Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	law_n	parliament_n	repeal_v	2,928	5	12.0628	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77282	A plea for the peoples good old cause: Or, The fundamental lawes and liberties of England asserted, proved, and acknowledged, to be our right before the Conquest, and by above 30 Parliaments, and by the late King Charls; and by the Parliament and their army in their severall declarations in their particular streights and differences. By way of answer to Mr. James Harrington his cxx. political aphorismes, in his second edition. By Capt. William Bray.	Bray, William, 17th cent.	1659 (1659)	Wing B4307; Thomason 763[7]; ESTC R207096	15,797	16

be delayed it would be a lingring and wasting spoyle and Consumption and as destructive to the interest of the People as if the two last precedent Provisions and benefits had no being at all for the renowned Lord Cook saith dilatio est quaedam negatio And therefore I shall say as it is said by the Translator to the Reader in the Book called the Mirror of Justices who rationally declined the opinion of some That our Common Lawes as to the generality flowed first out of Normandy As Cicero was bold to derive the Pedigree of his Roman Law from the great God Jupiter so saith he I hope without offence I may be imboldened in the person of our Common Law to say That when the Lawes of God and Reason came first into England then came I in This I declare and recite to shew the excellency of the Fundamentall Law of the Nation The Lord Cook in the first part of his Institutes in his Commentary upon Liatleton Lib. 2. Cap. 4 Sect. 108. Magna CHARTA is so called in respect of the weightiness and weighty greatness of the matter contayned in it in few words being the Fountaine of all the Fundamentall Lawes of the Realme and therefore to be presumed inviolable and saith he it may be truly said of it That it is Magnum in parvo It is in our Books called CHARTA LIBERTATUM COMMUNIS LIBERT AS Angliae or Libertates Angliae or CHARTA de LIBERTATIBUS MAGNA CHARTA confirmed above 30 times in full PARLIAMENT And by the Statute of the 42 Ed. 3 cap. 3. if any Statute be made against it it shall be voyd whereby it doth appeare by the wise Act of our Ancestors in former and peaceable times that they did foresee that future Parliaments might possiby endeavour to make this Fundamentall Law ineffectuall by making somthing or other against it And further he saith To demonstrate Parliaments are and are justly to be limitted and guided by it so as to make no Act contrary to it or inconsistent with it It is the FOUNDATION OF ALL OTHER ACTS OF PARLIAMENT And further he saith to manifest that this Law was common Law and was before the Charter in the peoples possession It is but a Confirmation or Restitution of the Common Law as in the Statute made Confirmatio Chartarum An. 25. Ed. 1. it appeareth by the opinion of all the Justices And it is a Maxime in the Law No man ought to be wiser then the Law and Ed. 1. for demonstrating his affection to the excellent common Law of England had the honorable Title to be stiled Vindex Anglicanae Libertatis as appeares by Mr. John Bashawes Argument of Law in Parliament against the Bishops Cannons And likewise Mr. Sollicitor St. Johns in his Argument of Law against the Earle of Strafford saith the destruction of the Law dissolves the Arteries and Ligaments that hold the body together and cites the Case of Empson and Dudley who were beheaded for executing that ILLEGALL ACT of PARLIAMENT 11. H. 7. cap. 3. which gave power to Justices of Assise as well as Justices of the Peace VVithout any finding or presentment by Jury of 12 men of the Neighbourhood being the ancient BIRTH-RIGHT of the subject upon bare information for the King before them made to have full power and Authority by their discretions to heare and determine all offences or contempts committed or done by any person or persons against the order forme manner or effect of any Statute made and not repealed By colour of which Act of Parliament SHAKEING the FUNDAMENTAL LAVV viz the 29. cap. of Magna CHARTA it is not credible saith he what Exactions and Oppressions were done to the dammage of many People both indicted at Common Law and by Act of Parliament 21 H. 8. both lost their heads And the Lord Cook in the 4th part of his Institutes calls that ACT OF PARLIAMENT A MISCHIEVOVS ACT with a Flattering Preamble The Colour and Fraudulent pretences to avoyde our ANTIENT BIRTH-RIGHT TO DELUDE and amuze the People were to avoyde divers mischiefs 1. To the displeasure of Almighty God 2. To the great