THE Long Parliament IS NOT REVIVED by THO. PHILIPS OR, An ANSWER to Tho. Philip's his Long Parliament Revived. By R. C. Novem 28 LONDON, Printed for N.W. at the Kings-head in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1660. Anno 17. Caroli Regis. An Act to prevent Inconveniences which may happen by the untimely adjourning, proroguing, or dissolving of this present Parliament. Whereas great Sums of Money must of necessity be speedily advanced and provided for Relief of his MAJESTY'S Army and People in the Northern parts of this Realm, and for preventing the immanent danger this Kingdom is in, and for supply of other his Majesty's present and urgent occasions, which cannot be so timely effected, as is requisite without Credit for raising the said moneys: Which Credit cannot be obtained until such obstacles be first removed, as are occasioned by fears, jealousies, and apprehensions of divers His Majesty's Loyal Subjects, that this present Parliament may be adjourned, prorogued or dissolved before justice shall be duly executed upon Deliquents; public grievances redressed; a firm Peace between the two Nations of England and Scotland concluded, and before sufficient provision be made for the repayment of the said moneys so to be raised. All which the Commons in this present Parliament assembled having duly considered, do therefore humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty that it may be declared, and Enacted. And be it Declared and Enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord, with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same that this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unless it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose. Nor shall be at any time or times, during the continuance thereof, prorogued, or adjourned, unless it be by Act of Parliament to be likewise passed for that purpose. And that the House of Péers shall not at any time, or times, during this present Parliament, be adjourned, unless it be by themselves, or by their own Order: And in like manner, that the House of Commons shall not at any time, or times, during this present Parliament, be adjourned, unless it be by themselves, or by their own Order. And that all, and every thing, and things, whatsoever done, or to be done, for the adjournment, proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament, contrary to this Act, shall be utterly void, and of none effect. decorative strip with a French fleur-de-lis flanked by a Tudor rose and a Scottish thistle THE Long Parliament IS NOT REVIVED. THE Author's Introduction is in the first Paragraph, an Apology for the Peace of the Nation upon a Lasting Foundation, which in the next Paragraph he does not doubt but lies in Parliaments rightly constituted, and in their just and lawful Privileges: And this in the third Paragraph he says must hold true in relation to the Long Parliament, called by the late King CHARLES of blessed memory, which being constituted legally and indissolvible but by Act of Parliament, and not dissolved by Act of Parliament, is yet in force: to evidence which he brings in three Arguments. 1. The Title, or end of the Act, viz. that it was an Act to prevent inconveniencies that may happen by the untimely Adjourning, Proroguing, or dissolving this present Parliament, viz. want of credit to raise money to maintain his Majesty's Army and people in the North, etc. The second is, That this present Parliament shall not be dissolved but by Act of Parliament. The third is, That all, and every thing and things whatsoever, done, or to be done, for Adjourning, Proroguing, or dissolving this present Parliament, contrary to this Act, shall be utterly void, and of none effect; and therefore this Parliament wanting these Formalities, is yet in being, and no Parliament can be hereafter convened, before this be thus formally dissolved, or it must needs follow, two Parliaments may be existent at the same time, which he believes to be so absurd as none will aver. There is an Answer to Mr. Prin, and against the Authority of this Convention, which his Majesty his owned a Parliament. What the Author's disposition is to the Peace of this Nation, upon a right foundation, I know not, what Peace he hopes to find by Reviving the Long Parliament, few can tell, but none have found. That it does not follow, that the Long Parliament is not Dissolved, or Revived from any of his three Arguments, we will show. For first, his first Argument is drawn from the end, or title of the Act, to prevent the inconveniencies which may arise by the untimely Proroguing, Adjourning, or Dissolving the Parliament, for want of money to maintain his Majesty's Army and people in the North: If the force of the continuance of the Long Parliament be drawn from hence, then must the Parliament be dissolved (or at least dissolvable without Act of Parliament) upon the payment of his Majesty's Army and people in the North; for cessante ratione legis, cessat lex: But it must needs be irrational, and most absurd, to aver, that any Law can create a contrary, or different