Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A49316
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The prerogative of the monarchs of Great Brittain asserted according to the antient laws of England. Also, A confutation of that false maxim, that royal authority is originally and radically in the people. By Bartholomew Lane, Esq;
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Lane, Bartholomew.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing L330; ESTC R222011
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59,818
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160
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while Men in Holy Orders deviate and maintain the forbidden Interest of Worldly Glory while they seek to support the name and shew of Religion they Adulterate Justice and many times become the main disturbers of the publick Peace Whence Matchiavel makes this observation Matchiavel disâ—câ—â—si l. 1. c. 12. That those People who inhabit nearest to the Church of Rome have the least Religion and ascribes the Bad Estate of Italy to the Roman See And for this he gives two invincible as he calls them Reasons First for that by the evil and wicked Examples of that Court the whole Nation have lost all their Piety and Devotion The next Reason proceeds from the different Interest of Christian Humility and Antichristian Vain-glory. For the Roman Court to maintain the Pomp and Splendour of a Temporal Hierarchy is forc'd to keep not only Italy but all Europe in Division and sometimes to League even with the Turk for its own preservation by which means unhappy Italy being prevented from uniting under their own supream Prince and one frame of Law is expos'd to all the Pretences of her more powerful Neighbours and her pettie Princes are but the precarious Tenants at Will to more mighty Potentates Nor does the Exaltation of the Church encourage the Priesthood to move irregularly out of their Sphere or to lead an Amphibious Life sometimes in the running Streams of the Gospel sometimes upon the Terra Firma of Temporal Government Nor is it in Scripture a warrantable method of seeking Church preferment to oblige the secular Interest by strain'd and wrested Interpretations of the Immaculate Scripture Like Shaw Preaching up the Title of Richard the Third and Latimer the right of Jane Seymour For if the Kingdom of their Lord and Master be not of this World no more does temporal preferment belong to the Ministers of his Doctrine But the true Exaltation of the Church is to protect it's Ministers in the Preaching of sound Scripture to the Conversion of Souls to the building up the new Jerusalem and advancing the future Kingdom of Christ by their endeavouring to increase the number of his Celestial Subjects The Exaltation of the Church protects her neat and pure and exactly cleans'd and swept from all the Cobwebbs of Babylonish Superstition For then will Rome despair of ever setting Foot in England more when with grief she beholds all her Follies and inveigling Allurements Root and Branch extirpated To which end the same resolution might well become the Clergy of England in reference to the Relicks of Popish Ceremonies which was applauded in King Stephen in relation to the Roman Laws who hearing that they were brought into England and lodg'd in the custody of Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury commanded them out of his House publish'd an Edict against the Laws of Italy and banish'd them out of his Realm Not enduring tho' a Forraigner himself any other then the Honesty of the English Constitutions An Act of his not recorded by any of our Historians but by the Learned Selden in his Notes upon Fortescue cited from Roger Bacon's Compendium Theologiae and John of Salisbury in his Treatise de nugis Curiaticum On the other side the Wolf in Sheeps cloathing outwardly Meek and insinuating Heresie and Schisme are equally dangerous and contagious For Heresie the Illegitimate Brat of Contumacy while it labours to shake off from the minds of Men the easie Yoke of Christ at the same time teaches Men to violate their Allegiance to their lawful Princes and they that strive to bring in the Innovations of obstinate Opinion if they get the upper hand seldom change the Religion alone Therefore the Exaltation of the Church defends and guards those Men that give themselves to compose the breaches of Ecclesiastical Differences and labour to beget a harmony and unity of Faith and Devotion which then Religion most truly useful and the most unblemish'd Aid of Civil Justice The second final Cause of this Great Charter was the Amendment of the Kingdom The miscarriages of those times are by our Historians said to be the Cancelling of the Great Charter by the advice of Hubert de Burgh Chief Justiciary of England as first confirm'd by the King during his Nonage The displacing the English Nobility and admitting Poictovins and Forraigners into the Chief employments of the Kingdom and the Impoverishment of the Nation by vast and continual Taxations By the means of which undue proceedings the ancient Laws of the Realm were render'd useless and the Liberty of the People lay at the Mercy of Evil Ministers The amendment of which Grievances as being an Act due to the Honour of God the Salvation of the Kings Soul and the Exaltation of the Church is now intended by the Confirmation of this Great Charter From whence it is inductively demonstrable that if the Establishment of good Laws be the way to procure such inestimable Happiness to a Prince the continuance of bad Customs and Oppression inclines to all the contrary consequences that is to be dishonourable to God hazardous to Salvation and injurious to the Church Which considerations of Eternal Detriment or Felicity when they come to be the inducements to Reformation must certainly be a great advantage to such Reformation that it may prove effectual to all its purposes And then such Act of Reformation is of that high Merit that it produces a benefit of the good exceeding the mischief of the Evil the reason perhaps why Machiavel ascribes a more Exalted renown to those Princes who reform the corruptions of a disorder'd State then to those who only continue the Good Government which they found E veramente saith he un Prencipe cercando la gloria del mondo doverebbe desiderare di possedere una Citta corrotta non par guastarlo come Caesare ma per riordinarla come Romulo A Prince Ambitious of the Honour of this World would desire to come to a Kingdom under the corruption of ill Customs not to ruine it like Caesar but reform it like Romulus For as it is impossible but that Ambition desire of absolute Dominion and many other oversights of Government will many times disturb the Courts of Justice and let in confusion at the Breaches of the Law so is that Prince the more highly to be honour'd who reforms those abuses and restores exiled Justice by how much such Reformation must needs be the more welcome and acceptable even as health is more valued by such as know the Inconveniencies of Sickness then by those who never understood the want of Cure and by how much the Joy is greater for the recovery of the lost Sheep then for those that never went astray Now this Amendment of the Kingdom imply'd the defect of Government and such a defect which endanger'd the Estates Lives and Liberties of the Subject which since they could be no way secur'd but by the Recovery of the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom it follows that seeing the Rights and Liberties of the English People are
