The Regulating of lawsuits, EVIDENCES, and PLEADINGS. AN ASSIZE-SERMON preached at Carmarthen, March the 16th. 1656. By William THOMAS Vicar of Laughorn. Inter legesipsas delinquitur, inter jura peccatur. Innocentia non illie ubi defenditur, reservatur. D. Cypr. lib. 2. Ep. 2. LONDON, Printed at the request of some eminent Auditors: Sold by Gabriel Bedell and T. Collins, at the Middle-Temple-gate in Fleetstreet. 1657. ERRATA. Pag. 4. in the margin, for proct. read pract. Pag. 8. lin. 19 read {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Pag. 10. in the marg. read {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Pag. 25. in the marg. for Passio, read jussio. Pag. 29. lin. 21 and 23. read Vatterotz and Vatteretz. AN ASSIZE-SERMON preached at CARMARTHEN, March the 16th. 1656. Exod. 20. vers. 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Laws are like fences, that serve for bounds, and for restraints. Tully calls the Law a Tul. de leg. l. 3. dumb Magistrate, and the Magistrate a speaking Law. As the Magistrate doth rule and sway the people, so the Law doth rule and sway the Magistrate. The Almighty God (whose actions are our patterns) hath prescribed a Law unto himself. This is the first, and properly called the Law eternal. And as the Divine wisdom of the Creator hath set a rule and measure to his own actions, so he hath ordained the like to his Creatures. This is either an unwritten, or a written Law, (to borrow Plato's distinction.) The most famous unwritten Law is that of Nature; which Justinian extends Iust. Iur. Civ. l. 1. ●. 2. to all living creatures, but the Schoolmen confine to mankind, taking it for that which the Civilians term the Law of Nations. Aquinas defines the Law of Nature to be, the Aquin. 1●. 2ae. q. 91. a. 4. participation of the eternal Law in the reasonable creature. Not to describe, to enwrap it in a cloud; the Law of Nature is, a judgement naturally engrafted in our hearts, for the discerning of good and evil. This is the sovereign Rule, the polestar for the Heathens. For if the Gentiles which have not a Law, do Rom. 2. 14. by nature the things contained in the Law, they having not a Law, are a Law unto themselves. Justinian mentions three Precepts cast in this justit. Iur. Civ. l. 1. tit. 1. mould: to live honestly, to hurt no man, to render to every man his own. But our blessed Saviour recites the most renowned law of nature, even in the judgement of Heathen Sages, so much magnified by Severus the Emperor, that he commanded it to be engraven in his Palace; Whatsoever you would that Matth. 7. 12. men should do unto you, do you even so to them. Nature itself prompts us this equality, indifferently to shift the scenes; to look upon our own actions with that rigour, as if they were another man's, and upon another man's actions with that candour, as if they were our own. But because this Law was not sufficient to bridle the disorderly passions of wicked men, God hath seconded and reinforced it with divers written laws to his people. The 1. for the deciding of their controversies. This was the judicial Law, raised to the Meridian of Jewry, framed to the Climate of Palestine (which as to other nations may indifferently be abrogated, or retained.) The second for the regulating of their rituals, the ordering of their circumstantials in Religion. This was the ceremonial Law of Moses; not to be mingled, blended with the Evangelical doctrine, (as the Ebionites heretically asserted) not to be observed or approved under the Gospel. The Synagogue is solemnly interred, the judicial Law dead, the ceremonial deadly. The third sort, the moral law (the practical test, the rule for conversation) is not yet destitute of life, or vigour. The gospel gives no bill of divorce to this law, unstings only, but not unsinews it; acquits believing repenting souls from the curse, not the observance; from the penalty, not the duty of it. This moral law is of eternal force, being comprised in the ten Commandments, which Melanchthon accounts the law of nature rightly expounded. These are not to be engraven in tables of stone only, not in tables of brass, (as the laws of Solon were;) but to be imprinted in the tables of our hearts, to be copied out in our lives. I shall at this time (by God's gracious assistance) take into consideration one distinct branch of it. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Before I treat of the matter of the prohibition, I shall offer at a cursory survey of the manner of the expression; like a limmer, that frames a rude draught of his work, before he draws out the several lineaments in full proportion. That dreadful judge, who will require of us an account for every idle word, dictate's none himself. Though there were many thousands of Israelites present, yet the charge is framed in the singular number (Thou) not in a loose generality prescribed to all, lest in a loose neglect it be observed by none. This denotes the divine mercy, That he vouchsafes to take care of every man in particular; and chalks out our duty, That every man in particular make application of God's law to his own conscience, as a compass to steer by, as a rule to live by. The Charge is in a future severe tenor, (Thou shalt.) This imports the perpetuity of the obligation, & the authority of it. It was proclaimed with thunder, and accented with lightning. If our obedience to God's Law be not active, it shall be passive. If his commandment be not punctually observed, his judgement shall be sharply inflicted; it shall and must be endured. This Law is Negative: not an Edict, an Injunction limited with opportunities, conveniencies, to allay its rigour; but an Interdict, a Prohibition, that admits no dispensation of time or place, to mince, or qualify it. This Prohibition serves as a glass to present the Mufculus. uncomely complexion of the soul, it's unholy disposition, a swing, a bent to false testimonies. Other offences are sorted, severed among the sons of men, but this is communicable to all. Every man a liar, Rom. 3. 4. (at least in a corrupt, vehement inclination of a heart unregenerated.) To proceed. Our English translation is too low & flat (Thou shalt not bear:) it is in the original lo tagnaneh, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} thou shalt not answer a false testimony. It abates the lustre, the credit of a disadvantageous testimony (against a neighbour,) for to be voluntary. An evidence that is commodious (Behooveful) may (in some cases) be tendered; but if discommodious, it Ioh. P. de Fer. in proct. For. jur. Test. ought to be required: it is justified only by an interrogatory, to be cited, required, examined. That discovery which sounds an unmeet detraction, a dart of slander at the Table, may amount to a meet deposition, a fit Evidence at the Bar. In the one case the rule of Charity debars it, in the other case the rule of justice warrants it. It is not expressed, Thoushalt not bear witness at all, but Thoushalt not bear false witness. Courts of judicature are not abrogated, condemned in my text; but directed, regulated. If no evidence could be produced, no innocence might be defended, no justice executed. Whilst God brands and forbids a false testimony, he allows, enjoins a true. My Text explodes a false testimony expressly at the first blush that is pernicious, but secondarily, consequently, a false testimony that is officious also. An Evidence is not to be biased by favour, but truth. It is tainted not by the damage which accrewes to another, but the falsehood which the witness himselfutters. As the expression of the Act, so of the Object challengeth our consideration, recommended by a propriety of relation, Thy neighbour. There is much emphatical Divinity in pronouns. The relation itself is presented in the widest latitude of sense, though the softest dress for language. Reang, a friend, a neighbour. A name that is a charm of truth. This expression endears, but restrains not. A Neighbour, not for nearness of place, of situation; but of nature, of constitution. According to the father's gloss, Every man is a neighbour to every Omni homini proximus omnis homo, S. Aug. man. I have thus broken the shell, the better to discern the kernel in my Text. I shall not critically enlarge any niceties of observations on the words, lest I be censured, like Antoninus Pius, to be a cutter of cummin-seed; or to deal with my Text, as the Levite {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. did with his Concubine, to divide it in