Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	law_n	people_n	4,588	5	5.1230	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45473	A vindication of Dr. Hammonds addresse &c. from the exceptions of Eutactus Philodemius, in two particulars concerning [brace] the power supposed in the Jew over his owne freedom, the no-power over a mans own life ; together with a briefe reply to Mr. Iohn Goodwins Gbeisodikai, as far as concernes Dr. Hammond.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1649 (1649)	Wing H615; ESTC R35984	37,214	48

hazard of lives in case of violation of Lawes unlesse it be that he that hath power of their lives placeth that power in that Magistrate to whom they have rendred or subjected themselves That this is God and not the People I will not conclude to be Mr. Goodwins opinion because 't is his maine designe to prove the contrary but that those words of his and his distinction so explained will bear that sense I mean that they will be true and acknowledg'd by him that acknowledges the power of Life to be onely in the Supream Governour deriv'd from God I conceive sufficiently manifest consequently that though this power be said to be in the People remotely improperly and indirectly and so in Mr. Goodwins notion of eminently c. yet 't is not from the People but from God onely that the Governour hath it 63. The reply will be as ready and easie also to all force or concludency of his next Argument that which is taken from the Peoples power to make or consent to the making of Capitall Lawes For 1. Mr. Goodwin cannot be ignorant that it hath been sometimes in the power of Kings to make Lawes without the addition of any consent of the people such were the Principum placitae among the Romans and after it was thought fit by Princes to lay some restraint on themselves both that they might be better advised and more readily obeyed then though the peoples consent hath been deem'd necessary yet doth this belong onely to the regulating and modifying the exercise of this power the Fundamentall power it selfe of life being in the Supream Governour before the making these Lawes Now 't is very easie to distinguish betwixt these two the power and the Regulating of the exercise of that power the power in the grosse and the determination of that power to this or that particular action The interposition of man in the latter of these doth no way prejudge the sole priviledge of God in the donation of the former of them As the Grace of God is his peculiar and proper gift and yet man may give Directions and Rules how we are to act by that Principle what use it will best become us to make of that pretious talent entrusted to us And therefore for the great Noon-day-Truth which Mr. Goodwin induceth from these and the like considerations viz. That men by nature have such a power over their lives as voluntarily c. to expose them to the stroke of publique justice in case they shall offend c. This being granted is of no force against Doctor Hammond but doth with him rather suppose a Publique Justice able to strike i. e. a power of life already vested in the Magistrate before this consent of the People or abstractedly without respect unto it And so still it is not from this consent of the People that this power is deriv'd to the hand of Publick Justice but from some other higher principle viz. that of God to whom {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the avenging or punishing of offenders peculiarly belongs and no other but in subordination to and substitution from him 64. And what if the King as M. Goodwin next alledgeth have no power to take away the life of his Subjects without cause or for every cause but onely such as by Law are punishable with death what if he cannot command them to be their own Executioners Doth it follow from hence that therefore he hath the power of life from the People not from God Doth the power of God so consist in doing causelesse or irrationall things that nothing which is exercis'd moderately or ordinately can be imagin'd to come from him I shall suppose that God himselfe hath perfect dominion over the world and yet that he observes rules of all-justice and goodness in the exercise and dispensing of that power and hath not power of doing any thing contrary to those rules of eternall Justice which he hath prescribed to himself which to do by all wise men hath been counted an act of imbecility not of power And consequently how naturall is it that he should thus determine and limit his deputies also give them power of life over their Subjects and yet command them to exercise that power with that just temperament which either naturall or civill or municipall Lawes shall dictate and prescribe them And therefore Master Goodwins arguing is very loose and unconcluding That if the power which the King hath over the lives of the poeple were immediately from God then he might lawfully execute the same and take away the lives of men without any mediating direction or warranty from any Law For sure the same God that gives the Magistrate the power of life doth command him also not to throw away that pretious trust causelesly makes him his Minister for wrath to them that doe evill and contrary wise a rewarder to them that doe well and though he subject him not to any earthly superior but reserve him to his own severe tribunall yet he subjects him to reason and rules of Justice and when he hath undertaken to governe by that Standard to the positive municipall Lawes of that particular Kingdome also and hath been as particular in prescribing Lawes to the Prince to avoid Oppression or acts of Height as to Subjects to abstaine from resistance 65. As for that proofe which Mr. Goodwin produceth to enforce his arguing viz. That the execution of no commission immediately issued by God ought to be suspended upon or determin'd or regulated by any comission or constitution of men It is as far from truth as it could well have been contriv'd to be As will appear if it be considered that the word Commission 1. signifies not an absolute or positive Command but onely a power or investiture of Authority or if a Command yet that 2. onely an Affirmative precept the nature of which is that it binds not ad semper and so consequently may be suspended at some time by the free will of him that hath the Commission much more if any weighty reason interpose to determine his will 3. That this Commission is onely Generall and indefinite without application to particular cases referring that application to the conjuncture and concurrence of circumstances which ordinarily are humane and Politicall and consequently to the discretion of Rulers judging by those circumstances The intervenience of which circumstances makes the particular exercise of that Commission convenient and seasonable in one place and at one time and consequently where they do not intervene there the exercise of it may be at that time and place suspended as unseasonable As when the shedder of blood is by God commanded to be put to death and yet some men accidentally and invountarily fall under that Title it must be in the power of the Magistrate to suspend the execution of that sentence or else the Innocent must loose the benefit of the Citty of refuge and run the same fortune with the