Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	day_n	parliament_n	session_n	3,425	5	10.6408	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29269	A plea for the peoples fundamentall liberties and parliaments, or, Eighteen questions questioned & answered which questions were lateley propounded by Mr. Jeremy Jves, pretending thereby to put the great question between the army and their dissenting brethren in the Parliament of the commonwealth of England out of question / by Capt. William Bray.	Bray, William, 17th cent.; Ives, Jeremiah, fl. 1653-1674. Eighteen questions propounded.	1659 (1659)	Wing B4306; ESTC R158	13,677	22

effects of a force of the Army then the Votes and Results of a free Parliament I referr to the rational and unbiased seeing no such Result did ever yet proceed from themselves But yet by this method of yours you acknowledge them friends to the Forcers and you lay a ground though I confess unwillingly by what appears to invalid or weaken the Acts as to any thing you declare and esteem as good because the Law of England is a great enemy to unlawful force and violence Maxime paci sunt contraria vis injuria Force and injury are contraries to peace and it signifieth any thing that a man striketh or hurteth withal as the Lord Cook in the first part of his Institutes his Commentaries upon Littleton And you also by this your doubting questioning way passe a censorious Judgment upon their minds and Consciences upon all the intrinsical considerations they moved in their publick affairs and so you make your self and others Examples or Presidents to devise and lay everlasting methods of private discontent or change to this or any future Parliament upon your and their own accusations and Judgment Quest VII VVhether the Parliament did not Act highest against the interest of the good People of this Nation when there was no force at all upon them Answ VII No good man or a man of good and sincere desires will upon due consideration and entring into the Closet of his heart justifie any action in the Parliament against the Interest of the good people before the force was upon them so the good people ought not to do wrong or injustice to those whom they account evil or worse then themselves And it is very possible that any person or persons who remain alive and were in Parliament may see their error in any thing you can justly charge But however Generals are no method of satisfaction or conviction to any person or charges in Law or Equity against any person by a Fundamental Maxime and Rule of Law and Reason And the force being upon them as you confess and the pretended ground of the force used being publickly declared to try whether things were so yea or no if those persons that were the cause and principle Authors of the force had pleased and if there declared aims and zeal had been for good people they had time to manifest themselves by way of integrity to their pretences But whether they did any thing legally in order thereunto I appeal to God and the World I forbear at present to cite particulars Quest VIII Whether there was not a time when the Army and divers others were accounted the great Assertors of their Countreys Liberties when they refused to comply with the Votes of the then Free and uninterrupted Parliament Col. Rainsborough Lieut. Col. John Lilburn Capt. Bray Cornet Joyce Cornet Thomson Mr. Richard Overton Mr. VVilliam VValwin Thomas Prince c. Answ VIII You need not question whether there was a time or not when the Army or others some of whom you are pleased particularly to name were accounted Assertors of their Countries Liberties But you should have told particularly in what they refused to comply with the then Free and uninterrupted Parliament for it is a Maxime in Law and approved Reason Dolosus versatur in generalibus The crafty man lodges and busies himself in generalls they being vain and insignificant And peradventure if they or any of them did not comply it might have appeared adissent in such thing or things as the whole Parliament may be well satisfied in their Non-compliance And I question not but divers of those Non-compliers as you call them continue to the faithful affectionate asserting those principles and malice it self cannot in any lawful way or means blemish their integrity But if you think that it is their temper disposition or judgment to refuse to comply with the Votes of a Free and uninterrupted Parliament I believe you are much mistaken unlesse you take them in this Legal sense that they might be in these times of division and Faction in their peaceable legal judgment and in Conscience contrary to any thing that was particularly against the Fundamental Laws Rights and Liberties of the People And doubtless or peradventure in the same sense they were and have been LAWFUL NON-COMPLYERS WITH THE ARMY ALSO But I suppose you are deceived by your own heart if you think to make your self a legall or warrantable Accuser in this your apt opportunity and blast them if you could with their Non-compliance as a Crime For if in the daies of MONARCHY an ACT of PARLIAMENT against the Fundamental Lawes and Liberties is VOYD and shall be held for an ERROR and called a