Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	law_n	liberty_n	6,707	5	6.5575	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81909	Conscience eased: or, the main scruple which hath hitherto stuck most with conscionable men, against the taking of the Engagement removed. Where amongst other things is shewed, first, how farre the oath of allegiance, and the nationall League and Covenant are obligations; either in their legall intents unalterable or at this time no more binding and alterable. Secondly. How farre in a free people the subordinate officers of the state, have a right to judge of the proceedings of a king in that state. Thirdly, how Zedekia'es case in breaking his oath to the king of Babylon, and our case in making use of our freedome from the oath of allegiance, and supremacie to the king of England doe differ. / The author, John Dury.	Dury, John, 1596-1680.	1651 (1651)	Wing D2841; Thomason E625_4; ESTC R206464	25,629	40

intention was not subordinate unto the publique at all but onely to some private aime or though it was truly in his thought subordinate thereunto but not agreeable to the Rules and Principles of Christianity and equitie I say if he findes himself mistaken either way he is bound to rectifie his mistake and bring his sense in observing the same unto the proportion of the forenamed Rules and Principles of Christianity and naturall equitie If these Propositions are to you as to me they are The application of these grounds to the scruple in hād shewing generally that to come out of it wee must consider sound and without exception I suppose they may shew you a way to come out of the strait whereinto your conscience is concluded for if you apply them to the case in hand concerning this present engagement with respect to former engagements and do make all their intents according to the circumstances wherein they were begotten commensurable one to another by the rules and principles of Christianity and naturall equitie you will find either no cause at all to take up in your mind such contradictory intentions as you have imagined to bee therein or if the circumstances of affaires shall bee found such as will inforce by these rules and principles to allow of a change of intentions in the latter which was not in the fo●mer engagements then your spirit will be set at liberty from the strait wherein it is which proceeds only from the want of this due consideration as I conceive for when I put my selfe in your case which to give you an unpartiall advice I must do I find but two wayes to bee ridd of the scruple 1 1. That the same main intent is to be in all publique engagements wherein you are insnared the one is by looking upon the main intent and fundamentall duty which is the life and soule of all these engagements a thing unalterably one and the same in them all viz common safety and welfare to the prosecution of which by the law of God in right reason all publique engagements are at all times subordinate though the meanes and wayes diversly mentioned therein do varie The other is by looking upon the evedent emergencies 2 2. That the meanes are to be alterable by emergencies and the rules and principles of proceedings still the same which bring a change upon the meanes and wayes of prosecuting that intent for it is undeniable that as the Circumstances of Humane affaires alter so the Engagements to prosecute Common safety and welfare therein are alterable If then I can see that notwithstanding the changeablenesse of Emergencies and the varietie of meanes resulting from thence the same end is prosecuted by the same Rules and Principles I am still where I was and no more out of my way then if in a Voyage at Sea whiles I am steering the same course I have sometimes faire and sometimes foule weather or a winde sometimes on this sometimes on that side of the Ship which doth oblige the Marriners to nothing else but to trimme the Sails somewhat in another way and stand more or lesse carefully to their tackling Now to make some application of this to our Particularly that we should consider case I conceive whiles the King and Parliament did agree and the trust of Common safety was reposed in him by his observance of the Lawes The Oath of Allegiance like a faire gale in faire weather did carry us on peaceably towards the Haven of common safety but when he was judged to mannage his Trust unfaithfully as intending not to steare his course by Law but by will the Covenant first like a side-wind on the one hand came in with foule weather and then the Ingagement came in after it as a change of winde on the other side of the Ship both windes as it is naturall to all side-windes may serve to carry the Ship safely to her harbor if the Marriners trimme the Sailes well and the Passengers do not disturb them in their functions for if the same aim of common welfare is really intended by all three Ingagements though they put it under different expressions then you are not out of your way by taking any of them if contrary to the rules of Christianity you must put out your self out of it For that which in the Oath of Allegiance is required to be performed towards the jurisdictions annexed 1 1. That wherein all former engagements have one aime unto the Imperiall Crown of this Realme is termed in the Nationall Covenant the defence of the Kings Person and just Authority in the preservation of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdomes all which in this present Ingagement is summed up and expressed by truth and