Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bad_a	good_a	reason_n	1,431	5	5.5448	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63921	Two discourses introductory to a disquisition demonstrating the unlawfulness of the marriage of cousin Germans, from law, reason, Scripture, and antiquity by John Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1682 (1682)	Wing T3319; ESTC R11417	26,430	68

no better or more satisfactory account of any Action can be given either to our selves or others than that all things considered we have acted most wisely for our own Advantage XII This is that which depresseth our Spirits and robs us of our natural Cheerfulness and Vigour that makes us hang down our heads and fills our minds with so many painful Thoughts upon the sense of having neglected or swerved from our Duty into the Commission of that which hath the Appearance and Character of a Crime that we are sensible we have acted foolishly and that we cannot reconcile what we have done to our own Interest or to the Interest of Mankind we are out of favour with our selves and others and being deserted and despised by all that have any value for the Reputation of their Integrity or Prudence we become forlorn useless and contemptible Creatures XIII But when we do those things which are for our own Advantage or for the good of the Publick in which our own safety and security is included this fills us all over with a strange kind of lightsomness and jollity of Spirit we are at peace with our selves and as far as may be out of all apprehension of fear or danger from others we rejoyce in the consciousness of having acted as becomes wise and understanding men and we are confirmed in our Opinion of our selves by the Approbation of our Neighbours and by this means we are put in a Capacity of being as powerful and considerable among men as our Condition and Circumstances of Life and Fortune will allow and these things I take to be a very plain Testimony of Mankind and of Nature her self to the truth of this Proposition That all Obligation is founded upon Interest and that to do wisely and wickedly are things in themselves and by the unanimous Confession of both Parties the Innocent and the Guilty inconsistent with each other XIV From whence we may discern the Vanity and Folly of those learned men who are used to talk so loudly of essential Rectitudes and eternal Notions and I know not what phantastical Idea's in an abstracted way whereas there is indeed nothing which is either good or bad meerly by its self but every thing which is good is good that is useful to something and every thing which is bad is so with reference to some Nature or other to which it is more or less pernicious and destructive from whence it follows the nature of Obligation being a result arising from the Usefulness or Hurtfulness of a thing proposed to be the Object of a free Agents choice with respect to that Agent which is conversant about it that all Obligation must be not of a simple but of a compound or a concrete Nature and must always have an inseparable Respect to the Interest or Happiness of those to whom that Obligation is binding And it is not only true that our Interest and our Duty are both of them the same but that it is absolutely impossible any thing should be our Duty which is not our Interest into the Bargain for no man can possibly be obliged to that which all things considered will be to his Disadvantage XV. Yet I do not deny that all the moral Vertues of what sort soever whether they be Personal or Political have an essential and eternal goodness in them but not in that sense in which some Learned men more speculative seemingly profound then wise have taken it for if you ask them why these things are good or evil all you can get from them is that these things are Eternal verities and that they are as plain as that two and two make four or that out of nothing comes nothing or that both parts of a contradiction cannot be true at the same time all which propositions are plain in themselves but to assign a reason of these things they cannot do it and it is necessary they say that there should be some Propositions whose truth must be discerned by their own light otherwise men would always argue backwards in infinitum and there could be no such thing as science in World XVI But though it be very true that all demonstration in its last result is to proceed ab indemonstrabili and is to be ultimately resolved into some self evident Maxim whose truth in its self must be every whit as plain and as evident to be seen as the broadest Channel of the Aegyptian Nile when it parts and divides it self into Seven several Streams but in its causes as obscure and as little understood as the first source and fountain of that wondrous River And though it be likewise true that this is the very case of all those Propositions which I have newly mentioned that they cannot be demonstrated by any thing more clear and evident then themselves yet these Propositions as they are very plain so it is no wonder to find all mankind to be agreed unanimously in assenting to them because it is no mans interest to deny them and therefore every man is willing to acknowledge his real sense and feeling of the matter XVII But when you come to apply what hath been said to moral truths you will find a manifest inconvenience in asserting them also to be of the same Nature with Mathematical Maxims whose truth as it is the clearest of all in it self so in its causes it is the most obscure or to give no better reason why these things are true than only to say they are not false or they are not bad because they are essentially and eternally good and the inconvenience you will run will be this XVIII There are a great many in the World that have a mind to be Wicked one would gratifie his Lust another his Revenge a third his Avarice and a fourth his Ambition by means which are generally thought to be Unlawful and as there are some that would do these things and therefore would be glad of any pretence to put a good face and Colour upon what they are about so there are great numbers of such as have already been actually guilty and these would be every whit as glad of any excuse to justifie and defend themselves XIX And therefore when you would reprove and chide them for what they have done or for what they intend and yet all you can say for your self or against them is that the rules they transgress are essentially and eternally good that they are so because they are so and because it is impossible it should be otherwise this instead of arguing is nothing else but bold affirmation and peremptory confidence which may be turned upon your self for they will tell you perhaps that the charms of that which you call Vice and Wickedness are equal to those of Virtue and that the essential rectitude that is the quelque chose or the Je ne scay quoy of both are exactly the same and that it is not only true what the Stoicks of Old were used to affirm

