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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	authority_n	law_n	legislative_a	2,620	5	12.4064	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48944	The honour of the magistrate asserted In a sermon preached at the assizes holden at Lincoln on Monday, March the 23. 1673/4. By Thomas Lodington, M.A. Sometimes fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge, and now rector of Welby in the county of Lincoln.	Lodington, Thomas, 1621-1692.	1674 (1674)	Wing L2812A; ESTC R217723	19,040	35

hath called by his own 〈◊〉 and set 〈◊〉 own S●…t The Magistrate is as Th●…ret says of C●… exalted to the right hand of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made Co-asse●…r with God in the throne of Judgment And as Christ grants to the Saints who are made Kings and Priests unto God to sit on his throne and with him to judge the World at the last great Assize● so doth God take Magistrates into fellowship of government with himself and sets them on his throne in these lower Courts of Justice that they may with him and for him judge the World in Righteousness Thus Solomon is said to sit on the Throne of the Lord 〈◊〉 King instead of David his Father 1 Chron. 29.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Justin Martyr I have given you my own Honour my own Place my own Name therefore do you judge the People as I my self would judge them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Servant of God so the Magistrate is called by Plutarch and by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. He is the Minister of God to thee which Title doth not only maintain the Honour and keep inviolable the Soveraignity of God but also adorns and adds to the Royal Titles of the greatest Monarchs on Earth Nor is it the piety of Christian Kings only which accounts it their greatest honour to be the Servants of God in governing the World but the Policy of all Kings to glory in this that they receive their Authority from God Numa Pompilius one of the first Kings of that afterwards flourishing and victorious City Rome laid the foundation of its greatness in possessing the People of this perswasion that he received Laws immediately from heaven I have said ye are Gods And all of you are Children of the most High Here 's no accumulation of Titles upon Magistrates but an Embellishment of the former To be called Gods is so magnificent and comprehensive a Title that it needs none nor admits any other to follow it This latter Clause of the verse is Exeg●…cal and further declares the sence of the former And where there is a Reduplication of Expression and more words are used to represent the same thing it puts a greater remark upon what is spoken 1. As Children associated with God in the Government of the World as some of the Emperours took in their Sons to be their Colleagues in the Empire 2. Dear unto God as Children whom he will protect defend and guide while they by his appointment are employed for the protection defence and Government of his People 3. Made like unto God as Children not only as they are through the dignation of God made like him in Honour Majesty and Authority but in Wisdome Magnanimity Clemency and other abilities for Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The lively image of God so the Magistrate is called in respect of accomplishments for government The Images of the Heathen consecrated by their Priests were believed to be Enlivened by Those whose Images they were and so were worshiped as gods Magistrates made Tutelar gods to us to defend and govern us are accomplished and fitted by God whose Image they bear for the Service they are appointed to God gives Saul another heart 1 Sam. 10.9 C●r aptius adregendum Cives Pharaoh discernes in Joseph the Spirit of God the Spirit of a Magistrate God bestows on Solomon Wisdom and Royal Majesty 1 Chron. 29.15 Vos omnes And all of you What is said Indefinitely before is now expressed Vniversally made to concern All Magistrates as well Subordinate as Supreme both in the priviledges and obligations of the Grant So that he that sits in the lowest seat of Judicature must know himself associated with God in Government and obliged to act as God and for God in his place Having thus shewed in what sence this great name put upon Magistrates is to betaken I shall now shew in what respects it is applicable to them and wherein stands the Analogy betwixt their Office and their Title Magistrates may be truly called gods in respect of 1. Their unlimited Authority 2. Their mighty Power 3. The Vnaccount ableness of their actions 4. The Peoples necessary Subjection To make good these Particulars I must premise Three things 1. That Magistrates be taken Collectively and in a complex sence for the whole order of Magistrates supreme and subordinate 2. That God's Soveraignty be reserved to him Entire 3. That what Comparison is made may stand betwixt the Magistrate and the Subject These supposed The Magistrate hath such Authority within his Dominion as none can set bounds to The Legislative Power has no restraint saving what it puts upon it self but may enact what Laws it pleases for the well