GOD and the KING, In a sermon preached at the Assizes holden at BURY S. edmond's, June 13. 1631.  
BY THOMAS SCOT Bachelor in Divinity, and Minister of the word at S. CLEMENT'S in Ipswich.  
Printed by the Printers to the University of Cambridge, 1633.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sr THOMAS JERMYN Knight, Vicechamberlain of his Majesty's household, and one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Counsel.  
SIR, your renowned father was the first Patron of all my studies, whereby he might justly have challenged the harvest of all mine endeavours: all his rights are hereditarily descended to yourself; among which, I humbly crave, my duteous respect may be reckoned for one; as an evidence whereof, I do most lowly present to your Honour this little piece, humbly praying it may be valued not by its own worth, but the mind of the giver; who professeth himself bound to live and die in duty to your house, and will not cease daily to pray for your felicity temporal and eternal, nor to be  
Your Honour's most obliged and truly devoted, THOMAS SCOT.   

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EZRA 7.26. 
And whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the King's law, let him have judgement without delay.  
WHat Almighty God is in his great monarchy of the world, that (in his proportion) is every absolute King in his own dominion: for he is in God's place unto his people, to nourish and protect them. Now because no one man can do God's office (who is all eye and all ear, and all in every place) Kings are enforced to use the ministry of inferior helps, to be eyes, ears, and hands for them; that as the sun whose office it is to enlighten all the world (which by its own beams it cannot do at one instant) is therefore enforced to communicate himself to other stars, who in his absence may give light and influence: so Kings (it being impossible that they should be present at all affairs of their kingdom) do lend some of their own authority to lesser lights, who do hear and see, and do for them; among which lights the Judges of a land, to whom sacred justice is committed, are not the least. This was not unknown to that great King Artaxerxes, who intending the full restauration of the people, city, and temple of the God of heaven, gave order in the verse before for Judges to be set over them; and (though himself an heathen King) made Ezra his Chancellor to give them this divine charge, that, Whosoever will not, etc.  
Out of which charge (that I may neither slovenly chop it into gobbets, nor curiously mince it to a gallamafrie) these particulars (God assisting) shall be insisted upon.  
First, That in judgement there must be no partiality: Secondly, That obstinate offenders are chiefly to be looked unto: Thirdly, That God's honour is first to be provided for: Fourthly, That the King's law must also be freed from violation: Fifthly, That judgement must in these cases take her due course. And lastly, That execution must be speedy. And this is the treasure of the Text: now see the mine where I dig it. Partiality is prevented, in that general, Whosoever: Obstinacy noted in these words, Will not: God's honour is first provided for in the precedency of God's law: The Kings in the next place, by subjoinging the Law of the King: Justice is brought in for her part, Let him have judgement: Speedy execution commanded, Without delay. WHOSOEVER WILL NOT &c. Of all which while I speak, in my Master's name I boldly call for audience: in mine own name I most lowly crave your Christian and favourable patience.  
First, There must be no partiality in judgement; Whosoever: as if he should have said, How great or mean soever, noble or ignoble, rich or poor, friend or enemy; the one not to be feared, the other not to be pitied. I confess, all offenders are not alike: but this difference ariseth not from the quality of the offender, 
2. Chron. 19.6.  but of the offence. Jehoshaphat told his Judges that their judgement was Gods not man's, intimating that they ought to judge as God himself would, who accepts no persons. And he whose Dixit was his Fecit, hath said they are, 
Psal. 82.6.  and therefore hath made them to be, gods: wherefore as in other things, so in impartiality their judgements must be little types of Gods great assizes, where sin shall be judged in all persons alike, saving that the greatness of the person shall add to the punishment: for the mighty shall be mightily tormented, Wis. 6.6. Viri sublimis culpa grave peccatum est, saith S. Austin. The greater the man, the greater is the sin. Varnish is no colour of itself; but yet it adds lustre to every colour: so greatness and eminency of person is of itself neither virtue nor vice; but yet it gives a great addition to either. So then the cause, and not the person, must be judged: for Whosoever &c.  
I would willingly (before I leave this point) disgrace this sin of partiality in judgement by showing the pedigree of it, and what house it comes of; namely either from bribes, favour, rash anger, or cowardice: evil eggs all; for neither barrel, better herring.  
First from bribes; as is to be seen Exod. 23.8. as also Deut. 16.19. where we hear that A reward blindeth the eyes of the wise, and perverteth the words of the just▪ two dangerous effects upon two principal parts in doing justice, making the receiver first to have a mist before his eyes, and to be stricken with deceptio visûs; and then, not discerning the cause, must of necessity pervert his words, yea casts him into a fit of convulsion, and draws his mouth clean awry; and then how can he give right judgement? Ah! fie upon this stinking wages of unrighteousness; 2. Pet. 2.15.  
