Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	letter_n	lord_n	precedent_n	3,537	5	11.1764	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89919	A project for an equitable and lasting peace. Designed in the year 1643. when the affairs stood in ballance before the second coming of the Scots into this kingdom, from a desire to have kept them out then. With a disquisition how the said project may now be reduced to fit the present conjuncture of affairs, in a letter sent to divers prudent persons of all sorts. For preventing the Scots bringing an army into England a third time, or making themselves umpires of our affaires. By a cordiall agreement of the King, Parliament, City, Army, and of all the people in this kingdome among our selves.	Nethersole, Francis, Sir, 1587-1659.; England and Wales, Army.	1648 (1648)	Wing N498; Thomason E459_16; ESTC R203019; ESTC R205087	17,014	32

A PROJECT For an Equitable and lasting PEACE Designed in the year 1643. when the affairs stood in ballance before the second coming of the Scots into this Kingdom from a desire to have kept them out then WITH A Disquisition how the said Project may now be reduced to fit the present conjuncture of affairs In a Letter sent to divers prudent persons of all sorts For preventing the Scots bringing an Army into Enland a third time or making themselves Umpires of our affaires By a cordiall Agreement of the King Parliament City Army and of all the people of this kingdome among our selves Pro me praesente Senatus hominumque praeteria viginti millia vestem mutaverunt Quum omnes boni non recusarent quin vel pro me vel mecum perirent armis decertare pro mea salute nolui quod vincere vinci luctuosum reip fore putavi Cicero in Orat. ad Quirit post Redit Saluberimum est Reip. si magna Imperia diuturna non sint ut temporis modus imponatur quibus Juris non potest Tit. Liv. Printed in the yeare 1648. A LETTER sent to divers prudent Persons of all sorts SIR I Humbly pray you to take the paines to peruse first the Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament of the fourth and his Majesties of the twelfth of August 1642. After them the considerations dedicated to the Lord Major and Aldermen of the City in the yeare 1642. Comparing the second sheet therof with a part of the Declaration of the Army of the 14. of June 1647. from those words But because neither the granting of this alone c. to these we desire that the right and freedome of the people to represent c. And in the last place the Project I send you with this built upon the same foundation which was first layed in the Considerations and which the army once thought firme enough to support their hops of Common and equall right and freedome to themselves and to all the freeborn people of this Land at as much leisure as you may obtaine from your many other great occasions and with as much attention as you may think fit to bestow upon a piece of no more worth bearing these thoughts in your minde while you are reading it 1. Whether it had not been honorable for the King and his Party safe for the Parliament and theirs and equitable for both to have made a Peace upon the termes therin designed at the time of the writing thereof which was upon the first newes of the Scots resolution to come into Enland the second time and from a desire to have kept them out then by agreeing among our selves 2. Whether under favour and with all humblenesse be it written it had not been more conducible to the Reformation and establishment of Religion in the Kingdomes of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God which ought to be the onely rule thereof and to the extirpation of Popery Superstition Haeresie Schisme Prophanenesse and whatsoever may be found contrary to found Doctrine and the power of godlinesse And to the preservation and defence of the Kings Majesties person and authority of the rights and liberties of the Parliament of England and the liberties and publique weale of this Kingdome for the King and all the subjects thereof at that time to have come to a Peace among themselves upon the said designed termes than to have continued the Warre by calling in strangers to their respective assistance upon the terms practised by one side and in probability designed by the other 3. Whether it may not be thought more expedient for the two Houses of the Parliament of England and the whole people thereof to come to an Agreement with his Majesty upon the same terms at this time notwithstanding the great alteration of affaires in their favour since the Project was designed than either to ingage in a new War against the Scots with such a division among Englishmen as will be an indubitable consequent if not an antecedent therof or to admit them to be Vmpires in the affairs of England as they will become if the differences between his Majesty and his English Subjects should by Gods mercy come to an Accommodation upon their third as those between his Majesty and the Scots did upon their first bringing an Army into this Kingdome 4. Whether any and what exception can be taken to the justice or equitablenesse of any particular Article of the Project even at this time without having respect to the practicablenesse thereof whereof perhaps there may be lesse doubt ere long though I yet see no other sufficient ground for it but this that methinks the tide is turning Such are the revolutions of humane affairs And lastly in case any of the said Articles shall be judged though neither unjust nor unequall yet impracticable as things now stand whether the said Project may not be reduced to fit the present conjuncture of affaires with some additions abatements or alterations and what alterations abatements or additions may be found just and reasonable for the two Houses of Parliament to insist upon and for his Majesty to yeeld unto in respect of the change and present state of affairs Secondly to passe your censure and let me know your sense upon all the foresaid particulars with the freedome of a freeman of this Kingdome for whom I conceive it to be lawfull with due submission to those in Authority to conferre together in a private way about the best meanes to recover and maintaine a lasting Peace in the Realm especially at a time when there is cause of feare that it may be yet longer discontinued by the coming in of strangers in Armes which is once more our condition at the present And in particular How you conceive the Militia may be setled so as may bee honourable for the King and yet safe for his Parliament and Kingdome of England according as is designed in the Project Vpon the receipt of which favour from you I do hereby engage my selfe to make you a returne of my thoughts upon the fifth and last Article and by way of Advance do now let you know that to the three first I should make a short Answer in the Affirmative to the fourth in the Negative In the last place I do here promise you to keep your Answer to my selfe only if you shall so require me or if I shal publish it with your leave yet never to discover your name if you shall command me to conceale it In exchange of which promise I must crave one from you to suffer no Copie to be taken in writing nor any new Impression to be made either of the Project or of this Letter untill I may finde the season opportune for the Publication of them which I do not as yet And for that reason though I send you them in Print to ease the trouble of transcribing I have made

