Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	law_n	liberty_n	parliament_n	4,902	5	6.1958	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81910	Considerations concerning the present Engagement, whether it may lawfully be entered into; yea or no? / Written at the desire of a friend, by J.D. November 27. 1649. Imprimatur, Joseph Caryl.	Dury, John, 1596-1680.	1649 (1649)	Wing D2842; Thomason E584_12; ESTC R205387	21,796	26

CONSIDERATIONS Concerning the present ENGAGEMENT WHETHER It may lawfully be entered into YEA or NO Written at the desire of a friend by J. D. JOHN 3.21 He that doth the Truth comes to the light November 27. 1649. Imprimatur JOSEPH CARYL LONDON Printed by John Clowes for Richard Wodenoth at the Starre under St. Peters Church in Cornhill 1649. CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING The present Engagement SIR YOu have obliged me many wayes to serve in all that I can for your good but the matter of your speciall concernment wherewith you have acquainted me of late doth lead me of mine own accord by mine own inclination beyond all obligations to endeavour your satisfaction Seeing then your conscience is scrupled about the engagement which by the Parliament is offered to be taken and you say you cannot subscribe thereunto till three main doubts concerning the same be cleared I shall take them into serious consideration to shew you what I think of the weight thereof which indeed is of exceeding great moment For you say 1. That the Oath of Allegiance and the Nationall Covenant are still binding and contradictory to this present engagement 2. That the present Power by which the engagement is tendered is very doubtfull as a power unlawfully usurped to which usurpation you think you will be accessary if you take the Engagement 3. That the consequence of the Engagement seems to tend to an opposition against the lawfull Heir of the Crowne and the right constitution of the Parliaments whereunto you are pre-engaged and from which you cannot recede To satisfie your desire I shall lay before you as briefly as may be my sence thereof that you who have been alwaies wel-affected to the common cause of Liberty against the designs of Tyrany may be helped somewhat to discerne how lawfull or unlawfull how expedient or unexpedient it will be for you to take or not to take this Engagement for the publick good and the discharge of your duty towards the same First then concerning the Oath of Allegiance and the Nationall Covenant represent unto your self the true meaning thereof and so order your thoughts to do that which is answerable thereunto The Oath of Allegiance as you know did bind all men as Subjects in Law to be true and faithfull to the Kings Person to his Heirs and Successors as they were invested with the Authority which the Law did give them nor was it ever meant by the Parliament which Enacted the Oath of Allegiance that any should be absolutely bound to the King his Heirs as they were men to be true and faithful to their personal wils but only to them their wils as they had a Legall standing that is to the Authority conferred upon them by the consent of the People which was testified in under a Law whereunto the King and his Heirs were bound for the Kingdoms good by Oath So that the obligations of King and subjects are mutuall and must needs stand and fall together according as the condition by which they are begotten is kept or broken which is nothing else but the Law according to which he and his Subjects agree that he shall be their King and they shall be his Subjects For as you were sworn to the King so he was sworne to you as you were bound to be faithfull to him so he was bound to be faithfull to his trust nor is he your Liege further then he is faithfull thereunto If then he be found unfaithfull to his trust you are ipso facto absolved from your Allegiance unto him and if according to Law he receives not his Authority you are not in Law his Subject at all Now the just and naturall foundation of all Lawes is the reason of the Body of every Nation in their Parl. which hath the sole Right to propose chuse the Lawes by which they will be Ruled Whence it hath been as I suppose a perpetual custome in this Nation for the Commons at all times to aske and propose the making of Laws and for the Lords and King to give their consent thereunto the Lords as the Judges in cases of transgression and the King as the executer and publick Trustee for the administration of the common good and wealth thereby for in a Kingdom there is a Common-wealth as the intrinsicall substance of the Being thereof for which all things are to be done by King and Lords as the publick servants thereof and Ministers not Masters of State therein If the King then should set himselfe wilfully to be above this Reason of the Nation which is the onely Originall of the Law and refuse obstinatly the Lawes which they shall chuse to be setled he puts himself ipso facto out of the capacity of being a King any more unto them and if this can be made out to have been the way wherein the late King set himself and that it was the designe of the House of Lords to uphold and enable him to follow that way it is evident that so far as he did by that means actually un-King himself as to this Nation so far also they that assisted him in that design did un-Lord themselves in the State thereof and if this was the guilt of the house of Lords by other practises and proceedings more than by an indifferency and complyance with the Hamiltonian in vasion to help the King to such a Power I know not what to answer for them But as to the meaning of the oath of Allegiance as by the perpetuall consent of all ages it never was otherwise understood and by the third Article of the Nationall Covenant which is another branch of this doubt may be made manifest It is then undeniable that the third Article of that Nationall Covenant was never meant by those that made it or that took it to be opposite to the sence of the Oath of Allegiance but altogether agreeable thereunto What then the meaning of that Article is must needs also be the true sence of the Oath of Allegiance That Article then doth oblige you to preserve the Right and Priviledges of the Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdom in your Calling absolutely and without any limitation but as for the Kings Person and Authority it doth oblige you onely thereunto conditionally and with a limitation Namely in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of this Kingdom If then the King did not give to the Representatives of the Nation that assurance which was satisfactory and necessary that their Religion and Liberties should be preserved none but his Subjects were bound either by their Allegiance or Covenant to defend his Person and the Authority which was conferred upon him The Oath of Allegiance therefore was bottomed upon the Laws which the Representatives of the Nation in Parl. had chosen to be observed concerning their Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdom which he refractorily either casting off or seeming to yield unto in such a way that no trust

