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	power_n	3,247	5	5.0875	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96210	Refractoria disputatio: or, The thwarting conference, in a discourse between [brace] Thraso, one of the late Kings colonels. Neutralis, a sojourner in the city. Prelaticus, a chaplain to the late King. Patriotus, a well-willer to the Parliament. All of them differently affected, and disputing on the subjects inserted after the epistle, on the dissolution of the late Parliament, and other changes of state.	T. L. W.	1654 (1654)	Wing W136; Thomason E1502_1; ESTC R208654	71,936	174

bodies and in divers ways the more to distract our Armies where you ought to remember that this State hath both in Scotland and the adjacent parts a very considerable force to encounter these Invaders but admit again that the King advances so far as York though you cannot imagine but that he will be fought with twice or thrice over before he comes thither with fresh men and not unlikely rebeaten as at all places he hath been but let us again admit that he s●rmounts all difficulties both by Sea and Land and becomes victorious and triumphantly marches towards London and that the States Force cannot withstand him and that on the noise of such sad news the prevailing party as you are pleased to stile them being confound●d with terrour betake themselves to their heels as their ultimum refugium and the best way to shist for themselves and that after this all is left to the Kings absolute disposement as all this not impossible but exceeding improbable what then on such sudden change of fortune think you may be the issnes thereof and what advantage either to your party or the generality of the people and all Countries through which his Armies shall march and Quarter accompaned with so many Nations dive●sly affected Prel I confess the people must ne●essarily suffer and haply in a greater measure then hitherto they have done yet am I confident his Majesty will be very sensible of their sufferings and in prevention of their farther oppression and for settling of all things will immediately call a new Parliament and reduce it to the antient Form and Institution of the three Estates King Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons and then commit all things to a sober legal and Parliamentary discussion and in what manner restitution may be made of his own Lands and goods the Churches Patrimony with the many other loosers of his own party and after all this in detestation of the foulness of the late War and bloodshed to bu●y all discontents and heart-burnings as Judge Jenkins very j●diciously proposes in an Act of Oblivion with free pardon to all except some special persons that had a principal hand in his Fathers death and for all other of his Subjects to spare and cherish them in what possible his affaits will permit Patri Doctor excuse me since I utterly dissent from your opinion for it stands not with reason or with the Kings then present affaires to take a piece of that course which you suppose and should he be willing there would be so many of the old Cavalry attending his person as well Natives as Forraigners which would thrust in to be served and gratified that he should not be suffered to put in practise a title of that which is by you so vainly surmised but you may build upon 't he would take a clean contrary course and such a one as the necessity of his then urgent occasions would inforce and not tie up himself to his own disadvantage by an Act of Oblivion which necessarily must disable him either to help himself or friends when the power is in his hands to do what he pleaseth and carve as he listeth Prel Since you are so diffident of his Majesties good nature and intentions towards his Subjects tell us I beseech you what you conceive he will do for the speedy settling of peace and amity through the three Kingdoms Patri May I obtain your lice●ce and a favourable construction of that which I shall deliver I will tender my opinion and leave you all to make your own judgments thereon In the first place I believe that whereas then he comes in by the sword in order to his necessities he would rule by the sword and by an Army with Garrisons throughout the Land as now the States upon the point do and must do if they mean to go through stitch with their work and thenceforth begin a new Government as in like manner the States here intend to do the Laws of the Land which under the present power the people yet enjoy as they were wont to do in quiet and peaceable times would necessarily be subverted and turn'd topsie-turvie and such introduced in their room as should best sute with the will and pleasure of a Prince that comes in by Conquest and by the same power will have them to be no other then agrees with his Affairs and resolutions or as they are in France if not worse and more absolute where a single paper signed under the Kings hand hath the same efficacy as an Act of Parliament in England and in order to this you must expect that his mercenary Souldiers must and would be remembred If you demand in what I answer with the