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	limit_v	3,744	5	10.3160	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61460	A letter to His Most Excellent Majesty King William III shewing, I, the original foundation of the English monarchy, II, the means by which it was remov'd from that foundation, III, the expedients by which it has been supported since that removal, IV, its present constitution, as to all its integral parts, V, the best means by which its grandeur may be for ever maintain'd.	Stephens, William, d. 1718.; William III, King of England, 1650-1702.	1699 (1699)	Wing S5461; ESTC R14146	10,509	17

perfectly answer'd by the establish'd form of a Commonwealth The end of all Governments is the common good of the People and if that great End be attained under any establish'd Form he is fit only for a Mad-house who will endeavour to pull down the establish'd form only to introduce a new one And a Party of such mad men as these can never be sufficient to raise a jealousy in any Government which is under an upright Administration Tho it must also be acknowledged that as corrupt Prelates make way for a Presbyterian Government into the Church so a corrupt Court-party may occasionally introduce a Republican form of Government into the State Besides there is no man who understands the political Structure of the English Monarchy but will find it so agreeable to the Interest of a free People that nothing can be added to it to render it more perfect and it is particularly manifest that all the Advantages which may be suppos'd to arise from a Commonwealth may be as freely and fully deriv'd from the Temper of the English Monarchy as may thus appear If any man would know what is the Constitution of the Government under which he lives there are but two things to be done in order thereunto 1. He may consider the nature of Sovereign Power in relation to all those particular integrating parts out of which it is form'd and composed And 2. It will be also needful to consider in what Persons these integral parts of Sovereign Power are vested and lodged For every independent Government comprehends a Sovereign Power within it self and is specified by the different Lodgment of the parts of that Sovereignty Now the integrating parts which compound Sovereign Power are these 1. Legislative Power or Authority to make Laws 2. Executive Power which consists in creating Officers to execute the Laws and discharge all the Functions of the Government according to Law 3. A Power of making War and Peace 4. A Power of raising Money for support of the Government either in War or Peace 5. The last Appeal in all cases of Law To which may be added 6. The Power over the Mint And of these six parts of Sovereign Power 't is notorious that there are but one moiety lodged in the Person of the King of England viz. The executive Power the Power of War and Peace and the Coinage And of these three branches of Royal Power the Executive which is the greatest is so limited that the King cannot employ any man in Civil or Military Office under him but such a one who is qualify'd by Laws of the Peoples making And tho the power of War be vested in the King yet the Commons have reserv'd to themselves the power of raising Money without which no War can be carry'd on As for the Coinage 't is only an honorary Trust rather than any real Power But in the Legislature which is the greatest point of Sovereign Power 't is certain that the Commons have their share insomuch that no Law can be enacted without their Authority And they also having the power of opening the Purse of the Nation 't is certain that no War can be carried on without their Consent The last Appeal in Suits of Law is usually made to the House of Lords And as long as this happy Constitution shall be preserv'd from the power of Violence and Fraud I cannot tell what to wish for which may be of greater advantage to the People of England But yet nothing is more notoriously known than chat in the four last Reigns many Church-arts and Court-practices were used to break in upon this happy Constitution by raising the Power of the King above what it ought to be and by reducing the Commons to a narrower compass of Power than what of Right belongs to them And 't is also very well known that whosoever have shewn their Resentments hereupon have bin represented as Commonwealths-men and Antimonarchical But tho these men were declared Enemies to the Turkish and French forms of Monarchy 't was very visible that they were me truest Lovers of English Monarchy because their Behaviour provoked only that sort of men who were promoting such Principles and Practices as tended to change some part of that Constitution Upon the whole matter a Commonwealth-form of Government can never be receiv'd among us in England but only as the last Refuge when the Church-party and Court-party have thro corruption subverted the admirable Constitution of English Monarchy But to return from this Digression since Priest-craft and Court-craft have been of late so much discover'd since Bigotry of late days is grown out of request since the unbigotted People are more dutiful to your Majesty than the Bigots are and since the common People of England are more firm and trusty than a Court-party I cannot but think that A Real Popularity would be a better Expedient than a Church and Court-party join'd together can be for as to the Expedient of a Standing Army 't is certain that besides its own inrrinsic insufficiency Lewis the present French King and James the last of England have render'd it odious It stinks in the Nostrils of all freeborn Men and can only be an Expedient to set up a Commonwealth But 't is plain that A professed regard to the Common-weal of the People of England steddily pursu'd did raise the English Monarchy under the Administration