Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A35697
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Jus regiminis, being a justification of defensive arms in general and consequently, of our revolutions and transactions to be the just right of the kingdom.
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Denton, William, 1605-1691.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing D1067; ESTC R2231
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155,945
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104
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against their Kingdom and their Laws as the People are against them and the Laws when they transgress Do Subjects obey the commands of their Princes which they may lawfully command and which they of right ought to obey without intrenching on God's commands Do they pay them Tribute Sute and Service not contrary to God's Laws as they ought So to obey Cesar is just lawful and praise-worthy But to obey Cesar's exceeding their just bounds commanding without warrant of Law affecting and designing a greater Impery without the consent of the governed or if they invade or violate the Laws of God perverting the right Worship of God who is above all Kings and Governments it is unjust and to assist Cesar's in such cases is unlawful and they that do make themselves partakers of other Men's Crimes Anno Domini 1300. Pope Boniface VIII challenged some Regalia which belonged unto Phillip the Fair King of France whereupon Philip sharply reproved the Pope by his Letter even in those days when the Pope was accounted the Vicar of Christ on Earth and Head of the Universal Church according to Communis error Juris loco erat Notwithstanding the Sorban answered That both King and Kingdom might safely withdraw themselves from their Obedience to the Pope without any guilt of Schism because not Separation but the Cause made Schism and that they did not oppose the Vicar of Christ but a wicked Man guilty of many Crimes Sieur de Mezerai Annales Franciae Archivae Camerae Ratiociniorum Lutet L. Barbar Ph. de Senat. If the Cause be just the Separation is from the high Priest or Bishop not from the Church Or more properly from Boniface not from the high Priest Unless such distinctions and discriminations are allowed for true and Authentick how can the Souls of whole Kingdoms be distinguished and separated from the Church If Kings invade the Rights of God Almighty and oppress his People who are the Temple of God with servitude denying their Rights Priviledges and Liberties which God hath given them and for which Christ died we may much more use the same distinction and in opposition to such Kings or rather Tyrants we may justly say That not the King but the Tyranny is opposed Anno 1408. Benedict XIII did grieviously oppress the Gallican Church with Tributes and Exactions whence a Convocation of the French Clergy being called by Charles VI. they decreed That the King and Kingdom ought not to obey Benedict as being an Heretick and Schismatick and unworthy of any honour which the States of the Kingdom allowed and the Parliament of Paris approved by their Arrest Annales Car. 6. Monstreletus Moreover they whom Benedict did excommunicate as Enemies of the Church they judged them forthwith absolved of such Excommunications and that thereby they were not excluded or deprived of any Benefit or Priviledge of the Church Ibid. The like we read to have been done as at other times in France so in other Kingdoms Which evidently shews That if Kings and Princes or States do tyrannize or extend their Power beyond it's just bounds Subjects may without any just imputation of Delinquency or Rebellion withhold their Tributes withdraw themselves from their Obedience or resist their Tyranny It being one thing to resist an evil Pope another thing to resist the Church one thing to resist a King another thing to resist a Kingdom or Tyranny We read That Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a King over themselves And Libnah revolted from Jehoram 2 Kings 8. 20 22. yet after the true Worship of God was restored we find Libnah numbred among the subjects of Ezekiah Chap. 19. 8. If this distinction be of force when the Pope who arrogantly assumes to himself Superiority over Kings and Princes invades their Rights or the Rights of the Church is it not much more just if Princes I might say Vassals invade the Rights and Regalia of the great God of Heaven and of Earth It stands therefore sure that Princes commanding unlawful things or forbidding Holy things or introducing a False or Idolatrous worship the People or rather Parliaments Dyets Senates the several Officers or inferior Magistrates having a share in the Government and intrusted with the common concerns of the Kingdom by the People both may and ought to hinder or resist unlawful commands All or at least the Governing Magistrates of Kingdoms and Cities as first impowered by God and then constituted by Princes by Authority derived from the People ought to promote in their several Stations and Provinces first the Glory of God and of Holy Church and then the Good and Welfare of Kingdoms Cities and Free States and if they do not it is in them Crimen laesae Magistatis and they become participes criminis by such their sinful connivence Let us now consider what Bishop Bilson Bishop of Winchester as learned and as honest a Bishop and as sound a Divine as ever sate on that See and who hath written a most learned Treatise of the difference between Christian Subjection and Unchristian Rebellion in the days of Queen Elizabeth The Romans did not love the name of King and the Commonwealth of Venice Millan Florence and Genoa are of the same mind many States have Governors for Life and for Years and yet a Sovereignty still remaining in the People or Senate or in the Prelates and Nobles that elect or assist the Magistrate who hath his Jurisdiction allotted and prefixt unto him and may be resisted and recalled from any tyrannous excess by the general and publick consent of the whole State. In Germany the Emperor himself hath his bounds appointed him which he may not pass by the Laws of the Empire and the Princes Dukes and Cities that are under him have Power to use and govern the Sword as God's Ministers in their own charges And though for the Maintenance of the Empire they be subject to such orders as shall be decreed in the Convent of all their States and according to that direction are to furnish the Emperor with Men and Mony for his necessary Wars and Defences yet if he touch their Policies infringe their Liberties or violate the Specialties which he by Oath and Order of the Empire is bound to keep they may lawfully resist him and by force reduce him to the Ancient Government or else repel him as a Tyrant and set another in his place by the Right and Freedom of their Country Bilson's Subjection p. 513. Zuinglius saith That if the Empire of Rome or any other Sovereign should oppress the Truth and they negligently suffer the same they shall be charged with contempt no less than the Oppressors themselves Zuingl lib. 4. Epist Zuing. Occol f. 186. And elsewhere when Kings rule unfaithfully and otherwise than the Rule of the Gospel prescribeth they may with God be deposed as when they punish not wicked Persons but especially when they advance the ungodly and idle Priests such may be deprived of their Dignity as Saul