whole plunder of London as the readiest means to give them all content for their service and if this seem strange to you I pray call to minde that in the late Kings time when no occasion of wars or raising of Armies in any reason were necessary to be levied but such as our late Grandees the Earl of Strafford Canterbury and Cottington would have to be raised against the Scots that Earl spake it openly at the Councel-Table 1640 and to no other man then the Lord Mayor Sir Henry Garway and others of the Aldermen upon their refusing to lend the king 100000 l. for the Scotch War It will never do well says he till the King hangs half a dozen of you Aldermen and then put the whole City to ransome Which was proved against him at his Arraignment neither did the king forbear the seizing of the Mint for supply of that needless War so that 't is evident when Princes have power they will make no scruple to act any thing that conduceth to their designs or to take all things where they can finde it as 't is well known he did in the late barbarous War neither will it be impertinent to put you in remembrance of another instance of this kinde when at or before the beginning of the War the king took his journey towards Scotland and overtook the Scotch Army in their march homewards 1641 where he dealt with the principal Commanders to turn head on the Parliament in reward whereof they should have the plunder of London with Jewels for security an overture which some of them were not so dishonest as to conceal but gave notice thereof to the City and their own Commissioners then here residing Now if you farther demand What the present Pretender would do in the pre-supposed case I shall again answer you that in reason of State which with Kings and Conquerors hath an Of the miserable condition that will befal the Nation especially the City of London in case the Scots Pretender comes in by the sword immense latitude he would and could do no less then to take present order for the satisfaction of his Country-men the Scots as also for gratifying the proscribed and fugitive Lords Cavaleers both English Scotch and Irish which first

Parliament observed at the Earls tryal that the Laws were the boundaries and measures betwixt the Kings Prerogative and the peoples Liberty But whether the king throughout the whole course of the late destructive War and ●ome years before was not a prompt disciple in the Deputies doctrine I leave to Royalists to make their own judgement And whether that which after befell the king and his Fathers house was not rather of the justice of heaven then of men I leave to the judgement of all the world Sure we are the best Jurists maintain Si Rex hostili animo arma contra populum gesserit amittet Regnum which is that if a King with an hostile intent shall raise Arms against his people he loseth or forfeits his kingdom Now that the late king assumed to himself such a Royal power as to raise Arms against the great Councel of the Land I suppose no man in his right wits can deny Its most true a moderate Royal power to rule by the Laws is doubtless of Gods Ordinance but a Tyrannical power to cut their throats I am sure is of no Divine Institution and a Dominion fitter for beasts then men yet this is that power which Royalists would have fastned on the king and too many there are which constantly believe that the more injury was done him that he had it not as by the Laws of the Land they erroneously conceive he ought to have had The Power of the Militia how the Kings BRiefly now to the Militia and what kinde of power our kings by the Laws of England have had therein It hath been often told the late king all along the late Controversie that the power of the Militia was in him no other then fiduciary and not at his absolute dispose or that at his own will and pleasure he might pervert the Arms and strength of the kingdom from their proper use and against the intent of the Law as ' its visibly known he did even to the highest breach of trust wherein a king could be intrusted Now for proof that this power was onely fiduciary and by Statute Law first confer'd on * Anno 7. Edw. 1. apud Westminster Edw. 1. in trust and not his by the Common Law is most apparent by the Express words of the Statute it self which as they are commonly inserted were onely for the the defence of the Land and safety of the people salus populi being that grand Law and end of all Laws now such as are verst in our Historie know that this Prince was one of the most magnanimous kings that ever swayd the English Scepter and therefore it cannot be imaginable that he would clip his own power and so great a right belonging to him by the Common Law in accepting a less by Statute Law to his own loss of power or that ever he would have assented thereunto by an after Act of his own as follows in haec verba viz. Whereas on sundry complaints made to us by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament that divers of the standing Bands have been removed and taken out of their respective Counties by vertue of our Commissions and sent to us out of their Shires into Scotland Gascoyn and