Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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A58931
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A seasonable memento both to King and people upon this critical juncture of affaires
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1680
(1680)
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Wing S2232; ESTC R10313
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7,362
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12
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A SEASONABLE MEMENTO Both to King and People Upon this CRITICAL JUNCTURE OF AFFAIRES Nullo modo eis Artibus placatur Divina Majestas quibus Humana Dignitas inquinatur Aug. de Civ Dei LONDON Printed in the Year 1680. A SEASONABLE Memento c. IT is grown into a Custom I know to smooth the way for the Grosse of the Subject in Agitation by some preliminary Apology or Complement to the Courteous Reader but yet for reasons best known to my self I shall at this time pass over the Ceremonious Flourish of an Introduction and without Welt or Guard as they say fall upon my Province which is to make out That neither upon pretext of Religion Personal Vices Excesses in Government or any other Colour whatsoever the Subjects of the Crown of England may withdraw their Obedience or make Hostile Resistance to King Charles our present Sovereign being by right of Inheritance justly possess'd of the Crown his Title no way depending either upon his Divine or Moral Virtues and the said Subjects having receiv'd him and acknowledged him for their Only Supreme Governour done him Homage and sworn to him Faith and Allegeance Absolutely and without Condition AS for other Princes and Potentates whether Elective Kingdoms or such as at the Erection of them were received by the First King upon Express Covenant and only with a Conditional Obedience as is pretended by those of Aragon and Others of These I shall not here discourse Neither shall I speak of those Kings and Princes who acknowledge in Spiritual Matters a Superiour Jurisdiction in the Pope over them who further stickleth by necessary Relation and Dependency of the Temporal upon the Spiritual to have also a Temporal Power over them in ordine ad Spiritualia And hath often put this his Claim in Practice by accompanying his Spiritual Censure of Excommunication with the Sentence of discharging Subjects of their Obedience to their Princes and so consequently of Deposing them Herewith I shall not meddle None of These Cases being applicable to This in question of King Charles who is no Elective King but holdeth his Crown by an Unquestionable Title of Succession deriv'd to him by Descent from his Ancestours for the space of more than Six hundred years Neither was there ever any Pact or Condition with Him or any of his Progenitours of Forfeiture which in This Case neither was nor ever can be justly pretended True it is that his Ancestours and Himself have been pleased to limit and restrain their Legal Right by many Concessions and Laws in some Cases as the making of Laws without Consent of Peers and People the Levying of Money c. which he cannot Violate without great Injustice as shall be after shown But no such Pact or Covenant can be produced whereby upon Breach he Forfeiteth his Sovereignty or maketh it Justifiable for his Subjects to take up Arms against or to inflict Punishments upon his Person either by Dethroning Death or Imprisonment THE Case likewise of Roman Catholick Princes no way concerneth Him who acknowledgeth not in a Pope any such Superiour Authority So that whatsoever Pretences may be in some Cases concerning such Princes as I have above specifyed wherein I shall not presume to deliver my Opinion yet in the Present Case of Our King there can be no colourable Pretence of taking Arms against Him or of Deposing Him which I understand to be in effect when he is divested of his Just Regal Power Or of the Imprisoning of his Person which I understand to be not only when he is actually in Bonds or lockt up in a Room but also when the Liberty of Going and the Freedom of Speaking is restrained to such Places or Persons as Others shall please and he remain under a Guard not of his Own chusing but impos'd upon him by Others IT must be acknowledged that the Kings of England derive their Title and Right from William the Norman who although he came in by Conquest yet his Successours considering that a Right Acquir'd by Force may likewise be Recover'd by Force by those upon whom the forcible Intrusion was made were pleased by way of Pact and Stipulation to limit and qualify that Imperium Absolutum