Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	authority_n	law_n	sovereign_a	5,620	5	9.6808	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94306	Sergeant Thorpe judge of assize for the northern circuit, his charge, as it was delivered to the grand-jury at York assizes the twentieth of March, 1648. and taken in shortwriting. Clearly epitomizing the statutes belonging to this nation, which concerns (and, as a golden rule, ought to regulate) the severall estates and conditions of men. And (being duely observed) do really promote the peace and plenty of this Commonwealth.	Thorpe, Francis, 1595-1665.	1649 (1649)	Wing T1071; Thomason E1068_1; ESTC R210315	21,832	31

sent down from above to exercise their wils and act their lusts below Having said thus much upon this subject onely to give a hint from whence you may observe till the Parliaments own Declaration be publisht which I hope will fully and clearly set them out what the Grounds and Reasons were that the Parliament hath found the Kingly Office within this Nation to be uselesse and dangerous and why therefore they will no more trust the Crown upon the Head of any one Person nor transferre the custodie of the Liberties of England and Englishmen into the Power of another who may abuse them and therefore why likewise they resolve to keep the Crown within its proper place the Cabinet of the Law and to allow the Law onely to King it among the people and that the people themselves by their Representatives shall be the onely Keepers of their own Liberties by Authoritie derived from their own Supreme and Soveraign power which brings me now to the stile of our Commissions Custodes libertatis Angliae Authoritate Parliamenti And touching the King of England his right to Rule or Title of Law by Inheritance and Descent to the Crown of England thus much may be safely and truely said That if it be an Ancient and Originall Inheritance fixt in one Family it was gain'd at first by the power of the sword and by Conquest which Title in Law is but a disseisin and an unlawfull Title and therefore may bee again as justly regained as it was gained at first by Force and by the stronger Arm and sharper Sword And as it was so gain'd at first so it hath been ever since either by the like pure force or else by consent in Parliament upon particular cases kept and maintained and so you will finde if you look how every King since the Norman William call'd the Conquerour came to the Crown For of all those four and twenty Kings and Queenes which have since that time Kingd it among us there are but seven of them who could pretend Legally to succeed their former Predecessors either by Lyneall or Collaterall Title I have not leasure to repeat the particulars and this I have said may serve to give you occasion if you be so minded to look further into it and to satisfie your judgements herein and by consequence to keep you from ingaging against your selves and the Nation for a Name or for a Thing which is not truth Now I come to that which is our true businesse our work of the first magnitude Opus diei in die suo the Articles of your Charge which I intend for the better helping of your memories to deliver to you in writing with the Laws and the punishments and briefly to runne over the rehearsall of the Facts onely without further mention concerning them yet with such necessary Expositions and Explanations of particulars as shall be needfull in my passage through them adding onely this for an Animadversion to you That you and I are trusted at this time with the administration of Justice in our own Countrey amidst all the Temptations which our severall Relations of Friends Kindred or Acquaintance can Offer unto us which shews that they who do so trust us have great assurance and confidence in us and then we must conclude that this confidence puts a greater obligation upon us to fidelitie and integritie in the discharge and performance of that Trust committed to us adde to this that Vinculum animae the Bond of the Soule the Obligation of an Oath and I doubt not but it will be found that though Love Fear and particular Interest be the usuall Cords which halter Justice that yet at this time they will be found to be among us but sorry and unmasculine pieces of Rhetorick either to affright us from or soften us in our duties The matter of your Charge will be to inquire into and finde out the severall Offences which have been committed and done against the Politique Body of the Commonwealth as so many severall Diseases and infirmities in the severall parts of the naturall Body of a man which distemper and endanger the health of the whole and they are of four sorts First such as are against the Peace of the Commonwealth or whereby Publike Peace is disturbed and those I call Diseases indangering the heart of this Politique Bodie Secondly such as are against the Justice of the Common-wealth or whereby publique justice is perverted and those I call Diseases indangering the Head of this politique Body Thirdly such as are against the plenty of the Commonwealth or whereby publike plenty is diminished and those I call Diseases against the stomack of this politique Body Fourthly such as are against the beauty and good Complexion of the Commonwealth or whereby this beautie and good Complexion is discoloured and defaced contained under the Name of Common Nusances and those I call Diseases against the Senses the Leggs and the Feet of this politique Body Touching those against Peace they are of five sorts 1. Treasons which againe are either High-Treason or Petty-Treason 2. Felonies which again are done either against the Person or Possession of another 3. Premunire 4. Misprisions 5. Trespasses High-Treasons are these 1. If any levy Warre against the supreme Authority of the Nation or adhere to the enemies thereof And when I do so expresse it Supreme Authority I give you the meaning of the Stat. 25. E. 3. 