Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	according_a	moses_n	48	3	7.0735	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60214	Discourses concerning government by Algernon Sidney ... ; published from an original manuscript of the author.	Sidney, Algernon, 1622-1683.	1698 (1698)	Wing S3761; ESTC R11837	539,730	470

Right we do not know who is near to him All Mankind must inherit the Right to which every one hath an equal title and that which is Dominion if in one when 't is equally divided among all men is that universal Liberty which I assert Wherefore I leave it to the choice of such as have inherited our Author's opinions to produce this Jew or Turk that ought to be Lord of the whole Earth or to prove a better title in some other person and to perswade all the Princes and Nations of the World to submit If this be not done it must be confessed this Paternal Right is a meer whimsical Fiction and that no man by birth hath a Right above another or can have any unless by the concession of those who are concerned If this right to an universal Empire be divisible Noah did actually divide it among his three Sons Seventy and two absolute Monarchs did at once arise out of the Multitude that had assembled at Babel Noah nor his Sons nor any of the holy Seed nor probably any elder than Nimrod having bin there many other Monarchs must necessarily have arisen from them Abraham as our Author says was a King Lot must have bin so also for they were equals his Sons Ammon and Moab had no dependance upon the descendents of Abraham Ismael and Esau set up for themselves and great Nations came of them Abraham's Sons by Keturah did so also that is to say every one as soon as he came to be of age to provide for himself did so without retaining any dependence upon the Stock from whence he came Those of that Stock or the head of it pretended to no Right over those who went from them Nay nearness in Blood was so little regarded that tho Lot was Abraham's Brother's Son Eliezer his Servant had bin his Heir if he had died childless The like continued amongst Jacob's Sons no Jurisdiction was given to one above the rest an equal division of Land was made amongst them Their Judges and Magistrates were of several Tribes and Families without any other preference of one before another than what did arise from the advantages God had given to any particular person This I take to be a proof of the utmost extent and certainty that the equality amongst Mankind was then perfect He therefore that will deny it to be so now ought to prove that neither the Prophets Patriarchs or any other men did ever understand or regard the Law delivered by God and Nature to Mankind or that having bin common and free at the first and so continued for many hundreds of years after the Flood it was afterwards abolished and a new one introduced He that asserts this must prove it but till it does appear to us when where how and by whom this was done we may safely believe there is no such thing and that no man is or can be a Lord amongst us till we make him so and that by nature we are all Brethren Our Author by endeavouring farther to illustrate the Patriarchical Power destroys it and cannot deny to any man the Right which he acknowledges to have bin in Ismael and Esau. But if every man hath a Right of setting up for himself with his Family or before he has any he cannot but have a right of joining with others if he pleases As his joining or not joining with others and the choice of those others depends upon his own will he cannot but have a right of judging upon what conditions 't is good for him to enter into such a Society as must necessarily hinder him from exercising the right which he has originally in himself But as it cannot be imagined that men should generally put such Fetters upon themselves unless it were in expectation of a greater good that was thereby to accrue to them no more can be required to prove that they do voluntarily enter into these Societies institute them for their own good and prescribe such rules and forms to them as best please themselves without giving account to any But if every man be free till he enter into such a Society as he chuseth for his own good and those Societies may regulate themselves as they think fit no more can be required to prove the natural equality in which all men are born and continue till they resign it as into a common stock in such measure as they think fit for the constituting of Societies for their own good which I assert and our Author denies SECT XIII There was no shadow of a paternal Kingdom amongst the Hebrews nor precept for it OUr Author is so modest to confess that Jacob's Kingdom consisting of seventy two persons was swallowed up by the power of the greater Monarch Pharaoh But if this was an Act of Tyranny 't is strange that the sacred and eternal Right grounded upon the immutable Laws of God and Nature should not be restored to God's chosen People when he delivered them from that Tyranny Why was not Jacob's Monarchy conferred upon his right Heir How came the People to neglect a point of such importance Or if they did forget it why did not Moses put them in mind of it Why did not Jacob declare to whom it did belong Or if he is understood to have declared it in saying the Scepter should not depart from Judah why was it not delivered into his hands or into his Heirs If he was hard to be found in a people of one kindred but four degrees removed from Jacob their head who were exact in observing Genealogies how can we hope to find him after so many thousand years when we do not so much as know from whom we are derived Or rather how comes that Right which is eternal and universal to have bin nipp'd in the bud and so abolished before it could take any effect in the World as never to have bin heard of amongst the Gentiles nor the People of God either before or after the Captivity from the death of Jacob to this day This I assert and I give up the Cause if I do not prove it To this end I begin with Moses and Aaron the first Rulers of the People who were neither of the eldest Tribe according to birth nor the disposition of Jacob if he did or could give it to any nor were they of the eldest line of their own Tribe and even between them the Superiority was given to Moses who was the younger as 't is said I have made thee a God to Pharaoh and Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet If Moses was a King as our Author says but I deny and shall hereafter prove the matter is worse He must have bin an Usurper of a most unjust Dominion over his Brethren and this Patriarchical power which by the Law of God was to be perpetually fixed in his Descendents perished with him and his Sons continued in an obscure rank amongst the Levites Joshua of the Tribe of Ephraim succeeded him