pieces: But I shall humbly conduct your attention from the manner Iudg. 19 29. of the expression, to the matter of the Prohibition. The offence forbidden is a false testimony; which is branched out to be extrajudicial, or judicial. I shall entirely wave an extrajudicial false testimony in discourse, without the pale of justice, and shall confine my meditation to a judicial false testimony, as most suitable to the occasion of this present assembly. God grant the meditation may be as profitable as it is seasonable. Deus faciat tam commodum quam accommodum. S. Aug. 1 Kings 18. vers. 44. This judicial false testimony at the first view is not unlike the little cloud kenned by Eliah's servant; but it will spread like that cloud which quickly darkened the heaven. This will eclipse the whole orb, the Court of judicature, and shower down drops of guilt to every corner of it: it extends to the injustice of the Cause, to the injustice of the Evidence, to the injustice of the Pleading, to the injustice of the Verdict, to the injustice of the Decree, to the injustice of the Record. As many of these parts as the time will conveniently permit, are the boundaries of my present meditations. This is a varied gradation of transgression, a Climax, a ladder of sin: not like Jacob's, that reached from earth to heaven, for blessed angels ascending and descending; but a ladder it is that reacheth from earth to hell, for lewd men descending in their corruptions, for damned Spirits ascending in their temptations. The first Round in this ladder is, the injustice of the cause. A Generation of men there is, who with more grains of zeal than knowledge disallow all Courts of judicature, all suits of Law without distinction, without moderation. Whose inconsiderate tenet is like a desperate chemical pill, that worketh not on the humours, but the spirits; that purgeth out of the body politic, not corrupt manners, but precious laws. It were piety exhaled, refined to frenzy, holiness strained to madness. This were to sacrifice sheep to wolves, to invite those wolves to worry them; to open a gap to profaneness, to licentiousness; to encourage, to tempt all exorbitancies of tumults, of rapines, of murders; to leave the innocent (in the eye of man) without defence, or redress, and the violent without check or control. It is truly alleged, Vengeance is God's prerogative; and it is as truly replied, that he executes it not only immediately, by himself, but mediately also, by his Vice gerent the Magistrate (supreme and subordinate.) He is God's Deacon, to officiate for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Rom. 13. 4. him in the administration of justice; the fort of good men, to secure them from the assaults and outrages of the evil. He bears not the sword in vain: the Same v. 4. sword being the emblem, the rhetoric of greater punishments, as the rod of less; to which end both were carried before the Roman Consuls. In the one Camer. in Or. pro Flacco. and the other the Ordinance is Divine, but the exercise human: God only can empower, man may execute it. But not to screw this string too far. Though the lawfulness of Magistrates and tribunals may clearly, abundantly be vindicated, demonstratively maintained, yet lawsuits are not indefinitely and peremptorily to be justified; unless we will run counter with the Apostle, There is utterly a fault among you, that you go to law one with another. 1 Corinth. 6. 7. The scandal of the Church at that time, the reflection upon Christian religion, in exposing it by lawsuits to the censure of unbelievers, is recited in the former verse (as Theophylact observes:) but in this 7. v. the Apostle condemns the action itself, (being not rightly qualified) displays its guilt in the fullest dimensions. Some Divines start a criticism to Melan. in 1 Cor. 6. mince it, That it is not expressed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a default, but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a defect, a diminution, a lessening of Christian perfection, an impotency, a frailty: whereas both Greek words appear in the same uncomely hue, in the same unholy strain, Rom. 11. 12. There is an enhancing aggravation prefixed by the Apostle: It is utterly a fault. An error, according to the Arabic, a sin, according to the Syriac Translation. The softness of the Greek word savours of the sweetenings of the Apostles style, not of the abating of the sin at Corinth. If we render this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a defect, it is a want of humility, of charity in most men: This defect will amount to a full default. This diminutive, this lessening of grace (without special caution) will administer fuel to the increasing of sin. This impotency, this spice of weakness will quickly be heightened to impiety, to a strain of wickedness, to be subdued by a man's own passions, to be a captive to a solemn revenge. Moses entirely canceled private revenge, but Levit. 19 18. Christ warily restrains the public: You have heard it hath been said, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Matth. 5. 38. The law talionis of returning like for like, wherein the sin was made a pattern for the doom, (a law established among the Jews, approved by the twelve Exod. 21. 24, 25. Tables, eminently reputed, & anciently practised by Arist. 5. Eth. Gell. At. N. l. 20. Justin. l. 4. tit. 4. de injuriis. many nations,) did not allow the parties themselves to carve out their own reparation, but the Magistrates only: But our blessed Saviour pronounces a repeal to this judicial Judaical redress, as to the formality of it, not without a check to our fierce rancour, to our eager desire, and pursuit of such rigour; But I say unto you, Resist not evil: not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, according to the Septuagints use of the word, forbids the Matt. 5. 39 Dr. Hamm. in his Annotat. forwardness to prosecute in Law, to implead in judgement. I shall not too confidently press this sense. However it is unquestionably the excellency of Christianity, to overcome evil with good, to conquer violence with patience; as fire is not quenched by fire, but water. As to our saviour's Charge: In no case resist evil with tumult, with force; in all cases resist not evil with Law, with justice. Suits of law are like bitter pills, that ought to be candied with due qualifications. The first is, That the cause we contend in be just. 1. Otherwise we design to abuse a Court of Law, of Equity; to make it a shelter for violence, a sanctuary for mischief, a protection for oppression: we endeavour to render justice itself a Pander for malice, or avarice. A crime of the deepest dye, since a Magistrate is God's Substitute; it is to make God a stale, a cloak for Satan, and, like the Witch of Endor, to present the Devil in Samuel's mantle. The Apostle lays it to the charge of some Christians at Corinth, That they who were injurious, were querulous, contentious. They who oppressed, dedefrauded, yet complained, impleaded. You yourselves do wrong, defraud, and that your brethren. 1 Cor. 6. 8. Oecumenius observes a threefold aggravation: the first, not to be passive, to be contentedly, patiently injured, (mentioned in the former verse;) the second, to be active, to befiercely set to injure (whereas it is better, in the judgement of the wisest Philosopher, Socrates. to suffer wrong, then to offer it; the third aggravation is, (and that to your brethren) to those that are endeared by the same womb, by the same dugs, (the two Testaments.) A link of relation, a charm to chase away the suits of Christians, especially such as are unjust, injurious. Among the Romans, before any Action was suffered to be entered, the Plaintiff was required to swear the Godw. Rom. Ant. l. 3. s. 4. justice of his cause. The Athenian practice was the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} In Arist. Vesp. Schol. same. An unjust cause as it deserves a severe censure, when it is manifested, convicted; so also a speedy repulse, (if possible) not to be admitted. As for the first qualification, the cause ought to 2. be just (no unholy interest;) so for the second qualification, it ought to be substantial, weighty, not for every trivial petty flander, not for every light damage, every slight trespass. The Apostles negative question, (Why do you not 1 Cor. 6. 