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
A81826	Of the right of churches and of the magistrates power over them. Wherein is further made out 1. the nullity and vanity of ecclesiasticall power (of ex-communicating, deposing, and making lawes) independent from the power of magistracy. 2. The absurdity of the distinctions of power and lawes into ecclesiasticall and civil, spirituall and temporall. 3. That these distinctions have introduced the mystery of iniquity into the world, and alwayes disunited the minds and affections of Christians and brethren. 4. That those reformers who have stood for a jurisdiction distinct from that of the magistrate, have unawares strenghthened [sic] the mystery of iniquity. / By Lewis du Moulin Professour of History in the Vniversity of Oxford.	Du Moulin, Lewis, 1606-1680.	1658 (1658)	Wing D2544; Thomason E2115_1; ESTC R212665	195,819	444

the minister of the Gospell yet he may command in his own name the law of God which the minister of the Gospell may not It is the opinion of the gravest Divines that ministers have no power of legislation which being granted it is not possible they should have a power of jurisdiction for it was never heard that he that hath no power of or capacity to legislation can have any to jurisdiction for every member of Parliament is supposed to be capable of exercising jurisdiction but were he disinabled to have a power of legislation by that he should loose all capacity to bear any office of jurisdiction Camero is very expresse in his tract de Ecclesia p. 369. where having shewed that there be two things which are the matter of law 1. faith and good manners 2. things that pertain to order and discipline he addes in neither kind the church hath power to make lawes having said a little before that what proceedeth from the church ought rather to be called admonitions and exhortations then lawes Musculus is no lesse expresse in his common places p. 6●1 We do confidently assert that all that power by which authentick lawes are made binding the subjects to obey whether they be called civil or eccle siasticall do not belong to the church that is to the multitude of the faithfull and subjects nor to the church-minister but properly to the sole magistrate to whom is given a mere command merum imperium over the subjects 3. This sheweth the invalidity of all canons decrees and sentences of church-judicatories which except they be known to be equitable true and just are not to be obeyed since the validity of an ecclesiasticall law is not like that of the magistrates which be it never so unjust hath the force of a law but sure none of our presbyterian brethren will maintain that all judgements and sentences of church-judicatories are infallible and therefore it belongeth to every man censured by such a judicatorie to be well informed of the justice truth and equity of the censure before he obeyeth it yea before it hath the force or name of a censure For it fares with the sentences of ministers as with the counsels of physitians which must convince the party of the necessity of vielding to this or that remedy their commands must have alwayes some reason annexed why they must be obeyed but the law of the magistrate needs none and permits none to interpret it but obey it according to the letter Lawes are variously divided into Divine and humane ecclesiasticall and civil morall ceremoniall and politick Some call those divine which are made by God and those humane which are made by men others call them divine lawes which rule the conscience and those humane laws which govern the outward man But none of these divisions are without their defects for humane lawes govern and oblige the conscience as the Apostle tells us Ro. 13. and albeit all humane lawes are not divine yet all divine lawes are so far humane as the magistrate giveth a sanction to them and imposeth an obligation in the court of man to obey them Likewise the division of lawes into morall policick and ceremoniall hath its defects for I conceive that the morall law is the ground and basis of the ceremoniall and politick and a rule by which God is to be worshipped State cities families fathers husbands children servants must be governed So that the ceremoniall law is but the morall law applied to the use of divine worship and the politick or civil law is but the morall law applyable to the practise and conversation of life at home and abroad The holy Scripture putteth no such distinction 1. God was alike the author of them all 2. God only and Moses his deputy on earth did give a sanction and stamp of obligation to them all 3. The matter indeed was diverse and so are the military lawes distinct from the matrimoniall and testamentary and yet are they all comprehended under the civil law because the civil magistrate giveth force of law to them alike upon that account why may not the morall and ceremoniall law be called civil 4. Because when the Scripture speaketh of the perfection of the law of God of those that walk in the lawes of God that the law of Moses was read every Sabbath that many dayes passed without law the whole body of the lawes given by Moses is understood without any such partition 5. Because the same persons judged every causes and matter punishable by the law there being as Mr. Gillespie faineth no such thing as a judicatory ecclesiasticall for ecclesiasticall causes a civil bench where the judges decided civil or politick causes for so we should need a third bench of judges medling with morall matters and causes Yet Mr. Gillespie p. 14. grants that the Jewes had no other civil law but Gods own law and besides that the Levites judged not only in the businesse of the Lord but also in the businesse of the King 1 Chron. 