Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	act_n	king_n	title_n	3,788	5	7.4113	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89881	Interest will not lie. Or, a view of England's true interest: in reference to the [brace] papist, royalist, Presbyterian, baptised, neuter, Army, Parliament, City of London. In refutation of a treasonable pamphlet, entituled, The interest of England stated. Wherein the author of it pretends to discover a way, how to satisfie all parties before-mentioned, and provide for the publick good, by calling in the son of the late King, &c. Against whom it is here proved, that it is really the interest of every party (except only the papist) to keep him out: and whatever hath been objected by Mr. William Pryn, or other malcontents, in order to the restoring of that family, or against the legality of this Parliament's sitting, is here answer'd by arguments drawn from Mr Baxter's late book called A holy commonwealth, for the satisfaction of them of the Presbyterian way; and from writings of the most learned royalists, to convince those of the royal party. By Mar. Nedham.	Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1659 (1659)	Wing N392; Thomason E763_5; ESTC R202968	47,454	45

been from reason deduced in the former Sactions But now let us return to our Author again He saith This Parliament is no Parliament because by Law it is Dissolved through the Kings Death that Called it So saith Mr. Pryn also and others Thus when men are over-heated with Prejudice and Passion they know not or remember not what they say They affirm The Parliament dyed together with the King and so can no longer have a Being yet they keep a clamour to get into the House and then they will be content it shall be a Living Parliament again although the King be Dead and shall serve the turn and he … ed a Full a Free and a Good Parliament but you may suppose to no other purpose but their own Why else did William Pryn and his fellows make such a stir to get in And why doth the 〈◊〉 Pa●er subscribed G. Booth intimate That if the House will let in the Old Members again all shall be as well as if it were a new Virgin Parliament By th●s the world may plainly see it is not the Publick Interest of the Nation though they pretend it but their own which they seek If the seclusion of them be taken off that they may sit then it will be as good a Parliament as it was at first or as any new one can be Speak out then and say O House of Parliament ye shall reign and we will be content provided we may reign with you And who knows forsooth if such a bargain could be made whether they would not upon those terms leave Charls Stuart to commence his Reign Ad Graecas Calendas or Latter-Lammas But they have more wit than to believe such a bargain possible therefore not being able to get into the House their best way is to say it is no Parliament and upon that account keep up a faction to bring in Charls and try whether they can reign with him by perswading the Nation they are undone and neither have nor can have any Government without him Thus far I have argued this business Argumento ad hominem that is to say in a way of Argumentation good against Mr. William Prynne and the men of his party quatenus Prynne and that party so that they above all other men ought to hold their tongues But because it is necessary that both they and the Cavalier Objectors should be confuted and that others should be satisfied and likewise that the mindes of friends should be confirmed and all mens scruples be removed touching the legality and equity of this Parliaments sitting I shall now descend to handle the question Argumento ad Rem that is to say by an Argument to the purpose making good the thing it self as it now stands against the world of Malecontents of what party soever they be and this I will do not by such principles as may be said to be onely our own but from such as are owned by some of those of the Presbyterian party who appear opposite to the Parliament and by others also Royalists of high reputation and judgment in the world This leads me to make Reply unto what our Author further saith viz. That not onely many of the Members of this Parliament are secluded but they were first dissolved by reason of the death of the King that called them so that legally they could sit no longer and at last by the late Protector Which dissolution was acknowledged by as many Members against themselves as sat in intermediate Parliaments Here you see the utmost that the Cavaliers and which Mr. Prynne and the other Malecontents do or can say against this Parliaments sitting For Answer whereunto give me leave to lay down these Prolegomena or Previous Positions which are not points of my own invention but as well founded upon the judgment of the learned as agreeable to my own which perhaps is but weak 1. The first Position is drawn from Mr. Baxters own words in his late Book entituled A holy Commonwealth and I suppose whatever he saith his Brethren will approve He to justifie himself for his finding with the Parliaments Arms against those of the King declareth That the King by the constitution of the Kingdom had the Title of Soveraign but not so as that the Soveraign Power was wholly in him for that according to the constitution was divided betwixt him and the Parliament and so p. 46. he sheweth how that in this Kingdom the Title of Soveraign given to the King was Honorary and ought not to be interpreted contrary to the constitution of the Kingdom which allowed him but a part onely of the