Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	absolute_a	king_n	power_n	3,604	5	5.4121	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97099	A helpe to the right understanding of a discourse concerning independency. Lately published by William Pryn of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire.	Walwyn, William, 1600-1681.	1645 (1645)	Wing W683B; Thomason E259_2; ESTC R212478	9,700	11

enriching of Lawyers with a little labour had he been so vertuously disposed he could have discovered the corrupt originall thereof and have layed open all the absurdities therein and shewed the disagreement thereof to the rules of Christianity he could also have shewed to the Parliament what of our Lawes themselves are unnecessary what are prejudiciall to good men and have moved for reducing all to an agreement with Christianity were he say they truly pious and could deny himselfe this he would have done though he had thereby made himselfe equall to men of low degree both in estate food and rayment yea though for his livelihood hee had beene constrained to have laboured with his hands c. This indeed had beene a proper worke for him a Christian Lawyer in a time of Reformation What needed he to have meddled against the Independent and Separation there being so many learned Divines as hee himselfe esteemes them sitting in Councell so neare the Parliament which shewes him to bee too officious And as concerning Church-Government If hee had really intended the good of the Nation and the weal● of all peaceable minded men he would have had in minde such considerations as these The Parliament are now upon setling the affaires of the Church a thing of a very nice and dainty nature especially being undertaken in a time of a homebred Warre If it be not very advisedly and cautiously done it may soone divide the wel-affected party within it selfe then which nothing can be more pernitious and destructive already I have seene some that have laid downe Armes and many withdraw their persons and estates into forreigne parts for no other cause but for being disturbed or discouraged in exercising of their consciences in matters of Religion And it was but thus in the Prelaticall time I finde by my selfe that Christians cannot live though they should enjoy all naturall freedome and content where they are not free to worship God in a way of Religion And I finde also by my selfe that Christians cannot worship God in any way but what agreeth with their understandings and consciences and although I may be at liberty to worship God according to that way which the Parliament shall set up for a generall rule to the whole Nation yet if I were not perswaded that I might lawfully submit thereunto all the torments in the World should not enforce mee and this I finde to bee the case of many conscientious people very well affected to the Parliament and to common freedome Men that have spent their estates and hazarded their lives as freely in defence of just Government as any men whatsoever and whether they are under the names of Anabaptists Brownists Separation Independents or Antinomies wee have had all their most affectionate helpe in throwing down Episcopacy and arbitrary government men they are that still remaine in most opposition to the Popish and malignant parties somewhat we must doe for the ease of these our brethren it must not be in the settlement of our Reformation that they remaine under the same restraint or molestation for their consciences as they were in the Prelaticall time we must doe as we would be done unto if any sort of them were greater in number then we and had authority to countenance them we should esteem it hard measure to be restrained from exercising our Religion according to our consciences or to be compelled by fines imprisonments or other punishments to worship contrary to our consciences we must beare with one anothers infirmities no condition of men in our dayes have an infallibility of judgement every one ought to be fully perswaded in his owne minde of the lawfulnesse of the way wherein he serveth God if one man observe a day to the Lord and others not and both out of conscience to God both are allowed by the Apostle and the one is not to molest no not to despise or condemne Rom. 14. v. 3. much lesse compell the other to his judgement because whatsoever is not of faith or full assurance of minde is sin had Mr. Pryn debated thus with himselfe he had shewed himselfe a true Disciple of Christ and his Apostle differing opinions would not then have appeared such abominable damnable things in his sight The dealing of our Saviour with those most erronious Sadduces would have come into his mind they beleeved that there was neither Angell nor Spirit and that there was no resurrection Opinions as contrary to the current of the then Interpreters as any in our time and yet they professed it openly as appeareth by their attempting our Saviour and were as unreproved of him as of authority he resolves their question by an answer which removed that absurdity which they thought impossible briefly telling them That they neither marry nor are married but as the Angels of God in heaven using them gently without threats or reproaches If Mr. Pryn had thought of this Subject with such like considerations he would soone have seen That the people of a Nation in chusing of a Parliament cannot confer more then that power which was justly in themselves the plain rule being this That which a man may not voluntarily binde himselfe to doe or to forbear to doe without sinne That he cannot entrust or refer unto the ordering of any other Whatsoever be it Parliament Generall Councels or Nationall Assemblies But all things concerning the worship and service of God and of that nature that a man cannot without wilfull sin either binde himselfe to doe any thing therein contrary to his understanding and conscience nor to forbeare to doe that which his understanding and conscience bindes him to performe therefore no man can refer matters of Religion to any others regulation And what cannot be giuen cannot be received and then as a particular man cannot be robbed of that which he never had so neither can a Parliament or any other just Authority be violated in or deprived of a power which cannot be entrusted unto them That Emperours and Kings and Popes have assumed an absolute power over Nations in matters of Religion need not to have beene so laboriously proved nor that Councels and Parliaments have done the like the matter is what they have done of right who knowes not that all these have erred as often as they did so our present Parliament have greater light then any former and propose to themselves to abandon what ever former Parliaments have either assumed or done upon mis-information and have not yet declared themselves to dissent from the fore recited rule and then Mr. Pryn may consider whether he hath not extreamly mispent his time and with much uncharitablenesse injured that faithfull servant of God and sincere lover of his Country Mr. John Goodwin a man that to my knowledge and to the knowledge of many values neither life nor livelihood could he therewith or with losse thereof purchase a peaceable liberty to his Country or a just Parliamentary government so far is he or that

