Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	law_n	power_n	prince_n	6,812	5	6.0088	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91667	A reply to the House of Commons. Or rather to an impostor, giving answer in their names to the Londoners petition, presented to the said honourable House. Sept. 11. 1648.		1648 (1648)	Wing R1075; Thomason E470_6; ESTC R205525	11,724	15

men belongeth so properly unto the same entire Societies that for Prince or Potenrate of what kind so ever upon earth to exercise the same of himself and not either by express Commission immediately and Personally received from God or else by Authority derived from their consents upon whose Persons they impose Laws it is no better than meer Tyrannie And this is the common opinion of all but such as have devoted themselves bodies and souls to the service of a King I urge not Hookers words as if there were weight in his Authority but to shew how deeply superstitious our Answerer is in principles that even Royalists condemn who though they derive the authority of Kings from God yet they grant it to be convayed by a Concession of the People But let us come neerer to the point and search into times past where we shall find that notwithstanding the vigilant care and industry of Kings to blot out and bury in oblivion whatsoever might seem to evidence his dependeney upon the people yet notwithstanding some glimmerings remain of that light which they thought they had wholy eclipsed For the Conqueror though the sword made his entrance yet he could not think himself fast til he come to an Agreement with the People and was swore by them to maintain their Laws William the second by the mediation of the Arch-Bishop La●frane his own large bounty and wide promises Obtained the Crown Henry the first saies Daniel was Elected and Crowned within four daies after his Brothers death After the death of Henry Stophen Earl of Bologn● was Elected by 〈…〉 and invested in the Crown of England So the same Daniel Now him Henry 〈◊〉 though a Frenchman born was Admitted after the usual Oath to the Crown of Engl. Richard the first having broke his Fathers heart by an un-natural defection and joyning with the King of France was established by the Power of the said King to whom he first swere fealty so that his admission was forcibly and disorderly King John upon condition of restoring the people their Rights and governing with moderation was Admitted to the Crown Thus have even our Court Historians whether through 〈◊〉 advertency or a little honesty I know not but thus have they manifested unto us the manner of Kings Admission to ●it by Election and upon conditions which yet is more notably specified by St●w in his Henry the fourth where you may find that the 〈◊〉 in being put in Parliament whether they would have this of that man for the●e was four or five 〈◊〉 and all refused till Henry Earl of Lancaster 〈…〉 and generally accepted And the very Solemnity of the Coronation is it is recorded evidences as much for there after the King hath taken his Oath the Arch-bishop who crowns him turns to the People and tels them what he hath promised and sworn and then by the mouth of an Herald at Armes asks the people Whether they be content to submit themselves unto this man as unto their King or no and stay is made till they give their consents And this you shall find in Stow the most favourable to Kings of all Chroniclers in his Stories of the admissions of Henry and Edward the fourth We might abundantly enlarge this point but what spend we time to find evidences of that the equity whereof were there no footsteps for the practise extent as it is a wonder there should be is yet in it self so clear and manifest Those Kings that have bin made so by Odds appointment he hath given visible and Personal commands for which he 〈◊〉 did for any of 〈◊〉 Kings and though it be his Ordinances that the 〈◊〉 should be 〈…〉 which the necessity of human 〈…〉 likewise require yet for the 〈◊〉 of it and for the Persons Governing it is neither appointed by any Law Natural or Divine for then it should 〈…〉 Countries or Nations but ordamed by 〈…〉 we 〈◊〉 of every Country 〈…〉 ●●spective people shall 〈◊〉 Being then admitted by the People it will easily follow that they are accountable to them which cannot orderly be taken but by the House of Commons their Deputies For their Power being not Potestas absoluta but Vicaria Deligata not absolute but delegate and by Commission given them with Restrictions Cautels and Conditions upon Promises and Oaths how can it be that they should be at liberty to do what they please to the People and as they have trample upon all Oaths Laws and Obligations and for this be above all human question or account is not much of the evil Kings have so plentifully showred upon this Nation justly attributable to the licentiousness of this opinion under the shelter whereof they have no question bin animated to the perpetration of those unjust actions they have continually abounded in the talk of a general Account at the day of Judgement being a scare-crow their Wisdoms contemn too much to be affrighted with And though this Parliament have said that it never entred into their thoughts to do what other Parliaments have done against their Kings yet that implies not but that they may justly do as much and his many cruelties and obstinate prosecution of the War since may haply bring it into their thoughts We see they allow not the maxime of his being accountable to God only but condemn it as destructive by which they intimate that he is accountable to them for to whom else can he be accountable You think much that we charge the King with the Oppressions brought upon this Nation and tell us that the House laies it upon his Ministers We are very sorry for it as thinking the Principal a greater sharer in the guilt than the accessaries the Commander than the Agents Alas Sir it was as much as any mans place was worth not to say or do as the King would have him how many lost his favour by their reluctancy how many gained it by their officious servility The reward of other mens trechery to their Countrey was haply some gleanings of an Imposition a Place a Fine an Office but had the King gone through with his work he had bin lord of all of every mans person and estate and he that is the chief Agent and greatest Gainer in the Designe we thought contracted the greatest guilt Besides Sir this man haply was employed in this business that man in a second another in a third and several men were instrumental in several evils brought upon us but the Kings hand run through them all and therefore according to our understandings the accumulative guilt of the whole frame and model of the building belongs to him as the prime and chiefest Architect And though at first the House of Commons the aw of tyrannie being upon them charged the Kings Ministers rather than himself yet since they have placed the saddle right imputing and that most justly our former miseries and the induction of the War to the King himself For our charging the Lords and Bishops with

