Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	king_n	land_n	law_n	7,177	5	4.9109	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86624	An inquisition after blood. To the Parliament in statu quo nunc, and to the Army regnant; or any other whether Royallist, Presbyterian, Independent or Leveller, whom it may concern.	Howell, James, 1594?-1666.	1649 (1649)	Wing H3080; Thomason E531_23; ESTC R15284	7,785	15

his Parliament by force and remove ill Counsellors from about him long before he put up his Royall Standard and the Generall nam'd to live and die with them and very observable it is how that Generalls Father was executed for a Traytor for but attempting such a thing upon Queen Elizabeth I meane to remove ill Counsellors from about her by force 'T is also to be observed that the same Army which was rais'd to bring him to his Parliament was continued to a clean contrary end two yeers afterwards to keep him from his Parlement 'T is fit it should be remembred who interdicted Trade first and brought in Forraigners to help them and whose Commissions of Warre were neere upon two moneths date before the Kings 'T is fit it should be remebred how his Majesty in all his Declarations and public Instruments made alwaies deep Protestations that 't was not against his Parliament he raised Armes but against some seditious Members against whom he had onely desired the common benefit of the Law but could not obtaine it 'T is fit to remember that after any good successes or advantage of his he still Courted both Parlement and City to an Accommodation how upon the Treaty at Uxbridge with much importunity for the generall advantage and comfort of his people and to prepare matters more fitly for a peace he desired there might be freedom of trade from Town to Town and a Cessation of all Acts of Hostility for the time that the inflamation being allayd the wound might be cur'd the sooner all which was denied him 'T is fit to remember how a Noble Lord at that time told the Parlements Commissioners in his Majesties Name at the most unhappy rupture of the said Treaty that when he was at the highest he wold be ready to treat with them and fight with them when he was at the lowest 'T is fit the pres●●● Army shold remember how often both in their Propos●●● and public Declarations they have inform'd the world and deeply protested that their principall aime was to restore his Majestie to honor freedom and safety whereunto they were formerly bound both by their own Protestation and Covenant that the two Commanders in chief pawn'd unto him their soules thereupon Let them remember that since he was first snatch't away to their custody he never displeas'd them in the least particular but in all his Overtures for Peace and all his Propositions he had regard still that the Army shold be satisfied let it be remembred that to settle a blessed Peace to preserve his Subjects from rapine and ruine and to give contentment to his Parlement he did in effect freely part with his Sword Scepter and Crown and ev'ry thing that was personall to him Let it be remembred with what an admired temper with what prudence and constancie with what moderation and mansuetude hee comported himselfe since his deep afflictions insomuch that those Commissioners and others who resorted unto him and had had their hearts so averse unto him before return'd his Converts crying him up to be one of the sanctifiedst persons upon earth and will not the blood of such a Prince cry aloud for vengeance Let it be remembred that though there be some Precedents of deposing Kings in this Kingdome and elsewhere when there was a competition for the right Title to the Crown by some other of the blood Royall yet 't is a thing not only unsampled but unheard of in any age that a King of England whose Title was without the least scruple shold be summon'd and arraign'd tryed condemn'd and executed in his own Kingdom by his own Subjects and by the name of their own King to whom they had sworn Alleagiance The meanest Barister that hath but tasted the Laws of the Land can tell you that it is an unquestionable fundamentall Maxime The King can do no wrong because he acts by the mediation of his Agents and Ministers he heares with other mens eares he sees with other mens eyes he consults with other mens braines he executes with other mens hands and judges with other mens consciences therefore his Officers Counsellors or favorits are punishable not 〈◊〉 and I know not one yet whom he hath spar'd but sacrificed to Justice The Crown of England is of so coruscant and pure a mettall that it cannot receive the least taint or blemish and if there were any before in the person of the Prince it takes them all away and makes him to be Rectus in C●r●a This as in many others may be exemplified in Henry the Seventh and the late Queen Elizabeth when the first came to the Crown 't was mention'd in Parlement that the attainder might be taken off him under which he lay all the time he liv'd an Exile in France it was then by the whole House of Parlement resolv'd upon the question that it