2. Next from favour, procured by letters, friends, favourites, servants, and the like: for all these will stickle now and then in bad causes, and Judges do too often listen to such motions, thereby making others indebted to them against such an occasion. But letters of this nature are best answered with silence: as for friends and favourites, a Judge in his robes, upon the seat of judgement, should be no man of this world; but like the Angels in heaven, where they neither marry, 
Matt. 22.30.  nor are given in marriage; that is, all earthly relations do cease. As for your servants, if they move in a cause, suspect those lesser wheels to be newly oiled, or else they would not go so round: yea of all these say, Magìs amica veritas, I will lose you all for justice sake.  
3. Sometime from anger: No passion but is an evil guide in execution of justice, even too much compassion; for there is a cruel mercy: but there is none so impetuous and dangerous, as this of anger: for if there be an angry prejudice against the person, even slender probabilities will seem vehement presumptions, and presumptions will appear pregnant evidence. Anger is the drunkenness of the mind, which robs a man of himself: nay, it is a short madness, differing from it only in duration: for if a man should ever be as in his passion, with eyes staring, countenance red and inflate, teeth grating and interfering, tongue stutting and stammering, hands shaking and trembling, and all actions thus irregular, showing laesum principium; who would not say, this man were distracted? But if Socrates would not beat his boy when he was angry, how much more should all ministers of justice banish this heady passion from the judgement-seat, lest they heat the oven seven times hotter in their own cause then in Gods, proceeding in heat against the person, and not in zeal against the sin?  
4. Lastly, from fear or cowardice: this cast away Nabaoth; the Judges had letters written in Achabs' name, and sealed with his seal, and they durst not go against the Kings Mandamus. With this the Jews brought on Pilate to give sentence of death against the Lord of life, who adjudged him both to die and to be guiltless of death, Nè non videretur amicus Caesari, Lest he should not be Caesar's friend, or rather, lest Cesar should not be his friend: But how much better had it been, if these Judges had preferred the displeasure of the great Judge of all the world? and said, Da veniam, Imperator; tu minaris carcerem, Deus gehennam: I will forfeit mine head, or mine office, rather than my truth. Thus they who be in scarlet should be valiant men. 
Nah. 2.3.  To betray a cause for want of courage, is worse than for want of understanding: this is of ignorance, but that is voluntary; therefore not to be expiated but by double sacrifice.  
A minister of justice of the two had better be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, without an head of knowledge, than an heart of execution. But join head and heart together in this sacred cause, wisdom going before like a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and courage coming after like a puissant army. And this be said of the first point against this base-born Partiality, descended either from reward, favour, passion, or cowardice; only let me add, that, No error in justice doth so directly fly to the throat, as respect of persons doth: other do but lame her, but this gives her the deadly & mortal wound.  
The second point is, Obstinate offenders are chiefly to be looked unto; Whosoever will not, etc. This obstinacy is indeed an Allecto in another's likeness, a mere mock-vertue, walking under the habit of constancy or fortitude, (as many other vices have their cloaks also) but we shall uncase him presently. These obstinates be of two sorts, Dogmatic, and Practical: the one in opinion, the other in life and conversation.  
The Dogmatic obstinates are such as err in judgement: as Schismatics led by a particular spirit, erring on the right hand; and Papists who are carried with conceit of the religion of their fathers and forefathers, and these err on the left hand: both of them thinking themselves constant, but are indeed obstinate, as we know. To both I say with S. Paul, It is good to be zealous in a good thing. 
Galat. 4.18.  But of these after in as fit a place.  
The Practical obstinates are they we now have to deal withal. They who do not obey must have judgement; but it is a great and unsufferable increase of the fault, when men will not obey: for Non obedire shuts the door, but Nolle obedire doth bolt and rampiere it up against all duty to God and the King. Such S. 
Rom. 1.30.  Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, haters of God, and hated of God: 
Acts 5.39.  these be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such as will not have God to reign over them; like Pharaoh, who blusters at God's message, 
Exod. 5.2.  saying, Who is the Lord? not unlike the Thracians, who in thunder and lightning used by way of revenge to shoot shafts at Jupiter. They are described in Scripture to have words, thoughts, and lives, all peremptorily wicked. For their words, they are stout against the Lord, saying, Depart from us, etc. They set their mouth against heaven, 
Job. 21.14. Psal. 73.9.  and their tongue walketh throughout the earth. 
Psal. 12.4.  Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? Their thoughts are no better, for they are haughty in their own conceit, therein making a fool of the whole world. As for their lives, they have a resolution quidlibet audendi: tell them of death and hell; they are at a point for that, They have made a league with death, 
See Isa. 28.18.  and with hell they are at agreement: And as for counsel (the medicine of putrid minds) either they will not be charmed, like the adder which, Cassiodorus saith, stops one ear against the earth, the other with his tail; or if in any fit they give it the hearing, they take it by whiffs as they do tobacco, it's no sooner in, but it's out with a puff. In their soaring presumptions they build Babel's: but as they begin in pride, so they end in confusion; for this obstinacy in sinning, is ever the punishment of custom in sin, and is that which S. Paul calls the reprobate mind. 
