Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	power_n	supremacy_n	2,252	5	10.5244	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56187	Jus populi, or, A discourse wherein clear satisfaction is given as well concerning the right of subiects as the right of princes shewing how both are consistent and where they border one upon the other : as also, what there is divine and what there is humane in both and whether is of more value and extent.	Parker, Henry, 1604-1652.	1644 (1644)	Wing P403; ESTC R13068	55,808	73

manner Quando statues Regem super te c. when you shall think fit to set or erect a King over you you shall chuse that man whom I shall designe And the same word statuere is divers times elsewhere used in Scripture so that though God did never interpose in any other Nation so eminently about the making of Kings as in Judea yet even there he did commend the person the people did chuse or if he did chuse the people did statuere viz. give force and sanction to the same It remains now that we try what there is of God and what of man in the limitations or mixtures of authority T is a true and old maxime in Law Qui jus suum alienat potest id jus pactis imminuere And hereupon Grotius takes a good difference betwixt imperium and imperii habendi modum and as for the manner or qualification of rule that he accounts so meerly humane that if the King seek to alter it he may be as he acknowledges opposed by the people nay he proceeds further and cites Barclayes authority who was the violentest assertor of absolute Monarchy that ever wrote to prove that Kings may have but a part in the supremacy of power and where they have but such a partiall mixt interest they may not onely be resisted but also deposed for forfeiture in case they invade the other interest The same Author also affirms That States may condition with Kings to have a power of resisting and that the same is a good condition though the Royalty be limited by no other If this be so surely the founding or new erecting of authorities at first and the circumscribing the same after by consent is so farre from being Gods sole immediate act that it is as far as any act can be mans proper and intire act for except we allow that God has left it indifferent to man to form government as he thinks most for his behoof we must needs condemne all forms except one as unlawfull and if we grant indifference t is all one as if we left it to second causes But soft to call Kings saies one loud Royalist derivatives of the people it is to disgrace them and to make them the basest extracts of the basest of rationall creatures the Community If we fix an underived Majestie in the community as in it first seat and receptacle where there is not one of a thousand an intelligent knowing man this is if not blasphemy certainly high treason against God and the King This is Oxford Divinitie God reproves Kings for his anointed peoples sake these reproach the people for Kings sakes These are the miserable Heralds of this unnaturall warre having mouthes as black as their hands are crimson but let the man fall to his Arguments A world of reasons saies he may be brought from Scripture to prove that Kings are independent from all and solely dependent from God But for brevities sake take these 1 To whom can it be more proper to give the rule over men then to him who is the onely King truly and properly of the whole world Answer To none more proper there shall be no quarrell in this provided you will no more except Kings then Subjects from this generall subjection 2 God is the immediate Author of all rule and power amongst all his creatures above or below why then should we seclude him from being the immediate Author of government and empire amongst men Answer We seclude him not We onely question whether he be so the immediate Author of our constitutions as he is of primitive order or whether or no he so extraordinarily intervene in the erecting of Governors or limiting of governments as to strangle second causes and invalidate humane acts 3 Man in his innocence received dominion over the creatures immediately from God and shall we deny that the most noble and excellent government over men it from God or say it is by humane constitution Answer God did not create so vast a distance betwixt man and man as betwixt man and other irrationall creatures and therefore there was not at first the same reason of subjection amongst the one as the other Yet we except nothing against order or a milde subjection amongst men we onely say that such servility as our Adversaries would novv fain patronize in Gods name vvas never introduced by God Nature or any good men 4 They who exercise the judgement of God must needs have their power to judge from God but Kings by themselves and their Deputies exercise their judgement from God Ergo Answer The Prince of Orange or the Duke of Venice may as well plead thus as the King of Spaine or the Emperour of Germany Besides according to this rule Quod quis per alium facit facit per se the State may as truly say it exercises judgement by the King as the King may that he exercises judgement by his inferior Courts Lastly if this be pressed upon supposition that the King is Judge next under God without any dependence from the State it begs the question if it be pressed only to prove that the King ought to be so independent 't is vain and frivolous 5. Kings are the Ministers of God not only as to their Judiciary but as to their Executory power ergo their charge is immediately from God They are called Gods Angells c. So in the Church Preachers are the Embassadors of God and this makes their function immediately divine Answ. The judiciary and executory power flowes from the same source this shall breed no dispute and as for all the glorious attributes of Majesty and irradiations of sanctity and divinity which the scripture frequently applies to Kings First We must know they are not only appropriated to Kings as they are absolute and solely supreame but to all chiefe governours also though bounded by lawes and restrained by coordinate partners Secondly They are many times affixt to Kings not quatenus Kings but quatenus religious and just Kings these sacred expressions applyed to Ahas or Jeroboam doe not sound so tunably as when they point at David or Josiah Thirdly The people and flock of God sometimes communicate in termes of the like nature not only Priests and Prophets were annointed as well as Kings but the whole nation of the Jewes was called holy and dignified with that which the ceremony of unction shadowed only Priests were not Kings nor Kings Priests but the children of God are both Kings and Priests the scripture expresly calls them a royall Priesthood Fourthly That sanctity that divine grandour which is thus shed from above upon Princes for the peoples sake in the judgement of wisemen does not so properly terminate it self in the means as in the end 6. If the grace inabling Kings for their imployment be only from God then consequently the imployment it selfe ergo Answer if God by inspiration did inable all Kings extraordinarily and none other but Kings this were of some force and yet

