Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	king_n	politic_a	2,735	5	10.6730	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35998	The vnlavvfulnesse of subjects taking up armes against their soveraigne in what case soever together with an answer to all objections scattered in their severall bookes : and a proofe that, notwithstanding such resistance as they plead for, were not damnable, yet the present warre made upon the king is so, because those cases in which onely some men have dared to excuse it, are evidently not now, His Majesty fighting onely to preserve himselfe and the rights of the subjects.	Diggs, Dudley, 1613-1643.	1643 (1643)	Wing D1462; ESTC R10317	134,092	174

ordinances The King might as well presse the Commons to consent to what he and the Lords shall thinke fitting because otherwise they void the Parliament for it is of no use if it may not be active without their assent which they resolve not to passe This constitution of the negative voyce in either of the three estates was made in favour of the present governement the goods of which were knowne by experience that no innovation the evills of which are hardly discovered before tryall might be introduced without a joint consent of all three The whole Kingdome is greater then the King Answ If they meane by whole Kingdome both King and people it is very true but nothing pertinent for it onely signifies that the head is not so great as it self and the rest of the body But if they understand as they must if they meane to conclude any thing the body in opposition to their Soveraigne it is false that universitas subjectorum est major Rege The same reason which makes him above one makes him above two and so above ten so ten thousands so ten millions of thousands for their assembling together doth not dispense with their duty of alleagiance many or few alters not the quality of the act an universall revolt from a lawfull Soveraigne is equally Rebellion as a particular defection of one or more Countyes The Orators art is much used in these unhappy times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 misdemeanors were once raised into high Treason and now evident treason is lessened into necessary defence That rhapsody of quotations intituled the treachery and disloyalty of Papists to their Soveraignes c. brings a very merry plea to take them off from being Traytors The stat of the 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. runnes in the singular number if a man shall levy warre against the King c. it ought to be judged high Treason therefore it extends not to the Houses who are many and publique persons p. 31. If he had sadly considered how deeply conscience is ingaged in the present warre against the King he would not have endeavoured to seduce so many into Rebels and make them forfeit their soules upon such pittifull subtilties If forraigners should inquire under what kind of government wee live the answer must be wee live over a King Certainly they will much wonder at the unnecessary humility of the Houses they challenging to themselves superiority as the representative all and conclude them very great Courtiers who in their addresses to the Prince their Subject stile themselves His Majesties most loyall and faithfull Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament They will shrewdly suspect if Majesty be His due that Supremacy is so also while Rome was a popular State the supreme dignity being in the people was expressed by majestas populi Romani and after when they had resigned up their power to Emperours it was changed into Augustalis Majestas taken for the person of the Emperour C●ubi apud quem l. cum scimus or Imperialis majestas C. de quadriennii praesc I bene à Zenone and so Keyserlich Maiestaet at this day for the German Emperour The custome of petitioning him and such humility in the title of their addresses and the preface suppose it should reach no further yet it cannot be wholely taken of by the imperiousnesse of the matter Some of that side seeme to be scrupled at it and therefore plaine scottish tells you they hold Declarations to be more sutable to the soveraignty of so supreme a Court whose power is coordinate with Princes wee must hold superior then petitions I have proved in a former discourse that the King is supreme head not in respect of single persons but the universitas subjectorum For this is comprehended in body politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people which is sayd to owe next to God a naturall and humble obedience 24 H. 8. c. 12. And it is evident that hee is not the head of this or that man but of all the members in conjunction of the whole body for else he would be the head of millions of bodies and by consequence have as many distinct Kingdoms as particular Subjects It is needlesse to multiply quotations as the 25. H. 8. 