Soveraignty So that though the persons representing the people in Parliament were being taken in their personal condition each of them but Subjects yet in respect to the publick constitution of the Kingdom they revera had one part of that Soveraign Power of Parliament as the King had another part and could really claim no more but his part in the Acts of Supremacy For proof of this Mr. Baxter in Page 463 464 465 466. citeth the Kings own Answer to the Nineteen Propositions and from thence inferre that large his Royal acknowledgment of the truth of this assertion therefore I suppose neither the Cavaliers will contradict this seeing the King acknowledged it nor the Presbyterians because not onely Mr. Baxter writes this but because also they all engaged in the War upon this principle for the Parliament against the King and questionless a righteous principle of engagement it was 2. This leads me to a second Position viz. That in a Kingdom where the Soveraignty is so divided if the King shall grow insolent and by Arms seek to invade that part of the Soveraignty which belongs to the people in Parliament he may by arms be lawfully opposed For proof of this Mr. Baxter because he would now be courteous with the Cavaliers and win them citeth the judgments of two the most learned Royalists that this later Age hath produced viz. Barclay and Grotius which citations being large I for brevities sake omit them onely one out of Grotius give me leave to repeat in English because it hath the full sence of the rest It is this If the Authority be divided betwixt a King and the People in Parliament so that the King hath one part of is the people another the King offering to encroach upon that part which is none of his may lawfully be opposed by Arms because be exceeds the bounds of his Authority And not only so but he may lose his own part likemise by the Law of Arms. 3. The third Position is That a King carrying on a War upon such terms against the people to the death and destruction of his people while they are contending for their right remaine no longer a King having dissolved the constitution of the Kingdom but hath lost his Kingdom and becoms an enemy and a private person For proof of this against the Cavaliers Barclay the great Champion of

you could forget their implacable temper yet for these things they will never forget you Secondly Take heed of Promises all ye that have ever been engaged against that Family and Party Is it not strange to hear that some who have been so active against him openly should now engage for him under a disgaise What security can they have therein for themselves or the Nation Oh but our Author tells us young Charles is a good man in all respects and as to his honesty no malice hath the impudence to blast it Though we could say somewhat to one Part of his honesty yet we wave it but in the other part of honesty which concerneth oaths and promises we might say he hath blasted himself but that he ought not to seem over-serious about them lest while he pretends to a Crown he should lose his credit with the Politicians that would think him unfit to be a KING But they need not doubt him he hath made proof enough of himself in that particular having most Royally given evidence that to trust him is the right way to true Repentance If ye look into my Third Section ye may there see how like a KING he carryed himself in the Trust given him by the Presbyterians when they made him a White Boy in Scotland by cloathing him with the Covenant and a Coronation-oath and Royal Robes all together Thirdly consider that as you have had the Honour hitherto to stand firm to the Nations true interest in opposition to that Family so while they pretend here in print to court you their great business is at the same time to make you jealous of the Parliament the Parliament of you and at once to exasperate all parties of men against you that being diffident of each other and discontented ye may not be in a condition vigorously to unite your Counsels and Forces against the design which they have now in hand for the ruine of all Make much then of this Parliament they are the founders of the Nations Interest upon a better Basis of Freedome than our Ancestors could ever hope for and questionless they must needs be most concerned and fittest to finish the Building seeing it is their own Interest as well as the Publick and they have most experience in the work Charles Stuart is for the giving of our wise men and our interested men a Rotation as quick as may be Therefore certainly it is your interest to stand by the Parliament with your ancient courage and affection beat down the enemies before you and so when you have gained Victory ye will be in the ready way of getting your Arrears out of the Purses of your Adversaries which will be the greatest comfort to your selves and an ease to the People more words might be used but you see where your Interest doth lye and if you follow it strenuously it cannot lie it will not deceive you whereas if you swerve but from a tittle of it your enemies will soon slip into one Advantage or other to bring trouble and desolation upon the Land ruine upon your selves and all your Friends SECT VII Of the Parliament THe Parliament being the Butt at which the Adversaries shoot all their bitter Arrows of reproach and envy it will be necessary to be particular in curing the Wounds which have of late been given to their Reputation because their Being is the grand Bulwark of our security But in the first place to sandalize them our Author saith It