Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	king_n	parliament_n	3,554	5	6.8839	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88233	A plea at large, for John Lilburn gentleman, now a prisoner in Newgate. Penned for his use and benefit, by a faithful and true well-wisher to the fundamental laws, liberties, and freedoms of the antient free people of England; and exposed to publick view, and the censure of the unbyassed and learned men in the laws of England, Aug. 6. 1653.	Faithful and true well-wisher to the fundamental laws, liberties, and freedoms of the antient free people of England.; Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1653 (1653)	Wing L2158; Thomason E710_3; ESTC R207176	34,122	24

Act of Parliament But as for the said Generals and the said Major-General Harisons dissolving the late Parliament by force against their own consents and thereby against several Acts of Parliament afore mentioned partly of their own making committing high-treason against the apparent letter of a known printed and declared Law before their fact committed out of which evil action as it is in it self simply considered though it be granted that that God that can and hath brought light out of darkness and order out of confusion and good out of evil may out of it by his wisdom power and omnipotencie bring abundance of good to this poor nation of England yet already it hath visibly produced this grand mischief and evil viz. to give the said General a colourable pretence of a Necessity of his own making and creating to assume unto himself all the Civil powers in the Nation into his own hands and thereby not onely to make slaves if he please of all his own private souldiers in subjecting them to Tryals for their lives by Military or arbitrary Discipline in times of peace when all the Courts of Justice for administring the Law are or ought to be open which is expresly against the Petition of Right and the declared end wherefore the Wars were engaged in against the late King but also of the free people of England that have fought as heartily and faithfully for the preservation of their Liberties and Freedoms as himself who have already thereby lost two of the chiefest of their fundamental rights and freedoms viz. First to have Taxes layd upon them by the General with the advice of his Military Officers all of whom at most are but the peoples hired and payd servants to kill the Weasels and Polecats that would destroy their Liberties which is not onely contrary to the express tenour of that most excellent Law as the late Parliament in their remarkable Declaration of March 17. 1648. calls it of the Petition of Right which expresly sayth That no Taxes Ayds or Contributions whatever shall by any person or persons or any Authority whatsoever be layd or levyrd upon the people but by common consent of their chosen Deputies or Trustees in Parliament ass●mbled for that end See also the Lord Cooks 4 part Institutes chap. High Court of Parliament fol. 14 34. and by the Statute made in the late Parliament in the 17 yeer being anno 1641 of the late King intituled An Act for declaring unlawful and void the late proceedings touching Ship money The Judgement of the Judges in that case is declared null and void and against the right of Proprieties although their judgements were grounded upon these plausible Questions viz. That when the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger Whether the King might by writ under the Great Seal of England command all the Subjects of his Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victuals and Munition and for such a time as the King should think fit for the defence and safeguard of the kingdom from such peril and danger and Whether by Law the King might compel the doing thereof in case of refusal or ●●f●actari●ss And whether that the King who was then a far more legal Magistrate then the Lord General Cromwel now is were no● the sol● judge both of the danger and wi●●n and ●ow the same is to be prevented and avoided According to which grounds and reasons all the justices of the said Courts of K●ngs Bench and Common pleas and the said Barons of the Exchequer having been formerly con●ul●●d with by his Majesties command had set their hands to an extrajudicial Opinion expressed to the same purpose That he might and yet notwithstanding all this thus decreed and adjudged by all the judges all such Ship-writes and all proceedings thereupon are by King Lords and Commons in full legal and free Parliament declared that they were and are contrary and against the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and the Petition of Right made in the third yeer of the Reign of his Majesty that then was And it is there further declared and enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all and every the particulars prayed or desired in the said Petition of Right shall from henceforth be put in execution accordingly and shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed as in the same Petition they are prayed and expressed And that all the said Judgements and Proceedings about the said Ship money be vacated and cancelled One of the makers of which Law was the said Oliver Cromwel now Lord General and also