Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	find_v	good_a	see_v	2,534	5	2.9265	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43620	The good old cause, or, The divine captain characteriz'd in a sermon (not preach'd, nor needful to be preach'd, in any place so properly as in a camp) by Edm. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1692 (1692)	Wing H1807; ESTC R7616	21,900	38

THE Good Old Cause OR THE Divine CAPTAIN Characteriz'd IN A SERMON Not Preach'd nor needful to be Preach'd in any place so properly as in a CAMP Upon II Sam. x. 12. Be of good Courage and let us play the men for our People and the Cities of our God and the Lord do what seemeth him good By ED M. HICKERINGILL Rector of the Rectory of All-saints in Colchester Licens'd according to Order Feb. 1. 1691 2. London Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultry 1692. To the HONOURABLE the Lord Colchester THE Noble Captain of Their Majesties Life-Guard c. May it please Your Lordship IN this following Text of all other Verses in the Bible is found the fairest Character of a Valiant Captain with a divine Mind a brave Courage in a Heavenly Soul a great and a good Heart a most auspicious Conjunction of Vertue and Valour If Vertue and Valour be not one and the same thing yet they are so near of Kin that the Latins have but one word to express both at least they are reciprocal No man is truly virtuous that is not truly valorous no man is truly valorous that is not truly virtuous For which cause Fortitude or Valour is accounted one of the four Cardinal Virtues To promote Virtue and consequently Valour in our Armies and Navies whereof these Three Kingdoms never had more need I have with an humble Heart lent my helping Hand from the Press to whom it could not be very audible from my low Pulpit And the Guard of His Majesty's Sacred Person the Darling of Heaven as well as of Mankind being more peculiarly your Honourable Province in this his so famous and necessary Expedition invites as well as encourages me to the dedication of this Sermon to Your Lordship which I may without Ostentation say is so useful to all Men against the Fears of Death the King of Terrours but especially in this juncture seasonable and suitable for the Souldiery if they will find time to read it and upon such a Text as perhaps was never handled before in this method by any man except by My Lord Your Lordships most devoted Servant E. Hickeringill THE Good Old Cause OR THE Divine Captain Characteriz'd II SAM X. 12. Be of good Courage and let us play the Men for our People and the Cities of our GOD and the Lord do what seemeth him good GEnerals of Armies have usually in all Ages amongst all Nations made a Speech to encourage their Souldiers when drawn up in Battel-aray and ready to engage Such a Speech is this Text made by Joab King David's General when his Army stood in battalia ready to fight the Enemy that had beset them Front and Reer the Syrians in the Front and the Ammonites in the Reer no way left to run away they must either fight or dye nay fight that they may not be killed In this desperate state the General faces his Army to the Front and Reer the Front he leads himself against the Syrians the other half of his Army his Brother Abishai led against the Ammonites In this posture the Army was drawn up in the face of their Enemies when the valiant Joab made a Speech addressing himself particularly to his valiant Brother Abishai saying If the Syrians be too strong for me then thou shalt help me but if the Children of Ammon be too strong for thee then I will help thee Be of good Courage and let us play the men for our People and the Cities of our God and the Lord do what seemeth him good In my opinion this is the most pithy and succinct as well as the most divine Speech of a noble General that ever I met with In the former part he speaks like a good Souldier like a brave man in the latter part like a Divine like a good man For Joab did not buy his Place nor make Friends at Court to intercede nor claimed Kindred to the Blood Royal and yet he might for the King was his Cousin-Germain but he won the place by his Sword For King David had pass'd his royal Word that he that first smote the Jebusites 1 Chron. 11.6 1 Chron. 11.20 21. he should be Chief and Captain Joab did it and his Lieutenant-General got his Place by his Valour too he lift up his Sword against 300 and slew them and had the first name amongst the second Ternary of David's Worthies Valour is twofold Active and Passive Active Valour consists in doing hardy things like a stout and great man Passive Valour consists in suffering and enduring hardship couragiously like a pious and good man These two sorts of Valour divide the Text into 2 parts Active Valour in these words Be of good courage and let us play the men for our People and the Cities of our God Passive Valour in these words Let the Lord do what seemeth him good or as the Chaldee Paraphrase none of the worst Versions Let the Lord do whatsoever he has predestinated or fore-ordained As if he should say Shall not He that made us and brought us into the World have Leave to continue us or take us out of the World according to his own not our good pleasure Let what will come all shall be welcome Life or Death Liberty or Captivity Soundness or Loss of Limbs Victory or Defeat even as best pleases Almighty God not my will but his be done let the Lord do what seemeth him good Active Valour is made up of three Ingredients viz. 1. A good Courage 2. A good Conduct 3. A good Cause These three Ingredients of Active Valour divide the first general part of the Text into three particulars 1. A good Courage in this Exhortation to it Be of good Courage 2. A good Conduct Let us play the men Some are fierce and stout as Lions and yet may have but a brutish Valour and be fool hardy except their Courage be managed with a rational and discreet Conduct and thereby play the men Though I confess in this Criticism I follow the English Translation which comes nearest to the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. but the Chalder Paraphrase and Syriack Interpreter authorizes no such nice distinction invalesce invalescamus for the Syriack and Chaldee Paraphrase have but one word to signifie both a good Courage and a good Conduct The former is the proper act of the Hand and Heart The latter is the proper act of the Head and Heart Solomon says A wise man is strong Prov. 24 5. i. e. though his Hand be weak yet a good Headpiece makes him strong and able to play the man 3. Thirdly A good Cause is the causa sine quâ non the sole Ingredient necessary to qualifie and sanctifie all fighting without a good Cause all killing is Murther nothing but a good Cause can hallow our Swords The good Cause in the Text is The Good Old Cause namely in defence of our People and the Cities of our God As if

