Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	according_a	court_n	law_n	2,915	5	4.6268	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75812	The Christian moderator. Third part. Or, The oath of abjuration arraign'd by the common law and common sence, ancient and modern Acts of Parl. declarations of the Army, law of God and consent of reformed divines. And humbly submitted to receive judgment from this honorable representative.; Christian moderator. Part 3	Birchley, William, 1613-1669.	1653 (1653)	Wing A4248; Thomason E705_15; ESTC R207108	25,814	32

very suitable to our Method to consider next what provision our Common-wealth has made for discovery and conviction of Offenders Wherein after I have slightly toucht some of the Arguments mentioned in the first part of this Moderator I shall pass on to those aditionall reasons I have since collected And that the way of Indictment and conviction of witnesses and Jury is the only proceeding owned by the fundamentall Lawes of this Land IS abundantly proved by the chief Author and surest defender of all our Liberties Magna Carta so often confirmed in our ancient Parliaments so reverently upon all occasions cited by the last where every English man may read with joy these precious words No free man may be arrested or imprisoned but by due Proces of Law No man shall be put out of his freehold by either the King himself or any Commissioners but every ones right to be tryed by a Jury of his equalls Of which happy-freedom the Papists who long since procured it for this Nation enjoy not now the least shadow 5 Ed. 3. 9. It is enacted that no man from hence forth shall be attached upon any occasion nor his Lands Tenements Goods or Chattells seized against the form of the great Charter or against the Law of the Land To this regular form of proceeding Thieves and Robbers have a cleer and allowed right only Papists upon the single account of Religion are altogether excluded 25. Ed. 3. c. 4. None is to be convicted of any offence unlesse by indictment or presentment of good and lawfull men where such offence is supposed to be done This Justice every Murtherer can claim and no Judge dare deny only the Papist whom we can accuse of no other crime then difference of judgement in Religion is forced to convict himself by his own Oath without the least colour of any legall Indictment so expresly contrary to the known Lawes and ancient liberties of this Nation 28. Ed. 3. c. 3. No man of what Condition or Estate soever shall be put out of his Lands or Tenements without being brought to answer by due proces of Law This priviledge the most triviall fellow that has but a Cottage to hide his head in may uncontrollably challenge and God forbid it should be refused him but then how is it reasonable that Recusants many of them persons of very considerable quality be dispossest of so great Estates upon their own enforced Oaths without any due process of Law 42. Ed. 3. cap. 1. It is enacted that the great Charter shall be held and kept in all points and if any Statute be made to the contrary it shall be void Nay so great account have our wisest Ancestors made of this Magna Carta so carefully provided for its preservation and universall observance that it has no lesse then 30 times been solemnly confirmed by Authority of Parliament as is at large declared in Sir Ed. Coke's 5. Report fol. 64. B. and in his 8. Report fol. 19. B. 42. Ed. 3. cap. 3. It is Enacted That no man shall be put to answer without presentment before Justices or matter of Record or by due proces according to the Law of the Land and if any thing from henceforth be done to the contrary it shall be void in Law and holden for error No Court disallowes this advantage to the worst of Traitours no Committee allowes it to the quietest of Recusants All these so excellent Lawes such as no People under Heaven enjoy were made when the Legislative power was absolutely in the hands of Papists all these Priviledge so high and extraordinary that they deserve the name rather of the Peoples Prerogatives then their Liberties the Papists obtain'd and establishd in their times carefully transmitted to their posterities All these wise and prudent Cautions which so safely fence and preserve our Common Freedom from the encroachment of Arbitrary power were providently contrived by the Papists and from them are happily descended upon us And shall we now having reform'd their Faith forget our own reason so far as to deprive our Brethren of the benefit of those Lawes which their Fathers made only because they resemble them most in Religion Shall we so far yeild to passion as utterly deny them the immmunities of their Ancesters Or can we possibly arrive at this degree of partiality as not permit the greatest Malefactor to be his own accuser and yet enforce the most peaceable Recusant to be his own condemner Nay though the Thief arraign'd at the Bar confesse his guilt our Judges mercifully decline to condemn him without some Testimony of witnesses But if a Recusant will not voluntarily both arraign and condemn himself the practise of Haberdashers Hall is without thinking of further proof immediatly to proceed to Execution Nor was this tendernes towards the liberty of the subject regarded only in those old dayes but we have fresh Examples of a greater zeal and jealousie then ever those times were acquainted with For in the great Petition of Right 3. Car. all these Statutes were particularly recited and earnestly insisted upon by the Parliament then assembled And yet a fresher instance is that of the last Parliament who in their Act for Regulation of the Privy Councell and abolition of the Star-chamber did punctually repeat again all those Statutes and rely upon them as the Fundamentall and unchangeable Law of the Land Besides whereas Copy-hold Estates by the ancient Lawes and Customes of this Nation were never comprehended within the generall words of any Act of Parliament which alters the interest of the Land or the Custome of the Mannor to the prejudice either of Lord or Tennant as is resolved in Sir Edw. Coke's second Report fol. 8. Sir Fran. More's Reports 199. 428 c. Because no stranger can become Tennant of any Copyhold Estate without the Lords speciall assent and admission For which cause no Copyholds were ever lyable to any Execution of Statutes or Recognizances in debts or Formdon nor were within the Statute of 2 Hen. 5. cap. 15. for Heresy nor were seizable within the Statute 29 Eliz. cap. 6. nor 3. Jac. cap. 4. for Recusancy Yet contrary to this ancient fundamentall Law the Copyhold Estates of every suspected Recusant are seized upon and sequestred although there be no Ordinance or Act of Parliament expresly warranting any such proceedings Thus have we clearly demonstrated that the onely course allowed by the Law for determination of all Controversies is the ordinary Proces by Writ in Civill Causes and by indictment in Criminall and in both by Witnesses and a Jury of the Neighbourhood where the scene of the question lies And now we shall fully satisfy our undertaking if we can also prove That the late Parliament often engaged by solemn Acts and Declarations to maintaine the Lawes of the Land WHerein it is impossible for any that can reade English to retain the least doubt when he has perused these few Citations 26 May 1642. The Lords and Commons declare

