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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	father_n	lord_n	1,508	5	3.8210	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42629	The defence of the Parliament of England in the case of James the II, or, A treatise of regal power and of the right of the people drawn from ancient councils ... and more especially the ordinances of the doctors of the Church of Rome ... : wherein is demonstrated that the Holy Scriptures are so far from being contrary, that they do even assent thereto / written in Latin by P. Georgeson, Kt. ; translated by S. Rand.	Georgeson, P., Sir.; Rand, S.	1692 (1692)	Wing G533; ESTC R18626	44,763	42

this Trust and Charge upon them and after they have once acquitted themselves of it they are no longer the Representives of the Person of the Church the Church it self ever remains superiour to the Pope and at such time as she thinks good to lay down the Authority of a Pope she may commit it to the Cardinals but that Regal Power draws its origin from the People if the business needed proving it might be without much ado demonstrated from the very Coronation of the French Kings For after this manner doth the Archbishop speak to him when he anoints him Maintain that State and Dignity in which you are placed to succeed your Father by the Law of Inheritance by divine Providence by our present delivering it to you VIII Besides there was ever a great difference between Subjects and Servants Subjects are always looked upon in the Scripture as Sons and Brethren but Servants are accounted as the vilest and most abject of Mortals now then if you ascribe Absolute Power to Princes this difference and distinction would be quite out of doors because the Power of Lords over Servants cannot be greater then Absolute nay and Subjects would be in a much worse condition then Servants for as much as the Power of Lords over Servants cannot be called Absolute If the Authority of Justinian the Emperour may be of any moment in this matter But at this time saith he it shall not be lawful for any Man whatsoever within our Empire without some cause approved of by the Laws to exercise any unreasonable excessive cruelty upon his Servants for by the order of Antoninus whosoever shall slay his Servant without cause shall have no less punishment inflicted on him then if he had killed another mans but even too great and extraordinary sharpness and austerity of Lords and Masters was restrained by the Order of the aforesaid Prince for Antoninus being consulted by some Governours of Provinces about such Servants who took refuge in the Temple or fled to the Statue of the Prince gave order that if the cruelty of Lords and Masters should appear intollerable that they should be compelled to sell their Servants upon good Conditions and the price to be given to the Masters and all the reason in the World for it is expedient for the Common-wealth that none make ill use of what he hath The words of this Extract sent to Aelius Martianus are these the Power and Authority of Lords over Servants ought to be just and blameless nor ought any Person whatsoever to be defrauded of his right but it mightily concerns Masters to see that redress be not denied to those who shall lawfully require it for hardships hunger thirst or intollerable injury M. Antoninus seems in these Clauses to Counsel and Advice Servants and Subjects to take their parts against Tyrants Wherefore take cognisance of the Complaints of those of the Family of Julius and Sabinus who have fled for Refuge to the Sacred Statue and in case they be either more hardly used and intreated then justice requires or if you shall judge them ignominously wronged and abused venire jube cause them to be sold so that they may never any more fall into their Lords clutches and if he shall prove to act otherwise then becomes a subject and shall not submit to this my Ordinance let him understand that I shall execute the severity of the Law against him for such a default This constitution of the Emperors doth altogether correspond with the Law of God by which it is commanded that if any one shall deprive a Man-servant or a Maid-servant of one Eye yea or but of a Tooth then he shall be forced to grant them their liberty Exod. 21. 26 27. God likewise commands that if any one induced by Poverty shall sell himself he shall not be reckoned as a bond Servant but as an hired Servant and a Sojourner he was to serve till the Year of Jubile and then to depart both he and his Children with him he shall return to the Possession of his Fathers he and his Children for they are my Servants which I brought forth out of the Land of Aegypt they shall not be sold as Bonds-men Thou shalt not rule over them with ●igour but shal● fear thy God You see that for some certain reasons that is to say for cruelty for hunger or upon the account of ins●fferable wrongs that Servants might by Gods appointment and by the Emperors Constitutions which have now the force of Laws be exempted from their Masters commands and injunctions Why may not then Subjects be withdrawn from and dispensed of their duty to Princes unsit to bear sway From the Second Book also of the Fiefs or Feudaries Tit. 26. 