21. This your Graces Realme recognises no superior under God but only your Grace or Queene Elizabeths publique declaration that shee had next under God the highest and supreme government and power over all Estates of the Realme of England Ecclesiasticall or Temporall Camd. hist pag. 31. I will summe up the reasons in briefe which prove that the King is not minor universis First if the Houses are above Him He hath no right of Empire upon them because inferior in superiorem non habet imperium but this is false for they are subject by Law to His commands when he bids them come they are bound to come and when he bids them goe they are bound to go that is when he calls them by his Writ they ought to attend praescriptis die loco and he prorogues the assembly or dissolves it when he thinks fitting It is no prejudice to this right that he was graciously pleased to restraine the exercise of it in this present Parliament without their consent to the end those vast debts which were brought upon this Kingdome might be discharged and in order to that good security might be given to such persons as were willing to ingage their estates for the benefit of the common-wealth I will make no advantage by urging their abuse of trust by which they were enabled to take off that great burthen which they have made infinitely more heavy and whereas they might in short time have eased this State our debts hourely grow upon us and the Subjects estates are but the fuell to feed that fire which sensibly consumes this unhappy Nation Notwithstanding they have deceived both King and people yet His Majesty cannot satisfie Himselfe in their Logique and suffer Himselfe to be perswaded he may lawfully reassume His right because they doe contrary to trust Though the perpetuity of this Parliament was never intended and it hath beene of most pernicious consequence yet the King will not allow Himselfe any liberty to dissolve it against law upon most reall good intentions Because the president is full of danger and though in the present case it would be used for the benefit of His people yet hereafter it probably might be abused to their greater disadvantage Secondly the division of all persons in this Land is into King and Subjects liege Lord and liege people and therefore they must be placed in the latter ranke It is a strange phansie to abstract the body politique from all the particulars whereof it is compacted and to salve the Oath of Allegiance by telling us the universe or body politique never swore alleagiance or supremacy to the King neither is it possible it should Reply to answer to the observations pag. 17. and again pag. 18. in answer to the 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12. The King is supreme head unto

whom a body politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people are bounden and owe next to God a naturall humble obedience wee must not understand this that the body politique doth owe obedience but that the severall sorts and degrees of people of which this body is compacted and made that they doe owe obedience for to take it otherwise were to make an absurd and impossible construction c. If every particular man performe his duty of alleagiance as he stands obliged by oath let him oppose his met a phisicall body to the King even as he pleases If the body politique have not sworne allegiance or supremacy because it is a body only in consideration of law that hath neither life or motion like other invidualls p. 17. and for the same reason doth not owe homage and obedience p. 18. How is it capable of rebelling against the Head for it cannot fight but by the hands of particular men and all these are tyed up by divine law and their owne oathes 3. They acknowledge themselves his subjects as united in Parliament and if they should deny it they could not challenge any benefit from his royall protection 4. The lawes intrust him not the Houses to protect us 5. The Houses represent only subjects opposed to the King who is their superiour by humane and consequently divine law both as their naturall King and as Gods anoynted his representative 6. There is a great difference between the reall and representative all for though it were true as it is not that he were lesse then the whole people yet this would not bring the conclusion home to the Houses Who are the people only to such purposes as the law nominates viz. for consenting to Lawes or Taxes upon the Subject To all other purposes wherein Regall power is not expresly limited the King is the whole people and what he doth is legally their Act. Aristotle tells us of some Kings that had as full right over their whole realme as a popular state can have over it selfe and all things belonging thereto 3. pol. 14. To such an one that of the Tragaedian is truely and properly applyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are the whole City the whole Common-wealth and therefore not responsable for any actions This shewes the falsehood of their principles Quicquid efficit tale est magis tale and constituens est major constituto c. for though they meane to make advantage of them only in this Kingdome yet they conclude against the possibility of making any King absolute which reason and experience have clearely confused For a people if conquered their lives and all they have being then in the hand of the victor or if in feare to be swallowed up by a more potent enemy they may and often have very prudently consented to place all the legall power of the Kingdome in one man that he may thereby be enabled to protect them and where the legislative power is unrestrained there the rule is absolute To apply this doctrine In those things wherein the King of England is not absolute as in the exercise of his legislative power and raising money without consent The Houses together with him represent the people but in such matters wherein he is absolute that is wherein he is not restrained by lawes which are but limitations of Regall power there he is Populus Anglicanus legally the English Nation For example sake I will instance in the power of making Warre and Peace if any take up Armes by vertue of any other then his Commission they oppose not the King alone but the King and People as People is to be understood in law for their hands are tyed up and all their legall