Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	judge_n	law_n	2,498	5	5.0932	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81054	Conscience-oppression: or, A complaint of wrong done to the people's rights, being a vvord necessary and seasonable to all pious christians in England, whether in or out of church-way; and to all sober minded and rational men, that yet know how to value law and christian liberty. / By I. Croope, a subject of Christ's kingdome, and of England's common-wealth.	Croope, J.	1657 (1657)	Wing C7236; Thomason E903_8; ESTC R207425	46,102	63

shrewdly glanc't at in his first Speech to the last Parliament because they mostly differ but in forms and other circumstantials and here the Ordinance shall be checkt * As in Mr. Kiffins Case c. As for others differing in Opinions or Doctrines of consequence if they chance to quarrel with the Ordinance Currat Lex Let the Law go on they shall have no little Zoar in this Government to save them in their flight and if in the defence of themselves their Pleadings be likely to prove profitable to them for their safety all shall be quasht and stopt presently before issue or Judgement and the Defendants damn'd to perpetual Imprisonment to do them Justice and to save them from the Law In conclusion 't is no more but this That if the Protector pleaseth That Ordinance of Lords and Commons is in force to some and if he pleaseth too 't is not in force to others It was declared to be the Royal Anti-parliamentary Interest to uphold and maintain the dependance of the Clergy and Church-matters upon the K. and greatnesse of the Clergy under him and in all these things to oppose the Reformation endeavoured by the Parliament Armies Remonstrance Nov. 16. 1648. pag. 20. Sir Edward ●ook many times layes down this Rule in several Cases handled by him in his Institutes Misera serv●tus ubijus est vagum vel incertum And surely nothing can be more uncertain then the pleasure and the will of men what is done to one may when the circumstances of time and persons will afford be done to a thousand yea to ten thousand times ten thousand by the same rule and then what will become of Liberty of Conscience in general if it must lye in the breast or pleasure of man 'T was used to be said That an unlimited Power not bounded by Law and Reason made any King or Magistrate whatsoever a Tyrant in potentia at least though he were the best and most righteous man in the world and what strong and conclusive arguments there have bin given since to discover the error and the danger of that State or Common wealth-Doctrine I never understood I desire to know this one thing How or where it can be shewn in the Derivation and stating of the Magistrates Power as they say in matters of Religion That he hath a right or 't is his duty to give Liberty to this or that dissenting party in Religion for the Profession of their Faith and not to all As for instance Suppose a Magistracie maintains and publikely professeth the baptism of children to be the undoubted baptism in the new Testament ●ub●●ct●vè and notwithstanding shall think or make it his duty to give Liberty to those that are adversaries in Doctrine and Practice to that way maintaining the baptism of believers onely where there is an appearing ground to determine a Liberty to this or such alike interest and not to all I speak of such a determination as is made by the judgement of Scripture and Reason and wave prudential wayes here I shall not undertake to answer the Objections of the Adversaries laid in against this Liberty contended for it hath been done already yet if either of these ensuing be urged upon this complaint I will touch upon the Answer Suppose it should be the States conscience to proceed by their Power against what shall be reckon'd and adjudged Error wil you not give them leave to act accordingly I answer Grant the Hypothesis and there is a distinction to be made between a State and a private conscience The State-conscience ought to be regulated by the Light of Law that shines within its proper sphear for 't is one thing to have the conscience directed in its publike and another in its prviate capacity Suppose a Judge scruple the reason of that Law of sentencing men to dye being convict of Theft as * Mr. March's Amicus Rei Pub. p. 105. c. some I think not without cause have done 't is said Thereon the Judge as a Judge if he proceed is to follow the Law according to his Oath yet if his private conscience prove predominant he may quit his place of Trust and resigne And 't is observeable That the Kings of England were sworn to execute their Trust in Rule not according to their conscience for then the Administration thereof had been uncertain but according to the Laws which Laws as it hath been told us before have been binding so far only as they have been grounded upon Reason and made to look towards publike good There is reason enough in the very mention to satisfie any man in this that the private conscience must veyle before the publike and bow downe its self Ob● But those that differ in their Opinions may conceale their Differences and then they may be tolerated Ans First By such a course as