Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	king_n	parliament_n	richard_n	2,628	5	8.6164	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30366	An enquiry into the present state of affairs, and in particular, whether we owe allegiance to the King in these circumstances? and whether we are bound to treat with him, and to call him back again, or not?	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1689 (1689)	Wing B5811; ESTC R22972	9,060	18

off This makes a vast difference between the King's Person and his Power tho that is a Point expresly renounc'd in the Oaths that we swear so that it is plain after all that if the Oath of Allegiance binds us still it binds us to a great deal more than those that are for treating seem willing to allow 7. All the Schemes that may be offered of securing us by a Treaty with the King have such visible Defects in them that Men who are accustomed to examine things cannot be deceived by them We have had it given for Law of late too often to forget it that all Acts of Parliament that are to the Disherison of the Crown are null and void of themselves So here all the Securities that can be offered us are swept away at once We can have no legal Parliament without swearing first the Oath of Allegiance to the King and what a scorn is put on God and Religion if one swear this Oath to the King after he is reduced to that naked State to which these Treaters pretend to bring him Nor can the Nation have any Security by Law either for what is done or for what may remain yet to be done but by Acts that are past by King Lords and Commons Men are to be pardoned if they are uneasy till they have the utmost Security that the Constitution can give them And after all whosoever is the King for the time being he has the Law so entirely of his side that tho during the present Fermentation the force of this is not perceptible yet it is a Cruelty not to be easily forgiven to keep a Nation too long in so dangerous a Condition 8. But after all some Men plainly say the King can do no Wrong that his Ministers are only accountable for all the Ill he had done and that the Prince in his Declaration has laid the Blame of all that for which he engaged in this great Design on the evil Counsellors about the King on whom the Punishment ought to fall and not on the King himself whose Person is exempt from Censure To all which this is to be answered that the Maxim The King can do no Wrong is perverted to a sense very different from that which was at first intended by it for the meaning of it is only this That the King's Power cannot go so far as to support him in the doing of any Injustice or Wrong to any according to that Chapter in Magna Charta by which all Commissions granted against Law are declared to be null and void for this is the true meaning of that Maxime But there is no reason to carry this so far as that if Kings will strain their Authority visibly to do the highest Wrongs possible they were in no way accountable for it Whatsoever has been done in Parliament and has never been condemned by any subsequent one is a part of the Law of England since then two of our Kings Edward the 2d and Richard the 2d have been judged in Parliament for their Mal-Administration and since these Judgments have never been vacated by any subsequent Parliaments those proceedings are a part of our Law. And though perhaps there have been more express Definitions made of late in Favour of the Crown than ever were in former times yet as long as those Proceedings remain upon Record it is plain that this great Right of the English Nation of preserving it self in cases of extream Necessity against the violent Invasions that the Crown may make upon it is still entire and in force But after all it will be readily yielded that as the Life of a Father is never to be attempted on by his Children how great soever their Provocations may be so the King being made the Political Father of the Country his Person ought still to be sacred But when the Root of the King 's overturning our Laws is his being so entirely devoted to his Religion and to the Order of the Jesuits how decent soever it might be for the Prince to lay the Blame of all on his evil Councellors yet it will be an unreasonable Piece of Tenderness in the Representative of the Kingdom not to lay the Blame of things where it ought to be laid 9. Either all thoughts of treating with the King or all Enquiries into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales are to be laid aside The King has gone so far in what he has averred with relation to that matter that it is impossible to judg it an Imposture without giving him a large share in it and no Man can think that it is possible to maintain the common Decencies of Respect to the King if any steps are made in that matter for even an Enquiry into it is the calling his Honour into question in so sensible a point that no Man that can make a Discovery is safe to make it nor are any safe who pretend to examine it as long as there are any thoughts of treating with him which will never be believed to be quite laid down as long as the Title of King is acknowledged to be still in him Men that condemn the Errors in Government committed by him may flatter themselves with the possibility of his pardoning them but there is no Mercy where the Matter is personal in which his Honour is so immediately concerned and where a Judgment against the Child casts so black and so indelible a Stain on himself 10. If Articles are prepared to be offered to the King they will be either such as he will probably grant or such that it cannot in reason be expected that he should grant them The former is not to be supposed for such a stripping himself of Power as seems necessary to give us any tolerable Security is that which we ought not to imagine he will grant and it will appear to the World a triumphing over him in his Misfortunes if we make a shew of treating with him when it is visible before-hand that the Demands which must be made him are such that he cannot in Honour grant them nor we in Reason expect them from him When Matters are brought to that pass at which they are at present it is more suitable to the Dignity and Wisdom of the Nation to act frankly and above-board than to think to varnish them over with some outward Appearances In such cases any other way of proceeding has not that Air of Greatness and Openness which is necessary upon such occasions A great deal of time will be lost in preparing the Propositions and a Treaty being once entertained many may be practised on and either be corrupted or destroyed And perhaps the half of the Articles will be drop'd in the Treaty or the whole will be given up by the King in less time than was imployed in preparing any one of the Articles The very talk of a Treaty will keep the Minds of many in Agitation and suspence Some that are now desperate with relation