Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A45120
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Advice before it be too late: or, A breviate for the convention humbly presented to the Lords and Commons of England.
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Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing H3665; ESTC R220351
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6,613
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4
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Advice before it be too Late OR A BREVIATE for the CONVENTION Humbly Represented to the LORDS and COMMONS of ENGLAND WHEREAS We cannot but be made very apprehensive by those several efficacious Papers such as Dr. B.'s Mr. F.'s A Word to the Wise and another as close Four Questions Debated and the like which go about lest the swaying Part of the Nation should be so much intent upon One Thing as that Others be neglected or lest they be so taken up with putting the Crown upon an Head most deserving it as that they forget what is to be done first which is The Consideration of the Constitution of the Realm and the declaring that Constitution before any Person be Admitted into actual Regiment it being common for Those that look but on One Thing to be too sudden We therefore judg it meet That this ensuing Sheet which was in a few Copies given to some Members of the Houses for preventing that Evil should also be made Publick to go Abroad with such Papers as Those of the former Nature For as it is Wise in a People when they make any Compact whether with their Rulers or Others that though they believe the Party they deal with to be the Best in the World To treat with him for all that and be as Punctual upon the Terms to make all secure as if they were dealing with the Worst So it is also Honest for Them in seeking the Good of their Country to deny Self-Interest and to prefer the Benefiting a Nation before the Magnifying any Single Person whatsoever The BREVIATE THE People of this Nation are by Birth a Free People who are born to a Liberty of Person and Propriety in their Goods and Lands and therefore England is rightly cal'd a Free State. To understand the Government we must know that these Two things are always to be distinguished The Constitution and The Administration The Constitution of a Government does lye in the Original Agreement of the People which they make between Themselves or with their intended Governour or Governours before the Government be set up whether there be None before or the Former at an end When the People are in such a State while there is no Order of Superiority or Inferiority introduced it is called a Community When a Ruler is chose so that there is a Ruling and Ruled Part it is a Society or called a Common-Wealth Let us suppose a Company of Families that having no dependance on one another nor any one having Power over the other yet living near each other do find it convenient to join together into a Society for mutual Defence against some Foreign Enemy or for the reaping several Advantages which they shall receive by it The Heads or Representatives of these Families assemble to consider what is to be done in order to these Ends. Three things more especially they must consult upon What Government as tâ— the Sort or Kind is best for them Who shall be Governour or Governours And by what Laws or Rules they shall Govern who are entrusted with the Supreme Power And more particularly in relation to what measure of it they will allow them to have over their Persons and Estates to use them as they have Occasion for the Publick Good. For when they are yet Free in Both the Governour can have power so far but no farther than they at first Consent Whatsoever Reservations of Liberty the People make in their Agreement these are to be look'd upon as their Rights by the Laws of the Constitution and Essential there unto and consequently inviolable by any of these Governours whom they set up for the Administration the very Laws of the Administration being void so far as they interfere with any of those of the Constitution The Constitution and Laws there of being agreed upon and it being impossible for humane Prudence to fore-see all Accidents which must be provided for therefore as they arise the Administration necessarily must lye in these two things The making farther Laws subordinate still to those fore-priz'd as occasion requires and seeing them Executed that is in Legislation and Judgement The One is the Business of the Supreme Authority the Other of the Inferior Magistrates or Officers and Executioners of the same according to that Fundamental Agreement made by the People Our Government now as Constituted in order to this Administration is we know a mixt Government A Government is known to be pure or mixt by the placing the Supreme Authority If the People place it singly in the King or singly in the Nobles or singly in the People then it is a pure Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy But when it is placed in all Three it is a Mixt Government as Ours is where there are no laws in the Administration made but by King Lords Commons These things I pursue only so far as is necessary to the reaching my main purpose and the leading me to a right Discernment of the present Condition into which we are now brought in regard to this said Government The Supreme Power of the Nation being placed in a Parliament which is a Corporation of King Lords and Commons that is The Supreme Authority residing in King Lords and Commons as One Corporation there does appear at this Conjuncture a Dissolution of the Government A Dissolution manifestly as to the Exercise of it This Appearance does â—rise from the opening of the last Scene For the King being now gone gone from his People and departing from his Government that One Corporation we speak of is broke so that there remains now no subject for that supreme Authority It being evident that a Parliament wherein an Essential point of our Constitution does consist cannot now be Assembled And the Providence of GOD it self hath extraordinarily determin'd our Case If a King dies he hath a Successor and the Right devolves upon Him but whilst the King lives he hath no Successor and the Right remaining in Him and no Other and he being divided from his Lords and Commons the Subject of the Supreme Power or this One Corporation whereof the King is a Chief Essential and Constituent Part does perfectly cease and must necessarily Cause a Dissolution I choose not to found this upon what does more convince Others which comes to this Account The King by his frequent Malversation in the Government and rooted Design of subverting our Religions and Civil Rights for the Introduction of Arbitrary Power and Popery which being aggravated by such an Endeavour as the destroying that Share in the Government which every Commoner hath that hath Right to choose his Representative in Parliament by his Garbling Corporations and so evacuating this Liberty in effect and by such an Endeavour also as the exterminating his Protestant Subjects seeing that Religion which he would have introduced is such as by the Principles of it if it comes into Domination must do so to all Hereticks and thereupon may He be look'd on no longer as