7. rather take wrong? why do you not suffer yourselves to be defrauded?) amounts to a positive determination. Some indignities, neglects are to be brooked, some injuries, some offences to be smothered, rather than suits of Law are to be prosecuted. In our saviour's first instance of patience, though a personal provocation be tendered (to smite thee on Matth. 5. 39 the one cheek;) yet a hot reparation is not counselled, but a settled composition of mind (to turn the other also:) importing a readiness to receive a second affront, Isid. Pel. l. 2. ep. 6. rather than to revenge the first. In the second instance of patience, (in the next Vers. 40. verse) the scene is expressly laid in judicature (though Beza labours, & wriggles to shift it off else where:) But our English translation is agreeable to that of Erasmus, and the vulgar Latin, and renders the genuine force of the original; And if any will sue thee at the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Is. Casaub. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Law, and take away thy coat (thy meaner, inner garment) let him have thy cloak also (thy better, thy outer {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. garment.) In a case of so inconsiderable importance, as ordinary apparel, better it were to quit a double vestment, then to espouse a single quarrel, then to engage in one suit. Better in point of conscience, as to the next world: perhaps better also in point of prudence, as to this. These instances are not special counsels only, as to the excellency of perfection (in the Romish gloss) but general precepts, as to the sincerity of Religion. Which will afford us this doctrinal Observation, That small wrongs are not commendable, (I had almost said) not warrantable grounds of suits and quarrels. Among the Jews there were peculiar Officers, Deut. 1. 15. Car. Sig. de Rep, Heb. l. 7. 6. 7. (significantly entitled by the Septuagint {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) who were commissioned to admit or reject all causes; without whose approbation, and recommendation to the judges, none were allowed to be determined. Of this use, not without an affinity both in name and nature, were the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} among the Athenians; who were the keys of justice, to lock out Sigon. de Rep. Atheniensi. all frivolous, vexatious suits. These are unholy blemishes, unseemly, unworthy disturbances, and scandals to Christian Courts. As the Cause ought to be just, and weighty, so the 3. mind ought to be calm and serene, not embittered with gall, not clouded with rancour. The defect of the necessary grace of Charity stains 1 Cor. 13. other spiritual virtues, much more temporal jars. Even in a legal contention, when any suit of law is started, by reason of the temptation of Satan, and the corruption of a man's own heart, there is ordinarily a bosom leven of wrath, a spice of secret spleen, which is not destitute of a train of other guilt. Where S. James 3. 16. there is envying and strife, there is confusion, and every evil work: There is perturbation, trouble (as {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Erasmus renders it) according to the original, a discomposure, a disorder of the soul, a tumult of the passions. Certainly he is much damnified by his most successful suit, who gains his cause, (be it his debt, his farm, his patrimony) who yet discards his charity, and consequently forfeits his Christianity. As in suits of law there ought to be no malicious, so no covetous tincture. In the cause propounded to our Saviour, for dividing an inheritance betwixt two brethren, (A cause that, in the judgement of some Expositors, had been bandied in several Courts) at last he that was worsted in all, and injured, having appealed to our Saviour, Christ doth not order a Writ of partition as a judge, but read a lecture of mortification as a Prophet, Take heed & beware of covetousness. According Luke 12. 15. to an ancient Greek edition, according to the Syriac & Vulgar Latin translations, it is, beware of every covetousness. The caution thus rendered is fitly proportioned to the variety of the occasion. Though one brother only were injurious in the eye of the world, yet both (in several strains) were covetous, irreligious in the sight of God. The one unjustly detained what was not his own (his brother's portion, his August. in Ser. 196. moiety;) the other too eagerly pursued what was his own: whose thoughts were more eagerly bent, how to be redressed in his cause, than how to be reclaimed in his soul. Our blessed Saviour diverts, takes off his edge from the interests of possession, to the interests of Salvation. Lastly, though the cause be just, weighty, and conscionable, the mind calm, pure, and charitable in a suit of Law, yet this aught to be the last refuge, That Omnia videntus prius tentanda esse, quam ad judicia disceda mus. P. Mart. in L. Com. cl. 4. there be an endeavour, a private treaty, a trial for peace, before a public jar, a suit, a trial in law. Our bare affection to a reconcilement is not sufficient, without an active solicitation. The Apostles word denotes not a bare following of peace, but an Heb. 12. 14. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. eager pursuing, (not to be waved for the hazard of fortune, offame, oflife itself, in the judgement of Origen.) The motion of most men is fleet from it: but haste towards it, being clogged and fettered with pride and rancour. We cannot unload, unmanacle ourselves, unless before suits of law be commenced, all engines, and expedients for prevention be assayed. As candid Conferences: Both parties are ofttimes bitterly enraged against each other, because they understand not aright each other; they contend, because they converse not. Abraham the more innocent, venerable person, condescended to entreat his inferior Lot (whom he had educated, obliged) to court him with the charm of their relation, with the rhetoric of an Hebraism, Let there be no strife betwixt me and thee, Genes. 13. 8. betwixt my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we are brethren. It was no complemental condescension: he quits not only titular respects, but real advantages also; tenders the option, the choice of the soil, of the right hand or the left, of the North or South, (according to the Chaldee Paraphrase.) They are no sons of Abraham, who will not quit the least grain of respect, the least punctilio of right and advantage; who are devoted to an implacable spleen, wedded to an irreconcilable suit; who with the greatest hate and expense, prosecute the least wrong and interest. If candid conferences, calm discourses be not effectual to conjure out this evil spirit of contention, yet unpartial references may. The Apostles question sounds a reprehension: Is it so? is there not a wise man amongst 1 Cor. 6. 5. you? not one that shall be able to judge betwixt his brethren? Not as touching one empowered to doom, commissioned to sentence; but is there none qualified to discern, to intercede, to arbitrate, that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. private variances be not vainly and unnecessarily improved to public suits? To be resolutely averse from arbitration, be men's causes never so just and pious, argues the spirits of such persons to be peevish, and contentious. They are like Salamanders, that cannot live but in flames of debate. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Suits of Law are their darling delights, and designs. Their badge, Hom. Iliad. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. and at last their entire treasure is a mere bundle of vexatious papers; the character of a frantic person in Theophrastus. But I forbear. This first meditation, Theoph. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. of the injustice of the Cause, hath too far transported me, which being once embraced, (as sin must be fortified by sin) will be seconded by the injustice of the Evidence, my next Consideration. When Numerius confidently disclaimed a Crime Amm. Marcel. Hist. l. 18. that he was charged with before Julian the Emperor, Delphidius tartly objected, That if to deny, were to be guiltless, no man would be a Delinquent. But the Emperor gravely and acutely retorted, That if to be accused, were to be guilty, no man could be innocent. It is the Evidence alone that can give light to justice to acquit, or condemn. When the Evidence is indirect, it insensibly sets a false by ass on the Verdict, and the Decree. For the degrees of justice are not unlike those of concoction: An error in the first degree is not to be corrected or redressed in the second, or the third. A false witness misguides, betrays the jury, and the judge. He is an hammer, a sword, and an arrow (saith Solomon.) An Prov. 25. 