Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	humane_a	law_n	obligation_n	1,134	5	9.8189	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35998	The vnlavvfulnesse of subjects taking up armes against their soveraigne in what case soever together with an answer to all objections scattered in their severall bookes : and a proofe that, notwithstanding such resistance as they plead for, were not damnable, yet the present warre made upon the king is so, because those cases in which onely some men have dared to excuse it, are evidently not now, His Majesty fighting onely to preserve himselfe and the rights of the subjects.	Diggs, Dudley, 1613-1643.	1643 (1643)	Wing D1462; ESTC R10317	134,092	174

ignorance drawing out of broken cisterns the seditious writings of the Roman and the Reformed Jesuites and transcribing one another and so are taught and reach to despise dominion and speake evill of those things which they know not §. 3. I Make no question the proposition is now evident that the supreme power in any State let it be where it will somewhere it must be for else it were an Anarchy and no government ought not to be resisted This makes rebellion sin as transgressing divine and humane lawes In the next place for the perfect direction of conscience Most necessary to know the subject of Supremacy wee must examine in whom the supreme power is placed a mistake in this is as dangerous as an errour in the former For as zeale which is not according to knowledge is impiety for though it have the heat it hath not the light which is required to true devotion so the most scrupulous obedience is but humble rebellion if it be misplaced and yielded to fellow Subjects against him who hath jus regnandi the right to command them Thus in an Aristocracy to aide one man against the Senate is Treason against the State and in a Monarchy because the constitution is different and places the supreme power in one to aide the Senate of which that one is the head and opposed to him they are but a livelesse trunk in order to those things to which his influence is necessary Fortescue warrants the expression sine capite communitas non corporatur against the Monarch and supreame Ruler is rebellion and treason against the State The Assumption therefore shall be The King of ENGLAND hath this supreame power when this is proved the conscience must take law from this necessary Inference therefore it is unlawfull for Subjects to hold up armes against the King of England Because as it is an absurdity in speculation so it is sinne in practice to deny the conclusion there they offend against Logique here against Religion also For whatsoever is not of faith that is not of judgment whatsoever wee doe against our owne reason and the light of conscience is transgression The matter of this discourse is of high concernment For as things now stand on it hang Heaven or Hell our salvation or eternall damnation If the King be the highest power you are bound to submit to him but if you have new Soveraignes if your fellow Subjects are become the Lords anoynted there may be some colour of justification Except this be proved you are altogether inexcusable as appeares in the last Section and therfore it will behoove you to hearken to Solomons advice My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise sodainely Prov. 24. 21. 22. Certainely unconcerned men will thinke I have undertaken no very difficult taske The Kings Supremacy witnessed by out Oath If I can but perswade the Kings adversaries they have not forsworne themselves I shall recover them to due obedience but I must tell them if they were not perjur'd in taking the Oath of Supremacy not to mention now that of Alleagiance they are so in breaking it The words are so expresse that not any colourable glosse can be invented to excuse the violation of this solemne Sacrament I A. B. doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings highnesse is the only supreame Governour of this Realme and of all other His Highnesse Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall c. I d● promise that from henceforth I shall beare faith and true allegiance to the Kings Highnesse His Heires and lawfull Successours and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions priviledges preheminences and authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnesse His Heires and Successours or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme So helpe me God and by the Contents of this Booke It hath beene replyed That this Oath is taken in opposition to the Pope to exclude the Supremacy usurped by him for many yeares They speake truth but not all the truth for there are two parts in it One negative by which wee professe that not any forraigne State or Potentate nor the Pope hath this power The other positive by which the Subject of this power is specified The Kings Highnesse is the onely supreame Governour of this Realme as in all Spirituall things and causes so likewise Temporall Both Ecclesiasticall and Civill supremacy are here asserted to be in the King It was not thought sufficient to tell who was not Supreme but they declare also who was When we had truly sworne the Pope out of this Kingdome what necessity was there to make the people perjur'd for certainely they forsweare themselves who solemnely testifie and declare in their conscience That the Kings highnesse is the onely supreme Governour if the meaning of those words be onely this that the Pope