Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	good_a	king_n	subject_n	2,457	5	6.6055	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85789	The nullity of the pretended-assembly at Saint Andrews & Dundee: wherein are contained, the representation for adjournment, the protestation & reasons therof. Together with a review and examination of the Vindication of the said p. assembly. Hereunto is subjoyned the solemn acknowledgment of sins, and engagement to duties, made and taken by the nobility, gentry, burroughs, ministry, and commonalty, in the year 1648. when the Covenant was renewed. With sundry other papers, related unto in the foresaid review.	Guthrie, James, 1612?-1661.; Wood, James, 1608-1664.	1652 (1652)	Wing G2263; Wing W3400; Thomason E688_13; ESTC R202246	280,404	351

their Records and good reason is there for such Protestations especially in Scotland because not only by Gods Word but also by our National Covenant solemn League and Covenant and solemn Acknowledgment all Interest of King or Parliament or Kingdom are subordinate to the Interest of Christ and all duties to men subordinate to our duty unto God In hoc foederato regno federati Dei according to the 2 Kings 11.17 and 2 Chron. 23.16 in both which the substance of that Covenant and our Covenant is that we should be Gods people and all other relations subserviant to that sit ergo gloria Christi salus Eclecsiae suprema Lex nostra and whensoever we see it in any hazard or contest and any thing in competition with it let us according to our calling at least protest that our Lord and our Mother may get right which will legaly preserve it to another Judgment and if they get wrong thereby they will have witness of it which is the least which we should do for Him though we suffer for it who hath done and suffered so much for us and who puts a great favor and honor upon any whom He calls to be witnesses to and for Him and where one hath a necessity to protest for his particular right or place in Parliament we see they do it ordinarily and in all Acts of Parliament the last is savo jure cujuslibet and why not far rather solvo jure Christi ac Ecclesiae Which Protestation by communicating of this Paper I do enter against the Ratification of the Paper given in by the Commission to the Parliament anent the confinement of the Ministers of Sterling for their preaching or of any other Paper of theirs prejudicial to the Covenant and Cause of Jesus Christ REASONS PROVING That the late Meeting at St. Andrews is not a Lawful Free GENERAL-ASSEMBLY Of the KIRK of SCOTLAND With ANSWERS to the OBjECTIONS on the contrary THat is not a lawfull free Generall Assembly the election of whose Commissioners is so prejudiced and pre-limited in the due liberty and freedom thereof that many Ministers of Presbyteries in a capacity of deserving to be chosen for their abilities and faithfulnesse are by the Presbyteries at the order and appointment of a superior Judicatory past by and set aside in the election and rendered incapable to be Members of the Assembly but the late meeting at St. Andrews was such Therefore c. The first Proposition albeit as we conceive unquestionable yet shall afterwards be alittle further spoken to The second is proved by Presbyteries proceeding according to the Letter and Act of the Commission of the former Assemblie sent unto them about the time of their choosing Commissioners appointing that such as after conference should remain unsatisfied with and continue to oppose the publick resolutions to be cited to the Generall Assembly which Act doth upon the matter include these Four things 1. A direction that Presbyteries should choose none to be Commissioners but such as did concur with the publick resolutions 2. An intimation of the Commissions mind that Dissenters from the publick resolutions were so farre from being in a capacity to be chosen Commissioners and to sit as Judges of the matter in the Gen. Assembly that they ought to be looked upon as guilty persons who were for their guiltinesse to be cited and judged 3. A Declaration that if they should be chosen they could not be admitted to sit upon the Bench as Judges but behoved to stand at the Barre and answer as rei 4. That if the Presbyteries should choose them they were to be esteemed disobedient and looked upon as persons having no respect to publick orders of the Kirk which things do cleerly enough prove that there was such a prelimiting of the election as is formerly spoken of Object The Commissioners of the General Assembly in the yeer 1648. did by a Letter written to the severall Presbyteries appoint such Ministers as refused to declare their judgement against the Engagement which was then carried on or did declare themselves satisfied there with to be refered by their severall Presbyteries to the General Assemblie which upon the matter is equivalent to a citation and yet was not that judged a pre-limitation of the freedom of the Assembly Answer To say nothing of the difference of a Reference and Citation neither yet of the difference of a Letter and an Act We desire these things to be considered in answer to what is objected 1. That in the yeer 1648. when a little before the election of Commissioners by the Presbyteries to the General Assembly it was moved by some in the Commission that some thing might be written to Presbyteries to chuse none but such as were against the engagement it was opposed as savouring away of pre-limitation and so only a Letter was written giving them an accompt of the Commissions proceeding and exhorting them to their duty and to chuse able and faithfull men 2. That that Letter which is mentioned in the objection was not written by the Commission as we remember untill most part if not all the elections in Presbyteries were past wil be cleered by the date thereof 3. That before the writing of that Letter the whole Kirks of Scotland almost in all the Presbyteries and Synods thereof had declared themselves unsatisfied in conscience with the Engaegment excepting a very few Ministers scatered here and there in Presbyteries which few were also known to have been either opposers of the work of God or neutrall and indefferent therein from the begining 4. That the resolutions of the Commission were then agreeable to the Covenant and Act and constitutions of former Generall Assemblies which things being put together make a vive difference betwixt that which was then done and that which the Commission hath now done because the Letter and Act of the Commission this year was previous to most part of the elections in Scotland and whilst many Presbytries were bearing testimony against their Resolutions and the most part of the godly of the Land remain unsatisfied therewith and many p●ecious able and faithful men in the Ministry who are known to have been straight and zealous in the work of God from the begin●ing were bearing record against it and whilst the Resolutions of the Commission were point-blank contrary to the Covenant and to the former Acts and Constitutions of this Kirk Objection It was not only in the power of the Commission to appoint those who did oppose th● publick Resolutions to be cited to the General Assembly but also to have Censured them because there is a Clause in their Commission which gives them power to Censure such as oppose them in their proceedings as if they opposed the Assembly it self and therefore seeing the Commission hath been so far from excluding that they have keeped themselves fair within the limits and bonds of that power given them by the Assembly it cannot be said That their Letter and Act doth