was unnecessary because the Crown purg'd all So likewise when Queen Elizabeth was brought as it were from the Scaffold to the Throne though she was under a former attainder yet 't was thought superflous to take it off for the Crown was lieth away al spots and darteth such a brightnesse such resplendent beams of Majesty that quite dispel al former clouds so that put case King Iames died a violent death and his Son had been accessary to it which is as base a lie as ever the devil belch'd out yet his accesse to the Crown had purg'd all This businesse about the playster which was applied to King Iames was sifted winnow'd as narrowly as possibly a thing could be in former Parlements yet when it was exhibited as an Article against the Duke of Buckingham 't was term'd but a presumption or misdemeanure of a high nature And 't is strange that these new accusers shold make that a parricide in the King which was found but a presumption in the Duke who in case it had been so must needs have been the chiefest Accessary And as the antient Crown and Royall Diadem of England is made of such pure allay and cast in so dainty a mould that it can receive no taint or contract the least speck of enormity and foulenesse in it self so it doth endow the person of the Prince that weares it with such high Prerogatives that it exempts him from all sorts of publique blemishes from all Attainders Empeachments Summons Arraignments and Tryalls nor is there or ever was any Law or Precedent in this Land to lay any Crime or capitall charge against him though touching civill matters touching propertie of meum and tuum he may be impleaded by the meanest vassall that hath sworn fealty to him as the Subjects of France and Spain may against their Kings though never so absolute Monarchs In the Constitutions of England there are two incontroulable Maximes whereof the meanest mootman that hath but saluted Littleton cannot be ignorant the first is Rex in suis Dominiis neque habet Parem nec Superiorem The King in his own Dominions hath neither Peer or Superior The other is Satis habet Rex ad poenam quod Deum expectet ultorem 't is punishment enough for a King that God will take revenge of him Therefore if it be the Fundamentall Constitution of the Land that all just Tryalls must be by Peers and the Law proclaimes the King to have none in his own Dominions I leave the world to judge what capacity or power those men had to arraigne the late King to be in effect his Accusers and Judges and that an exorbitant unsampled Tribunall shold be erected with power and purpose to condemn all that came before it to cleer none and that sentence of death shold passe without conviction or Law upon Him that was the head and protector of all the Lawes Lastly that they who by their own confession represent but the Common people should assume power to cut off Him who immediately represented God Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi Iupiter Well we have seen such portentous things that former Ages never beheld nor will future Ages ever be witnesse of the like Nay posterity after a Century or two will hold what is now really acted to be but Romances And now with thoughts full of consternation and horror with a heartfull of amazement and trembling for the flagrant and crying sins of this forlorn Nation which hath drawn such an endlesse warr and an unheard of slaverie upon it self I will conclude with this short prayer which carrieth with it as much of universall charity as of particular God amend all and me first FINIS

AN INQUISITION AFTER BLOOD To the PARLIAMENT in statu quo nunc AND To the ARMY Regnant Or any other whether Royallist Presbyterian Independent or Leveller whom it may concern Blood is a crying sin but that of Kings Cryes loudest for revenge and ruine brings Printed in the Yeer 1649. AN INQUISITION AFTER BLOOD THE scope of this short discourse is to make some researches after Truth and to rectifie the world accordingly in point of opinion specially touching the first Author and Aggressor of the late ugly war in England which brought with it such an inundation of blood and so let in so huge a torrent of mischiefs to rush upon us There be many and they not only Presbyterians and Independents but Cavaliers also who think that the King had taken the guilt of all this blood upon himselfe in regard of that Concession he passed in the preamble of the late Treaty at the Isle of Wight The aime of this Paper is to cleere that point but in so temperate a way that I hope 't will give no cause of exception much lesse of offence to any the blood that 's sought after here shall not be mingled with gaule much lesse with anie venome at all We know there is no Principle either in Divinity Law or Phylosophie but may be wrested to a wrong sense there is no truth so demonstrative and cleere but may be subject to cavillations no Tenet so plaine but perverse inferences may be drawne out of it such a fate befell that preambular Concession His Majesty passed at the Transactions of the late Treaty in that he acknowledg'd therein that the two Houses