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	repeal_v	2,928	5	12.0628	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90192	A declaration of the Lord Broghil, and the officers of the army of Ireland in the province of Munster	Orrery, Roger Boyle, Earl of, 1621-1679.; Ireland. Army.	1660 (1660)	Wing O475; Thomason 669.f.24[26]; ESTC R211713	6,282	1

A Declaration of the Lord BROGHIL and the Officers of the Army of Ireland in the Province of Munster AS the Freedom of Parliaments is their undoubted Right so are our utmost endeavours for restoring them unto and preserving them in their Freedom our undoubted Duty Our Interest also is involved in our Duty and if we truly love that we cannot decline this since whosoever enquires into the Foundations of his own Freedom his Posterities and his Countries in a Free and Full Parliament as in a common Center will find them all to meet And therefore he that is not free in his Representative hath little reason to hope he shall be so in his Person or Property The Theory of this truth hath not been more believed by other Nations than the Practick of it hath been sadly felt by Ours For ever since the first violence which was put upon the Authority of Parliament in 1648 we have been without Foundation it having cost us more Bloud and Treasure to maintain confusions than ever it did cost any former Age to free it self out of them For whilst we were fighting for our Properties and Liberties we have even almost in our successes lost both and whilst we contended for Reformation in Religion we have almost lost the very Being and Life of it More Heresies and Schisms being introduced whilst the highest Light was pretended to than ever the darkest times were involved in and whilst we seemingly aspired to Perfectness we actually lost that Charity which is the Bond of it becoming thereby a reproach to our selves and a derision to that Protestant part of the World unto which whilst our Supreme Authority was inviolated we were a Bulwark the Universities and Schools of Learning in our Nations having been looked more after to poyson them than to keep them sound that not only our Streams might be impure but even our Fountains many have been employed to teach who stood in need to be taught and the Legal Maintenance of the Ministery of the Gospel conferred on Men unable unwilling or unfit to dispense it who had less ill deserved a Maintenance for their Silence than their Speaking Never greater Taxes raised for Armies and Fleets and never Fleets and Armies more in Arrear Taxes and Impositions laid which past Ages never knew and many thousand Families of the present have been beggered by Powers have made Laws and subsequent Powers disown'd and null'd what the preceding Powers had Acted that now the Questions are not so many What is the meaning of the Law as What is a Law whereby that is become a Subject of Debate which formerly was a Rule for ending of it All which are yet inseparable Effects of such a Cause for whilst an Authority it self is disputed their Acts will always be the like and whilst many are unrepresented in making of Laws few will be satisfied to be obliged by them And what is Enacted by any but a Full and Free Parliament will always be Questioned if not Repealed when such an One doth sit nor can it be believed that the Laws of a Parliament the very much greater part of whose Members are kept out without Impeachment or Tryal will ever pass the Test of a Free Parliament lest thereby they should encourage others to serve them in like kind These sad Miseries and these certain Truths made us believe we hazarded more in submitting to that Force that was so lately over us than in taking up Arms to oppose it and thereby endeavouring the Restauration of the Parliaments Authority in which God was pleased so to own the duty of our endeavours that in a few days we were not only at unity among our selves but even able and willing to offer our assistance to our Brethren in England and Scotland which had it been needed it had been as readily sent as offered But we must confess we could hardly so much as imagine that those Members which had so recently felt and justly exclaimed against a Force upon themselves would when it was taken off have deny'd their Brethren to participate in that right they saw the three Nations had engaged their All to restore them unto If it be a justice to declare for the restoring of some Parliament Members under a Force 't is a greater justice to appear for the restoring of all that are under it yea as much as the whole is preferrable to a part so much greater is the duty of this declaring than of that We were more than hopeful that when the Cause ceased the Effect would do the like and when the Rebellious part of the Army was broken those Members would have been re-admitted which hitherto we were made believe were kept out only by it The happiness of the now-Members Restauration and of the suppressing of those Forces which lately had interrupted them could not have been greater than the Honour they would have acquired in making those other Members which had participated with them in their Sufferings to have also participated in their Restitution We were loath by an Address of that nature to have lessened the beauty of their expected performance and had rather have enjoyed the Right and happiness of having this Parliament Full and Free as the Product of the Justice of this present House than as any Effect of Our Sollicitations When the violence was put upon the Parliament in 1648 we did with much contentment observe how sollicitous those that sate were to have it taken off thereby asserting their Rights though they were denied the actual enjoyment of them which made us the more chearfully engage our selves to restore those to the Power of doing Justice who then manifested they wanted not the Will It being a crime too great to enter into our beliefs That they asked because they were sure to be deny'd and would approve when they had the power what they condemned when they had not the power which though then objected against them by many we did not then credit and we wish we never since had cause to believe Nor was it unobservable that though such Members of theirs as have been lately put out of the House by them as Sir Hen. Vane and others were known to be guilty of joyning with that Rebellious part of the Army yet they admitted them to sit in the House till particular Charges were brought in against every one of them they heard and judged by the House If such be not the true and antient manner of proceeding against Members of Parliament why was it practised to those so deeply guilty and if it be why is it deny'd to others who have not hitherto appeared to be so Doubtless such as were kept out of the House by a Rebellious part of the Army merited at least as much favour and justice as those who joyned with it We do the more deplore such a Procedure because from it Pleas have been raised for the like violence acted on the Members now sitting and happy are those who condemn not