Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	act_n	authority_n	king_n	5,660	5	4.0152	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86800	A letter written to a gentleman in the country, touching the dissolution of the late Parliament, and the reasons therof.	Hall, John, 1627-1656.; Milton, John, 1608-1674,	1653 (1653)	Wing H352; Thomason E697_2; ESTC R207083	12,175	22

was weak and not of assurance enough to our purpose and if two inconveniences were to be run upon it were much better to run upon the lesse This is an Hypothesis I see not how it could be salved otherwise than by choosing such idoneous persons and that in such a number as might carry on the work for though multitude of Counsellors is strength and safety yet in distemper'd and turning States it is weaknesse and distraction And these such kind of men as are fit to have the reigns of a Nation in their hands and such as by a swift and due prosecution of Justice should satisfie the people what it is to be free This is a businesse either to be done by the Parliament by the People or by the Army The first like cunning Brokers would not do it The second like troublesome Ideots cannot do it and the third as wise Guardians must do it And therefore though this change may carry much in it as to appearance of fear and terror yet when a man will consider these two things that the Liberty of his Nation ought to be the dearest thing to him under Heaven and that without these men and means it cannot be preserved for take away the force that protects us all our enemies shall flow in upon us he must necessarily grant a submission to what they do For he that hath power to command hath also power to guide theone without the other being insignificant And therefore since we are in a Tempest let us come to this Rock to speak at the harshliest rather than perish For you cannot conceive but the worst Government in the world is infinitely better than none at all or to speak a little closelyer an ill Government well manag'd may be much better than a completer form of Government ill manag'd people still judging by their Safety or Liberty or Civill advantages the effects not only of their Government but Rulers For matter of change of Government lest you may be dissatisfied I have thus much briefly to say that considering the actions of the late Parliament and their dissolution we are to remember by what means they were called and for what end They were called at first by a Writ of the King and that by the ordinary summons of a Writ and that on the Kings part compulsively But God that hath a mind to do much out of little so prospered them that by an Act of the whole Parliament as then it stood they were enabled to sit till they should dissolve themselves T is a question worthy the resolution of a Lawyer whether these men sitting by that Authority were not tyed to follow exactly the Rules of it For certainly every Law or Commission ties according to the Intent They thought fit to throw out the Lords spirituall alias Bishops they manage a War against the King upon their own Authority and by vertue of that Act they were purg'd of Malignant or Ill-affected Members by the Army whose duty it was to interpose in so dangerous a time and at last declared and established a Common-wealth Thus did they act and that to the eternall Renown of the Nation for four years together But when dieases grew upon them as all sedentary Bodies are slow and unactive there appear'd such a lazinesse in the execution of that power such a Lethargy as to Act in the right of the Nation that these immortal persons whose blood had been stirr'd or spill'd in their Cause began to awake and remember for whom they had done so great things that is to say for the People And therefore they being as I have said Arbitrators men whose eys were open and Consciences not branded rise up and begun to look and consider in what condition the People was whereof they were a part and therefore when neither Addresses Reasons proposalls nor Petitions of a long time could prevaile it is not strange at all if they were forced to that of the Physician Vre Seca I know your Objection before hand that the action of the Lord Generall in the Dissolution was somewhat rough and Barbarous and I shall not trouble you with a long Answer That as to his Person as he hath in the Field declared himself one of the Noblest assertors of our Liberty and as great an enlarger of our Territories as ever was so as for any particular designs of his own in point of Government it must be a scrutiny greater than humane that can discover how he either intended to invade us or to make us a prey to any ambition of his And therefore if upon this grand Revolution he might appear to his enemies passionate yet considering the extremities that great minds fall into and the great trust committed to him it will appear nothing but the discharge of that duty that lay upon him To have done such a thing as a single Generall wants neither example nor president but I would not injure an argument in a Letter by the by which I could make good in a whole Treatise For you may remember that of Caesar to Metellus the Tribune Young man sayes he 't was easier for me to say this than to do it a speech sayes Sir Francis Bacon both the proudest and the mildest that ever came out of the mouth of Man For at that time he was breaking open the Sacred Treasury which by the Lawes was not to be broken open But it is otherwise here this was not a rash precipitate Act of his but a Trust and Result of those under him T was fit he that was the most eminent should appear and he as civilly without noise or disturbance did it And therefore Acting by their Votes and by their consents it was their action as well as his and it was no more his action than it is the action of the Head moved by Tendons and Muscles which are parts of the Body and without which the Head it self could not possibly at all move So that here it comes to a Question Whether it be better for us to be in Slavery under the name of Liberty or in Liberty under the effects of Slavery I have told my thoughts before in what condition I conceiv'd our Liberty was and I repeat it once again that I think this present is the better expedient For supposing that the severall Counties should withdraw their severall Members for I suppose they could not of late pretend to sit by VVrit certainly they would never have made a Quorum in Parliament and suppose they should call them to account where had one Authority without the consent of all the Counties or rather all People capable to demand it from them And if you will say that the Liberty of the People by this meanes is stifled I must tell you again it is only suspended 't is a Sword taken out of a Mad Mans hand till he recover his senses and therefore till we be S●lted Coagulated or Centred call it what you please it is Tantum non

