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
A89005	Ochlo-machia. Or The peoples war, examined according to the principles of Scripture & reason, in two of the most plausible pretences of it. In answer to a letter sent by a person of quality, who desired satisfaction. By Jasper Mayne, D.D. one of the students of Ch. Ch. Oxon.	Mayne, Jasper, 1604-1672.	1647 (1647)	Wing M1472; Thomason E398_19; ESTC R201695	27,844	40

fault of the power but of the Persons whose power 't is it makes much more for the Peace of the publique that one or Few should in some things be allowed to be unjust then that they should be liable to be Questioned by an Ill. Judgeing-Multitude in All. The third thing which you may please to observe from that peece of Scripture is The Creation of Magistrates or Governours who are there said to be sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By Him Where a Moderne Writer applyes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or By Him to God As if all other Governours were sent by Him not by the King Which Interpretation of the place I would admit for currant if by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Governours so sent he did understand the Rulers in an Aristocracie or Free-state which being a Species of Government Contradistinct to Monarchy cannot be denyed to have God as well as the other for it a Founder But then the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the peculiar Epithet of Monarchy will beare another sence then I have hitherto given it And will not only signifie the King to be Supream for so the Rulers of a Free State are within their owne Territories but compared with other Formes of Supremacy to be the most excellent Monarchy being in it selfe least subject to Disunion or civill Disturbance And for that Reason pronounced by the wisest Stateists to be that Forme of Government into which all other incline naturally to resolve themselves for their perfection But by Governours in that place understanding as he doth not the Senate in a Free-state but the Subordinate Magistrates under a Prince the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most certainly belongs to the King To whom the Apostle there assignes the Mission of Governours as one of the Essentiall Markes and Notes that He is in His owne Realm Supream And thus Sir having drawne the portraiture of Regall Power to you by the best Light in the world but with the meanest Pencill I know you expect that in the next place I should shew you what Rayes or Beames of this power are Jnherent in our King Which being a taske fitter for one of our greatest Sages of the Law then for me who being One who doe not pretend to any exact knowledg in the Fundamentall Lawes or Customes of this Kingdome which are to stand the Land-marks and markes of partition between the Kings Prerogative and the Liberty of the Subject may perhaps be thought by drawing a line or eircle about either to limne Figures in the Dust whose fate hangs on the Mercy of the next Winde that blowes the steps by which I will proceed leaving you to the late writings of that most learned and honest Judge Ienkins for your fuller satisfaction in this point shall be breifly these two First I will shew you what are the Genuine markes and properties of Supream power Next how many of them have been challenged by the King and have not hitherto been denyed Him by any Publique Declaration of the Parliament Sir if you have read Aristotles Politicks as I presume you have you may please to remember that he * there divides the Supream Powere of a State Lib. 4. c. 4. into three generall parts The Ordering of Things for the publique the Creation of Magistrates and the Finall resolution of Judgment upon Appeales To which he afterwards addes the power of Levying Warre or concluding of Peace of making or breaking Leagues with forraigne Nations of enacting or abrogating Lawes of Pardoning or Punishing Offenders with Banishment Confiscation Imprisonment or Death To which Dyonisius Halicarnassensis addes the power to call or dissolve Comitia or publique Assemblies As well Synods and Councells in Deliberations concerning Religion as Parliaments or Senates in Deliberations secular concerning the State To all which markes of Supreame power a * Moderne Lawyer who only wants their Age to be of as great Authority as either addes the power to exact Tribute Gret lib. 1. c. 3. de Jure Belli pacis and to presse Souldiers It the exercise of which two Acts consists that Dominium Eminens or Dominion Rara mount which the State when ever it stands in need And that too to be the Judge of its owne Necessity hath not only over the Fortunes but the Persons of the Subject In a measure so much greater then they have over themselves as the publique poole is to be preferr'd before the private Cisterne Now Sir if you please to apply this to the King though good Lawyers will tell you that the power of making or repealing Laws be not solely in Him but that the two Houses have a concurrent right in their production and Abolishment yet they will tell you too that His power extends thus farre that no Law can be made or repealed without Him Since for either or both Houses to produce a Statute Law by themselves hath alwaies in this State been thought a Birth as Monstrous as if a Child should be begotten by a Mother upon her selfe They usually are the Matrice and Womb where Lawes receive their