Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	force_n	former_a	great_a	100	3	2.1571	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90392	The fundamental right, safety and liberty of the people (which is radically in themselves, derivatively in the Parliament, their substitutes or representatives) briefly asserted. Wherein is discovered the great good or harm which may accrue unto the people by Parliaments, according to their different temperature and motions. Together with some proposals conducing towards an equal and just settlement of the distracted state of this nation. As likewise a touch at some especial properties of a supream good governor or governors. / By Isaac Penington (junior) Esq; The safety of the people is the supream, most natural and most righteous law, being both the most proper end and most adequate rule of government.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1651 (1651)	Wing P1169; Thomason E629_2	39,601	54

succour and safety and therefore much nearer to us and more essential to our happiness then others are These are especially to be regarded And this so much the rather because the people are so fit a Body to be subjected and trampled upon that it is very hard for those which are great in power to keep their feet from off their necks Alas the people have no way to avoyd danger but by running upon the Rocks they have no way to shun ruine but by hasting into ruine Those they chuse to govern them gently to defend them may fit hard upon their backs yea themselves may make a prize of them And if they can in length of time through many difficulties obtain and appoint Trustees to rectifie these miscarriages yet how many temptations they have to mismanage it they think not of and how they will manage it they know not Experience doth still shew how difficult it is throughly to mind the good of the people One half of the work is sometimes done sometimes very often viz. the crushing of Oppressors but the other half viz. the breaking the yoke of oppression is very rare and hard even for them to do who have prevailed to shake the Oppressors out of their seats Thus much in general Now more particularly there are four things appear to me as necessary unto a fair and firm setling 1. A clear distinction between the administrative or executive Power and the legislative or judicative that as they have in themselves so they may retain in their course their clear and distinct natures the one not intermixing or intermedling with the other That the administrative may not intermingle it self or meddle with the legislative but leave it to its own free course nor the legislative with the administrative by any extemporary precepts directions or injunctions but only by set and known Laws Things which are severed in their nature must likewise be severed in their use and application or else we cannot but fail of reaping those fruits and effects which we desire from them and which otherwise they might bear and we enjoy 2. A prescription of clear and distinct Rules and Bounds to each That the Trust Power Priviledges and Duty of each which flow from the common light of man and are intended for the common good of man may be made evident to that common light that the people may know hereby what they are to expect from each what they are to expect from the Parliament what they are to expect from their supream Governor or Governors and so may be understandingly sensible of good or ill usage There is nothing among that nature of things we now treat of of it self unlimited and the more clearly the limits of any thing are set and known the greater advantage hath it both to move safely and to vindicate the integrity and righteousness of its motions If the limits of Power be not described and made known it will be left too loose in its actings and the people also will be left too loose in the interpretation of its actings neither of them being groundedly able to justifie themselves in either unto the other neither of which is safe If the Parliament hath one apprehension of its limits and the people another they can neither be satisfied in the other but the people must needs disrelish the actions of the Parliament and the Parliament cannot but think themselves injuried by the people which may occasion the laying of a dangerous foundation of discontent and division between them Yea hereby the Parliaments best friends may be forced to become its enemies and it may be forced to deal most sharply with its best friends and so weaken its best strength and the best strength of the Nation Those that are friends to things are not friends to persons any further then they are subservient to things It is as hateful to true-bred-spirits to idolize the name of a Parliament any more then of a King it is righteousness rightly administred in its own proper way and channel by persons in place and power which alone can make them lovely to such as love not men but righteousness It was the error of the foregoing governing Power to esteem it self more at liberty then in right it was it may also be the error of the present legislative power yea their condition exposeth them more unto it their Liberty being larger or of a larger kind and therefore they ought the more abundantly to beware of it and to apply themselves to produce or cause to be produced a true and fair discovery of those bounds and limits wherein they are by the nature of things circumscribed for if they do not know them it will be impossible for them to keep within them and if the people do not know them it may be difficult in many considerable cases to them to believe that they do keep within them 3. An unquestionably free and equal Parliament It is not every cause which will produce a true and genuine effect but the cause must be rightly tempered to bring forth kindly fruit It is not every Parliament which can heal or settle a Nation or that the people have just cause to rest satisfied in but a Parliament fairly chosen equally representing the people and freely acting for the people Now every man knoweth force to be opposite to freedom That which is free is not forced and that which is forced is not free This Parliament hath visibly to every common eye been more then once forced and it is not very easie after violence to break forth again into perfect liberty the sense and remembrance of the former force together with an inward fear of the like again if the like occasion shall happen may be a secret though not so apparant a bond upon their spirits which may in some particulars incline them both to do what they would not and to neglect the doing of what they would Besides it may be considered how far that visible force which caused so great an alteration in the Parliament and such a change in affairs did intrench upon the freedom of Parliament For though every detention of some or many Members may not disanul the freedom of a Parliament yet some kind of detention so and so qualified necessarily doth An occasional or accidental detention is not of so great force as an intentional yet if such an accidental detention of some of the Members should happen whereby the state and course of the Parliament should be changed it might well be disputed whether the rest still sitting and acting contrary to what was done before those Members were detained might be accounted a free Parliament when such a force was visibly upon some part of it as changed the whole state of affairs in it for this were plainly an accidental bending of the Parliament from its intended course from its free current and so far as it is bent it is not free But in the case in hand there was yet

