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
A96925	A word to purpose: or, A Parthian dart, shot back to 1642, and from thence shot back again to 1659. swiftly glancing upon some remarkable occurrences of the times; and now sticks fast in two substantial queries, I. concerning the legality of the second meeting of some of the Long-Parliament-Members. Also, a fools bolt shot into Wallingford House, by as good a friend to England, as any is there, concerning a free state.		1659 (1659)	Wing W3566; Thomason E985_9; ESTC R204153	9,686	15

first I hold that Act void in its Creation and yet shall not hint that secret force that made it an Act but as I said before Acts against Reason and the Fundamentals of that Government which Impowers them to act are void and therefore if the three Estates had Enacted that there is no King or House of Lords in these three Nations this had been void and a contradiction that that Act should take away the Power that made it an Act when t is most certain that if that be an Act the King is a King and so they are relata So of Acts against Reason that should enact that there should be no King in England c. after such a day this though signed by the three Estates is void for alteration of Government was never in their Commission unlesse expressed which had it been it would have been Treason Impossible Act your own feeble sense will tell you are void and you need not to see the Comment by Cocke upon 35. E. 1. which Act would have had the common Seal of the Orders of Cistercians c. to be in the custody of the Prior and of the foure of the discreetest of the Covent sealed up with the Privy Seal of the Abbot and if any Writing should be se led with any other seal than with the said common Seal so as is aforesaid kept in custody it should be void Now observe if it be kept in custody under the Seale of the Abbot then no Writing can be sealed by the Abbot and if the Abbot takes it out and seale c. then c. not kept in custody under his Privy Seal this you may see in the printed Book and is called de Asportatu religiosorum I pray mind it theress good matter to be learned from thence Now to Apply these things I conceive an Act of Parliament to perpetuate themselves a Parliament is as absurd as to enact that there never should be a Parliament again I know the last will be noted void by the Keepers of the Liberties and doubtless its void as against their Commissions And therefore if I leave lands to I. S. so long as I. N. shall think fit and I. N. sayes he thinks fit he shall have it to him and his heirs this is void in law as to the perpetuity of it and never was intended between the parties But admitting that also the act good yet Acts must be construed according to the intent of the Maker a certain rule Now we well know and so do you and those unruly Members know too that the intent of the Makers on no sides was that the Parliament should continue for ever nor that it should not cease by a legall determination such as is the Kings death but onely that the King should not break them up till they had eased the grievances of the people and that they might sit a convenient time for doing the service of the Country this is the true meaning of it you know well enough and this agrees with the right interpretation of other Acts of Parliament But admitting that also yet me thinks the Exclusion of half of themselves should hugely abate the legality of their power and infringe the priviledges and native Rights of the People who should sit in Parliament by their Representatives but that 's a small one I passe it over But further I have heard that a Parliamen discontinued is dissolved which was the opinion of Chief Justice Roll and Justice Aske two men as indulgent to the designes of the Keepers of our Liberties from us as they can finde out again and this they declared in Captain Streaters Case one of your own disciples Then your Assembly being not adjourned is discontinued and so dissolved Just now I fancy some may object a Force in that case doe so and I 'le Answer it but in the mean time if it were a force and that Assembly a Parliament it was Treason and I will never believe it to be a Force till I see some of the Offenders hanged and if that should come to pass it would go hard with most of those that called them together again But admitting all this yet there is one thing more that makes me Querie And that is this Generally and regularly the King hath Power to Dissolve and when the King is taken away that Power devolves upon the People this I suppose must be granted else let the Commons cut off their King and they have ipso facto at the same instant made themselves an everlasting Parliament without the help of a specious Act then admitting that the King was bound by that Act as sub moda I agree he was Now the King is taken away who is now Found by it the Keepers of the Liberties c. That 's no sense that the Keepers should be bound not to dissolve the Keepers without the consent of the Keepers and they are de facto now the only Succession of the King then it falls out now that Act is void then hath nobody power to Dissolve Yes the Souldiers probatum est But I mean lawfull Power Yes the People And therefore I liken it to this Case I. enfe off I. S. in Fee of certain Lands upon condition that he shall pay a certain summe of money yearly to I. N. And he doth not pay who shall take advantage of the Condition I. N. cannot the law disables him for none can take advantage of a Condition but he from whom the estate moves then it follows that I. S. must if any and so be may by law though there be no clause of reentry by him for condition broken This is our case the people chose their representatives and gave them a Commission before remembred but with a condition annexed thereto that the King should take advantage of it upon occasion Now know that the King is not a stranger as I. N. is in the former case but he joyning by his Writ with the people is become as party to the deed and so may have a condicion reserved to him besides the cases will thus differ that ancient Common-Law of England older than Commons sitting in Parliament hath endowed the King therewith But our Keepers made that impossible to be done by no Law which the Law made Impossible to be done in case of I. N. So that they that gave the Authority must countermand and resume it again if they can they may certainly for no Authority whatsoever but is countermandeable Now what if the people have countermanded this Authority and that by the consent of themselves or most of them One would think this would make it clear Then le ts consider There is a Countermand expresse and a Countermand in law or implied Now by both these the people have Countermanded their Autho First Expressely then know an express countermand is either per alium or per se either in person or by others and a countermand by others is either by command precedent or agreement

