Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	king_n	lord_n	parliament_n	20,596	5	6.9552	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50149	Pietas in patriam the life of His Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt. late Captain General and Governour in Chief of the province of the Massachuset-Bay, New England, containing the memorable changes undergone, and actions performed by him / written by one intimately acquainted with him.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.	1697 (1697)	Wing M1138; Wing P2135_CANCELLED; ESTC R931	77,331	134

have considered the circumstances of England and of Scotland In New-England they differ from other Plantations they are called Congregational and Presbyterian So that such a Governour will not suit with the People of New-England as may be very proper for other English Plantations Two Days after this the King upon what was proposed by certain Lords was very inquisitive whether He might without breach of Law set a Governour over New-England whereto the Lord Chief Justice and some others of the Council answered That whatever might be the Merit of the Cause inasmuch as the Charter of New-England stood vacated by a Judgment against them it was in the King's Power to put them under what Form of Government He should think best for them The King then said That He believed it would be for the Advantage of the People in that Colony to be under a Governour appointed by Himself Nevertheless because of what Mr. Mather had spoken to Him He would have the Agents of New-England nominate a Person that should be agreeable unto the Inclinations of the People there and notwithstanding this He would have Charter-Priviledges restored and confirmed unto them The Day following the King began another Voyage to Holland and when the Attorney General 's Draught of a Charter according to what he took to be his Majesty's Mind as expressed in Council was presented at the Council-Board on the eighth of June some Objections then made procured an Order to prepare Minutes for another Draught which deprived the New-Englanders of several Essential Priviledges in their other Charter Mr. Mather put in his Objections and vehemently protested that he would sooner part with his Life than consent unto those Minutes or any thing else that should infringe any Liberty or Priviledge of Right belonging unto his Country but he was answered That the Agents of New-England were not Plenipotentiaries from another Soveraign State and that if they would not submit unto the King's Pleasure in the settlement of the Country they must take what would follow The dissatisfactory Minutes were by Mr. Mather's Industry sent over unto the King in Flanders and the Ministers of State then with the King were earnestly applied unto that every mistake about the good Settlement of New-England might be prevented and the Queen Her self with Her own Royal Hand wrote unto the King that the Charter of New-England might either pass as it was drawn by the Attorney General or be deferred until His own Return But after all His Majesties Principal Secretary of State received a Signification of the King's Pleasure That the Charter of New-England should run in the Main Points of it as it was now granted Only there were several Important Articles which Mr. Mather by his unwearied Sollicitations obtained afterwards to be inserted There were some now of the Opinion That instead of submitting to this New Settlement they should in Hopes of getting a Reversion of the Judgment against the Old Charter declare to the Mininisters of State That they had rather have no Charter at all than such an one as was now proposed unto Acceptance But Mr. Mather advising with many unprejudiced Persons and Men of the greatest Abilities in the Kingdom Noblemen Gentlemen Divines and Lawyers they all agreed That it was not only a lawful but all Circumstances then considered a needful Thing and a part of Duty and Wisdom to accept what was now offered and that a peremptory Refusal would not only bring an Inconveniency but a Fatal and perhaps a Final Ruine upon the Country whereof Mankind would lay the blame upon the Agents It was argued That such a Submission was no Surrender of any thing That the Judgment not in the Court of Kings Bench but in Chancery against the Old Charter standing on Record the Pattent was thereby Annihilated That all attempts to have the Judgment against the Old Charter taken off would be altogether in vain as Men and Things were then disposed It was further argued That the Ancient Charter of New-England was in the Opinion of the Lawyers very Defective as to several Powers which yet were absolutely necessary to the subsistence of the Plantation It gave the Government there no more Power than the Corporations have in England Power in Capital Cases was not therein particularly expressed It mentioned not an House of Deputies or an Assembly of Representatives the Governour and Company had thereby they said no Power to impose Taxes on the Inhabitants that were not Freemen or to erect Courts of Admiralty Without such Powers the Colony could not subsist and yet the best Friends that New-England had of Persons most learned in the Law professed that suppose the Judgment against the