Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	house_n	king_n	lord_n	2,914	5	3.9837	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87530	A looking-glasse for the Parliament. Wherein they may see the face of their unjust, illegall, treasonous and rebellious practices, 1 Against Almighty God. 2 Against their King. 3 Against the fundamentall lawes of the kingdome. 4 Against their own oaths and covenants. Argued betwixt two learned judges, the one remaining an exile beyond the seas, the other a prisoner for his allegiance and fidelity to his King and country.	Jenkins, David, 1582-1663.; R. H.; Heath, Robert, Sir, 1575-1649, attributed name.	1648 (1648)	Wing J595; Thomason E427_17; ESTC R202656	43,342	52

A Looking-glasse FOR THE PARLIAMENT Wherein they may see the Face of their UNJUST ILLEGALL TREASONOUS and REBELLIOUS PRACTICES 1 Against Almighty GOD 2 Against their KING 3 Against the Fundamentall LAWES of the Kingdome 4 Against their own Oaths and Covenants Argued betwixt Two Learned JUDGES the one remaining an exile beyond the Seas the other a Prisoner for his Allegiance and Fidelity to his KING and COUNTRY Printed in the Eighth yeer of the Parliaments Tyranny and Oppression 1648. To the Reader COURTEOUS READER WHosoever thou art that shalt peruse this insuing Discourse we desire thee to doe it with Candor and without prejudice of opinion before thou hast warily read it seriously consider it and advisedly weighed it and when thou hast so done if thou shalt approve of it practice it if thon doest not let us receive thy modest reproof in writing and informe us better by more learned and infallible Arguments of the truth in those grounds we have laid down to our selves and we shall hold our selves much obliged unto thee and remaine Studious to doe thee good D. I. R. H. Dated Feb. 7. An. D. 1648. A LOOKING GLASSE for the PARLIAMENT IVDGE SIR I Must confesse to you that I doe apprehend that there is a Legislative Power in the Parliament but I take it to be in sensu conjuncto not in sensu diviso in a sense when the KING is joyned to both Houses of Parliament not when he is divided from them either in his Will or Person For neither House by it self or both Houses together have Power to make a Law to binde the Subject without the Royall assent now the Legislative Power is nothing else but a Power to repeal old Lawes or to make new ones that shall binde the Subject neither can the KING by himself repeal any established or make any Law binding to the subject without the preparation or assent of both Houses not joyning with any one House make a Law or Ordinance to binde the other nor repeal any Law whatsoever and I am very confident you cannot shew me an authority in our Laws to the contaary But you will peradventure say That the KING will fully absent himself from both his Houses of Parliament and that thereupon his Power is inherent in and devolved to the Parliament If you should make this objection besides what you will finde hereafter expressed as touching this question the practice of all times shew the contrary for as on the one part if he be personally present with his Parl. yet he may be wilfully absent or absent in his will as if he answer to any bill promoted to him Le Roy s●avisera or the King will advise upon it it stands at present for a negation of the bill and thereby it is made incapable that Session to be an Act so on the contrary part if the King be absent from both Houses of Parliament in person hee may be present in his will that is if his person were at York and both Houses sitting at Westminster and they should send him Bills to signe which he should accept of and indorse this upon them Le Roy le Veut or the King wills this is an affirmation of those bills and makes them Acts of Parliament which not only proves that one or both Houses by themselves have not legislative power without the King for as to the making of Lawes they have but a preparatory power to frame and present bills for the Royall signature and approbation but also that if the King bee absent in person from them either willingly or by occasion of necessity his legislative power is not representatively lodged in or devolved unto one or both Houses of Parliament I will agree with that great lover of Parliaments and learned Father of the Law Sir Edward Cooke in the fourth part of his Institutes p. 6. That a Parliament cannot begin or be held but either in the Kings person or by representation By representation two wayes either by a Guardian of England by Letters-patents under the Great Seale when the King is in remotis out of the Realme or by commission under the Great Seale to certaine Lords of Parliament representing the Kings person he being within the Realme by reason of some infirmity so that we hereby conclude that the King is not represented in Parliament of common course but only by speciall Commission in one of these two causes in the first of which cases Edward Duke of Cornewall and Earle of Chester held a Parliament in 24. E. 3. for King Edw. the third