impossibile for to lose such a Liberty of choosing a Representative as a Rationall Man may expect good from It is a scruple that hath vex'd many People how and in what manner or whether or no we are to obey new Governments this is the second point I proposed and this comes by reason of Oathes impos'd by Governours who think thereby to chain Men to them whereas if we consider it promissory and obligatory Oathes tye private men Semper ad semper as the School-men tell me whereas obedience to a Sovereignty which being plac'd in one or more is the same extends nor can extend no further than during the protection thereby received For to put the Case at the worst I am among a Company of Theeves commanded upon my life not to discover the Casuists say that this secrecy of mine though they be Outlawes and persons under the heaviest censure of Iustice ought to be perform'd for this is but a price of my life besides my promise and in that consideration I ought to forbear it But I 'l take it at the best sense insteed of falling into the hands of Theeves I am under the protection of those that protect me from them and then I must say that I owe these Men the very same obedience but much more Religiously and with a greater deal of honor and veneration than the o other The first may take away my life if they please the second cannot only secure me but avenge my blood upon the Murtherers The first are unaccountable unlesse by their private punishment These responsible For I remember a thing that Bodin said excellently that The King though he make Lawes it tied to those Lawes and therefore accountable They are invisible These visible And therefore a man would rather chuse his security of such as he knew where to repair to and by whose means he might be redressed than such a one as could not own it self For let men imagin what they will yet upon largest consideration and deepest experience they must find that Allegiance and Protection are so related that they cannot be separated one from another and that the absurdities of the contrary are such as cannot rationally be avoyded For I must necessarily swear either to Person or Place by the Person I understand a Man Governing or claiming to Govern either by himself or Successors by Place I understand a particular Mans Vassalage Liberty or Privilege in any one Country As to the first it concerns not me by what name any Man is distingnished the determination of his power determines my obedience which as I have said is correlative to protection As if Charles Stuart should enjoyn me a Command I should perish in I ought not by any Law of God or Man to obey unlesse he could protect me in the execution ●hereof Or suppose the King of France should command me to Proclame the same person King here I should be so considerate as to remember a Hurdle and Tyburne and therefore disobey For if the Civilians allow it and that Generally that a stranger doing a misdemeanour in another Country though properly he is not tryable by the Lawes of that Country yet thereby ought to be punished I say it is as much reason that a Native doing against the Lawes of his own Country be they in whose hands they will should be ten times more punished if it were possible as a breacher of Faith and a desertor of that protection by which he lives Honest men may dissent in little things and it may be their wayes of reasoning are not the same but for any man under what pretence soever to act against the grand design of the happinesse of his Nation is such a matter as whoever would tell me that a Man were a peaceable Man and withall assaulting me with a Stilletto There is yet another thing that may stick in your Stomach which is the last thing proposed by me which in respect you have urged with a little earnestnesse I am content to clear you of and that is the great losse of Reputation which you suppose we may receive from our Neighbours and Correspondents abroad Certainly Sir if you would but remember that in matter of publick Treaties Persons are not dealt with but Nations for our late King Treated with Don JOHN of Portugall and yet this was no breach of the League between him and Spain it can signifie no more than the Alteration of the Title of their Credentialls For all Treaties between States are between the Powers of those States And though Usurpation or Election appoint one Name yet still it amounts to this that the State is concerned and that only Friendships in private men are different from those of Princes and that as much as the Mariages of Princes one to another Princes are Married by Interest and Pictures private Men by acquaintance and affection and no doubt if Boccalini were alive and should hear any Man affirm that they did otherwise he would say they were Tramontani and not allow them Portar la dottrina sopra le spali But this doth not come home to my question that which I would particularly insist on is this that I believe this change or event will contribute more to our happinesse than if we had still languished under our former sufferings I have told you what the Head of the Army is to tell you of the rest were a● vain flattery and inconsideracy but since God hath own'd them as such Excellent and Worthy persons and made them glorious in their severall Generations I must be content to look up and reverence them 'T is true great Births are hard in the Labour and many Glorious men have been cut out of the Womb Therefore wonder not if the account that they may give you be slow or possibly slower than you expect I am no Member of their Councills and by a late infirmity lesse able to attend them yet if I can believe any thing or understand Men when they make the clearest professions they intend all noble things both as to the glory of our good God the making happy of this poor Nation setling the Liberties of it and reducing of us into one mind and one way But these are not only wishes of mine but hopes and certain expectancies and I believe they will convince these men to be lyars that speak against them But now I think I have put you to all the tryalls of your patience which if my infirmity had not been which confin'd me to my Chamber I could not have done but I rely so much on your Candor and I believe you think so well of my veracity as I want not the impudence to affirm my self however you take it Your affectionate Servant N. LL London May 3. 1653. FINIS