Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	government_n	king_n	monarchy_n	2,238	5	9.5285	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89890	A plea for the King, and kingdome; by way of answer to the late remonstrance of the Army, presented to the House of Commons on Monday Novemb. 20. Proving, that it tends to subvert the lawes, and fundamentall constitutions of this kingdom, and demolish the very foundations of government in generall.	Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1648 (1648)	Wing N402; Thomason E474_2; ESTC R202961	27,530	32

The first is the Government of a Monarch or King the second that of States the third is Democraticall or Popular Now though it cannot be denied that the power of a King may be more or lesse absolute according to the severall Qualifications or Restrictions laid upon it by the mixture of any other Power with it as by the constitution of this Kingdome there is a mixture of all the three Powers in King Lords and Commons yet if either of these Powers incroach upon the other they change their nature As for example if the Aristocraticall part prescribe rules to the Monarch and take away his Negative Voice it can be no longer a Monarchie or Kingdome and so if the Popular presume to take away Ius imperii from the Aristocracy it can be no longer a Government by States so that the Remonstrants in allowing us an elective King but denying Him a Negative voice the very substance of Soveraignty do but delude us with a Mockery and by placing the supreme power of making and repealing Lawes in the People do aime to establish a meere popular Tyrannie which they will assume unto themselves under the Nation of the PEOPLE to the destruction of our Laws and Liberties For it is a sure Rule That those that seeke to make themselves Lords by force of Armes over their fellow-subjects under pretence of reforming their Princes defects in government are alwaies if they have successe more cruell and tyrannous then those against whose government they fancied Exceptions and regard the common-good no further then it conduceth to their own wicked ends and purposes There are too many evidences of this Truth to be found in History I shall instance onely in two most notable and which come close to our Time The first is fetch'd from the City Syracusa which had been long governed by hereditary Kings virtuous and just save onely Thrasihulus the last of the race of Gelon was suspected to be a Tyrant and therefore the Syracusians deposed him after ten monethes government After they had deposed him to prevent the greatnesse of any one among them for the future they devised a kind of Banishment of such among them as should at any time be suspected taking pattern from the Athenian ostracisme and this their new devised judgement they called Petalismus wherein every one wrote upon an Olive-leafe as at Athens they did upon shels the name of him whom they would have expelled the City and he that had most suffrages against him was banished the City for five years Hhereby in a short time it came to passe that the Nobility having learned to banish one another the State became wholly popular which was a curse sufficient to their City since nothing is so terrible in any State as a powerfull and authorised ignorance This Democracy carried it self so wickedly that God raised up Dionysius the Tyrant to take vengeance as well of their cruelty toward strangers as their owne best Citizens for they had made it their pastime to reward the worthiest with disgrace or death So that the meanes by which Dionysius got their favour grew from his accusing the principal men It is the delight of base people to domineere over their betters wherefore he helpe them to breake as Fetters imprisoning their liberty the Bars that held it under safe Custody And after that he had usurped the Government to himselse I pray God our Cromwell take not after him for he hath traced him thus far already he spared none of his known nor suspected Enemies he was the greatest Robber that ever lived in any State and the most impartially cruell rnd so proved a fit scourge to them for expelling their Kings and erecting a popular Government But my second instance and the most notorious one is from Athens This City and Territory of Attica had been originally governed and very prosperously by hereditary Kings And because that Codrus the thirtieth King of that Race willingly died for the safety of his People he was therefore so honoured as thinking none worthy to succeed him they changed their former government from Monarchicall to Princes for tearme of life of which Medon the son of Codrus was the first of whom his successours by election which were twelve in number were called Medontidae But after experience that those Elective Princes who had no hereditary right to the Crowne but only a limitation of government to their lives and for that onely reason made a prey of the People studied more to rob them for particular advantage then to manage the government for the publique good they laid aside that forme of Government and appointed Archons or Decennall Governors that is one Prince for ten years but finding the like inconvenience in that with somewhat a more swift rapine because their time of gaine was shorter then after the tryall of seven of these Decennall Governors they buried that Forme and set up annuall or yearly Magistrates But their oppression was so great that that Forme continued but seven successions of whom Solon that most excellent Lawgiver was the last And and so after many experiments this giddy People finding no better rest then in Monarchy submitted againe to it under Pisistratus who left the Crowne to his Son Hippias and then another Toy taking these inconstant Athenians they drove him out of his Kingdome and enforced him to flye unto Darius King of Persia to crave aid for restitution which was the onely cause of all the Wars Commotions and Troubles