2. v. 30. 32. And so falls down the division of lawes into ecclesiasticall and civil for 1. They differ not in kind otherwise then a man from an animall this being the genus the other the species 2. All lawes devised by men whatever subject and matter they are about are civil politick and lawes of that power that giveth them force and vigour of lawes such are all the constitutions about discipline of the church which in vain they call ecclesiasticall 3. If a law were to be called ecclesiasticall because it handleth lawes for the government of the church we should need as many kinds of lawes as there be societies in the world and we should have one peculiar classis for lawes to govern schools and Universities another to govern societies of merchants a third for societies of drapers I do not deny but that a law may be as properly called ecclesiasticall as a law is called nauticall military testamentary matrimoniall either because they are about matters of churches armies wills husbands wives or because they were invented for the benefit of churches souldiers married people and the like but in vain do they think to call a law ecclesiasticall because not only it is of church-matters but also because it must be made by ecclesiasticall men and receive form and sanction from them and because all causes matters which they call ecclesiasticall must be judged by ecclesiasticall men For 1. As ecclesiasticall power if there be any such thing must be subordinate to the civil as we have proved before so ecclesiasticall lawes to the civil lawes 2. Ministers having no power of legislation nor of jurisdiction therefore lawes to govern Christians in churches need not to take their name from church minister or ministery but from the magistrate who is the maker latour and giver of them and binds men to a submission to them under penalty Musculus in the above-quoted place disproveth at large this

necessarie in every judicatorie not so much as one of them is found in the court of Mr. Calandrin 1. They do not cite the party they entreat him to come if he will not come they have no remedy they cannot compell him 2. They have no witnesses nor evidences of the case and therefore cannot pronounce sentence 3. The absolution must be null when they do not know whether it shall stand 4. Neither do they know whether God will not absolve whom they condemn 5. They cannot put their sentence in execution 6. This can be no court which the arraigned can dismisse when he pleaseth 14. I shall willingly admit two courts whereof I have spoken largely in my Paraenesis one called forum externum the externall court or the court of magistracy which is to be found in some measure of power in all assemblies and societies of men as churches synods presbyteries families schools colledges corporations c. and the other called forum internum or the court of the conscience 1. In this God hath set a tribunall a judge a witnesse a plaintiff and defendant 2. In that all is carried by outward evidences whether in a synod presbyterie or any other court 3. In that there is an obligation of active or passive obedience to the laws decrees and ordinances that have the sanction of a law whether just or unjust 4. In this obedience is due for conscience sake and in obedience to God to lawes ordinances and commands either of God or of men that are by the judgement of approbation discretion apprehended to be good just and holy 5. In this there is a stronger stresse of obligation laid then in that so that as we ought rather to obey God then men a man is obliged notwithstanding all the sanction of the magistrate to appeal from the court of the magistrate to that of the conscience and to yield no obedience to any lawes injunctions or commands of magistrates pastours synods presbyteries churches till after they have been there reviewed and approved of There being but these two courts and jurisdictions in the case propounded by Mr. Calandrin the minister cannot be judge in another mans court or conscience and in that court I do not conceive he would put a greater tye then the magistrate doth upon any man as to bind him not to appeal from his judgement to the court of his own conscience or at least not to remove the cause judgement of the ministers court to his own court Neither is the minister judge in the other court except by a delegated power from the magistrate or by an assirmed power of magistracy binding either to active or passive obedience neither from that court do I think that Mr. Calandrin would bind a man not to appeal to the court of his conscience 15. To draw to a conclusion in the case propounded by Mr. Calandrin we have acts of function but none otherwise of jurisdiction then in the function of a physitian whom in relation to his sick patient either being alone or sitting in a colledge among his brethren I might make to exercise a jurisdiction distinct from that of the magistrate and parallel the physitian with the pastor the patient with the penitent the colledge of physitians with the consistory the curing of the patient with the absolving of the penitent and so make the case propounded in the behalf of ecclesiasticall jurisdiction applyable to the medicall jurisdiction changing only the persons Yes I might shew that a parallel being made the medicall would outvie the