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	see_v	4,869	5	3.5371	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89881	Interest will not lie. Or, a view of England's true interest: in reference to the [brace] papist, royalist, Presbyterian, baptised, neuter, Army, Parliament, City of London. In refutation of a treasonable pamphlet, entituled, The interest of England stated. Wherein the author of it pretends to discover a way, how to satisfie all parties before-mentioned, and provide for the publick good, by calling in the son of the late King, &c. Against whom it is here proved, that it is really the interest of every party (except only the papist) to keep him out: and whatever hath been objected by Mr. William Pryn, or other malcontents, in order to the restoring of that family, or against the legality of this Parliament's sitting, is here answer'd by arguments drawn from Mr Baxter's late book called A holy commonwealth, for the satisfaction of them of the Presbyterian way; and from writings of the most learned royalists, to convince those of the royal party. By Mar. Nedham.	Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1659 (1659)	Wing N392; Thomason E763_5; ESTC R202968	47,454	45

sate for they were deserted by those Members that went to Oxford but these suffered the Army by force to seclude those now commonly called the secluded Members I answer that before these Members were secluded they first secluded and separated themselves from the publick Interest as those did who some years before withdrew themselves and went to Oxford besides the secluding of them is justifiable against them by Lex talionis the Law of Retaliation for even they had sometime before secluded that honest partie of the House of which the Members now sitting are the principal by raising tumults in the City and encouraging the Apprentices who came to the House door and drave away the said faithful partie so that the Speaker and they were for safetie forced to go out of Town and shelter themselves under the protection of the Army In the mean while those who now complain of seclusion reckoning themselves Lords of all continued sitting chose a new Speaker Mr. Pelham acted all things as a full and free Parliament and reckoned their Votes and Proceedings as Legal and Authentick as if all the Members had been present and would so have proceeded to compass and establish the corrup Interest contended for against the faithful partie And Mr. Prynne and all his partie approved this proceeding and sufficiently shewed that they meant to own all as Legal that should be do e while the faithful ones were under a force had not the design been prevented by the Generals bringing back the Speaker and the Members with him to their Seats again in the House What shall we say then Let me use the words of the Apostle to him and the rest of his secluded partie and their Abetters Therefore thou art inexcusable O men whosoever thou art that judgest wherin thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest doest the same things If you after a violent seclusion of some upon a corrupt account could approve and close with the proceedings of a remaining part as a Parliament and intende the Nation should do so to why are not we after a like seclusion made of your partie upon a just accotins and a restoring of the faithful partie to be justified for acting along with them and submitting to their Authoritie as a Parliament And the Nation hath as much reason to pay their obedience and acknowledgments thereto as ye intended they should have done to you Therefore whatever other men may fa Mr. Prynne and his secluded party must hence forth be silent and for shame lay their mouths in the dust for ever a to th●s particular But that we may give a more full answer to this so considerable a Point and that the world may see how far the House which now 〈◊〉 is to be justified before their secluded opposites who make so great a clamor to imbroil the Nation I shall a little retrive the proceedings of former days touching that Seclusion which is become the great Subject of Controversie now among us First I shall shew there was a just cause and a real necessitie for the doing of it Secondly How the faithful Members now the Parliament behaved themselves after it was done Thirdly How it came to pass that the secluded partie did never sit more since that time and are still excluded 1. That there was just cause and a real necessitie for the doing of it is evident in these particulars For after that upon weightie consideration the House had resolved to make no more Addresses to the King this secluded party who then were in play joyning Councils with the King and his party cast about which way to revoke and reverse those Votes of Non-Address and to bring in the King upon such Terms the effect whereof in a short time would of necessitie have been a giving up into his hands the whole Cause that had been contended for To this end they by subtile degrees drew all things on fair toward a compliance with the Kings Interest wherein there were some honest men even of the Presbyterian partie who seeing it was the way to cast dirt in the face of their former Engagements did desert them Nevertheless they were engaged now upon new grounds in opposition and hatred of those both in Parliament and Army who desired to remain faithful to the Cause and Interest of the Nation therefore the next step they made in the House was to contrive how to strengthen their partie there and by indirect courses to gain the Major Vote For this end it