Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	people_n	power_n	12,222	5	5.4045	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65173	A needful corrective or ballance in popular government expressed in a letter to James Harrington, Esquire, upon occasion of a late treatise of his, and published as seasonable in the present juncture of affaires	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.; Harrington, James, 1611-1677.	1660 (1660)	Wing V72; ESTC R22032	8,679	12

very remote as to the redress of the evil now in question Nevertheless the consideration of this takes so farre impression with me as to conclude no Nation truly free that is in bondage to corruption and alienated from the life of God by wicked works how much soever it be set at liberty in other respects to use the power of its own will in providing for its own Government But the People of it ought to be as sensible of their great want and misery in this respect as they are forward to complain and with great justice also of the force of the sword which God permits very frequently to be kept up over them till holy and righteous Principles be of more power and better reception with them But secondly Until such times of refreshing and healing shall come from the presence of the Lord upon the Nations of the World as is promised in the last of dayes we are to take care in the use of the ordinary meanes daily afforded by Gods Providence that are most conducing to guide and regulate the will of the People unto their making a good choice of the Senate and their own Deputies in order to meet together in one general Assembly by them acknowledged the free and compleat Representation of the whole Nation And then this being once done and thereby the first great wheel of the Common-wealth set upon its right hinges all the other inferior wheeles would quickly be set to keep motion and harmony with that to the bringing in with great facility a well composed order of Government throughout the whole State And this without difficulty may be done if this one Rule be held unto and observed which is that in the time of the Common-wealths constituting and in a Nation much di●ided in affection and interest about their own Government none be admitted to the exercise of the right and priviledge of a free Citizen for a season but either such as are free born in respect of their holy and righteous principles flowing from the birth of the Spirit of God in them restoring man in measure and degree as at the first by Creation unto the right of Rule and Dominion or else who by their tryed good affection and faithfulness to common right and publick freedome have deserved to be trusted with the keeping or bearing their own Armes in the publick defence And if unto this selected number of Citizens the liberty of exercising the choice of the Magistrates for the whole Body should be for a season restrained and they cast into a military order and discipline as the Israelites of old when they once had turned their backs upon Egypt the House of Bondage and shall become distributed in distinct Tribes and Divisions within the borders of their several Habitations or Precincts where they dwell it could be no sooner said unto them as Moses did to the Children of Israel Take and choose you able and wise men such as fear God men of truth and hating covetousness that they may be made Heads over the People of Thousands of Hundreds of Fifties and of Tens but the thing would carry that self-evidence in it to the minds of the People how good and possible it is for them so to doe that they would most cheerfully set about and accordingly effect it As to what then hath been said in this matter pointing out some dissatisfaction that rests with me in reference to the definition you make of an equal Common-wealth and the way you find requisite to place the Ballance in it by an Agrarian and Law for equal interesting the People in the Soyl and an universal liberty unto election of the Magistrates through the help of the rotation and use of the B●llot the result of all amounts to this That whilst holiness in principles by way of spiritual birth is wanting amongst the People as one chief Ingredient to qualifie them to the exercise of the right of free Citizens and a tryed good affection and faithfulness to common Right and publick Freedome remaines undiscovered the way by you proposed for the well constituting a Common-wealth may bring it to a state and degree of Freedome very desirable and which being attained we may be in the fairer and nearer way to the other But where as you all along most deservedly have regard unto the foundations of Government shall be laid so firm and deep as in the Word of God bottomed upon that Corner-stone the Lord Jesus there is a Heavenly Ballance to be met with which keeps all even For upon this Stone there are seven eyes God himself is he that engraves the graving thereof and gives forth according to that pattern the order and constitution of Magistracy in its primitive purity and perfection where the Authority and proposing Power by which to move and keep the will of the People in its right course of obedience is first originally in God and Christ himself as their Political King and Civil Legislator and next under Christ the Ruling Senate whose Office it is and as you yourself well say from the excellency of their debate and deliberation providently and faithfully unfolded to the People they do frequently cause and necessitate the will and the deed in them So much may one man for the excellency of his aid be as in the place and power of God unto another This sort of Government is contained in these following Queries Quer. 1. Whether in the restitution of all things so assuredly promised and so often foretold since the World began Acts 3. Man himself shall not be restored to the gift and exercise of Righteousness in his natural judgement and will in the perfection as to kind wherein he was at first created as in the Type in a good degree did befall Nebuchadnezzar in the exercise of Government Dan. 4. 34 36. to the enabling of whole Nations in this day of Gods Power in such manner to obey Gods Voyce and keep his Covenant as shall render them unto God a Kingdome and holy Nation in the relation of his Subjects and he shall be to them a King or supreme Legislator accepted and voted by the Peoples free and common consent as Exod. 19. Quer. 2. Whether such a restored People and holy Nation made after this manner Gods peculiar treasure and he their chief Magistrate and directed by the Spirit of their Head to put themselves in the best capacity they can first to hear what God hath to propose to them as the rule of their obedience to him Secondly to exercise that which they agree to bear the stamp and authority of the Wisdom of the Nation in matters that appertain to the oversight of the whole Body in the hands of a Senate or Council of Elders for the executive part of the supreme Power And thirdly to give the publick vote and suffrage of the whole People in a way of assent or dissent upon all matters proposed by the Senate to passe into Laws amongst them by their own