Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A52597
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The king's authority in dispensing with ecclesiastical laws, asserted and vindicated by the late Reverend Philip Nye ...; Lawfulnes of the oath of supremacy and power of the King in ecclesiastical affairs
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Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing N1495; ESTC R17198
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36,268
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70
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was said not to be of this World or to his Person or Offices that they contribute no more to the setling of Civil Rights and Interests Luke 12.13 or to Gospel-Weapons which being Spiritual and not Carnal have no Edg to cut off Mens Liberties Estates or Lives 2. The Nature of this Trust The Laws and Institutes by which these Ecclesiastical Matters are to be managed are appointed and established for Substance by the Wisdom and Authority of that one Law-giver Christ Jesus The Application of these Laws in respect of Circumstances for the well and comfortable enjoying Gospel-Ordinances is all that any Humane Wisdom hath to do in them the Trust whereof may be placed in the Hand of a wise and prudent Prince Again There is liberty of an after-Judgment to be made by him that is to practise in what-ever is of the Concerns of Religion commanded by Men. Thence such Laws require not such simple and peremptory Obedience if conformable to those Rules required in the Word Obedience thereunto is with respect to God as well as Man if otherwise that choice ought to be left to the Subject which the Apostle claimed Acts 5.29 Although Matters of Religion and the Concerns of it be great Things considered in themselves and accordingly is the Trust yet what of it falleth under the Hand of a Civil Power considered in it self is not so Because the greatness of this Trust sticks generally in Mens Minds especially when in the disposal thereof it depends upon the Will of one Man. To remove this or the like Stumbling-block we will suppose failings in the management of the Trust as great as rationally can be imagined 1. Suppose his Majesty should refuse either by Himself or Parliament to enjoin any thing of Ceremony or Circumstance about these Ceremonies and Externals the Worship and Service of God. Or 2. suppose he should dispense with all Injunctions and leave the People of God to their Liberty in the observance of them the Premisses last mentioned being considered there can be no great prejudice to the Common-Wealth or Civil Affairs thereby Distinctly we shall weigh each of these 1. For the former If the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered is but a small thing as we mentioned before and of such a nature as although at first 't were of Godly Intent and purposely devised yet at length turned to Vanity and Superstition and burdened Mens Consciences without cause c. as we our selves acknowledg See Preface to Common-Prayer Book And of the same condition are most of those Impositions which have proved burthensom to the Nation a long time and if so the not imposing of these things cannot be prejudicial to Church or State. Not to the Church if these Directions for Gospel-Worship in the external Circumstances of it were not reduced into Canons and Injunctions but left where they are to be taken up in practice according to the Light of the Age as are Gospel-Duties of great Consequence Those Scriptures by which States profess themselves to be guided in the forming of these Ecclesiastical Laws are intrusted also in the Hands of his Gospel-Ministers for their conduct and direction in ordering Gospel-Affairs who have Gifts and Assistances from Christ in such a measure and degree as cannot be expected in the ablest Statesman as such And the Ecclesiastical Laws are never so well ordered by Civil Powers as when they consult with and take advice and direction from the Ministers of the Gospel about them To advise new Rites and Ceremonies saith Bishop Bilson is not the Prince's Vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scriptures commend and as the Bishops and Pastors of the Place shall advise Of Suprem p. 226. 