Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	law_n	subject_n	7,302	5	7.0719	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36115	A discourse upon questions in debate between the King and Parliament. With certaine observations collected out of a treatise called, The diffrence between Christian subjection, and unchristian rebellion.	Bilson, Thomas, 1546 or 7-1616. True difference betweene Christian subjection and unchristian rebellion.	1643 (1643)	Wing D1625; ESTC R14262	15,515	16

than to say I thanke you if they did not chuse rather by force to justifie injustice rapine and oppression then to have any actions of themselves or ministers called by such names doubtlesse in a short time they could not chuse but arrive at an almost absolute dominion For the arguments used to div●rt from honest accommodation● with the people doe not appeare to me that ever they were entertain'd by those Heroick Prince● that have fill'd the stories of all ages with their high and exc●llent glories but by some of narrow and limited qualifications for government one argument i● That if the same wayes of munificence and bounty by which some Princes have ingratiated t●emselves shoul● for some descents of Princes be pursued the Crown regall Authority and revenue would be destroyed and nothing left whereby to oblige the people or wherein ●o be liberall ' T●s true indiscreet prosution hath consumed many Princes and that is indiscreet that is misimployed and lost it never avail'd that I have heard to the advanceme●t of any nor doth it extend much further than the Kings chamber nor is it any Motive of affection in the people to heare that the King is liberall of his purse to his servants and Favourites A Princes bounty shines in a little spheare if compared with the pe●ples as his estate i● small compared with the revenue of the whole Common-wealth his liberality cannot extend to all his subjects theirs may to him it is ●ot that vertue that exalts him in the opinion of the people And yet it is a liberality but not co●sumptive to his estate nor destructive to his authority but accumulative to both liberality justice whereof the impartiall distribution hath raised Princes into the ranke of Gods And I am verily perswaded if there should fall out to bee so happy a race of Princes who disposing all particular interests should advance only publike justice and utility The Armes trafficke and tranquillity of their people the honour industry and spirit of the Nations under their command that in a few descents they would become absolute and clearely acquitted from all obligation to Lawes or at least the execution would bee so long intermitted that with much difficulty they would ever come in force and the restitution seeme as great an innovation as of late hath been thought of Lawes in force long-layed aside for want of use And in the times of such Princes we heare no t●lke of prerogative or liberty the one is surrendred to the will of the Prince the other imployed to the advantage of the people and it is an infallible signe of great distempers in government when such disputes arise To conclude the Prerogative is a trust which because no lawes are large enough to meet with all accedents resides of necessity in the person or body politick where the Soveraignty resides And it is true t●e King is trusted by God with this Prerogative as all in authority are in their degree to discharge themselves piously towards him hone●●●y ●o those under their command He is also trusted by his Subjects who doe not say they may resume their power upon breach of trust but say they ought ●ot to bee denie● when they desire those breaches to bee repaired and better fortified for time to come and the trust exemplified into a Law as occasion shall requ●re Nor is it re●sonable for ●ny Prince in the world to say I have beene tr●sted and if I or my Ministers have not in these and these particulars well di●charged ●hat trust yet wee will bee trusted still and you shall beleeve that matters shall be better herea●ter What the priviledges of Parliament are i● another great question i● under the tearme be comprised the King the Lords and Commons the question may be better made what is not within the power and priviledge of Parliament for 't is on all hands confessed that the common-wealth may di●pose of it selfe but if the King be divided from them what are then priviledge● truly none at all if they cannot make a t●mporary provision to ●ave themselves without the Kings licence for take away safety and priviledge is gone If they be safe yet if it be better knowne to their adversaries then themselves and that the continuance be at disc●et●on and good pleasure of another if any be a more competent Iudge of their safety then them●elves they have no priviledge at all say what they will Nor can it possible be that both houses have power to preserve the body of the kingdom which they repres●nt if there not be an inherent e●sentiall and underived authority in ●h●t assembly to preserve it selfe ●is granted in the P●inces minority absence or incap●ssity to gove●ue the power to preserve and provide for the state rests in the great counsell and their diligates doubtlesse the case is the s●me if it be on like manner granted that the P●ince is divided from the