could be given him that he would keep what he yeilded unto the Parliament did actually lay him aside and voted that no more Addresses should be made unto him from which time forward he was no more an object of your Oath of Allegiance but to be lookt upon as a privat man and your Oath by which you were engaged to be true and faithfull to the Law by which the Religion and Liberty of the Kingdom was to be preserved did still remaine in force which if it may be the true substantiall sence of the present Engagement which you think is contradictory to this Oath and to the Nationall Covenant then you are to look well to it that you be not mistaken For to an indifferent eye it may be thought so far from being opposite to the true sence of either that it may be rather a confirmation of the ground for which both the Oath of Allegiance and the third Article of the Nationall Covenant was then binding For the ground of all these Obligations is nothing else but the welfare of the Common-wealth which was intrinsicall to that which was called the Kingdom to which you are bound by the Law of Nature and Nations to be true and faithfull for it self and to the King to the particular Laws whereof the King is a servant to keep them and see them kept and to the Liberties which by Law were limited lest they should be exorbitant and preserved lest they should be incroached upon you were bound for that Common-wealths sake which in the bosome of the Kingdome was then and is now without it exstant and in being by it self So then it may seeme that you are so far from being put by this Engagement upon any Declaration contradictory to your former Oaths that you are rather obliged thereby to stand firme to the same by the fundamentall Reason thereof as it is wrapt up in the common cause of Religion and of the Liberty of the Nation which notwithstanding any alterations which are fallen out or may fall out hereafter are to be constantly and unalterably preserved for this or that outward forme of Government is wholly accidentall and no waies essentiall to any Nation of the world and therefore is alterable in respect of formes as is most expedient for their exigent necessities but to be governed by Lawes and to have the use of the true Religion and of the Nationall Freedom is absolutly necessary and essentiall to the being of a Commonwealth It may bee conceived then that the intent of the Engagement is to this effect that seeing there is still a Nationall tye and Association remaining amongst the people of this land whereof the Common good ought to be procured truly and faithfully by all that belong thereunto therefore you are required to declare that the want of that accidentall forme of Government which stood in the having of a King and House of Lords shall not take you off from being willing to procure the same which I thinke you are bound in conscience as to intend so to declare and really to endeavour But you will press this further and say that in the third Article of the Covenant you are sworne to preserve the Rights Priviledges of the Parl. now say you amongst the Rights Priviledges of the Parl. this is one that therin should be a house of Lords distinct from the Commons and this another that all the Members of the Commons should sit and Vote freely for when you swore you meant a parliament so constituted and none other but now say you I am put upon a Declaration contrary to the intent of that part of my Oath because I am oblieged to be true and faithfull to the Common-wealth as it is without such a House and such Members of the Commons To examine this Scruple I shall grant materially all that you say First concerning your sense of the Rights and Priviledge of Parliament Secondly the present Parliament that it is not such as the former was without any alteration Thirdly concerning the intention which you say you had in that Part of your Oath that it cannot now be prosecuted to that effect whereunto you say you tooke it for if you tooke it to preserve those Rights of Parliament which you have mentioned it must be granted that such an intention cannot now be prosecuted by you in your privat calling But yet for all this which I have granted I must say that the taking of the present Engagement will not make you more guilty of the breach of this part of your Covenant than you are already for if you did when time and place was according to your calling what in you lay to prevent the breach of those priviledges you did observe your Covenant cannot be accused of the infringement thereof forwhen a fatall necessity of State in the course of Divine Justice with a power irresistable not only to men of privat but to all that were in publick vocations did bring about that Change upon the Parliament no particular mens engagements were considerable Therefore of that charge whether you attempted or attempted not to hinder it you cannot be counted guilty what ever the intent of your promise was in the Covenant because it was neither morally possible nor lawful to you in the way of your calling to hinder the cause or effect of that change and therefore to you it cannot be imputed as a breach of Covenant But you will here say true indeed I am not guilty but others in my opinion are But if I promise now to be true and faithfull to the Common-wealth as upon this breach of priviledge they have setled it then I confirme what they have done and so make my self accessary to their guilt and breach of Covenant Here I perceive is that which doth pinch you in the busines you thinke they that made the change broke the Covenant if you engage under this change as is desired you thinke you breake your Covenant also To this I shall say First that they who made the change will plead for themselves that they are not guilty of any breach of Covenant notwithstanding that change but this I shall leave to them to justifie as not being needfull for the resolving of your doubt at this time therefore in the second place as to your self I see not how it will appear that the consequence which you draw from the act of the Engagement to the breach of Covenant doth at all follow although those that made the change should be guilty as you think they are And then also this I am confident of to be able to let you see further that although you may think that the effect of this Engagement is materially contrary to some intention which you had in the third Article of the Covenant yet that by the act of the Engagement you are so far from breaking your Covenant that except you take it and observe it faithfully you will not onely materially but