Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
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B09389
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Reformed catholique, or, The true protestant
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing L1291; ESTC R179474
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23,474
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16
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Government rather then the suspected Servants of the King The Free-holders Choice is a very Martin Mar-Prelate His Language against the Clergy is too course for an honest man to repeat after him but he has ranged them in good Company for he says that they lay out themselves to accommodate their Masters with the veriest Villains that can be pick'd up in all the Country that so we may fall into the hands again of as treacherous and lewd a Parliament as the Wisdom of God and Folly of Man has most miraculously freed us from Methinks some of the Members of that Parliament should concern themselves to call for Justice upon so foul a Scandal The Author of the Seasonable Quaeries does not only recommend the same Cautions with the rest but calls his Majesty himself to Shrift and puts the Question whether Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliaments at such a time as this does not fill the hearts of Protestant Subjects with evident fears of destruction And Secondly says he Whether it be not high time for all the Protestants in England to resolve as one man that they will it and by and maintain the Power and Priviledges of Parliament together with the Power and Iust Rights of the King according to the Laws of the Kingdom so as the One may not intrench upon thâ— Other The former Expâ—â—â—â—â—ation upon the Reason of the Kings Proceedings would have been more taken notice of perhaps if it had not been followed with one of the most audacious Challenges that this Licentious season has produced for the meaning of it is to incourage a direct Rising as if the King and the Parliament were going together by the Ears forgive the Expression and the people to interpose to see fair play This is the very Trace of the Old Covenant They must resolve to maintain no body knows what on the one side for the Priviledges of Parliament are past finding out But then they are to stand by the King on the other side with a Limitatiâ—n only in his Iust Rights and of those Bounds they themselves are to be the Judges This Epithete was applyed to the late Kings Case by those very men that cut off his Head The Author of Englands great Interest having directed the good people what persons to choose for the ensuing Parliament and what not His next work is to instruct them in the Knowâ—edge of their Powers which he divides into three Rights or Fundamentals The First is Property that is a Right and Title to their own Lives Liberties and Estates For the Law he says is Vmpire between King Lords and Commonâ— and the Right and Property is one in kind through all Degrees and Qualities in the Kingdom Mark that Way does he not say that the King is Vmpire betwixt King Lords and Commons as welâ— aâ— tâ—at the Law is so For the Law is only the Kings Pleasure made known and the whole force and authority of it is but an Emanation from Soveraign Power And then for his Three Fundamentals As I am a Commoner of England my self I should be loth to lose any Right of an English man and yet as I am a loyal subject also I should be as unwilling to encroach upon the Priviledges of the Crown I do not know what he means by his one in Kind with the emphasis of Mark that upon it If it be that the people have as much right to their Lives Liberties and Estates as the King himself has though it be true in some sense it will not hold yet as he would have it understood For the people may forfeit their Lives Liberties and Estates but the King cannot forfeit his Wherefore Mark that too His Second Fundamental is Legislation Or the Power of making Laws for no Law can be made or abrogated he says in England without them It is not candidly done to call that the very Act of Legislation which is only consultive and preparative towards it The making of Laws is a peculiar and incommunicable Prerogative of Soveraignty so that to place the legislative power in the Commons is to make them Supream and to set a King of England once more at the Commons Bar. Beside that his Inference is as inconsequent as his Assertion is dangerous As if a Law must necessarily be made by them because it cannot be made or abrogated without them Does he that furnishes the Ingredients therefore make the Medicine because the Medicine cannot be made without the Ingredients What signifies the form of an Instrument to the passing of an Authority or Obligation without signing and sealing Yet the one cannot be done without the other Does the Councel that draws the Conveyance pass away the Estate because the Act could not have been good without him And again the Law in this case is no other then a Promise under the Kings Hand past to the people and partakes of the nature of other promises It was made by the Promiser and cannot be discharg'd without the Consent of those to whom it was promised His third Fundamental is Executive holds proportion with the other two in order to compleat both their Freedom and Security and that is their share as he says in the Judicatory Power in the Execution and Application of those Laws that they agree to be made A Judicatory Power without authority to Minister an Oath is to me I must confess a new thing And now for the word agree though it may be pertinent enough to his purpose for there needs no more to the undoing of the most regular Government upon the face of the Earth then first to turn the peoples hearts against it and then to possess them that they have a Legal Remedy in their own hands Yet that word I say in this place is very improper for it is but a Request presented to his Majesty for his Approbation The Request or Bill is no doubt agreed upon but it were an uncoâ—th kind of expression for a Petitioner to say that he does agree that his Petition shall be granted The Business is fairly push'd already but the Publisher of a pretended Speech lately printed carries it a step further If a Prince says he be born to a Kingdom who is either Lunatique or otherwise disabled to do the Kingdom any good shall not the Subjects in this case proceed to chuse another who may preserve the Kingdom when otherwise it must of necessity perish as lately in the case of Portugal they chose another to succeed because of the Disability of the former This is in plain terms a Deposing principle For if a King may be remov'd in such case of Disability the people being made Judges of the Case it is but their saying that he is not fit to govern the work is done There is a Sheet printed under the Title of A Plea c. that has more brains and art in it than ordinary He says that a King is not for his own but his Subjects sakes only and that