of Q. Elizabeth of blessed memory to as high a degree of Glory as it ever attain'd when it stood upon its natural Foundation Nor is any Expedient so proper for your Majesty to use as this For 1. Upon this Foundation the Glory of your Illustrious Ancestors was built And 2. Hereby your Majesty was recommended to the just and rightful possession of the Crown which at present you adorn Party-taking Party-making or Partiality of all sorts over-threw King Charles the First shook the Throne of King Charles the Second and overturned the Monarchy under the Administration of the late King James which by your Majesty's Affection to the People of England was restor'd and by the same means is still preserv'd and may be advanc'd to as high a pitch of Glory as ever heretofore it had gain'd For hereby 1. All the true Ends of Government will be fully answered 2. All Factions and Parties will be sunk and forgotten there will be no Whig nor Tory no Jacobite no Church-party Court-party nor Country-party for the Interest of Court and Country will be one and the same which has not been known since the Death of Queen Elizabeth and therefore will be wonderfully pleasing for its Novelty as well as for its Profitableness 3. Virtue and Honesty which have bin much decay'd of late years will be encourag'd and restor'd For no Man can pretend to recommend himself to your Royal Favour but by advancing the Design which your Majesty openly dos encourage 4. Hereby your Majesty will gain such a Credit with your People as by virtue thereof very much to increase the Wealth and Strength of the Nation in a short time And your Majesty's Revenue must necessarily bear a sutable proportion to the Trade of your Subjects so that he who commands the Trade of the World will consequently command the Wealth of the World And 5. Hereby you may be able to follow the two great Maxims of Queen Elizabeth's Reign which were 1st To be the Head of the Protestants all over the World And 2dly To keep the Ballance of Europe equal and steddy And thus the Glory of the English Monarchy under your Majesty's gracious Administration will be the Terror of others and the Delight of all English People which is the sincere desire of Your Majesty's most faithful dutiful and humble Subject and Servant THE END A Catalogue of Books written against a Standing Army and sold by A. Balwin AN Argument shewing that a Standing Army is inconsistent with a Free Government and absolutely destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy In 2 Parts Price 1 s. A Letter from the Author of the Argument against a Standing Army to the Author of the Ballancing Letter Price 3 d. Some Queries for the better understanding K. James's List of 18000 Irish Heroes published at the Savoy in answer to what had bin and what should be writ against a Standing Army Price 1 d. A Discourse concerning Government with relation to Militias Price 6 d. The Militia Reform'd or an easy Scheme of furnishing England with a constant Land Force capable to prevent or to supdue any Foreign Power and to maintain perpetual Quiet at home without endangering the Publick Liberty The 2d Edition Price 1 s. A short History of Standing Armies in England The 3d Edition Price 6 d. A Confutation of a late Pamphlet intituled A Letter ballancing the Necessity of keeping up a Land Force in times of Peace with the Dangers that may follow on it Part I. The 2d Edition Price 6 d. The Second Part being a Vindication of Magna Charta will be speedily publish'd A Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning Guards and Garisons Price 2 d. A 2d Letter concerning the four Regiments commonly called Mareeners Price 3 d. The Seaman's Opinion of a Standing Army in opposition to a Fleet at Sea as the best security of the Kingdom In a Letter to a Merchant written by a Sailor The 3d Edition Price 6 d. Some further Considerations concerning a Standing Army Pr. 3 d. The State of the Case or the Case of the State Price 1 d.

A LETTER To His most Excellent Majesty King William III. SHEWING I. The Original Foundation of the English Monarchy II. The Means by which it was remov'd from that Foundation III. The Expedients by which it has been supported since that Removal IV. It s present Constitution as to all its integral Parts V. The best Means by which its Grandeur may be for ever maintain'd The Third Edition LONDON Printed by J. Darby in Bartholomew Close and sold by A. Baldwin in Warwicklane M. DC.XC.IX Price 3 d. SIR A Well-meaning and dutiful Subject humbly begs your Majesty to read this Letter which is written with no other design than only to set before you I. What was the antient Foundation of the English Monarchy II. How it was remov'd from its natural Foundation III. By what Expedients it has bin supported since that Removal IV. By what Expedient your Majesty may support the Monarchy during your Reign which I pray God may be long and happy and also raise it to as high a degree of Glory as ever it attain'd heretofore Under which Head is included its present Constitution as to all its integral Parts I. The Monarchy of England was settled upon an over-ballance of Lands vested in the King the Nobility and the Church who antiently possess'd above two thirds of the whole English Territory But the Noblemen held their Lands upon condition that they should assist the King on all his Occasions with certain Quotas of Men well arm'd and paid And then these Noblemen let out their Lands to their Tenants on condition they should always be ready to follow their respective Lords to the War as often as the King had any occasion for their Service So that very small Rents were demanded by the Lord from the Tenants because he had contracted for their Personal Service 'T was this disposition of Lands which enabled our former Kings to raise great Armies when they pleas'd