ecclesiasticall as being lesse inconsistent with the nature of jurisdiction and more distinct from that of the magistrate For 1. the magistrates office extendeth more to the care of souls then to that of bodies 2. Physitians more properly cure diseases then ministers pardon sins 3. Physitians judgements of the nature of diseases are more certain and evident then the ministers judgements of grace and repentance and therefore their sentences are more peremptory I might instance in more particulars at least I could so match both jurisdictions as to make them alike distinct from that of the magistrate Mr. Calandrin in a postscript giveth severall exceptions against what I have said in my Paraenesis of the two courts He saith I do not deny that conscience may be called a court improperly neither do I say that it hath all the properties of a court of magistracy but it hath the necessary conditions required in a court and that name it hath by the common consent of all Divines Philosophers school-men heathens Papists and Protestants none doubting of it whereas many have questioned whether there be any such thing as forum ecclesiasticum and none of those that admitted such a forum or ecclesiasticall court but as they have confessed that ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is improperly so called so have they thought no lesse of an ecclesiasticall court He also findeth fault with me for saying that excommunication was no act of ecclesiasticall power because exercised in the court of man and saith Is not preaching as much an act of the externall court as excommunication when both are done alike with words outwardly I grant that the preaching of the word is an externall act performed by outward moving of the lips and lifting up the voice and so all outward actions of men as buying selling walking striking with a hammer eating drinking and the like which are said to be performed in the court of man not because they are juridicall acts but because they are the subject and matter not only of suits and controversies depending on the court of man but also of lawes and orders made in the same court as if a man preached not at all or preached amisse and erroneously or seditiously that act of his may create an action in the externall court of man so may all other actions I have named as if one sell another mans wares unknown to him if he walks in an undue place and time if he strikes his neighbour with a hammer and so one may make an induction of all actions of men which otherwise are no forinsecall acts but are either naturall morall actions or acts of function and not of jurisdiction as in a physitian to cure the sick in a sea-man to set his ship to sail in a merchant to vend his wares and so in a Divine to do the acts of his function all which are actions performed outwardly in the court of man albeit they be not forinsecall And by reason that excommunication is an outward act it is done in the court of man as well as buying selling and walking and besides it is a forinsecall and juridicall act binding men to outward obedience either actively or passively and of the same nature with other juridicall acts in the courts of men but such an act preaching of the word is not binding none to outward obedience except he be first inwardly convinced though it may fall out to be the subject and matter

naturall power right liberty and prudence in ordering all kinds of affairs societies and families are no otherwise distinct in kind or species then a yard that measured cloth differs from that which measured searge as a yard is alike appliable to silk and thred and the same hammer will knock in an iron naile and a wooden pin so the same power and prudence governeth the church and a colledge It is also observable that a man being at once a member of a family hall city Parliament church doth not act alwaies according to the quality of his relation function and place publick or private not acting as a physitian father or husband but as a judge and not as a church-member but as a free member of a society Thus a member of a colledge of physitians joyneth in consultation with his brethren in a case of physick as a physitian but in making lawes regulating the practise of physick and the apothecaries entrenching upon the physitians he doth not act as a physitian but as a judge and as a person invested with judiciall power from the state The same physitian in a Parliament upon the matter and question of physick and of physitians to be regulated may speak pertinently of his art as a physitian but doth not vote give his consent to the making of a law about physick as a physitian but as a judge of the land Likewise to be sure by what right pastors and people act in the church the acts and actions of a pastor or church-member are to be considered either as acts of pastors and of church-members or as they are acts of rulers and members of a society The act of a pastor as pastor is to discharge all ministeriall function commanded in the revealed word and not declared by any dictate of nature In those acts I see no right of jurisdiction but over the inward man when by the power of the word the sinner is brought to the obedience of the crosse of Christ The acts of church-members as such are either in relation to the pastor or of one member to another In relation to the pastor the acts are to submit to the minister ruling them and dispensing unto them the word They may have that liberty to try his doctrine and to do as they of Beroea who searched the Scriptures