Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	france_n	king_n	subject_n	6,898	5	6.9495	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41311	The power of kings, and in particular of the King of England learnedly asserted by Sir Robert Filmer, Kt. ; with a preface of a friend, giving an account of the author and his works.	Filmer, Robert, Sir, d. 1653.	1680 (1680)	Wing F926; ESTC R19499	10,291	18

Soveraign Monarch who next unto God of whom he holds his Scepter and Power is bound to No Man For an Oath carrieth always with it Reverence unto whom and in whose Name it is made as still given to a Superiour and therefore the Vassal gives such Oath unto his Lord but receives None from Him again though they be mutually Bound the One of them to the Other Trajan swore to keep the Laws although he under the name of a Soveraign Prince was exempted but never any of the Emperours before him so sware Therefore Pliny the Younger in a Panegyrical Oration speaking of the Oath of Trajan gives out A great Novelty saith he and never before heard of He sweareth by whom we swear Of these two things the one must come to pass to wit the Prince that swears to keep the Laws of his Country must either not have the Soveraignty or else become a Perjur'd Man if he should but Abrogate but one Law contrary to his Oath whereas it is not only Profitable that a Prince should sometimes Abrogate some such Laws but also Necessary for him to Alter or Correct them as the infinite Variety of Places Times and Persons shall require Or if we shall say the Prince to be still a Soveraign and yet nevertheless with such conditions that he can make no Law without the Advice of his Councel or People He must also be Dispensed with by his Subjects for the Oath which he hath made for the Observation of the Laws and the Subjects again which are obliged to the Laws have also need to be Dispensed withal by their Prince for fear they should be Perjur'd So shall it come to pass that the Majesty of the Commonweal enclining now to this side now to that side sometimes the Prince sometimes the People bearing sway shall have no Certainty to rest upon which are notable Absurdities and altogether incompatible with the Majesty of Absolute Soveraignty and contrary both to Law and Reason And yet we see many men that think they see more in the matter than others will maintain it to be most Necessary that Princes should be bound by Oath to keep the Laws and Customs of their Countreys In which doing they weaken and overthrow all the Rights of Soveraign Majesty which ought to be most Sacred and Holy and confound the Soveraignty of One Soveraign Monarch with an Aristocracy or Democracy Publication or Approbation of Laws in the Assembly of the Estates or Parliament is with us of great importance for the keeping of the Laws not that the Prince cannot of himself make a Law without the Consent of the Estates or People for even all his Declarations of War Treaties of Peace Valuations of the Coin Charters to enable Towns to send Burgesses to Parliament and his Writ of Summons to both Houses to Assemble are Laws though made without the Consent of the Estates or People but it is a Courteous part to do it by the good liking of the Senate What if a Prince by Law forbid to Kill or Steal is he not Bound to obey his own Laws I say that this Law is not His but the Law of God whereunto all Princes are more straitly bound than their Subjects God taketh a stricter account of Princes than others as Solomon a King hath said whereto agreeth Marcus Aurelius saying The Magistrates are Judges over private men Princes judge the Magistrates and God the Princes It is not only a Law of Nature but also oftentimes repeated among the Laws of God that we should be Obedient unto the Laws of such Princes as it hath pleased God to set to Rule and Reign over us if their Laws be not directly Repugnant unto the Laws of God whereunto all Princes are as well bound as their Subjects For as the Vassal oweth his Oath of Fidelity unto his Lord towards and against all men except his Soveraign Prince So the Subject oweth his Obedience to his Soveraign Prince towards and against all the Majesty of God excepted who is the Absolute Soveraign of All the Princes in the World To confound the state of Monarchy with the Popular or Aristocratical estate is a thing impossible and in effect incompatible and such as cannot be imagined For Soveraignty being of it self Indivisible How can it at one and the same time be Divided betwixt One Prince the Nobility and the People in common The first Mark of Sovereign Majesty is to be of Power to give Laws and to Command over them unto the Subjects And who should those Subjects be that should yield their Obedience to the Law if they should have also Power to make the Laws Who should He be that could Give the Law being he himself constrain'd to Receive it of them unto whom he himself Gave it So that of necessity we must conclude that as no One in particular hath the Power to make the Law in such a State that there the State must needs be Popular Never any Commonwealth hath been made of an Aristocracy and Popular Estate much less of all the Three Estates of a Commonwealth Such States wherein the Right of Soveraignty is Divided are not rightly to be called Commonweals but rather the Corruption of Commonweals as Herodotus hath most briefly but truely written Commonweals which change their State the Soveraign Right and Power of them being Divided finde no rest from Civil Wars If the Prince be an Absolute Soveraign as are the true Monarchs of France of Spain of England Scotland Turkey Moscovy Tartary Persia Aethiopia India and almost of all the Kingdoms of Africk and Asia where the Kings themselves have the Soveraignty without all doubt or question not Divided with their Subjects In this case it is not lawful for any One of the Subjects in particular or all of them in general to attempt any thing either by way of Fact or of Justice against the Honour Life or Dignity of the Soveraign albeit he had committed all the Wickedness Impiety and Cruelty that could be spoke For as to proceed against Him by way of Justice the Subject hath not such Jurisdiction over his Soveraign Prince of whom dependeth all Power to Command and who may not only Revoke all the Power of his Magistrates but even in whose Presence the Power of all Magistrates Corporations Estates and Communities cease Now if it be not l●wful for the Subject by the way of Justice to proceed against a King How should it then be lawful to proceed against him by way of Fact or Force For question is not here what men are able to do by Strength and Force but what they ought of Right to do as not whether the Subject have Power and Strength but whether they have lawful Power to Condemn their Soveraign Prince The Subject is not only guilty of Treason in the highest Degree who hath Slain his Soveraign Prince but even he also which hath Attempted the same who hath given Counsel or Consent thereto yea if he have Concealed the same or

