Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	authority_n	king_n	power_n	3,463	5	4.8127	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25844	The armies vindication of this last change wherein, is plainly demonstrated, the equity, power and right of the army to settle these nations upon the foundations of righteousnesse and freedome : together, with answers to the most material objections made against them.		1659 (1659)	Wing A3719; ESTC R13587	14,976	25

the great concernments of the Nation they have the just title of the people of England having interposed between the peoples Rights and Liberties and that slavish Tyranny that was breaking in upon them III. The Army are a constitution of more vigor and strength than any other the Parliament of it self could act but in a low weak inconsiderable way their greatest Authority lying in the Camp The Military Sword being alwayes more sharp than that of the Civill more able to do justice and to give protection than any Civil Sword or instituted power could The Parliament had the form but the Army had the power of the highest administration of justice as having more intrinsical and fundamental strength in it than any other The Malignants felt the power and by experience know that this is true Could the Parliament overcome the King beat him out of the field bring him to tryall and execution but by the power of an Army by this its undeniable that the power of the people thus formed into an Army are the strongest power IV. A Fourth consideration proper for this is that the Army are the people in an active body not in a bulky heavy sluggish heap but the people gathered up into heart and union filled with spirit and life for work of their generation very usefull and active men of publique spirits carrying the interest of the people of God and the good of the Nation in their aim and eye To this may be added the concurrence of the hearts and affections prayers and good desires of the honest party of the Nation going along with them these have contributed their best assistance to help them in their progress Although of late many partly through weaknesse and passion or divisions and factions amongst them and partly from the Armies miscarriages and apostacies have been offended with them but when the Lord shall blow away these mists and lead forth the Army in the ways of righteousness he will lead his people back to their former hearty concurrence of their affections to and their prayers for them As being such in whom the Lord hath treasured up their great interest with their Lives and Liberties V. There is a peculiar right of Government or power due to them in the Army in that they have ventured their bloud and have with the Jeopards of their lives rescued themselves and the honest party of this Nation from Tyrany and have purchased Liberty both civill and spiritual with the price of bloud so that God and Nature have put Authority into their Hands The former slavish Government that denied Liberty to men as men and to Christians as Christians being thrown down by them the priviledg of Rule belongs therefore to honest men as such and to the Army as such by the most undoubted Right that can be imaginable VI. I shall add one thing more and that is the designation of providence which first brought forth the honest people of this Nation into a Military body and that distinct from the Civill power and these accompanied with many signal Deliverances Victories and successes the produce and issue whereof doth entitle the Army and honest People to the most unquestionable Right of Power Government in these Nations I would not by all this draw men to adore an Army or arme of flesh but the Lord in the midst of his People whether in the Army or without all the Saints in the Land are the Army of God they are publique persons that minde a publick good and have all one Common interest These are the men God hath designed for Government Thus we may plainly see where the Power and Right of Government is seated in the good People and especially to those in the Army who was pleased to recall the Members of Parliament to a further exercising of their Trust formerly reposed in them this the Army did at least tolerate or condescend unto though this act of theirs did not proceed so much from judgement and wisdome as from urgency and necessity being tossed to and fro by the vicissitudes and changes of things and being in some darkness having at that time no better thing in their eye they chose this as the next expedient hoping some good might have been done by them but sinding that instead of going forward to settle the Nation they were carried on to many precipitate actings to throw down many things done in point of Reformation and not onely so but they went about to destroy and alter the whole Conduct of the Army though they were the very legs that bore them up and the Power that called them together And when the greatest part of the Nation was ready to rise up against them the Army onely did interpose by their power to uphold them Now if the Army had power to gather them they had also power to scatter them for the same power that sets up may pull down it was no breach of law to dissolve them that sat by no law Especially when their proceedings were Diametrically opposite to those ends for which they were called The Army a Military body so owned of God united in strength and courage carried forth with just and honest intentions standing upon their own feet being a distinct power raised by God by his immediate power for it was not the King that called the Parliament but his necessity neither was it the Parliament that raised the Army but their streights and both these as the product of providence and not the intentions of either the one or the other of them If then this Army being the ordinance and appointment of God to secure our Liberties and Lives should have given back their power to the Parliament as once the Parliament would have given theirs to the King it had been the highest breach of trust that could be imaginable both to God and his people And surely the Lord would have brought deliverance some other way and would have left them their houses to have been trodden under foot at the lusts and wills of men the foot of pride should have trampled on them like mire in the streets I shall now come to Answer all the materiall Objections that I can think of that are made against the past and present proceedings of the Army Object 1. The first is this The Army owned the Parliament as the Supream Authority received Commissions from them and called themselves their Servants Answ The Parliament were the Supream Authority of the Nation only as the Army did own them so but as the Army did set them up tollerate and condescend to their Authority for a time yet by no act did confirm or perpetuate them nor I believe never intended it The Army having so much of Power and Government devolved upon them as we have already shewen having the life the spirit the vertue of all the good People gathered up into a military body and being of publique spirits for the good of the honest interest in the Nation It