Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	declare_v	parliament_n	2,663	5	6.5816	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40973	Fast and loose, or, The armies figgaries being some animadversions upon their late declaration, 1659.		1659 (1659)	Wing F539; ESTC R5038	5,866	11

Commissions there They say the Parliament was dissolv'd before if so by what Law can any company of Rascals make them whole or capable of acting as a Parliament nay the King could not properly make a Parliament without the Peoples choice how much lesse can these do it who have no power no authority but force and fraud so that they must needs be no lesse then Usurpers and Tyrants in the highest degree and one of the greatest plagues that ever befell the English and we may hope that when we are sufficiently humbled for all our impieties and provocations with which we have offended God he may destroy those Locusts from amongst us But further if no Parliament what benefit could they expect to receive by any Act of Indempnity which was to be or might have been made by them therefore it seems in this sence they were willing to lay hold upon every twig and to imbrace any thing that had but an appearance of Authority more then appearance it must not be a true reall authority legally deducted can be at no more agreement with them then light with darknesse true English hate and scorn to do such drudgery for them as these Gown-men have done yet all wo'nt please 'em and why should the people be thus deluded or baffled with more this day the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England to be maintained against all Opposers the next day an appearance of Authority a Kickshaw or the Armies Puppets One would think the receiving Commissions at their hands had been obligation enough but where the Sword is rampant nothing can resist especially when those that use it know no conscience but ●heir pay In some other following pages they declare what injury was offered to Lambert and some other Officers of the Army by voting them out of Commission for nothing for say they If he had offended why not call'd to answer for himselfe Me thinks in this Declaration and some late actions of theirs they speak aloud that they will rule it were well that they had put off their Visors sooner and appear'd in their colours as at this day and have cloak'd all their villainy under Religious pretences for by that means they have the Lords offerings to stink in the nostrils of the people and have rendred themselves guilty of notorious dissimulations Rebellions and perjuries exceeding any parallel even among the Heathen this last charge hath as little of truth or reason as any the rest for this Army did acknowledge those men a Parliament in their Declaration of the 6. of May last and by receiving Commissions immediately from them did acknowledge that they were the supream Authority of the Nation at least to them now there can be no injury where there is no right the Parliament did not legally nor upon any account whatsoever owe to Lambert or the rest such and such places but were at their free liberty to choose whom they thought most fit and convenient and upon that account though they did owne him to day and reject him to morrow though for no crime yet had he no wrong for if I or any man take a Servant I injure no man whom I take not because the liberty of choosing is of right my own but then wrong is done when a servant is put upon me whom I desire not for some reasons to imploy any longer and you may be sure that Bottomlesse John as Oliver used to call him was not turn'd out of Commission for nothing They declare further that the Parliament made an Act that no person or persons whatsoever should raise money without consent of the People in Parliament and therefore do declare all their Acts and Orders since the tenth of October null and void I wish some Conjurer Astrologer or some of our hair-brain'd Prophets were able to let us know what is the extent of these mens mindes 't is incerted in most of their Proposals towards a settlement and hath been laid down as one thing chiefly fought for What this pretended Parliament have done in this case they have both one and the other declared it to be right and just viz. that no money ought to be raised without the Peoples consent in Parliament but indeed that is most right that best suits with the Armies exigencies the government which they exercise being wholly arbitrary and Tyrannicall though they have oft-times abused the people with specious pretences the better to cloak their treasonable practises for when it comes to the touchstone what they professe to build they demolish and intend nothing lesse then what they speak But we may not think there is so much as the least show of reason that the Army should declare Acts and Ordinances of Parliament void yet not all their last Acts but only some few which cross'd the humors and designes of these Gamesters this O England is one of thy priviledges that those bands ties and obligations which have been binding universally are cut asunder by that Sword which was drawn for thy defence and a Viper bred in thine own bowels will lay thine honour in the dust and make thee a laughing stock to all the Nations round about Let it be considered that Acts and Orders of Parliament once past cannot be made void by all the Armies I mean not legally but to the present businesse