The excellency of holy courage in evil times by Jeremiah Burroughs

5. But suppose Those that are limited: shall abuse their authority and go beyond it?

5. But suppose Those that are limitted: shall abuse their authority and go beyond it?

To that I answer. The persons that are in authority are to be reverenced, but their abuse may be two fold. When they command a thing that is unlawful: or when they do command a thing that is beyond their authority. As suppose a Lord should command a thing that is beyond his Lordly power and belongs to a Prince; if he doth command any thing that is beyond those limits where with he hath been limited from God by man, then it is not disobedience to authority to disobey, because authority doth not enjoin it: If it be believed, there must be power to confer authority, and this power must be from God, or man, and if God or man do not confer it, then they have no authority.

To that I answer. The persons that are in authority are to be reverenced, but their abuse may be two fold. When they command a thing that is unlawful: or when they do command a thing that is beyond their authority. As suppose a Lord should command a thing that is beyond his Lordly power and belongs to a Prince; if he doth command any thing that is beyond those limits where with he hath been limited from God by man, then it is not disobedience to authority to disobey, because authority doth not enjoine it: If it be beleeved, there must be power to confer authority, and this power must be from God, or man, and if God or man do not confer it, then they have no authority.

But suppose. That any that are in authority do command a thing that is unlawful to be done and yet they do not go beyond the limits of authority?