Balm from Gilead to Recover Conscience, Part 3 – Letter
The third part.
But before I come to make vse of what hath beene sayd, let mee, as the third part of my text, and the distribution of Magistracy requires, tell you to whom all this hath beene spoken: not to Iudges and Iustices of peace only, as I feare most hauehave imagined in hearing it: but to al from the highest and greatest, to the lowest & least Instrument of Iustice, from the Gouernour of the thousand, to the Centurion, from him to the Tithing-man or Decinour. To the which ancient diuision of the Iewish Cōmon-wealth, our platforme agrees in substance. Their Sanedrim or Senate of seuenty, to our Parliament, Counsell-Table, Starr-chamber, Exchequer-chamber, &c. Our Iustices of Assises in their Circuit, and Iustices of peace in their general commission or dominion, & High Sheriffs in their Shires, answering to the Rulers of thousāds.
Our Iustices in their seuerall diuisions, Iudges of hundred Courts and Turnes to their Rulers of hundreds, to whom I may adde high Constables in their places, our Court-leets, and Court-barons, to the rulers of fifties; to whom I add ordinary Constables in their offices, our cheefe Pledges, Tything-men or Deciners, to their rulers of tens. Now all these Iethro meanes, and speakes of eueryevery one of them in their station and degree, conceiuing the Common-wealth, as an instrument not well in tune, …but the lest of these strings be false or naught.
Contrary to the common and dangerous opinion of the vulgar, who to their owne iniury thinke & say, that it matters not for petty officers, Constables and Bayliffs, &c. though they be of the lees and dregs of men; nay, they hold that for some offices, It is pitty any honest men should come into them. Alas, alas, the more subiect to tentation & vice it is, the more needfull it is that none other should hauehave them.
Oh but (say they) a good Iudge or Iustice may help all; they erre & are deceiued; it is no one beame, though neuer so bright, that enlightens all: It is not the light and influence of the fixed starres, though the greatest and highest, but of the Sun and Moone, and the lowest and neerest Orbs that gouerne the world. It is the ground-wind, not the rack-winde, that driues mills and ships. It is the Ciuill, as in the Ecclesiasticall body: if Bishops be neuer so learned, and the parishi… nall Minister negligent, worldly, proud, or blind Sr. Iohns, the people perish for want of vision.
What can the Superiour doe, if the Inferiour informe not: what can the eye doe, if the hand and foot be crooked and vnserviceable? yea, not onelyonly if such as be organs of Iustice, such as hauehave places of Iudicature: but if the media and spectacles of the sense will yeeld a false report, how shall the common sense make a right iudgement? If Pl…aders and Attourneyes will colour and gloze, if the Clarkes and Pen-men make false records, may not any of these disturb or peruor Iustice? if the least finger or toe of this body be distorted, I meane Iaylor or Sergeant, or any other that should execute Iustice, be remisse and slacke, then must the Dutch-mans prouerb be veryfied,… Looke what the bell is without the clapper, such are good lawes and iudgements without d…e execution.
Thus we see in this curious clock-work of Iustice, the lest pin or whee…e amisse may distemper & disorder all: but if care were had to frame all …hese parts of the building according to the plat-forme of this skilfull Architect, what an absolute …armony of the parts, what an exact perfection of the whole; yea, what golden times should we liue to see?
Hearken o yee mountaines and little hills, you Rulers of thousands,… you Rulers of tens, you reuerēd Sages of the Lawes, you worshipfull Knights and Gentlemen of the Countrey: yee listen to this charg of Iethro: ye of the meanest place of the common-welth, weigh not things nor persons at the common beame of custome & opinion, but as the golden standart of Gods Sanctuary, with these Goldsmiths waights of my text: which if I shall perswade you to doe, I feare that wee must say with the Psalmist, that sonnes of men Beni-Adam, yea the cheefest men Beni-ish, Psal 6…. 9.to be layed vponupon the ballance, will bee found lies and lighter then vanity: heere money will not make the man, nor craft carry it away. EueryEvery Nabal of mount Carmel, nor eueryevery Achitophel may not bee admitted.
