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	just_a	law_n	2,761	5	4.7834	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30548	To Charles Fleetvvood, steward, Robert Hatton, recorder, Sackford Gunstone, Henry Wilcock, baliffs being judges in the Court of Kingstone upon Thames : the state of the old controversie ... between Richard Mayo, plaintiffe, and Edward Burrough, defendant / by Edward Burrough.	Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662.	1659 (1659)	Wing B6035; ESTC R12828	12,746	18

I not confess that I had to preserve my self c. To this I must answer Nay I cannot confess contrary to a good Conscience and contrary to Truth that I have wronged him if my life stood upon it as it is but my liberty at most for God hath given me to make Conscience of my words and to keep it void of offence towards him and all men and to confess that which is false to be true would stain a good Conscience in the sight of God and his people and that I may not do no not for my own preservation and the Lord deliver me from the Judgement of such who would have me confess that which I am not guilty of for that is all one to say I am clear when I am guilty as to say I am guilty when I am clear and I rather chuse to suffer what can be imposed upon me then to transgress the truth in my own heart and if I should say his doctrine were sound and true doctrine and not damnable and errour I do believe the witness in your own Consciences would rise against me and many more would say I then spoke falsly then doth now for I hardly ever heard any no not your own selves say that his doctrines alleadged by me against him are sound and true doctrine neither can you in good Conscience say it So I say I cannot lye against my Conscience what ever comes of it for to walk with the Lord and to have his Peace and not to loose his presence is of more worth to my Soul that is immortal then all the sufferings that you can lay upon me can be dammage to my mortal body for my life and Soul you cannot touch but therein am I free though outwardly entangled amongst bryars and thorns which would pierce me and seek to catch me and if there be no other way for me to be preserved but by confessing contrary to my Conscience that I have wronged Richard Mayo I freely give up my self to suffering rather then to be preserved by such means and you do evil in putting such a thing upon me and expecting it from me which I cannot give but transgress the Law of God and offend him and my own Conscience and if you defer the determination of the matter upon such hopes that I may confess that I have wronged Richard Mayo I desire you would not defer it one moment longer but let me be quitted of your temptation for it is your temptation and not true love for I cannot confess any such thing though thus I do acknowledge it hath now depended in your Court and at your door near two years and I should be glad that it were ended justly because I am not a man given to suits in Law neither do I love it though it be so that I am fallen into it to offend any man or be offended in that way by any yet may I not use any unlawful means or indirect way to obtain an end of this business but the rather I am content with what the Lord suffereth to come to pass though it be the very greatest malice of my very devouring enemies and because I would have peace with all men and have all men reconciled to God and one to another to live in love and unity one with another upon that account I would this business were ended and though I do not doubt my cause nor am faint of it but can freely receive the determination thereof in the Court be it for me or against me yet I would have it ended and have sought it in Justice and once did to my adversary say I could refer it to any sober men and another friend being with me Oliver then Protector or Charles Fleetwood or Col. Pride all these was mentioned and to any of these I could freely have referred my Cause and though before he seemed willing and said that if any sober man in the Nation that was no Quaker would say that his doctrine was not sound and that he had not wrong c. But when these men were mentioned he was unfaithful to his word and would not refer it And also not long ago a day and time was appointed by his own advice and consent by a friend of his own to bring the Cause before Alderman Tichburn to which I was willing and that he with some other man might here and determine the matter and at the time appointed we met at the Aldermans house and the Alderman with some more of us waited for Mayos coming till near the 9th hour in the evening and he never came so ungrateful and unjust was he to his own friend to Alderman Tichburn and to me that we waited all for him some hours and he came not at all though his own friend by his own consent and desire did bring that appointment about And thus I would have you to know that I seek peace with all men and with him upon just and equal means can refer it to honest men to hear and determine for who are truly just towards God cannot condemn me nor my cause And likewise ye may see how unwilling my Adversary is to bring his business to hearing and determining by wise and descreet men and how unfaithful he is to his own words and desires only he thinks he hath gotten a verdict that will do something for