Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	5,231	5	4.6713	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80700	A proclamation, to all, of all sorts, high and low, rich and poore, wherein is proclaimed the law-royall, which is in keeping thereof is true liberty given forth by force and power for every one to observe, upon pain of death.	Covel, William.	1654 (1654)	Wing C6613; Thomason 669.f.19[29]; ESTC R212128; ESTC R212325	5,616	1

Lorded for your selves If you chalenge a right of governing as being chosen then as Governors and Rulers you ought to have the Laws of our fore-Fathers planted in your hearts which you are to observe and practise for if you challenge our fore-Fathers Powers in ruling over the People then is it but just that the People challenge you Rule in our fore-Fathers wayes and Lawes and therein be limitted and bounded for therein lies the liberty and freedome of the People and your safety Therefore they which choose ought to have skill in Ruling well in regard those Officers and Governors are to be chosen who have skill in Ruling well which Officers and Governours are no other then Servants or Trustees to and for the People and ought not to make any by-Laws but such as center upon the fundamentals which before they be confirmed and enacted ought of right to be presented to the People by the Sheriff of every County at their County Courts as also by the Stewards of every Hundred and Liberty at their Courts which Steward ought to be sworn for the execution of his Office which is altogether neglected to be approved and allowed of by the People And in case the People find them not good as to the Publick they may refuse obedience to that Law and that Law ought to lie dormant untill the People have chosen wiser and more faithfull Trustees for the altering or rectifying of such Law For all by Lawes are alterable but the fundamentall Law is unalterable Is not the People greater then their Trustees and Officers The Master is more worthy then the Servant You Powers you Kings in power that give Power Offices and places of Trust by the Peoples power are impowred to call them to an account Therefore look to it for the People the Kings eyes are upon you Did the by-Law-makers Rule well in running ad infinitum with by-Lawes Sans number till they run themselves out of doors and left an odium behind them do not you over-run your selves the Royall Law the Peoples Right it is better to stand still lest you run into confusion As the People have right to choose their owne Officers it being their Liberty an Appendix to their Birth-right and Freedome which doth gradually ascend from the People to their chiefest Officers So are they to let justice gradually descend and center to and in the People againe Did those Rulers Rule well when their benummed Senses preferred their own pleasure profit honour and the like not regarding the honour worship and obedience to JEHOVAH when they flighted the Stock from whence they proceeded JEHOVAH the greatest King the Laws of God in Nature the Laws of our fore-Fathers the good and welfare of the People Nay suffering the pure and perfect Law of God to be Monopolized into a Trade permitting the inventions of men to be preached to the ignorant for gain which the wisest could neither understand nor know how to reform so that the People perished in want of knowledge keeping the People in subjection only Ruling and Lording it for themselves Did they Rule well when they converted the Publick Treasure to their own Interest contracted themselves into a smaller number that the Divident might be the greater to them that were left conniving at each others ill ruling gratifying one another as they term'd it with thousands when the Common-wealth wanted money to perfect their great affairs fully intending never to give an account thereof they endeavoured to perpetuate themselves in their unlimited power laying yoaks upon the Peoples necks which makes them complain and groan under the burthen of them denying the People to choose other Trustees in their places who were secluded whereby their actions might have been discovered and the People eased Did they Rule well when there was not an oppression in the Nation but if not contrived and acted by them was solicited by some of their Clerks or Favorites and connived at by them whereby justice was perverted and Bribery and oppression practised by Authority forgetting to be just Ruling in the fear of the Lord forcing many to travel after them and their Lawes till they have worne out their Petitions at the doore denying assistance to just requests when by a little lip labour they might have made those happy who have beene compelled by excessive expence the Mother of want to leave the prosecution of a just Cause to the ruine and destruction of them and theirs Did they Rule well in making so many Lawes the People can neither number nor understand them if they keep them from their shoulders for in reading them no man knows where to center by which and their own wills being their reasons they made double and treble consequences of mens words according to their own constructions whereby to accuse imprison and afflict them By the like practise Christ suffered as a Blasphemer Mens Words are their own and the interpretation of them Did they Rule well when they suffered the poor blind and lame to perish in the streets high-wayes permitting them to want work and their children bread setting up the Metall Money which hee that hoords it deserves to eat and drinke nothing else untill the poore be satisfied above the whole Creation Monopolizing the Earth which if by the project of a Kilvertist they could have Monopolized totally to themselves by their owne Lawes they might have ejected the people their Masters out of the Land and it is thought they would have Monopolized the Sun Moone and Stars if it had beene possible nay God himselfe if they could have known where to have found him Did they Rule well when they were ten Months of twelve in the Country WAITEing to catch necessitated men in Bargains extorting and oppressing the People for themselves and others what excused them in their absence who when they were in Town could make their appearance in the morning and all the day after sit drinking in Taverns Bowling Alleys or making the members of their bodies the Temples of the Holy Ghost to be the members of Harlots Particular failings produce inevitable destruction were they not all breakers of the Royall Law of God planted in Nature A word to those that Rule not well Dost thou say do not murder and wilt thou murder Dost thou say do not commit Adultery and wilt thou commit Adultery Dost thou say do not steal and wilt thou steal Dost thou say do not covet and wilt thou covet Dost thou say be not drunke and wilt thou be drunke Dost thou say be not envious or malicious and wilt thou be envious and malicious Dost thou say do not oppress thy neighbour and wilt thou oppress thy neighbour Dost thou say doe not sweare cheat and lye and wilt thou sweare cheat and lye Do so still he that is filthy let him be filthy still you are the causes of confusions There would be no need of Stocks Houses of Correction Whips Prisons nor Gallows but for you whosoever thou art Governors Rulers and Councels yea and Parliaments too might meet and have nothing to doe were it not for you unruly Members but goe your wayes you have lost your Kingly Government your Priestly Government and Propheticall Office and so are laid aside as useless Will you over-run God in Nature the Royall Law inherent in you O the darkness within which makes the confusion without A word to all Rulers and to all of all sorts The greatest King with the greatest Powers is at your heels he comes with such force and Powers that neither Crowns nor Castles walled Cities nor your weapons of war shall prevail he will put an end to your Tumults and evil doings by the brightness of his coming then shall you come and give an account of your Kingship and Governments have you Ruled well or not well hearken what means the noyse from the North from the South nay from all quarters some crying out of Prisons some in Prisons some in the Streets and High-wayes the Creation groanes and their cries are gone up to the greatest King JEHOVAH if you will not amend and help and plead the cause of the poore and oppressed and set open the Prison doors the greatest King comes with salvation and deliverance and you shall stand by as Cyphers and be ashamed Here I have set down your work you need not trouble your selves except to do well be a trouble to you if you please understand the excellent foundations of God his Lawes planted in Nature which will instruct you to the understanding of his Prophets Apostles the Scriptures yea things to come Wherefore if you covet any thing let it be Love and Meekness towards all Man being indeed limitted and bounded within that excellent Law of God in Nature which is for the ordering of every particular Member in every particular Man in good and for good and if he steps out of that bound to govern another it must be by contract for otherwise it begetteth enmity from hence springeth the great confusions in the world If we see one that Ruleth not well it is our duty to advise him in love and meekness that he Rule well Your Well-Wisher William Covell