Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A50940
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Pro populo adversus tyrannos, or, The sovereign right and power of the people over tyrants, clearly stated, and plainly proved with some reflections on the late posture of affairs / by a true Protestant English-man, and well-wisher to posterity.
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Milton, John, 1608-1674.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing M2164; ESTC R432
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21,897
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27
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hand against the Lords Anointed the matter between them was not Tyranny but private Enmity and David as a private Person had been his own Revenger not so much the Peoples but when any Tyrant at this day can shew to be the Lords Annointed the only mentioned reason why David withheld his hand he may then but not till then presume on the same Priviledge We may pass therefore hence to Christian times And first our Saviour himself how much he favour'd Tyrants and how much intended they should be found or honour'd among Christians declares his mind not obscurely accounting their absolute Authority no better than Gentilism yea though they flourish'd it over with the splendid name of Benefactors charging those that would be his Disciples to usurp no such dominion but that they who were to be of most Authority among them should esteem themselves Ministers and Servants to the Publick Matt. 20.25 The Princes of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and Mark 10.42 They that seem to Rule saith he either slighting or accounting them no lawful Rulers but ye shall not be so but the greatest among you shall be your Servant And although he himself were the meekest and came on Earth to be so yet to a Tyrant we hear him not vouchsafe and humble word But Tell that Fox Luke 13. And wherefore did his Mother the Virgin Mary give such praise to God in her Prophetick Song that he had now by the coming of Christ Cut down Dynasta's or proud Monarchs from the Throne if the Church when God manifests his power in them to do so should rather choose all misery and vassalage to serve them and let them still sit on their potent Seats to be Ador'd for doing Mischief Surely it is not for nothing that Tyrants by a kind of natural instinct both hate and fear none more than the true Church and Saints of God as the most dangerous Enemies and Subverters of Monarchy though indeed of Tyranny Hath not this been the perpetual cry of Courtiers and Court Prelates whereof no likelier cause can be alledg'd but that they well discern'd the mind and principles of most devout and zealous Men and indeed the very discipline of Church tending to the dissolution of all Tyranny No marvel then if since the faith of Christ receiv'd in purer or impurer times to Depose a King and put him to Death for Tyranny hath been accounted so just and requisite that neighbour Kings have both upheld and taken part with Subjects in the Action An Ludovicus Pius himself an Emperor and Son of Charles the Great being made Judge Du Haillan is my Author between Milegast King of the Vultzes and his Subjects who had depos'd him gave his Verdict for the Subjects and for him whom they had chosen in his room Note here that the right of Electing whom they please is by the impartial testimony of an Emperor in the People For said he A just Prince ought to be preferr'd before an unjust and the end of Government before the Prerogative And Constantinus Leo another Emperor in the Byzantine Laws saith That the end of a King is for the general good which he not performing is but the counterfeit of a King. And to prove that some of our own Monarchs have acknowledg'd that their high Office exempted them not from Punishment they had the Sword of St. Edward born before them by an Officer who was called Earl of the Palace even at the times of their highest Pomp and Solemnity to mind them saith Matthew Paris the best of our Historians that if they err'd the Sword had power to restrain them And what restraint the Sword comes to at length having both edge and point if any Sceptick will needs doubt let him feel It is also affirm'd from diligent search made in our ancient Books of Law that the Peers and Barons of England had a legal right to judge the King Which was the cause most likely for it could be no slight cause that they were call'd his Peers or Equals This however may stand immovable so long as Man hath to deal with no better than Man that if our Law judge all Men to the lowest by their Peers it should in all Equity ascend also and judge the Highest And so much I find both in our own and Foreign Story that Dukes Earls and Marquesses were at first not heriditary not empty and vain Titles but names of trust and office and with the office ceasing as induces me to be of Opinion that every worthy man in Parliament for the word Baron imports no more might for the publick good be thought a fit Peer and judge of the King without regard had petty Cavears and Circumstances the chief impediment in high Affairs and ever stood upon most by circumstantial men Whence doubltless our Ancestors who were not ignorant with what rights either Nature or ancient Constitution had endowed them when Oaths both at Coronation and renew'd in Parliament would not serve thought it no way illegal to Depose and put to Death their Tyrannous Kings insomuch that the Parliament drew up a Charge against Richard the Second and the Commons requested to have Judgment decree'd against him that the Realm might not be endangered And Peter Martyr a Divine of foremost rank on the third of Judges approves their doings Sir Thomas Smith also a Protestant and States man in his Common-wealth of England putting the question Whether it be Lawful to rise against a Tyrant answers That the Vulgar judge of it according to the event and the Learned according to the purpose of them that do it But far before those days Gildas the most Ancient of all our Historians speaking of those times wherein the Roman Empire decaying quitted and relinquish'd what right they had by Conquest to this Island and resign'd it all into Peoples hands testifies that the People thus reinvested with their own Original Right about the Year 446 both Elected them Kings whom they thought best the first Christian British Kings that ever Reign'd here since the Romans and by the same Right when they apprehended Cause usually Depos'd and put them to Death This is the most fundamental and ancient Tenure that any King of England can produce or pretend to in comparison of which all other Titles and Pleas are but of yesterday If any object that Gildas condemns the Britains for so doing the Answer is as ready that he condemns them no more for so doing than he did before for chusing such for saith he They anointed them Kings not of God but such as were more Bloody than the rest Next he condemns them not at all for Deposing or putting them to Death but for doing it over hastily without Tryal or well examining the cause and for Electing others worse in their room Thus we have here both Domestick and most Ancient Examples that the People of Britain have Deposed and put to Death their Kings in those Primitive Christian times And to couple Reason with