is not It concernes us as highly as our Soules are worth reddere juramentum domino to performe unto the Lord our Oath and not to lift up those hands against the King which were layd upon the holy Gospell in witnesse of our submission to him as the onely supreme Governour What desperate malice is it to expose our Soules to every Musket shot if wee fall we perish eternally This sad contemplation that wee stand on the very brinke of Hell ready to be turned into the Lake of everlasting woes by every sword every bullet will smite our hearts and make our armes feeble in the day of battaile what confusion amazement and horrour of conscience must needs seize upon all considering men Think upon the heinousnesse of parricide to murther a Father is a sin greater then any one is able to beare But to spill the bloud of our Soveraigne which they have done who fought against him for it is murderin Gods sight his goodnesse in protecting his servant doth not excuse their sin in endeavouring to destroy their King whom God commands not to touch and whose life we have sworn to defend with the utmost hazard of our owne and we have desired the Lord to revenge it in our destruction if we doe otherwise is of a much deeper dye For the King is Pater patriae a common Father to all without a Metaphor what ever power Fathers had over and consequently whatsoever honour as an effect of this power was due to them from their children he hath right to challenge the same of all And though we should joyne together King hath paternall powers from consent of the people and call our selves the Common-wealth we can no more lawfully dis-respect give law to resist upon hard usage or say he is lesse honourable then all we then children by agreement may dispense with their duty to their parents It was our owne act which united all particular paternall powers in Him and that these

be impatient though we be cut off by a wicked executioner Exc. Many examples are alleadged out of the old Testament to colour this breach of duty Answ We have plaine precept not to resist and must conforme our actions to knowne rules not the practice of others For instance Who can lift up his hands against the Lords anoynted and be guiltlesse this implyes a command not to rebell Let every soule be subject to the higher powers He that resists the power resists the ordinance of God Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreame or unto Governours as unto those who are sent by him Legibus vivendum est non exemplis Examples can onely shew what was done not what ought to be done To answer briefly the examples by them produced are either impertinent as being acted upon Usurpers or not to be drawne into a rule because extraordinarily allowed by God who may dispense with his owne law but this cannot warrant our imitation no more then the Israelites robbing the Aegyptians can licence Plundering or any other illegall weakning the wicked or Jacobs lying to his Father can excuse want of sincerity and truth when by false reports they may probably undoe their brethren or Jaels breaking trust in murdering Sisera can dispense with killing enemies after composition made to save their lives or lastly they were unjust To runne over the particulars would be more tedious then profitable because they are all clearly solved by applying one of these three They are impertinent or extraordinary or wicked Secondly If wee should grant that it were lawfull for the Jewes to resist Tyrants in their owne defence this comes not home to us who are called as Saint Peter sayes to beare the Crosse and to follow Christs example When wee are in danger of being killed for our Religion all that is allowed to us is only to flye from one City to another Wee may better submit to so high a degree of patience in consideration our well being is not provided for in this world and despise death because the joyes of eternall life are so plainly set before us in the Gospell whereas under the Law they were entertained with promises of temporall blessings and it must needs goe to their hearts to loose the proposed reward of keeping the Law length of dayes by their due observance of it and this upon a suspicion of a better life rather then a confidence grounded upon any plaine promise Exc. 1 I have formerly shewed the practice of the primitive Christians which was so apparent that not having so much impudence as to deny it neverthelesse they have invented severall exceptions to it which take of the glory of their innocence I have beaten them out of their strongest fort which was this deerant vires They had a good will to rebell but wanted power onely Exc. 2 The Christians were but private men and for that reason could not lawfully resist but if they had beene countenanced with the authority of the Senate questionlesse they would not have submitted themselves so tamely to the slaughter Answ First these men who grant thus much are bound in conscience to answer their owne arguments drawne from the law of nature which they tell us allowes selfe defence though with the Magistrates destruction and taken from the chiefe topique of their invectives that no body did contract to be ill-governed much lesse to be ruined and therefore no obligation can lye upon them not to preserve themselves But these and such like reasons are evidently confuted by all those Texts which bind us to suffer though wrongfully as wee have Christ for an example c. Those holy men who submitted their bodies to the flames lookt upon martyrdome not as a thing of choice but of duty They might have pleaded the law of nature and and the injustice of their persecutors whose office was to be a terror to the evill and to countenance doing that which is good but such sophistry could not prevaile upon religion which had bound up their hands from revenging themselves upon private men and much lesse upon the Magistrate Secondly that the Senate had no authority to wage Warre against their Emperour will be evinced from Rom. 13. 