Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	king_n	law_n	supreme_a	4,781	5	9.1205	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64695	The Unbiased statesman laying the government in an equal balance, being a seasonable word for the commonwealth in a seasonable time / from a well seasoned friend, viz. a real lover of his country published for the begetting a right understanding between the people, their representatives and the army.		1659 (1659)	Wing U30; ESTC R29571	8,677	16

it shall be so and the people are bound to stand to it Therefore if you go out of the Circumference if you step without the bounds of clear Reason and Justice you do unavoidably make the people Slaves Therefore it is much to be bewailed that Parliaments are not bounded that the trust reposed in them is not clearly known either to the people or to themselves that they have so large a road to walk in that they may easily erre nay it is almost impossible for them to walk aright for the heart of man is deceitful and prone though he hath a rule to bend it to his miscarriages much more when he is left to his Liberty it is ill trusting unbounded power it is so sharp a tool it quickly eats up all but it s own Soverainty and hard keeping limited power within its bounds Few men there are that know any thing of themselves that are not sensible that they have in them a principle to mislead them and he that knows it and is not willing to be chained up as a Lion or Wolf is from doing harm nourisheth up in himself a desire to be a Tyrant And the people by calling persons to office without bounds or limitations and a standard to measure their Actions by do carelesly sow the seeds of Tyranny and to their sorrow too soon reap the fruit Though the people of this Nation have been too negligent of their own security do not you that are their Representatives I beseech you take an advantage thereat but put them in a way now and joyn with the good people that will be ready to advise with you that they may have somewhat whereunto they might have recourse in matter of controversie between them and the Parliament upon whose faithful discharge of trust the welfare of the people doth depend by whose care they may be set and preserved in a flourishing condition when on the contrary they may easily be impoverished and enslaved Equity allows wisdom and self-preservation teacheth all to look after the managing of their trust and have satisfaction whether it be managed faithfully speedily and carefully for their advantage How shall the people know this how can they be satisfied if any controversie arise about it and how can you gainsay when the people charge you with slighting and betraying your trust and swallowing up their Rights and Liberties by your Priviledges how will it be decided whether the reproaches cast upon you by the people be true or false or whether you have faithfully discharged your trust or betrayed it if there be not some standing priviledges and Rules of Law extant to which the people may have recourse for satisfaction The want of this without doubt was the bottom root of all our disturbances and distractions The want of this made the case between this present Parliament and the late King so difficult you charged him with violating the Laws and extending his Prerogatives even to the extirpating of the priviledges of Parliament and much to the damage and hurt of the people He charged you with overturning the Laws and extending your priviledges to the hurt both of him and the people c. this made a great clashing between those two great powers neither had any standard to determine which were truly guilty each justifie themselves as it is usual with men so to do for want of this standard the people took part with one or with the other as their mindes led them The same difference may happen between the Parliament and People as did between the King and Parliament the people may declare their thoughts and minds that the Parliament doth not discharge their trusts that they do meddle with things with which they were not entrusted and neglect that which they were entrusted with c. and so make use of an Army to throw them out of the House The Parliament on the other hand may justifie themselves and say They have been faithful to the people ran great hazards for them and have denyed themselves much for the people and therefore are ill requited by them from whom they deserved better things what then shall the Parliament make use of an Army to stop the peoples mouths or curb their insolence or were it not better that there should be a standard between them by which any man though of a mean capacity might end the controversie Therefore in all Humility I do present these three things to this present Parliament First that you will publish to open view a true measure of Parliamentary trust from the principles of Law and reason whereby the members of Parliament may know what they ought to do and what not to meddle with and the people know what to expect what not when to complain and when they ought to be silent And that these principles of reason and rules of Law may be so plain that it may not be easy to wrest it to the favour of any particular person and not to be abrogated by Parliaments without a general consent of the good people Secondly that a Committee be appointed by the Parliament to hear all persons who are capable of advising them and the Parliament and men known to be sensible of publique dangers and ready to improve their utmost abilities for the publick good to advise them in the framing these fundamental principles of reason and rules of Law and that the Parliament will take care that this Committee may meet at such times and take such care in hearing all addresses that the persons attending on them be not tired with over-tedious waiting Thirdly that you will appoint a certain limited time for the sitting of Parliaments and that they be chosen by the good people and no others and that in the interval of Parliament the Laws may be executed by a Councel of State made up with the Members of Parliament of the Peoples Electing and that they every year be removed And that especial care may be taken that the work of Parliaments may be dispatched with more ease and speed that their work grow not faster upon them then it can be dispatched by them By this means the safety and prosperity of the people might be preserved the Parliaments priviledges preserved and maintained and their persons honoured and respected and all people fearing the Lord will have cause to bless God for your faithful and honest endeavours and the fruits thereof I cannot pass by the Army and take no notice of them who the Lord hath made use of to do great and mighty things in the throwing down of his and our Enemies and freeing us of the Norman yoke under the pressure of which we so long groaned Yet dear friends as we cannot but love you so we dare not but mind you of your backsliding slighting the good Old Cause and forgetting your faithful friends whom after all our familiarity and Godly Society you have like Josephs Brethren sold us to the Ishmaclites and truly we might have remained in

