Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	think_v	4,338	5	3.9369	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54194	One sheet, or, If you will a winding sheet for the good old cause in order to a decent funerall, in case of a second death / by W.P., philopolites.	W. P.; Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1659 (1659)	Wing P134; ESTC R32207	4,600	8

ONE SHEET Or if you will A Winding Sheet For the Good Old Cause IN ORDER TO A Decent Funerall in case of a second DEATH By W. P. Philopolites LONDON Printed in the year 1659. A Winding Sheet c. I Would not have any to imagine that my design is to expose this sheet to publique view as a Trophy of the pretended Good Old Cause its Resurrection neither would I have it do pennance therein lest the products of its Sanguine Complection should prove worse then Menses Profluvium and consequently leave such an illutable stain that instead of a Sheet it should deservedly be called Pannum menstrualem but my intention rather is to have it in a readiness at the time of its Funerall Solemnities for it is much suspected that though our new imagined Common-wealth may have Twins struggle in its Womb yet that it will at last only bring forth a single person which single product the Reliques being more dangerous then Mola in utero may well cause the death of the Mother for the ●ffecting of which there will not be wanting such Mercenary Midwives as will put to their helping hands for the production of any thing though never so monstrous Now what greater Monster can be produced then a new Protector of another Family and Interest then what we have already But when this Tympanie of Pride and Ambition is swelled to the height we shall have the bowels of our Good Old Cause break into a Protectorship or some other title equivalent and more Tyrannical O' P. was as much for this Good old Cause as our new Pretenders till he saw an opportunity of setling himself in the Saddle and then the Keepers of the Liberty of E●gland might lead his horse but Death dismounting this Champion his Son according to the Humble Petition and Advice assumed his Fathers Room to whom as is obvious enough Addresses were made from most Counties and Corporations in England looking upon him as their lawfull and supreame Govenour the family of the Stewarts being extirpated by these continuall new Modellers But Astra regunt homines and M●● being most predominant at that very time when the signe was in the stomack down goes Richard without an aspect of Opposition It is very probable that had his little finger been heavier then his fathers loines he had not so easily been heav'd out for Similis simili gaudet and one oppressor would help to maintaine another especially whilst their interrest run parallel but he seeming to decline oppression Oppressors decline him and make bold to practice that in their own Names which they cannot have licence to act under the Protection of another so that now every private Souldier aspires to the dignity of Dux omnium malorum and blushes not to affront such as maintaine them and their blush coloured Coates But it seemes the days of mourning are over and their black buttons will no longer put them in mind of their old Benefactor the old King-killing Cause standing in Competition with his posterity so that now t is as bad to be a Protectorian as t was in the days of yore to be a Cavalier And thus are we emptied from Vessell to Vessell and every day more and more slaves to our own Countrymen which is as base in us to suffer as t is in them to impose And yet all must be done Machivilian like under a pretence of Religion and the liberties and priviledges of the people when as dalie experience teacheth us that nothing less is intended every plaine Countryman being so far become a Politition as that he can easily discerne the face of these fallacies in the glass of his own woes and Geographer like will give you a shrewd description of most of the high-wayes at Westmister in which though he never wrought or traveld yet he hath faith enough to beleeve that they are well mended in time of year of a long Parliment where there hath not heretofore wanted workmen that would take more then ordinary paines in the Pit● of other mens p●cke●s so that they might save their own soyle And seeing they have an opportunity offered of making Hay whilst the sun shines let us go into the shade that have nothing else to do but to sing Solamen miseris c. which dolefull ditty is the onely solace as I know now extant and is like to continue till we turne our swords into plough-shares and our speares into pruneing hooks which is not like to come to pass whilst some of us are so prone to dissentions that we must needs create disturbances in the Nation on purpose to render the sword usefull and necessary Whereas we were in a faire way of safety and might very well have put our selves into a posture of defence according to our old Method without that intollerable and needless burthen of a constant Army which would be insupportable to any but Asses backs But we see Customes in Martiall affaires as well as Law are not so easily broken where uses are transferred ipso facto into poss●ssion without help of the Statute of 27. H 8 and a peice of a long Parliament Feoff●s in trust which are as Conduit pipes I cannot say to lead the uses because the uses lead them But however they serve to convey the sweet hony from the laborious Bee to the idle Drones and if themselves get a taste by the way t is onely in Correspondence to the Proverbe That t is an ill Cook that will not lick his own fingers But no more of that least I should set them on a stomack that never had an appetite for we have Task-Masters enough who will expect their tale of Bricks though they allow no straw and will exact taxes though they distract Trading who so that they may make themselves great care not how despicable or to what extremities they expose others But sure such have little reason to promise themselves safety in their private Cabbins when the Ship is in danger of sinking or to dream of a perpetuity in that wherein others have had so small a continuance the Wheele of Fortune being apt to turne when it stands most steady our late trans●ctions testifie as much and may tend to the setting the right Spoke uppermost T is an undeniable Maxime in Divinity That whatsoever is of God shall stand And most true it is Si Deus nobiscum quis contra nos but yet he may suffer many things which he doth not allow and then they must needs fall the pleasant success not deciphering the goodness of a cause though it be never so old For I never thought good and old Correlatives because I have often observed that the older the worse and we all know that a thing relinquished and forsaken being new swept and garnished is fitter for the reception of more Devils then ever I must really confess that I am so much what I profess my self in the front of this sheet and I wish for quietness sake we were all

