Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	bishop_n	king_n	parliament_n	11,851	5	6.7308	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94411	To His Excellency the L. Generall Cromwell, and the rest of the Councell of the Army of the Comonwealth of England; the humble and faithfull advice of divers affectionate friends to the Parliament, Army and Commonwealth of England	Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658.	1653 (1653)	Wing T1352B; ESTC R203795	11,967	16

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE L. Generall Cromwell AND The rest of the Councell of the Army OF THE Commonwealth of ENGLAND The humble and faithfull advice of divers affectionate Friends to the Parliament Army and Commonwealth of England HEaring of your especiall meetings in Councell in order to the setling of the Nation in Peace and Freedome as persons alwayes ingaged with you in affection and indeavours to the same just ends and a like concerned in the issue and successe thereof and knowing by sad experience how prone the wisest have been to mistakings in affairs of this nature we have deemed our selves bound in conscience to contribute what we conceive requisite or may be of use for the steering of your course aright and for the avoyding of those rocks upon which many have fallen for want of due and timely consideration which cannot be avoided but by a cleare knowledge of the Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of England and by a firm resolution to restore every of them without partiality unto their primitive power and efficacy throughout the Land notwithstanding any corrupt interest built upon their ruines or abuses So that waving all things of innovation let pretences be never so specious the first thing necessary to the work you have undertaken is to satisfie your understandings what are those Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties and in the next place by all lawfull means to endeavour their restauration For as you once well argued you are not a mercenary Army hired to serve any arbitrary power of State such was the late Kings Army fighting against the Fundamentall Lawes to erect his will or corrupt Lawes by former Kings procured subservient to will and power but called forth and conjured by the severall Declarations of Parliament to the defence of your own and the Peoples just Rights and Liberties which our Ancestours of famous memory have endeavoured to preserve with the price of their bloud and you by that and the late bloud of your deare friends and fellow-souldiers with the hazard of your own do now lay claime to these are your own reasonings when first you disputed the Authority of Parliament they having first declined the Fundamentall Lawes which was the onely just ground of declining them And as you rightly understood that being no mercenary Army but called forth to the defence of your own and the Peoples just Rights and Liberties you were not bound to obey commands though of a Parliament contrary to the Fundamentall Lawes so much more now are you to understand That of any men in the world it would worst become you to be either advisers or procurers of other things then those very true ancient fundamentall Rights and Liberties And you see likewise that not withstanding the many professions and Protestations of this Army to maintain the Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of this Nation it yet remains under a greater degree of bondage and fuller of just complaints then ever because you have slackened your zeale and there hath not been that diligent perseverance in all lawfull indeavours untill their plenary restauration and firm establishment Your study ought not to be like Conquerors to make things new or innovate upon the Fundamentall Lawes that never-failing means of trouble and confusion but to cleare them from those many incroachments violations and abuses both upon the Lawes themselves and the execution of them which have almost rendred them of no benefit and full of vexation to the people of this Nation You may please to observe it is not the being of a Parliament that makes the Nation happy but their maintaining of the fundamentall Rights and Liberties nor that in words onely and Declarations but in the reall and effectual establishment of them and when they either neglect those or set up other things contrary or oppose the establishing of them they prove themselves enemies and reduce this Nation into a condition of bondage Be pleased to review your Remonstrances and Declarations which in all parts of them have held forth the clearing setling and securing of the Rights Liberties and peace of the Nation the only justifiable end of all your publique motions and endeavours appealing to the whole Nation to the world and to Almighty God for the justnesse reasonablenesse and common concernment of your desires and intentions therein yea so wisely carefull were ye over the common Rights and Liberties of the people and of their safety that you proposed that in things clearly destructive to those Rights there might be for the future a liberty for dissenting Members in the Parliament to enter their dissent and thereby to acquit themselves from the guilt or blame of what evills might ensue that so the people might regularly come to know who