Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	bind_v	law_n	obligation_n	1,970	5	9.7701	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77280	Innocency and the blood of the slain souldiers, and people, mightily complaining, and crying out to the Lord, and the people of the land, against those forty knights and burgesses, or thereabouts, that sit in the House of Commons. For the violation of our capital fundamental laws and liberties, and those capital obligations mentioned in this my letter, in capital letters. Or a letter to an eight yeers speaker of the House of Commons. / By Cap. William Bray, from his indurance, illegal, un-Christian, and cruel gaol in Windsor Castle.	Bray, William, 17th cent.	1649 (1649)	Wing B4304; Thomason E568_12; ESTC R206251	25,812	21

God And do not you divide if you deal unjustly The Kings Fast was on a Friday and he dealt unjustly the Parliaments Fast on a Wednesday and now you have changed the Fast a day neerer to the Kings If your injustice be the same what materiall difference between a Thursday and a Friday Fast Doth not Arbitrariness and injustice cause division The Psalmist saith Ps 85.10 Righteousness and Peace doth kiss each other and not Tyranny and peace or policy and peace Z●ch 8 16 17 19 Execute ye the Judgment of truth and peace love the truth and peace Isay 58 4 5 6. Zach. 7 5 6. When ye fasted and mourned the fifth and s v●n●h mon●th even those s●venty years did yee at all fast unto me and when ye d●d ●at and wh●n y● did d●ink d●d you not eat for your selves and drink to your selves Oh Lord arise and judge between thy people and the Grandees of the peoples Army and Parliament and oh Lord convert them if it be thy will and let them not be any longer as if th●y were supream to Iustice and Freedome and let them be that in deed which they have been often in word Sir Let me tell you I have observed your Ordinance for observation of the Sabbath also but this is also delusive to the people if you do not rest from wickedness arbitrariness and cruelty according to the constitution and end of authority both by God and the people for the Sabbath signifies a rest to the people of God What is a Magistrates keeping a Fast or a Sabbath once a moneth or a seventh day of a week if he acts arbit●ariness illegally and cruelly contrary to the Laws of God Nature and the Land six of the seven Those three Students and only three that I have read of Trinity Colledg in Cambridge that writ in your justification of your proceedings against the King say That when any man or men through depraved principles of tyranny usurp over Conscience naturall or civill Rights he loseth the notion of a Magistrate because he goes contrary to the end of Government of the fundamentall Laws of safety to the people and when Res Publica comes to be Res Privata it ceaseth to be a Commonwealth and is then tyranny Again I desire you to consider that the part of the Solemn Oath and Covenant which you have taken which relates to the Rights Freedoms and Laws of the people is just unanswerable irrevokable essentiall substantiall and binding though the person of the King and Lords be taken away by you do you intend to King it and Lord it over our Laws and Liberties Psal 15.1.4 Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacl● he that swoareth to his own hurt and changeth not But you have sworn the good and not hurt of the people and your own good and not hurt in it but if you leave the good of the people and consequently your own true honor and good and act Arbitrarily and unfaithfully you leave peace of conscience to your selves and peace and satisfaction to the people I should be glad for the peoples sakes and your sakes if you can be free from the guilt of Perjury in the sight of the Lord and the people that are impartial Good Iosiah rent his cloaths when the Book of the Law was found and when the Ordinances were not kept and it was the Wisdom Justice and Honor of the Parliament in their Primitive constitutions for which they had the incomparable love of the people before they did divide and subdivide into faction and parties to inquire into the just Laws of the Nation and into the highest Reason for inlargement of our freedoms and complained against the King for exceeding the just limits of Honor and Law but how shall the people be assured of the perfection of Freedom by these men when those just and righteous Laws of God and Nature and the Nation formerly and already made as Laws and wrung from Polititians Tyrants Conquerors Vsurpers and contended for this eight or nine years unto precious blood are so much violated Truly Mr. Speaker let me tell you we shall never have peace untill Authority come to lay down Interest and to act as Magistracie as Authority What do Interests tend to and meer power but to murder and destruction and to make a Nation miserable though one man great full of war and to make a second Germany of England Interests tend to nothing but to this viz. Suppose an Independent it may be murdered to day or unjustly dealt withall to his ruine and the Inquisition for the Innocent blood may be is secured by an Interest A Presbyterian it may be murdered to morrow and the murder it may be secured by an Interest had an Episcopal also who though he hath it may be justly paid his Fine and Composition for his Delinquencie and is in Law and Reason excluded as to matter of Power according to the Judgments of Parliaments and a just Agreement of the people because he hath used it against the peoples Laws and Liberties yet he cannot have personal Justice in futurity according to Law and Reason because of