Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	law_n	parliament_n	7,403	5	7.2636	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52382	Vox populi, fax populi, or, A discovery of an impudent cheat and forgery put upon the people of England by Elephant Smith, and his author of Vox populi thereby endeavoring to instill the poysonous principles of rebellion into the minds of His Majesties subjects : humbly recommended to all loyal subjects and true Englishmen.	Nalson, John, 1638?-1686.	1681 (1681)	Wing N121; ESTC R11667	7,969	16

his Majesty has not ruled well in those many surprizing and astonishing Prorogations and Dissolutions and when it is positively affirmed That not to suffer Parliaments to sit to answer the great ends for which they were Instituted is expresly contrary to Common Law and to the Law of God of Nature and a violence offered to the Government an Infringment of the Peoples fundamental Rights and tends to the breaking of the Government and introducing Arbitrary Power p. 5 6. 4. That the King and his Predecessors Power of Proroguing and Dissolving Parliaments is only an Argument a facto ad Jus and not concluding their having done so or doing so doth not create a Right which is in plain English to say This Prerogative is an Usurpation and by clear Consequence strikes directly at the King as an oppressor which before he has told us does Unking him and make him a Tyrant pag. 13. 5. That according to Magna Charta Nulli negabimus the King ought to have no Negative Voice or to deny passing such Bills as the Peoples needs call for This is a short Abstract of this Vox Topuli But can you imagin whence this Godly Piece was borrowed to be presented to the King and Parliament for a New Mirror of Justice and Model of Government from a very Celebrated Authority I assure you no worse Man than the English Pilate the scarlet villain Bradshaw's Reports Charles the First his Case and Mr. Solicitor Cooke who was hang'd drawn and quarter'd for his pains as his Master would have been if the Devil had not saved the Hangman the Labour The Charge of the Commons of England against Charles Stuart c. There 's his Title Vox Populi That the said Charles Stuart being admitted King of England there 's his first Maxim that the Law makes the King and therein trusted with a limited Power and by his Trust Oath and Office being obliged to use the Power committed to him for the Good of the People and for Preservation of their Rights and Liberties yet nevertheless out of a wicked Design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and Tyrannycal Power to rule according to his Will and to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the People yea to take away and make void the Foundations thereof and of all Redress and Remedy of Misgovernment which by the Fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom were reserved on the Peoples behalf in the Rights and Power of frequent and successive Parliaments or National Meeting He the said Charles Stuart c. Here is the sum and substance of Vox Populi which I leave to the Reader to compare to save him the expence of Money and my self of time And is not this a very pretty Looking Glass to present to a King and Parliament at Oxford wherein the King is arraign'd of Misgoverning Proroguing Dissolving c. as indeed his two Sheets are nothing else but this Compendium beaten a little Thinner But that I may give some account to the People whom this Mr. Vox will needs represent though he was never chosen by them and they have other Representatives at Oxon who will not be pleased with his Usurpation upon their Rights and Priviledges In Answer to his First Thesis That the Law makes the King First It is contrary to express Scripture By me Kings reign the Powers that be are ordaind of God 2. It is against the Law of Reason and Nature Causa est prior Causato the Cause must be before the Effect and by consequence the Kings who are Law-Makers before the Laws 3. It is against the Civil Law as it were easie to instance in a thousand places Take one or two that are at hand Sacrilegii instar est Rescripta Principis obviare Vnde ipse Legibus Civilibus non astringitur nam in omnibus Imperatoris excipitur Fortuna cui ipsas Leges Deus subjecit Zouch Pars 4. Sect. 4. De Jure Principis It is a kind of Sacriledge says he to disobey the Commands of the Prince though he himself is not confined by the Laws for in all things the Prerogative Royal is excepted to him to whom God hath subjected the Laws Licet legibus soluti simus attament Legibus vivimus Just 2.17 a. Though the Emperor be free yet he lives according to Laws And as his Most Excellent Majesty in his late Speech to the Parliament at Oxon assures his People in these Words I conclude with this one Advice to you That the Rules and Measures of all your Votes may be the known and established Laws of the Land which neither can nor ought to be departed from nor changed but by Act of Parliament and I may the more reasonably require that you make the Laws of the Land Your Rule because I am resolved they shall be Mine A Resolution worthy so Great and Good a Prince and which will sure be