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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	according_a	people_n	power_n	4,952	5	4.8373	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60215	Sidney Redivivus, or, The opinion of the late Honourable Collonel Sidney as to civil government wherin is asserted and clearly proved, that the power of kings is founded in the consent of the people, who have a right to call them to an account for male-administration and to restore themselves to their native liberty : by which the late proceedings of the nation against James the II are justified : together with some reflections on what is said by ill men against the present government, by another hand.	Sidney, Algernon, 1622-1683.	1689 (1689)	Wing S3764; ESTC R10306	10,924	21

himself with that Divine Character This is the Scope of the whole Treatise the Writer gives such Reasons as at present did occur unto him to prove it This seems to agree with the Doctrines of the most Reverenced Authors of all Times Nations and Religions The best and wisest Kings have ever acknowledged it The present King of France hath declared that Kings have that happy want of Power that they can do nothing contrary to the Laws of their Country and grounds his Quarrel with the King of Spain Anno 1667 upon that Principle King James in his Speech to the Parliament Anno 1603. doth in the highest degree Assert it the Scriptures seem to declare it If the Expulsion of Tarquin the Insurrection against Nero the Slaughter of Caligula or Domitian the Translation of the Crown of France from Merovius his Race unto Pepin and from his Descendants unto Hugh Capet be not good Acts of State there is not a King in the World has any Title to the Crown he bears nor can have any unless he could deduce his Pedigree from the Eldest Son of Noah and show that the Succession had still continued in the Eldest of the Eldest Line and so Deduced to him Every one may see what advantage this would be to all the Kings of the World and whether that failing it were not better for them to acknowledge their Crowns by the Consent of Willing Nations or to have no better Title unto them than Usurpation and Violence which by the same ways may be taken from them So much as to this Subject in his last Speech by which you may see that as he lived in this Opinion he was not afraid to Die in it as being fully perswaded of its agreeableness to Divine Truth at whose Bar he was in a few Minutes to receive a juster Sentence than that by which he suffered And the worst that I shall wish that Instrument of Cruelty who was his Judge is That seeing he is far from being so sit to Live in this World he may be as fit to go into another as that Worthy Gentleman was but this I am confident of he will never be able to reflect upon his own Tyranny and the Abetting of it in others with that Serenity of Mind and Tranquility of Soul as this Noble Patriot did upon his Opposition to it when according to the good Laws of the Kingdom and the Righteous Judgment of God Inquisition shall be made for Blood of which a great deal is to be found in his Skirts that threatens him with Divine Vengeance according to the Prayer of this Worthy Gentleman That if Inquisition was to be made after Blood it might fall upon those who Persecuted him for Righteousness sake It hath been an old and true Observation that the Blood of the Saints is the Seed of the Church and I do not know but it may be also said that the Blood of Patriots is the Seed of Asserters of the Peoples Liberty for since the Effusion of this Gentlemans Blood and that of others we have had a plentiful Harvest of such as have Asserted the Civil and Religious Rights of the Nations and that nothing might be wanting to Crown our Mercy we are Blessed with a Magnanimous and Religious King who as he ventured all for their Redemption will do the same for their preservation But notwithstanding of what is here said by this Worthy Author and may others upon this Subject there is a Party in the Nation who are so much under the Conduct of their own Lusts that to have a full Liberty of Wallowing in them they surceased no endeavours to bring others and themselves too under the Tyranny and Lusts of the two Late Kings and are now enraged to see the People Delivered tho' not many Months ago they were loudest in their Clamours against the Male Administration of the Late James the II. when they found themselves in hazard of Smarting by the Rod they had prepared for others Whereupon breaking through all the pretended tyes of Allegiance which they had so often Ratified with Dam 'em and Sink 'em and Swallowing down of brim-full Bumpers they were very active in over-turning his Government either by deserting or appearing against him Amongst this kind of Men who despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities are these Murmurs and Discontents which do occasion such a ferment at this time in the Nation It is not unworth the while to observe the difference betwixt the Discontented now and such as were so in the two last Reigns the latter being generally all who had any Sobriety in their Practice or Zeal for the true