18. Hammer to the judge, whom he stounds & amazes, that he cannot distinguish betwixt truth and falsehood: a Sword to the party that corrupts him, a sword to fight for him, and a sword to pierce his soul: an Bernard. Arrow to the innocent party, a poisoned arrow to fester, to wound him (with a rankling venom) in his life, his fortune, or his reputation. The consequences of a false testimony being so pernicious, witnesses are not loosely to be credited, or admitted. In point of quantity of number, it is a rule in the Civil, & in the Canon-law, One witness is no witness. Decret. tit. de test. Mat. 18. 16. It is God's own statute, In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. In point of quality, in reference to Religion, the Schoolmen and Canonists offer a Demurror against those whose infidelity is professed (as manifest unbelievers Alex. Al. S. Th. p. 3. qu. 43. Aqu. 2a. 2ae. qu. 70. Art. 3. Greg. dist. 2. q. 1. ,) against those whose impiety is convicted (as notorious scandalous miscreants.) In reference to Reason they debar distracted persons, Idiots, and Children. Though Seneca's fancy, more ingenious than judicious, allows the age of seven years to be capable of tendering an Evidence: because Children are then old enough to observe, and too young to deceive, to dissemble. Upon this rational account, because of the ordinary defect of weight of judgement, not only the School-Doctors and Canonists Aquin. ib. can. dist. 32. q. 5. , but the Jewish rabbis, have in some cases excepted against the female sex to be Witnesses, in Car. Sig. de R. Heb. l. 6. c. 6. regard of their vehement swing, and excess of passion; their love being prove to be too fond and indulgent to preserve, their hate apt to be too fierce and violent to destroy. In consideration of disaffection, the divinity of the School and Canon excludes Enemies from the Aquin. ib. Non idonei testes quibus imperari potest, ut testes fiant. Can. dist. 4. q. 3. Ne inopes sint, Greg. dist. 2. q. 1. capacity of being Witnesses; in respect of condition, Servants, and others whose relations are temptations to corrupt them, as also those whose necessities render them pliable to be moulded for the impressions of mercenary false testimonies, (Wherein I shall not tract the scruples of the School, but the sins of the Court) in concealing, in mincing of truths, in venting untruths at the bar, in bolting out light uncertain conjectures, for firm and certain evidences. Whereas it was a Grecian provident Law, That ears perk not for witnesses, That we make not the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Plutarch. loose reports of others our staunch and sober testimonies. The Jewish judicatories admit none but eye-witnesses. Some false testimonies are notorious Talm. lib. sh●phetim. without paint, or disguise. Such was the double deposition against Naboth; He hath blasphemed God, and 1 Kings 21. 13. the King. Others are more covert, when truth is presented but in a false dress and accent. Such was the evidence against our Saviour; This fellow said, I am able to Matth. 26. 61▪ destroy the Temple of God, and to build it in three days. An evidence misinterpreted, misrelated. It ill becomes a witness to be a Sophister. To equivocate, to dissemble in ordinary conference is heinous; but in judiciary evidence monstrous. Subtle doubling expressions, dark winding reservations of witnesses, have perhaps been the lewd practice of all Ages, but the owned tenet only of the Romish Casuifts of the last Age. The guilt of a false witness is much enhanced by his guile. He is worse than a murderer. A murderer destroys the body natural, but a false witness banes the body politic, (the administration of justice, which depends on the truth of witnesses, being the sinews, nay the vital spirits of a commonwealth.) To raise this to a higher key of guilt. A false witness is worse than an Idolater. An Idolater makes an idol a God; but a false witness makes God an idol, makes a direct mockery of the Deity, as not discerning, regarding his falsehood. He seems to disown, to outbrave God's omnipotence, his omniscience, to deride, as it were to summon him to descend from his throne in heaven, to countenance, to abet his villainy on earth at the bar. Whilst a false witness appeals to God as the supreme judge, he presumes, he tempts, he dares his vengeance. The false witnesses who conspired against Naboth are deciphered children of Belial, Imps of Satan, because 1 Kings 21. 13 of the imitation of him, because pliable to be seduced at the beck of each lewd temptation. It is emphatically expressed, of Belial, that in Hebrew signifies without a yoke: False witnesses are not yoked, restrained, not by the rule of truth, not by the equity of justice, not by the piety of an oath. This offence is a threefold cord of guilt, not easily unravelled Aq. 2a. 2ae. q. 70. A. 4. ; it is twisted by a lie, an injury, a perjury. An Oath being the end of all Controversies, is the seal Heb. 6. 16. of depositions to ratify them; it is the sacred stamp of religion, not to be soiled, falsified, profaned. The Evidences of the Grecian witnesses were Alex. ab Alex. l. s. c. 10. sworn at their Altars, (as a holy tye, and solemnity.) But Xenocrates was called back from the Altar by the Laert. in vita Xenocrat. Areopagites, who accounted his assertion a sufficient asseveration, because of the strictness of his life, they esteemed his word as valid as an Oath; who may rise up in judgement against professed Christians, whose oaths are less credible than the bare word of a Heathen. Tell it not in Gath, nor publish it in the 2 Sam. 1. 20. streets of Ascalon. It is God's strict charge, Put not thy hand with the wicked, to be an unrighteous witness. That is, saith Exod. 23. 1. Vatablus, Swear not unjustly; it being the customary Vatabl. in Exod. 23. 1. practice of the Jews, ancient and modern, in their Oaths to lay their hands on the Thorah, (the books of the law of Moses) to that end retained in their Courts. The Ceremony is thence derived to Christianity: But let it be more than an empty Ceremony, a heedless formality. When the witness (or the juror) lays one hand on the Bible, let him lay the other on his heart; lest if he falter in what he swears, he renounce his portion, the comforts, the ravishing mercies of the gospel; lest he contract for, lest he inherit all the menaces, the terrifying judgements of the Law. The proverbial passage, * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Testimoniorum religionem & fidem nunquam ista natio coluit. Tull. in Orat. pro L. Flac. Lend me a testimony, was a foul stain to the Greek nation. Perjuries are ungracious lones, or boons, to gratify any man with villainy. But the slur is not confined to Greece. The British feuds, and quarrels of persons and familioes have in former Ages been prosecuted with swords, but in latter times with suits and perjuries: the tumults being less, but the crimes greater. Pardon my just indignation. I wish from my soul, it were a scandal to aver it. Let not any inducement of affection or obligation, any tye of alliance, or dependence extend further than Pericles bounds, to the Altars; not to be endeared {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Plut. in Apo. phtheg. to any so far, as in his behalf to be perjured; not to imagine to acquit ourselves true friends by being false witnesses; not to purchase the favour of a mortal man with the frown, the doom of an immortal God. The violation of justice by a false witness, the contempt of the religion of an Oath hath God for a jurisjurandi contempta reliligio satis habet Deum ultorem. In C. de reb. cred. et jur. l. 2. sufficient avenger. Let not any wonder, that a speedy earthquake doth not swallow up, that a fierce thunderbolt doth not crush and blast a false witness, to chastise his insolency: He sins against an invisible God, and hath an invisible punishment, the stings and lashes of a guilty conscience; which being seared, and pacified, this very serenity, this calmness is a presage of a succeeding low ring tempest. A false witness is recited among the abominations of the Lord: He shall not Prov. 19 5. escape unpunished. He may fence for a time from a human vengeance, but a divine shall in the end o'ertake him. He shall not be clean, (saith Vatablus;) His offence shall be imputed, the deformity of his iniquity shall be presented, the stain, the horror of it discovered at the day of judgement. If these considerations scare us not from the injustice of the Evidence, the next refuge and prop is the injustice of the Pleading; which directs my humble address to you the Gentlemen of the long Robe. To vilify your title, your Office, were in some measure to derogate from the sacred Trinity. God the Father is titled Baalrib, the pleader. It was David's Psal. 119. Psal. 35. 