Book of Judges

“ So, then, judiciary authority is attributed to the Father, inasmuch as He is the Principle of the Son, but the very rule of judgment is attributed to the Son who is the art and wisdom of the Father, so that as the Father does all things through the Son, inasmuch as the Son is His art, so He judges all things through the Son, inasmuch as the Son is His wisdom and truth. ”

“ I entreat you in all humility to consider deliberately and with attention what the Psalmist says in Psalm 82, where he exhorts judges to fulfil their charge with absolute rectitude; they being themselves mere mortals who will one day have to appear before God, the sovereign judge of the universe, to give an account of their administration. ”

“ For upwards of twenty years he was one of the strongest, most practical, and most learned judges in that court. He had a vast memory and erudition, a lucid mind, gifts of clear expression and an unfailing courtesy. ”

“ Nature and death shall with surprise Mors stupebit, et natura, Behold the trembling sinner rise, Cum resurget creatura, To view his Judge with conscious eyes. Judicanti responsura. Then shall, with universal fear, Liber scriptus proferetur, The seven-sealed judgment book appear, In quo totum continetur, To scan the whole of life's career. Unde mundus judicetur. The Judge ascends his awful throne, Judex ergo cum sedebit, Each secret sin shall here be known. Quidquid latet, apparebit. All must their shame confess their own. ”

“ Not only to the decrees of sovereign courts, but even to the sentence of the most insignificant judges appointed by God to decide differences in our affairs, we yield deference so far as not to enquire into the motive of their decisions. ”

“ This last deliverance is memorable on several grounds—memorable as showing the need, from the point of view of one more judge, for a repeal of the brutal laws of the past against heresy; and further memorable as showing once more how ready are judges to rest alternately on mutually exclusive principles of interpretation. ”

“ Beside the earthly tribunal of forty-two judges, who decided the fate of the body, it was believed that the soul must pass before the divine judgment-seat before it could enter the abodes of the blessed. ”

“ The judges might be satisfied of its existence and terms by the evidence of the witnesses to it, and then issue an order that whenever found it should be given up. Contracts annulled were ordered to be broken. The court might go a journey to view the property and even take with them the sacred symbols on which oath was made.
The decision given was embodied in writing, sealed and witnessed by the judges, the elders, witnesses and a scribe. Women might act in all these capacities. ”

“ At some moments this court presents a singular spectacle. I have watched the assemblage while the chief-justice was delivering a judgment; the three judges on either hand gazing at him more like learners than associates ”

“ The high court of appeal shall be composed as follows:--All the officers of state shall meet on the last day but one of the year in some temple, and choose for a judge the best man out of every magistracy: and those who are elected, after they have undergone a scrutiny, shall be judges of appeal. ”

“ Yet more, we shall be so far from the dread of that judgment, that ourselves shall become the judges. Christ will take his people, as it were, into commission {50} with himself, and they shall sit and approve his righteous judgment. ”

“ Therefore of everything this all-present god is judge, or rather, not one but many judges, since of each living creature he makes its own magistrate to deal out justice according to that creature’s law which in the beginning the god established for it and decreed. ”

“ If a judge pronounces a judgment, renders a decision, delivers a verdict duly signed and sealed and afterwards alters his judgment, they shall call that judge to account for the alteration of the judgment which he had pronounced, and he shall pay twelvefold the penalty which was in the said judgment, and, in the assembly, they shall expel him from his seat of judgment, and he shall not return, and with the judges in a case he shall not take his seat. ”

“ But as those only are appointed judges who are men of proved experience and uprightness, and of such wisdom as to stand in no need of advice, they laugh at our custom of sometimes appointing men of eloquence and skill in public jurisprudence as guides to ignorant judges. ”

“ P. O Lord Jesus Christ, Judge of all judges, who at the first hour of the day wast brought before the governor Pilate for us sinners and didst there receive a most severe sentence, we humbly beseech thee to succor us when we shall be arraigned before thee, that in that last judgment we may not be condemned to eternal punishment, but may be found worthy to have fellowship with thy faithful in heaven. Who livest and reignest world without end. ”

“ But, granting these to be mistakes of said doctors of theology, nothing is concluded thereby. For even our lawyers in the ordinary practice of the courts will tell you that obiter dicta of a judge decide no law. Innumerable instances occur in their daily practice when the judges, declaring and announcing correctly the general principles of law, yet make the most absurd and illogical application to particular facts and cases, and that even on points actually before the court; much more upon questions only incidentally brought in upon their own motion. ”

“ Upon the judges’ seat they shall not sit, and the ordinance of judgment they shall not understand, neither shall they declare discipline and judgment, and they shall not be found where parables are spoken:
38:39. But they shall strengthen the state of the world, and their prayer shall be in the work of their craft, applying their soul, and searching in the law of the most High. ”

“ One must say that the above practice is already assumed by all who take part in a case with one judge, that they realize he is a single judge using his best discernment, and they are accepting his ruling even if it is incorrect. ”

“ And since in every judicial hearing, the witness, the accuser, and the defendant need to be acquainted with the matter on which judgment has to be pronounced, and since at the general judgment all the works of men will be submitted to judgment, it will behoove every man to be cognizant then of all his works. Wherefore each man's conscience will be as a book containing his deeds on which judgment will be pronounced, even as in the human court of law we make use of records. ”