of the same mind that for the welfare of my native Country I could think a Republique good so that it did not degenerate from a Commonwealth and a Protector better so he parted not with that like a fool which some say his father got like a knave a King best of all that title being most agreeable to our Laws Nation so he were not a Tyrant nullified all good Votes with his Negative voice or stand so much upon his Prerogative till he loses his place but from a Democracy Libera nos Domine that our Parliaments may be no longer over aw'd with swords like a dog with a Cudgell nor take any more such strong Potions as so purge out the Members instead of the Humors which must needs render them an imperfect body not worthy the name of the peoples Representatives but rather the stawking horses of some preticular persons to catch their prey the more easily We use to say of two evils the least is to be chosen I wish our new created Parliament may observe the same method and seeing in this juncture of aff●ires they could do no less then what they have done I hope that in their progress they will make choice of Aristocracy rather then an Oligarchy that an executive power seeing it may not be in one may be committed to a few of the best though not for the present of the strongest and that such whose breeding and parts makes them onely guilty of multilequence may not be impeached by bones only ratling with Magnanimity which have nothing in them but the downright language of the Sword whose Ignorance makes them despise that which they understand not and whose Covetousness makes them desire that which others possess who delight in nothing less than peace because it is no time for Plunder and care not what confusions they introduce so they produce their profit and keep the Nation still Monster like with the Tail where the Head should stand which sight hath cost every English man a vast deal more then many a Show that is not worth two pence I speak not this to extenuate the honour due to Martial Discipline which may tend much to the glory of a Nation nor to derogate from the worthiness of such Martigons whose merits may sufficiently manifest that my speech is not intended of them though it be in some sort directed to them only to this end that it may the more conspicuously appear that they have drawn the Sword for their Countries good by being willing to lay it down for their advantage and as opportunity shall offer it self to send those Mercinaries under their command that will fight on any side for 6. d. odds to their quondam imployments whose desire is only to make a Trade of War and to live upon the ruins of others being not willing to be accounted non-proficients under their late grand Tutor who was so well experienced in the Game at Put that by the advantage of a few spots cunningly rendred the King an inconsiderable Card and these illegitimate Births of that corrupted Parent are grown to that maturity that they are ever ready to run the hazard of a forcible entry and in imitation of their old Gamester put honest men out of doors though they have nothing but a Knave to shew for t But we are now at One and thirty a Game that without disparagement may be plaid at a Council Table where if the Gamesters be not self-seekers this miserable cheated Nation may be the greater Winners But now to turn to our Good Old Cause which being new come to Town may justly take exceptions that I have been so long averse not exercised towards her Ladiships those common civilities that are usual to all Strangers as to solicite their stay though they never desire it c. But I must beg an excuse not being bred up in the Academy of Complements therefore not apt to flatter neither can I speak Ironically though I have learned the Figure being more apt to Tom Tell-Troths Dialect and to speak what I think But to tell you true and which is a bad Omen there are so many Anabaptists Familists S●●kers Quakers Cum multis aliis that rejoyce at this new Ghuest that I thought my entertainment would not be acceptable and another notorious Company of Gotamites which notwithstanding I had almost forgot viz. our Church Antagonists that cannot endure the sight of a holy Sister in a Steeple-house but forsooth they must have a convenient meeting place where they may mingle together in Friendship to beget Reformations These sensless brood of Hypocrites or at best blind Zealots together withal the spurious issue of Jesuitical impostors bearing as one saith in another case a sacred hatred to whatever is comely and decorous do in a perpetual scorn to it distort all their Actions to the contrary Mode applauding themselves only in an unlimited liberty and of doing whatever either their fond or foul imaginations suggest to them As for their outward garb t is a cloak of Religion lin'd thorow with fair hypocrisie which Irish-man like is never off in the basest imployments their Conscience they carry in their pockets loco crumenae which they can stretch upon all covetous occasions even to the Reception of all Revenues that tend to the incouragement either of learning or Religion But to hang by these Ideots let us wish this Good Old Cause better Favorites that seeing there is such fair pretences we may see some performances equivalent and that those in Authority may more regard the Publique than their private Commodity that so the good People of this Nation may be as much satisfied with the effects of this Change as they are for the present discontented That a Learned and Godly Ministry may be countenanced so that Court and Church be not at once destroyed nor the Universities be forced to follow Whitehall which they say is to be purchased by Iews and I hope no true Christians will meddle with the other To conclude If this GOOD OLD CAUSE puts us not into a bad new Case and Condition worse then ever we might well forget the fifth of November if the greater deliverance might justly obliterate the less FINIS