Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	blood_n	body_n	great_a	2,100	5	2.8464	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82726	The hainousness of injustice done under the pretence of equity in a sermon preach'd in the cathedral church of Lincoln, before the honourable Baron Turton, at the assizes holden for that county on Monday the eighth of August, 1698. By Laurence Echard, A.M. prebendary of Lincoln, and chaplain to the right reverend James lord bishop of that diocese.	Echard, Laurence, 1670?-1730.	1698 (1698)	Wing E147; ESTC R229318	8,972	24

with Submission I take to be a notorious Piece of Injustice For whensoever it is in the Power of the Judge and the Court to do a Man Justice that sues for his real Rights and they wilfully defer and delay it it is undoubtedly unjust and an Abomination to the Lord. The detaining and keeping a Person from his Right is a manifest Injury to him and sometimes occasions the Loss of it at last but very often it makes it so inconvenient and burdensom to him that it wou'd have been as well or perhaps better for him to have lost it at first Whether this growing Mischief has arose from the Number and Variety of our Laws and Cases the native Liberty of our State and Constitution the Methods and Practices of the Courts of Judicature or from the unreasonable Compliance of the Judges themselves or from all these together I shall not pretend to determine For my own Part I shall only take the Freedom to say That the Tediousness of many of our Law-Suits and the frequent Difficulties of obtaining Justice are become a Burden almost insupportable to this Nation and a Burden from which many barbarous and I may add inslav'd Nations are in a great measure free These Regular Proceedings are accounted the honourable Badges and Tokens of our Liberties but as they are often manag'd they are grown so heavy and grievous to us that Fetters and Chains are almost as eligible I must confess that these are Mischiefs and Misfortunes that do chiefly attend the most civiliz'd and polite as well as the most free and easie Governments For in the Beginning and Infancy of Kingdoms and Common-Wealths the Laws are generally few and strict the Suits easie and soon determin'd so that Justice is continually done without any Trouble or Burden Then Justice is a Lady free and generous modest yet easie of Access and ready to assist all that sue to Her But when Dominions and Policy Laws and Ordinances Arts and Sciences and Riches and Vices encrease then Justice is disguis'd and attended with such numerous Trains and must be waited upon with such Variety of Formalities and pretended Regularities that but few can be able to approach her Presence The Poor cannot purchase their Way through her Attendants but must be satisfied without her Assistance Now it is generally acknowledg'd That nothing so much enervates the Strength of a State and relaxes the Sinews of a Government as slow and dilatory Proceedings in Matters of Justice They fill the Body Politick with ill and unwholesom Humours for want of Exercise and Evacuation and do in a great measure make the Blood and Spirits to stagnate They make Way for all Kinds of Corruptions and all Kinds of vile Practices and have been the Cause of the Decay and Mortality of the greatest Empires and Common-Wealths in the World The Danger of these was soon discover'd by the great Emperor Vespasian who when he came to reform and revive a corrupted and sinking Empire he found it absolutely necessary to regulate the Tediousness of Law Suits and to retrench the innumerable Processes and Appeals in the Courts of Judicature without which the State it self must have suffer'd His Example was happily follow'd by his excellent Son Titus and also by the renowned Trajan who besides these Regulations utterly exterminated all the Delators Promoters and Pettifoggers in Rome and put them to all Kinds of ignominious Punishments as the Pests of the City and the Disturbers of the Publick Peace The Care and Wisdom of these Princes recover'd the State and kept it alive for some Ages longer than cou'd have reasonably been expected To descend to a more modern Instance I might mention the present Turkish Empire which is acknowledg'd by all to be overgrown with such notorious Corruptions and Briberies and to abound with such Flaws in Policy as are sufficient to sink that or any other State Yet we are assur'd by the most skilful Politicians That this Empire is kept up by almost one Thing alone which is The extraordinary quick Dispatch in all Matters of Justice This does in a great measure set all Things right and makes Amends for all the other Errors and false Steps in the Government I do not pretend to propose any of these Examples for our own Imitation but only mention them to show the fatal Mischiefs of dilatory Proceedings in Justice and the Advantages of the contrary Practices And for that I might produce great Numbers of Instances but I am satisfied that I need not appeal either to History or Example to prove so manifest a Truth It is sufficient for me to show That these are real Acts of Injustice and are never to be allow'd when it is in the Power of Judges and Magistrates to prevent them And I may add That tho' Judges always act by a limited Power which the Laws themselves do sometimes streighten to an inconvenient Degree yet still they have a Power of Relieving if not Remedying these Mischiefs in most Cases I hope I reflect upon none here present when I say It is a Shame to good Men and a Wonder to wise Men That such frivolous Pleas and such ridiculous Niceties shou'd be urg'd and allow'd in Courts of Judicature as we often find and all this to ward off a present Blow and to hinder a Man as much as possible of his real Rights and Estate This may truly be call'd a false Balance and an Abomination For this is doing a Person an Injury and then showing him Law for it which is abusing him besides and likewise scandalizing and profaning