Religion and Laws of the Kingdom whether Church-men or Dissenters the former being not one in a Hundred other than the Ignorant and Profane who are a Scandal to all Humane Society and particularly to the Church of England under whose Name as Vermine under a Roof they Shelter themselves and indeed there is no other way left for that Society to rid themselves of the Infamy which is likely to fall upon the whole because of them but by some publick Testimony to declare their Abhorrence of such deny them their Communion and Preach up Obedience now as much as in the two Late Reigns there being infinitely more Reason to do so at this time than there was at that His Present Majesty whom God long Preserve having by the Miraculous Hand of the Omnipotent been made our Redeemer by the Consent of the People an undoubted Title to the Soveraignty and by his Prudent and Legal Administration not only acquir'd a Right to an Obedience from Fear but Love the most Sacred and Inviolable Foundation of Dominion These Instruments of wickedness that they may pass their Black Designs of re-enslaving the Nations have recourse to their old Exploded Arguments that the King is accountable to none but God That they have an Hereditary Right of Succession and that the Accusations as to the Earl of Essex's Murther the Imposing of a Prince of Wales c. have never been proved against the Late King and that therefore he has been unjustly dealt with These and others of the same sort are as considently talked of amongst such Men as if they had never been concerned in contrary Practices either by Acting Deserting or Silence in all which as they were Influenced by a corrupt Principle of mistaken Self Interest then they are by the same engaged in opposite Practices now I shall touch a little upon those Arguments and Conclude That the King as King that is Governing according to Law is accountable to any but God few will deny because therein he Acts according to his Commission from the body of the People who it is to be supposed are content to see the same put in Execution and there being no Power Superiour to theirs but Gods there can be no other to call him to an Account in that Case But the Question is Whether the Person Cloathed with the Kingly Authority

THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER Courteous Reader IF thou art a True English-Man or Cordial Protestant I do not question but the very Name of Collonel Sidney will be sufficient to Recommend what follows to thy Perusal seeing thou mayest justly expect something considerable in the Writings of Him who was so Considerable in Himself that to accomplish his Ruine the late Court thought it worth their while to break through all the Methods of Law and Justice Sidney Redivivus OR THE OPINION Of the Late Honourable Collonel Sidney As to Civil Government WHEREIN Is Asserted and Clearly Proved That the Power of Kings is Founded in the Consent of the People who have a Right to call them to an Account for Male-Administration and to Restore themselves to their Native Liberty By which the late Proceedings of the Nation against James the II. are Justified TOGETHER With some Reflections on what is said by ill Men against the Present Government by another Hand LONDON Printed for H. Smith And Sold by most Book-sellers MDCLXXXIX Sidney Redivivus Sidney Redivivus OR THE Opinion of the Late Honourable Collonel SIDNEY as to Civil Government c. IT cannot be denyed that we live in an Age wherein there have been universal endeavours to enslave the Bodies and Souls of Men nor is it less evident that in these Nations the same Designs have been Prosecuted with very much Violence And what party in the same have been most subservient to such Intreagues is so obvious that they need not be named The Writings and Sermons of particular but Eminent Divines the Canons of a certain National Church the Determinations of Judges who valued themselves as being of her Communion and the repeated into Nations of a great number of her Clergy for the Chimera of Passive Obedience gave occasion to a frequent Raillery as if the Doctrin of that Church were Calvins her Ceremonies the Popes and that she had nothing of her own but the Doctrin of Non-resistance so that like the Bird in the Fable who would needs appear Fine in borrowed Feathers being stript of what was not her property she became Naked and Ridiculous to all No wonder then that a certain sort of Men pretending to her Communion have incurred this fate whose Shibboleth and Characteristick some Years ago being Non-resistance and Passive Obedience have now betaken themselves to contrary Practices when they found the smart of Oppression Whatever may be said to the Honour or excuse of those who have acted thus upon Change of Principle or to their disgrace who can pretend no such Reason my Opinion of it is that Truth hath overcome and that we may justly say Tandem bona causa Triumphat No less than that Omnipotence which made the Devils own Christ to be the Son of God tho' they knew that he was come into the World to destroy their Works hath forced a Testimony to the Native Rights of Mankind from the very Mouths of those Tyranogogues