinance of the Magistracy will be spurned at and the persons of Magistrates affronted as King Saul was by men of Belial he provides for their security by giving them such a Title and such a Power as is able to set them above the reach of all attempts The Crown of thorns set upon the head of Christ was done in mockery by the Souldiers as if such a Crown were good enough for him who in their esteem was a person of low degree and had no other Title to a Kingdom than a bold pretence and sittest for him who was going to suffer a painful and ignominious death Yet is it a Hieroglyphick of the cares troubles and dangers that attend Crowns which foreseen and considered are able to cause wise men to refuse the office of a Ruler and to say as the Trees in the Parable Judg. 9. Should I leave my fatness Should I forsake my sweetness Should I leave my wine and go to be promoted over the Trees Therefore to incourage such Persons whom in his providence he calls to sit at the Stern to undertake government and to strengthen their hands to it and also to east an awful regard both of their Persons and Commands upon all men God puts upon them the name of himself Who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Again on the other hand God knowing how apt the corrupt nature of man is to advance too high under great Titles and to abuse great Trust unto actions unworthy of their place He gives timely check to such high towring thoughts he puts his own construction upon his own words and sets limits to that his large Pattent by which he conferrs such great Honour and Command upon them But ye shall die like men 1. That Magistrates whom God is pleased thus highly to honour may in the Psalmist's phrase Be put in sear and may know themselves to be but men and may consider that though their office be great their imployment honourable their abilities for discharge eminent yet they are not advanced out of the rank of men nor exempted from that law which all men are under Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto all men once to dye but after this the judgment No circumstance of Title Place Trust or Ability will set any any above the reach of that Law of Nature and Decree of God That so when they come to lay down their great Office with their frail nature this may be said to their honour in their Funeral Orations which Pliny in his Panegyrick says of the Emperour Trajan non minus hominemse esse quam hominibus praeesse meminit That he himself was a man was no less in his thoughts than that he was a Prince over men 2. That People may know what Honour and what Obedience to give their Magistrates Render to all their due Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour As well what as to whom is to be considered We must honour and obey Magistrates as men whom God hath honoured and will have us to honour Men called by the name of God invested with his authority but yet remaining men still and therefore must not be adored as God and obeyed with active obedience as God himself in all Commands whatsoever We must not Idolize men and from a Sense of the high merit of able and faithful Rulers advance them higher in our hearts then God hath presented them before us On this account came into the World most of the Heathenish Idolatry Those ancient Heroes who by their clemency magnanimity and Victorious success did famous acts for the delivering preserving and enriching their People were by them partly out of gratitude to such noble benefactors partly to recommend their Virtues to the imitation of succeeding Princes exalted to the style of Gods And some victorious Kings lifting up themselves upon the high thoughts of their successes and enlargments of dominion have affected the Title and Worship of Gods I shall confine my self to the First General part and therein observe Three Particulars 1. Who it is that speaks I have said The Pronoun Feo hath no lower reference than to the most High God He hath said who may best even God who hath a natural Soveraignty over all Creatures by right of Creation 2. To whom doth God speak Ye As the former Pronoun relates to the Greatest in Heaven so this to the Greatest on Earth God the supreme Lord speaks to Magistrates his Vicegerents 3. What is spoken by God of Magistrates Great honour is given to them they are intrusted and imployed in the great affaires of the World I have said that ye are Gods and all of you are Children of the most High All things Concurr to put a special remark upon the whole matter Magna eis in h●● Pronomne h●e But when every word is Emphatical there must be a great force in the saying to command our attentions when the great God speaks great things to the great men of the Farth great notice is to be taken of what is said 1. Of the First Particular I have said To prove that it is God who here speaks I shall produce one