Massachuset-Charter might be Reversed yet if they should again Exert such Powers as they did before the Quo Warranto against their Charter a new Writ of Scire Facias would undoubtedly be issued out against them It was yet further argued That if an Act of Parliament should have Reversed the Judgment against the Massachuset-Charter without a grant of some other Advantages the whole Territory had been on many Accounts very miserably Incommoded The Province of Main with Hampshire would have been taken from them and Plymouth would have been annexed unto New-York so that this Colony would have been squeezed into an Atom and not only have been render'd Insignificant in it's Trade but by having it's Militia also which was vested in the King taken away it's Insignificancies would have become out of measure humbling whereas now instead of seeing any Relief by Act of Parliament they would have been put under a Governour with a Commission whereby ill Men and the King 's and Country's Enemies might probably have crept into Opportunities to have done ten thousand ill Things and have treated the best Men in the Land after a very uncomfortable Manner It was lastly argued That by the New Charter very great Priviledges were granted unto New-England and in some respects greater than what they formerly enjoyed The Colony is now made a Province and their General Court has with the King's Approbation as much Power in New-England as the King and Parliament have in England They have all English Liberties and can be touched by no Law by no Tax but of their own making All the Liberties of their Holy Religion are for ever secured and their Titles to their Lands once for want of some Forms of legal Conveyance contested are now confirmed unto them If an ill Governour should happen to be imposed on them what Hurt could he do to them None except they themselves pleased for he cannot make one Counsellour or one Judge or one Justice or one Sheriff to serve his Turn Disadvantages enough one would think to discourage any ill Governour from desiring to be Stationed in those uneasie Regions The People have a Negative upon all the Executive Part of the Civil Government as well as the Legislative which is a vast Priviledge enjoyed by no other Plantation in America nor

Writs of Intrusion were issued out against the chief Gentlemen in the Territory by the Terror whereof many were actually driven to Petition for Patents that they might quietly enjoy the Lands that had been fifty or sixty Years in their possession But for these Patents there were such exorbitant Prices demanded that Fifty Pounds could not purchase for its Owner an Estate not worth Two Hundred nor could all the Money and Moveables in the Territory have defrayed the Charges of Patenting the Lands at the Hands of these Crocodiles besides the considerable Quit-Rents for the King Yea the Governour caused the Lands of particular persons to be measured out and given to his Creatures And some of his Council Petitioned for the Commons belonging to several Towns and the Agents of the Towns going to get a voluntary Subscription of the Inhabitants to maintain their Title at Law they have been dragg'd Forty or Fifty Miles to answer as Criminals at the next Assizes the Officers in the mean time extorting three Pounds per Man for fetching them That if these Harpies at any Time were a little out of Money they found ways to Imprison the best men in the Countrey and there appeared not the least Information of any Crime exhibited against them yet they were put unto Intollerable Expences by these Greedy Oppressors and the Benefit of an Habeas Corpus not allowed unto them That pack't and pick't Juries were Commonly made use of when under a Pretended Form of Law the Trouble of some Honest and Worthy Men was aimed at and these also were hurried out of their own Counties to be tried when Juries for the Turn were not like to be found there The Greatest Rigour being used still towards the soberest sort of people whilst in the mean time the most horrid Enormities in the World committed by Others were overlook'd That The publick Ministry of the Gospel and All Schools of Learning were discountenanced unto the Utmost And several more such abominable things too notorious to be denied even by a Randolphian impudence it self are in that Book proved against that unhappy Government Nor did that most Ancient Sett of the Phoenician Shepherds who scrued the Government of Egypt into their Hands as Old Manethon tells us by their Villanies during the Reigns of those Tyrants make a Shepherd more of an Abomination to the Egyptians in all after-Ages than these Wolves under the Name of Shepherds have made the Remembrance of their French Government an Abomination to all Posterity among the New-Englanders A Government for which now Reader as fast as thou wilt get ready this Epitaph Nulla quaesita Scelere Potentia diuturna It was under the Resentments of these Things that Sir Williom Phips returned into England in the year 1688. In which Twice-Wonderful-Year such a Revolution was wonderfully accomplished upon the whole Government of the English Nation that New-England which had been a Specimen of what the whole Nation was to look for might justly hope for a share in the General Deliverance Upon this