is the design of the Parliament to continue themselves in absolute Power by the specious name of a Popular Government and finally to set up an Oligarchy By this you see 1. That which the enemy principally fears is lest this Parliament should continue over-long could they but be rid of this Parliament they presume they should do well enough afterwards either with or without another and therefore their Work is if they knew how to precipitate the ending of it But to confute the folly of this Scandal t is known they have by a special Vote already fixt a time short enough indeed considering the greatness of their work and the opposition like to be against them beyond which they intend not to sit 2. As to the other Point of erecting an Oligarchy or Government by some few Persons this is as great a scandal as the other and it were to be wished that the over-busie talk and Prints of some of our own had not given too much occasion for opening the mouth of the Enemy touching that particular But how should there be any ground for suspition about an Oligarchy seeing no such thing can be as by many reasons might be proved where a supreme Legislative Power is intended to be fixed in an orderly succession of Parliaments managed by elections rightly qualified and bounded for which with all convenient speed a course will be taken by this Parlament Secondly our Author endeavours to make this no free Parlament by reason that a great part of its Members remain Secluded This Argument hath been handled likewise with great fury by Mr. Pryn and now the present Malecontents in Arms make use of it to countenance their Rebellion and require that either the Secluded Members may be admitted to sit again in this Parliament or that a New one may be called So that you see they and our Cavalier Author do meet in one Point For Answer to this I wish Mr Pryn and the other dissatisfied Gentlemen would take heed of this way of arguing for by it he may chance to condemn himself and all others of his own judgment for their acting along with the Parliament first ●fter the King went away f●om Westminster and then after part of the Members of both Honses withdrew and sate as a Parliament at Oxford seeing thereby he will justifie the King in what he declared at that time against the Parliament viz. That it was no free Parliament and so that nothing they should do in the absence of himself and those Membe●s could be counted valid of Parliamentary because they had in countenancing tumults driven him and their Follow members away by force and so gained the Major Vote of the remaining part of the Parliament Nevertherless when the remaining part sate and continued to Act the Parliamentary partie made no scruple to Act with them and Mr Prynne among the rest as highly as any as also did all those of the Presbyterian Judgment who though the Parliament wanted the legal for malitie of the Kings presence and so great a part of its Members who Printed in several Declarations That a force was upon them yet rather than the publick Cause should fall to the ground they by Sermons Purses and all other ways seconded that remaining part of the Parliament in their actings acknowledging them a free Parliament to all intents and purposes as if every Member had been present But you will object and say The Case of this House now sitting is different from that House who then

common enemy It is brutish therefore to clamor and cry out that the Laws of the Land are not maintained when as onely the Law of that form of Government is abolished together with the Prerogative of the King Priviledge of Peers and the like which were but the excrescencies of Arbitrary power which had in a great measure over-grown not onely the Laws Municipal concerning our Rights Liberties and Properties but exceeded also by usurpation the bounds of that very Law of the Kingdoms Constitution upon which King and Peers themselves had a standing and were to stand To sum up all in a word the people have or if they would be pleased to settle may and will more sensibly have their old Laws to be governed by onely all the harm done is That for the former Constitution or Form of Government they have in their reach and partly in possession a better viz. A Fundamental Constitutional Law of Freedom lawfully purchased by this Parliament and by them ready to be settled unto us and our Children after us There remain two Objections more used by our Author and Mr. Prynne and other Malecontents First That this Parliament was actually dissolved by the Protector No such matter Vltra Pesse non est Esse he had no power to do it therefore it could not be done by him But you will say We saw he had power that actually enabled him to effect the dissolution To this I Answer A Dissolution it could not be but as now it is called it is rightly termed onely An Interruption of its sitting for in matter of power by Law the Lawyers know well enough it is a sure Maxim Id solum p●ssum quod jure possum i. e. That a man can do nothing that is valid but onely what he doth according to Law Now then if the Protectors Act of turning out the Parliament were a valid Dissolution it must have been so by some Law and that Law must be either some Law of the Nation that enabled him to do it or else it must be the Law of War As to the former it is evident he had no Law of the Nation to justifie the Action and so if any Law it is that of War which must make it good Now that he could not do it by the Law of War is evident likewise because his Military capacity was derived from the Parliament they