governing and protecting the People And as none can controll the Authority of the Magistrate so none can resist his Power There is a kind of Almighty power in his hand The Posse Comitatus is great but the Posse Regni is far greater having no Competitor to compare with it nor Adverse Power to oppose it The whole force of the Kingdom Military and Civil is of right lodged in the Magistrate Resistance is not only impious being expressly against the Ordinance of God but imprudent too for it certainly makes men obnoxious to eternal punishment for so the Apostle says They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and it doth almost as certainly expose men to temporal punishments for seditious practices are rarely prosperous and if they be those seldom hold that power long which they wickedly wrest out of the Magistrates hand and then they fall under his justly incensed wrath But supposing the subordinate Magistrate not wanting to the Supreme either in diligence fidelity or courage there is scarce a possibility much less a probability of resisting the Power with success Nor can any call the Magistrate to account for his carriage in his office The subordinate Magistrates owe an account to the supreme and the supreme to God Almighty who alone is his superior To take an account 〈◊〉 an act of Authority the Subject therefore having no Authority over the Magistrate cannot exact of him an account of his government Where the word of 〈…〉 there is power and who may say to him what do●t thou Eccl. 8.4 Dei non subd●t●rum judu●… et c●…ura obn●…us est is a good gloss upon the place To affirm this is not to abandon Religion Liberty and Property to tyranny and oppression for the Magistrate is tyed up by Law how to govern and by Oath to govern according to Law And though the supreme Magistrate owe an account to none but God yet seeing he act by subordinate Power and one subordinate Power may call another to account before the supreme all is in safe condition And that which adds to our security under Chri●tian Magistrates is this that they account it the greatest obligation to discharge themselves worthily in their place that they stand accountable to God

THE HONOUR OF THE MAGISTRATE ASSERTED IN A SERMON PREACHED At the Assizes holden at Lincoln on Monday March the 23. 1673 4. BY THOMAS LODINGTON M.A. Sometimes Fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge and now Rector of Welby in the County of Lincoln LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel at the Sign of the Peacock in St. Pauls Church Yard 1674. TO HIS Much Honoured and Dearly Beloved Brother JOHN LODINGTON Esq High Sheriff of the County of Lincoln Dearly Beloved Brother THough I have ever been desirous to avoid all Occasions of publick appearance yet when your affaires required I did immediately and chearfully undertake this Service choosing rather to expose my abilities for performance to censure then to give the least suspicion of any unwillingness to serve you Nor was it onely my great affection to you and your great kindness to me that did move me hereto though either of these considerations had been prevalent with me but that great respect and love which I have for many years observed you to bear unto the Orthodox and Loyal Clergy And being encouraged by the Approbation this Sermon had from many judicious and worthy persons of that Honorable and great Assembly to which it was preached to make it yet more publick the same reasons which moved me to undertake the composing and preaching of it do also direct and determine me in the Dedication of it I have in this discourse endeavoured to give the Magistrate his due Honour and that happy Government under which we of this kingdom live it 's due Encomium You have in the late times of trial by your suffering the plunder of your Estate and the evil intreating and imprisoning of your Person manifested your esteem of and loyalty to that Government which then was most injuriously to say no worse affronted and spurned at but is now happily restored and established and will therefore I presume be ready to countenance any attempt that is made for the further advancing of what you have suffered so much to preserve and maintain I mention your Loyalty not onely to represent you a fit person to undertake the Patronage of a discourse of this nature but also to perpetuate the memory of it to the deserved Praise of your self and those many other worthy persons in whom it was found For though that now through the mercy of God to this Kingdom his Majestie having power restored to him both to command and reward obedience it is no special Commendation to any Person to be a dutiful and loyal Subject yet then was it signally praise-worthy to dare to be Loyal when so to be had such dreadful effects attending upon it That Almighty God would bless you in your Person in all your Relations and in all your Concerns is the hearty desire and earnest Prayer of Your most affectionate and much obliged Brother Tho. Lodington Welby Iune 27. 