Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	aaron_n	authority_n	moses_n	60	3	6.8999	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64083	Bibliotheca politica: or An enquiry into the ancient constitution of the English government both in respect to the just extent of regal power, and the rights and liberties of the subject. Wherein all the chief arguments, as well against, as for the late revolution, are impartially represented, and considered, in thirteen dialogues. Collected out of the best authors, as well antient as modern. To which is added an alphabetical index to the whole work.; Bibliotheca politica.	Tyrrell, James, 1642-1718.	1694 (1694)	Wing T3582; ESTC P6200	1,210,521	1,073

must confess I am somewhat staggered with those Reasons and Arguments you have now given me against those Principles which as I have always and must still esteem as sacred till I am convinced I am in an Errour and perhaps if I were to consult my own 〈◊〉 Reason and natural Inclinations I should come over to your opinion But since it hath pleased God to lay much higher restraints and stricter Rules of Obedience and Subjection on us by his Revealed Will in the Scripture beyond what can be discovered by the Light of Nature and that under the highest Penalty viz. Damnation I can see no reason why God Almighty may not grant Eternal Life upon what Conditions he pleases tho' never so hard and uneasie for Flesh and Blood to perform So that if our Saviour Iesus Christ hath commanded us to take up his Cross and follow him that is to suffer all sorts of Injuries and Afflictions nay Death it self as he himself did rather than to Resist the Supream Powers under which He lived I cannot see any Reason why he should not Propose his own Example for our Imitation And as he hath enjoined and expects from us greater Degrees of Chastity Charity and Humility than ever he did from the Iews or Pagans so I see no reason why he may not likewise exact from us a greater and more perfect Obedience and Submission without any Resistance to all Soveraign Princes and States than ever he did either by the Law of Moses or that of Nature not but that there are sufficient Proofs in the Old Testament for the absolute Power of Princes against all Rebellion or Resistance in Subjects Tho' I confess this Doctrine is more plainly proved by the Example of our Saviour and the Precepts of his Apostles in the New Testament as also from the Example of the Primitive Christians in Obedience thereunto F. I perceive you begin to distrust your Arguments drawn from Natural Reason and the Laws of Nature and when you are pressed with the absurdity of this Doctrine of yours you fly from Gods Natural to his Revealed Will and take refuge under the Covert of the Holy Scripture to impose an Opinion contrary to the Common sense and Natural Notions of Mankind not corrupted with the Prejudices of Education and therefore give me leave at present to tell you that I think I shall be able to prove that the Passive Obedience as you call it of the Primitive Christians and their sufferings for the Name of Christs will not at all contradict that Natural Right which I suppose all Freemen to have as well under Civil Government as in the State of Nature for the defence of their Lives Liberties and Properties unless where the Common good and Peace of the whole or Major part of the People require the contrary And therefore the same Reasons which oblige particular private Persons to be quiet and not to disturb the publick Peace of the whole Society for their own private Safety and Advantage when the whole Body of the People or the Major part of them is thus violently assaulted in their Lives Liberties and Estates the same considerations of the Publick good of their Country whereof every Man is a Member doth then as strongly persuade I may say enjoyn them to take up Arms and defend themselves for the Preservation of the whole People or Community whose Natural and Civil Rights being now attack't can no otherwise be restored to the same State they were in before but by that last Remedy that can be used in this Case viz. Kim vi ●topellere M. I confess that of all Commonwealth-hypotheses yours is most reasonable being coherent with it self and also most likely to be swallowed by the People because it flatters our corrupt Natures to which this Christian Doctrine of Passive Obedience is so directly opposite as also because it gives them a full Liberty I mean not only the Representative Body but the Major part of them to reassume that Power which you pretend they never parted with and so consequently all necessity of suffering except when they please to think they have justly deserved it is taken away and the Sufferings of the Primitive Christians will be rendered only a tame Madness and that St. Paul was very much overseen to enjoin this Subjection to the Romans under the Government of one of the most cruel Tyrants that ever sway'd that Scepter but we have not so learned Christs And therefore I am firmly persuaded that we ought to be strictly obedient without any Resistance to those Civil Governours that God hath been pleased to set over us let them abuse their Power never so Tyrannically F. I am beholden to you for your plain dealing with me in this matter and pleased to find that you have an Inclination to my Principles were it not for some Texts of Scripture and Citations out of the Fathers and Church History which give you a Prejudice against them which I hope when they come to be closely examined will signifie no more than the former But for the dispatching this Important Controversie I pray give me leave to propose this easie method first that you would be pleased to lay down your Authorities out of Scripture in order as they lie And afterwards to shew me that the Ancient Fathers and Primitive Church always understood those Texts in the same Sense that you do viz. that No Resistance of the Supream Powers is Lawful to be exercised in any Case whatsoever M. I approve of your Proposal and therefore I will first begin with those proofs which are expresly against all Rebellion or Resistance in the Old Testament The first Governour that God set over the Children of Israel when he brought them out of the Land of Egypt was Moses and I think I need not prove how sacred and irresistible his Authority was This is sufficiently evident in the Rebellion of Korah Dathan and Abiram against Moses and Aaron when God caused the Earth to open her Mouth and swallow them up And lest this should be thought an extraordinary Case Moses and Aaron being extraordinary Persons immediately appointed by God and governed by his Immediate direction the Apostle St. Iude alledges this example against those in his days who were Turbulent and Factious who despised Dominions and spake evil of Dignities that they should Perish in the gainsaying of Core which he could not have done had not this Example extended to all ordinary as well as extraordinary Cases had it not been a lasting Testimony of Gods displeasure against all those who oppose themselves against Soveraign Powers But Moses was not always to rule over them and therefore God expresly provides for a succession of Soveraign Powers to which they must all submit The ordinary Soveraign Power of the Iewish Nation after Moses's Death was devolv'd either on the High-Priest or those extraordinary Persons whom God was pleas'd to raise up such as Ioshua and the several Iu●ges till in

