Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	king_n	law_n	3,185	5	4.7509	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50955	The tenure of kings and magistrates proving that it is lawfull, and hath been held so through all ages, for any who have the power, to call to account a tyrant, or wicked king, and after due conviction, to depose and put the author, J.M.	Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1649 (1649)	Wing M2181; ESTC R21202	25,266	46

Father and Son Maister and Servant wherfore not between King or rather Tyrant and People And whereas Jehu had special command to slay Jehoram a successive and hereditarie Tyrant it seemes not the less imitable for that for where a thing grounded so much on naturall reason hath the addition of a command from God what does it but establish the lawfulness of such an act Nor is it likely that God who had so many wayes of punishing the house of Ahab would have sent a subject against his Prince if the fact in it selfe as don to a Tyrant had bin of bad example And if David refus'd to lift his hand against the Lords anointed the matter between them was not tyranny but private enmity and David as a private person had bin his own revenger not so much the peoples but when any tyrant at this day can shew to be the Lords anointed the onely mention'd reason why David with held his hand he may then but not till then presume on the same privilege We may pass therfore hence to Christian times And first our Saviour himself how much he favourd tyrants and how much intended they should be found or honourd among Christians declares his minde not obscurely accounting thir absolute autoritie no better then Gentilisme yea though they flourishd it over with the splendid name of Benefactors charging those that would be his Disciples to usurp no such dominion but that they who were to bee of most autoritie among them should esteem themselves Ministers and Servants to the public Matt. 20. 25. The Princes of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and Mark 10. 42. They that seem to rule saith he either slighting or accounting them no lawful rulers but yee shall not be so but the greatest among you shall be your servant And although hee himself were the meekest and came on earth to be so yet to a tyrant we hear him not voutsafe an humble word but Tell that Fox Luc. 13. And wherfore did his mother the Virgin Mary give such praise to God in her profetic song that he had now by the comming of Christ Cutt down Dynasta's or proud Monarchs from the throne if the Church when God manifests his power in them to doe so should rather choose all miserie and vassalage to serve them and let them still sit on thir potent seats to bee ador'd for doing mischiefe Surely it is not for nothing that tyrants by a kind of natural instinct both hate and feare none more then the true Church and Saints of God as the most dangerous enemies and subverters of Monarchy though indeed of tyranny hath not this bin the perpetual cry of Courtiers and Court Prelates whereof no likelier cause can be alleg'd but that they well discern'd the mind and principles of most devout and zealous men and indeed the very discipline of Church tending to the dissolution of all tyranny No marvel then if since the faith of Christ receav'd in purer or impurer times to depose a King and put him to death for tyranny hath bin accounted so just and requisit that neighbour Kings have both upheld and tak'n part with subjects in the action And Ludovicus Pius himself an Emperor and sonne of Charles the great being made Judge Du Haillan is my author between Milegast King of the Vul●zes and his subjects who had depos'd him gave his verdit for the subjects and for him whom they had chos'n in his room Note here that the right of electing whom they please is by the impartial testimony of an Emperor in the people For said he A just Prince ought to be prefer'd before an unjust and the end of government before the prerogative And Constantinus Leo another Emperor in the Byzantine Laws saith that the end of a King is for the general good which he not performing is but the counterfet of a King And to prove that some of our owne Monarchs have acknowledg'd that thir high office exempted them not from punishment they had the Sword of St. Edward born before them by an Officer who was calld Earle of the palace eev'n at the times of thir highest pomp and solemnitie to mind them saith Matthew Paris the best of our Historians that if they errd the Sword had power to restraine them And what restraint the Sword comes to at length having both edge and point if any Sceptic will needs doubt let him feel It is also affirm'd from diligent search made in our ancient books of Law that the Peers and Barons of England had a legall right to judge the King which was the cause most likely for it could be no slight cause that they were call'd his Peers or equals This however may stand immovable so long as man hath to deale with no better then man that if our Law judge all men to the lowest by thir Peers it should in all equity ascend also and judge the highest And so much I find both in our own and forren Storie that Dukes Earles and Marqueses were at first not hereditary not empty and vain titles but names of trust and office and with the office ceasing as induces me to be of opinion that every worthy man in Parlament for the word Baron imports no more might for the public good be thought a fit Peer and judge of the King without regard had to petty caveats and circumstances the chief impediment in high affaires and ever stood upon most by circumstantial men Whence doubtless our Ancestors who were not ignorant with what rights either Nature or ancient Constitution had endowd them when Oaths both at Coronation and renewd in Parlament would not serve thought it no way illegal to depose and put to death thir tyrannous Kings Insomuch that the Parlament drew up a charge against Richard the second and the Commons requested to have judgement decree'd against him that the realme might not bee endangerd And Peter Martyr a Divine of formost rank on the third of Judges approves thir doings Sir Thomas Smith also a Protestant and a Statesman in his Commonwealth of England putting the question whether it be lawful to rise against a Tyrant answers that the vulgar judge of it according to the event and the learned according to the purpose of them that do it But far before those days Gildas the most ancient of all our Historians speaking of those times wherein the Roman Empire decaying quitted and relinquishd what right they had by Conquest to this Iland and resign'd it all into the peoples hands testifies that the people thus re-invested with thir own original right about the year 446 both elected them Kings whō they thought best the first Christian Brittish Kings that ever raign'd heer since the Romans and by the same right when they apprehended cause usually deposd and put them to death This is the most fundamental and ancient tenure that any King of England can produce or pretend to in comparison of which all other titles and pleas are but of yesterday If any