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	people_n	regal_a	3,304	5	11.2674	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82208	The declaration of the officers of the garrison of Hull: in order to the peace and settlement of the Kingdome. Presented to his Excellency the Lord Generall, and the Generall Councell. Also a petition, presented to the Parliament of England, by the officers and souldiers of his Excellency the Lords Generalls Regiment of Horse, for the speedy calling of all publicke treasurers to an acompt, and for the speedy taking away of that heavy burden of free-quarter. With the result of the Generall Councell upon the same. By the appointment of the officers at a general meeting, Signed, Jo. Hemingway.	England and Wales. Army. Overton's Regiment.; Overton, Robert, ca. 1609-ca. 1668.	1649 (1649)	Wing D733; Thomason E545_17	16,642	24

for preservation Surely the Sword of Justice was not committed to their keeping to cut our throats He is highly ignorant and blind who thinks humane obedience binds us to sleight a publique preservation In this respect a free people never want a full power Tyranny is Tyranny in whomsoever and wheresoever resistable Nature in the inferiour creatures fortifies her self defensively and hath her nobler peace of wonder a lesse priviledge Their own Deciarations have taught us that all power 〈…〉 ●●…stive and conditionall on our part therefore King Jan●●s 〈…〉 he had as great an itch of Monarchy upon him as other 〈◊〉 proclaimed in open Parliament that Nihil aliud patest Rex quám quad Iure potest And Bracton de Corona tells us Quande Rex 〈◊〉 per Legem r●git non ampliùs Rex est sed Tyrannus The best of Primces ever kept their bounds acting to Gods greatest glory knowing the Soveraig●● power to be the Peoples from whence they derive their Principalities next that great Law-giver who assures u● That the service due from man to man is not coercive or distinguished from equall nature save for safety sake It is but the overflowings of Fancy or an Optique mistake that lets loose the reines to the sence of a lawlesse Soveraignty provoking Princes to suppose themselves greater then their Maker ever meant Surely Parliaments cease to be Parliaments when they cease to be just Powers as Kings cease to be Kings when by overstretching the reints of Government they forget to be good and just therefore Justice defines Magistracy as law lesnesse doth tyranny and arbitrary usurpation How much then are we concerned to oppose all illegall proceedings how much more as Souldiers obliged who have been more desperately ingaged and for ought we yet find so dangerously deluded in being made the unhappy instruments of advancing private interests with publike spirits Seeing therfore we have hitherto been perverted as to promote their private projects who care not if we died like dogs so they might live like Prinees who give us cause to despaire of any good ever to proceed from them And in as much as none can merit the title of true Patriot who indeavour not to deliver their countrey from all her calamities we do therefore see how necessary it is we be no longer blinded in our obedience or shackled by our Fellow-subjects in subordination to their lawlesse lusts who in the nature of their imployments are the Kingdoms Servants to mannage its Interest not their own further then conjoyned with ours which they have hitherto too much contemned or trampled upon Since therefore to their Papall predominance they would have added a Popish infallibility whose Decrees admit no dispute or rejection but resolved so remain the everlasting Land Marks of out dre●d in reference to their own ●●●●●●eries and our blind obedience It will behove us now at last to pray Almighty God to restore us to our wits for if he make us wise through his goodness and merey we may make our selves happy Now that the world may know we strike only at the persom of offendors not at the Parliament but the corrupted party in it we do therefore in the presence of Almighty God whose presence we expect according to the sincerity of our souls publish and declare to the whole Kingdom That upon serious thonghts and due can mination we have found and do believe a prevailing party in the Patliament to be the propagators of many miseries and calumities which now sit heavy on this Kingdum and that their long continuance in this usurped Soveraignty is litterly inconsistent with all our sufeties not that we are ignorant of or unwilling to acknowledg the special power of Parliaments or that we believe all the Members to have deserved this so severe a centure for we are confident of the contrary Yet inasmuch as it is rather frequency of Parliaments then perpentity that must make us happy the latter being too great a temptation to Tyranny we with the rest of our fellow subjects and foldiers who by the confession of our Trustees have within our selves the supream and original power to provide for the Common Safety when we find as now we do our trust abused and betrayed do therefore declare 1. That together with the King and his Capital Creatures the evil Members of both Houses have justly forfeited their Power and Priviledg and to the end therefore that others who shall succeed in the managements of this Trust may know that they act not only their own business but ours therefore that this Kingdom may at last acquire its banished peace and welfare we do