Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	king_n	politic_a	2,735	5	10.6730	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60876	Some weighty considerations humbly proposed to the honourable members of the ensuing assembly of the states of Scotland. By a lover of his countreys liberty.	Lover of his countrey's liberty.	1689 (1689)	Wing S4635; ESTC R217927	3,341	11

Some WEIGHTY Considerations Humbly Proposed to the Honourable MEMBERS Of the Ensuing ASSEMBLY Of the STATES of SCOTLAND By a Lover of his Countreys Liberty Re-printed in the Year 1689. Some Weighty Considerations Humbly Presented to the Honourable Members of the Ensuing Assembly of the States of Scotland ALL considerate States and Princes have used Religion as a mean to sweeten the Spirits of their Subjects and to make them obedient from Choice and Principle The Roman State which Conquered a great part of the then known World did so much as they could comply with the Religious Rites of their subdued Provinces and were so far from obtruding their own upon the People subjected to them that the Jews who averred all other Nations to be Idolatrous and Prophane were protected in their Church-Government and sacred Rites at home in their Synagogues and freedom to make Proselytes in other Provinces But now for a long tract of Years it hath been the business of the Government of Scotland to force a Church-Government a discipline and set of Priests upon a devout and sincere People to the racking of their Consciences fomenting of Broyls and Tumults containing a horrid spectacle of Executions and in short to the introducing of Ignorance and all manner of Profanity It is expected that the Honourable Assembly of the States will consider that it is not only against good Policy to force Conscience but as much against the Rights of Mankind as to use violence against Life or Chastity since he who complyeth for fear of Punishment with what is against his light whether good or bad in it self must be obnoxious to the Anger of an irresistable God and to the melanchollick sentences of a wounded spirit And since the Persons and Estates of such as standeth it out must be a Victim to the sanction of severe Laws for refusing to offend God and wound their Consciences which if duely pondered cannot but encline the Honourably Assembly to restore to the People their natural Rights of Worshipping God and chusing Teachers according to their Consciences to instruct and rule them suitably to the Gospel of Peace and their Reformation from Romish Tyranny It hath been the sad fate of the Kingdom of Scotland to be ruined by Parliaments the glorious Bulwarks of our neighbouring Nation the constitution whereof hath been manifestly perverted by various Innovations obtruded upon them by force an fraud The Officers of State at first only admitted to be present in Parliament as Attendants upon the King's Person have by degrees wheedled themselves into a Custom of Voting albeit no part of the three Estates of Parliament Though our Kings have had the Power of conferring Titles of Honour yet such Grants for several Ages gave no Right to Vote in Parliament till first approved by the Estates of Parliament By the Invasion upon this Right of Parliaments the number of their Hereditary Members doth now exceed the number of the Elective though they possess not so much as a tenth part of the Property of the Nation and several possess no part of it all The fourteen Prelats obtruded upon the Parliaments on purpose to secure so many Votes to the Court hath been suffered to continue the known dead weight of the House though it cannot be understood what part of the Body Politick they represent since the Clergy pretend to the Kingdom of Christ whose Kingdom is not of this World who to give them their due have acted suitably in constantly Voting for the King whom they called their Head under Christ in Prejudice of the Nations best Interest The Lords of the Articles were Calculate to obviate the Nations reaping any suitable fruit of Parliaments Members being obnoxious for what they speak in Parliament is a Plague which consumeth the Vitals of a Legislative Power The Imposing of unnecessary disputable and self-contradicting Oaths on all Members of Parliament and Electors of such hath deprived many of the Nobility of their Birth-rights and the Gentry and Citizens from Electing and being Elected It hath done no good service to our Parliaments that only King's Barrons are admitted to Elect which in some Shires are very few whereas many Gentlemen who bear greater burden than many of them and are as much to be supposed in the Interest of the Countrey are debarred from Electing upon a fiction of the Feudal Law whereby they are esteemed to be represented in their Superiours which was more tollerable while the Constitution was standing to which the Feudal Law was Calculate It is not doubted but the Wisdom of our great Assembly shall find out Expedients to remove all Innovations and settle the Parliaments on a solid Foundation Most of all our Ministers of State Judges and Privy Counsellors have been these