And John Duke of Bedford brother and Lieutenant to the King and Guardian of England held a Parliament as Guardian of England in the fifth year of King H. the fifth and in the second case in 3. E. 4. a Parliament was begunne in the presence of the King and prorogued untill a further day And when William Arch-bishop of York the Kings Commissary by Letters-patents held the same Parliament and adjourned the same the cause of the said prorogation being because the King was inforced to goe into Glocestershire to represse a Rebellion there so in 28. Eli. Queen Elizabeth by her Commission did by her Letters-patents authorise John Whit gift Arch-bishop of Canterbury William Baron of Burleigh Lord Treasurer and Henry Earle of Darby to begin hold and prorogue a Parliament and this Commission is entred in the Journall booke of the Lords house over which is written Domina Regina representatur per comissionarios viz. That our Lady the Queene is represented by her Commissioners which precedents in both cases plainely prove that the King is not of course representatively in Parliament nor his power lodged there but by his speciall Commissions or Letters Patents which may suffice as to this point but for those parts of your motives that the power of both Houses is above the Kings you shall find answered unto hereafter And whereas you write that the Scots have delivered up the King and that he is a Prisoner and his Person at their disposition that the City and Parliament are united that the whole strength of the Kingdome is in their hands that Bishops will be rooted out their Lands sold and Presbyterian government setled which I conceive you alledge as arguments to perswade me to compound and take the Oathes you mention these are rather arguments of force and fraude by all zealous lovers of honour Justice and Piety to be resisted and withstood then of truth and reason tobe submittd unto and looke more like arguments of Sutors Hill then Westminster Hall but if you lay them before me as perswasions of feare and terrour I answer you in the words of King David that you may see how vaine these conceits are Psal. 2. The Princes of the earth stand up and take councell against the Lord and against his Anoynted saying Let us breake their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us he that dwelleth in Heaven shall laugh them to scorne

Quia nullis claustris coercetur nullis metis refraenatur nullis finibus premitur it ought not to bee constrained or bridled with any bonds nor restrained to any place for a man though he may abjure his Country or his Kingdome yet he cannot abjure his Allegiance nay he cannot alien give a way or withdraw his allegiance from his King by the Law of nature to his Kings prejudice though he should gaine his liberty freedome of estate and honour or advancement unto the bargaine for St. Augustine saith nemo jure naturae cum alterius detrimento locupletior fieri debet no man by the Law of nature ought to be made richer by the losse of another but if I withdraw mine allegiance the King hath lost a subject therefore I may not doe it neither can the King release it to any of his subjects it being an inseparable accident adherent in the person of a King and is due omni soli semper to every King under heaven from his owne naturall subjects It is due to every King and alwaies to Kings and only to Kings by the Law of nature And it is only due to his person and not to his office which is only imaginary and invisible and no where formally to be found but in his person as by the said case of Calvin more fully appeares Hereupon I conclude that allegiance being due by the Law of nature to the Kings person and that I neither can abjure it nor alien it or withdraw it from him nor he release it to me and that it is only due to him and to no other I cannot take this oath and keep it without violation of the Law of nature and manifest injury both to my selfe and Sovereigne King Quia jura natura sunt immutabilia the Lawes of nature are immutable as before is observed and is plainly held forth by Bracton L. 1. cap. 6. Docter Stud. cap. 5. 6. And so from this point of the Law of nature I come to shew that this Negative Oath is absolutely against the knowne setled and established Laws of the Land the reason is because if I take it keep it it withholds me from the performance of my duty of allegiance which is due to my King from me by the Law of the land and so I am informed by the books of Law this tearm or word allegiance is rendred unto us under divers names in our Law bookes as sometimes it is called fides or faith as Bracton l. 5. Tract. de exceptionibus cap. 24. fol. 427. And so Fleta l. 6. cap. 47. Alienigena repelli debet in Anglia ab agendo donec fuerint ad fidem Regis Angliae Aliens ought to be kept from acting in England till they shall be of the allegiance of the King that is by endenization so Glanvil l. 9. cap. 1. Salva side debita domino Regi heredibus suis That is saving our faith or allegiance due to the King and his heires so Littleton l. 2. in chap. Homage where I doe my homage to my Lord Salve le foy du a nostre senior le Roy saving the faith which I owe to our Lord the King and in the Statute of 25. E. 3. De natis ultra mare these words faith and allegiance are coupled together as signifying one thing sometimes it is called obedientia Regis our obedience to the King as in the bookes of 9. E. 4. 