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	sin_n	1,729	5	4.5767	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81910	Considerations concerning the present Engagement, whether it may lawfully be entered into; yea or no? / Written at the desire of a friend, by J.D. November 27. 1649. Imprimatur, Joseph Caryl.	Dury, John, 1596-1680.	1649 (1649)	Wing D2842; Thomason E584_12; ESTC R205387	21,796	26

and just and neceessary for me to do in reference unto others can derive no guilt before God from others of the evill which may be in them upon me All Morall actions are to be counted good or evill lawfull or unlawfull according to the justice of the rule by which they are done and according unto the usefulnesse and conveniency of the imediate and proper end for which they are done and if both these be found in the Agent thereof no guilt can from without be brought upon him by any co-Agents Now the Rule of Justice in this case is That we are bound to shew fidelity unto those of whom we desire protection And that we are bound to be ready to every good work towards those with whom we live which is all that in the present state of this common-wealth is required of us which if we desire not 10 performe we deserve not to have a being in it and if we desire to performe this there can be no cause why we should not professe it or why the profession of our willingnesse to do this should make us guilty of other mens sins As concerning the end for which the Engagement is to be taken it is to obliege all to ented one and the same publique good so far as in the present constitution of affairs it may be advanced and to give the Supreme Power an assurance that we shall not betray it but that we are willing to maintain all good intelligence for publiqe Governments with it notwithstanding the present changes brought upon the Common-wealth Suppose those that have the present Power had without any apprehension of necessary for common safety or danger to their own safety and liberty only for some finister ends usurped the places wherein they are yet by Gods permissions and direction over me they being now therein and finding themselves oblieged by their places to procure peace and unity among the subjects of this Land and to preserve the publique interest for the good of all according to their best understanding if they use any expedient which doth tend thereunto and offer it unto me to concur with them therein with what Conscience can I refuse a concurrence to such an intention If they having done amisse formerly set themselves now to do well can I with any conscience oppose them therein Is it just or pious that because they found no safety in the way by which I would have settled the Common-wealth and have altered it that therefore I should refuse to concur with them henceforth in any other way or at their motion do any thing although it may be found never so usefull and necessary in it self for the good of the Common-wealth If they were guilty one way as you imagine by taking upon them more then they had right to do take heed least you be more guilty another way by refusing to do that which before God and men you are oblieged to do if you are afraid of pertaking of their sin then take heed that you disturb not the publique welfare as much or more by this sin then they did by that If their guilt was by the usurpation of power to dissolve the way of settlement wherein we were take heed lest you obstruct al other ways which henceforth may be taken towards a happy settlement only by the refusall of due subjection unto the power that is now over you because you think your self or your party wrongfully deprived of the power which you had If you strive for power as much as you think they have done then you are more accessary to their usurpation by doing that your self for which you condemn them then by yeelding to any lawfull Engagement for the good of the Common-wealth which they propose unto you Thus while you pretend to avoid a doubtfull guilt of another mans sin least it reflect upon you you contract an undoubted guilt of your own sin by refusing a necessary duty to the Common-wealth The truth is they cannot be said guilty of Usurpation of Power for it was by all the Authority of the Common-wealth that then was both of King and Parliament put into their hands but if their guilt lies any where it is this that they abused their power now you cannot be made accessary to this abuse thereof which is already part if you give not your expresse consent and approbation to that which they did which I am confident they will never urge any man to do who will promise henceforward to be faithfull to the peace and prosperity of this state for some of the council of State themselves would not be ingaged to approve of all proceedings past and yet sit still in councell with them to advance the publick welfare in time to come wherby you may perceive that by this engagement they mean not to draw in others to be accessary to their past proceedings but to know who they are that are faithful in the land wiling to concur in good and lawfull undertakings in due time for this is all that the engagement can rationally be stretcht unto and he that wil not admit of it in this sense makes himself actually lyable to a greater sin then that which he pretends to be afraid to fall into which is a way of proceeding very preposterous and unconscionable of sin for fear of being found sinfull Hitherto I have insisted upon your two first doubts more largely then I did purpose at first therefore in the third and last I shall be more brief for if in the two former you be well satisfied concerning that which is your duty I cannot see how in this last you can be much further scrupled for if your conscience is once throughly convicted of the lawfulnesse and necessitsy of a duty it must cast the events consequences upon the performance of Gods providence and not by the conjecturall appearances of your own apprehensions in the ballance therewith In the third doubt you say the consequence of the engagment seems to tend to the opposition of two things first to exclude the lawfull heir of the crown from his right Secondly to exclude the Lords from sitting in Parliame to which things you say you are preingaged and from which you cannot recede To which I shall offer these considerations to your more deliberate judgement First if those be only seeming inconveniences and the other a certain and undoubted conveniency nay a necessary and a dispensable duty your conscience cannot justly suspend the latter for the formers sake for there is no proportion of obligation in respect of conscience between that which is seeming a and that which is undoubtedly certain we are commanded not to judge according to appearances but to judge righteous judgeme Joh 7.24 by which we must conclude that to follow appearances is not to follow the rules of righteousnesse and consequently that it is not conscionable to act unrighteous or to suspend righteous actings only for appearances of evill and as it is absund