of Parliament were necessitated to undertake a war in their owne just and lawfull defence c. and that therefore all Oaths Declarations or other public Instruments against the Houses of Parliament or any for adhering to them c. be declared null suppressed and forbidden 'T is true His Majesty passed this grant but with this weighty consideration as it had reference to two ends First to smoothen and facilitate things thereby to ope a passage and pave the way to a happy peace which this poor Iland did so thirst after having been so long glutted with civill blood Secondly that it might conduce to the further security and the indemnifying of the two Houses of Parlement with all their instruments assistants and adherents and so rid them of all jealousies and fear of future dangers which still lodg'd within them Now touching the expressions and words of this Grant they were not his owne nor did he give order for the dictating or penning thereof the King was not the Author of them but an Assenter only unto them nor was He or his Party accus'd or as much as mentioned in any of them to draw the least guilt upon themselves Besides He pass'd them as he doth all Lawes and Acts of Parlement which in case of absence another may do for him in his politic capacity therefore they cannot prejudice his person any way I am loth to say that he condescended to this Grant Cùm strict a novacula supra When the razor was as it were at his throat when ther was an Army of about thirty thousand effect if Horse and Foot that were in motion against him when his Person had continued under a black long lingring restraint and dangerous menacing Petitions and Papers daily obtruded against him Moreover His Majesty pass'd this Concession with these two provisos and reservations First that it should be of no vertu or validity at all till the whole Treaty were intirely consummated Secondly that he might when he pleas'd inlarge and cleer the truth with the reservedness of his meaning herein by public Declaration Now the Treaty being confusedly huddled up without discussing or as much as receiving any Proposition from himself as was capitulated and reciprocal Proposals are of the essence of all Treaties it could neither bind him or turne any way to his disadvantage Therfore under favour ther was too much hast us'd by the Parlement to draw that hipothetick or provisional Concession to the form of an Act so suddenly after in the very heat of the Treaty without His Majesties knowledge or the least intimation of his pleasure Add hereunto that this Grant was but a meer preambular Proposition 't was not of the essence of the Treaty it self And as the Philosophers and Schoolemen tell us there is no valid proof can be drawn out of Proemes Introductions or Corallaries in any science but out of the positive assertions and body of the Text which is only argument-proof so in the Constitutions and Lawes of England as also in all accusations and charges forerunning prefaces and preambles which commonly weak causes want most are not pleadable and though they use to be first in place like gentlemen-Ushers yet are they last in dignity as also in framing nor had they ever the force of Lawes but may be term'd their attendants to make way for them Besides ther 's not a syllable in this preface which repeales or connives at any former Law of the Land therefore those Lawes that so strictly inhibit English Subjects to raise armes against their liege Lord the King and those Lawes è contrario which exempt from all dangers penalties or molestation any Subject that adheres to the person of the King in any cause or quarrell whatsoever are still in force Furthermore this introductory Concession of the Kings wherein he is contented to declare That the two Houses were necessitated to take Armes for their defence may be said to have relation to the necessity à parte pòst not à parte antè self-defence is the universall Law of Nature and it extends to all other creatures as well as the rationall As the sluent Roman Orator in that sentence of his which is accounted among the Critiques the excellentest that ever drop'd from him Est enim haec non scripta sed nata Lex quam non didicimus accepimus legimus verùm ex natura ipsa arripuimus hausimus expressimus ad quam non docti sed facti non instituti sed imbuti sumus ut si vita nostra in c. For this meaning self-defence is not a written but a Law born with us A Law which we have not learnt receiv'd or read but that which we have suck'd drawn forth and wrung out of Nature her self A Law to which we are not taught but made unto wherewith we are not instructed but indued withall that if our lifes be in jeopardy c. we may repell force by force Therefore when the House of Parliament had drawn upon them a necessity of self-defence and I could have wish'd it had been against any other but their own Soveraign Prince his Majesty was contented to acknowledge that necessity As for example A man of war meets with a Marchant man at Sea he makes towards him and assaults him The Marchant man having a good stout vessell under him and