Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	law_n	nature_n	power_n	4,564	5	5.3735	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30629	Cavsa dei, or, An apology for God wherein the perpetuity of infernal torments is evidenced and divine both goodness and justice, that notwithstanding, defended : the nature of punishments in general, and of infernal ones in particular displayed : the evangelical righteousness explicated and setled : the divinity of the Gentiles both as to things to be believed, and things to be practised, adumbrated, and the wayes whereby it was communicated, plainly discover'd / by Richard Burthogge ...	Burthogge, Richard, 1638?-ca. 1700.	1675 (1675)	Wing B6149; ESTC R17327	142,397	594

it self but only by Denomination from extrinsecal and forreign Respects Respects not ingenite in the things themselves but by Positive and humane constitutions superinduced upon them the like Opinion are many now among us who apprehend that Iust and Legal are the same as if all in any Government and Society done according unto Humane Law and constitution were justly done whereas what Lactantius long ago observ'd is most true that it is not Iustice which is Uniform simple and the same in all the World but Interest or Utility that is the Cause of Humane Laws which are therefore so difform various and manifold because as well the Interest as Humours of the People to which they be adapted are so And how can men be Just by conforming but to Laws that are made by men who may be Unjust Aliud est igitur saith the Father civile jus quod pro moribus ubique variatur aliud est vera Justitia quam uniformen simplicem proposuit omnibus Deus Civil Law therefore which is everywhere diversified according to the several manners of men is one thing and true Justice another which uniform and simple is proposed by God to All. But to return to Archelaus Aristippus and Carneades They might as well have said That there is no Asperity or Laevity in Tangible Objects no Harmony or Dis-harmony in sounds that among odors vapours and colours some are not in Nature Pleasing and Agreeable unto these respective Senses they affect and others contrary but that this Agreeableness and Disagreeableness of Objects to the Sense from which they are denominated Good or Evil to it is but a fiction of the Humane Mind I say as well For the Practique Understanding is but a● High and racy Sense and as other Senses so this within its capacity and Sphere of comprehension has Objects that are contrary some are Agreeable and some are otherwise and she Iudges of them There is Ingrafted in the Mind of Man an Intellectual Sense a Discernment of what is Good and Evil as in the Eye a sensible one of White and Black In the Palate a Taste of Bitter and Sweet In the Ear a Power to Discriminate Harmonies and Discords in all a sense of Pleasure and Pain What is Harmonious Equal Congruous and consequently Pleasing and Agreeable unto Practique Reason and accordingly approved by it which it honours with a Dictate that it ought to be pursued or effected that is called morally Good and what is Dis-harmonius Inequal or Inconcongruous and consequently Painful and Disagreeable and accordingly disallowed of which the Understanding Dictates that it ought to be Avoided that is Morally Evil. To be morally Good or Evil is to be Good or Evil in point of Manners Good and Evil in manners are the Objects of the Practique Understanding there are things Agreeable and Disagreeable to the Mind and Practique Understanding as well as to other Senses There are things Good and things Evil to this High and Racy Sense as well as to Inferiour Ones The System of Prime Common Plain Self-evident Dictates of the Practique Understanding or Reason whose Number can no better be Determin'd than that of Fundamentals in Religion is generally called the Law of Nature not only because it is described as it were in Nature and in the very habitudes and Respects of things themselves but also because as our Apostle happily expresseth it it is a Law whereby a man is so unto himself that is his very faculties themselves which are his Nature do as it were prescribe him Laws which in Opposition unto Positive and written Laws are called Unwritten and under that Notion were acknowledged by the Wisest Heathen by Plato by Aristotle by Cicero to be the Catholique or common Law of all mankind I say it is called Law the Law of Nature but in Strictness and Propriety it is not Law barely for that it is a frame of things that Natural Reason sheweth fit and necessary to be done or forborn for seeing Law is nothing but the signification of what a Superiour Power and authority requires from us in point of doing or not doing as we would have him pleased or incurr his Displeasure Reason doth not by a naked Dictate of the Reasonabless and fitness of things make the Doing of them Duty and Obedience For though Reason do injoyn for Matter and Substance but what God doth yet properly its Dictate is not Law upon the bare account of being an Injunction and command of Reason but as it is an Injunction and command of God which is signified to us and made known by Reason Else Man in the State of Nature were his own Lord and Governour Yes that men do hold themselves obliged unto things proposed to them by the Practique Understanding as unto Duties which they owe and consequently that the Dictates of the Mind or Understanding are Regarded by them as Laws ariseth from a Belief implanted in them That what Reason manifests to be convenient or unconvenient Equal or Unequal Congruous or Incongruous is the Will of One above them that they should Perform or Omit It being Law only that is capable of making Duty and the will of the Superiour only that is capable of making Law Reason though it may inform us what is fit and congruous to be done yet Inforces not what is so to be duty if there go not a Perswasion with it that what it sheweth is the will of a Superiour The Law of Nature is the Law of God written in Nature which Reason sheweth and this maketh Duty That Principle by which a Man is Conscions that there is a Superiour Power requiring him as he would either Please or Displease to do what Reason dictates fit and convenient and to forbear the contrary is Conscience which I take as it Exists in us to be an Instinct of Nature or if you will pardon the expression A Natural Habit and Impression transmitted with the Geniture from Parents unto Children Reason shews what is to be done but this conscience binds it on the man as Duty and makes him to believe what Reason shews to be the Will of a Superiour So the Apostle these not having a Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while Accusing or Excusing one another I call Conscience an Instinct To comprehend which it will behove us as well to look abroad and about as into our selves There is in Animals that want Reason a Principle of Action which we call Instinct by which a Hound doth follow the Hare the Hare avoids the Hound a Chicken dreads the Kite a Lamb at first fight of the Wolf will tremble and seek Sanctuary By which Birds instructed both to build their Nests to sit on their Eggs and to feed their young are moved to seek Places of most Advantage and Retreat to conceal them And such a Principle in man is

