Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	law_n	nature_n	reason_n	3,046	5	5.4661	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86752	Confusion confounded: or, A firm way of settlement settled and confirmed. Wherein is considered the reasons of the resignation of the late Parlament, and the establishment of a Lord Protector.	Hall, John, 1627-1656.	1654 (1654)	Wing H343A; Thomason E726_11; ESTC R204693	16,845	22

adjudged him within the benefit of the said Articles the same party in the House prevailed to suspend the proceedings of that Court But that Parlament dissolving and the Court proceeding according to their duty the late Parlament made an Act to confirm their Purchases and that out of a very strange reason viz. that the former Parlament had ordered a stop and they did it but to quiet the possession to a sort of Godly Purchasers whereas they should have bethought themselves that if the former Parlament had done an Act of injustice it was their duty and profession to reverse it not to confirm it Nor indeed can a Parlament though a Supreme unlimitted Court enact any thing against right Reason or common Justice but it is ipso facto void they being trusted with the peoples safety not with their ruin Nor is that restitution in specie or value any thing for what Justice can there be to take away an Estate due unto a man and give him another not half so good and commodious or not half so much worth Justice is rigorous and extreme and will be fully satisfied or else she is not satisfied at all And though in her punishments she may sometimes turn to injury yet in distribution she loves to be full and exact There can be doubtless no one thing makes either a better way for conquest in winning a people not for securing of it by preserving their affections nothing that makes a Commander more honourable more assures and secretly blesses the Souldier than a faithful and an inviolate keeping of promise with an enemy This is it indeed that gives reputation to Armies makes them flourish while the hearts of the others tremble This is that indeed which as it is the ligament of humane amity so it is the bridle and restraint of their enmity lest it turn into rage and bestiality This all Nations from the most civil to the most barbarous have with all religion observed judgements and plagues upon the breach of it are frequent in all History and yet we that profess the high principles of Christianity must do things no body knows why which most Turks would scorn and detest If States will be awanting to perform the faith of their Armies they must either expect to be served by faithless men for what honest man will promise that which he shall not be in some hopes to perform or else breed scorn and despair in their enemies who having men accounted false to deal with will account it their greatest safety to expect none at their hands and thence choose rather to endure desperate and obstinate sieges which how dangerous and fatal they have been to many thriving warres cannot and need not be here exemplified Thirdly for the removall of the Chancery and total alteration of the Law c. Whether this were not ground enough had there been none else may be judged from a short consideration of the Nature of our Laws as they now stand and a due remembrance of what happiness and security our Predecessors enjoyed under them The Law of England as it now stands is either Statute Law Common Law or Custome Statute Law is but the edict of the Supreme Magistrate commanding or forbidding this or that thing This relates either to the Government of the State in general preventing or redressing particular crimes or making such due redresses as cannot be made by the ordinary constitution of Government The Common Law is recta ratio in the determination of Justum between parties holy and inviolable as the Laws of Nature and Reason and though running in a municipal chanel yet as old and venerable as Reason it self which it is onely reduced to practice and as unalterable since Reason under never so many shapes is still the same though in some circumstances and proceedings there may be just cause of alteration Custome is the particular usage in such a Liberty place or manner different not contrary from either subordinate to both How these men may contemplate a better establishment is a matter which as yet I see not any search satisfied with and till they produce a better I shall acquiesce in not raising objections against what I see not how I can rationally object But under this Law the forms whereof have altered according to the Constitutions of the several Governments have we flourished ever since we have been a people and some men of greater abilities and leisure have so amply made it appear as well to its constitution use and end that I shall not interpose with those excellent men but refer to their own mouths Now since it is the weakness or incapacity of men that they can provide no Law against all emergences and contingences and that the wickedness of humane nature is too subtil for the most cautious and severest preventive Justice there will follow a necessity in case of frauds concealments surprises cheats and the other effects of vulgar wickedness to appeal to the conscience of the Commonwealth Hence is it that in several particular cases there is occasion of relief yet such as by onely mitigating the rigour of the positive Law may relieve the subject without making a general Law for otherwise Laws would become innumerable And if we complain of the number of Laws at present and those made upon general resultances we should certainly find them insufferable if they once came to be formed out of particular cases Now this conscience of the Commonwealth as I may call it being as it were deposited with the Great Seal in the Chancery is not onely that which relieves and benefits the severity and rigour of the Common Law but is indeed the womb of all our Laws and Proceedings which must necessarily stop and suspend upon the taking away of that High Court Not but in the practice of the Court which being a Court of Equity cannot be so strictly bound up as the Common Law there may happen very many delaies and foul practices but it is a very great error in men to argue from the abuse of a thing against the being and constitution of the thing it self as if a man ought to be murthered because he hath a disease and should be put out of pain But the constitution of the Court though somewhat as to excess of Fees and corruption of practice might be remedied is such as without an invaluable damage to the greatest part of the subjects cannot be altered and some of late have so largely and particularly considered that I shall say no more of it in this place For the profession or the Law however it now become to be looked a squint at yet it is that which hath been not onely highly reverenced by our own Ancestors but was the common road of advancement and honour in Greece and Rome And if we observe in this Nation the Professors of it have found Gods blessing very eminently fall down upon them How many great and noble families are there that flourish to this