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
A52138	Plain-dealing, or, A full and particular examination of a late treatise, entituled, Humane reason by A.M., a countrey gentleman.	Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678.	1675 (1675)	Wing M876; ESTC R23029	77,401	164

we that will hang men for Stealing or Murder for hath not Nature given every man hands to take such things as he hath need of and why should he not kill any man who opposeth him in making use of his natural right to preserve his life Thus our Authors natural Argument serves in its direct consequence to dissolve all society and to destroy all Law and Right or else to demonstrate himself to be a meer Natural in not seeing the so obvious and pernicious consequence of it or something worse if he did see it and yet dared to insinuate it by little similies into the fickle heads of the self-conceited multitude But perhaps it was onely pure good nature in him For is it not a great deal of pity that men should be restrained from the free use of that which is so natural to every one as is his own Reason But I cannot for my life imagine what should put our Author into so sudden a Fit of good nature for if I am not deceived in the person the Gentleman is not always guilty of it certainly there was some particular cause for it at present and perhaps it was this To draw in the Women for Toleration that so they might draw in the men For So Indians draw in the Female Elephant t'inveigle the Male. And one good turn requires another so that those kind souls of that Sex that know themselves apt to mistake another man for their own husband are extreamly obliged to this Gentlemans Humane Reason and good nature and therefore they ought to be of his Party for he hath most effectually and demonstratively pleaded their cause For when the good man peeps through his horns and sees something that makes them begin to stand on an end for anger at his Wife she need but onely tell him that she did but make that natural use of her parts which her own Reason did dictate to her and that she truly knows no reason to the contrary why she might not make that natural use of her tail to get a livelyhood by as well as others do of their hands or their tongues and the poor Cuckold must rest fully satisfied with this answer of his wife and put his horns in his Pocket and sneak away for fear of being accounted an irrational Coxcomb for not understanding Humane Reason I wonder now that all the Whores and Rogues as well as the Quakers did not come and return this Author thanks for his Book It is a great deal of pity they did not What a goodly company of Friends would there have met together and how lovingly would they have greeted and embraced one another with the close hug Now I have done with this Gentlemans Naturals and must proceed to take a view of his Politicks and it would be very strange if these should not be as like the former as ever any Child was to the Parents His third Argument p. 78. is this That it is likewise most agreeable to the good and interest of Humane Society for all Wars of late Years have been either really for Religion or at least that hath been one of the chief pretences which if it were quite taken away the people could not thereby be drawn into a civil or foreign War Fare you well for a Politician What! must all Religion be removed out of the World Surely never any man in the heathen Politicks ever found such an assertion as this much less amongst any that did but so much as pretend to the name of a Christian. Neither is this assertion more contrary to Christianity then it is to true Politicks For I dare undertake to demonstrate that no other Principle whatsoever onely Religion can be the main support and foundation of Society So that if Religion be removed the Society must necessarily fall and consequently whoever endeavours to undermine and destroy Religion is a publick enemy to all mankind For setting aside Religion there is no other Principle that can keep men good subjects good children or good servants nay to go higher still nothing but Religion implanted in the minds of men can preserve Princes in their Thrones or Parents or Masters in their Families There can be but two Principles that can pretend to do it that I know of besides Religion and those are First Sense of Honour and Reputation Secondly Fear of Laws and Temporal Punishments But that neither of these can do it without the help of Religion will be evident to any man that will but allow himself a due consideration of it For supposing all men were rid of Religion then the grand Maxim by which they must rationally govern their actions must be only their own present preservation and welfare So that whatsoever makes for their present advantage can be no ways dishonourable for them in their own thoughts and as for a disesteem or dishonour from others it would only oblige them to act their crimes in secret not at all to avoid them For if they did but act their Villanies though never so horrid so privately that other men could not know them to be the Actors or the Authors of them they would thereby be secure enough from all dishonour from their Actions And as for the fear of Laws the very same thing viz. secresie in their actions would equally secure them from the punishment of the Laws as from disgrace So that if I can prove that the horridst murders may possibly be committed so privately that the World shall not know the Authors nor the Actors of them which is easily demonstrable to him that considers how easie it is to be guilty of Perjury and Forgery and that there are such things as Fire Poisons and Poniards in the World and that in most Kingdoms and Families mens present interest would incite them had they no better principle to govern them to the worst of Villanies even such as would ruine all Government either of Nations or Families it will follow that neither sense of honor nor fear of Laws could keep men from them Now that mens present interest would prompt them to the murder of their Prince is most evident in the next heir to the Crown for would it not prompt him to remove his Father that he might ascend the Throne and sway the Scepter which he could not hope to do as long as his father lived Neither could disgrace keep him from this murder if it was but done privately and much less could fear of temporal punishments in the least deter him from this horrid murder of his Prince and Father unless it were fear of those that might be supposed from religious Principles For his Father is no sooner dead but in all hereditary Monarchies the next Heir is actually Supream and therefore above all Humane Judicature of the Laws and all corporal or capital punishments from his Subjects Neither would the Governours of Families be much more secure from their next Heirs whose Interest would lead them to murder their Fathers that

