Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	court_n	king_n	lord_n	10,308	5	4.0925	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36871	The history of the English and Scotch presbytery wherein is discovered their designs and practices for the subversion of government in church and state / written in French, by an eminent divine of the Reformed church, and now Englished.; Historie des nouveaux presbytériens anglois et escossois. English	Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676.; Du Moulin, Peter, 1601-1684.; Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.; Playford, Matthew.	1660 (1660)	Wing D2586; ESTC R17146	174,910	286

was under age caused the Father to be most cruelly put to death in prison yet the authority of the young K. must be made use of to make the resolution of the Parliament pass into an Act for without the King the Parliament can no more act than a Body without a Head But when the young King came to age he caused the Authors and Complices of his Fathers death to be executed and caused all the Acts of this Parliament to be broken by another And less than these to the purpose is which they alledg concerning the accord the Barons extorted from King John by which this unhappy and imprudent King being reduced to a straight promised to put himself into the power of twenty five of his Barons and submitted himself to divers other dishonorable Conditions and this accord was not made in Parliament but in the field by force of Arms there being no Parliament then sitting and therefore was of no force nor was ever kept These Articles of the Barons were much like those the two Houses sent the King to Beverly Oxford and New-Castle the Covenanters imitate these Barons in their affectation of Piety for they called their General the Marshal of the Lords Army and of his holy Church and these perswaded their Chiefs that they led the Battels of the Lord of Hoasts but these transferred not the Crown to another Prince as the Barons did but have taken away both his Crown and Life having long before declared by writing to their King that they dealt very favourably with him if they did not depose him and that if they did they should not exceed the Limits of Modesty nor of their Duty This Judgment was pronounced in the House of Commons without contradiction that The King might fall from his Office that the happiness of the Kingdom did not depend upon him nor the Royal Branches of his House and that he did not deserve to be King of England The Authors of these Opinions are declared in a Declaration of his Majesties In one point the Barons and Covenanters are very different for the Lords that remained with the Covenanters were without power all places of Honour and Trust being taken out of their hands by their Inferiours and at last their House abolished by the Commons so that in stead of producing this War of the Barons the Covenanters should rather have alledged the Seditions and Commotions of Watt Tyler and Jack Straw poor Artisans and followed with people of the same rank for these persons and the Cause of the Covenanters are far more alike Behold here with what authorities the Margins of their Books are stuffed Behold the Examples which the polititians of the times present to the Gentlemen of the Parliament for to teach them what they ought to do those infamous actions which were abhorred by the ages following them are become the supporters of ours and despair which makes men snatch up any sorts of weapons forceth our enemies to justifie their actions by the examples of Rebels and Paricides 't is not for nothing then that these Histories are so often alledged though nothing to the purpose and it 's not without cause that they print them apart for not being able to justifie their actions they have declared their intentions and made the King to see what he sholud trust to if he fell into their hands Certainly if there had not been a design laid to come to that both to prepare the people and intimidate the King those incendiaries who by these horrible examples and their Maximes of State grounded thereupon teaching the deposing of Kings should have been hanged long since with their Books about their necks For so many men which are studied in the Laws of the Kingdom and are at the helm of affairs cannot be ignorant of that which King James of happy and glorious memory marks in his Book of the Right of Kings that in the time of Edward the Third there was an Act of Parliament made which declared all them Traytors who imagined it's the word of the Law or conspired the death of the King ●on which Act the Judges grounding themselves have alwaies judged them for Traytors who dared but to speak of deposing the King because they believed that they could not take away the Crown from off the Kings Head without taking away his Life It was heretofore a crime worthy of death to speak yea to think evil against the King and moreover the Word of God which is to be obeyed forbids us to speak evil of the King no not in our thought but now it 's the exercise of devout Souls to write Meditations upon the deposing of their King CHAP. VII Declaring wherein the Legislative Powers of Parliament consists HAving no better Authorities in all the Examples of the Ages past they establish a New one which by the unlimited largeness supplies what it wants of length of time for when we require to be governed by the Laws they answer us that the Parliament is the Oracle of the Laws that it is for that great Court to declare what is Law and what is not to interpret the Laws to dispense with them or to make new ones That themselves are the Parliament excluding all others and that since they have declared that this War is according to Law and that such Maximes as they give us are fundamental Laws of the Kingdom we must remit our selves to them and receive for Law what they ordain But because strangers may read who have no knowledge of the Government of England for to examine this Imperious reason we are obliged to declare here what we know touching the present affairs We have learned to acknowledg the Parliament 〈◊〉 England for the Supream Court of the Kingdom that can make and unmake Laws and from whose Judgment there is no appeal But of this Court the King is the principal part and it 's he that renders it soveraign the two Houses in all their Legislative Acts acknowledg him their true and sole Soveraign the House of Lords only can evert the Judgment of the Courts of Justice but not their own without the consent of the King and the House of Commons the House of Commons is not a Judicial Court having not power to administer an Oath inflict a Fine or imprison any but those of the●r own House and these two neither apart nor together cannot make a Law but when they would enact any thing they both together present a Writing to the King in form of a request if the King approves of them the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal answers for the King in these French words Le Roy le veult and then it is made an Act but if the King refuseth it he returns answer Le Roy S'avisera and the business passeth no further Before the consent of the King the proposition of the two Houses contained in the Writing is like unto that which the Romans called Rogatio but when the King grants it

