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A36871 The history of the English and Scotch presbytery wherein is discovered their designs and practices for the subversion of government in church and state / written in French, by an eminent divine of the Reformed church, and now Englished.; Historie des nouveaux presbytériens anglois et escossois. English Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676.; Du Moulin, Peter, 1601-1684.; Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.; Playford, Matthew. 1660 (1660) Wing D2586; ESTC R17146 174,910 286

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they may then give it the name of Lex and in effect it is but a request before the pleasure of the King makes it pass into a Law and was never other before this present Parliament Therefore the English Lawyers call the King the life of the Law for though the King in Parliament cannot make any Law without the concurrence of the two Houses yet nevertheless it 's his Authority only that gives it the strength and Name of a Law and they are so far from having any Legal Authority in their Commands without the consent of the King that the customary right gives them not so much as a Name neither takes any Cognisance of them To say then that the Parliament hath declared this War lawful and that the Orders of Parliament are Laws is by an ambiguous term to abuse the ignorance of the people for by the Parliament they understand somtimes one House somtimes both and somtimes the King and both Houses together it 's thus that men understand them when they speak of the Supream Court of Parliament and of Acts of Parliament for the King was ever accounted the first of the three Estate without whom the two other had not power to conclude any thing lawfully for all their Authority is derived from him not only for a time but by a continual Influence which being interrupted the power of necessity cease●h These three toge●her have power to interpret the Laws to revoke them and to make others therein properly lies the Oracle of the Laws A Judicious Writer of the Royal party calls the union of the three Estates the Sacred Tripos from whence the Oracles of the Law are pronounced When any one of these three are separate from other the other two stagger and are lame nor cannot serve for a firm foundation for the safety of the State and satisfaction of the Subjects Conscience But let us assume the business higher you cannot more vex our Enemies than to tell them this Truth that the Monarchy which is at this day began by Conquest this is that which by no means they will endure to hear of but would perswade men that it began by an Election and Covenant which indeed had never any being but in their own Fancies If they would be believed for this they should then produce some Records For the bold conjecturers are less credible than all the Histories which assures us of three Conquests in this Kingdom since the Romans and Picts Namely that of the Saxons Danes and Normans Moreover those that would abolish this Office and Dignity destroy that of their own Laws for all the Lands of the Kingdom are held of the King by right of the Sword as appears by the nature of Homages and Services that the Lords of Fiefes owe to the King when William the Conqueror took possession of the Kingdome strengthening the Right of his Conquest by the last Will and Testament of Edward the Confessor he declared himself Master of all the Land and disposed of it according to his pleasure His Son Henry the first eased the People somwhat of the severe and unlimited Government of his Father and confirmed to the English their ancient priviledges which since after long and bloudy wars were anew confirmed and the Quarrel determined by that wise King Edward the first who having as much valour as wisdom in condescending to the Rights of his Subjects knew well how thereby to preserve his own for after all the Soveraignty of Kings remained inviolable and those preroga●ives were preserved which were only proper to him who is not subject but to God alone Such also is the Court of Wards by which a great many Orphans of the Kingdom are in Wardship to the King and almost all the Lands appertaining to him until they be of Age. In this thing the Kings of England exceed all other Christian Princes This being such an essential mark of absolute Soveraignty that there cannot be a greater Certainly if this Monarchy had begun either by Election or Covenant the Subjects would never have given the King so vast a power over their Estates and Families Amongst the priviledges of the English these three are the principal That the King cannot make a Law without the consent of his Estates That no Law made in Parliament can be revoked but in Parliament and that the King can levy no moneys of his Subjects be●●des his ordinary Revenues without the concurrence of the Two Houses in the intervals of Parliaments the King according to his Supream Power may make Edicts seem burdensom to the Subjects or to impair their Laws and Priviledges they humbly present them in the next Parliament the K. when the complaint appears just un●o him easeth them for to make their requests pass for Acts without the pleasure of the K. they cannot neither can the K. make new Acts in Parl. without their consent In the mean while the King makes not them partakers of his Authority but assembling them in Parliament he renders them capable to limit his Authority in Cases that appertain to their cognisance for there are many cases wherein they are not to meddle at all in the point of the Militia and for fear they should forget that even this power they have to limit the King comes from the Authority of the King and he can take it away from them when he pleaseth for when he breaks up the Parliament he retires to himself the Authority that he gave them to limit his and moreover if they stretch their priviledges beyond the pleasure of the King he hath power to dissolve the Parliament and after the word of the King is passed which dischargeth them and sends them away they have not power to sit or consult a minute Whence Bodinus well versed in the nature of the States of Christendome concludes the King of England to have Soveraign Authority The Estates of England saith he cannot be assembled nor dissolved but by the Edict of the Prince no more then in France and Spain which proves sufficiently that the Assemblies have no power of themselves to command or forbid a thing and he laughs at the ignorance of Bellaga who affirm the States of Arragon to be above their King and yet nevertheless confesseth the States cannot assemble nor separate without him Illud Novum planè absurdum That saith he is New and altogether a most absurd Doctrine And therefore it was that which occasioned them who had a design to overthrow Church and State to labour to draw a promise from his Majesty that the late long Parliament should not be dissolved without the consent of both Houses well knowing that without that granted the King when he pleased might have overturned their designs which they having obtained shewed by their Actions that they thought themselves then priviledged to do what they would without his Authority and thus it is with us at this day Yet so it is that they themselves do confess that this grant did
