Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	law_n	nature_n	reason_n	3,046	5	5.4661	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44655	A letter to Mr. Samuel Johnson occasioned by a scurrilous pamphlet, intituled, Animadversions on Mr. Johnson's Answer to Jovian in three letters to a country-friend : at the end of which is reprinted the preface before the History of Edward and Richard the Second, to the end every thing may appear clearly to the reader, how little of that preface has been answered / both written by the Honourable Sir Robert Howard.	Howard, Robert, Sir, 1626-1698.	1692 (1692)	Wing H3000; ESTC R4333	26,604	76

is to be submitted because such or such are of this or that Opinion yet since I have set down the Doctrine asserted in our Days when the hazard of Religion it self did not seem to prevail above Flattery and Design I will briefly shew also the Opinions of our Ancient and most Authentick Authors which have been often quoted and therefore I will be very short in it I will begin with an Original Agreement in Magna Charta printed by the present Bishop of Salisbury which declares That if the King should Uiolate any Part of the Charter and refuse to rectify what was done amiss it should be lawful for the Barons and People of England to distress him by all the ways they can think of as Seizing his Castles Possessions c. According to which seems grounded the Opinion That a King is not a King where his Will governs and not the Law For if a King's Power were only Royal then he might change the Laws and charge the Subject with Callage and other Burdens without their Consent But the King has a Superiour God also the Law by which he is made King For a King is constituted that he should govern the People of God and defend them from Injuries which unless he performs he loses the very Name of a King From that Power which flows from the People it is not lawful for him to Lord it over them by any other Power that is a Political not a Regal Power Let Kings therefore temper their Power by the Law which is the Bridle of Power So that the right understanding of this Law of Resisting or not Resisting in Cases of Necessity seems to depend on the Intention of those that first entred into Civil Society from whom the Right of Government is devolved on the Persons governing Certainly no Civil Society ever made a Contract with intention to be oppress'd or destroyed and he there observes that Men did not at first unite themselves in Civil Society by any special Command from God but for their own Safety to withstand Force and Violence and from this the Civil Power took its rise I will now proceed to a more proper way of Argument than Quotations and briefly consider the Reason of Government and the necessary Consequences in respect of the Conditions of the Governing and the Governed and as a Builder that designs to build strongly I will use a Foundation laid by that excellent Architect Mr. Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity I will faithfully transcribe his Words and though not join'd together in his Discourse yet the Reason is so strong that guides an Argument of this nature that it has naturally its own Cement and Connexion which will appear in these following Words Presuming Man to be in regard of his depraved Mind little better than a wild Beast they do accordingly provide notwithstanding so to frame his outward Actions that they be no hindrance to the Common Good for which Societies are instituted unless they do this they are not perfect it resteth therefore that we consider how Nature finde out such Laws of Government as serve to direct even Nature depraved to a right End To take away all such natural Grievances Injuries and Wrongs there was no way but growing into a Composition and Agreement among themselves by ordaining some kind of Government Publick and by yielding themselves subject thereunto that unto whom they granted Authority to rule and govern by them the Peace Tranquillity and happy Estate of the rest may be preserved Men always knew that when Force and Injury was offered they might be Defenders of themselves they knew that however Men may seek their own Commodity yet if this were done with Injury to others it was not to be suffered but by all good Men and by all good Means to be withstood Impossible it is that any should have compleat Lawful Power but by Consent of Men or immediate Appointment of God because not having the natural Superiority of Fathers their Power must needs be either usurp'd and then unlawful or if lawful then consented unto by them over whom they exercise the same They saw that to live by one Man's Will became the cause of all Mens Miseries this constrained them to come into Laws The Lawful Power of making Laws to command whole Politick Societies of Men belongeth so properly unto the same entire Societies that for any Prince or Potentate of what kind soever upon Earth to exercise the same himself and not either by express Commission immediately and personally received from God or else by Authority derived at the first from their Consent upon whose Persons they impose Laws is no better than mere Tyranny Laws they are not therefore which Politick Approbation hath not made so but Approbation not only they give who personally declare their Assent by Voice Sign or Act but also when others do it in their Names by Right originally derived from them as in Parliament c. Thus strengthened by this great Man to whom the Church of England has justly paid a particular Veneration I shall with the more confidence proceed to do the Nation Justice and begin with those granted and undeniable Principles That the Authority Power and Right of Self-Defence and Preservation was naturally and originally in every individual Person and consequently united in them all for Ease Preservation and Order but every one could not be a Governour and Governed and without Agreement where to fix a useful Power to execute such convenient Agreements or Laws as should be consented to for their own Good and Benefit they could not be safe against one another for if Interest and Appetite were the free Guides without the check of any Law or Punishment Mankind must be in a state of War and destroying one another the certain Consequence of that Condition for Faith and Justice in all could not be depended upon to be sufficiently binding unless Men had no depraved Natures but had been endued with such Original Vertue and Justice that they were as sure and careful of their mutual Preservations as Laws or the fear of Punishment could oblige them For this reason were Laws invented and consented unto and 't were a fatal Absurdity if the Cause was for Preservation by the Power of such Laws that those Laws should have no Power to limit or confine the Authority of Him or Them that were chosen to govern by the Conditions contained in them for otherways the Mischief was but chang'd and they that out of a reasonable apprehension had bound themselves from oppressing one another should give unlimited Power to others to do it if they pleas'd so that unless this ridiculous Supposition could be granted it must be acknowledged of consequence that though the Magistrate was set above the People yet the Law was set above the Magistrate For where any thing is to be observed and obeyed there a perfect Superiority is acknowledged Whoever therefore is set up to