so doing did so far transgress the bounds of their Commission c. Ergo what the Author will here answer I do not well know But I would faine have him to tel a reason why the Commission dealt so sharply with many godly men as to issue such Declarations and Warnings against them and to appoint them to be censured and cited and to stir up the Civil Magistrate against them because of their opposing of Publick Resolutions whilest by his own acknowledgment there was as yet no determination of the Church in favours of these Resolutions or against the opposers of them I thought it had been his mind that the Commission could not censure any or ordain any to be censured for opposing Resolutions of their own not yet determined nor approven in a General Assembly and I would have him to give a reason why he accompts it against all equity that when the imputation of scandal against the Commissioners depends upon a particular hypothesis which at least is questionable and the very point of controversie betwixt them and their accusers as he calls them though unjustly because they as Members of the Assemblie were doing of that duty which is common and competent to every Member of the Assembly that is to object what they know of scandal against any other Member that the Assembly might be constituted of persons rightly qualified they should be holden to be under a presumption of scandal until that hypothesis be discussed and cleared and why it should be agreeable to equity and reason that upon such a particular hypothesis which at the least is questionable and the very point in controversie betwixt the Commission and many faithful men and some Synods and not a few Presbyteries in the Land should be holden not only to be under a presumption of scandal but also such as did deserve to be publickly declared against as Malignant and unfaithful and appointed to be censured and cited It seems that whilst the Author reasons thus about his hypothesis that what he gains one way he loseth another I see not how by his questionable hypothesis he can defend the equity of the Commissions proceedings in their Warnings Remonstrances and Acts against these who were unsatisfied with and did oppose the Publick Resolutions and when he shall do it I hope his own grounds shall help the Protesters to prove the equity and reason of removing Commissioners even upon supposal that it was but a questionable hypothesis 4. I desire to know of the Author by what power or in what capacity the Commission did look upon them to determine this questionable hypothesis as a Commission they could not do it because there is no clause in their Commission that gives them power or warrant to determine any point of Doctrine not formerly determined by the Church of Scotland but their Commission ties them in all things to walk according to former Determinations Acts and Constitutions of General Assemblies and I think he will not say that by vertue of any other power or capacity they either did it or could do it The Author hath by his own confession and ground brought the Commission a greater length in the exercise of their power then ever the Gen. Assembly did give to them or for any thing I know did mean to give unto them that is To determine points of Doctrine of great importance and consequence as to the security of Religion and of the Cause and Covenant not formerly determined by this Church in any of her Gen. Assemblies upon these Determinations to declare such as are unsatisfied with and do oppose the same not only to be censurable but also appoint them to be censured I thought if any thing had been the proper work of a Gen. Assembly this had been it But more directly to the point I do affirm that this Hypothesis the Publick Resolutions determined by the Commission of the General Assembly 1650. and issued to this Kirk in their Publick Warnings Letters Remonstrances c. do contain and involve a course of defection was at the time of the Protestation clearly determined in former General Assemblies because the General Assemblies of this Kirk had often before that time determined an association in Councel and Armes with the Malignant partie even in the ca●e of the defence of the Kingdom against forraign invasion to be sinful and unlawful as will appear to any who shall be pleased to read the Declarations Warnings and causes of Humiliations and Publick Papers of this Church these years past and particularly the Solemn Publick Confession of Sins and Engagement to Duties and the Declarations and Warnings issued by the General Assembly 1650 upon the English invading of this Land But these Resolution did involve such a Conjunction because they did involve a Conjunction with all the Subjects in the Land excepting these few included in the Exceptions contained in the Answer to the Quaere but amongst these was the very body and bulk of the Malignant party who are by these Resolutions allowed to be taken in and employed in the defence of the Kingdom without any repentance or forsaking of their malignant waies as a thing necessarily previous to the employing of them and without which they could not be employed These were the things which the Protesters alleadged and offered to verifie not only the general that the Commissioners had made defection from the Cause and Covenant but that these particular Resolutions concluded and carried on by them did involve a defection from the Cause and Covenant this I say they offered to instruct from former Acts of Assemblies speaking clearly and positively there anent which yet were refused to be heard by the Meeting until they first should constitute themselves in an Assembly including these Members against which the Exception was propounded a greater imputation upon their freedom then they will easily wipe off VINDICATION IT is known that the Belgick Remonstrance in the Protestation against the Synod of Dort alleadged a matter of Scandal against the most part of the Members thereof viz. That they had made a Schism and were Schismatick The point de jure in thesi That Schism was a foul scandal and such as made them unfit to sit in that Judicatory as Members I suppose was cleer and the Remonstrants brought many plausible Presumptions that they were guilty of it more plausible a great deal then this Writer alleadges against the late Commissioners they bring Particular instances of Facts as keeping separated Congregations and Presbyteries from the Remonstrant refusing to joyn in Prayers or Sacraments with them whereas our Writer alleadges nothing but Generals offence of many godly pregnant presumptions men undertaking to instruct c. But here was a Question in Hypothesi Whether it be a schism to keep separated Congregations and Presbytries from and to refuse to joyn in Prayers and Sacraments with men that had departed in their doctrin from such and such Articles of the Doctrin of that Reformed Kirk