Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	act_n	law_n	parliament_n	5,454	5	6.8345	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19328	The ungirding of the Scottish armour: or, An ansvver to the informations for defensive armes against the Kings Majestie which were drawn up at Edenburgh, by the common help and industrie of the three tables of the rigid covenanters of the nobility, barons, ministry, and burgesses, and ordained to be read out of pulpit by each minister, and pressed upon the people, to draw them to take up armes, to resist the Lords anointed, throughout the vvhole kingdome of Scotland. By Iohn Corbet, minister of Bonyl, one of the collegiate churches of the provostrie of Dunbartan.	Nicanor, Lysimachus, 1603-1641.	1639 (1639)	STC 5753; ESTC S119005	43,296	68

a Reall and Royall answer from the most gratious and most learned King Iames of Blessed memory in his Booke intituled Ius Liber a Monarchiae pa. 193. Nego ego tempore Coronationis inter regem subditos pactum ini●i c. I deny sayes he that in the time of the Coronation there is any such covenant betweene the King and his Subjects But this is manifest that at that time or at the beginning of his raigne sponte suá of his owne accord the King promiseth to discharge honestly and faithfully that charge which God hath committed and entrusted him with 2 Though it were granted that there were such a mutuall contract yet his Majesty demonstrates most clearely that it cannot helpe this cause If the King sayes hee shall not keepe his part of the Covenant who shall be judge between these parties there is none who hath but attained to a smal taste of the civill Law who knoweth not that the contract cannot be esteemed violated by the one partie nor the other absolved of his part of the contract before that it be made manifest by the cognition and Tryall of the ordinarie judge which of the parties hath departed from the Contract For this is the caution of every civill and municipiall Law otherwise what could hinder but that every man in his owne cause may be both Judge and partie then the which there can bee nothing thought more absurd Now in that contract between the King and his Subjects without all controuersie onely God is Iudge to whom alone the King is bound to give acount of his administration because in that oath at the Kings inauguration both the judgement and vengeance of his perfidious dealing is given onely to God Therefore since God alone is the judge between the parties and since the try all and vengeance onely doth belong to him it must necessarily follow that God must first pronouce the sentence against the King before the people can be thought free of their part of the Covenant of obedience and subjection And so there is no man so blind but he may see how unjustly you make your selfe judge in your owne cause and usurpe the place of God 3. From this your mutuall contract you must shew that his Majesty not only obligeth himselfe to performe his Kingly office but also giveth power to the people when they judge that he failes in his part to resist him by force of armes or else you are idle to alleadge such contract And if you will produce this I have no more to say but that the King hath denuded himselfe of Royall authority and devolved it into the peoples hands he onely in name and the people in effect being King and supreme judge in their owne cause and so the King must stand Vt magna nominis umbra But you would doe well to produce such a contract out of the Vtopia of your owne braine Covenanter From Acts of Parliament ratifying the three Estates Authority 10. Argument and from our owne ecclesiasticall and civill Historie Anticovenanter 1 There can be no Acts of Parliament but those the King sets downe with advice of his Estates 2 And can you shew any Act of Parliament for the lawfulnes of resisting Princes or can you shew that there is any Act of Parliament giving authority to the Estates to resist His Majesty to execute Iustice 4 Doe you attribute any authoritie to these which ye cal the three Estates without the King You must know that the King is the onely Law-giver the Parliament is but his extraordinarie Councell and the Estates thereof are his extraordinarie Counsellours by whose advice hee enacts Lawes Consider also there was no Law in the Kingdome of Scotland before the Kings of it for before Fergusius his dayes we were but like Salusticus Aborigenes Genus hominum agreste liberum atque solutum sine legibus sine imperio But when the first King did conquer this Land he and his Successours gave Lawes divided the whole Land which was their owne and distinguished the orders of men and did establish a politicall government This is clear by our Chronicles and Ex archivis regijs in quibus antiquum primaevum jus asservatur satis constat Regem esse Dominum omnium bonorum directum omnes subditos esse ejus vassallos qui latifundia sua ipsi dōino referant accepta sui nempé obsequij servitij praemia 4 If you attribute such incompatible power to these Estates Why did not you by vertue thereof conclude this warre You ought first to hold a Parliament and then conclude warre But pardon me you have done so Your