Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	reason_n	see_v	1,402	5	3.3292	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91212	The Long Parliament tvvice defunct: or, An answer to a seditious pamphlet, intituled, The Long Parliament revived. Wherein the authors undeniable arguments are denied, examined, confuted: and the authority of this present Parliament asserted, vindicated. By a zealous yet moderate oppugner of the enemies of his prince and country.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669, attributed name.	1660 (1660)	Wing P4003; Thomason E1053_2; ESTC R203196	25,482	48

Act they are a perpetual Parliament First because it is contrary to the end designed in the preamble Secondly because it is against the fundamental Constitution of the politick government of this Kingdom against all the presidents and books of Law which alwayes mention successive Parliaments Thirdly 't is against the Liberty of the Subject which a Parliament cannot alter in so principal a part especially seeing the Lawmakers may be intended reasonably to do it for their own benefit who in their own cases by the Law of Reason can be no co●petent Judges And that for many inconveniences In successive Parliaments the Country have every time power to chuse a new and 't is not often though sometimes seen that one man is chosen in many successive Parliaments which variation is necessary for several Reasons Sometimes because they would ehuse persons aptly qualified in parts or Affections or both to the Matters of State then in agitation Sometimes they elect persons having interests by their own greatnesse or alliance to procure some particular businesse of Consequence effected for the County or Corporation for which they serve So that to endeavour a perpetual Parliament would prejudice the people 's repeated election which is not to be allowed Besides this inconvenience would follow a perpetual Parliament that the persons chosen may be altered in Body Mind or Morals and so unfit for that service yet their authority would be continued For a Knight Citizen or Burgesse can make no proxie and Sicknesse c. is no cause of Removal And further if those persons should grow old in that power they would engrosse the offices of the kingdom into their own hands and by great means and friends and privilges overtop their Countrymen and make them meer Under-woods And if it be proved that this Act doth not establish this Long Parliament in an absolute perpetuity Then it is to be considered what is the time of their duration within the meaning of this Act for if it be construed that they have a continuance till they dissolve themselves without restraining their continuance to the time of the performance of those ends for which the said Act was made This is potentially a perpetuity and cannot be abridged but by 〈◊〉 own wills which would never militate as he phrases it against their own advantages So that then this exposition labours under the same Absurdities and Inconveniences with the former and therefore not to be supposed Therefore I conceive the most natural and genuine interpretation of this Act is to make the drift and purpose of this Act the limits of its continuance and this drift is the payment of the said debts And seeing by the rules of the Common Law which may be confirmed by Reason when an indefinite time is given for the performance of a voluntary Act possible to a third person the Act ought to be done within convenient time hence I infer that if the publique debts which were the end of the making of this Act be not satisfied by the Long Parliament yet because they have had time and power more than sufficient between the making of that Act and the Kings death to have raised and paid them off and did actually levy monies amounting to a far greater sum which were otherwise imployed The Gentlemen of that Parliament ought not to take advantage of their own neglect but having surpassed the time which by Law and Reason was sufficient to accomplish those ends they lost the advantage they gained by that Statute the Kings Prerogative and the ordinary course of Dissolution relapsed into its old Chanel and consequently the said Parliament was by the Kings death actually dissolved And so much is argued by way of Admission That the Act of 17 Car. did provide against all the Causes of Dissolution but not granting it for I doubt not but I shall prove the contrary afterwards in this Discourse But now we must hasten to the body of the Act His second Argument is drawn from the body of the Act the words whereof are these viz. That this Parliament be not dissolved unless by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose Whence he concludes that this negative Clause is exclusive of all the causes of Dissolution which I deny But before I give my reasons I shall observe That seeing this Act is derogatory in a matter of the highest nature to the Law and Custome of Parliament but especially to the Kings Prerogative which the Law supports and cherishes as a ballance to the two other Estates to preserve the perfect Crasis and equal Temper of the Politick Government The general words therof shall be expounded strictly in reference to the thing altered and beneficially as to the reviviscency of the Law and Custome of Parliament and of the Kings Prerogative which in obedience to some necessity was for a time laid afleep and suspended for 't is a rule that bonum necessarium extra terminos necessitatis non est bonum This being premised I doubt not but I shall give a full Answer to the Authors second Argument And therefore I make a Question whether an Act of Parliament by express and apposite words which is stronger than our Case can continue their own being after the death of the King in whose life it was summoned First because that after the death of the King if they be a Parliament they are either such by the Common law and custom of Parliament which is a principal and fundamental part of the Common law of the Land or by the special Statute so by both they cannot be a Parliament But they are not be a Parliament by either of those two wayes for the reasons hereafter alledged Not by the Common law and custom of Parliaments because as the learned Mr. Prynne hath proved in his said booke and the Author agreeth it and 't is not doubted by any man that hath any understanding in the Law That Parliament as it was a Parliament by the Common law naturally determined by the demise or death of the King Nor are they a Parliament by the especial Statute because then it would be another thing distinct from that Parliament which was summoned in the Kings life to which the power of Representation which was conferred upon the Members thereof by the people in their Election cannot extend for the Country being enabled to choose them by the Kings writ the persons elected received no power from them but according to the tenour of the Kings writ which determining with the Kings life the power of representing the people wbich they received at their Election was then likewise determined and by consequence they were no longer the peoples Representatives and therefore no Parliament Or to expresse it in plainer terms If they be a Parliament after the Kings death by the force of their own Act as I have proved they must be if they be a Parliament Then it would follow that a Parliament by their

