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
A86624	An inquisition after blood. To the Parliament in statu quo nunc, and to the Army regnant; or any other whether Royallist, Presbyterian, Independent or Leveller, whom it may concern.	Howell, James, 1594?-1666.	1649 (1649)	Wing H3080; Thomason E531_23; ESTC R15284	7,785	15

AN INQUISITION AFTER BLOOD To the PARLIAMENT in statu quo nunc AND To the ARMY Regnant Or any other whether Royallist Presbyterian Independent or Leveller whom it may concern Blood is a crying sin but that of Kings Cryes loudest for revenge and ruine brings Printed in the Yeer 1649. AN INQUISITION AFTER BLOOD THE scope of this short discourse is to make some researches after Truth and to rectifie the world accordingly in point of opinion specially touching the first Author and Aggressor of the late ugly war in England which brought with it such an inundation of blood and so let in so huge a torrent of mischiefs to rush upon us There be many and they not only Presbyterians and Independents but Cavaliers also who think that the King had taken the guilt of all this blood upon himselfe in regard of that Concession he passed in the preamble of the late Treaty at the Isle of Wight The aime of this Paper is to cleere that point but in so temperate a way that I hope 't will give no cause of exception much lesse of offence to any the blood that 's sought after here shall not be mingled with gaule much lesse with anie venome at all We know there is no Principle either in Divinity Law or Phylosophie but may be wrested to a wrong sense there is no truth so demonstrative and cleere but may be subject to cavillations no Tenet so plaine but perverse inferences may be drawne out of it such a fate befell that preambular Concession His Majesty passed at the Transactions of the late Treaty in that he acknowledg'd therein that the two Houses of Parliament were necessitated to undertake a war in their owne just and lawfull defence c. and that therefore all Oaths Declarations or other public Instruments against the Houses of Parliament or any for adhering to them c. be declared null suppressed and forbidden 'T is true His Majesty passed this grant but with this weighty consideration as it had reference to two ends First to smoothen and facilitate things thereby to ope a passage and pave the way to a happy peace which this poor Iland did so thirst after having been so long glutted with civill blood Secondly that it might conduce to the further security and the indemnifying of the two Houses of Parlement with all their instruments assistants and adherents and so rid them of all jealousies and fear of future dangers which still lodg'd within them Now touching the expressions and words of this Grant they were not his owne nor did he give order for the dictating or penning thereof the King was not the Author of them but an Assenter only unto them nor was He or his Party accus'd or as much as mentioned in any of them to draw the least guilt upon themselves Besides He pass'd them as he doth all Lawes and Acts of Parlement which in case of absence another may do for him in his politic capacity therefore they cannot prejudice his person any way I am loth to say that he condescended to this Grant Cùm strict a novacula supra When the razor was as it were at his throat when ther was an Army of about thirty thousand effect if Horse and Foot that were in motion against him when his Person had continued under a black long lingring restraint and dangerous menacing Petitions and Papers daily obtruded against him Moreover His Majesty pass'd this Concession with these two provisos and reservations First that it should be of no vertu or validity at all till the whole Treaty were intirely consummated Secondly that he might when he pleas'd inlarge and cleer the truth with the reservedness of his meaning herein by public Declaration Now the Treaty being confusedly huddled up without discussing or as much as receiving any Proposition from himself as was capitulated and reciprocal Proposals are of the essence of all Treaties it could neither bind him or turne any way to his disadvantage Therfore under favour ther was too much hast us'd by the Parlement to draw that hipothetick or provisional Concession to the form of an Act so suddenly after in the very heat of the Treaty without His Majesties knowledge or the least intimation of his pleasure Add hereunto that this Grant was but a meer preambular Proposition 't was not of the essence of the Treaty it self And as the Philosophers and Schoolemen tell us there is no valid proof can be drawn out of Proemes Introductions or Corallaries in any science but out of the positive assertions and body of the Text which is only argument-proof so in the Constitutions and Lawes of England as also in all accusations and charges forerunning prefaces and preambles which commonly weak causes want most are not pleadable and though they use to be first in place like gentlemen-Ushers yet are they last in dignity as also in framing nor had they ever the force of Lawes but may be term'd their attendants to make way for them Besides ther 's not a syllable in this preface which repeales or connives at any former Law of the Land therefore those Lawes that so strictly inhibit English Subjects to raise armes against their liege Lord the King and those Lawes è contrario which exempt from all dangers penalties or molestation any Subject that adheres to the person of the King in any cause or quarrell whatsoever are still in force Furthermore this introductory Concession of the Kings wherein he is contented to declare That the two Houses were necessitated to take Armes for their defence may be said to have relation to the necessity à parte pòst not à parte antè self-defence is the universall Law of Nature and it extends to all other creatures as well as the rationall As the sluent Roman Orator in that sentence of his which is accounted among the Critiques the excellentest that ever drop'd from him Est enim haec non scripta sed nata Lex quam non didicimus accepimus legimus verùm ex natura ipsa arripuimus hausimus expressimus ad quam non docti sed facti non instituti sed imbuti sumus ut si vita nostra in c. For this meaning self-defence is not a written but a Law born with us A Law which we have not learnt receiv'd or read but that which we have suck'd drawn forth and wrung out of Nature her self A Law to which we are not taught but made unto wherewith we are not instructed but indued withall that if our lifes be in jeopardy c. we may repell force by force Therefore when the House of Parliament had drawn upon them a necessity of self-defence and I could have wish'd it had been against any other but their own Soveraign Prince his Majesty was contented to acknowledge that necessity As for example A man of war meets with a Marchant man at Sea he makes towards him and assaults him The Marchant man having a good stout vessell under him and