2. which mentions it thus If any levie warre against the King or adhere to the Kings enemies within the Realm for the name and word King quatenus the chiefe Officer betrusted with the Government in the Administration of that Government is frequently used to set forth the publique Interest of the People so we call it The Kings Peace The Kings Coyne The Kings High-way and the like all which in truth are the publike concernments of the people being for their publike use and benefit and are therefore exprest and exhibited unto us under the notion of the Kings Name because he is their publike Officer and trusted for them so that to levie warre against the King or to adhere to the Kings enemies is to levie war against the Kingdom the Government of it and the Supreme Power Authority of it or which is more plain in the expression to levie war without lawfull Warrant and Authority so to do yet this I beleeve was that which hath misled perhaps may still mislead many of our Country men That because they had the Person of the King with them betwixt whom and whom there were mutuall and reciprocall deceivings and they never remembring that when in Person hee deserted the Parliament he left the King and Kingly Authority behinde him because he left the Kingly Office and the Power thereof and publike Government behinde him they catcht at the shadow but let go the substance and so under colour of fighting for the King they fought against him Yet because omnis non capit hoc

Sergeant THORPE Judge OF ASSIZE for the NORTHERN CIRCVIT His CHARGE As it was delivered to the Grand-Jury at York Assizes the twentieth of March 1648. and taken in Shortwriting Clearly epitomizing the Statutes belonging to this Nation which concerns and as a golden rule ought to regulate the severall estates and conditions of men And being duely observed do really promote the Peace and Plenty of this Commonwealth Printed at York by Tho Broad 1649. Serjeant Thorp Judge of the Assise for the Northern Circuit his Charge as it was delivered at York Assises 20 March 1648. and taken in Short-Hand GEntlemen Friends and Countreymen I do not question but that the Stile and Title of our Commissions under which we are now to act and execute the Authoritie and Power committed to our hands being changed from Carolus Rex Angliae to Custodes Libertatis Angliae Authoritate Parliamenti works divers effects upon the Tempers and spirits of men according as the spirits themselves are tempered and affected and that some of those spirits like the Sunne upon Wax it softens into Obedience and compliance and others of them again like the same Sun upon Clay it hardens into stiffnesse and oppression Proud Ambitious and Malignant spirits finding themselves frustrated and defeated hereby of their designed Hopes and hopefull Designes for obtaining their desired Ends and being filled with prejudice to others and self-love to their own opinions and therefore having turned themselves aside from the use of their own Reason and from all Overtures and Arguments of satisfaction and having given up their understanding to blinde Affections it startles and confounds with Passions and Amazements heightned into choller and disdaine Because looking thorow the false Glasse of their own self-Interest they finde nothing therein but imaginary shakings of Foundations overturning of Laws and confused heaps of Ruines Distractions But to these if any such be present especially if they have been formerly ingaged in open Warre against the publike Interest of the Nation and so are cast by Gods justice for their Transgressions into a mean and low condition All I shall say with the poor comfort of calamity Pitie is this That if they have not already tasted enough of the Cup of Gods wrath for their misdoings let them take heed they ingage not again for fear that hereafter they be inforced to drink the Dreggs of his displeasure Other silly spirits there are who standing unbottomed upon any solid Principles of their owne finde themselves tossed to and fro with the Winde which blows from others mouthes one while listening to the Prophet who bids them go up to Ramoth-Gilead and prosper and by and by again yeelding to him that bidds them not go up for fear of perishing and so they are carryed into crosse and oblique opinions and actions tending to and endangering their utter Ruine and Destruction And to these men all I shall say and advise is this That they will forthwith repair to the School of Reason and suffer themselves to be guided and led by impartiall and wholesome Lessons and