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	think_v	4,338	5	3.9369	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68930	The vnrighteous iudge, or, Iudex cretensis, the iudge of Crete a sermon preached within the iurisdiction of the arch-deaconry of Norwich, at a generall court, in April last past, 16. 1621 / by Mr. Yonger of South-Walsham.	Yonger, William, b. 1572 or 3.	1621 (1621)	STC 26098.3; ESTC S121841	20,261	30

of the iust They must haue an honest and conscionable intent to aduance the glory of God and punish vice and not be Aucupes Nummorum coursing vp and downe in their Circuits and Iurisdictions abirding after money yet is this the maine disease of many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Other vertues are required in a Iudge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as wisedome vnderstanding Deut. 1.15 but neyther these nor any other before rehearsed were in this Iudge yet was it very fit they should for he was in a place of eminencie he was in a Citie In a certaine Citie In a certaine Citie Which is not onely to be taken for the fabricke position scituation habitation charters liberties all which make a Citie but for the people and inhabitants as 1 Sam. 14. When newes came to Shilo that Hophni and Phinehas were slaine and the Arke of God taken All the Citie that is all the inhabitants of the Citie cryed out Nay thirdly a Citie also is taken for the whole body of a Country as Marlorate vpon that place of the Psalme The Lord keepeth the Citie he speaketh there saith he de Reipublicae statu politia of the policy and state of the Common-wealth Take the word Citie here in any of these sences I am sure it noteth thus much that Cities are the speciallest and most remarkeable places of a Country and most commonly containe vnder their iurisdiction the Villages thereabout 2. They are the seats of great men and of great offices and men in them preferred to office and dignity are the more eminent and conspicuous 3. They are the ciuilest places and fullest of knowledge and good manners 4. which is not the least they are the most religious too Now all these makes against this Iudge that hauing his residency and abode in a City a place of eminencie a place of ciuility and good manners a religious place and where perhaps he needed haue gone but a few steps to his Temple to haue worshipped yet that hee should be so irreligious as not to feare God or haue so little ciuility or good manners as not to regard man And so I come to his Qualities 1 Ex parte Dei He feared not God But before I goe further I pray doe but note This is a very strange Testimony that Christ here giues of a Iudge There was a Iudge in a certaine City who feared not God neither regarded man I should rather haue thought it had beene a good Testimony to haue beene giuen of an Vsurer or a Drunkard And if Christ had said There was an Vsurer in a certaine City or There was a Drunkard in a certaine City and either of these neither fearing God or regarding man this had beene somewhat nay very probable But to speake thus of a Iudge who beares an office of Honour of Antiquity of Necessity one who sits in the roome of God to execute his Iudgements horresco referens I tremble to speake it O thou blessed Sonne of God the eternall Wisedome of thy Father I that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heauen-dropping dew whose words are as Aples of gold with pictures of siluer inwardly rich inwardly precious euermore to singular and speciall purpose whatsoeuer thou diddest whatsoeuer thou spakest was for our instruction For surely hereby he would teach vs that 1. whatsoeuer their persons or their places be if they be wicked and doe wickedly let it not bee concealed but declared spoken of and spoken of so that posterity may take notice of it For to this end are the sinnes of good men and bad men too in Scripture recorded and related Let their faces be made ashamed who knoweth whether the diuulging and publishing of their faults may bring them to repentance as being humbled and stricken through with sorrow and contrition Excellent is the speach of that Heathen man Sireprchēdi fers aegrè reprehendēda ne feceris If they thinke much to heare of their wickednesse let them abhorre to doe it Yea let others heare and feare by their example Why should the Scholler be spared for hope of his learning or the Gentleman for his birth or the Doctor for his dignity or the Iudge for his authority if they be shamelesse or exorbitant And if we may not spare our right eye or our right hand if they be causes of offence why should we then spare the offences of others who should be eyes and hands to ouersee order and settle vs in a good course by their discipline and example I confesse greatnesse thinkes it selfe much priuiledged and the sinne of a great man like mount Sinai may not be touched Yet are the Prophets commanded to cry aloud and not to spare and the Minister of God he must be veronensis and not placentinus As Gedeons Souldiours had in one hand a Lampe in another hand a Trumpet so wee must haue a comfortable shine to enlighten