Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	speak_v	2,685	5	4.1963	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02057	The iudges scripture, or, Gods charge to charge-givers A sermon preached in St. Nicholas Church of Newcastle upon Tyne, before the judges, justices, and gentlemen of the towne and countrey, at the assises holden there the three and twentieth day of July. 1635. By Francis Gray, Master of Arts, and one of the preachers in the same towne.	Gray, Francis.	1636 (1636)	STC 12202; ESTC S103403	14,475	28

courage in the heart of a Judge or Magistrate is that which helpes to put life into those Lawes which are ready to languish for want of due and discreet execution What are men in Authoritie more sure to meet with than distempered and refractory spirits who hate to be reformed and think that they may sinne without controule and if ever sinne hath gotten head and were countenanced both with might and multitude surely now and therefore when more than now doth it become Judges to bee men of courage It was not without a misterie that the steps to Salomons Throne were supported by Lyons what better might the Embleme or morall thereof bee but to intimate that a Lyon-like courage becomes such as sit in the Seat of Judicature and Judgement And let it ever be esteemed an especiall part of a Rulers honour that he dare be just in punishing whilst others will be unjust in sinning and that hee dare to vse his power whilest they will dare to abuse theirs Iob that holy man may very well serve as a patterne to all godly Magistrates who was able to affirme this of himselfe that Hee did not stick to breake the jawes of the wicked and to pull the prey out of their teeth And why should not every Judge and Justice having Gods assurance of assistance arme himselfe with an holy obstinacy and learne to preferre Iustice before the favour and frownes of the stoutest evill doer becomming friends to all as they become friends to Justice yea what more procures credit to Government than the unpartiall execution of Authoritie when great Offendors are forced to feele the smart of great offences As God knowes no honour no royaltie no greatnesse in the matter of sinne no more may his Deputies Connivence at the rebellion of the Mighty is that which cutts the very sinewes of a Common-wealth neither doth any thing helpe to make Lawes more contemptible than the making difference of Offendors that small trespasses should bee punished when great ones are permitted to ride in triumph when that old Complaint comes againe to bee in practise that the Lawes are made like unto Cobwebbs wherein the lesser Flies are onely taken and the greater doe usually breake through who will not dare at length to sweepe them downe The intention of the Law is an universall Reformation now the Magistrate hee is tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living Law and how shall hee goe through in the indifferent administration of Justice unlesse that whilest hee puts on the place of a Magistrate hee put off the person of a Friend and goe right on like the Sunne in the Zodiacke with unresisted violence Say not then when God a good Conscience a good Cause and the Law tells you that heere is Justice to be executed against a great person offending as Salomons sluggard spake There is a Lyon without I shall incurre the displeasure of some great personage Let not the contents of Agefilaus letters bee too prevalent and powerfull Si causa bona pro justitia sin mala pro amicitia utcunque parce neither with Saul goe about to spare the fattest of the spoyle for your owne advantage but so strive to proceed that all both great and small may know that you beare not the Sword in vaine Againe in the second place Iudges yee are Gods owne mouth you see here honours you with this Title now what doth more sympathize or as I may so say synonamize with Judges than Justice So that the very Title of Judges ought to be a continuall remembrancer of that vertue which should be a perpetuall companion of your places What can be more peculiar to a Judge than Justice The Philosopher could ascribe this property to a Magistrate that hee be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a preserver of that which is just and Iethro in that his Character of a good Ruler makes this one particular requisite that they be Veraces or as Iunius interprets the words Rationē tantū veritatis habentes according to the usual reading Men of Truth Justice is so requisit in a Common-wealth that it is not onely the Grace and Glory of it but the very Foundation and as it were the Corner-stone thereof Hence that old assertion Tolle justitiam quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinea The removall of Justice makes Kingdomes to become very Dens of Thieves Now what is Justice I beseech you according to the old Description but a rendring to every man what is his due So that it will well befit Judges and Justices ere that they can passe for currant maintainers of Justice so to goe on with an even and equall hand that Causes be ever rather heard to speak than Persons As you are not to exalt the proud Rich man so neither to hate the poore Just man as you are not to benefit for Affection so neither to punish upon Passion as you are not to do evill upon Malice so neither to do good upon Covetousnesse as you are not to permit evill to escape Vnpunished so neither to let goodnesse to goe away Vnrewarded To hang up a multitude of silly Snakes who are more than halfe dead before they come to dye through hunger and the noysome stench of a lamentable and base Prison which I dare boldly say is more fit for Swine than for Christian Men meaning thereby the Countrey Jayle a Grievance worthy of your Honours best Consideration and due Reformation wherein Gentle and Simple both Male and Female the Debtor and the Fellon are turned hand over head in each respect so wofull that no Minister dare without great hazzard either to his life or health goe to offer in Charity and to afford Comfort and Instruction to the persons condemned I say to trusse up onely such poore Pesants Non habet victoria laudem there is small praise in such Justice If in the meane time notorious Fellons and Outlawes the very bane and poyson of the Countrey bee not brought in for Justices and Gentlemen of the Countrey to be both niggards of their paines and purses on that behalfe to doe good the King and the countrey good service If they shall be brought in then for Witnesses and Jurors partly by feare partly by favour and partly by bribes to be laid off for composition of thefts to be as common as the Thefts themselves for mischievous Murders that so crying a sinne for every drop of innocent blood is not onely vocall but importunate with God for vengeance For these to bee buried and through the greatnesse of friends to be smothered for Incest and Oppressions to walke with out-stretched neckes and all the more Grand crimes of the place never so much as once to come into question this will denote that Iustice lyes a bleeding this will prove an argument of gasping Iustice Right Honourable you are called Iudges Right Worshipfull you are called and sworne to be Iustices give I beseech you not me leave but God in whose place I stand here