in the Assembly We could wish also that the power of their Consistories and Synods were a little more limitted for these Assemblies being Courts of Conscience which takes cognisance of all the offences of the Church they may enclose in their Jurisdiction all criminal and civil causes of the Kingdom there being no cause which hath not in it a point of Conscience And so hereby it may come that the sentences of Judges may be controuled in the Consistory and the Officers of the Crown questioned about their managing of publick affairs and so the Government of the State become purely arbitrary And the power of the Ecclesiastical Councel being such the most unquiet and ambitious will be ever pressing to be of it whereupon sidings and factions will abound revenge and particular interest will turn the ballance There they will form factions in the State and parties against the King for what is there that they dare not enterprise who have so vast a power which have no other limits than the extent of the flitting and moveable conscience of particulars which give account to none who pretend to have their authority only of Divine right and therefore are not subject to be controuled These are not conjectures nor suppositions but observations of long experience certainly that personal citation which was sent by the National Synod of Scotland to their King when he was in the midst of his Armies in England Feb. 1645. filled Forreign Churches with amazement and scandal And no less is the Authority they exercise even over their Parliaments which having demanded advice of the Synod concerning what they were to do with their King the Ministers concluded that they should not bring the King into Scotland and that the Kingdom of Scotland ought not to espouse his quarrel for to maintain his Rites in England and their advice passed for an Ordinance after this they cannot reprove the Bishops for being Councellours of State Monarchy which can endure neither Master nor Companion can hardly comply with this Court of Conscience which gives Laws but receives none unless themselves make them and limit the King but refuse to be limited by him but the Magistrates of an Aristocratick or popular Common-wealth will shift better with them for this Court pretending an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction purely Soveraign and Divine yet nevertheless admit lay men to the participation of this power The Lords never fail to be Members of this consistory and to govern there And thus the question touching the Ecclesiastical authority is Eluded Now although above all we desire to enjoy an Apostolical and Episcopal Discipline where the Bishop assisted with the Councel of his Clergy governs the Church and admits other Pastors according to their degree and quality to the participation of the power of ths Keies yet nevertheless if the revolution of the State brings in another Discipline our Ministers submit themselves to it not to be Actors there remembring themselves of their duties and promise made at their reception of Orders but to surfer themselves to be governed remembring that they are call'd to preach the Gospel and whether there be a good or an evil Order in the Church or even none at all the vocation binds them to feed the Flock and to maintain the holy Doctrine But indeed its great pity to be reduced to expect a Discipline of those that have none and yet make the Kingdom of Christ to consist in it for which they made such clamours in their licentiousness and overthrow of all Order and lawful Vocation in the Church The Reformed Churches of France who employ all their Zeal and Industry to maintain the purity of the Gospel without contending with any about the outward Discipline look upon with contempt and compassion the impetuous weakness of our enemies who overthrow the holy Doctrine and ruine Church and State for points of Discipline which is to lose the end for the accessaries yea although these accessaries are not good in this regard there being but two things to reprove in the Covenanters their end and the mean● which they employ to attain that end CHAP. XIX That the Covenanters ruine the Ministers of the Gospel under colour of Reformation ONE of the points of Reformation for which they laboured so much with Cannon shot was to abase and pull down the Clergy which is a work already done without proceeding further As for their greatness the only thing wherein it consisted was taken from them in the year 1645. Which was the Bishops sitting and having power to vote in the Lords House the rest is a smal thing As for their Revenues they are confiscated and sequestred and even the Revenues of the Bishops were such as might cause rather pitty then envy except four or five Bishopricks the rest were so poor that for to help them to uphold their Degree and pay their dues to the King Tenths and first Fruits his Majesty ever out of compassion gave them some other Benefices otherwise very few would have hazzarded the taking of them the Bishopricks of England being like the ruined Monasteries in some Countries which have nothing remaining but the wals with nothing in them The children of those parents who had formerly f●tted themselves by the Bishopricks have now swallowed the rest and yet labour to begger the inferior Clergy This is that they call Reformation and in truth 't is the Reformation of Scotland where the Tenths of the Clergy are possessed by the Ruling Elders above all by the Lords some of them having the Tenths of whole Provinces Therefore ye need not wonder they fight with such Zeal for a Reformation which is so profitable In England ordinarily the great Towns and rich Parishes are impropriated and in the hands of Lay persons the rest of the Benefices have but to provide in a Mediocrity for Students in Divinity Those who Reform the Clergy are those who possess the Goods of the Church and besides the Tithes that are alienated many of them even make use of the Tithes of the Clergy with which they are lawfully invested terrify●g their poor Ministers with Sequestration too weak to contend against them and force them to injurious and damageable contracts How many Patrons are there who sell their Benefices to them who will give most And by the infamous Simony of these Gentlemen who make a noise of Reformation the door of the Church is shut to the Clergy unless they have a golden key to open it and thus they prefer profit before conscience 'T is well done of them to mend that which they have marred and they of all other have reason to take in hand the Reformation of Ministers because themselves have done what possibly they can to corrupt them Of all Liberal Professions Divinity is the poorest and have most Thorns in her way and therefore Parents find it more profitable to put their children to a Trade than bring them up in the Study of Divinity and yet after all this their very poverty