Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	king_n	power_n	will_n	7,770	5	6.4590	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81900	Maran-atha: = the second advent, or, Christ's coming to judgment. A sermon / preached before the honorable judges of assize, at Warwick: July 25. 1651. By William Durham, B.D. late preacher at the Rolls, now pastor of the church at Tredington in Worcester shire.	Durham, William, 1611-1684.	1652 (1652)	Wing D2832; Thomason E665_23; ESTC R206867	42,547	57

an excellent Pattern to proceed against false witnesses by where the law injoynes them legem talionis that they be mulcted so far forth Deut. 19.16 as their false witnesse would have prejudiced their neighbour But if the Judge cannot find it out yet God will you call God to be a witnesse that you speak truth and to be an Avenger if you speak falsly God is both a witnesse and a Judge Behold Mal. 3.5 I will be a swift witnesse against the false swearer whereby the hireling the widow and the fatherlesse are opprest and the stranger turned from his right And he will be a swift Judge too it will not be long before he rip up all your combinations concealments of truth your equivocations reservations falsehoods perjuries in the face of all the world he stands at the door and sees all Take heed what you do 5. To All in one word that shall be imployed in this businesse whether Judges Sheriffs Justices Jurors Witnesses and all inferior Officers and I shall wind up all with a short story out of Damascene which runs thus There was a mighty and Puissant King In Historiâ versus principium who being clothed in his Royall Apparrell riding in his golden Chariot attended with all his Nobles met upon the way with two poor thred-bare Ministers of Jesus Christ and presently leaping from his Chariot runs and fals down at their feet and kisses them Which act of his his Nobles disdaining but not daring to reprove acquainted the Kings owne brother with what had past and desired him to rebuke his brother the King for thus debasing his power and greatnesse which accordingly he undertook to do and performed his task with sufficient tartnesse which yet the King bare with much patience and made him no answer at all It was the custome of that place that when the King whose will was the only law was resolved to take away any mans life he sent one whose office it was to sound a Trumpet before that mans door whereby he and all his neighbours knew that such a man must die At night the King sends this Trumpeter to blow before his brothers door who no sooner heard that fatall sound but giving up himselfe for dead spent the night in weeping and wringing of his hands setling his estate condoling his wife and children and in the morning comes to the Kings gate all in mourning trembling every minute expecting execution The King being informed that his brother was thus at the gate sends for him into his presence and seeing him in such a miserable pickle prostrate at his feet bespeaks him thus O thou foolish and unwise man if thou thus fear and tremble at the sound of the Trumpet of thine own naturall brother against whom thou hast done no hurt how dost thou find fault with me for humbling my self before these living Trumpets who proclaim the coming of the Great God to Judgement against whom I have most grievously offended My Lords and Gentlemen I hope you have prevented me in the application of this story and that when by and by you shal see the faces of poor prisoners grow pale their hands shake their knees beat together at the sound of that Trumpet which summons them to your Tribunall You will then be pleased with an awfull Reverence and a trembling fear Judex quisque judicii sui sempiternum sustinebit judicium Chrysol ser 26 to consider that there is another Assizes another Trumpet another Tribunall where you your selves must every one give up an account as of all other things so of this dayes work before this Just and Impartiall Judg who standeth at the door The Lord touch your hearts with his fear and direct you in your work FINIS

thou art down thou must none none none will none can none dare speak for thee 2. In particular the text lays down wo at some particular mens doors for to grudg here saith Hensius is to be quarrelsome and litigious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clamorem edere contentionem and denotes such a contentious spirit as wil be ever drawing others into courts ever comencing fresh and vexatious suits and these are either 1. Rich men who if they cannot have their wills of their poor neighbours molest them with groundless and vexatious suits Do not rich men draw you before the judgment seat saith our Apostle 2 cap. not that they have cause of just complaint but upon triviall pretended occasion commence suit after suit til either they have ruin'd them by corrupting judgment and obtaining unrighteous decrees or by forcing them to yeeld to their unjust desires for the purchase of their peace such as Ahab who coveted Naboths Vineyard and because he might not have it upon his own termes accused arraigned 1 King 21.14 condemned Naboth as a Traytor that he might gain the possession Such as these in this chapter who imploy poore men in their service and make them go to Law for their wages and undo them ere they can recover their own if there be any such here weep and howle for the miseries which shal come upon you the cryes of the oppressed people are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath The pale cheeks the thin fides the naked backs the hungry bellies of the wives and children whose soul fainteth in them for want of what you wrongfully withhold cryes to heaven as once the stones did out of the wall for vengeance against you and this Judg 2 Hab. 11.12 who is at the door is the severe avenger of all such injustice and oppression you have made them mourne and weep for want of bread