Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	good_a	king_n	people_n	3,603	5	4.8197	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40703	Agreement betwixt the present and the former government, or, A discourse of this monarchy, whether elective or hereditary? also of abdication, vacancy, interregnum, present possession of the crown, and the reputation of the Church of England ; with an answer to objections thence arising, against taking the new Oath of Allegiance, for the satisfaction of the scrupulous / by a divine of the Church of England, the author of a little tract entituled, Obedience due to the present King, nothwithstanding our oaths to the former.	Fullwood, Francis, d. 1693.	1689 (1689)	Wing F2495; ESTC R40983	47,690	74

from this because the Vacancy was made by K. James and he could not make it further than he could He could not prejudice his Heirs or leave the Throne empty in all respects for the Statute of K. James the First declares agreeable to all times The Imperial Crown by inherent Birth-right doth immediately descend to the next Heir of the Blood Royal upon the Decease of the Predecessor The Royal Family have Jus ad Rem but the next in Blood if without just Exception hath Jus in Re and wants nothing but Livery and Seisin 3. This carries a plain Analogy with the Interest of others and if it be a Priviledg cannot be denied to our Princes The Estate is in the Heir immediately upon the Death of the Possessor and if the Estate be forfeited 't is immediately in the next Tenant though in neither case they may have yet got Possession And we use to say the Heir to the Crown is King before either the Coronation or Proclamation i. e. The Throne upon Demise is instantly fill'd and there is no Vacancy in that sense 4. If the right Heir before entry be kept out of Possession the Estate is not in Obeyance or in Nubibus but as the Lawyers say in Abatement the Estate is really in the Heir though they say the Law favours the intruder as the lawful Possessor till the Right of the true Heir is proved which I have no reason to apply 5. However 't is plain enough that the Convention supposed the late King by Abdication left the Throne void in some respect and what that was must certainly respect himself and not his Heirs he left the Throne void as to his own Person and as to his Possession and as to his own Right by relinquishing the Government 6. Yea he left it void as to any present Administration or Administrator and therefore it being so void ipso facto the great Men of the Kingdom first desired the Prince of Orange to take upon him the Administration of the Government till the Convention should meet This he did and this Vacancy was the natural Effect or Consequence of his Abdication but we may not strain the Word to the altering the nature of our Government neither may we imagine a Papist's Abdication should bar or prejudice his Protestant Children or change our Constitution 7. I hope I have said nothing in prejudice of any Limitations or Conditions of the Crown either in Law or from the necessary Nature of Government or by Act of Parliament if according to such Conditions the next in Blood be not qualified the Throne may be filled by the Right or the next When the Throne was declared void upon the Deposition of Rich. the 2d his Son was instantly admitted as were before the Sons of Edw. 1. and Ed. 2. upon their removal 8. We are told that before the Stat. 25. Edw. 3. de natis ultra mare it was a received Maxim that the next in Blood born beyond the Sea should not be King and by that of Eliz. 23. c. 1. Persons opposing the Execution of that Act are thereby disabled for ever Yet we still conceive that the next Heirs after them better capacitated and not guilty or defective as they might claim the Crown otherwise all other Persons are under the same Penalty though not at all guilty and the Penalty is not restrained to the Person offending or to the Crime mentioned in the latter or in the Incapacity in the former Instance The Statute of the Queen plainly supposeth that some may claim which cannot consist with an Elective Government and if the next in Blood are disabled by Law to claim it follows the Right is some where else and by Virtue of that Right the Throne is so far fill'd and Possession may be claimed Quest 2. Whether we have reason to think that the Convention did suppose a Vacancy in any other sense Sol. We may receive full Satisfaction in this from what hath been said upon the first Query For what reason can we have in Justice or Charity to imagine the Constitution intended any further Vacancy than was or could be made by the late King's Abdication what reason is left us to think that they intended such a Vacancy as was inconsistent with the nature of our ancient Hereditary Monarchy or the Interest of the Persons that are now advanced to the Throne in their own Right of which we have given account before or why should we impose a groundless and an unreasonable sense upon the Proceedings of our Superiors as may forestal or prejudice our quiet and due Submission to the Government 2. For our further Satisfaction we ought to consider first the Persons whom they admitted to the Crown namely such as upon Avoidance upon their Inherent Birth-right might have claimed the Crown Secondly The Words of the Declaration by which they were admitted The Throne being thereby vacant we do resolve that William and Mary be and be declared King and Queen They do not say they make them so but resolve that they are so and then declare them to be what indeed they were 3. And now I must have leave to admire the Wisdom Foresight and Caution of that great Assembly they do not lay hold of a Forfeiture of K. James they do not pretend to depose him they do not insist upon his Resignation but they suppose and alledg strong Grounds of that Supposition that he had abdicated the Government so far as that with respect to him to all Intents and Purposes the Throne was void and therefore to maintain the Hereditarines of this Monarchy they allow the Right of the next Heirs viz. William and Mary and accordingly upon that their Title they declare them King and Queen Quest 3. Whether the sense of Vacancy thus explained imply an Interregnum This can be a Question no longer if we consider the Premises for such a Vacancy we have upon every Demise of the Crown yet no Interregnum CHAP. VII Of the Convention and how it became a Parliament The Third Maxim considered Obj. WE are arrived to the Consideration of the third great Exception viz. That it is a Maxim that nothing binds the People of England but an Act of Parliament But the present Government was made by a Convention and not by a legal Parliament therefore we are not bound to own it Sol. 1. To this first it may be replied That tho this Maxim be generally allowed yet not without some Exceptions For is not Custom and the Common Law the Rule of Right and Justice betwixt Man and Man yea and betwixt the Prince and the People Were there no Statute or Act of Parliament about Government and Subjection Yea were there no Coronation-Oath or Oath of Allegiance to be taken by the King or the Subject Yet from the nature of our Government and by Common Law the King ought to govern according to the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom and we ought to pay him our