hope I may make bold to begin with the people the ground root and foundation of all power whose representatives Parliaments are who are entrusted with the peoples Liver Liberties and Estates as P●offees in trust as Stewards or Servants not Lords nor unbounded and unlimited Masters To the good people who have adhered to the good Old Cause who have been instrumental to bring the Nation out of its Egyptian Monarchical bondage have continued faithful to this day I say that by you are and oug●t Parliaments to be constituted or you your interest our ends and to fulfill your intentions ought they to act and as they receive their being so ought they to be bounded by you Therefore in all humility I offer these things to the serious consideration of the good people First that you would all unanimously declare from every Corner of the Nation that the Legislative power lieth in you and in your representatives by you Legally chosen whom you have entrusted with this power not entailed it upon them and their heirs for ever and for this end and no other that the act and do your wills and not their own 2. That you would all with one consen● declare what your wills are and what are the oppressions you groan under that the Parliament may know what they ought to do and if they neglect be left without excuse 3. That your trust be not abused nor the power you have given to the Parliament inftead of preserving your liberties made use of to instinge them And that the priviledges of Parliament swallow not up your rights and Liberties which they ought to defend and maintain that you would with one heart endeavour that there may be some bounds and Limits set before the Parliament beyond which they ought not to pass Let there be some standing Priviledges Principles of Reason or Rules of Law extant whereto any person doubting might address himself for satisfaction and to which the actions and acts of Parliament ought exactly to answer To the Parliament I say O that you would be wonderous watchful over your selves and wary in the managing of yours and the peoples affairs for there is a far severer Eye upon you now then formerly Labour to be faithful Stewards in that which the people hath entrusted you with You have and that justly too blamed your predecessors for unjustice and you have seen the Judgment of God follow them you have been also sensible of your own unjustice and the Judgment of God upon you in so much that after you had been owned by the good people had in reverence awe love esteem and fear of all you became suddenly a scorn and reproach to all sorts of people and in conclusion cast out with scorn reproach scarce one among all your friends that had one drachm of pitty for you You have since seen the Judgment of God fall upon your interruptors for their unrighteousness and unjustice And the Lord hath been so merciful to you as to set you once more in a capacity to act for the peoples good Which if you do O how will good men blesse God for you and Chronologize you to posterity and your faithfulness to God and your Country be founded forth from one generation to another On the contrary if you slight the Cause of God and the peoples good the affections of your friends will soon decay● the presence of the Lord will depart from you and the Judgement of God which you already have had a sence of will inevitably fall upon you Oh now consider what opportunities you have had what you now do enjoy to do the people good do your work throughly go to the bottome let the Nation be free indeed you have thrown down one power for its arbitraryness do not set up another but let a foundation of freedome and Righteousness be laid in the laying of which singly eye the good and welfare of the people in general not particular persons and interests For the effecting of which I conceive three things principally to be minded The first is good Laws The second is proper fit hands for the executing those Laws And thirdly an exact rule or way whereby their hands may be guided to a due and speedy execution of those Laws Let the Laws be bounds of right and Liberty and determine what every man shall enjoy for his own what he may act for himself and what he must act for the Publick Let the Laws be certain and suited to the State of the Nation Let them be clear and easy to be known by the people Lest a foundation of injustice and misery lie at the bottome that they become not Snares to them whom it should preserve from ensnaring nor give occasion to cunning and crafty heads to crush and perplex the plain hearted The next thing is execution without which the Law signifies nothing it is the life of the Law without which the Law is neither terrour nor encouragement For the best Laws are to little purpose if they be not placed into fit hands for the faithful execution of them And indeed we are subject more to complain and have most cause so to do concerning the Non-execution of the Laws we have then the Non-addition of the Laws we want After good Laws and fit hands to execute them it is meet that there be a clear Rule prescribed to them that are to execute lest being left to their own wills in the determination of things to follow their own apprehensions and judgments being furnished with corruption to draw them aside and advantages of security beyond others as authority power and greatness do alwayes afford they lay an arbitrary foundation and reare a Tyrannical Government Therefore the people are bound in respect to their own safety and those they entrust in matters of Government First to provide good Laws for themselves to be governed by Secondly due bounds to keep them in who are to execute those Laws For the making of good Laws to provide for execution and to keep the executors within due bounds the people have provided workmen and given them authority viz. to wit Parliaments they have as yet had but a slender account of their Stewardship much do they expect from this present Parliament or a strict account for the breach of trust from every particular member Right honourable you are the Supream Authority you have an extraordinary power entrusted you with for extraordinary ends and purposes if you do safely apply it it may produce excellent effects but if it be extended too far and to cases contrary to the good peoples appointment it will produce a great mischief instead of a remedy for the greatest power misapplyed must needs be the greatest oppression I pray you consider that a Parliament may more easily Erre then a King or Ordinary Councel for they have or ought to have a rule to walk by but you act by meer Supremacy from your own determinations where you do but vote and