Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A43807
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Solomon and Abiathar, or, The case of the deprived bishops and clergy discussed, between Eucheres a conformist, and Dyscheres a recusant
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Hill, Samuel, 1648-1716.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing H2012; ESTC R12780
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26,571
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41
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Oath to promise that Allegiance due by our Laws to Kings thus actually admitted which I here Remark that you may not here Object the Intention of the Imposer to make us swear what they judged to be Right And here also I must further advertise you that the Courts Assigned to Administer this Oath being the Authentick Interpreters thereof and the Imposers Intention never gave an Interpretation Affirmative of Right that I ever heard of when consulted hereupon but on the contrary I am very well assured that several Courts have given and admitted such Sences as the most tender Recusant might have sworn to and in which Men as Loyal as themselves concurred Dyscher The Laws and Judgments of Men many times permit and require Iniquity and the Prevarication of Courts in the admitting Sences not intended in the Oath on purpose to elude it is a mere mockery of God Humane Powers and Mens Consciences Eucher Whether Courts prevaricate in their Judgments or no private Persons cannot judge to any Civil Effect or Obligation and so what they determine must be taken for Law till Condemned by a Superiour Court or nulled by the Legislative And as to their inward Sincerity God alone is to be their Judge But supposing the Courts may warp the Design of the Oath and the Law on purpose to ease tender Consciences what prevarication is there in these tender Consciences that Religiously took care to have an innocent Sence Authoritatively admitted on which and no other they would take the Oath Dyscher This was a colour pretended only to save their Estates for if they took the Oath really they took it in the Sence of the Imposer and not the feigned Intention but if they did not take the Oath at all then is the State beguiled by a Pretence which is not agreeable to a Christian much less to Priestly Sincerity Eucher If these Men had made Reservations in the Oath they took Insincerity might have been justly chargeable on them but if they demanded of the Court the Imposers Sence and the Court gave an Innocent one and they declared they took it in that Sence so given in Form of Law and no other they certainly did not prevaricate with the State nay it had been a Prevarication to have taken it in any other Sence than what the Court had given And if they really took not the Oath as the Parliament intended they took it as directed by Their Majesty's Judges and could take it no otherwise and if Their Majesties by Their Courts declared their Sence in the passing the Act for the Oath in favour to all innocent and tender Consciences I hope it was no Insincerity to accept that Lenity and Ease and at once to save their Stations and their Consciences and the Publick Peace of Church and State Dyscher But what if a Man be perswaded of the Impiety of this whole Revolution and thinks that the Vengeance of God will fall upon the Nation hereupon can he in Piety swear himself a Party to those Sins on which he expects God's dreadful Judgments Eucher If Men's Minds be entangled in wrong Notions they can act well no way neither with nor against their Perswasions But then such Men's Infirmities how pitiable soever must not obstruct Publick Constitutions Now if such Perswasions be well grounded there must be a Publick Rule of Conscience to justifie them And here I demand what Law of God manifestly makes it a Sin to comport with Civil Powers settled according to the Forms and Laws of Nations though many Immoralities have led the way and Preparations to such Settlements They that act sinfully to introduce such new Powers have Cause to expect God's heavy Displeasure but they that contribute no evil to the Change but submit to it when publickly settled are perhaps one sort of the Meek that shall inherit the Earth in yielding that active Obedience which St. Paul requires to the Powers or Authorities in being and St. Peter to the Humane Constitution And therefore were there no other crying Sins of the Nation The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Per. 2.13 Denotes the Acts of Settlement to be of Humane Law Right and Forms though the Authority of the Persons thus Settled or Constituted be Divine And 't is very harsh to understand it for Mankind this peaceable yielding to Humane Constitutions needs not be dreaded So little ground is there for those your Superstitious Jealousies Dyscher 'T is easie for Sophistry to put fair Glosses upon foul Matters but if K. James ever return these Recusants will be able to make a better Plea son their Cause than you will for yours And though they may be Persecuted again for their Religion yet can they not suffer as Traitors and Evil-doers And herein they comfort themselves though they are for Conscience sake killed all the day long and are counted as Sheep appointed to be slain But you What will you say when it shall be demanded of you by what Authority you transferred your Allegiance without his Will When it shall be objected That you were sworn to him not the Estates of this Realm and he not they had the only Right of disposing your Allegiance Eucher Upon such a Turn as you mention I grant you good Answers may have no Reception for Swords and Guns have no Ears But yet a good Answer may be given to wit That we had his Authentick Grant for so doing Dyscher That is strange Eucher Did not K. James in his Declaration for Indulgence Dispense with the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to all his Subjects Dyscher That was an ineffectual and null Act in it self as being contrary to Law Eucher Must the Law then be the Rule of Civil Actions both in King and People Dyscher It must so Eucher Was K. James's Coronation Oath a Legal Act Dyscher It was so Eucher Then by that he swore to assert unto this People their Laws Rights and Liberties Which Laws and Liberties do assign our Allegiance to the King for the time being though extralineal And if the Lineal Heir may hang me as a Traitor for breach of that Allegiance to an extralineal King by which himself was a while excluded whether this Law be equal or no though I believe it is very equal yet it is equal that the Subject should not be hanged for observing that Law by the same Prince who may by the Law hang him for not observing it And they that venture so much upon their Integrity to K. James if they break the Laws of Allegiance to K. William may be hanged by K. James as Traytors when he returns according to Law A fine colour for Papists to dispatch those Protestants that by their being intowered blasted all their fine Projects upon our Liberties and Religion Dysch But will not this inferr Subjection due to O. C was he not settled much more absolutely and strongly than K. William And yet we see upon the return of K. Charles the Second all his Laws