one of the impeachers of the said Ship money-Judges of high-treason for arbitrary subverters of the free people of England's fundamental Laws Liberties and Proprieties Secondly the General with whom of his Officers by his will he is pleased to joyn with him hath not onely by their late forcible dissolving of the late Parliament assumed the whole Civil power of the Nation into his own hands by means of which already by his Declaration with the advice of his Office●s of the 9 of June 1653. he hath arbitrarily layd a Tax of Sixscore thousand pounds per month upon the free people of England by which all their proprieties are confounded and destroyed For by the same Rule that he lays Sixscore thousand pounds Tax a month upon the people he may when he pleaseth lay six Millions a month upon them and so ad infinitum and ingross into his own coffers and hands and his Officers not onely all the peoples treasure but also their whole lands and estates as Joseph did the slavish Egyptians unto Pharaoh Gen 47. but that which is worse he hath not onely there by created a president to destroy all their proprieties but his chusing the people Legislators or Law-makers though it 's possible the men may prove in their actions the justest men in the Nation and denying those that never forfeited their Liberties in their lives that inherent and natural right he hath created a president to destroy their Laws Liberties and Lives and absolutely subject them to his will and mercy which crimes put together are in the eye of the Law the highest Treason that ever I read any transgressor in the Nation charged with ever since it became a Politick Society or Nation and an act that the highest of three Tyrants or Conquerors either under the Romanes Saxons Danes or Normans durst never attempt to put in execution By means of which he hath given away the just and honest Cause betwixt the King and Parliament and done as much as in him hath to make all those murderers that have since the beginning of the late Civil war engaged in the Parliament-quarrel against the late King his actions as evidently as the ●un declaring it was not in the least for the securing of the people 's incroached upon Liberties and Freedoms that he and his accomplices took up Arms

concerning themselves but it shall be examined and tryed before the Justices of Assizes in the Sessions of the Assize as appeareth by the 8. of Hen. 6. chap. 7. and 23. Hen. 6. chap. 15. Yea the Parliament are not to punish those that will not pay them their wages for their service done in Parliament but the refusers are to be punished by the legal administers of the law in the ordinary of Courts of Justice as appears by the 23. of Hen. 6. chap. 11. Yea the law of England which is right reason or as Sir Edward Cooke stiles it in his second part Institutes folio 179. the absolute perfection of reason and which as he saith is the surest sanctuary that a man can take and the strongest fortress to protect the weakest of all and therefore it is called the best birthright the Subjects hath for thereby his goods lands wife children his body life honour and estimation are protected from injury and wrong for saith he to every one of us there comes a greater inheritance by the law then by our parents it being the Judges guide in all causes that come before them in the wayes of right Justice which never yet misguided any man that certainly knew them and truly followed them 2 part of the Lords Cooks Institutes fol. 56 63 97 526. and the 4. part folio 41. yea and the law-book of Ed. 6. folio 36. with the arguments in the Law in the Court of Kings Bench upon the Writ of Habeas Corpus in the cases of Sir John Eliot Sir Thomas Daniel c. pag. 11. in Michaelmas-terme in the third of the late King Charles calls the good old fundamental Laws of England the great inheritance of every subject and the inheritance of inheritances without the injoyments of which inheritance we have no inheritance at all And therefore the said Oracle of the Law of England the Lord Cook doth bitterly cry out of the unexpressible mischief that accrues to the whole body of the people of England when any fundamental maximes of their good old fundamental Laws are invaded or incroached upon either by Parliament or any other power whatsoever as appears in his 2 part Institutes folio 29 46 48 51 74 103 104 179 210 249 529 533 534 540. and 3. part fol. 208. 4. part fol. 41 196 197 198. and the preface to the 4. part of the Lord Cookes Reports where he saith the Laws of England consist of three parts the Common Laws Customes and Acts of Parliament for any fundamental point of the ancient Common Laws and customs of the Realm it is a maxime in policy and a tryal by experience that the alteration of any of them is more dangerous for that which hath been refined and perfected by all the wisest men in former succession of ages and proved and approved by continual experience to be good and profitable for the Commonwealth cannot without great hazard and danger to be altered or changed see also that old Law-book called The myrror of Justice page 239. And which law as the author of the ancient and excellent law book called the Doctor and Student chap. 4.8 is grounded upon six foundation