Tho' an Host of men encamp against me my Heart shall not fear Saith he They compassed me about like Bees Psal 118. but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them Yet there are three sorts of Fighters at this day that play the men in a bad Cause which I cannot dismiss without a severe Repremand from this Text as 1. First Souldiers of Fortune such as was these 33000 Syrians that ran away and fled before Joab v. 13. they were Hackney-souldiers hired as Hackney-horses for such a Journey such an Expedition Here 's your Money These Souldiers of Fortune that fight without examining the cause and march with the first Chapman are the basest of Butchers for other Butchers get a greasie living by killing Beasts but Souldiers of Fortune live by killing men and are meer Cannibals and Men-eaters who like the Bravo's in Spain and Portugal have no other Trade or Profession but Hackney Butchers of Men any Men without any other cause than that of the Switzers they kill any body for the l'Argent What will ye give me saith Judas and I will betray and be guilty of Innocent Blood What will ye give me a day and I will kill ravish burn and murder saith the Souldier of Fortune And all this without any remorse custom of Sin hardens his callous Heart and makes him pittiless and without any Bowels of Humanity as if he had a Commission from Heaven as Peter had in another case Arise Peter kill and eat Of these St. James speaks from whence come Wars and sighting among you meaning the Factions of Judas Galiloeus Jam. 4 1 2. and also the other Jews then in war against the Samaritans and fought bloodily for the Money-business come they not hence even from your Lusts of Avarice and Ambition ye fight and war ye kill and desire to have that ye may consume it upon your Lusts For a Souldier of Fortune usually consumes in Debauchery what he gets by this inhuman Butchery Thus this Devil incarnate like his Father the Devil goes about like a roaring Lion from Country to Country seeking whom he may devour A Prince that has a good Cause may notwithstanding make use of these Man-slayers or Slaughter-men as Clyents sometimes see their Advocates not so much to be for them as that they be not hired against them though these Fellows are seldome either faithful or truly valiant for he that will sell his Soul or his Life for Money will not fear for Money to betray and sell his Prince But since they are kept like Cocks of the Game that are good for nothing in Nature but to fight these Forlorns will serve for a Forlorn and to blunt the Enemy's Swords for if they will not fight they are good for nothing but like the Locusts of Aegypt to eat up every green thing If these be Cowards they must be punisht as all Cowards are in a well-disciplin'd Army with present Death For plow they cannot work they will not fight they dare not for they are alwaies unsit to dye and therefore must be afraid to dye This Locust like other Locusts is one of the Plagues of Mankind good for nothing whilst it lives but Mischiefs and therefore though unfit to dye yet unfit to live These are the men that nourish and foment Wars in Europe War is their Trade their Commodity and can you blame them if they make the utmost penny they can of their Trade and Profession But as bad as this Caterpillar is I have another in the 2. Second place to expose that always fights in a bad Cause and therefore is worse if worse can be than a Souldier of Fortune for this Man-slayer fights as seldom as is possible since he does not love fighting but as lazy men love Work they must starve without it he fights to eat and if he could eat without fighting it would be the camest Brute alive But in the next place I must shew you a Hector that loves fighting and killing in a bad Cause as he loves his Life nay more than his Life or his Salvation I mean the Duelist that thinks himself a tall fellow if he has killed his Man though thereby guilty of a double Murther 1st of his Adversary 2dly of himself So unhappy is this Man of Blood if he dies in his Blood and breathes Revenge to his last Breath then it is a fearful thing to think of his fatal Doom and if he kills his Adversary 't is Odds but he is hang'd especially if all King's have such a Conscience as K. Charles I. that never would pardon a Murtherer saying The Almighty God has enacted that He that sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be●shed And who am I that should pretend a Prerogative to dispense with the Laws of the King of Kings Obj. But may some say would you have a Gentleman whose Honour is dearer to him than his Life put up an Affront especially since the neglect of demanding Satisfaction that 's the word is not interpreted Conscience but Cowardice and invites a second Affront and happy the Coward that can but come near so tame a thing that he may safely kick it Ans To which I answer That I knew not which is better Death or Life they are indifferent things and only good or bad as they are circumstantiated a man of Honour will either live in Honour or dye in Honour But by Honour I mean not that Puff or Blast or Vapour which has no affinity with Reason Honesty and a good Conscience a truly valiant man is a truly virtuous man and a truly honourable man a truly honest man but he can neither be a good man nor a brave man that is not a rational man Now I am content to give my man of Honour a Dispensation to answer any Challenge so that he retain his Reason and his Honesty But 1st Is it reasonable and equal that a Gentleman of a vigorous Health and a plentiful Estate for his Heirs and Heirs for his Estate should venture his Life against a Beggarly Hector that perhaps is weary of his Life thro' Poverty and Diseases the loathsom consequences of his Lust and would be beholden to that charitable Hand that would cut the rotten Thread of his Life rather than suffer it miserably and gradually to rot in pieces But 2dly What answers all other Challenges a Duel can never be fought with Honesty because it is point-blank a Defiance and Breach of the Laws of God and the King And therefore let no man pretend to any point of Honour that is inconsistent with his Allegiance to God and the King the only Fountain and Measure of Honour And if Hotspur dislike this my Decision as too sage and cold yet in his softer minutes he will thank me as fiery David did his Cooler Abigail when he was upon the Road in all haste to kill Nabal that Churl saying to her 1 Sam. 25.32 33. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which