and you shall weep and howle for a drop of water and not obtain it 2. Poor men There is a sort of poor people poverty is usually querulous who will ever be at law a vexatious sort of men who are enemies to peace whose meat and drink 't is to be in law they 'l fare hard work hard go bare pinch themselves and their families and all to provide fees against the next Term or against the next Assizes who verifie that part of the proverb which sayes the Jews spend at Easter the Moors at marriages and the Christians in suites these Salamanders who delight to live in the fire of contention when as in an hundred ells of contention there is not an inch of love whom every pety triviall businesse drawes into suites against the advice of the wise who tell us We must not go to the Physician for every griefe nor to the pot for every thirst nor to the Lawyer for every quarrel O ye perverse people when will ye be wise ye besotted wretches when will ye understand Gal. 15.5 Know ye not yet that while ye devour one another ye are devoured one of another Know you not that you raise others by your own ruine for Lawyers houses are built on the heads of fools As these men should be look'd upon and discountenanced by the Judges here as the Bote-feux and firebrand of a Common-wealth so shall they be sure to have their share of judgment Satia te sanguine quem sitisti Justin when he is come who now stands at the door As it was said to Cyrus when his head was cast into a vessel of bloud Thou delightedst in bloud take thy fill of bloud so shall it be done to those who delight to be before the judgement-seat they have their fill on 't when Christ comes to judgement Once more it reaches such whose spirits are more imbitterr'd against their Christian Brethren because they come not quite up to their opinion in every circumstantiall thing then they are against the common enemies of Religion so some conceive the ground of their groaning and grumbling here was some small difference between Christians themselves in the matter of Circumcision which was carried up by the heat of their passion to a higher pitch of enmity then they bare against the Heathens or the Jews A fault it were to be wish'd were not so rise in our age wherein some pety differences in matters of opinion and that in points not fundamentall too have been fanned up by the policy of Satan for the serving of civill interest so farre that those who have been as dear to each other as brethren do prosecute one another with the deadliest hatred and by their impudent and unchristian dealing one against another make way for the common enemy to dance in the ashes of them all Pendant que les chiens sentregrondent le loup devour la brebis Proverb The French-men say while the dogs art snarling and grumbling one at another the wolfe devours the sheep I am sure the application of the proverb is too true that the divisions of those who are of the same Religion especially of those who undertake to be guides to others is the Divels harvest It is said of the Civil wars of France Herbert's Jacula Prudentum that they made thirty thousand witches and a Million of Atheists and of the civill wars of England that they and the division of the Princes of the West which followed thereupon Habington hist of Edw 4. pag. 228. brought the greatest damage to the Christians and gave the greatest advantage to the Infidels and 't is more sadly true in the businesse before us Principum Christianorum inanis discordia intestinis odiis aucta summum in modum latissimam evertendae religionis januam laxat Barbaro Supplement Annal. Baron ad annum 1635. that the private animosities and heart burnings between those that agree in the same fundamentall truths of Religion concerning the Fringe and Trimming of that garment and things of lower concernment have reduced many precious souls to downright Atheism and given more advantage to that man of sin to inlarge his territories then ever he could get here since the time of Reformation I would not speake this in Gath nor publish it in Ascalon but that the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoyce and the daughters of the Philistims triumph at it already O that the grave and sober Counsel of old Father Abraham to his Nephew Lot Gen. 13.8 Gen. 45.24 were written on all our hearts Let there be no difference between us for such triviall matters for we are brethren and since we are all travelling to the same Canaan let Joseph's cantion to his brethren be for our instruction See that ye fall not out by the way I remember what was said by that learned and excellent Oratour of our Nation D ● Hall Quid nobis cum infami illo Remonstrantium contra-Remonstr titulo Christiani sumus simus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉

them from the storm which is your duty but briers and thornes to tear and spile them how great is such injustice Men account themselves lesse injuriously rifled in a wood Dan. histor in the life of King John then in a place where they presume of safety and grieve not so much when they are cheated by a Shark as when they are injured by a Judge An unjust Judge is the greatest plague a Commonwealth is capable of he turnes justice into gall Amos 6.12 and righteousnesse into hemlock he makes a man's physick his poison and what then can cure him Master of the Hospitall of Jerusalem to King John But he that is an unjust Judg to others is just against and doth excution upon himself he puts himselfe out of commission and cancels that authority by which he sits for as he said once to the King So long as you will observe justice you may be a King Dan. bist p. 168. but when you once violate it you cease to be a King So say I so long as you do justice you are a Judge when you pervert judgement you cease to be a Judge The second Branch of your duty to men is Love mercy You must do justice when necessity cals for it but you must love