Fourteen Sermons, Sermon 2
AD MAGISTRATUM. The Second Sermon. At the Assises at Lincoln, 7 March 1624. at the request of William Lister Esq then high Sheriff of the County.
EXOD. 23. ver. 1.—3.
1. Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
2. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou speak in a cause, to decline after many to wrest judgement.
3. Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.
THere is no one thing, (Religion ever excepted,) that more secureth and adorneth the State, than Iustice doth. It is both Columna, and Corona Reipublicae, as a Prop to make it subsist firm in it selfe; and as a Crown, to render it glorious in the eyes of others. As the Cement in a building, that aIus & aequitas vincula civitatum. Cic. Parad. 4.holdeth all together, so is Iustice to the publick Body: as whereunto it oweth a great part both of its strength, (for by it the bProv. 16.12.throne is established, in the sixteenth) and of its height too; for it cProv. 14.34.exalteth a Nation, in the 14th. of the Proverbs. As then in a Building, when for want of good looking to, the Morter getting wet dissolveth, and the wals dV…nt…osi p… ri…t…s. P. Bles. Ep 85.belly out; the house cannot but settle apace, and without speedy repaires fall to the ground: so there is not a more certain symptome of a declining, and decaying, and tottering State, than is the generall eforeign. Soph.. in Ajac. ubi non est pudor, Nec cura juris, Sanctitas, Pictas, Fides; Instabile regnum …st. Sen. in Thyest. act. 2.dissolution of manners for want of the due execution and administration of Iustice.
The more cause have we, that are Gods Ministers, by frequent exhortations, admonitions, obsecrations, expostulations, even out of season sometimes, but especially upon such seasonable opportunities as this, to be instant with all them that have any thing to do in matters of Iustice, but especially with you, who are aRom. 13.4.Gods Ministers too (though in another kind) you who are in Commission to sit upon the Bench of judicature, either for Sentence or Assistance: to do your God and King service, to do your Country and Calling honour, to do your selves and others right, by advancing to the utmost of your powers the due course of Iustice. Wherein as I verily think none dare bIrasci mihi nemo poterit, nisi qui antè de se volu…rit confiteri. Cie. pro lege Manil. Frequenter culpa pupuli redundat in principem, quasi de majorum negligentia obveniant errata mino…um. Pet. Blesens. Ep. 95.but the guilty, so I am well assured none can justly, mislike in us the choice either of our Argument that we beat upon these things; or of our Method, that we begin first with you. For, as we cannot be perswaded on the one side, but that we are bound for the discharge of our duties, to put you in mind of yours: so we cannot be perswaded on the other side, but that if there were generally in the greater ones that care and conscience and zeal there ought to be of the common good, a thousand corruptions rife among inferiours would be, if not wholly reformed, at leastwise practised with lesse connivence from you, confidence in them, grievance to others.
But right and reason will, that aGal. 6.5.every man bear his own burthen. And therefore as we may not make you innocent, if you be faulty, by transferring your faults upon others: so far be it from us to impute their faults to you, otherwise then as by not doing your best to bQui non vetat peccare cū potest, jubet. Senec. in Troad. In cu…us manu est ut prohi…t, jubet agi, si non prohib…t admitti. Sa…vian. 7. de provid.hinder them, you make them yours. For Iustice we know is an Engine, that turneth upon many hinges. And to the exercise of judicature, besides the Sentence, which is properly yours, there are diverse other things required; Informations, and Testimonies, and Arguings, and Inquests, and sundry Formalities, which I am neither able to name, nor yet covetous to learne: wherein you are to rest much upon the faithfulnesse of other men. In any of whom if there be, as sometimes there will be, foul and unfaithfull dealing, such as you either cannot spie, or cannot help; wrong sentence may proceed from out your lips, cforeign. Arist. 8. Top. 111.without your fault. As in a curious Watch or Clock that moveth upon many wheeles, the finger may point a wrong hour, though the wheel that next moveth it be most exactly true; if but some little pinne, or notch or spring be out of order in or about any of the baser and inferiour wheels. What he said of old, dforeign. apud Stob. Ser. 44.Non fieri potest, quin Principes etiam valde boni iniqua faciant; was then and ever since, and yet is, and ever will be most true. For say a Iudge be never so honestly minded, never so zealous of the truth, never so carefull to do right: yet if there be a spitefull Accuser that will suggest any thing, or an audacious Witnesse that will sweare any thing, or a crafty Pleader that will maintain any thing, or a tame Iury that will swallow any thing, or a craving Clerk or Officer that for a bribe will foist in any thing; the Iudge who is tyed (as it is meet he should) to proceed secundum allegata & probata, cannot eIpsos justi…iarios, quos vulgariter Errantes, vel Itinerantes dicimus, dum errata hominum diligenter explorant, frequenter errare contingit. Excessus namque hominum absconduntur, &c. Pet. Bles. Epist. 25.with his best care and wisdome prevent it, but that sometimes justice shall be perverted, innocency oppressed, and guilty ones justified.
Out of which consideration, I the rather desired for this Assise-Assembly, to choose a Text as neer as I could of equall latitude with the Assise-Businesse. For which purpose I could not readily think of any other portion of Scripture, so proper and full to meet with all sorts of persons and all sorts of abuses, as these three verses are. Is there either Calumny in the Accuser, or Perjury in the Witnesse, or Supinity in the Iurer, or Sophistry in the Pleader, or Partiality in any Officer; or any close corruption any where lurking amid those many passages and conveyances that belong to a judiciall proceeding? my Text searcheth it out, and enditeth the offender at the tribunall of that unpartiall Judge that keepeth a privie Sessions in each mans breast.
The words are so laid down distinctly in five Rules or Prec…pts, or rather (being all negative) in so many Prohibitions, that I may spare the labour of making other division of them. All that I shall need to do about them, will be to set out the severall portions in such fort as that every man who hath any part or fellowship in this businesse may have his due share in them. Art thou first an Accuser in any kind: either as a party in a judiciall controversie; or bound over to prosecute for the King in a criminall cause, or as a voluntary informer upon some penall Statute? here is something for thee, Thou shalt not raise a false report. Art thou secondly a Witnesse: either fetched in by Processe to give publick testimony upon oath; or come of good or ill will, privately to speak a good word for, or to cast out a shrewd word against any person? here is something for thee too; Put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witnesse. Art thou thirdly returned to serve as a sworne man, in a matter of grand or petty inquest? here is something for thee too; Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. Comest thou hither fourthly to advocate the cause of thy Client, who flyeth to thy learning, experience, and authority for succour against his adversary, and commendeth his state and suit to thy care and trust? here is something for thee too; Neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgement. Art thou lastly in any Office of trust, or place of service in or about the Courts, so as it may sometimes fall within thy power or opportunity to do a suiter a favour, or a spite? here is something for thee too, Thou shalt not countenance (no not) a poor man in his cause. The two first in the first, the two next in the second, this last in the third verse.
