Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	chief_a	judge_n	law_n	3,147	5	4.6842	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80846	Malice against ministry manifested by the plain and modest plea and defence of Zach. Crofton minister of the Gospel at Buttolphs Aldgate London unto the false and frivolons [sic] charge of Tho. Harrison, and John Levet against him exhibited unto the commissioners for the ejection of ignorant, scandalous and insufficient ministers, &c. within the City of London. In which you have his past credit attested. Present plea demurred. Particular articles duly and distinctly answered.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1657 (1657)	Wing C6996; Thomason E931_5; ESTC R207660	20,753	32

the Protector hear the foolery clamoured of my maid To which I answered I have offered and do offer to cast my credit on the verdict of twelve men amicably chosen or returned by the Sheriff but as for the Protector he is no competent judge for he hath prejudged me and that I had cause to say so there are some anong you know And if a man may not deem his Highness in some cases an incompetent judge why doth the Lord Chief Justice sit on the Bench in causes to him relating And how is he capable of being impleaded But as for the giving away the halfe of my Pulpit and saying That the Protector was an unrighteous judge and made a nose of Wax of the Law I never said or thought it For I am yet to be convinced that by any colour of law I should be interrupted in publick service or hindred from preaching twice a day to my people and that statis horis on the Sabbath And therefore unto this part I plead Not guilty and to convince me you must expect the Oath of John Wildgoss and William Jellie both accusers but have not subscribed that they may be witnesses and these men if they would swear truth must tell you these were Tho. Harrisons words not mine For they coming to my house and knowing that I would not speake with them alone brought with them Nathaniel Duckfield and Edmund Man now at rest both men fearing God and they heard what past in discourse between us And if these two Common Council-men do swear as they are desperate enough that I spake these words I shall produce Nathaniel Duckfield and one Roger Morris a Minister in North Hamptonshire who was in my house to witnesse that when I said The Lord Protector was no competent judge Thomas Harrison said What do you say the Protector is an unrighteous judge I replyed No he that is an incompetent is not alwayes an unrighteous judge He answered I will swear you said so and he now attempts to accomplish his word and when these two Common Council-men were gone away with this accuser I and my friends did bewail their wickedness that would gloss on my words and then swear I spake them but thus they make up their words to that purpose Moreover I should if not furnished to disprove them except against their testimony as incredible not onely as they are accusers in whose name the Charge is exhibited but as the one is forsworn and the other a convict lyar Unto Article the fourth Relating to the incivility pretended to be acted on the body of Mary Cadman I say it is here added to no other end save audactèr calumniaere to fasten with impudence their own slander were it true it is no crime and modesty hath been more violated by the fame then act it self if done But these men are most notoriously impudent to charge what they can prove by none save a notorious thief and liar and one that hath to many in discourse and on her oath denied it and that which she never owned till by a Justices Warrant brought to the Pye and Hoop Tavern hefore their very selves who have circumstantiated it most ridiculously and taught her and others to swear the things in which they are palpably forsworn and so proved as doth appear in the late book to you directed called Perjury the Proof of Forgery penned by a friend of mine that well knew all circumstances relating to that businesse To this therefore I plead Not guilty and will hold mine integrity until I die and not justifie these mine accusers Unto Article the fifth I say that I did say That the Order concerned not me it being directed to M. Grafton I knew not the Order to come from the Council it not being signed by the Clerk as was usual On August the 8. I gave an answer to that order which provided M. Simpson a liberty of Lecturing in my Church which answer was That I would do my duty statis horis and leave him to his liberty when I have done and I am sure Stepney would give 50 l. per. ann for such a grant On August the 9. I kept my pulpit being so advised by council and knowing that if I stept out they would seizeit and to that end Simpson preached at Creed-Church that morning The Constables out of Middlesex who had their staves were Parishioners and on their duty defending me in my right from such as had at the Fountain Tavern conspired to pull me out of the pulpit who were these very accusers and prosecuters of this charge For this I was had before the Council and acquitted and these Constables were by these men indicted for a Riot who did but their duty as was evidenced on Tuesday the first of December instant before the Lord Chief Justice where they were acquitted and the conspiracy of these men was discovered And it must not be made a scandal for a Minister to contend for his just liberty to do his duty and to have the Officers to defend him in the same against the plotted viotent assaults of his enemies Unto the four first additional Articles charging me on the Lords day August 16 in my Church and Sermon to have said 1. That Moses could prevail with the Lord in Prayer but I could neither prevail by Prayer nor Law because ungodly men have prevailed with the unjust Judges of this Nation who have gon contrary to their oath tyrannically disinheriting me of my right and letting an erronious turbulent spirit enjoy it 2. And that their sword was their Law and therefore their Tyranny was the greater whereunto law could notreach 3. And if that I were to plead my cause with either godly or honest or pious or civil modest or just Judges according to Law I were confident I should enjoy my right and said That the wickedness of ungodly men had so prevailed against me with the tyranny of unjust judges that I was inforced to leave my right and if any of the souls of my people be damned for ought I know their blood would be required at the hands of the unjust Judges or Erronious intruders I have received an order for Simpsons teaching in my pulpit and I am here to surrender my just re-entred right to Simpson contrary to all law right and reason as a certain King said what I wil do I wil do so Iam disre-entred by that power that what they wil do they wil do contrary to all law right and reason Unto this whole charge I desire it may be noted That these are the highest but querulous expressions in apprehension of of oppression in a particular case They all relate to the intrusion of Iohn Simpson into my church and are charged on that occasion to be spoken as being thereby provoked It is the observation of the preacher That oppression will make a wise man mad These men make me cry and then endeavour to have me beaten for crying His Highness grants I.