resolute generous Seamen bears up against him gives him a whole broad side and shoots him 'twixt wind and water so there happens a furious fight betwixt them which being ended the Marchant cannot deny but that the man of war though the first Assailant was necessitated to fight and that justly in his own defence which necessity he drew upon himself and so was excusable à posteriori not à priori As the Civilians speak of a clandestine marriage Fieri non debuit sed factum valet It ought not to have been but being done 't is valid whereunto relates another saying Multa sunt quae non nisi peracta approbantur There are many things which are not allowable till they are pass'd The Kings of France have had sundry civill warrs many bloudy encounters and clashes with their Subjects specially the last King Lewis the thirteenth which turn'd all at last to his advantage among other Treaties upon that of Loudu● he was by force of Article to publish an Edict Dons lequel le Roy approuvoit tout le passé comme ayant esté fait pour son service c. Whrein the King approv'd of all that was pass'd as done for his service c. and these concessions and extenuations are usuall at the close of most civill warrs but there was never any further advantage made of them then to make the adverse party more capable of grace and pardon to enable them to bear up against the brunt of Lawes and secure them more firmly from all afterclaps They were pass'd in order to an Act of Abolition to a generall pardon and consequently to a reestablishment of Peace now Peace and VVarr we know are like VVater and Ice they engender one another But I do not remember to have read either in the French story or any other that such Royall Concessions at the period of any intestin war were ever wrung so hard as to draw any inference from them to cast therby the guilt of blood or indeed the least stain of dishonor upon the King For Royall Indulgences and grants of this nature are like nurses breasts if you presse them gently there will milk come forth if you wring them too hard you will draw forth blood in lieu of milk And I have observed that upon the conclusion of such Treaties in France both parties wold hugg and mutually embrace one another in a gallant way of national humanity all rancor all plundrings sequestration and imprisonment wold cease nor wold any be prosecuted much lesse made away afterwards in cold bloud Touching the Comencer of this monstrous war of ours the world knows too well that the first man of bloud was Blewcap who shew'd Subjects the way how to present their King with Petitions upon the pikes point and what visible judgements have fallen upon him since by such confusions of discord and pestilence at home and irreparable dishonour abroad let the world judge The Irish took his rise from him and whereas it hath been often suggested that his Majesty had fore-knowledge thereof among a world of convincing arguments which may cleer him in this particular the Lord Maguair upon the ladder and another upon the Scaffold when they were ready to breath their last and to appear before the Tribunall of heaven did absolutely acquit him and that spontaneously of their own accord being unsought unto but only out of a love to truth and the discharge of a good conscience But touching those c●uentous Irish warrs in regard there was nothing whereof more advantage was made against His late Majesty to imbitter and poison the hearts of his Subjects against him then that Rebellion I will take leave to wind up the main causes of them upon a small bottome 1. They who kept intelligence and complied with the Scot in his first and second insurrection 2. They who dismiss'd the first Irish Commissioners who came of purpose to attend our Parlement with some grievances with such a short unpolitic harsh answer 3. They who took off Straffords head which had it stood on that Rebellion had never been and afterwards retarded the dispatch of the Earl of Leicester from going over to be Lord-Lievtenant 4. Lastly they who hindred part of that disbanded Army of 8000. men rais'd there by the Earl of Strafford which His Majesty in regard they were souldiers of fortune and loose casheer'd men to prevent the mischiefs that might befall that Kingdome by their insolencies had promised the two Spanish Ambassadors the Marquesses of Velada and Malvezzi then resident in this Court which souldiers rise up first of any and put fire to the tumult to find something to do They I say who did all this may be justly said to have been the true causes of that horrid Insurrection in Ireland and consequently 't is easie to judge upon the account of whose souls must be laid the blood of those hundred and odd thousand poor Christians who perished in that war and had it been possible to have brought o're their bodies unputrified to England and to have cast them at the lower House door and in the presence of some Members which are now either secluded or gone to give account in another world I believe their noses would have gush'd out with blood for discovery of the true murtherers Touching this last fire-brand of war which was thrown into England who they were that kindled it first the consciences of those indifferent unblassed men are fittest to be judges who have been curious to observe with impartiall eyes the carriage of things from the beginning I confesse 't was a fatall infortunate thing that the King should put such a distance 'twixt his Person and his Parliament but a more fatall and barbarous thing it was that he should be driven away from it that there should be a desperate designe to surprize his Person that Ven with his Myrmidons and Bourges with his Bandogs for so they call'd the riffraff of the City they brought along with them should rabble him away with above four parts in five of the Lords and neere upon two parts in three of the Commons Yet 't is fit it should be remembred what reiterated Messages his Majesty sent from time to time afterward that he was alwaies ready to return provided there might be a course taken to secure his Person with those Peers others who were rioted away from the Houses 't is fit it shold be remembred that there was not the least motion of war at all till Hotham kept his Majesty out of his own Town Kingston upon Hul where being attended by a few of his meniall Servants he came only to visit her which act of Hotham's by shutting the gates against him was voted warrantable by the House of Commons and it may be call'd the first thunderbolt of war 'T is fit it should be remembred that a while after there was a compleat Army of 10000. effect if Horse and Foot inrolled in and about London to fetch him to