and to invade France their natural Enemy with success and hereby it was that the Nobility upheld the Grandure of the King at home as well as abroad and at the same time they were a shelter and defence to the common People if the King were inclin'd to make any Incroachments upon them For the over-ballance of Propriety and consequently their greatest natural Power was vested in the middle state of Nobility who were therefore able to preserve both King and People in their due bounds Thus the English Monarchy stood upon a natural Foundation the King being the great Landlord of his People who were all bound by their Tenures in subordination to one another to support his Crown and Dignity II. This antient Foundation of the English Monarchy was sap'd and undermin'd by K. Henry the Seventh who having seen the Imperial Crown of England dispos'd at the pleasure of the Lords that had maintained a War against the Crown for near 400 years could not but be much concerned at the overgrown Power of the Peers who sometimes would pull down and set up what King they pleas'd and this Consideration made K. Henry the Seventh seek after ways and means how to lessen the Power of the Lords which had been so prejudicial to the Crown and seeing that their overgrown Power was supported by the great Territories of Land of which they were possess'd and which they could not alienate from their Heirs He by the help of his Parliament found out a way to change the Tenure of Lands in such a manner that the Tenant should be oblig'd only to pay a Rent instead of Personal Service to his Landlord and also a way was found out for the Lords to alienate their Lands from their Posterity This was done to the end the Lords might be encourag'd by an expensive way of living to sell their Lands and that the Commons who liv'd thriftily might be enabled to purchase them Hereby it came to pass that at the end of King Henry the Eighth's Reign in whose time most part of the Church-Lands were also sold to the People the common People of England had near two thirds of the Lands of England in their proper Possession and the King Lords and Church little more than one third part whereby the Ballance was turn'd on the side of the Commons who were therefore able to make War upon the King Lord and Church together as appear'd afterwards in the Reign of King Charles the First Thus it appears that the antient Foundation of the English Monarchy was remov'd in the Reign of K. Henry the Seventh and the over-ballance of Lands failing from the Lords to the Commons 't is evident that the Monarchy has ever since stood not upon an Aristocratical but a Popular Foundation and such a Foundation dos naturally support none but Common-wealth Forms of Government Wherefore a Monarchy supported on such a Foundation may properly be call'd a Government of Expedients because it is by Expedients and Inventions and not upon any bottom of its own that it subsists Now what Expedients our Kings have us'd to support the Monarchy is the next thing to be considered Wherefore III. The Ballance of Lands being chang'd by the end of K. Henry the Eighth's Reign from the Lords and Church to the Commons of England 't is past all doubt but that Queen Elizabeth discover'd the popular bottom of the Monarchy because she found out the only wise Expedient by which the Monarchy upon its new Foundation was capable of being supported in its antient Lustre and Glory Her Expedient was her Popularity by which she accommodated her personal Administration to the true Genius of the Monarchical Constitution as it then stood For the whole Reign of that Queen of Glorious Memory tho long but not tedious was past over in a constant Courtship to her People in which not only all her Actions but sometimes her very Words expressed her knowledg that the Monarchy was then founded on their Affections In what Glory she supported her self and the English Monarchy by that Expedient of Popularity notwithstanding very great Oppositions from the preeminent Powers of Europe her History do's sufficiently explain King James the First was not in his nature inclin'd to pursues this honourable and proper Expedient but his thoughts seemed to be set on his own Power more than upon his Peoples Good whereby it came to pass that the Flattery of the Court was more pleasing to him than the general Interest of his Kingdom And having got some superficial skill in the Arts and Sciences and a profound knowledg as he thought in Theology he made his Court to the Divines of the Church of England that they being appriz'd of his great Learning might in their Writings celebrate his Fame and insinuate to the People his great Knowledg in all sorts of Divine and Human Learning Hereupon at his first coming to the Crown of England he industriously assisted the Bishops and Church-Party against the Puritans whom the Church look'd upon as no less than her Enemies because tho they

could endure yet they did not admire her Bishops and Ceremonies And in this manner that King found out his Expedient in the Church-party which admir'd and almost ador'd his deep Learning oftentimes comparing him to King Solomon for Wisdom and indeed omitted no opportunity which might gain him an extraordinary Reverence among the People 'T is not then to be wonder'd at that King Charles the First trod in the steps of his Father and pursued the same Expedient which had been successful to his Father especially having derived from him the same Temper of Mind and being well pleas'd to have for his Flatterers the gravest of Divines whose Courtship ever tended to aggrandize the King by enlarging the Royal Prerogative and to set it above the Laws of the Realm by virtue of some political Doctrines which they drew from the Word of God From hence sprang the Divine Right by which those Kings were said to reign over us