A30570:140
The excellency of holy courage in evil times by Jeremiah Burroughs
The excellency of holy courage in evil times by Jeremiah Burroughs ; published by Thomas Goodwin ... [et al.]
London: printed by Peter Cole and Edward Cole, 1661
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.
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?
How can that be? It is true, God gives commission only to command things lawful, yet man may confer ⟨p. 23⟩so much power upon others, as they shall by virtue of that power is given to them by man, command that which is unlawful: I do not say rightly, but their power will work to it: Now if any by the power which is given to them by man, shall command that which is unlawful, though we should not actively obey, yet we must obey passively, or sly: we must not right our selves by way of mutiny, or rebellion. And my ground is this, because it is between governor and Subject, as it is between man and man.