Gwoyn and other parts beyond the Seas contrary to the Laws of the Land c. Our Soveraign Lord willeth that it shall be done so no more Agreeable to this we finde Anno 1. Edw. 3d. viz. The King willeth that no man henceforth be charged to arm otherwise then he was wont in time of our Progenitors the Kings of England and that no man be compell'd to go out of his Shire but where necessity requireth and the sudden coming in of strange Enemies into the Realm And in the same kings time there being a peace concluded between him and the French king wherein the Duke of Britain was included whom the French king shortly thereupon invaded whereof complaint was made to king Edward he instantly summons a Parliament and there moves the Lords and Commons both for their advice and assistance whereupon it was concluded that the king should be expeditiously supply'd in ayd of the Britton but the Act was made with such provisoes and restrictions as Royallists happily and others of late years would have deemed them too dishonourable and unbefitting the late kings acceptance howsoever this Act shews that the ordering of the Militia of those times was not solely left to the kings disposure but that which is of more note was that both the Treasure then granted was committed to certain persons in trust to be issued to the onely use for which it was given as also that no Treaty or any new peace or agreement with the French King should be made without the consent and privity of the Parliament By these instances all Royalists may make a clear judgement that the Militia of those times and the power of the Arms of the Kingdom were never so absolutely conferr'd on our kings as that their power therein extended to such a latitude as they might use them as they pleased and to turn that power provided for the onely defence of the people against themselves and therefore wheresover we finde the Militia by other Statutes conferr'd and yeelded to the disposal of our kings without any particular mention of the word trust which is necessarily imply'd or exprest in most of the Statutes or their preambles viz. * Note that these words viz. for the defence of the Realm or common profit are afore inserted ●ither in the Stat. themselves or in their preamb. In these wotds For the honour of God the Church common profit of the Realm or defence of our people No man in common reason can conceive the Militia to be such an inseparable flower of the Crown as if it had been brought into the world with the King and chain'd unto him as his birth-right but onely as a permissive power recommended unto him by the people in their Representatives as the most eminent and illustrious person to be intrusted with such choyce weapons in trust and confidence that he will use them no otherwise then to the end for which-they were concredited unto him as the Soveraign of the people and for their onely safety and defence which trusted him in honour of his person and place Many other Statutes there are though some of them repealed which prove the Militia is onely fiduciary and not absolutely inherent to the Crowns of our Kings Now for our conclusion of this senceless illegal Prerogative as to the absolute power thereof let us in a word take notice of the destructive consequence admitting this power should be left to the Kings absolute disposure it then follows that he may take all that the Subject hath for he that hath the power of the sword on the same ground may command the purse which the late King not onely intended but practised witness the many great sums of money plate jewels and other moveables whatsoever

belief of many in the Nation But not longer to insist on this subject I shall onely say that the Soverainty of our kings hath been ever of a mixt nature and not absolute and as Bellarmine affirms of Monarchies in his Chapter De Romano Pontifiee Monarchiam temperatam mixtam inter Aristocratiam Democratiam semper meliorem esse puts That a Monarchie mixt and tempered between an Aristocratical Government and a Democratical is the best of all Governments so am I bold to avouch such hath ever been the nature of our English Soverainty would the late King have so conceived of its constitution or given credit to the old learned Lawyers viz. Bracton Fleta Fortiscue and many others for the Kings of England have originally received their power from the people Potestatem à populo effluxam Rex habet quo non licet ●●potestate alia populo suo dominari Fort. de leg Aug. The King hath his power from the people and ought not to govern them but by that Power and Law which he had from them though Royalists generally have otherwise conceived thereof supposing that the King cannot be a King unless he be absolute in power and command over the people which was the error or rather wilfulness of the late King who knew not or would not know the extent of the English Soveraignty but what out of his own inclinations and others infusions he was induced to believe that he could not rule otherwise then by a plenary power which is most dangerous to himself for plenitudo potestatis est plenitudo tempestatis and enables him to destroy