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	people_n	tyrant_n	2,833	5	9.5249	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91444	The Parliament justified in their late proceedings against Charls Stuart, or a brief discourse concerning the nature and rise of government, together with the abuse of it in tyranny, and the peoples reserve. As also an answer to a certain paper, entituled, The humble advice of the lecturers of Banbury in the county of Oxon, and Brackley in the county of Northampton. / By J: Fidoe, T: Jeanes, W: Shaw, students in Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge.	Fidoe, John, b. 1625 or 6.; Jeanes, Thomas, d. 1668.; Shaw, William, student in Trinity College, Cambridge.	1649 (1649)	Wing P502; Thomason E545_14; ESTC R203138	12,113	21

will not now dispute yet it s probable by nature all men are alike free and that either Tyranny made first slaves or else happily some having spent their Talent and being ashamed to beg put themselves into anothers possession though Aristotle saith Some men are born to serve Sure it is that to command and to be commanded are not onely necessary but also useful for we see that in our selves that consist of soul and body the soul commands and the body as Servant obeys yea the very Heathen had this notion and that as some think from the sight of the goodly universe or in imitation of the Celestial Deity For seeing all things so fitly moved they knew it could not be but by some kinde of Government whereupon some think there was a certain kinde of Government among the gods Jupiter being so often stiled King but yet for the favorableness of his Scepter stiled by Homer the Father of gods and men Now as we said before it is evident that the state of a Servant is slavery because that some that have been of Ingenuous Parents are compelled to it And that which is natural to men viz. Freedom is so often fought for Hence it is that we Read of the Servile Bellum of the Scythians and Romans Now Servants are either such as have voluntarily put themselves on it or else are such by Law by which it is established that those that are taken by War are the spoils of the Conquerers whence some are called Mancipia Quasi Manu Capta And such is the power of the Master over his servants that the Scythians being gone over the Seas Iustin Hist and their Servants Rebelling they came to them with no other weapons but whips in their hands a manifest token of their Servants subjection The second part of a house are children the power of the father over them is the same that a King hath over his people and as a King is to provide for the good of his people so the father for his children till they be able to provide for themselves which is the very instinct of Nature in all Creatures to provide for their yong till they can pick their own meat Such was the power of the father in Liberos that the Romans had power over their childrens lives examples hereof are exceeding many and some think paralel'd in Abrahams offering Isaac and Jephtha's Vow To put bounds to this power it is not our intent onely this we will say which is granted by all and which shews all power limited that the Son is not to obey the Father in all things The grounds of this is in the Jewish Law and holds true by the Law of Nature for if one should be commanded by his Parents to sacrifice to Idols or the like he is in no wise to obey him it being contrary to an express Command Now though obedience is better then sacrifice yet it bindes not contrary to a Command for in case the Magistrate should command one thing Parents another we demand which is to be obeyed since the Scripture is express for both There is reported in the Rabbines a pretty conceit A Boy was commanded by his Mother to take a nest of Birds with the Dam the Law forbids it the Boy assaying to break the Law in the obedience of his Parent broke his neck what a King is in his City that a Father is in his House And as Kingly Power is continued by the obedince of Subjects so is an House For if a House be divided against it self it cannot stand And he that will learn to govern well and be a Member profitable to his City must learn first to rule his own House which is a part of it And now we come to Cities The general forms of Government we shall onely name them it being our intent onely to speak of Government in its self not in this or that which is onely accidental and not essential though some States stand best by one some by another The usual forms are first Aristocratical where men of the greatest Parts and Trust are singled out for the good of others Much like the States in Holland and these gathered out of every county and assembled together seem to us to carry the true notion of a Parliament the Commons being a representative body The second is Democratical when the people have a voyce in all that is done Not much unlike this was the Tribunus plebis among the Romans who suffered the Senate to do nothing without Rogation of the people and they had power to choose Consuls and to Enact Laws which were therefore called Plebiscita The third is Monarchical when one hath sole command concerning this though it be very ancient and the common opinion be that in Nimrod or Belus Father to Ninus the first Monarchy began after the Flood yet it s probable there were Kings before him For besides that Cains building