Rom. 1. ●8.  These are in respect of Gods and the King's laws, very outlaws & lords of misrule in a Commonwealth. The character of this obstinate is this, or such like; By birth he is a Gentleman, or at least an heir of one who lived poor to leave him rich; he is brought up to nothing but to live upon his lands; for the most part he comes to his lands at one and twenty, and by that time, though young in years, yet is he old in wickedness; by four and twenty hath spent good part of his estate, and if possibly he can he will sell his land twice or thrice over; he never names God but to swear by him; he is a coiner or minter of new and execrable oaths; he fears not God, nor man, save Sergieants, and Bailiffs; he hath already traveled through many prisons; he owes for clothes of six or seven several fashions, yet he loseth no rent, for he takes it all aforehand: he undoes his tenants by suretyship; for the young master, if he gets into an Inn, he comes not out till his horse pay the reckoning, and there out of his window scoffs at those who go to church; his discourse is nothing but railing upon, and disgracing the better minded Justices, and other ministers of justice; in every quarrel he is either principal or second; he is a nightwalker, and if he should never be drunk, he would die for want of sleep; where ever he comes he misuses the Constable, and beats the watch; he never comes in any public assembly but a play, nor rides through a town without smoke at his nose: but in process of time, his means spent, his credit cracked, his hopes forlorn, having nothing left of a Gentleman, but his long lock and his sword, he had rather lack life then living, and either kills a man or takes a purse, and is brought to the assizes: Where if ye meet any such, remember the charge, Whosoever will not &c.  
The third point is, God's honour must first be provided for, The law of thy God etc. It's true, the charge proceeded from an heathen King, but not from an heathen spirit; and is recorded by the Spirit of God, to be a moving precedent, and authentic copy for all Kings to write after. Blessed be God, our King, when he gives this charge, altars the terms, and saith for Thy God, My God, and doth so charge it upon his Judges, and all inferior ministers of justice in their several orbs, that, Whosoever will not obey the law of My God etc. Now if heathen Artaxerxes could stoop so low, as to let the law of Ezra's God go before his own: how much more (by a binding argument from the less to the greater) will it be expected from all Kings who own him for their God? So that the naming God's law before the Kings, is not bare compliment, and for manners sake only; but for the natural precedency thereof. And verily when God made all this world, and brought man not to the bare walls of it, but as the be to the hive, even ready stocked and stored with variety of creatures, both for necessity and delight, and placed order therein by his providence to keep the same in reparation, that as men have dominion over creatures, so some men are made Gods deputies to rule over men: all this was not to part with his glory to another, or to stand to the courtesy of others, to be at their carving and allowance for his honour; but that all men, even Kings, should hold all of him in Capite, and do him homage for his goodness, the Lord granting us indeed the good and sweet of his favours, but as a rent or tribute, by way of acknowledgement, reserving the honour of them to himself. Hence it is, that in Scripture wheresoever the King's power is spoken of, there is also expressed, or at least intimated, God's supremacy. If Paul saith, Be obedient to higher powers, he addeth, 
Rom. 13.1.  For they are of God. If Christ saith, 
Matt. 22.21.  Give unto Cesar that which is Caesar's, he also saith, Give to God that which is Gods. If Solomon saith, Honour the King, 
Prov. 24.21.  he hath first said, Fear God. And so here Artaxerxes premiseth the law of God before the law of the King. Nay, if this be not so, what do ye here? do ye not come to hear God's charge before ye show the King's commission; as if that could not take place, till this had made way for it? Hence is it also that all good Kings and Magistrates in Scripture began their reign and government with doing something for God and religion, as is evident in Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, and the rest: and of famous memory was that of blessed Queen Elisabeth, who first bound up that tender-babe the Church of England in the swathing band of reformation, before she provided any thing for the establishment of her own throne, by the subjects recognition of her title to the imperial Crown. And for shame let not us give less to God, than the heathen to their Idols, with whom A Jove princip●um was a perpetual rule, ever beginning all their solemn actions with sacrifice to their gods. The Lord reserved in the Old law as sacred to himself, the first-fruits, and firstlings in every kind, teaching us in all things to serve God of the first, and best. And what is the King's law without Gods? what is the King's peace without God's peace? outward prosperity without religion? nay, peace is no peace without religion: unity without verity breeds not peace, but conspiracy. Oh then let God be the Alpha and Omega of this sacred action: let the beginning be with God, by his assistance, the ending for God, by providing for his honour.  
