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
A75429	An ansvver to the cities representation set forth by some ministers of the Gospel, within the province of London. Concerning the proceedings of the army. By a Presbyterian patriot, that hath covenanted to preserve the rights and priviledges of Parliaments, and the Kings Majesties person and authority; in the preservation, and defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdoms; and not otherwise. February 7. 1648. Imprimatur Gilbert Mabbot.		1649 (1649)	Wing A3399; Thomason E541_23; ESTC R205927	13,928	26

no necessity can justifie perjury or dispence with lawfull Oathes and for example instanceth the judgement which befell Saul and Israell for breach of Covenant with the Gibeonites But the question is if the Gibeonites had raised a first and second war or taken parts and shared in Councels with the Cavalerish Canaanites their enemies what then Saul and Israell would have done or might have done for all their Covenant But to spenke a little to the Position it selfe That no necessity can dispence with Lawfull Oathes not to insist upon the forementioned Act of the Israelites in saving Jonathan I answer two things 1. That no Oath binds when through want of foresight by time or accident it come to crosse a morrall duty as if that I am sworne to prove be against my owne or the publicks preservation and so a violation of the Lawes of nature nor if it prove an impediment to the proceed of justice and so prove a violation of the Lawes of Righteousnesse Nor if it prove though Lawfull in itselfe a wrong to another as that of Saul to Jonathan for so it is against the Law of Charity 2. That when the Oath becomes disputable then the intent of its giving and the occasion of its taking is to give light in the solution Now what was our intent in protesting and covenanting the preservation of the King Why to testifie to the World that it was for no sinister end nor to drive no designe that the Wars were undertaken no lack of Loyalty but meere necessity to preserve the people and their Liberties and therefore was the Wars prosecuted against the King notwithstanding the Protestation and Covenant for him which loyalty may be and is still the same in giving him up to justice the Impulse of necessity In regard of publike safety being the same wofull experience having made it manifest that he cannot be and the Kingdome safe nor the Covenant kept in the maine if not broken in the Branches and so of Parliament Privilidges and Authority as wee sweare not the Kings safety to their wrong so not their preservation to the peoples ruine and destruction but the intent of our swearing to defend them was that being joyntly asserted by the two Houses wee would maintaine them against the King that then was in Armes against them but when they come to be contested betwixt the two Houses and the question be to which wee are to adhere whether to the Commons affirmative or the Lords negative 1. Wee are not tyed to impossibilities wee cannot make good contradictions 2. Wee are to consider in our judgements and consciences which is most conducing to the ends for which those Priviledges were granted to wit the promotion of publique good and accordingly to cast the scales But 3. Caeteris paribus the judgement of the Commons is to be adhered to and preferred above the Lords they being more more concerned in the Kingdomes Liberties the peoples creature and not the Kings a Representative of Trustees and to be reduced againe into a private condition for though in the formality of Authority the Lords be above the Commons yet in the materiall and substantiall parts they are above the Lords The next thing insisted upon in this 15 Page after an exhortation to the Army to recede is some threats from Mr. Peters not unlike his discretion in case they persisted to stirre up the people to sedition For so it seemes say they our bewailing your sinnes before the Lord is interpreted It 's well you bewaile their sinnes I hope it is not with a spitefull but a spirituall sorrow for too many of your Parishioners bewaile their successes I hope in the Lord you doe not so and yet I perceive not a like spirit of jealousie in you over the sinnes of your owne people as over the Army for I call them sinnes because you doe so If your cause were good your resolution were commendable in that which followes when you say that if you must suffer yet in the discharge of your duties you will commit the keeping of your soules to the Lord as to a faithfull Creatour But I hope the Army will be as they have been as eminent for their meekenesse as their valour and convince their gainesayers by their owne long suffering and not your suffering and yet take heed of being the cause of other mens sufferings though you are carelesse of your owne either by your advice to the Army to recede who I hope will be twice advised before they take your counsell or by your instigations which if it should happen may more afflict you then any personall sufferings of your owne But I hope God will open your eyes and restraine the Armies hands I will end with a saying of Queene Elizabeth to her Secretary Walsingham when in a conspiracy against her but in part discovered he advised her for further evidence to delay the seizing on the Conspirators and to let the businesse lengthen out it selfe But she refused lest as she sayd in not taking heed of a danger when she might she should seeme more to tempt God then to hope in him Febr. 7. 1648. Imprimatur Gilbert Mabbot FINIS

