Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	act_n	king_n	power_n	5,492	5	5.0298	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44787	Observations upon a late libel, called A letter from a person of quality to his friend, concerning the Kings declaration, &c.	Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.	1681 (1681)	Wing H316; ESTC R11992	13,588	8

to blame in case he findeth it so if he doth not comply with them but if he judge otherwise he hath as much right to refuse as they can pretend to have to ask But if it must be so that not only the real but the pretended fears of some angry men who may have influence enough to mislead an Assembly not sufficiently informed are to have such an Authority that the Kings Negative to them is disallowed it is such a change of the Constitution that the Legislative Power is wholly melted down into one of the parts that hath yet no power to do any Act that is binding without the concurrence of the Lords and the Kings Royal Assent This doth so much out-go even our modern Plato that it will be a harder matter than perhaps these Gentlemen think to get either the King or the Nation to consent to it Men are not so well edified with the practice of the Commons in this last Age or the justice that hath been usually distributed by their Sovereign Committees as to devolve the whole power into their hands thinking it much better lodged where it is by the present Constitution But it is said the Commons by their late Methods do not fine men nor deprive them of Life Liberty Lands or Offices beneficial I would first ask is it not a Fine and to many men the worst kind of Fine to be excluded from the lawful advantages every Subject is born to Would not a Merchant think it a Fine if he were sentenced never to go to Sea again Or to come nearer Would not these very men of Law who will have this pass upon us take it unkindly and think it a Fine if they were excluded from all Practice 'T is true if they would always argue for their Clients as they do now for the Commons their loss perhaps might not be very great but presuming better things of them I conclude the sentence would be very heavy and that they would think it so Concerning Life if the definition of an enemy to King and Kingdom is certain creature that is not fit to live then the Commons have done all they can to take away the lives of those they have so sentenced except they had sent a select Committe to strangle them which had not been so convenient till the Laws are removed which would have made it Murther so that they must either say that a man who doth what lieth in him to kill me meaneth no hurt to my life which is but indifferent sense or they must confess there was plain Murther in the intention of those Votes For to borrow their own stile it may be resolved by the authority of impartial reason that whosoever Voted any of those persons enemies to King and Kingdom with any other intent than that the said Persons should be absolutely destroyed is a Mad-man an Ideot a Promoter of Lunacy and an enemy to Common Sense Then for Liberty see whether that is touched or no. If Liberty signifieth a power of doing every lawful act and that it is a lawful act for every Subject to have access to his Prince then without some act committed to forfeit that common right it is a wrong in any one man or any number of men to Address to the King for the incapacitating any one man in this case Sure men will not say our Liberty is not invaded except we are thrown neck and heels into a Dungeon It is a tenderer thing than that cometh to and it hath been formerly judged even by a House of Commons that mens being sent away against their wills upon Forein Employment was a Confinement By this it may appear that it is possible to make an unjust Demand as well as to give an unjust Sentence And though the King hath power to refuse any thing that is asked of him whatever some men would persuade us to the contrary yet that doth neither absolve the Commons nor any other man from the guilt of making a request that is not just nor from the folly of making one that is not pertinent Let us see now whether even mens Lands would not have been reached by these Votes if these good Gentlemen might have had their will for by the same rule that a true Protestant Jury must have been directed by them not to find it Murther in any man to kill an enemy to King and Kingdom they must upon any dispute of title of Land give it without going from the Bar against any man so branded and proclaimed Sure a French or Dutch-man at a time when they are in open War with us would hardly hope to carry a cause against an English-man in Westminster-Hall no more is a man to pretend whilst under a Character that putteth him into a state of Hostility with England to keep up a suit against a Neighhor or expect the benefit of the Law which is to give no protection to publick Enemies As to Offices beneficial it must be confessed they shew some gentleness at last and give so much indulgence to those they have displaced by their Votes that I do not see but any of them may upon due application and expressive and fit remorse for the insolence of resisting their high and mighty pleasure be admitted to be a Constable or Headborough in Wales or Cumberland or some such unexpected Office in which the Publick State Affairs are not immediately concerned where they may exercise their Magistracy and enjoy their dignity without prejudice to the Nation This Grace seemeth the fitter to be acknowledged not only because it is perhaps the first evidence that party hath given of their good nature but because they do in this deal more gently with those against whom they have Voted than they do with his Majesty himself as well as they love him for by what I can perceive the King is only to eat and drink and perform some offices of nature They are kind men but it was not artificially done to leave it out that A King is to have some Pocket-money for play things since it is but reasonable for them to use a thing kindly which if they can have in their power they intend to make so good use of That wise and great Princes have sometimes hearkened to Addresses of this kind is not truer than that they have oftner denied them for the King to do in all cases like a wise and a great Prince as it is a general proposition all who do not know him have reason to wish it and all who do have very good grounds to hope it But as far as one sort of men may be concerned in their own particulars I guess wrong if it would not be too fatal a thing to them ever to joyn in Prayer for it The Votes to forbid men to lend the King money are to these mens thinking not only justifiable but very wise ones too These are Epithetes which it seemeth belong to every thing they do or else I would ask

