Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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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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THE King's Authority In DISPENSING with Ecclesiastical Laws Asserted and Vindicated By the late Reverend PHILIP NYE A Congregational Divine LONDON Printed for H. N. and Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII TO THE King's most Excellent Majesty JAMES By the Grace of God Of England Scotland France and Ireland KING Defender of the Faith c. May it please Your Majesty YOUR Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience is such an instance of the tender care You have of each Man that hath the happiness to be Your Subject that it as well exacts the Service of every one in particular as the Universal Applause Great Sir Having no better opportunity to express my Gratitude I lay at Your Royal Feet these Sheets wrote by my deceased Father occasioned by his late Majesty's Declaration May they be instrumental to promote the Designs of Your Princely Clemency May every Individual in Your Kingdoms enjoy their Consciences and Property May your Parliaments serve you in all those healthful Laws which may appease our Differences and secure our Peace so that not only the present Age but likewise Posterity may bless your Reign for introducing so compassionate an Indulgence These Blessings for you and us and that you may live long and happily in the pursuance of these merciful and noble Principles are the Prayers of Your Majesty's most obedient Subject HENRY NYE A DISCOURSE of Ecclesiastical Laws and Supremacy of the Kings of England in Dispensing with the Penalties of such Laws CHAP. I. The Case and State of the Question THE King's Power and Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Affairs may fall under a three-fold Consideration as First put forth by himself Secondly by Commission granted to Ecclesiastical Persons and exercised in those Courts we term Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Thirdly Or such Affairs are managed and ordered by him in Parliament and the Authority thereof The Form in which these Ecclesiastical Laws are expressed unto us is this Be it enacted by the King 's most excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same c. Meerly to advise and consent imply no more Authority in the establishment of Ecclesiastical Laws than what was put forth in the Convocation in their Canons but it being added by the Authority of the same this Authority thus mentioned may be construed either relating to the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament a Suffrage more than an Advice or bare Consent for it implieth when Bills are formed read debated and assented to by both Houses they were then stamped with some kind of Parliamentary Authority Or it is to be interpreted relating to King Lords and Commons and which is likely for Consultations of Parliament tho concluded by Vote yet become not formally a Law until his Majesty hath given his Royal Assent And in this sense Ecclesiastical Laws and Orders which are Enacted and Established by Statutes have as formal a Sanction being not only by Authority of the King but by Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament as other Laws wherein our Civil Interests are concerned namely a joint and not the single Power of either This being granted rather than needlesly to dispute those highest Interests and thence also inferred That as these Ecclesiastical Laws have their Rise Vigour and Strength so their Diminution and Abatement from conjunction of both Powers and are more fixed and stable than those Canons and Orders in Ecclesiastical Matters that have their Sanction from the King only To this I say briefly Altho Men may be Tenants in Common yet none can be joint Tenants with the King. These Powers are not equal the King hath the Supremacy and is thereby enabled to such Acts and Orderings about the Penalties of our Laws as are peculiar to the Crown and Dignity of a King as in Mitigating Exempting Dispensing Licensing Pardoning c. and all this more especially in Ecclesiastical Matters as by the following Discourse will appear SECT 1. This Power and Superiority exercised by the Kings of England in relation to the Penalties of such Penal Laws of both sorts shall be spoken to in these two Particulars I. That such an Authority and Supremacy is necessary and ought to be placed in some Hand II. That it is a Dignity which hath always been placed in the Kings and Queens of this Realm I. For the former In all Polities and Forms of Government as there is a Rule which is to be the Measure and Square to and by which all Mens Actions that live under that Polity are ordinarily to be conformed and judged so is there always some provision made for mitigating the Rigour of the Rule in Cases which may fall out and cannot be foreseen by the wisest Legislators and in such cases to exercise Summum jus would be Summa injuria therefore there is here not only a Power to judg as the case stands in the strict Letter of the Law but as there are Courts of Law so are there Chanceries Courts of Equity and Conscience wherein the Law and Rule it self is dispensed with and varied from and the Proceedings there are not according to the strict Terms of Law but secundum equum bonum as the Merit of the Case in it self may require 1. For Laws constituted for a whole Nation universally to be submitted to by Persons of what quality soever and how much soever different in their Conditions must needs in their strict execution bear harder upon some Men than others Parliaments in their Laws going by the Rule of Ad ea quae frequentius accidunt c. and better an inconvenient Mischief than an Inconvenience It is taken for granted that a general Law which hath its Good and Necessity in respect to the Bulk and Body of a People may prove unequal to particular Persons from the Circumstances of their present Condition In a Common Wealth the Ease and Benefit of each particular Person of what Degree or Condition soever is to be consulted but where Laws are executed in their full rigour and no Mercy or Indulgence to particular Persons in special and unusual Cases it will not be so God himself who knoweth every Man's Heart yet some of his Laws that are given in general to all would not prove so equal to each at all times without exemptions in particular Cases Hence we say Affirmative Precepts bind not ad semper to such Laws is that of Mark 2.26 in the Case of Shew-bread to be referred And the Pope who assumes to himself a possibility not to Err yet how doth his Republick abound in Courts for Faculties Dispensations Indulgences c. 2. It 's also to be considered there are no Societies of Men but may err in their Councils Laws made in one Parliament come to a Review and often to an Alteration yea Repeal in the next The Intervals of those great Councils are sometimes