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	liberty_n	parliament_n	2,621	5	6.9289	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89005	Ochlo-machia. Or The peoples war, examined according to the principles of Scripture & reason, in two of the most plausible pretences of it. In answer to a letter sent by a person of quality, who desired satisfaction. By Jasper Mayne, D.D. one of the students of Ch. Ch. Oxon.	Mayne, Jasper, 1604-1672.	1647 (1647)	Wing M1472; Thomason E398_19; ESTC R201695	27,844	40

ΟΧΛΟ-ΜΑΧΙΑ OR THE PEOPLES WAR EXAMINED According to the Principles of SCRIPTURE REASON IN Two of the most Plausible Pretences of it IN ANSWER To a LETTER sent by a Person of Quality who desired satisfaction By JASPER MAYNE D.D. one of the Students of Ch. Ch. Oxon. Rom. 13.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Printed in the Yeare 1647. Honourd Sir I Have in my time seen certain Pictures with two faces Beheld one way they have presented the shape and figure of a Man Beheld another they have presented the shape and figure of a Serpent Me thinks Sir for some years whatever Letters the King wrote either to the Queene or his friends or what ever Declarations he publish in the defence of his Rights and Cause had the ill fortune to undergoe the fate of such a Picture To us who read them impartially by their own true genuine light they appeared so many cleare transparent Copies of a sincere and Gallant Mind Look't upon by the People of whom you know who said populus iste 〈◊〉 decipi decipiatur through the Answers and Observations and venomous Comments which some men made upon them a fallacy in judgement followed very like the fallacy of the sight where an Object beheld through a false deceitfull medium partakes of the cosenage of the conveyance and way and puts on a false Resemblance As squara bright angular things through a mist show darke and round and straight things seen through water show broken and distorted It seems Sir by your Letter to me that your Friend with whom you say you have lately had a dispute about the Kings Supremacy and the Subjects Rights is one of those who hath had the ill luck to be thus depeived Which I doe not wonder at when I consider how much he is concern'd in his fortunes that the Parliament should all this while be in the right Besides Sir Having lookt upon the Cause of that Side meerly in that plausible dresse with which some pens have attired it And having entertain'd a strong prejudice against whatever shall be said to prove that a Parliament may erre it ought to be no marvaile to you if he be rather of M. Prinnes then Iudge Jenkins's Opinion And perswade himselfe that the Parliament having if not a superior yet a coordinate power with the King in which the People is interessed where ever their Religion or Liberty is invaded may take up Armes against Him for the defence of either But then Sir finding by my reading of the publick writings of both sides that both sides challenged to themselves the Defence of one and the same Cause I must confesse to you That for a while the many Battailes which so often coloured our fields with Bloud appeared to me like Battails fought in Dreams Where the person combaring in his sleepe imagines he hath an Adversary but awake perceives his error that he held conflict with himselfe To speak a little more freely to you Sir the Kings Declarations and the Parliaments Remonstrances equally pretending to the maintenance of the same Protestant Religion and the same Liberty of the Subject I wondered a while how they could make two opposite sides or could so frequently come into the field without a Quarrell But since your Friend is pleased to let me no longer remain a Sceptick but clearly to state the Quarrell by suffering the two great words of Charme Liberty and Religion from whence both sides have so often made their Recruits to stand no longer as a Salamis or controverted Hand between two equall Challengers And since he is pleased to espouse the defence of them so wholly to the Parliament as to call the Warre made by the King the Invasion of them Both for his and your satisfaction who have layed this taske upon me give me leave to propose this reasonable Dilemma to you Either 't is true what your Friend saies that the Parliament hath all this while fought for the defence of their Liberty and Religion or 't is only a pretence and hath hid some darker secret under it If it have been only a pretence there being not a third word in all the World which can afford so good Colour to make an unjust Warre passe for a just the first discovery of it will be the fall and ruine of it And the People who have been misled with so much holy Imposture will not only hate it for the Hypocrisie but the Injustice too If it be true yet I cannot see how they are hereby advantaged or how either or both these joyned can legitimate their Armes For first Sir I would fain know of your friend what he means by the Liberty of the Subject I presume he doth not mean a Releasement from servitude Since amongst all their other complaints delivered in Petitions to the Parliament they never yet