the Objection insinuates there is no considerable evidence given of the indulgence the meekness and gentlenesse of the Government and the ministration thereof for to presume they tolerate is the most that can be said all discovery of the Hetrodox or Erroneous being prevented Now it may be thought that those Articles in the Instrument concerning Religion were intended to represent the Power looking with a milder face upon men of conscience though differing in Doctrine then the former setled Authority had done Again Should all men be reftrained from the publication of their opinions the profession publikely held forth would be in very much out of a capacity for the confutation of the errors in them and no pity and compassion shewed towards the erring conscience at all because if he may continue in silence he may go on in his error to the death the means of his reformation being so far prevented as the restraining of him from the free discovery of his judgment comes to Lastly the Liberty by the objection granted upon concealment of a differing doctrine is no more but what the greatest Treason in the world may challenge from man while it is kept within the compass of a private thought or imagination the powers on earth having no cognizance in that case of the thoughts until they are declared by some overt act then such as erre in the business of conscience may give the objector thanks for nothing in the liberty granted by him in the objection No more of this kind of Replication for the reason given before You see upon what ticklish and uncertain terms the liberty of conscience onceso much asserted See the Remonstrance spoken of before pag. 21. worthy to be read and revived made to draw in the most professing part of the Subjects of this nation to a compliance with the long Parliament and the Army stands his Highness dear friends brethren is but a man and a man subject to like passions with others how soon he may be drawn to give the reins to the Incendiaries of the times who knows How ready many mens spirits are to

the end of civil Government is the peoples wel-ware and their welfare consists in the preservation of their Liberties and Estates from wrong and robbery and the Governours are to watch that these be not invaded by force or fraud of any for it can never be imagin'd that a people should elect a Prince to rule them upon any other terms or to any other purpose then that of their well-being And for this cause and only this they pay their Tribute and bow down themselves in honour and obedience Cook 's Redintegratio Amoris no Law of Nature or Reason binding men to choose or serve such a power that doth directly seek or indeavour to procure their ruin and destruction 'T is no need for me to dispute here if I could the rights of a pure and downright conquest for the present State of this Nation looks not with that face nor is it manifestly profest as I know And yet there are very bold interpreters of State-proceedings that have confidence enough to speak much this way to insinuate themselves by such an attribution into the affections of the present Power that they may sleep and dream securely in its bosome Sadler's Rights of the Kingdom c. p. 81. of 30. after 93. whether by the error of the Printer or 〈◊〉 ex Beda But I must not stand so far off the present intendment 't is manifest that the peoples Liberties have been in former as well as later times surprized and rent and torn from them and in special the Liberty of Conscience the subject principally aimed at and the loss or curtailing thereof most deplored in this Address that men must not be free to think or speak their thoughts about the things of heaven if they differ from the Statute-Religion without endangering of their lives or freedome There was a time wherein the interest of Christianity was cleerly distinct and carried distinctly from the Civil In the primitive times when the Government of the Church was invested in the person of the Son of God and in him it yet resides and the New Testament was established before men the Kings and Rulers of the Nations were altogether Infidel and Paganish and so they continued generally till the Brittish Constantine sate down in the seat imperial during most of which time the Gospel flourisht much and its worshippers did conquer still although they suffered without the least dependance on the arm of the Nations powers The sword of the spirit was then found sharp enough to cut off Heresie arising and Hereticall men and if it be nature and right reason in a Magistrate to censure and subdue such as speak against the God of his Nation as t is believed the Roman Emperors are justified by reason and the Law of nature because they persecuted the Christians who if they preacht the Gospel must be thought to speak against the God of their Country but how the Law of nature and right reason which are the work or rather are of God as well as ought beside can be set at so great a variance with the Gospel even to the point of sword the one piercing the very bowels of the other by this state maxime I cannot readily understand But I suppose the rule must be qualified with a provision to make it hold