Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	abandon_v	common_a	weal_n	12	3	10.2275	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86417	Philosophicall rudiments concerning government and society. Or, A dissertation concerning man in his severall habitudes and respects, as the member of a society, first secular, and then sacred. Containing the elements of civill politie in the agreement which it hath both with naturall and divine lawes. In which is demonstrated, both what the origine of justice is, and wherein the essence of Christian religion doth consist. Together with the nature, limits, and qualifications both of regiment and subjection. / By Tho: Hobbes.; De cive. English	Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679.; Vaughan, Robert, engraver.	1651 (1651)	Wing H2253; Thomason E1262_1; ESTC R202404	220,568	406

but yet have took with the world not so much by giving any light to the understanding as entertainment to the Affections whilest by the successefull Rhetorications of their speech they have confirmed them in their rashly received opinions So that this part of Philosophy hath suffered the same destiny with the publick Wayes which lye open to all passengers to traverse up and down or the same lot with high wayes and open streets Some for divertisement and some for businesse so that what with the Impertinencies of some and the Altercations of others those wayes have never a seeds time and therefore yield never a harvest The onely reason of which unluckines should seem to be this That amongst all the writers of that part of Philosophy there is not one that hath used an idoneous Principle of Tractation For we may not as in a Circle begin the handling of a Science from what point we please There is a certain Clue of Reason whose beginning is in the dark but by the benefit of whose Conduct wee are led as 't were by the hand into the clearest light so that the Principle of Tractation is to be taken from that Darknesse and then the light to be carried thither for the irradiating its doubts As often therefore as any writer doth either weakly forsake that Clue or wilfully cut it asunder he describes the Footsteps not of his progresse in Science but of his wandring from it And upon this it was that when I applyed my Thoughts to the Investigation of Naturall Justice I was presently advertised from the very word Justice wich signifies a steady Will of giving every one his Owne that my first enquiry was to be from whence it proceeded that any man should call any thing rather his Owne then another mans And when I found that this proceeded not from Nature but Consent for what Nature at first laid forth in common men did afterwards distribute into severall Impropriations I was conducted from thence to another Inquiry namely to what end and upon what Impulsives when all was equally every mans in common men did rather think it fitting that every man should have his Inclosure And I found the reason was that from a Community of Goods there must needs arise Contention whose enjoyment should be greatest and from that Contention all kind of Calamities must unavoydably ensue which by the instinct of Nature every man is taught to shun Having therefore thus arrived at two maximes of humane Nature the one arising from the concupiscible part which desires to appropriate to it selfe the use of those things in which all others have a joynt interest the other proceeding from the rationall which teaches every man to fly a contre-naturall Dissolution as the greatest mischiefe that can arrive to Nature Which Principles being laid down I seem from them to have demonstrated by a most evident connexion in this little work of mine first the absolute necessity of Leagues and Contracts and thence the rudiments both of morall and of civill Prudence That Appendage which is added concerning the Regiment of God hath been done with this intent that the Dictates of God Almighty in the Law of nature might not seem repugnant to the written Law revealed to us in his word I have also been very wary in the whole tenour of my discourse not to meddle with the civill Lawes of any particular nation whatsoever That is to say I have avoyded coming a shore which those Times have so infosted both with shelves and Tempests At what expence of time and industry I have beene in this scrutiny after Truth I am not ignorant but to what purpose I know not For being partiall Judges of our selves we lay a partiall estimate upon our own productions I therefore offer up this Book to your Lordships not ●avour but censine first as having found by many experiments that it is not the credit of the Author ●…or the newnesse of the work nor yet the ornament of the style but only the weight of Reason which recommends any Opinion to your Lordships Favour and Approbation If it fortune to please that is to say if it be sound if it be usefull if it be vulgar I humbly offer it to your Lordship as both my Glory and my Protection But if in any thing I have erred your Lordship will yet accept it as a Testimony of my Gratitude for that the means of study which I enjoyed by your Lordships Goodnesse I have employed to the procurement of your Lordships Favour The God of Heaven crown your Lordship with length of Dayes in this earthly Station and in the heavenly Jerusalem with a crown of Glory Your Honours most humble and most devoted Servant THO. HOBBS THE AUTHORS PREFACE TO THE READER READER I promise thee here such things which ordinarily promised doe seeme to challenge the greatest attention and I lay them here before thine eyes whether thou regard the dignity or profit of the matter treated of or the right method of handling it or the honest motive and good advice to undertake it or lastly the moderation of the Authour In this Book thou shalt finde briefly described the duties of men First as Men then as Subjects Lastly as Christians under which duties are contained not only the elements of the Lawes of Nature and of Nations together with the true originall and power of Justice but also the very essence of Christian Religion it selfe ● so farre forth as the measure of this my purpose could well bear it Which kinde of doctrine excepting what relates to Christian Religion the most antient Sages did judge fittest to be delivered to posterity either curiously adorned with Verse or clouded with Allegories as a most beautifull and hallowed mystery of Royall 〈◊〉 h●●ity left by the disputations of p●…e men it might be de filed Other Philosophers in the mean time to the advantage of mankinde did contemplate the faces and motions of things others without disadvantage their natures and causes But in after times Socrates is said to have been the first who truly loved this civill Soience although hitherto not throughly understood yet glimmering forth as through a cloud in the government of the Common weale and that he set so great a value on this that utterly abandoning and despising all other parts of Philosopy he wholly embraced this as judging it onely worthy the labour of his minde After him comes Plato Aristotle Cicero and other Philosophers as well Greeke as Latine and now at length all men of all Nations not only Philosophers but even the vnlgar have and doe still deale with this as a matter of ease exposed and prostitute to every Mother-wit and to be attained without any great care or study and which makes mainly for its dignity those who suppose themselves to have it or are in such employment as they ought to have it doe so wonderfully please themselves in its Idaea as they easily brooke the followers of other arts to be esteemed and