faithfulness to the Common-wealth of England The King whiles he was in place of Trust was lookt upon as the Center of all common interests and the Guardian of publique safety next unto the Lawes Legislative power for indeed he is no King de jure further then he agrees with these and is a living Law in all his deportments but when he made himself Lawes and would by power have set himself up instead of the 2 2. What the emergencie was which did alter our relation to the King Law the Trustees of the Nation to whom the Legislative and the Executive power doth primarily belong thought it necessary to expresse the forenamed Interests instrusted to his management and therefore by the Oath of Allegiance fixed upon his name more directly properly and immediately by the name of a Common-wealth the safety of which was mainly intended by the Oath of Allegiance although the words thereof mention our relation onely to the King If then when you took the Oath of Allegiance your intention was not so much to oblige your self to the welfare of the Nation in that way of settlement Or to that way of settlement in order to Common welfare as to the maintaining of a meere Royall greatnesse for it self or to the maintaining of the Kings person in his Royall 3 3. What the mistake was might bee at first in taking the oath of allegiance which now is to be rectified greatnesse without respect to Common welfare you did wholly mistake the true and Legall intent of your Oath and because that such an imagination had crept insensibly upon the spirits of many by whom the King thought he could have exalted himself to be absolute above the Nations liberties therefore the Parliaments of both Nations finding that the name of a King was made an Idoll to the prejudice of that for which it was entertained joyned in the Covenant to rectifie that mistake by determining that the true notion of Common welfare and safety did mainly and more neerely stand in the maietenance of Religion and Libertie with the Rights and priviledges of Parliament then in the having of a King And since the Covenant hath been made void as to the

according to the Rules and Principles of Naturall equitie and Christianity in their severall places as Emergencies doe require This matter which you did call Questionable but would not debate I have thus endeavoured to open somewhat largely because it is of use to undeceive us from the false Notion of Royall power which doth insensibly breed many scruples when it is taken up unawares without a due examination of the right which it hath to Supremacie in a Nation which is to be governed by Lawes and not by will of a Monarch But you have other matters in your discourse which you thought more worthy of a debate and you take them chiefly from three Passages of my considerations to shew that they are not satisfactory to resolve your present Scruple to these I shall also impart unto you my present thoughts In Pag. 6. I say that private men cannot be counted 2 2. Concerning the guilt of breach of covenant in private persons guilty of a breach of Covenant because there was a change of Government brought upon the State by others in a way to them unresistable in their places To this you answer As I was not guilty say you of what others did whether well or ill I leave it freely to the judgement of the Lord and their own conscience in a way unresistable as to me in my place so I cannot lawfully bind up my self from acting in my place in lawfull wayes for the accomplishment of my Oath and Covenant without guilt of sinne and despising the Oath of the Lord. To this I answer That the present Engagement if you look upon it as containing a perpetuall Duty to be true and faithfull to the Common-wealth is That the engagement brings no such guilt upon any so farre from binding you up from acting that which in your place is fitting for you to doe towards the accomplishment of your Oath and Covenant so farre as they are binding that it rather doth oblige you to act in your present place that which is the ground by which your Oath and Covenant did Legally bind you to a Duty and without which they could not at all be binding which in the beginning of this Discourse and elsewhere also I have shewed As for me I doe not think it lawfull to suffer my self to bee bound up by any Emergencies whatsoever or any Resolutions of mine own from the Intentions of performing known Duties Nor doe I think it lawfull for any Christian to think himself tied by any Oaths or Covenants whatsoever so as at any time he should be thereby bound up from the performance of any cleere and undeniable Duty towards God and Men in his place therefore I plainly assert that the Allegation of Oathes and Covenan●s which doth tend to take me off from an undoubted Duty is undoubredly undutifull for which cause when the Engagement was offered unto me I did set my self to look upon it not as you doe to see what sense it might beare contrary to any former Duty but to see what the Duty was which it did directly require and which I was bound at this time Rebus sic Stantibus or at all times to intend and having made a Declaration of my Sense in taking the Engagement to this effect and my Sense being accepted or not accepted against by those that were imposers thereof I thought it my Duty to rest there and not to trouble my self any further either with the Conjectures of future Contingencies as some doe or as others But that the prejudices which some entertain against the Authors of our change layeth the imputation of that guilt doe