Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	good_a	lord_n	mercy_n	3,090	5	6.3327	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47648	A sermon preached at the assizes held at Lincoln, March the 6th, 1691/2 before the right honourale [sic] Sir John Holt, Kt., lord chief justice of England / by Walter Leightonhouse ... ; printed at the earnest request of the gentlemen of the country.	Leightonhouse, Walter, 1656-1701.	1692 (1692)	Wing L1032B; ESTC R202676	13,243	31

A SERMON Preached at Lincoln Assizes March the 6th 1691 2. Imprimatur Guil. Lancaster R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. à Sacris Domest March 24. 1691 2. A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES HELD AT LINCOLN March the 6 th 1691 2. Before the Right HONOURALE Sir JOHN HOLT Kt Lord Chief Justice of England By WAL LEIGHTONHOUSE Rector of Washingburgh nigh Lincoln and late Fellow of Lincoln College Oxon. Printed at the earnest request of the Gentlemen of the Country 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. in Palamede London Printed for W. Crook at the Green-Dragon without Temple-Bar 1692. To the Right Honourable Sir JOHN HOLT Kt Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council AND To the Right Worshipful EDWARD PAYNE of How in the County of Lincoln Esq High Sheriff of the County of Lincoln Right Honourable and Right Worshipful THO I was importunately solicited to make the following Discourse publick not only by the Gentry of the Country but likewise by most of the Learned in the Law who were part of that numerous Auditory before whom it was deliver'd yet the Sense of my own incapacity at the best together with those few days which my pressing Occasions would allow me to fit my self for such an undertaking made me demur for some time ere I durst correspond with their Requests And indeed nothing but the consideration of Two such great Patrons your selves who may each of you lay just Claim to it could have prevail'd with me to have repriev'd it to a longer Life You both are so great encouragers of the Subject it chiefly Treats of Justice and Mercy that as they seem riveted in your very Constitution so you may claim a natural Right to this Discourse So that as most Persons are necessitated to screw up their Inventions to fit Epistles Dedicatory by Flattery and Applause to make the Subject of which they Treat and the Person to whom they Dedicate to quadrate with each other There is such an agreeableness between your Genius and the Matter compris'd in the subsequent Discourse that should I say it decyphers each of you there is no part of the World that is thoroughly read in either of your Tempers which would think the Encomium undeservedly plac'd You my Lord from your first setting out into the World have had the Character of Wise Just Good and Benign and as every day adds to your Knowledge so does it to the lustre of your Glory too For by the continual and impartial Exercise of Justice still bestuded with Mercy you beautifie your Place high as it is abundantly more than it can adorn you and thereby embellish that Fountain from whence you derive your Commission And were you really to hear the sentiments and expressions of all good Men in your late Circuit concerning your Lordships Wisdom Industry and Compassion joyn'd with an unbias'd Care for Equity 't would outstrip Hyperbole itself and constrain you to blush at their so frequent admiration of your Vertues And as for you Sir you have always mov'd under that excellent Character of having oblig'd all that know you by your extraordinary Candour Clemency and Justice And altho the Sphere you move in be not so conspicuous as that of his Lordships yet that Specimen which you have always given of a strict regard to Justice and Commiseration is a sufficient evidence that in what Post soever you were plac'd you would act according to the Rules of Prudence and Sincerity But besides all this Sir I have a greater Tie to lay this at your Feet as an expression of that indelible Gratitude which I must ever owe to you And tho Flattery be so sordid a thing and so much against my Temper that you know Sir I would sooner die than be guilty of it yet the fault would be as great on the other hand should I wrap up such favours as I have receiv'd from you in a dark obscurity For I must not be asham'd to own that besides all other kindnesses which are vastly great I owe that which is dearer than Life even my Liberty itself to your exceeding great Favour you alone having been the Instrument of freeing me in a great measure from those sorrows which a Romish Adversary forc'd me to grapple with And therefore be pleas'd to accept of this as a Monument of my publick acknowledgment which is all the favour I shall at present ask from you only that you will both of you vouchsafe to excuse the freedom of this Dedication and Patronize it not for the merits of its Author but in hope that it may in some measure promote that important Work which is the Subject of the following Papers which will add infinite Satisfaction to April 2. 