Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	parliament_n	sovereign_a	3,527	5	9.3552	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45124	The authority of magistrate about religion discussed in a rebuke to the preacher of a late book of Bishop Bramhalls, being a confutation of that mishapen tenent, of the magistrates authority over the conscience in the matters of religion, and better asserting of his authority ecclesiastical, by dividing aright between the use of his sword about religious affairs, and tenderness towards mens consciences : and also for vindication of the grateful receivers of His Majesties late gracious declaration, against his and others aspersions / by J.H.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1672 (1672)	Wing H3669; ESTC R20217	60,044	138

Sedition in the late War and ought to be destroyed The contest now saith the Prefacer as it relates to the real concernments of the Nation is which shall prevail Loyalty or Faction whether such Preachers should be permitted the liberty of making Proselytes when all that are seduced into their Communion are at the same time alienated from the Government and listed into a combination against it How miserably this tart Gentleman is out he will see himself in good time for we do all own Loyalty when we do not yet obey their impositions But who hath given license to the man if himself were not the Licenser to make any such saucy reflexion in print as this upon that which his Majesty with great wisdom hath thought fit to be done Let him produce any of those who come in and accept the Kings Grace that can be accused of the least disaffection to and much less of combination against his Government If he mean the Episcopal Church why are not these men as sagacious to combine us with them Would he have the King no wiser for his own and the Nations interest than they are for theirs It is pity this so necessary as well as Royal and kind act of the Kings to this Nation should so nettle the high flowen of these Conformists It is pity indeed but they should be offended because so many honest innocent persons who never did them any hurt in their lives and yet they prosecuted with such hate have escaped their talons For my part I bless God in my inward Chamber that he hath put in into the heart of his Majesty to shew this kindness to his people And that it may fret his and our Malignants the more I will tell them how much the rather I am pleased with it in regard of the Kings free constant universal recognizing of it especially to those that come to him with their humble thanks and submission I will record this one expression of his to the Ministers of Wilts Go thank them says he and I will assure you there shall never be any more persecution for conscience sake while I live These are words of an open honest candid clear single hearted Gentleman that we may trust as having nothing of the counterfeit in them in the Earth These are words that I think may serve us so long as by our prayers we can keep him and make those that envy us look black I do therefore set this up for my stone of remembrance and I will engrave my short inscription on it Hitherto For it is true there is something moreover that some of us would have but not of the King To let in any into the publick Vineyard and to make it signifie must be by an Act against pluralities with it His Majesty does see that Comprehension does draw deeper than his single will And who shall come come after the King that hath once talkt with him for knowledg in this matter Seeing therefore that by thee we enjoy much quietness and that very worthy deeds are done unto this Nation by thy providence we accept it always and in all places most noble Felix with all thankfulness But what does not the King assume an Authority in this Declaration more than he hath when he himself dispenses with an Act and Acts of Parliament and what say you to that I answer I will not take upon me to decide such a case as this is which belongs to the Lawyers but as a Divine so far as conscience is concerned and it is but a mans own conscience he goes by I will speak my opinion The King himself does tell us that the Law does give him such a supremacy as this in Ecclesiastical matters and that it is asserted in several Statutes Now what reason there is for any of us to believe contrary to his assertion unless we our selves were better lawyers than his Council He I know not I will take the hint from this man Elias dicat quando venerit We all know that the King hath power to dispense with some Laws for any Lawyer to undertake to lay down the precise critical note of difference between those Laws which he may suspend those he may not I believe will be hard whereas we that go only by Politicks in general think this most easie The Supream Law must over-rule all under it and in all human Laws salus Reipublicae is suprema lex It is certain when any Laws prove disadvantageous to the Community they themselves grow into disuse and when we have power to suspend our duty why the King as Executor of the Law may not suspend the penalty or may not proceed so far as this Declaration Elias dicat quando venerit The King I suppose may call the Clergy to make Ecclesiastical Constitutions and by his Authority alone without a Parliament ratifie or put a sanction on them whether then he may not do as much as he hath done for us in this gracious Indulgence Elias dicat quando venerit I have