Interests and so a Nation is in the rode way to destruction and then every Interest it may be endevors being enraged to revenge the murder and injustice because they cannot have legal or judicial Judgment and so all Interests are slaves to one Interest and all are engaged against one as well as may be one against another if any such thing is up called Interest and act above contrary unto and without LAW And truly Mr Speak●r let me tell you as I have already proved and shall prove by Law Reason and Ch●istianity Those fourty Gentlemen in the House or thereabouts have committed me illegally partially and interessedly contrary to CAPITAL Obligations of God to man man to God and mankinde common undeniable indisput●ble and binding Principles of NATURE LAW REASON SCRIPTU●ES DECLARATIONS upon DECLARATIONS IMPRECATIONS OATHS COVENANTS CONSCIENCE INGAGEMENTS VICTORIES VICTORIES AGREEMENTS FASTS HONOR the very name of PARLIAMENTS * Sabbaths Magistrates Gov●●nment Wounds Bloodshed BLOOD BLOOD both of friends and enemies rendring a PARLIAMENT out of zeal for Justice The blood of the KING declared to stand in the way of the peoples RIGHTS FREEDOM JVSTICE MERCY Just Laws are made to batter down all the walls of unmercifulness arbitrariness and cruelty and to justifie Freedom and the force of a Nation should be to maintain the just Laws and Liberties of the people the contrary is Cruelty and Murther You have made the late KING a notable spectacle amongst the rarest examples of worldly fragility and this was declared and pretended to be for acting contrary to the R●ghts of the people which engaged him unto abundance of blood for his own safety though his extravagancies in Government and Arbitrariness amongst the people might have been composed certainly if his end had not been to carry on an absolute domination over the peoples Laws Liberties and

vain plea when the matter of Right is in Question for right can never die And so Mr. Speak●r I have discharged my conscience to the people to your selves and the Army and I have a cruel Goal for it contrary to those capital principles and obligations upon the House and Army that are written in Capitall Letters in this my Testimony and having been damnified by the Genenal in my two Causes to the value of three hundred pound besides the violent and unreasonable taking away of my Troope and my unnatural imp●isonment and having been almost seven years in the Service of th● Common-wealth with much love affection and losse beyond my own ability yet I have not had any allowance from you since my arbitrary unnatural and unholy Commitment from the nineteenth of March last nor any part of my own Arrears sent me nor admi●ted a hearing of my Cause which Pagans have acted up unto contrary to those capitall obligations by which the Officers and Souldiers of the Army and other the good people of the Nation may see how their condition may be as well as mine Mr. Speaker my principle is and I would not willingly offend against my principles to suffer much hurt rather then to do any and to do good rather then receive though I am under hideous and lothsome tyranny as to that and cannot which is more blessed as the Apostle saith and to do good for evil and not to discover the infirmities of my neighbour unlesse I see it is his design to act to a Nations preiudice as I have perceived in the transactions of things by the Gene●all by that evill and private influence I am not Iudg of but the Lord and as for any evil or preiudice that I shall do unto my neighbour whether willingly or unwillingly through my own weaknesse or corruption I desire to be accountable by just Laws Nationall which is the badge of our freedom and the way to our peace and the only way that my reason can present unto me and unto you is by way of an Agreement of the People presented by the Nations friends in the Tower and by an actuall walking up to the iust Laws of a Nation tending to the beginning of cherishing and nourishing of peace and good will amongst men and as to the other part of my Appeal in relation to my self as a member of the Common-wealth I could willingly for the obligement of righteousnesse and peace and that these two might be inseparable companions according to the Scriptures Forgive or grant an act of Pardon to you and the Generall under hand and seal if I thought you and he were unable and could not give me satisfaction and if I were not unwilling to have such a dishonour and ignominie fastened upon you and also if I did no● think he and you would scorn it in words though he hath acted and yet acts by you in unlawfull and unchristian deeds so as that it might be truly stiled something of that name from me but seeing he and you have such vast summes and Lands of the Common-wealths as well as many of you great Estates of your own as witnesse your giving the Generall ten thousand pound and four thousand pound a year and therefore I shall expect satisfaction for my wrongs according to Honor Conscience and Law and those Capital Obligations in Capital Letters recited but if I cannot have Justice of you and if the General and you continue to deal unjustly with me or to murder me for you have gone the ready way for I had been inhumanely murdered and starved long since I refer it to all the Souldiers and people of the Nation that are for Righteousness and Freedom if I had not had a little of my own left for my support in my barbarous illegal and inhumane prison and if I had not had some Christian friends to manifest affection to my cause and person which kindness I did refuse for some time because I would wait and see whether you would