Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	power_n	4,568	5	4.9588	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44655	A letter to Mr. Samuel Johnson occasioned by a scurrilous pamphlet, intituled, Animadversions on Mr. Johnson's Answer to Jovian in three letters to a country-friend : at the end of which is reprinted the preface before the History of Edward and Richard the Second, to the end every thing may appear clearly to the reader, how little of that preface has been answered / both written by the Honourable Sir Robert Howard.	Howard, Robert, Sir, 1626-1698.	1692 (1692)	Wing H3000; ESTC R4333	26,604	76

is to be submitted because such or such are of this or that Opinion yet since I have set down the Doctrine asserted in our Days when the hazard of Religion it self did not seem to prevail above Flattery and Design I will briefly shew also the Opinions of our Ancient and most Authentick Authors which have been often quoted and therefore I will be very short in it I will begin with an Original Agreement in Magna Charta printed by the present Bishop of Salisbury which declares That if the King should Uiolate any Part of the Charter and refuse to rectify what was done amiss it should be lawful for the Barons and People of England to distress him by all the ways they can think of as Seizing his Castles Possessions c. According to which seems grounded the Opinion That a King is not a King where his Will governs and not the Law For if a King's Power were only Royal then he might change the Laws and charge the Subject with Callage and other Burdens without their Consent But the King has a Superiour God also the Law by which he is made King For a King is constituted that he should govern the People of God and defend them from Injuries which unless he performs he loses the very Name of a King From that Power which flows from the People it is not lawful for him to Lord it over them by any other Power that is a Political not a Regal Power Let Kings therefore temper their Power by the Law which is the Bridle of Power So that the right understanding of this Law of Resisting or not Resisting in Cases of Necessity seems to depend on the Intention of those that first entred into Civil Society from whom the Right of Government is devolved on the Persons governing Certainly no Civil Society ever made a Contract with intention to be oppress'd or destroyed and he there observes that Men did not at first unite themselves in Civil Society by any special Command from God but for their own Safety to withstand Force and Violence and from this the Civil Power took its rise I will now proceed to a more proper way of Argument than Quotations and briefly consider the Reason of Government and the necessary Consequences in respect of the Conditions of the Governing and the Governed and as a Builder that designs to build strongly I will use a Foundation laid by that excellent Architect Mr. Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity I will faithfully transcribe his Words and though not join'd together in his Discourse yet the Reason is so strong that guides an Argument of this nature that it has naturally its own Cement and Connexion which will appear in these following Words Presuming Man to be in regard of his depraved Mind little better than a wild Beast they do accordingly provide notwithstanding so to frame his outward Actions that they be no hindrance to the Common Good for which Societies are instituted unless they do this they are not perfect it resteth therefore that we consider how Nature finde out such Laws of Government as serve to direct even Nature depraved to a right End To take away all such natural Grievances Injuries and Wrongs there was no way but growing into a Composition and Agreement among themselves by ordaining some kind of Government Publick and by yielding themselves subject thereunto that unto whom they granted Authority to rule and govern by them the Peace Tranquillity and happy Estate of the rest may be preserved Men always knew that when Force and Injury was offered they might be Defenders of themselves they knew that however Men may seek their own Commodity yet if this were done with Injury to others it was not to be suffered but by all good Men and by all good Means to be withstood Impossible it is that any should have compleat Lawful Power but by Consent of Men or immediate Appointment of God because not having the natural Superiority of Fathers their Power must needs be either usurp'd and then unlawful or if lawful then consented unto by them over whom they exercise the same They saw that to live by one Man's Will became the cause of all Mens Miseries this constrained them to come into Laws The Lawful Power of making Laws to command whole Politick Societies of Men belongeth so properly unto the same entire Societies that for any Prince or Potentate of what kind soever upon Earth to exercise the same himself and not either by express Commission immediately and personally received from God or else by Authority derived at the first from their Consent upon whose Persons they impose Laws is no better than mere Tyranny Laws they are not therefore which Politick Approbation hath not made so but Approbation not only they give who personally declare their Assent by Voice Sign or Act but also when others do it in their Names by Right originally derived from them as in Parliament c. Thus strengthened by this great Man to whom the Church of England has justly paid a particular Veneration I shall with the more confidence proceed to do the Nation Justice and begin with those granted and undeniable Principles That the Authority Power and Right of Self-Defence and