was the great endeavor of them and of that Remnant of the Royal and the Neutral partie which yet remained in the House because of the vacancy of Burgesses to fill up the House with Malignants or Neuters and for that purpose Writs were specially procured and speeded out for new Elections to fill the vacant places and they were directed to such places and poor Boroughs in Cornneal Wales c. where the Procurers before-hand knew that persons would be enosen sit to serve their turns Thus a Floud of new Burgesses were brought into the House some of them men that had been engaged against the Parliament and incap●ble of Trust yet were through the procurement also of the aforesaid partie admitted and kept in the House for when divers of these were questioned as unduly elected matters were by others so ordered that the same new elected persons under question sitting in the House while their business was in agitation they easily wrought that the sence of the Committee concerning the undueness of their Elections was never reported but held off from the House Having thus fitted the House for their turn they then begin to play Rex for the King They first debate the business of Ireland from thence they recalled the Lord Lisle and put the command into the hands of Inchiquin a Native Irishman one that had first served the King afterwards revolted from the Parliament united with the Irish Rebels and is now a Fugitive with Charls beyond Sea They endeavored to bring in the King upon his Message of the seventh of May 1647. that is to say upon his own Terms and to this end to disband the Army before any peace made of assured They would have raised a new War by lifting and ingaging many Reformadoes and other Officers and Soldiers in and about London in June and July 1647. To this end they by Tumults drave away the Speaker and faithful Members chose a new Speaker passing by their single Authoritie divers Ordinances and giving large powers to raise a new War by arming also the Prentices and other persons which had acted that violence upon the House and this they did professedly before the world in maintenance and prosecution of that treasonable engagement Being thus gotten into possession they recalled the Votes of Non-Address and went down-right the way to bring back the King without such satisfaction as might secure the Kingdom Voting that they would treat with him upon such Propositions as himself

Government such as may be most convenient for the Nation Which being once done it becomes as valid de Jure that is to say as Legal as the former form of Government ever was But because you shall not depend upon my single Inference you shall have one or two more Testimonies from Mr. Baxter's friend Grotius He saith if the Prevailing party had no other Law but the Law of Necessity it might serve well enough to justifie such a Proceeding Necessit as summa reducit res ad merum Jus Naturae Grot. de Jure Belli l. 2. cap. 6. And in his Prolegomena he saith In beslo Civili scripta quidem Jura c. In a Civil war written Laws that is the established Laws of a Nation are of no force but those only which are not written that is which are agreeable to the Dictates of Nature or the Law and Custom of Nations and then that only is to be admitted Law which shall be setled by the Prevailing party Jus dicitur esse id quod validiori placuit ut intelligamus fine suo carere Jus nisi vires ministras habeat the English whereof is That only which it pleaseth the stronger party to ordain is said to be Law since it cannot accomplish the end of a Law except it be attended by Force to constrain obedience And as to the particular Case of the secluded Members he hath one saying which hits our purpose right Si qui jure suo uti non possunt eorum jus accrescit praesentibus l. 2. c. 5. His busines in that part of the Chapter is to discourse about the Major Vote in Senates or grand Assemblies and concludes That in case the greater number be absent or if there be any cause that they may not use their Right there then the whole Right accrueth to them that are present or remain sitting What cause there was for the secluding of these Members I think you have sufficiently seen in the beginning of this Section They had joyned issue in Interest and design with the Royal party and the King who according to what hath been already conceded was a publick Enemy So also did the House of Lords who likewise lost all Right that they could pretend to by compliance with the same Interest and design For seeing by the Equity of all Laws Accessaries are as punishable as the Principal in a Crime therefore by the Law of War it being a Law of their own introducing and no other Law remaining to be Judge in the Case both They and the secluded Members for adhering to the Conquered party even after the Victory might have been proceeded against in capital manner but were favorably as well as justly dealt with in being deprived only of their Interest in the House whenas their heads might have been required and so the whole Supreme Authority descended lawfully to those Members that now remain But here some may interpose and say We imagined and expected that the Laws of the Land should be maintained and Free Parliaments but this doctrine talks of the longest sword and a Prevailing party maintaining that the strongest must carry it which is the way to lay a ground for and to encourage disorders and confusions so that they which can get uppermost by force are still to be justified by the same Rule This language I know is frequently in the mouths of the undiscerning