He lives in a room where he
troubles a world, and in the shadow of a saint is little better than a
devil. He makes religion a cloak of sin, and with counterfeit humility
covereth incomparable pride. He robs the rich to relieve the poor, and
makes fools of the wise with the imagination of his worth. He is all for
the Church but nothing for God, and for the ease of nature loseth the
joy of reason. In sum, he is the picture of hypocrisy, the spirit of
heresy, a wound in the Church, and a woe in the world.
A WORTHY JUDGE.
A judge is a doom, whose breath is mortal upon the breach of law, where
criminal offences must be cut off from a commonwealth. He is a sword of
justice in the hand of a king, and an eye of wisdom in the walk of a
kingdom. His study is a square for the keeping of proportion betwixt
command and obedience, that the king may keep his crown on his head, and
the subject his head on his shoulders. He is feared but of the foolish,
and cursed but of the wicked; but of the wise honoured, and of the
gracious beloved. He is a surveyor of rights and revenger of wrongs, and
in the judgment of truth the honour of justice. In sum, his word is law,
his power grace, his labour peace, and his desert honour.
AN UNWORTHY JUDGE.
An unworthy judge is the grief of justice in the error of judgment, when
through ignorance or will the death of innocency lies upon the breath of
opinion. He is the disgrace of law in the desert of knowledge, and the
plague of power in the misery of oppression.
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