subsequent and all these as firm in law one as the other and that which makes for our purpose is no more but this case I reenter for condition broken by another or another reenters in his own name and I agree to it this may be done by law Now then Oliver Cromwell pulled those whipsters out by the ears and did them no wrong say some for he might as well turn them out as they turn him out that had better right and he might as well Govern as they having as good Authority and better comming neerer the old model but let this Act be lawfull or not lawfull and some say no publick Act this sixteen years hath been lawfull Yet if he hath the agreement subsequent of the People to it that makes it doubtlesse lawfull And that agreement is very obvious First The Saints agreed to it that is to say the Army ask Lambert else next the godly party in the Country agreed to it as appears by their speedy scudding up to Westminster into the same place and confirmed it over and over next all the people of the three Nations agreed to it in chosing a new Representative to Congratulate Oliver for the good service and to give him some handsome gratuity for his pains which accordingly was done and that more than once and with great solemnity and not onely to him but to his Son and that with as great solemnity and as unanimously as ever any Prince could be enthroned And if I may speak the sense of all that ever I came neer since that time I never heard one man speak concerning it but heartily rejoyced that the yoak was taken off their necks But again let the Designes of Oliver be what they would yet the Peoples chusing new Representatives as oft as occasion was offered is clearly an implyed countermand of the Commission of the former For two sort of men cannot be commissionated severally to doe the same thing but the first are countermanded by the last if they be countermandable and the last are void if the other be not countermandable Now all these several choises of Representatives were to doe the same thing that is to transact the great Affaires of the Nation which Authority is countermandable draw hence the Conclusion c. And further It s evident the Army agreed to all this and so did a great many of those few that meet now in the Parliament house who sate more than once in the same place they now fit in by virtue of the Peoples new choise which some if not all made contrived and contended for and after made Laws to confirm the then Protector which doubtlesse shews plainly that they took the former long Assembly to be determined and by their actings are by Law estopped and concluded To say otherwise like to this case in Law Lessee for many years by a good Lease accepts from his Lessor a void Lease that is a surrender and determination of his former good Lease for by his acceptance he hath admitted the Lessor to have a power to make another Contract which must work a surrender of his former otherwise there could be no new contract So it is here which Note So now the grounds of my scruple being these That it s conceived generally that the long Parliament forfeited their Trusts and Authorities by going beyond their Commissions notwithstanding the Act of not Dissolving c. made by the three Estates Or else that they determined by the death of the King However their Power determined as to make Acts Or else they determined by their discontinuance or else by the Peoples reseising their Authority and granting it to others which they would not have done had they intended the same should have continued And had the Act of Oliver in Dissolving them not been acceptable to the People he had not sat so sure as he did I must ingenuously say I cannot see unless I be further enlightned which I wish some would endeavour how this present meeting in the Parliament House should amount to a Parliament But mistake me not I offer not this to publike view to breed contentions stirs and debates in the Land we are like to have enough of them besides but my main end is to have some satisfaction and that a thing of so great moment to the people may be settled and resolved and the consciences of many quieted For how can it be imagined that the people should be obedient when they doubt the grounds of the supream Authority And what compliance other than a passive submission can be expected when an Usurped confused unlimited rude and groundless power shall obtrude themselves upon the Rights Liberties and Native priviledges of the people When a disorderly unaccountable and unwarrantable procedure is set on foot by a company unauthorized inferiour spirits To whom sad experience hath dictated that no trust or heed is to be given because their whole proceedings have been violent their own judgements unsettled their pretences but pretences their thoughts conceits and their whole practise contradictions But now on the other side can they assure us of hopes of a settled Government and some advantage to the publike by their changes They shall have my Vote to be once more entrusted But give me leave to offer one Query more Whether as things now stand it is likely we should compass the designe of setting up a Free State The grounds and inducements to this query are these First in respect of those that are to doe it by greatest pretence Secondly In respect of those that would doe it without any pretence Thirdly In respect of the thing it self to be done First They that are to do it if any must be the men met at the Parliament House Now as to them consider how their Power stands for if it fall out that they go on in an unauthoritative way what they do will not long stand witnesse all the unwarrantable Attempts and Acts that have been attempted or acted from the first Rebellion if all or most have not been opposed contradicted and many nulled by after contrary actions Then again consider their spirits and tempers are they not dissatisfied distasted and distempered spirits are they not fiery tongues onely that is are they not zealous without knowledge When they that sit at the Helm of Government should have cloven tongues also that is knowledge to discern truth from errour and know that knowledge without zeale is like a Ship without a ●ayle and zeale without knowledge is like a ship under saile without a Pilot Also are they not men too much biassed to private Interests do they not call the long Parliament-time a blessed time because some of them could make shift to blesse themselves with above twenty thousand pounds per ann and the other with faire estates And is not this the designe of them to return willingly till the residue of the Land unsold be viis modis brought into their own clutches at least good

