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	parliament_n	people_n	3,242	5	5.1503	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29267	To the right honourable, the supreme authority of this nation, the Commons assembled in Parliament an appeal in the humble chain of justice against Tho. Lord Fairfax, general of the English army, raised, and declared to be raised, for the propogation and defence of impartial justice, and just liberty in the nation / by Captain William Bray ...	Bray, William, 17th cent.	1649 (1649)	Wing B4301; ESTC R170764	10,631	20

settlement of the Nation in Colonell Reynold's Regiment and upon the same Account that the Army and the well-affected of the House have manifested themselves have been at most excessive charges and damages this Five months in order thereunto and have been intrusted with the guard of the Kings own person at Hurst-Castle by the authority of the Army and command of Col. John Reinolds voted a Col. of the Army by this House Yet notwithstanding may it please this supreme Authority I being at the Generall-Councell of the Army on or about the first day of March last past and there being a Letter presented by some Sou ldiers to the Generall and the Councell it was put to the question and the Poll whether the Letter should be owned or not owned And when I was demanded my Vote in the Councell which should be free I told them That though I could have wished that many expressions that were taken offence at were left out yet in my Judgment the substance of the Letter did relate to the right of petitioning and to a petition that was presented in Parliament and therefore I thought the work of that Court was to consider of it and so I owned it though I had some temptation upon my spirit not to own it because I saw a designe upon me A little after I was ignominiously and unreasonably cast out of the Councell and had not liberty though I desired it to speak as if it were now grown a Capitall offence to speak a mans judgement in a Councell which should be free and as capitall a sin to speak a word for a private Souldier though with never so much temperance if contrary to the judgment of some Officers whereas it was offered by the Army as a necessary expedient that there might be a liberty of dissents in the House of Commons that the Nation might readily come to know who they are that perform their trust faithfully and who not and this was offered to render a Parliament less nocent Remonst of 23 June and in the Volume of Declar. page 143. We appeal to all men whether it be just or tolerable that any priviledge of Parliament should contrary to the Law of Nature make a man judge in his own case on concernment But the Generall would have that unreasonable power and dominion which he would not give to Parliaments amd will not give that libertie that he takes to himself Unto what pass will this Nation come to unless this honorable House justly interpose with their just Authority But I humbly conceive That this honorable House the wel-affected in Army and Nation are bound in conscience to interpose in their dying Liberties for what man in the earth knowes where such practises and designes will end for after I was cast out of the Councell without just cause my Troop was given away to another and a Commission given to another to be in the Regiment and I could not have that indisputable Justice from the Generall to suspend it till the business was determined in Parliament though I desired it in private of him I shall desire the honourable House to consider the two Cases before laid down not mentioning my former Arrears and losses in your service and for your sakes by which injustice and wrongs will appear and by reason of which I am engaged in the world and to consider that the Generall would by vertue of his negative voice which the King so much stood upon under the specious notion of the use of his reason deprive me of my right and give it to his creature and pretend that he hath an unlimited power to give and deny to whom he please which may extend as well to kill and save alive as to honour and dethrone in an unreasonable arbitrary manen just like the Kings practise as I have shewed before He himself can receive a Commission from Parliament against the King and after that withstand the Parliament again and again and rend and tear in pieces all power and break all the reins of government as to former constitutions and tell them That it is not the me●r punctilio of a Commission but impartiall Justice and Freedom principles of nature and right reason is his Commission which actions are only justifiable before God and Man in order to Justice and Freedom but he can act arbitrarily unreasonably and fly to his own Sword and power without reason when he pleases to destroy the Nations friends and his own too though not flatterers in their freedom and Justice This corruption may destroy the wel-being of this Army and Common-weal for if this House or any Officers or Souldiers in this Army do walk and speak never so reasonably yet power and Will may destroy and cast out both or doe both for by it he may doe one as justifiably as the other And if God in his appointments should give a great part of this Army into the hands of future Enemies by future Warr and Blood then another part of the people of this Nation must be invited out with the names and expressions of Judgment and Conscience and after they have obtained Victory also with the loss of many thousands and the hazards of many more all their liberties and equal good and right shall be usurped and swallowed up into the hands of one man or a few men who may be partially swayed to destroy and save alive whom he please if he prove corrupt and apostatize as former