body of his people ●y evill counsell to prove if the counsell be good or bad examine the legali●y it appeares in his Maiesties expres●es and that of most remarke is to declare law which being denied to the great counsell must needs be taken to reside in the King and his privie counsell To have sole managing of the arms of the kingdome And upon misprision of treason to sequester membe●s of Parliament to tryall in inferior Cou●●s If this counsell he legall t' is good If his Majestie were admitted the best Lawyer in the kingdom Yet if the laws of this Kingdome have reserved the exposition of themselves to the Law-makers and not to the K. the advise● to appropriate that power to himself is not good ●hat they haue done so presidents are not wanting where the J●dges have humbly praid both houses to deliver ●heir sence of a doubtfull law If these commissions of Array and breach of priviledges be declared illegall by them that have only power to declare law in dubious cases then the advise by which they were done is not good yet concerning this ●cruple of declaring law It 's true the Parliament cannot declare that to be law which is not They cannot declare it to be the law of the land that my b●o●he● by a second venter shall inherit my land before my kinsman ten degrees off though that were great reason but they can declare that there rests no power by vertue of any trust in any person to convert the forces of the kingdome to the destruction of it selfe And they may declare it legall to stop the a●ven●●●es and appro●hes to such power if it be attempted his Majesty may array Arm and command his subjects against the Fr●nch and Spaniard not therfore to fight one against another he may Array arm and command them to suppresse Rebels ●o legality declared not therefore to oppresse the Parliament th●se are not very cons●quent to a reasonable man It is no strange nor are the examples rare to find how much Princes may bee mistaken in the councellor●

repentance to reduce the Parliament to termes of due obedience to save a multitude of offenders to weede out of both houses those factious members that insist so obstinately upon a trust reposed in them to distill out of the delinquent City of London much cordiall water to save the labour charge and hazards of warre to save the purses persons and horses of the willing Gentry who labour for those fetters such is the understanding of this time that their Fathers swet to be rid from For if armes be raised onely against a smal malignant party a faction of a few Parliament men The Major number would quickly deliver them up and what place could afford safety for them against the Ire of his Majesty and both Houses of Parliament To such as put these Questions What is the power and priviledge of Parliament by what Law doe they impose Orders upon the people without the Kings Assent they seeme to me like them that dispute how legally the next houses are pulled downe when the flame and windes make cruell vastation in the beautifull buildings of a populous Citie They are honest m●n and would faine be thought wise but I doubt it is not in the o be of their understa●ding to comprehend● what power resides in the vast body of the people and how unlimitedly that power operates when it is animated by danger for preservation of it selfe A man may make the same observation upon them that is made upon Cato who pleaded the Lawes and usages of peaceable times when the liberty of that Common-wealth was at the last ●aspe and would not be drove off it till it was too late his argument was this in effect That the Authors of Lawes for preservation of the Common-wealth may not preserve it but by their owne Creature This was Cato his error and is so confessed by all men yet I take it he was a better Statesmen then these disputants The King was admitted Judge of the danger of the Common-wealth before the Parliament and it was appara●t for no other reason but the better to levy mony Shall the Parliament sitting be a lesse compatent Judge As though a Physitian that saith you are not well though you do not perceive it Give me five or ten peeces I will c●re you shall be the better beleeved then the man that hath been wasted with a Quotidian Fever sixteen yeeres together They talke what the Parliament may doe and what not as though this were the Parliament that made an Act for pavement of an high-way and had little other worke Truely if the regulation of a Trade or creation of a Tenure or erection of a Corporation were the Question in a peaceable time it were easily resolved that the Kings demurre should stand for a denia●l but to say the Kingdome may not defend and secure it selfe who ever saith to the contrary is to fight against the oldest and best knowne Law in nature the Center of all Lawes and the inseparable right of all Kingdomes Corporations and Creatures But they say the Kingdome is in no such danger who is a better Judge the repres●ntative body of the Kingdom it selfe not those that say so Who like a man that standing upon the beach at Dover will not beleeve that the Sea hath any shore towards Fra●co untill he be brought to the top of the Hill It is not within their view to tell better then the Parliament whether there be danger or not His Majestie indeed hath the most eminent place to