MISCHIEVOUS ILLEGAL ACT and be comptrolled by the Peoples COMMON-LAWS and LIBERTIES as I conceive I have proved before much more may Votes which are not drawn to an Act and which may be changed or anulled upon clear conviction of Consciente and Reason and understanding in a Parliament it self upon revising or reminding the Fundamental Lawes and Liberties before it comes to be Enacted be consciensciously scrupled or not complyed with without a blemish but rather justified as a LAVVFUL AND COMMENDABLE NON-COMPLIANCE both before God and man Quest IX VVhether there was not as much the hearts and spirits of all People concurring to their interruption in 1653 as ever was to their Election Answ IX I suppose you presume too highly and too far to imagine that the hearts and spirits of all People did concurr to their Interruption as ever to their Election How can it be supposed you should know the hearts and spirits of all people in this matter Surely you have not conversed with all People that were at the Elections They did never tell you their judgment and acquaint you with their hearts and spirits if you made any such inquisition in the matter And if your meaning by the words all the people must be taken for the major part of the people or the major part of the Electors thereby you would have every man take you according to your meaning and not your saying But however this General Charge doth not accuse or concerne any persons with any triumph or concurrence of hearts or Spirits in the Fact but your own and those that did or you know did concurr it cannot reflect upon any other persons For there were many who had been faithful in the publique Cause who received many and great injuries and oppressions by means of the influence and Power of the then General Crumwell c. yet their hearts did not concur in that violent fact in 1653 not only for that unlawful violence is not good in it self but also because of the inevitable ill consequences thereof they foresaw the sad ensuing evils and dangers which took effect and had its suitable course agreeable to the Cause after the year 1653. And so I shall conclude this my Answer with the saying of Charron in his Book of Wisdom Male cunsta

minstrat impetus Violence doth nothing well Question X. Whether those men that last sate were not rather admitted to serve the present Exigency as the best expedient that then could be thought on rather then out of consciousness to their just Authority as a Free Parliament Answer X. If you and others were ingaged by termes in your Commission to be obedient to such orders and directions as should be given from the men that last sate you had then termed this your tenth Qustion in apt words And for their being admitted to serve a then present exigency I could never find that it was any published end And if it was a secret intention only it was not a mutuall Compact and so could not bind the publiquely invited But by this you do inevitably and Consequentially charge them that invited the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England into possession of their interrupted Session with Hypocrisy as if they did not intend what they publiquely and manifestly pretended And that you may see your Errour and inconsideration by Declaration of the 6th of April 1656. divers Officers of the Army declared a Commemoration of what they had solemnly before declared not without appeales to God And they complained therein that those which had been Enemies to that FAMOUS LONG PARLIAMENT had meetings and grew very insolent to offer affronts and assaults to the friends thereof That the FAMOUS ACTIONS of the Parliament were vilified and evill spoken of And of persons dareing to speak against the Authority of PARLIAMENTS and to call their proceedings and such as acted in obedience to them illegall and unwarrantable so that there was but a step say they expresly between the PUBLICK CAUSE and the FUNERALL thereof And they bewailed their great failings and turnings aside and desired wherein they had backslidden to take shame to themselves The 6th of May after they invited the Members of the Long Parliament from the year 1648 that continued sitting till the 20th of April 1653. And therein they called to mind and declared That the Long Parliament were EMINENT ASSERTORS of the Good Old Cause and had a SPECIALL PRESENCE of GOD with them and were SIGNALLY BLESSED in that work And they did judge it their DUTY to invite the said Members to the Exercise and discharge of the said TRUST And they promised them that they should be ready in their places to yeeld them as they said expresly did become them their UTMOST ASSISTANCE to sit in SAFETIE as will appeare by their publique Declarations not declaring and inviteing them to serve the then present Exigency c as the best expedient c. And if they did not submitt to them as a free Parliament Consider who made them unfree or in any sort of Bondage or Servitude And therefore they themselves that were any Cause or colour of diminution to their just Freedome have no Reason to make it any Argument or ground for any violent violation of their Liberty Question XI VVhether there did not remaine a Force upon them aell the time of