they are that performe their trust faithfully and who not an argument amongst others then urged by the Army importing the greatest zeal and sincerity to the restoring of the Fundamentall Lawes that could possibly be expressed Nor is there as we verily believe any just objection that should stagger you in perseverance accordingly although we cannot deny but that all the old and new Sophisms and delusive arguments devised by corrupt interests in defence of themselves against the Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of the people have been so diligently blown abroad that we find they have captivated many good mens understandings and are ready and uppermost almost in all discourses urging that if you now endeavour the restauration of the ancient Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of england you seek to re-edisie the things you have thrown down as Kingly government which the Parliament not without sufficient grounds voted to be uselesse burthen some and dangerous for what say they hath been more ancient in England unto which even by the very Lawes were annexed large revenues and extraordinary trusts as the Militia and the like what more ancient authority then the House of Lords which by the very Lawes of england had Jurisdiction in appeals after Judgement and both Kings and Peers ever esteemed an essential part of Parliaments the Bishops likewise of long continuance and very many Lawes extant in favour of them But as truth is more antient then error and righteousnesse was before sinne though error and sinne have much to say for their antiquarty so is it answered in these and the like cases though Kings and Lords and Bishops have been of long continuance and have procured many Laws to be made in severall times by Parliaments in favour of them yet upon due examination it will appear that they are not of Fundamentall Institution no more then many other corrupt interests yet extant which time after time have one made way for another untill at length they got the sway of all things sate themselves upmost in all places oft times filled the seats in Parliament and then made Lawes in favour of themselves and each others interest and in subversion of the Fundamentall Lawes endeavouring all they could utterly to root them up and to blot the knowledge

of them out of all remembrance And therefore to find out what are truly Fundamentall Institutions you may please to look beyond Kings and as you passe them you will perceive that their originall was either by force from without or from confederacy within the Land that of their confederates they made Lords and Masters over the people created offices and made their creatures officers for life whereas the true mark of a Fundamentall Institution is only one years continuance in an office by which mark it is evident that neither Kings nor House of Lords are of Fundamentall Institution all true Fundamentall Institutions ordaining election to every office which is another mark and that by the Inhabitants of the place where the office is to be exercised and another speciall mark is that the main scope and intent of the office and businesse thereof is of equall concernment to the generall good of all the people and not pointed to make men great wealthy and powerfull all which undoubted marks exclude not only Kings and Lords and Bishops but many other interests of men in this long enslaved and deluded Nation So that in removing these uselesse burthensome and dangerous interests of Kings Lords and Bishops no violence at all hath been done to the Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of England but they are so farre cleared and secured from innovation and many oppressions which attended them Nor is there ground for any to suppose that in restoring the true antient fundamentall Rights of England there will be a necessity of maintaining any the Courts in Westminster or their tedious burthensome or destructive way of proceeding in trial of Causes both Chancery and the rest being in all things except the use of Juries all of them of Regall institution except the Common Pleas which is so also as to its being seated in Westminster These have sometimes been strengthened by Laws made in Parliaments which were ever to give place to Fundamentals being indeed null and void wherein any particular they innovate upon or are contrary unto them All causes by the fundamentall Laws being to be decided and finally ended past all appeal in the Hundreds or County Courts where parties reside or where the complaint is made by Juries without more charge or time then is necessary so that untill the Norman Conquest the Nation never knew or felt the charge trouble or intanglements of Judges Lawyers Attorneys Solicitors Filors and the rest of that sort of men which get great estates by the too frequent ruines of industrious people which is another mark to know that all such are not of fundamentall institution but Regall and erected for the increase and defence of that interest As for those defects which are many times observed in Juries and some inconveniences which ensuc in some cases under other fundamentall Constitutions it is to be noted that there is not perfection to be expected in any Government in this world it being impossible for the wisest men that ever were to