it was declared by the House of Commons at Westminster That the Kings coming to their House was Treason as if the Majesty resided in the Commons but how ridiculous and false this is hath heretofore been shewed and yet they could in no other sense call the Houses at Westminster his Parliament since they had taken up Arms against his Majesty doubtless those of both Houses who adhered to the King at Oxford without comparison the more considerable in quality were rather his Parliament for these were for him and the other against him Moreover by this frequent expression they would frequently signifie that the King was the Aggresseur and he that first assaulted them a thing which they have much laboured to perswade the world although it be notoriously known that his enemies had seized upon his Forts Towns Magaziens Ships Revenues and Levied Souldiers before ever the King had so much as one single company of Horse or Foot When he first came to York he had not so much as his ordinary guards whereas his enemies had all the strength of the Kingdom they wanted only God on their side and this great power encouraged the seditious in all countries where he passed to entertain him with the same courtesie the Gergasites received Christ Jesus beseeching him to depart out of their quarters and the good King had then this conformity with his Saviour that he had not where to lay his head He was then in a condition to suffer but his enemies in a posture to oppose When he would in a peaceable manner without Arms enter into his Town of Hull he found the gates shut and the walls garnished with Souldiers presenting their Muskets against him upon this his Majesty levied fix companies of Foot and two Cornets of Horse for the Guard of his Person but set not up his Standard until four moneths after this prodigious act of hostility and rebellion having often before endeavoured to reduce his Subjects to their obedience by all reasonable and Christian offers witness a number of most excellent Declarations composed and written by himself wherein the world beheld the sincerity of his actions with the piety and candor of his spirit worthy so great a Prince The Covenanters considering that they could not perswade them who had any remembrance or common sense that the King began the War laboured to prove that although they began yet their Armies were but defensive affirming that a War undertaken upon a just fear was defensive yea although they struck the first blow and that they seized upon the Forts Magaziens and Revenues of the King because they feared he would make War upon them That is to say that they made War upon him least he should make War upon them A reason much like that of Count Gondomore Ambassador of Spain in England who by his cunning and subtilty had wrought so far as to have a gallant English Knight to be condemned and put to death being demanded what evil he had done that he so persecuted him Answered That it was not for any evil he had done but for that evil which he might do But the Court that did it had just reasons far from the Spanish interests but in these mens dealings with the King were he even a Subject the injustice is both without reason and without example For was there ever any Court of Justice which condemned a man to lose both his goods and his life not because he had done any evil but for fear he should That which would be most unjust against the meanest Subject can it possibly be thought and reputed a work of Piety and Justice against their lawful Soveraign But leaving these persons who from the beginning had this Diabolical design which since they have inhumanely executed we will believe of many of the Covenanters that the intent of their Army was not to punish the King for the pretended exorbitancies of his past Government although they laboured by all means to perpetuate the memory and to stifle those eminent and signal acts of grace by which the King had merited the love of his people beyond all his Predecessors We are willing also to believe that some amongst them condemn the Doctrine of Goodman turned since into sad practice That Judges ought to summon Princes before them for their offences and proceed against them as against other Criminals and Malefactors If it were not then for the punishing of what was passed it was for fear of the future they took up Arms which indeed is the only reason left them For after the King had promised to give content to his people in all their reasonable requests represented to him and they had taken the power out of his hands then when he would have accomplished his promises all the reason they give for so violent a proceeding is That they durst not trust the King Which verily is a most frivolous and injurious excuse Which is as if one had a Neighbour that dwelt by him more mighty then himself and whose displeasure he feared it should be permitted him to watch his opportunity to surprize his house seize upon his revenues and drive from his possessions to free and deliver him from fear But such an action as this from Subjects towards their Prince is beyond all comparison more unjust The Question between the King and his Subjects being not Whether they may with confidence leave the Sword in the Kings hand but whether God hath committed the Sword to the King to be born by him Now in this their dealings with the King they give him an evil example for by the same reason he may take from his subjects the propriety they have in their estates because he dares not trust them and finds by sad experience they use it for his destruction And he should have much more reason to do it since the Subjects hold their Lands of the King but the King holds not his power of the people Prudence ought not to seize upon Justice The care of a mans self cannot give him a right to the goods of another The duty of a Christian is not to fortifie himself against his fears but to obey the Commandments of God But if his fear and forecast carries him beyond his duty he should above all fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell Yea I say unto you fear him Luke 12.5 Taking then that which themselves accord that the Subjects took up Arms to secure themselves against their fears Had not the King as much reason to take up Arms after their example to provide against his If he had been their equal this reason had been sufficient enough how much more then being their Soveraign for the sword that they had drawn against him was his own those Forts Towns Ships Arms and Revenues which they imployed against him were his therefore he had a double reason to take up Arms one to defend himself and another to recover his own rights By all Laws Divine and

