Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	king_n	law_n	read_v	3,266	5	6.5822	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91444	The Parliament justified in their late proceedings against Charls Stuart, or a brief discourse concerning the nature and rise of government, together with the abuse of it in tyranny, and the peoples reserve. As also an answer to a certain paper, entituled, The humble advice of the lecturers of Banbury in the county of Oxon, and Brackley in the county of Northampton. / By J: Fidoe, T: Jeanes, W: Shaw, students in Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge.	Fidoe, John, b. 1625 or 6.; Jeanes, Thomas, d. 1668.; Shaw, William, student in Trinity College, Cambridge.	1649 (1649)	Wing P502; Thomason E545_14; ESTC R203138	12,113	21

in holy Writ of asking counsel of God and of doing nothing without him Secondly those that had their Magistrates and their Laws from God their Government is of God But the Jews had their Magistrates Judges and Kings from God yea their Laws which are so often called The Book of the Law of the Lord. Now the Constitution of a Common-wealth being nothing but Heads and Laws it followeth that they who had those two from God and could not Enact Laws or Establish Governors by a Power seated in themselves had the Fundamental Constitution of their Republique from God Although it be otherwise in other Nations A digression concerning the end of Magistracy in which we suppose the Power is fundamentally seated in the People as will be said for whose good it was first instituted For when Res Publica comes to be Res Privata it ceases to be a Commonwealth and is then Tyranny The judgment of the Israelites was to be without Magistrates or else to have foolish Magistrates who knew no good but their own whereas they should be common Parents consulting not for themselves but for their People wherefore they are compared to Shepherds And those that feed Israel in Scripture are as well Magistrates as Ministers Plato in his Repub in divers places keeps this similitude A Shepherd he saith speaking of Governors cares for nothing but that he may keep what is committed to his care the same saith all Government quatenus Government commands us to take care for no other thing but what is committed to our charge And therefore Plutarch saith That it behoveth a Prince first to govern himself and then to govern his Subjects for he that knows no order cannot order others the same would have them to consider that they themselves are subject to Command Not like the King of Persia who made all Slaves but his Wife and therefore the Law is to be his rule the King of men and gods saith Pindar Not so much that written in Books or Tables but viva in corderatio always dwelling always watching with him and therefore the King was to have the Law continually read to him And it may be the cause why so much sin in Israel was because the Law was lost and not found or at least not used till Josiah at which time there was great joy for the finding of it and the King read in it from Morning until Evening Not much unlike this is that of the Persian King who had one to come to him every Morning with these words Rise O King Care for those things which Oromasdes would have you care for They are called Ministers of God yea gods to preserve mens Estate and what nature hath bestowed upon them to distribute it and preserve it And therefore at first the Romans had onely their Senatus which consisted of old men best able to judge of things being experienced in the affairs of this world Concerning this Plutarch hath wrote a Book in which is elegantly discussed who are fitter for the Commonwealth youths or old men for we know that Rehoboams yong men made the Tribes fall off The yoke of Tyranny being insufferable and therefore upon due consideration and power to be cast off for who is ignorant that the first Power entrusted was but small and no more then if a blinde man should entrust a seeing friend with his leading and he contrary to his Trust should either attempt a murther or else a throw from some preoipice we say that if this man should receive his sight he may then cast him off for that he desired him to lead him not to throw him down Now having said something of Government in general as also of the declination of it we shall proceed to that which indeed is nothing else but the abuse of it and that is Tyranny or an unlimited and usurped Power by which one man or more without an Appeal to the Law of Nature written in the heart of every man or to that Divine written Law of God entrench upon by freely exercising the Natural or Political Rights of others according to their own pleasure It is a Power meerly Arbitrary which is so far from coming under the notion of Jus Divinum as it is altogether Repugnant to the Law of Reason and Nature neither of them allowing the private Interest of a part to exalt it self above the common good of the whole whence comes the ruine of a body Natural but from the superabounding unlimited and Tyrannical Power of some one of the Malignant humors As Sampsons strength lay in his Locks so that of a State lies in the Complication of an universal Interest common unto all we shall speak of Tyranny under a twofold account 1. There may be Tyranny by Conquest as those that know any thing in History know that the foundation upon which the first four Monarchies was built was an usurped Power got by the Sword For indeed the world being enlarged and the estate of the people confused it was then a fit time for Tyranny to take its original every one being a Law to himself and Interpreter of his own Actions no marvel that the strongest governed all the rest at his own will If this principle of Tyranny be good other men may not onely free themselves from slavery as soon as they can but also exercise power when its put into their hands against Tyrants their former oppressors it will amount but to Lex talionis to pay them home in their own Coyn from their own Principles 2. Tyranny may be by Male-Administration or by abusing and going beyond the Trust reposed in a man by a Kingdom or State The present age in which we live presents before our eyes an example most fresh and lively That our late King Charls Stuart was not a Tyrant in the first sence is confessed by all witness his Oath at his Coronation as also his claiming Interest in the Crown by a lineal descent from William the Conquerer who thought the choice or Election of the People a better and surer Title then Conquest But to free him from Tyranny in the latter sence who can unless spirits wilfully prejudiced against the Honorable Parliament and the High and Supreme Court of Justice for that he was entrusted by the People with his power is clear it being irrational to think that our Ancestors gave any such absolute unlimitted Power unto our late Kings Predecessors as that they might use them how they pleased and notwithstanding that no reserve left in people when as the exercise of Government the bestowing it upon one or many is founded in the consent and mutual agreement of the whole body or society of men in a State-Government or Magistracy is indeed a power ordained of God and upon no pretence to be resisted but when a man through depraved Principles of Tyranny and Oppression usurps over the Conscience in things Spiritual and Divine above the reach or determination of the Spirit of a man

