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	just_a	law_n	2,761	5	4.7834	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67763	Philarguromastix, or, The arraignment of covetousnesse, and ambition, in our great and greedy cormorants that retard and hinder reformation, (all whose reaches, are at riches) that make gold their god, and commodity the stern of their consciences, that hold everything lawful, if it be gainful, that prefer a little base pelf, before God, and their own salvations, that being fatted with Gods blessings, do spurn at his precepts : dedicated to all corrupt cunning, and cruel [bracket] governours, polititians ... : together with the lively, and lovely characters, of [bracket] justice, thankfulnesse ... : being a subject very seasonable, for these atheistical, and self-seeking times / by Junius Florilegus.	Younge, Richard.	1653 (1653)	Wing Y172; ESTC R39194	47,748	48

then the poor Iob 34.19 And were Princes so wise as they should be they would blesse God that they had such impartial Iudges Henry the fourth of England when the Prince his eldest son was by the Lord Chief Iustice for some great misdemeanure committed to prison he thanked God that he had a Son so obedient and a Iudge of such impartial and undaunted courage And when a Iudge is once found to be so impartial no man will dare once to sollicite him in any dishonest or unjust cause As Cicero writes of Cato Censorius to his eternal praise But for want of such Princes and Iudges Iudgment is turned backward and justice standeth afar off For Truth is fallen in the Streets and equity cannot enter As God complaines Isay 59.14 As a roaring Lyon and an hungry Bear so is a wicked Ruler over the poor people As wise King Solomon makes the resemblance Prov. 28.15 16. And the Prophet Micha Chap. 3. They eat also the flesh of my people and flea off their skins from their bones vers 3. But Thirdly as these covetous Iudges and Officers will do any wicked act for Great ones out of fear so they will do the same for friends or Allyes out of love and to save their own purses Or against Enemies out of malice He that puts on a publick Gown should put off a private person like Cleon the Lacedemonian who when he undertook publick affairs called all his friends together and told them that he now discharged himself of all friendship in that it too often caused men to swarve from Justice and equity But how common is it with these corrupt Magistrates to make a bad cause good or a good bad either to revenge a wrong or to do a pleasure To speak or act partially according to the interest he hath in the Cause or the patient But what saith Solomon It is not good to have respect to any person in Iudgment for that man will transgresse for a peece of bread Prov. 24.23 28.21 He that God hath deputed as Umpeer between party and party should say to Fathers Brethren and Children whether Natural or Political I know ye not That is neither nighnesse nor Highnesse shall make me play the Huckster with God the Law or my Conscience Neighbourhood is my friend Alliance is my friend bounty is my friend But Iustice is my friend a good Conscience is my friend and God is my friend above all Wherefore without respecting the person Or expecting the gifts of any I will do what these friends would have me Like Papinian who being commanded by the Emperour Caracalla whose Steward and familiar he was to defend him in an unjust cause would not do it Or like Phocion who refused to help his son in law Carillus in judgment being accused for bribery saying he had made him his friend and Ally in all just and reasonable matters and in them onely Or Sir Thomas Moor who upon the like occasion told his son in Law that were he to decide a cause between his Father whom he loved dearly and the Devil whom he hated extreamly he would deal impartially and do the Devil right if his cause were good And when another of his sons in law that had a cause depending before him in Chancery and presumed too much on his favour when he would not be perswaded by him to agree to any indifferent composition he made a flat decree against him Or Seleucus who when his son was taken in Adultery to satisfie Justice and in some sort the people who intreated for him caused one of his sons eyes and another of his own to be puld out The law requiring both of the party 's offending Or Antonius Venerius Duke of Venice who suffered his son to dye in prison because he had ravished a maid Or Mardus who sate in judgment upon his son Cartanes and would have put him to death but that Artaxerxes seeing his Justice pardoned his son Or lastly Noah and Abraham Abraham would sacrifice his son rather then displease God Noah did curse his own sonne rather then he would displease God Shewing that we should not spare our own bowels when God would have them punished But do as the Fathers and Mothers of Idolaters Drunkards and Blasphemers did in the Law who brought the first stone to put their sons to death Deut. 21.18 19 20 21. And indeed he onely whom neither Clamor nor Rumour nor Terrour Neither furious passion nor melting compassion can divert from Iustice is fit to be a Iudge He who resembles Philip and Alexander his son who when any came to complain stopped one of their eares which they reserved for the defendant As Plutarch affirms And such an one in good turnes will not owe more then he must in evil owe and not pay Yea he hates and scorns to pay private wrongs with the advantage of his Office and if ever he be partial it is to his Enemy Observing well what God saith Exod. 23.3 Levit. 19.15 I might in the fourth place be as large in shewing how these Covetous and corrupt Iudges and Officers will do any evil or omit any good in the discharge of their places to content Or for fear of the People But I study brevity Though what I speak to I love to prove fully Because he which throwes his dagger at a Theef must be sure to hit him home otherwise he disarmes himself and strengthens his Adversary You may please to read Mark 6.26 27. 