Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	free_a	general_a	good_a	61	3	2.1543	3	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

A NEEDFUL CORRECTIVE OR BALLANCE IN Popular Government Expressed in a Letter to IAMES HARRINGTON Esquire Upon occasion of a late Treatise of his And published as seasonable in the present Juncture of Affaires SIR THE high esteem and reverence you bear and that deservedly unto humane Prudence which the more ancient the date is that you set to it is doubtless the better as most partaking of its primitive purity does nevertheless I fear out-weigh with you beyond what it ought to the derogation and prejudice of that pattern for Magistracy it self which was shewn unto Moses in the Mount during the forty dayes in which the body of that godly Man was nourished without the help of secondary meanes and yet lived not upon the air but upon every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God In the wisdom of which Word he was then taught to see the most excellent platforme of Civil Government as having its root and inward principles as well as its outward administration flowing from Divine Institution revelation of which we may well suppose that the abilities in Jethro a Heathen that appeared in the advice he gave touching the outward order to be observed for the administration of Justice in the Common-wealth of Israel did fall very short although there be nothing contained in the one which may not have witness and justification given unto it by the other as was the case between Jethro and Moses yet Moses was he that by conversing face to face with God and receiving the lively Oracles was much better qualified to lay down the rules of a perfect Common-wealth Government then Jethro was that by the help only of tradition acquired gifts and experience might arive to that skill in the rules of ancient Prudence as to make him a very knowing and able Politician and yet not to stand in competition with Moses And since you have thought fit in your Treatise shewing the Prerogative of popular Government and very worthily asserting that cause with great advantage on your part against all adversaries that are entred into the list with you to annex to it certain Queries with this inscription To the godly man Be pleased to take in good part this general return that is made thereunto not with any intent to oppose but rather conntenance the essentials of that Government you plead for and perfect the principles of true freedom which are taught by ancient Prudence to the rendring us a holy as well as a free people In which Spirit of holiness you may become invinsible against the very Clergy themselves that have begun to undertake you as you also in requital have not a little unmasked them in their pretended ordination which they as the Presbytery would fain ingross and usurp to themselves without the free consent of the Congregation Nor will it be much material in this to know from whom this comes to you under any other notion then the Advocate for the godly Man to whom your Queries are directed it being indeed from one that cannot be wrought off from a sincere and hearty friendship and value of true godliness how shameful soever the miscarriage hath been in these our dayes of those that having had only the form of it have served themselves thereof to advance their worldly interests to the making that very name to stink amongst the Heathens and great Leviathans of the world and therefore is desirous to receive a clear information and resolution from your self unto some Queries that you will find in the close of this paper directed to you on the behalf of the godly Man after some little discanting upon the nature of Government in the general and joyning in witness with you unto those principles of common right and freedome that must be provided for in whatsoever frame of Government it be which does pretend to a perfection in its kind By Government or Rule in general is to be understood that power which de facto comes to be set up as supreme and is exercised over Nations or People by way of oversight and command for the good of the whole Body in either of the three conditions of men you mention whether of Servants Subjects or Citizens The rise and being which is given to ruling Power amongst Nations and Kingdomes is not by chance nor meerly through the will of Man but hath its place found in Gods Ordinance and Institution for there is no Power but is of God and the Powers that are sprung either from his Authority and Commission or from his Tolleration and Permission So as upon one account or the other we may truly say they are so limited and ordered by him whether it respect the form of their constitution the force of their operation or the time of their continuance as well as the use and end which they serve unto that when all is done Power only belongs to God who kils and makes alive and puls down one and sets up another that it may be kuown that the pillars of the Earth are his and he hath set the World upon them upholding all things by the Word of his Power so as neither promotion nor abasement does come from the East or from the West but from him alone in order to bring to passe the work which he hath to do in the World for the good of his Church and People However Government considered as well in reference to the right as to the actual exercise of it is seated also in the will of man where it hath next under God its rise and being And the access unto it is usually had upon pretence of one of these three rights First the right of consent and free gift by the common vote of the whole Body which is the right door to enter into the exercise of supreme Power and is genuine natural righteous consonant to those pure Principles of mans nature wherein he was at first created and does declare the governed to be in the state of free Citizens who as Brethren partaking of the Spirit of right reason common to them as men made in the Image of God are equally intituled to their own oversight and Government and do therefore see cause voluntarily to associate themselves together and on the grounds of common right and freedome to agree to be subject and yeild obedience to the Laws that are from time to time made amongst them by their own free and common consent So as this sort of Empire or Government is that of Laws and not of Men and is of a nature better agreeing with the many then the few and least of all with the single person The second is the right of conquest which is also through the will of man usurping and imposing upon his Brethren by force of armes that which could not be obtained as it ought by free consent and is therefore held upon the same terms of force and violence to the proclaiming the governed to be fallen into a state of servants if

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