never have convicted me especially of the latter Is not that a right Christian charge when a man 's own confession must be the only ground of the accusation Is not repentance the spunge of impiety much more of infirmity in the pious and these were no other if so much for neither was the one spoken nor the other acted wilfully but under visible temptation or mature advice and counsel John Farmantle as a faithful witness should tell the whole truth he as an overbusie man neer three yeers past packing with put on by Will. Turner and other his profane companions who rage at the least restraint or bar to the Lords Table purposely to disturbe the serious debate to that end agitated did restlesly and clamorously querie How will you know who are profane to which he received that mild answer Friend I will resolve you in that anon when this debate is ended yet he pursued to disturb and was repelled with this second answer it may be some of your neighbors may inform me yet not abiding silent he received this third answer Why do you so busie your self in that which concerneth you not I shall endeavor to know who are profane and if God by his Spirit should reveal it what need you care He yet proceeding to interrupt our debate at last received this unadvised check What a strange busie man are you thus to enquire of that which concernes you not if I should consult the divel what is that to you So you see passion provoked to the height before it uttered this expression and a meek Moses may wrathfully call Israel Rebel and by the Spirit of God canonizing his Saint-ship be shadowed with this charge They vexed his Spirit so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips And as the expression was not uttered so the action was not done without temptation And concerning it I say it was an error but I blesse God on my spirit there is no aggravating guilt nor any thing more save actum agere I wrote the name The case was thus The Justices Clerk having omitted Waldens name purposed to have been in the Warrant I was running to the Old-Bayly to have it inserted and met with an eminent and antient Atturney of this City who told me I might put in his name my self for it was ordinary so to do and in that case for which the Warrant was granted he was apprehensible without it Passing from him I met with an Alderman who told me I might do it and the Justice would own it who never did disowne it On which advising and knowing that the Alderman was busie at the Sessions I did interline his name and although one Justice did acquit him yet before the Lord Chief Justice he was convicted of a Conspiracie laid at the Fountain Tavern by Aldersgate to pull me out of the Pulpit to which end he combined with Tench and Finch two profane and blasphemous Constables who made a Ryot in my Church and came up to the Pulpit to pluck me thence and disturbed our assembly in the time of Publick Worship and therefore gave just cause for a Warrant to apprehend him And now what will this Charge amount to Mr Crofton is guilty of an unadvised expression and action extorted by the visible force of a temptation This is indeed an infirmity deserving fraterna correptio Brotherly reproof which I have and am ready to receive from my Brethren in the Ministrie and desire to be humbled for as they open the mouths of profane men that delight to blaspheme But are these criminal acts inconsistent to piety making the Ministry odious that he must for them be cast out and trodden under foot of men The men that can thus loudly clamor upon his unadvised expression never once discover the provoked passion which uttered it nor consider their own terms deliberately uttered as That the divel is in you that you own Mr. Crofton as Thomas Harrison said to M. Vanhack and we will consult the divel but we will have that shall do against him to ruine him as they were heard to say in the Guild-hall on Wednesday the second instant This is not a check of pragmatick curiositie but a publick resolution May I not justly say Pull the beam out of thine own eye but recrimination is not my work Unto the second Article which chargeth me to have answered M. Sabin when be asked me VVhy I did not observe his Highnesse dayes of Thanksgiving c. An honest man may receive a courtesie from a Thief on the High-way I answer That this is not criminal for it is an evasive answer and no Argument of disaffection to the government for it is the usual Simile brought by such as press subjection unto government irregularly acquired I remember Judge Mackworth used a more homely similitude after the cutting off the late King pressing subjection to the changed government he said I will presuppose your former husband was most cruelly and unjustly murdered were you not then at liberty to marry another It is well he is dead these men would endeavour to make him a Traitor But these words I never spake and that M Sabine himself is steady on his oath to witness when ever he is called And what they mean by words to this purpose I know not nor need I care for they that will make a man an offender for a word ought to charge and prove syllabically Words to this purpose was deemed a very great grievance in the late High Commission Court and I hope shall not be admitted in these dayes of liberty For Words to this purpose may be so in their apprehension which are not so in the speakers intention Evasive answers are usually ambiguous Presuppose that I should say in answer to such a Querie a man may receive a courtesie on Hounslow Heath These men cry it amounts to the same sence as if none but Theeves did travel over Hounslow Heath but charity can easily find another sence and make the simile run thus A man may receive a courtesie from a stranger travelling over Hounslow whom he knowes not nor what right he hath to give only he finds him possessed Words to this purpose will easily hook in the best friends that have pleaded plenary possession to create a right to punish acquirements and according to accusers mistaken apprehensions I must be charged as I am in the next Article Unto Article the third which chargeth me to have said The Lord Protector was not a competent Judge because he had prejudged me in giving away the half of my Pulpit to Simpson and further that he was an unrighteous Judge for he that could make a nose of Wax of the Law as he had done was an unrighteous Judge an unrighteous or words to that effect To this I answer This is a complaint of unjust administration but no declared disaffection to government but as to these words as charged I never spake them The Harrison told me He would have