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	king_n	law_n	5,822	5	4.7877	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77459	A briefe relation of the present troubles in England: vvritten from London the 22. of Ianuary 1644. to a minister of one of the reformed churches in France. VVherein, is clearely set downe who are the authours of them, and whereto the innovations both in church and state there doe tend. Faithfully translated out of the French.; Letter concerning the present troubles in England.	Tully, T. (Thomas), 1620-1676.	1645 (1645)	Wing B4630; Thomason E303_1; ESTC R200287	52,984	69

whole Body of the Clergy chased away divers of the Peeres despoiled others of their Estates and Authority sparing none but such as will be then Fellow-traitours In breife the former indeed advanc'd their Rebellion under a pretence o● maintaining the publique Liberties but they expos'd not all the Kings that were to succeed to the madnesse and cruelty of the People as these men doe I know you have often seene divers of their Positions but I have reserv'd one to this 〈◊〉 which is worse then all the rest They maintaine That Subjects may in ●●●suanc● of their Liberty take 〈◊〉 Armes and employ all their strength against any that shall endeavour is reduce them to slavery That there is no yoake of which they may not lawfully rid themselves whosoever imposed it whether some Conquerour or their owne naturall Prince That nature it selfe dictates unto the whole world the recovery of it's lost liberty notwithstanding any former contracts or any lawes to which they have sworue obedience or even the expresse approbation of some preceding ages That whosoever shall have power enough and not employ it to that end men should be so farre from startling at their back rardnesse that on the contrary they are to hold them for no other then Rebels against that nature which commands them to dispense in this case with all former obligations whatsoever Sir were not this ground enough for all the Magistrates in the Universe to arme against such Pests as these You will now rest fully satisfied that 't is not Religion they fight for and that by the conservation of those Priviledges they talke of they intend nothing but the ruine and destruction of such as are in Authority over them What else can we expect from such maximes They who complaine so much of abusing Monarchy have infringed all the rights of it themselves There was a Parliament in Scotland held in despight of the King and the Acts of it are daily put in execution contrary to his expresse commands which is utterly to abolish all Regall Power and to annihilate the Fundamentall Lawes of the State This Parliament in England was indeed conveencd by his Authority but they bound his hands from dissolving it when he ought and would have done No sooner were the Members met but he was chased from London and they upon this possesse themselves of the Houses Forts Castles Ports Navy and Ammunition of their Prince They put the Earle of Strafford to Death upon pretences of their owne devising that so they might have some colour for the designe against the person of their Soveraigne They have forced his consent to an Act which infringeth all the prerogatives of the Crowne They will needs have the disposall and ordering of his family murther his friends and trusty Ministers and so hinder all from being such They will clip his Revenues as they please not suffer him to dispose of vacant offices They will not allow him any power in Church-affaires bereave him of his Bishops that so they may render him uncapable of discerning all factious contrivances under colour of Religion and consequently of all meanes to prevent the execution of them At this very present they are consulting how to deprive him of his Wardships which you know is one of the fairest Flowers of the Crowne of England and the most proper character of Soveraignty I have almost spent my selfe in limning you the designes and practices of these men but I hope you will not be weary in perusing and weighing them I have besides many things of great consequence to tell you which I reserve for some better opportunity when I may have more leisure and liberty then is allowed me at this present In the interim let me earnestly request you to make what use you can of the truth of this Relation in behalfe of Reason and Justice In God's name employ your utmost endeavours to blast those false pretences of Zeale and Religion that none of ours be carried away with them I beleive it was to that end you desired this Letter from me which I have dispatched towards you in persuance of your commands and withall to satisfy my Conscience I will say nothing what is like to be the successe of our Ambassadour here You may easily guesse by this Relation The H●ll●●●●rs have as weake hopes as we and I 'me confident both of the● desire to testify unto the world their love and inclination to Peace although some accuse them of an aversonesse from it and that all their designes tend to the nourishing of this Warre But certainly they desire to see and end of it were it but for this reason that the King of England might engage himselfe in the interests of Germany and employ his strength there in behalfe of all the oppressed Princes those especially which are more neare unto him I will discourse with you more at large upon this when I shall have the opportunity to give you an account of those other passages mentioned in your Letter In this and all things else you shall reade the constant desire I have to assure you that I am unfeinedly From London Jan. 22. 1644. Sir Your most humble and most affectionate Servant FINIS

