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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A25843 The armies vindication ... in reply to Mr. William Sedgwick / published for the kingdomes satisfaction by Eleutherius Philodemius. Philodemius, Eleutherius. 1649 (1649) Wing A3718; ESTC R21791 60,305 74

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punishment for so great an Offence And this they have since seconded in sundry other Declarations and Impeachments Fourthly For that most notorious falshood of his because his Excellency and the Councel of war crave that justice may be done to say It is the foule and black design of a few unbeleeving people I let it passe the Lord I know will rebuke him for it For as in this so in all the rest he manifests himself to be one of that number who have said with our tongue we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us But for the persons upon whom you have laid so grievous an aspersion this is their comfort and rejoycing in the Lord that as God knowes their hearts so he knowes the sincerity and singlenesse of them that they look at his glory in seeking after the publick good As the clouds can neither lessen the light of the sun nor let the course thereof because at the last they are scattered by the heat of the sun which shineth out most comfortable So the innocency of their persons and justnesse of their cause shal disperse and drive away all black clouds of calumniations and the mouth of him that speaketh lies shall be stopt Now we come to the great work propounded in the Remonstrance That that Capitall and grand author of our troubles the Person of the King may be brought to Justice for the Treason Blood and Mischief he is there guilty of Here I find Mr. Sedgwick in his answer to say very little to it But 1. That no Law takes hold of the King 2. The crown is his birth-right and inheritance for the rest it is either a justification of the King as to be better then they or bitter reproaches Because this is a high subject and a businesse a foote I shall therefore speak the more largely to it not de facto but de jure for the Treason Blood c. laid to the King I shall leave that charge to others more concerned in it only I shall shew what justly and lawfully may be done in such a case And for the Readers clearer information and better understanding of the point I shall here assert 5. things First That there is a supream and Soveraigne power alwayes residing in the people above Kings Secondly That all Kings in all places and at all times have been and still are subject to and under Law Thirdly That the people have the power not onely to call their Kings to an account but to censure and remove them for their tyranny and misgovernment Fourthly That no nation is so tied to any form of civill government but that it is lawfull for the people to alter it into another form or kind upon occasion Fifthly That amongst all the formes of civil Government Aristocraticall or popular is best and safest for the people For the first That every Magistrate be he Emperor or King is inferior to the whole Kingdome and people it may plainly be demonstrated 1. Because he is not only their servant but creature too being originally created by and for them now as every creator is of greater power and authority then its creature and every cause greater then its effect so the authority and power of the people which creates the Prince and his princely power and enlargeth limits or restrains it as there is cause must needs be greater then the Prince or royal power And though Principallities as generally considered be of God yet the constitution of Princes and their severall degrees of power are meerly from men hence it is that Peter speaking of Kings and their supremacy cals them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} every creature or ordinance of man 1 Pet. 2.13 because originally instituted limitted and continued by and for the use and service of the people whose creatures as we said ministers and servants they are and ought to be and from them receive their whole jurisdiction power and authority Besides howbeit principallities as generally considered be indeed of God yet the constitution of all Princes and their severall degrees of power are meerly from men and this cannot with any shew of reason be denied For if the regall authority of Princes were meerly from the Law of God and nature it should be the same and like it self in all Kingdomes but t is not the same and like it self in all kingdomes but as every people please and make a free choise of neverthelesse every form and kinde of government is equally lawfull and good in it self whether Monarchy Aristocratie or Democratie as all on all sides doe acknowledge 2ly It is a thing neither probable nor credible that any free people when they voluntarily incorporated themselves into Kingdomes of their own accord set up an elective King over them that there was such stupidity and madnesse in them as absolutely to resigne up their soveraign and popular power authority right to Kings and their heires for ever to give them an entire full and incontroulable supremacie over them and so to make the creature inferior to the creator the derivative greater then the primative the servants more potent then themselves and thus of free men to make themselves slaves and for their more safety to be more enslaved But the contrary appears by the peoples constant practise in all ages as we shall manifest hereafter But admit which with sence cannot be imagined that such a thing had been so yet the Fathers could not take in their posterity with them neither oblige them any way in point of equity and conscience to confirm and observe what they foolishly had done but their children afterwards might lawfully yea and ought to stand fast in the liberty which the law of God nature and nations had made them free and not be entangled in the slavish yoke and bondage of their fore-fathers Hence Amesius in his cases of Conscience lib 5. cap. 22. Qu. 2. resolves that all fatherly power is in procuring the good of children and shewes in the next cha. That liberty in naturall estimation is next to life it self and of many preferr'd before it 3. Common reason Law and experience manifests that the whole or greatest part in all publick or naturall bodies is of greater excellency power and jurisdiction then any one particuler member Thus in all corporations the court of Aldermen and common-councel is of greater power then the Major alone though the chief officer so the whole bench then the Lord chief Justice and the whole Councel then the President And it is Aristotles expresse determination Polit. lib. 1. cap. 2. lib. 3. cap. 8. lib. 4. cap. 8. what forme of government soever it be whatsoever seemes good to the major part of the people that is more excellent and to be preferred before any part or member thereof and that it is unfit the part should be before the whole and he gives for it his reason thus The people know what is profitable necessary