to know whether it was so as St. Paul preached unto them this is also an act of every faithfull member of the church not to assent to any doctrine because it hath been assented unto by the major part of suffrages but in things that concern order and discipline to yield to the constitutions agreed on by the major part of the assembly so that by them the bond of charity and the truth of the doctrine be not violated and perverted The acts of church-members relating one to another are to bear one anothers burthens to forgive and edifie one another to preferre another before himself The acts of pastors and church-members as they are endowed with a power common to all other societies are 1. to do all things orderly 2. to make a discipline sutable to time and place since there is not in the Scripture a positive precept concerning the same 3. to oblige every member to the lawes of the discipline voted by the major part of the members 4. to admit and expell the members which by the major part are thought fit so to be Many other acts are performed by the same members not as church-members as to appeal to a superiour tribunall as magistracy or synod in case of wrong sustained for they do not oppose a just defence to wrong by any other right then a member of any society should do Thus an assembly of Christians meeting in a church way being persecuted or assaulted in their temple by rude and wicked men doth not oppose a just defence by weapons or otherwise as church-members but as men invested with naturall power against an unjust violence In short ministers and people have many act●ngs within the sphear of Christian duties which are not proper to them as Christians and members of churches being like in that to a physitian who doth not build as a physitian or to a counsellor of State carrying a letter to a friend who acts then the part of a letter-bearer thus a father hath a power over his son by a naturall paternall right but he doth instruct him in a Gospell way by a paternall Christian right and duty grounded upon a positive precept of the Scripture thus Queen Mary of England established a religion by a naturall right power and duty annexed to all soveraignty to order sacred things with a soveraign authority but Queen Elizabeth did overthrow the false worship and did set up Protestant religion not only by the same right that Queen Mary had but also by a positive right as principall church-member as Ezechiah Iosiah c. appointed by God to be heads and nursing fathers and mothers of the churches The same things lawes and constitutions that are of divine right are also of humane right and likewise the things that are of humane right in a good sense may be said to be of divine right Things are said to be of divine or humane right either because the matter of right is concerning Gods worship or humane policie or because God or man is the author of them Thus the lawes of the Iewes regulating their Commonwealth are said both to be of divine and humane right divine because God is the authour of them humane because they order all affairs about mine and thine right and wrong and betwixt man and man Likewise many things have been instituted with great wisedome by magistrates and councils which may well be said to be both of divine and humane right Divine because they further the purity of worship and power of godlinesse humane because they were instituted by men and may suffer alteration and reformation So things that are every way of divine right both for the matter and institution as the eating of the passeover and the observation of the Sabbath may be said to be of humane right because commanded and enjoyned by humane authority The very calling of synods which they say is of divine institution both for their institution which is Apostolick and for the matter that is handled in them none but a papist did yet deny to be the Emperours and magistrates right Thus fasting prayer publick humiliation though duties to be performed by divine right and precept are also of humane right as commanded and ordered by the magistrate in a publick way Thus it was the good Kings of Iuda's right and none can blame them for it to command fasting and prayers Lastly things that are every way of humane right and made by man and have for their object the regulating of humane affairs as are the lawes concerning conduit-pipes buildings forests chases c. may conveniently be said to be of divine right because by divine right they

oblige the conscience Hence we may gather how impossible it is to share betwixt laity and clergy by Divine and humane right power of legislation and jurisdiction about things causes and persons as that pastors and ministers should be over things that are of divine right and magistrates over those things that are of humane right without clashing of powers causes and persons there being such a complication of right causes and persons that they cannot be so much as imagined a sunder besides that the preaching of the Gospell and magistracy do comprehend all actions of man and parts of life wherein men ought to live godly justly and soberly CHAPTER III. The nature matter forme and author of law The canons and sentences of Church-judicatories have no force of law except they receive it from the sanction of the magistrate The defects in the division of lawes into Divine and humane into morall ceremoniall and politick and into Ecclesiasticall and civil INtending chiefly to prove the vanity and nullity of a power called ecclesiasticall distinct from that