11.18 15.15 Matth. 14.3 4 5. 21.45 46. Luke 20.19 22.1 2. Iohn 19.12 to 17. Act. 25.8 9. where are notable examples of Governours omitting good and doing mischief to please or for fear of the people Which our own experience at home may serve to amplifie CHAP. 11. NOw besides these there are many others that without controle rob the Common wealth gull the people and are no whit ashamed of it I mean Corrupt Lawyers who are also Merchants in this Trade of Covetousnesse and selling of men As come to this Covetous Wretch if he be a Lawyer He fits in his study like a Fox in his Burrough glad to spye a Goose that hath feathers on his back declare unto him your cause ask him what he thinks of it he will perswade you it will bear a strong action be it never so weak As he is like to have good counsel that fees the Devil A simple swayne went to a Lawyer and told him Sir And it shall please your Gentlemanship I would have proces for one that hath called me a Mechanick fellow So you shall quoth the Lawyer for that will bear a very good action The Lawyer that careth not to deal unfaithfully is like some Christall Glasse which flatteringly sheweth every man a fair face how ilfavoured soever it be These are Abettors that set men on their Cockpit is Westminster Hall and while their Clyents peck out each others eyes they pull their feathers Absaloms tongue is in their heads and

as he stole away the peoples hearts so these steal their estates And no cause so bad but they will undertake it either for gain or glory as he gets most fame and the greatest practice that can make a bad cause good and a good bad Whence it is they bend their tongues like Bowes for lyes As Ieremy hath it Chap. 9.3 that they may overthrow the right of the poor in his suit As Moses hath it Exod. 23.6 see more Esay 32.7 For they will devise some wicked counsel or other if they be paid thereafter to undo the adverse party with lying words And commonly they are like Caelius that could plead better against a man then for him as Plutarch speaks Yea some of them fall not far short of Carneades of whom wise Cato confest that while he disputed scarse any man could discern which was the truth So they turn judgment into wormwood Amos 5.7 and forge wrong for a Law as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 94.20 Have you not heard of a Lawyer that pleaded a case very strongly on the one side yet before the Tryal of it being advanced to the Bench he adjudged it on the other But had he been like Ioseph the Counseller whom the Holy Ghost stiles a good man and a just Luke 23.50 he would neither refuse to plead a just cause as they will do when great ones are concerned in it nor prefer one that is unjust Because he that justifies the guilty or refuseth to vindicate the Innocent in this case transfers the guilt to himself Or if this wretch finds it more for his profit he will see an end of the Clyents money before the Client shall see an end of his cause He will delay the Hearing untill he hath inriched himself and beggered his Clyent perswading him his Title is good till his patrimony be consumed And he hath spent more in seeking then the thing is worth Or the other shall get by the recovery One asking how he should have a Suit last him seven years was answered You may have a Suit in Chancery that will last you twenty years Another delivered in a Petition to King Iames I was four years compassing the World with Sir Francis Drake and there was an end of that I was three years with my Lord of Essex in Ireland Wars and there was an end of that I have had a Suit in Chancery this seventeen years but I fear I shall never have an end of that Which conceit procured him a quick dispatch but no thanks to the Lawyers He that goes to Law hath a Wolf by the eares if he prosecute his Cause he is consumed if he surcease his Suit he loseth all what difference There are not a few procrastinating or rather proterminating Attorneyes and Advocates that like him Prov. 3.28 will say unto a Clyent every day come again to morrow and yet procure his strife from Term to Term when this Term he might procure his peace Because he hath an action to his Clyents purse as his adversary hath to his Land That can spin one Suit throughout three generations and lengthen the threed of a mans cause till he shall want weft Or if he weave the Web to day he can by craft like Penelope unweave it as much to morrow Dealing with his Clyent as some Chirurgions do with their patients who will keep the wound raw and open that they may draw out of it the more money So that often the recovery of a mans right by Law is as dear as if he had bought it by purchase CHAP. 12. O The unsufferable knavery and wickednesse of such Lawyers were I able to tell it you For to me Law latine a kind of Canting is more irksome then either Irish or Welch They will sell both their speech and Silence their Clients Causes their own consciences and soules While the golden stream runneth the Mill grindeth when that spring is dry they advise them to put it to Compremise and let their Neighbours end it The fooles might have done so before saved so much money and shewed themselves Christians 1 Cor. 6.5 to 9. For a Christian indeed is like him that said to a Lawyer offering to right his wrongs and revenge him of his adversary by Law I am resolved rather to bear with patience an hail shower of injuries then seek shelter at such a Thicket where the Brambles shall pluck off my fleece and do me more hurt by scratching and tearing then the storm would have done by hailing I care not for that Physick where the remedy is worse then the disease And yet abundance of men as if they were bereaved of their very senses are more eager to cast away their money then Lawyers are to catch it being like so many Fishes that will contend for a Crum which falls into the water Nor will they ever give over untill an empty purse parteth the fray Yea they will spend their goods lives fortunes friends and