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	life_n	work_n	7,030	5	6.3476	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90230	The baiting of the great bull of Bashan unfolded and presented to the affecters and approvers of the petition of the 11 September 1648. : Especially, to the citizens of London usually meeting at the Whale-bone in Lothbury behind the Royal Exchange, commonly (though unjustly) styled Levellers / by Richard Overton close-prisoner in the Tower of London.	Overton, Richard, fl. 1646.	1649 (1649)	Wing O624; Thomason E565_2	7,376	8

good Emulation be as active and vigilant and you shall share in the rejoycing and 't is such I must tell you my Friends is worth your having Dulce est pro patria pati Fear not those Hils and Mountains that are in your way it is but your want of faith that they are not removed and cast into the bottome of the sea While you lift up your heads are vigorous and active your principles present you as Steeples above the rest of the people every man is a strong Barricado in the way of the Enemy and your principles flourish and get ground but when you are fearfull are slat or remisse then they retire and fade for they are said to increase or diminish as they get or lose ground in the understanding or acceptance of others And this ever take as a sure Rule That the most vertuous and saving principles in a person most undaunted and faithfull the more they are supprest and the more he is persecuted the more they prosper and spread of so mighty an efficacy are his sufferings and testimony as in the case of Paul is witnessed Now I would saith he ye should understand Brethren that the things that hapned unto me have faln out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the Pallace and in all other places and many of the Brethren in the Lord waxed confident by my Bonds are much-more bold to speak the Word without fear And this is all the persecutor gaineth upon the undaunted Asserters of righteousness his own sword is turned into his own bowels persecution as the Viper devoureth its own parent Then faint ye not my friends rouse up your heads and be valiant lift up your Agreement of the people again and put it upon the publick stage for promotion and subscription and doubt not What man that there is amongst you that is fearfull and faint-hearted let him depart your Meetings and return to his house the more the Enemy stormeth the more resolute and vigorous be ye give them enough of persecution the more they persecute the more doe ye appear that your Bands may be famous for with setters Irons and prifon-walls you may shake them to pieces 't is their tyrannies cruelties and oppressions must be their Fall through which you must eat your way for the Agreement I highly honor the fidelity and valor of Mr. Chrestopher Chisman who notwithstanding his Imprisonment his abuses and sufferings hath not wrapt up his talent in a napkin but like a good and faithful servant hath improv'd his imprisonment to the publick advantage see his Book entituled The Lamb contending with the Lion 't is worthy your imitation Let your light as his so shine before men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Cause fear no dangers the high and mighty Cedars are never able to overtop your principles what though Ambition hath mounted to the title of Lord Governour forsooth hath not your vigorous principles slain both the Lyon and the Bear and shall not this uncirumcised P●ilistne be as one of them But my friends I am informed those painted Sepulchers of Independency desire your complyance and treaty with them But touch pitch and you shall be defiled have nothing to do with them touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the using Remember the fidelity of Uriah to David The Ark and Israel and Judah abide in Tents and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink and to lye with my wife As thou livest and as thy soul liveth I wil not do this thing Your Agreement lyeth half dead in the streets your friends and its assertors are in prison with sentinels at their doors denied the access and visitation of friends have the catch-poles of the Counsel of State enter their chambers when they are in bed with Musketteers at their heels search rifly catch and take away any thing that any way they may wrest unto their bloody ends against them as formerly and now the other day July 4. they have done and all the land mourneth and groaneth at the calamity and miseries upon it for want of the settlement of a just constitution of Government and shall you go unto them those pests and vipers of the Nation to treat or comply As you live and as your soul liveth you must not do this thing While your agreement is trod under their feet your friends under their cruel captivity c. let him that treateth with them amongst you or with any of their creatures or keepeth any correspondency with them be to you as a Reprobate let the Marke of Cain be set upon him that every finger may point at him for a Traytor and a Judas to the people that meeteth him If a wife or a child be like to be destroyed by fire water or thieves he accounts himself base that dare not venture his own life to save theirs our cause is of a more transcendent valu● and we suffer for it and can you see it destroyed in us and we for it and not be as naturall as in a private relation the lives liberties and freedomes of all is contained in it If your neighbours Oxe or his Asse were in a ditch it is a shame to passe by and not to help and behold here 's all in the ditch then why venture you not your time your labours your monies c. to redeeme out all our Cause the nation and us in it and with it I confesse no people in England have beene more vigorous more active and diligent and more adventurous for the Cause of the Nation and for nor Liberties then most of you we have been as precious to you as the apple of your eye you have spared no huzard no toyle or time to get us at freedome and I hope we shall never be so ungratefull as not thankfully to remember that service of Love To you we are obliged in the deepest obligations of any others in England But now considering the extream necessity of your still constant unwearied prosecution I have emboldened my self to presse you forward to the good work of the people that at this time you may be as vigilant and industrious as at any other that publick life and spirit may still be preserved and encreased in our cause even in these worst of times And if I have been a little too sharp in my advice and admonishment impute it I pray you to the heat of my zeal and ardent affections to the promotion of that Cause for truly to me it is as the life of my life without it I 'm nothing with it I live and therein am From my close imprisonment in the tower of London July the ninth 1649. Yours and every mans as my own RICHARD OVERTON FINIS