him upon that he depends waiting also for your unjust Judgement and because he hopes alwaies for your Judgement which I say is unjust if you condemn me in this matter Therefore he will not bring his cause to be heard and determined by any other because he supposes you will proceed according to that unjust verdict which if you doe not you offend him and loseth his unjust cause and if you do you offend God and condemneth the guiltless cause of the just and whatever ye do this follows upon ye and if you offend God and despiseth the cause of the Inocent and the truth ye must bear your own burthen in the sight of God and Just men And if his cause were good he need not thus shrink and faulter to let any man hear the matter but his hope of your unjust Judgement nourisheth his heart in his unrighteous cause And these things were in me to lay before you that it may not be said by you we know not these things for I would have you to know them and take notice of them and to compare all things in equality to Judge according to the Law of God and the good Law of this Land I am not careful at present to answer or say more to you about this matter onely this remains with me the Lord God can deliver me from the teeth of the wicked if he will but if he will not I cannot bow to the Devil but hath given up my life to live to him or to suffer for him and this Testimony remains for ever not as I will but as He will who brings all things to pass according to his pleasure I am a Lover of your Souls and a Sufferer for the Elect seeds sake and a witness against the malice and injustice of evil men EDWARD BURROUGH THE END THE Cause why this is first Printed before it come to your hands is because I would not give cause of Suspi●●●● that I seek any thing in secret or under-hand of you But would have all things come to Light and publick view for I love the Light and the Truth to be justified thereby or to suffer for the Testimony thereof

the righteousnesse of my cause that I have done Richard Mayo no wrong onely I have spoken the truth of him I said he held forth damnable doctrine and error which saying is truth and I had a good cause to speak it for he invited and challenged me divers times to speak it and then when this is considered by you let your consciences judge what wrong I have done him seeing it doth appear I have spoken the truth of him and had good reason so to do yee my Judges at whose door my cause which is innocent lyes despised and ready to be condemned come but to plainnesse and honesty in your own hearts and be not passionate towards me but use meeknesse and let the sincerity of your hearts tell me whether I have lyed or spoken truth but if you do the worst that can be done against me I must and have already committed my cause to God and I doubt not but he will avenge my cause and recompence my adversaries in his season Now again consider if Richard Mayo did make his invitations to me on purpose to ensnare me as it may be justly supposed that he did that he might have occasion to execute his malice upon me then you ought not to give judgement against me and to be his executiners for if he hath laid his plot to ensnare me how can you justly give him power over me and he hath no power over me except you give it him by unjust judgement and you can but give him power over my body for my spirit is at liberty and in dominion over you and him because I have the truth on my side and it is hard for you to strive against that for it cannot be buried but the truth of my cause will alwayes live to vex its opposers but and if his challenges to me was not to insnare me but for information supposing himself to have been clear from all damnable doctrine and error then he had done well to have owned my words as a reproof and to have repented and not to have held forth any more such doctrine and you ought not for reproving him to condemn me for reproving any man for evil ought not to be condemned good men will not do it neither would he were he not an ungodly man prosecute me thus violently thus continually beg your Judgement of 100 l. against me for reproving of him declaring against his false doctrine wch he delivers to the people when as himself first invited me to speak to him and the Lord knows the souls of people are so dear to me that where I hear false doctrine held forth which would destroy the innocent soules I cannot but reprove it least people receive false doctrine for true to the destruction of their own Souls and upon that account I spoke in this Cause Wherefore take you into consideration what Richard Mayo's end was in inviting me do not you fulfil his evil purpose wch I believe if he had power over me would execute his farthest cruelty upon me I have good reason to believe it for many cruel threatuing words have proceeded from him already agianst me but the Lord can deliver me from them all but if he will not he will give me patience to bear it whatsoever is suffered to come to me But and if any shall doubt and cannot receive these things and believe that these particulars are damnable doctrine and errour as they are laid down in themselves and if what is spoken already be not sufficient I may upon any just opportunity prove unto you and all men in the sight of my enemies that these particulars held forth by Richard Mayo and