Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	new_a	old_a	testament_n	23,958	5	8.6166	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30362	An enquiry into the measures of submission to the supream [sic] authority and of the grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for subjects to defend their religion.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5809; ESTC R215041	11,479	16

be carryed no farther than to those who are thus expresl● marked out and is unjustly claimed by those who can prove no such Declaration to have been ever made in Favour of them or their Families Nor does it appear Reasonable to conclude from their being in possession that it is the will of GOD that it should be so this justifies all Usurpers when they ●re successful 7. The Measures of Power and by consequence of Ob●dience must be taken from the express Laws of any S●ate or Body of Men from the Oaths that they swear or from Immemorial prescription and a long possession which both give a Title and in a long tract of time make a bad one become good since prescription when it passes the memory of man and is not dispured by any other pretender gives by the common sense of all men a just and good title So upon the whole matter the degrees of all Civil Authority are to be taken either from express Laws Immemorial Customs or from particular Oaths which the Subjects swear to their Princes This being still to be laid down for a principle that in all the disputes between Power and Liberty Power must alwayes be proved but Liberty proves it self the one being founded only upon positive Law and the other upon the Law of Nature 8. If from the General Principles of humane Society and natural Religion we carry this matter to be examined by the Scriptures it is clear that all the passages that are in the Old Testament are not to be made use of in this matter of neither side For as the land of Canaan was given to the Iews by an immediat grant from Heaven so GOD re●erved still this to himself and to the Declarations that he should m●ke from time to time either by his Prophets or by the answers that came from the Cloud of Glory that was between the Cherubims to set up Judges or Kings over them and to pull them down again as he thought fit here was an express Delegation made by God and theref●re all that was ●one in that Dispensation either for or against Princes Is not to be made use of in any other State that is founded on another bottom and constitution and all the expressions in the old Testament relating to Kings since they belong to persons that were immediatly designed by God are without any sort of reason ap●lyed to those who can pretend to no such Designation neither o● themselves nor for their Ancestors 9. As for the New Testament it is plain that there are no rules given in it neither for the Forms o● Government in general nor for ●he degrees of any one Form in particular but the general rules of Justice order and peace being established in it upon higher Motives and more binding considerations then ever they were ●n any other Religion whatsoever we are most strictly bound by it to observe the constitution in which we are And it is plain that the rules set us in the Gospel can be carried no further It is indeed clear from the New Testament that the Christian Religion as such gives us no grounds to defend or propagat it by force It is a Doctrine of the Cross and of Faith and Patience under it And i● by the order of Divine providence and of any constitution of Governmen● under which we are born we are brought under suf●erings for our professing of it we may indeed retire and fly out of any such Countrey if we can but if that is denyed us we must then according to this Religion ●ubmit to those suffe●ings under which we may be brought considering that God will be Glorified by us in so doing and that he will both support us under our sufferings and gloriously reward us for them This was the State of the Christian Religion during the three first Centuries under Heathen Emperours and a Constitution in which Paganism was established by Law But i● by the Laws of any Government the Christian Religion or any form of it is become a part of the Subjects Property it then falls under another consider●tion not as it is a Religion but as it is become one of the Principal Rights of the Subjects to believe and profess it And then we must ju●ge of the Invasions made on that as we do of any other Invasion that is made on Our Rights 10. All the pas●ages in the New Testament that relate to Civil Government are to be expounded as they were truely meaned in opposition to that false notion of the Iews who believed themselves to be so immediately under the Divine Authority that they would not become the Subjects of any other Power particularly of one that was not of their Nation or of their Religion therefore they thought they could not be under the Roman yoke nor bound to pay Tribute to Caesar but judged that they were only subj●ct out of Fear by reason of the Force that lay on them but not for Conscience sake And so in all their Dispersion both at Rome and elsewhere they thought they were GODS Free-Men and made use of this pretended Liberty as a cloak of maliciousness In Opposition to all which since in a cour●e of many years they had asked the protection of the Roman yoke and were come und●r their Authority our Saviour ordered them to continue in that by his ●aying Render to Caesar that which is Caesars and both St. P●ul in his Epistle to the Romans and St. Peter in his General Epistle have very positively condemned that pernicious Maxim but without any formal Declarations made of the Rules or Measures of Government And since both the People and Senate of Rome had acknowledged the power that Augustus had indeed violently usurped it became legal when it was thus submitted to and confirmed both by the Senate and People And it was establisht in his Family by a long prescription when these Epistle● were writ So that upon the whole matter all that is in the New Testament upon this Subject imports no more but that all Christians are bound to acquiesce in the Government and submit to it according to the cons●i●ution that is setled by Law. 11 We are then at last brought to the Constitution of our English Government So that no General Considerations from Speculations about Soveraign Power nor from any passages either of the Old and New T●stament ought to determin us in this matter which must be fixed from the Laws and Regulations that have been made among Us. It is then certain that with Relation to the Executive part of the Government the Law has lodged that singly in the King So that the whole administration of it is in him but the Legislative Power is Lodged between the King and the two Houses of Parliament So that the Power of making and Repealing Laws is not singly in the King but only so far as the two Houses concur with him It is also clear that the King has such a determined extent of Prerogative