Instructions to a better Information of their judgements whereby they may be settled upon undenyable grounds in the knowledge of themselves and the truth and of their own Right Interest and Concernment But another sort of men there are who are willing to let their eyes stand in the place where Nature set them and to make use of that Reason and judgement which God hath given them and with erected mindes to apprehend the sense of their own future happinesse and to hearken to the voyce which calls them to the flourishing actions of a reformed Commonwealth and therefore do entertain this Change with sutable Opinions and Complyance from these grounds which they thus propound and argue with themselves 1. That all Power and Authority is Originally and Primarily in God and comes from God and this they rest upon as being a Scripture truth 2. That God out of his Wisdome and Providence hath dispensed and transmitted so much of this Authority and Power to men as is necessary for their use First as in relation to the Inferiour Creatures to Rule and Governe them as Lord and King And as in relation to one another from a Principle of Nature Conservatio sui-ipsius To seek and endeavour their own preservation and security which Principle draws them to this Conclusion Salus populi suprema Lex The safety of the people is the supreme Law both of Nature and Nations And from this Naturall Principle and supreme Law of Nature however all men in their Originall Creation are all of one and the same Substance Mould and Stamp yet for preservations sake they finde a fitnesse in Subordinations and Degrees among them for the better ordering of their Affairs and so they appoint Rulers and authorize Governours over them as Trustees for themselves They also elect Government create Rules Orders and Laws by which they will have their Rulers and Governours to guide and Steer their Actions in the course of their Government to which they will conform their obedience and this Truth is ascertained from hence That there were People before there were either Rulers or Governours of People and that therefore these Rulers and Governours were but made by the People and for the people with this Reserve That whensoever the people should perceive that their Trustees Governours did turn potestatem into potenti●m the Power and Authoritie of Government by Rule and Law formerly agreed upon and consented unto by the people into an Armed Force and that they did alter the Peoples Rempublicam into the Governours Rem privatam and that their Government ceasing to be free was made to hang over the peoples heads as a Lordly Scourge to their destruction Then and from thenceforth and that with good comlinesse of reason the people betake themselves to thoughts of Reformation and finding cause to dislike their former choice being not tyed by any Scripture to any one Forme of Government they choose againe and take some other Form differing from that before whereby they will avoid the evils they suffered under their former choice and enjoy the good of a more beneficiall preservation for like Marriners and men in a Ship at Sea they will no longer trust an unskilfull or perfidious Stearsman lest they should be found guilty of their own ensuing Shipwrack and destruction This brings me to the next Assertion and Position which I own as a most certain Truth and my greatest earthly assurance That the People under God is the Originall of all just Power and that let the Government runne out into what Forme it will Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy yet still the Originall Fountain thereof is from the Consent and Agreement of the People From this Assertion and Position I am led on further by plain reason to understand That Rulers and Governours are accountable to the People for their mis-government namely when they transgresse the Rules and Lawes by which the people

these produce for the mischiefs have continued and the people have still suffered by the breach of those Laws even untill these very times the very same mischiefs as before In the time of King Richard the second the disorders of the Court and Oppressions upon the people from thence were so great and unsupportable that the people Articled against that King and likewise deposed him and so they afterward did in like manner Depose King Henry the sixt K. Edward the fourth by consent in Parliament Thus you see how the exercise of Kingly Office within this Nation hath been made use on to the damage of the people and how the people again have put in ure their Authoritie over their Kings to call them to an account for their mis-governments Touching the last King much hath been said and too much hath been felt by this Countie in relation to the last Warre But pardon me if I tell you so it was a just punishment of God upon us of this Countie for I may truly say the Warre had its Rise and Beginning here here in this Countie nay here in this Court for this was the first place in England where any Grand-Juries of the Countie charged themselves and their Countrey men with any Taxe to raise a Warre against the Publike Interest of the people as they did here when at Summer Assizes in the year 1642. they charged the Countie with a Tax of 8600 pounds to