first Impregnation and are shap't and formed for the publique But besides the opinion of all present Lawyers of this Kingdome who like that great * Judg Ienkins example of Loyalty dare speak their knowledge it hath alwaies been acknowledged by the Law made 2. H. 5. By the sentence of Refusall Le Roy S' Avisera and indeed by all Parliaments of former Ages That the King is thus farre Pater Patria that these Lawes are but abortive unlesse his Consent passe upon them A Negative power He hath then though not an out right Legislative And if it be here objected by your Friend that the two Houses severally have so too I shall perhaps grant it if in this particular they will be modest and content to go sharers in this Power And no longer challenge to their Ordinances the legality force of Acts of Parliament As for the other parts of Royalty which I reckoned up to you As the Creation of Officers and Counsellours of State of Iudges for Law and Commanders for Warre the Ordering of the Militia by Sea and Land The Benefit of Confiscations and Escheats where Families want an Heyre The power to absolve and pardon where the Law hath Condemned The power to call and disolve Parliaments As also the Receipt of Custome and Tribute with many other particulars which you are able to suggest to your selfe They have alwaies been held to be such undoubted Flowers of this Crowne that every one of them like his Coyne which you know Sir is by the Law of this Land Treason to counterfeit which is an other mark of Royalty hath in all Ages but Ours worne the Kings Image and superscription upon it Not to be invaded by any without the crime of Rebellion And though as your Friend saies this be but a regulated power and rise no higher in the just exercise of these Acts then a Trust committed by

the Lawes of this Kingdome for the Governement of it to the King for I never yet perceived by any of His Declarations That His Majesty claimed these as due to Him by Right of Conquest or any other of those Absolute and Vnlimited waies which might tender His Crowne Patrimoniall to Him or such an out-right Allodium that He mi ht Alienate it or chuse His Successour or Rule as He pleased Himselfe yet as in the making of these Lawes He holds the first place so none of these Rights which he derives from them can without His own Consent be taken from Him For proofe hereof I will only instance in three particulars to you for I must remember that I am now writing a Letter to you not penning a Treatise which will carry the greater force of perswasion because confest by this Parliament The first was an Act presented to the King for the setling of the Militia for a limited time in such Hands as they might confide in A clear Argument that without such an Act past by the King the two Houses had nothing to do with the Ordering of it Another was one of the Nineteen Propofitions where t was desired that the Nomination of all Officers and Counsellours of State might for the future go by the Maior part of Voyces of both Houses Another Argument That the King hath hitherto in all such Nominations been the only Fountaine of Honour The third was the passing of the Act for the Continuation of this Parliament Another Argument that nothing but the Kings consent could ever have made it thus Perpetuall as it is Many other Instances might be given but foundoubtedly acknowledged by Bracton By Him that wrote the Book call'd The Prerogative of Parliaments who is thought to be Sir Walter Raleigh By Sir Edward Cooke by the stiles and Formes of all the Acts of Parliament which have been made in this Kingdom and by that learned * Sir Iohn Banks Iudge who wrote the Examination of such particulars in the Solemne League and Covenant as concerne the Law And who in a continued Line of Quotation and Proofe derives along these and the other parts of Supreme power in the King from Edward the Confessour to our present Soveraigne King Charles that to prove them to you were to adde beames to the Sunne Here then For the better stating of the Third thing I pro osed to you which was That granting the King to be Supreme in this Kingdome at least so farre as I have described him how farre He is to be Obeyed and not resisted Two things will fall under Inquiry First supposing the King not to have kept Himselfe to that Circle of power which the Lawes have drawn about Him but desirous to walke in a more Absolute compasse That He hath in somethings invaded the Liberty of his People whither such an Jncroachment can justifie their Armes Next If it be proved that He hath kept within his Life and only made the Law the Rule of His Governement whether a bare Fear or Iealousie That when ever he should be able He would change this Rule which is the most that can be pretended could be a Just cause for an Anticipating Warre The Decision of the first of these Inquiries will depend wholly upon the Tenure by which he holds His Crowne If it were puerly Elective or were at first set upon His Head by the Suffrages of the people And if in that Election His power had been limited Or if by way of paction it had been said Thus farre the King shall be Supreme thus farre the people shall be Free If there had been certaine Expresse conditions assigned Him with his Scepter that if he transgrest not his limites He should be Obeyed if He did it should be lawfull for the people to resist Him Lastly if to hinder such Exorbitances there had been certaine