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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	act_n	king_n	law_n	3,407	5	4.5886	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50542	Jus regium, or, The just, and solid foundations of monarchy in general, and more especially of the monarchy of Scotland : maintain'd against Buchannan, Naphthali, Dolman, Milton, &c. / by Sir George Mackenzie ...	Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.; Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691. That the lawful successor cannot be debarr'd from succeeding to the crown.	1684 (1684)	Wing M162; ESTC R39087	83,008	208

and so they were excluded by Law and no man can be said to be illegally excluded from his Seat in Parliament who is excluded by a clear Statute 2 dly If this were not a good answer then the Papists might pretend that they are unjustly excluded because they will not take the Oath of Supremacy and because they are Papists and how can the Fanaticks pretend to make this objection since they by the same way excluded the Kings Loyal Subjects in the Year 1647. and 1649. c. Or how would these Authors have rail'd at any Malignant for using this Argument against them which they use now most impudently against us with far less justice for their Parliaments were unjust upon other Heads as being inconsistent with the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and so their acts of exclusion were null in themselves 3 dly All the Statutes made since 1661. are necessary consequences of former Laws and so are rather renewed than new Laws 4 ly If this were allow'd there could be no end of controversie for all who are excluded would still alleadge that they were unjustly excluded and consequently there could be no submission to Authority and so no Society nor Peace The last answer that our Dissenters make when they are driven from all their other grounds is that they though the lesser are yet the sounder part of the Nation but this shift does not only overturn Monarchy but establishes Anarchy and though they were once settl'd in their beloved Commonwealth this would be sufficient to overturn it also for every little number of Dissenters nay and even the meanest Dissenter himself might pretend to be this sounder part of the Common-wealth but God Almighty foreseeing that pride or ignorance would suggest to frail Mankind this principle so inconsistent with all that Order and Government whereby he was to preserve the World he did therefore in his great Wisdom convince men by the Light of their own Reason that in matters of common concern which were to be determined by Debate the greater number should determine the lesser and such as drive beyond this Principle shall never find any certain Point at which they may rest and by the same Reason the Law has pronunc'd it safer to rest in what is decided though it be unjust than to cast loose the authority of Decisions upon which the peace and quiet of the Common-wealth does depend who would be so humble and just as to confess that his Adversary has the juster side Or who would obey if this were allow'd And what Idea of Government or Society could a man form to himself allowing once this principle It is also very observable that those who pretend to be the sounder part and deny obedience upon that account are still the most insolent and irregular of all the Society the greatest admirers of themselves and the greatest enemies to peace and so the unfitest to be Judges of what is the sounder part though they were not themselves parties But what pretence is there for that Plea in this case where the foundations of our Monarchy have been unanimously acknowledg'd by many different Parliaments in many different Ages chosen at first from the Dictats of Reason and confirm'd after we had in many Rebellions found how dangerous all those popular pretences are and in which we agree with the Statsmen Lawers and Divines of all the well Govern'd Nations under Heaven who are born under an hereditary Monarchy as it is confess'd we are To return then to the first of those Points I lay down as my first position that our Monarchs derive not their Right from the People but are absolute Monarchs deriving their Royal Authority immediatly from God Almighty and this I shall endeavour to prove first from our positive Law By the 2. Act Par. 1. Ch. 2 d. in which it is declar'd That His Majesty His Heirs and Successors have for ever by vertue of that Royol Power which they hold from God Almighty over this Kingdom the sole choice and appointment of Officers of State Counsellors and Judges But because this Act did only assert that our Kings did hold their Royal Power from God but did not exclude the people from being sharers in bestowing this Donative therefore by the 5 th