Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	time_n	5,928	5	3.4202	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70119	The Good old cause explained, revived, & asserted and the Long-Parliament vindicated in a remonstrance to His Excellency the Lord Fleetwood and councel of officers : being the sense and earnest desires of many thousands honest well-affected persons of the army and people in this nation : with several expedients humbly offered, 1. for the settling and securing of our civil and spiritual rights and freedoms, and the publique peace of the nation, 2. for the speedy raising of moneys to pay the arrears of the army and navy, and future supply of other publique ingagements, as the most probable and visible way and means now under God left to accomplish the same, and preserves us from that inevitable confusion and destruction which hangs over and threatens the three nations.		1659 (1659)	Wing G1078; ESTC R7873	7,948	8

The Good Old Cause Explained Revived Asserted AND The Long-Parliament Vindicated IN A Remonstrance to his Excellency the Lord Fleetwood and Councel of Officers Being the Sense and earnest Desires of many thousands honest well-affected Persons of the Army and People in this Nation With several Expedients humbly offered 1. For the settling and securing of our Civil and Spiritual Rights and Freedoms and the publique Peace of the Nation 2. For the speedy raising of Moneys to pay the Arrears of the Army and Navy and future supply of other Publique Ingagements as the most probable and visible Way and Means now under God left to accomplish the same And preserve us from that inevitable Confusion and Destruction which hangs over and threatens the three Nations THe things contended for with the late King in the late Warr wherein there was great effusion of Christian bloud and vaste Treasure spent Consisted principally of these particulars 1. That our Persons and Estates might not be disposed of at the Arbitrary will and pleasure of the King and his evill Counsellours and other his loose adherents But secured and protected according to Magna Charta the Petition of Right and other wholesome Lawes made for the Defence and Safety of the People against Tyranny Oppression and Arbitrariness which in those dayes were too often exercised 2. To have our Spiritual Rights and Freedoms secured unto us and the honest conscientious people preserved from the Rage and Fury of the Bishops and their adherents who grievously persecuted many for differences in Judgment in point of Form and Ceremonies and for not conforming to their Canons against the dictates of their own Consciences though holding forth and agreeing in Fundamentalls warranted by Scripture 3. Upon the whole to have a thorough Reformation of Religion Laws and Manners And to have Prophaneness Licentiousnesse and Loosenesse of Conversation discountenanced and suppressed and true Piety Sobriety and Uprightnesse of Conversation Righteousnesse and Peace encouraged and maintained 4. And lastly to have the Militia of the Nation secured and disposed of in such Hands as might exercise the same for the Defence and Common Preservation of our Lives Liberties Rights and Proprieties And to prevent the future use thereof for the introducing and support of Tyranny Slavery and Arbitrarinesse in matters Civil and Spiritual so highly attempted by the late King and his Party And it pleased the Lord of Hoasts after many sharp Contests and bloudy Battels fought betwixt the King and Pa●liament concerning the premisses to decide the Quarrel on the Parliaments side by the total vanquishing of the King and his Party whereby the Parliament who could by no other means prevail with the King to a reasonable Condiscention to the just things demanded from him were now by the hand of Providence put in a capacity without him to effect the same and accomplish the premisses being the earnest and longing desires and fervent prayers of the good People of the Nation who freely hazarded their Lives and Fortunes in this Good Old Cause which no good Man hath cause to renounce or be ashamed of We say GOOD Because it hath a tendency to the advancing of Gods glory the maintenance and Reformation of the Essentials and Body of Religion in its purity according to the Word of God in opposition to Popery Atheism Superstition and Prophaneness and the securing of the Peoples just Rights Liberties Properties Priviledges and Immunities against Tyranny Arbitrariness and Oppression OLD Because Anciently and Originally all Power was in the People and the design of setting up all Governments and Governours was alwayes professed for the good of the People who primarily had the power and choice of Electing both But lost it by the craft policy and sinister contrivances of aspiring-persons whose Ambition reached as high as the Heavens and their pride would admit of no Equal on Earth The regaining our Liberties and Rights and the re-investing the Supream Authority in the Peoples Representatives in Parliament hath for many scores of years been the great desires of the good people of this Nation to accomplish the ends aforesaid being wearied with the former Oppression and Slavery under Kings Lords and B●shops which long before the late Warrs many thousands of the Nations would which many of them often declared and suff●red for it willingly have shaken off but could not effect the same untill it pleased the Lord out of his Almighty providence after the total suppressing of the power and interest of that party in these Nations to put it into the hearts of that good old Parliament to settle the Government in the way of a FREE STATE which sort of Gove●nment is neither New nor Strange The Venetians the Bullwark of Christendome having for many hundreds of years lived happily and Victoriously in the way of a Common-wealth And our Neighbours the States of Holland since they shook off the Spanish Yoake have lived very plentifully and comfortably and highly improved their Trade and Interest whose freedome in the Exercise of their Religion doth in no sort obstruct or disturb the Government or peace of that State Nor