mercy Mercy is the choice attribute which God delights to exercise when he comes to judgment he comes slowly but chearfully to shew mercy when God is coming to punish Israel Isai 7.20 't is said that he will shave with a razor that is hired as if it were a work which he came so unwillingly to that he kept no tools by him to work withall but was faine to hire them God strikes but with his finger Non debet dispensator crudelis esse ubi pater-familias misericors est but he saves with his arme He gives his wrath by weight but without weight his mercy Be ye therefore mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull you may possibly meet with some whose youth or ignorance or hopefulnesse of amendment may render them the objects of your mercy without prejudice to the Commonwealth in such cases be tender of drawing bloud Chap. 2.13 't is a precious thing Let mercy rejoyce against judgement and remember that of our Apostle that he shall have judgment without mercy who will shew no mercy 2. As to God-ward Ribera in locum your duty is to walk humbly with your God Solicitum esse ad ambulandum to make it your businesse and your care to walk humbly with your God in your own persons in your families in your places offices 1 In your own persons Gen. 30.39 Vita Judicis est censura eaque perpetua ad hanc convertimur ad hanc dirigimur rectè facere faciendo docent Plus exemplo quam peccato nocent Inferiours live more by the eye then by the ear and are guided by example much rather then by command they are like Jacob's sheep which produce fruit like to that they look upon speckled and ring-straked The people look upon the life of the Judge as the best commentary upon the Law they will hardly believe the meaning of the Law is to punish swearing or Sabbath-breaking or the like sins whil'st they see the Judge practice that himselfe which he forbids in others Every good Judge and 't is true too of every good Minister Magistrate Father Master must be exemplary in goodnesse Judges 7.17 and be able to say in reference to good things as Gideon did in another case As you see me do so do ye They should teach those who are under their power to do good by doing it themselves first let it not be in the reformation of manners Drant on Eccles 11.1 as 't is in the flaying of a beast where the matter sticks most when it comes to the head let not that proverb be made good in you that they who hold the best farmes pay the least rent that they who are the greatest men should be the worst Christians that they whom Gods speciall favours ingage to be more eminently good should be below others in piety and holinesse 2. Josh 24.15 In your Families It becomes you to say as Josuah did Psal 101.6 7. I and my house will serve the Lord and as David did He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight But mine eyes shall be upon the faithfull of the Land that he may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me A riotous and disorderly servant causeth if not his Masters piety yet his prudence to be called in question And this your pious care should reach not only to those meniall servants which attend your persons but also to those Ministers and Vnder-officers whose service you use in the dispatch of publick businesse As it hath been said that they who work the greatest mischiefs are oftentimes the men that can best repair them so it may not seldome be seen that those who come to redresse the grievances of the Countrey are the men that work them I have heard some men complaine that the fees and bribes wherwith Mistris Expedition hath been courted have amounted to more then the whole portion which the Lady Justice hath brought along with her 3. In your places and offices improving all your power to the encouragement of vertue the suppressing of vice and the advancement of the interest of Jesus Christ from whom you have received your power and to whom you must give up an account of the discharge of your office The rivers which receive their rise from the sea they return their waters back again into the lap of the Ocean Your power and authority is derived to you from Christ and should be imployed by you and improved to all possible advancement of the glory of Christ My Lords We willingly pay your Lordships all that respect and reverence which is due to your Persons and places we acknowledge you and submit to you as Gods but withall we beseech you remember too that you are but men and must die like other men and after death Psal 82.6 7. you must come to judgement as well as others there is a Judge coming even at the very door whose Person whose Power whose Train is greater then yours where the Judge and the poorest prisoner at the Bar must stand upon even terms and receive according to their work 2. Next to you the Gentlemen of the long robe whose Persons and profession I am obliged to honour as one who in the blackest and darkest times of England's trouble have found not only shelter and protection but warmth and life under the wings of your profession The Law of England is the happinesse of the People of England against which no man hath yet spurned but to his own prejudice The profession of the Law of England is ancient and honourable and necessary against which