in the first place with the rest of the Army desire the speedy execution of due and distributive Justice to all and every Capital Offendor 2. That all inferior Delinquents do submit to the present judicial Power 3. That a speedy period be put to this present Parliament and a new Election of faithful Members made 4. That there be a succession of free and future Parliaments with secure provissions for their meeting sitting and ending such neither electing not to be elected as were in Arms or other ways pre-engaged against us 5. That so many of the old Members as have not crept in by corruption and against whom there shall not appear crimes sufficiently scandalous to make them incapable may be incouraged and continued until the dissolution of this present Parliament 6. That all Elections may be according to due and equal distributions 7. That by an universal and mutual Agreement it be enacted and decreed in perpetuam rei memoriam that the power of all future Representatives may be inferior only to that of the people in order to the preservation of them in their just and proper Rights and that the observation thereof be added to the oath administred to every Member upon his admission into the Parliament 8. That henceforth the things of Common Right and Justice be left to the Laws well Regulated and proper Officers being appointed for ordinary matters a Councel of State may more aptly apply themselves to those extraordinary administrations of Parliamentary Power 9. That the publique Petitions of the people may be more seasonably considered and speedily dispatched as is forementioned in the large Remonstrance it will be requisite to afford Liberty of entring dissents against such Representatives as appear either unfaithful or unpliant to the Trust of the People 10. That all future Kings be hereafter elected by the Peoples Representatives upon conditional trust or without claiming any negative voyce against or beyond the power of Parliaments 11. That the succeeding Parliament may remember the self-deing Ordinance and speedily pursue an impartial account of the Kingdoms imbezelled treasure which being discovered we doubt not but sufficient will be found to discharge the publique debts of the Kingdom and speedily to make Ireland pay the price of that blood which it hath so inhumanly shed 12. That the matters of general Settlement be proposed

by the Parliament and agreed unto with the subscriptions of the People the like Award may be made and in the same case required to be performed by all succeeding Kings and other publique Officers of State or Trust 13. That no future Convention of Parliamentary Power be above Biennial or do henceforth presume to exempt their persons from being liable to discharge their debts or to satisfie their Creditors by this means if hereafter we should be so unhappy as not to be acquainted with Parliamentary Justice or if future Parliaments should prove like this yet their domination being circumscribed within a limited time they will as it is well observed be afraid to commit those insolencies which will be avenged them at their return into a private condition 14. And foreseeing the dis-joynedness of the times and the opposition we stand in to Ireland and other domestique and forraign enemies it will be requisite that a standing Militia be continued in experienced and approved hands 15. That in order to the removal of jealousies and fears it is further by us desired as more conducing to a speedy and perfect Peace that an Act of Oblivion may be past for inferior offendors from the benefit whereof we only exclude those whose Crimes are Capital of which number we put in the forefront the corrupt Members of this present Parliament with their deputed Creatures and Committees who either cannot or wil not give account of the publique treasure by them purloined these in the first pla●e we desire may be driven to Restitution or to make their persons satisfie if they shall not discover upon their own oaths or of any other whom they shall be required to bring in for the further discovery of their estates in order to the intended satisfaction though our professions do not qualifie us to new-mold a State yet necessity having cast it upon our care providence puts us to point at these general conducements towards so necessary a work which we cast in as our mite with the more full and effectual Remonstrance of the Army 16. That such of the Assembly as claim their Authority in the Assembly Jure Divino may be speedily abrogated Jure Humano unless they can make it appear they have not illegally intruded upon their place and power And that we may hereafter by all their great expence of time and treasure be as much satisfied as themselves Amongst some of whom the Church Revenues have been parcel'd forth into such large portions as might enable them to maintain the pride and luxury of Cardinals whilest their forsaken and fleeced Flocks are forced to attend the Alms of others perhaps more precious for parts and piety and yet but pensioners to their pride and pluralities though exceeding them as far in grace as they do others in good livings Such Lackwings are the Cankerworms of our souls as corrupt Committees are the Horsleeches of our Estates the 〈◊〉 devours our goods the other our good names The Tenents of 〈◊〉 one in matter of Regal Supremacy are inconsistent with the known Laws of the Land and the other in point of