Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	council_n	king_n	parliament_n	2,699	5	7.2438	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87131	A discourse shewing, that the spirit of parliaments, with a council in the intervals, is not to be trusted for a settlement: lest it introduce monarchy, and persecution for conscience. By James Harrington.	Harrington, James, 1611-1677.	1659 (1659)	Wing H812; Thomason E993_9; ESTC R202589	5,458	12

A DISCOURSE Shewing That the Spirit of PARLIAMENTS With a COUNCIL in the Intervals Is not to be trusted for a Settlement Lest it introduce MONARCHY AND Persecution for Conscience By JAMES HARRINGTON LONDON Printed by J. C. for Henry Fletcher at the three gilt Cups neer the West-end of Pauls 1659. A DISCOURSE c. THe present case considered I need say no more then If there be no Bar a Parliament may consist wholly or in the greater part of Presbyterians or Royalists and if there be a Bar it is no Government by Parliaments but by the Bar that is upon them which must be of greater danger But the House of Commons as hath been hitherto usual in England consisted of about four hundred Deputies of the People for the most part Gentlemen and old Stagers elected again and again unto the same imployment without vacation this is that which being sweet in the stomack of divers is the old love for which they detest new forms Such an Assembly for the number and nature of their elections is somewhat too low and too large to come up unto the true interest of a King and too high and too narrow to descend wholly unto the true interest of the People they have antiently provided diligently that they might hawk and hunt without impediment of the King and of the lower sort to whom it was almost capital to spoil their game and though this may seem but a jesting instance yet have the rest of their Laws for their pitch been much of the middle way or of the like Genius while they were under a Nobility but since through the natural decay of that order they came to a greater height it hath been to endure no check Wherefore as it hath been found under a King that such an Assembly will endure no King through the check they apprehend from him so it will be found that under a Commonwealth they will be addicted unto the introduction of Monarchy through the check they apprehend from the people Certain it is that an alteration of Government going no farther then the institution of Parliaments and a Council in the Intervals can come to no more then that so often as the Council shall be changed for a King or the King for a Council so often the Commonwealth if this deserve any such name must be changed into Monarchy and the Monarchy into a Commonwealth which changes may be made with such ease and suddenness that every night it may be a cast of a Dye what the Government shall be the next morning Where the alteration I say of the Government is no greater then from a Kings Chair to a narrow Bench of Counsellours there goeth no more to make a Single Person then throwing down the Bench and setting up the Chair nor to make a Commonwealth such an one as it is then throwing down the Chair and setttng up the Bench But for the farther discovery of such Causes as in so strange and unheard-of innovation may give frequent or continual mutations if this posture of things be upheld as I cannot see how otherwise it should stand by an Army Let us consider three things First What is incident unto such an Army Secondly What is incident unto such a Council And thirdly What is incident unto such a Parliament It is incident unto such an Army let the body thereof be never so popularly affected to be under a Monarchical Administration or to be top-heavy in their great Officers which will have power whether they will or no to oversway both the Army and the Government as in the setting up of the late Single person Again if the body of the Army mutiny against the Government neither their great Officers nor any thing else in the Parliament or Council can withstand them as in the pulling down of the latter Single Person whence it is evident that such an Army can be no foundation of any Settlement A Council in the Intervals though it should rule well will yet have a tendency toward preservation or prolongation of it self and if it rule ill will be obnoxious unto Parliaments for which cause what help for themselves shall be in their power is to be presumed will be in their will and they have the same power which the King had or which is all one are in as effectual a posture to obstruct or elude the meeting of Parliaments therefore it will be in their will to do it and if they will this they reduce the Government into Oligarchy then into Faction and last of all into Confusion The people this while must unavoydably perceive this Council to consist of too few to be Fellows and of too many to be Masters for which cause being all broken into Faction some for a Commonwealth and some for Monarchy Parliaments coming by gusts whether with or against the will of the Council will either be torn with like Faction among themselves or pull down the Council as no Government and endeavour some Settlement Now if a Monarchy as most likely because most obvious be set up it can be no settlement because it is quite contrary unto the Balance of the Nation and so they mend nothing but make greater confusion and a Common-wealth or Democracy consisteth of such Orders such Novelties in this Land as will never be light upon by an Assembly nor credited by such as are unexperienced in the Art so that this Nation going thus far about will come but unto that very point where it now stands at gaze or to far greater confusion for which there is no Remedy save onely that they who are in power would lay aside all prejudice unto pretended Novelties and innovations or rather not give themselves unto such Novelties as tend unto confusion for such have been the late changes but consider such Antiquities as have been and must be the Rule and Reason of a wise proceeding in that which by the Providence of God never was before and yet is now come to be the truth of their Case But if what hath been hitherto shewn be the certain consequence of Parliaments with a Council in the Intervals as that it will be no setlement but a State now setting up then pulling down Kings or single Persons it is apparent that what introduceth Monarchy introduceth suppression of civil Liberty and in that of Liberty of Conscience Wherefore certain it is that the Spirit of a Parliament with a Council in the Intervals is not to be trusted lest it introduce Monarchy and suppression of Liberty and in that of the Liberty of Conscience nor the spirit of any Form whatsoever but that onely of a Democracy or Free State which is the same that through Novelties introduced by God himself is onely practicable as a settlement in the present case of this distracted Nation The true Form of a Democracy or Free State consisteth especially in this That as to Law-giving the wisdom of the Nation propose and the interest of the Nation