Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	good_a	great_a	3,277	5	2.6620	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54203	The reasonableness of toleration, and the unreasonableness of penal laws and tests wherein is prov'd by Scripture, reason and antiquity, that liberty of conscience is the undoubted right of every man, and tends to the flourishing of kingdoms and commonwealths, and that persecution for meer religion is unwarrantable, unjust, and destructive to humane society, with examples of both kinds.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1687 (1687)	Wing P1352; ESTC R23116	25,930	41

Vexations for the supposed Transgressions of the Mind and Will Laws that pretended to dive into the Breasts of Men and to discover Evil in their Thoughts as if enacted to torment the Souls of Mankind before their time In a word Laws that were abolish'd by Reason as soon as made for if Laws are grounded upon Reason and these Laws are contrary to Reason as it is plain they were for that Laws are made to redress not to increase the grievances of the People then were they null as soon as form'd For if Laws do not arise out of Natural Reason but are only made to avoid some greater mischief pretended to be foreseen we are not rashly to admit of such an Interpretation as to make that Sinful or Criminal which is otherwise Lawful Thus to seperate from the Church of England is a thing no way in it's self Unlawful and therefore cannot be made Criminal by a Law there being no natural Equity to make it so and consequently not Punishable by the Law. Nor can their Meeting in Conventicles be a Crime for that the Doctrine of men that teach those things which are Just and Honest can never be fear'd especially when they are exact in their Obedience to the Magistrate nor should their private Assemblies be envied or suspected as being Just and Innocent Men till they are convicted of being otherwise And therefore they that Persecute such People ought rather to be Prosecuted themselves for that by them the Law of Nature is brok'n in doing injustice to them that never offended and it is but natural equity to punish those that wrong their Neighbours without a cause Which Cause can never be found in a Law made contrary to Reason in a Law made to gratify the Ambition and Interest of a Single Party to the disturbance of the Greater part of the Nation which is contrary to the Common Good and consequently the End of Law. Moreover There is no Humane Law that can command or prohibit an Act purely directly and Secundum se internal And this is grounded upon the common Axiome Cogitationis Paena nemo meretur no man incurs the Punishment of Thought for the Law has nothing to do with Internal Acts and therefore because it cannot naturally and of it self punish those Acts therefere neither can it either command or prohibit them for the Legislative Power is Compulsive and if it cannot be Compulsive as to the inward Act neither can it make a Law in reference to it The reason of this Assertion is for that the Legislative Power among men is only ordain'd for preservation of the outward Peace and honesty of Humane Community to which those Acts have no Relation which are conceived in the Mind Then again this Power springs immediately from Humane Community it self by the means of Natural Reason Now there is no Humane Community that can grant a Power immediately and of it self over Actions meerly Internal as being altogether without the Limits of its Knowledge and without the Bounds of its Jurisdiction for no man is naturally subject to another in his Soul but in his Body Therefore said a Learned Schoolman He is in an Error who believes that Servitude lays hold of the whole Man the better part is excepted Our Bodies are lyable to our Superiours and Governours but the Mind is its own Lord and Master Then again The conditions of Humane Laws are That the Law must be Honest Just Possible convenient to Time and Place and conformable to Religion and Reason The Penal Laws are not Honest because they would enforce men to abandon the worship of God which in their Cons●●ences they have made choice of as believing it to be the most ●●●…e and conformable to Scripture and to submit themselves 〈◊〉 Ceremonies which they as firmly believe to be no way necessa●● for their Salvation but rather contrary to those Sentiments ●hich they have of the Truth of Sacred Adoration They are not just because they would bereave men of that Christian Liberty which all men have a priviledge to claim and which the most zealous promoters of the Penal Laws would take most heavily to be themselves depriv'd of In the Second place They ought to command those things which may be justly observed but these Laws would enforce men to Sin against the Dictates of their Consciences the Consequence is easy to any Thirdly The Penal Laws are not agreeable to Religion for they prohibit what the Laws of God allow which is Liberty of Conscience and uphold what the Laws of God prohibit which is Spiritual Tyranny and Dominion in matters of Religion Fourthly The Penal Laws are contrary to Reason and the common benefit of Civil Society for it is not rational that People should be Imprison'd Fin'd and Banished and common security of Liberty and Property be infring'd even to the loss of men lives and the depopulation of a Kingdom for pretences over which the Civil Magistrates pretends not to have any Jurisdiction Add to this That to rendering Laws effectual there are required all the three parts or sorts of Justice First Justitia Legalis whose Office is to aim at the Common Good and consequently to preserve the due priviledges of all the Subjects in general Secondly Justitia Commutativa which requires that the Legislator command no more then lies in his power Thirdly Distributive Justice which takes care that the private good of a few be not respected more then the public good of the whole Body In all which parts of Justice the Penal Laws being defective it follows that they were not duly made consequently invalid and no way obliging And this is the Opinion of all the Famous Casuists Aquinas Sctus Medina Caster Tolinus Panormitanus and others conformable to that of St. Austin himself l. 19. de Civit. Dei. c 21. The perverse Constitutions of Men are neither to be accounted nor to be said to be Laws when that is only to be accounted right and just which flows from the Fountain of Justice Now that it is the intrinsic end of all Laws duly made to aim at the Common Good is plain from the Laws of God themselves which are such that tho ordain'd by God himself to his own Glory yet he seeks therein not his own advantage but the good and benefit of men In like manner as all Humane Laws are imposed upon a Community of People so ought they to be made for the general good of that Community otherwise they are irregular for it is against all Justice to reduce the Common Good to Private Interest or to subject the whole to the part for the parts sake Another reason may be deduc'd from the end it self for the end must be proportionate to the Act its beginning and efficacy Now the Law is the common Rule of Moral Operations therefore the first Principle of Moral Operations ought to be the first Principle of the Law but the end or happiness is the first Principle of Moral Operations for in