alleadged by me before you are damnable doctrine and errour and if I could be convinced to the contrary by him or any man in sober Arguments according to the Scriptures and if he shall be able to prove that these things are true and sound and saving doctrines then may I confess that I have wronged him which never can be done Therefore can I never confess without lying against my Conscience that I have wronged him but God justifies me and just men and my own Conscience excuses me from all wrong in this matter and here or hereafter shall you and he know it also that I am without offence to him in this cause And if I suffer I suffer be it upon you that are my Judges and the guilt of my sufferings will be upon you one day For for the truths sake am I not afraid nor ashamed to suffer whatsoever you lay upon me And whereas it is chiefly pleaded by my adversary and his Councel that he is damnified and much dangered by the speaking of my words and because I said he held forth damnable doctrine therefore say they he is in danger to loose his place and so he and his wife and family cannot tell how to live c. These things they plead and upon this account begs judgement against me because he is or may be in danger to be damnified To this I reply and Friends I would have you to consider he hath not yet proved to you the dammage of the value of two pence nor is he in any outward estate worse by loss of any thing outwardly by any thing that I have spoken and it is unjust to condemn me in an 100 l. upon supposed danger and dammage which may come while as he hath sustained none at present and further I say unto you I have had no intentions of evil against him nor purpose in my heart to endanger or damnifie him in any outward thing God is my witness But that nakedly and simply I spoke the truth of him And if speaking the truth to him doth endanger him and damnifie him according as they plead then is he a bad man and an evil person and not well worthy of you taking part with him if you be just men as yet I know nothing to the contrary nor worthy of giving your judgement against me for him if the speaking truth to him can so endanger him then consider you what a man he is for speaking of the truth can never hurt an honest man nor damnifie a good man for honest men rejoiceth in the truth and the speaking of it is an honour to them but speaking the truth may indeed endanger and damnifie a bad person as to discover his wickedness and to prevent him of more wickedness which he may intend but speaking the truth cannot damnifie a a good man And if it be so that Richard Mayo because of his badness be damnified by my speaking the truth to him Must I therefore be condemned for speaking truth or ought you to do it Let that of God in you answer will you justifie his false doctrines and condemn me for reproving him Did ever any good men or just Judges of old condemn any man for speaking the truth or will you shame your selves in the sight of wise men by acting contrary to

a good Conscience which if ye do condemn me for speaking the truth I do and must tell you while I live that your judgement is unjust and you act contrary to a good Conscience and are unrighteous judges and that you commit the great abomination in justifying the wicked and condemning the Righteous And is it not a shame to him that professeth to be a Minister of Christ to plead the loss of his livelihood and of his calling and the poverty of his wife and family c. because of my speaking the truth to him Never any of Christs Ministers pleaded any such thing Were not they reproached and much spoken against And they were called Deceivers and seditious men and such like and did they proceed on this manner as he hath done against me Nay they forgave their enemies And if I had spoken falsly of him as I have not he ought not to have done thus if he had been a Minister of Christ as he professeth and doth his livelihood and his place and his maintenance of himself and his family depend upon my forbearing to speak the truth For he pleads that he is damnified and endangered in all these by what I have spoken And I still testifie and all good men knows that I have given no offence saving then speaking the truth and rather then he shall be damnified by my speaking the truth of him Will you unjustly damnifie me for speaking the truth Is this the way of justice to condemn the truth that I have spoken to save the guilty from supposed danger Consider of this and save your selves from unjust judgement least the Lord justly Judge you and condemn you This I shew in short and much more I might as to the unjustness of the action prosecuted against me and now I come to shew something of the unjust proceedings in this matter against me in the time of my tryal and other times and some part thereof I here lay before you that you and all may see I have had as unjust proceedings against me in the matter as an unjust action at first brought upon me At my first appearance in my first answer I demurred to the jurisdiction of your Court and shewes that your Court and Judicatory being temporal you could not in that Courtt ake cognizance of this cause being of a spiritual Dependancy and ought onely to be tried in spiritual Jurisdiction by spiritual Judges if there were any such and shewed out of the Laws of England reasonably