that followed in Greece for 300. yeares after to the utter ruine and inslaving of the Nation After Hippias was thus driven out they erected a pure Democracy or Government by the people Herein they were so insolent that no Integrity no good desert was able to preserve the estate of any such as had born any great Office longer then by flattering the rascall Multitude he could form all his words and Actions to their good liking behold here O ye Nobles and Gentry of England and yee wealthy Citizens of London what ye must come to Nay they banished their famous Generall Themistocles looke to it then Fairfax who had been their only deliverer from the fury of the Persian onely for indeavouring to restraine by wise counsels the riotous excesse of their extreame folly and Madnesse At length the principall men of Athens conspiring with the Captaines abroad caused them to set up the Forme of an Aristocracy in the Townes of their Confederates in a short time the Majesty of Athens was usurped by foure hundred men who imbroyled the State in a bloody and furious War with the Peloponesians which was the ruine of their City and subversion of their Wals. After a time reviving againe in hope to better their distracted condition they chose thirty Governours commonly called the thirty Tyrants of Athens These having by degrees drawne all Power into their hands were more carefull to hold it then deserve it and imployed it onely to oppression and shedding the Blood of all those whom they made or counted their Enemies that they might in rich themselves and friends with their Lands and possessions And the better to maintaine and secure themselves in these cruell courses after they had by Force over-awed all the Territories of that State round about they made a Faction of their owne in the City of Athens as our Remonstrants have now in London which being done they disarmed all others whom they could not draw to their Party and setled a Militia of three thousand Citizens to keepe the rest of their fellows in subjection Looke to thy selfe then London for if they cannot worke thee to ingage with them they must of necessity take the same course with thee to carry on their designe And then thou must looke to fare no better then did the poor Athenians For when the thirty Tyrants had thus established their Tyrannie they far exceeded their former Villanies plundring all without fear or shame dispoyling them of Lands and Goods and forcing them to flye into Banishment to save their lives In conclusion the City being tired out with these outrages and extremities when they had smarted sufficiently began to find their owne strength and all as one man rose up and slew them which done to avoid future inconveniences all was salved up with a generall Act of Oblivion and the State recovered its former Peace and Tranquillity Many more instances might be given but none more pat then these for the present occasion wherein as in a glasse every man may behold those fatall miseries and confusions that must needs ensue a change of the Kingly to a popular or as the case now stands with us to a Military Government which I have proved clearly unto the world to be the designe of this Remonstrance to the utter subversion of our Laws the fundamentall constitutions and Priviledges of Parliament with the destruction of the King and His Posterity and the inslaving of the Kingdome What remaines then but that the Lords and Commons in Parliament doe stand up now for their Priviledges the Laws and the maintenance of Monarchy and yet if it be possible revive the dying hopes of the Nation with an Agreement by this Treaty for as much as His Majesty is and of necessity must be the Basis of a settlement Let the people understand how much you abhor the contrary and then you can never want their hearts and hands to assist you And if any of you should miscarry and be purged out of the House as some of you have been heretofore by this Faction and forced to banishment it will be your chiefest glory in time to come that you suffered in the behalfe of your King and Country If I perish I perish Nec me vidêre superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum Adversa videbunt FINIS

would defend them herein with fidelity and courage against all opposition Teach them not by neglecting your own and the Kingdomes safety in which their own is involved to think themselves betrayed and left hereafter to the rage and malice of an irreconcileable Enemy whom they have subdued for your sake and therefore are likely to find his future government of them insupportable and fuller of revenge than Justice lest despaire teach them to seek their safety by some other meanes than by adhering to you who will not stick to your selves And how destructive such a Resolution in them will be to you all I tremble to think and leave you to judge Upon the concluding of Oliver the Question was immediately put and not a man daring to mutter it was concluded that no further Applications should be made unto the King The other 3. Votes followed of course as depending thereupon Now the grand difficulty was to make them passe with the Lords they having very hotly debated against them insomuch that there were ten Lords to ten But to turne the Scales at the very instant a Regiment of Foot and another of Horse came to garrison White-Hall and the Newes which frighted their Lordships to a quick condescention So that now I leave the world to judge the falshood of the Remonstrance in this particular it being cleare that that the Houses were acted beyond their free Judgement and by Impulsion from the Army in passing the Votes of Non-Addresse unto his Majesty And the truth is they have acknowledged among themselves That they rule by Power only and that the House is no longer theirs than they over-awe them which is the very reason why they appear now upon the very Close of the Treaty with this high-flowne Remonstrance To the second whereas the