be punished by the Civil Magistrate which before any of the Kin of the Person slain might have executed as appears by Genesis 4. v. 14. when Cain said unto the Lord I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the Earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me which had been a needless fear if none but Adam had a power to take away his life for the murther of his Brother as you suppose much less that God should have needed to have set a mark upon him to keep him from being murthered by his Brethren or other Relations Nor will that other place you cite out of Genesis prove Adam's sole dominion over the Earth and all the things and persons therein contained For if you please to consider it you will find That it is so far from proving your Opinion that it speaks the direct contrary pray therefore observe of whom Moses speaks in that place surely not of Adam alone when he says Male and Female created he them and God blessed them and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth From whence we may observe First That these words being directed in the plural number both to the Male and Female were not intended to Adam alone but by way of anticipation not only to himself and Eve who was not then made but likewise to their Posterity that is all mankind Then that they should be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and subdue it that is possess and enjoy it and have dominion c. over every living thing that moveth in the Hebrew creepeth upon the face of the Earth By which words it appears That not any dominion over Mankind but only over Bruit-beasts that move or creep upon the Earth is hereby conferred And that this must be the true meaning of this place is plain if you will but read the two next Verses that follow And God said Behold I have given you every Herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the Earth and every Tree in which is the fruit of a Tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat And to every beast of the Earth and to every Fowl of the Air and to every thing that creepeth upon the Earth wherein there is life I have given every green Herb for meat and it was so Which words are certainly directed to the same persons as the former that is to all Mankind by the same Argument as that every green Herb is here granted for meat to every Beast of the Earth and every Fowl of the Air c. that then was or ever shall exist in Nature So that this Text which you have cited to prove this absolute and sole dominion of Adam over the Earth and all thee Creatures therein contained is so far from proving any such thing that it seems to me to make out the direct contrary Doctrine viz. That the Earth and all the Creatures th●rein were not granted to Adam alone as the sole Lord and Master of them but in common to himself his Wife and all his Posterity who had as good a right to them `as he had himself So that I must tell you if you intend to bring me over to your Opinion you must produce some better proofs out of Scripture or Reason than those made use of by 〈◊〉 R. F. and therefore I desire that you would give me some plaine● proof● for Adam's absolute Power over his Wife and all his posterity than hitherto you have done since I cannot see any Divine Charter granted by God in Scripture of any absolute power or dominion over their Lives or Persons M. I shall Sir do my best endeavour to give you all the satisfaction I can possibly therein therefore I desire you farther to take notice That Mr. Selden in his Mare Clasum and all the Jewish Rabbins have understood this Text in Genesis to give Adam an absolute power over the Earth and all things therein contained exclusive to his Posterity as long as he lived And the said Author from the ancient Tradition of the Jews is of the same Opinion in his Mare Clausum So that if Sir R. F. and divers others have erred in the sense of this place I believe it is more than you or I can prove since sure they would not have put this sense upon it without they had some good reason for it But this much I suppose you will admit that Adam was created by God and is in Scripture called the Son of God as indeed he was and if so let your self or any other rational man consider● Whether it be at all likely that God should not endow this Son of his the Father of mankind with somuch Authority and Power as should enable him to govern his own Family and Children as long as he lived without depending upon them for their consent and chopping Logick with them whethe● his Commands were reasonable or lawful or not And if a power of life and death was necessary as the murther of Abel by Cain shews it was whether Adam had no more share in that Power than any of his Children or Grand-children which is sufficient to shew you the absurdity of your Tenets That the Authority of Adam over his posterity was not absolute in its exercise as well as perpetual in its duration and this I think you cannot but admit because you have already acknowledged this Power of life and death to proceed from or to be granted by God to Adam and so consequently must have continued with him as long as he lived F. Well I perceive you find your Monarchy or absolute Dominion of Adam over Eve and all her Posterity as also over all the Creatures of the Earth not to be proved from any of these Places of Scripture you have brought for this extravagant Opinion and therefore you now urge upon me my own concession of this Supream and Absolute Authority of Life and Death which I do not deny but Adam might have exercised in some cases over his Wife and Children as long as they continued part of his Family But that he was not endued with this Prerogative as a Father but as a Head or Master of his own Family I think I have sufficiently proved and therefore need not repeat it And indeed your own instance of the murther of Abel by Cain which for all we can find past unpunish'd by Adam sufficienly proves That this Power of Life and Death over his Children or Grand children when once they were separated from his Family was not a necessary Prerogative of his Government or else that his Children and Grand-children when they have erected 〈◊〉 milies of their own had it as much from God as he and that from the same reason which you