Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	answer_n	former_a	great_a	49	3	2.1077	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89952	Reasons why the supreme authority of the three nations (for the time) is not in the Parliament, but in the new-established Councel of State, consisting of His Excellence the Lord General Cromvvel, and his honourable assessors. Written in answer to a letter sent from a gentleman in Scotland to a friend of his in London. To which is added the letter it self.	C. N.	1653 (1653)	Wing N6; Thomason E697_19; ESTC R202945	18,691	32

REASONS WHY THE Supreme Authority OF THE THREE NATIONS For the time Is not in the PARLIAMENT BUT In the new-established Councel of State CONSISTING OF His Excellence the Lord General CROMVVEL And his honourable Assessors Written in answer to a Letter sent from a Gentleman in Scotland to a friend of his in London To which is added the Letter it self Printed at London and are to be sold by Rich. Moone at the seven Stars in Pauls Church-yard neer the great North-door 1653. The LETTER THis late dissolution of the Parliament puts us all here in a maze and the most of this Country conceive themselves thereby to be in a worse condition then ever both for that the little blossoming hopes which the People here especially the Clergy were beginning to entertaine of some favour from the Presbyterian party sitting in the House are now quite blasted and blown away as likewise because we apprehend how justly I cannot tell that the unexperiencedness and illiteracie of military men in the disquisition of divine or legal concernments will by all appearance bring us to submit our necks to the absolute uncontroulable and arbitrary yoak of the sword into which jealousies we are the more forcibly driven that we think that act whereby a rupture was made into the sacred authority of England to have been both rash unlawfull and strange and that so much the more that those Parliamentary men were accounted the refuge and sanctuary of the People the Representatives of the Nation the braines of that politick body whereof the Army is but the hands and chusers and preferrers of these very men to their respective places that were the extruders of them I pray you Sir let me have your opinion of this great and sudden change by the next Post whether you think the proceeding illegal or no if conducible or destructive to the good of Scotland and how England and Ireland stand affected to the now established Councel This Tuesday May 10. 1653. Your most humble servant C.N. The ANSWER Sir SOme other returnes from me to former Letters of yours upon subjects of the nature of that which came to my hands this Munday the 16 of May having as often as they were sent received from you that acceptance which by spirits of your ingenuity is usually bestowed on men of such unprejudicate opinions as out of my affection to truth without by-endes of my own I have oftentimes very freely laid before you do now encourage me in answer to your last of the date of the 10 of May by which you are pleased to demand my sentiment concerning the new established authority after the abrupt dissolution of the late tridecennial Parliament to give my pen as much scope for your satisfaction and the undeceiving of those that possibly are mis-informed of my Lord General his honorable Councel of Officers as in the interval betwixt the time of Mundays coming packet that of Tuesdays going one I can get snatched from my other too too urgent occasions Therefore do I expect of your courtesie in case no more pressing busines deprive me of leisure that you would be pleased to pardon the contingence of my excursion beyond the ordinary limits of an Epistle the prolixity will undoubtedly prove to you the less tedious that you be thereby informed of the lawfulness of the change of the Nations of England and Irelands approbation of it and of Scotlands greater apparent happiness under it then the former Government of all being mentioned in your Letter I am obliged in answer thereto to give you the best account I can Here do I intend to propound little or nothing of Necessity although the most of the Parliamentary writers make that to be the main reason of turning the Monarchy of this Land unto a State and that many others have said that the preservation of both the Army and Country did totally depend upon this late resolute action of breaking up the Parliament it shall suffice me and I hope not displease you that I endeavour to justifie the deed by the mildest and most moderate arguments can be devised and of a nature averse from aspersing but as little as may be any former Judicatory Now if the question be stated whether the Supreme authority be in the Parliament or the Army and that for the establishment thereof both power and lawfulness be necessarily required I doubt me all reason will carry it for the Army Here would I intreat such as are of another opinion to make appear what it is they mean by the word Parliament whether it be that kind of convention which the army did allow to sit at Westm or the preceding one consisting of King Lords and Commons which as the soul of man is said to comprehend the rational sensitive and vegetative faculties was first constituted triennial and afterwards by vertue of the same Royal source from whence the former grant did flow prolonged or perpetuated at the pleasure and discretion of the sitters I believe that those who having declared against Monarchy do cordially decline it will rather admit of the former acception of the word though perhaps it be said that the army derived its power from the Parliament and not the Parliament from it for I may say that the Lords and Commons chose the Army which Army when the Lords many of the Commons had by pressing too hard upon the Liberty of the subject forfeited their places took into their protection that part of the House which voted down Monarchy and was called the Representatives of England by which means I take it to be clear enough that the Supremacy is in the Army till they be pleased to resigne it in the fovour of new Representatives for Parliaments were never hithereto called but by Kings or Queens of a regal power and that to parley with them and advise them in difficult matters so that the very word thereof seemeth to savour of malignancy and probably ought to have been altered as the terme of the lower House was turned to that of the House of Commons Nevertheless passing by meer words there being nothing more certain then that the thing signified by the word Parliament was nothing else but the Kings great Councel there being no more King such a Counsel by infallible consequence is a non-entitie and therefore Monarchy being extinct the government of the Nation is inherent for the time in the persons of my Lord General and his Councel of Officers Let not the Nation or any one therein startle at this for as it is just where the power of Protection is that there should be the Authority all of us owing obedience to those that do protect us so is it no new thing that so legal a right be practically exerced is it not plainly set down in the Judges how Ehud after having killed King Eglon ruled all Israel for the space of many years did not the Empire of Rome enlarge it self farther under the command of the