adventured to say that they were govern'd as Servants by a hard Master not as Subjects by a Prince Nor doe I find that the King was such a Pharaoh to them that they were able to say that he changed a Kingdome of Freemen into a House of Bondage Some Acts of his Government I confesse some have call'd Illegal namely the exaction of Ship-mony But this certainly was a grievance which if it had not been redrest deserved not to be reckoned among the Brick kills of Aegypt or to denominate his Government despoticall too Next then doth your friend by Liberty meane a Releasement from Tyranny as Tyranny allowes men to be Subjects but not much removed from slaves Had the King indeed made his Will the Rule of his Government and had his Will revealed it selfe in nineteen years of Injustice had he like Caligula worne a Table-book in his pocket with the names of the Nobility in it design'd and Marks for slaughter Had he without any Trialls of Law made his pleasure passe for sentence and lopt off Senators heads as Tarquin did Poppeys Had he in his oppressions of the People made them feele Times like those which Tacitus describes where no man durst be virtuous least he should be thought to upbrayd his Prince where to complaine of hard usage was capitall and where men had not only their words but their very looks and sighs proscribed his Raigne would beare that Name But alas Sir you your selfe know that these are Acts of Tyranny which were so sarre from being practised that they have not yet been faigned among us 'T is true indeed certain dark Jealousies were cast among the people as if some Evill Counsellors about the King had had it in their designe to introduce an Arbitrary Government But these were but Jealousies blown by those whose plot 't was to make the popular hatred their engine to remove those Counsellors that by their ruine they might raise a Ladder to their own Ambitions For if the Calamity of these times have not quite blotted out the memory of former people cannot but remember that no Nation under Heaven more freely enjoyed the Blessing of the Scripture

only supposition And you now Sir what the Logician saies suppositie nihil p●nit in esse what ever may be supposed is not presently true If Calumny her selfe would turne Informer let her leave out Ship-money a greivance which being fairely laid a fleepe by an Act of Parliament deserved not to be awakened to beare a part in the present Tragedy of this almost ruined Kingdome she must confesse that the King through the whole course of His Raigne was so farre from the Invasion of His Subjects Rights that no King of England before Him unlesse it were Henry the first and King Iohn whom being Vsurpers it concern'd to comply with the People the one having supplanted his Eldest Brother Robers Duke of Normandy the other his Nephew Arthur Prince of Britaine ever imparted to them so many Rights of his owne To that Degree of Infranchisment that I may almost say He exchanged Liberties with them Witnesse the Petition of Right An Act of such Royall Grace that when He past that Bill He almost dealt with His people as Traian did with the Pratorian praefect put his sword into their Hands and bid them use it for Him if he ruled well if not against Him In short Sir Magna Charta was a Vine I confesse cast over the People but this Act enabled them to call the shade of it their owne An Act which if your friend will please to forget Ship mony being in no one particular violated so farre as to be instanced in by those whose present Ingagements would never suffer such Breaches of Priviledge to passe unclamour'd will oblige posterity to be gratefull as often as they remember themselves to be Freemen This then being so the next inquiry will be whether a bare Jealousy that the King would in time have recalled this Grace and would have invaded the Liberty of his Subjects by the change of the Fundamentall Lawes could be a just cause for such a preventive Warre as this To which I answere that such a Faire though built upon strong presumptions cannot possibly be a just cause for one Nation to make Warre upon another much lesse for Subjects to make Warre against their Prince The Reason is because nothing can legitimate such a Warre but either an Injury already offered or so visibly imminent that it may passe for the first Dart or Speare hurled Where the Injury or Invasion is only contingent and conjecturall and wrapt up in the wombe of darke Counsells no way discoverable but by their own revelation of themselves in some outward Acts of Hostility or usurpation to anticipate is to be first injurious and every Act of prevention which hath only Iealousie for its foundation will adde new justice to the enemies Cause who as He cannot in reason be pronounced guilty of anothers Feares so he will come into the Field with this great advantage on his side That his reall wrong will joyne Battle with the others weake suspition But alas Sir Time the best interpreter of Mens Intentions hath at length unsee'ld our eyes and taught us that this hath been a Warre of a quite opposite Nature The Gentleman who wrote the Defence of M. Chaloners