traiterous practices for profits sake are perfectly principled against them 17. Now to the end we may live at unity amongst our selves the stronger not insulting over but bearing with the weaker and both glorifying God by an unblameable conversation there is another sort of publique persons that deserve to pass under as strict a Reformation as any we have yet had to do with they are such as receive their name from the Law which they make a nose of wax these are the great and close suckers of our State and such as have contributed so much to the honor of Christianity that the pens of men of honor and quality have delivered to the world that the grand Signior of Constantinople hath more Justice done his Subjects in one moneths time then all the Christian Princes in seven years These are the men for whom if they may be suffered our swords have cut out pleading work for generation to come And therefore since their abstruse sence in a barbarous Dialect which they expound as they list carries with it the monumental badg of our Normane servitude and the profit the Kingdom receives by it no way countervails the mischief that is doth enact It is our earnest desire that all the Constitutions of this Kingdom both penal and others be abreviated and clad in the home-spun language of our native Nation that every man might in some sort be able to understand and plead his own Cause 18. That some strict course may be taken for preventing that horrid practice of Attorneys in putting men out of the protection of the Law by out-lawing before notice be given them of the Suite though never so causless And that all such undue proceedings may make the Suite null c. that the Remedy be not worse then the Disease 19. That to avoyd corruption of Lawyers or their adherents and to take off mens mindes from litigious contentions some Expedient of determination of differences may be provided by the appointment of men of known integrity and parties authorized in every considerable Town or Hundred to decide ordinary Controversies so that no man be admitted to commence a Suite save in grand Causes without their concession 20. As also that both Judges and Pleaders may have their respective Salleries from the Publique upon penalty of 〈◊〉 all b●●●es o● understand obligations Whereupon that example of Cambices 〈◊〉 happily be renewed and put into execution We need not doubt then but every Tribunal in England will have something to hang over it that shall better instruct its several Judges then all the Letters of Princes or Potentates or all the Dividends betwixt them and their purse-bearing Broakers at the end of the Term. But in case we now are in what Justice can we expect from any civil Judicature where the Members of Parliament who should be Law-makers descend for gain so far as to be Pleaders in eath common Court and seeing no Judg standeth but by their Vote what dares any of them do in asserting the old known Laws when upon every Appeal to the Parliament their Pleaders become their Judges And how valiant such Justices have been in acqui●●ing themselves whe●e they feared their sitting besides their Cushions their behavior in the case of Ship-mony sufficiently ded●●● The several abuses throughout the Kingdom for want of faithful Magistrates and for lack of 〈◊〉 execution of Justice and Judgment doth not only distrust the Army but also very much discourage and disaff●ct our best friends for ●●●●by differences are undecided because good and godly County-Commissioners are not chosen nor according to our legal Custome and Constitutions impowered to impeach persons pecc●nt of to present the Parliament with the occasions of their County Wherein 〈◊〉 Courts of Judicature were established throughout the several Hundreds and Lawyers appointed to plead at a set allowance Causes might be 〈◊〉 justly and speedily

peoples supporters but were some of the Receipts accounted for it would happily strike amazement into all that have but sleightly considered it for setting aside all the rooking Committees both in City and Countrey whose names and natures might almost call the profession of Christianity it selfe in question do but consider the vast Contributions of Associated and reduced Counties Deanes and Chapter Lands Pole-moneyes Sequestrations old and new loanes on Publike Faith Seizures on the whole Revenue of the Crowne and Miter fifty Subfidies at once fifth and twentieth part Adventures free gifts Taxes for British moneyes for almost ruinated and if some say true cheated Ireland besides the vast accumulations of treasure by Compositions and Pardons there being as we are informed at the end of the first Warre about or above 8000. Compounders whose Compositions if computed but at 200. l. a man one with another which in the generall is much undervalued and their pardons at 36. l. a piece the totall when levied which undoubtedly was long since done according to the exactest Computation would almost amount to eighteen Millions to which the Customes and Excize throughout the Kingdome addes many thousands more weekly And yet some of our Stewards have been pleased to put on such a vizard of poverty that two hundred thousand pounds could not be paid to our Brethren the Scots without the sale of Bishops Lands thus a new device and tax must alwaies do the worke in hand still to secure and increase the sacred heap a bank doubtlesse were it brought together into one bulke which