Ephori or Inspectours or a Co-ordinate Senate placed as Mounds and Cliffes about Him with warrant from the Electours that when ever he should attempt to overflow his Bankes it should be their part to reinforce Him back into his Channell I must confesse to you being no better then a Duke of Venice or a King of Sparta In truth no King but a more splendid Subject I think such a Resistance might be Lawfull Since such a Conveyance of Empire being but a conditionall contract as in all other Elections the chusers may reserve to themselves or give away so much of their Liberty as they please And where the part reserved is invaded 'T is no Rebellion to defend But where the Crowne is not Elective but hath so Hereditarily descended in an ancient line of succession from King to King that to finde out the Originall of it would be a taske as difficult as to find out the Head of Nilus where the Tenure is not conditionall nor hangs upon any contract made at first with the people nor is such a reciprocall Creature of their Breath as to be blowne from them and recalled like the fleeting Ayre they draw as often as they shall say it returnes to them worse then as first they sent it forth In short Sir Where the only Obligation or Tye upon the Prince is the Oath which He takes at his Ceronation to rule according to the knowne Lawes of the place Though every Breach of such an Oath be an Offence against God to whom alone a Prince thus independent is accountable for his Actions yet 't will never passe for more then perjury in the Prince No Warrant for Subiects to take up Armes against Him Here then Sir should I suppose the worst that can be supposed that there was a time when the King misled as your Friend sayes by Evill Counsellours did actually trample upon the Lawes of the Kingdome and the Liberty of his Subiects derived to them by those Lawes yet unlesse some Originall compact can be produced where 't is agreed That upon every such Incroachment it shall be lawfull for them to stand upon their Defence unlesse some Fundamentall Contract can be shewen where 't is clearely said that where the King ceaseth to governe according to Law He shall for such misgovernment cease to be King To urge as your Friend doth such vnfortunate precedents as a Deposed Richard or a Dethroned Edward Two disproportion'd examples of popular Fury The one forced to part with his Crowne by Resignation the other as never having had legall Title to it may shew the Iniustice of former Parliaments growne strong never justifie the Pitcht-feilds which have been fought by this Since If this supposition were true the King being bound to make the Law His Rule by no other Obligation but His Oath at His Coronation Then which there cannot be a greater I confesse and where 't is violated never without Repentance scapes vnpunish't yet 't is a trespasse of which Subiects can only complaine but as long as they are Subiects can never innocently revenge But this all this while Sir is but

Conduct under Sir Thomas Fairefax be of this perswasion thus stated I shall not think it any slander from the Mouth of a Presbiterian who thinks otherwise to be called an Judependent If a Prince who is confessedly a Prince and hath Supreme power make Warre upon his Subjects for the propagation of Religion the Nature of the Defence is much alter'd For though sucha Warre whether made for the Imposition of a false Religion or a true be as uniust as if 't were made upon a forreigne Nation yet this injustice in the Prince cannot warrant the taking up of Armes against Him in the Subject Because being the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Supreme within his own Kingdome As all power concerning the publick secular Government of it resolveait selfe into Him so doth the ordering of the Outward exercise of Religion too In both Cases he is the Judge of Controversies Not so unerring or Infallible as that all his Determinations must be received for Oracles or that his Subjects are so obliged to be of his Religion that if the Prince be an Idolater a Mahumetan or Papist 't would be disobedience in them not to be so too But let his Religion be what it will let him be a Ieroboam or one of such an unreasonable Idolatry as to command his people to worship Calves and Burn Incense to Gods scarce fit to be made the Sacrifice Though he be not to be obeyed yet he is not to be resisted Since such a Resistance would not only change the Relation of inequality and Distance between the Prince and People and so destroy the Supremacy here given him by S. Peter but 't would actually enter duell with the Ordinance of God which ceaseth not to be sacred as often as 't is wickedly imployed Irresistibility being a Ray and Beame of the Divine Image which resides in the Function not in the Religion of the Prince Who may for his Person perhaps be a Caligula or Nere yet in his Office still remaine Gods Deputy and Vicegerent And therefore to be obeyed even in his unjust commands though not actively by our compliance yet passively by our sufferings This Doctrins as 't is agreeable to the Scripture and the practice of the purest and most primitive times of the Church so I finde it illustrated by the famous example of a Christian Souldier and the censure of a Father upon the paslage This Souldier being bid to burne Inconse to an Idoll rcfused But yeelded himselfe to be cast into the fire Had he when his Emperour bid him worship an Idoll