8 Joel iii. 4 ; Gen. xix ; Num. xvi. ; Psalm ci. 8. The Persian king had one about him, whose office it was to mind him every morning of his charge, saying, ' Arise, O king, and have an eye to those affairs for which the great God hath made you king, and despatch them.'
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. H
delay justice, is worse sometimes than to deny justice. It is an evil thing and a dangerous tiling, when magistrates, judges, and justices are as long a-bringing forth their verdicts as the elephant her young. Delays of justice makes many more irreconcileable. It makes the client often go with a heavy heart, an empty purse, and a threadbare coat. It fetcheth heavy sighs and groans from the hearts, and a sea" of tears from the eyes of the delayed and oppressed. Magistrates, judges, and justices should be always ready to do justice : they should he always at leisure to do justice. I have read of one of the kings of Persia, how that he would many times alight off from his horse to do justice only to a poor body. It were well if all judges and justices would WTite after this copy, to be ready to do justice and judgment at all times, and upon all occasions. 0 sirs ! you may have time to live, even when you have outlived your seasons and opportunities of doing justice and judgment ; and what a hell will then your lives be to you ! To prevent this hell, it is good to do justice in the morning. I have read of a very poor woman, who was very earnest with king Philip of Macedon to do her justice, but he deferred her, and told her that he had no leisure to hear her : she replied then. Why have you leisure to be king ? ^ The poor woman thought that they were very unmeet to be kings and judges, who could not be at leisure to do justice when the necessities and miseries of poor creatures cried aloud for justice, justice. I have read of a famous passage of Theodoric, king of the Komans, who, when a widow came to him with a sad complaint, that she had a suit depending in the court three years, which might have been ended in a few days : the king demands of her the judges' names : she tells him : he sends a special command to them to give all the speedy despatch that was possible to the widow's cause, which they did, and in two days determined it to the widow's liking. This being done, the king calls for the judges, and they supposing that they should have both applause and reward for their expedition, hastened to liim full of joy : but after the king had propounded several things to them about their former delays, he commanded both their heads to be struck off, because they had spun out that cause to a three years' length, wliich two days would have ended.^ Here was royal justice indeed ! ^ Oh that all the magistrates, judges, and justices of the nation would every morn- ing lay Prov. xiii. 12 warm upon their hearts ! ' Hope deferred maketh the heart sick : but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.' The Hebrew word, HDli^OD, that is here rendered deferred, is from Dli'D, that signifies to draw out at length. Men are short- breathed and short-spirited, and hope's hours are full of eternity: and when their hopes are drawn out at length, this makes their hearts sick ; and ah, what a world of such sick souls lies languishing at hope's hospital all the nation over, yea, all the world over ! Hope in tliis text is put for the good things men hope for. Now, when the good things men hope for — be it justice or a quick despatch, &c. — are
^ Plutarch, Apothegm, in vita Demetrii. ^ Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, tome vi. — G.
=• The poets feign Justice to be the daughter of Jupiter, whom he hath set over the world to revenge those injuries that one man doth to another, &c.
12 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
deferred and delayed, this makes the poor client sick at heart. A lingering hope always breeds in the heart a lingering consumption. The harder travail hope hath, and the more strongly it labours to bring forth, and yet is deferred and delayed, the more deadly sick the client grows. But when the desire cometh, that is, when the thing desired, wished, and looked for, be it justice, be it righteousness, be it success, &c., is gained, it is a tree of life ; or rather as the Hebrew hath it, is a tree, D^TT, of lives. All sorts of lives, and all the com- forts and contents of life, are wrapt up in the enjoyment of the thing desired. He that hath those things granted to him that are earnestly desired by him, is once more put into a paradise. Wilful delays in justice makes the judge umighteous, Luke xviii. 6. But,