A SERMON PREACHED at Hartford Assizes, March 14. 1616.  
BY John Squire, Preacher of God's word in SHOREDITCH.   printer's or publisher's device 
LONDON, Printed by T. S. for Nicholas Bourne, and are to be sold at his shop at the South-entrance of the Royal Exchange. 1618.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL THOMAS NEWCE, Esquire, high-sheriff of the County of HARTFORD; Grace, mercy, and Peace.  
SYR:  
TO excuse myself for writing, is the excuse of all Writers: You know it, I omit it. This Sermon was lately preached before you, now printed for you: your entreaty had the one, your command hath the other. Such as it is: it was in the Ears of some, shall be in the Eyes of others, and God grant it may be in the Hearts of all.  
Yours in the Lord john Squire.   

A SERMON PREACHED AT HARTFORD Assizes, March. 14. 1616.  
I Being unknown in this place, and unexpected of this people, ye may speak that phrase to me, which the King did to his Guest, Matth. 22. 12. Friend how comest thou hither? I answer: I come not from the South, as the Queen of Saba did, 1 Reg. 10. to behold the majesty of your Country, and admire the magnificence of your company: Nor come I from the East, as the wise men did, Mat. 2. 11. to present you with gold, and to bring you golden presents: Neither come I from the West, as the violent wind did, Exod. 10. 19 to blow away the contentious grasshoppers of this corrupt generation: (It must be Virga reformantis, not Verbum informantis, the sword of the potent Magistrate, not the word of the poor Minister, which must bring that noble act to pass.) But I come from whence promotion cometh, Psalm. 75. 6. Neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the South; but from the Lord. From the Lord I come to you, as one of the children of the Prophets did to the Sessions of Israel, 2 Reg. 9 5. I come to bring you a message; Therefore, hearken to me you men of Israel, that God may hearken unto you. I bring you a message from the Lord: the Lord make it honourable unto him, and profitable unto you.  
My message which I bring to you, is part of Moses his message which he brought from Sinai to the people of Israel, as it is written in the 20. chapter of Exodus.  
Exod. 20. vers. 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness 
Text.  against thy Neighbour.  
Would we be perfect Christians? Then must we perform two works of Christianity: our duty to God, and our duty towards man.. Our breaches of the last may be called Legion, for they are many: of many, there are two main ones. We wrong our neighbour either by the Violence of the hand, or by the Virulence of the tongue: The first is inhibited in the precepts praemised, the other is forbidden in the Text: the Text therefore doth teach us, as Saint james speaketh. 3 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to bridle an unbridled evil, to take heed that we offend not with our tongue: and we are bound to obey this precept, by four necessary bonds: Divine, Moral, Natural, Civil. Divinity doth teach that God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that God himself, is the truth itself; and therefore to speak and do the truth, is to burnish the blemished image, and to engrave the character of the divinity in a Christian soul: Our Manners we senceably apprenend inclining to falsehood, every man is a liar, saith the Apostle, Rom. 3. 4. Therefore must this inclination be restrained, by embracing the truth. Nature looketh upon an untruth, as upon some unnatural monster: for Oratio, is oris ratio; the Soul is the Mother, and the Tongue should be the Midwife of Truth: Now for the soul to conceive a truth, and the tongue to bring forth a lie, this is unreasonably unnatural. And for Policy we cannot but know, that it is the disroynting of the body of the commonwealth, if that contracts be not avouched by testimonies, and if every truth be not established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. Behold then the necessity obliging us to the Truth, and Vae mihi si non evangelizavero: Woe be to me, if I speak it not: Woe be to you if you hear it not; and woe be to us all, if we practise it not: A necessity is laid upon us. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, saith my Text.  
I divide my Text as jacob did his company, Gen. 33. 2. into three parts: The person offending, Thou: The person offended, thy Neighbour: and the offence itself, Bearing false-witness. I will invert the order, and put the persons offending hindermost, as jacob did Rachel and her children, lest some rough Esau (before he be appeased) should be angry and smite them, or me for them. I begin with the Offence, Bearing false witness: Men do bear false witness two ways: Privately, and Publicly▪ Privately, by ourselves. Publicly, before the Magistrate.  
Private bearing false witness, is a body of sin, which I divide into five members:  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Slandering.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Railing.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, talebearing.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Flattery.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Lying.  
I may term these five sins, the five fingers of Satan; for whosoever is tainted with them, undoubtedly the Devil hath a great hand over him.  