who after an Elevation and Adoration of Absolute Power and Unaccountableness of Kings to any other than the Almighty for above Twenty Years past have by a Stupendious Providence of that God whose Steps are in the Deep Waters and his ways past finding out been brought in open Courts of Justice by Arguments and in the Field by Arms to Impugne their own Idol of Non-resistance like some of the Arch-Flamens of old when Converted to Christianity who Armed themselves Cap-apee to overthrow those Block Deities which had sometimes been the Objects of their Worship Nor hath Providence only herein extorted from such a remarkable Testimony to the Truth but also an Ample Vindication of those who suffered for the same under the Notion of Traytors by perverting Law and bad Christians by wrested Divinity but more especially of that Honourable Patriot whose Opinion as to Government we have now under consideration by which being Dead he yet speaketh and Patronizeth the Good Old Cause for which he Professedly Died a Martyr His Opinion follows in his own Words as Cited in the 23d Page of his Tryal That People must needs be the Judge of things happening between them and him meaning the King whom they did not Constitute that he might be Great Glorious and Rich but that he should Judge them and Fight their Battles or otherwise do good unto them as they should direct In this Sence he is Singulis Major and ought to be obliged by every Man in his Just and Lawful Commands tending to the Publick Good and must be suffered to do nothing against it nor in any respect more than the Law doth allow For this Reason Bracton saith That the King hath Three Superiours Deum Legem Parliamentum that is the Power Originally in the People of England is Delegated to the Parliament He is subject unto the Law of God as he is a Man To the People that make him a King in as much as he is a King The Law sets a Measure unto that Subjection and the Parliament Judges of the particular Cases thereupon arising he must be content to submit his Interest unto theirs since he is no more than any one of them in any other respect than that he is by the Consent of all raised above any other If he doth not like this Condition he may Renounce the Crown but if he Receive it upon that Condition as all Magistrates do the Power they Receive and Swear to perform it he must expect that the Performance will be Exacted or Revenge taken by those that he hath Betray'd If this be not so I desire to know of our Author meaning Sir Robert Filmer against whose Opinion he Writes how one or more Men came to be Guilty of Treason against the King as Lex facit ut sit reus No Man can owe more unto him than unto any other or he unto every other Man by any Rule but the Law and if he must not be Judge in his own Case neither he nor any other by Power receiv'd from him would ever Try any Man for an Offence against him or the Law. If the King or such as he appoints cannot Judge him he cannot be Judged by the ways ordinarily known amongst us if he or others by Authority from him may Judge he is Judge in his own Case and we fall under that which he accounts the utmost of all absurdites if a remedy be found for this he must say that the King in his own Case may Judge the People but the People must not Judge the King because it is theirs that is to say The Servants Entertained by the Master may Judge him but the Master must not Judge the Servant whom he took only for his own use The Magistrate is bound by no Oath or Contract to the People that Created him but the People is bound to its own Creature the Magistrate This seems to be the ground of all our Authors Follies he cannot comprehend that Magistrates are for or by the People but makes this Conclusion

as if Nations were Created by or for the Glory or Pleasure of Magistrates and affects such a piece of Nonsense it ought not to be thought strange if he represent as an Absur'd thing that the headless Multitude may shake off the Yoke when they please But I would know how the Multitude comes under the Yoke it is a badge of Slavery He says That the Power of the King is for the Preservation of Liberty and Property We may therefore change or take away Kings without breaking any Yoke or that made a Yoke which ought not to be one the Injury therefore is in making or imposing and there can be none in breaking it I know not why the Multitude should be concluded to be headless it is not always so The Scots when they slew James the III had his Son to be their Head and when they Deposed and Imprisoned Queen Mary the Earl of Murray and others supplyed the want of Age that was in her Son and in all the Revolutions we have had in England the people have been headed by the Parliament or the Nobility and Gentry that composed it and when Kings failed of their Duties by their own Authority called it The Multitude therefore is not ever headless but doth either find or create heads unto it self as occasion doth require and whether it be one man or a few or more for a short or a longer time we see nothing more regular then its Motions But they may saith our Author shake off the Yoke and why may they not if it prove uneasie or hurtful