Absolute Dominion which is acquired by Conquest And the People of England thereupon did submit themselves to his Government and thereby was Constituted Imperium Legitimum a Just and Rightfull Sovereignty the Kings remaining with Supreme Power and the People with Common Right whereby they were freed from the Servitude of Conquest and remain'd under a Free Subjection whereunto they had by their voluntary Consent submitted themselves THE Kings likewise did recede from Absolute and Arbitrary Power and remain'd with Supreme but not with Absolute Empire BY Free Subjection I understand when a People live under Laws to which they have given a Free Consent and not under the Meer will of the Prince and that they retain such a Propriety in that which is their Own that without Their Assent or Legal Forfeiture it cannot be taken from them And this is a true difference betwixt a Free Subject and a Slave or Servant Quicquid acquirit Servus acquirit Domino Liber quod acquirit acquirit Sibi Whatsoever a Slave gets he gets for his Master but what a Freeman gets is for Himself And so although the Dominion of All belongs solely to the Prince yet Propriety refers to Every man Dominium Totius apud Caesarem Proprietas apud Singulos THE Difference that I understand betwixt a Supreme and an Absolute Empire is That in Absolute Empire the Rule of the Peoples Obedience is onely the Sovereigns Will. So it is in Turky Muscovy and all such Princes as retein Entire the Right of Conquest and was in some sort under the Roman Emperours after the Lex Regia was establish'd by the Peoples Consent whereby they transferr'd their Entire Right unto Him Supreme Empire I understand to be when a King has a Supremacy and Sovereignty over all but his Absolute Power is limited and restrein'd by reciprocal Pacts Laws and Stipulations betwixt Prince and People which is the Case of the Crown of England and to these Pacts the King and People are equally bound before God and man and the King is as much bound to Justice to the Protection of his Subjects and to the Observance of the Laws not onely out of Religion but even of Morall Honesty also as the Subject is to Obedience And he is not onely accountable to God but even his People have certain Just and Legal wayes to seek Redress wherein he shall do Wrong notwithstanding that Axiome of our Common Law That the King can do no Wrong which is false in many senses and may very well be call'd Fictio Juris a kind of Metaphysicall Fiction Le Roy ne fait Tort being onely to be understood in the ordinary Course of Justice which the King administring by his Ministers and not in Person it is They that are the Wrong-doers and not
the King and the Subject against Them is to seek his Remedy For Kings may do Wrong and be as wicked as Other men commit Murther and wrongfully take away Other mens Estates which no Fiction of the Law can make not to be Wrong although his Person be exempt from Punishment And that Abstract Consideration of the King for his just Power and Office as it hath often Heretofore been ill us'd in way of Ostentation so in our Late Troubles there was as ill use made of it on the Other hand when the taking up Arms and the Fighting against him was pretended not to be against the KING but onely against CHARLES STVART But to speak in plain Intelligible Terms a King both may do Wrong and the People may seek their Redress in such sort as the Law of the Land allowes And the difference betwixt King and Peoples Failing in their Reciprocall Duties is not but that they do wrong alike offend God alike and are both of them liable to be question'd according to the Extent of the Law by both their Consents establish'd The Subjects transgressing the Law shall be punish'd according to the quality and measure of the Offence Felony by the Loss of their Goods and Chattles and by a Milder Death Treason by a more Severe Death and Confiscation both of Goods and Inheritance But hereof they must be Convict per Pares by People of their own Condition and adjudg'd by a Superiour Jurisdiction which can be deriv'd Onely and Singly from the King So that the King not having his Peer nor any of his Own Condition cannot have a Legal Tryall and having no Jurisdiction Superiour to Himself cannot be Adjudg'd or Sentenc'd by any for neither the Extent of the Law nor any Condition of the Pacts or Stipulation do reach to the Punishing of the Person of the King or the Forfeiture of his Dominion over us Certain it is that in Civill things Tryalls may be and often are brought against the King and Kings do give way that the Judges be sworn to do Equall Justice betwixt Them and their Subjects and in