Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	king_n	law_n	sovereignty_n	3,188	5	10.8087	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87156	Plain dealing: or, The countreymans doleful complaint and faithful watchword, to the statesmen of the times, whether in the Parliament or Army. Wherein is set down, the rise, nature, and species of right government, with the corruption thereof in former, and this our generation, to this present time. / By Edward Harrison of Keensworth in Hertfordshire, sometimes preacher to Col: Harrison's regiment.	Harrison, Edward, of Keensworth in Hertfordshire.	1649 (1649)	Wing H889; Thomason E554_22; ESTC R13821	12,317	16

Judges and Kings by Gods immediate appointment They could neither Enact Laws appoint Governors nor make War or Peace but by express and immediate command from God Paul calls Magistracy an Ordinance of God Peter stiles it an Ordinance of man which seeming discrepancy is thus reconciled All Power and Authority to do Justice and Judgement is the Ordinance of God and is not left to the will and pleasure of men to alter vitiate or contemn without the incurring the displeasure of God for the same But the choosing or appointing Officers and the making of Laws is left to men and is the Ordinance of man and can onely be called the Ordinance of God in that when men proceed righteously therein it is owned and approved of by him If this distinction be not admitted but that every Superior power in both sences is of Divine institution and so properly the Ordinance of God these absurdities will follow viz. That Paul and Peter were not guided by the same Spirit they writing things irreconcileable That the Supreme Authority exercised by the Pope is the Ordinance of God read Dr. Willets Exposition upon Rom. 13.1 who there concludes That Monarchical Aristocratical and Democratical Governments are all of them the Ordinance of God and that the State may for their preservation resist a Tyrant and quotes Pareus pleading for the same which without the aforesaid distinction were false to affirm In the Parliaments Declarations and other rational discourses you may finde enough to discover the foppery of the forenamed Tenets I shall therefore go on to confirm the truth held forth in my third and fourth Propositions viz. That all right Government is from Consent of parties and that both parties are bound to the Laws and Articles agreed upon between them the first whereof is proved by the Authority of Demosthenes Aristotle and Cicero who unanimously affirm That true Soveraignty was instated upon the good will and liking of the PEOPLE who chose out of themselves and submitted to such as excelled most in vertue in those times By the formal and ceremonial Election and Oath made and taken at the late Kings of England admission to their Government and by the many Declarations of this Parliament especially the last against Monarchy wherein it is acknowledged That they were Elected Trusted and Authorized by the PEOPLE for the Common good page 5. And by the pressing for an Agreement of the PEOPLE as a foundation of future Government in the Remonstrance of the Army page 67. where it is propounded that none may be capable of being admitted to the Crown or any Office or Place of Publique Trust without express accord and subscription to the same The second By that saying of Seneca that the Magistrate together with the People have one God to serve one Law to keep and one death to fear By the Reason alledged in the Remonstrance of the Army for the bringing of CHARLS STUART to Justice By the Parliaments last Declaration page 13. And by the practice of the Roman State of Swetheland and Scotland who have brought their Supreme Magistrates to account for breach of Laws The Ordinance for a City or Nation and Order among Magistrates especially among them that had the Soveraign rule over all was called by the Ancients Commonwealth or Weal Publique and those Commonwealths that tended to Common benefit were said to be right those that respected the profit of Superiors onely were accounted corrupt I read of three kindes of right Government and three of corrupt 1. The first of right is Monarchy when the Soveraignty is in one alone who seeketh publique profit onely and preferreth Common benefit before his own private will and particular Commodity and when he endeavoreth to advance his own Interest and to govern by his absolute will then he becomes a TYRANT and the Government Tyranny which is the first kinde of corrupt Government 2. The second of right is Aristocracy the power of the best men viz. when a few approved and tryed men for righteousness have the Soveraignty joyntly together and make Laws for the rest of the People directing their thoughts at no other marks then publique Peace Freedom Vtillity and Profit as among the Lacedemonians of old But when these reject the poorer sort aym at nothing but their own advantage without any care of publique Commodity take part with their equals in riches and greatness to the oppression of their Inferiors then the Government degenerates into Oligarchy the second sort of corrupt Government 3. The third of right is Democracy the power of the People when mean and indifferent men are by them chosen neither of the richest to avoid Tyranny nor of the poorest to avoid Confusion Of