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	parliament_n	void_a	3,949	5	9.2539	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77340	A breviate for the members of the Convention		1689 (1689)	Wing B4409; ESTC R170792	5,037	4

a Monarch Lords and Commons the Person only left at Choice and Care had to prevent all Danger of Law in the case according to the Ancient Constitution Though who 〈◊〉 know the Mind of a Nation when an● come together if he knows his own Mind There is one thing we have now Opportunity to obtain which we can never recover again if it be lost and that is what His Highness the Prince of Orange hath made one of his two Designs The Delivery of the People from Slavery which can never be done effectually and radically but upon this Advantage The Delivering us from Popery is contained in the Setling our Religion and that being a Work of great length is the business more properly of a Parliament but this is a thing must be done by the Community and consequently by those that are the Representatives of it a Convention so Called in regard to a Higher Capacity hereunto and not a Parliament for that represents the People not as in a Community but as in a Common-wealth where there is pars imperans as well as subdita which now is not A Parliament makes Laws for the Administration but the People as in a Community make Laws for the Constitution I would therefore humbly offer it to the Consideration of those who shall meet as Members of this Convention that in order to the effect premised they do but agree and pitch upon this one certain Point of good Polity that wheresoever they place the supreme Authority they do lay also the Rights or Propertyes of it that is the Jura Majestatis Majes●●● being ma●●●a Potestas all together The Rights of Majesty or of the supreme Power are mainly thes● The ●ir●● is Legislation or making Laws and this undoubtedly lyes in a Parliament The next is the Power of raising Arms or Armyes or the Militia the Power of making Peace and War or the Power of the Sword which is necessary to maintain those Laws The Third is a Power over our Estates or the Purse or raising Money which must maintain the Sword. A Fourth is the Power of choosing Magistrates to rule us according to these Laws such as Judges and Sheriffs to name no other A Fifth is the last Appeal Now let but the Power of the Militia and choosing Magistrates be laid where Legislation is and we shall be fundamentally delivered from all Slavery for ever in the Nation It we be Enslaved or oppressed by any Prince for the time to come it must be either by Force or by Injustice We cannot be oppressed by Force because no Forces then can be raised by him but by a Parliament He cannot rule by an Army or by Violence for the Militia is in the Lords and Commons as well as in him and they will not let him do so We cannot be oppressed with Injustice for the Judges and Officers entrusted with the Execution of Justice shall be Chosen also by them and they will look to that It is true while no Parliament sits the King by Vertue of the Executive power lying in him may raise Arms and put in Officers and Magistrates as there is need but both these are to be done under the Controul of the next Parliament which are therefore to sit often by ancient Statutes there being no War to be levied nor Magistrates Confirmed without their Approbation Let us remember the State we are in a State that puts the supreme power in the hands of the People to place it as they will and therefore to bound and limit it as they see fit for the publick Utility and if they do it not now the Ages to come will have occasion to blame them for ever When the supreme Power is upon the disposing if they do not take this Item as part of their proper Work To bind the descent of it to a Protestant I shall blame them But I shall do so much more if after the danger we have been in of Arbitrary Domination and Popery by the King 's raising Arms and putting in and out of Judges at his own pleasure they do not take more care of the supreme Power to lay it and its Rights better together Especially seeing nothing can i●deed be that in nature which it is without its Properties This is uniform 〈◊〉 must persist to the nature of Government that where the supreme Authority is there must be its Prerogatives and where the chief or principal Rights of it is there should all the rest which depend upon and belong to it be placed also Where Legislation is lodged there should the Militia there should the power of making Judges to name nothing more than serves my turn be lodged also It is this hath been the great Declension Fault or Defect of our English Common-wealth that the People have suffered these Rights of Soveraignty to come to be divided arising we must conceive from the Administration that is Mal Administration as appears for Example in the Militia which upon the fresh coming in of the late King was indeed in two or three hot Acts declared to be and ever to have been in the King when both the Assertion was gross Flattery and such Acts void as fundamentally repugnant with the Constitution There is one difficulty to be thought on and that is the Negative Voice of the Prince in his Parliament The Lords and Commons may agree upon some Law for the Publick Benefit and the King alone may refuse to pass it If he be obstinate this is a great evil and might really make one think it would be better therefore to place the supreme power in Lords and Commons only without a Controuler for the preventing this Inconvenience Bren there will be no need of Change upon that account for the King sometimes may see more than both his Houses And forasmuch as this Prerogative of his hath been disputed and deny'd by many Judicious Men who have pleaded the Obligation of former Princes to confirm those Laws quas Vulgus elegerit it is to be hoped that the Wisdom of the Nation will be able to find out some Expedient or Salve for this difficulty and for more than that also So long as they have the Golden Opportunity to bring a Crown in one hand with their Terms or Conditions in the other As for the several Grievances that need Redress and many good things that are wanting to compleat the Happiness of our Kingdom there may be some Foundations laid happily or Preparations made in order thereunto by this Convention but as belonging to the Administration and being Matters of long Debate they are the Work more properly of an Ensuing Parliament Only let not the Members of this present Great Assembly forget that they having so unlimited a Power and the Nation such an Opportunity which as the Secular Games they are never like to see but once they are more strictly therefore bound in Conscience and in Duty to their Country to neglect no kind of thing which they judge absolutely necessary to the publick Good. I care not if I commend three or four such Particulars to Consultation which shall be these A Regulation of Westminster-Hall A Register of Estates A Freedom from Persecution by a Bill for Comprehension and Indulgence in the Business of Religion A Redemption of the Chimney-Money which bringing in the King to be Lord of every mans House is against Property and an Over-ballance in the Revenue is against the Interest of the Nation FINIS