Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	punishment_n	sin_n	transgression_n	4,361	5	10.4522	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25669	Antiquity reviv'd, or, The government of a certain island antiently call'd Astreada in reference to religion, policy, war and peace some hundreds of years before the coming of Christ.		1693 (1693)	Wing A3510; ESTC R19475	60,242	129

remov'd after the manner they determine from the visible corporeal World to another whose place they are not able to demonstrate otherwise than by an implicit Belief that goes farther with them than real Proof I cannot apprehend what Answer they 'd return unless they would ingeniously confess that they do not know nor can I guess on what they ground their Notion of transporting the Persons of all after death from one World to another pretended unless it be that they believe the compass of this World is not spacious enough to receive the vast numbers of both Sexes that is to say all that have and shall enter the Confines of Mortality by Death And I grant that it may be some Question whether the Terrestrial Globe be sufficiently large to give entertainment to all of humane Composition after living here or if room enough for them to move or stand foot by foot together But whether moving sitting standing or lying be the general suppos'd posture of such as by future Life shall reside in the Elisium Abodes is not derermin'd by your Grecian Dogmatists But as for the personal ●ppearance of every Individual of humane kind there I conceive they allow them to pass thither as naked as they first came to their Graves and Sepulchres And if they grant that bodily Organs are restor'd to both Sexes as they survive again I do not see how they can deny our corporeal Sense and Appetites in the Elisium they ordain Neith●r do I doubt but their Tenent is so indulgent to Beauty as to concede to Men and Women such a Renovation as may best refine the Splendors of their Youth and Features And who can question but this pleasant Imagination has proselited not a few especially the most delicate of both Sexes in all Ages Some I confess affirm That both Soul and Body shall not be only renovated but purified from the natural Passions and Affections that were theirs when earthly Inhabitants But how they can presume that humane Composition is capable of such a cleansing or refining in similitude to the practical effects of Fire or Water I do as little understand as they are able to inform me In sum concluded the Fidefendon We are not averse to any of the before recited Doctrines on the account that we would be thought to pretend to greater assurance by any Notions of our own that relate to future living in another World Be pleas'd therefore to take notice that we of this Island are no such Bigots for any Assertions of Belief that are rather problematical and discussive than evident to the understanding nothing being more fundamentally repugnant to our Creed than to intermix any dubious Conjectures with Maxims of our Faith much less impose th●m on others a precipitate hazard or Crime for which too many Religions are at this day accountable If Providence our familier and visible Director as has been enough instanc'd do's not perspicuously guide our Assents as far as the cursory Doctrines of others extend 't is they that dissent exorbitantly f●om us and not we from them and whosoever do's undertake to deliver Maxims of Faith less sensibly proceeding from the undoubted manifestation of Providence or less ocularly and rational●y certain than the order and conduct of ●he Universe in all respects must grant his Propositions as palpably deficient if compar'd with ours as the shadows of Night are to the Illuminations of the clearest Light And yet there is no Article of ●heir Worship that is evident to Sense nor any distribution of moral Virtue or sincere esteem of pious Conversation and Life that is not entirely embrac'd by us True it is that in the punishment nature and qualifications of Sin there may be some diversity betwixt their Tenents and the integrity and certainty of ours and the Reason is because they prescribe farther than their Understandings can accompany their Creeds Let this briefly be the Example We do not deny that after Death according to every desert of humane kind there shall be future Reward to the good in whatsoever excellency of Being the providential Disposer of all things has determin'd as likewise Infli●●ions on the evil Deeds and Impieties of others Which Doctrine is not asserted by us as a manifest Article of our Faith but as our comfortable hope and expectation of Felicity to come after our periods of living here But not having the same familiar and open prospect of Providence whereby we as palpably apprehend the place and manner of future Life as perspicuously as we behold the actual conduct and existence of the Universe in which we inhabit we do not dogmatically impose after their Model the belief of another World nor can any affirm that they have the emphatical and visible as●urance by any providential Operation or Object of a subsequent Being reserv'd ●or Mankind either in Soul or Body or in both conjoin'd to possess Neither do we said the Fidefendon as ● even now express'd in any kind re●ect the comfortable Opinion of future Felicity though we hold it not as equally convictive as we are sensible of the Providence that we are demonstratively oblig'd to reverence here in doing of which we do not infer that a Tenent may not be useful for Contemplation and Encouragement in order to the attaining of humane Perfection though it has no intelligible note or known assurance from proof However we are indubitably confirmed that all Wickedness is arraign'd by the discerning Tribunal that Con●cience does erect in every requisite understanding besides the publick and outward Ignomy that Laws inflict on enormous and presumptuous transgressions of Life and where there is sufficient capacity the sting of Sin must needs be grievous in the sense of the Offender as ●his inward Punishment and cause a deploring of his Guilt suitable to the natur● of his Crime But on the contraty where invincibl● Ignorance to scupidity prevails that th● Sinner is neither considerate or duly capacitated to penetrate his Offence h● may be notwithstanding held a legal Offender and punish'd as an Inconvenienc● and Scandal to civil Society according t● his Fact but cannot be deem'd intelligent of his Crime because every S●● ought to proceed from the guilt an● cause of the understanding To preve●● which Imbecillity and want of Consid●ration in the Soul we Fidefendons an● publickly ordain'd to stir up in the hea● a suitable inspection of Sin as also th● most thankful and devout returns to th● Supreme Providence from whose Benignity and merciful Effects we enjoy the comforts of Soul and Body And this is th● Summ of our Astreadan Belief and Worship The Philosopher told the Fidefendon tha● he had nothing to object against the natural and manifest way of Devotion whic● he had deliver'd as the common Persuasio● of his Nation And turning to the Astreada● Jussinedos or Magistrate there present he requested him to inform them briefly By what Political Rules or Measures the Government of that Island hath been so long happy in not