1. humble suit to be God's Client: Plead thou my cause. God the Son is recommended to us by the endearment of this name and notion: We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: A Mediator 2 John 2. 1. for intercession to plead, as well as redemption to merit for us. The Holy Ghost is deciphered {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. A word which in its genuine signification John 15. 20. Vox Graeca frequens apud Iudaeos in versione Chaldaica, & apud Thalmudicos, non pro consolatore, sed pro eo qui causam agi● Grot. Quod Graece {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, hoc Latine dicitur Advocatus. Francoford. Con. vol. 3. more properly denotes the Pleader, than the Comforter. He pleadeth, maketh intercession for us, with the choicest flowers of rhetoric, with groans that cannot be uttered. The truth of this criticism is honoured with the approbation of a council. To question the expediency of your function, were to control the wisdom of all or most nations which have owned principles of piety or civility. There is no man that hath a more meet respect for your persons, nor a more venerable esteem of your profession, than myself. Yet there is no calling can justify the unjust practices of them that undertake it. As I am not to learn whose message I ought to deliver in this place, so I am not to doubt, but that your piety conducts you hither, not to censure the Preacher, but to practise the Sermon; not to look up to the pulpit, as to a stage, for the pleasing of an itching ear, but for the searching, the lancing of an ulcered soul, of a festered tongue, if any be; for caution, for prevention, lest any be, by the injustice of pleading. A varied injustice: By being engaged in more causes than can sufficiently be discussed, or dextrously managed; (a course resented, and taxed by Heathen Rhetoricians) Tull. in l. 2. de Orat. Were Westminster the Scene, I should here with due reverence to the Sages of the Law crave Quincil. Inst. l. 12. c. 10 leave to add, to amplify for illustration; By being Intelligences in divers spheres, pleaders in several Courts, as opportunities invite, whereby even in the justest, weightyest interests, especially by the most eminent practitioners, whilst one Client is supported, another at the same time at a little distance may be unfortunately distressed; I say not betrayed, because not entirely, voluntarily neglected, and yet perhaps by this occasion irrecoverably ruined; Or by ingenious (perhaps injurious, irreligious) cavils to spin out causes to the burdensome expense, the attendance of Clients. I humbly offer it to your mature consideration. Since there is a portion of benediction, of adoption expressed for those that compose jars and differences, a Mat. 5. 9 Nec licet advocato ex industria jurgium protrahere. Alex. Alens. S. Th. p. 3. q. 44. m. 2. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God; they shall be owned, crowned for such:) by the topic proof, the rule of Contraries, there is intimated a worse condition and relation for such who are instrumental, straining their wits unnecessarily to create, to protract, to multiply suits; to be like bellows, to blow, to kindle these flames, to fan, to heighten them. A b Advocatos excommunicamus omnes qui— vel ut contra justitiam processus causae diutius suspendatur. Ox●n. Syn. a. 1222. Magd. Cent. 13. cap. 9 de Syn. dilatory plea for suspense of justice hath been sentenced by a Synod with excommunication. But of this only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} on the by. The main injustice of pleading consists in deserting, in quitting a good cause; in asserting, in maintaining a bad. The former was the blemish of Demosthenes, who was muffled with the bribe of the adverse Plut. in vit. Demosth. party, disengaged, and silenced by the rich present of Harpalus; which occasioned a tart sarcasm, that his disease was not angina, but argentina. There needs no multiplying glass of a rhetorical aggravation to present the bulk, or hue of this guilt. The title Tul. 2. Philip. of a prevaricator (a treacherous Advocate, that warps in pleading) is the blackest stain in the Civil law. Ulpian inserts such in the most infamous vicious list. L. Athletas §. pen. de his qui not. l. 1. §. qui depos. de fall I shall forbear to press any dissuasive arguments (as to this horrid injustice) upon the same account as Solon and Romulus did to enact penalties against parricides, as presuming there are no such offenders; no Plut. in vitae Romuli. Tull. pro Sex. Rosc. Christian face so steeled to own, no conscience so feared for to practise such perfidiousness of wickedness. I shall insist only on the latter branch of injustice, in vindicating, in pleading for a wicked cause. Whilst the misinformation of the Client misguides the Counsellor, this exempts an unjust plea from guilt. But when the cause pleaded for is manifestly injurious, the pleading it selfis manifestly ungracious. This is to imitate the perfection, or corruption rather of the Greek Sophisters; To make the better Tull. in lib. de cl. Orat. Quint. Inst. l. 12. c. 1. cause the worse, the worse the better. It was the observed eminent faculty, and infamy of Carneades. It may pass for art and skill, but it must pass for sin also, to smooth and varnish the deformed complexion of a depraved interest. In this nature a painted cause is more irreligious than a painted face. Indirect proofs, pathetical strains, and proems were not allowed in pleadings before the Areopagites (the Lucian. in. A●achar. renowned Athenian judges.) Though a false flourish cannot seel the eyes, not delude prudent cautelous judges; yet it may cast a mist, & beguile ignorant credulous juryes, which commonly are kneaded out of the dregs of the people; such as wait for empanellings, as the impotent person, the Cripple, did at the Pool of Bethesda for the troubling of the waters. But not John 5. 7. to digress. This false flourish is not consistent with the morality of Heathens, much less reconcilable with the integrity, the severity of Christians. The a Gloria Romanae, Quintiliane, togae. Mart. great Master of the Roman rhetoric (Quintilian) b Quint. Instit. l. 1. in prooe. l. 12. c. 7. qualifies his Orator to be a good man, wittingly and willingly to plead good causes only. It became a great disrepute to c Plut. in vit. Cicer. Hortensius, notwithstanding a great fee, that he appeared in the defence of the rapine and sacrilege of Verres. d Plato in Gorg. & Phaed. Plato sharply censures those who would separate justice from rhetoric, truth from pleading, innocence from eloquence. Though it were the professed, it was the disgusted, the branded Paradox of e Quint. Instit. l. 2. c. 15. Cornelius Celsus, That the Advocates design ought not to be the pursuit of equity, but victory; not to regard the better cause, but to have the better in the cause, to countenance his Client, to be his Champion, be the cause right or wrong. Whereas it was the honour of f Tull. de ●lar. orat. Brutus, That his tongue kept correspondence with his heart, he ever approved that Cause which he defended. The pleading of Scaurus was as solemn, as sincere, as a deposition. I shall add only the lustre of Photion's upright resolution, which set such an edge on his eloquence, that when he argued, it was apprehended, and dreaded, as a sword for to cut, and destroy the most vigorous false pleadings. I muster up these instances of the uncircumcised in the Temple, with no vain affectation, but I consider to whom I propound them, to literate, judicious persons, whose ingenuity may excite their blush, and anguish, by the recollection of these Heathen Worthies; who though they could not sufficiently acquit themselves, yet may serve abundantly to condemn others, who are accountable not only for the bare talon of Nature, of Reason, but that of Grace also, of Religion. As the injustice of pleading is exploded by the morality of the Heathens, so much more by the divinity of the Schoolmen. To a Alex. Al. S. Th. p. 3. q. 44. m. 3. Aqu. 