our Laws which were never made to do or countenance any Piece of Injustice Now one great Cause of these tedious and unreasonable Processes in Law is 2. The Other Particular which I propos'd to treat of Which is Knowingly to undertake and manage an unjust Cause Now this is a Matter that does not so properly belong to Judges of Courts as to Pleaders and Advocates and it is so frequently practis'd in all Courts that by many it is not only thought to be no Sin but a Thing very convenient and necessary But I am satisfied that nothing is more easily prov'd than the Injustice and Sinfulness of such Practices For he who knowingly promotes and willingly joins with a Person in an unjust Cause is no less guilty than the Person himself and very often more for the Client is not so proper a Judge of the Justness of a Cause as the Counsellor is How often does a just Cause and a just Man suffer by these Means When a Pleader shall employ the utmost of his Eloquence Wit and Learning to promote a manifest Piece of Injustice and to ruin another Man's just Rights A Thing which God knows has too frequently succeeded in this Nation This is the more dangerous and fatal because Quirks and Artifices are never wanting to disguise the Justice of the Matter and to gild over the Blackness of the Crime which are sometimes subtle enough to

confound the greatest Lawyers and Judges themselves But it is commonly alledg'd and objected in the Case That Pleaders and Advocates need not concern themselves with the Justice of a Cause but it is their sole Employment to assist their Clients and do them what Service they can So that if the Cause be bad it is their Client's Fault and not theirs who only act according as their Business and Professions lead them In answer to which Objection I must take leave to assert That no Mans lawful Business and Employment can necessarily lead him to commit an unjust Action And to say He is oblig'd to it by his Profession is a notorious Reflexion upon his Profession which is to suppose that his Profession obliges him to do that which God himself has always prohibited But to put this Matter beyond all Dispute I wou'd demand of Him who knowingly pleads and promotes an unjust Cause Whether he enters upon it with an Expectation of carrying it or not If he expects and endeavours to carry the Cause he then does Injustice to the contrary Party whom he opposes by hindering or endeavouring to hinder him of his real Right If he does not expect to carry it he betrays and injures his own Client which is no less unjust than the other So that take it either Way tho' it may sometimes be palliated and extenuated it can never be vindicated And it is a Surprise to good Men sometimes to see Persons of no common Parts and Learning standing up openly and before the World to smooth over an odious Cause and vindicate an Action in its self manifestly unjust This indeed is sinning with Security and without Shame and acting wickedly without either Fear or Remorse Certainly such Pleadings must prove mightily to their Disreputation and be a great Hinderance to their Business and Professions But I hope and am fully perswaded that this Audience is free from such Persons as I am condemning therefore I wou'd not be thought to reflect upon any here present Having briefly gone through these two Particulars I propos'd I shall omit many other unjust Practices that are too frequent in Courts of Judicature and shall only observe in general That all such Acts of Injustice as are done in publick Courts and by publick Persons are of the blackest Dye and the most odious before God being always of a higher Concern and of a more pernicious Consequence than the unjust Actions of private Men. Judges and Magistrates have the Stamp of Heaven upon them and in their Distributions of Justice do in some measure represent the great Judge of all the Earth Now if They who are set up purposely to do Justice to others shall commit any Errors and make any false Steps as they are most injurious to the Publick so they are most dangerous and fatal to themselves and the greater and more exalted the Persons are the more hainous are their Crimes Tho the Actions of Judges and Magistrates are seldom publickly censur'd and more rarely punish'd in this World yet the Supreme Judge of all Men will remember them and do them Justice too by making them eternal Examples of his Wrath and Vengeance When that terrible Judge shall at the last great Day do Justice to all Mankind when all the Mysteries of Iniquity shall be unfolded and all Mens secret Thoughts and monstrous Imaginations be expos'd in their native Deformity to the World then shall the Actions of all unjust Judges Magistrates and Officers be laid open in the most publick and exemplary Manner and be punish'd not as the Actions of Single Men but as the Crimes of whole Societies To whom much is given much will be requir'd and a Man had a thousand times better be an Ideot a Natural and the most vile and despicable of all Humane Kind than by his great Parts and Learning to raise himself to the highest Stations and act contrary to his Trust Parts and Learning are most dangerous Engines when misapply'd and a Man had far better be without them than to abuse them To speak in the plainest Terms A Man had much better be a Fool than a Knave tho' the former is generally more despicable in the Eye of the World For Folly is only a Misfortune and the unhappy Effects of meer Nature but Knavery is a Monster begotten by the Devil which will certainly carry a Man to the black Place where it had its Birth To conclude all The Matters that I have insisted on are of the highest Importance both to the Honour of God and to the publick Peace of the Nation and as I have taken the Freedom to speak some Truths without Fear or Complaisance so I hope I have spoken them without either Rudeness or Indecency Now to God the Father to God the Son and to God the Holy-Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS