Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A42953
|
The demeanour of a good subject in order to the acquiring and establishing peace
|
Goodwin, Thomas, 1586 or 7-1642.
|
1681
(1681)
|
Wing G975; ESTC R22752
|
33,660
|
45
|
THE DEMEANOUR OF A Good Subject IN ORDER To the Acquiring and Establishing PEACE God Son of Man hear what I say unto thee Be not thou Rebellious Priest Give Peace in our time O Lord. People Because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou O God London Printed by William Downing for the Author 1681. To the Sacred and Most Excellent Majesty of KING CHARLES the Second Dread Soveraign THat your MAJESTIES great and Princely Endowments of Nature have Arrived to an admired Accomplishment in the Sublimest Art of Government is doubtless the advantage your Wisdome hath made of Afflictions The Sufferings of the same Times have also enabled your Subjects to a more exact and fearless Obedience The very knowledge of their Enemies maketh even those otherwise lyable to Temptation to abhor Sedition and they are become more circumspect for Prevention and by Suffering more sufficient for Toleration Having before me two Royal Patterns with so many Ilustrious and Pious Attendants together with a Fathers Example and daily admonitory Care the Calamities of the late Times could not but prove my Benefit Being in my Childhood inured to them Persecutions for the same Cause even in these better Times are borne with a kind of natural Fortitude To be sharply exercised above Eighteen Years at all Weapons which Fanatical Fury could administer to the Assailants and that above these last six Years they notoriously boast of Victory by procuring my Dammages and frequent Confinements is so little discouragement that by these I seem chiefly to Rise and Triumph over them The narrowness of an Estate or Corporal distress cannot bate my delight in an entire Obedience to your Majesty and the Church of England but are the enlargement of my affections and I am still high enough to look down upon mine Enemies with Pity and thence afford them these directions such as I am furnished with to Safety Nevertheless when perswasions and Arguments are rejected I hope your Majesties discovering and coercive Felicity will alway disarme their Rage and so convince and protect them If in the forwardness of my Zeal I have by any Imbecility injured a Cause so great I cast my self by Supplication for Pardon at your Royal Feet Which that the Almighty be graciously pleased to keep and confirm to walk on prosperously to length of days in this World and Eternity of Glory in the next is and shall be the constant Prayer of Your Majesties most Humble most Obedient and devoted Subject Godwyn The Contents of the following Discourse Chap. 2. Who may be said to be a Good Subject Chap. 2. What Peace it is that a Good Subject would labour to obtain and settle Chap. 3. The distinct Offices of the Prince and Subject in the concerns of Acquisition and Settlement Chap. 4. The Disturbances of the Princes Peace is the same of the Subjects Chap. 5. A Good Subject cannot but grievously Mourn and be Afflicted by his Princes Adversities Chap. 6. A Good Subject is so studiously careful and mindful of his Princes Welfare that in his Princes Danger he becomes unmindful of many of his own nearest and private concerns Chap. 7. The Princes Peace and thereby the Kingdoms setled can truely Influence with Joy none but Good Subjects Chap. 8. No considerations of past or ensuing dammages which have or may accrew to him do hinder this Joy in a Good Subject THE DEMEANOUR OF A Good Subject c. CHAP. I. Who may be said to be a Good Subject IN these very confused times I find no Title more generally assumed by all sorts of Men in these Dominions of Great Britain and Ireland then that of a Good Subject Insomuch that if the Neighbouring Princes would be as easily Cheated with the noise thereof as many of our Fellow Subjects would perswade themselves able thereby to impose upon their Own we should be secured from Forreign attempts by the Veneration of our Kings Majesty and Fear of his Strength supposed to be in the Peoples affections But our too too apparent disorders are sufficient evidence of Notorious Fraud in many Mens Pretentions and that this great Name which includeth Religion and Prudence is by more Men injuriously Usurped then honestly desired to be appropriate Now although this Title be such that the Community thereof lesseneth none but rather disposeth each particular Man to better Fortunes and Enjoyments yet this is only so when it is the due Character of what it is affixed to the consequences of separating Duties and Names being alway very unhappy especially the more eminent the concerns of any Duty are When therefore so many Men of contrary Tempers and Practices do even with clamour and fury arrogate to themselves the credit of being Good Subjects and as violently complain of wrong if so much as suspicion seem to assail it and yet the vastly different inclinations and passions of the Challengers hurry them on to as different Actions it being impossible that all who lay hold of it can merit it yet that none can enjoy it except he merit it the right of possession is the more strictly to be enquired into A Good Subject I conclude him who submitteth to the Higher Powers under the Regiment whereof he is placed as to the Ordinance of God for Conscience sake And in this be their ways and Opinions never so discrepant they all agree with me at least I have not met with any denying it Now the Higher Power this Ordinance of God among us is the Regal Authority which the Authors of Reformation whether Church or States-Men have justly cammanded all Persons within these Dominions to own as Supream in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil under God Accordingly the Church of England by so Praying doth Teach as that the Obedience we pay unto the King is in God and for God And indeed all the Prescriptions of Government how Subtil soever find no Bonds so firm as those of Subjection for Gods sake which Unite Men to their Governors by a delivery of their Hearts into Custody So long as they believe God they will obey their King If any obey for other reasons then for God and Conscience they are not by this Obedience good Subjects because their Subjection not being Founded upon Religion but Interest and Fancy must be as the Foundation is mutable But such as are Loyal and Obedient for his sake by whom Kings Reign are in their Obedience constant and indefatigable as the Cause is There are good Men Stable and preserving in their Duty The others are either cunning Men Timeservers or Foolish Man led about as Asses with a Bridle which way soever those cunning Timeservers manage them They are either Tame Beasts for the Publick Service or unruly and rapacious to the General Annoyance as their Guides use the Word of Command Now nothing is properly to be Termed Good but what is well directed to a good End and to benefit all that are therein concerned The Publick Actions of Inferiours then
that they may be well directed to a Publick Good have their certain Rules whereby the design of them cannot Fail But if they are done according to those Rules are certainly of General advantage So that a Good Subject is one that is Regular and constant that knoweth his Place and Duty prescribed and persisteth in maintaining his Station and so becometh useful abroad happy at home His good Acts are not a Distemper which after extremity of chilness Fly out into a High Feaver and relapse again into the former Shivering condition But are promoted by a considerate Vigour of mind which compelling him to be dutifull for Gods sake sheweth him withall the Divine Wisdome which has mixed Obedience and Profit most inseperably While his Ingenious Subjection is of concern to others it is cheifly so to himself For as his strict observance of Duty conduceth to his Princes peace and is his Neighbours Example and Tranquillity so is it of much more advantage to the Authour then others who as a Member of the Body shares in the Publick Good and moreover besides the satisfaction and joy thereof hath from the Treasures of Divine Bounty an unconceivable reward In fine he is justly to be Termed Good because his Sole aim is to please God and imitate his communicative Property of Goodness he readily Executing the Good which he desireth or commendeth either by himself or his Vicegerents And this he doth so joyfully that he accounteth Submission and Obedience no Yoke or Burden but the most August assertion of his Liberty and Propriety CHAP. II. What Peace it is which a Good Subject would Obtain and Settle WE commonly observe that nothing is so Universally desired and despised as Peace earnestly longed for upon the least absence and welcomed frequently with full Testimonies of gratitude and admiration but scarce enjoying the entertainment so usual to things of least consequence and easier Purchase a nine days wonder The want of her is wont even to Murmuring to be Lamented the return Admired Magnified and the short Solemnities thereof over a suddain forgetfulness overwhelmeth her Favours But this is no other then the common course of Mankind to prize what is Courted and Villifie the same grown Familliar as if we longed chiefly for disatisfaction or Loved a short enjoyment only in order to long abstinence But