is to kill a fly upon a man's forehead with a beetle.^ The great God hath put his own name upon magistrates: Ps. Ixxxii. G, ' I said that ye are gods/ Yet it must be granted that you are gods in a smaller letter : mortal gods — gods that uuist die like men. All the sons of Ish arc sons of Adam. ]\Iagistrates must do justice im- partially; for as they are called gods, so in this they must be like to God, who is no accepter of persons, Deut. i. 17 ; Lev. xix. 15. He accepts not of the rich man because of his robes, neither doth he reject the poor man because of his rags. The magistrates' eyes are to be always upon causes, and not upon persons. Both the statues of the Theban judges and the statues of the Egyptian judges were made without hands and without eyes, to intimate to us that, as judges should have no hands to receive bribes, so they should have no eyes to see a friend from a foe, or a brother from a stranger, in judgment.2 And it was the oath of the heathen judges, as the orator relates, Audiam accusatorem el reum sine afeclihus, ct jxrsonarum respec- ■ Hone : I will hear the plaintiff and the defendant with an equal mind, without affection and respect of persons. In the twelfth Novel of Jus- tinian you may read of an oath imposed upon judges and justices against inclining or addicting themselves to either party ; yea, they put themselves under a deep and bitter execration and curse in case of partiality, imploring God in such language as this : ' Let me have my part with Judas, and let the leprosy of Gehazi cleave to me, and the trembling of Cain come upon me, and whatsoever else may astonish and dismay a man, if I am partial in the administration of justice.' The i)oet in the Greek epigram taught the silver axe of justice that was carried before the Koman magistrates to proclaim, ' If thou be an offender, let not the silver flatter thee ; if an innocent, let not the axe affright thee.' The Athenian judges judged in the night, when the faces of men could not be seen, that so they might be impartial in judgment. My Lord, your impartiality in the administration of justice in that high orb wherein diWne providence hath placed you, is one of those great things that hath made you high and honourable in the eyes and hearts of all that are true lovers of impartial justice. Some writers say, that some waters in Macedonia, being drunk by black shee]>, change their fleece into white. Nothing but the pure and impartial administration of justice and judgment can transform black-mouthed, black-handed, and black-hearted men into white. There is nothing that sweetens, satisfies, and silences all sorts of men like the adminis- tration of impartial justice. The want of this brought desolation upon Jerusalem and the whole land of Jewry, Isa. i. 23, 24, and upon many other flourishing kingdoms and countries, as all know that have but read anything of Scripture or history. St Austin plainly denies that ever the Eoman polity could be called properly a common- wealth, upon this ground, that Ubi non est justitia, non est repiiblica.
^ Peter Lombard. Cf. Sibbee, vol. i. 101.— G.
' Magistrates are, as Xazianzen expresses it, pictures drawn of God. Every magis- trate, though in never so low a place, bears the image of God. A penny bears the image of the prince as well as a shilling. Magistrates are not immortal deities, neither have they everlasting godheads. Those gods, as tliey had a beginning, so they must have an end. Quicquid oritur, moritur. There is a ' Mene, mene ' on them ; their days are numbered ; their time is computed. Hercules his pillar stands in their way. Non datur ultra.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 7
He calls'" commonwealths without justice hut magna latrocinia; or in Lipsius his language, congeries, confusio, turha. ^ It is hut an abuse of the word respuhlica — commonwealth — where the public good is not consulted by an impartial justice and equity ; it is but a confused heap, a rout of men ; or if we will call it so at present, it will not be so long without impartial justice, partly because injustice and oppression makes the multitude tumultuous, and fills the people's heads with, dangerous designs, as you may see by comparing the scriptures in the margin together ;2 and partly because it lays a nation open and obnoxious to the wrath and vengeance of God, as might easily be made good by scores of scriptures. Impartial justice is the best establishment of kingdoms and commonwealths. ' The king by judgment establisheth the land,' Prov. xxix. 4 : see Num. xxv. 11 ; 2 Sam. xxi. 14. It is the best security against desolating judgments. ' Kun ye through the streets of Jerusalem, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, and I will pardon it,' Jer, v. 1.
My Lord, as it is the honour of a magistrate to do justice impar- tially, so it is the honour and glory of a magistrate to do justice speedily : Jer. xxviii. 12, ' 0 house of David, thus saith the Lord, Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.' 3 After examination, execution is to be done with expedition. When men cry out for Justice, Justice, magistrates must not cry out, Cras, Oras — to-morrow, to-morrow. Magistrates must do justice in the morning. Neither noon-justice, nor afternoon-justice, nor evening-justice, nor night-justice is so acceptable to God, or so honourable to magistrates, or so advantageous to the people, as morning-justice is. To delay justice is worse sometimes than to deny justice. It is a very dangerous thing for magistrates to be as long a-bringing forth their verdicts as the elephant her young. Delay of justice makes many more irrecon- cilable ; it makes many men go up and down this world with heavy hearts, empty purses, and threadbare coats, I have read of a famous passage of Theodoric, king of the Romans, 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 pos- sible 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 him 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, which two days would have ended. Here was royal justice, and speedy justice indeed. Ps. ci. 8,
^ August, de Civitate Dei, lib. x. cap. 21, &c. ; lib. iv. cap. 4. Lipsius de Constan., lib. 11. cap. 13. ^1 Kings xii. ; 1 Sam. viii. 3.