Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	authority_n	good_a	great_a	775	5	2.9997	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92823	A second part of the religious demurrer; by another hand. Or, an answer to a tract called The lawfullnesse of obeying the present government. / By a lover of truth and peace.	Lover of truth and peace.; Ward, Nathaniel, 1578-1652.	1649 (1649)	Wing S2314; Thomason E530_31; ESTC R203433	11,345	8

A second Part of the Religious DEMURRER By another Hand Or an ANSWER to a Tract called The Lawfullnesse of obeying the present Government By a lover of Truth and Peace To the READER IT is the unhappinesse of these last times especially that men are apt to run from one extreame to another As in matter of Religion we see it evident we are fallen from superstition to prophanesse So in the State from Miss-Government to Change of Government and sometimes from one kinde of Tyranny to another from Regall to Popular from Tyranny under a lawfull power to Tyranny under an unlawfull power And which is worst is not hard to determine inasmuch as a single Tyrant is better then many Regall Tyranny better then Martiall And this is the yoke that at present people most complain of which it were well if wise men would study how to remove not how to fasten it unavoidably upon the necks of this Nation But this is most just with God we humbly acknowledge it that seeing we would not bear the easie silken yoke of Jesus Christ he is now putting on us an iron yoke which neither our fathers were nor we are nor our posterity will be able to bear Amongst those that assist to the effecting of this whether ignorantly or intentionally this Gent. is one of the first that undertakes to perswade this people to bear this yoke as if we were populus ad servitutem non nati sed destinati and with our own hands should help to put this yoke upon our own necks and rivet it fast for falling off which certainly we doe if once we can be perswaded that not only we may voluntarily because sinlesly as we are made beleeve but also must necessarily for conscience sake not meer coaction obey an unlawfull power by the command of God It is a very sad thing and dangerous for a man to be engaged once in any sinfull designe or act in that scel●re tuendum est scelus one engagement draws on another And it is a very great snare we see for men to be possest of great estates and places of profit by that power which can as easily divest them of it if they oppose or assist not their wicked designes If the world be not mistaken in the Authour of this Tract they fear him intangled in such a snare otherwise say they he would never undertake the patronage of so bad a cause or countenance it by acting or assisting the Authours of this change especially being engaged to the contrary as they yet think by so many Oaths and Covenants What mischief this Tract may doe the rather for the worth and authority of the man with persons fearfull or loath to suffer losse or punishment is not easie to say If this Answer may give him any light to see his error his Retractation of it by writing or his Retreat from the present power and actors in it may if speedily done help to Antidote or expell the prescribed poison Which that it it may be done is the desire of a friend of his The Lord give it a good Issue Question Whether Those whose Title is held unlawfull yet being possest of Authority may lawfully be obeyed THere are two great questions now in chase and agitation 1. Whether the present power be just and lawfull 2. Whether supposing them unlawfull they may not lawfully be obeyed The first of these is waved by this Gentleman as undertaken by others with what strength or weaknesse let others judge The second is the subject of the present debate The Gentleman speaks of a Declaration published wherein the grounds of setling the present Government are exprest But for ought I hear few rationall conscientious men are satisfied with that Declaration considering those Vowes Oaths Covenants whereby the Authors of it stood before engaged And whatever the people may do in submitting to obey this power of the new Government I fear they that altered it and those that act it on or they that abet it cannot be innocent But let them look to that We shall not at present discusse the lawfullnesse or the unlawfullnesse of their power and proceedings but consider how far we our felves may submit unto them without sin For this purpose we shall first consider how the Gent. hath stated the question And we observe that he laies it only upon the Lawfullnesse not upon the necessity of our obedience For so he saies Though the change of a Government were beleeved unlawfull yet it may lawfully be obeyed Not it must necessarily but may lawfully be obeyed and yet his text produced Rom. 13.1 c. is pressed with this inference Wherefore ye must be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake Now some there are who are of opinion that though such an unlawfull power may be obeyed yet it need not for conscience sake be obeyed if a man will hazard the punishment annexed and submit himself to suffer it But it is otherwise in a lawfull power in lawfull things a man is bound to active obedience unto them and it sufficeth not to satisfie conscience to suffer the penalty but is a resistance of the ordinance of God which in lawfull commands requires active obedience in unlawfull passive What then is the difference between a lawfull power and an unlawfull both commanding lawfull things but this That a man may if he will obey the one but must obey the other not only passively by suffering if by ignorance or weaknesse he neglect the command but also actively in acting that command or else he sins And to this purpose the Gent. adds page 2. If the powers in that time were ordained of God and were to be obeyed for conscience sake c. where he takes it for granted as well he may if the powers were ordained of God that be the powers never so unlawfull yet they must be obeyed for conscience sake Yet the question runs only of the lawfullnesse That 's first Secondly For the clearer stating of the question we must necessarily distinguish in many particulars which the Gent. hath either omitted or confounded 1. We must distinguish of a Government A State may be considered either as constituta long setled or constituenda as yet in setling A people may perhaps lawfully obey a Government when there is no probability of recovering their lost Government whereas while it is yet in setling they may suspend obedience 2. A people also may be considered either as free to settle upon what Government they will as having no Government yet setled or the line of succession being expired or as bound by Oathes and Covenants to a former Government or Governours who are oppressed in their right by violent usurpation In the first a people may obey an usurping power but the question is of the latter 3. A Tyrant also who is an usurping power is of two sorts First by Title or rather without a Title Secondly by oppression or as the Gent. himself expresseth it pag.