6. 7. 2 R. 3. 2. And in the Statutes of H. 8. 14. cap. 2. and 22. H. 8. 8. and in the booke of 22. Ass pl. 25. it is called ligealty but by what name soever it bee called whether faith obedience ligealty or allegiance all is one it is due still from us subjects to our sovereigne Lord the King by the Statute of 10 R. 2. cap. 5. and 11. R 2. cap. 1. 14. H. 8 cap. 2. and many other the people are called liege people and by the Statute of 34. H. 8. cap. 1 and 35. H. 8 cap. 3. and divers other the King is stiled liege Lord of his subjects and these that are bound under the Kings power are called his naturall leige-men as in the 4. H. 3. Fitz. title Dower and 11. E. 3. cap. 2. So that I may conclude upon these authorities that Ligeantia est vinculum fidei domin● Regi our allegiance is the bond of our faith to the King which being so wee may well say of it as Sir Edward Cooke doth that ligeantia est legis essentia our allegiance is the essence of the Law and so it hath been often and sundry times declared by many sundry wise temperate and well advised Parliaments of England The government of Kings in this Isle of Britain hath been very ancient even as ancient as History it self for those who deny the story of Brutus to be true doe finde out a more ancient plantation here under Kings namely under Samothes grandchilde to Japhet the son of Noah from whom the ancient Britaines that inhabited this Land are according to their conceits descended Kings or Monarchs of great Britaine had and did exercise far more large and ample power and did claime greater Prerogatives over the people under their government and jurisdiction then the Kings of England have done since the Norman conquest as it is to be seen at large both in the Brittish Chronicles and records of these times and in our English histories and may also be gathered out of the writings of the Romans who invaded this Island and lived here upon the place and I doe not finde that ever the people of Brittaine made any of their Kings by election of voices or put them out at pleasure but that the Kingly government and right of the Crowne descended alwayes by hereditary descent and succession though in that infancy of Law and right it may be suspected that there was not so much regularity of justice or observation of right as in these latter more refined ages hath or ought to be I may boldly affirm and it cannot be denyed by any ●●at hath read all the Chronicles and Statutes of this Realme that there hath beene any King of England since the conquest that hath not beene acknowledged by both houses of Parliament of their severall times to be soveraigne Lords of this Realme and their soveraigne Lords too although that some of those Kings were onely Reges de facto and not de jure Kings onely in fact and not of right and such as by the Lawes of England had no right to the Crowne and all the Parliaments since the conquest have acknowledged that the Crowne of England and the government of the Realme hath belonged to the Kings of hereditary right and not by election some of these Parliaments in more expresse and perticular manner then the rest and they of later times more amply then the ancient By the statute called Dictum de Kenilworth made 51. H. 3. King Hen. 3. is acknowledged to be

redeeme his liber●y would sweare any thing therefore least I should gaine such an opinion and lose my esteem in the world being now brought into that condition that I must be a Souldier I cannot take this Oath by the rules of honour and as it is not honourable in me to take it for the reasons aforesaid so is it against honour that an oath that would bring so much inconveniency of losse of honour and esteeme amongst all men should be offered to any man Quia in juramentis administrandis dantis recipient is eadem est ratio idem jus In administring of Oathes the same reason and law ought to binde the giver as well as the receiver It is also against pollicy either to take or require this oath the life of a Souldier is his honour when that is lost his life is as good as lost by taking this oath a Souldier loseth his honour what King Prince or State will entertaine that Souldier in his pay that hath abjured his naturall Sovereigne Liege Lord or Masters service and allegiance his owne King will never trust him more the adverse party will not trust him nor any other Prince or State whatsoever and therefore in pollicy a Souldier ought not to take this oath And lastly there is no pollicy in pressing this oath upon any for the Parliament gaines no security by taking it for I thinke very few of the Kings party hold that Oath lawfull and then what security to the Parliament in it since no other thing can