A WORD to Purpose Or A Parthian Dart Shot back to 1642 and from thence shot back again to 1659. swiftly glancing upon some remarkable Occurrences of the Times and now sticks fast in two Substantial QUERIES I. Concerning The Legality of the Second Meeting of some of the Long Parliament-Members ALSO A Fools Bolt shot into Wallingford House by as good a Friend to England as any is there concerning A Free State Printed 1659. A Word to purpose OR A Parthian Dart shot back to 1642. and from thence shot back again to 165● c. I. Whether the men met together in the House at Westminster where usually the Commons sate be at this day a lawful Parliament according to the Fundamentall laws of this Nation to binde the people to obey their Commands The Grounds of my Scruple are these Query I. I. ADmitting the Power to be a derivative from the People originally either by Request and Election precedent or Agreement and Consent subsequent which is all one and thereby a Supremacy of Power is lodged and fixed somewhere in one or more Persons who hath in him or them the Appointment of a season for the Commons to Elect their Representatives and send them up to Consult according to our long continued Laws though the Commons Representatives were not in former time known but by the Notion of Petitioners with the other two Estates their Authority and Warrant which they receive from the People is not expressed but implyed with this difference their general Authority is expressed indeed which answers the VVrit of Summons to Consult c. I say expressed because by their actions in Electing according to the Writ they expresse themselves But the Authority in law or implyed is this First To make Laws for the good of the People Secondly According to the antient custome 1. Of this Realm that is not to make laws to undoe the People not to make laws to destroy the ●eople not to make laws to perpetuate heavy burthens upon the People 2. According to the Antient customs of this Realm that is to joyn with their Fellows not to grow peremptory and sawcy and Rebellious against their Superiours in Honour and Dignity though at that time equall onely with themselves in Power not to violate the known and antiently renewed Priviledges which any of the other Estates hath been long endowed with and that by the ●onsent of their Masters that sent them thither not to enforce their Fellows to consent to an Act against Reason against their own Trusts against the Obedience that they have bound themselves to by Oath and that all so that Elected them are also bound by Oath to with many others which if they doe they forfeit their Trusts Now to prove their implyed Commission runs in this channel I say First all Parliaments ever went according to these rules which is Argument enough Our Laws and Liberties which people prate of and mistake have no other Authority than the common and constant custom of the men of this Nation Secondly Is it not against sense and reason that men should give others a Power to Undoe Destroy or Oppresse themselves And can it be imagined that when the King sends his Writs out for summoning of a Parliament consisting of Lords and Commons according to the Antient Usage of this Realm and the People sending their Representatives accordingly to advise with the other Estates but that the People intended they should proceed according to the antient Rules and Prescripts of Government to acknowledge the Supremacy of the single Person invested absolutely without any Power of Revocation with severall Prerogatives and Immunities befitting necessary and of absolute Import for the Grandeur Honour and Serenity of his Person with Power in a moderate measure for discharging his Place in putting in execution of Laws in intervals also to acknowledge the decent precedency of the other Estate differenced onely from them i● the point of Honor lovingly religiously and faithfully to joyn with them in establishing Laws for the mutuall good one of another and all the rest whose Trusts they execute Can it be imagined that the People intended when they sent their Representatives up to London at the beginning of the Long Parliament that they or one of them did or durst think of turning out the House of Lords equall to themselves in lawfull Power Of turning out one half of themselves equall to themselves Of Deposing the King to whom all had sworn Allegiance Besides of a multitude of more inferiour hideous actions I am confident no such thing was thought yet as to the Bishops I do not affirm so much nor do I count that act being done by the three Estates any more than the excluding Abbots and Priors then if these things were not thought of certainly Authority to do such things were never given by the People then it follows that if the Representatives do exceed their Commissions and proceed contrary to the rules before mentioned it is not obligatory now I intend they exceed their Commissions when they act any thing contrary to Reason Religion the Peace of the Nation the Fundamentals of settled government or impossible some of all which though enacted by the three Estates the learned in the Law knows binde not And indeed I am of opinion and many more therefore shall not go about to prove it That the House of Commons at first lawfully Assembled did after 642. obtrude all these incongruities Absurdities Cheates and Villanies upon the People of this Nation and so forfeited their Authorities But admitting that my Bailiffe whom I imployed to mannage my estate for me will fall out with some that I have dealing with and without my warrant sue bring to tryall and recover per fas vel nefas something for me under colour all this while of my Authority and in my name and further takes out execution and possesses himself of the other mans goods and pretends for my use yet keeps them to his own and sayes all this is by my Warrant when in truth I was against it And admitting all this to be lawfull and that my Warrant iustifies all he hath done yet if I die my Books tell me the Warrant is determined as to the executory part of it Now I conceive the death of the King determined what pretence the Long Parliament could possibly have to act as a Parliament for his death determines all Commissions all Writs derived from him to hold at Will so that the very Writ whereby they were summoned is by his death determined and of no force then the superstructure must fall besides which is a great argument with many who every knew a Parliament a Committee or other like inferiour Commissionated Court to hold after the the death or determination of him or them under whom they derive their Power and if the Act of perpetuating themselves be throwne in my Dish I le throw that into the house of office using it as other waste paper For