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	lord_n	people_n	4,953	5	4.9858	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97094	The bloody proiect, or a discovery of the new designe, in the present war. Being a perfect narrative of the present proceedings of the severall grandee factions, for the prevention of a just peace, and promoting of a causelesse warre, to the destruction of the King, Parliament & people. Whereunto is annexed several expedients for an happy accommodation tending to the satisfaction of all parties, without the further effusion of blood. / By W.P. Gent.	Walwyn, William, 1600-1681.	1648 (1648)	Wing W681; Thomason E460_4; ESTC R3843	10,073	16

The Bloody Proiect Or a discovery of the New Designe in the present War BEING A perfect Narrative of the present proceedings of the severall Grandee Factions for the prevention of a just Peace and promoting of a causelesse Warre to the destruction of THE KING PARLIAMENT PEOPLE Whereunto is annexed Several Expedients for an happy Accommodation tending to the satisfaction of all Parties without the further effusion of blood By W. P. Gent. Printed in this Yeare of dissembling 1648. The Bloody Project OR New design in the present War discovered IN all undertakings which may occasion war or bloodshed men have great need to be sure that their cause be right both in respect of themselves and others for if they kill men themselves or cause others to kill without a just cause and upon the extreamest necessity they not only disturbe the peace of men and familyes and bring misery and poverty upon a Nation but are indeed absolute murtherers Nor will it in any measure satisfy the Conscience or Gods justice to go on in uncertainties for in doubtfull cases men ought to stand still and consider untill certainty do appear especially when killing and sleying of men the most horrid worke to Nature and Scripture is in question Far be it from any man hastily to engage in any undertaking which may occasion a War before the cause he is to fight for be rightly and plainly stated well considered and throughly understood to be just and of absolute necessity to be maintained nothing being more abom●nable in the sight of God or good men then such persons who run●e out to shed blood for money or to support this or the other Interest but neither consider the cause for which they engage nor ought el●e but pay interest honour c. such are they who so eagerly endeavour to support the interest of a King by the destruction of the Peoples Interest the Interest of the Scots against the Interest of the English the Interest of the Independents by the ruine of the Presbyterians and because it best consists with their present honour profit or humours make it their busines to pick quarrels and encrease divisions and jealousies that so they may fish in the waters which they themselves have troubled But let such know who ever they be that though they may and do for a while brave it out and flourish yet a time is comming and draweth on apace when for all the murthers they have caused and mischiefs they have committed they shall come to judgement and then their Consciences will be as a thousand witnesses against them But especially let men pretending conscience take heed how they either engage themselves or perswade others to engage to fight and kill men for a cause not rightly stated or not throughly understood to be just and of necessity to be maintained for it is one of the most unreasonable unchristian and unnaturall things that can enter into the mind or man though it be to be feared that more then a few that have of late both in the Citie and Country and at present are active to engage in killing and sleying of men cannot acquit themselves of this abomination I beseech you you that are so forward and active to engage in the defence of the Kings Presbyterian or Independent interest and yet know no just cause for either consider was it sufficient that the King at first invited you in generall termes to joyn with him for the defence of the true Protestant Religion his own just Prerogatives the Privileages of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject but never declared in particular what that Protestant Religion was he would have defended or what Prerogative would please him what priviledges he would allow the Parliament or what Freedoms the People Or was it sufficient thinke you now that the Parliament invited you at first upon generall termes to fight for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Libertyes of the People and Priviledges of Parliament when neither themselves knew for ought is yet seen nor you nor any body else what they meant by the true Protestant Religion or what the Liberties of the People were or what those Priviledges of Parliament were for which yet neverthelesse thousands of men have been slain and thousands of Familyes destroyed It is very like that some of you that joyned with the King upon his invitation thought that though the King had formerly countenanced Popery and Superstition had stretcht his Prerogative to the oppression and destruction of his People by Pattents Projects c. yet for the future he would have been more zealous for the truth and more tender of his People and not have persisted notwithstanding his new Protestations to maintain his old Principles And so likewise many of you that joyned with the Parliament who had formerly seen felt or considered the persecution of godly