Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	henry_n	king_n	pope_n	2,794	5	6.8846	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34075	The nature and usefulness of solemn judicial swearing with the impiety and mischief of vain and false-swearing in a sermon preached July 14th, 1681, in the cathedral church of S. Peter in York at the assizes for that county / by Thomas Comber.	Comber, Thomas, 1645-1699.	1682 (1682)	Wing C5479; ESTC R27905	20,585	44

though no Man can disprove them the God of Truth sees their Hearts And therefore All Nations have used to enjoyn Men to call upon the All-seeing God to attest the Truth of what they say with a wish of destruction to Themselves if the Divine Majesty who knows their Thoughts do not allow their Words for Truth And because it may well be supposed none will dare to do this open Affront to the God of Heaven nor expose themselves to his Vengeance who will discover and can destroy them if they speak falsly Therefore an Oath is the most solemn Confirmation of what we affirm in doubtful Cases the readiest way to gain credit to our Words and the most Sacred security we can give for our Truth and Veracity Hence Philo calls it The firmest Pledge of our Fidelity and Diodorus Siculus The greatest assurance of Faith among Men. Our Ancestors saith Cicero esteemed no Bond so sure to bind us to be Faithful as an Oath the Law of the Twelve Tables shews this the Sacrifices and the Leagues by which we bind our selves to be true to our very Enemies shew it And this is the Reason why all the World hath used Oaths in Judicature to be as a Pledge and Security for the Truth of that Evidence given there upon which all Causes usually depend And though some might speak the Truth there without an Oath as many good Men would perform their Promise without a Bond yet the difficulty of discerning honest Men from Hypocrites makes this Caution necessary And all Witnesses in Judgment are required to use an Oath for Confirmation of what they say unless their peculiar Character give them such credibility as to exempt them on which ground Jupiters Priests of Old and the Christian Clergy in the Middle times as also the Nobility in Our days have been excused from Formal Oaths as I could easily prove But generally Oaths are thought so necessary in Judgment that in the Old Canons it is the same thing to set down the Days in which no Oaths shall be taken and to fix the Times when no Causes shall be Tried So that the first Original of our Non-Term and Vacation in Law Proceedings are derived from the Canons which prohibit the Vse of Oaths at those Times But to proceed Since an Oath is so Solemn a Confirmation of our Truth by calling God to Witness the Pythagoreans allowed none to Swear in Light matters especially not in a trifling Action for a small Debt and Clinias a Philosopher of that Sect chose rather to pay three Talents unjustly than to free himself by an Oath Which Example may justly shame many Christians who trouble our Courts and engage many to Swear on far less occasion Again the same Pythagoreans permitted none to Swear concerning Things contingent future and uncertain affirming it was neither fit nor safe to Swear in such Cases The Grecian Laws also admitted none to Swear what they heard by Hear-say only And the Ancient Germans suffered not an Oath to be taken but when there was no other way of finding out the Truth For since every Man that Swears pawns his Soul in Security for his Integrity this ought not to be required but in weighty Causes nor to be taken but on Sure grounds This is a Mans last Security for his Truth and if he once falsifie this none can ever Trust him after no Bond can hold him Which our Noble King Henry the First well knew when he generously refused the Popes base Offer to Absolve him from his Oath saying Who will ever trust another hereafter when they see by my Example an Absolution can make void the highest Bond of Faith Now from this account of the Reason of Taking an Oath to be for Confirmation we shall draw this Inference That it is a huge Folly and a great Impiety to use Oaths upon a slight occasion or in Common discourse where there can be no need of this high and Sacred confirmation of our Words by God's Name unless we have so ill behaved our selves that none can Trust us without Pawning our Souls for every thing we say yet by using this Religious and Sacred Confirmation to every Trifle we make our very Oaths so cheap and contemptible that we are Trusted the less and not the more for our Vain-Swearing But besides the Folly of this vile Custom it is a grievous Sin being the most express breach of the Third Commandement and the most profane way of Taking the Name of God in Vain and though Men may account this a small Fault in themselves or their Friend God who is to be our Judge will not hold them guiltless who commit it He will not clear them nor let it go unpunished He will certainly condemn them in the Last Judgment As the other Translation reads that dreadful place And as this Sin is condemned in the Old Law so this Swearing in our Communication is strictly forbidden above all things James V. 12. in the New Testament Yea the very Heathens condemn the Common using Gods Name and Hierocles very expresly saith We must not use an Oath frequently nor on ordinary Occasions nor for silling up our Discourse nor to confirm every Story we relate for by the Custom of Swearing often Men soon fall to Swear falsly which is the same with that of S. James lest we fall into Hypocrisie It is no doubt a horrid Impiety to make the Dreadful Name of GOD and his Terrible Attributes so cheap and vile as to bring them to Attest the most foolish false or filthy things which we vent in the Vainest Company and argues a Mind that either denies the Being of God or at least forgets his Power and besides that it is the most daring Abuse to Heaven it is also a high Affront to all the Publick Judicatories in the World since the highest Security that can be given for our Truth there the most Sacred Bond of Human Society the most Religious Pledge of a Mans Fidelity on which all our Lives and Fortunes may depend is by this bold Impiety rendred Mean and Contemptible prostituted to the Scorn of the Atheistical and Profane yea and made as Weak and unsecure as it is Common and despised A Sin without any Temptation to invite to it or any Excuse to be made for it having neither Honour Pleasure nor Profit in it unless we count it Reputation to Dishonour God Pleasure to play with Thunder or Profit to destroy those Immortal Souls of ours that are of more Value than a Thousand Worlds A Wickedness taken up only by Imitation and got by the cursed Society of the Debauched and Prosane and the continuance in it is the more unpardonable because it may easily and certainly be amended by a few serious Thoughts of God's Majesty by using the Company of Grave and Pious Men and either giving them the freedom to admonish us or imposing a small Penance on our selves for every