Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
authority_n king_n power_n supremacy_n 2,252 5 10.5244 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A47976 A letter from a clergy-man of the Church of England to an eminent divine pretending to be of the same church desiring his resolution and direction about a complyance with the present government, and especially about the alteration of the publick prayers. Clergy-man of the Church of England. 1689 (1689) Wing L1370; ESTC R222056 5,079 5

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

A LETTER FROM A CLERGY-MAN OF THE Church of ENGLAND TO AN Eminent Divine Pretending to be of the same Church Desiring his Resolution and Direction about a Complyance with the present Government and especially about the Alteration of the Publick Prayers Reverend Sir THe Post you are in and the Character you bear besides some Personal Respects induce me to apply my self to you for your Assistance to remove some Doubts that Oppress my Conscience which I am bound as indeed every one is to give Satisfaction to by an Impartial search after Truth and the Obligation is the greater upon me because I have Others to Instruct and Answer for as well as my Self and who if I mislead them either by my Doctrine or Example will one day lay great part of the blame upon me I cannot therefore but be Solicitous how I behave my self in this Case towards God who will require of me some Account for other Mens Souls as well as of my own I believe this Consideration to be Apology enough for giving you this Trouble and yet there is more to be said We are not now left at Liberty to suspend our Judgments But we are required to act in Complyance with the present Power If we do not we hazard our Liberty and Property and if we do for all that I can see yet we do more then hazard our Eternal Salvation I know to a good Christian it can be no question which if these ought to be preferred when ever they are set in Competition as in the present Case to me they are but in Prudence I may Nay In Justice to my Self and Family I ought to endeavour as far as Honestly I can to enjoy Peace in this World as well as in the next This makes me press for a removal of such Doubts as arise in my way from the late and present Proceedings And I must again and again inforce it because we Clergy-men have in some degree other Mens Consciences to quiet as well as our own Therefore to come to the Business I take it for granted that JAMES the Second was the True and Lawful Heir of these Kingdoms after the Death of King CHARLES the Second of Blessed Memory upon whose Decease King JAMES succeeded to and was rightly Invested with the Government of these Kingdoms and all the Just Rights and Prerogatives belonging to the Imperial Crown of England Now I desire to be Informed by you Sir or any Man else by what Authority or upon what Score he is not Owned Obeyed and Prayed for as King still since God as far as we know has not yet called Him into another World His Deserting or Abdicating the Government is a pretence so Fulsome and Naucious that my Conscience cannot get it down whatever theirs can do that have Revenge or Interest in the●… Minds to help to digest it And especially at this time of the Day when the World ●nows from His Majesties Letters to the Convention and from His present Endeavours that He Desires and Resolves to try by the help of God and good Men to Recover His Throne out of which he has been strangely Jostled I say strangely because the Nation having been bubbled once before by Men that pretended to keep our Religion and Property as indeed they did but it was from us not for us they proving just such Patriots as the Storke in the Fable or the Ostriches were Stewards that we should fall into a like Mistake and Misfortune again while our Teeth are yet on edge for the Soure Grapes that our Fathers Eat ●s very surprising But in our Age of Paradoxes we will let the wonder alone and come to our Duty Christ and his Apostles taught Submission and Obedience to Kings and Emperours yea to the worst of them and the Primitive Christians alwayes Believed and Behaved themselves accordingly suffering patiently the extre●mest Injuries in Goods and Person that an impe●…ous Cruelty could lay upon them And this not for want of Courage for how could they fear Death that every day expected and suffered it nor for want of Strength for they were Numerous in their Cities in their Forts in their Armies as we are assured by them that could tell Now this very Doctrine of Passive Obedience or Non-Resistance is that which the Church of England was wont to value it self upon as that whereby it manifested its Apostolick Primitive Spirit and whereby we eminently distinguished it from the Papists and Dissenters who we know were wont to agree in this damnable Doctrine of Rebelling against or Deposing Kings And because Revenge Love of the World or fear of Persecution are apt to give a false Byass to Mens Judgements as we see by woful Expeperience by the Glosses and Expositions that were given to the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles professed by this Church by the Men of 41 now in Vogue again The Church of England has taken a particular Care to make this Doctrine of Non-Resistance her own and to bind it upon her Sons by the strongest Tyes that could be invented For we of the Clergy must remember that we are admitted into no Degree in the Vniversities without assuring our Allegiance by Oath Not that our Allegiance was not due before but by our Oath we refer to God as a Witness and Judge of our Integrity when we so declare to Men. When we enter into our Deacons Orders we take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy again promising To bear Faith and True Allegiance to the Kings Highness His Heirs and Lawful Successors this is not all and to our Power shall Assist and Defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Pre-eminences and Authorities Granted or belonging to the Kings Highness His Heirs and Successors c. And because a Sect of Men had undertaken to exclude and set aside their Oathes Upon the Restoration of the Church with King Charles the 2d the Three Estates of this Realm Assembled in Parliament made a Solemn Recognition 12 Car. 2. cap. 30. That by the undoubted and Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom neither the Peers of this Realm nor the Commons nor both together in Parliament nor the People Collectively not Representatively nor any other Persons whatsoever ever had have hath or ought to have any Co-ercive Power over the Persons of the Kings of their Realm and to Enforce this with all possible weight and to Exclude that absurd Notion of Co-ordination by making the King one of the Three Estates and therefore less and constructively inferiour to the other Two they made another Act 13 Car. 2. Declaring the Sword to be solely in the King's Power and that neither one nor both Houses in Parliament can or Lawfully may Raise or Levy any War Offensive or Defensive against His Majesty c. Besides this there is a particular Declaration provided in the Act for Vniformity over and above our Subscription to the XXXIX Articles of which the XXXV is not to be forgotten viz. That it is not Lawful upon any