1 Slandering is both active and passive: Active, when men are reprovers of their neighbours by slanders. Passive, when they are approvers of the slanderers, by hearing them. Both are forbidden in this Text; for the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, gnanah, signifieth both to speak, as it is translated in the Text, and to hear, Psalm 143. 1. and both are comprised in the 15. Psalm. Verse: 3. that man shall dwell with the Lord, who slandereth not with his tongue, nor receiveth a false report against his neighbour. Whence Bernard shaped his sentence, Non essent qui detraherent, si non adessent qui audirent: that is, where there are no Receivers, there no thieves will be: and stop thou the ear of thine own affection, do not hear slanders, and thou shalt muzzle the mouth of detraction; few will dare to speak slanders. And reason have we to perform it: because the Devil is the grand-slanderer, the father of slanderers, the grandfather of slanderers: he is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an accuser, a slanderer: whence it is well said, if two men be (in communication) one speaking, and the other hearing slanders, they are both possessed; the devil is in the ear of the one, and in the tongue of the other. And indeed it is my hearty unfeigned wish, that both the Speakers and Hearers of slanders, might be Zimri and Cosbi, that both might be smote through with one sword of the Magistrate at one season.  
2 The second sin is Railing: Railers are open as Slanderers are secret adversaries of men's reputation: the one underminers, the other assailers of thy good name: He a ziba, this a Shemei. Railing, or (as the Scripture phrase is) Blasphemy, Leuit. 24. 11. is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Killel, of Kalel, perforare, to stab or smite through, answerable to the phrase of the psalmist, who styleth words, swords; implying that Railers stab at the very life of our credit. Happy were we, had we an Abishai, a Magistrate, who would and could take away the heads of these dead dogs; that Railers might no more bark against the honest name of their honest neighbours.  
3 talebearing is the next: talebearers tell (though) the truth (yet) untruly or untimely: and therefore are in truth, false-witnesses. Levit. 19 16. Thou shalt not walk about with tales amongst my people: This was a Law in Israel, would God it were so in England also. S. Paul doth point at these men, 2 Tim. 5. 33. they are saith he, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, never busy at home, ever busy, overbusy abroad. Such are like Sampsons' Foxes, they carry fire with their tails, to set the whole world in a combustion. Oh that we English, could deal with these Foxes, as the Welsh men did with their Wolves! that we could pluck off their skins, till they were extinct, and not one left in a whole nation.  
4 Flattery is the fourth: Slanderers, Railers, and talebearers, Bear false-witness to thee against others: Flatterers, bear false-witness to thee against thyself. Therefore do thou as God doth, hate them. Psal. 12. 3. God threateneth to cut off flattering lips: These are mercenary wretches. Flatterers prostrate themselves, thereby to suck out private advantage. As jehonadab, 2 Sam. 13. did prostitute his service, to be the shameless instrument of Ammon's shameful lust, that so he might insinuate himself into the favour of the young Prince.  
These are like false Looking-glasses, they make men to appear to themselves to be younger, fairer, and comelier, than indeed they are: and they have one true property of false Looking-glasses, Flatterers hurt our Eyes, that we cannot see ourselves. If my sentence might stand, I would censure such unto the doom of Adonibezecke, judges 1. 7. Their toes should be cut off, that they might go to none: their hands should be cut off, that they might lay hold of none: and they should gather their crumbs under men's tables: they fawn like dogs, let them feed like dogs: Flattery is a work meriting such a wages.  
5 Lying is the last limb of the Devil: This devilish vice hath been abhorred by all good men at all times. Cyprian in his Treatise against Gamesters, doth build his invection against Dicers, upon 
De Aleatoribus pag. 532.  this ground: because gaming did occasion mandram medaciorum, a world of lies. Lactantius pronounceth 
Epit. c. 6.  all lies impious, because (saith he) every lie, aut nocet, aut fallit, doth either hurt us, or deceive us. Augustine doth retract, even Ironies, 
Retract. l. 1. 6. 1.  Rhetorical figures, only because they had the appearance of lying: it repent him of the petty 
Confess. l. 1. c. 19  excuses which he made to his Parents being a child, and to his School master being a boy: and in his Epistle to Vincentius he calleth Truth, 
Epis. 48. Vincen.  the Character of a Christian, and saith, that a holy man dare not tell a lie. And doubtless all these holy men cursed this sin out of the mouth of the holy one of Israel, lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, saith Solomon, Prou. 12. 22. And most justly, for this is the jeroboam that made Israel to sin; all private and public breaches of this precept, issue from this fountain, Lying. Wherefore blessed were that Commonwealth, which would make this common vice like Ahab, leaving not one liar to piss against the wall: and his yoke-fellow equivocation, like jezabel, breaking the neck of that sin, though the face thereof be painted, and an impious vice, cloaked with many godly pretences.  