In which distribution of the offices of justice in my Text, let none imagine, because I have shared out all among them that are below the bench, that therefore there is nothing left for them that sit upon it. Rather as in dividing the land of Canaan, Levi, who had aNum. 18.20, 21. Deut. 18.1, &c.no distinct plot by himself, having yet (by reason of the bDeut. 33.10.universall use of his office) in every Tribe something, had in the whole, all things considered, a cSee Numb. 25.2—83. and Jos. 21.1, &c.farre greater proporrion, then any other Tribe had: So in this Scripture, the Iudge hath by so much a larger portion then any of the rest, by how much it is more diffused. Not concluded within the narrow bounds of any one; but, as the blood in the body, temperately spread throughout all the parts and members thereof. Which cometh to passe not so much from the immediate construction of the words (though there have not wanted dLyran hic.Expositors to fit the words to such construction:) as from that generall inspection, and (if I may so speak) superintendency, which the Iudge or Magistrate ought to have over the carriage of all those other inferiour ones. A great part of whose duty it is, to observe how the rest do theirs: and to find them out, and check and punish them as they deserve, when they transgresse. So that with your patience (Honourable, Worshipfull, and dearly Beloved) I have allowance from my Text (if the time would as well allow it) to speak unto you of five things. Whereof the first concerneth the Accuser; the second, the Witnesse; the third, the Iurer; the fourth, the Lawyer; and the fifth, the Officer: and every one of them the Magistrate, Iudge, and Iusticer. But having no purpose to exceed the houre, (as I must needs do if I should speak to all these to any purpose;) whilest I speak to the first onelyonly, I shall desire the rest to make application to themselves, so farre as it may concern them, of every materiall passage: which they may easily do, and with very little change for the most part; onelyonly if they be willing.
To our first Rule then, which concerneth the Accuser and the Iudge; in the first words of the Text, Thou shalt not raise a false report, The Originall aforeignverb signifieth to take up; as if we should read it, bH.A. hic.Thou shalt not take up a false report. And it is a word of larger comprehension, then most Translatours have expressed it. The full meaning is, cOld English translation hic.Thou shalt not have to do with any false report: neither by dCons…nti…ndo vel loquendo. Gloss. interlin. hic. Ni falsi rumo…is author, vel adjutor esto. J…n. in Annot.raising it, as the Author, nor by spreading it, as the Reporter, nor by receiving it as an Approver. But the first fault is in the Raiser: and therefore our translations have done well to retain that rather in the Text; yet allowing the Receiver a place in the Margent. Now false reports may be raised of our brethren by unjust slanders, detractions, backbitings, whisperings, as well out of the course of judgement, as in it. And the equity of of this Rule reacheth even to those extrajudiciall Calumnies also. But for that I am not now to speak of extrajudiciall Calumny so much, as of that quae versatur in foro & in judiciis, those false suggestions and informations which are given into the Courts, as more proper both to the scope of my Text, and the occasion of this present meeting: Conceive the words for the present as spoken especially, or at leastwise as not improperly appliable, to the Accuser. But the Accuser taken eAccusatorem pro omni actore & petitore appello. Cic. in partit. Orat.at large, for any person that impleadeth another in jure publico vel privato, in causes either civil or criminal, and these again either capital or penal. No not the Accused or Defendant excepted: who although he cannot be called in strict propriety of speech an Accuser; yet if when he is justly accused, he seek to defend himself by false, unjust, or impertinent allegations, he is in our present intendment to be taken as an Accuser, or as the Raiser and Taker up of a false report.
But when is a Report false? or what is it to raise such a report? and how is it done? As we may conceive of falshood in a three-fold notion; namely, as it is opposed, not onelyonly unto Truth first, but secondly also unto Ingenuity, and thirdly unto Equity also: accordingly false reports may be raised three wayes. The first and grossest way is, when we a—struunt de proprio calumni as innocentiae. Bern lib. 1. de Consid. prope finem.feign and devise something of our owne heads to lay against our brother, without any foundation at all, or ground of truth: creating (as it were) a tale ex nihilo. As it is in the Psalm, bPsal. 35.11.They laid to my charge things that I never did: and as Nehemiah sent word to Sanballat, cNehem. 6.8.There are no such things as thou sayest, but thou feignest them of thine own heart. dCic. act. 2. in Verr. lib. 3.Crimen domesticum, & vernaculum; a meer device: such as was that of Iezebels instruments against e3 Reg. 21.10.Naboth, which cost him his life; and that of Zibah against f2 Sam. 16.3.Mephibosheth, which had almost cost him all he had. This first kind of Report is false; as devoyd of Truth.
The second way, (which was so frequently used among the Roman Accusers, that aNon utar istâ accusatoriâ consuetudine, &c. Cie▪ Act. 2. in Verr. lib. 5.Custome had made it not onelyonly excusable, but b—quae quoniam accusatorio more & jure sunt facta, reprehendere non possumus. Cic. p…o Flacco.allowable; and is at this day of too frequent use both in private and publick calumniations) is, when upon some small ground of truth, we run descant at pleasure in our own informations, interweaving many untruths among; or perverting the speeches & actions of our adversaries, to make their matters ill, when they are not; or otherwise aggravating them to make them seem worse than they are. As tidings came to David, when Amnon only was slain, that c2 Sam. 13.30Absalom had killed all the Kings sons. It is an easie and a common thing, by misconstruction to dThey daily wrest my words ▪ Psal▪ 56.5. —Nihil est Qui… malè narrando possit depravarier. Terent. in Phorm.deprave whatsoever is most innocently done or spoken. The Ammonitish Courtiers dealt so with David, when he sent e2 Sam. 10.2.Ambassadors to Hanun in kindness, they informed the King as if he had sent Spies to discover the strength of the City and Land. And the fNeh. 6.6, 7. & Ezra 4.12.Iews enemies dealt so with those that of devotion repaired the Temple & the Wall of Ierusalem, advertising the State, as if their purpose had been to fortifie themselves for a Rebellion. Yea and the malicious Iewes dealt so with Christ himself; taking hold of some words of his, about the destroying and building of the Temple, which he understood of the gIoh. 2.10.21.temple of his body, and so hMat. 26.61.wresting them to the fabrick of the Materiall Temple, as to make them serve to give colour to one of the strongest accusations they had against him. This second kind of Report is false, as devoid of Ingenuity.