it may do most harm in a wrong way Powers that are great bring forth great effects either of Peace or Trouble Order or Confusion Salvation or Destruction No remedy so soveraign so restorative as a Parliament rightly constituted rightly applyed and rightly acting No disease more deadly more consuming the very heart-life of the Rights and Liberties of a Nation then a Parliament misconstituted misapplyed misacting But every one here will be ready to say What is that Power which is proper to Parliaments what is their proper work what is that Power of a different nature which will be so dangerous for them to assume and what is that work which they are not fitted for entrusted with or appointed to To satisfie the desire of such as may greedily enquire after this I shall answer somewhat according to that insight which is afforded me into the nature of things shewing from the Principles foregoing both what their proper Power and Work is and then what Power and Work is improper for them And it is a clearer and far safer way to search out and discover things from their first rise in Nature then from succeeding Principles or Practises which may easily decline awry and cover the true knowledg and intent of things Now concerning their proper Power and Work I shall not undertake to define the particular limits of it it will suffice to my purpose to express the general nature of it which to me appeareth thus It is a NATVRAL Humane or Civil EXTRAORDINARY CONSTITVTIVE CORRECTIVE ALTERATIVE POWER I shall speak chiefly of their Power which will of it self discover their Work therefore that will not need so particularly to be opened First I say it is NATVRAL such a Power as is sown in man in the nature of man Man hath a power over himself to dispose of himself according to that wisdom and righteousness which is seated in him grows up with him if it be not blasted or kept under which he further attains to or is in a further degree bestowed upon him Of this common kinde is this with all other earthly Powers But this expresseth onely the kinde of it we are yet far from the particular nature end or use of it Therefore to describe it further I term it EXTRAORDINARY which it discovers it self to be being a thing not for common and constant use but for extraordinary ends and purposes and the nature of things must be suited to their end for thither it is to direct them Then more particularly there is expressed what kinde of extraordinary Power it is namely CONSTITVTIVE CORRECTIVE ALTERATIVE It is a Power of seting up or establishing Laws Governments Governors of correcting them of altering them This is the nature of their Power which pointeth out their work so plainly as it will not need more particularly to be specified in this place Now by this there are two sorts of Power cut off from them one whole kinde of Power and one main branch of another kinde 1. Spiritual Power which claimeth its descent from Christ as the Head of his Church and is appropriated by its nature end and use unto his Body the Church which is his City or Kingdom to be governed by him even by that power of his Spirit which he pleaseth to exercise upon them whether immediately by himself or mediately by such as he substituteth under him This Power as it is spiritual so it is fit to be managed onely by spiritual hands Not by Men but by Christians nor by every Christian but by such onely as can clear the derivacy of it from Christ to them such as are fitted and appointed by him to be under him in his own seat and place of Government Nor are Christians to exercise this Government over other men but onely over Christians whom alone it is suited to Nor are they to govern as men by outward force but as Christians by spiritual vertue and efficacy upon the Conscience the seat of Christ in man so that it may appear that not they but the Spirit of Christ the Spirit in Christ doth rule and govern O how sweet would this Government be how pleasant to a Christian the strictest execution of the sharpest Laws in it Christs yoke is easie and his burthen is light even in the sharpest and weightiest part of it But this Power belongeth not to any Nation or People under Heaven there being not any Nation or People which can evidence the fair and clear derivacy of this Power from Christ to them as it was not intended for any Nation or People save onely his own Nation his own People Therefore not to any Parliament who are but the People in a representative Body in a Body contracted into a narrower compass for the use and service of the People who as they stand in their stead so they have onely their Power The People being the stock or root from whence their Power and Authority doth spring it can rise no higher not be of any other nature then that which is in the People 2. In Civil Power the administrative or governing part of it appeareth from hence not to appertain to them In Civil Societies as well as in natural Nature hath cut out the proportion in general though not in particular There is the Head and the Members having each their several innate Properties Motions Laws and Priviledges which cannot be transgressed without violence to Nature or without danger to that Body or Society which breaketh the bounds limited by Nature In every Society which is orderly there is the Head and the Members part to govern and part to be governed to each of which appertain their particular Rights to the one such as they may be advantaged for and in government by to the other such as they may be advantaged under government by that the yoke may be gently orderly and sweetly managed by the one and sweetly born by the other Now this is most evident that the People are the Body the People are to be governed not to be the Head not to govern The Legislative Power indeed belongs to them that their yoke might be the more easie But the Administrative Power doth in no wise belong to them but to those who are to govern And though the People might be flattered and encouraged from sense of the misuse of this Power to take it into their own hands yet it can never thrive there and though they should set themselves to rest content nay to please themselves with it yet you must needs grow weary of it and that very quickly the inconveniences will multiply so fast and grow so unavoydable Parliaments are the Body of the People chosen by the People to stand for them to represent them to act in their stead Answerably They have that Power which is proper to the People the Legislative the Supremely-Judicative but not that Power which belongs not to the People viz. the Administrative In like maner this discovers a double kinde of work improper