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	great_a	reason_n	1,745	5	4.4249	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55329	Kalōz telōnēsantai or, The excise-man Shewing the excellency of his profession, how and in what it precedes all others; the felicity he enjoys, the pleasures as well as qualifications that inevitably attend him, notwithstanding the opprobrious calunmies of the most inveterate detractor. Discovering his knowledge in the arts, men and laws in an essay. By Ezekiel Polsted, A.B.	Polsted, Ezekiel.	1697 (1697)	Wing P2780B; ESTC R218302	49,596	137

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR THE Excise-Man Shewing The Excellency of his Profession how and in what it precedes all others the Felicity he enjoys the Pleasures as well as Qualifications that inevitably attend him notwithstanding the opprobrious Calumnies of the most inveterate Detractor Discovering his Knowledge in the ARTS MEN and LAWS In an Essay By EZEKIEL POLSTED A.B. Nor shall my Muse d●scend To Clap with such who Knaves and Fools commend Their Smiles and Censures are to me the same I care not what they praise or what they blame Dryden in Juvenal LONDON Printed and Sold by John Mayos at the Golden Cross in Thames-street near Queenhithe 1697. To the Honoured Sir Stephen Evans Kts. Sir John Foche Kts. Francis Parry Esqs William Strong Esqs Edward Clark Esqs Foot Onslow Esqs John Danvers Esqs Philip Medows Esqs Thomas Everard Esqs Chief Commissioners and Governors for the Management and Receipt of His Majesties Revenue of Excise within the Kingdom of England c. Honoured Sirs WEre not your Candor and Clemency as eminently distributed to every Criminal as are Your piercing Judgments to discover him he must be possess'd with a more than shivering Extasy that should presume to accost You with the present Dedication For though the following Paper appears in great Necessity of such Patrons yet that it should be petition'd by so perfect a Stranger and that without a Licence might create a Wonder beyond the belief of the most Credulous Notwithstanding Ingratitude having been ever esteem'd the Epitome of all Vices and consequently the Guilt of the former being much more eligible with all imaginable Submission I crave Leave to present You with the grateful Sentiments of the Kingdom for Your Impartial Administration whereby You have taken a Charter of the Peoples Hearts never to be cancell'd I shall not be guilty of an Additional Presumption by descending to Particulars but most humbly implore a Pardon for subjoining that Your Endeavours have been vigorous beyond a President in Your equally asserting His Majesty's and the Countries Rights by encouraging any thing that has but the Tincture of Probity and Ingenuity and wholly exploding and discountenancing that Rigor which has been usually perpetrated under the specious Pretext of Law These are so publickly known and such uncommon Actions as will be Register'd in every unprejudic'd Breast till Time it self shall have an End by which we find You acquiesce in the Opinion of the Great Agesilaus who dying in his Voyage from Egypt forbad any Statue in memorial of Him saying He had left those Actions behind him as would render it wholly insignificant These being such great Verities as admit not of a Contradiction we have Reason to be assur'd That by Your extraordinary Management the Excise like the Athenian Ship by being so often mended will in a short time arrive to that perfection that there never will be found a rotten or imperfect Stick And therefore pray That Health which gives the only Relish to all Your outward Enjoyments and Prosperity may be Your constant Slaves and Lacquies That a continu'd Succession of all Terrestrial Felicities may ever court You And that You may ever move as Refulgent Stars in the Orb You are plac'd for the encouragement of Ingenuity and destruction of every Action that might carry the Epithet of Ill And althô 't is usual to wish You many Years yet I shall wish You but ONE Sed Annus Hic mea si valeant Vota Platonis erit I am Honoured Sirs Your most humble and Obedient Servant Ezekiel Polsted Lond. Calend. Januar. An. 1697. TO THE Gentlemen Employ'd in the REVENUE OF EXCISE Gentlemen THE many Reflections which have been cast on your Persons and Profession induc'd me to an exact Examination of their Merit and finding them to be wholly the Result of Malice and Ignorance I could not avoid this Publick Confession of it But this is not all Your particular Favours to me command a much greater Acknowledgment than Expression is capable of giving yet I think my self sufficiently happy that I have an opportunity of telling the World so and consequently that your Favours and my Gratitude are equally illimitable