5. it appears that the Lord is no less capable to commit an act of Treason against the Vassal than is the Vassal against the Lord which if it shall so happen the Lord loseth all his right over the Vassal no nor is that Power of Fathers over Sons Absolute neither though it be founded upon the Law of Nature for a Son is discharged from the Duty to a Farther that with cruelty and beyond all reason misuseth him or if the Father shall thunder out disinheritance against the Son the Laws shall carefully inquire into the occasions of disinheriting and if it be upon ●light Grounds or unadvisedly done that disinheriting shall be lookt upon as null and of none effect Last of all if all Subjects be but Servants what becomes of Peers withcut whom a King cannot try a Peer but if the King hath need of Peers in passing Sentence by Votes what signifies your Absolute Power truly I am even ashamed of those Persons who professing themselves Christians have a flighter opinion of Humanity then the Heathens have It is taken for granted amongst all the asserters and maintainers of Absolute Power by Barklay Grotius yea and by Salmatius the most daring and boldest of them all that the People did not part with or make over all their right to the Prince as for example they did not transfer all their right of chusing to himself a Successor in case the whole Royal Family be extinct Salmatius himself agrees with us in this matter Where the Seed of the Royal Line saith he in hereditary Kingdoms is quite extinct in such case the Power returns to the People to whom it may be lawful afterwards to confer the like Government upon another Person or change it into another form neither did the People grant to the King the right of Allienating the Crown or making it belong to anothers Dominion and that for the publick Good and Advantage for fear least some Stranger or other unfit Person should be set over the People Charles the VI. is a pregnant example of this who at such time as he abandoned Charles the VII his Son and declared and appointed Henry King of England his Son-in-Law Heir to the Crown this disowning and grant was

then did God out of his tender mercy grant Princes to his Church who might be able not only to secure them and defend them from the Heathen but even from bad Christians too Now at this day we are by God's blessing in the same prosperous Condition and without all paradventure Christians may now use that Authority wherewith they are impowered by God But if any man shall pretend to scandalize or blame our Cause for not having summoned all those they called Fathers to give evidence to strengthen our Cause in hand let him content himself with this Reply That we have already given an account of the three first Ages But as for the succeeding Ages Constantin the Great will answer for us who levied war in Christ's Name against Maxentius and Licinius and managed it all along accompanied with Soldiers that were Subjects to both those Tyrants who upon the account of his noble and famous Exploits in behalf of Christendom is celebrated by the Praises and Encomiums of all the Fathers It will not be much to deviate from our purpose if we bring in and join to Constantin Constans the youngest of all his Sons who had some thoughts of going to war with Constantius his brother being an Arrian for the restoring of Athanasius and the rest of the Orthodox Bishops to their Seas but was prevented by death So that I cannot but admire the maintainers of Tyranny should be so blind amidst so clear light and that with such an impudent confidence should what in them lies bear down and oppres● manifest Truth and should peremptorily assert That till Augustines time and not till after that time too that there was no mention extant in History of any private person who assassinated his King or took up Arms against him that not the least Cabal of Christian Conspirators durst ever dare to do the same even to the most Pagan King much less did any of the Peers of the Realm ever pretend to stain his Conscience with the like wicked cruelty When it plainly appears by the History of all those Times that Magnentius who listed himself under the Banner of Christ did cruelly and barbarously murther Constans Augustus his Benefactor and an Orthodox Emperor And when it is certainly true that Maximus who was also in the List of Christians did treacherously slay Gratian a Christian and one of the best Emperours And to name no more it is evident that the most Christian King Theodesius did cu● off Maximus the Tyrants head who was the Murtherer of Gratian after he had overcome him in War and taken him Prisoner Now we have produced all these before the Age St. Augustine lived in not that we subscribe to and approve of all these God forbid a Christian should be possessed with such a perver●e idle Spirit but only to prove by the way that this was matter of fact which our Adversaries has the face to deny And indeed if any one who is not prejudiced shall peruse Ecclesiastical History he stall find that the primitive Christians who were eminent for Authority and power did no less exercise it than those now a dayes besides the Christians of