Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	israel_n	lord_n	people_n	2,601	5	4.8657	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28913	The dutie and danger of swearing opened in a sermon preached at York, February 3, 1655, the day of swearing the lord maior / by Edward Bowles ...	Bowles, Edward, 1613-1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing B3871; ESTC R31277	20,505	28

jures jurandi I think it utterly superfluous to produce any thing by way of proof in so clear a point as this is I only give this argument from the lesse to the greater if it be generally look'd upon as unworthy to break a mans word or promise as indeed it is for it renders a man inconstant if not unfaithfull much more unworthy is it to recede from a promise strengthened and seconded with an Oath It is worth the consideration that of Paul 2 Cor. 1. 17. Where you find him exceeding solicitor to preserve his reputation from the stain of lightnesse When therefore was thus minded did I use lightnesse or the things that purpose do I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should b● yea yea and nay nay But as God is true our word toward you wa● not yea and nay And so it becomes every one that nameth the name of Christ the faithfull and true witnesse to have a tende● respect to credit and conscience in the matter of Oathes and promises which is one speciall branch of that blessed exercise o●keeping a good conscience void of offence toward God and toward men To this may be added the consideration of the strictnesse o● God in this particular how severe hath he been in reprehensions and punishments for the violation of promissory Oathes though some excuse might have been pleaded for the breach of them When Saul broke the Oath made by Ioshua and the Princes o● the Congregation to the Gibeonites Ioshua 9. 15. he might have said it was made by his Predecessors but not by himself it was a surprize a Covenant obtained by indirect and fallacious means it seemed to clash with the injunction of God for destroying the Nations lastly that he did it not out of revenge or self-interest but in zeal to the people of God the Children of Israel but notwithstanding all these Pleas the Lord took himself so much concerned in the breach that he looked upon the House of Saul as a bloody House for this cause and took a sharp recompense for his transgression 2 Sam. 21. 1 2 c. Another instance may be that of the King and Princes of Iudah who being overcome by the King of Babylon entered into an Oath and a Covenant with him which afterward they violated by sending Ambassadours to Aegypt for Auxiliaries that they might get their neck from under the Yoke Forth is also something might be pleaded as That it was a forced Oath drawn from them in extremity that it was contrary to the promises made to Israel that it should be high above all Nations contrary to the honour and interest of the Church of God to be under the oppression of strangers should Israel be a servant a home-born slave and not deliver himself at his first advantage But notwithstanding all this the Lord tels them that though the oath was made to the King of Babylon that was his enemy as well as theirs yet it was the Lords Oath Theref●re thus saith the Lord as I live surely mine Oath that he hath despised and my Covenant that he hath broken even it will I recompense upon his own head and I will spread my Net upon him and he shall be taken in my snare seeing no Bands of mens making will hold him fast I will make a snare for him in which he shall be surely held But because notwithstanding the strictnesse of the obligation of promissory Oathes there will be sometimes a necessitie of dispensation some explicatory Rules must be added as 1. An unlawfull Oath or engagement I mean that which obliges to a sinfull Act a breach of any of Gods Commandements must not be performed Iuramentun non debet esse vinculum iniquitatis Ames and therefore David did much better in breaking his Oath made against Naball and his house by way of revenge 1 Sam. 25. 22 23. then Herod did by keeping that rash and sinfull engagement made to Herodias Matth. 14. 7 8 9. For though it may seem to reflect upon the obligation of an Oath that in any case it should be remitted yet it would be a greater dishonour to the nature of an Oath if it should be allowed to tye a man to the disobedience of Gods commands and so have influence into sin And therefore if any be so unwarrantably engaged they must repent of the first sin in making such an Oath and not adde a second in the keeping of it for as we say of precepts so we may of promises Praeceptum inferioris non obligat contra potestatem superioris Neither precepts nor promises made against the lawfull power of our Superiour much lesse our supreme God himself are binding Naturall light reaches thus far for we find in Curtius that Nicomachus having rashly sworn secrecy to Dymnus when he understood the businesse to be an intended murther against the King he denied that he was obliged by a religious Bond to a wicked Act and revealed the matter 2. An Oath binds not to impossibility to swear that which is at the present impossible is great rashnesse and folly but a man sometimes finds it impossible to perform that which was possible when he engaged to it but certainly with the possibilitie the obligation ceases and it suffies that there be a willingnesse to perform and a propensitie to embrace an opportunity of fulfilling it when God shall render it possible and fit to be done and here the Lord himself makes a dispensation by providence as in the case of an unlawfull Oath he doth by Precept 3. If the Oath be lawfull and possible though it be extremely prejudiciall and incovenient unto the person so ingaged he is not to dispense with the performance of it This is made a character of a Citizen of Zion that he sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not and it sufficeth not for an excuse of the breach to say We did it rashly and upon mistakes for so might Ioshua and the Princes of Israel have said concerning their Oath to the Gibeonites which was an Oath of disadvantage to Israel as Saul thought when in zeal to their good he brake it and an Oath wherein they were surprized yet they were obliged by it And as for that dispensation which some allow in the case of prejudice to publike good although I would not wholly reject it for a man may pass away his own right when he cannot do so with the publique yet it is to be admitted with very much caution and tendernesse because there is great danger least it open a gap to unjust and unnecessary violations of this religious bond and be made a cloke to private interests as frequently it is and therefore let it be a clear and indisputable good and judged so to be by others rather then him that is to dispence with his Oath about it To keep an Oath with my own disadvantage is a demonstration how far I prefer the name of God the honour