Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	court_n	justice_n	law_n	3,065	5	4.7299	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48944	The honour of the magistrate asserted In a sermon preached at the assizes holden at Lincoln on Monday, March the 23. 1673/4. By Thomas Lodington, M.A. Sometimes fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge, and now rector of Welby in the county of Lincoln.	Lodington, Thomas, 1621-1692.	1674 (1674)	Wing L2812A; ESTC R217723	19,040	35

they cannot persecute us we are content so far to be reputed Persecuters As to the cause of Religion we desire you to use the Civil Sword to protect us of the Clergy in the Profession and Exercise of it no further than we shall be able through the grace of God to use the Sword of the Spirit to defend the Doctrine of it against all adversaries whatsoever We are so well assured of the goodness of our Cause and have of late been so well awakened by the insolencies of our adversaries that the weapons of our spiritual warfare that before lay in their rust when no adversary appeared are now furbished up and appear able to desend us But against their cunning contrivances and secret conspiracies against their bloody massacres and open violences we have no means to defend our selves onely our Prayers are unto God who is a God of truth and delights in the safety of those that stand up for the truth Our Prayers are also unto you whom God hath stiled Gods under your shelter we betake our selves Vmbra Principis est umbra Dei So the Arabick Proverb Under your shadow we hope to be safe You are Gods not Titular gods who have the name of God and nothing else but Tutelar Gods to whom our defence and safety is committed There is another sort of People yet remaining who are a dishonour to Religion and hinderers of it both in the publick exercise and pious practise I mean the Atheist and Profane I put them together for they both live without God in the World the one impudently with his mouth the other Sinfully in his heart and life says There is no God The emptiness of our seats in our solemn assemblies proceeds chiefly from these mens contempt of the holy Ordinances of God The greatest profanations of the Lord's day are from these The ancient Heathens not understanding that the Sabbatical rest was appointed not to satisfie the flesh with ease and sloth but to make way for work of e higher nature and greater concern to be performed by the whole man derided the Institution of the Sabbath And Seneca as St. Augustine observes doth unjustly accuse the Jewish Sabbath as depriving men of the seventh part of their time and as devoting that to idleness which might be profitably spent in their lawful employments and as if the God of the Jews wearied out with his six dayes labour in creating the World did devote the seventh day to his ease and refreshment Our moderu Heathens by their loose observance of the Lord's day seem of the same opinion with the Ancient while they either grudg to have it give intermission to their secular affaires or else spend it wholly in sloth and carnal pleasures Your severer Eye my Lords upon these persons might happily cast an awe upon them to spend the Lord's day with more conscience or at least less scandal Our Givil rights come next into our thoughts and present themselves to you my Lords in our Petition that Justice be administred for the preserving to every man his right in possession and the recovering it where he is disseized And here all persons concerned in this Court either in bringing any Cause to tryal or in preparing it for judgment are to be earnestly requested that they do what truth and justice requires of them You that bring the action do not bring trivial matters before my Lords the Judges for they fit on the tribunal of the great God Do not more vexations Suits to disquiet your neighbour without Cause The Law is good as the Apostle says of the Law of God if a man use it lawfully namely to preserve or recover his just right Do not bring an unjust Cause in hopes of good success either through the wisdome and eloquence of your Councel or favourableness of your Jury not to mention any other more S●●ister meanes For as an Angel of God so is my Lord the King to discern good and had and my Lord is wise according to the wisdom of an Angel this is said of David and may be applied to others whom God hath placed on the seat of Justice It would make much for the honour of the long Robe and give check to contentious Spirits if the Learned Councel would refuse the Patronage of such Causes as appear unto them manifestly bad I do believe some causes are declined by those worthy Persons upon this very account because their integrity and generous minds will not suffer their choyce parts and great accomplishments in knowledge and eloquence to ingage against the truth least they should serve too happily to bear down a Righteous Cause And many times where Persons of integrity and worth are retained in unrighteous Causes the blame may justly be cast upon the Client who out of a natural partiality to himself misreports his Cause and puts such a disguise upon it that the blemishes of it are not seen by his Councel He declares his cause before his Counsel as before his Judge not as to the person who is to edvise him in it but as to him who●● to give Sentence upon it Witnesses have a singular usefulness in judicial proceedings If they prevaricate and attest what is false they are an unavoidable obstruction of justice judgment proceeds secundum Allegata et Probata it's the proof that gives weight to the allegation and that lyes upon the witnesses If they give false evidence the very nature of the thing is thereby changed a being is given to that which is not and taken away from that which is For in Courts of Judicature the appearance is more than the essence Quod non apparet non est and what is made appear though by false evidence is supposed and adjudged to be Therefore false witnesses do in the Prophet's Expression Justifie the wicked and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him Jurors are as much coucerned as any in the administration of justice and therefore must be addressed to in our request The Law takes them for good and lawful men and if we make them participants in the stile of the Text though in the lowest degree we advance them much higher and they indeed are the judges in all causes though they sit not on the Seat yet do they the Office of the Judge They bring to the Bar that sentence which the Judge pronounces on the Bench. Act like your selves like men of repute as men advanced to great employment and trust The lives and estates of others are in your hands stand upon your credit and do nothing base and unworthy Look not now upon your selves as you are in your private capacity but what you are in your publick employment You are summoned hither upon the credit of your abilities and integrity you are impannelled into Juries and so made Judges in matters criminal betwixt the King and his People in matters Civil betwixt man and man shew your selves in your present service persons worthy of such eredit and such