2a. 2ae. qu. 71. Ar. 3. afford advice, assistance, defence to an unjust cause, is in their opinion to cooperate, to share directly, eminently in the guilt, though but indirectly, obscurely in the first wrongful fact. Though an oppressing, defrauding Client affords the womb to the injustice; yet the pleading Counsellor nurseth it (saith b Dom. Soto de Inst. l. 5. qu. 8. Art. 3. Soto,) he dandles, he cockers this pestilent brat. The Schoolmen stating this practice to be an evident print of iniquity, of injury, peremptorily c Scotus in 3. sent. dist. 15. Aqu. ibid. Dom. Soto ib. Passio, consilium, consensus, palp●, recursus, Participans, mutus, non obstans, non manifestans. The Schoolmen in these verses sort, and state the cases of restitution. prescribe restitution. Indeed if the point of transgression be granted, that of restitution is not to be disputed. This was the fruit of Zacchaeus conversion: if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, if I have d Ei {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. acted the Sycophant: The phrase is borrowed from e Schol. in Aristophanis. Plut. Sycophantoe illi Athenienses falso criminabantur lucri causa. Piscator. Athens, where the action was ordinary, a familiar calumny, falsely to charge men for conveying away of Figs, that were prohibited to be transported thence. Though the occasion was special, yet our English translation is not improperly general, a Luke 19 8. If I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore to him fourfold. If the jnjustice of the cause appears not in the first engagement for the Client, but in the prosecution of the suit, b Aqu. 2a. 2ae. qu. 71. Art. 3. in Concl. Licet non sit prodendus qui bona fide ad alium confugit, non tamen est defendendus: quiae qui defendit delinquentem maledictus est apud Deum & homines. Gabr. in Collect. l. 4. dist. 15. qu. 2. the secret of the cause is not to be betrayed, nor yet an apparent injustice to be promoted, pleaded for; but the cause is either absolutely to be deserted, renounced, or a private composure, a reconcilement betwixt the parties litigant to be endeavoured. Gerson c Notetur hic juramenium quale debitum est praestari per Advocatos,— praesertim ut nihil agant, vel soveant, quod injustum esse vel crediderint ab initio, vel postmodum compererint. Gers. in 2a. p. Op. in ser. in Conc. Rem. recites and recommends the Advocates solemn Oath to this effect. As the determinations of the Schoolmen are severe in dooming all pleas in unjust causes, so are the invectives of the Fathers of the Church sharp in censuring them. d Clem. Alex. in Strom. lib. 1. Clemens of Alexandria rejects this contentious fallacious faculty, brands it, with Plato, for a vicious skill, with Aristotle, for a pernicious rapine; He blasts it with the menace of the Holy Ghost, e 1 Cor. 1. 19 I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. The most searching judgement, if unseasoned with Grace, will quickly be tainted, insensibly putrified, in the end entirely frustrated. To be an acute, polite Sophister, to enwrap a false plea in a fair elegant dress, is to * Isid. Pelusiot. l. ep. 67. Isid. Pelusiot. l. 4. ep. 60. temper poison in a golden vial; to borrow the resemblance of Isidore Pelusiot: Whilst (saith he) an Advocate vayls, justifies another offender, he unmasks, condemns himself, discovers the depravation of his own heart, in the corruption, the dissimulation of his tongue. Nay, Pelusiot, transported with this meditation, conjectures this trim artifice of injustice to have been a special occasion of the Apostles large hyperbolical expression, The S. James 3. 6. tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: Even in this restriction, this application of Pelusiot; This little member Isid. Pel. l. 4. ep. 10. kindles the greatest contentions, combustions; and itself either commits, or shelters and encourages all the iniquities, the enormities in the world. a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Theoph. in 1. c. ep. ad Rom. ult. vers. Theophylact determines this malady incurable. To glance from the Greek on the Latin Fathers: S. Austin complains of the plausible lure of this injustice; Unhallowed wiles, and windings of subtleties in the managing, the pleading of unjust causes, being b Hoc laudabilior, quo fraudulentior. Aug. Confess. l. 3. c. 3. reputed and magnified for singular parts and excellencyes. To omit other copious testimonies, and reproofs. Bernard runs variety of sharp descant on this impure note of guilt. c Hi sunt quidocuerunt linguas suas loqui mendacium, diserit adversus justitiam, eruditi pro falsitate, sapientes ut faciant malum, eloquentes ut impugnent verum, obstruunt judicii vias. Bern. de Cons. l. 2. c. 10. Who have disciplined, trained their tongues in lies, being quaint against justice, learned to promote falsehood, prudent to commit evil, eloquent to oppose truth, who revile innocency, obstruct all judiciary passages, block up the channels. This character may (I fear) sound a satire in your ears. As for modern Divines, I know none, Reformed or Romish, that is an advocate to defend, to approve this injustice of Advocates. But if the tenet of the Schoolmen, the Fathers, be superciliously rejected by any as a fable, yet the sacred Scripture must be acknowledged for a rule, an Oracle. This is the last and chiefest test for to examine the injustice of pleading. It is God's express charge: Keep thee far from a Exod. 23. 7. false matter. This distance imports defiance. As an indulgent countenance, a connivance on the Bench, so a smooth, oily defence at the Bar, is too near an approach to a false matter; It is a step of the same sin, a progress of the same injustice, though not in the same path. An unjust plea is a bait to an unjust decree It was Jehu's rebuke of Jehosaphat, a question that pierced like Ehud's dagger; * 2 Chro. 19 2. Wouldst thou help the wicked, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon thee. It is according to the original, ‖ An impiodecuit te ferre opem? Nov. ex Hebr. transl.. apud Vatabl. Hath it become thee to aid the wicked? As if no assistance of an ungodly person (in an ungodly enterprise) were decent, or innocent. † Ei {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. If thou succourest the sinner (as the Scptuagint translate it.) The legal pleading for sin is a signal, principal succouring of the sinner. Whilst the offendor is abetted, argued for; the party offended is doubly injured. It is related by David as a cognizance, an evidence, a special note, a property of a true member of God's Church, a Psal. 15. 5. not to take reward against the innocent. This is b Non folum Indices, aut prim●res rerumpublicarum iniquos vult Vates intelligi, sed eos quoque qui injustas sovent & protrabunt lites, compendii sui causa. Foleng. Mant. in 15. Ps. ult. ● not to be appropriated to the judge, but to be enlarged to the solicitor, the attorney, eminently to the Counsellor. They receive unjust reward against the innocent who daub, palliate c Vt malis causis patrocinium accommoden●. Calv. in 15. Ps. ult. vers. unjust causes, by their favours, their counsels, their pleadings. * Nesimilis judae efficiatur, qui accepto argenti pondere vendidit innocent. Hier. in 15. Ps. vlt. v. S. Jerome strains this to be a resemblance of the offence of Judas. It is the description of an unsanctified person, d Psal. 36. 3. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. A terse false pleading is woven with this mingled thread. He deviseth mischief on his bed, (in the 4. v.) He contriveth it in his a Cubile est cor. Aug. in Ps. 36. In cubile (i. e.) corde eorum. Hier. Tempus nocturnum in concinnandis flagitiis consumunt. Fol. Mant. in Psal. 36. 4. heart, or it is his night study, his perplexity on his Couch, how to be prepared to enter into the lists in this quarrel, how to fortify, to shroud and adorn this work of darkness in the daylight. He setteth himself in a way that is not good, in 4. v. b Isid. Pelus. l. 4. Ep. 16. Pelusiot applieth it to an expert Advocate, who is ready to engage in an ungodly cause, to help, to vindicate, to acquit it. The close is in the same verse, he abhorreth not evil, or more agreeably to the original, c Malum non abjicit. Nov. ex Hebr. Transl. apud Vatabl. he rejecteth not evil. He that pleads for any crime, neither sufficiently detests, nor discards it. It is yet a more rousing, terrifying impeachment: d Ps. 50. 