Fourthly, The law of the King must also be freed from violation; And the King's law etc. There be two sorts offended with this clause. First the Anabaptists, who cannot endure any law of magistracy: accounting all compelling and restraining government, plain tyranny; showing thereby their mutinous minds, desiring omnia complanare, to beat down all enclosure of magistracy, and to lay all level and common: and then what could follow, but that every one would do what seemed good in his eyes, if there were no law of the King in Israel? Secondly the Papists, who though they can brook Kings & many of their laws, yet they cannot endure them so near God and his law, but there must be room left between God and the King for the Pope, whom his flatterers call Vicegod, Monarch of the Christian world, Defender of the Papal omnipotency. (oh blasphemy!) And as for Emperors and Kings, they be but as the Moon, borrowing their light from him their Sun; and are nothing but his vassals, to hold his stirrup, to lead his horse, to carry his canopy, to hold his basin when he washeth, & to be deposed or exalted at his pleasure. But then let him take it with the appurtenances: He is Antichrist for his labour, exalting himself, according to S. Paul's prophecy, 
2. Thes. 2.4.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, above all that is called God, as Kings are by God himself, Psal. 82.6. But ask Tertullian; he tells us that Kings are homines a Deo secundi, & solo Deo minores, Next to God, and second to none but God: and, as Chrysostom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Kings have no peer upon earth, but are the top and head of all men. And so, for all Anabaptists and Papists, we affirm the fourth point, That next to Gods the King's law must also be freed from violation. Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder: such are every where God and the King, God and Cesar, God's law and the King's law: and indeed they be twins, to laugh and mourn, to live and (in some sense) to die together. The King's law doth clap a shore to God's law; not that God's law is in itself weak and needs it, but because men are not so well bred, as for conscience or love of goodness to obey, but are much swayed by temporal reward or punishment by man's law distributed or inflicted. If any ask whether the King's law doth bind conscience as God's law doth; I answer, That God's law is immediately seated upon the conscience, man's law is seated upon the conscience too, but mediately, and as it hath authority from God's law: for God doth permit Kings to make laws as Kings do Corporations, and Colleges to make Constitutions, provided always that they contain in them nothing contrary to a statute law: So that though the King's law doth challenge obedience, as God's law doth, and gives as it were the same arms, yet (like a younger brother) it must be with distinction. If any ask further in what things the law of man hath power to command with strictest tie; I answer, That as Merchants sometime suffer their servants in the time of their apprentishood, to trade for themselves in some commodities, wherein they themselves do not deal: So properly the law of man hath his principal strength in things of their own nature indifferent; for these be neither commanded nor forbidden in God's law: To conclude this point, The King's law is the sinew of all government, which to cut, is to ham-string Church and Commonwealth; for it is better to live where nothing, then where every thing is lawful.  
In the next place, Justice in these cases must have her due course, Let him have judgement etc. By this time Justice calls out to all her retinue, Judges, Justices, Jurours, etc. Is there any who will not obey & c? I charge you let him have judgement, whosoever he be; and saith in God's words, Thine eye shall not spare in judgement. And hear your charge, O ye Ministers of justice: she hath made you executours of her will, and hath bound you all by oath well and truly to perform it, so far as Gods and the King's law shall bind you: See than ye discharge and not deceive the trust reposed in you, lest Church and Commonwealth, the orphans whose guardians ye be, do lose religion and peace, the legacies which she hath bequeathed them. Judex, saith Isidore, is jus-dicens: for the Judge is a speaking law, and the law is a silent Judge. Verily the law is a dead letter till the Judge breathes the breath of life into it by execution, which is the edge and life of it. The law sees nothing but by the eyes of the Judge, and Judges are the eyes of the Commonwealth: which if they be by any means put out, a State, though never so potent, is but like big-limbed Polyphemus, ready for ruin; or mighty Samson, pulling down all upon their heads, to their own and the ruin of all engaged with them in the same condition. Cicero could say, that Impunity is the greatest breeder and nurse of transgression that may be: For to let malefactors go without judgement, either not at all or condignly punishing them, is but to struck the offenders on the head, as Eli did with a Do no more so, my sons, and so to give them and other after them a kind of commission to do the like. Take heed of a weak affectation of merciful Judges, or merciful Juries; take heed (I say) ye do not thereby encourage sin, and clap it on the back. Can that be mercy, which is unjust? The greatest and most admired mercy that ever the world saw, even that whereby we must all live for ever, was it with neglect of justice? No: for Ecce benignitatem & severitatem Dei may also to this great work be applied, it being hard to determine whether God's adopted sons found more mercy, or his natural son more severity. Bonis nocet qui malis parcit, saith Seneca; By sparing one ye are injurious to many; for Chrysostom saith well, Dum parcebatur lupo, mactabatur grex, Spare the wolf, and the flock goes to wrack. What though the vulgar account you hard Judges? remember the answer of a King of Thrace to one telling him that (in regard of his severity) he played the madman and not the King, Oh, saith the King, this my madness makes my subjects sound and wise.  