with jealousies over the intentions of my Rulers or with the Censures of miscarriages which others imagine to be in those over whom they are set to be Judges for although you leave it as you say freely to God to judge whether the present Change be well or ill brought about yet give me leave to tell you that I cannot perceive that your Spirit is free without prejudice against them in reference to the change for if you had no prejudicate thoughts that way you could not make such a construction of the engagement as you do relating to the change as it is opposite to a duty which you think lyes upon you by the tye of an Oath and Covenant Therefore if there bee a clear and perpetuall duty both in the former and latter Engagements in something wherein their senses agree and yet if you will not own that but take up that rather wherein thier senses may seeme to disagree I may conclude that you either mistake the true meaning of the oath and Covenant or that you understand not your tye at this time in observing the same how farre it is to bee extended for if it cannot bee extended to oblige you to neglect any present and seasonable Duty then you misapply your sense thereof to the present occasions so as to make it a snare unto your conscience which for your owne Peace sake you should endeavour to avoid But to that which I say in pag. 8. concerning 3 3. Concerning the tye of former engagememts that it is extinct the tye of the former Oathes that is extinct so farre as the things promised therein are become either impossible in themselves or in reference to our calling unlawfull to bee prosecuted you answer that you cannot apprehend your obligation to bee extinct towards the matter of the oath of Allegiance and covenant whiles you may possibly in lawfull wayes consistent with the publique welfare and liberties of the Common Wealth and agreable to your calling viz. by Petitioning humble Remonstrance to the Parliament or the like Peaceable course have an opportunity offered you to endeavour the restitution and preservation of the ancient rights and Privilegdes of Parliament and the Kings Authority in the preservation of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome And then to that which I say pag. 9. that it is not lawfull for any in a private calling to attend the restoring of that which by publique Authority hath been abolished you adde further by the way of answer that is true in a way of force and fraud but that it holds not as to wayes humble peaceable and consistent with publique welfare to which the Oath and Covenant immediately and undispensably extend To all which I shall answer that humane lawes Because humane lawes relare only to outward actions and not to secret ententions such as the Engagement is respect only mens outward actions and oblige us to bee true and faithfull therein to what wee declare but the inward purposes of the mind which occasionally may bee framed no lawes of man can regulate these are subject only to the generall rules of equitie which Gods law doth prescribe therefore if emergencies bee so circumstantiated as you suppose they may be to incline your thoughts to such a purpose as you speake of the rules of naturall equitie and Christianitie must

CONSCIENCE EASED OR The main Scruple which hath hitherto stuck most with conscionable Men against the taking of the Engagement removed Where amongst other things is shewed First How farre the Oath of Allegiance and the Nationall League and Covenant are Obligatins either in their legall inte●ts unalterable or at this time no more binding and alterable Secondly How farre in a free People the Subordinate Officers of the State have a right to judge of the Proceedings of a King in that State Thirdly How Zedekia'es case in breaking his Oath to the King of Babylon and our case in making use of our freedome from the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacie to the King of England doe differ The Author John Dury LONDON Printed for T. H. in Russell-street neere the Piazza of the Covent-Garden 1651. The Errata In page 1. line 10. for out soon after read but soon after p. 2. l. 22. for ease r. case p. 3. l. 1. for cause r. clause in the note for summoned r. summed p. 5. l. 1. for must r. most l. 8 for many intentions r. main intention is p. 6. line 22. for cease r. crosse in l. 27 for oppresse r. oppose p. 7. l. 6. for of r. to line 9. for that r. what P. 10. l. 21. for out your self r. not your self p. 11. l. 4. for lawes r. lawlesse p. 12. l. 24. for Salvus r. Salus p. 14. l. 14. for shew r. Sphere p. 16. l. 21. r. in our places p. 17. l. 16. for revealed r. resolved p. 20. l. 22. for have read make line the last for Representations r. Representatives p. 25 l. 16. for accepted r. I excepted l. 23. r. they are not set p. 28 l. 26. r. from under them p. 33. l. 2. for instructed r. intrusted p. 36. l. 14. for him r. us in the same line for towards the K. of Babylon r. towards our K with Zedekiahs condition and his Oath binding him thereunto towards the K. of Babylon line 16. for master r. matter l. 17. for master r. matter l. 35. for imposed r. implyed p. 4. l. 19. for oblige r. alledged CONSCIENCE EASED OR The main Scruple which hath hitherto stuck most with conscionable Men against the taking of the Engagement removed Loving Friend and Brother in Christ I Had occasion a few dayes agoe to be with your Son in Law which put me in mind of the discourses which you had with me when wee met last at his house whereat I found my selfe under a guilt of some neglect