Occasion Sir William offered his best Assistances unto that Eminent Person who a little before this Revolution betook himself unto White-Hall that he might there lay hold on all Opportunities to procure some Relief unto the Oppressions of that afflicted Country But seeing the New-English Affairs in so able an Hand he thought the best Stage of Action for him would now be New-England it self and so with certain Instructions from none of the least considerable Persons at White-Hall what Service to do for his Country in the Spring of the Year 1689 he hastened back unto it Before he left London a Messenger from the Abdicated King tender'd him the Government of New-England if he would accept it But as that excellent Attorney General Sir William Jones when it was proposed that the Plantations might be Governed without Assemblies told the King That he could no more Grant a Commission to levy Money on his Subjects there without their consent by an Assembly than they could Discharge themselves from their Allegiance to the English Crown So Sir William Phips thought it his Duty to refuse a Government without an Assembly as a thing that was Treason in the very Essence of it and instead of Petitioning the succeeding Princes that his Patent for High Sheriff might be rendred Effectual he joined in Petitions that New-England might have its own Old Patent so Restored as to render Ineffectual that and all other Grants that might cut short any of it's Ancient Priviledges But when Sir William arrived at New-England he found a New Face of Things For about an Hundred Indians in the Eastern parts of the Country had unaccountably begun a War upon the English in July 1688. and though the Governour then in the Western Parts had immediate Advice of it yet he not only delayed and neglected all that was necessary for the Publick Defence but also when he at Last returned he manifested a most Furious Displeasure against those of the Council and all others that had forwarded any one thing for the security of the Inhabitants while at the same time he dispatched some of his Creatures upon secret Errands unto Canada and set at Liberty some of the most Murderous Indians which the English had seized upon This Conduct of the Governour which is in a Printed Remonstrance of some of the Best Gentlemen in the Council complained of did extreamly dissatisfy the Suspicious People Who were doubtless more extream in some of their Suspicions than there was any real Occasion for But the Governour at length raised an Army of a Thousand Erglish to Conquer this Hundred Indians and this Army whereof some of the chief Commanders were Papists underwent the Fatigues of a Long and a cold Winter in the most Caucasaean Regions of the Territory till without the Killing of One Indian there were more of the poor People Killed than they had Enemies there Alive This added not a Little to the Dissatisfaction of the People and it would much more have done so if they had seen what the World had not yet seen of the Suggestions made by the Irish Catholicks unto the Late King published in the Year 1691 In the Account of the State of the Protestants in Ireland Licensed by the Earl of Nottingham whereof one Article runs in these Express Terms That if any of the Irish cannot have their Lands in Specie but money in Lieu some of them may Transport themselves into America possibly near New-England to check the Growing Independants of that Country Or if they had seen what was afterwards seen in a Letter from K. James to His Holiness as they stile His Foolishness the Pope of Rome That it was his Full purpose to have Set up Roman-Catholick Religion in the English Plantations of America Tho after all there is cause to think that there was more made of the Suspicions then flying like Wild-fire about the Country than a strong Charity would have Countenanced When the People

the Affable Courtesie which he ordinarily used unto all sorts of Persons quite contrary to the Asperity which the old Proverb expects in the Raised he would particularly when Sailing in sight of Kennebeck with Armies under his Command call the Young Souldiers and Sailers upon Deck and speak to them after this Fashion Young Men It was upon that Hill that I kept Sheep a few Years ago and since you see that Almighty God has brought me to something do you Learn to fear God and be Honest and Mind your Business and follow no bad Courses and you don't know what you may come to A Temper not altogether unlike what the Advanced Shepherd had when he wrote the Twenty Third Psalm or when he Imprinted on the Coin of his Kingdom the Remembrance of his old Condition For Christianus Gerson a Christianized Jew has informed us That on the one side of David's Coin were to be seen his old Pouch and Crook the Instruments of Shepherdy on the other side were Enstamped the Towers of Zion In fine our Sir William was a Person of so sweet a Temper that they who were most intimately acquainted with him would commonly pronounce him The best Conditioned Gentleman in the World And by the continual Discoveries and Expressions of such a Temper he so gained the Hearts of them who waited upon him in any of his Expeditions that they would commonly profess themselves willing still to have gone with him to the End of