Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	act_n	jurisdiction_n	power_n	2,376	5	4.8822	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75357	Anglia liberata, or, The rights of the people of England, maintained against the pretences of the Scotish King, as they are set forth in an Answer to the Lords Ambassadors propositions of England. Which ansvver was delivered into the Great Assembly of the United Provinces at the Hague, by one Mac-Donnel, who entitles himself Resident for his Majesty, &c. June 28/18 1651: and is here published according to the Dutch copy. Whereto is added a translation of certain animadversions upon the answer of Mac-Donnel. Written by an ingenious Dutch-man. As also an additional reply to all the pretended arguments, insinuations and slanders, set forth in the said Scotish answer written a while since by a private pen, and now presented to the publick.	MacDonnell, William, Sir.; Ingenious Dutch-man.	1651 (1651)	Wing A3178; Thomason E643_7; ESTC R18922	48,537	72

them by a solemn Iudiciall Proceeding as it is set forth by Buchanan their own Historian who affirms it to be More Majorum according to the custome of their Ancestors So that of all other men in the world this Scot Resident hath the least reason to wonder at our Capital Proceeding against a Tyrant as a thing never heard of before in the world since it hath been from all Antiquity the common practice of his own Country Whereas he farther alledgeth the Parliment's manifold reiterated Oaths and their Covenants with above an hundred Parlimentary Declarations and Protestations to protect the King's Person and Posterity c. This must be understood with that tacit Supposition which is naturally included in all those Oaths and Protestations viz. That he do not by any enormous crimes and continued Acts of Tyranny devest himself of his Kingly capacity And in the Covenant it self as much as this comes to is implied by undeniable consequence the whole scope of it being qualified with this special clause In the preservation of Religion and Liberty to shew that if the King should proceed so far as to render himself an irreconcileable enemy to both the Covenant did no longer oblige the Covenanters in any relation to him or his Posterity But he saith The Laws of England favour Kings above the Laws of all other Nations and for this he alledges the parasiticall maxims used by Courtiers Rex non moritur Rex nulli facit injuriam Whereto let us oppose others out of our old Laws more rationall and sound Non debet esse rege major quisquam in exhibitione Juris minimus autem esse debet in judicio suscipiendo si peccat Rex habet superiores Legem per quam factus est Rex Curiam suam c. Nihil aliud potest Rex nisi id solum quod de Jure potest say Bracton and Fleta and whereas he is up again with his pious Divines in and about London whose Declaration he much boasts of in the behalf of the late Tyrant and his Cause In Answer to this he must give us leave to reply in such a sence as out own experiences have taught us that those whom he calls Divines were the greatest Carnalists Formalists and Fanaticks that ever appeared in any Nation Court parasites Trumpets of Tyranny the onely Patrons and Promoters of Slavery both Spirituall and Tempporall They were such as most of the same Tribe ever have been and are men ignorant in the more necessary and solid parts of Learning both Sacred and Civill who make a Trade and Traffique of certain Set-forms and maxims of Divinity wherein being Travell'd as in a Road they cannot out of their old way but immediately they lose themselves and their sences If a Truth though never so bright and glorious come to clash with any of those trading notions which they call Orthodox then immediately like the men of Ephesus they grow stark mad and can sing no other Tune to all the world but Great is their Diana Therefore In those high and weighty Controversies which arise concerning the Rights and Concernments of Commonweals and Kingdoms where their motions are eccentricall little regard is to be had to their frigid Conceptions where in they are wont even in Luce meridianâ toto coelo err are and in this particular it might be made good contrary to their Affirmations and Invectives even as clear as the Sun According to the holy word of God the Instinct of Nature Right Reason The Laws of all Nations and particularly of England That Parliaments or other Supream Assemblies have a Power of Jurisdiction both coercive and punitive over their Kings and of altering Forms of Government according to the Publique exigents and Conveniences of their respective Nations In the meantime this Scot may do well since he often quotes William Prynn to consult that great Scotiser in his Book entitled The Soveraign power of Parliaments as also his own Countriman Rutherford in his Lex Rex who will give him another Account than the raw Pulpiteers of London Next he affirms that the saying of our Saviour which commands the paying of Tribute to Caesar confirmeth and establisheth Lawfull Power Herein we agree with him For though the means whereby that Power of the Caesars was gained were unlawfull and the manner of its Acquisition unjust yet it being once established beyond the controll of any Publique Power and having all Authority seated within it self it immediately became lawfull by way of dispensation having a right to the dispensing of Justice and to the exercise of all Acts of Jurisdiction concerning privat and particular Persons But then saith he should David have acquiessed in the usurped power of Absolom and Solomon in the power of Adonijah Jehoiada in Athalia's and the Machabees in the power of Antiochus Epiphanes Alas the case of these is far different for neither Absolom nor Adonijah were ever seated in a plenary possession nor had they been acknowledged Supream as were the Caesars nor had the Jews made any recognition of Antiochus his Authority nor did he ever bring them under a totall Subjugation as afterwards did the Roman power to whom they then paid a finall submission though they refused it before to Antiochus As for that of Athaliah we finde she had a submission paid for no less than 6 years though her power were usurped and one main reason why the people denied it afterward was becaus she had agrieved the whole Nation with her practises of Idolatry and Tyranny for which cause she was lawfully deposed and put to death in a full Assembly of the Princes and People 2. Kings 11. after which they reduced the Government into its former course of succession Thus much we thought fit to answer as to this particular But what hath this Scottish Resident to do to introduce these Instances of Absolom Adonijah and Athaliah as Arguments against us in England They touch not the matter at all there being as vast a disproportion betwixt them and us as betwixt light and darkness for they were single Usurpers over the People but here in England the People have recovered their own Rights by ridding away an old Tyrannical Usurpation He compares also the Religion that was under Kings in England with the present and saith that in the Kings time it shone as a Lamp more clear then in any other Nation But that now it is nothing like the religion professed in Holland nor indeed Religion it self What the state or religion was in the Kings time I suppose we need not now dispute it having been long since condemned not only by our Presbyterians themselves but in the Iudgement also of Forain reformed Churches as a profane medley of superstitious Innovations And as to the present though we glory not in an external pretended National Vniformity the great Diana of the Clergy and wherein they place all religion because it makes for their profit yet it bears a proportionable conformity to the mind of

