A27046:117
A third defence of the cause of peace proving 1. the need of our…
A third defence of the cause of peace proving 1. the need of our concord, 2. the impossibility of it, on the terms of the present impositions against the accusations and storms of, viz., Mr. John Hinckley, a nameless impleader, a nameless reflector, or Speculum, &c., Mr. John Cheny's second accusation, Mr. Roger L'Strange, justice, &c., the Dialogue between the Pope and a fanatic, J. Varney's fanatic Prophecy / by Richard Baxter.A third defence of the cause of peace proving 1. the need of our concord, 2. the impossibility of it, on the terms of the present impositions against the accusations and storms of, viz., Mr. John Hinckley, a nameless impleader, a nameless reflector, or Speculum, &c., Mr. John Cheny's second accusation, Mr. Roger L'Strange, justice, &c., the Dialogue between the Pope and a fanatic, J. Varney's phanatic Prophesie / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Jacob Sampson, 1681
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Seeing you seem to justify Hooker here, who saith, That Laws they are not, which public Approbation hath not made so: (Which I believe of those Countries where such public Senates have part in the Legislation.) By this you must say, that in the Turks Dominions, or any the like, there are no Laws. But if you say, that the Original Grant of the Legislative Power to one is equivalent to an Approbation of his Laws: I maintain that Hooker's Principle is false, [That by the natural Law whereto God hath made all subject, the natural power of making Laws to command whole public Societies ⟨p. 76⟩of men belongeth, so properly to the same entire Societies, that for any Prince or Potentate of what kind soever upon earth, to exercise the same himself, and not either by express Commission immediately and personally received from God, or else by Authority derived at first from their Consent, upon whose persons they impose Laws, it is no better than mere Tyranny. How hard a task then do you put Kings upon to excuse themselves from Tyranny, when ever such Prelatists will accuse them of it. For 1. I hope you will not put them to prove [That they have their Power by an express Commission immediately and personally from God] (as Saul and David had) Shall we obey none but those that fanatically can pretend to a Revelation, or immediate personal Commission from Heaven. And 2. prove if you can, that the People have Regal power to use or to give. I grant that originally their Consent may be necessary to the designation of the Person or Family that shall receive it from God: But it is God that giveth the power, though the people choose the Person or Family; no man giveth that which he hath not: The People have not legal or governing Power, Ergo, they cannot give it. The Wife chooseth her Husband, but Gods Institution giveth him his power. If that it be certain (as Doctor Hammond hath proved against John Goodwin) that the Peoples consent doth give no power, but only let in the person that shall receive it from God, and not from them; how dare you thus conclude all Kings on earth to be but Tyrants, as Hooker plainly doth: For no King on Earth hath [an immediate personal Commission from Heaven] ⟨p. 77⟩And no King (that I know of) can receive power from the People that never had it to give: Ergo, you make all Kings to be no Kings but Tyrants; but falsely.
Seeing you seem to justifie Hooker here, who saith, That Laws they are not, which publick Approbation hath not made so: (Which I believe of those Countries where such publick Senates have part in the Legislation.) By this you must say, that in the Turks Dominions, or any the like, there are no Laws. But if you say, that the Original Grant of the Legislative Power to one is equivalent to an Approbation of his Laws: I maintain that Hooker's Principle is false, [That by the natural Law whereto God hath made all subject, the natural power of making Laws to command whole publick Societies