the late Pamphlet called The Long-Parliament Revived hath rendred himself an example of the truth of this Assertion who being great with Childe of a Paradox destructive to the peace of this Nation could not be satisfied till by the Midwifry of the Press he was delivered of his Chymerical Birth though with the hazard of his Liberty in the production For though the whole scope and designe of his book be only to ferment the Minds of the Vulgar and as he calls them injudicious sort of people and to blow the Trumpet of Sedition to the disturbance of the publick happy peace Yet he hath the Forehead to preface his old rags with plush and to begin with these crafty Insinuations viz. To the End the peace of this Nation may be established upon a firm and lasting foundation and that after one shipwrack hardly escaped we run not again upon a more fatal and irrecoverable Rock of Confusion The Author of this small paper out of tender Compassion to his native Countrey and with all humble respects of allegiance to his Royal Majesty that now is hath thought fit to offer Arguments to the world c. which if timously harkened unto may yet prove a healing Remedy against the sad breaches of this shattered Kingdom and prevent Mischeifs Sure this man was an Apothecary he is so good at gilding of his bitter Pills Let us therefore inquire whether the substance of his discourse do correspond and suite with these fair and plausible pretentions of Loyalty and the publick benefit of these Nations Which will the better appear if we Consider First the rancour of his heart against the present Government expressed in the fourth page of the Pamphlet to this effect viz. That when the subjects of this Nation have seriously considered of his Arguments which as he would have it do prove the being and Legall authority of the Long Parliament visibly existent by vertue of the Act 17. Car. They will doubtless see they have no reason to hold themselves safe in their lives liberty and estates till it have made provision in that behalf and be legally dissolved What is if this be not to sow Sedition and to lay the foundations of a new Warre and to angle for proselytes of Rebellion which the Phantastick baites of the vindication of Laws and the Subjects security We have one would think bought the experience of trusting the pretence of fears and jealousies at too dear a rate to be again involved in the sad consequence of a pernicious Credulity The present age is too wise to thrust themselves into a true and real slavery to avoid a painted one And therefore the Author might have spared that clause which gives the lie to his proemial flourishes and is not likely to serve to the ends he intended it the generality of the people blessed be God being now of true and loyal principles and of a Conformable temper to the government established Secondly the Consequence of the opinion he defends will plainly demonstrate that the Author is no such great friend to the publick good of his native Countrey as is pretended For then he would have it to follow that the present Parliament is of no authority to binde the subjects of this Nation and that their Acts have not the force of Laws and if so then all their Acts are voide and of no force that they have made in order to those excellent ends of restoring his sacred Majesty to his just birth-right and the Laws and liberties of the people to their free exercise and splendor which this present Parliament have to their eternal glory and honor with great prudence and moderation effected How will the Author and the Nation be sure of another Act of Oblivion of so full and comprehensive Mercy as that which is already passed and published If that should not be an Act of Parliament it is only the Kings Declaration which is pleadable in no Court for any mans discharge Besides his Majesties Declaration from Breda referres to this Parliament now sitting and by his letters to them hee obliged himself by his Royal word to passe those Laws which are already Enacted and others now in Agitation for the quiet settlement of the Nation and therefore he is not concerned in Honor or Conscience for otherwise he is not obliged to give his Royal Assent to those Acts when they shall be presented to him by the Long-Parliament if they could get a being quasi ex post liminio as the Author hath conceited it And let him be confident the desires of the Nation are utterly against it who will never willingly be brought to seek a plaister from those very men that have broken their heads Thirdly the Authors malevolent nature appears in this That relying upon one distinction only that there is a difference betwixt the nature of a Parliament in its ordinary constitution and a Parliament strengthened by a special Law made to that purpose and some few shreds out of the third Institutes he dares to cross the general opinion of learned men and like a pigmy upon the shoulders of a giant bid defiance to all opposers 't is a curst cow that will be fighting though she hath short horns and he hath a great minde to swimming that will adventure to cross the Seas in a cockboat But not to dwell in the porch it will be agreed to the Author that Parliaments rightly constituted in the general are very instrumental for the safety and happiness of this Kingdome and that the Members of Parliament ought to enjoy their due privileges But his inference will not hold in applying the general rule to every particular Parliament For though the general constitution be good and convenient to the nature of our Government yet some of the particular instances may be defective and erronious in their judgement and proceedings And no wonder seeing the rule in Livy is generally true in consilijs major pars plerumque vincit meliorem We have had insanum Parliamentum of old And the effects of the late Long Parliament caused by the faction and perversness of some predominant parties amongst them even to the dissolution of our Government is a sufficient proof in the judgement of sober and unbiassed persons that the general thesis ought to be understood with several limitations And although the Members of Parliament ought to enjoy their lawfull privileges yet it doth not follow that therefore those men should be permitted to sit whose Authority is determined by the course of Law as shall be hereafter most manifestly proved His particular Arguments are drawn from the body and preamble of the Act of 17 Caroli First from the preamble he endeavours to prove by way of Implication That that Parliament intended to secure themselves against all the causes of dissolution as well by the Kings Death as otherwise and thus he argues in effect That the Parliament being necessitated to borrow money for the publique Service for he waves