Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	law_n	parliament_n	prerogative_n	2,334	5	9.9399	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43197	Loyalties severe summons to the bar of conscience, or, A seasonable and timely call to the people of England, upon the present juncture of affairs being an epitome of the several præliminaries or gradual steps the late times took to their ... ruine, by their civil dissentions, through a needless fear of the subverting, losing, and destroying of religion, liberty of the subject, and priviledges of Parliament ... : in two parts / by Robert Hearne, Gent.	Hearne, Robert.	1681 (1681)	Wing H1307; ESTC R16702	50,264	47

Restriction so long as the Honour Dignity and Safety of the Crown was their first and immediate Regard and Care as I said before A Parliament is the Magnum Anglie Concilium The Great Council of the Land called together by the King as the proper and most genuine Means for the Consulting or advising of and providing against publick Evils wherein every private Man is concerned and in order to the Administring necessary Remedies And therefore to pretend that their Priviledges enable them to Act contrary to what their Head the King shall propose to them towards the Regulating Misunderstandings Composing Differences and the Securing Peace and Order is if it may be so said a Casting off that Supream Power which gave them those Priviledges and a Breach of the King's Prerogative And if once Regal Prerdgative is invaded the Regal Power will be in great Danger This we have lately had notorious Testimonies of and I hope and pray we may never see the like again THE last Dissolution of the Parliament met at Oxford perhaps doth and may Amuse the World exceedingly and drive them into a profound Admiration Unde hoc Whence proceeded His Majesties Displeasure But the Papers called Intelligences pretended to satisfy Us with a great deal and every Coffes-House Whisper'd out Reasons or at least Suspicions and Surmises upon it For my part I do and shall ever continue my Resolution in this particular which I mentioned but a little before That I think it mine and every Honest Man and Loyal Subject's Duty to Acquiesce in the Pleasure of my Prince and not to Censure the Authority or Reasonableness of His Proceedings in the least I mean so far as my Conscience shall give me leave I shall not therefore any further dilate on this point but Conclude with the saying of a Wife States-Man viz. Many things sayes He in the world resemble Smoak their Beginning is but small their End great And many things resemble the Wind whose Reginning is Boisterous and End Weak He saves himself from the former who suffers them not to Increase from the latter He who suffers them to Blow over Progress of Time may be expected in the One where the Other ought to be Smother'd in the Cradle HAVING thus far run thro Our proposed Parallel under those Three Heads of Religion Liberty and Priviledges of Parliament and therein shewn how dangerous they are to a Common-Wealth when mis-understood and mis-applyed As GOD knows they have been too much of late here in England the more is the pitty and Our shame I shall therefore in this place look back on the large Concessions and bountiful Condescentions of the late King which was so much abused and made as so many Helps towards the subsequent Evils and Ruine to this poor Kingdome of England and see how Our Times have met with the like and what unsutable Returns have been made to the Royal Grace and Favour THE pressing Necessities for Supplies of Money to the empty drain'd Coffers of the Royal Treasury thro a long War which I have spoken of before coming in a Time when the Subject's Purse was full and that now the Parliament City and the Disaffected Parties knew well enough was a fit time to perpetrate their Designs to bring the KING to their Beck to make Him condescend to what Terms they pleased Which to avoid Repetition of I desire the Impartial Reader to consider in the Beginning of this Discourse Where you see after that they had brought the KING to do what they demanded they at last to compleat all perswade the People that the KING meant to introduce Popery Arbitrary-Government destroy the Protestant Religion and the Liberty of the Subject The unwarrantable Practices of the Parliament 1640 41. c. This nettles the Giddy Crowd and induces them to believe that whatsoever the Parliament did was for their Good and according to Conscience and the like They forget their King 's Gracious Concessions and Graunts they stop their Ears to His crying Wants turn their Backs to His friendly and just Demands neglect His Authority despise His Dignity contemn His Administration of the Government thwart His just and lawful Proceedings and thus Topsy turvy per fas nefasque No King no Laws no Religion I mean of the Church of England In exitium rount NOW in brief His now Majesties Concessions Let Us examine Our own Times and here We shall find Mercy Bounty and Liberality still swaying the Scepter of these Kingdomes We see His Sacred Majesty was no sooner sat Him in His Throne and had graspt the Scepter in His Hand but He as soon begins to display the Influences of His Royal