This text saith to eueryevery timorous, prophane, falseharted, couetous person, as Samuel to Saul, God hath rent thine office from thee: and bestowed it on thy better: or as the Scripture of Iudas, let another more worthily take his place: if this order & rule of triall might take place, how many would bee turned out of commission? how many would bee effici… perdae? how would benches & Shire-houses bee …hinned?
As for this present, to the which God hath called me to speake (for if I had called my selfe, I could not, nor durst not speake) giuegive me leaue without offence, to speake that plainly and openly, which I conceiue inwardly: when I hauehave come into the Shire-house, sometimes to obserue the state of it: it hath presented it selfe to my view, not vnlike to that image of Dan…el, or picture in Horace, or table of the Popes of Rome, which for memories sake I reduce to these two Disticks
Ex auro caput est, argentea brachia, vēter
Aeneus, admisto ferrea cruraluto
Diuino capiti, ceruix humana, ferinus
Assuitur truncus Daemonijque pedes.
The head of gold. And with such honourable Iudges God hath vsually & for a long time blessed this circuit. If I had euer heard other of these present, I durst not giuegive titles, lest my maker should condemne me: yet being vnknowne to me but by fame, which hath spoken all good: I desire you to proue and weigh your selues by Iethro's weights, and accordingly to hauehave peace and approofe in your owne consciences, before the Iudge of all Iudges.
The shoulders of siluer. A worthy Bench, yet mingled with som drosse, and not so refined as I hauehave knowne and seene it, like the skie in a cleere euening, bespangled with bright stars. Many such there bee at this present, God be praised, religious & able Iustices and so many, as I beleeue, few other Benches are furnished withall, yet in this siluer I feare some drosse, some whose skill & ability the Countrey doubts of, being conceiued to be either so simple or so timorous, that they dare meddle with none that dare meddle with them: or else so popular they will displease none. The Diuell himselfe they say may keepe an Ale-house vnderunder their nose. Others whose religion they call into question, at lest for the truth, and for the power of it: vnlesse religion may stand with common swearing, with drinking, with familiarity with Papists & Recusants, with vngouerned and vngodly families, voyd of all exercises of religion, fraught with spirits of the buttery, Ruffians, Ale-house hunters, and such as are the Sin-tutours and sin-leaders to all the Countrey about them, I hope there bee but few such, I could wish there were none at all.
The brest and belly of brasse, the strength of the Countrey, in which ranke I account the great Inquest, Iury-men and Constables, of which number how few make a conscience to present disorders according to oath, or that know and regard the bond of an oath?
The legs and feet of iron and clay, or mire. Indeed the very mire & dirt of the Countrey, the Bayliffs, Stewards of small liberties, Bum-Bayliffs, laylours, &c. if Beelzebub wanted officers, he needed no worse then some of these: what misteries hauehave they to vex the poore Countrey-men with false arrests? and by vertue of that Statute tying eueryevery Free holder of forty shillings per annum, to attend the Assises, but I list not to stirr this sediment of the countrey too vnsauoury to be taken vp in a sermon.
Oh that some Iehosophet would … & reforme, or that you Iudges in th…se your dayes of visitations, wold redresse some part of these greeuances, and reduce all to this Ideae of lethro's which indeede would make an Heauen vponupon earth amongst vsus. An Vtopia I feare some will say, too good to be true,Ob. obiecting to me as to Cat…, that he not discerning the times hee liued in, looked for Plato's Commonwealth in the dreggs of Romulus. And so that these Magistrates thus limbed ou…, might be found in Moses golden age of the world, but not in these lees of time.
To which I answere,Answ. that if Iethr… were now to giuegive aduice, hee would double the force of it: If Dauids r…a…son bee true, it is now high time for God to worke, for men hauehave destroyed his Law. Was there euer more … of courage then now, when sin … audacious? of truth, when …? of religion, when hypocrisie & i…iquity? of contentation, when the … of the world so abounds? The onelyonly way to repayre these ruines of the dying world is to renew gouernmēt to the primitiue beauty of it: the f…ce whereof I hauehave now shewed in this excellent Mirrour or Looking-glasse: so you goe no… away, and forget both the comlinesse and sports it hath shewed you, but wash and bee cleane, and such as it would hauehave you to bee.