points of Oppression and wrong we may Remonstrate our Grievances and challenge Redress by our Petitions which if they be not condescended unto we may insist upon them as our Right and claim them as a Due and not as of Grace But yet we must do it by way of Petition as being a Dutifull Form of Subjects bringing their Plea against the King for in other sort He ought not to be Impleaded Beside these Petitions of Right we may also Remonstrate enter our Protestations and take all those Courses which the Laws allow Neither ought the King to take Offence at these Legall Contestations with him because by his Assent unto the Laws he hath Assented unto Them Nay he ought in Them to do us Right being oblig'd thereunto by the Law of God by his Oath and by Morall Honesty and Justice But yet if he fail in all these Duties Our Jurisdiction reacheth not to his Personall Punishment Therein he is Sub Nullo nisi sub Deo under none but God and the Law stops There and tells us Satis sufficit ei ad paenam quod Deum habet Vltorem that it will be a sufficient punishment to him that he hath God for an Avenger Yet are we not altogether left without Remedy for Kings although they be God's Vice-gerents yet they cannot work as God does saying Fiat and it was done Kings must work by Mediate Instruments and if they command Illegal Things the Executioners of them are Responsible and must make satisfaction to the Parties injur'd And therefore the King ought not Immediately to Imprison nor in Person to Execute any thing because that in case of Wrong-doing the Subject would then be destitute of all means of Redress in regard the King's Person is not to be Impleaded by Law I know the usual Objections In case Kings will do that which they ought not to do and will by their own immediate Warrants Commit and be the Personall Actours of the Injuries or not suffer the Executioners of their Illegal Commands to be Legally proceded against shall the Subject be left wholly without Remedy and debarr'd the Benefit of that Right of Nature in-bred in all Creatures of self Preservation Yes we must be contented with that Condition wherein God hath placed us and wherein by our Own Consents and Stipulations of Subjection We have placed our selves and may onely right our selves by those means which by the Laws whereunto we have given our Consent are permitted unto us Neither is our Native Liberty hereby ravish'd from us but as we have parted with it by our own Voluntary agreement so neither can we resume it but by those wayes which we have reserv'd in the Stipulations of our Submission And beside that herein there is no Injury for that Volenti non fit Injuria it would be more Hurtfull to Mankind if it were Otherwise for there is a necessity that in all sorts of Governments as well as in Monarchy there should be an Impunity and Power somewhere of not being question'd otherwise all would be hurl'd into Anarchy and Confusion Neither could there be any finall Determination of Controversies if there were not a Derniere Ressort and Last Appeal wherein we are bound to Acquiesce Now this Power must be trusted in some hand and That must of necessity be where the Sovereign Power remaineth otherwise there must be supposed a Superiour Power to that Sovereign Power and so in Infinitum untill we come to some such Power as hath nothing above it and then That must be entrusted and be submitted to without being accountable to Any but to God because on Earth there can be to it no Superiour Jurisdiction And this Power is in the King of England in all things such onely excepted wherein Himself or his Ancestours have by Laws and Stipulations limited their Absolute Power as was said before And This we are by the Law of God and of the Land bound to Obey and not to make any Resistance but what the Law alloweth us We must in the Rest have recourse unto God if our Princes be Wicked neither may we Mutiny or Repine at God when we have Ill Kings more than when he sendeth Diseases Plagues Caterpillars Blightings or Blasts For wicked Kings are but Blastings of the People that God is pleas'd to Punish neither must we think Our Condition worse than that of Wicked Kings notwithstanding their Temporall Impunity for certainly it is much Better both in regard of Punishment in the World to Come and commonly in This. For the Next World as Their Sin is greater so it is declar'd that their Punishment shall be greater also Hear Oye Kings and Vnderstand c. Because being Ministers of Gods Kingdom you have not judg'd aright nor kept the Law nor walked after the Counsel of God horribly and speedily shall he come upon you for a sharp Judgment shall be to them that