the last Session in as much as the greatest part of their Members were secluded Answer XI If the Force did remaine on them all the time of their last Session you accuse the Forcers whom you seem to pretend to clear and justify Consider who forced them or who caused the Force to remaine If the greatest part of the Members were secluded Consider they did not seclude themselves And Albeit it is mans duty in Generall to deny to do that which is malum in se though under a force or terror although in some Cases force may excuse in some measure yet it is no argument that because one force was before acted that therfore another must be done no more then a second sin should be committed to justifie a precedent on And therefore the Querent had been better to have urged this question or tendered this Case and his Reasons in a peaceable humble manner to the Parliament of the Commonwealth from whom he had his Commission in the time of their Session then justify the present Case of the Confusion and interruption Question XII If all Force Fetters and Shekles had been taken of and they had enjoyed the free and accustomed Power and Priviledges of the Parliament of England I demand if ever Sir George Booth and Major Generall Brown c had been voted Traytors Answer XII You enter upon Judgement too farr and before your time for you know not what the Parliament would have done if Force Fetters and Shekles had been taken of if they had enjoyed the Free and accustomed Power and Priviledges of Parliament I think you cannot divine I may say in the judgement of Charity Peradventure they might have entered into a Righteous and equall consideration of things without respect of persons as in the sight of God and man Therefore I suppose that place of Scripture 7 Matt. 1. may be applyed to you in this matter Judge not that ye be not judged And if you have any thing to say to those Gentlemen you name in a legall manner or when the Law is open and hath its legall free indifferent and impartiall Course you may have the Liberty to accuse as they or any Englishman else ought to have the fullest liberty of defence which the Righteous auntient Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties afford And so I who am not privy to their affaires shall close this Answer in defence of our Fundamentall Lawes and Rights with the sentences and wise sayings of the Town Clerk of Ephesus 19 Acts 38 39 40. against the confusion and Uproare raised by Demetrius VVherefore if Demetrius the craftsmen which are with him have a m●tter against any man the Law is or indeed ought to be open or the Court dayes kept and there are Deputies let them implade one another But if ye inquire any thing concerning other matters it shall be determined in a Lawful or ordinary Assembly For we are in danger to be called in question for this daies Uproare there being no cause whereby we may give an Account of the Co●course Verse 36. Seeing these things cannot be spoken against ye ought to be quiet and to do nothing rashly Quest XIII And whereas it is objected That by an Act made by King Lords and Commons that 40 of them should make a Quorum and that they should not be dissolved till they dissolve themselves and therefore being yet a Quorum they are therefore a Free Parliament I demand VVhether by this Argument those which the Army secluded when they came to Hounsloe-Heath may not as well call themselves a Parliament seeing they were a Quorum and kept their places in the House when the rest went away to the Army and were as truly forced out then as these were afterwards and whether this very Argument would not make them a Parliament if another Interest should prevail to take off that Interruption Again the intent of that Act was not that any 40

whom the Sword should separate from the rest should make a Quorum but rather if by degrees some should dye and others by consent of the Major part should be Voted out as uncapable to sit or that others should be absent by reason of any emergencies that then and in such case 40 should make a quorum and this is the Reason why a fixed number are appointed a quorum in all State Conventions Therefore it remains that the last Parliament were rather chosen and elected by the Army in the capacity they stood since they were first garbled then the Peoples Representatives because the Army might have elected that number they forced out as well as those they kept in unto whom they might have subscribed obedience Answ XIII I shall only in brief answer to this Question grounded upon a supposed Objection which you have heard or made If there is an Act that 40 of them should make a Quorum and that they should not be dissolved till they dissolve themselves This Act did invest them or any of them with a Legal Session against any illegal dissolution whatsoever either by Army or any other And the Law considers the Cause the Common interest and not parties or Factions I further inforce my answer with submission to the deep Judgment of a Sage Honourable Person upon his going to the Army viz. by the Declaration of VVilliam Lenthal Esq Speaker c. in the Book of the Declarations of the Army Printed by special Order by one Matthew Simmons 27 Sept. 1647. pag. 