Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	law_n	power_n	sovereign_a	3,887	5	9.6410	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26065	Evangelium armatum, A specimen, or short collection of several doctrines and positions destructive to our government, both civil and ecclesiastical preached and vented by the known leaders and abetters of the pretended reformation such as Mr. Calamy, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Case, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Caryll, Mr. Marshall, and others, &c.	Assheton, William, 1641-1711.; Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1663 (1663)	Wing A4033; ESTC R4907	49,298	71

it ought to be considered that such men see nothing but the outward appearances of what passes in humane negotiations and so there may many circumstances lye hidden from them which would make them think or with otherwise if they knew them As for example home-discontents and forein conspiracies which if understood would make these honest men preferr a war after which there is to follow a peace far exceeding the present quiet and such a one as deserves the intervening disturbance and damages And indeed I allow these men understand not such mysteries of State nor penetrate the value of the hazard But if they do not why are they not also exempted from engaging on those motives and then the rest of the Common-wealth will be but so many private men who must follow the common Again if they think themselves well they manifestly consent to the present Government and therefore cut off the title of the dispossessed Governour Besides who can answer they shall be better by the retu●…n of the dispossessed party surely by common presumption the gainer is like to defend them better than he who lost it But what if an open Enemy should come could or ought the Subjects joyn against him with their new Magistrate If not the whole publick must perish If they may then the case is the same against their old Magistrate since his right stood upon the common peace and that is transferr'd from him to his rivall by the title of quiet possession The Authority of Lawyers insufficient in this Question NO Laws made by the power or agreement of men can judge betwixt Subject and Soveraign in dispute of the common good and Government but only the Tribunals of God and Nature or Divinity and the science of Politicks And therefore the maximes of Law have no force in these questions Now if Princes lose their pretences by the force of Nature it is ridiculous for private men to build hopes upon rotten titles of ages long passed upon weak maximes of Law after Nature by her revolutions hath cast all Law and moral acts and agreements NOw as the malignity poyson of these anti-monarchical assertions render this Author a very unfit Prescriber of political Principles rules of government subjection to the rest of mankind so circumstance of their writing Publication they being published when Cromwell was in possession of the Government and the King dispossessed and in Banishment makes them look so like a publick disswasion of the People to endeavour the restauration of his Majesty who by his Principles ought to have renounced his title to the Government that we leave it to the World to judge whether such a man unless he repent and renounce these wicked assertions be worthy of his Majesties protection being restored to that Government to which he affirms that the Subjects ought not to endeavour to restore their Prince being once though never so unjustly dispossessed Out of Bishop Bramhall's Book against Mr. Hobs call'd The Catching of the Leviathan THE Obligation of a Subject to the Soveraign lasteth no longer than the power by which he is able to protect him Bramhall p. 517. When in a war forein or intestine the Enemies get a final victory so as the forces of the Common-wealth keeping the field no longer there is no protection of Subjects in their Loyaltie then is the Common-wealth dissolved and every man at liberty to protect himself by such courses as his own discretion shall suggest to him p. 517. He that hath no obligation to his former Soveraign but that of an ordinary Subject hath liberty to submit to a Conquerour when the means of his life is within the guards and garrisons of his enemy for it is then that he hath no longer protection from him And concludeth That their total submission is as lawfull as a Contribution p. 518. That they who live under the protection of a Conquerour openly are understood to submit to his Government And that in the Act of receiving protection openly and not renouncing it openly they do oblige themselves to obey the Laws of their Protector to which in receiving protection they have assented p. 518. If the Common-wealth come into the power of its enemies so that they cannot be resisted he who had the soveraignty before is understood to have lost it p. 517. Security is the end for which men make themselves subjects to others which if he in joy not his subjection ceaseth and he loseth not right to defend himself at his own discretion neither is any man understood to have bound himself to any thing or to have