maintain 1000 Dragoons upon pretence to keep the Country in Peace But alas the Dragoons were no sooner raised but they were made use on for another Service namely to attend the Kings Standard at Nottingham and from thence were carryed to fight at Edgehill against the Parliaments Forces for better keeping the Peace in Yorkshire And though it be true that this Tax of 8600 pounds was never levyed yet our own great Lords and Gentlemen made it the Foundation and Rise of another Tax of thirty thousand pounds which they laid and levyed upon the Countie in October after for bringing in the Earl of Newcastle and his Forces But as I said before Gods punishment is just upon us for as the Warre began here so it hath ever since continued among us even at this day when all the rest of the Kingdome is in Peace and quietnesse onely we are now upon Sieging at our owne Charge of you cursed Castle at Pontefract which began at first and continues to be the last of all our Enemies Holds and Garrisons within this Nation But to return to the point of the Kings Incroachments upon the Peoples Liberties and therein I will clearly tell you my own thoughts in one particular and instance in that one but it is to my Apprehension Vnum magnum and instar omnium it is as the Lyon said of her Whelp when the Fox upbraided her That she was not so fruitfull in procreation as the Fox but brought forth onely one Lyon at once 't is true saith the Lyon but that one is a Lyon And so I may say by the Kings Negative Voyce in Parliament for admit but this one peece of Prerogative to be just and consonant to the Constitution of the Government and I dare affirm that the English Nation were in a possibility by that Constitution of Government to be as arrant Slaves and Vassals as were in Turkie or among the Moors in the Gallies For let the King put what Oppression he will upon the People let their grievances and burthens be never so great and let him at the peoples Desires call Parliaments for redresse thereof never so often and let never so good Bills be prepared and presented to him for Reformation yet still he shall put them off with this Royall Complement Le Roy Sadvisera signifying quoad the Practise in plain English I will not help you nor release the unjust Burthens and Oppressions I have laid upon you But add to this that other Incroachment of the Lords Negative Voyce upon the people which they also have with much Lordlinesse practised in answer to the Commons Bills though of highest concernment for their Weale however they expresse that Negative in Court Language and good words We will send an answer by Messengers of our owne as if the people should expect they meant to return some concurrence with them when God knows nothing is lesse thought upon or meant by them And now let the people see their own condition now let them consider how they have been abused by good words and phrases which if they had clearly universally understood the meaning of or if these Negatives had been clearly exprest in down-right language We will not help you or We will not ease you of your Burthens or Oppressions that lie so heavy upon you truely then I presume the people would long since have been stirr'd up to help themselves and to have endeavoured as well to take away the mischief as to avoid the miserie of such a Government For mine own part I speak it freely from my heart That as I am a Freeman both by Birth an Education and am Inheritable to the Laws and Free-Customes of England so I do naturally desire the security of Government and I do willingly submit to the justice of known Lawes But I have ever adhorred all Arbitrary Powers or to be subject to the Wils or Passions of men therefore I have alwayes thought since I could think any thing upō grounds of Judgement or Reason That so long as these two fore-mentioned Negatives remained upon the people there could be no security or freedome in their Government and there was no one thing that hath so firmly fixt me in the way I have gone wherein I now am and to oppose the other as the mischiefs I understood to bee in the two Negative Voyces of the King and the Lords Adding to these two fundamentall Court-Errours and destructive Positions maintain'd and held forth to the people by flattering Royalists and proud and ambitious Prelates and Courtiers viz. First That the King had an Originall right to Rule And secondly That the King was accountable to none but GOD for his misgovernment Lay but these two together with the Negative Voyce and let any man judge what they may and must necessarily produce in point of Tyrannie and Oppression over the people Thus have I shewed you the true Originall of all Power and Authority and from whence it is that the Exercise of Authority and Power is practised among men over one another I have shewed you also the justice which lies in this That Kings Rulers and Governours and particularly the King of this Nation should be accountable to the People for their misgovernments and how destructive a Tenent it is to say That a King hath right to Rule over men upon Earth and that yet GOD hath not given a Power to earthly men to call him to account for misgovernment unlesse you will suppose that Kings at first did fall from Heaven and were