which Consideration has wholly occasion'd this Trouble and therefore the innumerable Censures that must inevitably attend it are extremely below my Concern for I must own that I shall receive them with an extraordinary Pride since it must be thought too it was wholly for your sakes The following Vindication then such as it is I present you with and thô it might possibly be thought to want one it self or that your Innocency is such as to render it altogether insignificant yet I must aver that I can very calmly receive the former provided the latter does not as unanswerably intervene Thô considering that the Illiterate make up the greatest part of Mankind I presume it not impertinent sometimes to answer them in their own Terms for all the Reflections in the following Paper are only bestow'd on such who are so maliciously extravagant in giving them I am extreamly sensible of my detaining you too long from your Ravishing Felcities and therefore shall say nothing to the Gentle Reader but only acquaint him and all the World that your innumerable Obligations have created such grateful Sentiments as shall meet with a Duration that can never terminate as being Gentlemen Your humble Servant Ezekiel Polsted Lond. Calend. Januar. 1697. ON THE Author and Subject Bravely begun and bravely ended too The Arts receive their Character from you They gratefully attend you since th' EXCISE Exact Perfection in it self implies Arithmetick is short in vain we strive To find that which no Rule could ever give Addition here a quick Substraction meets As to the happy Persons as the Sheets For by the bold Attempt we must submit That to your Fame whatever can be writ Like * Decimal Arithmetick Right-Hand Cyphers only lessens it John Morgan Junior de Wenalt in Com' Brecon ALIVD TO THE Officers of the Excise WE own'd your Power and the Pleasures too That as their Center ever meet in you But your monopolizing Sense affords A Ravishment beyond the Pow'r of Words To Silence thus Consin'd I must obey And only 〈◊〉 say that I can nothing say Henry Vaughan ●ilurist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR THE Excise-Man CHAP. I. THere is nothing that is a greater Subject of Admiration or has created more Wonder in me than the great Difference and Vnreasonableness of some persons attaining and others again missing Preferment and the variety of Methods conducing thereunto it often waiting upon some without either Endeavour or Merit and as often flies those who are most excellently qualified in Both. I confess I could never guess at the Causes of this so seemingly great a piece of Injustice unless they may be applicable to one of the two subsequent I beg pardon for calling them Reasons First then If you 'll believe the Astrologers there are some that are unfortunate even in their Nativity

or as they call it Diis inimicis atque iratis vel malo astro natus born under an unlucky Planet so that notwithstanding all their Care and Industry Misfortunes and they are yok'd and under a necessity of being made inseparable Companions This seems to be an unreasonable Imposition and the Persons that so unfortunately groan under it are not to be accounted culpable since the rigour of their Fate has made it indispensible Secondly If the Cause is not thus infallibly obligatory another may be the result of Inadvertency or Fear either of which may be reckon'd our own Crime which may occasion us the missing that Critical Minute which the Philosophers say if it be not embrac'd never presents it self more Stat sua cuique dies Every one has his time Aest as non semper fuerit componite nidos Strike while the Iron is hot and you anvil our what you pleaese whereas once cold you meet with an Impossibility to effect that which before you might have perfected with the greatest sacility Well then our Excise-Man being thus much resin'd from common Earth and consequently having been so fortunate as to escape the first and so prudent as to seize the last he is listed in the large excuse me for the presumption of Sensible Roll of His Majesties Officers when he is no sooner accosted with Expressions suitable to their Authors That he is the perfection of Scandal and Infamy the general result of a Broken Shop and Intellerable Burthens which the world has been already too much troubled with To satisfie the Rational part then were the following lines thought of that they may be assur'd that that Employment is not manag'd by those who are beyond exception contradictory to at least common sence Or are such perfect strangers to any pleasure the World is Capable of giving but far Exceed any particular sort if not all Mankind And this will instantly convince them since it 's never oppos'd but by the Ignorant Ars non habet inimicum