Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	good_a	great_a	3,182	5	2.6384	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01090	Plouto-mastix: the scourge of covetousnesse: or, An apologie for the publike good, against privacie A sermon preached at the assises in Deuon, at the command of the Lord Byshop of Exon, anno, 1630. By Thomas Foster, Master of Arts and rector of Farway.	Foster, Thomas, b. 1590 or 91.	1631 (1631)	STC 11202; ESTC S102538	20,928	34

ΠΛΟΥΤΟ-ΜΑΣΤΙΞ THE SCOVRGE OF Covetousnesse OR An Apologie for the Publike Good against Privacie A Sermon Preached at the Assises in Devon at the Command of the Lord Byshop of Exon Anno 1630. BY THOMAS FOSTER Master of Arts and Rector of Farway Avaro nihil Scelestius Eccles 10. 9. Bonum quò Communius eò melius Ethic. lib. 1. LONDON Printed by B. ALSOP and T. FAVVCET for Michaell Sparke the younger and are to be sold at the Blew-Bible in Greene Arbor 1631. TO THE RIGHT honble Sr. THOMAS RICHARDSON Lord Chiefe Iustice of his Majesties Common Pleas And Sir IOHN DENHAM one of his Majesties Barons of the Exchequer All Health and Happinesse here and hereafter Right Honourable I Will not say Importunity of friends hath prest this Sermon to the Presse that 's a Common Plea and implies a Tacit Commendation of the owne worke which is not so commendable it beeing as great Wisdome in our sufficiency not to know our selves as in our Wants to know our selues But I may boldly avouch Ambition has no hand in the Impression For had I beene that way affected I have had time enough to be a foole in print as well as some others long ere now Scribimus indocti doctique But I have ever beene as desirous to Suppresse my Labours in this kinde as others to Presse theirs The truth is the reason why I have ventur'd to come on the Publike stage and to make my Meditations Legible is To see whether I can finde more Charitable Readers of my Well-meant Endeavours then I had some Hearers whose unhappy Misprision making themselves occasionally guilty would have made me guilty of that I neyther spake nor meant of that which I hate A personall Invective Whereas it may appeare upon ingenuous perusall neither the Person nor the Place but the too-well knowne Offence Negligence of some persons in those Places is inveighed against I can truely say with Saint Ierome-Nullum loesi nullius nomen mea Scriptura designatum est Neminem specialiter meus sermo pulsavit ad Nepot And the Poet tels me I take it discreetly Licuit semperque licebit -Parcere personis dicere de vitijs Whosoever takes offence at this it is Scandalum acceptum indeed and I suppose he is no Competent Auditor For if guilty Consciences who are Parties should be admitted Iudges of Divine Reprehension the Pulpit should bee counted a Pasquil every admonition thence how discreetly-zealous soever an invective Defamation Guilty Consciences are like the Elephant which being conscious of his owne Deformity cannot abide to see his Face in the cleare Springs but seekes for troubled and muddy Chanels to drinke in So they knowing their soules to be so filthy that they dare not view them in the cleare waters of Truth and Sincere Admonition flee to the troubled Chanels of Cavillation and Contradiction Arbitror te veritate superatum ad detractionem vitae meae et maledicta converti saith Ierome Contra Helvid But Qui volens detrahit famae meae nolens addit mercedi saith August Cont. Petil. lib. 3. cap. 7. And thus Quandiu aegri indignantur whiles men are sicke of Impenitencie they are Impatient of reproofe Sed sanati gratulantur but being cur'd by Repentance they shake hands with the Monitor and thanke him saith August Ad Fest Epist 166. Then they will acknowledge 'T is better once smart then ever ake And so a Galling truth shall have more thankes at the last than a smoothing Supparasitation Hee that rebuketh a man shall finde more favour at the length than hee that flattereth with his tongue Prov. 28. 23. But hee that can now play with his Euphemismes and Eulogium's and cry Pax pax when there is no peace makes the best musicke in the eares of this secure Age. He that bids the wicked AHABS Goe vp to Ramoth Gilead and prosper 1. King 22. 