Execution must be speedy, Without delay. Yet no more haste then good speed; mature deliberation must go before execution: nothing must be judged before the time; for that were not speedy but rash judgement, an evil in our private and petty carriages severely forbidden, therefore much more in public and weighty affairs. But when the way is made, and the offender convicted, than Judges must (like Almighty God) be swift witnesses; for sin and punishment must ride both on one horse, let him that hath done the work have his wages; for in criminal causes it is as crying a sin to detain it, as from the honest labourer: And this hath no less place in personal causes between man and man, which if they hang long before a Judge, it is as a sore long under a chirurgeons hand, or a quartane ague, which is opprobrium medicorum.  
Thus have I with your Honourable and Christian an patience passed through the points propounded; I have washed and searched the wounds, and also prepared the plaster: Now give me leave, I beseech you, to lay it on (as tenderly as I can) in a few words of Application: wherein I intent healing, not exasperating; but if any sore smart, it is because it's festered or rankled, not by any corrosive in the balm. And now what shall I do? shall I be silent and give in a verdict of Omnia bene? that's indeed the shortest cut, and safest way; but so should I make all your sins mine own: No, we must review every piece of the Text, and charge the same upon all the Ministers of justice, great and small, upon Judges the King's eyes in their circuits, upon Justices the Judges eyes in their divisions, upon Jurours who are the scales of justice to weigh all actions, and upon witnesses who put these weights into the scales. But oh hard task, to rake in this kennel, to speak of the manyheaded vice in all these particulars, without dislike from you, or check from mine own conscience! so that I may say in Persius his words, Oh, si fas dicere. Sed fas. Shall the stage in a play, and the Poet in a peal of Satyrs deride your sins with a profane spirit? and shall the Spirit of God in the pulpit be confined? or must the Preacher stoop at pulpit-doore to take measure of his hearers feet? God forbid; I am sent this day on God's errand to you all; which if it should not please, remember I beseech you that I am but a poor messenger, and must do my message at mine own peril. First there must be no partiality in judgement. And give me leave, most Honoured Lords (lest I should commit a sin of partiality while I speak against it) in the first place to address myself to your Honours. I have an awful and reverend respect of your places and persons; yet remember, I beseech you, that humility in eminency is a singular virtue, if (like the soaring eagle or towering hawk) the higher ye be, the less ye seem: and I do well know your labours & pains are great: for magna fortuna, magna servitus: your difficulties also are more than we can imagine; you have the wind and storms in your faces, when we be under the lee; and being fathers of the Commonwealth, do wake for us when we do sleep. I meddle not with your employments of state; they are out of my reach, I am no eaves-dreeper of state; it is for me to observe the ground-winde, not the rack-winde; I keep me therefore within the compass of my Text, and desire your Honours seriously to ponder, that acceptation of persons in judgement is a stinking abomination in the nostrils of the Almighty, whether it be for reward, favour, passion, or cowardice. For the first, mine own breast doth clear yourselves, that ye be not as those Judges in Plutarch, who ever came to the judgement-seat, as to a golden harvest, and I hope ye will as well look to the fingers of those about you. Let it not be with you, as with many great ones, who are said to allot no other wages or reward to their servants, but their avales of this nature: partiality for favour finds easier entrance than the former: but I beseech you remember, that public places afford not means of pleasuring private friends, but follow that memorable example of Cleon, who being called to the government of the Commonwealth, assembled all his intimate friends, and disclaimed all inward amity with them. And most truly saith Tully, He deprives himself of the office of a friend, who takes upon him the person of a Judge. Yet also take heed of the contrary, of being transported with anger: we use not troubled water till it be settled, we bring not a rough and unmannaged horse to the tourney; no more should you unbridled affections to the judgement-seat; but when ye robe your bodies, ye should also apparel your minds with calmed affections. I confess there is an anger becoming a Judge, for one saith, Qui caret irâ, caret justitiâ, He who cannot be angry, cannot be just: but this is to be understood of that anger which whets courage, not of that which blindeth wisdom.  
As for fear, it's too base an humour to trapper justice, the over-fearfull man is but a piece of a man. Claudius (the first of the Caesar's) his mother was wont to say of him for his faintheartedness, that nature had begun, but not perfected him. The Egyptians had a law, that if great men should command Judges against law, they should refuse it: and Trajan when he invested any Praetour by giving him the sword, would command him to use it even against himself, in case he violated law or equity. Plutarch worthily reproves Agesilaus for writing thus to one of his Judges in favour of an offender; Si insons est, dimitte; sin minùs, meâ causà dimitte: utcunque dimitte: If he be guiltless, good reason he should be discharged; if he be guilty, for my sake discharge him: but guilty or not guilty, see he be discharged. But let your judgement-seats be (like Solomon's throne) supported on both sides with lions. Oh let Judges be absolute and independent, not having their scantlings given them, and their sentences moulded to their hands: for this is to be an apprentice, and not a master in the art.  