obligation from the first reason and end of it, viz. Because they might be a Parliament until they had relieved his Majesty's Army and people in the North, therefore they might destroy his Majesty's Army and people in the North. The second is, That this present Parliament shall not be dissolved but by Act of Parliament. If the Act had said, the Parliament shall not be legally dissolved but by Act of Parliament, than this Author might have disputed against the Legality of that Act, which should otherwise have dissolved it; but if this Author shall affirm this Parliament to be in being, because not legally dissolved, is all one as to say, no man is killed or oppressed, because Subjects ought to be preserved in their lives and estates by Laws and Acts of Parliament; and this Parliament might as well have made an Act that none of their Members should die but by Act of Parliament, as that they should not be dissolved but by Act of Parliament. The third is, that all, and every thing or things whatsoever done, or to be done for the Adjourning, Proroguing, or dissolving of this present Parliament contrary to this Act, shall be utterly void, and of none effect. Such was the omnipotency of these men in their beginning, that they believed all things, how impossible soever, to be very sensible to establish their Greatness and Reign: For things simply impossible are impossible even to God himself; as that contradictions should be true, or that any thing should be, and not be at the same instant. Yet such was the Omnipotency of these Members, that contradictory and impossible things must not be repugnant, but subsist in order to their perpetuity and greatness. For if things be done, they must necessarily be done, and so cannot be void and of non-effect, whatsoever they may be in Law. I pray Reader take notice, that the Author of this Pamphlet, not only insists upon impossible things to prove the continuance of the Parliament, but his very title is contradictory and absurd, which revives the Long Parliament, and yet affirms it not dissolved; whereas if it had not been dissolved, it could never be revived; and a man may as well dispute thus as our Author does: No man ought to do violence upon, or kill himself but by his own consent; and that if a man does violate or kill himself, or be violated, or killed by another, contrary hereunto, such force shall be utterly void, and of none effect; therefore every man shall live, though he kill himself, or be killed by another; which I think no man in his wits will affirm. The LONG PARLIAMENT dissolved, and dead, & never to be revived. IT is not worth, upon so mean an occasion to declare the Principles of Power, from whence Humane Laws are derived, and what creates them obligation: Or whether effects or accidents of Power can create any alteration or obligation upon that Power: As if Laws made be derogatory to the Power that made them. For example, if by an Act of Parliament the Crown of England were aliened against the Right of Succession; or that it should hold of the Pope or any one else; or that there be not sufficient Means left to the King to protect his Subjects; for Salus Populi suprema Lex: Neither will I dispute at what time Laws and Acts of Parliament take place: But that Civil Laws take not place always, is evident; for inter Arma silent Leges: Or who shall plead the benefit of them, as whether any man can plead the benefit of Law for Treason, Inst. 3, 9 Felony or Breach of Peace: And whether (since no Subject can levy Arms without Treason, but by Authority of the King) The Long Parliaments raising Arms against the King, did not justly invalidate all benefit they could claim by virtue of this Act, or any other Law? I shall endeavour to show three things: 1. Whether the Long Parliament be totally dissolved. 2. Whether in the ordinary nature of things it can be revived. And lastly, Whether the Members have any just cause to complain. But that we do not lose ourselves in obscurity, as our Author does, we will first define our terms, and so set down our Notions, as to be so understood, as any man may reject or deny any thing herein. First then, A Parliament is a Politic Body, compounded (not of three States, as our Author would, of King, Lords and Commons, but) of heterogenial or dissimular parts, viz. the King, the Principium, Caput & Finis of it, and of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, one distinct House, and of the House of Commons, another distinct house; both which houses are convened and created by the King's Writ. Inst, 4. p. 1, 4. Sir Edw. Coke calls them, Conventus Sapientum, Inst. 4. p. 2. Now all Conventions and Assemblies whatsoever, are either regular or irregular: All regular Conventions and Assemblies do proceed from, and may be reduced into one just and certain Principle, which causes and creates those Assemblies; but all other Conventions and Assemblies, which do not proceed from one certain, just Principle, are rather Commotions or Routs, than Assemblies. These regular Conventions and Assemblies are so either potentially or actually; potentially, two