of duty towards you which now I am willing to confesse to deprecate and amend All that I have to say for my self is that soon after you were gone from hence I did indeed as I promised put my thoughts concerning your Scruple to Paper out soone after I went out of Town al this last Summer having bin variously distracted and several times in the country I could not atrend the ripening transcribing them to be imparted unto you once I did set upon it to doe it but was by a very pressing occasion taken off The occasion of this discourse againe and some time since I have thought upon my promise but I know not how I was willing to beleeve that happily you were satisfied and should not now need any suggestions which I could offer and thus I have protracted the discharge of this Duty till the other day I was struck with some remorse and found cause to be ashamed of my selfe that all this while I had not made good my promise made to you so long agoe nor done that which was befitting my love and friendship to you in Christ when as I did not certainly know how farre your spirit was now quieted which happily might lye as much under a doubt as ever but that which doth now more effectually waken me to this performance is that among all the objections against the Engagement which I have bin obliged to reflect upon since I saw you I doe not remember that the matter of your scruple hath bin so deepely pressed by any as by your selfe and two or three dayes agoe by a very honest and Godly Gentleman who is pinched just as and the scope there of which is to rrsolve the chiefe Scruple about the Engagement you were and brought your ease fully againe to my mind which I find when I lay it seriously to heart the deepest most inward weightiest Scruple of any that doth belong unto this businesse Therefore I shall now ar last rather thus late then never acquaint you with what I have to say unto it to cleere it I find by your Paper which I have that your Scruple which doth rise from two causes viz. 1. from the mis-interpretation of the Engagement doth rise from two things First from your interpretatiou of the words of the Engagement when you put the whole Emphasis in the latter clause thereof viz. As it is now established without a King und House of Lords which you conceive is the cause intended to be more directly obligatory then the fore-going viz. To be true and faithfull to the Common-wealth of England Secondly because you conceive that the sence of the 2. From the contradiction betweene it and the Oath of Allegiance Engagement as you understand it doth containe a direct contradiction to the true meaning of the Oath of Allegiance and of the Nationall Covenant for your difficultie lyes in this how to bring the intentions which you had in the former Engagements to a Righteous Consistencie with the intention which you conceive you ought to have in this Engagement all which difficultie you reduce to this practicall Syllogisme under which your conscience is concluded at present He that is under a lawfull Oath and Covenant of both are summoned up in one practicall Sylogisme the Lord may not lawfully doe any such thing as tendeth directly to take him off from acting in righteous wayes according to his Oath and Covenant But I am say you under a lawfull Oath and Covenant of the Lord to assist the jurisdictions annexed unto the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme in the preservation of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome and to endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament as they were at the taking of the Covenant and the entring into the present Engagement as the proper sence thereof is obvious to me tendeth directly to take me off for ever from acting even in righteous wayes according to this Oath and Covenant therefore I cannot lawfully enter thereinto Prov. 4. 27. To enlarge your spirit from this streight I conceive there is none other way but to cleere your apprehension from the mistakes wherein you are concerning The way to resolve the Scruple the intent of the Nationall Covenant and of the Oath of Allegiance compared with the true intent of the present Engagement for if it shal appeare that you run upon a cleere mistake concerning the true and righteous

Nations by reason of the hostilitie which hath been used between them the Supreme power of this Nation hath for it self as distinct from Scotland determined in reference to the emergencies sprung up since the making of the Covenant that the true notion of Common welfare and safety as to us doth now stand in the maintaining of the Common-wealth by it self immediately without a King and House of Lords For the having of a King and House of Lords were never by the rules of Christianity and naturall equitie understood otherwise to be usefull but in order to the Common-wealth If therefore at any time they wereby any taken up for themselves without a due subordination to the Common-wealth It is a cleare mistake of the true meaning of their constitution and by the principles of Naturall equitie it is in the power of the Trustees for the Common-wealth to rectifie it not is there any rule in Christianity which is not consonant unto this that Salvus populi is Suprema Lex therefore they who are intrusted with Authority and power to see this Law kept it according to the best of their understandings upon different emergencies they alter the meanes of procuring it and determine the way of prosecuting it I cannot see what should move the consciences of particular men to