observed in reading the Statute-Book wherein the King's Supremacy is concern'd against the Pope That the Crown of England is called Imperial whether that be any thing or no to signifie his Authority to be absolute without his Parliament in matters Ecclesiastical though not in Civil I cannot tell but if it be Elias dicet quando venerit When in Henry the Eighth's time they took away the Supremacy from the Pope they gave the same to the King and if the Popes Authority in Ecclesiasticals was undoubtedly over the Parliament whether the Kings may not be so also Elias dicat quando venerit We know that the sole power of the Militia which is one Right of Majesty is declared to lye in the King in some late Acts when Legislation and the Purse belongs not to him without his Parliament and why he may not have such a Supremacy in Ecclesiasticals which he hath not in Civils as well as one of the Rights of Majesty and not others according to the temperature of our mixt State Elias dicat quando venerit Above all could we suppose the whole Nation convened and were to give their vote whether the King should have this power he hath exerted or whether it should lye in the power of this present Parliament and not in Him alone I believe the major vote would be for the King And when in the erecting of Commonwealths it is the consent of the people is that which is the conditio regnandi or causa sine qua non the Authority of self flows immediately from God upon that condition being put whether that Prince who is perswaded in his conscience he does nothing but that for which he hath the hearts good-wills of the generality as in this good deed of his Majesty in this Declaration he may not have a good conscience toward God however he be judged by men or the Sages of the Law I must leave that also till

constituted thereby parts of the Church National whereof he is Head no less then the Parish assemblies The matter is all one as if a Parish onely which was too big should be divided into two where I say there is Separation no Schism I will undertake to make it good that the Bishops Consecration of a Church is not necessary to the making the Society that Assembles therein to be a particular Church or part of the National but that the Kings Authority alone is enough for that Relation Nay I know not but the King upon the same account might constitute unmaintenanced Bishops over those particular Congregate Churches if he pleased as well as he hath maintained Bishops over those that have Livings if it were to any purpose at all and for his peoples edification Well now then if any Licensed person shall gather their Congregations in a way of opposition to the Parish Churches which he hath also establisht by denial of them to be true Churches I do account still that all such partaking thereby with the Novatian and the Donatist of old must come under the condemnation of the Fathers and Councels passed upon their error and that is that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we call Separation If any again shall gather a people in a way of strife pride vain-glory envy contention which are breaches of Christianity when the end of the Commandment is Charity I will account this also being sinfull it does make those conventions Schismatical But if a man shall come honestly and peaceably in the fear of God with prudence and innocency as becomes a Christian to set up one of these Meetings by vertue of the same Authority as the Parish Priest hath his I will desire any that can to shew me now where the sin is to be found If he can shew it me I will consent to him that he shall call all these Meetings Schismatical still upon condition that if he cannot he will pardon them henceforth who do go to these particular Churches by the Kings appointment now parts of the National with the same veneration and regard as to the Parish Congregations We will thank the late ingenuous Author who advised us to take heed that Toleration be not abused and we do shew wherein that care is to be taken that we may not abuse it but when he would have had the Non-Conformist under pretence of not abusing his liberty to take such a course only as not to use it at all though the generality of us do judge they should most glorifie God this way he deserved to be blamed who upon the conviction will perhaps as soon as any be ready to thank God with us if a door so effectual be opened then we may without offence and without Schism joyn our strength in a mutual love and concord for the carrying on the great work of mans Salvation throughout the Nation But are not these Presbyterians very Knaves who stood before on Christs Authority for their Preaching and now take Licenses of the King While their plea was the same with the Apostles that they ought to obey God rather then Man we could bear with them but now we shall never abide them more I pray Sirs good words As Charity always thinketh the best I see this all will still thinketh nothing but evil If it were the duty of the Non-Conformist Minister to Preach before his Majesties Declaration it must be his duty still and if when we have obtained such grace as this is the Presbyterian should not accept it when there is no more doubt of prejudicing our Ministry thereby then the Apostles did theirs when they had leave of the Masters of the Synagogues to say on who would have fallen on the whole party so foully for refractory and perverse fellows as these men It is true we look