walk justly and honorably But I considered with my self after many fruitless Addresses to you That though my principle was to do good rather then receive and my imperfection and sin not to do good when I am able yet I was not in a capacity so to do being under the hand of TYRANNY And also I considered it was Ten thousand times more righteous unblameable honorable and just for me to receive the manifestations of my friends affections then it may for you to force the Nations riches and persons to inrich your selves and act against their Laws and Liberties contrary to the capital obligations before recited and also I considered That it did evidently appear to me by your actions and the will and pleasure of the Grandees that it might be your designe to force me to necessities which is very un-Christian Cruel Ravenous Tyrannous and insatiable thereby thinking to make me stab my precious Conscience which I hope the strength of the most high will still keep me in and deny my precious Cause which is the cause of the Officers and Souldiers of the Army and the people of the Nation And you or the Steermen and Grandees for you thought that necessity might make me to do that which you do out of unholy fear of them for whilest my Appeal was in the House a Letter came from the General or other Grandees to some Member or Members which was condemned and abhorred in the King as a pe●verting of Justice as in my Appeal is related out of King Charls his Case or else out of manifest unwarrantable love unto your self viz. To the denying of all those obligations of God Law Nature and Justice for the glories of the world which un●ust kinde of actings have wilfully destroyed persons Families and Nations and is the ground of the consumption of civil Wars as Master Pym said in Parliament against the Earl of Strafford And therefore Sir let me tell you in my ●yrannical Illegal and Injurious imprisonment That all those capital Obligations are injuriously perverted and abused to the dishonor of the Nation and your selves and instead of the Just viz. Principles of NATURE I must put Acting up to Principles of UNNATURALNES Jude 10. But what things they know and have declared naturally as bruit Beasts in those things they do corrupt themselves Ver. 19. Separating themselves from other Members of Parliament as if they were holier and juster then they whereas you are more unjust because you have more obligations upon you to justice viz. The blood of the King and Lords instead of Law I must put LAWLESSNESS instead of Reason I must put UNREASONABLENESS instead of Acting up to the Commands In plain and undeniable Scriptures I must put ANTISCRIPTURISTS not in words but in oppressing power and conversation instead of Declarations upon Declarations I must put VIOLATION of them instead of Imprecations I must put PERFIDIOUSNESS to Conscience and people and the judgments of God hovering over your heads

according to your solemn desires that the people might say Amen Instead of Acting up to the nature of Oaths I must put UNFAITHNESS instead of Acting up to Covenants I must put TRUCE-BREAKINGS instead of Acting up to principles of Conscience I must put UNCONSCIONABLENESS instead of principles of serious Engagement I must put walking up to principles of DISHONESTY instead of VICTORIES and POWER to do good I must put walking as if you had no power at all and so denying the glory of God instead of walking up to principles of Agreement of the people I must put DELUSION and VARIANCE instead of walking up to principles of a true Fast I must put OPPRESSION and CRUELTY instead of walking up to principles of true honor I must put DISHONOR instead of acting up to the name of Parliaments I must put acting up like Corrupt minded men instead of acting up to principles of observation of a Sabbath I must put case and rest in wickedness and prophaneness of the Lords holiness instead of Magistracy I must put as God and Nature K. James and your selves have said Tyranny instead of Goverment according to the institution of God and the uncorrupt order of Nature I must say according to principles of DISORDER instead of walking up to a conscientious respect of the wounds of the Nation I must put walking unjustly causing more wounds inflamations and distempers both of friends and enemies and so to lay foundation for blood and cruelty instead of your rending a Parliament out of declared zeal for Justice I must put your rending a Parliament to carry on your own corrupt ambitious Interest tending to exalt your selves above the persons of your Brethren the Laws of God and Nature the Scriptures and all the Capital Obligations of Justice and Mercy instead of your true declared Nature of doing justice upon the King I must put you have cut him off to make your selves Kings and Lords over the peoples Laws and Liberties though not Titularly so instead of principles of Freedom I must put SLAVERY instead of Justice I put INJUSTICE instead of Mercy I must put UNMERCIFULNESS Hear O Heavens and judg O Earth O Lord hear and have mercy upon thy people and if it be thy will change the hearts of those that pretend to Righteousness and act contrary to as high Obligations as ever have been expressed by thy Self in Scriptu●● by thy Saints and Servants And therefore Master Speaker Let me desire your House in all seriousness and sincerity of Conscience to consider and weigh and turn from your iniquities and be a president to the Nation of Judgment and Justice and look upon the cruelty exercised towards me from first to last contrary to the Freedoms of the Nation and i● may be any mans case as well as mine And that