The third way is, when taking advantage of the Law, we prosecute the extremity thereof against our brother, who perhaps hath done something contrary to the letter of the Law, but not violated the intent of the Lawgiver, or offended either against common Equity, which ought to be the aforeign. Epicte…. apud Stob. Serm. 143. nosdegem bonam … mala nullâ alli â nisi naturali normâ. dividere possumus. Cic. lib. 1 de legib. Quod fit injustè, nec jure fieri pit…st. Non enim jura dicenda sunt, vel putanda, iniqua hominum constitu…. Aug. l. 9. dè Civit. 21measure of just Lawes, or against the common good, which is in some sort the bAtque ipsa utilitas justi. propè … & aequi. Horat. 1. serm. 3—ex aequo & bonojus const…t, quod ad veritatem & util…tatem commun…m videtur pertinere. Cic. ad Herenn. lib. 2.measure of Equity. In that multitude of Lawes, which for the repressing of disorders, and for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity among men, must needs be in every well-governed Common-wealth, it …annot be avoided, but that honest men, especially if they have much dealings in the world, may have sometimes just and necessary cause to do that, which in regard of the thing done may bring them within the compasse of some Statute or branch of a statute; yet such as, circumstances duly considered, no wise and indifferent man but would well approve of. Now, if in such c…ses alwaies rigour should be used, Lawes intended for the benefit, should by such hard construction become the bane of humane society. As Solomon saith, cProv. 30.33.Qui torquet nasum, elicit sanguinem; He that wringeth the nose too hard, forceth blood. Guilty this way are not onelyonly those contentious spirits, whereof there are too many in the world, with whom there is no more adoe, but a Word and an Action, a Trespasse and a Processe: But most of our common Informers withall, Sycoph…nts you may call them (for that was their old name) like Verres his dCanes v…naleci. Cic. in Vetrinis-s…epe.blood-hounds in Tully, that lye in the wind for game, and if they can but trip any man upon any breach of a penall Statute, there they fasten their teeth, and tugge him into the Courts without helpe▪ unlesse he will dare offam Cerbero, (for that is it they look for) give them a sop, and then they are charmed for that time. Zacheus, besides that he was a Publicane, was it seemeth such a kind of Informer, foreign, is the word Luk. 19. If I have played the Sycophant with any man, if I have wronged any man by forged cavillation, or wrung any thing from him by false accusation. A report of this third kind is false as devoid of equity.
eLuke 19 8. Si qu…d…i per calumniam … ripui. apud. Tert. 4. cont. Ma…c. 37.But it may be thought I injure these men, in making them raisers of false reports; and am my selfe a false accuser of them, whilst I seek to make them false accusers of others: when as they dare appeale to the world, they report not any thing but what is most true, and what they shall be well able to prove so to be. At once to answer them, and clear my self; know that in Gods estimation, and to common intendment in the language of Scripture, it is all one to speak an untruth, and to speak a truth in undue time, and place, and manner, and with undue circumstances. One instance shall make all this most cleer. Doeg the Edomite, one of the a1 Sam. 21.7.servants of the house of Saul, saw when David went into the house of Ahimelech the Priest, and how Ahimelech there entertained him, and what kindnesse he did for him: of all which he b1 Sam. 22.9, &c.afterwards gave Saul particular information, in every point according to what he had seen. Wherein, though he spake no more than what was true, and what he had seen with his own eyes: yet because he did it with an intent to bring mischief upon Ahimelech, who had done nothing but what well became an honest man to do, David chargeth him with telling of lyes, and telleth him he had a false tongue of his own for it, Psal. 53. [cPsal. 52.2- 4. Thy tongue imagineth wickednesse, and with lyes thou cuttest like a sharp rasour: Thou hast loved unrighteousnesse more then goodnesse, and to talk of lyes more then righteousnesse: thou hast loved all words that may do hurt, O thou false tongue.] Conclude hence; he that telleth the truth where it may do hurt, but especially if he tell it with that purpose and to that end that it may do hurt, he hath a false tongue, and he telleth a false lye, and he must pardon us if we take him for no better than the raiser of a false report.
We see what it is to raise a false report: let us now see what a fault it is: The first Accuser that ever was in the world, was a false Accuser: and that was the Devil. Who as he began betimes, for he was a aJohn 8.44.liar from the beginning: so he began aloft; for the first false report he raised, was of the most High. Unjustly accusing God himself unto our mother Eve in a bGen. 3.1, 4, 5few words of no fewer than three great crimes at once, Falshood, Tyranny, and Envy. He was then a slanderous accuser of his Maker; and he hath continued ever since a malicious accuser of his cApoc. 19.6, 10.Brethren: Sathan, foreign, &c. he hath his name from it in most languages. Slanderers, and Backbiters, and false Accusers may here hence learn to take knowledge of the rock whence they were hewn: here they may behold the top of their pedigree. We may not deny them the ancienty of their descent; though they have small cause to boast of it; semen serpentis, the spawn of the old Serpent; dJohn 8.44.children of their father the Devil. And they do not shame the store they come of; for the works of their Father they readily do. That Hellish Aphorisme they so faithfully practise, is one of his Principles: it was he first instilled it into them, Calumniare fortiter, aliquid adhaerebit, eJer. 18.18.Smite with the tongue, and be sure to smite home; and then be sure either the grief, or the blemish of the stroke, will stick by it.
A Devillish practise, hateful both to God and Man. And that most justly; whether we consider the sin, or the injury, or the mischief of it: the Sin in the Doer, the Injury to the Sufferer, the Mischief to the Common-wealth. Every false report raised in judgement, besides that it is a lye; and every lye is a sin against the truth, aWisd. 1.11.slaying the soul of him that maketh it, and bApoc. 22.15excluding him from heaven, and binding him over unto cApoc. 22.8.the second death: it is also a pernicious lye, and that is the worst sort of lyes; and so a sin both against Charity and Iustice. Which who so committeth, let him never look to dPsal. 15.1, 3.dwell in the Tabernacle of God, or to rest upon his holy Mountain: GOD having threatned, Ps. 50. to take speciall knowledge of this sin; & though he seem for a time to dissemble it, yet at lest to reprove the bold offender to his face.ePsal. 50.19.—21. [Thou satest and spakest against thy brother: yea and hast slandered thine own mothers son. These things hast thou done, and I held my tongue, & thou thoughtest wickedly, that I was even such an one as thy self; but I will reprove thee, and set before thee the things that thou hast done.]
And as for the Injury done hereby to the grieved party, it is incomparable. If a man have his house broken, or his purse taken from him by the high way, or sustain any wrong or losse in his person, goods, or state otherwise, by fraud, or violence, or casualty: he may possibly either by good fortune hear of his own again and recover it, or he may have restitution and satisfaction made him by those that wronged him, or by his good industry and providence he may live to see that losse repaired, and be in as good state as before. But he that hath his Name, and Credite, and Reputation causlesly called into question, sustaineth a losse by so much greater then any theft, by how much aProv. 21.1.a good name is better than great riches. A man may out-weare other injuries, or out-live them: but a defamed person no acquittall from the Iudge, no satisfaction from the Accuser, no following endeavours in himself can so restore in integrum, but that when the wound is healed, he shall yet carry the markes and the scarres of it to his dying day.
Great also are the mischiefs that hence redound to the common-wealth. When no innocency can protect an honest quiet man, but every busie base fellow that oweth him a spite shall be able to fetch him into the Courts, draw him from the necessary charge of his family and duties of his calling, to an unnecessary expence of money and time, torture him with endlesse delayes, and expose him to the pillage of every hungry Officer. It is one of the grievances God had against Jerusalem, and as he calleth them abominations, for which he threatneth to judge her, Ezek. 22. Viri detractores in te. aEzek. 22.9.In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood.