three Tables is for Your three Estates which hath ordained this warre 5. Which are these three Estates now Episcopacie is thrust from you and over-ruling Elders are in their place who are busie Bishops in another mans Diocesse and have been too busie in my parish And shall they supply their place in Parilament As for your Ecclesiasticall and civill Historie if that be Knox Buchanans regni jus expresly condemned by Act of Parliament you may be ashamed to name them and ought to have covered their nakednesse if you had respected them You have published in print to the great disgrace of Knooe that he called kneeling at the Communion An Invention of the Divell and will you here make him a Doctor of Treason Covenanter From our Covenant lately sworne and subscribed 1. Argument binding us to defend the Kings Majesties person in defence of the true Religion and to defend the true Religion against all persons whatsoever Anticovenanter This is indeed Ilias malorum your Covenant binds you to it and to much more even to whatsoever shall seem good to the most part of you by cōmon consent were it never so hainous For that clause of your Covenant wherein you are obliged to whatsoever shall seeme meete by common consent is a great Ocean a blanke to be filled up with what you please it seemeth good to you already for the keeping of the first Table to break the second in working the works of unrighteousnesse As to with-hold from Ministers their Stipend as conducible for your ends to threaten them with big words to lay violent hands on them in the discharge of their calling in pulpit 〈◊〉 which I have suffered and which is more to contemne and disobey Supreme Authoritie yea to take up armes against it and if you by common consent shall thinke meete to remove that blocke of authoritie out of your way you are obliged to it by your Covenant for certainely this is very conducible to your ends For if your Calder wood be true Kings are enemies to Religion in his Altare Damascenum he affirmeth that Natura insitum est omnibus regibus odium in Christum And so King James of Blessed memorie is called by him Infestissimus ecclesiae hostis And your Master-man Cartwright layeth down a ground for this overthrow of Kings as you may reade in the

speech delivered at the Visitation of Downe and Conuer by the right reverend and most learned Bishop of Down for he holdeth that the Common-wealth is in the Church and not the Church in the Common-wealth and therefore as a wiseman will not frame his house to his hangings but his hangings to his house so the Church is not to bee fitted to the Common-wealth but the Common-wealth to the Church This gear goeth right for then as there is a paritie in the Church for so you will have it there must be also a parity in the State and so let Kings and Bishops goe together Thus King Iames knew full well the mysterie of your Religion whilst he made these convertible no King no Bishop no Bishop no King And in your third argument you tell that the people makes the Magistrate and you may be without him and by all appearance you have that I may use your owne words rid your selves of him too as an author and executioner of your woes and have set up a new sort of Government of 26. Governours yearly changeable for managing the affaires of the Kingdome consisting of Nobles Barrons and Burgesses which government will trouble all our Politicians to give it a name for it 's neither a Monarchie nor Aristocracie not Democracie nor Oligarchie c. And you will offend if we call it Anarchie When there was no King in Israel every man did what seemed good in his fight Covenanter It 's objected that although upon the former reasons it cannot be denyed but it must be lawfull for subjects to defend themselves by armes against the unjust invasion or oppression of the Magistrate yet the matters presently debated betwixt the King and his people are neither fundamentall in Religion nor of that importance that wee should enter into a bloudie warre which bringeth with it so many certaine evils and whereof the event is uncertain Wee answer 1. No matter of Religion hath so great weight in the mindes of worldly men that they will hazard their worldly Estates for any thing of that kind Gallio careth for none of these things Festus sayes that the Iewes had certaine questions against Paul of their owne superstition and of one Iesus which was dead whom Paul affirmeth to be alive if we receive him the Romanes will come and destroy our place and our Citie hath been a prevailing Maxime in policy 2 The greatest questions of Religion carrie sometimes a small shew witnesse the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Electinomen and Electi participium which are small in appearance but great in substance 3 There is a great mistaking about fundamentall points of Religion for if we call that fundamentall the knowledge whereof is necessarie for salvation a point may be fundamentall and necessarie to be knowne at one time or in one Kirk which at another time or in another Kirk is not thus necessarie for although the foundation it selfe bee necessarie for the edification of everie soule yet of things fundamentall and necessary