There being nothing else remaining …o your perfection, & the peace of the Common-wealth, but this one Item following in my text, requiring assiduity and diligence.
Let …hem iudge the people at al times,The fourth part. &c▪
A most needefull … in times that louelove ease and priuate employments, with neglect of publique, Sitting in the gate is perpetually needefull. Diligence in hearing and ending ca…ses would preuent that greeuance of delayes, which occasioned Iethro his discourse. How doe you thinke it would hauehave affected him, to hauehave seen six or seuen I hauehave heard sixteene sums set vponupon one suit. These our English delayes being (as Marnixius complayned) worse then the Spanish strapadoes.
And it is fit, though publique and generall courts hauehave their termes, yet … particular audience of petty gree…ances should hauehave no vacation.
Many are the suits and controuersies, many are the criminall offences that neede continuall inspection. Let him therefore that hath an office, attend to his office with cheerefulnesse; hee that hath no leisure to heare his neighbours causes: Let him (as the woman said to Philip) hauehave no leisure to beare office. Cursed is he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently, & withholdeth his hands there from.
You Gentle-men complaine often of Idoll shepheards, dumb dogs, &c. in the Ministery. But how many such in …he Magistracy? Som in commission, that neuer sit on the Bench but for fashion: Constables that are but cyphers in their place. Forsooth they will be no pragmatical fellowes, no busiebodies to trouble the Countrey. Is there no mean between busibodies and tell-clockes, between factotum and fay't neant.
From this neglect comes that wrong and iniury to the Assises, that such petty causes, tribling actions and complaints trouble these graue and reuerend personages, which a meane Yeo man were Iudge fit enough to end in a chaire at home: when the whole Shire must be troubled to heare and iudge of a curtesie made out of the path, or a blow giuen vponupon the shoulder vponupon occasion of a wager▪ or such like bawble-trespasses which I shame to mention. And to punish eueryevery petty larceny, eueryevery small ryo… or disorder, which lighter controuersies and faults, if perticular Office…s wold comprimize & redresse in their Spheares, these greater Orbs should not be troubled with them.
Then indeed would that follow, which Iethro assures Moses of in the last part of my Text,The fift part. ver. 23 If thou do this thing (God so commanding thee) then shalt thou & thy people endure, & al this people shal go quietly to their place.
An admirable emolument of Magistracy & sufficient reward of all the paines of it: that they and the people may goe home in peace, sit vnderunder their vines and fig-trees, follow their callings, and that which is the cheefe Iewell of all, may lead their liues in al godlines and honesty. That the gold, blew & purple silke might shine and glister within the Tabernacle, the out side was couered with red skins and goats haire, such a shelter is Magistracy to Gods Church and Religion. Nebuchadnezzar was a great tree, & eueryevery particular Magistrate a little one vnderunder whose boughs people build & sing, & bring vp their young ones in religious nurture, euen foster fathers …s Ioseph in Aegypt Such were the rich & religious …imes vnderunder Dauid & Salomon, & vnderunder such as are described, Esa. 32. which whole chapter is worth the reading, as a iust Commētary vponupon this poynt, setting foorth the felicity, quietnesse, plenty, vertue and piety of iust gouernours, as are hiding places from the winde, and refuges from the tempest, riuers of waters to dry places, and as raine to the new mowen grasse, &c.
Such also were the times enioyed by the Church vnderunder Constantine, deciphered as I take it, Reu…la. 8. when there was silence in the heauen about halfe an houre, the golden vialls filled with sweet odors, the prayers of the Saints ascending as a pillar of smoke vp to heauen.
Of these times see Panegyricall Sermōs, and Encomiasticall discourses storied of old, and one of them at large recorded by Eusebius, Euseb. lib. 10which whole booke is nothing but an Elogium of those peaceable dayes, wherin the Church was edified & multiplied. The Common-wealth being to the Church, as the Elme to the Vine, or as the garden to the Bees; the flourishing of the one, the thriuing of the other; and the disturbance of the one; the disquiet of the other.