strength is in the Kings disposall Let us examine their Argument The whole people are above their King therefore the Houses because they represent them The Antecedent I have shewed false because the whole people are but such a number of Subjects who can have no colour of pretence to be above him whom God and the law hath placed over them The consequence is as infirme and the reason of it fallacious for if representatives might challenge all rights appertaining to the persons by them represented then a Jury shall be concluded as honourable as the House of Commons and then too because the Emperour of Germany may challenge of the King of France or England not superiority for they are as supreame and independent Princes as he is but praecedence an honour due to the antiquity of the Empire for nations as well as persons injoy the benefit of primo geniture his ambassadours also might sit above those Kings which the Court of honour guided by the law of nations and reason would pronounce very absurd Againe they represent the people only to some purposes to make warre is none of them The King alone can declare the peoples mind in this case they have no legall way of expressing themselves but in his Commissions and therefore the warre is not betweene King and People but so many particular persons exceeding the trust committed to them against the duty of allegiance oppose both King and People It is very remarkeable that in the begining of these unhappy contrivances some multitudes appearing in tumultuous wayes what ever they desired or did was called the Act of the People providing for their own safety But after the sense of miseries had bettered their understandings to make them discerne this unnaturall warre was not like to improve the meanes of preservation many of them make a Covenant to live peaceably and honestly amongst themselves so in Yorkeshire long since and lately between Cornwall and Devonshire and now the Houses interpose and will not permit the people who were stirred up and encouraged to raise a warre against law to make a peace according to law let them trouble the waters as much as they please they shall be borne out in it but they must not thinke of setling them till they have done fishing This would be a breach of Priviledge The People are now forced to defend themselves and their goods violently taken from them for their security who might soone be happy againe if their friends would be lesse carefull of their safety It is well knowne who began to appeale to the People withall my heart if law must be suspended let them arbitrate the differences The certaine way to know their judgement and whom they apprehend to be a reall defender of what both pretend our lawes and propertie and liberty and the established religion is to cease plundering of both sides and leave them to their naturall inclination That side which confesses it cannot subsist without using violence and oppression and forcing their estates from them acknowledges that the people whom they pretend to fight for is clearly against them and they

THE VNLAWFVLNESSE OF Subjects taking up Armes AGAINST THEIR SOVERAIGNE in what case soever Together with an Answer to all Objections scattered in their severall Bookes And a proofe that notwithstanding such resistance as they plead for were not damnable yet the present Warre made upon the King is so because those cases in which onely some men have dared to excuse it are evidently not now His Majesty fighting onely to preserve Himselfe and the rights of the Subjects Printed in the Yeare 1643. The unlawfulnesse of Subjects taking up Armes against their Soveraigne in what case soever §. 1. HE that will endeavour to make the yoke of government more easie by setting a people loose from the restraints of positive lawes upon pretence The cause upon which men are mis-led to a desire of Innovation they may justly use their native liberty and resume their originall power if civill constitutions which were agreed upon for their good be not effectuall to that end but prove disadvantageous to them shall be sure to meet with many favourable Readers Because the greater part of mankinde as in other matters so in this present case are easily prevailed upon to make a truce with conscience and eagerly to prosecute what appeares most profitable And the chiefest cause of our miseries is that they do not rightly apprebend what is truely advantageous For States are framed upon a sinister opinion of men they suppose most as it doth commonly fall out will be dishonest yet if they be not unwise and suffer themselves to be carried on as against conscience so against interest also a Kingdome cannot want plentifull meanes of subsisting of flourishing The ground of these unhappy mistakes which makes them advance publique ruine wherein all single men will be lost while they are vainely encouraged by deceiving hopes of being private gainers can be no other but this They rule their actions and desires but by one syllogisme and looke upon the immediate consequence which is a satisfaction of some particular ends and serving some present turne and have not ordinarily so much depth of understanding as to be able to discerne the future evils which will inevitably spring from the same fountaine They are not capable of that good counsell of Polybius Non tantùm praesentia spectare sed futura prospicere quis exitus inde futurus sit The bait onely is visible to most and accordingly the reall goods which are promised by innovation for no government being free from all evill therefore every proposall of change is easily baited with