Power JURIDICENT, and JURITENENT: OR, Power of Law-making, and Law-administring, DISCUSSED;  
And Humbly Presented to the PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND, By WILLIAM BALL Esq.   woodcut of water fowl in flourishing border 
Printed by H. T. 1650.   

Power juridicent, and juritenent, etc.  
Temporal Power, or Dominion, is either Natural or Nationall: Natural, as that of Parents over their Children, for their education and preservation, (for God hath ordained Parents not only Temporary instruments of B●ing, but also of well-being; in which Office they ought to imitate the Heavenly spirits, amongst whom the superior illuminate by Intellectual communication * the inferior in 
Verbo mentis.  Degree with perpetual Amity, not with Rigour and severity, as it is probable the Devils do domineer one over the other, for our Saviour saith, they have a 
A note for Rulers.  Kingdom:) Nationall Power is that, which after the fall of Man, God by his fore knowledge and providence for the Rule of worldly affairs preordained, and ordered to be changed according to place, time, and circumstances, etc. This Nationall power is either Rational or Imperial: Rational, as when a People, or Province of self-accord, * agree to have such Laws and Rules, as they conceive 
In this is included the Magisteriall Power of Masters over Apprentices and servants.  convenient for their Good and Preservation, to be administered by one or more. Such was the ordinary Government of the Jews; sometime by Princes, or rather Elders of the People, sometime by Judges, sometime by Kings, sometime by a great Council (or Sanhedrim) somewhat resembling the State of Venice, sometime by Dukes or Chiefetains: and such was and is to this day the several Government of the Nations, whom God admitteth to make use of ordinary means (however determined by his Divine will) for their Politic and Civil welfare: so God admitted the Romans to change their Government from Kings, to Consuls, to Triumvirs, Decemviri, and the like; too tedious it were to instance the several Precedents, both ancient and modern, which History, and the Records of Nations abundantly manifest. Power Imperiall is that which many times is induced upon a Nation, partly by force, and partly by Acceptation or Condition. As when a People or Province being invaded, and in part actually overcome, or otherwise in great danger to be enslaved by a conquering Enemy, do submit themselves to his yoke, upon such conditions as their exigency and necessity will admit: so did the Jews and many other Provinces submit themselves to the Romans: & amongst other Nations the English, to William Duke of Normandy, afterwards called the Conqueror. This Power Imperial, is called Legal, for that it is comprehended by certain Laws or Rules, compacts, and conditions: under this Imperial or Legal Power, do all Nations Christian, or the major part live: albeit some in better, some in worse conditions of servitude: for the Polack Nobility are masters over their Kings; and the French Kings are masters (I will not say Tyrants) over their Peasant subjects: in our Country of England, heretofore Kings had the highest power Juritenen●, or Law-administring, and a partial Power Juridicent, or Lawspeaking; for the Requests and desires of the Commons were heretofore by Kings ratified or consummate: Notwithstanding the House of Commons being the People's Representatives, were the chief Juridicent, or Lawspeaking Power; for our Kings were tied by Oath to propagate and conserve Justas Leges & consuetudines quas vulgus elegerit, the just Laws and customs which the People may or can choose hereafter: The Verb must needs be construed in the Potential mood, not in the Optative nor Subjunctive, because there is neither Adverb nor Conjunction; and in the Potential mood it must needs be construed in the Future tense, otherwise it were against Reason, that any King should swear to conserve Res indefinitas quondam in potentia praeterita: viz. the just Laws which the People might have chosen, would have chosen, should have chosen, or aught to have chosen; every Oath in nature of compact or condition, aught to be de Re determinabili, of a thing Determinable, not of a thing indeterminable never in Act, nor producible into Act, the People being not able to choose, their choice being passed (if elegerit be taken in the preterperfect tense) nor the King able to conserve what they might have chosen, they omitting to choose it. In other things concerning this subject, in my Answer to Mr. David Jenkins his Tenants, I have sufficiently cleared all doubts, (as I suppose, in that no Answer or Replication is made to me by any) and also made it appear, (at what time there was a King) that salus Populi, not Majestas Imperii, was the ultimate object and end of Government: and that the People their Representatives, or trusties, are and aught to be Judges of the Laws Jure primitivo, or primario: for confirmation of this last, and the People's interest, I now further argue: First,  
The Power Juridicent, or Lawspeaking, must chief reside in the Power Active, which formerly tied and obliged by Oath, not in the Power Passive, which was tied and obliged by Oath.  
