Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n
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A62670
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An essay concerning obedience to the supreme powers, and the duty of subjects in all revolutions with some considerations touching the present juncture of affairs.
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Tindal, Matthew, 1653?-1733.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing T1299; ESTC R5554
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50,889
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92
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Magistrate whom he calls the Ordinance of Man so that it is plain that God by approving this Human Ordinance approves it as Human and requires obedience to it for the same Reasons that men at first instituted it And it is the power Governors have to do Good that makes them to be not only God's Ordinance and God's Ministers but even Gods for since they are not Gods by nature tho by some peoples arguing one would suppose they though them such or at least Beings in themselves superior to the rest of Mankind it must be for the protection they afford that they are termed so who when they do no longer protect the people cease to be a Human Ordinance and then too they cease to be a Divine one And the same Reasons that obliges people to submit to them when they act for the good of the Society does as much oblige people to oppose them if they design to ruin and destroy them It cannot well be supposed that God who has obliged Mankind to preserve their lives and consequently to use the means that are necessary for that end should require People to suffer themselves to be destroyed to gratify the Lust or Barbarity of a single Person or a few who are by Nature but their Equals and only above them by being in an Office which they erected only for their Convenience Obj. St. Paul makes no manner of exception but declareth Whosoever resists shall receive damnation Ans. The Apostle requireth obedience to Parents in all things so he requireth obedience to Masters Husbands Pastors without mentioning any Exceptions so here the Apostle which was sufficient for his purpose declareth all people ought to obey the Supream Powers without mentioning this exception which from the nature end and design of Government and even from those Reasons which he gives for Obedience does necessarily flow It cannot be presumed that Christ gave Authority to his Apostles to make Slaves of Mankind by giving the Emperors a new Power who before by no Law of God or Nature had such a power over peoples lives All the Power the Roman Government had was immediatly from the people who as it is plain in History by their mutual Consent erected that Commonwealth and what power the Emperors had was given them too by the people who by the Lex Regia conferred it upon them All that can be deduced from Scripture is That obedience is due to those that protect the people and nothing can be plainet than those Texts which require it By which plain and ignorant people may know their duty as well as the learned and wise It would have been inconsistent with the Goodness of God to have required obedience on the greatest penalties and yet leave it so uncertain as the Jacobitish Principles would render it to whom obedience is to be paid What can be more uncertain than generally Titles are And are there not innumerable intricate difficulties about long Possession presumed Consent a just cause for a total Conquest c. If about these Points the Learned do so extreamly differ as any one may perceive that gives himself the trouble to examine what Authors have writ upon it who give good Reasons for destroying one another's Hypothesis but none for confirming their own but what are liable to equal Exceptions what means or possibility have almost all Mankind the unlearned and common people of knowing their duty But it may be objected Though the common people should be mistaken invincible Ignorance will excuse them Ans. Not to dispute how far such Ignorance will excuse them I am sure it is inconsistent with the Infinite Wisdom of God to give such Rules as almost all Mankind are utterly uncapable of understanding or guiding their Actions by But whoever considereth these Texts of Scripture will see the falseness of such impious Reflections and must admire the Goodness of God in laying down Rules so plain that a well-meaning man cannot mistake them But if men will be wiser than God himself and not be content with those Laws he prescribes them but will invent new Rules and new ways or by following the Tradition of the Jewish Priests will disturb the peace and quiet of Human Societies by opposing the Powers that be If by so doing they incur the severest Punishments here as well as Eternal Torments hereafter with those damned ill-natured Spirits the grand Enemies of Mankind who at first possessed men with these Maxims so pernicious to Human Societies they must thank themselves and their too great Subtilty The Primitive Christians all along complied with the Revolution of the Empire and whoever was in possession of it without examing his Title paid him allegiance and thought him invested with God's Authority And as the Goths and Vandals and other barbarous Nations on one hand and the Saracens Turks and Persians on the other without any just cause overturn'd the Roman Empire the Christians were so far from disputing their Titles or refusing to transfer their Allegiance to them that they never scrupled to own their Government If these Pharisaical Notions had then been believed or practised those Nations would have extirpated all the Professors of Christianity as Enemies to Government and Order instead of being converted to their Religion as most of the Northern Nations were Nor do the Christians that now live under the Dominions of the Infidels vary from this Primitive Practice or scruple to transfer their Allegiance to any that gets possession of the Sacred Office of Governing tho the Legal Prince be still alive Did not the Jews though they were commanded by a Divine Law to take a King from amongst their Brethren and God himself had intailed the Crown on the Posterity of David practice the same as they fell under the power of the four great Empires And did they not submit to Alexander without endeavouring to oppose him when Darius to whom they had sworn obedience could no longer protect them I shall add but one Instance more and that shall be of David who thought it not unlawful when Saul designed to take away his life to transfer his Allegiance and fly to Achish King of Gath for protection who made him Keeper of his Head or Captain of his Guard and whilst he was under his protection he thought it his duty to pay all manner of Allegiance to him and tho contrary to his Interest and the hopes he had of being King after Saul's death even to join with the Uncircumcised to invade his own Countrey and to sight against the Lord 's Anointed his late King and Father-in-law and as appeareth by the 1 Sam. 29. 8. was much grieved and humbly expostulateth with the King for not permitting him to attend him in the Battel But what have I done or what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee until this day that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my Lord the King Saul by designing to destroy David had
