Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	life_n	sin_n	spirit_n	23,478	5	5.7757	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02057	The iudges scripture, or, Gods charge to charge-givers A sermon preached in St. Nicholas Church of Newcastle upon Tyne, before the judges, justices, and gentlemen of the towne and countrey, at the assises holden there the three and twentieth day of July. 1635. By Francis Gray, Master of Arts, and one of the preachers in the same towne.	Gray, Francis.	1636 (1636)	STC 12202; ESTC S103403	14,475	28

courage in the heart of a Judge or Magistrate is that which helpes to put life into those Lawes which are ready to languish for want of due and discreet execution What are men in Authoritie more sure to meet with than distempered and refractory spirits who hate to be reformed and think that they may sinne without controule and if ever sinne hath gotten head and were countenanced both with might and multitude surely now and therefore when more than now doth it become Judges to bee men of courage It was not without a misterie that the steps to Salomons Throne were supported by Lyons what better might the Embleme or morall thereof bee but to intimate that a Lyon-like courage becomes such as sit in the Seat of Judicature and Judgement And let it ever be esteemed an especiall part of a Rulers honour that he dare be just in punishing whilst others will be unjust in sinning and that hee dare to vse his power whilest they will dare to abuse theirs Iob that holy man may very well serve as a patterne to all godly Magistrates who was able to affirme this of himselfe that Hee did not stick to breake the jawes of the wicked and to pull the prey out of their teeth And why should not every Judge and Justice having Gods assurance of assistance arme himselfe with an holy obstinacy and learne to preferre Iustice before the favour and frownes of the stoutest evill doer becomming friends to all as they become friends to Justice yea what more procures credit to Government than the unpartiall execution of Authoritie when great Offendors are forced to feele the smart of great offences As God knowes no honour no royaltie no greatnesse in the matter of sinne no more may his Deputies Connivence at the rebellion of the Mighty is that which cutts the very sinewes of a Common-wealth neither doth any thing helpe to make Lawes more contemptible than the making difference of Offendors that small trespasses should bee punished when great ones are permitted to ride in triumph when that old Complaint comes againe to bee in practise that the Lawes are made like unto Cobwebbs wherein the lesser Flies are onely taken and the greater doe usually breake through who will not dare at length to sweepe them downe The intention of the Law is an universall Reformation now the Magistrate hee is tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living Law and how shall hee goe through in the indifferent administration of Justice unlesse that whilest hee puts on the place of a Magistrate hee put off the person of a Friend and goe right on like the Sunne in the Zodiacke with unresisted violence Say not then when God a good Conscience a good Cause and the Law tells you that heere is Justice to be executed against a great person offending as Salomons sluggard spake There is a Lyon without I shall incurre the displeasure of some great personage Let not the contents of Agefilaus letters bee too prevalent and powerfull Si causa bona pro justitia sin mala pro amicitia utcunque parce neither with Saul goe about to spare the fattest of the spoyle for your owne advantage but so strive to proceed that all both great and small may know that you beare not the Sword in vaine Againe in the second place Iudges yee are Gods owne mouth you see here honours you with this Title now what doth more sympathize or as I may so say synonamize with Judges than Justice So that the very Title of Judges ought to be a continuall remembrancer of that vertue which should be a perpetuall companion of your places What can be more peculiar to a Judge than Justice The Philosopher could ascribe this property to a Magistrate that hee be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a preserver of that which is just and Iethro in that his Character of a good Ruler makes this one particular requisite that they be Veraces or as Iunius interprets the words Rationē tantū veritatis habentes according to the usual reading Men of Truth Justice is so requisit in a Common-wealth that it is not onely the Grace and Glory of it but the very Foundation and as it were the Corner-stone thereof Hence that old assertion Tolle justitiam quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinea The removall of Justice makes Kingdomes to become very Dens of Thieves Now what is Justice I beseech you according to the old Description but a rendring to every man what is his due So that it will well befit Judges and Justices ere that they can passe for currant maintainers of Justice so to goe on with an even and equall hand that Causes be ever rather heard to speak than Persons As you are not to exalt the proud Rich man so neither to hate the poore Just man as you are not to benefit for Affection so neither to punish upon Passion as you are not to do evill upon Malice so neither to do good upon Covetousnesse as you are not to permit evill to escape Vnpunished so neither to let goodnesse to goe away Vnrewarded To hang up a multitude of silly Snakes who are more than halfe dead before they come to dye through hunger and the noysome stench of a lamentable and base Prison which I dare boldly say is more fit for Swine than for Christian Men meaning thereby the Countrey Jayle a Grievance worthy of your Honours best Consideration and due Reformation wherein Gentle and Simple both Male and Female the Debtor and the Fellon are turned hand over head in each respect so wofull that no Minister dare without great hazzard either to his life or health goe to offer in Charity and to afford Comfort and Instruction to the persons condemned I say to trusse up onely such poore Pesants Non habet victoria laudem there is small praise in such Justice If in the meane time notorious Fellons and Outlawes the very bane and poyson of the Countrey bee not brought in for Justices and Gentlemen of the Countrey to be both niggards of their paines and purses on that behalfe to doe good the King and the countrey good service If they shall be brought in then for Witnesses and Jurors partly by feare partly by favour and partly by bribes to be laid off for composition of thefts to be as common as the Thefts themselves for mischievous Murders that so crying a sinne for every drop of innocent blood is not onely vocall but importunate with God for vengeance For these to bee buried and through the greatnesse of friends to be smothered for Incest and Oppressions to walke with out-stretched neckes and all the more Grand crimes of the place never so much as once to come into question this will denote that Iustice lyes a bleeding this will prove an argument of gasping Iustice Right Honourable you are called Iudges Right Worshipfull you are called and sworne to be Iustices give I beseech you not me leave but God in whose place I stand here

