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A52597 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 Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672. 1687 (1687) Wing N1495; ESTC R17198 36,268 70

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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made in the behalf of the Subjects are often upon further Deliberation and Experience of Inconveniencies altered and repealed whereby the Subjects have ease But Acts of Parliament wherein Ecclesiastical Affairs and Mens Consciences are concern'd are seldom or never revised or altered much less repealed no not for the space of an hundred Years can we give an Instance hereof So far are we from repealing Acts made in Ecclesiastical Affairs as is ordinarily in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