Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	nature_n	1,568	5	5.4669	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69679	Popery, or, The principles & positions approved by the Church of Rome (when really believ'd and practis'd) are very dangerous to all and to Protestant kings and supreme powers, more especially pernicious, and inconsistent with that loyalty, which (by the law of nature and scripture) is indispensably due to supreme powers, in a letter to a person of honor / by T. Ld Bishop of Lincoln.	Barlow, Thomas, 1607-1691.	1679 (1679)	Wing B840; ESTC R13608	86,020	134

what they did not approve 2. But although the Popish Positions and Principles we are speaking of are dangerous to all Supreme Powers even Roman Catholiques as appears by what is already said yet more especially to all Protestant Princes and People For 1. All Protestant Kings and Subjects being declared Heretiques are Excommunicated and solemnly Cursed by Pope Paul the Fourth about 120 years ago and that we may take notice of it it is lately referr'd into the Body of their Canon-Law Now this Excommunication contains many considerable particulars As 1. All Heretiques of what dignity soever Barons Earls Marquesses Dukes Kings and Emperors none excepted they are all involved in the same Curse and Anathema 2. Nor is it onely those Heretiques who then were in being but ALL also which AFTERWARDS SHOULD BE. So that our gracious King and his Protestant subjects now are as much under the Curse as Q. Elizabeth and her subjects were in the First of her Reign when that Bull was first publish'd 3. Nor was this Bull rashly made but after mature deliberation with the Cardinals and by their Counsel and unanimous consent It was it seems a premeditated and deliberate as well as an Impious Act they were about for impious it was and by all sober and impartial Judges ever will be thought so 4. The punishments which this Bull tyes upon Heretiques are Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and all other punishments which any Pope in any Papal Canon or Constitution howsoever made denounced against Heretiques all which Canons and Constitutions he approves confirms and will have PERPETUALLY observed 5. And for Kings and Emperors the same is for Barons Earls Marquisses and Dukes they are TOTALLY and FOR EVER DEPRIVED of their Kingdomes and Empires and made incapable ever to enjoy them The same Censure passeth upon Bishops Archbishops which were Heretiques then when the Curse was publish'd vel in posterum in Haeresin incident or for the future EVER SHOULD BE Heretiques Nor is this Constitution which denounceth this Curse temporary But CONSTITUTIO IN PERPETUUM VALITURA a Constitution and a Curse to be in force and effectual against Heretiques for ever Nor is there any need of any Legal Process to convict any person of Heresie before the Curse come upon him but EO IPSO ABSQUE ALIQUO JURIS VEL FACTI MINISTERIO they are the words of this impious Excommunication All Heretiques by being so without any accusation or legal conviction are actually under that curse So that our gracious King all his Protestant Nobility all Archbishops and Bishops Eorum etiam receptatores fautores c. and all who shall receive or any way favor them stand actually Excommunicated and Accursed And here I desire to know of our Papists who do as much as any pretend to Loyalty do they as good subjects should favor their King or do they not If not then they neither are nor can be good subjects If they do then they disobey their Supreme and Infallible Judges and are as well as we under the Excommunication and the Popes Curse and so no members of their so much and with so little reason magnify'd Roman Church 2. But lest this Excommunication and Curse might not prove so effectual as they desire to blast all Protestants which they make for they are not so the worst of all Heretiques the Curse to make Sure Work as they think and would have it is solemnly renewed every year in that famous and impious Bulla Coenae Domini read every year on Maundy-Thursday Wherein all Protestants are by name curs'd whether Princes or People We Excommunicate and Curse sayes the Pope in that Bull All Hussites Wickliffists Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists Hugonots c. And whosoever shall RECEIVE DEFEND or FAVOR them And here again it will concern our Roman Catholicks seriously to consider into what straits the ambition and unparallel'd pride of their Popes has brought them For if according to their duty they defend their King they are cursed at Rome And if they do not defend him then they do not perform that duty of Allegiance and Fidelity to their King