He took honours in an
English university. He ate dinners, was called to the bar, conducted
cases, and took silk in an English court of justice. And in the ripeness
of his years and of his services, he wore the honourable ermine and sat
upon the envied wool-sack of an English sovereign. It would have been
far less awful and far less alarming to think of, had Judge Jeffreys
been, as you supposed, a pure devil let loose on the Church of Christ and
the awakening liberty of England. But some innocent soul will ask me
next whether there has ever been any other monster on the face of the
earth like Judge Jeffreys; and whether by any possibility there are any
such monsters anywhere in our own day. Yes, truth compels me to reply.
Yes, there are, plenty, too many. Only their environment, nowadays, as
our naturalists say, does not permit them to grow to such strength and
dimensions as those of James Stuart, and George Jeffreys, his favourite
judge. At the same time, be not deceived by your own deceitful heart,
nor by any other deceiver's smooth speeches. Judge Jeffreys is in
yourself, only circumstances have not yet let him fully show himself in
you.
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