Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	king_n	people_n	12,578	5	4.5889	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65173	A needful corrective or ballance in popular government expressed in a letter to James Harrington, Esquire, upon occasion of a late treatise of his, and published as seasonable in the present juncture of affaires	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.; Harrington, James, 1611-1677.	1660 (1660)	Wing V72; ESTC R22032	8,679	12

chosen Deputies and Representative Body for that purpose constituted by them from time to time as need shall require to joyn with the Senate be not that righteous and faithful City spoken of Isai. 1. 26. to whom her Judges are restored as at the first and her Counsellors as at the beginning by whose Decrees that Law goes forth wherein Christ himself shall appear judging amongst the Nations and rebuking many People until he settle Peace and Righteousness in the Earth Quer. 3. Whether such a Ruling Senate consisting of a competent number of fit and meet persons to be made Heads of the People and by their free suffrage elected and designed to the office of executing the supreme Power as the work singly appertaining to this chief Council of Elders and also to the exercise of the Legislative Power in association with the Representative Body of the People to be by them from time to time summoned and called together for that purpose in which general and great Assembly to propose all such matters whatsoever as are to passe into Laws and to receive the distinct and publick vote of the peoples consent to them before they be of the force of Laws or binding be not the most exact platforme of the purest kind of popular Government and that which hath its foundation and first pattern in the Word of God in the practise of Israels Common-wealth and so plainly of Divine Creation and Institution Quer. 4. Lastly Whether the beginnings of such a Government as this as small as they may be at first and accompanied with the mixture of humane frailties and infirmities may not however through the mighty and universal pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh so grow and increase as at last to come up unto a perfect day in such sort as the publick sentence and judgement of such a restored People and holy Nation in their Assemblies of Judicature may not so much be the judgement of Man as of the Lord himself their King and Law-giver and be owned by him to be the same here on Earth with his which is in Heaven and therefore to be ratified and made stable by the Word of his Heavenly Power executed by his mighty Angels as well as by their earthly forces and strength of mens bodies against all opposers and rebellious gain-sayers to the setting up of Christ as King throughout the whole Earth and causing the Nations and Kingdomes of this World to become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ in a visible manner here below for the space of a thousand yeares in which time the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hoasts shall raign in Mount Sion and in Jerusalem before his Ancients gloriously shewing himself King in Jeshurum when the Heads of the People and Tribes of Israel are gathered together before the Lord in the day of their Assembly By this time I suppose I have well nigh tyred out your patience having drawn out my Letter to a greater length then becomes this way of address But since my aim in setting these things before your consideration is as I said at first not to put lead on your Chariot wheels to cause them to drive heavily but rather to be an occasion to carry on the Work in a straight line unto its perfection you will I hope the more willingly bear with me and not be offended at this small glimpse which duly improved may at length lead unto a fuller and clearer prospect into the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwels Righteousness and may in some sort provide us against the time when the fashion of the old ones shall wear off and passe away with great noise and fervent heat which is the faith and assured expectation of him who is Your true Honourer and reall Servant FINIS

not of slaves who hold all they have at the will of the Lord and are in a condition most agreeing with the principles of absolute Monarchy as in practise began with Nimrod and is yet to be seen in the Government of Turkey and other Nations of the World Thirdly There is a mixed right that is made up of both the former to the rendring that tollerable and in some sort satisfying in process of time which was at first most wickedly unduly acquired And is their case who not being able to be free men are resolved to do their utmost not to be slaves and so are brought to consent to walk in the middle way between both agreeing to be subjects or yeild subjection to their Ruler upon condition of enjoying certain known rights and priviledges belonging to them as men and which may distinguish them from meer slaves and be laid as fundamental Laws of that constitution of Government This way of obtaining the exercise of supreme Power carrying in it the temper and mixture of the other two is neither very good nor stark nought but is the worse for this that such as are under it do seldome care to be better they are so afraid that by attempting to mend themselves they shall make themselves irrecoverably worse This kind of Government agrees not with the principles of absolute Monarchy nor perfect popular freedome but sorts with Aristocracy that is the mixture of them both and with regulated Monarchy as that of Kings Lords and Commons The difficulty at first view appeares not to be great in introducing and settling a Government where the people are conquered by force of armes no more then under the fright and apprehension of the fate