compose such Constitutions as should in every case warrant a just event Yet so carefull have our Forefathers been that the Laws of England are as preventive of evill and as effective for good as any Laws in the world And for Juries whatever just complaint lies against them it doth not relate to the Constitution it selfe which Kings have often attempted to destroy as the main fortresse of the peoples liberty but against such abuses in the packing and framing of Juries in their by assing or over-awing by the servile and partiall Officers about the Courts by the Kings Sheriff or under-Sheriff and other by wayes that others have found out all which abuses are matters of just complaint and require rectification and ought not to be made use of as a ground of Innovation or an argument against your fundamentall Constitution Others there are who finding the great importance of Juries to preserve the people's Liberties and that through the sense that the people have thereof it will be but a vain thing to attempt the totall taking them away have invented a strategem that will render them instead of being a fountain of equall Justice to the people the means only of advancing the rich and an awe upon the middle and meaner fort of men which they would do upon the common pretence of Prerogative that onely men of estate and quality ought to be entrusted with the determination and decision of causes and therefore have contrived that such only as are worth one hundred mark per annum should be capable of being chosen Jury men which if obtained we cannot from thence but make these conclusions 1. That the Fundamentall Constitution is thereby violated which gives equall respect to all men paying Scot and Lot in the places they inhabit 2. By the same liberty they alter the Constitution in this particular at this time they may at another time totally take it away 3. That it is a policy agreeable to that of Kings in reducing the power of Judgement into the hands of a few and the rich who may with much more case be corrupted then the generality It being also a bringing of this Nation to the condition of the French and making it consist only of Gentleman and Pesants You may be pleas'd in the next place to consider the particular of Pressing or forcing men to serve in the warres against their consents then which nothing is more contrary to fundamentall liberty the King did alwayes make use of it and such abroad whose government ha's not that goodnesse and freedome in it as to invite men voluntarily to its defence a good government cannot need it since in that it would be the interest of every man to hazard his life and fortunes for its conservation and therefore we desire that this antient liberty may be tenderly preserved For Tythes they may we conceive be taken away without violence to any fundamentall Law the institution there of being Popish at first and partly Regall afterwards thanged solely into the Regal Interest to maintain a numerous sort of ble Sophisters under pretence of being Ministers of Christ which they were not having no qualifications agreeable unto those which were so indeed to preach up the Regall Interest with their own Fundamentall institution imposeth no charge upon the people but for maintenance of the impotent and poor or for such as are restrained untill time of triall for want of Sureties All which the Neigabourhood is to levy or for publique defence against enemies which is referred by Fundamentall Constitution unto annual chosen Trustees in the Grand Councell of the people called from the Norman Parliament upon whom the continued labours and policies of the Conquerors successors have had great influence by whose endeavours this burthen of Tythes came to have the colour of Law set upon it though in this as in all things els Parliament Law was ever to give way to Fundamentall being null and void in it selfe where it innovates upon the

Statute Law Why when after judgment in the legall Courts the Chancery and Parliament had taken cognizance of the same Causes by way of appeale doth the amendment come and say hence forth after judgment in the legall Courts the parties shall be in quiet and free from being called either into Chancery or into Parliament according to the Law of the Land but in respect to the supremacy of Fundamentalls Why were Petitioners in former times so carefull not to insert the least syllable contrary to the Fundamentall Law but that they knew Parliaments were chiefly ordained for their preservation And it will not be throughly well in England till Parliaments make answer to Petitioners according to the Rule of the Fundamentall Law The late Worcestershire Petitioners for Tythes may then know what they may justly expect from them viz. that they are at liberty either to give or pay tythes or any other proportion of their incombs to such whom they will contract with for their labours in teaching divine things or any other kind of learning but those that ap prove not of paying are not to be enforced and thus in all things are the English free wherein their neighbour is not violated Had this rule been observed of late years it had e're this stopt the mouths of many Petitioners and be got a better understanding amongst the people who have been shattered into shwers for want of this principle to unite them