some a shrill and warlike sound to rouze vp others Yea let euery good Minister know that he is as the Arke wherein was as well the rod of Correction as the Manna of Consolation 2. He speakes this to let vs see that sometimes wicked and vile men men voyd of Gods feare and of all goodnesse are promoted to places of office and dignity And this is as great a plague as may be dishonorable to God disgracefull to the place impatible and grieuous vnto the people What a storme of dreadfull imprecations doth the Prophet call for from heauen Psal 109. like a raine almost of fire and brimstone a very tempest of euils vpon wife children posterity goods or what else were more deare smiting all these as with the stings of Scorpions The first of them all that leadeth the daunce as Iudas lead the cursed band of Souldiers is Set thou a wicked man to be ruler ouer them I thinke there could not be a wickeder then Hee this for first He feared not God Who feared not God And here I pray consider first the Quality feare which in Scripture is taken many wayes especially two 1. For the worship and seruice of God as Psal 33.11 I will teach you the feare of the Lord that is I will instruct you rightly concerning the true worship of God And Esay 29.13 Their feare saith God towards me was taught by the precepts of men that is their religion and manner of worship was learned by mans doctrine and not by my Word And our Sauiour Christ Mat. 15. interpreteth this place after the same manner In vaine doe they worship me teaching for doctrine the precepts of men The oath that Iacob tooke Gen. 31.42 was by the feare of his father Isaak As if hee should say I sweare by that God whom my father worships For God is sometime called by names effectiuè as when he is called Our health our strength our saluation Sometime obiectiuè as when he is called Our ioy our hope our feare because he is the obiect of all these and the scope and end of all our

both which are ridiculous Againe that the damned ghosts should be zealous of Gods glory in the furtherance of mans saluation vpon the earth For Abraham is entreated by the Rich man that Lazarus might be sent to admonish his fiue brethren and to worke their conuersion that so they might avoid those insufferable torments Saint Augustine therefore giueth a good rule whereby to interpret Parables not according to the letter but according to the sence The scope intent of Parables is wholy to be regarded As in that of the Rich man and Lazarus the intent is to set forth the seuerall and diuers estates of two men in this life and their seuerall and diuers estates in the life to come by reciprocall proportion So this Parable holds not in all but in the scope and intent wherevnto it was vttered as before is declared But for the Person There was a Iudge whose office was a Iudge There was a Iudge and thus far I like it very well yea that he should be in a City too for an eminent place is fit for an eminent person The Office of a Iudge is of great Honour of long Antiquity of great Necessity First of Honour because they are Gods deputies ordained of him vpon earth to be next vnder him Iudges and Magistrates shalt thou make in all thy Cities throughout thy Tribes sayth God to Moses Deut. 16.18 There is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13.2 God assumeth vnto himselfe the title of a Iudge else would not Abraham haue beene so bold Shall not the Iudge of the whole world doe right Gen. 18.25 God sitteth on their bench and iudgeth amongst them Psal 82.1 Their honour must needs be great when he layes vpon them his owne name God standeth in the assembly of gods and hee auoucheth it with his owne mouth Ego dixi dii estis I haue sayd ye are gods Moses is called Pharaohs god and Constantine called his Bishops gods Christ expounding that place of the Psalme before rehearsed saith Hee called them gods to whom the word of God was Iohn 10.34 which is not to bee vnderstood of the generall doctrine directed to all the sons of God sed de speciali dominandi mandato as Caluin well interpreteth it of the speciall charge of gouernment whether it be Ciuill or Ecclesiasticall And they are so called Ne quid admittant quod eos dedeceat qui loco Dei sedent that they might doe nothing iniuriously basely or otherwise vnbeseeming because they sit in his place are gods vnder God 2. Their Antiquity appeares partly by that which I haue said before they are as ancient as Moses who was both a Temporall Iudge and an Ecclesiasticall and so continued till after he resigned his Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction to Aaron And after the death of Moses and Iosuah the Gouernors ouer Israel for many yeares together were called Iudges of whom Samuel was the last The Ephori among the Lacedemonians and the Areopagitae among the Athenians were Iudges and these long since determined weighty matters concerning their gouernment and punished offenders 3. The Necessity of their office appeares many wayes but especially two First in that Paul saith They are the Ministers of God for our wealth Rom. 13.4 For where good Iudges and Magistrates are