thereof which is not impossible in the generall howsoever it may fall out in this particular case that in this event either every private man may beare such part of the damages as hath fallen to his share or else that such course may be taken for the dividing of this heavie burden among all them that are of ability to beare any part thereof as may make it most easie to all and oppressive to none of them That if your Majesty should think or be perswaded that the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament at Westminster are incompetent judges of the three last mentioned points in respect of their being reputed parties in the late War to whom notwithstanding for the honor of the Parliaments of England we hope neither your Majesty nor those Members of either House which have taken part with your Majesty will be unwilling to referre either the examination or decision of those points so neerly and highly concerning your Majesty and them if the foresaid Lords and Commons at Westminster shall be willing to binde themselves by such an Oath as hath beene above designed Yet if we should be mistaken herein or at least in the third point which we do our selves observe to be of a different nature from the two former the main questiō in them being of matter of fact onely whereas the chiefe controversie in the last point may happen to be about matter of right and if all the former articles being by God's grace assented unto on both sides the happy conclusion of these unhappy broyles should stick only there In that case we crave leave in all humility to propound whether this difference may not be accommodated by some such expedient as this your Majestie to make choyce of a certaine number of those Lords and Commons which have continued in the Parliament at Westminster and they to chose a like number of those that have withdrawn themselves from thence by occasion of the late troubles and either all or the third of the three last points aforesaid to be committed to the determination of the major part of the said elected persons in all that a major part of them shall agree in But in whatsoever they may happen to be equally divided the arbitrating of such point or points to be referred to some one or to the major part of some unequall number of such strangers famous for wisdome and justice as may be joyntly chosen by your Majesty and the aforesaid Lords and Commons at Westminster for the finall Umpirage of such matter or matters as cannot be resolved without the admission of forein arbitrement which is not without precedent in this kingdome The which expedient with all the former and ensuing parts of this our humble Petition with ourselvs we do and ever shall according to our duty with all lowlinesse submit to the censure and resolution of your Majestie and of your parliament when we have first here sincerely professed out abhorring the least thought of prescribing any thing to those whom we ought to obey or of raising any third partie in armes though never so great a multitude of Officers and souldiers and of the poor ruined people of the Kingdome should testifie their adhering to us in our humble desires by subscribing hereunto And lastly that because there is small cause to hope that this Kingdome can be at peace againe either within it selfe or with your Majesties other kingdomes untill it and they have made their peace with God and because there is too much cause to feare that his all-seeing and all-discerning Majesty hath been highly provoked by more than one of those meanes which hath been used to pacifie him and namely at first by the long continued neglect of publique humbling our souls before him for the preventing or speedy determining of a like bloody Warre in this kingdome of which we seemed so sensible in Ireland and since by appointing diverse daies to that end by the divided authority of your Majesty and of your Parliament by fasting on those dayes to strife and debate but chiefely by presuming to come into the dreadful presence of God upon those dayes with much lesse outward expression of humble reverence and fear then hath been shewed by heathen in the like occasion and with hearts fraught with bitternesse and wrath and hands full of violence and bloud and by the many disconsonant Confessions Petitions and thanksgivings have been put up to his Divine Majestie upon those and other days That in amendment of all these and other our failings and over-doings and for the cleansing of all your Majesties Realms from the blood wherewith they are certainly defiled if adventure any party or person may wash his or their hands from the guilt thereof some one or more daies soone after that of your Majesties meeting with your parliament may upon their petition be set apart by your Majesty for a most solemne humiliation of all the people of all your Dominions And as a necessary preparative thereunto that there may be a convenient number of godly wise persons chosen by your Majestie your two Houses of the Parliament of this kingdom and the Commissioners of the parliament of Scotland and that they may be authorized and commanded to make a prudent and diligent enquiry after all the most crying sinnes of all the Nations under your Majesties government and those in speciall for which it may most probably be collected that God hath visited them all in circuit these last yeeres as also after the most proper meanes to appease the fierce wrath gone forth against your Majestie and them and to prevent the like in time to come FINIS A part of the DECLARATION of his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax now Lord Fairfax with the Officers and Souldiers of his Army signed John Rushworth Secretary and dated June 14. 1647. Printed in the year 1648. To the Reader MY purpose herein is as to furnish you with the abovementioned Declaration at a cheaper rate then buying the whole volume so to convince the Army of the expedience or rather necessity which lieth on his Excellency and his Officers to vindicate themselves from the common imputation mentioned in the Postscript of the foregoing generall Letter to that end only and not from any evill affection towards his Excellency or any of them excepting Levellers of what rank soever of whom the Writer of that Letter doth here publiquely professe his resolute and utter dislike wishing them speedily to repent least they be overtaken by that heavie sentence pronounced against them PROV 24.21 22. My son feare thou THE LORD AND THE KING and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of THEM BOTH ANd Levellers all must be though perchance all intend not so that would have no King in England In which respect I shall not easily believe that any Nobleman Knight or Gentleman should conspire to pull down that Monarchy upon which all the