some of them have courteously carved to one another would vie the treasure af all the Jews in Spain or Italy Can we then believe that these our friendly Feoffees after the contraction of so much guilt would ever patiently return to their private fortunes or give up their accompts to their fellow-Commoners of England whose Stewards they are and erst had the modesty to acknowledge that the power was ours by which they acted which if true as undoubtedly it is then are we certaine that the last appeale and resolution must be to and from us Notwithstanding this they would become our gront Lords some of them having besides the corrupt acquiring of their Burgesseships sate so long as to bring in their children to sit at the Sterne of State meaning no doubt to transmit this new principality from Generation to Generation But have we in the interim any assurance of either Law or Liberty save what proceeds from their arbitrary breathings What did ever any Nation undergo by a forraigne conquest which hath not in this last eight yeares been practised upon this Tacitus the wisest of the Romane Historians sew forth that the times were so base and bad under Nero and Domitian that none durst complain of them the people being grown so tame with sufferance that they had almost lost their memories But it may be objected there was never any Government which pleased all or hath not upon tryall and experience had its inconveniences The severall States of Sparta Athens and Rome it self thought they had well provided against the Tyranny of their Princes by their Ephori Decemviri c. yet these found such a venery in exercising their severall powers on those that gave them as in fine a new publique necessity was discovered which way to put those down who had deserved no better whilest they were up We might draw the Parallel nearer to our times should we examine whether some of our Representators have not transcended in their tyrannies whatsoever hath been acted by those forementioned names of infamy or secondly whether the injured Freemen of England may not justly reassume their misimployed power and call the Authors to account for acting contrary to common trust safety and satisfaction but it will be more benificiall to pitch upon expedients for Peace and Freedome or for the future to secure our selves against all arbitrary Powers whether Regall or Parliamentary But by the way peradventure some may object and say suppose this ill compacted body of Parliamentary power be by the present moving of the Army either extinguished or reduced to a better temper and that the disposall of the Supreme Power suffer under the Sword what assurance is there that the souldier will not mis-imploy the power which we have intrusted with those whom you are about to take it from This is Argumentum ad hominem and seeing that the intentions of men cannot be looked into our best conjecturall light must arise from precedent actions and in this particular we dare stand the attest of our most crying adversaries we neither have nor desire better witnesses touching our deportment then your selves we wanted neither presidents nor opportunities to have inriched our selves by secret fraud or open violence ever after our Army appeared so considerable at Naseby what might we not have done when we marched from New-market through London or what can hinder us now that we are in it from making our selves Masters of that whereby others become both wretched and miserable but we trust that power which hath hither to given us so many testimonies of Mercy will to the end actompany us in all our deportments which if compared with the tyrannicall fleecings of severall Trustees or their substituted Committees we doubt not but reason will promp you rather to embrace a protection from those for the present whose civilties have oredone expectation then longer to lye under their insultings which have hitherto so fouly falsified Besides if we had been so base as to chaffer for your Freedome temptations to take us off have not been wanting even by some of those who have formerly been fo fierce against us we speak not this to kindle a fire-brand to tye Sampson's foxes together by the tailes but rather to stirre you up to take notice in time what danger you are in to be undone let Westmimter witnesse it by the many red eyes and wet handkerchiefs of poor Widdowes waiting for the wages of their deceased husbands besides halfe-starved Officers attending the Returnes to their Petitions with charges great as the successe is little whilest kindred and creatures have their suggested services rewarded and their pretended losses plentifully repay'd the account whereof is frequently cast up false by kindred airy Courtiers and oyly mouths and formall flatterers yet in the mean time those of more weighty and substantiall worth have neither Oratours nor Advocates to mention their merits or to write Narratives of their neglected necessities Oh! whether is Astrea fled what is become of Common Justice that most essentiall part of Magistracy have our politique Bodies lost all the life-bloud of Love can these Philistines put forth Sampson's eyes and not expect that a free people inraged by the lesse of their dear purchased Liberties should pull down the Pillars of their abused power When Magistracy degenerates into Tyranny are we not disobliged from our obedience and put upon the freedome of naturall indeavours