1692. Your Honours and Worships most unfeignedly Devoted and most humble Servant Walter Leightonhouse A SERMON Preached at Lincoln Assizes 2 Chron. 19.6 7. Take heed what you do for ye judge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment Wherefore let the fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts ALthough mankind be by the instinct of Nature a sociable Being and delights in Converse and Society yet such is the pravity of his Inclinations that were there not a Coercive Power from without as well as a Sense of God and Religion from within the whole World would in a little time be turn'd into one single Aceldama The sturdy Lyon or the bloody Tyger the Leopard or the Panther will rarely if at all prey upon their own Species Yet Man tho endued with Reason sticks not to be guilty of a more brutish Cruelty The First-born of the World did inhumanly Butcher his own Brother and Israel Gods chosen one supplanted and over-reacht the First-born of Isaac And men are so mighty prone to these things that were it not for humane Sanctions the Dens and Caves of the Earth would be our safest retreat to secure our selves from wrong and injury Natural Religion indeed lays strong Ties upon a man's Conscience to answer the Ends of his Being and revealed Religion doth much more so but yet the Axes of a Temporal Authority are so much more cogent than natural Truths or supernatural Revelation that Aaron's Rod would do little good unless fortified by the Power and Scepter of Moses If there were no Law to restrain man within the Fences and Mounds of Justice his Strength would be the only Rule of his Will and the Standard of his Actions That would be mine which I could get by force and yet I should have Right to it no longer than whilst a more powerful Arm graspt it from me The Sons of Violence would engross what their Swords could reach and the best Patriot might starve whilst the unjust Banditti were surrounded with Plenty Trade and Commerce would be empty Names and Rapine and

Moses he saith Thou shalt be to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God which the Seventy render thus Tu autem eris ei in his quae ad Deum pertinent Nonnulli recentiores perspicne admodum reddiderunt ipse tibi pro Deo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Thou shalt be in the stead of God thou shalt represent my Person in commanding and judging and revealing my Will to him which is the very same with that of Exod. 7.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have appointed thee God over Pharaoh I have given the Power of Life and Death into thine Hands I have placed thee in his Throne in his Authority who judgeth right I have substituted thee chief Agent in this weighty Matter But that which will clear the point most effectually is what is recorded in Psal 82.1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty he is a Judge among Gods the Word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Name of the Omnipotent God and then these Words must be read thus God standeth in the Congregation of God i. e. in his own Judicature or in that Judicature which is erected and authorized by him i. e. it is by Gods Commission that Judges act and they do really personate God himself Thus the Jewish Arab as Dr. Hammond observes glosses upon it observing that there is a repetition of the Name again instead of the Affix But I shall not stay any longer upon the proof of this Proposition but shall rather chuse to proceed to draw such Observations as are deducible from this first Head and therein I shall observe I. That if Judges do personate God then they ought to act as they are convinced God would do if he sat in their place as they do in his And here perhaps some Persons would not think it any digression should I draw a Scheme of the Magistrates Duty and shew wherein they ought to be Righteou as Goâ is Righteous and Merciful as that great Judge of all the Earth is so But this my Lord would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To light a Candle in order to add Lustre to the Sun in its noon day Glory And should I herein go about to instruct you in your Duty I should think that I transgressed my own But yet I hope it may not be unbecoming this place or this Assembly if I a little descant upon those two Cardinal Attributes of God which he exerciseth as a Judge viz. His Justice and his Mercy and leave it to your particular Breast to consider how far you are concerned to Copy after so fair an Original First then I desire you to consider of the impartial Justice of that great God whom you personate Surely he will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgment c. Job 34.12 For who ever perisht beìng innocent or where were the righteous cut off Job 4.7 There are two things which are more particularly pressing upon a Person to deviate from the Rules of Justice viz. First Favor or Affection and Secondly Interest Now that God is no way wrapt or byass'd with either of these