Flesh and the Devil and the Position holds as true in relation to Him as such a Prince that it would be the cause of more Mischief to oppose the Devil than to submit to him I cannot imagine how this Gentleman out of these Words could pretend to find the least cause for his rancorous Insinuation that I should make sport with that Baptismal Vow which with a serious Reverence I make the Obligation of a just and equal Opposition against the Idolater and such a complicated Tyrant and the Devil believing the Argument all one to say that to oppose such an Idolater and complicated Tyrant may be of greater Mischief than to submit to him as to say that to oppose the Devil by Prayers may provoke him to more Mischief than he intended and I see little difference in opposing the Devil and such a complicated Tyrant that acts according to his Instigation the Just may depend on their Mercy alike and the Bad shall be sure of their equal Favour The Paragraph which mentions a pretended Account in the latter end of the Preface runs thus By this Religious Duty of Passive Obedience equally paid to just and unjust legal and illegal Power the Sacrifices offered to God are the perswasion to Tyranny the security of Mischief the encouragement of Sin the destruction of good Men and the preservation of the Bad. Lastly the justifying of Wrong by Divine Right and a Pretended Account to be made up only with God to defraud his People of their just Rights here I submit this also to any reasonable Man to judg what cause was given him by these Words for a Reflection of so high a nature But he says he hopes this last was rather the Infelicity of my Pen than any bad Meaning I wonder he should pretend to excuse me from any bad Meaning after he had charged me with making sport with the Baptismal Vow But if I should apply what he says to any sort of Infelicity in him it must be to that violent and persecuting Humour that has governed too much in our late unhappy Times The Words themselves I hope need no Explanation for they speak only of an Account to be made up by wicked Men and Tyrants which certainly can deserve no other Name than a pretended Account some of them may perhaps be such Fools as to say in their Hearts There is no God and their Account can only be pretended but for others that may perhaps believe there is a God and yet act contrary to his Laws and the Duty they owe to that all-seeing Power 't is certain they can never believe that they are able to make up an Account with him though they may pretend to make one But to put it more familiarly Suppose the present French King according to this useful Doctrine for him should declare that his unlimited Tyranny in this World was not to be resisted and give the Reason for it That he was to make up an Account only with God Sure there is none would believe that he could make up an Account where Blood and Mischief had made the Ballance so heavy on the Debtor's side Can it therefore deserve any better Name than a pretended Account These unworthy Attempts to cast such groundless Scandals of so high a Nature had merited another sort of Answer if the Author's Name had been fix'd to his Malice and seeing how little cause has been given for it I cannot but say that in all other Writers I have seen some Endeavours to carry on their Discourse by a Stream of Reason but this nameless Author only pours forth a Kennel which I am weary of raking into And he seasonably relieves me for in this Place in his full Career he makes a sudden stop and says But I must remember that I am answering your Letter and not Sir R's Preface I shall only observe that he that has snarled with so little cause and shewed such venemous Teeth would probably have bit if he could and he that has so passionately tried to wound in other things would certainly have attempted if he had Forces enough to have obtained a Victory where the whole Cause was concern'd Sir You had received this sooner but my Indisposition has been so great and my Aversion to Quarrels of this Nature where Passion and Animosity instead of Reason and Justice guide the Argument are Causes sufficient to excuse this Delay And I believe the Gentleman's Arguments will as little prevail upon the World as they have done upon me to be less than I was SIR Your assured Friend and humble Servant Ro. Howard Sir Robert Howard's PREFACE To his HISTORY of K. Edw. 2. and Rich. 2. I Was much surpriz'd to see an imperfect Copy of this steal into Publick far from my knowledg or intention for I was sensible it wanted Consideration in point of History There were many material Things which I intended to have added and others to leave out as unnecessary to my Design Considering therefore that my best and most correct Performances could hardly challenge Merit I thought it just to my self and others to endeavour that they might need the least Pardon and that my owning now the publishing of this may rather be look'd upon as an effect of Necessity than Confidence The Scheme of this was digested in the Year 85 I being very much affected with the Consideration how the Errors of ill Administration produc'd the same fatal Effects upon those unhappy Princes Edward and Richard the Second the weight of whose ill Conducts was heavy enough to sink the prosperous and lofty Condition their two glorious Predecessors Edward the First and Edward the Third had left the Kingdom in Nor was their resembling Ruine more observable than the Causes of it Their Predecessors applied all their Glories and Successes to give as it were Lustre and Power to the Laws these two unfortunate Princes attempted only by mean Practices to subdue them and their own People Those great Princes Edward the First and Edward the Third might fix their Favours and Kindness on the People since they parted with no Power to Ministers and Favourites 't is that which ever did and ever will breed a Distrust in the People enough to shake all Confidence in their Prince and 't is but natural it should have so fatal an Operation since the true Interest of a King differs totally from theirs his best and securest Happiness is founded on the Peoples Good their Interest and Ambition must be supplied by their Oppression This is the seldom-failing Cause that has made all Princes unkind to their People that invest Ministers with their Power and Affections and I am confident there are but few Stories that have given an account of a Prince so resign'd to others but have likewise told of his Misfortune involved in theirs That Power and Interest which a King ought to have is not useful to them and rather than suffer him to tread in publick Paths they perswade him to follow the