Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	motion_n	natural_a	2,016	5	6.5181	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47255	A dialogue between two friends occasioned by the late revolution of affairs, and the oath of allegiance by W.K. ...	Kennett, White, 1660-1728.	1689 (1689)	Wing K300; ESTC R16675	26,148	42

the Law and the Soul of Government 't is not only highly reasonable but absolutely necessary for the Publick Advantage and Behoof to fence and defend this Supream Magistrate against Forrein Enemies and secure him from private Insurrections at home And to the end that Rebellion might prove abortive in the very Conception and that Cockatrice Egg be crushed ere it became a Serpent the sacred Tie of the Oath of Allegiance was judged the most effectual means to prevent all Civil Wars repel all open Hostility and secure the whole Society of the intire Affections of every particular Member And the King being the Person to whom was committed the weighty and important Affairs of the Nation and in whose Management and Conduct the Happiness or Misery of the Publick does very much consist This Oath of Fidelity was personally made to the Supream Magistrate as Head though really designed for the Advancement and Promotion of the Peace Happiness and Safety of the whole Society And for the Truth of this Assertion I appeal to the Capacity of the meanest Reader whether he can suppose the Great Council of the Nation Assembled in Parliament who composed this Oath of Fidelity and enjoyn'd it to be given to the Prince whether I say they design'd it only for the Preservation and Safety of the King Especially when by his own Option and Choice he should place his personal Interest and Safety in opposition to that of the Publick Weal From hence 't is evident That in all ordinary and common Circumstances that is when the Interest of the Royal Authority and the People which always ought to be are in Conjunction the Oath of Allegiance binds all Subjects both with Life and Fortune to assist and defend the Supream Magistrate against all Stratagems and Hostilities whether publick or private And the Reason of this is because the Prince is so nearly allied to the Publick and so much a part of it that the Safety and Happiness of the latter is in a very high measure involved in the Prosperity and Welfare of the former But in great Exigencies and Extraordinary Junctures of Affairs in which the Ruine and Destruction of the Publick is inevitably involved especially if that National Calamities be favoured advanced and promoted by that Person whose particular Safety is design'd in the Oath the promise of Fidelity in such Circumstances bind only in the latter and more general Intention for Kings were made for the People not the People for Kings And it is plain Madness to imagine any Obligation can bind us to hasten the Accomplishment not only of our own but the Publick Destruction because such Actions are Diametrically opposite of all Laws both Natural and Civil and Divine And that Extraordinary Contingencies are not to be regulated but by Extraordinary Methods is plain and obvious from several Topicks In Common and Ordinary Circumstances the Laws secure every man in his Liberty and Property Thus the breaking a private man's House forcibly seizing a man's Goods or violently restraining his Person are Actions very unjust and highly punishable But in Extraordinary Cases these are no Rules but Necessity has her Laws As in time of a Raging Famine Propriety of Goods may be forced Corn may by Violence be taken from private men and sold for the publick Relief In a Noysome Plague and Infectious Pestilence for the Common Preservation Men may be restrained from Commerce and confined to their Houses and in an apparent apprehension of an Invasion from abroad encouraged by a Party at home Men may be seized or imprisoned or restrained to their Habitations Thus Divine Providence Constituted the General Law of Nature to regulate the Ordinary Course of things but beside these Miracles have been often effected which the aforesaid Law could never regulate and yet these supernatural and stupendious Works were always design'd for wholesome and excellent Ends. Thus Nature her self for her own preservation in vacuums c. causes Natural things to act contrary to their Natural Motions forcibly attracting heavy Bodies upward and as impetuously compelling the light to descend And the express and positive Laws of the Decalogue notwithstanding the Solemnity of their Promulgation together with the Evangelical Commands of the New Testament though back'd with stupendious Miracles to attest their Divinity are null and void when by extraordinary Circumstances they are placed in opposition to the Works of Mercy Charity or Necessity Our Saviour confirming this Doctrine Matth. 12. 11. saith Which of you shall have one sheep and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day will he not lay hold on it and pluck it out Notwithstanding the strict Precept for the Sanctification of that Day And our strictest Casuists in case of Necessity allow Apothecaries to Compound Medicines Mariners to follow their daily Labours and Midwives to do their Office upon the Lord's Day and all this for the preservation of particular Persons So that the Natural Consequence from hence is That if the preservation of a few Individuals be more acceptable to God than the strictest Litteral Observance of his Laws and the Deliverance of the Publick from Ruine and Destruction a Matter of such grand Importance such absolute Necessity as can consecrate the Violation of positive Laws both Humane and Divine Then our present Obligation viz. the Oath of Allegiance Not to take up Arms against the King upon any pretence whatsoever can be obligatory only in the Literal Sense when the Interest of the Supream Magistrate is in Conjunction with Publick Safety and Happiness and has no Relation to his particular Intreagues or Personal Humours And if the Royal Authority as in our late Circumstances be so deeply infatuated by the wicked Counsels of Impious and Self-ended Men as to sever his Peace Prosperity and Quiet from that of the whole Nation and illegally to prosecute that Advice so far as to place his own Safety Happiness and Tranquility in Opposition to the Safety Welfare and Security of all his People the Oath of Allegiance is then loose as to him and obligatory only in the latter and more Excellent Sense Jac. But all Oaths when once taken if imposed by a Lawful Authority and Legal Oaths do so far invest the Persons sworn to with a Right to the thing sworn that the Person swearing has no Power of himself without the other's Consent to retrieve that promise unless by Violence and manifest Injustice Now the Oath of Allegiance being a Lawful Oath imposed by a Competent Authority my taking this Oath invested the King with a Right to my Fidelity and Obedience That without the Approbation of his Royal Person 't is not only unjust but even impossible to divest him of it and confer it upon another Will. Right The former part of your Assertion is true the Oath of Allegiance is a Lawful Oath and imposed by a sufficient Authority yet His Majesty before you took this Oath was invested with as undoubted Right to your Obedience and in as

