Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	england_n	ireland_n	parliament_n	7,854	5	7.5307	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89952	Reasons why the supreme authority of the three nations (for the time) is not in the Parliament, but in the new-established Councel of State, consisting of His Excellence the Lord General Cromvvel, and his honourable assessors. Written in answer to a letter sent from a gentleman in Scotland to a friend of his in London. To which is added the letter it self.	C. N.	1653 (1653)	Wing N6; Thomason E697_19; ESTC R202945	18,691	32

Souldiery then the Senate and the Roman Commonwealth flourish more under Julius Caesar and Augustus then ever it did either before or after their times and yet I may very warrantably avouch that the present Lord General of England was never so much subordinate to this State as both of them were to that of Rome 〈◊〉 we look into the state of Nature which is that where 〈◊〉 M●●archies and States are posited both in relation to one another and in the manner of their own establishment we shall very evidently perceive that in whose person or persons the power is devolved there resteth the Soveraignty Nor is it meer strength that bringeth one or many to this power it being requisite that wisdom and other concurring qualifications contribute to so great a work the Fox is wiser then the Lion yet is the Lion king of brutes not but that there are beasts stronger then he as is the Elephant but that there is none in which strength wit agility and generosity together are better commixed My Lord General and the Officers of his Army are truly such hath any people or nation out-witted them in their Treaties hath any been more expedite in the active part more valiant in the field more patient in hardships or more noble and merciful then they after an obtained victory Did all these endowments ever meet together in a Parliament or concentre in a promiscuous unmilitary Body of Country-Gentlemen and Lawyers It was the Army I believe and not the Parliament by whose wit and valour Ireland was reduced Scotland pacified and England established What though they be Sword-men should that derogate from their Authority I say No for that God who is Goodness in the abstract and Wisdom it self although he be called neither God nor Lord of Learning or Law is no more intituled the God of Peace then he is the Lord of Hosts the later title by all appearance if I may say so being the more honourable in that we worship God because he is powerful and love him for his goodness Furthermore there is hardly any Argument that the Lord brings in the Scripture for his being the God of Israel that is not deduced from his power as the drowning of Pharaoh's Army in the Red sea the destroying of the Canaanites the laying of the foundations of the earth and setting of bounds to the Sea nor were the new Israelites who are the Christians otherwise convinced of the Divinity of Christ then by Miracles which were the extraordinary effects of his power Thus do I conceive that the sole power of the Land is in my Lord General and the Army and that no State can be well governed where Authority is divorced from Power for without Power Authority is but as a naked Virgin exposed to the raging lust of a Satyr nor where these two are separated from each other can the Good be rewarded or the Wicked corrected because a State how peremptory and commanding soever it be in issuing out of Orders will never be able without a considerable power to confer recompences and inflict punishments And if you think that by such means we lie at the mercy of the Sword being under the command of Military Officers I must needs ask you If you would rather be under Masters that have no Swords and so be exposed to the devouring sword of Forraigners The Safety of the People is said to be the Supreme Law yet are those that have the power in their hands the fittest Judges of that safety because they are the best able to consider what and where the strength is which is the Guard of the Nation nor is there any reason why we should be diffident of the discretion of those Officers who are men of Publike spirits such as have not sought themselvs and therefore deserve to be accounted our Masters by defending us from the violence of others and preserving us in those Rights that belong unto us We were made subject to this late Parliament if we may so call it by the meer vertue of that power wherewith the Army did protect it and thus by saving of our lives and goods they have justly gained more dominion over us then others can claim right unto And seeing Egypt for several Ages together was well governed by the Souldier Mamaluks who were not a free-born people Should this Island grudge to be ruled by the freest spirited men in the world and that under the conduct of my Lord General Cromwel which title of General for his sake ought to be reputed no less honourable amongst us then that of Imperator was amongst the Romanes And to mount yet a little higher I must needs think that the Lord of Hosts who is not ashamed to take the name of Generalissimo upon him would not have us to be so inconsiderate as to disrespect the Government of a General especially for that being commanded to be like our Father that is in heaven that Government of all other is without doubt most rational which draweth neerest to the model of His. God is our General and did not onely hazard his life for our good but died for us in the person of his Son Let the Cherubims and Seraphins take the title of Parliament upon them if they will yet still is the Lord of hosts above them For my own part I would prefer the Sword of Gideon to the Rod of Aaron and the Laurel to the Long Robe Is not the High-Constable of France above the Chancellor and a Knight in the Field before a Doctor in the Law So should the General of our Army be above any Member in the Commonwealth and the Officers he adjoyneth to him partake of his pre-eminence Whereas you say that those Military men are not like to be such Politicians in foreseeing the dangers may befal the Country as the Members of Parliament I answer If that Policie consist in preserving us from the Invasion of strangers and discovery of Plots amongst our selves at home That no men can be thought fitter then those that are in hazard daily by the prevention or withstanding of those inconveniences Do not Apprentiships make Tradesmen so perfect in their Callings that the most ingenious Scholar how pregnant soever he be in setting down the mysteries of a Trade cannot be so exquisite in his skill therein as he that hath served to it any considerable time The application is easie And what although as you say they were no Lawyers so they be just nor Divines if pious Yet let us not imagine they are the less these because they are good Souldiers should we think Armies want Reason because they have Strength I on the contrary think that the knowing of their strength addes to their Reason Why may not a woman be fair though she be chaste yea truely I think her Chastity makes her the fairer if plurality of good qualities were not compatible in one person the concatenation of Vertues would not be a so generally received opinion amongst the