Wise as Lawyers sometimes are esteemed bold even when they do but speak so may Souldiers be called prudent whilst they are in fighting A well-grounded power nevertheless is that which gives the essential being to Authority and the Sword that which infallibly governs every where both in Monarchies and States Is not the Man accounted the Head in Matrimony because of his being more powerful and vigorous then the woman Genoa chose Spain for her Protector because of his Power and Geneva the French King not for his great Wit as I conceive it therefore is it that we should have a more intrinsecal relation to our immediate Governours and more intime application of our Obedience to their Commands This I say not to justifie every Conquest although the Scriptures ordain us to be pliable to all superiour powers because power is from God of which passage I refer the interpretation to Divines and in the interim aver the unlawfulness of the Turks Authority albeit it be seconded with sufficient Power because the Question is not so much of Power alone as of Power with Goodness and the concomitancie of Moral Vertues whereof there is such store in my Lord General and his Officers that in the Legend of all the Worthies have not been read more glorious atchievements with less ostentation nor more self-denyal in such actions as in former Ages have been honoured with the sublimest triumphs I but say you the Parliament chose the General What then Although I have already proved the contrary Is not the King of Poland above the People that elected him And besides it is not the Parliament which by his Officers was dissolved that made him General the Army had purged it and new-molded it several times before and which is more if this late Parliamentary Authority was derived from the people and that the Peoples safety which is called the Supreme Law consist in the welfare of the Army Is not the Army by that means protector of both and the Officers thereof the fittest Legislators when any danger is imminent It is then upon that necessity as many conceive it of the preservation of the Peoples safety which was thought to be in very great hazard by the too-long sitting at the Helm of men of private spirits minding onely their own businesses that my Lord General and his Officers did re-assume that power which properly was theirs Or rather to express it more warily as the Lord of hosts stirred up the Parliament to new-model the Army for the better furtherance of the War so hath the God of peace moved the Army by way of retaliation to new-model the Government for the greater tranquillity of the People Had it not been for the Army the last Treaty I believe with the late King in the Isle of Wight had by establis● 〈◊〉 him in his throne hindred the erection of this Common-wealth as being perhaps sensible that the stream of a Parliament can have no longer infl●ence with any shew of right over the people after the drying up of the Regal source from whence it sprang at first It is that Army then which by expulsing the old government is become the true basis of the new one and by destroying Monarchy hath set up that fabrick of a State the managing whereof lyes upon their shoulders Who burneth the wood engendreth the flame which domineers over all the combustible stuff it can lay hold on whilst the Parliament sate it was the Army did animate them the Army was their soul and the Master-wheel by which they moved in which sense I think my Lord General did acknowledge the Parliaments soveraginty and in so doing did derogate nothing from himself and the Officers who virtually governed by them and thus in my opinion are to be interpreted all addresses of mentioning the Supreme Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England of which authority the Officers of the Army were the very Soul and they but the outward Organs Microtosmically Representative of the great body of the Republick In your letter you attribute the brains to the Parliament and to the Army nothing but hands but I say it is more like the brains were in the Officers or at least more brains allowing still the hands and feet to the Common Souldiery it is not the brains of the Parliament that have a proper influence upon the body of an Army for the brains readily admit not of so great a separation and distance from the hands resolution and prudence should be still coupled together else the body politick cannot long escape from ruine timorousness in counsel maketh men forbear the doing of good and too much temerity in the practical part prompteth hot spirits to the committing of wickedness but together joyned they make a most excellent temper for from uniting the vehement heat of the one to the extream coldness of the other there resulteth a remisser quality in its mediocrity comfortable this affording certainty in direction and that a celerity in performance of what is good Whereas there is a buzzing that the only refuge of the People was in former times the Parliament so may I say that the people of Israel in their stinging afflictions had the like recourse to the Brazen Serpent which nevertheless was afterwards very lawfully taken down we ought not to be such nominal Statesmen as to dote upon the words of Parliament Law Priviledges or I cannot tell what whilst all the things signified by them are violated and infringed even by those that idolize them in outward professions this is but like the doing of mischief in nomine domini and wrapping a Wolf in a Lambs skin What is the matter of words or how the Supreme Authority be called provided the country be well governed Would not any country-man that is hungry be better pleased to have a loas of bread presented to him although you call it a stone then a stone to break his fast upon which you shall call a loaf What else is a Parliament a sacred assembly the representatives of all the people unless their proceedings be accordingly very conscionable and just they are assuredly but words of no greater veneration then of old were Tyranny Kingship and Priesthood which in Greece Rome and England where they were most honoured became afterwards odious after the same manner though this late Parliament was called the peoples Representative and that the whole Nation did own them for such yet do the people in general seem to be very well pleased with their dissolution and not only they but the soundest part also of themselves as is perceivable by the facility wherewith so great an action was performed it being done without any noise struggle or yet discontent but of very few But how comes that say you to be just now which formerly in the late Kings coming to the House but to require the number only of five members was accounted unjust and a ground sufficient for making a defensive war I