Morals the beginning is the end of the Operations and so the Ultimate end is the first Principle of such Actions but the Common Good or Felicity of a City or Kingdom is the Ultimate end of it in its Government therefore it ought to be the first beginning of the Law and therefore the Law ought to be for the Common Good. Now it is apparent that the Penal Laws were made only for the particular good and felicity of the Church of England men all others being by them excluded from the benefit of their native Priviledges that could not in Conscience conform to the Ceremonies of their Worship to the Ruin and Vexation of many thousands which was positively against the Common Good and Felicity of the Nation and general Community of the People divided only in some points of Religion but in an equal poise of Obedience and Loyalty to the Supream Magistrate and therefore justly deserving equal share of provision by the Laws for their Security and Protection And therefore unless it can be prov'd that it is for the Common Good and Benefit of the whole Nation that men should be persecuted to uphold the Hierarchy of the Church of England the Penal Laws are unduly made and therefore as of no force to be repeal'd and annul'd Therefore the Intention of the Divine Laws might have taught the Promoters of these Penal Statutes better and more Christian Learning for therefore are Prelates call'd Pastors because they ought to lay down their Lives for the good of the Sheep not the Sheep to lay down their Lives for the good of them they are call'd Dispensers and not Lords Ministers of God not Primary Causes and therefore they ought to be conformable to the Divine Intention in the Exercise of their Power God principally intends the Common Good of men and therefore his Ministers are bound to do the same They are Tyrants not Governours in the Church while they seek their own Support and not the Common Benefit As to the Injustice of the Penal Laws experte Materiae in commanding those things which ought not to be observed this Axiom from thence arises That no unjust Law can be a Law and then there lies no obligation to accept it or to observe it if accepted for that the Subjects are not only not bound to accept it but have it not in their power when the command is clearly and manifestly unjust as when men are commanded not to meet above such a number under such a penalty for the Exercise of their Religion according to their Consciences This is an Evil Command because it debars men from the free Worship of God for unless it could be prov'd that the Religion of the Church of England is the only True Religion in the World and they the only Infallible Ministers upon Earth it is unjust in any Law to constrain others to believe that which may be as Erroneous in them as what the other professes For tho I may believe the Liturgy of the Church of England to be the purest form of Supplication under Heaven yet another may not believe so neither is it a Crime in him to believe otherwise We have said that the Penal Laws are defective in point of Honesty which is another reason why they are invalid and therefore to be annull'd For the Immorality of the Precept is contrary to God himself because it includes a Crime and a Transgression against God and therefore ought not to be observ'd as no way obligatory seeing that it behoves us to obey God rather then Man which is the reason these Laws ought not to be observed as contradicting our Obedience to God and subjecting us to the Compulsions of Men. In the last place no Law can be valid beyond the Intention of the Legislators Now it is not rational to think that those Persons who made the Penal Laws upon a presumption of danger from Factious and Turbulent Spirits ever intended those Laws sor the punishment of those that liv'd peaceably and obediently toward the Government in all the Passive Duties of good Loyal Subjects for that had been to make Laws for the punishment of good men which was never the design of any just and vertuous Legislator in this World. Now then the Presumption of the danger being remov'd by his Majesties most Gracious Indulgence the Foundation of the Penal Laws are remov'd and consequently the Obligation to them for it is not to be imagin'd that the Framers of these Laws ever meditated to Establish the Dominion of a Spiritual Oligarchy upon the Ruin of so many Families of Pious and Religious People and therefore the suspitions which were the grounds of these Laws being vanish'd the Laws themselves are to be laid aside as altogether vain and frivolous and such as have only serv'd to gratify the Revenge and Animosity of their promoters for we never hear'd of Traytors or Factious Persons that were ever try'd upon those Laws there being others of greater force to take hold of such Criminals As for the Test it appears to be an Oath continued to prevent the sitting of any Commoner or Peer in either of the Houses of Parliament from coming into his Majesties Presence or Court and from bearing any Office or Imployment Military or Civil in any of his Majesties Realmes of England or Ireland c. And they that are to take this Oath are thereby to abjure the belief of Transubstantiation Invocation or Adoration of Saints and the Sacrifice of the Mass c. The Learned are of Opinion That to make an Oath binding it is requisite that it refers to things Lawful for that if the thing promised upon Oath be forbidden either by the Law of Nature or by the Divine Laws or Interdicted by the Laws of Men it has no power to oblige the Swearer Now the Q●●●●●●n will be whether this Oath does not positively 〈…〉 Laws of the Land by enforcing a Peer of the Realm or any other free-born English-man of lower Degree to ac●use himself with so strong and dangerous a Temptation to Perjury where the Choice is only this Either to forswear their Religion or lose their Native Priviledges and Preferments and all possibility of advancing their Fortunes A piece of severity that constrains the inward Belief of the Mind which God the searcher of all Hearts has resorv'd to himself That this is an Act contrary to the known Laws of the Land is undoubtedly true as is apparent from the great Charter and several Statutes of the Realm therefore the Test has no power to oblige the Swearer and consequently to be repeal'd as Useless That it is against the Law of God is apparent from hence for that there is nothing more strongly prohibited in Scripture then to ground a Penal Prosecution upon the enforc'd Oath of the Party without Witness or Accuser In the next place it seems a hard case to oblige the Papist to Swear away his Religion before he has another provided for him by those that