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
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