Preservation was naturally and originally in every individual Person and consequently united in them all for Ease Preservation and Order but every one could not be a Governour and Governed and without Agreement where to fix a useful Power to execute such convenient Agreements or Laws as should be consented to for their own Good and Benefit they could not be safe against one another for if Interest and Appetite were the free Guides without the check of any Law or Punishment Mankind must be in a state of War and destroying one another the certain Consequence of that Condition for Faith and Justice in all could not be depended upon to be sufficiently binding unless Men had no depraved Natures but had been endued with such Original Vertue and Justice that they were as sure and careful of their mutual Preservations as Laws or the fear of Punishment could oblige them For this reason were Laws invented and consented unto and 't were a fatal Absurdity if the Cause was for Preservation by the Power of such Laws that those Laws should have no Power to limit or confine the Authority of Him or Them that were chosen to govern by the Conditions contained in them for otherways the Mischief was but chang'd and they that out of a reasonable apprehension had bound themselves from oppressing one another should give unlimited Power to others to do it if they pleas'd so that unless this ridiculous Supposition could be granted it must be acknowledged of consequence that though the Magistrate was set above the People yet the Law was set above the Magistrate For where any thing is to be observed and obeyed there a perfect Superiority is acknowledged Whoever therefore is set up to

possession of the Place where he was when he agreed and seal'd the Security And by the same reason it appears that the King of France has as much Right to govern us as a King of England to govern us for every Prince has equal Right to Slaves for Power is all the pretended Right to Slavery And if the Contract between King and People be implicit there is certainly but an implicit Difference between Slaves and Subjects By this Religious Duty of Passive Obedience equally paid to just and unjust to legal and illegal Power the Sacrifices offered to God are the perswasion to Tyranny the security of Mischief the encouragement of Sin the destruction of good Men and the preservation of the Bad Lastly the justifying of Wrong by Divine Right and a pretended Account to be made up only with God to defraud his People of their just Rights here But I hope this late Happy Revolution has satisfied every undesigning Heart beyond all Arguments and shewed the Falseness of their Reasons as well as prevented the Mischiefs of their Doctrine since contrary to their Assertions we have seen Opposition with much less expence of Blood than Submission would have suffered to be spilt and Arbitrary Tyranny changed into a Limited Monarchy FINIS Jovian pag. 211. Jovian p. 274. Calvin in Dan. 4. 25. Zuinglius Tom. 1. Art 42. Pet. Mart. in Jud. c. 3. 2 Sam. 3. 21. 2 Sam. 5. 3. 1 Chron. 11. 3. 2 Chron. 23. 12. 2 Kings 11. 17. ● Sam. 2. 4. Zuinglius Tom. 1. Art 42. When Kings reign perfidiously and against the Rules of Christ they may according to the Word of God be deposed I know not how it comes to pass that Kings reign by Succession unless it be with consent of the People When by consent of the whole People or the better part of them a Tyrant is deposed or put to Death God is the chief Leader in that Action Cal●in on Daniel ch 4. v. 25. In these Days Monarchs pretend always in their Titles to be Kings by the Grace of God which they pretend that they might reign without Contract for to what purpose is the Grace of God mentioned in the Title of Kings but that they may acknowledg no Superiour So it is therefore a mere Cheat when they boast to reign by the Grace of God Abdicant se terreni Principes c. Earthly Princes depose themselves while they rise against God Bucer on Matth. If a Soveraign Prince endeavours by Arms to defend Transgressors to subvert those Things which are taught in the Word of God and bears himself not as a Prince but as an Enemy and seeks to violate Priviledges and Rights granted to Inferiour Magistrates or Commonalties c. they ought to defend the People of God and maintain those things which are good and just For to have Supream Power lessens not the Evil committed by that Power but makes it the less tolerable by how much the more generally hurtful Peter Martyr on Judges c. 3. Approves the Proceedings of the Parliament against Richard the Second Par●us on the Romans They whose part it is to set up Magistrates may restrain them from outragious Deeds or pull them down but all Magistrates are set up either by Parliament or by Electors or other Magistrates they therefore that exalted them may lawfully degrade and punish them Fenner Theo. They who have Power that is a Parliament may either by fair means or force depose a Tyrant Guilby de Obe Kings have their Authority of the People who may upon occasion reassume it Goodman on the same Subject If Princes do right and keep promise wich you then do you them all humble Obedience if not you are discharg'd and your Study ought to be in this case how you may depose and punish according to the Law such Rebels against God and Oppressors of their Country Christ. Goodman and Fenner were two that fled from the bloody Persecution in Q. Mary's Days and this Goodman had preach'd many times upon the Doctrine concerning Obedience to Magistrates which he was desired to publish in a Treatise as is testified by Whittingham in the Preface Bracton Fortescue Bracton K. Edw's Laws Fortescue Bracton Grotius de Jur. Bell. ac Pac.