Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	ireland_n	king_n	statute_n	2,756	5	8.4949	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96658	Jus regium coronæ, or, The King's supream power in dispensing with penal statutes more particularly as it relates to the the two test-acts of the twenty fifth, and thirtieth of His late Majesty, King Charles the Second, argu'd by reason, and confirm'd by the common, and statute laws of this kingdom : in two parts / auctore Jo. Wilsonio J.C.	Wilson, John, 1626-1696.	1688 (1688)	Wing W2921A; ESTC R43961	44,210	87

Of absolute necessity then it seems That there be some Supreme Power to rectifie the mischiefs of Time and Chance and by rectifying the rigor of Temporary Laws or dispensing with their inconvenience render them and their burthen the easier And where this Power lies shall be the Subject of the next Section SECT II. That this Power cannot lie in any Select part of the People or in the whole Therefore it must be in every Sovereign Prince or Absolute Monarch And such the Kings of England ever have been and now are c. IN any Select part of the People it cannot lie because no part can be greater or have more Power than the whole and in the whole it cannot for they are subject to the Law themselves as more particularly made to curb their Exorbitancies and keep that so much talk'd of Liberty from running into Licentiousness It remains then that it lie in the Prince i.e. A Sovereign Prince or Absolute Monarch who if he offend against those Laws is unaccountable to them Bract. l. 1. c. 8 1. Inst 1. b. as having no Superior in his Dominions but God And if this yet requires a further Explanation To have Merum Imperium an entire Empire Sir J. Davys 61. and all the Liberties of an Empire in His Kingdom is to be an Absolute Monarch But such the Kings of England ever had and now have Therefore the Kings of England are Absolute Monarchs Such was Edgar Anno Dom. 964. 4 Inst 359. who wrote himself Anglorum Imperator Dominus and call'd his Kingdom an Empire In the Laws of Edward the Confessor Leg. Ed. c 17. the King is stiled Vicarius Dei in regno suo The 16 R. 2. cap. 5. declares The Crown of England hath been free in all Times and in no Earthly Subjection but immediatly to God. Edward IV. is called Supremus Dominus noster Rex c. Which excludes all co-ordinate Authority The 24 H. 8. cap. 12. further declares That by sundry old Antique Histories and Chronicles it is declared and expressed That this Realm of England is an Empire and hath been so accepted in the World. And the 28. of the same King cap. 2. That the Kings of England are Lawful Kings and Emperors of England and Ireland which are no introductive but declaratory Statutes For they say not what the King and his Kingdom shall be but affirm what they anciently have been and now are Lastly The 25 H. 8. c. 21. The 1 El. c. 1. and 1 Jac. 1. c. 1. agree in the same and That the Crown of this Kingdom is an Imperial Crown In short all Offences are said to be against the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King His Crown and Dignity And High Treason contra Ligeanciae debitum The Laws of England are called the King's Laws The Parliament His Parliament 22 E. 3.3 and therein also the King is sole Judge the rest but Advisers The Power of Calling Proroguing and Dissolving them is the King 's Their ancient way of Address was by Petition to Him. And the later Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance acknowledge the King The Supreme Authority in the Kingdom And if this be not to be an Absolute Monarch what is It is enough to me that I have shewn the Apex potestatis and where ever that lies there lies the Government and puts it out of question whether this Supreme Power lie in the King or the People But to proceed I said before it could not lie in the People and I conceive made it out that it must be in the King however to make it yet more clear we 'll put both on the Ballance and let most weight carry it The People take them in Sensu Composito and what are they but an unwieldy Lump of every thing and nothing And in Sensu diviso a kind of Sheep without a Shepherd Every one of them has a frisk by himself One is for this Law another for that a third against both a fourth against all and so to the last as the Worm bites Quot homines tot Sententiae ever was and ever will be whereas the King besides that he hath but one mind and that directed to the good of the Community the Law presumes He can do no wrong as being best able to judge of those Laws of which Himself is both Maker and Interpreter Both Houses may Vote and Resolve as they please In the Royal Sanction only lies the Legislation and that Vis plastica that gives the Embrion Life and quickens it into Laws The King makes Laws with the Consent of the Lords and Commons not the Lords and Commons with the Consent of the King which shews that the Legislative Power is solely in the King For the Approbation or Publishing of Laws in a Senate proves not Bodin de Repub Lib. 1. cap. 8. the Majesty of the State to be in the Senate And being so it necessarily follows that He be also the Interpreter And so Bracton Ejus est Interpretari cujus est condere And to the same purpose Dyer Where the words of the Law are ambiguous Dyer f. 37 We must submit to the Declaration of the Law-giver The King who by the Advice of His Learned Counsel may without calling a Parliament expound the Law where it is doubtful as his Predecessors have done in like Cases And Sir Edward Coke gives the Reason 1 Inst f. 73 99. when he says The King is Caput Reipublicae Legis And in another place 2 Inst f. 268 presum'd to carry all the Laws In scrinio pectoris sui in his own Breast And what he means by those Expressions unless it be That as the Laws are the Kings Laws His also is the Interpretation of them and the Supreme Power of Dispensing with them a wiser Man than my self may be to learn which from a Person especially in his later days no Friend to Prerogative I lay the more weight on in as much as one Affirmative of his cannot but carry more force with every sober Man than all those Negatives he has so often jumbled against it Add to this The People have nothing but what they receved themselves Or if ever they had they would do well to shew it for Possession tho' by Disseisin is good against all men but him that hath the Right or otherwise they cannot be said to have given any Regality which was never in them For as all Government was Originally from God it seems also that it was never his intention that the People should have any share in it When there were but two Persons as at first God plac'd the Government in one and said to the Woman ●en 3.16 Thou shalt be under the power of the Man and he shall rule over thee And to prevent Confusion amongst their Posterity establish'd a Successive Monarchy in his Speech to Cain tho' a Bad and his Brother Abel a Righteous Person and that only by the