on Christs Commission to be enough for our Preaching when we judge it for Gods Glory but to Preach in such a place and in such circumstances is we count in the dispose of the Magistrate The Magistrate hath the power of external order and may forbid a man to Preach I say in such a place when he cannot forbid him to Preach or else our Pulpits were our own still for all the Act of Uniformity The Presbyterians take Licenses of the King in reference to the place of their Assemblies Nay this authority of the King in slating these places and Meetings for them does incorporate them as integral parts or particular fellow congregations with those of the Parochial constitution into the Church National united under him as the Supreme Head which is a matter of that great weight and consequence as we have not yet looked about us to bless God enough for it Hereby can the Non-Conformist make his publick acknowledgement which he would have of the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiasticals no less then the Bishop and yet his conscience not be burdened with the Diocesan Truely I know not but his Majesty really hath discerned more for the hitting the business of coagulating his whole people into one Ecclesiastical National society or body under him hereby then any of us were a warre of who could not see before any reason for such proceedings as are taken in this Declaration which we shall approve henceforth with a great deal of satisfaction But did not these men in the late Wars take part with the Parliament and now they submit to the Kings Declaration against an Act of Parliament Be it so The Act of Parliament is against the command of God The King permits what God bids Who should the subject obey but God and the King As for the War I perceive it will still be ript up though against the Act of Oblivion It was not upon the account of Religion it must be first known that it will be owned In the cause of Religion if we be persecuted we may fly Christ allows us but we may not resist The case then I account a singular case It was upon the Militia they began the old King said The King and Parliament was divided that is certain and the question was where the Authority or the most of it did lye some thought in the one some in the other and so were engaged I will speak now once for all that the mouths of these men may be stopped with reason for nothing else will do it There are some have thought thus The Government of this Nation is mixt A mixt Government is where the supreme Authority is not placed purely in the People or the Nobles or the Monarch but mixtly in them all The supreame Legislative power in this Nation lies in the King and his two Houses joyntly not severally as one Corporation says Judge Jenkins or to speak surely as one Parliament The Parliament which is to be one in Law being divided the constitution is broken that being broken the Government is dissolved and the power returned at that season to the people The people being at liberty

doing or does a thing which is evil or destructive to the Government and common good though it be according to his own Conscience or judgment but what he ought to do I think the Magistrate may punish him with comfort and may restrain him more comfortably from what he would do but I do not think he may punish him with any such content for not doing that which yet were good so long as it is against his Conscience My reason I give is this Because in the one the man does what God would not have him in the other he does what God would have God would not have him do evil because of his erroneous Conscience but that he should lay down his error and do good but God will have every man so regard his Conscience though erroneous that he must not do any thing against it for any fear or advantage in the world Again as for what cause I will ask For what end could you punish him Is it for the most ordinary end of punishment the parties amendment that is the making the man do what he now leaves undone I answer Then your distinction here becomes void when you say you would not force him to any thing against his Conscience but you can punish him for the Magistrates forcing a man to any thing against his Conscience is to punish him for not doing the thing to make him do it Or is it only for example sake to others If so Then must these others be either such as the thing is also against their Consciences and then I say you are no more to punish one man to enforce others thereby to do against their Consciences than to force himself to act against it Or these others must be such as it is not against their Consciences though against his and in such a case if their be indeed a punishment can be inflicted so as will not be inductive either to the man himself or others to do the thing which is against their Consciences but will only induce others who can do it according to theirs to the doing I am not careful though it be executed upon any yet cannot say steadily that you may execute it because the very nature of punishment is such as unless it be for a fault and that wich deserves it there is no other end without this can justifie the infliction of it You see at last still unto what all will be reduced Things are or things are not against mens Consciences And there is a forcing positively or negatively Understand these terms as I have unfolded my self and so judg of the weight or insufficiency of my Undertaking SECT 14. I remember in the