which Aristotle saith That those societies which consist of mean persons in power is very good and those Cities and Commonwealths are well governed wherein there are many of the middle sort who have more power then both the other parties or at least then any one of them for where saith he many are very great or many very mean there followeth either an extream Oligarchy or Anarchy a confused multitudinous hodge podge which is the third sort of corrupt Government Thus having spoken of several sorts of right and corrupt Governments and given you the description of them that you may know them one from another when you meet them I shall proceed to particularize how and by whom right Government came to be corrupted in former and in this our Generation The first breach upon right Government that I read of was made by Nimrod Chams Nephew of whom we read Gen. 10.10 whom Historians report was the first that brought men into subjection by force and violence establishing his Principality in the Kingdom of Assyria which Tyranny of his was successively exercised upon the People and submitted unto for a long time in the days of succeeding Tyrants during the continuance of the Assyrian Mede Persian Grecian and Roman Monarchies till the People of Rome coming to the knowledge of their own Power and Liberty threw the Tyrant Kings out of their saddles then succeeded the Government by Consuls Decem Viri and Tribunes all which lasted 1084 years till at last Cesar taking advantage by their manifold divisions first got the Office of perpetual Dictator and afterwards the Title and Power of an absolute Emperor Et nunquam postea nisi deprincipitatu quaesitum saith Tacitus that is Then came no other question to be debated but who should be the Soveraign Prince of the State which was the condition of the generallity of the World especially since the Civil and Ecclesiastical States were by Antichrist jumbled together for then Kings and Priests conspired together to inslave both Souls and Bodies of the People which Mystery of Iniquity hath been fully discovered in these times of Light wherein God hath begun to stain the pride of glory especially in England How far and wherein Tyranny and Slavery was brought in upon the

PEOPLE to such righteous Principles of Justice and Common Right that as to humane Reason it should be impossible for any Tyrants in this or future Generations to introduce bondage upon the People that Justice upon all Offendors should be impartially executed That all Publique Officers should be called to an account That the Publique Debts of the Nation should be paid That this Parliament should have a Period set for its dissolution and a Succession of future equal Representatives ascertained And that the Petition from many about London dated September 11th should be considered and the Grievances and Pressures therein complained of removed Witness the Demand of the Army in the large Remonstrance from page 62. to page 68. who in the prosecution thereof purging the House seizing upon the City and thereby gaining into their hands the whole power of the Kingdom who would expect but that which was by them Demanded and because not granted so ill rescented and severely punished by Imprisonment as to some and expulsion of the House as to others would have been by themselves now inabled to effect them speedily given to the People as their due and right And he therefore much rejoyced in the extraordinary Action of sifting the House of Commons wholy taking away the House of Lords erecting an High Court of Justice trying and executing the King and Lords as the pulling down an old House ready to fall upon and ruine the Nation and the burning of rotten post● onely fit for the fire in order to the setting up a new frame consisting of sound and well seasoned Timber under which the English Nation might finde shelter from future Storms and Tempests but his hope makes him ashamed his joy is turned into sorrow and his mirth into mourning and that upon these grounds First The AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE is waved in order to which the other actings were onely justifiable either before God or man the old Government in force according to Law was by King Lords and Commons and there was yet never any Reason alledged to vindicate the maner of the altering and the High proceeding in order thereto but that all power was Originally in the People and that all former must give place to the end of forms the COMMON GOOD of the PEOPLE and therefore till there be a foundation layed by an AGREEMENT of the PEOPLE it is no State blasphemy to affirm that there can be no true form of Government in the nation As for the present House of Commons he would be glad to have cause to bless God for it as being instrumental in keeping ill minded men in awe by their Title until a more full and formal power in a just and equal Representative to be speedily indeavored can be introduced Secondly No Justice is executed upon any Members of Parliament that betrayed their Trust which hath been and is by the Cavaliers thus interpreted That the Parliament and Army executed the King and Lords not out of Zeal to Justice but for sinister ends else say they Why should not Waller Clotworthy Brown and the rest accused of so great crimes be all this while brought to their Tryal