Act of that same Parliament they acknowledge the Obligation lying on them in Conscience Honour and Gratitude to own and assert the Royal Prerogatives of the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom which the Kings Majesty holds from God Almighty alone and therefore they acknowledge that the Kings Majesty only by vertue of His Royal Prerogative can make Peace and War and Treaties with forraign Princes Because this last Statute did only assert that the King did hold His Imperial Crown from God alone but did not decide from whom our Kings did only derive their Power therefore by the 2 d· Act Par. 3 d Ch. 2 d. It is declar'd that the Estates of Parliament considering that the Kings of this Realm Deriving their Power from God Almighty alone they do succeed Lineally thereto c. Which Statutes do in this agree with our old Law for in the first Chapter of Reg. Magist. vers 3. These Words are That both in Peace and War our Glorious King may so Govern this Kingdom committed to Him by God Almighty in which He has no Superiour but God Almighty alone which Books are acknowledg'd to be our Law and are called the Kings Laws by the 54 th Act Par. 3 d Iam. 1. and the 115. Act Par. 14. Iam. 3. These our Laws both Ancient and Modern can neither be thought to be extorted by force nor enacted by flattery since in this we follow the Scripture the Primitive Church and their Councils the Civil Law and its Commentators and the wisest Heathens both Philosophers and Poets As to the Scripture God tells us That by him Kings Reign and that he hath anointed them Kings and that the King is the Minister of God David tells us That God will give strength to his King and deliverance to his King and to his Anointed Daniel sayes to Nebuchadnezar The God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom And to Cyrus God gave to Nebuchadnezar thy Father a Kingdom and for the Majesty that he gave him all Nations trembled As to the Fathers Augustin de Civit. Dei l. 5. c. 21. Let us not attribute unto any other the power of giving Kingdoms and Empyrs but to the true God Basil in Psal. 32. The Lord setteth up Kings and removeth them Tertul apol contra gentes Let Kings know that from God only they have their Empyre and in whose power only they are And Ireneus having prov'd this point fully ends thus l. 5. c. 24. By whose Command they are born men by his likewise they are ordain'd Kings This is also acknowledg'd by the Councils of Toledo 6. c. 14 of Paris 6. c. 5. vid Council aquis gran 3. c. 1. Amongst our late Divines Marca the famous Arch-bishop of Paris

IVS REGIVM Or the Just and Solid FOUNDATIONS OF MONARCHY In General and more especially of the MONARCHY of SCOTLAND Maintain'd against Buchannan Naphthali Dolman Milton c. BY Sir GEORGE MACKENZIE His Majesties Advocat 1 Sam. 10.26 27. 26. And there went with Saul a band of men whose hearts God had touched 27. But the Children of Belial said how shall this man save us and they despis'd him and brought him no presents but he held his peace EDINBVRGH Printed by the Heir of Andrew Anderson Printer to His most Sacred Majesty Anno DOM. 1684. The Design BVchannans Book De Iure Regni being lately Translated and many Copies dispers'd His Majesties Advocat in Duty to the King and Compassion to the People who are thus like to be poison'd has Written this Answer which was necessary notwithstanding of the Learn'd Answers made by Barclay and Blackwood since beside that theirs are in Latin and so not useful to the people it is conceiv'd they understood not fully our Law nor was our Law so clear then as now Many Arguments have been invented since their time by Dolman Milton Nephthaly c. And Experience has open'd our Eyes much since their time Blackwoods Arguments are Calculated for the Romish Church and Barclay has mistaken essential Points Theirs run upon History and Philology This upon our Law the Laws of Nations Reason and Conveniency And I am afraid it will be said that there are too many new thoughts in mine ERRATA Page 90. For Pliny Read Tacitus TO THE UNIVERSITIE OF OXFORD THe King my Master and His Royal Brother being by their natural goodness inclin'd to Pardon all Crimes except Flattery and by their Modesty to think all that Flattery which can be justly said of them I could not in prudence Dedicat this Book to Them since the first Part of it concerns the Right of the Monarchy and the second the Right of the Successor And therefore since to Support a Crown is the next Honour to the Bearing it this Dedication was due to you who have both in the last Rebellion and this Factious Age maintain'd the Royal Interest so learn'dly and generously Your late Decisions against the Fanaticks have almost made my Reasonings useless for your Authority will weigh as much as any privat mans Arguments And