1. 1 Pet 2. 13. 14. applyed to the civill constitutions of the Roman Empire Submit to the King as supreme that is to the Roman Emperour saith Diodati c. all'imperator Romano detto tal-uolta Rè dalle natione stranieri Vlpian acquaints us there was not any legall power but in him what he determines hath the force of law he adds the reason because the people in whom the Senate are included by the lexregia gave unto him the right to manage all their power Vtpote cum lege Regia quae de imperio ejus lata est populus ei in eum which signifies in se saith Theophilus omne suum imperium potestatem conferat l. quod princ D. de const princ Justinian clearely decides the case if the Emperour shall take any cause into his cognizance omnes omnino judices let all judges whatsoever know that this sentence is law to all effects not only in the particular cause but it becomes a rule to decide all like cases by For what is greater what more sacred then the Imperiall Majesty or who is so insolent ut regalem sensum contemnat The sense even of the Senate was not to stand in competition with Royall constitutions l. si imperial D. de legib Wee may fitly observe that some Emperours did by Acts of grace limit their legislative power which was solely in them and bind themselves from the use of it without the advice of the Senate as is to be seene l. humanum Cod. de legib and may be collected from Auth. Habita quidem C. ne fili and divers other constitutions yet this gave no power to the people to be imployed against them if they should not performe their duty This grant made the Roman Empire like the Kingdome of England for wee have a cleare and full testimony from our Common Law that the legislative power is onely in the King though the use of it be restrained to the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament le Roy fait les leix avec le consent du Seigneurs Communs non pas les Seigneurs Communs avec le consent du Roy. The King makes Lawes with the consent of the Lords and Commons and not the Lords and Commons with the consent of the King or that which Virgil describes gaudet regno Trojanus Acestes Indicitque forum Patribus dat jura vocatis It is the most unreasonable thing that ever was fancyed that Subjects assembled should have greater authority then their King without whose call they could not have met together and at whose pleasure they are dissolved in Law and bound to depart to their owne homes Exc. 3 The Anticavalier doth pitifully intangle

the State They may aswell challenge a Priviledge to breake all the Commandements for the Saints advantage If then we may not doe evill though we propose a reall good as the fruite of sin certainely those whom divine ordinance commands to be subject cannot usurpe office and rule and take upon them to judge their Judges If revenge be unlawfull in private men acted upon private men how much is it a higher sinne upon the Magistrate By whom alone Christians can right themselves and therefore their hands are bound from being used against him Exc. Selfe preservation is justifiable by the law of nature Answ I grant this hands were given to men for this purpose This right to defend our selves flowes from hence that by an inbred affection every one is most deare to himselfe and it doth not alwayes presuppose a fault in those who endanger our lives For if they set upon mee mistaking mee for another man who hath injur'd them or if they are lunatique I am no more bound naturally to give up my life to madnesse or errour then to the ravenous fury of wolves or lions It is very truely determined by the civil law in reference to nature Jure hoc evenit ut quod quisque ob tutelam corporis sui fecerit jure fecisse existimetur L. ut vim D. de just jur But this will nothing advantage them in the present case For by that which they call Law of nature is meant onely right of nature which is not a command but a permission onely and therefore it may be and indeed it is actually restrained by positive constitutions whether divine or civill For example all things were common iure naturali by the right of nature and yet the lawes of property are now binding to us Hence is discovered the hollownesse of their discourses upon this principle It is the most naturall worke in the world for every thing to preserve it selfe and therefore when a Common-wealth shall choose a Prince or a State officer though they trust him with their welfare then that act of their trust is but by positive law and therefore cannot destroy the naturall law which is selfe preservation cum humana potestas supra jus naturae non existit seing that no humane power is above the law of nature So Master Bridge in his wounded conscience p. 2. Upon the same principle he must conclude Society which was regulated by the pactions of men cannot take away our native liberty For jure naturaliomnes homines ab initioliberi nascebantur instit de just iu. t. 2. § 5. nor can property which was established by positive agreement