Thirdly No Account is taken of the Treasury of the Kingdom how it hath been disbursed which makes many of the Enemies report That Mulus Mulum scabit that the Parliament Army and countrey Committees connive at each other while they share the riches of the nation among them Fourthly Though King Queen Princes Revenue Delinquents Estates Dean and Chapters Lands are wholly at their disposing yet there is no burthen removed neither Excize nor Tythes a burthen so contrary to any Profession the Gospel and the very Covenant it self repugnant to the Gospel Read the story of Walter Brute in Foxes Martirology pag. 446 447. and you will finde it clearly proved That Tythes are not in any sence due by any Law of God in the times of the Gospel Read also that learned Exhortation of the Bohemians to the King and Princes pag. 602. and the Examination of William Thorp pag. 494 495. where it is quoted out of CISTERCIENSIS That Pope Gregory the tenth in the year of our Lord 1211. first ordained Tythes to be given to his Priests Augustine in his Iuchyridion 76 Chap. and Chrisostome upon the 11 of Luke affirms Tythes to be pure Alms and it is recorded That they were not paid in the primitives times at all and that the Priests wresting Scriptures to their profit at the first obtained them as Beggars do Alms pag 426. By all which it appears That Tythes or any inforced Maintenance are contrary to the minde of Christ in the Gospel and to the very Letter of the Covenant wherein all Covenanters ingaged to take away all Popery and Popish innovations root and branch and over and above the aforesaid burthens the Tax for the Army swells from 60000 l to 90000 l a Moneth Fifthly There is a new Councel of State erected which much amuseth poor ignorant souls in the Countrey who fear that instead of succession of equal Representatives they shall be popt off with a perpetual Parliament or Everlasting Councel of State and Omnipotent councel of War that can make it justifiable to break all Forms themselves one day and yet Vote it mutinous in others to act any thing that displeaseth them though neither against any true Form or Order as lately they have done I love and honor many of their persons and should rejoyce if the Lord by me would reclaim them from the evil of their present way I shall lay down some Considerations which may be useful for them and trust God with the success First That Honesty is the best Policy The deep plots and witty Contrivances of men in power when inconsistent with the Will of God requiting them to do Judgement and Justice and to take off the ●●kes from the Oppressed have always been abortive for God will not be mocked and Experience tells us That Self-seekers though otherwise godly and gallant men yet are and shall be saved as by fire witness many worthy Members of Parliament who endeavoring by a Treaty to secure themselves are by the Lord with disgrace laid aside he thereby no doubt intending much good to their souls Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cantum he is a happy man that takes warning by other mens harms Secondly Carnal mixtures with corrupt interests are destructive to them that make them Mixtures are carnal when made upon fleshly and sinful considerations and interests are corrupt when incroaching upon Christs Kingdom in Spiritual Administrations or when found repugnant to righteous Government in civil Hence it follows First That under pretence of taking in the Generality of the people into their party or pleasing these or these great and potent men or which is the best the bearing with the weakness of godly men for any to incroach upon the Kingly Office of Christ take upon them to judge of

English Nation by the King and his Clergy under the specious pretences of Legal Prerogative in Civil and decent Vniformity in Spiritual is so fresh in all mens memories that it were needless to trouble the Reader with the story of it whereto though the generallity of the people Issachar like were willing to subject themselves yet the iniquity and unrighteousness of our Tyrants being full the Lord hearing and granting the Prayers and Tears of his People as sometimes the Israelites stirred up some heroick Spirits to withstand the Usurpation of those in power and to give a check to their furious proceedings which opposition meeting with a resolved and hard-hearted Pharaoh was the cause of Englands misery and desolation as to its outward glory riches and plenty though through the Lords goodness his People have had their sufferings abundantly made up by the accession of Light Liberty and Spiritual acquaintance with themselves Wars confusions and shaking earthly foundations being the forerunners of Gods design of doing his work his strange work even destroying his Enemies and delivering his People in England which design of his that the mercy when enjoyed might be the more prized his name the more advanced his People the better prepared for it and that the less of man might appear in it he was pleased to carry on as to humane apprehensions foully abscurely by contrary instruments principles means and ways through many obstructions intermissions hopes and fears as by sad experience we have found the Wisdom and special Providence of our God being very admirable in his constant Counterworkings of our Statsemen in their Linsey-Woolsey