Let of the Common Law 3. The great Let of the wealth of the Land as high pretences as any that would make Innovation can devise It was one of the Principle Treasons of Trisilian cheife Justice for dilivering his opinion in subversion of the Law for which he was deprived of his life And the Lord Cook in his Proeme to the second part of his Institutes sets forth that Edward the first did ordaine that Magna CHART A should be sent under the great Seale to all Justices of the Forrest as to others and to all Sheriffs and to all other Officers and to all Cityes and to all Cathedrall Churches and read and published in every County foure times in the year in full County 25 Ed. 1. cap. 1. and cap. 3. and 28 Ed. 1. cap. 2.17 And in the Preamble of the great Charter as the Lord Cook shewes in the second part of his Institutes This antient this Common Law was assented unto and confirmed in these words in the CHARTER viz. that the King did it spontanea bona voluntate that so the King might not plead per duresse as King John did who sought to avoyd it upon pretence of Duress And further saith the Lord Cook in his Proeme to the second part of his Institutes The Common Law of England the great Charter cannot be avoyded by the pretence and suggestion of the minority of a King because his pollitique capacity did alwayes judge him to be of age and no Minor that no argument whatsoever might avoyde our Fundamentall Lawes and Libertyes And further he saith that the onely thing that hath impugned our Liberties hath been evill Counsel Flattery and Ambition and cites the Case of Hugo de Burgo cheife Justice in Henry the 3d his time which is above 400 yeares agoe and Hugh Spencer c for giving rash and evill Counsell to Ed. the 2d but their advice proved destructive to them as the Lord Cook that renowned and industrious PATRIOT excellently shewes and illustrates in the second part of his Institutes of the Lawes of England in his Proem and upon the 29th Chapter of the great Charter All which with friendly submission although you are a stranger get to me to your impartiall serious and just consideration is of great use and worthy your reading and of extending your abilityes and understanding to manifest your affections to those Fundamentall Legal Aphorismes therein contained or to be naturally deduced instead of your own Politicall ones And further to continue to manifest the Excellency of the being and supremacy of the Law averred and mutually confessed in the dayes of Monarchy and by honourable Parliamentary Counsell you may see in Rastalls Abridgements of the Statutes Title Justice and Right Justices An. 2. Ed. 3. Cap. 8. By the assent of the great men and otherwise men of our Counsell we have

A PLEA FOR THE PEOPLES GOOD OLD CAVSE Or The FUNDAMENTAL Lawes and Liberties of England Asserted proved and acknowledged to be Our RIGHT before the CONQUEST and by above 30 Parliaments and by the late KING CHARLS and by the PARLIAMENT and their ARMY in their severall Declarations in their particular Streights and Differences By way of ANSWER To Mr. JAMES HARRINGTON his CXX Political Aphorismes in his second EDITION By Capt. WILLIAM BRAY. Acts 22.28 29. And Paul said BUT I was FREEBORNE Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him And the Chief Captain also was afraid after he knew he was a Roman and because he had bound him Entered according to Order LONDON Printed by J. C. and are to be sold by Francis Smith at the Elephant and Castle near Temple-Barr 1659. I. AS to the first Aphorisme it is granted you that the errours and sufferings of a People are from their Governours But I desire you to consider and grant the Reason thereof which is as I conceive because they have laid aside the RIGHT RULE viz. the FUNDAMENTAL LAW to be directed and governed by and to govern others also by in this grand and humane concernment as to LIFE LIMB LIBERTY and ESTATE according to the 29th Chapter of the great CHARTER of England II. As to your second Aphorism I averr That the foundation of the Government of England is LAW and a sufficient unmoveable Foundation and is termed a Fundamental Law not only from the unknown Original of the great Antiquity of it by mutual consent agreement and usage of the People as is to be presumed upon mature and serious deliberation without any violent imposition But because of the justness peaceableness and impartiality thereof for the provident means of conservation of all our Lives Limbs Liberties and Estates from illegal and Arbitrary violence and destruction and to procure Justice and Right in the Land of our Nativity And for the Governours