Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	see_v	2,875	5	3.5208	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35663	The Levellers designe discovered, or, The anatomie of the late unhappie mutinie presented unto the souldiery of the army vnder the command of His Excellency the Lord Fairfax, for prevention of the like in others / written by Henry Denne ...	Denne, Henry, 1606 or 7-1660?	1649 (1649)	Wing D1021; ESTC R4711	5,663	10

seek to dishonor them whom the Lord hath honored But truly I do observe great credulity the character of Lightness in very many whom I could wish otherwise minded I desire that diligent search may be made Whether this proceed not either from jealousie which always suspecteth the worst and betrayeth all hope of good or from envy repining at the felicity of other men Yet least some should say That there is no smoak but some fire all these accusations cannot be false I shall plainly shew that much such smoak hath been where no fire was to be found and that the best men especially in authority have been partakers of this portion And tacitly to answer another Objection I shall shew That good men have sometimes been infected with the forenamed Contagion Moses was the meekest man in his time upon the earth yet did the Conspirators charge him as fiercely and hainously as any Officer of the present Army is charged this day in taking too much upon him lifting up himself making himself a Prince over the people and this is not only spoken by sons of Belial but by those that were men of renown and famous among the people yea countenanced because beleeved by the whole Congregation of Israel Now unless we will say That all the Congregation were evil we must be forced to confess That good men are sometimes overtaken with this fault of accusing and condemning others when there is no cause Experience will teach us not to be too credulous to give ear to reports lest we be induced to believe that which we have no ground for if flying reports might be taken for evidence we should in all ages find very few good men but we should be ready to condemn the generation of the just Another complaint exaspering the minds of some is That one Tyrant is pulled down and a second set up in his room I confess this complaint were of great weight if it were true But truly I suppose this ariseth from the want of discerning of true Government from Tyranny As Flattery was wont of late years to extol Tyranny as if it had been the perfection of Government so Ignorance and Envy is ready to brand true and lawful Government with the name of Tyranny I see the difference between the one and the other and I desire other men may discern it A Tyrant makes his Will the Law the other makes the Law his Will And truly if we exclaim against Tyranny when our Rulers govern not according to lust but according to Law and Rule we shall incur a just suspition that it is not Tyranny but Magistracy that we complain of Another thing that hath much disturbed the minds of men and filled them with discontent is The slow motion of the Parliament as to the taking away of oppressions and easing the grievances of the people In answer to this We are to consider the Parliament before and after the Armies entrance into London As to the former consideration before the Armies entrance into London I am so far from admiring their slow motion that it is a wonder to me that they moved at all any other way then backward And I do admire the great providence of God who withheld them from turning all things upside down while the House was filled with so many men of corrupt interests As to the Parliament in the second Consideration since the Armies approach to London we have cause to bless God that they have done so many things for us which our eyes have seen and what is not yet done is in promise already performed unto us with assurance of such celerity as matters of so great weight will possibly admit And for answer unto this Complaint there needeth not any to a patient spirit and the impatient are not capable of an answer In conclusion of this I shall declare my thoughts That although some men do not cease to cast dust in the faces both of Parliament and Councel of the Army yet hath not that Cloud been thick enough to hinder the appearance of those beams of Justice Mercy Pitty Clemency Moderation which shine forth in them which have drawn me to so reverend an esteem of both as I cannot conveniently now set forth lest I should incur suspition of falling from one extream into another I shall only say this That I bless God for them and it were no small degree of ingratitude if we should deny it a great mercy to the Nation that God hath raised up such men amongst us These are the ordinary Causes of our Discontents which being weighed in the ballance it will appear that the greatest of all is the unthankfulness of our hearts and impatiency of our spirits our want of love to cover offences and our too much envy aggravating what may be amiss I shall now proceed to shew the effects of this Distraction if it be lawful to judg of the Effects in the Cause The fruits of this Mutiny would have proved so bitter that had I many tongues and great strength of invention I could not sufficiently declare them But when I shall have done that which I am able it will appear clearly to the world though we with faces of brass should deny it That the Sentence passed on us all and