it doth exhaust such Language from me contrary to my own temper and disposition of spirit And truly Sir though the General Lieutenant General and Commissary General they being men whom I have formerly honored much in subordination unto my God and the Freedoms of my Countrey may it may be thirst after my blood which is the Nations blood as Mr. St. John said against the Earl of Strafford A Nation is to be accounted unto for the loss of the meanest member as the Hart thirsts after the Riv●rs of waters though it were a more worthy thirst after the performance of those glorious Obligations in themselves and others which would cause peace of Conscience to themselves and joy peace and unity to all the wel-affected in the Nation But truly as for my life or blood I know that is the most they can take away and if the Lord should give them so much power I can use the former part of Christs prayer viz. Father forgive them but not the latter viz. For t●ey know not what they do For their glorious splendid Declarations declare their knowledg and if it were not my Fathers will or the Ordinance of the Eternal GOD That innocent blood under the Altar should cry out I should desire That there might be no Vengeance taken for me for it shall suffice me that I go unto God and shall cease in imperfection and sin and be out of the race of the new glorious ambitious tyranny and perfideousness of the Earth the tyranny of Death is but short and I hope the Lord will m●ke it sweet unto me to give testimony to himself for the land of my nativity And to add unto the former Tyrannies and bondages exercised towards me A pretty while after my first coming I was denied the free and just access of many of my friends unto me to give me a visite by the Tyrannical Governor Whitchcock contrary to Law Reason or Christianity for which thing he had no Warrant at all from the House but your Arbritrariness made him also to ingratiate himself for it is well known he is but a friend to the Army and you for his own ends stretch beyond the bounds that indeed you had set him and so he hath acted as if he were Lord and Master of you as well as of our supream Laws Liberties and safeties and for ought I know he intends to be the Janizary to murder me under his illegal jurisdiction and indeed I heard that L. G Cromwel himself should call him a Sot or some such like name whereas he is made a Justice of the Peace and Qu●rum and furthermore I could not have so much leave of him to have the Christian society of Mr. Bacon here in the Castle but I must be fain to hear their Priests here in the Castle or none concerning whom I hear abundance of hypocrisie and dissimulation and also though Lieut. General Cromwel gave order to Whitchcock the Governor to use Mr. Bacon with all civility and respect and though he is also convinced in his conscience as he hath declared to some that I will not stir yet he maliciously and unrighteously hath not given me that liberty and freedom that he might though he hath given many of the late Kings party far greater viz. Parol● c. But Sir let me tell you if I had never so much liberty and freedom I would not for millions of the gold of Ophir betray the Cause of my Country so as to flinch and indeed you may imprison and destroy my body but my spirit you cannot and the lively appearance of my blood may rise in others when you think it may be forgotten if I am murdered butchered massacred starved or poysoned or what not by the enemies of the Lord and my Countries just Laws Libertie and safeties for they may do one as well as any thing else they have done and if you mean by liberty of Conscience to take such large liberty of conscience to your selves farwel all maner of Justice and Peace and the dealings with me are contrary to the prime undeniable Laws of Nature and capitall obligations of mankinde and which Presbyterians Episcopals Independents c. that have had any unbiased reason in them have granted before the blood of War and by such actions as these all the blood that hath been shed which is also of ten thousand times and unexpressibly of more value then all the treasure that hath been spent is not worth a farthing and truly Sir as one saith writing against the cruelty of the Spaniards to the Native people of Mercico as I remember calling themselves Christians as you do That it is not good to measure the God of the Christians by the actions of those that are called his servants If there be any sparks of God or humanity in you it may be you may consider a bleeding Nation Sir I pray read this to the House and ● further desire That the names of those men may be certified to the Nation that committed me contrary to those capital Obligations in capital Letters that the Nation may know their Friends and that the Christians and good Common-wealths-men in the House may clear themselves to the Nation from such abominable Facts tending to the total subversion of humane society and consequently all Ch●istianity if they please for I beleeve the hearts of true Christians will be truly pierced with such usage When Paul reasoned of Temperance and Judgment to come Felix trembled And I have read as I remember when Tully pleaded for Liggurius Caesar trembled and the Bills of Accusation sell out of his hands And Master Solicitor Cook saith in King Charls his Case page 38. There are but two things desirable to make a dumb man eloquent namely a good Cause and good Judges the former I have sufficiently and the later I want The first procures justice of Heaven the second justice upon Earth So in great haste I remain The Lords and the Peoples William Bray July 17. 1649. FINIS