Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	king_n	law_n	legislative_a	6,899	5	12.8932	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94306	Sergeant Thorpe judge of assize for the northern circuit, his charge, as it was delivered to the grand-jury at York assizes the twentieth of March, 1648. and taken in shortwriting. Clearly epitomizing the statutes belonging to this nation, which concerns (and, as a golden rule, ought to regulate) the severall estates and conditions of men. And (being duely observed) do really promote the peace and plenty of this Commonwealth.	Thorpe, Francis, 1595-1665.	1649 (1649)	Wing T1071; Thomason E1068_1; ESTC R210315	21,832	31

did agree they would be governed But let me not be mistaken for when I say Accountable to the People I doe not mean to the humours and fancies of particular men in their single naturall capacities but to the people in their Politique Constitution lawfully assembled by their Representative Touching the Government of this Nation it hath anciently been Monarchicall in the frame and constitution of it but yet it never was a pure Monarchie for a pure Monarchie is a clear Tyranny but it was a Politicall Monarchie or Monarchy governed by Lawes taking in thereto all the goods and avoiding all the ills both of Aristocracy and Democracie and so I may truly say that look upon the Frame and constitution of it alone and as it were upon the Theoreticall and contemplative part of it and supposing it possible that the Practise would answer the Theorie no man can deny but that it was a Frame of most excellent Order and Beautie For first it had a King the chiefest Officer one single Person and therefore avoiding the proud Factions and contentions usually happening in Aristocracy as likewise the disordered confusions common in single Democracy but yet a King bounded and compassed with Lawes above him being the Rules already made and given him to Rule by and with a necessitie of concurrence and complyance with Lords and Commons below him for future Legislative Power and Authority and so avoiding the danger of Tyrannie usually incident to Monarchies which commonly makes the Monarchs Will the Law and so establishing the Government upon this Foundation Voluntas Imperatoris Lex esto But alas when I have shewed you the Frame and Constitution of the late Government I have shewed you all the Beauty of it for when you come to examine the practical part you shall find nothing lesse then excellency or perfection in it Look into your own Stories and you shall alwayes finde the King and great Lords Comites suos as they were called incroaching upon the peoples Liberties Rights incroaching to themselves superlative Prerogatives and Dominion over them On the other side you shall finde again the People struggling to preserve themselves and their own Interest labouring still to avoid the miseries and to free themselves from the mischiefs of their sufferings The Times and Transactions before the Norman William got the Crown and which past among the Brittains Romans Danes and Saxons being dark and obscure I passe by and therefore I shall onely speak something of the times and transactions since First the Tyrannicall Domination of that first William and his sonne the second William gave the People to see their ensuing miseries for though they made choice of the second William who was but a second sonne and rejected Robert his Elder Brother yet they soon found their kindnesse was suddenly forgotten when once the Crown was obtained and therefore they refused when he was dead to chuse again till by ingagements Oathes and Royall Promises of better Government they were cheated into a second Election of Henry the first who was a younger brother likewise But it was not long after ere Monarchie plaid Rex and Pleasure and Will Ruled the whole Kingdom almost was turned into Forrests the Lawes which the people were brought to live under and obey were the cruell and insupportable Laws of the Forrest which were made rather to preserve the Beasts then the People within the bounds of Forrests Then the people finding no other remedy betook themselves to thoughts of Reformation as I told you at the first And in the time of King Stephen at Renymeed they demanded restitution of St. Edwards Laws for so they call'd that Saxon Edward who was dead many years before without any Heir or Successor of that kinde for we never read of any St. King since him And by those Lawes they say they will be governed and to those Laws they will conforme Hereupon a new Compact is made the Articles of Renymeed containing most of St. Edwards Lawes are confirmed and established by consent in Parliament so the people are for that time satisfyed and think themselves very safe as they well might think so under the security of an Act of Parliament But yet this Act proved no security for in a short time after all was let loose again and the same mischiefs and oppressions upon the people were still continued as before and many more additions made thereto to the utter inslaving of the English Nation Hereupon the people stand up once more for their Liberties and Native Rights in the ancient Lawes of the Land and demand the