question when this Officer the King shall either for male-administration or treachery in his trust be put to death or banished with his whole family the Treaties Contracts and Alliances made in his name with any Forain State must needs continue in full force and power to all intents and purposes as long as the People and Community are in being whose Contracts they are To this accords that of Grotius likewise l. 2. c. 15. Si cum Rege contractum sit non statim personale erit censendum foedus i.e. If a League be made with a King it must not be presently looked upon as a personal League For as he saith in the same place after Pedius and Vlpian plerumque persona pacto inseritur non ut personable pactum fiat sedut demonstretur cum quo pactum est The person of the Prince is usually mentioned in the League not that the League should become personal but only to shew with whom it was made But it may be objected that the League with Holland extends not only to the King but to his Successors also 'T is true it doth hold as to the succession that is as long as the succession holds for Leagues must hold to the persons of Princes and their successors as all other Political Compacts between them do viz. with a tacit condition of holding their possessions If the King of Scots can with the peoples consent make good his succession in England then he may lay claim to the Treaties made betwixt England and Holland but in the mean time Hee and his Family being driven out for their Tyranny all the Right to those Contracts is to be exercised by another Succession and Form of Government that is established in the Right and by Authority of the people Nor can this Alteration of Government any whit alter the Case it being a right naturally inherent in all Nations to alter their respective Governments upon occasion into what form they please As long as the people remain the same specifical I do not mean the same individual people of England that they were when the right of Treaty was used and the Treaty with Holland made and ratified by the King in their behalf so long the effects of the Treaty or Treaties are in force to the same ends and purposes that they were at first intended Seneca saith by way of comparison Manet idem flumen aqua transmissa est the River remains the same though the water pass away and Aristotle 3. lib. Pol c. 2. traceth him in the same quaint way of allusion likening the People to a River which retains its old name and is said to be the same that it was long since though a continued succession of new waters doe flow in the Channel so the People that is now is the same in specie that it was an hundred or perhaps a thousand years since and is so called and reputed except it lose the name and estimate of a Nation by being captivated and caried away from their Countrey as the Jews were all in time from Jerusalem and the Holy Land or inslaved in their own Countrey by some Forain Power that holds them in Vassalage as the Olynthians were under Philip the Thebans under his son Alexander the Capuans under the Romans or as the old Britains were under the Saxons the Saxons under the Danes and afterwards under the Tyranny of the Norman Conquerour When their National Power and Authority is once extinct they no longer retain their former interest priviledge or dignity But none of these exceptions blessed be God can be verified upon the people of England who are seated pleno Jure in their own fortunate Island and established now in a greater measure of Honour Power and Freedom then ever we enjoyed for many hundred years before Foelices nimiùm bone si sua nôrint And therefore of necessity they must be accounted specifically the same Nation or people that they were when the Treaties were made and concluded betwixt England and the Netherlands though they be not the very same Individuall People and Government No matter saith Grotius l. 2. c. 9. how the Nation be governed whether by a King or by many or by the multitude For the people of Rome remained the same still in the various changes of Government under Kings Consuls and Emperours When the former is extinct a new form ever succeeds with power to govern act and transact in and for the behalfe of the people who being still the same not tied to Forms nor altered by Time over-look all Circumstances and lay hold upon the Substantials of their Interest and Government as they stand qualified and related both at home and abroad And truly it is very pleasant to observe in this particular how even Princes themselves acknowledge as much in their Practises towards each other in the changes of Government For the Duke of Burgoin having concluded amity with England in the person of Henry the 6. no sooner was Henry dispossessed and Edward the 4. invested but he immediatly renues the same League with England in the person of Edward Afterwards Edward hapning to be driven out it was so brought about by Burgoin that the Truce formerly concluded betwixt him and King Edward should in all things bee ratified and confirmed the King's name onely changed to Henry At length Edward made shift to recover all again and then Henry was once more dethroned which was no sooner done but Burgoin sent again a solemn Embassage to renue the Treaty and establish a firm League with England in the person of Edward It is to be observed likewise that during all these Changes Ambassadors went to and fro and all Forain Contracts and Alliances were kept entire without the least question on either side which may serve to inform us of these two particulars That in National quarrels about Title to Government Princes use not to dispute who is in the right or wrong but apply themselves without farther scruple to the parties in possession And secondly that however the Governours of a Countrey may be changed yet all the points of Alliance and Contract being centred in the right and benefit of the people continue unchangeable and entire under every alteration It were endless to reckon up all the examples that might be derived from the practises of States and Princes to confirm this particular we might shew you how the matter of Government being in dispute betwixt Queen Mary and her son James or rather his Guardians though Mary were dethroned and her Sons Guardians got the better yet the amity betwixt us and Scotland continued firm notwithstanding the deposition of the person of Mary But because the Scottish Resident seems to grant that Leagues may hold entire in State-Ruptures though a particular Prince be laid aside but not so if the frame of Government be altered therefore he may be pleased to consider that in the various revolutions of the Florentin Government when the whole frame was changed