Jus Regium Coronae OR The KING 's Supream Power in Dispensing with Penal Statutes More particularly as it relates to the two Test-Acts of the Twenty Fifth and Thirtieth of His Late Majesty King Charles the Second Argu'd by Reason And Confirm'd by the Common and Statute Laws of this Kingdom In Two Parts Auctore Jo. Wilsonio J.C. Sir Edw. Coke 1 Inst 64. Imperij Majestas Tutelae Salus LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black-Fryers 1688. TO THE HONORABLE SOCIETY OF Lincolns-Inn IT is my Honour Gentlemen that I serv'd a double Apprentiship within your Walls and however I have for many years discontinu'd it is not possible that any Man bred in a Society of so much Learning and Air should have altogether forgotten what he once imbib'd The Loyalty of your House excepting some single Person here and there was in the worst of times exemplary Nor were Ye last in bringing the King back again to His And because the Dispensing Power best secures Him in it and the Kingdom under it unto whom more justly could I make a Proof of it than to that Honorable Body from whom I receiv'd it Such Gentlemen is the Discourse I herewith present Ye and in that being now no longer mine but Yours as none are more able be also as pleas'd to defend it Or so kind at least to say this of Your old Acquaintance That he spoke his Thoughts That he believ'd them true And on that account would not willingly quit them till he be better inform'd Gentlemen Your most Humble Servant John Wilson THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART SECTION I. I. THat the rigor of Penal Laws were insupportable without some Supream Power above those Laws to temper that rigor and dispense with them as they become inconvenient Especially when all Human Actions are subject to Corruption and what might fit one time may be the bane of another Examples of it in the Lacedemonian Ephori The Roman Decemviri Dictator Triumvirat SECT II. II. THat this Power cannot lie in any Select part of the People or in the whole Therefore it must be in the Sovereign Prince or Absolute Monarch And such the Kings of England have ever been and now are Examples of it before and since the Conquest Further prov'd from Common Law and Statute Law. The King is sole Legislator and Interpreter of those Laws That it appears not to have been ever the intent of God that the People should have any share in the Government but rather the contrary That the Supream Power was not deriv'd from the People or given in Trust by them but radically in the Prince as reserv'd to Him from the first Origin of Power and before any positive or written Law at what time Men were govern'd by a Natural Equity SECT III. III. THat without this Supream Power the King were in a worse condition than the Subject 1. Any Restriction on the means of Livelyhood of a Subject is void A Fortiore on any necessary part of the Government 2. A Subject on some Accidents may break a Law yet not offend the Law. A fortiore the King when the Kingdom is in danger of which Himself is the sole Judge whither actual or expectant 3. A Subject shall justifie a particular wrong for a public Good. A fortiore the King for a common Benefit 4. Where the Subject is enabled to the greater he is of consequence enabled to the less A fortiore the King He may pardon the highest Offences much more prevent any lesser matter from becoming an Offence SECT IV. IV. THat no Government can be entire that is defective in any necessary part And therefore all Governments besides the power of the Sword have ever pretended to this Supream Power as a Sine quo non Both Powers discust That even our most prudently design'd Constitutions have turn'd to hurt prov'd from a Series of our own Histories That every of the late Vsurpt Powers as we call 'em frequently made use of this Supream Power of Dispensing c. An Answer to that common Objection That the King is sworn SECT V. V. THe Case of the Test 25 Car. 2d stated and that His Majesties granting Commissions to certain Persons not qualify'd according to the said Act and yet retaining them in His Service is warrantable by the Law of Reason and the Laws of the Land. By the Law of Reason 1. Whither we take the Argument Ab Honesto Ab utili or à Tuto 2. The King is bound to defend according to the best of His skill Who shall be Judge of that skill Himself or the People 3. What damage to the whole that the King makes use of some part without excluding the rest Or if it were a damage it is but Damnum sine injuria By the Laws of the Land. 1. As the King is bound to defend the Subject is bound to obey And this Service of the Subject is due to the King by the Law of Nature which cannot be taken away no not by Act of Parliament 2. A further proof That the King is sole Judge of the danger of the Kingdom and how and when it is to be prevented c. 3. The Law requires nothing to be done but it permits the way and means of doing it else it were Imperfect Lame and Vnjust The King is to defend shall He not chuse His Souldiers 4. A mixt Argument of Law and Reason from the time when the King granted those Commissions The Test examined When made By whom carry'd on To what end There was Bellum flagrans at the time when those Commissions were given out And that His Majesties yet retaining those Officers falls under the same Reason and Law. SECT VI. VI. THat the Statute has created a disability in the Person and other Objections answered 1. Object Grounded on the Disabilities created by the respective Statutes of 31 El. c. 6. against Simony The Vendee of an Office contrary to the 5 Ed. 6. c. 16. And the not taking the Oath of Supremacy according to the 5 El. c. 1. severally answer'd and prov'd not to be under the same Reason 2. Object That the King had other hands A Loyal City A trusty Militia Answ But is the King bound to make use of them in extraordinary Cases The King is Solus Rex semper Rex He may charge the Subject c. And Ordain without Parliament with Instances of both 3. Object Grounded on the vacating the Judgment for the King in the Case of Ship-Mony by the House of Lords in Parliament 1640. Answer'd And the King vindicated by truly stating the Case between His Majesty and that Parliament Their evil treating Him before the Commons Murder'd Him. That He was Virtually tho' not Formally under a Force And that Authority without Power is meerly imaginary SECT VII VII THe Sum of the whole further asserted and confirm'd