every man stirring and contending as for life for his own opinion one will have the Parliament do this another that others gathering themselves together in knots and boasting how many hands they had to their petition a second sort of men to theirs and so of the rest how many friends they had in the House for this thing how many for that and thus like the builders of Babel they have been devided for want of knowledge and fixtnesse in and upon the Fundamentalls which only can give rest to the spirits of the English the goodnesse whereof having been once tasted would soon beget a reconcilement and doubtlesse this way or none must come the true and lasting peace amongst our selves and by this means only can we ever be made considerable either against obstinate corrupt interest at home or against foraign pretenders and enemies ahroad who otherwise observing us to be a floating unbalanced people and consequently divided and subdivided within our selves will never cease to disturb this Nation whereas were we once again bound and knit together with this just and pleasant ligament of fundamenthll Law divide and raign would not be so frequent in their vanquisht mouths which indeed is the main ground of the hopes Consider we beseech you how uncertain the rule of prudence and discretion is amongst the wisest and best of men how unstable that people were that should be every year to make their Laws or to stablish them have we not found the Proverb verified so many men so many minds this thing voted by one sort of men as most just and necessary yea mens estates and lives and consciences cast upon it and those the best of men when in short time after the same voted down as most unjust and pernicious infinite instances of this kind we doubt not will come to your remembrance and therefore not without good cause have our Predecessors given such dear respect to their Fundamentall Rights that unlesse mens understandings were even bewitched with the sallaries of corrupt interest they would choose rather to lose their lives then to part with one of them esteeming every man though born in England no more a true Englishman then as he maintained the Fundamentall Liberties of his Country To conclude none ever yet denied that we had Fundamentall standing Laws and such as against which no Statute Law ought to be obeyed but endeavours you will find have been in all ages for powers to establish themselves and govern by discretion upon a pretence of more easie and speedy dispatch of justice as the late King did when he by power brake up the short Parliament before this he publikely declared that he and his Lords would with more speed and better justice redresse the grievances of the people then the Parliament could do And though this hath been a disease incident to the strongest to give Laws and inforce them upon the people yet as it is manifestly against the Fundamentall Rights of the people of England which you have professedly fought to restore and not to destroy having conquered their enemies not their friends so have you by Declarations laid grounds against such temptations and as abhorring all such wicked and unjust intentions would not have any entertain any such suspition of you we have very great hopes that as you will carefully preserve your hands your strength and power from being defiled by imposing Innovations or continuing such as have been brought upon us or yet by being instrumentall to such as would so we trust and earnestly intreat that you would lay the premises to heart and by wisdome and perseverance procure the antient good Laws of England to be re-established amongst us they being so just so mercifull so preservative to all peaceable minded people so unburthensome to the industrious so opposite to all self-interest so corrective of any manner of wrong so quick in dispatching so equall in the means so righteous in their judgements proportioning punishments to offenders so tender of the innocent so consonant to right reason and having no disproportion to all true Christian doctrine that the goodnesse of them as well as because they are the tyes the Bonds and Ligaments of the people and both your and our Rights and chiefe inheritance we trust will cause you like the true sons of your worthy and valiant Ancestor to be enamored of them and to be now much more of the same mind then when you professed that you esteemed neither life nor livelyhood nor your necrest relations a price but sufficient to the purchase of so rich a blessing that you and all the free-borne people of England might sit down in quiet under the glorious administration of justice and righteousnesse and in full possession of those Fundamentall Rights and Liberties without which we cannot be secure of any comfort of life or so much as life it self but at the pleasure of some men ruling meerly according to will and power And may the integrity of your hearts so appear in all your actions as may render you well pleasing in the sight of God who hath registred all your Vows of freeing this Nation from all kinds of bondages in the dayes of your distresse Keep therefore your hearts faithfull As Moses who when he was to lead the Israelites out of Aegypt would not leave a hoof in bondage and in so doing onely will you be the rejoycing of this Nation to all generations