this proves not that Kings are more or lesse inspired by God as they are more or lesse limited by man Howsoever wee know by woefull experience that the Major part of Kings are so farre from being the best Judges the profoundest Statesmen the most expert soldiers that when they so value themselves they prove commonly most wilfull and fatall to themselves and others and that they ever govern best when they most relye upon the abilities of other good Counsellors and Ministers 7. Where Soveraigne power is as in Kings there is authority and Majesty and a ray of divine glory but this cannot be found in the people they cannot be the subject of it either jointly or severally considered not singly for all by nature are equall and if not singly not jointly for all have but the contribution of so many individuals Answ. What ridiculous things are these if Majesty and authority accompany supremacy of power then it is residing at Geneva aswell as at Constantinople or else we must take it for granted that there is no supremacy of power but in Monarchies All men will explode this but suppose the Crowne escheated in a Monarchy will you say because all have but the contribution of so many individuals therefore there is no more vertue in the consent of all then there is in the vote of one must the wheeles of government never move againe except some miraculous ordinance from heaven come to turne and actuate them must such a fond dreame as this confound us in an eternall night of Anarchy and forbid us to wind up our weights again how poore a fallacy is this you cannot subject me nor I you nor one hundred of us one hundred of other men but by consent it follows therefore that all of us joyntly consenting cannot subject ourselvs to such a law such a Prince such a condition 8. Potestas vitae necis is only his who only gives life ergo Kings which only have this can only derive this from God Answ. This destroyes all government but Monarchicall this denies all Aristocraticall or Democraticall States to bee capable of doing justice or proceeding against delinquents what can be more erroneous or pernitious the power of life and death in a legall sence is committed to man by God and not to Kings only For if the Crowne of England were escheated the community even before a new restauration of government during the inter-regnum might joyne in putting to death murderers and capitall offenders and perhaps this it was which Cain stood in feare of Nay it may be thought ex officio humani generis they ought to prosecute all the common disturbers of mankind And if this without some orderly tribunall were not lawfull or possible to bee done yet what right or power is there wanting in the people to erect such a Tribunall Grotius tells us that as man is the generall subject of the vis●ve facu'ty though the eye of man be its particular seat so the whole body politick is the generall subject of authority though it bee more intimately contracted sometimes into such a Chaire such a Bench such an Assembly and if it be so after government setled it is much more so before 9. The actions of Kings aswell of mercy as justice are owned by God and therefore when God blesses a people hee sends good Kings when he scourges them he sends evil Kings Answer If God be said to send evill Kings and to harden them for our punishment in the same manner as he sends good Kings c. we must acknowledge the hand of God in these things but not as over-ruling secondary causes when the lot is cast into the lap the event is from the Lord but it does not alwayes so fall out from the immediate sole causality of God so as the second cause is forced thereby or interrupted in its ordinary operation Wherefore if the immediate hand of God does not violent such hidden contingent effects sure it is more gentle to more rationall and free causes and where the effect is evill we must not make it too causall 10. God is stiled a King and represented on a Throne therefore let us not make him a derivative of the people also Answer Demand what security you please for this and we will give it 11. Kings Priests Prophets were anointed but no fourth thing and since Priests and Prophets are sacred by immediate constitution why not Kings Answer Wee have instanced in a fourth thing upon which the unction of God hath been powred if not visibly yet spiritually if not in the externall ceremony yet in the internall efficacy We do not deny also but Kings are sacred by immediate constitution as well as Priests but we deny that Kings only or absolute Kings only excluding other conditionate Princes and Rulers are thus sacred and as for Priests they are not so properly a power as a function neither doe I perfectly understand how farre they disclaime all humane dependence in their functions nor is the dispute thereof any way pertinent in this case 12. Disobedience to Princes is taken as disobedience to God and therefore God sayes to Moses and Aaron they murmure not against you but me Answ. Cursed for ever bee that doctrine that countenances disobedience to Magistrates much more such disobedience against such Magistrates in such things as that was which God so severely chastised in the Israelites our dispute at this present is not about obedience but the measure of obedience for if the Kings will be the sole rule thereof wee cannot disobey God in obeying the King but this we know is false and if any other rule be either in the law of God or man to that we will conforme in our actions and to that we ought to be confin'd in our disputes 13. The last result is Priests and Kings have their offices if not personall designations immediately and solely from Gods donation and both as to their persons and functions being lawfully invested with sacred power are inviolable Answ. We need not doubt but this great ostentatious undertaker and this wide gaping promissor was some Cathedralist within orders he does so shuffle Priests and Princes together He will needs have Princes as inviolable as Priests but hee could wish much rather I believe that Priests were as unpunishable as Princes He doth admit Princes to have their offices as immediately from God as Priests but then his intent is that Priests shall claime a power too as independent as Princes Caecus fert Claudum c. If Kings will bee but as willing to carry Bishops as they are to guide Kings 't is no great matter whether any body else have legs to walk or eyes to see But what if we grant Ministers to have persons as inviolable as Magistrates and Magistrates offices as sacred as Ministers what doth this prove against limited Monarchy how doth this devest the people of God of all right and liberty Thus we see he that answers one argument answers