to salvation wee must judge according to the different degrees and measure of Revelation There is also a mistaking about the smallest matters of Religion for obstinacie in resisting the light and following darkenesse rather than the knowne light in the smallest matters brings certaine condemnation Jt was audaciously enacted by the Councell of Constance Non obstante Christi institutione The Kirk of Scotland having from the certaine knowledge of the Vnlawfulnesse of Episcopall government were it of never so little moment abjured it diverse times and spued it out we must not returne to our vomit 4. Though the question were about the name of the Bishop to be retained in our Church as the crafty without any warrant give it out yet were it most impertinent for the question must be taken either of the naked name which no man is so silly to imagine since we acknowledge it to be common to all the Ministers of the Gospell or the question is about the place and office signified by the name which is to be a Pastor of Pastors without a particular flocke to have the authority of Ordination and jurisdiction to be a Lord of Session Parliament Councell Conuention and Exchequer which either the Bishop must be or else as they say themselves they cannot serve the Kings turne He is willingly blinded who sees not how materiall this is for besides the sinne in the office it selfe it bringeth with it the ruine of all religion by denuding the citie of her Walls and the Vineyard of her hedge It is either ignorance or deception to speake of Caveats for if the Office be of Divine institution Why should it be limited more then another office or further then the Word of God doth require Jt ought to bee rejected as a presumptuous usurpation upon the Kingdome of Christ in appointing chiefe Office-bearers in his house without warrant from him and an intollerable derogation to his full and perfect Wisedome as if hee had not accomplished his House with Offices and Office-bearers but left them to the determination of the Wisdome of men which not onely in the Mysterie of Godlinesse but in the matters of Ecclesiasticall Government is enmitie against the Wisdome of God We have already had experience of Caveats and now to hazzard shipwrack the second time by making such Pyrats againe to bee Pilots were desperate madnesse 5. But the Proclamation tels us there are other matters of difference then Episcopacie And lastly the question is now whether wee shall have a free nationall Kirk or any other Religion hereafter but such as is commanded by armes the onely mid and Argument now used for that which is intended and whether we shall any longer enjoy our Civill Liberty for if base slaves be advanced to Honour they will labour to please the corrupt humours of those who advance them these creatures must serve their maker Time was when the Pope was master and then they served him This time past they have beene agents for Poperie and as they have given lamentable experience that they too well know the way to Rome so may we looke no lesse then that being re-advanced they shall carrie both Prince and people home againe to their old master except wee stand fast by our Libertie wee can looke for nothing but miserable and perpetuall slavery Anticovenanter These Objections are forged in your own brain that you may the more easily answer them There is no matter now debated of small importance it 's neither Episcopacy nor the Service-Booke but of the Monarchie and Supreme Authoritie of his Maiesty So that upon your part there is no shadow of reason to take vp armes but to yeeld all due obedience as it becommeth and so farre as it concerneth his Majesty there is a necessity of armes for the recoverie of his authoritie And hee is not onely worldly minded but treasonably minded to take up armes against Authoritie under

rebellion into an humble submission to God and your King To my Brethren of the Presbyterio of DVNBARTAN Reverend Brethren I Have received your Summons the Tenor whereof is thus I Iames Thome Officer in that part constitute summon you M. Iohn Corbet Minister of Bonyl to compeer before the Presbyterie of Dunbartan the 16 day of April instant to heare and see your selfe further censured for your former absence from the Presbyterie and further contumacie and contempt to the Presbyterie and other points both of unsoundnesse of opinions and disobedience to the ordinance of the generall assemblie as is evident by your manifest adhering to and avowing of your declinator of the same in your last presumptuous and sedicious letter sent to the moderator and remanent Brethren of the said Presbyterie written and subscribed with your hand of the date the 1. of April with cortification if you continue in your contumacie and compeer not you shall be simpliciter deposed from the function of the Ministerie at a person altogether unworthy of the sanit But I pray you Brethren have me excused that I cannot compeer since I have received your summons out of due time and there is no passage between Scotland and Ireland because of the great stormes from your coasts which are so great Psal 55.6 8. that I wished the wings of a dove to stie away and be at rest