Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	army_n	city_n	london_n	3,465	5	7.2357	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61161	Observations on Monsieur de Sorbier's Voyage into England written to Dr. Wren, professor of astronomy in Oxford / by Thomas Sprat ...	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.; Wren, Christopher, Sir, 1632-1723.	1665 (1665)	Wing S5035; ESTC R348	49,808	304

the French Nation where he was before so well known and where he liv'd long in so much honour He has presum'd on the King himself he sawcily conjectures at the reasons of the choice of his Ministers as if he had been admitted into his Royal Breast as well as his Cabinet He says that His Majesty is forc'd to be familiar with his Nobility and Gentry to keep their esteem and good will and so he endeavours to bring down those Vertues of which he himself receiv'd so many proofs to be only works of necessity But seeing he confesses this generous affability to be able to hinder the Kings Subjects from rebellion methinks it might have prevail'd on a mean stranger to ●pare the Reputation of his Kingdomes He insinuates that the true Sovereign Power amongst us resides in the People Which is a Doctrine that was scarce ever heard of in England till the year Forty eight and vanish'd in Sixty He affirms that there is a mixture of all sorts of Government in the composition of our State notwithstanding that we have so many Acts of Parliament that devolve the whole power on the Crown His long discourse of the Privileges of the House of Commons and the degrees of their increase is nothing but a wild Whimsy of his owne Brain There is no mention in any English Historian that Edward the first was the King that first call●d Knights and Burgesses to sit in Parliament or that when they were so conven'd he only us'd their Counsel and rejected those of the Nobility and Gentry And yet upon these imaginary faults of which he supposes Edward the first Guilty he here takes him into his discipline reads to him a tedious Lecture of the Arts of Government and treats the Wisest and most Victorious Prince of Christendom in that time as imperiously as if he had been a Cadet of the House of Suze But I am weary Sir of taking notice of such errors which are only mistakes in History or Chronology At least I need not go three hundred years back for them seeing he is so much besides the Truth in his account of the most Renown'd action in this Age the Kings Return Which he wholly attributes to the Presbyterians All the circumstances of that glorious Restauration are still Sir fresh in our memories the very noy●e of those Triumphs which fill'd the whole World with admiration seems to be yet ●carce out of our Ears And shall we suffer him to fix all the honour of that Immortal Work on a private Sect Whereas it was accompli●h'd by the immediate favour of divine Providence by the Wisedom of a Victorious General by the perpetual and immoveable Fidelity of the Royal Party by the Hands the Wishes the Tongues and the united Desires of three Kingdoms 'T is true indeed the Presbyterians went along with the mighty Torrent But the whole course of this happy Violence is not therefore to be attributed to them You see Sir I am unawares fallen into a Metaphor which does best resemble that Enterprize It was in that as in a sudden Land-Flood which as it comes down carries with it Trees and Stones and Houses and all that it meets in the way And even all these which lay before quiet nay which resisted the first Waters while they were weak do add to the impetuosity of the Current when it is going But we must not therefore say that the Flood it self took its rise from thence seeing it was in truth caus'd by Rain coming down from Heaven and by Streams flowing in from every part of the Country This allusion Sir I think does represent the whole matter to your mind If it does not however I have return'd Monseeur de Sorbiere an ill Similitude for one of his where he compares the Protestants to the Ottoman Empire which is so much an Intrigue of the Muses that I will challenge all the Witts of England and France to interpret it But if the Covenanters shall still be fond of this praise which he here allows them let them remember of how little value his Panegyricks are seeing he calls Vsefelt a Heroe and if they will still maintain that they restor'd the King let them take heed lest some mischievous Royallist should tell them that in one sence they did indeed occasion the Kings Restoration But in the same that Quintus Maximus meant after he had recover'd Tarentum who gave this answer to another Roman that had lost that place before and yet boafted what share he had in regaining it 'T is true says he it was by your means indeed Nam nisi tu perdidisses Tarentum ego nunquam recuperassem But the chief Secret into which he has pierc'd is the late Controversie between my Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Bristol What subtle conclusions does he draw from it what prophetical visions does he here reveal concerning the terrible disturbances that shall arise to our Government many ages hence from an accident which was at an end before he got back to Paris What a formal division has he made of the whole Nation Homer himself is not so punctual in marshalling the forces of the Greeks and the Trojans nor is there lesse fiction in this History then in his Poetry On the Earl of Bristols quarter he places the discontented against the Court the City of London the Presbyterians that brought in the King the House of Lords a great and a strong party of the House of Commons which he says is the true Body of that extravagant Body the Parliament An Army numerous and formidable On the Lord Chancellors side he ranks the Royal Family the Bishops Dea●s and Chapters all the Nobility all the Rich Merchants and Burgesses though he had before bestow'd the House of Lords and the City of London on the Earl of Bristol Thus he has drawn the whole Kingdome into Battalia It is but now performing his office of Trumpeter and a dreadfull Battle will no doubt ensue But how comes it to pass that all these Rumors of mighty warrs did vanish on the sudden Was it because they were English Cowards and dar'd not fight Alas Sir all this was only a fine story of incounters in the Air whereof there was no other foundation then in the wild fancies of his own making And may we not give that Character of our Historian which he does of one of the Noble Combatants that his great Wit has inclin'd him to be Romantick Is not this the true trick of a Romancer to bring in many Princes fighting together in a wood without giving any account how they came thither But the danger is over All is quiet again and long may it so keep For to speak t'yee Sir from the bottome of Monsieur de Sorbier's heart Peace is better then Warr. Well then He grants that the Victory did a little incline to my Lord Chancellor's Party yet he has shewn the bravery of his