the World But if all other People found him so kind a Neighbour we may easily inferr what an Husband he was unto his Lady Leaving unmentioned that Virtue of his Chastity which the Prodigious Depravation brought by the Late Reigns upon the Manners of the Nation has made worthy to be mentioned as a Virtue somewhat Extraordinary I shall rather pass on to say That the Love even to Fondness with which he always treated her was a Matter not only of Observation but even of such Admiration that every one said The Age afforded not a kinder Husband This Kindness appeared not only in his making it no less his Delight than Study to render his whole Conversation agreeable to her but also and perhaps chiefly in the Satisfaction which it gave him to have his Interests very much at her Command Before he first went abroad upon Wrack Designs he to make his long Absence easie unto her made her his Promise that what Estate the God of Heaven should then bestow upon him should be entirely at her Disposal in Case that she survived him And when Almighty God accordingly bestow'd upon him a Fair Estate he not only rejoiced in seeing so many Acts of Charity done every Day by Her bountiful Hand but he also not having any Children of his own Adopted a Nephew of Her 's to be his Heir And reckoning that a Verbal Intimation unto her of what Pious and Publick Uses he would have any Part of his Estate after his Death put unto as well as what Supports he would have afforded unto his own Relations would be as much attended by Her as if he had otherwise taken the most effectual Care imaginable he contented himself with Bequeathing all he had entirely to Her in his Last Will and Testament He knew very well that Her Will in Point of a Liberal Disposition to Honour the Lord with the Substance which the Lord had in so strange a manner enriched them withal would not fail of being equal with his own But we must now return to our Story SECT 19. When Persons do by Studies full of Curiosity seek to inform themselves of things about which the God of Heaven hath forbidden our curious enquiries there is a marvellous Impression which the Demons do often make on the Minds of those their Votaries about the Future or Secret Matters unlawfully enquired after and at last there is also an horrible Possession which those Fatidic Daemons do take of them The Snares of Hell hereby laid for miserable Mortals have been such that when I read the Laws which Agellius affirms to have been made even in Pagan Rome against the Vaticinatores I wonder that no English Nobleman or Gentleman signalizes his regard unto Christianity by doing what even a Roman Tully would have done in promoting An Act of Parliament against that Paganish Practice of Judicial Astrology whereof if such Men as Austin were now Living they would Assert The Devil first found it and they that profess it are Enemies of Truth and of God In the mean Time I cannot but relate a wonderful Experience of Sir William Phips by the Relation whereof something of an Antidote may be given against a Poison which the Diabolical Figure-Flirgers and Fortune-Tellers that swarm all the World over may insinuate into the Minds of Men. Long before Mr. Phips came to be Sir William while he sojourned in London there came into his Lodging an Old Astrologer living in the Neighbourhood who making some Observation of him though he had small or no Conversation with him did howbeit by him wholly undesired one Day send him a Paper wherein he had with Pretences of a Rule in Astrology for each Article distinctly noted the most material Passages that were to befall this our Phips in the remaining Part of his Life it was particularly Asserted and Inserted That he should be engaged in a Design wherein by Reason of Enemies at Court he should meet with much Delay That nevertheless in the Thirty Seventh Year of his Life he should find a mighty Treasure That in the Forty First Year of his Life his King should employ him in as great a Trust beyond Sea as a Subject could easily have That soon after this he should undergo an hard Storm from the Endeavours of his Adversaries to Reproach him and Ruine him That his Adversaries though they should go very near gaining the Point should yet miss of doing so That he should hit upon a vastly Richer Matter than any that he had hitherto met withal That he should continue Thirteen Years in his Publick Station full of Action and full of Hurry And the rest of his Days he should spend in the Satisfaction of a Peaceable Retirement Mr. Phips received this undesired Paper with Trouble and with Contempt and threw it by among certain loose Papers in the Bottom of a Trunk where his Lady some Years after accidentally Lit upon it His Lady with Admiration saw step after step very much of it accomplished but when she heard from England that Sir William was coming over with a Commission to be Governour of New-England in that very Year of his Life which the Paper specified she was afraid of letting it ly any longer in the House but cast it into the Fire Now the Thing which I must invite my Reader to Remark is this That albeit Almighty God may permit the Devils to predict and perhaps to perform very many particular things to Men that shall by such a presumptuous and unwarrantable Juggle as