there commonly good causes thriue and prosper Godly lawes are conscionably administred the glory of God is aduanced and the kingdome of God is inlarged and such haue speciall right and due interest in their places Secondly necessary for they are the Ministers of God to take vengeance on them that doe euill to bridle and represse the corruptions and misdemeanours of wicked men to punish the loosenesse and exorbitancy of their liues to suppresse their insolencies root vp their vices and righten the wrongs of the oppressed And there are three seuerall species or kinds of punishment which they may inflict as Plato sets them downe Either first to punish them in their bodies or secondly to punish them in their purses or thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to put to open shame Now as God placeth them in their seats of Iustice which are called the Seats of the Mighty but not that they should be ouer mighty in their seats obstreperous and combersome and alloweth them also Princely or priestly Roabes ad gloriam ornatum Exod. 28.2 not so much for their owne carcasses which are but earthly and mortall as for the honour of their places As Seneca wrote to the wife of Nero the Emperour Indue te delicatè non propter te sed propter honorem imperij So God also hath ordained and required that they should be adorned not onely regijs vestibus sed regijs egregijs virtutibus which according to Iethro's aduice to Moses are these 1. To be men of courage to goe through their affaires with a wise and a stout resolution For I doe not thinke that Iethro's meaning was onely that they should be pollentes armis but valentes ingenio industrious and able to expedite causes with good dexterity and wit and so they shall be sure to doe nothing either incautè or inconsultè rashly or vnaduisedly 2. They must feare God which is both the beginning of wisedome and the foundation of all vertue and they are wofull Magistrates and Iudges in whom this feare of God is wanting 3. They must be men of Truth not onely speculatiuè in knowing discerning and iudging but also practicè in following a right iudgement and obseruing the rules of truth For there is as well veritas vitae the truth of life when the conuersation is framed according to the rule of truth as veritas iustitiae the truth of Iustice in discerning right from wrong 4 They must hate Couetousnes For that will quench and destroy all good vertues in them Paul saith it is the roote of all euill as that which giues sap and nourishment to all other sinne And where this growes to the height it beares downe all yea this detestable and accursed hunger of gold what doth it not effect nay whom doth it not affect The Poets faine of Venus that she commits adultery in chaines but I am out of doubt much wrong and wickednesse may Iudges doe in their places who are eyther drawne on or fast bound with the golden chaine of Couetousnesse Hence it is that they are long-handed after bribes which Father Latimer cals a Princely kinde of Theenery Sure it was not for nothing that as in old time the Iudges of Thebes were painted or carued out sitting which argued a setled moderation a treatable deliberate gentle proceeding for they should not be like euill Spirits in their places onely to vexe and torment and with eyes shut or turned another way as hauing no respect of persons So also were they portrayed without hands vt à donis essent alieni that they should not reach after gifts and bribes which blinde the eyes of the wise and peruert the wayes

a City It was no maruaile sure his manners were so good I thinke the basest village in all the Isle had been good enough It was the manner of the Cretians to boast of the number of their Cities I am sure they needed not so haue done of the goodnesse of their Iudges He this was in a City And not vnlike neither but hee had ingrossed for himselfe a faire house with gardens and orchyards but I doubt he kept his Gates as fast barred as that purple Churle in the Gospel and that he was none of the best to the poore because the Text saith he regarded not man But this I am sure of that in this City where he dwelt lay his authority and Iurisdiction because in the next verse the widow that came to him for Iustice dwelt in the same City A great dishonor was he no doubt vnto it For in such populous places as Cities are where men conuerse within a wall as seuerall and diuerse almost in their conditions and manners as in their trades and callings the decent orderly and examplary life of the Iudge and Magistrate who liues amongst them is of great consequence For it stands as a looking glasse before the peoples eyes And his good example is of better perswasion then the power of his place Else such Cities are as ill incombred as that of Alexandria in Egypt of which Diodorus the Sicilian writes that they nourished that great bird Ibis to deuoure the garbage and offall of their City and to cleanse their streets but he left of his owne filth and beastlinesse more noysome behind him So such a one by the institution of his calling is very profitable to purge and cleanse the places where