of a City and denominating it from his Son Enoch seems to have the Character of a Kingdom in it yet some make Adam the first King and that Seth succeeded in his Kingdom And the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle in Joseph-Ben-Gorion tells us that Kenon the Son of Enoch Grand-childe to Seth was Emperor over the whole world and buried in an Island of the East-Indian Sea yea some would have Monarchy derived from the very Law of Nature and that Man as a Civil Creature was directed to this form to which they bring that of Justin In the beginning the command was with the Kings whom no popular Ambition but Spectata inter b●●●s moderatio exalted to it And Homer saith that one King is best notwithstanding to speak the truth for all that can be said of Monarchy we think that no one Government is more suitable to the nature of a man then another it being contrary to men to be in subjection if they can avoid it if any that which is most conservative which would be disputed This onely we will say That in the multitude of Counsellors there is wisdom And the first disorder of Government in Scripture was in Saul a King The fourth form concerning which we shall speak a word because that now adays men argue from that to ours is the Jewish policy which Josephus and all Writers confess to be a Theocratia or a State mediately governed by God For we put the case thus and we say That they could do nothing but by express command from God whether in Peace or War not to speak of the Vrim and Thummim Typical of Gods presence who is both Light and Truth they we say have their Government immediately from God For its proper to Nations that are sui Juris to make War and Peace as we see in the Romans and all others But the Jews could not make either War or Peace with any Nation but by an immediate inquiry which when they neglected how often did it prove their destruction And how often do we read

in holy Writ of asking counsel of God and of doing nothing without him Secondly those that had their Magistrates and their Laws from God their Government is of God But the Jews had their Magistrates Judges and Kings from God yea their Laws which are so often called The Book of the Law of the Lord. Now the Constitution of a Common-wealth being nothing but Heads and Laws it followeth that they who had those two from God and could not Enact Laws or Establish Governors by a Power seated in themselves had the Fundamental Constitution of their Republique from God Although it be otherwise in other Nations A digression concerning the end of Magistracy in which we suppose the Power is fundamentally seated in the People as will be said for whose good it was first instituted For when Res Publica comes to be Res Privata it ceases to be a Commonwealth and is then Tyranny The judgment of the Israelites was to be without Magistrates or else to have foolish Magistrates who knew no good but their own whereas they should be common Parents consulting not for themselves but for their People wherefore they are compared to Shepherds And those that feed Israel in Scripture are as well Magistrates as Ministers Plato in his Repub in divers places keeps this similitude A Shepherd he saith speaking of Governors cares for nothing but that he may keep what is committed to his care the same saith all Government quatenus Government commands us to take care for no other thing but what is committed to our charge And therefore Plutarch saith That it behoveth a Prince first to govern himself and then to govern his Subjects for he that knows no order cannot order others the same would have them to consider that they themselves are subject to Command Not like the King of Persia who made all Slaves but his Wife and therefore the Law is to be his rule the King of men and gods saith Pindar Not so much that written in Books or Tables but viva in corderatio always dwelling always watching with him and therefore the King was to have the Law continually read to him And it may be the cause why so much sin in Israel was because the Law was lost and not found or at least not used till Josiah at which time there was great joy for the finding of it and the King read in it from Morning until Evening Not much unlike this is that of the Persian King who had one to come to him every Morning with these words Rise O King Care for those things which Oromasdes would have you care for They are called Ministers of God yea gods to preserve mens Estate and what nature hath bestowed upon them to distribute it and preserve it And therefore at first the Romans had onely their Senatus which consisted of old men best able to judge of things being experienced in the affairs of this world Concerning this Plutarch hath wrote a Book in which is elegantly discussed who are fitter for the Commonwealth youths or old men for we know that Rehoboams yong men made the Tribes fall off The yoke of Tyranny being insufferable and therefore upon due consideration and power to be cast off for who is ignorant that the first Power entrusted was but small and no more then if a blinde man should entrust a seeing friend with his leading and he contrary to his Trust should either attempt a murther or else a throw from some preoipice we say that if this man should receive his sight he may then cast him off for that he desired him to lead him not to throw him down Now having said