the Execution upon some was very just and righteous and that his Excellencies Clemency in sparing of us was very great Let me speak truly of the consequences likely to have attended this Insurrection as they were represented unto me upon serious Meditations after I had received the Sentence of Death at such time as I judged my self not only unworthy but also incapable of Mercy from men in respect of my deep crime And I shall make it appear that if we had not been prevented this Mutiny would have proved more dangerous and destructive then the first War raised by the King with his Cavalry or the second revived by the Welsh the Kentish the invading Scots and others The first and second War did unite the hearts of the Army together and caused the well-affected in the Nation with heart and hand to joyn in one But this would have procured a division between the well-affected and made a breach in this victorious Army by forcing one part to engage against the other and one in fury to destroy the other and thereby Ham-string the sinews of this Nation rendering all former Victories null bringing upon us a more desperate condition their ever re-delivering us up into the hands of our conquered yet insulting Enemies Surely hereby great joy had sprung up to the Malignant party But exceeding sorrow and woe to the well-affected I cannot but with shame acknowledg blindness of heart and a spirit insatuated when we undertook this desperate and dangerous enterprize We have therefore cause to say Blessed be the Lord who gave us into his Excellencies hand And blessed be his Excellency of the Lord who hath been so happy an instrument to withhold our hands from the blood and ruine of our Nation The first and second War had some Basis and foundation to build upon some appearance of visible Authority to countenance it from which appearance of Authority it derived a Beginning in which also it did terminate it self viz. in the will and pleasure of a King But this Mutiny was without any foundation at all The name of a King we disclaimed From the Parliament we had neither received nor required Commission The People knew not our desires and they were more against us then for us for ought we knew Now what Success could be expected from such Confusion Justly did the Lord dis-own us to teach all men that he is a God of Order and not of Confusion to teach us that he needeth not our disobedience to Superiors or any evil action to consummate this determination The first and second War was managed by men of one interest as touching the King they all aymed at his restitution at the advancing of his Prerogative But we were an Heterogenial Body consisting of parts very diverse one from another setled upon principles inconsistent one with another So that although the intentions of some men were good and plausible yet the major part must needs be far different unless we think it possible that light and darkness good and evil can be concentrick together insomuch that had we proved the stronger party and prevailed where should we have terminated Who can imagine otherwise but that parties amongst us of several dispositions would have every one sought to fulfil his own will and so should we have run into division and subdivisions until we had ended in Confusions These things I have declared for this end that I may manifest unto my Fellow-Soldiers that I am ashamed of the late proceedings and do conceive great indignation against my self for being accessary unto such rash attempts That I may give warning unto others that they may beware and fear to do any such thing Oh how necessary is it at all times to draw neer unto God for wisdom and understanding to guide us and direct us in all our ways And lastly I desire all may consider and acknowledg how great the preventing mercy of God hath been towards us at this time that so we may be incited to offer praise and honor and glory to him that liveth for ever and ever FINIS

THE Levellers Designe DISCOVERED Or the ANATOMIE of the late unhappie MUTINIE Presented unto the Souldiery of the ARMY Vnder the Command of his Excellency the Lord Fairfax For prevention of the like in others Written by HENRY DENNE an Actor in this Tragaedy LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the three Daggers in Fleetstreet neer the inner Temple 1649. The Levellers Design discovered c. HOw great and dangerous a Mutinie hapned lately in part of the Army is not unknown to the Nation How great and manifold miseries were thereby threatned unto the languishing Common-Wealth is beyond expression This mutinous and turbulent spirit that was amongst us not being included within the quarters of one Regiment but diffused like evill blood through the veines into many Regiments of the Army wherein this discontented humor hath infected divers I having had too much experience by bearing too great a part in this discontented Rebellion shall do what I can to discover unto the world both the Causes and effects thereof that by the manifestation of the weakness of the ground-work and by the declaration of the hideous consequences men being undeceived They who are any way intangled may be recovered out of that dangerous and destructive Faction They who are yet free may have their thoughts prevented That dangers of like nature may be anticipated and a right understanding setled That Peace and Union Love and Concord may knit and unite the joynts of this present Army so together that neither open enemy or pretended friend may be able by force or flattery to devide it The first and great occasion of this unexpected Mutiny was this Our Regiments with some others were by Lot designed for the service of Ireland The Service we granted both very honourable and also necessary for the prevention of War and setling of Peace in this Nation Yet did we beleeve that there stood between us and Ireland an ingagement made by the Army at that famous Rendevouz at Triploe Heath June 5. 