Beware then all you whose businesse or lot it is at this Assises, or hereafter may be, to be Plaintiffs, Accusers, Informers, or any way Parties in any Court of Justice, this or other, Civil or Ecclesiasticall: that you suffer not the guilt of this prohibition to cleave unto your Consciences. If you shall hereafter be raisers of false reports, the words you have heard this day shall make you inexcusable another. You are, by what hath been presently spoken, disabled everlastingly from pleading any Ignorance either Facti or Iuris; as having been instructed both what it is, and how great a fault it is to raise a false report. Resolve therefore, if you be free, never to enter into any action or suite, wherein you cannot proceed with comfort, nor come off without injustice: or if already engaged, to make as good and speedy an end as you can of a bad matter, and to desist from farther prosecution. Let that golden rule, (commended by the wisest aforeign. apud. Stob. Serm. 2. Idque per praecoaem, cùm aliquem emendaret, dici jubebat, Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris. Quam sententiam usque adeò dilexit, ut & in Palatio, & in publicis operibus praescribi juberet. de Alex. Severo Lamprid. in Alex.heathens as a fundamentall Principle of morall and civill Iustice; yea and proposed by our blessed Saviour himself as a full abridgement of the bMat. 7.12.Law and Prophets,) be ever in your eye, and ever before your thoughts, to measure out all your actions, and accusations, and proceedings thereby: even to do so to other men, and no otherwise, then as you could be content, or in right reason should be content, they should do to you and yours, if their case were yours. Could any of you take it well at your neighbours hand, should he seek your life or livelyhood by suggesting against you things which you never had so much as the thought to do? or bring you into a peck of troubles, by wresting your words and actions wherein you meant nothing but well, to a dangerous construction: or follow the Law upon you, as if he would not leave you worth a groate, for every petty trespasse, scarce worth half the money? or fetch you over the hippe upon a branch of some blind, uncouth, and pretermitted Statute? He that should deal thus with you and yours. I know what would be said and thought: Griper, Knave, Villain, Divel incarnate; all this and much more would be too little for him. Well, I say no more but this, Quod tibi fieri non vis, &c. Doe as you would be done to. There is your generall Rule.
But for more particular direction, if any man desire it; since in every evil, one good step to soundnesse is to have discovered the right cause thereof: I know not what better course to prescribe for the preventing of this sinne of sycophancy and false accusation, then for every man carefully to avoid the inducing causes thereof, and the occasions of those causes. There are (God knoweth) in this present wicked world, to every kind of evil, inducements but too too many. To this of false accusation therefore it is not unlikely, but there may be more: yet we may observe that there are four things, which are the most ordinary and frequent causes thereof; viz. Malice, Obsequiousnesse, Coverture, and Covetousnesse.
The first is Malice. Which in some men (if I may be allowed to call them men, being indeed rather Monsters) is universall. They love no body: glad when they can do any man any mischief in any matter: never at so good quiet, as when they are most unquiet. It seemeth David met with some such; men that were aPs. 120.6, 7.enemies to peace: when he spake to them of peace, they made themselves ready to battell. Take one of these men, it is meat and drink to him, which to a well-minded Christian is as Gall and Wormewood, to be in continuall suits. bVirg. Eclog. 3.Et si non aliqud nocuisset, mortuus esset: he could not have kept himself in breath, but by keeping Termes; nor have lived to this hour, if he had not been in Law. Such cankered dispositions as these, without the more than ordinary mercy of God, there is little hope to reclaime: unlesse very want, when they have spent and undone themselves with wrangling (for that is commonly their end, and the reward of all their toyle) make them hold off, and give over. But there are besides these others also; in whom although this malice reigneth not so universally, yet are they so far carried with private spleene and hatred against some particular men for some personall respect or other, as to seek their undoing by all meanes they can. Out of which hatred and envy they raise false reports of them: that being in their judgements (as it is indeed,) the most speedy, and the most speeding way, to cQuare solent inimici mentiri? ut potentiam cujusque m…nuant de quo mentiuntur. Aug. in Ps. 65.do mischief with safety. This made the Presidents and Princes of Persia to dDan. 6.3, 5.seek an accusation against Daniel; whom they envied because the King had preferred him above them. And in all ages of the world wicked and prophane men have been busie to suggest the worst they could, against those that have been faithfull in their callings; especially in the callings of the Magistracy or Ministery: that very faithfulnesse of theirs being to the other a sufficient ground of malice. To remedy this, take the Apostles rule, Heb. 12. eHeb. 12.15.Look diligently lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you, & thereby many be defiled. Submit your selves to the word and will of God in the Ministery; submit your seles to the power and ordinance of God in the Magistracy; submit your selves to the good pleasure and providence of God in disposing of yours and other mens estates: and you shall have no cause by the grace of God, out of malice or envie to any of your brethren, to raise false reports of them.
The second Inducement is Obsequiousnesse. When either out of a base feare of displeasing some that have power to do us a displeasure, or out of a baser Ambition to scrue our selves into the service or favour of those that may advance us; we are content, though we owe them no private grudge otherwise, yet to become officious accusers of those they hate, but would not be seen so to do: so making our selves as it were baudes unto their lust, and open instruments of their secret malice. Out of that base feare, the a3 King. 21.11Elders of Iesreel, upon the Queenes Letter, whom they durst not displease, caused an accusation to be framed against innocent Naboth. And out of this base Ambition, b2 Sam. 22.9.Doeg to pick a thank with his Master, and to endeare himself farther into his good opinion, told tales of David and Ahimelech. To remedy this, remember the service and offices you owe to the greatest Masters upon earth, have their bounds set them which they may not passe. cforeign. Pericles apud Agell. 1. Noct. 3.Usque ad aras: the Altar-stone that is the Meere-stone; and Iustice hath her Altars too, as well as Religion hers. Goe as far then as you can in offices of love and service to your friends and betters, salvis pietate & justitiâ: but not a step farther for a world. If you seek to dGal. 1.10.please men beyond this, you cannot be the servants of God.
Coverture is the third Inducement. And that is, when either to make our own cause the better we seek to bring envie and prejudice upon our adversaries, by making his seeme worse: or when being our selves guilty, we think to aSce…re velandum est seclus▪ Sen. in Hippol. Act 2.cover our own crimes, and to prevent the accusations of others by getting the start of them, and accusing them first. As bGen. 39.17.Potiphars wife accused Ioseph, and the cDan. 13.Elders Susannah, of such crimes, as they were innocent of, and themselves guilty. An old trick, by which C. Verres like a cunning Colt often holpe himself at a pinch, when he was Praetor of Sicily; as dCic. in. Verr. passim.Cicero declareth against him by many instances, and at large. For sithence the Lawes in most cases rather favour the Plaintiffe; because it is presumed men should not complain without grievance: we may think perhaps to get this advantage to our selves, and so rather choose to be Plaintiffes then Defendants, because (as Solomon saith) eProv. 18.7.He that is first in his own tale seemeth righteous. To remedy this; Do nothing but what is just, and justifiable: be sure your matters be good and right: they will then bear out themselves well enough, without standing need to such damned shifts for support.
