Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	kingdom_n	law_n	scotland_n	3,190	5	8.6459	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66133	The first declaration of His Highness Willam Henry, by the grace of God Prince of Orang. &c., of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms in the kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant religion and for restoring the lawes & liberties of England, Scotland, and Ireland.	William III, King of England, 1650-1702.	1689 (1689)	Wing W2332A; ESTC W17402	11,763	18

The FIRST DECLARATION of HIS HIGHNESS WILLIAM HENRY By the Grace of GOD PRINCE of ORANG c. Of the REASONS inducing Him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and for Restoring the Lawes Liberties of England Scotland Ireland IT is both certain and evident to all men that the Publick Peace Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties Customs established by the lawful Authority in it are openly transgressed annulled More especially where the Alteration of RELIGION is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavour'd to be introduced Upon which those who are most immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the establish't Laws Liberties and Customes and above all the Religion Worship of God that is established among them and to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdome may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights Which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings Royal Families and of all such as are in Authourity as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and people depend in a most especial manner upon the exact Observation and maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs Upon these Grounds it is that we cannot any longer for bear to Declare that to our great Regret we see that those Councellours who have now the chief Credit with the King have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of those Realmes and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret indirect waies but in an open undisguised manner Those evil Counsellours for the advancing and colouring this with some plausibe pretexts did invent and set on foot the Kings Dispencing Power by virtue of which they pretend that according to Law he can suspend and dispense with the execution of the Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the Security and happiness of the Subject and so have rendred those Laws of no effect Tho there is nothing more certain than that as no Lawes can be made but by the joint Concurrence of King Parliament so likewise Lawes so enacted which secure the publick peace safety of the Nation the lives liberties of every Subject in it cannot be repealed or suspended but by the same Authority For tho the King may pardon the Punishment that a Transgressoor has incurred and to which as is condemned as in cases of Treason or Fellony yet it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferr'd from thence that the King can entirely suspend the Excution of those laws relating to Treason or Felony unless it is pretended that he is clothed with a despotick or arbitrary Power and that the lives liberties honours estates of his Subjects depend wholly on his good will pleasure and are entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the King's having power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispence with them Those evil Counsellours in order to the giving some Credit to this strange execrable Maxime have so conducted the matter that they have obtain'd a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this dispensing Power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him arbitrarily at his pleasure and expressly contrary to Laws enacted for the security of the subjects In order to the Obtaining this Judgment those evil Counsellours did before hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in conscience concur in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their rooms till by the Changes which were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who make open Profession of the popish Religion tho those are by law rendred incapable of all such Employments It is also manifest notorious that as his Majesty was upon his coming to the Crown received acknowledged by all the Subjects of England Scotland Ireland as their King without the least Opposition tho he made then open Profession of the popish Religion so he did then promise solemnly swear at his Coronation that he would maintain his Subjects in the free enjoyment of their laws liberties and in particular that he would maintain the Church of England as it was established by Law It is likewise certain that there have been at diverse and sundry times several laws enacted for the preservation of those Rights liberties of the protestant Religion and among other Securities it has been enacted that all persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that shall be put in any Imployment Civil or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy and the Test yet these evil Counsellors have in effect annulled abolished all those Laws both with relation to Ecclesiastical and Civil Employments In order to Ecclesiastical Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most express Laws to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain number of persons to whom they have committed the Cognisance and Direction of all Ecclesiastical matters in the which Commission there has been still is one of his Majesties Ministers of state who makes now publick Profession of the popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared that for a great while before he had believed that to be the only true Religion By all this the deplorable state to which the Protestant Religion is reduced is apparent since the Affairs of the Church of England are now put into the hands of Persons who have accepted of a Commission that is manifestly illegal and who have executed it contrary to all Law and that now one of their chief Members has abjured the Protestant Religion and declared himself a Papist by which he is become incapable of holding any publick imployment The said Commissioners have hitherto given such proof of their Submission to the directions given them that there is no reason to doubt but they will still continue to promote all such designs as will be most agreable to them And those evil Counsellors take care to raise none to Ecclesiastical Dignities but persons that have no Zeal for the Protestant Religion and that now hide their Unconcernedness for it under the specious pretence of Moderation The said Commissioners have

