Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	effect_n	part_n	1,666	5	4.5382	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37433	The poor man's plea to all the proclamations, declarations, acts of Parliament, &c. which have been or shall be made or publish'd for a reformation of manners and suppressing immorality in the nation.	Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1698 (1698)	Wing D841; ESTC R26079	12,740	33

THE Poor Man's PLEA To all the Proclamations Declarations Acts of Parliament c. WHICH Have been or shall be made or publish'd for a Reformation of Manners and suppressing Immorality in the Nation The Second Edition Corrected LONDON Printed for A. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane MDCXCVIII THE PREFACE REformation of Manners is a Work so Honourable and at This Time so absolutely necessary that like the Reform of our Money it can be no longer delayed The Ways by which the present Torrent of Vice has been let in upon the Nation and by which it maintains the Tyranny it has usurp'd on the Lives of the Inhabitants are too plain to be hid The following Sheets aim at the Work by leading to the most direct means Viz. Reformation by Example Laws are in Terrorem Punishments and Magistrates Compel and put a Force upon Mens Minds but Example is Persuasive and Gentle and draws by a Secret Invisible and almost Involuntary Power If there can be any Remedies proposed more proper to bring it to pass they that know them would do well to bring them forth In the mean time the Author thinks Conscience in the Minds of Men Impartially Consulted will give a Probatum to the following Proposal and to that Iudgment he refers all those who Object against it D. F. THE Poor Man's PLEA TO All the Proclamations Declarations Acts of Parliament c. which have been or shall be made or publish'd for a Reformation of Manners and suppressing Immorality in the Nation IN searching for a proper Cure of an Epidemick Distemper Physicians tell us 't is first necessary to know the Cause of that Distemper from what Part of the Body and from what ill Habit it proceeds and when the Cause is discover'd it is to be removed that the Effect may cease of it self but if removing the Cause will not work the Cure then indeed they proceed to apply proper Remedies to the Disease it self and the particular part afflicted Immorality is without doubt the present reigning Distemper of the Nation And the King and Parliament who are the proper Physicians seem nobly inclin'd to undertake the Cure 'T is a Great Work well worthy their utmost Pains The Honour of it were it once perfected would add more Trophies to the Crown that all the Victories of this Bloody War or the Glories of this Honourable Peace But as a Person under the Violence of a Disease sends in vain for a Physician unless he resolves to make use of his Prescription so in vain does the King attempt to reform a Nation unless they are willing to reform themselves and to submit to his Prescriptions Wickedness is an Ancient Inhabitant in this Country and 't is very hard to give its Original But however difficult that may be 't is easy to look back to a Time when we were not so generally infected with Vice as we are now and 't will seem sufficient to enquire into the Causes of our present Defection The Protestant Religion seems to have an unquestion'd Title to the first introducing a strict Morality among us and 't is but just to give the Honour of it where 't is so eminently due Reformation of Manners has something of a Natural Consequence in it from Reformation in Religion For since the Principles of the Protestant Religion disown the Indulgencies of the Roman Pontiff by which a Thousand Sins are as Venial Crimes bought off and the Priest to save God Almighty the trouble can blot them out of the Account before it comes to his hand common Vices lost their Charter and men could not sin at so cheap a Rate as before The Protestant Religion has in it self a natural tendency to Virtue as a standing Testimony of its own Divine Original and accordingly it has very much suppress'd Vice and Immorality in all the Countries where it has had a Footing It has civiliz'd Nations and reform'd the very Tempers of its Professors Christianity and Humanity has gone hand in hand in the World and there is so visible a difference between the other Civiliz'd Governments in the World and those who now are under the Protestant Powers that it carries its Evidence in it self The Reformation begun in England in the days of King Edward the sixth and afterwards gloriously finished by Queen Elizabeth brought the English Nation to such a degree of Humanity and Sobriety of Conversation as we have reason to doubt will hardly be seen again in our Age. In King Iames the First 's time the Court affecting something more of Gallantry and Gaiety Luxury got footing and Twenty Years Peace together with no extraordinary Examples from the Court gave too great Encouragement to Licentiousness If it got footing in King Iames the First 's time it took a deep Root in the Reign of his Son and the Liberty given the Soldiery in the Civil War dispers'd all manner of Prophaneness throughout the Kingdom That Prince though very Pious in his own Person and Practice had the Misfortune to be the first King of England and perhaps in the whole World that ever establish'd Wickedness by a Law By what unhappy Council or secret ill Fate he was guided to it is hard to determine but the Book of Sports as it was called that Book to tolerate the Exercise of of all sorts of Pastimes on the Lord's Day tended more to the vitiating the Practice of this Kingdom as to keeping that Day than all the Acts of Parliament Proclamations and Endeavours of future Princes have done or perhaps ever will do to reform it And yet the People of England express'd a general sort of Aversion to that Liberty and some as if glutted with too much Freedom when the Reins of the Law were taken off refused that Practice they allow'd themselves in before In the time of King Charles the Second Lewdness and all manner of Debauchery arriv'd at its Meridian The Encouragement it had from the Practice and Allowance of the Court is an invincible Demonstration how far the Influence of our Governors extends in the Practice of the People The present King and his late Queen whose Glorious Memory will be dear to the Nation as long as the World stands have had all this wicked Knot to unravel This was the first thing the Queen set upon while the King was engaged in his Wars abroad She first gave all sorts of Vice a general Discouragement and on the contrary rais'd the value of Virtue and Sobriety by her Royal Example The King having brought the War to a Glorious Conclusion and settled an Honourable Peace in his very first Speech to his Parliament proclaims a New War against Prophaneness and Immorality and goes on also to discourage the Practice of it by the like Royal Example Thus the Work is begun nobly and regularly and the Parliament the General Representative of the Nation readily pursues it by enacting Laws to suppress all manner of Prophaneness c. These are Great Things and well