Principle against Treason a faithful and loyal Mind keeping Treason out of its Seat which we know is not so much in our Actions as in the Mind and Imagination 2dly If Treason cannot be committed against the King that is out of Possession as he is not King according to Law so we cannot be thought to owe him our Allegiance that is Obedience according to Law for he is not King so as to rule or command us and then there is wanting the very Reason of Duty or of Fidelity to that Duty 5. It may not be unworthy our observation That if any one yet can be so weak or blind as to imagine that since the late King's Abdication the Crown is in Abatement and the Right lies somewhere else even in that case they say the Common Law favours the Abator and looks upon his Title to be good until the Right of the Heir be proved and the Matter of the Title be decided by Law and consequently all Duties in the mean time are to be paid by the Tenants to the Abator as if he had Right as well as Possession I need not apply it 6. However there is nothing in the Law of the Land or the Word of God that necessitates the Subject to trouble his Conscience with Scruples about the Titles of Princes or beyond the actual Possession and Administration of the Government 1. For the Word of God that supposeth Christians to be under the present Powers and strictly enjoins them peaceable and unscrupled Submission and Obedience to the Powers that are but this Argument hath been sufficiently enforc'd by others even to Demonstration 2. For the Law of the Land this justifies our Obedience to the present Power yea requires it and punisheth the contrary and will not endure any Scruples about the Right when the Possession of the Crown is once settled and terminates all Doubts of that kind in an Act of Parliament which is the publick Judgment and Sense of the Nation 'T was said by the Parliament of Richard the 3d after they had cleared his Title as grounded upon the ancient Laws and laudable Customs of the Realm according to the Judgment of all such Persons as were learned in those Laws and Customs they proceed and say Yet nevertheless forasmuch as it is considered that the most part of the People is not sufficiently learned in the aforesaid Laws and Customs whereby Truth and Right in this behalf of likelihood may be had and not clearly known to all People and thereupon put in doubt and question and over this how that the Court of Parliament is of such Authority that a Declaration made by the three Estates and by the Authority of the same maketh before all other things most faithful and certain quieting of Mens Minds and removeth the occasion of Doubts and seditious Language therefore they declare that he was the undoubted King. Whence 't is evident that the Reason of this Law supposeth that the Subjects in general are not capable of understanding the Laws and Customs upon which the Titles of our Kings depend and that the best Satisfaction that the Generality of the People can possibly have in those high Matters is the Sense and Judgment and Determination of the Kingdom by Act and Authority of Parliament wherein they should acquiesce for the preventing Sedition so much as in Language But to be short here the Law allows a King de facto the Name and Dignity and Authority and Defence of a King And doth it not require our Duty according to Law Was 't ever known the King being acknowledged to have the actual Government that the Subject was excused from Allegiance or an Oath of Fidelity as occasion required it Yea If Obedience according to Law be acknowledged due to the present Government as it now it seems is generally granted is not the Oath of Allegiance at this time required by Law as well as by the Relation of Subjects and so made a plain part of our Obedience according to Law Yet if the King in Possession be really our King do not our own Laws return upon us requiring Loyalty and Fealty forbidding Sedition and Scandalum Magnatum and all Endeavours to alter the Government that is at least by our peaceable and dutiful Carriage to acquiesce in the Work of Divine Providence in our late Revolution and the Acknowledgment of our Subjection due to William and Mary who as we have heard by the Laws of the Land heretofore made are our undoubted King and Queen because in possession of the Government their Right also is unquestionable by private Subjects being a Point determined according to the ancient Laws and laudable Customs of this Realm and their Right as well as Possession openly declared by the highest Authority of the Kingdom in Acts of the present Parliament Object But some are apt to say This is to prove that the Sun shines who denies that the present King and Queen are such de facto or that we ought to obey them Sol. 1. This is so far well But do we obey them without reserve for the late King Do we acknowledg that the Laws of the Land oblige us to give them our Obedience Or do we mean only that they have the Name of Soveraigns and a Power in their Hands to defend themselves against and to punish Disturbers of their Possession If it be so we do not take right Measures of their Authority or of our own Duty according to Law. 2. For they are really King and Queen by being in Possession and invested by the Laws with Regal Authority as well as Power otherwise they could not be within the purview of the Statute of Treason 3. Consequently all their Actions that are politick and for the matter agreable to Law are as valid and of as good Authority as the Acts of the most rightful Kings They have Authority and do effectually execute and make Laws while they are in Possession as they do protect us so they administer Justice dispose of Offices coin Mony make Peace and War punish all kind of Offences as well against the Subjects as the Government 4. And such Acts of a King de facto only without Right as concern and have Influence upon the Kingdom have ever been allow'd and reputed good and valid though the Title to the Crown hath been question'd and denied in after-Ages as we noted before 5. That very Parliament that condemned the Usurpations of Hen. 4 5 6. and all Acts that had entailed the Crown contrary to the course of Inheritance yet add these remarkable Words Howbeit that all other Acts and Ordinances made in the said Parliament since been good and sufficient against all other Persons I would infer hence that Obedience is due to the present King c. in his Authority by Law acknowledged as well as Power and therefore not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake Conscience I say not of their Title but of their Authority and our own plain Duty