freed him from the Allegiance he owed him for he that designs to destroy a person cannot have a mind to govern that person he designs to destroy and if he will not govern him he is free from his Government and at liberty to pay his Allegiance where he thinks best And if David expected from the King of Gath an universal protection from all his Enemies he ought to pay the King an universal obedience If a private person be free from the Government that designs to destroy him the Argument will hold as strongly in behalf of a Nation that is designed to be destroyed and whoever attempts it does not only renounce the Government of the Nation but puts himself in a state of War and declares himself an utter Enemy to them who are as much obliged to resist him as they are any other Enemy Upon this Head the Jews in the time of the Maccabees took up Arms against their Legal King Antiochus whom they all along acknowledged as such and who was Successor to Alexander who had the same right to their obedience as the Persians or Assyrians had who was resolved to extirpate them if they would not turn Idolaters And it is manifest that God by the miraculous assistance he gave them for what they did must be imputed to more than Human Force did approve of their design And the same Reasons will justify any Nation for opposing that Prince that does endeavour upon a religious or any other account to destroy them By what hath been said I hope it is plain that by the positive Law of God by the Law of right Reason by the Law of all Nations and the universal practice of Mankind and the express Law of the Land obedience is due to the King who does actually govern the people and therefore to the present King and Queen though they did not enjoy the Crown vacant by the late King's Abdication by any Legal Right which Right I think has been sufficiently demonstrated by those that have writ on that Subject at least to Lawyers and men that are competent Judges in such Points of which a great many are no more competent Judges than they are of Mathematical Demonstrations which are nevertheless Demonstrations but none can be mistaken who they are that do actually govern the Nation and if obedience for that reason be due to them other inquiries are needless Therefore I shall only add That nothing could be more Just more Glorious more Meritorious than the Prince's coming over to rescue three Nations from Slavery and Ruin by obliging the Late King which by all possible Ties he was bound to to govern according to Law To which he was so averse that he was resolved not to govern at all if he could not govern Arbitrarily which when he plainly saw he could not effect he threw up the Government Which whatever Force may be pretended must be esteemed a voluntary Action because he might have prevented it by governing according to Law according to that known Axiom Involuntarium ex voluntario ortum habens moraliter pro voluntario habetur The Throne being actually vacant by his deserting it What Reason could hinder the Prince from accepting what was his Right when offered him by the Convention of the States of the Kingdom Who when the Throne is actually vacant and it is not clear whose Right it is are and have always been the sole proper Judges to determine to whom it belongs whose Judgments must give a Legal Right because all Legal Rights are held by no other Tenure than the Decree of the Supream Judges But supposing the King had no Legal Right and that the Convention were not Legal Judges yet if they were chosen by the Nation to determin upon the late King 's leaving it what was necessary to be done for the preservation of the Nation it being necessary that somewhat should be resolved on that necessity would give them a sufficient Right to do whatever they found necessary for the preservation of the Nation Because no Nation can be brought to that condition but it must have a Right to act for its own safety which it cannot do if it have not a Right to appoint Judges to determine what is to be done and oblige particular persons to stand to their Determinations And the Convention ought if they thought it of which they were appointed the Judges for the safety of the Nation wholly to exclude the Late King And why might they not if they thought the Nation could not be safe if he should return be wholly against his return as well as the Jacobites themselves for there were none of another Opinion then be against his return but upon such Terms and Conditions as they thought necessary for the safety of the Nation And the same necessity that will justify the Late Archbishop for consenting to put the Soveraign Administration of Affairs into the Prince's hands will justify the Convention for continuing it in the hands of the King who alone could secure the Nation and who had saved them before he ruled them and to whom it was owing that they could call any thing even their Lives their own Which if it be not the best Title to a Crown yet at least is the best Title to Peoples Hearts and Affections when he is possest of it especially when the chief advantage he gains by it is but to expose his Sacred Person for the Security of the Nation And the enlarging his Empire has only encreased his Cares and Concerns for the Safety of those he governs And all the satisfaction he reaps which to a God-like Mind is the greatest is the power to oblige and to do good The Nation is happy in having a King whom they can trust not only because his Interest is the same with theirs but because as all the Actions of his Life have demonstrated no Consideration of his own could ever divert him from acting what was best for the Cause he was engaged in and who is as famous for being true and just to his Word as his Enemies are infamous for breaking their most Sacred Oaths and Solemn Leagues In a word He is a Prince that has the Vertue the Fidelity the Integrity of Cato as well as the Bravery the Courage and Conduct of Caesar. Never did the happiness of the best part of Mankind depend more upon a single Life than now Nations of Religions and all things else different do unanimously agree in acknowledging him to be their chief Support the Head the Heart the Hand of the Confederacy and to him they confess that it is owing that the Chains that have been ready to setter Europe have been more than once broken To be the Preserver of Europe is a much more glorious Title than to be the Conquâ—â—â—â— of it To which may be added the most excellent of all Titles The Defender of the Faith which tho others have claimed of course he best deserves since to him it is owing that