Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	good_a	think_v	1,523	5	3.8429	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80452	A copie of a letter against the engagement. As it was sent to a minister, who perswaded his neighbour that he might subscribe.		1651 (1651)	Wing C6112; Thomason E622_13; ESTC R206436	14,704	16

but if they should clap me close Prisoner tye me neck and heeles together Sequester and sell my whole Estate as soon as ever I have taken it or use any extremity upon me This would not quit me at all from having the same Obligation of being True and Faithfull to them as if they did not so use me or impose any hardships upon me that the Cavaliers by their taking it may be unbewitch'd perhaps out of their five Miles Circle will be nothing to this purpose for so perhaps they may not sub Judice lis est Their Cause comes but then to scanning and they have little reason to assume over hastily since their Judges are so sufficiently brib'd against them However it should fare with them they could accuse no body of dealing falsely with them in relation to this Engagement any more then because the Law sayes he that has an Estate of forty pounds a yeare above the degree of a Yeoman may be chosen Knight of the Shire for that Country where he lives a Gentleman of such an Estate should complaine he had Injury done him and it were against the Law if he were not sent up to serve in Parliament at the next Session 9. A pretty Sullen kinde of Argument there is in the Mouthes of some men 't is a Snare a trap meerely intended say they to catch our Estates and therefore whatever becomes of us as long as we can help it they shall not have their Ends upon us or gain any thing by the Bargain Here I am put to turne the Tables indeed and prove Advocate for the Councell of State they had no such designe good Men I dare promise to wrong you of a Farthing for if Money or Estates had beene the english of the Engagement it would without peradventure have beene put into an Oath drawne up in such grosse open and Notorious Terms which they have endeavour'd we see by True and Faithfull to disguize and sweeten what they could as like a Gorgons head might affright and appale every one at the sight of it and that no Man might any way be deluded or deceiv'd into it Nor secondly could they hope any would be or thinke themselves greatly oblig'd by This to be a whit more True or more Faithfull to them And therefore to unfold the Riddle 't is a draught and Coppy of the same Policy which Balaam advis'd the King of Moab against Israel and while they can Engage the Cavaliers with the rest of the Kingdom to their Sin to Commit Whoredom as it were with the Daughters of Moab prevail with 'em to worship their Gods and the Cōmon-wealth which they have set up 't is the only sure weapon that can prosper against so good a Cause or secure and prolong these Men in their unjust possession 10. There is yet one way more of taking the Engagement which may seem to be untouch'd in all we have hitherto say'd and that in Seeming to take it procuring and producing a Ticket as if we had Subscribed Sir I need not tell you how much this Seemingnesse and dissimulation is oppos'd to that pious simplicity which becommeth Christians Without Guile being a maine necessary qualification to denominate us True Israelites Nor secondly how besides the certainty bringing guilt upon him whom we tempt to this Ticket we cannot dissemble it so well but it will lay us open to the sin of Scandall in respect to our Brother and give the Adversary occasion to blaspheme and cast out our Religion to pride and harden themselves in all their Impieties while they shall see the designe of their Soules accomplished by this Meanes and their Bramble Government set up And whereby they shall be better able and upon more reasonable Terms to justifie all those after Injuries and Oppressions and Persecutions they shall thinke fit to bring upon us if we should not rise up with them hereafter in every thing Since we shall now seeme to be under some Tye and Obligation to them and our pleadings of Conscience with good shew of Conscience may be rejected by them in that we have given them just Cause to believe it is not Conscience when we so hold off but Stomach a perversnesse onely and stubbornnesse in our Spirits nothing being supposeable of a more Cammell Temper in relation to our Oathes and Duties if such had indeed any True power with us then this Engagement which now we shall seem that is the same thing to whom we shall so seem to have taken downe and swallow'd Ecclesiasticall Story tells us what severe penance was inflicted on the Libellatici in the primitive Church and we have a famous example you may remember in the 2 of Macchab. of old Eleazar a Jew when being Commanded by Antiochus to eate Swines flesh which was against their Law he refus'd and his friends and acquaintance in much favour to him bringing him other Lawfull Meat only that by eating of this he might seeme to Antiochus to have eaten of the unlawfull and so save himselfe from Death He willed them straightway to send him to the Grave which they accordingly did with extreame Torments rather then he would staine the Holy Law and the Excellency of his Antient yeares or lay a stumbling Blocke in the way of his Brethren through his Hypocrisie But there is a further and much stronger Argument in our Case against this artificiall Dawbing and Dissimulation for that there is a Dissimulation in our very Dissimulation and it does not really as it does pretend deliver us from the Engagement For the formallity and essence of being Engag'd does not stand in writing my Name or having my Name written in a Paper a Eleazar indeed could not be defil'd with Swines flesh but by eating it but in my assent and owning it my taking it upon me before those to whom I am requir'd to Engage by any way of expression whatsoever though but with a Nod of my Head whence annuere to nod signifies to assent if they should tell me before hand this should be interpreted and taken by them as the signe and assurance that I were Engaged with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore the producing and shewing a Ticket which way soever we come by it is in figures at least the same thing as writeing my Name is in words at Length really and in good Earnest taking the Engagement 11. But then in the last place these may for ought we know say some be set in Authority over us by God having outed the King and gain'd the Dominion by strange and admirable successes I answer a wrong can never beget a Right and when there cannot be a lawfull War as in Subjects against their Soveraign there can never be a Rightfull Conquest Jus Victoriae in those that are the stiffest Assertors of it does alwayes suppose Justos Adversarios as between England and Spain Spain and France and the like But then to conclude from that successe wherewith God has been pleas'd to