Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	case_n	king_n	law_n	2,786	5	4.8506	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62698	Tam quam, or, A attaint brought in the supream court of the King of kings, upon the statutes, Exod. 20. 7, 16 and Levit. 19. 12 against those modern jurors, who have found any indictments upon the statutes of 23 Eliz., 29 Eliz., or 3 Jacobi, against Protestants, for monthly absence from church, without any confession of the parties, or oath of witness against them, or made any presentments of them : contrary to the express letter of their oaths taken in a Court of Judgment, the course of the law of England, or any right reason : wherein is discoursed, whether any Protetant be concerned in that part of those laws? : the contrary is proved : as also whether a grand-jury's finding and indictment, be any evidence to a petit-jury? : the absurdness, and most pernicious consequents of which are detected, and the vengeance of God agaisnt false-swearing is declared / by one who prosecutes, as well for his sovereign lord the King of kings, as for the lives, liberties, and properties of all the subjects of England.	One who persecutes as well for his sovereign lord the King of kings as for the lives, liberties, and properties of all the subjects of England.	1683 (1683)	Wing T133; ESTC R17	24,452	40

God's Vengeance upon themselves as to think that they may do it upon a common Fame and that not proved before them neither nay more that they may do it though some of themselves know the contrary to such Presentment or Indictment and put the Persons to 40 s. charge at Sessions or 7 or 8 l. charge at the Assizes to clear themselves and very often it is proved that such Presentments are notoriously false Now that a Petit-Jury should take such Presentments or Indictments for Evidence is a thing so obviously contrary to Sense and Reason as well as their Oath which they take that nothing need be said against it 6. It is expresly contrary to the Law of England in all other Causes Criminal That the Presentments of Officers who present ex officio should go for Evidence Nor doth either the Common or statute-Statute-Law of England direct it any where in this Case This is to make the Accusers Evidence and to confound Accusers and Witnesses Whereas Si satis sit accusari nullus erit innocens It was all our Fore-father's Opinion that none could be innocent if the Accusers might be allowed for Evidence If the Grand-Jury do but deliver in the Presentments or Indictments of others they are in that case considered as Judges in the Matter of Fact averring their charitable belief that such Presentments are true If the Presentment ariseth originally from themselves they are but the Accusers and in that capacity can be no Evidence to say that Common Fame is the Accuser in the Case when that Common Fame is a mere aerial thing suck'd in by some or other of the Grand-Jury and not justified to the whole Body of the Grand Jury vivâ Voce is but to dignify a Chimera There can be no Common Fame without a multitude to report it which I presume Grand-Juries have not coming to them upon that Errand and if they had they must be sworn in Court before by the Law of England they can come near to make the Common Fame In all such Cases therefore to make a Grand-Jury an Evidence to the Petit-Jury is to make Accusers Evidence the Consequents of which I leave to every Man of sense 7. If Malice did not out-law the Reason of Jurors who find Indictments on no other Evidence than this they would consider Hodie mihi cras tibi What you make the Lot of others to day may be yours to morrow A Grand-Jury may find against you an Indictment for treasonable words you never spake Heretical Opinions or Speeches Murder Theft Burglary In three or four of these Cases it is very ordinary for Grand-Juries to find upon slighty Evidence because the Good of the Publick is concerned If the Petit-Jury need no other Evidence every Subject's Life Liberty and Property is at the Mercy of every Villain If any will say that in such Cases there must be further Evidence brought to the Petit-Jury I ask Why Evidence is Evidence I hope in one Cause as well as in another except the statute-Statute-Law directs otherwise which I am sure it doth not Besides that Grand-Juries often find Indictments where the Publick Peace and Government is concerned upon very slight Evidence because they know they cannot be convicted without other more full and particular Evidence So that to allow their finding the Indictment for Evidence to found a Conviction upon is the greatest Unrighteousness imaginable Upon the Trial of my Lord Shaftsbury my Lord Chief Justice told the Grand-Jury That that which was referred to them to consider was Whether upon the Evidence should be given to them there be any Reason or Ground for the King to call these Persons to an account if there be probable ground it is as much as you are to enquire into You are not to judg the Persons but for the Honour of the King