relinquished his right over all things before his own security be provided for p. 513. It is manifest that they do against Conscience and wish the eternal damnation of their Subjects who do not cause such doctrine and such worship to be exhibited to them as they themselves do believe to conduce to their salvation or tolerate the contrary to be taught and exhibited p. 514. No man is bound by his pacts whatsoever they be not to resist him who bringeth upon him death or wounds or any bodily damage p. 514. Seeing no man is bound to impossibilities they who are to suffer corporal damage and are not constant enough to endure it are not obliged to suffer it And more fully In case a great many men together have rebelled or committed some other capital crime for which every one of them expecteth death whether have not they the liberty to joyn together and assist and defend one another Certainly they have for they do but defend their lives with the guilty as well as the innocent may do There was indeed injustice in their first breach of duty their bearing Arms subsequent to it though to maintain what they have done is no unjust Act p. 514. FINIS He might have referr'd them to himsel●… p. 460. where he g●…ves the same answer to the same objection Vid. Presace to the Holycommonwealth p. 6. ☞ * The Law saith●… 〈◊〉 h●…bet Rex superior●…m praeter Deum ☜ ☜ ☜ ☜ He ressembleth Richa●…d to Solomen and Oliver to David * By Eulogies and approbations Printed before the Book which commend it to all Readers * Pag. 161. Pag. 119. ☞ ☞ ☞ ☞ ☜ * The King and his Pa●…ty clea●…ly meant to be th●… Papists ☜ ☜ † ●… Clea●…ly abetting the murdering of the King ☜ ☜ ☞ ☞ ☞ ☞ ☜ ☞ ☞ * He makes it Law●…ul to do that a●… men which we are 〈◊〉 to do by 〈◊〉 L●…ws of Ch●…istianity ●…e 〈◊〉 the 5 Commandment Swe●…t incourage●…ent Excellent comp●…risons ●… between ones natural Prince to whom he hath 〈◊〉 and a Turk or a Thief * See Dr. Ham. of Resisting the Magistra●…e under 〈◊〉 of Relig●…on Hobs his Lev. p. 114. Lev. Le. p. 190. Le. p. 137. Hobs de Civ C. 7. Sect. 18. Ci. C. 13. Sect. 3. Ci. C. 13. Sect. 5. Ci. C. 2. Sect. 18. Le. p. 112.

Evangelium Armatum A Specimen or Short COLLECTION Of several Doctrines and Positions destructive to our GOVERNMENT BOTH CIVIL and ECCLESIASTICAL Preached and Vented By the known Leaders and Abetters of the pretended REFORMATION such as Mr. Calamy Mr. Jenkins Mr. Case Mr. Baxter Mr. Caryll Mr. Marshall And Others c. LONDON Printed for William Garret 1663. THE PREFACE TO THE READER AT this notable season and great crisis both of Church and State in which Parties are so high Factions so restless and Discontents so general I know none so likely a means to resettle and confirm our shaking Fabrick as to disabuse the People and to redeem their Understandings from a Captivity to those guides who have Preached and Lectured them into these miseries and confusions I have observed though it be true Piety alone that must save men yet it is the shew and pretence of Piety that governs them A maxim so verified by the late transactions among us that the great Basis and ground-work of all the Villany that has been acted upon the stage of these miserable Kingdoms has been to beget and fix in the People this Belief that the great Design drove on by the Actors of it was the advancement of the Purity of Religion and the Power of godliness So that the People were brought at length to digest Civil War the cutting of Throats wresting away Estates and the Murder and Banishment of Princes so long as all this was called Reformation But since it is not imaginable how men could quit the first infusions of honest education and debauch the known Principles of Nature and Religion so as not at first to tremble and start at these Villanies it follows that they must needs have been insensibly wrought up to them by some predominant Perswasion that by degrees lessened and at length totally subdued those preconceived Dictates of Nature and Religion to a compliance with such Practices And this was no other than a blind and Furious Opinion of the extraordinary Piety of those Teachers who pretending more intimate acquaintance with God and immediate possession by his Spirit as Plenipotentiary Commissioners and Embassadors from Almighty God animated the People to the late Rebellion And still they endeavour to captivate their Pity by a bold and impudent insinuation of these two things That they are the People of God and That they are persecuted For experience shews that the Opinion of Persecution naturally moves men to Pity and Pity presently turns into Love and whom men love they are easily brought to defend But I doubt not to any unprejudiced Reader so to divest them of these pretences and stripping them of their sheeps cloathing to represent them as naked as Truth as deformed as Error Seduction For the first of these Their being the People of God I demand whether true Piety is consistent with the known abetment of Principles and Practices directly contrary to the law of Nature and the word of God and then whether the Preaching taking up Arms and raising a War against our Lawfull Prince be not a sin deeply dyed