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	know_v	let_v	2,834	5	4.0034	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34208	Concubinage and poligamy disprov'd, or, The divine institution of marriage betwixt one man, and one woman only, asserted in answer to a book, writ by John Butler, B.D. for which he was presented as follows : We the grand jury, sworn to enquire for the body of the city of London, on Wednesday, the first day of December, 1697, present one John Butler, for writing and publishing a wicked pamphlet : wherein he maintains concubinage to be lawful, and which may prove very destructive to divers families, if not timely suppress'd.		1698 (1698)	Wing C5714; ESTC R1558	49,472	113

been over-ruled by the Influence of Father Peters and others who then govern'd at Whitehall what hinder'd Mr. Butler from taking some of his Brethren of the Clergy or other Credible Witnesses with him Finally to exhort his Wife and to declare to her that if she did not return to her Duty he would look upon their Marriage as Dissolv'd and provide for himself accordingly If she had after all this continued Obstinate why might not Mr. Butler have taken his Maid with him and before his Brethren of the Ministry or some Justices of the Peace declar'd that his Wife had deserted him without any Lawful Cause and would not return to her Duty that he had applied to all the Ordinary Courts of Justice but could have no Remedy and therefore being under a Necessity either of burning or taking another Woman into his Bed he was resolv'd to live with his Maid as Man and Wife Had Mr. Butler done so and made it appear to the World that his Wife had no just Cause to desert him there are few Casuists so Rigid as to have condemn'd him either as a Concubinary or Adulterer every Body would have excus'd the want of due Formalities in such a Case and his Practice would have given no just Scandal to others no more than did that of the Marquis of Vicum which we shall have occasion to touch upon by and by Mr. Butler owns that his Marriage with his Wife was not altogether formal and yet he made no Scruple to take her to his Bed and therefore we have no Reason to think that he should have scrupled the doing of this as abovesaid had all things been fair and honest and if he had dreaded the anger of the Government he might have retir'd to Holland as he did afterward But instead of this if we may believe his Wife as quoted by himself p 18. she accuses him of saying That he had another Woman with Child for which she relinquish'd him and offers to prove his having said so These Circumstances are so scandalous that it plainly appears the Matter ought to have been Examined by Judges Competent but it would seem Mr. Butler and his Maid were in too much haste for that or indeed to stay in the Kingdom seeing they went over to Holland where she brought him forth a Daughter as he owns himself I come next to consider Mr. Butler's Arguments for Defence of his Practice 1. He quotes 1 Cor. 7. 15. where the Apostle says But if the unbelieving depart let him depart A brother or a sister is not in bondage in such Cases In this Case therefore says Mr. Butler a man 's own Conscience was a good Judge at least until contrary matters could be proved before ae Competent Judge and the Testimony of Holy Writ was a sufficient Law for Conscience to be guided by and this without the assistance of being backt by Authority in a Case where an Authoritative sentence could not be had as it was in St. Pauls time Wherein the Magistracy being altogether Paganish no such sentence was required as needful and as in the Marquess of Vicums Case wherein the supreme Authority being Popish he married again without such a sentence 'T is true indeed he had a Sentence by Authority from the Syndick of Geneva but that was as much as just nothing for first that Syndick had no Authority to summon his Wife to appear at their Court she being not under their Jurisdiction and secondly being a lay Power set up of their own accord without Power from God or his Word had not so much Power as the Conscience of the Marquess himself To this I Answer 1. That Mr. Butlers Case and that put by the Apostle are not alike the Apostle speaks of an Unbelievers deserting a Believer out of an hatred to Religion but Mr. Butlers Wife was of the same Religion with himself so that he ought to have been backt with the Authority of the Church whereof they were both Members before he had gone into his Maids Bed This is the Opinion of Calvin and Sclaterus upon the place who say Lex Christi de Christianae disciplinae Consortibus agit quos propius Vinculum connectit apud quos si quod aberratum est facilis est sanatio per Ecclesiae Authoritatem i. e. The Law of Christ speaks of those who are partakers of the Christian Discipline and own'd by a nearer Tie and who if they commit any Error the cure is easy by the Authority of the Church but we don't find that Mr. Butler sought any such Remedy but supinely neglected it under a pretence it could not be had 2. Mr. Butlers Case differs also in this That we had Christian Magistrates to whom he might have appeal'd in this Case which it does not appear he did Nor will it follow that because the Apostle says the Believer was at Liberty in Case of the unbelievers deserting that therefore they were at liberty to take another into their Bed without acquainting both the Church and the Magistrate with it It was a General Rule to all Christians to give no Offence neither to Jew nor Gentile nor to the Church of God and therefore it is not supposeable that Christians were referred to the dictates of their own Private Conscience in the Case of Marriage after desertion tho they might rest secure and without any further trouble upon the Testimony of a good Conscience as to the cause of desertion viz. That it was from an hatred to their Religion but Mr. Butler knows that his Wife accuses him of another Cause Viz. The defiling of her Bed Then as to the Marquis of Vicums Case it is also quite different every one that knows the Story of the Famous Galeacius Caracciolus knows that he fled out of Italy upon the Account of his Religion that his Lady would neither follow him nor admit him to her Bed when by the Intercession of his Great Friends he procur'd leave to return for a time her Priests having prevail'd with her to the contrary so that he was forced to return without her and lived several Years unmarried and unblameable at Geneva without getting into any Womans Bed in little more than a Years time and at last by the consent not only of the Church of Geneva but of other Protestant Churches and the approbation of the Supreme Government where he lived he married a Godly Woman not in a private manner but in the View of the World for it 's only the deeds of darkness that are afraid of the Light As to Mr. Butlers falling foul upon the Government of Geneva as having no Power from God and his Word he only discovers that he is as bad a Politician as a Divine and a Casuist of no Value That little Common-wealth had always since any thing was known of the History of those Parts a Supreme Government of her own sometimes by a Count and sometimes under the Protection of the Emperor and when the Empire was