that an ill Trouble of any thing wanting in Substance or Value possesseth us is certainly an affliction proceeding from our selves and is the want of discretion and Piety which makes the most desirable Goods first uneasie to us and quickly intollerably Our continually Whirling fancies make us suppose Changes in what continueth most the same and when we will not see our own Folly we must be Sensible of Misery And truly dissatisfaction is a weighty one But it is in our own Pleasure to Lighten or Aggravate it no Mischief being more easily Contracted or Removed For if we set our selves Industriously to look into the Causes of things begining first with our selves we shall Seldom see any reason to search any farther The wanton undervaluing the Blessings of Peace is alway the first breach of Peace ingratitude being the Root of disorder distempering the Mind with Groundless Jealousies and the Brain with extravagancies But this Mischief befalleth no discreet or good Man who by putting a true estimate upon things is inoffensive to himself and others The way to preserve Peace is for each Man Seriously to enquire whether himself hath been constantly just in his esteem of her and by Rectifying the apprehended Injustice every Man in himself lost Peace is restored And thus we remove disatisfaction without that Tumult and amusing Agitation wherein our Pollititians are at this day so much concerned By being considerate we are either in it or soon reduced to a true State of happiness and need no Laborious Care or desperate Councels to keep or repair that which is so much in our own Power which cannot be wanting nor rendered infirm without our being Foolishly unthankfull By keeping his thoughts quiet every Man contributeth to the Publick Peace and the Private perfecteth the Common Security But the diversity of Dispositions causeth a diverse construction of Peace which too too frequently is not given according to what it self is but what the Speaker would have it thought As was before observed the desire of being accounted Good Subjects is great even in those who run Courses contrary to the Rules of Obedience so is the name of Peace Coveted as a Reconciling Ornament by those whose affections are Monstrously inform and Brutish whose Sanguinary perverseness makes them the Scandal of Mankind For so Numerous so Delicious Rich and Weighty are the benefits which Peace brings so Amiable and Divine those minds wherein she resideth and such a Flourishing Beauty encompassing her Habitations that he who is her Professed Enemy must by reason of the general hatred abandon humane Society Thence it is that the very affronts and Injuries which compel her to seek Heaven for Refuge walk under the Disguises of Peaceable designes and Peaces Vindication and promotion And because there is Visibly a breach of Concord the Authours thereof not able to bear the blame with a mischeivous industry Shift it upon such as are most jealous of attempts against Peace So that upon cautious Vertue which by prudent Love and Innocence seeks to retain her are thrown the imputations of Treachery and Discord And in the mean time between those who on one Side aloud plead her Cause and on the other hand Act according to her Discipline Peace is lost and Union dissolved Now the Cause is in the credulity of unwary Men who are the most of any Age who by Turbulent Men imposed upon think many things wanting to them and most of what they enjoy Deficient that Supplies and Stores would abound were not the Care of them committed to heavy and unseeing Men Moreover they are affrighted with a Puppetry of dangers represented as Real and Gigantine which the Drowsiness of their Protectors suffereth to invade them without endeavour of prevention At the beginning of Conspiracies and Disorder the wisest desires of Peace are only called Neglect and Stupidity and the People intoxicated with Plenty are perswaded to believe themselves Poor Wretched and in danger and by Mutinous Clamours to awake their careless Governours and animate them to diligence But if their insolent behaviour be repressed and Fortitude the blest Guardian of Peace appeareth to check the contrivances of Sedition presently this is Termed War Oppression and Tyranny and the Peoples condition becometh Lamented as if they were immediately to be Subjected to Slaughter because required to be Quiet and Prosperous And here nothing can be allowed to be Peace but what an impracticable Lenity shall permit to the impudent requests or rather demands of Men destitute of Sobriety But such requests being a Manifest Violation of Peace the consenting and yielding to them is no other then an invitation of disorder and every Subject