Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	according_a	good_a	law_n	2,744	5	4.6392	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52540	The seditious principle viz. that the supreme power is inherent in the people, and that perpetually as in the proper subject (upon which the late lawlesse actings against the King were grounded, and from which the long thraldom and misery of the three nations did ensue) : examined and confuted / by John Novell...	Novell, John.	1662 (1662)	Wing N1421A; ESTC R31102	21,045	36

to the High Court of Justice Jan. 4. 1648. and the eigth of January 1648. you may see the same Dorislaus appear in his Colours as one of the Chief Architects of that most Horrid Structure But That there can be no other Fountain and efficient Cause of Civil Power and just Authority but God That it is derived to Princes immediately from God and not solely or chiefly from the People That the Special Right and Title to it is from God alone And That God never gave his own glory to men to have the giving of this Power is that which is here endeavoured to be made apparent But first a little explication of Terms such as shall here occasionally be mentioned will not be amiss When the word Magistrate is used not every one that is vulgarly called by that Name is meant The inferiour Minister of Justice having no inherent power but deriving all his authority by Commission from the King is not the Magistrate here spoken of The King alone is the Magistrate properly so called who only is that Supreme Person whose Authority is not Commissionary but original formal inherent and inexistent as created in Him of God by communicating to Him the Image and Title of his Own Dominion and Power by which He Himself Governs the world And it is of the same Nature but more eminent with that authority which a Father hath over his sons which depends on no Act or Deed much less on any Concession or Grant of theirs And by this it also appears what must needs be meant by the Supreme Political Power and Authority to wit that Paternal and equitable and yet full and uncontroulable Dominion over the free people of the Land whose freedom consists in this that He Rules and Governs them as the Minister of God in true judgement and justice according to the known Laws ancient Customs and fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom and that for the Common Good and Universal Benefit of all As a Father uncontroulably governs his Children yet for the equal and common Welfare both of Him and them What is meant by immediate Derivation of this Power from God which is often mentioned is next and last to be unfolded Things may be said to be of God or from God divers wayes 1. By his immediate Influx into the Essence of every thing as he is the Universal Cause of all things that have a Being 2. By his immediate Instinct Motion Special Help and Exciration as He is the Father of Lights and Giver of every good and perfect Gift and thus he gives to his Special Minister the Supreme Magistrate special grace wisdom counsel courage justice love to his people and a tender care of their Welfare 3. By his own proper Donation Grant and Conveyance of just Right Title and Interest And thus the Right and just Title to Supreme Government and Political Power comes immediately from God to the lawful Magistrate As every private Right Title and Interest to or in any thing must needs come to him that receives it immediately from the only just possessor and proper owner of it Such as God must needs be of all Dominion Government and Rule over the Nations of the world as their Sole Creator and Upholder For God of his own right being the only King and by his own Act the immediate Governor of and in all the actual Governments and Kingdoms of the world it incommunicably belongs to him to have the giving and conveying of the Right of Government to them that justly possess it And it incommunicably belonging to him to have the giving of that Right from him immediately must it needs come This way of Derivation and Collation of Civil Authority and the Right of it directly and immediately to the Supreme Magistrate from God the proper Fountain and formal Owner and actual Possessor of it who imparts it to the Supreme Magistrate not by alienation from but by communication with himself these ensuing Arguments by vertue of that high Principle upon which they are founded the Word of God will it may be hoped sufficiently prove and manifest to all but such as are given to change and are led by the Phanatick Spirit to Despise Dominion and to count all just Authority tyranny if they be not allowed to take the liberty to controul it at their pleasure to use the Lords Anointed as execrably as they have lately done and to shed the blood of the chief Nobility also to satisfie their filthy Lust I. Exod. 22.28 Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the Ruler of thy People or the Prince among thy People GOD gives his own Name and Title to the Prince which were utterly incongruous and incompetible if he did not also communicate to him a competent proportion of his own authority and power But if God had given the whole civil Authority to the People and the People only and only upon their own account had given it to the Prince by such a meer extrinsecal Commission of authority from Men how could Princes be stiled Gods when those men themselves could never be stiled so I have said Ye are Gods likewise saith the Psalmist The reason whereof is expressely and purposely rendred by our Saviour in the Gospel * Psal 82.6 John 10.34 Because to them the Word of God came Which can signifie no less than that their Civil Power is given and conveyed to them by the express Word of God For it is God himself that saith by the mouth of David I have said Ye are Gods Therefore Dicit Christus Reges vocari Deos quòd munus sustineant divinitus sibi injunctum saith Calvin rightly upon those words that is Christ affirmeth that Kings are therefore stiled Gods because they bear an Office by Divine Injunction Who will say that the Peoples Election or Commission unless they were all Prophets is Divine Injunction Or who will say in express contradiction to the Text that not the Word of God but only the word of the People it was that came to them Where a Kingdom is by Custom elective the Case differs not For in this the Act of men is only instrumental to God In their electing who have right to elect God alone gives the right and the just Power to govern Which is apparent because this right and power the Electors themselves never had and therefore could never give it Briefly thus Whosoever can have the giving of Supreme Political Power can likewise have the giving of Gods own Name and Title No mortal men nor Angels in heaven can have the giving of Gods own Name and Title Therefore no mortal men nor Angels in heaven can have the giving of Supreme Political Power The Major is evident because God hath said to Princes I have said Ye are Gods and directed his Prophets to call them Gods for no other reason but because they communicate with God in that Supreme Power of Government that principally and properly is his peculiar Whence also the

