praise, that was given to that holy man. He said unto his father, and to his mother, I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children, Deut. xxiii. 19. He ought to involve his eyes in a thick mist, through which it would be impossible for him to distinguish from the rest of the crowd, persons for whom nature so powerfully pleads.

2. A judge sells truth, when he suffers himself to be dazzled with the false glare of the language of him, who pleads against justice. Some counsellors have the front to affirm a maxim, and to reduce it to practice, in direct opposition to the oaths they took, when they were invested with their character. The maxim I mean is this; as the business of a judge is to distinguish truth from falshood, so the business of a counsellor is, not only to place the rectitude of a cause in a clear light but also to attribute to it all, that can be invented by a man, expert in giving sophistry the colors of demonstration and evidence. To suffer himself to be misled by the ignes fatui of eloquence, or to put on the air of being convinced, either to spare himself the trouble of discussing a truth, which the artifice of the pleader envelopes in obscurity; or to reward the orator in part for the pleasure he hath afforded him by the vivacity and politeness of his harangue : each of these is a sale of truth, a sacrificing of the rights of widows and orphans to a propriety of gesture, a tour of expression, a figure of rhetoric.

3. A judge sells truth, when he yields to the troublesome assiduity of an indefatigable solicitor. The practice of soliciting the judges is not the less irregular, for being authorized by custom. When people avail themselves of that access to judges, which, in other cases, belongs to their reputation, their titles, or their birth, they lay snares for their

innocence. A client ought not to address his judges, except in the person of him, to whom he hath committed his cause, imparted his grounds of action, and left the making of the most of them. To regard solicitations instead of reproving them; to suffer himself to be carried away with the talk of a man, whom the avidity of gaining his cause inflames, inspires subtle inventions, and dictates emphatical expressions, is, again, to sell truth.

4. A judge sells truth, when he receives presents. Thou shalt not take a gift; for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous, Deut. xvi. 19. God gave this precept to the Jews.

5. A judge makes a sale of truth, when he is terrified at the power of an oppressor. It hath been often seen, in the most august bodies, that suffrages have been constrained by the tyranny of some, and sold by the timidity of others. Tyrants have been known to attend, either in their own persons, or in those of their emissaries, in the very assemblies, which were convened on purpose to maintain the rights of the people, and to check the progress of tyranny. Tyrants have been seen to endeavor to direct opinions by signs of their hands, and by motions of their eyes; they have been known to intimidate judges by menaces, and to corrupt them by promises; and judges have been known to prostrate their souls before these tyrants, and to pay the same devoted deference to maxims of tyranny, that is due to nothing but to an authority tempered with equity. A judge on his tribunal ought to fear none but him, whose sword is committed to him. He ought to be not only a defender of truth, he ought also to become a martyr for it, and to confirm it with his blood, were his blood necessary to confirm it.

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, Matt. xi. 15. There is a primitive justice essential to moral beings; a justice independent on the will of any Supreme Being; because there are certain primitive and essential relations between moral beings, which belong to their nature. As, when you suppose a square, you suppose a being that hath four sides; as when you suppose a body, you suppose a being, from which extent is inseparable, and independent on any positive will of a Superior Being; so, when you suppose a benefit, you suppose an equity, a justice, a fitness, in gratitude, because there is an essential relation between gratitude and benefit; and the same may be said of every morak obligation..

The more perfect an intelligent being is, the more intelligence is detached from prejudices, the clearer the ideas of an intelligent mind are, the more fully will it perceive the opposition and the relation, the justice and the injustice, that essentially belong to the nature of moral beings. In like manner, the more perfection an intelligence hath, the more doth it surmount irregular motions of the passions; and the more it approves justice, the more will it disapprove injustice; the more it is inclined to favor what is a right, the more will it be induced to avoid what is wrong.

God is an intelligence, who possesseth all perfec-tions; his ideas are perfect images of objects; and on the model of his all objects were formed. He seeth, with perfect exactness, the essential relations of justice, and of injustice. He is necessarily inclined, though without constraint, and by the nature of his perfections, to approve justice, and to disapprove injustice; to display his attributes in procuring happiness to the good, and misery to the wicked..

In the present œconomy, a part of the reasons of which we discover, while some of the reasons of it are hidden in darkness, God doth not immediately distinguish the cause, that is founded on equity, from that which is grounded on iniquitous pinciples. This office he hath deposited in the hands of judges; he hath intrusted them with his power; he hath committed his sword to them; he hath placed them, on his tribunal; and said to them, Ye are gods, Psal. lxxxii. 6. But the more august the tribunal, the more inviolable the power, the more formidable the sword, the more sacred the office, the more rigorous will their punishments be, who, in any of the ways we have mentioned betray the interests of that truth, and justice, with which they are intrusted. Some judges have defiled the tribunal of the Judge of all the earth, Gen. xviii. 25. on which they were elevated. Into the bowels of the innocent they have thrust that sword, which was given them to maintain order, and to transfix those who subvert it. That supreme power, which God gave them, they have employed to war against that God himself, who vested them with it, and him they have braved with insolence and pride. I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there; and I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he, that is higher than the highest, regardeth it, and there be higher than they. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Buy the truth; and sell it not, Eccles. iii. 16. v. 8. and Psal. ii. 10.

V. This precept of Solomon, Sell not the truth, regardeth the politician, who, by a timid circumspection, useth an artful concealment, when he ought to probe state-wounds to the bottom, and to discover the real authors of its miseries, and the true causes of its decline. In these circumstances, it is not enough to mourn over public calamities in secret; they must be spoken of with firmness and courage the statesman must be the mouth and the voice of all those oppressed people, whose only resources are prayers and tears; he must discover the fatal intrigues, that are whispered in corners against his country; unvail the mysterious springs of the conduct of him, who, under pretence of public benefit, seeks only his own private emolument; he must publish the shame of him, who is animated with no other desire, than that of building his own house on the ruins of church and state; he must arouse him from his indolence, who deliberates by his own fire-side, when imminent dangers require him to adopt bold, vigorous, and effectual measures; he must, without scruple, sacrifice him, who himself sacrificeth to his own avarice, or ambition, whole societies; he must fully persuade other senators that, if the misfortunes of the times require the death of any, it must be that of him, who kindled the fire, and not of him, who is ready to shed the last drop of his blood to extinguish it. To keep fair with all, on these occasions, and by a timid silence to avoid incurring the displeasure of those, who convulse the state, and of those, who cry for vengeance against them, is a conduct, not only unworthy of a christian, but unworthy of a good patriot. Silence then is an atrocious crime, and to suppress truth is to sell it, to betray it.

How doth an orator merit applause, my brethren, when, being called to give his suffrage for