Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	according_a	king_n	law_n	1,630	5	4.7476	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45081	A serious epistle to Mr. William Prynne wherein is interwoven an answer to a late book of his, the title whereof is inserted in the next leafe. By J. Hall, of Grays-Inne.	Hall, John, 1627-1656.	1649 (1649)	Wing H359A; ESTC R216816	22,967	36

liberty Notwithstanding they often brought Laws to make a Dictator who had an unlimited power Nor have you Reason to storme with this Parliament for voting the exclusion of part of their Members whereof your selfe were one that had concurred in dangerous and destructive pernicious Votes And now you may see how unsound your Proposition was and how utterly the State of the whole Syllogi●me is altered for if you will but take along with you what hath been said you will find their was an huge deal of Equivocation and Fallacy in the words of Parliament and whole Realme and therefore the whole ought thus to be conceived That by the Fundamentall Laws of the Nation what Tax is Imposed by the C●mmons of the Realme in a free and f●ll Parliament by Act of Parliament and none other is lawfull But this Tax of 90000. l. per mensem was thus Imposed Ergo it ought c. The Proposition is manifest out of what hath bee● said to the Assumption for the present I shall say thus much That since King and Lords are no essentiall parts of it and that they make up the customary number we have no Reason to disavow them on that Tophick some other Reason then must we search and see whither they were either lawfully called or else since their calling some act either done by themselves or others have in Law dissolved them But for the Legallity of their Assembling your self are so far from denying that you found some Arguments upon it I further justifie that they immediatly were entrusted by the people and that the Kings did put them into a course not give them Authority for if it had then must all power Immedidately flow from the King which we have deny'd and therefore though the Right of the people were at that time c●og'd with that load there is no Reason but they might when they could shake it off and restore themselves to those Priviledges nature endowed them with And therefore they must necessarily remain anauthoritative Body after the decollation of the King as not sitting by him But it is a question according to the word of the Law whither they ever can be dissolved or no the King not being alive to dissolve them Howsoever you can distinguish a King in the abstract and concret and know that it is not his Personall presence adds any thing to them for otherwise your own books must rise up against you and all their actions since the Kings de●ertion will prove un-Parliamentary We must see if there be any thing that in Law dissolved them since they are in origine a lawfull Assembly and that must either be by the King themselves or some externall power By the King it must be either by some act of his and that I think you are not ready to say or by his remotion and that we have just now answered if by themselves why ●it they or shew me an Act or Ordinance of theirs why they should not if from externall ●●rce externall force I say may violate it but cannot dissolve it since the Speaker declar'd his opinion two years agoe that nothing could dissolve this Parliament But an Act of Parliament which you cannot produce either in your own sence or mine And now we see what miracles you have perform'd how according to your manner you have es●oygn'd from the question for it is not the Recitall of a many Impertin●nt Presidents with any slavish head that has but the p●tience to collect may muster up to wearinesse But a right stating and deduction of things and a Generall view of the question in its whole latitude that must convince and enforce in these cases For producing authorities though it may be of excellent use in proving matter of fact or that things were so yet it is not of much concernment when matter of right or reason falls under dispute For whosoever do's rightly converse with the writings Records of former times cannot bu● know that since a many things are spoken out of the sence and interest of the times A many things through decourse of affaires are altered from their Primitive reason a many things imperfectly related and circumstances of great light often omitted they are not at all authoritative to after times save where a cleer and undeniable analogy of reason do's apply and enforce them But least you may thinke I fraudulently elude the strength of your arguments by these generall avisos I care not much if I put them I meane the strength and heart of them for you are very fatall in setting down things at length into a Catalogue briefly overthrowing those that are not Immediatly Implicitly or peremp●orily answered in the former pages and putting the others to no other trouble but a bare rehersall as things that carry their confutations in their bowells Your First Reason is The Parliament is dissolved by death of the King 2. Or supposing it in being yet the Lords a●●ented not 3. Suppose the Commons alone co●ld Impose a Tax yet now the House is neither full n●r free if you will give every man leave to be Judge of his own liberty they can the best tell what they think of theirs an● they have declar'd themselves free from any feare or Restraint and certainly it is one shrewd signe of it in that they have performed that under that which you call aw which none of their Predecessors in all their pretended l●●erty and fullnesse could ever atchieve and if you say they are not full and free because all their Members doe not actually sit For my part I hold them freer as being eas'd of so oppressive an humour that so long Rendred their Counsells abortive or unprosperous yet in poi●t of reason I see not why he should be entrusted with the liberty of a Country that is an enemy to it Or admitted into a Counsell whose ruine he is both by his i●terest and opinion obliged to endeavour Though the tendernesse of the Parliament is such that they Re●dmit all such as they can either with surety or safety and the obstinacy of the absent Gentlemen is such that they refuse to comply with the ways of providence and come into action rather suspending themselves then being suspended 4. Though it should oblige those places whose Knights Citi●ens Burgesses sit yet it cannot those whose c. sit not Now ou● of all your Presidents find me one that shall warrant this distinction for that of the writ of wast will not doe for upon the same reason the County o●Dur●am or such Burroughs as have no Members to sit for them are not tyed by any act of Parliament as not consenting to it and for any thing I see the same reason should hold in those Counties or places whose Representatives should be for some unquestionable crime thrust out of the House Nay why may not this extend to absent Members But I pray Sir consider that the House of Commons must be considered as a collected body and