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	power_n	supremacy_n	2,252	5	10.5244	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49899	The true notion of government shewing, I. The original of government, II. The several forms of government, III. The obligations betwixt governours and governed : in vindication of kingly-prerogative / by T.L., gent.	T. L., Gent.	1681 (1681)	Wing L82; ESTC R25129	14,240	37

the Inventor But Providence if we would know it hath better provided for our peace by constituting one particular Form of Government above the rest And if we can find any one particular Form of which he hath given any instances and intimations of his choice and nothing can be brought to maintain any of the other Forms proceeding from him in a direct special manner then may that Form of Government and that onely challenge the preheminence That Monarchy bears these Characters of its divine Instition may appear to every unprejudiced mind that considers first that the Original of Government which I hope is by this time granted to be from God was Monarchical The Paternal Regiment being so the Regal and Paternal differing only as Magis and Minus which one would suppose to be proof enough that Government in its first Origine was Monarchical but they say there is a greater difference than so betwixt them for the Paternal Regiment was purely Natural but the Regal of Civil Institution that indeed constituted by God whilst the World was scarce of People but this by consent of the People altogether the beginning of it being to be ascribed to humane reason and necessity For when Men and Impiety began to multiply Ambition and Avarice Injustice and Robbery increased together the World the soft and gentle bonds of Paternal perswasions were too weak to oblige Mankind from their inclinations to evil altogether ineffectual to restrain the habit so that to prevent the Inundation of a flowing confusion necessity taught to understand that they must by a general Obedience submit themselves to Order and Dominion supposing that a tolerable Bondage would be far better than the Licentious Disorder From this Necessity say they arose the beginning of Civil Government from which it is plain that people chose then and may do still what Government they please But surely though these Premises be seemingly true their Conclusions are drawn up false For though to speak humanely the beginning of Empire may be ascribed to Reason and Necessity yet it was God that kindled this Light in the Minds of men they saw they could not be preserved without a Ruler and Conductor God himself having by his Eternal Providence ordained Kings and that in the institution of Paternal Authority For though the Supremacy of its Jurisdiction was deminished by the overgrown Disobedience of the encreasing World yet was it not altogether abrogated for from it sprung Kingly Power and as it were from the Typical Idae of Family and oeconomical Government proceeded the Form of Kingly Regiment The one being the Father of his Family the other of his Country One the indulgent Protector of his Children the other of his Subjects they both having Monarchical Jurisdiction over both Moreover the Law of Nature having thus written in Mens Mindes and inclined them to this sort of Government onely does not a little prove the hand of God in its Institution that being always accounted as an Institution of God and Nature which all the World have without mutual Combination consented to practise which that they did is evident from all History And it is no small argument for Monarchy that at this day in the latter discoveries of Countries there should be found no other Government but Monarchical and that almost Paternal being extended to a very few persons and though there be found in these Western parts some Common wealths yet they are found onely here and they so few that they are of no force to evalidate the Divine Institution of the other they having nothing but humane policy for their Foundation and no more of God's than of a common hand in their Institution whereby evil as well as good arises up in the World they having most commonly by Gods permission arose by way of Rebellion and Deffection from their lawful Soveraign as a punishment to their Offences and chastisement for their own Iniquities But if mens consent will not satisfie their curiosity the meer inanimate Creature will tell us that Nature instituted among them a Monarchical Power even in their Regiment For in the simple and imperfect Gorvernment which we finde among them there is a reasonable account of its being so But if we consider the State which God made more immediately his Peculiar surely the thing will be so evident that it must be granted For what was the Patriarchal Government of the Children of Israel but purely paternally Monarchical In Aegypt they were under no other Government that we read of than that of the Egyptian Kings From the time of their going out of Egypt to their more particular inauguration of their Kings though their Government hath seem'd to be only Republican yet we shall find that Moses Joshua with the Judges were all in their kind Monarchs and so in all the progress of their state we shall never finde the Civil Regiment of the Jews to be otherwise which one would suppose to be enough to recommend the Government of one above that of many As for Elective Governments and such-like we may draw a Consequence from what hath been already said But as for those Monarchies which are Mixed and Temperated it being no Contradiction to call them so much might be said But it will suffice my Enquiry to say That great is their Happiness who live under such Government But as great is their Unhappiness who not rightly understand this their good Fortune And they would in my mind do well to consider those great Priviledges they so much boast of and stand upon were at first the bountiful Donations of their Princes granted to their Subjects upon extraordinary Occasions Which though by length of Time and continued Custome are grown into Established Laws yet surely cannot pretend to that Right or Priviledge which is due to the Kingly Prerogative and Princes may be Princes without them but they can be no Governors without their Princes who may act without any bodies saying What doest Thou But The Obligations betwixt Governors and Governed Most People will be ready to say what may Princes then Reign without controul are they so Sovereign that they may do what they list without any Stop to be put to their Wills when grown Extravagant Unjust This is the great Question This is that which so much works in the heads of busie bodies and froths up in the Minds of the vain Multitude The Question is indeed great but may be answered without any great Difficulty for that there is a mutual Obligation of Obedience betwixt Soveraign and Subject is so undeniably true that Kings themselves will grant it as well as the People But that there is a vast difference betwixt the Obligations of Princes and that of the People must be granted by the People as well as Princes That the most Absolute Prince is subject to the Laws of God his own Conscience and the Rules of common Justice none will deny But that the most petty Monarch can forfeit to any of his