and in this the sinfulness of sin consists This importing in it Inexcusable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and contempt of God Such is the Nature and such the Object of Sin Now the Moral Evil is in any Action receives an Aggravation from the Object of it and that Relation the Offender stands in towards that for instance what is but Assault and Battery upon an Ordinary Man is Treason on the Prince To strike ones Soveraign is a Capital and hainous Crime Unexpiable but by the Blood of him that does offend in that kind when yet to give a Private Person a Blow is not so So Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any be so Hardy as to strike a Magistrate he ought not only to have Blow for Blow but to be severely Punish't Thus the Philosopher and it was one of the Laws of the Twelve Tables Re Persona Tempore Loco Atrociores injuriae judicantor That Injuries were to be esteemed to receive Aggravations by the Person offended so Labeo interprets it Persona atrocior injuria sit cum Magistratui cum Parenti Patronóve fiat The Injury is rendred more Atrocious by the Person when it is done to a Magistrate a Parent or a Patron And granting This Then How immense and infinite an aggravation must we of force Acknowledge in all sin when we consider in it that Contempt Scorn and Parvipension of God which does compose it That it is against a Majesty so Excellent and High against the King of Kings the Lord of Lords against the Heavenly Father the Great Creator the Great Benefactor him from whom the sinner hath Receiv'd his own Being and all the Goods Comforts and Advantages of it Most certain it is that those considerations in inferior Objects which scatter'd and dispersed do render Actions under greatest Guilt and aggravation are all Concentred to aggravate what ever Action man is guilty of against God For if it be an Aggravation of the Crime among men for the Subject to Affront his King for the Child his Father for the Vassal his Lord for the Obliged his Benefactor God is King is Father is Lord or Owne● is Benefactor c. and the Sinner is his Subject his Child his Own his Obliged Yes and all the Aggravations Reflected on the faulty Action by this Transcendent Object are as much Superiour to those deriv'd from any other as those Considerations which in God are aggravating do transcend the same that are so in man As much as God himself in Excellency is above Man This King above all other Kings the Heavenly Father above an Earthly this Soveraign Benefactor above Inferiour Benefactors of so much greater Guilt and aggravation in all respects is a crime against the former than it can be against the latter The Degree of Aggravation bears Proportion to the Excellency which Effects it This the Antient Romans had some understanding of and therefore to Protect Persons invested with the Soveraign Power and Authority from all Affronts they were wont to style them Sacred to the End that by consideration of the Name and Character of God upon them Subjects Apprehending so much more Horror in the Crime might be scared from Attempting what otherwise perhaps without it they would have soon presum'd to do So Floccus Romanis Legibus cautum est saith he u● omnes Potestatem habentes quò plus apud eos majestatis esset Sacrosancti appellarentur ut si quis quempiam in magistratu violasset Religio judicaretur By this time I make no question but a small Objection which hath ministred but too much matter of Perplexity to some will offer none to you namely that it will not follow that Sin is therefore Infinite because against an Infinite God no more than that it is Good and Iust and Holy and Omnipresent and the like because against a Good a Iust an Holy and Omnipresent God For you see I argue not the Infinity of the sin barely from that Infinity which is in God so as if this Attribute in him did Physically as some would speak and Naturally imprint its like upon the faulty Action no this Infinity in sin is not a Natural Infinity but a Moral not Infinity of Being but of Guilt and Aggravation and consequently such an one as cannot be derived but from such Considerations Moral as are able to Reflect it It is not deriv'd Physically but Morally I doubt not but you comprehend my meaning that Sin is not to be affirmed Infinite meerly because it has an Infinite and Transcendent Being for its Object For this the mentioned Objection fully evidences but because there are Perfections in the Divine Nature such as Goodness Greatness and the like that are of a Quality to Greaten the Offence and Fault against them which Perfections being Infinite do make the Aggravations they Reflect upon the crime or sin Proportionable For it is a manifest a Plain and an Infallible consequence that if a crime against obliging Goodness or the like Consideration for what is instanced in One will hold in All be great and against a greater Goodness it be a greater crime then a crime against an Infinite and inconceivable Goodness must needs be a crime of Infinite and inconceivable Guilt Ut se habet simpliciter ad simpliciter ita magis ad magis maximè ad maximè Hence it follows that no sin is small For not to stand on this Subtilty that there is a kind of Boundlesness and of Infinity in Sin Sin being in its very Nature a transgression or Excess of Bounds the Law it setteth bounds and limits unto mens Affections but sin transgresseth them I say not to stand on that Consideration the Conclusion Evidently follows from what I have already offer'd For if every Sin be Transgression and essentially imply a Violation of the Law of God a Preferring of Our Unruly Profane Unrighteous Evil Wills before His which is Holy Just and Good and consequently be an offering of Indignity and as it were affront to Him it is easie to inferr that None is small since to violate the Divine Authority and Pleasure and to despise it and contemn it for our Own cannot be imagin'd so I the rather do Enforce this great Truth because I know many Atheistically inclined who deride the Doctrine of the Fall of man occasion'd by the eating of an Apple as a senseless and absurd conceit It cannot penetrate their Understandings that a Wise and Just and Good God should conceive so great Anger and Indignation for so small and poor a thing that He should expose the First man and all Descendants from him to the danger of Eternal Ruine for no more than eating an Apple And what is an Apple to be compared with Mankind and with all its comforts In the day thou eatest thou shalt dye the death looketh better like one of Draco's Laws which for their Inhumanity were noted to be written in Blood than like a Sanction of Gods And indeed an Apple is