something of Government in general as also of the declination of it we shall proceed to that which indeed is nothing else but the abuse of it and that is Tyranny or an unlimited and usurped Power by which one man or more without an Appeal to the Law of Nature written in the heart of every man or to that Divine written Law of God entrench upon by freely exercising the Natural or Political Rights of others according to their own pleasure It is a Power meerly Arbitrary which is so far from coming under the notion of Jus Divinum as it is altogether Repugnant to the Law of Reason and Nature neither of them allowing the private Interest of a part to exalt it self above the common good of the whole whence comes the ruine of a body Natural but from the superabounding unlimited and Tyrannical Power of some one of the Malignant humors As Sampsons strength lay in his Locks so that of a State lies in the Complication of an universal Interest common unto all we shall speak of Tyranny under a twofold account 1. There may be Tyranny by Conquest as those that know any thing in History know that the foundation upon which the first four Monarchies was built was an usurped Power got by the Sword For indeed the world being enlarged and the estate of the people confused it was then a fit time for Tyranny to take its original every one being a Law to himself and Interpreter of his own Actions no marvel that the strongest governed all the rest at his own will If this principle of Tyranny be good other men may not onely free themselves from slavery as soon as they can but also exercise power when its put into their hands against Tyrants their former oppressors it will amount but to Lex talionis to pay them home in their own Coyn from their own Principles 2. Tyranny may be by Male-Administration or by abusing and going beyond the Trust reposed in a man by a Kingdom or State The present age in which we live presents before our eyes an example most fresh and lively That our late King Charls Stuart was not a Tyrant in the first sence is confessed by all witness his Oath at his Coronation as also his claiming Interest in the Crown by a lineal descent from William the Conquerer who thought the choice or Election of the People a better and surer Title then Conquest But to free him from Tyranny in the latter sence who can unless spirits wilfully prejudiced against the Honorable Parliament and the High and Supreme Court of Justice for that he was entrusted by the People with his power is clear it being irrational to think that our Ancestors gave any such absolute unlimitted Power unto our late Kings Predecessors as that they might use them how they pleased and notwithstanding that no reserve left in people when as the exercise of Government the bestowing it upon one or many is founded in the consent and mutual agreement of the whole body or society of men in a State-Government or Magistracy is indeed a power ordained of God and upon no pretence to be resisted but when a man through depraved Principles of Tyranny and Oppression usurps over the Conscience in things Spiritual and Divine above the reach or determination of the Spirit of a man

by proposing his will and fancy to them for a Law or when he entrenches upon Natural or Civil Right then he loseth the notion of a Magistrate because he goes contrary to the end of the Government of that Fundamental Law which is Salus Populi But suppose our Forefathers had given away to any one man without a remedy or appeal that power originally in them by way of dispensation it will not follow seeing nature makes us free and this freedom never given away by us we should be bound to embrace any slavery our Forefathers should seemingly cast us in they could only engage for themselvs they had nothing to do with their Posterity as to take from us what Nature gives Now that Charls Stuart broke this Trust which we have shewed he must necessarily be intrusted with we shall not need to spend time in the probation of it being abundantly proved by many learned Pens we shall proceed to shew the lawfulness for Free-born men in a State according to that Fundamental Law of Reason to execute Justice upon a man degenerated into Tyranny In doing this we shall not spend time to Treat of the several names and kindes of Government we having spoken somewhat of them before yet this we would put you in minde of That Theocracy was onely of Divine institution and that this was onely proper to the Jews As for the rest they are of humane institution and are derived from the People and the people have power to put down or to alter these or any of these as they finde occasion seeing it is confessed by all that Salus Populi est Suprema Lex All Governors are but Trustees unto the People And therefore when the people finde them acting contrary to the Trust reposed in them they may justly take it from them and commit to others or in case they cannot finde others that they can entrust or in case they finde that Government inconvenient for the State they may alter it and keep the Trust in their own hands But we know that there are many who deny the Supreme Power to be in the people and those men make it Haereditary to Kings and their Successors and that by vertue of the Laws of this Nation But concerning the first we would have them see from whence this Succession did proceed There could not be a