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
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
A50102 The case of allegiance in our present circumstances consider'd in a letter from a minister in the city to a minister in the country. Masters, Samuel, 1645 or 6-1693. 1689 (1689) Wing M1067; ESTC R7622 29,404 42

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

all Civil Cases decided by their proper Judges my Conscience ought to acquiesce and if I may be thereby misled into any Error it will be without Guilt before God. And I am also inform'd that by a Statute made 11 Hen. 7. we are legally indemnified in paying our Allegiance to the King in being it we continue faithful therein however infirm his Title may afterwards appear and therefore I cannot see what Danger can affright us from our Allegiance or with what Safety we can refuse it Thirdly I have now given you my Resolution of the chief Difficulties in the Case propounded and the Reasons on which it is built and I can think of nothing more requisite to your Satisfaction except to shew how this Resolution doth consist with all the Obligations which may affect a good Conscience in the present Case which are I suppose chiefly these three viz. the Prescriptions of that Holy Religion we profess the Solemn Oaths we have taken or the Declaration we have subscribed and the avowed Principles and Doctrines of this Church in whose Communion we live 1. As to the first The Rule of our Religion being the Holy Scriptures nothing can be inconsistent with one which is not repugnant to the other and according to the best of my Understanding the principles I have proceeded upon do not disagree with any Sacred Text rightly interpreted The first King of Israel we meet with in the Old Testament is Saul who was advanc'd to the Throne as well by God's Institution as the Peoples Election and who was according to the Peoples desire an absolute Monarch like the other Kings in those Eastern Countries But this thanks be to God is not our Case who live under a mixt Government and a Monarchy limited by the fundamental Constitutions of this Realm And yet I cannot but observe how David who is usually prescribed as an eminent Pattern of Loyalty thought it lawful to raise a band of Souldiers for a defensive Resistance against the unjust Persecutions of Saul tho an absolute Prince and surely we may conclude a minori ad majus that such a defensive Resistance cannot be less lawful when apparently necessary to preserve a whole People from imminent Ruine I remember our Lord's determination that his Kingdom is not of this World and as I think We rightly infer from thence that there is no secular Force belonging to his Kingdom for inlarging it's Borders or securing its Intereslts so I can see nothing in these words to hinder but that when any of the Kingdoms of this World is become the Kingdom of Christ by incorporating his Religion among its civil Constitutions then we may use any Expedients for the defence of our Religion which we might use in defending any other Privilodges of our Civil Establishment Our Lord hath taught us to render unto Cesar the things that are Cesar 's and his Apostle that we must render to all Men their Dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custom Fear to whom Fear and Honour to whom Honour but they have lest us to the Constitutions of our Country to determine what the things of Cesar are what Custom and Tribute is due and when to be paid I have already had occasion to consider the Doctrine of St. Paul and St. Peter concerning our duty of Submission to the Supreme Authority and to those who administer it And upon the general review of the whole he seems to me to do the part of a good Christian as well as of a good Englishman who hath on his Mind an awful regard for the Supreme Authority which is op divine Institution who will not refuse an Active Obedience to the Laws of our Legislators if consistent with the Laws of God who can readily submit to the King and to those that are commission'd by him in the Execution of those Laws who pays the highest Civil Honour to the King as the Supreme Magistrate of the Kingdom who makes the most candid and honourable Constructions he can of all his Princes Actions who can quietly submit to any acts of Government tho they seem very unjust and grievous to his private Interestes and who never thinks a defensive Resistance lawful but when apparently necessary to save a Kingdom from utter Ruin. He that can do all this is a good Proficient in his Religion for he will find it not very easy to Flesh and Blood to go so far But they who are not content with any Notion of Religion which will not expose to ruin the Kingdom that embraceth it do but traduces our holy Religion and expose it to the Contempt and Hatred of the World. 2. Let us next consider how the Resolution I have given will consist with the Oaths we have taken and the Declaration we have Subscribed You will here give me leave to premise that the Forms we have sworn or subscrib'd are not to be taken carelesly according to the meer sound of words but are to be understood according to the Sense which they plainly express and which appears to be intended by our Superiors in impasing them And if we consider our Oaths and Declaration according to this Rule we shall discover that they have brought upon us no new degree of Allegiance or Subjection which was not always due according to the ancient Fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom that we have hereby lost none of our English Rights and Liberties nor the King inlarg'd his Prerogative beyond what it always was and ought to be and therefore if according to the ancient Constitutions of this Kingdom the Government is mixt and the Monarchy limited so it continues If the Freemen of England were before these Oaths bound to no Active or Passive Obedience beyond what the Law of the Land prescribes they arc bound to no more since and if it was formerly lawful for the People of England in an extreme necessity to remove a King whose Government was became inconsistent with the Publick-Weal and to set up another by whom the publick Interest may be secur'd it is as lawful still notwithstanding these Oaths we have taken or the Declaration we have subscribed And to evince this more satisfactorily let us descend to Particulars 1. The Oath of Supremacy prescribed 1 Eliz. doth plainly appear from the Preamble and Body of the Act and from all the parts of the Oath it self to be intended only for asserting to the Queen a Supremacy over Ecclesiastical Persons and in Ecclesiastical Causes in opposition to the pretentions of the Pope and Court of Rome When therefore it speaks of bearing Faith and true Allegiance to the Queen and her Heirs and lawful Sucessors it is in oppolition to all Foreign Jurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and when it speaks of our assisting and defending her Jurisdiction Preheminencies and Authorities it is only of such as have been granted or belonging or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And that no new Power was hereby given to