But the fourth thing is that, which causeth more mischiefe in this kind, then all the rest. That which the Apostle calleth a1 Tim. 6.10. —scelerum m… trem. Claud. 2. de laud. Stillic. Inde fer… scelerum caus… —Juven. Sat. 14.the root of all evil; and which were it not, there could not be the hundreth part of those suites, and troubles, and wrongs; which now there are, done under the Sun: Even the greedy worme of Covetousnesse, and the thirst after filthy lucre. For though men be wicked enough, and prone to mischief of themselves but too much: yet are there even in corrupt nature such impressions of the common principles of justice and equity, that men would not often do great wrongs bMaximam partem ad injuriam faciendā aggrediuntur nonnulli▪ ut adipiscantur ea qu… concupiver…nt: In quo vitio latissimè patet ava…o. Cic. …. 1. de offic. Sic vita bominum est, ut ad maleficium nemo conetur sinespe at que emolumento accedere. Gic. pro Sex. Roscio- part vilissima rer…, Certamen movistis opes. Lucan. lib. 3. foreign. Diphilus apud Stob. serm. 8.gratis, and for nothing. If Zibah slander his Master falsely and treacherously; it is in a hope of getting the living from him. And it was Naboths Vineyard, not blasphemy, that made him guilty. Those sinners that conspired against the innocent, Pro. 1. [cPro. 1.12, 13. Come let us lay wait for blood, let us …rke privily for the innocent without a cause: Let us swallow them up, &c.] They had their end in it: and what that was the next following words discover, We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil. And most of our prouling Informers, like those old Sycophants in Athens, or the Quadruplatores in Rome; do they aime think you so much at the execution of good Lawes, the punishment of offenders, and the reformation of abuses, as at the prey, and the booty, and to get a piece of money to themselves? For let the offence be what it will, deal but with them: and then no more speech of Lawes or Abuses, but all is husht up in a calme silence, and no harme done. To remedy this; as Iohn Baptist said to the Souldiers in Luke 3. dLuk. 3.14.Accuse no man falsly (foreign, is the word there too) and be content with your wages: so if you would be sure not to accuse your neighbour falsly, content your selves with your own estates, and covet not eExod. 20.1….his Oxe or his Asse, his land or his money, or any thing that is his. Reckon nothing your own, that is not yours by fair and just meanes: nor think that can prosper with you and yours, that was wrung from another by Cavi… or Calumny.
I have now done with you that are Accusers: whose care must be, according to the Text-reading, not to raise a false report. But the Margent remembers me, there are others whom this prohibition concerneth besides you, or rather above you; whose case it must be not to receive a false report. A thing so weighty, and withall so pertinent to the generall argument of this Scripture, th…t some Translations have passed it in the Text. And the Original word comprehendeth it. For albeit the Raiser indeed be the first taker up aforeign. Septuag. Non suscipies vocem mendacit. Vulg. edit. Thou shalt not receive a false report. Genev. — hunc sensum sequitur Chaldaeus, Vatabl.yet the Receiver taketh it up too, at the second hand. As it is commonly said of stollen goods, There would be no thieves, if there were no receivers; and therefore some Laws have made the bforeign. Phocyl.Receiver equal thief with the Stealer, foreign: so certainly there would be fewer false reports raised in judgement, if they were more sparingly received. And therefore in this case also the Receiver must goe pari passu with the Raiser: who, if he give way or countenance to a false report when he may refuse or hinder it, by being an Accessary maketh himself a Party; and becometh cNon solùm ille reus est qui falsū de aliquo profert; sed & is qui citò aurem criminibuc praebet. Isid. l. 3. de summo bono.guilty of the same sins, the same wrongs, the same mischiefs with the first offender, the false Accuser. David as he inveigeth against Doeg in the dPsal. 52.Psalm for telling: so he e1 Sam. 24.9.elsewhere expostulateth with Saul for hearing unjust reports of him. The Raiser and Receiver are both possessed with the same evil spirit: they have the same fforeign. Thucyd. apud. Stob. Serm. 40.Devil, the same Familiar; onelyonly here is the difference, The Raiser hath this Familiar in his tongue, the Receiver in his eare. Whosoever then sitteth in the place of Magistracy and publick judicature in foro externo, or is by vertue of his calling otherwise invested with any jurisdiction or power to hear and examine the accusations of others: I know not how he shall be able to discharge himself in foro interno from a kind of Champerty (if my ignorance make me not abuse the word) or at leastwise from misprision of Calumny and unjust accusations; if he be not reasonably carefull of three things.
First, let him beware how he taketh private informations. Men are partiall; and will not tell their own tales but with favour, and unto advantage. And it is so with most men; the aProv. 18.17. Est vitium, cujus si te immunem sentis, inter omnes quos novi, ex his qui Cathedras ascendunt, sedebis me judice sclitarius.—Facilitas …redulitatis haec est: cujus callidissimae vulpeculae Magnorum neminem comperi satis cavisse versutias. Bern. 2. de consid. in finc.first tale possesseth them so, as they hear the next with prejudice: than which there is not a b—ind… eis ipsis pro nihilo irae multae, inde innocentium frequens addictio, inde pr…judicia in absentes. Bernard. ibid.sorer enemy to right and indifferent judgement. A point so material, that some Expositors make it a thing principally intended in this first branch of my Text, cLyr. hic.Ut non audiatur una pars sine alia, saith Lyra. Suiters will be impudent, to forestall the publick hearing by private informations: even to the Iudge himself, if the accesse be easie; or at leastwise (which indeed maketh lesse noyse, but is nothing less pernicious) to his servant or favourite that hath his ear, if he have any such noted servant or favourite. He therefore that would resolve not to receive a false report, and be sure to hold his resolution, let him resolve (so far as he can avoid it) to receive no report in private; (for a thousand to one that is a false one) or, where he cannot well avoid it, to be ready to receive the information of the adverse part withall; either dforeign. Demosth. de cor.both or neither, but indeed rather neither: to keep himself by all means equal & entire for a publick hearing. Thus much he may assure himself; there is no man offereth to possesse him with a cause before-hand, be it right, be it wrong; who doth not either think him unjust, or would have him so.
Secondly, let him have the conscience first, and then the patience too (and yet if he have the aThe righteous consi…ereth the cause of the poor: but the w…cked regardeth not to know it. Prov. 29.7.conscience, certainly he will have the patience) to make search into the truth of things: and not be dainty of his pains herein, though matters be intricate, and the labour like to be long and irksome, to find out if it be possible the bottome of a business, and where indeed the fault lieth first or most. It was a great over-sight in a good King, for b2 Sam. 16.4.David to give away Mephibosheths living from him to his Accuser, and that upon the bare credit of his accusation. It had been more for his honour, to have done cJob 29.16.as Iob did before him, to have searched out the cause he knew not; and as his son d3 King. 3.23Solomon did after him in the cause of the two Mothers. Solomon well knew, what he hath also taught us, Prov. 25. that it was eProv. 25.2.the honour of Kings to search out a matter. God as he hath vouchsafed Princes and Magistrates his own fPsal. 82.6.name: so he hath vouchsafed them his own example in this point. An example in the story of the Law, Gen. 18. where he did not presently give judgement against gGen. 1….20, 21. quo exemplo moniti, ne ad proferendam sententiam—aut tem…rè indiligenter que indiscussa quaeque quoquo modo judicémus: sed exemplo Domini descendamus, videamus, & justo examine criminosos diligenter perscrutemur. Concil. Trid. c. 22.Sodome upon the cry of their sins, that was come up before him: but he would go down first and see whether they had done altogether according to that cry; and if not, that he might know it. An example also in the Gospel-story, Luc. 16. under the parable of the rich man: whose first work, when his Steward was accused to him for embezeling his goods, was not to turn him out of doors, but to hLuke 16.2.examine his accounts. What through Malice, Obsequiousness, Coverture, and Covetousness, counterfeit reports are daily raised: and there is much cunning used by those that raise them, much odde shuffling and packing, and combining to give them the colour and face of perfect truth. As then a plain Countrey-man, that would not willingly be cousened in his pay, to take a slip for a currant piece, or brasse for silver, leisurely turneth over every piece he receiveth; and if he suspect any one more than the rest, vieweth it, and ringeth it, and smelleth to it, and bendeth it, and rubbeth it, so making up of all his senses as it were one naturall touchstone, whereby to try it: such jealousie should the Magistrate use, and such industry, especially where there appeareth cause of suspicion, by all means to sift and to bolt out the truth, if he would not be cheated with a false report instead of a true.