Speech and M. Chaloner himselfe if you marke his Speech well will tell you that the quarrell hath not been whether the subject of England shall be Free but whether this Freedome shall not consist in being no longer Subject to the King If you marke Sir How the face of things hath alter'd with successe How the scene of things is shifted And in what a New stile they who called themselves the Invaded have spoken ever since their Victories have secured them against the power of any that shall invade If you consider what a politick use hath been made of those words of Inchantment Law Liberty and Propriety of the Subject by which the People have been musically enticed into their Thraldome If you yet farther consider the more then Decemvirall power which this Parliament hath assumed to it selfe by repealing old Lawes and making Ordinances passe for new If you yet farther will please to consider How much Heavyer that which some call Priviledge of Parliament hath been to the Subject then that which they so much complained of The Kings Prerogative so much heavyer that if one deserved to be called a Little finger the other hath swolne it selfe into a Loyne Lastly if you compare Ship mony with the Excise and the many other Taxes laid upon the Kingdome you will not onely find that a whippe then hath been heightned into a Scorpion now but you will perceive that as these are not the first Subjects who under pretence of Liberty have invaded their Princes Crowne so farre as the Cleaving of Him asunder by a State Distinction which separates the Power of the King from his Person so ours as long as he was able to lead an Army into the Field hath been the first King that ever took up Armes for the Liberty of his Subjects Vpon all which premises Sir I hope you will not think it false Logicke if I build this Conclusion so agreeable to the Lawes of the Kingdome as well as the Lawes of God That supoosing the Parliament all this while to have fought as was at first pretended for the Defence of their assayled Liberty yet fighting against the King whose Subjects they are it can never before a Christian Judge make their Armies passe for just But being no way necessitated to make such a Defence their Liberty having in no one particular been assaulted which hath not been redrest if S. Paul were now on earth againe and were the Iudge of this Controversy between them and their Lawfull Soveraigne I feare he would call their Defence by a Name which we in our Moderne Cases of Conscience doe call Rebellion And thus Sir having as compendiously as the Lawes of a Letter will permit given you I hope some satisfaction concerning the first part of your zealous Friends dispute with you which was whether the Two Houses which he calls the Parliament have not a Legall power in Defence of their Liberty to take up Armes against the King I will with the like brevity proceed as well as I can to give you satisfaction in the second part of his Dispute also which was whether Religion may not be a just Cause for a Warre The Termes of which Question being very generall and not restrained to any kind of Religion or any kind of Warre whether offensive or defensive or whether of one Nation against another or of a Prince against his Subjects or of the Subjects back again against their Prince allow me a very large space to walk in In which least I be thought to wander and not to prove It will first be necessary that I define to you what Religion in generall is And next that I examine whether every Religion which falls within the Truth of that Definition may for the propagation of it selfe be a just cause of a Warre and so

Conduct under Sir Thomas Fairefax be of this perswasion thus stated I shall not think it any slander from the Mouth of a Presbiterian who thinks otherwise to be called an Judependent If a Prince who is confessedly a Prince and hath Supreme power make Warre upon his Subjects for the propagation of Religion the Nature of the Defence is much alter'd For though sucha Warre whether made for the Imposition of a false Religion or a true be as uniust as if 't were made upon a forreigne Nation yet this injustice in the Prince cannot warrant the taking up of Armes against Him in the Subject Because being the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Supreme within his own Kingdome As all power concerning the publick secular Government of it resolveait selfe into Him so doth the ordering of the Outward exercise of Religion too In both Cases he is the Judge of Controversies Not so unerring or Infallible as that all his Determinations must be received for Oracles or that his Subjects are so obliged to be of his Religion that if the Prince be an Idolater a Mahumetan or Papist 't would be disobedience in them not to be so too But let his Religion be what it will let him be a Ieroboam or one of such an unreasonable Idolatry as to command his people to worship Calves and Burn Incense to Gods scarce fit to be made the Sacrifice Though he be not to be obeyed yet he is not to be resisted Since such a Resistance would not only change the Relation of inequality and Distance between the