second time to have them confirmed and to be kept from violation and so in the ninth year of King Henry the third was the great Charter of the Liberties of England being but a Declaration of the ancient Common Lawes of the Land and little differing from the Articles of Renymeed together with the Charter of the Forrest framed and consented unto in full Parliament and are the first Acts of Parliament now extant in Print And so the people sat down again under the protection of this second Securitie but how weak a Security it prov'd let the practise of the next King and all succeeding Kings tell you though it hath been confirmed and allowed by themselves two and thirty times for in the two next Kings times you shall finde the goodmen of the Land discountenanc'd and vain loose and wanton persons to be the men in highest esteem nay Murderers and Robbers and the like cherisht and maintain'd and if brought to publike justice and condemned for their misdoings yet pardoned again and set at Liberty and though by the Fundamentall Law Parliaments the usuall Salve for the peoples Soars were to bee called and held twice a year yet were they laid aside and rarely made use of and then when they were called it was but to serve the Kings turn for granting Subsidies or the like And this when the people perceived in the time of King Edward the second they thought fit to question his mis-government by Articles of Impeachment in Parliament against him and then to depose him from his Kingly Office and to make his Son during his Fathers life-time Warden of the Kingdome and shortly after they made him King while his father lived by the name of Edward the third And now are Acts of Parliament made against the former mischiefs first against the Kings granting Pardons to Robbers and Murderers and four Acts of Parliament are made in the neck of one another 6. E. 1. 9. 2. E. 3. 2. 4. E. 3. 13. 10. E. 3. 2. 14. E. 3. 13. and pursuing one another before telling the King plainly that he may not hee must not grant Pardons but where he may do it by his Oath namely in case of Homicide by misfortune and Homicide in his owne defence Secondly for more frequent holding of Parliaments namely That they should be held once a year and oftner if need be But little effect did

sent down from above to exercise their wils and act their lusts below Having said thus much upon this subject onely to give a hint from whence you may observe till the Parliaments own Declaration be publisht which I hope will fully and clearly set them out what the Grounds and Reasons were that the Parliament hath found the Kingly Office within this Nation to be uselesse and dangerous and why therefore they will no more trust the Crown upon the Head of any one Person nor transferre the custodie of the Liberties of England and Englishmen into the Power of another who may abuse them and therefore why likewise they resolve to keep the Crown within its proper place the Cabinet of the Law and to allow the Law onely to King it among the people and that the people themselves by their Representatives shall be the onely Keepers of their own Liberties by Authoritie derived from their own Supreme and Soveraign power which brings me now to the stile of our Commissions Custodes libertatis Angliae Authoritate Parliamenti And touching the King of England his right to Rule or Title of Law by Inheritance and Descent to the Crown of England thus much may be safely and truely said That if it be an Ancient and Originall Inheritance fixt in one Family it was gain'd at first by the power of the sword and by Conquest which Title in Law is but a disseisin and an unlawfull Title and therefore may bee again as justly regained as it was gained at first by Force and by the stronger Arm and sharper Sword And as it was so gain'd at first so it hath been ever since either by the like pure force or else by consent in Parliament upon particular cases kept and maintained and so you will finde if you look how every King since the Norman William call'd the Conquerour came to the Crown For of all those four and twenty Kings and Queenes which have since that time Kingd it among us there are but seven of them who could pretend Legally to succeed their former Predecessors either by Lyneall or Collaterall Title I have not leasure to repeat the particulars and this I have said may serve to give you occasion if you be so minded to look further into it and to satisfie your judgements herein and by consequence to keep you from ingaging against your selves and the Nation for a Name or for a Thing which is not truth Now I come to that which is our true businesse our work of the first magnitude Opus diei in die suo the Articles of your Charge which I intend for the better helping of your memories to deliver to you in writing with the Laws and the punishments and briefly to runne over the rehearsall of the Facts onely without further mention concerning them yet with such necessary Expositions and Explanations of particulars as shall be needfull in my passage through them adding onely this for an Animadversion to you That you and I are trusted at this time with the administration of Justice in our own Countrey amidst all