Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	ecclesiastical_a	spiritual_a	temporal_a	2,677	5	8.2384	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48734	A sermon preached in Lent-assizes, holden for the county of Bucks, at Alesbury, March 8th 1671/2 being Ash-Wednesday by Ad. Littleton ...	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.	1671 (1671)	Wing L2570; ESTC R21353	20,489	39

the Patriarch or chief Father of all the several Families And this power by lineal descent fell to the Eldest Sons so that the first-born were by prerogative of their birth Kings and Priests unless there happen'd a forfeiture as it was with Esau and Reuben who were therefore justly put by Afterward when kindreds themselves what with the propagation of their own Families what with the commixtion of strangers were so inlarged that they became Nations then the government was intrusted with Kings as Gods Vicegerents For though there be other Forms which I shall not now dispute against yet the Monarchical has this advantage at least over them all that it was the first and far the most antient of them all as the Historian Justin has observed that principio rerum at the beginning of the world that is when the world was first divided into Nations it was governed by Kings This among all other people but then God having a special care of his own people did not at first set up Kingly Government amongst them though afterwards upon their desire he did but to maintain the Theocracy his own Government among them did upon occasion of great troubles or imminent dangers raise them up Judges who were tantamount to Kings Nay Moses himself gives himself the very Title too Deut. 33.5 where he says that Moses was King in Jeshurum when the heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together And thus Sufetes which is the word for Judge with the Phaenicians and Carthaginians their descendents as well as with the Hebrews is used by Seneca and others that speak of those people for the Supreme Magistrate 2. And such was Samuels power here as that of all the other Judges before him differing from the Kingly rather in name then substance as to the exercise of it Some tell us it was much-what like that of the ●ictators at Rome in that they were raised only upon extraordinary occasions and intrusted with an arbitrary power 'T is true as the occasion was extraordinary so 't was fit their power too in some measure should be But then these Judges of ours differed from them in this that these had extraordinary assistances from God not to say that these having taken upon them once the Government some of them as Eli Samuel c. never laid it down again nor returned back to their private condition as they all did but JulJus Caesar. By this power then they were instated in a supremaecy and were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlimited unaccountable and unappealable They had the universal dispensation of Justice an absolute right to make War and Peace command of mens persons and fortunes and power of Life and Death And all other Magistrates and Officers derived their authority from them It is the opinion of some and those learned that the great Council of Seventy which Moses for his assistance set up by the advice of his Father-in-law Jethro to help him in the tryal of lesser causes usually called the Sanhedrim or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jewish Parliament continued down from Moses without any interruption till Herods time if so then the Judge was chief over them Besides there were lesser Courts too in each City much like our Hundred-Court's and Courts-Leet to judge of smaller matters who as they received their authority from the Supreme Court so might be appealed from to it And all these inferiour Courts subordinate to the great Consistory and that it self to the Judge But I rather incline to GrotJus who thinks that in these times all the bands of Government were losened amidst the popular licentiousness when every one did what they list and that there were no Courts at all kept to call them to account but that God raised these Judges on purpose as well to recal the people to good order as to deliver them from the oppression of their enemies since the History makes it clearly out that at every vacancy or interval of Government the people fell off a fresh into their former disorders and those disorders brought new troubles upon them which both occasioned the raising of a new Judge to rescue them from one and t'other from their sins and from their foes For so we find Judge Samuel in this very Chapter first call them together to Mizpeh for a Fast and Humiliation before he venture them to Battel against the Philistines However it were these Judges had not their power from the people though sometimes the peoples consent and desire too was not wanting but immediately from God himself And so is it proportionably with all supreme Magistrates For that Ascham's position is not true that they receive their power by compact and agreement of the people this one argument amongst many is enough to evince that no man in the world has power over his own Life and consequently cannot transfer that power to another which he has not himself Nor has the whole Community together that power since the particular persons which make up the Community have no such power and the whole cannot have more in it then the parts had to contribute to it The Judicatory power then is not derived from the people but from God himself transmitted to the King as supreme and from him to the Judges as Ministers of Justice sent by him the King being the fountain of Justice and the Soul and Life of the Law 3. And this to the whole body and every part of it in all its concerns which is the extent of this power First over all persons for so 't is said of Samuel that he gathered all Israel to Mizpeh and there judged them The Church of Rome indeed priviledgeth her Priests from the civil judicature and there are Others though seemingly of far different perswasion that would fain have it believed they are not concerned in Law or consequently in government upon that assertion of the Apostles that the Law is not made for the righteous and in another place where he speaks of meekness temperance c. that against such there is no Law and I agree to them that if they do well as the same Apostle says Rom. 13. they need not fear but that upon this condition then eâ Lege if they observe the Law For what says the Apostle elsewhere Do we then by faith and I may say do we then by our good works make void the Law yea rather we establish it by performing what it commands Further Innocence it self may be impleaded and so fall under the inquisition of the Law and 't is the evidence must fetch her off The Law then is for clearing and acquitting the guiltless no less then for condemning criminals As at a Goal-delivery the Billa vera casts the Prisoner the no-evidence of the fact sets him free Again as this judicial power is over all Persons so 't is in all Causes Temporal by the Judge Spiritual by the Bishop by each as the Kings Delegate And Samuel acted in both these capacities here so that he had the people upon a double account obliged to him for the punishment of crimes and the decision of controversies in both Courts Civil and Ecclesiastical according