The People are the Power Active, which formerly tied and obliged by Oath, our Kings to conserve the just Laws &c: which the People may hereafter choose.  
Therefore, the Power Juridicent, or Lawspeaking, must chief reside in the People, their Representatives or trusties.  
The major or precedent is manifest in Reason & Law, between Covenanter and Covenantee; the minor or subsequent is evident by the words of the Oath. Secondly, Power Juritenent or Law-administering, is ordered to the Power Juridicent or Lawspeaking, as the means to the end (the less noble to the more noble) for all Ministers of Law from the highest to the lowest are intended only for conservation of Law and Rule; but the Power Juridicent or Lawspeaking ordereth the Power Juritenent or Law-administering, as the cause, the means, (the more noble, the less noble) for all Lawspeaking intendeth Law-administering for its own conservation, as aforesaid.  
Wherefore, I can not but marvel that some Divines by alleging some Texts of Scripture appropriated to Kings, as they were Monarches without qualification or tye by Oath to the people [not one Text of Scripture mentions that the Kings of Juda or Israel took, or were obliged to take an Oath to the People] should persuade this People or Nation of England, that they were, and aught to be wholly devoted to the will and pleasure of their Kings, and that in no case they might withstand, or oppose their Commands, though destructive to their Fundamental and Primitive Rights: Such men should first consider the nature and difference of Kings; for some Kings either by the People's admission, or by usurpation had a domineering, or the highest power (in civil or mundane affairs) both Juridicent or Lawspeaking, and Juritenent or Law-administering; but the Kings of England had no such, for they could make no Law at any time without the consent of the People's Representatives, etc. and even in their Juritenent or Law-administering Power they were restrained and limited, and their proceed were questionable by Parliament. And whereas some allege that King's writ, and do write themselves Kings Dei gratia, etc. And from thence they would infer that Kings are as it were specially apppointed by God himself, and no way entrusted by the People, or tied or obliged to them; such men are herein greatly mistaken, for the reason why Christian Kings and Potentates writ Dei gratia, etc. Is, or should be, to show their humility and thanks towards God, to acknowledge him the Author (according to the Text, By me Kings reign) by his free gift, of their Dignity and Power, whether more or less qualified and limited, and that they should not arrogantly attribute their Dominion to themselves, as either causers, or otherwise sole deservers of it, as did Nabucadonezer, saying, Is not this Babylon? etc. As also Sapores the proud Persian, with divers others; so do some of the Asian and African Monarches, or rather Tyrants at this day. Thirdly, where the Power Juritenent or Law-administering (being the less noble) shall become destructive de facto (by irregular exorbitancy, or wilful defect) to the Power Juridicent or Lawspeaking (being the more noble) there the Power Juridicent may determine the Power Juritenent, and constitute and apply such other means as shall seem convenient for selfe-preservation, that being the very end of all Regulated Government.  
If it be said, that sometime the Power Juridicent (the People their Representatives or trusties) hath erred, and may err in constituting and applying means for selfe-preservation; It may sometime be so, I grant it: but as beyond the highest Heaven there is no Mathematical, or farther Dimension, so beyond a Nationall 
Of Government generally admitted by the Nation.  constitution of Government, there ought to be no farther Progression Political, or farther Progress, but all men of the same Nation ought therein to acquiesce: I shall conclude with this,  

Supra Regis Diadema,  
Gentis salus Lex Suprema:  
Quin & Parlamenti status  
Est saluti Gentis datus;  
Et à Gente sic creatus.   
WILLIAM BALL.  
FINIS.