That they will be very tender of the Lawes which they acknowledge to be the safegard and custody of all publique and private interest 23 October 1642. They further declare That they must owne it as their duty to use their best endeavours that the meanest of the Common-wealth may enjoy their own Birth-rights Freedome and Liberty of the Lawes of the Land being equally entituled thereunto with the greatest Subject November 1642. They further declare That slavery must be the Peoples condition if the two Houses should goe about to overthrow the Lawes of the Land and the property of every Mans Estate 26. May 1642. If such things may be done by Law without due proces the subject hath a very poor defence and a very small if any proportion of property thereby 17 April 1646. The Parliament declared That they will not nor any by colour of any authority derived from them shall interrupt the ordinary course of Justice The Parliament declared That they will preserve unto the People their Lawes and will Govern by them And before and after they severall times declared that the Lawes of the Land are the undoubted birth-right and inheritance of the meanest Subject By a speciall Act the Parliament of England declared That they are fully resolved to maintaine and preserve the Fundamentall Lawes of this Nation for and concerning the properties of the people with all things incident thereunto Now after all these Ordinances who could be so undutifull as to entertain the least fear of being ever hereafter forc'd to accuse himself Upon these so many so solemn Declarations who could have excused the presumption and perversness of his heart if he dared to doubt of their observance Especially since the Parliament did not proclaim to us its sence by bare words but advanced farther to severe Executions and by the Example of the Earle of Strafford strictly prohibited the introducement of any novelty in the practice of the Law Against whom the Parliament in their third Article brought this charge That he had proceeded summarily in the matter of the Lord Mont-Norris And in the sixth Article his accusation was that he had dispossest the Lord Mont-Norris of his Lands by a summary proces contrary to Law And in the seaventh Article the like charge was againe repeated That hee had deprived the Lady Hibbots of her possessions by a summary way of proceeding These misdemeanours though not the only Crimes of which he was accused yet added such a weight to his other offences that altogether they sunk him into his Grave In the whole course of whose tryall I meet with nothing more worthy to be staid upon then this consideration That the Parliament did not so much urge against him the illegality as the unlawfulnesse of his proceedings nor condemn him barely for want of a Commission or authority but because his Actions were in themselves tirannicall and dangerous encroachments upon the Fundamentall Liberty of this Nation Yet he examined Witnesses but after a fashion of his own devising and left the common road of tryall by the verdict of a Jury And can there be a more summary Proces then to accuse any whom we suspect of a Crime and unlesse he immediatly sweare himself unguilty immediately condemn him as guilty Can there be a more quick and cutting dispatch then in half an houre to turne a just owner out of his ancient possession because he will not swear against his Conscience and which is yet worse can there be a more compendious if not preposterous way then first to seize upon and secure the Estate and then hear the party speak for himself Yet these are the express Instructions to the Committees for Sequestrations in the Year 1643. That where they find any doubt concerning any person whether hee be comprehended within the said Ordinance for Sequestration they are to certify the same to the Committee of Lords and Commons for that service and in the meane time to secure the Estate of such persons untill they receive further Instructions And now when I consider the Office of a Parliament which is principally to reform the abuses that time conspiring with our corrupted nature brings into the administration of the Lawes when I consider the quality of the last Parliament professing so scrupulous and precise a respect to the preservation of our ancient Liberties I cannot sufficiently wonder from what cause this unhappy effect should flow by which a free-born English-man is compell'd to be his own accuser in matters of so tender a nature as Conscience and Religion and of so high a concernment as the utter impoverishment of himselfe and his family But after a little ranging about I soon discovered the fountain head in a dark hollow place where three or four hundred springs of fresh water met together in one channell of which some having passed through hot and sulphurous veines quite changed the tast and colour of the rest and the stormy weather of that season quickly raised the whole stream into a fierce and violent current whose fury soon broke the common banks and bore down all before it like a deluge The truth of which Metaphor is as easily proved as the sence of it understood being no more then that the Introducer of this cruell Oath was an Ordinance hastily huddled up in the destroying time of Presbytery and War For then it was that where the people had thrown in their Rings and Jewels there came forth the golden Covenant before which all the Nation must fall down and worship Then it was the Presbyter-Divines petitioned both Houses for a perfect Reformation and settling of the Kirk Discipline and Classicall Government Then it was that penalties began to be imposed upon all Refusers of the Covenant and none to bear Office but such as had taken the Covenant nay all be punisht as spyes that deny'd to take the Covenant Not long after was published the Directory or new Almanack to pray by taken out of the Ephemerides of Scotland and calculated for the Elevation of the new Kirk of England by the Assembly of well wishers to Divinity Not long after were the Apocriphall Elders brought in and Tyrannicall Classes erected Both the Houses declaring their intentions to settle Religion in the purity thereof according to the Covenant which surely was a mistake in the Printer to say Covenant instead of the Word of God Thus plainly it appeares that the Presbyterian Starres or Comets rather by the shortnesse and terrour of their blaze raigned in the firmament of our State at the birth of this unlucky Oath of Abjuration and long after The second branch of the task I undertook was That these suddain and sharp proceedings of sequestring upon the bare refusall of an Oath without any legall process were occasioned by the exigencies of the War an assertion most fully and evidently proved by the first Ordinance against Delinquents and Papists In the