destroy the right of naturall community He must needs perceive the weakenesse of his reasoning The answer to it is this Humane power is not above the law of nature peremptorily commanding to doe such a thing and abstaine from such things of this law Cicero spake haec lex diffusa est in omnes est sempiterna a quâ homines neque per senatum neque per populum possunt solui liberari l. 3. de Rep. and Ovid makes it unalterable Naturam verò appello legem omnipotentis Supremique patris quam primâ ab origine rerum Cunctis imposuit rebus jussitque teneri Inviolabiliter But humane power is above the law or rather the right of nature which doth permit a freedome of doing or not doing according to discretion Else no contracts could be of force because by the law of nature men were free and the obligation is positive as arising from promise which it was in our power not to make but having once made it we have tied our hands from using native liberty Of this permissive law Aristotle spake pol. 7. cap. 13. Homines adductos ratione multa praeter mores naturam agere si aliter agi melius esse sibi persuaserint and againe some things of nature depend upon our choyse and cease to be of force when we please to part with our naturall rights not all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ethic l. 5. cap. 7. Secondly it concludes it lawfull for any private man to kill the King or his owne Father in his owne defence which most of that side have disavowed and therefore they must acknowledge this argument is very hollow For the clearer understanding of the controversy because I take no delight in confuting but onely in the hopes of satisfing them and I request them for their owne sakes to weigh my reasons with the same moderation and calmenesse wherewith they are written Selfe preservation is naturall that is Nature doth not forbid any man to defend himselfe though he must thereby kill another his destruction was not primarily intended but he was forced to make use of such unfortunate meanes in pursuance of no dishonest end to retaine his owne right of living But though nature doth not forbid it yet the Gospell doth as it restraines us of many innocent delights if we measure them onely by naturall right Private revenge is unanswerably prohibited by the Evangelicall law Recompence to no man evill for evill dearely beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not lawfull to right your selves to doe your selves justice Rom. 12. Obj. The strongest objection against it which can be made is that we are not bound to love our neighbour better then our selves therefore we may rather Kill then be Killed I speake onely against private revenge that is an execution of justice not commanded by law for we may be bound not to part with our lives if the Common-wealth armes us and injoynes us to defend our selves because the preservation of the State is concerned in our safety in that case Saevitia est voluisse mori Ans. I deny the argument the antecedent is very true but the consequence infirme because we do not love him above our selves though We part with our lives rather then destroy his For we shall thereby gaine eternall life if we doe not contrary to the rules of charity cut him off in his sinne which will certainely damne him If any make scruple that themselves are sinners too and so unprepared to dye and therefore as good reason they have they may refuse to be damned onely to leave their enemy in a possibility of being saved These feares may easily be solved Greater charity then this hath no man then to lay down his life for his enemy and it were very strange if men should go to hell with as great charity as the highest Saints are rewarded with heaven for Perfect charity is the fulfilling of the law and as effectuall as universall obedience to Christs praecepts the condition of the Gospell To resigne our lives that is the capacity of serving God longer out of conscience to obey him though against the strongest temptation is such an heroicall act that the excellency of it may supply the want of duration It is an infallible signe of hearty repentance and

hand or purse in the evills which are brought upon him and the whole land Betray not your bad tempers so ●arre that it should appeare you will do more for feare then love lest your base natures may induce hereafter a stricter governement when experience doth demonstrate the worst masters have the best servants Let not his lenity which doth deserve to find friends be the onely cause he hath so many enemies If I must direct my speech as unto cowards for you have no excuse for disloyalty but your feares consider with your selves how God hath blessed his servant with three potent and successefull Armies all of them raised with such disadvantages as they clearly speake an immediate providence giving testimony to the sincerity of his many sacred protestations beside many hopefull Seminaries in divers Countries and thousands of gallant Gentlemen and brave spirits in other Shires now unfortunately situated O tristi damnata loco who wait for an oportunity to revenge their tame suffering hitherto and the unworthy usage from fellow Subjects If notwithstanding all this you could unreasonably flatter your selves with being the stronger side yet you have juster and greater feares elsewhere which ought to give Law to your cowardise which hath betrayed your alleagiance For what would it profit you if you should save your houses from being plunder'd