would it probably prove otherwise in this Nation if once the peoples Spiritual and Civil Rights Liberties and Proprieties were effectually settled and established So that this Good Old Cause is of far longer standing and hath its essence and beginning before the ten years times prefixed in a late printed paper and long before the Author or his great Grandfather were born And in order to the securing the ends of this Good Old Cause See their Declaration of 17 March 1648. the Parliament Declared the Grounds of their late proceedings And of settling the Government in the way of a FREE STATE Which being seriously considered is sufficient to satisfie every honest conscientious well-affected man touching that affair The Office of Kingly Power or under any other Name in a single Person being well weighed and the Vaste Charge to support it and the manner and exercise thereof in these Nations duly considered will appear to have served mostly to satisfie their own boundless Ambition Pride and Cruelty grinding the faces of the people and prodigally spending Christian Bloud and the Treasure of the Nations upon punctillioes of Honour personal Titles and particular revenge and dislastes and other sinister ends under pretence of State-Policy Assuming to themselves that Supremacy in all matters which none may question much lesse punish how illegal arbitrary or unwarrantable soever their actions may be And their greedy Courtiers attendants and adherents trampling upon and oppressing the Gentry and poor Commonalty with their new invented Rates Taxes and Monopolies of all sorts and other Court-Inventions Cum privilegio And their Courts have been frequently observed to be the Patterns Nurseries and protectors of covetousnesse pride ambition and loosenesse The Excesse of the Court their relations and attendants proving an intolerable charge and burthen on the People The Ends and Designs for which the Long

Parliament did thus change the Government from this Tyranny into a Free-State appears in their said printed Declaration to be 1. To prevent a new and further expence and effusion of the Treasure and Blood of England 2. To establish a firm and safe peace and an oblivion of all Rancor and ill-Will occasioned by the late troubles The establishing the Government in any one single Person or Family under what name or qualification soever serving only to intayle a war on us and our posterities to maintain personall interests inconsistent with the good and welfare of the Nation 3. To provide for the due Worship of God according to his word the advancement of the true protestant Religion and for the liberall and certain maintenance of godly Ministers 4. To procure a just Liberty for the Consciences Persons and Estates of all men conformable to God's glory and their own peace 5. To endeavour vigorously the punishment of the cruell Murtherers in Ireland the restoring of the honest Protestants and this Commonwealth to their rights there and the full satisfaction of all Engagements for this work 6. To provide for the setling and just observing of Treaties and Alliances with forraign Princes and States for the encouragement of Manufactures for the increase and flourishing of Trades at home and the maintenance of the poor in all places of the Land 7. To take care for the due Reformation and Administration of the Law and publique Justice that the evill may be punished and the good rewarded 8. To order the Revenue in such a way that the publique charges may be defrayed the souldiers Pay justly and duely setled that free quarter may be wholly taken off the People be eased in their Burthens and Taxes and the debts of the Commonwealth be justly satisfied 9. To remove all grievances and oppressions of the People and to establish peace and righteousnesse in the Land The Parliament passed an Act for the abolishing of the House of Lords that grand Badge and Relique of the Norman Conquest 19. March 1648. which served only for a Negative voyce against the Peoples just rights and liberties being the great obstructors of good Lawes and supportors of the arbitrary unlimited will and pleasure of Princes It was Enacted 19. May 1649. That the People of England and of all the Dominions and Territories thereto belonging be constituted made established and confirmed to be a Common-wealth and Free State and shall he henceforth governed as a Common-wealth and Free S●ate by the Supreme Authoritie of the Nation the Presentators of the People in Parliament And by such as they shall appoint Officers and Ministers of the good of the People And that WITHOUT ANY KING OR HOUSE OF LORDS 14. May 1649. And it was Enacted That if any person shall malitiously publish by writing printing or openly declaring that the Government of the People by its own Representatives or Nationall méetings in Councel is Tyrannicall usurped or unlawful Or that the Commons in Parliament Assembled are not the Supreme Authority of the Nation Or plot contrive or endeavour to raise force against the present Government or the subversion or alteration of the same And shall declare the same by an open Déed every such offence shall be adjudged HIGH-TREASON Which Acts are yet unrepealed That the Parliament though they were famous for their Heroick and worthy Acts not giving satisfaction to all men in all things were by some as is conceived unadvisedly interrupted 20 April 1655. who have many of them since on serious consideration of the ill consequence thereof and the hidden designs and private ends of some amongst them heartily repented them thereof and openly confessed and declared the same and their other backslidings and fallings off from that good old Cause By reason of which interruption the Parliament were obstructed and dis-enabled from accomplishing the good things hoped for and by them promised and intended to have been wrought for the People And since that time What great changes have hapned both in the Government and Governours what daubings with untempered mo●ter and flattering applications have been made and apparent violations of all former Oaths Covenants Promises Declarations and Ingagements