life of Josephus when some of the Trachonites came in for rescue to the Jews where himself was Governor and the Jews would thereupon constrain them to be circumcised or else let them not abide with them he would not permit that injurious zeal alledging That every man ought according to his own mind and not by mans compulsion to serve God In our English story to suit this when Ethelbert the first Prince that received Christianity of the Sexon Heptarchy was converted by Austine sent hither by Gregory and many thereupon came into the Church it is said He specially embraced those that came in but compelled none for he had learned that the faith and service of Christ ought to be voluntary and not of constraint It helpeth much to establish the publick Tranquility says the Imperial Edict of Constantine and Licinius for every man to have liberty to use and choose what kind of worshipping himself pleases And for that intent is this done of us to have no man enforced to one Religion more than another A Prince who would draw his Subjects divided into Sects and Factions to his Religion should not in my opinion use force says Bodin Which he enhaunses more particularly from the example of Theodosius toward the Arrians John Barclay not William that wrote adversus Monarchomachos hath a Discourse on purpose to this effect about the Calvinists as it is thought under the name of the Hyperephanians in one Chapter of his Argenis It was observed by the Popes Councel says Guiccardine that the prosecution of Luther since it was not accompanied with their own Reformation did encrease his Reputation and that it had been a less evil to dissemble the knowledg of such a matter which would perhaps have dissolved of its self than by blowing at the brand to make the fire burn the more There may be some Notes conferred with this out of Davilah upon the deliberations of the Politick Katharine Regent of France about the Pacification in her Son Henry the Thirds time I will rest in one after Henry the Fourth succeeded That great Prince thought good to declare himself Catholick but gets that same Edict for Liberty to the Hugonats to be renewed and passed the Parliament of Paris By which means endeavouring to remove suspition from their minds and confirming them by good usage together with some gifts and promises to the chief Heads he insensibly took away says the Historian the pulse and strength of that Party so that those that are versed in the Kingdom believe that a few years of such sweet poyson if he had not been disabled in this course through want of money would have extinguished that Faction which so many years of desperate War had not with the effusion of so much blood been able to weaken Violent courses says my Lord Cook are like hot waters that may do good in an extreamity but the use of them doth spoil the stomack and it will require them stronger and stronger and by little and little they will lessen the operation They that love this Commonwealth says Judg Jenkins will use means together with the restitution of the King to procure an Act of Oblivion and tender Consciences a just and reasonable satisfaction else we must all perish first or last I will crown the rest of these Testimonies with that experienced advice of our late King to his Son our now consenting Soveraign Beware of exasperating any Faction by the crosness and asperity of some mens passions humours or private opinions employed by you grounded only upon the differences in lesser matters which are but the skirts and suburbs of Religion wherein a charitable Connivance and Christian Toleration often dissipates their strength whom a rougher opposition fortifies and puts their despised and oppressed party into such combinations as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their Persecutors who are commonly assisted by that vulgar commiseration which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of Religion I set down these passages which my self occasionally have noted I may add many more out of others It is not like in the three first Centuries of the Church that any thing is to be found in the Christian Writings for the use of the Sword in Religion while themselves

many men of sober spirits thought themselves bound to go that way which would most tend to the advancement of Religion And this is the true state of their cause which though I my self in my judgement for my university Oaths sake was otherwise inclined I do humbly offer in Justice for their Apology Onely I must add this that the occasion which happened once that was the Kings own deposing his power of dissolving the Parliament at that time being like never to be again there is no hurt at all in it If after this these men will yet press us further I will return that the state of the case being quite altered the King brought in again and with universal consent into the old constitution here is a wonderful kind of thing fallen out that the Fanatick or Anti-Episcopial party of the Nation are really turning to be the Royalist who are for Prorogative Supremacy in Ecclesiasticals when the Bishops party who have made it hitherto a proverb that without them no King are the men bandy against it for the maintenance of these Acts of Parliament And thus much shall suffice as to the first thing offered by the Prefacer about Popery and the Kings Declaration Sect. 3. I come then now to the other thing that requires our notice which is a matter indeed of