2. If there were no such severe Injunctions about the Forms and Modes of Gospel-Worship I speak not of such Duties of Religion in which Mens Natures are principled 1. The Nation could not hereby suffer in respect of its Civil Concerns but the Wealth and Trade c. much more prosperous The Things being small in themselves and become great only upon the account of their being injoined and the greatness of Penalties annexed become of great concernment to the State that is to the great prejudice thereof as hath been apparent in many Years sad experience What is it of moment to Common-Wealths for the quickning of Trade keeping up of Rents c. or any particular Man's Civil Concern that Men kneel or not at the Sacrament crossing or not crossing in Baptisin c. 2. For the other A dispensing with all Penalties annexed to Ecclesiastical Laws where these Penalties are removed yet these Laws remain as Counsels and Advertisements and being consulted by the Learned Clergy in their Synod and commended as useful in the Administration of Worship this is as much as ever was done by the Apostles when Churches were in their greatest purity who endeavoured not so much to establish an External Uniformity as to preserve Christian Liberty If it be said They had then no Christian Magistrates 1. We say The Kingdom of Christ must come into a Nation before it be Christian and if it be so defective in its first address for want of such a Magistrate and of the Means we put so great an Esteem upon for reducing a People how will the People ever become Christians And on the other side if the Gospel hath a sufficiency in it self without borrowing to subdue a Pagan Nation to Christianity much easier it is being such to preserve them orderly and regular Christians Paul having instructed and counselled left his People free and to the perswasion in their own hearts Rom. 14.5 One Man esteemeth one day above another another Man esteemeth every day alike let every Man be fully perswaded in his own mind That was but a Counsel or Advertisement In the Act for Conformity in 1. Eliz. given to the Arch-Bishop Bishops and other Ordinaries that they would endeavour to perform their Duties in the Execution of that Act it was indeed very solemn that is from the Queen's Majesty the Lords Temporal and all the Commons in the present Parliament and in God's Name and as they will answer before God for such Evils and Plagues as may be punishments for the neglect thereof There hath been no want of Obedience hereunto by the Bishops being fully perswaded in their Hearts hereof as their Duty of which if they had not been so perswaded the severest Penalties would or ought to have been in vain King James orders throughout the Kingdom that the Afternoon's Exercise each Lord's Day be spent in examining Children in their Catechism instead of Preaching This is only commended as the most convenient and laudable way of teaching in the Church of England and that such Preachers be most encouraged and approved of And how readily was this immediatly practised throughout the Nation and is continued in many places to this day In the Establishment of Uniformity 2 Edw. 6. a Liberty was left in
doth scruple the Reasonableness or Equity of a Law concerning Civil Rights or what 's required from it he may notwithstanding yield Obedience without Sin and ought so to do rather than to offend by an appearance of Disobedience as Christ himself did Matth. 17.26 27. But in Matters of Religion even as Circumstances Ceremonies or the least thing wherein the Lord hath concerned his Word if there be a Doubt or Scruple whether lawful and conformable to the Scriptures tho it be from Ignorance or Weakness yet I sin if I submit Rom. 14.1 compared with 23. The Consequence of Transgression in this kind is more than loss of Estates Liberties yea or of Life it self If the Laws of Superiors concerning Civil Rights be unjust in themselves or prove unequal from the Circumstances of this or that Man's Case who cannot be relieved by any Indulgence he may submit without Sin without transgressing any Law of God nay it is Vertue and pleasing to the Lord our patience in such suffering 1 Pet. 2.13 with verses 18 19. 1 Cor. 6.7 but not so in the Matters of Religion for we have from Christ to the contrary that is not to subject Col. 2.20 And God blames his People by his Prophets for wittingly walking after the Commandments Hos 5.12 and for keeping the Statutes of Omri Micah 6.16 the Lord is a jealous God. SECT 4. If there be not a Power to Judg and Dispense intrusted in some Hands the People of God are in a worse condition on these Accounts than in their Civil Interest and that upon a three-fold account 1. The Secular Laws and Statutes made in the behalf of the Subjects are often upon further Deliberation and Experience of Inconveniencies altered and repealed whereby the Subjects have ease But Acts of Parliament wherein Ecclesiastical Affairs and Mens Consciences are concern'd are seldom or never revised or altered much less repealed no not for the space of an hundred Years can we give an Instance hereof So far are we from repealing Acts made in Ecclesiastical Affairs as is