Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A52597
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The king's authority in dispensing with ecclesiastical laws, asserted and vindicated by the late Reverend Philip Nye ...; Lawfulnes of the oath of supremacy and power of the King in ecclesiastical affairs
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Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing N1495; ESTC R17198
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36,268
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70
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was said not to be of this World or to his Person or Offices that they contribute no more to the setling of Civil Rights and Interests Luke 12.13 or to Gospel-Weapons which being Spiritual and not Carnal have no Edg to cut off Mens Liberties Estates or Lives 2. The Nature of this Trust The Laws and Institutes by which these Ecclesiastical Matters are to be managed are appointed and established for Substance by the Wisdom and Authority of that one Law-giver Christ Jesus The Application of these Laws in respect of Circumstances for the well and comfortable enjoying Gospel-Ordinances is all that any Humane Wisdom hath to do in them the Trust whereof may be placed in the Hand of a wise and prudent Prince Again There is liberty of an after-Judgment to be made by him that is to practise in what-ever is of the Concerns of Religion commanded by Men. Thence such Laws require not such simple and peremptory Obedience if conformable to those Rules required in the Word Obedience thereunto is with respect to God as well as Man if otherwise that choice ought to be left to the Subject which the Apostle claimed Acts 5.29 Although Matters of Religion and the Concerns of it be great Things considered in themselves and accordingly is the Trust yet what of it falleth under the Hand of a Civil Power considered in it self is not so Because the greatness of this Trust sticks generally in Mens Minds especially when in the disposal thereof it depends upon the Will of one Man. To remove this or the like Stumbling-block we will suppose failings in the management of the Trust as great as rationally can be imagined 1. Suppose his Majesty should refuse either by Himself or Parliament to enjoin any thing of Ceremony or Circumstance about these Ceremonies and Externals the Worship and Service of God. Or 2. suppose he should dispense with all Injunctions and leave the People of God to their Liberty in the observance of them the Premisses last mentioned being considered there can be no great prejudice to the Common-Wealth or Civil Affairs thereby Distinctly we shall weigh each of these 1. For the former If the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered is but a small thing as we mentioned before and of such a nature as although at first 't were of Godly Intent and purposely devised yet at length turned to Vanity and Superstition and burdened Mens Consciences without cause c. as we our selves acknowledg See Preface to Common-Prayer Book And of the same condition are most of those Impositions which have proved burthensom to the Nation a long time and if so the not imposing of these things cannot be prejudicial to Church or State. Not to the Church if these Directions for Gospel-Worship in the external Circumstances of it were not reduced into Canons and Injunctions but left where they are to be taken up in practice according to the Light of the Age as are Gospel-Duties of great Consequence Those Scriptures by which States profess themselves to be guided in the forming of these Ecclesiastical Laws are intrusted also in the Hands of his Gospel-Ministers for their conduct and direction in ordering Gospel-Affairs who have Gifts and Assistances from Christ in such a measure and degree as cannot be expected in the ablest Statesman as such And the Ecclesiastical Laws are never so well ordered by Civil Powers as when they consult with and take advice and direction from the Ministers of the Gospel about them To advise new Rites and Ceremonies saith Bishop Bilson is not the Prince's Vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scriptures commend and as the Bishops and Pastors of the Place shall advise Of Suprem p. 226. 2. If there were no such severe Injunctions about the Forms and Modes of Gospel-Worship I speak not of such Duties of Religion in which Mens Natures are principled 1. The Nation could not hereby suffer in respect of its Civil Concerns but the Wealth and Trade c. much more prosperous The Things being small in themselves and become great only upon the account of their being injoined and the greatness of Penalties annexed become of great concernment to the State that is to the great prejudice thereof as hath been apparent in many Years sad experience What is it of moment to Common-Wealths for the quickning of Trade keeping up of Rents c. or any particular Man's Civil Concern that Men kneel or not at the Sacrament crossing or not crossing in Baptisin c. 2. For the other A dispensing with all Penalties annexed to Ecclesiastical Laws where these Penalties are removed yet these Laws remain as Counsels and Advertisements and being consulted by the Learned Clergy in their Synod and commended as useful in the Administration of Worship this is as much as ever was done by the Apostles when Churches were in their greatest purity who endeavoured not so much to establish an External Uniformity as to preserve Christian Liberty If it be said They had then no Christian Magistrates 1. We say The Kingdom of Christ must come into a Nation before it be Christian and if it be so defective in its first address for want of such a Magistrate and of the Means we put so great an Esteem upon for reducing a People how will the People ever become Christians And on the other side if the Gospel hath a sufficiency in it self without borrowing to subdue a Pagan Nation to Christianity much easier it is being such to preserve them orderly and regular Christians Paul having instructed and counselled left his People free and to the perswasion in their own hearts Rom. 14.5 One Man esteemeth one day above another another Man esteemeth every day alike let every Man be fully perswaded in his own mind That was but a Counsel or Advertisement In the Act for Conformity in 1. Eliz. given to the Arch-Bishop Bishops and other Ordinaries that they would endeavour to perform their Duties in the Execution of that Act it was indeed very solemn that is from the Queen's Majesty the Lords Temporal and all the Commons in the present Parliament and in God's Name and as they will answer before God for such Evils and Plagues as may be punishments for the neglect thereof There hath been no want of Obedience hereunto by the Bishops being fully perswaded in their Hearts hereof as their Duty of which if they had not been so perswaded the severest Penalties would or ought to have been in vain King James orders throughout the Kingdom that the Afternoon's Exercise each Lord's Day be spent in examining Children in their Catechism instead of Preaching This is only commended as the most convenient and laudable way of teaching in the Church of England and that such Preachers be most encouraged and approved of And how readily was this immediatly practised throughout the Nation and is continued in many places to this day In the Establishment of Uniformity 2 Edw. 6. a Liberty was left in
