Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	5,724	5	4.8029	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85713	The sage senator delineated: or, A discourse of the qualifications, endowments, parts, external and internal, office, duty and dignity of a perfect politician. With a discourse of kingdoms, republiques, & states-popular. As also, of kings and princes: to which is annexed, the new models of modern policy. / By J.G. Gent.; De optimo senatore. English	Goślicki, Wawrzyniec, 1530-1607.; Grimefield, John,; J. G., Gent.	1660 (1660)	Wing G2027; Thomason E1766_1; ESTC R10030	85,759	226

and fields like brute Animals were first by Cecrops and after by Theseus confined to a City which was then called Cecropia now Athens and at length reduced to a Kingdom descendable to their Posterity But what authority the Senate had under those Kings which order did represent the Optimacie cannot be manifested or apparently known by reason of the length of time and multitude of years since elapsed as also the paucity of those Writers that have any waies discoursed thereon Yet we must believe that Kings had in those daies their Sages or Wisemen about them and made use of their counsel in the management of their political affairs The Kings of that Age as Thucydides writes did rule by consent of People and with their suffrages did many times determine those things whereof they themselves were doubtful Yet that Government was of short continuance for in tract of time which altereth all things it was committed to the multitude whose force and power did utterly subvert the Commonwealth The Lacedaemonian State seemed to contain all the three sorts of Government viz. King Nobles and People the Nobles were their Senators and the People were the Ephori for they were alwaies elected out of the number of popular men Now the Lacedaemonians are very much extolled in that for the space of seven hundred years compleat they have continued without any alteration of their Laws Customs or Government But the Venetians in that respect may challenge a greater portion of glory for they have till this very present Age of ours constantly lived under one Form of Government and Governours the space of one thousand years and better Now the Venetians in framing their Republick do include within the name of People Gentlemen and Citizens being very careful to oppose any other if he presume or dare usurp that title because they only are capable of Magistracy The Senate is chosen out of that number that represents an Optimacie and is the foundation as it were of that State The Duke is elected out of that number that resemble Kings Polybius doth very much extol the Roman Monarchy because it was made up of the King Nobility and People supposing that by this means the King for fear of the People durst not become insolent and the People out of respect to the Senate durst not disobey the King Which Form of Republick is accounted most just For as perfect harmony is made up of Treble Mean and Base so the best and surest agreement among men and the most stable Government is established by the mixture of the Best the Mean and the Base people Romulus saith Livy being as we have already mentioned by consent both of God and men elected King though the State was then but an Embryo refused to have the reins of Government lie altogether upon his own shoulders and did therefore call unto his assistance one hundred Senators who out of respect to their Age and Gravity were called Fathers And lest the People should suppose that they were hereby deluded misled and defrauded of all honour and thereby envy and malignity might ensue to the prejudice of the King or Senate He made them Judges and gave them full power and authority to sit and determine War and conclude peace with many other priviledges thereunto annexed And if this model of Government had still continued in Rome there had not been so great an effusion of bloud in aspiring after Liberty and enlarging the Territories of the Roman Empire Nor had the happiness of that Country been shaken with so many seditions which did at length work her ruine and desolation for she was observed to be very little acquainted with peace all the time she stood upon her own legs ever since she was able to go alone But now let us take the Governments of our Age into consideration and first of the French Monarchy which owns a King who rules ad placitum at his own discretion and although his authority come not under the lash of the Law yet like an honourable and just Prince he acts nothing contrary to Law or Honour In his Kingdom the Noblemen which they call Peers represent an Optimacie the People are divided into three sorts Gentlemen Clergy-men and the popular Multitude and a choice number of these three assembled together by the Kings Edict or Command determine matters of greatest importance in the Kingdom This Council was anciently called Panceltium as the Aetolians named theirs Panaetolium and the universal Council of the Ionians was termed Panionium though since as we have already hinted by reason of the English wars there the King got all authority into his own hands so that his word carries as much