deserting of their good old Professions and Principles even by many who before were eminent and precious men for their piety and integrity And all to patch a Government distastful and abominable to God and good men and so repugnant to the Judgements Consciences and affections of the honest well affected unbiassed people of the Nations and this good old Cause that their spirits were grieved and tormented their hearts trembled their bowels did yearn within them for these great abominations and high breach of faith and trust committed in the face of the Nation who by the ambitious and covetous designs of carnall men displeasing to God are brought low the Trade Treasure and Honour of the Nation being decayed lost and exhausted and excessive debts contracted on them But to adde iniquity to sin and aggravate these their transgressions How many godly honest and w●ll-affected people have been since persecuted imprisoned executed banished and oppressed for a good Conscience their Goods and Estates taken from them contrary to the known Lawes of the Nation and liberties of the People which the Actors thereof so often vowed promised and declared to maintain What Inquisitors were set-up to block up and obstruct the wayes of the righteous How many men of loose principles and carnal ends were approved and intrusted with the work of the Ministry How many good men put by and their mouthes stopped And how many wayes were used to suppress the Good old Cause and the reall pro●essors and patterns of true Religion and Piety We leave it to the good people of the Nation to judge of The Lord having eminently born witness and testified his high displeasure against these iniquities and abominations And that which is wonderful in the eyes of all men With what violence and inconsiderateness the LAWYERS and other disaffected ambitious persons in the late Parliament did carry on the Design of Kingship And the re-establishing of King Lords and Bishops tending to the re-investing of Charls Stuart and his party How ready they were to give away the Militia Strength and Treasure of the Nation into the hands of a single-Person contrary to the aforesaid Act and all fo●mer Declarations Propositions and Ingagements pleading for and earnestly contending to inslave themselves and their Posterity And at one breath to give away all the rights freedoms and liberties of the People which during many years Warre with the price of so much Blood and Treasure they had gained But the Lord our God having stirred your Spirits to put a stop to these exorbitant and unsafe proceedings and once more to give the opportunity to advance the Kingdom of Christ To propagate the Gospel and to countenance and support the profession and professors thereof To repair and heal our breaches To regulate the Lawes and Courts

of Justice And by Gods assistance to lay a sure foundation for the future intailing and securing of our Civil and Spiritual rights to us and our Posterity that we and they may have cause to pray for you and God may blesse and prosper your undertakings And having considered the present extraordinary vicissitudes And that most rational men acknowledge the Legislative power is primarily and originally in the People for whose only mutuall good all Lawes and Governments ought to be constituted according to that good old Maxime Salus populi supremalex And all personal and private advantages and promotions in competition therewith ought to be layd aside and wholly put out of remembrance And every individual person ought to study the general peace welfare and comfort of the whole Give us leave then in all meekness and humility of Spirit to lay these things before you as so many mementoes of former actions that you may thereby avoid the like evill and prevent those inconveniences which must consequently attend all private and sinister respects repugnant to the publique having no cause to be jealous of your integrity But the sad consideration of the failings and total fallings away of many pious and worthy persons that went before you whose wings were clogged and themselves insnared with the worldly temptation of Satan to our Saviour who have preferred and embraced an Earthly Tabernacle before the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven we have better hopes of you And our prayers shall not cease to the Lord that your zeal and affection to his people may not be abated for any terrestrial Concernments Proposalls for future peace and settlement of the Nations 1 That the long Parliament so as aforesaid interrupted in their proceedings who setled the Government in the way of a Free State may be forthwith convened and re-established And for that purpose The Army and other good people of the Nation would declare to stand by and protect them in order to an effectual settlement of the good things by them promised and held forth to the People in their said Declaration of the 17th of March 1648. And for further provision to be made as may conduce to the peace and welfare of the Nations being the most visible remaining Authority and most probable persons to effect the same since the late Warres for the publique satisfaction of all persons forms and degrees of men in these Nations 2. That all others of the long Parliament that shall concur with them in reducing the Government in the way of Free State And shall subscribe to and own their and the Armies proceedings against the late King and his party be afterwards admitted and all vacant places filled 3 That after such settlement an Act may be passed for an equal Representative and distribution of Elections for the future with sitting qualifications and provisions for the future securing of our peace rights liberties and priviledges 4 That the Militia of the Nation may be intrusted in the hands of persons well affected to the Nation and the Interest of a Free State 5 That all Malignants and persons ill affected to this settlement that have crept into places military or civil may be amoved And that those Officers and Souldiers that for their integrity to this Good old Cause or for a good Conscience have been put out may be