be expected from him of the performance of an oath given unto him that either doubts the power unlawfull that administred it or that holds the matter or thing he is bound to performe by his oath unlawfull that then he will keep such an oath no longer then till the first time he hath occasion or oppertunity to breake it Nay the same Religion or new light that hath taught him to break the Kings Oath will or may teach him to break the Parliaments Having now made my doubts according to my conscience if I come over and be made a prisoner because I will not take these oathes and covenants or suffer any other prejudice either in mine estate or person for declaring my conscience herein I would and in the case I am I will with holy Job content my selfe saying Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1. 21. Comforting my selfe with this of the P●almist Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall rise up in his holy place even he that hath cleane hands and a pure heart and that hath not lift up his minde unto vanity nor sworne to deceive his neighbour he shall receive the blessing of the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation Psalm 24. 3 4 5. And according to the instructions of St. Paul 1. Rom 12. 12. Shall rejoyce in hope be patient in tribulation and continue in prayers strengthened with all might according to Gods glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulnesse Colos. 1. 11. Knowing that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 2. 12. Taking the Prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for ensamples of suffering affliction and patience Jomes 5. 10. And accompting it alwayes thank-worthy if for conscience towards God I endure grief suffering wrongfully for even hereunto are we called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 19. 20. And in this resolution by Gods gracious assistance in peace of a good conscience and in all patience will I abide till my dissolution shall come looking for that blessed hope and appearing of that glory of that mighty God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2. 13. Chusing rather to suffer adversity with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. 25. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gaine the whole World and lose his owne Soule Mar. S. 36. In this opinion therfore will I abide putting my whole trust and confidence in God my Lord which executeth justice for the oppressed which gives bread to the hungry and loseth the prisoners for the Lord heareth the poore and dispiseth not his prisoners Psalme 66. 33. and 146. 7. To conclude Sir whereas you signifie unto me that you will returne me a satisfactory answer to my doubts from godly and learned Devines and men of judgement in the Lawes of the Land ● desire you that you will please to take advice only from such Devines as neither have renounced their Orders or obedience to their Ordinaries and such that are without partiallity or hypocrisie in this publique cause and from such Judges and learned Lawyers as serve not the times so much as the truth and such as have not mens persons in admiration because of advantage for I must deale plainly with you that there is great scandall in th●se forraigne parts upon the men of these professions it being reported of the first that they goe about to prophane and blespheme the Church their Mother with stigmaticall imputations of Antichristian impieties and th●● the latter have adulterated the Lawes the Nurses that have fed them applying them to the humors and ends of those that have put them in authority and as the Proph●● Mich. 3 9. saith abhorring judgement and p●v●rting all equity in that they take upon them to give sentence of death upon ●●ose that have served his Majesty according to their duty of Allegiance in these ●at Wa●s as fellons when they have but taken an horse or armes for the Kings service though they tooke them from those that were actually in armes against the Kings Majesty with an intention only to ayd his Majesty against those that had risen up against him and not animo furan●i or with a fellonious intent Nay we heare that some of the Judges lately put into Commission by both Houses of Parliament have delivered it for Law that such a one as hath served the King in these late wars or any such that they call Malignants may not sue for their rights and are incapable to receive justice though they be neither outlawed or committed that whatsoever they recover or purchase before they have made their Compositions ought to be seized on and sequestred to the use of the State I pray you Sir where or in what bookes of the Lawes of England do you reade of such definition of felony or inhabilities or incapacities of the Kings Loyall Subjects Mr. Littleton who reckons up all the inhabilities of the Subjects of England mentions none such neither are any such else where to be found but these men put the Kings Liege and loyall people into a worse condition then slaves villaines or aliens And yet they account it