these persons were as is noted before sufficiently acknowledged a Parliament by the Soldiers and therefore it must be treason to act after such a rate as this but if we suppose as they affirm at the beginning of their Declaration that they are only an appearance of Authority I say if this be admitted that they were no Parliament because of their interruption what basenesse was it in the Army to obtrude them upon the People as a Parliament besides if they were not then is the Army disbanded for they have no Commissions but what was granted from them which are in no wise valid they having no power to give or bestow any such thing and whosoever act by vertue of such pretended Commissions are guilty of all the blood they shed and of the highest Treasons against the welfare of the Nation for they might as well have call'd to Westminster such as are now made Preachers some from the Loom and others from the Coblers Stall Lastly they declare that their earnest desire is to assure a liberty to all the free born People of these Nations as men as Christians to maintain a painfull Gospel-preaching Ministery by a lesse vexatious way than Tithes that they have no aim to set up an arbitrary or millitary government but have provided that the civill and executive part of Government shall be lodg'd in a Committee of safety and they oblig'd in a short time to prepare a forme of Government comporting with a Free State without King or House of Lords and to regulate the Law I could never be satisfied with my best observation why p Free State or the government of these Nations as a Common-wealth should be cried up as a thing so much tending to our peace and liberty we have all along beene accustomed to Monarchy all our Lawes Customs and Constitutions are framed accordingly and questionlesse all things considered there can be no other reason given for it but this that a Common-wealth is so opposite to the mindes of the major part that it necessarily requires an Army to uphold it which indeed is the only way to continue the profits Authorities and greatnesse of the Officers and make the Army to survive the everlasting Parliament whereas if the Peoples Representatives were suffered to be freely chosen and to act without force put upon them or he admitted whose undoubted right it is a general tranquility would ensue and every man might sit down under his own Vine with safety The liberty of the People is so manifestly trampled upon that 't is no small wonder these men dare use the word the saying of Samuel if it be inverted may serve as a good character of these men read them thus Whose Oxe have I not taken or whese Asse have I not taken and to whom have I not done wrong The removing of Tithes and regulation of the Laws are things easier to be spoken of then effected to be sure not to be better'd by these great Pretenders Who ever knew Thieves help true men to their purses unlesse when they were empty but these fair promises must be as a Net spread to take all sorts of fish to please as well the Anabaptist as the Presbyter the one with hopes of overthrowing Tithes the other with confidence of a bountifull stipend The Law and Lawyers are like to suffer deeply at this turn and no wonder for these men know full well what a severe censure the Law would passe upon their irregularities how sadly it would disperse and divide that monstrous body between Tiburn and Tower-hill But if our grave Senators in former times have by long experience found our Lawes to be most fit what can we expect from such Reformers as these but that as Tinkers in mending one hole they should make ten To conclude Oliver Cromwels Tyranny was but as a few heat-drops if compared to those floods and showres of Calamity poured upon us by these insatiate and blood-thirsty Wretches enough to arme the hand of every man against them and truly we hope they will in Gods due time meet with their reward and as they have exercised an arbitrary power contrary to all Law they may be cut off without any formality of Law In a word they have destroyed the King and his posterity and now contend who shall be chiefe The Lion Lamb they slue and now begin The Lord be prais'd to quarrel for his Skin FINIS

Fast and Loose OR THE ARMIES FIGGARIES BEING SOME ANIMADVERSIONS Upon their late DECLARATION 1659. When there was no King in Israel every man did what seemed good in his owne eyes Printed in the Year 1659. FAST and LOOSE OR THE ARMIES FIGGARIES c. THe present state of these Nations are in no circumstance so bad as in this that according to all humane judgement they are in no likelihood of being better so that unlesse the providence of God shall interpose by an high hand we are in danger of suffering shipwrack he is a stranger in Israel that knows not the sad distractions fightings pillages and other inconveniencies which attend civil War in what abundance they have been poured out upon us and yet we are as far from enjoying any of those priviledges or freedomes for which we pretended to begin the quarrel as at first nay it hath been our portion to meet with such instruments who as the Apostle saith have out-done those who have condemned and when oppertunity hath been put into their hands not returning us again into the waies of peace and safety have miserably deceitfully and basely brought us to wade in blood afresh and tread the steps of confusion when I seriously consider the protestations declarations