Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	david_n	hand_n	saul_n	2,591	5	9.7819	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64083	Bibliotheca politica: or An enquiry into the ancient constitution of the English government both in respect to the just extent of regal power, and the rights and liberties of the subject. Wherein all the chief arguments, as well against, as for the late revolution, are impartially represented, and considered, in thirteen dialogues. Collected out of the best authors, as well antient as modern. To which is added an alphabetical index to the whole work.; Bibliotheca politica.	Tyrrell, James, 1642-1718.	1694 (1694)	Wing T3582; ESTC P6200	1,210,521	1,073

and irresistible the Persons and Authority of Kings were under the Iewish Government and there cannot be a plainer Example of this than in the Case of David He was himself anointed to be King after Sauls death but in the mean time he was grievously persecuted by Saul who pursued him from one place to another with a design to take away his Life How now doth David behave himself in this Extremity What Course doth he take to secure himself from Saul Why he takes the only Course that is left to a Subject he flies for it and hides himself from Saul in the Mountains and Caves of the Wilderness and when he found he was discovered in one place he removes to another He kept Spies upon Saul to observe his Motions not that he might meet him to give him Bat●le or to take him at an Advantage but that he might keep out of his way and not fall unawares into his hands Well but this was no thanks to David you 'll say because he could not do otherwise He was too weak for Saul and not able to stand against him and therefore had no other Remedy but flight But yet we must consider that David was a Man of War he slew Goliah and fought the Battles of Israel with great success he was an admired and beloved Captain which made Saul so Jealous of him the Eyes of Israel were upon him for their next King and how easily might he have raised a Potent and formidable Rebellion against Saul But he was so far from this that he invites no Man to his Assistance and when some came uninvited he made no use of them in an Offensive or Defensive War against Saul Nay when God delivered Saul twice into David's hands that he could as easily have killed him as have Cut off the Skirts of his Garment at Engedi or as have taken That Spear away which stuck on the Ground as his Bolster as he did in the Hill of Hachil●h yet he would neither touch Saul himself nor suffer any of the People that were with him to do it tho' they were very importunate with him to let them kill Saul nay tho' they urged him with an Argument from Providence that it was a plain Evidence that it was the Will of God that he should kill him Because God had now delivered his Enemy into his Hands according to the Promise he had made to David we know what use some Men have made of this Argument of Providence to justifie all the Villanies they had a Mind to act But David it seems did not think that an opportunity of doing evil gave him a License and Authority to do it Opportunity we say makes a Thief and it makes a Rebel and a Murderer too No man can do any wickedness which he has no opportunity of doing and if the Providence of God which puts such opportunities into Mens hands might justifie the wickedness they commit no Man can be chargeable with any Guilt whatever he does and certainly Opportunity will as soon justifie any other Sin as Rebellion and the Murder of Princes We are to learn our Duty from the Law of God not from his Providence At least this must be a settled Principle that the Providence of God will never justifie any Action which his Law forbids And therefore notwithstanding this Opportunity which God has put into his hands to destroy his Enemy and to take the Crown for his Reward David considers his Duty remembers that tho' Saul were his Enemy and that very unjustly yet he was still the Lords anointed The Lord forbid says he That I should do this unto my Master the Lords anointed to stretch forth any Hand against him seeing he is the Lords anointed Nay he was so far from taking away his Life that his Heart smote him for cutting off the Skirt of his Garment And we ought to observe the Reason David gives why he durst not hurt Saul because he was the Lords anointed which is the very Reason the Apostle gives in the Romans because the Powers that are are ordained of God and he that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God For to be anointed of God signifies no more than that he was made King or ordained by God For this external Unction was only a Visible Sign of Gods Designation of them to such an Office And it is certain they were as much Gods Anointed without this Visible Unction as with it Cyrus is called Gods Anointed tho' he never was Anointed by any Prophet but only designed for his Kingdom by Prophecy And we never read in Scripture that any Kings had this external Vnction who succeeded in the Kingdom by Right of Inheritance unless the Title and succession were doubtful and yet they were the Lords Anointed too that is were plac'd in the Throne by him So that this is an Eternal Reason against r●sisti●g Soveraign Princes that they are Set up by God and invested with his Authority and therefore their Persons and their Authority are Sacred F. I am so far from differing with you in what you have said concerning this Example of David towards Saul tho' his Enemy that I think it ought to be a Pattern to every single Private Man tho never so great in a Kingdom or Common-Wealth how to comport himself towards the Supream Powers if he himself alone be unjustly persecuted by them either in his Life or Estate that is to fly if he can tho' with the loss of all his Estate rather than resist tho' there are some Circumstances in this Story of David that make it evident that he did not think a Defensive War against those Cut-throats that Saul might send to Kill him unlawful and so much Dr. Fearn himself in his first Discourse call'd resolving of Conscience c. against Resistance of the Higher Powers acknowledges For David when he fled from Saul made himself Captain of four hundred Men which number soon encreased to six hundred And still every day grew more by Additions Now why should he entertain those Men but to defend himself against the Forces of Saul that is to make a Defensive War when ever he was assaulted by him M. I think I can give you a sufficient answer to this and therefore you must observe that David invited none of these Men in to him but they came as Volunteers after a Beloved Captain and General which shews how formidable he could easily have made himself when such Numbers resorted to him of their own Accord When he had them he never used them for any Hostile Acts against Saul or any of his Forces he never stood his Ground when he heard Saul was coming but always fled and his Men with him Men who never were us'd to fly and were very ready to have served him against Saul himself would he have permitted them And I suppose you will not call it a defensive War to fly before an Enemy and to hide