satisfactory to all Loyal Subjects and is alone an Answer to Mr. Vox Populi And to convince Mr. Vox Populi with an Argument ad Hominem If the King be not above the Laws which he cannot be if he be their Creature what will become of him for a Pardon which if he and his friends do not procure indeed Mr. Vox Populi is in danger of having his Singing spoiled by the Laws for being guilty of Colemanism and turning Secretary of State before his time The Crimen laesae Majestatis which I think if the King will not the Law cannot pardon To his great Authority of Bracton I oppose the no Learned and Famous Sir Walter Raleigh whose words a Commentary upon Bracton are these Whereas there are two Powers of the Law the one Directive the other Coactive to the Power Directive Kings ought to be subject but not to that which Constraineth For as touching Violence or Punishment no man is bound to give a prejudicial Judgement against himself And if Equals have not Power over each other much less have Inferiors over their Superiors from whom they receive their Authority and Strength The Prince adds he is so much above the Laws as the Soul and Body united is above a dead and senseless Carcase for the King is truly called Jus vivum Lex animata an animate and living Law But this is true that by giving Authority to Laws Princes both add greatness to themselves and conserve it and therefore was it said of Bracton Meritò debet Rex c. But whereas Bracton ascribeth this Power to the Human Law he is therein mistaken for Kings are made by God and Laws Divine and by Human Laws only declared to be Kings Raleighs Hist Lib. 2. part 1. c. 4. num 16. And in another place Bracton explains himself and puts the Case If the King should do injury what is to be done and tells us If upon humble petitioning he cannot be brought to alter his mind he is to be left to God almighty Cum Superiorem non habeat nisi Deum c. Having no other Superior

but God Lib. 5. Tract 3. de defaltis c. 3. num 3. And for a more ample satisfaction I refer the Reader to Mr. Dudley Diggs his Discourse concerning the Unlawfulness of Subjects taking up Arms against their Sovereign in what Case soever where he shall find this point sufficiently winnowed and the Chaff of this Commonwealth-Maxim blown away by the strength of Law Reason and Religion pag. 77 78 c. To his Second Aphorism Rex a bene Regendo That he is only King while he rules well but a Tyrant when he oppresses If he meanes that he ceases to be a King and by consequence his Subjects are free from their Allegiance which is a Doctrine strenuously maintained by Papists and Commonwealth-Protestants I say it is utterly false and I oppose to it First his own allowed Maxim of our Law Rex non moritur c. The King cannot dye or do wrong 2. It is contrary to Scripture God Almighty who must not be said to speak improperly calls Pharaoh Saul Agag Nebuchadnezzar Kings nay and which is more commands Obedience to them And if Mr. Vox will be wiser than the Maker of Kings I think he is fitter for Bedlam and Hellebore himself than to prescribe to a King and Parliament as State Physician in ordinary to them both To his Third which is a charge of Misgoverning slily thrown upon his Majesty I shall refer him to the Attorney General who I presume at leisure may answer him more appositely and to the purpose if he be not Vox praeterea nihil Only I must say It is the most false and groundless malicious and impudent Calumny thrown upon a just good and merciful Prince that ever was since the times of Pilate and Bradshaw and a very ill Requital for the Act of Oblivion and the last Free and General Pardon of which by his Speech I cannot but suspect this Galilean to have had some benefit The comfort is his Majesty cannot after all this Noyse be taxed with so much as one Arbitrary Action nor of having ever denied his People any one thing requested of him in a fair and Parliamentary way His fourth Thesis puts me in mind of the poor Countrey Fellow's Mistake who read The Devil was a Lawyer from the beginning Just such another Hunt-scrap of Law is our Little Vox Populi who says The Kings Prerogative of Calling Adjourning and Proroguing of Parliaments is arguing a Facto ad Jus and that their doing so does not create a Right Say you so good Mr. Vox Populi What think you to Prescription of above a Thousand years which I am sure is time beyond which the Memory of Man cannot prove to the contrary Is it no Argument that because the River Thames always ran from Oxon to London that theresore that is its proper Channel but that it ought to run over Black-Heath or Highgate-Hill For shame If you had the quiet Prescription of Possession for a good Estate of 40 s. per Armum to make you a Freeholder would you not take it ill to be shoulder'd out of your Tenement with a non sequitur of forcible Entry drawn a facto ad Jus And must the Crown hold by Copy of Court-Roll at the will of the Little Lord Mr. Vox Populi But Secondly Pray what was the meaning of the Parliament of Nov. 3. 