of the magistrate since also no power of legislation nor of jurisdiction can be exercised without a power to make a law and to command obedience to the law it will be requisite to know the nature of law that so making good that Church-officers are not invested with any power to make lawes or to command obedience to them all their jurisdiction may be brought to just nothing Law sometimes is taken for a dictate of nature or right reason and consent of nations thus they say of Aesop that though he was free by nature yet the law of man enslaved him generally it is defined the rule of actions and duties This ensuing definition I conceive to be one of the most perfect Law is a rule of life and of morall actions made and published by a legislatour armed with a judiciall power commanding things to be done and forbidding things that are not to be done under recompenses and penalties To understand the nature of law we must consider the matter of law which is whatever can be commanded whether God or man be the author of it so that no causes or things can be exempted from being the matter of the law of God or of man it is enough that it may be commanded The very doctrine and matter of faith may be matter of the law for the Hebrew thorah signifieth both law and doctrine so that there is no doubt but that not only the decalogue but also all the doctrine of the Gospell is matter of the law For were there any thing that should not be the matter of the law of man we had need to have a visible infallible judge on earth besides the soveraign magistrate who should determine which thing must be the matter of the law which not The very doctrine of the Trinity is made the matter of the Code of Justinian and Theodosius commanded that all his subjects should embrace the religion that Peter the Apostle Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria professed 2. Next we must consider the form of the law which giveth force of law and without which law would be no law and no obedience were due to it in the court of man That form is the stamp or sanction of the soveraign power obliging men to obey upon penalties Law saith Campanella without penalty is no law but counsell That form is expressed in short in the Digests Legis virtus c. the vertue of the law is to command to forbid to permit to punish The soveraign power giveth the form of law to any matter that is the subject of a mans dutie or obedience either to God or man yea it giveth form to the lawes of God which though they oblige the conscience whether published or no by the magistrate yet they are of no force in the court of man to oblige for fear of punishment and as the Apostle speaketh for wrath except they are commanded by the magistrate So that it is properly man that giveth name and force to a law and a man may well say with St. Austin ep 66. that Jesus Christ commandeth by the magistrate hoc jubent Imperatores quod jubet Christus quia cum bonum jubent per illos non jubet nisi Christus 3. We must consider the author of the law either as he that hath given his counsell and it may be furnished the matter and contrivance of the law as Tribonianus to Iustinian or he that hath given sanction and force of law to the matter brought to him such was only Justinian and not Tribonianus Sometimes the same person contrives the law and giveth sanction to it such was Solon and Lycurgus God who is the author of his lawes is not the enforcer of them among the Mahumetans nor any where else without a Moses but with those people whom he doth encline to obedience by a law of the spirit 4. To the nature of the law it is required that the legislator be armed with a sword to punish the transgressours of the law therefore equity truth and justice are no conditions required to the validity of a law for it receives force from the will of him who is able to make his will good were it never so bad 5. It is required that the legistator should command his own lawes not anothers commanding in his own name and not in the name of another and therefore those that are invested with judiciall soveraign power are to give account of their actions only to God By what I have said it is easily conceived what force of law have the judgements sentences canons decrees of ecclesiasticall judicatories except they receive form and sanction from the magistrate without which they are but counsels admonitions and advices 1. Touching the matter they may afford it as Tribonianus to Iustinian in that sense they may be the authors of a law but they cannot give form and sanction to it obliging men under penalties in case of disobedience since they are not invested with coactive power without which law is no law except they have that power in subordination to the magistrate for two coordinate powers cannot give sanction to the same law except it could be imagined that the will of one should never crosse the will of the other which is not conceivable 2. Ministers and church-judicatories are not to command any lawes much lesse their own lawes but only deliver the commands of a superiour either God or the magistrate The pastor may say with Moses Exod. 18. v. 15. I do make the people know the statutes of God his lawes but he cannot lay any penalty upon the breaker of the law except as Moses he be invested with magistracy But were the minister not only to deliver the commands of God but also lay a command this he could not do but in the name of God and therefore the magistrate hath this priviledge that although he be a minister of God as well as