12. is now the best Politician Hee that that can Dawbe with vntempered morter is counted the best Architect of Soules This they call Good temper Mildnesse Discretion This is the way they say to sleepe in whole skinne to rise to Preferment Obsequium amicos veritas odium Such preferment God send them who love the praise of Men more than the praise of GOD. And whether it be right in the sight of God to obey men rather than God iudge yee But what shall I say Pro captu Lectoris habent sua fata Libelli As Bookes so Sermons have their Credit or discredit from the fancy of their Readers or Hearers And it is ever an easier matter to Dislike than to Doe the like Facilia sic putant omnes quae iam facta nec de salebris cogitant vbi via strata Lips If you come to an Inne in Germany and dislike your fare dyet lodging the Dutch Host tels you in a surly tone Aliud tibi quaeras diversorium Erasm Dial. Such is my resolution who likes not this may reade some other thing My Lords I have not without Cause Inscrib'd this Sermon unto your Names First it was Preach'd in the great Assembly whereof your selves were a Principall part Secondly Preach'd on that Subiect wherein your Places have a Principall interest The Common Good of Church and Common-weale A Subiect as necessary for those Times as the Times are Subiect to Necessity Private ends having brought the Publike Good almost to it 's End and Hungry Coveteousnesse like PHARAOH's leane kine devour'd this fat and flourishing Common-weale To you therefore as being Patres Patriae and Ecclesiae Patroni this Weake but Well-meant Labour of mine flees for Patrociny and protection I shall make it my humble Suite that you will be pleas'd to entertaine it as DAVID lame MEPHI●OSHETH for his Father IONATHAN's sake Lame it is in both feet Lame in the Birth by vnskilfull handling lame in the Nursing by uncharitable scanning yet entertaine it for it's fathers sake Your Country's sake whose Love begat it I remember that Apologue in the Talmud the grapes in Babel sent upon a time to the Vine-leaves in Iudaea desiring them to come and over-shadow them otherwise the heat would consume them and so they should never come to Maturity Your Lordships may easily guesse at the Mythology If Learning be not sheltred by those who are in Eminent place and if they cast not their Shadow over it it will soone perish But where they favour it it prospers If the Spring bee cold the Plants Herbes and Blossomes are nipt and wither But where the Influence is seasonable there all things reviue thrive flourish So where Great Persons are averse from Learning the Spirits which would otherwise blossome doe wither and decay But when it is upholden by men of Higher place it is like a Fountaine of Living Water For my part I cannot praise my Present otherwise then by the Truth of that heart from which it proceeds which shall bee Ambitious of all occasions that may testifie a Gratefull acknowledgement of your Lordships undeserved favours and wherewith

that appertaines to the Private Owner It was decreed in the Law That a man when he came into a vineyard might eate as many of the grapes as he pleased Deut. 23. 24. This was Right of charity But he might carry none away with him Ibidem This was Right of Propriety So the Disciples passing through the corne-fields on the Sabboth pull the eares to satisfie their hunger Mat. 12. 1 This was Right of Charity But they put not in their sycle to cut downe the Corne and carry it away because they had not Right of Propriety All this may be Compris'd in Saint AMBRO'S description of Iustice Est virtus quae vnicuique quod suum est tribuit alienum non vendicat vtilitatem propria negligit ut communem aequalitatem custodiat It is a vertue that gives to every man his due it challengeth no right in another mans Propriety it neglects it 's owne private for the Publick good Now would you have all these particulars cast up in a T●tall The summe is this It is the principall duety of our christian Profession equally to respect the common Good To approve our selves true Members of the Body Mysticall This charity must we have or we have not faith whatsoever we confesse To beleeve the communion of Saints A crowd is not company Faces but a Gallery of Pictures Talke but a Tinckling cymball without charity and brotherly community Beloved I hope you will give me leave to goe so farre with you as my Text doth To make the Application answerable to the Proposition The one is Vniversall -Every man So must th' other be Every man of you must be a good common-wealths man Must Looke on the things of other men The Magistrate the Minister the Private man 1. The Magistrate especially more specially the Iudge who as his place is more eminent so should he be more intent on the publike good The higher he sits the more distant from the earth from the earthly speculation of-His owne things to Looke on the things of other men This community is the greene verdure which delights the eye of Iustice and nothing dimmes it more than when the rheugme of Avarice distils into it This blinds it Deut. 16. 