These are Private false witnesses, but the Public is the principal offender against this precept: Of him more fully in the end of this exercise: Hear only take notice that the false-witness, will not go to hell alone, but hath many attendants. There are six accessories ●nto this Principal: three before the act, and after the act there are three guilty of Bearing false witness. Before false witness is given, men may be accessaries thereunto praecipiendo persuadendo, & consulendo, that is, by commanding, persuading, and by counciling any to bear false witness. First, by commanding, either directly, as 2 Sam. 12. 9 Nathan told David that he had killed Vriah, when as he only commanded joab to kill him: otherwise indirectly, when the superior doth authorize inferiors, who are corrupt, Prou, 26. 8. As a man that putteth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth authority to a fool. If I put a stone into the sling of one, intending to brain his neighbour, I am guilty of that murder: so the Magistrate authorizing a corrupt man, he is author of that corruption. Next, to persuade any unto falsehood, is a communicating of that crime, especially by that real persuasion, Bribery; so Mat. 28. 12. did the jews give large Money to the soldiers to testify falsely against the resurrection of our Saviour. And by counciling men contract the same guilt, as did the same jews in the same place, Mat. 28. 15. who taught the soldiers how to answer the Magistrate's interrogatories. Thus by commanding, directly or indirectly, by persuading, or by counciling, many men be accessary unto false-witness, before the testimony may be tendered. Afterwards they may be accessary, as many ways: Connivendo, consentiendo, defendendo, that is, by connivence, or winking at it; by consenting & approving it; by defending and excusing it. Those that wink at faults are faulty themselves; This was Elies' case in another cause, 1 Sam. 3. 13. because his sons ran into a slander, and he stayed them not, therefore the hand of the Lord was heavy upon him. So the Magistrate, who doth but suspect false-witness, or any falsehood, let him look forward to prevent it, otherwise connivence may make him fall backward; Eli is a dreadful example. Consent also contracteth the guilt, be it either expressed by plain partaking with impiety, as Psalm. 50. 18. or be it suppressed, as Proverb. 24. 11. 12. Deliver them that are drawn to death: if thou sayest, we know not of it, shall not he that pondereth the heart understand it? Not only tendering, but also not hindering of false-witness is a breach of this commandment. Finally, excuse the act, and thou thyself dost act the sin which thou excusest, for woe be unto them which speak good of evil, and evil of good, Isay 5. 20. Conclude we then that connivence, consent or defence, make men accessary to false-witness, though performed. By this I have opened many maladies, one word containeth one medicine for all of them: that one word in the Ephes. 4. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, To speak and do the truth. This word, is like the word made flesh, Mat. 4. 23. it healeth every sickness, and every disease among the people. To Plaintise and Defendant, to judge and jury, to councillor and Advocate, to Witness and to All, magna est veritas & praevalet; Great is the Truth— and God grant it may prevail with all of them for evermore.  
The person offended is our Neighbour: our Neighbour hath a double signification; either it is taken particularly for an adjoining acquaintance, as Luk. 1. 58. Neighbours are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, men who have their houses near together: Or it is taken generally for every man, as Luk. 10. 37. the Samaritane is termed the wounded man's neighbour, each being an undoubted stranger unto the other. In this Text it is used in the second sense, a Neighbour, signifying any man, as Math. 5. 43. our Saviour doth argue the gloss of the Pharisees, as corrupt, for restraining the word Neighbour, to signify a Friend only.  
The Doctrine of which point doth spread itself into two branches. First Christians must have a care and conscience that they bear false-witness against no man: not following the phrase of Lucilian in Lactantius, Homini amico & familiari mentiri non est meum; It is not (saith he) my guise to lie unto my friend, nor bear false-witness against my acquaintance. But, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour; that is, against no man, saith my Text. Again, we must yield true witness unto all men. Unlike the Athenians, who were wont to pray only for themselves, and for their neighbours of Chios: so for a Christian to give true witness only to whom he is enforced by Law, or engaged by nature, this is Athenian, uncircumcised, and heathenish. Both these Christian duties are confirmed by Christ himself, Math. 5. 45. Be ye children of your Father that is in heaven, for he maketh the Sun to rise both on the good and on the evil; and be a true witness unto thy neighbour; that is, to every one under the Sun, saith my Text.  