is neither my design nor pertinent to the business in hand to begin a Discourse of the difference between Vows and Oaths Suppose the Oath were made to God which in propriety of Speech is a Vow how does that weaken or invalidate the force of the Argument It matters not whether it be a Vow to God or an Oath to Man so long as the matter of it is so express and declarative of the King's Duty and the Peoples Rights and Priviledges Jac. The taking the Coronation Oath was the Conquerors Condescention a compliance with the Customs usual at the Inauguration of former Kings and has no tendency to a Compact or Bargain with the People Will. You may stile it what you please but 't was such a Condescention or Compliance without which unless he had first won it by an absolute Conquest he had never possessed the Crown of England And the Ancient Rites of the Coronation it self had some footsteps of this Contract viz. The Presenting the King on the day of his Coronation to the People upon every corner of the Scaffold and asking them if they would have him for their King I do not suppose the People had power to refuse or reject the Person thus exhibited that would have render'd the Kingdom Elective but the Custom being an ancient Ceremony and commonly used till Edward the Sixth's Coronation is in my Judgment a more than plausible Argument of a Contract between the Supreme Power and the Subjects Jac. How can that be the King of England is Invested with all the Rights and Prerogatives of Royalty before he is Crown'd Will. Right The King is before his Coronation as absolute a Monarch as after This the Case of Watson and Clark who Conspir'd against King James before his Coronation and were condemn'd of High Treason puts beyond all Controversie and the Reason of this is clear the Paction and Agreement between King and People is an inseperable Concomitant to the Crown devolves with it to the next Successor and is the tacite Condition and Terms upon which he accepts the Government So that 't is no more necessary or expedient for every Heir as to the Esse of his being King to Declare the Conditions immediately upon his coming to the Crown than 't was requisite for every successive Generation when the Court of Wards was in force to declare he held his Lands by Knights Service the ancient Tenure of the Estate sufficiently evinc'd the former and the very Descent of the Crown to the next of Blood brings with it a tacite implication of all the Immunities and Liberties of the Subjects in as full and ample a manner as if they had been repeated a thousand times over Jac. The Court of Wards is as signal a Badge of a Conquest as undoubted a Character of Vassalage and Slavery as any we can possibly instance in Will. The Court of Wards has so little relation to Slavery that the Law terms it only a Service and all Servants are not Slaves though all Slaves may be called Servants in the most strict sense 't is only a Token of Subjection and comparatively an Ensign of Freedom a lasting Monument of Stipulation and Agreement between the Royal Authority and the People When at such an easie rate as attending the Wars in extraordinary and emergent Occasions a Man has an intire Propriety in so large an Estate so ample an Inheritance And the very Antiquity of these Courts doth sufficiently evidence the nulity of a Conquest These being in force in the Reign of King Alfred and surviv'd your Conquest many Generations Jac. A Paction between the King and the People is a strange Assertion and to say that the People can make a King is very little less than a contradiction Will. Pray explain your self and shew for what Reasons Jac. Because the Royal Authority has a power lodged in it which the Subjects have neither Right or Pretence to confer For Example The power of Life and Death are in the hand of the Supreme Magistrate which 't is impossible he could receive from the People because no Man has power of his own Life much less has he Right or Authority to put it into another Mans disposal Will. Here we must distinguish between Absolute and Conditional No Man has an absolute Power over his own Life so as to lay violent hands upon himself or oblige another to shed his Blood yet every Man hath hath a conditional Power upon this account that is he is capable as he is a Member of the Body Politick to Covenant and agree with the Head and the other Members that conditionally he violate those Laws the Transgression of which the whole Society have by Statute Law Ordain'd to be punished with Death he will submit to the Punishment So that the King has not an Absolute Power of Life and Death the latter is only a Penalty conditionally we break such Established Laws And this Power is rather in the Laws than the Supreme Magistrate for the King himself without manifest Violence and Injustice has no power to put any Man to death contrary to Law or upon a particular Humor Jac. Suppose we grant somewhat of Agreement or Paction between the Conqueror and the English Nobility what Advantage is that to us Did the People indeed and in reality Elect the King as their Governour when once the Act was done and Allegiance sworn the People have no more Reason or Pretence to revoke or annul that Election than a Wife who has chosen a Husband promised him her Obedience join'd her self to him in Marriage has to put away her Husband and to say that the People may Depose their King if there be a Bargain or Contract between them is to affirm the Wife may Divorce the Husband because she chose him Will. If all this be granted you here contend for I cannot imagine how it would weaken or prejudice our present Cause The Wife after Marriage may not put away her Husband that lives with her as an Husband Nay though a very ill Husband turn Nonthirft spend his Estate abuse her Person prove unnatural to her Children notwithstanding all this she is obliged to an entire Obedience But if her Husband prove Tyrannically cruel so far prosecute the wicked Counsels and Designs of her Enemies as to give signal and evident Demonstrations that he intends her Ruine Destruction and Death If he be in himself insufficient as in the Case of the Countess of Essex by her Husband Devereux the Laws allow relief to such a Distressed Wife And can we suppose there is greater care taken for a particular Member than for the whole Body In short though the Wife cannot put away the Husband because she chose him yet the Cruelties Injustice Violence and Irregularities of the Husband may be such as may give just cause of Divorcement Jac. But were it not Grand Impiety by violence to seize upon the Estate or Goods of a private Man and dispose of it to others