the better during the intervall then between the first dawnings of the New Covenant and the times of Constantine the great there was little compliance between the spirituall and secular Interest and the Church received little from the Emperors or their Deputies besides the Torments and effusion of blood After the time of this Constantine the first Christian Emperor the minds of the Church-leaders began to flagg much in the spirituall Profession of Christ and they that were profest Teachers of men in Divine Truth do contrary to the nature and ends of Christianity make their nests in the profits and pomp of the world whiles by their example as well as by their doctrine they should have provokt men to heavenly-mindedness Now poyson was sent into the Church t was an Oracle they say heard in the Aire the Bishops consult for earthly honour and a pompous Religion or worship much in outside and popular ostentation They are in conjunction with the Grandees and Rulers of the Nations the better to effect their worldly ends they lie down together and between them there is amongst others this bastard hellish Brat of violence and persecution begoten to be laid at the doors of whomsoever they pleased that now if any shall take the boldness to correct their errors in doctrine or worship they can quickly make him hold his peace or send him packing Nay now all the Nations under these godly Kings and Bishops must will they nill they submit to that worship and those Rules they shall Impose upon them by the arguments of force and violence if not by the force of their arguments Now the beast with the seven heads and ten horns and that with two are fitly brought up and joyned together to support each other mutually and to call in their worshippers and to destroy those that refuse to come prophesied on long before Rev. 13. throughout and the Apostacy of the Churches is much manifested to the sons of light whereby they see the truth of Pauls doctrine about the man of sin The Christian Hierarchy thus degenerated and falling down to worldly Interests as to an Idol they most adored hasten to the setting of Church matters by the power of the Magistrate which they have by this time in some good measure made theirs and to bring the professing Nations thereby to an uniformity in doctrine and discipline under pretence of avoiding confusion when indeed nothing hath proved more banefull and poysonous to the sons of men and more prejudiciall to the work of Christs Kingdome then this very thing of forcibly imposing upon men in cases of opinion and conscience But the Kings of the Earth have committed Fornication with the whore and the wine thereof is sent far abroad unto all the Nations to the intoxicating of their minds and here we are more or less at this present This Island of Great Brittain was too near to that part of Christendome where the pranks of this drunken Interest became first to be played to escape the temptation and to keep her self unspotted of that damned concupiscence that now like a devouring fire begins by little and little to consume the marrow and the sinews of true Christian love and Gospel light It may be thought on better grounds then some are acted now that those who ere they were that first arrived at the Brittish harbors for the sowing of the seed of Christ the Word of the Kindome in this peoples hearts came not with sword and fagot with them to consume and torture such as would not give it entertainment Surely the instruments they used in this work for the plowing of the minds of the Nation that lay fallow upon which

to convince them or at least weaken their own cause 4. Whether the Common-wealth hath not been bereft of many honest able and faithful Subjects by this means 5. Whether this kinde of Persecution which came in with Papacie ought not in all reason to have taken its leave and gone with it Or whether persecution with colour of Law be not a toleration of Popery and Prelacy in some part at least Lastly whether such a coercive power in such cases be consistent with a right administration of law and the Nations liberty I am not willing to obtrude my private fancies or opinions on any onely it is my desire that all might see and make use of what is reason And I could wish the case were indifferently debated and decided by some able Lawyers that are uninteressed and uncorrupted without any awing hand of force over them by such I say I wish it determined whose honest and judicious hearts have not suffered shipwrack by the strange blasts and storms of these various and dangerous times And yet howsoever I suppose that liberty of Conscience hath more to plead for it self then that in a Nation under a Magistracy that makes profession of the Christian faith But let us turn our faces again Whiles the condition of our English State stood thus and the darkness of the times was witnessed against through sufferings by the providence of the All-seeing Jehovah things at last are brought about so that a Parliament is called settled Anno 1640. Now the glory and the Tyranny of Prelacy begins to be ecclipsed The pains of the Nation begin to come upon her and she is travelling sorely to be delivered