will not now dispute yet it s probable by nature all men are alike free and that either Tyranny made first slaves or else happily some having spent their Talent and being ashamed to beg put themselves into anothers possession though Aristotle saith Some men are born to serve Sure it is that to command and to be commanded are not onely necessary but also useful for we see that in our selves that consist of soul and body the soul commands and the body as Servant obeys yea the very Heathen had this notion and that as some think from the sight of the goodly universe or in imitation of the Celestial Deity For seeing all things so fitly moved they knew it could not be but by some kinde of Government whereupon some think there was a certain kinde of Government among the gods Jupiter being so often stiled King but yet for the favorableness of his Scepter stiled by Homer the Father of gods and men Now as we said before it is evident that the state of a Servant is slavery because that some that have been of Ingenuous Parents are compelled to it And that which is natural to men viz. Freedom is so often fought for Hence it is that we Read of the Servile Bellum of the Scythians and Romans Now Servants are either such as have voluntarily put themselves on it or else are such by Law by which it is established that those that are taken by War are the spoils of the Conquerers whence some are called Mancipia Quasi Manu Capta And such is the power of the Master over his servants that the Scythians being gone over the Seas Iustin Hist and their Servants Rebelling they came to them with no other weapons but whips in their hands a manifest token of their Servants subjection The second part of a house are children the power of the father over them is the same that a King hath over his people and as a King is to provide for the good of his people so the father for his children till they be able to provide for themselves which is the very instinct of Nature in all Creatures to provide for their yong till they can pick their own meat Such was the power of the father in Liberos that the Romans had power over their childrens lives examples hereof are exceeding many and some think paralel'd in Abrahams offering Isaac and Jephtha's Vow To put bounds to this power it is not our intent onely this we will say which is granted by all and which shews all power limited that the Son is not to obey the Father in all things The grounds of this is in the Jewish Law and holds true by the Law of Nature for if one should be commanded by his Parents to sacrifice to Idols or the like he is in no wise to obey him it being contrary to an express Command Now though obedience is better then sacrifice yet it bindes not contrary to a Command for in case the Magistrate should command one thing Parents another we demand which is to be obeyed since the Scripture is express for both There is reported in the Rabbines a pretty conceit A Boy was commanded by his Mother to take a nest of Birds with the Dam the Law forbids it the Boy assaying to break the Law in the obedience of his Parent broke his neck what a King is in his City that a Father is in his House And as Kingly Power is continued by the obedince of Subjects so is an House For if a House be divided against it self it cannot stand And he that will learn to govern well and be a Member profitable to his City must learn first to rule his own House which is a part of it And now we come to Cities The general forms of Government we shall onely name them it being our intent onely to speak of Government in its self not in this or that which is onely accidental and not essential though some States stand best by one some by another The usual forms are first Aristocratical where men of the greatest Parts and Trust are singled out for the good of others Much like the States in Holland and these gathered out of every county and assembled together seem to us to carry the true notion of a Parliament the Commons being a representative body The second is Democratical when the people have a voyce in all that is done Not much unlike this was the Tribunus plebis among the Romans who suffered the Senate to do nothing without Rogation of the people and they had power to choose Consuls and to Enact Laws which were therefore called Plebiscita The third is Monarchical when one hath sole command concerning this though it be very ancient and the common opinion be that in Nimrod or Belus Father to Ninus the first Monarchy began after the Flood yet it s probable there were Kings before him For besides that Cains building of a City and denominating it from his Son Enoch seems to have the Character of a Kingdom in it yet some make Adam the first King and that Seth succeeded in his Kingdom And the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle in Joseph-Ben-Gorion tells us that Kenon the Son of Enoch Grand-childe to Seth was Emperor over the whole world and buried in an Island of the East-Indian Sea yea some would have Monarchy derived from the very Law of Nature and that Man as a Civil Creature was directed to this form to which they bring that of Justin In the beginning the command was with the Kings whom no popular Ambition but Spectata inter b●●●s moderatio exalted to it And Homer saith that one King is best notwithstanding to speak the truth for all that can be said of Monarchy we think that no one Government is more suitable to the nature of a man then another it being contrary to men to be in subjection if they can avoid it if any that which is most conservative which would be disputed This onely we will say That in the multitude of Counsellors there is wisdom And the first disorder of Government in Scripture was in Saul a King The fourth form concerning which we shall speak a word because that now adays men argue from that to ours is the Jewish policy which Josephus and all Writers confess to be a Theocratia or a State mediately governed by God For we put the case thus and we say That they could do nothing but by express command from God whether in Peace or War not to speak of the Vrim and Thummim Typical of Gods presence who is both Light and Truth they we say have their Government immediately from God For its proper to Nations that are sui Juris to make War and Peace as we see in the Romans and all others But the Jews could not make either War or Peace with any Nation but by an immediate inquiry which when they neglected how often did it prove their destruction And how often do we read