other worthy man Mr. Burton or any Independent Anabaptist Brownist or any of the Separation now extant from deserving either those slight but arrogant expressions of his in his said Epistle telling the honourable Parliament That he knows not what evill Genius and Pithagorian Metempsychosis the Antiparliamentary soules formerly dwelling in our defunct Prelats earthly Tabernacles are transmigrated into and revived into a new generation of men started up of late amongst us commonly knowne by the name of Independents such bumbast inckhorne tearmes savouring so much of a meer pedanticke as ill beseemeth his relation to that supream power of Parliament And thogh those Independents for the most part are such by his owne acknowledgement whose affections and actions have demonstrated them to be reall and cordiall to the Parliament and Church of England for which saith he and for their piety they are to be highly honoured yet hath not he so much charity as to shew any inclination that they should be relieved in their just desire of Christian liberty but prosecutes all those their severall judgements as derogatory and destructive unto Parliament and Church in their Anarchicall and Antiparliamentary positions for which and for their late gathering of Independent Churches contrary to Parliamentary injunctions which were never seen they are he sayes to be justly blamed as great Disturbers of our publicke peace and unity these his great words make a great noise I confesse a man that did not converse amongst these people may easily be induced to believe them to be very dangerous Mr. Pryn is of great credit with many in authority and how far he hath therein done them wrong his owne conscience will one day tell him to his cost If Mr. Pryn were a stranger to the Separation and unacquainted with the innocency of their wayes and intentions I might charitably judge him to plead for the persecution of Gods people ignorantly as St. Paul did but since he cannot but know that they are both in affection and action re all and cordiall to the Parliament as himselfe confesses and hath found them for his owne particular compassionate in his sufferings and liberally assistant to him in his miseries I professe I can make no other construction of his so violent pleading for persecution and incensing the Parliament against a People he knowes harmlesse and modest and reasonable in their desires whose utmost end is only not to be molested in their serving of God I can make no other construction of it I say that engagement to the Divines and some interest of his owne hath begot a hardnesse over his heart and clouded that noble courage and common spirit which did possesse him If he wanted information I would labour with him but since I cannot doubt but that he hath sufficient of that I will leave him till the truth and excellency of that freedome against which he fights till the sincerity and uprightnesse of the Separation which he delivers up to the sword in these words Immedicabile vulnus ense recidendum est make him one day appeare even to his present admirers the man he is indeed In the meane time I turne to the people and desire them to enquire after the Separation and have full knowledge of them they will then finde they are extreamly misunderstood by authority and all others that apprehend them to be any other then a quiet harmlesse people no way dangerous or troublesome to humane society I have found them to be an ingenious enquiring people and charitable both in their censures of others and due regard to the poore I am become their advocate out of no engagement or relation to them I professe more then what my knowledge of their sincerity and true affection to their Country hath begotten in me Mr. Goodwin I need not speak much of he is a man so well knowne that Mr. Pryns so rigid urging of his expressions upon him as he hath too largely and spleenishly done in his Epistle making so unsavoury and utterly disproportioned comparisons betwixt him and the malignant Prelats and Anti-parliamentary Cavaliers that a man that knows the antipathy betweene them cannot but stand amazed thereat and necessarily conclude that something hath blinded not only the light of Mr. Pryns conscience but of his understanding also and then after a most unchristian application his sentence is in these dismall old Antichristian and Prelaticall tearms if they will not be reclaimed fiat justitia better some should suffer then all perish but happy it is that the power of Parliament is not in Mr. Pryn if it were in the minde he is now in 't is much to be doubted his part would differ little from Bonners or Gardiners in Queen Maries dayes but blessed be God it is otherwise nor will that just Authority I presume be moved either with his fierce exclamations or incomparable flatteries to doe any thing contrary to right reason and true Christianity nor is there indeed the fore mentioned rule holding any cause why that supreme Authority should be offended for all sorts of Independents whether Anabaptists or Brownists or Antinomians or any other doe all agree that in all Civill and Military causes and affaires they have an absolute supreme power And if they shall conceive it just and necessary for the State to propose one way of worship for a generall rule throughout the Land and shall ingratiate the same by an exemption from all offence and scandall of weake consciences as far as is possible The Independents c. have nothing to oppose against their wisdomes and if the publicke way should be such as should agree with any of their judgements and consciences they would most readily joyne in fellowship therein but if their judgements and consciences should not be fully satisfied concerning the same then whatsoever is not of faith is sinne and they cannot but disjoyne and in such a case all good men that know them will shew themselves true Christians indeed in becomming humble suters to the Parliament that as for convenience to the State they propose one generall publicke way so for the ease of tender consciences and for avoyding of sinne either in compelling of worship contrary to conscience or in restraint of consciencious worship they would be pleased to allow unto all men that through difference of judgement could not joyne with the publicke congregations the free and undisturbed exercise of their consciences in private congregations And if they should be pleased so to doe it is but what is agreeable to common equity and true Christian liberty It hath beene the wisdome of all judicious Patriots to frame such laws and government as all peaceable well minded people might delight to live under binding from all things palpably vitious by the greatest punishments and proposing of rewards and incouragements to all publicke vertue but in things wherein every man ought to be fully perswaded in his particular minde of the lawfulnesse or unlawfulnesse thereof there to leave every man to