but resolves that his Lust shall be unconfined whereby he becomes insupportable to his People they may as well distinguish his Person from his Power as they do in the Case of Princes when they are either Fools or mad Men. M. But Pray consider the rest of the Consequences of my last Discourse and will not then the supposing a Power in the People of making this Distinction when they please and of Judging when the Prince's Government becomes intolerably Tyrannical make them to take upon them to judge it so when it is quite otherwise and so not scruple to Rebel or to Resist as you call it when ever they are in the mind to do it And we have the more reason to be afraid of this because from the Long Parliaments and their Adherents making use of this Distinction among other Specious Pretences were derived all the Miseries of our last Civil War And therefore tho' I own it is an easie thing to judge of the Madness and Folly of Princes as well as other men yet the Wickedness and Partiality of Human Nature consider'd it is a much harder Task to judge rightly what Actions of Princes are destructive to Civil Government and tender them as uncapable of it as the most Extravagant Actions of Foolish and Mad Princes can be pretended to make them so F. If the Instance of mad Men and Fools seem to displease you because it is very pat to the Subject in hand I think I may likewise remark that those Inconveniences you suppose of making the People Iudges in this Case is the Sole Objection I can find you have against what I have said for otherwise I do not see you have any thing to alledge against the fitness of the Parallel But I have already I believe made it pretty plain that Murdering Enslaving and Robbing of the People of their Properties are thing as easie to be Judged of as Folly or Madness and if a few Domesticks about the Prince shall be allowed to Iudge when their Monarch is mad or foolish enough to be resisted and shut up I cannot see any Reason why the whole Body of the People may not as well be able to Iudge when by his Tyranny and Oppression he hath dissolved the Government and entered into a State of War with them But to return now to the last part of your former Answer wherein you grant that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth sometimes signifie not onely the Person but the Exercise of Authority but that it doth not signifie the Right or Lawful Use of it but Abuse too and for the Proof of this you alledge the Speech of Pilate to our Saviour I am very well satisfied that that Text will make nothing for your Purpose For tho' I grant that the Word in that place denotes Power or Authority yet doth it not there signifie the Abuse of it too For certainly Pilate would never have told our Saviour that he had a Power to abuse his Authority and to condemn him tho' innocent Neither would our Saviour have answered him that he had that Power from above And therefore I think I may very well maintain my Syllogism to be true notwithstanding your denying of the Minor Proposition For since you cannot affirm Tyranny to be the Ordinance of God yet that the Power or Authority of which this Tyranny is but an Abuse is of Divine Institution which is but a Fallacy if it be lookt into For tho' you may vulgarly speaking call all Tyranny an Abuse of Civil Power yet some Tyranny is more than that For it is not so properly an Abuse as a Corruption of it into quite another thing which God never Instituted and consequently therefore is not to be submitted to out of Conscience It is an old saying Corruptio optimi est pessima and you may as well tell me that Vinegar notwithstanding its Acidity continues Wine still as that Civil Government when it degenerates into the rankest Tyranny continues still Gods Ordinance and if this be the true Consequence you draw from your Argument it signifies little viz. that the Abuse of this Power doth not make void the Authority of the Law of God or Nature For I think I may maintain the clear contrary to what you assert viz. that the Obligation not to resist Supream Powers doth receive some Validity from the Iustice they execute and is weakened and at last annulled by their Intolerable Violence or Injustice Nor are your Instances of Saul or Pilate to the Question in hand I grant Saul was God's Anointed and could not have been Lawfully resisted by David notwithstanding his Murdering of Abimelech and the rest of the Priests And Pilate might have his Authority from above notwithstanding his Abuse of it Yet doth it not therefore follow that if either the one or the other had declared themselves Sworn Enemies to the whole Nation of the Iews and that instead of Governing and Protecting them they had gone about utterly to destroy them I think they had then ceased to be the Ordinance of God and their Divine Commission had been at an end To conclude as for the Reason you give why St. Paul might call the Roman Emperours by the Name of Powers I shall not deny it But whether by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle means Persons or Powers is much at one for if he means the former he only urges Obedience to them as they are the means of the Happiness and Preservation of the People as appears by the Third and Fourth Verses of the Chapter you now quote where the main Reason St. Paul gives for our Obedience is That Rulers are not a Terror to God Works but to the Evil and that He viz. the Supream Power is a Minister to us for our Good and indeed it had been a very odd way of enforcing our Obedience for him to have said the quite contrary that this Power was to be Obeyed because he was a Terror to good Works and a Plague to all good Men and a Minister to us of all manner of mischief and misery This had been an excellent way of proving the Supream Powers to be the Ordinance of God M. Before I can give you a full Answer to what you have now said I must beg leave to look back to the beginning of your first Answer where you object that if by the higher Powers here mentioned the Persons and not the Authority of those in Power are to be understood then it would follow that Tyrants and Usurpers are likewise the Powers ordained of God which Objection I think may admit of an easie Answer First can there be no wise Reason given why God may advance a bad man or Tyrant to be a Prince If there may then it is no Reproach to the Divine Providence The Natural End of Human Societies is the Preservation of publick Peace and Order and this is in some measure attained even under the Government of Tyrants But God hath