as you your selves are shortly to sit elsewhere to put you in minds of what God tells me doth become you Hath God conferred these places of preheminence upon you Non datur beneficium nisi propter officium Dignity calls for and commandes duty and to whom much is given of them much shall be required Know therefore that next to the prayers of the righteous there is no more acceptable sacrifice to God then the upright administration of Iustice the blood of Malefactours shed by lawfull authority is no doubt pleasing to the most high God Governours doe even become guilty of those sinnes which they seeke not to reforme by Iustice what better sight in any state then to see an impudent Malefactour ledd to the place of deserved execution There Death may perhapps seeme harsh to some but we must learne of God to know that there is as well a punishing mercy as a mercifull punishing and cursed be that mercy that provokes to anger the God of mercy It comes to far short God knowes of Iustice when Magistrates shall dare to humour the people in their Sinnes this is not with Moses to make up the gapp and breach betweene God and us but to make it greater by connivence Sinne we know is ready by every small approbation to take heart but if authority once seeme to countenance it and will not punish it through foolish pitty it will soone learne to grow impudent As therefore you tender Gods glory your fidelity to your Soveraigne the Countries peace and your owne Comfort suffer not I beseech you the great and outragious sinnes of these Northerne parts to passe with a bare giving of them in Charge or to escape with a Slender reproofe Thus to doe is onely to shave that head which deserves by Iustice to be cut off this is like to a weake dosis that moves but removes not the corrupt humours in the stomacke it is a breach of Iustice not to proportionate the punishment according to the Sinne. Againe give me leave yet once more to touch vpon your title Such as are Iudges have there name from there office nomen ab officio convenienter habent Iudgges they are so called for that it is there office to judge now who knowes not that Iudging doth imply a deliberate action So that it will be required that to right Iudging there goe along serious consideration and mature deliberation that nothing be done rashly nothing be effected unadvisedly And as you are Gods Iudges it may well become you to learne this manner and Method of proceeding even from God himselfe who in the Sentencing of sinners went no way precipitately to worke when our first Parents had sinned GOD first enters into parley with them ere that he give them their deserved Doome so likewise hee examines and questions Cain before hee doth sentence him and when the Sinnes of Sodom cryed loud for vengeance I will goe downe saith God and see whether or no they have done altogether according to their Cry What God practiseth thus in himselfe he gives in precepts to his Deputies You shall not respect persons in Iudgement butye shall heare both small and Great So when Iehosophat comes to give direction to his Iudges he wils them againe and againe to take heed what they did the Poet could say thus much Iudicis officium est vt res ita tempora rerum querere To consider aright of matters to poncer times and well to weigh all circumstances well becomes a Iudge Mature and grave deliberation hath ever beene esteemed the Midwife to helpe to bring forth a good action Temeritas judicis est calamitas innocentis The Iudges temerity proves the guiltlesse persons calamity Et judicium temere darum non tamest judicium quam judicis vitium An over hasty sentence deserves an hasty repentance The Graecians they placed Iustice betwixt Leo and Libra and many are accustomed to protrature Justice with a ballance in her handes thereby intimating that as men in the places of Iustice ought to be stout hearted so they ought to Ballance all actions and causes so that it cannot but much tend to a Iudges honour wisely to weigh and judiciously to ponder and not postingly to passe by the poorest mans matter watchfull diligence then will prove a vertue most sutable to men in places of authority like Moses of whom it is said that he sat from morning till evening to judge the people He that is diligent in seeking after these dignities but having attained vnto them care not which way things goe he is sicke of Caligula's disease who was bonus servus sed Dominus nequum or as it was reported of Galba that there was much rejoycing at his entrance the people thought that they had done a good dayes worke when they had made him Emperour but he was not long in till they began to change there note for they found by wofull experience that they had mett with a carelesse and cruell governour It is woefull when it is either with Magistrates or Ministers as Pope Vrban writ to a Prelate in his time very scoffingly Monacho fervido Abbati calido Episcopo vero tepido Archiepiscoposrigido The higher in meanes the worse for manners There is then good hope when Iudges and all in all places of precedency can say with Adrian Non mihi sed populo or as it was affirmed of Caesar Ipse se non habuit postquam mundus habere caepit Prineipem When he became a Governour hee ceased in a manner to be his owne And happy sure that People that Place that Common-wealth whose Rulers thinkes no time to long no paines to great nor no patience too much whereby they may glorifie God and seeke the peoples good in the appointed places of their dignity who are so desirous to study the Arte of Government that with Caesar they can bee content to divide the night still reserving one part to ponder of the peoples peace and safety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Iliad It becomes not could the Greeke Poet say a good Counsellour to be to great a sleeper It is said of Aegisilaus that through his care of the publicke good hee could scarse get time to be sicke Right Honourable then and Right Worshipfull Hoc agite minde chiefly that to which you are now chiefly called let your natures become answerable to your names so shall wee have cause to blesse you and to blesse God for you to blesse the care of our gracious Soveraigne through you and justly to thinke our selues blessed in you And thus from the first generall we proceede in order unto the second which is to consider of the Appellative restriction or Circuit being here called Iudices terrae Iudges of the Earth Many may bee the reasons of this denomination which the time and your Honours weighty occasions will but permit to name First what is the subiect matter of your judgement it is but the things of this Earth Lands Livings