some good are entertained with delight but once unwarily swallowed they become hookes in the entralls It happens to most men that they behold the children as of their bodies so of their opinions but the grandchildren of their tenents Caliginosà nocte premit Deus Nepotes discursus The further removed consequences though allyed in a right line they have not strength of reason to discover Quisque nascitur liber 1. False because all are subject by nature to paternall power and consequently to the supreame Magistrate to whom divine law confirmes the severall powers which Fathers resigned up 2. If true it concludes not for them because out naturall liberty is restrained by consent To instance in two maine principles by which the seduced multitude hath beene tempted to catch at empty happinesse and thereby have pulled upon themselves misery and destruction The first is a doctrine craftily instill'd into the mindes of the people upon no other foundation then a mistake in the meaning of true and profitable liberty that the law of Nature doth justifie any attempts to shake off those bonds imposed upon them by Superiours if inconvenient and destructive of native freedome the fallacie of which is easily discerned by understanding men It is true if we looke upon the Priviledges of Nature abstracting from paternall dominion Freedome is the birth-right of mankinde and equally common to every one as the Aire we breath in or the Sun which sheds his beames and lustre as comfortably upon Beggars as upon the Kings of the earth This Freedome was an unlimited power to use our abilities according as will did prompt The restraint of which would questionlesse have beene very grievous but that experience did demonstrate it was not so delightfull to do what ever they liked as it was miserable to suffer as much as it pleased others to inflict The evils which flow from want of Government For any that was stronger then his neighbour had it in his power to hinder him from injoying the benefits of liberty nor yet could the most powerfull man among them take any extraordinary comfort in this as yet hostile State because his minde was distracted with continuall feares since there was not any so contemptibly weake but that if he despised his owne life or desired to enjoy it with more uncontrolled pleasures he might make himselfe Master of any other mans though not by force yet by subtilty and watching advantages or at least a few combining might destroy the strongest and might be tempted so to doe for their fuller security This was their unhappy condition amidst feares and jealousies wherein each single person look't upon the world as his enemy and doubted as formerly Cain when he was excommunicated and cut off from the civill body lest the hand of every man might be upon him and to this confusion the disturbers of this State endeavour to reduce us not that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 want of order most hatefull to God can be pleasant to the most wicked man but as knowing the effect of it an insupportable and generall calamity will quickly unite multitudes into a people again and force them to restore some government and they may hope in a new compact to gaine a greater share in the rule then their ambition hath beene able to force from the setled Kingdome I will adde the unavoidable occasions of quarrell extreamely opposite to the prime dictate of nature the preservation of themselves and to the meanes which conduce thereto a peaceable injoyment of the comforts of this life For whilest every one had right to all no body could with safety make use of any thing since when some would take to themselves what others delighted in their desires and right being equall there was no title but that of greater force which could determine to whom it ought to belong and this could not be knowne but by fighting and this right reason abhorred as by which men would either be exposed to famine in the midst of plenty or else be forced daily to hazard the losse of their lives out of a naturall desire of conserving them The sense of these calamities quickning their understandings to finde out The remedy of those evils civill unity easily prevailed with their wils to entertaine a remedy of so great evils which manifestly proceeding from division the ready cure was to make themselves one because no body is at

variance with it selfe There being no way to effect this naturally they reduce themselves into a civill unitie by placing over them one head and by making his will the will of them all to the end there might be no gap left open by schisme to returne to their former confusion Because the wills of men though the fountaines of all voluntary actions yet are not themselves the objects of choice for we cannot will to be willing this would be infinite but to performe what is commanded and so are not capable of being obliged by compacts therefore this submission of all to the will of one or this union of them agreed upon is to be understood in a politique sense and signifies the giving up of every mans particular power into his disposall so that he may be inabled to force those who are unwilling upon some private ends to be obedient for the common good otherwise they would enjoy the benefits of others faith in observing lawes and the advantages of their owne violations and breaches which may probably be prevented if penalties be appointed much greater then the profit which can come by their disobedience because as men are naturally tempted by hopes of good so they are as naturally deterred by a certaine expectation of greater