ordinarily in our Civil Matters that some Acts passed partly for their Severity or upon some other Account doubtful whether fit to remain as standing Laws therefore are limited to a certain Time after which to expire and cease the severe Act of 35 Eliz. that in the Process of it reached Mens Lives when first passed was to remain a Law but to the end of the next Session of Parliament which in regard of some Doubt it seems made whether in Force or not is declared by the present Parliament to be in Force and ought to be put in due execution And now at this time there is a Minister of the Gospel under the Sentence of that Act and for transgressing that Law had lost his Life had not his Majesty interposed by his Prerogative A wise Statesman once advised and expressed himself thus I ask why the Civil State should be purged and restored with good and wholsom Laws made in every three or four Years in Parliament providing Remedies as fast as time breedeth Mischiefs and contrariwise the Ecclesiastical State should still continue upon the Dregs of Time and receive no Alteration now for these many Years We have heard of no offer of Bills in Parliament is it because there is nothing amiss Sir. Fr. Bacon 2. In that all Proceedings in Ecclesiastical Courts are ever to the utmost rigour of the Letter of their Canons and Orders there is no Chancery or Court of Equity among them to appeal unto for Redress but in some few Cases as in Causes Testimentary of Matrimony Divorses Tythes c. specified 24 H. 8.12 Matters wherein our Estates are touched But in Matters of Conformity and such Cases wherein our Consciences are most concerned we are left destitute 3. Again Men are upon this peculiar disadvantage in these Spiritual Courts who are impeached for Non-conformity to their Canons and Orders in that their Adversaries and those that are Parties for the most part are their Judge this Sir Fra. Bacon in his Considerations condemned as a great Injustice So that it is evident considering the Nature of Ecclesiastical Constitutions and how managed with us in this Nation how necessary it is that some Power be placed somewhere by which we may not be exposed more than others to such extremity of Rigour for otherwise as Consciencious Men are more disposed to Scruples and Doubts in the way of Duty in this kind so to less Mercy and Indulgence from our Superiors CHAP. III. That our Relief is from the Jurisdiction and Power in his Majesty to Dispense and Exempt for in his Hand this Ballance is placed which is that we shall insist upon in the next place SECT 1. THIS Prerogative or Power to Dispense and Exempt from Ecclesiastical Laws is in the Soveraign for the Confirmation whereof not to insist on what was acknowledged by Pope Eleutherius touching Lucius our first Christian King that he was Vicarius Dei in Regno suo in reference to Matters to be reformed or is mentioned touching the Laws and Practice of King Edgar and Edward the Confessor named the First Meae solicitudinis est quieti eorum consulare de quorum moribus spectat ad nos examen And of the other from whom it is said much of our Law is derived that describing the King's Office he saith Rex ad hoc est constitutus ut Regnum terrenum Populum Dei Ecclesiam regat ab injuriis defendat maleficos ab eâ evallat destruat penitus desperdat and much of like nature that might be urg'd from Antiquity But to come nearer Home The Testimonies of the Clergy in Convocation the Representative Church of England who make it so great a Duty to acknowledg it as they have expressed their Severity thus Whosoevor shall affirm the King's Majesty hath not the same Authority in Cause Ecclesiastical as the pious Princes of the Jews and the Christian Emperors obtained c. let him be Excommunicated ipso facto and not to be absolved but by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Canons of the Convocation 1603. 2. I shall join with this Testimony that of another Synod or Council namely that met in the Star Chamber a. Jac. made up of all the Judges and Persons learned in the Law summoned by King James for Resolution in some Ecclesiastical Causes whereof this of his Majesty's Prerogative was one their Resolution you have in these words The King may without the Parliament make Orders and Constitutions for the Government of the Clergy and punish those that disobey or refuse to submit And this with other Resolutions in Ecclesiastical Matters were ordered to be registred and recorded in the several Courts of Justice 3. And from time to time the Kings and Queens of England have assumed and exercised this Power and there hath been no matter or thing so Sacred and of such Concernment in these Affairs ordered by Parliament but the like and of as great