18. When thou sawest a thief, than thou e {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Sept. tr. Currebas in N. Tr. Curris in Vat. Acquiescis ei in Iun. & Tr. translat. Modi varii currendi cum fure recitantur à Gul. Altiss. l. 4. q. 2. runnest (or thou consenteàst) with him. He who oppresseth, defraudeth, (who detaineth a just debt, saith Philo) is a thief. If thou seest him, or as soon as thou seest him craving thy defence, if thou runnest not with him to the bar to support his cause by pleading, that's Valterotz; yet thou mayest consent to him in the chamber by thy advice, that's Valteretz. f Quantum ad Prophetae mentem, parum interest utrum vis legamus; utrumque est probabile. Calv. in Ps. 50. v. 19 Both readings are solemnly allowed by Interpreters. I presume your ingenious souls do here take the cue, and tacitly object, That the Psalmists lecture is the Levites portion, a manifest bill of indictment of the Ministers guilt. Your thoughts may belike quivers fraught with arrows of retortions, That to preach false doctrines for lucre is more heinous, then to plead false causes; That it is more prodigious, in S. Ignatius language, to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, to adulterate, to huckster it in the gospel, than the law, to abuse the message of Christ, than the cause of the Client, to make ungracious merchandise of religion than justice; and that an unholy, corrupt, mercenary tongue in the pulpit, is much more ulcerous, then at the bar. I abundantly confess it is, and that the prophet's charge doth eminently appertain to us of the Ministry: and were I to preach to those of my own function, I should accent it with much more sharpness than I shall to you. And in the first place I desire to press it with the greatest severity to my own soul, recollecting a Epiph. l. 2. To. 1. Haer. 64. Origens tears, and S. Austin's b Videtis fratres cum quo tremore ista dicamus. August. in Ps. 50. (suo calculo 49.) trembling in the recital of this Psalm. But whilst it endites the Minister, it acquits not the Counsellor. The reproof is like a mirror, which being distinctly looked into, will discover disfigured lineaments of your profession, as well as mine. Do but withdraw the curtain, — c Horat. Mutato nomine de te Fabula narratur:— and I may close as Nathan did with David, d 2 Sam. 11. 7. Thou art the man. e ps. 50. 19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, givest full swing, lettest the reins lose by a liberty, a licentiousness of wickedness of a subtle voluble tongue. Thy tongue frameth deceit (in the same verse;) it f Illo male agente. tu nequiter ac dolose bene agere collaudabas. Hier. Lingua tua concinnat d●los. N. Tr. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sept. tr. smooths, it tricks, it polishes a cunning false plea; it hath quilted it round, according to the Septuagints expression. g Ps. 50. 20. Sedebas, i. e. diligenter faciebas. volebas ibi occupari. Aug. Sedendo alludere videtur ad judicia, ubi in foro ipso bonos & simplices calumniantur improbi. Calv. in Is. 50. Thou sittest & speakest against thy brother. As if judiciary detraction were an ordinary occupation. The act of calumny at the bar is vicious; much more the art, the custom, the habit. It is a blemish in a martial profession; much more in a legal. The Baptists Catechism to the soldiers, h Luke 3. 14. & Accuse no man falsely, is in Beza's judgement a Magis togatae quam armatae militiae convenit. Beza. more appliable to Courts, than Camps, to the bandings, the clashings of pleadings, then of swords. Neither the bar nor gown is privileged for slander, ( b Vir clarissimus Epictetus causidicorum more prolapsus— togae forensis honore privatus est. Symmach. l. 5. cp. 41. Epictetus, a most famous Advocate, upon this account, for a single lapse of a virulent aspersion, being excluded from both.) It is a tincture of the rhetoric of hell. A false impeachment, though never so accurate, is a glimpse of the c Hesychius illustrates {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Erasmus derives {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} traducere, descrre, in Annotat. 4. Mat. name and the nature of the Devil. It appears in a blacker aspect to revile, to traduce innocence, then to defend, to flourish an offence. However either practice hath an impure stamp, a destructive effect; it is the varied artifice of sin and Satan. Isaiah's sacred rhetoric dissuades from each: d Isa. 1. 17. Quaerite judicium, i. e. disquirite diligenter jus causae. Iudices & patronos alloquitur. Dirigite negotia oppressi. Vatabl. in 1. Is. 17. Seek judgement, (sift out the equity of a cause, abet no unjust quarrel) relieve the oppressed, (be his director, his Counsellor) judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Their desolate condition when injured, is most to be vindicated, succoured. The same Prophet recordeth a woe for them e Isa. 5. 23. Qui justif. impium phrasis Hebraica est: Qui dicunt causam impii esse justam. Vatabl. in Is. 5. 23. Non causas, sed donae considerans. Hier. in Is. 5. 23. that justify (plead for) the wicked for a reward. Though it hath past as a traditional conjectural opinion, that the damned rich man (in the gospel) was an Advocate, and that he was most tortured, inflamed in that member, wherein he had most transgressed, (that the punishment might be proportioned to the guilt;) yet I shall not seek light out of a cloud for the manifestation of this injustice, nor strain a proof out of a parable to excite the detestation of it. The restraint of it is written by the Apostle as in a sunbeam: f Ephes. 5. 11. have no fellowship with the fruitless works of darkness. Subtle pleadings are too gross interminglings, too manifest blendings with covert trespasses, with mysteries of iniquities. Oecumenius glosseth every branch of wickedness to be a work of darkness (in the Apostles phrase.) To communicate with Zanch. in Eph. 5. 11. such, is not only to cooperate, but either to counsel, or to countenance, to connive, to conceal. The antithesis (the opposition) expressed undeniably clears it; but rather reprove them. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} denotes a discovery, not a disguise; a rebuke, not a defence. If to be seconds and combatants in unjust civil quarrels, be not to be partakers of other men's offences, to swerve from, to violate the Apostles rule, I must confess, 1 Tim. 5. 22. I understand not what is. Said I, to partake? It is to exceed, to improve, to outstrip their offences by a further start of unholy proficiency. S. Paul having recited a catalogue of miscreants, he sums up all, They not only do the same, but have Rom. 1. last v. pleasure in them that do them. They associate themselves, according to the Syriac; are linked with, entertained, interested, advantaged by those that do them, are Advocates in their behalf: so Beza and Erasmus interpret it; so Theophylact expounds it by {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, they plead for those that do them. This is an aggravation beyond the horror of the act, for to evade the last earthly refuge of injury, to elude the solemn redress of justice. The offence argued for may be a sudden passion, a surprisal; but the arguing itself is a deliberate design: The one may be a private Qui aliorum defendit errorem multo amplius damnabili●r illis qui errant. Gabr. in coll. l. 4. dist. 15. qu. 2. injury, the other is a public injustice, a more eminent sin and scandal. This is for to hide an unseemly scar or wen in another man's face, and to discover a worse blemish, a wound, an ulcer in one's own. The first commission of a Clients wrongful fact (in an unjust cause) entitles him a Delinquent; but the additional justification by pleading tempts him to be impenitent: wherein the finer the varnish is of the Counsellor, the fouler is his sin. This is no temper of a Nathaniel, an Israelite indeed John 1. 49. in whom is no guile. Nor yet may the integrity of the heart be alleged, notwithstanding the Sophistry of the tongue. By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Matth. 12. 37. However this is not to copy out the pattern of our Redeemer, In whose mouth there was found no guile. 1 Pet. 2. 