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	law_n	sin_n	1,595	5	5.0127	4	false

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

follow let me beseech you my Lords to lead them the way in this great duty I confesse I have been long speaking to you and therefore I shall onely adde these last words First Be just to your selves by subjecting within you your bodies to your souls and your souls to God the first great acts of injustice are to place Passions upon Altars Reason in Fetters and to search for the Kingdom of Heaven in the sway of our own private interests Secondly My Lords Be just to the people which you can never be unlesse you be religious in devotion fearing God moderate in your passions impartial in your affections mortified in your lusts learned in the Laws incorrupt in your Courts deliberate in your Counsels patient in hearing diligent in sifting expedite in proceeding grave and solemn in sentencing and concluding onely according to evidence For Illud tantum judex novit quod novit judicialiter And thus from you my Lords that are commissioned for the Seat of Judgement I turn to those Gentlemen that are in Commission for this County And as you at such a time as this when the Judges themselves are present have least to doe so I have least to say onely let me leave this Exhortation with you Let me beseech you to be like Jethro's Justices of peace Exod. 18.21 22 23. Or like Plato's Commonwealths-men for the Commonwealth Study your Oath more then your Commission and think of your Duty more then your Dignity and doe not decline the burdens that cleave to your Honours and if the calling come upon you before you are grown up to it let double diligence make you old and experienced in the Law though you be tender and green in years and consider that whatsoever swervings or stumblings any part of the Body politick makes within your verge or under your eye the blame will be sure to light upon you And thus from you the Justices let me addresse my self to those that shall be Counsellours and Pleaders and Advocates at this Assize And let me beseech you to be just and never to plead that cause wherein your tongue must needs be confuted by your conscience nor again to set the neck of the Suit that hath once been broken by a definitive sentence Remember what answer Papian the Oratour made to Caracalla the Emperour when he was requested by him to defend the fratricide of his brother Geta Non tam facile est excusare fratricidium quàm facere It is more easie to commit it then to defend it Take heed you doe not Per verborum aucupia tendicula as Tully speaks by cunning construction either of Laws or Actions protect injurie and wrong innocence When any Client comes to you be sure you not onely hear but examine and pinch his cause there most where you fear t is foundred if the cause be doubtfull warrant no more then your own diligence and whatsoever privacies have past between your Clients and you let them sleep between you and not take air at your tongue Take heed of tediousnesse and as one saies doe not make a Trojan Siege of a Suit but what you doe doe it seriò and doe it subitò Be not like to those fickle and unstable Lawyers that Salust so bitterly inveigheth against condemning them for their floating and uncertainty Qui fluctuantes huc illuc agitantur who deny that to be Law this Term which they pleaded to be Law the last And be sure to look to your hearts and to look to your hands and keep them both cleane Be not like Ayat the Jew who could Vtrâque manu tanquam dextrâ uti Take bribes on both sides and doe Justice on neither Remember what Aegardus adviseth you to Magis apud vos valeat amor veri quam lucri Love Justice above your fee. Lastly Be faithfull to the side that first retains you and not like Demosthenes who as Plutarch tels us secretly wrote one Oration to Phormio and another in the same matter for Apollidorus his adversary And thus from the Councellours and Pleaders I come to the Jurors It were well if they would learn too not to goe like Sheep one after another Qua itur non qua eundum but to be lead by the sacrednesse of their Oath and the light of their Evidence and to proceed Secundum allegata probata and not suffer themselves to be blindely overruled by another mans prejudice It many times fals out that a tame Jury by the craft of some one cunning fellow in the company who happily comes possest with prejudice to the cause or ill will to the person are made to swallow any thing and to give in a Verdict to the Oppression of innocence whereas their sinne is never the lesse because they sinne with company Let me beseech all those therefore that shall be of the Jury at this Assize to doe no otherwise then as God shall put into their hearts and the Evidence shall lead them If crafty Fore-men or subtil and wily After-men will doe that that is not just and to make quick work of it conclude of a Verdict before they hear the Evidence Let the honest Jury man keep pace with the Evidence and his own conscience and think it not pride but Justice to be honester if not wiser then his Leaders I have now onely one word more to them that are to be Witnesses and then I am at an end Let me beseech all such to be just let them consider how that upon their Testimony depends the issue of every Cause if the Judges sentence or the Juries Verdict point at a false hour the fault may not be in the hand or gnomon either in the Judge or the Jury but onely in these wheels of the Clock the Witnesses it concerns you therefore to be just you must not dare to think your Oath Volaticum jusjurandum a slip-knot neither must you dare out of ill will or fear or any base end to forge a Testimonie as Gashmu did Nehem. 6.6 7. nor yet to stretch a tender truth beyond measure on purpose to do mischief Psa 52.3 4. as Doeg did Great is the sin of a false Witness First He sins against God Cujus veritatem annihilat Secondly He sins against the Judge Cujus judicium perturbat Thirdly He sins against the party accused Quem suo testimonio condemnat Lastly He sins against himself first against his fame and credit for what more infamous then for a man to be Punica or Graecafide to be such an one whom neither word nor wax can binde and which is worst of all he sins against his own soul for a false Witnesse shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lies shall not escape so saies Solomon Prov. 19.5 Let every Witnesse therefore be just and speak the truth and the whole truth As God shall help him And thus I have discharg'd all my Task in the Pulpit save onely putting up my hearty praier to God for you all that from the highest to the lowest from the Judge to the Witnesse you may all discharge yours in the Court which I shall next proceed to FINIS