the Temptations which our severall Relations of Friends Kindred or Acquaintance can Offer unto us which shews that they who do so trust us have great assurance and confidence in us and then we must conclude that this confidence puts a greater obligation upon us to fidelitie and integritie in the discharge and performance of that Trust committed to us adde to this that Vinculum animae the Bond of the Soule the Obligation of an Oath and I doubt not but it will be found that though Love Fear and particular Interest be the usuall Cords which halter Justice that yet at this time they will be found to be among us but sorry and unmasculine pieces of Rhetorick either to affright us from or soften us in our duties The matter of your Charge will be to inquire into and finde out the severall Offences which have been committed and done against the Politique Body of the Commonwealth as so many severall Diseases and infirmities in the severall parts of the naturall Body of a man which distemper and endanger the health of the whole and they are of four sorts First such as are against the Peace of the Commonwealth or whereby Publike Peace is disturbed and those I call Diseases indangering the heart of this Politique Bodie Secondly such as are against the Justice of the Common-wealth or whereby publique justice is perverted and those I call Diseases indangering the Head of this politique Body Thirdly such as are against the plenty of the Commonwealth or whereby publike plenty is diminished and those I call Diseases against the stomack of this politique Body Fourthly such as are against the beauty and good Complexion of the Commonwealth or whereby this beautie and good Complexion is discoloured and defaced contained under the Name of Common Nusances and those I call Diseases against the Senses the Leggs and the Feet of this politique Body Touching those against Peace they are of five sorts 1. Treasons which againe are either High-Treason or Petty-Treason 2. Felonies which again are done either against the Person or Possession of another 3. Premunire 4. Misprisions 5. Trespasses High-Treasons are these 1. If any levy Warre against the supreme Authority of the Nation or adhere to the enemies thereof And when I do so expresse it Supreme Authority I give you the meaning of the Stat. 25. E. 3. 2. which mentions it thus If any levie warre against the King or adhere to the Kings enemies within the Realm for the name and word King quatenus the chiefe Officer betrusted with the Government in the Administration of that Government is frequently used to set forth the publique Interest of the People so we call it The Kings Peace The Kings Coyne The Kings High-way and the like all which in truth are the publike concernments of the people being for their publike use and benefit and are therefore exprest and exhibited unto us under the notion of the Kings Name because he is their publike Officer and trusted for them so that to levie warre against the King or to adhere to the Kings enemies is to levie war against the Kingdom the Government of it and the Supreme Power Authority of it or which is more plain in the expression to levie war without lawfull Warrant and Authority so to do yet this I beleeve was that which hath misled perhaps may still mislead many of our Country men That because they had the Person of the King with them betwixt whom and whom there were mutuall and reciprocall deceivings and they never remembring that when in Person hee deserted the Parliament he left the King and Kingly Authority behinde him because he left the Kingly Office and the Power thereof and publike Government behinde him they catcht at the shadow but let go the substance and so under colour of fighting for the King they fought against him Yet because omnis non capit hoc

these produce for the mischiefs have continued and the people have still suffered by the breach of those Laws even untill these very times the very same mischiefs as before In the time of King Richard the second the disorders of the Court and Oppressions upon the people from thence were so great and unsupportable that the people Articled against that King and likewise deposed him and so they afterward did in like manner Depose King Henry the sixt K. Edward the fourth by consent in Parliament Thus you see how the exercise of Kingly Office within this Nation hath been made use on to the damage of the people and how the people again have put in ure their Authoritie over their Kings to call them to an account for their mis-governments Touching the last King much hath been said and too much hath been felt by this Countie in relation to the last Warre But pardon me if I tell you so it was a just punishment of God upon us of this Countie for I may truly say the Warre had its Rise and Beginning here here in this Countie nay here in this Court for this was the first place in England where any Grand-Juries of the Countie charged themselves and their Countrey men with any Taxe to raise a Warre against the Publike Interest of the people as they did here when at Summer Assizes in the year 1642. they charged the Countie with a Tax of 8600 pounds to maintain 1000 Dragoons upon pretence to keep