to do evill that good may come of it so it is also unconscionable to leave off the doing of that which is infallibly good that no doubtfull evill may come of it then confider the duty which you refuse to do relates to the whole Common-wealth the safety of all and your own necessary peace and preservation and the evill which you fear will come upon it relates only to the seeming violation of a perticular right of some few persons which is or may be doubtful whether you be any further engaged thereto yea or no for when you say that you are preingaged so that you cannot recede I must suppose that you mean not a wilfull but a conscionable preingagement and that you cannot lawfully recede from it but if the contrary hath already appeared and is cleer to your conscience now that your duty and preingagement to the whole Common-wealth cannot lawfully and conscionably be put in the ballance with a perticular engagement to some persons depending thereon then you cannot make any further doubt of that which should be done in this case for I cannot imagine that you will think it lawfull for you to dispute your interest toward the universall good of the Common-wealth for any perticular engagement though never so strong otherwise and lawfully undertaken at first for if the interest of him who you call the heir of the crown and of the men called the Peers of the Kingdom is of so much weight with you that you will do no good also to the Common-wealth without them then it is clear that in your esteem they are more then the Commonwealth to you and that the common cause for the maintaining of which a'l your engagements are wrought upon you is not so much valued by you as the perticular cause of these persons which how you can with a good conscience allow in your self I am not able to understand I say then that if the particular interests and pretentions of any come to justle with the publick good in your affections and justle out the same it is clear that you are not faithfull to your principles of conscience and reason before God and men but that you are willing to betray the common cause to particular designs and consequently that you will seek your self in the bottome more then the publick good because it cannot be doubted that if you will subordinate your zeal and love to the common-wealth unto the respect which you have to other mens advantages that you will far more if occasion be offerd subordinate the same unto the respect which you have to your own advantages For the rsolution of this scruple you ought as I conceive to understand your self thus far that you cannot entertaine the thought of any engagement or obligation lawfully which doth cause your engagement and obligation to be true and faithfull to the Common-wealth at all times or at any time therefore with a good conscience if you find your obligation to the heir of the crown or to the Priviledges of Peers fall crosse and opposit by change of circumstances as all human masters are changeable by circumstances to the common good of the nation I say you cannot in such a case maintain that obligation so as not to be receded from it with a good conscience and if the proposall of this engagement doth discover thus much of your corruption unto you by such a scruple you are to be humbled for it before God and laying aside henceforth all Hypocrisie rectifie the intentions of the heart with uprightnesse and sincerity And all this I offer to be confidered by you supposing your preingagement to have been just and lawfull as no doubt it was but yet that now your resolution not to recede from it cannot be stil just and lawfull as matters now stand in the state if you will make that preingagement to justle out of your affection this engagement which now is offered unto you to be taken As for the dissolution of your tie and obligation to the heir of the crown I shall refer you to look upon God whether he hath not dispossessed him wholly by his own doings and councells and by the guilt derived from his father and mother upon him of all his interest in this Kingdom and Common-wealth for because his aim and the aim of those that are about him is not for the Common-wealth but for the Kingdom that is not for the good of the society but for selfe greatness Therefore God who takes and gives the Rights of Government by the putting of one into the actuall possession of a ruling power and by taking of the same power away from another to fulfill his own counsell and judgements over this people and over those that exalt themselves over them by destroying the earth he hath done as it seemeth good in his own eyes both with him who according to men claims the Crown and with those that were the supporters thereof more then promoters of the publique good And what God who doth exalt one and put downe another determines in this kind in the fight of all the world and I may say against the clear intentions of all that engaged themselves at first for the good of the Nations and for the Kings good also what I say he determines thus in this kind against mens intentions and expectations whose affections have been sincerely set for the Kings just Rights no lesse then yours you and I have no warrant to contradict or oppose in our thoughts but we must observe this way of changing the rights and shaking the titles of the earth that the Lord alone may be exalted in the day of our common and their speciall visitation for I conceive that the Prophecy of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 24. v. 21. is begun to be fulfilled amongst us somewhat more remarkably then in other parts of the earth as yet which is this And it shall come to passe in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high and the Kings if the Earth upon the earth and they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit and shall be shall be shut up in prison and after many dayes shall be visited Then then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall raign in mount Sion and before his ●●●cients gloriously I shall not now stand to open these words unto you further then their sense is obvious to shew that which with another ear the same Prophet saith to the same or like effect That the lofty looks a men shall be humbled and the haughtinesse of men bowed down and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day for the day of the Lord of hosts shal be on every one that is proud lofty and upon every one that is lifted up and he shall be brought low which is a warning also to those that are now exalted in power over us lest they