sort yea and of some too who think themselves very wise That I may make some Return to this sort of people and instruct them well they must learn first to distinguish between Force used without good cause and an use of Force upon a just cause or occasion Also betwixt the exercise of force by such as have a Right of war and by those who have it not Also betwixt the Nation in a State of Warr and the Nation in a State of Peace Lastly betwixt the Laws which are fundamental to the Form or Constitution it self of a Government and the Laws Municipal which concern the Rights Liberties and Priviledges of a People under the same Government I. Seeing that to all Sword-engagements a good Cause is requisite then none can hereafter take example or occasion from this rational discourse to have recourse to the sword and afterward to improve it as this Parliament did unless they shall be able to ground the undertaking as they did upon righteous principles which have been acknowledged such as you read before even by Royalists and Presbyterians themselves nor unless they shall have the same just reasons to make use of the Law of Warr which in such Case becomes the Law of all Nations to proceed to a final Arbitration of the Quarrell after that the Adversaries themselves have admitted it and rendred the ending of the Contest both impractcable and impossible by any Law of the Nation II. Those who intend to use the Sword or the Law of Warr cannot lawfully doe it unless they can rightly claim Jus Belli and have a Right to that Law as the Parliament had when the King grasping at the whole Soveraignty they were necessitated to desend that part of it which by the National Constitution belonged unto themselves as hath already been confessed by both sorts of Adversaries III. Consider this can afford no matter of Argument for Rebellions and Insurrections for if in such a contest of War as this was in England the Parliament had a right to War the King having occasioned the Nation to be in a state of War it doth not therefore follow that in the state of peace private persons or any number of persons less qualified than a Parliament should presume to do what a Parliament might do either in or out of a state of War or that a part of a Parliament should hereafter take upon them to make War and exclude their Fellow Members and then exercise the whole Supremacy without and against the consent of those Members unless the great Platonick year shall revolve and revive the like Causes Occasions and Circumstances of Acting and the same Treachery also in Fellow Members for betraying the Supreme power into the hands of some third party or single person In the like extraordinary Case the like proceeding may lawfully be again but not otherwise for when after a Civil War a Government is once again established in peace all men and powers are to steer their course of acting by the ordinary Laws and Rules of the Constitution IV. As touching the great Objection about our Laws consider that though the old Fundamental which respecteth the former Form or Constitution of Government be altered yet the other ancient Laws Municipal which concern our Rights Liberties Priviledges and Properties do remain entire unto the generality of the Nation and they might be more sensible of the truth of this did not the designs of disturbers hinder the compleat enjoyment or else will shortly be setled entire in that state of Freedom which the Parliament is once again strugling for against the

you could forget their implacable temper yet for these things they will never forget you Secondly Take heed of Promises all ye that have ever been engaged against that Family and Party Is it not strange to hear that some who have been so active against him openly should now engage for him under a disgaise What security can they have therein for themselves or the Nation Oh but our Author tells us young Charles is a good man in all respects and as to his honesty no malice hath the impudence to blast it Though we could say somewhat to one Part of his honesty yet we wave it but in the other part of honesty which concerneth oaths and promises we might say he hath blasted himself but that he ought not to seem over-serious about them lest while he pretends to a Crown he should lose his credit with the Politicians that would think him unfit to be a KING But they need not doubt him he hath made proof enough of himself in that particular having most Royally given evidence that to trust him is the right way to true Repentance If ye look into my Third Section ye may there see how like a KING he carryed himself in the Trust given him by the Presbyterians when they made him a White Boy in Scotland by cloathing him with the Covenant and a Coronation-oath and Royal Robes all together Thirdly consider that as you have had the Honour hitherto to stand firm to the Nations true interest in opposition to that Family so while they pretend here in print to court you their great business is at the same time to make you jealous of the Parliament the Parliament of you and at once to exasperate all parties of men against you that being diffident of each other and discontented ye may not be in a condition vigorously to unite your Counsels and Forces against the design which they have now in hand for the ruine of all Make much then of this Parliament they are the founders of the Nations Interest upon a better Basis of Freedome than our Ancestors could ever hope for and questionless they must needs be most concerned and fittest to finish the Building seeing it is their own