mutinied or turn'd his speare upon him saies that Father he bad broken the fift Commandement in defence of the second But submitting his Body to be burnt the only thing in him which could be compelled in stead of committing Idolatry he became himselfe a Sacrifice I could Sir second this with many other Examples but they would all tend to this one pious Christian Result that Martyrdome is to be presetred before Rebellion Here then if I should suppose your Presbyterian Friends charge to be true a very heavy one I confesle that the King miscounselled by a Prelaticall Court Faction when he first Marcht into the field against the Armies raised by the two Houses of Parliament had an intent to subvert the Protestant Religion and to plant the Religion of the Church of Rome in it's stead yet unlesse he can prove to me that from that time he actually ceast to be King or the two Houses to be his Subjects or notwithstanding their two Oathes of Supremacy and Alleageance that in so doing he forfeited his Crowne and was no longer over all persons and in all Causes as well Civill as Ecclesiasticall within the circuit of his three Kingdomes supreame Head and Governour I know no Armes which could lawfully be used against Him but those which S. Ambrose used against an Arian Emperour Lachrymas Suspiri● Sighes Tears and Prayers to God to turne his heart And therefore Sir when your Friond doth next aske you How it could stand with the safe conscience of any English Protestant to stand an idle spectator whilst Queen Marus daies were so ready to break in upon him that He was almost reduced to this hard choyce either to follow the Times in the new ●rected fashion of Religion or live in danger of the stake and Faggot if he persisted in the old you may please to let him know from me That as I have no unruly Thirst or irregular Ambition in me to dye a Martyr Nor am so much a Circumcelleo as to court or wooe or in case it fled from me enthusiastically to call upon me my own Death and Execution So if it had been my Let to live in the fiery times He speaks of when a Protestant was put to death for an Heretick as I should not have quarreld with the Pawer that condemned me so I should have kist my funerall pile And should have thought it a high peece of Gods favour to me to call me to Heaven by a way so like that of his Angell in the Book of * c. 13.20 Judges who ascended thither in the Flame and aire and persume of a Sacrifies But what if this be only a Jealousie and suspition in your Friend Nay what if it have been the Disguise and paint to some Ambitious mens designes who to walke the more securely to their darke and politick ends have stiled themselves the Defendours when they have all this while been the Invadors And have called the King the subverter who hath all this while to his power been the Defender of this Religion This certainly if it be proved will very much Inflame and aggravate their sinne and dye it in a deep scarlet through all the progresse of it But because I rather desire to cast a mantle over their strange proceedings then to adde to their Nakednesse which hath at length discover'd it selfe to all the World all that I shall say to deliver so much Goodnesse from so much misrepresentation is this That the report which at first poyson'd the mindes of so many Thousand well minded people That the King had an intent by this warre to destroy the Protestant Religion could at most have no other parent but some mens either crafty Malice or needlesse Feare appears clearly in this that after all their great Discoveries they have not yet instanced in one considerable Ground fit to build more then a vulgar Jealousy upon The Kings affection to the Queene His Alliance and confederacy with Popish Princes abroad and the Gentlenesse of his Raigne towards his Popish Subjects at home being premises as unfit to build this Inference and conclusion upon that Therefore He took up Armes that he might introduce their Religion as his in Aristotle were who because it lightued when Socrates took the Ayre thought that his walking caused that commotion in the skyes For that the Root and Spring of such a report could be nothing but their own

only supposition And you now Sir what the Logician saies suppositie nihil p●nit in esse what ever may be supposed is not presently true If Calumny her selfe would turne Informer let her leave out Ship-money a greivance which being fairely laid a fleepe by an Act of Parliament deserved not to be awakened to beare a part in the present Tragedy of this almost ruined Kingdome she must confesse that the King through the whole course of His Raigne was so farre from the Invasion of His Subjects Rights that no King of England before Him unlesse it were Henry the first and King Iohn whom being Vsurpers it concern'd to comply with the People the one having supplanted his Eldest Brother Robers Duke of Normandy the other his Nephew Arthur Prince of Britaine ever imparted to them so many Rights of his owne To that Degree of Infranchisment that I may almost say He exchanged Liberties with them Witnesse the Petition of Right An Act of such Royall Grace that when He past that Bill He almost dealt with His people as Traian did with the Pratorian praefect put his sword into their Hands and bid them use it for Him if he ruled well if not against Him In short Sir Magna Charta was a Vine I confesse cast over the People but this Act enabled them