and by Gods good helpe I have hastned my escape from the windie storme and tempest Psal 57.1 and come to Ireland where in the shadow of the Lords wings I shall make my refuge untill these calamittes be over-past Esa 33.17 20. and may see the King in his beautie and Ierusalem a quiet habitation For this is the day of the Lords vengeance Esay 34.8 and the yeare of recompences for the controversies of Zion In the meane time if this my Treatise can finde passage by any meanes and come to your hands it wil either justifie me or augment my fault the one if you be not prejudicated but the other if you be yet in your passions My Epistle which I desired you to put on record ad futuram rei memoriam as being able to make good what I have sayd doth contain these opinions following which you most unsoundly call unsound and my letter presumtuous and seditious My 1. unsound opinion is that I cal taking up of arms against the Lords Anointed a doctrin of unrighteousness My 2. unsound opinion is threefold that J said I take God to witnesse that I cannot subscribe your covenant except I would 1. sin against God 2. contemne Authority 3. and abjure my Christian Liberty For the 1. I cannot but sin against God if I keepe not the oath of God and obey the commandement of my King Eccles. 8.1 against whose Authoritie Commandement this covenant is subscribed 2 There must bee contempt of Authority and this is too milde a word let me call it by it's owne name Rebellion if I subscribe your covenant for these 5 Reasons 1 because all covenants are expresly discharged by Act of Parliament without his Majesties privie consent be obtained thereto 2 because this covenant is expresly forbid by his Majesties Proclamations 3 because this your covenant containeth many unlawfull things amongst which is that unlawfull Band against the Lords Anoynted 4 Though your covenant were good and lawfull yet except you prove that it 's absolutly necessary to be subscribed how dare any subscribe it being forbidden by authoritie without high contempt 5. Since I have subscribed the Kings Covenant I cannot subscribe yours without perjurie as is clear in this treatise And since you hindered your flocks to subscribe the Kings Covenant saying they would be perjured if they did it how can I subscribe both without perjurie The third point That by subscribing I must abjure my Christian libertie wherein I shall stand fast I pray you since your covenāt doth abjure things indifferent such as the Articles of Perth are c. as heads of Poperie Doe I not thus far abjure my Christian liberty if I subscrib My last unsound opinion is of your assemblie I was content shall still remain to passe from my protestation against your assemblie these 3 grounds being proved 1. That by acknowledging the authority of it I be not obliged to beleeve the lawfulnes of it's acts for it cals evill good and good evill 2. That it be proved by the laws of the kingdom that when the King dischargeth the assembly to sit it ought to refuse and sit still 3. That it be made good that when controversie is between the King and the assembly the assembly must be judge In my presumptuous and seditious letter I called these grounds absurd and altogether derogatory to Royall authority renting the Kings supremacy And I appeale the conscience of every one of you whether these my opinions be unsound and I for them judged unworthy of the Ministry which if you do your presbytery is the seat of violence Amos 6.3 to the which I will not come neare where when judgement should run downe as water and righteousnesse as a mighty streame Amos 5.24 you turn judgement into gall and the fruit of righteousnesse Amos 6.12 into Hemlock Howbeit all reformed Churches in Europe are condemning your course yet you say you are wise Ier. 8.8 and the Law of God is with you yet certainly except ye amend and change your opinions and waies Ier. 7.28 truth is perished and cut off from your mouths Ier. 23.14 5. This is the cause that from you the Prophets of Jerusalem wickednesse hath gone over all the land and the hand of evill doers is strengthened that none doth returne from his wickednesse Isa 33.15 but goe on with a revolting and rebellious heart it is good to walke righteously and speake uprightly which is a hard thing to doe with you when men must be over-rul'd with ignorant lay-Bishops to whose humor all must preach who remember not that one day in proper persons we must give account to God how we have taught our people to serve God and the King against whom too many of you incessantly stir up the people as against a Nero. I exhort you my brethren that when you are Evening and Morning in private with God in your prayers to remember and consider whether your course be good or evill which you continue in and if your conscience accuse you I pray God ye may be as earnest to ungird that armour as you have been in putting it on And may shake off Pusill animity having your faces strong against their faces Ezek 3.9 who are seditious and your foreheads strong against their foreheads not fearing them nor being dismaid at their looks though they be a rebellious house Thus at last becomming valiant for the truth Ier. 9.3 FINIS