In the next place I turn my speech to the worshipful Justices, who are also Minores Dii, and the second sons of justice: Carry an even hand among your neighbours, help not to smother drunkenness, basterdy, or any wickedness in any, though allied or linked in any relation; prosecute not a small error over eagerly in one, whereat ye connive in another: in a word, let there be no one sit on our bench, in whom the country may observe that the baskets not walking, not giving worship, cap & knee enough, not coming in upon your carting days, not saluting you on Newyeares' day morning, or any such mean respect, or other disrespect will incense you to whet the sword of justice, and so to avenge your private conceits.  
Now a word to the Jurours and witnesses, & let it be spoken not only to them who are so at this assizes, but to all that have been before, or that may be hereafter: for I would fain for this short Christmas keep open house, and give every one something. Let me therefore tell you Jurours, There must be no partiality in judgement: but when ye have heard the case opened, counsel speak on both sides, ye know the issue to be tried, ye have heard the proof on both sides, then when ye go together ye have the scales of justice put into your hands to weigh the evidence, ye cannot but see which carries most weight, which scale goes up and which goes down: Now let not reward, liberal charges, or expectation of future kindnesses; let not favour, alliance, or neighbourhood, or any such respect; let not anger or malice; let not fear or cowardice make the verdict: but for love of God, for love of justice, for love of your country, for love of your own souls do that is right without partiality. But have all Jurours done thus? or will all do thus? Oh no; for how frequent is it for a Jurour to be prepossessed of a cause, and to resolve not to go against his neighbour, neighbour's friend, his kinsman, his old master's son, his Lord's tenant, and the like; thinking it but a small courtesy and not to be denied, to lend one another an oath in such cases; and so against all right do bring in a verdict which makes the Judge amazed, the whole Court astonished, and justice clean overturned; and all this by a Suffolk Jury, a place not civilised only, but noted for religion. But what doth such a Jury? First it tells a loud lie, for it's before all the County: next, they call God to witness this lie by falsifying their oath; and as much as lies in them they make him a party: beside, they justify the wicked and condemn the just: fourthly, they rob and perhaps undo the party against whom they go: lastly (without God's wonderful mercy) they cast away their own souls. Oh! what heart bleeds not to see souls thus thronging to hell by the dozen?  
As for witnesses, whose testimony makes the cause weighty or light, and who also bind themselves solemnly by oath to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, (here's no evasion) yet how common is it with some to be Knights of the post, for a small reward to be able to frame an oath of any size? yea some will do it for a meal's meat, and thus deeply transgress for a morsel of bread: yea, for a need a man may find some who will swear to things done before they were born. Others for favour and their friends will desperately stretch their consciences; but, if there be malice, one would wonder at their sound tales against witches and other offenders, and how again they will mince the truth for fear of greatness: but remember, a false witness shall not go unpunished: for God either pays them at the stub, by showing some special judgement upon them; or, if it be deferred (without deep repentance) they have it with interest in hell for ever.  
God's honour and the Kings must be freed from violation: for I find them together in the Text, and so I'll keep them in the Application. The sturdy sins and obstinate vices of the times against God's law and the Kings, are those for whom justice at all hands calls for judgement. I pitch only upon four which I take to be the bleeding wounds and running sores of this Kingdom; all forbidden by the law of God and the King: These are Superstitious Popery, Blasphemous Swearing, Profane Sabbath-breaking, and Beastly drunkenness. A word of each. First, Popery violates the honour of God; it being inglorious to each Person in the Trinity: to the Father, by attempting an Index expurgatorius upon the very Commandments of God, by rasing out the second: to Christ, by setting up a company of miserable saints for mediators, and joining works to his all-sufficient sacrifice: to the Holy Spirit, by making the Pope's lewd holiness to be Christ his unerring vicar upon earth, as if Christ were Nonresident from his Church, when he hath said he will be with it to the end by his Spirit: It is also against the King's law and honour; for it reacheth at his Crown, and (if the Catholic cause requires) at his life too, by setting some base villain for an Assassinate, to change his miscreant life, for the sacred life of Gods Anointed: and a King thus dead, by them dies an excommunicate and accursed person; and the other an allowed and canonised Martyr. Now the professors of this religion among us, be among the obstinate offenders; for few of them will confer, to be informed; they who will confer, will not be convicted; or if they be by Scriptures and arguments convicted, yet will they not be convinced; and if I