Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	great_a	law_n	time_n	2,905	5	3.2500	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84716	A declaration, or, representation from His Excellency, Sir Thomas Fairfax, and the army under his command, humbly tendred to the Parliament, concerning the iust and fundamentall rights and liberties of themselves and the kingdome. With some humble proposals and desires. June 14. 1647. By the appointment of his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, with the officers and souldiers of the army, signed John Rushworth, Secretary.	England and Wales. Army.; Fairfax, Thomas Fairfax, Baron, 1612-1671.	1647 (1647)	Wing F156; Thomason E392_27; ESTC R201582	9,597	16

fixed or setled for continuance in any persons whatsoever as that if we might be sure to obtaine it wee cannot wish to have it so in the persons of any whom wee could most confide in or who should appeare most of our own opinions or principles or whom wee might have most personall assurance of or interest in but wee doe and shall much rather wish that the Authoritie of this Kingdome in Parliaments rightly constituted that is freely equally and successively chosen according to its originall intention may ever stand and have its course And therefore wee shall apply our desires chiefly to such things as by having Parliaments setled in such a right Constitution may give most hopes of Justice and Righteousnesse to flow downe equally to all in that its ancient Channell without any Overtures tending either to overthrow that foundation of Order and Government in this Kingdome or to ingrosse that power for perpetuity into the hands of any particular persons or party whatsoever And for that purpose though as wee have found it doubted by many men minding sincerely the publique good but not weighing so fully all consequences of things it may and is not unlike to prove that upon the ending of this Parliament and the Election of New the Constitution of succeeding Parliaments as to the persons Elected may prove for the worse many wayes yet since neither in the present purging of this Parliament nor in the Election of New wee cannot promise to our selves or the Kingdome an assurance of Justice or other positive good from the hands of men but those who for present appeare most righteous and most for common good having an unlimited power fixed in them during life or pleasure in time may become corrupt or settle into parties or factions or on the other side in case of new Elections those that should so succeed may prove as bad or worse then the former Wee therefore humbly conceive that of two inconveniences the lesse being to be chosen the maine thing to be intended in this case and beyond which humane providence cannot reach as to any assurance of positive good seemes to be this viz. to provide that however unjust or corrupt the persons of Parliament-men in present or future may prove or whatever ill they may doe to particular parties or to the whole in particular things during their respective termes or periods yet they shall not have the temptation or advantage of an unlimited power fixt in them during their own pleasures whereby to perpetuate injustice and oppression upon any without end or remedy or to advance and uphold any one particular party faction or interest whatsoever to the oppression or prejudice of the Communitie and the enslaving of the Kingdome unto all posteritie but that the people may have an equall hope or possibilitie if they have made an ill choice at one time to mend it in another and the members of the House themselves may be in a capacitie to tast of subjection as well as rule and may so be inclined to consider of other mens cases as what may come to be their owne This wee speake of in relation to the House of Commons as being entrusted on the peoples behalf for their interest in that great and supreame power of the Common-wealth viz. the Legislative power with the power of finall judgement which being in its own nature so arbitrary and in a manner unlimited unlesse in point of time is most unfit and dangerous as to the peoples interest to be fixt in the persons of the same men during life or their own pleasures Neither by the originall Constitution of this State was it or ought it to continue so nor does it where-ever it is and continues so render that State any better then a meere Tyranny or the people subjected to it any better then Vassalls But in all States where there is any face of common freedome and particularly in this State of England as is most evident both by many positive Lawes and ancient constant custome the people have a right to new and successive Elections unto that great and supreame trust at certain periods of time which is so essentiall and fundamentall to their freedome as it is cannot or ought not to be denied them or withheld from them and without which the House of Commons is of very little concernment to the interest of the Commons of England Yet in this wee would not be mis-understood in the least to blame those Worthies of both Houses whose zeale to vindicate the Liberties of this Nation did procure that Act for continuance of this Parliament whereby it was secured from being dissolved at the Kings pleasure as former Parliaments had been or reduced to such a Certainty as might enable them the better to assert and vindicate the Liberties of this Nation immediately before so highly invaded and then also so much endangered And these wee take to be the principall ends and grounds for which in that exigency of time and affaires it was procured and to which wee acknowledge it hath happily been made use of but wee cannot thinke it was by those Worthies intended or ought to be made use of to the perpetuating of that supreame trust and power in the persons of any during their owne pleasures or to the debarring of the people from their right of Elections totally new when those dangers or exigencies were past and the affaires and safety of the Common-wealth would admit of such a change Having thus cleared our Grounds and Intentions as wee hope from all scruples and misunderstandings in what followes we shall proceede further to propose what wee humbly desire for the setling and securing of our owne and the Kingdomes Rights and Liberties through the blessing of God to posterity and therefore upon all the Grounds premised we further humbly desire as followeth 3. That some determinate period of time may be set for the continuance of this and future Parliaments beyond which none shall continue and upon which new Writs may of course issue out and new Elections successively take place according to the intent of the Bill for Trienniall Parliaments And herein we would not be misunderstood to desire a present or suddain dissolution of this Parliament but only as is exprest before that some certaine period may be set for the determining of it so as it may not remaine as now continuable for ever or during the pleasure of the present Members And we should desire that the period to be now set for ending this Parliament may be such as may give sufficient time for provision of what is wanting and necessary to be passed in point of just Reformation and for further securing the Rights and Liberties and setling the peace of the Kingdome In order to which we further humbly offer 4. That secure provisions may be made for the continuance of future Parliaments so as they may not be adjournable or dissolveable at the Kings pleasure or any otherwayes then by their