to cry up the ends and decry the means how to suppresse tyranny and not Tyrants is a hard lesson The most excellent Mathematicians are to seeke when they goe to Sea Theory and Practise are two things one may better make a Vtopia then manage a Commonwealth Book learned men are apt to thinke it as easie for others to do as for them to think But Statesmen and Souldiers know better then Students what belongs to settlement and finde it not so easie to bring both ends together as these Divines imagine and therefore are forced to doe like Alexander cut the knot when they cannot unlose it for the peace and safety of the Kingdome must not alwayes hang in the briars It is to be hoped that though the House be pulled downe there will be provision made we shall not lye out of doors but a mean be found out betwixt Tyranny and Anarchy and more then meer private persons to bear rule The next thing insisted on is the obligation that lyes upon us by Oath and Covenant Pag. 8. To preserve the Rights and priviledges of Parliaments the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdome This last conditionall clause In preservation of Religion and Liberties is made to serve but as a cypher in the Covenant the Scots Commissioners were wont to leave it out the better to blinde the people and cite the preceding part without it These Divines do tant ' amount for though they cite them joyntly yet they urge the other abstractly and as superiour to this never telling us how these may be provided for in case the other should not be granted notwithstanding the apparent inconsistency of them both For the King in whom the present Government of Lords and secluded Members are involved they voting a settlement upon his non-concessions and refusing that of non-addresses and bringing him to justice thereby to put a period to delayes both in liberty and restraint hath twice put Religion and Liberties to such an hazard as had not God miraculously preserved them they had perished irrecoverably and we with them in lives and estates and no better can be expected from him justifying his wayes now at his Triall at last as at first labouring to confront and not to relent which is a mercy of God that he retains his nature without dissembling it lest the hypocrite should reigne and so the people be insnared These Oaths were never intended by maker or taker against the Laws and duty of God and Nature which indeed no oaths can violate The reason is rendred why we swore the preservation of his person to wit to expresse our Loyalty that those wars were not undertaken upon any rebellious or personall purposes but of necessity in respect of Religion and Liberty upon the point to be utterly subverted and that we were ready to lay downe Armes and receive him with those respects belonged to him whensoever it did appear that those might be secured which never did yet since those oaths were taken and therefore notwithstanding them the Parliament went on to fight him to the just hazard of his person and now judicially to proceed against him as not otherwise able to discharge that great trust that lyes upon them touching the wellfare of this and succeeding generations Page 9. They say They dare not by the violation of this oath provoke the wrath of God But put case your advice should be followed as to the King and Parliament priviledges dare you thereupon affirme the oath to be kept if Religion and Liberties should suffer and the Kingdome be undone thereby our Oath is not categoricall but hypotheticall so that if the keeping of the one part be the breaking of the other for so is our case then the question is which must be kept and which must be broken whether to satisfie you we should keep it on the Kings part or to satisfie our own reason and conscience we should keep it on the Commonwealths part and if in your sense it doe binde so strictly for the Kings preservation why did you suffer war to be made upon him without like advice wherein his person might have perished nay did perish as to the oath he running the like hazard with other men without difference or distinction so that rationally in the use of means though not actually his person was destroyed notwithstanding the Parliament it selfe had sworne to preserve him and no fault found In the same Page they dehort the Army from proceeding any further I will not say a Jesuit is in it and tell them they were once Honourable with them and others whilst they kept in Gods way and within their sphere there lay their fault indeed but they have eclipsed their own glory brought a cloud over all their excellencies It seems these Divine thinks the Country to be spirited towards the Army like the City Indeed the Malignants and Newters thinke as hardly of them for this as they can wish but the godly and sincere I meane those of no faction and without byasse who in conscience to God and with publicke spirits undertooke this cause for Religion Liberty and to bring Delinquents to condigne punishment doe blesse them in the Name of the Lord in this and for this as a deliverance equall to the first or second Warre and are not a little afflicted in spirit to see you to bee become the rejoycing of the Cavaliers and the lifter up of the heads of those prophane wretches in the day that God hath humbled them and glorified himself upon them God keep your own glory and the Gospell engaged in you from being eclipsed and your excellency from being beclouded in the wayes of contradiction that you are in neither helping the Lord nor strengthning them that doe Be more sensible of the City sins over-looke not their faults that are under you their defection and backsliding from publicke principles setting up the worst men in the best places pressing the Parliament with clamorous and menacing Petitions to destructive purposes imprisoning the whole House in the House till they had voted the King to London and threatning worse things if they came againe forcing away the Speaker and the faithfullest Members refusing to aid their honest Major Generall against the common Enemy though as it were at Townes end and scoffing those few that did barely looking on and worse at the siege of Colchester Why then beholdest thou the more that is in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beame that is in thine owne eye Are these and such like veniall in your owne Parishioners and mortall in the Army judge with righteous judgement The Ministers goe on in the same Paragraph and say We feare you are opening a doore to desperate and damnable Errours and Heresies Truely I doubt so too but never the more for suppressing the King and secluding the Members one thing I am confident of that it will not be a