Prince and People and so destroy the Supremacy here given him by S. Peter but 't would actually enter duell with the Ordinance of God which ceaseth not to be sacred as often as 't is wickedly imployed Irresistibility being a Ray and Beame of the Divine Image which resides in the Function not in the Religion of the Prince Who may for his Person perhaps be a Caligula or Nere yet in his Office still remaine Gods Deputy and Vicegerent And therefore to be obeyed even in his unjust commands though not actively by our compliance yet passively by our sufferings This Doctrins as 't is agreeable to the Scripture and the practice of the purest and most primitive times of the Church so I finde it illustrated by the famous example of a Christian Souldier and the censure of a Father upon the paslage This Souldier being bid to burne Inconse to an Idoll rcfused But yeelded himselfe to be cast into the fire Had he when his Emperour bid him worship an Idoll mutinied or turn'd his speare upon him saies that Father he bad broken the fift Commandement in defence of the second But submitting his Body to be burnt the only thing in him which could be compelled in stead of committing Idolatry he became himselfe a Sacrifice I could Sir second this with many other Examples but they would all tend to this one pious Christian Result that Martyrdome is to be presetred before Rebellion Here then if I should suppose your Presbyterian Friends charge to be true a very heavy one I confesle that the King miscounselled by a Prelaticall Court Faction when he first Marcht into the field against the Armies raised by the two Houses of Parliament had an intent to subvert the Protestant Religion and to plant the Religion of the Church of Rome in it's stead yet unlesse he can prove to me that from that time he actually ceast to be King or the two Houses to be his Subjects or notwithstanding their two Oathes of Supremacy and Alleageance that in so doing he forfeited his Crowne and was no longer over all persons and in all Causes as well Civill as Ecclesiasticall within the circuit of his three Kingdomes supreame Head and Governour I know no Armes which could lawfully be used against Him but those which S. Ambrose used against an Arian Emperour Lachrymas Suspiri● Sighes Tears and Prayers to God to turne his heart And therefore Sir when your Friond doth next aske you How it could stand with the safe conscience of any English Protestant to stand an idle spectator whilst Queen Marus daies were so ready to break in upon him that He was almost reduced to this hard choyce either to follow the Times in the new ●rected fashion of Religion or live in danger of the stake and Faggot if he persisted in the old you may please to let him know from me That as I have no unruly Thirst or irregular Ambition in me to dye a Martyr Nor am so much a Circumcelleo as to court or wooe or in case it fled from me enthusiastically to call upon me my own Death and Execution So if it had been my Let to live in the fiery times He speaks of when a Protestant was put to death for an Heretick as I should not have quarreld with the Pawer that condemned me so I should have kist my funerall pile And should have thought it a high peece of Gods favour to me to call me to Heaven by a way so like that of his Angell in the Book of * c. 13.20 Judges who ascended thither in the Flame and aire and persume of a Sacrifies But what if this be only a Jealousie and suspition in your Friend Nay what if it have been the Disguise and paint to some Ambitious mens designes who to walke the more securely to their darke and politick ends have stiled themselves the Defendours when they have all this while been the Invadors And have called the King the subverter who hath all this while to his power been the Defender of this Religion This certainly if it be proved will very much Inflame and aggravate their sinne and dye it in a deep scarlet through all the progresse of it But because I rather desire to cast a mantle over their strange proceedings then to adde to their Nakednesse which hath at length discover'd it selfe to all the World all that I shall say to deliver so much Goodnesse from so much misrepresentation is this That the report which at first poyson'd the mindes of so many Thousand well minded people That the King had an intent by this warre to destroy the Protestant Religion could at most have no other parent but some mens either crafty Malice or needlesse Feare appears clearly in this that after all their great Discoveries they have not yet instanced in one considerable Ground fit to build more then a vulgar Jealousy upon The Kings affection to the Queene His Alliance and confederacy with Popish Princes abroad and the Gentlenesse of his Raigne towards his Popish Subjects at home being premises as unfit to build this Inference and conclusion upon that Therefore He took up Armes that he might introduce their Religion as his in Aristotle were who because it lightued when Socrates took the Ayre thought that his walking caused that commotion in the skyes For that the Root and Spring of such a report could be nothing but their own