Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	great_a	king_n	lord_n	8,214	5	3.8032	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46904	The judge's authority or constitution a sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in York, upon Monday the 7th day of March 1669/70, at the assizes holden for that county before the Right Honourable Baron Littleton, the Right WOrshipfull Sr. Philip Monckton, Knight, being High-sheriff of Yorkshire / by James Johnson ...	Johnson, James, 1639 or 40-1704.	1670 (1670)	Wing J777; ESTC R3892	21,460	41

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

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