themselves must needs be principal under God in the governing of their own Civil Body and consequently all Government must of necessity be Democratical For even in a simple Democracy if any such be the whole people being utterly incapable of doing any Act of Government themselves in their universal Body must needs govern by some One or some few deputed and impowred by them If then in an ancient and lawful Monarchy the King or Monarch were but the peoples Minister or Deputy and only by them impowred Monarchy and Democracy were formally the self-same and no real or so much as formal difference between them which were manifestly false and contradictory Whosoever hath his Authority to govern from the people is the peoples Minister in governing themselves The Minister of God in governing the people is not the peoples Minister in governing themselves Therefore The Minister of God in governing the people hath not his Authority to govern from the people But consequently from God himself If this Minister of God were the peoples Minister then not only God but the people were principal in inflicting death which no Angel nor man but as Gods Minister only is any more capable of than of giving life God only is the Lord of life Therefore as the whole people cannot give to one man life so neither can the whole people have a just power to take it away None can justly destroy Gods image but God let the Cause be what it will And the power which the people have not they cannot give It is therefore God alone and not the people that gives to the Supreme Magistrate the Power to execute wrath and to punish with death IV. Judg. 7.20 The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon IN the whole Word of God there is neither mention nor intimation of any such thing as the Power of the Sword in or from the people But as here The Lord and Gideon so the Lord and the chief Magistrate such as Gideon was then made are only mentioned in Scripture to have any interest in that Power Whatsoever power is in the people is in them either principally or ministerially The power of the Sword is not in the people either of these wayes Therefore it is not at all in them The disjunction is undeniable The Minor is apparently true in respect of both for the principal power of the Sword can be in none but God and the Ministerial power of it can be in none but Gods Minister The Conclusion therefore is infallible The power of the Sword is not at all in the people And if this power be not in them which all political power doth either consist in or depend upon what other power can be where that of the Sword cannot Yet the Phanatick Spirit had of late taught many weak people to believe That the peoples Representative though really not that was the only Supreme Authority of the Nation as they commonly call'd the late Authours of our greatest evils But if what was phansied the peoples Representative by their own choice were the only Supreme and the only just Authority in every Nation and consequently the Kingly Office and Government in it self unjust and inconsistent with Liberty as all out Republican Zelots commonly asserted then all these consequences are inevitable viz. First That if Justice did everywhere obtain which God doth everywhere command that is If Gods own Will were done he must needs lose his own glory to be King of Kings for there would be never a King in all the World beside himself Secondly That God no less the Worlds immediate Governour than its Creatour having generally goven'd it ever since the Creation of it by the Monarchical which is really the same with the Paternal and Patriarchal power hath been all this while to seek how to govern it in the only just and good that is in the pure Democratical or simple Republican way or by Successions of Representatives or no man knowes what for which there hath never yet been one Example in the World Thirdly That all the good Kings of Israel as well as the bad and all those Kings and Queens over Christian Nations who God did promise should be nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his Church were and are all and every one of them even Queen Elizabeth among the rest wicked and unrighteous persons that is Tyrannical and unjust Invaders of the peoples Right and Subverters of their Native Liberty Fourthly That Gods promise in that particular must or of right ought to have been totally disappointed Fifthly That God himself was then the Authour of injustice and Tyranny when he sent his Prophets to anoint Saul and David and Solomon and Hazael and divers other Kings These and many other irrational and intolerable consequences must unavoidably follow if it were true That the peoples just Right and Liberty did only and formally consist in having the Supremacy of all Civil power in their own hands or at their disposal Another vulgar Errour consequent to the former was That the good of the people is not at all concerned in the Supremacy of power residing in the Prince and that the Kings Prerogative is to them no priviledge but in all a prejudice as they were senslesly made believe to publick Interest and Liberty The Kings Majesty in virtue of His Supremacy hath the Prerogative power as well of dissolving as of calling Parliaments If such a Parliament should come which God avert as should begin to do what the late long Parliament hath done the Nation would then scon learn to believe That the Kings Prerogative to dissolve such a Parliament would do them no harm The great end of Government and of the Supreme Kingly Prerogative and power is doubtless the general Welfare of the people Therefore most assuredly in such an anciently constituted Kingdom and after so many Lawes and Charters securing for ever the peoples Interest and Liberty no understanding man will now be made believe after the late horrid delusion That there is any ancient and legal Prerogative or power belonging to the King but is certainly though not visibly to all conducing directly to the general good and welfare of the people If the due Administration of Justice by the power of the Sword and of the Lawes of the Land against all wrong-doers and against all perturbators of the publick Peace in what place of capacity soever be for the general good of the whole people then assuredly the greater the Supreme Governers power and Prerogative is the greater is the whole peoples present safety and future security And for this cause it is that God hath given not another but his own Sword to his sole Vice-gerent the Supreme Magistrate The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon V. Numb 27.16 17 18 19. Let the Lord the God of the Spirits of all flesh set a man over the Congregation which may go out before them and which may go in before them and which may lead them out and