Thirdly, let him take heed he do not give countenance or encouragement, more then right and reason requireth, to contentious persons, known Sycophants, and common Informers. If there should be no Accusers to make complaints, Offenders would be no offenders, for want of due Correction; and Laws would be no Laws, for want of due Execution. Informers then are aAccusatores multos esse in civitate utile est, ut metu contineatur audacia: veruntamen hoc ita est utile, ut non planè illudamur ab accusatoribus. Ibid.necessary in a Common-wealth, as Dogs are about your houses and yards. If any man mislike the comparison, let him know it is bNihil mali est canes ibi quamplurimos esse, ubi permulti observandi, multa que servanda sunt. Cic. pro Sex. Roscio.Cicero's simily, and not mine. It is not amisse, saith that great and wise Oratour, there should be some store of Dogs about the house, where many goods are laid up to be safe kept, and many false knaves haunt to do mischief; to guard those, and to watch these the better. But if those cCanes aluntur in Capitolio, ut significent si fures venerint— Quòd si luce quo que canes latrent, cùm Deos salutatū aliqui venerint: opinor iis crura suffringantur, &c. Ibid.Dogs should make at the throat of every man that cometh neer the house, at honest mens hours, and upon honest mens businesse: it is but needful they of the house should sometimes rate them off, and if that will not serve the turn, well favouredly beat them off, yea, and (if after all that they still continue mankeen) knock out their teeth, or break their legs, to prevent a worse mischief. Magistrates are petty Gods, God hath lent them his name, dPsal. 82.6.Dixi Dii, I have said ye are Gods, Ps. 82. and false Accusers are petty Devils; the Devil hath borrowed their name, eApoc. 12.9, 10. D… ipso etiam nomine Diaboli delatorem. Tertul. de anima. c. 35.Sathan foreign the accuser of his brethren. For a Ruler then or Magistrate to countenance a Sycophant, what is it else, but as it were to pervert the course of nature, and to make God take the Devils part? And then besides, where such things are done; what is the common cry? People, as they are suspicious, will be talking parlously and after their manner: Sure, say they, the Magistrates are sharers with these fellowes in the adventure; these are but their setters, to bring them in gain, their instruments and Emissaries to toll grist to their mills for the increasing of their moulter. He then that in the place of Magistracy would decline both the fault and suspition of such unworthy Collusion: it standeth him upon with all his best endeavours by chaining and muzling these beasts to prevent them from biting where they should not; and, if they have fastned already, then by delivering the oppressed (with Iob) fJob 29.17.To pluck the prey from between their teeth, and by exercising just severity upon them to break their jaws for doing farther harm.
I am not able to prescribe (nor is it meet I should to my betters) by what means all this might best be done. For I know not how far the subordinate Magistrates power, which must be bounded by his Commission and by the Laws, may extend this way. Yet some few things there are, which I cannot but propose, as likely good helps in all reason and in themselves, for the discountenancing of false Accusers, and the lessening both of their number and insolency. Let every good Magistrate take it into his proper consideration; whether his Commission and the Laws give him power to use them all, or no, and how far.
And first; for the avoiding of Malicious suites, and that men should not be brought into trouble upon slight informations: I find that aamong the aCael. ad Cicer. 8. fam. Epist. 8. vide l. 7. & l. 13. Sect. qui damni …f. de damno infect. In omnibus causis, sive— sancimus non aliter— N…si prius qui eas exposcunt, juramentum de calumnia praestiterint, quod non, &c. l. Vnic. Cod. de jure jurando propter calumn.Romans the Accuser in most cases might not be admitted to put in his libell, untill he had first taken his corporall oath before the Praetor, that he was free from all malicious and Calumnious intent. Certain it is, as dayly experience sheweth, that many men who make no conscience of a lye, do yet take some bNam sacram…nti timore contentiosa litigantium instantia compescitur. Ibidem. foreign. Sophocl.bog at an Oath. And it cannot but open a wide gap to the raising and receiving of false reports, and to many other abuses of very noysome consequence in the Common-weale; if the Magistrate when he may help it, to enrich himself or his officers, or for any other indirect end, shall suffer men to be impleaded and brought into trouble upon Bills and Presentments tendered without oath.
Secondly, since Lawes cannot be so conceived, but that through the infinite variety of humane occurrences, they may sometimes fall heavy upon particular men: and yet for the preventing of more generall inconveniencies it is necessary there should be Lawes (for better a mischiefe sometimes, then alwayes an Inconvenience:) there hath been left, for any thing I find to the contrary, in all well-governed policies, a kind of latitude more or lesse, and power in the Magistrates, even in those Courts that were strictissimi juris, upon fit occasion to qualifie and to aSoleo audire in potestate esse judicis mollire sententiam, & mitiùs vindicare quam jubeant leges. Aug. Epist. 15…mitigate something the rigour of the Lawes by the Rules of Equity. For I know not any extremity of bSummum jus, summa injuria. Ib. foreign. Arist. 5. E…h. …0.Wrong beyond the extremity of Right: when Lawes intended for fences are made snares, and are calumniously wrested to oppresse that innocency which they should protect. And this is most properly cExistunt etiam saepe injuriae ca…um… â …uadam, & nimis callid…, sed malitiosa interpretatione. Cic. l. 1. de offic. Scriptum sequi, c…lumniatoris esse; boni judicis, voluntat…m scriptoris, authoritat…mque defendere. Id. pro A. Cecin.Calumny in the prime notion of the word, for a man upon a meere trick or quillet from the dAucupia verborum, & literarum t…ndiculae. Cic. pro A. Cecinn.letters and syllables of the Law, or other writing, or evidence, pressed with advantage, to bring his action or lay his accusation against another man; who yet bonâ fide, and in Equity and Conscience, hath done nothing worthy to bring him into such trouble. Now if the Magistrate of Justice shall use his full power, by interpreting the Law in rigour where he should not, to second the boldnesse of a calumnious Accuser: or if he shall not use his full power, by affording his lawfull favour in due time and place, to succour the innocency of the so accused: he shall thereby but give encouragement to the Raisers, and he must look to answer for it one day, as the Receiver of a false Report.