able than themselves to bear the weight of a Crown convinces me fully that they had so framed our Laws that even children women or ill men might either perform as much as was necessarily required of them or be brought to reason if they transgressed and arrogated to themselves more than was allow'd For 't is not to be imagined that a company of men should so far degenerate from their own Nature which is Reason to give up themselves and their Posterity with all their concernments in the world to depend upon the will of a child a woman an ill man or a fool If therefore Laws are necessary to popular States they are no less to Monarchies or rather that is not a State or Government which has them not and 't is no less impossible for any to subsist without them than for the body of a man to be and perform its functions without Nerves or Bones And if any People had ever bin so foolish to establish that which they called a Government without Laws to support and regulate it the impossibility of subsisting would evidence the madness of the Constitution and ought to deter all others from following their example 'T is no less incredible that those Nations which rejected Kings did put themselves into the Power of one man to prescribe to them such Laws as he pleased But the instances alledged by our Author are evidently false The Athenians were not without Laws when they had Kings AEgeus was subject to the Laws and did nothing of importance without the consent of the People and Theseus not being able to please them died a banished man Draco and Solon did not make but propose Laws and they were of no force till they were established by the Authority of the People The Spartans dealt in the same manner with Lycurgus he invented their Laws but the People made them and when the Assembly of all the Citizens had approved and sworn to observe them till his return from Crete he resolved rather to die in a voluntary banishment than by his return to absolve them from the Oath they had taken The Romans also had Laws during the Government of their Kings but not finding in them that Perfection they desired the Decemviri were chosen to frame others which yet were of no value till they were passed by the People in the Comitia Centuriata and being so approved they were established But this Sanction to which every man whether Magistrate or private Citizen was subject did no way bind the whole body os the People who still retained in themselves the Power os changing both the matter and the form of their Government as appears by their instituting and abrogating Kings Consuls Dictators Tribuns with consular Power and Decemviri when they thought good for the Commonwealth And if they had this Power I leave our Author to shew why the like is not in other Nations SECT XIV Laws are not made by Kings not because they are busied in greater matters than doing Justice but because Nations will be governed by Rule and not Arbitrarily OUR Author pursuing the mistakes to which he seems perpetually condemned says that when Kings were either busied in War or distracted with publick Cares so that every private man could not have access unto their Persons to learn their Wills and Pleasures then of necessity were Laws invented that so every particular Subject might find his Prince's Pleasure I have often heard that Governments were established for the obtaining of Justice and if that be true 't is hard to imagine what business a supreme Magistrate can have to divert him from accomplishing the principal end of his Institution And 't is as commonly said that this distribution of Justice to a People is a work surpassing the strength of any one man Jethro seems to have bin a wise man and 't is probable he thought Moses to be so also but he found the work of judging the People to be too heavy for him and therefore advised him to leave the judgment of Causes to others who should be chosen for that purpose which advice Moses accepted and God approved The governing power was as insupportable to him as the Judicial He desired rather to die than to bear so great a burden and God neither accusing him of sloth or impatience gave him seventy Assistants But if we may believe our Author the Powers Judicial and Legislative that of judging as well as that of governing is not too much for any man woman or child whatsoever and that he stands in no need either of God's Statutes to direct him or Man's Counsel to assist him unless it be when he is otherwise employ'd and his Will alone is sufficient for all But what if he be not busied in greater matters or distracted with publick cares is every Prince capable of this work Tho Moses had not found it too great for him or it should be granted that a man of excellent natural Endowments great Wisdom Learning Experience Industry and Integrity might perform it is it certain that all those who happen to be born in reigning Families are so If Moses had the Law of God before his eyes and could repair to God himself for the application or explanation of it have all Princes the same Assistance Do they all speak with God face to face or can they do what he did without the Assistance he had If all Kings of mature years are of that perfection are we assured that none shall die before his Heir arrive to the same Or shall he have the same ripeness of Judgment in his Infancy If a Child come to a Crown dos that immediately infuse the most admirable Endowments and Graces Have we any promise from Heaven that Women shall enjoy the same Prerogatives in those Countries where they are made capable of the Succession Or dos that Law which renders them capable defend them not only against the frailty of their own Nature but confer the most sublime virtues upon them But who knows not that no Families do more frequently produce weak or ill men than the greatest and that which is worse their greatness is a snare to them so that they who in a low condition might have passed unregarded being advanced to the highest have often appeared to be or became the worst of all Beasts and they who advance them are like to them For if the Power be in the Multitude as our Author is forced to confess otherwise the Athenians and Romans could not have given all as he says nor a part as I say to Draco Solon or the Decemviri they must be Beasts also who should have given away their Right and Liberty in hopes of receiving Justice from such as probably will neither understand nor regard it or protection from those who will not be able to help themselves and expect such Virtue Wisdom and Integrity should be and for ever remain in the Family they set up as was never known to