Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	law_n	prerogative_n	3,673	5	10.4433	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60885	A vindication of the proceedings of the late Parliament of England An. Dom. 1689, being the first in the reign of their present Majesties King William and Queen Mary.	Somers, John Somers, Baron, 1651-1716.	1690 (1690)	Wing S4645; ESTC R12268	17,920	34

First At this rate of arguing it would be better for us to have a sting we hated and feared than one of the same Religion we loved and were sure of which is such an absord inference that node but a Mad-man can propose it as reasonable Secondly Grant what he says to be true as it is not our Religion however is secure and perhaps the securer the greater Power we trust him with But Thirdly As our late Representatives gave so much Power to our Glorious Deliverer as made him a King and a powerful one too so on the other hand they have had so much regard to the safety of the People as to secure their Privileges and Civil Rights from any future incroachments of the Prerogative as may easily be made out by the late Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and settling the Succession or the Crown XVI The Popish Subjects are generally so oppressed by their absolute Sovereigns that through an excessive flattery and fear of blows they seem to Worship their Kings as Gods allowing them an illimited Power which no Man of Sense can admit of in a Being of a limited Nature or at least allowing them to be the Fathers and absolute Masters of their People though the Kings generally came out of the Peoples Loins as being at first made by them and not the People out of theirs and though Subjects ought not to lord it over their Sovereigns as Masters yet they ought not to be their Slaves neither but are to enjoy under their Government such Privileges and Liberties as may settle them in an unalterable State of Happiness that the Princes themselves may not destroy at pleasure for as nothing is more rational than that we should submit in all things to the absolute Power of God over us so nothing is more unreasonable than a blind obedience to earthly Princes as if they were as infallible as God himself whereas their very Kingship proves sometimes an occasion to make them the more liable both to Errour as being often mis-informed of things and to Sin likewise if they are not truly Religious as King William undoubtedly is because of their uncontrolled Power of doing what they please XVII For these and other reasons of that kind though William the Third whom God long preserve be the mildest and moderatest Prince that ever sate upon the English Throne yet our Representatives to secure us from the encroachments of this and all succeeding Ages have thought fit to declare and establish the Rights of the People so fully and upon such a sure Foundation that England now is the securest and the happiest Nation in the World if the Natives can be but sensible of their own Happiness Foelices nimium bona si sua nôrint Agricolas XVIII Four things especially declared in this Act secure us from Oppression Tyranny and Arbitrary Power First The rejecting of either a dispensing or suspending Power Secondly All grants of Money for or to the use of the Crown reserved to the Parliament for the time in being Thirdly The disbanding of standing Armies in time of Peace unless the Parliament give consent to the keeping them on foot Fourthly The settling of the Succession of the Crown I need mention nothing else contained in this Act to shew that we are the only Subjects in the World that can boast of Freedom and Liberty in case our Princes cannot dispense with our Laws as they cannot without our leave since they are not to give us for the only reason of their Kingly Actions Tel est nostre bon plaisir Their Good Will and Pleasure as the French King does for however the French Modes have taken with us of late we could never yet fall in love with so absolute a Mode as this As our Kings must act by Law and not absolutely though real Kings they do nothing of moment but by and with the advice of their Parliaments Our Happiness then consists in this that our Princes are tied up to the Law as well as we and upon an especial account obliged to keep it up in its full force because if they destroyed the Law they destroy at the same time themselves by overthrowing the very Foundation of their Kingly Grandeur and Regal Power So that our Government not being Arbitrary but Legal not Absolute but Political our Princes can never become Arbitrary Absolute or Tyrants without forfeiting at the same time their Royal Character by the breach of the essential Conditions of their Regal Power which are to act according to the ancient Customs and standing Laws of the Nation If we are happy upon this account that our Kings can neither suspend nor destroy our Laws we are no less to be envyed that our Purses are secured from the encroachments of an aspiring Covetousness by that part of this Act which tells us that levying Money for or to the use of the Crown by prerence of Prerogative without grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted is illegal XIX We may easily think our Security greater than that of any other Nation in Europe if we reflect but a moment upon this important Article that we are never obliged to open our Purses but by the order and consent of our Representatives whom we have trusted with the care of our Interest which being equally theirs at the same time we have no reason to fear that they ever lay any Taxes upon us but when 't is absolutely necessary for the preservation of our Lives Liberties and Religion as all seeing Men confess it to be in the present juncture of our Affairs to prevent the return of Popery and Arbitrary Power This Privilege has made our Government to be envyed by all the Neighbour Nations and the happiest that can be imagined for there being no surer way for a Prince to become Absolute Arbitrary and a Tyrant than to impoverish his Subjects to that degree of Want and Misery as may force them for subsistence to comply with all his desires whether just or unjust he is disabled by this Act from doing them any mischief that way I mean by squeezing the Blood out of their Veins that is the Money out of their Pockets for any design he might have of ruling over them as meer Slaves To the want of Privilege we may chiefly ascribe the Slavery the French Nation groans under their Prince disposing absolutely of their Estates at pleasure and laying such heavy Taxes upon his Subjects as leave them not Money enough to buy Leather Shoes instead of which they are forced to make use of Wooden ones so that the French are not so much in the wrong as one would think when in their flattering Panegyricks they style him sometimes their God since they in a manner are his Creatures whom he creates or destroys by the least Word of his Mouth for so absolute his Power is that his Will is the only Law they can depend upon