being generally but temporary and subject to imperfection death and divers humane casualties they are in the eye of the Law subordinate to the being and Excellency of the Law neither did ever any wise and just person as I conceive who loved his Country in any age or time upon just and serious consideration with himself requisite in such cases of weight endeavour to alter it And if any persons have laboured an alteration to gratifie an unjust Faction or interest or for some other Reasons presented though very plausible it hath oftentimes proved very fatal to the Innovators themselves in the experience of the People in the exercise of two of the sences viz. of Sight and Feeling although you say in your 5th Aphorism they cannot see but feel The 29th Chapter of the Great Charter consists of these ensuing Particulars 1. That no man shall be taken or imprisoned in the first Place because the Liberty of a mans Person is more precious to him then all the rest 2ly None shall be disseissed that is dispossessed of his Freehold that is Lands or Livelihood or Liberties or Free Customs that is of Franchises Freedomes and Free Customes as belong to him by Free BIRTHRIGHT Thirdly None shall be Out-lawed made an Exlex put out of the Law that is deprived of the benefit of the Law Fourthly None shall be exiled or banished out of his Country that is no man shall loose his Country Fifthly None shall be in any sort destroyed unless it be by the Verdict of his Equals or according to the Law of the Land Sixthly No man shall be condempned at the Kings Suit either before the King in his Bench or before any COMMISSIONER or JUDGE whatsoever but by the lawful Judgment of his Peers that is Equals or according to the Law of the Land And further to manifest that it is to be presumed that the people were sensible that there was a possibility probability of imperfection in a King as he was a man what through himself on the one hand or what through evil advice on the other hand which may surprize greatness and seduce it contrary peradventure sometimes to their own inclination suitable to that saying of the Apostle 1 John 1.8.10 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar and his word is not in us Rom. 3.9 10. What then are we better then they No in no wise for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin As it is written There is none righteous no not one For no single PERSON or PERSONS in the world that ever did or may Rule among men can say of himself or themselves as Paul in the 4 Heb. 15. said of CHRIST who though he was tempted yet was without sin therefore it was necessary there should be a Legal Supremacy in our FUNDAMENTAL LAWS and RIGHTS and to manifest as I conceive that there was like Knowledge and necessary indubitable apprehention in a King in the daies of many Monarchs as well as in the People that there was such a possibility and probability of imperfection if the Law should not be a Rule to the Governours as well as governed there is in the end of the said 29th Chapter these other and last ensuing Legal and necessary particulars and Obligations to bind him from intermedling and doing Acts of evil or hindring Acts of Justice or Right and that the Peple in their Methodical Fundamental way of Justice might distribute Justice and Mercy one amongst another according to that RIGHTEOUS RULE 7 Matt. 12. Do in all things as you would be done unto Seventhly We shall sell to no man Justice or Right So that Covetousness which by the Reverend Apostles and divers Scriptures is said to be the Root of all evil was to be abandoned by this FUNDAMENTAL LAW and no profit was to stand in the way of Right to any man whatsoever Eighthly We shall deny to no man Justice or Right so that the Law saith it was not in the power or courtesie of Princes to give us Right as a favour for they were bound by the Common Law which was our Right for many hundred years ago before the CHARTER and by the CHARTER and by OATH not to deny us Right yea impartiall Justice or Right And therefore VVilliam the Conquerour after he had Conquered all almost yet did sweare to confirme and defend our Lawes and antient Customes and Rights Ninthly We shall deferr to no man justice or Right so that thereby it is apparent there was no way for Evasion of this wise CHARTER of Confirmation or Restitution of our Common Law or to avoyde the injoyment of our Fundamentall Rights without which we cannot live For it is a clear thing to all rationall men that Justice or Right is not to be sold or denyed to any but if it be neither sold or denyed in any visible Fact or Deed yet if it should