Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	king_n	parliament_n	people_n	20,033	5	5.2155	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76249	A declaration against Prince Rupert, or, An argument, whereby it appears, that Prince Rupert, and all that joyne with him in this unnaturall war against the Parliament, are guilty of high-treason, with an exposition of the stat. of II. Hen. 7. whereby it appeares, that those who follow the advice and imployment of the Parliament, are freed from treason, or any other offence concerning their particular actions in that service. By P.B. gent.	P. B., Gent.	1643 (1643)	Wing B149; Thomason E85_24; ESTC R11609	3,985	8

A DECLARATION AGAINST Prince Rupert OR An Argument whereby it appears that Prince RUPERT and all that joyne with him in this unnaturall War against the PARLIAMENT are guilty of High-Treason With an exposition of the Stat. of 11. HEN. 7. whereby it appeares that those who follow the advice and imployment of the PARLIAMENT are freed from Treason or any other offence concerning their particular actions in that Service By P.B. Gent. LONDON Printed in the yeare 1642. A DECLARATION AGAINST Prince Rupert THat all men may the better know their duty and upon how sure a ground they goe that follow the judgment of Parliament for their guide let them judiciously consider the true meaning and ground of the Statute of 11. Hen. 7. cap. 1. This Statute provides That none that shall attend upon the King and doe him true service shall be attainted or forfeit any thing What! was the scope of this Statute to provide that men should not suffer as Traytors for serving the King in his Warres according to the duty of their Allegiance if this had been all it had beene a very needlesse and most ridiculous Statute Was it then intended that they should be free from all crime and penalty that should follow the King and serve him in Warres in any case whatsoever whether it were for or against the Kingdome and the Lawes thereof that cannot be for that could not stand with the duty of their Allegiance which in the beginning of that Statute is exprest to be so serve the King for the time being in his Warres for the defence of Him and the Land and therefore if it be against the Land as it cannot be otherwise understood if it be against the Parliament who is the representative body of the Kingdome it is a declining from the duty of Allegiance which this Statute supposeth may be done though men follow the Kings person in Warre otherwise there had been no need of such a proviso in the end of that Statute that none should take benefit by that Statute that should decline their Allegiance that therefore which is the principle verbe in this Statute is the serving of the King for the time being which cannot be meant of a Perkin Warbeck or any that should call himselfe King but such a one as what ever his Title might prove either in himselfe or in his Ancestors should be received and acknowledged for such by the Kingdome the consent whereof cannot be discern'd but by Parliament the Act whereof is the Act of the whole Kingdom by the personall suffrage of the Peers and the deligate consent of all the Commons of England and Henry the seventh a wise King considering that what was the case of Richard the third his predecessor might by chance of Battaile be his owne and that he might at once by such a Statute as this satisfie such as had served his predecessor in his Warres and also secure those that should serve him who might otherwise feare to serve him in the Warres l●st by chance of battaile that might happen to him also if a Duke of Yorke had set up a Title against him which had happened to his predecessor he procured this Statute to be made That no man should bee accounted a Traytor for serving the King in his Warres for the time being that is which was for the present allowed and received by the Parliament in behalfe of the Kingdome and as it is truly suggested in the preamble of that Statute It is not agreeable to reason or conscience that it should be otherwise seeing men should be put upon an impossibility of knowing their duty if the judgment of the highest Court should not be a guide to them Now if the judgment of that Court should be followed where the question is W … King as it must be followed as appeares by that Statute much more then ought their judgment to be fo●●●●ed when they declare What is the best service of the ●●ng and Kingdomes and therefore those that shall gui●● themselves by the judgement of Parliament ought what●ver happen to be secure and free from all accompt and … ties upon the ground and equity of this Statute of 11. 11. H. 7 ●ap 1. B●sid●s ●t the Parliament that made this Act in that eleventh yeare of Henry the seventh had intended that those that served the King in his wars though never so unjustly begun and though against the Kingdome and the Lawes thereof should neverthelesse have been free from Treason and not punishable then had all the liberty of the Subject been inclusively given by that Act from the Subject to the King For if that were a good construction and the right intent of the Statute then had Henry the seventh a lawfull dispensation for his observing those Lawes by which our liberties were ever preserved but that Parliament never intended so as you may clearly discerne by other wholsome Acts passed the same Parliament for the preservation of every mans liberty and propriety in his estate Besides how can any people be perswaded that that Parliament would so much betray the Lawes of the Land and the trust reposed in them when as they themselves had in their own particulars so great an interest of honour and estate and whereas this