conscientious people by the Bishops and their Cleargy with the reproaches cast upon them and their grievous and destructive imprisonment did beleeve the Parliament under the notion of Religion intended to free the Nation from all compulsion in matters of Religion and from molestation or persecution for opinions or non-conformity and that all Lawes or Statutes tending thereunto should have been repealed But since you find by killing and destroying their opposers you have enbled them to performe all things that might concern your freedome or be conducible to the peace of the Kingdome But do you now find that they do mean that or the contrary And will your consciences give you leave any longer to fight or engage in the cause of Religion when already you see what fruits you and your friends reap thereby And no doubt many of you understood by the Liberties of the People that they intended to free the Commons in Parliament the peoples Representative ftom a Negative voyce in King or Lords and would have declared themselves the highest Authority and so would have proceeded to have removed the grievances of the Common-wealth And when you had seen Pattents Projects and Shipmoney taken away the High Commission and Starchamber abolished did you ever imagine to have seen men and women examined upon Interrogatories and questions against themselves and imprisoned for refusing to answer Or to have seen Commoners frequently sentenced and imprisoned by the Lords Did you ever dream that the oppressions of Committees would have exceeded those of the Councel-table or that in the place of Pattents and Projects you should have seen an Excise established ten fold surpassing all those and Shipmoney together You thought rather that Tythes would have been esteem'd an oppression and that Trade would have been made perfectly free and that Customs if continued would have been abated and not raysed for the support of domineering factions and enrichment of foure or five great men as they have been of late times to the sorrow and astonishment of all honest men and the great prejudice of the Trade of the Nation Doubtlesse you

hoped that both Lawes and Lawyers and the proceeding in all Courts should have been abreviated and corrected and that you should never more have seen a Begger in England You have seen the Common-wealth enslaved for want of Parliaments and also by their sudden dissolution and you rejoyced that this Parliament was not to be dissolved by the King but did you conceive it would have sat seavn yeares to so little purpose or that it should ever have come to passe to be esteemed a crime to move for the ending thereof Was the perpetuating of this Parliament and the oppressions they have brought upon you and yours a part of that Liberty of the People you fought for Or was it for such a Priviledge of Parliament that they only might have liberty to oppresse at their pleasure without any hope of remedy If all these put together make not up the cause for which you fought what was the Cause What have ye obtained to the People but these Libertyes for they must not be called oppressions These are the fruits of all those vast disburstments and those thousands of lives that have been spent and destroyed in the late War And though the Army seemed to be sensible of these grosse juglings and declared and engaged against them and professed that they tooke not paines as a mercenary Army hired to fight for the Arbitrary ends of a State but in judgement and conscience for the preservation of their own and the Peoples just Rights and Libertyes Yet when they had prevailed against those their particular opposers and accomplished the ends by them aymed at all these things were forgotten and those persons that appeared for the Peoples Freedoms by them esteemed and proceeded against as Mutineers or Incendiaries In like manner the present Ruling Party of Presbyterians make a great shew of their apprehensions of the great slavery and servitude brought upon the People by the exercise or an Arbitrary power in the Parliament and by the jurisdiction of the Sword in the hands of the Army They tell us that by this meanes the Trade of the Nation is destroyed and that without the removall of these things the peace of the Nation cannot be secured And it is exceeding true But I beseech you consider whether they do not revive the same Play and drive the same Designe which was acted by the Parliament at first and by the Army the last-Summer First they cry out against the exercise of an arbitrary power in the Parliament and yet labour to invest it in the King nay challenge the exercise of it by themselves for what greater arbitrary power can there be in the world then that a Priest or two and a few Lay Elders under the name of a Presbytery should have power to bind or loose bring in or cast out save or destroy at their pleasure and enforce all persons within the limits of their jurisdiction to beleeve as they beleeve and submit to whatever they command or else to be by them delivered over to Sathan Nay if you looke into those of that party of the Magistracy of this City that are the great promoters of the present worke do there any men in the wo●ld exercise a more arbitrary power Do not many of them act only by the Rule of will and pleasure and have they not openly prosessed themselves to be obliged to observe no other Rule then Discretion And though they decry agaitst the power of the Sword in the hands of the Independents yet do