with both these Qualifications That the latter of these is undeniable and the former justly chargeable upon them let the ensuing System of Principles speak which they vented from the Pulpit and their Auditors Commented upon by all the hideous massacres since acted by them in the strength of those Doctrines and assertions I say let men impartially read them over and see Whether that Religion can be called Pure that is so far from Peaceable And for a further Test of their Piety I demand Whether an Oath be not the most sacred and dreadfull Obligation that can be fastned upon the Conscience of man and whether their Oath of Allegiance were not such an one upon which Concessions I demand further what strain of Piety could warrant these Ministers to send their Congregations as the chief of them did with full discharge from the Bonds of that Oath to wage war against their King what Prerogative in Religion could authorise them to obtrude an Oath and Covenant contradictory to their former Oaths upon those Consciences that groaned with horror and reluctancy under the sense of their former Obligations Till they can here either deny the matter of Fact which has been writ in Characters of bloud legible to all the World or can reconcile these matters of Fact to Christianity I demand of them in the presence of God and man what account they will give before the great Tribunal of God for having with so much solemnity of Prayer shew of Piety and profession of Zeal deceived the People into these execrable practices enough to stink the Protestant name out of the World and what excuse the clear light of Reason and of the Word can leave to those who resigned themselves up to be deceived by them But as the Conscience being once broken up easily lyes open to any after Breach So they having deflowred it with the first perjury of the Covenant stuck not much at the Engagement a Promise as contradictory to the Covenant as the Covenant it self had been to their Oaths of Allegiance and Canonical obedience and lastly their recognising and doing homage to Cromwell who had setled himself with the Power though not the Title of King and with an House of Lords seemed no less to throw off and contradict their Engagement We see here the compass of their Religious swallow All oaths could down with them but none hold them out of all which they could with the greatest facility find a way to creep forth and interpret away the obligation of an Oath as easily as if it were an Act of Parliament But the only thing these thorough-paced swearers at length stick at is the Subscription lately required by Law made and enacted by Parliament and confirmed by the Royal assent that is by all the legislative Power this Nation owns This they cannot subscribe to why because they cannot renounce an Oath imposed by part of a Rebell Parliament without and against the Royal assent and by which they swore off all former lawfull Oaths binding themselves to prosecute that Rebellious War This they will not they cannot renounce and therefore desire only for a while to be dispenced with and Indulged till they come to be in a capacity once more to put it in Execution How far Persons owning such an obliga●…ion and venting such maxims and Doctrines as are here faithfully and truely represented out of their printed Sermons are like to advance or perhaps at all to comport with the Peace of the Kingdom is left to the serious Consideration of those with whom the preservation of that Peace is entrusted whose Prudence being alarm d with such spiritual fire-balls will we hope begin to look about to distinguish between Conscience Contempt If any should now plead their being instrumental to the reduction of his Majesty for their vindication from the charge of these assertions too notorious to be

be said they intend not to hurt the Kings Person yet might I not as well have hurt his Person in the day of Battel a●… any of them that were swept away from ab●…ut him by the fury of the Ordnance which put no difference twixt King and Common Souldiers Pag. 19. They answer by faying That though this is the hardest case that can be put against Defensive Armes yet first By what Rule of Conscience or God is a state bound to sacrifize Religion Laws and Liberties rather than endure that the Prince his Life should come into any possibilities of hazard by defending them against those that in his Name are bent to subdue them Pag. 18. Secondly If he wi●…l needs thrust himself upon the hazard when he needs not whose fault is that And a little after in the same Answer As if a King disguized should offer any private violence a watchman that would not or even might not hurt him being known were without blame if he knock'd him down or killed him as he might in like case a disorderly private person Now in Battel to many or most and especially to the Gunners that give fire to the Ordnance he is altogether disguised and so they are blameless in reference to his personal hurt that fault is wholly his own and those wicked Counsellors that have thrust him upon the fury of the Battel Pag. 20. To Doctor Ferne's saying It is a marvellous thing that among so many Prophets reprehending the Kings of Israel and Judah for their Idolatry cruelty and oppression none should call upon the Elders of the people for this duty of resistance They Answer That even in the reign of the best Kings not onely the Peoples hearts were usually unprepared and in their greatest seemings hypocritical and treacherous but also the Princes Elders and Nobles were exceedingly corrupt Now if they were so bad in good times who can marvel if they were stark naught where the King was naught and helpers forwarders of his Idolatries Cruelties and Oppressions And why should it then be expected that the Prophets should call upon them to resist the King being on their side and they on his Pag. 20. 