though this is the most probable way to hazard your estates which are forfeited to the King cannot be escheated to them and loose your soules for which the whole world is but a base price There is evident danger in fighting against the King but the Apostle threatens certaine destruction because you fight against your owne consciences Their severall exceptions and corrupt glosses by which they endeavour to avoyd this plaine obligation of non resistance I shall meet with in the fourth section The practise of primitive christians is a faithfull commentary upon these texts The duty not to resist proved further by the practise of the more innocent ages of the Church And certainly their authority who witnesse to their owne disadvantage teaching submission though to tyrants under which they cheerefully suffered according to Christs example ought to prevaile with us above any moderne writers who have broached a doctrine very seasonable for some places and occasions but unknowne to those innocent times when Christianity thrived upon suffering and gained as much by patience as it is likely to loose by stubbornnesse that it is lawfull for inferior Magistrates say some and this from the fundamentalls of government for the people others tells us and this from the law of nature to right themselves by force if the supreme Magistrate deny to do it and so faile of that trust which was committed to him for the good of others These principles lately taken up open a faire way for advancement of private ends by disturbance of publique peace either upon reall which oft times are or at least pretended faults in governours which shall never be wanting whilst there are ambitious men who want preferment and desire to have what others are possest of and make it a reasonable cause to endeavour innovation because they may be bettered by the change In what an unhappy State do we live if such a number upon pretence we are not so well governed as we might be that is they have not so great a share in the government as they could wish for and since the greater part can never be satisfied we cannot hope for peace and quiet shall be enabled to force the King to recede from lawes and in the roome of those knowne and standing rules to give us uncertaine temporary ordinances The Emperours were for the most part very bad but especially to the Christians they were hard masters Though the Romans counted it the highest gallantry to shake off the yoke when it galled them and did oft rebell in the cause of liberty and it is a sad thing that this pagan bravery should be preferred to the tamenesse which Christ injoyned to his followers of all good actions the murder of a tyrant is most commendable sayes one Euseb Philad dial 2. And Buchanan thinkes it a defect in policy that rewards are not allotted for such meritorious deeds yet the Christians could never be tempted by their greatest sufferings to joyne in any conspiracy Tertullian professes their innocency and he is to be looked upon in this case not as a single witnesse but as one that wrote in the name of all his Apologetique is the sence of the whole Church We may be confident of the truth because it was a matter of fact and we have no reason to suspect he could be so vainly impudent as to present that in their justification which must be evidently convinced of falsehood He makes a bold challenge and desires them to produce if they can one example of any Christian taking part with rebells Such as Cassius Niger Albinus Cleander Aelius Letus the Pretorian souldiers who murdered Pertinax Stephanus and Parthenius were It is manifest these were not traitours out of wantonnesse there were just grounds for heavy complaints under Domitian Commodus and Septimius Severus all bloudy tyrants Yet the Christians were better catechised then to thinke resistance lawfull when they were oppressed by those whose duty it was to have protected them Their unanimous confession is nos judicium Dei suspicimus in imperatoribus qui gentibus illos praefecit I shall give you the sense of it at large We kisse the hands which wound us though they have not any cause to doe such things yet there is too much cause why we should suffer them we must acknowledge our sinns towards God and he may punish them in what way he thinkes fit We cannot deny but we have deserved as great afflictions and shall we who are guilty be stubborne when patience is required though we were most innocent The example of Christ is made our law and in him no sin was found We cannot suffer more nor boast lesse demerit If we did serioussly consider it we could not hate the worst governours for we have no reason to be angry because they do things to our advantage and certaine it is if we submit with patience their sins further our salvation their faults encrease our glory What pitty is it they should goe to Hell for that which procures us a higher place in heaven Nay what uncharitablenesse is it in us to cut them off in their sin and so send them thither And it is a sad meditation to think that we shall follow because we could not indure their company here we take a course to live together eternally miserable Cyprian inforces this meeknesse with excellent reason God saith he to Demetrian is the revenger of his injur'd servants in which this argument is implyed Vengeance belongs unto the Lord and except we can produce his Commission our private justice will damne us animam in vulnere in our enemies wounds our soules will bleed to