Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	good_a	reason_n	2,537	5	5.2979	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48197	A letter to a member of Parliament, shewing, that a restraint on the press is inconsistent with the Protestant religion, and dangerous to the liberties of the nation	Tindal, Matthew, 1653?-1733.; Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1698 (1698)	Wing L1680; ESTC R10914	22,249	32

since gone back both in esteem and interest and at last if Men do not change their conduct will be quite lost For how can it be otherwise since that method Protestantism and Popery being so opposite that preserves the one must necessarily destroy the other The taking a contrary method not only hinder'd the farther spreading of the Reformation but was the cause that where it did prevail it was no more perfect for tho the Reformers deserve just Commendation for what they did yet being bred up in so much Ignorance and Superstition they could not remove those vast loads of Corruptions which had been so long a gathering But if those that succeeded them had taken the same liberty in examining theirs as they did their Predecessors Opinions it 's impossible but that time must have discover'd the Truth and made them agree at least in all matters of moment But instead of this they became as guilty of a blind Obedience as the Papists and it was a sufficient proof of any thing amongst the different Sects if Luther Calvin Church of England said so nothing more common than that I submit all to Mother Church and such like Phrases which that Men should effectually do there were Penal Laws enacted to force them and no Printing or Preaching allow'd to those that durst see farther than the first Reformers whose Eyes at the best were but half open tho they saw very well for those times of Darkness and in respect of the Papists who may justly be reckon'd to be quite blind the consequence of which was that the Differences between the several Sects were widened and they all run daily farther and farther into Uncharitableness Ignorance Superstition and Fanaticism 9. Whosoever observes with what Zeal our Divines condemn the Popish Clergy for not suffering their Laity to read Protestant Authors would hardly think it possible for them to be so difingenuous as to appoint some spiritual Dragons to watch the Press lest any thing should steal from thence that 's not for their turn Let us hear only for they all write after the same manner the learned Dr. Clegget who in his Persuasive to an ingenuous Trial p. 28. tells us They that have a good Cause will not fright Men from considering what their Adversaries say by denouncing Damnation against them nor forbid them to read their Books but rather encourage them so to do that they may see the difference between Truth and Error Reason and Sophistry with their own eyes This is the effect of a well-grounded confidence in Truth and there 's this sign of a good Cause apparently discernable in the Application of the Clergy of this Church of England both to their Friends and Enemies they desire the one and the other to consider impartially what is said for us as well as against us And whatsoever Guides of a Party do otherwise they give just cause to those that follow them to examine their Doctrines so much the more carefully by how much they are unwilling to have them examined It 's a bad sign when Men are loth to have their Opinions seen in the day but love Darkness more than Light If the Church of England will own this to be a just Character of them they ought to be so far from endeavouring to obtain a Law to restrain the Press that they are obliged did they apprehend any such design to oppose it to their utmost and to encourage their Adversaries to print their Sentiments and the People to read them that they may see the difference between Truth and Error Reason and Sophistry Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy Dissenting and Conforming with their own eyes Taking a contrary method only affords a new Argument for the Liberty of the Press because they give their Followers a just Cause to examine their Doctrines so much the more carefully by how much more unwilling they are to have them examined It 's a bad sign c. In a word did the Protestant Guides act as such instead of frighting Men from considering what their Adversaries say by denouncing Damnation against them they would tell their Auditors the great sin of being biass'd by them in the choice of their Opinions and that the more important any Controversy is the more Reason there is for the Liberty of the Press that they may examine with all the diligence imaginable the Tenets of their Adversaries as well as of their Guides and that the more they heard the one Party the more they should read the other and that if they should fall into any Error by so doing they would not be accountable for it For tho there is not as the Papists vainly imagine such a Guide as would infallibly lead every Man into every Truth yet that every ones Reason as a Guide is infallible because God that designs that all Men if it be not their own fault should be for ever happy has given them no other Guide but their Reason to bring them to that Happiness and therefore as sure as God himself is infallible the following that Guide must bring them to that happy state God designed the following it should bring them to And on the contrary that God who is the Rewarder of those only that diligently seek him would condemn them as unprofitable Servants who instead of using their Talents to find out his Will did abandon themselves to the uncertain chance of Education and the Religion in fashion which varies with every Age and every Country As thus they ought to preach to the People so they should as little scruple to tell the Magistrate that by permitting an entire Liberty he did nothing but his Duty but by a Restraint of the Press he did not only shew himself guilty of a blind Obedience but did endeavour to make a whole Nation so and was to answer not only for all the Errors and other ill Consequences himself caused by a Restraint but likewise of abetting all other Magistrates that think themselves in the right in doing the like and that tho he should chance to be in the right himself yet he could not know how many he was the cause of being all their Lives in the wrong who might be so only because not having liberty to publish the Reasons they had to embrace such Opinions they could not meet with any that could give them Satisfaction and in truth writing against any Opinion where Men have not the liberty to shew the Reasons why they hold it is but writing at random because Mens Reasons cannot be confuted till they are known Such Arguments as these a Protestant Clergy that 's true to their own Principles ought to use both to the Prince and People and not prevaricate with God and Man and talk backward and forward just as it serves their turns If Baal be God serve him if not serve the Lord. 10. I can see no reason why they that are for tying Men to that Interpretation of Scripture a Licencer shall approve and therefore put it