of the man-child of law and liberty that should make the mother to rejoyce many were the Attempts to encrease her throes and to render her abortive or at least that she should bring forth nothing but winde All the policy of the Court and Prelates is called in and imployed to this purpose but it must not prosper for the day of their Judgement is dawned upon them and it cometh up with cloudes and darkness their bloody and outragious cruelty exercised upon those three with others mentioned even now is but like the roaring of a man subject to the epilepsy the faling-sickness before his fall The Parliament thus called recalls the prisoners home and entertains them with respect and honour They search into their own priviledges the subjects liberty and assert them with courage and resolution for they are in their virgin purity and masculine strength and nothing can brow-beat them The Courtiers and Bishops hear of them and are affraid of their righteous eye and oppression-revenging arm The Bishops with their High-Commission fall The Star-Chamber is struck up by the roots and all encroachments upon the peoples rights declared against in general Who sees not but there was an Item given by this to all true English groaning hearts to lift up themselves because the day of their redemption drew neer such a motion surely was made and it was with joy accepted by the most rational and ingenuous people of the Nation witness the fair and honest Petitions presented to the Parliament from time to time witnesse also those gallant Declarations too many to be mentioned here wherein the good old Laws of England were asserted and contended for with the subjects liberty in all just things which are of little better publique use at present then to be a Testimony of the Nations great Apostacy or declination from the grounds of the war unto which all honest meaning people were upon deep conjuring terms engaged either in affection in opening of the purse or personall action It is evident and easie to be remembred as it falls out in all civil wars that the Nation ran up into two general heads or factions The one relating to the regal interest and prerogative The other to the Interest of Parliament and the Common-wealth The actings of the former notorious enough I shall wave now as being exploded and excentrical to the present Intendment It is the latter that I shall observe a little in its motion although my observation be but general and their work be too lately done to be yet forgotten The sum and substance of the Parliaments Declarations as to the careful Reader doth appear amounts to this That it was their sole designe and endeavor as they hop'd to be assisted and justified by the God of Heaven to maintain the Laws of the Land which they say were trampled upon by the King and his Party through their high and arbitrary courses and to preserve the Subjects Liberty as to Person and Estate with this Standart they proceeded extirpated Episcopacie root and branch took up Arms against the King and his party and t is to be thought that at that time they or at least the major part of them really and unfeignedly intended what they then profest and so solemnly declared Thus things went on though through much strugling and difficulty till they had obtained their desired ends upon that Malignant Party I cannot say that there were no sufferers for conscience in these times of the Kingdoms Travels it may be judged there were no legal sufferers but only what was without Law carried on by a strong hand for the Bishops who might and had the power to convict of Heresie are gone Third part of his Institut pag. 40. see what Sir EDWARD COOK saith That at this day no person can be indicted or impeached of Heresie before any temporal Judge or other that hath temporal Jurisdiction as upon the perusual of the Statutes quoted by him he concludeth But there was a Synod or Assembly of Divines calld or held by Authority of Parliament that laboured as a travelling woman to get their Doctrine and their Discipline establisht by a Law Many of these had been under the Prelates yoak and had been somewhat galled thereby yet when their wounds were healed they forgot Smectymnuus and his cryes they bestir themselves most busily to get their dear Presbyterie into the chair that it may Lord and sway the Scepter over their Brethren for to be pinched of other mens consciences is almost an Epidemick Itch. The dissenting Brethren then especially those of the Independent-way looking on themselves as such as were like to lie under the Altar at the mercy of the new raised Presbyter Rev 6. begin to send forth their preventing groans and to endeavour the vindication of Just Freedom by uncovering the land-marks of Liberty of Conscience which some have done to purpose none daring to remove them but by a fleshly arm too weak and too disproportionate for such a work But so loud were the thunders of the rigid Presbyterians in their Pulpits and their writings flashing forth so much lightning of Vengeance upon Heresie Sectarism and all its fautors that the Parliament it self was almost conjured to be of their Opinion and to write and act the voices of the present