had them to speak too, I should have little hope to do them good: yet they shall give me leave to bemoan their condition. Poor souls, (I speak of our common seduced ones) they have no religion but that which is in Feofees hands: and in whose hands is it? The Italian proverb tells us, The worst of Catholics are Priests, the worst of Priests are made Cardinals, the worst of Cardinals made Pope. And the Pope thus bred, is the Feoffee in whom they betrust all their religion: for they have no Faith but that of the Church, to believe as the Church believes (a short cut to heaven indeed.) And who is this Church? is it not the Pope virtually, and that upon this conceit that he cannot err? and yet some, nay most of these Popes have been Sodomites; and yet he cannot err: all of them have been ambitious Symonists; and yet he cannot err: Some have mixed poison with the Sacrament; (and so, if there were any such thing as transubstantiation, had poisoned Christ himself) and yet he cannot err: Some have been Heretics condemned by their successors; and yet he cannot err: Some have been Sorcerers and Necromancers; and yet he cannot err: He must not be reproved, though he should carry millions of souls to hell; and yet he cannot err: One was a woman; and yet he cannot err: sometimes there have been Popes and Antipopes together; and yet he cannot err: sometime none at all for diverse years together; & then only he could not err. Behold your Religion, your Faith, your Church, your God in this your Pope, O Catholics: Poore souls, who bear so great adventure in so leaking a bottom! If these things be so (and many here present know them undoubtedly to be so) may we not wonder that so many are seduced upon these grounds? but more, that this heresy should daily gather strength and number, and what the reason should be of the increase of Popery? We have good laws against them, but they (like our arms) lie up and rust. What, do we not still smell the gunpowder, beyond which is Terra incognita, no man knowing what is between it and hell? do we not know that for these sixty years and more, they have laboured of nothing so much as the undoing of their dearest country, which bred and bore them? Blessed be God, we have the law in our hands: for had they it in theirs, their little finger would be heavier upon us, than our whole body is upon them. Judges complain for want of information: what, have the Justices none in their divisions? or do their lands lie too near together? some others complain, they have promoted, and nothing done. Well, I beseech you, all join to put those laws in execution: but (alas!) they are put rather to execution, like those excellent proclamations against Priests and Jesuits; which once proclaimed, no more is done, but to nail them to a post, and there they hang like malefactors. But remember, I beseech you all, that Sarah and her son can have no security, unless Hagar and her brat be beaten out of doors. Superstitious Papists will not obey the law of God, nor the King's law; therefore Let them have judgement without delay.  
Secondly, God's law and the Kings is violated by blasphemous swearing. Our land hath mourned by plague, pestilence, and famine; and why not for oaths? is there any thing dearer to God, than his name? hath he not set a penalty upon the breach of this commandment more than upon any other? and yet how savagely and barbarously is it kicked, spurned, tossed, and blasphemed by all sorts, from Nobles to Peasants! I see and observe that Noblemen and Gentlemen, give over any fashion when it grows common: oh that they would give over swearing, seeing every clown and carter, every ostler and tapster will swear completely. We know also the King's law against this sin; but men will not see it executed, but will suffer that infamy put upon God's name, that they will not endure in their own. What, my good name, saith every one? oh, you touch my freehold: nay, men will not endure their Father, Master, or Friend to be touched in his name, but will draw their swords in the quarrel: and is not God's name as dear to him, as thine to thee? or is not God more to thee, than Friend, Master, or Father? Suffer not then so great dishonour done to his name; but carry every oath to the Justice, and let him pay his twelve pence, a petty penalty indeed for so great a sin, but yet if duly executed, I presume by this time many great men had been reform, or else sworn out of all their living. But alas (say some) the Justices themselves will swear sometimes: Oh! say not so: what the keepers of the vines not to keep their own vines? to be the guardians of the King's law, and themselves to be breakers of it? I dare not entertain such a thought of many of them: but if any do break this law, I charge him upon his oath to execute the law upon himself; seeing he never swears, but in the hearing of a Justice of peace. To end this point, I can never sufficiently bewail the misery of the present and succeeding generation, seeing now oaths do even strive for number with words, and children in the streets can no sooner speak then swear. To all swearers therefore I say, Why will ye hazard Gods threatened displeasure for a sin so needless, and yet so dangerous? To others I say, suffer none to vomit and belch out oaths in thy hearing, without penalty of the King's law. Blasphemous swearers do violate God's law and the Kings; therefore Let them have judgement without delay.  
