Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	call_v	henry_n	king_n	8,876	5	4.0328	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45854	The inconveniences of a long continuance of the same Parliament		1680 (1680)	Wing I139; ESTC R324	6,725	4

THE Inconveniences of a long Continuance Of the same PARLIAMENT THAT there is a necessity of a Government among Mankind is admitted by all wise men but to convince mad men and fools of this is too great a task Johannes Woolebius in his Compendium Theolo Christ says that it is unworthy in a Christian so much to seem to mistrust the Divine Authority of the Scripture as to make any question of it It being a Principle so necessary to be believed as it ought not to be brought into doubt by Disputes To the like purpose it may be said that it is unworthy in an English Cummonwealths-man to bring it into debate whether or no the Sovereignty of this Realm be in the King alone dis-joyned from any other persons and true it is there are as yet but few if any that dare be so hardy as positively to say otherwise whatever their thoughts be and though their Actions seem to look that way And forasmuch as the word Commonwealth hath been of late years for the most part applied to the Government when it is in the hands of many It might not be impertinent to insert here what a Commonwealth is A Commonwealth therefore is a lawful Government of many Families and that which unto them in Common belongeth and the end and design thereof is that the wicked be punisht and the good and just protected So that it is as much nay rather more a Commonwealth and tends more to Common good when the Government is in the hand of one man than in the hands of many and for this we have the general consent of all great Politicians in past Ages who after the tryal of all sorts of Governments and comparing the Conveniences and Inconveniences of each have concluded that Government best for the generality of the people when the Sovereign Power to Command was in one man and not in many For oftentimes even where a Tyrant hath Reigned and he removed and the Commonwealth changed into a popular State the People have been soon sensible that the change hath been much for the worse and that instead of one Tyrant they had a multitude of Tyrants to oppress them Yet the Dissolution or Prorogation of a Parliament hath been of late lookt upon to be so high a violation of Right and so great a point of mis-government as if thereby our Liberties were lost and our Lives and Estates subjugated to the Arbitrary Power and Pleasure of our King or else we falsely conclude it impossible that the King can be so wise as to Govern without their Counsels To remove which mistakes and to quiet the minds of men misled these following Considerations and Collections out of English History are offered to publick view whereby it will be most apparent that not only the Proroguing but the frequent Dissolving of Parliaments is absolutely necessary for preservation of Monarchy our now establisht Government and the best sort of Government for the people of England and most sutable to their temper in preservation whereof our own preservation consists But the long continuance of one and the same Parliament or the same Members in Parliament which are both alike is the most pernicious thing imaginable both to King and People It is necessary for preservation of Monarchy that Parliaments be often Dissolved because nothing makes it more manifest in whom the Sovereign Power resides for it puts them in mind by what Authority they have their Being whereas by a long Continuance they are apt to plead prescription to their Seats and think themselves dis-seized if removed thence though by the same power that plac'd them there In former times Parliaments in this Kingdom consisted only of some of the Nobility and wise men of the Nation such as the King pleas'd to Call and the first time that ever the Commons of England were admitted to Parliament was in the 16th Year of Henry the 1st which Parliament was Assembled at Salisbury and it was so Assembled of the Kings own Pleasure not of any Obligation that by Law lay upon him so to do And certain it is the Kings of England were no ways obliged to Assemble Parliaments or being assembled to permit them to sit during their own pleasure till of late Years that such vapours corrupted our Region with a destructive Contagion By the Ancient Statutes of E. 3. whereby Parliaments were to be holden once a Year and oftner if need were cannot by any reasonable construction be intended so much to oblige the King to call a Parliament as to oblige the Subject to attend being call'd and this seems the rather to be so for that those Statutes being but briefly penned by a subsequent Statute of R. 2d as an Act explanatory of the former Acts a penalty is imposed upon every person having Summons to Parliament that should not come accordingly But now by an Act of the 16th of his now Majesties Reign he was prevail'd upon to pass it into a Law That Parliaments should not be intermitted or discontinued above three years However God be thank'd it is yet in the Kings power that if when they are Call'd they behave themselves not well His Majesty may without violation of any Law send them whence they came and I hope it will never more be otherwise lest that if they had a grant of not being Dissolv'd without their own consent they would do as those did that had the like power And sure it 's no Soloecism that the like cause may have the like effect A Parliament of the Modern Constitution is without Controversie very necessary and useful if they intend that which properly belongs to them the business of both Houses being to consult with and advise the King in such things as he shall require their advice in and to represent to him publik grievances such as are real grievances and not such as every whimble pated fellow esteems so but they are not to think to compel the King under the plausible term of Address to exercise any point of Government or to make any new Laws that he likes not of And it is proper and peculiar to himself only to judg what advice is fit to be followed and what to be rejected for there may be some private Reason of State for his so doing which might be inconvenient to be publickly known This hath been the ancient setled practice and under which this Kingdom hath long flourisht and it is not safe to alter it for it being now the declining Age of the World most Changes violent ones especially are from good to bad and from bad to worst and from worst to stark naught Is not the advantage of Monarchy above the Government of many apparent at this time to any seeing man for if His Majesty like the Main Mast of a Ship had not been the stay of all and had not as it were parted the fray by the late Dissolution of the Parliament all the Aristocratical rigging and tackle of both Houses if