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
A56216	The oath of pacification, or, A forme of religious accomodation humbly proposed both to King and Parliament : thereby, to set an end to the present miseries and broyles of this discomposed, almost ship-wrackt state.	Parker, Henry, 1604-1652.; England and Wales. Sovereign (1625-1649 : Charles I). His Maiesties declaration to all his loving subjects, after his victories over the Lord Fairfax and Sr. William Waller.	1643 (1643)	Wing P410; ESTC R1447	17,333	32

done hitherto 'T is far then from being a security 't is rather a danger to a state to depend on a Princes generall Oaths when these Oathes depend upon his meere understanding forasmuch as Law does not direct us to the Kings breast as our sole and supreame Tribunall but rather dehorts us from the same as most of all to be distrusted This is a Dilemma not to be excepted against either the KING relyes upon his owne Knowledge and Judgement concerning alterations in Law c. when hee abjures them or not if hee does undertake to know and judge of all alterations and of all differences raised thereupon in Church and State betwixt himselfe and his Subjects then is our Government meerely Arbitrarie more Arbitrarie than the French then are his Edicts and Acts of State our best arrests and Acts of Parliement then does our Law and Religion import no more to us than his meere pleasure Let it but bee maintained that wee must expect satisfaction and decision from the KINGS breast where Poperie and Protestanisme where Prerogative and Libertie confine and border one upon the other and let the maine Secrets and Quaeries of Law bee subjected to the KINGS Cognizance and and for my part I shall ever conceive that enacted Law and publike Right are nothing else but Royall pleasure and one single mans fansie or humour but on the other side if the KING doe presuppose himselfe an incompetent Judge and as lyable to grosse misakes and dangerous deviations in Law and Religion as hee hath beene formerly when wee were almost at an utter losse in both if hee will acknowledge that there may bee as intricate controversies and as undeterminable debates betwixt him and his Subjects hereafter as have beene formerly and as now are at this instant then all that wee can hope for from his Oathes is but this that wee shall bee as much distracted hereafter and as remedilessely torne and divided with dissentions as wee were formerly or are now all our assurance is wee shall bee permitted to remaine and continue in the condition as we were and as wee which makes his Oaths of no effect now are Secondly the next Reason why the KING renouncing by Oath all alterations in Law and Religion does not put us out of all our feares is because hee alwayes sweares for himselfe not his Favourites and Councellors and yet our feares have more respect to his Favourites than to himselfe And so notwithstanding the security which his Oathes gives against any ill intentions or Machichinations from himselfe wee still remaine exposed to ruine by the ill intentions and machinations of such as have a great sway in his Counsaile and affections he himselfe perhaps being neither privie nor confenting thereunto The KING favours not the Irish Rebellion yet such as were the Favourers nay the Plotters and Actors in it find favour and receive power from the King and what difference is it to us whether wee perish by the KINGS hand immediately or by his Favourites mediately by the Kings owne accord directly or by his onely permission indirectly Ireland hath seene more than two hundred thousand Families of Brittish Protestants dispeopled and massacred by treacherous Papists notwithstanning that all this Deluge of Bloud might have beene prevented by the KINGS timely foresight and care and ENGLAND is now falling into the same desolation by the same faction and yet the KING is so farre from withdrawing favour or power from Papists and their accomplices that hee puts more Armes into their hands here and holds further correspondence with them abroad how can wee then but seeme as stocks or more stupid than beasts if we now expect no assurance but an Oath and include none in that Oath but the KING Eli was a good man but an ill Majestrate hee knew better how to moderate his owne affections than to bridle the insolencies of such as were subordinate to him insomuch that that good which hee did by himselfe was farre out-poized by that evill which hee permitted in others and his lenity to his Children became crueltie to the people Some men are much mistaken if there bee not something of Eli in our KINGS disposition for though hee bee esteemed inflexible by such as hee hath once judged adverse to his ends yet hee is much too ductile by those who have once gotten prepossession in his good thoughts Wherefore if his Majestie seriously desires to put us into a Condition of securitie which is the onely remedy of our present distempers hee must rather provide for our indemnitie by protesting against connivence at evill in his Substitutes than doing evill in his own person For he himselfe may be as guiltlesse privately as Eli was and yet in publke wee his Subjects may live as miserably under his Popish Councellors as the Children of Israel did under Hophni and Phineas The Law sayes the KING can doe no wrong and out of its Civilitie it imputes all miscatriages in Government to inferiour agents but policy teaches us that though a Prince in Law bee not questionable for it yet in nature hee is strangely blameable and deeply chargeable when bee makes an ill choyce of inferiour Agents In Law it was the blame of Rehoboam's young Councellors that so unpolitick and unworthy a disgust was given to the great and honourable State of Israel and it was great pitty that they did not suffer for it But it was Rehoboams blame in policie that hee would chuse young Conncellors and hee himselfe was the greatest loser by it The wisedome of SOLOMON would direct him to make use of that Wisedome which is seldome to bee found but in hoarie heads but the more foolish Rehoboam is the more solicitous hee will bee to finde out vaine Consorts fit onely to comply with his owne folly Had there been any particular good which Rehoboam might have attained too by the prejudice of his Subjects the old Councellors in probabilitie would have advised him to it for they seemed to take more care of the KING than of the people as they had done in their old Masters dayes to the danger of the nex Successor But such is the temeritie of these green headed Statists that they neyther ayme at the good of the people nor of the KING They seemed to imagine that it was a sufficient recommendation of a thing to a Prince to represent it as disadvantagious to the People and in this they failed not to please their rash Lord who was so farre from giving satisfaction to the People as that hee thought it profitable to him to purchase their displeasure though with the imminent hazard of his owne Crowne wherefore it does not seeme so probable that Rehoboham did take preposterous courses because hee hapned upon preposterous Counsellors as that hee did chuse preposterous Councellors because he did affectedly addict himselfe to preposterous Courses And when the main fault was in his will rather then his understanding 't was easie for him to erre in the most