who had the whole Right of War in themselves having given him his Commission to Militate for them that is to say for the people represented by them and so he could not properly or lawfully Militate or use a Right of War against them who had no lawful power but what he derived from them whereby it being evident he could make no Legal Dissolution of them Ergo By Law notwithstanding him the Parliament remains in being and the Soldiery having withdrawn the force that was over it it followeth without straining That having never been lawfully dissolved they remain legally the same Parliament they were before Secondly But there is a further Objection yet to be dispatched which is That many of the Members of this House having sat intermediate Parliaments called by the Protector have thereby acknowledged this House was dissolved by him 1. The Answer to this is naturally consecutive to the former viz. that seeing the Parliament was still in Being being only suspended for a time from the exercise of the supreme power then all that was done in pursuance thereupon in reference to the exercise of supremacie must in Law be void and null and the intervening space of time be reputed as a great Chasma a praeternatural vacuity or dead Interval wherein all the Acts of snpremacie and matters relatiug thereto that were used became legally defunct as soon as they were done coming into the world still-born and so those Intervening Assemblies of the people not having had the legal Force and vertue of Parliaments they are now properly called Conventions for distinction sake Besides as they were nothing in Law of themselves being creatures of another extraction so he who created them by his own Power presently uncreated them to their first nothing because as he was a man of high courage and great spirit he could not endure to see the work of his own hands rise up and dispute as he conceived against him 2. As to the sitting of some Members of the present Parliament in those intermediate Conventions They did it not as owning them for legal Parliaments but sat only in respect to the Interest of the people who Originally and Fundamentally alwaies had and have a Right to meet to consult for common Good and if being under a Force they be hindred that they cannot doe it as they ought and as they would yet it alwaies concerns them to doe it as they can and as they find Opportunity upon this Account some of the Members did sit in those Conventions with intent to have made use of those Opportunities God did put into their hands for the Publick yet without any further respect to the Power assumed to call them than a mere appearance For in the first Convention they presently fell to claiming their Right in the behalf of the people and so they did in all the following Conventions for which cause seclusions were used against them But some will say if they did not own the Power and those to be Parliaments why did they complain so much of their being then secluded as an Infringement of the Peoples Right in Parliament The Answer of this is reer of kind to the former their Complaint concerning breach of priviledg was not grounded upon supposition of any Right or priviledge of sitting derived unto them from the Protectors writ of summons for they were alwaies so farr from acknowledging him that they kept on foot a Continuall Claim and thereupon opposed him to the utmost of their Power but their Complaint of violation was grounded only upon that general Right inherent in the people which is if they cannot meet in a regular way then as I said before to doe it as they can and as they find opportunity for asserting their own Rights and so upon this Account it is that being forced away from the meeting they might well complaine that complaining must be construed to be an effect of the sence they had of the injury done to that general Right of the Peoples meeting rather than a sign of any acknowledgment of the Protectors power or of those Meetings to be Parliaments Lastly What if some Members of the present Parliament had acknowledged or did acknowledge the power summoning them to meet and those meetings to be Parliaments yet that could be no prejudice to the whole Body of this Parliament now sitting because a Body of Men remaining all in equal power and right cannot be concluded by particular Acts done by some of their own number without consent of the rest yea if all of them at once had sat in any one of those

Meetings yet sitting there but as an integral part of a Meeting and not as a distinct Assembly nor as the same entire House of Parliament that they were before their Interruption therefore nothing of this nature which they or any of them have done in other Conventions since their Interruption can be said to be an Act done in their Free-State Parliamentary capacity because that belongs onely to their whole House and so the sitting and acting of some part of them cannot be interpreted Tantamount to a voluntary Dissolution of this their Supream Assembly This being done I might now fall upon the Adversaries other Objections from the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacie and the Covenant and by Inferences drawn from their own principles here cited in this Section confute all their pretences grounded upon those Oaths c. But because I have been already very much larger then at first I intended let this one general Inference serve the turn viz. That the Constitution of the Kingdom being extinct through the Kings own default in relation to which only as Mr. Baxter saith at the