Succession before there was an Election and if so then either the first King must have this power in himself or receive it from the people Now we suppose that no men are so absurd as to affirm it was in the first King before he received the Crown and Power from the people and if so then the prime and chief Power must necessarily be in the People If Kings obtain Crowns and Kingdoms any other way it must be by Conquest and if that be a sufficient Title then if the great Turk should invade our Kingdom we must necessarily own him as our lawful Soveraign and if any private man by force can beat another out of his possession he may lawfully enjoy it and he to whom it did of right belong must acquiesce and not seek to regain it But there are some that say it is not our case for we have had a Succession of kings according to the Laws of this Nation for divers Generations But we desire to know of them by whom those Laws were Enacted as also who the first king was from whence this Succession did proceed And as for this first king which was the main Basis or stock from whence this Succession took its rise It was William sirnamed Bastard Duke of Normandy who invaded this Land and destroyed many of the Free-born English We shall not spend time to dispute what Title he pretended he had to the Crown But this onely we shall say If he had any Interest it could be but a weak one seeing he was an illegitimate We shall rather speak of the Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government he exercised on the Free-born English as soon as he had invaded this Nation and obtained the Crown How he subverted their Laws and by force Enacted and put in Execution such as were most suitable to his own Tyrannical Spirit to the great dislike and male-content of the people Though they were constrained to submit unto them as appears by the several insurrections of the English both of the Nobility and Commonalty who several times endeavored to throw his servile yoke off their shoulders Amongst whom Edgar Ethling was chief leader who also is reported to have had the greatest interest in the Crown with whom joyned Edwin and Morcar who were brethren of the Queen We shall not stand to tell you of the multitudes slain in divers places nor of his unjust acting in particulars Though History makes it plainly appear That in a Bloody and Barbarous maner he dismembred many put out the eyes of some and slow many hundreds which were at his mercy Onely this we will say of him in general He came in a Conquerer and lived a Tyrant but it was not our intent to have spoken any thing concerning him onely this we thought good briefly to discover the stock from whence this Regal Succession did spring We shall not speak any thing of the Tyranny of his Successors nor how far they walked in his wicked steps but shall pass all over in silence until the unhappy Reign of Charls Stuart who came unto the Crown after the death of king James his Father his Brother Henry being before poysoned We shall not here stand to reckon up the Capital crimes which were committed by him in the beginning and middle of his Raign neither shall we undertake to determine how far he countenanced the Spanish Faction neither shall we intermeddle with the transactions of Ree Rochel c. But we shall rather descend to the last seven years of his Raign and here we could declare sufficiently the horrid impieties and bloody slaughters committed by him But seeing the illegality of his proceedings is sufficiently proved and so fully made manifest to all the world we shall not spend time to dispute of it seeing all men unless wilfully blinde may read it ●n bloody Characters but we shall rather speak something concerning the justness of the Parliaments proceedings against him It being apparent he degenerated from a king unto a Tyrant it was not unjust for them to Act against him as a Tyrant now all rational men acknowledge it a just act to execute a Tyrant But the difference amongst them is By whom he should be executed Whether by a Native or Stranger or for any man without Judgement or else whether it must be done by some Court of Judicature and to this last most men agree We read of Nero Maximinus how they were both executed by the power and command of the Roman Senate And likewise divers of the kings of Denmark for Tyranny have been Banished Imprisoned and Executed so odious is Tyranny to all men that the very

Heathens when Hercules had subdued Tyrants they numbred him among the gods And in our Neighbor Nation of Scotland the Lord President of the High Court of Judicature hath given a very large example and therefore we shall pass that by But if we had had no president either Domestick or Forraign yet the very Law of Reason and Nature were sufficient to clear them in it As for the Laws of the Land they are all subordinate unto this of Reason and must give place to it And seeing kings have always had a Negative Voyce which they have kept up by usurpation it is not to be expected the letter of the Law should so fully speak to their particulars Therefore we cannot but acknowledge that we are abundantly satisfied in the justness of their proceedings in the Tryal Condemnation and Execution of Charls Stuart Now seeing Government is so necessary as we have already declared and Tyranny taken away by Gods blessing and the endeavors of our Honorable Parliament