his power lieth from enormities and corruptions which if his discipline were not would grow noysome and abhorring yet when it comes to this that hee growes irregular and inordinate through his lusts and intemperancies and hath not ventrem bene moratum a mannerly belly Epist 132. as Seneca speaketh surely he leaues more stench and filth behind him through his bad example then the good which he pretends to doe by vertue of his place can recompence or repaire Hence is it requisite that great care be had of the choise of such That face is but vncomly wherin the eyes are bleare and full of humours so it is but a corrupt and disfigured gouernment where men of authority are aspersed and besmeared with the grosse and odious imputations either of Luxury or iniustice Yea to be thankfull to God with Dauid Psal 109.30 With great thankes and to prayse him amongst the multitude when he displaceth such and placeth better in their roomes for hee euermore standeth at the right hand of the poore to saue his soule from vnrighteous Iudges Thirdly concerning his Qualities Who neither feared God he is here noted with a blacke cole that he feared not God But wee that expect to receiue the white stone and in that stone a new name written which no man knowes but hee that receiues it in what calling or place soeuer we be let vs practise the contrary For first in a Iudge the want of this feare is a wonderfull debaushment it will make him as proud as Herod as cruell as Nero as prophane as Iulian as vniust as Pilate as sensuall and beastly as Heliogabalus as couetous dogged churlish as Nabal and perhaps as drunke too as dissolute as Baltasar swilling and carousing wine before thousands prauncing ouer his cups and calling to the seruitour for the fullest measure and purest liquor Ho! Minister veteris puer Falerni Ingere mi Calices alacriores In the meane time regardlesse of the iudgements of God The want of this feare in a Paster or Minister will make him as worldly as Demas as ambitious as Diotrephes as carnall as an Epicure as licentious as a Libertine as false hearted to his Cure as Iudas was to Christ The want of this feare in a Lay-man will make him run into any disorder euen to the shipwrack of his conscience and here are many of you present this day who I feare vnlesse His feare possesse you will launch out into a fearefull deepe rather then you will duely and truely present according to your oath daubing ouer faults defaults yea the grosse sinnes of others with the vntempered morter of fauour and conniuency These things are in the eares of the Lord of Hosts when men shall come in open Court present their bodies before the Iudge their bodies and soules before God who shall be their latest and fearefullest Iudge and in the presence of them both and all the blessed Angels of Heauen take a solemne oath binding ouer themselues actually to eternall vengeance if they fayle in their legall charge and yet account no more of the oath thus ministred then if the wind had blowne vpon them whereas there goeth a secret and vnseene vertue out of the oath as there did out of Christs vesture either to iustifie or condemne them I say againe These things are in the eares yea and in the eyes too of the Lord of Hosts Generally in all men the want of this feare is the foundation of all euill Holy and faithfull Abraham shifting for himselfe before King Abimilech Gen. 20.11 for saying that Sarah was his sister whereas indeed shee was his wife and being demanded the cause why he did so answerd modestly and religiously for himselfe I thought thus surely the feare of God was not in this place therefore they will slay mee for my wiues sake giuing vs to vnderstand that where the feare of God is not no conscience is made of any sinne whatsoeuer Hence ariseth all those grosse and abhominable sinnes of murders adulteries drunkennesse prophaning of the Lords Sabbaths blasphemous oathes deceitfull bargaines accursed vsuries wherewith the land groneth and I know not what And let men be reproued and these sinnes smitten with therod of our lips like gunpowder being scalt they fly backe in our faces and offer to ouer-master vs. As insensible are they as Plinies Beares vix vulneribus excitari possunt they stir not with many stabs or like that Fencer at the ganies of Caesar whom Aulus Gellius mentioneth that when his wounds were gashed and launced by Surgeons vsed to laugh at them Or like those Celtes that Aristotle speakes of who were so mad and without passion that neither by thunders nor earthquakes or the noyse of fearefull inundations they would euer be moued or remoued Or like those old Italians of whom I haue read that in the forest tempests of Thunders and lightnings they would shoot off their greatest ordinance and ring out their deepest bells that the noyse of the one might mitigate the horrour of the other So insensible are men and without remorse that they will audaciously contest confront oppose and improue their incorrigible wickednesse to the height against our loud and powerfull reprehensions their hearts as fat Brawne their soules impenetrable euen like Iericho