1674. AN Assize-Sermon Psal 82.6 7. I have said ye are Gods and all of you are Children of the most High But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the Princes MAN by reason of his discursive Faculty and that way peculiar to himself of communicating the Conceptions of his mind by speech doth naturally desire Society And since Sin and Lust have depraved his nature and Satan hath so inlarged his Empire in the World that He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey as the Prophet speaks which the Punick Proverb thus expresseth nisi lupus sis luporum pradam te esse oportet this natural desire is turned into absolute necessity that good men who cannot admit of that way of securing themselves by joyning themselves into the combinations of evil doers may enter into mutual associations and confederacies among themselves the only lawful and availing means to preserve themselves from rapine and violence This natural propensity to it and that great necessity for it made the Hebrews to express their desire of society by that Catholick saying Aut societas aut mors Societies cannot be framed much less established and preserved without Government and that must be settled upon certain Rules and Laws and be mannaged by them To this is required that there be certain persons quallified and authorized to enact Laws and to execute the same These are Magistrates whom God the supreme Lord hath exalted and ordained to be his Vicegerents in this lower World to act by his authority and according to his will in governing the world in righteousness and peace To this end God hath armed them with a Sword to put the Laws in Execution that they may be not only wholesome Rules to direct unto all good Conversation such as shall think good to make use of them but powerful Commands to require obedience from all sorts of persons and to inflict due punishment upon the disobedient And to signifie to the World what honour God hath given to Magistrates and what service he requires at their hands he hath called them by his own name set them on his own Throne and armed them with his own Power I have said ye are Gods and all of you are Children of the most High But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the Princes The People of Lystra when they had beheld the persons of Paul and Barnabas and seen the kindness done them in the miraculous cure of their impotent neighbour lifted up their voices saying The Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men When we behold the persons of our Magistrates and see the happy effects of their government that every man sits under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree in peace and is preserved in his just rights religious and civil we may say of them The Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men Or in the Phrase of the Text Though as to their persons they are Men yet in respect of their office they are deservedly reputed Gods seeing they are so stiled by God himself and have those blessings to dispence to us from God of which God alone is the disposer In the Text there are two General Parts 1. The high Honour great Authority and Power of the Magistrates declared and avouched under that most splendid and magnificent Title given unto them by God himself I have said ye are Gods and all of you are Children of the most High 2. Their infirmity and low condition in respect of their nature Though they are Gods by office yet they remain men still by nature and are of the same mortal frame as they were and as other men are But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the Princes Their advancement to the name and office of God doth not divest them of the nature of man Their sitting upon an Farthly Tribunal to give sentence upon men and their causes doth not priviledge them from standing at a Higher Tribunal to receive a sentence from God upon themselves The Discretive But limits the Title given in the former

the righteous judge who has intrusted them in the great affaires of Government Lastly The People 〈…〉 doth yet bring the Magistrate to a nearer resemblance of God Ye m●… needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 St. Paul presseth subjection to the Magistrate upon a double principle his Just Authority and his mighty power The Subject owes obedience to the Magistrate active obedience where his commands are lawful that is not contrary to the commands of God otherwise it is not to be paid That matter has been determined in a full Council of the Apostles Acts. 5.29 Then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said We ought to obey God rather then men And the Equity of the thing seemed to them so great that they dared to appeal to their adversaries in it Acts. 4.19 Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye The Commands of a Subordinate power cannot prejudice the Authority nor evacuate the Commands of the Supreme and such are all earthly powers in respect of God's and therefore must the commands of God stand valid however oppugned by any Commands of men Passive obedience is to be paid where Active cannot Where the Magistrate's Commands are thought to be or indeed are unlawful there must be a silent patient yeilding to them so far as to bear quietly such punishment as shall be inflicted for default of Active obedience These Prerogatives annexed to his Office do draw