force and validity with it as the former acts of Parliament which were their three Estates conven'd and met together As for the Spanish Monarchy the King there hath Soveraign authority and power the Council-Royal represents an Optimacie and the three prime Orders of Knighthood may be compared to the popular State For the Order of St Jago Collatrava and Alcantara assembled with the King decide the most important State-controversies and affairs The Monarchy of Polonia consists likewise of these three sorts i. e. The King Nobility and People but it is to be noted that this word People here denotes only Knights and Gentlemen The Union and Fellowship of these orders is so admirable that the King without the advice of his Council and their authority can do nothing nor can the Council determine without the King's approbation and the Peoples consent In this Kingdom the Laws are of so great force that every man religiously swears to keep and observe them and if any person act contrary to that Oath he is accounted unjust and impious Now that Oath by which they swear to be strict in the observance of their Laws and Liberty is in their vernacular language called Captue which is as much as Tegmen capitis in Latine for as the head is kept in health and preserved from the injury of the nipping weather by being covered so by vertue of that Oath their Laws Lives and Liberties are conserved and to maintain it no man is so fearful as not to venture his life against Tyrants and all such as endeavour to cut the wings of publick Liberty and Happiness This people enjoy great freedom being principled with this perswasion that to live according to the direction of the Law is the most absolute Liberty in the World In this Kingdom the Prince follows not the dictamen of his own will and fancy but sticks close to the Rule of the Law In waging war or concluding peace he makes use of his Council never transgressing Law which works this effect that the Kings person is not only honoured among the people but had in high reverence and estimation so that he may be said to be adored rather than obeyed And who indeed is there that would not entirely love honour respect and reverence that Prince that in governing steers himself

Looking-glass wherein he discerns their loves Now the Subjects love hath been ever accounted the prime Citadel of a Prince In his Parliament he appears as the Sun in the Meridian in the Altitude of his Glory in his highest State-Royal as the Law informs us But lest we should spin out too long a thread and so wear the Readers Patience thread-bare we will conclude this first Book and make the discourse which we allot for the scope and Subject of our next run in another Channel Finis Libri Primi THE Second Book TREATING Of KINGS and their PREROGATIVE CHAP. I. EK {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A Jove Principium In the Trinity we find Unity Among the Orders of Angels there is an Archangel The Heavens have their Primum mobile and the Sun is their chief Luminary The Beasts of the Forest have the Lion to their King The Fowls of the Air the Eagle The Fish of the Sea a Soveraign And shall man only be Independent Absit Absit let us therefore sing with Homer {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Kings saith one of our quondam Pen-men though since an Apostate are lively Representations living Statues or Pictures drawn to the life of the great Deity these Pictures for their better continuance are done in Oyl the colours of the Crown never fade they are no water-colours They are Gods Vicegerents here upon earth nay God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost say they are Gods and would have them live as Gods God the Father plainly affirms Joh. 10. 34. Dixi dii est is I have said ye are Gods God the Son told Pilat● Thou shouldst have no power except it were ●●…ta de super given from above And I 'm sure the Holy Ghost tells us Per me Reges regnant By me Kings reign and not by the suffrage of the people for then it would have been per nos They are the Lord 's anointed therefore not to be touch'd or brought in question by their Subjects for all the failings in a King can but make him a bad King but he remains a King still If indeed as one saith excellently Kings held their Crowns by Indentures from the People they were then disobliged from their obedience to him upon his failing in those things whereunto he was sworn at his Coronation on his part but if they receive their Crowns immediately from God and that by him alone Kings raign as is said before then they must still stick close to their Allegiance or else come off with the brand of Traytors Our modern times have furnished us with too many of that infernal rabble who were so hellishly wicked and impious as to fight against their lawful Soveraign and having got him in their clutches slew him at his own door But to the purpose The Athenians as Demosthenes writes in his Oration against Neaera when Theseus had contrived the model of their Commonwealth being accustomed to choose some one out of the number of the vertuous by a general consent manifested by holding up their hands they elected him King In ancient times the