and at her Age joyning in that false termed Holy League and had been ever since and was then a powerful Enemy of the Truth For that she rested wholly upon Popish hopes to be delivered and advanced and was so devoted and doted in that Profession that she would as well for the satisfaction of others as for the feeding her own humour supplant the Gospel where and whensoever she might which Evil was so much the greater and the more to be avoided for that it slayeth the Soul and would spread it self not only over England and Scotland but also into all Parts beyond the Sea where the Gospel of God is maintained the which cannot but be exceedingly weakened if Defection should be in these two most violent Kingdoms For that if she prevailed she would rather take the Subjects of England for Slaves than for Children For that she had already provided them a Foster father and a Nurse the Pope and the King of Spain into whose hands if it should happen them to fall what would they else look for but Ruin Destruction and utter Exterpation of Goods Lands Lives Honours and all For that as she had already by her poyson'd Baits brought to Destruction more Noble-men and their Houses and a greater multitude of Subjects during her being here than she would have done if she had been in Possession of her own Country and arm'd in the Field against them so would she be still continually the cause of the like spoil to the greater loss and peril of this Estate and therefore this Realm neither could nor mought endure her For that her Sectaries both Wrote and Printed that the Protestants would be at their Wits end Worlds end if she should out-live Queen Elizabeth meaning thereby that the end of the Protestant World was the beginning of their own and therefore if she the said Queen of Scots were taken away their World would be at an end before its beginning For that since the sparing of her in the Fourteenth year of Queen Elizabeths Reign Popish Traytors and Recusants had multiplied exceedingly And if she were now spared again they would grow both innumerable and invincible also And therefore Mercy in that case would prove Cruelty against them all Nam est quaedam crudelis misericordia and therefore to spare her Blood would be to spill all theirs And for Gods Vengeance against Saul for sparing the life of Agag and against Ahab for sparing the life of Benhadad was most apparent for they were both by the just Judgement of God deprived of their Kingdoms for sparing those wicked Princes whom God had delivered into their hands And those Magistrates were much commended who put to death those mischievous and wicked Queens Jezabel and Athaliah So much for these Reasons which I leave to the perusal of our present Prelates who have extreamly degenerated from the good and laudable Principles of their Fore-fathers I will now return to the History and after having mentioned one President more of Protestants Revolution from their Kings will conclude this Subject In the Year 1581. the States of Holland in a General Assembly at the Hague abjured all Obedience and Subjection to Philip King of Spain and in a Declaration justifie their so doing for that by his Tyrannous Government against Faith so often given and broken he had lost his Right to all the Belgick Provinces that therefore they deposed him and declared it lawfull to choose another in his stead Thuan. lib. 14. From that time to this no State or Kingdom in the World hath equally prospered But what need these Examples to any who have but sense enough to conceive what monstrous Inconveniences and Miseries the Doctrine of Submission to a Tyrannical Power brings along with it Thereby the Property of all Subjects and the Laws of all Countries are destroyed together and we are contrary to the Law of Nature Reason and Christianity obliged to fit still while our Children are Murthered Wives Ravish'd Estates consumed and our own Throats cut besides an unspeakable deal more of Barbarity commited by the Irregular Partizans of Inhumane Tyrants In a word the Lawfulness of raising War against and Deposing of a Tyrant in Defence of Religion and Liberty has not been denied but constantly warranted and maintained by all the Protestant Churches round from the first Waldenses of Lyons and Languedoc to this day Having now I think sufficiently cleared what the People by their just Right may do in change of Government and Governor besides other ample Authority even from the Mouths of Princes themselves give me leave to add further That surely they who shall boast as we do to be a Free Nation and yet not have in themselves the power to remove or to abolish any Governor Supream or Subordinate with the Government it self upon urgent Causes may please their fancy with a ridiculous and painted freedom fit to cozen Babies but are indeed under Tyranny and Servitude as wanting that power which is the Root and Source of that Liberty to dispose and oeconomize in the Land which God hath given them as Masters of Families in their Houses and free Inheritance Without which natural and essential Power of a Free Nation how high soever they bear their heads they can in due esteem be thought no better than Slaves and Vassals Born in the Tenure and Occupation of another Inheriting Lord whose Government though not Illegal or Intolerable hangs over them as a Lordly Scourge not as a free Government and therefore to be Abrogated How much more justly may they fling off Tyranny or Tyrants who having once forsaken the Kingdom and being justly Excluded can be no more than Private Men as subject to the reach of Justice and Arraignment as any other Transgressors as Grotius affirms de jur Bell. lib. 1. Chap. 4. Si Rex aut alius quis Imperium abdicavit aut manifeste habet pro derelicto in eum post tempus omnia licent qua in privatum And certainly if Men not to speak of Heathen both Wise and Religions have done Justice upon Tyrants what way they could soonest how much more mild and human then is to Dethrone them and divest them of their Prerogative nay to bring them to Legal and open Tryals to teach Lawless Kings and all that so much adore them that not Mortal Man or his Imperious will but Justice is the only true Soveraign and Supream Majesty upon Earth Let Men therefore cease out of Faction and Malice to make Outcries and report horrid things of things so just and honourable as our most Renowned Convention hath acted hitherto agaist our common Adversary and we hope they will go on to act upon him such Justice as may be a President to future Ages to imitate who if they prove not too degenerate shall look up with Honour and aspire towards those exemplary deeds of their Ancestors as the highest top of their Glory and Emulation which heretofore in the pursuance of Fame and Foreign