Liberties Lives and the like all appertaining to the Earth Quae supra vos nihil ad vos the soules of men come not within the compasse of your judgement Secondly the place of your residence and abode the place also where you doe execute your office of Iudicature it is the very Element of this Earth Thirdly those who are the proper object of your judgement they are not Angels and Spirits but mortall men they are such as are but dust and earth Fourthly you your selues considered at the best you are no more than a lumpe of Earth Earth by creation and to be Earth by corruption he who was ready to call you Gods was as ready in the next words to tell you that you should dye like men It was the voyce of God by his Prophet commanded to bee proclaimed That All flesh is grasse and all the glory of man is as the flowre of the field The supremest Monarke hath no more power to detaine his spirit in the houre of death then the meanest member Sicknesse and all other the Harbingers of death as not afraid of their Crownes and Scepters of their glorious roabes and sumptuous array dare without respect ceaze upon the very best of the Sonnes of men You doe therefore beare those Ensignes of honour but in earthen vessels Let not therefore I intreat you the eminency of your places so transport you as to blot out of your mindes the remembrance of your Mortality but let the assurance of death and of judgement after death be as continuall Watch-bells to will and to wish you to goe on with care and Conscience with humility and meekenesse that as it was said of Valentinian so it may be said of you the people knewe not whether they had Dominum or Patrem a Lord or a Father with such a sweet awfulnesse did hee governe Humility in the places and persons of authority is a Virtue not more rare than commendable and yet Saint Bernards rule is that Quanto quisque est sublimior tanto debet esse humilior The higher in Majesty the humbler in mind like the eare of Corne the fuller it is the more it stoupes It was an excellent Commendation that St. Cyprian gave Aurelius and Celarinus In quantum gloria sublimes in tantum verecundia humiles fecit donec nihil in honore sublimius et nihil in humilitate submissius fuit How much honour did exalte them so much did Modesty humble them that Meeknesse and Majesty met together Greatnesse and Goodnesse kissed each other in one word you are but Judges of earth you are dust and ashes dust and ashes therefore be not proud Againe in the Fifth place you are called Iudges of the earth and why so but to confine you to your proper places to put a difference and distinction betweene you and another Iudgd whose jurisdiction is of a larger extent in that he is et cali et terre iudex Judge both of Heaven and Earth Judge of quicke and dead and as Abraham spake Iudex totius mundi Shall not the Judge of all the world doe right Gen 18. 25. When man judgeth man there is but earth judging earth but when God comes to Iudge man then there is Heaven judging earth as hee is called King of Kinges and Lord of Lords so also may he be entitled Iudge of Judges and shall without respect of persons render to every man according to his workes Wherefore as Saint Paul willed Masters to doe unto their servants that which was just and equall remembring that they also had a Master in Heaven So may it be said to Iudges to doe onely that which is just and equall to every man remembring that they themselves have even a Iudge in heaven Let not then gifts taken either by your selves or servants blind the eye of Iustice if you doe be sure that he who shall judge the Secrets of men by IESUS CHRIST shall disclose them to your shame for He shall saith Salomon bring every worke to Iudgement with every secret thing be it good or be it evel Whilst the Psalmist calls you Gods he would have you to be Gods for disposition upright and just withall this title may imply that your Courts should be like Heaven voyd of guile and free from all injustice nay more it also wills that your Attendants should be like unto Saints and Angels innocent in respect of all corruption I wish therefore that both you yours would say to corrupting Clients as Simon Peter said to Simon Magus You and your money perish Bee of Samuels integritie and you may boldly speake with Samuels alacritie If therefore the poore the fatherlesse and widow shall repaire to your Gravities as Noahs Dove did to the Arke for refuge or as the Sparrowe is said to flie into Zenocrates his bosome for shelter from the pursuing Hawke oh doe not pocket up their Petitions without pitie but strive with holy Iob to bee eyes to the blinde and to bee legges to the lame cause O cause the Widdowes heart to goe away dancing for joy And now in order it followes to proceed to the handling of the third and last Generall which concernes the Direction it selfe in these words Bee instructed or as it is in the usuall reading Bee learned What more wholsome precept could the Prophet here give in charge to Judges than to bee instructed Nescitis said one very well quanta bellua sit imperium Government is not such an easie taske as many make it and as the most account of it The right managing of Authoritie and the swaying of the places of Supremacie is called by that ancient Father Greg. Nazian orat 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Art of Arts and the very Science of Sciences And why so First for men in Authoritie to make their owne lives an Exposition of that Law whereof they are made to bee Magistrates hic labor hoc opus est for by how much greater is the authoritie by so much the more spitefull is the malignitie of that our mischievous enemie who in the fall of one great one seekes the foyle of many Likewise to bring to unitie a many-headed multitude so divided by Action by Faction and in Affection how hard is it unlesse that Governors be instructed and so Wisdome be made to sit at the sterne of Government that doubtfull matters may be decided Controversies comprimized Causes weighed abuses respectively punished dangers prevented Affaires managed cunning conveyances brought to light the falshood of the seeming simple discovered and that Justice bee sincerely executed How stands it most requisite that Kings bee wise that they be learned who are Iudges of the earth It was therefore not without very good ground that God gave that in command to Moses to take Wisemen men of vnderstanding and men knowne among their tribes and to make such to be rulers over them Learning and instruction sutes so well with persons in places of eminency that we find