and Decency of the Matter it is not thought fit by the Law that Persons should be accused and indicted where there is no colour nor ground for it where there is no kind of suspicion of a Crime nor reason to believe that the thing can be proved It is not for the King's Honour to call Men to an account in such Cases therefore you are to enquire Whether that that you hear be any Cause or Reason for the King to put the Party to answer it You do not condemn nor is there such a strict enquiry to be made by you as by others that are sworn to a Fact or Issue A probable Cause or some Ground that the King hath to call those Persons to answer for it is enough Gentlemen for you to find the Bill it is as much as is by Law required From this great Oracle of Law may easily be gathered 1. That any probable Ground or Reason that the King hath to question a Person for such a Fact any kind of suspicion of the Crime and that it may be proved is enough for a Grand-Jury 2. That the Grand-Juries Work is not to condemn nor to make so strict an inquiry as the Jury for Trial who are sworn to a Fact or Issue Add now to this the common sayings of some little Country Lawyers at a Sessions Cushion That the Grand-Juries finding the Indictment is Evidence enough And affirming to Juries That this is Law and observe what follows Then a suspicion that a Man hath stollen an Horse or a probable Ground that the King hath reason to question a Man for a Murder without any strict inquiry into the thing whether it be so or no is ground enough by Law for a Petit-Jury to find a Man guilty of the Theft or of the Murder But this was not my Lord Chief Justice his sense who tells us the Jury for Trial who are sworn to a Fact or Issue must make a strict enquiry as to which he conceiveth a Grand-Jury not concerned and therefore what they find is no Evidence to a Petit-Jury But those that find an Indictment upon no other Evidence are apparently forsworn bringing in their Verdict not according to their Evidence but without any Evidence CHAP. III. A short Disquisition whether the Statutes of 23 Eliz. 29 Eliz. and 3 Jacobi concern any Protestants The Arguments for their concern in them propounded and answered and found too light to ballance three great Arguments to the contrary which are propounded and enlarged upon 1. I Know it is Forreign to this Discourse to debate the Question Whether those Statutes of 23 Eliz. 29 Eliz. 3 Jac. do in all the branches of them concern Protestants or no particularly in those Branches which relate to coming to or absenting from Church Great Lawyers are divided in their Opinions as to it those who think they do urge 1. The general words every Person and the mention of Recusants sometimes without the addition of Popish 2. The reference of those Statutes to the Stat. 1 Eliz. 2. in which they say Protestants as well as Papists are most certainly concerned 3. The Oath of Allegiance which is within

Promisory Oath by disclaiming any desire of help or Salvation from God and his Gospel if they do present any thing but the Truth that should come to their knowledg or find any otherwise than according to their Evidence That they would every one make haste and bring their Trespass Offering to the Lord by a serious confession of an Iniquity than which hardly any is capable of higher aggravation and make satisfaction to their Neighbours for the wrong they have done them by forswearing themselves in which Case no Divines will say Repentance is true without what Satisfaction we are able to give our Neighbours upon their Souls will lie the cries of Parents Husbands Wives and Children imprisoned or ruined and undone by their going expresly contrary to their Oaths in Judgment and let them be assured there is Wrath against them from the Lord and if those Texts Zech. 5. 4. and Mal. 3. 5. be pieces of Holy Writ God will be a swift Witness against them and the Curse of God will enter into their Houses and abide there until it hath consumed the Timber thereof and the Stones thereof If therefore you believe there is a God or that the Scriptures are the Word of God If you believe that both your Bodies and Souls are subject to the Power and Justice of God both in this Life and that which is to come shew it by fearing to swear and not punctually doing according to what you have sworn There is no greater indication of Atheists than swearing falsly or not performing punctually what they have sworn Nor is it possible that there should be a more infamous Pest of Humane Society True Oaths in Judgment preserve and uphold it false swearing destroys it and turneth it into an Herd of Beasts for it is not possible Justice should be supported where the Religion of an Oath is lost Whosoever sweareth falsly to the prejudice of his Neighbour whether as a Juror or a Witness is condemned in the Law of God and though his Judgment may sleep awhile yet it is not probable it should sleep long when demanded of the Righteous Judg by the importunate Cries of so many as are oppressed by it 2. And