1640. to get an Act to perpetuate their Sitting during the Pleasure of the two Houses though it may be his Majesty had with more Advanrage advised upon it and as they would have the Judges Patents to have inserted a Clause into it Quandiu se bene gesserint for Parliaments are but Men and no more Infallible than Popes 3. What is the meaning of that Act of Parliament 16 Car. 1. c. 1. It is declared That the Appointment of the Time and Place for the holding of Parliaments hath always belonged as it ought to his Majesty and his Royal Progentiors Or of that Aphorism Cujus est instituere ejus est destituere He that hath the Power to make hath the Power to unmake Will you force us to that of the Poet for an Oracle Aetas parentum pejor Avis Nos tandem protulit progeniem vitiosiorem Must we grow every Age worse than others this is a sad Doctrine to be heard from a Reforming Vox Populi What means that Statute 16 Car. 2. c. 1. It is acknowledged That it is a Prerogative Inherent to the Imperial Crown of England the Calling and Assembling of Parliaments c. Good Mr. Vox is this too Arguing a facto ad Jus or a Jure ad factum What a Dolt was the Reputed Oracle of the Law to tell us None can begin continue or dissolve the Parliament but by the Kings Authority Co. Litt. fol. 110. a. And in another place to argue so simply a facto ad Jus when he tells us The King is Caput Principium Finis Parliamenti The Head the Beginning and End of Parliaments Co. 4. Inst f. 3. How happy are some Persons in their Illuminations and their Discoveries His Fifth Position That according to Magna Charta the King ought to have no Negative Voice is like the rest of his Reasonings and agreeable to his Principles who would have the King have nothing at all Good Mr. Vox as you are Valiant so be Merciful What must the King be subject to the Laws and yet have no power at all to refuse any Pray Mr. Eccho of the Late Rump do as you would be done by Must the Commons have a Negative Vote and the Lords have a Negative Non Content and the Sovereign be Content with what ever is afforded him Pray Sir how much younger do you think is Le Roy S' avisera than Le Roy Le veult Here 's a pudder and a stir about denying and denying Bills and yet Queen Elizabeth in a Parliament in the 39th year of her Reign rejected but 48. Bills which had passed both Houses and sent the Speaker of the Commons word That it was her Majesties Pleasure that if he perceived any idle Heads that would not stick to hazard their own Estates but meddle with Reforming the Church and Transforming the Common Weal by exhibiting Bills to that purpose the Speaker should not receive them till they were view'd and consider'd by those who are sitter to consider and judge of them And yet then Mr. Vox Populi made no words about the matter And if he had recommended his Story to that Queen and her Parliament he would have been recommended to some Ballad Singer to compose a Doleful Ditty upon the woful Life and deserved Death of Vox Populi for Conspiring against our Gracious Queen Elizabeth And there is a positive Statute affirming the Kings having a Negative Voice 2 H. 5. Rot. Parl. At the same Rate and Ingenuity he reasons about the King's having no Prerogative but what the Law allows him when nothing is more frequent than Salvo's of the Royal Prerogative Vide 3. E. 1. c. 5.8 E. 1. c 2.28 E. 1. c. 20.18 E. 3. c. 1.34 E. 3. c. 15. which sure supposes the King had some such thing which the Laws did not give nor should take the meaning of these words tas Cap. 2. And what is the meaning of these words so frequent in our Law-Books Salvo Jure Regio Pray Mr. Vox inform the King and Parliament And for his Story of the Honest Proclamation that no Parliament should be Dissolved so long as any Petitions were not answered he should have acquainted the People that at the Opening of the Parliament such a Number of Lords and Commons were appointed Tryers of Petitions which were to be brought to them and they were the Judges which were fit to be preferred to the King and which to be rejected And it would little avail his Design of protracting of Sessions since as it would be unreasonable so Honourable an Assembly as the Parliament should sit waiting for Petitions so most certainly a Day would be appointed for the People to bring them in and if they came not the Parliament would not be obliged to attend longer having dispatched the more weighty Affairs I do not know who this Anonymus Author is but it may be himself or at best it is but asking his Companion whether he be a Thief and calling his Accomplice to be his Voucher and Compurgator and that does not add much weight to his Arguments or strength to his Cause In short the Pamphlet is the Compendium of the Assertions and Positions of the Long Rebel Parliament the Epitome of Bradshaw and Cooke an Affront to his Majesty and the Parliament a Firebrand of Sedition a Trumpet to Rebellion and a most shameful Abuse of the People of whom he has made himself the Representative It begins with the Plot and for any thing I see may end with the Doom of the Plotters and to the Law and his Deserts I leave him Wishing a Happy Union between the King and his Parliament and that they may be delivered from the Presents of such Vox Populi's as are designed to pull us all in Flames FINIS