praeter Ignorantem who not only know them not but are not capable of doing it and inded nothing less can be Expected from those who are not unfitly compar'd to one of their Barrels that is wholy Empty for they cannot come into Competition with an Eighth In short these are the most capable of Magistracy in the Famous and Learned Norcia a Town in the Apennines 25 miles from Rome and belongs to a Cardinal of which * Sup. to Dr. Burnets Let. p. 79. a late Author gives this incomparable Character That though it lyes within the Popes Territories yet no Man can have a share in their Jurisdiction that can Write or Read So that their Government which consists of four Persons is always in the hands of Li quatri illuerati the four Illiterate Oh! Jam satis est o he 'T is certainly high time to conclude and were I capable ought to Apologize for pretending to characterize him who cannot without regret view any Man whom Fortune seems to favour who cannot with any Satisfaction endure the praising any but himself whose torments are antarctiek to all other Disturbances since he makes felicity the cause of his Infelicity and any Mans welfare the Occasion of his Sickness whose good Opinion none can purchase but at the Extravagant Rate of being eternally undone and shall therefore conclude with the Epigrammatift Captivum Line te tenet Ignorantia duplex Scis nihil nescis te quoque Scire nihil Twice ignorant you are 't is Strange yet true Nothing you know and yet most wretched you Know not that ever yet you nothing knew CHAP. II. AS it 's very observable there was never any Emhusiast that set up for immediate Revelations deriving thereby a pretended Authority to utter his Nonsensical and Atheistital Notions but has acquir'd some Proselues either weak Women or weaher Men let them he ever so Absurd and Ridiculous And as there was never any Mountebank or Empyrick in Physick let him be as Empty as his Vrinal and as void of Learning as a Jockey of Honesty yet this Catholick Block-head what by his French Mustacho's and broken English has gain'd some Patients● to maintain the Plush-jacquet of the Cobling Doctor so its indubitable that let an Aspersion be cast on any Officer by the most insitid Brute of the Creation he shall not only meet with almost innumerable Abettors but be held in eternal Admiration for his ingeaious Pnn whereas its connection is the same our Poet speaks of So have I seen the Pride of Nature's Store The Orient Pearl chain'd to the Sooty Morr So hath the Diamonds Bright Ray been set In night and wedded to the Nigro jett Like Dolphins ranging in the shady Wood And Savage Boars are Swiming on the Flood So that although it meets with as great a Contrariety as the expectation of the Smokes descending it being a perfect contradiction and Heterogeneous in nature yet it would make one stagger to see how he values himself upon his luckie thought and happy reflection whereas there was nothing a fitter Subject for laughter and detestation I remember a Story of an Ingenious Gentleman whose Coat happening to be made something too short our Wit immediately censur'd it the Gentleman told him it would be long enough before he should have another which he admiring * Nihil est quin male narrando possit depravarier resolv'd to make it his own by a repetition in another Company and told them it would be a great while before he should have another leaving out the word long wherein the whole if there was any Wit lay yet I say meets with no small admiration because it flows from such inspir'd Lips whereas he considers not the Rationale which is indigna digna habenda sunt quae Herus facit So that it being generally the result of the flattery of an inferior to gratifie a more ignorant Superior we shall look upon it as such and equally value it as that King did his Councellor who to humour his Soveraign saw that invisible Star Whether these merit the name of Men of Parts that shall thus admit of such an Imposition we shall not here dispute but that it generally prevails may not only be prov'd by what has been said but even out of the Ancients themselves Aristippus by his Extraordinary Qualification in that Art gain'd the good Opinion of Dionysius far more than Dyon the Syracusan could by his Plain dealing as did also Cleo beyond Calisthenes with Alexander That these with the Androgeni in Pliny are as variable as Thought or with Wax receive any Impression may be allow'd of if we consider that they take even a suggestion for granted thô it be Malice in the Abstract and are so prodigiously Weak as not to know that it is only pretended to by those who have an Eternal Dependance nay this often arrives to that excess that it frequently exposes them to the Epithet of Ridiculous Thus Carysophus laugh'd because