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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

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to do evill that good may come of it so it is also unconscionable to leave off the doing of that which is infallibly good that no doubtfull evill may come of it then confider the duty which you refuse to do relates to the whole Common-wealth the safety of all and your own necessary peace and preservation and the evill which you fear will come upon it relates only to the seeming violation of a perticular right of some few persons which is or may be doubtful whether you be any further engaged thereto yea or no for when you say that you are preingaged so that you cannot recede I must suppose that you mean not a wilfull but a conscionable preingagement and that you cannot lawfully recede from it but if the contrary hath already appeared and is cleer to your conscience now that your duty and preingagement to the whole Common-wealth cannot lawfully and conscionably be put in the ballance with a perticular engagement to some persons depending thereon then you cannot make any further doubt of that which should be done in this case for I cannot imagine that you will think it lawfull for you to dispute your interest toward the universall good of the Common-wealth for any perticular engagement though never so strong otherwise and lawfully undertaken at first for if the interest of him who you call the heir of the crown and of the men called the Peers of the Kingdom is of so much weight with you that you will do no good also to the Common-wealth without them then it is clear that in your esteem they are more then the Commonwealth to you and that the common cause for the maintaining of which a'l your engagements are wrought upon you is not so much valued by you as the perticular cause of these persons which how you can with a good conscience allow in your self I am not able to understand I say then that if the particular interests and pretentions of any come to justle with the publick good in your affections and justle out the same it is clear that you are not faithfull to your principles of conscience and reason before God and men but that you are willing to betray the common cause to particular designs and consequently that you will seek your self in the bottome more then the publick good because it cannot be doubted that if you will subordinate your zeal and love to the common-wealth unto the respect which you have to other mens advantages that you will far more if occasion be offerd subordinate the same unto the respect which you have to your own advantages For the rsolution of this scruple you ought as I conceive to understand your self thus far that you cannot entertaine the thought of any engagement or obligation lawfully which doth cause your engagement and obligation to be true and faithfull to the Common-wealth at all times or at any time therefore with a good conscience if you find your obligation to the heir of the crown or to the Priviledges of Peers fall crosse and opposit by change of circumstances as all human masters are changeable by circumstances to the common good of the nation I say you cannot in such a case maintain that obligation so as not to be receded from it with a good conscience and if the proposall of this engagement doth discover thus much of your corruption unto you by such a scruple you are to be humbled for it before God and laying aside henceforth all Hypocrisie rectifie the intentions of the heart with uprightnesse and sincerity And all this I offer to be confidered by you supposing your preingagement to have been just and lawfull as no doubt it was but yet that now your resolution not to recede from it cannot be stil just and lawfull as matters now stand in the state if you will make that preingagement to justle out of your affection this engagement which now is offered unto you to be taken As for the dissolution of your tie and obligation to the heir of the crown I shall refer you to look upon God whether he hath not dispossessed him wholly by his own doings and councells and by the guilt derived from his father and mother upon him of all his interest in this Kingdom and Common-wealth for because his aim and the aim of those that are about him is not for the Common-wealth but for the Kingdom that is not for the good of the society but for selfe greatness Therefore God who takes and gives the Rights of Government by the putting of one into the actuall possession of a ruling power and by taking of the same power away from another to fulfill his own counsell and judgements over this people and over those that exalt themselves over them by destroying the earth he hath done as it seemeth good in his own eyes both with him who according to men claims the Crown and with those that were the supporters thereof more then promoters of the publique good And what God who doth exalt one and put downe another determines in this kind in the fight of all the world and I may say against the clear intentions of all that engaged themselves at first for the good of the Nations and for the Kings good also what I say he determines thus in this kind against mens intentions and expectations whose affections have been sincerely set for the Kings just Rights no lesse then yours you and I have no warrant to contradict or oppose in our thoughts but we must observe this way of changing the rights and shaking the titles of the earth that the Lord alone may be exalted in the day of our common and their speciall visitation for I conceive that the Prophecy of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 24. v. 21. is begun to be fulfilled amongst us somewhat more remarkably then in other parts of the earth as yet which is this And it shall come to passe in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high and the Kings if the Earth upon the earth and they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit and shall be shall be shut up in prison and after many dayes shall be visited Then then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall raign in mount Sion and before his ●●●cients gloriously I shall not now stand to open these words unto you further then their sense is obvious to shew that which with another ear the same Prophet saith to the same or like effect That the lofty looks a men shall be humbled and the haughtinesse of men bowed down and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day for the day of the Lord of hosts shal be on every one that is proud lofty and upon every one that is lifted up and he shall be brought low which is a warning also to those that are now exalted in power over us lest they