deplorable is the case of the subjects who are obliged to answer to such Judges that must in all things stick to the Rules which are set them by those evil Counsellours who as they raised them up to those Imployments so can turn them out of them at pleasure and who can never be esteemed lawful Judges so that all their Sentences are in the Construction of the Law of no force and efficacy They have likewise disposed of all Military Imyloyments in the same manner for tho the Laws have not only excluded Papists from all such Imployments but have in particular provided that they should be disarmed yet they in contempt of these Laws have not only armed the Papists but have likewise raised them up to the greatest Military Trusts both by Sea Land and that strangers as well as Natives and Irish as well as English that so by those meanes having rendred themselves Masters both of the affairs of the Church of the Government of the Nation and of the Course of Justice and subjected them all to a despoick and arbitrary power they might be in a Capacity to maintain and execute their wicked Designs by the Assistance of the Army and thereby to enslave the nation The dismal effects of this Subversion of the established Religion laws and liberties in England appear more evidently to us by what we see done in Ireland where the whole Government is put into the hands of Papists and where all the protestant Inhabitants are under the daily fears of what may be justly apprehended from the arbitrary power which is set up there which has made great numbers of them leave that Kingdom and abandon their estates in it remembring well that cruel and bloudy Massacre which fell out in that Island in the year 1641. Those evil Counsellors have also prevailed with the King to declare in Scotland that he is clothed with absolute Power and that all the Subjects are bound to obey him without Reserve upon which he has assumed an arbitrary power both over the Religion and Laws of that Kingdom from all which it is apparent what is to be look't for in England as soon as matters are duly prepar'd for it Those great insufferable Oppressions the open Contempt or all Law together with the Apprehensions of the sad Consequences that must certainly follow upon it have put the Subjects under great and just fears and have made them look after such lawful Remedies as are allowed of in all Nations yet all has been without effect And those evil Counsellors have endeavoured to make all men apprehend the loss of their Lives Liberties Honours Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from this oppression by Petitions Representations or other means authourised by Law Thus did they proceed with the Archbishop of Canterbury the other Bishops who having offered a most humble Petition to the King in terms full of Respect and not exceeding the number limited by Law in which they set forth in short the reasons for which they could not obey that Order which by the Instigation of those evil Counsellors was sent them requireing them to appoint their Clergy to read in their Churches the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience were sent to prison and afterwards brought to a Tryal as if they had been guilty of some enormous crime They were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursute but to appear before professed Papists who had not take the Test and by Consequence were men whose Interest lead them to condemn them and the Judges that gave their Opinion in their Favours were thereupon turned out And yet it cannot be pretended that any Kings how great soever there power has been and how arbitrary despotick soever they have bin in the excercise of it have ever reckoned it a Crime for their Subjects to come in all Submission Respect in a due number not exceedding the limits of the Law and represent to them the Reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their Orders Those evil Councellors have also treated a Peer of the Realm as a Criminal only because he said that the Subjects were not bound to obey the Orders of a popish Justice of Peace tho it is evident that they being by law rendred incapable of all such Trusts no regard is due to their Orders This being the security which the people have by the Law for their lives liberties honours and estates that they are not to be subjected to the arbitrary proceedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any employments Civil or Military Both We our Self and Our dearest most entirely beloved Consort the Princess have endeavour'd to signify in terms full of respect to the King the just deep Regret which all these proceeding have given us and in Compliance with his Majesty's desires signified to us We declared both by word of mouth to His Envoy and in writing what Our thoughts were touching the Repealing of the Tests penal Laws which we did in such a manner that we hoped we had proposed an Expedient by which the peace of those Kingdoms a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all persuasions might have been settled but those evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good intentions that they have endeavour'd to alienate the King more more from us as if we had designed to disturb the Quiet Happiness of the Kingdom The last and great Remedy for all those evils is the Calling of a Parliament for the securing of the Nation against the evil practises of those wicked Counsellors but this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those men apprehending that a lawful Parliament being once assembled they would-be brought to an account for all their open violations of Law and for their Plotts and Conspiracies against the protestant Religion and the Lives Liberties of the Subjects they have endeavour'd under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to sow divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters the design being laid to engage Protestants that are all equally concerned to preserve themselves from popish Oppressions into mutual quarrellings that so by these some advantages might be given them to bring about their Designs and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it self For they see well that if all protestants could enter into a mutual good understanding one with another and concur together in the preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compass their wicked ends They have also required all persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any imployment or were in any considerable Esteem to declare before hand that they would concur in the Repeal of the Tests penal Laws and that they would give their voices in the Elections to Parliament only for