to which by the Law of God and Nature they are indispensably bound and so will be according to their desert accused in Heaven And here It is a short Question which they are concern'd to Answer Whether they resolve to obey God or the Pope 3. But this is not all for after this Excommunication and Curse laid upon all Protestant Princes after their deposition and total deprivation of all their royal power and dignity and a perpetual incapacity brought upon them disabling them for ever to return to those lost rights another Curse is consequent and immediately follows such Excommunication Their Subjects are declared free from all Obligations of Loyalty and Fidelity due to such Princes while they stand Excommunicate This the Decretal of Pope Honorius the Third and 't is made Law by Pope Gregory the Ninth and approved and confirmed by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth tells us That while any Lord remains Excommunicate his SUBJECTS OWE HIM NO ALLEGIANCE or FIDELITY That 's the Title and then it follows in the Decretal speaking of a Count who was Excommunicate that the Pope commands those to whom he writes That they should declare to the Subjects of that Excommunicated Count that they were FULLY ABSOLVED FROM THEIR OATH OF FIDELITY while their Lord continued Excommunicate How dangerous this Doctrine may be to our Gracious King and all Protestant Princes who stand actually Excommunicated at Rome and how little trust they can repose in their Popish Subjects I need not tell you Seeing such subjects by their Authentique laws and the declared and definitive sentence of their supreme and Infallible Judge are assured that they owe no Allegiance or Fidelity to their Excommunicated Soveraigns 4. Nor is this all for there is at least in the judgment and belief of our Adversaries a far greater and more pernicious consequent and effect of their Excommunication and Curse of Protestant Princes For the mischiefs of their Excommunications hitherto mention'd are onely temporal though the greatest in that kind possible as loss of their Royal Power Livelyhood and Life it self But they say there is an other a Spiritual effect which concerns the Soul and is the greatest mischief and misery it is capable of For they say that Heretiques Protestants with them are declared such dying Excommunicate as all good Protestants do are eternally damn'd For 1. A very great Canonist of our own Nation while Popery unhappily prevailed here tells us that every Excommunicated person is a MEMBER OF THE DEVIL And for further proof of this he cites Gratian and the Canon-Law And a far greater Author than Lindewood or Gratian and in our dayes long after them more plainly tells us that Pope Gregory the Seventh did not onely depose the Emperor Henry the Fourth but Excommunicate

against the Apostle as to positive Law So that Papists may take as many Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy as their Prince shall please yet the Pope when he pleases can dispence with them and set them free from all obligation of fidelity And hence it evidently follows That a true Roman-Catholique who believes this Popish Power of dispensing with all Oaths may take a thousand Oaths of Allegiance and yet give no assurance of his Fidelity to his Prince seeing the Pope may upon their approv'd Principles when he pleases set them free from all such Obligations 4. But if all these ways of nulling the Obligations of Oaths of Allegiance fail yet the Popes Janizaries the Jesuites have a new way to prevent all such Obligations of Oaths without any Dispensations and that is by Equivocations rectifying Intentions and their Doctrine of Probabilities pernicious Errors destructive of Humane Society and so notoriously now known to the World that I neither shall nor need go about to prove them or shew the pernicious consequences of them Sure I am that by their Popish Principles no Papists in England are permitted to take the Oath of Allegiance to their King and then 't is easie to judge what good Subjects they are like to be For certainly what I may lawfully do that on a just and serious occasion I may swear to do If it be a duty and lawful for me to obey my Princes commands and pay him fidelity then certainly I may by Oath bind my self to the performance of it So all Men by the Law of Nature and Moral Veracity are bound to speak truth it is both lawful and a duty and therefore when in Judicature I am call'd to be a Witness I may and by the consent of all Nations ought to take an Oath to bind me and assure others that I will speak truth All Men as I said and all confess are bound by an indispensable Law of Nature to speak truth when there