undo one another to in rich an Harpie Advocate that preyes upon them both Or some Corrupt Iudge that is like the Kite in AEsop which when the Mouse and Frog fought carried them both away Which made one Lawyer build an Hospital for Fooles and Mad-men saying of such I gat my means and to such will I give it And generally Lawyers get the greatest Estates if not the devil and all of any men in the Land They are like the Butlers box which is sure to get though all the gamesters lose And it were good these earthen boxes were broken that their goods got by bribery wresting the Law and delaying of suits might be brought within a Premunire and they made to disgorge themselves As a Fox which goeth lank into the Henroost at a little hole when he hath well fed is forced to disgorge himself before he can come forth again Or that they were hanged up as Galeaze Duke of Millain caused a Lawyer to be served for delaying a Suit against a manifest and clear debt Or rather that the whole Number of such Lawyers might be pitcht over the bar and turned out of Courts without hope of ever returning And happy it were for the Nation for were this course taken and all contentious Sutes spued out as the surfeit of Courts it would fare with us as it did with Constantinople when Bazil was Emperour who coming to the Iudgement seat found neither plaintiffe to accuse nor defendant to answer for want of suites depending Or as it did in our Chancery when Sir Thomas Moor sate there as Iudge who made such quick dispatch in hearing causes that after two years and an half having one day heard and dispatcht the first cause calling for the next answer was made that there was no more causes to be heard As is there upon record still to be seen It were well for England if it had more Sir Thomas Moores whom all the riches in the world could not draw to do the least peece of injustice As is recorded of

not onely for Bribery but for Perjury also As most basely perjured they are for among other things in their Oath when they are made Iudges one is that they shall take no bribes or gifts Which Oath if they had the like care to keep would cause them to imitate Sir Thomas Moore who when two great silver Flaggons were sent him by a Knight that had a Suit depending in his Court though gilded with the specious pretence of gratuity sent them back again filled with his best Wine saying If your Master liketh it let him send for more And when his Lady at another time offered him a great bribe in behalf of a Suppliant he turned away with these words Gentle Eve I will none of your Apple It will be long enough e're you hear the like of these Cormorants I am speaking of whom I may liken to that Lord Chief Baron who when one offered him fourscore Pieces protesting That no living soul should know it answered Make it up an hundred and then let all the Town know of it Yea this would also keep them from such vast estates as usually they leave behinde them We read of Sir Thomas Moore that having been of the Kings Counsel and gone through many Offices besides his Lord Chancellorship for almost twenty yeers together after his debts were paid he had not his Chain excepted left the worth of an hundred pounds in moveables and his Land before his Mother-in-law died who survived him many yeers did not amount to above fifty pounds per annum Nor was he ever a prodigal spender CHAP 14. THese being cast out provision would be made if I may be worthy to advise that none come in their places but such as fear God hate covetousness love godliness and deal uprightly Alexander Severus Adrian and other Emperours of Rome would call to their Counsel and put in places of Iudicature not their Favourites but men learned grave experienced of good conscience and known integrity Aurelianus the Emperour was so fearful of placing an unworthy man in the Seat of Iudicature that he never admitted any to the dignity of Senator but such as none could justly except against and then with the consent of the whole Senate Then that they may continue so and discharge the trust they are put in His Highness may please to follow the example of these ensuing presidents I am bold though much unworthy to advize Antiochus had that care to have justice administred that he writ to all the Cities in his Kingdom that they should not execute any thing he commanded if it were contrary to Law And the Emperonr Iustinian commanded the Lawyers to swear they should not plead in an evil or unjust cause That Law which was made in the ninth Parliament of James the First King of Scotland did enjoyn all Counsellours and Advocates before they pleaded any temporal cause to take oath and swear that they thought the Cause to be good they pleaded Antoninus never sent any Praetor or other Officer of State to govern any Province but who were free from pride and covetousness And withall caused them first to give up an Inventory of their own proper goods to the end that when their charge was finished the increase of their wealth should be considered telling them that he sent them to administer justice and not by fraud to rob his people The Emperour Valentinian and Theodosius made all Iudges and Govenours of Provinces at their entring upon their charg to swear that they had not given nor promised any thing to procure their places And also that they would take nothing but their just fee And if it were proved that they had taken any thing it being lawful for every man to accuse them they should pay four times as much besides the infamy of their Perjury And lastly Moses who is a president beyond all exceptions charged the Iudges to hear all Controversies between their Brethren and to judge righteously between every man and his Brother and also the stranger that was with them Further charging them that they should have no respect of persons in judgement but hear the small as well as the great not fearing the fac●s of men Yielding this as a reason for the judgment is Gods Deut. ● 16 17. Briefly let not sin be connived at but