Interest as well as the Publick and they have most experience in the work Charles Stuart is for the giving of our wise men and our interested men a Rotation as quick as may be Therefore certainly it is your interest to stand by the Parliament with your ancient courage and affection beat down the enemies before you and so when you have gained Victory ye will be in the ready way of getting your Arrears out of the Purses of your Adversaries which will be the greatest comfort to your selves and an ease to the People more words might be used but you see where your Interest doth lye and if you follow it strenuously it cannot lie it will not deceive you whereas if you swerve but from a tittle of it your enemies will soon slip into one Advantage or other to bring trouble and desolation upon the Land ruine upon your selves and all your Friends SECT VII Of the Parliament THe Parliament being the Butt at which the Adversaries shoot all their bitter Arrows of reproach and envy it will be necessary to be particular in curing the Wounds which have of late been given to their Reputation because their Being is the grand Bulwark of our security But in the first place to sandalize them our Author saith It is the design of the Parliament to continue themselves in absolute Power by the specious name of a Popular Government and finally to set up an Oligarchy By this you see 1. That which the enemy principally fears is lest this Parliament should continue over-long could they but be rid of this Parliament they presume they should do well enough afterwards either with or without another and therefore their Work is if they knew how to precipitate the ending of it But to confute the folly of this Scandal t is known they have by a special Vote already fixt a time short enough indeed considering the greatness of their work and the opposition like to be against them beyond which they intend not to sit 2. As to the other Point of erecting an Oligarchy or Government by some few Persons this is as great a scandal as the other and it were to be wished that the over-busie talk and Prints of some of our own had not given too much occasion for opening the mouth of the Enemy touching that particular But how should there be any ground for suspition about an Oligarchy seeing no such thing can be as by many reasons might be proved where a supreme Legislative Power is intended to be fixed in an orderly succession of Parliaments managed by elections rightly qualified and bounded for which with all convenient speed a course will be taken by this Parlament Secondly our Author endeavours to make this no free Parlament by reason that a great part of its Members remain Secluded This Argument hath been handled likewise with great fury by Mr. Pryn and now the present Malecontents in Arms make use of it to countenance their Rebellion and require that either the Secluded Members may be admitted to sit again in this Parliament or that a New one may be called So that you see they and our Cavalier Author do meet in one Point For Answer to this I wish Mr Pryn and the other dissatisfied Gentlemen would take heed of this way of arguing for by it he may chance to condemn himself and all others of his own judgment for their acting along with the Parliament first ●fter the King went away f●om Westminster and then after part of the Members of both Honses withdrew and sate as a Parliament at Oxford seeing thereby he will justifie the King in what he declared at that time against the Parliament viz. That it was no free Parliament and so that nothing they should do in the absence of himself and those Membe●s could be counted valid of Parliamentary because they had in countenancing tumults driven him and their Follow members away by force and so gained the Major Vote of the remaining part of the Parliament Nevertherless when the remaining part sate and continued to Act the Parliamentary partie made no scruple to Act with them and Mr Prynne among the rest as highly as any as also did all those of the Presbyterian Judgment who though the Parliament wanted the legal for malitie of the Kings presence and so great a part of its Members who Printed in several Declarations That a force was upon them yet rather than the publick Cause should fall to the ground they by Sermons Purses and all other ways seconded that remaining part of the Parliament in their actings acknowledging them a free Parliament to all intents and purposes as if every Member had been present But you will object and say The Case of this House now sitting is different from that House who then

North of Scotland wherein being prevented of his designe by force his next refuge was Divide Impera dividing the Presbyterian partie of Scots both in Kirk and State the most considerable whereof he overawed or allured into his partie so that the most conscientious among them were forced to declare against his proceedings and retire in discontent and divers others were cashiered both of Kirk State and Army to make room for the most notorious Cavaliers and Malignants whereupon in a short time it was counted little other than Sedition and Treason to preach up those very Principles that their King had sworne to in the Covenant and his Coronation Oath and so by this means immediately the Cavaliers had all that he held in Scotland at their own devotion In these lines view his picture and see how you like him concerning whom it was necessarie to be thus particular in giving you his Inside outward that thereby it may be seen the Complexion of his Soul is not different from that of his