that they are not without a judicature over them in those places for the subordinate Officers belonging to a state are bound to judge of the rights of those that are over them both by which they stand in their places of supremacy and by which they proceed in their actings toward subjects least they be made the instruments of Arbitrary power and Tyranny and then also the law-making power which in all Nations resides by the law of Nature in the convention of the Representatives of the whole body of the people whether it be made up of the heads of familes or of chosen Deputies who are intrusted with a delegated power from all the rest doth make or unmake rights in all places and persons within it self as it from time to time doth see cause As for the Law of necessity which begetteth war whereby God is immediately appealed unto by those that pretend to have no Superiors on earth that he may judge of their rights whatsoever his hand doth determine in the event is to be counted the right of those in favour of whom the determination is made by his judgement By these rules then quiet your mind according to your place concerning the right which the present powers have to Rule do not take upon you to define matters whereof you are no competent judge you are made a competent judge only of your own actions which belong to a subject as you are under a visible and uncontroulable power which God hath set over you and your duty is to submit thereunto in all things agreeable to the will of God judging your self that you put no stumbling block or an occasion of offence in any mans way Rom. 14 13 yet I will not say but in the judgement of discretion as you are a member of this Common-wealth and concerned in the publick welfare thereof you may look upon your superiours to see how they pretend to stand that is by what apparent right and with what visible power they possess their places but this you ought not to do so peremptorily as to oblige your conscience as to be suspended upon the observations which you shall happen to make of them and their proceedings as if your private iudgement in such cases should be the Rule by which you ought to walk in point of obedience I say you ought not to set up this judgement of yours so high within your self and over others as to drown the thoughts of all other rules but you ought to limit it as I have said before within the bounds of Christianity and discreet rationallity wherein that I may help you yet a little further Consider soberly with your self what can be answered to this plea which they will alleadge for themselves 1. Whether yea or no the Nationall tye and association by which we were a Common-wealth while we were yet called a Kingdome hath ever been dissolved 2. If it hath not been dissolved what hath kept it entire in the middest of all these shakings was is not a Parliament and the subordination of all Officers throughout the nation under it 3. And if a Parliament is still remaining and all subordinate Officers in places of judicature and execution stand under it throughout the whole nation so that all men may have a legal protection from injuries what is there wanting to a lawfull power and government 4. If nothing be wanting to a legall protection for those that acknowledge the jurisdiction then such as acknowledge it not do put themselves out of that protection and if they resist the power which God hath set over them for the publick good and which is actually fully possest with al the places of publick administration they resist the Ordinance of God and they that resist this Ordinance saith the Apostle shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 12.2 As for the point of enquiry how these particular men in whose hands the power and government is are come to their present places whether in a legall way or that which you call usurpation it doth not belong to the Conscience of any man who is in a private station to determine peremptorily far lesse upon his determination to suspend his actings towards the publique good Yet if in this also you desire to reflect upon the passages of Right without oblieging your Conscience to stand engaged either way by that which you shall observe I shall further suggest these heads of matters appliable unto the case of those whom you suspect to be usurpers unto your impartiall meditation as a Plea which they do alledge for themselves First Whether yea or no it be any way unjust by the law of Nature among men that are equals to resist force with force Secondly If it be just among equals to resist force with force the second point will be to consider Whether he that invades another mans naturall right or he that defends his own is to be accounted the Usurger Thirdly If he that invades and seeks to deprive another man of his right be the Usurper then he that by resistance is deprived of that whereof he attempted to deprive his neighbour is not wronged by way of usurpation but justly defeated of the power which he did abuse Now they will say that the case was thus first between the King and Parliament if you count them Equals which is the least can be given say they to a Parliament by the Law of Nature and Nations and then afterward between the one party and the other in the Parliament the same case was acted again as between Equals whereupon the City Militia on the one hand and the Army on the other was depending and see on work for action And how far these powers having dashed those that prevailed did think themselves necessitated to settle the safety of the Common-wealth in their own way and what settlement that hath by Gods permission brought forth and upon what ground it now stands I shall not need to represent unto you only the sober consideration of the grounds which the party accused of usurpation doth alleadge for its proceedings are to be thought upon indifferently without prajudicat affectus if you will free your Conscience from a snare And this shall suffice also concerning the first branch of your second doubt but let us now come to the second branch thereof which supposing the power to be usurped doth question how far by taking the Engagement you become accessary to the guilt thereof To this question I shall answer briefly thus That the Engagement being a duty just to be required by the present Powers from their subjects without the performance of which there is no protection due unto them and necessary to be performed by all that will not professe themselves desirous to overthrow the present safety and publique wellfare of the nation it cannot make those that take it accessary to the guilt of those that tender it if any be in them because the performance of a thing good in it self