Reformations as may be thus briefly demonstrated When this Parliament was by necessity in the Tyrants part summoned and called the Members thereof came with resolution to free themselves and the people of those notorious burthens wherewith they had been formerly sorely crushed viz. Ship-money High Commission Court Star-Chamber to bring those whom they counted evil Counsellors to Justice to abolish Episcopacy to revive the constant Succession of Parliaments and in order thereto to obtain the Militia into their own hands which in those times of the dawning of the day was all the Liberty they pretended to aym at which particulars all gained the King continuing his Negative Voice power of adding whom and as many as he would to the House of Lords and of bestowing places of Honor and Profit upon whom he pleased and thereby an opportunity of gaining the Major part of both Houses to his party And lastly setting up a proud Formal and bloody Presbytery in the room of Episcopacy had not amounted to the least dram of true Liberty yet even some of those things were vigorously opposed which caused a bloody War and after that all the forenamed particulars were by Conquest given in to the Parliaments Possession Wise men quickly saw how little all the glorious Liberty so vigorously contended for availed them the Parliament making their little fingers heavier then the Kings loyns introducing more oppressions upon the Consciences Estates and Liberties of the People then they had formerly taken away the Houses contending against the Kings unlimited Prerogative exercise as destructive a Power themselves that of the Lords being as bad as the Star-Chamber or Councel Table and that of the Commons in conjunction with their Synod not much better then the High Commission Court persecuting the faithful of the Land under the notion of Sectaries as formerly they had been in the other Court under the name of Puritans And in order to the compleating of their intended Reformation not according to the Word of God but in compliance with the Scotish Tradition right or wrong a Covenant was imposed for the finding out and crushing of all such conscientious and discerning men out of the Army of the Earl of Essex and all other publique employments as could not dance after the Scotish Pipes These designs the Lord ordered for good Thus First He provided an Asylum a place of refuge for the conscientious dissenters in the Army under Manchester and Cromwel Secondly He suffered the remainder the dross and scum of Essex's Army to moulder away and notwithstanding many great and chargeable recruits to lose ground not performing any memorable service at last gave them up as a prey to the enemy in Cornwal Thirdly He honored the despised Dissenters made them Victorious in the North and gave them favor in the sight of the People Lastly He caused the wheel to turn upon his Peoples Enemies by the new Model wherein the formal prophane and loose Covenanters were left out and the Religious and faithful Worthies put into their rooms whom he quickly made instrumental in subduing the Royalists to the great terror of their Enemies open and secret at Oxford and Sion Colledge The next Plot was the disbanding of that Schismatical Army the only block in their way to the setting up their Presbytery with Fire and Sword under the pretence of the relief of Ireland which occasioned the disbanding of Eleven of the chief contrivers out of the House of Commons and the imprisoning the Major and divers Aldermen of the City This design thus failing they Court the Riff-Raff in the City and Countrey to Petition the House in behalf of the King and Presbytery a goodly pair and against the Army and invited all the Cavaliers in Scotland to set up Church Government in England according to the Covenant whence proceeded our last dangerous and bloody War But through the Lords wonderful goodness to his People who worketh all things for good to them their Designs produced no other effects save onely the Kings and the Lords righteous Execution the extirpation of the House of Lords the purgation of the House of Commons and a glorious opportunity for freeing of this Nation from all its oppressors and oppressions by the laying of a foundation of Liberty Peace and Satisfaction to all serious men of all parties How happy were ENGLAND were mens Designs of inflaving it here at an end How gladly should I here break off and praise the Lord for his goodness to England But alas the Countrey-mans heart is as full of grief and his eyes as full of tears as ever he cryes out he is deceived his expectation frustrated and his Liberty betrayed he takes up Davids complaint it is not an open Enemy that enslaves him not damme Cavaliers not rigid envious and surly Presbyters but Religious and godly friends that have Prayed Declared Remonstrated and fought together for Freedom with them that with their Swords have cut in sunder the Chains of other Tyrants and yet now are become the greatest Tyrants over their brethren themselves which when he can refrain from sighing and sobbing he in his broken and rustick language thus expatiates All the forms of Government being corrupted and abused the LAWS and Administration perverted and the PEOPLES LIBERTIES betrayed it was promised that a new foundation should be layed by an AGREEMENT OF THE