what should have more credit amongst men than an illustrious Company of Learn'd and pious Divines deciding for their Duty and Conscience against their Interest and Vanity Men who wish for no Crown save in Heaven and desire no power save over their own Lusts and Passions To the Episcopal Church God hath fulfilled that promise of making Kings their Nursing Fathers The true Heirs and best Scholars of the Primitive Church happier than it in this that they can practise its vertues without its necessities and need not Poverty to make them humble nor Armies to make them Loyal And who in it are so happy as you who can be submissive without being Slaves Firm without being Opiniatre Zealous without being Cruel and Pious without being Bigot To whom I cannot wish greater blessings than that your Fame may grow as great as your Loyalty That your Vniversitie may continue prosperous till an other grow more Learn'd and that all honest men may be as ready to serve you as Your sincere Welwisher and humble Servant Geo. Mackenzie THE Just Right OF MONARCHY In General but more especially of the KINGS of SCOTLAND asserted against Buchannan and others LVCIFER might in Reason have contented himself with that share of Knowledge Glory and Power which was bestowed upon him by his Almighty and Bountiful Soveraign And Adam should have rested satisfied with the Glory of having been made after the Image of God and with the being his Lieutenant in this lower World But there are such strong Charms in Ambition and Vanitie that the one resolved to hazard all that he possessed as being second rather than not try if he could be the first and the other desiring to improve his present share forefeited those Excellencies which he enjoyed How jealous then should frail and fallen man be in debates with those whom the Almighty has appointed to be his Vicegerents amongst them and to whom he has said Ye are Gods And how hard is it for us to Conquer that Vice which the one could not resist though he was all Light and the other though he was all Innocence What Nations under Heaven were so happie as we under the Reign of King Charles the First Secure against all Invasion from abroad by the situation of our Countrey and from all Oppression at home by its Laws and the gracious Concessions of our excellent Monarchs But more especially in that Age by the innat Vertues of that King who was severe to none but to himself and whose Prerogatives no Laws could bound so much as His own Goodness did And yet wearie with the burden of our own prosperity we lusted after new improvements of Liberty and Property And after we had emptied our own Veins and Purses in fighting for these all we gained was to be Slaves and Beggars And having kill'd for Religion a King who had more of it than all who fought against him we split our own Church into a thousand pieces and from its murthered Body did arise those Sectarians like so many Worms and Insects But yet God Almighty desiring to try us once more and make us for ever inexcusable did not only deliver us from that Slavery that we had drawn upon our selves but because we were all Crimes he gave us a King who was all Clemencie and who deserves to have been Elected if he had not been born our King And yet after that he had also condescended to all our new Extravagancies and that by His Conduct all Sciences flourish and Trade is so increased that Riches are become a Plague We are now troubled with Jealousies because we can be troubled with nothing else And murmuring against the gentlest and best of Kings we are tormented daily with Apparitions Visions Plots Pamphlets and Libels But under whom can we expect to be free from Arbitrary Government when we were and are afraid of it under King Charles the First and King Charles the Second And what King or Government can be secure from those who Conspire the death of this most merciful Prince and of this so ancient and so well moulded Government Amongst the other wicked Instruments in these Rebellions I must confess that our Countrey-men Buchannan one of the chief Ornaments and Reproaches of his native Countrey the Authors of Lex Rex Naphtali and Ius Populi Vindicatum have been Ring-leaders who have endeavoured extreamly to poison this Nation by perswading the People 1. That our Monarchs derive their Rights from them 2. That therefore since they derive their Right from the People they are accountable to them for for their Administration and consequently they may be suspended or deposed by them 3. That the People may Reform without them

