4. Fourthly, As you must do justice sincerely, so you must do justice deliberatehj. You must have one ear for the defendant, and another for the plaintiff, or else you will tell the world at once that you are both weak and wicked, Dent. xvii. 4; vide Deut. xix. 17-19. It argues much weakness and emptiness of spirit, to judge a matter before all is heard that can be said. Job's piety and prudence shined forth eminently in this, that the cause that he knew not, he searched it out, Job xxix. 16. Before God would pronounce judgment upon Adam, he first examines him, and propounds several interrogatories to him. Gen. iii. And in those two great and famous acts of justice, when God confounded Babel's builders, and rained hell out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, he tells you that he will go down and see. Gen. xi. and xviii. You are called gods ; in this it is as much your glory as it is your duty to imitate the great God. Though Solomon was in all his glory, yet he had patience to hear both what the mother and the harlot had to say. The Holy Ghost puts the fool upon him that answers a matter before he hears it, Prov. xviii. 13. It was the usual custom of Philip, king of Macedon, to stop one of his ears whilst the accuser was speaking, that so he might reserve it for the defendant. I have read of some who have deeply suffered both in their civil liberties and in their con- sciences, for their rash and hasty passing of judgment upon others. Why hath God given the judges of the earth two ears and but one tongue, but tliat they should be swift to hear and slow to speak ? I have read of Louis, king of France, that when he had through inad- vertency granted an unjust suit, as soon as ever he had read those words of the psalmist, ' Blessed is he that doth righteousness at all times,' Psalm cvi. 3, he presently recollected himself, and upon better thoughts gave his judgment quite contrary. Certainly all acts of justice ought to flow from mature deliberation. All magistrates, judges, and justices, in their administrations of justice and judgment, should wisely observe by what principles they act, and by what rules they act, and by what authority they act, and in what manner they act, and to what ends they act : and how all these important things can be done without serious deliberation, I cannot for the present understand. Justice in the emblem is represented with a balance in the one hand, and a sword in the other, to note that matters must be first deliberately weighed in the balance before judgment can be passed. i He that only useth the sword and not the balance, may smite an innocent Naboth, and acquit a guilty Ahab. The civil law concludes it very unreason- able for any man to give advice or judgment before he hath considered and weighed the whole cause.2 And therefore by your own laws you are bound to deliberate before you give judgment, unless you will tell the world that you, even you, are unreasonable men, who above all others should be the masters of the greatest reason, as well as men of the greatest measures of grace and holiness. But,
^ Quarles and Brooks's favourite ' Emblemata Sacra.' — G. ' Civile dig. 4. de legis senatusque consul. . .
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 15
5. Fifthly, As you must do justice deliberately, so you must do justice resolutely, courageously, valiantly. As soon as Joshua came into the office of magistracy, God charges him no less than three times, in a breath as it were, to be very courageous, in Joshua i. 6-9. A judge that is timorous will quickly be treacherous. A judge that is fearful can never be faithful. Solomon's throne was supported with lions, to shew that magistrates should be men of courage and mettle. The Athenian judges sat in Mars Street, to show that they had martial hearts, and that they were men of courage and mettle, Acts x^di. 22 ; Job xxxi. 31, 34. Job was a judge of rare courage and magnanimity ; nothing could fear him, nothing could daunt him, nothing could terrify him, nothing could discourage him from doing justice and judgment. The Grrecians placed Justice betwixt Leo and Libra, to signify that as there must be indifFerency in determining, so there ought to be courage in executing. Where there is courage with- out knowledge, there the eye of justice is blind ; and where there is knowledge without courage, there the sword of justice is blunt. Judges and justices should be men of courage for God and godliness. Why should not the standard be of steel, and the chief posts in the house be heart of oak ? I have read of Agesilaus, how that he was by all concluded fit to be made their king, but that he halted. ^ Men of the best and choicest accomplishments, if they are not courageous and magnanimous, but lame and halting, they are no ways fit for magistrates. Judges and justices should have martial spirits, high spirits for justice and righteousness. Every judge, every justice, should have a lion's heart, an eagle's eye, and a giant's arm. Such men whose dull hearts are faint, whose heads are dull, whose ears are heavy, whose eyes are dim, whose hands are weak, and whose feet are lame, are more fit to sit in a chimney corner than to sit judges and justices upon the bench. It hath been long since said of Cato, Fabricius, and Aristides, that it was as easy to remove the sun out of the firmament as to remove them from justice and equity, they were men of such courageous and magnanimous spirits for justice and righteousness. No scarlet robe doth so well become a judge as holy courage and stoutness doth. I have read of Louis the Eleventh, king of France, who going about to establish some unjust edicts, which, when some of his chief courtiers perceived, they went altogether to him in red gowns ; the king asked them what they would have : the president La Vacqueri answered, We are come with a full pur- pose to lose our lives every one of us, rather than by our connivancy any unjust ordinance should take place. The king being amazed at this answer, and at the courage, constancy, and resolution of those peers, gave them gracious entertainment, and commanded that all the former edicts should be forthwith cancelled in his presence. Courage and resolution may prevent many a public mischief and misery. But,
6. Sixthly, As you are to do justice resolutely, courageously, so you are to do justice and judgment exactly. 2 Chron. xix. 5-7, ' And he
1 Agesilaus II. The allusion is to the curiously fulfilled Oracle that warned Sparta of evils awaiting her under a ' lame sovereignty.' Cf. Xen. Hell. iii. 3 : Agesilaus, Diod. xiv. XV. : Paus. iii. 9, 10, &c. — Q.
16 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.