that sacrificed their lives rather then they would admit of the least appearance of any change in their Religion Pity it is this Gentleman was not living some 1500 years agone what abundance of good Men might have been saved by this his Plaister which for want of it bled to death For our Author could have told them as long as their mind and intentions had been but to have still continued Christians or if they had been mistaken in their judgments and had thought they might have done it they had been as good Christians and as happy as any Martyr of them all though they had sacrificed to the Devil himself For that still if a mans conscience be erroneous he may possibly all this while act according to his conscience and so keep his conscience still inviolable But I pray you Sir do you believe your own Doctrine Can you think that an erroneous conscience shall excuse all crimes whatsoever then I assure you I should be very loth to trust my life in your hands For you might think your self a very good Christian and yet cut my throat For according to your Argument a man may murder his Prince or his Father if his erroneous conscience tell him he may do it as I shall afterwards prove it may and yet be a very good Christian. If this be true sure our Author hath said enough to awaken our Magistrates to take care how mens consciences are inform'd and taught and not to let men alone to their own Reasons unless they have a mind to have their throats cut by good conscientious Christians But an erroneous conscience can in no case certainly excuse but where the Errour proceeds from such causes as the person could no ways help as in the case of natural Fools and Mad-men and in them it onely frees from the guilt and crime in foro interno but not from the punishment in foro externo For we have a Bedlam and a Whip for Mad-men and Fools as well as Stocks and Prisons and Gallows for Knaves and Rogues Therefore let not our Separatists think that their Errours shall excuse them before God unless they think themselves stark Fools or Mad-men that it is impossible for them to be better inform'd nor that they ought to be pardoned before Men. For let them pretend to what conscience they will for their actions if they act contrary to the Laws the Magistrate is bound in consciene to punish them because of his Oath according to the sentence of the Law otherwise should mens Errours excuse them from penalty all the crimes in the world would thereby be tolerated and Christianity quite destroyed For men that were led into Errours might deny Christ and yet need not fear any punishment for it because they might in it act according to their erroneous consciences and so keep their consciences still inviolable What a company of Fools are we that take pains in studying to free our selves from Errour whereas if this be true which our Author hath here endevoured to prove it is much more safe for us not to trouble our consciences at all with information for if we do but act according to our consciences all 's well enough though they are never so wilfully erroneous This it seems is the new and módish way of drilling in Popery amongst us by bringing Men to renounce Christianity by accounting all Religions indifferent as is evident by the Jesuites practise upon the Quakers and Hectors of the Town and that general Design of theirs of debauching our young Nobility and Gentry wherever they can with a contempt of Religion He that doubts of this may be fully satisfied by a late Treatise call'd Fiat Lux in which this Design is most conspicuous from which I cannot but believe this Author hath taken the main of his Humane Reason And indeed there can be no readier way possibly found out of bringing in the Romish Religion then this of rooting out Christianity for as long'as the Christian Principles remain firm in mens minds it is impossible any one should change from the Church of England to the so palpable Errours Juggles Phantacism and Idolatry of the Church of Rome But to argue with these Gentlemen upon their own Principles If all kinds of Religion are so indifferent to them why then should they not keep close to that of their own Country since the consent of all Nations shews us that alterations in Religion are very dangerous to the publick peace and safety of any Kingdom Now that the Design of this Author is the very same with that of Fiat Lux will be evident to any attentive Reader that will but seriously consider what he saith from p. 20. to the 37. or else I must confess that I am most grosly mistaken For having foreseen that it was possible for men by an erroneous conscience to excuse according to his Doctrine even the renouncing Christianity and the denying of Christ himself He answereth that Objection not by recanting an opinion of so horrid a consequence to the Christian Religion but by endeavouring to prove that the same might possibly follow that Men might deny Christ by following any other guide as well as this of Humane Reason Nay to show the advantage of his principle above all others he declaims at a most prodigious rate of the great charitableness of His Opinion that would set Heaven Gates so wide open that Turks Jews Heathens nay Atheists themselves might find an entrance thereat Now what doth this tend to in the direct consequence but the very same as that other Treatise before mentioned viz. to prove that Men may be saved by any kind of Religion whatsoever And herein the two good wits jump exactly onely this Gentleman doth alittle out-do the former by not excluding Atheists from the Kingdom of Heaven and by consequence he insinuates into the minds of men that as to the main end which all aim at viz. Happiness It is indifferent whether men be Christians Jews Turks Heathens or Atheists that is in a word whether Men have any Religion or none at all Is not this an admirable advantage that this Gentleman hath above all others in his Humane Reason But I shall not spend time in declaiming against it but will endeavour throughly to answer his Reasons for it He endeavours to prove this first Assertion by a particular Examination of other Principles The first Principle he examines is that of the private Spirit or new Light This I easily grant is in its direct consequence a flat denial of the whole Gospel but then this is our Authors own Opinion For put but the Question home to any Quaker what he means by the Light within him and his Answer shall be either an evasion of the Question by running into railing or else by some other terms of Art amongst them as Christ within them c. or else they must be forced to confess that they mean nothing else but natural Conscience i. e. Humane Reason by