election of Kings was ever held sacrum divinum quid a certain holy and divine action among the very Heathens Romulus after the sight of twelve Ravens if we may credit Livy or rather because the lightning had pierced his body from the left to the right side as Dionysius hath it was by divination chosen King and that ordinance called Jus Auspiciorum was religiously obeyed Their authority hath been judged ever as divine as their election for Homer and Isocrates joyntly affirm That he that governeth as a King represents the Deity The Kings of Persia were honour'd as Gods and the people believed that they were the sole and absolute defenders of their Laws Liberties Lives and Country The ancient Latines called their Kings Indigetes that is deified as Aeneas and Romulus were whose bodies after they were expired could never be found Kings are the Sons not of the most voices but of the most High and as God is King of the whole Universe so are they Lords of the whole Commonwealth About their skirts they have this Motto written by the finger of God Touch not mine Anointed Nor did ever any Church-man Christian Father or Expositor obtrude any other sence upon this Text than that it was meant of Kings till such time as the Puritan and Papist both at a time and that time bearing not above 100. years date who began then to infect the world with this damnable doctrine That it was Lawful to murder Kings It is strange that two such contrary factions that had ever been antipathetical one to the other should nevertheless like Herod and Pilate agree in condemning the Lord's Anointed Dieu mon Droit is their Motto God and my Right no body else have any thing to do with me They have a Noli me tangere to defend them from the assaults of rebellious Subjects Yet although Kings are counted God's Lieutenants or Adjutant-Generals the Council Wisdom and Knowledge of Kings is not their own but given them by God who is the Author of every good and perfect gift according to that verse of the Holy Pen-man {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And since I say no King can with his own peculiar stock of wisdom govern his Kingdom rightly for it is the prerogative of the Almighty only to know all things that appertain to good Government they have ever used to call unto their aid and assistance some wise grave men by whose advice and counsel the Kingdom might be well regulated These men being as a mean between the King and the People do on the one hand understand the Office of the King and on the other the Duty of the Subject knowing what course must be taken for the preservation of the Kings Honour and Royal Prerogative and what belongs to the profit and benefit of his good and Loyal Subjects Thus a King may govern all things well not only by his own opinion which may oftentimes prove deceitful but by the general advice and counsel of others whereby his judgement and reason is brought to perfection And as the hand divided into many fingers is thereby made more strong and apt to lay hold on all things so he that governs by the aid and assistance of Councellors will manage all publike affairs tending to the benefit of the Kingdom and Country whereof he is Soveraign with the greater discretion and wisdom for a single person is not able to manage all affairs without additionall help Alexander King of Macedonia conquered many Countries and subjugated a multitude of Enemies Pyrrhus was excellent at the choice of places for Fortification Hannibal was often attended with success in Victory but knew not how to make the best improvement of it Vincere scis Hannibal uti Victoria nescis Philopoemon was a

Virgin Justice had her residence in the mind of man dictating unto him Laws and Precepts whereby he led an upright life without exercising any fraud deceit or collusion But as soon as men tired with the strict discipline of justice began to covet their neighbours goods offer injuries and neglect the restauration of what they had taken no upon credit immediately hate dissimulation enmity and war sprung up and gave way to the invention of martial weapons as well offensive as defensive and that in so furious a manner as might force Justice nay compel Jupiter himself to give place thus as sweet-tongued Ovid sings Terras Astraea reliquit She made her self wings and flew to heaven for sanctuary whereever since she hath taken up her habitation And hence it is that we have recourse to heaven in our dayly Orizons for justice Homer used to term Kings inspired with the wisdome of good Government Sons of Jupiter and we style them Gods Vicegerents And since reason cannot prevail with us so far as thereby to lead a quiet peaceable and just life we must have recourse to justice who by her Laws admonisheth corrects and honours us preparing rewards for good and storing up punishments for evill actions This justice according to Ulpianus is a constant desire or fixed resolution to bestow upon every man that which of right belongs unto him Now the ordaining and enacting of Laws appertains to a Counsellor as the most discreet person and fit for that office And Plato teacheth that these things are to be observed in constituting Laws Acts or Ordinances