Nature spreading their Cherubim-Wings over the Lives and Liberties of every particular person in the Nation The next and sixth Branch Neither will we enter upon his Possession nor commit him may seem to be a particular Promise of moderate Indulgence to the Subject in reference to the peculiar claims and Suits of the King relating to the Crown yet still springing from the same Original Which shews the Kings of England truly fit to rule while they themselves submit to the Laws by which they govern As it was said of Lycurgus Quod nihil lege ulla in alios Sanxit cujus non ipse primus in se Documenta daret The three next Branches relate to the great prejudices and damages which are sustain'd by the ill management and Execution of Justice through the Corruption of its Ministers against which the Law provides in these words We shall sell to no Man Justice or Right We shall deny to no Man Justice or Right We shall delay to no Man Justice or Right The selling of Justice or taking Bribes and the denial and delay of Justice as they are equally dishonourable to God so are they to them that require Justice equally injurious For it is the highest presumption that Man can be guilty of to expose to sale one of the chiefest Attributes of the Almighty There is nothing whereby God more exalts himself to Mankind then in the frequent Repetitions of his Justice Of which he that makes Merchandize prostitutes the Honour of his Maker for filthy lucre and yet neither is it his own to sell for God is the Fountain of Justice from him it all flows and his it is Only he entrusts it with the Ministers of Justice for the good of Mankind He that does Justice uprightly acts like God but he that sells it sells the Act of God and not his own for tho it prove Justice in the purchaser yet it is not Justice in the seller but the Price of the Buyer which if the poor and needy want they must not have because they have not wherewithal to bid for it who are nevertheless under the Protection of Justice equally with the most Opulent However God out of his boundless Providence foresaw how great would be the Temptations of Avarice and the allurements of Gold tho currant no where but upon Earth that he provides against the charming Iniquiry by a strict command Thou shalt not respect persons nor take a Gift for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise So that the high Crimes alledg'd against the Sons of Samuel were that they turn'd after Lucre and took Bribes From whence the Light of Nature infus'd the same detestation of these Misdemeanors in all other Ministers of Justice By Hesiod they are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gift-eaters whom he makes Justice to follow weeping and bewailing the fatal Consequences of her bad usage Phocyllides also from the same Law of Nature could give this advice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let not favour byass Justice for if thou dost saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God will afterwards judge thee And another of the Gnomonicks wouldst thou support thy life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by doing justly then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fly ill got gain We read in Herodotus of Sesamnes one of the Persian Judges put to death for Bribery by Cambyses who caus'd him to be flea'd after he was dead and his Tann'd Skin to be cut into Thongs to make a Seat for his Son Among the Roman's by the Junian Law Bribery or selling of Justice was punish'd with Exile and by the Acilian Law they were immediately to receive Judgment without any demurs It may be thought that selling of places relating to Courts of Judicature was not a custom then in practice else we might conclude that they who made such ample provision against the selling of Justice would have as carefully provided against the selling of those Inferiour Authorities that refer to the Execution of it Especially when the Rates run so High as now they do Twelve hunder'd Two Thousand pound for a Jaylours place Four hundâ—â—â—â—oâ—â— Serjeants and so proportionably for others For it serves for a specious Plea to those that shall be call'd to accompt for their miscarriages that they have bought so dear Nor does the Name of a Favourite in Court sound well for though it may not be so effectual as some may think yet is the thing it self suspicious to all especially when they see the Fortunes and Emoluments of that person advanc'd above others of equal merit But after pardon for this short digression the two next Grievances by this Charter promis'd to be reform'd are the delay and denial of Justice both much of the same Nature seeing that the Delay is in some measure the denial of Justice Which words delay of Justice are so expounded by several Acts of Parliament that by no means Common Right or Common Law should be disturb'd or delay'd tho' it be commanded under the Great or Privy Seal or by any Order Writ Letters or Command whatsoever even from the Prince himself or any other but that the Justices shall proceed as if no such Writs Letters Messages or Commandment were come to them And therefore the Epithite of Celeris is giv'n to the Law in regard there is nothing which can be more welcom to those who are aggriev'd or distressed then quick and speedy Relief And this is without doubt the meaning of those positive Commands in Scripture to which the Judges of the Earth to hear the cries of the Poor and Needy who if not soon redress'd are doubly undone by unnecessary Expence and with-holding from them the profit of their legal and just claims But as the Delay is bad so is the positive denial so much the more to be avoided by how much the Lamentations and Cries of the injur'd make a louder sound in the Ears of Heaven and open with greater swiftness and more rapid violence the Flood-gates of Divine Vengeance upon a Nation For if the cause of the oppressed be the cause of God then the denial of Justice is the denial of the Almighties own Suit with whom this great Charter would not contend And therefore the Prince here minding his future Salvation freely discards the selling delay and denial of Justice knowing how little they would avail when unreliev'd Oppression should plead against him at the Bar of Heaven If then the Law of England be the surest Sanctuary which an English Man can take and the strongest Fortress to protect the weakest of All it must be assuredly much more sacred and beneficial when built up of the Materials of Gods Commands and Natures Light Nor can they who at any time shall seek to destroy so beautiful a Structure expect other then to perish in its Ruines But here may some advance a Quaere and ask what is meant by this Per legem terrae this Law of the Land A Scrutiny with the same facility as made plainly