against the Lord the same is justly to be brought against all seditious and rebellious persons that rise up against their lawful Prince And seeing Rulers are called Gods the Devil is an unfit Instrument and wicked artifices are undue means to advance any person to any especially supreme Authority The Devil's counsel and assistance to make man equal with God succeeded ill to the Protoplasts for in stead of being advanced to equality with God they were levelled with the Devil both in Sin and Misery But if any ambitious Spirits shall try the experiment and prosper where they owe their advancement there they ●●ll pay their homage Such will prove if gods those of the ●●er Region Diabolical Deities to torment oppress tyrannize over the People And now my Lords and you Gentlemen of the Magistracy the matter requires that I make my Application to you as to the Persons treated of in the Psalm and advanced in the Text. But I should transgress the limits of my own duty should I take upon me to admonish you of yours For though I stand here in the place of God and am of those who are Ambassadors for Christ and might therefore use great boldness of Speech yet I must remember the Text advances you much higher and ranks you with God himself and so sets you far above the reach of my Instructions As I have therefore my Lords and Gentlemen by warrant and authority of the Text set you in the place of God I shall address unto you as unto Gods in behalf of my self and this People with out humble Petitions and Supplications That you will be Gods to us to defend us in our just rights both Religious and Civil to execute justice and judgment for the preservation of Truth and Peace amongst us Religion is the chief thing in our esteem and must have the first place in our Petition Civil affaires will succeed better when Religious are first secured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ante omnia sit tibi cura rerum divinarum was a Maxime in the Politicks of the Heathen We call not for Innovations in Religion but for the Presevation of it as now by Law established being fully satisfied in it both as to Substantials and Circumstantials The Doctrine Discipline Government and Ceremonies of this Church of England are agreeable to the Holy Scriptures And Religion is in no other Church professed in greater purity than in this of ours and this some of the Reverend Fathers of our Church eminent for Piety and Learning have to the Glory of our C●… declared dying That the True Reformed Christian Religion 〈◊〉 it is now by Law established in this Kingdom be preserved and we be protected and incouraged in the profession and practice of it is our earnest Petition Our blessed Saviour in his Personal sufferings was crucified betwixt two Theives ●●t they were only sufferers with him not actors in his suffering Now in his Mystical Body the Church he suffers betwixt two sorts of People which had they power I fear scarce either of them would deserve a softer name and these are not sufferers with Christ but actors in his Suffering The one sort are those who by their many corrupt and erroneous doctrines complained of and not reformed did force our Fore-Fathers to use such lawful meanes as the Constitution of this Kingdom put into their hands to reform Religion and to depart from their Communion The other are those who like unskilful Physicians never leave purging till with the Corrupt humor of the body they take away the Life also These without any lawful Authority or any pretense thereto withdraw from our Communion because as they think we have not withdrawn far enough from the Church of Rome These two Factions though distant from each other in their heads holding opinions dissonant if not contrary yet like Sampson's Foxes are joyned together by the tayles to draw lighted firebrands into our Church and State to destroy both They are like Herod and Pilate enemies to each other but easily made friends to become both greater enemies against Christ The latter take their measures for their Confidences and Insolences from the growing hopes of the former by whom they are thought to have been at first formed and now secretly abetted So that if the one be held within due bounds the other is not like to prove a dangerous Enemy The Papists are the more formidable Enemy as having a settled Church under a government and being counselled and aided by men of great parts Learning and Interests and large Conscience and chiefly from that pretense they have to Jurisdiction in this Kingdom of which they make great use to gain Proselytes and to hold weak Converts A fatal thing it has been as a person of learning and honour observes to the City of Rome to usurp over the World first by holding in a temporal subjection all the Countries of her neighbour Princes since by bringing into thraldom the Hearts and Consciences of Christians First by intruding upon the inheritance of men then by encroaching upon the heritage of Christ's own purchase To speak of the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome would be too long a discourse to insert here and too great a digression from the matter before us I 'le onely say this The Title of Vniversal Bishop of the Church was given to the Bishop of Rome by an Emperor who ascended the Throne by treason and murder and made that Bishop although the Title had been lately not only disclaimed but bitterly declaimed against by his almost immediate Predecessor Head of the