let it not be accounted presumption in me to beseech such worthy Gentlemen as his Majesty hath thought fit to dignify with the Commission of the Peace to consider what they do in Causes of this Nature Those Noble and Worthy Gentlemen cannot but know that it is most notoriously contrary to the Law of England for those who are Judges in any case to influence Jurors or Witnesses who being under Oaths ought to be left free to the true Observance of them and not urged either to what is certainly or is in their opinion a violation of them Witnesses ought not to be instructed and to be so instructed is enough according to all just Laws in the World to invalidate their Testimony Constables in their Presentments given in at Assizes and Sessions are Witnesses they are generally all the Evidence Grand-Jurors have unless some Informers which is very rare swear such Informations or Indictments before them Or some of their own Body know the Matter of Fact to be true which as rarely happeneth To instruct them and much more to threaten and fright them into such Presentments is the boldest violation of all Laws both of God and Men that is imaginable Judges have no more to do than to declare the Law and to receive such Presentments of Facts contrary to it as Persons upon Oath shall give freely according to their Consciences If Persons under Oaths to make Presentments do not make them truly they may be legally prosecuted for their Concealments but to force them being upon their Oaths to make Presentments which they profess they cannot do in Truth is what is neither justifiable to God nor Men. That Jurors are not finable by Judges for their Verdicts hath been resolved twice within these few Years once by Parliament in the Year 1677 in the Case of my Lord Chief Justice Keeling who had fined a Grand-Jury in Somersetshire for not finding an Indictment of Murder for which they saw no Evidence The Parliament judged That the Presidents and Practices of fining Juries in and for not giving their Verdicts is Illegal and the Chief Justice was then for it brought upon his Knees to the Bar of the House of Commons The other by the Justices of the Common Pleas in Brown Bushel's Case largely reported by my Lord Chief Justice Vaughan and certainly they are no more to be over-awed and threatned than to be fined The Wise Man commandeth us saying Prov. 23. 10. Remove not the old Land-mark and enter not into the Fields of the Fatherless The removing of old Land-marks in Judgment and entring into the Fields of the Fatherless usually follow the one the other they are seldom or never removed but in order to some notorious Oppression The Curse of God therefore is against them that do it Deut. 27. 17. Our Fore-fathers set these as Land-marks for Publick Justice That no Persons in our Publick Courts of Judicature should be deprived of Life Liberty or Property but by the Judgment of at least 24. Persons twelve or more to enquire whether there were any probably just ground so much as to call in Question such a Person for such a Crime for which any such Punishment should be inflicted other twelve to try the thing in issue according to such Evidence as they should have upon Oath given of it That neither the first nor second of these Juries should be awed or threatned into their Verdict nor fined for it but left to their Consciences upon their Oaths That nothing should be found against any but upon good and sufficient Evidence of honest and legal Witnesses If these ancient Land-marks be removed we shall soon see entring into the Fields of the Fatherless 3. I shall conclude with another saying of Solomon Eccles 10. 8. He that diggeth a Pit shall fall into it and whoso breaketh an Hedg a Serpent shall bite him Those that alter the just Order and Boundaries of Law founded upon Reason and Justice usually pay for their Folly cutting up a Bridg which at one time or other they or their Children will want for themselves to pass over for the avoiding of the hands of Violence and Oppression We shall observe that the Righteous God punisheth no Sins so frequently by Retaliation as those which are against Justice and Charity and therein he infinitely commendeth his Love to humane Society for the preservation and upholding of it against the brutish Passions of those who will deny their own reason to disturb it and abjure their Manhood to prove themselves Creatures meerly under the conduct of their concupiscible or irrascible Appetite from which sottishness let every good Man deliver himself FINIS There is lately published a useful Treatise for this present Juncture Intituled The Case and Cure of Persons Excommunicated according to the present Law of England With some Friendly Advice to Persons pursued in Inferior Ecclesiastical Courts by Malicious Promoters both in order to their avoiding Excommunication or delivering themselves from Prisons if imprisoned because they have stood Excommunicated Fourty days With an account of their several Fees due in those Courts Sold by Richard Janeway