21. It is not absolutely true that men are bound Universally as by an Ordinance of God to set up live under Government in the Doctors sense that is absolutely and without power to resist Pag. 31. Either all mankind are not bound to be under Government and all the Doctors te●…ts and reasons are alleged in vain or else Kings and Monarchs are also under some Government at least of the Representative Body of their people according to what was before alleged from our Lawyers Rex non habet superiorem praeter legem Curiam Comitum Baronum c. Pag. 32. We argue not that the people have power to recall that Regal Authority wholly upon any Case of Mal-administration All that we plead for is Power to administer a part of it upon Necessity which he will not administer for good but rather for evil And there are not many things that were altogether ours and in our disposing before we part with them but are still so far Ours to use them again in our Necessity for that turn at least Pag. 35. A Prince onely inherits what was given the first of the Nation or others since by consent of the people and by written Law or Custome he must claim any power he will exercise or else he cannot plead any right title to it and his qualification of power admits of Increase or Decrease as he and the people agree and consent His power is altogether derived by Election and Consent first and last whence I will infer no more but as before that therefore in Case of necessity the people may use so much of it as may suffice to save themselves from Ruine Pag. 39. The late Usurpers own'd as a Holy State set up by Almighty God MAster Sam. Slater in a Sermon Preached at S. Edmunds Bury in Suffolk upon the 13. of Octob. 1658. Being a day set apart for Solemn Fasting and Humiliation and seeking a blessing upon His Highness the Lord Protector This Sermon he intitles The Protectors Protection or the Pious Prince guarded by a Praying People In this Sermon Pag. 57 58. He hath these words Oh! pray for your Governours and in a more special manner for him whom God hath made chief over you and by his Providence called to the Supreme place of Magistracy in the Nation God hath been pleased of late to make a sad breach among Us taking away from Us our former Pilot the late Renowned Protector who when he had fought the Nations Battels carried us thorow the wilderness preserved us from the rage and fury of our Enemies and brought us within s●…ght of the promised Land gave up the Ghost laid down his leading Staff and his life together with whose fall the Nation was shaken his death covered all the faces of sober and considerate Persons with paleness and their hearts with sadness as if Peace Prosperity Resormation the Gospel all lay drawing on and would be buried in the same grave with him But b●…essed be God Divine Grace vouchsafed to cast an eye towards us and to visit us in our low estate there is another Pilot placed in his room VVhile he directs the Course let us fill the Sails with our Praying breath Moses it is true is dead but we have a Joshua succeeding him let us pray that what the other happily begun this may more happily finish and bring the accomplishment of all your right-bred hopes and what they said to Joshua let us say unto his Highness According as we hearkned unto Moses in all things so will we hearken unto thee onely the Lord they God be with thee as he was with Moses Jos. 1. 17. And pag. 60. Our Prince riseth gloriously pray that he might n●…t set in a cloud Our hopes concerning him are great pray that they may not be blasted Thus He. Mr. Baxter in his Five Disputations of Church-Government and Worship in the Epistle Dedicatory to Richard Cromwel He delivers the sense of his Party in these words MAny are perswaded you have been strangely kept from participating in any of our late bloody Contentions that God might make you a Healer of our Breaches and imploy you in that Temple-work which David Himself might not be Honour'd with And he adds This would be the way to lift you highest in the Esteem and love of all Your people and make them see that You are appointed by God to be an Healer and Restorer and to glory in You and to bless God for you as the Instrument of our chiefest good My earnest Prayers for your Higness shall be that you may rule us as One that is ruled by God c. The same Mr. Baxter in his Holy Common-wealth in the Epistle Dedicatory or Preface to the Army pag. 6. He call'd those Usurping Powers that