twenty Eight years by-past the great Grievances of the Nation the Substance of the Countrey hath been exhausted by persons of all Ranks going to Court for Redress universally to no purpose Upon which accompt none can doubt but a Wise Assembly which hath it in their hands to prevent such Mischiefs shall secure to Parliaments their Ancient Priviledges to recommend Persons of Integrity and Capacity for the Service of the Nation in all publick Trusts and above all make sure the frequent assembling of Parliaments a Soveraign Antidote against bad Ministers Whereas every Wise Government considereth by what means it can probably be defended and where the publick Revenue of the Countrey is no wise sufficient to sustain a standing Force proportioned to their defence care is taken to arm encourage and model the Subjects for the security of the State. The Subjects of Scotland have been again and again disarmed a standing Force hath been kept on foot to the number of three or four thousand Men no ways suited to the Defence of the Countrey but sufficient to Harass and Inslave a disarmed people It cannot escape the Providence of the Honourable Assembly to put the Subjects in posture of Defence under Officers no less recommended upon the accompt of Integrity and Love to their Countrey as upon the Accompt of Courage and Experience And take care that no standing Force be suffered to be kept in the Kingdom without consent of Parliament nor be Leavied to serve under other States or Princes without Promission and Obligation that they shall be sent back when the Parliament shall find it necessary for the Nations Service A long continued Race of both Elective and Successive Scotish Kings have constantly acknowledged that they are bound to Oblige themselves by solemn Oath to protect their Subjects and defend their Rights at the solemn receipt of the Peoples Allegiance But to Crown the Miseries of that bleeding Nation James the seventh pretended a Right from God alone assumed the Government without obliging himself by solemn Oath to the Subjects contrary to the fundamental Constitutions continual Custom and Akcnowledgment of his Ancestors and an express Statute which is only a Declaration of the fundamental Constitution enlarged what was absolutely necessary for the peace and safety of the Subjects when Reformed from Romish Darkness and Superstition And as his being a biggoted Papist did render him incapable to oblige himself to the Subjects according to the terms of the Oath contained in the foresaid Statute and consequently incapable of the Regal Dignity so his Arbitrary and Popish Designs made it impossible he could ingage himself to defend the Liberty and Property of the Subjects And if the Act of Succession made in the Parliament eighty one should be objected the Answer is obvious that the pretended Parliament was holden by himself whom many former Laws have rendered incapable of bearing any Offices in our Protestant Countrey yea incapable of being alawful Subject and so all its Acts are ipso facto null and void Again it was not in the power of any Parliament to alter a Fundamental Constitution more ancient than Parliaments than it was to turn Kings and Parliaments out of doors In short his usurping the Government his Arbitrary management thereof and at last his relinquishing Great Britain and betaking himself to the Protection of the Arch-enemy of Christianity yea Humanity it self giveth sufficient ground to declare him an Enemy of this Kingdom and the Peoples Right to provide for themselves Since the Almighty God hath raised up the Prince of Orange now King of England the Hereditary Hercules of the Latter World to undertake so glorious an Interprize as the delivering of Britain and Ireland from Popery and Slavery and hath hitherto blessed his great and good Designs with suitable success Gratitude and Justice requireth the Honourable Assembly to confer the Regal Dignity upon him that he may be the more encouraged to accomplish the Deliverance of these Nations and assisted in the procurement of un universal Repose to all Christendom The former Preliminaries cannot be disagreeable to a Prince who striveth with his Subjects to put them in a Condition that it may be in his and his Successors power to do them good but not to hurt them It is not to be doubted but the Honourable Assembly will find it the Interest of Mankind to pray Let King William live for ever And to make no otherwise mention of a Successor than to renew their Laws disenabling all Papists to have any interest in the Government of the Kingdom and to appoint the Parliament immediatly preceeding the decease of King William whose Life God long preserve to assemble within fifteen days after his decease It is likewise hoped that the Honourable Assembly so soon as the Nations most pressing Affairs are settled will fall upon proper Expedients to obtain an Union with our Bordering Nation that so the united strength of Great Britain may be intirely laid out for the Relief of our Neighbouring Protestants yet groaning under the heavy Yoak of their Antichristian Romish Tyrants FINIS