Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	court_n	judge_n	1,450	5	7.1812	4	false

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

Beast that cannot exceed the Bounds of its own Strength but the Latter the Subtleties of the Devil of whose Artifices we know no Limits Smaller Thefts are indeed of a meaner and more ungenerous Nature than open Robberies yet still they are generally as unmix'd and are bare Acts of Injustice without any Pretence of Fairness and Fidelity He who privately steals my Goods or picks my Pocket does a great Act of Injustice but he does me no other Injury than the Value of the Goods or Money amounts to and adds no other Sin to this But he who cheats me in his Shop by false Weights false Stories and false Representations does the same Injustice and Injury to me as the other but then as an Addition to his Crime he picks my Pocket more exquisitely and securely imposes upon my Understanding and common Faculties and joins Lying and other Sins to his Injustice So that it is apparent That this Kind of Injustice is far more criminal in its very Nature than the other not only because it is viler and more base but also because it has the Addition of many other Crimes and aggravating Circumstances from which the other is free But Secondly This Kind is more abominable than the other in its Consequences one of which is That we have far less Security against these Kind of unjust Actors than we have against the other so that the Mischiefs of it are more certain and inevitable which is always a Circumstance that makes a Crime more odious in the Presence of God Force can repel Force but it cannot repel Treachery We have Arms to stop the Fury of Robbers Locks to prevent the Pilferings of Thieves and strict Laws to secure us against the Inconveniencies of both which God be thanked has been so effectual that our Nation in general has not suffer'd any great and extraordinary Mischiefs from either But no Arms no Locks nor no Laws can secure us from the various Mischiefs and Subtleties of a thorow-pac'd Villain Nay Laws will give us no Relief in many common and notorious Acts of Injustice If a poor Wretch steals a small Quantity of Goods perhaps to cover his Nakedness or to satisfie his Hunger he shall certainly be punish'd for it But another Person shall be permitted to steal what he pleases in his own Shop in his Bargains and after the like manner without any Punishment or Censure from the Laws Now what is the Reason of the Difference but only this One is accounted Theft according to Law and the Other not But this makes not the Crime the less but the greater before God who judgeth not as Man judgeth but reserves such Cases as these for his peculiar Judgment and Punishment I speak not this to extenuate the Actions of Thieves or to expose any Deficiencies in our Laws which I grant cannot be made to reach all unjust Actions but to show That this Kind of Injustice is more hainous before God not only in its Nature but likewise in its Consequences since the Mischiefs and Inconveniencies of the one are more unavoidable than those of the other Upon which Account it is that God as I just now hinted does in a great measure reserve Cases of this Nature for his own peculiar Tribunal in the last and dreadful Day and therefore he has more frequently and with greater Threatnings manifested his Displeasure against this Kind of Injustice than the Other and particularly in the Words of my Text where we are told That it is an Abomination to Him a Word that implies an extraordinary Degree of Hatred and Detestation But now to approach a little nearer to this present Publick Occasion If all Acts of Injustice be odious in God's Sight even in the meanest and most private Person and especially such as are wrought by secret Springs and under the Pretence of doing of Justice then certainly those must be exceedingly hainous before God that are done by Publick Persons and in a Publick Capacity whose Employment it is to establish all Things with the utmost Impartiality and to see that no Injustice be done in a Nation I hope I offend not if I say that I now mean the Judges of the Kingdom Persons from whom we receive inestimable Benefits and Advantages and such as keep up the vital Heat and Vigour of the State purging it from all malignant and corrupted Humours In these are repos'd a vast and mighty Trust and being plac'd in such exalted Stations they never want Opportunities of doing of much Good or much Injury But considering the innumerable Frailties of Humane Passions and Inclinations they often meet with great Temptations to mislead them And tho the Greatness of their Dignities and the Plentifulness of their Revenues may well be suppos'd to set them above all common Attacks yet it must be their Vertues alone that can secure them against such as are Extraor dinary Therefore the good King Jehoshaphat when he set Judges over the Cities of Judah gave this most remarkable Charge to them Take heed what you do for ye judge not for Man but for the Lord who is with you in the Judgment Wherefore now let the Fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no Iniquity with the Lord our God nor Respect of Persons nor taking of Gifts 2 Chron. c. 19. v. 6 7. There cannot be a greater Motive and stronger Argument than the Words of these two Verses And were I to enter upon them and insist upon all their Particulars I shou'd seem to deviate too much from my first Subject and Design which was to say something of the Cares and Duties not only of Judges but likewise of all such Officers and Persons who depend upon them and are concern'd in this present Publick Occasion And here I might not improperly insist upon those great Conveniencies and mighty Advantages which the Nation receives from these publick Meetings and Administrations of Justice and what Good the Judges and their Ministers are capable of doing And more especially I might insist upon those several Acts of Injustice which are sometimes done by Judges themselves but more frequently by Lawyers and Officers of the Court These do most properly belong to my present Subject and Occasion But to search and to dive into all these Particulars as it is a Task exceeding tedious and almost endless so it is likewise an Office very ungrateful to some and will be thought unmannerly by others However I crave leave to say something concerning two Particulars both of which are exceeding Grievances yet they are by many vindicated and look'd upon as Matters not in themselves unjust They are First Delaying and deferring of Justice when it is really due And Secondly Knowingly to undertake and manage an unjust Cause The first Particular belongs principally to the Judges and the second to the Lawyers and Officers and the One is frequently the Cause of the Other 1. Delaying and deferring of Justice when it is really due This