Would God that this instruction were as usual as it is beneficial. Behold here a Cynosura, a loadestarre, to guide our conscience, in the proposing and composing of all controversies; especially laying the foundation on that ground of religion, Math. 22. 39 love thy neighbour as thyself. If the Lord would please to infuse it into the hearts of all men, that judge, jury, Solicitor, Counsellor, Advocate, Witness, Accuser, that every one would esteem the Accused as himself: this would make all men to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be Peace keepers, and peace makers; to use a Conscience in accusing his Neighbour; Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself: this is a principle in Nature, God give us Grace to follow it.  
Many persons offending are comprised in the first word, Thou: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Here the hearer may preach to the Preacher, and say to me, Physician cure thyself; and do not Thou bear false-witness. For false-witness 
Augustin. Retr. 224.  we do bear, when we make our Sermons like the Manna (in the jewish fable) to give a several taste, answerable to each several appetite: Such humorous humouring Sermons, the Lord doth execrate out of the mouth of jeremy, 6. 14. They have healed the hurt of my people with sweet words: And how they healed that hurt, Cyprian doth express, 
Cypr de Lapsis sect. 12.  by an excellent comparison: Soothing Preachers are like unskilful Chirurgeons, who softly touch the wound on the outside, thereby making it to fester the more dangerously in the inside. A fit resemblance: Who obscrueth not that the smooth tongue of the Preacher, maketh an impostumed heart of the hearer? Sensible of which sin was holy Augustine, when he cried to God to 
Aug. Conf. 6. 6.  pardon the sins of his youth, but especially this; that being young he did Preach, non ut doceret, sed ut placeret: to delight the ear, rather than to smite the heart of the congregation. Let me therefore begin this point with the words of that holy man, being an ancient and penitent Preacher: 
August. de Vir. Relig. cap. 55.  Horror itaque vos omnes charissimi, meque ipsum hortor vobiscum: I exhort you, first framing the same exhortation to myself! O my soul, do not Thou bear false-witness: Be thou like S. Paul, Ephes. 6. 20. speak thy message boldly, yet speak as thou oughtest to speak.  
First therefore, the honourable judges are humbly to be entreated for God's cause, that they will bear true witness in Man's cause. I acknowledge myself an unworthy instructor of them, and their calling: to them therefore I Preach not, but propound a Preacher answerable to their place; a Prince, Preaching unto judges, 2 Chron. 19 6. & 7. Take heed what ye do; for ye execute not the judgement of man, but of the Lord. Take heed, for with the Lord there is neither respect of persons, nor receiving of rewards. Verbum sapienti, an excellent Sermon in two words: There must be neither respect of persons, nor receiving of rewards. This is Iehoshaphats Sermon: I do only (this day) rehearse it to your ears, the Lord repeat it every day unto your hearts.  
Nevertheless, although Elisha be good, yet may Gehazi be bad: Naaman sueth to be cured of his leprosy (to have some controversy ended) which hath stuck to him, and his, for a long season; Noble Elisha biddeth him to wash in jordan, informeth him in the honest easy means to heal him: only Mr. Gehazi must have a talent of silver; some silver, Memorandum, for admission, or for expedition, A certain fellow had one squint eye, and the other smote out: here-hence, one said unto him, thou hast two eyes, but unum ncquam, alterum nequaquam, with one eye thou dost see ill, with the other thou dost not see at all. Historians say that some Magistrates have been attended by some such servants. The Client cometh to one servant, he is nequaquam, he cannot see to help him: he craveth favour from another, and he is nequam, he will not see to admit him— unless it be through a pair of silver spectacles. These are Gehazies! O that it were in my power to bequeath them the blessing of Elishai! That Servant to a judge, that Clerk to a justice, or that Deputy to a Sheriff, who shall (be a false witness) sell his neighbour's cause, and his masters credit, for a reward, let the Leprosy of Gehazi cleave to him for ever: Would God the worm of conscience might never cease gnawing their guilty souls, till they have made speedy restitution, and open confession.  