Rex but Hostis and Hostis Publicus Besides the subjecting us to a Foreign Jurisdiction and the very Changing the Government by that indefinite Dispensing Power over the Laws as was carved to him by his Judges from Regal to Despotical It is Judged by them that he is fallen thereupon from his Royal Dignity and that the Vniversality thereby have Warrant not only to defend themselves against Him but by Vertue of that Sanction which is tacitly implyed in the Laws of the Constitution to proceed on to take the Forfeiture He hath made of his Government and Depose Him For it is a fond thing think they to imagine any Laws without a Sanction and impossible there should be any other Sanction in Treaties between Free Nations or between a Free People and the Governor they set over Themselves than Force to be used by the Parties concern'd there being no Third Party on Earth to appeal to in such Cases However this be it being taken for granted That the Government is dissolved and I suppose upon that preceding Account of the One Corporation I say being broke the Supreme Authority that lay before in the Three as united in One does escheat or fall to the Community who must therefore choose a new Subject for that Power and it lies at their Discretion to place it in what Subject they please They may lodge it in the Lords and Commons alone without a King if they think that Government best the matter lies altogether upon their Agreement and Consent I suppose it most likely that they will agree to place it again in a Monarch Lords and Commons the Person only left at Choice and Care had to prevent all Danger of Law in the Case according to the Ancient Constitution Though who can know the Mind of a Nation when once come together if he knows his own Mind There is one thing we have now Opportunity to obtain which we can never recover again if it be 〈◊〉 and that is what His Highness the Prince of â—â—anâ—â— hath made One of his Two Designs The Delivery of the People from Slavery which can never be done effectually and radically but upon this Advantage The Delivering us from Popery is contained in the Setling our Religion and That being a Work of great length is the business more properly of a Parliament but This is a thing must be done by the Community and consequently by those that are the Representatives of it a Convention so Called in regard to a Higher Capacity hereunto and not a Parliament for that represents the People not as in a Community but as in a Common-wealth where there is pars imperans as well as subdita which now is not A Parliament makes Laws for the Administration but the People as in a Community makes Laws for the Constitution I would therefore humbly offer it to the Consideration of Those who shall meet as Members of this Convention That in order to the Effect premised they do but agree and pitch upon this One certain Point of good Polity That where they place the Supreme Authority they lay also the Rights or Properties of it that is the Jura Majestatis Majestas being Maxima Potestas all together The Rights of Majesty or the Supreme Power are mainly these The First is Legislation or making Laws and this undoubtedly lies in a Parliament The next is the Power of raising Arms or Armies or the Militia the Power of making Peace and War or the Power of the Sword which is necessary to maintain those Laws The Third is a Power over our Estates or the Purse or raising Money which must maintain the Sword. A Fourth is the Power of choosing Magistrates to rule Us according to these Laws such as Judges and Sheriffs to name no other A Fifth is the last Appeal Now let but the Power of the Militia and choosing Magistrates be laid where Legislation is and we shall be fundamentally delivered from all Slavery for ever in the Nation If we be Enslaved or oppressed by any Prince for the Time to come it must be either by Force or by Injustice We cannot be oppressed by Force because no Forces then can be raised by him but by a Parliament He cannot rule by an Army or by Violence for the Militia is in the Lords and Commons as well as in Him and They will not let him do so We cannot be oppressed with Injustice for the Judges and Officers entrustâ—d with the Execution of Justice shall be â—beâ—oâ— also by them and they will look 〈…〉 It is true while no Parliameâ—◠〈…〉 by Vertue of the Executive 〈…〉 â—â—â—ay raise Arms and put in Oâ—◠〈…〉 there is neâ—d but Both these are 〈…〉 the Controul of the next Parliamen◠〈…〉 therefore to sit often by ancient Statâ—◠〈…〉 being no War to be levied nor Magistrates Confirmed without their Approbation Let us remember the State we are in a State that puts the Supreme Power in the hands of the People to place it as they will and therefore to bound and limit it as they see fit for the publick Utility and if they do it not Now the Ages to come will have occasion to blame them for ever When the supreme Power is upon the disposing if they do not take this Item as part of their proper Work To bind the Descent of it to a Protestant I shall blame them But I shall do so much more if after the danger we have been in of Arbitrary Domination and Popery by the King 's raising Arms and putting Judges in and out at his Pleasure they do not take more care of the Supreme Power to lay it and its Rights better together Especially seeing nothing can indeed be That in Nature which it is without its Properties This is uniform I must persist to the Nature of Government That where the Supreme Authority is there must be its Prerogatives and where the chief or principal Rights of it is there should all the rest which depend upon and belong to it be placed also Where Legislation is lodged there should the Militia there should the Power of making Judges to name nothing more than serves my turn be lodged also It is this hath been the great Declension Fault or Defect of our English Common-wealth That the People have suffered these Rights of Soveraignty to come to be divided arising we must conceive from the Administration that is Mal Administration as appears for Example in the Militia which upon the fresh coming in of the Late King was in two or three hot Acts declared to Be and ever to have Been in the King when both the Assertion was gross Flattery and such Acts void as fundamentally repugnant with the constitution There is one Difficulty to be thought on and that is the Negative Voice of the Prince in his Parliament The Lords and Commons may agree upon some Law for the Publick Benefit and the King alone may refuse to pass it If he be obstinate this is a great