evils Thus also by transferring every particular mans power into the hands of one is not meant a reall laying downe and naturall translation of their strength because their nerves and sinewes are not alienable as their money and goods but a consent and mutuall obligation as of all to one whether he be King as in a Monarchy or some Nobles for they are one too as in Aristocracy so of every one to each other of not using their naturall power but onely as Law shall require that is of not resisting that body in which the supreame power is placed as likewise of aiding him or them by vertue of that promise or of that oath according to the nature of the contract when be or they summon their strength By what is layed downe may be discovered the weaknesse of their second principle which hath done most mischiefe and till it be thoroughly rooted out of mens minds the seed is still left behind from whence rebellion will spring the falsehood whereof I thought fit to manifest in relation to the peace and quiet of Christendome and the world in generall it not at all concerning His Majesties case who was so farre from offering violence that it was the extraordinary mercy of God upon this land that did enable him to defend his life against it his Magazines and forts and Ships that is all his civill power being taken from him and an army actually raised against his personall strength for His Majesty had not granted one commission to raise a man when they began their defensive warre so that Lucans expression might seeme fitted to this Kingdomes misery Parque novum fortuna videt concurrere bellum Atque virum The doctrine is the law of nature will defend us whomsoever we kill though the King in our owne defence and we are acquitted by that principall vim vi nay some goe higher and make it unlawfull not to resist even the highest authority it being a sinne against nature c. whom the examples of the holy Martyrs and of Christ himselfe doe clearly confute though they cannot satisfy them I will breifely answere it as meaning to enlarge my selfe thereon in the following discourse It ceases to be lawfull Native right restrained by positive obligation after we have made our selves sociable parts in one body because we voluntarily and upon agreement restrained our selves from making use of this native right and the renouncing this power by mutuall compact will appeare very consonant to sound reason whether we looke upon the benefits insuing thereby or the mischeifes avoyded For it is a more probable meanes to the attaining that very end in relation to which they plead for it the preservation of particular persons Prudentiall motives for parting with some rights of nature without power to resume them Upon this condition of obliging our selves not to resist publique authority in requitall for this submission of our private strength we are secured by the united power of all and the whole Kingdome becomes our guard And it is most likely we should be lesse exposed to injuries when that impartiall and equall measure of right the known law is by this meanes maintained The evills which would flow from this licence to resume our power against contract are infinite Our owne feelings too fully instruct us in the sad effects and I doubt not but the wearinesse of our present sufferings and the expectation of growing mischeifes will be powerfull beyond rhetorick to perswade us to value highly the publicke tranquillity I am confident if the people of this land whose eyes have beene opened of late and they are now sensible that to continue violences to His Majestie hath introduced a necessity of oppressing them and that they are bound to be undone in order to the injuries to their soveraigne were able to deliver themselves from their defenders we should suddainly be restored to happinesse and it would be as hard a matter to engage them in a civill warre when they had againe tasted the sweetnesse of plenty and quiet as it is to perswade them to agree to peace who challenge a legall power by the title of warre to dispose of the Kings and Subjects revenewes at pleasure As reason induced men to enter into such a Covenant and to lay a mutuall obligation one upon another not to resist authority upon what ever grounds whether of fancied or reall injustice but to submit their actions and persons to the ordinary triall though it might possibly happen that some particulars would be sentenced unjustly because a farre more considerable good could not be obtained unlesse by agreement patiently to submit to this possible evill since the common peace and quiet cannot be effectually provided for if it shall be indulged to any to appeale from the Lawes to themselves and to judge their Judges So honesty and religion strictly bind them to preserve their faith intire and this contract inviolable The paines I have taken to lay open by way of introduction to the view and examination of all that desire reall satisfaction the foundation upon which rule and Subjection are built will appeare not so delightfull as it was necessary And it is no otherwise in the workes of Art operum fastigia spectantur latent fundamenta passers by admire the superstructure when that strength which supports the most elegant piles lies deeply buried in the earth and unregarded It were very strange if any man should be so prodigiously weake as to suffer himselfe to be perswaded to remove his chambers and galleries into a healthier aire a pleasanter prospect and more commodious Situation and yet the same unreasonable advice is hearkned to concerning the civill frame The foundation upon