lawfull is a seditious opinion IV. That those who have the supreme power are subject to the civill Lawes is a seditious opinion V. That the supreme power may be divided is a seditious opinion VI. That faith and sanctity are not acquired by study and reason but alwayes supernaturally infused and inspired is a● seditious opinion VII That each subject hath a propriety or absolute Dominion of his owne goods is a seditious opinion VIII Not to understand the difference between the People and the Multitude prepares toward sedition IX Too great a Taxe of monies though never so just and necessary prepares toward sedition X. Ambition disposeth us to sedition XI So d●th the hope of successe XII El●quence alone without wisdom is the only faculty needfull to raise seditions XIII How the folly of the common people and the eloquntion of ambitious men concur to the destruction of a Common-weale I. HItherto hath been spoken by what causes and Pacts common-Common-weals are constituted and what the Rights of Princes are over their subjects Now we will briefly say somewhat concerning the causes which dissolve them or the reasons of seditions Now as in the motion of naturall bodies three things are to be considered namely internall disposition that they be susceptible of the motion to be produced the externall Agent whereby a certain and determined motion may in act be produced and the action it selfe So also in a Common-weale where the subjects begin to raise tumults three things present themselves to our regard First the Doctrines and the Passions contrary to Peace wherewith the mindes of men are ●itted and disposed next their quality and condition who sollicite assemble and direct them already thus disposed to take up armes and quit their allegiance Lastly the manner how this is done or the faction it selfe But one and the first which disposeth them to sedition is this That the knowledge of good and ●vili belongs to ●ach single man In the state of nature indeed where every man lives by equall Right and have not by any mutuall Pacts submitted to the command of others we have granted this to be true nay in the first Chapter Article 9. that the civill Lawes were the Rules of good and evill just and unjust honest and dishonest that therefore what the Legislator commands must be held for good and what he forbids for evill and the Legislator is ever that Person who hath the supreme power in the Common-weale that is to say the Monarch in a Monarchy We have confirmed the same truth in the eleventh Chapter Article 2. out of the words of Solomon for if private men may pursue that as good and ●…n that as evill which appears to them to be so to what end serve those words of his Give therefore unto thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy People that I may discern between good and evill Since therefore it belongs to Kings to discerne betweene good and evill wicked are those though usuall sayings that be onely is a King who does righteously and that Kings must not be obeyed unlesse they command us just things and many other such like Before there was any government just and unjust had no being their nature onely being relative to some cōmand and every action in its own nature is indifferent that it becomes just or unjust proceeds from the right of the Magistrate Legitimate Kings therefore make the things they command just by commanding them and those which they forbid unjust by forbidding them but private men while they assume to themselves the knowledge of good and evill desire to be even as Kings which cannot be with the safety of the Common weale The most ancient of all Gods commands is Gen. 2. 15. Thou shalt not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evill and the most ancient of all diabolicall tentations Chap. 3. vers 5. Yee shall be as Gods knowing good and evill and Gods first expostulation with man vers 11. Who told thee that thou wert naked Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I cōmanded thee that thou shouldest not ●at As if he had said how comest thou to judge that nakedness wherein it seemed good to me to create thee to be shamefull except thou have arrogated to thy selfe the knowledge of good and evill II. Whatsoever any man doth against his conscience is a sinne for he who doth so contemns the Law But we must distinguish That is my sinne indeed which committing I doe beleeve to be my sinne but what I beleeve to be another mans sin I may sometimes doe that without any sin of mine for if I be commanded to doe that which is a sin in him who commands me if I doe it and he that commands me be by Right Lord over me I sinne not for if I wage warre at the Commandement of my Prince conceiving the warre to be unjustly undertaken I doe not therefore doe unjustly but rather if I refuse to doe it arrogating to my selfe the knowledge of what is just and unjust which pertains onely to my Prince They who observe not this distinction will fall into a necessity of sinning as oft as any thing is commanded them which either is or seems to be unlawfull to them for if they obey they sin against their conscience and if they obey not against Right If they sin against their conscience they declare that they fear not the paines of the world to come if they sinne against Right they doe as much as in them lyes abolish humane society and the civill life of the present world Their opinion therefore who teach that subjects sinne when they obey their Princes commands which to them seem unjust is both erroneous and to be reckoned among those which are contrary to civill obedience and it depends upon that originall errour which we have observed above in the foregoing Article for by our taking upon us to judge of good and evill we are the occasion that as well our obedience as disobedience becomes sin unto us III. The third seditious doctrine springs from the same root That a Tyrannicide is lawfull Nay at this day it is by many Divines and of old it was by all the Philosophers Plato Aristo●ls Cicero Seneca Plutarch and the rest of the maintainers of the Greek and Roman Anarchies held not only unlawfull but even worthy of the greatest contempt And under the title of Tyrants they mean not onely Monarchs but all those who bear the chief rule in any Government whatsoever for not Pisistratus onely at Athens but those thirty also who succeeded him and ruled together were all called Tyrants But he whom men require to be put to death as being a Tyrant commands either by Right or without Right if without Right he is an enemy and by Right to be put to death but then this must not be called the killing a Tyrant but an enemy if by Right then the divine interrogation takes place Who hath told thee that