In the next place, Gods and the King's law is broken by profane sabbath-breaking: for God hath placed this commandment between the first and second table, like the common sense between the exterior and interior senses, as being useful to both: for without it, piety to God and charity to man cannot be such as they should. Hence it is that God accounts the profaning his day, the eversion of all religion, as appears in many places. We may conjecture what care man ought to have in the keeping, by the Lords care in the delivery of it, for he sent it not abroad naked, like many of the other commandments; but clothed it (as Joseph) with a garment of diverse colours: it is in words larger, in reasons fuller than any of the rest. First, there is a Memento, for fear of forgetfulness; Remember. Next, the bounty of God, for fear of repining; Six days shalt thou etc. Thirdly, the sovereignty of it, for fear of contemning; It is the sabbath of the Lord etc. Fourthly, the generality of it, for fear of misapplication; Thou, and thy son etc. Fifthly, the Lord's example and benediction, for fear of exception. Thus you see it fortified with an high fence, that it might be made strong for his own self, & like mount Zion, not to be moved. We are not ignorant also of the King's pious laws in force for the observation of it; yet in despite of both, in many places, how do people grudge to give God the seventh part of their life? at least they will encroach a little, having some odd job or other to do on that day: nay, (alas) what marketting, what drinking and bousing, what fiddling and dancing, and generally what profaning this day almost every where is to be seen? in somuch that this day brings forth more sin than any, (I think I may say) than all the days of the week: and if any Turk or Pagan should come into many places among us, & ask the reason why we leave our work, and wear our best clothes on that day; and answer should be made, We keep this day holy to our God: it were enough to make him forswear Christianity, or giving their names to that God, who is content to be served on such a fashion. But ye know your charge, Let then profane sabbath-breakers also have judgement without delay.  
Lastly, beastly drunkenness is also against Gods and the King's law.  
God's law every where pronounces woes against this sin, denouncing ruin to body, goods, and good name; yea by name excluding drunkards out of his kingdom. The truth is, a drunkard puts himself in the ready way to break every commandment; for when he ceaseth to be himself, he is in a fair possibility to be any thing; for drunkenness never goes alone, but is attended by the black guard of other sins, as oaths, railings, mutinies, quarrels, fightings, murders, chambering, wantonness, ribaldry, adulteries, and what not? so that, in mine opinion, a man must first hoodwink his charity, before it can lead him to believe a drunkard not to be every way vicious: and is it not a common plea with men of this rank, to excuse these and other great sins, by saying, they were not themselves? Thus is it against God's law.  
The King's law hath also wholesomely provided against this overflowing sin, as we know; but yet (maugre them both) with what a deluge of drunkenness is this land overflown? It is grown a sickness Epidemical in court and country, city and town; yea our people are grown artificial and exquisite in this sin, to drink the three out'ts, to drink by the dozen, by the yard, and by the bushel; oh monstrous, even in name! how much more in practice insomuch that it seems to me, the Germans are like to lose their charter. In Rome there was a street called vicus sobrius, because there was never an alehouse in it: I think there is scarce such a street to be found in England. There is a story in Athenaeus, which gives us a lively picture of the behaviour of drunkards at their meetings: The roaring boys, meeting at an alehouse, sat by it drinking so long, till their brains were so steeped, that they imagined the room wherein they were to be a ship tossed in the sea, the fancied storm still increasing as the cups emptied; so that at last they begin to fear shipwreck; wherefore to make the ship lighter they heave the pots, plate, furniture, and all that comes to hand out at the windows, as if it were over board: And thus do good-fellows at these meetings throw the house out at windows, and keep quarter, to the dishonour of Gods and the King's law; and yet the Justice is every where mild, & the drunkard merry: I beseech your Honours therefore charge the Justices to abridge the excessive number of alehouses, the shops of drunkenness, and that they charge the Constable's better to look to the demeanour of the rest.  
And if I may not be heard, let Justice speak; she saith thus, I have heard Popery, swearing, sabbath-breaking, and drunkenness, all convicted as dishonourable to Gods and the King's law; I charge you then, Let them have judgement; otherwise, I take you all guilty of the same offences, though not by committing, yet by conniving. It's true indeed, Every fat shall stand on its own bottom, that is, every one shall answer for his own sins; yet take heed, lest we mistake the account of our own sins; seeing those are not to be reckoned our own only, which are so by perpetration, but those also which are ours by participation.  
Justice calls also for expedition in judgement, and desires that poor men's causes might first be heard, and not put off to the last, for they can worst bear the charge of longer delay: but she complains that the poor man's cause lies like the palsie-man at the pool of Bethesda, where the motion is not made but by an Angel, and so the stronger step in before them.  
I end with one word for myself; in the nineteenth of Deuteronomie, at the fifth verse, the Lord appointing cities of refuge for such to flee unto, who had unawares killed his neighbour, doth instance in the hewer of wood: who (if while he is felling the tree, the head of the axe slippeth from the helve, and striketh his neighbour, so that he dieth) shall flee to the next city of refuge, and live: I have been hewing for the Lords sanctuary, and felling down the huge trees of the sins forenamed: if the head hath slipped from the helve, and hurt any; my next city of refuge is your charitable construction and favourable interpretation. And even so I commit you to God, to whose Majesty let us all pray, that this Assizes may be much advantage; to the honour of God's law and the Kings, Amen.  
FINIS.