Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	ordinance_n	power_n	resist_v	4,907	5	10.4011	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51230	A sermon preach'd before the House of Lords in the abby-church at Westminster, upon Monday January 31, 1697 / by John Lord Bishop of Norwich.	Moore, John, 1646-1714.	1697 (1697)	Wing M2555; ESTC R26202	18,373	42

of them who have the Legislative Power to make Laws to describe the Property of single Persons to try the Justice and Equity of Bargains and Contracts to estimate the Losses and Damages men suffer one by another By these Laws mens Labours and Service are to be rated Rewards or Punishments are to be measured out to Persons according as they shall advance the Welfare of the Society or it shall receive Detriment from them In a word the Civil Laws do allot what Tributes and Taxes each man shall pay to defend and preserve the Body Politick whereof he is a Part. 2. It is necessary that in all Societies there should be a Chief Governor to interpret the Laws and according to them to decide the Controversies between particular men without Favour and Affection or Prejudice and Hatred to any Party But if there was no Publick Person to expound the Laws every Private Man might understand them in his own Sense and make them bend to his peculiar Interest And hence it would follow that there would be as great and endless Strifes about the meaning of the Laws as would have been about the several Portions of Land in a Country before a general Division was made And therefore it is very clear and manifest in the Third Place 3. That all the Members of a Community are bound to submit to the Laws and Decrees of their Chief Governor For neither Laws nor a Governor can constitute a Society if private Men have Liberty not to submit to them Of what Use would Laws be if every one might interpret them to his own particular Advantage To what purpose should a Governor undertake to hear Causes if the People were not bound to stand to his Determinations This therefore never can happen in any Place without a Dissolution of the Government and the bringing all things into Confusion And Men in a State where every one presumes a Right in himself to oppose what he mislikes must not be thought an orderly and regulated Society but a disjointed and lawless Multitude Wherefore no one is to doubt but that God who is Author of Societies has given the Supreme Rulers in every Society a Right to so much Power as is sufficient to compel men to yield Obedience to the Laws and that he has obliged all Persons belonging unto it to submit to their Authority But now let us observe in the Revealed Will of God what further Approbation he has given of the Sovereign Powers over Nations and Kingdoms through his Providence settled in the World for the Good and Welfare of Men. When God did put the Children of Israel under his immediate Government we may take notice how severely he punished those who did mutiny against the Rulers that by his Commission acted under him Miriam was smitten with the Leprosy because she unadvisedly spoke against Moses Korah seduced some Malecontents into an Insurrection and the Earth opened and swallowed him and his Company for their Rebellion God so far countenanced the Erection of Sovereign Power over his own People the Jews as to grant their Petition for a King notwithstanding they did sin in rejecting him when they desired a king to judge them like all the nations And what is remarkable he caused their two first Kings to come to the Throne by his special Choice and Designation It is also worthy of noting That the usual Title and Stile of Kings in Holy Scripture is The Anointed of the Lord In which he forbids the reviling of Rulers and the cursing of the King even in our Thoughts he declares them his Representatives that by him they rule and decree Justice Nay he threatneth to pour his Judgments upon Jerusalem for their revolting from the King of Babylon after he had conquered their Countrey Our Saviour likewise whose Kingdom was not of this World was so far from designing any Alteration in the Forms of Government and Civil Laws of Nations that were agreeable to Reason and Morality that he confirmed their Establishment and did subject himself to the Supreme Authority of his own Time and Country by ordering Tribute to be paid to Caesar and in acknowledging to Pilate That his Power was given him from God Subjection to Kings and Governors is more largely and distinctly asserted by the Apostles who in their Divine Writings were assisted with his Holy Spirit And to render their Precepts concerning Obedience to those who preside at the Helm and direct and rule Kingdoms and Nations the more effectual they back them with strong Arguments taken from the Profit which accrues to Societies through their respectful and dutiful Behaviour to the Civil Authority and from the Judgments God will bring upon Men of a rebellious and untractable Spirit St. Paul requires every Christian Soul to be subject to the Higher Powers because those Powers are ordained of God and because they that resist them do resist the Ordinance of God and by his Decree who will maintain his own Ordinances shall for their Sin of Resistance receive to themselves Damnation St. Peter enjoins Christians in general to be subject to the King who is Supreme and to Governors that are deputed by him for the Lord's sake and because so is the Will of God and both point to the Blessings and Benefits that will therefrom proceed to Men The one says Rulers are not a Terror to good Works but to the Evil And the other That they are for the Punishment of Evil-doers and for the Praise of them that do well St. Paul affirms That the Magistrate is the Minister of God to thee for Good that is for the support of Justice and Honesty and Peace among Men and that in defending the Authority of Governors we shall include our own Quiet and Safety It is not unworthy of notice when St. Paul urged the Duty of Subjection that Nero was Emperor one of the worst of Men and to obviate an Objection made by some since who had more regard to their own Will than the Word of God That the Primitive Christians did submit to the Authority of the Emperors because they being but a handful of Men had not Force sufficient to oppose them he adds That they were to be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake that is not only for Fear of the Emperors who in their Rage might let loose their Armies upon them but upon a Principle of Duty and Justice in Consideration of the Advantage and Profit they gain by their Government And if we are to be Obedient to the Higher Powers for sake of Conscience then by Rule of Contraries we shall contract a guilty Conscience by our Disobedience The Sum of all is That we ought to pray for both in Publick and Private to Fear and Respect and Honour in our Behaviour Kings and Princes and other Magistrates and to submit to their Righteous Laws and Constitutions not only in regard they are set over us by God and Reign by his Commission but out of