no man opens his mouth but such who would have their own wils a law Yet remember I beseech you that there be them who have an aking tooth against your profession as well as others take heed lest by your neglect delayes betraying of your Clients and mal-practice of the Law you give none occasion to those who are already apt to speak against the Law a Epistol l. 1. Epist 3. Cyprian conceiving he could read Dives sin in his punishment because he suffered in his tongue conjectured that he had mightily offended with his tongue b Luke 16.24 whence some others have been willing to perswade themselves that Dives was a Lawyer because men of that profession many times offend with their tongues but they are not the onely men who offend with that member Whosoever offends not in his tongue James 3.2 he is a perfect man yet it were to be wish'd that they would be more carefull how they used it not to put a fair glosse upon a foul cause nor to varnish over an ill businesse with gilded rhetorick Let there be no Tertullus amongst you Acts 24.1 c. to abuse good parts and a voluble tongue to plead against God and the truth God hath given you those parts improved by the excellence of your education to defend the oppressed not to wrong them to assert the truth not to stifle or destroy it Take heed of being false to your Clients cause lest it be said of the Councell of both sides as it was of the Pope and Henry the third In the life of Henry the 3d. that they were like the Shepherd and the wolfe combined to macerate the flock Be not like the Crow which at first seems to bewail the dying sheep and then picks out his eyes Doe not at first compassionate your Clients case and then your selves devour him let that of the Apostle be written upon all your studies 2 Cor. 13.8 nay your hearts I can doe nothing against the truth Dan. histor in the life of Edw. the first but for the truth Bruce of Scotland refused the Crown of that Kingdome because he could not enjoy it without infringing the Liberties of his Countrey take you heed of receiving that fee which you cannot keep but by doing prejudice to your conscience As 't is easie for Princes who will break their faith to find evasions to fly from the strictest treaties so 't is not hard for a subtile Advocate to find plausible pretences to elude justice But what though thou couldest baffle a puny-Lawyer or impose upon a Judge or Jury to obtaine an unrighteous decree if by this means thou withhold the poor from his desire Job 31.16.21 and causest the eyes of the widow to faile what wilt thou do when God arises Bolton Instructions for comforting an afflicted conscience pag. 18 and when he comes to visit what wilt thou answer him Cast but your eyes upon the sad acknowledgement of Francis Spira who became a spectacle of such woe and misery to the whole world that there is not any thing left unto the memory of man more remarkable I was sayes he excessively covetous of money and accordingly I applied my selfe to get it by injustice corrupting judgement by deceit inventing tricks to delude justice Good causes I either defended deceitfully or sold them to the adversary perfidiously Ill causes I maintained with all my might I willingly opposed the known truth and the trust committed to me I either betrayed or perverted But what was the issue of this practice when God let conscience loose upon him Hear some rufull expressions of his desperate state out of his own mouth Oh! saith he that I were gone hence that some body would let out this weary soul I tell you never was there such a monster as I am never was man alive spectacle of such exceeding misery I now feel Gods heavy wrath that burns like the torments of hell within me and afflicts my soul with pangs unutterable the gnawing worme of unquenchable fire horrour confusion and which is worst desperation it selfe continually tortures me My state is worse then that of Cain and Judas and the very damned in hell endure not such misery as I do It would even break an heart of flint to hear him go on and to see him tugging with the very pangs of despair But I forbear only I beseech you among all your cases forget not Spira's Case 3. To the Jury Oh that the Bayliff who attends them could shut out relations as well as persons and keep them as well from partiality and passions as from fire and candle 'T was not sure without a mysterie that the makers of our Law forbad the Jury fire and candle There must be no fire amongst them no heat no passion no love no malice but all must be done cooly and sedatly without reflection upon any parties There must be no Candle they must have no light but that of the Sun they must be guided only by clear and manifest evidence and not destroy mens persons or their estates upon uncertain unclear and glimmering grounds You are especially you Gentlemen of the Grand-Inquest the Judges eyes and ears and the Countries mouth My Lords the Judges know nothing but what you present and the Country whose representatives you are rely upon you for the discovery of their grievances If mischiefs be not redrest 't is much your fault and if you would have your diseases cured discover them And among your Presentments forget not what God hath enjoyned should be remembred his Day Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcera celat Horat. which is yet desperately prophaned notwithstanding all the good laws made by the former and our present Governors and forget not which make men so much and often forget themselves the Ale-houses in order to their suppression which are the Nurseries for the Gaol the seminary for the Gallowes and the Suburbs of Hell 4 To the Witnesses 'T is much in you that Justice be done 't is your evidence which must guide both Judge and Jury False witnesse is an error in the first concoction which is not mended in the second but made worse it produceth a wrong verdict and an unjust sentence Let me use the words of the Prophet Zachary Chap. 8.17 Let none of you imagine evill in his heart and love no false oath for all these things the Lord hates Perjury is a sin which like a sword with two edges strikes both against Humane and Divine faith Among the seven things which the Lord hates Prov. 6.19 one is a witnesse that speakes lies Hee that fears not a false oath is master of thy good name thy estate thy life thy all therefore God in a more peculiar way undertakes to be the avenger of this sin This is an iniquity to be punish'd by the Judges saith Solomon who are to be strictly inquisitive Prov. 19.5 9. and severe in punishing this offence We have