●●atter not any rebellious Doctrine a thing very familiar with such as have had their breeding at Rome in Spaine or in any Schooles of the Jesuites Had they their education at home they would breath nothing but affection to the place of their nativity and the liberty which would be indulged them among their Parents and kindred without the least jealousie of suffering for any differences in opinions would nourish respect in them towards their King and all other their Superiours whereas rigour doth but harden them the more and imbolden them to redeeme themselves at any rate from that irkesome necessity which is commonly imposed on them to beleeve otherwise then they will and perhaps too then they can Let me but adde a word of the Liberties they talke of and for which they make so much noyse in the world I am not altogether ignorant what they be as having seene a great part of the Lawes and Customes of that Kingdome Certainely those gentlemen may with much credit charge their King with the violation of them who have themselves so insolently trampled upon whatsoever hath the face either of Publique or private right I shall attend an opportunity to give you a distinct information of their basenesse in this particular For the present I shall onely assure you thus much in generall that their complaints are most groundlesse as flowing from the same spirit by whose instigation they have slandered the religion and piety of their Prince Did he ever during that peaceable part of his reigne over them endeavour to stretch his prerog●tive or to protect any of his Creatures that encroached I will not say upon the Lawes of the Realme but even upon the propriety of the meanest Subject Was there ever in any Kings Reigne knowne fewer escheats except those from Recusants or fewer proscriptions and banishments fewer executions lesse disorder and violence lesse repining fewer impositions in a word fewer Innovations And therefore it concerned them to fancy as they have done a thousand illegall and tyrannicall actions in that Prince that so they might more easily delude the People and in the issue engage them as in their owne defence to a resolution of making head against him either wholly to devest him of all rule or to reigne a while in his stead or at least to have a constant share with him in the government That blinde unruly Beast is never more servilely tame then when abused with lyes ever repining and ready to mutine at any extraordinary imposition though never so reasonable and advantagious You may lead it whither you please with a specious pretence so willing at this time to sacrifice it selfe to the ambition of some factious spirits intoxicated by their oaths and protestations that they aime at nothing but the good of the People In like manner have the Pesantry of France sometimes inconsiderately engaged themselves in the service of a King of Navarr● a Duke of Normandy and another of Burgogne who having in effect no other designe then to advance their owne greatnesse would notwithstanding have nothing more in their mouthes then the publique liberty of which to speake truth they were the most pernicious if not the onely enemies Just so it is here now They that have undertaken the protection of Priviledge possessing their abettours and Disciples with the hopes of securing their liberties thinke of nothing lesse then the interests of others and that very thing which they pretend to appeare in the feild for hath beene more violated and infringed by them then ever it was by all the Kings of England And yet they have so varnisht over their actions that by this trick they have got the estates the lives the hearts nay and the consciences to boot of the People here wholly into their owne disposall It may be those unfortunate Wretches will be one day sensible of the Imposture and perceive at last how they have approved and engaged themselves to what will be their destruction if they repent not For those that flatter them with the hopes of liberty will either get the upper hand and so 〈◊〉 them their vassals or else plunge them into a condition farre more intolerable then the most irksome slavery were it not for that Anabaptisticall venime which hath intermixed it selfe with the naturall propension of this people to Libertinisme there might be some hopes of remedy But there have been the like disorders here to fore in this Kingdom And a man would thinke that the soules of the Earle of Leicester and the Duke of Gloucester had by a kind of transmigration possessed the ring-leaders of this present Rebellion But the former were so much the more excusable in that they made not Religion the screene to their Ambition which sooner put on end to those troubles That you may the better remember the cheife circumstances of that History give me leave to acquaint you how in the reigne of King Henry the third there was a Parliament held at Oxford which Posterity justly branded with an infamous name calling it The mad Parliament except me but the generall superstition of those times and it will mervailously resemble that at Westminster At which time the Lords and Commons fore'd that King to consent to the nominating of certaine persons amongst them whom they stiled Commissioners and G●●rdi●●s of the Peace Whereupon under pretence of that extraordinary power and by vertue not onely of an Ordinance of the two Houses but of a compleate Act of Parliament they rose up in Armes against their Prince and molested him with a long and bloudy Warre like this After the various successe of which insolent attempt and the severall innovations which distracted the Kingdome the review of the whole businesse was committed to a free Parliament in which the Authors and Promoters of that warre were condemned of High Treason and all the Rebels Estates by a solemne Act confiscate But the extent of the crime abated of the punishment lest otherwise the greatest part of England should have beene made a desolation And certainly were there any hopes of a free Parliament now the trai●●●ous attempt of those who make up that shadow of a Parliament would be proceeded against with all rigour and the example of that at Oxford be renewed seeing they have dared to renew the cri●● And were the punishment proportion'd to the offence these men should be used with more severity then the other they have so 〈◊〉 out-done them For their attempt was onely against their owne Prince but the designe of these against all the Princes in the World They were contented to be Rebe●● themselves but these must have all the Protestants in Christendome to be so likewise They medl●● not with Religion nor thought to disquiet the Church these h●●● violated Religion and torne the Church in peeces They offered 〈◊〉 violence to any of the three States in Parliament suppressing onely the votes of some particular persons which crossed their designe These have outed the