betwixt them or by what means it ought to be Compos'd If the determination be affirm'd to belong to the People the Soveraign Authority is then destroy'd and consequently the being of Monarchy If they grant as I conceive they ought That the Judiciary Power is solely in the Royal Person they bid adieu in those words to their so much celebrated notion of limited and mix'd Soveraignty Neither is it avoidable in such a Contest betwixt the Monarch and People that recourse must be had for want of other Judiciary Determination to the unruly Conscience of the Multitude and whether such a method of disorder would not produce Anarchy and Confusion I refer it to the reason of every unbyass'd Understanding The Grecian Senator tho somewhat more nicely inquisitive than the rest into policies of State assur'd the Philosopher that he comply'd with his precedent discourse in affirming as the Jussinedos had before Judiciously prov'd That Monarchy in the most early time of humane being had a rise and institution from Paternal Right in whomsoever was the first Father and therefore King of his Family Nor do the most ancient Records mention other Primitive Rule than perfect Royalty so that no Popular form of State but must have a later date than Kingly Superiority Notwithstanding it is apparent that subsequently other Governments have been introduced Entitled Republicks or Common-wealths and sometimes intermix'd with Monarchy as the total Community have been representatively Interested in the enacting of legal Establishments That this kind of Soveraignty has in some parts of the World and by such as value themselves on the suppos'd Wisdom of their Politicks been highly applauded if not preferr'd in their opinion before all other Witness the Lacedemonian Monarchies in our native Country of Greece by which Constitution the Royal Government is limited and mix'd with Popular Authority in that severe manner too that the Votes of the People as they are there assembled or represented by Persons delegated to that purpose do not only over-rule the Commands of their Monarch but render him accountable to them whensoever they please to question the actings of their King as is practically known from the proceedings of the Ephori within that Dominion To which the Philosopher Answer'd That the qualification and titular nature of the Spartan or Lacedemonian King was easily distinguish'd if duely compar'd with the inherent Propriety of Monarchical Rule And what Grecian does not know that the Spartan King had nothing to do with the execution of the Laws or Civil Government tho main Kingly Attributes and was but in effect a Captain General for he had no compulsive Power but when actually in the Field and therefore no other than Principal Commander of the Army of that State tho bearing for Honours sake the Name of Soveraign Notwithstanding which there are a sort of perverse and litigious discussers of the concerns of Kings that would pretend that the figure of this Lacedemonian Royalty ought to be resembled by other Monarchical Governments or that the Soveraign should be guided and impos'd on at the arbitrement of the People which were in effect to debase a King beneath the People and render Majesty no other than a Property at their disposal To which purpose some Popular Disputants presume to maintain That all Power was originally in the People and that Crowns and Scepters but as the Pageantries of Thrones were bestow'd on Kings by common donation and revocable on breach of such Conditions as they please to call the original of Laws and Regal Dominion And if any Judicious search be made whereby to discover the fond of such Principles they may be charg'd with as much notional obscurity as the brain of Man must necessarily encounter that would undertake to demonstrate the elemental Congress of the material parts of the Universe when Chaos was first dissolv'd And should we so far Indulge this wild and licentious Maxim as to concede that the Monarch was oblig'd not to supersede or in many cases alter the known Laws and that if he did that it is radically in the People under the notion of original Contract to Compel or Depose their King Is it not absolutely requisite that those many cases should have been undoubtedly inserted at the time of this grand bargain for the initiating of the Monarch and Subject Now if it be not clearly so recorded nay manifestly legible in National Constitutions it ought to be slighted as a most extravagant fiction for what is more Absurd than to imagine such an uncontroulable Power in the People yet find no such Capacity relating to them express'd by any known Law however Essential to the safety and well being of King and Subject to be acquainted with their fundamental obligations and punishments in case of violation and it were highly unjust should any opposition or penalty be inflicted on the supream Magistrate and he less safe or priviledg'd than a common Person to defend himself if there be no Law extant that declares in what manner he ought to be call'd to account by the People Others who would be thought no less curious than deep in their political Sentimenrs have imploy'd the best of their skill to convince mankind that no Government can be more exactly ballanc'd in reference to publick Satisfaction and Benefit however skew'd appears the domination than a compleat mixture of Legislators by a temper of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy or which is the same a compound of three Estates imply'd by King Nobility and Commons Which kind of rule if duly constituted doth presuppose a suitable Goodness and Complaisance in order to the promoting of Grandeur in every respect on which ground I readily acknowledge if the Principal Members of the main body of a Nation are of fix'd Integrity and Duty as must be imply'd by the intended Virtue and Participation of Rule committed to the trust of Persons thus signally concern'd that there is undoubtedly an Excellency as well as publick advantage and glory in a Goverument so establish'd Whereas contrarily whensoever a body politique form'd as I have specifi'd comes to be deprav'd and consequently fermented and inflam'd by Faction there is no political Regiment that is more perniciously endanger'd by practices of men and convulsions of state than by this manner of reputed intermixture of three Legislative powers when render'd impracticable by means of dissention or opposition And who can doubt if animosities arive to an uncomposible Breach betwixt the Monarch and such as personate these estates or betwixt those who represent the Nobility and Commons of a Nation the Interest of the Royal Magistrate must suffer in a high measure until to invalidate that Inconvenience the Monarch who had limited his rule before finds himself necessitated to assume if prevalent enough an absolute soveraignty On the other side when popular contest and violence is equivalently predominant and that the Monarchy is subverted thereby in such a Revolution it usually follows that out of the Ruine of the