Body and what confidence is to be placed by you upon any Terms in such a one who can break a sunder the strongest Ties of Faith Oaths Promises and Engagements as so many straws and rushes Trust him then if ye please and bring him in if ye dare that by new Experiments to your own sorrow and Confusion ye may learn when it is too late that it was your true Interest as Presbyterians by all means to keep him out of the Nation I speak not this to the grave and pious men of that way in which there are many such but to the Heady Hot-spurs of which sort there are too many ready to imbarque themselves upon mistaken grounds and run blindfold to destruction T is reported that Conscience is now pleaded again by vertue of the Covenant which they say doth together with the Oath of Allegiance oblige them to the late King and his heirs I shall not because here I affect brevity say any thing now concerning the main Question of the Obligation of both but must refer you to what is said before to the Royalist touching this but because they will needs talk of the Covenant again and our Cavalier Author presseth it also upon them let me have leave to add one word more to stop their mouths for ever anent the Covenant It is pure matter of Fact that shall convince them In the daies of the late Protector Oliver but more industriously and remarkably in the time of the late Protector Richard did the principal men both Clergie and Laity of the Presbyterian party in City and Country make most solemne Addresses to declare their Subjection Submission Allegiance to the Government of Father and Son and that they would live and die for it adding their Prayers for all manner of Benedictions upon them which is a matter I can affirm of my own knowledge Now pray you let us reason a little upon this When ye made those Addresses either the obligation of the Covenant to old Charls and his heirs did remain in force at the same time or it did not If it did remain in force the question is with what conscience ye could suspend the obligatory power of it and make so serious professions using the name of God and so much Scripture phrase to bind your selves in a Bond of Allegiance to a new Prince and Family If it did not remain in force toward Charls at that time then we would faine know how it and your other Oaths as to the obligatory power of them could die or take a nap for five or six years and at the six years end revive and stand in full force and vertue again for the Stuarts against the present Parliament sure nothing less then a magical Spel can conjure up that Covenant after it hath been so long dead and make a goblin of it to fright men out of their wits and from their duty there must needs be some inchantment or mystery in the business and there is no way to unriddle it with the saving of your credit for wise men now plainly see there must be little of Conscience but much of the Party and Faction in any future pretence or Plea drawn from the Covenant for quarreling at this Parliament because if you could dispence with it for a closing with the Protector you may by the same Reason as well do it to close with the present Power for ought that the Covenant in respect of the Stuarts can oblige to the contrary seeing the ●nterest of the Protector as absolutely led him to an exclusion of the former Family as the Interest of this Parliament and indeed of the whole Nation doth to an utter abjuration of it for ever Thus the matter of Fact being clear and the Inference upon it I see no excuse no hole that ye have to shift out at but one and that is by saying that when ye so highly addressed your selves to the last Protector ye did it in word but in deed ye reserved your hearts for C. Stuart How can this stand with the reverend reputation of such men as Mr. Baxter who as the other eminent Ministers addressed personally in a Body so he in print in the Epistle Dedicatory to the last Protector before his Disputations of Church-Government concluded himself after all other Complements A faithful Subject of your Highnes c. And yet the same Mr. Baxter in his late Book entituled A Holy Commonwealth hath the confidence to insist upon the Covenant and though therein he pleads not positively for Charls Stuart yet in many places of it we see which way he looks he doth that which is equivalent thereto He disowned the pretended Covenant-obligation to Charls by addressing himself to Richard but when a third Power comes in play then the Covenant comes up again for Charls The only evasion then which they and he can have must be but a miserable one viz. That when they owned the Protector they did it not really but only as a pious fraud out of some design they had thereby to make way for his Rival the other Single person and truly that would be most miserable hypocrisie to let the world see they can play fast and loose with Oaths and Covenants take them up and let them fall as may best fit their ends and purposes God forbid they should so debauch the reverence of their Function as to shake hands with the Jesuite before all the people in the odious principle of Equivocating and mental Reservation But we have cause to expect better things from the generality of that party both Ministers and people who being men of piety and prudence cannot but condemn the practices of such as have shewn themselves extravagant in the present dawnings of a new day of Rebellion and must needs see that if it prosper whatever the pretences of the Ringleaders be at first fair and plausible yet of necessity the issue at last must be this that the Game will be