unto them Why should not the Israelites shake off the Yoke of Pharoah Jabin Sisera and others that oppressed them When Pride had changed Nebuchadnezzar into a Beast what should perswade the Assyrians not to drive him out amongst Beasts until God had restored unto him the Heart of a Man When Tarquin had turned the Legal Monarchy of Rome into a most Abominable Tyranny why should not they Abolish it And when the Protestants of the Low Countries were so grievously Oppressed under the Power of Spain by the proud Cruel and Savage Conduct of the Duke of Alva why should not they make use of all the means that God had put into their Hands for their Deliverance Let any Man who sees the present State of the Provinces that then United themselves judge whether it is better for them to be as they are or in the Condition unto which his Fury would have Reduced them unless they had to please him Renounced God and their Religion Our Author may say They ought to have suffered The King of Spain by their Resistance lost those Countries and that they ought not to have been Judges in their own case For which I Answer That by Resisting they laid the Foundation of many Churches that have produced multitudes of Men Eminent in Gifts and Graces Established a most Glorious and Happy Common-Wealth that hath been since its first beginning the strongest Pillar of the Protestant Cause now in the World and a place of Refuge unto those who in all places of Europe have been Oppressed for the Name of Christ whereas had they Slavishly and I think I may say Wickedly as well as Foolishly suffered themselves to be Butchered if they had left those empty Provinces under the Power of Anti-Christ where the Name of God is no otherwise known then to be Blasphemed If the King of Spain desired to keep his Subjects he should have Governed them with more Justice and Mercy when contrary unto all Laws both Humane and Divine he seeks to destroy those he ought to have preserved he can blame none but himself if they deliver themselves from his Tyranny and when the matter is brought to that that he must not Reign or they over whom he would Reign must perish the matter is easily decided as if the Question had been asked in the time of Nero or Domitian whether they should be left at liberty to destroy the best part of the World as they endeavoured to do or it should be Rescued from their destruction and as for the Peoples being Judges in their own case it is plain they ought to be the only Judges because it is their own and only concerns themselves So much for his Opinion of Civil Government as extracted from that part of the Book for which he was Condemned and after serious Perusal of which I doubt not but the Candid Reader will be convinced that such a Fragment deserves taking up and is worthy of being revived to let the Nation see the loss they have in being Robb'd of the whole but much more of so Noble a Patriot as was the Author of it Collonel Sidney In the next place I shall add what he delivered upon the same Subject in his Paper to the Sheriffs on the Scaffold at his Execution December 7th 1683. If he meaning Sir Robert Filmer might publish unto the World his Opinion That all men are Born under a necessity derived from the Laws of God and Nature to submit unto an Absolute Kingly Government which could be restrained by no Law or Oath and that he that hath the Power whether he came unto it by Creation Election Inheritance Usurpation or any other way had the right and none must oppose his Will but the Persons and Estates of his Subjects must be indispensably subject unto it I know not why I might not have published my Opinion to the contrary without the Breach of any Law I have yet known I might as freely as he publickly have declared my Thoughts and the Reasons upon which they were grounded and I perswaded to believe That God had left Nations unto the liberty of setting up such Governments as best pleased themselves That Magistrates were set up for the good of Nations not Nations for the Honour or Glory of Magistrates That the Right and Power of Magistrates in every Country was that which the Laws of the Country made it to be That those Laws were to be observed and the Oaths taken by them having the force of a Contract between Magistrate and People could not be violated without danger of Dissolving the whole Fabrick That Usurpation could give no Right and the most dangerous of all Enemies unto Kings were they who raising their Power to an Exorbitant height allowed unto Usurpers all the Rights belonging unto it That such Usurpation being seldome compassed without the Slaughter of the Reigning Person or Family the worst of all Villanies was thereby rewarded with the most Glorious Priviledges That if such Doctrines were received they would stir up Men to the Destruction of Princes with more Violence than all the Passions that have hitherto raged in the Hearts of the most unruely That none could be safe if such a reward were proposed unto any that could destroy them That few would be so gentle as to spare even the best if by their Destruction a Wild Usurper could become Gods Anointed and by the most Execrable Wickedness Invest