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A25519 An Answer to a late pamphlet intituled, The judgement and doctrine of the clergy of the Church of England concerning one special branch of the King's prerogative, viz, in dispensing with the penal-laws shewing that this is not affected by the Most Reverend Fathers in God, the Lords Arch-Bishops, Bancroft, Laud and Usher ... the Lord Bishop Sanderson ... the Reverend Doctors, Dr. Hevlin, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Sherlock ... Dr. Hicks, Dr. Nalson, Dr. Puller, so far as appears from their words cited in this pamphlet : in a letter to a friend. 1687 (1687) Wing A3309; ESTC R15256 30,429 41

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his King and the Church the famous Archbishop Laud whose Judgment would weigh more with me than some other mens Reasons He quotes a saying of his out of his Book against Fisher but never directs us where to find it and that is a great book to search all over for one single passage but however the saying is so innocent that we may admit it to be his without farther Enquiry viz. That the Supreme Magistrate in the Estate Civil may not abrogate the Laws made in Parliament tho he may dispense with the Sanction or Penalty of the Law quoad hic nunc as the Lawyers speak Now unless quoad hic nunc signifies a general and unlimited Dispensation for all persons at all times I suppose it does not reach the plenitude of the Dispensing Power Quoad hic nunc I doubt may be expounded as a limitation of the Dispensing Power which will beget a dispute how far this Power of Dispensing may extend for which reason I wish he had concealed the Judgment of this great Archbishop tho the comfort is he was but a Divine and therefore his Judgment not Authentick in such matters any farther than this Author has made it so by appealing to it especially since he does not give his own Opinion in the case but refers to the received opinion of Lawyers at that time which whether it then was for an absolute Dispensing Power must be first known before we can know what the Archbishops Opinion was But he makes a much greater flourish with Archbishop Vsher who wrote an Excellent Book concerning the Power communicated by God to the Prince and the Obedience required of the Subject out of which he has transcribed four or five Pages how much to his purpose shall be presently examined But I must first mind him what another of his Witnesses The Right Reverend Dr. Sanderson Bishop of Lincoln has observed in his Preface to that Book Sect. 9 12 13. In the 9 Section he takes notice of several Objections which either were or might be made against this Book The Second is That it is not yor Divines at all to meddle in these matters whereof they are not competent Judges nor do they come within the compass of their Sphere They ought to be left to the cognizance and determination of States-men and Lawyers who best understand the constitution of the several Governments and the force and effect of the Laws of their own several respective Countries and are therefore presumed to be best able to judg the one by constitution in whom the Soveraignty resideth and the other by the Laws how that Soveraignty is bounded and limited in the exercise thereof In answer to this he says Sect. 12. True it is that for the more ease of the Governors and better satisfaction of the people in securing their Properties preserving Peace amongst them and doing them Justice the absolute and unlimited Soveraignty which Princes have by the Ordinance of God hath at all times and in all Nations been diversly limited and bounded in the ordinary exercise thereof by such Laws and Customs as the Supreme Governors themselves have consented to and allowed As with us in England there are sundry cases wherein a Subject in maintenance of his Right and Property may wage Law with the King bring his Action and have Judgment against him in open Court and the Judges in such cases are bound by their Oaths and Duties to right the Party according to Law against the King as well as against the meanest of his Subjects So that it seems this Bishop thought that the exercise of the Soveraignty might be limited by Laws and by such Laws as would hold good against the King himself in his own Courts and therefore that all Laws were not dispensable at the Kings pleasure and this Preface was wrote long after his Cases of Conscience of which more presently And he adds That the debating and determining of every doubt or controversie belongeth to the Learned Lawyers and Reverend Judges who are presumed to be best skilled in the Laws and Customs of the Land as their proper study wherein they are daily conversant and not to Divines who as Divines are not competent Judges in these matters nor do they come within the compass of their sphere By which one would guess that this Reverend Bishop did not apprehend that he himself had been guilty of determining so nice a Point of Law as the Dispensing Power tho this Author has discovered for him that he has Well but how does he bring off the Arch-bishop after all this for medling with such nice points As to that he tells us Sect. 13. That there is no need of bringing him off That in relation to the present Treatise all that he had said about Divines determining Law Cases as far as they related to Conscience might well enough have been spared wherein the Reverend Author without medling with these Punctilio's of the Law undertaketh no more but to declare and assert the Power of Soveraign Princes as the Godly Fathers and Councils of the ancient Catholick Church from the evidence of Holy Scripture and the most judicious Heathen Writers by discourse of Reason from the light of Nature have constantly taught and acknowledged the same as to the unprejudiced Reader by the perusal of the Book it self will easily appear From whence one would guess that Bishop Saunderson did not apprehend that Archbishop Vsher had determined any one point of Law about the absolute or limited exercise of the Soveraign Power according to the Constitution of these Realms and therein he had our Author differ who has found the Dispensing Power plainly determined by the Archbishop But whoever consults the Book it self and it will reward any man's pains who will do it will find that the Bishop was in the right and those Reasons which the Bishop urges will convince him That he was so For he will find that the Archbishop does not meddle with the particular Laws and Constitutions of these Kingdoms but only urges the Authority of Fathers and Councils and the Holy Scriptures and the consent of Heathen Writers which can no more determine what the particular Laws and Constitutions of these Kingdoms are than the Laws of England can the Customs of the Roman Empire The Archbishop only considered what Rights belong to the Soveraign Power wherever it is by the consent of Scriptures Fathers Councils and Heathen Writers who followed the light and conduct of natural Reason and took it for granted as the Bishop observes he well might That the Kings of England are Soveraign Princes and therefore have all the Rights of Soveraignty belonging to their Crowns But how the exercise of this Soveraign Power is limited by the particular Laws and Customs of Nations and by the consent and grants of Soveraign Princes themselves which Bishop Sanderson asserts has at all times and in all Nations been diversly limited and bounded this the Archbishop says nothing of