they not with all their might labour to get it into the hands of the Presbyterians and being there will they not do that themselves which they complain of in others will they not say that there are gain-sayers whose mouthes must be stopt and with the Sword rather then faile and though Royal sts or Independents may not use the Sword to enforce their Principles yet Presbyterians may as if all knowledge of the truth were centred in a Presbytery consisting of halfe Scotch halfe English part Puritan part Cavalier luke-warm christianity neither hot nor cold zealous for the truth which they know not only by heare-say and only because they love not Jndependency that being to pure nor Episcopacy that being too prophane they will be between both but not in a golden Meane for that were well but more zealons then either in outward performances but for the power of godlines I cease to judge but we say we may know the tree by the fruit and certain I am that Thistles never bore Figgs But if you shall examine what grounds of freedome they propose in all their Papers what equall Rules of justice they offer to be insisted on as a sure foundation for a lasting peace Surely if you looke bur seriously into the bottom of their design you will find that the peace they aime at is only their own not the Nations and that their own ease honour and dominion is the only thing they pursue and so they could enjoy ease and plenty and stretch themselves upon Beds of Down they would never care what the poor Country should suffer To be short all the quarrell we have at this day in the Kingdome is no other then a quarrel of Interests and Partyes a pulling down of one Tyrant to set up another and in stead of Liberty heaping vpon our selves a greater slavery then that we fought against certainly this is the Liberty that is so much strove for and for which there are such fresh endeavours to engage men but if you have not killed and destroyed men enough for this go on and destroy kill and sley till your consciences are swoln so full with the blood of the People that they burstagen and upon your death-beds may you see your selves the most horrid Murtherers that ever lived since the time that Cain kild his brother without a just Cause for where or what is your cause Beleeve it yee have a heavy reeckoning to make and must undergo a sad repentance or it will go ill with you at the great day when all the sophistry of your great Reformers will serve you to little purpose every man for himselfe being to give an account for the things which he hath done in the body whether they be good or evill Then it will serve you to little purpose to say the King Parliament Army Independents Presbyterians such an Officer Magistrate or Minister deluded me no more then it did Adam to say the woman whom thou gavest c. It being thus decreed in heaven the soule which sinneth shall surely dye And though what is past cannot be recalled yet it must be repented of and speciall care taken for the future that you sin no more in in this kind and either stand still or go right for the Future to which end let these following directions be your guide 1. You are to know that a People living under a Government as this Nation hath done and doth cannot lawfully put themselves into Arms or engage in

just grounds and upon the greatest necessity it being the saddest work in the world For the preventing whereof let us I beseech you examine what good things there are wanting that are essential to the Peace Freedom and happiness of the Nation that may not be obtained without fighting 1. Is there wanting the certain knowledg where the supream Authority is and of right ought to be It is confest no one thing is more wanting nor can the Nation ever be quiet or happy without it But can it be any where justly and safely but in the House of Commons who are chosen and trusted by the People Certainly did men consider that in opposing thereof they renounce and destroy their own freedoms they would not do it for any thing in the world If the consideration of the manifold evils brought upon us by this House of Commons deter them the next thing that is wanting is That a set time be appointed for the ending of this Parliament and a certainty for future Parliaments both for their due elections meeting and dissolving And who will be so unreasonable as to oppose any of these certainly the number cannot be considerable Is it also necessary that That Parliaments be abridged the power of impressing men to serve as bruit beasts in the Wars who will be against their being bounded therein a good Cause never wanted men nor an authority that had money to pay them Hath it proved destructive in Parliaments to meddle in Religion and to compel and restrain in matters of Gods Worship Are they evidently such things as cannot be submitto Judgment Doth every man find it so that hath a living Conscience Who then will be against their binding herein though they be entrusted to establish an uncompulsive publike way of worship for the Nation Is it unreasonable that any person should be exempt from those proceedings of Law unto which the generality of the People are to be subject Who is there then that will not willingly have all from the highest to the lowest bound alike That Parliaments should have no power to punish any person for doing that which is not against a known declared Law or to take away general property or to force men to answer to questions against themselves or to order tryals