Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	house_n	king_n	officer_n	2,496	5	7.4181	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75396	An answer by an anabaptist to the three considerations proposed to Mr William Penn by a pretended Baptist concerning a Magna Charta for liberty of conscience. Allowed to be published this 10th day of September, 1688.		1688 (1688)	Wing A3275; ESTC R230112	11,228	14

respecting the Soveraigns Prerogative as the Right of the Subject not written in Acts of Parliament but in their Nature so invariable That as our Lawyers tell us Acts of Parliament made against them are void in themselves And if this Opinion be true these Fundamental Maximes of Law whether in Spirituals or Temporals tho they may be for a season by a particular Act of Parliament interrupted they are not thereby vacated but still retained and will at one time or other again discover their Vigor Acts not contradictory to these Fundamental Laws may be useful for a season but not having that innate Stability as Fundamental Maximes have may afterwards become useless improper and grievous to be put in Execution hence those common distinctions between Malum in se malum prohibitum And subseqent thereto in many cases a power or no power of Dispensing That which is unlawful in it self to be done as Murther Theft Trespass and the like cannot be made lawful by any Law or Dispensation whatsoever That which is lawful in it self but becomes unlawful because prohibited by a particular Statute may be Dispensed with so as no particular Person be Damnified by that Dispensation and not otherwise Among the many Vicissitudes of Succession to the Crown between the two Houses of York and Laneaster Do you think there were no Laws in being made in the Raign of a King of one of these Branches in Fact dispens'd with by his Successor of the other Branch till they came to be Repealed in Parliament Were the Oathes of Fidelity and Obedience made to the Line Interrupted required to be taken by all Judges Justices Sheriffs and other Officers Commissionated by the other Line which succeeded until they were Repealed in Parliament In the various changes of the National Religion between the Reigns of King Henry the the Eighth and Queen Elizabeth were all Penalties imposed by Laws respecting Religion exacted without any Relax or Suspension till those Laws were Abrogated in Parliament In the first Year of King Henry the Fourth a whole Parliament held in the Twenty first of Richard the Second was Repealed In one of which Laws then made divers Pains of Treason were ordained whereby as the Act of Repeal says No Man did know how he ought to behave himself to Do Speak or Say for doubt of such Pain and if that Law had been Religiously observed till the moment of its Repeal It could never have been repealed In the Second Year of Richard the Third a Statute made in the First of the said King was Dispensed with by Proclamation Vaughans Rep. pag. 353. Now I would gladly hear what cause my pretended Brother Baptist has to Quarrel at his present Majesties gracious Dispensing with Laws inflicting Temporal Penalties for Ecclesiastical Matters and rendring them useless for the present in that respect only till they can be Repealed in Parliament And wherein the exercise of this Dispensing Power has exceeded what has been in Fact done by his Royal Predecessors and admitted may be lawfully done by our greatest Lawyers But to proceed Shall your New Charter have a Penalty inserted to be inflicted on the Infringers or Breakers of it or no If not What will your New Charter signifie Not three skips of a Lowse And if it hath a Penalty Cannot any King by his Prerogative and Authority Royal Dispence with the Penalty And what will it signifie then This pretended Baptist's Resolution of the first of these Questions is as Weak as it is Idle and both that and the others may receive a satisfactory Answer Such a New Charta as is desired if no Penalty be annex'd may be very significant in many respects 1 It may be materially good and obliging to Obedience by its innate Vertue on pain of Condemnation by the Divine Law and in that respect of greater signification and much more desirable then such Laws as are materially Bad and cannot be obeyed without Breach of the Law of God. 2 This New Charter may without annexing any Penalties Repeal all those Penalties by which Persons are compelled to perform Acts of Divine Worship contrary to their Understanding Faith and a Good Conscience and put it out of the Power of any Dispensation to revive those Laws or to impose Penalties of the like kind 3 Such a New Law may without any Penalties by its simple Declarations put an issue to that which is now unreasonably made the ground of all our Contests and confirm to us all those Laws by which our Liberties and Properties are preserved But presuming it may also have Penalties inserted to be inflicted on the Infringers or Breakers of it These may be so qualified as not to be Dispensed with if under the colour thereof evil minded Men do not practice upon the Soveraign Power For in such a case if the Soveraign Power cannot Dispence with the Penalty of a Statute Law it may be divested of such means as are necessary for its own Preservation but in any ordinary case if any Person or Body Corporate receive particular Damage by the breach of such a New Law He or They may if the Legislators please be Intitled to a particular Action by the same Law and recover Damages against the Breakers of it Vaughans Rep. pag. 334 342. at the Kings Suit by Indictment or Presentment or by a Special Action with which the King cannot Dispence The Instance you give to put us out of Doubt in Mr Langhornes Words touching the Kings Right in Dispensing with Penal Laws I shall not Repeat but only observe That the Opinion you cite however you may do it in scorn carries such an Evidence in it for a Dispensing Power not in ordinary Cases as that Author has well observed but upon extraordinary Occasions when the King in his Wisdom shall find it necessary as calls for more Cunning then I yet perceive in you to raise any material Objection against it Qu. Now where is the assurance then of Mr Penn's New Charter Ans Our Assurance will lie not only in the Authority of the Legislators equal to any other Law but also in the Authority of the Matter which will command an Assent in every Mans Conscience assoon as he reads it Not to do that to another which he would not have done to himself Our Assurance will be in our Love and Affection One towards Another as Neighbours concern'd to promote the common Interest of the Realm In the Watchfulness of all Parties against any one particular Faction if any such should rise up and attempt to inthrall the Consciences of all the rest in our thankful and dutiful Behaviour towards our Soveraign for breaking off those intolerable Yoaks we could not bear and setting us upon such a lasting Foundation both for our Civil and Religious Liberties as with a discreet Care and Management of them may remain firm to Perpetuity Qu. But who can tell what King we may have after our present Soveraign whether so mercifull or so just