powers have and so one corrupt man in power corrupts many more untill at length they will come to call corruption Justice and it must be so because they call it so and then he is worthy of death and cashierment that will not say The Crow is white For my part I shall profess my self to the world to be for the Generals personall Authority and power of Conduct so long as this intrusted Authority thinks fit and just and as may appear by an address unto his Excellency written by my own hand and consented to by the Troops about two months last past as much as any insinuater or flatterer that hath interposed between the Generall and me in order to the Rights of the People and I should be glad if the Generall did walk truly justly and honourably sutable to such an Authority But to have as much as in him lay my body little estate and more especially or above all the Liberties of my Country the liberty and freedom of my Conscience to be all enslaved at once by him I had rather be rack'd to death or destroyed by the General or by any unworthy mercenary-spirited insinuating Officer or Souldier then subscribe in that sense And I professe impartially I know not what sense is expected from me else by these and the like actings just like the actings of Willam the Norman Conquerour who deprived the English Natives of the comforts of Riches and Places and their smallest offences against his will and Norman Lawes were made grants to entitle him to their Lands and places of Trust to fulfill his lust satisfie his Creatures and carry on his Tyrannous designes over the People And I do finde it a very great evill that when the People and the Souldiery claim just and undenyable things then presently some men commonly fly to a deceivable mistaking of the Question and subvert the People and Souldiery in their Cause and say that the men are against Authority as the King did against the Parliament and so the People and Souldiery are jugled out of the Question But I desire this Honourable House to consider That Injustice is the foundation of almost all evils in the world and when Politique Murtherers which are the greatest Murtherers in the world give continued occasion then they cry out against the evil and rend and tear like unreasonable beasts of prey and cry out upon the Lambe if it seek but his just righteous naturall and reasonable safety they extremely offend and then they are offended if a man speak in his just cause like Tiberius the successor of Octavius who after a faigned clemency at the beginning of his Reign suffered no day to passe without shedding the blood of poor innocents and he prohibited on pain of death that no one should be so bold as to weep or to manifest sorrow They make occasions they cry out of passions though they abundantly provoke And therefore Right Honourable sithence Authority is meerly for that end to doe Justice impartially that one might not oppresse another that Might may not ovorcome Right and since you have overturned the face of other personall Authorities cast out and imprisoned divers Members of your own House to their ignominie and dishonour nulled the House of Lords impartially beheaded the King and some Lords and Declared to the people That it is out of an affection to impartiall Justice and Righteousnesse according to the first Institution of authority by Judges according to the Scriptures Deut. I. 16 17. I shall desire you would doe Justice for Justice sake that it may appear to the People and to the Officers and Souldiers of the Nation whom it justly concerns and unto whom I am deeply engaged whose Cause I make my own and whose blood I esteem as my own and unto whom I have now discharged my Conscience and then you will justly oblige me to manifest my self yours and to employ my small talent of reason and understanding for your service and in defence of your supreme Authority FINIS

TO The Right Honourable the Supreme AUTHORITY of this Nation The Commons Assembled in PARLIAMENT AN APPEAL IN THE Humble Claim of JVSTICE Against Tho. Lord Fairfax General of the English Army raised and declared to be raised for the propagation and defence of impartial Justice and just Liberty in the Nation By Captain WILLIAM BRAY For and on the behalf of himself and all the Officers and Souldiers and other the free People of this Nation that are for Righteousnesse Settlement and Peace PROV. 24. 23. These things also belong to the wise It is not good to have respect of persons in Judgement PROV. 28. 21 To have respect of persons is not good for a piece of bread that man will transgresse PROV. 29. 25. The fear of man bringeth a snare but whose putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe London Printed in the Yeer 1649. To the Right Honourable the Supreme Authority of this Nation The Commons Assembled in Parliament An Appeal in the humble claim of Justice against THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX Generall of the English Army c. By Captain WILLIAM BRAY Right Honourable I Have traced the Actions of men in Authority and I find that to my griefe Justice and Righteousnesse as names are but a stalking horse to the designes of meer Power and Greatnesse and to be in a capacitie to lead whom it will like sheep to the slaughter without the bounds of Law or Reason It will be admired at by some that I should contend against so great a Personage But truly Right Honourable there is nothing that makes me willing to be silent now but this That I my self am compassed about with infirmities But this is no argument why I should not seek Justice but be destroyed together with others inslaved and wasted time after time by the wils of men or of a man It is true I see the favour of my Enemy he being great and potent will make me many