of those that come to be reduced by the sword to compound up the business in the middle way before mentioned as this Nation hath often and dearly experienced in the changes of Governors if not Governments which they have been subject unto So as the great clamour and objection lyes only against the first that is as to the practicableness of introducing and settling the exercise of the supreme Power by the free and common consent of the Citizens whose equality in power is apt to make their tempers luxuriant and immoderate and keeps them from coming rightly to agree in a matter of such consequence Wherein first consideration is to be had by them whether this high trust of the chief Magistracy shall be placed in one single person or in a collective Body of Elders or a Senate consisting of more or fewer persons And then Secondly Whether this Power shall be transferred absolutely to the person or persons so chosen or with limitation and condition To transferre it absolutely yeilds up with it the Legislative Power and sixes it as well as the executive in one and the same hand admit it be to a single Person or a Senate and leaves nothing afterward unto the People but slavery and bondage by putting forth all the Acts of Rule and Power without their consent But to conferre this Power rationally and agreeably to the principles of ancient Prudence is to reserve by way of limitation that which may so qualifie and regulate the supreme executive Power in and by whatsoever hand it be exercised as is able to preserve it within its due bounds as it is executive and keeps the result of that wherein it is Legislative within the power and consent of the People This is easily done by the help of a second order of men ordained and constituted by the Peoples suffrage who in the capacity of their Deputies and Representative Body are from time to time to make up one general Assembly with the Senate by yertue of their Summons and call and there to give the consent of the People to all Acts and Decrees that are Legislative and binding to the Common-wealth The third thing to be done in order to the right introducing and settling of Magistracy in a free State of Citizens is to dispose themselves or suffer themselves to be disposed into that order which is requisite and may best conduce to the choice of meet and fit persons into either of the two Assemblies whether that of the Senate or of the Peoples Representative But the great difficulty remains yet to receive its solution which is to shew how the depraved corrupted and self-interested will of man in the great Body which we call the People being once left to its own free motion shall be prevailed with to espouse their true publiick interest and closely adhere to it under the many tryals and discouragements they must be sure to meet with before they obtain what they pursue Which Objection being so experimental as it is carries with it the greater force and is obvious to most men by reason whereof they rather choose the bondage whereinto they fall under the power of the sword moderately used then to commit themselves to the boundless power of the peoples will unbridled and unsubjected unto any rules from inward principles or outward order and command However in way of answer there is that to be said which whether it will weigh in the judgements of others I know not but it is considerable with me And first it may be but needful to enquire whence this is and also what is that which is wanting to ballance and compleat the motion of mans will in the exercise of its own freedome that it is so little to be trusted and relyed on in the pursuit of that which is the common Interest of mankind and the publick good of humane Societies And if in this we search to the bottom we have it declared in that Scripture which sayes It is not in man to order his own steps Man at his best stands in need of the ballancing and ruling motion of Gods Spirit to keep him stedfast let his nature be made as it was at first holy and righteous when his will was morally bounded within the excellent limits that were set unto it by the Law of God unto which he did bear a naturall and willing conformity in the spirit of his mind and was under the dictates of a pure enlightened reason And how much therefore more does his nature and will want this ruling and moving influence now from the Spirit of God when it is at its worst not only to heal and restore what is lost but to add by way of supply that more grace that may preserve from the danger of future relapse And this remedy is not alwayes at hand nor in mans power to take up at his pleasure For as the wind bloweth where it listeth and none know whence it comes and whither it goes so is every one that is born of the Spirit of God And though it be easie with God to cause such a Nation to be born at once and to make the Earth bring forth in a day by the extraordinary effusion of his Spirit upon all flesh yet this is extraordinary and

