Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	authority_n	king_n	law_n	1,296	5	4.5981	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97203	The priviledges of the people, or, Principles of common right and freedome, briefely laid open and asserted in two chapters. I. Containing the distinct interests of king, Parliament and people; consisting in prerogative, priviledge and liberty (as they have formerly obtained in this nation.) II. Discovering the peoples right in choice, change, or regulation of governments or governours: together with the originall of kingly power, and other formes of government. / Propounded to the consideration, and published for the benefit of the people of England. By Jo. Warr.	Warr, John.	1649 (1649)	Wing W946; Wing W947; Thomason E541_12; ESTC R38493	7,513	13

considerate in her actings The deeper the Foundation the surer the Work Laberty in its full appearance would darken the eye newly recovered from blindnesse the principles thereof are infused to us by degrees that our heads may be strengthened not overturned by its Influence CHAP. II. Of the Peoples Right in the Choyce Change or Regulation of Government together with the originall of Kingly Power and other Formes of Government ALL Governments being fundamentally as to Man seated in the People which Maxime is sufficiently spoken to of late The inhabitants of severall Countries for the equall distribution of Justice to the whole have voluntarily submitted to severall Administrations and Formes of Government either under one or many Rulers so that Election or Consent setting aside Titles by Conquest are the proper source and Fountain of all Just Governments Hence it is that the power of Rulers is but Ministeriall and in order to the peoples good which hath given occasion to that known Maxime That the safty of the people is the supream Law From hence wee may see the Reason why some Governments are more or lesse Free viz. according to the prudence or neglect of Auncestors in bargaining with the Princes and setting limits to their Power Some have as it were given up themselves to the Wils of their Princes and out of confidence of their integritie have left them to themselves not considering that just men are liable to temptations when they are in place and power which if it were possible for them to avoid yet Justice is not hereditary nor goes by discent Some Nations having been pinched with this inconvenience have afterwards set Bounds and Lawes to their Rulers according as Tully doth excellently describe it Lib. 2. de offic Eadem constituendarum legum fuit causa quae Regum Jus enim semper quasitum est aequabile neque aliter esset Jus id si ab uno just bono viro consequebantur eo erant contenti cum id minus contingeret Leges sunt inventae quae cum omnibus temper una eadem voce loquerentur Englished thus There is the same reason for Laws as there was for Kings for People have alwayes sought after Right or an equall dist●●bution of things which if they did obtain from one just and good man they were content therewith but when they failed thereof Laws were found out which spake one and the same thing to all men Those Nations which have been most strict in prescribing such Rules are most Free unle●…e in processe of time through the oscitancie of the people Princes have trampled upon their bounds and made them common and in this case as good none at all as not observed Though then Governments have been diversifyed according to the different tempers and apprehensions of their Founders the People yet the Rise of them all is One and the same ●o that what Tully affirmes of the originall of Monarchy or Kingly Government may be said of all the rest his words are these lib. 2. de Offic. Apud majores nostros fruendae justitiae causa videntur olim bene morati Reg●s constituti nam cum premerentur olim multitudo ab lis qui majores opes habebant ad unum aliquem confugiebant virtutem praestantem qui cum prohiberet injuria tenuiores aequitate constituenda summos cum infimis pari jure retinebat The effect of which in English is this Our Ancestors first appointed Kings for the administration of justice For when the multitude was oppressed by great and mighty men they presently addressed themselves to some one eminent and vertuous man who defended the poore from wrong and kept both poor and rich within the bounds of Equity An instance of this kinde wee have in Herod Clio where the Medes revolting from the Assyrians chose one Deioces for their King a man of supposed strictnesse and Equity in preventing disorders and abuses amongst them But this remedy in time proved as bad as the disease so that people were enforced to seek protection under severall Rulers which they missed under One. Hence it came to passe that the Romans banished their King and his Government together and submitted themselves to another Forme But at first they which subject themselves to the government of One may by the same reason submit to many which is Aristocracie or may alter their government from one Form to another For they that choose may change provided it bee upon just and valuable grounds Famous was the dispute had before Octavius Caesar by two of his Favourites and Councellors about continuance or change of Monarchy of which you may read in Dion lib. 52. The story is this When Octavius Caesar had by the Armes and successes of his predecessors and his own reduced the world to peace and made a compleat conquest of the great known part thereof hee tooke counsell with Agrippa and Mecoenas two of his intimate friends whether he should maintaine the Empire and Monarchy in his own hands or resigne it to the Senate and people of Rome Agrippa makes an eloquent Oration against Monarchy perswading him to surrender up the Government into the hands of the Senate On the other side Mecoenas perswades the contrary and pleads for Monarchy whose counsell was followed by Caesar yet so as that Agrippa was still honorably entertained and respected by him From which Story we may observe two things 1. That Anti-monarchicalnes is no crime at all but a difference in judgement about an Externall Forme of Civill government Yea great Statesmen such as Agrippa have given in their judgements freely against Monarchical government as Agrippa here did 2. That to perswade and endeavour the alteration of Governments from one form to another hath been the subject of the discourse and action of wisemen as we see here in Agrippa And though there may be a beauty in Monarchy duely circumscribed as well as in other forms of Government yet such cases may sometimes fall out when Reason and Judgement may not onely call for but enforce a change A provocation it must be of grand and fundamentall importance which if it cannot be otherwise or not so conveniently redressed may undergoe this kinde of cure which in cases of extremity hath been practised by Nations Smaller inconveniencies may be redressed without the abolition of a form viz. by prescribing limits to those Rulers who have abused their Power which under pain of guilt they may not exceed For the whole body of the People is above their Ruler whether one or more Not to spend much time herein I shal conclude this with the argument of the Bishop of Burgen in the Councel of Basil which was in the reign of our Henry the 6th where disputing against the authority of the Pope above Councels he urgeth this argument that as Kingdoms are and ought to be above Kings so is a Councel above a Pope So that former ages have had some light as touching the Office and duty of a chiefe Ruler or King and would have been able to descry the flattery of those who ascribe so much Majestie and Sacrednesse either to Man or Men. For are not Rulers themselves under a Law are they not accountable for what they do Are they not subject to frailties like other men Are we not all derived from one common Stock Is not every man born free when wee ascribe so much to Man wee detract from the praise and glory of God True Majesty is in the spirit and consists in the Divine Image of God in the minde which the Princes of the World comming short off have supplyed its defect with outward badges of Fleshly honour which are but Empty shews and carnall appearances when void of the substance But as weake as they are they have dazled our eyes through the darknesse which is in us when we our selves shall be raised up to an inward glory we shall then be able to judge of that Majesty and Glory which rests upon another FINIS