Hist. lib. 8. anno 1531. The War that arose in Switzerland was not occasion'd by Religion for the Reformation was once establish'd with the con-consent of the Magistrat And the Eruption that was made by other Cantons upon the Reform'd Cantons eleven years after that Establishment Vide Slydan anno 1522. Nor was it Calvin who banish'd the Prince and Bishop of Geneva for he fled eight Months before upon the detecting of a Conspiracy by which that Bishop was to deliver over the Liberties of that City to the Duke of Savoy and for which his Secretary was hang'd Vide Turretin Annal. Reformationis anno 1529. And albeit those who Reform'd in Scotland in the Reign of Queen Mary pretended Authority from the King yet they were certainly Rebels and are condem'd by Rivet a famous Protestant Divine who also inveighs bitterly against this Principle Castiga Not. in Epist. ad Balsac cap. 13. num 14. sub finem From all which I observe First That all the Protestant Divines by making Apollogies for such of their Profession as have risen in Arms against Supream Powers must be thereby concluded to be asham'd of the Principle 2. Immediatly upon the quieting those Rebellions all the Protetestant Churches have in their Confessions of Faith declared their abhorrence of that Principle which being the product of Conviction and Experience joyn'd with Duty must be the most judicious and sincere Testimony of all others 3. All these Rebellions have been occasion'd by a mistake in point of Law and not in point of Religion for the Divines as I have related have been abused by the Lawyers And therefore since in the Isle of Britain the Laws of both Kingdoms have declared the Rising in Arms against the King to be Treason albeit for the defence of Religion it necessarily follows that this must be unlawful in point of Conscience in this Kingdom 4. Though good things may be occasion'd by a Rebellion yet that does not justifie a Rebellion for though Ieroboam was allow'd by God to rise against Rehoboam yet God Almighty himself calls his revolt Rebellion 1 Kings 12.19 and 2 Chron. 10.19 and it is observable that after this Revolt there was but one good King amongst all the rebellious Kings of Israel whereas amongst the Kings of Iudah who were lawful Kings there was but one or two who were any ways impious so far does God bless a lawful Succession Some also use as a shift against this Orthodox Doctrine that the reason why the Primitive Christians did not oppose their Emperors in the defence of the Christian Religion was because they had not been secured at that time in the Exercise of their Religion by the Laws of the Empire and therefore the practice of those Christians can be no Argument why we may not now rise to defend the Orthodox Religion since it is now established by Law But this Objection is fully answered by that great great Antiquary Samuel Petit. Diatriba de Iur. Principum edictis Ecclesiae quaesito where he clearly proves that they were actually secured by the Edicts of the Emperors in the days of the Emperor Tiberius and downward and yet they would not rise in Arms though they were persecuted under these same Emperors because the Word of God and the Christian Religion did command Obedience under Persecution and discharged Resistance and taking up of Arms. Add to Page 73. I have also seen in Fordon's History lib. 14. pag. 73. a Charter granted by King David to the Bishops with the consent of Robert his Nephew and his Sons giving power to the Bishops to dispone in Testament upon their own Moveables which before that time did by a corrupt custom fall to the King in which Charter the Witnesses are Robertus Senescallus Comes de Strathern Nepos noster Ioannes Senescallus Comes de Carrict filius suus primogenitus haeres Thomas Comes de Mar Georgius de Dunbar Comes de March Gulielmus Comes de Dowglass so that here is not only the attestation of the Father before he was King naming Iohn Earl of Carrick thereafter King Robert the 2 d. his eldest Son and Heir but the attestation of the Grand-Uncle King David who could be no ways byassed in the Affair and here he is ranked before the three eldest Earls in the Nation who were then the three first Subjects therein and it is against all Sense to think that the whole Bishops would have sought the consent of the said Iohn as Apparent Heir of the Crown if he had not been Apparent Heir I find also that Fordon calls him when he is crown'd King Primogenitus Roberti secundi nor was there the least opposition made to his Coronation nor to the Coronation of Annabella Drummond his Queen a Daughter of the House of Stob hall now Pearth though both the Sons of the second Marriage were then alive I find also that Boetius himself acknowledges that the Earl of Marches Son George being pursu'd for having married clandestinly one of the Daughters of Elizabeth Muir his defence was that he married her when she was the Daughter of a private Subject and before King Robert was King whereas if she had been only a Bastard-Daughter it could have been no Crime to have married her