107 108. wherein is set forth particularly the violent acts against him He demonstrateth in express termes That in 1647 The Votes then passed were all null and void being extorted by force and violence That the omission of a circumstance or some formalities in the adjournment of the House when through force and violence it cannot sit in any sort as a Parliament cannot be any prejudice to the future meetings and proceedings thereof when it may sit and meet again as a Free Parliament it being well known that nothing can dissolve this Parliament but an Act of Parliament Quest XIIII I demand then how any can cry Hosanna to the last Assembly as to a just and Free Parliamentary Authority and endeavour to restore them to the exercise thereof upon that foot of account unlesse they also endeavour to take off the first as well as the last interruption which how safe that will be I leave to the others to judge Answ XIIII To this I only Answer That when you did accept of a Commission from the last Assembly or their Delegates I suppose you cryed Hosanna and not interrupt or crucifie crucifie them But to conclude this I Judge any interruption or seclusion of any party or parties contrary to Justice or the Fundamental Laws of England is void in Law and destructive to Freedom and layes a ground and method for animosities and perpetual Wars amongst the people instead of love quietnesse and amendment of errours And as for the latter part of your question concerning the unsafenesse to take of the first interruption It is fit to be debated Legally and peaceably in a Parliamentary way that Justice be done in the case Quest XV If we should assay to restore them upon a prudential account then I quaery what reason there is to believe such a thing will be effected unless they will recede from their Votes or the Army subject unto them which how they can do with safety to themselves or the good people of this Land I leave others to judge Answ XV If you should essay to restore them upon a Prudential account you thereby would make your self a Judge so far as to put a limitation upon their Restitution unlesse your prudential intentions therein did relate to the Justice of it requirable in the present case so likewise to oblige them without doors if it could legally be to recede from their own Votes would continue an apparent force upon them and so it would not be so valid as if they should after the interruption taken off in a voluntary manner consider and recede And then if there be no taking of the force which hinders their Session unlesse they will recede from their Votes this continues their Bondage and that cannot be safe for the people to have their Parliaments in fear or under Force or servitude no more safe then it can be lawful or honourable for Parliaments the Supream Conservators to act above and contrary to the Righteous Fundamental and unalterable Laws and Liberties But however the People do I conceive justly incline to have the face of a Civil Authority rather then the Force of a Sword over them which way of Force in the Case may produce innumerable evils both at present and in future peradventure greater then the chief Authors of this Force may either fore-see or ought upon due consideration to desire or aim at and it may not only produce evil but hinder that good which no good man but would desire to be enjoyed I mean our Fundamental Laws and Liberties Quest XVI If it should be effested and they should come to the exercise of their Authority I demand what reason there is to believe they will answer the ends of the good people of the Land Answ XVI If it should be effected that they should be restored there might be reason in the judgement of charity to hope or believe that they will answer the ends of the good people of the land It is possible they may enter into a mature grave and pious consideration of things It is much to me that you should seem to have so great a prejudice to them for why should you judge so of your friends that they should not make a good ending of their Session as well as acknowledge as you do in your 6th Question that they made good beginnings Can it be supposed or justly expected they would Vote a Period to their own Session as they did and yet resolve to go forth without giving a sweet smell and savour and taking into consideration all the blood and treasure and their own promises and solemn obligations I must confess if they should not take those things into consideration for my own particular I who am a Member of the oppressed people for about eleven years should have no remedy unless I should obtain Justice from another and succeeding Honourable and just Councel of Parliament Quest XVII If their restoring cannot in reason be thought practicable and if practicable not profitable why should we labour in the fire of contention to effect it Answ XVII I know no reason why it cannot be thought practicable or profitable or why it should be accounted a labouring in the fire of contention to effect it You make the difficulty greater then it is For do you think the obligations upon them are of so light a nature or of so little value that they will end their Session with dishonour Or do you think