The great wheel in this Clock of wickedness, is the Plaintiff, or Accuser: Who (though his cause be good, yet) if he prosecute it for hatred, like Doeg, or for covetousness, like jezabel, then dare I boldly say to such a man, Thou dost bear false-witness against thy neighbour. But the Salamander, who loveth to live in the fire of contention, he is a false-witness in an high degree. As Ferdinando Lopez adviseth ambitious Princes to war eight or ten years with one neighbour; then to pick a quarrel with another, lest use instruct the former to be as cunning as himself: Such a politician is many a Plaintiff, who doth force his quiet neighbour into a forced unquietness, by turns, to arm himself for the wicked war of continual contention. In this cause my prayer in general, is, that the Magistrates might be like the Aramites, 1 Reg. 22. 34. that they would bend the whole force of justice against (this Ahab) this man, who troubleth all Israel: And in particular my unfeigned prayer is, that heaven would enable my unworthy self to be that Archer, 1 Reg. 22. 34. that ignorantly I might smite some such quarreling wretch, though he have his harness on, and cometh with a seared conscience to this congregation.  
These have two main assistants: the Supporters, and the Reporters of their cause: councillors who speak to them in private, and Advocates who plead for them in public. I honour the Law, and will instruct them concerning their souls, as from my soul I desire they should instruct me concerning my estate: where I suspect an ill case, I will tell it plainly. Let that imputation laid upon the Romish Lawyers, be as far from ours, as Rome is from England. Thus wrote Hildebert Bishop of Mentz, of the Roman court: employ them in your causes, and they delay them: employ them not, and they hinder them. If you solicit them, they scorn you: if you every them they forget you. Never may this language of Canaan be understood in our land of Israel. Rather what Possidonius reporteth of Augustine, let that be reported of all good Lawyers: he would rather lose his friend; and in the name of God, let these rather lose their fee, than conceal the truth. And let every conscionable Lawyer know, that if he advise in a bad cause, at God's bar that same Client shall appeach him to be Eve, that he gave the apple, that his council opened the way to the forbidden fruit: and as a preamble to God's hate, he shall first incur man's hate, he that saith to the wicked, thou art righteous, him shall that people curse, Prou. 24. 24. Wherefore let me once council the Councillor, of all other: Do not thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.  
Neither can the conscience of the Advocate plead for himself that he is good, if his tongue doth plead for a cause which his conscience knoweth to be bad. If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were not impossibilities: Oh that the noble soul of Papinianus lived in the bosom of our English Advocates. When Antoninus had made away his brother Geta, after the first year of their joint Empire, he entreated Papinianus (a famous Lawyer) to plead his excuse: Whose answer was like himself, Noble; It is easier said he, parricidium facere, quam excusare: to do wickedly, then to excuse the wickedness: Thou mayest (said he) command my neck to the Block, but not my tongue to the Bar: I prise not my life to the pleading of an ill cause. Behold a Pagan man, but a pattern to Christians: and christianity will compel worthy Advocates to imitation: for he that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, are both an abomination to the Lord, Prou. 17. 15. Therefore as the boy every day cried unto King Philip of Macedonia, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Remember that thou art a man: So is it my hearty wish, that whensoever the Advocate is beginning to plead, that then the spirit of God would whisper unto his soul, the words of my Text. Take heed, now: Do not thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.  
Other accessaries unto false witness, may be Bailiffs and under-sheriffs. Some have been suspected, (I would it were a suspicion only,) that Writs being sent into the country, have been entertained by these officers, as the Ephramites were by the Gileadites, judg. 12. 6. If they cannot pronounce Shibboleth, but shibboleth: if there be but a syllable wanting in the word, but a quadrine in the gratification; they cannot pass, they die for it, they must go no further. Now these men do hinder true witness, and thereby come within the compass of false witness. And indeed, such as do hinder the Law from execution, happy were it, if the Law would put them to execution. To every one of them therefore, let me cry again, and again, as loud as thunder (for they dwell near Catadupa: these men are very deaf of that ear:) let me I say cry again, and again, to every one of them, as loud as thunder: Do not thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.  
The jury also may be the instruments of false witness. The jury should be like the Disciples, Luk. 10. 5. wheresoever they come, they should say, peace be to this house: but sometimes they are like the Apostles, joh. 6. 70. they are twelve in number, but one of them is often (too often) a Devil, a devilish judas, who will betray the cause, betray the country, and betray the company, for filthy lucre. Would you know him by his badge? he usually beareth the bag, and Bribery is his master. I heard of a wretch who sued that authority might flicke him on a jury, that so he might stick to his friend: if the Magistrate would stick such a Pagan, as Ehud did stick Eglon, judge 3. 21. he had a right recompense of reward. To prevent this unchristian insolency, injury, perjury, to each of the jury I must propound a new Text, the third Commandment. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain: Let the jury note only that one phrase, if they swear and forswear, God will not hold them guiltless. Let the punishment of the third precept be their admonishment for the ninth precept: You are to swear by God, and before God; therefore as you tender an oath, and tremble at God's wrath, I charge you upon the peril of your souls, let you Verdict shun this rock: Do not bear false witness against thy Neighbour.  
