Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	better_a	good_a	great_a	1,484	5	2.2112	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80453	A Copy of a letter concerning the election of a Lord Protector. Written to a member of Parliament.		1654 (1654)	Wing C6113; Thomason E818_20; ESTC R207400	26,756	39

A Copy of a LETTER Concerning the ELECTION OF A Lord Protector Written to a Member of Parliament LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb neer Baynards-Castle in Thames-street 1654. SIR YOu may please to remember that upon some late discourses which passed between us concerning some things relating to the present establishment in our Government and of that question of Hereditary or Elective succession I did then trouble you with the relation of my opinion therein and give you such reasons and arguments as did then occur for the establishment of both And which might serve by way of answer to those ordinary objections made to the contrary which in malicious Pamphlets or otherwise were vulgarly spread abroad both to disaffect the people and to breed a distaste and jealousie both in Parliament and Army against the Protector and his settlement and proceedings But having now since had time more seriously to consider of the nature and consequences of the thing both as it is in it self and as it doth relate to the constitution of these Nations and the present state of publique affairs therein setled I found my self on all hands so throughly satisfied with the inconveniencies that would accompany Election and with the fallacies of all those specious arguments usually given for it that I conceived it lay upon me as a duty as well for your own farther satisfaction as for that satisfaction you might herein give to others both in the House and Army to give unto you a more full and regular accompt of my conceptions herein To the end that the prejudices of all unbiassed people may be herewith so far satisfied that through murmure and ingratitude we do not again provoke God to desist in that course of establishment he hath now put us and suffer us again to relapse into our former way of division and disorder whilst at once we should shew our selves as well unjust and ingrateful towards him as towards that his Minister whom he hath made so highly instrumental in so great a mercy So far as this design of Election savours of injustice and ingratitude towards our present Superior I shall desire you Sir first to consider that as ambition and covetousness are vices to all men more or less incident so in those or such like alterations of State as have happened to us it cannot be expected that the acquisitions of the prevailing party either for honour or riches can be so equally or in such sort shared as to find general satisfaction For as each one is then ready to set the highest rate he can on his own deserts and endeavours in the Commou cause even so must he consequently as much repine at the portions of others above him and which are greater then his own as to be thereby prompted to find out and promote all the ways he can both for abating from them and for reducing them to an equality with himself And if this cannot be effected then at least to abridge them of continuance herein that he also as in right of election may have his turn in those honours and estates which are highest And this is also to be expected from such as have for a long time together made to themselves a way of trade and gain by means of that supreme and uncontrollable power and trust they then executed when now being debarred of the perpetuity of their misused power they are busie to vent abroad their angry and revengeful declamations as well against his power that hath done it as his continuance therein and to make it take the better to palliate it with the shew of publike good They say that since all in the late engagement have run equal hazard and have jointly adventured their lives and fortunes why should any one person or family be suffered to ingross all the prize to themselves That the Cause they undertook was that which was common and for the good of the whole people and to render them happy not the single advantage and preferment of any one man or his posterity And if any one man should claim advantage or preferment above the rest as having been for his part most eminent and active in th●● prosecution and danger thereof yet why his son or posterity who perhaps were not all or very little meritorious therein Will not the same justice and reason of eminent desert that preferred the Father to others of less desert then him claim precedence for other persons of more present deserts and hopes before these also Mark the dispensations of Providence and Nature since they entail not Vertue and Wisdom to a Family what is it but on purpose to advise us to a discreet liberty of choosing him that is best out of all and not servilely to subject our selves to such hazards and inconveniences as may accompany any one In such sort as sometimes a person notoriously wicked and sometimes to the heightening of our woe a Child shall be left to rule over us That it is the strongest allurement to undertake acts of Tyrannie and Injustice since now they know they cannot be amoved be they what they will Nor will they at all study the content and satisfaction of the people since they know they came in and can continue therein without them Whereas he that considers that his election comes from and is made by the people will probably as in gratitude and kindness to them study all ways to please and oblige them With these and such like discourses and arguments I find the ambitious heads of some persons disaffected to the present Government or indeed to any Government at all have of late sought not only to estrange the minde of both Parliament and Army one towards another but to spread an universall jealousie and disgust against him that is now our higher Power That so as under the odium and suspition of that arbitrary Government which may be acted by one person themselves may more certainly and in greater numbers both at Committees and elswhere by vertue of the glorious title and countenance of a Parlament stil retain to themselves an unlimited power to settle and dispose of the Liberties and fortunes of others as they shall see good And although for the present there may not be so much fear of impression upon a just consideration of the approved moderation and discipline of the whole Army the like whereunto I may confidently say no story can make instance in yet considering them as mortal in their particular members and how that hereafter the hope of succession a contrivance purposely brought in to engage and disaffect some of them may work upon more ambitious and covetous heads I have thought good to offer these Considerations following as highly considerable both in respect of Justice and gratitude to the person now in possession and also in reference to the future good and tranquility of the three Nations First I say that in this great change in the face of publick affairs which hath hapned and been

