Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	common_a	king_n	land_n	6,506	5	5.9183	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81338	A declaration by Sir Edward Dering Knight and Baronet. With his petition to the honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament.	Dering, Edward, Sir, 1598-1644.	1644 (1644)	Wing D1108; Thomason E40_5; ESTC R22648	3,884	15

A DECLARATION BY Sir Edward Dering Knight and Baronet With his PETITION To the Honourable House of Commons Assembled in PARLIAMENT Juven Sat. 3. Quid Romae faciam ' mentiri nescio London Printed by J. Raworth for Philemon Stephens at the golden Lion in Pauls Church-yard April 1. 1644. TWo moneths together I did in my own house enjoy so happy a privacy as that nothing could adde to the sweet satisfaction thereof but the sight and company of my children which I wanted my wife at chosen times came into my studie and made my stollen commons a feast with her society whilst my servants thought me far from home This contentment was in May and June 1642. In this time I received from some very neer in Place Trust and Favour with his Majestie severall Expresses to call me unto York which by severall returns of mine I was studious to decline But they persisted and used the Kings Name unto me a sure Engine to make me move It was then a lawfull Duty in me to attend for how great soever our fears then were yet we were at that time in actuall Peace Ambition I praise God did never swell a thought in me I had too much felicity at home to exchange my reall happinesse for guilded hopes yet those Letters then received did hold out that bait fairly to me If Court-employment had one quiet Sphaere I might possibly haue been an endeavourer above twenty yeers since when my taste was quicker the golden Fetters would have seemed lighter and my accesse by means of a powerfull hand there more clear and easie for me But my desires in that kinde were not warm either then or now But I found at that time my privacie was not like to be lasting I had intimation that my safety was shaking and then between being drawn and driven I went toward the King willingly but out of my own house and from my own Countrey the most unwilling man that ever went Thorow Surrey and Oxford I went to His Majestie at Leicester and with him to Coventry and then to Nottingham before the Standard was set up since when I have been constantly attendant untill I came into the Protection of Parliament on the second of February 1643. The wofull misery of this Land the utter ruine of the Church of God in this Kingdom and the finall period of the famous English Nation I did conceive would prove the undoubted issue of these bloody Wars which may as usually be succeeded by Plague and Famine unlesse some blessing from above do send a speedy Close Now no Close did I think expectable but by the Sword For the strength of the Parliament being made up in the Act of Continuation the three Estates had therein tied us up in a Band indissoluble Indissoluble indeed unlesse by them who made it or else as the Gordian knot was losed by the Kings Sword Therefore God forgive me I did as is there too common execrate that Law and was not friend enough with King and Parliament for making it Thus I hated the onely Cure Strength and Security of the Land being as in another kinde S. Paul said of himself exceedingly mad Act. 26. 11. Yet again with S. Paul from a Persecuter I was made a Convert for as he 1 Tim. 1. 13. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly that is God had not opened my heart but suffered me to go on according to the inward dictates there which though erroneous I followed but at length I was better blest Whilst I was there I had as much as was sit for me to expect and though I kept the distance of Duty yet could I make my own admission to His Majestie upon every occasion such was His gentle goodnesse toward me and I was received with that regardfulnesse which gave growth unto my love and preserves my love unto His Majestie wheresoever I shall be though I shall onely serve the Parliament in the now great Controversie between them for I have taken a Covenant for the King and Parliament I must be faithfull to both But where I cannot serve the King in his personall Commands and serve him also in his Politike Capacity wherein he is most eminently in his Parliament I am resolved to be ruled by the wisest of Kings who assures me Prov. 11. 14. That in the multitude of Counsellers there is safety and therefore I shall anchor there No man can with justice and reason expect from me any depth of Discovery or that I should be the man to open the Mysterie of all the Oxonian Designes I was not of such inward admission This Declaration therefore cannot speak any high particulars yet shall it publish to the world some Motives of my Return being the same wherewith the Honourable House of Commons are pleased to be satisfied which by way of Petition speaks thus To the honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament The HUMBLE PETITION OF Sir EDWARD DERING Knight and Baronet Humbly sheweth THat no force nor any constraint hath brought me hither but my own free Choice pursued with Industrie and this Choice grounded and confirmed in me upon many sad Meditations which have begotten as many serious Invocations to be directed in the best Way Some few Motives to manifest the honest reallity of my purposes I ask leave to lay down in this Petition But before-hand professing my self very sory for bearing Arms against the Parliament 1. I considered That in removing my self hither I do not forsake my Duty and Allegeance to the King but really pursue it and shall actuate it better then before in a true Obedience both to him and to the Parliament 2. I did in this honourable House take the Parliamentary Protestation one Clause whereof is for the Priviledge of Parliament This as an argument for my Return came late into my thoughts but since it came I have much wondered at my self how I could be so long transported to assist in a way to destroy this very Parliament which I have vowed to preserve 3. I dare not say That the Kings Promises are forgotten and unperformed I had rather hide then open so un-Royall failings if I knew them But certainly something hath at some times appeared like unto such breakings And I think the Petition out of Wil t shire on Tuesday or Wednesday last spake little lesse to the King Himself 4. The fear of an anti Parliament at Oxford and a particular fear lest I should as divers of the Members there professed I should be shortly called into that Convention made me not onely endeavour to come away but to hasten unto the true Parliament here 5. Some Clergie-men and others do speak a language there as if the King could come no other way to his own dwellings here unlesse by Conquest But that way of prevailing doth carry the terrour of desperate Consequences with it and is likely I fear to lead into Arbitrary Government and Popery And I have been confident That the King