Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	king_n	parliament_n	1,836	5	6.6012	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29267	To the right honourable, the supreme authority of this nation, the Commons assembled in Parliament an appeal in the humble chain of justice against Tho. Lord Fairfax, general of the English army, raised, and declared to be raised, for the propogation and defence of impartial justice, and just liberty in the nation / by Captain William Bray ...	Bray, William, 17th cent.	1649 (1649)	Wing B4301; ESTC R170764	10,631	20

settlement of the Nation in Colonell Reynold's Regiment and upon the same Account that the Army and the well-affected of the House have manifested themselves have been at most excessive charges and damages this Five months in order thereunto and have been intrusted with the guard of the Kings own person at Hurst-Castle by the authority of the Army and command of Col. John Reinolds voted a Col. of the Army by this House Yet notwithstanding may it please this supreme Authority I being at the Generall-Councell of the Army on or about the first day of March last past and there being a Letter presented by some Sou ldiers to the Generall and the Councell it was put to the question and the Poll whether the Letter should be owned or not owned And when I was demanded my Vote in the Councell which should be free I told them That though I could have wished that many expressions that were taken offence at were left out yet in my Judgment the substance of the Letter did relate to the right of petitioning and to a petition that was presented in Parliament and therefore I thought the work of that Court was to consider of it and so I owned it though I had some temptation upon my spirit not to own it because I saw a designe upon me A little after I was ignominiously and unreasonably cast out of the Councell and had not liberty though I desired it to speak as if it were now grown a Capitall offence to speak a mans judgement in a Councell which should be free and as capitall a sin to speak a word for a private Souldier though with never so much temperance if contrary to the judgment of some Officers whereas it was offered by the Army as a necessary expedient that there might be a liberty of dissents in the House of Commons that the Nation might readily come to know who they are that perform their trust faithfully and who not and this was offered to render a Parliament less nocent Remonst of 23 June and in the Volume of Declar. page 143. We appeal to all men whether it be just or tolerable that any priviledge of Parliament should contrary to the Law of Nature make a man judge in his own case on concernment But the Generall would have that unreasonable power and dominion which he would not give to Parliaments amd will not give that libertie that he takes to himself Unto what pass will this Nation come to unless this honorable House justly interpose with their just Authority But I humbly conceive That this honorable House the wel-affected in Army and Nation are bound in conscience to interpose in their dying Liberties for what man in the earth knowes where such practises and designes will end for after I was cast out of the Councell without just cause my Troop was given away to another and a Commission given to another to be in the Regiment and I could not have that indisputable Justice from the Generall to suspend it till the business was determined in Parliament though I desired it in private of him I shall desire the honourable House to consider the two Cases before laid down not mentioning my former Arrears and losses in your service and for your sakes by which injustice and wrongs will appear and by reason of which I am engaged in the world and to consider that the Generall would by vertue of his negative voice which the King so much stood upon under the specious notion of the use of his reason deprive me of my right and give it to his creature and pretend that he hath an unlimited power to give and deny to whom he please which may extend as well to kill and save alive as to honour and dethrone in an unreasonable arbitrary manen just like the Kings practise as I have shewed before He himself can receive a Commission from Parliament against the King and after that withstand the Parliament again and again and rend and tear in pieces all power and break all the reins of government as to former constitutions and tell them That it is not the me●r punctilio of a Commission but impartiall Justice and Freedom principles of nature and right reason is his Commission which actions are only justifiable before God and Man in order to Justice and Freedom but he can act arbitrarily unreasonably and fly to his own Sword and power without reason when he pleases to destroy the Nations friends and his own too though not flatterers in their freedom and Justice This corruption may destroy the wel-being of this Army and Common-weal for if this House or any Officers or Souldiers in this Army do walk and speak never so reasonably yet power and Will may destroy and cast out both or doe both for by it he may doe one as justifiably as the other And if God in his appointments should give a great part of this Army into the hands of future Enemies by future Warr and Blood then another part of the people of this Nation must be invited out with the names and expressions of Judgment and Conscience and after they have obtained Victory also with the loss of many thousands and the hazards of many more all their liberties and equal good and right shall be usurped and swallowed up into the hands of one man or a few men who may be partially swayed to destroy and save alive whom he please if he prove corrupt and apostatize as former powers have and so one corrupt man in power corrupts many more untill at length they will come to call corruption Justice and it must be so because they call it so and then he is worthy of death and cashierment that will not say The Crow is white For my part I shall profess my self to the world to be for the Generals personall Authority and power of Conduct so long as this intrusted Authority thinks fit and just and as may appear by an address unto his Excellency written by my own hand and consented to by the Troops about two months last past as much as any insinuater or flatterer that hath interposed between the Generall and me in order to the Rights of the People and I should be glad if the Generall did walk truly justly and honourably sutable to such an Authority But to have as much as in him lay my body little estate and more especially or above all the Liberties of my Country the liberty and freedom of my Conscience to be all enslaved at once by him I had rather be rack'd to death or destroyed by the General or by any unworthy mercenary-spirited insinuating Officer or Souldier then subscribe in that sense And I professe impartially I know not what sense is expected from me else by these and the like actings just like the actings of Willam the Norman Conquerour who deprived the English Natives of the comforts of Riches and Places and their smallest offences against his will and Norman Lawes were made grants to entitle him to their Lands and places of Trust to fulfill his lust satisfie his Creatures and carry on his Tyrannous designes over the People And I do finde it a very great evill that when the People and the Souldiery claim just and undenyable things then presently some men commonly fly to a deceivable mistaking of the Question and subvert the People and Souldiery in their Cause and say that the men are against Authority as the King did against the Parliament and so the People and Souldiery are jugled out of the Question But I desire this Honourable House to consider That Injustice is the foundation of almost all evils in the world and when Politique Murtherers which are the greatest Murtherers in the world give continued occasion then they cry out against the evil and rend and tear like unreasonable beasts of prey and cry out upon the Lambe if it seek but his just righteous naturall and reasonable safety they extremely offend and then they are offended if a man speak in his just cause like Tiberius the successor of Octavius who after a faigned clemency at the beginning of his Reign suffered no day to passe without shedding the blood of poor innocents and he prohibited on pain of death that no one should be so bold as to weep or to manifest sorrow They make occasions they cry out of passions though they abundantly provoke And therefore Right Honourable sithence Authority is meerly for that end to doe Justice impartially that one might not oppresse another that Might may not ovorcome Right and since you have overturned the face of other personall Authorities cast out and imprisoned divers Members of your own House to their ignominie and dishonour nulled the House of Lords impartially beheaded the King and some Lords and Declared to the people That it is out of an affection to impartiall Justice and Righteousnesse according to the first Institution of authority by Judges according to the Scriptures Deut. I. 16 17. I shall desire you would doe Justice for Justice sake that it may appear to the People and to the Officers and Souldiers of the Nation whom it justly concerns and unto whom I am deeply engaged whose Cause I make my own and whose blood I esteem as my own and unto whom I have now discharged my Conscience and then you will justly oblige me to manifest my self yours and to employ my small talent of reason and understanding for your service and in defence of your supreme Authority FINIS