the first th●ee Cent●ries did not stop the cariere of Tyrants by force of Arms but by their Christian and vertuous Piety not that God would have them divested of that authority the Law of Nature granted to all Nations but it so seemed good to his Wisdom that he might instruct all Nations that Christs Kingdom was Spiritual and that the World was to be brought under his dominion only by Spiritual Warsare but when the World was subdued to Christ the Church scattered ●ar and wide over the face of the whole Earth then it became very like to the Net in the Gospel that inclosed abundance of good and bad Fish God out of his infinite goodness did graciously grant them Christian Kings and Magistrates whose business was to separate the good Fish from the bad who should conduct and rule the numerous Church as a well Disciplined Army Moreover I desire you to take Notice of one thing more which puts this Truth beyond all exception and that is this that the Christians of the first three Centuries did never suppress Hereticks by force of Armes but after they had once got the management of Supream Affairs in their own Hand they soon supprest not only Hereticks but even Schismaticks too by Armes I and St. Augustin himself sounded the charge to this Battle which I do not so much approve of It does therefore evidently appear that the Christians of the Primitive Church supposing the Power of the Sword annexed to Magistracy did forbear using it whilst they were destitute of a Christian Magistracy but when once they were Subject to a Christian M●gistracy Christian Religion did never deprive its Disciples of the Natural 〈◊〉 Civil Law and they publickly made appear that Christ came not into the World to destroy and subvert Nature but for the correcting and bettering of it Away then with your Plagues of Mankind who that they may curry favour with Tyrants have the impudence to bring back into more then Egyptian Slavery those whom God hath brought out of the House of Bondage whom Christ hath redeemed with his Precious Blood that they should no longer be under servitude to Man And now methinks we have abundantly evinced both by the Decrees of the Councils and by constant usage and practice as well as by the Laws of Nations by the determinations of the Doctors by the confession of Emperours and Kings and last of all by the T●stimony of the Holy Scriptures that Tyrants may be deposed that the unruly d●●ires of Kings may be restrained by the Laws It doth therefore plainly appear from the Premises that the Parliament of England did very wisely and seasonably provide for the good of the Commonwealth when they rejected James the Second who trod both Divine and Humane Laws under foot and in putting that Pious and Magnanimous Prince that Just Defender of the Faith and of the Laws yea and true Heir to the Crown in his stead We shall not wander abroad to search here and there for Examples and Testimonies beyond the Christian World for since that the matter is to be tryed before Christians and Christian Judges reason requires that it should be decided by Christian Laws We have cull'd out from that plentiful Stock of Arguments the choicest and such as seem to have been offered to the World with the most mature Judgment in which Examples Conscience and the Publick Benefit would very well agree and conspire together We omit those that either have too much to do with popularity or preposterous violence and heat and such which smell too strong of Popish Tyranny lest we should occasion scruples to some good Men and administer any cause of wrangling or quarrelling to our Adversaries and if I be not much mistaken I have so explained and cleared the History of Saul and David that from

the like punishment be any one of the Clergy or any Christian whomsoever who shall be involved in his errour be thought worthy By the Law of the Fiefs and Feudaries which contain also Empires and Kingdoms a Vassal doth not owe feality or service to his Lord once excommunicated nay he is even absolved of his Oath of Allegiance as may be seen in Lib. 2. Feudor Tit. 28. S. 1. In this Decree of the Senate we meet with two things observable First Th●t the King is obliged by an Oath not to permit the Catholick Faith to be violated or infringed the other is That in case he shall be found a violator of this same p●omise that he shall incur the censure of Anathema lie and all his complices and adherents Both these do run exactly parallel with the case of K. James for he promised when he came to the Crown That he would not suffer the Religion of the Church of England to be violated by the Papists whose banishment out of the Kingdom had been oftentimes debated he stood not to his word nay he shews himself a Ring leader and authoriser of such who endeavoured might and main the subversion of the said Religion he is therefore made justly sensible of the Parliaments severity in discarding and disowning him By this Deree it is likewise prohibited that none shall ascend the Regal Chair except he be a Catholick The same Synod C. 17. adds moreover Unless by his demeanour and good conversation he be thought fit and worthy to be advanced to Regal authority much more unless he be