or basis viz. the law of reason Secondly the Law of God 3. Upon divers general customes of common utility 4. On divers principals that be called maximes 5. On divers particular customes 6. On divers Statutes made by the Kings and the Common-councel of the Nation all which do abhor arbitra●iness in the law-proceedings especially in criminal cases and especially it abhors the arbitrary uncertain way of proceedings in Parliaments the rules of which certainly no man in heaven or earth knoweth the vileness wickedness and mischeviousness of which is sufficiently demonstrated in the Lord Cravens late printed case And saith that worthiest of English Lawyers Sir Edward Cook in the Proeme to the third part of his Institutes It is a miserable servitude or slavery where the law is uncertaine or unknown and therefore it is that the twenty ninth Chapter of Magna Charta the Petition of Right and the Act that abolished the Star-Chamber expresly saith That no freeman of England shall be taken or imprisoned or disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customes or be outlawed or be exiled but by lawful judgement of a Jury of twelve sworn men of his equals of the same neighbourhood according to the law of the Land And that none shall be taken for any crime whatsoever by any person or Court whatsoever unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of good and lawful people of the same neighbourhood where such Deeds be done in due manner or by Process made by Writ original at the Common Law and that none be put out of his franchise or freehold unless he be duly brought in to answer and adjudged of the same according to the course of the law and if any thing be done by any persons or courts whatsoever against the tenour of the same it shall be void in law and holden for error which two last Statutes of the Petition of Right and the Act that abol●sheth the Star-chamber doth expresly and nominally ratifie and confirme the Statute of the 42. of Edward the third which according to the peoples true fundamental law of England makes void and null all Acts of Parliament Ordinances Orders Judgements and Decrees whatsoever made by any power whatsoever that are contrary unto or in diminution of the free people of Englands foresaid liberties and freedoms of due Process of Law And the Petition of Right expresly saith No man whatsoever shall be any wayes punished especially in criminal cases but according to the laws and Statutes already established in the land And those also by the said Petition of Right and the Statute that abolished the Star-chamber are precisely declared to be according to our good old native fundamental rights and liberties or else they are ipso facto null and void in law this very thing or the securing thereof alone being the principal and chief declared cause of all the late Parliaments and present armies bloodshed and wars with the late King and his son and without the inviolable preservation of these our fundamental laws and liberties it is impossible that any in the Army from the highest to the lowest in the least can acquit themselves of being justly esteemed both before God and just men real and wilful murderers of all those persons that they have staine in the late civil wars and if so wo unto them when God makes inquisition for innocent blood Neither indeed is he the now prisoner at the Bar guilty of any such high crimes and misdemeanors as is expressed in the said Act neither ever was he the now prisoner at the Bar in the least duely and legally banished and fined by the said Act nor yet is a Felon nor guilty of felony in no manner of respect whatsoever as by the said Inditement now read unto him is supposed neither can he rationally

them are fully confirmed by that commonly reputed able Lawyer Serjeant John Bradshaw late Lord President of the high Court of Justice against King Charles who in his large Speech to him and against him printed in the second Edition of his Tryal and sold by Peter Cole Francis Tyton and John Playford 1650. from p. 52. to 70. And amongst other passages in p. 55. he hath this That the end of having Kings or any other Governours it is for the enjoying of justice that is the end Now Sir saith he if so be the King will go contrary to that end or any other Governour will go contrary to the end of his Government he must understand that he is but an Officer in trust and he or they ought to discharge that trust and they are to take order for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending Governour And in p. 53. he tells the King That as the Law is his superiour so also he tells him there is something that is superiour to the Law and that is indeed the parent or author of the Law and that is the people of England for Sir as they are those that at the first as other Countries have done did chuse to themselves this form of Government even for Justice sake that justice might be administred that peace might be preserved so that Sir saith he to the King the people gave Laws to Governours according to which they should govern and if those Laws should have proved inconvenient or prejudicial to the Publike the People had a power in them and reserved to themselves to alter them as they shall see cause