present Parliament stands accused by some of desperate fortunes and lives of the same temper of that very fault which that Parliament of Henry the seventh had been guilty were the former construction rationall I hope it will gain little credit with any that have the least use of reason that such as must have so great a share of the misery should take so much paines in procuring thereof and spend so much time and run so many hazards for to make themselves slaves and to destroy the property of their estates And whereas some except against this Parliament for being the authors of their owne presidents and so varying from the course of former times let them that urge this against the Parliament know that if they have made any presidents this Parliament they have made them for posterity and upon the same or better reasons or law then those were upon which their predecessors first made any for them and as some presidents ought not to be rules for them to follow so none can be limits to bound their proceedings which may and must vary according to the different condition of times And whereas you look for presidents to prove all the Kings Army that are now with him to be Traytors remember who were adjudged Traytors in Richard the seconds time and if it were Treason in them for levying a warre before a Parliament was called and for keeping a Parliament from being called shall it not be Treason in them that warre against a Parliament when it is called Were there ever such practices to poyson the people with an ill apprehension of the Parliament Were there ever such scandals and imputations laid upon the proceedings of both Houses Were there ever so

many and so great breaches of the priviledge of Parliament as have been made this Parliament Or were there ever so many and so desperate designes of force and violence against the Parliament and the Members thereof If the Parliament have done more then ever their ancestors have done I am sure they have suffered more then ever they suffered yet in point of modesty or duty they need not yeild to the best of former times but they may safely put this in issue whether the highest most unwarrantable president of any of His Majesties predecessors do not fall short and much below what hath bin done to this Parliament And on the other side whether if they should make the highest presidents of other Parliaments their patternes there would be cause to complaine of want of modesty and duty in them when they not so much as suffered such things to enter into their thoughts as their Declarations tell me which all the world knowes their Predecessors have put in act And whereas it seemes a riddle to those that are with the King that they should fight for the King and by his command and yet be Traytors to him for if they be Traytors the King himselfe hath done as much being present with them as they have done and how can a King commit Treason against himselfe To those let me answer that what ever the King does he is not to be questioned but yet that does not cleare them because the King himselfe doth countenance them by his personall presence and by his Comissions and that their consequence might fall to the ground let them understand that a King may commit Treason against himselfe and so did King Iohn in resigning of his Crowne to the Pope and Mr Brooke who was Recorder of London in his reading upon the Statute of Magna Charta cap. 16. said That if any to whom the Crowne is committed by Act of Parliament usurpe it or demeane it in other manner then is exprest in the Act it is high Treason read the Statute of 35. Hen. 8. c. 1. And thus you see that they which joyne with the King may be punished for Treason though the King himselfe cannot Besides though they intend not hurt to the Kings person as we may ghesse by severall circumstances yet they may be Traytors for t is true that in some sence he is the only person against whom Treason can be committed that is meant as he is King But yet that Treason which is against the Kingdome is more against the King then that which is against his person because he is King for that very Treason is not Treason as 't is against him as a man but as a man that is a King and as he hath relation to the Kingdome and stands as a person intrusted with the Kingdome and discharging that trust Now if that be true as indeed it is that Treason against the Kingdome is more Treason against the King then that which is against the Kings person what shall become of the Kings Army which now levy Warre against the Parliament which is the Kingdome are they not all Traytors But for Prince Rupert some are content to make this excuse for him that he is no liege man borne and is not subject to our Lawes and therefore he is no Traytor for he owes no Allegiance The answer to them will be but shortly thus that any man and so consequently Prince Rupert whilst he is in England and in the Kings dominions is to yeeld a locall ligeance and obedience to the King and the Lawes and in lieu of that he is to receive a locall Protection from the King and so is Cook lib. 7. Now the difference between strangers that are both aliens stands thus if he be alien amy 't is Treason for him to levy Warre against the Kingdome that is against the King so 't was adjudged But if he be an alien Enemy 't is not Treason but crimon lesae Majestatis which is a thing of the same nature for the punishment though not for the manner of the triall Now Prince Rupert is an alien amy and indeed hath more reason to be a friend to this Kingdome then an enemy consideratis considerandis so that his offence is as plainly discovered as the rest and appears to be no lesse then High Treason against the Kingdome FINIS