or proceed by any other ways then by twelve sworn men who would not rejoyce to have such boundaries Then that the proceedings it Law might be rectified and all Laws and the duty of Magistrates written and published in English That the Excise might have a speedy end and no Taxes but by way of subsidies That Trade might be free and a less burthensom way for the maintenance of Ministers be established then that of Tythes and that work and necessaries be provided for all kind of poor people Certainly for the obtaining of these things a man may justly adventure his life all these being for a common good and tend not to the setting up of any one party or faction of men These then are the Causes to be insisted on or nothing And if the supream Authority adhere to this Cause they need neither fear Scotch French nor English Enemies but if they decline this Cause they are to be declined the just freedom and happiness of a Nation being above all Constitutions whether of Kings Parliaments or any other For shame therefore Royalists Presbyterians Independents before you murther another man hold forth your Cause plainly and expresly and if any Adversaries appear either within or without the Land reason it out with them if it be possible deal as becometh Christians argue perswade and use all possible means to prevent another War and greater blood-shed your great ones whether the King Lords Parliament men rich Citizens c. feel not the miserable effects thereof and so cannot be sensible but you and your poor friends that depend on Farmes Trades and small pay have many an aking heart when these live in all pleasure and deliciousness The accursed thing is accepted by them wealth and honor and both comes by the bleeding miserable distractions of the Common-wealth and they fear an end of trouble would put an end to their glory and greatness Oh therefore all you Soldiers and People that have your Consciences alive about you put to your strength of Judgment and all the might you have to prevent a further effusion of blood let not the covetous the proud the blood-thirsty man bear sway amongst you fear not their high looks give no ear to their charms their promises or tears they have no strength without you forsake them and ye will be strong for good adhere to them and they will be strong to evil for which you must answer and give an account at the last day The King Parliament great men in the City and Army have made you but the stairs by which they have mounted to Honor Wealth and Power The only Quarrel that hath been and at present is but this namely whose slaves the people shall be All the power that any hath was but a trust conveyed from you to them to be employed by them for your good they have mis-imployed their power and instead of preserving you have destroyed you all Power and Authority is perverted from the King to the Constable and it is no other but the policy of Statesmen to keep you divided by creating jealousies and fears among you to the end that their Tyranny and Injustice may pass undiscovered and unpunished but the peoples safety is the supream Law and if a people must not be left without a means to preserve it self against the King by the same rule they may preserve themselves against the Parliament and Army too if they pervert the end for which they received their power to wit the Nations safety therefore speedily unite your selves together and as one man stand up for the defence of your Freedom and for the establishment of such equal rules of Government for the future as shall lay a firm foundation of peace and happiness to all the people without partiallity Let Justice be your breast-plate and you shall need to fear no enemies for you shall strike a terrour to your now insulting oppressors and force all the Nations Peace to fly before you Prosecute and prosper Vale. Postscript CAn there be a more bloody Project then to engage men to kill one another and yet no just cause declared Therefore I advise all men that would be esteemed Religious or Rational really to consider what may be done for the future that is conducible to the Peace of the Nation If the Peace of the Nation cannot be secured without the Restauration of the King let it be done speedily and honorably and provide against his misgovernment for the future let his power be declared and limited by Law If the Peace of the Nation cannot be secured by the continuance of this Parliament let a Period be set for the dissolution thereof but first make certain provision for the successive calling electing and sitting of Parliaments for the future let their Priviledges be declared and power limitted as to what they are empowred and what not for doubtless in Parliaments rightly constituted consists the Freedom of a Nation And in all things do as you would be done unto seek peace with all men But above all things abandon your former actings for a King against a Parliament or an Army against both for the Presbyterians against the Independents c. for in so doing you do but put a Sword into your enemies hands to destroy you for hitherto which of them soever were in power they plaid the Tyrants and oppressed and so it will ever be when Parties are supported Therefore if you engage at all do it by Lawfull Authority let your Cause be declared and just also and let it be for the good of the whole Nation without which you will not only hazard being Slaves but also contract upon your selves and Posterities the guilt of Murtherers vale FINIS