19. True it is Iustice in the Embleme is blinde Blinde to the persons sees not the superficies of persons but Lookes clearely impartially on the things the causes of other men And that not with a squint eye onely on one side as PILAT look'd more on the clamour of the Accuser than the Innocence of the Prisoner Luk. 23. 23. 24. Nor with a poore-blind eye onely upward as the Governors look'd on AHAB the King not on NABOTH the poore subject Though the eye sees not per emissionem radiorum as the Platonicks conceit but per immissionem specierum as the Aristotelians more probably affirme yet in this respect Justice is a● Platonicke and sees not by Taking in the Goods of other men but by Looking on other mens Good And for you R. Hon. I cannot impute unto you the least blemish of the eye unlesse I should looke upon you with the eye of M●mus who because he could espy no deformity in Venus body would needs find fault with her slipper Personall Imperfections no doubt you have who is without Let him cast the first stone But for your Places I may not I cannot say Blacke is your eye The one of you to give CAESAR his due I thankfully acknowledge to have had comfortable experience of not onely for mine owne but the Countries good which being a publike cause why should I not give it a publike acknowledgement For as Magistrates are Sent of God for the praise of them that doe well 1. Pet. 2. 14. So great equity it is That the praise and Encouragement which they give to other Well-doers should reflect from others on their owne Well-doings Neyther let any envious Critick accuse my Gratitude of Adulation 'T is from where there is least judgement commonly that the heaviest judgement comes For as wee have a Negative command Thou shalt not raise upon the Judges Exod. 22. 28. So the former Translation reades or Dijsnon Detrabes So the Vulg. Thou shalt not deprave the persons nor inveigh against the places of Magistrates who are Vice-dei petty Gods upon earth Or Earthly Gods So have we a positive Precept Honour the King 1. Pet. 2. 17. The King as supreame and other subordinate Magistrates who are Representative Kings having the stampe of Regall authoritie upon their places these must be honoured encouraged by due respect to their places and true affection to their Graces and Vertues Laudataque Virtus-crescit As praise is the reflection of Vertue so is it the Nurse of it And it is a Forme due in civilitie to Great persons Landando precipere This kind of commendative is a commandative By telling men what they are we represent to them what they should bee more and more Goe on then R. Hon. to looke on your Countryes good the common good being the speciall Object of your Places And if I mistake not at this time a miserable spectacle lying like him among the Theeves in Adomin loco sanguinario a bloudy robbing place betweene Jerusalem and Ieriche Luk. 10. Robb'd wounded and halfe dead robb'd by racking Landlords wounded by Ingrossing and Transporting Marchants Halfe-dead by Devouring Vsurers Here is worke for a Samaritan for Iudges and Iustices for surely the Priest and the Levite our inferiour Officers passe it by with little or no regard not Looking on the things of other men And what doth the Minister in the second place What Common-wealths men are we We Spirituall men ought to Looke also on the things of other men We have a Cōmon-weale to take care of too The common-weale of Israel Eph. 2. 12. This should every Minister looke to especially the Bishops who have their title from a compound of the Text the simple here you heare is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inspectors Supervisors Superintendents Such as are appointed to Looke on the things of other men to provide for the Common good of the Church both in Doctrine and Discipline You know what our Apostle sayes of these men The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour specially they which labour in the word and Doctrine 1. Tim. 5. 17. 1. They that rule well manage well the Pastorall staffe of Discipline these are honourable Common-wealths-men in Gods Israel And this staffe had need be walking for who sees not that Schisme and Faction begin to be too sawcie and unruly 2. But they that labor in the word and Doctrine they that communicate Spirituall Food to the Soules of the people these are more Honourable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 specially these 3. And they that doe both both rule well and preach well are worthy of double Honour indeed And they that deny it them envie it them are worthy of Treble shame Then cannot we for shame but acknowledge