even the Words in the latter part of my Text assure us For with the Lord our God there is no respect of persons nor taking of gifts The greatest Pomp and the most splendid retinue is no motive to his Favor nor can the largest Fortune bribe him to be unjust It is Innocency alone that can bespeak his Love and Simplicity of Heart that can engage his Affection All his ways are Righteousness and Truth and the Man that is not upright be he what he will must tremble at his Bar. There the poor helpless Orphan shall have his complaint heard though he cannot plead for himself and the Tears of the Widow and the Afflicted shall be a convincing Dialect There is no respect of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3.25 Face or Fortune with him but the Rich and the Poor the Course and the Well-favoured shall be weighed in the Balance of Justice and sentence shall be passed without ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Tim 5.21 Metaphora sumpta a libra cujus lanx alter'a praeponderat ita ut nullum est aequilibrium Partiality and without Hypocrisie It is recorded of Cesar that in hearing of a Cause betwixt Cassius and Brutus he confessed Melior causa Cassii sed denegare Bruto nihil possit That Cassius had Justice on his side but yet Brutus was his Favorite and therefore he must give Sentence for him But far be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity Job 34.10 He will be just in all his Ways and righteous in all his Works his Ways are equal tho done in the dark and his Justice irreproveable tho acted in secret in a Word Impartial Justice is the Habitation of his Throne and without any respect of Persons he gives to every Man according to his Works It is an Observation as old as Tully * 2 Ac in Verrem Ingentes divitiae judiciorum religionem veritatemque solent perfringere which I shall chuse to explain by the Mouth of God himself Deut. 16.19 A gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous But now God will not be caught with such trifling Baits as these For their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the wrath of the Lord. Ezech. 7.19 It is true indeed Interest is the great Wheel of Motion in this lower Orb the Ploughman and Mechanick the Soldier and the Merchant the Lawyer and the Statesman the Politician and the Magistrate nay I may add the Scholar and the Preacher do all exert their Faculties and spend their Labor and their Oyl in hopes of Interest and Advantage The Fatigue and Heat of the Day would be really grievous and uneasie were there no recompence of Reward even in this World But yet that Person who justifies the Wicked for Reward and by that means takes away the righteousness of the Righteous from him deviates from the Rules of his great Master whom he personates who hath without any reserve declared that The wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him and the righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him Will the Lord be pleas'd with Thousands of Rams or Ten Thousands of Rivers of Oyl will Agag 's fatter Cattle be to him a Peace Offering or will the richest Oblations of the Sinner be grateful in his Eye No To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to him than sacrifice Prov. 21.3 and in these he hath more pleasure than in Burnt Offerings for sin Heb. 10.6 God never passeth by the Failures of a Man because rich nor doth he ever disregard a just Plea because the Person is poor or a Widow he suffers not the Plaintiffs Cause to want weight only because the Clients Pocket doth so nor will he wink

at a false Verdict in the behalf of the Defendant for all the Riches of Licinius or Achoemenes For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his eyes behold the thing that is upright yea his eyes are always open to the righteous and his Hands always ready to deal to every man according to the fruit of his doings Jer. 17.10 But then Secondly as God is just so he is merciful likewise yea his mercy is over all his works And although in this Earthly Magistrates have not power to act according to the measures of the Almighty because he hath an absolute Dominion over the Creature and may do what he will with his own whereas Earthly Judges are oblig'd to pass Sentence Secundum allegata probata yet Mercy being the Triumphant Attribute of Heaven 't is fit that they who personate God in his Justice should in some measure tread in the steps of his Compassion too tho they cannot make so deep an impression And in order to this I shall only desire them to consider That God doth not at all times inflict an equal Punishment upon two Persons tho guilty of the Breach of the same Law but hath Recourse to a Geometrical Proportion and either increases or abates his Inflictions as it suits to his Justice intermixed with his Mercy and directed by his Wisdom as for instance This Man was hurried on by a violent strength of Temptation That willfully run himself into the same Sin This Sin has grown to a Habit in that Person but 't is the first time and that