Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	king_n	power_n	sit_v	3,978	5	7.3782	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88153	The afflicted mans out-cry, against the injustice and oppression exercised upon; or, An epistle of John Lilburn, gent. prisoner in Newgate, August 19. 1653. to Mr. Feak, minister at Christ Church in London.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1653 (1653)	Wing L2078; Thomason E711_7*; ESTC R212915	13,792	15

There and there onely seemeth to be true liberty which may most appear in the actings of those beings which are most knowing Shew me then the Sphere of mans being and you may quickly find the measure of his freedom his being is by all agreed to be rational and Reason therefore is the proper measure of his liberty for he is then free when his activity is preserved equal or proportional to his Being this is rational and so must that and man is then and then onely free when he can act what he should act according to Right Reason this is the law of his Nature which is rational and Reason is his Royal coller of S.S.S. or Chain of precious Pearls which Nature hath put about his Neck and Arms as a badge of Honour and most happy Freedom This digression will be scarce excusable but that our law doth so adore Right Reason that it is a Maxime What is contrary to Reason is contrary to law And in pag 123. he saith The next thing is the Basiis or Foundation of our law process and of all judicials In all cases saith he accusers parties or Defendants Witnesses and Judges be and must be distinct Neither let the judgments be strange nor celebrated from their Judge or Place or Time neither is judgment to be given in a doubtful Matter or on the party accused being absent Let there be nothing done without an Accuser for God and our Lord Jesus Christ did know Judas to be a Thief but because he was not accused therefore he did not suffer The Witnesses are lawful and present without any infamy or suspition or evident spot The Priests cannot rightly accuse the Lacians neither doth it behove any one to be judged or condemned before he hath lawful present accusers and may receive a place of defending to make his Crimes of no effect And again one that is pressed upon before his Judge if he will he may declare his cause and not pressed upon before his Judge if he will he may hold his peace If any one doth uspect the Judges he may speak against or contradict them affliction or imprisonment ought not to injury him that doth appeal and elevate his Crime by a remedy of appealing every one is to be judged by his equals and of the same P●ovince Whatsoever is against those that are absent neither from their Judges is utterly void An Oath must have its companions Truth Justice and Judgment if those things be wanting it is not an Oath but a Perjury c. Are these saith Mr Sadler the laws of England or of Nature rather these we owe to Beauclerk or Henry the first And in pag. 158 159. speaking of the Kings Exorbitancies he saith But did we labour toyl and sweat so much to keep a little River in its bounds that so we might be drowned by the boundless Ocean or be swept away at once by a destroying and devouring deluge Did we scruple at a little gravel or a pebble that we might be crushed by a Mountain Would we strain at a Gnat that we might be choaked by a Camel or be swallowed whole by Behemoth Have we not all reasoned so much and fought so long with a vast expence of Treasure and of that which is by much more precious life or blood of many hundred thousand free-born Irish Scottish English men to bound our King that he might not presse Us with his Arbytrary power onely that by this we might but plain the way and make it level that some others for I will not say the Parliament might be oppressive more and more unjust and arbytrary more I hope I need not and therefore I would not fear it but I have no art or power to fl●tter And I should have doted on the Roman Poet of the Civil Wars had I not found him blessing his Fates for bringing forth a Nero through those bitter Pangs and Throws And yet I must confesse if I knew where or could be so happy to presage another new Birth of Tyrannie to follow such a long and sore Travel of our State I should also desire and pray for one Nero rather then one hundred or one million for of Evils this is nothing for I speak of Tyrants I did ever hate a Multitude as much as a Magnitude for if I must be forced still to live under a displeasing Tyrannie I chuse it and obey it and am pleased with it in one Tyrant rather then many But again I say I do not believe it and I hope I need not fear it of or in an English Parliament and yet again I say they are at least I think they are but men and men in former times might erre and therefore once again and yet again I bow and beg and humbly pray they may be just and merciful in all and very tender least their little fingers do oppresse Us more then ever did our Princes loines And since I have presumed to speak so long ●hat am so low they will I hope be not offended if I speak a word one word yet more of them that are so much my Elders and Betters It may not be at least it may not seem enough to quiet trembling minds to say or prove by Arguments there shall be nothing done but what is just except we also see or know the way and meanes and usual cou●se Our Governors will please to take in doing that which may or is and ever shall I hope be just the way must be both right and clear as well as is the end and of the too unjust and arbitrary power and both seem to be in Processe or in ways or means much rather then in ends or things that be effected by it sure it was at least it might be good to build a gallant fleet of ships and so it might be just that each should contribute a part of such a publick work nor was it only that which then was taken from us for a ship that made us sigh and groan and cry or fear our ruine or a universall Deluge of Oppression but it much or mainly was we did not see the way or mean or legall processe which the Court did take in taxing or assessing such a place a County or a person and it was but thus in Loanes and so in divers if not all the things we so abhorred in the Crown the thing did not so much displease as did the way or meanes to such or such an end I need not say how curious or how scrupulous and tender still our Lawes have been in pointing out the way aswel as the end the processe in Courts of justice as the final judgments so that indeed the very form and life and power or substance of the justest Lawes doth much consist in processe which by some may now be though a shadow or a ceremony left at pleasure for a blustring wind or any furious hand to shake as much as long as it shall please and then to salve it