is a just occasion for it and yet in Judicature his testimony would not pass for good evidence who being required would not by Oath confirm the truth of it And therefore Princes have just reason to believe that those who will not take an Oath to be Loyal Subjects will never be so without it And indeed the reason why Princes may justly suspect the fidelity of their Popish Clergy who refuse the Oath of Allegiance will farther appear if we consider 2. That when and where Popery prevails all their Bishops swear absolute Allegiance and Fidelity to the Pope and therefore cannot swear it to their Prince too The Oath every Popish Bishop must take at his Consecration is this ... I. N. from this time forward will be FAITHFUL and OBEDIENT to my Lord the Pope and his Successors ..... THE COUNSELS with which they trust me I will not discover TO ANY MAN to the hurt of the Pope or his Successors ... I will assist them to retain and defend the Popedome and THE ROYALTIES of St. Peter against ALL MEN ..... I will carefully conserve defend and promote the rights honors priviledges and authority of the Pope I will not be in any Counsel Fact or Treaty in which any thing prejudicial to the persons rights or power of the Pope is contrived and if I shall know any such things treated of by ANY WHOMSOEVER I will to the utmost of my power hinder them and with all possible speed signifie them to the Pope .... I will to the UTMOST OF MY POWER observe the POPES COMMANDS and MAKE OTHERS observe them I will impugn and PERSECUTE HERETICKS and REBELS to my LORD THE POPE I will come to the Synod WHEN HE CALLS ME c. This and much more such stuff you have in that Oath Now this is evidently an Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity to the Pope Wherein to omit other things they swear 1. Never to discover the Popes Counsels how treasonable soever TO ANY MAN not the King 2. To defend the Popes ROYALTIES against ALL MEN the King not excepted 3. And if any thing be treated of prejudicial to the Pope BY ANY WHOMSOEVER the King not excepted they swear TO THE UTMOST OF THEIR POWER to oppose and hinder it Here is you see an Oath of absolute Allegiance to the Pope which cannot consist with that Homage and Allegiance or Fidelity which not only at present but anciently even in times of Popery all the Bishops of England did and solemnly swore to their King as a great Lawyer tells me And not long before him it it certain that Bishops at their Consecration took no Oath at all to the Pope but only promised him Canonical Obedience For in the old Ordo Romanus which as all agree was writ by Arnoldus Constantiensis Presbyter about the year 1060. The Metropolitan who consecrates askes the person to be consecrated thus Visne Beato Petro suaeque Ecclesiae ejusque VICARIO successoribus fidem subjectionem per omnia exhibere The Answer is Volo Then follows the promise of fidelity and subjection to his Metropolitan But with this difference To the Pope he promises ....... Fidem obedientiam per omnia as to the prime Patriarch But to the Metropolitan he only promises but swears to neither of them Fidem obedientiam exhibere But to let this pass It is manifest that whenever this Oath to the Pope began to be exacted of Bishops it has been in use ever since the time of Pope Gregory the IX who patch'd up and publish'd the Decretals In which you have the form of the Oath the Bishops then took to the Pope neither so long by far nor so bad as of later years has been required of all Bishops yet bad enough For when they swore obedience and fidelity absolutely to the Pope as now they do CONTRA OMNES HOMINES neither King nor Emperor excepted And we are told in some later Editions of their Canon-Law that now not onely all Bishops but whoever receives any dignity of the Pope take an Oath and swear Allegiance to him and is it possible that these persons who do and must Swear such absolute obedience and fidelity to the Pope can be faithful and loyal subjects to their Prince and indeed are not such Popish Principles both dangerous and especially to Protestant Princes pernicious and inconsistent with the Loyalty of Subjects or safety of Supreme Powers nor is this all there is more danger yet to Kings and Princes from their Popish Principles For 3. They Exempt all Ecclesiastiques from paying any Tax or Contribution to secular Princes without the Popes Leave This is the constant Doctrine of their Casuists their Canon-Law and Canonists Who tell us ........ Quod Laici Collectas imponentes Clericis sunt excommunicati cum suis fa●toribus All Laymen by their Law are Excommunicated if they lay any Tax upon the Clergy And again more fully we are told 1. That