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
A89323	The Armies dutie; or, Faithfull advice to the souldiers: given in two letters written by severall honest men, unto the Lord Fleetwood Lieutenant-Generall of the Armie, and now published for the instruction of the whole Armie, and the good people of this Common-wealth.	H. M.; Fleetwood, Charles, d. 1692.	1659 (1659)	Wing M28; Thomason E980_12; ESTC R202841	20,242	29

Tirants or being disquieted by their own ignorant disorders and confusions Your dutie to the people is like to that of a Guardian to an Heir Not to give them an Estate but to set down rules how it shall be ordered for them and they put in quiet Possession of it to their most advantage and securitie and this dutie is the more incumbant upon you because you have broken and trampled to pieces beyond repair all those old Christian forms wherein they formerly injoyed their liberties though with continuall Disputes and subject to daily injuries and oppressions Now before we propose to your Lordship any Form or Order to be settled it is fit that we discover to you the Errours and inconsistencies of your present practices and appearing design both in themselves and in relation to the peoples liberties First it 's a grand errour in the foundation if you imagine it possible to secure libertie or justice to the people onelie by advancing good men to power over them and trusting to the grace in their hearts to rule in righteousnesse good men upon the single account of mortalitie can be no lasting bottom whereupon to settle liberty and justice It 's beyond the wisdome of man to contrive an infallible provision in the present age that the ruling power in the succeeding age shall fall onelie into good mens hands but what age ever produced men of such enlightned pure minds that of themselves could discern right at all times without the least cloud of their private interest upon their understandings and also pursue such dictates of their minds without interruptions by corrupt affections we mention this not as if our Souls did not wish that all powers were vested in the best of men but because we know that every man is vanitie and a Lie and yet we believe it is often whispered in your eares by some weak well meaning men that honest mens liberty would then be secure and they satisfied if they could see good men put into power saying we should then need no lawes for they would be a law to themselves having Gods law in their hearts but those that thus by consequence beg advancement know not what they ask scarce intending to be the peoples lords and to rule them as their slaves which is necessarily employed in the arbitrarie power they ask neither do they apprehend what horrid impietie it is for any man in England now to erect and exercise an arbitrarie power they see not the blasphemous arrogancy of such as rule without lawes being indeed an attempt to erect their throne in it 's kind higher then Almightie Gods who rules and judges onelie according to his lawes without which there is neither justice nor injustice in things humane or divine therefore the peoples security of libertie and justice must be founded upon excellent lawes or constitutions for the continued order from generation to generation wherein the people shall chuse their own lawes and magistrates and if good men in power will in simplicitie and integritie joyn heads hearts and hands to establish such an order or forme of Government they will be worthilie esteemed the founders though not the foundation of our Liberties Secondlie 't is a grosse mistake to think that the securing the peoples Liberties and the creating of a Soveraign Prince over them under whatsoever title can consist together we mean such a Prince or Potentate the tenure of whose power shall not be upon the people and who shall not be subject and accomptable to the Lawes of this Commonwealth doubtlesse the people may not be free where there shall be a chief Magistrate whose deserved real honour and greatnesse may justly make him disdain to look down upon the Throne of the greatest Monarch yet if he shares in the Soveraigntie he subverts Libertie and the foundation of his own glorie the very essence or formall reason of a Nations freedom consists in the peoples making their own Lawes and Magistrates and therefore it is a contradiction to say we are free under a Prince controling our Lawes in their Creation or Execution and imposing his Officers upon us at his will and the consequence of that practice even in our late Kings hath caused all our present bloudie ruines his Officers being naturally inclined and resolved to serve their Creator to the subversion of our Lawes and Liberties besides if a Prince be invested with the least Punctilio of the Soveraigntie it is exceeding vain to imagine that he should not naturally aspire to the top of it every thing having an innate desire of its owne perfection and there being no other visible meanes to preserve from the peoples reach that part which hee hath but the destruction of their Libertie you may as well suppose fire not to ascend as such a Prince not to be wishing and aspiring to be an absolute Lord if he had neither ambition nor pride in himself nor in his appendixes his Court Parasites yet the unavoydable reciprocall fear in the people and such a Prince least each should dispoil the other of his share of Soveraigntie will compell the Prince to provide for his own securitie and do your Lordship think he will believe himself safe untill he hath set himself above the peoples reach and brought them to depend upon his will It may be he that you would create Prince with a small share of Soveraginty would at first thinke his power great yet in continuance he would esteem it smal men naturally reaching beyond what they have attained Liberty therefore and Principalitie are incompatible and can never last together It seems strange to a People that they should be free and yet serve and be imposed upon it 's strange to a Prince that he should be chief Lord and not command The meane of Libertie is the Mother of Murder and Tyrannie any Freedome from Princes Commands being intollerable to them they by Violence take it away or attempt it and that forceth a Violent brutish Tyrany instead of Government We need not look farre for an instance of this the bloud and sufferings of our Ancestours and our own Age witnesse it hath not our Princes and Ancestours been alwayes strugling for four hundred yeares and thousands perished in it that are known besides the ruine of many Worthies which no History durst mention unlesse with Infamie to please the Tyrants And your Lordship hath seen with what an Earth-quake Libertie subverted Principalitie when it found Opportunitie Therefore if you wish us and our Posterities no greater good then onely Quiet it behooveth you to make us wholly Free or wholly Slaves Thirdly It is no small fayler of foresight that you may imagine it feasible in this Nation at this time to establish a Principalitie or Monarchie of any probable continuance unlesse you can destroy all present Reall Properties and vest all or most of the Lands of ENGLAND in your Monarch Every Princes Power of Command must arise either from a voluntarie Submission and willingnesse of