up by saying to the Root We mean you good and do but lay you bare that so you may the more behold and more admire our justice in the end when all the boughs and branches shall be gone that do but hinder all your Prospect I must but touch and glance there is a Trinity which all our laws do seem to worship here on earth estate liberty and life And in pag. 175. Mr Sadler saith I need not speak how curious our Fathers were in all their process touching life the way was still as punctual as cleer and plain as was the end they loved to be just and to do justly Doth our Law condemn any man without hearing or due Summons to judgment I hope it never will A great man of a good name standeth upon Record as by Parliament condemned to death without hearing or legal Summons But there is a Bl●sh or a Vail of Oblivion drawn upon it by good Writers as a stain and a shame to the Parliament Rolls yet as a just judgment on him that had first moved that another might be so condemned and he so perished by that law which he would have made for others This seemeth also to be written in the law of Nature and doubtless the sins of Sodom were as notorious to God in Heaven as any others can be to men in Parliament and yet he would and did go down to hear and see and proceed in a judicial way nor would he condemn or execute before he had not onely cleared his justice in himself or to his Angels but also to Abraham Lot and other lookers on that he still might be justified both when he judgeth and is judged for he still did and will put his actions on mans judgment as we shall more fully cleer hereafter This Processe also towards Sodome is by many of our old Lawyers brought for the pattern of our laws in that especially that none may be condemned without a legal hearing And in this and divers other things doth Bracton and Fleva borrow much in the laws of Henry the first And be the matter of Fact never so notorious yet there may be some plea that no man can fore-see or ought to fore-judge before he heareth For all men may plead necessity or force upon themselves as well as right and law for any thing they do amisse And for this and other Reasons the law doth suppose all men to be just or excusable till they be legally heard and adjudged This difference there is between the Judges and the Law-makers for these they say do suppose all men to be evil but the Judges should suppose all men to be good till they be proved to be evil The Charge and Accusation by the law of Nature ought to be cleer distinct and particular with time and place or other circumstances else the party accused cannot discharge himself Universals do not presse or oppresse at all Generals do not presse at all or else they are apt to oppresse The Witnesse and the Evidence must also be so cleer that those must condemn rather then the Judge who si●teth as Councel for the party Accused That so he be not oppressed by or against law And besides the Judge in most Cases and in those also of life in Scotland there is Councel allowed by law which may and ought to be heard in particulars of law or what ever may be justly disputable as Treason is by Statute so that of all Crimes by expresse Acts of Parliaments it ought to have no Tryal but clear and plain according to the course and custom of the common law In such Cases therefore should the Judges both in Law and Conscience sit and be in stead of Councel to the party and this they owe to every subject though they had a special Obligation to the King Who to his own Rights and therefore to his Wrongs was ●n Infant in Law and so expresly declared in the old Mirrou● B●sid●s other Books His Politike Capacity never but his Person ever in Nonage or supposed so in law for it may be a child or a woman not able to know the lawes and therefore alwayes had by law a legal mouth assigned in Councel of law And so might any man else of old it seemes for matter of demurs before judgment or for framing of a leg●l appeal by Writ of Error or some other way from any judgment whatsoever But our last King professed himself to know the lawes so well that it seemeth the Judges and others did hold themselves to be excused from speaking for him as else they would or should or might have done In this I might speak too plainly but I may be pardoned It is also the law of this kingdome and of Nature That although there be no Councel assigned yet may any in a good manner move the Court to keep the party from injustice or the Court from errour as Stanford and the third part of Institutes Cap. 2. fol. 63. 101. and in such Cases it may be excused and not censured for rash Zeal if some do or shall appear where or when it may be thought they be not called Neither can the whole Parliament of England I suppose make any Court to condemn without lawful Accusers or lawful Witnesses which by expresse Acts of Parliament is most especially provided in Case of Treason in King Edward the sixth and Queen Maries Reign and Tryal of Treason most expresly tyed to the Course and Custome of the Common-law Nay in full Parliament of Henry the Eighth it was declared That attaint of Treason in or by Parliament was of no more force or strength then it was or ought to be by the Common-law or then as good and strong as that by Parliament Nor can the whole Parliament I think by the law of Nature and right Reason make any children Ideots or all others whatsoever to be so much as Accusers or Witnesses That I say not Indictors Tryors or Judges By expresse Acts of Parliament in Philip and Mary Edward the sixth Hen. 8. Hen. 4. Hen. 1. for to him doth the Mirrour and his lawes lead us as to a cleer Christal Fountain of our Law-process as was shewed before None shall suffer for Treason or other Crime but by lawful Accusers and lawful Witnesses before those that by law might receive Indictments Which with all Inquests are to be made by honest lawfull able men Neighbors to the Fact And in pag. 179. he saith He should mispend his time to shew it to be the great law of the Kingdom as well as of Nature that none may be Judges and Parties in their own Cause Which may ere long be found perhaps to be the reason of the th●ee Estates and very much of our Common-law which is punctual in nothing more then in providing for a cleer distinction of Accusers Witnesses Indicters Tryers and Judges especially in Cases of Treason which upon divers motions of the Commons in Parliament have been so often enacted and