a Common-Wealth Common Justice the Proprieties of Men c. 1. To the first His Majesty or any of his Predecessors hath not at any time in any Statute or Law that concerns these Ecclesiastical Matters by any such special Words bound up himself but rather the contrary as in those two Acts wherein more especially our Affair lieth That for Uniformity where the dispensing with that Statute granted to Strangers by sole Prerogative-Authority is justified And the Act of 22 Car. 2. by the Proviso there inserted the Parliament seems to induce his Majesty's Assent in the recognizing of his Prerogative so expresly in that Act as if they spoke thus Though this Act be very Severe yet if it be found prejudicial or not to attain the End for which we judg such Severity to be requisite it is an Ecclesiastical Affair and your Majesty may when you please dispense and exempt Persons from it 2. There is nothing transacted in these Ecclesiastical Affairs by the Civil Magistrate and as depending on his Authority but such Matters as in the sense of our Law are things materially indifferent and therefore not Malum in se they do not bind the Conscience of the Subject in the nature of them considered in themselves Q. Eliz. Advertisements 1569 Preface the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self is but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking a common Order c. So that these Precepts concerning Ecclesiastical Matters oblige not in their own Nature as what is either Bonum or Malum in se but as prohibited or commanded 3. Civil Rights and Claims and in Temporal Things only are of the immediate and intrinsick Concern and Interest of all Republicks Dominium non fundatur in Gratiâ if the just claim of a Prince may not be interrupted upon the account he is of this or that Religion or Perswasion nor may a Subject be justly Banished Imprisoned Confiscated or Ruined upon the meer account of Religion or because his Conscience is not cast into the same Mould with the Prince or present Establishment SECT 3. QUEST III. Religion and the Worship and Service of God being the great Concernments of a Nation Is it not then to dispence with the Penalties in Ecclesiastical Laws too great a Trust to be reposed in any one Hand Answ 1. In what sense Religion is the Concern of a Civil Republick 2. The Nature of this Trust 1. The Moment or Weight of a Matter in our deliberation hath its proportion either as under an absolute or respective Consideration Wisdom is better than Riches in it self but not in relation to the support of present Life the Knowledg of God and Divine Things is better than to know the Virtue of Drugs and Plants but not so in respect to the study of Physick so Religion and the Worship of God is the chiefest and better part in it self considered but in its respective Consideration as to the faculty of a particular Person to a Community of Men for the advance of Civil Affairs There are other Qualifications and Inducements of greater consequence and more directly and immediatly tending to the being or well-being thereof That there be no Mistake in this great Concernment I further distinguish There cometh under the Notion of Religion the Holiness and Righteousness that is of the Moral Law Principles whereof are in all Mens Natures and attend in their Actings by a natural Conscience 2. gospel-Gospel-Duties directed and ordered by a Supernatural Light no Foot-steps or Principles hereof are found in us For the former Religion in that sence as the Knowledg of God Conscience of an Oath Justice and Righteousness in our Dealings c. are such Things wherein the Well-being of Common-Wealths is much concerned But Religion as it stands in the exerting Supernatural Principles and in Duties termed the Commandments of Christ as the other the Commandments of God John 15. as Faith Repentance Sacraments Discipline and the like Gospel-Ordinances In the Duties under these Heads considered and as distinct from Moral Duties there is little or nothing directly and immediately contributed by them to Mens Civil Interests further than where these Supernatural Vertues are planted in Mens Minds the Moral Duties of Piety and Honesty do more plentifully abound and are in exercise As those Morals do more immediatly concern the Republick so the Laws thereof are principally drawn forth out of them especially Second-Table Duties forming and moulding them into municipal Laws under Penalties and Incouragements greater or less as in the Wisdom of a State may conduce most to the Welfare thereof For these Gospel-Mysteries it 's otherwise for as they contribute little to us in our Civil Government otherwise than as before mentioned so is there little contributed by the Wisdom or Authority of any State advantagious to the Gospel but Protection or being a Defence upon this Glory Learned Bishop Bilson states it well Princes saith he command that which Christ the Sovereign Lord and Head of the Church commandeth which is all the Power we give to Princes Of Supremacy pag. 227. And in the Page before thus By Governors in Ecclesiastical Matters we do not mean Moderators Prescribers and Magistrates bearing the Sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first ordained and appointed But to return If Adam had stood all Common-Wealths would have been prosperous and flourishing and yet no Christ no Faith nor Repentance nor any Gospel-Worship known or practised And since the Fall you have had well-governed Common-Wealths of Turks and Heathens that never received Christ or Gospel-Worship It is with States as it is with particular Persons in converse another Man's Estate or Trade or Credit or any Civil Concern with whom I have to do is not prejudiced or bettered by my omission or practice of what is a meer Gospel-Duty If a Man I deal with be unjust lie steal c. my worldly Interest is prejudiced hereby but whether he repent for this exercise Faith on Christ for Forgiveness and humble himself I am neither a gainer nor loser hereby in the sense we speak of Now it is Gospel-Worship we profess in this Nation Gospel-Religion If the Duties themselves performed are of no greater consequence in respect to Persons with whom we converse or the Civil State where we live the Modes Forms and Ceremonies of such Worship cannot be of such moment or trust in the manage of them And let me add much less can there be any such special advantage to our State-Concernments in this or that particular external Form of Worship or Government that it should be retained by us with so much Zeal and Contention which evidently appears in this how prosperous and flourishing hath this Nation been in their Civil Concerns under Episcopacy set Liturgies Ceremonies c. and as great prosperity in other Christian Republicks where these have been altogether disallowed Nor is this any dishonour to the Gospel more than to the Kingdom of Christ when it