Hitherto have I mustered out an army of rebels against this precept, yet remaineth the King behind: he is like Saul, 1 Sam. 10. 22. he will hide himself as ashamed of his dignity: Notwithstanding pluck him out, and you shall find him (indeed like Saul) higher than all the premised offenders by the shoulders upward. This vassal of sin, and vessel of Satan, is named in the express phrase of my Text; A false-witness is this man, this monster of men, a Knight of the Post, who doth post to perdition: a mischievous miscreant, execrable to all men and narions. A false witness is dragged to damnation by a threefold gable of wickedness; he is guilty of breach of justice, of justifying a Lie, and of (the sin of sins) Perjury, saith Aquinas; and therefore most worthily execrated. The Israelites punished such by a Tali●, limb for limb, and life for life: what he intended to offer by his falsehood, the same was he judged to suffer for his falsehood. The Romans censured a convicted false-witness to be plunged head long 
Zanchi. tom. 4. lib. 1. pag. 193.  from the steep mountain Tarpeia. Excellent laws; no fault but this, they are not in force with us in England. The holy ghost doth display this infidel in (yet) more lively colours. Pro. 25. 18 A false witness is compared to an Hammer, a sword and a sharp arrow. First for himself, because he having once cracked his credit (and being known for false and for sworn by him that hired him) like to those iron instruments, he becometh hard, and putteth on a harlot's face: shameless of Perjury.  
Moreover, there are three several persons are smote by his false tongue, three several ways, answerably to those three instruments: first a false witness is an Hammer to the judge, he doth astonish him (as if one man should smite another in the head with an hammer,) so that he knoweth not what to determine. Next he is a sword to him that hired him, he encourageth him with hope to vanquish his adversary the second time by his purse, and putteth a sword into his hand to kill the innocent. Finally he is a sharp arrow to him against whom he doth witness, (though that man be least in damaged, have he but grace to be patiented) yet to him he is a sharp arrow, to stick in his life, estate, reputation. To conclude: I say of a false-witness, he is an Ahab, a villain, who hath sold himself to work wickedness in the fight of the Lord: And I say to a false-witness, as Simon Peter, did to Simon Magus, Acts 8. 23. and 22. Thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, pray unto God,— if so be— that the wickedness of bearing false witness may be forgiven thee.  
And thus have I ripped up this excellent Text, and it may be some impious conscience also. We see the disease, what medicine remaineth to cure it? The ordinary means is this: to make the Sermon, like the Preacher. The Preacher: you see me to day, I go away, and most of you shall never see me any more: So for the Sermon, you have heard it to day; it goeth away, and many (I am afraid too many) of you will never think on it again. This is the usual medicine: not so much as to think on the Sermons which goad our guilty conscience. But beware, it is desperate Physic, it is Opium, it will cast you into a dead sleep, that you shall drop into Hell, before you so much as dream of damnation.  
Give me leave therefore to prescribe another: Indeed it is a corrosive, but sovereign notwithstanding. Let this time transport our souls to meditate one another time: Now you see one judge, the time will come when we must come before another: one whom we believe will come to judge both the quick and the dead. As now the trembling malefactor is led out with a dismai●d soul, to behold the dreadful aspect of the severe death-sentencing Magistrate: so than the guilty conscience shall be haled forth by thousands of ministering flames of fire, to appear before that judge whose face is Majesty, and frown confusion: Do but think upon this; the very thought of it will compel the Preacher to instruct boldly, the judge to determine justly, the Servant to inform honestly, the Plaintiff to accuse uprightly, the Counsellor to advise wisely, the Advocate to plead warily, the under-officers to execute law impartially, the jury to give their Verdict sincerely, the witness to swear fearfully, and give evidence truly: and all of us to live conscionably. We are before one judge, we shall be before another: The Lord grant that we may so discharge our duties this day, that we be not afraid to appear before that Great judge at the last day. Amen.  
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FINIS.