Secondly such an Act of Parliament as the aforesaid Act of Banishment is not onely against common right common equity and common reason but it is absolutely destructive to the very ends of the peoples Trust conferred upon the Parliament and so the highest of treasons that can be committed And that it is destructive to the ends of the peoples Trust clearly appears by the Statutes of 4 Edw. 3. cap. 14 and 16 Edw. 3.10 which expresly saith that a Parliament at least shall be holden once every yeer and that for the maintenance of the peoples Laws and Liberties and the redress of divers mischiefs and grievances that daily happen And sutable to these things are the ends contained in the Writs that summon them and the intentions of those that chuse the Members and send them And sutable to this is the end of the Parliaments sitting as the present General and his Army in many of their remarkable Declarations have fully declared against the late 11 Members and their accomplices yea and forced the late Parliament to raze out of their books and Records many wicked and unjust things as they judged them to be after the Parliament had solemnly past them as Votes Orders Judgements and Acts yea and endeavoured very earnestly to hang divers of those as Traytors that had executed them as particularly Alderman Adams Alderman Langham Alderman Bunce with the Lord Maior Sir John Gayre and divers others But the greatest grievances and mischiefs in the world are by the aforesaid mischievous and unjust Banishing Act established ratified and confirmed for by it a man is condemned to lose his liberty and estate and the comforts of this life and that without any the least crime committed or accusation exhibited or legal Processes issued out to summon the party to make any defence in the world or ever calling or permitting him to speak one word for himself which is an Act or proceeding against the light and law of Nature Reason the Law of God against the law of Honour Conscience and common Honesty yea a dealing worse with the party then ever the cruel Jews did with Christ or then the bloody butchers Bishop Gardner and Bonner did with the rosted Martyrs in Queen Mary's days who always suffered them to have due processes of Law and to know and see their accusers and to have free liberty to speak for themselves and never condemned them but for transgressing a known and declared law in being Yea also dealing worse with the party then ever the bloody Gunpowder-Traytors were dealt with by King James who always allowed them fair tryals in law from the beginning to the end at the Bar of Justice for their lives Yea it is a worse dealing with the party then ever the Parliament themselves dealt with the bloodiest and most massacring Traytors that ever were in Arms against them to cut their throats Yea the forementioned practice of the foresaid most illegal and unrighteous Act of Banishment is an Act and proceedings in the highest subversion of the Fundamental Law and Liberty of England that can be invented or imagined and by consequence if it may without the highest offence or soloecism in Law be supposed that his Excellencie the Lord Gen. Cromwel Major-Gen Harison and the rest of the Members of the late Supreme Authority of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England sitting at Westm had any real finger in it or were actors of it they may and ought all of them with all the rest under them that have executed any part of the aforesaid unjust injurious illegal Act of Parliament to be apprehended indicted and proceeded against at the Common Law as Traytors and subverters of the Fundamental Laws Liberties and Freedoms of the free-born people of England as that learned man in the Laws of England Sir Edward Cook in the second third and fourth Parts of his Institutes all three of which are published by two special Orders of the late House of Commons in anno 1641. for good Laws doth declare and prove was dealt with by Empson and Dudley in less cases then the fore-recited unjust act of Banishment and of which severe punishments those Arbitrary and discretionary Judges viz. Trisilian Fulthrop Belknap Care Holt Burge and Lockton in Richard the seconds time sufficiently tasted of as also their arbitrary Accomplices the then Lord Major of London Sir Simon Burley Sir William Ellinham Sir John Salisbury Sir Thomas Trevit Sir James Barnis and Sir Nicholas Dodgworth some of whom were destroyed and hanged for setting their hands to Judgements in subversion of the peoples fundamental Law and Liberties in advancing the Kings will above the same yea one of them was banished therefore although he had a Dagger held unto his very brest to compel him to set his hand thereto But the two first mentioned persons cases being the most remarkable the prisoner at the Bar shall only at present inlarge upon theirs Which Case of Empson and Dudley was thus At the Parliament holden by King Lords and Commons in Henry the sevenths time who was an undoubted lawful king of England and by his marriage of his wife the Lady Elizabeth heir apparent to the House of York as himself was to the house of Lancaster had united the two claimes of Lancaster and York in himself and in a pitcht battel had slaine King Richard