The Legislator must enact them with a paternal love that may cause a reciprocation of filial duty not with a Lordly tyrannical intent yet framing them to the terror of malefactors who neither regard Law nor reason according to that known Hexameter Sic volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas My will is the only Law that I own or acknowledge Besides he must be sure that his Laws contain no more prescription of commands than discipline of manners that the severity of the one may be mitigated by the gentleness of the other And the intent and end of all Law is that men may be felicitated thereby as far as comes within the compass of humanity and that offenders may receive a punishment sutable to their crimes of necessity and not on set purpose which moved Justinian to make a triple division of legal precepts To live honestly prejudice no man and give to every one his due He therefore that doth abandon the Law and follows the dictates of his own corrupt will contemning the Statutes of a Kingdom is guilty of a notorious crime as well as he that denies God Nature or Reason Heraclitus that stream'd away his time in tears was wont to say That all men were as deeply engaged to defend their Laws as the walls of their City and his reason was because that a wall-less City might be preserved but a Lawless one could never by all the strength of humane invention For by Laws they expel idleness the mother of Vice which renders the mind effeminate and makes it grow wanton Cato said as truly as pithily Nihil agendo male agere didicerunt By doing nothing the people learn'd to do ill Diodorus mentions a certain Law that was among the Aegyptians whereby every Subject was compelled to give in his name to the Magistrates withall declaring what kind of life he most affected how he lived and what Art he exercised And if he were found to give a false account of his life he was put to death Draco seeing the Citizens wasteful made a Law that he that was found idle should be executed which being too severe and rigid Solon did qualifie punishing that offence with infamy only By the imperial Law it is provided that idle sloathful and thriftless Subjects be either whipt to death or enslaved In every Kingdom there are certain exercises both for peace and war Some are bred up Clergy-men Counsellors and Judges others Captains Commanders and Souldiers that so the Kingdom may be furnished with Subjects in Peace or War and by their actions the Country may be defended from the invading enemy and her Territories or skirts enlarged Nor must Laws be often altered for as soon as the people perceive any mutation their minds being prone to innovation they presently desire all the rest be changed and subverted though sometimes necessity requires that they be corrected or reformed The least mutation in a Kingdom is of dangerous consequence breeding a contempt of Laws and sedition also Wherefore the Locrenses had a Law that if any man did invent a new Law he should propose it to the people in publike with a halter about his neck to the end that if it were judged pernicious or unprofitable he should be forthwith hang'd as an Author of evill And it doth very much concern Princes and Counsellors to walk according to those Laws they ordain for it is odious to be Legislator Legis violator a Law-maker and a Law-breaker for there is nothing that Subjects so much look upon as the lives of their Superiors Regis ad exemplum totus componitor orbis All Nations all the World over follow the example of a King which if he steer his actions according to Justice finds Subjects obedient and loyal who will keep close to their allegeance Seleucus made a Law that whosoever was taken in adultery should be deprived of both his eyes Afterwards his Son was found guilty of that Crime his Subjects went to mediate desiring him to sign his pardon but their suit prevailed no otherwise then that first he caused one of his Sons eyes to be put out and then one of his own that so the severity and reputation of Law might be observed and that the force thereof might be in more esteem than the authority of men The ends why Laws were ordained were two The one that men may understand Justice and have entertainment among them the other that it may continue The first is the duty of the Law-maker who frameth the people in the mould of Vertue And the second is the Office of the Judge who is to suppress the exorbitancies of offenders and preserve the rights and priviledges of his Country Now it often falls out that dubious businesses and those matters of concernment too are brought before a Judge expecting his determination Wherefore he must reduce that to equality which he thinketh unequal not unlike a line cut into unequal parts and that part which is found too long is cut shorter and so added to the other So doth the Judge who is the Living Law and Oracle of the Kingdom Nor must he pass a sentence upon any matter or decide any cause before he hath heard both Plaintiff and Defendant and examined all their Witnesses For as Seneca hath it most excellently Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera Aequum licet statuerit haud aequus fuerit He must