the Magistrate so near to God that he is pleased to honour him with his own Name Having now passed through the several Particulars of the Text let us make some reflection upon the whole matter and 1. Give glory to God and Congratulate our own happiness that we live under the kind and benevolent influences of such terrestrial gods as are able and willing to defend and protect us and to dispense to us the best advantages of Government Government has been found bereficial and necessary by experience of all ages but what kind of Government is best has been hotly disputed both by Sword and Pen Some liking others disliking that most which themselves were under The happy Government we of this Kingdom are under gives an instance not so much to decide as compose the controversie Ours though a Monarchy calls in both the Competitors of Monarchy to it 's assistance and makes use of what is useful both in Democracy and Aristocracy and rejects what is not and so makes up one Government of them all three and this one so compounded is better and more conducing to the best ends of Government than any of the three distinctly taken To the high commendation of it we have the suffrage of a late able States-man Philip Comines who declares that amongst all the Seigniories in the World England was the Country where the State was best ordered and where there was the least violence and oppression upon the People And to compleat the praises of our Government and our rejoycings under it we may say of England as Josephus did of Israel Deus in Isracle non tam Monarchiam quam Deiarchiam instituit We live under a Theocracy not only in the common notion as all the whole World doth that Government is God's Ordinance and he is the supreme Potentate not only in the notion of the Text that Kings and Princes and subordinate Magistrates are Gods Vice-gerents and honoured with the name of Gods But for this also that the Laws of this Kingdom by which the government is measured are so agreable to the holy Laws of God as if they had been given as the Law was to the Jews immediately by God himself We are bound also to Congratulate our happiness in you My Lords and the rest of the honourable and Learned Judges of the Land who twice by the year bring the Execution of the Laws and the Administration of justice even to our own doores where justice may be most duly executed and with least charge to the People We acknowledge this a happy kind of Polytheism that we have so many gods as a the Text stiles you placed on our Tribunals to whom we are to pay though not divine yet such civil worship as is due to those eminent Persons whom God has sot upon his own seat and to whom he hath committed the care and protection of his People 2 We will bring our selves up to a just veneration of the Persons and Authority of our Magistrates and resolve to obey their Commands and submit to their sentence that our esteem love fear of them may bear proportion to that relation God hath taken them up unto himself The name of God put upon them makes their Persons and their Office sacred and ought to secure their Persons from all injuries affronts assaults and their Office from being invaded by any Curse not the King no not in thy thought Eccl. 10.20 The safety of the Supreme Magistrate is there provided for And curse not the rich viz. the subordinate Magistrate in thy bed-chamber for a bird of the ayr shall carry the voyce and that which has wings shall tell the matter Angelus it volans in acre caeli So the Chaldee Paraphrase Magistrates are declared gods and Angels are at their service to make timely discoveries of most secret conspiracies against them Crimen laesae Majestatis was by the Roman Laws of highest nature And to assault the Person and resist the Power of the Magistrate is in the sense of the Text to fight against God Philo de legibus doth greatly aggravate the Sin of Murder because it 's commited against a person made after God's own Image It 's called says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Sacriledge and the greatest Sacriledge because there is nothing of all the most precious possessions in the World so Sacred and so like unto God as man is The aggravation of the sin would be carried much higher if committed upon the person of the Magistrate for so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deicide a killing of one advanced to the stile of God To depose Magistracy it self by false opinion as they do who hold it unlawful for a Christian to bear the office of a Magistrate and that Christians need no other Laws than those of Christ and no other King than King Jesus is a kind of Speculative Civil Atheism and to put such fond opinions in practise is Practical Civil Atheism and to set up others in competition with the lawful Magistrate is Civil Idolatry For Magistrates are g●ds not Nuncupative onely having the name of God and no more but Gods indeed invested with the authority of God and armed with his power to govern the World This should give a check to all aspiring minds and put a stop to all seditious councels and rebellious practices The charge Moses brings against Corah and his seditious company is That they were gathered together