latter end of the same Book we were by our several Obligations concerned to have respect to him while he kept within his Bounds and a new Constitution of Government being now lawfully introduced as hath been proved then as may be collected out of the Royal Doctor Sanderson's Book De Juramento the Alteration being carried to such a height that neither the same person nor things are in being which I sware to maintain the former Oaths are at an end and the Obligation ceaseth And that this may be confirmed by one Witness more take in Grotius also who lib. 2 de Jur. bell cap. 13. saith An oath binds no longer if the quality or condition of him to whom I sware be altered As for example if he that was a Magistrate cease to be a Magistrate as he must needs do say I who layeth claim to an old form of Government after it and his own pretension is lawfully extinguished and another lawfully introduced in its place which is the thing already sufficiently proved by the preceding parts of this Section and so all former Obligations to the late King and his Heirs become upon that account utterly void SECT VIII Of the City of London LOndon the Metropolis and Imperial Chamber of England she hath always been zealous and famous for the maintenance of Religion and Liberty and if we look but twenty years backward and consider what vast sums of money she hath disbursed upon that account how liberal she hath been of her own Blood in marching forth and what bodies of men she hath sent abroad how diligent and active how resolute and constant she hath stood in asserting the Cause Parliamentary through various revolutions to this present season against the late King and his party and how victorious by Gods own arm of Salvation she hath been on the behalf of the Commonwealth I may without flattery say the Records of no City this day in Europe can in so short a time shew more Triumphs of Honor or greater Trophies of Renown than she and all these won from that Malignant and implacable party who whatever they may pretend both head and tail of them do for these things most perfectly remember you and look not on this or that party of men among you but eye and hate your City quatenus London London that first beat them out of their Estates and then took them into their own hands either upon Morgage-money lent or upon Purchase-money paid to enable them to pay their Compositions to the State London that began the War as the King said and threatned them for it in his Declarations but though in this I am able to acquit them yet the Cavaliers in reverence to their old Master will believe no body but him They could not be so often tipling from time to time in your City but you must needs have heard when the Wine was in all these things with Curses to boot belched out concerning you Which being so take heed least fits of the Spleen transport any part of you beyond your selves to give an ear to them that with fair words working upon discontent do seek to ensnare you Can London City think to thrive while his Son shall fit upon the Throne whose Father over and over declared it to be the beginner of the War Look into his Papers and Declarations in the Book of Collections how he chargeth your City all along to be the place from whence the tumults sprang which he saith forced him to go away from Whitehal because while he was there he was in Danger of his Life if we way beleeve him and that out of the City the Five Members were guarded with Multitudes of armed men and Ammunition in a hostile and warlike manner to Westminster And how that near a hundred Lighters and long Boats were set out by water laden with Sacres Murdering-pieces and other Ammunition dressed up with M●stclothes and Streamers as ready for Fight and saith the Declaration they by water passed by our Windows as Whitehal and scornfully asked what was become of Vs to wit the King and whether we were gone Also in another Declaration he sets forth how the City and their Lord Mayor sent forth their Myrmidons to assault and terrifie the Members of both Houses whose Opinions they liked not In another Declaraion he proclaimeth that such of his Subjects as were dutiful and faithful to him and labored for Peace were reviled injured and murthered even by the Magistrates of THAT CITY or by their directions In other Declarations he said to this effect that if they repented not then they ought to look for no Favor therein intimating that a Revenge was due from him unto the City if they proceeded any further Page 72. of that Book he signifieth that the pride and power of the city was the means made use of to undo the Kingdom And in his Letter to the City of London dated from York he tells them that if they did not then complie with him he was resolved to proceed when he should be able against the several Companies of the City as opposers of his Authority in the must exemplary way AND QVESTION THE CHARTER OF THE CITY If these things were threatned when the Curst Cow had short Horns what then may ye expect from his Son and that party if they through the folly of any of you should gaine power into their hands Secondly If not for your own sakes yet for Religions sake take heed what ye do Ye have been I know a Religious zealous people and upon that account ye were hated in the days of the Court take heed that none of you be blinded by mistaken Zeal as well as passion to run upon your own ruine read over the First Second and Third Sections once again and look before you leap seeing your Religion stands upon a precipice as well as your selves if the yong