that your Court had no power to try this matter But one of the Bayliffs Iohn Forth said which should have been my equal Judge they would over-rule that and they would try the matter without shewing any just reason out of the Laws against my Argument grounded upon the Laws and they did over-rule me in that and the Court-day before the Tryal when the Jury-men was to be chosen and nominated I told them that the Jury-men should be such as had the gif of the holy Spirit and the holy Ghost in them or else they could not try the matter because it was Doctrine that was to be Tryed which none could try but by the Spirit of God Neither could I cast my self into the Determination of any in this cause but such And the Bayliffs Obadia Wicks and Iohn Forth answered if they were men that could take the evidence that I spoke my words against Richard Mayo they were sufficient to try the matter whereby it doth appear that they had unjustly determined in themselves not to try the Doctrines but to have a verdict against me howsoever again some that were called to be of the Jury were heard to say before they saw me or ever heard the matter if I came into their hands they knew well enough what to do with me hereby it doth appear they were not equal men but malicious and prejudiced against me and moreover in the very time of the tryal some of the Jury at the Bar said they would not believe any thing or take any witnesse for testimony which any of those on my part that were called Quakers spoke and this was also the witness of their malicious and envious spirits against me who were rather as a party against me then my equalls And were not these unjust men for the tryal of such a matter and moreover when all his witnesses could not say enough to give colour for a verdict against me one of the Bayliffs Iohn Forth by name who was one of the Judges upon the Bench proffered to come down off the Bench and swear as a witnesse against me and when some spake against that he sent for a man into the Court out of the Town Iames Levite by name and whispered with him upon the Bench told him what he should swear and he went to the Bar and took his oath against me that I followed Richard Mayo with reviling Language in three several roomes in Bayliff Gunstones house which I do testifie was a false oath before the Lord and all men and many knowes that I speak the truth that that man took a false oath who was sent for into the Court told by one of the Judges what he should swear I suppose Bayliff Gunston himself knowes that this was a false witness are not these unjust proceedings I appeal to your consciences and upon such proceedings as these was a verdict gained against me by much a do in above three hours time and the Foreman of the Jury himself said he would not have brought a verdict against me but onely for the mans oath Iames Levite which as I have said swore falsly being sent for and told by another man what he should say Again when the foreman of the Iury said they could not try the cause and desired it might be referred the said Bayliff Forth on the Bench cryed no and told Richard Mayo he should not referr it he should have a verdict first and ought my Judge thus to have spoken no he appeared to be rather a party against me then my equal Judge and to all sober men these proceedings may appear to be unjust And I hope some of you will make more conscience of your doings then to passe judgement upon such an unrighteous verdict And moreover the Jury did not try the cause which onely ought to have been tryed which was whether I had spoken truly or falsly of Richard Mayo that is to say they ought to have tryed and that was the thing in controversy between us whether these particulars alleadged by me against Richard Mayo were true and sound doctrine or damnable doctrine and errors for if the particulars mentioned be true and sound doctrine wch were affirmed by Richard Mayo then I have wronged him and I must confess it and assent to your Judgement but if the particulars be false doctrine and errour then I have done him no wrong for I have spoken nothing but the truth and for that how can you condemn me

And this was the cause to be tryed which the Jury themselves confessed they did not try and therefore the matter is not yet tryed in truth neither have I had a legal tryal Before you and then how can you give judgement against me being the action it self is so unequal and the procedings so unjust also and the matter yet not fully tryed do but consider of these things in the coolnesse of your Spirits and let not me receive worse dealing from you because I am a stranger neither because I am a Quaker so called but deal justly and truly for I desire nothing else of you but true judgement for that will justifie me and clear me and respect not persons but have respect to the Law of God which commandeth you to hear and Judge the cause of the poor and of the stranger without respect of persons and if you give regard to the Law of God in this matter you cannot give Judgement upon this verdict which is thus unjustly brought in by unrighteous and partial men as is manifest and you must either wholly arrest Iudgement or at least you must bring it to a new tryal else you do me much wrong and injustice and all good men will so Judge of it And further divers sufficient reasons