Bounty and Mercy by the Act of Oblivion The Act of Oblivion Granted whereby every Individual Person who had been Actors on that late Bloody Stage of Rebellion and Treason the Cruel and Blood-Thirsty Regicides or those who were the Unjust Judges and Murtherers of His Father of Blessed Memory only exempted from the Beginning of the Civil-War unto His Happy Restauration the New Epocha of our English Nation that Annus Restauratae Libertatis Nay to dispossess those who Held their Estates in Capite of the Fears of the just Demands and Pretentions so long a time 's Killing and Slaying had given Him upon their Tenures and Knight Service What vast Sums were coming to Him from the Court of Wards and Liveries c. which unless He remitted would render the Act of Oblivion in effect no Pardon since it gave not their Estates with their Lives His Majesty was Graciously pleased to prevent those Fears by Act of Parliament The Act of Parliament 12 Ch. 2. ca. 24. 12 Ch. 2. cap. 24. depriving Himself of the Richest Jewel of His Crown a Prerogative so truly Royal and so hugely advantagious That in the Judgement of the Learned in the Law The People of England were never truly Free till then WHEN thro repeated Affronts War with Holland Calumnies and Injuries He was forced to make War with the Hollanders for His own Honour We no sooner find Him informed That it was prejudicial to His People but He shuffles up a Peace upon very hard Terms for Himself when had He stood off but a little while the State of His Enemies being such He might have made what Conditions He would Peace made Nay further To shew His Love to His Good Subjects when He entred into a War for Injuries offered to them Vide The Articles of Peace in Aug. 1667. and those 1674. no Considerations neither Plague nor Fire which had then impoverisht the Land by the Loss of so much People and Money would induce Him to a Peace till ample Satisfaction made WHEN He had upon Advice Granted a Tolleration of Religion and was satisfied afterwards by the Parliament of the Dangerous Consequences of such a Liberty He immediately is induced to Recall it and did so The Act for Toleration of Religion made Did He not consent to

that passion which was so predominant and spreading against the Duke of York and will silence Our Pen-men or Pamphletteers who upon every turn were alwayes ready to furnish the World with their Bombast under this Notion No Popery No Slavery or by endeavouring to possess the Mobile or Vulgars with a Fear that Servitude would be the genuine Concomitant of a Popish Successor or King here and therefore they should Arm themselves against such a Danger and still keep to their old Maxime Libertas optima rerum The Liberty of the Subject should be their Helmet tho 't was as in the late Rebellion to the Warring against their Prince Deposing Him nay Murthering Him too ALAS These bold Proselytes of the Recorded Brutus I dare believe do not understand what Liberty means I mean with relation to Government but only have heard how great sway this Thundering Noun car Liberty ries amidst the giddy Crowd who need no other Bait to be thrown among them than the name of Liberty Now if by Liberty be intended What it is a Power of doing what one will it will turn then to Licentiousness 1. and that Government which has most thereof will be worst If thereby be meant a Power of doing what is convenient 2. it needs not be parted from Principality or Monarchy under which what is convenient hath no less place than under a Common-Wealth 3. And if thereby be understood a Power of Commanding others 't is so much less for the Common People which obey by how much their Servitude is extended to a number of Masters But 't is but a Chimaera which Men fain unto themselves to bring their Wits to pass and oftentimes to Sweeten the Beginnings of a Bitter-Servitude For my part I shall not endeavour further to define what Liberty is the undisturbed Fruition and the sweet Benefit redounding to Us all from it are Sufficient to ease me of that task no Nation in the whole Universe having the like as England How far the Needless Fear of losing this Liberty carried Us in the late times of Rebellion even to the utter Ruine of Families Estates and Lives nay at last of that Liberty too I have before shewed And therefore I shall conclude this Point with shewing what sorts of Men Our Great Libellers and Pamphletteers are The Character of a Pamphletteer according to the Character a Great Prince gave one of His Grandees who ran in the same Seditious Road. THEY are those sayes he who Term themselves Free and are so indeed in as much as they are not subject to Reason A People who see nothing but Faults because they seek after nothing else They blame the Sun because it offends their Eyes and know not that the fault is in their Eyes not in the Sun A Wicked Generation whose Fame lyes only in Defamation their Praise in Blaming their Greatness in Detraction They speak and write what ever comes next so it be bad enough Under a False shew of Liberty they would endeavor to Confound the True One and then to oppress it must follow They have no Means to raise themselves but by taking from others and so that they may appear Great like Women