Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	allegiance_n	king_n	lord_n	1,610	5	4.1823	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80836	[Analēpsis anelēphthē] the fastning of St. Petrrs [sic] fetters, by seven links, or propositions. Or, The efficacy and extent of the Solemn League and Covenant asserted and vindicated, against the doubts and scruples of John Gauden's anonymous questionist. : St. Peters bonds not only loosed, but annihilated by Mr. John Russell, attested by John Gauden, D.D. the league illegal, falsly fathered on Dr. Daniel Featley: and the reasons of the University of Oxford for not taking (now pleaded to discharge the obligations of) the Solemn League and Covenant. / By Zech. Crofton ...	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6982; ESTC R171605	137,008	171

Oxford Reasons Exceptions to the 3d. Article of the Covenant Sectio quinta p. 12 13 14. only they stumble at those words relating to the defence and preservation of the Kings Majesty Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdom which they conceive to be a limitation of our absolute duty by a condition not allowable Though some endeavour to justifie these words as a condition put upon our duty by the power of Parliament who may limit the Prerogative of the King as well as extend it and think it will abide a Dispute I am not of their opinion for I do profess my self convinced that our allegiance and so the preservation of the Kings Person and Authority is an absolute duty founded in the Relation without Regard to the Quality Piety or Impiety of the Person who is bound also to His duty but not on the condition of the Subj cts duty both King and People owe a Reciprocal duty each to other and are bound to God to perform it but the duty of the one is no limiting condition to the other and therefore in all those contests for the Covenant in behalf of the King which not only I but other Ministers have undergone in the opposition of the late sinful Engagement Vid. The Exercitation concerning usurped powers Vindication of the Oath of Allegiance by the same Authour Lancashire and Cheshire Plea for non-subscribers to the late Engagement These words have been understood to be a predication of the capacity in which the Kingdom Parliament and People then were under the opposition of Malignants who divided the King from the People and so the meaning of it is thus We being in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdoms shall endeavour to preserve the Kings Majesties Person and Authority I wish therefore that it may be observed That the words fall into a plain parenthesis and the sentence is entire without them and they are fixed at the end of the Obligation which relates unto the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and liberties of the Subject as well as the preservation of the King and yet these cannot be limited and this sense is not only consonant to principles of right Reason and true Religion but also the Declaration of the Parliament in their then proceedings and the scope of this Covenant and this very Article which closeth with a most Solemn Appeal to the World to bear witness of our loyalty and that we have no thoughts to diminish His Majesties just power and greatnesse and I hope these serious Casuists will grant that where the words of an Oath seemingly doubtful may they must be understood in a good and just sense and then their exceptions to such a limitation in the Covenant do vanish with the Hypothesis on which they are built and inferred Unto the fourth Article of the Covenant these Masters and Scholars of Oxford do suggest something in Politicks which soundeth as strangely in my ears as their past Divinity indeed they determine it not but only desire it may be considered 1. Whether this Article lay not a necessity on the son to accuse his father and pursue him to destruction in case he should be an Incendiary Malignant or evil Instrument as is in this Article described which they conceive to be contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity 2. Whether the swearing this Article do not open a ready way to children and husbands that are sick of their fathers and w ves by appeaching them of Malignancy the letter to effectuate their unlawful intentions and designes To these I should have only desired it may be considered 1. Whether all penal Statutes in point of Treason and Felony open not as ready a way for children and husbands to be rid of their fathers and wives and the danger of concealment be not a very fair Apology for the same are they therefore contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity Have they never heard of such wickednesse know they not that there is an impossibility of fence against malicious accusations mischievously managed Must therefore these Statutes be voided as wicked and the like be prevented for time to come 2. Did not these learned men take the Oath of Allegiance and therein sware That they will to the best of their endeavour disclose and make known unto His Majesty His Heirs and Successors all Treasons and Trayterous Conspiracies which they should know or hear of to be against Him or any of Them May natural affection interdict this duty or are natural Relations exempt from this discovery may not mischievous men find open a ready way to appeal such as stand between them and their desires or did these Gentlemens learning and loyalty lead them to conclude the Oath of Allegiance is against Religion Nature and Humanity 3. May one time make contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity that kind of promise which at another time may be consistent therewithall These Gentlemen pleaded the protestation of the 5th of May 1641. as a bar to the swearing this Covenant and tell us often they sware that and therein they sware in this Form of words To my power and as far as lawfully I may I will oppose and by all good meanes endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by force practice counsels or conspiracies or otherwise do any thing to the contrary of any thing in this present protestation contained will they please to tell us whether these words be not as directly contrary to the fourth as the fore-going promise of this protestation was unto the first Article of this Covenant or doth not this Protestation lay as great necessity and give as fair an occasion for the son to accuse the Father and persue him to destruction and so appear as much against Religion Nature and Humanity as doth the Solemn League and Covenant 4. I should have prayed the judgment of these learned men on that Law prescribed by Moses to Israel in Deut. 13.6 7. 