“ The persons called Judges, שופטים Shophetim, from שפט, shaphat, to judge, discern regulate, and direct, were the heads or chiefs of the Israelites who governed the Hebrew republic from the days of Moses and Joshua till the time of Saul. The word judge is not to be taken here in its usual signification, i.e., one who determines controversies, and denounces the judgment of the law in criminal cases, but one who directs and rules a state or nation with sovereign power, administers justice, makes peace or war, and leads the armies of the people over whom he presides. ”

“ Leaving the body under the earth, accompany the soul passing to a new and unknown region, where she expecteth the sentence of the eternal judge. Imagine with thyself that thou art present at this tribunal, and the whole court of heaven, waiting with deep silence, and great attention, the event and sentence of this judgment, here must be given a strict account of all receivings and disbursements. ”

“ CHAPTER XII. Study of Subjects—Love—Sanctification—Faith—Justification—Atonement —Conversion—Heaven—Revivals—Separation—Grace—Prayer—Assurance —God’s Promises.
I FIND some people now and then who boast that they have read the Bible through in so many months. Others read the Bible chapter by chapter, and get through it in a year; but I think it would be almost better to spend a year over one book. If I were going into a court of justice, and wanted to carry the jury with me, I should get every witness I could to testify to the one point on which I wanted to convince the jury. ”

“ Ancient judicial theory and practice comprehended not merely trials before a regular tribunal, in which the merits of a case were duly ascertained by the joint efforts of judge, counsel, and assize, but also an alternative method of arriving at the same result—namely, a solemn appeal to the bar of Almighty God. ”

“ This jury are twelve men all sworne on the Bible solemnly to do Justice, not out of feare, fraud or malice, favour or affection to jnjure any man, and ye first man is their foreman and speakes for the rest, Either acquit or Condemns the person, wch is in Life or Death, so determining other Causes the same manner, and these twelve men must all be agreed in their verdict, which is after they have heard all Can be witness’d or alleadged on all sides, wch verdict the Judges also must pronounce on ye Causes as they have brought it in. ”

“ Laws for judges; the rest of the seventh year, and day: three principal feasts to be solemnized every year; the promise of an angel, to conduct and protect them: idols are to be destroyed.
23:1. Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie: neither shalt thou join thy hand to bear false witness for a wicked person.
23:2. Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou yield in judgment, to the opinion of the most part, to stray from the truth.
23:3. Neither shalt thou favour a poor man in judgment. ”

“ If your higher judges do not judge righteous judgments, ye shall cause that a small number of your lower judges should be gathered together, and they shall judge your higher judges, according to the voice of the people. ”

“ A judge’s business is to decide on what we have done, or whether we have broken the law or not; to hear witnesses for us and against us, to sum up the evidence, and set forth the evidence for us and the evidence against us. And our judge will be the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing through the very joints and marrow, and discerning the secret intents of the heart ”

“ Then the judge, standing in the place of God, was to pronounce equitably, whatever might be the rank of the contending parties: "Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's." ”

“ Section 9. The Judges constituting the aforesaid Courts shall be selected with reference to their intelligence, integrity, and fair-mindedness and shall render their verdict without prejudice, favor, partiality, or affection, and shall be so sworn, upon the organization of the Court; and shall further be sworn to administer even-handed justice.
“Section 10. The several courts herein provided for shall be governed in their deliberations, proceedings, and judgments by the rules and regulations governing the proceedings of regular courts-martial. (Fide non armis.) ”

“ We pray, our Father, to bless the proceedings of this court, bless the court, the judge, as he presides, and may there be in every heart and in every mind a reverence to the Great Creator of the world.
We ask Thee, our Father, to help us, every one to find our place in our relation to every other man, so that we can best serve, can best know human interests and can best sympathize with the needs of every heart. ”

“ The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other than the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture. ”

“ The Scriptures aver their existence: to the jurisconsults will you dispute the existence of a crime against which our statute-book and the code of almost all civilised countries have attested by laws upon which hundreds and thousands have been convicted; many, or even most, of whom have, by their judicial confessions, acknowledged their guilt and the justice of their punishment? It is a strange scepticism, they might add, that rejects the evidence of Scripture, of human legislature, and of the accused persons themselves.'94 Reason was hopelessly oppressed by faith. ”

“ They also must awake, must arise; must appear at the bar, and meet the Judge, a Judge before whom the pillars of heaven tremble, and the earth melt away; a Judge once long-suffering and very compassionate, but now unalterably determined, to each stubborn offenders what it is, to provoke the Omnipotent Godhead, what it is to trample on the blood of his Son, and offer despite to all the gracious overtures of his holy Spirit, to whom be glory, honour, and immortal praise, now, and for evermore. ”

“ On the contrary, all which, in history, is realized in an entire series of judicial acts, to be at last consummated in the final judgment, is there comprehended in one great harvest—in one great vintage. ”

“ Surely all will not be forgotten. How small their opportunity compared to ours who have been carefully instructed in the knowledge of divine truth from our earliest infancy! The Judge is just and merciful. He will deal fairly and kindly with all. ”

“ On the last day, when Jesus Christ shall summon all mankind from the four quarters of the globe before His tribunal, to judge every one according to his works. My dear brethren, we have already considered the Judge as God, as Man, as our Saviour, and as our Model. But in a judgment there are many persons besides the judge: there is the accused, who is cited before the tribunal ”

“ Now it pertains to the dignity of judicial power to have certain signs that induce people to reverence and subjection: and consequently many signs will precede the advent of Christ when He shall come to judgment, in order that the hearts of men be brought to subjection to the coming judge, and be prepared for the judgment, being forewarned by those signs. ”