pronounced null and all his Adherents liable to Punishment and needing a Pardon And those Church-men were in the right who refused the Engagement though by your new Doctrines they resisted the Ordinance of God in O. C. to their own Damnation Eucher To which I Reply First That his Acts had no Legal Validity according to our Laws because he was not King and no Allegiance by those Laws was due to him Nor yet had he any Legal Form of Settlement according to the general Rules of Civil Laws For meer Possession by force of Arms is no Legal Establishment in a Throne by those Laws till it acquire a federal Admission and Homage in a Nation either virtually by long Prescription of Publick Accordance or formally by an immediate and publick Act of Submission by the Estates or Representatives of a Nation Now as O. C. wanted the Plea of Prescription so neither could or did he pretend a National Contract as having no Lord 's House nor free House of Commons On the Sence of which Defect he so earnestly but vainly struggled by Art and Force to compass it So that all the Power of O. C. acquired no Form of Right or Legal Settlement and consequently the Laws of Allegiance to the Royal Heir were still in force and obliging to which O. C. himself was by Law and Oath Subject and being so could not be Sovereign at the same time Upon which occasion I cannot but highly commend that Notion of Compact which you so frankly scout in that it gives us Lawful Right to Repell Tyrants and Intruders though it cannot palliate Treasons against lawfully settled Princes And for the further recommendation hereof I could particularly shew that it was the Form of Settlement in all the Kings of God's own People admitted by God at their importunity according to the then way and manner of the Nations But this is a Digression and so I forbear to say more upon it Dyscher Well! Admitting these your Arguments to be true and with you sufficiently perswasive to Conformity what Inference do you hereupon draw against the Recusants who have other Notions to them convincing on which they build their Practice Eucher First I inferr that there is no ground for Recusancy and Secondly much less for Separation from us and our Publick Assemblies from which we do not exclude you and Lastly That the Church is not guilty of Sin in admitting new Bishops and Ministers into the Places of the Deprived considering the Authorities Causes and Consequences of things and the Temper with which the Church submits to this Ecclesiastical Change Dyscher The Grounds of Recusancy to us seem real and yours nothing but Shade and Varnish But Secondly admitting them to be true yet not being obviously but intricately so they who cannot arrive to a Conviction by them are certainly bound not to joyn in those Prayers which recommend those unto God for Sovereigns whom we judge not such against him who is our Sovereign but ranked among the Number of K. W's and Q. M's Enemies Eucher But how comes this Change about The Prayers for K. William and Q. Mary were consented to by all the Recusant Bishops and by them for their Officers without any Prohibition sent to the Clergy of every Diocess and by them generally received The Bishops were present at them directed their Clergy upon Consultation to use them And thus things stood till the day of their Suspension No blowing the Publick Trumpet against Perjury no denunciation of Anathema against these Prayers but a general calm and candid Concession in that disputable Case to every Conscience to act upon its own best Light How then comes it to pass that we are all of a sudden Perjured and Apostate and yet have no Publick Instrument or Means of Conversion or Conviction For against this 't is unworthy to object the danger of Persecution When the Souls of Men and the Churches Integrity are concerned there the Watchman ought not to wink there the Men of God ought not to be silent but first loudly forewarn and after as loudly labour to reverse the Evil. This is the more Rational in that we do not seem sine ratione insanire but have very momentous and weighty Reasons for our Conformity which will excuse from wilful Perjury and which are not refuted though where our Apologists happen to trip they are animadverted on with all uncharitable severity And as to the danger of Praying against K. James 't is certain the Prayers express him not and if you Rank him among the Number of K. William's Enemies you may best know that but we do not so for an Enemy is one that designeth to injure a Man and we are not sure K. James doth so design against K. William and yet if he doth 't is Lawful to Pray that K. William may therein vanquish and overcome him that is defeat him in that injurious Design for no more can be intended in these Prayers for we Pray for no Man's no King's Destruction or Hurt but for all Christian King's and Governours even those against whom we Wage open War Dyscher But in the Service of the 29th of May there is a Prayer that voweth Allegiance to Their Majesties K. William and Q. Mary and how can we upon our Principles be present at that Prayer Eucher Then forbear to be present at it tho' I have been by a good Author assured That the Recusant Bishops did not at first stick at that but that some gave Directions and Consent to the use of it and also before their Suspension deputed Persons to Administer the Oath in the Execution of the Authorities and Offices Episcopal thus deputed which must argue that they did not think that Ministery unlawful or which God forbid us in the least to suspect that themselves were not sincere Dyscher You must allow Men to retract their Errors Eucher And expect the Reasons of such Change and not instead thereof an inexorable Censure upon us for no other Actions than what themselves deliberately and long countenanced and authorised and in which we can yet see no harm lest by condemning us to Penitence they put themselves into the same Crime and under the same Expiation Dyscher But to come to the main how do you acquit your selves from Schism in rejecting your Fathers and Brethren driven by the State from their Stations in the Church for mere Conscience sake For admitting them to be in Error the Error is in Points of Law and the Obligations of Statutes and the Oaths enacted by them in which the Judgments of Lawyers vary with the turns of State Have they done any positive Injury Have they violated their Innocency or stained the Sanctity of their Order that they should be cast out as Reprobate Is Error in entangled Laws Heresie and fear of Perjury and the appearance of Evil Infidelity Such Judgment I trust will not pass upon them in the Day when God shall gather and bind up his Jewels Eucher The