ways, either when a rightful power constitutes any company of men to meet at time and place, these men thus impowered, have by right a power of convention and assembling at such time and place; or else after they be convened, either by the power which first convened, or by themselves they adjourn or prorogue to some certain time or place, and for want of such proroguing, adjourning or covening, all such Conventions are totally dissolved, because their Conventions did not proceed from a certain and just Principle, which might create them: Or actually, when such regular Assemblies are actually convened by virtue of a just authority, impowering them: the two Houses therefore being the Convention and Assembly, which united to the King, the Head of them, rightly convened by virtue of the King's Writ, and after prorogued or adjourned either by the King or themselves, to meet at a certain time and place, do continue such Conventions; otherwise they may meet in Riots and Routs, in regular Assemblies they cannot. 1. Now would I fain know, when the two worthy Speakers deserted their Speakerships, and run from the House to the Army, and joined with them against the remaining part of the Members, they did prorogue to a certain time and place, wherein they did convene by virtue of such Adjournment: Or whether there were then two Parliaments in being, which our Author so abominates, one at Westminster, another in the Army: and whether when the Lower House retained nothing but the Rump, and having turned the remaining part of the Lords (who had before excluded by like means, 3 times the number of themselves, who had as good Title as themselves to sit there) & four times their own number out of themselves) were a rightful Assembly, duly convened in time and place; if they were, then may a part be equal to the whole; and the Speaker joined with Henry Martin, and Titchbourn, and his Majesty's Sergeants, Glin and Maynard, since Knighted, may yet be a rightful Parliament: But if it be true, that Formae rerum sicut numeri consistunt indivisibili, and that the aggregate body of a Parliament consists of both Houses duly convened in time and place, then if either be not rightly Assembled actually or potentially, the whole is utterly dissolved; much more, when neither are so, as the case now stands with us. 2. The Houses thus dissolved, I would now know what power can revive them, it must be either they themselves, or the King: If it be themselves, what hinders them from convening (yet I believe our Author will hardly persuade the Speaker and Lord St John to make two) if they & the world be satisfied such Convention be just and regular? If it be by the King, it must be either Legally or Arbitrarily: If Legally, the King must revive it by virtue of some Act of Parliament, or by Common Law: If by Act of Parliament it must be revived, let our Author, or any one else show it: If by Common Law, then let him or any one else show any Precedent for a Kings reviving a Parliament, and I will presently yield the cause: So I am quit with him for his Answer to Mr. Prin's first Objection. But if the King do it, and yet neither by Act of Parliament nor Common Law, then must it be done by an Arbitrary Power, which is every whit as dangerous as his Conclusion. King Charles upon the death of King James, asked Sir Edw. Coke, whether he might not continue (or rather revive) the Parliament dissolved by his Father's death? he answered negatively, because Parliaments could not be convened, but by the ancient and usual Form, which this was not. 3. But because it is objected, that though the Houses be dissolved, yet are they not legally dissolved, and so violently done: And great Crime this! I pray who did, or who may complain? Did not the Members (all but the first persecuted) from their first beginning, abuse all the King's Grants and Favours to his own and Loyal Subjects prejudice? Did not they themselves turn out one another, from the Contents unto the end of the Chapter, until there was scarce any of either House (none of the Lords) to turn out? And if no Fool or Mad man, shall in Law complain against his own Act? for volenti non fit injuria, than the Members have no reason to complain of their usage to one another, and of dissolving of themselves; and the Nation is so far from complaining, that I believe, with a bitter sense, they wish they had never been. But suppose the King might revive them, yet if he might do it, than he might not, and might choose whether he would or not: And can any man in his wits believe, the bitter sense of his Father's death, and his own, his Mothers, and Brothers and Sisters suffering by them, would not divert him from such an intention, unless he did desire to have the Tragedy revived again, upon himself and Family, and all his Loyal Subjects; who after so many storms of their unjust suffering for their Conscience, may reasonably hope, through God's Blessing, for the future, to be protected by his Majesty's peaceable Government, from them, which upon the reviving of the Long Parliament, they could not reasonably hope. FINIS.