enemies because many gain honour and greatnesse meerly by it But there is a God that impartially judgeth the earth and the small and the great are all one with him and with just men It is true I expose my self by this to the power and stratagems of the Generall and all his Polititians to undo me and to work their revenge upon me if the Lord of righteousnesse and justice doth not restrain them but in this consideration whatever my Enemies power and policies are I shall give up my self wholly to the great Judge of the Earth and trust him come life come death It is true He is great and potent by the bloud adventures and ruines of the people the effects of War and to me this is a great argument against the ingrossing of all power and authority into his brest and much more against the acting arbitrarily and unlimitedly against any member of the people or Common-weale and to my reason it is to make such an end of War and bloud as that it is not worth the blood of one man as it may probably extend much lesse the bloud of so many thousands as have been slain in the War Civill War 1. Me thinks I cannot but consider the contest betwixt the King and this Honourable House and surely I cannot beleeve but that had it not been for injustice Monarchy had still remained and I do not think that any just man would have lift up his hand to engage in War Civill War for my part I shall professe I should not for I am not against Government but can live with satisfaction either in Monarchie Aristocracie or Democracie for to me nothing is essentiall but Justice and Righteousnesse in a Common-weal 2. I cannot but consider the glorious expressions of Justice and Righteousnesse in the many Declarations of the Armie by which the Penman thereof and the chief heads did seem to be taken up conscientiously with the power of Justice in their engagement against the Parliament and excluded many that had formerly appeared valiant and fighting men in the cause of the Nation to their dishonour and infamy with this pretence That Justice and Reason did only justifie them and an intention of a speedy Settlement of Justice and Laws of reason to the people But there was a declining of that solemn Engagement which was like to have made all former Victories hazardous and to have totally endangered the Armie and all the well-affected people in the whole Nation And it was Mr. Edward Hide 's Speech at a Conference of both Houses 6. Julii 1641. against the Lord chief Justice Baron Davenport Baron Trevor and Baron Weston in the Case of Ship-money These are the men saith he that by doing or not doing have brought this War upon us By this means saith he the Peace of this Island is shaked and frighted into Tumults Commotions povertie and rage of War And it had been an abuse of Providence for these men to have pretended providence for their desisting from good or their doing of evill And I beleeve it would not have been received as an excuse to save the King to have used the expressions of providence which is much in use these times to countenance the Throne of arbitrary Power and Dominion over the People by men that are now made great and potent by their blood ruines and adventures in War in Civil War 3. I shall present my observation to you and the people concerning the latest Remonstrance from the Army at St. Albans Pag. 10. speaking against the King viz. Thus the people were made to depend mainly upon the King for all and his Interest made necessary to all the other pretences were but made use of to serve his ends and an easie way to set up Him an● his Interest above all Pages 16 17. That no Common Councell or Parliaments at all should check him but that all matters of supreme Trust concerning safetie and all things else might rest in him without limit from or account to any upon earth and that all those extraordinary and arbitrary powers over the People yea their persons and consciences might be exercised at pleasure by himself and such as he pleased to derive the same unto Page 20. Snares and chains were laid upon consciencious and zealous men and the generalitie of people held in darknesse and superstition and a blind reverence of persons and outward things fit for Poperie and Slaverie Page 21. It was a brand of dishonour laid upon the King to prefer such as had a mixture of ambition and vain-glory with a servile spirit rendring them fit to serve anothers Power and Greatnesse for the enjoying some share therein to themselves May it please this Honourable House to give me leave to speak a few words in order to the good of many of the Commons of England the Officery and Souldie●y of this Nation bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh now in being and hereafter to be men that have or shall adventure their precious bloud for the Rights of the

Nation but not so as unnaturally and unreasonably to exclude themselves after their Successes and Deliverances from justice and right The disadvantages of Arbitrary power to reside in any person over all or any of the people may become at length to be so setled as that it will be a personal Interest in him and his Creatures and a pretended Prerogative against the Publick Interest of common right peace and safetie and at length this Maxime will be brought in in time That the General can do no wrong even as it was said that The King can do no wrong which as Mr. Solicitor Cook saith in King CHARLES his Case is Blasphemy against the great God of Truth and Love for onely God cannot erre because what he wils is right because he wils it And it is a sad thing saith he to consider that learned men for unworthy ends should use such art to subdue the people by transportation of their senses as to make them beleeve that the Law is That the King can