speedily restored 6 That the Lawes and exhorbitances of Courts of Justice and Offices may be regulated and the People eased from the obstructions charge and delayes in Law proceedings 7 That the Arreares of the Army and Navy may be payd and for the future secured And that no person be displaced in an arbitrary manner as formerly without due summons examinations and other legall proceedings against them according to the Lawes Martial and Civil 8 That provision be made for tender Consciences and others differing in matters of form and they freed from the former persecutions 9 That an Act of Indempnity and Pardon may be made for the Officers and Souldiers of the Army and others that have legally acted in publique places suitable to the nature and exigency of those affaires 10 That effectual meanes be used to beget and continue peace and a right understanding betwixt Us and our Neighbour-Nations hereby Trade and Commerce may be encouraged and maintained being almost lost and decayed to the ruine of many Merchants and Families Proposalls for raising of monies 1 That a grand Committee be appointed and a sub-Committee authorized in every County to examine and take the accompts of all Committees Commissioners Excisemen Treasurers Receivers Farmers and Collectors of the publique monies and Revenues belonging to the State many sober knowing men being or opinion that there remains above 100000 l. unaccompted for out of the Tithes and Church-livings in Wales which was in great measure discovered and under examination in the last Parliament 2 That either the Fees and Salaries of the grand Officers belonging to the respective Courts of the Nation may be retrenched and regulated Or rather an yearly Mulct imposed on them suitable to the profits of their places to continue untill the publique debts of the Nation be payd 3 That the Fees of the grand Officers of the Army and of other publique imployments may be likewise retrenched until the publique debts and arrears of the Army and Navy be payd And that Companies and Troops shall consist of full numbers viz. each Company 120 besides Officers every Troop 100. And that superfluous Officers may be spared to ease the burthen of the Common-wealth which seemes but reasonable in time of peace and otherwise provided for and incouraged in publique imployments 4 That such eminent and wealthy persons who were the chief and main Instruments in altering the Government from a Free State and supporting the same such who have been instrumentall in oppressing the Nation and exercising Tyranny and arbitrariness on the good people and Inhabitants thereof and have otherwise contributed to the great wrongs and grievances imposed on the Nation and every individual member thereof in misleading and misguiding the Army and others the honest well-meaning people of the Nation And such as have endeavoured or effected the betraying of our Lawes Liberties and Priviledges in matters civil and spiritual and the setting up of Kingship or the Powers military or civil in one single person contrary to the aforesaid Acts for settling the Government in the way of a Free State may be sined to the value of the 3d or at least the 5th part of their Estates reall and personal towards the pay of the Army and Navy and defraying of other publique charges of the Nation And an Act of Pardon and Indempnity for the rest which is both favourable and moderate since it is humbly conceived they have forfeited their lives and Estates by the strictness of those Acts of the 14th and 19th March 1648. And many of the offendors have gained vast Estates by the late Warres and other publique Imployments Before we leave you and you desert us you are desired to consider 1. THe Potency and Multitude of the Enemies at home and abroad The Interest of the Family of the Stuarts The Treaties Peace Confederacion and Alliances of Forreign Princes and States whom you have disobliged and by your Divisions and unsettlednesse rendred your selves almost uncapable of Treaties and Accommodation of Peace your Faith Credit and Stedfastnesse of your Resolutions being doubted as well by your Friends as Foes 2. If you return to the Petition and Advice do you not give your late Representation and Addresse a deniall Have you done well to break the last Parliament to assert the Good Old Cause and immediately after trample it under your feet and wholly to desert your friends and principles who will leave you and your single Interest and Family to perish in your own self-seeking wayes Must you not then call another Parliament and will they answer your expectations or rather Chastise you for dissolving the last and wholly disband you 3. Can the Interest of a single Family in opposition to the Stuarts long subsist Will not the Interest of a Free-State more probably support and preserve us in peace and answer the ends of the Warr and the pressing Desires of the People whose general good and Interest will be involved therein and every man bound to venture life and fortune to maintain it even the Cavalier who in honour and honesty cannot be either compelled or perswaded to set up and support one Family-Interest against the other who may have more of Law Right and Reason on his side and many Oaths to Oblige them thereto which will not be so if you establish a Free-State 4. Do you not find the Judgments Affections and Desires of the generality of the good People for a Free-State And the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty against a single Person and the Other House which is so obnoxious to all men both for its Constitution and Qualification 5. Will you adventure to set up a Councel Senate or Parliament of your own nomination which you may as easily pull down new modell and change and can you imagine this Nation will submit to such arbitrary proceedings and be governed by the sole power of a Confused unsettled Army 6. For your own and the Nations Common preservation give life and motion to the Convention of the Long Parliament as the onely refuge left for you and us under God and the sole Chirurgions that can cure and heal our diseases Delayes are dangerous FINIS