found it good since it had been easie for him to have raised mighty Armies being designed the Successor of Saul in the Kingdom for people naturally adore the Rising Sun David retired into Keilah and having heard that Saul had an intention to come thither to take him enquired of the Lord if those in the City would deliver him up to Saul and God having answered him that they would deliver him fled from thence the Ministers therefore of the Covenant infer that David had a desire to fortifie Keilah and to endure a siege But all which they can gather from that Passage is that David was not safe in that retreat and that God advised him to seek another for the Inhabitants of Keilah might have delivered him to Saul without attending a siege but when they shall have proved that David would have fortified Keilah it makes nothing for them since God declares by his Answer that it was not pleasing to him We would beseech the Gentlemen of the Covenant to hold themselves to this example which they have chosen that they would cashier their great Armies for David had but a few people with them 1 Sam. 25.16 that they would not rob the Subjects of their King of their Goods but imitate the Souldiers of David who were a wall both by night and day to the Flocks and Herds of Nabal That having seized upon the Arms of the King let them peaceably restore them again as David and not with the points forward Let their Conscience strike them and make them cry out The Lord forbid that I should do this thing against my Master the Lords Anointed for who can stretch forth his hand against him and be guiltless Words which beside the example carry with them a perpetual and express command and shall one day be produced in judgment against those that defend the late Commotions by the example of David and if their continuance in the Kingdoms of his Majesty is either displeasing or dangerous to them in stead of opposing him let them retire into some strange Country as David did to King Achis let them also imitate his sincerity in making use of strangers onely for his protection and not to invade his Country and raise his Subjects against their King which is that use the Covenanters imployed the Scots In one point onely they imitate and surpass David in that he fained himself a Fool for they indeed act the Fools in good earnest In brief the Example of David which they alledge is so contrary to the Actions of the Covenanters that they have great reason to fear least God alledge this at the dreadful day of Judgement against them saying Out of thy own mouth will I judge thee then wicked servant Luke 19.22 The other passages of Scripture are most ridiculously alledged and serve only to shew their great weakness They bring the action of the Army of Saul that saved Jonathan against the Oath of his Father 1 Sam. 14.45 but to what purpose is this Doth this Army draw their sword against the King Use they any violence either against his Person or Estate If a Ki●g would put to death his Innocent Son those faithful Subjects whom the King employs in this Execution do well not to do it and to refuse giving obedience to so unjust a command They make use also of the example of Ehud who slew Eglon King of Moab who kept the Israelites in slavery Judg. 3.21 we have often heard this example pressed with much vehemency in Pulpits The Preachers compared Eglon to the King affirming that Eglon was the lawful King of Israel and that it is lawful to kill a legitimate King if he oppress the people of God all this is false and proper to be refuted only by the Hangman to whom we leave them The Example follows of the City of Libnah which appertained to the Levites which revolted from the obedience of Jehoram because saith the Text he had forsaken the Lord God of his Fathers the Covenanters apply the word Because to the intention of the Inhabitants of Libnah and not to the judgement of God whence these Gentlemen conclude That it is lawful for the people to shake off the yoke of their Prince when the Prince forsakes God of which they will be Judges Although Libnah should revolt for this reason yet it follows not that the reason is of strength or that it ought to be turned into example a thing which requires a new proof of Scripture but the drift of the Text is to assign the cause of this revolt to the Justice of God and not to that of men Take the whole Text 2 Chron. 21. ●0 So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand because he had forsaken the Lord God of his Fathers Having consulted with the Original we find that the revolt of Edom and of Libnah were both together without the least distinction but between the discourse of these two Revolts and the reason adjoyned there is there the usual mark for the distinction of half periods which shews that this reason serves equally for both the Revolts and the sense of the Text carries it evidently that the Idumeans and those of Libnah revolted for the same cause and that these Idumeans which were Idolaters had no ground to revolt from the King of Judah because at that time he was also fallen into Idolatry it s therefore the Divine justice that the Text regards and not the Motives of second Causes Also the same Author saith that Pekah the Son of Remaliah slew in Judah 120000 in one day which were all valiant men because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers In these two passages the sense is alike and the reason of the punishment couched in the same terms now it s most evident that the Syrians had no Quarrel against the Jews for forsaking God because they did not believe in him wherefore we are to look to Justice of the King of Kings who for the sins of Princes suffers them to lose the obedience of their Subjects for God serve● himself of the wickedness of men whereof he is not the cause for to execute his just judgments but that excuseth not the Rebellion of Subjects for it is their part to consider what they owe to their King and not what their King deserves of the Justice of God They add the example of Jehu who exterminated the King of Israel and all the posterity of Ahab 2 Kings 9. in which wi●hout doubt he did very well because God commanded him but the Covenanters did very ill in persecuting their King because God had forbidden them After this they bring the Execution of the Queen Athaliah by the Command of Jeho●adah the High Priest 2 Chron. 26.18 which no more then the former toucheth the Question for not only Jeho●adah but all other people might have done as much because there was a lawful