do no wrong In these times of confusion evill apostacie and warring unto bloud which cryes I have weighed much with my self what is the onely way to compose our differences amongst our selves and make a compleat reconciliation and I finde nothing so likely as a mutuall Agreement amongst the People by making of just Laws agreeable to the Law of Nature which is undemonstrable which needs no demonstration were it not for corruption and interests It is as Mr. John Cook saith in his book against the King the unanimous consent of all rationall men in the world written in every mans heart with the pen of a Diamond in Capital Letters and a Character so legible that he that runs may read And it is nothing else but the policie of Polititians to live honourably by the ruines and warrings of the people to keep off an insisting upon Laws of Settlement and Agreement and to insinuate into corruption and interests that are strongest and most prevalent that so they may keep themselves in the power of the Sword without reason in War and after War O sad end of War to the People But now every drop of blood and injustice will be recorded in mindes of just men England hath eys the people thereof will not be deluded after so much blood And for my part I cannot but think that all impartiall men whether Presbyterians or Independents or any else under any other name that are not choaked by preferments from the present Power or in expectation of Honour by favour and promise would have impartial justice and an equall distribution according to principles amongst the people And I hope there be many impartiall men that have places of Honour who for their Countries sake would willingly adventure but it is not common Dominion and Avarice are the great gods of the world But when Polititians do wave the Agreement of the People in the Laws of Nature and Reason then we may justly fear a Designe for it is because they would not have the people see nor understand for then they know they could not do what they please and continue in the Throne they could not get Persons to be esteemed more then Principles But I shall shew unto this Honourable House how his Excellency the General of the English peoples Armie hath dealt with me as well as with other of the people and how such actions are the paths of former Powers And I shall shew of what a dangerous consequence the actings of the Generall are and how consonant to the late Kings actings amongst the people And indeed Mr. Solicitor Cook saith That if any of those that tried the King shall turn Tyrants or consent to set up any kinde of Tyrannie by a Law or suffer any unmercifull domineering over the consciences persons and estates of the free people of this Land they have pronounced sentence against themselves Master Solicitor Cook hath these several Arguments against the Kings Tyranny and Policies cited in King Charls his CASE First The King when there ever was a spirit of Justice stirring and discovered in the House he sends the Black Rod and dissolves the Parliament and so the Parliament men were fain to go home with a flea in their ear and tell the Free-holders in the Country of the bravery of the King and Lords So the Generall c. when he saw the spirit of Justice stirring in the Armie amongst the free people and Souldiery of this Nation that had adventured their bloud he dissolved their Generall Councell of two Officers and two Souldiers of every Regiment c. Secondly If the people clamour for another Parliament then there goes out another Summons yet a way made to make all fruitlesse by a negative voyce that the people cannot save themselves without him and must cut their own throats if commanded so to do So if any of the people in the Armie claim and clamour for their Rights even for their indisputable rights of Petitioning then presently there is an Order from the Generall and some other Officers or a Command and negative Voice to hinder the same Whereas they charged Hollis and Stapleton for overthrowing the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects of this Nation in arbitrary violent and oppressive wayes and endeavoured by indirect and corrupt practices to delay and obstruct Justice to the great dammage and prejudice of divers of the poor Commoners of England petitioning for the same Thirdly Another means he had to put some others between him and the Peoples hatred by a pretended prerogative to be the sole Judge of Chivalry and to have the sole power of conferring Honours that so he might be sure to have two against one to stand for his Prerogative against all right and reason And so What gaping and depending upon the Generall after Places of Honour and Profit What undermining any one that is out of favour though without cause and what snares there are and have been laid for the casting out of those that have appeared conscientiously stedfast to their principles for the Rights of the People Let all rational men judge Fourthly Another means he had to delude the People to make the People beleeve That he had committed all Justice to the Judges and distributed the execution thereof into severall Courts and that the King cannot so much as imprison a man without Law or reason But see what a mockery this was to Justice If the King have a minde to have any publick spirited men removed out of the way this man is kill'd the murtherer known a Letter comes to the Judge and it may be it shall be found but Man-slaughter So when the Lord did though with much temperance as I appeal to the world make me to own things that are just according to their own former words and actions as after appears in my Case then I was presently a mark to shoot at and though this hath not extended to murther mee as yet yet it hath extended as much