Thirdly, since that Iustice which especially supporteth the Common-weale, consisteth in nothing more then in the right distribution of rewards and punishments: many Law-givers have been carefull, by proposing rewards, to encourage men to give in true and needfull informations, and on the contrary to suppresse those that are false or idle by proposing punishments. For the Informers office, though it be (as we heard) a necessary, yet it is in truth a very thanklesse office: and men would be loth, without speciall grievance, to undergoe the hatred and envie, which commonly attendeth such as are officious that way; unlesse there were some profit mixt withall to sweeten that hatred, and to countervaile that envy. For which cause in most Penall Statutes, a moity, or a third, or aQuartam accusatoribus secundum necessitudin…m l…gis. Tacit. lib. 4. Annal.fourth (which was the usuall proportion in Rome, whence the name of bQuadruplatores, accusatores, seu d…latores criminum Publicorū, sub poena quadrupli…sive quod ipsi …x damnatorum bonis quos accusaverant, quartam partem cons…quebantur. Ascon. in Ver. See Fest. in Quadruplatore; Turneb. 3. Adver. 9. Lips. in Lib. 4. Ann. Taciti. Bisciol. 14. subses. 15.quadruplatores came) or some other greater or lesser part of the fine, penalty, or forfeiture expressed in the Law, is by the said Law allowed to the Informer, by way of recompence for the service he hath done the State by his information. And if he be faithfull and conscionable in his office, good reason he should have it. For he that hath an Office in any Lawfull calling (and the Informers calling is such; howsoever through the iniquity of those that have usually exercised it, it hath long laboured of an cQuadruplator, ut breviter describam, capitalis est. Est enim imorobus & pestifere vis. Cic. lib. 2. ad Heren.ill name:) but he that hath such an office; as it is meet he should attend it, so it is meet it should maintain him, for d1 Cor. 9.7.Who goeth to warfare at any time of his own cost? But if such an Informer shall indict one man for an offence, pretending it to be done to the great hurt of the Common-weale, and yet for favour, fear, or a fee balk eAequitas in paribus causis paria jura d…siderat. Cic. in Top. Quis hoc statuit, quod aequum sit in Quintium, id iniquum esse in Nevium? Id. pro. Quin.another man whom he knoweth to have committed the same offence, or a greater; or if having entred his complaint in the open Court, he shall afterwards let the suite fall, and take up the matter in a private Chamber: this is fPraevaricatio est accusatoris corruptela abreo. Cic. in pa…tit. orat—Praevaricatorem cum …sse …stendimus qui colludit cum reo, & translatit…è munere accusandi desungitur. Mar. in lib. 1. ff. ad Sen atusc. Turpil.Collusion; and so far forth a false report, as every thing may be called false when it is partiall, and should be entire. And the Magistrate, if he have power to chastise such an Informer, some semblance whereof there was in thatgV. Plin. 3. Epist. 9. lib. 1. ff. ad Senatus. V. Turpil. Rosin. 9. Antiqu. Rom. 25. Iudicium Praevaricationis in Rome, he shall do the Common-wealth good service, and himself much honour, now and then to use it.
Fourthly, since nothing is so powerfull to represse audacious Accusers, as severe Punishment is; it is observable what care and caution was used among the Romans whilest that State flourished, to deterre men from unjust Calumniations. In private and civil Controversies, for tryall of right between party and party, they had their aV. Ascon. in Ve…tin. 3.Sponsiones: which was a summe of money in some proportionable rate to the value of the thing in Question; which the Plaintiffe entred bond to pay to the Defendant in case he should not be able to prove his Action; the Defendant also making the like sponsion and entring the like bond, in case he should be cast. But in publick and criminall matters, whether Capitall or Penall, if for want of due proof on the Accusers part, the party accused were quit in judgment; there went a tryall upon the Accuser, at the suite of the Accused, which they called Iudicium Calumniae: bv. l. 1. Sect. 2, &c. ff. ad Senatusc. Turpil. Rosin. 9. Antiqu. Rom. 25.wherein they examined the originall ground and foundation of the Accusation. Which if it appeared to have proceeded from some just error or mistake bonâ fide, it excused him: but if should appeare the accusation to have proceeded from some left-handed respect, as Malice, Envy, Gain, &c. he was then condemned of Calumny. And his ordirnary punishment then was, whereunto he had virtually bound himself by subscribing his libel, Poena talionis, the same kind of punishment whatsoever it was, which by the Laws had been due to the party accused, if the libell had been proved against him. Yea & for his farther shame it was provided by cLege Rommiâ v. l. 1. sec. 2. ff. ad Senatusc. Turpil. & Gothifred. in ann…t. ibi; Rosin. 8. Antiqu. Rom. part. 2. cap. 22. — literam illam ita v…h…menter ad caput affigent, &c. Cicer. pro Rex. Rosc.one Law, that he should be burnt in the forehead with the Letter K. to proclaim him a Calumniator to the world: that, in old Orthography, being the first letter of the word Kalumnia. The same letter would serve the turn very well with us also, though we use it to signifie another thing; and yet not so much another thing, as a thing more generall, but comprehending this as one species of it. But, as I said, I may not prescribe; especially beyond Law. The thing for which I mention all this, is this: If all that care and severity in them could not prevent it, but that still unjust actions would be brought, and false accusations raised, what a world of unconscionable suits and wrongfull informations may we think there would be, if contentious Plaintiffs and calumnious Sycophants, when they have failed their proof, should yet get off easily, and escape out of the Courts without Censure or Punishment, or at the most but with some light check; and the poor injured innocent the while be held in as in a prison, till he have paid the utmost farthing? I say not of what is due, but of what shall be demanded by every man that hath but a piece of an office about the Courts. It is a strong heartning to Accusers, and multiplieth false reports beyond belief; when they that are wrongfully accused, though the cause go with them, shall yet have the worst of the day: and shall have cause to answer the congratulations of their friends, as dforeign. Plutarch. in Pyrrho.Pyrrhus did his after he had gotten two famous victories over the Romans, that if they should get a few more such victories, it would be to their utter undoing. If the Magistrate had power to make the wronged party full restitution, allowing him all costs and dammages to a half-penny; nay if he had power to allow him double or treble out of his unjust adversaries estate: it were all little enough, and but too little. Zacheus took himself bound to do more: when for this very sin of false accusation he imposed upon himself, as a kind of satisfactory penance, eLuke 19.8.a four-fold restitution, Luc. 19. Here was a right Quadruplator indeed; and in the best sense: you shall not lightly read of such another.
