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	good_a	king_n	1,928	5	3.5894	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89237	The jus divinum of government; or Magistracy proved to be God's ordinance, and justice the magistrates duty. In a plain sermon preached before the judges of assize at East-Grinstead in the County of Sussex. By Zacheus Mountagu.	[Mountagu, Zacheus].	1652 (1652)	Wing M2478; Thomason E1286_2; ESTC R208950	22,057	61

demurring Judges consider seriously the admirable passage of Theodorick King of the Romans as it stands related at large in the Chronicle of Alexandria There was one Juvenalis a Widow who came to him with a sad complaint that she had had a suit depending in the Court three years which might have been ended in a few dayes the King demands of her the Judges names she tels him there issues out an especiall command from the King to them to give all the speedy dispatch that was possible to this Widowes cause which they did and in two dayes determined it to her very good liking which being done Theodorick cals for these Judges and they supposing it had been to receive their applause and reward for their quick decision and excellent justice hastned to him full of joy but the King having first interrogated with them about the cause of their former delay and having sharply reprehended them he commanded both their heads to be struck off because they had spun out that cause to a three yeares length which two dayes would have ended Seventhly You must be stedfastly just a Judge should be such an one qui nec fallitur nec flectitur lenity becomes not a Judge levitas est mobilitas animi qua homines levi de causa mentes vel sermones facile mutant Judges must not be like the vulgar Jews who would this day deifie and to morrow crucify the same man nor yet like Pilate who commanded Christ to the Crosse with those very lips with which a little before he procounced him innocent A Judge he must be propositi tenax though not pecuniarum petax he must be like the needle toucht with the Loadstone of constancy ever looking one way like the unshaken rock that in the midst of the angrie foaming brine and raging billowes appears that apt emblem of stabilitie with this motto on it Immota triumphans or else like the Egyptian pyramis wearing this inscription Nec flatu Nec fluctu Eightly You must be mercifully just there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ordinate rule of all affections a Judge must not come under that character that Josephus gives Herod that he was Legis dominus but irae servus Lord of the Law but yet Lorded over by his own lusts a Judg must not be too much affianced to his own will Vel. pater lib. 1. Hist not like Brutus and Cassius of whom Velleius Paterculus hath this note quicquid voluit Brutus valdè voluit nimium Cassius but he must plant his Judgement upon an even ground and as much as in him lies make inequality equal considering that merciful Aphorisme of Solomon Qui fortiter emungit elicit sanguinem the wringing of the nose bringeth forth bloud where the winepresse is hard wrought it yields a harsh wine that tastes of the grape-stone a butcher they say may not be of the Jury much lesse may he be a Judge There is just cause of relenting whether we consider our selves or others as being of the same mould and subject to the same temptations with others Though we may and must delight in justice yet say Divines to be glad of it as 't is the evill and grief of an other is very sinfull for a Judge upon the Bench to put the poor malefactor out of countenance whom he may put of life what triumph is it To jest at man in misery 't is the worst use a man can put his wit to and will come home to him nay 't is worse then brutish and beneath a beast the Lion scornes it so sayes the Poet Corpore magnanimo satis est prostrasse leoni O then my Lords be mercifull even as your Heavenly Father is mercifull and to whomsoever you think God himself if he were upon the Bench and in your place would shew mercy why to all such let your mercy extend I have read of three cases that seem to be out of the reach of civill mercy First wilfull murder prepared and projected murder here your eye is not to pitie in the time of the Law and by Gods own order such a murderer no Asylum no City of refuge Deut. 19.11 12 13. no Sanctuary no Altar could protect but he might be snatcht thence A second case is when accessaries suffer then the principall must not be spared this the voice of God Numb 24 4 5. of nature and of the Law all give assent to A third and last case is when the quarrel is laid in principles of irreconcileable enmity against true Religion and the government of Christ and yet even in all these three grand Cases Luk. 19.27 though mercy must not degenerate into a softnesse prejudiciall to Justice those Just sentences are best pronounced that are deepest drenched and most steeped in the Judges tears Ninthly and lastly You must be universally just You are called Scuta terrae the shields of the earth and the Law with us t is called Lex terrae to note the universal Benignity thereof and the equal interest that every person is to have therein to weigh one mans cause by the rule of Law and anothers by the rule of favour this is like divers weights and measures which the Lord abhorres This is not to be Scutum a shield but rather Galea a helmet to protect onely the heads of the people You must be like the Sunne whose beams shed themselves with as sweet an influence on a Garden of Cucumbers as on the Forest of Lebanon Your Justice must extend it self like the wisdom of Solomon from the Cedar to the Hysop The Apostles rule is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the small as well as the great must be heard Deu. 1.17 Laws must neither be like Nets to let out little Fishes and catch onely great ones nor yet like Cobwebs to be broken by great offenders and to catch only Flies Universal Justice is that which respects all rewarding the meanest in well-doing and punishing the greatest in evil-doing if justice be thus universal 't will cashier 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Partiality all Bribery and all Timidity now Timiditas judicis est calamit as innocentis And thus my Lords I have shewed you why you must be just and how you must be just I had thought in the next place to have reacht the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the obstructers of Justice but I see that cannot be without intrenching too farre upon that patience which I would not abuse or borrowing too much of that time which is allotted your other affairs I shall only therefore beg your pardon whilest in words as few as may be I take leave particularly to apply this great duty of the Text to those that shall be more immediately concerned in the Transactions of this season Justice you see is the great businesse of the Text and t is the great businesse of such a time as this And that the people may the better