A LETTER TO A Member of Parliament Shewing that a RESTRAINT On the PRESS Is inconsistent with the Protestant Religion and dangerous to the Liberties of the Nation LONDON Printed by J. Darby and sold by Andr. Bell at the Cross-Keys and Bible in Cornhil MDCXCVIII A LETTER TO A Member of Parliament SIR ACcording to your Commands I here present you with those Reasons that oblige me to oppose the Restraining the Press as inconsistent with the Protestant Religion and dangerous to the Liberties of the Nation Both which I undertake to shew And in order to prove the first I beg leave to premise First That which makes a Man to differ from a Brute wholly uncapable of forming any Notion of Religion is his Reason which is the only Light God has given him not only to discover that there is a Religion but to diftinguish the true from the many false ones He therefore that employs his Reason to the best of his Ability to find out Religious Truth in order to practise it does all that God desires for God who will not command Impossibilities can require no more of him than that he impartially searches after and endeavours to discover Religious Truth by the use of that Reason which was given him for that end He that does this may have the satisfaction of doing his Duty as a rational Creature and may be sure tho he misses Truth he shall not miss the Reward that is due to him who obeys his Maker in following as well as he could and no more could be his Duty the only Guide God has given him to judg of Truth and Falshood On the contrary he that neglects to do this is disobedient to his Maker in misusing his rational Faculties and tho he should light on Truth the luckiness of the Accident will no way excuse his Disobedience for God will judg us as we are accountable that is rational Creatures and consequently our Reward from him whether we hit or miss of Truth will be in an exact proportion to the use we make of our Reason And if God has oblig'd us to use it as the only means to distinguish Truth from Falshood that alone must be the way to find the one and avoid the other Now the way that a Man's Reason does this is by examining those Proofs Arguments or Mediums that either himself or others have found out and by comparing them with his common and self-evident Notions by means of which he finds out the agreement or disagreement of any Proposition with those Standards and Tests of Truth Tho this is the only way to discover Truth yet if a Man was left wholly to himself without any to inform his Judgment he would make but a very small Discovery in Religious or any other Truths Therefore it's Mens mutual Duty to inform each other in those Propositions they apprehend to be true and the Arguments by which they endeavour to prove them which cannot be done so well as by Printing them ten thousand Books after the Letters are once set being sooner Printed than one Transcribed By the Advantage of which Men tho at never so great distance may with a great deal of Ease and little Charge be exactly acquainted with each others Sentiments And it 's wholly owing to Printing that Knowledg is become not only much more diffusive but that a great deal of more useful Knowledg has been discovered in a short time since that Invention than in many Ages before And if it has not had as great effect in most places with respect to Religious as to other Knowledg it can only be because the Liberty of Printing as to the former has been more restrained for Men have the same way of judging of that as of all other Matters This being premised 't is clear that the Press ought not to be restrained 1. Because it tends to make Men blindly submit to the Religion they chance to be educated in for if 't is once suppos'd unlawful to publish any Arguments against that Religion it cannot be denied but that 't is as unlawful to read and examine those Arguments that being the sole Reason of forbidding the printing them which necessarily supposeth they are to take their Religion on trust without any trial which is the greatest Fault that can be next to having no Religion at all For I cannot see any ground a Man has to hope to go to Heaven that will not be at the pains to examine what it is that God requires of him in order to his coming thither 2. Because it deprives Men of the most proper and best means to discover Truth by hindering them from seeing and examining the different Opinions and the Arguments alledg'd for them I can see no Reason why 't is more necessary for him that judges for others than 't is for him who judges for himself to see the Arguments on all sides this being the only evidence by which any Man is to judg The suppressing the Evidence in a Cause where Mens eternal Happiness is concerned is I take it much more criminal than in a Cause of a temporal Interest So that a Law to oblige the Judges to hear the Proofs but of one side is not as bad as to trust the Clergy of any one Sect with the Press who to be sure will suffer nothing to be printed but of their own side and who too in all probability will misrepresent their Adversaries and their Opinions more than a Pleader will the Party or Cause against which he is engaged And are not the People for instance amongst the Papists where the Press is effectually restrained as ignorant of what can be alledged against the Popish Doctrines as a Judg that has heard but one side can be of the Defence the other is to make 3. Because it hinders Truth from having any great influence on Mens Minds which is owing chiefly to Examination because the more rational That makes an Opinion appear the greater power it will have on the Affections which are not moved without some sensible connexion between the Cause and Effect for what does not convince the Understanding will have but little or no effect on the Will Which is one reason why Men are obliged to try all things because when they see the reasonableness of any Opinion it will oblige them to act according to it more heartily than when they take it on trust and nothing more endears Truth to us than that its discovery is the effect of our own Industry and Observation 4. Because it tends to make us hold the Truth should we chance to light on it guiltily for that as I have already proved will not be accepted if it be not the Effect of an impartial Examination which makes Error it self innocent for if any thing in that case be a fault it must be the Examination because That might have been prevented but the Opinion that 's caused by it could not That being a necessary Consequence of the other Men