A29696:16
London's lamentation, or, A serious discourse concerning the late fiery dispensation that turned our…
London's lamentation, or, A serious discourse concerning the late fiery dispensation that turned our (once renowned) city into a ruinous heap also the several lessons that are incumbent upon those whose houses have escaped the consuming flames / by Thomas Brooks.
London: printed for John Hancock and Nathaniel Ponder, 1670
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
My Lord, […] the Honour of a Magistrate to do justice impartially, so i• •s the Honour and Glory of a Magistrate to do justice speedily. Jer. 28▪ 12. O house of David, th•s s•i•h the Lord, execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the h•nd of the oppressor, lest my 1fury go out like fi•e, •nd burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. After examination, execution is to be done with expedition. When men cry out for justice justice, Magistrates must not cry out cr•s, cra•, 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; 'tis a very dangerous thing for Magistrates to be as long a bringing forth ⟨image 5⟩their Verdicts as the Elephant her young. Delay of justice makes many more irreconcilable; it makes many men go up and down this world with heavy hearts, empty purses, and thread bare 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 dispatch that was possible to the Widows Cause, which they did; and in two days determined it to the Widows 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 delay, 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,