judged fit upon the account of his orthodox Religion This does very much countenance and justifie the Parliaments proceedings in their Act whereby it is expresly provided that none shall ascend the Throne except he be a favourer at least of the Church of England Now it will not be amiss to hear K. Beccesuinthus in the Eighth Toledo Council confessing that the unrully desires of Kings had need of being checkt and restrained who signed and ratified this Law for himself and Posterity Since then in the Ages successively last past the immoderate unbounded covetousness of Kings hath extended it self to the spoils and incroachments upon the people and that the lamentable Imposition and burthensome Taxes have much augmented their lawful Revenues at length it is revealed to us by divine Inspiration that seeing we prescribe Laws and Statutes of respect and obedience to be observed by the Subjects it is meet we should set some bounds of restraint and temperance to the vitious excesses of Princes Moreover out of our princely clemency and after due consideration as well for our selves as for all those who shall succeed us in our glory we by Gods assistance do enact a Law and do publish and declare that no King upon any private motive or impulse or by any Faction shall take away by force or cause to be taken away any writings or deeds concerning any thing due to another so that he may prove himself unjustly to be Lord of and lay claim to the things so due to them K. James offended against this Law when following his brother Cha. II. his steps he vsolently by Quo Waranto deprived Citizens of their Charters and did in a manner wholly cancel and disannul the Priviledges and Immunities of the Nation King Beccesuinthus was not of these Opinions that Kings were Lawless who enacted a Law for himself and his successors Let us on the other hand return to the Synod prescribing Laws to Kings From hence saith the Synod may Kings convince Men that all things is owing to them and depends on them when they govern all things wisely whence they doubt not but that these things are due not to their Person but to their Power and Dominion 't is Rights that make a King not his Person for to be King does not so much consist in the ordinary meanness of personal qualities as in his honour and sublime grandeur the things then that are due to honour are assistant to honour and what Kings heap up and amass they leave to the Kingdom that forasmuch as the glory of the Kingdom casts a Lustre upon them so they likewise do not imbezle or diminish the Kingdoms glory but render it more glorious besides 't is requisite that those who are constituted Kings should have minds full of care in ruling in acting with a great deal of moderation in decreeing righteous judgment in sparing and having a tender regard to such who are willing to obey in procuring sew parties in siding with fewer A little below that Whilst the vastness of the propriety of Princes includes all in the Bosom of its receivings and nothing but the Princely Belly is stuft all the rest of the Members of the Nation drain'd and exhausted languish and decay for meer lack of sustenance from whence it comes to pass that neither the Commonalty can receive any succour and assistance neither can great ones maintain their dignity because whilst the force of Power hath seized on all the State of the Commonal●y are not in a condition to defend the least Rights the Synod do very warily and discreetly prescribe to Kings their duty and do withal neatly decypher to us a Kingdom ruled by a Tyrant such an one as is not to be found in this World The Spaniards grown weary of King Wamba's Government shut him up nolens volens in a Monastry to do penance and compelled him to elect Ervigius Grandee of Spain taking no notice of Theofredus his Son the Twelfth Synod of Toledo was held on purpose to confirm this Ervigius Anno 682. and this is the Language of the Synod And by that means the Peoples hands were loosed from all Bonds and Obligations of an Oath which during the Reign of the said Wambal were kept fast tyed paying duty and allegiance only to this Prince Lrvigius being at liberty by all demonstrations of acceptable homage whom the very Divine Decree had fore-ordained to the Kingdom and the kind and courteous People in general wisht for wherefore these things considered and in acknowledgment of this favour we are to serve none but God alone and our King Ervigius and we are to be obedient to him and devoted entirely to his Will let us then perform with a ready mind and without reserve endeavour to do whatsoever may conduce to the welfare and security of his Royal Person whatsoever may promote the real Interest of him and his Country Now must we hear Ervigius himself accosting and bespeaking the Fathers of the Synod For this in general I beg of you saith he that whatsoever doth not comport with the Laws of our glory if there be any thing that may seem contrary to justice and equity it may be rectified by your good disposition meekness and judgement The same Ervigius how much he esteemed the decrees of these Councils abundantly shews in the Thirteenth Toledo Synod which he Harangues after this manner for 't