Remonstrance sayes that before the passing those 4. Votes the people were full of discontents and distempers but after they were passed the Kingdom was in a hopefull posture of settlement I answer That though the people generally distasted the Proceedings of the Grandees upon the Imprisonment of their King yet they were not so inraged as to rush into Arms till the passing these 4. Votes which were so far from promoting a settlement that they inflamed the minds of the whole Commonalty with Revenge and suspicion what Form of Government the Grandees intended to erect now they had laid by the King and every mans mind presaged a new War which indeed the Independent Grandees were willing to have to colour their keeping up this Army and raising money to maintain them It is moreover That the whole Kingdom was so far out of charity with the Grandees for those four Votes that every man even among the moderate well-affected as they call them did detest the proceedings insomuch that none would second them by Petition or otherwise though they proceeded almost so far as to compel them Witness the Designe of Prideaux to ingage the whole County of Sommerset but could prevail no further then with a few Sectaries of the Town of Taunton to thank the House for those Votes by a Petition which was seconded through the inoustry of Serjeant Wilde as he rode the Circuit by the subscription of a packt grand Jury for the County Colonel Puresoy was at the same work in Warwickshire and Sir Arthur Haslerig about Newcastle but all with as small success as Sir Harry Mildmay had in the County of Essex For the people instead of countenancing the four Votes began every where openly to protest against them and to turn their Petitions into a contrary strain for recalling the Votes and appointing a Personal Treaty with His Majesty the rejecting of which Petitions murthering some of the Petitioners as the Surrey men and discountenancing the rest was the true cause of all the late Insurrections So that it appears evident against the sence of the Remonstrance That the four Votes rather unsettled the Kingdom then brought it into a hopeful posture of settlement To the third Falshood of the Romonstrance That when the Houses recalled the four Votes their judgment was not with due Freedom I answer That when the face of affairs changed so that the Army could no longer over-aw the House then having liberty to Vote with Freedom and according to their Consciences they immediatly recalled the Votes of Non-Address upon the Petitions of the City of London and other Counties about which were debated in the Houses freely being then released from that terror wherein they were held formerly by the Army as appears when they were first passed by the Lords and communicated by them unto the Commons on Wednesday the 16 of August where they received a full and free Concurrence with very little contradiction Thus the falshood of these three Particulars being cleared all the superstructures of Discourse upon them in this fi●st part of the Remonstrance must fall to nothing Having caluminated the just and honorable proceedings of the Houses in recalling the Votes of Non-Addresse and yielding to a Personal Treaty with His Majesty in the next place they insinuate the great evil or danger of seeking to the King by Treaty and of an Agreement or Accommodation with him including his impunity and restitution to his Freedom Revenue and Dignity and all under pretence that sufficient provision is not made thereby for the publike Interest Herein they tacitly condemne the Propositions of both Houses as if in them they had not been carefull of the good and welfare of the People and propou●d another way of their own as the only meanes to preserve the publike Interest of the Nation which they say consists in these Principall Heads 1. That for all matters of supreme Trust or concernment to the Safety of the whole there be a supreme Councell or Parliament 2. That the power of making and repealing Lawes and the finall power of Judgment in all things without further Appeal many rest in that Councell or Representative Body of the People and that it may not be in the will of the King or any other particular Persons to oppose or make void their determinations These things they set down as the Epitome of the publike Interest and the true Subject of the Contest betwixt the King and Parliament But that a Supreme Councell so quallified is no part of the publike Interest in this Kingdom I shall make cleare when I come to handle those particulars which they propound in the winding up of the Remonstrance Nor hath it been the Subject of the Contest betwixt King and Parliament and therefore they cannot ground any just accusation or charge upon them against the King as they indeavour here to doe For the first Contest betwixt the King and Parliament was about the possession of the Militia which they claimed to have in their hands for a time under pretence of danger c. Yet never proceeded so far as to question the Kings negative voice in Parliament but acknowledged in severall Declarations that their Ordinances