they care not whither it be by Flesh or a Chopine This Kind are the most pernicious to the whole World would sow Confusion make Princes become Tyrants raise Discords in Senates and fill Cities with Calumnies and Finally with Dead Men. I SHOULD say something too before I make an end of these Considerations Priviledge of Parliament concerning the Priviledges of Parliament so much talk't of and so little understood The Maintaining of the Priviledges which belong to that August Assembly is of so necessary and weighty a Consequence that without that the Liberty we have been talking of together with the Religion and Laws could not subsist But however it is to be understood when they are Kept within their due Banks and are Guided by the Law of which they with the King are the Fathers and when they encroach not upon the Dignity and Prerogatives of the Crown They are the Great Horologe by which is seen how Regular the Motions of the whole Nation go but if the Master-workman finds any Deficiency or Irregular Movements 't is in His Power alone to Take it to peices and Correct it Parliaments were ever held extream Necessary and of Great Use in this Land and rendred Us ever the more Formidable esteemed and reverenced Abroad by how much they Adhered to their Head the KING We have 't is true of late within these few Years seen more Change of Parliaments since especially the Discovery of the Popish Plot 77. and 78. than since the Happy Restauration of His Majesty the Reasons induced His Majesty to proceed so with them in their so Frequent Dissolutions is not for every person to enquire after neither shall I for my part pretend to search into much less discover I am only like an Honest Man and Loyal Subject to acquiesce in the Pleasure of my Prince and not to censure the Authority and Reasonableness of His Proceedings in the least particular THE most admirable and Princely Speech which His Majesty was Graciously pleased to make to the Parliament at Oxford will satisfy any reasonable or judicious Person by what Measures He has still proceeded and what Resentments He has been obliged to make of all their Proceedings which in the Second Word of His said Speech He stiles Unwarrantable tho He professes notwithstanding all He is not out of Love with Parliaments and never will as long as they take their Measures by the Law To let that be the Rule by which they Act as it is His and that then whatever they should offer should meet with His Gracious Acceptance IF a Rider put a rough Bit into a Horses Mouth which will not be Governed no Man blames Him for severity they blame the Horse rather because he will not be Ruled and yet Men are apt to call the Prince Cruel who would curb the Senate and call not the Senate Head-strong who will not obey the Prince A Senate or Parliament may Vote Redresses for Grievances suffered by the People whose Representatives they are but it is in the Prince alone to make those Votes Valid or of Force and therefore without His Stamp or Royal Assent no Vote or Resolve can pass currant made by them 'T is their Priviledge to offer Expedients but it is the King's Prerogative to assent to or except against them TO proceed according to the Fundamental Laws of the Land in redressing or at least indeavouring to redress those Grievances which render the Subject Male-content and uneasy and by this means to Accomodate and Silence any Misunder standings or Murmurs may be conceived against the Government and thus procure publick Peace Trahquility and Order I say for this end likewise were Parliaments constituted and thought necessary for the State But all This they were Priviliedged to do with a

all such Laws as were offered Him by His Parliament for the Securing Us against Popery Recolled and particularly for the Qualifying and Distingutshing all Persons in Office or Place of Trust An Act against Popery or Popish Recusants 25 Ch. 2. cap. 2. Which was that Great and memorable Act of which I have spoken of before in another place WHEN that Hellish Design of the Papish Party was happily Discovered How Wisely and Prudently did His Majesty be-have Himself in a Matter of so great an Importance and Surprize A Parliament called upon the Discovery of the Plot. He presently Summons a Parliament and till they could come together He uses all the Means possible for the Searching into and Discovering further the Plot and the Hell-bred Instruments of it to Seize their Persons and Papers and then layes the Whole before them giving them this Assurance His Majestes Speech That He would be alwayes ready to Assist them in the Inquiry into the Plot in any thing where His Concurrence was necessary and accordingly as they desired by several Proclamations Assisting them by some Commanding the Absence of Papists by others Inquiring after Blood with most bountiful Promises of Pardon and Recompence Searching all Counties Securing all Ports to prevent any Flight from and looking into the very Prisons to bring all Malefactors to Justice His Bounty to the Discoverers of the Plot. For the Encouragement of those who came in upon His Proclamation He gave them large Allowances Guards to there Persons c. And this was duly paid at a time when He might