answer The case is quite other for besides that then was a time wherein formalities were a great deal more to be regarded Martial Law and Military atchievements being things in this Land at that time quite unknown the late King by his thus forcible coming in unto the House did break the priviledges which both his predecessors himself had given and therefore having resigned his power to that Parliament by vertue whereof they then sate legally he ought if there were any refractary members to have consulted with the remainder of the body concerning them who together with the rest of the house had by him that placed them undoubtedly been raised had not they been taken into the tuition and patrociny of the Army whose Power being from God he hath accordingly continued unbroken amidst the revolution of various and innumerable dangers to the astonishment not only of this Island but of the whole world besides You say the action was violent I say No for it was carried on with the greatest modestie and discretion that could be imagined As for that which is called the rupture of the Parliament it was as nothing for if the action in it self was just as I affirm it was officious lingring circumstances in such important matters as can admit of no delays are not to be regarded Formalities at best in such a juncture of occasions are but imbellishing ornaments or as paintings upon Sepulchres where there is any tottenness in the main intendments covered by them A Cordial in a Pitcher is more estimable then Poyson in an Agat and a Homely Friend better worth the accosting then a Courtly Enemy He that permits one to wear his Cloak for a while expecting he will do it civilly may afterwards require it from him when he sees him abuse it If those of the House be collationed with the Officers of the Army we shall finde that Parliaments are composed but of Country spirits for the most part not much inclined to Milice and who though an humor of enriching themselvs should impoverish the Country will be so much the longer before they can goodly be made sensible of it that suchlike men as they being but very little or seldom acquainted with dangers and losses are never much nor often touched with a compassion or fellow-feeling of the sufferings of others and any man will acknowledge himself more obliged to him or them that freely hazard their lives for him then to such as will but faintly grant his Petition after a twelve-months delay perhaps and expending more in attendance to speak of nothing else then he gets by it Admit there be better Lawyers and greater Scholars amongst those of the Parliament then any in the Roll of the Army-Officers yet will it make nothing for your purpose for that such skilful men ought rather to be subservient to the Officers then thereby to pretend any Mastery over them is by this apparent that Speculation ascends unto Action wherein consists the life of all business and consequently those Literate men should very humbly and affectionately submit their studious elucubrations to the resolute disposure of these other worthy Patriots who by a Practical industry make the Theory of the former useful to the furtherance of the benefit of this Commonwealth Should not Law be subordinate to Equity and Learning to Goodness God hath revealed more to Good men then to Scholars and we finde not anywhere that either Divines or Lawyers are men of better lives then others Take along with you the tract of all the Prophets and Apostles and you shall see that they were but obscure men both in Law Literature yea their very Kings were taken and selected out of Shepherds to signifie unto us that Law depends not altogether upon Learning our Mindes are able to judge of Good and Bad as our Eyes of Colours although many times self-interest distracteth the thoughts of these our mindes and quite diverteth them from the true and right apprehension of the object as the Jaundise maketh every Colour appear yellow to the eye which without that imperfection would have discerned aright of any thing exposed to the sight thereof In my opinion therefore the Supreme power ought neither to be in Lawyers nor Divines nor both because those that have been enriched by private contentions will never harbour in their brests such publike spirits as shall suffice to establish domestick safety and gain stand forraign invasion for he is to be accounted the best servant that doth his masters will and not that other who says this is my masters will yet doth but his own Those quaint expressions and flourishes of Rhetorick which in gilding a bad cause being the effects of depraved Learning do but cast a thick mist over the eyes of the hearers understandings and fill their abused ears with empty sounds of new Nothings are not to be expected from the Officers of the Army who delivering their minds ingenuously without either fard or affectation prosecute good ends above-boord by means void of all dissimulation and deceitfulness Here will I not utter so much as one syllable either against the whole Body of the Parliament or any of its members in taxing them with unnecessary delays of granting the subjects just demands their having intended and accordingly prosecuted their own affairs more then those of the Publike and such-like whereof there is a great deal already published by others because I will not offer to do the Souldiery so much wrong as to justifie their actions by the indirect way of Recriminating others I shall remain content with this comparative expression in saying That those who no less freely expose their persons for the defence of their Country and maintenance of the Liberties thereof into such extreme perils as if they had the shift of a new life wherewith to cloath themselves the next day life being more precious then external goods should be preferred to those that for their own enrichment if any such there be would do the meanest prejudice to the livelihood of another The action say you is rash unlawful and strange I think it truly more strange that any such expression should proceed from a rational man for as for the good of the Universe water sometimes mounteth and air descends quite contrary to the propension of their own natures so is it that what many times hath been found unlawful in private actions may in publike ones be esteemed very just Had Moses stood upon his principles of subjection obedience to the Laws of the Prince of his native Country which nevertheless the Army was not so much liable unto in reference to the Parliament what had become of the Liberty of the people of Israel and enlargement of the house of Jacob However although at the first appearance it seem to be an act of Will yet is it so far from being unreasonable that it is the last act and result of the highest pitch of Reason and more praise-worthy then that action of