observe what Collection of Clouds are in any quarter of the Heaven and what weather it wi●● be but his calculations supposed to be made by others from a lower ground are therefore not so well beleeved But be it in danger or none it matters not much the Lawes have been in danger● none will deny and were recovered by another danger or had been lost I● it be now peace as th●se men say it is the better time to secure them● if it be not peace it is well to save the Common-wealth by any means whatsoever and if the King concurre not so speedily as the occasion requires the b●ame is not theirs that go before for his preservation and their own To make an end I wish an union of the three Kingdomes under the same Government● Ecclesiasticall and Cavell if it be possible that this Crowne having three such supporters and surrounded with the salt waters at Unitie at Libertie at Peace in it self may not fear the whole forces of the disjoynted contenent of Europe That his Majestie would understand his Interest to be to unite not to divide his Subjects and to remember with what Tropheyes the magnanimous Princes of former times have adorned their Funerals and Fame That he will chuse rather to fight in the head of the Brittish Armies for restitution of his Nephews to their lost inheritance than imploy them here to pillage and destroy his own subjects That he will first command the hearts then the persons then the estates of his subjects and not begin at the wrong end That in the Parliament may reside a Spirit of that Latitude and Noblenesse which ought to dwell in an Assembly of so much Honour and Gravitie That just things be done for justice sake without bowing lesse or more for the raging of popular surges in the South● or for the cold winds that blow from the North That the conditions of peace may not be enhansed by any prosperous successe but like the Noble Romane before and after the victorie the same That his Majestie may be convinced of the Errour of his private Councels by finding in the Grand Councell a quiet repose and a stable foundation of peace and plentie to his Royall Person and Familie And lastly since his Majestie and his people thus divided cannot be happie that with all convenient Expedition such as have studied this division between the Head and the Body may h●ve their heads divided from their bodies So farewell Certain Observations Collected out of a Treatise called The difference between Christian Subjection and unchristian Rebellion Compiled by that judicious and learned Divine Tho Bilson then Warden of Winchester since Bishop there necessary in these times to be perused Theophilus the Christian Philander the Jesuite Theop. CAses may fall out even in Christian Kingdomes where the people may plead their right against the Prince and not be charged with Rebellion Phil. As when for example Theop. If a Prince should goe about to subject his Kingdome to a foraigne Realme or change the forme of the Common-wealth from impery to tyranny or neglect the Lawes established by common consent of Prince and People to execute his owne pleasure in these and other Cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons joyne together to defend their ancient and accustomed liberty Regiment and Lawes they may not well be counted Rebels Phil. You denied that even now when I did urge it Theop. I denied that Bishops had authority to prescraibe Conditions to Kings when they Crowned them but I never denyed that the People might preserve the foundation freedome and forme of their Common-wealth which they foreprized when they first consented to have a King I never said that Kingdomes and Common-wealths might not proportion their States as they thought best by their publique Lawes which afterwards the Princes themselves may not violate By superiour powers ordained of God we understand not onely Princes but all politicke States and Regiments somewhere the People somewhere the Nobles having th esame interest to the sword that Princes have in their Kingdomes and in Kingdomes where Princes beare rule by the sword we doe not mean the Princes private wil against his Laws but his precept desired from his aws agreeing with his Laws which though it be wicked yet it may not be resisted of any Subject with armed violence Marry when Princes offer thei● Subjects no● justice but force and despize all Lawes to practice their lusts not every nor any private man may take the sword to redresse the Prince but if the Lawes of the Land appoint the Nobles as next to the King to assist him in doing right and with-hold him from doing wrong then they be licensed by mans Law and so not prohibited by Gods to interpose themselves for the safe-guard of equity and innocence and by all lawfull and needfull meanes to procure the Prince to be reformed but in no case deprived where the Scepter is inherited c. FINIS Allowed by publike Anthority to be set forth as in the title page may appear The third part pag 279. verbatim In some Cases the Nobles commons may stand for the Publike Regiment and Lawes of their Countrey Christian Kingdomes may settle their States with common consent of Prince and people which the Prince alone cannot alter The Princes sword his Law not his ●ust Princes may be stayed from tyranny by their own Realmes though not deposed