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A49316 The prerogative of the monarchs of Great Brittain asserted according to the antient laws of England. Also, A confutation of that false maxim, that royal authority is originally and radically in the people. By Bartholomew Lane, Esq; Lane, Bartholomew. 1684 (1684) Wing L330; ESTC R222011 59,818 160

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warranted by the National and Fundamental Laws of the Land We are then to believe that the Princes just Prerogatives and the Peoples safety are the common Good of this Nation and that their Lives and Fortunes equally depend upon those Provisions which the Law has so equally made for the security of the whole Body of the Commonweal of which the Soveraign Prince is the Head It is one of the Excellencies then of the English Laws that they provide for the Common good which is the end of all true Law For this is the general Axiom That the Reason and Substance of Law demands that every part should be fram'd for the Common Benefit Greg. Lop. in l. 9 ●●t 1. part 1. which was the Condition that Alphonsus King of Spain requir'd also in his Laws And thus it is understood by the Interpreters of the Civil Law who affirm that the Law is a common Precept respecting the Benefit of all Aristotle observes that the chief end of a Commonweal is to live well and happily And therefore adds Ethied 4. c. 1. That the Laws are to be accommodated to the Commonweal not the Common-weal to the Laws In my opinion saith Plato the Law is made for Benefits sake In Dialog Hippias as intended by the Legislator to be the supream happiness of a Commonweal for the Law being taken away there is no well being in a City And in another place he shews at large that the end of Law is the common safety and felicity And Plutarch tells us In Problem tit 40. That Laws are then accompted good and wholsome when they procure the public Benefit Which is evident from the most sacred Laws of the Almighty For though they be ordain'd to the honour of God for that God cannot will any thing without himself nor operate but for himself yet in those Laws the great Monarch of Monarchs seeks not his own Benefit but the good and felicity of Mankind Suarez l. 1. c. 7. Which then also the Laws of Man most nearly imitate when they drive nearest to the same Perfection Therefore as Laws are impos'd upon a Community so are they to be fram'd for the good of that Community otherwise they are irregular For it is against all rectitude and justice to direct the Common good to private Interest or to make the whole relate to the part for the parts sake And therefore when the Law is fram'd for a public Society the good of that Society ought primarily and principally to be procur'd The same thing is apparent from the Order of small Causes For the end ought to be proportionate to the act its beginning and its virtual efficacy Now the Law is the common rule of moral actions and therefore the first principle of moral actions ought to be the first beginning of the Law For in Morals the End is the beginning of Operation and so the ultimate end is the first beginning of such Operations But common good and felicity is the ultimate end of a Commonweal therefore that also ought to be the beginning of the Law and therefore the Law ought to aim at the Common good This is illustrated by St. Austin who collecting a Consequence from the Relation of the part to the whole argues that a Master of a Family ought to take his pattern from the public Laws and so to govern his House as to be conformable and agreeable to the public Peace Therefore ought the public Laws to give a good Example of public Benefit and common Safety that Domestic Government may not be ruin'd by a bad President Suarez brings another reason from the Original of Law For that the ruling power which is in Men is either immediately from God as in spiritual Power or from men as in Power purely temporal But both ways Suarez l. 1. c. 7. such Authority is given for the public advantage of all in general For therefore are the Rulers of the Church call'd Pastors because it behoves them to lay down their Lives for their Sheep and Dispencers not Lords and Ministers not Primary causes and therefore they are oblig'd to be conformable to the Divine Intention in the use of such Authority Therefore also are the supream Magistrates call'd the Ministers of the Public as not being created for their own benefit but for the advantage of them from whom they derive their Power They are also call'd the Ministers of God and therefore ought to use the Power entrusted in their hands in imitation of the King of Kings who in his Government solely respects the common good of Mankind For which reason St. Basil makes this distinction between a Tyrant and a King that the one seeks his own proper advantages the other labours chiefly for the common good and benefit of all his Subjects not excluding himself as being the supream Member and consequently the first that ought to share in the publick and general Emolument The reason why so few People attain this summum bonum of Government appears by the ways of practizing Dominion already recited the want of a due poyse between Rule and Subjection For in the Arbitrary Eastern Monarchies the People are altogether Slaves and may be only said to live not to live with any comfort or enjoyment of themselves In the Elective Kingdom of Poland the Nobility carry such an unbridl'd sway that the King is but a Cypher a King and no King which subjects the Royal Soveraignty to such an insufferable Bondage that the Title is hardly worth the acceptance of an English Knight A King in subjection to many Kings And all this while the People live miserably under the Slavery of a many-headed Tyranny The Emperor is so overmaster'd by his Golden Bull and so hamper'd with Electors and Dyets that in the most emergent affairs the slowness of deliberation many times renders him useless to his Friends and his Authority cumbersome to himself So that he never moves but like a Clock when his weights are hung on Such clogs upon Soveraignty are frequently the ruine of great Atchievments Neither do the Laws of God any where enjoyn the Kings of Judah when they should make either War or Peace The Ephori were added as a check to the Lacedemonian Kings Which tho' it grieved the Wife of Theopompus who upbraided her Husband for suffering such an Eclipse of his Authority yet was not Theopompus of her mind who return'd her answer So much the greater by how much the more lasting And this Remedy saith Plutarch was invented by the Lacedaemonians to prevent the evil accidents and ruine that befell the Kings of the Messenians and Argines who lost all for obstinately refusing to condescend a little to the Grievances of the People Plut. in vit Lyc. The Romans were terribly pester'd about keeping the ballance even between the People and the supream Magistrate For after they had ingratefully thrown out the Regal Government which had laid the Foundations of all their Grandeur they