people And now Sir after all this travail in foraign Stories to return home and home to your self too let me appeal to you as a Member of a Parlament of England Did you ever read of any Parlament that did not settle the Government on the posterity of him that was possessed and whose Writs they obeyed in their Summons And therefore Sir since there is no competent example to be fetched herein out of any foraign Story and since no one sort of people at any time inhabiting or possessing this Land did ever in any age attempt to make this Government elective such a thing to be at this time attempted and towards such an one that hath in particular so well deserved will seem a thing most of all unreasonable as well as ungrateful When I have said so much to you Sir on the behalf of the General to serve as an Anti-Memento against the insinuations of such as would have the Army believe that the power and settlement of him and his family would prove an unsetling of them I shall now on the contrary desire you to consider how the establishment of this one person and his family will be under God the most necessary and likely way to draw on their securities also and that even from the aforesaid arguments of most prime and principal engagement of the same cause For since he and his have herein already so far adventured as to be most of all uncapable of reconcilement and forgiveness they may then be most sure that both he and his in order to their own defence and security which is no way else to be had but by the steady assistance of the Army will be most intent and studious of all and every one of their several preferments and good wills in such sort as not to make any the least alteration amongst them without necessary and just cause Whereas another person or family that may hereafter be elected and it may be contrary to their interest and liking cannot be presumed to carry so ready and great a respect towards them and theirs as experience doth warrant this man to have done For if the power of election shall rest in such men as are not members of the Army it is then likely out of that enmity which usually passeth towards martial men from such as are not of like quality or descent all their former services may come to be forgotten and themselves put off with contempt as being now of no further use And farther it may be such an one shall be chosen as hath not been at all or very little active in the same Cause with them in which case their danger will also increase through that greater likelihood of his compliance with the adverse party For how easie a matter may it be for such an one to be taken into favor there and for some eminent breach of trust have such high dignity and reward promised and setled upon him and his as may by far countervail that momentany title which he now holdeth The which can never be feared from him that is of the same quality and engagement with themselves and that is hereditarily fixed in this place who being at the height already and so setled nothing can be offered him valuable to his resignation And having so far spoken of these things as they carry a more particular concern to the Army in answer to those that would disaffect them from their own General I shall now answer those arguments whereby they endeavour to disaffect the whole Nation against the present Settlement under the pretence of the good of the Common-wealth You are hereupon Sir desired to consider That when you discover in any men more then ordinary pretensions of zeal to the publique good and for advancement of the Liberties of the people and on the contrary as strong invectives against Tyranny and Arbitrary government and do withall finde them offering and giving in strange proposals for the establishment of the one and the prevention of the other you may then I say be sure that that party from whom all this proceeds is such an one as mislikes his present condition and for the amendment of his fortune doth either expect to be bribed by preferment from making any disturbance or else he hopes that from the new shuffling of affairs in the alteration of State he may have a better game dealt him then before In the mean time all modest and judicious men doe look upon mankinde under Government as in all other his worldly conditions still subject and liable to many mischiefs and inconveniences And therefore although each sort of setled Government carry with it self a certain benefit even as Government and that Monarchy and hereditary Monarchy as the most setled form is most preferrible to the rest in respect of Divine appointment and institution and of politicall practise and accommodation yet to suppose that any thing submitted to the managery and accidents of humane frailty can be thereupon found otherwise then liable to adverse accidents beyond the cure of any mortall contrivance will as I said argue an ambitious arrogance in the proposer and also a credulous folly in the receiver Besides when I finde God both punishing and threatning to punish people by sending such Princes as they deserve what doth this invention of Election but look like a contrivance to defeat the decrees of Heaven in either of those ways of punishment by a Childe or an evil Prince and what doe they deserve that take this course either in distrust of Gods providence or in prevention of their own punishment but to finde a remedy worse then the disease and to be liable to certain evils to avoid contingent ones For let us suppose our selves even in the worst of these chances either faln under an evill or a childish heir and yet we shall herein finde it equall with that which is Elective For first if a Childe be left to succeed then is it perfectly in the same condition because of that person who is elected to rule in his stead as his Protector and guardian And this apparent advantage is then also usually found that being done by the Father who had more interest in the good of the publique then any other is not only done without danger of Civill war but with due and unbyassed respect to the sufficiency of the person In which case also the highest person and nearest of blood is commonly chosen Whereupon by reason of his native high quality the Subjects pay their obedience more readily then they would to a new raised person And then he and his Family having greater and more certain interest in the Commonwealth then any other will in that respect be more careful to advance the good thereof then any other also As for that inconvenience That a wicked Son may be heir to the Crown and so leave a Kingdom necessarily subjected to such a Ruler whereas in elective Monarchies there is a liberty to choose the