Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	adultery_n	commit_v	wife_n	2,548	5	8.1753	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63106	A treatise proving by what our Saviour saith concerning swearing, St. Matth. 5. 34 first, that swearing is restrained and explained by him in point of religion and piety, and secondly, that it is not taken away quite in the concerns of civil right and policy : published for confinement unto those that are loose in this matter, and for liberty of conscience unto such as bind themselves where they have no need : the one's excess being a misbehaviour against religion, and the other defect, an errour against governemtn and policy / by an elderly man, a Master of Arts, of above forty years standing ...	Elderly man, a Master of Arts, of above forty years standing.	1682 (1682)	Wing T2097B; ESTC R20581	13,737	16

took not from the Action of Swearing simply considered in it self but from the abuse of it among the Jews partly through vain and customary Oaths and partly through indirect and devised forms and fashions of Swearing In the very action of Swearing they neither taught nor did otherwise than as God himself did expresly command or at least allow them to doe Deut. 6. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt Swear by his Name From hence it must needs follow our Saviours business in this Sermon being not to destroy but to reform and explain things that he did not mean to take away Swearing it self but onely the abuse of it That it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self it was right their fault was that they did not say also Thou shalt not swear at all by the Heaven's by the Earth c. or use any other such indirect and devised kind of Swearing our Saviour blameth them not simply for Swearing but for Swearing in such manner as they did by Heaven by the Earth c. a manner inconsistent with so holy and reverend a thing as the making Oath may be Our Saviour in saying Swear not at all neither by Heaven nor by the Earth c. doth no more take away all manner of Swearing from among Christians than he doth all manner of dominion and authority from among his Disciples in saying unto them that in the exercise of those things it should not be among them as it was among the Gentiles Matth. 20. 25 26. There is a right manner of Swearing as well as a wrong a holy and reverend taking of Gods name as well as a taking of it in vain Swear not at all is not all that our Saviour saith in this matter if it were it would be the harder on our side but that which he saith is Swear not at all neither by Heaven c. Swear not at all as ye are wont to do viz. by the Creatures that among them ye make a difference as if it were a greater matter to Swear by one of them than by another is to no purpose I say unto you in this kind Swear not all The sentence of our Saviour's speech is to forbid altogether such devised forms and fashions of Customary and vain swearing as were then in use among the Jews and might be afterwards among Christians if he did not forbid them If our Saviour's sentence were full and whole in these words Swear not at all then wherefore doth he instance in such things as men were wont to make vain Oaths by If he meant that there should be no Swearing at all then wherefore serveth his instancing in particulars as by Heaven by the Earth c. was not that to shew what manner of Oaths he would have to be forborn where care is taken for the reforming of the manner it implieth that the thing it self is left to stand Certainly our Saviours sentence must needs go along with the instance that he giveth and what is 't that he would have to be reform'd but that and the like manner of Swearing that he doth instance in A reformation is a taking away not of the substance of things but of such evil qualities and conditions of manners as have been brought in upon them our Saviour by the words above mentioned takes not away Swearing it self but only that which is faulty and frivolous in it he lets it be as he doth in the case of Matrimony as it was from the beginning but not as mens devices made it to be in process of time If a Physician forbid his patient either to eat gross Meat or to drink Wine saying Neither eat gross Meat nor drink Wine at all doth he therefore forbid him altogether either to eat or to drink doth not his instancing in gross Meat and Wine imply that he leaveth him liberty to eat and drink otherwise restraining him only in those things that he doth instance in namely gross Meat and Wine So here our Saviours instancing in what manner of Swearing is to be forborn implieth that Swearing it self is left to remain but of those several forms or fashions of Swearing devised by men there is not one allowed more than other to the utter undoing of all these our Saviour saith Swear not at all Moreover let me compare this instance concerning Swearing with such instances of other things as our Saviour giveth to the Jews to shew how the Law of God was abus'd among them The first is concerning murther Ye have heard saith our Saviour how it hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill But I say unto you whosoever shall be angry with his Brother without a cause c. if our Saviour had said whosoever shall be angry with his Brother and no more shall be in danger c. we might think the very passion of anger to be forbidden quite but in saying Whosoever shall be angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger c. We see that the prohibition lieth not against anger it self but against such anger as is without a cause The passion of anger is as human as any other passion may be A man may be angry so as not to sin in it saith the Apostle Be angry and sin not my Argument here hence is that as to be angry for just cause is no sin so neither is it to Swear upon just grounds and in a due manner The second instance is in the case of Adultery saith our Saviour Ye have heard by them of old time Thou shalt not commit Adultery c. But I say unto you Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her c. To look on a woman simply considered in it self is no more harm than to look on some other thing the harm is to look on her so as to lust after her and that adulterously too Now who knoweth not that our Saviour's restraint lieth not against that which is innocent but only against that which is harmful and evil The third instance is in the case of Divorcement wherein our Saviour saith It hath been said Whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a bill of divorcement But I say unto you whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultry c. Here our Saviour doth not absolutely forbid men to put away their wives but to put them away in such manner as they were wont to do viz. lightly either for no cause at all or else for no such cause as might deserve unto their wives so great a discomfort there being no such cause saving the cause of fornication our Saviour restrains it onely unto that So then when as in the three instances going before our Saviour doth not abolish the things instanced in but restrain them forbidding them not absolutely but conditionally in divers respects binding and loosing the same thing