great moment and therefore intended by me for the main task of my present engagement and that is his asserting an authority in the Magistrate over the conscience of his Subjects in matters of Religion So he hath expressed it and made it the subject of two other Books and insists upon it still in this Preface I am willing therefore to enter into a dissertation with him about the point for it will be worthy not only of our two labours but of another learned pious studious and worthy Knight who was the Author of the Papers entituled Liberty of Conscience and whom I shall purposely engage with the Prefacer that if it be possible we may all three together will we nill we beat out the right determination of the business As for the Prefacer I must needs say that I take him to be a man of fewer years and quicker parts and of a more flourishing Pen than to be fit at least of himself for the undertaking any such point as this is For either a man must be of a patient complexion that can read over all that is written by others about the subject and then give us the Compendium according to his judgment or he must be able by fixing long upon one thing and inculcating the thoughts of it upon the mind to frame his own notion in such a fore-casting of it through the whole train of its consequences to the end as to make it hold together which is not the work unius Diei or unius liturae to use the expression of the Bishop offer'd to my hand I know that the happiness of the first conceit does much but it is not the nimbleness of the Pen and a torrent of words does the rest Nay rather it is this volubility of the tongue which is Truth 's great Harlot while the handsomness of the expression will be ready still to allure away the judgment from that closer attendance to the dry notion that Controversal points or Cases of Conscience do require which should not therefore be writ in the style of this age For the language particularly of this person I cannot but compare methinks to a like present fashion in the Garments of Women the superfluity of whose dimensions may perhaps make their bodies look more stately but it will trip their heels up besides the cumbersomness if they take not heed to themselves or some other come after to keep them from falling Well! the business this notable eloquent Gentleman hath to do in this Preface is for ought I see really only to abuse the Non-Conformists and so fasten upon them some charge if he could tell what against whom in reference to their loyalty or duty to the Government But the charge being founded at the bottom only upon his first Book or the cause he hath there managed the best way to answer all his parti●ulars wil be to let them quite alone without raking the Dunghill up and to touch only in general upon the foundation There are two passages then I will cite out of this Preface for there are no more I count of that nature which I make my concern All their exceptions relate either to the Power in it self or to the matters of the Command The first are directly levell'd against the very being of Authority and Magistrates of what kind soever according to their general pretences must not dare to put any restraint upon their subjects consciences lest they invade the Divine Prerogative overthrow the fundamental liberties of human nature and undo honest men for their loyalty to God and their Religion Now if this right be claimed without limitation then the consequence is unavoidable That subjects may when ever they please cross with the authority of their Governours upon any pretence that can wear the name of Religion But this being grosly absurd the necessity of a Soveraign power in matters of Religion is granted and all Arguments that prove it in general necessary to Peace and Government are allowed or at least are not contradicted for what ever admits an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction howsoever bounded and limited admits it and that is enough to the first assertion of a supream Authority over the Conscience in matters of Religion Again after eighteen pages farther And they are exhorted above all things to keep their Consciences i.e. themselves free from the usurpation of all human Laws that is in effect they are forbidden to make any conscience of subjection to Princes for it is only Conscience that is capable of the obligation of Laws so that if they be exempt the whole man is at liberty By these two passages it does appear to me that this Ecclesiastical Politician from the beginning of his setting out to the end does run all along in that confusion as it will be hard to bring him to sorts But it shall suffice me to offer two distinctions which alone as I hope may serve to do this work both of drawing him out of his darkness and convincing others thereby of the injury of his accusations Distinguish we then first between the Authority of the Magistrate over his Subjects in matters of Religion and an Authority over the Conscience in any matters whatsoever It is manifest in the very expression of his Title and the customary language of his first Book and of this Preface That he does confound Conscience with the Matters of Religion whereas there are matters of Religion wherein the Conscience may not be concerned and matters wherein the Conscience may be concerned they be no Ecclesiastical matters The second distinction then is between Subjection which refers to the Authority residing in the Magistrate himself and