severe II. The Laws of Nature therefore have every one of them their Sanction in themselves and in this appears the excellence of natural and of revealed Religion that they oblige us to nothing as a Rule of Life and Practice which all things considered is not the truest Interest of Mankind and the Breach of which without any particular Divine Judgment is not sufficiently punished by it self as on the Contrary in a strict and regular observance of those wholesome Rules which God and Nature have tyed and bound upon us for the due Conduct and Governance of our Lives we find the most perfect Ease and Satisfaction III. Neither is it any thing else that makes all kinds of Intemperance whether in bodily Enjoyment or in the Passions of the mind unlawful but that they are attended with so many and so great Dangers Troubles and Inconveniencies to our selves and others but that they are destructive to our Health that they discompose the quiet and serenity of our Thoughts that they are an Obstruction to Reason an Hindrance to Business that they make us useless and unserviceable to the World that instead of procuring us Interest and Favour among men they do always either excite their Contempt or provoke their Displeasure against us that they expose us to the want of Beggars and to the shifts and contrivances of desperate men that by the perpetual Tumult and Hurry of our Minds they hinder our Communion with God and intercept the gentle Influences of his blessed Spirit wherein the highest Improvement of mortal Happiness consists that they bring the whole World into Disorder and Confusion and that as they do ever more begin in Folly so they commonly end in Misery and Disgrace IV. And this is plainly the reason why the contrary Practices to these are termed and accounted Laws of Nature because they have their own Reward and Happiness annext to them and because they have all of them quite contrary Effects to those I have newly mentioned and tend all of them to the Good and Advantage of Mankind in general and of every particular person V. Charity to such as are in want and Forgiveness to such as have offended and an Universal Benevolence and good Will to the whole Creation of God are therefore Laws as well of natural as revealed Religion not only because they procure us Friends and Alliances in the World without which no mans life can be comfortable and easie or because they tend to the extinguishing all Quarrels and Animosities among men which would otherwise proceed without measure and without end to the unspeakable Disturbance of Mankind but also because they are owing to that calm Temperament and Frame of Mind wherein the very Nature of true Blessedness consists VI. Lastly this is the Reason why evil Appetites as well as evil Enjoyments are forbidden as well by the Law of Nature as by that of Christ because Appetite hath no tendency but to Enjoyment and therefore if the Enjoyment be forbidden the pampering and indulging the Appetite must of necessity be so too But the more immediate Reasons why all intemperate Appetites are forbidden either by the Laws of Nature or by those of Christ are these two First they are unlawful upon the Comparison because they take our Minds off from those Thoughts and Desires in which we find greater Ease Contentment and Satisfaction to our selves Secondly that being enjoyed their Gratifications are already supposed to be prohibited and unlawful and being denied Enjoyment they are but a perpetual Pain and Torment to us and therefore we are obliged not to give them Entertainment upon a Principle of Self-happiness and Self-preservation which is the very Root and Spring of all Obligation whatsoever VII For there can be no Obligation where there is no Law and there can be no Law to which there is no Punishment annex'd for how can that Law be binding which it is indifferent whether we observe or no as it must be if there be no manner of Inconvenience attending the Breach of it as on the contrary if there be any Dammage or Inconvenience accruing then it is manifest upon the same reason by which no Inconvenience makes it no Law that it is purely that Inconvenience or Disadvantage together with the Reward or Happiness annex'd to the Observance of it in which the Sanction of the Law is founded and from which it becomes binding or obligatory to those to whom it is prescribed VIII And so those are said to be Laws of Nature whose Breach is attended with some natural Inconvenience as for example Temperance in our Diet Moderation in our Passions Justice in our Dealings Constancy in our Friendships Diligence in our Employments Sweetness and Affability in our Tempers these are therefore Laws of Nature because the observance of them brings very signal and very evident Advantages to men and the contrary Dispositions are partly for want of those Advantages and partly by reason of many Troubles and Incommodities which they bring along with them sufficiently tormented and punished by themselves IX And this when matters are examined to the bottom will be found to be the true and only difference betwixt things necessary and things indifferent that in the first there is a Reason of Interest all things considered why we should chuse or why we should avoid them but in the latter there is not for let an Action be never so indifferent yet if any Reason how small soever can be assigned why it should be done rather than let alone it ceases to be indifferent and becomes in its Proportion necessary X. For all that is meant by necessary is not that a man cannot help it or that he must do or avoid such an Action whether he will or no for this falls in with the Opinion of those who would have all human Actions governed by an unavoidable Fate which destroys the very Nature of Indifference as well as of Morality and Vertue but by a necessary Action as it is opposed to an Indifferent one such an Action is to be understood as is more eligible to a Wise man for a reason of Interest to be done than to be let alone and by an indifferent Action such an one is meant as in which there is no manner of Reason to be assigned why we should chuse one part of the Action rather than the other XI Moreover what hath been said may be still further confirmed by a Reflection upon that Passion so incident to Mankind upon the sense of having acted amiss which we are used to call Guilt Repentance or Shame which Passion is manifestly the extorted Confession of Nature upon the wrack and is a secret acknowledgment within our selves that we have done against our Interest or that we have acted like foolish and unreasonable men and indeed our Repentance it self would be the only thing that could be blamed if that Behaviour of ours which was the cause of it could be justified by any substantial Reason and certainly