and Renowned Army Our earnest desire is That God would direct and enable them to settle a Government that all men especially those that are in places of Trust as well in Universities as elsewhere may be compelled to acknowledge the Supreme Power of Parliament which they have received and are entrusted with by the people of England that we may have cause to rejoyce in them and to bless God for them and as long as they shall thus Act according to their Trust we shall not cease to be their faithful and affectionate Servants to the utmost of our powers AN ANSWER TO A BOOK ENTITULED The humble Advice of certain Preachers of Banbury in the county of Oxon and Brackley in Northamptonshire WE had thought that such had been the Equity of our Parliaments proceedings and so manifest to all the seeing world that even Envy her self would have been silenced but we had delivered to us a Paper Entituled as is mentioned which Paper though it came to our hands like an old Almanack bearing date from before the death of him whom you stiled Your Dread Soveraign yet we could not pass it over without shewing you how far you have out stript-your Classical bounds As for the particulars in the Book having perused it we finde neither good Reason nor good Arguing yet nevertheless we will single out two or three to which we will briefly Answer Whereas you instance in the prophanation of your Covenant and Oathes we Demand 1. How far Oathes and Covenants are obligatory 2. We ask what you meant by entring into Oathes and Covenants of Restoring Charls Stauart and Reforming Religion As to the first we say That some Oathes and Covenants are not to be made and if inconsideratey made consideratey broken for we know that more then forty of the Jews bound themselves by Oath Not to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul As to the second we make some Quaeres 1. Whether the Covenant to restore the King was without any condition If so it was unlawful for to instance in a Simile Suppose a man should ingage himself to another to defend and protect him from all violence put case that person violate the Laws of the Land and is therefore condemned to dye that mans Oath bindes him not yea cannot to protect him 2. If your Covenant had a condition whether to restore the King to his Throne without reference to the peoples Liberty if so it s all one as if you should engage your selves in slavery and your actions differed nothing from the Cavaliers whose ultimate end it was to restore the King unto his Throne without any satisfaction 3. What you meant by the Reformation according to the Word of God whether the imposal of an outward Form to which all men should be forced to give an assent if so you drive at nothing else but the Popish and Prelatical Conformity 4. Whether all have equal light or see with the same eyes if not while should any be compelled outwardly to profess that which inwardly they never knew 5. Whether the Reformation of Religion be not rather Internal and Spiritual then the imposing of any External Form of Government 6. Whether Christ is not the alone King of the Common-wealth of Israel if so then the Reformation is wholly carried on by his Spirit 7 Whether the Magistrate as a Subordinate Reformer hath any thing to do with the Church but to preserve them from injuries as men 8. What is the Toleration which you say is no way consonant to the Word of God if Christian liberty we dissent 9. We demand whether you hold perfection in this life if so why speak you and write contrary to your principles if not why account you all erroneous that dissent from you 10. Whether the Results of any Assembly in matters of Faith and Conscience are obligatory if so they must be infallible and then we demand whence they had their infallibility 11. Whether the interpretations of Scripture made by any Assembly hath as much Jus Divinum as the Scripture it self To all which Quaeres we should gladly receive particular satisfaction We likewise finde you in your Paper urging Statute Law we thought you had been Dispencers of the Gospel and not Expounders of the Law Lecturers not Barristers Countrey Ministers not Inns of Court Gentlemen You say you are informed by Law that the King could do no wrong surely it was out of some of Judge Ienkins his Papers as for your reading it in Parliament Declarations we conceive it was in Mecurius Aulicus whom you took for the Moderate Intelligencer We likewise finde you too much intrenching upon the Authority of the Magistrates advising his Excellency not to meddle without direction from the Assembly Unless we are mistaken this borders upon Popery which commands nothing to be done in State without the Assent of Ecclesiastique persons For your better satisfaction we will give you the Popes own words as we finde them in a Bull written to Philip the fair King of France mentioned in the French History the words are these Boniface Bishop Servant of the Servants of God to Philip King of Frenchmen Fear God observe his Commandments we will thee to understand That thou art subject to us both in Spiritual and Temporal things We likewise finde you stiling your selves Watchmen and Seers If Watchmen we advise you to have a care that you give us no more false Alarums for fear of Martial Law and as you are Seers we desire you to keep in minde That the Seers of Israel have oftentimes been blinde FINIS