see that justice be executed impartially for good Laws without execution are like the Picture of George on horsback with his hand alwayes up but never striking Let no mans greatness protect him It is the impartial execution of noble Delinquents that wins credit to Government And the want of it cuts the sinnews of any State If there sins have made them base let there be no favour in their penalty Or else the wickedness that is done by them shal be reckoned unto you the permitter for your own for Governours make themselves guilty of those sins they punish not So that to be merciful to offenders in this case is to be unmerciful to your self yea to the party offending and the whole Nation as I could easily demonstrate could I stand upon it The best friends to a State are the impartial Ministers of judgement Nor do the prayers of them that sit still and do nothing so much pacifie Gods wrath against us as their just retribution be the delinquent never so mighty Obedience is better then sacrifice as Samuel told Saul for sparing of King Agag Yea the Prophet compares that pity and mercie of his to witchcraft and idolatry And tells him that for his so doing God had cast him off from being King 1 Sam. 15.22 23. So that the summe of all is Let them that sit at the Helm discharge their parts and all will soon be mended Let them that govern in chief be men of courage fearing God and hating covetousness Exod. 18.21 A King by judgement maintaineth the Countrey bnt a man receiving gifts destroyeth it Prou. 29.4 And now blessed be God his Highness hath leave and opportunity to redress all let our earnest and incessant prayers be that he may well improve the same to Gods glory the Nations good and his own eternal renown and comfort that so his Government may be found like the reign of godly Constantine who succeeding immediately Dioclesian and other persecuting Emperours was a notable nourishing Father unto the Church under whose shadow the Christians dwelt and prospered a long time And sure I am we have far more hope of compleating Reformation both in Church and Common-wealth then we had formerly when the Delinquents themselves had all the power in their own hands and when the commonness of offenders had benummed the sense of offending Now the way for his Highness to effect it will be not to imitate our former Governours who measured their right by their power and that would therefore do injury because they could do it Yea if I may be so bold were they not Heads under which the whole body groaned and most of the members were ill affected

against him the best obedience is to deny obedience and to turn our backs upon Herod Matth. 2.12 Again there is an active obedience and a passive I may not execute a Magistrates impious commands I must suffer his unjust punishments One may desire other Magistrates but we must obey those we have and haply it is more commendable to obey the wicked then the good observing the former caution And I wish men yea Ministers unless it be in their presence would trouble themselves less with the Magistrates duty look more to their own However for private persons to question the lawfulness of that Government under which they desire protection is insolent stupid and intolerable But sure I am when Moses is praying Ioshua leading Israel obeying and God blessing and prospering all O happy are the people that be in such a case Psal. 144.15 But if men cannot have their wills to invade the Inheritance which the right heir keeps from them Or suppose they be injuried and may not have redress in that manner and measure themselves prescribe presently maledicunt Principibus they murmur against the Magistrate Yea what can a Magistrate do acceptable to the good but lewd men will misinterpret it Every tongue is ready to speak partially according to the interest he hath in the cause or patient or according to the wickedness that is in his own heart CHAP. 22. ANd so they would do had we the rarest and uprightest Governours that ever the World could boast of As what Magistrate can hope to be free from their malice and murmurings when Moses himself could not escape the same nor faithful Samuel as observe how the Israelites dealt with Moses They no sooner want water to quench their thirst but they murmur against him and say to his face being ready to stone him wherefore hast thou brought us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and cattel with thirst Exod. 17.3 4. As if Moses had been a God yea not long after they gather themselves together and are agreed to cast off both him and his government and why forsooth What 's the matter he never had done them the least wrong he stays a little longer with God in the Mount then they expected Exod. 3● 1 But fools as they were hovv could they finde out a better Governour among all their twelve Tribes Had they been asked this question it would have shewn them their folly As Pacuvius at Capua when the people would have had their Magistrates massacred desired them first to agree upon the election of new Officers then they nominated divers but could agree upon none whereupon the Massacre was delayed and after forgot We have too many such fools when the Duke of Buckingham reigned ô if he were taken away all would be well when he was dispatcht and sent to his long-home they murmured as much and no less complained of their oppression under the King Prelats Council-Table Star-Chamber High-Commission and Court of Honour now they are all removed and God hath given us since better Governours then I am sure we deserved they thought themselves worse then ever Yea they did not spare to curse their Governours and could have eaten their very hearts as they gnawed their own tongues for spight And how could better be expected from such sons of Belial 1 Sam. 19.24 27. that have more rage then reason For their words are but the light froth of an impotent anger wherein they accuse others unrighteousness and profess their own An end of the second Part or Division