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A38644 An Essay upon the original and designe of magistracie, or, A Modest vindication of the late proceedings in England by one who hates rebellion and tyranny. 1689 (1689) Wing E3301; ESTC R29794 9,556 16

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AN ESSAY Upon The ORIGINAL AND DESIGNE OF MAGISTRACIE OR A Modest Vindication of the Late Proceedings IN England By one who Equally hates Rebellion and Tyranny Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX AN Essay upon the Original and Design of MAGISTRCY OR A Modest Vindication of the late Proccedings in ENGLAND AS the Right knowledge of the Supream Magistrate is the Basis and Foundation of our Submisions and the cause of all the Blessings which flow from a well tempered Government so the Misapprehensions and false Notions that many People either through Ignorance or the prejudice of Education frame to themselves of his Power are no less remarkable for their contrary effects We fall into two Extremes equally Dangerous if either we give the People so much Liberty that the Magistrate cannot go about these great Ends f●r which he was designed but like a Weather-Cock is turned about at the pleasure of the Mobile or such a boundless power to the Magistrate as makes the Property of the Subject altogether Precarious depending upon the Caprice of an insatiable Monacch To keep a just Ballance we must consider Magistracy as it was first Institute by God Almighty before it was depraved by the Ambition Pride and Avarice of those who were invested in it So that in its Original it may be defined a Power delegat from God for maintaining Order rewarding the Vertues and punishing the Crimes of Mankind The Application of which power is left free to any independent People or Nation It cannot be doubted but that God as Creator of all things might in his own Person have Exerced a Soveraign Power over all his Creatures which since he was not pleased to do He thought fit in His infinite Wisdom to appoint his Lieutenants here on Earth to whom he Communicats some Rays of his Divine Majestie both to beget a greater Reverence for their Persons and procure a chearful Obedience from those that were to be Subject So that the profound Deference and blind Submission which Millions of Men pay to a Mortal perhaps subject to as many Infirmities as the most part of those he Rules over can be ascribed to nothing else but the firm Perswasion of a Divine Institution But that we may the more admire the Goodness of God in ordaining Magistracie he hath no less proposed Mans happiness then his own Glory that we might find it our Interest as well as Duty in Obeying For tho Man was born free And consequently by Nature desirous of Liberty yet an unbounded freedom could have done him very little Service in a natural State when Innocency was no protection from the oppression of the Stronger But Rapines Violence and Murder were the chief wayes of acquiring Right in this Universal Chaos where homo was homini Lupus nothing was thought Vnlawful that Ambition Malice or Cruelty could propose so that the Weaker were driven to a necessity of uniting their Forces against the Stronger Then began they to Errect Societies and make Laws for Regulating them the executing of which Laws was Committed to one or moe Persons as the Major part of the Society thought fit to Trust who had the Name of Captain General or King It was He who led them out to Battel who disposed of Prises and punished Malefactors His Commands were easily obeyed because but few and all Just Honest and profitable These had not Learned the Arcana Imperij or secret ways to enslave their People but their Eminent Virtue and singular Valour both procured their Dignity and maintained them in it and having no Sycophant Flatterers about them to abuse their easie Credality they had not forgot that the Peoples Liberty was resigned for no other end but for obtaining a greater happiness under their Protection then what they could have proposed if every Individual had retained it in his own Person There is no other Original of Magistracie to be Learned from Sacred or Profane Historie for tho the Patriarchs had the Government of their own Families which by reason of their long Age were very numerous yet that right was derived from the Law of Nature and not from any Civil Obligation They had for the most part no fixt Habitation but lived as Strangers and Sojourners by the favour of other Princes and were never model'd into a Common wealth When Domanions were enlarged and Empires began to be erected different forms of Government were established according to the various inclinations of People when the Conqueror gave Laws to the Conquered it was called Despotick But when a free People did enter into a Contract and gave up their Liberty on certain Conditions it was called a Limited Government and these conditions the Fundamental Laws This Soveraignty was either entailed upon a particular Family for considerable services done to the Common wealth or it was only to be held during Life whence Succession and Election There is a Majestie in every free State which is nothing else but an Independent Power upon Earth tyed to no Laws but these of God these of Nature and Nations and the Fundamental Laws of a Kingdom This Majestie is either Real or Personal Real is that Independencie which every free State hath in Relation to one another Personal that Right when it s lodged in a particular Person which tho it be inseparable from the Soveraign Power for the greater Splendour yet it may be violate when the Real remains entire otherwise the freedom and Independencie of a Nation would be extinct by the Death or Captivity of the Prince To Majesty or Soveraign Power are annexed the Regalia or Regal Rights which are less or more according to the measure of Liberty given from or reserved to the People or the Representatives at the first Constitution For instance a King may have pow●r to make Warr and Peace and yet cannot raise Money the Legislative Power may be also divided as it s in England betwixt King and Parliament and generally in all mixt Governments For that Maxim That jura Majestatis sunt indivisa does only take place in an Absolute Monarchy That Power which the People reserveth from the Soveraign is called Liberty and its eitheir Tacite or Express Tacite Liberty is the Exemption of such things as cannot fall under the Cognisance of the Supreme Power which may be reduced to three 1st Religion or the Empire over the Conscience which belongs only to God Almighty 2dly The Power of Life and Death till we forefault them by the Divine Law or Municipal Laws of a Kingdom 3dly Our Goods and Heritages which cannot be taken from us without a Judicial Process or when the good of the Common wealth we live in requires a share of them These three Priviledges were ever reserved in the most Ample Resignation of Liberty The First we cannot give away because not ours we have right to the second as Men who are to be Governed by Reason to the Third as Members of a Societie or Common-wealth Express Liberty is a Stipulation whereby somethings