Church that he might abett and assist him who had made himself Head of the State And for his Jurisdiction in England it was gotten partly by intrusion and usurpation and partly by imposing upon the facile nature of some in high place which having been in several ages since complained of and declared against was at last justly cast out not by Popular fury and faction but by the deliberate Counsel of pious and learned Divines in Convocation assembled by the express Authority of the King then reigning and ratified by the three Estates in Parliament The Protection we crave against these men is not against their arguments but their cruelties They do without cause complain of our sanguinary Laws against them but we have too much cause to complain of their sanguinary Doctrines which as occasion has served have been put in practise by barbarous and savage cruelties against us We know in what account the reformed Christian stands with them and how persons so reputed are dealt with by them which makes us justly dread the thoughts of coming again under their power and to beg of you my Lords that Protection which the Law provides for us If they shall please to call this Persecution as they are apt enough to cry out not as we say before they are hurt but if they may not hurt us and to call that Persecution against them when their hands are tyed that

trust Here are no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no mute persons as in Comick affaires whose bare appearance on the Stage is their whole service These judiciary proceedings are solemn actions every person employed has his necessary use Here are not Twelve men impannelled that Eleven of them may stand as Ciphers and the Fore-man do the whole service He for order and decency speaks but it is the Sentence of the whole Jury not his own single judgment Jurors and Witnesses are both under strongest obligations to discharge their duty They are Sworn in the presence in the name and to the service of God who is a righteous God You are all of you to take that Oath solemnly with understanding consideration reverence and 〈◊〉 solution to observe it and not onely as a thing done in course and out of custome Witnesses are bound by Oath to give evidence according to the truth so far as they know and Jurors to give sentence according to their evidence Neither the one nor the other must be by assed by sinister affections or ends but both make it their business that right may be done the one that truth appear the other that it prevail Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause Exod. 23.3 God doth not give this Command to cast the poor out of the protection and care of the Law and to expose them to oppression without remedy for the gracious God delights to be the helper of the helpless But that the merits of the cause and not the necessities of the Person be looked upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here is required says Philo an inflexible rigour and inexorableness against supplications from the poor and commiserations in our selves of them And if not the Cries of the poor which are the most powerful charms if these must not prevail to pervert Justice then much less any thing else as fear favour hopes of reward If God will not have justice obstructed for the sake of his greatest favourite much less will he for any man else Non ornabis causame jus phaleratis verbis the precept thus glossed on seems cheifly directed to the Councel they must not by witty insinuations and eloquent language put a faire colour upon a foul cause no not when a poor man's concern is in it and by that means baffle the Witnesses and blind the eyes of the Jury There is no respect of persons with God nor must there be with you who bring the causes of men before those that sit on the Tribunal of God Gifts and hopes of reward are great preverters of Justice and must be avoyded by you as Snares cast in your way In Criminals be very tender of the lives of men Let Witnesses be well assured that it is the truth onely and not any wayes aggravated which they give in evidence and Jurors that they have sufficient clear evidence for such sentence as touches life Yet because the life of the offender is at stake let not fond pitty move the Witnesses to suppress or the Jurors to oppress the truth Punishment is oftentimes medicinal and reclaimes malefactors but if the medicine proves so Sharp as to kill the patient it usually hits of another happy effect and becomes an Antidote to many One ill effect of fond pitty is this what is pitty towards one is cruelty both to him and many more It justifies him in his sin and multiplies the number of offenders and their outrages upon the persons and estates of the innocent For he that comes off well upon an inditement for Felony or Murder or any other crime will be ready to pass as favourable a sentence upon himself as his Jury has done and so instead of repenting he justifies himself in his sin and in hopes to find his next Jury as kind as the present he runs into like wicked Courses and draws in others into confederacy with him There is another thing yet considerable in this matter whosoever shall as a false witness or perjured Juror acquit a guilty person wittingly besides that he doth a thing abominable to the righteous God juslifie the wicked he makes himself a real great offender to make the malefactor seem an innocent person he makes himself guilty of perjury to acquit the other of his theft or other Crime But being desired where I might have been Commanded to be short I will no longer detain this Honourable and great assembly from the important service that attends them I shall now make my humble address to Almighty God That he who has called you my Lords by his own name set you on his own throne and employed you in his own work would be graciously pleased to protect direct and prosper you in these your great affaires And that he will also so guide and over-rule the Body of this County met here this day to assist your Lordships in the administration of Justice that every one may carry themselves in their several employments at this Assizes with that diligence and faithfulness as those who are to give an account of all at the last and great Assizes where Christ himself shall sit upon the Throne of Judgment FINIS