have been well excused when His Coffers were empty and His own Faithful m●nial Servants went un-paid which was somewhat hard especially when there are some whose whole Subsistence for themselves and Families depends on their In-come from His Majesties Service Those who were Imprisoned and after a long time expect their Trial and therefore Addressed themselves unto Him by their humble Petitions He returned them no other Answer Than that They should receive Iustice in parliament Of this I have spoken of already in another place WHEN the parliament had judged it necessary to have a War with the French All Trade is forbidden for Three Years by which War with the French He deprived Himself of a great part nay a very considerable part of His Revenue and which proved a very Disadvantageous Act to Himself tho by the Intent of the Act it was designed for the French THE French having been so Victorious in the Low-Countries That it was much feared the Spanish Netherlands would have been quite lost and that now the parliament judged it necessary to Raise an Army to go against them The KING is ready to Grant it and a most Incomparable Body of Men are Raised and Mustered in the Spring An Army raised for Flanders and e're they could be Ship't for Flanders they must be Disbanded in July following and in this likewise He complied Disbanded and as far as the Money allowed for that purpose they were Disbanded Thus will we have an Army we have one Will we have none He Disbands it to gratify Us. But one Thing I shall here take Notice of which is the Great Gare His Majesty took The King's Care of the Army That not one Person from the Officer Chief to the very meanest Souldier throughout the whole Army should be a Roman Catholick and therefore every Individual Person must take the Blessed Sacrament and Test the Daths of Megrance and Supremacy e're they were Listed into His Militia to Fight under His Banner by which Method many Relinquish't and left the Field when every particular Name was to be Book't and would not take it as is well known Nay when the time of their Disbanding came every Man whose Name was found in the Books Inter Protestantes his Pay was Deposited to a Farthing and he Discharged none else AND because the best Security of a Nation are good and wholesome Lawes Never resused an Vseful Bill at any time There hath not One Useful Bill been offered to Him but what He hath readily accepted and past AND yet what unsuitable Returns has He had for all these and many more which I could not com-premise within this narrow Compass His Princely Gracious Concessions Vide The Journals of the House of Commons and most Affectionate Condescentions His Gracious Speeches at the Openings of Our late Short-Liv'd-Parliaments shew His Resentments of their Proceedings and how just He is in them therefore I omit particulars His last Speech to the Parliament at Oxford sufficiently Evidences how great Reason He had to Act as He did in their so frequent Dissolutions Nay since that likewise as another great Instance of His Love to His Loyal and Good Subjects He has publish't His Reasons that led Him to it The King publish't a Declaration which hath infinitely satisfied the Subject the several Addresses from every of the respective Counties Shires Burroughs c. giving some ground to believe Which I hope are as real in Fact as they are in Words and if so England will still be happy notwithstanding all the Machinations and Plots of Pope or Jesuit Phanatick or French being United within our selves with the Bonds of Peace with a Fear of God Honour of His Vice-gerent Our Soveraign Charles Out King a Reverence for His Councels especially His Great Council the Parliament and an Awe and Obedience to His Ministers and a Brotherly Love and Charity one towards another Praying That God would bless His Majesty with Peace and Length of Dayes and the Royal-Family and That God would ever so Direct all the Consultations of His Great Councils the future Parliaments that they may tend to the Glory of His Name the Good of His Church and the Safety Honour and Wellfare of their King and Country To which Let every true Son of the Church of England say alwayes Amen THE CONCLUSION THUS Dear Countrymen I have endeavoured to lay before you a plain and impartial Relation of the present Condition and State of Affairs as they now stand in this Juncture of Time and what Measures and Steps we take to hasten that Ruine which hangs over Our Heads and which will inevitably fall upon Us if we do not endeavour with the utmost Diligence and Industry Christian Prudence and our Happiness and Peace oblige Us to I have shewed you in the Opening of this Discourse what Measures our Fathers took in the late Rebellion towards that Ruine and Destruction which they brought upon themselves and their Posterity How furiously Blind Zeal hurried them upon and and Mistaken Liberty plunged them in Blood and Misery How great a sway Parliaments bore under the Notion of Priviledge amongst the unruly Multitude even to the disowning the Regal Power nay Deposing Our Prince and at last to bring Him to the Block I have also shewed you how little the Dissimilitude is betwixt our and their Proceedings and how near