Lastly, men have not aLucian in Hermo….fenestrata pectora, that we can see them throughly and within: yet there want not means of probable discovery. Of ordinary private men we make conjecture, by their gestures, by their speeches, by their companions. But Magistrates and great ones, who live more in the eye of the world, and are ever as it were upon the stage, and so do personati incedere, walk under a continuall disguise in respect of their outward deportment; are not so well discoverable by those means. They are best known by their bSira…. 10.2.servants and retinue, by their favourites and officers, by those they keep about them, or employ under them. If these be plain and down-right, if these be just and upright, if these be free and conscionable: Sycophants will pluck in their horns, and be out of heart and hope to find the Masters of such servants facile to give way to their false Calumniations. But if these be insolent & hungry companions, if these be impudent and shameless exactors: it is presently cforeign. Isocr. apud Stob. serm. 44. Si innocentes existimari volumus, non solū nos abstinentes, sed etiā nostros comites praestare d…b…mus. Cic. 2. in. Verr. 2.thought they are then but brokers for the Master; and there is no question then made, but that false reports will be received as fast as they can be raised, and entertained with both arms. We have learned from dProv. 29.12.Solomon. Pro. 29. that if a Ruler hearken to lies, then all his servants are wicked: They durst not be so openly wicked, if they were not first sure of him. It was but a eNemo unquam tam reus, tam nocens adducetur, qui istá defensione non possit uti. Cic. 2. in Verr. 2.sorry one, when it was at best, but is now withall grown a stale excuse; for great ones to impute their own wilfull oversights to the fault or negligence of their servants. Caius Verres, (whom I cannot but now and then mention, because there is scarce to be found such another compleat Exemplar of a wicked Magistrate;) would usually fAiunt …um queri solere nonnunquam, se…m serum, quòd non suis sed suo…um com…um p…c…atis & criminibus pr…matur. Cic. Ibid.complain, that he was unjustly oppressed, not with his own, but with the crimes of his followers. But why then did he keep such a kennel of sharks about him? why did he not either speedily reforme them, or utterly discard them? It were indeed an unrighteous thing to condemn the Master for the Servants fault; and an uncharitable inference, because the servant is naught, to conclude straight the Master is little better. For a just Master may have an unconscionable Servant; and if he have a gIn tantâ …elicitate nemo potest esse in magnâ familiâ, qui neminem neque servum neque libertum improbum hab…a…. Cic. pro. Sex. Rosc…o.numerous Family, and keep many, it is a rare thing if he have not some bad: as in a great herd there will be some rascall Deer. But then it is but one or a few; and they play their prises closely, without their Masters privity; and they are not a little sollicitous to carry matters so fairly outward, that their Master shall be the hDedecus ille d…ús sc…t ultimu…. Juvenal. Satyr. 10.last man shall hear of their false dealing, and when he heareth of it, shall scarce believe it for the good opinion he hath of them. But when in the generality they are such; when they are openly and impudently such; when every body seeth, and saith, the Master cannot chuse but know they are such: it cannot be thought, but the Master is wel enough content they should be such. iNeh 5.15.Even their servants bear rule over the people, saith good Nehemiah of the Governours that were before him: but so did not I, because of the fear of God, Neh. 5. What? did not Nehemiah bear rule over the people? yes, that he did: there is nothing surer. His meaning then must be, (so did not I; that is,) I did not suffer my servants so to do as they did theirs: implying, that when the servants of the former governours oppressed the people, it was their Masters doing, at leastwise their Masters suffering▪ [Even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I because of the fear of God.] The Magistrate therefore that would speedily smoke away these Gnats that swarm about the Courts of justice, and will be offering at his ear, to buzze false reports thereinto: he shall do well to begin his reformation at home; and if he have a servant that heareth not well deservedly, to pack him away out of hand, and to get an honester in his room. Say he be of never so serviceable qualities, and useful abilities otherwise, so as the Master might almost as well spare his right eye, or his right hand, as forgo his service: yet in this case he must not spare him. Our Saviours speech is peremptory kMat. 5.29, 30Erue, Abscinde, Projice; if either eye or hand cause or tempt thee to offend, pull out that eye, cut off that hand, cast them both from thee with indignation: rather want both, then suffer corruption in either. Davids resolution was excellent in Psal. 101. and worthy thy imitation. lPsal. 101.5, &c.Who so privily slandereth his▪ neighbour, him will I destroy: whoso hath a proud look, and high stomach, I will not suffer him. Mine eyes look to such as be faithfull in the Land, that they may dwell with me: whoso leadeth a godly life he shall be my servant. There shall no deceitfull person dwell in my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. He that will thus resolve, and thus do, it may be presumed he will not knowingly give either way to a false report, or countenance to the reporter. And so much for our first Rule; Thou shalt not raise a false report.
My first purpose I confess was to have spoken also to the Witness, & to the Iurer, & to the Pleader, & to the Officer, from the other four Rules in my text, as punctually & particularly as to the Accuser from this first; for I therefore made choice of a Text that taketh them all in, that I might speak to them all alike. But if I should enlarge my self upon the rest, as I have done in this; my meditations would swell to the proportion rather of a Treatise then a Sermon: and what patience were able to sit them out? Therefore I must not do it. And indeed, if what I have spoken to this first point were duly considered, and conscionably practised; I should the lesse need to do it. For it is the Accuser that layeth the first stone: the rest do but build upon his foundation. And if there were no false reports raised or received: there would be the lesse use of, and the lesse work for, false and suborned Witnesses; ignorant or packt Iuries; crafty and slie Pleaders; cogging and extorting Officers. But unto these I have no more to say at this time; but onelyonly to desire each of them to lay that portion of my Text to their hearts, which in the first division was allotted them as their proper share: and withall to make application (mutatis mutandis) unto themselves, of whatsoever hath been presently spoken to the Accuser, and to the Magistrate from this first rule. Whereof, (for the better furtherance of their Application, and relief of all our memories) the summe in brief is thus. First, concerning the Accuser, (and that is every party in a cause or tryall,) he must take heed he do not raise a false report: which is done, first, by forging a meer untruth; and secondly, by perverting or aggravating a truth; and thirdly, by taking advantage of strict Law against Equity. Any of which who ever doth; he first committeth a haynous sin himself, and secondly grievously wrongeth his neighbour, and thirdly bringeth a great deal of mischief to the Common-weal. All which evils are best avoyded: first, by considering how we would others should deal with us, and resolving so to deal with them; and secondly by avoyding, as all other inducements and occasions, so especially those four things, which ordinarily engage men in unjust quarrels; Malice, Obsequiousness, Coverture, and Greediness. Next, concerning the Iudge, or Magistrate; he must take heed he do not receive a false report. Which he shall hardly avoid, unless he beware, first, of taking private informations; secondly, of passing over causes slightly without mature disquisition; and thirdly, of countenancing Accusers more than is meet. For whose discountenancing and deterring, he may consider, whether or no these five may not be good helps: so far as it lyeth in his power, and the Laws will permit, first; to reject informations tendred without Oath; secondly, to give such interpretations as may stand with Equity as wel as Law; thirdly, to chastise Informers that use partiality or collusion; fourthly, to allow the wronged party a liberal satisfaction from his adversary; fifthly, to carry a sharp eye, and a strait hand, over his own Servants, Followers, and Officers. Now what remaineth, but that the several premises earnestly recommended to the godly consideration, and conscionable practice of every one of you whom they may concern; and all your persons and affairs both in the present weighty businesses, and ever hereafter, to the good guidance and providence of Almighty God: we should humbly beseech him of his gracious goodnesse to give a blessing to that which hath been spoken agreeably to his word, that it may bring forth in us the fruits of Godliness, Charity, and Iustice; to the glory of his grace, the good of our brethren, and the comfort of our own souls; even for his blessed Son's sake, our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. To whom with, &c.