are troubled that the Declaration should be read in Churches from which this Observation naturally ariseth that they apprehend the making it so publick may both expose them and do the King right to the People else sure they would not of a suddain be so well natured as to discourage the reading it if they had thought the weakness of the Argument might have brought any disadvantage upon the King This Paper hath laid down Maxims that are very new in our Constitution The King can make no ill Orders because they must be by advice of his Council This is a new Government and the Monarchy put so much into the Venetian shape that a man would have much ado to distinguish them It will be granted that the King is to hear the Advice of his Council but for him to be bound by it would make that greater than the Parliament where if the King hath right to refuse any Bill that is offered sure he may in Council reject any Opinion I am confident it is not their meaning to attribute such an Authority to the present Council I am persuaded it is far from their thoughts to wish the King should be swayed by a number of men who are so little in their favour and especially since it wanteth the help of those whose abilities and other Vertues in their opinion did formerly support it This Complement must therefore be intended for another Council a confiding Council that is to be made up with the rest of the New Model we may suppose is prepared against the Bill of Exclusion is pass'd and then they do not care how much power they give to themselves or take away from the King To excuse the not giving Money for Tangier they pretend they could not be secure of its being disposed to that use It is hard they should expect the world should believe them in this when it is certain they do not believe themselves The experience we have had in our own time may sufficiently convince them of the injustice of that Objection and to say Paper Laws are nothing is to say our Liberties and Properties are nothing since we hold them chiefly by that tenure But the truth is these men would impose upon us that an Act of Parliament will secure nothing they do not like and do every thing they have a mind to For instance An Act for excluding the Duke is all-sufficient An Act for limiting him Impossible An Act of Exclusion will secure all All other Laws are but Cobwebs not to be relied upon These Riddles are delivered to us with such authority that we are to receive them as Oracles and it is become a mortal sin for any man to question the sense of them This slender way of reasoning being so openly liable to consutation and the disguise so thin that every body must see through it they have recourse to that common place the PLOT for a Butteress and a support to Arguments that are too weak to bear up themselves It is a retreat when they are beaten in Dispute an answer to any question at a pinch it is but saying there is a horrid Plot against our Religion the Kings Life is in danger the Pilgrims are coming from St. Jago and the Earl of Shaftsbury is to be murthered and the Popular Champion triumpheth without the help of Sense against his Adversary That there hath been a Plot is as certain as that the men who most exclaim against it are of all men living the most unwilling to part with it they cherish and nurse it up with more care than the Jesuites themselves they hug it so fast that it sheweth how much they value it as the dear instrument they make use of to destroy the Government The Day of Judgment would not be much more terrible to some men how little soever they are prepared for it than that day which should wind up the bottom of this beloved Plot that men might come into their wits again Ungrateful men then that speak ill of the only thing in this world that supporteth them But the good men in their hearts are far from meaning it any harm Were the Plot once over the Earl of Shaftsbury would be quite degraded lose his respect at Wapping and his authority in the Coffee-Houses His Lordship would put off his dissembling-shape and in this be a true mourner for never man could have a greater loss and no doubt it would out of grief make him retire into some hidden corner rather than see himself reduced to the miserable necessity of being quiet for want of sufficient matter to trouble himself and the world with so that when these men pretend to desire an end of the Plot it is a Jest fitter for a Smile than an Answer It is said Dangerfield was a Rogue granted and yet as I hear this Rogue was brought into both Houses just before the Debate to whip them up into the Bill of Exclusion but now they tell a very strange thing which is that Dangerfield is become truly honest It is much and in my opinion it is a lower kind of Transubstantiation to believe Dangerfield is honest when nothing in visible but the Knave That this man should be made honest would be a mighty Cure and such a one as some of his Doctors would be loth to work upon themselves In the mean time I cannot but put them in mind that it looketh a little Popish not only to give a general Indulgence to such a known sinner but immediately to make a Saint of him If the Gathered Churches can do such Miracles it is well but if they should endeavour to put false ones upon the world it might disparage their prudence and lessen their reputation of which I am so tender that in kindness to them I give them this warning of it It is true that in some respects the Maxim is not inconvenient for these good men That there can be neither Fools nor Rascals on their side and that the being of their opinion like the Crown taketh away all Defects By virtue of this charm Dr. Oats is a Divine Mr. Mountague a Protestant Lord Lovelace a Saint Sir Thomas Armstrong a Patriot and Sir Harry Capel a Statesman I cannot but take notice of the fears the Earl of Shaftsbury hath for himself and in good nature would be glad to ease him of them in order to it I beg of him to believe the Papists are as tender of his life as his Lordship is of the Plot and for the same reason because he is of use to them he hath absolutely saved them by spoiling a good Plot and dressing it so scurvily by the help of his under-Cook that now it maketh even the best mens stomachs rise at it He serveth up things so much above the strongest digestion that few men can be persuaded to swallow them So that a man may affirm that if it was a folly in the Papists to kill Sir Edmond Godfrey it would be a madness