and a Divine Right of Succession to the Crown of England was derived to their Posterity But yet King Charles the First laid too great a weight upon this Expedient and encouraged it too much even when the People began to be sensible that the Pulpit-Law did build the King's Prerogative upon the Ruins of the People's Liberty And herewith began the quarrel of the People against that King in which he lost his Life and the Monarchy losing its Expedient of the Church party was likewise overthrown After this an Essay was made to introduce a Commonwealth-form of Government but it was interrupted by a Standing Army which with their arbitrary and uncertain ways of Administration at last tir'd out the People that they restor'd the Monarchy in the Person of King Charles the Second who being the Son of the Royal Martyr was intitled to all that Assistance which the Church was capable of giving and there was one thing more which made the Church-men exert all their Powers with the greatest vigor in favor of their restor'd King which was this The Clergy and their Party having bin ill treated since the downful of King Charles the First and being again restor'd with Charles the Second to their former Dignities they were highly animated against the Presbyterians by whom they had bin provoked in the late Interregnum so that nothing was more in their Desires than to be avenged of their Enemies and this Master-passion of theirs was so well gratified by their King who granted severe Laws against all Dissenters from the Church that no Prince ever gain'd the Hearts of the Clergy and their whole Party more intirely to his Interest than Charles the Second No Vice or Lewdness could stain the Reputation of the Martyr's Son but tho he were the greatest Encourager of all Profaneness and Immorality in the most open manner yet still he was our most Religious and Gracious King In his time all Atheists Debauchees and loose Persons own'd the Church of England for their Mother which numerous Party enlarging the Pale of the Church assisted very much to advance the Power of the King upon the foundation of the Divine Right which it was said God had given him so that the universal Acclamation was Great is Diana of the Ephesians and great is the Jure divino King the Image which fell down from Jupiter But notwithstanding this loud Acclamation the cautious King who in his Youth had bin forc'd to travel into foreign Countries and was unwilling to take such another Journy did not think fit to rely wholly upon this Church-Expedient but to give it greater strength he twisted into it a Court-party who by their Places and Pensions were oblig'd to assist his Royal Pleasure by their Votes in both Houses of Parliament and thus the Monarchy had its Foundation laid in Place and Pension which by angry People is call'● BRIBERY But let that be as it will 't is certain that Men can never act so vigorously for a Bribe as out of mere Inclination Besides this mercenary Men are soon discover'd in their Designs and the discovery of their Principle forfeits all their Credit with the People So that a small steddy Country Party in Parliament were a great clog upon the Projects of Church and Court which tho so closely united together prov'd but a lame Expedient to support the Monarchy in the Person of King Charles the Second so that between these two stools he sell at last to the ground but not without thoughts of the only Expedient by which he might had he lived have establish'd himself upon the foundation of the People of England King James the Second would not trust to any of the foremention'd Expedients because none of them could be sufficient to carry him thro all his Designs especially thro that of introducing Popery Nothing less than a standing Army could support his Tyranny but Popery was too great a weight for the Army to stand under So that while he was subduing the People to Popery by a Protestant Army he lost both People and Army in consequence whereof he was lost himself And that the loss of him may by means of your Majesty's happy Reign be a Gain to England it is to be consider'd IV. By what Expedient your Majesty may support the English Monarchy during your Reign and by which you may raise it to as eminent a degree of Glory as it ever attain'd heretofore Your Majesty may remember that the original foundation of the Monarchy was the great Territory of Land possessed by the King but your Majesty is also sensible that there are but very small Remainders of this Territory in your present Possession even the very accidental additions of Lands to the Crown have bin alienated to the Favorites of the Scotish Line So there is need of an Expedient now as much as ever for the support of the Monarchy Be pleas'd therefore to review the Expedients of former Princes end see if any of them be sutable to your particular Circumstances or proper for your Majesty to depend upon for the Support and Glory of your Throne And As for the Church-party which was the darling Support of the Scotish Line it is so much worn-out by a Succession of three Kings that 't is very weak and feeble at present The Craft of the Priest which consists in framing such Interpretations of holy Scripture as serve an indirect Interest was never discover'd so much as of late and no Person has so much contributed to the discovery hereof as your own self who by the Revolution you have lately made have revers'd all the Political Divinity which the Clergy have bin propagating since the Reign of King James the First 'T was the Church Clergy and Party who by their preaching and voting oppos'd the Bill for excluding James D. of York a known Papist 'T was this Party who imposed upon the Nation the Doctrine of Passive Obedience to a Tyrannical King upon pain of eternal Damnation They always avow'd the divine right of a Lineal Succession