How can men either attend Gods seruice or their owne worke, when they are molested at home with drunkards, barretors, quarrelous persons, when hurried vp to London with suits. As I hauehave knowne a Constable molested with fiue or six actions, for an act o… …stice, in punishing vice according to his office. With what bitternesse of spirit do men groāe vnderunder delayed and peruerted Iustice, when it is turned into Hemlocke, and turnes them out of their wits, some of them swouning at the sight of their orders, as I hauehave heard from credible eye-witnesses, others ready to destroy themselues, their aduersaries, yea & sometime their Iudges.
Oh the benefit of good Magistrats, It is an vnknowne good, as the Country-man in an ancient Poet, when he had met withall, feelingly cries out, that hee had found that summum bonum, which the Philosophers so much sought after, he now enioying more sweetnes of little, then of great reuenues in troublous times. Surely, we Christians ought to prize it as the meane of our greatest good, of our peaceable frequenting of our Churches, and our seruing of God. Marchants make a higher vse, & are more glad of a calme then common passengers: so should we Christians the… Heathens, by how much wee may and ought to improoue it for richer ends of Gods glory, and the saluation of our soules.
Lord what manner of persons ought we to be in all godlinesse and honesty, which enioy such length & latitude of Halcion dayes, as we doe; the tithe whereof, not onelyonly former dayes, but our neighbour Nations would now be glad of.
God giuegive vsus the vse and fruite of them, continue and encrease them, which will then bee, when this Text shall be more studied and practized. Then (s Amos speakes) shall iudgement flow as waters, and righteousnesse run downe as a mighty torrent; or as Dauid, Then shall the earth encrease, al people shall praise God, and God euen our God shal blesse vsus, and all the ends of the earth shall feare him. And so I make Iethro's preface my conclusion. I hauehave giuen you counsell this day: Hearken to my voyce, and the Lord God bee with you all. Amen.
FINIS.
To my louing Brother Mr. SAMVEL WARD.
BRother, if you meete with your Iethro's counsel returned from beyond the seas, and as much … your expectation preserued aliue, as his … in law was against … Iniunction, mer… as much as you will, but bee no more offended … you hauehave cause. Ioab … wider on the … hand in destroying Dauids Absolon, contrary … be serious charge, yet Ioab was pardoned, and … no brother. I hauehave noted you hitherto inexora… for your owne publishing of any thing of your … ▪ whether out of iudgement, modesty, curio… ▪ or melancholy, … iudge not: but when others … them with fruit and acceptance▪ … the light, I hauehave seene you rest content with … publique good. The like leaue I hauehave taken, … like successe, assuring you and my selfe … the generall welcomnes and vsefullnes heereof to all whom it concernes, which are the greatest number of the land, euen so many as hauehave any reference to Sessions and A…iles, if not all sorts of Christians. OnelyOnly I feare that the corruption of our times is growne so grosse and Eglon-like, … it doth not E…ud-like enough sh…rpen the poy…, and send them home to the …, that they … to the quicke. I had my selfe added thereto a pro…ect and per…wasion for the redresse of many abuses crept into offices and officers… ▪ hauing spent so much time in the study of the law, and … of some offices, …s made me weary of the errours I …aw, and heartily wi…h the reformation of them: but …caring I hauehave learned too much bluntnesse and plumpne…se of speech among the Lutherans, which is here as p…rme a quallitie, as smoothnes with you, as also loath to meddle out of mine o…b, in my second thoughts I suppressed it. And so wishing vntounto this, many diligent, conscionable and ingenuous Readers and Appliers▪ and to them Gods blessing and the fruit intended, I take my leaue. From … in Prusia.
Your Brother in the …lesh, in th…' Lord, and in the vvorke of the minist…ry. NATH. WARD.
End of the text · Samuel Ward, Balm from Gilead to Recover Conscience (1618)