Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A25740
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An apology for a yovnger brother, or, A discovrse proving that parents may dispose of their estates to which of their children they please by I. A.
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J. A. (John Ap Robert)
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1641
(1641)
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Wing A3592; ESTC R9194
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34,253
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68
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yee may take Evill from among you and that all Israel hearing it may feare Whence we may collect how odious a Crime Vnthriftinesse was among the People of God and what ample Power the Father had to punish the same in his Child For if we obserue well the Manner of the Processe betweene the Father and the Child in this Case wee shall finde that the Father was Accuser Witnesse and as it were Iudge of his owne Cause For we read not that the Senators of the City did giue sentence or further examined the Proofes of the Fathers Accusation but their Presence giuing as it were Allowance to a Fathers Power and Intention to punish his Sonne the People might without more Enquiry stone to Death so evill a deseruing Child Which being well consider'd my Hope is that it will never hereafter seeme vnlawfull though somewhat strange that a Father should disinherit his Eldest or any other sonne of his for the Cause only of Unthriftines And although the World of Men is growne to that Greatnesse that it is necessary One Generall Father or Politike Head should be in a Kingdome or State which may justly abridge some of these Privileges and abate a Fathers Power all Fathers being Children to the Father of their Countrey their Lord and King vnder God yet the Power to advance and maintaine a Family by good and lawfull Meanes is still both allowable and commendable in a Parent who may from time to time reward according to distributiue Iustice all those which liue vnder him by leauing his Fortunes to them as in Iustice they shall deserue and Law shall allow So that there is no Question but hee may still disinherit according to the power of that Law vnder which he liues For no other Ty is ouer him God and Nature * The Law of Nature or as Civilians stile A of Nations on which a Fathers Plenary Power is founded is by S Paul expresly termed The Law of God Rom. 1.31 allowing that at this day for ever which once they gaue vnto him Which Authority he not only may but ought also to execute as farre as the Law of Man shall permit otherwise he shall erre in his Paternall Iustice For a Father is not only to beget and nourish his Children in his life but by Natures law must provide to his Power that they liue both in his life after his death to the honour of God the service of their Countrey and comfort of their Family which were the only Ends for which God created Man a Civill and rationall Creature All which if it shall assuredly bee thought by a Father that any Child of his will wholly neglect or rather execute the contrary then no questiō a Father is not bound to leaue him any more then shall honestly suffice the Necessities of Nature For as before is said no Man may giue or lend his Goods to any one who will in all Mens Iudgements assuredly abuse them But let vs see whether a desperate Vnthrift may be arraigned and adjudged Guilty of these Accusations Surely it is cleere that all vnthrifty * To play away our Praedecessors labours is a greater dishonour then to pisse on our parents ashes 〈◊〉 raze their monuments Carp Achitoph p. 3. courses are displeasing to God and contrary to to his Honour And how can hee bee able to serue his Country who in short time will not bee able to serue himselfe with Necessaries wherewith to liue but must of force bee maintained like a Drone in a Common Wealth out of others Labours As for his Family what greater Discomfort can it haue then an absolute Overthrow Whereby the Noble Acts and Honour gotten to it by vertuous Predecessors are buried in Oblivion and the present future Hopes of all worldly and lawfull Honours Vertues temporall Reward are quite taken away And shall not ALL THIS deserue Disinherison Can there bee a greater sinne committed against the Honour and Essence of a Family as it is a Family The life and soule of a Family then to be spoil'd of its Honour and Life it selfe For in these our Times well gotten Goods and vsed as they ought are the onely Soule by which a Family and all the vertuous Acts which it hath done may liue Since therefore so great a mischiefe is sought aim'd at in this sinne surely according to the proportion of distributiue Iustice the greatest punishment is in Equity due to the same according to the reason of the Precept Ius summum vnicuique tribuere Nature teacheth the silly Bees in their Common Wealth to doe to death their Drones who liue of others Labours and shall it bee thought vnlawfull for a Father so to punish an incorrigible Unthrift who will not only liue of others Labours but also subvert the honourable Endeavours of his Noble Ancestors Thus if Sonnes may be deemed and doomed by the offended hauing power to doe both according as the Offence done against them shall by circumstance be of Quality as we haue proued they may and ought then certainely it is lawfull for a Father so to doe as I haue formerly demonstrated But because Examples in all Controversies of Fact are the best Fortifications I will in illustration of the Premisses adde some few to the former drawne as well from Royall Precedents by whose Patternes totus componitur Orbis as from inferiour Persons whose Qualities best fit the condition of our present subject And if Kingdomes Common Weales haue fauour'd it then certainely by all Arguments à majori ad minus it may much rather be done and ought to bee suffered in private Families CHAP. 9. The main points of the Premises exemplified in diuers particular Facts as well of Princes as of private Persons IT is not fit perhaps to vrge the better Acceptance with God of Abels Offering aboue Cain's the Elder Brother Temporis praelationem tulit improbitas Dignitatis praerogativā Virtus Philo. de Caino Abele Abel Iaphet but that Estate which Abel had in Adams Patrimony Nor will I reinforce Iaphets share in his Fathers Right to the whole World though hee being the youngest Son of three had Europe for his Inheritance which in all Arts and Vses of Life farre excells Africk Asia and all the rest of the Earth Whereas according to the pretenses of those customary challenges Sem should either haue had all or beene Soveraigne Lord of all and Cham and Iaphet with their Posterity but Farmers or Free-holders vnder him I will not also as if there were penury of Resemblances produce againe Esau's Disinherison though that * In this case God said expresly The Elder shall serue the yoūger See Gen. 25.23 and Mal 1.3 with the Geneva Note there were enough for our present purpose For had it beene Sinne which neither Scripture nor Iosephus in his Antiquities saith the Mother could not haue procured it God would not haue prosper'd it nor Iacob himselfe being a good man haue accepted it