again still and not being able to prevail by reason they had recourse to Menaces and Threats Sollicitor S. Johns threatned that they must have recourse to the power of the Sword the longest sword take all since they were ingaged to live and die with the Army Sir Arthur Haslerige said then some heads must flie off and he feared the Parliament of England would not save the Kingdom of England so that they must look another way for safety They could not satisfie the Army but by declaring all void ab Initio and the Lords were so far ingaged that no middle way would serve And when it was answered that this was an Appeale from the Parliament to the Army then the Threats were re-doubled by Sir John Evelyn Junior Sir Harry Vane Junior Prideaux Gourdon Sir Harry Mildmay Scot Holland and divers others When nothing would doe at length the Speaker pulled a Letter out of his pocket together with the Remonstrance from the Army full of vilanous Language and Threats against those Members that sate while the two Speakers were in the Army calling them pretended Members charging them in generall with Treason Treachery and Breach of Trust And protested that if they should presume to sit before they had cleared themselves that they did not give their Assents to such and such Votes they should sit at their perill and be taken prisoners of Warr and tryed at a Councell of Warr. Certainly never any King of England ever offered so great a violence to the fundamentall priviledges of Parliament as to deny them the liberty of voting yea and no freely And yet this very same Army hath the confidence to alledge their tender regard of the Priviledges and Freedom of Parliament And that the world may take notice how they intend to behave themselves toward the Houses in time to come in the very next Paragraph you may read a strange kind of construction of that old abused Maxim Salus populi suprema Lex which they say many have made use of in these times but none with so much justice as themselves and of this they make their successe the only Argument in justification of their Rebellion against both King and Parliament as if happy events were the only Touchstones of lawfull enterprizes and that by these God had given the verdict on their side Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu Facta not and a putat And therefore they proceed to pronounce themselves magisterially to be the onely competent Judges of the safety of the People which to be is the inseparable Prerogative of the supreme Magistrate or Magistrates only in all Governments whatsoever And in prosecution of their humor they do as good as tell the House in case those pretences of danger be not remedied and those remedies which they remonstrate not followed they shall not feare to make such Appeales to God that is their sword as formerly they have done From whence we may collect these following tenets destructive to all Government First That the People or as the case now stands that part of the People which are prevalent in Armes are the true and sole Judges of their owne safety Secondly That they may appeale to the Sword against the Authority of their Governers in order as they conceive to the publique safety which two Conclusions if admitted must needs open a Gap to perpetuall Faction and Rebellion forasmuch as the People who are ever floating and apt to find Fault will upon such a liberty never be content and satisfied with their Governers Neverthelesse upon these Anarchicall Grounds they proceed in the next place to tax the House for quitting their Votes of non-Addresse unto his Majesty and admitting of a personall Treaty and hereunto they subjoyne no lesse than three notorious Fictions to strengthen the Votes of Non-Addresse and gain them a new Reputation to the prejudice of the Treaty First they steele their Fore-heads with this bold Assertion that the House was in a condition of Freedom and not Acted beyond their own Judgements nor by any Impulsion from the Army when they passed those Votes Secondly that before the passing of those Votes the People and Soldiery were full of discontents and distempers throughout the Kingdom but that after the passing of them they were re-setled in good Order and discipline and the whole Affaires of the Kingdom in an hopefull posture for a Settlement Thirdly That when the Houses recalled those Votes and took Resolutions for a Treaty their Judgement was not with due and former Freedom c. To the first I answer and shall make it evident that the Parliament was acted beyond their free Judgments and by Impulsion from the Army when the 4. Votes of Non-Addresse were passed in either House For the designe of these Votes was driven on first in the Army Sir Harry Vane Junior Sir John Evelyn of Wilts Nath. Eines and Soll. S. Johns having been imployed by the Independent Grandees to joyne with a select Committee of the Army to debate the meanes of procuring the passage of those 4. Votes in the House which when they had contrived they hastned to put in execution at Westminster having a pat occasion offered them on Monday January 3. when the King's Answer of deniall to the four Bills presented to him in the Isle of Wight came to be debated in the House of Commons At which time Commissary Ireton the wise pen-man of this Remonstrance made bold to speak the sence of the Army under the notion of many thousand godly men who had ventured their lives to subdue their Enemies and said The King had denyed safety unto his people by denying the foure Bills That subjection to him was but in lieu of his protection to his People which being denyed they might well deny any more Subjection to him and settle the Kingdom without him That it was now expected after so long patience they should shew their Resolution and not desert those valiant men who had ingaged for them beyond all possibility of Retreat and would never forsake the Parliament unlesse the Parliament forsook them first And what was the intent of this I pray you but to deliver the sence of the Army against the King and to insianute a cunning close Threat that if they did not joyn Issue with them they should be look't upon as Enemies But when divers exceptions were taken at this Speech of Ireton's and the Debate drawing to an up-shot his Father-in-law Cromwell be ought up the Reare in very furious La●guage and to signifie that the Gainsayers must expect more then words he laid his hand upon his sword and stood in a threatning posture saying It was now expected the Parliament should defend and govern the Kingdom by their own power and resolutions and not teach the people any longer to expect safety and government from an obstinate man whose heart God had hardned That those men who had defended the Parliament from so many dangers with expence of their Bloud