hath been shewed by men of knowledge in the Law first against this action and also against the proceedings herein which might be reasons to you not to go on in Judgement against me but to clear me and even in your own way as I may say you have been dealt with and you have been shewed my innocency so that if your hearts be not hardened you cannot go any further against me but go contrary to the truth of my cause and contrary to your own Law also and though it was the dear love and respect of friends to the truth in freeness of their love to me more then any desire of mine or my knowledge I do own their love and justifie it yet much that hath been spoken in forms and tricks of law and punctillio's of Law I do wave and lets it passe and keeps alwayes to the naked truth of the matter as before laid down And therefore if any Jury shall upon their oaths Justifie Richard Mayo his doctrines to be true and sound doctrine and if you your selves upon your oathes dare give Iudgement that Richard Mayo his doctrine is not damnable doctrine and errors Then I must lye patiently under your Judgement and under the breach of such Jury-mens oathes and of your own oaths also and therefore I demand of you according to right and Justice let me be cleared otherwise let me first have a fair tryal before I be condemned which yet I have not had because the matter was perverted from that whether I had spoken the truth upon which the true issue dependeth and upon no other thing Whether I spoke maliciously was a straining of the cause to a wrong head and perverting it from its proper issue and hereby was the Just cause of the innocent clouded over and rejected and vilified and even betrayed into another meaning more then it ought to have been but it can shew its face above all this and truth cannot be daunted though it may be veiled and lie hid for a season and though I be condemned by the Prejudice and unsaithful Jury speaking maliciously yet the Lord bears me witnesse to the contrary and that I have no malice in me against any man and I love your souls better then that you should endanger them to destruction and to everlasting burning by giving Iudgement upon your oaths against me upon this verdict in this cause which is thus unjust and unequal in it self and in its proceedings also for if the Jury had tryed whether I had spoke the truth or whether I belyed Richard Mayo then it would easily have been known whether I spoke malioiously for if I belyed him and if his doctrine be true and sound and not error then may it be easily Judged that I spoke maliciously because I spoke not the truth but if his doctrines alleadged by me be not true and sound doctrine but damnable doctrine and error then I have not belyed him but spoken the truth in love and not maliciously for truth and malice goes not together and till this be tryed to wit whether I have spoken truly or falsly who shall be able upon their oathes without forswearing themseves to give it upon their oathes that I spoke maliciously nay how shall any men lawfully swear that one speaks maliciously it is a hard cause to swear that any man speaks in malice for who enters into the heart of another man to know the thoughts save God and his Spirit And this I may say at least and safely too that that Jury which gave into the Court upon their oaths that I spoke my words maliciously against Richard Mayo have greatly endangered the forswearing themselves and the breach of their own oaths and some of them knows before this day that they did transgress therein against God whom God suddenly after cut off with Judgment and took off the earth by death and though they that are yet living may be insensible of their own wickedness yet let all good men fear to dye out of this body with that burden upon their Consciences as some have and others of them may have in this particular for breach of oaths and though they have given it to you upon their oaths that I spoke maliciously yet wo will be unto you if you shall upon your oaths justifie they have done well and condemn me falsly upon their false verdict and if you do condemn me it is upon their false verdict because I spoke maliciously against Richard Mayo and you cannot do that but you forswear your selves and acts contrary to your trust who are set in place to Judge justly by what doth appear to your view And cannot nor dare not I know upon your oaths say that I have spoken falsly and maliciously against Richard Mayo But and if you do one day you will feel that you have spoken against your own oaths and Consciences and against God and against your own Souls And this is all that I can lay before you as to this particular to warn you that you do Judge justly and that you condemn not the innocent just cause of the upright but that you may save your selves from the anger of the Lord who will be avenged upon all false swearers and unrighteous Judges that Judges not in righteousness the cause of the Poor and of the Stranger and the Cause yet remains before you to shew your selves Just or unjust righteous or unrighteous Judges in this matter And whereas Richard Mayo and some of your selves spake to me to confess I have wronged him and would have me to acknowledge that I am in a fault and that I have spoken wrong of him yea it was said to me if I had not wronged him could