Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	king_n	law_n	power_n	9,684	5	5.3760	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50410	Certain sermons and letters of defence and resolution to some of the late controversies of our times by Jas. Mayne.	Mayne, Jasper, 1604-1672.	1653 (1653)	Wing M1466; ESTC R30521	161,912	220

upon a new forme of State or such a confusion or no Forme of state as we see hath almost drawn ruine upon themselves and their Countrey Once more therefore I must aske your Friend what he meanes by Liberty I hope he doth not mean an Exemption from all Governement Nor is fallen upon their wilde Opinion who held that there ought to be no Magistrate or superior among Christians But that in a freedom of condition we are to live together like men standing in a Ring or Circle where Roundnesse takes away Distinction and Order And where every one beginning and ending the Circle as none is before so none is after another This Opinion as 't would quickly reduce the House of Lords to the House of Commons so 't would in time reduce the House of Commons to the same levell with the Common people who being once taught that Inequality is unlawfull would quickly be made Docile in the entertainment of the other Arguments upon which the Anabaptists did here to fore set all Germany in a flame Namely that Christ hath not only bequeathed to Men the liberty of his Gospell but that this liberty consists in ones not being greater then another It being an Oracle in Nature that we are all borne Equall That these words of Higher and Lower superiour and Inferiour are fitter for Hills and Vales then for men of a Kind That the names also of Prince and Subject Magistrate and People Governours and Governed are but so many stiles Vsurpt Since in Nature for one Man to be borne Subiect to another is as much against Kinde as if men should come into the World with chaines about them or as if Women should bring forth Children with Gyves and shakles on Which Doctrine as 't would naturally tend to a Parity so that Parity would as naturally end in a Confusion Lastly therefore I will understand your Friend in the most favourable sence I can That by the Parliaments defence of the Peoples Liberty he meanes the maintenance of some Eminent Rights belonging to the Subiect which being in manifest danger to be invaded and taken from them could not possibly be preserved but by Armes taken up against the invader But then granting this to be true as I shall in fit place shew it to be false yet the King being this invader unlesse by such an Invasion He could cease to be their King or they to be his subiects I cannot see how such Rights could make their Defence lawfull For the clearer Demonstration of this I shall desire you Sir not to think it a digression in me if I deduce things somewhat higher then I at first intended or then your Letter requires me Or if to cure the streame I take the Prophets course and cast salt into the spring And examine first How farre the Power of a King who is truly a King and not one only in Name extends it selfe over Subjects Next whether any such Power doe belong to our King Thirdly if there doe How farre 't is to be obeyed and not resisted As for the first you shall in the Scripture Sir find two Originalls of Kings One immediatly springing from the Election and choice of God himselfe The other from the choice and election of the People But so as that it resolves it selfe into a Divine Institution The History of Regall power as it took Originall from God himselfe is set downe at large in the eight Chapter of the first Book of Samuel where when the Israelites weary of the Government by Iudges who had the same power that the Dictators had at Rome and differ'd nothing from the most absolute Monarchs but only in their Name and the temporary use of their power required of Samuel to set a King over them God bid him hearken to their voyce But withall Solemnly to protest and shew them the manner or as one translat ●…s it more to the mind of the Originall Ius Regis the Right or power of the King that should raigne over them That he would take their sonnes appoint them for his Charets And their Daughters to be Confectionaries and Cookes f●…r his Kitchin That he would also take their fields their Uineyards and their Olive-yards even the best of them and give them to his Officers Lastly That he would take the Tenth of their seed and sh●…epe And yee saies the Prophet which is a very characteristicall marke of subjection shall be his servants All which particulars with many others there specified which I forbeare to repeat to you because they rise but ●…o the same height may in oth●… termes be briefly summed up into these two Generalls That the Iews by requiring a King to be set over them such a King as was to Raigne over them like the Kings of other Nations divested themselves of two of the grea●…est Immunities which can belong to Freemen Liberty of person and propriety of Estates And both these in such an unlimited measure as left them not power if their Prince pleased to call either themselves or Children or any thing else their owne To this if either you or your friend shall reply that this was but a Propheticall Character of Saul and a meere prediction to ●…he people wha●… He made King would doe noe true Draught of his Commission what He in Iustice might since a Prince who shall assume to Himselfe the exercise of such a boundlesse power doth but verify the Fab●… a S●…ork set over a Common wealth of Froggs They to be his prey not He to be their King To the first I answer negatively That what is said in the fore-mentioned Chapter by Samuel cannot be meant only of Saul since nothing is there said to confine the description to this Raigne Nor doth any part of his History charge him with such a Government Next I shall g●…ant you that no Prince ruling by the strict Lawes of naturall-equity or Iustice can exercise all the Acts of power there mentioned Nor can his being a King so legitimate all his Actions or so outright exempt him from the common condition of men that what ever he shall doe shall be right Most of the Acts there recorded are not only repugnant to the Lawes of sociable Nature or just Rule which forbids One to have All and binds Princes themselves in chains of Reason but to the Law of God in another place which allowes not the King of his own choyce to Raigne as he list but assignes him the Law of Moses for his Rule From which as often as he broke loose he sinned like one of the People yet so as that upon any such breach of the Law 't was not left in the power of the People to correct him or to force him by a Warre lik●… ours to returne back again to hi●… duty His commission towards them if you marke it well ●…an in such an uncontroleable stile that his best Actions and his worst towards them wore the same warrant of Authority However