very remote as to the redress of the evil now in question Nevertheless the consideration of this takes so farre impression with me as to conclude no Nation truly free that is in bondage to corruption and alienated from the life of God by wicked works how much soever it be set at liberty in other respects to use the power of its own will in providing for its own Government But the People of it ought to be as sensible of their great want and misery in this respect as they are forward to complain and with great justice also of the force of the sword which God permits very frequently to be kept up over them till holy and righteous Principles be of more power and better reception with them But secondly Until such times of refreshing and healing shall come from the presence of the Lord upon the Nations of the World as is promised in the last of dayes we are to take care in the use of the ordinary meanes daily afforded by Gods Providence that are most conducing to guide and regulate the will of the People unto their making a good choice of the Senate and their own Deputies in order to meet together in one general Assembly by them acknowledged the free and compleat Representation of the whole Nation And then this being once done and thereby the first great wheel of the Common-wealth set upon its right hinges all the other inferior wheeles would quickly be set to keep motion and harmony with that to the bringing in with great facility a well composed order of Government throughout the whole State And this without difficulty may be done if this one Rule be held unto and observed which is that in the time of the Common-wealths constituting and in a Nation much di●ided in affection and interest about their own Government none be admitted to the exercise of the right and priviledge of a free Citizen for a season but either such as are free born in respect of their holy and righteous principles flowing from the birth of the Spirit of God in them restoring man in measure and degree as at the first by Creation unto the right of Rule and Dominion or else who by their tryed good affection and faithfulness to common right and publick freedome have deserved to be trusted with the keeping or bearing their own Armes in the publick defence And if unto this selected number of Citizens the liberty of exercising the choice of the Magistrates for the whole Body should be for a season restrained and they cast into a military order and discipline as the Israelites of old when they once had turned their backs upon Egypt the House of Bondage and shall become distributed in distinct Tribes and Divisions within the borders of their several Habitations or Precincts where they dwell it could be no sooner said unto them as Moses did to the Children of Israel Take and choose you able and wise men such as fear God men of truth and hating covetousness that they may be made Heads over the People of Thousands of Hundreds of Fifties and of Tens but the thing would carry that self-evidence in it to the minds of the People how good and possible it is for them so to doe that they would most cheerfully set about and accordingly effect it As to what then hath been said in this matter pointing out some dissatisfaction that rests with me in reference to the definition you make of an equal Common-wealth and the way you find requisite to place the Ballance in it by an Agrarian and Law for equal interesting the People in the Soyl and an universal liberty unto election of the Magistrates through the help of the rotation and use of the B●llot the result of all amounts to this That whilst holiness in principles by way of spiritual birth is wanting amongst the People as one chief Ingredient to qualifie them to the exercise of the right of free Citizens and a tryed good affection and faithfulness to common Right and publick Freedome remaines undiscovered the way by you proposed for the well constituting a Common-wealth may bring it to a state and degree of Freedome very desirable and which being attained we may be in the fairer and nearer way to the other But where as you all along most deservedly have regard unto the foundations of Government shall be laid so firm and deep as in the Word of God bottomed upon that Corner-stone the Lord Jesus there is a Heavenly Ballance to be met with which keeps all even For upon this Stone there are seven eyes God himself is he that engraves the graving thereof and gives forth according to that pattern the order and constitution of Magistracy in its primitive purity and perfection where the Authority and proposing Power by which to move and keep the will of the People in its right course of obedience is first originally in God and Christ himself as their Political King and Civil Legislator and next under Christ the Ruling Senate whose Office it is and as you yourself well say from the excellency of their debate and deliberation providently and faithfully unfolded to the People they do frequently cause and necessitate the will and the deed in them So much may one man for the excellency of his aid be as in the place and power of God unto another This sort of Government is contained in these following Queries Quer. 1. Whether in the restitution of all things so assuredly promised and so often foretold since the World began Acts 3. Man himself shall not be restored to the gift and exercise of Righteousness in his natural judgement and will in the perfection as to kind wherein he was at first created as in the Type in a good degree did befall Nebuchadnezzar in the exercise of Government Dan. 4. 34 36. to the enabling of whole Nations in this day of Gods Power in such manner to obey Gods Voyce and keep his Covenant as shall render them unto God a Kingdome and holy Nation in the relation of his Subjects and he shall be to them a King or supreme Legislator accepted and voted by the Peoples free and common consent as Exod. 19. Quer. 2. Whether such a restored People and holy Nation made after this manner Gods peculiar treasure and he their chief Magistrate and directed by the Spirit of their Head to put themselves in the best capacity they can first to hear what God hath to propose to them as the rule of their obedience to him Secondly to exercise that which they agree to bear the stamp and authority of the Wisdom of the Nation in matters that appertain to the oversight of the whole Body in the hands of a Senate or Council of Elders for the executive part of the supreme Power And thirdly to give the publick vote and suffrage of the whole People in a way of assent or dissent upon all matters proposed by the Senate to passe into Laws amongst them by their own