himself at his own pleasure though the late King conceived otherwise and that to be subject to the controule of a Court of Parliament he could be no more then a mock-King or a Duke of Venice And certainly the generality of the people thought no less and that a king was such a supernatural and Divine creature not made up of sinful flesh and blood like other men as the poor woman conceived of Henry the Eighth who riding in progress through a Country Village attended with a great train of Nobility the Woman cryed out Shew me the king which of these is the king He quoth a foot-man whom thou seest with a Feather in his Cap and a blew Ribban about his neck Whoo crys out the woman will you make me believe the Moon is made of Cheese that 's a very man or else I never saw one in all my life And the silly soul was in the right for kings in their humane nature are no other then mortal men though in their other capacity as they are kings the best of men in Supremacy yet the worst if they neglect the duty of that great Office wherewith they are invested by Gods appointment for the publick good more then their own but I have taken too much liberty in expatiating my self on a subject so often treated of though my design therein extends not beyond my affection which hath lead me rather to perswade by the soft Argument of Law and Reason then in bitterness of language to exclaim against any mistaken in their opinions not doubting that either themselves or any other on due consideration will tax me for impertinency when as 't is well known the whole state of the old Controversie since the dissolution of the late Parliament hath been and is assidually revived by Royalists and a new disconted sort of male-contents which forbear not to justifie the late King in all his errors and condemn the Parliament for invading his just and rightful Prerogatives so that what and how many soever they are they must not expect but that of necessity there will new Answers be made though upon the old matter to new objections which may satisfie all such as out of the over-fineness and sharpness of their wits will censure whatsoever hath been afore said on a subject long since determined to be both needless and impertinent But to conclude It now onely remains that we proceed to the Law of God and by Scriptural proof to facillitate a reconciliation betwixt Royalists and that party which adheres to the present Government wherein I shall briefly shew first the justness and lawfulness of their cordial submission to the powers in being secondly the necessity of their union one with the other with the profit which thereby will redound to the mutual benefit of the whole Nation not doubting but that by this little which hath been spoken as concerning the Royal Prerogatives they may receive some kind of satisfaction that neither the Kings Interests in them were sufficient grounds whereon to lay the foundation of those bloody wars he so long waged against the great Judicature of the Nation or that they were so valid in Law as to warrant Royalists to assist him to win them by the sword That controversie being long since decided and the Power of Government in other hands yet in a little let us now examine to whom in conscience we all ought to yield our obedience S. Paul to the Romans 13. on this very subject of obedience to Authority prescribes this as a general rule to all men viz. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers The reason of this Precept follows viz. for there is no power but of God And thereupon he infers Therefore ye must needs be subject not onely for wrath but for conscience sake and to this he exhorts Timothy to pray for a blessing upon all those in Authority Now if Royalists make question as usually they do of the lawfulness of the present Authority and say 't is usurpatious and unlawful then they fall foul on Gods Oordinance and they question S. Pauls Doctrine and contradict the very reason of obedience in the Text viz. for the powers that are are the Ordinance of God Now that this may more evidently appear upon what a rock Royalists fall by calling into question the lawfulness of the present powers I shall intreat them to take it into their second considerations whether then the Apostle was not out of the way when he delivered this Doctrine of Obedience to Authority to his Country-men the Jews which was in the raigns of Claudius Caesar and Nero both which came to their powers meerly by usurpation and the sword but these Emperours being in possession S. Paul takes no exception as Royalists do against their unlawful coming into power but enjoyns obedience to be yielded to them and can any of them positively and of truth affirm that the powers of this Common-wealth are not devolved and confer'd on the States here by the Ordinance of God Bucer on this very Text. Rom. 13. says That when the question is whom we should obey we ought not to question what he is that exerciseth the power or in what manner he dispenseth it but it only sufficeth those which live under it that he hath power for if any man hath obtained power it s then out of doubt that he received