shew an expresse grant of it that he is above both Parliament and People and when that 's done which we think is impossible to be done for we beleeve the King never durst propose it in plain terms but rather aimed at insinuating it in by degrees and circumstances that so it might insensibly steal into our understandings to avoid disputes and controversies thereupon However we say Admit the worst that the King can produce such a Commission made to some of his Predecessors and successively conveyed to him wherein he was so erected from the equal Flat whereon he with the rest stood for the strongest Royalists allow us at first equal yet there is this further to prove that this power was so alienated as not to be assumed and more than that that the preceding people in matters of Power and Liberty can so bind their successors as that it is not in their power to free themselves notwithstanding never so apparent necessity thereof or dangers that compel them thereunto This is the great point the Royalists fail in They suppose and take it for granted and build upon it But prove it not Besides we conceive that the Kings power is a Trust as all power must needs be that is not primitive especially over others of the same line and dignitie as we must needs be granted to be before the Assignation of such a power Now a power in Trust implies Conditions mutual agreement compact and an inferiority in the betrusted a liberty of revocation of caling to account all which are implied in the relative Trust Now that the Kings power is a Trust is undenyably evident unlesse you will say that Kings are born such and had from the beginning inherent Characters of their Royalty without any deputation from others which is so absurd that no reasonable man will assert it Again suppose former Parliaments made the King supream not only over every one singly but over all collectively we say they either did it for his sake or their own good and safety for his sake it is not imaginable grant them to be of sound minds especially if you consider what is implyed in Supremacy viz. the Legislative power the Sword the dispose of every mans person and estate If then they did it conditionally as conceiving it most conducing to their good and welfare and find afterwards by thousand experiments that it proves otherwise their end being frustrate What hinders but that they may re-assume and mannage their so much abused power themselves All this and much more we have to argue the case being stated to the greatest disadvantage of the House of Commons But let us tell you we judge the pretended supremacy of Kings in this Country never to have been fairly granted by a free and un-packt Parliament but either forcibly usurpt or politickly gaind by the practice of that King-craft which every Prince hath endeavoured to make himself Master of whose ultimate end is to encroach upon the Peoples Rights and establish its own absolutenesse We mentioned packt-Parliaments and the truth is much hath been gaind that way to the Peoples greatest dis-advantage since all intrenchments so gotten seem to have the face of consent and allowance But yet here Kings have been more modest as dealing with some adversaries at least for though by the potency of his Dependencies by the interests of his Lords Officers and Courtiers by his conferring Barronies and making of Burrough Towns he hath usually corrupted that Fountain which is the only orderly means of our Preservation yet hath there at all times in every age some been found whose honest hearts have engaged them to oppose the respective Kings for which though they have afterwards suffered for that 's a stratagem Kings never fail'd in yet have they thereby lest notable Memorandums to the People of the unjust seizures of their Liberties That the two Houses are called His as you urge is an expression not derived from a just Right but imposed and customarily used to beget a false opinion of it in the hearts of weak people So has the Militia been car'd His the Forts and Magazins the Ships yea and the very High-way for they that would usurpe the Right must insinuate Expressions agreeable thereunto and in this trifle as one would think they have been very punctual for though there is nothing in it to convince the sound yet is there much to seduce the weak Whereas you urge that the House of Commons was instituted by the Kings Predecessors it s a foul mistake t is true indeed Henry the first reviv'd what his Predecessors William the first and second had purposely disused and what he then reviv'd and cal'd a Parliament according to the Norman expression was before entituled Commune Concilium Regni The Common Councel of the Kingdom a name both more proper for us English and not as the other importing our Norman bondage But there is this further considerable in it that as that King reviv'd it so he might model and frame it best for his advantage both in the Expression of the Writ and manner of the elections That the King is the chief Officer is not indeed agreeable to the exercise of what he hath usurpt upon us for an Officer is tyed to his rules and bounded by the Laws But Kings have known no such Bondaries witness their Proclamations and Arbitrary Impositions in which their Will onely was their rule by which though they have done much injury to us yet they might do more even ad infinitum for what have they according to your principles to restrain them Now that the exercise of his usurpations should be an Argument to the Parliament to establish them we see no reason but rather on the contrary a motive to their speedy abolition and therefore do we stile him in our Petition the Chief Publike Officer which is both honour enough for any one man and by which he may do as much good as his heart can wish and cannot do that hurt that hath bin usual with Kings and is likewise an appellation most properly signifying the nature of his dignity importing a Trust and deputation of Power which may be an effectual means to keep succeeding Kings from those exorbitancies the best of them have through the encouragement of their Place and usurped power lanched into You say The King is not accountable because he hath not received his Office from the People but from God You are strangely mistaken as well in your Assertion as in the Reason of it In the reason of it first for who of your wifest Clerks the greatest supporters of Regality allow not that Fundamental Maxime That all Government is by Consent since it is a restriction of that liberty for mutual and common good that every man is born withal Hear but one of the ablest and greatest Champions for the King and Church Mr Hooker l. 1. Eccl. Pol. p. 28. The lawful power of making Laws to command whole Politick Societies of