8 9 10. If thy brother the son of thy Mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying Let us go and serve other gods c. thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pity him neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceal him but thou shalt surely kill him thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people c. and all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no mere so wickedly did not this Law bind to the same act give the same occasion lay the same necessity which is laid by this Article of the Covenant And was it contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity Did these Gentlemen think we expect to be preferred by this notion of Policy or if they suggested this exception

the Act of taking the Covenant yet they be of no force at all to weaken or dissolve its bond Let me therefore say Sir to these who offer to your and my consideration their doubts and scruples against taking the Covenant and scatter abroad papers of this nature that they manifest their malice and profane enmity against the Covenant by subjecting it to vulgar scorn and laying open their own nakednesse as if it were the nakedness of the Covenant and run away railing against the Covenant as of no force or obligation as void and null on a meer Petitio principii base-begging the question and taking it for granted That what makes the act of swearing sinful makes the Oath void And supposing a weight which is very little in their exceptions to words method form order of the Covenant and the imposing it on the people which might have kept some men from swearing to be sufficient to discharge all that are sworn If they will indeed batter the Covenant they should pierce into the body of it and prove the matter of it unlawful and then will I also shake off the Covenant for ever Till then I answer in the Negative to my own enquiry in Saint Peters bonds abide pag. 13. to make the worst of it a tumultuous Assembly come before us with Sword and Scepter say they are a Parliament and have lawful constant and compleat Authority and therefore will put an Oath and Covenant upon us And silly inconsiderate we are not so well-skill'd in Politicks or acquainted with the Constitutions of our Country to detect their fallacy but think all Authority is within those walls and obedience must be yielded to what is there commanded and so we are beguiled into the Oath nor are we so hardy as to endure their violence but by fear are forced into the Covenant is it therefore void for we have opened our mouthes unto the Lord and cannot go back Sectio Tertia Proposition 3. The matter sworn in the Solemn League and Covenant is just and lawful to be maintained and pursued THat we may discover the lawfulness of the matter of this Covenant we must observe that in respect thereof it is partly Assertory and partly Promissory Assertory in the Preface of it viz. We Noblemen Barons The Assertory part of the Covenant Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the providence of God living under one King and being of one reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honour and happiness of the Kings Majesty and His Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included and calling to mind the treacherous plots conspiracies attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true religion and professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the reformation and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestation and Sufferings for preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of the people of God in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and Solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most High God do swear Though this Preface may seem and be said to be no part of the Covenant yet it being a Solemn profession of the grounds and reasons on which the Covenant was made and was declared in the very Act of swearing the Covenant by all that swore it we shall own it as a part thereof The Covenant is further assertory in the Conclusion viz. And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and His Sonne Jesus Christ as 't is manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We professe and declare before God and the world our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sin and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts and to walk worthy of Him in our lives which are the causes of other sinnes and transgressions so much abounding among us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in a real Reformation that the Lord may turn away His wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in truth and peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at the great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by His Holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Anti-christian tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the glory of God and enlargement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the peace and tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Common-Wealths The Covenant is promissory in the six Articles thereof Concerning the assertory part of the Covenant it must be noted That although it should have been unlawful because untrue in the grounds or reasons pretendedly inducing to it and so hypocritical and fallacious in the humility zeal and resolution in the Conclusion protested whereby the takers in deceiving others may have deceived their own souls and bound themselves under a certain expectation of the wrath of that God of truth and jealousie who hath been called as a Witness of such wickedness Falshood in the Preface bars not the obligation of the promise Yet this fallacy will not discharge the obligation of the Covenant For an Oath binds according to expression not the takers reserved intention And therefore Grotius telleth us That if a man in his assertory Oath do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swear falsly this will be no warrant for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for not