22. It is an Hebraism, There was no guile to be found. If the nice subtlety of indirect pleading be not intended to be effectual, it is to deceive the Client; if it be intended to be effectual, it is to deceive the jury or the judge, thereby to injure the innocent party at least in the purpose, the endeavour of the Counsellor. Either edge of the dilemma is a sharp fallacy to his own conscience, to beguile himself; though for a while it appeareth not, it pierceth not. The spreading practice of this injustice unhappily escapes in most a resentment of its guilt. But a multitude of offenders is no security for an offence before the Divine awful tribunal. Hereby God is most enraged, and man most depraved: the face being rescued from a blush without, & the heart from a sting within. The Stoic tutors us better Divinity, not to trace men's Non quo itur, sed quo eundum. Sen. steps, but God's rules; not to steer by other vessels, but the stars; not to regulate our courses by examples, but precepts; not to regard what the most numerous or famous of a profession do, but what they ought to do. It is God's strict indispensable prohibition, Thou Exod. 23. 2. shalt not follow a multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou speak in a cause, to decline after many to wrest judgement. The fairest gloss imaginable for false colours, plausible pretences in unjust pleadings, is an officious lie; which though recorded in Scripture in the historical passages of some eminent Saints, yet it is very rarely: recited it is as a frailty to be eschewed, not as a duty to be imitated. The Primitive Christians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Iust. Mart. in Apol. 2. pro Christ. would not allow, not employ this unholy engine in the fiercest persecution for a preservative of their own lives, much less of the fortunes, the liberties of others. S. Austin copiously disproves, vigorously Aug. in. l. de mend. ad Consent. Rom. 3. 8. condemns it. A gracious intention cannot warrant an ungracious action. He that doth evil that good may come of it, his condemnation is just. To offer this Apology is to act Apelles' part, to present the injustice of pleading, as that Painter did Antigonus, Plutarch. with half a face: one part of the countenance discovered being a comely amiable aspect, an officious serene eye towards the Client; but the other part of the visage concealed looks a squint, and casts a pernicious glance on the opposite party. Nor yet is the spell of profit a sufficient inducement, a warrant for the injustice of pleading. Could every cause procure a shower of gold, (Jupiter's boon to Danae) could your purchases, your manors be multiplied faster than your fees, had you a kingdom for a garden, a sea for a fishpond, could you engross the clouds, the sunbeams to dispose each drop of rain, and ray of light at your own rate and pleasure; yet what shall it profit a man if he gain the Mark ●. 36. whole world, and lose his own soul? In your languishing, gasping condition, your own consciences will resolve the question put out of all question. It will nothing profit: and being thus resolved, the determination is a Meiosis, an extenuation; it will not be his profit, but his damage, his bane. An indirect transitory gain smooths the passage to a direct forfeiture of bliss, a perpetuity of misery. What shall a man Mark ●. 37. give in exchange for his soul? what recompense, what truck shall he have for his soul; as the word imports. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Money is the ordinary unholy rate for it. Yet since the whole world is not to be balanced with it, what folly, what frenzy is it to prostitute a precious inestimable soul to vile gains, to mean inconsiderable advantages, to raise your fortunes temporally on the ruins of yourselves eternally? The getting of treasures Prov. 21. 6. by a lying tongue, is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. The gloss on the words applies them to the injustice of pleading. It is a dismal aphorism, and it should not have dropped from my mouth, had it not proceeded from the Holy Ghost. Spira, the disconsolate example of despair, first maintained false causes in Law, & afterwards renounced true tenets in Religion. To be a corrupt Advocate was his first step towards hell. I shall not recommend * Tert. in l. de Passione, c. 5. Ipse Christus Advocati officium non paucis impertitus est; ve Magdalenae, item in mulieris de adulterio accusatione, & in Discipulorum variis criminationibus. D. Ambr. 11 annis in curiis & foro causas egit. Germanus & Lipardus in numerum Sanctorum relati. Dor. Mart. de jur. p. 4. Cent. 2, ca. 15. Tertul lian for a pattern, whose quitting his profession of an Advocate (upon his conversion to Christianity) was a very unnecessary rigour. But beware of Tertullus stamp, whose eloquence dispensed with his conscience. Let not the lustre of your rhetoric abate the light of your Religion. Let not any exquisite ability in the law prepare a fucus, a paint for oppression, or malice: let not so sweet an ointment be spilled upon an unsavoury cause, to be ingeniously ungracious, accurately irreligious. It is an uncomfortable commendation, an unhappy elegy, to be a better lawyer than a Christian, to be more acute then upright, to plead well in ill causes. It is a perfume to the fame of Ivo, that he pleaded only for the afflicted, Surius 29. Maii. vindicated the oppressed, being entitled the Advocate of the poor, and canonised for a Saint. Give not cause to present or succeeding ages to apply to any of you that character of Coelius an Advocate, (which Quint. Inst. l. 10. c. 1. sticks a slur, a taint to his name unto this day) for to be reputed worthy of a better mind, of an honester soul; for to be the pearl of Advocates in the japerle des advocates. French style, and yet not to appertain to God's cabinet in the day that he shall sort, make up his jewels. To conclude this caveat: Let not your counsels, your pleadings be tempered with more grains of the Serpent, than the Dove. Let not your profits exceed, eclipse your graces. The fees of just causes only can entail blessings to your families, and assure comforts to your souls. With melting bowels I tender this unwelcome meditation to your candid censures, to your retired mortified thoughts, which lay upon my own (being called to this place) like a weight of lead, until I uttered it. I have freely discharged my conscience in the presence of God and this Congregation, and should now proceed from the injustice of the Pleading to the injustice of the Verdict, of the Decree, of the Record. But the time hath trod upon my heels: like a wearied traveller I must take up my rest, before I have scarce finished half my journey; and, like Issachar, must stoop betwixt two burdens. I have the rather enlarged my meditation on the three first rounds of Injustice, because Courts are like Elements; the corruptions, the distempers above take their rise from exhalations from below. Unjust causes, indirect evidences and pleadings are the source and bane of all judiciary proceedings. Well we may juggle with men on earth; we cannot play the Sophisters with heaven, and put a cheat on our God. As for all sorts and degrees here present; When you hear the trumpet sound, let it be an alarm to your souls, to rouse you to an apprehension of the general Sessions of the great judgement of the world, when we shall all appear before the judgement-seat 2 Cor. 5. 10. of Christ; not only appear, but become transparent, like Drusus fancied house of glass. Our minds {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Chrys. shall be as clearly seen, as conspicuous, as our faces. Then all the judges of the earth shall stand at the Bar. The Counsellors must plead for themselves, render an account for every idle word. If for every light frivolous, pro otioso, much more pro odioso, for every Matth. 12. 36. Ambros: false scandalous plea. Then the books of records, our own consciences shall be unclasped, to be manifest evidences of our secret sins in the sight of God, of angels, and men. No unjust causes, no corrupt evidences or pleadings can taint this judgement, no demurror can shift it off, no quirk or subtlety reverse, no power or authority repeal it. Let us be awfully prepared, conscientiously qualified at this great Sessions; that at the approach of a far greater, we may be graciously summoned, and acquitted by the dreadful judge of men and angels; that we may be refreshed, ravished with the joy and solace of that sentence, Come you blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the Matth. 25. 34. world. Wherein God of his infinite mercy estate us, for the merits of his Son, and our alone Saviour Jesus Christ; to whom and the Holy Ghost be glory & honour, power, majesty and dominion ascribed this day and for evermore. Amen, Amen. FINIS.