be offended at 4 4. And what obligation lyes them for so doing or what warrant they can have in Christianity or naturall equity to crosse them in upon private men to follow their rulers in the way of rectifying this mistake their proceedings If they prescribe nothing to those that are in subjection which is in it self impious or unlawfull for if they doe prescribe any such thing the Law of God is cleere but if nothing of this kind be enjoyned but onely that which is in its own nature alterable according to circumstances of which circumstances they by their places are made Judges and not I then I suppose it is undeniably cleere that my conscience ought not to be bound up so to any one particular circumstance of proceeding towards the publique safety as that I may not have the liberty upon the change of circumstances to follow them whom in alterable matters God hath made my Leaders for the publique good For if it belongs to their proper charge to judge when and where and what change is to be made in the State and how the publique good by Publique Resolutions is to be advanced therein and if I am bound to trust them with this and am not permitted by the law of God in Christianity or common equity to take upon me to be their judge or to rule them or to overrule the judgements of other men under them against their sense therein then my conscience is at libertie and under no guilt Although I follow their dictates in affaires which are changeable I must onely look to this that in my private station my course upon all emergencies whatsoever be made answerable to the rules of Christianity and equitie in the circumstances of mine own way whereof I am to bee a judge for my self and if in these circumstances I subordinate by these rules my proceedings to common safety I discharge the dutie of a true and faithfull Subject and need not to trouble my spirit further with higher matters for if I doe trouble my self with them I bring my self into a snare because I observe not the bounds wherein I am at libertie but goe beyond them If these grounds cannot be contradicted Rationally then I suppose you will see thereby that you The conclusion of the maine scruple need not to be concluded so as you think you are obliged to be unalterably under the precise termes of the former Ingagements in opposition to this because the true and Legall intent thereof is fully made out so farre as concernes the shew of your judicature in this last Ingagement Therefore when you say in your discourse to me that the Oath of Allegiance and the Nationall Covenant are such Sacred and everlasting Obligements The consequence inferred upon the maine scruple is proposed upon the consciences of these that are under them that they can never lawfully by enterring into any after-Ingagements bind up themselves from acting in good and lawfull wayes if the Lord be pleased to open any such in after times for the assisting of the jurisdictions formerly annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realme and for the preserving of the Rights of Parliament then acknowledged when the Covenant was taken as farre forth as the Imperiall jurisdictions and And then opened and resolved to shew Parliamentary Rights are Consistent with the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdome I say when you assert this you mean either to make every particular man a Judge of the restrictive clause how farre the Imperiall Jurisdictions and Parliamentary Rights are consistent with the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome or not If you will make every particular man a competent judge of Imperiall jurisdictions of Parliamentary Rights and of the consistency thereof in reference to all publique emergencies with the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdome you will be obliged to shew me some grounds for this your opinion and to make it appeare that I have erred in my fifth proposition which I suppose is not to be contradicted But if you will not make every private or particular man a publique Judge of those things yet will allow them to be determined upon all emergēt publique occasiōs by some body in a publique way then it will I suppose fall to the share of the Supreme powers for the time being to make this determination if it be their right upon all emergencies to Judge what consistencie there is between the true Religion the liberties of the Kingdome which to me are essentiall requisities of the common welfare and safetie of a christian common wealth with the imperiall Iurisdictions and the Parliamentary Rights then I suppose inferiours ought either to be concluded by their determination or not If not how can it be supposed to be their right what ground is there left upon such occasions to avoid confusion and to keepe a settlement of order and governments But if they ought to be concluded by their superiours in these things and if their superiours Judge it fit or necessary for common safety to alter the termes of these former publique engagements how can their obligements as to these things bee called everlasting and never alterable for if these that have a right to alter the same find cause so That all humane Constitutions being alterable no everlasting and unalterable obligement can be brought upon mens consciences thereby to do and do as they find cause and if none are to be Judges of the causes of that alteration but they themselves and if the rest are to bee concluded by them how can the obligement of the conscience bee made everlasting to a matter in