THE POWER OF KINGS And in Particular OF THE King of ENGLAND Learnedly Asserted By Sir ROBERT FILMER Kt. WITH A PREFACE of a Friend Giving an Account Of the AUTHOR and his WORKS In Magnis voluisse sat est LONDON Printed for W. H. T. F. and are to be sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner near Paternoster-row 1680. THE PREFACE WHoso would go about to speak Sir Robert Filmer's worth hath no more to do but onely to Number and to Name his Writings as they were written in the following Order Questio Quodlibetica or a Discourse of Usury written about 1630. and first published in the year 1656. Patriarcha or the Natural Right of Kings maintained against the Unnatural Right of the People to Govern or chuse themselves Governours Written about the year 1642. and never Published till of late Of the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Published in the year 1656. The Anarchy of a Limited and Mixed Monarchy or Observations upon Mr. Hunton's Treatise on that Subject First Published in the year 1646. The Free-holders grand Inquest touching our Soveraign Lord the King and his Parliament In the year 1648. Of the Power of Kings and in particular of the King of England First Published in the same year Observations upon Mr. Hobbes ' s Leviathan Mr. Milton against Salmasius and H. Grotius De Jure Belli Pacis concerning the Original of Government To which those upon Mr. Huntons Book being re-printed were annexed in the year 1652. Observations upon Aristotle's Politicks touching Forms of Government Published in the same year And the Advertisement to the Jury-men of England touching Witches with the difference between an English and an Hebrew Witch In the year 1653. Whoso would give his Writings their due hath done it already in saying that they are His. Of which who reads any one may have some cause to wonder how he came to be sufficiently furnished to write that but who proceeds yet farther to read them all will have more abundant cause to wonder should any else but he have wrote the rest His Political Writings are chiefly levell'd against a Doctrine but too generally embrac'd of late That all men are born equal To disprove which though it might be sufficient to appeal to the Practice and Experience of Mankinde whether all Nations have not still with one Consent mounted their Kings upon Thrones and whether all the Masters of Philosophies and Religions have not constantly appeared in their Chairs and in their Pulpits while their Disciples have humbly presented themselves at their Feet Not to speak of all the several Heights of Authority or extents of Command which either Popular Oratory have attained to by their Wit or Conquerours have raised themselves to by their Arms. Our Author himself is an undeniable proof of his own Assertion and has given us the best evidence that all men are not equal by Birth while he himself hath no equal in Writing So impossible is it for him to treat either of the means of Acquiring or the Rights of exercising Soveraignty without acquiring and exercising a new Soveraignty over his Readers For does he overcome others even we at the same time are made Captives without resistance and are his by right of Conquest Or does he govern in their stead even then all Readers are insensibly under his Command as much as if they were his Subjects and are his by right of natural Soveraignty A Reason so far exalted above ours as his makes him appear like those Kings of old who were in Stature much superiour to their Subjects and seemed so far to overtop the rest as if Nature it self had marked them out for Heads of all To be short no Power whose Cause our Author pleads can be so absolute as what he obtains over us at the same time himself And yet of so sweet a Tyranny who that are under it can complain Arguments so prevailing who is able to withstand And where the Mastery is gained over us by no other force than that of Perswasion who would forego the pleasure of Obedience The Empire which Wit and Eloquence have over men seems to be like that Command which Musick hath over the Wilde Beasts that civilizes and subdues them at one and the same time And we while we read this Author feel the highest of rational Pleasures even then when we are made at once both Better Subjects and Wiser Men. The Power of Kings And in Particular Of the KING of ENGLAND TO Majestie or Soveraignty belongeth an Absolute Power not subject to any Law It behoveth him that is a Soveraign not to be in any sort Subject to the Command of Another whose Office is to give Laws unto his Subjects to Abrogate Laws unprofitable and in their stead to Establish other which he cannot do that is himself Subject to Laws or to Others which have Command over him And this is that which the Law saith that The Prince is acquitted from the Power of the Laws The Laws Ordinances Letters-Patents Priviledges and Grants of Princes have no force but during their Life if they be not ratified by the express Consent or at least by Sufferance of the Prince following who had knowledge thereof If the Soveraign Prince be exempted from the Laws of his Predecessors much less shall he be bound unto the Laws he maketh Himself for a man may well receive a Law from Another man but impossible it is in Nature for to give a Law unto Himself no more than it is to Command a mans self in a matter depending of his Own Will There can be no Obligation which taketh State from the meer Will of him that promiseth the same which is a necessary Reason to prove evidently that a King cannot binde his Own Hands albeit that he would We see also in the end of all Laws these words Because it hath so Pleased us to give us to understand that the Laws of a Sovereign Prince although they be grounded upon Reason yet depend upon nothing but his meer and frank good Will But as for the Laws of God all Princes and People are unto them subject neither is it in their power to impugne them if they will not be guilty of High Treason against God under the greatness of whom all Monarchs of the world ought to bow their Heads in all fear and reverence A Question may be Whether a Prince be subject to the Laws of his Countrey that he hath sworn to keep or not If a Soveraign Prince promise by Oath to his Subjects to keep the Laws he is bound to keep them not for that a Prince is bound to keep his Laws by himself or by his Predecessors but by the just Conventions and Promises which he hath made himself be it by Oath or without any Oath at all as should a private man be and for the same causes that a Private man may be relieved from his unjust and unreasonable Promise as for that it was so grievous or for that he was