more ridiculous in Nature in Reason in Wisdom in Understanding to give Laws to Kings and cause them to swear to keep them and yet to be understood at the same time to be lawless and not obliged to keep them according to some or at least cannot be questioned if they break them according to others which is as Caitiff a position as the other and differs nothing but in words only Shall all others be punished for the breach of the same Laws and Kings only excepted who by solemn and sacred Oaths have bound themselves to performance and the Laws make no exceptions Absit Doth God make any exceptions Doth not God punish Kings as severely as he doth others Is not Tophet ordained of old which is deep and large the pile whereof is fire and much wood and which is kindled by my breath as by a stream of brimstone yea for Kings it is prepared Isaiah 30. 33. and shall we give such encouragement to break Laws and to work Wickedness God forbid Are not such Doctrines encouragements to Kings to lift up their Hearts above their Brethren against which God hath forewarned and forbid them that they might know themselves to be but Men. God made his own Sabbath for Man and not Man for the Sabbath and hath he not made Kings so too Moses was a King with Supreme Power Well what then and so let all Kings have if they have the same Warrant Commission access and freedom with God Almighty to have constant recourse unto him to carry the Causes of their People unto him and receive his Commands and communicate them to the whole Congregation and prosecute them as punctually as he did and be as faithful in his House as he was But though Moses had this great and mighty Power being as it were God's companion speaking unto God and God answering him Exod. 19. 19. yet it no where appears that quod libet licet that he could do what he list and be accountable to God only It 's true the People came to him to ask counsel of God for them but not to do his own commands without God's commands and advice first had and all this was but to teach them the Ordinances and Laws and shew them the way wherein they were to walk and the works they were to do Exod. 18. 20. not to oppress or injure them or tyrannize over them to give Laws not receive or be obliged by any themselves So that upon the whole matter God was the King of the Jews Moses only his Interpreter and Ambassador and if Kings will not be as faithful as Moses was in judging and acting according to the Laws and Ordinances of their and our God there will then be no leading into captivity no complaining in our streets no breaking in nor going out but happy would be the People that were in such a case yea happy that People whose God is the Lord Psal 144. 14. 15. to make Laws to bind King and People and yet Kings to break them impune when the very Laws themselves do not exempt them is very ill becoming reasonable men and that all but Kings should be punished for the breach of them is wicked and unjust It may happen in all Kingdoms most probably in those that are Haereditary that some Kings may be Idiots or mad or follow mad Councils and Advisors a crime of the same Leaven as did Rehoboam and must whole Kingdoms then also be subject to their Tyranny to be chastized not with Whips but with Scorpions without making use of their power to extricate themselves out of their hardships and miseries Is it not then natural to cry What Portion have we in David We have no Inheritance in the Son of Jesse every man to your Tents withdraw your Services withhold your Tributes fight not against the Interest of your Nation and now David see to thine own house 2 Chron. 10. 16. Though Kings have the great title yet the Laws are to govern both them and their Subjects and though all Laws run in their names yet they cannot do what they list but as he is to command according to Law so his Subjects are to obey him according to Law not against Law. Doth God himself keep Covenant for ever and never break any and shall Kings who claim their Titles and Powers from him take greater liberty and freedom to break the Covenants and Agreements with their Subjects than God himself or pretend to be unaccountable I doubt they themselves would not accept such a Plea from their own Ambassadors or Ministers transgressing their Commissions Had the Israelites power to cast off their corrupt Judges a Government well pleasing to God himself and to choose them another form of Government even Kingly contrary to the mind even of God himself and did not God gratify them therein though they rejected not Samuel only but God himself thereby Sam. 8. 7 8. For he gave them a King in his anger and took him away in his wrath Hos 13. 11. Had they such power under the Law and have not Christians the same under the Gospel if not shew when where and by whom it was taken away Certainly whoever sets up himself to be supream and above all Laws or to be accountable to none but to God for breach of them doth as much as in him lies make himself an Idol or a strange God to be revered without contradiction If Nebuchadnezzar erect his Prodigious Idol must all People Nations and Languages fall down and worship it Gideon whom the men of Israel Commissioned saying Rule thou over us both thou and thy Son and thy Sons Son also but Gideon answered I will not Rule over you neither shall my Son rule over you the Lord shall Rule over you Judg. 8. 22 23. By which it appears that Gideon by this Commission was as Supream and had as large Powers as any King had or as the Israelites could give him without formal Covenants or Laws to tye him up and yet his Answer is a document upon divine Record for ever to all Kings and Princes that it is not the right of Men to domineer over Men but it belongs and appertains to God only to rule without controll And indeed it 's both against the law of nature and precept divine for Kings so to lift up their hearts above their Brethren as to rule over them Rigorously Uncontrolably for God created them all equal and we shall all stand in an equal distance before Gods Tribunal where there shall be no respect of Persons What difference and distance of stations and of honours there is amongst us is from our selves and of our own framing naked came we into the World and naked shall we return It is ill very ill offending little ones whose Angels do always behold the face of God in Heaven Mat. 18. 10. By all which it manifestly appears that the Mosaick Kings and Judges were equally obliged to keep the Laws together with the rest of the