by the Omnipotence of God without any possible Concurrence of humane Corruption and the practice of Concubinage Really Sir this Notion appears to me so very foul and horrid that I think there can be no better Advice given to you than that which the Apostle gave to Simon Magus Acts 8. 22. Repent therefore of this thy Wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thy Heart may be forgiven thee Had you taken heed unto your self and to your Doctrine according to the Apostle's Advice to Timothy you would never have been guilty of such a Practice nor have advanced any such Principles In the next place Sir let me ask you What was it you saw in Concubinage or what mighty Profit have you reap'd thereby your self that you do with so much Zeal recommend it to others Had you but look't into History either Sacred or Profane you would have found that the Natural Effects of it were the breach of the Peace of Families Quarrels Murders and all manner of Vncleanness It had its rise from Cains Family and you know that he was of that wicked one Murder and Whoredom had both of ●●em their Original from the same vile Parent and Vncleanness and Hatred of true Religion have always since gone hand in hand as you may see abundantly proved in the Book call'd Gods Judgment against Whoring As to your own Family You own that the Children of your first Marriage are Rebellious and Disobedient that they have offered Violence to your own Person and continue to oppress and slander you that your first Wife hath deserted you as you say because you disinherited her Eldest Son a Papist and as she says because you had got your Maid with child before-hand and you add that she and her Sons have unjustly possess'd themselves of your Inheritance These and such as these are the Blessed effects of your own Concubinage and yet you are so good Natur'd as to recommend it to others Let 's suppose now your children by Mary Tomkins come also to years of Maturity will not they have the same Rancour against Martha Perkins and her Children as she and hers have against them Will not both Broods be enrag'd to find their respective Mothers treated as an Harlot and is not this the Natural Result of your Concubinage Then as to the Opinion that the World entertains of you It cannot be suppos'd to be very favourable The worst of Men abominate a Leud Clergy-man and you own your self that you are Accounted such an one and let me tell you that your Defence will be far from healing your Reputation there 's no way left you for that but to confess and forsake You will not find that Men of Sense and Probity will take your Arguments as unanswerable and tho some of your Brethren you say have giv'n no reply to what you return'd as an Answer to their Reproof all others will not therefore think themselves obliged to keep silent The Cause concerns the welfare of our Souls and Bodys Posterities and Families too much to let you pass without a Publick Answer tho hitherto you have escap'd any Publick Censure more than the Presentment of the Grand Jury The Author of this Reply has no Personal Acquaintance with you nor pick against you and if in some Places you find that he hath treated you sharply it 's no more than what he thought the Cause requir'd It seem'd indeed a sort of a Paradox to him that a Man should pretend to so much Conscience of keeping an Oath to a Temporal Prince from which his Abdication and the Causes of it absolv'd him in the Opinion both of Church and State and yet make no scruple of breaking his Marriage Vow to God and his Wife by taking another into he● Bed before his Cause was heard and much less determin'd That he himself should take upon him to be Judge in his own Cause and yet not allow the Supreme Power of the Nation to be Judge in theirs against a Prince whom he owns to have Acted Tyrannically by erecting an High Commission Court to supersede the Proceedings of all others and to Act in favour of Persons Popishly Inclin'd That Mr. Butler should allow Desertion in his own Wife to be a sufficient Cause of Divorce and of Marrying another and yet scruple to own that Tyranny and Desertion are not sufficient to dissolve the Contract betwixt King and People and to justify their setting another upon the Throne Says that he is a very partial Casuist and gives the Reader very much cause to suspect his sincerity In the next place let me ask you what mighty blessings they are which the Turks reap from their Poligamy You cannot pretend that it hath encreased their Off-spring and made them Populous For daily experience teaches us that their Numbers are now very much exhausted which is the Natural consequence of Poligamy at last tho it may prove otherwise for an Age or two at first The reasons of this are obvious For 1. Too much Venery consumes a Mans Bones and Flesh and the Issue of such Consumptive and Incontinent Parents will in time enfeeble the whole Nation 2. A Mans making use of more Wives than one at a time occasions the Women to think that they ought to have the same Liberty How many unhappy Instances does our own Nation afford of this that the Mans going astray hath made the Woman take that same Course which all Men own to be destructive to Propagation and must in time diminish the Number of People 3. When a Man hath such a Numerous Family as he cannot sufficiently provide for then all of them come to be neglected and to want the necessary conveniencies of Life which shortens their Days and Breeds Nasty and Contagious Distempers amongst them as is evident from the frequent Plagues amongst the Turks whereof this is assign'd as one Principal Cause and its apparent enough amongst the children of common Beggars and the Poorest Sort many of whom Perish by Nasty Diseases which renders them Loathsome to the Eyes and Noses of those that walk the Streets And if Poligamy were allow'd in this Nation according to your Proposal we should quickly find that our greatest Estates would be much too small to maintain the numerous Offspring of Persons of Quality according to their Birth so that they must quickly be reduced to Misery and the Original Families suddenly perish For the Children of one Wife would think they had as good right to be provided for out of their Father's Estates as those of another Which if they were it would speedily dismember the largest Patrimonies that any of our Nobility enjoy and if they were not it would occasion endless Quarrels and Murders betwixt Brethren and Sisters If you had but looked into our antient History and consider'd what a Miserable Bruitish and Defenceless People our Ancestors were at the time of the Roman Invasion when Poligamy was allowed amongst them you would quickly find what I say to