infirmities thereof and of the Author and fall foul thereupon and so sleight their duties stifle and smother the thing that is good And now my tender friends I pray tell me what Spirit is this 't is a foul spirit away with 't for shame go purge goe purge one penniworth of the Agreement of the people with a little good resolution taken morning and evening will work out this corruption cleanse and purifie the bloud and put a period to this distinction of parties allay the feude and division of the people and state us in firme Freedom Safety and Peace and then there will be none of this catching and carping this lying in wait to snap at infirmities and till the Agreement be setled this is not to be expected I have known when things as unserious as my last sheet drest out in the youthfull attire of mirth hath found a very large acceptance not only with you but even with this generation of men that are now the Enemies of the People and I think if I have not forgot the Arraignment of Persecution and some other things of that nature that I my self have been one of those who have had the honour of such acceptances But O tempora I O Mores I how few are the same yesterday and to day successe changeth mens minds as the wind doth the weathercock But my friends your gravity which I am affraid hath too much of Melancholy in it cannot more move me to a more serious Dialect then my own affections incline me I prize both in their places as I affect the one I respect the other for sure modest mirth tempeted with due gravity makes the best composition most naturall and harmonious God in the temper of our natures as he hath made us Earth so hath he enlivened that dull lump with the Element of Fire which is the forma formans the giver and preserver of being and motion and the Original of that habit of laughter Therefore Mirth sure is of Divine instinct and I think I may boldly say more naturall then Melancholy and lesse savours of the Curse Nature in its Creation was pure and good void of corruption or any thing obnoxious or destructive all misery and mischiefe came in with the fall as a Curse upon the Creature as Death sorrow tears pains c in which number you may reckon Melancholy for 't is both unnaturall and destructive to nature and so fitly reputed a branch of the Curse and 't is the root of the root of all wickednesse Coveteousnesse for where have you seen a Melancholy man that 's not covetous and a covetous man seldom proves a good Common-wealths man yet this ill Weed is gotten into so religious an esteem that all our Religion is turn'd into Melancholy that he that cannot whine pipe weep and hang down his head like a Bulrush and seem sad unto men is prophane light hath not any thing of God in him is a Reprobate is condemned and censured of all as neither fit for Church nor Common wealth And thus comes it to passe my mirth is heightned to such a transgression even to cast me under the present Anathama of the now godly party But my Brethren of the Sea green Order take a little wine with your water and I le take a little water with my wine and it will temper us to the best constitution I wonder what meaneth your late dulnesse of motion appearing as men in a dream or as if you were another sort of people then the Authors promotors approvers and presenters of the Petition of the 11 of Sept. that people use to be the most active and vigorous People in England for publick Freedom and safety they use to fear no colours the more they were prest down the more they prest forward and the more they enereased few months have passed that they have not in point of Common-Right produced some eminent peece but your heads have drooped of late nothing hath appeared not one punctilio in supportation and promotion of the Agreement deep silence hath covered you fie fie be not cow'd out of your abilities and principles by the present rage of the wicked compare but the strength of your principles and the strength of an Army and tell me which is stronger How many persecuting powers have fallen before your principles as Dagon before the Ark and who hath been able to stand before them even from Episcopacy to this whited and Jesabel like painted Independency Think you that this unparallell'd tyranny under this new name more fierce and cruel then his fellows trampling the residue under its feet that it shall scape the vengeance of Gods wrath more then its Predecessors no no Gods Motto is semper Idem Be not therefore dismayed or daunted at the height and magnificence of this insolent faction the now sons of Perdition that are set up to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. It is your own evill and weaknesse and of those that are Professors and pretenders to the same principles with you that our Cause is thus under a Cloud would you all act together all suffer together all be as one and not thus as some amongst you Commonally use hang back in the adversity and be seen in the Van of Prosperity not daring when the storme rageth to peep into the tempest for fear of being blowne away we should not be at this passe with out Cause When there is any thing of venture or hazard while 't is in the Embrie who 's not then busie and forward but when 't is put upon the personall test for execution O then one hath bought a piece of ground and must be excused another a yoke of Oxen and he must goe see them and a third hath marryed a wife and therefore must please her Friends be not offended this is a crime deserves your repentance I condemn you not all it is but some few A little Leaven you know leaveneth the whole Lump therefore do ye beware of the Leaven of the pharisees it much retardeth your motions and blasteth their fruits the publick is a loser thereby and your Cause receiveth dammage let those whom this pincheth be thereby provoked to amendment it is worthy their care For know you not that it is many hands make light work If the stresse or weight of the work be laid upon one or some 3 or 4 it must needs goe on slowly Why is not he that 's most backward as forward as the best it is his Cause as much as it is any mans and thereto in duty as much obliged as any We are no more concerned then your selves 't is but upon the point of common duty which binds all to our Country that we suffer and we count it our Joy for that we know we suffer for well-doing and though we perish in the Work our Reward shall goe with us for our Redeemer liveth and that is our stay Therefore why stand you still and are not provoked to this