by surprise that ever this man sinned in that nature That Man broke through all the strong Enclosure of God's assisting Grace This Person was laid open to the Temptation This was but a babe in Christ That has been fed with the strong meat of the Gospel This Persons Bashfulness led him to sin in the dark That had a whores Forhead and committed his Iniquity at Noon-day Here tho the Sin be the same in several Persons yet these Circumstances will engage God to exert his Mercy more largely towards one than towards the other Thus does he make way to his anger or as we read it in the vulgar Latin Librat viam ad iram suam He weighs the way to his Indignation considers each Punctilio of the fault and catches at every Circumstance which will open a Door to the poor Offender For altho he does not respect Persons yet he will not destroy the Righteous with the Wicked The Righteous who altho Sinners yet are comparitively Righteous with the wicked who are habitually or wilfully such And as God observes a measure in criminal so does he likewise in judicial Proceedings He will not encourage those who contend for Smoke for a Trifle tho their Cause be just so much as he will those whose all lies at stake i. e. God would not did he sit in our Courts of Judicature give Light for so large damage to a Boutifeu or a common Barretter as he would to an oppressed Widow or a defrauded Orphan for he always has a favour to the peaceable but the Turbulent and Contentious his Soul is not with them He especially shews Mercy to those who are not able to do themselves Justice and will relieve the oppressed innocent out of his hands who is too strong for him These are briefly the Rules This the Method which God Almighty follows in the Exercise of his Justice and his Merty To which I might add several weighty Reasons to move you to go and do likewise but your known Integrity and great Wisdom will be a sufficient bar for my not doing so especially since I may and that most justly too accost you in the same words that the Widow of Tekoah did King David That as an Angel of God so are you my Lord to discern between good and bad 2 Sam. 14.17 And therefore 't would be the greatest breach of Charity in the World to think you would act against Knowledg since you have never yet given one instance either of your Injustice or Incompassion However be pleas'd to give me leave to speak to you in the words of one of the first Fathers and Martyrs of the Primitive Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Mart God hath given you his own Honour his own Place his own Name therefore do you judg the People as he himself would judg them Which is our first Observation deducible from our first Particular That if Judges personate God then they ought to act as they are convinc'd he would do were he in their stead as they are in his Secondly If they personate God then we ought to honour and pay a Civil Regard to them And here I shall not Treat of that Respect which is due to them when off the Bench for that every one will yield that understands the Measures of Civility and those that do not their Scarlet and their Trophies their Coaches and Attendance will attract them to do so But I shall insist on that part of Regard which is due to them as Vice Gods in order to the promoting Justice and the advancement of Truth and Judgment And herein every man ought to consider whether if God were in Peron upon the Bench he would dare to give that Almighty Being the trouble of deciding that Cause in which he knew in Point of Justice a Verdict ought to brought against him Would a Defendant put in a Plea which would appear evidently unjust in the Eye of that Judg who seeth all things Or would a Witness attest that which his Conscience told him was an untruth were he to Swear in the visible Presence of that God who hath enjoyn'd him not to bare false Witness against his Neighbour Would an Advocate call good Evil or evil Good would he by a sly Suggestion endeavour to enervate the Sinews of the Law did he really see God in the Court or would he say to his Client thy Cause is Right when he knew nothing could make it so but Favour or a Fee a sophistical Pleader or a corrupt Judg Would he dare to pick the Clients Pocket by subtle delays and falshood or supplant and undermine the Truth to obtain either Interest or Reputation to himself These things would not be done if God were in Court in some visible Schechinah and therefore Whoever is guilty of any of these fallacious Quirks is as really peccant as if God stood as Judg before him For since we cvnnot see him Face to Face and live 't is a Mercy that he is pleas'd to consult our Interest and Security so far as to Commissionate one to Act in his stead and therefore if we be guilty of any of these collusive Tricks and disingenious Behaviour we may suppose that he will reason with us in those Words of our Saviour in another Case In as much as you did it unto one of these you did it unto me Math. 25.40 In that you have gone about to stop the Current of Justice