Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	ecclesiastical_a	person_n	supremacy_n	1,601	5	10.6973	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40710	The grand case of the present ministry whether they may lawfully declare and subscribe, as by the late Act of vniformity is required and the several cases, thence arising (more especially about the Covenant) are clearly stated and faithfully resolved / by the same indifferent hand ; with an addition to his former Cases of conscience, hereunto subjoyned.	Fullwood, Francis, d. 1693.	1662 (1662)	Wing F2505; ESTC R21218	59,550	206

is enough that such as it is it cannot be altered much lesse extirpated without the change of the Laws very many Laws that much concern if not establish the same Now it is well enough known to be a grand part of the Kings Prerogative that no Law be made or altered without his fiat Much lesse then such Laws as concern himself so nearly as the changing not his Commissioners onely but his Government it self And it is more then apparent that the King was in such a condition when the Covenant was first taken that the Covenanters did intend either to force his consent to change those Laws or else to root out the Government by Prelacy against the King and the Laws too Therefore there is no such condition as might fairly have been in all the Covenant if the King shall please or if we can prevail with him to change the Laws or convince him of the great inconveniencies that we have discovered in this Government of the Church by Prelacy But I am sorry to remember how the Covenant was carried on as if the plot were laid to down with the Bishops whether the King would consent or not or what ere come on 't CASE IX Whether to endeavour thus against the Kings Rights as obliged thereunto by the Covenant be sinful Resol WIthout Question it is for to Covenant or swear to the injury of any is materially sinful and void of it self as if a man should vow he will steal his Neighbours Horse In all Covenants therefore the very light of Nature teacheth that Inferiours must except the rights of their Superiours Otherwise if an Oath will discharge from subjection how soon may all Government totter and dissolve No Covenant can take off the force of the fifth Commandement Honour thy Father and thy Mother more then of sixth seventh eight or of any of the Rest It is therefore granted by all Casuists that in iis rebus quae superioris potestati subjiciuntur in all things which lie under the power of our Superiour this Condition is necessarily to be understood in all Covenants Oathes and Promises si ipsi etiam placuerit if it shall also please him that is our Superiour Now nothing can possibly intercept the Conclusion but that either the Government of the Church doth not lie under the King or that the Altering of this Government did not concern his power or that he gave his Consent either to the Covenant or to the Altering of this Government but none of all these are true First the Government of the Church is directly and immediately under the King or sworne by us all to be Supream Governour in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill and indeed as as was hinted before all Ecclesiasticall Governours politically considered are the Kings Commissioners and in a plain line of subordination to him Neither can they be taken from him or indeed on purpose opposed or disobey'd without apparent injury to the Supremacy if not with his Royall Assent and special Commission Secondly Neither may this Government be altered or any thing changed therein or indeed any thing elsethat cannot be altered without Law but by the Kings own Act and the alteration of Laws is a thing subject also to the Kings power according to the Constitution of this Kingdom without all dispute Thirdly Neither did the King consent to the Covenant but as it is well known proclaimêd his dissent against it which very thing is thought sufficient to void it Datur Juritatio Juramenti aliquando per Superiores si in illa ipsa Materiâ Amese de consc p. 219. sint Superiores circa quam Juramentum versatur sic Parentes so Parents Husbands Masters Princes may pronounce saith Dr. Ames either Oathes or Vowes made by Children Wives Servants Subjects without their consent to be void in those things which are subject to their power Therefore so far as the Government of the Church cannot be altered but by Law it is under the power of the King at least not to alter it he having a Negative upon both Houses and consequently his proclamation hath pronounced the Covenant long agon if this rule be good which I think none do question at least so far void I wonder that it should be urged that the King so many years after in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should give his Consent to the Covenant which he had immediately upon its very birth crush'd by his Proclamation Yea so far as his Proclamation could pronounce it void and destroy it I think it may well be a Problem whether the Kings future consent could revive it if it had indeed been dead and buried so many years before But in what words did the King seem to consent he saith it should least displease him that men did keep their Covenant These words do not expresse his Consent to the Covenant much lesse to that part of it which concernes Episcopacy it was far from him to consent to the Extirpation of that but rather as it follows in the Kings words to preserve not to extirpate Religion in purity and the Kingdome in peace Indeed thus some would wrest one Coven plea. Modest expression against the plain scope of that whole Chapter in the Kings Book framed by him on set purpose to shew his dislike of this Covenant to his death as any impartial Reader thereof may satisfie him self Fourthly neither can it be said nor truly is it by any that I have heard of that the King did ever consent to the Alteration much lesse the Extirpation of Episcopall Government he was indeed at last contented upon a very hard bargaine to give it a suspension for three years but the sword cut off that preceeding and the Objection with it CASE X. Whether the Govenanting to endeavour the Extirpation of Episcopall Government be against the Laws and consequently sinful Resol TO swear absolutely without submismision to the will of the supream Governour to endeavour that which cannot be done either according to Scripture or the Constitution of the Kingdome without his Consent and Act this transports the subject beyond his place it invades the soveraingty and carries sedition and rebellion in it This cannot be denied though the thing sworne against be in it self unlawful especially when such Covenant is publickly imposed and taken for no publick Reformation of things amiss can proceed without Tumult if not consented unto by the King who is not to be frighted to do it by his Subjects in such a manner of rising up against him by publick Oathes This is to hurt Majesty and indeed to do evil that good may come and if any shall swear to do it in their places the form of their swearing contradicts the matter sworn for they cannot keep their places and take such an Oath 3. Much more when the thing sworn against is not evill in it self nor contrary to Gods Word therefore Mr. Crofton and the Author of the Covenanters plea