the Country in Peace But alas the Dragoons were no sooner raised but they were made use on for another Service namely to attend the Kings Standard at Nottingham and from thence were carryed to fight at Edgehill against the Parliaments Forces for better keeping the Peace in Yorkshire And though it be true that this Tax of 8600 pounds was never levyed yet our own great Lords and Gentlemen made it the Foundation and Rise of another Tax of thirty thousand pounds which they laid and levyed upon the Countie in October after for bringing in the Earl of Newcastle and his Forces But as I said before Gods punishment is just upon us for as the Warre began here so it hath ever since continued among us even at this day when all the rest of the Kingdome is in Peace and quietnesse onely we are now upon Sieging at our owne Charge of you cursed Castle at Pontefract which began at first and continues to be the last of all our Enemies Holds and Garrisons within this Nation But to return to the point of the Kings Incroachments upon the Peoples Liberties and therein I will clearly tell you my own thoughts in one particular and instance in that one but it is to my Apprehension Vnum magnum and instar omnium it is as the Lyon said of her Whelp when the Fox upbraided her That she was not so fruitfull in procreation as the Fox but brought forth onely one Lyon at once 't is true saith the Lyon but that one is a Lyon And so I may say by the Kings Negative Voyce in Parliament for admit but this one peece of Prerogative to be just and consonant to the Constitution of the Government and I dare affirm that the English Nation were in a possibility by that Constitution of Government to be as arrant Slaves and Vassals as were in Turkie or among the Moors in the Gallies For let the King put what Oppression he will upon the People let their grievances and burthens be never so great and let him at the peoples Desires call Parliaments for redresse thereof never so often and let never so good Bills be prepared and presented to him for Reformation yet still he shall put them off with this Royall Complement Le Roy Sadvisera signifying quoad the Practise in plain English I will not help you nor release the unjust Burthens and Oppressions I have laid upon you But add to this that other Incroachment of the Lords Negative Voyce upon the people which they also have with much Lordlinesse practised in answer to the Commons Bills though of highest concernment for their Weale however they expresse that Negative in Court Language and good words We will send an answer by Messengers of our owne as if the people should expect they meant to return some concurrence with them when God knows nothing is lesse thought upon or meant by them And now let the people see their own condition now let them consider how they have been abused by good words and phrases which if they had clearly universally understood the meaning of or if these Negatives had been clearly exprest in down-right language We will not help you or We will not ease you of your Burthens or Oppressions that lie so heavy upon you truely then I presume the people would long since have been stirr'd up to help themselves and to have endeavoured as well to take away the mischief as to avoid the miserie of such a Government For mine own part I speak it freely from my heart That as I am a Freeman both by Birth an Education and am Inheritable to the Laws and Free-Customes of England so I do naturally desire the security of Government and I do willingly submit to the justice of known Lawes But I have ever adhorred all Arbitrary Powers or to be subject to the Wils or Passions of men therefore I have alwayes thought since I could think any thing upō grounds of Judgement or Reason That so long as these two fore-mentioned Negatives remained upon the people there could be no security or freedome in their Government and there was no one thing that hath so firmly fixt me in the way I have gone wherein I now am and to oppose the other as the mischiefs I understood to bee in the two Negative Voyces of the King and the Lords Adding to these two fundamentall Court-Errours and destructive Positions maintain'd and held forth to the people by flattering Royalists and proud and ambitious Prelates and Courtiers viz. First That the King had an Originall right to Rule And secondly That the King was accountable to none but GOD for his misgovernment Lay but these two together with the Negative Voyce and let any man judge what they may and must necessarily produce in point of Tyrannie and Oppression over the people Thus have I shewed you the true Originall of all Power and Authority and from whence it is that the Exercise of Authority and Power is practised among men over one another I have shewed you also the justice which lies in this That Kings Rulers and Governours and particularly the King of this Nation should be accountable to the People for their misgovernments and how destructive a Tenent it is to say That a King hath right to Rule over men upon Earth and that yet GOD hath not given a Power to earthly men to call him to account for misgovernment unlesse you will suppose that Kings at first did fall from Heaven and were