the forbidding of that which is abusefull and evil always supposing the granting of that which is useful and good What reason have we to understand him otherwise in this instance concerning Swearing he alloweth us to be angry but not without a cause to look on a woman but not to lust after her to put away wives but not except for the cause of fornication So in this case of Swearing to swear idly vainly prophanely superstitiously rashly and inconsiderately as it is sinful and evil in it self So is it forbidden by our Saviour Christ but to Swear by the name of God and in his fear soberly and judiciously either in an assertory Oath for the vindication of a truth and the decision of strife or in a promissory Oath for confirmation of faith giving and promise making this is usefull and good and therefore by our Saviour Christ it is left as supposed granted allow'd That it is so appears in that our Saviour in this instance as in the rest is pleased to explain himself so far as to express what abuse it is that he would have to be reform'd namely to Swear by Heaven by the Earth or any other such Oath Herewith doth altogether agree even in terminis that which St James writes Chap. the 5. ver 12. saying Above all things my brethren Swear not neither by Heaven neither by the Earth neither by any other Oath i. e. of that kind form or manner But let your yea be yea and your nay nay i. e. let your speech be single without the addition of idle Oaths lest ye fall into Condemnation i. e. lest ye be found to sin against God and be convict thereof for idle Swearing such as that by the Creatures is is not a thing indifferent or an offence not to be taken notice of as ye may be apt to think it is By St. James his delivering himself thus in the matter of Swearing almost in the very words of Christ and by our Saviours explaining himself as he doth I think that against mens partial application of the words Swear not at all reading them so far and no farther my proposition stands firm and sound viz. That the action of Swearing simply considered in it self without any evil circumstance to deprave it is no more forbidden unto us under the new Testament than it was unto the people of God under the Old Our Saviour by expounding the Law took not away Swearing it self but the abuse of it Our Saviours sentence endeth not at Swear not at all to look to making a sentence of our Saviours words without reading them along to by Heaven by the Earth c I take to be great partialitie a Comma is the utmost point that can be between these words and that not otherwise than because of the distinction following viz. neither by Heaven nor by the Earth c. To make a sentence of the words Swear not at all without reading farther is a meer fallacy viz. of dividing those things that ought to be joyned together Another argument yet I may draw from the Laws being altogether one and the same both before and after the coming of Christ Our Saviour himself saith He came not to destroy the Law therefore it abides The old Commandment of the Law and the new Commandment of the Gospel is but one and the same Commandment 1 Joh. 2. 7. 8. Our Saviour came to fulfil the Law Whereas it had been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self c. our Saviour saith not But I say unto you thou shalt forswear thy self that had been to destroy the Law indeed He leaveth that to stand and addeth unto it that which should have been also said namely neither shalt thou Swear vainly at all no though it were but indirectly i. e. not by God himself but by Heaven by the Earth c. this indirect kind of Swearing the Jews devised on purpose to favour their fond humour of Swearing so as to make of it but a light thing Saith Calvin the whole Law agreeth with the Gospel both in condemning the same vices and also in commanding the same vertues It was the part of the Messias at his coming to take away nothing of the Moral Law but to explain to reform and to restore it in all things Saith Ireneus Christ fulfilled the Natural and Moral things of the Law by setting them out more clearly and fully than they were before and saith St. Hierom even as a Painter in making a Picture by making a second draught doth not blot out the first but illustrate and make it plain no more doth our Saviour Christ in what he doth by the Law it is still the same Law for him only it is more fully and amply set forth by him as in a second Edition I contract my Argument into an Enthymeme thus viz. To Swear by the God of Heaven and Earth was allowed by the Law unto the people of God of old time as a thing natural and moral they being duly called unto it therefore it is allowed unto us in like manner From whence had Abraham his warrant to Swear his Servant was it not from Nature such Swearing being a natural worshipping of God the like may be said of Abraham Swearing to Abimelech of Abimelech also and Isaac swearing each to other of Jacob swearing to Laban c. I presume the Arguments I have used hitherto may pass for demonstrative what I shall add shall be but illustrative viz. Arguments taken from things so familiar that the consequence of them is easy and the deduction manifest As thus If the action of Swearing were a thing that were simply evil then should not the Angels be made to do it as is done Rev. 10. 5 6. much less would God himself do it as is done Heb. 7. 21. And what did our Saviour when the High Priest adjured him by the living God to tell whether he were the Christ the Son of the Blessed yea or not did he refuse to submit to this adjuration or did he make direct and plain answer to what was thus rigorously demanded of him Among the Jews the person that was adjured thought himself as much concerned as if he had taken an Oath and indeed in effect what was or is it less Our Saviour therefore having held his peace otherwise even unto Pilates wonder yet when by the High-priest he was adjur'd by God he made answer straight Matth. 26. 63 64. What shall we think of St. Paul who in his Epistle to the Romans to assure them that he did alwayes make mention of them in his prayers takes God to witness saying For God is my Witness Rom. 1. 9. and 2Cor 1. 23. I call God for a record upon my Soul and Gal. 1. 20 he saith Before God I lye not Now whereas St Paul Swears not but in things of a Spiritual concern there have been those and those good men too that would restrain the lawfulness of swearing only unto