both sin to which no Covenant can possibly oblige for then it should oblige us against God himself 2. Secondly the matter of the Covenant in the Second Article is against many former Oaths whereby the Nation stood obliged before the Covenant was imposed or taken and in that regard we were first obliged by God to the contrary 1. Not to speak of that natural Allegiance in which all Subjects by the will of God in the very law of Nature as well as Scripture are born obliged when they are born Subjects unto our lawful Prince the Oath of Allegiance superadded re-enforceth us to obey him in all his lawful commands 2. And according to the Rules above mentioned whether this Oath be actually taken before the Covenant or after we are by the Divine obligation to obey the Kings Laws and to declare that the Covenant doth not binde us against the Kings Ecclesiastical Government or against his will expressed in the Laws of the Land whatsoever is hitherto urged to enervate the same 3. Especially if we add the direct obligation of the Oath of Supremacy wherein we all own and Recognize the King in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supream Governour For how can the Oath to extirpate his Government and destroy his Officers against his will and his known Laws consist with his sworn Supremacy or in the cause of Ecclesiastical Government how do those Ecclesiastical persons acknowledge him to be their Supream Governour while they resist him against his express Laws in this very cause even with endeavours to extirpate his Government 4. Besides many of the ancient Ministry stand more immediately obliged to the Government of the Church by their subscriptions to thirty nine Articles wherein they have set their hands that there is nothing superstitious or ungodly in the Form and Manner of Making Consecrating ●nd Ordaining of Bishops Priests and Deacons as also in the form of their very Ordination as Deacons and as Presbyters in which they solemnly promised to obey their Ordinary and to follow his godly Judgement which they also bound with the Oath of Canonical obedience 5. Lastly the general protestation taken some years before the Covenant must needs effect the discharge of it so far as they are contrary 6. That the Protestation was as legal as the Covenant as yet none ever questioned It was imposed by the same power at least it was never proclaimed against by the King as the Covenant was and that the Author of the Covenanters plea argues did sufficiently ratifie it It was taken by the same persons generally and indeed by thousands more then the Covenant was and that is doubtless enough by Mr. Croftons Logick to conclude it National and perpetual and not to be violated or made void by any future power or obligation or Covenant whatsoever 7. But wherein is the Covenant contrary to the Protestation 1. In the Protestation we promised to maintain the priviledges of Parliament which as I have shewn before by our standing bound by the Covenant to endeavour the extirpation of Church-Government notwithstanding its establishment by Act of Parliament and by superseding Parliamentary power for ever enjoyning our subjection to it are sufficiently violated 2. In the Protestation we also promised to defend the liberties of the Subject These are also violently seized on by this Second Article of the Covenant herein so great and considerable a part of the Nation as Ecclesiastical Governours are have their freeholds sworn against and their Power and Offices threatned with utter extirpation Notwithstanding the protection of the King and the Laws yea when neither their King that gave them their Commissions nor any to represent them had liberty to vindicate their cause or speak in their behalf in the Parliament when destruction was contriving by this way of a Covenant for them 3. But these things have been hinted before and unanswerably handled by others I hasten to the third and last way of preobligation mentioned viz. for the service of the Church in our generation when I have sealed that from our Oathes and promises now spoken to with that general Rule of Dr. Ames never yet acquainted with doubt Juramentum posterius contra Juramentum aut etiam promissionem Antecedentem honestam non obligat a latter Oath that is against a former honest Oath or but a promise doth not bind 3. Thirdly I doubt not to say that the Covenant cannot bind us to forsake our duties or discharge us from the exercise of our offices in the service of the Church whereunto we are called and to which we are obliged by God in his Word before ever the Covenant was thought on 1. I acknowledge that my Lord of Lincolne teacheth that the seeming hindring of some good doth not simply or precisely alwayes discharge us from our Oath except there be other circumstances concurring which evince it non obliging 2. But there seems to be no roome for a question here when our place and duty requires us to do that which would be hindred for then the discharge results also yea and principally from a former Obligation of God upon us to do our duty 3. A man swears he will never come near such a River more because he had like to have been drowned there but at a distance he sees his Neighbour in the same hazard at the same place now certainly notwithstanding his Oath to the contrary he is bound to help his Brother out and to save his life What is the reason of this there was a prior Obligation of God upon him thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self 4. Dr. Jacob the Casuist puts a harder Case by far then this A man swears to another that he will do him no hurt yet if by the Law he kills him afterwards he doth not break his Oath his reason is quia illa promissio non occidendi subintelligitur nisi lege permittente implying that there was a pre-obligation upon him to fulfill the Law Indeed the thing sworn must be indifferent in it self or at least of weaker necessity then the good that would be hindred by the keeping our Oath and then all Casuists I think concur with Jacob and Sylvester qui indifferens aliquid jurat ut ite ad villam non esse militem c. Dato Casu quo quis vivere nequeat nisi veniat contra Juramentum illud servare non tenetur propriâ Authoritate contravenire potest 5. Now if to endeavour extirpation of Episcopall Government be not sinful I am sure it is non-necessary and then it is but an indifferent thing if so though men have sworn it yet if the keeping their Oath will hinder the doing of their Natural duty both to the King in breaking his Laws casting off his Government and to the Church and our several Congregations in putting our selves into an incapacity according to Law to serve any longer in the Ministry we are so far discharged of our Oath