1647. binding us neither to suffer dividing nor disbanding of this Army untill such satisfaction were given as in that ingagement required It was thought essentially conducing to the satisfaction of the Army to the reconciliation of differences to the procuring of Nationall freedom and to the reliefe of Ireland To require such a Councel to be set up again in the Army consisting of Two Commission Officers and Two Agitators chosen by every Regiment of Horse or Foot together with the concurring generall Officers In this we were very bold I do not say wise propounding to his Excellency this condition to be performed before we could submit unto his Excellencies order This performed we were contented to refer our selves to the censure of this Councell That which gave us boldnesse herein and that which beguiled us was this That we did not conceive how the engagement could possibly admit of a dispensation Such a Councell being by that ingagement appointed as a representative of the Army ought as we did then beleeve to be still continued unless we would prove perfidious Covenant-breakers I could not I confess unty this knot but here I was intangled and ensnared and therefore for that present thought my self bound in duty to God and men to prosecute this ingagement Hence it was many being of the same minde That 12. Troopes of Horse were drawn together and looking upon superior Commanders as Tyrannicall Covenant-breakers We marched contrary to his Excellencies expresses being heightned with the zeale of the performance of our engagement And touching this thing we were further perswaded that it did hold forth such strength of reason That the greatest part of the Army would suddenly have joyned with us And this was the cause why I joined with that Party deviding from the Army notwithstanding there appeared less safety and greater hazard And I beleeve this Cord drew on many honest hearted men who did conscientiously seek to make good that ingagement But herein I confess a double error First had this ingagement been to be prosecuted yet ought not we to have moved beyond our Sphear and to break one ingagement by the prosecution of another to disobey his Excelencies order under any pretence It is a good thing to yeeld obedience unto that authority under which we are placed Our second Error was in not peracquainting his Excellency and his Councel of War with our grievances In whom we have found so great meekness and moderation that we could not have missed expected satisfaction But that further answer may be given and thereby the snare may be broken and no more be intangled I shall declare what satisfaction I have received That so I may give the same satisfaction unto others Such a Councell indeed the ingagement required And such a Councell was constituted in the Army acting and transacting of matters pertaining to the discipline of the Army And so long was this Councell continued untill the inconvenience thereof was so far manifest That most of the Regiments of Horse and Foot did Petition his Exelency to send back the severall Agitators unto their respective Regiments untill he should be pleased to resummon them Professing a willingnesse in themselves to submit unto his Excellency with his Councel of War according to the pristine discipline of the Army His Excelency having received these Petitions did not immediatly send back the Agitators as requested But having first summoned a Councell and communicated the Petitions unto them it was by them concluded that according to the Petitions of the severall Regiments the Councell of Agitators should be dissolved untill his Excel should fee cause to resummon them Now this being so his Excel cannot be charged with violation of that ingagement neither doth th●re remain any obligation on his Excel to have continued or revived any such Councell Much lesse is it warrantable in the Souldiery of the Army to assume that power to themselves Seeing they suffered a dissolution by the same power by which they had their first constitution And if this had been formerly known unto some of us I am perswaded many had been prevented in this precipitate action This that hath been spoken though now it seems weak was the first and chief ground of our discontent which brake forth into irregularity and high disobedience Some other grounds there are which did add fuel to this fire and blow up the sparkles which did here begin to be kindled A second ground was The many aspersions which are cast upon some general Officers of the Army to the blasting of their fame and reputation have proved as a whet-stone to set a rough edg upon the resolutions of many and to stir them up unto further discontent I need not repeat what is spoken and written by some men As to my self I do profess I did never beleeve them and I bless God I see less cause to believe them then ever I have thought strange that men should