Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	authority_n	king_n	lord_n	3,808	5	3.7573	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94411	To His Excellency the L. Generall Cromwell, and the rest of the Councell of the Army of the Comonwealth of England; the humble and faithfull advice of divers affectionate friends to the Parliament, Army and Commonwealth of England	Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658.	1653 (1653)	Wing T1352B; ESTC R203795	11,967	16

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE L. Generall Cromwell AND The rest of the Councell of the Army OF THE Commonwealth of ENGLAND The humble and faithfull advice of divers affectionate Friends to the Parliament Army and Commonwealth of England HEaring of your especiall meetings in Councell in order to the setling of the Nation in Peace and Freedome as persons alwayes ingaged with you in affection and indeavours to the same just ends and a like concerned in the issue and successe thereof and knowing by sad experience how prone the wisest have been to mistakings in affairs of this nature we have deemed our selves bound in conscience to contribute what we conceive requisite or may be of use for the steering of your course aright and for the avoyding of those rocks upon which many have fallen for want of due and timely consideration which cannot be avoided but by a cleare knowledge of the Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of England and by a firm resolution to restore every of them without partiality unto their primitive power and efficacy throughout the Land notwithstanding any corrupt interest built upon their ruines or abuses So that waving all things of innovation let pretences be never so specious the first thing necessary to the work you have undertaken is to satisfie your understandings what are those Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties and in the next place by all lawfull means to endeavour their restauration For as you once well argued you are not a mercenary Army hired to serve any arbitrary power of State such was the late Kings Army fighting against the Fundamentall Lawes to erect his will or corrupt Lawes by former Kings procured subservient to will and power but called forth and conjured by the severall Declarations of Parliament to the defence of your own and the Peoples just Rights and Liberties which our Ancestours of famous memory have endeavoured to preserve with the price of their bloud and you by that and the late bloud of your deare friends and fellow-souldiers with the hazard of your own do now lay claime to these are your own reasonings when first you disputed the Authority of Parliament they having first declined the Fundamentall Lawes which was the onely just ground of declining them And as you rightly understood that being no mercenary Army but called forth to the defence of your own and the Peoples just Rights and Liberties you were not bound to obey commands though of a Parliament contrary to the Fundamentall Lawes so much more now are you to understand That of any men in the world it would worst become you to be either advisers or procurers of other things then those very true ancient fundamentall Rights and Liberties And you see likewise that not withstanding the many professions and Protestations of this Army to maintain the Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of this Nation it yet remains under a greater degree of bondage and fuller of just complaints then ever because you have slackened your zeale and there hath not been that diligent perseverance in all lawfull indeavours untill their plenary restauration and firm establishment Your study ought not to be like Conquerors to make things new or innovate upon the Fundamentall Lawes that never-failing means of trouble and confusion but to cleare them from those many incroachments violations and abuses both upon the Lawes themselves and the execution of them which have almost rendred them of no benefit and full of vexation to the people of this Nation You may please to observe it is not the being of a Parliament that makes the Nation happy but their maintaining of the fundamentall Rights and Liberties nor that in words onely and Declarations but in the reall and effectual establishment of them and when they either neglect those or set up other things contrary or oppose the establishing of them they prove themselves enemies and reduce this Nation into a condition of bondage Be pleased to review your Remonstrances and Declarations which in all parts of them have held forth the clearing setling and securing of the Rights Liberties and peace of the Nation the only justifiable end of all your publique motions and endeavours appealing to the whole Nation to the world and to Almighty God for the justnesse reasonablenesse and common concernment of your desires and intentions therein yea so wisely carefull were ye over the common Rights and Liberties of the people and of their safety that you proposed that in things clearly destructive to those Rights there might be for the future a liberty for dissenting Members in the Parliament to enter their dissent and thereby to acquit themselves from the guilt or blame of what evills might ensue that so the people might regularly come to know who they are that performe their trust faithfully and who not an argument amongst others then urged by the Army importing the greatest zeal and sincerity to the restoring of the Fundamentall Lawes that could possibly be expressed Nor is there as we verily believe any just objection that should stagger you in perseverance accordingly although we cannot deny but that all the old and new Sophisms and delusive arguments devised by corrupt interests in defence of themselves against the Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of the people have been so diligently blown abroad that we find they have captivated many good mens understandings and are ready and uppermost almost in all discourses urging that if you now endeavour the restauration of the ancient Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of england you seek to re-edisie the things you have thrown down as Kingly government which the Parliament not without sufficient grounds voted to be uselesse burthen some and dangerous for what say they hath been more ancient in England unto which even by the very Lawes were annexed large revenues and extraordinary trusts as the Militia and the like what more ancient authority then the House of Lords which by the very Lawes of england had Jurisdiction in appeals after Judgement and both Kings and Peers ever esteemed an essential part of Parliaments the Bishops likewise of long continuance and very many Lawes extant in favour of them But as truth is more antient then error and righteousnesse was before sinne though error and sinne have much to say for their antiquarty so is it answered in these and the like cases though Kings and Lords and Bishops have been of long continuance and have procured many Laws to be made in severall times by Parliaments in favour of them yet upon due examination it will appear that they are not of Fundamentall Institution no more then many other corrupt interests yet extant which time after time have one made way for another untill at length they got the sway of all things sate themselves upmost in all places oft times filled the seats in Parliament and then made Lawes in favour of themselves and each others interest and in subversion of the Fundamentall Lawes endeavouring all they could utterly to root them up and to blot the knowledge