insomuch that when he publisheth his Orders for gathering of Money if his Subjects cannot supply him otherways they must sell their Goods and whatever they have to give him what he demands yea I have known in France poor People sell their Beds and lie upon Straw sell their Pots Kettles and all their necessary Houshold Goods to content the unmerciful Collectors of the King's Taxes By this little hint we may easily see how much happier we are as being laden with noburthens but what we are able to bear and enjoying securely our Estates and whatever we can call our own under the protection of our Laws Should we then leave any Stone unturn'd to keep our selves as we are by opposing to our utmost such a cruel Conqueror as the French King would undoubtedly prove if he ever to our great misfortune subdued us XX. But let us speak one Word to the third thing I mentioned before that by this Act we are to have no standing Army in time of Peace the advantage whereof we may easily conceive if we look a little aside towards our Neighbours the French they suffer patiently in time of War the heaviest Taxes and would not think themselves so much to be pityed as now they are if a Peace concluded with the Enemy bettered their condition for they are then in a worse conditon in a manner than they were before because the standing Armies impower their Prince to doe what he pleases in time of Peace 't is then that he looks about him to consider who has got together any considerable Treasures that he may ease them of them though lawfully gained and by good services done to the Crown so that it is no wonder if the French Subjects chuse at any time War rather than Peace because in time of Peace their King's Armies are wholly imployed against them whereas in the time of a settled War they are partly taken up in opposing a Foreign Enemy Let the impartial Reader judge from the Premises of the Happiness of the English Subjects compared with the miserable Condition of the French XXI The late Parliament has done another thing without which nothwithstanding all our other advantages contained in this Act our Happiness had not been lasting as it is now like to be for ever and it is the settling of the Succession of the Crown upon Protestants and none but Protestants The Words of the Act are so remarkable that I think it fit to insert them here before I give you my Reflexions upon them Whereas it has been found by sad experience that it is inconsistent with the safety of this Protestant Kingdom to be governed by a Popish Prince or by any King or Queen Marrying a Papist the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do further pray that it may be enacted That all and every Person and Persons that is or shall be reconciled to or hold Communion with the See or Church of Rome or shall profess the Popish Religion or shall Marry a Papist shall- be excluded and be for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Crown and Government of this Realm and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging or any part of the same or to have use or exercise any Regal Power Authority or Jurisdiction within the same and in all or every such case or cases the People of these Realms shall be and are hereby absolved of their Allegiance and the said Crown and Government shall from time to time descend to and be enjoyed by such Person or Persons being Protestants as should have inherited and enjoyed the same in case the same Person or Persons so reconciled holding Communion or Professing or Marrying as aforesaid were naturally dead XXII Nothing more certain than what is here asserted that it is inconsistent with the safety of this Protestant Kingdom to be govern'd by a Popish Prince or by any King or Queen Marrying a Papist If we look back to the publick Transactions in the days of King Charles the First we shall soon be convinced of this undeniable Truth since we may derive all our Domestick and Civil Disturbances from his Marrying a Popish French Princess who at last became so troublesome to him that he was forced to send home to France again all her Attendants in hopes to bring her to a better temper by removing from her such Popish Emissaries as were thought to put her upon some dangerous designs which made the Nation jealous of her secret Intrigues with France yea and sometimes of the very King's Religion as if he had been perverted by the Queen or her Priests or had shown himself somewhat too much inclined to the Popish way of Worship but whether things were just as the People fansied them or not it is certain this unlucky Match was the occasion of our Civil Wars and of so much bloodshed in thee three Nations Such another suspicion as this was the secret spring of all our late Domestick Troubles during the Reign of King Charles the Second for though he professed outwardly the Protestant Religion yet the People upon what grounds I know not well could not be sometimes satisfied but that he was either a Papist or popishly inclined and upon this very account the Nation was always apprehensive of French Pensioners of Popish Plots of Tyranny and Arbitrary Power Now such apprehensions and fears could not but be the seed of Divisions among us of Heart-burnings and either of grounded or groundless Jealousies to the endangering the Peace and Safety of the whole Kindgom So true it is that it is inconsistent with the safety of this Kingdom to be governed by a Prince thought to be popishly affected but sure far more to be governed by a sincere zealous and professed Papist as we all know King James gloryed to be how near we were the brink of our ruine during his Reign and how unavoidable our entire ruine was had he reigned longer over us is so evident to all seeing Men that I need not enlarge upon the matter here I shall only add in this place in order to make out the Truth of what is asserted by the late Parliament that it is inconsistent with the safety of this Protestant Kingdom to be governed by a Papist that when our Prince is a real Papist he is obliged by the Principles of his Religion to doe his utmost endeavours to submit his Subjects to the Pope's jurisdiction XXIII First Because he must then of course look upon his Subjects as real Hereticks and Schismaticks whom if he do not root out by all possible means he is liable to be deposed by the Pope according to the famous and known decision of the third Council of Lateran How then can a Protestant Nation put any trust in such a Prince whose whole business is and ought to be to destroy their Religion and force them to return to the old Romish Superstitions again And if Subjects cannot trust their Sovereign it is but rational to think they