to call the shade of it their owne An Act which if your friend will please to forget Ship mony being in no one particular violated so farre as to be instanced in by those whose present Ingagements would never suffer such Breaches of Priviledge to passe unclamour'd will oblige posterity to be gratefull as often as they remember themselves to be Freemen This then being so the next inquiry will be whether a bare Jealousy that the King would in time have recalled this Grace and would have invaded the Liberty of his Subjects by the change of the Fundamentall Lawes could be a just cause for such a preventive Warre as this To which I answere that such a Faire though built upon strong presumptions cannot possibly be a just cause for one Nation to make Warre upon another much lesse for Subjects to make Warre against their Prince The Reason is because nothing can legitimate such a Warre but either an Injury already offered or so visibly imminent that it may passe for the first Dart or Speare hurled Where the Injury or Invasion is only contingent and conjecturall and wrapt up in the wombe of darke Counsells no way discoverable but by their own revelation of themselves in some outward Acts of Hostility or usurpation to anticipate is to be first injurious and every Act of prevention which hath only Iealousie for its foundation will adde new justice to the enemies Cause who as He cannot in reason be pronounced guilty of anothers Feares so he will come into the Field with this great advantage on his side That his reall wrong will joyne Battle with the others weake suspition But alas Sir Time the best interpreter of Mens Intentions hath at length unsee'ld our eyes and taught us that this hath been a Warre of a quite opposite Nature The Gentleman who wrote the Defence of M. Chaloners Speech and M. Chaloner himselfe if you marke his Speech well will tell you that the quarrell hath not been whether the subject of England shall be Free but whether this Freedome shall not consist in being no longer Subject to the King If you marke Sir How the face of things hath alter'd with successe How the scene of things is shifted And in what a New stile they who called themselves the Invaded have spoken ever since their Victories have secured them against the power of any that shall invade If you consider what a politick use hath been made of those words of Inchantment Law Liberty and Propriety of the Subject by which the People have been musically enticed into their Thraldome If you yet farther consider the more then Decemvirall power which this Parliament hath assumed to it selfe by repealing old Lawes and making Ordinances passe for new If you yet farther will please to consider How much Heavyer that which some call Priviledge of Parliament hath been to the Subject then that which they so much complained of The Kings Prerogative so much heavyer that if one deserved to be called a Little finger the other hath swolne it selfe into a Loyne Lastly if you compare Ship mony with the Excise and the many other Taxes laid upon the Kingdome you will not onely find that a whippe then hath been heightned into a Scorpion now but you will perceive that as these are not the first Subjects who under pretence of Liberty have invaded their Princes Crowne so farre as the Cleaving of Him asunder by a State Distinction which separates the Power of the King from his Person so ours as long as he was able to lead an Army into the Field hath been the first King that ever took up Armes for the Liberty of his Subjects Vpon all which premises Sir I hope you will not think it false Logicke if I build this Conclusion so agreeable to the Lawes of the Kingdome as well as the Lawes of God That supoosing the Parliament all this while to have fought as was at first pretended for the Defence of their assayled Liberty yet fighting against the King whose Subjects they are it can never before a Christian Judge make their Armies passe for just But being no way necessitated to make such a Defence their Liberty having in no one particular been assaulted which hath not been redrest if S. Paul were now on earth againe and were the Iudge of this Controversy between them and their Lawfull Soveraigne I feare he would call their Defence by a Name which we in our Moderne Cases of Conscience doe call Rebellion And thus Sir having as compendiously as the Lawes of a Letter will permit given you I hope some satisfaction concerning the first part of your zealous Friends dispute with you which was whether the Two Houses which he calls the Parliament have not a Legall power in Defence of their Liberty to take up Armes against the King I will with the like brevity proceed as well as I can to give you satisfaction in the second part of his Dispute also which was whether Religion may not be a just Cause for a Warre The Termes of which Question being very generall and not restrained to any kind of Religion or any kind of Warre whether offensive or defensive or whether of one Nation against another or of a Prince against his Subjects or of the Subjects back again against their Prince allow me a very large space to walk in In which least I be thought to wander and not to prove It will first be necessary that I define to you what Religion in generall is And next that I examine whether every Religion which falls within the Truth of that Definition may for the propagation of it selfe be a just cause of a Warre and so