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	reason_n	see_v	3,316	5	3.1434	3	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

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

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