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conscience_n humane_a law_n obligation_n 1,134 5 9.8189 5 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61334 An apology for the laws ecclesiastical established that command our publick exercise in religion and a serious enquiry whether penalties be reasonably determined against recusancy / by William Starkey ... Starkey, William, 1620 or 21-1684. 1675 (1675) Wing S5293; ESTC R34597 99,432 218

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Authority That thou esteemest thy self wiser better and Greater than he that is set over thee When thou darest in prejudice wilfully oppose thy own misguided Perswasion against the sober well-grounded Determination of thy Governour which was fixed to minister to Peace And now consider what thou dost that thou maist enjoy thy own obstinate Perswasion thou wilt lose thy Peace and certainly thy gratisying thy Humour will not countervail the loss of thy Peace besides the gauling Guilt of thy wilful Disobedience when by the Light of Nature as well as by the Will of Christ thou art obliged to submit to the Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether of the King as supream c. Thou art from thy heart to be subject to their Determinations not only for wrath but for Conscience sake for though the Law or Ordinance be Humane yet thy obligation is Divine The Law may be positive and voluntary of things in their own nature Indifferent yet thy Submission must be natural to just Determinations and according to the Law of Nature and Rules of Christ as certainly as there is any Morality in the fifth Commandement or that Peter was an Apostle and wrote the Will of Christ who bids us submit to every humane Ordinance for the Lords sake When but two sorts of Laws some Natural that are predetermined but are enlivened and further confirmed others Voluntary or Positive that when not unjust receive their being constituting and ratifying from their promulgation by Governours To both these Subjects are to submit not only for wrath but for Conscience sake And for us of this Nation when God hath manifested his approbation and good-liking to our Governours and Government by his wonderful Restauration it were unworthy to think such Ingratitude could be taxed That either the Governours should be remiss in fixing Just Laws for right Ruling or that Reasonable Subjects should be backward in ready Obeying Conclude we then this Point as to our selves That our Governours of England being appointed for the good of the Nation and having established and published Laws Our Subjects are bound to submit to those Laws accordingly CHAP. III. The first care of Governours should be by Laws to oblige their Subjects generally to a Publick exercise of Religion Section I. The first care and main end of Governours should be to instil and imprint an esteem love and care of Religion in their People II. Governours are to endeavour among their Subjects to promote the outward exercise of Religion III. Governours are to take care that the exercise of Religion among their Subjects be Publick and Vniversal SECT I. The first care and main end of Governours should be to instil and imprint an esteem love and care of Religion in their People 1. FOR it being sufficiently proved That Governours in their Offices are chiefly to aim at and contrive for the general good of the People under them that they may live peaceably and happily and because the means nearest to that end must be Religion their next care to compass this End must be to imprint in the minds of the People an esteem and love of Religion as the directest way to their Happiness That naturally every man hath a sense of a Deity is beyond Controversie He sees and observes himself and all things visible to be made and upheld by an Invisible Power and governed and disposed by a more excellent wisdom and discretion From the Creation and Order of things that are made men by natural Reason may come to the knowledge of a Being not made and independent That He is a Spirit Supream Infinite Omnipotent necessarily Eternal All-sufficient and incomprehensibly transcendent in all Perfections from the light of Reason if not clouded He must be acknowledged and being thus acknowledged he must be worshipped It was not only at Athens but all the World over That the God that Made the World ought to be worshipped That this Infinite Being may not be offended but pleased and that his poor Creatures may escape the dreadful and intollerable effects of his Anger who is Almighty and gain all the ineffable contentments of his Love who is All-sufficient must be the main design of Rational men Now to compass this End certainly Religion and the worship of GOD must be the way And what is Religion It is a respectful observance of that Majesty which is to be reverently adored A due respect of the rational Creature to the Supream Being This Respect consists in three things 1. In high apprehensions and estimation of Gods infinite Excellencies and Perfections To think highly and honourably of God is the beginning of Piety and Religion Aug. 2. In suitable Affections Having rightly esteemed God as the best and greatest of Beings that we fear him as the Greatest and love him as the Best is another part of that Respect we owe to him 3. In a suitable signification of both Man being created for Society and naturally inclining to joyn himself to others and seeing in the state we are in we cannot comfortably hold any Communion but by a sensible signification of our Apprehensions and Affections That we give Attestation of these things must needs be natural and necessary And these Sentiments of the necessity and benefit of Religion all People have had from the beginning All Nations were ever perswaded that they should be most Prosperous who were most Religious No People so Barbarous but they gave joyntly their significations of observance and piety and respect to him they accounted Supream Hence they made some testifications and acknowledgments by Sacrifices and other Religious Rites to appease and make that Deity they adored propitious and gracious And though all Nations and People had originally and naturally received these impressions and perswasions of the necessity and commodiousness of Religion yet we never read nor heard of any Famous Governours but they have revived and cleared these Old Impressions by new Laws and Injunctions And whereas this care of implanting Religion in the minds of the People for their good is to be found in all Governours that improve their Reason to right Ends in the discharge of their Offices yet this Care ought to be chiefly and eminently in those Governours that besides the light of Reason have from the publication of the Gospel a most clear discovery of the infinite Excellencies and Perfections of God and of that true Religion which ties men to God which teaches whom and how we ought to worship For if to have God Infinite appeased to us and pleased with us be mans ultimate End and this End is no otherwise attainable than by Religion most easily attainable by the best and truest and that is the Religion prescribed to us in the Gospel certainly that our Rulers should command an observance of that Religion of the Gospel is very agreeable to the end of their Constitution and to their Profession of being Christians The first design of a Ruler set over the People for their good is