oaths and engagements of this present Army and those men whom they lately dissolved have run through their deportment and behaviour so little squaring with what they have professed I cannot but say with a sad heart that those who chiefly cryed out for our Libertyes were the greatest infringers of them and those who all along have had nothing in their mouths but God the provi-of God the advancement of Religion and the like have in their actings plainly demonstrated a high contempt of religion yea and of God himself whose name they have so often called to the witnesse of a lie as if they believe not him when he saith I will not hold him guiltless that taketh my name in vain I shall look back to the beginning of all our present woes of which a breviate shall suffice in regard others have bestowed their pains largely that way so then not to trouble you with remembrance of the Covenant which was manifestly broken by so many of the long Parliament as were suffered to sit till the Kings death and many other things of like nature I shall onely here give notice that the Army refused to disband though commanded by that power which raised them and after that took engagement to be true to the Common-wealth without single person or house of Lords yet in a while were a means of setting up Oliver Cromwel to govern as a single person by the name of Protector to him they addresse themselves as in a high manner as the deliverer of these Nations from ruine c. he was indeed a man of great parts and as long as we continue such a discontented people as we are 't is pity we should want such a government if he may not be admitted toward whom is bent the general wishes and desires of the people Richard succeeded Oliver in the Protectorship a man of good disposition but bad fortune I cannot think him a fool though he was outwitted having so many cunning hucksters to deal with all of them ambitious of rule and were so much the more desirous to fly an high pitch because their rise was taken from a low ground at the entrance of his raign addresses and salutations came in abundance from all parts of the Nation especially from the Army and seem'd to have as much respect as if he had been born King of England he caused a Parliament to be chosen the choise was very free and certainly the Major part of Members chosen were men wholly resolved for the good of their particular Counties and for the Nation in general but they began too soon to think of calling those to an account who had fingred the publick money and cheated the State of great sums for some of those being great ones wrought so powerfully under hand with the Army that partly by cunning partly by threats they cause the Protector to signe a Warrant for their dissolution otherwise they would have done it without him pretending to provide for tender consciences of the godly when indeed it was to save the necks and purses of the wicked that which gave the Army a motive hereunto was because this Parliament had a purpose of securing the Nation by Militia and trained bands as in former times and so to disband this Army being a very great burthen yet the Officers of the Army at this turn knew not well what course to steer but after some debate called the long Parliament to sit again and now being not well content with these neither as not acting to their satisfaction they thought good to send them home each man to his habitation and to justify this action of theirs have put forth a Declaration upon which you may be pleased to take some few Animadversions only upon a few of the principal heads In the first second and third pages they say that their care was great how to settle this Common-wealth and that therefore they delivered the power and trust of these Nations into the hands of these men I cannot but call to mind how often the Army declared and this last rump of a Parliament voted the supreme power in the people and upon that very account cut off the King under a pretence that he acted contrary to the trust reposed in him by the people yet now the Souldiers have the power and trust of these Nations observe they can have no power but from the people from whom they never yet legally had any and therefore they could make no delivery of it to the Parliament but such as one thief makes to another and surely neither of them can be said to keep our Liberties in any sence but against carnal law reason and the will of those to whom it doth belong 't is certain the Army lookt upon them as men that would in all particulars comply with their unsatiable desires and t is thought they would had the quarrel not been about soveraignty and durance for they like their Masters would be everlasting having no liking to return form places of such vast profit as they enjoy to sit still and get nothing especially if there should be a returning from whence they came some from a Collonel to a Cobler but enough of that Page four five six We understand many learned men are of opinion that these men were wholly dissolved from being a Parliament by their late interruption especially by the peoples choosing a new yet being desirous like drowning men to lay hold of every twig or any thing that had but the appearance of civil authority though fit to call them together again we desired an Act of Indempnity which came forth imperfect we desired a General which also was not granted to our mind and we were all forced to receive